Officially, the First World War shows a numerically inferior and less successful German air force on the Western Front somehow standing its ground. Although it's known that official Entente numbers were inflated, they continue to be used, making comparative study impractical. To explain the German contradiction, a proper basis for comparison must first be established. For that, the performance of all Blue Max Level aces (the top scoring 225 flyers) and 10,000 air-to-air claims was analysed, using 250,000 data points. This new approach, confirmed pro rata airplane claims analysis, allows comparison, explains the success, and offers surprising new insights.
This article investigates Soviet air power in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), focusing on the interplay between operational experience, industrial constraints, and technological adaptation. Using Russian State Military Archive materials and firsthand reports from personnel in Spain, it demonstrates that the USSR actively learned from the conflict, shaping aircraft design, pilot training, and doctrinal reforms. Yet structural limits - production bottlenecks, engine shortages, and the Great Purges - slowed implementation. External pressures, including aid to China and the Non-Intervention framework, further constrained support. The study reveals how systemic and transnational factors restricted the Soviet Air Force's capacity to capitalise on Spanish experience, offering insights into Soviet air power before Operation Barbarossa.
This article investigates how the Swedish state's supply system was organized during the campaign against Napoleon in 1805-1807, and how the state-merchant cooperation, which was so important for the outcome of military campaigns, functioned during the war. The article utilizes the concept of the 'contractor state' to comprehend how the Swedish system operated. The results show that the supply system was based on warehouses which were supplied by local resources, but also with supplies that originated from Holstein, Livonia and Scania. These supplies arrived in the warehouses through the assistance of merchants in places such as L & uuml;beck and Stralsund.
In spring 1918, a surge in volunteering occurred in Britain in response to the German Spring Offensive. Those who ‘volunteered’ were portrayed by the press as embodying the language of enthusiasm and the idea of national defence. Yet, when examined more closely, this characterisation does not hold. This article argues that this ‘rush to the colours’ owed less to a spontaneous resurgence of voluntary spirit than to coercive institutional practices, reframed as voluntarism to preserve the legitimacy of national identity. There is a need to reconceptualise wartime propaganda by paying closer attention to the narrative purposes served by newspaper language.
