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The Lords of War: Supreme Leadership from Lincoln to Churchill
By Correlli Barnett. 2012
In this compelling study of leadership, Correlli Barnett examines the strengths and weaknesses of twenty leaders in the nineteenth and…
early twentieth centuries. He examines how the difficulties they faced and the political and strategic backgrounds of their days and analyses how they performed and what they achieved. Were they successful, or were they beaten down by the burden of their roles? His book considers men from very different backgrounds and from three continents in a range of modern conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the Second World War. They range from statesmen like Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, to generals like Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas Haig, Erwin Rommel, Georgi Zhukov, Dwight Eisenhower and William Slim, to admirals lie Isoruku Yamamoto and Bertram Ramsey. These leaders present fascinating contrasts of personal character, styles of leadership and sheer aptitude for command as well as contrasts in the daunting professional problems that challenged each of them. In Lords of War Correlli Barnett yet again demolishes hallowed reputations and rehabilitates the unjustly scapegoated. His latest book confirms his reputation as a master in the field of strategic history.Napoleon Bonaparte Abraham LincolnUlysses S. GrantRobert E. LeeHelmuth, Graf von MoltkeNapoleon IIIJoseph JoffreHelmuth von Moltke the YoungerDouglas HaigDavid Lloyd GeorgePhilippe PtainErich LudendorffErwin Rommel Isoruku Yamamoto Arthur HarrisWilliam Slim Bertram RamsayDwight D. Eisenhower Georgi Zhukov Adolf Hitler Winston ChurchillSalute of Guns
By Donald Boyd. 2012
Artillery was the decisive weapon of the Great War but its story is almost forgotten. The developments in artillery tactics,…
equipment and shells played a major role in the final Allied victory. British artillery was in the forefront of all those changes. This book gives the reader a dramatic insight into the story of artillery in the First World War. Donald Boyd joined his local Territorial Force artillery unit in September 1914. Commissioned in 1915, he learnt his trade in France from unsympathetic pre-war Indian Army regulars who did not understand how war was changing. From 1916 to 1918, he took part in the Western Fronts major battles, including the Somme, Third Ypres, Cambrai and the 1918 offensives. The stress of an artillery subalterns existence, observing in the front line, keeping the guns in action at a battery position or leading ammunition columns up tracks exposed to shellfire brought him to nervous collapse twice. The author is frank about his problems and convincingly conveys the relationships within his sub-unit, which helped or hindered his struggle to stay in the front line.A new Foreword by Michael Orr sets Boyds memoir in context and documents its reliability from the archives.If I had to name the best record of Western Front fighting I should, on the whole, choose Donald Boyds Salute of Guns as the one that has dealt most faithfully with the most difficult to recall of all its aspects contemporary morale. (Robert Graves)Rommel and Caporetto (Images Of War Ser.)
By Eileen Wilks, John Wilks. 2013
Rommel was to become the most respected of all generals in World War Two but no-one outside of a small…
clique in the German Army had heard of him in 1917. His role at the Battle of Caporetto in 1917 where the Italian Army was humiliated at a catastrophic defeat has received little attention yet it was the springboard for his future success. This makes for a fascinating and important story. The book, by the authors of The British Army in Italy 1917–1918, is based largely on official histories and documents, and on Rommels own account, which gives some insight into the qualities that he was later to exhibit in France and in North Africa.Road to St. Julien: The Letters of a Stretcher-Bearer of the Great War
By John St. Clair. 2004
William St Clair is perhaps the only soldier to have left a continuous account of his experiences day by day…
from the moment of joining up in 1914, through the years of horror in the trenches, to the march into Germany in 1919 and the long aftermath of trying to make sense of what had happened. A private in the medical corps, St Clair wrote daily letters, sometimes more, to his future wife Jane. Often scribbled under fire, and sent in the green envelopes that were exempt from censorship, they tell of the famous battles of Loos, the Somme, and Passchendaele, as they happened, with excruciating vividness. They speak too of aspirations, of conversations, of literature, and of love.Published for the first time, these raw, truthful, and deeply moving. letters give us what we have not properly had before, the voice of an ordinary soldier who is also a wonderful writer. The book takes its title from the village of St Julien in Flanders, where, in a captured German pill box, the mind of young soldier was transformed, an event that he later turned into an award-winning play.Secret Letters from the Railway: The Remarkable Record of a Japanese POW
By Brian Bond. 2004
Charles Steel took part in two military disasters - the Fall of France and the Dunkirk evacuation, and the Fall…
of Singapore. Shortly before the latter, he married Louise. Within days of being captured by the Japanese, he began writing a weekly letter to his new bride as means of keeping in touch with her in his mind, for the Japanese forbade all writing of letters and diaries. By the time he was liberated 3 1/2 years later, he had written and hidden some 180 letters, to which were added a further 20 post-liberation letters. Part love-letter, part diary these unique letters intended for Louise's eyes only describe the horror of working as a slave on the Burma - Siam Railway and, in particular, the construction of the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. It is also an uplifting account of how man can rise above adversity and even secretly get back at his captors by means of 'creative accounting'!. Now, for the first time, we can share the appalling and inspiring experiences of this remarkable man.XD Operations: Secret British Missions Denying Oil to the Nazis
By C. C. Brazier. 2004
X D Operations is the first account of the thrilling operations by the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers, a small Territorial…
Army Unit given the largest demolition program ever undertaken by the Royal Engineers. These took place in May 1940 with the object of destroying all the oil reserves stored in refineries in the ports along the Continental coastline from Holland to the Bay of Biscay, thus denying the Nazis vital stocks.The operations were mounted at very short notice and in extreme secrecy. Such was the importance attached to them that no plans existed for the unit's evacuation.The destruction of some two million tons of oil was a serious blow to the German war machine. Churchill was delighted with their success especially at a time of military setbacks. Although for security reasons there was no publicity at the time, they earned a generous allocation of decorations.The book describes the trip over in destroyers, frequently under air attack, the chaotic conditions ahead of the advancing Germans, the difficulties faced in carrying out the tasks and the drama of getting back to England.The unit went on to undertake further unusual expeditions from Spitzbergen to the Middle East over the next two and a half years of the Second World War.Sacrifice, Captivity and Escape: The Remarkable Memoirs of a Japanese POW
By Peter Jackson. 2012
Sacrifice, Captivity and Escape is an exceptional story. Peter Jackson was young and recently married when he was drafted into…
the army at the start of World War II. He had no wish to be there but like most of his generation he was given no choice.Peter arrived in Singapore just as the city was being evacuated and within days he was a prisoner of the Imperial Japanese Army. Peter was one of the very few to survive the hardship, illnesses and brutality that followed. Like so many he was forced to work for the Japanese, first in Singapore and then on the infamous Thai-Burma railway. While there, remarkably, he escaped with seven other soldiers and, when recaptured, he was treated harshly.His memoir brings alive the characters of his comrades and also of the Japanese who he encountered. Some of the Japanese treated their prisoners humanely and Peter was able to form a relationship with them but others were sadistic psychopaths.But throughout his memoir there is a sense of hopefulness that, as young men, they would survive and get back to their homes; this was despite the despair many of them felt at losing four years of their lives as prisoners.Sunderland Over Far-Eastern Seas: An RAF Flying Boat Navigator's Story
By Derek K. Empson. 2010
This is the first book to give a detailed, first-hand account of post-World War II RAF Short Sunderland operations in…
the Far East. The author was a navigator with 88 Squadron and later 205 Squadron, flying operations during the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency and many other operations. He was based at Seletar in Singapore, Kaitak in Hong Kong, Iwakuni near Hiroshima and various other operational bases throughout his two and a half year tour. The Sunderland flying boat was a unique aircraft in that each crew was allotted an aircraft which became their floating and airborne home. The crew relied upon all-round cooperation to keep the airplane in top condition, plus the addition of personalized luxuries. The task of long distance navigation in the Far East during the early 1950s relied on the conventional methods of astro navigation and dead reckoning, a difficult task when crossing hundreds of miles of open ocean and encountering monsoon and tropical storm conditions.Amongst the noteworthy events included is a return flight from Singapore to Hong Kong across 1,400 miles of ocean with a VIP passenger, his first operational flight as a 21 year old Pilot Officer navigator. He then undertakes an operation involving a return trip to Scotland which took three months. On moving to Kiatak the Sunderlands provided air cover for search and rescue operations, taking off and landing amongst the port's many small and erratically steered shipping craft. He flew sixty-one missions in support of the United Nations forces fighting in and around Korea, enduring the threat of Chinese fighters over the Yellow Sea. In one operation an engine fire caused the crew to ditch in the Tsushima Strait with serious structural failure and they were rescued by the USS De Haven, a US destroyer. This is a worthy record of some of the legendary Short Sunderland's final roles in the RAF.Some Desperate Glory: The Diary of a Young Officer, 1917
By Edwin Campion Vaughan. 2010
Some Desperate Glory charts the progress of an enthusiastic and patriotic young officer who marched into battle with Palgraves Golden…
Treasury in his pack. Intensely honest and revealing, his diary evokes the day-to-day minutiae of trench warfare: its constant dangers and mind-numbing routine interspersed with lyrical and sometimes comic interludes. Vividly capturing the spirit of the officers and men at the front, the diary grows in horror and disillusionment as Vaughans company is drawn into the carnage of Passchendaele from which, of his original happy little band of 90 men, only 15 survived.Retreat and Rearguard, 1914: The BEF's Actions From Mons to the Marne
By Jerry Murland. 2011
The British action at Mons on 23 August 1914 was the catalyst for what became a full blown retreat over…
200 blood drenched miles. This book examines eighteen of the desperate rearguard actions that occurred during the twelve days of this near rout. While those at Le Cateau and Nery are well chronicled, others such as cavalry actions at Morsain and Taillefontaine, the Connaught Rangers at Le Grand Fayt and 13 Brigades fight at Crepy-en-Valois are virtually unknown even to expert historians. We learn how in the chaos and confusion that inevitably reigned units of Gunners and other supporting arms found themselves in the front line.The work of the Royal Engineers responsible for blowing bridges over rivers and canals behind the retreating troops comes in for particular attention and praise. Likewise that of the RAMC. No less than 16 VCs were won during this historic Retreat, showing that even in the darkest hours individuals and units performed with gallantry, resourcefulness and great forbearance.The book comes alive with first hand accounts, letters, diaries, official unit records, much of which has never been published before.Early in the Second World War, Peter Wand-Tetley volunteered for special service. He saw action first with the newly formed…
Commandos raiding the North African coast and then in the fierce fighting on Crete. Operations with the LRDG in the Western Desert were followed by SAS actions as Rommel retreated to Tunis. Remarkably he then transferred to the Special Operations Executive and was parachuted blind into enemy occupied Greece in 1943. His role was to train and equip Andarte guerillas and his contribution and courage were recognized by the award of an immediate MC.Following victory in Europe he sailed with the Parachute Regiment to Javo where he fought in the counter-insurgency war.As well as describing his exemplary war record, Special Forces Commander covers Wand-Tetleys early life (he was a superb marksman) and his career post war in the turbulent days of the end of Empire.The Yompers: With 45 Commando in the Falklands War
By Ian Gardiner. 2012
Called to action on 2 April 1982, the men of 45 Commando Royal Marines assembled from around the world to…
sail 8,000 miles to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine invasion. Lacking helicopters and short of food, they yomped in appalling weather carrying overloaded rucksacks, across the roughest terrain. Yet for a month in mid-winter, they remained a cohesive fighting-fit body of men. They then fought and won the highly successful and fierce night battle for Two Sisters, a 1,000 foot high mountain which was the key to the defensive positions around Stanley.This is a first hand story of that epic feat, but it is much more than that. The first to be written by a company commander in the Falklands War, the book gives a compelling, vivid description of the yomp and infantry fighting, and it also offers penetrating insights into the realities of war at higher levels. It is a unique combination of descriptive writing about front-line fighting and wider reflections on the Falklands War, and conflict in general.Gritty and moving; sophisticated, reflective and funny, this book offers an abundance of timeless truths about war.Postscript: Yomping was the word used by the Commandos for carrying heavy loads on long marches. It caught the publics imagination during this short but bitter campaign and epitomized the grim determination and professionalism of our troops.They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front, 1914–1918
By Ian Sumner. 2012
This graphic collection of first-hand accounts sheds new light on the experiences of the French army during the Great War.…
It reveals in authentic detail the perceptions and emotions of soldiers and civilians who were caught up in the most destructive conflict the world had ever seen. Their testimony gives a striking insight into the mentality of the troops and their experience of combat, their emotional ties to their relatives at home, their opinions about their commanders and their fellow soldiers, the appalling conditions and dangers they endured, and their attitude to their German enemy. In their own words, in diaries, letters, reports and memoirs - most of which have never been published in English before - they offer a fascinating inside view of the massive life-and-death struggle that took place on the Western Front. Ian Sumner provides a concise narrative of the war in order to give a clear context to the eyewitness material. In effect the reader is carried through the experience of each phase of the war on the Western Front and sees events as soldiers and civilians saw them at the time. This emphasis on eyewitness accounts provides an approach to the subject that is completely new for an English-language publication. The authors pioneering work will appeal to readers who may know something about the British and German armies on the Western Front, but little about the French army which bore the brunt of the fighting on the allied side. His book represents a milestone in publishing on the Great War.The First Jet Pilot: The Story of German Test Pilot Erich Warsitz
By Lutz Warsitz. 2008
On 27 August 1939, Flugkapitan Erich Warsitz became the first man to fly a jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178…
and in June of the same year he flew the first liquid-fuel rocket aircraft, the Heinkel He 176. His legendary flying skills enabled him to assist the pioneering German aircraft and engine design teams that included Wernher von Braun and Ernst Heinkel. He repeatedly risked his life extending the frontiers of aviation in speed, altitude and technology and survived many life-threatening incidents.This book is written by Erichs son who has used his fathers copious notes and log books that explain vividly the then halcyon days of German aviation history. Warsitz was feted by the Reichs senior military figures such as Milch, Udet and Lucht and even Hitler keenly followed his experimental flying. Little is known of this pioneer period because of the strict secrecy which shrouded the whole project it is a fascinating story that tells of the birth of the jet age and flight as we know it today. The book includes many unseen photographs and diagrams.Edward Teddy Mortlock Donaldson was one of three aviator brothers to win the D.S.O. during World War II. He joined…
his brother in the R.A.F. and was granted a sort-service commission. He quickly became both a stunt pilot and a crack-shot, winning the R.A.F.s Gunnery Trophy One and leading the R.A.F.s aerobatic display team. When war was declared Donaldson was commanding No 151(F) Squadron flying Hurricanes and in their first engagement destroyed six enemy aircraft, shooting down many more in the following months. For his leadership of the squadron during the battle and his personal tally of eleven, plus ten probable destruction's he was awarded the D.S.O. He then spent three years as a gunnery instructor in the USA where he taught American Gun Instructors and helped set up new gunnery schools. On his return to England he converted onto jet aircraft and commanded a Meteor squadron. This lead to him being selected to command the Air Speed Flight, established in 1946 to break the world record. Teddy eventually snatched the title, setting a new speed record and breaking the 1000 km/h barrier. He retired as an Air Commodore and became the Air Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. He died in 1992.Sweet William or the Butcher?: The Duke of Cumberland and the '45
By Jonathan Oates. 2008
'Butcher' Cumberland is portrayed as one of the arch villains of British history. His leading role in the bloody defeat…
of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745 and his ruthless pursuit of Bonnie Prince Charlie's fugitive supporters across the Scottish Highlands has generated a reputation for severity that has endured to the present day. He has even been proposed as the most evil Briton of the eighteenth century. But was Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the younger son of George II, really the ogre of popular imagination? Jonathan Oates, in this perceptive investigation of the man and his notorious career, seeks to answer this question. He looks dispassionately at Cumberland's character and at his record as a soldier, in particular at this behavior towards enemy wounded and prisoners. He analyses the rules of war as they were understood and applied in the eighteenth century. And he watches Cumberland closely through the entire course of the '45 campaign, from the retreat of the rebels across northern England to the Highlands, through Battle of Culloden and on into the bloodstained suppression that followed.Mosquito: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II
By Martin W. Bowman. 2008
On 15 November it came suddenly out of nowhere inches above the hangars with a crackling thunderclap of twin Merlins.…
As we watched, bewitched, it was flung about the sky in a beyond belief display for a bomber that could out perform any fighter. Well-bred whisper of a touch down, a door opened and down the ladder came suede shoes, yellow socks and the rest of Geoffrey de Havilland.The memories of Sergeant (later Flight Lieutenant DFC) Mike Carreck who was an observer with 105 Squadron when he first laid eyes on the new de Havilland Mosquito. This was an aircraft that would prove itself to be one of the most versatile and revered aircraft to fly with the RAF in World War II.This book is full of firsthand accounts from the crews that flew the Mossie in its roles as a bomber, long-range reconnaissance and low-level strike aircraft. The author has gathered together many of the most exciting operational reports that cover the period from the types introduction until the end of World War II. The text is interwoven with the background history of the personnel and squadrons, the purpose of the operations undertaken and their often devastating results.The Second World War was a momentous event in twentieth-century history and it is a fascinating period for family historians…
to explore. Numerous records are available to researchers whose relatives served in the war, and James Goultys book is an accessible guide on how to locate and understand these sources - and get the most out of them.Using evidence gleaned from a range of sources archives, official records, books, libraries, oral history and the internet he reconstructs the wartime records of a revealing and representative group of ordinary men and women: a signaler, an infantryman, a doctor, an artillery officer, a woman serving with anti aircraft units, a commando, a Royal Navy bomb disposal officer, RAF fighter and bomber pilots, and others. He describes their wartime careers and experiences and demonstrates how they fitted into contemporary military organizations and operations. He looks at their backgrounds, their wartime training and duties, their front line service, and the conditions they endured. In each case he shows how the research was conducted and explains how the lives of such individuals can be explored highlighting methods that can be used and sources that can be consulted. James Goultys informative book will be essential reading and reference for anyone who wants to find out about the Second World War and is keen to understand the part an ancestor played in it.Girls Need Not Apply: Field Notes From the Forces
By Kelly S. Thompson. 2019
This inspiring, compelling debut memoir chronicles the experiences of a female captain serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, and her…
journey to make space for herself in a traditionally masculine world.At eighteen years old, Kelly Thompson enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces. Despite growing up in a military family -- she would, in fact, be a fourth-generation soldier -- she couldn't shake the feeling that she didn't belong. From the moment she arrives for basic training at a Quebec military base, a young woman more interested in writing than weaponry, she quickly realizes that her conception of what being a soldier means, forged from a desire to serve her country after the 9/11 attacks, isn't entirely accurate. A career as a female officer will involve navigating a masculinized culture and coming to grips with her burgeoning feminism. In this compulsively readable memoir, Thompson writes with wit and honesty about her own development as a woman and a soldier, unsparingly highlighting truths about her time in the military. In sharply crafted prose, she chronicles the frequent sexism and misogyny she encounters both in training and later in the workplace, and explores her own feelings of pride and loyalty to the Forces, and a family legacy of PTSD, all while searching for an artistic identity in a career that demands conformity. When she sustains a career-altering injury, Thompson fearlessly re-examines her identity as a soldier. Girls Need Not Apply is a refreshingly honest story of conviction, determination, and empowerment, and a bit of a love story, too.Dak To: The 173rd Airborne Brigade in South Vietnam's Central Highlands
By Edward F. Murphy. 2007
Their officers and senior noncoms were drawn from the U.S. Army's elite. An all-volunteer unit of paratroopers, the "Sky Soldiers,"…
men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) were MACV's "fire brigade," rushed to stem the tide wherever the fighting was heaviest. In 1967 the attention of General Giap and his North Vietnamese Army (NVA) focused on a small mountain hamlet in the Central Highlands called Dak To. From June to November 1967, in the hills and valleys surrounding Dak To, the 173d fought some of the bloodiest battles of the entire Vietnam War.