Warfare in News

Posted on Wednesday 11th January

Around 600 members of the Armed Forces – both serving and retired – attended the premiere of the new film War Horse in London earlier this week.

The film, set in the First World War, is an adaptation of a novel by Michael Morpurgo. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, who attended the premiere, along with members of the cast and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The premiere was held in aid of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry – the Princes’ Charity.

Members of the Armed Forces who attended the premiere were drawn from Regiments associated with the Duke of Cambridge, including members of the Household Cavalry, the Irish Guards, RAF Search and Rescue units as well as personnel from the Scotland Submarine Flotilla, Flag Officer Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland, Naval Command Headquarters Portsmouth and RAF Coningsby.

Further Reading

Horsemen in No Man's Land

Only £19.99

Horsemen in No Man's Land

(Hardback - 240 pages)
by David Kenyon

Of what use were the British cavalry during the years of trench warfare on the Western Front? On a static battlefield dominated by the weapons of the industrial age, by the machine gun and massed artillery, the cavalry were seen as an anachronism. They were vulnerable to modern armaments, of little value in combat and a waste of scarce resources. At least, that is the common viewpoint. Indeed, the cavalry have been consistently underestimated since… Read more...

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His First Tour was his Last

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Severely wounded at 19, veteran Stephen Vause shares his story for Armed Forces Day. Article from The Royal Star & Garter Homes. Read article...

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PTSD Resolution

Wed 15th August

A spotlight on the work of the military charity PTSD Resolution, providing treatment for those affected by military trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Read article...

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The Battle of Falkirk, 1298

Thu 25th May

The Battle of Falkirk, which took place on 22 July 1298, was one of the most important engagements of the Scottish Wars of Independence... Read article...

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The Battle of Waterloo - Hougoumont

Tue 18th June

On 15 June 1815, Wellington and Napoleon confronted each other on the battlefield for the first time at the Battle of Waterloo. Julian Paget and Derek Saunders give an account of the fighting at Hougoumont - the key to victory at Waterloo. Read article...

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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