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Temujin's War Academy

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Sirdar Bahadur

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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Temujin's War Academy
    Posted: 09-Oct-2008 at 20:18
i thought long about a witty and fitting title name and still think it's crap... Star

OK, here's to follow my opinions on new (and maybe some old) books that i get regularly, particularly Osprey stuff. also, i guess my musings about the German football scene are to continue here. and maybe some other stuff. Osprey books for October haven't been released yet but this weekend if everything goes well, i'll be visiting the Museum of Military History in Rastatt this weekend and i'm going to take my cam with me, so i have something to show at least.

for now, the latest update on my recent fortress-hunting obsession: http://rapidshare.de/files/40646666/citadels.kmz.html

for more info check this thread: http://www.allempires.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=25081
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Oct-2008 at 18:56
i know some people are interested in this:

the return of the Iron Cross - or not

i can remember rumours about this going on for about a year. now, the new Medal of Valour for the German Army (presently called Bundeswehr) has been revealed to the public:



Ehrenkreuz für Tapferkeit (Honor-Cross for Valour)

there were rumours that the Iron Cross was about to be reintroduced but i'm glad it did not. the Iron Cross was essentially a Prussian award that was created for Prussian soldiers and its allies who participated in the battle of Leipzig. it just happenes that almost every German small state at that time still fought for Napoleon and over half of Prussia is now Polish (or Russian) anyways. well, about the looks of that thing. it is not too bad, of course it doesn't have the plain, spartan and dark looks of the Iron Cross, which was part of its charme, but it still good enough for me.

on another note, yesterday Germany won vs Russia in the WC qualification ina really good match. if we also beat Wales on Wednesday Germany has very good prospects to qualify for the WC 2010 in South Africa.
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  Quote JanusRook Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Oct-2008 at 22:47
I like it, the cross in a cross thing is kind of weird but other than that it looks decent. Without the explanation I would've thought that using this in favor of the Iron Cross would be ridiculous. But after your take on it you've won me over to the side that favors the Honor Cross.
Economic Communist, Political Progressive, Social Conservative.

Unless otherwise noted source is wiki.
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Oct-2008 at 19:00
yeah i've uploaded 3x60 pics of the war museum i was at at facebook, it's free for everyone to check, they had really a lot of nice stuff, mostly 19th century and ww1. there was also another exhibition at the same time i didn't knew about, about liberal and freedom movements in Germany (again, mostly 19th century). unfortunately i wasn't able to take pics because the new (i thought) batteries i've taken with me were not, and the exhibition closed at 2pm and i was already late, so i had to make it back to the town,get new batteries to at least capture some impressions of the war museum. long story short, i've learned a lot of new stuff there that i wasn't really aware of previously about how our dear Prussian friends destroyed any form of democracy and liberalism mostly in the southwest during the 1848 revolution. now i have reason to hate them even more than i already do.

on another note, 2 more casualties of German sodliers in Afghanistan today. maybe now theres a good reason to award those new shiny medals....posthumously...
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Oct-2008 at 21:01
the Book review - october

first installment of my book review. i usually get a lot of books, many of them new ones, and many of them sopreys. they'll also be the topic of my first review. i have ordered this month Brandy Station 1863 (Campaign), the Royal Hungarian Army in World War 2 (men-at-arms) and Tarentine Horseman (warrior). so far only Brandy Station has arrived so i'll review it together with the only new Osprey book i got last month, the Amercian Loyalist Troops 1775 - 84 (men-at-arms).

the book about the Loyalist Troops is certainly a niche topic, and indeed the book is organized as one. it has the obligatory introduction and a small overview about the Loyalist contribution to the war. most of the book is reserved for detailed unit history for every unit raised, what makes the book an overview and reference, rather than something you get for an introduction. personally i'm not very familiar with the American War of Independence so i can't fully appreciate (or not) the content of this book, however i have many other books by René Chartrand, and they all deliver first class information so in the end you can't really go wrong with this one. the most important part of Osprey books, the plates, are pretty well done by Gerry Embelton. maybe not my favourite illustartor, but the plates are quite solid and belong to his better works. the plates themselves show nothign really extraordinary. it has a plate with runaways laves that were given freedom by the brits if they would turn against their former masters (technically the Brits too were their former masters just as much). another plate has the most well known loyalist troops like the British Legion and the Queen's Rangers. the book finishes with describing the fate of those Loyalist who all ahd to leave the newly created USA and settled down in future Canada, also helping to shape the modern nation of that name (the author hails from Canada). Osprey has filled another gap in their range and the only gaps still left open is a MaA volume on the Spanish Army and one on the German auxiliaries in the British Army.

the book on Brandy Station was most anticipated by me and i can already say it didn't really failed me. i got recently interested in cavalry of the ACW and then the ACW in general, and in no time i filled my bookshelf with numerous titles, so even if i'm not really an expert on the ACW at all, i have gathered a lot of stuff on the cavalry on the eastern theater. the only gap missing was Brandy Station, a gap which has mostly been filled now. the author is new to Osprey but by his references there could hardly be a better author to be found for this title. the campaign series now has three color plates on a double spread, making it effectively six plates (when most osprey titles have eight). the plates are done by Adam Hook, who is arguably the least skilled out of the Hooker family and the themes of the plates aren't very exciting either (first plate has some action, it shows Jones' Brigade emerging from the Woods, charging Bufords (of Gettysburg fame to come) troops in the initial stages of the battle and a canon fireing. the other plates show Buford and Pleasonton and his stuff standing around and the last one has Stuarts aide McClellan rushing towards the 12th Virginia Cavalry to make them charge the Union cavalry of Gregg who was about to seize the key terrain feature of Fleetwood Hill (which is what Stuart refered the battle as). so overall the Osprey-comissioned plates fail to deliver but this is fortunately partly offset by the fact that the author has included other color-illustartions by modern renown artists like Don Troiani, Don Stivers and Keith Rocco (2 each). the information given in the book are overall excellent, with only minor nuisances. for example, one of the classic myths about the battle is that Stuart has been surprized, which he hadn't been. another one is, that he felt his reputation so tarnished that he felt the urge to do another ride around the Union Army to satisfy his own ego and that of his critizisers. fact is, in a letter to his wife he mentioned that he was aware of the proximity of the Union Cavalry. also, he was caught in a pincer movement and the fact that he held onto his position can easily refute this claim. also many people accuse him of failing to screen the Army of Northern Virginia on his march and at the same time blame him for being surprized at brandy Station. how in the world does that work out? until he set out for his raid he effectviely screened Lee's Army from any enemy intrusion by the Union Cavalry. and when he set out with three of his best brigades for the raid (two regular brigades were left with the AoNV), Lee (who is from the cavalry branch himself, as many easily forget) completely failed to use those two brigades for scouting or screening (one was even present at the first day of Gettysburg). not to mention it was Lee hismelf that gave the order for the raid. so how was Stuart to do to two things at the same time? he could not scout & raid at the same time, nor screen if he was in the back of the Union Army. not to delve too deeply into the Gettysburg camapign & Stuart, the book somewhat fails to refute those old myths about him. other than that it seems a great read.


on the other front, Stuttgart failed vs Sevilla in the UEFA Cup, but is back on track in the Bundesliga (4th, ahead of Bayern).
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Nov-2008 at 18:05
Book review - October, part 2

by now i've received the other two books and read most of them.

the book on the Royal Hungarian Army of ww2 by Nigel Thomas and his Hungarian co-author is pretty solid. overall i recommend it to anyone  who's interested in the topic. i used as benchmark the almost-perfect volume ont eh Romanian Army of ww2 which has almost everyhting you want to know. the onyl think that it as lacking was a table on Romanian ranks and how they looked like (which botht eh books on teh Hungarian and Italian books have). however that's not really the most important thing to me but afterall Osprey books are primarily about uniforms so you mgith want to have that piece of information. the plates are done by Darko pavlovic whose art i like and he delviered very solid plates that are both enjoyable and informative. the only thing i found missing in this book is an overview of the total available manpower of Hungary. it mentions the territorial expansions and the newly available Hungarian population from those areas but thats about it. the Romanian volume has a short mention of the total available manpower and how the territorial losses effected it. other than that i feel there's too few talk about the quite unique equippment of the Hungarian Army which was quite interesting. for example they had arguably the best submachinegun of anyone Axis member (yes, including Finland). while they're shown on the plates and mentioned there's no real info about them. other pecularities were their hand-grenades, their standard bolt-action rifle which was the 8mm Steyr-Mannlicher as well as Swiss Solothurn light machineguns. overall, you can't go wrong with this book, the unique natvie tank production of Hungary is also mentioned and partially also background material on the plates.

the other book i got was Tarentine Horseman of Magna Graecia by Nic Fields, who is ospreys new author for everyhting about ancient mediterranean warfare. in general he has a good and ifnormative writing style and takes account of latest research and discoveries. the question is what to expect from this book? first of the plates, doen by a new guy. not brilliant but not bad either. there are overall eight plates (two of which are double-page) in the new osprey style distributed throughout the book instead of the classical style of having all in the center for quick reference. the plates have acceptable themes, they appear repetitive on first glance but then there wasn't so much possibility for diverse themes and appearance for the horsemen without getting inaccurate. the text itself is overall informative and accurate from what i can see, for example he clearly identifies the lances as javelins and gives a satisfying description and how they were used. what i didn't liked was repeating old myths of horse behaviour. while it's true that a (=one) horse can't break an infantry formation, a horde of horses can. maybe this isn't really important, because clearly the tarentien mercenary horse wasn't designed for such a duty. in fact he brings out good examples of their use as scouts, looters, advance guards and pursuers who could with their assigned tasks themselves decisively intervene in the outcome of a battle while never being a primary fighting force on their own. also, as being a Spartan colony he points out the differences of both politics and military doctrine compared to their parent city. if you're interested in ancient mediterranean warfare of the sucessor period, or in general about the use of the horse in classical Greece, this book is for you.


BTW, if you want me to review an older osprey title that i might own, please feel free to drop me a PM.


Edited by Temujin - 04-Nov-2008 at 18:06
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Nov-2008 at 19:22
my top 5 cavalry charges in movies

alright, this is my favourites, not necessarily objective. and needless to say it had to be real that means no LotR CGI bullshit and the likes.


no 4 & 5 (sort of), Waterloo:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=7vlcuvrM1po
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=97dBfdNrf9A

first video has the charge of the heavy brigade and the second has Neys famous charge on the squares. the movie itself is not really great and a bad depiction of events, also the lancers have wrogn unfiroms and the first video is badly cut cause it doesn't show how Ponsonby got stabbed by an Uhlan-lancer-thing. the movie is only worth watchign for the massive amount of soldiers participating (Red Army afaik).



no 3, Taras Bulba:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=yrrwzfAI5uU
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=R1G3l3g5mCc

two videos, because the charge itself isn't so thrilling and the ride to the assembly-place itself isn't exactly a charge, but well worth seeing. the horsemen are from the Argentine Army who still had cavalry in the 60s. alas, they don't do such movies anymore...


no 2, the Lighthorsemen:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=AOuyPGyzNVA

one of the last mounted charges in history, and probably the most famous one in ww1. doesn't need much intro, just enjoy.


no 1, charge of the Light Brigade:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=pXzCOlPHFmc

easily the greatest. yeah, horses were injured in this movie, a practicse that was abbandoned after the movie thankfully. nevertheless, a masterpiece.


Edited by Temujin - 13-Nov-2008 at 19:22
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  Quote Seko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Nov-2008 at 19:38
Originally posted by Temujin

my top 5 cavalry charges in movies




no 3, Taras Bulba:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=yrrwzfAI5uU
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=R1G3l3g5mCc

two videos, because the charge itself isn't so thrilling and the ride to the assembly-place itself isn't exactly a charge, but well worth seeing. the horsemen are from the Argentine Army who still had cavalry in the 60s. alas, they don't do such movies anymore...



 
Fun movie. Not sure about the singing parts though. On second thought...We the Cossaks..Aye Zaporozhi.  I especially like it when both armies battled it out on the steppe. Never knew they had cornfields back then though! WinkBig%20smile
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Dec-2008 at 19:46
Book review- November

first book is Scottish Renaissance Armies 1513 - 1550 in teh Elite series, written by a relatively new author who specialized in this topic. the book tries to explain why the probably best Scottish Army ever failed in most engagements vs their English adversaries ecen though they were technically more modern than the English. its pretty well written however i have a small disagreeance over the idea that the Swiss Pike Column, which was adopted by the Scottish, was outdated by the middle 16th century. pikes only became obsolete with the introduction of the bayonett but it is correct if we assume the statement to mean the pike column was outdated as primary offensive weapon of the infantry (which was now the musket, or the longbow still as in case with the English). the plates are by Graham Turner who is in my opinion the best illustrator for medieval and renaissance topics.

the next book, War Elephants by Konstantin Nossov was highly anticipated and i can already say it didn't failed to deliver. since Konstantin Nossov joined the team of Osprey authors, he produced some wonderful books about medieval and early modern Russian fortifications, Hittite fortifications and fortifications of the Sultanate Delhi and neighbouring states, all of which i can heavily recommend to anyone even remotely interested in those topics. and as already mentioned, this one here pretty much lived up to my expectations. plate wise (by Peter Dennis), there are three plates about Indian elephants (ancient, medieval and Mughal), a double-page plate about the battle of Raphia and one plate about the battle of Zama, as well as two plates on south-east asian elephants, including one double-page on the personal combat of the Thai Queen Suriyothai (the other one is about 19th century elephants). text-wise, the sucessor states & carthaginian useage of elephants gets quite a lot of room, as expected, but the indian and S-E asian elephants don't really fall short. the only thing that could have made the book the perfect book about war-elephants was to talk more about Iranian usage of war-elephants and at least one plate on them. other than that, it's a must get i think.

next up is the latest book by Foundry Books, about the Paraguayan War. after that i review older Osprey books on demand as there are no new interesting books in the pipeline for the first half of 2009.
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-Jan-2009 at 18:34
those are great days for people interested in Latin AmericanMilitary History. first, some months ago, Foundry Books released their new book on 19th Century Armies: http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/books/TPWAR.asp about the Paraguayan War, also known as war of the Tripple Alliance, involving Paraguay vs Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, the bloodiest war in Latin America and second bloodiest of the American Continent altogether.
now, Partizan Press released a book on the War of the Pacific, also known as Salpeter War, in which Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru including some interesting naval battles. unfortunately the book is in Spanish though... http://www.caliverbooks.com/Partizan%20Press/partizan_PacificSp.shtml
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jan-2009 at 20:19
so far all of my Osprey reviews were overall positive, that's not always the case however. over the holidays i got bored and got my self the essential histories book on the Russian Civil War. i didn't got it immediately because i was suspect of its quality and i haven't got a book from the essential histories series before, afterall Osprey is known for it's artwork above all. unfortunately i was correct in my assumption and the book was in my opinion a waste. it has no really new information and still repeats some Soviet myths that we know today not to be true. the maps, which were my primary reason to get it fall into the same category. they only show general movements and sometimes not even the strenght of the white forces are given. if you have zero knowledge on the Civil War you might want to check it out as an introduction but if you're already familiar and lookign for more information you have to look elsewhere. 
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  Quote rider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Jan-2009 at 17:49
Could you bring out a few of these myths?
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Jan-2009 at 19:02
like Storming of the Winter Palace and similar Red Fairy Tales.
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  Quote rider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Feb-2009 at 20:50
:P Elaborate please. :D
 
How much information does it give on the North-Western Army? I have read books written by Estonian Generals who fought alongside the North-Western Army against the Red (the offensive against St. Petersburg, and so on) but I'm wondering if that would give any good info about that.
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Feb-2009 at 21:08
liek is aid it's a general overview, so you will ahrdly learn soemthing new ont eh North-Wetsern Army.

as for the storming of the winter palace, well it didn't hapepend as portrayed by the SU, like a second storming of the bastille type of thing but rather a small detachment of soldiers peacefully taking over control.
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  Quote rider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Feb-2009 at 15:52
Hey, could you possibly upload again the link to your Google Earth history locations?
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Feb-2009 at 16:52
sure: http://rapidshare.de/files/45715226/citadels.kmz.html

i've added some new one's sicne the last update but not many, some new stuff in Yemen, Central Asia and as usual India.
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  Quote rider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Feb-2009 at 17:26
Thanks. I got Google Earth installed on my new computer today and thought I'd continue to look out for some niceties of architecture.
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Mar-2009 at 20:07
apparently i wasn't the first who came up with the idea of using google earth for searching citadels:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Archaeologist-uses-Google-to-discover-ancient-sites-in-Afghanistan

but it's nice to see that google earth is a tool for history enthusiast and even archaeologists as well.
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Mar-2009 at 20:13
as for my book reviews, as said there's no interesting (for me) new book coming up for some time, so i do a long overdue request now for Husaria:


Polish Armies 1569 - 1696 (1 & 2):

both volumes by excellent author Richard Brzezinski deliver their topic well, the plates by the late Angus McBride leave nothing to desire either. the first volume is somewhat more dedicated to the Polish Army itself while the second volume focus more on auxiliaries and non-regular troops (including guard). from what i can see both volumes are well researched and discuss each troop type or auxiliary type (Hussar, Dragoons, Tatars, Cossacks etc) breifly but well. overall both volumes are more or less a good overview and don't go too much in-depth, however the info seem solid and more space than usual is dedicated for the reconstructions on the plates, which is good. one plate per book has reconstructions of flags instead of soldiers.
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