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الاستماع والقراءة

Steven Dickens

The establishment of the Roman fort of Mamucium in AD79 is the first known record of any military construction, or presence, in the area that is now the Castlefield district of the city. The Roman auxiliary units posted here used the fort as a garrison, located at Mamucium for the purpose of protecting the Roman road from Chester (Deva Victrix) to York (Eboracum). The site was previously occupied, as a defensive hill fort, by the ancient Britons, or Brigantes, who were native to the area. The next epoch of military activity at Manchester occurred in the Civil War and the Siege of Manchester in 1642. Manchester's declaration as a Parliamentarian town had far-reaching consequences, in terms of its military legacy, on the voting rights of Mancunians. Upon his restoration, Charles II removed Manchester's two MPs from Parliament and Manchester was not to receive any political representation until the Reform Act of 1832. The Peterloo Massacre, of August 1819, was the scene of a mass rally brought about by a desire to repeal the Corn Laws, introduce universal suffrage and reform other repressive legislation. The cavalry charge which resulted in the deaths of an estimated eighteen innocent protesters and the wounding of over 500, took place at St. Peters Field (now Square) in the heart of the city. Its legacy resulted in the establishment of the Manchester Guardian and the rise of radical freethinking in the city, not always welcomed by those in authority. Both World Wars have had a profound influence on the city. The establishment of the Manchester Regiment is detailed and later the Manchester Pals are recalled through the pages of the local press. Heaton Park became their base, whilst General Kitchener visited the city, in order to boost recruitment. Later the Luftwaffes bombing campaign of December 1940, the Manchester Blitz, left the city with a legacy that has changed it beyond all recognition into the twenty-first century.

Pen & Sword Military

Military Legacy

Manchester's Military Legacy

Ian D. Rotherham

One of the oldest settlements in Western Europe, York grew up on dry land with protective rivers and associated wetlands giving security and mobility. Early, prehistoric settlement was on nearby drier, raised areas along the flood plain. Here the Romans built a great, northern, fortified city and military settlement from which they could foray overland into northern England or by ship and the coastal route to Scotland and the Picts. Yorks significance was emphasized when Constantine was made Emperor whilst residing there. Lean times followed after Roman abandonment and Saxon neglect before the Vikings swept into northern England, with Jorvic, reborn as their capital, York, much to their liking. Once subsumed into Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, York continued its huge strategic and military significance through late Saxon times, during the Norman Conquest, and into medieval England. Indeed, two of the most far-reaching battles in English history were fought at nearby Fulford and Stamford Bridge. Yorks's military significance grew again during the Wars of the Roses, with the Battle of Towton in 1461 described as the most barbaric ever fought on British soil. Following oscillating and vicious disputes over religion during the reigns of the later Tudors, divisive and punitive civil war played out again under the Stuart kings and Parliamentary Commonwealth. Through all this, York was a major strategic location in northern England; an important base for those commanding it, a significant prize for those who did not. This military importance declined into modern times but the city retains garrison and regimental ties. The last direct conflict occurred when York was targeted for retaliatory Baedeker raids by German bombers during April 1942. Yorks's remarkable history and longevity, and its significance in English and sometimes international politics and economics, have left a unique, unparalleled military history.

York's Military Legacy

Gerry van Tonder

In the century following the Norman invasion, a castle was built at the confluence of the rivers Sheaf and Don, an early recognition of Sheffield's strategic importance. Destroyed in the thirteenth century during the Second Barons War, a second castle was built on the site, but in 1647, it was ordered to be demolished immediately after the cessation of the Civil War, thereby negating any future tactical use by either Parliamentarian or Royalist. Steel production and downstream manufacturing would, however, be perpetually embedded in the military legacy of this seat of industrial innovation and production. The Vickers steel foundry was established in Sheffield in 1828. Following the manufacture of the factory's first artillery in 1890, Sheffield expanded to find itself a leading supplier in the First World War, feeding the military with shells, artillery, naval guns, armor plating, aircraft parts, torpedoes, helmets and bayonets. Sheffield's contribution to the British war machine in the Second World War quickly attracted the attention of Nazi Germany. In December 1940, in an operation appropriately code-named Schmelztiegel, or Crucible, Sheffield suffered two major raids aimed primarily at steel and munitions factories. A proud tradition of answering a call to the colors spawned the 84th Regiment of Foot, the Loyal Independent Sheffield Volunteers of the 1700s, the Hallamshire Rifle Volunteers raised in 1859, and the Sheffield Squadron, Yeomanry Cavalry. The 18991902 Anglo-Boer War would also have an enduring legacy: the Sheffield Wednesday football stadium was named Spioen Kop, while local road names include Ladysmith Avenue and Mafeking Place. On 1 July 1916, the Sheffield City Battalion fought in a heroic and costly, but hopeless, action on the Somme to capture the village of Serre. Through the Second World War right up to Afghanistan, Sheffields men and women in uniform have not been found wanting. Sheffield's rich military legacy portrayed in this publication is drawn from a cross-section of representative units, home and foreign actions, uniformed personalities, barracks at the hub of musters, the caliber of gallantry including six Victoria Crosses as well as the immortality of names on memorials, such as the Sheffield Memorial Park in France.

Sheffield's Military Legacy

Paul Chrystal

Leedss Military Legacy is the first fully illustrated book to give a comprehensive description of the military history of Leeds from Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman times to the present as home to various garrisons and military museums, not least the renowned Leeds Armouries Museum. 

Along the way it describes Royalist Leeds and the Civil War, the formation of various regiments in the city between the seventeenth and twenty-first centuries, the impact of two World Wars and how the city rose to the challenges of recruitment, defense and industrial war effort. 

The battle honors of each of the Leeds regiments are detailed as are the VCs. The book also covers the work of the Leeds military hospitals, the Barnbow Munitions disaster, RAF Yeadon (LeedsBradford Airport), the blitz of 1941, 609 Squadron, Yeadon Lancaster factory, Leeds as a garrison city and current military research in Leeds.

Leeds's Military Legacy

Michael Chandler

Originally a town that was built of wood by the Anglo-Saxons, it was later burned down and then rebuilt as England's second city, after London, by William the Conqueror. Riots between the church and the citizens saw Norwich at war with the Pope in 1272 when a gate was constructed as a penance. The Norfolk Regiment has seen its men in combat from the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the Boer War and both World Wars. The more recent conflicts in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan have also witnessed the bravery of the Norfolks. A comprehensive list of military personnel who gave their lives is examined, including Norwich-born Second Lieutenant Wilfred Edwards VC, as well as an account of 9694 Private John Henry Abigail of the Norfolk Regiment who, on 12 September 1917, aged 21, was executed for being AWOL. It would not be until November 2006 that Private Abigail was pardoned by the British government.

Norwich's Military Legacy

Two years after landing on English soil in 1066, William of Normandy erected a strategic castle at Nottingham, thereby creating an enduring military nexus through to the modern era. On 22 August 1642, in his endeavours to quash Parliamentarian insurrection in the Midlands, King Charles raised his standard over Nottingham Castle, a rallying call to all Royalists to support their monarch. Loyalty to the Crown was, however, divided, and before long Parliamentarian forces garrisoned the castle. 

Late in the eighteenth century, a town troop of Yeomanry was raised in Nottingham, the foundation of the future South Notts Yeomanry. The yeomanry assisted regular troops by helping restore peace during the so-called Bread Riots of 1795, at a time when many of the towns men had been committed to military duty during the French Revolutionary Wars. Five troops of the towns yeomanry were again called up for service during the civil unrest of the Luddite Riots of 181118. 

This pattern of service continued over several decades. Evolving into a regiment, the yeomanry were repeatedly deployed against civil dissenters the Nottingham Riot, and the Reform Bill and Chartist Riots. After seeing combat during the Peninsula Wars in 1815, in the latter half of the 1800s, the 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot formed part of a British invasion force into Afghanistan from India, to curb Russian interventionism in this remote and desolate region. 

The outbreak of war in distant South Africa in 1899 placed enormous strain on Britain's military capability. From Nottingham and other county towns, regiments of yeomanry, Hussars and Sherwood Rangers were dispatched to the hostile environment of the African veld. Nottingham's sons then answered a call to arms in their thousands, only to also perish in their thousands on the Godforsaken soils of France and Flanders during the holocaust that was the Great War. 

Through the Second World War to the present, Nottingham's military units underwent successive phases of metamorphosis from infantry to antiaircraft and searchlight formations, followed by the relatively recent absorption into a regional entity: the Mercian Regiment. Today, Nottingham's castle and surrounds bear the symbols of a rich and diverse military legacy symbols of remembrance, of tribute, and of a tableau of military pride from ancient times.

Nottingham's Military Legacy

Christine Jordan

From the establishment of Gloucester as a Roman colonia, a colony of retired military veterans, the city has held a strategic position, being close to the easiest crossing over the River Severn and into Wales. The Romans began building the city's defences, including the city walls and bastions, which were further enhanced by the great warrior Aethelflaed and which would become invaluable in the Siege of Gloucester during the Civil War in 1643. 

These walls would be destroyed by Charles II as a punishment for the city's role in the conflict. In the twelfth century, Gloucester's first motte and bailey castle were built and used by a number of kings as a garrison to prepare attacks against the Welsh and the Irish. 

The formation of what would become known as 'The Glorious Glosters', in 1782, led to a number of notable military campaigns, including the battles of Alexandria, Quatre Bras, the Second Boer War, including the Siege of Ladysmith, both World Wars and the Korean War. Christine's book will take you on an historic journey, uncovering on the way the city's military legacy.