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Anniversaries for today :
Welcome to Clash of Steel!
Featured battle : Trafalgar
Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Date : 21 October 1805
Napoleon Bonaparte had planned an invasion of England which required control of the English Channel. To achieve this he had to defeat the British Fleet. The combined Franco-Spainish fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral P. Villeneuve attempted to implement Napoleon's plan. A fleet of 33 ships of the line plus five frigates met the British Fleet, 27 ships of the line plus four frigates, about twenty miles west of Cape Trafalgar. Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson ordered his ships into two columns which approached and cut into the Combined fleet's line head on at pre-determined points. The employment of these tactics on this scale was revolutionary, this plus the superior sailing and gunnery abilities of the Royal Navy gave the British a resounding victory. Napoleon's plans to invade England were crushed.
Featured image :
Transvaal Boer Burgher
Pictured here is a Transvaal Burgher Force volunteer in the Anglo-Zulu War. wearing the civilian clothes that such a volunteer would have worn as he reads his Bible in High Dutch on a Sunday morning. The rifle is a two-band Snider Enfield and next to him on the chair are a rifle holster, a knapsack, a water bottle, a bridle and a saddle holster (the latter for loose kit). Against the chair rest 2 Zulu spears of the 'iklwa' type. On the ground is an oilcloth cape. In most respects, this is much the same gear as used for the Transvaal War of Independence and the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, although by 1899 the Snider was obsolete and the Boers would carry a Mauser or Lee-Metford instead. Member of the Heilbron Commando re-enactment group.
Gallery updated : 2022-04-04 08:33:43
Featured review :
United States Airborne Divisions 1942-2018 (Images of War series)
Michael Green
Another in the "Images of War" series, this is a good overview of the equipment and organisation of, primarily, the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions, with some coverage of other divisions and their brief histories. It nicely blends their WW2 histories with airborne actions since then, up to their modern organisation, kit and equipment, and vehicles/aircraft including their current deployment of drones.
The main focus of the book is, of course, the usual mix of photographs that you will have come to expect if you are a regular to these publications. Archive and in theatre images are coupled with museum exhibits, reenactors and press/publicity photos. A very handy volume.
Pen & Sword Military, 2019
Reviewed : 2019-11-07 20:20:11
