Conference Report – When East meets West: The Second World War in Global Perspective

You can learn more about the Second World War Research Group on their website and by following them on Twitter (@SWWresearch). DR RICHARD HAMMOND Since its formation in 2014, the Second World War Research Group has grown exponentially in terms of its membership, brand and executive. From a humble beginning under two Co-Directors and a membership numbering… Read More Conference Report – When East meets West: The Second World War in Global Perspective

August 9, 2017August 15, 2017 defenceresearch7 Comments

Remembering ‘The Crucial Days’*

PROF NIALL BARR Professor Niall Barr is author of Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein and will be giving a keynote lecture at the 75th Anniversary Conference on El Alamein at Wolverhampton University, 5-7th September 2017. There is no doubt that the first of July 1916 holds a special place in the… Read More Remembering ‘The Crucial Days’*

July 3, 2017July 2, 2017 defenceresearch1 Comment

Combat Cohesion to Social Cohesion

DR JONATHAN FENNELL In the first of a series posts on my new article, ‘Soldiers and Social Change: The Forces Vote in the Second World War and New Zealand’s Great Experiment in Social Citizenship’, in The English Historical Review, I outlined how the soldiers’ vote won Labour the 1943 New Zealand general election. In a… Read More Combat Cohesion to Social Cohesion

June 12, 2017June 12, 2017 defenceresearchLeave a comment

A Social Class Survey of the New Zealand Army in the Second World War

DR JONATHAN FENNELL In the first of a series of blogs on my new article, ‘Soldiers and Social Change: The Forces Vote in the Second World War and New Zealand’s Great Experiment in Social Citizenship’, in The English Historical Review, I outlined how the soldiers’ vote won Labour the 1943 New Zealand general election. In… Read More A Social Class Survey of the New Zealand Army in the Second World War

June 2, 2017June 1, 2017 defenceresearch1 Comment

Strategy, Theory, and History

DR CHRISTIAN TRIPODI In September 2015 I accompanied the Headquarters of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) to Sicily, a trip which I’ve described in a previous post. My role, in concert with my colleague Professor Niall Barr, was to act as an historical advisor to the assorted gathering of senior officers, civil servants and… Read More Strategy, Theory, and History

May 22, 2017May 4, 2018 defenceresearch1 Comment

Soldiers and Social Change

DR JONATHAN FENNELL Military personnel are rarely placed at the centre of analyses of social and political change in the twentieth century. The growing consensus that the wars of the twentieth century ‘laid the basis’ for important reforms, most notably the birth of the modern welfare state, has been driven almost exclusively by studies of… Read More Soldiers and Social Change

May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 defenceresearch3 Comments

The First Victory…

DR ANDREW STEWART The last few years have witnessed a feverish period of remembering Britain’s military and the battles it and others fought during the Great War (what I recall increasingly vaguely as having been referred to at school more commonly as the First World War). A centenary is a historical marker worthy of reflection,… Read More The First Victory…

October 21, 2016October 28, 2016 Andrew Stewart2 Comments

Balancing past and present: Edward Mead Earle and Makers of Modern Strategy

BY DR MICHAEL FINCH This post is based on my article which appears in the most recent issue of The Journal of Military History. It might be considered that in producing a significant contribution to scholarship, a scholar ensures his or her own reputation. Yet this is not always the case. Edward Mead Earle, Professor at… Read More Balancing past and present: Edward Mead Earle and Makers of Modern Strategy

July 15, 2016July 13, 2016 defenceresearch1 Comment

The Dunkirk evacuation and the German ‘halt’ order

DR TIM BENBOW Sometimes academics are confronted by arguments with which we disagree, vehemently. Most have something to be said for them or, at the very least, it is possible to appreciate where those proposing it are coming from and why they might believe it. There are exceptions, which deserve nothing other than a good… Read More The Dunkirk evacuation and the German ‘halt’ order

July 11, 2016May 8, 2018 defenceresearch9 Comments

The role of the capital ship in naval strategy

DR TIM BENBOW It is remarkable how often the role of the capital ship in naval warfare is misunderstood or even ignored. Too often it is dismissed as an expensive and vulnerable luxury, which exists only to flatter the egos of Admirals. Such comments display a striking lack of awareness about naval warfare and how… Read More The role of the capital ship in naval strategy

June 30, 2016May 8, 2018 defenceresearch4 Comments

Defence-In-Depth

Research from the Defence Studies Department, King's College London

Tag: Second World War