Tidlig moderne krigsførelse (inkluderer krigsførelse med krudt)

Den 16. december 1944 satte Hitler sin sidste offensiv ind i Ardennernes sneklædte skove og kløfter på grænsen mellem Belgien og Tyskland. Han troede, at de tyske tropper kunne nå hele vejen til Antwerpen og dermed skyde en kile ind mellem de allierede. Hitlers egne generaler tvivlede på planens chance for succes. De yngre officerer derimod var parat til at kæmpe, drevet af desperation efter at redde deres hjem og familier fra den hævntørstige Røde Hær, der nærmede sig fra øst. Ardenneroffensiven fra december 1944 til januar 1945 blev med mere end en million involverede soldater anden verdenskrigs største vesteuropæiske slag. Den barske vinter og kampenes vildskab mindede i uhyggelig grad om kampene på østfronten. Efter massakrer begået af Waffen-SS-soldater billigede selv de amerikanske generaler, at deres soldater skød tyskere, der overgav sig. Offensiven i Ardennerne blev det slag, som endegyldigt knækkede den tyske værnemagt.

Pluie de Balles is an educational wargame designed to combine elements of modern tabletop systems and key aspects of the Prussian Kriegsspiel. It replaces the latter's facilitators with participants who move around forces on large maps, while other participants sit in staff rooms waiting for reports from their subordinate force commanders - who have to balance the need of controlling their forces and of writing reports back to their staff. Thus Pluie de Balles exposes all participants to some of the friction that is caused by having to process information, make decisions and communicate under significant stress.

The War over Naples was fought by France and Spain between 1502 and 1504. Gonzalo de Córdoba, called El Gran Capitán, distinguished himself for his military skills thanks to his brilliant victories against the French at Cerignola and Garigliano (1503). With the Treaty of Lyon in 1504, the Kingdom of Naples was ceded to Spain, which controlled it for 200 years - until the War of the Spanish Secession.In November 1500, Ferdinand of Spain and Louis XII of France signed the secret Treaty of Granada. This agreement enabled Spain and France to easily conquer and divide the Kingdom of Naples in the years 1501 and 1502. The treaty divided Naples between the two nations. However, disputes arose over the division and the boundaries of the newly conquered territories that soon led to war.Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the Spanish Commander in Naples, was aware of the inferior quality of his troops and retreated to Barletta (Apulia). His plan was to await reinforcements from Spain. The French commander, Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, split the French army into several garrisons all around Barletta, and sent a contingent led by Beraud d'Aubigny to occupy Calabria. Over the following eight months, skirmishes, ambushes, and sudden attacks, which were to become Córdoba's trademark tactic, became the norm.In April 1503, Córdoba, following the arrival of Spanish and Landsknecht reinforcements, left Barletta and moved over to the offensive. The Spanish defeated d'Aubigny's army on 21 April, and then just over a week later, on the 28th, they defeated the Duke of Nemours at Cerignola. The Duke was to fall in the fighting. Gonzalo de Córdoba and his troops entered Naples in triumph on 16 May 1503.Louis XII, eager to reclaim his lost territories, gathered an army and invaded Naples. However, the French were defeated again in December 1503, near the river Garigliano. Gaeta, the last French stronghold in Naples, fell on 1 January 1504. On the 31st the Treaty of Lyon was signed, ratifying Spanish possession of the Kingdom of Naples.Praise for earlier volumes of The Italian Wars: 'This mini-series gets better with each book and I would thoroughly recommend it and I, for one, am looking forward to the final volume(s).' - Arquebusier'This book is undeniably successful and interesting' - Vae Victus Magazine'...the text contains a wealth of information about the situation, commanders, unit types, weapons, and uniform colors covering Italian, Spanish, French, and Swiss troops.' - The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society

French Armies of the Thirty Years' War presents the development of the French army, one of the first standing armies in Europe, from 1617 to 1648. It shows how Louis XIII and Richelieu made the most of the complex legacy of the Wars of Religion.The three musketeers, Cyrano de Bergerac, Louis XIII, Richelieu, Condé, Turenne, La Rochelle, Rocroi... these few words sum up the literary and historical representations most people can associate with the tumultuous events of the first half of the seventeenth century.French Armies of the Thirty Years' War begins in 1617, the year that Louis XIII really took power by distancing the queen mother and ordering the assassination of Concini and ends in 1648 - five years after the death of Louis XIII - the year of the Westphalia Peace Treaty. This period was mostly dominated by the personality and works of Richelieu, who entered the king's council in April 1624. He gave the king an ambition: 'to procure the ruin of the Huguenot party, humble the pride of the great, reduce all subjects to their duty, and elevate your majesty's name among foreign nations to its rightful reputation'. By his death, on 4 December 1642, this program had been accomplished.The first military action of this period, called the 'Drôlerie des Ponts de Cé', was the uprising of the nobility who supported the queen mother against the king in August 1620. In reality, the rebels were roundly defeated by the king's armies, but very few units actually fought. In his memoirs, Richelieu, who was on the queen's side at the time, gives a detailed analysis of this defeat. In particular, he drew from it principles that he was to follow throughout his life, and he realized: 'that which is held only by a precarious authority does not last long; that those who fight against a legitimate power are already half-defeated by their own imagination'. These political beliefs gave Louis XIII and Richelieu a powerful instrument that was to emerge transformed from the Thirty Years' War.The army that Marie de Medici left to Henri IV's heir was small and inexperienced, but the Wars of Religion at the beginning of Louis XIII's reign, combined with Richelieu's actions, gave the French kingdom an increasingly efficient army. Commanded by great captains such as the Duc de Rohan, the Viscomte de Turenne and the Prince of Condé, the army was highly successful, as shown by the long list of French victories, from Isle of Ré (1626) to Lens (1648).

After the Peace of Westphalia, several German states developed a disciplined 'Military' that produced outstanding armies. Germany supplied mercenary troops to major and minor powers in Europe, and the military state, usually exemplified by Prussia, became a crucial part of German history.However, Germany was apparently weak and internally divided into a multitude of states that constantly faced a hostile environment formed by belligerent great powers. Moreover, the German 'Military' was the resultant system of collective security, internal conflict and resolution that allowed a rich variety of political traditions to coexist relatively harmoniously. This system tried to preserve Germany against formidable attacks without making it a danger to the security of its neighbors. In contrast to the political culture of later German states, that of the 'Reich' was inherently defensive, preferring peace to war in both domestic politics and external relations. The book deals with the armies of the German Empire for the first time in a single book, with unpublished iconography and after extensive research in the German archives.Praise for previous volumes of Wars and Soldiers in the Early Reign of Louis XIV: 'This book is a must for anyone even partially interested in the Imperial army during the late seventeenth century. The level of detail must be highly commended, the author has gone to great lengths in researching this volume and it shows throughout the volume.' - Arquebusier'This book is extremely detailed, and highly useful for historians, the inquisitive, war gamers and figure modelers.' - IPMS/USA

The Battle of Narva, in which Charles XII of Sweden defeated Peter the Great of Russia, occurred during the Great Northern War. Peter the Great's Disastrous Defeat describes the campaign, presents new research on the battle, details the opposing Swedish and Russian armies, and explains the continued development of the Swedish army.Swedish military might and regional power had expanded immensely during the seventeenth century. A series of successful conquests had transformed the little northern kingdom of Sweden into a regional great power centered on the Baltic Sea. By the end of the century, the accession to the Swedish throne of Charles XII, a mere youngster without known military experience, convinced the neighboring monarchs that it finally was payback time. In 1699, King Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway, King Augustus II of Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Tsar Peter I of Russia formed a triple alliance against Sweden. The three monarchs wanted to reconquer lands lost to Sweden during its expansion. King Frederick wished to regain the lost Scanian provinces and Holstein-Gottorp. King Augustus coveted Swedish Livonia, while Tsar Peter desired the ports on the eastern Baltic shore. Soon, Tsar Peter of Russia declared war and attacked Swedish Ingria in the Gulf of Finland. A large Russian army laid siege to the vital port of Narva in modern-day Estonia.Having already successfully invaded Denmark and forced King Frederick of Denmark and Norway to withdraw from the war, King Charles turned his attention to the eastern front and Russia. After a long and arduous march, the Swedish army arrived on the outskirts of Narva in late November 1700. The Swedish King ordered his men immediately to attack the Russian fortified defense lines. With the help of a blizzard and with the wind at their back, the Swedes attacked and broke through the Russian defenses. Panicking, the Russians fled and ultimately surrendered to King Charles. It was a crushing defeat. Tsar Peter lost the entire army, including most senior commanders who fell into captivity, too. The battle had the immediate effect of the Russians evacuating the whole of Ingria.In Peter the Great's Disastrous Defeat, Michael Fredholm von Essen describes the events and tactics that led up to and resulted in the Swedish victory at Narva, presents new research on both the siege and battle and explains the continued development of the Swedish army under King Charles XII.

The Seven Years War was long forgotten in French historiography. In fact, in the years following the peace of 1763, it had no name. When authors referred to this conflict, they simply used the expression: the last war or the German war. It was Templelhoff in 1787, working on the work The German War written by Lloyd, who called it for the first time: History of the Seven Years War in Germany Geschichte des siebenjährigen Krieges in Deutschland. This is what Bardin had to say about it at the beginning of the nineteenth century: 'It was undertaken without plausible motives, conducted without skill by most of the French generals and interspersed with endless vicissitudes [...] It is memorable for the nameless mistakes made by all the armies in it; it ended to the great disadvantage of France'.Although France suffered a series of military defeats, the period was nonetheless very rich in trials and innovations in terms of organization and uniforms. Many of the reforms that followed the war were based on the French experience.From a symbolic point of view, the period say the appearance of attributes emblematic of the military: epaulettes, for example. The introduction of this little piece of cloth edged with fringes was initiated by Maréchal de Belle Isle in 1759, and spread to armies all over the world, sometimes taking on impressive proportions. Even though today they are only found on the ceremonial uniforms of modern troops, they have long identified the soldier's silhouette. One could also mention the star of our modern general officers, which appeared for the first time on the epaulettes of officers commanding a brigade, or the green uniforms of the dragoons. There was also the first attempt to introduce a helmet for the cavalry, an idea that remained unfulfilled until 1803 and the Empire. The trial of a cork life jacket at Dieppe, the birth of the regimental artillery that Gribeauval was to bring to fruition...On a tactical level, chasseur companies were created within the regular infantry regiments, the precursors of the voltigeurs and the tirailleurs of the Revolution and the Empire.In terms of the structural reforms of the army, the ordinance of 1759, followed by those of 1762 and 1763, which created recruit regiments, represented a veritable revolution. They marked the end of the burden of recruitment and the ownership of a company by a captain, to be sold like property. It also marked the end of gentlemen's regiments, with the exception of princely regiments. The École Militaire was created, and the first officers to graduate from it would go on to fight in the campaigns of the Seven Years War.This volume is the first in a series devoted to the French army during the Seven Years War. It describes the organization and evolution of infantry regiments during the Seven Years War, the hierarchy of a regiment, recruitment and training of soldiers, officers and their careers, marches, encampment and barracks for troops, payment of honors, a detailed review of uniforms, infantrymen's weapons and equipment, and the organization and uniforms of provincial militias, Grenadiers de France and coastguard militias. The second volume will detail the distinctive uniforms and flags of all the regiments. The third volume will deal with the elementary tactics adopted by the French infantry during the Seven Years War.

Wellington's Men Remembered is a reference work which has been compiled on behalf of the Association of Friends of the Waterloo Committee and contains over 3,000 memorials to soldiers who fought in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo between 1808 and 1815, together with 150 battlefield and regimental memorials in 24 countries worldwide.

Curt Heinrich von Broizen machte den Feldzug als Sousleutnant im Regiment von Polenz Chevauxlegers mit. Am 14.06.1807 bei Friedland verwundet, verstarb er nach Amputation des linken Fußes am 23.07.1807. Aus dem Nachlass werden wiedergegeben:I. Das Feldzugs-Journal der Eskadron von Schindler, geführt vom 03.02. - 08.05.1807 II. Diverse dienstliche Schriften (Bestandsrapport, Befehle) III. Briefe von Curt von Broizem an seinen Vater Carl Victor August von Broitzem, Vize-Präsident des königlich sächsischen Geheimen Kriegs-Rats-Kollegiums IV. Briefe des Ober-Chirurgen Johann Gottlob Heber an den Vater Carl Victor August von Broitzem

The British campaign to capture Fort Carillon on the Ticonderoga Peninsula in 1758 resulted in the largest battle of the French and Indian War. Crafted by Prime Minister William Pitt, the scope and scale of the British effort was staggering, calling for their northern colonies to raise 20,000 men to rendezvous with the British Regulars at Albany. The directive would test the patience, resources, and will of the colonial governments as well as that of the newly appointed the British commander-in-chief, General James Abercrombie. For the defenders of New France matters were dire. Reports were arriving that Abercrombie's numbers were over twice the entire fighting strength of Canada. For the French field commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, there were few options. The Marquis had long opposed defending frontier forts, calling for abandoning these posts at the first sign of threat in order to conserve the colony's resources. The French Governor disagreed and dispatched Montcalm and his white-coated French regulars with orders to defend Fort Carillon. With his army the only thing that stood between the British and the interior of Canada, there appeared to be a single path before the Marquis. Whether the Governor liked it or not, a rearguard action followed by a retreat down Lake Champlain was the only answer that would leave the army of Canada in position to fight again. Yet, within the span of a few days Montcalm would set these views aside, and suddenly risk both his army and the fate of Canada on a single risky battle. Based on journals, letters, and accounts of the participants on both sides, The Road to Ticonderoga: The Campaign of 1758 in the Champlain Valley by Michael G. Laramie recounts this unexpected tale of victory and defeat on the North American frontier. Here we learn how the unexpected death of a dynamic leader, George Howe, elder brother of Richard and William, nearly crushed "the soul of General Abercrombie's army," leading to misinterpreted orders and hesitation on the part of the British. At the same time, the French commander perilously underestimated the ability of his own forces while overestimating his enemy's before his fateful and unexpected decision to make his stand at Ticonderoga. With lessons and repercussions for future warfare in North America, The Road to Ticonderoga shows how a series of small mistakes can cascade into a catastrophe under weak leadership--or be exploited by a strong one.

Until this book was published in 1974, many of the letters in this book between Charles I Prince Rupert his nephew and the leading Royalist commander had never been published. From a mainly private collection, the letters give a fascinating insight into the stormy relationship between the monarch and his nephew.

From the early 17th century until the 1860s, Japan was ruled by samurai led by the Shoguns of the powerful Tokugawa dynasty. The long period of peace following almost incessant civil war had negative effects on the proficiency of these feudal warriors. When industrialized Western powers whose armies and navies were equipped with the most modern weapons began to take interest in Japan in the 1850s, a tumultuous period of reforms and radical changes ensued - Bakumatsu. From this time emerged a country which had thoroughly albeit painfully rid itself of former taboos: modern rifles and artillery produced new tactics, while modern uniforms replaced the samurai's former splendour in arms. Now even non-samurai could become fighting men. By the 1870s, the Emperor Meiji ruled over a new Japan which no longer had any use for its ancient warrior élite.The Zeughaus Verlag's third volume of the history of the samurai provides a detailed overview of the opposing parties as well as their respective military reforms. The reader is introduced to the various modern and traditional-minded combatants, from lowly but efficient regular infantry to the gallant desperadoes filling the ranks of the Shinsengumi. Rag-tag militias replaced proud and resplendently attired samurai fighting for a lost cause. Tactics, arms, clothing and equipment are presented in detail. The author describes the campaigns and battles which changed the country's face between 1866 and 1869, and introduces the protagonists of the struggle which culminated in modern Japan's entrance onto the world stage.