Small, Forgotten Small Wars
I noticed recently a few posts on largely forgotten conflicts and although this thread has many references, I think a new thread is appropriate.
Post on Estonia (thanks to Stan):
Quote:
In the 1940s the so-called Forest Brothers were responsible for more Russian officer (single shot) kills than any other military unit to include SS death squads. They couldn't afford to squander ammo nor spend too much time in the AO. They adapted well to both the terrain and their own shortcomings (Estonian's rarely whine when the chips are down).
Added to by Cannoneer No.4:
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The Forest Brothers and the Selbschutz, Schuma Battalions, and the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division der SS (Estnische Nr. 1) whacked a lot of Sovs during the Great Patriotic War. Great Irregular Warfare stuff for a different thread.
To which Stan responded:
Quote:
Generally speaking the Forest Brothers limited their activities to supporting Estonian and Finnish soldiers and were at one time something of a myth or legend when soldiers returning from the front recanted stories of “Forest Brothers” disrupting flanking enemy fire and saving their butts. They however were not an elite SS unit hangin’ out in the trees and Bogs. One very old dude told me “how easy it was to pick off Russian officers” as they always paraded around in class A’s with all the glittering accoutrements glaring you in the face.
WW2 German counter-guerilla operations
This was the post I could not find, by JMA in the Suppressive Fire thread:
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The book Communist Guerrilla Warfare by Dixon/Heilbrunn (1955) dealing with how the Germans dealt with Soviet guerrilla activity after the invasion of 1941 was useful reading in the 70s before COIN became an "industry". It is worth study even though some of the methods used against the guerrillas were considered war crimes at the time.
This booklet, thanks to Fuchs, is available on:http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=2956428 (Requires registration for a free trial).
I have a vague memory that German operations have appeared before somewhere.
Turkish COIN campaign in Kurdistan
A war that fits the thread's title and is currently in the RFI thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=12285
Mau Mau Emergency in Kenya
A colonial era COIN war 1952-1960 that the UK would probably prefer to overlook and due to a current legal case has re-appeared. What is astonishing is that the civil disclosure requirements led to the discovery of colonial records "lost" in a store. This short BBC report is summary:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13044974
The use of torture in the 'Emergency' was well known at the time, there was a public airing of one case of abuse and killings at the Hola Camp.
A "taster" on the 'Emergency':http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising
50 Years Ago Today.....The Bay Of Pigs
Link to articles on the 50 year anniversary of the Bay Of Pigs.
http://specials.msn.com/A-List/Lifes...ex=1>1=36010
Some constant themes run through accounts of fighting in Africa
methinks these themes have been re-learnt more recently:
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-The ferocity of the fight – killing is the only thing that counts.
-Administrative problems, particularly the provision of water and the vulnerability of lines of communication, often determine tactics.
-Much of the terrain dictates that infantrymen do the fighting – armour, field artillery and aircraft may be useful but their presence involves costly technical support.
-Tribal custom and belief can win or lose the day.
-The local enemy leader does not burden his mind with complications such as taking prisoners or evacuating casualties.
-Africa always wins – the invaders or colonizers in the end acquiesce.
Link:http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/home.html
Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency
The Mau-Mau Emergency in pre-independence Kenya appears on a few threads and has not been forgotten by academics. The journal 'Intelligence and National Security' has a review by Professor Richard English, of St Andrews University, which is complimentary and written in light of the revelations about treatment of civilians - as shown here in a couple of posts.
The book was published in 2013 and is 'Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency' by Huw Bennett. The publisher's summary:
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British Army counterinsurgency campaigns were supposedly waged within the bounds of international law, overcoming insurgents with the minimum force necessary. This revealing study questions what this meant for the civilian population during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s, one of Britain's most violent decolonisation wars. For the first time Huw Bennett examines the conduct of soldiers in detail, uncovering the uneasy relationship between notions of minimum force and the colonial tradition of exemplary force where harsh repression was frequently employed as a valid means of quickly crushing rebellion. Although a range of restrained policies such as special forces methods, restrictive rules of engagement and surrender schemes prevented the campaign from degenerating into genocide, the army simultaneously coerced the population to drop their support for the rebels, imposing collective fines, mass detentions and frequent interrogations, often tolerating rape, indiscriminate killing and torture to terrorise the population into submission.
Link:http://www.cambridge.org/bo/academic...enya-emergency
Link to Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Mau-C...ds=huw+bennett
The Finnish-Soviet Winter War and today
Hat tip to WoTR for an excellent article today, combining history and its application today - not just for Finland, the Baltic States come to mind. Added here as there is no thread for the Winter War:http://warontherocks.com/2016/07/les...abian-defense/
Fighting the Mau Mau: COIN in the Kenya Emergency
More of an update on this campaign, which rarely gets attention here. There are three previous posts in this thread: 17,21 & 22. Kenya does appear in nine threads in this arena; whereas other campaigns have their own threads sch as Malaya, Palestine, Iraq and Dhofar.
This linked article reviews recent books on the use of force - away from the frontline; including torture, which has its own thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=17110
It ends with:
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The saga of the Hanslope files provides a suitable shabby and disreputable coda to a brutal counter-insurgency campaign which was surrounded by lies and cover-ups. But the new mythology surrounding them distorts our understanding of the affair as well as misrepresenting the essentially collaborative nature of historical enquiry and wildly exaggerating the degree to which the archives were successfully sanitised.
Link:https://theconversation.com/it-makes-a-good-story-but-the-cover-up-of-britains-savage-treatment-of-the-mau-mau-was-exaggerated-65583?
Cyprus & Kenya campaigns: book reviews
The online, free British Journal of Military History has two book reviews in the latest edition:
1) David French's 'Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 1955-1959' and the author concludes:
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In short, this is an authoritative and exhaustive resource for anyone who needs to understand the Cyprus emergency in its domestic and international aspects or is interested in issues surrounding the control of force and reactions to excessive force and losses of control.
Link:http://bjmh.org.uk/index.php/bjmh/article/view/125/97
2) Huw Bennett's 'Fighting the Mau Mau, The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency':
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This is a superbly researched book, based a tremendous amount of archival research including the secret Colonial Office archive, which has only just been released to the National Archives in Kew. It is vital reading for anyone seeking to understand the British Army's role in modern counter-insurgency actions, whether in Kenya or in Afghanistan and this book cannot be recommended too highly.
Link:http://bjmh.org.uk/index.php/bjmh/article/view/128/100
The civil war in Mozambique (1976–92)
The civil war / insurgency in Mozambique between the FRELIMO government and RENAMO an opposition (originally a spin-off from the Rhodesian War and funded by Rhodesia) rarely gets attention.
Although the article's title shows the focus, it does provide insight into the war and numerous sources. The title then: 'Auxiliary Armed Forces and Innovations in Security Governance in Mozambique’s Civil War' by a Dutch academic.
Link, currently free from the journal 'Civil Wars':http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/...9.2017.1412752
Preble's flag: a reminder about joint action and piracy
Hat tip to WoTR for this fascinating article on joint action against pirates along the Chinese and Korean coastline, between 1854-1855 when the Royal Navy was distracted by the Crimean War.
Link:https://warontherocks.com/2018/01/pr...inese-pirates/
The catalyst for the article is the discovery of a set of captured flags, thought to have been lost for over a hundred years.
Adam G. may note this as evidence it's not just the UK that loses historical items.:D
A forgetten war that changed the Horn of Africa
A rare article on the war between Ethiopia and Somalia over the Ogaden - a region of Ethiopia with a Somali majority and desired by Somalia, way back in 1977-1978. A war with three Cuban brigades deployed, a switch of Soviet support to Ethiopia; an 'all-arms' war which Somalia lost.
Link:https://defenceindepth.co/2019/02/19...retrospective/
Curiously of the key players on the Ethiopian side only one remains alive, Mengistu remains in exile in Zimbabwe. The Cuban general was purged and shot dead.