Compact Warfare

On 6 November 1792, Charles-François Dumouriez led a French army against Austrian defensive positions near Jemappes, in present-day Belgium. The new Republic had survived the invasion of France, but taking the offensive presented a different challenge. Follow the campaign from the crisis of 1792 through the difficult assaults on the Austrian heights, the breakthrough that opened the road to Brusse...

In March 1452, Richard, Duke of York, confronted Henry VI with an army at Dartford. His demand was action against the Duke of Somerset, the powerful royal adviser he blamed for disastrous government and military failure. But York's attempt to force a hearing ended in submission rather than victory. This episode follows England's crisis after the loss of Normandy, the rivalry between York and Somer...

On 1 July 1097, Seljuk mounted archers attacked an isolated column of the First Crusade near Dorylaeum. Bohemond of Taranto gathered his knights, infantry and camp followers into a defensive position, but Kilij Arslan's cavalry surrounded them. With arrows falling on the camp, Bohemond sent for the rest of the crusader army. This episode follows the fall of Nicaea, the decision to divide the march...

In July 1777, Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne led a powerful British and German army south from Canada towards Fort Ticonderoga, one of the most celebrated American strongholds of the Revolutionary War. Yet the fortress's imposing walls concealed a fatal weakness. When British engineers hauled artillery onto the commanding height of Sugar Loaf, later named Mount Defiance, Major-General Arthur St...

The Battle of Edgehill, fought in Warwickshire on 23 October 1642, was the first major pitched battle of the English Civil War. King Charles I's Royalist army was marching towards London when it encountered the Parliamentarian forces of the Earl of Essex near Kineton. Prince Rupert's cavalry swept Parliament's horsemen from the field, but its pursuit left the Royalist infantry exposed to a determi...

On 1 September 1939, German forces invaded Poland from the north, west and south. Just sixteen days later, the Soviet Union attacked from the east. In this episode of Compact Warfare, we examine the diplomatic manoeuvring that left Poland exposed, the German strategy behind Fall Weiss, the defence of Westerplatte, the Battle of the Bzura, the siege of Warsaw and the brutal occupation that followed...

On 20 September 1792, revolutionary France faced a formidable Prussian-led invasion near the village of Valmy. What followed was less a conventional battle than a prolonged artillery duel, yet its consequences were enormous. Discover how French commanders Charles Dumouriez and François Kellermann halted the coalition advance, protected Paris and helped secure the future of the French Revolution. V...

In May 1097, the armies of the First Crusade reached Nicaea, the fortified capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. With towering walls, an open route across Lake Ascanius and Sultan Kilij Arslan returning with a relief army, capturing the city would require close cooperation between the crusaders and Byzantine Emperor Alexios I. In this episode of Compact Warfare, we examine the fighting outside N...

For nearly six years, Allied merchant ships fought to keep Britain supplied while German U-boats attempted to sever the Atlantic lifeline. Discover how convoys, wolf packs, Enigma intelligence, escort carriers, long-range aircraft and a fierce industrial contest shaped the longest continuous campaign of the Second World War. From the early U-boat victories to Black May 1943 and the final defeat of...

On 19 April 1775, British regulars marched from Boston towards Concord with orders to seize colonial military supplies. Warned by a network of riders, including Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, militia companies gathered across the Massachusetts countryside. The result was a series of clashes at Lexington, Concord's North Bridge and along the road back to Boston. Discover how confus...

The Battle of Edington was one of the most important turning points in early English history. In 878, Alfred the Great emerged from hiding in the Somerset marshes, gathered the fighting men of Wessex, and defeated Guthrum's Viking army. The victory did not end Viking power in England, but it saved Wessex from collapse and helped make the later creation of England possible. Visit our website:  Comp...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we look at the Battle of Wakefield, fought on 30 December 1460 during the Wars of the Roses. Richard, Duke of York, had been named heir to Henry VI through the Act of Accord, but Queen Margaret of Anjou and the Lancastrian nobility refused to accept the disinheritance of Prince Edward. What followed near Sandal Castle was a short, brutal clash that killed York,...

The Battle of Naseby was the moment the First English Civil War turned decisively against King Charles I. In this episode of Compact Warfare, we follow the rise of Parliament's New Model Army, the Royalist march through the Midlands, the brutal fighting on 14 June 1645, and the aftermath that left the King's cause badly damaged. Visit our website:  Compact Warfare Find us on our social media sites...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we explore the First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas. Fought on 21 July 1861, it was the first major land battle of the American Civil War and a brutal wake-up call for both Union and Confederate forces. What began with confidence, confusion, and even civilian spectators expecting a quick victory became a chaotic lesson in battlefi...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we examine the Battle of Borodino, the savage 1812 confrontation between Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armée and the Russian army under Mikhail Kutuzov. Fought west of Moscow, Borodino became one of the bloodiest single days of the Napoleonic Wars, with tens of thousands killed or wounded and neither side able to claim a clean, decisive triumph. It opened the road...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we head to May 1942 and the Battle of the Coral Sea, a dramatic clash between Japanese and Allied carrier forces that changed the course of the Pacific War. Fought without the opposing surface fleets ever directly seeing one another, it was a battle of aircraft, carriers, intelligence, risk, and split-second decisions. Although the tactical result was messy, the...

In this episode of Compact Histories, we examine the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, one of the most brutal and dramatic campaigns of the Korean War. Fought in late 1950 during freezing conditions in North Korea, the battle saw United Nations forces, including the US 1st Marine Division, surrounded by Chinese troops after China entered the war in force. What followed was not a simple retreat, but a fi...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we explore the Battle of Blenheim, one of the defining clashes of the War of the Spanish Succession. Fought on 13 August 1704, Blenheim saw the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy deliver a stunning defeat to the Franco-Bavarian army, saving Vienna from danger and shaking the military reputation of Louis XIV's France. This is a story of dynastic polit...

The Gallipoli Campaign was one of the most ambitious and costly Allied operations of the First World War. Intended to force the Dardanelles, threaten Constantinople, and open a supply route to Russia, it instead became a brutal struggle of landings, trenches, disease, heat, failed offensives, and eventual evacuation. In this episode of Compact Warfare, we explore why Gallipoli was launched, how th...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we explore the Battle of Gettysburg, the three-day clash that became one of the defining moments of the American Civil War. Fought from 1 to 3 July 1863, Gettysburg saw Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia collide with George Meade's Army of the Potomac in the fields, ridges, orchards, and rocky hills around a small Pennsylvania town. From the first shots w...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we look at the Battle of Goose Green, the first major land battle of the Falklands War. Fought across 28 and 29 May 1982, the battle saw 2 Para attack Argentine positions around Darwin and Goose Green in a costly fight that tested leadership, endurance and morale. From the wider land campaign after San Carlos to the death of Lieutenant Colonel H. Jones and the s...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we explore the Battle of Trafalgar, fought on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Spain. We follow the long lead-up to the clash, the movements of Nelson and Villeneuve, the brutal close-range fighting at sea, and the death of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the moment of victory. This is the story of how one battle secured British naval supremacy and changed the course...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we follow the campaign that brought the American War of Independence to its decisive turning point. From Washington and Rochambeau's march south to the French fleet's crucial role in the Chesapeake, this is the story of how Yorktown became a trap for Cornwallis and a triumph for the American and French alliance. Visit our website:  Compact Warfare Find us on our...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we explore the Battle of Britain, the crucial air campaign fought over southern England in 1940 as Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. From the fall of France and the rise of Fighter Command to radar, Spitfires, Hurricanes, the Luftwaffe's assault, and the shift into the Blitz, this episode traces how Britain resisted invasion and changed the course of the...

In this episode of Compact Warfare, we examine the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, one of the most consequential sieges in military history. From the rise of the Mexica capital and the arrival of Hernán Cortés, to the alliances that reshaped the war and the brutal final siege itself, this episode traces how a mighty imperial city was brought down. It is a story of strategy, betrayal, disease, urban...