Military History - Science topic

Thanks for the suggestion, Alejandro. Very helpful. I've now looked up the battle in the sources.

Of these, only Xenophon (Hellinica VI. 4. 10 - 14) mentions the cavalry battle, and there the Theban cavalry victory is attributed to the fact that their troops were well trained and battle ready thanks to other recent wars, while the cavalry of the Spartan side is described at length as "exceedingly poor". There's nothing to suggest that the Theban cavalry actually charged at the Spartan side, but the implication is that those on the Spartan side were unprepared and quickly broken, probably as soon as they came under attack from javelins being hurled at them in a classic light cavalry exchange.

But you're right, the battle does seem to have been the first one where an echelon attack was used. Whether intentional or not is still debated. But that is an important point, and one I will need to take into consideration.

Thank you Giacomo Losi, I also think so. I am just trying to find some sure informations about it.

The Army historical branch in the library connected to the United States Army War College at Carlisle barracks is an outstanding source for historical data. The issue of discharge status has been area of interest related to the United States military since the American Revolution. Today, discharge status carries only greater importance than ever before because of the benefits related to discharge status and/or disability claims. It is very common to see significant efforts made to upgrade discharges for those reasons

There was some interesting work done and arrive range of areas. During World War II, and after looking at leadership and leadership capabilities. As was stated earlier, the great expansion of the military forces around the world by the nations that were involved in the conflict with a significant commitment personnel led to wartime promotions, some of which proved very successful and some of which did not. The Navy found that many of its submarine commanders who held those positions at the beginning of the war fell short on their capabilities and much of this was attributed to the type of training regimen that they had experienced in peacetime, a regimen that was constructed on a faulty attack philosophy that is primarily one of caution. The Army found similar lessons that many of their career officers with trained in the 1920s and 30s fell short as tactfully combat leaders the conflict erupted and were often replaced with a new generation of officers, some of the most significant were James Gavin,Matthew Ridgway, and more senior Gen. Bradley and Eisenhower, all of whom were advanced quickly. The Army Air Corps benefited from the advancement of young officers at the least of which was Curtis LeMay. Finally, the United States Marine Corps also recognized that combat leaders were those that were able to adapt quickly and function under extreme conditions. The if you look at some of the biographies that came out of conflict. Most hardened those leaders who emerged and succeeded under these difficult circumstances, they also give you an insight into the challenges they faced. One of the best biographies. I have read dealt with General 0P Smith of the United States Marine Corps, who commanded the First Marine Division in the difficult drive to North Korea. His leadership capability prevented the division from being destroyed by the Chinese in November and December 1950.

Dear Hugo André Flores Fernandes Araújo,

thank you very much for the information. The first book I know but the second is new to me.

Kind regards,

Mariusz Balcerek

A beautiful subject worthy of research and investigation and may have deviated from his religious group, which led to his assassination and burial

  In secret, as Europe was passing through a variety of religious movements, such as the Martin Luther movement and the Zuckley movement, I regret these very modest ideas 

Howdy Mike, have you tried to talk with Matt Schmader who just retired as the open spaces archaeologist for the city of Albuquerque? As you know he had some mail armor and other equipment he recovered at the location he excavated near Coronado National Monument. I don't have any of his professional publications on this, but he has a popular article in Archaeology magazine from March/April 2012. I know he looked into ways to associate crossbow darts with Coronado's visit  as compared with different NM expeditions, but do not know what other research he was able to perform. Matt isn't always easy to find, I can try to get a hold of him if that is really difficult. Of course, a trip to the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla would be a fun place to look at this issue!

The Heian period origin of "ashigaru" concept is mentioned in the Heike Monogatari, vol. 4, "Together with about 4,500 ashigaru . . ."; ashigaru is also found during the struggle between the Heike and Minamoto clans, the Gen-Pei Gassen, taking place in the late Heian period, in the 12th century, leading to the establishment of the Kamakura period, the first shogunate to "govern" Japan: 『平家物語』（13世紀成立）巻四に、「足軽共4、500人先立て」とあり、平安末期である源平合戦期にも見られる。

Thank you for this information.

Another case was the propeller shaft failure of the german battlecruiser SMS Moltke in April 1918, which was one of the causes of the early withdrawal of the Hochseeflotte.

there are various accounts of them severing the enemy heads and using them to build mounds from which to preach the call to prayer, unfortunately I am away from my library so cannot chase up references at the moment, I would be surprised if you find many references to the treatment of the common dead on the grounds that the treatment of such tends not to be commented on by chroniclers unless it is particularly outstanding one way or the other

the Roman emperor you are thinking of was Valerian, after his death in 260 CE in Sassanian captivity his body was supposedly treated this way

You need to be trawling the Ottoman Archives.

Not an easy place to get access to.

But start with SOAS and the Courtauld Institute

Charles Anderson - Will the Real Palestinian Peasantry Please Sit Down? Towards a New History of British Rule in Palestine, 1917-1936

Sheree Roth - Were the Arabs Indigenous to Mandatory Palestine?

Now that you  have clarified what you mean by militia I think that the idea of one existing becomes much more likely based on general military practices across time.  Depending on the level of threat being defended against it is likely that, at least in the Principate, the pre-existing military skills of the veterans would not be lost to them for many years, assuming that during their 20 years of service they kept up the sort of training regime that we usually assume.  I am here thinking of the model of defence used during the Cold War by the Soviets which was predicated on the notion that if a man is trained well enough in his MOS then this training will still be valid decades later, or at least enough to perform the sort of second line duties that you are interested in.  The British armed forces still use a similar idea with the 10 year rule, the principle of this is that you serve for at least 10 years, so even if someone has only been in for 3 their training should still be good years later, at least again for second line duties. 

In terms of the availability of weapons and training, it needs to be remembered that in the Ancient world these were much less restricted than in many modern states.  There is much less difference between a woodworking axe and a war axe than between a woodworking axe and an assault rifle, ditto spears and bows would have been available in rural areas for hunting.  If the threat level is bandit suppression and the manning of strongpoints such as was envisaged for the Home Guard in WW2 then these may have proven adequate.  There is a more interesting possibility that may be suggested by Roman Pottery.

In my 2015 thesis I noted that the images of gladiatorial combat depicted on samian ware did not correspond to Roman literary accounts of gladiatorial combat.  Instead they seem to depict the brutal minimalistic style ancient authors attributed to the Roman army.  I speculated as to whether this was the result of regional differences in how arena shows were staged or whether it meant that what we are seeing in samian is not really gladiatorial combat but training fights for either serving or retired soldiers.  This would certainly provide a possible training mechanism especially in what from 40 years of re-enactment experience I consider to be the hardest form of training to keep up, the use of the shield, particularly the stamina required since it really is unlike any other form of physical activity. 

This sort of training would certainly be adequate for second line duties such as manning strongpoints, LoC guards or bandit suppression and would have the advantage of not being a high level threat to the state since the men would not be training as legionary soldiers capable of marching on Rome.

Indirect source: Venona papers and related materials:

If you happened to read in Polish, you might also try to read a book I discussed some time ago:

@Anicka: are you speaking spanish? - I guess this will be necessary to get information out of the Spanish National Archives (also I am not so sure if you will find the special information about Costa Rica you require).

You probably may find some information in: The history of Puerto Rico, from the Spanish discovery to the American occupation.

This book is also available as free pdf on: https://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/lhbpr/08353/08353.pdf

If you speak spanish, I would rather go to the Archivo General de Puerto Rico, which, I guess, will have more information about Puerto Rican military history:

Hope that helps a bit.

Another response, this time with a link for you:-

Hmm, tough one. If he contacts me on mgk92@hotmail.com I will see if I can assist in any way. Mike.

Also, more from Peter:-

Slight mistake on my part,the RENAMO leader was Alfonso Dhlakama and the FRELIMO leader was Joaquim Chissano, UNOMOZ (United Nations Organization in Mozambique) which was set up to oversee the ceasefire was made up of many nations including Italy, PRC (Peoples Republic of China, Zaire, Portugal (surprisingly enough as they had been the former colonial masters) and a small contingent of Japanese (the first time the Japanese Defence (land) Forces had been permitted outside Japanese territory since the end of WW2. The Peace treaty ending the Mozambique civil war was signed in Rome on 4th October 1992. After the peace treaty was signed some areas were administer by RENAMO and some by FRELIMO prior to the multi-party elections of 1994. wide scale demobilization of FRELIMO forces started in 1993-94. We were at one location when a truck full of demobilized FRELIMO soldiers overturned near our camp (three were killed instantly and almost 30 injured (2 of whom died before they could be evacuated by helicopter, to the UNOMOZ hospital, run by the Italians, in Chimioa. Owing to the weather conditions (it was the rainy season and the heavens opened) we had to use our medic and all our vehicles to evacuate the casualties to the nearest large town with a medical center. I had heard stories of lack of beds and hospital patients being laid on sheets of cardboard but it was the first time I had witnessed it for myself. As I said before the New National Army was probably made up (mainly) of ex FRELIMO career soldiers with some RENAMO intergrated. We had on the initial route clearance operation, a FRELIMO military observer and a RENAMO military observer, they were given the same tent to share and after some initial hostility became great friends. It was also rumoured that some ex FRELIMO soldiers had joined forces with some ex RENAMO soldiers and formed groups of bandits (there seemed to be a marked reluctance to give up weapons as there had been many who died from famine in the civil war, and I suppose an AK47 was one way of taking what food you wanted

Me:-

That's a really interesting story. It must all have been a fun-filled time for you! Was there a lot of IED work or was it mostly EOD bread and butter stuff?

Peter:-

Mostly mine clearance of suspected mined roads (we were clearing the roads of the towns along the Zambezi river from Caia to Muracca, Moracca to Senna, Senna to Chembo, Chembo to Chiramba, we were then clearing another road from Casa Banana down to another town (I forget the name). The trip to Maputo was just for a few days while the peace talks were underway then back into the field to deploy to the different locations in Sofala and Manica provinces. 6 months under canvass put me off camping for life!!!

There might be be more later for you. R.

Dear Bob,

thank you for the Johnson History. - In my book "Korporierte im Amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg" I had considered already:

Albrecht Ludwig von Röder, who was fencing in a student duel with Bismarck in Goettingen in the year 1832, Joachim von Röder, Otto von Röder and Ludwig Socrates von Röder.

kind regards

Ruediger

I assume you are asking about the 1934 German-Polish non-aggression pact.  This was most likely done because, 1) Poland was concerned about Germany rearming in violation of the Versailles treaty and was hoping for some measure assurance that it was safe, and  2) because Germany wanted to calm fears related to their rearming.  It was a purely diplomatic move to buy Germany time to complete their rearming to reclaim their pre-1919 borders. 

As to why Germany invaded Poland, probably two reasons, the most obvious of which was because it needed to in order to have a direct border with Russia for its planned invasion of Russia.  But also, keep in mind that after WWI Germany and Russia both were forced to give up millions of square miles of territory to recreate a Polish state, which had not existed for over 100 years, and neither country was too happy about that.

Do a search for Martinique at archive.org. Select "Texts" for type. Several documents from or pertaining to the1600s and 1700s, including

Louis XVI roi de France.- Ordonnance pour l'incorporation des différens corps employés au Département des colonies dans les régimens de la Martinique et de la Guadeloupe, pour y former un troisième bataillon. Acte royal, Versailles, 26 février 1784, Imprimerie royale, Paris, 1784.

Tom,

Thank you - all stones need to be turned in pursuit of this one, so I appreciate the suggestions which I will follow up.

Regards

Phil

Many thanks for your help Jeffery and Ekkehard!

Hola Robertito  :-)

I had a feeling from your initial bio of Don Nemesio that you might have gone through everything Google has to offer on him already. Sorry I couldn't contribute anything new to the problem (Btw, I think the 1822 pencil record of the "guia" looks about right, but still a bit strange that there doesn't seem to be an official date anywhere in the document. It is also interesting to see other colonial militares listed, e.g. Juan O'Donoju). It seems curious, however, that the man has left such an undersized "photographic record," as it  were.

Although Ivo's connections may be your best bet to get at a portrait or other drawing, the San Hermenegildo Order could also be of use. I haven't been able to determine where its records are located, but since it is an active order maybe an inquiry with the Ministerio de Defensa might help. Come to think of it, given Salcedo's elevated military position, the Museo del Ejercito in Madrid/Toledo could be another opportunity, especially as its orgins go back to 1803.

Best of lack y plus ultra,

Miguelito

Google Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center, then look under Publications. The newsletter has autobiographical updates from time to time.

Dear Ian,

I found 3 other websites that attribute the image you pointed-out to General Rayon, rather than Elizondo. So, it looks like the search goes-on for an image of Elizondo! Thanks for the pointer, nevertheless.

Bob

The Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) Digital Library, available at http://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/, contains "Obsolete Military Manuals". The pdf at http://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll9/id/882/rec/2 dates from 1948 but on pp. 5-6 makes reference to numerous earlier material on military psychology and leadership, some of which from the late 1930s. Surely relevant, if it can somehow be tracked.

Again, a few remarks:

As I see, the main idea of Hansgirg is to divide the production of Heavy water into two separated circles (electrolysis and water forming) that can be regulated separately.

Heisenberg started thinking about moderators as late as 1940. So I guess he will probably have found the existing patent but I don't know whether he would have cared before 1938.

A last "educated guess": Leo Szilard had the idea of chain reaction patented in the early 30ies. But he was not thinking of fission but more of something of forced nuclear reactions. His patent was secret, so probably Hansgirg did not know it. But he might had have the same idea. If so, he might have considered heavy water valuable for that kind of reactions and might have thought of slowing down neutrons on an industrial scale.This might have been reasonable from his point of view even without fission.

Too recent for my area of expertise.

Dear colleagues

We are planning a conference on neutrality in Holland in November 2015. We want to compare the 'war experience' of small European neutrals, especially the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland en the Netherlands.

Will keep you informed.

I'd also be interested in knowing whether you're referring to a particular battle, such as Civitate, James.

Johannes makes some good points, in particular with regard to heavy vs light cavalry, but it really depends on the context you are looking at.  If you are looking at the period after cataphracts had disappeared from the Byzantine armed forces in the late 9th/early 10th century, but before their place was taken by any alternative heavy cavalry, then Norman knights would have been very effective against Byzantine light cavalry.  But that would also be dependent on whether the terrain favoured the Normans, and several other factors.

In open plains or desert, light cavalry can destroy heavy through slowly wearing their opponents down through projectile fire from far enough away to avoid face to face fighting.  There are many examples of that.

Another factor, though, is whether one side knows what to expect from the other.  If the Byzantine cavalry you refer to were light cavalry only used to  fighting other light cavalry, then being charged by heavy cavalry for the first time could catch them completely off guard.

It is also important to point out the vast toplogogical differences in the various theaters of battle in the Korean War vs Vietnam.

The Korean penisula is very mountainous and MASH units were often located in valleys and then served as regoinal faciliteis for the wounded.  In Vietnam, many battle fields were in river deltas or other low lying areas and that facilitated evauction, via helicopeter, to nearby hospital ships, which was not much of an option in the Korean War.

 

When the Vietnam battles spilled over or infiltrarted or invaded or whatever, Cambodia, evac of the wounded was much more challenging.

 

So I think and important dimension of your research would involve the actual topological and geographical details of the various battle fronts and the facility at which wounded could be evaced either during or shortly after the battle

The primary classical "military" combination was trumpets and drums (both snare and bass). That's why D major was the tonality of military marches, because trumpets were most often made in D. The three small bells of the Janitshcarenmusik pedal on pianos c.1810 were always (more or less) in D. The French also had military oboe (and bassoon for the low voice) bands. The eye-witness account of the siege of Barcelona (1714), for example, mentions how the French soldiers constructing the trenches during the night were encouraged in their work by the oboe band, bales of hay being lain down to dampen the sound in order to keep the Catalans from aiming their guns by the sound. The Ottoman version of the military oboe was the zurna, which is incredibly loud and piercing, well-suited for the purpose of striking fear in the enemies' hearts.

I agree with Mr. Dawson. The book of C.J. Rodgers is a compilation of works on the Military Revolution and includes the article of Michael Robert. It's generaly easy to find in libraries or to buy on the internet.

Hi Ben,

The military are already involved in the stopping of boats now what I think it does is moves it to the next level and yes this is damaging and breaks the civil and military jurisdictions. For me the question is the damage either asylum policy does to do Australia's international reputation.

Hello,

It seems to me that already the first US military intervention against the Barbary pirates lacked Congressional approval but only had Jefferson's declaration of war. The latest military intervention in Libya seemed to lack full Congress support as described in below article.

Best,

Alex Tomic