The Military History Thread

[Ennath]

January 18, 1592
The Elephant Battle

Naresuan was born as Prince Naret on April 25, 1555, the son of King Maha Thammarachathirat of Ayuthia. Naret was nicknamed The Black Prince for his strict character and devotion to discipline. When Prince Naret was 8 years old, the conquering Burmese King Bayinnaung invaded Siam. King Maha Thammarachathirat knew he would not be able to defend his lands, so he surrendered, acknowledging himself the Burmese monarch’s vassal. To ensure the Siamese King’s loyalty, Bayinnaung took the young Prince Naret back to Pegu. The Prince was treated kindly and with respect, and received extensive education. Among other things, Naret was educated in martial arts and strategy in Burmese and Portuguese styles. Despite his young age, Naret took note of Burmese military doctrine and training and its advantages over Siamese ways, and he tried to absorb as much information as possible.

In all, Naret spent about 5 years as a prisoner of King Bayinnaung. By 1569, the Burmese King appeared to be certain of Maha Thammarachathirat’s loyalty so he released the Prince. Maha Thammarachathirat promptly made Naret Viceroy of Phitsanulok as Naresuan. For the next decade, both Maha Thammarachathirat and Naresuan appeared to have become loyal allies of Bayinnaung. In 1581, King Bayinnaung died and was succeeded by his son, Nanda Bayin.

The new King had no reasons to distrust Naresuan - now a prominent general - until 1583, when the late King Bayinnaung’s brother Inwa rebelled. Nanda Bayin called on vassal viceroys in Burma, Siam and Laos for assistance. Naresuan marched a Siamese army to Pegu as ordered, but was slow in arriving. This raised Nanda Bayin’s suspicions, and he ordered his son, Uparaja Mingyi Swa, to remain in the capital and kill Naresuan.

The plan would have probably worked had it not been for two of Naresuan’s childhood friends from his days of captivity; they warned him of the King’s plans and Naresuan had time to regroup his forces. Naresuan reached Kraeng in June 1583, where he learned that Phraya Ram and Phraya Kiet had been sent to attack him from the rear while the Uparaja attacked from the front. Naresuan then levied the Mons to join his campaign and marched on Pegu. However, Nanda Bayin had already defeated Inwa and was returning to his capital. Naresuan then retreated. Mingyi Swa’s army pursued and caught up with the Siamese at the Sittaung River. The battle ended in an unexpected victory for Naresuan, not least due to the knowledge had had gained while in captivity in Burma. The Burmese were forced to retreat.

Siam was now de facto independent from Burma and Naresuan devoted the next 5 years mainly to internal affairs. Among other things, he named his younger brother Ekathotsarot the Uparaja - effectively, his co-ruler with equal powers and prerogatives. The tentative peace came to an end in 1590. Maha Thammarachathirat died and Naresuan was crowned King of Ayutthaya as Sanphet II. Mingyi Swa, eager to avenge his earlier defeat, invaded Siam. He expected Naresuan and Ekathotsarot to assume a defensive posture; instead, the brothers responded with a swift counterattack, defeating the Burmese near Ban Khoi. Defeated and humiliated, the Burmese Crown Prince was forced to retreat again.

Nanda Bayin was deeply dissatisfied by his son and heir’s performance in Siam. In 1592, he ordered his son to attack Siam again and a large army was assembled. The timing was unfortunate for Naresuan; he was preparing to conquer Cambodia and had to relocate his troops from one end of the country to the other. Hence, Mingyi Swa’s initial progress met little to no resistance.

Mingyi Swa, Natshinnaung, son of the viceroy of Taungoo, and the viceroy of Prome formed 3 divisions. Mingyi Swa went through Three Pagodas Pass while the other two divisions came via Mae Lamao. Naresuan marched towards Suphan Buri and encamped his armies at Nong Sarai near the Thakhoi River. Naresuan planned a feigned retreat, followed by a counterattack when the Burmese were strung out. However, he knew that he was heavily outnumbered and so decided to risk single combat with Mingyi Swa. As per the rules of such matters, which were strictly adhered to, the army of the defeated champion would then surrender to the mercy of the winner. In most cases, the soldiers were spared so single combats were effective ways to avoid considerable loss of life.

Before a single battle could commence, however, an official challenge had to be issued, which posed a problem. Keen not to let their Crown Prince come to harm, the Burmese had several fake Minyi Swa’s: they all resembled the Prince physically and were dressed alike. In the end, Naresuan recognized the Crown Prince by his decorations, which only a Prince of the Blood was allowed to wear. Naresuan then shouted: “My brother, why do you hide yourself in the shadows? Let us fight the elephant battle for our own honors. No future kings will do what we are going to do.” Mingyi Swa was eager to restore his honor and agreed.

The personal battle has been highly romanticized. The King and the Crown Prince started cautiously, testing each other’s strength. Mingyi Swa’s better-trained elephant gave him an advantage and at one point, he came very close to killing Naresuan: his weapon narrowly missed the King’s neck and cut the side of his face. Naresuan bided his time until the Crown Prince became impatient and lowered his guard, Naresuan quickly threw a blade, killing Mingyi Swa. As had been agreed, the Burmese surrendered upon the death of their leader. Naresuan ordered a pagoda built on the site of the personal battle as a victory monument. Devastated at the loss of his son and heir, and convinced it was a bad omen, Nanda Bayin ordered the withdrawal of all his forces from Siam.

The battle is now commemorated as Royal Thai Armed Forces Day.

[Ennath]

552 BC
Persian Revolt

Cyrus (Kurush) was born to Cambyses I, King of Anshan, and Mandane, daughter of Astyages, King of Media in 585 BC. Though his father died in 551 BC, Cyrus had already succeeded to the throne in 559 BC; however, he was not yet an independent ruler. Like his predecessors, Cyrus had to recognize Median overlordship. Astyages ruled over the majority of the Ancient Near East, from the Lydian frontier in the west to the Parthians and Persians in the east. According to Herodotus, Cyrus had learned as a young man that Astyages had tried to have him killed as a child, fearing a prophecy that the child would overthrow him. He secretly planned his revenge. Meanwhile, Astyages came to respect the young man and brought him to the capital at Ecbatana. Astyages was also not sure if it was safe to let Cyrus return to his homeland.

Eventually, Cyrus feared exposure of his true intentions and fled Ecbatana in 552 BC. Astyages sent an army under Harpagus to bring rebellious Persia to heel. Harpagus, however, defected, along with several nobles and fair portion of his army. This mutiny is confirmed by the Nabonidus Chronicle. Another Median army was defeated at Hyrba. This was the first major defeat the Medes had suffered for a long time and it led many of the northern satraps to abandon Astyages.

The Median king took the field in person the following year and launched a new invasion of Persia. He encountered Cyrus’ army at an unnamed city, apparently an important frontier settlement. Cyrus and Harpagus were outnumbered about 2:1 and facing destruction. Astyages had once tried to persuade Cyrus to surrender, but was now out of patience and offered no mercy. In the coming battle, which lasted 2 days, the Persians fought well, but were overpowered by numbers and driven into the city. Cyrus slipped out with most of the army, leaving his father with a rear guard. Cambyses died as the city fell. Astyages pursued south toward Pasargadai, a mountain stronghold where Cyrus was concentrating. In the ensuing battle, the Persians, by means of a sudden attack by a hidden force on the Median rear, gained the victory. The Medes withdrew back home.

In 550 BC, the Persians marched on Ecbatana. By this time, Astyages’ regime was falling apart. Large parts of the empire had gone over to Cyrus and the army remaining was demoralized. The capital fell with little difficulty. According to Herodotus, Cyrus spared the life of Astyages and married his daughter, Amytis. Resistance lasted until the following year, but Cyrus was now effectively the master of the entire empire. The Median Empire had become the Persian Empire.

[Ernesto75]

In his post #4381 (The Elephant batttle) Ennath says:
...
The new King had no reasons to distrust Naresuan - now a prominent general
...

This reminds me of Arminius who was considered safe by the Romans and who won a crushing victory against the Roman soldiers commanded by Varus in Germania, under Emperor Augustus.

This was the Teutoburg battle.

[Ennath]

January 19, 1811
Battle of Paraguari

At the outbreak of the 1810 May Revolution in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the rebel government invited other cities and provinces of the Viceroyalty to join the Revolution. The invitation, in fact, left no room for refusal, and every gesture in the sense of preserving the pre-revolutionary government was interpreted as hostile. The main threats came from Cordoba, Upper Peru, Montevideo and Asuncion. The first two were defeated with relative ease, but Montevideo would stand firm in their opposition for four years.

Paraguay was perhaps the most remote and among the poorest provinces in Spanish America. Its remoteness made in difficult to conquer and provided little financial incentive for making the effort. Paraguayan governor, Bernardo de Velasco, refused to recognize the authority of Buenos Aires, as a result of an assembly of notables in Asuncion that decided to maintain its loyalty to the Regency Counsel of Spain. The Argentine junta sent Col. José de Espinola to win over the Paraguayans, but his arrogance only further alienated them.

The junta next tasked Gen. Manuel Belgrano with finding a solution. Engaged against the royalists in the Banda Oriental (Uruguay), he decided to use his fledgling army to intimidate Asuncion into submission. On December 18, 1810, Belgrano’s 950-man force, half of whom were raw recruits and poorly equipped, landed at the Parana River port of Encarnacion. He defeated Velasco’s vanguard of 500 men at Campichuelo, so he decided not to wait for 400 militia and 2 guns coming from Missiones, and marched from Asuncion. Belgrano crossed the Tebicuary River on January 11, finding only abandoned villages as Velasco had evacuated them with his retreat.

During the night of January 15, Belgrano sent a vanguard of 200 men and 2 guns to surprise the Paraguayans, but the attack never took place. The next morning, the Argentine general was positioned with 600 men on a hill, from where he watched the Paraguayan camp. Although the Paraguayans numbered some 2000, he decided to attack without exhausting the possibilities to negotiate.

Although Belgrano had sent several proclamations to the Paraguayans, inviting them to join the revolution, Velasco banned all such pamphlets. Belgrano considered if he succeeded, it would open the way to Asuncion. And if he was defeated, at least his army was far enough inside enemy territory to avoid being completely expelled. On the other hand, it is possible that he and his officers despised the combat capability of the Paraguayans and overestimated the possibility of inspiring patriotic enthusiasm.

Belgrano organized his infantry into 2 columns of 220 and 240 men, and placed 100 cavalry on each flank. In reserve back at Cerro Mbae, were 70 riders and militia guarding the baggage train.

Early in the morning on January 19, Belgrano ordered the advance. An hour later, the fighting was widespread. The attack came as a surprise to the Paraguayans, forcing them to abandon their positions. Velasco fled towards Asuncion. But the Paraguayan cavalry withdrew without fighting and deployed on the flanks of the Argentine army. The patriots were distracted in looting the food stores of the Paraguayan army, so that only half of the force continued to fight, while the defenders were rearming themselves. To make matters worse, when Belgrano sent reinforcements of about 120 men, under the command of his aide Ramon Espindola, his cavalry commander, believing they were the enemy, ordered a retreat. Amidst the confusion, the Paraguayan cavalry wings surrounded and overwhelmed the Argentine vanguard. Conceding defeat, Belgrano ordered a withdrawal to the south. His army lost 14 dead, 126 prisoners, 2 guns and 150 muskets. Paraguayan losses were 70 men.

Belgrano still had an army and the junta was determined to try again, but the colonial government had been saved and the groundwork laid for Paraguay’s independence. It would take a second battle, at Tacuari in March, to seal the matter.

[Ennath]

January 20, 1920
Defeat of the “Mad Mullah”

In 1899, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan launched an Islamist revolt against the British and Italian colonial regimes in Somalia, as well as against Christian Ethiopia, centered in the Ogaden. In 1900, an Ethiopian expedition sent to arrest or kill Hassan looted a large number of camels of the Mohammed Subeer Ogaden sub-clan. In answer to his appeal, Hassan attacked the Ethiopian garrison at Jijiga on March 4 of that year and successfully recovered all the looted animals. This success emboldened Hassan and enhanced his reputation. In June, he raided the British-protected northern Somali clans of Eidagale and Isaaq and confiscated about 2000 camels. He gained great prestige in recovering the looted stock from the Ethiopians and he used it along with his charisma and powers of oratory to improve his undisputed authority in the Ogaden.

Towards the end of 1900, Ethiopian Emperor Menelik proposed a joint action with the British. Accordingly, Lt. Col. Eric Swayne assembled a force of 1500 Somali soldiers led by 21 European officers and started from Burco on May 22, 1901, while an Ethiopian army of 15,000 started from Harar to join the British, intent on crushing the 20,000 Dervish fighters (of whom 40% were cavalry). In the next 3 years, the Dervish army inflicted numerous reverses on the Christian forces. He gained the nickname “the Mad Mullah”. But on January 9, 1904, at Jidballi plain, British Gen. Charles Egerton, killed 1000 Dervishes. This defeat forced Hassan and his remaining men to flee to Majeerteen country in Puntland (the northeast tip of the Horn of Africa). Here he continued to resist, gradually recovering and launching raids to the south.

During 1910-1914, Sayyid's capital moved to Taleh (in modern eastern Somaliland), where he built 3 garrison forts of massive stonework and a number of houses. He built a luxurious palace for himself and kept new guards drawn from outcast clans. By 1913, he dominated the entire hinterland of the Somali peninsula with forts at Jildali and Mirashi in Warsangali country, at Werder and Korahe in the Ogaden and Beledweyne in southern Somalia. On August 9, 1913, at the Battle of Dul Madoba, a Dervish force killed or wounded 57 members of the 110-man Somaliland Camel Constabulary. In the same year, the Dervishes sacked Berbera. In 1914, the Somaliland Camel Corps was founded as an expanded and improved version of the constabulary. A British force was gathering against the Dervishes when they were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.

The relative peace of 1914-18 was broken on March 3, 1919, when a large Dervish raiding party was engaged at Ok Pass. Repeated charges against the Camel Corps’ thorn zeriba were repulsed with the loss of over 200 dead. However, by summer, despite the British having built large stone forts to guard the passes to the hills, Hassan and his armed bands were at large, robbing and killing.

In October 1919, London authorized a new expedition against the “Mad Mullah”. Intelligence indicated that he was at Medishe or Jidali. A temporary airfield was built near Berbera. The plan was carefully worked out. Air power was to be key. Force B, based at Las Khoreh, was to block any Dervish retreat toward Italian territory, a naval brigade was to capture the fort at Galibur, the only Dervish link to the Gulf of Aden and the tribal levies were to keep the Mullah from moving south. The goal was to drive the Dervishes into the arms of Force A or west into hostile Ethiopian territory.

On January 20, 1920, a single DH9 dropped leaflets on Medishe, warning Hassan and his followers to surrender, noting that “the arm of the government is long.” The Somalis were not cowed. The next day, saw 6 DH9’s take off; only 1 found Medishe (4 of the others attacked Jidali). The Mullah himself was wounded in the attack. On subsequent days, follow-up air attacks by high explosives and incendiaries forced the Mullah’s forces to retreat from their cave shelters near Medishe back to the fortifications at Taleh.

The air strikes were followed up with a move against the fort at Baran to prevent Hassan escaping to the east., while 2 warships put landing parties ashore to attack Galiabor fort and the tribal levies occupied any wells the Mullah might need if he tried to escape to Ethiopia.

On the 20th, a column of 775 men from the 6th King’s African Rifles (KAR) set out for Baran under Lt. Col. J.S. Wilkinson. The fort was a square structure with 4 towers, held by 100 tribesmen. The column reached it on the morning of the 23rd and came under heavy fire, which was suppressed by machine guns. The 2 mortars in the force opened a bombardment, scoring direct hits on the towers, bur failing to damage the heavy walls. With night coming, Wilkinson pulled back for the night. The attack was resumed the next morning, but still there was no breach achieved. It was therefore decided to blow up one of the towers with explosives. That night a hundred pounds of gun cotton was exploded against the eastern tower. At dawn on the 25th, a recon patrol captured the 3 remaining towers, causing 10 Dervish survivors to flee through the breach. Once inside, they surveyed the damage from the mortars and the explosion. 60 bodies were found in the ruins, while the British force had lost only 4 wounded.

In the meantime, the Camel Corps had moved to El Afweina, to the southwest, where they created an airstrip. They then moved south, reaching Jidali on the 28th. When they approached the fort the next morning, it was empty; the Dervishes had slipped away. RAF recon flights indicated that Medishe was on fire and on the 30th a deserter brought word that the Mullah had fled south. The air and ground forces took up the pursuit, the RAF strafing and bombing anything that moved and the Camel Corps sending out patrols for intelligence as to the Mullah’s whereabouts. Hassan was surprised with a large following of riflemen at a waterhole by one detachment, but the outnumbered patrol was driven off.

On the coast, there was another decisive encounter. On February 3, a force of 99 sailors, 140 Somalis and a field gun landed at Sanak, 10 miles from the fort at Galiabur. At midday on the 6th, after the gun breached the walls, the British stormed the fort and took it after fierce fighting. Some 200 Dervishes were killed and 24 captured; British loss was negligible. This cut off any escape toward the coast.

Despite a shortage of food and water and outbreaks of sickness, the Camel Corps carried on a relentless pursuit in 2 weeks of hard riding. On February 8, Captain Alan Gibb, commanding the tribal levies, learned from informers that the Mullah was at Taleh, besieged by 200 levies and meant to break out that night. Without waiting for the Camel Corps to join him, Gibb and 800 foot levies raced to Taleh, arriving the following afternoon, just too late to prevent 80 Somali horse, including the Mullah, from driving back the besiegers and escaping to the north. With no hope of catching up, Gibb focused on capturing the remaining Dervishes in Taleh, securing the fort within an hour and taking 40 prisoners and hundreds of rifles.

The Camel Corps reached Taleh at dusk and immediately sent a patrol to pick up the Mullah’s trail. This was impossible due to the darkness and hard ground, but Captain Hastings Ismay pressed on with the main body at dawn. On February 11, he caught up with a Dervish party near Gerrowei, killing 44, including some of the Mullah’s relations, and capturing 5 of his wives and 9 of his children. The next day, he attacked a party of Ethiopian supporters of the Mullah near the frontier, little knowing that the man himself was watching from a nearby hill. Again, he had escaped the pursuit.

The campaign ended with a handful of rearguard actions by the Dervishes and by April the British were able to claim the expedition a complete success. Even though the Mullah remained at large, Dervishism had been effectively destroyed at a cost of 4 men killed, 11 wounded and 13 dead from sickness.

After one last battle west of Shinileh in the Ogaden in late July, when 3000 British “friendlies” attacked the 800 Dervishes remaining with the Mullah; he escaped again and led 400 followers to Imi in Ethiopian territory. Here he supervised the construction of 13 forts and opened peace negotiations with the Ethiopians. But as these dragged on, the Mullah fell ill, apparently from the influenza epidemic sweeping the world, and died on November 23. In the end, the fanaticism of his forces had evaporated and he had ceased to be the great guerrilla leader of old. But he died a free man.

[Ennath]

January 21, 1968
Blue House Raid

Following the South Korean presidential and legislative elections in 1967, the North Korean leadership concluded that Park Chung Hee’s domestic opposition no longer constituted a serious challenge to his rule. That summer, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung called on the cadres “to prepare to give assistance to the struggle of our South Korean brethren.” In July, a special squad of the recently established Unit 124 of the Korean People's Army (KPA) was entrusted with the task of assassinating Park. This decision was probably facilitated by the fact that in 1967 the Vietnam War entered a new stage of escalation and US forces, preoccupied as they were, could not easily take retaliatory measures against North Korea. North Korea-North Vietnam relations were very close, and the DPRK provided substantial military and economic assistance to North Vietnam. North Korean propaganda sought to depict their commando raids of 1966-69 as a South Korean guerrilla movement akin to the Viet Cong.

31 men were handpicked from the elite all-officer Unit 124. This special operations unit spent their final 15 days before the raid rehearsing action on the objective in a full-scale mockup of the Blue House, the dwelling of the South Korean president. These specially selected men were trained in infiltration and exfiltration techniques, weaponry, navigation, airborne operations, amphibious infiltration, hand-to-hand combat (with emphasis on knife fighting), and concealment. Their training was difficult and often in adverse conditions, such as running at a speed of 8 miles an hour with 66-pound rucksacks over broken terrain, which sometimes resulted in injuries such as lost toes and feet from frostbite.

On January 16, 1968, Unit 124 left their garrison at Yonsan. At 11 PM the next night, they infiltrated the DMZ by cutting through the fencing of the US 2nd Infantry Division sector. By 2 AM they had set up camp at Morae-dong and Seokpo-ri. At 5 AM on the 19th, after having crossed the Imjin River, they set up camp on Simbong Mountain.

At 2 PM, 4 brothers named Woo from Beopwon-ri were out cutting firewood and stumbled across the unit’s camp. After a fierce debate over whether or not to kill the brothers, it was decided instead to try to indoctrinate them on the alleged benefits of communism and they were released with a stern warning not to notify the police. However, the brothers immediately reported the presence of the unit to the police station in Beopwon-ri. ROK and US forces immediately went on alert and within hours, army and police units fanned out across the region in search of the invaders.

The unit broke camp and increased their pace to more than 5 miles per hour, despite carrying 20 pounds of equipment each, crossing Nogo Mountain and arriving at Bibong Mountain on January 20 at 7 AM. Three battalions of ROK 25th Division had searched here for the infiltrators, but had already left the area. The unit entered Seoul in 2- and 3-man cells on the night of January 20 and regrouped at the Seungga-sa Temple, where they made their final preparations for the attack. Given the increased security measures that had been implemented throughout the city and realizing their original plan had little chance of success, the team leader improvised a new plan. Changing into uniforms of the local ROK 26th Division, complete with the correct unit insignia, they formed up and prepared to march the last mile to the Blue House, posing as South Korean soldiers returning from a counter-infiltration patrol. The unit marched along Segeomjeong Road near Jahamun toward the Blue House, through a series of security posts.

At 10 PM on January 21, 1968, the unit approached the Segeomjeong–Jahamun checkpoint less than 100 yards from the Blue House, where police chief Choi Gyushik approached the unit and began to question them. When he grew suspicious of their answers, he drew his pistol and was shot by members of the unit who started firing and throwing grenades at the checkpoint. Presidential guards and police officers returned fire and within minutes Unit 124 was decimated. Outnumbered, outgunned, and having lost the initiative, the commandos scattered and made for the safety of the north. Government troops pursued the fleeing raiders through the streets of Seoul. A running gun battle ensued. Before the night was over, 92 South Koreans had become casualties of the firefight (26 dead, 66 wounded), among them nearly two dozen civilians who were on a bus that passed through the line of fire. For its part, Unit 124 suffered grievous losses. Most of its members were mowed down in the opening minutes of the assault or in the shoot-out that followed. At least one evaded capture by killing himself with a hand grenade.

On January 22, ROK 6th Corps began a massive sweep to cut off the remaining raiders’ escape route. Over the next 72 hours, the remnants of Unit 124 were hunted down and killed one by one. Four American GIs also died in the clashes. In the end, 29 of the 31-man commando team were dead; one survivor managed to slip back across the border while the other was taken prisoner. The prisoner was a 27-year old named Kim Shin-Jo. After months of brutal interrogation, the young communist officer was befriended by some of his captors. He soon defected to the south and in 1970 was offered full citizenship. Today he works as a church pastor in Seoul.

The Blue House Raid marked a low point in a period of already bad relations between the two Koreas. However, the deadly attack would be overshadowed by yet another crisis, which took place just days later: the USS Pueblo incident (see posting).

Shortly after the attack, Park ordered his armed forces to retaliate in kind. Accordingly, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) organized its own assassination squad to carry out a strike on Kim Il Sung. The team, which like the north’s Unit 124 was also made up of 31 members, was dubbed Unit 684. Strangely, recruits were not the military’s elite. Instead, mission planners combed the nation’s prisons for hardened criminals to carry out the daring raid. The convicts signed on to the risky mission in exchange for pardons. All were subjected to rigorous training on an uninhabited island off South Korea’s west coast — so rigorous in fact, seven of the volunteers perished during the preparations. It would all be for nothing.

The raid occurred as the Siege of Khe Sanh (see posting) started in Vietnam and on January 31, the Tet Offensive broke out across South Vietnam, making any US support for South Korean retaliation unlikely. Unit 684 would never see action in North Korea. Their mission was scrubbed amid a period of improving relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. But in August 1971, Unit 684 mutinied, murdered their handlers and escaped from their island training ground. After making their way to Seoul, the two-dozen fugitives hijacked a civilian bus, but were intercepted by South Korean army units inside the capital. All but 4 were killed in the ensuing firefight. The survivors were tried by military courts and sentenced to death in 1972. Afterwards, the government in Seoul covered up the entire debacle, but details emerged in the 1990s. In fact, Unit 684’s story became the subject of a highly successful 2003 film. Families of the team-members eventually sued the state for compensation. In 2010, the courts ordered Seoul to pay nearly $300 million in damages to the relatives of unit members.

In May 1972, Kim Il-sung expressed regret and claimed that the Blue House Raid “was entirely plotted by extreme leftists and did not reflect my intent or that of the Party”.

[Ennath]

499 BC
Ionian Revolt, Part 1

The Ionian Greek cities of Asia Minor’s Aegean coast were under the Lydian Empire; when that kingdom fell to Persia in 546 BC, they became vassals of the Persian king. In 500 BC, Histiaeus, deposed Tyrant of Miletus, was living in forced exile at the Persian court at Susa, while his son-in-law Aristagoras ruled Miletus. Aristagoras was faced with bubbling discontent and that year, he was approached by some exiles from Naxos, who asked him to take control of the island. Seeing an opportunity to strengthen his position at home by conquering Naxos, Aristagoras approached the satrap of Lydia, Artaphernes, with a proposal. If Artaphernes provided an army, Aristagoras would conquer the island, thus extending the boundaries of the empire for Darius, and he would then give Artaphernes a share of the spoils to cover the cost of raising the army. Artaphernes agreed in principle, and asked Darius for permission. Darius assented and a force of 200 triremes was assembled in order to attack Naxos the following year.

In the spring of 499 BC, Artaphernes readied the Persian force, and placed his cousin Megabates in command. He then sent ships on to Miletus, where the Ionian troops levied by Aristagoras embarked, and the force set sail for Naxos. The Naxians got word and were able to prepare; the Persians arrived at a well-defended city. The Persians laid siege for 4 months, but eventually they and Aristagoras both ran out of money. The force therefore sailed despondently back to the mainland.

Aristagoras now found himself in dire straits; he was unable to repay Artaphernes, and had, moreover, alienated himself from the Persian royal family. He fully expected to be stripped of his position. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Aristagoras chose to incite his own subjects to revolt against Persia. His father-in-law secretly agreed, egging him on. Herodotus suggests that this was because Histiaeus was desperate to return to Ionia, and thought he would be sent there if revolt broke out. Aristagoras therefore openly declared independence, abdicated as tyrant, and declared Miletus to be a democracy. This was a pretence to encourage the Milesians The army that had been sent to Naxos was still assembled at Myus and included contingents from other Greek cities of Asia Minor. Aristagoras sent men to capture all the Greek tyrants present in the army and handed them over to their respective cities in order to gain their cooperation. It has also been suggested that Aristagoras incited the whole army to join the revolt, and also took possession of the ships that the Persians had supplied. If the latter is true, it may explain the length of time it took for the Persians to launch a naval assault on Ionia, since they would have needed to build a new fleet.

Ionia was ripe for rebellion. The primary grievance was the tyrants installed by the Persians. While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants, this was a form of government on the decline. Moreover, past tyrants had tended (and needed) to be strong and able leaders, whereas the rulers appointed by the Persians were simply the representatives of the Empire. Backed by Persian military might, these tyrants did not need the support of the population, and could thus rule absolutely. Aristagoras merely ignited a fire waiting to happen, and tyrannies were everywhere abolished, and democracies established in their place. Aristagoras had brought all of Hellenic Asia Minor into revolt, but realized that they would need allies. In the winter of 499-98 BC, he first sailed to Sparta, but King Cleomenes I turned down the offer to lead the Greeks. Aristagoras therefore turned instead to Athens.

In the spring of 498 BC, an Athenian force of 20 triremes, accompanied by 5 from Eretria, set sail for Ionia. They joined up with the main Ionian force near Ephesus. Declining to personally lead the force, Aristagoras appointed his brother Charopinus and another Milesian, Hermophantus, as generals. This force was then guided by the Ephesians through the mountains to Sardis, Artaphernes’ satrapal capital. The Greeks caught the Persians unaware, and were able to capture the lower city. However, Artaphernes still held the citadel with a significant force. The lower city then caught fire. The Persians in the citadel, counterattacked and drove the demoralized Greeks from the city. They began to make their way back to Ephesus.

Herodotus says that when the Persians in Asia Minor heard of the attack on Sardis, they marched to the relief of Artaphernes. When they arrived, they found the Greeks recently departed. So they pursued and caught up with the Greeks outside Ephesus; the Greeks were forced to turn and fight. The demoralized and tired Greeks were no match for the Persians, and were routed. The Ionians who escaped made for their own cities, while the remaining Athenians and Eretrians managed to return to their ships and sailed back to Greece.

Herodotus reports that when Darius heard of the burning of Sardis, he swore vengeance on the Athenians (after asking who they were), and tasked a servant with reminding him 3 times each day of his vow: “Master, remember the Athenians”.

In the aftermath of the attack on Sardis, the revolt spread to Cyprus, to the Greek cities of the Bosporus and the Hellespont and to Caria. At about the same time, Athens withdrew its support. On Cyprus the revolt was led by Onesilus, king of Salamis. Only the city of Amathus remained out of the revolt. Onesilus besieged it (498-497), and called for help from the Ionians, who sent a fleet. At the same time Darius raised a Phoenician fleet and sent it, and a Persian army, to retake the island. The key campaign probably came in the summer of 497. The Persians marched across the island to Salamis, where a land-and-sea battle was fought. At sea the Ionians defeated the Phoenicians, winning control of the seas for a few years. On land the Cypriots began well, but were let down by treachery in their ranks, and eventually suffered a heavy defeat. Onesilus was killed. The other rebel cities were besieged and in most cases quickly surrendered. Soli held out longest, but fell after a 4 month siege.

Back on the mainland the Persians made a major effort in 497. Darius sent three of his sons-in-law, Daurises, Hymaees and Otanes, to command the counterattack. The Persian army split and conducted separate campaigns. Daurises led his army to the Hellespont, where he recaptured 5 cities without much resistance. Hymaees operated a little further east, on the coast of Propontis. Daurises was marching towards Parium when he learnt of the Carian revolt. He changed route and heading towards Caria to deal with the new threat. Hymaees moved west to replace him in the Hellespont area, where he recaptured the area around Illium, before dying of an illness. The third army, under Otanes and Artaphernes, was last to move, but then captured Clazomenae in Ionia and Cyme in Aeolis. These successes unnerved Aristagoras, who decided to flee into exile in Thrace. After some initial success in the area he was killed while besieging a Thracian town, probably in 496.

[Ennath]

499 BC
Ionian Revolt, Part 2

Daurises met with mixed results in Caria. In 497 he won two major victories. He defeated a Carian force on the River Maeander. The Carians then received Milesian reinforcements and decided to fight on, but suffered a heavier defeat, possibly near their religious sanctuary at Labraunda. This was followed by a gap of uncertain length, in which the Carians regrouped and Daurises prepared to attack their cities. When he was finally ready to move he ran into an ambush at Pedasus, probably in 496 BC. Daurises and several other senior Persians were killed and his army was almost wiped out. This setback ended the first Persian counteroffensive, and the next major attack didn’t come until 494 BC.

Herodotus fills the gap with the exploits of Histiaeus, who reached Sardis, but was quickly forced to flee. He offered his service to the Ionians, but was rejected. He attempted to instigate a plot amongst the Persians at Sardis, but his efforts were discovered and his Persian contacts killed. He attempted to force his way back into power at Miletus, but was repelled. He then fled to Mytilene, where he was given a small fleet of triremes, and began to operate as a pirate from a base at Byzantium.

The decisive battle of the war came in 494 BC. The Persians decided to concentrate all of their efforts against Miletus, sending a large army and fleet towards the city. The Ionians decided to leave the defense of the city itself to the Milesians, and to concentrate on the defeat of the Persian fleet. They gathered 353 triremes from nine cities, and took up a position at the island of Lade. The only non-Ionian contribution came from Lesbos in Aeolia, which provided 70 ships. Finally the Samians formed the western end of the fleet, with 60 ships. Although this was an impressive fleet, the Ionians were outnumbered by the Persian fleet, around 600 strong. The largest, and best manned, part of the Persian fleet came from Phoenicia. The Persians were accompanied by the tyrants who had been expelled from the Ionian cities at the start of the revolt.

After the Persians arrived at Miletus a standoff developed. During this period the morale of the Ionian fleet began to suffer. The tyrants sent messages to the contingents from their home cities threatening them with enslavement and destruction if they fought on, but offering to respect their property and lives if they abandoned the fight. Eventually the Samians were won over, partly due to a belief that the war couldn’t be won, and partly due to the general collapse of discipline in the Ionian camp.

After an unknown period of standoff, the Persian fleet put to sea and prepared to attack. The Ionian fleet formed up into a column, and the battle began. The battle was lost by the treachery of the Samians, who hoisted their sails and left the fleet. Only 11 of their ships stayed to fight on. They were followed by the contingent from Lesbos. With a third of the fleet gone, Ionian morale collapsed. Part of the Ionian fleet refused to flee, most notably the large Chian contingent. This part of the fleet fought on, inflicting heavy losses, but were eventually overcome; most were destroyed. The survivors fled north across the bay and beached on the southern shores of Mt. Mycale. They attempted to escape north across the peninsula, but were massacred when they entered Ephesian territory. This may have been because the locals mistook the approaching Chians for bandits. This left Miletus exposed to a siege, and the city fell after the walls were sapped. The men were killed or deported, the women and children sold into slavery and the temples destroyed.

The Ionians now found themselves under attack from two sides. On one side were the Persians, who began a brutal reconquest of Ionia. On the other side was Histiaeus, who returned from Byzantium, invaded the island of Chios, which had been greatly weakened by the losses suffered at Lade. He then attacked Thasos, but retreated when the Persian fleet moved against him. He withdrew to Lesbos, but soon ran short of food. He decided to launch a raid on the mainland, hoping to find food in Mysia, on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. During this raid he ran into a Persian army commanded by a general called Harpagus and was defeated in battle at Malene (494 BC). He was captured and executed by Artaphernes, who didn’t want to risk letting him near Darius.

The Persians restored the tyrant of Samos, and as promised Samos was left intact. They then occupied Caria. This took them the rest of the campaigning season, and they spent the winter at Miletus. The campaign resumed in the spring of 493. First they captured the islands of Chios, Lesbos and Tenedos, and hunted down the entire population of the islands. A number of Ionian communities on the mainland were also taken. Their temples were destroyed and the better looking children taken either as eunuchs or slaves. Next the Persian fleet sailed around the coast into the Hellespont. They conquered the areas to the north, including the Chersonese. Miltiades, who would later command the Athenian army at Marathon, who was then the ruler of that area, was forced to flee into exile.

The Persians now began a more conciliatory period. Artaphernes summoned representatives from each of the Ionian states to Sardis and ordered them to set up a system of arbitration. In 492, Darius appointed his son-in-law Mardonius as commander in Asia Minor. According to Herodotus he had been sent to punish Athens and Eretria for supporting the rebels, but as he sailed passed Asia Minor he replaced the tyrants who had been restored after the failure of the revolt with new democratic regimes. This plan was successful enough to allow Xerxes to recruit troops in Ionia for his invasion of Greece in 480. Mardonius then went on to subdue parts of Thrace and gain the submission of Macedonia, but his fleet was destroyed by a storm while passing Mt Athos, and he was forced to abandon his plans for an attack on Athens. The Persians returned again in 490, this time attacking across the Aegean, but only to be defeated at the Battle of Marathon (see posting).

[Ennath]

January 22, 1824
Battle of Bonsaso

The Ashanti were not happy with the British attempts to abolish slavery, a highly profitable trade for the Ashanti, the premier warrior nation of West Africa. Economic and social friction played their part in the causes for the outbreak of violence.

Sir Charles MacCarthy arrived at Cape Coast Castle, the seat of British government along the Gold Coast, in March 1822 with instruction to maintain good relations with Ashanti King Osei Bonsu. But once in office, he heard from the Fanté, a coastal tribe long at the receiving end of Ashanti raids, and merchants that the Ashanti were untrustworthy savages whose power had to be destroyed. Without even sending a courtesy message to Osei Bonsu that had succeeded as governor, MacCarthy prepared for war. While Osei Bonsu attempted to restrain the more bellicose members of his council, MacCarthy fortified , convinced merchants in Accra to stop selling powder to the Ashanti and began building up his troop strength. He assembled 3 companies of British troops and had available 3 more from the 2nd West India Regiment, former slaves led by British officers. He also began to create an African militia officered by some of the British merchants.

In May 1822, an African sergeant of the Royal African Corps (largely a penal battalion) quarreled with an Ashanti trader and hurled insults at the Ashanti king, a capital crime under Ashanti law. He was kidnapped and taken to a friendly village; Osei Bonsu issued a pardon, but members of his council took matters into their own hands and had the sergeant executed. When MacCarthy learned of the incident, he led a small force of regulars and militia to attack the village where the execution had occurred. Whether due to treachery, fear of the Ashanti or simple ignorance, their guide led them into an ambush, which resulted in 10 killed, 39 wounded and a British retreat.

Osei Bonsu tried to negotiate, but MacCarthy rejected Ashanti claims to Fanté areas of the coast and resisted overtures to negotiate. In June 1823, the king then ordered his army to advance toward the coast. For reasons that remain unclear, the advance was unusually slow and Cape Coast was not actually threatened until the New Year.

MacCarthy responded by dividing his troops and now well-armed militia into 2 columns that moved to engage. Unfortunately, the columns were so widely separated that they could not possibly coordinate. He then detached and personally led a small force from his column of 2500 men and led it directly toward the enemy. MacCarthy set out with an expedition of some 80 men of the Royal African Corps, 170 men of the Cape Coast Militia, and 240 Fanté tribesmen under their local chiefs. He was accompanied by a captain and an ensign of the 2nd West India Regiment as aides-de-camp, a surgeon of the same regiment, and J. T. Williams, his colonial secretary. His plan was apparently to get around the enemy and squeeze them between the halves of his column. Each man carried only 20 rounds, though they were followed by carriers bringing more. He ran into the main Ashanti army of 15-20,000 men under the veteran commander Amankawatia.

After marching through driving rain and mud, Sir Charles camped by a tributary of the Pra River. His chief of staff, Major H.J. Ricketts expressed concern about the exhaustion of the troops and their small numbers, but MacCarthy remained confident. The next afternoon, the Ashanti could be heard approaching through the dense forest with drums beating and elephant horns blaring. Believing that the Ashanti army contained several disaffected groups whose chiefs were willing to defect, MacCarthy instructed his band to play the God Save the King. After a battle of the bands that lasted for some time, the Ashanti tired of the musical exchange and opened fire.

The forces were separated by a 60-foot wide stream that was in flood, which the Ashanti attempted to cross by felling trees for bridges. Thus exposed, they were repeatedly shot down. However, after an hour of this, the British were nearly out of ammunition; MacCarthy had sent to his bearers to bring up more, but these were overdue. He soon learned that they had mostly fled on hearing the gunfire. Only 4 cases were brought and 3 of these, on being opened, were found to contain not bullets but macaroni.

By now, the river had subsided somewhat and this, combined with the slackened British fire, enabled groups of Ashanti to cross over. Most of the Fanté militia now fled, but the remaining troops fought on with bayonets, knives and clubbed muskets. The battle was quickly over. Taking advantage of the deep underbrush, Major Ricketts and a few men were able to escape, but the other British officers were killed or captured. MacCarthy was wounded and shot himself rather than be taken prisoner. The latter were beheaded, except for Williams, the colonial secretary, who was saved by an Ashanti officer for whom he had once done a favor. The Ashanti beheaded MacCarthy’s body, then out of respect for his courage, they cut out his heart and ate it. His gold-rimmed skull was later used as a drinking-cup by the Ashanti rulers.

In all, the British lost 187 men killed and 92 wounded, some of whom later died. The number of prisoners is not known, nor are Ashanti casualties. The Ashanti swept down to the coast, but disease forced them back. The British were pinned to the coast, but any Ashanti offensive plans had to be postponed when news of Osei Bonsu’s death at the same time as the battle reached the army.

The new governor, John Hope Smith, started to gather a new army, mainly comprising natives, many of them traditional enemies of the Ashanti. In August 1826 the governor heard that the Ashanti were planning on attacking Accra. A defensive position was prepared on the open plain 10 miles north and his 11,000 men waited. On August 7, the Ashanti army attacked the center of the British line where the best troops were held, including some Royal Marines, the militia and a battery of Congreve rockets. These latter were decisive, shaking Ashanti morale. Soon they fled leaving thousands of casualties on the field. The war was effectively over. In 1831, the Pra River was accepted as the border in a treaty, and there were 30 years of peace.

[Ennath]

January 23, 1919
Teschen War

During the final months of World War I, Polish and Czechoslovak diplomats met to hammer out a common border between the two new countries. By the time the armistice was declared, most of the border was worked out except for three small politically sensitive areas in Upper Silesia and Upper Hungary which were claimed by both countries. The Duchy of Teschen (Polish: Cieszyn and Czech: Těšín) was a small area in southeastern Silesia. The last Austrian census of 1910 (determining nationality according to the main language showed that it was predominantly Polish-speaking in 3 districts and mainly Czech-speaking in the 4th. The city of Teschen itself was mainly German-speaking.

The chief importance of Teschen was the rich coal basin around Karvina and the valuable Košice-Bohumín Railway line which linked the Czech lands with Slovakia. The railroad junction of Bohumín served as a crossroad for international transport and communications.

On November 5, 1918, the Polish National Council and the Czechoslovak Committee concluded an agreement on the demarcation line for administrative and military purposes, and divided the area along the ethnic boundaries. The Frydek district and a small part of the Frystat district was left on the Czech side, the remainder was accorded to the Poles.

The Czechs were led by Josef Snejdarek. Czechoslovak military forces had been formed from 21st Regiment legionaries from France in 3 battalions. The operations of the Czechoslovak forces were joined by other local volunteers, formed in the National Guard with a strength of approximately 5000 men. From the north-west of Slovakia came the main force that was sent to support the 35th Legionary Regiment from Italy, led by the Italian Colonel Graselli and later reinforced with the Light Legion Regiment from Italy. During the war the Czechoslovak army was reinforced by the newly formed 2nd Brigade (6 battalions, with the support of two artillery batteries, and one cavalry squadron) and by a regiment of infantry from Prague, 2 independent battalions and 5 battalions of volunteers.

Polish forces under the command of Franciszek Latinik were smaller. At the end of World War I, Poland was fighting border wars with all its neighbors, the main force committed to the fighting in Eastern Galicia with the Ukrainians. The local Polish army had a strength of 5 battalions, with the aid of cavalry and artillery. There were also approximately 550 members of the gendarmerie and around 6500 local Polish volunteers. Polish forces were also reinforced during the war.

At 1100 in the morning on January 23, 1919, the 2 commanders met, along with British, French, Italian and US officers, at the request of the Czechs. The Poles were presented with an ultimatum to evacuate the area north to the Biala River by 1300. After this time passed, the Czechs opened an attack to seize Bohumin and Karvina. Bohumin fell by 1600; Orlova and Karvina fell soon after. After heavy fighting, the Poles withdrew to Ustron and Drogomysl. On January 30, the Czechs broke through near Strumien. Snejdarek received the order to cross the Vistula and secure the railway line between Bohuiín and Jablunkov. They crossed the river and the Polish troops retreated to Skoczow, where the front stabilized. Further Czechoslovak reinforcements arrived, which gave them an advantage they prepared for an attack on Skoczow on the assumption that there had been a collapse of the Polish defenses.

On January 31, Allied pressure brought about a cease-fire before the attack on Skoczow could begin. The Czechoslovaks withdrew back to the “Green Line” established by arbitrators. A treaty was signed ending the fighting on February 3 in Paris.

The disputed territory was placed under international control. The final division of Teschen came in July 1920 as a result of the Spa Conference. The railway line connecting the Czech lands with Slovakia and the territory to the south of it were assigned to Czechoslovakia, while the territory north of the rail line was assigned to Poland. In precise terms, Poland was assigned 1/3 of the population, less than half of the territory, and the town of Teschen. Czechoslovakia received the districts of Frystat and Frydek, most of the area of the district of Teschen, Karvina and its coal mines, Trinec and its ironworks, and the whole Bohumin-Jablunkov rail line. In autumn 1938, the Poles took advantage of the Sudeten crisis to pressure the Czechs into turning the whole area over to them.