Authors:Gervase Phillips Pages: 2 - 20 Abstract: This article explores the military use of dogs in the west, principally from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. It is argued that the use of ‘war dogs’ was a recurrent but essentially ad hoc, sporadic and localized practice, quite distinct from the regular dog handling units that were established in the late nineteenth century. However, from the earliest phases of European colonization in the fifteenth century, another tradition, which employed dogs as weapons and instruments of torture, developed in the context of racialized warfare. The legacy of this infamous practice would be felt again in the twentieth century. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1465 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Hugh G W Davie Pages: 21 - 45 Abstract: The capabilities of horse-drawn armies were recorded by contemporary observers and by later historians, nonetheless there has been a continuing debate regarding the capacity and workings of these forces, particularly once they were integrated with and then superseded by, newer forms of transport such as railways and motor vehicles. This paper argues that little attention has been paid to the wider economic environment in which these armies operated, and in turn the supply of these armies can be considered as an economic system in its own right. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1466 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Hannes Ziegler Pages: 46 - 63 Abstract: Throughout the eighteenth century, one of the main peacetime functions of the British Army was to supplement the Customs in combatting smuggling, but it remains little studied. The article aims to explore the structural features of the cooperation between the British Army and the Customs service on coastal duties by giving particular emphasis to matters of potential conflict. A second aim is to study such matters for the East Anglian counties. The article ultimately aims to show that while successful coastal policing depended on the cooperation between the Customs and the army, the supposedly frictionless cooperation was anything but straightforward. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1467 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Tandee Wang, Thomas J Rogers Pages: 64 - 86 Abstract: This article considers Australian articulations of identity and representations of Boer soldiers in the South African War. Examining accounts from Australian war correspondents and military personnel, we make three observations. First, that widespread expressions of British Empire loyalty shaped rather than excluded expressions of nascent Australian nationalism. Second, that emergent Australian nationalism, particularly the notion of the ‘bushman’, was central to positive and negative comparisons to Boer soldiers. Finally, that transnational discourses of settler colonialism and whiteness enabled such comparisons, which simultaneously facilitated claims about Australian martial superiority and deceptive Boer indolence, despite noted similarities between bushman and Boer. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1468 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Roslyn Shepherd King Pike Pages: 87 - 112 Abstract: This article examines the official names listed in the 'Egypt and Palestine' section of the 1922 report by the British Army’s Battles Nomenclature Committee and compares them with descriptions of military engagements in the Official History to establish if they clearly identify the events. The Committee’s application of their own definitions and guidelines during the process of naming these conflicts is evaluated together with examples of more recent usages in selected secondary sources. The articles concludes that the Committee’s failure to accurately identify the events of this campaign have had a negative impacted on subsequent historiography. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1469 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Kevin Broucke Pages: 113 - 134 Abstract: The historiography investigating the fate of the 300,000 French and colonial soldiers who served in Macedonia during the First World War remains incomplete. This article offers an analysis focusing on the cultural discovery of the ‘Mediterranean East’ by the French soldiers who served in Macedonia. It utilises the literature produced by the French personnel to define the differences between their imagined representations of the East, and the reality they encountered once they landed in Salonica. It also highlights the Orientalist influence exerted over the minds of many Frenchmen who sailed to an East that remained profoundly unknown. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1470 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Helena Power Pages: 135 - 152 Abstract: The BBC’s plans for the First World War Centenary were of significant magnitude. Through 2,500 hours of programming, it sought to broaden knowledge of the conflict across its various media. Yet this objective was occasionally diminished by the resounding presence of popularised tropes about the war. With consideration of two key anniversaries and flagship programmes, this article reflects upon the balance between familiar ideas and new developments, the disconnect between television programming and developing historiography and the use of modern techniques in conveying a new narrative. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1471 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Andrew Webster Pages: 153 - 173 Abstract: During the First World War, new mobile fighting platforms, including aeroplanes and tanks, presented novel problems for an Army reliant on visual and line communication. Wireless was considered unwieldy, unreliable and non-secure. Unit War Diaries for Tank Signal Companies show only tentative and limited success for early experiments with wireless, with most researchers focusing on the small number of messages sent. This article re-evaluates this picture, balancing what were, indeed, limited achievements in message-carrying, against the rapid development of sound, highly effective radio procedures still recognisable today. Inverting the traditional focus on command decisions, the article strives to illuminate the achievements of those actually operating the equipment. PubDate: 2021-03-08 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1472 Issue No:Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021)
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