Organisation
Frankish Military Organization and Siege Logistics in the 6th Century
Small magnate retinues or “warbands” that fought for glory and plunder, then, can hardly have provided an adequate basis for the 6th-century Frankish armies that fought over fortifications on equal terms with their neighbors. The size of armies is the first issue. The individual siege not only required overwhelming force on the part of the besiegers, but in many cases,…
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Soviet Air Force II
Il-2 Sturmovik Tu-16 bomber In 1942 under General Aleksandr Novikov, the whole command-and-control system of the Red Army Air Force was radically centralized. The air units were withdrawn from direct operational control of the ground forces command and grouped into 17 air armies. These were attached temporarily to the fronts…
US Army versus ‘Werewolf’
U.S. soldiers execute a German guerrilla in the closing days of World War II. Captured “Werewolves” like these posed little danger during the postwar occupation of Germany. Army doctrine also followed Western traditions in taking a dim view of guerrillas who violated the laws of war and hid their true…
The Force Publique
Belgian colonial army (Force Publique) uniforms 1942-3. In the beginning the private army King Leopold had decreed into existence in 1886, the Force Publique, was composed largely of African mercenaries recruited outside the Congo. Of the original 2,000 other ranks of the force, only 111 were Congolese. Preference in early…
Austro-Hungarian Cavalry WWI
Pack-horse of a cavalry machine gun detachment; members of these and the telegraph detachments were the only cavalry troops to wear the pike-grey field uniform in 1914. The machine gun is the standard Schwarzlose M07/12; the tripod Is attached on the far side of the pack saddle, and note ammunition…
LUFTWAFFE “Air weapon.” I
The air force of Nazi Germany, founded in 1919, with additional limits placed on the German civilian aircraft industry. The civilian limits were lifted by the 1926 Paris Air Agreement, the same year that several small airlines were consolidated into a national carrier: Lufthansa. By 1931 the German military operated…
LUFTWAFFE “Air weapon.” II
Hitler’s personal interventions and odd theories—for instance, in favor of jet bombers—further aggravated severe irrationalities in aircraft design and production schedules. This problem was eased somewhat from 1943 by the succession of Erhard Milch to the position of chief of staff. Milch was a technically competent man who greatly increased…