This was my library pick this month. Gordon Thorburn focuses on the Black Watch and the Cameronians contribution to the Chindits campaign in Burma during WW2. It probably reached my local library because the Cameronians were a local regiment here in Ayrshire. The regiment arose out of the Covenanters and one of the most radical, Richard Cameron. He died at the Battle of Airds Moss in 1680 fighting against Charles II, and the volunteers were subsequently a staunchly Protestant loyalist regiment that fought against the Jacobites. This makes it a somewhat unusual British regiment, having fo ..read more

This book, by the period specialist David Stevenson, is a different approach to the history of the civil wars. He has taken thirteen individuals who lived through the period, looking at their writings and stories to get a different perspective. Some played significant roles, others less so, but none were the 'great men' of the period. I found this book buried in a second-hand bookshop, but copies appear to be available from other sellers. The thirteen people range from soldiers, to gentry, lawyers, a priest and a clerk. They are somewhat self-selecting based on adequate sources but can be ch ..read more

 Today was the first of the two big Scottish wargame shows, Carronade in Falkirk. It is held in a school, with two large halls, two smaller ones, and a room for a table-based bring-and-buy. I was running the Glasgow and District Wargaming Society's display game, so I only had a little time to spend at the trade stands or the many games. In fact, for the first time in my life, I didn't buy a thing. I had bought all the odds and ends at York, and nothing else caught my eye. I am clearly a failed wargamer! We didn't get to play many rounds of our display game, thanks to the regular stream of ..read more

My holiday reading was Roger Knight's, Convoys: The British Struggle Against Napoleonic Europe and America. My research for the HMS Ambuscade book flagged up the convoy system that gets marginal attention in the main histories. In practice, the convoy system was at the heart of British naval strategy. For most Royal Navy ships, convoy protection was their main role, defending the trade that provided the sinews of war and moving the troops to the continent and beyond. Warship casualties on convoy duties were high. Between 1803 and 1815, 409 British warships were lost, 250 of which were wrecke ..read more

The highlight of my trip to Vienna was a visit to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, one of the finest military museums in the world. I managed a quick visit some 20 years ago, but this is a museum that deserves plenty of time.  The museum building was designed as the centrepiece of the Vienna Arsenal, built just outside the old fortifications after the 1848 revolution. The building is a work of art in itself, with paintings on the walls and ceilings that represent key moments in Austrian military history. The exhibit halls take you through Austrian military history from the 17th ce ..read more

The Imperial Armoury in Vienna houses an extensive collection of arms and armour. Located within the Hofburg Palace complex, the collection includes suits of armour worn by knights, ceremonial armour of emperors and kings, and weaponry ranging from swords and firearms to cannons. The collection is on the top floor of the Weltsmuseum. The floor below has an eclectic collection of items the Hapsburgs collected worldwide. Many were collected by Maximilian, whose travels ended up on the Mexican throne and a sticky end! The collection is vast, so I will give a flavour. I was naturally attracte ..read more

I am in Vienna this week. It is not my first visit, but my wife has never been. There are lots of Balkan links, of course, but one battlefield I have never visited is Aspern-Essling. It was fought on 21-22 May 1809, during the War of the Fifth Coalition. I wasn't originally planning to go because the volunteer museums are only open on Sundays. However, the previous day's visit had worn my wife's sprained ankle, so I got a morning pass. Aspern and Essling were two small villages on the banks of the Danube River near Vienna. Napoleon chose this area for his river crossing, led by Marshal Jean La ..read more

 This is the second book in Nigel Tranter's version of the Montrose story. It covers his later victories in the civil wars, including Kilsyth. Then, the defeat at Philipaugh, followed by exile and the final ill-fated campaign that led to the scaffold in Edinburgh. As with the first book, Tranter has not overly focused on the well-known Civil War campaign. He devotes considerable space to Montrose's travels across Europe, seeking to build support for the Royalist cause. Then, the less well-known final campaign, when he landed with a core of mercenaries on Orkney and invaded the mainland ..read more

 I have reached the last stage of my research into HMS Ambuscade for the book that should be out this summer. My summary of the ships is on the Clyde Naval Heritage website, which plans to bring the Type 21 frigate back to the Clyde. The book's final section covers the period when Ambuscade was sold to Pakistan in 1993 and renamed PNS Tariq. This name comes from Tariq bin Ziyad, the commander who led the Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Spain in 711–718 A.D. I have read and reviewed several books on the Indo-Pakistan conflicts, but these include very little about the Pakistan Navy. There we ..read more

 My library pick this month was Alistair Moffat's look at the lost kingdoms of Scotland during the late Roman, Dark Ages, and early medieval periods. They are 'lost' because we know very little about them. What we do know is based on a handful of unreliable written sources and archaeology.  The problem with writing about lost kingdoms is that without sources, you either have to give extensive context or speculate extensively. Moffat mainly goes for the former. This book was written in 2010, and there have been some developments since then. The History Hit podcast 'Gone Medieval' re ..read more