| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Organiser: |
David Weatherley
|
| Group email: | Military History group |
| When: | Monthly on Thursday afternoons Second Thursday at 2 pm |
| Venue: | Village Hall |
Members of this friendly group of men and women have a shared interest in all aspects of military, aviation, and maritime history during the period spanning Classical times to the present. The subject offers the prospect of something for everybody because cause, conduct, outcome and consequences of individual conflicts, campaigns or battles are all influenced by factors including geo-politics, technological development, and human behaviour.
In June 1340, a naval action close to the Flemish port of Sluys was one of the first actions of the ‘Hundred Years’ War’. Its outcome was a resounding English victory, with the French losing most of their ships and as many as 20,000 men, thus giving control of the Channel to Edward III’s navy and removing the threat of a French invasion.
The current topic for the Military History group is ‘battles that have shaped the course of history’, and Sluys is the third example studied to date. In previous meetings we have examined the context, conduct and outcome of the fleet engagements at Salamis (480BC) and Actium (31BC). The defeat of Xerxes at Salamis preserved the Hellenistic world in the face of aggressive Persian expansionism, whilst at Actium the triumph of Octavian over the numerically superior force of Cleopatra and Mark Antony established Roman dominance of the entire Mediterranean and, later, the Western world.
On our list for future meetings are Gravelines (the Spanish Armada, 1588), Trafalgar (1805), Tsushima (1905), Jutland (1916), Midway (1942) and the North Atlantic campaign (1939-45).
A recent visit to Chatham Historic Dockyard provided a snapshot of various aspects of naval life and was a welcome break from the classroom.