Congratulations to Lt Gen Sir John Kiszely in being the first recipient of the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History.

General Kiszely, member of the CCW Advisory Board, has been named as the first recipient of the Duke of Wellington Medal by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for his book, Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940. The winner emerged from a strong shortlist of authors writing on military history. 

RUSI's Duke of Wellington Medal aims to reward on an annual basis the best English language writing on military history, interpreted widely to include the role of the armed forces, the conduct of wars, and the impact of conflict on nations and societies, over any period up to the present day.

Anatomy of a Campaign (Cambridge University Press) looks at the British campaign in Norway in 1940, which was widely considered an ignominious and abject failure. General Kiszely draws on his own experience of working at all levels in the military to assess the campaign as a whole, its context and evolution from strategic failures, the intelligence blunders and German air superiority to the performance of the troops and the serious errors of judgement by those responsible for the higher direction of the war. His book contributes to the understanding of not only the outcome of the Norwegian campaign but also why more recent military campaigns have found success so elusive.