Welcome to the 15th Military History Carnival!

Welcome to the 15th Military History Carnival!
This is the first time I have hosted the MHC, and I would like to thank those who have made submissions; thanks also to Gavin for advice on putting the thing together.
Most of the posts included below are my own choice, but I know that I am bound to have missed some great posts out there....

I previously issued some theme ideas for the carnival:
- forgotten (or little known) engagements
- good and bad tactics
- collateral (civilian impact)
- eyewitness accounts
- (lowish rank) individuals who made an impact
- interesting weapons
- book reviews
- contributions to "big debates" (eg is the Civil War over yet)

Many of the posts below support these categories, but have stuck with a basic chronological organisation for the carnival so that readers can zoom in on their favourite era.

OK, off we go.

ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL:

For the Ancient History era, Mark at the Skwib presents another quality edition of The Lost PowerPoint Slides: Trojans and Triremes? It?s All Greek to Everyone! (Part 6.1)

Milica at SCAtoday reports on the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council project The Soldier in Later Medieval England which started in 2006 and is producing regular output, including the Soldier of the Month .

Lafayette C. Curtis at I, Clausewitz busts the myth about clerics and bludgeoning weapons in medieval Europe.

EARLY MODERN:

Lafayette Curtis submitted Actions of Lowe countries, Gordon Frye's History Ramblings' report of a detailed reenactment of a late 16th-century military camp in California.

By way of contrast, Mrs Drudge at The Drudgeries reports on an unimpressive reenactment of the Battle of Maidstone in the English Civil War: "a mixture of fat old men and gal troops halfheartedly struggling up Gabriels Hill . More on this important battle here .

In a post entitled Of Seas and Ships and Spanish Sailors, the eery Dragon History blog of Stromness notes the legacy of the Spanish Armada in the Orkney Islands.

Gavin at Investigations of a Dog reviews War and Gender by Joshua Goldstein

Inspired by early memories of watching the Last of the Mohicans, Alex at Military History and Warfare sets out to discover the real story of the "massacre" at Fort William Henry during the French and Indian Wars in 1757

Konrad at Froginawell presents a Chinese Description of C17th Dutch Suicide Tactics using contemporary accounts (submitted by fellow amphibian Alan).

I was given the OK by MHC high command to include some posts or reviews from the H-Net Discussion network. In H-War , Oliver Walton reviews a biography of a Forgotten Star of the Royal Navy.

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR:

David Woodbury at of Battlefields and Bibliophiles revisits a favourite book on the Civil War, and interviews the author. Hat tip to Dimitri Rotov at Civil War Bookshelf

Paul Taylor at With Sword and Pen recommends The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation by Prof. Timothy Smith, which tells the story of how dedicated veterans set out to preserve the battle sites of Chickamauga, Antietam, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg in the 1890's.

Maggie at Civil War Women tells the story of Fanny Lawrence Ricketts, who after tracking down her wounded husband James in a makeshift field hospital, writes in her diary: "As I look from the window I see a severed leg under a tree. It has been there all day, and I intend asking to have it removed."

T J Linzy at Battlefield Biker tells the story of the Battle of New Hope Church complete with his customary motorbike ride suggestion.

In H-CivWar, Paul Quigley commends Jason Philips' 2007 book on Diehard Rebels.

Meanwhile, Harry Smeltzer at Bull Runnings has the rug pulled from under his digital history project by the demise of Microsoft Live Search.

THE GREAT WAR:

In Because our Fathers Lied , Francis Beckett of the Guardian reviews four new books about soldiers' experiences in the First World War, which he compares to the death of his own grandfather - hat tip to Ralph E Luker at Cliopatria .

Stories of wartime relatives are posted on many family history blogs: Bob Lord (WW2 USAF) at LordandLady tells the story of relative Martin Cumming of the 48 Highland Regiment , 1st Canadian Division; his post reminds us of the scarcely believable daily casualty figures in the Great War.

Ross Mahoney at Thoughts on Military History discusses Gallipoli, Combined Operations and Air Power.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber has a great post on The Great and Unremembered War, which has an impressive set of comments attached. In particular I draw your attention to comment #2 is from Stuart, on leadership failure as explained by Blackadder. Magic.

This post was also featured in History Carnival LXV at Progressive Historians. Jeremy Young included a number of other good posts on Military History in this broad-ranging carnival which is cleverly built around the idea of a US Presidential Debate: most of the Mil Hist recommendations of course come from vet John McCain!

A couple of dead Germans: Christofer Eger at Suite101 marks the passing of the Kaiser's Last Soldier, while Executed Today remembers the death by French firing squad in 1923 of early Nazi cum freedom fighter Albert Leo Schlageter, who tried to sabotage the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 by blowing up railway lines, and inevitably became a martyr figure for the Nazis.

WORLD WAR 2:

Several important WW2 anniversaries have just passed. For D-Day (6th June, 1944), Zenpundit gives us Ronald Reagan's heartfelt speech from the 40th anniversary in 1984. In part of his speech Reagan bemones the fact that Eastern Europe was still under Soviet occupation - not for long.

Aussie Navy veteran Mackenzie J Gregory at Ahoy has a copy of an important signal which officers on HMAS Nizam drew lots to keep. A huge amount of dedication clearly goes into this blog, which has over 1600 articles.

Raul Colon at The Sub Report tells us what happened to the U-Boat bases and pens after the war - the unlucky ones were used for bombing practice, but others are still in use today.

The carrier pilots of the Battle of Midway (4th-7th June, 1942) are remembered by El Jefe Maximo at Kingdom of Chaos.

Brett Holman at Airminded has a fascinating post on how much time British air defences had to intercept air attacks during both WW1 and WW2. Brett estimates that The Chain Home radar system increased the time available to get Hurricanes and Spitfires into position from 5 minutes to around 40 minutes...without it, we would clearly have been in a spot of bother.

Let's also include a post to recognise the place that Wargamers have in the military history blogosphere. I was impressed with the D-Day landscape created by the Bedford Gladiators Wargame and Role Play Club.

English Russia has some great photos of the moment when a Red Army veteran is re-united with his tank. You may need to scroll down past the ads for "beautiful Russian girls"[you can always scroll back up]. The same blog also has an interesting item on the Sevastopol Defense Panorama.

POST-WAR:

Mark Grimsley at Blog Them out of the Stone Age asks Will the Munich analogy ever outlive its usefulness?. Comments are worth reading as well.

Charles J Hanley reports on Mass Killings in S.Korea in 1950 killings of suspected leftists at start of Korean War (hat tip - RE Luker, again)

Mark Walker, "A 20th-Century Faust," American Scientist, May/June, reviews Michael J. Neufeld's Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War . (hat tip: guess who).

Kennedy Hickman's About.Com Military History blog makes a contribution to the obscure weapons strand with the story of how a prototype Cold War bomber met its end on a photo shoot

MEMORIAL DAY:

I came across a number of thoughtful posts prompted by Memorial Day in the USA.
From Vermont, Andrew Barton at Meeyauw remembers Charles Devereux, a casualty at Cedar Creek in 1864.

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub has tips on correct flag protocol

Also, Bob Waters at Watersblogged on why The Poppies Still Grow

OTHER STUFF:

Here are a few things I came across whilst researching the carnival , although outside the blogosphere:

I received a carnival submission for this Free Wordpress Theme: WP Special Tactics - should be a hit with the paintballing brigade....

RadicalCartography has a map of nuclear tests since 1945, atmospheric, underground and underwater. Still going on of course in Pakistan and N.Korea.

bestpicsaround has shots of a German tank being pulled out of a lake - can anyone identify it?

FDR's fireside chats are available at OldRadioWorld

THANKYOU:

I hope you enjoy reading these posts. The next edition of the Military History Carnival will be on 18th August (no host for July so we're skipping it) at Osprey Publishing blog.
Submissions can be e-mailed to blog at ospreypublishing dot com

By way of a postscript, Pushkin at WebUrbanist shows us 12 Compelling Monuments Dedicated to Peace