Had the pleasure of working with RM Military History on his latest video about the Battle for Government House. Check it out below:
'The Unbroken Line’ is a short British Army film, made in 1985. It tells the story of the British Army’s 300 year history with depictions of the battles of Blenheim, Waterloo and Operation Overlord - as well as a depiction of what fighting against a Soviet invasion in 1985 might have looked like.
In this short video we’ll look at one of the interesting scenes that features a PIAT in action! Check it out here.
In the late 1940s the US began the search for an all-weather interceptor. The search culminated with Northrop’s XF-89 and Curtiss-Wright’s XF-87. While the XF-87 was initially selected it was quickly dropped and the F-89 Scorpion entered service instead. In this week’s video we examine the development and fate of the XF-87 - the first Blackhawk.
Thanks for watching guys, check out the accompanying blog here.
The Battle of Palmdale is one of those historic events that could easily spawn clickbait titles: US Navy vs US Air Force, Drone vs Manned Fighter, Runaway WW2 fighter vs Rocket-armed Jet Interceptor. None of these would be a lie!
On 16th August, 1956 a US Navy Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat a target drone went rouge over California and the USAF scrambled a pair of Northrop F-89 Scorpions to shoot it down. The F-89s failed to down the Hellcat but did manage to start a serious wildfire.
During the Second World War Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) developed a whole series of clandestine sabotage devices for use behind enemy lines. Using unique archival footage a new series of TAB videos will examine some of the weapons developed for use by SOE agents in Nazi occupied Europe.
In this first video we look at Explosive Coal, designed to explode inside fireboxes, furnaces and coal stores hampering enemy infrastructure.
It has some surprising US Civil War ancestry dating back to Confederate attempts to damage Union shipping with ‘Coal Torpedoes’. Explosive coal is a fascinating asymmetric method of striking an enemy’s infrastructure.
Check out my full article about Explosive Coal on the TAB website, here.
Everything AR-10 related is pretty rare, with the Sudanese rifles being one of the few major contracts. So a look at a very rare Sudanese AR-10 bayonet is a rare treat.
In this Armourer’s Bench video Vic an excellent examples and discusses some of the history behind the bayonet’s manufacture and some of its interesting features.
Check out Vic’s accompanying blog over on the TAB site, here.
Netflix’s Five Came Back is a documentary about documentary makers. Those documentary makers also happen to be some of American film history’s greatest directors. Laurent Bouzereau’s three part series examines the men behind some of the most enduring and striking footage filmed during World War Two. Often when watching old archival films of the Second World War it is easy to forget that some of the best footage was captured by some of the 20th century’s greatest directors.
Based on Mark Harris’ 2014 book ‘Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War’, the series looks at the work of five Hollywood directors that went to war. These men: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens were undoubtedly some of America’s best movie directors. Five Came Back examines the context in which the directors went to war, embarked on the mammoth task of recording almost every aspect of the war and the difficulties they faced.
Following a roughly chronological format the three episodes use a wealth of archival footage from the films these men directed - reportedly over 100 hours of footage. Bouzereau calls upon some of modern cinema’s greatest directors to discuss the impact of the five. Paul Greengrass, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, and Lawrence Kasdan bring a warmth, depth and passion for the history of film making and the men that influenced them that lifts the documentary out of the archival footage to offer the viewer moments of reflection. The film is also ably narrated by Meryl Streep, who won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator.
The documentary recounts the personal motivations of the directors and the struggles they encountered during the war, from John Ford’s wounding while filming the Battle of Midway and his struggle to process the brutality of D-Day to William Wyler losing his hearing while filming on a B-25 and George Stevens’ harrowing work documenting the Nazi concentration camps. Five Came Back touches not only on the difficulties the directors faced from government censors (with Huston’s Let There Be Light which was suppressed for decades) and their battle to get their most innovative work seen.
Some of the most interesting aspects of the documentary look at the handling of race. With the Capra-produced ‘The Negro Soldier’ receiving wide praise while his later film ‘Know Your Enemy: Japan’ is heavily laden with racial stereotypes for propaganda purposes. Another aspect that fascinated me was the fine line the directors walked between outright propaganda and documentary film making. While all their films made during the war were inherently bias the some were more evenhanded than others.
In conjunction with the film Netflix have made 13 of the films discussed available to stream but most importantly Five Came Back is an invitation to explore the filmography of the directors. To explore their pre- and post-war work - to revisit Wyler’s ‘Mrs Miniver’ and ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’, Huston’s ‘The Maltese Falcon’, Capra’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ and Ford’s ‘They Were Expendable’.
For anyone interested in film history, the Golden Age of cinema, directing, combat photography, propaganda and the perception of conflict, Five Came Back is certainly worth watching.
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This haunting segment of from a documentary features contemporary newsreel footage from the bombing and aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 70 years ago today. The film shows aerial and ground shots of the destruction of the city as well as the victims who were horrifically burnt and injured. The human cost of the bombing was immense but it would take a second atom bomb to bring the war to an end.
Martini-Henry MkI and the 1871 Pattern Valise Equipment
At the beginning of the 1870s the British infantryman’s equipment was radically improved. The introduction of the new Martini-Henry rifle and a new set of kit. The 1871 Pattern kit introduced a new belt and braces system as well as new cartridge pouches and a new valise style knapsack.
In this short documentary from Britishmuzzleloaders examines the positives and shortcomings of the new kit explaining some interesting insights into the kits practical use.
First World War: The Story of a Global Conflict
In commemoration of the outbreak of World War One and the 96th anniversary of the November 11th Armistice The Guardian newspaper, historians from around the world and the British Academy have created an immersive interactive documentary looking at the First World War available in half a dozen languages. The documentary involves audio and text contributions from ten historians from ten countries.
The interactive documentary gives a brief overview of some of the conflict’s most important aspects as well as covering some of its lesser known facets such as the various ancillary fronts in the far east, Africa and southern Europe. While the overview may be brief with each topic being addressed by a number of audio clips or several hundred words of text it is excellently presented and wholly immersive.
The inclusion of historians from various fields and from around the world gives a broader spread of the historical discourse surrounding the history of the Great War and this in itself is to be commended. The presentation of the documentary is unique with various interactive screens progressing the viewer through the conflict looking at mobilisation through to the wider aftermath of the war. Each screen offers audio clips of both historians but also contemporary readings, songs and instrumental music. Other sections offer contemporary footage as well as other primary sources such as scans of The Guardian’s original coverage of the war as well as rarer seen photographs.
The documentary is roughly 30 minutes in length if you listen to its main stream of audio, but longer if you follow the links offered. It is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic or Hindi.
First World War: The Story of a Global Conflict
In commemoration of the upcoming centennial of the outbreak of World War One The Guardian newspaper, historians from around the world and the British Academy have created an immersive interactive documentary looking at the First World War available in half a dozen languages. The documentary involves audio and text contributions from ten historians from ten countries.
The interactive documentary gives a brief overview of some of the conflict’s most important aspects as well as covering some of its lesser known facets such as the various ancillary fronts in the far east, Africa and southern Europe. While the overview may be brief with each topic being addressed by a number of audio clips or several hundred words of text it is excellently presented and wholly immersive.
The inclusion of historians from various fields and from around the world gives a broader spread of the historical discourse surrounding the history of the Great War and this in itself is to be commended. The presentation of the documentary is unique with various interactive screens progressing the viewer through the conflict looking at mobilisation through to the wider aftermath of the war. Each screen offers audio clips of both historians but also contemporary readings, songs and instrumental music. Other sections offer contemporary footage as well as other primary sources such as scans of The Guardian’s original coverage of the war as well as rarer seen photographs.
The documentary is roughly 30 minutes in length if you listen to its main stream of audio, but longer if you follow the links offered. It is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic or Hindi.
The Necessary War
In this BBC recent documentary presented by respected British historian Max Hastings the causes and moral implications of the First World War are examined. The documentary examines to July Crisis and the build-up to war and the justification for Britain’s involvement. An interesting film, well worth watching.