Graeme Callister - Battle: Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand

Battle

For Paul Nicholas Whitbread

(1956-2021)

Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand

Graeme Callister and Rachael Whitbread

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Pen & Sword Military

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Graeme Callister and Rachael Whitbread 2022

ISBN 978 1 39908 098 9

ePUB ISBN 978 1 39908 099 6

The right of Graeme Callister and Rachael Whitbread to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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W e would like to acknowledge our debt of gratitude to all who helped in the inception, writing and production of this book. Firstly, our thanks to Rupert Harding, Linne Matthews, and the rest of the team at Pen and Sword, whose hard work and patience have helped to make this book possible. We would also like to thank the students and colleagues, past and present, of our respective institutions the Bromsgrove School History department, and York St John University History and War Studies for their enthusiastic encouragement, and for discussions and debates down the years that have helped to hone some of the ideas in this book. Our thanks too to the Historiska Museet, Stockholm, and shutterstock.com for granting permission to reproduce images for this work. Finally, we would like to express our eternal appreciation to our friends and families, whose love and support means so much.

Rachael Whitbread and Graeme Callister

B attle. Even to the most pacific amongst us, the word conjures up a thousand images: from the close-quarters combat of the medieval battlefield to the colourful serried ranks of Napoleonic armies; from the swing of sword against shield to the awesome destructive force of modern explosive weapons; from warriors sallying forth with little more than their frail human courage to soldiers surging into combat in armour or vehicles that make them appear barely human at all. Battle the deed and the word brings out some of the best and some of the very worst in people. Throughout history humans have used their ingenuity to find better ways to kill and maim and destroy, and battles have seen atrocities and slaughter that defy explanation. Yet battle also gives rise to feats of enormous courage and sacrifice, of comradeship and selflessness, and, paradoxically, even of touching humanity in the most trying of conditions. For participants it can be horrifying, terrifying and exhilarating. As Sidney Rogerson, a British soldier of the First World War, remembered:

the fact remains that, terrifying as they sometimes, and uncomfortable as they often were, the war years will stand out in the memories of vast numbers of those who fought as the happiest period of their lives. And the clue to this perhaps astonishing fact is that though the war may have let loose the worst it also brought out the finest qualities in men.

There is an unavoidable degree of ambiguity about battle. Acts that would, as the old quip goes, lead to the executioners block in peacetime are rewarded with medals and fame in war. Feats of strength, skill, endurance and courage can be admired in the abstract, but are harder to celebrate when conducted at the cost of other peoples lives. Even the ingenuity of inventors and engineers in creating new machines and technologies in double-quick time can seem less praiseworthy when they