A Quick Review

I managed to finish "Death to The French" by C.S Forester on my lunch break today. I thought that a quick review would make a nice and short post.

It was a very quick book to read and a good size for a lunch time read. You can certainly see parallels with Bernard Cornwall's "Sharpe" novels and this is more than just sharing the same coloured jacket. I would however suggest that the main protagonist Matthew Dodd is more amusing than Richard Sharpe. They both share a strong sense of duty and honour and they both perhaps have more than their fair share of close calls.

The pace of the book is good and always keeps moving along. This is even the case where the view point switiches between Dodd's view and the main French protagonist Sergeant Godinot. The author occasionally makes a modern reference to something a character does and at first I found this a little distracting. However I warmed to these little asides as I went on.

Overall I would give this an 8 out of 10 and certainly recommend this to anyone who likes the Sharpe series of novels or a good adventure.

A long break

So it turns out that moving house and job in the same month followed by a holiday is really not good or productive to maintaining a blog.

Have no fear I plan to get back to regular updates and to try and keep them relevant and interesting. Naturally there will be plenty of Great War posts along with some Operation Market Garden posts with the upcoming 70th Anniversary.

Micheal Gove goes "over the top"

First blog post of 2014 and after some thought it became obvious to me what the subject would be.

As many people will have seen Michael Gove entered the embattled conflict for the nature and purpose of the First World War Commemorations.

Michael Gove has managed to get quite a debate going on the cause of the conflict and who was to blame. The debate has been wide ranging and very interesting covering so many aspects of the final years and months leading up to the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. Insults have been hurled and battle lines drawn leading to a feel of the Left vs the Right for the heart and soul of the commemorations.

Michael Gove took a swipe and the Blackadder Caricatures that are prevalent when it comes to general knowledge of the First World War and British involvement. This has drawn in not only Baldrick (Tony Robinson) himself but Boris Johnson and a host of academics. In many ways I agree with Michael Gove to a certain extent, although left wing propaganda is perhaps a tad harsh and antagonistic. I really enjoy Blackadder goes forth and have watched it many a time and chuckled at the same scenes time and again just like many other people. However, I remember Blackadder being used at school and also by a rather clueless college teacher as a teaching aide about the First World War. Yet the views that Blackadder presented were not challenged or expanded upon to give a rounded picture.

This is where the real danger lies for the public understanding British involvement in the First World War. Without knowledge from the teachers to point out and separate fact from fiction we will regress back down the tired path of Lions led by Donkeys and war poets being the voice of history.

BBC News featured a very interesting piece featuring Professor Gary Sheffield and a London based German TV presenter discussing the differences between British and German approaches to the First World War. Professor Sheffield came across very well and made a very good argument as to why we need to challenge perceptions of lions led by donkeys and why the First World War anniversary is such an important event to the British public.

The centenary represents a real chance to remember the sacrifices of all involved, regardless of blame for starting the war and also a chance to engage another generation of future historians. If by 2018 there is a better understanding of the First World War, how it was fought and why it was fought then I think it will have been worth all of the fuss. 

Marine A - Sergeant Blackman

 The identity of Marine A has now been revealed as Sergeant Alexander Blackman, this in itself has generated a lot of debate as to whether or not this was the right thing to do. Secondly Sgt Blackman has now been sentenced to Life with a minimum of ten years to be served. The debate about the naming and sentence has been very interesting to read and to see the support that Sgt Blackman actually has. As ever the debate spans the conventional media as well as social media. The debate seems to focus on the argument that as he was under a lot of pressure when he committed the act and events of the tour had taken its toll on Sgt Blackman. Added to this is the idea that unless you have experienced what Sgt Blackman had been through then you cannot judge him.

The other side of the coin points out the fallacy of that statement and the fact that in many ways it is not the man but the action that is being judged. There is also the recognition that indeed the Sgt was under a lot of pressure and had witnessed quite a bit on this tour of duty.  However as the video shows the Sgt was fully aware of the actions that he was taking and it was certainly not while under fire.

  

 One article highlights an interesting point about the camera footage and the pressures and strains that over ten years of operational deployments has put on the training in the armed forces. The article points out the over familiarisation between the Sergeant and the Privates via the use of the term “mate”. This may seem trivial at first but as the article points out the enlisted men should be referring to Sgt Blackman as Sergeant or “Sarge” at the very least. These terms may seem to be interchangeable and an unnecessary criticism but as the article points out the difference is at the heart of military discipline.   

 There is a growing call for his sentence to be halved or reduced due to mitigating circumstances. Indeed yesterday it was revealed that an appeal against Sgt Blackman’s conviction was to be launched.

For what it is worth I am on the fence when it comes to the sentence, I believe that it was right for Sgt Blackman to face trial and for justice to be seen to be fair. Perhaps the sentence is on the high side, but the appeal will certainly draw this out. The important thing from all of this is that it highlights how we (the British people) ask so much of our military and yet seem to provide the least possible. It is no surprise that a lot of care once former soldiers have left falls to charities such as Combat Stress, Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion. This is where Sgt Blackman has so far been let down and here is where the argument relating to his mental wellbeing needs to be taken into account and to hopefully wake our government up to the fact that more care both before, during and after tours of duty needs to be in place. The army is certainly not full of soldiers one tour away from shooting POW’s, however there are a lot of serving and former serving soldiers that could do would support and advice. 

Casualty of War

Marine A is due to be sentenced and the resulting media blitz on this case will begin anew. On Monday the Telegraph website published an interesting article on the matter of combat in Afghanistan. Written by a journalist who has embedded with the Royal Marines a number of times, it is not surprising the view point that Chris Terrill takes. Indeed he writes with a knowledge that a lot of commentators do not have.

He finishes the article with “Soldiers are not automatons. They are flesh-and-blood human beings with frailties and vulnerabilities like all of us. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things on our behalf; risking their lives in combat and having to make difficult and morally confusing judgments in the heat of battle. They don’t always get it right because, sometimes, the stakes are just too high for any one man to cope with.
I believe that if Marine A is a criminal of war, then he is also a casualty of war.”


This is the key point when it comes to sentencing, yes he has done wrong and justice has to be seen to be done, however it has to fit the crime and not be used as an example to other would be transgressors of the Geneva Convention. 

21st Army Group and the Battle of Normandy

With the 70^th anniversary of the D-Day landings coming up next year, we will no doubt see a publishing frenzy about D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. This might not be on the scale of First World War publications but will be significant nether the less. The British and Canadian performance in the Battle of Normandy is a subject of very differing and strong views. One book that has come out in recent months is a reappraisal of the efforts of 21^st Army Group in the entire North West Europe Campaign. ‘Monty’s Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe’ (John Buckley) provides a very convincing argument for the delays suffered in the Normandy campaign and highlights the fact that 21^st Army group was drawing the bulk of German Panzer strength on to their front.

This is a view that I tend to agree with, and while there were delays and setbacks the overall campaign achieved the objective of destroying the German Forces in Normandy and also inflicting such catastrophic damage upon long term ability of the German armed forces to oppose the advance on Germany via Normandy.

Due to the losses suffered by German formations (Wehrmacht, SS and Luftwaffe) and the collapse of German resistance in Normandy; the actual timetable and objectives were ahead of the planned dates. The breakout and advance across Belgium became known as the “Great Swan” due to the pace and lack of resistance in the way of 21^st Army Group.

Performance was certainly varied among units that made up 21^st Army Group, but as a whole it performed well and to expectations. Certain Operations could have been carried out better or had more detailed realistic plans (such as Operation Goodwood). However General Montgomery certainly did not help matters both before, during and after the campaign in Normandy had been won. His sweeping statements regarding the level of success that would be achieved by individual operations meant that expectations were high and invariably difficult to meet/ achieve in the best of circumstances. However the plans were required to be bold in order to guarantee the resources that were needed. Goodwood is a prime example of having to twist the arm of the RAF for the use of heavy bombers in a tactical role, something that would not be possible if the scope and aims of the operation were modest.

Over the next few months I plan to delve into the performance of 21^st Army Group in Normandy using a wide range of sources and where time permits plenty material from the National Archives.

This weekend just gone, I had the pleasure of attending the Guild of Battlefield Guides Annual General Meeting Weekend. This was the second year that I attended and matched the standards of the previous one. The level of knowledge in the building was very high as was the enthusiasm for delivering excellent battlefield tours.

It was a great weekend for making contacts and for finding out a number of ongoing projects related to the 100^th anniversary of the First World War.

Battle of Mons- Photosource: Authors Collection

I came away with a renewed commitment to leading a few tours for friends and family next year and for putting some serious thought into starting on the path to the coveted ‘Badge’. Validation for this involves a number of assignments beginning with a 20 minute presentation (stand) on a battle of your choosing. I have a few in mind so it will be an eventful few months of planning and researching a number of stands and hopefully visits as well.  

Syria and The Continuing Conflict

There was a very interesting article published on the Guardian website a couple of days ago (the 18^th of November 2013). The article addressed the growing realisation that the war is shifting or has shifted from a revolution against the government of Assad and is now a full civil war.

The author spends time with three members of a rebel battalion and speaks at length about how there is no unity and how the Assad forces are hitting them from the front and the Jihadist forces are effectively hitting them from behind. It makes for sombre reading as the problems faced are many and paints a clear picture of the danger that faces Syria. Syria being consigned to an ongoing struggle between the myriad groups opposing Assad and the regime. One of the subjects of the article says that this might take 10 years to resolve and for a coherent unified Syria to emerge post Assad. However if Assad were to fall now then the country would become split in to mini states of warring tribes, Islamists and battalions. This would not be a bright future either for Syria or the region. For a glimpse into the confusing world of factional and ideological identities; the accidental wrong identification and beheading of a wounded rebel does not bode well (Article is here).

The article that is the subject of this post does make a very good point when the commander of a rebel battalion states that for the most part the rebels know only how to fight and seize areas from the pro government forces. The Jihadists on the other hand set up governance and a form of stability, this stability is what is helping the Jihadists and more extreme elements gain ground and importantly exercise control even after they have moved on.    

Without stability and a credible alternative to Assad it is an uphill struggle for the rebel forces.

The real question is can stability ever exist post Assad and will there be a credible alternative that is not one controlled by Jihadist factions?

The conflict has been dragging on and certainly shows no sign of slowing down despite the potential tipping point over chemical weapons in the summer. For the Syrian people the future is bleak and likely to involve instability for some time to come. So far casualties have exceeded 120,000 as this article points out. The article also confirms the position that the conflict shows no sign of slowing down.

The comments provided at the end of the Guardian article make for reading that is both alarming and comical. There are some posts of merit in the comments, however a fair number descend into conspiracy and unsupported accusations leveled at various nations.