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Welcome to Clash of Steel!


Featured battle : Sedan

Part of Franco-Prussian War

Date : 01 September 1870

With one French Army (under Bazaine) bottled up in Metz, Emperor Napoleon III took personal command of MacMahon's Army and marched it from Chalons-sur-Marne to attempt to relieve it. Von Moltke, however, sent his new Army of the Meuse to intercept, which caused the French to withdraw to Sedan, where they were surrounded but the Prussian 3rd Army and Army of the Meuse. The Prussians battered the French with devastating artillery and when an attempt to break out from the Prussian encirclement failed the Emperor, along with more than 100,000 men surrendered. It was the end of Louis Napoleon, and one of the worst defeats in French history.

Featured image :

Firepower through the ages - Henry Rifle - MUR3_ftahenry4

Firepower through the ages - Henry Rifle - MUR3_ftahenry4

Loading and firing the lever-action Henry rifle popular in the America of the 1860s incuding the wild west and the American Civil War

Gallery updated : 2022-04-04 08:33:43

Featured review :

Securing the Narrow |Seas. The Dover Patrol 1914-1918

Steve R. Dunn
There is quite a story about efforts in World War One to control that narrow strip of sea which separates Britain from the continent. If not the whole story this book gives a very good impression of covering most of it. From the lowest ranks with 'ordinary men doing extraordinary things' to the damaging petty jealousies and rivalries at the top of the Admiralty. It covers the failures in understanding that sea warfare was changing, failure in ships not really designed to fulfill the tasks asked of them. It illuminates the superhuman efforts and devotion to duty shown by the middle and lower ranks when they were asked to compensate for strategic inadequacies. The ships ranged from drifters taken in from the fishing fleet to monitors fitted with 15 inch guns. The tasks ranged from patrolling the anti-submarine boom, to bombarding enemy troops in Flanders, to the attacks on Zeebrugge and Ostend. Personal stories abound as in the sinking of H M S Sanda taking with it the oldest serving officer at sixty-seven and a signal boy of fifteen. In another incident on the death of a sailor he was found to have two wives, a problem for the pay-office!
The book is well written, thoroughly researched, well illustrated. While reading this book I occasional put it down because I was enjoying it so much I didn't want it end. It really is that good.
Seaforth Publishing. Pen and Sword Books Ltd., 2017

Reviewed : 2017-04-25 18:46:40