Editor's Comment - RECONNAISSANCE Autumn Issue 2023

Editor's Comment from the Autumn 2023 Issue of Reconnaissance, the quarterly magazine of the Military History Society of NSW.                             

Welcome to the Autumn 2023 issue of Reconnaissance.

The daily scenes of death and destruction from Ukraine on our television sets seem to have heightened our awareness of war’s brutality. In particular there is a wave of revulsion against the gratuitous murder of civilians, including children, and horrific torture and mistreatment of POWs. For some it is hard to believe such things can still happen in today’s world.

This disturbing turn of events may have prompted the two war crimes related articles presented in this issue of Reconnaissance. First, our cover feature by Dr Andrew Wilson exposes a long hidden episode from the Second World War to belated scrutiny. Enraged by Nazi inspired racial hatreds, Wehrmacht troops invading France in May 1940 subjected French colonial troops of African origin to inhuman savagery. Dr Wilson describes how various regiments of Senegalese Tirailleurs, with a proud record in French service, were denied the rights of POWs and summarily massacred in large numbers.

Second, lawyer, author and campaigner James Unkles has refocused on a new subject. James previously campaigned to win a pardon for ‘Breaker’ Morant and his co-accused, themselves condemned for the war crime of murdering prisoners. In this issue of Reconnaissance he tackles the related topic of Lord Kitchener’s record and reputation. Kitchener was implicated in the Morant story for meddling in the legal process leading to the imprisonment or execution of the accused. As James shows, however, Kitchener had larger skeletons in his closet when it comes to breaches of law and human rights. His famous campaigns against the Mahdists in Sudan and the Boers in South Africa were marred by gross infringements of the laws of war in the treatment of POWs and civilians.

Australian troops served under Kitchener in the Boer War and the fledgling Commonwealth Government subsequently invited him to inspect and advise on the country’s state of defence preparedness. Some councils and government agencies memorialised aspects of Kitchener’s tour of Australia in 1909-1910. James argues that in light of contemporary knowledge about Kitchener’s human rights record, such memorials should now be removed. While we don’t endorse the practice of removing historical monuments, his powerful indictment of Kitchener deserves consideration.

Also in this Reconnaissance, well-known military historian Tom Lewis tells a poignant tale of five Australian posthumous Victoria Cross recipients who have no known resting place, lying in unmarked graves. We remember Private Thomas Cooke, around Pozieres, Lance Corporal Alexander Burton, somewhere in Gallipoli, Captain Alfred Shout, the seas of the Dardanelles, Corporal Walter Brown, near Villers-Bretonneux, and Teddy Sheean, the waters off Timor, by telling their stories.

In this issue’s militaria feature, Dr Andrew Wilson traces the history J. Godet & Sohn, jewellers to the Kings of Prussia and Kaisers of Germany, whose unsurpassed artistry in the production of decorations like the Iron Cross and Pour le Mérite earned them the mystique that comes with perfection.

Finally, I thank David Martin and John Hall for their excellent reviews, respectively, of Brett Mason’s Wizards of Oz: How OLIPHANT and FLOREY helped win the war and shape the modern world and Dr Jan McLeod’s All the Broken Soldiers: Private Kennedy's War.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in contributing to forthcoming issues.

I hope you enjoy the magazine.

Editor,

Reconnaissance

Current issues of Reconnaissance are available to members of the Military History Society of NSW but back issues are accessible generally on Trove.

The Society's main website is here: https://militaryhistorynsw.com.au/