Wars - TheHistoryFiles.com

Cromwell’s Wars with Scotland

“Cromwell at Dunbar”, by Andrew Carrick Gow. Greatly helped by the battle -hardened nature of his army, Cromwell revealed his ability in both offence and defence in the Dunbar and Worcester campaigns. Scottish quiescence was crucial to the early stages of the conquest of Ireland, but in 1650 Charles I’s eldest son, Charles II, came […]

Wars

Hô Chí Minh Campaign (April 1975)

On 25 March the Politburo in Hà Nôi revised its timetable for ending the war, deciding that Sài Gòn should be taken before the beginning of the mid-May rainy season. Dung asked permission to call this the Hô Chí Minh Campaign, in the hope of achieving victory before Hô’s 19 May birthday anniversary, and the […]

Wars

1512-1520 War with Muscovy

Unknown painter under influence of Lucas Cranach the Elder, known as “The Master of the Battle of Orsha” In 1512 Muscovy broke the peace by attacking Lithuania again with the aim of capturing Smolensk. In December 1512 Grand Duke Basil himself went to Smolensk, but it was ably defended and when a relief force approached […]

Wars

GUERRILLA TACTICS IN THE RHODESIAN CONFLICT

ZIPRA 1980 Guerrilla tactics were a strange mixture of fecklessness and competence. Their combat tactics were often so bad as to border on the farcical, yet the way in which they mobilized and maintained mass support was a model of the people’s war. The guerrillas infiltrated into Rhodesia along a number of well-established corridors which […]

British, Wars

Carnatic Wars (1744-1754)

In the middle decades of the eighteenth century, the Carnatic, encompassing the southeastern extremity of India, was ripe for conflict among a variety of interests. In 1638, the English East India Company had founded a trading “factory” at Madras. A century later, France established its own factory less than 200 kilometers to the south, at […]

Wars

Appenzell Wars (1403–1411)

Battle of Vögelinsegg (May 15, 1403) Following the Covenant of Sempach (1393), the Canton of Appenzell sought to break free from the control of its feudal liege lord, the Abbot of St. Gallen. Appenzell won the initial fight at Speicher, or Vögelinsegg (May 15, 1403), where the Swiss forces used ‘‘Letzinen’’[1] palisades to great effect, […]

Wars

ARAB-ISRAEL WAR (1982)

Israeli troops move into Damour, Lebanon, in June 1982, near the start of the invasion. The Israelis tried to destroy the entrenched Palestine liberation organization and place Lebanon under the control of Maronites, but the operation had severe long-term consequences. The Israeli Merkava Mark I tank was used throughout the First Lebanon War On 4 […]

Wars

Lebanon 1982-83

Instead of the PLO’s guerrilla campaign allowing them to push into the occupied territories, they found themselves pushed back into neighbouring territory, and in particular Lebanon, already a country deeply divided among Christians and Muslims. The more raids that were mounted from Lebanon, the more Israeli reprisals. Eventually the country erupted into a civil war […]

Wars

Greece – Asia Minor Debacle

Greek Air Force Breguet Br. 14 A2 circa 1921 Greece finally entered World War I, in its very last phase, on the side of the Entente. Greece’s territorial gains this time proved to be short-term. After the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) Greece took over the administration of the Smyrna region in Asia Minor, a former […]

Wars

Afghan-Maratha War (1758–1761)

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: Afghani invaders of the Punjab vs. the Marathas of west-central India PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): The Punjab, India MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: The Marathas waged war to eject the Afghans from the Punjab. OUTCOME: After initial Maratha victories, Ahmad Shah Duranni, the Afghani leader, decisively defeated the Marathas at the Battle of Panipat. Nevertheless, an […]