Tag Archives: Battles

The Battle of the Atlantic – a brief summary

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The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War Two, is to be commemorated in a series of events today, 8 May 2013.

According to BBC News, ‘three Royal Navy warships will arrive in London before a special evensong in St Paul’s Cathedral at 17:00 BST. The events mark the seventieth anniversary of the climax of the battle, May 1943, when Germany’s submarine fleet suffered heavy losses in the Atlantic. The milestone is also being marked in Londonderry and Liverpool.’

So what exactly was the Battle of the Atlantic? History In An Hour provides a brief summary.

Battle of River PlateThe war at sea began immediately in September 1939 with the Germans sinking merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. On 13 December 1939, the Battle of River Plate in the South Atlantic took place. The German battleship Graf Spee attacked a squadron of British ships off the coast of Uruguay but in doing so was damaged herself. Hitler ordered her captain, Hans Langsdorff, to scuttle the ship rather than let her fall into enemy hands. Langsdorff followed his orders and the Graf Spee was sunk (pictured). A week later, Langsdorff, draped in the German flag, shot himself.

The U-boat peril

In his memoirs, Winston Churchill later confessed: “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.” Britain depended heavily on imports – from iron ore and fuel to almost 70 per cent of all her food. Convoys of merchant ships crossing the Atlantic were escorted by the Royal Navy and, as far as it could reach, the RAF. But there was only so far the planes could travel, leaving a ‘mid-Atlantic gap” where the convoys were particularly vulnerable to German submarines, or U-boats, which hunted in groups or ‘wolf packs’.

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Key Battles of the English Civil War

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Battle Date Victor
Edgehill, Warwickshire 23rd October 1642 Indecisive
Newbury, Berkshire 20th September 1643 Parliamentarians
Cropredy Bridge, Oxfordshire 29th June 1644 Royalists
Marston Moor, Yorkshire 2nd July 1644 Parliamentarians
Newbury, Berkshire 27th October 1644 Indecisive
Naseby, Northamptonshire 14th June 1645 Parliamentarians
Langport, Somerset 10th July 1645 Parliamentarians

See also our articles on the English Civil War, all written by Simon Court:

Killing the King: The Trial and Execution of Charles I;
Politics, Protestantism and Personality: the Causes of the English Civil War; and
The New Model Army: why Parliament won the English Civil War.

 

Battle of Barnet 1471 – a summary

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The Battle of Barnet, which took place on 14 April, 1471, was one of the most important engagements of the Wars of the Roses. These were a series of civil wars fought in England during the later fifteenth century, with the rival houses of York and Lancaster vying for the throne. The battle also determined the ultimate outcome of the personal conflict between King Edward IV and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick – former allies who had by then become implacable foes.

Ten years earlier the Earl of Warwick, at that time a Yorkist, had helped Edward (pictured) – then still in his teens – to depose the Lancastrian King Henry VI and seize the throne. Warwick became the greatest man after the king. By the end of the 1460s, however, despite numerous attempts at reconciliation, the relationship between Edward and Warwick had broken down. Edward and Warwick clashed over the direction of foreign policy. Edward’s controversial marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was another key factor, as Elizabeth’s relatives gained increasing influence at court. Warwick was the driving force behind two rebellions; his supporters included Edward’s own brother, George Duke of Clarence. But ultimately Warwick’s plans failed; both he and Clarence were forced into exile in France.

Incredibly, through the agency of King Louis XI, Warwick now formed an alliance with Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s formidable queen. (Margaret had earlier fled to France with her young son, Prince Edward.) In September 1470 Warwick invaded England with French support, accompanied by Clarence, and quickly raised a large army. Crucially, Edward was betrayed by Warwick’s brother, John Marquis Montagu – who had hitherto remained loyal to Edward – and he was forced into exile in his turn. Queen Elizabeth, who was then heavily pregnant, sought sanctuary at Westminster. Henry VI, who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London, was restored to the throne. But Henry, never strong, was by now a broken man: Warwick was to rule.

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Battle of Falkirk 1298 – a summary

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If the Scottish armies’ glorious victory at Stirling Bridge, 11 September 1297, was a spectacular affront to the superpower of the day, then the defeat at the Battle of Falkirk on 22 July 1298, was normal service resumed as far as England’s king, Edward I, was concerned.

Infuriated by the defeat at Stirling, the English monarch mustered another army, larger than before and extremely well organised.

William Wallace

William Wallace (pictured) knew that the English forces were far superior.  He would probably have known that achieving such a success as at Stirling was unlikely, as Edward I himself was in command now and it is doubtful that he would be drawn into a similar trap that lost him the battle at Stirling.

Wallace, then, contented himself with a scorched earth policy.  He burned the villages of his own country, destroyed the crops of the farms and moved the people and their animals to the north, out of the reach of Edward.

Scorched earth was an effective, if not extreme, solution to the military problem Wallace faced.  His army was more disciplined than the Scots rabble that had faced John de Warenne at the Battle of Dunbar, but it was still little match for the English in a pitched battle on equal terms.

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Battle of the Somme – a summary

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The Battle of the Somme started with the usual preliminary bombardment. Lasting five days, and involving 1,350 guns and 52,000 tonnes of explosives fired onto the German lines, British soldiers were assured that the 18-mile German frontline would be flattened – it would just be a matter of strolling across and taking possession of the German trenches – beyond that, lay Berlin.

The Battle of the Somme was designed to relieve the pressure on the French suffering at Verdun. The British army at the Somme consisted mainly of Kitchener recruits. Most had received only minimal training and many had still to grasp the skill of shooting accurately.

‘Dead men cannot move’

The advance started at 7.30 am on 1 July 1916, a Saturday. To the right of the British, a smaller French force, transferred from Verdun. As ordered, the men advanced in rigid lines. The bombardment combined with heavy rain had ensured that the ground was akin to a sea of mud and many an advancing soldier, lumbered with almost 70 lbs of equipment, drowned. Far from being decimated by the artillery, the German trenches ahead were brimming with guns pointing towards the advance. What followed went down as the worse day in British military history and perhaps in the history of warfare – 57,000 men fell on that first day alone, 19,240 of them dead. In return, the Germans suffered 185 casualties that first day.

One of Britain’s generals at the Battle of the Somme, Sir Beauvoir de Lisle, wrote, ‘It was a remarkable display of training and discipline, and the attack failed only because dead men cannot move on’. Despite the appalling losses, Britain’s commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, decided to ‘press [the enemy] hard with the least possible delay’. Thus the attack was resumed the following day. And the day after that.

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Battle of Bannockburn – a summary

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Robert the Bruce had been king of Scotland since March 1306 but his land was still populated by several English garrisons and under constant threat from his southern neighbour and its king, firstly Edward I until his death in 1307, then his son and successor, Edward II. The Scots rallied behind Bruce and between 1306 and 1314 they set about recapturing the castles and towns of Scotland that were still under English control. After eight years of successful guerilla warfare and a number of plundering raids into northern England, Bruce felt ready to meet the mighty English in open battle.

Robert the Bruce prepares

The ground that Robert the Bruce (pictured) chose for the battle, which was to determine the fate of his country and crown, was that which would give him the best advantage against the superior forces he was likely to face.

He took up position just to the north of the Bannock Burn with the thickly wooded New Park giving cover to his rear.  The English army, advancing from the south, would have to cross the burn in order to engage the Scots, but with areas of swamp on either flank they would be severely restricted in their movement.

The Scots army was standing directly in the path of the English host, and their goal of saving the garrison at Stirling castle could only be achieved by a frontal assault against Bruce’s well-drilled spearmen.

The Scots were drawn up in three infantry formations, or shiltrons, with a small contingent of cavalry.  A large number of camp followers were also nearby, although these were largely unarmed and unsuited for battle.  Indeed, King Robert had dismissed many men who were willing to fight for him but, unable to afford suitable weapons or armour, had come ill prepared.

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Battle of Verdun – a summary

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As 1914 drew to a close, the Western Front had become a permanent fixture of trenches stretching 400 miles from the English Channel to Switzerland. Stalemate ensued. A year later, the situation was no better. Each side looked for a ‘Big Push’ that would break the opposing line of defence and bring about victory. Rupert Colley summarises one such push – the Battle of Verdun.

‘France will bleed to death’

At the end of 1915, the German commander-in-chief, Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that Germany’s ‘arch enemy’ was not France, but Britain. But to destroy Britain’s will, Germany had first to defeat France. In a ‘Christmas memorandum’ to the German kaiser, Wilhelm II, Falkenhayn proposed an offensive that would compel the French to ‘throw in every man they have. If they do so,’ he continued, ‘the forces of France will bleed to death’. The place to do this, Falkenhayn declared, would be Verdun.

An ancient town, Verdun in northeastern France, was, in 1915, surrounded by a string of sixty interlocked and reinforced forts. On 21 February 1916, the Battle of Verdun began. 1,200 German guns lined over only eight miles pounded the city which, despite intelligence warning of the impending attack, remained poorly defended. Verdun, which held a symbolic tradition among the French, was deemed not so important by the upper echelon of France’s military. Joseph Joffre, the French commander, was slow to respond until the exasperated French prime minister, Aristide Briand, paid a night-time visit. Waking Joffre from his slumber, Briand insisted that he take the situation more seriously: ‘You may not think losing Verdun a defeat – but everyone else will’.

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Battle of Stalingrad – a summary

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On 2 February 1943, in what is considered the turning point of the Second World War, the final remnants of the German Sixth Army surrendered at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Stalin’s City

The city, originally called Tsaritsyn, was renamed Stalingrad, Stalin’s city, in April 1925, in recognition of Joseph Stalin‘s leading role in saving the city from the counterrevolutionary ‘Whites’ during the Russian Civil War. (The fact that Leon Trotsky was more instrumental in saving Tsaritsyn was quietly forgotten). Considered important because of its supply of oil, the symbolic significance of Stalingrad, bearing the name of the Soviet leader, soon outweighed its strategic importance.

‘Not One Step Back’

Friedrich von PaulusThe Germans started their attack on Stalingrad, Operation Blue, on 28 June 1942. Led by the Sixth Army, Germany’s largest wartime army commanded by General Friedrich Paulus (pictured), the Germans were fully expecting a total victory as they pushed the Soviet forces back.

The swift German advance alarmed Stalin so much, he issued his infamous ‘Not One Step Back’ directive of 28 July, ordering execution for the slightest sign of defeatism. Behind the Soviet frontlines roamed a second Soviet line ready to shoot any retreating ‘cowards’ or ‘traitors of the Motherland’. As Georgy Zhukov, one of Stalin’s top generals, said, ‘In the Red Army it takes a very brave man to be a coward’.

By 23 August, the German advance had reached the outskirts of Stalingrad and, with 600 planes, unleashed a devastating aerial bombardment. Entering the city, the Germans, along with their Axis comrades, comprising of Italians, Romanians and Hungarians, fought the Soviets street for street, house for house, sometimes room for room. This, as the Germans called it, was rat warfare, where a strategic stronghold changed sides so many times, people lost count, where the front lines were so close one could throw back a grenade before it exploded, where snipers took their toll on the enemy, and where a soldier’s life expectancy was three days – if lucky.

Stalin charged Zhukov to defend the city and formulate a plan to repulse the invader. (It’s worth noting here the difference between Stalin and Hitler as military leaders. After a series of blunders earlier in the war, Stalin, although he always like to take the credit, learnt to defer and listen to the experts, men like Zhukov. Hitler however always insisted he knew best and only canvassed the opinion of others if they agreed with him.)

StalingradOn 19 November 1942, the Soviet Red Army launched Zhukov’s meticulously-planned counteroffensive, attacking and sweeping in from two separate directions, a pincer movement. Within four days, the two-pronged Soviet attack had met in the middle and had totally encircled the beleaguered German forces. Their objective was achieved so quickly that the Soviet camera crews missed the moment, and battalions of soldiers had to re-enact the essential scenes for the benefit of the cameras.

The Soviets squeezed the 250,000 Germans and their Axis comrades tighter and tighter. As the feared Russian winter set in and temperatures dropped to the minus forties, starvation, frostbite, disease and suicide decimated the Germans. Medical facilities were, at best, crude.

Unshakeable confidence

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The Battle of Sluys – a summary

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The often forgotten Battle of Sluys of 24 June 1340 was a major turning point in the Hundred Years’ War—a war that practically defined the direction that both England and France would follow for centuries.

The Players

The Hundred Years’ War began in 1337 after nearly three hundred years of disagreements between the Kings of England and the Kings of France over land claims on the Continent.  By the fourteenth century the Capetian dynasty of France had wrested away most of the previously held English territories on the Continent (such as Anjou and Normandy).  King Edward III of England was seemingly passed over in the dynastic succession of France when Philip VI was crowned King of France.  While Isabella (daughter of Philip IV of France), Edward III’s mother, was, by law, clearly not able to become the monarch of France, Edward III made the case that the throne could pass through a female line (thus making him King of France) rather than reverting back a generation to Philip VI, son of Charles, Count of Valois.

Through the 1330s, the French began to build their navy, especially in northern waters.  The English felt that their relations with the Low Countries (today, Belgium and the Netherlands) were threatened by this naval build up.  The Low Countries’ economy depended on cloth weaving and, at the time, the wool provided by England was crucial.  In May 1337, Philip seized Aquitaine and by October Edward took official steps to war.

The Early War

In early 1338, the French began raiding English coastal towns, such as Southampton and Portsmouth, and the Channel Islands.  Flanders rose in rebellion against the local count, Louis de Nevers, who supported the French side—the cloth trade was hurting as a result.  By the end of 1338, the Holy Roman Emperor, Ludwig of Bavaria, joined Edward III against the French.  Early in 1339, the French continued raids on the English towns of Folkestone, Harwich, Hastings, Southampton, Plymouth and Dover.  The English navy was steadily growing in strength as the English army marched ineffectively through France in September and October of 1339.  In February 1340, Edward III was officially crowned King of France in a ceremony in Ghent.

Combat at Sluys

By the summer of 1340, there had been no major battles fought between the English and French.  Following a failed attack on Cinque Ports by the French and the desertion of Italian mercenaries from the French navy, the French fleet in the Channel was severely cut back.  The English heard news of this and rushed to the French coast, raiding towns including Ault and Le Tréport.  Thus the stage was set for the first major battle of the Hundred Years’ War.

The French and English fleets met outside the town of Sluys (today spelled Sluis; L’Ecluse in French) on 24 June 1340.  The English fleet was somewhat outnumbered, but they had advantageous positioning.  Edward himself commanded the English forces and was wounded in the battle.  Combat lasted the better part of the day extending into the evening.  The two French commanders were both captured and killed in an overwhelming victory for the English forces.  The English suffered a few thousand casualties whereas the French suffered nearly 20,000 casualties.  The English captured what French ships were not destroyed by the battle.  The English losses were minor enough that they could assume dominance of the English Channel.

Significance of Sluys

The Battle of Sluys was a major turning point early in the Hundred Years’ War because it virtually destroyed the French fleet.  The majority of French ships had been amassing to invade England.  However, the English victory at Sluys ensured that a French invasion would never come to pass.  Thus, the majority of combat throughout the Hundred Years’ War occurred in France.  To a nation whose history is full of important naval victories, the English victory at Sluys is an early and tremendously important maritime success that should be remembered.

Sarah Jane Bodell