Warfare in News

Posted on Tuesday 3rd January

The Ministry of Defence has sadly confirmed the death of Private John King of 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment in Afghanistan on 30 December 2011.

Private King was on foot patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province along with Afghan National Security Forces, searching and clearing compounds in the village of Llara Kalay. The Afghan National Army members came under fire from insurgents during the patrol and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers moved forward to support them. Private King was caught in the blast from an Improvised Explosive Device during the firefight and was killed in action, despite the efforts of medic at the scene.

The 19 year old from Darlington joined the Army in 2009 and served with B(FAMARS) Company of 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. He deployed to Afghanistan in October 2011 as part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj.

Private King leaves behind his mother and father and two brothers, and girlfriend, Kelly. His family have described him as 'a proud soldier who died doing a job he adored.'

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Jerry Murland talks about his new book, co-authored with Jon Cooksey, The First Day of the Somme. Read article...

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Dates in History

German forces cross the Somme River

24th March 1918

On March 24, 1918, German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. Operation Michael, engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment. The brunt of the attack that followed was directed at the British 5th Army, commanded by General Sir Hubert Gough, stationed along the Somme River in northwestern France. This section was the most poorly defended of any spot on the British lines, due to the fact that it had been held by the French until only a few weeks before and its defensive positions were not yet fully fortified. Panic spread up and down the British lines of command, intensified by communications failures between Gough and his subordinates in the field, and German gains increased over the subsequent days of battle. On March 23, Crown Prince Rupprecht, on the German side of the line, remarked that The progress of our offensive is so quick, that one cannot follow it with a pen. The next day, German troops stormed across the Somme, having previously captured its bridges before French troops could destroy them. Despite having resolved to concentrate on weaker points of the enemy lines, Ludendorff continued to throw his armies against the crucial villages of Amiens (a railway junction) and Arras—which the British and French were instructed to hold at all costs—hoping to break through and push on towards Paris. By that time, German troops were exhausted, and transportation and supply lines had begun to break down in the cold and bad weather. Meanwhile, Allied forces had recovered from the initial disadvantage and had begun to gain the upper hand, halting the Germans at Moreuil Wood on March 30. On April 5, Ludendorff called off Operation Michael. It had yielded nearly 40 miles of territory, the greatest gains for either side on the Western Front since 1914. He would launch four more offensive pushes over the course of the spring and summer, throwing all of the German army’s resources into this last, desperate attempt to win the war. (www.history.com)

Further Reading

The Somme
(Paperback - 355 pages)
by Richard van Emden

The offensive on the Somme took place between July and November 1916 and is perhaps the most iconic battle of the Great War. It was there that Kitchener’s famous ‘Pals’ Battalions were first sent into action en masse and it was a battlefield where many of the dreams and aspirations… Read more at Pen & Sword...

Only £14.99 at Pen & Sword Books.

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