Featured battle : Jidballeh

Part of Operations against the "Mad Mullah"

Date : 10 January 1904

The 4th Expedition against the Mullah called for greater Forces. General Egerton succeeded Brigadier Manning who had led the 3rd Expedition. The 1st Bn Royal Hampshire Regt and two battalions of the Indian Army were added to the Force. The Royal Navy provided backup, patrolling the coastline and preventing the running of arms to support the dervishes. Two major engagements took place the first of which, at Jidballeh on 10th January 1904 involved the greatest number on both sides up to that time. It resulted in the disintegration of the Mullahs army but not to his capture or removal from the Protectorate. The second battle, a joint service engagement, took place at Illig on the East Coast of the Horn of Africa on the 21st April 1904

Man of War

Anthony Sullivan
Having very recently read about the development of the supply system for the Baltic fleet [see Transformation of British Naval Strategy review on this site] I developed an interest in the career of Admiral Saumarez. Quite fortuitously I found Anthony Sullivan's new book on the life of the man himself. The book covers the whole of his life and, as one would expect from the title, gives a lot of information about his naval career. The ships he served on, the ships he commanded, the squadrons and fleets he eventually led, as well as the actions he was in are all there. Saumarez did not fight in the battle of Trafalgar and, to the authors credit, that battle gets only a paragraph in passing. The author has done his research and does not need to pad out the narrative. The book is without illustrations but has a sufficient number of maps and battle plans to support the text.
Saumarez was a remarkable fighter, a true naval hero, a family man and a man of his time who was not free of some minor blemishes this I know from reading this excellent book.
Frontline Books. Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2017