An update…

I have been away from the blogoshpehere for a while because of various reasons. The most pressing of which has been my work. It is that time of year again in education and I have been busy marking coursework for submission and preparing and running revision sessions. I sure some of you can imaging the joy of marking the same 3,000 word essay over and over again. The other pressing reasons was because I was preparing a symposium paper for uni and preparing a submission for a conference that is coming up in July. Also I have been trawling through the 2000 or so pics I took at the National Archives at Easter.

My symposium paper, delivered at the Postgraduate Symposium for the Centres for First and Second World War Studies, was entitled ‘The Embattled History of Operation JUBILEE.’ The paper sought to explore some of the various reasons why the writing about the raid on Dieppe has been so divisive over the past sixty years. As I mentioned at the symposium if one does a search on the British Library database for Dieppe Raid it brings up about 30 books dedicated to the raid. This is quite a lot for an operation that did not even last a full day. If we compare it the Normandy Campaign that has about 330 books dedicated to it and that is a 90 day campaign. Also we must bare in mind that many of these books on Normandy will also include a discussion of Dieppe as the traditional argument for the raids purpose was as a necessary precursor for OVERLORD. I brought out several stands which for me showed the problems that have surrounded the writing about the raid. These were as follow: (Sorry Gavin should have written this early to go in the carnival!!)

• Nationalism

This concentrated on the role nationalism play in forming our national myths and in particular I concentrated on the role that C P Stacey had played in forming the national myths of Canada in his CMHQ reports and the Canadian official history. I also touched upon some of the difference between the accounts of Canadian historians and British historians.

• Narrative Vs. Analytical

This area detailed some of the critical difference that have occurred over the writing of the raid. The most notable difference is the the narrative works details the actions of the raid where as the analytical works only deal with issues of planning and the aftermath of the raid. As such we still do not have a holistic work of the raid that merges both the planning issue and the operational and tactical problems occurred during the the operation.

• Amateur Historian Vs. Professional Historian

This then led me on to consider why this has happen and in my eyes the difference comes very much from the audience the works have been written for and by whom. The narrative works, going all the way back to the early piece written after the raid, have tended to be written by non-academics, and in many cases journalists, this has show up in the concentration on the ‘face’ and experience of the battle and skimping over some of the larger issues. For the more analytical pieces there has been a tendency to concentrate on documentary evidence and the use of sources to come up with an analysis of the raid. Thus, there remains a dichotomy between the two strands and in my minds brings up the questions of is it the case that the narrative historians have produced that type of work because a lack of training?

• Official Vs. Revisionist

I also explored the problems that occurred when writing about the raid and the pressure placed upon the official historians by Mountbatten to produce his version of events and the control he placed over the Ministry of Information over the writing of the Combined Operations pamphlet in 1943. This is a position that has now been heavily challenged by historians.

I finished the piece by looking at some of the operational issue that came out of the raid and the posited the questions of whether there was a need for another analysis of the raid, thus, playing devils advocate to my own thesis. Obviously, my answer is yes, as there is a need for a more operationally orientated history. Hopefully more people will agree with this.

Of the other papers at the symposium 2 that I really enjoyed were Air Commodore Peter Gray’s piece of Strategic Leadership in Bomber Command. Peter is trying to create an understanding of the relationship between Harris and his superiors using contemporary leadership theory and pushing this theory further by utilising a historical case study. Also I enjoyed Trevor Harvey’s piece on the formation of the CEF in the First World War. This was particular interesting because of my discussion of Canadian nationalism in the planning of Dieppe. This theme also resonates in Trevor’s piece with relation to the formation of the CEF.

The other thing that I have been playing with was a submission for a paper for an upcoming conference at KCL and the IWM in July. The conference is on Allied Fighting Effectiveness in North Africa and Italy, 1942 - 1945. The conference will explore the following key themes: 

Tactical effectiveness: doctrine, training and experience; combined arms tactics; urban and mountain warfare; technology; morale and combat psychology.

Operational art; command, control and communications; logistics.

The war in the air: the counter-air battle, the employment of tactical airpower; the effectiveness of air-to-ground operations.

Naval operations, specifically the development and evolution of amphibious technique.

Intelligence, propaganda, partisans and irregular warfare.

Inter-Allied cooperation and aspects of coalition warfare.

I put a proposal in entitled ‘A Case Study in Army-Air Force Co-Operation: The Western Desert Air Force and the Battle of the Mareth Line, 19 - 29 March 1943′ I am pleased to say it was accepted so I have now got to prepare that. I hope to explore the following key issues:

• To examine the role the Western Desert Air Force (WDAF) played in Operations PUGILIST and SUPERCHARGE II
• To understand the affect that WDAF planning had upon the conduct second half of the battle around the Mareth Line, Operation SUPERCHARGE II
• To examine the operations in their operational and tactical context
• To examine the affect of the operations on the future conduct of the air war, specifically in North-West Europe

I have obviously continued buying and these are some of the more recent title that have landed on my doorstep, I must get another bookshelf at some point.

1. Richard Overy The Air War, 1939 - 1945
2. C P Stacey Six Years of War
3. Henry Probert “Bomber” Harris
4. David Mets and Harold Winton (Eds.) The Challenge of Change: Military Institutions and New Realities, 1918-1941
5. Randolph Bradham To the Last Man: The Battle for Normandy’s Cotentin Peninsula and Brittany
6. Hugh Henry Dieppe Through the Lens of the German War Photographer
7. William Slim Unofficial History
8. James Corum The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918-40
9. Geoffrey Till (Ed.) The Development of British Naval Thinking

12th Military History Carnival

Welcome to the 12th Military History Carnival. It has been a year since this was all started and as this month shows there is still lots of interest out there. Just as Gavin Robinson wrote 12 months ago the military history blogosphere is as healthy as ever.

This months I have tried to split the various post into themes. Some are quite esoteric and could probably fit into more than one but here it goes.

The Experience of War:

Here we have several good posts on the experience of war with specific reference to battle. First, we have The Battle of Bloody River at Battlefield Biker. Second, at Behind Antietam on the Wire we have got a post on the experience of the 12th Virginia while serving in Maryland in 1862.

Politics and War:

Over the past months there have been some interesting posts on the politics and how that effect war and the reverse i.e. the effect that war has upon a state. A good starting point is Gavin Robinson’s post on historical causation. It provide a useful theoretical background to why events, and war in particular, occur. Next at the Yorkist Age we have got an interesting post looking at the political intrigue of Richard II’s court and how politics, war and court life were intertwined in the medieval period. Edward Vallance offers us some thoughts on whether or not Oliver Cromwellwas one of the most evil men in English history. Finally at Siafuddin we have a post on the effect of war on a country. In this case the effect that the Ottoman Empire had upon Yemen from the mid-1200’s onwards.

War and Death:

Both go hand in hand and it is an extremely emotive subject to tough upon but several bloggers have looked at various aspects of this area of military history. Dan Todman has been conducting research in the nature of British casualties during the Second World War and has started to post some of his research, which is very interesting. He has two post, the first is on Navy dead and the second is on Merchant Navy deaths.

Next we have a series of posts commemorating the deaths of veterans who have recently passed away. First, at UKNIWM we have a post about the passing away of the last Scottish vetran of the Spanish Civil War. Second, again at UKNIWM, we have a post on the death of the last French veteran of the First World War. Finally, we have a post at Rantings of a Civil War Historian about the anniversary of the death of  Sir Henry Shrapnel, the inventor of the shrapnel artillery shell.

We also have a series of posts that deal with the issue of massacres in wartime. The first post deals with the issue of massacres committed during the colonial era by Historiann. Second with have a post about the executions of soldiers caught in the Boer War of committing atrocities at Executed Today.

Command in War:

Again some good post about command in war. First, we have The War Reading Room musing about General Gough’s command during the first day of the Kaiserslachtin 1918. At The Punch Die we have got a post about the brilliance of Julius Caesar as a commander.

Myth and Memory:

A constant theme in the historiography of war is how we remember and memorialise those events. Again this months we have lots of posts dealing with various aspects of this subject.

At the Spitfire Site we have some musing over the painting ‘Eagles over Dieppe.’ At Redonwriter’s Sacred Ordinary we have some musing over rationing during the Second World War. Brett Holman at Airminded has reported on the discovery of the site of HMAS Sydney that was sunk 19 November 1941. At the Military History Blog we have got a post about the posthumous award of the Congressional Medal of Honor to Woodrow Keeble. At Remembering World War Two Airmen we have a post honouring the memory of the Tuskegee Airmen.

 Other Posts:

Here are some others posts that do not really fit into the above.

At Providentia we have a thought provoking post on conscientious objectors. The role of animals in war is an often forgotten aspects of military history and at UKNIWM we have a post about the role of cats during the Second World War. At Women in History we have a report on the discovery that Dr James Barry, a famous surgeon of the 19th Century was indeed a woman. Mike Cosgrove gives us some thoughts on the use of wargaming as a teaching implement in order to explore aspects of military history. Mike Ingram gives us some thoughts about the problem of exploring the idea of morale in the military in preparation for an essay he must do for his MA in British Second World War Studies. At The Cowfield we have got a post looking at the futility of comparing one historical event with another and some of the problems that it can cause to our historical understanding. At the Osprey blog we have got a very good post on the process that goes into producing a historical book. Gavin Robinson at Investigations of a Dog has posted several posts about an exciting development in online archiving for the First World War. The posts can be seen here and here. The final post is a series of mine just to show that I have been busy. I have posted three posts about the development of RAF Tactical Air Power in the North African Campaign. The entries can be seen here, here and here.

Well that is it for this months carnival. I hope you enjoy the posts.

 The 13th Military History Carnival will be hosted by It will be Ken Reynolds at Cannon’s Mouth on 17th April. Address for submissions is militaryhistorian@gmail.com

11th Military History Carnival

The 11th Military History Carnival has been posted over at Battlefield Biker.

I am hosting the next carnival in March. E-mail submissions to $mahoneyross$@$hotmail.com$ (without the “$” signs) or simply use the Military History Carnival submission form at Blog Carnival.

Blogging the Second World War

I have just gotten involved with a new project led by Jeff Demers called Blogging the Second World War. It was announced on H-War last November and I am pleased to be getting involved with this new venture in Second World War history. It is a new way of promoting scholarly debate and discussion and should be supported by both academic and non-academics alike. Many of us run blogs but unfortunately they are sideshows to our main research. However, this blog is being funded and supported, which is a very positive sign. The first post should be going up very soon.

Jeff has stated that:

The goal of the project will be to create an on-line community (and presence) that promotes the study of the war and tracks the latest trends in research. The website will feature book, film and journal reviews, insights into ongoing scholarly debates, explorations of contributors’ research, and general commentary on a whole host of issues relevant to the study of the war.

Cited on Wikipedia!

I have been transferring posts from my old blog to this one over the past few months and work has gotten in the way of me doing much posting. However, one of the first posts that I re-posted here was one on the decision to use the atomic bomb and due to work commitments I have not been paying much attention but when I re-logged into my wordpress account and I looked at the stats page I saw a link to Wikipedia. Low and behold when I looked at the link there in their main article on the Cold War is a footnote citing my blog. Well at least I can’t moan about their accuracy issues!!

New Sites

Gavin at Investigations of a Dog has found a new blog by Mike Ingram called War in the Mediterranean. This is an interesting looking site concentrating on the Mediterranean theatre of WW2. It is also good to see another student from the Birmingham University here on the blogosphere. Mike is, like myself studying at the Centre for Second World War Studies. From the Centre for First World War Studies we already have Alistair Hollington and his Historic Battlefields blog. This a positive feature from these two research centre’s showing that postgraduate students are starting to use blogs to help with their research.

I have also been in the process of setting up another blog and a website. One of my hobbies is military modelling and drawing. I think most of us who are interested in military history have at some point built an airfix kit. Well I still do it. I thought I would put a blog on the net of my work and here it is; Military Modelling and Art. I am also a member of a local club and have developed there website, which can be seen here; Cornish Scale Modellers.

New Blog

Thanks to Gavin Robinson I have just found another new and interesting blog on military history. Alistair Hollington’s blog concentrates on the First World War and this is understandable as Alistair is studying for a MA in British First World War Studies at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for First World War Studies. So far the contents of the site a very interesting with a good review of Peter and Dan Snows new series on Twentieth Century Battlefields. From a personal, and professional, point of view it is great to see another Birmingham University student join us here on the blogosphere. Gary Smailes notes that when he was doing his MA he wishes blogging was around and I have to agree that it is a useful tool. In general blogs are very useful for Masters and PhD students to discuss their research and to place initial thoughts out there. So I hope to see more coming around soon.

Military History Carnival

Gavin Robinson at Investigations of a Dog has launched and will host the first Military History Carnival You can find more information about it here but here is an outline of its purpose:

It will be a monthly blog carnival which rounds up the best blog posts on the history of war, armed forces, and related topics, from ancient history up to the end of the 20th century. Our aim is neither to glorify nor condemn war, but to see it as an integral part of history which needs to be better understood.

Interesting Blogs

Having been new to blogging I have been trawling through the internet and I have found some very interesting sites. The first of these is a site by Australian PhD candidate Bret Holman. Bret’s site, and thesis, it is all about the issue of Air mindedness (I do not think that’s a word!) and Britain. An issue, which is extremely interesting so Bret’s site, Airminded, is well worth a peek. Another very interesting site, which I had come across before I started blogging is that of American historian Mark Grimsley. Mark has some interesting articles on the development of military history, which I think anyone with any interest in the subject should have a read of. So have a look at his interestingly named Blog them out of the Stone Age. The final one, for now, it Gavin Robinson’s Investigations of a Dog, which I have been finding very interesting, especially his stuff on Early Modern Cavalry, as I am in the process of teaching the English Civil War to my AS Students and not being my particular area I did find it useful. Gavin is hosting a Military History Carnival, which will be interesting when it starts next month.

The one thing I have noticed from other peoples sites it that they have a tendency to use other sites such as WordPress. So a general question to anyone reading this - what is the best blogging site/software?