FORTRESS STUDY GROUP
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FORTRESS STUDY GROUP
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CASEMATE - The FSG News Letter ISSUE 71 |
ISSN 1367-5907 |
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THIS ISSUE carries regular features such as Reports and News; obituaries of three stalwarts of the FSG; 2004 Tour Report; a selection of articles, and the Books section, where you will find several very notable books, particularly two from Russia, and a discount offer from Osprey.
This is your magazine, so response to, and comment on, the contents, style and presentation are welcome. What would you like to see inside? What do you think of the current contents? What about the balance, of news/articles/book reviews? What would you like to see more/less of?
If you have been visiting forts, why not send in a report, ideally with photos and plans, and let us know the joys, pleasures and problems of the locations – access, times, costs etc? If you have found a good book, why not do a brief review? A look in the Books section will tell you the sort of information which is needed.
Contributions are always welcome - though they may not appear immediately or in the exact form submitted. Preferably via email, floppy disc or CD, please.
Charles Blackwood, Editor
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Chairman: David Bassett, 11 Fordwell, Llandaff Village, Cardiff CF52EQ.
Secretary: W.H.Clements, 6 Lanark Place, London W9 lBS.
Treasurer: T.H.Bell, 12 Castle Close, Kings Lynn, PE30 3EP, Norfolk.
Editor of FORT: Dr. Athanassios Migos MA, 9 Rock Park, Rock Ferry, Wirral, CH42 1PJ.
Editor of Casemate: Margaret Pinsent MA, 10 Park Town, Oxford, OX2 6SH.
Reviews Editor and Editor Designate of Casemate from May 2004: Charles Blackwood, Braemont, Cilcain Road, Pantymwyn, Mold, CH7 5NJ.
Email: charles@braemont.freeserve.co.uk
Librarian: G. Dowdall-Brown, 1 Pelican Lane, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1NU.
Email: dbrupert1@btopenworld.com
Fort.
Work on addressing the FORT backlog is progressing slowly but surely. Your committee, as reported in Casemate 70, has established a small editorial team to produce a number of issues to enable us to catch up on the backlog. It is logical to have guest editors for these issues and Terry McGovern kindly agreed to be the first. Editorial work is well underway on the initial issue and should be completed in time for the FSG AGM in September 2004, with dispatch to members targeted for November.
Dr Migos, proud father of a new baby son, has told us that work on the Eurofort issue is going well.
This joint production is paying dividends, with both teams gaining fresh contributions for our journal.
Membership.
Following our successful Tour to Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, we have gained a substantial number of new members. Welcome to the FSG.
FSG Web Site.
Version 2 of the FSG web site is now live. It can be found at www.fsgfort.com, our registered web address. The site is intended to provide three main functions: • A shop window for the general public; • A speedier method of disseminating information (Note date will appear for Quentin Hughes’ Memorial Service, expected in Autumn. Ed.) • An on-line repository for Casemate and FORT. Some of these are still being developed.
The public and the member’s sections are separated and entry to the member's part is controlled by a password; see website. Feed-back, suggestions or corrections will be gratefully received at richard.clisby@btopenworld.com.
Material for Casemate should reach the Editor by end October, February and June, at least 2 months before the next issue is due. The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the Editor or individual contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Fortress
Study Group. Bound back numbers of Casemate 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 and 31-40 are available from the Editor of FORT, Dr. A. Migos, 9 Rock Park, Rock Ferry, Wirral, CH42 1PJ, G.B., as are back numbers of FORT. More recent numbers of Casemate are available from Bernard Lowry, The Severals, Bentleys Road, Market Drayton, Shropshire, TF9 1LL, UK.
Charles Blackwood, Editor, Braemont, Cilcain Road, Pantymwyn, MOLD, Flintshire CH7 5NJ, UK. Email: charles@braemont.freeserve.co.uk
FSG conferences and AGMs:
2005. Feb/March Members Day, The Tower of London. (Richard Clisby).
2005. Hull (Alan Williamson & George Dawes).
2006. Weymouth (Alistair Graham Kerr).
2007. Orkney (Doreen Grove).
FSG Overseas Tours:
2005. Malta. 4-11 June. (Mario Farrugia and Charles Blackwood). Above date is correct, not 4-18 June
2006. Venice (Dr. Perbellini) or Britanny (Nicolas Faucherre)
Other Groups:
Sep 17-21: Romania: Tour, Assn Saint-Maurice d' Etudes Militaires maurice.lovisa@bluewin.ch
Sep 24-27: V-weapons/Atlantic Wall: Tour; Flanders Tours UK, Tony Noyes, tntnoyes@aol.com
Sep 25: Utrecht: IFC Meeting; Carlos Scheltema, carlos@scheltema.org
Oct 9-10: (date correction) Fort de Villey-Le-Sec, Fair, Int Fortification Forum, TBA, fort@villey-le-sec.com
Nov 6: Prague, Annual Conf, Czech Assn for Mil Hist; Vladimir Kupka, kupkav@sazka.cz
2005, Feb 23-27: Savannah, Annual Conf, Civil War Fortifications Study Group, TBA, info@cwfsg.org
Mar 29-Apr 2: Przemysl/Poland, Annual Tour, Interfest/DGF; Hans-Rudolf Neumann, hrv.neumann@t-online.de
May 4-8: San Diego, Annual Conf, CAMP; Herb Hart, camphart1@aol.com
May: Portland, Maine, Annual Conf, CDSG; Joel Eastman, joeleastman39@yahoo.com
July: Gulf of Finland, Special Tour, CDSG; Terry McGovern, tcmcgovern@att.net
Aug: Ukraine, Tour, GMS; Hans-Rudolf Neumann, hrv.neumann@t-online.de
On our recent Tour, a sweatshirt with embroidered FSG badge was much admired. These are now available, only from John Kemp, 28 Albert street, Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1HL Tel: 01856 873190, (NOT from FSG) email: embroidery@johnkemp.co.uk, www.orknet.co.uk/scapa/jkemp.htm Made by a well-known firm, the sweatshirts come in a very wide range of colours and sizes, price £17.99 + p&p.
‘BARCHINI EXPLOSIVI’ Italian exploding boats. Casemate 70 p10 carried a photograph captioned ‘An Italian E-Boat (barcino explosivo) in Malta Military Museum’. ‘E-Boat’ was the title of the notice by the exhibit. Maurice Cocker has written in to correct this, referring to an After the Battle volume [copy kindly sent] describing the Italian attack on Valletta harbour, and pointing out that these boats were properly referred to as ‘MTMs, Motoscafi da Turismo modificati or modified tourist motor boats’. They were one-man craft commonly known as barchini explosivi, displaced 1.5 tons, carried 300kgs of explosive and had a speed of 32-34knots. [Why the name ‘E-Boat’ has been used by the Museum, I do not know; English form of Explosive boat? Ed.]
Carl Erik Neland has emailed from Denmark to correct some details in our report of Mike Darling’s visit to Middelgrundsfort in Casemate 70 p3. He notes that the fort, built 1890-94, never had 15cm guns, but in 1896 had an armament of 5 x 30.5cm L/40 (Krupp) Model 1893, 12 x 17cm L/40 (Krupp) M1893, 6x12cm L/40 (Krupp) M1893 and 7 x 37mm L/30 M1896. In 1940 the armament was: 5 x 30.5cm, 12 x 17cm, 6 x 12cm and 7 x 7.5cm - the same as WWI less some Danish 75mm L/55 and a 47mm L/44 which had been added.
In the early fifties the old armament was scrapped and replaced by anti-aircraft ordnance: 4 x 105mm, 9 x twin 40mm and 7 x 20mm, and from 1968-83 ‘Hawk’ missiles [not ‘Nike’ as surmised], which brought to an end the military history of the fort.
[Members who were not on the 1986 FSG visit can read Margaret Pinsent’s report in Casemate19 p5. Ed.].
The Stelling van Amsterdam is the ring of defences utilising fortifications and inundations which surround Amsterdam, and is the longest continuous ring of fortification in Europe. There is a flourishing association for the preservation and utilisation of those forts remaining and it has a superb website with the fullest information possible and many photographs. The defence works (many of which were visited by FSG in 1992) are generally in good condition, though some of the concrete suffered from German fire in 1940. The website is:
www.stelling-amsterdam.org/
I strongly recommend it. The text is Dutch but there is an English version. Also recommended for a coverage of fortifications in general in the Netherlands and Belgium is:
www.forten.info
You may need to scroll down past a few irrelevant sites using the word Forten. Forten.info contains among other items a number of other web addresses relevant to the topic.
Gil Dowdall-Brown
From Paul Holford; some more which might be of interest;
http://community.webshots.com/user/cjv32
This is the one with photos of Dutch fortifications (among others). It has a nice link to:
www.fortweb.net (nice howitzer on opening page......)
The other site is a links page:
http://alainlecomte.free.fr/links.htm
If you scroll down to Finland you will find the Mannerheim line website, but I bet you stop off at a few other sites on the way!
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Quentin Hughes died at the age of 84 on 8 May 2004. A man of many parts, Quentin was an architect, university teacher, architectural and planning consultant, a leading conservationist for Malta and, particularly, in his native Liverpool. He published a seminal architectural study of that city, Seaport, in 1964 and more recently Liverpool City of Architecture (1999). In addition, he had a distinguished wartime career as a member of the Special Air Services behind German lines in occupied Italy, for which he was awarded the Military Cross and Bar and received lasting injuries. The obituaries in the main national newspapers covered these aspects
of his life with due thoroughness but largely omitted another aspect, which was as a pioneer in the study of the history of fortifications and a founder member of the Fortress Study Group. We, in the FSG knew and appreciated this side of his work and life which, to many outsiders may
have seemed peripheral, but was to Quentin, as well as ourselves, a vital and lifelong passion.
This interest undoubtedly sprang from his initial wartime career as a gunner stationed in Malta where he could not help seeing the complex sequence of defences in and around Valletta. These he saw as part of the whole story of Maltese architecture which he was to describe in Fortress Architecture & Military History in Malta (1969), and saw him produce Malta, A Guide to the Fortifications (1985) under his own imprint, Penpaled Books. The wartime experience certainly stimulated continuing association with Malta where he was to set up the Royal School of Architecture as its professor (1968-72). His services to Malta saw him created an Officer of the Maltese Order of Merit shortly before his death It was not therefore surprising in the climate he had helped to establish that on his return to England Quentin was one of a small group of fortification enthusiasts who met in Oxford in 1974 and decided to create the Fortress Study Group. From the outset he was determined that the Group should have its own publication, eventually to be known as FORT. This he edited from 1975, first on pages resembling thin cardboard until, when he retired as editor in 1990, it had metamorphosed into a handsome annual journal which held its own among other scholarly publications.
Quentin was an internationalist. This set the tone for the world-wide membership of FSG as well as the nature of the contents and contributors to FORT. He privately regretted that FSG did not encompass the whole range of military architecture including the periods before the advent of
gunpowder artillery. He was particularly excited by the innovations which affected fortification during the Italian Renaissance. In this respect he combined with scholars such
as John Hale and Simon Pepper who together brought Renaissance military engineering into academic respectability and acclaim. The important article : ‘Fortification in late 15th-century Italy: the treatise of Francesco di Giorgio’ in Papers in Italian Archaeology I, the
Lancaster Seminar Recent research in prehistoric, classical and medieval archaeology in BAR Supplementary Series 41(ii) (1978) was an important contribution.
In the development of FSG he was an outstanding figure. Urbane and generous with his time and expertise he was stimulating company during the Group’s excursions at home and abroad, always ready to explain and discuss points of detail. In this he matched fellow soldiers and colleagues like Jock Hamilton Baillie and General Nicholas. Quentin was able to see the subject both from the standpoint of someone who had experienced warfare and with an architect’s mind for understanding structures.
His considerable efforts for the Group were focused on establishing FORT as a journal of reference and academic excellence. It was a publication to which he made numerous and varied contributions whose range matched that of his own publications. A notable essay is ‘Military Architecture and the printed book’ 10 (1982) in which he argued that the early printed illustrations proved of enormous significance for imparting technical information. The experience from his years in Malta and familiarity with the fortifications of the Knights was distilled in FORT 4 (1977), but where Quentin excelled was in taking this study a step
further by identifying the extension of the defences by nineteenth century British engineers.
He was especially interested in the 1860 Royal Commission fortifications in Britain and their
evolution: Wellington & Fortification, 15 (1987); General Todleben’s views on the Royal Commission forts under construction in 1864, 7 (1979). The French dimension included Project for the defence of Paris, 12 (1984), and an essay on the French naval base of Cherbourg, 8,
supplement (1980). Further afield were Defences of Corfu, 14 (1986) and Kronstadt and the Crimean War, 21 (1993). More generally, and serving as articles of reference for the membership were, A Chronology of Events in Fortification from 1800 to 1914 and An Illustrated English glossary of terms used in military architecture (1980). This is by no means a complete bibliography.
His own publications spread beyond Malta, to the impact of British military engineers around the Mediterranean: Britain in the Mediterranean & the Defence of her Naval Stations (1981). From this sprang Strong as the Rock of Gibraltar (1995) written in collaboration with Athanassios Migos. He had earlier combined with Simon Pepper in a new introduction (1983) to E Viollet-Le-Duc’s Annals of a Fortress.
Quentin's greatest legacy is his Military Architecture, The Art of Defence from Earliest Times to the Atlantic Wall (1974) with a revised and extended edition (1991), which puts the study into its broad historical and geographical context including fortifications of the Ancient World. He saw the subject in the round to include medieval castles as well as recent works of reinforced concrete.
Quentin wore his scholarship lightly. He was a greatly respected figure in many fields. We in FSG have much reason to be grateful to him for his companionship and for establishing the academic rock on which Group has come to be based.
Andrew Saunders
BOOKS - Others
Harry Potter: Edinburgh Under Siege 1571-1573, Tempus Publishing Ltd., Stroud, UK, 2003, ISBN 0-7524-2332-0. Paperback, 190pp, 248x173mm, 60 b&w photographs and line illustrations; chronology, glossary, chapter end notes, primary and secondary sources; biographical, place and general indices, £16.99.
The close siege of Edinburgh Castle in fact only occupies some ten pages of the book. This, in essence, is the story of the civil war between Scottish aristocratic factions; one, the ‘Marians’, supporting the exiled Mary Queen of Scots who had abdicated in 1567 in favour of her young son, James VI, later to be James I of England as well, and the ‘Jacobeans’; those, under successive Regents, who were adherents of the king. In some respects it is a story which mirrors the Wars of the Roses in late 15th C England but was probably more brutal and destructive to the population at large.
The conflict proved a stalemate while Edinburgh Castle held out. The castle was held paradoxically by a Protestant in the Catholic Marian interest by Kirkaldy of Grange, an individual, despite other allegiances, who was stubbornly loyal to his Queen. Those defenders of the Castle under him are somewhat disconcertingly referred to as the ‘Castilians’. James’s supporters could not achieve a successful siege without a train of heavy guns. This was impossible to obtain from local sources because all the heavy armament in Scotland was in the arsenal within the castle. It was only with the aid of an English siege train and an accompanying force provided by a reluctant and parsimonious Elizabeth that short work was made of the masonry defences. Very destructive late sixteenth century cannon proved to be. Before then, while the castle was isolated from Scotland, and later from the town of Edinburgh itself, the defenders were able to receive supplies and mount sorties almost at will. Leith was the headquarters of the King's party, but lacking the Scottish regalia it was only a hand to mouth seat of government.
The title of the book is therefore to some extent misleading but as a whole it certainly provides a vivid account of the civil war and the political manoeuverings among the Scottish
nobility with the dying thunderings of John Knox thrown in for good measure. The surprise and capture of Dumbarton Castle in 1571 was a major episode. Underlying the war was the struggle between Catholic and Protestant. The Marians were constantly looking to France, and also Spain, for material as well as moral support, while the Regent was desperately striving to draw in England, which had its own problems with the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots serving as a focal point for plots against Elizabeth by English Catholics.
The book, as with others under the Tempus imprint, is well illustrated. Many are reproductions of portraits of the various participants. Illustrations of the castle and the city are predominantly contemporary or seventeenth century views, with reconstruction drawings derived from Historic Scotland publications. These are often very effective in depicting the nature of the defences at their different levels upon the rock. Nevertheless, it would have been helpful to have had an annotated plan of the Castle to make clear the topography and the situation of the various gates and features. The plan of the town of Edinburgh from the Castle to the Canongate is reproduced at too small a scale with the street names etc close to illegible.
When it comes to details of the fortifications themselves the reader becomes aware that the author is not always sure of the technicalities. We have ‘earthfilled gun emplacements’, and cannon balls igniting ‘gabrons’. The account of the Scottish armament is drawn from the well known contemporary inventory. As a political history of Scotland describing the conflict between the supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots following her abdication and those who sided
with the young James VI, this will be unfamiliar for many English readers and will be a very welcome explanation of a murky period and a valuable addition to the story of Anglo-Scottish
relations during the period prior to the Union of the Crowns.
Andrew Saunders.
Joep van Hoof: Menno van Coehoorn 1641/1704 Vestingbouwer - belegeraar - infanterist [Fort builder-siegemaster-infantryman]. Published 2004 by the Stichting Matrijs, a non-profit-making organisation, in conjunction with the Institute of Military History, Den Haag, with financial support from the Stichting Menno van Coehoorn and a legacy from Col. W.F.K.Engelbrecht. Dutch text. ISBN 90-5345-244-3. Hardback, 112 pp, 280x217mm, €24.95. http://www.matrijs.com/
Produced to coincide with the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of van Coehoorn's death, this is a handsome book, with hard covers and quality paper, the text being on a buff-coloured background with shaded detail. Yet it is no mere coffee-table volume. Its purpose (p.102) is ‘to contribute towards raising extra interest in this extraordinary personality and gain somewhat more attention to his importance for the Netherlands’. Sources include articles in the Stichting Menno van Coehoorn Jaarboek from the 90s as well as an unpublished thesis of 2000 with the same title. Christopher Duffy is one of the three English sources quoted. The illustrations are preponderantly from two collections in Den Haag - the Institute of Military History of the Royal Land Forces, and the National Archive, and comprise a rich selection of contemporary maps (supplemented by modern ones, to show Coehoorn’s travels), exquisite ancient plans, texts, portraits and prints, of which an enlarged detail graces the start of each chapter.
The lack of footnotes or specific references enables smoother reading, and is made up for by the list of archives and sources, bibliography, an extremely clear fortress terminology (as one would expect) and an index of proper names, geographical locations and attributions for the illustrations. In any case, an annotated version exists in the Institute of Military History.
The text follows van Coehoorn’s career chronologically, and emphasises the many-sided personality and achievements of the man. Genieën, applied to Vauban and van Coehoorn, can mean 'geniuses' as well as 'engineers'. His career up to and after his finest hour 1698/1702 was not smooth, uncomplicated and uncontroversial. He became established as the foremost expert in siege tactics when he re-took Namur from the French in 1695. Yet he was
criticised for (and long regretted) the large number of casualties - 2,000 were lost when storming parties had to cross a gap of 700 paces, larger than expected, to reach the breach. The author however judges that his ‘punchthrough’ methods possibly cost less than the regular ‘classic’ siege tactics of Vauban. He depended on William III’s trust and patronage, lost to him on that monarch’s death. The title of ‘baron’ was given him by the Spanish. He was friendly with the Earl of Athlone, but could be savage with opponents: ‘He would suffer no counter argument: those who wanted to confront him had to come well-prepared. Anyone not fulfilling this requirement, he cut down unmercifully with his sarcasm’. The quarrel with Louis Paen furnishes one example: for another, see the story in Casemate 55 p16. Despite the time and effort he put into designing and inspecting fortifications and making recommendations, not all his plans were carried out, especially in peace time, expense being an issue. His most famous publications are Versterckinge des Vyf-Hoeks 1682 [ Pentagonal Fortification] and Nieuwe Vestingbouw op een natte of lage horisont 1685 [ New fortification on a wet or low horizon].
He was particularly strong on the use of terrain, impassable morasses and inundation areas requiring dykes and sluices, the use of Lines and the New Dutch System.
There is controversy over where the famous Coehoorn Mortar was first used. For Racine’s account of the meeting of Vauban and van Coehoorn at Namur, see Casemate 67 p18. The author (who also wrote Langs Wal en Bastion) is a military historian, and there are good descriptions of van Coehoorn’s campaigns and battles. The difficulty of communication on the battlefield in those days is brought out. The incident where a grenadier gave up his horse, and thus his life, so that van Coehoorn could escape from battle is echoed by another where his servant had a horse ready for him behind the troop lines, for the same purpose. This behaviour might strike one as unheroic, but it is ‘more advantageous in chess that the queen escapes’.
Delightful metaphors from war and seafaring enliven the text: ‘The States-General stuck to its guns ... finally van Coehoorn changed tack’, ‘After the Peace of Utrecht 1713, international politics sailed into calmer waters’, ‘Van Coehoorn’s ideas of fortification endured for a long time, and only in the mid 19C were they definitely thrown overboard’. A slight fault is repetitiousness: ‘as already mentioned’ occurs too often. But this book merits
translation into other languages for non-Dutch speaking readers who want the text as well as the superb pictures.
Margaret Pinsent.
N B Ajushin, V V Kalinin, S A Vorobyev, N V Gavrilkin: FORTRESS VLADIVOSTOK; 2001, Ostrow, St Petersburg. Paperback, 263pp, 285x210mm, colour covers, prolific b&w photos, maps and plans; $30.
Vladimir Kalinin, Editor; FORTRESS RUSSIA, Issue 1; 2003, Vladivostok Dalnauka. Paperback, 143pp, 290x205mm, colour covers, 100+ colour photos, numerous b&w photos, maps and plans; $15.
The quality of graphic work, mainly by S A Vorobiev, is particularly high, and the photographs are numerous and wide ranging. Both books in Russian with English summaries and captions.
Price includes p&p; contact Vladimir Kalinin, at: kalininv@hotmail.com
These two books are a treasure house of information and extremely good value for money. Vladimir and his colleagues have produced two splendid works, which really deserve to be translated to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Fortress Vladivostok is based mainly on previously unknown archival material and field research by the authors and introduces the creation of the unique complex of fortifications built in Vladivostok and its vicinity over a 100 year period, from 1860.
A brief introduction into the history of fortification is followed by a description of the initial period and the first batteries, then the history of the early fortress (1889-1923), one of the strongest coastal fortresses in the world; and the second defence line, designed 1899 and built 1900-04, similar to the Port Arthur forts.
The design and construction of the main 1910-17 defence line, the strongest of the permanent fortifications, is covered. These works contain many unusual features; an intricate system of tunnels, galleries and countermines, counterscarp caponiers of unusual design, concrete rifle
parapets with troop shelters beneath, and concrete barbette positions for moveable guns.
The restoration and development of the coastal defence system of the area during the 1930s and 40s is covered, with descriptions of open and turreted batteries (180-356mm) and the 5 Fortified Sectors of the land fortification complex of the most heavily protected base in the world, which kept the Japanese at bay. By the end of WWII the Vladivostok Naval Defence Region made it impossible for the Japanese to attack the port, allowing it to continue as a key link between the USSR and the Allies. The Soviet period Harbour Defence batteries are presented with full details.
The range of photos is superb, with many from 1905, 1912 and 1922, showing construction work, mounting guns and the guns in place. There are two large fold-out plans, and all aspects of this unusual set of fortifications are illustrated. Circular gunports hark back to an earlier era, and some of the caponiers exhibit curved and moulded embrasure recesses. Vladivostok is lucky to have much hardware still in place, including turreted and open guns.
Fortress Russia, Issue 1 comprises a series of papers, starting with an editorial on the Russian fortification heritage and what needs following up (37 excellent colour photos of a great variety of pillboxes), then two articles on Vladivostok 180mm coastal batteries 1932-45, the first on open batteries (26 colour photos), the second (32pp) on turreted batteries (18 colour photos), followed by 14 pages on Anti-landing permanent fortifications of the Coast Defence of Vladivostok (lots of colour photos and many superb plans).
The book concludes with 42 pages on Fortification in the 20th C – proposing a system of classifying fortification forms; there follows a critique of the proposals. Each article
has its own summary.
Vladimir and his colleagues cannot publish Fortress Russia regularly, but hope to produce an issue every two years or so – they are enthusiasts, not professionals – and Issue 2 is in preparation, with ideas for a third, and prospects for a fourth and fifth Issue. The group aim initially to gain a wider Russian readership and interest before working on translations. They deserve our full support.
Being able to read only a summary and captions, much information inevitably will be lost, but the summaries give the context, captions are substantial; these volumes are very well worth purchasing and great value for money.
Charles Blackwood
Karl Hack and Kevin Blackburn: Did Singapore have to Fall?, Routledge Curzon, 2004, ISBN 0-415-30803-8. Hardback, 300 pp, 234x164mm, 27 b&w photos, 3 figures, 17 maps, extensive valuable and informative Notes, comprehensive bibliography, and index, £60.
Written by two Singapore expatriate residents, this book aims to provide a better understanding of the military disaster that came with the surrender of Singapore on the 15th February 1942, so readers can make their own decision on the crucial question posed by the title. Was Singapore the ‘Gibraltar of the East’, were the ‘big guns’ useless, facing to sea and useless for landward defence, and did the colonial lifestyle clash with preparations for war? An overview of the strategy, the fortress and the guns is provided. Morale, imperial over-stretch, deficiencies in tactics, intelligence and leadership and inadequate defences are all covered.
Why was Singapore so vital? Britain’s position as a global superpower was based on naval supremacy; post-WW1 the fleet needed a base in the Far East and Singapore was the only choice. The decision to build the base on Singapore’s north coast on the narrow Johore Strait, was made in 1921 and it was finally completed in 1938.
It was expected to be able to resist until a relief fleet arrived, a period assessed in the 1920’s to be forty two days, by 1939 ninety days and after war started, one hundred eighty days.
By June 1921 the existing five 9.2" guns installed to protect the commercial port on Singapore’s south coast were out-ranged by Japanese warships. The Admiralty decided on an
integrated seaward defence, with five 15", another 9.2", 18 x 6" and numerous close range guns. The jungle defended the landward side and the RAF had an auxiliary role.
With the Japanese acquisition of bases in French Indo-China (Vietnam), a sudden and large-scale assault on the East Coast was made possible, overturning the planning assumptions for the defence of Singapore.
The need to defend Northern Malaya had already been recognised in late 1937 and in August 1940 the British Chiefs of Staff emphasised holding Northern Malaya and launching a pre-emptive invasion of Southern Thailand – Operation ‘Matador’. In September 1940 Churchill decided not to reinforce Singapore with the necessary warships, aircraft and tanks. Manpower reinforcements were sent; in June 1940 there were eight infantry battalions and by the outbreak of war there were forty-seven (thirty-one regular). In August 1941 an experienced Brigadier RE arrived to
modernise Singapore’s defences - interestingly all the materials had arrived pre-war. His plans were thwarted by the command decision that ‘such defences would be bad for morale’. His book Singapore, Too Little, Too Late: The failure of Malaya’s defence in 1942 was published in 1970 by Leo Cooper.
On the 7th December 1941 Japan’s campaign began with landings in Southern Thailand and Northern Malaya, with naval and air superiority from the start. For the defenders the campaign was a disaster, some units having 50% casualties and on the 1st February 1941 Japanese troops
arrived on the Johore coast. Allied reinforcements continued to arrive up to the 5th February 1942; an entire Infantry Division, supporting three artillery regiments, several thousand raw untrained troops and 51 crated Hurricane fighters with twenty-two pilots!
The ‘Gibraltar of the East’ did have pre-war defences along the southern coast; pillboxes, lights, and guns – obsolete 18pdrs. Very limited preparations had been made after the war started on the Northeast coast and none on the Northwest (where the Japanese attack came).
‘The big guns faced the wrong way’. The authors conclude this is half-right and half-wrong.
All six 9.2" guns, eleven of the eighteen 6" and three of the five 15" fired, but crucially there were very limited supplies of HE shells, only one 15" round being found. The Japanese
likened the ‘big guns’ firing to ‘shells the size of oil barrels making large craters’. The 6" guns, with overhead covers against air attack, had a very limited traverse, but still fired nearly all their HE shells. Note that the field artillery (59 x 18pdr and 166 x 25pdr) had almost 600,000 rounds of HE, plus AP and smoke shells but alas, how much was fired is not known. As an FSG member who has visited the Gibraltar and Sevastapol fortresses the detailed account of the big guns in action from war diaries and research is fascinating, with plentiful notes and appendices providing the details.
Knowing what happened in the ‘Rape of Nanking’ and the brutal reprisals when encountering fierce resistance in the Malaya campaign, Japanese threats of taking Singapore by ‘fire and the sword’ meant that any defence to the death would have meant an horrific fate for the 1 million civilians and their defenders. As one defender later commented ‘imagine a last ditch attempt to hold the Isle of Wight, with the whole of the British Isles in enemy hands, the Solent shrunk to a sizeable river and spanned by a causeway’.
An excellent book, providing new insights on the interplay of all the factors involved, new information on the defences, in particular the ‘big guns’, and different enough to make the effort worthwhile. The extensive notes give an added value if the reader wants to go further. The web sites of CDSG and FSG get a mention too. The £60 price tag is a drawback.
David Page
Rudi Rolf: A Dictionary on Modern Fortification An illustrated lexicon on European Fortification in the period 1800-1945. PRAK Publishing, Middelburg, 2004. No ISBN. Hardback, 464pp glossy, 210x260mm, landscape, 6200+ entries, 760 illustrations. €66 (about £44). www.rudirolf.name
Rudi Rolf’s latest tome is attractively presented with full page colour photos on front and back covers. The binding appears sturdy enough to endure years of use. And so it should, because this is a book to keep and use again and again.
Above all it is a reference book, and an important one at that, for it brings together the development of 19th and 20th Century fortifications on a European scale.
Subjects, which include personalities, fortresses, individual forts and elements of fortification, are listed alphabetically, and presented in two columns per page. The text is frequently illustrated with modest sized photos, sketch plans of individual forts or simple maps of fortress towns and cities. All illustrations are monochrome. There is a good degree of cross-referencing, these being indicated by italic text. Entries also have their equivalent listed in French, German and Italian where different terms are used in these languages.
The range and scale of entries is enormous; from batteries and forts to cities (eg Plymouth, Antwerp; Metz gets a whole page and a map,) and countries (France has a map and two pages, to include ‘French fortification’, and ‘French fortress weapons’); from a few lines to several
pages. Brief entries usually, but not always, have the essentials: date, armament and location. The 2 line entry for ‘Acton’ is ideal – ‘The Italian Batteria Acton was constructed in the Isle of Capri, south of Napoli (I) in the 1930s and armed with three 15.2cm /50 calibre naval guns’.
Very few sites can be missed – the book must contain virtually all within its remit. The numerous plans are small and indicative only, with no scale, and there can be problems with captions, which are few, so it is not always clear which entry the illustration supports. Photos are sharp, clear and very well chosen. The book comes with an unnecessarily large and cumbersome separate fold out map, which helps locate defensive lines and forts in Europe, though there is no legend for the lines.
A selection of entries will give the reader a much clearer idea of the scale and worth of this book than you reviewer’s own words:
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‘Chaberton. The Italian Batteria dello Chaberton was constructed 12km south of Bardonecchia (I), now (F) between 1898 and 1914 as part of the Place of Cesana (Susa). It consisted of an oblong concrete casemate with personnel and ammunition rooms on which eight 10m high cylindrical towers were constructed crowned by eight A-type 14.9cm gun armoured cupolas. These guns fired over a 10m high barbette or counterscarpe wall running from north to south along a rock. On the eastern side of the battery a concrete crenellated corridor defended the work on top of a steep slope’. |
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‘Liede. The Dutch fort of Liede was constructed east of Haarlem (NL) as part of the Stelling van Amsterdam between 1843 and 1844. The fort had a square lay-out with a central two-storied casemated reduit, on which six guns were placed. This reduit was surrounded by a counterscarp wall with an earth rampart. The work was surrounded by the Liede river and the Haarlemmer-meerpolder ring canal. Around 1880 the top of the fort was broken down in order to lower its profile’. |
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‘Steinau. Former German village along the Oder River, now Sinawa (PL). On both ends of the railway bridge over the Oder river tower-like blockhouses were constructed between 1901 and 1902’ |
Though it is clear in places that English is not the author’s native tongue, and one or two small errors can be found (eg p232 ‘Massif de Saint Gabain’ should read ‘Massif de Saint
Gobain’, and p128, Epinal is on the Moselle, not the Meuse), Rudi Rolf is to be congratulated on producing a significant book, packed with information from a wide variety of sources. In it we can see the similarities as well as the national differences in European fortification since
1800. It is also a book that works well on different planes: the reader can “dip” into it over a cup of coffee and study the fort plans, photos and maps, or use the book as a reference in order to, for example, further their knowledge of Austrian works in Poland.
This is a stupendous and most welcome addition to our subject, and every member should have a copy.
Paul Holford
G M Atherton: Soldiers of the Castle: Dover Castle Garrisoned, Triangle Publications, Dover, 2004, ISBN 0-9539478-3-1, A4, 125pp, 10 colour & 88 b&w illustrations, £10.00 (+ £2.00 p&p). Order by post from the author at: Digges Place, Barham, Canterbury, Kent. CT4 6PJ. Telephone: 01227 831420. (Cheque with order.)
Dover Castle needs little by way of introduction here: it is arguably Britain’s finest mediaeval fortress; has been a defended site of some description for probably a couple of millennia; and in many ways can be said to represent the country’s history manifested in brick and stone, earth and concrete. For five years towards the end of the castle’s active life Wendy Atherton lived there, as wife of the Deputy Governor, so is clearly well qualified to write this unusual but, it is quickly apparent, utterly fascinating book. Soldiers of the Castle is effectively a history of the castle as an establishment; a place where people worked and lived,
rather than as a piece of architecture. This is a welcome approach, for it is all too easy for those of us who like to clamber over ramparts and scrabble down ditches to forget that fortresses were living, bustling places, full of people, both military and civilian, going about their many different businesses. What could easily have been simply a list of the units that have been stationed in the castle, from the Castleguard of Henry II’s reign up to the 1st Battalion, The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders in the 1950s (and this was the author’s original intention when she started the project, twenty-five years ago!), becomes instead an engrossing piece of social history, for what Atherton has done is to use the units as a framework around which to construct the story, full of incidental detail and giving a vivid picture of life in the castle over the centuries.
The reader quickly becomes aware of the huge changes that have taken place, and the great contrasts between fortress life in, for example, the middle ages and the 20th Century – in short, something of a microcosm of life in Great Britain as a whole.
Not unexpectedly, the amount – and the level of detail – of the material is far greater with the more recent periods. So, if you are one of those FSG members who really are not the least interested in the pre-gunpowder era (or, indeed, pre-Industrial revolution, pre-concrete, or even pre-20th Century!) there is still a huge amount here for you. In fact the most modern decades include excerpts from interviews, which really serve to bring the things to life. F/Lt. A R Goodburn’s 1940 recollection that “we were instructed to make snowballs and to practice lobbing them over the ramparts as if they were grenades. For arms we could go to the Keep and remove from the walls the weapons of olden times…” brings home just how desperate the country’s
plight then was.
There is a good, varied selection of pictures, depicting the castle itself, the units stationed there, together with guns and personalities. Some of these illustrations are well known, others very definitely not – another plus for the book. Very occasionally the quality slips; in particular one or two modern photographs are clearly from digital originals, with a corresponding lack of definition, but mostly the reproduction is clear and crisp.
The layout is slightly unconventional, with each entry consisting of a date; then the name of the unit or units stationed at (or, to be more precise, quite often near) the castle at that time; then details of events, personalities, relevant quotations, and sometimes background information; and finally the source(s), all running on one after the other, rather than the more conventional layout of having the last of these listed as footnotes or at the back of the book. The reason, Atherton states with complete honesty, is simple personal preference – it is her book, so she’s done it the way she likes! She also shows a pleasing (to this reviewer, at least) lack of author’s ego in making no claim for total accuracy or comprehensiveness, and inviting corrections and amendments from readers. If only all historians were so modest…
And while on the subject of modest historians, she has managed something of a small coup by getting well-known ‘television historian’ Richard Holmes to contribute the Foreword, which he writes in his customary warm yet authoritative style.
Together with a short introduction outlining the history of the castle (useful in that the reader then doesn’t have to keep referring to other books for background information), four appendices, bibliography, and a couple of maps for reference, this well thought out book is not only clearly a labour of love, but an exemplary piece of work. Highly recommended, especially for Kent based readers, or those (like this reviewer) who visit the county regularly.
Steve Dent
Jean-Denis Lepage: The Westwall (Siegfried Line) 1938-1945, The Nafziger Collection Inc., PO Box 1522, West Chester, Ohio, 45069-1522 USA, 2002, ISBN 1-58545-092-8, A4, paperback, pp94, illustrated, £16, c.€ 22. Nafziger@fuse.net or for catalogue: http://home.fuse.net/nafziger
This book has a definite home-published appearance, with a very basic binding and average paper quality. The reader should not be put off by this - between the drab covers will be found a mine of information on Germany’s Westwall. In four chapters, the author guides us through the
background, features, bunker types and weapons found in Hitler’s fortified line. There is no account of any military action involving the ‘Siegfried Line’, as the Allies called it. The first chapter gives us the background to the defences, starting with a very concise history of German fortification from the late medieval to 1914-18, with some emphasis on WW1 bunkers. Nazi re-armament, the Ostwall, foreign policy and the birth of the Todt Organisation lead us to the
genesis of the Westwall. It was in this chapter that your reviewer found the only inaccuracies on pp 8 and 9. The rotating turrets at Feste Illingen (Thionville) had single 10cm guns (and not two as stated), and the Feste (Kaiser Wilhelm II) at Molsheim would have required very long-range artillery to cover the Nancy to Epinal road! This said, these are small criticisms in an otherwise well organised chapter.
Chapter Two introduces the features of the Westwall. Most bunkers were of very standardised design (Regelbau) with set standards for wall and roof thicknesses. Also standardised were features such as entrances, embrasures, emergency exits, and armour. Three pages of the chapter
are devoted to construction methods.
Chapter Three is in some ways the heart of the book, and concentrates on bunker types. Shelters, magazines, artillery garages, observation posts, machine-gun and anti-tank gun bunkers are all described. The chapter closes with a review of anti-personnel and anti-tank obstacles. Each description is supported by very helpful line and cut-away drawings. The final chapter describes the weapons used in the Westwall, from the humble infantryman’s Mauser rifle to the famed 88mm anti-aircraft/tank gun, passing through machine guns, mortars and flamethrowers on the way.
The reader should not expect to be able to use this book as a geographical guide to the Westwall, for there is no reference to specific locations. What we do have is an excellent and concise introduction to the background, design and features of Germany’s western defences. There are no photographs, but the many monochrome drawings, whilst not making for a colourful book are very helpful, paragons of clarity, and not without a touch of humour. Your reviewer has no reservations in recommending this book to anyone with an interest in the Westwall. English titles on this subject are rare enough, and this volume makes an excellent companion to any others the reader may have on the Westwall. I obtained my copy from Barbarossa Books in Tiptree, Essex, who have a website.
Paul Holford.
Juan Vazquez Garcia and Lucas Molina Franco:Los Canones De La Coruña, privately published, 2004. ISBN: 84-96016-32-3. Paperback, 160 x 230 mm, 143pp, profusely illustrated in both colour and black and white with maps, photographs and plans. Spanish text.
Following his earlier book, La Costa Inexpungable, [see Casemate 66, p19 for review. Ed.] in which he gave an overview of the whole Ferrol-Corunna area, the author has now turned to deal in greater detail with the coastal defences of Corunna itself.
The first four chapters set out the historical development of the defences and the development of the naval base but it is in the mid-nineteenth century with the increased power and range of coastal artillery that the book really gets into its stride.
The establishment of new batteries, armed first of all with rifled muzzle-loaders and then with breech-loaders, is described in great detail. All the types and makes of gun employed in Spanish coastal defence are represented: Krupp, Ordonez, Munaiz and Vickers. Indeed, the Vickers 15, 24, 38.1cm and 10.5cm AA guns were among the last to go when the coastal batteries were eventually closed down in 1990. The last chapter of the book is, in effect, a glossary
of the defences which have been preserved and restored to give pleasure and instruction to the locals and tourists alike. Notable amongst these works is the Bateria de San Pedro which features two Vickers 38.1cm guns in their turrets together with an interpretation centre, all open to the public. The last section of the book has clear and attractive maps showing where the existing defences are, with suggested itineraries.
Finally, an unusual feature is an accompanying DVD, which gives about half an hour of the coastal guns and AA guns in action, taken during an Army exercise, before their demise.
The book may be obtained direct from the author: Juan Vazquez Garcia, C/Matadero, 54-1 La Coruña 15002. Spain. Price: €20 + €10 p&p in Europe or + €18 p&p elsewhere. E-mail: jvazquez@mundo-r.com
Dennis Quarmby
Kenneth Wiggins: Siege Mines and Underground Warfare. 2003, Shire Publications, Princes Risborough. ISBN 0-7478-0547-4, 56pp with forty black and white illustrations. Price £5.99.
The medieval development of siege artillery never entirely superseded the breaching of fortification defences by tunneling or the digging of saps towards a wall base. The strongest walls were vulnerable to a method of attack in use as early as the ninth century BC. As the art of the siege developed in the Middle Ages so did the use of countermeasures: round curtain towers were less vulnerable (no corners), wide moats and rocky sites made mining vulnerable or extremely difficult. The epic sieges of the Crusades saw Frank and Saracen engaged in a struggle of mine and countermine.
The development of gunpowder led to the introduction in the late 15th C of the terrifying explosive mine. Francisco di Giorgio Martini was, perhaps, the earliest proponent, first using the device during the many wars in Renaissance Italy. Of course such a device could be as dangerous to its user as to the besieged so tunnels were ‘kinked’ to baffle and contain the explosion. Paradoxically, the building of angled bastions to better resist an enemy’s cannon made fortifications more vulnerable to mining with the reintroduction of the angled corner. To combat the new menace fortifications began to appear with built-in countermine galleries or shafts from which countermining could begin.
In Britain evidence of mining exists in the form of the round tower built to replace a square, clasping tower brought down during the siege of Rochester castle in 1215. At Bungay one can still see the mine beneath the keep dating from the siege of 1174 and at St Andrews Castle one can explore both mine and countermine. Here the 1546 siege appears to have ended suddenly: did the besieged flood the mine? During the English Civil War many of the sieges ended with the successful force ‘slighting’ the defences by undermining walls and towers and exploding
charges.
The 16th and 17thC wars in Britain were quite minor in comparison with the conflict that swept through the Netherlands and northern France in that period. Here the many sieges led to the development of tactics on both sides and the writing of treatises. One naturally thinks of Vauban who kept a permanent company of miners. Although the mining and countermining of fortresses had had its day by the late nineteenth century, the mine was to reappear with shattering ferocity in the First World War with the detonation of 450 tonnes of Ammonal by the British Army beneath German positions on the Messines Ridge in 1917. Kenneth Wiggins has written an interesting and entertaining introduction to the subject at a reasonable price. If you want a more detailed account of a siege then get hold of a copy of his book Anatomy of a Siege: King John’s Castle, Limerick 1642 published by Wordwell, Bray and Boydell Press in 2000. A brief review appears in Casemate 64 p16.
John Schofield: Modern Military Matters. Studying and managing the twentieth-century defence heritage in Britain: a discussion document, 2004,Council for British Archaeology, York, ISBN 1-902771-37-0, 65pp & 46 illustrations, £5.95. From York Publishing Services Ltd., 64 Hallfield Road, Layerthorpe, York YO31 7ZQ.
The camps, airfields, depots, factories and training areas of the First World War have largely disappeared without the benefit of any form of archaeological recording having been put in place. Happily this is not the case with remains from the last war, although much had disappeared before the national Defence of Britain Project began in 1994. In addition to the recording, the English Heritage Monument Protection Programme survey of written and photographic records, together with a parallel survey of Cold War monuments, has added immeasurably to our knowledge of the immense diversity of defence structures. The Project was largely the province of amateurs, whilst the Programme was carried out by professional archaeologists. Their recent completion marks the right time for a review of the current situation, embracing consideration of the gaps in our knowledge, the research priorities, and how this research might be directed. This is apposite as public interest in the archaeology of wartime structures is growing as evidenced by programmes such as ‘Two Men in a Trench’.
Dr Schofield of English Heritage has brought together the contributions of a number of experts, including our ex-Chairman Andrew Saunders, and produced an interesting and thoughtful document. The first part provides an excellent introduction to the subject of the last century’s defence heritage and succinctly details the current state of knowledge, describing the major and minor types of structure, some surviving examples, survival rates, sources for information etc.
The second part is perhaps the most significant, attempting to set out, broadly, research agendas for the different types of site listed, whether at local, regional or national level. It is written in a scholarly, thorough but readily understandable style. The aim is to stimulate further research and recording on many different levels. It is clear that much still needs to be done in respect of ‘Cinderella’ subjects, for example the wartime and Cold War civil defence organisation and its structures.
The publication is well produced and attractively illustrated and is reasonably priced. It also has a good bibliography together with useful addresses. Covering as wide a field as it does, there is the odd error but these are not significant, although I would question if one of the photographs does indeed show a bombing decoy control building. If you are interested in the subject, or if you are thinking of carrying out your own research and need some form of guidance then you should buy it.
I understand that the text will also be made available on the CBA’s website www.britarch.ac.uk.
Bernard Lowry
BOOKS - Osprey Publications
The Fortress series from Osprey Publishing (64pp,£10.99) continues with numbers 18-22, reviewed below with 16. Contact details are; Osprey Direct, PO Box 140, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2FA, UK; Tel: 01933 443 863; www.info@ospreypublishing.com
Osprey are offering FSG members a 15% discount on books reviewed in this issue, operative to the end of October, ordered online in UK. Usual p&p is £1.50 per order, but free in UK for 3 or more books. This will be a regular feature, with the code number changing each issue. The code to use when ordering from this issue is 4GAR.
More on Malta: Fortress 16: Charles Stephenson, illustrated by Steve Noon: The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-603-8.
This is a useful introduction to the subject, in the regular format, with plenty of colour and b&w illustrations. The selection of illustrations is a little odd and disappointing, with huge gaps and some errors; there are few pictures of Valletta and the Three Cities, but lots of Gozo and the Victoria Lines. There are a pair of diagrams of ramparts ‘before and after gunpowder’ which are misleading and unhelpful. It appears the author has never visited Malta and has relied on others for on-the-spot information – today the Valletta opera house does not ‘remain much as depicted’ in 1942, after its destruction; it is now almost entirely cleared away. The bird’s eye plan of the harbour area lists the features but gives no provenance or period, and ‘Fort Salvore’ should read ‘Fort Salvatore’. On p44 the picture is captioned ‘Maxim machine guns on the Victoria Lines’ – they are not machine guns, but field guns. Graphically the book does not make the best of the amazing wealth of material available. The author acknowledges his debt to Stephen Spiteri, whose illustrations contribute, but the rather unbalanced bibliography mentions only three books actually on the fortifications, two by Stephen Spiteri and one on the Victoria Lines – nothing by Quentin Hughes or Alison Hoppen’s classic. If he hasn’t referred to these, he should have done.
The book is split into five parts; ‘Chronology’, ‘Malta under the Knights 1530-1798’, ‘British Imperial Malta – 1800-1939’, ‘WWII and the second siege – 1939-45’ and ‘Malta today’. There is little actually on the second siege, while much space is taken up by ‘Operation Hercules’, the proposed Axis invasion which never happened. There is a range of very useful maps, for each period, and many of a splendid series of 1900s photos of the Victoria Lines. The
author makes the point in his introduction that ‘…if one were to conceive of an exhibit to display the history of the science of European [post mediaeval] fortification, one would come up with something rather like Malta’. A lot of space is spent describing the form and function of the bastion trace, and detailed features in the Glossary, when a diagram would have served better (Malta is hardly short of adequate examples – Floriana is full of ravelins, demi-lunes
and bonnets), but overall the text is good; succinct and readable - two essential qualities in books such as these, and the content is informative and rewarding.
Campaign 50: Tim Pickles: Malta 1565 – Last battle of the Crusades, 1998, ISBN 1-85532-603-5, pp96, £12.99.
Sitting on the crossroads of the Mediterranean, the seafaring Knights of Malta were proving a great nuisance to the maritime activities of the Ottoman Empire, as they had since they eventually took Rhodes in 1309. The Great siege of Malta by the Ottoman Turks in 1565 is rightly renowned as a most courageous, tenacious and indefatigable defence of weak fortifications by a greatly outnumbered force against a foe well supplied with troops and especially artillery. The Knights and Maltese held out for 3 months. It is easy to forget, and difficult to picture, how little there was in the way of defences when the Turks arrived, compared to today. The siege is a great example of siege techniques of the time, active defence and great resourcefulness by both sides – floating bridges were built by both sides, ships portaged from one harbour to another, hidden batteries used, a siege tower, and night time
reinforcement across the harbour.
The strategic error of spending enormous resources attacking St Elmo was a re-run of the obsessive attack on Fort St Nicholas, Rhodes, 1480. The book follows the usual Campaign format, covering the origins, the plans and preparations, and the opposing commanders and armies,
followed by the siege, divided into three sections; St Elmo, St Michael, ups and downs and Relief; aftermath and Malta and the Order today. At the end is a section on wargaming the Siege. Text is succinct and readable. The illustrative element relies appropriately on a pleasant selection of old prints; there are several clear and helpful 3D maps of the siege at different stages, though one map has Fort St Michael in the wrong place, and St Elmo surrounded by bastions built after the siege. Of the two photographs of the later fortifications, one is skewed and both are wrongly labeled as ‘St Angelo’ when they are of the Valletta land front. Action paintings add a little spice, and their depictions of the accoutrements and weapons of both sides are colourful and informative. A useful, readable and compact story of an epic encounter.
Warrior 41: David Nicolle, illustrated by Christa Hook:Knight Hospitaller (2) 1306-1565, 2001, ISBN 1-84176-215-6, 64pp, £10.99, and Men-at Arms 140: David Nicolle, illustrated by Angus McBride: Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774, 1983, reprinted 2004, ISBN 0-85045-511-1, 40pp, £8.99, help with background information on
the opposing forces in 1565.
The first is most helpful on the chronology, recruitment, organization, costumes, arms and armour and many other aspects of the Knights’ everyday life and operations. Illustrations are numerous, reflecting the variety of subjects, often reproducing old prints, several castles, and in the centre an 8 page section of coloured artwork of clothing, armour, heraldry, and actions. Though the second book is in a different series, the format and contents are similar, with a particularly attractive, lively and colourful set of paintings of soldiers and their
equipment. Photos of fortresses in eastern Turkey are very welcome.
Fortress 18: Christopher Gravett, illustrated by Adam Hook: Norman Stone Castles (2) – Europe 950–1204,2004, ISBN 1-84176-603-8.
Normandy was created in 911 to accommodate followers of the Viking leader Rollo, who rapidly assimilated the feudal system and the continental ideas of castles, knighthood, and fighting on horseback. They consolidated their position, and even before the Norman conquest of England were busy taking over southern Italy and Sicily. Castle building, established in France, at first in wood and earth, and then stone, went with them. The ‘Chronology’ gives a useful summary of activity, births, deaths, sieges, battles and invasions. ‘Design and development’ separates Normandy and Sicily, using key castles such as Domfront, Ivry-la-Bataille, Falaise, Gisors and in Sicily the Muslim influence at the palace towers of La Ziza and La Cuba, where the Normans defeated, took over and adapted existing castles of Byzantine, Lombard and Arab origin.
Throughout, the book is heavily biased towards the Normandy end, with the mass of pictures and text, while coverage of Sicily and Southern Italy is lighter.
The ‘Tour of a castle’, and the only full formal major siege described, are good stuff, though hardly typical of the period; Château Gaillard, while a splendid castle (with several thoroughly original features), presages the new style of fortress rather than reflecting the old; the siege is hardly typical either, being the closing scene of Norman rule and the start of French rule – most castles were taken by grasping a sharp opportunity, or by blockade, diplomacy and bribery (the ruinous state of the castle results from deliberate demolition in 1603, á la Cromwell’s slighting in the English Civil War).
The castles continued to be significant for several hundred years, until the effective advent of gunpowder, and many as seen today maintain their round donjons and wall towers of
Philip Augustus, the first French king to rule Normandy (the same who gave Dover a hard time). ‘Visiting the Castles today’ usefully lists 36 castles in Normandy, and 42 in Southern Italy/Sicily, with a brief description of their state and accessibility today, and two maps of the areas. The range of colour and b&w photos is limited but reasonable and the artwork respectable without being exciting. A consistent difficulty with the photos is actually
illustrating building work of the period, as so much has either been built over or onto, or is ruinous.
A good introduction to the subject, complemented as it should be by a useful bibliography for those whose interest is aroused.
Fortress 19: Stephen Turnbull, illustrated by Peter Dennis: Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights (2) The stone castles of Latvia and Estonia 1185-1560, 2004,
ISBN 1-84176-712-3.
Teutonic Knights (1) was reviewed in Casemate 70, and this volume takes us northwards along the Baltic, to Livonia (today’s Latvia with most of Estonia) to castles built of stone rather than brick, and involving a distinctive and active artillery element. Livonia was separate by
geography and terrain from Prussia, the better known home of the Knights. They built few new castles, taking over most from the Swordbrothers, their crusading Christian forerunners, who were catastrophically defeated in 1236. As in Prussia, the network of fine stone castles was strongly aligned along the rivers, in this land of rivers, lakes and forest. The complex native fortresses were strongly built of massive logs, with a neat interlocking framework, and the
first stone building in Latvia was Uexkull (Ikskile) castle, a simple square wall and tower castle built in 1185 on the Daugava River. Development was steady, and ever more complex castles appeared with round towers, artillery towers, and simple gateways; the complex gate and wall top defences of the rest of Europe are not evident, neither are the dansk towers of Teutonic Prussia. A distinctive feature was the massive, tall and intimidating form of the convent courtyard design. Formal sieges were few, as castles were generally used as a defence and operational base against regular and frequent Pagan raids.
Treiden was a major castle, but has been omitted from the location map, and there are two captions virtually duplicated, but there are few errors in a text which is eminently readable and tells a complex and interesting story. The usual format is followed, the illustrative content is particularly good, and the paintings lively and detailed. Both Teutonic books are well worth reading, casting a light into what is probably one of Europe’s lesser known regions.
Fortress 20: Bernard Lowry, illustrated by Chris Taylor and Vincent Boulanger: British Home Defences 1940-45, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-767-0
In this book our previous secretary has put his expertise to very effective use. The subject is huge, with so many aspects - all of which can and have had books written about them individually - covered in varying detail, sometimes by only a short reference; but they are all here and a substantial bibliography guides the reader to more detailed accounts. There are 42pp on the anti-invasion measures taken before, and so desperately after, Dunkirk in 1940. The author emphasises what a staggering amount of material was left in France – nearly 500 tanks, 40,000 other vehicles, 400 AT guns and 1000 heavy guns, so that in the early days afterwards such defences as existed were under-armed, if armed at all. Seventy miles of Kent coastline, prime invasion country, had 23 field guns, no AT guns and no medium machine guns. The attitude was very much ‘when’, not ‘if’ the invasion was coming, and there are several pages on the invasion plans. The likelihood of an invasion being successful is discussed, as are the reasons for why it never happened; and so is the change of principal from stop-lines and pillboxes to a defence in depth with AT islands and defended localities, after Alan Brooke took over in July
1940. As well as land defences, coastal and airspace defences are covered; so is guerrilla warfare and covert groups, before the invasion threat recedes.
The second section covers ‘The Nation at War’, and includes Civil Defence, evacuation, National Service, and the protection of the economy. Things we now take for granted came into being; the National Fire Service in 1941, and white lines on roads and trees. There follows a chapter on the V Weapons of 1944-45 (though the V1 was not driven by a ‘pluse’ jet, nor was it ‘knicknamed’ the Doodlebug, p51), and in ‘Aftermath’ there is an assessment of the strength of the home defences, and those defences today. It is good to see the Author himself in a photograph of survey work for the Defence of Britain project, and his father-in-law is seen as a Home Guard motorcycle despatch rider.
There is an admirable selection of pictures, illustrating domestic and military matters.
Photographs throughout are all very apposite and appear in context, though the artwork, both painted and computer, is ordinary and adds little to text and photographs. An excellent introduction to a complex and many-faceted subject.
Fortress 21: David Nicolle, illustrated by Adam Hook: Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1097-1192, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-715-8.
This series aims to introduce a subject to a wider readership than just specialists. To this end the texts are succinct and readable, and this book is no exception.
The format is standard, and in this volume the early ‘Chronology’ , ‘Design and development’ and the ‘Principles of defence’ are particularly good. Readers will acquire a useful basic understanding of the rationale behind the many and varied castles; towers, castra, concentric and cave; why they are where they are, their fate and their current state, accessibility and what there is left to see. The point is made that there is not much left of many, mainly heaps of rubble, as castles which were kept and maintained post-crusade were added to, altered and extended over several centuries. The reader will not find the large ‘classic’ crusader castles here, except for Sahyun, which seems at first a little strange, as more early building work remains and is visible in good condition at Marquab and Krak des Chevaliers than at many of the castles described, but no doubt these are being saved for a future volume.
A further powerful and vital requirement is top quality illustrative material, and here the standard is not so good. The coloured maps are excellent, though the first colour photograph, of Bile (Birecik) is not marked on the map by that name, and only found at the rear in a table of alternative names, which gives the map name, Bira, but not the caption name of Bile. The ‘Chronology’ mentions Tartus, the adjacent map does not, but Tortosa is on it; not everyone knows they are the same. The wide range of names used in the region, French, Latin, Arabic, Turkish or Hebrew, is confusing enough to an expert never mind a beginner. The first photograph in the book, of Anavarza, has been reversed, and many photographs are blurred and clearly old,
but rarely add anything a modern photograph can not. The artwork is not particularly exciting or informative.
These are failings I found irritating and unnecessary, but the book is very successful as a brief introduction to a complex subject, and has a useful bibliography.
Fortress 22, Mycenaean Citadels c1350-1200 BC (Nic Fields, illustrated by Donato Spedaliere) is a trifle outside our remit, but this artist produces excellent fine artwork which I would like to see Osprey to use more.
Charles Blackwood
Magazine Reviews
Signalering; from Saillant 2004, I, p24
For some time our society’s library has had available to it an annual report and 6 publications from the Arbeitsgruppe Natur- und Denkmalschutz bei militärischen Kampf- und
Führungsbauten (ADAB - Work Group for the protection of nature and monuments in respect of military and command structures) in Switzerland. The 2002 Annual Report gives some background information on ADAB. The work group, consisting of office-holders, military personnel, architects and a geographer, has worked since the start of 1993 on an inventory of military monuments in Switzerland. In it, a valuation opinion is given in the areas of ecology, history and culture. There are 13,500 objects that have lost their military significance. Mention is made of the inventory being finished for 13 cantons, with emphasis on Wallis, Graubünden and Zürich. At the same time, various maintenance projects have been started. The most recent monument is an installation for Bloodhound anti-aircraft rockets. The report, in German, is 8 pages long and includes photographs.
The 6 publications give an overview of the inventorisation of military monuments in the cantons of Tessin (1996; in German and Italian - the rest are in German and French), Neuenburg and Jura (1998), Schaffhausen and Thurgau (1999), Nidwalden, Obwalden and Luzern (2001),
Solothurn, Basle City and Baste District (2002?) and Wallis (2002). Though obviously the publications have in the course of time received a more up-to-date format, the design of all remains the same. Each publication starts with some introductory articles by various authors, in which attention is focused on different aspects to do with fortress architecture, particularly in the canton concerned. There follows a full page map for each canton, on which all the works described appear and are given a valuation of importance at local, regional and national level.
Then comes the chief part of the publication: a description of the various so-called Barrier Forts, which are assigned a valuation of national importance. Each article is provided with photographs, maps and, on a regular basis, technical drawings as well. A handy little map of the canton shows the position of the work in question. The inventory covers the whole period 1885-1995, but the accent is on that from just before WWII up to and including the Cold War.
Although chiefly the study is directed at the Barrier Forts, the so-called Artillery Works are not neglected. Each publication contains some appendices in which attention is paid (spread over all the publications) to subjects such as camouflage, tank obstacles, embrasures, typology, logistics and observation posts. The size of the publications varies from 40 to 48 pages.
Dik Winkelman. Translated by Margaret Pinsent.
After the Battle magazine number 124, recently out, has a detailed and interesting article on German WW2 air raid shelters (the really big, concrete ones), as opposed to Flak Towers. It also has an illustrated piece on the WW2 coastal fortifications of Auckland, New Zealand.
Gil Dowdall-Brown
BOOKS - In Brief
A flier has been received for a splendid looking book from Germany: Erhalt und Nutzung historischer Zitadellen (Preservation and Use of Historic Citadels), the results of
an international conference on 6-9 July 2001 in Berlin. Published by The Institute for the Preservation and Modernisation of Buildings, available from Verlag, Philipp von Zabern, Vertrieb, Postfach 190930, D-80609 München. Compiled by Dr.-Ing. Hans-Rudolf Neumann, German text with an English summary of individual lectures. pp366, 210x297mm, 239 b&w illustrations, ISBN 3-8053-2987-3, €65 (in Germany).
The conference debated examples of problems solved and awaiting solution, with national and international examples, and clarified the difficulties of preserving historic citadels and buildings, and the need for profound historical background knowledge and far-reaching expertise in the technical disciplines. These include town planning, architecture, conservation and care of monuments, as well as the importance of ecology, economic and cultural use. Eleven citadels are featured, mainly in Germany, but also Slavonski Brod (Croatia) and Copenhagen.
The report contains complete lectures plus discussions of individual working parties.
Translation by Margaret Pinsent
Castles
Lawrence Butler & Jeremy Knight: Dolforwyn Castle and Montgomery Castle, 2004, Cadw, ISBN 1-85760-174-2. Paperback, 255x203mm, 48pp, £3.25.
Launched at Montgomery in April 2004, Cadw has published another booklet well up to their usual standard, with very high productions values; a wide selection of excellent colour illustrations, bird’s-eye views, reconstruction paintings, cutaways, detailed plans, history,
tours of the castles – all on top quality paper. A particularly appealing feature of these booklets is the information and range of illustrations of contemporary and comparable castles, which puts development and features in context.
The two castles are only 4 miles apart, contesting a strategic part of the England/Wales border where the River Severn offers a route into Wales, with a nearby ford. Montgomery was started in 1223 by King Henry III of England to keep the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ab Iorweth in check. It is typically English, on a high rock outcrop (the view is superb), with three wards, powerful curtains and towers following the contours, and a strong twin towered gatehouse. Dolforwyn, started in 1273 by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd is equally typically Welsh with a rectangular keep, D-shaped tower and a simple gate. The fate of the two was very different, with Dolforwyn soon allowed to decay, after English capture in 1277, while Montgomery continued to develop under the Mortimers and Herberts until 1644, when it was besieged when it fell to parliament, but there is little evidence of the event, apart from 600 or so pieces pieces of outdated Civil War armour buried in the castle ditch. It suffered the fate of many castles at that time and in 1649 was dismantled. The sites and ruins of both are impressive and evocative.
A delightful addition to an excellent series.
Two classic books, still available, are well worth recalling: Scotland’s Castles, by Chris Tabraham, Historic Scotland, 1997, and Castles, by Tom McNeill, English Heritage, 1992; both are paperback, 247x187mm, of 140+pp, with eight pages of colour photographs in the centre and numerous b&w photographs, reconstructional drawings and plans, and both have worthwhile gazetteers. Both are published by Batsford, with the two national organizations.
Scotland has a wealth of castles and their story is told with numerous examples, from the earliest, the late 12thC Castle Sween, to the garrisons and private homes of the 16thC. Most of these castles have an artillery element in them, from the frequent insertions of gun loops in castles and towers to the remarkable and unique purpose built artillery defences at Threave, built around 1450 and regarded as being largely responsible for James II’s failure to subdue it
in the great siege of 1455
We have the massive earthen ravelin before Tantallon Castle, the formidable artillery defences of Blackness and Craignethan, with its splendid caponier, and Ravenscraig, for long believed to be purpose built for cannon, but recently reassessed. There is much here for the cannon fan as well as the mediaevalist.
Castles has much more of the mediaeval, using examples from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to highlight a fascinating study of castles and those who lived in them,
and the variety of functions they served, of which defence is only one. There has been much recent material which casts new light on many aspects, so the book could do with revision and an update, but it remains a well illustrated and very readable introduction to the subject.
Edited by Nicolas Faucherre and Christian Rémy: Tours seigneuriales de l’Ouest, March 2004 (from Centre d’études Supérieures de Civilisation médiévale, 24, rue de la Chaine, 86000 Poitiers, no price) is a compilation of accounts of seminars and working parties from 2001-2003. Carried out under the Châteaux et fortifications du Moyen Âge programme, the text consists of 17 papers, each investigating, researching and recording a different Tower, plus introduction and conclusion. There are numerous b&w photos, plans and line drawings, with occasional colour plates. The publication has been produced in-house as a paperback on copy paper; size A4, pp110.
Charles Blackwood
