RECONNAISSANCE Autumn Issue 2026
Welcome to the Autumn 2026
Issue of Reconnaissance.
To mark this year’s 250th
anniversary of American independence, which will be celebrated across the
United States, our president Robert Muscat chose to deliver the Society’s first
lecture for 2026 last month on a topic from the celebrated war which secured
that freedom. An article version of his talk on the British Army at the Battle
of Long Island, New York, in 1776 is published as the cover feature of this Reconnaissance.
For the British generals, as Robert explains, the clash on Long Island was to
be a culminating blow to separate the northern colonies from their southern
counterparts and bring the whole rebellion crashing down. Owing to its
strategic location on the Hudson River, port facilities and thriving
industries, New York City was a lynch pin which needed to be inserted for this
grand strategy to come together. Back in London Lord Germain, the Secretary for
America was growing impatient for a swift termination of hostilities but his
North American commander-in-chief, General William Howe, appeared to entertain
hopes that negotiations could still deliver a conciliated outcome. As Robert
points out, apart from his appointment as commander, Howe was simultaneously
invested with the potentially inconsistent role of Peace Commissioner. To make
matters worse, it was well known that Howe looked on the Americans with some
affection as fellow Englishmen.
While Howe’s efforts at
reconciliation came to nothing, there is reason to believe his dual role and
clouded emotions account for the inexplicable aftermath of the bloody pitched
battle on Long Island. In tactical terms the battle was a triumph for the British
regiments and their Hessian allies who broke the American lines with
devastating effect. But Howe refrained from following up to crush the
disorganised and fleeing rebels. His inaction handed George Washington the
opportunity to evacuate his forces over the East River to safety on Manhattan
Island, ready to fight another day. Can it be, as Robert speculates, that
Howe’s dual roles of warrior and peacemaker paralysed his will? Perhaps the
Americans owe their freedom more to the tender mercies of a sympathetic
Englishman than their own heroic efforts.
After a successful career
as a lawyer, Brendan Bateman had a hankering to write history and initially
wrote about soldiers of St Mark’s parish in Drummoyne, Sydney. He then followed
up with Drummoyne’s Great War, a three-volume work chronicling all
ninety-five men commemorated on the Drummoyne War Memorial. We are grateful
that Brendan contributed for publication in the last two issues of Reconnaissance
the first and second installments of a three-part series about one of those
men, Robert Henderson, and the third installment appears in this issue. Robert
served with the 13th Battalion AIF at Gallipoli and later on the Western Front,
where he was fatally wounded.
We also present
a perspective by Professor Barry Bridges on the inept way that the British War
and Colonial Offices dealt with military arrangements in the ‘white’ settler
colonies at the turn of the twentieth century. Officials in London didn’t
understand that their plans to draft colonials into some sort of reserve army
for imperial purposes would not attract popular support because none of them
ever set foot in a colony. Next, we have one of Dr Andrew Wilson’s militaria
backgrounders featuring a former Boer Commando who proceeded to a second
military career as a commando for the Union of South Africa in the South-West
Africa campaign against the Germans in World War I, during which he earned a
Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM).
Finally, I
tackle a review of Sr Mark Lax’s comprehensive Huey: The Helicopter that
Became an Australian Legend and I thank Tony Cuneen for his well-balanced
review of Michael Tucker’s Robert Buie and the Red Baron.
Editor, Reconnaissance
The Society's main website is here: www.militaryhistorynsw.com.au
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