RECONNAISSANCE Spring Issue 2025

This is the "From the Editor" column of the Spring 2025 Issue of Reconnaissance, the quarterly magazine of the Military History Society of New South Wales

Welcome to the Spring 2025 Issue of Reconnaissance.

Since we are conscious of how enthusiastically Australians volunteered to defend the Empire on the outbreak of war in 1914, it may come as a surprise that just twenty years earlier there was generally more scepticism in New South Wales when it came to sending locals to fight Imperial battles overseas. Prior to federation, the practice was for Colonies to appoint a senior British Army officer as Commandant of their military forces, usually composed of a small permanent full-time core and a larger part-time volunteer militia. Eventually a potential conflict arose over the primary function of these seconded Commandants. Were they to focus exclusively on the internal defence of the Colony or were they to prepare a type of imperial reserve for dispatch to some remote corner of the Empire at times of crisis? As Dr Barry Bridges explains in the cover feature of this Reconnaissance, Commandants often found themselves torn between these two diverging directions. Given that they were serving officers of the British Army with hopes to further their military careers, they would have been loath to thwart the wishes of the Colonial and War Offices in London. Dr Bridges maintains that in the last decade of the nineteenth century the Imperial Government’s policy leaned toward the build-up of forces available for overseas service. But as Major General Edward Hutton, the Commandant in New South Wales between 1893-1896, found to his frustration, local politicians showed little interest in such a concept.

After a highly successful career as a lawyer, Brendan Bateman had a hankering to write history, a subject he studied and loved at university. Initially, the fruit of this passion was a book about fallen World War I soldiers of St Mark’s Catholic parish in Drummoyne, Sydney. Now he has 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 has contributed for publication in this issue of Reconnaissance the first installment of a three-part series about one of those men, Robert Henderson. Robert served with the 13th Battalion AIF at Gallipoli and later on the Western Front, where he was fatally wounded.

Also in this Reconnaissance, Dr John Haken provides another of his fact-filled profiles of a historical military unit, and the subject is opportune since it relates to the NSW Infantry which was later under the command of Hutton. John gives us facts and figures about the composition of the infantry arm of the NSW Permanent Forces between August 1971 and December 1872, including a table setting out every member of the staff and their period of service.

Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, we are fortunate to have received a topical article from military historian Dr Tom Lewis OAM, who reprises his compelling arguments supporting use of the atom bombs in World War II. Tom had presented these arguments in his well-received book Atomic Salvation (2020).

Next, David Wilson, our writer on militaria, has written an entertaining account of Captain Benjamin Chapman’s career as an officer of the 9th Light Dragoons in the Peninsular Campaign of Napoleonic Wars, which is also presented in this issue.

Finally, I thank all book reviewers for their fine efforts, including John Hall on Tom Gilling’s, Start Digging, You Bastards!, Dr David Martin on David Kenyon’s Arctic Convoys and Hugh White’s Hard New World, David Phillipson on Darren Prickett’s Crawl to Freedom, Dr Tom Lewis on Vic Hodgkinson’s My Flying Boat War, and Katrina Kittel on Edmund Goldrick’s Anzac Guerillas.

Reconnaissance is available to members of the Military History Society of NSW. Here's how to join: https://militaryhistorynsw.com.au/membership/