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Featured battle : Gorodeczna
Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Date : 12 August 1812
In spite of the French being outnumbered by more than two to one they still inflicted more casualties. The Russians withdrew southwards to Lutzk.
Featured image :
First World War Trench Warfare
This collection of items from World War 1 illustrates the nature of life and war in the the trenches. Water bottles and a Very pistol for firing signal flares sit alongside items from the offensive side of trench warfare. From left to right, a trench club, a bayonet, a British No.2 Hale's percussion grenade, three types of rifle grenade, a British No.36 hand grenade (also known as a Mills Bomb) and an early gas mask. The No.2 Hales grenade has cloth streamers fitted to the rear of the handle to make sure that the front end of the grenade, where the percussion fuse is located, hits the target first, so setting it off. The rifle grenades are of the rod type. By fiting the rod into the muzzle of a rifle and firing a blank cartridge, it could be launched a considerable distance, again with a percussion fuse. The Mills bomb is time fused, triggered by pulling out the safety pin and releasing the lever.
Gallery updated : 2022-04-04 08:33:43
Featured review :
Churchill's Arctic Convoys
William Smith
A destroyer came across a lifeboat from a cargo ship which had been sunk about a week before. Nine men managed to get into it but when found eight had died from exposure and the ninth just barely survived. Part of the gritty truth about the Arctic convoys with similar repeats throughout the book. Every convoy and many single voyages are described some meriting more detail than others.
The reference in the title to Churchill highlights the political nature of the enterprise. This led to some quite foolhardy risks which without the political drive would not have been taken. Losses in naval and civilian ships and men were significant some to air attack some to submarines but most tragically some to the Arctic weather. One fact which I read with surprise was of a Russian ship crewed entirely by women.
There are two useful maps, a super set of photographs and eighteen tables making a lot of information clearly available for analysis.
The Arctic convoys tend to lie on the periphery of general reading about the Second World war William Smith’s book deserves to be front and centre if only to honour the men and women whose story he has told.
We highly recommend this book.
Pen & Sword Maritime, 2022
Reviewed : 2022-09-29 11:37:18
