by RNS | Apr 7, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Richard Israel, Cannon Played from the Great Fort (Helion, 2021)
When we think of historical wars, images of big battles fought in the open fields usually spring to mind. But while battles were important, they were also quite rare events. Wars have been won far more often with the spade over the sword or musket because sieges play such a crucial role in control of territory and resources. That was arguably the case in the English Civil War where regional control proved so important to victory. In Cannon Played from the Great Fort, archaeologist Richard Israel takes us on a trip along the Severn Valley to examine some of the critical Civil War sieges in the region.
Israel begins with a survey of siege warfare leading into the 17th Century and the Thirty Years War. He describes how siege tactics developed rapidly during that war, particularly with regard to fortifications and artillery. And with that Israel embarks on the major sieges in the Severn Valley in chronological order. First up is Worcester, besieged by Parliament forces in May 1643. Bristol followed in July, this time by Royalists, then Gloucester in September, which Israel breaks down into the main sites of the siege. Israel skips over 1644 to look at the sieges in 1645 at Shrewsbury and Bristol that brought the Severn Valley under Parliamentary control. They attacked Bridgnorth in March 1646 where Israel illustrates how much damage was caused preparing and executing sieges, not all of it intentional. The final siege came at Worcester from May to July 1646 with more testimony on how destructive sieges could be especially for the civilian populations. Having described the sieges, Israel compares Royalist and Parliamentary siege techniques, which he again runs through chronologically. He adds an interesting piece on his methodology before bringing his work to a conclusion by summarising events and siege tactics.
Cannon Played from the Great Fort is an important addition to the study of the English Civil War. In his descriptions of sieges, Israel uses his landscape archaeology knowledge to pick his way through the historical accounts and the physical evidence to establish how the sieges worked. His weaving of the archaeological record into the narrative is the highlight of the book for me, and it is perhaps surprising how much of the physical evidence is still available. The latter is supported by many photographs of relevant sites. I would have liked more on what it was like to experience a siege, but that does not distract from the book’s quality. Anyone with more than a passing interest in the English Civil War and archaeology will enjoy this book.
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by RNS | Apr 5, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Jonathan D. Oates, King George’s Hangman (Helion, 2019)
You might not think there is a gap needing filled in the study of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, but Jonathan Oates has found one in this study of Henry Hawley, commander in chief of Scotland from 20 December 1745 to 30 January 1746. Hawley’s reputation as a particularly odious character and inept general lingers. But is it time for a reassessment of “Hangman” Hawley? Oates thinks so.
Oates sets out on his military biography of Hawley by digging into his heritage, his officer father (kia in 1692), and his early military career from 1694. Hawley’s royal connections meant he moved in high social circles away from the battlefield, but he wanted to fight. He got his chance in the Peninsula in 1707 where he was wounded but still remained active in the war. Oates follows Hawley through his ‘peacetime’ career and rise from 1709 to 1740, highlighting the politics of command within the context of the rising Jacobite threat from 1715. Hawley was wounded in that rising, campaigned in Spain, took command of a regiment in Ireland, hunted while taking care of his country pile, and looked after his family. He also wrote down his thoughts on warfare, which is where Oates takes us next.
Hawley was a disciplinarian in thought and deed, and he wrote about politics, military tactics, and gave advice for all ranks entering the service. He hated slovenliness, which led him to underestimate the Jacobite rabble when the time came to fight them. Hawley was soon putting theory back into practice. From 1742 to1745, now a General, Hawley commanded a sizeable force in Europe against the French, then news came of the Jacobite rising. Hawley was late on the scene, continues Oates, but took command of the British Government army in Scotland in December 1745. That led to the Battle of Falkirk, where Hawley commanded a full army in battle for the first time and is the centrepiece of Oates’ book.
Oates tells the story of the Battle of Falkirk, which the Jacobites won. Hawley received much of the contemporary blame, though Oates is a wee bit more generous by adding the foul weather to Hawley’s loss of command and control. Cumberland, in overall charge of the campaign, did not blame Hawley either and his was the opinion that counted. He did intercede against Hawley’s orders to execute deserters and cowards, which has gone against Hawley’s reputation ever since. Hawley went on to command cavalry at Culloden where they did severe damage to the wretched Highlanders. Hawley’s men also took part in the depredations that followed the battle, though Oates is quick to point out that this was acceptable conduct in European wars of the time. Hawley retired from Scotland, but fought again in Europe in 1747-1748, and did so with distinction at the Battle of Laffeld. From 1749, Hawley was all but retired. He wrote his memoirs in 1752 and was involved in organising a possible defence against invasion in 1755. He died in 1759. Oates concludes that Hawley’s epithet of ‘hangman’ was unjustified and that his loss at Falkirk be taken in context with his other military service.
Oates’ stimulating military biography of Henry Hawley illuminates the world of a professional soldier of the ‘middling sort’. We get to see how the system worked for these ambitious men with patronage and politics a prime concern for successful careers. But all the machinations and deals could come unstuck on the battlefield as happened to Hawley at Falkirk. Oates’ account of how that occurred is central to his story and he narrates it well, although perhaps too favourably through diffusing his subject into context. Oates has also contributed an important story to the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. Students of the British army in the 18th Century will enjoy this book but the arguments over Hawley’s character are not yet settled, and that is a good thing.
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by RNS | Apr 2, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Peter Mujzer, The 38M Toldi Light Tank (Kagero, 2020)
The 38M Toldi was the only tracked armoured vehicle in the Hungarian Army in 1941, according to Peter Mujzer. This might not have been a significant problem but that was the year the Hungarians joined in the attack on the Soviet Union. They were nippy wee things, but they had to be because they were outgunned by almost every tank they came up against and paid the price. Nevertheless, the Hungarians used them until the end of the war. Mujzer takes us into the world of this little battler.
Mujzer starts at the end of the Great War in which the Hungarians did not fare well and were left severely depleted. It therefore took them a while to develop a serviceable tank. They secured some Italian tankettes and the Swedish L-60 tank, basing their own tanks on that design. Mujzer narrates that development then describes the design, production, and variants. When he brings them onto the battlefield, however, Mujzer is quick to highlight their weak guns and armour – the German style cross also proved a helpful target for enemy gunners. The way the tank was originally designed caused problems in improving the Toldi tanks and new uses were found for them, including as a medical carrier and ‘tank hunter’ based on the German Marder II.
Mujzer moves on to describe in detail the organization and training of the crews before narrating their operational history. This included recovering Transylvania in September 1940, taking part in the German attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941, and, of course, the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 where the Toldis took heavy casualties on front line assaults but served better as reconnaissance vehicles. In 1942, the Hungarians met the Soviets along the Don River and came out second-best again; snow, lack of fuel, and enemy action accounted for an almost complete wipe-out. Replenished and repaired, the Hungarian tanks again saw action against the Soviets in 1943 and 1944, but by the end the Toldis were very much reserved for rear area duties. Still the tanks fought on, but all in all the Eastern Front was not a happy one for Hungarian armour – an almost sad aside notes that only two Toldi tanks remain in museums. Mujzer concludes with an overview of tank markings and many individual vehicle histories.
The 38M Toldi Light Tank is perhaps surprisingly text heavy for a book of this nature. However, Mujzer goes into considerable detail on all aspects of the Toldi tanks and tank enthusiasts will find that quite immersive. Be warned though, that in some places the flawed translation irritates, and the book could have done with a thorough proofread in English before publishing. Mujzer’s text is well supported with many monochrome photographs, covering every inch of the tank. That and the technical drawings and colour plates, will make modelers and wargamers happy. Hungarian tanks are a niche topic but useful to learn about for students of the Eastern Front.
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by RNS | Mar 31, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
David A. Wilson, The Danish Army of the Napoleonic Wars 1801-1814, v2 Cavalry and Artillery (Helion, 2021)
This is a companion volume to Wilson’s book on the Danish infantry, and while Wilson claims it is a ‘good working document’ only the diehard student of the Napoleonic wars will need to look elsewhere.
Wilson jumps right in with the Danish Regular Cavalry, their horses, harnesses, and tactics. Then he gallops on to The Royal Horse Guards, adding uniforms, arms, and equipment to the mix, then to the Heavy Cavalry with the same formula but with a small section on firearms. Similar treatment is meted out to the Light Cavalry, Dragoons, and Hussars. Wilson concludes his cavalry ridealong with a description of their standards. The Danish Artillery gets half the book. The Foot Artillery come first with an overview of their guns, uniforms (including the drivers!), personal weapons, and Pennants. That leaves significant room for Wilson to describe the Ordnance and there is a lot of it: 3pdr, 6pdr, 10pdr, and 20pdrs. The limbers are next up, then the arrangement of gun teams and harnesses for the various calibre guns. Wilson includes the ammunition chests and wagons in his descriptive sections. The Heavy Field and Siege guns are left to the end along with the Field Forges and boxouts for the 18pdr and 12pdr Fortress Pieces. The Engineers and Sappers bring up the rear as they usually seem to in books of this kind. An appendix titled The Puzzle of the Standards of the Livgarden til Hest 1720-1866 by Jorgen Koefoed Larsen might be the most esoteric essay I have read in a long time, but nonetheless still interesting.
This book is not literature, nor is it meant to be. These are almost exclusively technical descriptions, so we discover little about the men in the brightly coloured uniforms. But Wilson has left no stone unturned to bring us detailed information on all aspects of the Danish Cavalry and Artillery. He is aided in that by a dazzling array of colour plates, illustrating uniforms, saddlecloths, equipment, weapons, and all the supporting elements that kept the guns firing and horse charging. Wargamers and modelers interested in the Napoleonic period will love Wilson’s ‘working document’.
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by RNS | Mar 29, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
The Bunker Busters
Mike Guardia, American Armor in the Pacific (Casemate, 2020)
The Pacific War in World War II conjures images of US Marines storming ashore onto beaches flayed by Japanese gunfire. We might see a tank or two, especially when dealing with Japanese bunkers. But Mike Guardia’s American Armor in the Pacific reveals that there was much more to tank warfare in the Pacific than a first glance suggests. Indeed, without tanks, the Americans would have lost many more men than they did, and the war could conceivably have ground to a halt as the Japanese intended.
After a timeline of major events, Guardia introduces us to his subject along with some background information on the causes of the war. He notes there were no tank-on-tank battles in the Pacific, but US tanks performed valuable service supporting the infantry. When Japanese tanks made an appearance, their American counterparts generally made short work of them. Guardia surveys the development of the Japanese tanks with an overview of those used in combat, moving up the size scale through the Type 94, Type 97, Type 89, Type 95, Type 97, and the light Type 98 (at the end for some reason). The American tank evolution follows. They were slow starters in developing tanks but brought some useful machines to bear in the Pacific, such as the M2, M3/M5, and of course the workhorse M4 Sherman. Guardia adds the LVT Alligator as an assault vehicle and the M3 Half-Track Gun Motor Carriage. With the opponents outlined, Guardia takes us into combat.
Guardia begins his narrative in the Philippines in 1941 where US M3 tanks fell prey to Type 95s and enemy aircraft in a bitter defeat. The US campaign in the Southwest Pacific offered revenge for the American tanks. At Guadalcanal in August 1942, the Type 97s succumbed to Marine anti-tank guns while US M3 Stuarts provided sterling support for the US infantry – it helped that the Japanese had no anti-tank guns, opting for infantry assaults with bayonets and grenades. They had magnetic mines though in New Georgia in 1943, which the US countered with wood and concrete add-on armour. By Bougainville in November, the Sherman was on station. The terrain on these islands, however, inhibited US tanks, but they worked closely and successfully with the infantry, which carried through to the Central Pacific campaign in 1943. The terrain was better there, but the big development was the flamethrower tank, ideal for clearing bunkers and caves. Shermans, Stuarts, and Alligators all took part at Tarawa in November 1943 where shell-holes from pre-invasion naval gunfire caused the biggest problems. At nearby Makin, both the M3 Lee and M3A1 Stuart took part, demonstrating the diversity of US tanks in the region. Then came the Marhsall Islands and the Mariana Islands.
The Japanese stiffened their defences with more tanks and anti-tank guns the closer the US came to the mainland, but US armour tactics were improving – of the 44 Japanese tanks on Saipan, 32 were destroyed. Arguably the most satisfying campaign in the Pacific was the recapture of the Philippines. Here some Japanese generals eschewed tanks and paid the price for that negligence. What tanks they did deploy, including innovative amphibious tanks, were destroyed quite handily – the US had also developed a semi-amphibious Sherman using snorkels on the back to keep the engines from seizing. The biggest threat to US tanks was better Japanese anti-tank guns, but they in turn were susceptible to US infantry working with the tanks. On Iwo Jima, Japanese mines and the soft volcanic sand took their toll of US tanks, but they still delivered crucial infantry support. They performed with similar distinction at Okinawa. Guardia concludes by arguing that for all their tactical ingenuity, the Japanese tanks were ‘under-armored, underpowered, and mechanically troublesome’ but that does not take anything away from American ‘tenacity, dedication, and…innovation’.
American Armor in the Pacific is an excellent little survey of tank warfare in the Pacific. Guardia’s narrative sticks closely to tank operations and he does not get bogged down in detail – he allows his profile pages to do that work. The book is also full of illuminating monochrome photographs of tanks that will keep modelers happy. A true enthusiast might want more meat on the bone, but for the average student of tanks in the Pacific War, Guardia’s book works very well.
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