In this one, we get deep into one of the most famous battles of the medieval period, Arsuf, which was and also one of the most startling victories ... not least because Richard the Lionheart’s crusader army, though it triumphed on that day, was forced to endure incredibly harsh conditions. I thus thought that it might be an interesting exercise to single out ten famous historical battles in which the geophysical conditions were so appalling that they themselves would have been sufficient to break most armies.
Before we do any of that, I’d just like to say a little bit more about ...
Though I’m perhaps better known as a writer for my crime-thriller novels and my horror short stories, during the Covid crisis, when I had a bit more time on my hands than usual, I started work on a historical action-adventure series.
A blistering, rip-roaring read...
At last, the definitive story of the battle of Hastings and its aftermath...
That said, I’m sorry to report that those two books didn’t sell massively well. I’m certainly not as well known as PW Finch (my historical novel nom-de-plume) as I am by my real name, Paul Finch. So, I’m hoping that the arrival of this new series, which follows the adventures of a crusader knight, Thurstan Wildblood, a straight-line descendent from my original Saxon heroes, will go some way to amending that.
However one big difference with THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT is that there are possible supernatural overtones. I should hastily add that this isn’t a straight-up ghost story though there is a lot of horror in there, much of it of the manmade variety - I don’t believe in depicting battles in anything other than their true, gaudiest, goriest colours - but there are elements of demonic horror in this one as well.
How far do we go with that? How much of it is genuinely a tale of Hell unleashed on Earth?
For those interested, we join Thurstan Wildblood while he is Knight-Commander of Richard the Lionheart’s elite Familia Regis (or Household Guard). In the late 12th century, that would be an unusual position for an Englishman to occupy, as most the knights in Britain at that time were descended from the Normans who settled here after 1066. However, several of the rulers between William the Conqueror and Richard the Lionheart believed in rewarding good service, in particular Richard’s father, Henry II. And it was under Henry that Thurstan’s family, originally the Saxon earls of Ripon, who subsequently lost much of their influence during the Conquest, were restored to mightiness by being additionally invested with the much more powerful Earldom of Radnor, though now of course they are expected to fight continuously in the name of the king.
In 1190, when Richard the Lionheart takes his vast Anglo-Norman army to the Holy Land, Thurstan, younger brother of the current Earl of Radnor, is already a veteran of several wars and a very accomplished knight. When we first meet him, he’s an unsmiling, taciturn character who gives little away, but as Knight-Commander of Richard’s elite guard, he has a reputation for utter ruthlessness. This is counterbalanced somewhat by his squire, Pandulf, a likeable if overly trusting lad who is confident that under Thurstan’s cold exterior there's a good man waiting to come out, and his close friend, Bertrand du Voix, Knight-Banneret of the Familia Regis, and an obsessive follower of Christ who is convinced that only by recapturing Jerusalem will his soul be saved.
I'm not going to say too much more about it. If you want to explore the synopsis a little further, I was quite free with that info in the previous blogpost to this one. Just scroll down from here.
I should also mention at this stage that the second in the Wildblood series, THE DARK ARMY, an essential continuation of the first book, will be published next spring. If I say so, myself, I’m very pleased with both of these novels. A lot of effort went into them: that all-important research of course, while I also went out of my way in the writing to really try to capture the atmosphere of the crusading era and the high Middle Ages, and of course to make those all important battle scenes, of which there are plenty, as gritty, bloody and bone-crunchingly realistic as possible.
On the subject of which, as promised ...
SLAUGHTER IN THE SUN ... AND THE RAIN, AND THE SNOW, AND THE MUD
I’ve already said that THE DEVIL'S KNIGHT includes what I hope is a very vivid recreation of the battle of Arsuf, which took place on the Syrian coast midway between Acre and Jaffa, on September 7 1191. It’s often cited as one of several battles in which Richard the Lionheart established his credentials as a masterly general. In a nutshell, Richard, riding at the head of the crusader column (or ‘the Pilgrims’, as they were referred to at the time), which was about 18,000 strong, was ambushed by a numerically vastly superior Turkish army (approx 30,000), and yet overwhelmed it in a single action, which the Lionheart had planned for an advance and executed to perfection. Leading from the front as he always did (which ultimately was the death of him, though not on this occasion), he routed his opponents with exceptional ferocity. As always in that era, the casualty numbers are uncertain, but at Arsuf they roughly approximated 7,000 men slain on the Turkish side, compared to 1,000 of the crusaders.
The secret of Richard’s success lay in his always keeping ships of the fleet coast at hand, so that his army was constantly supplied with foot and fresh water without having to weigh themselves down as they marched. On occasions the temperatures rose to what we’d now consider the high 40s, and yet they endured as far as Arsuf, at which point the Turks, under the command of Sultan Saladin himself, finally decided that their foe was surely weakened enough and thus launched a massed attack. However, Richard had prepared for this by marching his army in strict battle formation, so all they needed to do was make a swift lefthand turn and they could counter-attack immediately, which they did, scoring an astonishing if gruesome victory.
I give more details about Arsuf in the book, though you can find plenty online as well.
The upshot is that all this got me thinking about other battles in which the combatants were forced to suffer the most heart-breaking geographic and meteorological conditions. Thinking it would be interesting to dig out some of the worst, I started rummaging through my history books, and the ten I finally settled on, I’ve listed below.
Before we start, you’ll notice some obvious absences. And that’s because the most obvious are already so well documented that they drip off the tongue quite easily. For example, the two worst battles in history in this regard would have to be Passchendaele (Jul-Nov 1917), and Stalingrad (Jul 1942-Feb 1943).
In the former, of course, 440,000 British and British Empire soldiers were lost, compared to Germany’s 400,000, during indescribably savage fighting across the sort of hellscape that even the most imaginative horror artists couldn’t have conceived: miles of mud, twisted wire, water-filled craters, bombed towns and shell-blasted trees, and all of it cloaked in mustard gas.
In the latter meanwhile, Hitler’s previously invincible 6th Army was annihilated to the tune of 1,500,000 men (though the Russians also lost 1,300,000) in the fiery and yet deep-frozen ruins of that huge industrial city on the River Volga, neither side giving an inch as they contested every room and street in one of the most gruelling battles in human history.
But as I say, Stalingrad and Passchendaele are known the world over for exemplifying the very worst that warfare can offer ... and as conflicts that took place under conditions that couldn’t have been more testing if they'd been on Mars or Venus. And so now, purely for interest, and in historical order, I’ve listed these other, lesser known in general terms perhaps, but nevertheless nightmarish engagements that were also notable for the grotesque conditions experienced by those involved.
(I have done my level best to use real paintings by real artists to illustrate each one of these momentous events in history. Where the artist has not been credited, that is because I could find no details. If anyone would like to drop a name or two in the comments section, please feel free and I will promptly rectify. The image at the top, meanwhile, is Dull Gret by Pieter Bruegel the Elder).
1 BATTLE OF THE RIVER TREBIA (December, 218 BC)
The first major battle of the Second Punic War, when a large, well-equipped Roman army, at least 40,000 strong, was fatally lax in its preparations: it hadn’t eaten properly, and then had to wade the heavy waters of the fast-flowing, ice-filled River Trebia, emerging in deep snow and bitterly cold winter wind, thus gaining no respite, many in fact dying from hypothermia, while the well-rested Carthaginian force, similar in size and each man smeared with oil to hold off the cold, came on at full strength. It was another massive victory for Hannibal. He lost 3,000 of his own men, but slew 20,000 Romans.
2 BATTLE OF CARRHAE (June, 53 BC)
Famous for his defeat of Spartacus and subsequent crucifixion of 6,000 captured slaves, Roman general Marcus Crassus met his match when marching against the Parthian Empire. His army of 45,000 legionaries (seven whole legions) slogged across the burning sands of the Mesopotamian desert with inadequate water supplies, ravaged by dust storms and constant arrow showers courtesy of bands of Parthian light cavalry. By the time full battle was joined, the Romans were exhausted and parched, and easy prey for the Parthians, who suffered only minimal losses compared to the Romans’ 30,000.
3 BATTLE OF THE TEUTOBERG (September, 9 AD)
The seemingly nonstop conquests of Augustus, first emperor of the Roman Empire, came to a grinding halt with this hideous bloodbath, three confident legions finding themselves lured into the depths of the great forest of the Teutoberg, where pounding rain and knee-deep mud monstrously hampered their advance. In addition, it was a world of deep shadows and infinite close-packed trees, which the Romans had no experience of. When barbarian prince, Arminius, and his black-and-green-painted warriors attacked, the overly straggled-out legionaries had no hope. 20,000 of them died, to 5,000 Germans. (Painting by Paja Jovanovic).
4 BATTLE OF TOWTON (March, 1461)
The bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil, when, at the height of the Wars of the Roses, 30,000 Lancastrians squared up against 30,000 Yorkists. Despite its Palm Sunday date, it was fought during an intense blizzard, which prevented the rival commanders from manoeuvring effectively, resulting in a colossal, nonstop melee, knights and men-at-arms engaging toe-to-toe in mud, blood and thickly churned snow, while both sides struck at each other relentlessly with massed ranks of longbowmen. The House of York won despite losing 10,000 men. The House of Lancaster meanwhile lost double that. (Painting by Richard Caton Woodville).
5 BATTLE OF INKERMAN (November, 1854)
The Crimean War was notable for extreme incompetence from the high command and incredible courage from the rank and file. But the difficulties of this particular battle were presented by a dense, freezing fog, which descended onto the icy battlefield at the beginning of the day and remained throughout, reducing visibility to no more than a couple of feet. Nevertheless, solid blocks of primarily British troops (with some French assistance) held their positions against waves of Russian cavalry and infantry, and won a stunning victory, losing 4,000 men to the Russians’ 12,000. (Painting by Marjorie Weatherstone).
6 BATTLE OF LAKE NAROCH (March, 1916)
A lesser-known affair in the West, which nevertheless came to define the insanity of frontal infantry assaults. Originally planned for WW1’s frozen-solid Eastern Front, this Russian spring offensive fell victim to an unexpected thaw, which turned the entire battlefield into a literal swamp. The assaults went ahead anyway, entire regiments disappearing into the mud, many simply drowning, the rest destroyed by machine gunning, mortar fire and flamethrowers. Incredibly, some gains were made, but Russian losses were eye-popping, 110,000 to Germany’s 20,000 (12,000 said to have died from hypothermia).
7 BATTLE OF MONTE CASSINO (January-May, 1944)
One of the most horrific battles on WW2’s Western Front, and though an important Allied victory, costly beyond imagining. A 240,000-strong force, comprising many international armies, but built around a core of British and Americans, stormed a series of mountain strongholds held by elite German companies in central Italy. Heavy snow in the early stages, followed by torrential rain, and finally blazing heat led to astonishing hardship, but the terrain itself, rocky and steeply sloped created a battle of attrition that was more reminiscent of WW1. The Allies lost 55,000 men to the Germans’ 20,000. (Painting by Peter McIntyre).
8 BATTLE OF KOHIMA (April-June, 1944)
A relatively small battle by WW2 standards, this ferocious engagement was still of vital importance, a besieged British and Indian force repelling the Japanese invasion of India. The outnumbered Allied forces held on stubbornly despite monsoon conditions, extreme heat, jungle sores, swarms of biting insects and a lack of clean water. There was much hand-to-hand fighting, bayonets and machetes against fiercely-wielded katanas, but dogged determination won the day, the Japanese withdrawing, having lost 7,000 men to the Allies’ 4,000. The National Army Museum proclaimed it ‘Britain's greatest battle’. (Painting by Peter Dennis).
9 BATTLE OF THE CHOSIN RESERVOIR (November-December, 1950)
Though a technical victory for the Chinese over the UN, this key battle of the Korean War is notable also for the astonishingly hard conditions - it was fought out over 17 brutal days in the midst of an Arctic freeze - and for the incredible courage of the 1st US Marine Division, who spearheaded the UN assault across extensive frozen marshland, finally breaking a numerically superior encirclement by the Chinese and enabling UN forces to retreat south to the safety of the 38th parallel (leading to the stalemate we know today). The UN lost 13,900 to the Chinese’s 60,000 (many of the latter from cold). (Painting by James Dietz).
10 BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHU (March-May, 1954)
Despite the heroics of the French Foreign Legion, who parachuted into the action to reinforce their encircled comrades in this climactic battle of the 1st Indochina War, it was a massive overall defeat for the French Union (the old French Empire) by the Viet Minh (the communist-led Vietnamese nationalist coalition). It was earmarked by sustained artillery bombardments, massed infantry assaults and bitter, trench-to-trench fighting. Again, it was a grim tale of harsh terrain, monsoon rain and suppurating mud. The French lost 4,000 to the Vietnamese’s 14,000, but it signalled the end of French power in Vietnam. (Painting by Craig Wilson).
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