Military History Research Articles

The Albert Nekimken Turkish Theater Collection: Censorship, Contentious Politics, and the Cold War Stage

Turkish political theater of the 1960s-1970s was a genre that galvanized both its intellectual proponents and drew the ire of state authorities. Deeply marked by the work of Bertolt Brecht produced some half a century earlier, the stage became an important setting where the broader violence between far-left groups, far-right groups, and the government was recast in literary form. During his doctoral research on the influence of German Marxism on Turkish political theater, former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Albert Nekimken collected plays, works of theatrical criticism, periodicals, short stories, novels, and rare recordings of performances, among other materials. The Albert Nekimken Turkish Theater Collection, primarily composed of Nekimken’s research materials, began to grow as playwrights, intellectuals, and others contributed interviews or gifted materials to the young scholar in the mid-to-late 1970s. These works were acquired by Nekimken at a time of rampant political censorship and ntellectual persecution–exemplified by the fact that many of the publications and performances in the collection were banned or subject to great censorship by the Turkish government. Among the works in the collection are those by well-known writers such as Orhan Asena, Engin Cezzar, Güngör Dilmen, Muhsin Ertuğrul, Nâzım Hikmet, Orhan Kemal, Aziz Nesin, and Haldun Taner. This newly described and processed collection held in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University offers new directions to students and scholars of political theater, the history of Modern Turkey, Turkish-German literary exchanges, and intellectual histories of the Cold War. The collection also gives educators hoping to bring primary sources into the classroom new pedagogical tools to explore histories of censorship, erasure, and contentious politics.

The Animal-Human Relationship in War

Issues germane to animal history and military history intersect in the study of cavalry horses and their riders during the American Civil War. Animal historians should understand that warfare created a very different experience for horses than was true of their peacetime experience. Military historians should understand that horses were not just tools of war but sentient creatures with needs and emotions of their own. Weaponized equines exercised a degree of agency by exerting some control over their situations. The military system and battle severely stressed horses and men. Repetitive riding affected cavalrymen and horses in ways that resulted in serious health problems. Nevertheless, the war experience fostered bonds of affection between animals and humans in many cases while leading to callous abuse in many others. It also led to an enhanced appreciation for animals among cavalrymen who had bonded with their mounts, possibly promoting awareness of animal rights after the conflict.

ИСТОРИЯ ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЫ В РАМКАХ ИГРОВОЙ ФРАНШИЗЫ CALL OF DUTY: ФИГУРЫ ПАМЯТИ И ИХ ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ

Представленное исследование посвящено изучению эволюции мемориального нарратива игровой серии Call of Duty в отношении событий Великой Отечественной войны. Теоретико-методологическая база работы выстраивается за счет комбинирования функционального и культурно-семиотического подходов к изучению социальной памяти, а также сочетании структурного, диахронного и синхронного анализа. Автором выделены ключевые фигуры памяти в рамках мемориального нарратива игр, изучены обстоятельства их происхождения, проанализирована содержательная сторона соответствующих образов (включая аспекты репрезентации смыслов и ценностей), изучены тенденции их эволюции в рамках развития франшизы. Дана оценка потенциала применения видеоигр как элемента системы социально-культурных мемориальных практик. The presented research is devoted to the study of the evolution of the memorial narrative of the Call of Duty game series in relation to the events of the Great Patriotic War. The theoretical and methodological basis of the work is built by combining functional and cultural-semiotic approaches to the study of social memory, as well as a combination of structural, diachronic and synchronic analysis. The author has identified the key figures of memory within the memorial narrative of games, studied the circumstances of their origin, analyzed the content side of the corresponding images (including aspects of the representation of meanings and values), and studied the trends of their evolution within the development of the franchise. The potential of using video games as an element of the system of socio-cultural memorial practices is assessed.

‘It took courage to die in Angola’: Umkhonto we Sizwe’s War versus UNITA, 1975–89

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress, is reputed to have been a largely ineffective guerrilla army which hardly challenged the apartheid war machine. Instead, this army in exile was mostly confined to its bases in post-independence Angola, thousands of kilometres from the land they sought to liberate. While in Angola, MK forces were largely kept on the defensive as they were compelled to join the Angolan government in its war against the armed group UNITA, which received extensive support from the South African apartheid regime and the United States. Yet within this context, on the periphery of the Cold War and the anti-apartheid struggle, MK managed a degree of battlefield success against UNITA, thus helping to pave the way for negotiations with South Africa. Although constrained by structural factors, MK nevertheless managed to assert an agency that has largely gone untold in the history of southern Africa’s national liberation movements. This article reinterprets MK’s military history by putting its Angolan battles at its heart. Relying on oral testimonies and memoirs of former MK combatants as well as scholarly sources, I argue that MK’s containment of UNITA offensives in northern and eastern Angola has been overlooked as an important battlefield contribution that helped Angola’s MPLA government to endure the apartheid regime’s onslaught and shaped the Cold War endgame in southern Africa. Moreover, combat narratives from Angola have proved pivotal in shaping the memories and identities of former MK personnel, even as contemporary South African elites have deployed these narratives for their own political ends.

The political uses of the history of the Chile-an Civil War of 1891 during the last stage of the Popular Unity Government (1973)

The political uses of the history of the Chile-an Civil War of 1891 during the last stage of the Popular Unity Government (1973)

The Fortenbaugh Lecture: A Panel Discussion on Military History

The Fortenbaugh Lecture: A Panel Discussion on Military History

The Life and Study of Jean-Jacques Becker, who opened a new horizon in the study of history in World War I

The Life and Study of Jean-Jacques Becker, who opened a new horizon in the study of history in World War I

Analysis of Tourist Experiences at Dark Tourism Sites in Kinmen: Clustering Analysis of Motivations, Emotional Responses, and Satisfaction

Dark tourism involves visiting sites associated with death, disaster, and major historical tragedies. Kinmen, Taiwan, known for its history of multiple wars, features notable dark tourism sites such as Mount Taiwu, the Guningtou War Museum, and the 823 Memorial Hall. These sites currently offer educational significance about historical events, but visiting them often triggers complex emotional responses. This study explores tourist experiences at these sites, focusing on motivations, emotional reactions, and the relationship between satisfaction and psychological stress. The study surveyed 348 visitors and used clustering analysis to group their travel experiences. The results identified three types of visitors: History Enthusiasts, War Memorialists, and Exploratory Curiosity Seekers, each with distinct motivations and emotional responses. Emotions experienced include sadness, shock, fear, and unease, closely related to the content and atmosphere of the sites. While overall satisfaction is high, many visitors report being "satisfied but not happy." The study suggests targeted strategies to enhance dark tourism experiences, such as providing emotional support, emphasizing commemorative value, and offering ethical education. Recommendations for site management include addressing emotional needs and balancing educational significance with emotional impact.

Histories of the Portuguese colonial war and its (other) images: a photo-text essay

In 1975, my parents-in-law met in Lourenço Marques (Maputo, Mozambique). The period preceding their engagement was marked by profoundly contrasting experiences. Because of his political activities against the Estado Novo dictatorship, he was conscripted into the Portuguese Commandos and participated in the conflict that unfolded in northern Mozambique. Conversely, she travelled from the Portuguese metropolis to Lourenço Marques as a child (following her grandfather’s promotion in public service), and had a happy childhood and adolescence, as documented in a collection of Super 8 films that were entrusted to me. How to reconcile such opposite experiences? And how to honour a legacy of images that do not cease to question me in the critical present? This photo-text essay focuses on a set of images that go beyond the commonly accepted depictions of Portuguese colonialism to problematize issues of resistance, indifference and complicity, showing how private and seemingly insignificant visual materials take part in collective forms of enunciation. It stresses the importance of landscape in conveying unassimilable and traumatic aspects of Portugal’s problematic history, examining how different discourses and imaginal references about war and colonialism reflect various perspectives, experiences and sensibilities, which may or may not align with each other. Ultimately, by drawing on an experimental, self-reflexive and visual approach to history, the essay encourages readers to actively engage in shaping alternative public memories, capable of encompassing the intricacies and diverse facets of history’s manifold manifestations.

“Chasing Queers with Cameras”: Objects, a “Prosthetic Man,” and the Impotent Witnessing of War in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

This paper approaches Shehan Karunatilaka’s novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida as a tongue-in-cheek queer reimagining of Sri Lanka’s bloody 1980s when the government battled Tamil militant groups as well as an armed insurgency in the south. This queer revision is filtered through dysfunctional things. Dead and amnesiac, the protagonist recalls the chain of events as it is reconstituted by broken cameras, blurry photographs, accessories with slippery meanings, and repurposed sports and military equipment. Positing that dysfunctional objects are related to queer positionality and mediate the retelling, I explore their role in producing a satirical queer fictional war history. I argue that objects, in terms of how they symbolize witnessing war, enact impotent witnessing, a conceit discursively premised on the Sinhala queerphobic/transphobic insult ponnaya, which signifies male queerness and/or impotence, including political impotence. Objects make a virtue of impotence when producing a satirical war record, probing whether a queer war photographer has the prerogative to bear witness to human rights violations and atrocities from his subaltern position. The paper finds that objects’ impotent witnessing metaphorically depicts some silenced and non-hegemonic voices from the 1980s war history, reflecting a politics of foregrounding delegitimized and non-normative accounts of that time.

Formulary lists of Meshcheryaks of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army of 1843–1844 as a source on the military history of the Tatars

Formulary lists of Meshcheryaks of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army of 1843–1844 as a source on the military history of the Tatars

The “Gibson Les Paul” Guitar—Conception, Prototype and Production: A Study Through Counterfactuals

ABSTRACT The use of counterfactuals (“what-ifs”) has been a recognized approach in some fields within the humanities, in particular military history, where alternate scenarios can be readily proposed. As an approach it has also been used in fields such as the study of economics, and—much less so—in art history. This article will consider the violin and the piano, and then concentrate on a more modern—and, as such, better documented—example of the Gibson “Les Paul” model electric guitar to assess whether various decisions have had a major bearing on the business success of the model.

Gorkhas’ Recruitment into British Army: A Historical Overview

This article presents a historical overview and analysis of the Gorkhas’ recruitment into the British Army over more than 200 years. The study examines the evolution of the recruitment process, highlighting key periods and changes: the era of the East India Company before 1886, the World War periods, and the present day. The research investigates how the bravery, dedication, and loyalty of Nepalese youths during the Anglo-Nepal Wars (1814-16) led to British authorities encouraging Gorkhali youths to join the British Army, aiming to leverage their skills for future wars and imperial expansion. Despite their valor, Gorkhas faced numerous challenges, and significant improvements in recruitment conditions did not occur until after 1886. Even then, parental consent was a significant barrier. It was not until the 1970s that Gorkha youths openly expressed a desire to join, but by then, the selection process had become much tougher due to decreased demand for their services. Employing a qualitative research approach, the article utilizes a variety of sources including books on Britain-Nepal military relations, journal articles, periodicals, and war history books from Nepal, Britain, and other relevant regions to provide a comprehensive analysis. The study’s findings indicate that the recruitment process was particularly challenging before 1886 and during the World Wars, despite a high demand for Gorkha soldiers. In the present day, while the recruitment process is more transparent, opportunities for Gorkhas have significantly diminished due to a reduced demand for their services.

Oral histories of Italians in the North-East of England: the sinking of the Arandora Star

AbstractWithin British-Italian history of the Second World War, there are several questions surrounding the sinking of the SS Arandora Star, on 2 July 1940, which still remain problematic. Nevertheless, this tragedy continues to play a prominent role in the heritage and memories of the Anglo-Italian communities in the UK. This article focuses on the experiences and memories of the Arandora Star from the perspective of members of the Italian community in the North-East of England. Oral histories of Italian civilian internees who were embarked onto the ocean liner were collected via qualitative interviews with descendants of victims and survivors. This article contributes to raising awareness of Arandora scholarship by articulating how memories were interpreted retrospectively and transmitted down generations. Informing the debate on the purpose of misremembering in oral history, this article sheds light on the events and their imaginary reconstruction.

Hunters and hunted: the sinking of SS Arandora Star within the wider context of the Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1940

AbstractOn 2 July 1940, the ocean liner SS Arandora Star was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-47, with the loss of around 805 lives; over half of these were British-Italian civilian internees. This article approaches the event from the arena of Second World War military history, contextualising the sinking within the early Battle of the Atlantic. In so doing, it shifts the customary focus away from government internment policy and discussions of cultural legacy towards examining British and German naval strategies and realities. Tactical and logistical considerations of the conflict are investigated, the explication of which allows more detailed discussion of the sinking controversies and enables delivery of ‘answers’ to the persistent ‘questions’ of why Arandora Star was sailing unescorted and without Red Cross insignia. The broad perspective offered engages with transgression and culpability, and overall the article seeks to advance Arandora Star scholarship with its distinctive maritime focus.

Analysis of the spatial evolution of coastal defense patterns in the Ming Dynasty based on long-time-series Wokou invasions (Zhejiang)

As a famous coastal defense heritage in the world’s military history, the maritime defense heritage of China’s Ming Dynasty represents the highest achievement of China’s ancient coastal military defense. There is a relative lack of holistic research on this defense system from its establishment to stabilization. Additionally, there is a lack of comparative research on the combination of Wokou invasions and defense patterns from a spatio-temporal perspective. The study aims to offer insights into the temporal and spatial evolution of ancient military defense heritage and investigate the significance of Ming Dynasty coastal defense. This study focuses on Zhejiang, a key coastal defense during the Ming Dynasty. Using GIS tools, it analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of Wokou invasions and defense mode in the process of Zhejiang coastal defense from its establishment to its perfection by using GIS analytical tools, and explores the driving factors of the dynamic adjustment of this coastal defense system. The results show that: (1) Hongwu 1 to 31 (1368–1398) witnessed the construction of a 12-area defense system, encompassing Wei and Suo citadels. This followed a multi-point defense strategy, with Wei citadels controlling the coastline and Suo citadels supporting them; (2) Hongwu to Wanli (1368–1588) saw the evolution of five defense modes, evolving from decentralized to centralized and then to a coexistence of both. This culminated in the establishment of 4–6 Defense Mode (4 Canjiang and 6 Bazong); (3) the evolution of the defense paradigm is largely driven by Wokou incursions and is an adaptation from small-scale, short-duration infestations to large-scale, long-duration infestations. The findings show that the Ming Dynasty’s coastal defense system in China was flexible and adaptive, evolving to meet changing defense needs.

West of Tirgu-Frumos: combat routine of the 7th Guards Army in Romania (June-August 1944)

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the need to resist the increasing attempts to falsify the history of the Great Patriotic War. The liberation of Europe by the Red Army from fascism began in March 1944 in Romania. By mid-June, active hostilities gave way to positional defense, which continued at the beginning of the Iasi-Kishinev operation. This period is almost not covered in the research literature, meanwhile, it was at this time that Soviet troops, in the course of small and local, but frequent and successful clashes, exhausted the enemy and lowered their morale, which played a role in the future.The purpose of the study is to establish the content and determine the nature of the combat operations of the 7th Guards. armies of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the period June 6 – August 19, 1944.Objectives: to identify the main parameters characterizing the defense of the enemy and the 7th Guards army, compare the progress and results of combat operations of Romanian and Soviet units.Methodology. The research was based on the principles of objectivity, historicism and consistency. The author used a complex of general scientific and special historical methods in his work: analytical, critical, problem-chronological, retrospective.Results. It was established that the enemy’s defense in the area west of the city of Tirgu-Frumos relied on a powerful fortified area. Romanian troops during this period behaved passively, their rare reconnaissance actions usually did not achieve success and were defeated. At the same time, troops of the 7th Guards. The armies not only actively strengthened their defenses, but also conducted effective reconnaissance, inflicting significant damage on the enemy.Conclusions. A study of documentary archival materials shows that the results of combat operations of units of the 7th Guards should not be underestimated. army during the period of positional defense from June to August 1944. Soviet troops exhausted the enemy, causing him significant material and moral damage, which reduced the combat effectiveness of the Romanian units in anticipation of the decisive offensive of the Red Army.

INTRODUCTION OF THE MILITARY-DISTRICT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ON BELARUSIAN LANDS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1850s – EARLY 1860s

This article examines a wide range of issues related to the specifics of the preparation and implementation of military reform in the Belarusian lands. The work identifies the main directions of activity of military department officials to develop options for improving the military command and control system. During the research, an in-depth analysis of the reasons that led to changes in government policy in the field of military control in the region was carried out. In chronological order, through the prism of normative legal acts, the processes of formation and legislative registration of district management institutions in the region are shown. Factors that had a negative impact on the formation of the district management structure were identified. The organizational measures of the War Ministry aimed at improving the structure of the Vilna Military District are shown. It is noted that the implementation of measures to create a military district system on Belarusian lands in the early 1860s. was carried out in a difficult international and socio-political situation associated with the consequences of the Crimean War and anti-government protests. Extraordinary circum-stances determined the repressive and punitive nature of its structure and powers. At the same time, along with general features, in the process of forming the Vilna Military District, local features emerged that reflected the level of military threats in the region. The results and conclusions of the study can be used in the preparation of textbooks, lectures and special courses on national and military history for students and cadets of higher educational institutions of the Republic of Belarus.

The Italian Army in the Second World War: A Historiographical Analysis

Classical English language analysis of Italy's role in the Second World War has done poorly in its attempt to accurately the Italian military's contribution to the Axis cause. Basing their analysis on flawed sources, historians in the intermediate post war era got much incorrect. Many of the staples of the World War Two genre still base much of their writing on these writers. This paper concludes by exploring the two most important modern writers who specialize in this area of military history.

The Epigraphic Testimonies from Timacum Maius (Eastern Moesia Superior): The Important Clues for the Character and Organization of Naissus Region

For more than ten years in a row, archaeologists of the Institute for Balkan Studies of SASA of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in cooperation with the Ausonius Institute from Bordeaux, have been conducting archaeological research on the Roman and Byzantine settlement located in the area of the village of Niševac near Svrljig, in the Svrljiški Timok River valley. It was the first station on the Roman itinerary road between Naissus (Niš) and Trajan's colony of Ratiaria on the Danube (Archar in northwestern Bulgaria). In addition to significant architectural remains and various archaeological findings, some inscriptions in Latin and Greek are also known from this area. This bilingualism of the texts indicates the very location of Timacum Maius, which was located on a vital communication line and a linguistic and administrative interprovincial barrier. Although chronologically different, the epigraphic findings I report raise broader scientific questions about the significance of this ancient settlement and its population, especially in the early military history of the Naissus region.