New Book and a New(ish) Blog

Another book to fall on my doormat is:

Edward Westermann Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses, 1914-1945 (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001) – This book looks at the other side of the bombing campaign against Germany, namely the use of Anti-Aircraft artillery in the defence of Germany. It examines the numerous problems that befell this arm in its attempt to defend Germany cities and helps illustrates the problems that was faced in this period.

A blog I have stumbled across is How it Really Was by Christopher Knowles, a part-time PhD student at the Centre for Contemporary British History. It has some interesting posts about the British Occupation of post-war Germany. An interesting subject and after reading Sholto Douglas’ autobiography, Years of Command, and reading the problems he had during his time as Military Governor of the British Zone of Occupation, I am looking forward to reading more.

A while ago I mentioned podcasts that are popping up over the net well the National Archives have started some video podcasts entitled War on Film. Each one explores the truth behind popular war films. To quote from the website:

The National Archives holds a large number of records about the events featured in six of the most popular war films of all time. In our ‘War on Film’ videocast series William Spencer, one of our military records specialists, explores the true stories behind these films and uses original records to depict actual events.

The latest looks at the truth behind the ‘Longest Day’.

A Trip to London…and Books

Yesterday saw me take a run into London. The purpose of this visit was to meet up with Brett Holman of Airminded who is over in the UK on holiday. For anyone who has followed Brett’s blog you will be aware that it is one of the better history blogs on the net. For me it has the added advantage of being abaout Air Power History. It is always great to put a name to the face. Several other bloggers came along to so it was a meeting of the blogosphere. It was also great to meet Jakob, who runs the blog Thrust Vector. I think each of our blogs, and by default research interests, highlights the diversity of Air Power History. Good luck to Breet in getting his thesis published and finding that much vaunted job that we all desire at the of our PhD’s.

Seeing as I was in London it seemed rude of me not to visit the bookshops and peruse the bookshelves. This of course meant that some purchasing was done. This is what I picked up yesterday.

Stephen Bungay The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain (London: Aurum Press, 2009) – This is the new 2009 edition of this work on the Battle. I have not had the chance to read it so it will be interesting to see what he has to add to the historiography.

Noble Frankland History at War: The Campaign of a Historian (London: Giles de Mare, 1998) – This is Franklands account of his life as a historian and deals with many aspects of the historical profession and in particular the issues relating to the publication of the Official History of the Strategic Air Offensive against Germany.

Alfred Hurley Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975) – A useful early biography of one of the most important men in American air power history.

Harry Yeide and Mark Stout First to the Rhine: The 6th Army Group in World War II (St Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2007) – I picked this up as I have always wondered about the operation of Devers command, which has recieved scant attention from historians.

Seeing as I was in London I decided to make a day of it and I popped up to the RAF Museum and took some pictures of the exhibits. Always a favourite of mine but I do wish that they would imporve the lighting for photography. As I was in the area  also popped to Hannants and picked up a model. I did not need to but I felt the need.

The end and a few changes…

Well I am sitting on the train to Birmingham to go and submit my MPhil thesis. Part of me is happy that it is done but the other part feels worried that I have left bits out. I know there are limitations but that is the nature of the beast. Being only 40,000 words there is only so much I could include. I admit as much in my introduction. I am proud of the work and feel that it does what I set out to do and that is to refute the revisionist accounts on the RAF’s perceived failure to use bombers at Dieppe.

One thing that I am very glad about is my choice of supervisor for it. I had the honour and pleasure of working with Professor Gary Sheffield, one of the UK’s leading military historians. I can not stress too much to potential postgraduate the importance of having a good working relationship with your supervisor. The ability to turn to him or her when you get stuck is so important and if the relationship is fractious it won’t help. I have been lucky to have a supervisor who let me explore the problem and offer pertinent advice when appropriate. He also acted as an excellent editor picking up on numerous mistakes that my tired eyes just could not pick up. I am certain that my thesis all the better for Gary’s help and assistance. So make sure you pick a suitable supervisor as it will pay dividends by the end.

In terms of what is next well the first thing will be the Viva at some date not too far in the future. However, before that I have got move. An offer by work means I leave this week. This is not as bad as it seems as I am going to go back to uni full-time for my PhD. I have to admit this is quite exciting. I am going to stick with Birmingham as even as a part-time student the atmosphere has been excellent. Also in the field of War Studies it is an up and coming challenger to KCL and it is exciting to be part of that. Birmingham already had a reputation in the field of First World War Studies and is growing in the area of Second World War Studies. It is also expanding into air power history. In terms of my thesis I plan to shift my area somewhat. Up until now I have concentrated on operational histories of the use of air power but I am now going to look at leadership effectiveness. In particular I am proposing to examine the career of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory who seems to be the villain in many accounts of the Second World War. Hopeful, I will be re-focusing this in my thesis but time will tell on that. I hope to be starting in January. As I go along I will be blogging my experience as a comparison with Robert Thompson’s experience of a military history PhD in the states.

In the mean time I will be starting the process of chopping my thesis into one article and also starting some of the ideas I mentioned a few weeks back. I have just finished the editing process on my first chapter for a book on a conference that I attended last year. That should be out next year. I have also joined Zotero and so far I am pleased with it as a research tool. I have started an Air Power History group with thee aim of collating research and writing on this field. A grandiose task I know but who knows it may be of use to someone. All in all the next few months are going to be eventful.

New(ish) Blogs…Well they are to me!

Its been a while since I posted about new blogs but over the past few months I have become aware of a couple of interesting new blogs.

First up is a blog by Military Historian Paul Reed. Paul is well known in British circles especially for his role in working with the BBC. Paul is also in the process of forming the WW2 Society, a project that I was involved in at the start but I could stick with for various reasons. This project deserves peoples support.

Another blog is from Robert Thompson. Robert is about to begin his PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi and hopefully we shall see some interesting posts very soon. In actual fact we may see some dual posts from me and Robert on our PhD experiences in the US and UK.

Towards Terrormindedness is an interesting blog from Mats Fridlund and deals with how our culture has evolved to deal with the issue of Terrorism and its historical antecedents.

Allan Allport launched a blog the other months as a compliment to his new book on the demobilisation process in Britain at the end of the war. He is post-blogging the process with some interesting posts being made every day.

Finally a blog I spotted a while back but never mentioned is a blog about Ernst Junger’s work Storm of Steel, one of the key works that came out of the First World War. Some interesting posts being made about the work.

So more Military History in the blogosphere. Excellent.

No. 2 Squadron SAAF – 22nd March 1943

Here is the third entry of No. 2 Squadron SAAF.

The weather was dull and overcast this morning and the was lots of rain about when Major ARMSTRONG, CAPT. HAPUTFLEISCH and LT. HOJEM set out at 1100 hours to do an armed reconnaissance with No. 239 Wing. They did zone circuits at FOUM TATAHOUINE but No. 239 Wing did not appear and owing to the weather conditions at the time, our aircraft returned with their bombs.

A feature of night-life in the Officers Mess tonight was the entertainment of Group Captain Petrus Hugh, D.S.O., D.F.C. and two bars, Croix de Guerre and palm-leaves who visited our squadron with our Wing Commander, Lt.Col. LOFTUS, D.F.C. The famous South African Ace, who had come across from the other side – the First Army – was rapidly made to feel at home in the atmosphere of a South African mess and was entertained with a special “broadcast-programme” the evening ending with a sing-song featuring, mostly, South African “lindjins”. This singing, conducted in the brilliant moonlight and to the accompliment of occasional A.A.Fire and bombs dropped at a landing ground in this vicinity, rounded off a pleasant and interesting evening.

TNA, AIR 27/22 ‘No. 2 Squadron SAAF Operation Record Book’ 22nd March 1943

No. 2 Squadron SAAF – 21st March 1943

Here is the second post for operations on 21 March.

Eleven of our pilots were early on the job this morning when they took the air shortly before eleven o’clock. They were flying as close cover to 18 Bostons who were to bomb a road in the enemy lines, and they were led by Lt.Col. LOFTUS. The operation was without event. There was no movement observed on the road and the Bostons did not release their loads.

A repeat performance was staged three hours later by the Bostons and our aircraft, eleven stong led by Major ARMSTRONG on this occasion acting as medium cover. The road was bombed but results were not observed by our pilots, who reported no enemy aircraft and only medium A.A. fire from the target area.

After lunch the aircraft took off for HAZBUB MAIN and the remainder of the squadron proceeding thither by road, the entire squadron was encamped at the new landing ground by nightfall.

General MONTGOMERY’s personal message to the Eighth Army was received to-day. As usual his message made interesting and heartening reading.

Another nocturnal call was paid by the jerry tonight. One enemy bomber flew very low over our camp in the moonlight the rear-gunner firing a few bursts at some of our transports but without causing any damage. Bofors shells in pursuit of the intruder flew low over tent-tops in the camp, also, however, without causing any damage.

No. 2 Squadron SAAF – 20th March 1943

Here is the first entry from the Squadrons ORB. At this time the Squadron was equipped with Cutiss Kittyhawks.

Operations started with a rush to-day, the squadron acting as close, medium and top cover to the light bombers in consecutive operations. There were 32 sorties and a total of some 48 hours operational flying.

Good bombing results by the Bostons were observed by our pilots on the first operation, led by Lt.Col. LOFTUS. The target appeared to be dug in enemy positions. A.A. fire was intense but no other enemy opposition was encountered by our aircraft which returned safely.

The medium cover operation also called on an dozen aircraft from this unit but the “engine-trouble Gremlin” was busy on this operation and only eleven took off, Capt. HAUPT***** leading. Over the target area, another two “moscowed”. (Miscued?)

Bombing was carried out by the 18 escorted Bostons South of Mareth from a height of 7000′. Cloud obscured the bombing results. Heavy and accurate A.A. fire was put up and one of the Bostons, apparently hit, was observed to go in, two parachutes being observed to open.

In the last operation, Major ARMSTRONG took eleven as top cover for a third formation of Bostons bombing in the Mareth area. Our aircraft flew at 13,000′ and bombing results were not observed. Another Boston was hit by A.A. fire and went down in flames, and again two parachutes were observed to open. No enemy air opposition was encountered on any of the days operations.

“A” party received unexpected instructions to move to HAZBIB MAIN (Medinin area) at lunch-time this afternoon and by this evening were setting up at our new landing ground. What with flares, A.A. fire, and an enemy twin-engined bomber strafing the road adjoining the new camp, our personnel had a slightly unpleasant introduction to their new home.

TNA, AIR 27/22 ‘No. 2 Squadron SAAF – Operations Record Book’ 20th March 1943

Post-Blogging the Battle of the Mareth Line – Introduction

Inspired by Brett Holman’s experiment of post-blogging the Sudeten Crisis I have decided to have a go at some thing similar, albeit over a much smaller time frame.

I am going to post about the experience of No. 2 Squadron SAAF during the Battle for the Mareth Line in late March 1942. I am doing this by using their Operations Record Book. The ORB is effectively a daily record of events with a squadrons. It is the RAF’s version of a Regimental War Diary or a Ships Log. They tend to be variable in quality. However, for some inexplicable reasons No. 2 Squadron appear to have had an administrative officer who revelled in detail. As such the ORB give a very good outline of air operations in and around Marethduring the period of the battle. The post will start on 20 March as this was the day that the main attacks by XXX Corps went in against the Mareth Line. Aerial operations had actually begun almost a week earlier and some ground operation had taken place in the few day before the main attack with the intention of clearing the outpost of the Mareth Line. However, we are dealing with the two main operations of the battle, Operations PUGILIST and SUPERCHARGE II.

This series of posts has come our of a paper I delivered last year at a conference on Allied military effectiveness during the war in the Mediterranean. My paper dealt with the Army-Air Force Cooperation during the Battle of the Mareth Line. I am in the process of writing the paper up for publication, which is due out in 2010. However, the detail from the ORB would never make it into the paper in full, hence, why it is going on here.

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.