War broke out in 1899 between the British and South African settlers of Dutch descent, the Boers, or Afrikaners as they are usually called today. Despite previous clashes, the British seriously underestimated their opponents. Although dressed in battered civilian clothes and made up entirely of volunteers, Boer troops were all mounted on horses and had very up-to-date German rifles.An even more unpleasant surprise than the mounted riflemen were the Boer artillery units. They were the only ...

A first-hand account of World War I by a nineteen-year-old Englishman who led a platoon into the carnage of the Battle of the Somme.While researching his excellent earlier book: Veterans of World War I, author Richard Van Emden encountered a fascinating personality of that long-ago conflict. After witnessing German naval attacks on British civilians, Norman Collins enlisted in the Seaforth Highlanders of the 51st Highland Division, even though he was under ...

History of the Boer War, by the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, first published in 1902. According to Wikipedia: "Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poet...

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army decimated the British camp at Isandlwana. On the back of this victory 3,000–4,000 Zulu warriors swept towards the garrison of Rorke's Drift, expecting to devastate the c.500-strong British and colonial force there. However, this small, but stalwart group of brave British soldiers withstood this overwhelming force over the next forty-eight hours and ultimately repelled them in a British victory that has been immortalised in books...

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army attacked 1,700 British and colonial forces. The engagement saw primitive weapons of spears and shields clashing with the latest military technology. However, despite being poorly equipped, the numerically superior Zulu force crushed the British troops, killing 1,300 men, whilst only losing 1,000 of their own warriors. It was a humiliating defeat for the British Army, who had been poorly trained and who had underestimated their e...

Redcoat is the brilliant story of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900, based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them.Delving into the history of the period – charting events including Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul and the Sikh wars – celebrated military historian Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of a fallible but extraordinarily successful fighting ...

One of the greatest tragedies in Australian military history occurred at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915, when hundreds of Australian light horsemen were repeatedly ordered to charge the massed rifles and machine-guns of the Turkish enemy. It was a hopeless endeavour, and the resulting bloodbath has horrified every generation since and been the subject of considerable scrutiny by historians. The charge at The Nek, so vividly realised in Peter Weirs famous film Gallipoli, came to epitomise both ...

First published in 1949, 'Guerilla Days in Ireland' is an extraordinary story of the Irish War of Independence and the fight between two unequal forces, which ended in the withdrawal of the British from twenty-six counties. Seven weeks before the Truce of July 1921, the British presence in County Cork consisted of a total of over 12,500 men. Against these British forces stood the Irish Republican Army whose flying columns never exceeded 310 riflemen in the whole of the county. These flying...

Groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed, Tommy is the first history of World War I to place the British soldier who fought in the trenches centre-stage.Tommy tells the story of an epic and terrible war through the letters, diaries and memories of those who fought it. Epitomised by the character of Sgt Tommy Atkins, Richard Holmes portrays the strength and fallibility of the human spirit, the individuals behind the epic conflict, and their legacy.

Australia's diggers didn't go 'over the top' for King and Country, they did it for their mates and their battalion - extraordinary deeds performed by ordinary men.Henry George Hartnett, known as 'Harry', joined the Australian Imperial Force on 13 September 1915 at the age of 23. He saw action on the Western Front at Fromelles and on the Somme, receiving his first 'Blighty', a wound so serious he was sent back to Britain for treatment, in the Battle of Pozieres. Upon his recovery, h...

Written in 1894, just 15 years after the war, this is James Grants excellent military history of the Zulu War of 1879. From the British disaster at Isandhlwana to face-saving at Rorkes Drift and the final humiliation of the Zulu nation at Ulundi, this is the contemporary view of how the events were conveyed to the public of Great Britain.Featuring original engravings from the Illustrated London News and the Graphic, this book was written during the height of the British Empire, and the triump...

The war declared by the Boers on 11 October 1899 gave the British, as Kipling said, 'no end of a lesson'. The public expected it to be over by Christmas, but it proved to be the longest (two and three-quarter years), the costliest (over £200 million), the bloodiest (at least 22,000 British, 25,000 Boer and 12,000 African lives) and the most humiliating war that Britain fought between 1815 and 1914.Thomas Pakenham's was the first full-scale documentary history of the war to be attem...