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Click for Part 1 Battle of Maeva, 1846 Although little is documented of the fighting itself, the French lost a shore party of marines in what has been described as a massacre by some, on the island of Huahine, modern-day French Polynesia. The Leeward Islands were divided between four kingdoms: Tahiti, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora... Continue Reading →
Part 3 Battle of Spion Kop, 1900 The British, reinforced after the trauma of 'Black Week', were still labouring to relieve Ladysmith after almost three months of siege. General Buller decided on seizing Spion Kop because the hill stood slap-bang in the centre of Boer positions around Ladysmith. 20,000 troops, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill... Continue Reading →
"Modern American war is as easy to script as a B-movie" quipped one US Army officer, referring to the predictability of US victories against its enemies in the late 20th Century. Yet, it wasn't always smooth sailing for the Yanks. Presented, the worst US military disaster of every decade spanning the Declaration of Independence til... Continue Reading →
It's a myth that since King William conquered, barely a single foreign attacker has set foot on British shores without some natives in connivance, but here are eight times Britain suffered seaborne raids you might not know about. Southampton and Portsmouth Sacked, Nearly Destroyed, 1338-9 King Edward III launched a military campaign in 1337 against... Continue Reading →
Click for Part 1 Battles of Saratoga, 1777 Almost two years into the counter insurgency campaign to end the American Revolution, British General John Burgoyne set off from Quebec with mixture of 7,200 loyalist Americans and Germanic troops to meet two other armies with the aim of cutting off the particularly insurgent New England region from... Continue Reading →
'We lose every battle but the last one' is a proverb referring to how the British prevailed in a catalogue of conflicts from the British Empire's inception in 1707 until its end in the 1950s, yet were mauled on many an occasion. This 4-part article includes the worst military calamity of every decade - failures... Continue Reading →
History and Things 