Interest in Military History

[James]

Quick question - what eras of history are you interested in?

[Herrmannek]

20th/21th Why? Happens a lot, many changes to tec, tactics, equipment & such, also there is good photo and video documentation.

[Royal]

18th, 19th and also I guess the 20th. That was the era when raids and small unit tactics really came to the fore - the genesis of the commando idea.

I know there are plenty of examples in ancient and medieval history, but the concepts and tactics really began to be formalised from (very roughly) the American War of Independance on...

[hendrix33]

Shallow as it may sound, I like seeing cases where new equipment/system/weapon affected an entire conflict.

Such an example may be found in Iran-Iraq war, when Iraq enjoyed a qualitive and quantitive atvantage over Iran in Ballistic Surface-to-Surface missiles. Some argue that Iraq's ability to strike Tehran with a chemical-agent tipped missile was the main factor Iran agreed to sign a humiliating peace trearty. This is believed to be the main catalizer in Iran's VAST finnancial investment in ballistic missile technology.

Further material on this matter can be found in Lancaster University's International and Strategical Relationships Research Center at http://www.cdiss.org

Another example is the shock the Israeli airforce had encountered with the new soviet supplied SA-6 GAINFULL surface-to-air missiles in 1973 war, which eventually lead to the "pay-back" in 1981 when IAF made history in one of the world most successfull SEAD (surpression of enemy air defense) mission, destroying over 19 batteries of the world's most advanced SAMs of the time in less than two hours, without a single plane lost, downning a couple dozens MIGs on the way.

Of course... almost forgot mentioning the effect and the impact the T-34's had on WWII.

[XASA]

20th-21st Centuries contemporary military history because there is, unfortunately, such a wealth of material on what has to be the most violent 100 years ever in man's history.

I'm sure some future historian will look back like we do on the 100 Years War in Europe and say, "What the hell were they thinking?"

[NcDeuce]

Sir Francis Drake and the English & Spanish rivalry on the seas, the "Sea Dogs" could possibly be viewed as an early start to Naval Special Warfare, :D

[California Joe]

18th and 19th definately. Rogers Rangers etc? How can you NOT dig that.

The Sharpes Rifles series made me want to know more about Napoleonic era battles in Europe.

Model building as a kid made me greatly enamored of WW II equipment and the battles fought in all theatres though.

[Trigger]

I'd say mid-20th century WW2 era air battles interest me most. Before this 'AMRAAM from Beyond Visual Range' stuff it was in close at gun range all the time. I have a lot of respect for the guys who went up to duke it out against the axis powers. (I'm not saying there weren't great pilots from the other side, I just don't know a whole lot about them.)

[Sean85]

You forgot the all of it option....if I had to choose probably 18 and 19th centuries

[Schiller]

main interests:


1. Ranger action during the American civil war.

2. Battle of Omdurman(where the Maxim gun first showed up)

3. WW1(Somme, Verdun, Marne, Gallipoli landing, Lost Battalion, western front, gas warfare, Lawrence of Arabia.....)

4. US involvement in the Philippines, Cuba, Panama and Nicaragua.

5. WW2(just about everything....Fallschrmjagers, Waffen SS, Unit 731, Normandy, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Battle of the Bulge, Market Garden, Afrika Korps, El Alamein, Navy UDT, Rangers, Red Devils, Dresden, Hiroshima, Stalingrad, Berlin siege, etc)

6. Chinese Civil War

7. Korea(Inchon landing, Chosin reservoir, etc)

8. Vietnam(Hue, Da Nang, Dien Bien Phu, Khesanh, Ia Drang, SEALs, SOGs, Escalation, etc)

9. Operation Eagle Claw('79, American Embassy in Iran, Delta)

10. Soviet-Afghani War(Spetsnaz)

11. Yom Kippur War(Shayeret)

12. Lebanese civil war and USMC deployment. '80s.

13. Somalia Crisis, 1993.

14. Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Sierra Leone.

15. 1st/2nd Intifada.

16. The Gulf War

17. Panama(Noriega)

18. Grenada

19. Afghanistan War(Taliban)

20. Eest Timor

21. Yugoslavia, Kosovo(Milosevic, Serbia)

23. 2nd Iraq War

23. Columbian Civil War

[andrew45c]

I'd say mid-20th century WW2 era air battles interest me most. Before this 'AMRAAM from Beyond Visual Range' stuff it was in close at gun range all the time. I have a lot of respect for the guys who went up to duke it out against the axis powers. (I'm not saying there weren't great pilots from the other side, I just don't know a whole lot about them.)

The battle of Britain is a great example of Britains Military excellence outnumbered out gunned and isolated but we kicked there asses.