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Featured battle : Omdurman
Part of British Reconquest of the Sudan
Date : 01 September 1898
Under Major-General Kitchener the Anglo-Egyptian army of 25,000 men met the Dervish army, over 50,000 men, near their capital Omdurman. Artillery, maxim machine guns and bolt action rifles stopped the Dervishers in their tracks. Subsequent actions by the 21st Lancers and later the rearguard of Kitchener's main force destroyed the Dervish army. The Anglo-Egyptians lost 500 men; the Dervishers lost 25,000 in killed, wounded and captured.
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 :
With Napoleon’s Guard in Russia - The Memoirs of Major Vionnet 1812
Louis Joseph Vionnet. Translated & Edited Jonathan
A book I finished reading wanting more of the same. I suspect desperate hunger, numbing cold and the struggle to keep his troops together caused Major Vionnet to make few notes from which these memoirs were constructed. Jonathan North has written an excellent introduction, especially the Peninsular War background to the regiment, and there is an appropriate selection of maps and illustrations to support the text. He has also used other personal accounts to broaden the perspective and add detail. My one minor complaint is that the many footnotes are gathered at the end of the book. If, like me, you always read footnotes, and these are most helpful, then having them on the relevant page is so much more convenient. This book is about detail having a broad overview of the Russian campaign, while not essential, is most useful.
With only a little imagination the reader will gain insights into the hell which engulfed and killed so many of Napoleon’s troops in the retreat from Moscow. And crucially how some of the survivors survived.
Pen & Sword Military. Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2012
Reviewed : 2013-02-25 00:00:00
