MHM 76 – January 2017

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The January 2017 issue of Military History Monthly, the British military history magazine, is now on sale.

In this issue we cover:

Cannon and Cutlass: how the British way of war created an 18th-century empire

This month, we consider the development of a distinctive British way of war in the 18th century. David Greentree analyses Britain’s mid-century amphibious operations in the Caribbean, while David Norris explores the Royal Navy’s expedition to North America in 1758.

This 18-page special feature includes:

-Background
-Battle of Cartagena
-Battle of Havana
-Siege of Louisbourg
-Maps

Mamelukes: an Egyptian military elite
Robin Smith reports on the fierce military legendary fighting force for hundreds of years.

Naval Aviation: air power and the navies of the Great War
David Porter analyses the pioneering days of naval aviation during the First World War.

Regiment: the 69th Regiment of Foot at Quatre Bras, 1815
Patrick Mercer investigates the role of the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot at Quatre Bras in 1815.

Hitler’s Celts
Steven Taylor explores a bizarre attempt to forge a Nazi-Celtic alliance during World War II.

Also in this issue: Behind the Image; War Culture; War Composers; War on Film; Book of the Month; Book Reviews; Museum Review; Event Listings; Competitions; and much more.


From the editor

Neil Faulkner
MHM Editor Dr Neil Faulkner

We think of special forces and special operations as recent developments in warfare. In fact, they go back to the beginning of military history. In issue 72 we ran an article on the Batavians, effectively an elite Roman special forces outfit. Just one example amongst many from ancient history.

This issue, in our special, we roll back to the mid 18th century, when Britain was building its colonial empire, with a series of major wars in the Americas. By focusing on attacks on Cartagena (1741), Louisbourg (1758), and Havana (1762), we discover a distinctive ‘British way of war’ based on expeditionary forces, combined operations, and elite shock-troops.

The British, it seems, with their emphasis on naval power and maritime empire, were always looking to project small forces long distances and to ensure they packed a punch. Professionalism and technology, in a sense, were being substituted for mass.

Also this issue, we have Robin Smith’s report on that military elite, the Mameluke slave-soldiers of medieval Egypt, and their downfall at the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798, while David Porter analyses the birth of naval air power and the emergence of the first aircraft-carriers during the First World War.

We round off the issue with Patrick Mercer’s latest slice of regimental history – the 69th Regiment of Foot’s disaster at Quatre Bras in 1815 – and with the second in our occasional Sideshow series, this one looking at the Nazis’ efforts to trigger a ‘Celtic insurgency’ in Britain during the Second World War.

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