401 The Battle of Kohima

Kohima is the capital of the Indian state of Nagaland, now in Bangladesh, high in the mountainous Naga hills. It was here the Imperial Japanese army would suffer its largest defeat of WWII thus far. The fighting was savage and proved to be a turning point for the British 14th army. It would gain a new confidence and prove its commander Bill Slim's new tactics to be a success. Mountbatten, Commander in Chief in South East Asia would describe it as: “probably one of the greatest battles in history… in effect the Battle of Burma… Naked unparalleled heroism... the British/Indian Thermopylae”.

402 War by Other Means

Carl von Clausewitz the military theorist and historian wrote "War is merely a continuation of politics by other means", but can we wage war with out actually going to war? Do huge armies have to face one another for us to achieve our politic ends?

403 Midway

Midway is a small atoll in the Pacific, only 2.4 miles square and over two thousand miles from the Japanese mainland. With two airstrips and a small American naval base it was about to give its name as possibly the most important single naval engagement of the second world war, at the end of which five aircraft carriers would be sunk and the balance of naval power in the pacific shifted.

404 Chard

John Rouse Merriot Chard joined the Royal Engineers in 1868, regarded by most of his peers as affable but no shining star.  Despite being only a lowly 18th of 19 when he pass out out from training...when the time came he was prepared to die for queen and country and lead 131 men, [of which 39 were hospitalised in the defence of Rorkes Drift] against almost 4,000 Zulu warriors at Rorkes Drift. Winning the Victoria Cross he became one of the 19th Century's most famous officers in the British army.

405 Tank pt2 - The Interwar Years

No sooner had the tank entered the First World war and made its first tentative steps the war was over. With the closure of hostilities, armies of the world disarmed rapidly. The war had cost a fortune and the vast numbers of men in arms were a drain on the coffers. The British army which had championed the use of the tank now found its political masters had dreamed up the Ten Year Rule which stipulated that planning for the army was based on the fact that there would be no major conflict for ten years. The tank would find itself in the wilderness...

406 Rommel

Rommel was one of the most capable German commanders of the second world war and managed to be popular not only with his own troops, the German people, and with Hilter but also with the allied forces fighting him. Popular to such an extent that the British commander General Auchinleck issued orders not to refer to Rommel by name but as "the Germans" or "the enemy". He was an old fashioned chivalrous soldier who treated prisoners with respect and disregarded orders where he saw appropriate, and his success in North Africa earned him the nickname "The Desert Fox"... But from the heady heights he would fall, forced to commit suicide to protect his family following the botched assassination attempt on Hilter.

407 Battle of Gaugamela

The battle of Gaugamela would be the final confrontation between Alexander the Great and Darius III the Persian King, one in which the Persian King had to win... or lose his empire. After being beaten two years previously at Issus, Darius had brought together an army of huge proportions drawn from throughout the empire. The battlefield would be of his choosing and fully prepared. On paper the odds were in his favour with his forces out numbering the Macedonians by at least three to one...

408 The Needle Gun

For over a hundred years European armies had developed infantry tactics based round massed ranks of infantry firing in volleys to maintain a constant rate of fire, and this was due to the equipment at hand. The muzzle loading muskets, such as the Brown Bess, required a long series of actions to be carried out to load and discharge the weapon, and these were drilled in to troops from the day they joined the army. The needle gun with its bolt to open the chamber and the insertion of the bullet, increased the rate of fire and although not seen at the time would eventually lead to the end of infantry both firing and operating in mass ranks.

409 Ninja

In the West the word “Ninja” typically conjures up images of silently sideways-somersaulting, black-hood-and-cloak-clad, stealthy, deadly, sword, and throwing star-wielding warriors.

But is this anything like the reality? Who really were the Ninja and how did they come about? Do their influences still exist today?

410 Abyssinia 1868

In 1896 20,000 Italians were thoroughly beaten by the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa, 14,000 Italians were killed or missing with a further 4000 captured. This casualty rate was the highest of any European battle of the nineteenth century, including the Napoleonic wars. Yet only just over thirty years earlier the British with only 13,000 men marched 400 miles in three months, through mountains and over plains to defeat the Abyssinians with almost no loss of life to themselves.