<\/a><\/strong>\u201cA New Mode of Warfare,\u201d The Great War Magazine <\/em>(Mar 2018)\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThis article discusses some of the more obscure ideas purposed to counter the introduction of submarine warfare in the early days of the First World War. The desperate search for a solution unleashed a wave of concepts ranging from the bizarre and outright impossible, to the occasional dash of brilliance.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong>\u201cIron Guns and Wooden Planes: Aerial Machine Guns of the Great War,\u201d The Great War Magazine <\/em>(July 2018) \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIron Guns and Wooden Planes,\u201d outlines the introduction of the machine gun to aerial combat, and how this was accomplished. From the early dogfights consisting of rifles and pistols, to the implementation of flexible guns and the development of the synchronized forward firing machine gun, \u201cIron Guns and Wooden Planes\u201d details the challenges, failures, and successes involved in the pairing of two emerging 20th<\/sup> century technologies; the aircraft and the machine gun.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong>\u201cIn Search of the Centrifugal Machine Gun,\u201d Small Arms Review<\/em>, (Mar, 2019) \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThis article covers the development of the centrifugal machinegun from its introduction by Freidrich Bangerter in 1908, to its recreation by Major E.T. Moore in 1918, and its eventual dismissal by the U.S. Army Ordnance Department in 1921. A simplistic and cost-effective approach, for a brief period of time it appeared that the Maxim, Browning, and Hotchkiss offerings of the day had found a serious competitor, but technical hurdles, ballistics, and the advent of weapons like the Browning M2 relegated the idea to one of the sideroads of history.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong>\u201cThe Old Razzle Dazzle,\u201d The Great War Magazine <\/em>(July 2019) <\/strong><\/p>\nThe age of sea camouflage reached a colorful peak with the dazzle-painted schemes of the First World War. In an effort to thwart German U-boat attacks a dizzying array of colors and broken patterns spread through the allied fleets, and as one witness noted, even the sober gray battleships had \u201csuccumbed to the lure of strange pigmentation.\u201d But what exactly was the aim of the effort, and more importantly, did it work?<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cColonel Richard King:<\/strong> A Royal Engineer\u2019s View of the 1711 Canadian Expedition<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Ft. Ticonderoga Museum Bulletin<\/em>, XVII, No. 4 (2019.)<\/strong><\/p>\nA well respected and professional soldier who had served on the Duke of Marlborough\u2019s staff in Flanders, King\u2019s insights into the ill-fated Walker Expedition of 1711 are important in understanding the attempt to seize Quebec during Queen Anne\u2019s War. However, it is perhaps his views on the on the peoples and governments of early New York and New England that he might be best remembered for during his brief tenure in North America.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe Last Invasion of Canada,\u201d \u2013 Military History Matters<\/em> (Aug. 2019)<\/strong><\/p>\nIn late 1775, while Washington and the fledgling American army laid siege to Boston, a scheme was hatched to strike against British Canada. Although relatively weak at the moment, Canada posed a grave threat to the cause of American Independence, first as a logistics center, and second as the likely source of a major military expedition against the northern colonies. Seizing Canada, which ultimately meant the fortress of Quebec, would eliminate both threats. The final plan called for a pair of American expeditions. The first, led by Colonel Benedict Arnold would track through the virgin forests of northern Maine to Quebec, while the second under the command of General Richard Montgomery, would descend Lake Champlain and capture Montreal before turning northeast to rendezvous with Arnold. It was a bold, ill-conceived, and ill-supported plan that relied on a number of glaring unknowns. Yet for all of its mistakes and misfortunes, it is nothing short of remarkable that it came within a few city blocks of succeeding. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe Battle of Lake George\u201d \u2013 Military History (Sept. 2019)<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile many are aware of General Edward Braddock\u2019s disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela on July 8, 1755, far fewer know that two months later an even larger and more hotly contested battle would take place between the French and the English at the headwaters of Lake George. In a forewarning of the scale of the conflict to come, the engagement pitted an amateur ill-disciplined English army, against two regiments of regulars from France and the same type of troops that had crushed Braddock\u2019s red-coated regulars. Led by an experienced commander who was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 and personal confidant of the great Count Saxe, a French victory seemed certain. Instead, what followed was a fast moving contest of indecision and resolve, hesitation and action, and the lesson that no matter how correct a leader might be, failure to understand those he leads will eventually harvest catastrophe out of the best of battle plans.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe Return of the Ram: The Battle of Plum Point Bend, 1862\u201d<\/strong> – Military History Matters (Feb. 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\nOne of the few fleet actions during the Civil War, the Battle of Plum Point was not only the first naval engagement to determine control of the Mississippi River, but it was an unusual encounter in that it shattered the myth of ironclad invincibility by employing one of the oldest tactics in naval history. A battle of old vs. new, of armor vs. maneuverability, the outcome of the Battle of Plum Point Bend would inspire a generation of naval thinkers looking to reintroduce the ram into 19th<\/sup> century naval warfare, and at the same time, reinforce the old lesson that every new weapon system has a weakness, no matter how archaic that weakness appears to be.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\u201cKnights of the Sky\u201d (Great War Journal<\/em>, May 2020) <\/strong><\/p>\nThe opening days of aerial combat in 1914 were filled with individual duels of fragile canvas covered machines. Although the craft were unarmed, each side was quick to employ pistols and rifles as their airmen sought each other out. The whirling maneuvers and swooping firing passes that resulted when they found each other gave the perception to those below of knights on winged steeds. So much so that none other than H.G. Wells suggested that early British flyers be knighted for their exploits. The machine gun, however, would quicky bring this opening phase of aerial combat to an end.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\u201cThe Charge of the Iron Fleet: Charleston April 7th, 1863.\u201d (Military History Matters<\/em>, April\/May 2022)<\/strong><\/p>\nIn what would almost seem a controlled experiment, the power of a recently constructed ironclad fleet under Admiral Samuel Du Pont would test the defenses of Charleston Harbor. What would result was a challenge of steel, and an answer to the question, had the ironclad changed the basic relationship between warships and coastal fortifications?<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\u201cWhere Duty Leads: Lt. Colonel William Eyre, Royal Engineers.\u201d (Journal of America\u2019s Military Past<\/em>, Winter 2022)<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile names like Montcalm, Wolf, and Braddock are easily conjured up when one thinks of the French and Indian War, behind these leaders were a cast of supporting characters that seldom receive the same amount of attention. One of these is Lt. Colonel William Eyre of the Royal Engineers.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\u201cThe Case of General Daniel Webb\u201d (Hudson Valley Review<\/em>, Spring 2022)<\/strong><\/p>\nLiterature, movies, and colonial lore have branded General Daniel Webb a villain and a coward for his role the fall of Fort William Henry in 1757. But was it so? After 250-years it only seems right to clarify the case of General Daniel Webb and let the reader decide for themselves whether these titles are deserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\u201cIle aux Noix: The Key to Canada.\u201d (Military History<\/em>, Autumn 2023) <\/strong><\/p>\nFor the Marquis de Montcalm\u2019s former chief-of-staff, Colonel Louis-Antione Bougainville, the spring and summer of 1760 had been spent cobbling together resources to reinforce the last major stronghold guarding Montreal and what was left of the French Lake Champlain fleet. Almost everything was in short supply after six years of war, but the natural defenses of Ile aux Noix offered hope. Hope that would soon be tested by an Anglo-American force during one of the last battles of the French and Indian War.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"\n
Articles - Michael G. Laramie<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n