The War Chronicles

From Flintlocks to Machine Guns

By Joseph Cummins

Allen & Unwin

The followup volume to The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks, this book covers the major wars of the period from 1783 to 1988. This period covered not only World War I and various other major wars, it also included the smaller wars for independence of countries that had had enough of being a poverty stricken part of somebody else's empire. Thus we have the first American wars of conquest, a tradition they are still following today. We also have the smaller forgotten wars like the Zulu War against the British, The Chinese War for Independence, the Chinese Civil War, and the Greek War for Independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Out of curiosity I looked for the Zulu War of 1879 in South Africa. There is a potted history, details of the main battles, and the political motives behind it. Cummins pulls no punches – it was a war started to satisfy Lord Bartle Frere's own political ambitions. He wanted the entire south of Africa united into a huge British state, including the Boers, British settlers and the powerful Zulu nation of King Cetshwayo. The war was only notable in that the Zulu war chief Shaka had a huge and well trained army and for a time was able to resist the British troops. The British ultimately had more men and guns, including the new Gatling machine gun, so the outcome wasn't really in doubt. There is a good double page comparison of the British soldier and the Zulu warrior. That it lasted so long is partly due to the inept commander of the British forces, Lord Chelmsford. He constantly underestimated his enemy and too many of his men died as a result.

A characteristic of wars covered in this book is that the casualty rates, both military and civilian, started to increase dramatically with new weaponry. High explosive shells, Congreve rockets, machine guns and huge trench warfare guns made their appearance. Old slow loading muskets were replaced with new bolt action rifles firing durable metal cartridges, like the German Mauser or the French Chassepot.

Another nastier characteristic of many of the latest wars in the period was the strategic dislocation of the civilian population – the South Vietnamese peasants, the Afghani villagers and the Germans from the cities obliterated by bombing. The aim was to deny agricultural produce to the enemy, remove local sources of aid, or so overload the infrastructure that the civilians could not join in a war and the enemy would be required to divert resources to help the refugees.

The later wars were definitely warfare based in the skies but bombing is an indiscriminate form of attack. The new aerial weapons like the atomic bomb and napalm did tremendous damage, but again it was usually the civilians who suffered.

Just as an aside, from the portraits shown in the book there should also have been a section in each chapter for “Silly Hats”. It seems the higher up you were in the ranks the more feathers, brass and braid you wore and the odder the shape of your hat became. Quite a contrast to the later ubiquitous shapeless cloth hat worn by all ranks in many armies.

The book doesn't pretend to be a detailed reference to every war but it is certainly good reading, well written in an authoritative style. It is beautifully illustrated but it is by no means a coffee table book. It is just what it claims to be – "a global reference of all the major modern conflicts".

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 6 of the digital and print edition of Synergy.

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