Milstack Saturday (14 December 2024)
The best articles on military subjects I read (or listened to) in the past week
In keeping with the central theme of his newsletter, Aristocratic Fury explains how the suppression of robber knights in the twelfth century led to the rise of chivalry and, in doing so, reminds us that there was more to the reign of Louis the Fat than the medieval antecedents of Big Macs, Big Gulps, and expandable waist pants.
True to the variety promised by his nom de plume, The Bazaar of War describes the rise of the all-arms regiment, the relatively recent genesis of the word ‘strategy’, and the role played by grand strategy in America’s War of 1812.
Over at Composed Arms, Valentinius displays excellent taste by using something I wrote in days of yore to add a bit of nuance to accounts of The Joys of Destruction so often told these days. He also enjoys a laugh or two at the expense of the way that English-speaking armies employ reserve officers.
Austin Caroe, landlord of The Distro, muses about the relationship between world events and a unit’s appetite for hard training.
Also known as Chalkey, Jay Hambleton tells the tale of a brilliant, but short-lived, aviation unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Tainan Kokutai.
At The Lens of History, my friend Luke Herbert, who possesses a knack for turning up material that I would otherwise miss, has begun to review podcasts.
Did I miss anything? Please use the comments section to post links to recently published articles that might interest readers of The Tactical Notebook.
