Featured battle : Port Royal

Part of American Civil War

Date : 07 November 1861

Flag Officer Samuel du Pont with the 'Wabash', 8 other heavy frigates and sloops, and 5 gunboats attacked and reduced Ft Walker and Ft Beauregard at the mouth of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina. He accomplished this by a novel use of his steam-powered ships sailing repeated, elliptical courses into and out of the sound, passing the forts at short range and pounding them from all angles with repeated broadsides. The forts were designed to protect against sailing ships making a steady, straight course into the sound, not steamships able to position the guns to their flanks and rake the battery. When Fort Walker had only 3 of it's 32 guns remaining in action, it was abandoned. Ft Beauregard struck it's colours soon after and the Union had gained an important, deep-water harbour from which to launch operations against blockade runners.

Arnhem. Battle for the island and evacuation.

Battlefield History TV Team
When I saw the picture on the case of this DVD I had very low expectations of the contents. The main character in the foreground is holding a Sten gun by its magazine and aiming it when it isn’t cocked. This is very wrong firstly because when fired the magazine easily shakes loose and secondly one would need to move the weapon away from the sighting position in order to cock it.
When I came to watch the DVD I got a pleasant surprise, proving the old adage ‘don’t judge a book [or DVD] by its cover’.
I found a beautifully presented, accurate account of the final stages of the battle. This is the fourth film in the Operation market garden series. The strategic plan is simply told as is the tactical execution. There is a good balance of talk to camera by the experts and some veterans. The location of the battle as it is today is used as backdrop to aid the explanations of the developments. To balance the talk the film also includes maps, archive footage and re-enactor footage.
All in all it is good material well presented which kept me interested and entertained for the whole 80 minutes.

Pen & Sword Digital, 2013