Journal of Military History
Article Abstracts
Vol. 70, No. 3
July 2006

Articles:

Timothy May, "The Training of an Inner Asian Nomad Army in the Pre-Modern Period," The Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 617­636.

Often the armies that emerged from the steppes of Inner Asia are viewed as throngs of horse-archers who overwhelmed their opponents through sheer ferocity or superior numbers. The typical observation about their military ability is that as nomads they were natural warriors inured since birth to riding and archery in the harsh climate of the steppe. While this view has an element of truth, the armies were actually better trained than is generally assumed. This article examines the training of Inner Asian armies. Although it focuses on the Mongols, it also explores the antecedents and evolution of training techniques across Inner Asia.

 

Tim Cook, "The Politics of Surrender: Canadian Soldiers and the Killing of Prisoners in the Great War," The Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 637­666.

This article explores the act of surrender on the Western Front during the Great War, focusing on the behavior of Canadian soldiers toward surrendering Germans. Informal rules and symbolic gestures governed actions on the battlefield, and those who successfully negotiated the politics of surrender often survived the murderous first contact between attacking forces. But during the grey area between combat and capitulation, prisoners were frequently executed. The article also examines the politics of memory surrounding the killing of prisoners and, using the soldiers' discourse, analyzes why soldiers freely admitted and accepted these acts on the battlefield.

 

James McRandle and James Quirk, "The Blood Test Revisited: A New Look at German Casualty Counts in World War I," The Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 667­702.

This paper presents a "new" set of data on German casualties in World War I, using the German medical corps's official history to resolve two major controversies concerning casualty comparisons in Winston Churchill's "Blood Test" chapter in The World Crisis: first, treatment of the 496,000 German casualties that Churchill could not assign to battle periods; and second, provision of German casualty data comparable to that of the French and British through the inclusion of "lightly wounded" German casualties. Finally, these data weaken somewhat, but do not overturn Churchill's argument that, in every battle period on the Western Front, Allied casualties were greater than German casualties.

 

John Wands Sacca, "Like Strangers in a Foreign Land: Chinese Officers Prepared at American Military Colleges, 1904­37," The Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 703­742.

The lives of Chinese "returned students" who had studied military science in the United States between 1904 and 1937 straddled the end of the Qing dynasty and the creation of the Chinese Republic-a turbulent era of foreign hegemony and almost constant civil war. National and provincial military establishments held unique positions in the fragmented republic, yet commissions and postings were limited by alumni association membership. Tainted by their foreign education and distrusted for their lack of membership in dominant alumni cliques, they were denied significant roles in the line and staff of the Nationalist Army. Forced by circumstances to rely on one another, most would eventually abandon its ranks.

Matthew R. Schwonek, "Kazimierz Sosnkowski as Commander in Chief: The Government-in-Exile and Polish Strategy, 1943­1944," The Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 743­780.

Lieutenant General Kazimierz Sosnkowski's term as commander in chief of the armed forces of the Polish government-in-exile from 8 July 1943 to 29 September 1944 can be used to assess Polish strategy. His belief that pursuing a major military contribution could not guarantee the state's independence and integrity in the postwar period and his views on international relations were challenged by civilian leaders as well as the Home Army High Command. The assault on Monte Cassino in May 1944 and the Warsaw Uprising in August and September demonstrate the powerlessness of the exiles against the dominant currents of alliance politics.

HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Sandra L. Powers, "Studying the Art of War: Military Books Known to American Officers and Their French Counterparts During the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century," The Journal of Military History 70 (July 2006): 781­814.

This essay seeks first to identify published military books available to eighteenth-century American officers and their French counterparts. Second, it examines which among those titles were actually known to or owned by a number of said officers. Not surprisingly, the titles included classical military histories as well as contemporary histories and biographies. In addition, practical treatises such as drill manuals and mathematical treatises on artillery, fortification, and strategy were popular. The study includes an annotated list of those books and identifies which among them can be found at the library of the Society of the Cincinnati.