Michael Cahill

The author hopes to open a window into late Victorian colonial warfare through the most classical of weapon systems, the sword, in its still prominent role in select theatres of war while at the same time deciphering the cultural and social tapestry, aesthetic and martial design choices in the British Infantry Officer’s Sword evolvement from the 1860’s to the outbreak of The Great War. A further wish is to provide testament to the military and political careers of prominent antiquarian archaeologist; William Gregory Wood-Martin, and his sons, James Isadore Wood-Martin and Francis Winchester Wood-Martin. The latter both losing their lives in actions at Neuve Chapelle and Ypres in the years of 1915 and ’16 respectively during The First World War.

This paper provides an over-view of Bronze-Age weapon evolvement over time, accessing the aesthetic and manufacturing features of the period’s weapon types, specifically Sword, Pole-Arms and Shield through the window of experimental archaeology in simulated weapon construction and combat re-enactments with controlled sparring. The aim of which being to better understand their martial applications, build limitation and creative potential inherent in the interplay of form and function.

Use-wear, pattern damage and design analysis of surviving Bronze-Age weapon artefacts suggested a framework for complementary Eastern as well as Western Martial Art techniques to employ with the weapon systems exploring their capacity and lethality.  This resulted in plausible theories of combat-use seen within the cultural prism and mind-set of Bronze Age Warrior societies.

This paper charts the rise, dominance and fall in castle construction in Ireland.  It looks at the evolution of its architectural form and addresses the construct's function in the Irish historical record. Special attention is paid to the case for Gaelic Castle construction before the 1169 Norman Invasion, aswell as the evidence for contemporaneous Gaelic construction in the early centuries of Anglo-Norman colonisation prior to the onset of the Gaelic Tower Houses in the 1400’s. Also considered is the close connection, both in architectural form and in the historical personages involved, between Irish Castle evolution and English, Welsh and Outremer Crusader castle design.

The critical tactical necessity of its capture and the audaciousness of the military operation that silenced the German gun batteries atop its brow, have insured that the storming and holding of this sheer coastal promontory, dominating the approaches and landing zones of what would very shortly become the D-Day beaches of Omaha and Utah, has resonated ever since in the histories of WWII.

This paper appraises Hitler’s Atlantic Wall of static line defences exemplified by the Pointe and finds it to be fatally flawed. The contributing steps that lead to its downfall are considered;

• By 1943 onwards, the disruption of Axis supply and logistics in the Normandy sector was resulting in inferior quality construction techniques and structurally weakened defensive emplacements.

• The lack of defence in depth over the sector as a whole and its relative isolation from supporting military assets of sufficient substance and quality.

• Accurate advances in aerial bombardment and overwhelming Allied air superiority with the ability to reach out and destroy at will. This severely compromised the defensive capabilities of the complex in the months previously and, crucially, immediately prior to its assault.

• The development of elite military units, their co-ordination and operational support, combined with training in storming fixed defences and achieving mission objectives with independent initiative.

• Portentously the inherently unstable geological strata of the Normandy cliff-face itself which conspired against the defenders and offered its attackers a natural stairway to the cliff’s apex. Section collapses in the preparatory naval bombardment of the 14 inch guns of the battleship USS Texas allowed teams from two landing craft (LCA 888 & 668) to successfully surmount the cliff using metal ladders atop the spoil heaps and between the gauges in its face.

A final point of inquiry is pin-pointing the hidden location of the complex’s field guns themselves, the remaining intact 155mm GPF’s being relocated over a mile inland after the USAF’s air raid on April 25th, before being found and rendered inoperative by recon units of Col. Rudder’s men of the 2nd Rangers Battalion.

The Battle of Towton was fought near the the Yorkshire village of Towton on Palm Sunday 1461 in a driving storm of sleet and snow. It was the greatest conflagration of the Cousin’s War, with a conservative and reasoned estimate of the dead to be in the realm of 20,000, the largest one-day death-toll of any battle on British soil. Its outcome resulted in regime change and one royal dynasty toppling another. This paper considers the battle from an historical, geological and archaeological perspective, attempting to give a clear picture of the ebb and flow of conflict; battle–line deployment, tactics, and the synthesis of geography and military decision which lead to such a decisive victory by Yorkist forces under Edward Plantagenet. The factors that effected such a huge loss of life, particularly in the Lancastrian rout are evaluated: special attention being paid to the mass grave assemblage of 37 humans skeletons one mile north of the battle and what these combatants remains can tell us about the nature, mind-set and disposition of the forces and commanders arrayed on the field of battle that day.

In summer 2017, a licenced metal detection survey was undertaken on the 1798, Irish Rebellion battlefield of Vinegar Hill at Enniscorthy, County Wexford. The project was an international collaboration, funded by Wexford County Council and working with archaeologists from Rubicon Heritage, Earthsound Geophysics and Institute of Technology, Sligo. The author employs the techniques of X-Ray analysis, time dating through XRF fluorescence metallurgical analysis and finally, historical metrics from primary and secondary sources to test two potential artillery finds discovered in the course of this survey: a shell fragment with fuze hole and an iron sandshot ball. The former been by strict empiricism disproven while the latter been authenticated as a single sandshot from a 6pdr. Light Case Shot Artillery munition. Four solid round shot from the 1798 Center, contemporary to the battle were also identified in calibre: the split in half, 9pdr. ball of same being used as a scientific standard to time frame the sandshot artefact through XRF fluorescence. An overview of the battle winning use of artillery by the Crown forces under General Lake, the new technologies and tactics utilised by new personnel and Arms within the Crown forces including the Royal Artillery, Royal Irish Artillery and the newly formed Royal Horse Artillery (1793) is also undertaken. Of the latter, C Troop Battery 3rd Regiment & A Troop Battery 1st Regiment were present at the forward firing position of Green Hill under the command of General Loftus while B Troop Battery, 1st  Regiment was  supporting  Major  General  Johnson’s  advance  through  Enniscorthy Town,  all with two field guns apiece and actively engaged in the battle.