Питер Харт0.0 The best way to understand what it was like to fight in the Second World War is to see it through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it. The South Notts Hussars fought at almost every major battle of the Second World War, from the Siege of Tobruk to the Battle of El Alamein and the D-Day Landings.
Here, Peter Hart draws on detailed interviews conducted with members of the regiment, to provide both a comprehensive account of the conflict and reconstruct its most thrilling moments in the words of the men who experienced it.
This is military history at its best: outlining the path from despair to victory, and allowing us to share in soldiers' hopes and fears; the deafening explosions of the shells, the scream of the diving Stukas and the wounded; the pleasures of good comrades and the devastating despair at lost friends.
Prit Buttar0.0 A detailed and engrossing account of the final year of fighting in Ukraine during World War II, making use of the extensive memoirs of German and Russian soldiers involved in the fighting, as well as partisans behind the German lines, to bring the story to life.
By the end of 1944 the Red Army was poised on the very frontiers of the Third Reich. How had the once unstoppable, mighty Wehrmacht faltered so disastrously? Certainly it had suffered defeats before, in particular the vast catastrophe of Stalingrad, but it was in 1944 that the war was ultimately lost. It was no longer a case of if but rather when the Red Army would be at the gates of Berlin.
Prit Buttar retraces the ebb and flow of the various battles and campaigns fought throughout the Ukraine and Romania in 1944. January and February saw Army Group South encircled in the Korsun Pocket. Although many of the encircled troops did escape, in part due to Soviet intelligence and command failures, the Red Army would endeavor to not make the same mistakes again. Indeed, in the coming months the Red Army would demonstrate an ability to learn and improve, reinventing itself as a war-winning machine, demonstrated clearly in its success in the Iasi-Kishinev operation.
The view of the Red Army as a huge, unskilled horde that rolled over everything in its path is just one myth that The Reckoning reassess. So too does it re-evaluate the apparent infallibility of German military commanders, the denial of any involvement in (or often even knowledge of) the heinous crimes committed in the occupied territories by German forces, and the ineffectiveness of Axis allies, such as the Romanians at Iasi, to withstand the Soviet forces. Like all myths, these contain many truths, but also a great many distortions, all of which are skillfully unpicked and analysed in this powerful retelling of 1944 on the Eastern Front.
Will Iredale0.0 The incredible story of the crack team of men and women who transformed RAF Bomber Command and helped the Allies deliver decisive victory over Nazi Germany.
The Pathfinders were ordinary men and women from a range of nations who revolutionised the efficiency of the Allies' air campaign over mainland Europe. They elevated Bomber Command - initially the only part of the Allied war effort capable of attacking the heart of Nazi Germany - from an impotent force on the cusp of disintegration in 1942 to one capable of razing whole German cities to the ground in a single night, striking with devastating accuracy, inspiring fear and loathing in Hitler's senior command.
With exclusive interviews with remaining survivors, personal diaries, previously classified records and never-before seen photographs, The Pathfinders brings to life the characters of the airmen and women - many barely out of their teens - who took to the skies in legendary British aircraft such as the Lancaster and the Mosquito, facing almost unimaginable levels of violence from enemy fighter planes to strike at the heart of the Nazi war machine.
Sophie Ambler0.0 A biography of one of the Middle Ages' most controversial, reckless, and heroic figures
Born in France in the early thirteenth century to a crusading father of the same name, Simon de Montfort traveled to England in his adulthood, where he claimed the earldom of Leicester and ingratiated himself into King Henry III's inner circles. Initially a trusted advisor, Simon's good relationship with the king did not last. Frustrated by the increasing injustice meted out to his subjects, Simon would go on to rebel against him, marching on the king's hall at Westminster and leading England's first revolution, and imposing a parliamentary system on Henry's rule.
Montfort's life touched on nearly every notable event of the thirteenth century, from the holy wars being fought both abroad and closer to home, to the rebellion against the Plantagenets, to his campaigns against Jews in Leicester. The account of his death in battle-swinging his sword to the last-is one of the most graphic ever written of a medieval battlefield. Ambler provides a living portrait of the Middle Ages, brimming with illuminating insights into religion, society, the nobility, warfare, and daily life. In the words of bestselling historian Dan Jones, Ambler is "a dazzlingly talented historian" and her book on Simon de Montfort "marks the arrival of a formidably gifted historian."
Rick Blom0.0 Among the numerous books that have been written about the First World War, Hunger stands out for its focus on the role of food in this bloodiest and most gruesome of conflicts. Dutch historian Rick Blom has created a fascinating and absorbing narrative from a wide range of source material, including personal diaries by active servicemen and civilians, historical accounts, food manuals, recipe books, and interviews with veterans. Direct quotes from diaries are deftly merged with an account of the war’s progress from the standpoint of the three principal nations involved: Britain, France, and Germany. Interwoven are vivid descriptions of the author’s own attempts at experiencing at first hand what it must have been like to be active in combat. Working as a sous-chef in a recreated field kitchen, he takes part in a re-enactment and later spends three cold, hungry, solitary days and nights in a restored trench. Throughout, the author’s focus remains firmly on food, or rather the lack of it, and everything related to it: production, distribution, preparation, quantities, and how these issues influenced the outcome of the war. Recipes from wartime sources conclude each chapter. Hunger makes for a gripping and at times harrowing read. Written by a historian from a country that was neutral during the war, this work offers a new perspective on the conflict on the centenary of the armistice.
John Nichol0.0 Praise for Spitfire: A Very British Love Story
‘The best book you will ever read about Britain’s greatest warplane.’ Patrick Bishop author of Fighter Boys
‘As the RAF marks its centenary, Nichol has created a thrilling and often moving tribute to some of its greatest heroes.’ Mail on Sunday
‘A stirring portrait of a piece of aviation art in motion flown by the bravest of the brave. Nichol’s Spitfire is still a sky-borne prima ballerina that kicks like Bruce Lee.’ RAF News
‘A superb journey through the remarkable tale of that British icon, the Spitfire. Brilliantly and engagingly written . . . Truly stunning.’ Andy Saunders, aviation historian
‘A rich and heartfelt tribute to this most iconic British machine. Focusing on the men (and women) who flew the Spitfire, John Nichol has brought a fresh and powerful perspective to the story. By recording their bravery, humility, camaraderie, tragedy and sheer joy in flying their beloved Spits he has done them, and us, a valuable service.’ Rowland White, author of Vulcan 607
‘A superb and compelling book. Brilliantly written with some incredible and astonishing stories; it is gripping, moving, emotional and sometimes humorous – just perfect.’ Squadron Leader (Ret) Clive Rowley, former Officer Commanding RAF Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight
‘There are not many of us left, most of us who survive are over 95 and this is a story of young men. We were the cutting edge of the ‘Shining Sword’ that Bomber Harris dubbed the Lancaster. We survived the Bomber Offensive in which 55,573 — almost half — of our friends and colleagues gave their lives to stop Hitler ruling the world. We are now a whole generation older than the young men and women who serve today and in a few years we will all be gone. Historians will then be able to throw around their insouciant opinions about what we did with no contradiction by those who were there. When we are gone our stories of flying and fighting the Lancaster should not die with us. We are the last witnesses to the legend of the Lancaster and those who fought and died within its metal body.’ - Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Beetham
After its maiden flight on 5th January 1941, Lancaster chief test pilot Sam Browne said, ‘Oh boy, oh boy. What an aircraft!’ With a maximum weight of over thirty tons, far heavier than the RAF’s previous generation of bomber, the standard version could lift, on average, 14,000lbs of bombs. Britain was ready to take the aerial war to Nazi Germany in a deadly fashion.
During the course of the Second World War, 7,377 Lancaster bombers were built, flying a total of 156,000 sorties and dropped 618,378 tonnes of bombs on German cities such as Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, and, of course, Dresden. Only thirty-five Lancasters completed more than 100 operations, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful, which completed 139 operations, was sent for scrap in 1947. One seventh of all deaths suffered by the British during WWII were incurred by Bomber Command. Over 50,000 aircrew were lost over the skies of Europe.
Now, John Nichol, Gulf War veteran, ex-POW in Iraq and Sunday Times bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story reveals the true cost of flying this iconic and deadly airplane – through the few authentic voices of the RAF veterans who are left to us.
Джеймс Холланд, Джеймс Холлэнд0.0 Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent history. Unflinchingly examining the brutality and violence that characterised the campaign, it's time to draw some radically different conclusions.
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D-Day and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed have come to be seen as a defining episode in the Second World War. Its story has been endlessly retold, and yet it remains a narrative burdened by both myth and assumed knowledge.
In this reexamined history, James Holland presents a broader overview, one that challenges much of what we think we know about D-Day and the Normandy campaign. The sheer size and scale of the Allies’ war machine ultimately dominates the strategic, operational and tactical limitations of the German forces.
This was a brutal campaign. In terms of daily casualties, the numbers were worse than for any one battle during the First World War.
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·Drawing on unseen archives and testimonies from around the world
·Introducing a cast of eye-witnesses that includes foot soldiers, tank men, fighter pilots and bomber crews, sailors, civilians, resistance fighters and those directing the action
·An epic telling that will profoundly recalibrate our understanding of its true place in the tide of human history
Джонатан Феннелл0.0 Fighting the People's War is an unprecedented, panoramic history of the 'citizen armies' of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, who together made up the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War. Drawing on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file, Jonathan Fennell fundamentally challenges our understanding of the War and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change. He uncovers how fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies and he traces how soldiers' political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, proved instrumental to the socio-political changes of the postwar era. Fighting the People's War transforms our understanding of how the great battles were won and lost as well as how the postwar societies were forged.
Тим Бувери0.0 A gripping new history of the British appeasement of the Third Reich in the lead up to World War II
On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off a plane and prepared to address the crowd of journalists, Cabinet Ministers and well-wishers waiting at Heston airfield. Chamberlain had just returned from Munich, where he had averted the greatest crisis of the century. Under his leadership, Britain and France had conceded the German-speaking fringe of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, after which the Führer was persuaded to sign a joing declaration symbolizing "the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again." The cost had been high, but Chamberlain's eleventh-hour gamble had, the Prime Minister boasted, secured "peace for our time." Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the deadliest conflict in human history began.
Appeasement is a groundbreaking history of the disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy and parliamentary infighting that enabled Hitler's domination of Europe. Drawing on deep archival research and sources not previously seen by historians, Tim Bouverie has created an unforgettable portrait of the ministers, dukes and debutantes who, through their actions and inaction, shaped their country's policy and determined the fate of Europe.
Beginning with the advent of Hitler in 1933, we embark on a fascinating journey from the early days of the Third Reich to the beaches of Dunkirk. Bouverie takes us inside the 10 Downing Street of Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin and into the backrooms of Parliament--where an unusual coalition of Conservative rebels, including the indomitable Winston Churchill, and opposition MPs were among the few to realize that the only real choice was between "war now or war later." And as German troops enter the demilitarized Rhineland, march into Austria and threaten to invade Czechoslovakia, he takes us into the drawing rooms and dinner clubs of fading imperial Britain, where Hitler enjoyed surprising support among the ruling class and even members of the Royal Family.
Both sweeping and intimate, Appeasement is not only an eye-opening history but a timeless lesson on the challenges of standing against authoritarianism--and the calamity that results from failing.
Питер Харт0.0 By August 1918, the outcome of the Great War was not in doubt: the Allies would win. But what was unclear was how this defeat would play out - would the Germans hold on, prolonging the fighting deep into 1919, with the loss of hundreds of thousands more young lives, or could the war be won in 1918? In The Last Battle, Peter Hart, author of Gallipoli and The Great War, and oral historian at the Imperial War Museum, brings to life the dramatic final weeks of the war, as men fought to secure victory, with survival seemingly only days, or hours away.
Drawing on the experience of both generals and ordinary soldiers, and dwelling with equal weight on strategy, tactics and individual experience, this is a powerful and detailed account of history's greatest endgame.
James Stejskal0.0 Striking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but willing to use audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning and executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors - this is unconventional warfare.
T. E. Lawrence was one of the earliest practitioners of modern unconventional warfare. His tactics and strategies were used by men like Mao and Giap in their wars of liberation. Both kept Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom close at hand. This book looks at the creation of the HEDGEHOG force, the formation of armoured car sections and other units, and focuses the Hejaz Operations Staff, the Allied officers and men who took Lawrence's idea and prosecuted it against the Ottoman Turkish army assisting Field Marshal Allenby to achieve victory in 1918.
Stejskal concludes with an examination of how HEDGEHOG has influenced special operations and unconventional warfare, including Field Marshal Wavell, the Long Range Desert Group, and David Stirling's SAS, and modern US and UK special forces.
Simon Harris0.0 The careers of the three Norfolk admirals were intimately related. Narbrough and Shovell came from the small North Norfolk hamlet of Cockthorpe and Myngs from nearby Salthouse. In the 1660s, Myngs was the captain, Narbrough the lieutenant and Shovell the lowly cabin boy in the same ship. It is also possible that they were all related at least by marriage. In the majority of the naval wars of the second half of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth centuries one or other of them was invariably present. Cloudesley Shovell was born to a yeoman farmer; he entered the Navy whilst still a boy and, in 1676, came to national prominence by burning the four ships of the Dey of Tripoli right under his castle walls. This led to conflict with Samuel Pepys over a gold medal that the generous Charles II had awarded Shovell. Later there was a spectacular falling out with James II over the new king's Catholicism. Following Narbrough's premature death, Shovell married his widow: effectively the cabin boy marrying the admiral's widow which is unique in British naval history. Brave to a fault, in the reigns of William and Mary, and Anne, Shovell became the leading fighting admiral of the age. In 1707, at the very height of his considerable powers, Shovell and nearly 2,000 men drowned after his ships were wrecked on the rocks of Scilly. According to his grandson, Shovell arrived on the shore alive and was then brutally murdered for the sake of an emerald ring on his finger. Faulty navigation was at the heart of Shovell's demise; did he keep his appointment with the celebrated scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, to discuss longitude? New theories concerning the causes of the disaster are examined and also the fate of his gold dinner service. Explorer, navigator, consummate sailor and naval administrator, John Narbrough was all this and more. No biography of Narbrough has been produced for 85 years and much new material has come to light in this time. For example the rediscovery of the ship, the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion from which Narbrough was trying to salvage sunken Spanish silver when he died from a mysterious illness. In addition, the British Library recently raised a large sum of money to buy Narbrough's journals of his voyage [1669-71] into the Pacific Ocean and up to, what is now, modern day Chile. He illustrated his journals with paintings of the flora and fauna plus accurate depictions of the harbours that he visited. On his return journey, Narbrough became the first Englishman to sail through the Strait of Magellan from west to east. Both Narbrough and Shovell owed so much to Christopher Myngs and yet no comprehensive biography of him has yet been written. In the 1650s, out in the West Indies, he played very much the part of an Elizabethan buccaneer with repeated attacks on the Spanish Main. After helping himself to treasure that more properly belonged to the state, he was shipped home to England in semi-disgrace. However, in the run-up to the Restoration of the monarchy, the authorities did not think it appropriate to discipline the most popular man in the Navy. Later, at the Four Days' Battle of 1666, Myngs leading the English van, would attempt to fight on despite having his face shattered by a musket ball. Six days later, he died at his home in London and was buried in an East London churchyard which has now become a seedy park. He deserved better. Contains c 50 ills, 24 maps.
Victoria Schofield0.0 The heroic and inspiring story of the fortunes of the Black Watch whose soldiers have distinguished themselves in theatres of war across the world.
Originating as a group of men raised to keep 'watch' over the Anglo-Scottish border, formed into a regiment in 1739 and named for the dark tartan of its soldiers' kilts, the Black Watch has fought in almost every major conflict of nation and empire between 1745 and the present day.
Victoria Schofield recounts the modern history of the Black Watch from the Boer War onwards, tracing its service in two World Wars, the Korean war, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. Drawing on diaries, letters and memoirs, but also on interviews with living veterans, she weaves the multiple strands of the story into an epic narrative of a heroic body of officers and men over a century of history.
Jeremy Black0.0 There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onward, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they were involved and, later, to use mapping to actually plan the progress of a conflict. Using contemporary maps, this sumptuous new volume covers the history of the mapping of land wars, and shows the way in which maps provide a guide to the history of war.
Content includes:
The beginnings of military mapping prior to 1600, such as the impact of printing and the introduction of gunpowder.
The seventeenth century: The focus is on maps to illustrate war, rather than as a planning tool, and the chapter considers the particular significance of mapping fortifications.
The eighteenth century: The growing need for maps on a world scale reflects the spread of European power, and of transoceanic conflict between Europeans. This chapter deals particularly with the American Revolution.
The nineteenth century: Key developments included contouring and the creation of military surveying. Subjects include the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War
The twentieth century: Extended features on the First and Second World Wars, featuring maps detailing trench warfare and aerial reconnaissance. Much of the chapter centers on the period from 1945 to the present day, including special sections on the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars.
Уолдо Хайнрихс0.0 By the time of the dropping of the atom bomb in August 1945, the United States military situation in the Pacific was in disarray. As an Army staff officer stated simply, "The capitulation of Hirohito saved our necks."
In 1944, a year earlier, success seemed near, but squabbling in the military command and the logistical challenges of launching a full-scale invasion of the Japanese mainland soon took their toll, and by the time of V.E. Day it was questionable whether the United States was up to the task of ending the war in the Pacific. An exhausted American public was calling for troops to come home and for the country to return to manufacturing consumer items instead of arms. Republican politicians called for the Allies to back away from the demand for unconditional surrender. The politically powerful constituency of GIs won legislative victories, allowing soldiers more easily to leave the military and depleting units just as they most needed experienced soldiers. Weaving together analysis of grand strategy with a vivid narrative depicting the brutal, debilitating, and often terrifying experience of combat, Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio bring to life the final year in the Pacific. They explore the lives of the soldiers, sailors, and Marines who faced illness, drenching rain, and tenacious Japanese opponents. They also evoke the grand, clashing personalities of Douglas MacArthur and George C. Marshall, who warned of "the agony of enduring battle," and shed light on the views of President Roosevelt, who doubted Americans' understanding of the conflict and worried about a public mood that oscillated between overconfidence and despair. After the bloodletting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the war against Japan seemed more repugnant and less meaningful than the struggle against Germany. It is in this context, of military emergency and patience wearing thin, that a new president, Harry S. Truman, made the decision to deploy the atomic bomb.
This remarkable, gripping narrative challenges assumptions about the inevitability of the war's outcome, the consequences of the "Europe first" strategy, and the wisdom of America's leaders.
Simon Elliott0.0 The Roman war machine comprised land and naval forces. Although the former has been studied extensively, less has been written and understood about the naval forces of the Roman empire and, in particular, the regional navies which actively participated in most military operations and policed the seas and rivers of the Empire. Until the mid-third century, in a British context, this navy was the Classis Britannica—a strong fighting force in its own right. The composition, ship types, roles, tactics, and technology have never been studied at length. Here Elliot tells the story of this illustrious naval force in their metal-beaked galleys and their exploits defeating enemies of the Empire and keeping the peace around the British Isles.
Jacqueline Riding0.0 The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46 is one of the most important turning points in British history - in terms of state crisis every bit the equal of 1066 and 1940. The tale of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie," and his heroic but doomed attempt to regain his grandfather's (James II) crown - remains the stuff of legend: the hunted fugitive, Flora MacDonald, and the dramatic escape over the sea to the Isle of Skye. But the full story - the real history - is even more dramatic, captivating, and revelatory.
Much more than a rebellion, the events of '45 were the final act in an ongoing civil war that threatened to destabilize the British nation and destroy its embryonic empire. The Bonnie Prince and his army of Scottish highlanders alone couldn't have been much of a threat, but with the involvement of England's perennial enemy, Catholic France, it was a far more dangerous and potentially catastrophic situation for the English crown. With encouragement and support from Louis XIV, Charles Edward's triumphant Jacobite army encroached all the way to Derby, a mere 120 miles from London, before a series of missteps ultimately doomed the rebellion to crushing defeat and annihilation at Culloden in April 1746 - the last battle ever fought on British soil.
Jacqueline Riding conveys the full weight of these monumental years of English history as the future course of Great Britain as a united kingdom was irreversibly altered.
Jeremy Black0.0 This book follows the rise of air power from Kitty Hawk to the present. Leading military historian Jeremy Black traces the rapid evolution of technology over time, creating new parameters for effectiveness. Throughout, he assesses governmental and societal dimensions of the response to air power, and how attitudes have changed. He vividly shows how public and state senses of opportunity and fear are key drivers to understand the development and use of air power. He also assesses the value of air power as opposed to the use of ground and naval forces.
