British Historian to Speak on WWI and WWII Alliances

Gary Sheffield

LEXINGTON, Va., March 19, 2013 – Alliances during World War I and World War II will be the topic of a talk to be given Thursday evening, March 21, at Virginia Military Institute. The speaker will be Gary Sheffield, chair of war studies and director of military history at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

The talk, titled “Coalitions Compared: A Perspective on Alliance Warfare in World War I and World War II,” will take place at 7:45 p.m. in the Turman Room in Preston Library.

Sheffield’ s most recent publication is The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army (London: 2011), which was shortlisted for the prestigious Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature. With John Bourne, he is currently editing the World War I papers and diaries of Gen. Sir Henry Rawlinson. He has published widely on the military history of the two world wars.

Sheffield has served as professor of modern history and land warfare historian on the Higher Command and Staff Course in the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London based at the United Kingdom’s Joint Services Command and Staff College at Shrivenham. He began his teaching career at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

The talk, which is open to the public free of charge, is sponsored by the John C. Biggs ‘30 Cincinnati Chair in Military History and the George J. Collins ‘62 Chair in Military History and Strategic Analysis.

–VMI–