Najnovšie - Encyklopédie populárno-náučné strana 125 z 148
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Fire Control
How often do we hear commanders say they are practically defenceless without machine guns and anti-tank weapon? et they have hundreds of men armed with the finest weapon of all – the rifle!For general use there is nothing to take its place. Nothing so universally deadly; nothing to beat it in attack and defence.Fire Control is one of a series of training books written in 1942 by Colonel G. A. Wade for the newly-recruited Home Guard. This reproduction from the Royal Armouries’ archive shows how the Second World War trainees learnt to handle their rifles and strategically engage the enemy.
Puerto Rico
In the second edition of Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Jorge Duany unravels the fascinating and turbulent past and present of an island that is politically and economically tied to the United States, yet culturally distinct.Acquired by the United States from Spain in 1898, Puerto Rico has a peculiar status among Latin American and Caribbean countries. As a US Commonwealth, the island enjoys limited autonomy over local matters, but the US has dominated it militarily, politically, and economically for much of its recent history. Though they are US citizens, Puerto Ricans do not have their own voting representatives in Congress and cannot vote in presidential elections (although they are able to participate in the primaries). In recent years, Puerto Rico''s colossal public debt sparked an economic crisis that catapulted it onto the national stage and intensified the exodus to the US, bringing to the fore many of the unresolved remnants of its colonial history.In the second edition of Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Jorge Duany provides a succinct, authoritative introduction to the island''s rich history, culture, politics, and economy, as well as its diaspora. Beginning with a historical overview of Puerto Rico, Duany covers the Spanish colonial period (1493-1898) and the first five decades of the US colonial regime. He then delves into the demographic, economic, political, and cultural features of contemporary Puerto Rico--the inner workings of the Commonwealth government and the island''s relationship to the United States. Moreover, the book explores the massive population displacement that has characterized Puerto Rico since the mid-twentieth century. New material examines the multiple issues affecting Puerto Rico in the last decade, including a prolonged recession, the devastating impact of two hurricanes, and the largest migrant wave ever recorded from Puerto Rico. While a popular tourist destination, few beyond Puerto Rico''s shores are familiar with its complex history and diverse culture. Duany takes on the task of educating readers on the most important facets of the unique, troubled, but much beloved isla del encanto.
‘Ten Pound Poms’
A riveting history of the ?Ten Pound Poms?, a wave of British citizens who migrated to Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War. Between the 1940s and 1970s, more than a million Britons migrated to Australia. They were the famous ''Ten Pound Poms'' and this is their story. The authors draw on a vast trove of letters, diaries and personal photographs, as well as hundreds of interviews with former migrants, to offer original insights into key historical themes. They explore people?s motivations for emigrating, gender relations and family dynamics, the clashing experience of the ?very familiar and awfully strange?, homesickness and the personal and national identities of both settlers and returnees. Filled with fascinating testimonies that shed light on migrant life histories, ?Ten Pound Poms? will engage readers interested in British and Australian migration history and intrigued about the power of migrant memories for individuals, families and nations.
German Command Headquarters in the West
The Wehrmacht won a quick victory in the West in 1940, the Netherlands and Belgium capitulated in May, and France signed an armistice on June 22.Heeresgruppe A remained in France and Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt and his staff established themselves at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and they soon worked on drawing up provisional instructions for Operation ''Seelöwe'', the invasion of Great Britain. In October, von Rundstedt was appointed Commander-in-Chief West (Oberbefehlshaber West or Ob. West for short) and made responsible for all the German-occupied territory in western Europe.In April 1941, he and his staff were secretly moved to the East to take command of the right wing of the offensive against Russia and the function of Ob. West was taken over by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin von Witzleben. In March 1942 von Witzleben took leave of his command due to ill health and from the 8th, von Rundstedt returned as Commander-in-Chief in the West.It was from Saint-Germain that the Ob. West, von Rundstedt, faced the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944, the invasion as the Germans called it. The German forces were unable to stop the Allied operation, Hitler found fault with the local commanders and decided to relieve von Rundstedt of his command. Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge was then appointed Ob. West and it was a grim situation that he inherited upon his arrival at Saint-Germain on July 3.Saint-Germain thus saw four of the most important Field Marshals of the Third Reich successively assuming command of the Ob. West, and a fifth, the famous Erwin Rommel, was also part of the story. Of these five Generalfeldmarschalls, three died for their involvement in the plot to eliminate Hitler, or for their sympathy with the conspiracy: von Witzleben was executed after an express judgment, and von Kluge and Rommel committed suicide.The Ob. West has left Saint-Germain with some remarkable constructions, most of which are still visible today, nestled in the city, witnesses to this strange episode in the history of the city.
Kumbha (Revised and Updated)
In this lucid and enlightening account, Nityananda Misra takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through the modern Kumbha Mela, the largest pilgrimage and the biggest festival in the world attended by crores of people.
The book details the origin and symbolism of the Kumbha Mela, its dates and venues, and its awe-inspiring organization that has been called a wonder of modern-day management. It provides a personal close-up view of the visitors at the largest human gathering on earth—the sadhus, the kalpavasis, the tirthayatris, and members of new-age Hindu movements. The author sheds considerable light on the cultural aspects (literature, arts, and music) of the Kumbha and argues how the mela is perhaps the most diverse and inclusive human gathering and how the tradition is immortal, as if made so by the nectar of immortality which is believed to have spilled on the sites of the Kumbha Mela. Throughout the book, the author shows how diverse participants come and work together at the Kumbha Mela following the spirit of sangacchadhvam (“come together”)—a spirit that permeates the mela in his view.
The author captures his personal experience too in Prayaga, Nashik, and Ujjain, leaving an anecdotal touch to the narrative. The final chapter presents an overview of the upcoming Kumbha Mela in Prayaga in 2025..
The Stories Old Towns Tell
“An original take on 20th-century European history" —Alastair Bailey, Financial Times “[A] fascinating chronicle.”—Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal A journey through Europe’s old towns, exploring why we treasure them—but also what they hide about a continent’s fraught history Historic quarters in cities and towns across the middle of Europe were devastated during the Second World War—some, like those of Warsaw and Frankfurt, had to be rebuilt almost completely. They are now centers of peace and civility that attract millions of tourists, but the stories they tell about places, peoples, and nations are selective. They are never the whole story. These old towns and their turbulent histories have been key sites in Europe’s ongoing theater of politics and war. Exploring seven old towns, from Frankfurt and Prague to Vilnius in Lithuania, the acclaimed writer Marek Kohn examines how they have been used since the Second World War to conceal political tensions and reinforce certain versions of history. Uncovering hidden stories behind these old and old-seeming façades, Kohn offers us a new understanding of the politics of European history-making—showing how our visits to old towns could promote belonging over exclusion, and empathy over indifference.
Ghosts of Panama
Panama, 1989. The once warm relationship between United States and Gen. Manuel Noriega has eroded dangerously. Newly elected President George Bush has declared the strongman a drug trafficker and a rigger of elections. Intimidation on the streets is a daily reality for U.S. personnel and their families. The nation is a powder keg. Naval Investigative Service (NIS) Special Agent Rick Yell has worked the job in Panama since 1986, and lives there with his wife Annya and infant child. Like most NIS agents, he’s a civilian with no military rank with a specialty in working criminal cases. The dynamic changes suddenly when Yell inadvertently develops an intelligence source with unparalleled access to the Noriega regime. Now the agent is thrust into a world of spy-versus-spy, of secret meetings and hidden documents. Yell’s source – known as “The Old Man” – warns when Cuban military personnel arrive and identifies anti-American officers within the Panamanian Defense Forces, provides information about an imprisoned CIA asset and helps track Noriega’s movements, agitating for the dictator’s kidnapping. The reports created by Yell and his NIS colleagues shape the decisions made in Washington D.C., CIA headquarters in Langley and the innermost sanctums of Pentagon. The powder keg is lit on December 16, 1989, when a young U.S. Marine is gunned down at a checkpoint in Panama City. Yell and his cadre of trusted agents deploy immediately to investigate the killing, and what they determine will decide the fate of two nations. When President Bush hears the details they uncover, he orders an invasion that puts Yell’s family, informants and fellow agents directly in harm’s way. Using a blend of research and interviews with the NIS agents who were directly involved, Ghosts of Panama reveals the untold, clandestine story of counterintelligence professionals placed in a pressure cooker assignment of historic proportions.
South Atlantic 1982
A detailed account of the war-winning role that a handful of Harrier squadrons played in the Falklands War.On 5 April 1982, the British aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible sailed for the South Atlantic at the heart of the task force that would retake the Falkland Islands, known to Argentina as the Islas Malvinas. Air power was essential to the operation, and some analysts considered the contest unwinnable. The British had just 42 fighter jets available (28 Sea Harriers and 14 RAF Harrier GR.3s), and were outnumbered three-to-one by the Argentinian Air Force. Naval expert Angus Konstam offers a focused history of naval aviation in the Falklands War. The superbly manoeuvrable Harriers provided air cover during the ferociously contested landings, and later a Harrier Forward Operating Base on the islands was also made available. He explains how the British forces achieved their impressive Falklands air-to-air record, shooting down 21 Argentinian jets for no losses, while suffering more to anti-aircraft fire. He also looks into the Harriers’ ground-attack campaign, and explains the roles played by weapons technology, radar, electronic warfare, aerial reconnaissance, and support helicopters.Illustrated throughout with spectacular new artwork, 3D diagrams and maps, this book explains how the brutal test of the Falklands War showed the way forward for naval aviation and fleet air defence for decades to come.
The Hundred Years War Vol 5
‘Sumption is that rare and precious thing: a serious, decent, honest thinker . . . and one of our finest historians.’ Dan Jones, Sunday Times‘Gripping and eminently readable . . . a compelling justification for the enduring value of historical narrative.’ The Times‘Unsurpassed, and probably unsurpassable.’ Daily TelegraphIn this final volume of his epic history of the Hundred Years War, Jonathan Sumption tells the story of the collapse of the English dream of conquest, from the opening years of the reign of Henry VI until the loss of all of England’s continental dominions except Calais thirty years later. This sudden reversal of fortune was a seminal event in the history of the two principal nation-states of western Europe, ending four centuries of the English dynasty’s presence in France and separating two countries whose fortunes had once been closely intertwined, creating a new sense of national identity in both. The legacy of these events would influence their divergent fortunes for centuries to come. Behind the clash of arms stood some of the most remarkable personalities of the age: the Duke of Bedford, the English Regent who ruled much of France; Charles VII of France, who patiently rebuilt his kingdom after the disasters of his early years; the captains populating the pages of Shakespeare – Fastolf, Montagu, Talbot, Dunois and, above all, the extraordinary figure of Joan of Arc who changed the course of the war in a few weeks at the age of seventeen.‘The Hundred Years War ends in England''s agonising defeat – but triumph for Jonathan Sumption . . . There is no doubting his achievement. It is, as everyone says, a “monumental” work.’ Spectator
AH-1 Cobra Gunship vs NVA Armor
A new study of how the first purpose-built anti-tank helicopter gunship – the Bell AH-1 Cobra – engaged communist armor and well-armed irregular fighters in the war for control of Vietnam.The Vietnam War was often dubbed ‘the helicopter war’ because it was the first conflict in which helicopters took a dominant role. As the only dedicated gunship to be fielded by US forces during the conflict, the AH-1 Cobra saw combat against North Vietnamese Army (NVA) tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs), and heavy anti-aircraft weaponry while joining OH-6A "Loach" scout helicopters on "Pink Team" hunter-killer flights. There were more than 700 Cobras operational in Vietnam by 1972, and it proved such an effective weapon that the NVA often avoided shooting at it, fearing massive and instant retribution. In this action-packed new study, Vietnam War expert Peter E. Davies examines the development and deployment of the Cobra, its engagements with Soviet- and Chinese-supplied tanks and heavy machine guns, and how it was adapted to counter devastating surface-to-air missile attacks in 1972. Numerous key clashes – including the Tet Offensive and actions at Loc Ninh and An Loc – are explored in detail, with first-hand accounts, newly commissioned artwork, and more than 50 photographs bringing the operations of this iconic helicopter to life.
The Athenian Army 507–322 BC
This fully illustrated study explores the formidable Athenian army, rivalled only by the Spartan army in terms of battlefield prowess and influence.In 508 BC, the reforms of Kleisthenes established the ten tribes of Athens, inaugurating a system of military organization that remained in place for nearly 200 years until Athens’ eclipse by the growing power of Macedon in the early 3rd century BC. Fully illustrated, this lively study investigates the development and effectiveness of the armies fielded by Athens during its many wars with its Greek neighbours, notably Sparta, and other opponents such as the Persian Empire. A variety of different troop types made up these armies, ranging from formidably armed and armoured hoplite heavy infantry to lightly armed archers, peltasts and cavalry.In this book, Athens’ major wars and battles of the period are summarized, and important aspects contributing to the Athenian army’s battlefield prowess, influence and legacy, ranging from mobilization and training to the evolution of arms and armour, are examined in the light of the latest scholarship and archaeological finds. The eight colour plates reconstruct the appearance of components of the Athenian army at various stages of its development. The authoritative text is complemented by carefully chosen photographs, many in colour, depicting a variety of surviving artefacts, supported by informative captions.
Counterfeit Countess, The
<p>The Holocaust has given rise to many accounts of resistance and rescue, but <i>The Counterfeit Countess</i> is unique. It tells the remarkable, untold story of 'Countess Janina Suchodolska', a Jewish woman named Janina Mehlberg who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by their country's Nazi occupiers. <br><br>Janina Mehlberg operated in Lublin, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, 'the Countess' persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food, clothing and medicine for thousands more of the camp's prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned at Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, survived the war and eventually emigrated to the USA. <br><br>Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg's own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this extraordinary woman. They interweave Mehlberg's sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Unsparing yet inspiring, <i>The Counterfeit Countess </i>is an unforgettable account of selfless courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty, and a major addition to the history of the Holocaust.</p>
The Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket 1944
A detailed exploration of a critical month-long battle, which set the stage for German strategic-level defeats on both the Eastern and Western fronts.In February 1944, 1st Panzer Army (under Generaloberst Hube) played a major role in the relief operation that saved part of the German forces trapped in the Korsun Pocket. However, the losses suffered in that effort left Hube’s forces materially weakened, exhausted and with vulnerable flanks. Unexpectedly, Zhukov’s 1st Ukrainian Front and Konev’s 2nd Ukrainian Front attacked on 4 March, conducting a huge pincer operation against 1st Panzer Army. Within three weeks, Hube’s 200,000-strong army was isolated, with its back to the Dniester River. The destruction of Hube’s army would doubtless precipitate a rapid German collapse on the Eastern Front – two months before the Allied invasion of France. In this work, Eastern Front expert Robert Forczyk presents a superbly illustrated examination of the initial Soviet encirclement operation, Hube’s full-scale breakout operation to save his army, and the relief operation by 2nd SS-Panzer Corps (redeployed from the West) in April 1944. Although Hube’s army managed to escape Zhukov’s trap, it lost most of its equipment and was no longer fully combat capable. The German Army in the East had been seriously weakened, and the amount of German armour deployed in the West to counter any Allied landings in France had simultaneously been reduced.
A Spitfire Pilot's Story
Pat Hughes is today perhaps the greatest unsung hero of the Battle of Britain. Ranked sixth in the ‘ace of aces’ of the aerial campaign of summer 1940, he shot down at least fourteen enemy aircraft, mostly the Spitfire’s closely matched rival the Messerschmitt Me 109.As a flight commander in 234 Squadron he advocated bold, close-in tactics and during July 1940 scored the squadron’s first victories of the epic battle for air supremacy. The burden of command fell on his shoulders before the squadron transferred to the heart of the Battle in the south-east of England, where he endured the heaviest and most sustained period of fighting of the Battle of Britain.Revered by his fellow pilots, Hughes began a shooting spree on 15 August that only ended when he was killed during the first huge daylight attack on London on 7 September. In his last three days alone he contributed at least six kills. His death in mysterious circumstances left Kathleen, his bride of just six weeks, a war widow. This volume is illustrated with over forty photographs, including many from his family that have never before been published.
Saving MacArthur
A photo in the New York Times on June 10, 1942 depicted a young naval officer, John Duncan Bulkeley, and his wife in the back of an open touring car as they were being treated to a New York ticker tape parade. Hundreds of thousands of people were cheering him in a hero’s welcome not seen since Charles Lindbergh returned from his solo flight across the Atlantic. The 30-year-old Bulkeley was just back from the Philippines, where he had pulled off one of the most spectacular rescues in U.S. naval history by taking General Douglas MacArthur out of the besieged islands aboard a PT boat. MacArthur’s escape from the Philippine death trap was front-page news not only in the United States but all over the world. America’s most illustrious soldier had been a hair’s breadth away from being killed or captured by the Japanese. Both MacArthur and Bulkeley were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and commentators nationwide joined in the adulation. But no mention was ever made of the nearly 80 officers and men of Bulkeley’s squadron who were left behind, a tragic sacrifice that no one at the time, or even later, would admit was totally unnecessary. Saving MacArthur is the story of the fateful friendship of two otherwise very different men who shared an unquenchable thirst for fame and a willingness to turn history into myth, a story that is as much about the nature of human beings as it is about a glorious moment in our past. But above all it is the story of the men history has forgotten—the crews of the PT boats whose extraordinary courage gave us that glorious moment, and whose only reward was to be abandoned and left at the mercy of the Japanese—some to face imprisonment and death, others, forgotten by the outside world, to fight a lonely war of their own as they worked to uphold the honor of their country in a land their country had pledged and utterly failed to defend. Saving MacArthur captures their incredible hardships, close escapes and ultimate triumph.
Barrow-in-Furness & District: A Potted History
In the Middle Ages, Barrow was a small settlement close to Furness Abbey. The Furness peninsula is still a largely rural area, and Furness Abbey is now a ruin, but the town of Barrow-in-Furness grew during the Industrial Revolution to become an important steel producer and exporter, exploiting the mineral deposits in mines nearby and its position on the coast. Later it became a major manufacturer of naval vessels, best known today for building Royal Navy submarines. The monastic movement played an important part in the settlement and economy of medieval Furness, not only at Furness Abbey but also Conishead Priory, alongside the manorial system. Over the centuries the area experienced Scottish incursion and other invasions, piracy and smuggling, plague, uprisings, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Civil War battles, the Quaker movement, the attention of Romantic writers and artists, railways and industrialisation and the effect of both World Wars.Illustrated throughout, this accessible historical portrait of the transformation that Barrow and the surrounding area has undergone through the ages will be of great interest to residents, visitors and all those with links to the area.
Britain's Forgotten Battle
On 8 February 1945, over 50,000 British and Canadian soldiers moved forward to attack German defensive positions centred on the vast Reichswald Forest, in what proved to be one of the last and bloodiest battles of the whole of the Second World War in Europe. The Reichswald (German Imperial Forest) on the Rhineland borders of the Netherlands and Germany became the location of an epic struggle that eventually sucked in over 200,000 British and Canadian service personnel.The campaign, sandwiched between better-known clashes such as 1944’s Battle of the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine in 1945, was brutal. The Allies suffered nearly 16,000 casualties, the Germans an estimated 44,000. Drawing on a wealth of sources from British, Canadian and European museums and archives, the authors provide a new and timely account – on the 80th anniversary – of this epic British and Canadian struggle against the Wehrmacht, fought out on the north-eastern borders of Germany during the dying days of the war in Europe.
Europe without Borders
The contested creation of free movement—for people and goods—in the Schengen area of EuropeEurope is a place of free movement among nations—or is it? The Schengen area, established in 1985 and today encompassing twenty-nine European countries, allows people, goods, and capital to cross borders without restraint. Schengen transformed European life, advancing both a democratic project of transnational citizenship and a neoliberal project of international free trade. But the right of free movement always excluded non-Europeans, especially migrants of color from former colonies of the Schengen states. In Europe without Borders, Isaac Stanley-Becker explores the contested creation of free movement in Schengen, from treatymaking at European summits and disputes in international courts to the street protests of undocumented immigrants who claimed free movement as a human right. Schengen laid the groundwork for the making of a single market and the founding of the European Union. Yet its emergence is one of the great untold stories of modern European history, one hidden in archives long embargoed. Stanley-Becker is among the first to have access to records of the treatymaking—such as letters between France’s François Mitterrand and West Germany’s Helmut Kohl—and Europe without Borders offers a pathbreaking account of Schengen’s creation. Stanley-Becker argues that Schengen gave a humanist cast to a market paradigm; but even in pairing the border crossing of human beings with the principles of free-market exchange, this vision of free movement was hedged by alarm about foreign migrants. Meanwhile, these migrants—the sans-papiers—saw in the promise of a borderless Europe only a neocolonial enterprise.
The Devil’S Highway
Between 1850 and 1900, Ratcliffe Highway was the pulse of maritime London. Sailors from every corner of the globe found solace, and sometimes trouble, in this bustling district. However, for social investigators, it was a place of fascination and fear as it harboured chaotic and dangerous ?exotic? communities. Sailortowns were transient, cosmopolitan and working class in character and provide us with an insight into class, race and gendered relations. They were contact zones of heightened interaction where multi-ethnic subaltern cultures met, sometimes negotiated and at other times clashed with one another. The book argues that despite these challenges sailortown was a distinctive and functional working-class community that was self-regulating and self-moderating. The book uncovers a robust sailortown community in which an urban-maritime culture shaped a sense of themselves and the traditions and conventions that governed subaltern behaviour in the district.
V kategórii populárno - náučné encyklopédie nájdete široký výber kníh, ktoré vám poskytnú poznatky z rôznych oblastí zaujímavým a zrozumiteľným spôsobom. Encyklopédie vám pomôžu získať komplexný prehľad o rôznych témach, ako ľudské telo a človek, príroda, vesmír, veda a technika a história.
Naša ponuka encyklopédií populárno-náučného charakteru vám umožní objaviť fascinujúci svet poznania a rozšíriť svoje vedomosti o rôznych témach.
