debor044

  Fatalism of Global Conflict & The culture of ‘Apocalypse’ Modern Conflict 1915-1939 Introduction: This post will be slightly more abstract this week, dealing with the collective culture of socio-political violence in warfare & combat studies of the 20th century, especially during the Great War & throughout the 'Inter War' era in Europe. I've always found the culture of the Great War generation and the preceding generation so compelling because of  the sheer volume of mass movement conflicts and total war ideologies within.  The diverse backgrounds, ethnicity, and national identities of the millions upon millions of men and women who fought and endured the many struggles of arms and ideologies throughout 1900-1945 and beyond, intrigue my greater historical ideals and conceptions of warfare, diplomacy, politics, culture, and society to this day. The fatalism harbored by the harsh realities of the Great War and its ...

On this day in 1864 the Union Army under the command of General Ambrose Burnsides, (b.1824-1881) in an attempt to break the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia (June 1864-April 1865), exploded an over 500 foot mine dug under Confederate defense in the weeks before in an attempt to overrun General Robert E. Lee's (b.1807-1870) positions. Battle of the Crater, July 30, 1864 Burnsides, the now iconic namesake of sideburns became infamous for this half-cocked, immensely dangerous and ultimately very costly assault. He became the scapegoat and was truly to blame for the disastrous & pointless attacks that followed the explosion of 320 kegs of black powder in the mine dug weeks before by engineers. The explosion failed to open a significant breach anywhere along the Confederate lines. It succeeded in creating a large and relatively deep crater, a sort of canyon or hole which later cost thousands of Union lives during futile charges and assaults to break t...

Allies At Dieppe, 4 Commando and the US Rangers: Operation Cauldron Written By Will Fowler. Osprey Publishing, UK, 2012. Digital Release available on Amazon, iTunes, & NOOK Books Review by: Ben Sparks,  The Commando Raid on Dieppe, France, August 19, 1942, codenamed Operation Jubilee, was one of the first major attempts undertaken by British and Allied forces before the June 6th landings of D-Day 1944, to attack the Nazi’s. The US Rangers among the other more numerous British and Commonwealth forces of 4 Commando cut their teeth in Operation Cauldron, one of the only successful actions of the bloody Raid on Dieppe. While this wasn’t the first operation of the Commandos, the bloodbath at Dieppe became a blemish on the celebrated but heavily critiqued reputation of the special forces units of Britain and the Commonwealth from 1940-1945. Fowler’s Allies at Dieppe, looks to debunk the assumption that the Dieppe Raid was a complete failure, narrating the operations of 4 Commando an...

On this day in 1643 the Battle of Roundway Down was fought near Dervizes, Wiltshire England during the English Civil War, 1642-1651. Battle of Roundway Down, July 13, 1643 It is generally accepted that the battle at Roundway Down was a complete victory for the Royalists, apart of their campaign in the West of England during the early stages of the First English Civil War 1642-1645. The Royalist defeat of the Parliamentarian armies relived the siege of Devizes castle and signaled the downfall of Parliaments Western Association Armies. The previous weeks Battle of Lansdowne , July 5, 1643 saw heavy Royalist casualties and a grave injury suffered to the Royalist commander, Lord Ralph Hopton, who had led Royalist armies to a string of victories before being besieged at Devizes Castle by the Parliamentarians. The Battle of Roundway Down began around 3 o’clock in the afternoon when a combined force of Parliamentarian infantry, horse dragoons, and artillery met Lord Hopton’s and Lord Hen...

The English Civil Wars 1642-1651 , especially the early years of conflict and societal anarchy in 1642-1645, were heavily influenced by a number of forces, from the tyranny of the Personal Rule of King Charles I from 1629-1640, to religious revival and fervor, and the infleunce continental politics and wars of the late 1500's and early 1600's. The earliest years of the English Civil were in many ways marred by the mostly indecisive military campaigns fought throughout England & Scotland, juxtaposed with the often brutal, unethical, immoral, and generally rigid Puritan or Independent religious fervor which had become radical. Parliamentarians many of whom were Independents brazenly denounced King Charles and all Royalists as Ricardian-esque tyrants, men “against the Lord’s cause,” and literally allied with the devil himself. One result of this religious revival or awakening was the frightlfully alarming practice which had been borrowed from the equally devout Scots in th...

Cross of Iron, directed by Sam Peckinpah. EMI Films, 1977. 132 minutes.   Based on The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich (1955). Reviewed by: Ben Sparks, Worcester State University 2012 Famed 1960’s and 1970’s director Sam Peckinpah’s, Cross of Iron, is a gritty, dark, violent, and yet highly stylized and analytical film, detailing the daily struggles and dangers faced by Wehrmacht soldiers stationed on the Eastern Front during World War II from 1943-1945. In particular the audience experiences the deeds of anti-hero Sergeant Rolf Steiner, played by James Coburn, and his ragtag platoon during their deployment in Russian at the Kuban bridgehead in 1943.  The title of the film comes from the other lead, Captain Stransky, played by Maximilian Schell who is an ambitious aristocrat of the Prussian officer corps. He sought transfer to the Eastern Front in order to win the Iron Cross. This “heroic horses ass” as he calls himself in jest, helps to carry much of the later plot of the fi...

Of the great wars that the Roman Republic & its Legions fought, one of the most memorable and culturally importantly in the modern age is the revolt of Spartacus and his gladiators in 73-71 BC. Spartacus and his diverse rebel legion of slaves, prisoners-of-war, peasants, and former gladiators terrorized Southern Italy in a bloody revolt, eventually threatening the security and the pride of Rome itself. Known as the Gladiator War   and also the T hird Servile War   in relation to the two other preceding major slave revolts in Sicily 135-132 BC and in 104-110 BC, the war which Spartacus brought to the doorstep of Rome itself was significant because not only was it fought on the Roman mainland, it threatened the existence (in theory) of the Roman Empire. Indeed one of the most sacred institutions of Roman culture up to this point in history of Rome, the gladiator, threatened to destroy its own creator and benefactor in one armed slave revolt. A 19th centur...