Military Battle Tactics

[Ali]

Well I am off work for a while as my elderly father is very unwell and in rehabilitation so have some time to use up at home. One of the things I have always wanted to learn more about are military and combat tactics from great battles/wars in the past. Came across a raft of books by Osprey and some other publishers in Waterstones at the weekend and from seems I am not the only one interested in such history.

So does anyone have any famous battles or generals, specific campaigns or other favourite periods of history worth a look? Any other history buffs on here?

 

[Garno]

I was in the army at the end of the 70's through the 80's and took part in 2 major exercises, Namely "crusader" and "Lionheart". you can glean a tremendous amount of info regards to tactics from them. Operation "Crusader" was in 1980 and at the time the biggest military exercise since WWII. Operation "Lionheart" 4 or 5 years later eclipsed that one. Had some good times on both of those :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Trevanion]

I've always found anything involving the Romans very interesting, Particularly the Punic and Gallic Wars. Although everything has to be taken with a grain of salt as a lot of "facts" can change in 2000 years :lol:

 

[Bale]

I'm reading this at the moment.

Not sure if it's strictly "Military", but it certainly gives a new perspective to all those 1950s cowboy films.

Pete

 

[woodbloke66]

Although works of fiction or rather 'faction' the Sharpe novels (not the TV series which is rubbish IMO) give a pretty good account of the Duke of Wellington's campaigns in the Peninsular War during the early years of the 19th Cent. Cornwell writes a great yarn and effortlessly weaves Richard Sharpe into battles that were actually fought throughout Portugal and Spain by 'Old Hooky'.
When my son was in his teens he hadn't read much at all so when at a loss one day I gave him 'Sharpe's Tiger' (the first in the series) which is set in India, culminating with the DofW fighting the Battle of Assaye.
He didn't get his nose out of it for three days and read all the Sharpe books within a month.
Sharpe is definitely not a character you'd want to upset in a hurry :shock: - Rob

 

[Droogs]

For a good read on Russian military tactics (they haven't moved on much) the followimg is pretty good:

https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm100-2-1.pdf

Also for the usual Orbat the following is useful:

https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm100-2-1.pdf

For British military doctrine the 5th edition of the UK Defence Doctrine Journal is here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... ctrine.pdf

all good bedtime read

 

[t8hants]

The American Civil War, would give you years of study, good Generals, B.A. Generals, dumb tactics, evolving tactics, hints of what was to come . The Ken Burns documentary 'The Civil War' (now on the tube) is probably the best ever TV military history documentary series, any book by Shelby Foote

 

[Eric The Viking]

I see you are in Kent. If your dad is too, how about Stephen Bungay's book on the Battle of Britain, "The Most Dangerous Enemy"*? ISBN: 978-1-84513-535-5

It's a jolly good read, with lots of maps and illustrations too. I got my copy from Abe Books "secondhand" (probably remaindered, as it was pristine) - they are quite a bit cheaper usually than Amazon (there are other booksellers' sites too).

Nobody in my family fought in the Battle of Britain, but they did hide a couple of Hurricanes in a (big) shed at the start of 1940. Bungay's book helped me validate the family story.



*Apparently it's what Goering called the RAF.

 

[Student]

There are two books about the Second World war in Burma worth reading. The first is Bill Slim's "Defeat into Victory". The second is "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George McDonald Fraser (he of the Flashman books and film scripts for such films as Where Eagle s Dare).