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Letters Of Henry Weston Farnsworth, Of The Foreign Legion
By Henry Weston Farnsworth. 2013
The French Army have had numerous foreign regiments in its service for centuries; however, few have the mystique and elite…
status of the French Foreign Legion. It became a haven for the rough, tough, and adventure-seeking crowds of all of Europe. Bred with a fierce and disciplined esprit de corps, these soldiers could expect to fight France's enemies even in the most desperate of circumstances.With the clouds of war gathering over Europe in the early years of the Twentieth Century, the Legion attracted volunteers from even further afield, including the wealthy American adventurer and traveller Henry Weston Farnsworth. He volunteered for service early in late 1914 and was thrown together with a diverse bunch of men from a number of countries, some of whom he would bond with closely. His pen portraits in his letters to his family are filled with these characters and the experiences he had in the front-lines. However, Farnsworth would fight among his new friends for only a few months as the fighting in France grew ever more fierce and his unit was thrown into the battles in Champagne during which he died.Hunting the Jackal
By Tim Keown, Billy Waugh. 2004
For more than half a century, Special Forces and CIA legend Billy Waugh dedicated his life to tracking down and…
eliminating America's most virulent enemies. Operating from the darkest shadows and most desolate corners of the world, he made his mark in many of the most important operations in the annals of U.S. Spec Ops. He spent seven and a half years behind enemy lines in Vietnam as a member of a covert group of elite commandos. He trailed Osama Bin Laden in Khartoum in the early '90s, and would have killed the terrorist kingpin if his superiors had allowed it. And at the age of seventy-two, he marched through the frozen high plains of Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Hunting the Jackal is the astonishing true account of the singular career of a courageous soldier in his nation's shadow wars -- including his pivotal role in the previously untold story of the capture of the most infamous and elusive assassin in history, Carlos the Jackal.Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953
By Geoffrey Roberts. 2006
This breakthrough book provides a detailed reconstruction of Stalin's leadership from the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939…
to his death in 1953. Making use of a wealth of new material from Russian archives, Geoffrey Roberts challenges a long list of standard perceptions of Stalin: his qualities as a leader; his relationships with his own generals and with other great world leaders; his foreign policy; and his role in instigating the Cold War. While frankly exploring the full extent of Stalin's brutalities and their impact on the Soviet people, Roberts also uncovers evidence leading to the stunning conclusion that Stalin was both the greatest military leader of the twentieth century and a remarkable politician who sought to avoid the Cold War and establish a long-term detente with the capitalist world. By means of an integrated military, political, and diplomatic narrative, the author draws a sustained and compelling personal portrait of the Soviet leader. The resulting picture is fascinating and contradictory, and it will inevitably change the way we understand Stalin and his place in history. Roberts depicts a despot who helped save the world for democracy, a personal charmer who disciplined mercilessly, a utopian ideologue who could be a practical realist, and a warlord who undertook the role of architect of post-war peace.My Memoirs. Vol. II.
By Anon., Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. 2013
When Prussia, with her German allies, went to war with the French Empire under Napoleon III, her navy sat with…
tons of barnacles on the hulls of her battleships. Her navy was small, ineffective, without doctrine and destitute of funding. As nascent Germany struggled to become a 'Great Power', the navy was to be thoroughly updated. The man who took on this challenge was Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, a seasoned sailor who was given huge power as the Secretary of State for the Imperial Navy Office to ring the changes and produce a force that would be a political weapon on the World Stage.Tirpitz and his officers set to work without any of the preconceptions that hamstrung their only obvious opponent, the Royal Navy, and advanced the idea of submarines and torpedoes as critical weapons of Naval importance. The fruits of his labours produced a potent navy which sought to antagonize the Royal Navy into conflict, and during the only major engagement of the First World War at Jutland, their superior gunnery caused much damage to the British Fleet. He was, however, hoisted by his own petard in 1916, brought down by his own restless advocacy of unrestricted submarine warfare.Author -- Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, 1849-1930.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, Dodd, Mead, and company, 1919.Original Page Count - 428 pagesMy Memoirs. Vol. I.
By Anon., Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. 2013
When Prussia, with her German allies, went to war with the French Empire under Napoleon III, her navy sat with…
tons of barnacles on the hulls of her battleships. Her navy was small, ineffective, without doctrine and destitute of funding. As nascent Germany struggled to become a 'Great Power', the navy was to be thoroughly updated. The man who took on this challenge was Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, a seasoned sailor who was given huge power as the Secretary of State for the Imperial Navy Office to ring the changes and produce a force that would be a political weapon on the World Stage.Tirpitz and his officers set to work without any of the preconceptions that hamstrung their only obvious opponent, the Royal Navy, and advanced the idea of submarines and torpedoes as critical weapons of Naval importance. The fruits of his labours produced a potent navy which sought to antagonize the Royal Navy into conflict, and during the only major engagement of the First World War at Jutland, their superior gunnery caused much damage to the British Fleet. He was, however, hoisted by his own petard in 1916, brought down by his own restless advocacy of unrestricted submarine warfare.Author -- Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, 1849-1930.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, Dodd, Mead, and company, 1919.Original Page Count - x and 377 pagesLudendorff's Own Story, August 1914-November 1918 The Great War - Vol. II: from the siege of Liège to the signing of the armistice as viewed from the Grand headquarters of the German army (Ludendorff's Own Story #2)
By General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, Anon Anon. 2013
As the German army moved swiftly into its start positions at the beginning of the First World War, efficiently and…
seamlessly forming up for the hammer blow that was to fall on France it must have been with some pride that General Ludendorff would look upon the first grand strategical plan that he had a hand in. A cool, calculating planner dedicated to ensuring that chance played as little a part in war as possible General Erich Ludendorff was the product of the prestigious German Kriegsakademie. His memoirs on the First World War are an excellently detailed account of the planning and execution of the ambitious German High command and their thirst for VictoryAlthough known primarily as staff officer his initial service, in the German army, during the war, was at the siege of Liège for which he was awarded the coveted Pour La Mérite by the Kaiser himself. He was rushed to the embattled Eastern Front as Chief of Staff to General von Hindenburg, and the two made an impressive team winning that battles of Tanneburg and the Masurian Lakes. Once again Ludendorff, this time was his chief Hindenburg, was drafted in as a replacement to ensure the fortunes of the German forces, this time on the Western front in 1916. He operated as the prime mover in the German empire from this point until the end of the war; masterminding the 1918 offensives as the last throw of the dice before capitulation.This second volume covers from 1917 until the end of the War and is enriched with maps of the campaigns of the First World War.Author -- General Ludendorff, Erich Friedrich Wilhelm, 1865-1937.Translator -- Anon.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York and London, Harper & Brothers, 1919.Original Page Count - 473 pagesLudendorff's Own Story, August 1914-November 1918 The Great War - Vol. I: from the siege of Liège to the signing of the armistice as viewed from the Grand headquarters of the German army (Ludendorff's Own Story #1)
By General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, Anon Anon. 2013
As the German army moved swiftly into its start positions at the beginning of the First World War, efficiently and…
seamlessly forming up for the hammer blow that was to fall on France it must have been with some pride that General Ludendorff would look upon the first grand strategical plan that he had a hand in. A cool, calculating planner dedicated to ensuring that chance played as little a part in war as possible General Erich Ludendorff was the product of the prestigious German Kriegsakademie. His memoirs on the First World War are an excellently detailed account of the planning and execution of the ambitious German High command and their thirst for VictoryAlthough known primarily as staff officer his initial service, in the German army, during the war, was at the siege of Liège for which he was awarded the coveted Pour La Mérite by the Kaiser himself. He was rushed to the embattled Eastern Front as Chief of Staff to General von Hindenburg, and the two made an impressive team winning that battles of Tanneburg and the Masurian Lakes. Once again Ludendorff, this time was his chief Hindenburg, was drafted in as a replacement to ensure the fortunes of the German forces, this time on the Western front in 1916. He operated as the prime mover in the German empire from this point until the end of the war; masterminding the 1918 offensives as the last throw of the dice before capitulation.This first volume covers his early career until 1917 and is enriched with maps of the campaigns of the First World War.Author -- General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, 1865-1937.Translator -- Anon.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York and London, Harper & Brothers, 1919.Original Page Count - 477 pagesVoyage Of The Deutschland, The First Merchant Submarine
By Kapitänleutnant Paul König. 2013
The arrival of the submarine Deutschland in the harbour of New York in July of 1916 produced one of the…
sensation of the year. How had a U-Boat sailed all the way from Germany to the United States evading all of the counter-measures of the might Royal Navy and the even the U.S. coastal defences? The captain of the Deutschland, Paul König, was feted as a national hero in Germany and was lauded by those of German extraction in New York.He wrote this memoir of his famed journey from the inland waters of Germany all the way to the United States, it is filled with the dangers of the nascent submarine, in particular the fumes and heat of the diving compartment. Notable also the U-Boat had come as a merchantman, meaning that König was unarmed for combat and could only rely on deception to fulfill his mission to outwit his enemies.Author -- Kapitänleutnant Paul König (1867-1933)Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, Hearst's international library co., 1916.Original Page Count - xii and 247 pages.Prisoner Of The U-90
By Edouard Victor Michel Izac. 2013
Of the many weapons in the German arsenal during the First World War amongst the most effective were the silent…
undersea craft of the Kreigsmarine. The U-Boats prowled the oceans looking for prey, after the Kaiser removed all restrictions on the U-Boat captains in 1916 they could sink indiscriminately. As the troops of the United States pored over the Atlantic after the declaration of War in 1917 the U-Boats beneath the waves would have fresh targets. As the U.S.S. President Lincoln, a converted troop transport, returned to the United States, having set her cargo of soldiers on to French soil, she was suddenly torpedoed by the U-90. As the ship slowly sank a handful of her naval personnel were picked up by the submarine. Among them was Lieutenant Izac, who would earn the Congressional Medal of Honor for his successful escape from the clutches of his German captors.Author --Edouard Victor Michel Izac.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Boston, Houghton, Mifflin company, 1919.Original Page Count - vii and 184 pages.Illustrations -- 2 plansAt The Front In A Flivver [Illustrated Edition]
By William Yorke Stevenson. 2013
Many American citizens flocked to join the Allied war effort against Germany during the First World War before their mother…
country eventually declared war in 1917. William Yorke Stevenson was one of their number, volunteering for service with the French Ambulance corps or Section Sanitaire. Never war from the frontlines in rather ramshackle old vehicles [the flivver of the title is a slang term for a run-down truck], these men risked their lives to evacuate and treat the wounded.The Author recounts his experiences of 1915-1917 based on his dairy of the period. It provides a day-by-day account of the medical services behind the lines during some of the heaviest French fighting of the war during the battle of the Somme. Illustrated throughout with the Author's own photos of the period, including his comrades, conditions and the battle damage of the towns and villages amongst which he worked and lived.Author -- William Yorke Stevenson (1878 - 1922)Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Boston and New York, Houghton Miflin, 1917.Original Page Count - 334 pages.Illustrations -- 12 illustrations.The Dardanelles Campaign [Illustrated Edition]
By Henry Wood Nevinson. 2013
Henry Wood Nevinson, surely thought that he had seen everything that war could throw up; as a seasoned war correspondent,…
he had followed the British forces in many campaigns including the second Boer War where he was stranded in Ladysmith during the siege. However his experiences during the First World War would shock him, he travelled to France and witnessed the initial clashes of the War. He then accompanied the troops to Gallipoli, being wounded in the process of his reporting. His experiences in the Peninsula would form the basis of this book.His account of the Dardanelles campaign covers all of the action from the initial planning stages on the Admiralty's drawing boards, through the naval attacks to the landings and the struggle amongst the deadly rocks and beaches of Gallipoli. Nevinson was careful to check and re-check his information, using numerous illustrations and staff maps for accuracy. It is clearly one of the best eye-witness written campaign studies of the terrible struggles of 1915 on the shores of Turkey.Highly recommended.Author -- Nevinson, Henry Wood, 1856-1941.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, H. Holt & co., 1919.Original Page Count - xx and 427 pages.Illustrations -- 16 maps and IllustrationsGallipoli [Illustrated Edition]
By John Masefield. 2013
Few accounts of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign are as famous as that of John Masefield, and justly so, for so…
few have captured the danger, death and heroism on the Peninsula. He saw service as a Red Cross orderly in France and sought to alleviate the plight of the soldier and volunteered his services to motor boat ambulance seeing the battles first-hand. Masefield was a poet of great power, later becoming Poet-Laureate, and set to use all of his skills in describing the feats and achievements of the expedition.Published in London and New York simultaneously to wide acclaim this account is a still a classic described by one critic as 'a book to strike the critical faculty numb' and 'too sacred for applause'-- W.H. Hamilton.This edition contains the numerous maps and illustrations that enrich and aid the readers experience.Author -- Masefield, John, 1878-1967.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, The Macmillan company, 1916.Original Page Count - 245 pages.Illustrations -- 9 maps and IllustrationsBurris A. Jenkins served in the double capacity of a war correspondent and a lecturer in the Y.M.C.A, he was…
sent to the European War in 1916/17. He travelled through many of the camps and rear-zones of the First World War, noting down anecdotes and sketches of the soldiers that he met; from the dashing French Chasseurs, to the stolid but humorous Tommies. He wrote of his experiences among the soldiers and the sights of the warzones on his return to the United States, part of the campaign to publicize the Allies sacrifices and gain support for the American entry into the War. Author -- Jenkins, Burris A., 1869-1945.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, F.H. Revell Co., 1917Original Page Count - 256 pagesWhen The Somme Ran Red [Illustrated Edition]
By Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore. 2013
Captain Dugmore stands as a rather strange figure even in the mass of personalities that fought in the Great War:…
an artist of some standing, a writer, and traveller. When the war broke out in 1914, he visited Belgium as a private citizen; appalled by the damage that the Germans, who were overrunning country in short order at the time, were wreaking he decided to join the British Army. There was only one small problem: at the time he was forty-four, too years too old to enter the army. But he strode into his local recruiting office and demanded admission to the army, and if met with refusal, he stated, he would return with a changed appearance and falsify his age!The army accepted Mr Dugmore as an officer and sent him off for immediate training. Despite having spent a large slice of his life in the outdoors in Africa painting and writing about wildlife, he must have found the trenches a shock. As he recounts in his book, he was strafed, shot at, barraged, and gassed during his time at the front, finally wounded and passed unfit for service in 1916 during the later phases of the battle of the Somme.The author's book is excellently written, filled with anecdote and detailed battle scenes. Author -- Captain Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore 1870 - 1955Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, George H. Doran company 1918Original Page Count - 285 pagesIllustrations -- 20 maps and illustrationsOut Of My Life, By Marshal Von Hindenburg. Vol. I (Out Of My Life #1)
By F. A. Holt, Field-Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. 2013
Field-Marshal Paul von Hindenburg is a well-known figure to world history; the supreme war-lord of Germany for many years of…
the First World War and conservative figure-head of the post-war Germany. Although not of noble birth he rose through the ranks of the pre-war Prussian army, seeing much service in the Prussian-Austrian war of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He believed his career over and retired in 1913 before being reactivated for the conflict that would become the First World War. He was assigned to the Eastern Front to combat the Russian armies. Forging a successful partnership with his staff officers, such as Max Hoffmann and Erich Ludendorff who dealt with much of the operational planning, he won the epic victories over the Russians at the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. Feted as a national hero after these victories and further successes in 1915, he was summoned to take charge on the Western front in 1916. He would mastermind the defensive strategy of the German army in 1916 and 1917 before committing the Germany army to the last throw of the dice in the 1918 German offensive.His memoirs are essential reading for anyone interested in the motivations of the German High command during the First World War. This first volume begins with his early military career up to his assumption of the post of the Chief of the General Staff in 1918.Author -- Field-Marshal von Hindenburg, Paul, 1847-1934.Translator -- F. A. Holt.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, Harper & brothers 1921Original Page Count - 267 pages.Illustrations -- 1 PortraitOut Of My Life, By Marshal Von Hindenburg. Vol. II (Out Of My Life #2)
By F. A. Holt, Field-Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. 2013
Field-Marshal Paul von Hindenburg is a well-known figure to world history; the supreme war-lord of Germany for many years of…
the First World War and conservative figure-head of the post-war Germany. Although not of noble birth he rose through the ranks of the pre-war Prussian army, seeing much service in the Prussian-Austrian war of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He believed his career over and retired in 1913 before being reactivated for the conflict that would become the First World War. He was assigned to the Eastern Front to combat the Russian armies. Forging a successful partnership with his staff officers, such as Max Hoffmann and Erich Ludendorff who dealt with much of the operational planning, he won the epic victories over the Russians at the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. Feted as a national hero after these victories and further successes in 1915, he was summoned to take charge on the Western front in 1916. He would mastermind the defensive strategy of the German army in 1916 and 1917 before committing the Germany army to the last throw of the dice in the 1918 German offensive.His memoirs are essential reading for anyone interested in the motivations of the German High command during the First World War. This second volume carries on his narrative from assumption of the quasi-dictatorship up to the end of the war.Author -- Field-Marshal von Hindenburg, Paul, 1847-1934.Translator -- F. A. Holt.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, Harper & brothers 1921Original Page Count - 296 pages.Illustrations -- 1 PortraitDuty And Service: Letters From The Front.
By Captain Lionel William Crouch. 2013
Captain Crouch had served in the Territorial Army for some years before the cataclysmic struggle in Europe began in 1914.…
Unlike all the other belligerent parties, Britain did not, and still does not, have standing military conscription; the Regular Army of full-time highly trained volunteers provide the first line soldiers. Bolstering the first line soldiers were the part-time volunteers of the Territorial Army, providing additional manpower and more limited service. However, during both World Wars the men of the Territorial Army were in dire necessity of the time pressed forward into the line as fighting divisions, the men eager to bring the fight to the enemy.Our Author's war time service in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry started the moment that war broke out, from August 1914 to March 1915; he and his men trained to reach a peak of efficiency. This moment could not come too soon: the first seven divisions of the Regular Army that had formed the initial expeditionary forces had ceased to exist in the face of overwhelming number of the enemy. The Territorials and other Reserve forces from all over the British empire rushed to France and were plunged into the thick of the fighting amongst the trenches.Captain Crouch's letters form an unbroken stream between the mobilization, and are in equal part illuminating and evocative of the life of a young man who fell in service to his country. Although place-names were omitted from his letters due to censorship of the time , he was interred at Pozières British Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boisselle, meaning that he probably fell in this area during the battle of the Somme.An engaging read.Author -- Captain Lionel William Crouch (1886-1916)Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published for private circulation 1917.Original Page Count - 158 pages.Air Men o'War.
By Boyd Cable. 2013
The war above the battle lines of the First World War is brought to life in these tales of the…
cavalry of the skies. However, by and large, the knights of the air were not much given to self-publicity that their exploits and effectiveness entitled them to. Writing under a pseudonym, Boyd Cable, who spent a year at the front with them, wrote of the feats of his flying companions. From flying patrols through 'archie' fire, bombing raids, and interceptions of enemy planes, the author captures the fascinating war within a war in the skies above.Author -- Cable, Boyd.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, E.P. Dutton & Company, 1919.Original Page Count - x and 246 pages.Victor Chapman's Letters From France, With Memoir By John Jay Chapman.
By John Jay Chapman, Victor Emmanuel Chapman. 2013
As the First World War ground into its third year in 1916, America still remained uncommitted to intervention in what…
some in that nation regarded as a purely European affair. This was not the course pursued by many American men, having enlisted in the British, Canadian, and French ranks since the start of the war. The Lafayette Escadrille, or American Squadron, was formed in 1916 from French and American aviators and would grow in fame and victories throughout its two year existence.Victor Chapman enlisted in the French Foreign legion in 1914, as soon as he possibly could; however, he would transfer after much rough soldiering to the French air arm. As a founding member of the famous squadron, one of the Valiant 38, Victor Chapman flew some of the most dangerous missions of all the French pilots as they sought to establish their reputation. The toll of danger never affected his unflappably high spirits, but his luck ran out in June 1916 over the skies of Verdun. His letters are filled with his and his fellow pilots exploits, written in fine style and with great detail.Highly recommended.Author -- Chapman, Victor Emmanuel, 1890-1916.Editor -- Chapman, John Jay, 1862-1933.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York, The Macmillan company, 1917.Original Page Count - 198 pages.Illustrations - 8 Illustrations.Gallipoli Diary [Illustrated Edition]
By Major John Graham Gillam D.S.O.. 2013
Even during the horrors of the brutalizing industrialised slaughter of the First World War the Gallipoli campaign stands as a…
benchmark for the awful conditions and savage fighting that occurred. The narrow strips of land that the British, Australian, New Zealand and other Dominion troops tried to wrest from the dogged Turkish defenders was under constant shellfire and every item had to be dragged to the frontline under this hellish barrage. Captain (as at the time) Gillam was part of the supply service who risked their lives to get, food, clothing and ammunition up to the troops in the front-line. Gillam gives a clear, concise account not only of the dangers that he faced, but also the men that he served so ably in the front-line.His diary covers his time on the Gallipoli Peninsula from his landing at Capes Helles (W Beach-Lancashire Landing) on April 25th 1915, and the landing at Suvla Bay, until the eventual evacuation of the troops in early 1916. There have been many Author --Major John Graham Gillam DSO d. June 1937Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, George Allen & Unwin, ltd. 1918.Original Page Count - 328 pages.Illustrations -- 10 illustrations.