The unknown Battle of Gravelines
Have you ever heard of the Battle of Gravelines, to explain, it was a battle between the English an the Spanish ,which was part of the Spanish Armada, in fact it led to our victory. It took place on July 29th 1558 when the Spanish were routed at the Battle of Gravelines, it led to […]
How old is the shield wall the police use today?
Today when a demonstration that goes nasty, we see the police build a shield wall to defend themselves and then slowly move it forward, but when checking our musical 1066 – The Battle of Hastings I realised that the shield wall as been a policy used by armies for hundreds of years. Harold used it […]
The Combat of the Thirty
The Combat of the Thirty took place in France on 26th March 1351, during the Breton War of Succession. It even took place in front of a crowd, who were supplied with refreshments and the combatants even took a half time break! Why did it happen? To explain, there was a struggle between the House […]
The Calcutta Light horse and Operation Creek
The Calcutta Light Horse and Operation Creek If you think that the Home Guard, which we now know affectionately as Dad’s Army, were only found in England, then you need to learn about the extraordinary tale of Operation Creek by the Calcutta Light Horse in Goa in 1943. This was no ordinary military engagement, it […]
In the middle of a war the opposing sides climb out of their trenches and play football!
World War I or “The Great War”, as it became known, began in August 1914. On the Western Front both sides quickly reached a stalemate. Young soldiers from both Britain and Germany huddled in freezing, muddy trenches, shells and bullets exploding around them, caught in one of the most futile and bloody conflicts of the […]
Boudica – A woman scorned!
Boudica was a reluctant soldier who, until the Romans invaded England, was happily married to King Prasutagus, ruler of the Celtic tribe Iceni. Then to keep the peace, King Prasutagus agreed with the Romans that on his death half his lands and estates would go to his wife and daughters, with the other half going […]
The Austrian Army wiped itself out!
Legend has it that at the Battle of Karánsebes in 1788, which took place during in the Austro–Turkish War of 1787 – 91, the Austrian army fought itself and killed over 10,000 of their own soldiers, before the opposition arrived! How could this happen? Well, this was a campaign during the Austrian war with Turkey, […]
Why the Triple Entente failed to stop WWI
At the beginning of the 20th century the major nations of Europe formed two grand alliances, in which they pledged to support each other in the event of one of them being attacked. As you can see from the above, it was complicated! There was one between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, called the Triple Alliance, […]
Have you ever heard of the Battle of Margate?
This wasn’t the battle of Mods and Rockers in the 60’s But it could have been, as it was the naval battle off Margate, where the rewards of this victory were over 2 million gallons of wine! It was a mistake! More interestingly, I believe that it actually happened by mistake. You see on the […]
Did Pyrrhic victories come from the Pyrrhic Wars?
You see it was the Pyrrhic Wars that led to the term “Pyrrhic victory”. These were wars fought by Pyrrhus, the King of Epirus. He was king of the Greek tribe, Molossians, from the royal house of Aeacid, later he became King of Epirus. In fact, he was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome […]