Category: Military
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3404 – Bushmen against the Boers, Australians in the Boer War
When the Second Boer War was declared on October 11th, 1899, governments of colonies from around the British Empire offered to send troops to contribute to the British war effort. This included the governments of the six colonies of Australia (Australia would not be confederated into a Commonwealth until January 1st, 1901). Among the troops…
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3403 – The Treason of Benedict Arnold, part 3
Benedict Arnold chose treason. In a shocking turn of events, one of the most talented American generals had turned traitor.
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3402 – The Treason of Benedict Arnold, part 2
Benedict Arnold spent years becoming a respectable merchant in Connecticut and the coming of the American War of Independence presented him with an opportunity to increase his standing even further. His bravery in battle was unquestioned, but his desire for reward led him to dubious actions. Congress had little money to pay the soldiers, so…
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3401 – The Treason of Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold, a name in the American lexicon that is synonymous with treason. History remembers Arnold solely for his attempted betrayal and his subsequent return to the American War of Independence as a British general, this was only the sudden climax to a story that saw Arnold rise from humble beginnings as an apothecary apprentice…
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3310 – King of the Few: Adolph ‘Sailor’ Malan
On a clear day in 1960, a conversation took place between the pilot of a South African Airways passenger aircraft and Heathrow Airport’s ground control. The pilot had a special request. He wanted to do a low-level circuit in London. In turn, the tower asked the reason for the special request. The pilot simply replied,…
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3309 – The battle of Maldon: Bloodshed on the Blackwater
The battle of Maldon is remarkable in the history of Anglo-Saxon and Viking warfare, indeed in the history of Dark Age battles, because we are so well informed about it. We have several sources which have come down to us, especially an anonymous poem which survives almost complete and which must have been written close…
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3308 – Fix Bayonets! An heroic old-fashioned charge in the Korean War
‘1951 had begun disastrously for the United Nations forces in Korea. On December 31st, 1950, the Chinese 13th Army breached UN defences below the 38th parallel as part of the Third Phase Campaign and, on January 3rd, Seoul was evacuated by the US Eighth Army. The Eighth Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Matthew B.…
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3307 – The Aitape-Wewak Campaign
‘On their seemingly inexorable advance south in 1942, the Japanese had occupied Aitape in northern New Guinea on their advance south. Allied offensives to halt the Japanese advance began in 1943 and in April 1944 units of the United States Army, especially the 163rd Regimental Combat Team from the 41st Infantry Division landed at Aitape…
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3306 – Heroism in the Hundred Days Offensive
On 27 September 1918, Captain Frisby and Lance Corporal Jackson led the assault against enemy machine-gun positions during the battle of the Canal du Nord, Nord-pas-de-Calais region of Northern France. Following the successes of the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, the Allies launched a series of successful counter-attacks from May to July 1918 which…
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3305 – The Battle of Montgisard
‘Founded at the conclusion of the First Crusade in 1099, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was always in a precarious position. It was surrounded by Muslim enemies and suffered from a lack of resources and support from its Christian allies, both in Europe and the Byzantine Empire. The rise of Saladin in Egypt and Syria…