Military History Matters 126

• The Battle of Crécy
• ‘The worst maritime disaster ever’: the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff
• General Wolfe at Quebec, 1759
• The Battle of Chinese Farm: Sinai, 1973
• The Philippines, 1942-1945

Military History Matters 126
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Military History Matters 126

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Highlights:

From the Editor:

England’s King Edward III was one of the greatest military innovators of the Middle Ages. His son, the Black Prince, became one of the period’s most renowned commanders. Our special this issue takes a look at this extraordinary partnership.

Edward implemented a series of radical reforms in English military organisation that turned his country into an armed camp and a launch-pad for successive attempts to make good the English monarchy’s claim to the French crown. Central to this was a new tactical system of defensive linear warfare that combined ‘bill and bow’ – a system that delivered the extraordinarily one-sided victory at Crécy in August 1346.

Also in this issue, we revisit General Wolfe’s capture of Quebec in 1759. Sam Allison and Jon Bradley offer a forensic analysis of Wolfe’s underestimated brilliance.

We then have two very different WWII stories. Richard Selcer offers a detailed account of the greatest naval disaster of all time – the sinking of the German passenger liner Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic on the night of 30 January 1945 – while James Morningstar discusses the Philippine resistance to the Japanese occupation between 1941 and 1945.

Finally, William Stroock recounts the decisive Battle of Chinese Farm in the Sinai Desert in October 1973 – the armoured clash between Egyptian and Israeli forces that determined the outcome of the Yom Kippur War.

Cover Date: Feb / Mar 2022 | Volume 11 Issue Volume 11 Issue 6

Cover Story

OPPOSITE King Edward III (r. 1327 1377). His 50 year reign saw England transformed into a major European military power.Edward III, the Black Prince, and the Battle of CrécyGraham Goodlad analyses the joint careers of the father and son who led England’s armies in the early campaigns of the Hundred Years War.

Features

ABOVE Map of the Japanese Empire at its peak in mid 1942. Its vast extent meant that Japan was overextended and on the defensive for the rest of the war.Popular Resistance and the Fall of Imperial JapanThe Japanese surge between December 1941 and June 1942 – between, that is, Pearl Harbor and Midway – created a huge Far Eastern empire comparable…
The Battle of Crécy, 26 August 1346Neil Faulkner analyses the first great victory of Edward III’s new tactical system in the Hundred Years War.
ABOVE Israeli tanks roll through the desert. Later Egyptian counter attacks failed as a result of a lack of coordination between their leaders.The Battle of Chinese FarmWilliam Stroock analyses the decisive battle of the 1973 Yom Kippur War: a massive clash of Egyptian and Israeli armour in the Sinai Desert.
OPPOSITE The Death of General Wolfe at Quebec, detail from a 1770 painting by Benjamin West. Despite losing his life, Wolfe’s success shaped British strategy for a century and a half.Wolfe at Quebec: a new analysisSam Allison and Jon Bradley offer a forensic reappraisal of General James Wolfe’s spectacular victory.
OPPOSITE A bomb damaged government building in Manila during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. It was a reminder to Filipinos as if it were needed of the brutality of Japanese rule.The Philippines, 1942-1945: the resistance and the returnJames Kelly Morningstar describes the Philippine resistance to the Japanese occupation during WWII.
OPPOSITE The Wilhelm Gustloff in happier times. It was a passenger liner built to take working class Germans on holiday as part of Hitler’s ‘Strength Through Joy’ movement.‘The worst maritime disaster ever’: the Sinking of the Wilhelm GustloffHitler’s Nazi Empire was in its death agony. Millions of Germans were desperate to escape the fast-advancing Red Army. Richard Selcer reports on a signal…

Comment

War Classics: History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth CenturyWhat is immediately striking reading Oman is the depth of his scholarship... These are works of exceptional length and detail.

News

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RIGHT Thomas Welsby Clark, the only sailor from HMAS Sydney whose body has ever been recovered.Australia’s famous ‘unknown sailor’ identified after 80 years
Vera Brittain’s wartime service medals acquired by museum
RIGHT English cavalry and Scottish infantry in close quarters fighting at Pinkie, September 1547. The battle is now recognised as having taken place over two days.Record of Scotland’s largest battle to be updated
Rare Roman dagger found by young amateur archaeologist in Switzerland
ShamesLast surviving ‘Band of Brothers’ officer Edward Shames dies
BELOW Matthew Macfadyen (on the left) and Colin Firth (centre) as Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu, the British officials tasked with carrying out Operation Mincemeat in 1943. The plan was in part the brainchild of Ian Fleming, played by Johnny Flynn (right).New film depicts Allies’ legendary ‘Mincemeat’ deception

Views

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Museum review – The Night Hunters: The Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces at WarREVIEWING THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EXHIBITIONS WITH Graham Goodlad.

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