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View Full Version : A force to be reckoned with after 'small wars'



davidbfpo
04-06-2015, 11:08 AM
One of the irregular 'Forgotten Battles' articles on Defence in Depth; the focus being The Anglo-Ottoman campaign in Egypt march to September 1801 by Dr. Huw Davies.

The series are about:
Forgotten Battles is a feature on Defence-in-Depth designed to bring long-lost battles back from the depths of history. Our authors have chosen these engagements because they believe that their significance has been overlooked or overshadowed by better-remembered battles in history. The significance of the chosen battles may have been strategic and influenced greatly a particular war or campaign or may be based on other factors, such as social or cultural impact or the way in which a battle shaped the thinking of future leaders.

History aside it struck me - in my Easter armchair - that the British Army gained from its small wars experience when facing a conventional French army, albeit one deserted by its leader Napoleon. Later successes meant:
The Egyptian campaign of 1801 is increasingly forgotten as the British Army achieved more impressive successes in the later years of the Napoleonic Wars.

There is the Defence in Depth article:http://defenceindepth.co/2015/04/06/forgotten-battles-the-anglo-ottoman-campaign-in-egypt-march-september-1801/

Plus a slightly longer article (10 pgs):https://www.academia.edu/4258653/_A_Wandering_Army_Tactical_and_Operational_Develop ment_in_the_British_Army_before_the_Peninsular_War

This is the third article in the series. I did post an earlier thread, using my title What if Ho Chi Minh had been killed in 1947? (with 1303 views):http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=21472

The second article is on a 1914 WW1 battle, which has IMHO no 'small wars' aspect, but is:http://defenceindepth.co/2014/10/29/forgotten-battles-vailly-30-october-1914/

davidbfpo
07-22-2015, 09:52 AM
The latest article in this series and starts with:
The campaigns in the Western Desert in the Second World War are well known with locations like Sollum and Bir El Hakim having secured their place in history. What is less well known is that this area had previously been fought over some 25 years before during the Great War. Part of the effort by Germany and Turkey to raise Islamic communities against the Entente powers, it was ultimately unsuccessful and demonstrated the sort of imaginative approach coupled with the importance of logistics that were to become features of the later campaign.
Link:http://defenceindepth.co/2015/07/22/defeating-the-senussi-december-1915-march-1916-the-appliance-of-science/