By early 1915, the lines in northern France had become static and the trench warfare that WWI is known for had commenced. Many soldiers and officers found themselves not only green, but found their senior leadership green in the tactics of the trench as well. New ideas had to be considered and new tactics developed to break the enemy lines for any offensive to succeed. The British First Army, under the command of the often maligned General Douglas Haig, was given the task of taking the immediate German positions, Neuve Chapelle and finally Aubers ridge. The First Army was made up of British, Canadians and Indians.

Although the battle is not often associated with the major battles of the First World War, it is highly significant in the analysis of the planning, technology and tactical advances of the time. The battle exhibited major breakthroughs in four key areas.

• The German lines were mapped extensively by aerial reconnaissance by a British air arm that was in its infancy. This allowed;
• Detailed maps to be distributed to the ground forces which contained phase lines and timed intervals for movements which were co-ordinated with;
• Air support in the attack and;
• Heavy artillery preparation of targets in advance with the lifting and shifting of fires in time with infantry movements. More rounds were sent skyward in the battle than in all of the Boer War.

These innovations paid off at first with Haig taking the immediate objective of the German line salient and then the village of Neuve Chapelle. However, the attack bogged down soon thereafter, well before reaching the final objective of the Aubers ridge. A competent German counter-attack was partly the casue, but unforced errors also came into play. There were several tactical explanations for the halt that are common to many battlefields;

• Poor weather on the second day limited aerial observation and support which contributed to;
• Poor communications that kept the leadership from knowing where things were progressing properly and where they weren't which led to;
• Bad tactical intelligence that led some areas to be allotted more troops than needed and others less than needed which led to;
• The fog of war where things tend to freeze on the senior decision level, but local fighting goes on, but is uncoordinated with the larger picture.

The battle was a limited tactical win for the Brits, but at a heavy cost of approximately 12,000 casualties. In the longer term Neuve Chapelle became the professional template for a new set of tactics that would become prevalent for the rest of the war.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

This is a great ride when you are going somewhere else in France. It is only 60 miles from Calais and can be seen on the way to the south of France, Paris or Belgium with only a minor detour. From Calais, head to Neuve Chapelle, then take the following circular ride of the area. This is not a spectacularly scenic ride, but you get to ride along the British front line from Neuve Chapelle to Fleurbaix (with a British Cemetary in Fauquissart), then see the Aubers ridge objective, then down to the pivot point in the line at La Bassee.

Book Recommendation: The Battle of Neuve Chapelle - French Flanders from AbeBooks.co.uk

Map Recommendation: Michelin Map No. 236 Nord de la France from AbeBooks.co.uk

Accor Hotels in the Lille area

In early 1776, the American colonists were trying hard to limit the area in which British forces, based in Boston, could operate. As long as the British could retreat to the safety of Boston and its harbor, General George Washington would not be able to control the eastern end of Massachusetts. From Boston, British General Howe could re-supply from the sea and conduct operations with Boston as a base. In fact, Howe had taken nearby Bunker Hill (albeit with heavy losses) and was planning more of these types of operations in early March 1776.

Washington knew bold, unexpected and decisive action was needed to disrupt Howe's plans. In Late 1775, Washington had dispatched Artillery Colonel Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga, a captured British garrsion, to bring the impressive array of artillery to Boston as soon as possible. Washington had probably expected it in late Spring, but the big man Knox drove his oxen and men hard over the lakes, rivers and frozen terrain of New England to get the 44 guns, 14 mortars and one howitzer to the outskirts of Boston by early February 1776. Knowing good fortune when he saw it, Washington wanted to take aggressive action immediately. Washington wanted to conduct a daring cross Charles River attack from Cambridge, but his council of war thought it too risky. Washington's leaders agreed on the decisive action, but wanted to do it without significant risks to their small and largely untested militias. The compromise was to take aggressive action on Dorchester Heights which overlook Boston from the southeast.

On 2 and 3 March 1776, the Patriots fired the Knox artillery on the British in Boston and the Brits returned the favor. Washington had prepared a river crossing unit to the west of Boston to provide relief, if Howe tried to break out and disrupt the Dorchester Heights plan, although it seemed as if he had no idea what was going on. Whilst the artillery duelled, heavy, but transportable, fortifications were being fabricated down the hill. On the night of 4 March 1776, General Artemas Ward's forces used an old ploy of Washington's and put straw on the wheels of his wagons' wheels to move quietly and began occupying Dorchester Heights from neighboring Roxbury. With a mammoth effort and 300 ox carts of material moved up the hill, the rebels had constructed 4 works on the heights and the flanks. By daylight on the 5 March, General Howe awoke to incomplete, but substantial works on the southeastern hills overlooking the harbor and the city. Howe was reported as saying, "The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month."

The British Admiral Molyneaux Shulddown informed Howe that he could not maintain his ships in the harbor with such a threat. In the following days, Howe planned a quick counter-attack, but bad weather or a bout of under confidence or both made him quit Boston. By 17 March, in agreement with Washington not to destroy Boston if allowed to leave unmolested, the British had left Boston on ships for Halifax, Nova Scotia. They would be back, but for now Boston was in the Patriots hands and the radicals of the American colonies had a lot to crow about.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Try Massachusetts state route 3A (MA-SR-3A) from Dorchester Heights down to Plymouth where the colony began.

Book Recommendation: The Glorious Cause from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Massachusetts Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Boston area

On 12 February 1941, General Erwin Rommel arrived in North Africa as the leader of the German Africa Corps. The most celebrated German tanker amongst modern U.S. tankers was actually not a tanker for most of his long career. Before World War II, he was famous for Infantry Attacks.

Rommel came to North Africa under the command of the Italians, but immediately made his mark for his initiative and taking the fight to the British. Rommel went after the force led by British General Richard O'Connor that had made such a feast of the Italian incompetence in Lybia in 1940. Rommel quickly smashed the British force, captured O'Connor and besieged Tobruk. It wouldn't take long until his name would become synonymous with the Axis effort in North Africa.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

This is the ride I want to do in Lybia. Burdi (Bardia) to Tubruq (Tobruk).

Book Recommendation: Together We Stand: North Africa 1942-1943, Turning the Tide in the West from AbeBooks.co.uk or Amazon.co.uk

Map Recommendation: Map of Lybia from AbeBooks.com

After a nearly unopposed beach invasion at Anzio and an impressive beachhead built up over a week, the Allied forces began their breakout from Anzio on 30 January 1944.

Background

The decision to heavily fortify the intial beachhead, rather than advance on the Alban Hills, was the source of great rancor between British and Americans. The British Chiefs of Staff who planned the attack and General Henry Wilson who gave the orders for Anzio thought they had made it clear that it was their intent to get to the Alban hills ASAP. The Alban Hills commanded the road to Rome and would be the meeting place with the rest of the main assault coming up from the Cassino area further south. General John Lucas (US VI Corps commander), who would command the Anzio campaign, and his commander General Mark Clark (US Fifth Army Commander), who would lead the US push from Cassino, thought the orders only meant a link up point and the timing would be determined later. Lucas and Clark also thought German counter-attacks would make getting to tha Alban Hills almost impossible immediately. Their idea was to fortify the beachhead to the point of impregnability, then move out. This is what they did. However, the Germans were not lax. They spent the week building up a force of 70,000 to oppose the breakout.

The Attempted Breakout 30 January 1944

In the early morning of 30 January 1944, the Rangers of Colonel William O. Darby, began the assault by getting within a kilometer of their objective of Cisterna. That would be as close as they got that day. they were found out and ambushed which drove them to ground. By mid morning, they were being attacked by tanks of the Herman Goring Division and tried a fighting retreat. By noon, only 6 out of 767 Rangers in the attack made it back to friendly lines. The US 3rd Division continued the attack, but still were a mile away from cisterna by end of the day 31 January.
The other prong of the breakout was to capture the town of Campleone near the Alban Hills. Here the British 1st Division and a regiment from the US 1st Armored Division pushed forward with great difficulty. They spent a lot of time just reaching the start line, because of mines and obstacles. Over two days, theygot tantalisingly close, but once again the Allied push was stopped short of the town objective.
The Allied high command was surprised by the lack of progress and this led them to think the German were preapring a major counter-attack soon. The Allies rushed to re-enforce the Anzio beachhead.
Whether clark and Lucas were correct about the intial speed of the push out of Anzio or not is immaterial, but the fact remains that the Germans did not counter-attack quickly or decisively and this made the decision to stay near the beachhead potentially catastrophic.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Check out this ride from Nettuno to Cisterna to the Alban Hills and back down to Anzio going through Aprilia.

Book Recommendation: Anzio: The Friction of War from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Michelin Italy Regional 563 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Since its shameful fall in August 1812 with scarcely a shot fired in defense, the Americans wanted Detroit back. So embarrased by it, a winter campaign was conceived to win it back. William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippacanoe, was selected to take back the area and further the American goals in the War of 1812. Harrison's second in command was General James Winchester. The two split their forces to move on Detroit.

On 18 January 1813, Winchester's lead elements entered Frenchtown (near modern day Monroe, Michigan) and took it in a short battle with a handful of British Regulars and a couple of hundred of local Indians. The American soldiers were militia that had recently been recruited in Kentucky and marched north with severe privation. The Kentuckians found great stores of food and gorged themselves for several days. Unfortunately, their officers had not ordered them to fortify the area for a counter-attack.

A mixed force of British, under Colonel Henry Procter, and Shawnee, under Chief Tecumseh, counter-attacked on 22 January 1813. There followed a fierce battle that would go down as one of the biggest ground battles in the War of 1812. The British and Indians attacked across the American front. The American right flank was enveloped and surrendered, including Winchester. The left flank, however was holding well along a fence in the west of the area. The Kentuckians there were not surprised to see a British truce party arrive, but they were surprised to hear that it was the Kentuckian's surrender they were after. Winchester had sent word that they should give up. The Kentuckians did surrender, but only with the assurance that the captured would be protected from the Indians.

The British then quickly unoccupied the area of operations for they feared that Harrison's column would soon descend on Frenchtown. They left the prisoners with Tecumseh's force. Some, but not all, of the Kentucky prisoners left with the Indians were massacred. The remainder were taken to Detroit for ransom. The "Raisin River Massacre" became a rallying point for remainder of the war in the old northwest. The event had a solidifying effect on the frontiersman for the war that was not there previously. Future Kentucky units rushed north yelling, "Remember the Raisin!" The area was re-captured by Kentucky cavalry units in September 1813.

Trivia; Although born in Ohio, George Armstrong Custer lived in Monroe as a boy and married a local girl. No doubt, young Custer would have heard the story of the massacre in his local school.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Check out the Raisin River Battlefield Tour. Then go from the Raisin River Battlefield Visitor's Center and follow the Raisin River out to Raisinville, Dundee and back to Monroe to the Sterling State Park.

Maps