# Battlefield Witness > First-person witness accounts of history's greatest battles — Austerlitz, the Bulge, Trafalgar, and beyond. Research-driven military fiction you experience, not just read. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [About Battlefield Witness | Historical Military Fiction by Anders Lawerny](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/about.md) - Battlefield Witness is an independent historical fiction publication founded in May 2026 by Anders Lawerny. Every story published here is a first-person, immersive witness account of a real military engagement — from ancient Thermopylae to 20th-century special operations. The premise is simple: his… - [llms.txt](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/llms.md) - Battlefield Witness Immersive, research-driven military historical fiction by Anders Lawerny. Each story is written in first-person perspective, placing the reader directly inside a specific historical battle or military event. All stories are grounded in primary sources — memoirs, letters, unit di… ## Posts - [How Prussia Learned to Fight, 1757–1870](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/how-prussia-learned-to-fight-1757-1870.md) - What the Drums No Longer Said Frederick II, Scharnhorst, Moltke, the Duke of Brunswick, MacMahon, Wimpffen, and Napoleon III are historical figures, and the battles here follow the documented record as closely as fiction allows. Martin Lenz, Ludwig von Arnstett, Georg Bartel, and Reinhold Achterber… - [The hunt for Saddam Hussein, audio](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-hunt-for-saddam-hussein-audio.md) - This is a work of historical fiction. The operation, dates, locations, units, and outcome are drawn from the public record. The named operators — Holt, Ochoa, Webb — are invented composites; no real operator's identity from this raid has ever been publicly released, and none is claimed here. The Hu… - [A story of the SBS, Helmand Province, June 2006, audio](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-the-sbs-helmand-province-june-2006-audio.md) - The Ditch at Sangin The Ditch at Sangin BattlefieldWitnessCom0:00/810.9352381× Author's Note This story dramatises Operation Ilois, a real British Special Boat Service (SBS) action in the Sangin district of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in June 2006. A sixteen-man team from C Squadron SBS and the… - [A story of the Special Boat Service, Kabul, 15 April 2012](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-the-special-boat-service-kabul-15-april-2012.md) - Eight and a Half Hours The muezzin's call came in twice that morning before the shooting started, and Corporal Callum Fraser lay on a rooftop in Wazir Akbar Khan with his cheek against warm concrete and thought, not for the first time, that Kabul was the strangest posting a maritime raider could dr… - [How Do You Describe, in Words, Something That Can Only Be Understood by Living It?](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/how-do-you-describe-in-words-something-that-can-only-be-understood-by-living-it.md) - (A small prologue or draft, for a new story). 0:00 /10:33 1× Author’s note: A small prologue or draft of a new science fiction story, not based on a real event but a fiction, novel and drama through creative fascination, curiosity and experimental desire to develop a personal style and storytelling… - [A story of Apollo 11](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-apollo-11.md) - Cycle Stealing "Program alarm. It's a 1202." — Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Eagle, 20 July 1969, 20:17 UTC I. Houston, Texas & Cambridge, Massachusetts — 20 July 1969 Steve Bales had a console, a headset, and about twenty seconds. The Mission Operations Control Room smelled the way it always did du… - [Iranian Embassy siege story](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/iranian-embassy-siege-story.md) - Six Days at Prince's Gate A Story of Operation Nimrod, 30 April – 5 May 1980 A work of historical fiction Part One: The Call-Out The telephone in the corridor outside the squadron interest room rang twice before anyone moved, because in Hereford in the spring of 1980 a ringing telephone on a Wednes… - [Green Devils of Monte Cassino](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/green-devils-of-monte-cassino.md) - A German Fallschirmjäger's War, November 1943 – May 1944 I. The Road Below San Angelo November 1943 The trucks came down from the abbey at night, without headlamps, and the men of 6. Kompanie watched them pass from the ditch above the Via Casilina with the particular boredom of soldiers who have be… - [The Quesada Expedition and the Fall of Bacatá, 1536–1537](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-quesada-expedition-and-the-fall-of-bacata-1536-1537.md) - Audio story The Quesada Expedition BattlefieldWitnessCom0:00/2403.5201361× - [Sosylus of Lacedaemon and Hannibal Barca](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/sosylus-of-lacedaemon-and-hannibal-barca.md) - The Fourth Book Being the eighth book of Sosylus of Lacedaemon, which no one commissioned Ephesus, in the consulship of Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Quintus Fabius Labeo (the thirty-third year after the field at Cannae) The agent wanted the fourth book and nothing else. He was a Rhodian, or worked… - [Operation Desert Storm](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/operation-desert-storm.md) - Left Hook A story of Operation Desert Storm I. Riyadh — 6 August 1990 The map wasn't finished yet. That was the first thing Captain Diane Kessler noticed when she was walked into the annex behind the Ministry of Defense and Aviation building in Riyadh — a room still smelling of fresh paint and cut… - [Operation Jericho](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/operation-jericho.md) - The Straight Road A story of the de Havilland Mosquito. Based on the true events of Operation Jericho, 18 February 1944. The Amiens raid, its squadrons, timings, and the deaths of Group Captain Percy Pickard and Flight Lieutenant Bill Broadley are drawn from the historical record. Flying Officer To… - [The Great Siege of Malta](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-great-siege-of-malta.md) - The Arithmetic of Malta A story of the Great Siege, May–September 1565 I. The Confiscation Fra Anselm de Cardona, Commissioner of Provisions The Grand Master sent for him on the twentieth of May, two days after the fleet came in, and Cardona went up to the council chamber of St Angelo expecting to… - [The Golden Age of Piracy](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-golden-age-of-piracy.md) - Articles of Agreement A story of the Golden Age of Piracy, 1716–1718 I. HMS Seaflower, the Bahama Channel — March 1716 The cat came down nine times, and Thomas Rooke counted every one, because counting was the only thing left him. One. The rope bit through the wet shirt they'd left on him for the f… - [Jane Horney, documentary-drama](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/jane-horney-documentary-drama.md) - Eskimå A documentary-drama chapter on the life and death of Jane Horney (1918–1945) Prologue — Skåne, the Present The archive box is smaller than she expected boxes like this to be — a single grey folder-file, the security police's stamp faded to the colour of weak tea, a hundred and forty pages th… - [Stockholm WW2 spy center story](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/stockholm-ww2-spy-center-story.md) - Tjuvlyssnade, (eavesdropped) Stockholm, Autumn 1943 I. The trick was to look like you were waiting for someone who was late. Ingrid Sundqvist had learned this from Ternberg himself, in the flat above the tobacconist on Sibyllegatan, over coffee that had gone cold before either of them touched it. N… - [“The Weight of Signals”](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-weight-of-signals-2.md) - Further reading, follow link: The Weight of SignalsThe Battle of Trafalgar.Battlefield WitnessAnders Lawerny - [Thomas Francis Meagher and The Irish Brigade](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/thomas-francis-meagher-and-the-irish-brigade.md) - Twenty-Four Hours a Free Man The Early Life of Thomas Francis Meagher "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the Orange and the Green, and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood."… - [A story of New Sweden, 1638–1655](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-new-sweden-1638-1655.md) - The Far Shore I. The Deserter's Bargain Gothenburg, November 1637 They found Anders Persson in a fish cellar in Majorna, three weeks after he'd walked off the muster field outside Wolgast with his boots wrapped in sacking because the army had stopped issuing boots to men it no longer paid. He had b… - [The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-battle-of-the-catalaunian-fields.md) - The Hostage's Debt A story of the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, June 451 AD — told from within Aetius's own household I. Two Hostages Optila had been given away twice in his life, and both times it had made him, in the end, more valuable than the men who gave him. The first time he had been nin… - [A Story of Operation Chastise](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-operation-chastise.md) - After Me, the Flood, the Dambusters Raid, - Audio AStoryofOperationChastiseAudioBattlefieldWitness0:00/2371.6144671× - [A Story of Barnes Wallis](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-barnes-wallis.md) - THE WEIGHT OF THINGS For every man who ever looked at an impossible thing and refused, politely, to be told otherwise. I. The Tin Cans — Christ's Hospital, London, Autumn 1899 The schoolmaster's name was Aldred, and he smelled of chalk and pipe tobacco and the particular damp of a man who had spent… - [The Battle of Waterloo](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-battle-of-waterloo.md) - The Last Ground Waterloo, 18 June 1815 Part One: Before the Guns — Dawn to Eleven O'Clock The rain had stopped sometime before three in the morning, but nobody who was lying in the rye fields south of Mont-Saint-Jean had slept through it long enough to notice. The ground remembered. Every hollow ha… - [NO STEP BACK](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/www-battlefield-witness-com-a-story-of-stalingrad.md) - A Story of Stalingrad August 1942 — February 1943 "In the rubble of this city, two armies destroyed each other. What remained was neither victory nor defeat in any ordinary sense — it was the end of something in Europe, and the beginning of something else entirely." — General Vasily Chuikov, 62nd A… - [Frontier Provisions](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/frontier-provisions.md) - NECESSARY PROVISIONS FOR THE FRONTIER– For the Brave Soldier, the Hardy Cowboy & the Industrious Settler –THE COWBOY’S FAVORITE: ARBUCKLES’ ARIOSA COFFEE The Coffee that Won the West! - [Johnny Cakes and Journey Cake](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/johnny-cakes-and-journey-cake.md) - The Historical Significance of Johnny Cakes / johnnycakes: For early settlers and Revolutionary War soldiers, johnnycakes were a vital survival food. The Pilgrims at Plymouth learned to use cornmeal from the Pawtuxet and Narragansett peoples after their own wheat supplies spoiled during the voyage… - [The Swedish Carolean army](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-swedish-carolean-army.md) - "The River God Sends", a story of the Battle of Holowczyn, 4 July 1708. Voice reading: TheRiverGodSendsBattlefieldWitnessComNEW0:00/1427.4213151× - [The Shadow War of George Washington](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-shadow-war-of-george-washington-first-part.md) - A Historical Narrative Grounded in the records of the Continental Army, the Culper Ring correspondence, Benjamin Tallmadge's memoirs, and the papers of George Washington. "The necessity of procuring good intelligence is apparent and need not be further urged." — General George Washington, letter to… - [The Irish Brigade, voice reading part of this story](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-irish-brigade-voice-reading-part-of.md) - IrishBrigadepartofstory1byBattlefieldWitnessCom0:00/104.594251× The Irish BrigadeClear the Way A story of the Irish Brigade, Army of the Potomac, 1861–1862 I. Castle Garden, August 1861 He came off the ship at Castle Garden on a Tuesday morning in the third week of August, with four shillings and s… - [A British rescue operation](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-british-rescue-operation.md) - D Company, 1 PARA. Sierra Leone. 10 September 2000. I. The Chinook smelled of JP-8 aviation fuel, wet kit, and the particular quiet of men who had been told the odds and chosen not to discuss them. Danny Kavanagh sat with his SA80 between his knees and the dark bulk of the jungle somewhere below. T… - ["A Story of Intelligence" voice reading part four in this story](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-intelligence-voice-reading-part-four-in-this-story.md) - TirpitzpartfourbyBattlefieldWitnessCom0:00/173.6358751× A Story of IntelligenceThe Beast in the Fjord Part One: The Cardinal, 1941–1942 The hut smelled of damp wool and cigarette ash, of men who had been awake too long thinking too hard, and of something else beneath that — the particular tension o… - [A Story of Intelligence](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-intelligence.md) - The Beast in the Fjord Part One: The Cardinal, 1941–1942 The hut smelled of damp wool and cigarette ash, of men who had been awake too long thinking too hard, and of something else beneath that — the particular tension of people who know that what they are reading has already happened, that the men… - [The Irish Brigade](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-irish-brigade.md) - Clear the Way A story of the Irish Brigade, Army of the Potomac, 1861–1862 I. Castle Garden, August 1861 He came off the ship at Castle Garden on a Tuesday morning in the third week of August, with four shillings and sixpence sewn into the coat lining and a bruise on his left cheekbone from the las… - [THE FOG DOES NOT LIFT](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/battle-of-kawanakajima-1561.md) - A Story of the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima Hachimanbara Plain, Shinano Province. The eighteenth day of the ninth month, Eiroku 4. What the West would call October, 1561. I. Ōishi Ryōken set out his needles in order of length. This was a discipline from his first campaign, thirty years ago — a pan… - [STAR 41](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/star-41.md) - [OPERATION FIRE MAGIC](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/operation-fire-magic.md) - [Posca: The Ancient Roman Soldier Drink](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/posca-roman-soldier-drink.md) - [Battle of Panipat 1526 – Historical Witness Account](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/battle-of-panipat-1526-historical-witness-account.md) - Panipat, 21 April 1526 — A Witness Account I. Before Dawn The slow-match smelled of burning rope and something older — sulphur, the scent of the underworld made portable, tucked into the fingers of men who stood fifty paces apart along the length of the cart-wall. Mirza Yusuf had smelled it every e… - [WW2 Submarine Story – USS Garfish Fiction voice first part](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/ww2-submarine-story-uss-garfish-fiction-voice-first-part.md) - Voice reading the first part of this story USS GarfishfirstpartBattlefieldWitnessCom0:00/377.234251× WW2 Submarine Story – USS Garfish FictionUSS Garfish (SS-411) — South China Sea, fourteen miles southwest of Formosa October 1944 I. The smell came first, as it always did. Diesel and bilge-water an… - [The Last Lance](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-last-lance.md) - [THE ROAD TO PONTECORVO](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-road-to-pontecorvo.md) - 12 May 1944. A story from Operation Strangle — U.S. Twelfth Air Force, Italy. The valley was the greenest thing Ray Cafaro had seen in eleven months. He lay flat in the nose of the Mitchell, his chin maybe two feet above the Plexiglas, and watched Italy roll underneath him like something God had un… - [WW2 Submarine Story – USS Garfish Fiction](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/ww2-submarine-story-uss-garfish-fiction.md) - USS Garfish (SS-411) — South China Sea, fourteen miles southwest of Formosa October 1944 I. The smell came first, as it always did. Diesel and bilge-water and the particular sweetness of two dozen men's unwashed bodies compressed into a steel cylinder for thirty-one days — it lived in everything, y… - [The Sound Before the Dawn](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-sound-before-the-dawn.md) - [Fort Eben-Emael 1940 – Historical Fiction](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/fort-eben-emael-1940-historical-fiction.md) - Fort Eben-Emael, Belgium — 10 May 1940, 04:18–06:00 I. The Silence Before The rope went slack and then it was gone. Gefreiter Paul Renner felt it the way you feel a hand releasing yours in the dark — not the thing itself, only the absence of the thing. The tow cable had connected them to the Ju-52… - [Battle of Austerlitz Story – Witness Account](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/battle-of-austerlitz-story-witness-account-battlefield-witness.md) - 2 December 1805. A Moravian farmhand watches from the Pratzen Heights as Napoleon's trap closes on the Allied army. An immersive witness account of history's most perfect battle. - [Battle of Austerlitz Story – Witness Account ver 2](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/battle-of-austerlitz-story-witness-account.md) - December 2, 1805 — A Witness Account Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Napoleon Bonaparte commands 73,000 French troops against an Austro-Russian coalition of 85,000. It is the first anniversary of his coronation as Emperor. By nightfall it will be called his masterpiece. 04:30 — The Camp… - [The Ground He Stands On](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-ground-he-stands-on.md) - [Agincourt: The Archers of Saint Crispin](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/agincourt-the-archers-of-saint-crispin.md) - [Thermopylae historical fiction](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/thermopylae-historical-fiction.md) - A Spartan at Thermopylae, August 480 BC Before the Pass You smell it before you see it. The road north from Trachis bends around a shelf of limestone, and the wind comes off the Malian Gulf carrying salt and something else — a breath of sulphur, deep and mineral, rising from the earth itself. The s… - [Battle of the Bulge Fiction – Immersive Story](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/battle-of-the-bulge-fiction-immersive-story.md) - A story set during the Battle of the Bulge, Ardennes, Belgium — December 1944 I. She heard the guns before she woke. That was how it had been since Normandy — a part of her never fully slept, some small animal portion of the brain that stayed alert to the frequency of artillery, measuring the inter… - [The Weight of Signals](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/the-weight-of-signals.md) - The Battle of Trafalgar. - [A Story of the Fall of Singapore 8–15 February 1942](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/a-story-of-the-fall-of-singapore-8-15-february-1942.md) - [Coming soon](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/coming-soon.md) - This is Battlefield Witness, a brand new site by Anders Lawerny that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published! ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.battlefield-witness.com/llms-full.txt)