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A French dragoon leaving the battlefield of Waterloo. 4
Extracts from Battlefield Panoramas: From the Siege of Troy to D-Day. Due to be published by The History Press on the 14th of August 2012.
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Ancient Greeks At War Much of what we know of Ancient Greek warfare has been taken from the early masterpiece of literature, The Iliad. Credited to the unknown poet Homer, it tells the story of the final days of the Trojan War, which pitted the Trojans against a Greek alliance led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae. The ten-year conflict was sparked when Paris, a Trojan prince and son of King Priam, made off with Helen, wife of Agamemnon’s brother, King Menelaus of Sparta. Such an insult could not be stood and a fleet of Greek ships made its way to Troy to lay siege to the city and reclaim Menelaus’s bride. Amongst the Greeks were the heroes Achilles, Ajax and Odysseus, the latter being credited with ending the siege by planning the famous ruse, the Trojan Horse. According to the legend the Greek warriors wore heavy bronze helmets with narrow slits to see through, which seriously restricted their vision, decorated with horse hair plumes of bright colours. The chest was protected by bronze or hardened leather inlaid with strips of metal. Leather and bronze shin pads were worn from the knees down to the heel, and the feet were clad in sandals. 6
Ancient Greeks at War
Warriors are often shown in paintings on vases wearing their helmets but very little else, either for artistic reasons or because of the hot conditions. This was taking serious risks against the heavy weapons of the time, and is likely to be an unrealistic representation. The fight for the aristocratic warrior seems to have traditionally begun on chariots, one man concentrating on driving the horses and a second warrior armed with javelins, spears, and bow and arrow. He would wait for the right moment to throw at the opponent’s chariot. If he managed a hit, he would jump off and continue the fight with a short, heavy stabbing sword. The struggle would continue on foot, and using a large round shield for protection and the sword, an attempt would be made to end the fight with a lethal wound. Chariots were a luxury item, to which only kings and great fighters were entitled. Homer describes how when Achilles killed Hector before the walls of Troy he stripped the valuable armour from the body, tied the corpse behind his chariot and dragged it around triumphantly, the ultimate humiliation. Common soldiers fought on foot, armed with spears and swords.
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Ancient Greeks at War
If there is a core of historical truth behind the mythical story of the siege of Troy, most historians date it to the twelfth or eleventh century BC (traditionally 1194–1184 BC), during the Greek Bronze Age. It is widely accepted that Troy existed and is at modern-day Hissarlik in Turkey. The Iliad is dated to about the eighth century BC, so Homer is describing events 400 years before his time. But there are definite links between actual Greek warfare and the myth of the Trojan Wars as told by Homer: one-on-one challenges between individuals, together with the phalanx, the tight grouping of men in battle, being the most notable.
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Ancient Greeks at War
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The Isle of Man and the Wicker Man Roman propaganda or fact? Julius Caesar described this gruesome human sacrifice, the burning of the wicker man, in his writings on the Gallic Wars, Commentarii de Bello Gallico. He accused the Gaulish druids of paying tribute to their gods by burning humans inside huge effigies made of wicker and dry timber, ceremonially set alight by a druid priest. He also claimed that while the druids generally used criminals as their victims, they would sometimes use innocents when there were no wrongdoers to hand. The Greek historian Strabo also accused the Gauls of this type of sacrifice. Wicker men are still constructed and burnt today during neopagan festivals, and in Denmark it is traditional to burn an effigy to celebrate St John’s Eve, the summer solstice. We constructed a similar huge figure on the beach of the Isle of Man, often referred to as the Isle of Druids. It certainly burned in a spectacular way, and woe betide any humans trapped inside. 10
The Isle of Man and the Wicker Man
It is said that the wicker man stories gave the Romans a good excuse to attack and devastate the Isle of Man. They paid special attention to the hunting down of the druid priests, who had fled to the island following the sacking of their stronghold on Mona (Angelsey) by the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus in AD60. Paulinus had been determined to break the hold the druids had over the native Celtic population, and so killed as many druids as he could and destroyed their shrines and sacred groves. They never regained their influence.
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Civil War Ambush at Radcot The English Civil War was a savage affair. The inspiration for this picture comes from an excavation in Dorset, where a soldier’s body was found. His skull was scarred with so many sword cuts that he must have been killed in a blind rage. Some years ago we excavated a site near Radcot in Oxfordshire. The River Thames meanders around this point with quite high banks on each side making it very difficult to ford. It is spanned by Radcot Bridge, often claimed to be the oldest bridge on the Thames, having been built around 1200. It was the setting for the Battle of Radcot Bridge in 1387, fought by Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV. Radcot Bridge was also the scene of a minor but bloody encounter of the English Civil War. A contingency of Cromwell’s cavalry decided to explore the other side of the river, taking the bridge for convenience (see overleaf), rather than fording the river in the dark. 12
Civil War Ambush at Radcot
Unfortunately for them, the Royalists already occupied the other side, well dug in and waiting for such an attempt. When the Roundheads rode onto the bridge at speed, they met with devastating musket fire aimed at the crowded troopers. Few made it back to their own side. The Royalists reinforced the bridgehead with more earth-forts and trenches. We found imprints of these and gun platforms during the excavations. The picturesque bridge, lovely river and meadows today betray very little of their bloody past.
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Civil War Ambush at Radcot
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The Tanks at Cambrai In the final years of the First World War, a new and frightening weapon made its first appearance on the Western Front. A great, lumbering metal vehicle with caterpillar tracks that could roll over pits and trenches, spitting gunfire as it went. The first tanks were terribly unreliable but had the desired effect, trampling down barbed wire, charging over trenches with the help of rolls of timber, firing machine guns. The tank had, most of all, a dramatic psychological effect on troops, who surrendered in droves. There was no stopping the tanks breaking through and going way beyond the enemy lines. But lack of infantry support and supplies left tanks isolated and they were often abandoned. British commanders were in a quandary as to how and when to use the tanks the first time. How could they best use the shock value of such a machine? Once sent into battle, the secret was out. It was decided that they would be used en masse on the Somme on 15 September 1916.
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The Tanks at Cambrai
One key aspect of the attack was the synchronisation of tank and infantry attack. If the tanks arrived too far ahead of the infantry, they would attract artillery fire and be isolated. If they arrived too late they would be more or less redundant and the element of surprise would be lost. So the plan was for the tanks to arrive five minutes ahead of the infantry at the objective and to help the infantry to overcome specific enemy strong points. Unsurprisingly, things did not go so smoothly: tanks broke down, were shelled and lost contact with the infantry. It was only at Cambrai, illustrated here, that tanks were used in significant numbers heavily supported by infantry, but even then, exhausted infantry and lack of supplies prevented victory. The tank was nevertheless here to stay, and became a decisive force in the Second World War when thousands of tanks carried out major offensives, and tank battles took place all over Europe and North Africa.
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The Tanks at Cambrai
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Information Battlefield Panoramas From the Siege of Troy to D-Day
By TIME TEAM artist Victor Ambrus To be released 14th of August at £20 Hardback, ISBN: 9780752465913 A great artist’s singular vision of the history of warfare The paintings of Victor Ambrus, Fellow of the Royal Society of Art and the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers are familiar to entire generations of readers. He has illustrated over 300 books on classical and historical subjects in his own instantly recognisable style. Over the years he has amassed what amounts to a visual record of the history of warfare, brought together here. Beginning with the siege of Troy the many scenes include the following: Caesar’s invasion of Britain; the Viking raid on Lindisfarne; Hastings; Agincourt; the Battle of Sedgemoor; the Siege of Athlone; Marlborough during the Seven Years War; the storming of the Bastille; Trafalgar; Waterloo; the Franco-Prussian War; the BEF in the First World War; the Normandy Landings; the 1956 Hungarian uprising.
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Information
Victor Ambrus was educated at the Hungarian Academy of Art and the Royal College of Art, He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has won the prestigious Greenaway Gold Medal for Illustration twice, and the Royal Academy Drawing Prize. His many illustrated books include Recreating the Past for The History Press and Tales and Legends of the Irish Saints.
Available from all good bookshops, Amazon.co.uk, www.thehistorypress.co.uk or from Marston Book Services, tel: 01235 465577.
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