Search results for ""Author Mr Raffaele Ruggeri""

Fully illustrated, this book casts light on the utility and role of the German and British cavalry in the early stages of World War I on the Western Front. In the early months of World War I, before the fighting degenerated into static trench warfare, there was a brief period of mobile combat as the German Army advanced through Belgium and northern France, forcing the French and British forces facing them to retreat. Both sides in the escalating conflict deployed substantial numbers of cavalry units to screen their infantry forces, conduct reconnaissance and harness their superior mobility to undertake aggressive combat operations. In the summer of 1914, the British cavalry had the difficult task of covering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force and the German cavalry, the equally demanding task, after weeks of combat and forced marches, of maintaining contact with a rapidly retiring enemy. In this book a comparative assessment is made of each side’s doctrine, organization, equipment and training, followed by a detailed analysis of their actual performance in three key encounter actions: Casteau/Soignies (22 August), Cérizy/Moÿ (28 August) and Le Montcel/Frétoy (7 September). This analysis is supported by carefully chosen photographs and specially commissioned full-colour artwork and maps.

Read more less

In the early 1880s, Britain intervened in independent Egypt and seized control of the Suez Canal. British forces were soon deployed to Egypt’s southern colony, the Sudan, where they confronted a determined and capable foe amid some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain. In 1881 an Islamic fundamentalist revolt had broken out in the Sudan, led by a religious teacher named Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who proclaimed himself al-Mahdi, ‘The Guided One’. In 1884, Mahdist forces besieged the Sudanese capital of Khartoum; Colonel Charles Gordon was sent to the city with orders to evacuate British personnel, but refused to leave. Although the British despatched a relief column to rescue Gordon, the Mahdists stormed Khartoum in January 1885 and he was killed. British troops abandoned much of the Sudan, but renewed their efforts to reconquer it in the late 1890s, in a bloody campaign that would decide the region’s fate for generations. Written by leading expert Ian Knight, this fully illustrated study examines the evolving forces, weapons and tactics employed by both sides in the Sudan, notably at the battles of Abu Klea (16–18 January 1885), Tofrek (22 March 1885) and Atbara (8 April 1898).

Read more less

Drawing upon the latest literary and archaeological research, this is an in-depth study of the Roman Army units based in the Eastern Provinces during the turbulent third century of the Roman Empire. In this book, eminent Roman historian, Dr Raffaele D’Amato, looks at the notoriously under-represented history of the Roman armies during the middle 3rd Century whose records have been obscured by the chaotic civil wars of that period between usurpers to the Imperial authority of Rome. Following on from the previous title, MAA 527, Roman Army Units in the Western Provinces (2): 3rd Century AD, this book considers the evidence for troops in the Eastern half of the Empire specifically around the Balkans, Mesopotamia, the Middle East and North Africa and looks at the weakness of Imperial central authority which inevitably led to local particularism and a wide range of appearance in regional commands. Dr D'Amato uses literary, painted, sculptural and archaeological sources to reconstruct this little-understood period of Roman military history and, with the aid of meticulous coloured artwork, photos and detailed charts, reconstructs the appearance and campaigns of the Roman forces stationed in the East.

Read more less

Richly illustrated, this title describes Anglo-Saxon monarchs, warlords and their warriors and households in Anglo-Saxon Britain, from the first post-Roman mercenaries to the Norman Conquest. In a country fragmented by Roman withdrawal during the 5th century AD, the employment of Germanic mercenaries by local rulers in Anglo-Saxon Britain was commonplace. These mercenaries became settlers, forcing Romano-British communities into Wales and the West Country. Against a background of spreading Christianity, the struggles of rival British and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were exploited by the Vikings, but eventually contained by the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred of Wessex. His descendants unified the country during the 10th century, however, subsequent weak rule saw its 25-year incorporation into a Danish empire before it finally fell to the Norman invasion of 1066. Scholars of the early Church have long known that the term ‘Dark Ages’ for the 5th to 11th centuries in Britain refers only to a lack of written sources, and gives a false impression of material culture. The Anglo-Saxon warrior elite were equipped with magnificent armour, influenced by the cultures of the late Romans, the Scandinavian Vendel people, the Frankish Merovingians, Carolingians and Ottonians, and also the Vikings. In this volume, co-authors Raffaele D’Amato and Stephen Pollington access their extended knowledge to paint a vivid picture of the kings and warlords of the time with the aid of colour illustrations, rare photos and the latest archaeological research.

Read more less