Welcome to the January 17, 2010 edition of the Military History Carnival, a roundup of the best recent military history from around the web. This is the first time that H-War and Edge of the American West have co-hosted. Today’s edition ranges widely, from the Ottoman Empire to the Atomic Bomb to the American Civil War.
Pre-19th Century
Scott Manning presents Joan of Arc’s Military Successes and Failures posted at Digital Survivors.
Jason presents 1683: Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, for the Battle of Vienna posted at Executed Today.
19th Century
Tim Abbott presents Is the Richard Kirkland Story True? posted at Civil War Memory, saying, “A superb guest post at Kevin Levin’s Civil War memory by Michael Schaffner”
Jennie Weber presents Lucy Hayes’s Civil War Role posted at American Presidents Blog.
Michael Ramalho presents the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, parts 1 & 2 at Osprey Publishing.
World War I
Ross Mahoney presents Leigh-Mallory Fined! posted at Thoughts on Military History.
Rich Landers presents Somewhere near Vaudesson, 3/13/1918 posted at Soldier’s Mail.
Rich Landers presents Sarrey, France 1/5/1919 posted at Soldier’s Mail, saying, “Soldier’s Mail features the writings home of U.S. Sergeant Sam Avery from the front lines of American involvement in the Great War. Letters are posted on the same date they were written more than 90 years ago, and make for fascinating eyewitness history from the hot sands along the Rio Grande to the cold mud along the Meuse. Come march along with the Most Gallant Generation!”
Penny Richards presents March 17: Josef Sudek (1896-1976) posted at Disability Studies, Temple U., saying, “We’re marking the birthday of a disabled WWI veteran who became a noted Czech photographer”
World War II
Joseph McCullough presents Osprey Publishing – Military History Books – Blog – Photographs from a life in the Royal Navy posted at Osprey Publishing.
Nikolaos Markoulakis presents The Security Battalions: ‘Quislings’ on Behalf of the King posted at Hoplite, saying, “The reasons for the existence and use of the Axis’ created Security Battalions. The paper focuses on the volunteers of the Security Battalions. Why did they join? Was it only to combat communism? Or were the reasons more complicated?”
Scott Manning presents Nazi Body Count: 20,946,000 Non-Battle Deaths posted at Digital Survivors, saying, “The Nazi Body Count represents non-battle deaths caused by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. This includes genocide, execution of civilians and POWs, forced labor that resulted in deaths, bombing of civilian populations, imposed famine and resulting diseases, and “euthanasia.” These numbers do not include civilians who got caught in the cross-fire of battle.”
Steven Germain presents In The Dead Silence Of The Morning…(Now I am become Death – the destroyer of worlds…) posted at Rough Fractals, saying, “Perhaps the defining moment in the history of man – the capability of annihilation becomes a tool of modern warfare.”
Post-1945
Mary Dudziak presents Legal History Blog: On drones and the war power posted at Legal History Blog.
David Gross presents The Unconquerable World (Jonathan Schell) posted at The Picket Line, saying, “In The Unconquerable World Jonathan Schell tells the story of the evolution of the logic of war and political power in a way that might just give it a happy ending after all.”
That concludes this edition of the Military History Carnival. Submit your blog article for the next edition using the carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
The Edge of the American West 
7 comments
January 17, 2010 at 10:58 am
Erik Lund
Little known fact: the real objective of the Turkish invasion of 1683 was to eliminate Jan Sobieski’s barber before he could strike again.
On another note, while we don’t have good casualty statistics for the Battle of the Vienna Woods, the circumstances strongly suggest that it was a rear-guard action by Ottoman cavalry covering infantry that had already withdrawn from the trenches, abandoning the siege well before the Allies deployed.
Unfortunately, that version doesn’t allow for the climactic confrontation between East and West.
And then where would we get the image of the Witch King about to strike Gandalf down when the cock crows, and Theoden orders the charge? For poetry’s sake, reality must bend.
Also, “Ernst Ruediger.” No surprise that his even more distinguished nephew was named “Guidobald.” Unfortunately, the Starhemberg genius for Christian names deserted the family after that, and the next notable Starhemberg general was a “Max.”
January 17, 2010 at 12:40 pm
kid bitzer
thanks, silbey–there’s some good browsing in there for a sunday morning.
tracking down some links from the osprey blog led me to this:
a photo from wwii of an all-black gun crew on a coast-guard vessel. wonderful that they actually have the guys’ names.
made me wonder about the history of integration in the coast guard.
January 17, 2010 at 12:44 pm
T J Linzy
Great job, David.
Thanks for re-kindling the MHC council fire
January 17, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Ralph Luker
kb: Here’s an interesting account of the desegregation of the Coast Guard.
January 17, 2010 at 1:26 pm
kid bitzer
thanks, ralph. that is a very interesting account.
“He noted that blacks hated bad weather just as much as the whites. He observed that mind-numbing cold, bi-polar waves and undesirable food helped unite his crew.”
bi-polar waves are always bad. maybe if they’d tried pouring lithium on troubled waters.
January 17, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Jonathan Dresner
The Nazi Body Count article relies on data from R.J. Rummel, who has a tendency to double-count, when he wants to impress.
January 24, 2010 at 6:21 am
Scott Manning
Hi Jonathan, I agree with you that Rummel’s numbers are not perfect, but they are more complete than anyone else’s. As far as I know, he is the only person to try to tally country-by-country how many noncombatants the Nazis killed.
In addition, he provides all of his sources allowing us to see exactly how he may have double or single counted. I doubt that any double counting on his part is due to an effort to “impress,” but more likely a mistake, which we can easily see by reviewing his work.