The Military History Thread

[rupertramjet]

Excellent article and illustrations of mines during first World War:

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2015/10/30/massive-mines/

[Ennath]

June 8, 793
Raid on Lindisfarne

The northeast coast of England was largely unsettled by Roman civilians. The countryside had been subject to raids from both Scots and Picts and was “not one to attract early Germanic settlement”.

A monastery was founded on Lindisfarne, a tidal island just off this coast, by Irish monk Saint Aidan, who had been sent from Scotland to Northumbria at the request of King Oswald. The priory was founded before the end of 634 and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. Lindisfarne became the base for Christian evangelism in the north of England and also sent a successful mission to Mercia.

In 793, the D and E versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle record that “foreboding omens came over the land of the Northumbrians, and the wretched people shook; there were excessive whirlwinds, lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and a little after those, that same year ... the ravaging of wretched heathen people destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne.” It is regarded as the start of the Viking Age. Alcuin, a Northumbrian scholar in Charlemagne’s court at the time, wrote: “Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race ... The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets.”

The raid on Lindisfarne took place at a time when things could not have been worse according to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. The explanation seemed to be that the Northumbrians brought it upon themselves. The logic behind this thinking was that for something this bad to happen to arguably the holiest site in 8th century Britain, then the local community had to have done something very bad themselves in order to evoke the wrath of God. A quick glance through the Chronicle’s entries for the years preceding 793 is a catalogue of a series of very un-Christian behavior, but this was not unusual for the age.

The English seemed to have turned their back on the sea as they became more settled. Many monasteries were established on islands, peninsulas, river mouths and cliffs. Isolated communities were less susceptible to interference by the politics of the heartland. The amazement of the English at the raids from the sea must have been matched by the amazement of the raiders at such (to them) vulnerable, wealthy and unarmed settlements.

The attack on Lindisfarne marked the beginning of an intensive Viking campaign of pillage and plunder throughout the 9th century. In the year following the assault on Lindisfarne, the twin Anglo-Saxon monastery of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow (near Newcastle) suffered a similar attack, and in 795 the monastery of St. Columba on the Scottish island of Iona also fell victim to looting. Monasteries were particular targets for the Viking raiders, as they were well stocked with portable wealth and supplies and were a relatively easy target for the aggressive Norsemen. As one of the most remote and wealthiest of monasteries, Lindisfarne was an attractive target, and one they would return to time and time again.

There are various theories concerning the causes of the Viking invasions. For people living along the coast, it would seem natural to seek new land by the sea. Pure thirst for adventure may also have been a factor. One theory suggests that increasing population exceeded agricultural capabilities; thus landless men took to piracy to support themselves. Another suggests that growing urbanism and trade in Europe drew Norse attention. One theory that has been suggested is that the Vikings would plant crops after the winter and go raiding as soon as the ice melted on the sea, then returned home with their loot, in time for the harvest. Another cause could well have been pressure caused by the Frankish expansion south of Scandinavia and their subsequent attacks upon the Danes. One model suggests that the Viking Age occurred as a result of technological innovations that allowed the Vikings to go on their raids in the first place. There is no doubt that piracy existed in the Baltic before the Viking Age, but developments in sailing technology and practice now made it possible for raiders to attack lands further away.

These preliminary raids, unsettling as they were, were not followed up. The main body of the raiders passed north around Scotland. The 9th century invasions came not from Norway, but from the Danes; the first Danish raids into England were in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent during 835 and from there their influence spread north. During this period religious art continued to flourish on Lindisfarne.

[Ennath]

1243
Siege of Montségur

Although the Albigensian Crusade had been concluded with the Treaty of Paris-Meaux in 1229, local resistance continued. The Cathar Church was still able to operate and oppose the Inquisition that pervaded the Languedoc. In 1233, the Cathar Bishop Guilhabert de Castres asked Raymond de Pereille, the lord of Chateau Montségur, for permission to make the castle “the seat and head” (domicilium et caput) of the Cathar Church.

As a haven for Cathars, Montségur gained symbolic and strategic importance in their resistance to the Catholic Church and the French Crown. In 1241, Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, made a token attempt to capture Montségur, primarily to impress the King and the Church with his allegiance. At that time Montségur housed about 500 persons.

In the context of Occitan resistance to royal authority and possibly linked to Raymond’s efforts to free himself from the chains of the Paris Treaty, 2 representatives of the Inquisition, William Arnald and Stephen de St-Thibéry, as well as their companions and retinue were murdered by about 50 men from Montségur at Avignonet on May 28, 1242. This event led to the decision to send a royal military expedition to eliminate the stronghold.

In May 1243, the seneschal Hugues des Arcis led about 10,000 royal troops against the castle, held by about 100 fighters, along with perfecti (who as pacifists did not participate in combat) and civilian refugees. Many of these were Cathar credentes who lived in huts and caves outside the castle on the mountain. The initial strategy was to blockade the castle in expectation that water and supplies would run out, a strategy that had worked well for the crusaders before. However, the defenders were well supplied and able to keep their support lines open, being supported by many of the local population; some reinforcements even arrived. Thus eventually it was decided to attack the place directly, a difficult task due to its well protected location high on a massive limestone rock. After many failures, Basque mercenaries were able to secure a location on the eastern side of the summit across a depression, which allowed the construction of a catapult. This forced refugees that were living outside the walls to move inside, making living conditions more difficult. Apparently by treachery, a passage was found to gain access to the barbican which was captured in March 1244. The catapult was then moved closer and the situation inside deteriorated under the regular bombardment. When a sortie by the garrison failed to dislodge the invaders from the barbican, the defenders gave the signal that they had decided to negotiate for surrender.

Surrender conditions were quickly decided: Everyone in the castle was allowed to leave, except those who would not renounce their Cathar faith, primarily the perfecti. A 2-week truce was declared. These were spent praying and fasting. A number of defenders decided to join the 190 perfecti, bringing the total number of Cathar believers destined to burn to 210-215. On March 16, led by Bishop Bertrand Marty, this group left the castle and went down to the site where the wood for the pyre had been erected. No stakes were needed: they mounted the pyre and perished voluntarily in the flames.

The remainder of the defenders, including those who had participated in the murder of the inquisitors, were allowed to leave, among them Raymond de Pereille who was later, like others, subjected to the Inquisition. It has been claimed that 3 or 4 perfecti survived; they left the castle by a secret route to recover a treasure of the Cathars that had been buried in a nearby forest in the weeks prior to the surrender. The treasure not only contained material valuables but also documents and possibly relics. Nothing of its whereabouts is known.

Catharism continued in the Languedoc for several decades but it had lost its organization, and, under the pressure of the Inquisition, adherents, if not captured, moved to other places, such as Spain and Italy, where conditions were less oppressive. Montségur Castle was destroyed.

[Dr Pepper]

Not a place easy to take-as these pics prove-a commanding position, as they say...

[Dr Pepper]

[Ernesto75]

Not a castle easy to build either.
The people who built it have my admiration.

[Ennath]

June 9, 1982
Battle over the BeqaaValley

In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli Air Force suffered heavily from massed Arab SAM batteries. The Israelis lost 109 aircraft in 18 days. The losses suffered by Israel war were so high that it indirectly spawned the United States stealth aircraft program. The US estimated that without a solution to the SAM problem, even the United States would suffer depletion of its Air Force within 2 weeks of a conflict erupting with the Soviet Union.

On April 28, 1981, Israeli F-16A’s shot down 2 Syrian helicopters over Lebanon. Syria responded by deploying its first SAM brigades to the Beqaa Valley. These were not a direct strategic threat; there were already several Syrian SAM batteries in east Lebanon, across the border. Prime Minister Begin faced a dilemma: on one hand, the deployment damaged Israel’s deterrence credibility and, on the other hand, a strike might lead to an unnecessary clash with Syria. Action was deferred by the Osirak operation (see posting). Meanwhile, the United States was concerned that Soviet reaction to an Israeli strike might lead to a crisis between the superpowers, and pressured Begin not to attack. Israel agreed to cancel the strike.

On June 8, 1982, Israeli forces moved against terrorist camps in Jezzine; Begin addressed part of his statement in the Knesset to the Syrians, urging them not to intervene. That night, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, meeting at Northern Command HQ, predicted that Syria would intervene in strength, making it necessary to move deeper into Lebanon. The first clashes occurred that night.

Sharon gave Northern Command chief, Amir Drori, a go-ahead to drive on the Beqaa valley, and Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Levi flew to HQ to inform them that the IAF would attack the Syrian missiles that day. Meanwhile, Israeli UAVs (the first major use of drones), spotted an additional 5 SA-6s moving from the Golan front into the Beqaa Valley. The IAF interpreted that move as a signal that Syria had no intention of becoming involved in a major war - otherwise the SAMs would have been positioned to defend the approach to Damascus. The redeployment suggested that they could strike the SAM sites without risking an all-out war with Syria. Cabinet approval was obtained and the order issued.

David Ivry, in charge of the strike, named Mole Cricket 19, received order to attack at 1330 and the Israeli aircraft took off in pairs. The first wave was made up of 96 F-15s and F-16s. The second wave which attacked the SAM batteries at 1550 PM was made up of 92 aircraft, some carrying ECM pods to foil radar tracking. The command post in Tel Aviv provided Ivry a real-time command picture of the air battle through various data links. E-2C Hawkeyes down-linked their pictures to the command post. A squadron of UAVs kept at least two vehicles in the air all the time, providing constant location of the SAM batteries. A two-way voice communications link between Ivry and his pilots was set up, allowing for real-time command.

The primary Syrian fighters involved were MiG-21s, with considerable numbers of MiG-23s and Su-20s also deployed. Syrian aircraft depended on ground-controlled interception (GCI) sites for command and control. The SAM sites were a combination of SA-2s, SA-3s, and SA-6s. The IAF's F-15s, F-16s, F-4s, and Kfirs were equipped with AIM-7F Sparrow radar-guided missiles, AIM-9L Sidewinder IR-guided missiles, and 20mm cannons. The F-15s and F-16s were equipped with a Head-up display (HUD) system.

The Mastiff UAVs went in first to cause the Syrian SAMs to turn on their radars by convincing the Syrians that many attack aircraft were overhead. Once the Mastiffs were tracked by Syrian radar, the tracking signals were relayed to a Scout UAV outside of missile range. The Scout then relayed the signal to Hawkeyes orbiting off the coast. The data was analyzed by the E2Cs and Boeing 707 ECM aircraft. Once the SAM crews fired missiles at the drones, the F-15s and F-16s provided air cover while F-4 Phantoms attacked the SAM batteries, destroying them with AGM-78 and AGM-45 anti-radiation missiles. The rapid flight time of the missiles minimized the F-4s’ exposure to the SAMs. The Syrians reportedly fired 57 SA-6s, to no effect.

The Syrians responded by scrambling about 100 fighter aircraft to stop the attacks. Intercepting IAF pilots relied frequently on VHF radio, in hopes of preserving their tactical communications and links to the command post. Selective airborne communications jamming disrupted the airwaves for the MiG-21s and MiG-23s and cut them off from ground control, making them vulnerable to AWACS-directed attacks from the Israeli F-15s and F-16s.

The IAF positioned UAVs over 3 major airfields in Syria to report when and how many Syrian aircraft were taking off. The data was transmitted to the E-2Cs. The IAF took advantage of the fact that the MiGs had only nose and tail alert radar systems and no side warnings or look-up and look-down systems, by jamming the GCI communications net. E-2Cs guided the Israeli aircraft into positions that enabled them to attack the Syrian aircraft from the side, where the latter would have no warning. Because of the jamming, the Syrian GCI controllers could not direct their pilots toward the incoming Israeli aircraft. The Sparrows attacked at speeds of Mach 3.5 at ranges of 14-25 miles, which meant that they were not only outside Syrian radar range but also outside visual range.

By evening, 29 MiGs were shot down and 17 of the 19 SAM batteries were destroyed. The IAF suffered no losses. Near 1600, with an hour left until dark, Ivry decided to call off the operation, assuming the optimal result had been achieved and that the Syrians would move more SAMs into place the next day. The operation was stopped shortly afterward. Colonel Aviem Sella, a member of the operation staff, later said that Sharon severely criticized that decision.

That night, the IAF destroyed Syrian 47th Armored Brigade north of Baalbek as it was moving south, and the following day, they destroyed 6 more SAM batteries, 2 that remained from the operation and 4 that the Syrians moved into the Beqaa that night.

On June 9, Assad sent Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass to Moscow to seek a comprehensive air umbrella. The Soviets refused but prepared large amounts of military equipment at airfields for dispatch to Syria and sent Marshal Pavel Kutakhov to Syria to find out what had happened to the Syrian SAMs, fearing that NATO might do the same in Europe.

By noon on June 11, when the ceasefire took effect, the IAF had shot down 82 aircraft without losing any in air combat. A year after the battle, a US fact-finding mission headed by Lt-Gen. John Chain, then deputy chief of staff for plans and operations, arrived in Israel to learn lessons from the battle.

The Soviet military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda announced that “sixty-seven Israeli aircraft, including modern US-made F-15 and F-16 fighters, were downed” in the fighting. The newspaper also reported a meeting with a Syrian airman who recounted an engagement in which he shot down an Israeli F-15: “The victory had not been easy; the enemy had been subtle”. Even within Soviet ranks, these claims met with great skepticism. In 1991, Ivry met a Czech general who had been serving in Moscow in 1982. He told Ivry that the operation made the Soviets understand that Western technology was superior to theirs, and that in his view, the blow to the Beqaa Valley SAMs was an impetus to Glasnost and the Soviet Union's collapse.

[Ernesto75]

The Ahnenerbe, the group of nazi researchers created by Himmler, came to the castle.
They were looking for the Graal which was said to have been hidden in the premices by the Cathars before their disparition.
Of course they found nothing.

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

The Ahnenerbe, the group of nazi researchers created by Himmler, came to the castle.
They were looking for the Graal which was said to have been hidden in the premices by the Cathars before their disparition.
Of course they found nothing.

Montsegur features in 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' non fiction work and its sequels, by Michael Baigent et al....proof that even hard nosed journalists can be duped by a beguiling theory and concoct a plausible tale devoid of actual historical verification by linking unrelated historical strands and occurrences

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ho...the_Holy_Grail

[Ennath]

June 10, 1329
Battle of Pelekanon

By the accession of Andronicus III in 1328, the Byzantine territories in Anatolia had dramatically shrunk to a few scattered outposts along the Aegean Sea and a small core province around Nicomedia within about 100 miles of the capital city Constantinople. Recently the Turks had captured the important city of Prusa (Bursa) in Bythinia.

Andronicus decided to relieve the important besieged cities of Nicomedia and Nicaea and hopefully restore the frontier to a stable position. Together with the Grand Domestic John Cantacuzene, Andronicus led an army of about 4000 men, which was the greatest he could muster, along the Sea of Marmara towards Nicomedia. At Pelekanon, a Turkish army of 8000 led by Sultan Orkhan I had encamped on the hills to gain a strategic advantage and blocked the road to Nicomedia. On June 10, Orkhan sent 300 horse archers downhill to lure the Byzantines into the hills, but these were driven off and the Byzantines were unwilling to advance further. The belligerent armies engaged in a couple of indecisive clashes until nightfall and the Byzantine army prepared to retreat, but the Turks gave them no chance attacking in force the next morning. Both Andronicus and Cantacuzene were lightly wounded, while rumors spread that the Emperor had either been killed or mortally wounded, resulting in panic. Eventually the retreat turned into a rout with heavy Byzantine casualties. Cantacuzene led the remaining Byzantine troops back to Constantinople by sea.

The battle’s moral effect was more important than the battle itself; the morale of the Emperor and his empire were badly shaken. Never again did a Byzantine army attempt to regain territory in Asia. The former imperial capitals of Nicomedia and Nicaea were not relieved and the maintenance of Imperial control across the Bosphorus was no longer tenable. The Ottomans conquered Nicaea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337, thus building up a strong base from which they eventually swept away the remains of the Empire.