Pen & Sword Books Ltd strana 34 z 40

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.

Having their origins in the Army of Louis XIV, the dragoons were originally mounted infantry. During the wars of the 1e Empire, they became ‘jacks of all trade’ equally capable as fighting as battle cavalry, scouting or operating as infantry. Yet, precious few studies have been made of the dress of these thirty regiments or of the ten regiments of lancers which evolved from the dragoons in 1811.The dress and equipment of each regiment of dragoons and lancers in Napoleon’s army is analysed and portrayed here with greater accuracy than previously possible. This is because renowned Napoleonic author, Paul Dawson has been granted access to over 1,000 archive boxes, found in the Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre in Paris and the Archives Nationales. These have enabled the author to assesses how the wide ranging 1806 uniform regulations and the more famous Bardin regulations were adopted in practice. This vast resource, as yet untapped by the majority of researchers and historians for understanding the Napoleonic era in general, provides detail never before revealed to the general public.This is possible because every year a regiment would be inspected, and the condition of the uniforms assessed. A return of all the clothing to be disposed of was made, and the appropriate number of new items ordered. Items of clothing and equipment needing repair was also recorded, as was how many items had been repaired since the last inspection. Upon joining a regiment, the recruit was given his first full set of clothing and equipment, which came from stoppages in his pay. Each item of clothing had a specified life. If the items needed repair or replacement inside the prescribed period due to misuse the cost was borne by the soldier. All of this was recorded.There was an annual quota of money available to a colonel to pay for clothing renewals and repairs for his regiment. In addition, the regimental Council of Administration drew funds to buy raw materials, equipment and headdresses. These funds also covered sundry items such as the epaulettes of the adjutant-sous-officiers, lace for rank stripes, service chevrons, musicians and drummers lace, plumes and pompoms, such is the remarkable level of detail these records contain.These invaluable sources provide bias free empirical data from which we can reconstruct the life story of a regiment, its officers and above all its clothing. In addition to the official records, the author has constructed how the regiments were dressed from diaries, letters, and even cases of fraud.As well as providing the recorded details, this book shows in scores of beautiful illustrations exactly how each regiment appeared. These images include period paintings as well as works specifically commissioned for this book, plus unique photographs of existing items of uniform. Now, for the first time since the days of Napoleon, we can say exactly what was worn by Napoleon’s cavalry.

Walk in the tank tracks and footsteps of Major General Stanisław Maczek and his 1st Polish Armoured Division (1PAD) soldiers who fought, fell or were wounded liberating the town of Ypres on 6th September 1944. Also revealed is the great support offered by local Resistance groups who supplied topographical assistance, information concerning enemy strong points and troop numbers, offered limited engagements, and finally assisted with the temporary gaoling of the many German prisoners of war. The book also commemorates those townsfolk including children who lost their lives over this period of short but intense fighting. Such was the cost of freedom for the beleaguered citizens of Ypres during WW2. Also remembered are those Czechoslovak officers attached to 1PAD from the Independent Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade Group commanded by Brigadier General Alois Liška, whose HQ was located at nearby Wormhout, France, in preparation for his own Battlegroup’s ‘Siege of Dunkirk’ deployment.

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.

It was Pelé who popularised the idea of football as ‘the Beautiful Game’ and so it is. But football also has its uglier side.As far back as the Edwardian era matches were ‘fixed’ to benefit gamblers, or to help clubs desperately in need of points to win promotion or to avoid relegation.There have been matches so brutal that on one occasion it was necessary for the BBC to precede televised highlights with a warning to viewers that what they were about see was ‘appalling, disgusting, disgraceful’.Crowd disorders, inadequate policing, and stadiums left in disrepair have resulted in loss of life and added to the scandals that have scarred ‘the Beautiful Game’ and caused public outrage.From Bolton to Brussels, Manchester to Montevideo, Seoul to Santiago, football has seen many dark chapters, many tragedies and more than a few shady characters, from the goalkeeper who offered not to ‘accidently’ let in goals to the referee who was arrested with 13lbs of heroin hidden in his underpants.Soccer Scandals: When the Beautiful Game Turned Ugly tells of the high-ranking officials who were at the centre of some of the most remarkable widespread corruptions that football has ever seen, of the betting rings involving unscrupulous players and referees, of doping, blackmail and phone taps, of ‘shameful savagery’ on the pitch and riots off it, even of suicide and attempted murder.It is the stuff of pulp fiction rather than of just games and goals and Saturday heroes. It is the ugly side of the game that Pelé found so beautiful.

A remarkable read, detailed, hour-to-hour and ''immediate'' account of action, a personal but modest story, and the author and shipmates of all ranks come to life. There are excellent accounts of training, action-stations, gunnery, tactics ad strategy, officer- and ratings- relationships, and leadership, and all told in objective and authentic, and readable language. This is no ''gung-ho'' account but sober and serious history with full grasp of tactics and strategy. It shows how capital ships - battleships, battle-cruisers, heavy cruisers - are vulnerable to U-Boat and E-Boat attack while ''little ships'', destroyers, light cruisers and frigates, are at sea constantly and protecting convoys. The account is from personal experience of service on the strategic position of England''s East Coast and North Sea, with fear of German naval power, E-Boats and U-Boats, and the value early radar. There are graphic accounts of sea conditions, moving picture of a merchant captain and loss of ship, plus vital importance of mine-sweeping. Readers might be shocked by German battleships in the English Channel and quotes from German sources. There is a powerful account of the naval role at ''action-stations'' of the Allies-Axis war-effort and encounters with top commanders, naval and military, and Mediterranean campaign of Admiral Cunningham - and invasion of Sicily and Italy, and Normandy D-Day preparation.

Eleven years after Reinhard Gehlen, the head of Adolf Hitler’s Eastern Front military intelligence unit, emerged from hiding to hand himself over to US forces, he had, with the help of the American CIA, created a legend for himself as founder and first president of the West German Secret Service. In this role he employed many of the same Wehrmacht and SS officers he had served with during the Second World War.All through the steady progression of his career before and during the Second World War, Gehlen had been far too industrious and committed to court the limelight. Then after the defeat of Germany, when he transferred his allegiance to the CIA and later became head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, he became a man whom Hugh Trevor Roper’s described as someone who ‘always moved in the shadows’.For some, the German intelligence network that Gehlen had controlled since 1942, was part of an unbroken tradition going back to the days of Bismarck. For a great many in Gehlen’s organisation the Cold War was merely an extension of an anti-Soviet campaign that had begun on 22 June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa.After the war, Gehlen had emerged unscathed from Hitler’s bunker and no war crimes charges were ever brought against him. His name, and those of 350 of his Wehrmacht command, were redacted from the official lists of German prisoners of war. Gehlen protected and employed men like Heinrich Schmitz who had been part of Einsatzgruppe A, the murder squad that massacred so many, including communist functionaries and Jewish women, men and children, in the Baltic States.Though Gehlen had remained loyal to Hitler right to the end, once state authority collapsed he wasted little time in making contact with the Americans and offered to place his vast intelligence resources at their disposal in the new fight against Soviet communism. While German generals Heinz Guderian and Franz Halder placed great store by Gehlen’s reports on the tactical level, Hitler called them ‘defeatist’ and gave them barely a glance when making his disastrous strategic decisions. Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, did not repeat Hitler’s mistake, but Gehlen deeply resented the way that his reports to Dulles were mishandled.It became Gehlen’s ambition initially to head up a completely independent West German foreign intelligence service. However, it was not until 1951 that talks to establish a West German intelligence service at federal level began. In the immediate post-war years, Gehlen tirelessly made his case to defend the harbouring of former Wehrmacht and SS personnel in his organisation and battled to prove his worth to the Americans.This book looks at Gehlen’s life from his early career in the chaos of Weimar, through his elevation to General Staff intelligence officer on the Russian Front. It describes how he survived the defeat of the Third Reich and offered himself to the Americans as a foil against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. In doing so it closely examines Gehlen’s record to separate fact from his self-serving fictions.

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.

When you think of a shipwreck, what image springs to mind? A tall sailing ship on the rocks, or perhaps the sinking Titanic surrounded by lifeboats? Historian Richard M. Jones has put together 50 stories of lost ships throughout history that are among the most important, infamous and in some cases tragic ships in the whole of history.When did two liners collide and lead to one of the greatest rescues in histor? ow did a Scotsman become an American hero against his own countr? hich warship sank with gold bullion on board during the Second World Wa? his book tells the story of these fascinating cases plus many more, explores the largest shipwrecks, the treasure wrecks and the ones that are talked about still as the most famous. Starting at the tiny island of Alderney in 1592, we take a journey through history, through the First and Second World Wars, into the age of the passenger ferry and finally to the modern day migrant issues in the Mediterranean Sea.Never before have these fifty wrecks come together in a book that really brings home to the reader just how many lost vessels there are, how deadly many can be and what this teaches us today about our own history.

In 1942, following a decisive British victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein, the sands of fortune were shifting against German forces in the Sahara. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s inexorable advance toward Cairo was thwarted. Church bells pealed in embattled England for the first time since the start of World War II as Winston Churchill hailed the “end of the beginning.” But the elusive Desert Fox was a master of mobility. Even as the sun set on his desert glory, he was far from finished.British Gen. Bernard Montgomery, victor of El Alamein, was at then the highest point of his career. He had overcome many adversities to meet his moment of military destiny, galvanized a flagging army and smashed the proud German troops with a blow he would be proud of for the rest of his life. But Monty found his own fortunes changing as he pursued the Desert Fox. Hamstrung by a distended supply line, Monty was now vulnerable to attack by the vengeful Rommel. The British troops, flush with victory, grew fearful as they approached an eerie dune wasteland in Libya known as El Agheila. One setback would be enough to cast their laurels into the dust and shatter their faith in their rising commander.Both generals faced each other with uncertainty as another fight loomed on the horizon. One false move could have far-reaching political consequences. The outcome of the battle would answer a critical question: who would hold the gateway to Egyp? his compelling book tells the story of Monty and Rommel battling in North Africa as never before, describing them as two very different commanders and shedding light on the dissimilar characteristics that made them formidable fighters. It argues that Monty was more aggressive than many historians give him credit for and that Rommel had more of a conscience than is often attributed to him, examining the origins of his disloyalty to Hitler. This riveting read draws attention to a little-known battle with great implications on the course of World War II history, also describing the powerful external forces of politics, media coverage and the desert itself that swirled around two famous generals forced to duel on uneven footing.

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.

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.

"...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.

This book complements the author’s previous book on the Chester and Holyhead Railway and completes the story of railways associated with the London and North Western Railway in north Wales. It does so by breaking down developments to three districts working from east to west across the region. The book examines the background to the construction of the branch lines in the context of relevant wider railway developments. It provides an account of the operation of each of the lines with reference to significant incidents on the railway and the relationship of the branch to the communities it served.The dominance of railways peaked around 1914 so the book analyses the process of decline from that status. That decline was relatively rapid and featured several rounds of closures of stations and branches, culminating in the notorious Beeching cuts of the 1960s that eventually left north Wales with fewer than fifty miles of branch railways – under 20% of the original total.The book has maps and tables that provide an overview of the detail contained in the text and the 150 photographs. The book concludes with an overview of the railway system in north Wales. It reflects on how reductions might have been made without depriving so much of the region of a presence on the network, and how the railway policies adopted by private companies and the later nationalized industry paid too little attention to the relationship between the region and its trains.

The meteoric rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party cowed the masses into a sense of false utopia. During Hitler’s 1932 election campaign over half those who voted for Hitler were women. Germany’s women had witnessed the anarchy of the post-First World War years, and the chaos brought about by the rival political gangs brawling on their streets. When Hitler came to power there was at last a ray of hope that this man of the people would restore not only political stability to Germany but prosperity to its people.As reforms were set in place, Hitler encouraged women to step aside from their jobs and allow men to take their place. As the guardian of the home, the women of Hitler’s Germany were pinned as the very foundation for a future thousand-year Reich. Not every female in Nazi Germany readily embraced the principle of living in a society where two distinct worlds existed, however with the outbreak of the Second World War, Germany’s women would soon find themselves on the frontline.Ultimately Hitler’s housewives experienced mixed fortunes throughout the years of the Second World War. Those whose loved ones went off to war never to return; those who lost children not only to the influences of the Hitler Youth but the Allied bombing; those who sought comfort in the arms of other young men and those who would serve above and beyond of exemplary on the German home front. Their stories form intimate and intricately woven tales of life, love, joy, fear and death. Hitler’s Housewives: German Women on the Home Front is not only an essential document towards better understanding one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies where the women became an inextricable link, but also the role played by Germany’s women on the home front which ultimately became blurred within the horrors of total war.This is their story, in their own words, told for the first time.

With the ending of the Second World War, Lief Bangsboll, after distinguished service with the O.S.S. behind enemy lines in Denmark, prepared himself for a life of peace and hopefully love with the young Canadian girl he had met while training at Camp X during the war. But the United States War Department and the Office of Strategic Services had other plans for the young soldier/agent.In September 1945, Lieutenant Bangsboll was secretly sent into Soviet-occupied Germany to assess and report upon Russian military activities in and around Berlin. In December 1945, a deadly incident occurred in which a KGB agent was killed, and Leif and his O.S.S. team were forced to escape back into the American sector of Germany.With his O.S.S. identity compromised and himself now target of the KGB, Lieutenant Bangsboll was re-assigned to the regular U.S. Army and became a member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. With the outbreak of the Korean War, Leif was part of the first airborne operation in which he and the 187th Airborne Regiment Combat Team parachuted into North Korea as part of the U.S./United Nations force confronting the North Korean invasion.During his year of combat in Korea, Captain Bangsboll, the platoon leader for the Headquarters Intelligence & Reconnaissance platoon, worked under Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Bank, also a former OSS agent. During that assignment Leif led numerous special operations missions behind enemy lines, including a mission to recover a large cache of American gold bullion which had been left behind when the U.S. 8th Army was overrun during a North Korean offensive. He also led a secret parachute mission to rescue American /United Nations’ prisoners of war held in North Korea and a daring assault on a North Korean base which earned him the Silver Star for ‘extraordinary courage in combat’.Captain Bangsboll played a crucial role in the develop of the United States’ first Special Forces unit and was appointed as one of the initial Company Commander of a Green Beret/Special Forces unit. Then, as the Army Liaison Officer to the 302nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing in Sembach, West Germany, he flew as an observer, reporting on Soviet troop movements over Warsaw Pact held territory and instructed American pilots the skills of escape and evasion. As a Company Commander with the 10th Special Forces Group in Ulm, West Germany, he stood his ground, facing Soviet and East German combat troops poised to invade Western Europe during the tense days during the U2 spy plane incident and the Cuban Missile Crisis.