Rodney Atwood Livres

This biography of Field Marshal Lord Roberts charts a remarkable life that spanned the apogee of the British Empire. During a diverse career, Roberts won the Victoria Cross, planned the strategic defence of India, turned the tide of war in South Africa, introduced army reform and campaigned for National Service before 1914. Rodney Atwood explores his military career, in particular his role as a tactician and strategist in Afghanistan, Burma, the North-West frontier, South Africa and Europe, but also looks at Roberts as a symbol of Empire and explores his celebration in British culture.

The book describes the role of Frederick ('Bobs') Roberts in the 2nd Afghan War, culminating in his celebrated march in 1880 with 10,000 picked British and Indian soldiers, 300 miles in twenty-three days, from Kabul to Kandahar, to defeat the Afghan army of Ayub Khan, pretender to the Amirship of Kabul. The 300-mile march, completed in twenty-three days, made Roberts one of late Victorian England's great military heroes, partly because of the achievement, partly because the victory restored British prestige after defeat, and not least because of Roberts' astute use of the press to puff his victory. It overcame the earlier damage done to his reputation as a result of his hanging over eighty Afghans in revenge for the massacre of a British envoy and his escort. It also enabled the liberal Viceroy of India, Lord [George Robinson, 1st Marquess of] Ripon, to extract his forces from an Afghan imbroglio with prestige restored and with an emir placed on the Afghan throne who, for thirty-nine years, maintained friendship with British India. ..."--Back cover.

The Hessians are infamous in American history for their role as part of the British forces sent to crush the colonists' rebellion in 1776. Yet these German auxiliaries, or mercenaries were only one instance of a frequent military practice, approved by international jurists of the time and used by the British in all their eighteenth-century wars. This study (dealing with one of the six contingents known inaccurately as the Hessians) is the first to make extensive use of manuscript sources in Germany, Britain and America to put the Hessians in their historical context and to examine a number of the myths about them. The encounter of the Americans with the Hessian troops from a disciplined paternalistic society organized for war, with special thoroughness, was not merely the meeting of two military systems, but also of two ways of life, and is thus worthy of study in an age of conflict.

The British Army was shocked by three military defeats during one week in South Africa in late 1900. The commanding General Sir Redvers Buller lost his nerve. 'Something must be done' was the cry across the Empire. Britain sent forth not one, but two military heroes. Field Marshal Lord Roberts and Major General Lord Kitchener spent their first five weeks in South Africa restoring morale, reorganizing their forces and deceiving the enemy as to their intentions. In the next four weeks their offensive transformed the war: Kimberley and Ladysmith were relieved from Boer sieges and an enemy force of 4000 under General Cronje was captured on the Modder River. A long and bitter guerrilla war ensured in a terrain ideally suited to fast-moving Boer commandoes. On the dark side, deeds were committed of which no civilized empire priding itself on justice and fair play could be proud, including the first use of 'concentration camps'. The comradeship-in-arms of Roberts and Kitchener, their differing yet complementary personalities, their strategic and tactical decisions are described and assessed using a wide variety of sources including, personal papers and official correspondence. Through their resourcefulness the British Army, despite its unpreparedness and poor leadership at many levels, won a remarkable victory in the first of the twentieth century 'People's Wars'.