The British Empire could not have been built without seapower. And British maritime supremacy could not have been achieved without a revolution in naval tactics in the second half of the 18th century.<\/p>\n
In the second of our short series on leading British admirals, we focus on Rodney and Howe. Both \u2018broke the line\u2019 \u2013 at the Battle of the Saintes (1782) and on the Glorious First of June (1794) respectively \u2013 but each victory was limited. We explore how the technology and tactics in these battles pointed the way to Trafalgar.<\/p>\n
Back on land, Magnus Olofsson argues that Sweden\u2019s greatest military defeat was not Poltava in 1709, as is generally assumed, but Kircholm in 1605, when the army of King Charles IX was annihilated by Polish-Lithuanian cavalry. Ashley and Stephen Cooper, meantime, take a long look \u2013 from antiquity to the Renaissance \u2013 at the hallowed idea of \u2018combat by champions\u2019.<\/p>\n
Modern warfare is explored in Stephen Roberts\u2019 article on Jan Christian Smuts, the South African soldier and statesmen who played leading roles in the Boer War and in both World Wars, and we round off with Eric Lee\u2019s account of the Battle of Texel in spring 1945, the last stand of the Nazis in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this\u00a0issue<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n – Breaking the Line: how the Royal Navy achieved global supremacy Plus: War Athletes, Behind the Image, War Culture, Book Reviews, Museum Review, War on Film, Back to the Drawing Board, Listings, and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2711,"template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"","site-sidebar-style":"","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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this\u00a0issue: - Breaking the Line: how the Royal Navy achieved global supremacy - Jan Smuts: guerrilla, politician, warlord - Sweden\u2019s greatest defeat: the Battle of Kircholm, 1605 - Clash of champions: war by personal combat - Texel, 1945: Nazi Germany\u2019s forgotten last battle Plus: War Athletes, Behind the Image, War Culture, Book Reviews, Museum…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– Jan Smuts: guerrilla, politician, warlord
\n– Sweden\u2019s greatest defeat: the Battle of Kircholm, 1605
\n– Clash of champions: war by personal combat
\n– Texel, 1945: Nazi Germany\u2019s forgotten last battle<\/p>\n