Journal of Military History
Vol. 74, No. 4
October 2010

Articles

Hugh T. Harrington and Jim Jordan, “The Other Mystery Shot of the American Revolution: Did Timothy Murphy Kill British Brigadier General Simon Fraser at Saratoga?” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1037-1045.
Most historical accounts of the battle of Saratoga in 1777 credit patriot Timothy Murphy as the soldier who shot British Brigadier General Simon Fraser. However, it took sixty-eight years after the battle for an author to name Murphy as the rifleman, and that version was based on dubious testimony. This article analyzes the various accounts of the battle to determine the origins and validity of the Murphy legend, and its repetition by subsequent historians. Additionally, it examines the ballistics involved in shooting a round ball bullet at the one quarter-mile distance attributed to Murphy and concludes that there is no primary evidence to indicate that Murphy shot Fraser.
Andrekos Varnava, “‘Martial Races’ in the Isle of Aphrodite,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1047-1067.
In the nineteenth century European powers employed “natives” perceived to be inherently “martial” as the mainstay of their imperial armed forces. This theory of “martial races” undergirded the composition, for example, of Britain's Indian Army. An attempt in the 1890s to apply “martial races” theory to the formation of an indigenous defence force in Cyprus, however, proved to be an unqualified failure. Although the British government claimed that the scheme fell through because of inadequate funds, the main reason was that the decision to recruit the force exclusively from among the presumably more “martial” Turkish Muslim population of the island contradicted local ideas of identity by dividing Cypriots into “Greeks” and “Turks,” with unhappy consequences for the future.
David G. Smith, “‘Clear the Valley’: The Shenandoah Valley and the Genesis of the Gettysburg Campaign,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1069-1096.
Countless writers have speculated on Robert E. Lee’s motivations for the Gettysburg campaign during the American Civil War. One significant factor has received less attention than others: the need to clear the Shenandoah Valley of occupying Union forces. This essay argues that the situation in the Shenandoah Valley was a key part of Lee’s conceptualization of the campaign and his analysis of its results. This perspective illuminates the issues of logistics and home front discontent that confronted Lee and made him begin planning his operation well before April 1863. It supports and broadens recent work highlighting the importance of logistics in the campaign.
Christopher M. Bell, “Winston Churchill and the Ten Year Rule,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1097-1128.
Winston Churchill’s propagation of the infamous “ten year rule” has led to charges that he created the deficiencies in Britain’s defences that he denounced during the 1930s. This article shows that traditional explanations for Churchill’s attacks on defence spending during his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924–29) oversimplify his motives and exaggerate his authority. His policies were shaped by a complex and shifting combination of political, financial, strategic, and bureaucratic goals. Churchill was not the instigator of the ten year rule in 1919, and he cannot be held responsible for its effects after leaving office. Even during the 1920s, the impact of the ten year rule was more modest than historians have generally recognized.
John T. Kuehn, “The U. S. Navy General Board and Naval Arms Limitation: 1922–1937,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1129-1160.
The naval treaty system inaugurated at Washington in 1922 channeled innovation in the U.S. Navy. The Washington Naval Treaty eliminated the ability of the United States to construct new bases or to improve existing ones in the western Pacific. It fell to the General Board of the Navy to implement the clauses of the Washington Treaty. The General Board was also charged with the responsibility of preparing and attending subsequent naval conferences during the period. The General Board was the critical link between the Navy and the naval treaty system. As such, the General Board both shaped and was shaped by the treaty system.
John Buckley, “Tackling the Tiger: The Development of British Armoured Doctrine for Normandy 1944,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1161-1184.
The British Army of the Second World War does not retain a positive reputation in the field of operational and tactical battle doctrine, particularly so in armoured warfare. Many historians argue that in Normandy in the summer of 1944, British armoured forces had still failed to grasp many essential elements of modern combat. This article demonstrates that in reality the British Army’s loose approach to developing and imposing doctrine, despite inherent shortcomings, actually facilitated a flexible attitude that allowed the armoured forces in Normandy to adapt and modify their battle doctrines in the heat of battle quickly and effectively.
Everett L. Wheeler, “Rome’s Dacian Wars: Domitian, Trajan, and Strategy on the Danube, Part 1,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1185-1227.
Two recent major monographs, one on the Dacian wars of Domitian and Trajan (Stefan) and another on ancient migrations from the Ukraine into the eastern Balkans (Batty, Rome and the Nomads) invite discussion and evaluation. A survey of the problematic literary and archaeological sources (not least Trajan's Column) for the history of this area in the first and second centuries A.D. prefaces an evaluation of new archaeological evidence on Dacian defenses and innovative topographical identifications. The development of a Geto-Dacian state in Transylvania within the context of multiple ethnicities on the Lower and Middle Danube is discussed and use of new archaeological discoveries to clarify narratives of the wars of 84–89, 101–102, and 105–106 is evaluated. Interpretations of scenes on Trajan's Column and the metopes of the Adamklissi monument remain controversial.
David Kahn, “How the Allies Suppressed the Second Greatest Secret of World War II,” The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1229-1241.
In 1945, the British and American chiefs of staff ordered that information about the Allied solution of German cryptosystems be excluded from their official histories of World War II in order to preserve an intelligence advantage. This left the world with an incomplete but not an erroneous account of that struggle. Despite a few leaks, not until Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham revealed those solutions in 1974 did that story begin to emerge fully. An unexpected consequence was to bolster British pride.
Review Essay:
Charles J. Esdaile “Recent Works of Note on the Peninsular War (1808-1815),”
The Journal of Military History 74 #4 (October 2010): 1243-1252.

Reviews:
Hitler’s Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare, by Dennis Showalter, reviewed by Donn Starry and by Charles Messenger, 1253-1256.

Maha.bharata Book 6, Bhishma, Vol. 1, translated by Alex Cherniak, reviewed by Michael F. Noone, 1256-1258.

Makers of Ancient Strategy from the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, edited by Victor Davis Hanson, reviewed by Fred Naiden, 1258-1259.

Roman Warfare, by Jonathan P. Roth, reviewed by Rose Mary Sheldon, 1259-1260.

The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O’Connell, reviewed by Yozan D. Mosig, 1261-1263.

The Hundred Years War, Vol. III: Divided Houses, By Jonathan Sumption, reviewed by Paul Solon, 1263-1265.

European Warfare, 1350-1750, edited by F. Tallett and D. J. B. Trim, reviewed by Niccolò Capponi, 1265-1266.

Essays in Naval History, from Medieval to Modern, by N. A. M. Rodger, reviewed by Jon Sumida, 1266-1267.

Franco-Irish Military Connections, 1590-1945, edited by Nathalie Genet-Rouffiac and David Murphy, reviewed by Brian J. Coyne, 1268-1269.

China’s Last Empire: The Great Qing, by William T. Rowe, reviewed by Mark C. Elliott, 1269-1270.

The Warrior Generals: Winning the British Civil Wars, by Malcolm Wanklyn, reviewed by David N. Farr, 1270-1272.

War and Religion after Westphalia, 1648-1713, edited by David Onnekink, reviewed by William Young, 1272-1273.

I Vascelli della Serenissima: Guerra politica e costruzioni navali a Venezia in età moderna, 1650-1720, by Guido Candiani, reviewed by Ciro Paoletti, 1273-1274.

War in the Age of Revolution, 1775-1815, edited by Roger Chickering and Stig Förster, reviewed by Sam A. Mustafa, 1274-1276.

The Enemy in Our Hands: America’s Treatment of Prisoners of War from the Revolution to the War on Terror, by Robert C. Doyle, reviewed by Alan M. Anderson, 1276-1277.

Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859, by Elizabeth R. Varon, reviewed by Charles B. Dew, 1278-1279.

A Commanding Presence: Wellington in the Peninsula 1808-1814–Logistics, Strategy, Survival, by Ian Robertson, reviewed by John G. Gallaher, 1279-1280.

Waging War in Waziristan: The British Struggle in the Land of Bin Laden, 1849-1947, by Andrew M. Roe, reviewed by Christian Tripodi, 1280-82.

The British Way in Warfare: Power and the International System, 1856-1956. Essays in Honour of David French, edited by Keith Neilson and Greg Kennedy, reviewed by Robert M. Citino, 1282-1283.

Sherman’s March in Myth and Memory, by Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown; Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea, by Noah Andre Trudeau; Sherman’s March to the Sea, by John F. Marszalek, reviewed by Brian Holden Reid, 1284-1285.

The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor, and Manhood in the Union Army, by Lorien Foote, reviewed by Larry M. Logue, 1286-1287.

Justice in Blue and Gray: A Legal History of the Civil War, by Stephen C. Neff, reviewed by Fred L. Borch, 1287-1289.

Women Doctors in War, by Judith Bellafaire and Mercedes Herrera Graf, reviewed by Robert S. Driscoll, 1289-1291.

Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters, by Paul-André Bempéchat, reviewed by Jessie Fillerup, 1291-1293.

All the Tsar’s Men: Russia’s General Staff and the Fate of Empire, 1898-1914, by John W. Steinberg, reviewed by Keith Neilson, 1293-1294.

Jungle of Snakes: A Century of Counterinsurgency Warfare from the Philippines to Iraq, by James R. Arnold, reviewed by Joseph R. Fischer, 1294-1297.

A Companion to World War I, edited by John Horne, reviewed by Michael S. Neiberg, 1297-1298.

The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World, by Holger H. Herwig, reviewed by Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., 1298-1300.

The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War, by James Carl Nelson, reviewed by Douglas V. Johnson II, 1300-1301.

14-18. Les refus de la guerre: Une histoire des mutins, by André Loez, reviewed by Leonard V. Smith, 1301-1303.

From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19, by Benjamin Isitt, reviewed by Timothy C. Winegard, 1303-1304.

Bodies of War: World War I and the Politics of Commemoration in America, 1919-1933, by Lisa M. Budreau, reviewed by Andrew Byers, 1304-1306.

The Last Century of Sea Power: From Washington to Tokyo, 1922-1945. Vol. 2, by H. P. Willmott, reviewed by Gordon Rudd, 1306-1307.

Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, by Jean-Yves Mary & Alain Hohnadel with Jacques Sicard, color drawings by François Vauvillier, reviewed by Len Shurtleff, 1307-1309.

Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War 1931-1941, by Joseph Maiolo, reviewed by Antulio Echevarria, 1309-1310.

Rommel’s Desert War: Waging World War II in North Africa, 1941-1943, by Martin Kitchen, reviewed by Craig Stockings, 1310-1312.

Sowjetische Partisanen 1941-1944: Mythos und Wirklichkeit, by Bogdan Musial, reviewed by Peter Lieb, 1312-1313.

Dogface Soldier: The Life of General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., by Wilson A. Heefner, reviewed by Edward M. Coffman, 1313-1315.

Fortress Rabaul: The Battle for the Southwest Pacific, January 1942-April 1943, by Bruce Gamble, reviewed by Chad Dull, 1315-1316.

Red Sky, Black Death: A Soviet Woman Pilot’s Memoir of the Eastern Front, by Anna Timofeeva-Egorova, translated by Margarita Ponomaryova and Kim Green, edited by Kim Green, reviewed by Reina Pennington, 1316-1318.

Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East, by David Stahel, reviewed by D. E. Showalter, 1318-1320.

Drop Zone Burma: Adventures in Allied Air-Supply 1943-45, by Roger Annett, reviewed by Murdock Moore, 1320-1321.

Operation Dragoon: The Liberation of Southern France 1944, by Anthony Tucker-Jones, reviewed by Stephen A. Bourque, 1321-1322.

Treason on the Airways: Three Allied Broadcasters on Axis Radio during World War II, by Judith Keene, reviewed by Roger B. Jeans, 1322-1323.

Yalta: The Price of Peace, by S. M. Plokhy, reviewed by Anthony Adamthwaite, 1324-1325.

The Red Rocket’s Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957, by Asif A. Siddiqi, reviewed by Jonathan Coopersmith, 1325-1326.

Oil, Islam and Conflict: Central Asia Since 1945, by Robert Johnson, reviewed by Huw J. Davies, 1326-1327.

Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security–From World War II to the War on Terrorism, by Julian E. Zelizer, reviewed by Andrew L. Johns, 1328-1329.

The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A History of the Cold War, by Norman Stone, reviewed by Jonathan M. House, 1329-1330.

Blue & Gold and Black: Racial Integration of the U. S. Naval Academy, by Robert J. Schneller, Jr., reviewed by Barbara A. Gannon, 1331-1332.

The Encyclopedia of the Korean War. 2nd edition. 3 Vols., edited by Spencer C. Tucker, reviewed by William M. Donnelly, 1332-1333.

Combat in Korea: Striking Back, March-April 1951, edited by William T. Bowers, reviewed by Peter J. Schifferle, 1333-1334.

Eisenhower and Adenauer: Alliance Maintenance under Pressure, 1953-1960, by Steven J. Brady, reviewed by William L. Patch, 1335-1336.

Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad, by Marnia Lazreg, reviewed by Mansouria Mokhefi-Geist, 1336-1338.

RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era, by Mai Elliott, reviewed by John Prados, 1338-1339.

The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, by Mark Atwood Lawrence, reviewed by Carlyle A. Thayer, 1340-1341.

Militarism and Israeli Society, edited by Gabriel Sheffer and Oren Barak, reviewed by Ralph Hitchens, 1341-1342.

Operational Warfare at Sea: Theory and Practice, by Milan Vego, reviewed by Gordon E. Hogg, 1343-1344.

A Nuclear Winter’s Tale: Science and Politics in the 1980s, by Lawrence Badash, reviewed by Frank Settle, 1344-1345.

American Missile Defense: A Guide to the Issues, by Victoria Samson, reviewed by Donald R. Baucom, 1345-1346.

Other:
BOOKS RECEIVED: 1347-1352
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES: 1353-1356
INDEX TO VOLUME 74: 1357-1381
Stacks Image 466