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    Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms
    Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms
    Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms
    Ebook261 pages1 hour

    Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms

    By Martin Windrow

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    About this ebook

    Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms is a journey through the whole span of military history using illustrations of the uniforms of warriors from ancient times to the present day.

    From ancient times to the present day, the world's finest warriors have been marked out by a stunning variety of dress, tactics and equipment. This splendid collection of artwork and commentaries illustrates famous combatants from all the ages of military history, bringing them to life in incredible colour and detail.

    From the gleaming plate armour of the medieval knight to the sleek camouflage gear of modern special ops forces, from the distinctive attire of the Japanese samurai to the ballistic armour and modern electronics of Russia's elite Spetsnaz, this is an unmissable tour of history's most impressive fighting men.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 20, 2015
    ISBN9781472812995
    Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms
    Author

    Martin Windrow

    Martin Windrow is series editor at Osprey and an authority on the post-war French Army, particularly the Foreign Legion. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam (2004).

    Read more from Martin Windrow

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      Book preview

      Warriors - Martin Windrow

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      THE ANCIENT WORLD

      1300 BC–AD 500

      THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

      AD 600–1500

      EARLY MODERN WARFARE

      1500–1700

      IMPERIAL WARS

      1740s–1815

      19TH CENTURY WARS

      c.1825–1900

      WORLD WAR I

      1914–1918

      WORLD WAR II

      1939–1945

      MODERN WARFARE

      1945 to present day

      ABOUT THE ARTISTS

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from MAA 13: The Scythians 700–300 BC, by Dr E V Cernenko.

      INTRODUCTION

      Artwork by Bryan Fosten, from MAA 236: Frederick the Great’s Army (1), by Philip Haythornthwaite.

      WHAT A SOLDIER WEARS has normally been a practical choice, governed by what weapons he has to face and use, but in many cases martial pride has grown out of practicality. The reason for the birth of true regimental ‘uniforms’ in the 17th century was essentially practical (central procurement, for a common quality of provision); but wearing similar gear and symbols has always bonded men together, in their own eyes and the enemy’s. In the 18th century, when the projected narcissism of monarchs produced an orgy of decoration, practicality struck back in the stripped, cut-down uniforms of light infantry skirmishers and the green clothing of Jäger riflemen but towering bearskin bonnets and decorated buttonholes were still to be seen in battle a hundred years later.

      Practicality also has a way of morphing into decoration: the bunches of laces that secured armour, and the cloth tabs that held cross-belts in place, became ornamental shoulder-knots and epaulettes, and the old Hungarian rider’s wolfskin cape blossomed into the hussar’s corded and fur-trimmed pelisse. The hussar exemplified another trend: adopting the outward finery of admired foreign soldiers, as if to acquire their innate military virtues. In the 19th century, Frenchmen copied Turco-Arab ‘zouave’ costume – and Americans copied the Frenchmen.

      The new long-range weapons of the late 19th century enforced the change to drab uniforms, but the coloured identifying flashes that had to be added during World War I soon became a source of esprit-de-corps. Late World War II brought separate uniforms for barracks and the battlefield, and the camouflage-printed clothing that represents the ultimate in anonymity. Yet today’s soldiers still prefer to be seen in public not in their smart service dress, but in the camouflaged ‘combats’ that unmistakably mark their calling, individuated by their regimental berets. The Roman legionary, so proud of his military weapon-belts, would certainly understand them.

      Any selection of just 100 examples from more than 3,000 years of military history is inevitably fairly arbitrary. Those illustrated have been chosen to show broad trends in Western history, with a few examples to illustrate the widely contrasting nature of other cultures.

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from WAR 71: Roman Legionary 58 BC–AD 69, by Ross Cowan.

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from MAA 360: The Thracians 700 BC–AD 46, by Christopher Webber (top); and MAA 291: Republican Roman Army 200–104 BC, by Nicholas Sekunda (bottom).

      WAR CHARIOT OF PHAROAH RAMESES II

      1288 BC

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from MAA 109: Ancient Armies of the Middle East, by Terence Wise.

      Under the ‘New Kingdom’, beginning in the mid 16th century BC, Bronze Age Egypt already had a sophisticated military system. This was based on a rotation of regional contingents to a standing army, supported by reservists, and equipped by central arsenals. Infantry units of common sizes, led by various officer ranks, were formed of spearmen, archers and slingers. The heavy-infantry spearmen fought in disciplined ranks and files, protected by padded cotton body-armour and wooden or wickerwork shields. In addition to spears they carried bronze hatchets or short swords for close fighting.

      We base this painting on a depiction of Rameses II charging against the Hittites at Kadesh – the first major pitched battle which history records. By the 13th century BC, war chariots formed an important corps within the army; the archers they carried tried to weaken enemy infantry formations at the start of a battle, and enemy chariots tried to thwart them. This initial clash of opposing chariots became ever more important, and the fact that the pharoah himself is shown fighting in this way emphasises the elite status of the chariot arm. The long body-armour of overlapping bronze scales was very time-consuming to construct, and therefore very expensive.

      ASSYRIAN MOUNTED ARCHER

      7TH CENTURY BC

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from MAA 109: Ancient Armies of the Middle East, by Terence Wise.

      By the late 8th century BC the Assyrians of Mesopotamia were the leading regional power. Expanding ruthlessly, they sacked Babylon in 689 BC, and invaded Egypt in 670 BC. In 612 BC they would finally be defeated in their turn, by the Babylonians and Medes.

      This painting depicts a horse-archer fighting more primitively equipped Arab camel-riders during the reign of the great King Ashurbanipal (668–627 BC). The bulk of the army was always infantry, but it probably had a ratio of about one heavy chariot (now with a three-man crew) and ten cavalrymen (with bows and lances) for every 100 spear-armed footsoldiers. Apart from being highly organized, Assyrian armies enjoyed one other great advantage – mastery of iron, harder and sharper than bronze. By the reign of King Sargon II (721–705 BC) his army was widely equipped with iron weapons and helmets, though the lamellar armour illustrated here (i.e. of metal strips sewn side-by-side and end-to-end on a base garment) is still bronze. The horse-trapping is also probably padded to give some protection against arrows. The horse-archer’s bow is of composite construction – made by fitting and gluing together sections of wood, bone and sinew, which gave superior power and range.

      Horse lancer of the Assyrian cavalry, 655 BC. Artwork by Angus McBride, from ELI 39: The Ancient Assyrians, by Mark Healy.

      SCYTHIAN NOBLES

      5TH CENTURY BC

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from MAA 137: The Scythians 700–300 BC, by Dr E V Cernenko and Dr M V Gorelik.

      The Scythians of the Black Sea steppes of southern Russia are the first of the great nomadic horse-peoples of whom we have any knowledge, being frequently mentioned by ancient sources including Herodotus. During the 7th century BC they crossed the Caucasus to pillage and wage war against the Medes, Assyrians and Egyptians; in the 6th century they fought the Persians; in the 5th century they raided into Thrace, and in the 4th century they fought Alexander’s Macedonians.

      This painting assembles evidence from warrior graves in the Kuban, Crimea, and Northern Caucasus. Archaeologists have recovered from these grave-barrows skeletons, some organic materials, and an extraordinarily rich legacy of metalwork – not only armour, shield-facings and weapons, but gold figurative work illustrating the Scythians’ decorated clothing. Apart from acquired Greek helmets, sometimes radically reworked, warrior graves preserve much bronze and iron scale or lamellar armour of a quite distinct style. Other finds include spearheads, swords, and combined bowcase/quivers for short composite bows and arrows. Several women’s graves, while containing no armour, preserve swords and archery equipment alongside more feminine items – thus tantalisingly recalling ancient legends of the ‘Amazons’.

      GREEK HOPLITES

      5TH CENTURY BC

      Artwork by Angus McBride, from ELI 7: The Ancient Greeks, by Nicholas Sekunda.

      These warriors from the Greek Classical age are reconstructed from the evidence of sophisticated vase-paintings, coin designs, statuary, and actual

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