Cambridge UOTC: Did You Know?

Did you know that Cambridge University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) is the only UOTC to have a battle honour? Its antecedent regiment, The Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers, sent a detachment of 28 personnel to fight in the Second Boer War and they were involved in a host of operations alongside The Suffolk Regiment between 1900… Read More

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Keep What?

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” Sir Winston Churchill (1874 to 1965) Conservative Prime Minister twice: from 1940 to 1945 (before being defeated in the 1945 general election by the Labour leader Clement Attlee) and from 1951 to 1955. A soldier (joined the Royal Cavalry in 1895) and part-time journalist (reported on the… Read More

Disperse & Concentrate…

“The highest generalship is to compel the enemy to disperse his army, and then to concentrate superior force against each fraction in turn.” George Henderson (1854 to 1903), paraphrasing Sun Tzu from the Art of War Colonel George Francis Robert Henderson CB, was a British Army officer and military author. He saw service in India,… Read More

Ordering versus Asking

“In action it is better to order than to ask.” General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton (16 January 1853 to 12 October 1947) from his book ‘Gallipoli Diary’ published in 1920. Ian Hamilton was a British Army General who participated in operations in: The Second Boer War (1899 to 1902); Service in Japan (from 1904… Read More

Commander … Assert Yourself

“…he did not do the one thing that the complexities of modern warfare made it essential for the GOC to do – to assert himself during a battle and not delegate the chief command.” (Pakenham, 2004, p.392). Reference Pakenham. T. (2004) The Boer War. London: Abacus.

A Most Disagreeable Ambush!

“Nothing concentrates the military mind so much as the discovery that you have walked into an ambush. Brigadier-General Robert Broadwood was confronted with this disagreeable news soon after dawn on 31 March.” (Pakenham, 2004, p.390). Reference Pakenham. T. (2004) The Boer War. London: Abacus.

Battlefield & Salient: The Hangman’s Noose!

“Now Hart knew enough about war to know that there are few more dangerous places to send men on a battlefield than into a salient – the open end of a loop. To march into a well-defended salient is like putting your head into a noose. There were many other choices open to him. […]… Read More