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For centuries, or perhaps millennia, the main cause of world hunger, apart from crop failure, has been armed conflicts. Many times, even in the event of local skirmishes, one way to gain an advantage on the battlefield was to cause a state of hunger among the soldiers of the opposing army or to lead to a humanitarian catastrophe among the civilian population. Such action was often a tool of political pressure, an attempt to obtain certain benefits, and sometimes even a punishment for insubordination. The food crisis to which the German population was exposed during World War I is a phenomenon that influenced not only the mood, everyday life and health of the German population, but also the course of the war and revolution, which was greatly influenced by the year of 1918. In this article, the author aims to outline the difficulties faced by the German population due to the food crisis and its impact on health and mortality. The causes of the hunger of the German population will be examined: firstly, the effects of the Allied naval blockade, secondly, the causes of the decline in agricultural production, and thirdly, the counterproductive actions of the state.
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Stanisław Rembek was both a historian who dealt with the past in a scientific context and a writer who created literary works based on historical events – those from the distant past and those of which the author was an eyewitness and participant. This article aims to present how in his works the writer portrayed war, showing the horror of soldiers’ experiences. In his novels he created images of everyday life in the trenches, struggles with hunger, oppressive cold, fear, and fighting to endurance limit. He noticed how the soldiers’ enthusiasm and willingness to fight under the influence of the protracted war gradually turned into fatigue, indifference and bitterness. Death was an inseparable element of the brutal descriptions of war reality present in Rembek’s works. However, it was not lofty or pathetic – the writer showed it in a naturalistic way, not avoiding drastic descriptions of the landscape after the battle. His characters felt a disharmony between the images of their heroic death and the images they witnessed every day. In his pictures of war, which were a testimony to his own experiences during the Polish-Bolshevik war (recorded in his war diary), Rembek referred to Stefan Żeromski’s naturalistic technique of depiction, Sienkiewicz’s tradition, expressionism, and Ernst Jünger’s concepts. He was accused of showing the “dirty realism of war”, which for some critics was a flaw in his work, while for others, it had a great value. However, he said: “My war is the one that it is in reality”.
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As is well known, the act of 23 August 1944 was not limited exclusively to the particular, static aspect of Romania’s separation from Germany, it was followed almost immediately by the use of armed force alongside the Soviet Union. We can thus appreciate that Romania’s exit from the war waged by Germany and its allies had the following consequences: the loss of significant military forces; the loss for Germany of the possibility of organising a lasting resistance on successive favourable alignments in Moldova, etc.
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After the Battle of Ankara, the Anatolian lands of the Ottoman Empire were shared among many principalities. Timur not only divided the Ottoman lands among Yıldırım's sons, but also allowed the Turkmen principalities to continue their reign by returning the lands they had taken from the Ottomans. In other words, Timur, instead of a strong political structure in the Ottoman geography, set up a disintegrated but subordinate principality to rule, and after staying in Anatolia for eleven months, he returned to his homeland, Turkistan. Thus, while Timur formed a political structure suitable for his own benefit, he also secured the eastern borders of his Khanate.In this study, rather than focusing on the political environment that took place after the Ankara War, it is aimed to examine the relations between the political forces of the period from a different perspective by considering the coins minted in Anatolia in this process. Although the coins minted by the states and principalities in Anatolia, which is a sign of loyalty to Timur after the Ankara War, are briefly emphasized, it will not constitute the basis of this research. After the Ankara War, in the process that Çelebi Mehmet re-established the Ottoman Empire, the policy of dominating the principalities in Anatolia did not emerge suddenly, although it was mostly the result of military actions. In the first quarter of the 15th century, in this period when the Timurid winds had not yet subsided, these principalities were first subject to the Ottoman Empire with vassaagel ties as of 1410, and after 1428 they were directly subordinated to the central administration. These political facts were intended to be documented with minted coins.
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The article is an attempt to introduce the little-known in Polish science issue ofWorld War I war graves in Lviv and other localities of the Lviv district, i.e., Eastern Galicia/Eastern Malopolska, in the lost lands. World War I war cemeteries and soldiers’ quarterswere destroyed in Soviet Western Ukraine after World War II.
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The author showed a fragment of the Iliad referred to as the Catalogue of Ships, also called Beotia (Bojotia). The name of this part comes from the Beots, whose troops, arriving at Troy, were listed in the Catalogue as the first. The list contains in-formations about the Greek armed forces, rulers and chiefs of the Greek peoples who took part in the naval expedition and the war against the Trojans. It also determines the number of ships brought by the Greeks to Troy. Eager to go to war, they put themselves in Beocia near the city of Aulis where, on the Strait of Eurypus, a large port was located. It can also be assumed that the Catalogue of Greek troops begins with the army of Beocia because the ports of this land were chosen as the place of concentration of troops for the expedition against Troy. A collection of works called the Trojan Cycle was also characterized, which includes 29 books and from which only small fragments (epitomai) and summaries in the so-called Chrestomatia have survived. Despite such poor literature, they are an important source in reproducing the content of the Trojan cycle. The passage showing the Achaean army at Troy, which is a list of Greek nobility, is often omitted in the editions of the Iliad. However, for those studying the art of war, it is an extremely important record of Europe’s past.
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In August 1509, the town of Turku (Swe. Åbo) in southwestern Finland, then a part of the Swedish realm, was attacked by a Danish fleet. The sources tell of great material devastation and loss of life. However, although the sack of 1509 has been mentioned in numerous works treating the history of medieval Turku or medieval Finland in gen- eral, historians have not so far analysed how the recuperation process actually looked and which individuals and institutions involved in it were the crucial actors. Con- temporary sources, especially the correspondence between higher authorities, cast light on Turku’s urban recovery. Such sources may exaggerate the role of ecclesiastical authorities as leaders of the process, we get only sporadic glimpses of the actions of the town council. But it seems there were no plans to send material relief – at least not foodstuff – to Turku. Instead, the authorities were more interested in prevent- ing further attacks and maintaining societal peace. The higher clergy focused on the restoration of the cathedral and retrieving stolen cult items. It is also possible that the translation of a local saint in the summer of 1514 was utilised as a unifying and healing event for spectators and participants.
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The present article contains information about the events which resulted in the introduction of the Mauser system to the equipment of the Polish Army in the years 1919–1921. It includes details about technical aspects of the weaponry that were taken into consideration in the selection or rejection of particular weapon models. The article also analyses the political background of the decisions made by military officials, which had a great influence on the final choice of the type of weapon. Moreover, the information on financial issues that have a significant impact on the decisions made can be found in the above-mentioned text. The final choice of the small arms had a profound effect on the future activities of the Polish Army and its equipping with other types of weapons.
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The article discusses the process of developing heavy artillery in Polish infantry divisions at the end of the 1930s. At the time, the intention was to strengthen the firepower of infantry tactical units, whose combat capabilities began to decline compared to similar divisions in other European armies. As part of this process, the formation of heavy artillery battalions for infantry divisions began in 1937. However, due to financial and equipment difficulties, until 1939 such battalions were created for only seven out of thirty infantry divisions. In addition, these battalions had not three, but two batteries with three guns each. Thus, the heavy artillery battalion had only six guns in total, and not twelve, like the regular artillery battalions. In infantry divisions where heavy artillery divisions were formed, positions of Divisional Artillery Commanders were also created as the nucleus of artillery headquarters at the tactical level. However, the formation of the aforementioned squadrons was based on the existing heavy artillery regiments, which reduced their staffing status and mobilization possibilities. Thus, while the creation of heavy artillery battalions for infantry divisions did undoubtedly strengthen the combat capabilities of the divisions themselves, on the scale of the entire artillery it did not significantly strengthen the Polish army as a whole.
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An important element in strengthening the military potential of the Home Army during the Second World War was armaments delivered by air. Airdrops had not only a physical form – rifles, pistols, grenades, explosive materials and money, but as also a great psychological meaning. It was the confirmation of the Home Army participation in the Allies military activity and it enhanced hope for defeating the Third Reich. This psychological impact was maintained also after the war, especially when a new armed conflict was in perspective. Many Polish citizens hoped that World War III would provide political and structural changes in the Polish People’s Republic. This presented the authorities, especially the security apparatus with a severe operational challenge. The officials tried to inspect whether the so-called enemy forces would be able to draw on solutions from the previous war and empower the anti-communist underground in Poland by weapons airdrops in the perspective of a new armed conflict. Therefore, operational action was undertaken to detect airdrop locations used during World War II and to find the people who organized their reception. These tasks were carried out between 1949 and 1955 under the code-name “Monopoly”.
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Disinformation as a tool of war can be seen in various dimensions, such as military, social, economic, political and psychological. In addition to disinformation, a number of mechanisms are used in war to gain an advantage by misleading the opponents, putting pressure on them, forcing the opposite of their intended action. This concerns psychological warfare and psychological operations, operational camouflage (maskirovka), military deception. The article presents selected examples of the use of disinformation in the history of wars.
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Tactics is a classic field of study in military history, which has been radically transformed by research in recent decades. Our paper aims to investigate how, since the 1970s, historical studies of tactics have developed new concepts, introduced new themes, and highlighted new aspects of this field of research. We have only considered the studies regarding the period 1850- 1880, when there was an intense debate within the ranks of the European armies over the tactics that had to be developed as a result of the adoption of new infantry armament. The recent research carried out on the Western armies from the second half of the 19th century offers an interesting starting point for reappraising the history of the Romanian army.
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The works carried out by the 4th Engineering Company during the siege of the Pleven fortress were described by Lieutenant Grigore Crăiniceanu in a letter addressed to his professor, Henri-Alexis Brialmont, with the aim of informing him about the contribution of the Romanian military engineers to the blockade of Pleven in early September 1877. Brialmont was preparing the work “La fortification du champ de bataille”, which was found to be based only on Russian sources, which omitted the quantity and quality of these works on Grivitsa 1 and 2 redoubts, although even Grand Duke Nicholas himself had praised them. The translation of the letter into Romanian was published in the “România liberă” newspaper.
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In the battle for Dobrogea, the Dobrogea Army saved Romania from disaster, contributing essentially to the final victory. This article, based on documents from the state military archive of the Russian Federation, traces the different aspects of the battle for this region of Romania. Despite the mistakes made, The Dobrogea Army managed to keep Dobrogea in the hands of the allies, preventing the Central Powers from accomplishing the strategic plan to conquer the region in order to emerge behind the Romanian army fighting in Transylvania and later in the Romanian Plain.
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Debating World War II is always a challenge given the massive amount of historiography on various subjects associated with this topic. Even so, since it was one of the most important events in our contemporary history, there are still blank spots and aspects insufficiently explored. To a certain extent, World War II was significantly different from previous conflicts, especially from the perspective of using extensively landing tactics as a way to project the power in various theatres of operation. Of course, the major amphibious operation was conducted in June 1944 on the beaches of Normandy. Nevertheless, one should not forget the previous undertakings involving smaller contingents like in Norway (1940), Greece (1941), France (1942, Dieppe), Sicily and Italy (1943), Philippines (1944) together with British reinforcing operations in which various contingents from Australia, India, New Zeeland a.s.o were brought in North Africa or Europe. All of these were instrumental for increasing the allied ability to deploy and sustain forces in hostile environment. As a matter a fact, World War II contributed to the extensive development of tactics and equipment for amphibious operations, which also increased the speed1 of disembarking of heavy materials as well as substantial number of troops.
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