Description
In this issue:
– Caesar in Britain – A very near run thing. Classics scholar Bijan Omrani reassesses the great Roman general’s military reputation in light of his failed invasions of Britain.
– History of the British Army – Amiens, 8-12 August 1918. MHM analyses the battle that saw the British Army’s transformation into an effective instrument of modern industrialised warfare.
– 1811 – The British invasion of Java. Tim Hannigan recalls a forgotten imperial adventure taking place at the same time as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.
– Japanese Jungle holdouts – The men still fighting WII in the 1970s. Mark Felton explores the bizarre legacy of Japanese soldiers who continued hostilities long after 1945.
– Destroyer! – The torpedo boat’s evolution. Naval historian Patrick Boniface looks at how destroyers proved themselves in the deadliest maritime clashes of the Second World War.
Plus: news, reviews, museums, opinion columns, and much more!
From the Editor:
Julius Caesar was the greatest figure in Roman history. His career culminated in a civil war and dictatorship that destroyed the 500-year dominance of the Senate and inaugurated the 500-year rule of the emperors.
Like Napoleon -another epoch-straddling colossus -he was not only a revolutionary, but also a great commander. Or was he?
Our lead feature this issue is a sharp critique of Caesar’s generalship by classical historian Bijan Omrani. Focusing on the two invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 BC, Omrani reinterprets Caesar’s own Gallic War account to reveal a commander whose naked political ambition drove him to inexcusable military risks.
Elsewhere in this issue we have two features focused on East Asia. Tim Hannigan throws light on a little-known Napoleonic-era campaign, the British invasion of Java in 1811, while Mark Felton explores the extraordinary phenomenon of the Japanese ‘ jungle holdouts’ -soldiers isolated at remote locations in 1945 who, in some cases, continued fighting World War II as late as the 1970s!
Our British Battle this month is Amiens, the 1918 offensive that used tanks, planes, and modern tactics to break the German line and inaugurate the Hundred Days Campaign which ended the First World War. We also have Patrick Boniface’s analysis of the role of the destroyer in the Second World War.
Not least this month, we are launching a new occasional series by TV producer and historian Taylor Downing, who will be offering expert analysis of a selection of classic war movies. We start this time with Noel Coward’s In Which We Serve.
Cover Date: Mar-2013, Volume 3 Issue 6