Category: Military
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2602 No Man’s Land
No Man’s Land. Three of the most evocative words of The Great War. Never forgotten by combatants. A place of death, danger, wire, bullets, shells, poison gas, mud, rats, bodies, and fear. A place which was never safe. When going “over the top” the place where you were most likely to die, but being wounded…
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2601 – Fort Ligonier and the Fall of Fort Duquesne
In May 1754. A young George Washington’s first combat experience occurred at the Battle of Jumonville Glen located in southwest Pennsylvania in the Ohio Valley, where he defeated a small group of French on a diplomatic mission to inform the British that they needed to leave the area; it was French territory and quickly became…
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2510 The Battle of Marston Moor
On Sunday 22nd of August, 1642, Charles I of England unfurled his standard at Nottingham, it would signal the start of the English Civil war; a struggle which pitted regal power against Parliament. The war had ebbed and flowed for two years with varied success when in April of 1644 a Parliamentarian force laid siege…
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2509 Operation Longcloth
‘By the end of March, the Japanese had conquered Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, as well as many of the smaller islands around Papua New Guinea, leaving Allied forces in full retreat in the Philippines, New Guinea and Burma. Morale was rock bottom and the Japanese seemed invincible. By the end of May, the Japanese…
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2508 William ‘Billy’ Bishop pt.2
‘On May 7, the Royal Flying Corps suffered one of their greatest losses when the great Albert Ball was shot down near Annoeullin, France. Ball had just scored his 44th victory and was pursuing another plane when he disappeared into a cloud. When he reappeared, his plane was falling from the sky and his propeller…
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2507 William ‘Billy’ Bishop pt.1
‘Just ten years after the Wright brothers successfully flew the world’s first powered airplane, the First World War erupted across Europe and with it came the first air war. Airplanes of wood, metal, and canvas took to the skies to act as observers and engage in combat with enemy planes. The best pilots became known…
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2506 Sidearms of the Great War
‘It is a cliché that wars seldom go according to plan, but perhaps none has gone astray as dramatically as the First World War. The vast German sweep through the Low Countries succeeded only in branding the Kaiser’s Reich a nation of butchers and bringing the United Kingdom into the war. Field commanders were unable…
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2505 Le Grand Derangement: The Acadian Expulsion from Nova Scotia
“If one were to travel through the modern day US state Louisiana, you would quickly be transported to what seems like another world. French language signs adorn the streets as the sounds of Zydeco or Louisiana French folk music fills the air. Most would cite the menagerie of foods combining french peasant recipes with African…
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2504 The French Campaign in Egypt and Syria 1798-1801, pt2
The French invasion of Egypt in the summer of 1798 was the first great seaborne invasion of the modern era. With 335 ships and almost 40,000 men, it was the largest seaborne force ever launched in the Western world – at least since Xerxes’ vast fleet attacked Athens at the Battle of Salamis in 480BC.…
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2503 The French Campaign in Egypt and Syria 1798-1801, pt1
The French invasion of Egypt in the summer of 1798 was the first great seaborne invasion of the modern era. With 335 ships and almost 40,000 men, it was the largest seaborne force ever launched in the Western world – at least since Xerxes’ vast fleet attacked Athens at the Battle of Salamis in 480BC.…