War

choi

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(1) Alexander Rose, How the Battle Was Won, if Not Yet the War. Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304803104576428172120064178.html
(book review on John Prados, Normandy Crucible; The decisive battle that shaped War World II in Europe. NAL Caliber, 2011)

My comment:
(a) NAL stands for New American Library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_American_Library
(an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948)
(b) Operation Overlord
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord
(the code name for the Battle of Normandy)

overlord (n):
"1: a lord over other lords : a lord paramount
2a : an absolute or supreme ruler"

All definitions are from www.m-w.com.

(c) Operation Bagration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration
(The operation was named after 18th–19th century Georgian Prince Pyotr Bagration, general of the Imperial Russian Army who received a mortal wound at the Battle of Borodino [


Battle of Borodino
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino
(the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties; near the village of Borodino)
(d) What surprises me is (i) that Germany in 1944 was very strong and (ii) that the reviewer maintained the eventual success of Normandy landing "is owed mostly to the other dog in the fight" (Soviet Union) as well as "Normandy played a major but distinctly secondary role in the defeat of Germany.  

(2) William Anthony Hay, A World We Have Lost; Scholarly historians were once also popular historians. Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303678704576439790411366496.html
(remembering John Ehrman,

Quote: "Style and narrative, moreover, held their place in Britain as the writing of history became ever professionalized by the 1880s. In the 1820s, the German historian Leopold von Ranke had pioneered the use of documents to reconstruct past events. His source-based method was widely embraced in Britain in the latter half of the 19th century, when historians were given more access to public and private archives. Rather than simply presenting a vivid story of the past, they sought evidence of what had happened. The range of primary sources used, the rigor by which they were analyzed, and the precision with which the pieces were assembled determined the quality of scholarship. Yet even as Rankean professionalism rose to academic dominance in Britain, it did not displace the narrative habit. Often, in fact, it sharpened it.

Note:
(a) John Ehrman (1920-2011; a British historian, most notable for his three-volume biography of William Pitt the Younger)  Wikipedia
(b) Leopold von Ranke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_von_Ranke
(1795-1886; considered one of the founders of modern source-based history; introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources)
(c) One may not need to read the review. The quotation above is, in my view, most important and something I did not know.


(3) Alexander Rose, Where They Got Their Grit. Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576279123390377298.html

Quote:

"Mr. Hamner challenges this view [the band-of-brothers-style loyalty to squad and platoon mates] by arguing that technology is in fact the cause * * * The appeal to self-interest and core values became still more pronounced in the 20th century; from World War II onward, the American soldier was autonomous, not an automaton. Unlike his forebears, who had glumly accepted the randomness of death as they were ordered to advance toward the sound of guns, the modern infantryman is trained to follow rules of good practice (i.e., do it this way and you'll be OK) as he thinks fit to ensure survival. This radical shift in attitude and expectation helps keep today's American soldier motivated to fight. Monarch of his own fate, never a slave to chance, the modern warrior relies on his skills, judgment and prowess to control the future.

Note:
(a) This is a book review on two books:
(book review on
(i) Christopher H. Hamner, Enduring Battle: American Soldiers in Three Wars, 1776-1945.
University Press of Kansas, 2011, and
(ii) Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865
By Wayne E. Lee, Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865. Oxford Univ Press, 2011.
(b) hazard (vt): "VENTURE, RISK <hazard a guess as to the outcome>"
(c) John Keegan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keegan
(1934- ; British military historian)
(d) G. K. Chesterton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton
(1874-1936; an English writer)
(e) what with: "on account of"
(f) Agamemnon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agamemnon
(Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War./ The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. Agamemnon took an attractive slave, Briseis, one of the spoils of war, from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war.)
(g) cavil (vt, vi)): "to raise trivial objections to"
(h) outfit (n): "a group that works as a team : ORGANIZATION; especially : a military unit"
(i) martinet (n; Jean Martinet, 17th century French army officer; First Known Use: 1737):
"a strict disciplinarian"
(j) breech-loading weapon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breechloading_weapon
(a firearm (a rifle, a gun, etc.) in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel; Modern mass production firearms are breech-loading (though mortars are generally muzzle-loaded). Early firearms were almost entirely muzzle-loading. The main advantage of breech-loading is a reduction in reloading time)
(k) For Mameluke, see Mamluk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk
(Turkish for "owned"; also transliterated mamlouk, mamluq, mamluke, mameluk, mameluke, mamaluke or marmeluke; a soldier of slave origin; of great political importance and was extraordinarily long-lived, lasting from the 9th to the 19th century AD.
(l) The review talked about Moroccans fended off Portugese with guns. Morocco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco
("Under the Saadi Dynasty, the first Moroccan dynasty initiated by ethnic Arabs since the Idrisids, the country would consolidate power and fight off Portuguese and Ottoman invaders, as in the battle of Ksar el Kebir" on Aug 4, 1578)

(m) pike (weapon)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_(weapon)
(n) acculturate (vt): "to change through acculturation"

acculturation: " cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture; also : a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact"




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