A review of the book 'Battles That Changed the World: 1000 Years of Warfare, From the Viking Invasion to Cyberwarfare' written by Anthony Tucker-Jones.
‘Pray don’t let it be me,’ thinks the soldier, ‘please don’t let it be me—or if it is, make it quick. Don’t let something be torn off followed by searing agony.’
No soldier wants to die listening to his own screams as his blood ebbs away in the dirt. That is a cruel end, likely to make his brothers-in-arms throw down their weapons and flee in blind terror. In some instances, though, death is preferable if it means not being dragged off and having your still-beating heart torn from your chest. Never listen to the cacophony of war, only listen for orders and press on, no matter what happens.
The second millennium of mankind has been characterised by almost incessant warfare somewhere on the face of the globe. Battles That Changed the World serves as a snapshot of the development of warfare over the past 1,000 years, illustrating the bravery and suffering mankind has inflicted upon itself in developing what we call the ‘Art of War’.
Here military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones selects twenty battles that illustrate the changing face of warfare over the past thousand years—from the Viking shield wall to long bows and knights, the emergence of gunpowder and finally the long-range faceless warfare of today. This is a look at the killing game and its devastating impact.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'Battles That Changed the World' written by Anthony Tucker-Jones
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
Anthony Tucker-Jones spent nearly twenty years in the British Intelligence community before establishing himself as a defence writer and military historian. He has written extensively on aspects of warfare in the Second World War and has produced several other books on the subject of war.
Let me read what is written on the back cover:
‘Pray don’t let it be me,’ thinks the soldier, ‘please don’t let it be me—or if it is, make it quick. Don’t let something be torn off followed by searing agony.’
No soldier wants to die listening to his own screams as his blood ebbs away in the dirt. That is a cruel end, likely to make his brothers-in-arms throw down their weapons and flee in blind terror. In some instances, though, death is preferable if it means not being dragged off and having your still-beating heart torn from your chest. Never listen to the cacophony of war, only listen for orders and press on, no matter what happens.
The second millennium of mankind has been characterised by almost incessant warfare somewhere on the face of the globe. Battles That Changed the World serves as a snapshot of the development of warfare over the past 1,000 years, illustrating the bravery and suffering mankind has inflicted upon itself in developing what we call the ‘Art of War’.
Here military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones selects twenty battles that illustrate the changing face of warfare over the past thousand years—from the Viking shield wall to long bows and knights, the emergence of gunpowder and finally the long-range faceless warfare of today. This is a look at the killing game and its devastating impact.
Some of the battles mentioned in this book.
1. The Battle at Fulford Gate in 1066 in northern Anglo-Saxon England against the marauding Viking forces.
2. The Battle of Northallerton in 1138 saw an English army driving off a Scottish invasion supporting a contender to the English throne.
3. The Battle of Homs was fought in western Syria on 29th October, 1281, between the armies of the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt and the Ilkhanate, a division of the Mongol Empire centere on Iran.
4. The Battle of Crécy in 1346 which marked the supremacy of firepower over plate armour in the form of the longbow.
5. The Battle of Bosworth in 1485 which heralded the end of the Wars of the Roses (1455-85) and the succession of the House of Tudor.
6. The Battle of Tenochtitlan in 1521 between the Spanish conquistadors and the Aztecs which resulted in the end of the mighty Aztec Empire.
7. The great siege of Malta in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller.
8. The Battle of Magdeburg in 1631 between a Catholic German prince against a Protestant German prince.
9. The Battle of Lostwithiel in 1644 between a Royalist army led by Charles I of England defeated a Parliamentarian force commanded by the Earl of Essex.
10. The Battle of Falkirk in 1746 which took place on 17th January during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
11. The Battle of Wavre which was fought on 18–19 June, 1815 between the Prussian rearguard and three corps of the French army. A blocking action, this battle kept 33,000 French soldiers from reaching the Battle of Waterloo and so helped in the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
12. The Battle of Isandhlwana fought on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.
13. The Battle of Villers-Bretonneux took place from 24 to 27 April 1918, during the German spring offensive to the east of Amiens.
14. The Battle of Britain 1940. Operation Sea Lion was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War.
15. The D-Day 1944. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II.
16. Crossing the Rhine on the night of 23rd March, 1945. The Allies crossed Germany’s last major defensive barrier ─ the Rhine. It was code named Operation Plunder.
17. The Battle of Khe Sanh 1968 was conducted in the Khe Sanh area of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
18. Operation Mole Cricket 19 was a suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) campaign launched by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) against Syrian targets on June 9, 1982, at the outset of the 1982 Lebanon War.
19. The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War. It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji, from 29 January to 1 February 1991 and marked the culmination of the Coalition's air campaign over Kuwait and Iraq.
20. The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in the cave complex of Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, from 30th November – 17th December, 2001, during the final stages of the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was launched by the United States and its allies with the objective to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
The 21st chapter is a bonus one on Softwar and Cyberwars, the new battlefields.
Conclusion:
The author has done a commendable job in describing the 20 battles in just under 300 pages. The book moves at a pretty fast pace without getting into too much details of the battles mentioned. I give the book a rating of 4.5/5. The book has a printed price of Rs. 599/- but is available for around Rs. 450/- on Amazon India and Flipkart. I will provide all the respective buy links in the show notes. Please feel free to check them out for the latest prices.
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