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Ship Craft Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships - Revised Edition
The ShipCraft series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between sister-ships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring colour profiles and highly detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modelling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the ships, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic survey of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references - books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites.This volume covers the five ships of the highly successful Queen Elizabeth class, a design of fast battleship that set the benchmark for the last generation of dreadnoughts. Since its first publication in 2010 this popular class has been the subject of many new kit releases and these, and related accessories, are covered in depth in this revised edition.LES BROWN is a leading light in the Small Warships Group of the IPMS and the editor of their newsletter. He is the author of a number of titles in the ShipCraft series, including two on British light cruisers, and, with John Lambert, he produced two larger works, one on ‘Flower’ class corvettes and another on Allied torpedo boats. He also wrote the volume on Black Swan Class Sloops in Seaforth’s ‘Original Builders’ Plans’ series.
The Lord Protector and His Wives
Sometime before 1518 Edward Seymour, the brother of Queen Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII, married Catherine Filliol. Catherine gained connections in the highest echelons of Tudor society and Edward the prospect of a large inheritance. It should have been a match made in heaven, but instead, within a decade, they were engulfed in uncertainty and scandal. Catherine was repudiated, and the two sons she had borne her husband eventually disinherited.The nature of this scandal is unclear but later historians accused Catherine of an affair with her father-in-law. Her exact fate remains uncertain, but by 1535, Edward was free to marry again, and he turned his attention to another heiress, Anne Stanhope, who would, in her own way, prove to be just as scandalous. Katherine Parr would call Anne “that hell”, but she was strong, opinionated and fiercely intelligent. A friend of Anne Askew, a connection that almost cost her her life, Anne lived to see her brother-in-law, her half-brother, and her husband go to the block. Imprisoned in the Tower herself she managed to keep her head and ultimately emerged wealthy and powerful, dying peacefully on the 16th April 1587 at Hanworth Palace. Anne was the ultimate Tudor survivor.
Cataphracts
Cataphracts were the most heavily armoured form of cavalry in the ancient world, with riders and mounts both clad in heavy armour. Originating among the wealthiest nobles of various central Asian steppe tribes, such as the Massegatae and Scythians, they were adopted and adapted by several major empires. The Achaemenid Persians, Seleucids, Sassanians and eventually the Romans and their Byzantine successors.Usually armed with long lances, they harnessed the mobility and mass of the horse to the durability and solid fighting power of the spear-armed phalanx. Although very expensive to equip and maintain (not least due to the need for a supply of suitable horses), they were potential battle winners and remained in use for many centuries. Erich B Anderson assesses the development, equipment, tactics and combat record of cataphracts (and the similar clibinarii), showing also how enemies sought to counter them. This is a valuable study of one of the most interesting weapon systems of the ancient world.
London's Royal Parks
London’s Royal Parks are among its most beautiful and beloved spaces: just as much as the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace or St Pancras Station, the mere mention of Hyde Park or Greenwich Park is enough to evoke the capital in all its glory for residents and tourists alike. They have a magnificent history – some were royally owned as far back as the Norman conquest, others were acquired by Henry VIII during the Reformation and were great hunting grounds for successive monarchs – and since being opened to the public, they have hosted some of London’s great events, including the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park and innumerable jubilees, international games and competitions and celebrations. Today, the Royal Parks are visited by over 77 million visitors. But what are the ingredients of these magnificent green spaces? We often think of wider landscapes of trees, grass, lakes, meandering footways, bedding displays and herbaceous borders. But the Royal Parks are much more than this. Defined as ‘parkitecture’, we find royal palaces, stately homes, villas, monuments, memorials, statues of national figures and war heroes, public art, often controversial yet inspiring, sculpture, bandstands, gates and railings of exquisite designs, fountains, refreshments rooms, lodges and pavilions, bridges and boathouses. Each of the Royal Parks is defined by its ‘parkitecture’, from the formality of Regent’s and St James’s Parks to the rurality of Bushy and Richmond Parks. This new book is a long overdue complete celebration of the many buildings and monuments of London’s Royal Parks with over 250 beautiful illustrations.
Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland
Ireland is an extraordinarily beautiful island from which millions can claim their direct ancestry. But Ireland is also an island which has experienced some truly extraordinary moments of crisis which will have directly impacted our forebears, helping to shape us into the individuals that we are today. Whenever such crises happened, whether on a national scale or within the home, there was invariably somebody standing close to hand with a quill and parchment to document the misfortunes that befell so many.In this latest book, family historian Chris Paton takes a look at some of the darkest episodes of Irish history over the last four hundred years, as well as the everyday crises that affected everyone throughout their lives. He will discuss the impact of many major events on our ancestors, including colonisation, conquest and rebellion, as well as the various pressures endured from within the family, the church, and the state.Along the way Chris highlights the records that can help us to show the various trials and tribulations faced by our ancestors, which can help to vividly bring our family histories to life, including those available both online and within Ireland''s many local and national archives.
Hitler's War of Extinction
The Eastern Front was where the war against Nazi Germany was lost and won. More people died there in the battles and destruction than all the other theatres put together. From the Arctic snows of Finland to the vast steppes of the Ukraine, the fighting took place in every sort of landscape and every weather condition: sub-zero temperatures that froze engines and weapons, mosquito-infested swamps, the raputitsa mud that brought mechanised armies to a halt, and the huge industrial cities that were fought over street by street and house by house.What was it like to fight there? Hitler''s War of Extinction from the Eastern Fronttakes the reader into the thick of the battle lines in vivid colour. First-hand accounts from reports and diaries provide soldiers'' insights to accompany the candid photos of life and death to provide an evocation of what it was like to fight for survival on the Eastern Front.Boasting more 250 original colour photographs, Hitler''s War of Extinction: Rare German Colour Photographs shows the visceral nature of the battle between two intolerant ideologies that would leave upwards of 25 million servicemen and civilians dead.
The Napoleonic Wars
In the tumultuous saga of the Napoleonic Wars, one critical narrative has remained notably absent: a comprehensive medical history. This meticulously researched new volume from Martin R. Howard fills this gap in the literature.From the blood-stained fields of battle to the makeshift hospitals overflowing with sick and wounded soldiers, every aspect of medical care is vividly portrayed. Readers are immersed in the chaos of battlefield triage, groundbreaking surgical procedures, and the epidemics of disease. Not just mere historical documentation, this work is a gripping testament to human resilience. Through the eyes of those who lived it, the pages pulsate with the drama and urgency of the era, offering a riveting narrative that is both informative and compelling.The book draws on accounts from Europe, North America, The West Indies, Egypt, and India to give a truly global picture of the medical landscape of the time. The often-overlooked medical legacy of the Napoleonic Wars is given due recognition.
The Georgian 'Establishment'
This book is a biography of Edward Law, Lord Ellenborough (1750–1818) and a review of the Georgian ruling class from 1770 to 1820. We visit the established church, the public schools, the inns of court, the only universities in England, the law courts, the Houses of Commons and Lords, and the Royal Family.As a lawyer, a Member of Parliament and Chief Justice of the King''s Bench, Ellenborough played a part in all of the contentious legal and political issues of the late Georgian period, including the impeachment of Warren Hastings, the turbulent 1790s, the reaction against the French Revolution abroad and political radicalism at home. He was a friend to the Prince Regent in his struggle against his wife Caroline and one of the custodians of George III during his illness. Our subject supported the institutions of church and state with a ferocity that surprised even the most fervent proponents of the status quo at the time. He used his court to prosecute atheism, libel, treason and immorality and fight against any change in the political system, no matter how small. He was draconian, cruel and unforgiving, but was also a brilliantly able lawyer and judge who was a stickler for correct procedures and precedents - most of the time anyway. He was deeply unpopular with people who did not matter and regarded as reactionary even by people in his own ruling class. Ellenborough lived in an age when the ruling classes neither needed nor wanted to be popular, and he went one step further and was openly contemptuous of the notion.The book also reconstructs his life outside the Law Courts and Parliament - his private character and interests, his father and grandfather and the rapid rise of his family. The life of his wife, Anne Towry, gives a great insight into the life of women at the top of Georgian Society. Ellenborough is an outstanding and interesting figure who deserves a modern biography.
The Camps of the Death Railway
As the terrible conditions experienced by the British, Australian, Dutch, and American PoWs in the building of railway linking Buma and Thailand became known, as well as the appalling atrocities the men suffered at the hands of the Japanese, it was clear that an investigation would have to be undertaken. Before war trials began, the Japanese submitted their account of the building of the railway, which is presented here. What is also presented are the stories from the prisoners themselves from each of the camps, telling in stark, unflinching detail what really happened to them.Drawn entirely from first-hand accounts, a picture emerges of men being driven to very heavy manual labour without boots to protect their feet from injuries which resulted in tropical ulcers and the amputation of untreatable limbs with nothing but a wood saw. Of men dying of cholera in their hundreds; of stinking, maggot-ridden open latrines and campgrounds covered in faeces from dysentery sufferers.With virtually no medical equipment or medicines, the Allied medical officers faced an unwinnable battle to save the lives of men so weakened from hunger and unremitting work at times for eighteen hours a day, they could not fight off the multiple diseases which were endemic in the depths of the Thai and Burmese jungles.As more and more prisoners became ill, the number available for work on the railway diminished. But with orders to finish the railway ahead of time, the Japanese forced prisoners from their hospital beds out to work, many of whom never returned.When Allied officers tried to intervene to protect their men, they were subjected beating from the Japanese and Korean guards. Other brutal punishments, sometimes fatal, were handed out to the prisoners, frequently for no accountable reason. Conditions were so intolerable, some prisoners tried to escape, only to die in the jungle or be recaptured and executed. Others simply gave up all hope and died, quite literally, of despair.There were, of course, lighter moments amid the misery. Elephants were used to pull heavy logs. When an extra load was added to that of one elephant, the animal refused to move. As the normal method adopted by the Japanese with uncooperative prisoners was to give them a beating, one of the guards hit the elephant. The elephant roared and charged after him, chasing the terrified guard into the River Kwai and squirted water at him through his trunk.Through sheer determination in some cases or mere good fortune, many men survived the horrors of the camps to tell the world of what was one of the most dreadful humanitarian disasters of the Second World War. This is their story.
War on the Eastern Front
Dawn on Sunday 22 June 1941 saw the opening onslaughts of Operation Barbarossa as German forces stormed forward into the Soviet Union. Few of them were to survive the five long years of bitter struggle.A posting to the Eastern Front during the Second World War was rightly regarded with dread by the German soldiers. They were faced by the unremitting hostility of the climate, the people and even, at times, their own leadership. They saw epic battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk, and yet it was a daily war of attrition which ultimately proved fatal for Hitlers ambition and the German military machine.In this classic account leading military historian James Lucas examines different aspects of the fighting, from war in the trenches to a bicycle-mounted anti-tank unit fighting against the oncoming Russian hordes. Told through the experiences of the German soldiers who endured these nightmarish years of warfare, War on the Eastern Front is a unique record of this cataclysmic campaign.
China's Spies
While many of President Xia Jinping’s increasingly aggressive foreign policies, manifested by expansion into the South China Sea, trade confrontation with Australia, and political suppression in Hong Kong, have become obvious, there has been a covert dimension that has gone largely unreported outside the Allied intelligence community.Beijing’s Ministry of State Security, or MSS, has increasingly shifted its priorities to hostile penetration of the CIA. That this is the case has been demonstrated by the recent cases of individuals such as Glenn Shriver, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, Ron Rockwell Hansen, Kevin Mallory, Dickson Yeo, and Alexander Yuk Ching Ma. Of these, Shriver, an American student studying in China, became, as the FBI itself points out, ‘a target of Chinese intelligence services and crossed the line when he agreed to participate in espionage-type activity’.For his actions, in 2019 Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, pleaded guilty to attempting to spying for the People’s Republic of China and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Similarly, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former CIA case officer, was sentenced to nineteen years in prison for conspiring to communicate, deliver and transmit sensitive US information to the People’s Republic of China.Hitherto the MSS had concentrated, at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, on the collection of foreign technology and proprietary information, while also monitoring political dissidents, Tibetan and Taiwanese nationalists, and Uyghur and Falun Gong religious activists. The MSS also tended to recruit ethnic Chinese and were less interested in the collection of political intelligence or mounting influence operations.However, as Nigel West reveals, the MSS has undergone a radical change in doctrine, and, having consolidated its grip on supposedly independent commercial joint ventures and academic research institutions, is leveraging control over these ostensibly legitimate enterprises to access intelligence agencies now perceived as adversaries, such as the CIA and FBI.As the rhetoric and tensions between the West and China mounts, and with the current US administration calling America’s relationship with Beijing ‘the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century’, China’s unseen espionage offensive is one of the most serious developments in recent times. Its extent and effectiveness are explored in this absorbing – and chilling – new exposé.
Outlaws of the Wild West
The ‘Wild West’, or American Frontier as it is also known, developed in the years following the American Civil War. However, this period of myth-making cowboys, infamous gunslingers, not always law-abiding lawmen, and saloon madams, is as much the product of fiction writers and film makers as reality.The outlaw came into his, or indeed her, own in the mid to late 19th century. Some of these individuals, men such as Billy the Kid, William Clarke Quantrill, Butch Cassidy or Harry Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid, became household names. Many of those who roamed America’s West in the period between 1850 and 1900 often appear as colourful, romanticised, legendary characters. This includes the likes of Frank and Jesse James, who had stepped outside the law due to the harshness of life after the Civil War or under circumstances beyond their control.The majority of outlaws, though, were anonymous common criminals. In 1877, for example, the State Adjutant General of Texas, published ‘wanted posters’ for some 5,000 outlaws and bandits in the Rio Grande district alone, almost all of whom have since vanished into the mists of time.When it comes to the Wild West, it is important to separate fact from fiction. Of the known recorded killings by the various outlaws and gunfighters, Billy the Kid killed four men, not the twenty that some writers attributed to him. A notorious gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin was said to have killed twenty-seven men, but was only charged with one murder. Wild Bill Hickok killed three men, two of them in Abilene whilst he was City Marshal, and one in Springfield, Missouri, for which he was tried and found not guilty. Clay Allison, however, was thought to have killed at least fifteen men in his time as a gunfighter, whilst some of the outlaw gangs, such as the Rufus Buck Gang and the Evans Gang, were particularly violent and ruthless.The days of the outlaws of the Wild West gradually came to an end at the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century. The legends, however, live on.
Louis XIV's Marshals of France
For over 70 years, from 1643 to 1715, Louis XIV fought a series of increasingly bitter wars with the Dutch, the Spanish, the British and the Austrians. During his long reign France was the foremost power in Europe and the king used his military and economic strength to expand French territory to the north into the Low Countries, to the Rhine, and south to the Pyrenees. To enable this expansion, and defend it against the powerful armies that combined to oppose him, he depended on a select group of exceptional commanders – remarkable men close to the throne, who held the prestigious title of Marshal of France. These are the distinguished soldiers James Falkner focuses on in this perceptive and original study, and their colourful careers and long-reaching campaigns give us a fascinating insight into the European warfare of the period and into their relationship with their master, the Sun King. Among them are Turenne, the pre-eminent commander of the early years of Louis’s reign; Luxembourg who never lost a battle; elegant Villeroi who confronted the Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Ramillies; Boufflers, famous for his defence of Lille; Villars who remarkably outwitted and defeated Prince Eugene; Tallard, who endured catastrophe and capture at the Battle of Blenheim; Berwick, James II’s illegitimate son, the English Marshal; and brawling Vendôme who, though defeated at Oudenarde, later triumphed against the British and Austrians in Spain.Their skill as commanders and their qualities of leadership during a turbulent era in European history are a primary focus of James Falkner’s absorbing book, but he also looks at them as remarkable and varied individuals who expressed the military spirit of their age.
The Battle of Munda (45 BC)
After four years of fighting and two major victories, Julius Caesar had the upper hand in the Third Roman Civil War and had control of Rome itself. Yet despite this success, his surviving opponents still fought on, with the two sons of Pompeius Magnus taking command of the war against Caesar, along with Titus Labienus, previously one of Caesars’ own trusted subordinates. This opposition made another stand at Munda in Spain, which proved to be the final battle of Caesar’s career, and the closest he came to defeat.Gareth Sampson describes the campaigns that set the context for the battle and analyses in detail the opposing commanders and their forces, their relative strengths and weaknesses, organization, equipment, and tactics. The battle itself is recounted in detail through its various phases before considering the aftermath of the victory which saw Caesar’s victory unravel almost immediately, leading to his downfall on the Ides of March.
Jungle Ghosts
"...we were bad-ass motherfuckers in the baddest place in the universe. I understood how inane that macho-thinking was but as I soared high above the jungle with the cool air in my face I was as caught up in it as the rest of them.” One of the most dangerous occupations during the Vietnam War was walking point, a role Ed Mann took on and specialized in. He served a tour of duty in Vietnam as an infantry soldier in the famed 1st Air Cavalry Division from June of 1969 to June of 1970. Mann was wounded several times, receiving several decorations including the Silver Star, while experiencing the extreme hardships of the war with his fellow soldiers. He would continue to walk point for his entire tour, becoming more like the jungle as the days turned into weeks and months. Mann acknowledges the conflicting emotions he felt during his time in Vietnam - "I was repulsed by the senselessness and savagery of the war and I was saddened by the price it exacted but I was seduced by it too; proud to be performing an important role in a deadly fight for survival and lured by the adrenaline rushes."An intensely immersive, gritty, and tension-filled account of his experience that will transport you to the war in the jungle in a way that sets it apart from other Vietnam memoirs.
Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions
When it set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage, RMS Titanic was a marvel of modern technology and the latest in luxury, providing a gilded setting and false sense of security for its passengers to act out their imagined ideal lives in a reflection of pre-First World War society. When disaster struck in the form of an iceberg four days into its maiden voyage, that society was frozen in a moment of time, revealing class, gender and racial discrimination that pervaded contemporary social attitudes.Kevin Brown takes a fresh approach in exploring the social attitudes to class, manliness, heroism and cowardice, social redemption, the proper role of women and the social, religious and racial prejudices revealed by the sinking. He re-evaluates the code of women and children first, revealing how attitudes glorifying manliness influenced the behaviour of passengers and crew during the sinking, as well as suggesting a narrative of chivalry and self-sacrifice to create heroes from the victims and brand the surviving men as cowards; an interpretation that is challenged here.Eyewitness accounts evoke the horror of the night and reveal the underlying ideas of the day. They also show that women played a less passive role than expected of them. The responses to the sinking by politicians across the spectrum, the labour movement and suffragettes, suffragists and anti-suffragists is explored to show more critical contemporary responses to the disaster that challenge the heroic narrative. It was a world that was never so confident in modernity after the disaster but yet still held on to illusions of chivalry.
Assassinations That Shaped the Ancient World
Assassination! Just mentioning the word is enough to send a shiver up the spine. And yet, for many years, the deliberate act of ''taking out'' notable public figures has been the mainstay of political factions and individuals when faced with problems and dilemmas that discussion and debate cannot solve. Most monarchs, statesmen and military commanders of the ancient world, whether they were successful or failures, had to deal with threats. At one stage or another in their careers, they would all have been vulnerable to unexpected attacks. They would all have been potential targets for assassin''s blades or poison. And they knew it.So common was the assassination of notable individuals that it became almost an occupational hazard in the ancient world. From Pharaoh Teti, the first recorded victim of assassination, to Julius Caesar, despatched on the Ides of March, from Pompey the Great to Commodious, the Gladiator Emperor of Rome, so many rulers perished before their allotted period of time. In this new book, Phil Carradice takes a broad sweep at assassinations in the ancient world. Beginning with the Egyptian Empire, it traces the assassin''s art through Greek, Roman, Biblical, Chinese, Byzantine and other periods or empires, up to and including the Kings and Emperors of the Dark Ages. The book does not stop there. It examines individual assassinations, motivation and practice and looks at assassination groups such as the thugee of India and the Sacred Band of Thebes.
With the Royal Tank Regiment in Korea
“This book tells of the awe in which the veterans of World War 2 were held by the post war generation, the close bonds of trust and loyalty within tank crews and the deep respect, often expressed through humour, between tanks and infantry. It also gives a human feel for the early Cold War conditions in the British Army of the Rhine.”**- Brigadier Gavin Thompson, Colonel Commandant, The Royal Tank Regiment**Jim (James) Selway, a subaltern with the Royal Tank Regiment in the Korean War - relates a young officer''s experiences from 1949 until his retirement from the army in 1959, initially as a Tank Troop Commander and later as B Squadron''s ''Battle Captain''. Jim''s hard-earned experience of soldiering in combat and peacetime gives a rare and fascinating flavour into the life of an RTR officer.In Part One, Jim Selway writes about his initial service and training in the Post-war British army. He recalls the disappointment of Officer training which didn’t capitalise on real world lessons and the vastly more valuable training environment within the regiments. He talks about the experience of preparing for and travelling to a distant misunderstood war and his experiences on the ground as a troop commander in Korea, the last time British and United Nations forces held off an numerically overwhelming, politically indoctrinated but technically inferior force. The motto of the Royal Tank Regiment is ‘Fear Naught’ and Jim’s account will show how the Regiment lived up to it in the face of what Brigadier Brian Parritt vividly described as ‘Chinese Hordes and Human Waves’ in his book on the conflict.Following the unrestrained fighting in Korea, Part Two of his memoirs describes, through the lived experience of postings to Suez, Britain, Germany and Norway, how budgetary constraints and the challenges of the Cold War diluted the focus of the army from operational excellence with the requirement to maintain morale. Jim argues that the brass’s insistence on various values, particularly the retention of sporting traditions, helped overcome the disappointments and challenges of ‘budget’ soldiering in a peacetime army.Technology may have changed much since the 50s, but this deeply personal memoir provides insight into the leadership styles and challenges faced by a generation long exposed to war and remains relevant for soldiers today. We should neither forget nor underestimate the value of their experience and knowledge.
Nachtjagd, Defenders of the Reich, 1940–1943
This new volume from Martin Bowman examines the first three years of the Second World War, consolidating first-hand accounts from German fighter pilots caught up in some of the most dramatic night time conflicts of the early war years.Viewing Bomber Command''s operations through the eyes of the enemy, the reader is offered a fresh and intriguing perspective. Set in context by Bowman''s historical narrative, these snippets of pilot testimony work to offer an authentic sense of events as they played out.
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.
