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Sir John Moore & the King of Sweden for Britannia Magazine.

This is a post I have written for the new Facebook Page, Britannia Magazine, so far; I, Amarpal Sidhu, Mark Simner, Nick Britten, Manimugdha Sharma and Andrea Zuvich besides others will be contributing original material to bring you the history of the British Empire from 1600 to the end of the Cold War.

My first post deals with how the Peninsular War nearly started in Scandinavia in 1808, but was averted by a clash between Sir John Moore and the Ming of Sweden. https://m.facebook.com/BritanniaMagazine/posts/810589569053090

Josh.

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Book Review: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield.

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Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Macmillan; Main Market Ed. edition (29 Oct. 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1447257103

http://www.amazon.co.uk/An-Astronauts-Guide-Life-Earth/dp/1447257103

Perhaps one day in the future someone will ask an astronaut what inspired them to want to go to Space, and it isn’t hard to imagine them replying, “I read a book by Chris Hadfield”. In the past allot of people would say I saw the moon landing on TV, it was the iconic moment that had almost every kid saying “When I grow up I wanna be an Astronaut”, and it is where the author started, only this guy meant it.

Hadfield’ guide to life on Earth is three books in one. On one level its a memoir of his career as an Astronaut in the Shuttle age and at the start of the Soyez era. On a second level its a book of answers for every Space fan who ever wanted to ask “How do you do this in Space” but never had time at the book signing or symposium. And third, you realise it’s sort of a motivational self help book.

What do you do if you go blind during a Spacewalk? How do you get a bee out of your helmet when you’re flying a jet? How do you keep fit in Space? How do you make a music video in zero Gravity? What do you pack for a Spaceflight (Spoiler; a Swiss Army knife comes in handy)? What do you do if you find a snake under your chair while on a cross country flight? What does it take mentally and physically to become an Astronaut? What are the costs? All these questions and many more you’ve never even thought to ask are included in this open hearted, humorously anecdotal and touchingly humble walk through the ups and downs of the turbulent, yet sometimes mundane life of a rocket man.

While we travel along, following Hadfield’s course to dream fulfilment, he dispenses the benefit of what he’s learned along the way. How to shoot for your goals, how to excel, how to be a productive member of a team, how to focus on what’s important, how do deal with the ups and downs, the high points and the low. Hadfield uses what he calls “Pre launch” to explain how he became an Astronaut, the subtext of which, while not perhaps going to make you able to fix a robotic arm while clinging to a space station, might just help you to stop at you next hurdle, pause and think about “How I can work this problem?” “What can kill me next?”, and instantly you will have begun thinking like an Astronaut.

The advice is largely counterintuitive, and it won’t be for everyone and will leave some readers puzzled about how a non astronaut, or non highly motivated, goal oriented achiever can apply it, but that’s life, and the book assumes you know what you want and were you’re going. That being said, I’m not a self help expert but I think the little gems that come out of nearly every story will have something in them for allot of people. Even if it’s just how to bring an expeditionary mindset to what you do.

Chris Hadfield writes in an easy, sitting down with an old friend kind of way. His enthusiasm and communication skills translate sometimes complex situations easily into plain terms, while still retaining the technical detail we want to read about. Perhaps predictably he takes his time to answer some of the well worn questions about space. How one keeps clean and especially how one goes to the bathroom is covered in detail. Exciting and fascinating as the launch phase is, I think most people will find the “Coming Down to Earth” 3rd part, the most poignant. Not because Chris is remorseful in any way, far from it, but because he describes the descent of the Soyez, and the effects of recovering from long term life in Space with such impressive detail.

I was never one of those Space kids, sure I had plastic astronauts, an action man with a Space suit, some stickers on the window in front of my homework desk but I never actually had a desire to go to Space (I hated and still fear some types of heights, though comfortingly so does Chris). That impossible dream came about after seeing the Space Live TV show, coupled with a ride on Mission Space, and re watching Apollo 13. However being an Astronaut is probably out of the question for most of us who didn’t decide at the age of 9 they were going to try for it, at this stage my height would preclude me for a start (another thing you’ll learn in this book) though if NASA called me up and said “hey we want a tall writer to go into Space to do etc etc” I’m hardly going to say no.

But if we can’t go to Space, it doesn’t mean we can’t learn to think like those who can. Even in the most basic way. At its core the Space Agencies of all nations exist to further human knowledge and push the bounds of reason. This book mirrors that ideal and encompasses the example of how the exploration of the Galaxy can help us. An experienced Astronaut sharing the knowledge that he has collected over a remarkable career doing the most extreme job in the world, to not just help and inspire future astronauts, but to help people live to their full potential.

In many ways this book isn’t about Chris Hadfield, it’s about everyone else. The book begins with a boy looking at a grainy boot stepping onto a place no one had ever stepped before and ends with hugs for everyone who ever helped him. Undoubtedly this is a book out of this world, a frank, modest and compelling story that is part epic, part, motivation, part Space Oddity that will keep you trapped in its orbit to the last page.

Josh.

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Book Review: Imperial Roman Warships 27 BC 193 AD by Raffaele D’Amato.

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Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK) (20 Jan. 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1472810899
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imperial-Roman-Warships-BC-193-Vanguard/dp/1472810899

This is a series that has something to say. Picking up were he left off with Republican Roman Warships, Raffaele D’Amato introduces us to the Navy of the Empire. Much as in other cases once the great fleet actions were over no one pays much attention to the navy. Indeed the Roman Navy is best known in its struggle against Carthage and its role during the civil wars.
But as with most things about the Republican armed forces, it did not represent the true Roman navy.

This title sheds some light on how the Imperial Fleet built the Roman Empire, and the tactics and equipment it used to do so. From the protection of trade routes, to the ferrying of armies to distant locations, to pontoon bridges, to river campaigns the Roman Fleet was the oil that greased the wheels of Roman military expansion.
Without the security of sea power Rome could not have grown, it would have economically stagnated and history would have been changed forever.

Broken into sections that deal with notable campaigns, ships, and tactics, this book is rich in detail and Giuseppe Rava once more provides vivid and colourful artwork that demonstrates the colour and grace of the vessels and violence of warfare in the Roman Navy. Unlike in the army the Greek and Phoenician influence on the Imperial Fleet never died away, words, tactics and classes of ship often retained clues to their origins.

Readers will find out how the Roman Navy adapted from a battle fleet, useful for massed action and amphibious assaults, to a more flexible series of commands dotted around the empire, dependant not only on its big galleys but especially on smaller, faster craft capable of multiple duties. A great insight into the intricacies of ancient naval forces, drawing on recent and tried and true sources in literature and archeology this book and its predecessor are to be highly recommended.

Josh.

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Book Review: Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879-1883 by Gabriele Esposito

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Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK) (20 Jan. 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1472814061

The military history of South America is generally a closed book to most of us. Many will cast their eye over the list of conflicts that engulfed the continent with a jaundiced eye. Their politics don’t usually resonate, their General’s are not well known, much is written in a foreign language and the record of their soldiers is as enigmatic as the Andes.

So it is with cheering clapping and many Vivas that I saw Gabriele Esposito’s titles appear on the upcoming list on the Osprey website. Starting first with tackling the armies engaged between 1860 and 1890 Espositio has written two men at arms titles to help introduce military history students to both the war of the triple alliance and the war of the Pacific. It is the latter that I gratefully received.

Men at Arms titles attempt to cram in all the pertinent information about a given war, the soldiers that fought in it, and their weapons and equipment in a very short space. I felt that this one did this perfectly. The new subject that is poorly understood outside of South America lends itself perfectly to the format and it is packed with photographs, maps and hand drawings, in addition to the full colour artwork.

One of the things that struck me about the conflict after reading the book was how well the small and hastily equipped Chilean army managed to achieve what it did. Had they been fighting for a more legitimate cause than a poorly concealed land grab, they would surely have accrued more praise for the conquest of Peru. Coming quickly after the surprise that Chile was to dominate military affairs in South America until world war 1, was the discovery that while Chile’s disciplined troops were nearly invincible in conventional battle her commanders seem to lack the flair of their opponents.

Very often an excellent army will breed competent rather than ingenious commanders, and an army like Peru’s much weakened after tumultuous civil wars, in fact provided two fascinating men, who became hero’s in their country. General Cáceras, and a naval man, commander Grau. The former was able to retrieve Peruvian dignity with his Quechua Guerrillas in the Andes, and the latter had been able with one ship, to delay the Chilean descent on Peru for weeks.

Battles, tactics and equipment are all considered here, the forces of Chile and the allies (Peru and Bolivia) are all evenly considered, but Bolivia’s early exit from the war means that inevitable the decisive actions ended up between Peru and Chile.

No one in the current pool of Osprey illustrators paints atmospheric action like Giuseppe Rava, hailed by most fans of the publisher as the heir to the much missed Angus McBride, his dynamic and often visceral style vibrantly adorns the uniform plates found in the middle of the book. He has had allot to work with for the South American armies were colourful looking things, especially that of Bolivia.

The War of the Pacific was the defining conflict to occur in western South America during the 19th century, and it is excellent to see books like this appearing. Here’s hoping some campaign books appear to back them up in the future.

Josh.

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The Island Rose.

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Last year I was suddenly and briefly transfixed by the story of Princess Kaiulani and the short lived Hawaiian monarchy. At this point I am not prepared to give any meaningful account of the fall of the last Queen of the island kingdom, nor the life of her niece the crown princess, except to say it was a great shame that the kingdom did not continue and that it was not returned after Annexation. Perhaps the tale is the more poignant because unlike other peoples of the Americas and Pacific, the Hawaiians had successfully begun to meld a constitutional monarchy with a tribal society. Making the best of a bad, situation instead of resisting the inexorable advance of European and American interference the leaders of Hawaii from Kamehameha the Great actively sought to maintain their independence by integration of indigenous and foreign culture. Utilising concepts from both worlds. The Kingdom of Hawaii therefore was no kind of “inferior” race that the “civilised” world needed to take in hand. If this model had been allowed to flourish who knows what might have happened, but instead the greed of big business and America’s brief flirtation with imperial ambition swallowed it.

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Poppies”, landscape of the Scottish countryside, oil on canvas by Victoria Ka’iulani Cleghorn, (father’s name) 1890. A letter written to her Father from Great Harrowden Hall, near Wellingborough, indicates that she painted this for her ‘Auntie Liliu’, Princess Liliuokalani.

During the all too brief golden age of the Kingdom, presided over a court full of diversity and mixed traditions. They entertained heads of state and patronised artists, offering a sanctuary for the perpetually ailing Robert Louis Stevenson who befriended the father of the Crown Princess, Victoria Kaiulani (Cleghorn). In the spirit of the age, & in keeping with the role the Hawaiian monarchy wished to play in it, the princess was to be sent abroad, to Britain for a formal education. Before she left her friend Stevenson penned a small farewell poem in her autograph book.

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Scottish Landscape, oil on canvas painting by Princess Victoria Kaiulani, c. 1891, Bishop Museum.

“Written in April to Kaiulani in the April of her age; and at Waikiki, within easy walk of Kaiulani’s banyan! When she comes to my land and her father’s, and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear it will), let her look at this page; it will be like a weed gathered and pressed at home; and she will remember her own islands, and the shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of her father sitting there alone. – R. L. S.”

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Forth from her land to mine she goes,
The island maid, the island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face:
The daughter of a double race.

Her islands here, in Southern sun,
Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone,
And I, in her dear banyan shade,
Look vainly for my little maid.

But our Scots islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempests by
To smile in Kaiulani’s eye.”

In 1894, Stevenson died, but though saddened, Kaiulani’s world had already fallen apart. The year before a perfunctory telegram had announced flatly that the monarchy had been abrogated. The same year that Stevenson passed away the Republic of Hawaii was created, a step that lead to American annexation in 1898. The princess died in 1899 of inflammatory rheumatism, in Hawaii, brought on by a bout of pneumonia contracted the year before. Her legacy is one of romantic tragedy & idealism, she was the hope of her people, strong & couragous in many ways but indeed also as her old Scottish friend alluded in his touching little poem, as fragile & delicate as an Island Rose.

Josh.

 

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Book Review: Templar Knight vs Mamluk Warrior by David Campbell.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Templar-Knight-Mamluk-Warrior-121850/dp/1472813332

Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Publication date: 20 Nov 2015
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1472813332

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In Osprey’s latest Combat title; Templar Knight versus Mamluk Warrior David Campbell attempts to show how the warrior elites of two cultures went about their business. During the 5th, 6th and 7th Crusades, all of which tested the respective sides’ ability to respond to fast changing situations and high stress battlefield scenarios.

The author has done a creditable job in examining how the Templars and Mamluk’s fared in combat, each being a match for the other and their success or failure all really coming down to the command decisions of leaders rather than the calibre of the troops. It differs from other versus titles a little in that some of the first hand accounts are from chroniclers instead of just soldiers, and the majority are from the Crusader side, but this is a 13th century subject and ordinary brother Knights and Mamluk soldiers didn’t tend to write down their experiences. So too there is no escaping the fact that the basic dynamic of Crusading warfare is fairly well known, and therefore little can be added to the discussion that the western Knights were at a great disadvantage if the Saracens did not choose to play their game. Despite these foibles of the Crusades, an excellent point is made by Campbell in the Analysis section at the end, about how the common comparison between the Templars and Mamluk’s is faulted, and should be kept very much in mind. Only the Templars were properly Holy Warriors. Their business was to fight for God and defend the Holy land. The Mamluk’s were closer to the idea of a secular retinue, however unlike their western counterparts, they too had one primary job, which was to fight for the ruler of Egypt.

So what we have is a great investigation into two of the most professional bodies of troops in the Middle Ages. Bringing the spotlight onto a little discussed phase in the Crusading story. The book starts out with filling the reader in with all the basics needed to contextualise the action. Building a picture of two fairly well matched military elites, it then examines in as much detail as possible the two sides in combat. The battles of Damietta, La Forbie and al-Mansūrah are well done, mirroring as they do a shift in crusader strategy looking away from Jerusalem to Egypt, and continuing the pattern of inexplicable luck, stupidity and misfortune that typify much of the Crusades. There is admittedly a feeling that it was the Crusader’s game to lose, and nitty gritty tactical examinations are surrendered more to the big picture than in other titles of the series, but again that is more to do with the levels of literacy and the style in which chronicles were written. The book is illustrated throughout with full colour images and helpful maps. The main illustrations by Johnny Shumate, a CG artist whose work I have long appreciated, and suit the nature of the series very well, the excellent split screen artwork of the charge at La Forbie, being the highlight.

This is the Crusades from the front lines, and is a good book that tackles the classic “who would win” scenario, and acts as a balancing companion to already published titles, highlighting as it does the key elements that made the Tempars such a formidable fighting force regardless of victory or defeat and how the Mamluk’s were able to tackle them.

Josh.