Acting
Mike Peters was an Army Air Corps Officer who has been leading battlefield tours for more than twenty years. He joined the Army in 1980 at the age of 16 as a Junior Leader and progressed through a busy career to become a Regimental Sergeant Major. He was commissioned from the ranks in the year 2000. Mike's final job was as a Major working as a staff officer in the Attack Helicopter Force. Mike has extensive operational experience in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq where he served during both Gulf wars. He has recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. This experience and knowledge of tactics, give him a soldier's eye for ground and the implications of terrain on the weapon systems of your chosen period. He has a passion for military history which he combines with his own military experiences when working as a battlefield guide. He strives to place his audience on the field of battle with enough insight to understand the realities of battle, while helping them to imagine what the soldiers of the day saw and felt. This focus allows the listener to look at the battle from the inside out; this is of course every battlefield guides aim. The campaigns of Wellington are Mike's favorite subject area although he is equally at home working with groups on the battlefields of the Great War. Most recently he has begun to specialize in leading Australian and New Zealand groups over the ANZAC battlefields of Flanders. Intimate knowledge of modern Air Assault operations also enables Mike to focus on the detail of the parachute and glider operations of World War Two. He regularly leads tours visiting the Landing Zones of Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing. Mike enjoys touring with school groups or adults and is regularly to be found on the continent working for Anglia Tours or leading battlefield studies with military groups. He regularly contributes articles to military journals and magazines. Mike is also a published author – he wrote 'Glider Pilots at Arnhem' – a book on the exploits of The Glider Pilot Regiment during Operation Market Garden. He has also worked as a presenter with Battlefield History TV, being involved in films on Pegasus Bridge, The Glider Pilot Regiment, Operation Market Garden and the Waterloo campaign. His latest book is on the British Airborne landings on Sicily. Mike was awarded his guild badge by the late Richard Holmes in November 2005 and was Vice Chairman of the guild from 2010-2011. Mike was appointed Guild Chairman in late 2011.
95th Rifles 1809 to Salamanca is the second DVD in 95th Rifles trilogy of films and part of The Peninsular Collection from BHTV . The DVD explores the history of the 95th Rifles, who were masters of the battlefield and particularly skilled in skirmishing. Held in high esteem by the French and Allies alike, they played a momentous role in the outcome of the Peninsular War. Following the events set out in the Salamanca DVD, this film serves as a prequel to explain the years leading up to the Battle of Salamanca, starting with the aftermath of Sir John Moore’s retreat to La Corunna in the winter of 1808/1809.
This film gives an overview of Napoleons return to France in 1815 before covering in detail the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. Filmed on the Battlefields in Belgium using re-enaction footage expert Presenters follow the Emperors brilliant initial plan which however soon begins to fall apart due to flaws in the French staff, Napoleons arrogance and the courage and fighting ability of the Allied Troops. Both these battles deserve to be better known but they have been overshadowed by Waterloo the culmination of the Campaign
On the 22nd of August 1914 the recently deployed BEF fought and delayed the German First Army of Von Kluck in around the industrial coal mining town of Mons. After 2 days of hard fighting the 3rd and 5th Division of II Corps, assisted by the Cavalry division, having borne the brunt of the battle withdrew South West in the direction of Paris. Whilst this battle was in reality a minor Corps action, when taken in the context of the Great War, it showed that the British regular soldier was more than a match for the German army when he was properly led and not vastly outnumbered by guns and men. This film shot on the battlefield tells the story of this 2 day battle bringing out the heroism and skill of the”Old Contemptible s “in delaying and escaping from Von Kluck’s attacking force of 6 Infantry and 5 Cavalry Divisions.
As Gen Smith-Dorrien’s II Corps retreated from Mons, along with rest of the BEF, they were closely pursued by Von Kluck’s Army. On reaching Le Cateau on 25th Aug Smith- Dorrien realized he would have to stand and fight if his Corps was not going to be picked of piecemeal by the Germans. This film follows the fortunes of II Corps on the 26th Aug as they faced the 12 Divisions of the 1st German Army. Once again the skill, bravery and training of the officers and men off II Corps were able to delay the Germans for long enough to allow them to withdraw as a formed force and live to fight another day. Not a victory but a success. The Old Contemptibles lived to fight another day.
In 1415 a small English Army consisting mainly of Yeoman English and Welsh archers defeated and destroyed a much larger French army consisting mainly of the nobility of France at Agincourt. This film follows Henry Vth's campaign from his landing near Harfleur, his costly successful siege and his desperate attempts to cross the River Somme and escape to Calais culminating in the Battle of Agincourt on 25th Oct 1415. The BHTV team of military historians take you through the battle separating myth from fact to tell the true story of one of the most epic episodes of English history. The story is brought to life with re-enactment footage, maps and is shot on location in France.
On 11 July 1346 Edward III's Anglo/Welsh army landed at St Vaast in the Cotentin Peninsula. Over 12 months this army won 3 major battles Caen, Blanchtaque and Crecy and captured Calais, which would remain in English hands until 1558.This campaign was the first major chapter in the story of what was later called the 100 years War.This campaign is not only notable for the military victories of Edward and his army but for the way it reshaped warfare on the continent, the English had arrived as a major military player. The use of Chevauchee employed by Edward's army whilst not new was used in an intelligent manner to bring the French to battle. Once the French were brought to battle Edward's Army, consisting mainly of yeoman archers and infantry, was able to beat and destroy the French Army consisting mainly of nobles by a combination of leadership, tactics, discipline, courage and technology (The Long Bow).
With the Battle of the Aisne grinding to a halt as trench warfare gradually set in, both the German and Allied commanders realised the dominance of the defensive, established by quick firing artillery and the machinegun, meaning that casualties in frontal attacks on a dug-in enemy were enormously heavy. Consequently, the armies sought to outflank the opposition by heading north in a set of manoeuvres known as the Race to the Sea. During this phase Field Marshal French insisted on redeploying the British Expeditionary Force to the Allied left, nearer the Chanel ports.
On the 6th June 1944, Maj Howard’s Coy of the OX & Bucks LI carried out one of the greatest and most successful small unit actions in history in capturing the two Orne Bridges as a precursor to D Day. The initial part of the film traces the development of the British Airborne Forces to the stage where they can play a major part in the allied plan to storm Hitler’s Fortress Europe. The BHTV team then tell the story of this heroic action and the equally heroic follow up actions of 7 Para in holding the bridges against the might of 21st Pz Div. This action exemplified the British soldier at his best whether in The Glider Pilot Regiment, The Glider Infantry ( Ox & Bucks)or the Parachute Regiment, all showed courage skill and commitment.
Following on from Hougoumont and D'Erlon's Attack, Part III starts just as the great battle reaches its crisis point. Marshal Ney launched thousands of France's finest heavy cavalry against Wellington's thinning lines who had already taken a terrible battering on the Mont St Jean Ridge. Wave after wave of armoured horsemen broke against the steady squares of British, Dutch/Belgian and German troops. The crisis, however, took a further turn for the worse as the key bastion in Wellington's centre, the fortified farm of La Haie Sainte, fell to the French onslaught. The way to Brussels was now open and Wellington muttered, 'Give me Blucher or give me night'. With the situation looking bleaker by the second for Wellington and his troops, Napoleon fatefully hesitated to complete the coup de grace as the Prussians had closed in on his right flank at the Village of Plancenoit. Would the Young Guard be able to hold Blucher's men? There was all still to play for.
Following on from Ligny and Quatre Bras, Part II starts by focusing on the concentration of the Allies on the ridge of Mont St Jean and the plans of the opposing armies. While the guns of the Grand Battery thundered in the centre, French columns bore down on the Hougoumont chateau and farm complex, which protected Wellington's flank held by the Guards and their German allies. Thus began an epic 'battle within a battle' that sucked away valuable troops from Napoleon's main attack, causing Wellington to declare that 'the battle turned on the closing of the gates at Hougoumont'.Meanwhile D'Erlons Corps attempted to bludgeon its way through Wellington's centre, not knowing that the British and Dutch line was in waiting on the reverse slope. Upon seeing the French advance, the British released a disciplined volley of musket fire that checked the French. A further brilliantly timed charge by the Household and Union Cavalry Brigades finally saw the French off.