Tag Archives: History

Dominion by C.J. Sansom [Book Review]

DominionDominion by C.J. Sansom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was recommended Dominion by a couple of friends after my review of the TV version of SS-GB. Dominion is a huge tome, it’s 700 pages long, and my first thought was that it probably needed some more editing. However I found it an easy and compelling read. Sansom’s style is more descriptive than others I’ve read, but the extra detail adds to the flavour of the story. The title has multiple interpretations. Britain is a Dominion of nazi Germany, the key protagonist works for the Colonial Office liaising with the Dominions.

Dominion – the review

Unsmiling, Chamberlain (left) and Hitler leave...
Unsmiling, Chamberlain (left) and Hitler leave the Bad Godesberg meeting, 23 September 1938. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dominion takes a far more believable point of departure for its alternate history than SS-GB does. In Dominion Lord Halifax takes over from Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940. Without Churchill the UK also makes peace with Germany in 1940. By the time Dominion is set in 1952 we have a much different Britain, it was never bombed and there is no rationing. Yet we’ve slid into being an authoritarian state with a fascist as Home Secretary in a coalition government. Rigged elections have driven Churchill, Attlee and Bevan underground.

There are several intertwined threads in the story, which gradually come together into the final scene in the book. They’re woven skillfully together in a manner that still leaves room for some surprises when each of the joins come.

Avoiding Stereotypes

I particularly liked the way the key antagonist is written, it would have been so easy to have made him a stereotype bully boy Gestapo thug. Instead he’s a frail human, lost and alone with his twin brother dead on the Russian steppe and his wife left him and taken their son away. Inspector Hoth uses his intelligence and cunning to catch Jews and ship them off, before coming to the UK to try and catch our protagonists. He’s way more sympathetic than the British Special Branch sidekick he picks up, which makes him all the scarier.

The main characters are all different, yet well observed to feel very real. They have more than one dimension to them. More than stereotypes. The central characters are pre-war university friends thrown together by circumstances. Two are civil servants and spying for the Resistance. The third (Frank Muncaster) is a scientist working at Birmingham University with a brother working for the US Government who gets sectioned after an argument with his brother.

David, one of the principal point of view characters, is a grammar school boy weighed down by the hopes of his family. After university, where he roomed with Muncaster, he joins the colonial office. There’s a brief spell in the army in 1939-40 where he serves in the Norway campaign. After the peace he returns to the Colonial Office. We find him ten years later married to Sarah, the daughter of an active pacifist. Both are still mourning the loss of their young son. David also carries secrets, and bitterness about the Nazi influence on Britain. There’s a marriage in trouble alongside the weightier affairs of state. All of this colours what happens.

Story line – no spoilers

The story revolves around helping Frank escape from the Germans with his terrible secret intact. His brother has been working on the atomic bomb for the American government. Frank has learnt something that would make it easier for others to practically?build their own bomb.

There are two parallel attempts to get Frank out of the mental hospital that he’s been placed in. One by the resistance and the other by the Germans. The Germans are constrained by the niceties of Britain being notionally independent.

If you are a fan of alternative history this is definitely a must read. There’s a stack of research underpinning the book, and I didn’t spot anything that felt wrong to me.

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L/Cpl William Kemp – Killed in Action

Cutting Wm Kemp KIALance Corporal William Kemp of the 2nd Scottish Rifles was killed in action one hundred years ago.

I grew up seeing his name on the local war memorial, as did my father who was also named William Kemp. My dad was keen on family history, he could tell me all the living relatives and knew their exact relationship to us. He believed that all the Kemps in the Old Kilpatrick are were interrelated. So I’ve always seen L/Cpl William Kemp as part of my family, even though I cannot directly connect him from further research.

William was almost certainly a regular soldier before WW1, either that or a recalled reservist. The Scottish Rifles were a regular battalion and started the war in Malta. However they were recalled and sent to France arriving in November 1914. William’s Medal Index Card shows that he arrived in France on 5th November 1914. It also records that he was killed in action.

I’ve tried to find the war diary for 2SR but it isn’t available online and I’ve not been able to go to either the PRO in Kew or the Regimental Museum in Lanarkshire. So I don’t know what was going on in early January 1915. Mostly likely it was routine in defence.

The newspaper clipping comes from the Lennox Herald which my mother found in the archives in Dumbarton Library.

Book Review – Fatal Choices by Seth Owen

Fatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and FalklandsFatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and Falklands by Seth Owen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I backed the Kickstarter campaign and got both the ebook and the paperback version of this as well as some pre-cut counters for playing the scenarios.

The book is a fascinating tour of the what if as well as the real history. It takes us through the technical and political backgrounds of both sides, the vessels and the commanders. Owen explains why the situation was what it was, why the protagonist navies had chosen their strategy and how they had got their ships on station when the first world war started.

Map showing British and German ships and movem...
Map showing British and German ships and movements at the Battle of Coronel, 1 November 1914. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Each of the battles is presented as a playable scenario, with basic rules in the annex and some counters (I got the pre-cut set as part of the Kickstarter, but the book has a copyable annex). In addition to the house rules in the book there are also suggestions for how to play the game with a couple of other popular sets of naval wargame rules.

Doing this allows readers to understand how much leeway the real result had, what was inevitable, what was plausible and what was bad luck or poor judgement. The factors affecting this are also explained in the text. For example British gunnery was poor, most of the sailors were reservists recalled at the outbreak of war, so they were out of practice and many unfamiliar with the kit installed on the ships. They were also scratch crews and hadn’t had much time to practice together.

This is so much more than a history, it offers an insight into how and why the events in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean turned out the way they did.

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Megagame Funeral Games II pt.1

Today I played in the Megagame Makers ”Funeral Games II” which was the second outing of a classic Megagame of what happens after Alexander the Great dies. As such it involves a mix of military operations, politics and personal relationships to cement power and block others from achieving it.

My starting role in the megagame Funeral Games was as Antipater, one of three regents agreed by Macedonian Assembly in Babylon in the days following Alexander’s death. Antipater was the Governor of Macedonia, Regent and Strategos of Europe and Head of the Hellenic League. The only person with more legitimacy than him to command is Perdiccas, another Regent who is in Babylon with Alexander’s body and the two Kings (Philip III and Alexander IV).

At the beginning the Greek city states have revolted under their Democratic leaders. Democracy was out of favour, the Macedonians prefer oligarchs. My slogan was ‘Freedom from the tyranny of the majority!’ Continue reading Megagame Funeral Games II pt.1

Remembrance Challenge

We took our cubs to the local war memorial in the Church just down the road from the Scout Hall. Before we went we”d got the cubs to make a wreath of poppies and to write a message on it. Each boy did his own personal wreath. We then went on a walk down the road and went into the Church where we spoke to them about why we remember and also how things were different back in 1914. South Merstham wasn”t as big then as it is now, for a start the new houses were mostly built in the 1950s. In the 1911 census there were somewhere in the region of 600 men in the locality, about 150 of whom signed up in August 1914 (I”m guessing some would be unfit, others in jobs that couldn”t just go off to war and some others not that keen).

Clark Pack #Merstham #cubs pay tribute to the fallen of South Merstham

Remembrance Challenge

At the end of the session we gave each of the cubs a slip of paper with one of the names from the WW1 memorial in the church and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. They were asked to come up with what they could about the name they were given. I took a name too, and being more grown up and a bit of an analyst I went a bit further than just the CWGC website. I didn”t pay for any information though, I only used free open sources.Why don”t you go down to your war memorial and do something similar. Post your findings on your favourite social media and challenge your friends.

Who was William English?

William English was born in Bletchingley in the Autumn of 1874, his father was Gordon English (who lived in South Merstham by 1918). In the summer of 1905 he married Catherine Colgate Dagnall in Reigate. Catherine was born in Reigate in the Summer of 1879 and her family is reasonably well documented on http://loiselden.com/tag/dagnall/.The search entry for the 1911 census (which I couldn”t see the whole record of without paying) showed that William was a caretaker in 1911. He seems to be in Reigate, although I couldn”t quite see the address details. His wife is listed as living at 14 Croydon Road in Reigate by CWGC, he may well have been living there at the time, or she could have moved after his enlistment.

War Service

William”s service number is G/450 and he is listed as an Acting Company Sergeant Major with the 7th (Service) Battalion of the Queen”s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment at the time of his death in May 1918.His regimental service number is very low, the series was used for the wartime volunteers and started in August 1914. This suggests that he was in the first batch of volunteers, although the battalion he served with is part of K2, or the second hundred thousand volunteers. Either way it is likely he was with the 7th (Service) Battalion (NB there was another 7th Bn of the Queen”s Regiment).

7th (Service) Battalion, Queen’s Regiment

Sept 1914 Formed at Guildford as part of the Second New Army (K2) and then moved to Purfleet to join the 55th Brigade of the 18th Division then moved to Colchester.

May 1915 Moved to Salisbury Plain.

27.07.1915 Mobilised for war and landed at Boulogne. This is the start of the Battalion war diary which has been digitised and you can read it online. The first entry lists all the officers and warrant officers with the battalion as well as the overall strength. William English was not a CSM at this stage.

The Battalion spent most of 1916 in the line or resting between spells at the front. It was one of the assault battalions on 1st July and while it took casualties these weren’t enough to stop it actively participating in The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Thiepval Ridge, The Battle of the Ancre Heights, The Battle of the Ancre.

1917 was a similar pattern of operations with periods of rest, consolidation & training between spells in the front line trenches. Operations on the Ancre, The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The Third Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Pilkem Ridge, The Battle of Langemarck, First Battle of Passchendaele, The Second Battle of Passchendaele. Notably it took a pasting at Passchendaele and lost a lot of men.

In 1918 the battalion was in the line when the Michael offensive happened, and two companies were completely lost, in addition to casualties taken in the other companies that managed to retire. I’d surmise that this is when William English, as an Acting CSM, was captured by the Germans. I’d also guess that he was wounded when he was captured and this is what lead to his death in Germany on 9th May 1918.

It is possible that he was captured earlier and that there was some other cause of death, without seeing a death certificate or a service record (I looked and could not find his service record at all) it is difficult to be sure. I read the entire battalion war diary from when it starts in 1915 up to May 1918 and he isn’t mentioned once. The CSMs occasionally get a mention, usually when they are either replacing the RSM, leaving to be commissioned or running some instruction for junior officers.

Knowing that the role usually keeps them moving between the rear and the front when in action, and ensuring discipline and training in camp it is unlikely that a CSM would be taken prisoner except when the lines are fluid, which is during a large battle. CSMs don’t usually go out and patrol, they’re more likely to be checking sentries or that the rations and ammo have come up if they are in the trenches. In battle they may well be moving forwards to find where people are, which would make them more prone to capture. In a retirement they may not have been with the company when orders were given to retire and could easily turn up where the enemy now are.

CSM William English is listed as a Prisoner of War in the Queen’s Regiment archives, and he is buried in the Niederzwehren cemetery, Kasseler Stadtkreis, Hessen, Germany. This is a concentration cemetery bringing in graves from POWs from southern Germany.

That’s what I know. If you know more please drop me a comment.

Thanks.

Some Sources

Commonwealth War Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org/

basic info about casualties, as a minimum name, rank, regiment & date of death

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919

normally paid but usually free around 11 November each year, has slightly more information that CWGC tends to have

Records of the Queen’s Regiment are online, some with Surrey County Council

http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/825571/Queens-Royal-West-Surrey-Regiment-Prisoners-of-War-1918.pdf

http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/war_diaries/local/7Bn_Queens/7Bn_Queens_1915/7Bn_Queens_1915_07.shtml

FreeBMD (& FreeCEN)http://www.freebmd.org/

Has copies of the transcribed indexes of Births, Marriages & Deaths in England and Wales from the General Register Office. These aren’t very detailed, they’re just intended to point you at the correct page in the register. If you have time you can go into a register office and see the register for free, although they will encourage you to order a certificate instead.

Birth Index Oct-Dec 1874

Surname Given Name District Volume Page

ENGLISH William Godstone 2a 172

Jul-Sep 1879

Dagnall Catherine Colgate Reigate 2a 168

Marriage Jul-Sep 1905

Surname Given Name District Volume Page

ENGLISH William Reigate 2a 439

DAGNALL Catherine Colgate Reigate 2a 439

Book Review – Zero Six Bravo by Damien Lewis

Zero Six Bravo: 60 Special Forces. 100,000 Enemy. The Explosive True StoryZero Six Bravo: 60 Special Forces. 100,000 Enemy. The Explosive True Story by Damien Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I make a point of reading first hand accounts of special forces operations. I started with world war two tales of the SAS and have worked up to the present time. Since the Bravo Two Zero fiasco I don’t expect much from tales of recent events.

This particular book tells the tale of a Special Boat Service mission in Iraq in 2003. It suffers a bit from excessive hypebole, presumably to garner sales. However it is actually very readable, and although much of the outcome is telepgrahed in advance the way it’s done is through a good hook to keep you reading to find out the detail of how/what happens. Well before all the debates in Parliament in 2003 M Squadron SBS were training up for their mission, changing their role from maritime operations to being vehicle borne. They then went into Iraq just before the air war started in 2003 with an attempt to contact a major Iraqui army formation to persuade it to surrender.

You know when you start to read it that the mission isn’t going to go well. In fact without even knowing anything about it I picked up that it must have gone horribly wrong. However I also knew that it couldn’t have gone that far wrong, because otherwise I probably would have heard about it since I have an interest in current affairs and military operations.

The story follows the perspective of one SBS Sergeant who was the lead navigator for most of the mission. Mainly it focusses on what he sees, and the actions of his three man vehicle crew. On the whole it is an interesting narrative and it gripped me enough to read longer than I normally do.

There’s a clear thread running through it of the forebodings, that may well have been how the central character felt, but are laboured to the extent that it comes across as 20:20 hindsight. There are also some rather strained references to Bravo Two Zero and the similarities with that patrol (both seem to have been compromised because they refused to shoot a child goat herder). That doesn’t really wash with me because the goat incident in Bravo Two Zero wasn’t repeated in the other books about the patrol and The Real “Bravo Two Zero” gives another version of events (apparently two Iraqui veterans of the Iran-Iraq War spotted the patrol, not a child goat herder).

Despite this I still think it’s worth a read, especially if you get it for the knock down price of 99p as I did.

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Book Review – Flames in the Field by Rita Kramer

Flames in the Field: Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied FranceFlames in the Field: Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France by Rita Kramer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this has lots of fascinating information about SOE Operations in France in WW2 it needs a better editor. The nature of the story, primarily of the secret operations in German occupied France in 1943 and the SD penetration of the SOE network, is one of many parallel threads and the uncovering of a mystery. So this makes it hard to just write a linear narrative, and the author has done a pretty good job of writing very readable prose that clearly explains what is going on. However there are a few places where the ordering of the material goes backwards within a few paragraphs and crucial pieces of information are given out of order.

The book shows an awful lot of research was done by the author, over a period of what seems to be years, and building on the work done by a number of predecessors. There is an academic level of referencing and footnotes.  There are several distinct parts to the book. The first is a narrative on four women SOE agents killed by the nazis at Natzweiler, which then widens to encompass the others that were arrested around the same time and that shared their captivity in Fresnes and then Karlsruhe. Each of these women is identified and has their life story before joining SOE told. Where it is known this then leads up to how they were captured.

Another piece of the narrative are the attempts by others (initally Vera Atkins in 1945-6 and then Jean Overton Fuller) to find out what happened to the women after they were arrested. This then leads nicely into attempts to work out whether or not the women were betrayed, and if so by whom. There has been a lot of controversy about this, and many of the participants in the events have competing theories. Traitors in SOE, strategic deception and sacrifice by the British, french informers, poor operational security of the SOE agents, German counter-intelligence competence. Each of these is disected in turn, sometimes adding new perspectives to help rule them in/out.

Lastly there is some discussion of the post-war discoveries as the secrets kept for 20-30 years following the war started to come out. How the revelations around both Ultra intelligence and the British strategic deception plans changed how the events of 1943 are interpreted to modern eyes.

On a content basis this should be a five star book, it draws together all the earlier sources and is well written. However the structure lets it down, and makes it harder to assimilate. It reads like the collected notes of the author more than as a structured narrative.

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Book Review – First Light by Geoffrey Wellum

First LightFirst Light by Geoffrey Wellum

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you want to know what it was like as a spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, then this is the book you need to read. The author was a public schoolboy that joined the RAF just before the outbreak of war. He signed up in the spring of 1939 and started training as soon as he finished school in July 1939.

The first third of the book is a very detailed account of his entry to the service and the flight training. Through this we get to know the author as a typical public schoolboy, he struggles with the academic side, but has no problems with the discipline and dealing with being in a service institution. Flying is clearly his passion, and is most of the focus of the book. Other than his struggles with the training matter, and the mental stress of combat flying and dealing with the progressive loss of his friends there is little else in the story.

There is no bigger picture, or even narrative of the wider progress of the war to put things in context. When he is rushed out of training and posted directly to an operational squadron (no.92) it is because the Germans have invaded France, however we’re not directly told this. The closest he comes is when the rest of the squadron patrol over Dunkirk, losing many of the old hands including the CO Roger Bushell (who lead the Great Escape). If you didn’t know how the war went then you could be baffled by some of this. Also, there is nothing about the Battle of Britain directly, other than accounts of some of his more notable sorties (the first, some where he has narrow escapes or shoots down or damages enemy aircraft).

That said, it is a very good first hand account of what it was like on a very personal level. The flights are very well described in some detail. It is clear that Geoffrey Wellum was deeply affected by his war experience and that being an operational fighter pilot represented the pinnacle for him. His tour as an instructor between operational tours is dispensed with in a couple of pages. The narrative between flights shows him moving from an enthusiastic schoolboy to a novice pilot and eventually to a mentally exhausted veteran.

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Game Design Notes: World War One Strategic Battles

This was originally written as a game design session prompt for a session at Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group back in April 2004. A discussion thread on about this excellent blog post http://sketchinggamedesigns.blogspot.com.es/2014/01/the-wrinkles-of-tactics-first-world-war.html lead me to dig it out and post it here.

World War One Strategic Battles

Turn structure

Three turns per year, March – June (Spring), July to September (Summer) and October to February (Winter).

Actions

Small offensives can be prepared and launched within one turn. Large offensives take a turn of preparation and then take a whole turn of offensive action. Small offensives can be carried on into large offensives.

Battles are fought in phases.

  • Preparation: divisions are allocated to the line, first wave, second wave, exploitation, training and reserve tasks
  • Bombardment
  • Assault
  • Counter-attack
  • Continuation phases if appropriate

Resolution

Fighting is resolved at Army level, with Divisions as the smallest unit (two down). One player per Army?

Three kinds of Division:

  • infantry (standard)
  • cavalry (rare)
  • artillery (representing Corps/Army artillery)

All divisions of a particular kind are the same except for level of experience and training. This can be open to the player as it was generally well known which units were the most effective and had the most offensive spirit.

Special training can be given to units to allow them to be competent at tasks, e.g. building fortifications, pioneer tasks, tank support, amphibious landings etc. The number of turns that they get in this task should be recorded separately from that of infantry training.

Infantry divisions take one turn to raise, cavalry and artillery take two turns. Ideally more training should be given before a unit is used in combat. A minimum of three turns of training is suggested before committing a new Division to the assault.

Training States Turns Experience

New 0 none

Effective 2 time in line

Regular 4 time in line

Experienced 6 time in major offensive (including defending)

Veteran 8 Several major offensives

Both the number of turns training and the combat experience are required for the troops to be considered at the higher training state. Note that the training state is just a label and not a guarantee of performance.

Political End

Resource allocation

Sources of resources

Taxation – can set a proportion of GDP to be spent on government. Level has effect on popularity, standard of living, economic growth, industrial output.

Loans – need to be repaid later but avoids some of the problems with increasing taxation. Can also inject foreign capital into paying for the war which increases overall resources available to any particular nation.

Manpower

Can conscript or get volunteers. Quality issues with conscription but increased numbers may offset that. Volunteers make more aggressive units, conscripts more passive ones. Has impact on economic growth, popularity & industrial output. Also issue of women’s rights if they are mobilised for the war effort.

 

 

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The Stress of Battle – Part 4 – Op Research on Anti-Tank Combat

IWM caption : El Alamein 1942: British tanks m...
IWM caption : El Alamein 1942: British tanks move up to the battle to engage the German armour after the infantry had cleared gaps in the enemy minefield. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the fourth part of my review of The stress of battle: quantifying human performance in combat by David Rowland, which is an essential piece of Operational Research on WW2 and Cold War combat operations. This part covers the findings on anti-tank combat.

Anti-Tank Combat

Unlike small arms, the effectiveness of weapons used for anti-tank combat has changed considerably over the course of the mid-20th century. From non-specialist gunfire in WW1, to high velocity armour piercing in WW2 and then to Anti-Tank Guided Weapons in the Cold War period. This makes the operational research on anti-tank combat harder to do because the start point needs to be battles where only one kind of AT weapon is in action. Much of the analysis on anti-tank combat starts with the ‘Snipe’ action during the second battle of El Alamein in North Africa where data on each of the guns individually was available.

  • ‘heroic performance’ plays a large factor in the effectiveness of anti-tank guns
  • about a quarter of guns (at most) performed heroically (including those where platoon, company or battalion level officers assisted with firing guns)
Campaign / Battle Heroes Others

No. Guns in combat

Total engagements

Tanks Hit per target per gun engagement

No. Guns in combat

Total engagements

Tanks Hit per target per gun engagement

Greece (1941)

8

8

0.400

38

44

0.054

Alamein (2RB at Snipe)

10

25

0.150

23

27

0.048

Medenine (Queens Bde)

2

7

0.430

22

38

0.027

Medenine (Guards & NZ)

6

9

0.390

14

14

0.120

Total all battles

26

49

0.275

97

123

0.052

  •  rate of fire is proportionate to target availability (i.e. when there are multiple targets crews fire faster)
  • the median point for heroes was 0.3 tank casualties per gun, where for non-heroes it was 0.03 tank casualties per gun
  • tanks are less effective in defence than AT guns alone, or tanks supported by AT Guns
  • AT Guns with tanks apparently kill three times more tanks than the tanks would on their own
  • AT Gun performance is attributed to having a higher concentration of SNCOs and Officers with deployed ATG compared to tanks (about three times as many)
  • heroes were disproportionately represented by SNCOs and Officers (at least in terms of who got the medals), in 75% of cases an SNCO or Officer senior to the gun crew commander was involved
  • Paddy Griffith is quoted on tank casualties that “relatively few appeared to have been caused by enemy tanks”

Overall it shows that the biggest single effect in anti-tank combat was down to leadership. Where gun crews are well lead then they are significantly more effective in battle. This is assuming that the guns in question can have some effect on the tanks that they are shooting at, which was the case in all of the battles examined (including a mix where the guns defended successfully with those where the gun lines were overrun by tanks).

Concluded in Part 5 – Operational Research on Heroism, Shock & Surprise

 

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