The Making Of The British Army (84 page)

The prolific Max Hastings’s
The Korean War
(1987) is the best all-round account of its subject. Indeed the war is otherwise sparsely covered, although Anthony Farrar-Hockley’s
The Edge of the Sword
(1954) is truly inspirational.
War of the Running Dogs: The Malayan Emergency, 1948–1960 (1971)
by Noel Barber is the best in its field still, although now a little dated.
Gangs and Counter Gangs
(1960) by (General Sir) Frank Kitson, a study in counter-insurgency, ranges over the British experience from Palestine to Kenya and beyond. Robert
Jackson’s
The Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation: The Commonwealth’s Wars 1948–1966
(2008) is recommended, as is (with affection for my old teacher)
Jungle Warfare: Experiences and Encounters
(2008) by (Colonel) John Cross. And another book by one of my former superiors, (Major-General) Tony Jeapes’s
SAS Operation Oman
(1980), is authoritative, gripping and wonderfully well written.
Brush Fire Wars
(1987) by (Colonel) Michael Dewar is a masterly and succinct overview of the British army’s post-war experience east of Suez.

The Falklands War has inspired many books, but sadly few of them are what would conventionally be called ‘good reads’ except (again) Max Hastings’s first-hand account
The Battle for the Falklands
(1983);
Above All, Courage: The Eyewitness History of the Falklands War
(1985), by Max Arthur;
Eyewitness Falklands
(1982) by Robert Fox; and
Forgotten Voices of the Falklands
(2007) by Hugh McManners, the Reverend Professor John McManners’ son, who was a commando artillery officer during the war.

Of the most recent operations, I beg leave to omit any recommendation for Northern Ireland. The first Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) is brought to life on the ground by the commander of 7th Armoured Brigade (Patrick Cordingley)
In the Eye of the Storm
(1996), and at the campaign level by (Lieutenant-General Sir) Peter de la Billière’s
Storm Command
(1995). The Balkans – dull but important – are well covered in two books by British officers. First is (General Sir) Michael Rose’s
Fighting for Peace
(1994). Although it received some excoriating reviews (perhaps the worst by Dr Noel Malcolm of Oxford, though Malcolm might be said to be
parti pris)
it is the view of the commander of UNPROFOR in 1994.
A Cold War: Front-line Operations in Bosnia 1995–1996
(2008) by (Brigadier) Ben Barry is a very professional account of operations at battalion level. The Iraq War is still a little close for definitive accounts, but John Keegan’s short book by that title (2004) sets the scene. The insurgency in Basra is another story – or several stories. The same is true of Afghanistan, although Patrick Bishop’s
3 PARA: Afghanistan Summer 2006
(2007) is a stirring account of what the Paras do best – fighting off attacks from all sides deep in ‘enemy’ territory – while Richard Doherty’s
Helmand Mission
(2009) is a fine portrait of a line battalion (The Royal Irish) on campaign.

I have many former and serving officers and soldiers to thank for their help and influence, direct and indirect, in the writing of this book – a good deal of them on the basis of strict confidentiality. Likewise I owe thanks to some distinguished names from the academic community, as well as curators, archivists and librarians of regimental museums and book depositories. I trust that those who have not expressly asked me
not to
mention them by name will in the interests of decorum accept my unspecific gratitude here, in addition to my separate personal thanks.

There are, however, some names that should be specified, for in a real sense their work reflects something of what the British army has become in the affection of the public. The former chief of the general staff, Sir Richard Dannatt, as I have explained in the book, called for shows of support for the troops returning from operations, and I believe that my publishers have in their own way responded to that call. There has been a very tangible sense of going the extra mile in the production of
The Making of the British Army
, and it is clear to me that this is out of respect for the institution which for all its faults has served the nation well over the centuries, but especially for the soldiers at duty today in Afghanistan – and until recently in Iraq – at constant risk of returning home on stretchers or in coffins.

This has been a demanding book to bring to production, especially against tight deadlines, so I should like to thank Katrina Whone for orchestrating things so tightly but sympathetically, Gillian Somerscales for the most assiduous copy editing, Elizabeth Dobson for her diligent proof-reading, Sheila Lee for inspired picture research, Phil Lord for the soldierly maps, Stephen Mulcahey for a rousing and most appropriate jacket, John Noble for his Herculean labours with the index; but especially Selina Walker, my editor, who first recognized that this was a story to be told, and who then patiently worked to ensure that it was told in a way that did justice to its subject and to its readers.

Endpapers

(Hb edn only):
Quatre-Bras 1815
, by Lady Butler (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson), 1875: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne/Bridgeman Art Library.

Line drawings

p. 11: Detail from
Instructions and Demonstration of Postures for Musketeers and Pikemen
, engraving by Thomas Cockson, 1635: private collection/Bridgeman Art Library.

p. 299: Trench diagram from
British Trench Warfare 1917–1918: A Reference Manual
, General Staff, War Office.

Colour sections

First section

p. 1:
Oliver Cromwell
, unfinished miniature by Samuel Cooper, c.1657: private collection/Bridgeman Art Library; detail of
Plan of the Battle of Naseby, 14th June 1645
, vellum, 17th century: British Library, London /© British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman Art Library.

pp. 2–3:
Main image: The Battle of Blenheim on 13th August 1704
, by John Wootton,
c
.1743: National Army Museum, London/acquired with assistance of National Art Collections Fund/Bridgeman Art Library.
Top left: King George II at the Battle of Dettingen, with the Duke of Cumberland and Robert, 4th Earl of Holderness, 27th June 1743
, by John Wootton,
c
.1743: National Army Museum, London/acquired with assistance of National Art Collections Fund/Bridgeman Art Library.
Top right
: detail of
An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745
, British School, 1746–50: The Royal Collection © 2009 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

pp. 4–5:
Top left: The Death of General Wolfe
, by Benjamin West,
c
.1771:

private collection/Phillips, Fine Art Auctioneers, New York /Bridgeman Art Library;
top right: Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York, 17 October 1777
, colour lithograph after John Trumbull,
c
.1816: private collection/Peter Newark American Pictures/Bridgeman Art Library.
Bottom, left to right
:
The 2nd Footguards (Coldstream) on Parade at Horse Guards
, by John Chapman,
c
.1750: Roy Miles Fine Paintings/Bridgeman Art Library;
The King’s Shilling
, English School,
c
.1770: National Army Museum, London/Bridgeman Art Library;
Soldiers of the 10th Light Dragoons
, by George Stubbs, 1793: The Royal Collection © 2009 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

pp. 6–7:
Main image: The Rear Guard
, by J. P. Beadle, 1910: The Trustees of The Royal Green Jackets Museum, Winchester.
Top, left to right
:
Landing of British troops at Aboukir, 8 March 1801
, by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, 1802: Scottish National Portrait Gallery/Bridgeman Art Library;
Sahagun: Charge of the 15th Hussars
, by J. P. Beadle, 1911: © The Light Dragoons;
Lieutenant General Sir John Moore
, by Thomas Lawrence,
c
.1805: National Army Museum, London/Bridgeman Art Library.

p. 8:
Main image: The Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815
, by Denis Dighton,
c
.1815: private collection/Bridgeman Art Library.
Inset: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
, by Thomas Lawrence, 1814: Apsley House, The Wellington Museum/The Bridgeman Art Library.

Second section

p. 1: ‘Officers and Men of the 3rd (East Kent) Regiment of Foot (The Buffs)’, from an album of fifty-two photographs associated with the Crimean War by Roger Fenton, 1855: National Army Museum, London/Bridgeman Art Library.

pp. 2–3:
Top left: Charge of the Queen’s Bays, 1859
, by Harry Payne (1868–1940): Regimental Museum 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards;
top right: Candahar: The 92nd Highlanders and the 2nd Gurkhas Storming Gaudi Mullah Sahibdad, 1880
, by Richard Caton Woodville, 1881: private collection/© Christie’s Images/Bridgeman Art Library;
below left: The Defence of Rorke’s Drift
by Alphonse Marie de Neuville, 1880: Art Gallery of New South Wales/Bridgeman Art Library;
below right:Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, 2nd September 1898
, after Richard Caton Woodville, 1898: private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library.

pp. 4–5:
Top left
: Albert Knowles being sworn in on enlisting with the ‘Queen’s Pals’ at Leeds Town Hall on the outbreak of the First World War: Imperial War Museum Q 111825;
centre left
: trench at La Boutillerie, 1917: Imperial War Museum Q 49104;
below left
: British tank on the Western front, 1917: © akg-images/Alamy.
Right, main image:
British airborne troops of the 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron landing, Arnhem, 17 September 1944: Imperial War Museum BU 1163.
Right, from top:
British troops line up on the beach at Dunkirk, 26–9 May, 1940: Imperial War Museum NYP 68075; a Chindit column crossing a river in Burma, 1943: Imperial War Museum IND 2290; a German soldier surrenders at Alamein, 1942: © Lordprice Collection/Alamy; commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade landing at La Brèche, 6 June 1944, with tanks of 13/18 Hussars: Imperial War Museum B 5103.

pp. 5–7:
Left, from top:
Revd ‘Sam’ Davies taking Sunday service for the 1st Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment, Korea, April 1951: image courtesy of the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum,
www.glosters.org.uk
; Operation Motorman, Londonderry, 1972: Press Association Images; 5th Infantry Brigade lands at San Carlos, Falkland Islands, 2 June 1982: Imperial War Museum FKD 347; British Sultan command post vehicle, Gulf War, 1991: Sipa Press/Rex Features.
Right, top:
a Chinook helicopter comes in to the landing zone at Nowzad, Afghanistan, 31 July 2006: photograph by Cpl Mike Fletcher © Crown Copyright/MOD, image from
www.photos.mod.uk
, reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office;
inset
: riflemen from the Royal Green Jackets check for roadside bombs, Basra, Iraq, January 2007: Rex Features;
below (left):
gunners from the 19th Royal Artillery Regiment fire 105mm light guns, Upper Gereshk Valley, Afghanistan, 26 July 2007: © Cpl Jon Bevan/epa/Corbis;
below (right):
British soldier on patrol in Musa Qala, Helmand province, Afghanistan, 27 March 2009: © Omar Sobhani/Reuters/Corbis.

p. 8:
Main image:
coffins of Gurkha Corporal Kumar Pun, Royal Military Police Sergeant Ben Ross, Rifleman Adrian Sheldon and Corporal Sean Binnie are repatriated through the Wiltshire village of Wootton Bassett, 13 May 2009: SWNS;
inset
: 450 men from 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery march through Plymouth, Devon, 17 April 2009: SWNS.

¹
A pitched battle is an encounter of choice, of major forces, unlike a chance meeting such as a skirmish of advance guards and outposts, or where one side is forced to fight, such as a siege. There had been a heavy skirmish at Newburn in Northumberland in 1640 between Scots and English troops in what was known as the ‘Second Bishops’ War’, a smaller-scale affair at Powick Bridge near Worcester the month before Edgehill, and a nasty but short skirmish at Solway Moss near Carlisle in 1542; but Edgehill was the first true pitched battle on English soil since Flodden in 1513.

²
‘Serjeant-major-general’ later became simply ‘major-general’. ‘Serjeant’ is now usually spelt with a
g
, although some regiments, notably The Rifles, retain the
j
spelling.

³
In a ‘rank’, sometimes loosely called a line, soldiers stand side by side; in a ‘file’ they stand one in front of the other.

⁴
The Thirty Years War had ravaged the Continent – especially the north – since 1618, and would continue for another six years after Edgehill.