501 Austerlitz

The Battle of Austerlitz, or Three Emperors, took place in December 1805. Out-numbered, Napoleon faced the combined forces of Emperor Francis II of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Operating in enemy territory and having been on the move since Austria the battle would provide Napoleon with one of his greatest victories, smashing the Third Coalition against him.

502 Hurtgen Forest

By mid September 1944 the Allies the Allies had raced across France after hard fighting breaking out of the Bocage country of Normandy. On the Belgian-German border lies some 50 square miles of forest only eight miles deep and 25miles wide, with Aachen to the North, The Roer River ran along the eastern edge of the Hurtgen. Beyond it was the Rhine. This Forest, the Hurtgen, would see American troops fighting the longest battle in US history and even though they out numbered the Germans five to one they would pay a heavy price suffering over thirty thousand casualties.

503 The Balkan Wars

The Balkan Wars of 1912-13 pushed the Ottoman Empire almost totally out of Europe, leaving her with a toe hold on Constantinople.

Montenegro, Greece and Serbia, the Balkan League, after defeating the Turks then fell out over the spoils and fought one another. One result of this would be heightened Serbian aspirations which worried its      Austria resulting in tensions that would inevitably lead the rest of Europe into World War One.

504 Logistics - Feeding an army

The General Antoine-Henri Jomini writing in the 19th century defined logistics as "the practical art of moving armies..." and includes "providing for the successive arrival of convoys of supplies". The very base need of any commander throughout the history of war is to provide the magic three thousand calories a day a soldier needs... ... to march, to dig, to build and fight.

505 The First Crusade

The First Crusade would see thousands of Europeans rally to the Papal call for a mission to recapture Jerusalem for the Christians and put an end to Muslim atrocities on Pilgrims. Thousands would die through starvation, lack of water and exhaustion ill prepared as they were for the climate, but religious favour, ferocious fighting ability would see these knights repeatedly turn what looked like impossible odds into victory.

506 U-110

One of the most famous U-boats of the second world war was U-110, being as it was the inspiration for the Hollywood blockbuster U-571. Yet for all it’s fame, U-110’s career was a short one, lasting well under a year. Her short initial capture just prior to being sunk would see the British lay their hands on many code books and one of the elusive Enigma machines that would provide the code-breakers back at Bletchley Park in the UK with invaluable information...

507 Rommel pt2

January 1941 after his successes storming across France Rommel was promoted to Lieutenant General by Hitler and recalled to Berlin. His career was about to take a turn that would ensure his fame, he was ordered to North African to command the Deutsches Afrika Korps, his exploits too an fro across the vast expanses of North African would take him to within a hair's breath of occupying Egypt, earning him the nick name the desert Fox, and bring him into conflict with a foe who would to make his name in that theatre the British General Montgomery.

508 The Battle of the Nile

Napoleon, still a rising star in 1798 had sailed to Egypt with an army to conquer the country, as initial steps to threatening English domination of India. The British in reaction dispatched still junior Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson into the Mediterranean to intercept the French fleet. This, the battle of the Nile, would be first of three grand triumphs against the French, finishing at Trafalgar.

509 Belisarius

With the Empire in decline and split, the western empire fell to pieces and only the eastern empire, Byzantium, could field anything that came close to Rome's former splendor. From this a young man of Greek or Thracian origin, Flavius Belisarius, would rise to become the last of the great Roman Generals.

510 The Battle of the Tannenberg

At the outbreak of the First World War the Germans instigated the Schlieffen plan, a strategy based on a swift knockout blow to the French before the Russians would have time to mobilise, thereby enabling the Germans to switch their forces to the East and check what they expected would be the slow mobilisation of the vast armies of the Russian Empire. In the event the Germans expectations proved wrong - the Russians mobilised quicker than expected and launched two armies into East Prussia, facing them - only one German army.