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 JANUARY 2022 Letters 6 News 8

Features

24 32
Generation Yank Japan’s Trafalgar
American GI reporters, In 1905 a Japanese admiral who
photographers and artists saw himself as the reincarnation
went in harm’s way to cover of Horatio Nelson decimated a
every theater of World War II. Russian fleet at Tsushima Strait.
By Peter Zablocki By Alan George

Departments 14 18
Interview Valor
Jeanette Varberg Vindicator
A New Look at Midway
at Vikings

2 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Reviews 72 War Games 78 Captured! 80

42 50 58
Nazi Vulture or McArthur’s Neutral Unless...
Prussian Eagle? Gamble Willing and able to defend
Alexander von Falkenhausen Amid the War of 1812 a bold itself against all enemies,
navigated the complicated American general raided Switzerland has thus spent
politics of wartime Germany. deep into British Canada. centuries in relative peace.
By John Koster By Bob Gordon By Jon Guttman

64
The Lost Citadel
Armenian residents of the
Transcaucasian stronghold
of Kars endured centuries of
strife—until a final betrayal.
By Richard F. Selcer

20 22 76
What We Hardware Hallowed
Learned From... HIJMS Mikasa Ground
The 1419–34 Cowpens
Hussite Wars National
Battlefield
On the cover: From 1942 through ’45 frontline American soldiers filed stories, took photos and rendered
art for Yank, the Army Weekly, covering all aspects of World War II for a select readership—themselves.
3

Join the discussion at
militaryhistory.com
Twilight of the
Galleys off Lepanto
On Oct. 7, 1571, at the dawn of the
Age of Sail, Christian and Muslim
fleets met off the coast of Greece
and rowed into battle one last time
By Michael D. Hull
I N T H E A R CH IV ES:
The Last Imperial German
Hermann Ehrhardt fought for his
country in WWI and later fought to
save it from communists and Nazis
By John Koster
Interview Paul Morando welcomes visitors
to explore American military history at the
National Museum of the United States Army
Tools Dating from the 3rd millennium BC,
the oceangoing war galley ruled the seas of
the ancient world well into the 16th century
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 Letters
Shot Heard
Round the World
I was surprised to see history
being revised in the Sep-
tember 2021 issue [“A Turn
for the Worse,” by Douglas
L. Gifford] when I saw, not
once but twice, that the “shot
heard round the world” had
been moved from Lexington
Green to the North Bridge at
Concord, Mass. Hopefully
there are enough people in
Massachusetts, especially
the Lexington area, who
fired off memos protesting
this infringement on their
heritage. The reason the
minuteman statue is at Lex-
ington Green is because the
first shots were fired there,
the first casualties occurred
there, and it was clear New
Englanders meant to fight.
Mark Prose
ORACLE, ARIZ.
Editor responds: The min-
utemen at Lexington Green
did fire first on the British on
April 19, 1775, eight Ameri-
6 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
cans paying for that resistance
with their lives. But the first
organized battle followed at
Concord’s North Bridge, and
the phrase “shot heard round
the world” derives from Ralph
Waldo Emerson’s “Concord
Hymn.” Here’s the first stanza:
“By the rude bridge that arched
the flood / Their flag to April’s
breeze unfurled / Here once
the embattled farmers stood /
And fired the shot heard round
the world.” Emerson wrote
the poem for the dedication
of a monument to the Battle
of Concord, the location of
his “rude bridge.”
Afghanistan
I always read my history
magazines in the order I re-
ceive them. I opened up the
September 2021 issue on
Aug. 17, 2021, not more than
48 hours after Kabul fell to
the Taliban. The timeliness
of this issue was no doubt
planned by your editors, but
the reality of reading the
issue while watching thou-
sands of Afghans try to flee
their country really hit home.
I have been to Afghanistan
on a few occasions through-
out Operation Enduring
Freedom. I am sickened by
the way our troop withdraw-
al turned out. None of us ex-
pected the Afghan National
Army or Afghan National Po-
lice to put up much of a fight,
but the way the citizens were
abandoned and the resur-
gent Taliban handed billions
of dollars in first-rate mili-
tary equipment is truly sad.
Too many American, NATO
and Afghan military and po-
lice lives were given for it
to end this way.
Dave Stanley
BETHESDA, MD.
Brothers-in-Arms
Paul X. Rutz’s article [“Honor
Before Glory,” September
2021] on the tragic death of
Pat Tillman in Afghanistan
brings up an interesting di-
lemma—brothers serving
together in combat zones.
Back in November 1942 the
five Sullivan brothers, all
serving aboard USS Juneau,
died together when the light
cruiser was sunk. Since then
the military has frowned on
brothers serving together.
Amid the Vietnam War I
returned to the States from a
tour in South Korea. Because
Korea is considered a hard-
ship tour, when my artillery
unit at Fort Bliss, Texas, was
scheduled to deploy to South
Vietnam, I didn’t have to go.
However, wanting to stay
with my unit, I signed waiv-
ers at my new station and
went with them. My older
brother, Joe (19 years my
senior), also volunteered to
go to Vietnam, and I got to
see him there. Joe was a Ko-
rean War veteran, wounded
in that war while serving as
a combat engineer. I had not
seen him for a few years, so
it was a nice surprise to see
him in Vietnam.
In regard to Pat Tillman,
unfortunately in wartime
friendly fire does occur,
more often than we would
like. All wartime deaths are
tragic, of course, but there is
something very unsettling
about friendly fire. I am sad
to say my artillery unit acci-
dently hit our own troops in
a couple of instances. Some
faulted unreliable maps or
miscommunication from
our fire-direction section
to our 8-inch guns. As sev-
eral articles in Military His-
tory have pointed out, when
these horrible incidents hap-
pen, they often involve green
troops. When my artillery
unit tried to get jungle train-
ing, we went out on patrols
we were not familiar with,
and on one such patrol a
young officer was killed by
his own men who mistook
him for a Viet Cong. After
that our patrols ceased. We
left it to the infantry units
who were more qualified.
Tom R. Kovach
NEVIS, MINN.
Send letters via e-mail to
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E47002
 News
By Dave Kindy
A SOLDIER’S SOLDIER:
COLIN POWELL, 84
The helicopter crash-landed with a heavy thud. A young
U.S. Army major was thrown clear of the wreckage with a
broken ankle. As flames spread, however, he disregarded
his pain and personal safety, hobbled into the debris field
and pulled three soldiers to safety. Among them were his
division commander, Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gettys, and Col.
Jack L. Treadwell, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient.
For his selfless actions that day in Vietnam in November
1968 Colin Powell was presented the Soldier’s Medal, the
highest award a U.S. armed forces service member can
receive for noncombat heroism. He went on to serve his
country in myriad capacities throughout his military and
political careers. The retired four-star general and former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state
died at age 84 on Oct. 18, 2021.
‘General Powell is an American hero,
an American example and a great American story’
—President George H.W. Bush
8 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
Powell was born to Jamaican immigrant parents in New
York City on April 5, 1937. In 1962 his first tour as a mili-
tary adviser in Vietnam was cut short when the young cap-
tain stepped on a contaminated punji stake placed by the
Viet Cong. He returned to Vietnam in 1968 as an Army
Ranger and served as chief of staff of operations of the 23rd
(Americal) Infantry Division. An Army officer for 35 years,
he oversaw the 1989–90 invasion of Panama (Operation Just
Cause) and the 1991 Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm),
as well as 26 other major military operations, while chair-
ing the Joint Chiefs. Among his military peers Powell will
perhaps be best remembered as the first black national
security adviser, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and
first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, under
Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM
 Nonprofits to
Mark U.S. 250th THE WAR
With the 250th anniver-
sary of the United States MARINE RECORD
approaching in 2026, Dec. 12, 1901
the Daughters of the
American Revolution
WHO Guglielmo Marconi receives
the first transatlantic mes-
(DAR) and the American
Battlefield Trust (ABT) ORDERED sage on his wireless tele-
graph. Four years later his
have joined forces. DAR
(which promotes his- THE IWO invention played a crucial
role in the naval Battle
toric preservation, edu-
cation and patriotism)
and ABT (which pre-
JIMA FLAG of Tsushima (P. 32) when
Japanese warships used

serves battlefields) will

create a digital experi-
RAISINGS wireless radios to report the
position of the Russian fleet.

ence relating the fight

for independence and
Dec. 28, 1945
The closing issue of
have pledged to work Yank, the Army Weekly
with the National Park Colonel Dave Severance, 102, the U.S. Marine Corps officer whose (P. 24) rolls off the presses.
Service to preserve an Staffed by U.S. enlisted
company raised two successive American flags atop Mount Suribachi
additional 2,500 acres men, the World War II mag-
of Revolutionary War during the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, died on Aug. 2, 2021. On Feb. 23,
azine printed more than
battlefields by 2026. 1945, then Capt. Severance sent men from Company E, 2nd Battalion, 2 million copies each week.
28th Marines, up the 554-foot hill to place the first flag. After the secre-
‘Wild Bill’ Gets tary of the Navy requested that one as a souvenir, Severance directed Jan. 14, 1772
Graphic Novel men back upslope with a larger flag. Associated Press photographer Duncan McArthur is born
During World War II U.S. Joe Rosenthal’s iconic image of the second raising was re-created in in New York. As a brigadier
Army Maj. Gen. William bronze for the Marine Corps War Memorial, near Arlington, Va., and general of volunteers in
FROM TOP: LANCE CPL. ZACHARY T. BEATTY, U.S. MARINE CORPS; ASSOCIATION OF THE U.S. ARMY; SENIOR AIRMAN CARLIN LESLIE, U.S. AIR FORCE

Joseph “Wild Bill” Dono- today both flags are housed at the National Museum of the Marine the U.S. Army amid the
van achieved legend
War of 1812 he led troops
Corps, in Triangle, Va. Severance later became a Marine Corps pilot on a monthlong 1814 raid
and flew nearly 70 combat missions in Korea. of Upper Canada (P. 50).

Jan. 19, 1920

LAST DOOLITTLE RAIDER The League of Nations

PROMOTED TO COLONEL recognizes the Republic

of Armenia, which chooses
the fortress city of Kars
The U.S. Air Force has honored Rich- (P. 64) as capital of its Va-
ard E. “Dick” Cole—recalled as the nand province. Turkey and
last living member of the Doolittle Russia refuse to recognize
Raiders—with a posthumous pro- the republic, however, and
motion to full colonel. Cole, who partition Armenia in 1921.
died at age 103 on April 9, 2019,
status as director of the
was a lieutenant when assigned as Jan. 30, 1930
Office of Strategic Ser- General Alexander von
vices, a wartime intel-
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot Falkenhausen (P. 42) re-
ligence agency and for the April 18, 1942, raid on Tokyo tires from the German army.
forerunner of the CIA. and other targets on the Japanese Recalled to active duty in
But it is his exploits island of Honshu. The carrier-based the Wehrmacht during World
in World War I that are assault by 16 B-25B Mitchell bomb- War II, he opposed Nazi
the subject of a graphic extremism in Belgium and
ers—the first air strike of the war to
novel published by the was sent to a concentration
Association of the U.S. target Japan—came in retaliation for camp for his suspected role
Army, available online the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on in the July 20, 1944, plot
[ausa.org/Donovan]. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

9
 News
Its first block set in 1921,
the Liberty Memorial is the
centerpiece of the National
World War I Museum and
Memorial in Kansas City, Mo.
Revolutionary
Work by Troiani
What did combat look
like during the American
Revolutionary War? Don
Troiani has made a ca-
reer of rendering realis-
tic paintings depicting
that conflict, as well as
the War of 1812 and the
American Civil War. His
work will be on display
at the Museum of the
American Revolution in
Philadelphia through
Sept. 5, 2022. Included
are scenes from Bunker
Hill, Gen. George Wash-
ington’s raid on Trenton
and the Franco-Ameri-
can victory at Yorktown.

Buffalo Soldiers
WORLD WAR I MEMORIAL at West Point
MARKS ITS CENTENNIAL The U.S. Military Acad-
emy at West Point has
erected a memorial
to the famed buffalo
On Nov. 1, 1921, more than 100,000 people gathered on a hill overlooking Kansas City, Mo., soldiers—black troops
of the 9th and 10th
to watch Allied military leaders—including Gen. of the Armies John J. Pershing of the United
Cavalry regiments and
States, Adm. of the Fleet David Beatty of Britain and Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France— 24th and 25th Infantry
break ground on the Liberty Memorial, a monument inscribed IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO SERVED regiments who fought
IN THE WORLD WAR IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY AND OUR COUNTRY. In a 1919 fundraising drive residents in the Indian wars, the
of the Midwestern city had collected an astonishing $2.5 million (more than $40 million in Spanish-American War
today’s dollars) toward construction of the 265-foot limestone tower and adjacent exhibit halls.
Opened in 1926, the memorial is the centerpiece of the present-day National World War I
Museum and Memorial, one of the world’s foremost institutions dedicated to the 1914–18
global conflict. In 2004 Congress declared it the nation’s official World War I museum, and
construction began on an 80,000-square-foot exhibit space and the Edward Jones Research
Center, beneath the tower. Today the museum houses state-of-the-art displays and a growing
collection of more than 350,000 war-related items.
TOP: CHRISTOPHER MICHEL, CC BY-SA 4.0; BOTTOM: JOHN PELLINO, USMA PAO

Chosen to present flags to dignitaries at the 1921 groundbreaking was a Missouri-born

U.S. Army veteran who’d served as an artillery captain on the Western Front and later helped
raise funds for the memorial. The native son returned to the museum for various observances,
including the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking in 1961. On that occasion he appeared
as a former president of the United States—Harry S. Truman.
and other conflicts. The

‘[The Liberty Memorial] has not been raised to larger-than-life bronze

by sculptor Eddie Dixon
commemorate war and victory, but rather the results depicts a soldier astride
a stallion—a tribute to
of war and victory, which are embodied in peace and liberty’ the buffalo soldiers who
taught horsemanship
—President Calvin Coolidge at the dedication to cadets there in the
of the Liberty Memorial on Nov. 11, 1926 early 20th century.

10 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

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 News
Veterans Share
True War Stories
HONORARY
For his “duty to queen and
The new podcast series
country” for 15 years actor
True War Stories: Mis-
Daniel Craig has been
sion Report [voyage-
made a commander in the
media.fm/show/true-
British Royal Navy—just like
war-stories-mission-
James Bond, the MI6 agent
report-1] relates the
he portrays on-screen. Of
combat experiences
course, Craig’s rank is hon-
of everyday American
orary, as are those bestowed
veterans from World
on other civilian celebrities
War II through the Viet-
who have supported the
nam War. Produced
troops. Atop the list is the
by Voyage Media, the
late actor and comedian
podcast presents inter-
Bob Hope, who between
INTEL HALL OF FAME 1941 and ’91 headlined 57
USO tours worldwide. In
INDUCTS TUBMAN 1997 Congress made him an
honorary veteran of the U.S.
Armed Forces—all branches.
During the Civil War former slave turned abolitionist Harriet Tubman For her decades of service
to the USO actress Martha
was many things, including an Underground Railroad conductor, cook, Raye was made an honor-
field nurse, scout, military planner and intelligence operative. For that ary colonel in the Marines
latter role Tubman was recently inducted into the Military Intelligence and honorary lieutenant col-
views with veterans
Hall of Fame in the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at onel in the Army. Actor Gary
themselves or those
Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Tubman used her skills, connections and knowl- Sinise, who played Navy Lt.
directly connected
Dan Taylor in the 1994 film
to their stories to re- edge of the South to go undercover for the Union Army. The intelli-
Forrest Gump and has de-
late moments both gence she gathered with her network of spies led to several battlefield voted decades to veterans’
good and bad in mili- successes. Tubman was also the first woman to direct a military assault causes, was made an honor-
tary life. “We curated
these stories for their
during the Civil War—a Union Army raid to seize supplies and liberate ary chief petty officer in the
slaves from plantations along coastal South Carolina’s Combahee River. Navy and an honorary Ma-
realism,” explains Voy-
rine. For bringing positive at-
age Media founder
tention to the armed forces
and CEO Nat Mundel.

Nazis Bunkered
MAINE STATUE HONORS Top Gun actor Tom Cruise
was made an honorary
DELTA FORCE SNIPER naval aviator, Stargate SG-1

FROM TOP: RANDY DUCHAINE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); VOYAGE MEDIA; SPECIAL FORCES CHARITABLE TRUST
in Roman Fort star Richard Dean Ander-
One of the best- As insurgents closed in on a downed U.S. son was made an honorary
preserved Roman Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in Mog- brigadier general in the Air
forts in Britain bears Force, and cartoon charac-
adishu, Somalia, in 1993, Delta Force sniper ter Bugs Bunny was made
an interesting feature:
a Nazi redoubt. Dur-
Gary Gordon repeatedly requested insertion an honorary master ser-
ing recent excavations on the ground to protect the wounded crew- geant in the Marines (for his
at the “Nunnery,” as men. The third time he was granted permis- role in the 1943 animated
the compact Roman sion. His selfless act cost the master sergeant short Super-Rabbit). Last
bastion on the Channel but not least are the hon-
his life, and he received a posthumous Medal
Island of Alderney is orary colonels of American
of Honor. Gordon’s hometown of Lincoln, Legion Hollywood Post 43,
known, archaeologists
discovered that occu- Maine, has erected a statue of him in honor which since 1932 has recog-
pying German troops of his sacrifice. On hand for its dedication nized stars for their support
in World War II had was Michael Durant, the helicopter pilot of the U.S. military. Actor
bunkered within its Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart Joe Mantegna—who since
10-foot-thick walls. 2005 has co-hosted with Si-
managed to save. Shughart was also killed
The site dates from nise the National Memorial
AD 350, 60 years shy
and received the Medal of Honor. Their Day Concert on the Mall in
of the Roman with- heroic actions were recounted in the 1999 Washington, D.C.—received
drawal from Britain. book and 2001 film Black Hawk Down. the recognition in 2016.

12 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

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 Interview
A New Look at Vikings
By Zita Ballinger Fletcher
Jeanette Varberg
Jeanette Varberg is one of Denmark’s
leading historians with expertise on
Viking warfare and Bronze Age his-
tory. An archaeologist and scholar,
she has written numerous books
and articles about Danish history
and Viking raids. Varberg’s book
Viking, published in Denmark in
2019, recast the history of Viking
battles and global expeditions with
a focus on interpreting artifacts as
well as written sources. A curator
at the National Museum of Den-
mark, she is a driving force behind
a new exhibition entitled “The Raid,”
which opened in June 2021 and
will run for three years. Varberg’s
research continues to shed light on
Vikings at war.
14 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
How did you first get
interested in Viking history?
When you live in Denmark, in south-
ern Scandinavia, and are interested
in our past, there is no way around
the Vikings. Theirs is one of the most
fascinating periods of our history.
They lived right where I live today.
In that respect, the answer is that
I’ve been interested in Vikings since
my childhood.
How long have you been
researching Viking warfare?
Since 2014, when I wrote my first book,
Past Battlefields. It described the chang-
ing nature of warfare from the Stone
Age until the Viking Age. Warfare in
the Viking Age was a special part of
my research focus.
To chronicle the Vikings’
raiding history must have
seemed an impossible task.
It was an impossible task! I missed
having a book that was not thema-
tized about the Vikings but rather told
me the chronological story of how
they became powerful raiders, sail-
ors and conquerors of kingdoms and
new lands. Since I focus on prehistoric
Europe, I also wanted to give the im-
pression that the history of the Vi-
kings is not without connection to
early history. That is why I started my
book about the Vikings with the Fall
of Rome, the rise of Christianity and
the Migration Period.
In other words, I wrote the book
I missed about the Vikings. I wrote an
overview of their travels—both raids
and adventures across the North At-
lantic and to all parts of the known
and unknown world. I wanted to give
them a solid front seat in the grand
history of early medieval Europe.
What are the most common
misconceptions people have
about the Vikings?
The most common misconception
about the Vikings is that they wore
helmets with horns! They didn’t.
Another misconception is that all
Scandinavians were warriors. First and
foremost, the Vikings were formidable
sailors, able to cross the open sea in
well-built, streamlined ships. Next, they
were fierce and skilled warriors. Last
RANDY GLASS STUDIO; OPPOSITE, TOP: ARTEPICS (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); BOTTOM: MARTIN DE THURAH, KASPER TUXEN AND ULRIK JANTZEN, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DENMARK
but not least, they were hardworking
farmers always on the lookout for new
lands to put under their plows.
Have you learned anything
surprising about Viking
military customs?
I was surprised when I realized Scandi-
navian warriors fought like pirates who
went for soft targets: administrative cen-
ters in the cities; granaries; rich, remote
and unprotected monasteries; and men
and women from distinguished fami-
lies who could be held for ransom.
Enriching themselves on gold, silver
and slaves, the Vikings also had no res-
ervations about hiring themselves out
as mercenaries and were not shy about
changing sides if the other paid better.
In the eyes of the Christian com-
manders who opposed them, they were
disloyal heathens, and they were cer-
tainly guided by a very different code
of honor than the Christians. The Vi-
kings had no qualms about attacking
during the holidays, such as Christmas
and Easter, when Christians normally
abstained from warfare and engaged
in celebrations.
Varberg designed an immersive
museum experience featuring a
sea battle in which visitors “die”
and travel to the realm of Ran,
Viking goddess of the drowned.

15

That is how it began. But toward the
end of the Viking Age the Scandinavian
kingdoms themselves became Chris-
tian. They then had armies that held
their own against the powers of Eu-
rope—their power culminating when
Danish Viking king Canute the Great
ascended to the English throne. That
was perhaps their biggest achievement.
What are some of the most
fascinating Viking artifacts
you have worked with?
That is a hard question for an archae-
ologist. I think the big stories in small
objects are what fascinate me the most
—for example, the small figurine from
Haarby, Funen, Denmark. It is a small
warrior woman with riding dress, shield
and sword. She is very beautiful and is
probably one of the Valkyries, servants
of Odin—one of the principal gods
in Norse mythology. The Valkyries
accompanied warriors killed on the
battlefield to Valhalla.
16 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
How has your research changed
perceptions about the Vikings?
I hope to make evident that in just a
few hundred years—from 750 to 1050
—Scandinavia went from a region of
non-Christian, unstable petty king-
doms to one of the most powerful
Christian kingdoms. During that pe-
riod the Scandinavian kingdoms un-
derwent tremendous development and
established a trading system that made
Scandinavia a hub for trade between
Asia, Russia, western Europe and as
far as Canada.
The Vikings built cities and colo-
nies in the British Isles, in the Frank-
ish kingdoms, along Russian rivers, on
the North Atlantic Isles, in Greenland
and in Canada. With ships, swords,
battlefield skills, trading savvy and
a strong belief that fortune favors the
brave, they left their mark throughout
the known world. My book tries to
cover it all and keep the red thread of
the Viking tale through the centuries,
Far left: Contrary to popular myth, Viking
helmets did not feature horns. Left: This
elegant Valkyrie figurine from Haarby is one
of Varberg’s favorite artifacts. Below: The
Vikings built a vast trading empire through
exploration, conquest and commerce.
and hopefully it will give a more nu-
anced understanding of the age.
How did your book inspire
“The Raid” exhibit at the
National Museum of Denmark?
The narrative in the exhibition follows
the book in how it is chronologically
built and sectioned by the three main
centuries of the Viking Age. It begins
with an overview of the time before
the Viking Age, called “Between Jesus,
Muhammad and Odin.” It ends with
the reign of Canute the Great and the
colonies in Greenland. It is not sec-
tioned according to themes, unlike
other exhibitions about the Vikings.
In part of the exhibition we follow
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: KULTURHISTORISK MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OSLO; NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DENMARK; WERNER FORMAN/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP (GETTY IMAGES)
the Vikings on their biggest adventure
—the voyage to the Mediterranean in
859–861. That’s a chapter in my book.
What was your role in
creating the new exhibit?
I was the exhibition director and had
the final call and responsibility in all
processes from choosing artifacts and
writing the texts to making a film, book
and documentaries, while leading a
fantastic and skilled museum team.
What do you hope people
will learn from the exhibit?
Visitors should learn something not
just by looking and observing. They
are invited to acquire new knowledge
through play—and by participating
as active co-creators of history.
The museum experience concludes
in a sea battle in an immersive room
where the visiting explorer is “killed”
and travels to one of the Vikings’ imag-
ined kingdoms of the dead—the realm
of Ran, goddess of the drowned.
I want visitors to reflect on the con-
sequences of pillaging and raiding: If
you succeed, you get a great name and
silver, but you can also die trying. MH
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 Valor Vindicator at Midway
By Jon Guttman

In a last desperate attempt to turn

around a losing battle, Adm. Isoroku
Yamamoto ordered Cruiser Division 7,
comprising Mogami, Mikuma, Suzuya
and Kumano and the destroyers Asashio
and Arashio, to make a night bombard-
ment of Midway airfield. At 0255 hours
on June 5, however, Yamamoto recon-
sidered and ordered a general retire-
ment. At 0342 the cruisers spotted the
American submarine Tambor, and as
they took evasive action, Mogami col-
lided with Mikuma, damaging both.
Later that morning six SB2Us of
VMSB-241 set out to check reports of
Japanese battleships west of Midway.
They found none, but at 0800 hours
they located Mogami and Mikuma.
Captain Bruce Prosser was behind
Fleming as they made their bombing
run. “It appeared to me that [Fleming’s]
Richard E. Fleming In the midst of the North Pacific some 1,300 miles plane might have been hit…because it
U.S. Marine Corps west of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, U.S.-claimed Midway wavered uncertainly, and a puff of light-
Medal of Honor Atoll hosted a telegraph cable station and dockside colored smoke was emitted,” Prosser
facilities for Pan American Airways flying boats until recalled. “Out of the corner of my eye
Battle of Midway
early 1941, when the Navy began constructing an air it appeared to me that the plane struck
June 5, 1942
station. After the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl the aft port quarter of the Mikuma and
Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States sent re- sort of semi-cartwheeled into the sea.”
inforcements to Midway. Formed there on March 1, 1942, Marine Aircraft “I saw a dive-bomber dive into the
Group (MAG) 22 comprised fighter squadrons VMF-221 and VMF-222 (equipped last turret and start fires,” recalled Capt.
with Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats and Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo) and scout bomber Akira Soji, who witnessed the attack
squadron VMSB-241 (operating 19 Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless and 17 older Vought from Mogami. “He was very brave.”
SB2U-3 Vindicator dive bombers). When the Battle of Midway began on June 4, Whether or not he’d deliberately
1942, it saw the last American combat use of both the Buffalo and Vindicator. aimed his doomed plane at the cruiser,
Among VMSB-241’s flight leaders was Capt. Richard Eugene Fleming. Born in his Vindicator ended up in the sea—not
St. Paul, Minn. on Nov. 2, 1917, he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1935. on Mikuma’s turret as popular legend
In 1940 Fleming finished training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. First as- has it. There is no doubting Soji’s testi-
NATIONAL ARCHIVES; INSET: CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR SOCIETY

signed to NAS San Diego, he transferred to Midway 10 days after the Pearl Harbor mony, however, as to Fleming’s courage.
raid. He was promoted to first lieutenant in April 1942 and to captain in May. On June 6 thirty-one carrier-based
On June 4 aircraft from the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu SBD-3s sank Mikuma, killing 650 of
pounded the Marine defenders on Midway. Already in the air, VMSB-241 counter- its crew. Another 240 were rescued by
attacked but was badly mauled by Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters, losing eight Mogami and the destroyers.
SBDs. Although comparatively obsolescent, only two SB2Us were lost. Fleming On Nov. 24, 1942, President Franklin
reached Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo’s flagship, Akagi, and dove to 400 feet D. Roosevelt awarded a posthumous
before dropping his 500-pound bomb, missing nevertheless. He returned to Distinguished Flying Cross to Fleming’s
Midway with 179 bullet holes in his SB2U and minor wounds. rear gunner, Pfc. George A. Toms, while
Later that day Navy SBD-3s from the carriers Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet Fleming received the only Medal of
fatally damaged all four enemy carriers, though Hiryu’s planes crippled Yorktown. Honor awarded to a participant in the
At 1900 hours VMSB-241 set out after a reported enemy carrier but found none. Battle of Midway. MH

18 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

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 What We Learned From...
The 1419–34 Hussite Wars
By Robert C.L. Holmes

flanks and rear, pinning them against

Fighting from within a wagenburg, the wagons. In the final stages of battle
Hussite troops repel an attack by the Hussite cavalry would emerge and
enemy horsemen and foot soldiers. pursue fleeing enemy troops, trans-
forming defeat into utter catastrophe.
While the Hussites defeated five
papally declared anti-Hussite crusades,
infighting between their two main fac-
tions—the moderate Utraquists and
radical Taborites—proved their un-
doing. Ultimately, the Utraquists ac-
cepted an invitation from Sigismund
and the Catholic Church to negotiate
an accord, while the Taborites objected,
sparking civil war. In a May 30, 1434,
clash at Lipany in central Bohemia
attacking Utraquists feigned retreat
to lure Taborites from their wagenburg.
Sending their cavalry into the open
wagenburg, the Utraquists killed, drove

I
n 1415 Roman Catholic Church officials condemned Czech Christian theo- off or captured the Taborites, subse-
logian and reformer Jan Hus for heresy and burned him at the stake. But quently burning alive hundreds of pris-

ART BY GERRY AND SAM EMBLETON IN MEDIEVAL HANDGONNES, BY SEAN MCLACHLAN (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING)
attempts to suppress his followers (Hussites) in the Kingdom of Bohemia oners in nearby barns. The Utraquists
failed. When King Sigismund of Hungary inherited the throne of Bohemia then made peace with Sigismund and
in 1419, he sought Pope Martin V’s aid in launching an anti-Hussite crusade. Catholic authorities.
That triggered a general revolt in Bohemia, pitting the Hussites and their sup-
porters against those loyal to Sigismund, the pope and the Catholic Church.
The Hussite armies comprised primarily militiamen drawn from the peasantry
Lessons:
or urban commoners. Thus Hussite soldiers were never as well equipped as Continually innovate. Innovation
their enemies, who possessed far greater numbers and resources. What the doesn’t require creating something
Hussites could boast was a cadre of highly skilled military leaders, of whom entirely new. Combining old tactics
the most prominent was the one-eyed and later blind general Jan Zizka (c.1360– or technologies in new ways can
1424). He developed the innovative tactical system known as the Hussite wagon produce highly effective results.
fort, or wagenburg, which proved almost unbeatable. Fight the battle you want to
For at least a century prior European armies had used the ubiquitous wagon fight. The Hussites adhered to the
for support and to create temporary field fortifications. Zizka’s war wagons, defensive tactics of their wagenburg
however, were purpose built. Manufactured according to a common template, they in battle after battle, negating their
were heavily reinforced and had side loopholes to accommodate projectile-firing enemies’ tactical advantages and
weapons. Each wagon was essentially a mobile fortress, manned by a crew of forcing them to make costly assaults.
some 20 soldiers armed with field guns, hand cannons, crossbows and polearms. Maintain a united front. Despite
In battle the Hussites formed the wagenburg by chaining their wagons together impressive victories, the Hussites
in a square or circle, providing their crews the protection necessary to operate ultimately succumbed to infighting.
their weapons effectively. It also allowed them to concentrate their fire, whereas Beware the feigned retreat.
on a battlefield they would have been more widely dispersed. Worn down by the The Utraquists lured the Taborites’
Hussites’ concentrated fire, exposed attackers would lose momentum and cohe- out of their wagenburg and soundly
sion. The Hussite infantry would then exit the wagenburg to attack the enemy’s defeated them in the open. MH

20 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Hardware
HIJMS Mikasa
By Jon Guttman
Illustration by Paul Wright

Specifications 5
Machinery: 25 Belleville boilers, two vertical
triple-expansion (VTE) steam engines
6
Coal: 700 tons (standard load); 1,521 tons (full load)
Length: 432 feet
Width: 76 feet
Draft: 27 feet
4
Standard displacement: 15,140 tons
Speed: 18 knots
Maximum range: 7,000 miles at 10 knots
3
with standard load
Crew: 830
Armor: Krupp cemented armor (main belt 4–9 inches)
Armament: Four 12-inch, 14 6-inch, 20 12-pounder,
eight 3-pounder and four 2.5-pounder guns; 2
four 18-inch submerged torpedo tubes

18
1. Aft twin 12-inch
gun turret 20
2. Ship’s boats 19
3. Secondary bridge
4. Mainmast with 2.5- 18
to 3-pounder guns 9. Navigational bridge
5. Air intakes for 10. Conning tower
engineering spaces 11. Searchlight 16. Shell handling room
6. Stacks 12. 2.5- to 3-pounder guns 17. Boilers 17
7. Foremast 13. Forward twin 12-inch turret 18. 6-inch gun
8. Fighting top with 2.5- 14. Turret barbette 19. Machinery and engine rooms
to 3-pounder guns 15. Magazine 20. 76 mm guns

22 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 L
aid down by Vickers in Barrow-in-Furness, England, on Jan. 24,
1899, launched on Nov. 8, 1900, and commissioned on March 1,
1902, Mikasa was the last of six modern battleships ordered from
7 Britain by the Imperial Japanese Navy. While its five predecessors
were protected by Harvey nickel-steel armor, Mikasa boasted the
latest cemented steel armor from Krupp. On each of the six battle-
ships the Japanese concentrated armor along the starboard and
port main belt and in the gun turrets and forward conning tower rather
than in the entire hull, as the Russians did on their warships, thus gain-
ing 2 knots more speed. The armor was only 4 inches thick at either end,
however, leaving the Japanese battleships vulnerable to mines. This led
to the sinking of Hatsuse and Yashima off the Russian naval base at Port
Arthur, China, on May 15, 1904, amid the Russo-Japanese War.
Although outnumbered and outgunned by the Russian battleships,
Adm. Heihachiro Togo (who made Mikasa his flagship) and his officers
trained to operate with their armored cruisers at 3 miles or closer in order
to bring all their guns into play. They held their own in the Battle of the
8 Yellow Sea on Aug. 10, 1904, although Mikasa and Asahi were damaged.
The Japanese line proved devastating against Vice Adm. Zinovy Rozhest-
vensky’s poorly organized and trained squadrons in the Tsushima Strait
11 on May 27–28, 1905. (See related story, P. 32.)
9 On the night of September 11–12—a week after the Treaty of Portsmouth
was signed, formally ending the war—Mikasa caught fire, exploded and
sank at its moorings, killing 251 crewmen. Raised and repaired, it served
10 through World War I and supported the postwar intervention in Siberia.
Decommissioned in 1923, it was kept as a war relic and survived Allied
bombing attacks in 1945. Although the Soviet Union wanted it destroyed,
12 U.S. Navy Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz—an admirer of Togo—supported
Mikasa’s restoration. In 1961 the historic pre-dreadnought battleship
reopened as a museum ship at Yokosuka, where it remains. MH

13

16

15 14

FROM THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR, BY MARK STILLE (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING)
23
GENERATI
From June 1942 through 1945 frontline American
soldiers filed stories and photographed World War II
and its aftermath for a select readership—themselves
By Peter Zablocki

24 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

ION YANK
 Yankk journalists wore a variety of
identifying patches, including this
bright version intended for wear
on Class-A (noncombat) uniforms.

S
olomon Islands, spring 1944.
Sergeant Barrett McGurn moved cautiously atop Hill 260, the notorious “Bloody Hill” northeast
of the Empress Augusta Bay beachhead on Bougainville Island. Suddenly, a Japanese knee-mortar
shell exploded in front of him with a bright red-orange burst, knocking him onto his back. The ground
shivered, as did his hands. A reporter for Yank, the Army Weekly, McGurn watched the smoke dissipate
and then took out a pencil and notepad to record how it felt to take a direct hit. But he could find
no dry surface on the pad—the paper was drenched in the blood pouring from his face and chest.
McGurn felt no regret. After all, he was a soldier. But he was also a reporter. Perhaps I can remain
conscious long enough to dash off a dispatch for Yank, he thought. Then he passed out.

Yank was the brainchild of Egbert White, a World War I for a new war. White’s writers, photographers and artists
infantry veteran who’d written for the American mili-
tary newspaper Stars and Stripes. Tracing its origins to
a Civil War–era regimental newspaper, the latter publi-
cation saw its heyday in 1918 and ’19, when a reported
half million soldiers turned to it for news on matters con-
cerning the American Expeditionary Forces on the West-
ern Front. It remains in print today. As a complement to
Stars and Stripes, White envisioned a magazine written in
the authentic voice of enlisted soldiers—a new magazine
would understand the ordeal of the enlisted man because
they would wear the same uniform, have the same lowly
ranks, be excluded from the same officers’ clubs and
endure the same risks, indignities, fears and frustrations.
In April 1942 the Army accepted White’s proposal,
commissioned him a lieutenant colonel and gave him
oversight of the publication. He held the post only briefly,
however, as that September he was relieved from his
post for lack of proper judgment after allowing one of
his writers to publish an unflattering piece about First
Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The Army sent White to oversee
the Mediterranean office of Stars and Stripes. Replacing
him at Yank for the duration of the war was Joe McCarthy,
a former sportswriter from Boston (not to be confused
with the later U.S. senator from Wisconsin).

YANK ISSUES BY U.S. ARMY; PREVIOUS SPREAD: DESIGN BY BRIAN WALKER; THIS PAGE, TOP: JAMES MOUNTAIN ANTIQUES
Yank—a name picked for its simplicity—was head-
quartered at 205 E. 42nd St. in New York City. The Army
recruited prospective staffers from the ranks, leaving it
to McCarthy to pick those he wanted. The editor orga-
nized Yank like a military unit sized somewhere between
a platoon and a regiment. McCarthy had the men do
calisthenics to keep fit, and a first sergeant maintained
an up-to-date duty roster of the magazine’s globe-trotting
President Roosevelt’s open members. Staffers were required to spend at least six
letter to U.S. troops in Yank’s months in the field before returning to a rear office, as
first issue spotlighted the was the common practice in frontline combat units.
magazine’s mission—to give The Army gave Yank’s GI reporters largely free rein—
soldiers a voice of their own. barring expected wartime censorship—to write about
what they witnessed in Europe, Africa or the Pacific.
The opening page of the first issue solidified that promise
with a letter to the troops from President Franklin D.
Roosevelt. “[Yank] cannot be understood by our enemies,”
he wrote. “It is inconceivable to them that a soldier should
be allowed to express his own thoughts, his ideas and
his opinions. It is inconceivable to them that any sol-

26 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Shared copies of Yank were popular with Allied service
members, though their obvious enthusiasm may have
landed these flanking Russian soldiers in hot water.
diers—or any citizens, for that matter—should have
any thoughts other than those dictated by their leaders.”
With the presidential blessing, and its philosophy
and intent communicated to the Army, Yank debuted on
June 17, 1942. By its final issue in December 1945 the
magazine boasted 21 editions in 17 locations worldwide.
Its 127 active-duty staff members filed stories from every
corner of the globe in which the U.S. military operated.
The editors believed enlisted men wouldn’t trust any
publication handed them free of charge, thus the 24-page
weekly tabloid carried no ads and cost a nickel an issue.
That was roughly half the cover price of popular periodi-
cals at the time and usually enough to foot the magazine’s
bills. Yank’s patron, the Army, absorbed any overrun costs.
McCarthy was not permitted to sell Yank on newsstands,
as it would pose unfair competition to commercial titles.
For that reason, despite printing more than 2 million
copies each week, the magazine so popular among GIs
remained virtually unknown by the American public.
TOP: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
For its many readers Yank was a substitute for family,
friends or a sweetheart back home. In addition to articles
relating the grim realities of war, it touched on current
events, history, sports, entertainment and sex, energizing
soldiers and reminding them of the people,
places and values for which they were
fighting. The most popular department
was “Mail Call,” a letters section in which
GIs could blow off steam, air issues and
seek frank answers to pressing questions.
No topic was too big or too small. Scores
of the 16 million Americans in service
wrote in and/or scanned the section for The Sad Sack
answers to their concerns, commiserating Created by Army Sgt.
with their brothers-in-arms worldwide. George Baker, the comic
The open bickering in “Mail Call” wa- strip debuted in Yank’s
June 17, 1942, first issue.
vered between humorous and serious. In By depicting the hapless
one issue Tec 5 Fred O. Nebling, writing Pfc. Sack’s constant—and
from Hawaii, complained of having pur- usually losing—struggles
chased from his post exchange a Hershey with bureaucracy and
bar that contained only seven almonds, regulations, the strip took
the sting out of the real
while a fellow GI got one with nine. In struggles of Army life.
a subsequent issue Capt. Frank Kirby,
writing from his hospital bed in West Virginia, jokingly
clarified that “through some gross and unpardonable
error the other soldier undoubtedly received an officer’s
Hershey bar.” On a more serious note, the April 28, 1944,
issue included a letter from Cpl. Rupert Trimmingham,
27
 In addition to news from the war’s far-flung battlefronts, Yank offered
readers stateside sports news, humorous features on, say, the perils
of mess hall food and, of course, the perennial favorite pinup photos.
at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., reporting with dismay that he
and fellow uniformed black soldiers had been denied
service in the lunchroom of a segregated railroad depot
in Louisiana while two white MPs—and their two dozen
German POWs—were promptly seated and served. Re-
action to the letter was wholly supportive. In a follow-up
in the July 28 issue the corporal said he’d received 287
letters from fellow GIs (183 of them whites, including
many Southerners) expressing outrage at his mistreatment.
When it came to elevating soldiers’ spirits, no section
came close to Sgt. George Baker’s beloved comic strip The
Sad Sack. The title character, a lowly private first class,
gave the enlisted man hope that no matter what troubles
he faced, someone else—albeit fictional in this case—
28 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
was always worse off. Week after week Pfc. Sack suffered
aggravation and humiliations galore at the hands of aloof
officers. By making light of the common soldier’s plight,
Baker’s strips took the sting out of the real annoyances
it depicted. “The one that still cracks me up is The Sad Sack
featured at the swinging gate in a personnel office,” recalled
a veteran decades later. “His paperwork is never right,
so he keeps going in twice for every time he comes out.”
Baker’s Jan. 5, 1945, strip depicted Sack on patrol,
stumbling across a German bunker similar to his own,
with one notable distinction—the enemy bunker had
a swastika flag pinned to the wall, while Sack’s wall was
festooned with posters of Yank pinup girls.
Yank’s weekly pictures of beautiful women became
as familiar as the M1 Garand rifle or combat helmet in
soldiers’ shared war experience. For lonely GIs the pin-
ups served as reminders of faraway wives or girlfriends,
easing the frustrations of men separated from everyday
 social life. “Any place we could stick those girls up
we did,” one former GI recalled. “When you moved out,
they went into your trunk.…But the second you were in
a room or a house, anything like that, and the war settled
down for five minutes, back up they went.”
More than 100 actresses appeared in Yank, as Holly-
wood knew full well the advertising potential of their
starlets. Ingrid Bergman of Casablanca fame, Lauren
Bacall of The Big Sleep and Jane Russell of The Outlaw
graced the pages of Yank, often in bathing suits or evening
gowns. While relatively modest in comparison to pinups
of later decades, they still managed to raise hackles.
On several occasions soldiers wrote to “Mail Call” that
their counterparts should hang up pictures of their wives
and girlfriends instead of strangers. Writing from Italy
just before Christmas 1944, Sgt. John F. Urwiller praised
the magazine for having run a wholesome photo of
actress Betty Jane Graham, “a typical American girl with
the kind of beauty that every man dreams about.”

Yank was not just about “Mail Call,” comics or pinups.

The feature stories, photos and illustrations produced by
staffers serving alongside enlisted men on all fronts make
the magazine as vital today as it was during the war.
Some of Yank’s illustrators came directly from art
school, while others left long-held jobs as commercial
artists. The same went for writers and photographers
who’d honed their trade for popular publications before
the war. Harold Ross, co-founder and editor of The New
Yorker, once quipped the military weekly was to blame
for one of his own especially lengthy wartime editorials.
“Of course it was too long, but I have to fill space,” he said.
“All my writers are on Yank!”
Distinct from their civilian counterparts, however,
Yank’s staffers were fighting men, which often placed
them in the thick of combat. In that regard its reporters
were granted unusual freedom to roam the battlefield.
Often left to their own devices, armed only with a camera,
a notepad or a field typewriter, the correspondents risked
FROM TOP: UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES (GETTY IMAGES); ASSOCIATED PRESS; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

life and limb so that other American soldiers understood

why they were risking theirs.
In one daring exploit Sgt. Walter Bernstein, guided by
partisans, walked seven days across rugged mountains
through German-occupied territory to become the first
English-speaking correspondent to interview Marshal
Josip Broz Tito, the communist revolutionary leader fight-
ing the Nazis in Yugoslavia. The headline-stealing coup
caused quite an uproar within the Allied high command,
as the territory fell within the British purview. Published
in Yank on June 16, 1944, the interview was the maga-
zine’s most heralded exclusive. Bernstein became a noted Though Yank photographers documented the war across all theaters,
screenwriter and film producer after the war. Ironically, some of the more memorable images came from the Pacific. Top: Men of
the very Hollywood studios who’d hired him blacklisted the Army’s 37th Inf. Div. advance on Bougainville. Middle: Mason Pawlak
him in the 1950s for his favorable views on communism captures GIs inspecting wrecked enemy boats on Angaur. Above: John
and the dictator who gave his career a boost. Bushemi caught this machine gunner trying to stay dry on New Georgia.

29
 Howard Brodie, left, covered both the Pacific and Europe, becoming one of Yank’s best-
known staff artists. Among his memorable drawings are those of a German executed for
spying (top left) and GIs during the August 1942–February 1943 Guadalcanal campaign.

After being struck by shrapnel from a Japanese mortar
shell while climbing “Bloody Hill,” Sgt. McGurn—who
would live the rest of his life with a pinhead fragment
lodged in his heart—turned his experience into a cover
story about the Second Battle of Bougainville. Yet, in
keeping with Yank’s dictum that the reporter was the
chronicler and not the story itself, McGurn downplayed
his involvement and wounds, insisting in a postwar
potentially booby-trapped souvenirs—Pawlak was pinned
down by sniper fire, bracketed by mortars and ultimately
knocked unconscious by a nearby explosion. The pho-
tographer was left partially blinded in his left eye for life.
Yank’s artists claimed an advantage over its photogra-
phers in that they had the luxury of time. Not having to
wait for proper lighting or rush headlong into action to
capture the perfect shot, they could make mental notes
BOTTOM LEFT: SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE LIBRARY

memoir, “The soldiers in the beachhead dugout were suf-
fering far worse.” Often by McGurn’s side was his trusted
Navy photographer, Chief Photographer’s Mate Mason
Pawlak, whose images starkly depicted the carnage of
war. Like McGurn’s stories, they did not record the expe-
rience of the man behind the viewfinder. After snapping
one of his better known photos during the 1944 Battle of
Angaur in the Palau Islands—an image in which a GI
steps over a Japanese corpse, not daring to check for
and render their illustrations later. That said, they still took
risks. Howard Brodie, a onetime sports artist, gained re-
nown in Yank for his initially censored depiction of the
field execution of a German prisoner. Though not released
until after war’s end, the sketch showed the dead man tied
to a post and slumped forward with blood and drool run-
ning from his mouth. It certainly remained true to Yank’s
promise to reveal the authentic experiences of those who
fought the war. Lost to history was mention of Brodie’s

30 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Bronze Star, which he received for heroism amid the Battle
of the Bulge. After the field hospital in which he was being
treated was shelled, the artist swapped pencil and notepad
for bandages and tourniquets as an emergency medic.
As the war expanded, so did the number of Purple
Hearts presented to Yank journalists. Sometimes bring-
ing stories of hope to their fellow soldiers cost them their
lives. One of the magazine’s busiest cameramen, Sgt. Pete
Paris, made history with his first-ever cover story of
a black unit in combat in the early stages of the war in
Africa and Sicily. In the thick of action during the D-Day
landings in 1944, Paris managed to avoid machine-gun
fire only to step on a land mine and have his leg torn off
at the hip. He was evacuated from Normandy aboard a
Navy LST but never made it back to England—the ship
was bombed and sunk in the English Channel, killing all
aboard. Paris received his Purple Heart posthumously.
Described by his accompanying correspondent, Merle
Miller, as a photographer “from a rifle’s length vantage
point,” Sgt. John A. Bushemi was known to crawl out
in front of advancing GIs to get the perfect picture. His
skills landed him the classified mission of chronicling the
November 1943 through February 1944 campaign in the
Gilbert and Marshall islands. By the time his photographs
graced the pages of Yank, however, Bushemi was dead.
Mortally wounded by a mortar shell during the Battle of
Eniwetok, he made a dying request of Miller to ensure
his images were sent to Yank headquarters in New York. Accompanied by French Resistance members, two Yank journalists and
An undated editorial from the magazine said it best. a photographer drive through the crowded streets of liberated Paris—
“Yank’s correspondents will go to every battlefront,” in a captured and suitably marked German Kübelwagen—on Aug. 25, 1944.
it read. “If they live, they will send back stories of the Below: Yank’s final issue included the magazine’s official “discharge.”
actions in which they fought. If they are killed, other
correspondents will take their place.” Through the sacri- Yank created a unique record of the American fighting
fices of its writers, artists and photographers Yank re- man’s role in World War II. The magazine also strove
mained true to its mission, faithfully depicting the to address the anticipated morale issues that come with
American GI’s experience in World War II by presenting conscripting an army of citizens, aiming to humor GIs
the individual stories of those who covered it. when they were discouraged or sad, provide an outlet
for their frustrations and inspire them to push through
Yank was given its walking papers on Sept. 25, 1945, the hell of war, knowing they were not alone. It was not
by War Department Circular 292. Initiated by Secretary just the features written by its correspondents that re-
of War Henry L. Stimson, the document stated it was flected the story of American spirit and grit. The story
time to mute “the official voice of the of Yank itself—its origins, its mission
enlisted man,” as war’s end had elimi- and, above all else, its writers, artists
nated “material suitable for the mission and photographers—became one of
of Yank.” After finishing work on issues World War II’s enduring tales. MH
that recounted soldiers’ reintegration into
civilian life, the magazine published its Peter Zablocki is a New Jersey–based
last issue on Dec. 28, 1945, and formally historian, educator and author. For fur-
TOP: FRANK SCHERSCHEL (GETTY IMAGES)

closed its New York office four days later. ther reading he recommends Yank, the
In a final gesture of respect Supreme Allied Army Weekly: Reporting the Greatest
Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower Generation, by Barrett McGurn, and
issued Yank an “honorable discharge” cer- The Best of Yank, the Army Weekly,
tificate to publish on its closing cover, 1942–1945, selected by Ira Topping,
solidifying its reputation as “just one of as well as the Unz Review online ar-
the GIs” and ensuring its legacy. chive of Yank [unz.com/print/yank].

31
 JAPAN’S
TRAFALGAR
In 1905 a Japanese admiral who fancied himself the
reincarnation of Horatio Nelson waged a battle for
the ages against a Russian fleet at Tsushima Strait
By Alan George

32 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

Having “crossed the T,” the ships of
Adm. Heihachiro Togo’s Japanese fleet
fire on those of the Russian Second
Pacific Squadron at Tsushima Strait
in this contemporary depiction.

33
 Heihachiro
Zinovy Togo
Rozhestvensky

O
n the night of May 26–27, 1905, two battle fleets—one Russian, the other Japanese—sailed toward
the Tsushima Strait, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait between that nation and Japan. The
Russian commander, Vice Adm. Zinovy Rozhestvensky, desperately wanted to avoid contact and
take his ships safely into Vladivostok, his nation’s primary naval port in the Pacific. His Japanese
counterpart, Adm. Heihachiro Togo, was determined to locate, engage and destroy the Russian fleet
and thus effectively end the Russo-Japanese War in his country’s favor.
Rozhestvensky’s hopes to evade a fight were soon shattered. The ensuing clash—the first between
fleets of modern steel battleships—was to be as much of a defining moment in naval, political and
diplomatic history in the 20th century as the Battle of Trafalgar had been a century earlier. By the time the smoke
cleared, imperial Russia had involuntarily ceded both its naval dominance and considerable political influence in
the Far East to a newly resurgent and expansionist imperial Japan.

The February 1904 to September 1905 Russo-Japanese first major war of the 20th century. Hostilities com-

War centered on rival expansionist ambitions, erupt-
ing over which nation would dominate Manchuria and
Korea. Russia was desperate to acquire a warm-water
port of its own in the Pacific, while Japan wanted to
expand its sphere of influence north of its home islands.
Negotiations between the two nations—which pro-
posed Russian control of Manchuria and Japanese hege-
mony over Korea—ultimately collapsed, sparking the
Chinese civilians look on as Russian troops march into Mukden
(present-day Shenyang), Manchuria, in 1900. Russia’s desire to
control Manchuria was a proximate cause of the war with Japan.
PREVIOUS SPREAD: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; THIS PAGE, TOP LEFT: SPUTNIK (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); TOP RIGHT: HULTON ARCHIVE (GETTY IMAGES); LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
menced when the Japanese made a surprise attack on,
sought to blockade and then laid siege to the Russian
base at Port Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula. Subse-
quent naval clashes—all won by Japan—culminated in
the Aug. 10, 1904, Battle of the Yellow Sea, a strategic
victory for Japan, albeit tactically inconclusive.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet was much diminished by that
battle and the ongoing siege of Port Arthur. Were it to
remain in the war, it would need reinforcement. Czar
Nicholas II and his advisers resolved to send much of
the Baltic Fleet (subsequently designated the Second
Pacific Squadron) to the Far East. Rozhestvensky, the
man tapped to command the flotilla, was a highly re-
garded veteran of the 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War and
former chief of the imperial Russian naval staff. He was
also known for a fiery temper that terrified subordinates.
Unfortunately, the chaotic, seven-month-long voyage
to the Far East only served to spotlight Russian in-
efficiency. While transiting the North Sea’s Dogger Bank
one foggy night that October the squadron passed among
British fishing vessels, which spotters mistakenly identi-
fied as Japanese torpedo boats. The Russians opened fire,
sinking one trawler, damaging four others, killing two
fishermen, wounding a half dozen others and in the
process almost sparking war with Britain. Further con-
fusion followed when the warships fired on one another,
inflicting further casualties and damage.
By the time the squadron reached the Far East the
following spring, it was in a pitiable state and certainly

34 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 With the ships of Togo’s fleet providing
fire support, Japanese army troops
land on China’s Liaodong Peninsula to
lay siege to Russian-held Port Arthur.
not battle ready. The majority of its 11 battleships, eight
cruisers, support ships and auxiliaries had steamed
18,000 nautical miles via the Cape of Good Hope and
Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina (present-day Viet-
nam) and needed extensive refitting. The voyage had
also proved hard on crewmen, leaving them weary and
demoralized. More important, only four of the Russian
battleships were of the latest Borodino-class type, based
on a successful French design. And even those vessels
—Borodino, Knyaz Suvarov, Oryol and Imperator Alek-
sandr III—were not ready to fight at full capability,
as they were manned by new, ill-trained crews. The re-
maining seven battleships were older and less techni-
TOP: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; RIGHT: NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH
cally advanced.
Unfortunately for the Russians, their opponents would
bring to the fight both better vessels and a far more
competent commander.
On emerging from its self-imposed isolation in the mid-
19th century, Japan had embarked on a rapid moderniza-
tion of its military forces. Part of that effort was the
development of a modern battle fleet based on the doc-
trines of American historian, naval officer and strategist
Alfred Thayer Mahan. The sole object of Mahan’s tenets
was starkly simple—command of the sea through the
neutralization or destruction of the enemy fleet.
Japan set about building a modern blue-
water fleet from the ground up, basing it
on mostly up-to-date vessels built either in
British yards or locally to British specs. The
new-build ships were fitted with techno-
logically advanced guns, ammunition, range Naval Ensign
finders, radios and other equipment. Their The Russian warships
mostly British-trained crews were disci- at Tsushima all flew
plined, competent and highly motivated. the “St. Andrew’s flag,”
By the time the Russian squadron arrived in bearing the blue cross
of St. Andrew—Russia’s
the Pacific, the Combined Fleet of the Im- patron saint. Personally
perial Japanese Navy boasted five modern designed by emperor
battleships, 27 cruisers, 21 destroyers and Peter the Great, the flag
a few dozen torpedo boats. fell out of use in 1918,
Just as important for Japan was the man but was revived in 1992
by the Russian Federation.
who would command the fleet in action
against the Russians.
Fifty-six years old at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese
War, Adm. Heihachiro Togo had spent many of his for-
mative professional years with the British Royal Navy.
That time included academic work, time at sea aboard
various warships and work as an inspector during the
construction of one of three battleships being built for
Japan in British yards. As a result of his seven years in
Britain, Togo acquired much of the culture and profes-
sionalism of the Royal Navy and eventually saw himself
35
 In a post-battle propaganda image produced in
St. Petersburg Russian sailors attempt to return
fire as Japanese gunners send the ships of Vice
Adm. Rozhestvensky’s squadron to the bottom.

following in the wake of his naval hero, Adm. the first time wireless signals were used operationally by
Battle of Horatio Nelson. Togo commanded the cruiser underway warships.
Tsushima Naniwa at the Battle of the Yalu River amid “When the enemy’s fleet first appeared in the south
JAPAN
FIVE BATTLESHIPS,
the 1894–95 First Sino-Japanese War. He
later served as commandant of the Naval War
seas, our squadrons, in obedience to imperial command,
adopted the strategy of awaiting him and striking him in
27 CRUISERS,
21 DESTROYERS, College in Tokyo and in 1903 was named com- our home waters,” Togo later wrote. “We therefore con-
37 TORPEDO BOATS
mander in chief of the Combined Fleet. The centrated our strength at the Korean straits.” Continuous
117 KILLED following year Togo led the fleet into battle radio reports from Shinano Maru guided the larger Japa-
583 WOUNDED,
THREE TORPEDO BOATS SUNK
against the Russians at Port Arthur and the nese fleet toward the Russians, and at daylight the fog
Yellow Sea, in each of which he demonstrated dispersed, allowing 5 miles of visibility. By early afternoon
RUSSIA
EIGHT BATTLESHIPS,
an innate grasp of modern naval warfare. on the 27th both fleets could see each other.
THREE COASTAL BATTLESHIPS, It was a talent he would soon reveal to his On closing with the enemy, Togo carried out the classic
EIGHT CRUISERS,
NINE DESTROYERS
Russian counterpart. naval maneuver known as “crossing the T,” taking his
ships in line astern across the front of the Russian for-
4,830 KILLED As he approached Tsushima, Rozhestvensky mation at a range of 7,500 yards. This allowed the main
803 WOUNDED, 5,907 CAPTURED,
SIX BATTLESHIPS SUNK,hoped to take advantage of the thick fog the armament of each Japanese ship to bear on the van of
ONE COASTAL BATTLESHIP SUNK,
14 OTHER SHIPS SUNK, Russian vessels encountered to evade the Jap- the Russian line, while Rozhestvensky’s vessels were only
FIVE BATTLESHIPS CAPTURED,
SIX SHIPS DISARMED
anese and slip into the harbor at Vladivostok able to deploy their forward guns. The Japanese tactic,
undetected. It proved a vain hope, however. combined with their better gunnery knowledge and tech-
The patrolling Japanese auxiliary cruiser Shinano Maru nique, gave Togo’s gunners the ability to hit their targets
BROWN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

caught sight of the navigation lights of the hospital ship
Oryol, at the rear of the Russian line, and subsequently
identified the profiles of the Russian warships through the
gloom. The cruiser’s captain radioed the enemy’s position
to Togo, who sailed to intercept the Russians. It marked
more accurately and at longer ranges than could their
adversaries. As firing was about to begin, Togo sent a
signal reminiscent of Nelson at Trafalgar: “The fate of
the empire depends on the result of this battle—let
every man do his utmost.”

36 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Japanese sailors from the torpedo
boat Sazanami board a Russian
torpedo boat during the battle.
At an initial disadvantage because of his flotilla’s line-
astern formation and the need to protect his slow and
cumbersome supply ships, Rozhestvensky was eventu-
ally able to turn his squadron into a line of battle parallel
to the Japanese, allowing most of his ships’ guns to fire
at the enemy. By then the Japanese were focusing their
fire on Knyaz Suvorov, the Russian flagship, which was
hit repeatedly and sank after attempting to withdraw.
The battleship Oslyabya suffered the same fate. Rozhest-
vensky, injured by shrapnel aboard Knyaz Suvorov, trans-
ferred to the destroyer Buinyi and handed over command
of the squadron to Rear Adm. Nikolai Nebogatov, aboard
the battleship Imperator Nikolai I.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; RIGHT: NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH
The change of leadership did little to alter the course
of the battle. The Japanese ships were equipped with the
latest British-made Barr & Stroud gunnery range finders,
which had a greater range and enabled a higher rate of
fire and far better accuracy than the Russians’ sighting
equipment, which mostly dated from the 1880s. As the
battle raged on, the Russian battleships Borodino and
Imperator Aleksandr III were repeatedly struck and
severely damaged, causing them to fall out of the line
of battle and eventually sink.
“It seemed impossible even to count the number of
projectiles striking us,” recalled Capt. Vladimir Semenoff
of Knyaz Suvarov. “I had not only never
witnessed such a fire before, but I had never
imagined anything like it. Shells seemed to
be pouring upon us incessantly, one after
another.…The steel plates and superstruc-
ture on the upper decks were torn to pieces, Rising Sun
and the splinters caused many casualties. Japan’s official naval
Iron ladders were crumpled up into rings, ensign since 1889, this
flag was flown by all the
and guns were literally hurled from their vessels of Togo’s fleet
mountings.…In addition to this, there was at Tsushima. Though it
the unusual high temperature and liquid became a hated emblem
flame of the explosion, which seemed to of Japanese militarism
spread over everything. I actually watched during World War II, it
remains in use as the
a steel plate catch fire from a burst.” ensign of Japan’s Mari-
The main engagement between the Rus- time Self-Defense Force.
sian and Japanese fleets was largely over by
sunset, the former losing four battleships sunk and others
badly damaged. The Japanese suffered no serious losses.
With the coming of darkness, most of the surviving Rus-
sian warships desperately steamed toward Vladivostok. But
Togo was not done with them yet—he ordered his numer-
ous destroyers and torpedo boats to continue the attack.
In those days before radar there was inevitably little
cohesion or coordination in either fleet, and the night
attacks quickly became a chaotic series of ship-on-ship
37
 Naval Clash of
Empires, 1905
T
he monthslong siege of Port Arthur isolated the Russian Far East Fleet, and
subsequent naval clashes with Japan had proved costly. Were Russia to remain
in the war, it would need to lift the siege and reinforce the bottled-up fleet.
Thus Czar Nicholas II dispatched much of the Baltic Fleet to the Far East,
placing it under Vice Adm. Zinovy Rozhestvensky. The seven-month voyage
around the Cape of Good Hope sorely taxed the crews and the 11 battleships, eight
cruisers and support ships of the redesignated Second Pacific Squadron.
Waiting for the Russian relief force was the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese
Navy, comprising five battleships, 27 cruisers, 21 destroyers and a few dozen torpedo
boats. Commanding the formidable armada was Adm. Heihachiro Togo, an admirer of
British Adm. Horatio Nelson and proponent of American naval strategist Alfred Thayer
Mahan. Togo tracked the approaching Russians and sprang his trap at Tsushima Strait. MH

MONGOLIA
M ANCHURI A RUSSIA N
Russian E MPI RE
Occupation
CHINA
VLADIVOSTOK
Battle of Port Arthur
Feb. 8–9, 1904
S EA OF
PEKING
KO RE A JAPA N
(Beijing)
Japanese Occupation JAPAN ESE
HANSEONG EM PIRE
PORT ARTHUR (Seoul) Battle of Tsushima
May 27–28, 1905

YEL LOW
Battle of the TOKYO
S EA
Yellow Sea IT
Aug. 10, 1904 A
S TR
EA
R
KO PACI FIC OC EA N

Having emerged from isolation in the mid-19th century, imperial Japan sought to
Russo- extend its influence north onto mainland East Asia. By the turn of the 20th century
Japanese imperial Russia had expanded south into Manchuria, threatening Japan’s ambitions.
When negotiations between the rivals broke down in early 1904, Japan went to war,
War attacking the Russian base at Port Arthur, on Manchuria’s Liaodong Peninsula.
A series of naval clashes ensued, culminating in the tactically inconclusive Battle of
the Yellow Sea, which set the scene for the decisive showdown at Tsushima Strait.

38 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 The Pursuit
By sundown Togo’s superior
ships, tactics and technology
had cost the Russians four of
their eight main battleships and
sent the surviving Russian ships
scurrying for the safety of port
at Vladivostok. But Togo ordered
his destroyers and torpedo boats
to press the attack. Only three
Russian ships made it home.

Togo ‘Crosses the T’

On May 27 radio updates from the auxiliary cruiser Shinano
Maru regarding the position of the Russian fleet enabled Togo
to anticipate his enemy. By 2:45 p.m. the Japanese ships, steam-
ing line astern perpendicular to the Russian van, were able
to “cross the T,” bringing all their guns—fore and aft—to bear.

MAPS BY STEVE WALKOWIAK, SWMAPS.COM


skirmishes. Several Japanese vessels collided
Tactical with each other, and some Russian ships
Takeaways added to their own misery by switching on
Newer is often better. searchlights to spot their attackers. This only
The Japanese victory served to reveal their own positions, making
at Tsushima was due
in large part to the
them easy targets for Japanese torpedo at-
fact their vessels were tacks. By morning the Russians had lost two
generally newer, more more battleships and two armored cruisers
advanced and more against the loss of just three Japanese torpedo
capable than their boats. Russian losses included the battleship
Russian counterparts.
Know your Mahan. Navarin. Left dead in the water by a mine
Togo’s adherence to strike, it was hit by four torpedoes, capsized
Alfred Thayer Mahan’s and sank. Only three of its nearly 700-man
theories of naval war- crew lived to tell the tale.
fare enabled him to The battleship Sissoi Veliky, already ablaze
outthink and outfight
Rozhestvensky. from the gunnery exchange between the bat-
Loss has results... tle fleets, sustained a torpedo hit that dam-
...beyond the strictly aged its screws and rudder. An attempt to
military. The debacle beach the foundering vessel near Tsushima
at Tsushima helped Island was foiled by the arrival of two Japa-
fuel Russia’s 1905
and 1917 uprisings. nese cruisers, prompting the Russian captain
to surrender his ship, which promptly sank.
The armored cruiser Vladimir Monomakh likewise fell
victim to Japanese torpedoes, while a Japanese destroyer
collided with the armored cruiser Admiral Kakhimov.
The captains of both crippled warships ordered them
scuttled after dawn.
Meanwhile, Nebogatov continued north toward Vlad-
ivostok with six of the remaining ships, but Togo caught
40 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
Russia’s humiliating defeat at
Tsushima and in the broader
Russo-Japanese War helped fuel
revolutionary fervor in Russia.
them off the east coast of Korea near Takeshima Island.
Realizing further fighting was futile in the face of the
now overwhelming Japanese force, Nebogatov surren-
dered. Refusing the order, the captain of the cruiser
Izumrud fled with his ship, though the vessel later ran
aground off the Siberian coast, and the captain ordered
it scuttled.
Of the other scattered Russian vessels that had no
part in the surrender, most were caught and sunk by
the Japanese. However, three warships did manage to
reach Vladivostok, and a few others—including the
cruiser Aurora—were interned in neutral ports.
The crushing Russian defeat at Tsushima prompted
the government of Czar Nicholas II—justifiably fearful
of revolution amid the unpopularity of the war and
increasing unrest on the home front—to sue for peace.
Their economy gravely strained by the conflict, the Japa-
nese were themselves ready to end hostilities. Accord-
ingly, Tokyo requested the help of U.S. President Theodore
Roosevelt, who was asked to arrange a peace conference.
The event was held at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
in Kittery, Maine, and resulted in the September 1905
Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the war. The international
CHRONICLE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)
community recognized Roosevelt’s role in bringing about
a negotiated peace, and he was awarded a Nobel Peace
Prize in 1906.
Togo had a quite different take on the battle, afterward
writing in his diary, “I am firmly convinced that I am the
reincarnation of Horatio Nelson.”
 As noted in the British Admiralty’s confidential staff
history of the Russo-Japanese War, written in 1915 by
prominent British naval historian and strategist Sir Julian
Corbett, the Battle of Tsushima established Japan as
both a major naval power and the foremost nation in
the Far East. It also helped foster Tokyo’s expansionist
aspirations. “So was consummated perhaps the most
decisive and complete naval victory in history,” Corbett
wrote. “No major Japanese unit had been seriously dam-
aged, and only three torpedo boats sunk. One hundred
seventeen Japanese officers and men had been killed,
and 583 wounded. On the Russian side 12 major units,
four destroyers and three auxiliaries had been sunk or
scuttled after being disabled, and four major units and
a destroyer captured. Of all Rozhestvensky’s motley but
imposing array, only one armed yacht and two destroyers
got through to Vladivostok. The toll in casualties was
terrible, in the worst Russian tradition: 4,830 killed,
5,907 prisoners, 1,862 interned.…Not in [Britain’s] most
successful war had we obtained a command of the sea Theodore Roosevelt (center) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
so nearly absolute as that which Japan now enjoys.” for his efforts to mediate peace with the Treaty of Portsmouth.
The Battle of Tsushima had lasting ramifications.
Expressed through its naval prowess, Japan saw itself 125 years ago have been preserved and are open to the
as one of the world’s front-rank nations and the leading public. Both Togo’s flagship, the battleship Mikasa, in
nation in East Asia. Tokyo gained international recogni- Yokosuka, and the Russian cruiser Aurora, in St. Peters-
tion as having the world’s sixth most powerful navy. burg, are museum ships. Aurora has a further and more
That navy’s successes in the Russo-Japanese War, coupled symbolic claim to fame—or perhaps notoriety—as the
with the successes of Japan’s army ashore, fostered a ship that in 1917 fired its forecastle gun within hearing
widespread belief among the Japanese in their country’s of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, signaling the start
superiority. That perception likely contributed to Japan’s of the October Revolution. MH
unrestrained and violent behavior in China in the 1930s
and ultimately to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Alan George is British journalist, historian and former
The negative impact of the battle on imperial Russia U.K. Ministry of Defence press officer who sailed with the
was equally significant. Having forfeited its naval strength task force that recaptured the Falkland Islands from Ar-
in the Far East, it suffered a huge loss of face in both Asia gentina in 1982. For further reading he recommends Big
and Europe. Among its potential enemies, Austria-Hun- Fleet Actions, by Eric Grove; The Battle of Tsushima,
gary and Germany were particularly emboldened. More- by Capt. Vladimir Semenoff; and Maritime Operations in
over, the defeat helped foster unrest within the Russian the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905, by Julian S. Corbett.
TOP: THEODORE ROOSEVELT BIRTHPLACE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE; BOTTOM: NESNAD, CC BY-SA 3.0

navy, which resulted in mutinies at Sevastopol,

Vladivostok and Kronstadt and the 1905 Potem-
kin uprising. These, in turn, were background
factors to the 1917 revolutions and subsequent Sunk in 1905 by the accidental explosion of its
civil war in Russia. magazine, Mikasa was raised and repaired. Since
As Israeli historian Rotem Kowner points out 1922 it has been a museum ship at Yokosuka.
in his 2006 book The Impact of the Russo-Japanese
War, Tsushima substantiated Mahan’s arguments
about the decisive importance of the battleship. It
validated the supremacy of firepower and speed,
influencing warship design and providing the im-
petus for British First Sea Lord Adm. John “Jacky”
Fisher’s HMS Dreadnought. On its commissioning
in 1906, that first all-big-gun battleship immedi-
ately rendered existing warships obsolete.
An extraordinary footnote to Tsushima is that
two of the ships that squared off in battle nearly

41
An aristocrat by lineage
and a soldier by choice,
Falkenhausen managed
to navigate and survive
the complicated politics
of wartime Germany.
NAZI VULTURE
OR PRUSSIAN
EAGLE?
Alexander von Falkenhausen led Turks against the British and
Chinese Nationalists against the Japanese, spared Belgian
hostages and conspired in Adolf Hitler’s assassination
By John Koster

43
 Though the Boxer Rebellion was largely over
by the time Falkenhausen arrived in China
as a young lieutenant, he came away with
a lifelong fascination with the Far East.

J
onathan Fenby, Chiang Kai-shek’s British biographer, called Alexander von Falkenhausen “a First
World War veteran with a vulturelike head and pince-nez.” Historian Barbara Tuchman described
Falkenhausen as a skilled commander who led from the front but got nowhere with Chiang, who
was the villain in her biography of American Gen. Joseph Stilwell. In 1953 Chiang, by then president
of the Republic of China on Taiwan, sent Falkenhausen 75th birthday wishes and an enclosed check
for $12,000 (more than $120,000 in today’s dollars). But it was a Chinese woman named Qian Xiuling,
“China’s female Schindler,” who helped Falkenhausen—a hero in China and a villain in Belgium—
beat a 12-year prison sentence as a Nazi war criminal.

Falkenhausen seemed destined for controversy long hereditary dynasty. In the wake of the 1904–05 Russo-
before his birth. Genealogy establishes him as a descen- Japanese War the German General Staff showed a grow-
dant of Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, margrave of Brandenburg- ing interest in Japan’s military potential. Falkenhausen was
Ansbach, by his mistress, Elisabeth Wünsch, making Falk- seconded to the General Staff and spent 18 months study-
enhausen a distant member of the Prussian royal family. ing the sometimes maddeningly imprecise Japanese lan-
The future general himself was born on Oct. 29, 1878, guage and parsing diplomatic reports on Japan, China and
in Blumenthal, Silesia, to Baron Alexander von Falken- Korea. In 1912, after promotions to senior lieutenant and
hausen and wife Elisabeth (née Schuler von Senden). then captain, he was appointed a military attaché in Tokyo.

The second of seven children and son of
a baronial family, young Alexander initially
attended a Gymnasium (classical secondary
school) in Breslau but at age 12 transferred
to the military academy at Wahlstatt as a
cadet. In 1897 the teenager was assigned
Der Stahlhelm to an Oldenburg infantry regiment as a sec-
ond lieutenant. When the Boxer Rebellion
Founded just after the
broke out in 1900, Falkenhausen volun-
end of World War I, the
Steel Helmet paramilitary teered and was sent to China. Most of the
organization comprised fighting was over by the time he arrived,
veterans who shared both but he developed a lifelong fascination
nostalgia for the vanished with both China and Japan.
German monarchy and
a hatred of communism.
In 1904, while teaching at the Prussian
Initially anti-Nazi, in 1933 military academy, Falkenhausen married
it became part of that Sophie von Wedderkop, the daughter of
party’s Sturmabteilung. a military commander from Oldenburg’s
PREVIOUS SPREAD: BUNDESARCHIV: THIS PAGE, TOP: AKG-IMAGES; LEFT: VON TEMPEST, CC BY-SA 3.0
In August 1914 Japan, a formal ally of Britain since
1902, declared war on Germany and took over the Shan-
dong Peninsula, which the Germans had leased under
treaty from China since 1898 and turned into their largest
overseas naval base. The German military staff in Tokyo
was recalled, and by November 1914 Falkenhausen was
serving as a major on the Western Front. He later trans-
ferred to the Eastern Front.
In 1916 Falkenhausen joined the German military
mission to Turkey, an assignment requiring the utmost
tact. Kaiser Wilhelm II’s primary military commander in
the Turkish army, Generalleutnant Otto Liman von Sand-
ers, had viewed the Turkish “evacuation” (read genocide)
of Armenians with horror and warned the Turks that if
they touched a single Armenian soldier in his own com-
mand he would withdraw to Germany and take his men
and ammunition with him. German diplomats and mis-

44 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 sionaries also protested the outrage. The Turks ultimately
killed an estimated 1 million Armenians through outright
murder, thirst or starvation. Falkenhausen arrived after
the crisis abated and fought Russians in the Caucasus,
then in 1917 was transferred to Palestine. As chief of staff
of the 7th Ottoman Army he inflicted a series of tem-
porary defeats on the British. When the Turks suggested
that resident Jews in Palestine were British spies and pro-
posed another “evacuation,” the German military officers
objected, likely preventing another genocide.
Germans serving with the Turks could only hope to
stave off collapse as long as possible. One trooper of the
Australian Light Horse noted “how the Turk fights till the
very last charge, until the pounding hooves are upon him,
then he drops his rifle and runs screaming, while the Aus- Top: Following World War I Falkenhausen remained in the vestigial German
trian artillerymen and German machine-gun teams often military, and in 1930 the Nazi Party claimed he had joined its ranks. Above:
fight with their guns until they are bayoneted.” Wilhelm Falkenhausen had, in fact, declined the Nazis’ overtures, having instead
considered himself a protector of the Jews and appreciated aligned himself with the anti-communist Stahlhelm veterans movement.
Falkenhausen’s diplomacy as well as his leadership. In
1918 the kaiser awarded the major the Pour le Mérite, 4,000 officers. Falkenhausen kept his job, and when navy
imperial Germany’s highest award for outstanding leader- Korvettenkapitän Hermann Ehrhardt refused to dissolve
ship in combat, and in the final weeks of the war Falken- his 6,000-man Freikorps (free corps) marine brigade, the
BUNDESARCHIV (2)

hausen was made chief military adviser to Constantinople. major was sent to the rebel’s guarded camp outside Mün-
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles the postwar ster to facilitate the unit’s peaceful disbandment. While
German army was to be reduced to 100,000 men with the government had issued a warrant against Ehrhardt for

45

In 1934 Falkenhausen (center front) took command of the German military
advisers modernizing and training Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist
army. Falkenhausen remained in the post until recalled to Germany in 1937.
high treason (despite his having signed orders from his
superiors), the captain had promised his men that anyone
not kept on in the much-reduced military would have a
job before he himself left the brigade. His men refused to
give him up—indeed, they wanted to march on Berlin.
“At my request, Major Falkenhausen took over as my
chief of staff,” Ehrhardt later wrote. “He was exceptionally
efficient. He worked not only with understanding, but also
with his heart. I owe him my profound
thanks.” Ehrhardt shaved off his beard
and made himself scarce once Falken-
hausen found his men jobs.
Falkenhausen also negotiated with
the Poles to resolve border disputes
after a 60–40 plebiscite vote allowed
Weimar Germany to retain Upper
Silesia. Many members of the Polish
majority voted to remain German—
perhaps due to concern about So-
viet Russia—while some upper-class
Germans voted to merge with Po-
land because the Weimar Republic
Hans von was much further to the left than Gen. Józef Pilsudski’s
Seeckt militaristic government in Warsaw. The Poles were ex-
pected to respect inherited estates or large businesses.
Giving all inhabitants (ethnic Germans and Poles alike)
equal rights temporarily resolved the question.
The Nazi movement—even before Adolf Hitler came to
power—was anathema to Falkenhausen. In 1930, when
the Nazi Party urged then Generalleutnant Falkenhausen
46 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
Chiang
Kai-shek
to join, he declined, yet the party newspaper crowed
he had indeed signed up. The false report prompted the
Weimar government to sack him, at which point leading
Nazis suggested he join the paramilitary Sturmabteilung
(SA) for a substantial salary increase. Falkenhausen again
refused and instead joined the Stahlhelm, an anti-commu-
nist veterans’ group that made overtures to Jewish combat
veterans and opposed Hitler’s dictatorial aspirations.
Falkenhausen also joined the German National People’s
Party, a conservative monarchist group that garnered
about 10 percent of the popular vote and included senior
officers, industrialists and aristocrats as supporters. By
1933 it had dissolved, opening the path to dictatorship.
“People accepted the incomprehensible misconception
it would be possible merely to use Hitler as a ‘rallying
drummer,’” Falkenhausen later recalled. “It was clear to
me the coalition of the German Nationalists with the Na-
tional Socialists could only be compared to the friendship
of the defenseless lamb with the hungry wolf.” He stuck it
out with the Stahlhelm until it federated with the SA dur-
ing the Depression amid the growing fear of communism.
When Hitler came to power through the back door,
Falkenhausen knew he was finished in German army
politics. But then a door to the East opened: Chiang
LEFT AND BELOW: BUNDESARCHIV (2); RIGHT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Kai-shek offered Falkenhausen command of his staff
of German military advisers. After obtaining approval
from senior commanders, the general moved to Nanjing.
His new employer, Chiang, had transformed from some-
thing of a rebel in Manchu times into a hard-core anti-
leftist who had purged communists and trade unionists
in Nanjing and Shanghai in 1926–27 amid the brewing
civil war. (Oft-reproduced photos of kneeling Chinese
being shot by Chinese soldiers were presented falsely in
Frank Capra’s 1944 documentary Why We Fight: The
Battle of China and Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 epic The
 Last Emperor as depicting Japanese atrocities.) But no
such atrocities happened on the German watch. Falken-
hausen’s own solution to communism was militaristic
rather than terroristic. “China must resist in two ways:
morally and materially,” he wrote.
Already advising Chiang was Generaloberst Hans von
Seeckt, the monocled “Sphinx” who rebuilt the German
army in the 1920s by turning the 100,000-man Reichs-
wehr into a cadre to train officers and sergeants. Seeckt
had been dumped by Hitler in 1926 ostensibly because
the latter believed the general’s wife was of Jewish
origin—though in fact she was of ethnic German origin,
from Friesland, and she and her husband were anti-
Semites. Seeckt’s real offense had been to allow Prince
Wilhelm, grandson of the former emperor, to participate
PICTURES FROM HISTORY (GRANGER, 2)

in army maneuvers. Hitler hated the Jews but feared the

Prussian royals and their influence on the officer corps.
By the time Seeckt arrived in China, he was dying of
cancer. Before he returned to Germany for the last time
in 1936, however, he and Falkenhausen made plans to
drastically reduce the size of Chiang’s army to 60 well-
trained divisions loyal only to Chiang, not to regional
Top: Women thank German-armed and -equipped Chinese Nationalist troops
for holding out against Japanese invaders during the 1937 Battle of Shanghai,
though the Japanese ultimately prevailed. Above: During his time in China
Falkenhausen helped put a stop to atrocities committed by Nationalist troops.

47

Top left: Belgian soldiers march into captivity following their nation’s
May 1940 surrender. Falkenhausen was soon appointed military governor
of Belgium. Top right: Though he had no hand in the July 20, 1944, attempt
to kill Hitler, Falkenhausen was arrested on suspicion and sent to Dachau.
Above: His imprisonment through war’s end spared him a Nazi-run trial.
warlords. They also directed the generalissimo to erect
thousands of blockhouses near communist strongpoints,
to be garrisoned by stalwart troops with supplies dropped
off by trucks so the communists could not raid lackluster
government troops or peasants for food.
The 1937 Japanese invasion of China caught Falken-
hausen unprepared, with only 80,000 trained Chinese
troops in eight divisions, but he tried to exude a confi-
dence he never actually felt. At Shanghai that fall he
led his soldiers in person, and they put up a fight that
astounded the world. “We [Germans] all agreed that as
private citizens in Chinese employment there could be no
question of leaving our Chinese friends to their fate,” he
wrote. “Therefore, I assigned German advisers wherever
they were needed, and that was often in the front lines.”
48 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
Qian
Xiuling
Everyone knew the Chinese would lose, but the fact
TOP LEFT: ULLSTEIN BILD, DTL. (GETTY IMAGES); BELOW AND RIGHT: BUNDESARCHIV (2); BOTTOM RIGHT: CHINA DAILY NEWS
they held up the Japanese for three months, and that some
units fought virtually to the death, won them consider-
able respect. The survivors fell back on Nanjing, capital of
the republic. Falkenhausen urged the Chinese to evacuate
and declare Nanjing an open city, thus sparing it destruc-
tion under international law. Chiang decided to fight to
the death to save face, then escaped by seaplane. When the
Japanese broke through the city walls, some of the Chi-
nese trained by Falkenhausen fought to the death. Others
formally surrendered in full uniform after hard fighting.
In the aftermath the Japanese executed tens of thou-
sands of soldiers and suspected troops in what has come
to be known as the Nanjing Massacre. Japanese troops also
engaged in widespread looting and rape. The international
committee (comprising Americans, British, Germans and
Danes) of the Nanjing Safety Zone investigated and signed
off on 360 rapes and 41 murders of obvious civilians.
Appalled by the wanton killing and unpunished rapes,
Falkenhausen subtly pointed out to the Chinese that
Japanese officers were easily distinguished by their map
 cases, binoculars and samurai swords, and that a few
Chinese snipers could do the Nationalist cause far more
good than doomed last stands against Japanese artillery
and tanks. German-trained Nationalist troops won a
night attack against the Japanese at Taierzhuang in early
1938, but by that time Falkenhausen and his fellow ad-
visers had been ordered home—reportedly under Nazi
threat to their families—and Germany had signed the
Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and Italy.
When war broke out with Britain and France in Septem-
ber 1939, Falkenhausen was recalled to duty by Nazi Ger-
many. He was conflicted, for despite his dismay at Hitler’s
policies, he remained firmly anti-communist. The follow-
ing spring he followed in his uncle Ludwig von Falken-
hausen’s footsteps when appointed military governor of
Belgium and northern France. While Falkenhausen read-
ily deported Belgian leftists as slave laborers to Germany,
he tended to drag his feet where Jews were concerned.
One “Belgian” who remembered Falkenhausen was
Chinese-born Qian Xiuling, whose family members were
influential friends of Chiang and whose cousin had served
as a general under Falkenhausen’s oversight. A gifted
student who had traveled to Belgium in 1929 to study
advanced chemistry, Qian later broke her arranged en-
gagement to a Chinese fiancé in order to marry Belgian
physician Grégoire de Perlinghi in 1933. Her family
reminded her Falkenhausen was a man who could be
trusted. When members of the Belgian resistance killed
three Gestapo officers in the town of Écaussinnes on
July 7, 1944, in the tense wake of the D-Day landings,
superiors in Berlin ordered the arrest of 97 random towns-
men to be shot in retaliation. Qian, though expecting her
first child, drove to Falkenhausen’s headquarters on a rainy
night and pleaded with him to spare the hostages. She must
have been persuasive, for the governor did exactly that,
for which he was immediately summoned to Berlin and
removed from command. Two weeks later he was again
called on the carpet and immediately sent to Dachau.
Falkenhausen’s arrest had nothing to do with the Bel-
RIGHT: WORLD WAR II DATABASE; BOTTOM: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, REPUBLIC OF CHINA
gian hostage issue. He had been in contact with members
of the failed July 20 plot to kill Hitler, having agreed
in principle to place the German garrison in Belgium
and northern France at their disposal while they sought
to negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies.
Though not tried for lack of evidence, Falkenhausen
spent the closing months of the war in various concen-
tration camps. He was liberated by American soldiers
on May 5, 1945, only to be promptly arrested by Belgian
authorities as a war criminal. Belgian leftists pressured him
to incriminate King Leopold III as a pro-Nazi collaborator,
but Falkenhausen, a monarchist, flatly refused. For nearly
six years he cooled his heels in a cell awaiting trial.
In 1951 Qian, by then a heroine of the Belgian resis-
tance, showed up at 72-year-old Falkenhausen’s trial,
Falkenhausen wears the sash and
decoration of the Republic of China’s
Order of the Sacred Tripod, awarded
to him in 1958 on his 80th birthday.
producing Belgian witnesses to his act of
mercy and words of praise from a grateful
President Chiang. His defense attorney also
pointed to the general’s known role in the
July 20 plot. Though the court sentenced
Falkenhausen to a dozen years of hard labor,
it released him after three weeks, citing time
served. “Ungrateful Belgium, you will not
have my bones,” he proclaimed on crossing
the border into Germany after his release.
Pao Ting
Childless after two marriages (his second Created in 1929 to honor
to a Belgian resistance fighter he’d met in significant contributions
to the security of the
prison), Falkenhausen lived another 15 Republic of China, the
years, dying at age 87 on July 31, 1966. Order of the Sacred
For her part, Qian remained in Belgium Tripod (Pao Tingg) is
and never returned to her homeland. She organized in nine grades
received a medal from a grateful Belgian and presented by the
president. Falkenhausen
government, was the central heroine of a was recognized for his
16-episode Chinese TV series and lived activities in the 1930s.
well into her 90s. Asked once by a Chi-
nese reporter to describe Falkenhausen, she said simply,
“He was a man with morals.” MH
A frequent contributor to Historynet publications, John
Koster is the author of Hermann Ehrhardt: The Man
Hitler Wasn’t, and Operation Snow. For further read-
ing he recommends Falkenhausen’s own Mémoires
d’Outre-Guerre, and Chiang Kai-shek: China’s Gener-
alissimo and the Nation He Lost, by Jonathan Fenby.
49
 MCAR TH UR’S
GAM BL E
Amid the W a r o f
a
1
g
8
a
1 2
in
a
s
n A
t th e
mer
B r
ic
it
a
ish
n g
m
e
o
ne
u
r
n
a
te
l ea
da
ger

to str ik e a b lo w r C an ada
in to we ste r n U p p e
bo ld r a id d ee p
By Bob Gordon
50 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
Kentucky mounted volunteers
prevailed against the British at
the 1813 Battle of the Thames,
depicted here, and also proved
decisive in Brig. Gen. Duncan
McArthur’s fall 1814 raid some
200 miles into Upper Canada.

51
 Some of the militiamen who opposed McArthur’s raiders carried
muzzle-loading flintlock blunderbusses, an early form of shotgun.

I
n late October 1814, deep into the War of 1812, a flying column of American horsemen riding east under
a full moon reached the Thames River near Moraviantown, a settlement of Christianized Delaware Indians
who had retreated to Upper Canada in the wake of the American Revolution. Led by Brig. Gen. Duncan
McArthur, the riders had left Fort Detroit eight days earlier bound for the British army base at Burlington
Heights, on the western tip of Lake Ontario.
The mission of the American incursion was twofold. First, McArthur intended to destroy mills, bridges,
livestock and foodstuffs across western Upper Canada (present-day southeastern Ontario), thus rendering
the region incapable of supporting British troops. Second, he hoped to isolate the Niagara Peninsula, be-

PREVIOUS SPREAD: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES); THIS PAGE,TOP AND BOTTOM LEFT: CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM (2); LEFT: NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES; RIGHT: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
tween Lakes Ontario and Erie, and force the British to abandon Upper Canada west of York (present-day Toronto).
In his 1816 history of the war Robert B. McAfee, an American veteran of the campaigns in Upper Canada, de-
scribed what became known as “McArthur’s Raid” as “an expedition which was not surpassed during the war in
boldness of its design and the address with which it was conducted.”

McArthur was the perfect candidate to lead a band of fluence of the Scioto River and Paint Creek, and was ulti-
horsemen some 200 miles into the British rear. Tougher
than shoe leather, born poor and raised on the Pennsyl-
vania frontier with no formal education, he became one
of the earliest American trailblazers to Kentucky. He later
helped survey Ohio’s first capital, Chillicothe, at the con-
Below: As a young militiaman McArthur took part in Brig. Gen.
Josiah Harmar’s 1790 campaign against British-allied Miami
Indians. Bottom: The head of a spontoon, a type of polearm
carried by British infantry sergeants as both weapon and tool.
mately elected that state’s 11th governor. Along the way
he accumulated vast tracts of land. But the uncompro-
mising influence of the then-savage Kentucky back-
woods never left him. McArthur exemplified a popular
expression of the era, later attributed to David Crockett,
that Kentuckians were “half horse, half alligator, tipped
off with the snapping turtle.” While not a Kentuckian by
birth, he was by temperament and action.
McArthur (his father spelled it MacArthur) was born
in 1772 in Dutchess County, on the Albany River 80 miles

William Hull

52 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 north of New York City. The eldest of seven siblings,
he lost his mother when still very young. In 1780 his
father moved the family to western Pennsylvania, the
frontier of the nascent United States. By the time Duncan
was 12 he was hiring out to neighboring farms as a
laborer—once he’d helped harvest his father’s crops.
Soon thereafter he began working as a mule skinner
with the packtrains beginning to cross the Appalachians.
Remarkably, he somehow managed to learn to read and
write, a comparatively rare skill on the frontier. At age 18
he joined the Pennsylvania militia and participated in
brevet Brig. Gen. Josiah Harmar’s disastrous 1790 cam-
paign against British-allied American Indians in what is
now the Midwest. Young McArthur also participated in
an unsuccessful follow-up campaign in 1792.
In the spring of 1793 surveyor Nathaniel Massie hired
McArthur as a rodman on his Northwest Territory expedi-
tion to map the Scioto River valley from its juncture with Duncan McArthur
the Ohio River north to Paint Creek and beyond. Massie
took to the young man, encouraged him to study rudi-
mentary mathematics and continued to employ him as an
assistant. At the time it was customary for a surveyors to
be paid all or part of their fee in kind as a percentage of the
land surveyed. Further, while performing the contracted
survey, they would keep an eye out for any land to which In May 1812, with war looming, McArthur rallied the
they could lay claim. According to an 1838 biography by militia and was commissioned colonel of the newly formed
John McDonald—McArthur’s biographer, brother-in-law 1st Regiment of Ohio volunteers. He led the regiment
and former quartermaster—“McArthur made tomahawk north to Detroit, arriving on July 5. By then Congress had
improvements [i.e., informal claims] in many of the finest declared war against Britain. A month later, as British Maj.
bottoms on the east side of the Scioto River.” Gen. Isaac Brock prepared to assault De-
Historian Andrew R.L. Cayton argues that as land troit, Brig. Gen. William Hull, the governor
speculation and settlement “was by design a highly indi- of Michigan Territory, detached troops to
vidualistic, competitive business…men simply took as meet a vital supply column. On August 14,
much land as they could obtain warrants to cover.” Mc- with 500 men between them, Cols. Mc-
Donald was blunt regarding his brother-in-law’s ambition. Arthur and Lewis Cass were sent to escort
“Although he has been successful in his land specula- the 150-man column north through the
tions,” he wrote of McArthur, “his conduct in this line of Great Black Swamp. After a day’s march
business is not worthy of imitation, but rather reprehen- they were summoned back to Detroit with
sible, and has created him more vexation and enemies all haste. They arrived on August 16 to the
than all the other acts of his life.” That ruthlessness shocking news Hull had surrendered the Snare Drum
carried over into his military career. A hard officer who garrison after only a perfunctory British
did not hesitate to burn Indian villages, McArthur was bombardment and had included their re- purposes and to maintain
undaunted by wilderness and seemingly immune to his spective regiments in the terms of capitu- cadence during route
marches, snare drums
own pain and that of others. lation. Though technically a prisoner of were common in the
TOP: OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION; RIGHT: CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM

war, McArthur was free to return home on American and British

In 1798 McArthur was appointed a militia captain in the
Northwest Territory. In 1806, three years after Ohio was
admitted into the union, he was elected colonel of the
1st Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division of the state
militia. Two years later he was promoted to major general
and given command of the division. He proved as much
of a comer in politics. In 1804 McArthur was elected
to the Ohio House of Representatives. A year later he
was elected to the Ohio Senate, and in 1809 he became
speaker of the Senate.
a promise not to resume arms. Having liter- armies during the War
ally and figuratively fought for everything he of 1812. This example
had in life, the situation must have rankled. belonged to a the Nova
Scotia Fencibles, a
He’d been defeated by proxy. Canadian militia unit.
In April 1813 McArthur was included
on paper in a parolee exchange, freeing him for service,
and he immediately enlisted in the U.S. Army with the
rank of brigadier general of volunteers. While that sum-
mer proved relatively uneventful, fall brought welcome
action. On September 10 Master Commandant Oliver

53
 Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott’s victory over the British in the
July 5, 1814, Battle of Chippawa helped fuel McArthur’s
determination to launch a raid into Upper Canada.

Hazard Perry’s Lake Erie squadron of nine ships soundly

McArthur hoped to avoid defeated their British opposites, claiming all six enemy
engaging British regulars, vessels as prizes. With command of the lake lost, British
who were well-trained Maj. Gen. Henry Procter abandoned and burned Fort
and -equipped veterans
Malden, at the mouth of the Detroit River, and fled east.
of combat in Europe.
Brig. Gen. William Henry Harrison set off in pursuit
of the retreating Redcoats, bringing them to battle on
October 5 along the Thames just shy of Moraviantown.
Retreating in disorder, the British fled farther east.
McArthur, though second-in-command of the Army
of the Northwest, was not present at the Battle of the
Thames. Harrison had ordered him to remain at Detroit
in command of the garrison. Thus tasked with literally
“holding the fort” three days’ march west of the action,
he was deprived of an opportunity to get in on the victory.
After two campaigning seasons McArthur remained un-
bloodied and frustrated.
He returned to Chillicothe for the winter. But the
next spring personal hardship only added to his frustra-
tions. McArthur resided in Fruit Hill, an elegant stone
TOP: U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY; BELOW: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)
mansion overlooking town and the Scioto River valley.
On the morning of April 15, 1814, a massive conflagra-
tion razed the house.
Over the following months of relative inactivity Mc-
Arthur smoldered. The hand of fate had frustrated him
through three campaign seasons, leaving him on the
fringes of battle. As the leaves turned color, he grew hell-
bent on finally making his mark in a war that had thus
far sidelined him. “The summer of 1814 was passing
away on the northwestern frontier without affording his
enterprising genius an opportunity of striking a blow
at the enemy,” McDonald wrote. “He began to think of
making an excursion through Upper Canada, to pass
through the enemy’s country till he should join the army
of Gen. [Jacob] Brown near the falls of Niagara.”

54 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Most of McArthur’s
LAKE
UPPER CANADA mounted volunteers
HURON
MILES would have carried a
Oxford Burford weapon like that of
0 20
this contemporary
T H A M ES Malcolm’s
RIVER Mills Ohio militiaman—an
Moraviantown extremely accurate
Port Dover Kentucky long rifle
in .40 or .48 caliber.
Detroit LAKE ERIE

McArthur’s Raid
According to McArthur’s after-action report, the force
he assembled for his foray behind enemy lines comprised
“mounted troops, consisting of 600 volunteers, 50 United
States rangers and 70 Indians.” Each rider carried 12 days
of rations. Most of the volunteers were Kentuckians
under the field command of Maj. Peter Dudley, the re-
mainder McArthur’s fellow Ohioans. No artillery, no
baggage and no wagons would slow them down.
As McArthur proposed to spend weeks marauding
through Upper Canada, secrecy and dissimulation were
essential. Even the men assigned to the raid were kept
largely in the dark. McArthur’s general orders enjoined
his troops “to prepare for a short, rapid and, it is believed,
a brilliant expedition—one which may be attended with
some danger and may require all their fortitude to pro-
duce a successful issue.” The general encouraged an
erroneous rumor the operation was headed north to Unknown to McArthur, however, the enemy had al-
a restive Indian village at the mouth of the Saginaw River ready been alerted to his presence. On October 26 Brit-
on the western shore of Lake Huron. To reinforce that ish Lt. Col. William Smelt of the 103rd Regiment of Foot
impression, he had the column initially march north sent a dispatch from his position at Burlington Heights
along the western shore of Lake St. Clair before crossing to the commanding officer at York, noting, “There is a
east into Upper Canada north of the lake on October 25. report of another party coming down from Detroit.” On
Advancing rapidly up the Thames Valley, McArthur took November 3 Oxford residents George Nichol and Jacob
precautions to ensure no word of his progress preceded
him. As the column approached Moraviantown, he had
his rangers surreptitiously flank the hamlet and establish Each rider carried 12 days of
roadblocks to prevent escapees from spreading word east
of the American incursion. rations; no artillery, baggage or
In his report McArthur boasted that his precautions
bore fruit. “We were very fortunate at this place [Mora- wagons would slow them down
viantown] in taking a sergeant in the British service who
MAP BY BRIAN WALKER; RIGHT: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

was proceeding to Burlington with the information that
the detachment had passed into the enemy’s territory.”
The Americans were able to maintain that surprise—or
so it seemed. “We were thus enabled to arrive at the
town of Oxford, 150 miles distant from Detroit, before
the inhabitants knew that a force was approaching,”
McArthur wrote. On his arrival in each successive settle-
ment the general announced his troops would respect
private property provided residents remained peaceably
within their homes. Mills, bridges and public buildings
would be destroyed.
Wood, having gotten wind of the Americans’ imminent
arrival, dashed east some 16 miles to Burford, alerting
Lt. Col. Henry Bostwick and his 1st Regiment of Oxford
militia to the incursion. Bostwick duly reported to the
commanding officer at Port Dover, on the north shore of
Lake Erie, that a force of “undisciplined” Kentuckians
was rampaging through intent on “ravaging this district.”
On arriving in Oxford the next day and learning of Nichol
and Wood’s intelligence mission, McArthur, true to his
word, burned their houses and outbuildings, Wood’s
joiner’s shop and Nichol’s mill.

55
 McArthur’s raid came on the heels of the Oct. 5,
1813, American victory at the Battle of the Thames,
which resulted in the British losing control of
what is now southeastern Ontario and in the
death of British-allied Shawnee chief Tecumseh.

The next morning McArthur advanced to
Battle of Burford, 9 miles west of Brant’s Ford on the
Malcolm’s Grand River (opposite present-day Brantford).
Mills He found the village undefended. Bostwick,
realizing he was outnumbered, had moved
720 his militia southeast 7 miles to Malcolm’s Mills
(present-day Oakland). There the British colo-
U.S. TROOPS
nel laid plans to link up with other militia units
1 and assemble a force capable of engaging Mc-
KILLED Arthur. Meanwhile, after plundering for provi-
SIX WOUNDED
sions and torching the schoolhouse, the Amer-
550 icans marched west to the ford.
There for the first time they encountered
UPPER CANADA/ significant resistance. Captain Adam Muir
BRITISH TROOPS
and 50 British regulars of the 41st Regiment
18 of Foot had raced to the ford from Culver’s
Inn, south of Simcoe, arriving late the pre-
KILLED
NINE WOUNDED,
111 TAKEN PRISONER
vious afternoon. Soon joining them were
elements of the 19th Light Dragoons under
Capt. Peter Chambers and Mohawk warriors of the Six
Declining combat, McArthur left a small rearguard at
the ford and wheeled south. His strategy relied on speed
and surprise, and he had no intention of being drawn
into a set-piece battle against British regulars established
on the opposite bank of a swollen river. On reaching a
safe distance from the ford, McArthur’s troops bivouacked
for the night. The next morning they resumed riding
south. As the raiders passed through Mohawk (present-
day Mount Pleasant), they burned homes in the hamlet
and Thomas Perrin’s gristmill on Mount Pleasant Creek.
Around noon on November 6 McArthur’s vanguard ar-
rived at Maple Grove, two miles north of Malcolm’s Mills.
South of Maple Grove the terrain rises gradually to a low
ridge just north of Malcolm’s Mills. From atop the ridge
the ground drops to a 200-yard-wide plain bisected by
Malcolm’s Creek before rising sharply again on the south
side. To the right of the plain, beside a millpond some
220 yards west of a central bridge over the creek, stood
brothers John and Finlay Malcolm’s gristmill and sawmill.
SARIN IMAGES (GRANGER)

Nations under Capt. John Norton. Deploying on the east Having had days to prepare, the local militia had re-
bank of the Grand, they intended to contest any crossing moved the planks from the bridge, prepared defensive
and were expecting further reinforcements and cannons positions atop the ridge south of the creek and con-
from Burlington Heights. structed a roadblock of brush and logs between the creek

56 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 and the heights. Bostwick believed the millpond and
adjacent marshy ground were sufficient to secure his left
flank, while the swift, deep creek itself would thwart any
attempt to cross. Richard Shaver, the retired director
of the Canadian Military Heritage Museum in Brantford,
describes the colonel’s selection of a battlefield and de-
fensive preparations as “absolutely excellent.” Bostwick’s
force comprised some 550 militiamen and one British
regular, Sgt. Charles Collins, detached from the 41st
Regiment. Though the colonel had chosen the battlefield
wisely, he was no match for a determined McArthur.
To give the false impression of a direct assault, the
American commander had his Kentucky militiamen keep
up a steady fire on Bostwick’s front. He then personally led
the Ohio militia through the woods on a sweeping probe
downstream, where they had the good fortune to find a
raft of driftwood spanning the creek. Once across, his men
attacked the militia from the rear, signaling the Kentuck-
ians to pour across the frame of the bridge. Alerted to the
pincer attack by whoops from McArthur’s excited Indians,
the Canadians were able to flee from their strong defen-
sive position before the raiders could bag the entire party.
“One captain and 17 privates killed, nine privates
wounded, and three captains, five subalterns and 103
privates made prisoners,” McArthur reported of Cana-
dian losses. His own casualties numbered one killed and
six wounded. The figures conflict with Canadian reports
of only two fatalities—namely Sgt. Collins and Pvt. Edwin
Barton of the 1st Regiment of Norfolk militia. Regardless,
the militia broke and ran, leaving the Americans free
to proceed unmolested.
McArthur did not pursue the fleeing militia, but he did
burn the Malcolm brothers’ mills. Riding south, the raid-
ers skirmished with the British and destroyed two other
mills before reaching Port Dover and also disabling its
mills. On November 8 they withdrew west along the north
shore of Lake Erie, arriving in Detroit on the 17th, their
mission accomplished. “The resources of the enemy have
been essentially impaired,” McArthur crowed in his
report, “and the destruction of the valuable mills in the
vicinity of the Grand River, employed in the support of
the army in the [Niagara] peninsula, together with the
consumption of forage and provisions necessary for the
troops has added to the barrier…against any attempts
which may be made this winter in the direction of De-
troit.” The raiders had struck a significant blow against
the British and secured the approaches to the vital Ameri-
can garrison, all at very little cost in terms of resources and
casualties. McArthur’s Raid had been a stunning success.
The raid reveals a great deal about both McArthur’s con-
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
cept of warfare and his character. His objective had been
economic—to render western Upper Canada incapable
of provisioning British troops—and he had no qualms
about destroying public and private property if it harmed
the enemy. He had been equally determined
to avoid a pitched battle with British regu-
Tactical
lars and suffer casualties he could ill afford. Takeaways
A consummate strategist, McArthur under-
stood he could not allow combat to distract By avoiding direct
combat with enemy
from the mission objective. forces whenever
McArthur’s Raid also provides a textbook possible, McArthur
example of asymmetric warfare. Living off wreaked havoc on
the land, relying on speed and avoiding important economic
combat, his small, mobile force had wreaked targets without sus-
taining significant
havoc in the enemy’s vulnerable rear areas. losses to his force.
American irregular forces had won a light- Travel light and fast.
ning guerrilla campaign against an estab- Raids behind enemy
lished, hegemonic British empire. At some lines generally only
level the raid presaged Maj. Gen. William fare well when they are
conducted swiftly with
Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea pre- highly mobile forces.
cisely 50 years later. Whereas McArthur Asymmetrical works.
focused on destroying mills, making it im- But only when the
possible for the enemy to render grain into smaller force avoids
flour and timber into lumber, Sherman tar- set-piece battles with
stronger and usually
geted railroads, breaking the enemy supply better-equipped foes.
line. A half century almost to the day before
Sherman’s army set off for Savannah, leaving behind
a smoldering Atlanta, McArthur rode triumphantly into
Detroit. If Sherman’s March to the Sea represented the
dawn of total war, McArthur’s Raid at very least presaged,
and perhaps informed, that apocalyptic rampage. MH
Ontario-based historian Bob Gordon specializes in Cana-
dian military and social history. His most recent book
is The Bad Detective: The True Story of a Victorian
Sleuth. For further reading he recommends History of the
Late War in the Western Country, by Robert B. McAfee;
Biographical Sketches of Gen. Nathaniel Massie, Gen.
Duncan McArthur, Capt. William Wells and Gen. Simon
Kenton, by John McDonald; and Malcolm’s Mills: The Last
Canadian Battle of the War of 1812, by Andrea Westfall.
In some respects McArthur’s 1813 raid into Upper Canada presaged
Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s 1863 March to the Sea during the Civil
War—though Union troops targeted supply lines rather than mills.
57
A gunner with the military
police detachment of the
Special Forces Command
scans an alpine border area
from a helicopter in 2017.
NEUTRAL
UNLESS...
Due in part to its readiness to fight, Switzerland
has spent centuries in relative peace
By Jon Guttman

B
ehind Switzerland’s long-standing policy of armed neutrality
is a tradition of maintaining a strong citizen militia ready to
defend the nation’s land and airspace with proven ferocity.
Beginning with the victory of the cantons of Schwyz, Uri
and Unterwalden over Hapsburg Duke Leopold I at Mor-
gareten on Nov. 15, 1315, Switzerland expanded into a
confederation of cantons that united against any threat—as dem-
onstrated in battle against Austrians at Sempach on July 9, 1386.
Although Swiss national expansion ended after its defeat by a Franco-
Venetian force at Marignano on Sept. 13–14, 1515, Swiss mercenary
companies continued to provide foreign armies with a formidable
edge. That tradition survives in the Vatican’s Swiss Guard.
Switzerland’s last major conflict was the internal Sonderbund War
of Nov. 3–29, 1847, after which its principal martial—or rather,

59
 NEUTRAL UNLESS...
anti-martial—contribution was Henry Dunant’s conceptualization of the International Red Cross in 1863. The
Swiss managed to keep largely out of both world wars, although venturesome individuals fought in the French
Foreign Legion and other forces. In World War II the Swiss air force did clash with German aircraft that violated
its airspace in May–June 1940, shooting down 11 for the loss of two fighters and a reconnaissance plane. Swiss
fighters and antiaircraft batteries also shot down 15 encroaching Allied aircraft, killing 36 airmen, while losing
one plane to combat with a U.S. fighter in September 1944.
The present-day Swiss armed forces comprise a small nucleus of regulars, the rest being male conscripts aged
19 to 34 and male or female volunteers aged 18 to 49. Obligatory service lasts 300 days, followed by 10 years
in reserve. Like the U.S. Army National Guard, Swiss forces assist in the event of local emergencies. In 2003
Switzerland deployed 31 soldiers to Afghanistan for service alongside Germans in the NATO-affiliated Inter-
national Security Assistance Force. Its last two officers returned home in 2008. MH

Although the populace, depending on region or

canton, speaks German, French, Italian or Romansh,
the Swiss armed forces shoulder tab is in French.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: PHILIPP SCHMIDLI, SWITZERLAND DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE, CIVIL PROTECTION AND SPORT (VBS); THIS PAGE, ABOVE: VBS;
A: BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; B: BUNDESARCHIV; C, E: SWISS FEDERAL ARCHIVES (2); D: HORACE ABRAHAMS/FOX PHOTOS (GETTY IMAGES);

A
A Konrad Grob’s painting of the 1386 Battle of Sempach shows Swiss hero Arnold von Winkel-
Legend, ried sacrificially impaling himself on Austrian pikes to create a gap through which his comrades

Tradition stormed and routed the enemy, killing Duke Leopold III and some 1,500 of his soldiers. While
the decisive victory cemented the Old Swiss Confederacy, Winkelried’s very existence remains
the subject of debate. B German and Swiss soldiers meet along their shared border in 1917.
& Reality Switzerland remained neutral through World War I, although Swiss volunteers fought on both
sides. C During World War I a soldier patrols the Pennine Alps along the Italian border, with
Monte Rosa in the background. D An army officer instructs a young enlistee on a rifle range
in 1938. E Members of the 3rd Howitzer Battery train on their 150 mm gun during World War I.

60 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

B

C D

61
 NEUTRAL UNLESS...

F G

F: HERMANN KEIST; G: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS; H: ARCHIV FESTUNG GOTTHARD; I, J: ULLSTEIN BILD, DTL. (GETTY IMAGES, 2); K: MIKE NIEDERHAUSER, VBS; L: NICOLA PITARO, VBS; M: ALEXANDER KÜHNI, VBS

F A Swiss Messerschmitt Me 109E-3 sports the red-and-white identification bands adopted

Aerial during World War II. Nazi Germany’s 1940 invasion of France was attended by intrusions into

Incidents & Swiss airspace, resulting in several dogfights, with Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe getting the
worst of it. G One of scores of interned Allied aircraft, an American Boeing B-17G Flying For-
Mechanized tress of the 337th Bombardment Squadron, 96th Bombardment Group, wears Swiss crosses at
Dübendorf Air Base in 1944. H Northrop F-5E Tiger fighters of the Swiss air force undergo main-
Mobility tenance in an underground hangar amid the Swiss Alps in 1998. I A British-made Swiss army
Centurion tank negotiates city streets during winter maneuvers in 1970. J French-built Aéro-
spatiale Alouette III helicopters participate in combined-arms maneuvers in 1986. K A McDonnell
Douglas F/A-18D Hornet is towed out of its hardened hangar for a patrol in 2008. L A Panzer 87
Leopard, a Swiss-made variant of the German Leopard 2A4, participates in winter maneuvers in
2013. M Swiss soldiers, their faces masked against the COVID-19 virus, greet the visiting chief
of staff of neutral Liechtenstein at the Castelgrande in Bellinzona, Ticino, on Aug. 31, 2021. Swit-
zerland responded to the COVID-19 threat with its largest troop mobilization since World War II.

62 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 I J

Hardened shelters and

underground hangars
protect much of the
Swiss air force

K
L M

63
 The 1828 Russian siege of Kars was just
one of many battles in the long, tortured
history of the massive hilltop fortress.

64 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 From its 9th century origins as a small hilltop fort built
by the Armenians, Kars evolved into one of the most
powerful citadels between the Black and Caspian seas.
T
he very mention of the world’s great for-
tresses often inspires admiration—Masada,
the Alamo, Gibraltar. Such names recall
battles synonymous with heroic resistance
and national pride. The history of Kars,
however, is one of continual strife, humili-
ating treaties and the final betrayal and
embarrassment of a proud people.
The origin of the name Kars is itself a matter of continu-
ing dispute—is it Kars, Qers or Qars? Is it of Armenian,
Georgian or Turkish origin? The fortress lies just west
of the Turkish-Armenian border on the Akhuryan (or
Arpachay) River, between the Black and
Caspian seas and south of the Caucasus
RUSSIA
Mountains. The great historical em-
BLACK
SEA pires of Persia, Ottoman Turkey and
Russia intersected in the region.
KARS
T U R K E Y Also claiming ground here at vari-
PRESENT-DAY BORDERS ous times were the Armenians, Byz-
IRAN
antines and Mongols.
SYRIA IRAQ Coalescing around this hub of
empires in the 4th century BC was the
Kingdom of Armenia, which in AD 301
became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity
as its official religion. With the later rise of Islam to the
south and east, the kingdom became increasingly isolated
and vulnerable.
In the 9th century, with the threat of Muslim invasion
ever present, the Armenians built the first fortifications
66 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
at Kars, on the rocky heights overlooking the regional
capital. Byzantine forces seized the stronghold in the
mid-11th century, only to relinquish it a few years later
to the Seljuk Turks. Kars changed hands several times
between the Turks and Georgians until 1387, when feared
Mongol conqueror Timur (better known in the West as
Tamerlane) wrested the city from its cowed defenders
and incorporated it into his empire. Turks retook the city
in 1585, declared it neutral and destroyed its fortifica-
PREVIOUS SPREAD: ARTILLERY MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG; TOP: ELIZAVETA BECKER (AKG-IMAGES); LEFT: MAP BY BRIAN WALKER
tions. It remained under Ottoman rule in the 18th century
when Sultan Murad III rebuilt the stronghold to block
Persian encroachment in the region, touching off the
1730–35 Ottoman-Persian War.
Although not as comprehensive as the earlier military
outworks of James of St. George or Sébastian Le Prestre
de Vauban in Western Europe, the Ottoman fortifications
were imposing. An abundance of existing basalt enabled
the construction of a massive structure whose walls were
as solid as concrete. Perched atop a sheer height hun-
dreds of feet above the adjacent valley, Kars citadel was
built on a concentric plan with two ringwalls, the lower
one backed by an inner wall 36 feet high and nine feet
thick. The walls stretched for nearly 2 miles around the
rocky summit, punctuated at intervals by 220 circular and
square towers. These bastions allowed defenders to pour
enfilading fire on any attackers managing to scale the
heights. Unlike Western European castles, the parapets
of Kars were not crenelated, and no moat was necessary.
Kars’ principal defensive feature was its lofty vantage.
A single narrow road ascended to its gates. Attackers
 would either have to advance up that narrow defile or
scale the heights before charging the walls. A secondary
kill zone lay between the walls, designed to isolate any
attackers who succeeded in breaching the outer defenses.
In the age of ballistae and catapults, Kars was virtually
impregnable. While the garrison was heavily fortified,
however, the town below remained virtually defenseless.

In late 1734 Nader Shah Afshar—the last notable Asiatic

conqueror, known as the “Sword of Persia”—took the
Ottoman-Persian War into Transcaucasia when he claimed Nader Shah
Afshar
the region and led an 80,000-man army against a 140,000-
man Ottoman force. The Persian army had field artillery Timur
but no heavy siege guns, a distinct disadvantage when it
came to reducing fortified strongpoints like Kars.
Nader hoped to draw the Turks out of Kars by threat-
ening neighboring cities. When Abdullah Pasha Koprulu
did finally march out to meet him, Nader split his army,
leading an advance guard of 15,000 men forward while
the balance of his force followed within striking distance.
On June 19, 1735, the armies clashed near Yeghevard. De-
spite being outnumbered more than 5-to-1, Nader quickly
captured the Turkish artillery and routed the enemy
troops, who fled with Persian cavalry close on their heels.
Leaving upward of 50,000 dead and wounded comrades
on the field, the survivors took refuge within the walls of
Kars. A shrewd Nader then gathered the Turkish wounded
and sent them back to the city along with the beheaded
remains of their commanders, including Koprulu. That
strategic one-two punch served to overwhelm the city’s
medical facilities and demoralize its garrison.
Flush with his victory in the field, Nader shifted his
full attention to Kars. However, his troops not only lacked
siege artillery, but also were novices at siege warfare.
So instead he had them blockade the city and cut off the
garrison’s water supply. Thus avoiding a long, potentially
costly siege, the Persian commander subsequently used
Kars as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Constanti-
nople. In the final settlement he allowed the Turks to keep
the fortress in exchange for the Armenian city of Yerevan.
TOP LEFT: MIKHAIL GERASIMOV; TOP RIGHT: VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM; RIGHT: GRANGER

Kars was thus saved from destruction and thereafter

marked the border between Ottoman Turkey and Persia.
In 1744 Kars was the locus of a rebellion against Nader’s
rule led by Safi Mirza, a pretender to the Ottoman throne.
Nader raised another army and marched on the city,
reaching it on July 23. This time he brought along a siege
train and encircled the city with forts and trenches. Again,
however, he eschewed costly direct assaults in favor of
cutting off the garrison’s water supply. But the Turks had
learned from experience and managed to keep water
flowing. On October 9 Nader broke off the siege due to
a sudden illness. After recuperating, he returned in June
1745 and encamped near Yerevan. The Ottomans destroyed Kars after capturing it in 1585, but the threat of
That summer a 140,000-strong Ottoman army led by Persian encroachment in the region in the 18th century prompted Sultan
Grand Vizier Yegen Mohammad Pasha marched out from Murad III to order the rebuilding and enlargement of the hilltop fortress.

67

Lord
Raglan
Ivan
Paskevich
Fenwick
Williams
Nicolay
Muravyov
Kars to engage the Persians, who were encamped some
10 miles away on the battlefield where they’d fought a
decade before. On August 9 the armies met and fought
a daylong battle. Nader routed the Turks, and the next day
his troops encircled the enemy, blocking their escape route
to the castle. Pinned in place for more than a week, the
Given the strength of its walls
and daunting elevation, Kars
remained a key stronghold
panicked Ottoman soldiers ultimately mutinied and killed
Yegen Pasha before fleeing in disarray back to Kars, leaving
some 28,000 dead and wounded on the field, compared to
8,000 Persian casualties. As he had done a decade earlier,
Nader sent the Ottoman wounded into the city, over-
whelming caregivers and damaging morale. He then
extended an olive branch, vowing to spare the inhabitants
68 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
if they surrendered. As all of Anatolia was threatened,
Sultan Mahmud I wisely capitulated. Kars had again
dodged a bullet, and the Persians went home. Two years
later Nader was assassinated by his own officers, and
Persia never again threatened the Ottoman empire.
By the 19th century the widespread use of gunpowder
weapons had significantly eroded Kars’ defensive value.
Not entirely, though, for even if attackers were to bomb
the citadel into rubble, they would still have to storm the
heights to take the fortress. Given the strength of its walls
and daunting elevation, Kars remained a key stronghold
in the border region. Though Ottoman military leaders
recognized its strategic importance, their defensive forces
were stretched thin—from the Caspian Sea to the Medi-
terranean, and from Egypt to the Persian Gulf. The Turks
constructed new works below the citadel, while largely
assuming its natural defenses would deter aggressors.
A series of 19th century wars with Russia would expose
the folly of that assumption.
In 1807 the Turks repulsed one Russian army, but
the latter returned in 1828, this time led by Ukrainian-
born Lt. Gen. Ivan Paskevich, an experienced and adept
field commander. After a three-day battle, during which
the Russians pummeled the fortress walls with artillery,
the attackers captured Kars and its 11,000-man garrison.
The occupation proved short-lived, however, for Russia
returned the citadel to Turkey a year later amid peace
negotiations. In 1854, at the outset of the Crimean War,
the Russians again knocked at the door. With an impe-
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG; BRITISH MUSEUM; ARTOKOLORO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); BRITISH MUSEUM
rial army gathering in Georgia, Turkey’s European allies
became alarmed Transcaucasia might fall into Russian
hands, putting Istanbul and the Black Sea straits at risk.
Even discounting that threat, the fall of Kars would im-
peril the Allied siege of the Russian fortress of Sevastopol.
As the timid provincial governor, Zarif Mustafa Pasha,
seemed neither willing to emerge and give battle nor
capable of holding the capital against a determined
attack, it seemed only a matter of time before Kars fell.
In August 1854 Field Marshal FitzRoy Somerset, Lord
Raglan, commander of all Allied forces in Crimea, dis-
patched Maj. Gen. Fenwick Williams and an “advisory
team” to stiffen Kars’ defenses. (In the Victorian era
the British would notoriously repeat the pattern, sending
inadequate forces to near hopeless situations in distant
corners of the empire—notably Lord Chelmsford in Zulu-
land in 1879 and Maj. Gen. Charles Gordon at Khartoum
in 1884.) Williams arrived at Kars in late September 1854
to find a demoralized conscript garrison of 17,000 Turks
armed with obsolete weapons and manning crumbling
defenses. Pushing aside Mustafa Pasha, Williams took
command and virtually single-handedly worked a military
miracle over the next six months, reinforcing the fortifica-
tions and whipping the Turkish garrison into fighting
 shape. In the process he discov-
ered his Turkish troops were not
bad soldiers—just badly led.
Rather than cower within the
citadel walls, Williams extended
the defensive works until the city
itself was ringed with eight forts
and redoubts interconnected by
trench lines that provided inter-
locking fields of fire. Thanks to
his efforts, for the first time in its
history Kars comprised a truly
Free Hayastan fortified city, as opposed to a lone
While Armenia traces citadel overlooking a city.
its origins to the 9th The anticipated Russian at-
century BC, it was often
invaded and subjugated. tack came in June 1855 with some
After World War I the 25,000 troops and 96 guns led
Turks were forced to cede by Gen. Nicolay Muravyov, who
the region—and Kars for- probed the defenses before mount-
tress—to the newly estab-
ing a siege. Muravyov had no
lished First Republic of
Armenia, but the latter heavy siege guns, and his supply
lasted only until 1920. line back to Georgia was vulner-
able, but that didn’t matter. His
primary objective was to relieve Allied pressure on Sevas-
topol. Over the next three months Russian troops overran
the fortress’ outer defenses and established a foothold on
the heights, but they were unable to push into the city
itself. Kars’ British-trained Turks fought with a ferocity that
surprised the attackers. The siege continued into fall, by
which time the defenders suffered from cholera and were
dangerously short of supplies. Williams cut rations repeat-
edly and sent dispatches begging for help, but the British
high command turned a deaf ear to his entreaties. Finally,
LEFT: ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION ARCHIVES; TOP RIGHT: HULTON ARCHIVE (GETTY IMAGES); RIGHT: SHAPIRO AUCTIONS

on September 6 the Ottoman commander in Crimea,

Omar Pasha, pulled 45,000 troops from the line at Sevas-
topol to go to Kars’ relief. Had he done so any earlier,
it might have proved a devastating blow to the siege of
the former, but Sevastopol fell to the Allies three days later.
Omar Pasha landed on the Black Sea coast north of
Kars in late September, about the time Muravyov launched
an all-out assault on the city. The starving defenders man-
aged to repulse the seven-hour assault while inflicting
nearly 7,000 casualties on the attackers. But Omar Pasha
dallied, spending his army’s strength on attacks against
secondary targets that failed to tilt the strategic balance.
By late October the garrison at Kars was beyond des-
perate. The first snow had fallen, and supplies were nearly
exhausted. The Ottomans landed yet another army on the
Black Sea coast, this one under Omar Pasha’s son Selim
Pasha, but he too marched away from Kars, in an effort to
save western Anatolia. By then Muravyov was so confi-
dent of success that he detached a small force to deal with
Selim Pasha, stopping the latter’s advance on November 6.
Finally, on November 28, having abandoned all hope
of relief, Williams surrendered his surviving British and
Top: An illustration from the London News of Aug. 24, 1877, depicts Ottoman
artillery bombarding Russians, though the latter ultimately did capture
Kars. Above: Though defeated by the Russians at the 1915 Battle of Sari-
kamish, the Turks regained Kars under the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Turkish officers and men to the Russians. On entering
Kars, the victors were horrified at the conditions they
found. Unburied victims of starvation and disease lay
stacked in the streets, the survivors simply too weak to
bury them. Many others died over the coming days. In the
final weeks of the siege only Williams’ iron will and the
city’s mighty fortifications had held the enemy at bay. The
British general’s after-action report praised his men: “They
fell dead at their posts, in their tents and throughout
the camp as brave men should who cling to their duty

69
 Armenians, Turks and Russians weren’t
the only ones to play a role in the history
of Kars. In 1855 British Maj. Gen. Fenwick
Williams surrendered the Ottoman fortress
to the Russians after a spirited defense.
through the slightest glimmering of hope of saving a place
entrusted to their custody.”
Following the siege the combatant nations honored
their respective heroes. In recognition of Williams’ re-
markable stand, Queen Victoria created him 1st Baronet
of Kars. On the winning side Emperor Alexander II was
so pleased with the results that he pinned medals on the
deserving Muravyov, as well as the emperor’s own brother
Grand Duke Michael, the regional governor general,
whom Allied officers derided as “frightened as a rabbit
on the battlefield.” Alexander also authorized Muravyov
to change his surname to Muravyov-Karsky, allowing
Doubtless glad to be alive, the
Armenians bore the shame of
not having fired a single shot
his family to forever tout his triumph. While the capture
of Kars hardly made up for the loss of Sevastopol, it served
to assuage Russian pride.
More important, Kars again became a diplomatic bar-
gaining chip in peace negotiations, the Russians returning
it to the Ottomans in the 1856 Treaty of Paris. That is, until
the next round of fighting, which came amid the 1877–78
Russo-Turkish War. In November 1877 Russian forces
under Gens. Mikhail Loris-Melikov and Ivan Lazarev
again captured the fortress from the hapless Turks. This
time, however, in the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano, they kept
70 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
it along with other chunks of Ottoman territory. Under
Russian sovereignty the city became the provincial capital
of the Kars Oblast (province), marking the southwestern
edge of Romanov territory. When the Russians imposed
Eastern Orthodox Christianity on the region, thousands
of Muslims fled across the border into Turkey, including
11,000 from Kars alone. In a reverse migration, Christian
Armenians and Greeks streamed into Kars from Ottoman
territory, setting the stage for the next great struggle.
In November 1914 Ottoman Turkey entered World War I
on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany, largely
to reclaim territory lost to Russia, including Kars. Within
weeks an Ottoman army invaded Transcaucasia. Though
it lost at the Battle of Sarikamish in January 1915, it
nevertheless regained Kars in the 1918 Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk. Once again the Turkish flag flew over the em-
battled city and its restive, largely Armenian population.
Ottoman troops occupied the city on April 25, 1918,
but at war’s end the Allies ordered Turkey to return to its
prewar borders, an arrangement formalized in the 1920
Treaty of Sèvres.
Unwilling to cede territory to the Soviet Union, the
NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)
Allies recognized Armenia in the treaty as an independent
republic. Tasked with ensuring the peaceful transfer of
Kars from Turkish to Armenian control, British Col. Al-
fred Rawlinson deemed it an impossible assignment that
“could only have been carried into effect by the perma-
nent occupation of the [region]…by considerable forces
of European troops”—something that was never going
to happen. The United States refused to accept a proffered
 League of Nations mandate over Armenia to keep the
peace, setting the stage for yet another round of warfare.
The transfer of Kars was anything but peaceful. Arme-
nian troops roamed the countryside committing atrocities
against Turks, while the city’s Ottoman military governor
refused to accept the treaty terms, proclaiming a provi-
sional Turkish government over the region. The Otto-
mans weren’t strong enough to back the claim and were
ousted in April 1919 by a joint British-Armenian force.
The troops entered Kars and arrested all Turkish officials
who had not fled, sending them into captivity on Malta.
A month later Armenia named Kars capital of its Vanand
province. Once again it was a besieged city, not in the
classic sense, but as the target of an insurgency against
Armenian rule with the backing of the new Turkish
nationalist government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Turkey launched a full-scale invasion of Armenia in
September 1920. Four divisions under Brig. Gen. Kâzim
Karabekir crossed the border and bore down on Kars.
Having expected the assault, the Armenians had upgraded
the city’s defenses, starting with the ancient citadel on the
heights. They optimistically pronounced it “impregnable,”
figuring Kars could withstand any siege long enough for
an Armenian relief force to arrive. It was not to be.
On October 30 the commanding officer at Kars threw
open the city gates and allowed the Turks to walk in. The
Turks in turn marched thousands of bewildered officers
and enlisted men out into captivity. Though doubtless
glad to be alive, the Armenians bore the shameful knowl-
edge they had not fired a single shot. It was an unprece-
dented act of treason as well as a military fiasco, although
it went little noticed in the West, in which Gibraltar and
Verdun were historical measuring sticks for “holding the
fort.” One top Armenian army general committed suicide
EKIN YALGIN (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)
rather than face the shame. “Kars fell, but it
was not defeated,” the city’s civil governor
Tactical
said. “It became the victim of our criminal Takeaways
negligence.” In the subsequent humiliating Location is key.
1920 Treaty of Alexandropol, Armenia gave Set atop a steep
back Kars and all the other Turkish territory promontory that
dominated strategic
it had received in the Treaty of Sèvres. terrain, Kars was an
The city made one more notable appear- obstacle any invader
ance on the stage of history. Soviet forces had to reckon with.
occupied Armenia in 1921, imposing a treaty Be proactive.
on Turkey that established the border be- On taking command of
Kars, Fenwick Williams
tween Turkey and the Soviet Union’s three improved its defenses
Transcaucasian republics. Signed in Kars on and raised the morale
October 13, the treaty left the fortress in of its garrison, thereby
Turkish hands—one of few concessions postponing the citadel’s
surrender to Muravyov.
the Soviets made to a weakened Turkey. A Technologies change.
century later the Treaty of Kars remains an The advent of gun-
object of Armenian scorn. powder and large-
Though the present-day historic fortress caliber artillery made
is a popular tourist attraction among foreign Kars’ massive walls
far more vulnerable
visitors, its dark history remains largely to enemy penetration.
unknown in the Western world and is cele-
brated neither by the Turks nor by the Armenians. Like
the city’s former Armenian Holy Apostles Church—
which was converted into a mosque in 1993—Kars
fortress stands as a monument to a turbulent past. MH
Richard Selcer is a Texas-based author and professor of
history. He has published 13 books and taught for more
than 40 years. For further reading he highly recommends
The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Pres-
ent, by Simon Payaslian, and The Sword of Armenia:
Nader Shah, From Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant,
by Michael Axworthy.
Though Kars fortress is a popular destination
among foreign tourists, its contentious history
remains a bitter pill for Armenians to swallow.
71

Reviews
The Atomic Spy
To be successful and survive, spies must have
various qualities, including topical expertise,
in-depth knowledge of their enemy, the abil-
ity to avoid detection and, often, sheer luck.
Most of all, they must have a highly devel-
oped sense of self-preservation to determine
when and how to flee from enemy territory.
Ann Hagedorn’s Sleeper Agent relates
the absorbing story of Russian spy George
Sleeper Agent: The Abramovich Koval, an ostensibly patriotic
Atomic Spy in America American with engineering training and
Who Got Away, by a top-secret clearance. Born in Sioux City,
Ann Hagedorn, Simon Iowa, to Russian-born Jewish immigrants,
& Schuster, New York, Koval was deeply influenced by his parents’
2021, $28 socialist views, as well as anti-communist
and anti-Semitic sentiments within American
society. In 1932 his parents returned to Russia
with son George, who was subsequently re-
cruited by Soviet intelligence. Koval returned
stateside in 1940 and for eight years success-
fully hid the fact he was a Russian agent. Dur-
ing that time he infiltrated the deep security
72 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
The Manhattan Project
research facility at Oak
Ridge, Tenn., was one of
Soviet spy George Koval’s
primary espionage targets.
around nuclear development work at Oak
Ridge, Tenn., and Dayton, Ohio, connected
to the Manhattan Project. Working through
contacts, Koval provided intelligence about
the project to Soviet scientists, enabling Rus-
sia to develop and detonate its own nuclear
weapon a mere four years after the Hiroshima
and Nagasaki bombings. Hagedorn details
how Koval was able to hide in plain sight due
to multiple factors, such as his unobtrusive
behavior, his shrewd determination of which
assignments to accept, his knowledge of
American society and fluency in English, and
his hardworking nature, not to mention in-
sufficiently deep background security checks.
Sleeper Agent is a detailed study of the mo-
tivations and psychological development of a
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
spy. It is also a veiled warning of the great dam-
age a talented espionage agent can wreak and
the danger of accepting information at face
value without thorough security clearances.
—S. L. Hoffman

George Jellicoe: SAS and SBS
Commander, by Nicholas
Jellicoe, Pen and Sword Mili-
tary, Barnsley, U.K. $38
George Jellicoe undertook
some of the most spectacu-
lar raids in the Mediterra-
nean during World War II,
including blowing up aircraft
behind enemy lines in Crete
and parachuting into Rhodes
on a mission to save the Do-
decanese Islands. This was an
atmosphere in which Jelli-
coe thrived, leaping in to en-
gage the enemy where others
dared not go. In this detailed
account, his son provides a
fitting tribute to his father.
In the elder Jellicoe’s early
days, the British army’s No. 8
Commando was made up of
“lots of sprigs of spriglets of
aristocracy,” many of whom
were members of London’s
very exclusive White’s club,
from which they’d been re-
cruited. By the time George
Jellicoe joined the SAS in
1941 as David Stirling’s sec-
ond-in-command, the men
were undergoing rigorous
training in the North Afri-
can desert, hiking 60 miles
or more while carrying back-
packs full of bricks, and jump-
ing from moving trucks.
As a leader of men, Jellicoe
gained the respect of those
around him, although he
loathed discipline. He fitted
in well as commander of the
Special Boat Squadron, a post
he took up in April 1943. The
men of the SBS were a sea-
going “bunch of raggle-taggle
daring-doers,” whose “filthy
and often haphazardly assem-
bled uniforms were in them-
selves symbolic, reinforcing
the raiders’ solidarity and
accentuating their disdain
for the rule that applied to
the rest of the army.”
Jellicoe saw his early foray
into action at Tobruk, Libya,
as rather a jaunt. By the time
he got to the Greek island of
Leros, he was taking the war
more seriously as he saw the
deaths of his fellow soldiers
mount up. In 1943 he fought
in the battle to defend Leros
and, once the island fell to
the Germans, helped soldiers
escape. He was still only 26
when made acting brigadier
for supposedly chasing off
the Germans, having “liber-
ated Athens on a bicycle.”
Though Jellicoe went on to
postwar careers in the British
foreign service, Parliament
and business, three quarters
of this well-researched biog-
raphy justly covers his very
active military life up to 1945.
As his son states, “The war
had been the highlight, the
‘glanzpunkt’ [highlight] of his
life.” A fascinating read.
—Julie Peakman
Churchill, Master and
Commander: Winston
Churchill at War, 1895–
1945, by Anthony Tucker-
Jones, Osprey Publishing,
Oxford, U.K., 2021, $30
Endorsed in the foreword
by Winston Churchill scholar
Andrew Roberts, this bal-
anced biography by former
British intelligence officer
and military historian An-
thony Tucker-Jones traces
Recommended
Churchill’s rise from a young
military officer to his emer-
gence from World War II as
a victorious Allied prime
minister. Neither a hagiog-
raphy nor a polemic, Master
and Commander explains how
Churchill’s formative years
shaped him as a military com-
mander, and what he got right
and wrong once he attainted
high political office. It also Battle Tactics
examines his propensity to of the American
take risks and his fortitude Revolution
By Robbie MacNiven
to withstand criticism, oppo-
This study, featuring specially
sition and defeat.
commissioned artwork, in-
Described by the author vestigates the tactics of
as an “adrenaline junkie,” various forces, including the
British and American oppo-
nents and their European allies.
MacNiven argues the British
army had to relearn lessons
from the Seven Years’ War,
while the Continental Army
largely followed the guidance
of Prussian-born Maj. Gen.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.
Churchill used the British
army as a means of self-pro-
motion and political advance-
ment, combining military
service with combat jour-
nalism. Between 1895 and
1900 such pursuits took him The Erawan War
By Ken Conboy
to Cuba, India, Sudan and
Penned by a former South-
South Africa, informing his
east Asian policy analyst,
military thinking and win- this first volume of a series
ning him valuable friends. sheds light on the “Secret
During World War I Chur- War” in Laos, in which the CIA
chill served briefly on the trained indigenous guerrillas
Western Front in France. In to fight communist forces.
all he was attached to nine Covering the years 1961–69,
the book details CIA and Roy-
different regiments in the
alist paramilitary operations
British, Indian and South Af- against communist troops
rican armies. Tucker-Jones and is vividly illustrated with
argues that Churchill, like photos of case officers, equip-
his enemies Adolf Hitler and ment and battle scenes.
73
 Reviews
Recommended
Caribbean
Volunteers at War
By Mark Johnson
This volume details the
Caribbean men and women
who volunteered for Brit-
ain’s Royal Air Force during
World War II. Based on press
accounts, the author’s own
interviews with veterans and
other personal accounts, the
book provides insights into
such volunteers’ everyday
experiences, culture clashes
and wartime heroism.
Antigonus the
One-Eyed
By Jeff Champion
This volume takes a strictly
military look at Alexander the
Great’s “oldest and greatest”
successor. Antigonus seized
power following Alexander’s
death, and after conquering
the Asian portion of the em-
pire by 315 BC, he waged war
against his rivals until killed
in battle in 301 BC.
74 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
Benito Mussolini as well
as his ostensible ally Joseph
Stalin, became a warlord. Yet
however impatient for ac-
tion and prone to autocratic
tendencies he might have
been, Churchill never over-
ruled his military service
chiefs, though he wasn’t shy
about trying to verbally batter
them into submission.
The author’s focus on the
years 1895–1945 is problem-
atic. It makes sense to begin
a military study of Churchill
with his 1895 graduation
from the Royal Military Acad-
emy, Sandhurst, as a cornet
(second lieutenant) of cav-
alry, and subsequent service
in India and Sudan.
But while terminating his
study in 1945 with the Allied
victory makes literary sense,
Tucker-Jones unfortunately
ignores Churchill’s less ex-
citing but still vital second
administration from 1951–
55. Increasingly deaf, aging
and unwell, he presided over
Britain’s actions in coopera-
tion with the United States
during the Cold War with
the Soviet Union, a hot war
with China and North Korea,
and covert action against
Iran. Churchill also bore re-
sponsibility for imperial
security operations in Egypt,
Cyprus, Kenya and Malaya.
This very readable and
critical account of Churchill
as warlord is tough but gen-
erally fair, though Tucker-
Jones does include an odd,
almost throwaway statement
about Churchill possibly
having Asperger syndrome.
Amply supported with maps,
illustrations, endnotes, a
bibliography and an index,
Master and Commander is an
excellent addition to the
Churchill literary corpus.
—William John Shepherd
Red Star Versus Rising Sun,
Vol. 1: The Conquest of
Manchuria, 1931–1938,
by Adrien Fontanellaz,
Helion & Co., Warwick,
U.K., 2021, $29.95
World War II officially began
when Germany invaded Po-
land on Sept. 1, 1939. Many
historians, however, point to
Japan’s 1931 invasion of Man-
churia as the true beginning
of that conflict. Like the fall
of a set of dominos, they note,
that act of aggression trig-
gered a series of events lead-
ing the worldwide cataclysm.
Yet neither was the invasion
of Manchuria an isolated inci-
dent. In Red Star Versus Rising
Sun author Adrien Fonta-
nellaz places that incursion
in the context of a protracted
intermittent conflict between
Japan, Russia and, eventu-
ally, the Soviet Union over
the economic and political
control of northeast Asia.
After some 200 years of
isolation, the opening of Ja-
pan in the mid-19th century
triggered rapid modern-
ization of the nation and its
military. By the last decade
of the century it aimed to
exert its imperial influence
over China and northeast
Asia. Those ambitions butted
up against the simultane-
ous expansion of the Russian
empire across Siberia to the
Pacific Ocean.
As China fell under the
influence of numerous for-
eign powers, and its central
government increasingly de-
generated into chaos, Russia
and Japan sought to exploit
the situation to extend their
influence over the Korean
Peninsula and Manchuria.
The former was important
to Japan, as it represented
a jumping-off point on the
Asian mainland for a possi-
ble invasion of China, while
the latter was vital to both
empires as a source of natu-
ral resources for modern in-
dustry. Thus conflict between
the expansionist empires
was inevitable—and it didn’t
cease after Russia’s humili-
ating defeat by the Japanese
in 1905, or after the 1917–23
Russian Revolution.
In this first volume of a
series Fontanellaz describes
the origins and history of the
rivalry between Russia and
Japan, which had far-reach-
ing repercussions. It is a fas-
cinating account of an aspect
of 20th century history rarely
covered in the West.
—Robert Guttman
The Katyn Massacre 1940,
by Thomas Urban, Pen &
Sword Military, Barnsley,
U.K., and Havertown, Pa.,
2020, $34.95
Decades ago this reviewer

worked at a British mill that
employed many Polish ex-
servicemen. Captured by
the Russians in 1939, they
had been sent via Iran in
1942 to serve in North Af-
rica and Italy, later refusing
to return home to commu-
nist postwar Poland. One
day a Polish co-worker asked
whether I’d heard about
the wartime Katyn massacre.
I had not. Then, with tears
in his eyes, he recounted
how one of his friends, a
cadet officer around my
age, had been murdered
alongside thousands of
other officers.
In what has been de-
scribed as a crime without
parallel the Soviets slaugh-
tered some 22,000 Polish
military officers—from en-
signs to generals—in April
and May 1940. Loved ones
simply stopped receiving
letters, while anything sent
to the missing men was re-
turned as undeliverable. It
was later revealed that in
the days prior to their mur-
ders most of the men had
been rounded up amid the
vast forests near Katyn, just
west of Smolensk.
It was in that region in
January 1943 that a German
officer noted a wolf fran-
tically digging in the snow
close to a birch cross. As the
snow melted, two peasants
and a railway worker, whose
father had been shot by the
NKVD (the Soviet secret po-
lice), led German military
police troops to the same
spot. Exploratory digging
revealed scores of corpses
in Polish uniforms. (Coinci-
dentally, Rudolf-Christoph
von Gersdorff, the officer
who reported the discovery
to Berlin, had escaped Ge-
stapo detection after hav-
ing participated in a failed
attempt to assassinate Hitler
at an exhibition of captured
Soviet weapons.)
By mid-June digging par-
ties had located eight graves
containing 4,143 corpses.
Nazi propaganda minister
Joseph Goebbels, a notori-
ous liar and manipulator,
for once told the truth as
he trumpeted the discovery
in hopes of driving a wedge
between the Allies.
Meanwhile, in secret dis-
patches to Franklin D. Roo-
sevelt, Joseph Stalin blamed
the Germans for the massa-
cre and complained that the
Polish government in exile
in London had adopted a
“hostile attitude” to the So-
viet Union. American intel-
ligence sources subsequently
confirmed Katyn as a Soviet
war crime in eight sepa-
rate reports, but presum-
ably for reasons of political
expedience and Allied war-
time “solidarity” the Roose-
velt administration dismissed
the reports and buried all
relevant records.
Author Thomas Urban
succinctly guides the reader
through the multiple in-
vestigations, as well as the
numerous conflicting claims
and counterclaims as to who
was responsible for the mas-
sacre. The book’s epilogue
draws attention to several
mysterious—and still un-
solved—deaths across the
years of people with connec-
tions to the investigations.
Urban also notes that the
location of the 7,305 other
murdered Polish officers re-
mains known only to those
with access to secret NKVD
archives. Their fate should
never be forgotten.
—David Saunders
Richard III: The Self-Made
King, by Michael Hicks,
Yale University Press, New
Haven, Conn., 2019, $35
For more than five centu-
ries Richard III, despite his
brief 26-month reign, has
retained his dubious distinc-
tion as the most infamous of
British monarchs. Granted,
history is invariably written
by the victors, and most of
that history was written by
Richard III’s usurping suc-
cessors, the Tudors. It was
no coincidence that Shake-
speare’s namesake play
about the last Yorkist king
was written during the reign
of Elizabeth I, granddaugh-
ter of Henry VII, the very
man who seized Richard’s
throne. In recent years “Ri-
cardian” revisionist his-
torians have attempted to
rehabilitate Richard III, ar-
guing that the monarch’s
evil reputation was solely
based on Tudor propaganda.
In this fascinating new
biography British medieval
historian Michael Hicks
delves beneath the hyper-
bole, seeking to uncover
the character of the real
Richard and explain how
he became the man he was.
Born during the turbulent
Wars of the Roses, Richard
was the youngest surviving
son of the Duke of York,
a wealthy and powerful
magnate who arguably had
a better claim to the throne
than reigning monarch
Henry VI. Although Rich-
ard’s father and brother
Edmund were killed, his
20-year-old eldest brother
succeeded Henr y VI as
King Edward IV. Richard
thus became, at age 8, a
royal duke and third in the
line of succession after
brothers Edward IV and
George, Duke of Clarence.
He took it from there. But
just how far did he go to
secure his place in the mo-
narchial succession? Rich-
ard III: The Self-Made King
presents its protagonist as a
product of both the feudal
system into which he was
born and the turbulent era
of conspiracies and civil
wars in which he lived.
—Robert Guttman
75
 Hallowed Ground
Cowpens
p National Battlefield,
South Carolina, 1781
By William John Shepherd
V
irginian Daniel Morgan was a crack-shot fron-
tiersman and soldier. Few men in American his-
tory hated the British more than Morgan. Having
survived the usually fatal sentence of 500 lashes
for striking a British officer during the French
and Indian War, he repaid the Redcoats in spades
during the American Revolution. This was espe-
cially true on Jan. 17, 1781, at Cowpens, S.C., a battle that
set the stage for the Franco-American victory at Yorktown,
Va., that October, effectively ending the war and ensuring
the United States’ hard-won independence.
Facing a stalemate in the Northern colonies, British strate-
gists looked to help Southern Loyalists (aka Tories) regain
control of their region and then use those recruits to aug-
ment British forces on a northward march to crush the re-
bellion. The campaign began well with
NC
the British capture of Savannah, Ga.,
in late 1778. In May 1780 they took
COWPENS
NATIONAL Charleston, S.C., compelling an
BATTLEFIELD
American army under Maj. Gen.
SOUTH
CAROLINA Benjamin Lincoln to surrender.
GA
That August at Camden, S.C., the
CHARLESTON
British destroyed another Ameri-
SAVANNAH can army, led by Maj. Gen. Horatio
Gates—the victor of Saratoga and
rival of Gen. George Washington.
The Southern theater was the scene of a brutal civil war
between Loyalists and Patriots (aka Whigs). Both sides
organized militias and devastated the countryside. In Octo-
ber 1780 Washington, hoping to turn the tide of conflict,
appointed Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene the new American
commander in the South, assisted by Brig. Gen. Morgan.
Both were trusted lieutenants of Washington. Greene di-
vided his army soon after his arrival, sending a detachment
under Morgan southwest of the Catawba River to hamper
British operations in the Carolina backcountry. The British
commander in the South, Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis, sent
Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton to block Morgan. Patriots widely
despised Tarleton for having allowed his men to kill surren-
dering American soldiers at the May 1780 Battle of Wax-
haws, an action derisively known as “Tarleton’s Quarter.”
76 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022
On Jan. 12, 1781, British scouts pinpointed Morgan’s
army on South Carolina’s Pacolet River, and Tarleton gave
chase. Morgan retreated north and by January 16 was trav-
eling west on the Green River Road. That day, as Tarleton
closed in, Morgan resolved to make a stand at Cowpens,
a frontier pasture some 500 yards long and wide with scat-
tered trees but little undergrowth. Morgan called for militia
units to gather there, and they began to arrive overnight.
January 17 dawned clear and cold. The British had been
on the march since 3 a.m. Tarleton’s approaching army,
anchored by his veteran Loyalist British Legion, numbered
1,150 men, including 300 mounted dragoons, more than
600 infantrymen and two 3-pounder cannons. Morgan
waited with some 1,900 men, comprising 182 Continental
and state dragoons, 300 Continental infantrymen and some
1,400 Southern militia. Tarleton was confident of victory
and deployed his men along the Green River Road.
As Morgan expected, Tarleton attacked head-on. Mor-
gan’s first line of troops were sharpshooters who drove off
the British dragoons before falling back to join the Southern
militia in the second line. That line fired two volleys before
withdrawing to the third line, comprising the Continental
infantry. Interpreting the pullback as retreat, the British
infantry, led by the 71st Regiment of Foot, confidently ad-
vanced. Amid the noise of battle militiamen on the American
right mistakenly turned to retreat. Sensing victory, the British
broke ranks and began to charge. At that moment Morgan
rode up and ordered his troops to turn and fire, which they
did, inflicting heavy losses. The reorganized American mili-
TOP: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES); BELOW: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
tia and dragoons then enveloped the fleeing British. Tarleton
and survivors fled back to Cornwallis’ main army.
Calling the battle “a devil of a whipping,” Morgan re-
ported just 12 Americans killed and 60 wounded, while
Tarleton lost 110 killed and more than 700 captured. After
rejoining the main American army, an ailing Morgan re-
tired to his Virginia farm, leaving Greene to harry Corn-
wallis to final defeat at Yorktown that fall.
Established in 1929 and managed by the National Park
Service, Cowpens National Battlefield—near Chesnee, S.C.,
just south of the state line with North Carolina—features
battle relics and displays relating the Southern campaign. MH
Top: Sensing victory as American militiamen
mistakenly turned to retreat, the British 71st
Regiment of Foot was routed when Daniel
Morgan's Regulars abruptly turned and fired.
The Green River Road runs through the park.

77
 War Games
1 2

3 4

5
Mary Walker 6

Saving Lives
Amid Death 7
Can you match these caregivers
with the battle/campaign in which

LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; 1: JOHN PRIOR IMAGES (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); 2: AJAY SURESH, CC BY-SA 2.0; 3: HEMIS (ALAMY); 4: LION05, CC BY-SA 2.0; 5: CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES;
they distinguished themselves?
1. John Simpson Kirkpatrick
2. Noel Godfrey Chavasse
3. Arthur Martin-Leake

6: FRANK PAUL (ALAMY); 7: EDWIN REMSBERG (ALAMY); 8: MARKUS TRIENKE, CC BY-SA 2.0; 9: ALL CANADA PHOTOS (ALAMY); 10: IMAGEBROKER (ALAMY)
8 9
4. Richard Rowland Kirkland
5. James Henry Reynolds
6. Clarence Sasser
7. Dominique Jean Larrey
8. Mary Walker
9. James Mouat
10
10. Desmond Doss
____ A. Aspern-Essling, 1809
____ B. Rorke’s Drift, 1879
____ C. Chattanooga, 1863
____ D. Somme, 1916,
Passchendaele, 1917
____ E. Okinawa, 1945 Celebrated Citadels
____ F. Gallipoli, 1915 Can you identity these targets of siege across the centuries?

____ G. Fredericksburg, 1862 ___ A. Fort Carillon/Ticonderoga ___ F. Alhambra

____ H. Dinh Tuong Province, 1968 ___ B. Marienburg/Malbork ___ G. Valenciennes

____ I. Vlakfontein, 1902, ___ C. Acre/Akko ___ H. Chapultapec

Zonnebeke, 1914 ___ D. Aberystwyth ___ I. Fort Pulaski
____ J. Balaklava, 1854 ___ E. Harlech Castle ___ J. Stirling Castle
Answers: A7, B5, C8, D2, E10, F1, G4, H6, I3, J9 Answers: A6, B9, C5, D1, E8, F2, G3, H4, I7, J10

78 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 Raiders on Review
“Hit ’em where they ain’t” is
an ancient alternative to direct
confrontation, as related below:
Askari
Forces
1. Why did Cao Cao’s raid on Wu-
chao turn the AD 200 Guandu
campaign in his favor?
A. He destroyed the
enemy’s supplies
B. He slew Gen. Yuan Shao
C. He captured a sacred
enemy talisman
D. He captured the enemy’s
main force
2. To what end did Edward III stage
his 14th century chevauchées
(mounted raids) in France?
A. Deprive the enemy of resources
B. Demoralize the populace
C. Avoid the risks of open battle
D. All of the above
3. What made Col. Ranald S.
Mackenzie’s 1874 raid into
Palo Duro Canyon decisive
in the Red River War?
A. American Indian casualties
B. 1,500-plus horses killed
C. Supplies destroyed
D. B and C
4. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and
his Askari force survived into
1918 by raiding whose African
colony in November 1917?
A. Britain B. Portugal
BUNDESARCHIV
C. Belgium D. France
Answers: 1A, 2D, 3D, 4B,
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (required by
Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code). 1. Military
History 2. (ISSN: 0889-7328) 3. Filing date: 10/1/21. 4. Issue frequency: Bi
Monthly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 6. 6. The annual subscription
price is $39.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication:
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 Captured!

Rope Trick
Carrying a day pack and a Thompson submachine gun,
a U.S. Army Ranger traverses a river on a single rope
during training conducted in March 1943 by British army
commandos at Achnacarry in the Scottish highlands.

REG SPELLER/FOX PHOTOS (GETTY IMAGES)

80 MILITARY HISTORY JANUARY 2022

 ROMAN GLADIATORS FROZEN IN TIME FOR OVER 1,600 YEARS

Found: 1,600-Year-Old
Roman Gladiator Coins
Hold the Glory of Rome
In the Palm of Your Hand

W hen your famous father appoints

you Caesar at age 7, you’re stepping
into some very big sandals. But when that
the Emperor had just won
several important military
battles against the foes of
father is Emperor Constantine the Great, Rome. At the same time,
those sandals can be epic! Romans were preparing
to celebrate the 1100th
Constantius II, became Caesar at 7, and anniversary of the founding
a Roman Emperor at age 20. Today, he of Rome. To mark these
is remembered for helping continue his momentous occasions,
father’s work of bringing Christianity this new motto was added
to the Roman Empire, as well as for his and the joyful inscription
valiant leadership in battle. makes complete sense.
But for many collectors, his strongest A Miracle
legacy is having created one of the most
fascinating and unique bronze coins in of Survival
the history of the Roman Empire: the for 1,600 Years
“Gladiator’s Paycheck”. For more than sixteen Approximately
centuries, these 17-20 mm
the Gladiators Paycheck stunning coins have
Roman bronze coins were the “silver survived the rise and fall
dollars” of their day. They were the of empires, earthquakes,
coins used for daily purchases, as well as floods and two world
for the payment of wages. Elite Roman wars. The relatively few Roman Satisfaction Guaranteed
Gladiators—paid to do battle before bronze coins that have survived to this We invite you to examine your coin in
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spear menacingly at a second warrior Claim your very own genuine Roman
on horseback. Frozen in bronze for over Gladiator Bronze Coin for less than $40 Roman Gladiator Bronze $39.95 +s/h
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