Italian bombing of Libya, 1911
May 2011

A discussion on the BBC World Service describing the first offensive use of airpower, by the Italian Army in Libya in November 1911.

Britain's Greatest General is Crowned
April 2011
By Ali Gibson


On Saturday 9 April five historians battled it out at the National Army Museum in London to argue that their hero had the military 'X Factor', the audience of military enthusiasts got to vote and decide the winner.

The five contenders came from across the centuries, Oliver Cromwell, The Duke of Wellington, The Duke of Marlborough, Douglas Haig and Bill Slim.

The TV presenter Peter Snow was one of those who took to the podium and he stressed how important it was to remember the great generals of our past. He said: “We owe our existence to our people, all these generals put the country together, we might be talking French if it hadn’t been for Wellington....”

After a heated afternoon of discussion and debate at the National Army Museum it was time to vote for a winner. But the crowd couldn’t decide on just one winner so in joint first place Bill Slim and The Duke of Wellington were both crowned Britain’s Greatest Generals.

Both historians representing them, Robert Lyman and Peter Snow were delighted. Robert Lyman expressed that he was: ''hugely excited, Slim has been the forgotten general, this vote places him on his rightful pedestal.”

The two winners were more than a century apart, but they are clearly both recognised for the way they changed British military techniques and helped form the British Army we have today.

Source: British Forces News

See also BBC News

Japan's last Bid for Victory: The Invasion of India, 1944

Due to be published by Pen and Sword in 2011. In this book, the first modern narrative account of the Japanese attempt to breach India’s eastern defences in 1944, Robert Lyman tells the story through the eyes of British, Japanese and Naga participants.  

Fergal Keane, author of The Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944 has commented on the book: "Robert Lyman is one of the great writers about men and war and in this book he has succeeded magnificently in conveying the courage, genius and folly of an epic struggle. I cannot think of a writer engaged in the subject of the Second World War who can match Lyman for his integrity or the soundness of his judgements."

Quercus has acquired Robert Lyman’s Operation Suicide: The True Story of the Cockleshell Raid, a canoe-based raid by British commandos and their subsequent escape through France and Spain during the Second World War, which no one was expected to survive.  

Quercus will publish in 2012.  The book will tell the story of the 1942 raid, from the time it was conceived through to its execution, and the escapes and captures which followed. It will also focus on the French Resistance together with the extraordinary efforts by the English aristocrat Mary Lindell and her underground team to help Allied servicemen escape through Occupied France.  

Richard Milner of Quercus said: “I’m thrilled to welcome Robert Lyman to Quercus with such a break-out book, and we look forward to growing his reputation as one of our finest narrative military historians.”

Robert Lyman at Oxford Literary Festival 2010

Robert attended the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on 27 March 2010 alongside veterans of the Siege of Tobruk (both British and German) in a session compeered by Jim Naughtie of the BBC.  

(L-R) 90 year old Ray Ellis, late of the South Notts Hussars, Rudolf Schneider, late of the Afrika Korps and a member of Rommel’s personal battle company, the author, and David Freeman of SkyTV.