Pen & Sword Books Ltd strana 40 z 41

In April 1944 with the D-Day invasion looming, a convoy of American landing craft sailed along England’s south coast. In the dead of night, German E-boats struck and within minutes, ships were sunk, hundreds of US servicemen were dead, and the Allies had suffered their greatest loss of life in the build-up to the invasion of Normandy. The tragedy was quickly buried under wartime secrecy laws, yet for decades, rumours persisted. Were all the bodies recovered? Or did some of the missing men remain hidden, buried in Dorset field? ward-winning investigative author Gary Sterne, known for Cover Up at Omaha Beach and Cover Up at Pointe du Hoc, has spent years uncovering hidden truths about the Normandy campaign. A chance meeting with a veteran set him on the trail of the Slapton Sands mystery. Through meticulous research and the discovery of long-forgotten British, American, and German documents, he has pieced together the events of that night in unprecedented detail.For the first time, the fate of every missing man is revealed - their names and what truly happened to them. Acclaimed by historians, this groundbreaking work finally resolves an 80-year-old enigma and shines new light on one of the Second World War’s most tragic and secretive episodes.

Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of London to witness the royal opening of the London County Council’s first electric trams in 1903. The people loved their trams. But trams had powerful enemies. In the 1920s the tram-haters became increasingly vociferous. Articles and letters in the press condemned trams as old-fashioned and called for them to be scrapped. Over the past seven years, Mick Hamer has scoured the archives to uncover evidence of a campaign that was meant to be forever hidden. The Great Tramways Conspiracy reveals the untold story of a strategy to smear trams as obsolete and drive them off the roads. The campaign employed a propaganda technique now known as astroturfing, which gives the impression of a grassroots movement while promoting vested interests. Commonly found on social media today, a century ago, hired hacks bombarded the letters columns of newspapers to get the message across. Bankrolling this campaign were the oil companies – and lurking even deeper in the shadows were the security services, which used their propaganda expertise to provide the campaign organisers with handy hints. The incessant labelling of trams as obsolete became common currency and the mud stuck. In 1931 the Royal Commission on Transport, which was dominated by tram-hating motorists, called for trams to be scrapped. There was no pushback. The tram industry was riven by internal dissent, and the motor industry assiduously courted the malcontents. In the face of this onslaught the tram industry capitulated and the country’s tramways closed.

Perfect for both lovers of Venice and lovers of books, this unique guide takes you step by step around the city of Venice in the footsteps of the writers who lived there and visited. See where they lived, ate, drink, and played. Find out where the parties were held, details of their illicit encounters, and where the patrician families of Venice’s famous Golden Book gathered in their literary salons, which after the Republic of Venice ended were continued in the homes of American society heiresses. This is a book to be savoured slowly, from the city’s cafes and bars where writers such as Patricia Highsmith and Ernest Hemingway went, or from the comfort of your own living room as you let Venice feed your imagination, just as the writers did themselves. Read about their lives and read their words through their novels and memoirs, poetry, travelogues, travel guides and biographies. This unique travel guide tells of literary Venice within the story of the city, and places early Venetian women writers firmly within the Venetian literary canon. It also includes a list of all works mentioned and suggested reading throughout the book.

In the turbulent heart of fourteenth-century England, the line between law and lawlessness was perilously thin. This compelling narrative uncovers the true story of the Coterel family — a lesser gentry household whose name became synonymous with criminal enterprise in medieval Derbyshire. Drawing on extensive archival sources, the book traces the rise of James Coterel and his brothers, exploring how social disruption, famine, and war shaped their transformation from respected landholders to leaders of one of the era’s most notorious gangs. Through vivid accounts of extortion, armed raids, kidnapping, murder and alliances with figures from every stratum of society, The Coterel Gang’s Reign of Terror exposes the brutal realities of medieval crime and justice. Far from the romanticised legends of outlaws, the Coterel gang’s story is one of opportunism, survival, and adaptation in a world where official authority was fragile and local loyalties ran deep. Discover how the Coterels navigated shifting allegiances, manipulated legal systems, and built networks that reached from the village church to the king’s own courts. Their exploits offer a rare window into the everyday violence, corruption, and resilience of medieval England.

Trent Park’s fascinating story is told for the first time in one dramatic narrative, with the spotlight on its key 20th century ‘lives’ and the stand-out characters and unsung heroines who played on its stage. An inter-war salon and playground for the titled, rich and powerful, overseen by millionaire, politician and socialite Sir Philip Sassoon; a wartime prison camp with a covert mission rivalling Bletchley Park in importance for the Allied war effort; and an urgent new peacetime purpose involving generations of young people. We meet the woman who lived through all three. With a century and more of rich history, Trent Park is an important part of our national story. Its secrets, held close for decades, are now brought into the light.

Everyone loves adventure, mystery and the notion of celebrity and this book combines all of these with new unpublished material, supported by high quality previously unpublished images. Aviation history is full of evocative stories about the evolution of aeroplanes; flying and the perils of air travel and there are many ways of looking at these. The theme of this book is to recall some of those perils through the eyes of twenty-three internationally-famous celebrity air travellers between 1919 and 2020. What brings them all together here is that, as well as presenting the personalities, the stories showcase aeroplanes from the golden age of biplanes to helicopters, biz-jets and airliners. They also illustrate the fallibility of people and technology, while giving a flavour of the social progress of air transport over the past 100 years. Sadly, the climax of these particular stories culminates in air crashes that took the lives of the celebrities involved. While the final selection of the stars might be open to debate, the breadth of celebrity representation in these stories is very wide, being drawn from the fields of aeronautics; cinema; exploration; fashion; music; politics and sport. Mysteries and myths have grown up around some of these incidents and while some of these can be debunked, others will pose unanswered questions. All, though, will demonstrate that Fame and Fortune alone are no protection from Fate.

Despite not existing as a free country for 123 years until the end of the First World War, the roots of Polish aviation, including military aviation, reach as far back as the days of pioneers such as Otto Lilienthal or the Wright Brothers. The Polish Military Aviation can trace its origins to the second half of 1917, and was officially established when Poland regained her independence on 11 November 1918. The country was then able to build its own air force with men being proud to call themselves Poles again. Despite its difficult rebirth, in the 1930s Poland developed a wide range of its own aircraft. These included the PZL P.6 fighter which gained fame for being the most advanced of its day and the first fighter aircraft made of metal in the world, or PZL P.24 fighter considered by the RAF as a purchase option. Towards the end of the decade, however, foreign aircraft design had overtaken them. In 1939, Poland fought its lonely war against overwhelming might of the German Third Reich, the fascist state of Slovakia and the Soviet Russia. Though surrounded, massively outnumbered and flying mostly inferior aircraft, Polish fliers caused the attacking forces considerable losses, including 500 aircraft, destroyed and damaged. As well as telling the story of the valiant Polish flyers, Polish Military Aircraft 1918-1939 includes a wonderful collection of photographs, the majority of which have never been seen in the West. Together, these take the reader on a journey throughout the early years of Polish military aviation, showing amazing pictures of German, Austro-Hungarian or Russian aeroplanes, in many cases scavenged by the Poles. Also included is selection of British aircraft which were used in Poland, as well as a host of photographs of Polish-designed and built machines, including these that had to face Luftwaffe in September of 1939.

Is it true that the trans-Atlantic slave trade, about which so much has been heard in recent years, would have been impossible without the willing and enthusiastic cooperation of African leaders? Slavery was a common practice in Africa long before the arrival of Europeans, with the trade in black slaves, who were transported from Africa to America and the islands of the Caribbean, aided by the African traders who benefited from the arrangement. Even when Europe and America outlawed slavery and the slave trade, those living in Africa clung tenaciously to their old ways and refused to relinquish what was, to them, a time-honoured custom. It is for this reason that slavery lingers on in Africa to this day.In this book, Simon Webb explores the history of slavery in Africa and finds that it was not necessarily imposed upon the continent by Europeans, but was rather an integral part of many, perhaps most, cultures. Even when the British deployed their army and navy to try to suppress the trade in slaves during the nineteenth century, their efforts were largely ineffectual because many societies saw no reason to give up such an old, useful and profitable system.At a time when the subject of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is seldom out of the news, this book provides a vital corrective to the popularly accepted view of the matter. Nobody reading it will ever view slavery and the slave trade in quite the same light again.

**Battle Group "Lohse"** - Oberleutnant Heinrich Lohse's memoirs detail his time as a training officer at the 5th Wehrmacht Infantry School in Poznan. When the battle for the city began, he led a reserve battle group and commanded the fortress headquarters' last defence. Lohse is notably critical of General Gonell, the fortress commander and former head of the 5th Infantry School, in this gripping memoir about the fight for the citadel. **Fahnenjunker from Poznan** - Leutnant Jonny Neuwirth recounts his role in the battle of Poznan. After being wounded, he describes the dire conditions in military hospitals, his attempted escape and his experience of being captured by the Polish militia and taken into Soviet captivity. His memoir details his suffering and that of his fellow German soldiers under a ruthless enemy, highlighting the brutal reality of war and its aftermath. **Two Steps to a Mass Grave** - Kurt F. Lange, a pre-war German citizen of Poznan and former Polish Army soldier, faced persecution due to his origins. After the German invasion, he joined the Waffen-SS, serving in the SS "Lenzer" Combat Group. His memoir offers detailed battle accounts from across the besieged city, culminating in the Citadel's defence. Captured, he narrowly escaped execution after being identified as a member of the Waffen-SS.

During the Anglo-American War of 1812, British forces launched hundreds of amphibious raids on the United States. The richest parts of the United States were slave-states, and thousands of enslaved African Americans fled to British forces in what was to be the largest emancipation of enslaved Americans until the abolition of slavery in the USA. From these refugees from slavery, the British built a force - the Corps of Colonial Marines. Black redcoats, they were a fusion of two great American fears, the return of the British King and an uprising by their own oppressed slaves. The Corps of Colonial Marines turned Britain's campaign on America's coasts from one of harassment to one of existential threat to the new nation. Although small in number, the Colonial Marines - fighting to liberate their own families as much as for Great Britain - exerted a massive psychological impact on the United States which paralysed American resistance with fear of a widespread slave uprising, and allowed British forces in the Chesapeake to burn down Washington DC. As well as examining this little-remembered part of British military and African-American history, this book will also look to the post-war history of the Colonial Marines, their continued survival as a unique ethnic group in the Caribbean today, and their involvement in the largest act of armed African-American resistance to slavery. The "Battle of Negro Fort" in 1816 was the only time American forces left American territory to destroy a fugitive slave community - a community led by former Colonial Marines who, when faced with American attack, raised the British flag. This book brings black history to the fore of the War of 1812, and gives a voice to those enslaved people who - amidst great power competition between a slave-holding Republic and a slave-holding Empire – demonstrated exceptional bravery and initiative to gain precious freedom for themselves and their descendants.

In mid 1941, David Lloyd Owen, aged 24, joined the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) as a young patrol commander. He soon found his feet learning the arts of survival and navigation deep in the Libyan desert, and recounts in detail the characters in his Y Patrol, their operational methods, their team spirit and camaraderie. The LRDG was primarily concerned with reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, but was also allowed the occasional ‘beat-up’. With astonishing navigational skills based on their founder Bagnold’s invention of the sun-compass and unparalleled long-distance signal communications, the LRDG became masters of the deep desert – an area that was effectively a no-go zone for the Axis forces. Here, Lloyd Owen describes the origins of the LRDG and the formation and first operations of the SAS under David Stirling, and how the two units worked so closely and successfully together for the rest of the campaign in the desert and thereafter. ‘Popski’s Private Army’ also worked with the LRDG and the author recounts his contacts with them. For many months a significant part of the LRDG’s work involved keeping a watch on the main coast road, counting all enemy traffic and movement in both directions along it, and passing invaluable intelligence immediately back to HQ in Cairo. Other patrols not on the Road Watch were tasked with all kinds of jobs, and Y Patrol was involved in the 1942 raid on Tobruk, after which Lloyd Owen was badly wounded by a Heinkel cannon. He describes their tough military role fulfilled by hand-picked, highly trained and disciplined men, relieved by occasional raucous and happy breaks back in the flesh pots of wartime Cairo. The Desert My Dwelling Place covers Lloyd Owen’s own triumphs and frustrations, as well as those of the LRDG during the desert campaign, which ended with Rommel being finally driven out of North Africa after Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein.

The ‘Wagner’ mercenary group remained comparatively unknown for years, and only after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, did the general public learn about the existence of this shadowy organization. But for years before that, they roamed free in Africa and the Middle East, fighting Russia’s conflicts, protecting dictators and waging war against anyone who was declared to be the enemy of the Russian government. Many journalists have attempted to uncover Wagner’s secrets but, for the first time, we hear the voice of an actual Wagner commander, who participated in some of the organization’s operations. This is Igor Salikov, former Wagner commander and the most high-ranking Russian service member who testified against the Russian regime and its crimes in Ukraine for the International Criminal Court in Hague. Igor was not just a soldier, but a high ranking commander, which gave him a unique insight into the organization, structure, political goals and operational procedures of Wagner. The author witnessed the birth of the group and their first operations in Syria, which in 2018, saw and the first battle between US forces and Russians since the end of the Cold War. Later, Wagner infiltrated into other countries and was one of main assets of Russian armed forces in the war against Ukraine. In 2022, after the failure of the initial invasion of Ukraine, Wagner’s leader received an order to recruit directly from prisons, and convicted rapists, murderers and cannibals joined what once was a small and elite mercenary unit. In 2023, Wagner mercenaries attempted to organize a coup against Vladimir Putin but turned back at the last moment. Soon after, the leaders of the group were killed in an aircraft crash, and Wagner disappeared from the spotlight. This book allows us to look at this group through the eyes of someone who has been there, done that, and witnessed the entire history of the Wagner organization, from its origins to its ignominious end.

In 1941, the battlecruiser HMS Hood – at 860 feet long, with a beam of 105 feet, a displacement of 48,360 tons (fully loaded), and a maximum speed of 32 knots – was Britain’s largest and fastest warship. And yet on 24 May, HMS Hood, the epitome of British naval power, with an armament which included eight 15-inch guns, was blown up a mere eight minutes after engaging the German battleship KMS Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser KMS Prinz Eugen. As HMS Hood sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean on 24 May 1941, she took with her the lives of 1,415 brave men – there were only 3 survivors - and a secret that has haunted the maritime world ever since. How could this possibly have happened? HMS Hood had seemed invincible, and the hopes of the British Navy in wartime had rested upon her great reputation. Her tragic demise was greeted with disbelief by the nation, and the shock waves reverberated all around the world. Various theories have been put forward to account for her sinking, none of them entirely satisfactory. Here, these theories are reappraised in the light of the discovery of the wreckage of HMS Hood in 2001. Furthermore, a new and intriguing theory is proposed.

The Zulu War has long captured the public imagination, yet original accounts by participants in the campaign are rare. This revised edition of Hamilton-Browne’s classic memoir is therefore a welcome addition to the literature on this legendary conflict. ‘Colonel’ George Hamilton-Browne was a British soldier of fortune and adventurer who served in the Ninth Cape Frontier War in 1878, before fighting in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884–5 and the uSuthu Rebellion of 1888. The centrepiece of the book is Hamilton-Browne’s vivid recollections of the battle of Isandlhwana – one of the greatest and most humiliating defeats in the history of the British Empire. He was also part of the force that returned to the stricken British camp after the battle and relieved Rorke’s Drift the following day. This new, expanded edition offers readers a greater insight into the events Hamilton-Browne describes thanks to an introduction and commentary throughout by John Laband and a Foreword by Adrian Greaves, both leading Anglo-Zulu War experts. This fascinating and distinctive memoir will be essential reading for anyone interested in the Anglo-Zulu War. ‘Colonel’ – he never held a rank higher than major – George Hamilton-Browne (1851 –1916) was a soldier of fortune of Irish descent who emigrated to New Zealand in 1872 and then to the Cape Colony in 1878. In southern Africa he commanded colonial and local troops in many campaigns: the Ninth Cape Frontier War (1878); the Anglo-Zulu War (1879); the Bechuanaland Expedition (1884 –5); the uSuthu Rebellion (1888); the First Matabele War (1893); the Second Matabele War (1896); and Mashonaland (1896–7). He returned to England in 1902 where he wrote three popularly received books of colonial adventuring, including this one. He died in Jamaica in 1916.Colonel George Hamilton-Browne (1844-1916) was a British soldier and adventurer of Irish descent who took part in Britain's march into Zululand under Lord Chelmsford and fought in the Anglo-Zulu War. As an officer of the Natal Native Contingent (a Major in the 1st Battalion/3rd Regiment), he took part in the action at Sihayo's Kraal on 12 January 1879 and witnessed the final moments of the the battle of Isandlhwana ten days later on 22 January 1879. He died in Jamaica in 1916.

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 sisterships 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. Number 7 in this series, first published nearly 20 years ago, covers the three ships of this First World War type, Hood, Repulse and Renown, which survived to fight in the Second. Still the fastest capital ships in the world in 1939, their protection was not up to contemporary standards and two were famously lost in action. Hood in an old-fashioned gunnery duel, but Repulse succumbed to the more modern threat of aerial attack. The one modernised ship, Renown, survived an adventurous wartime career. This completely updated and revised new addition introduces new kits and models and lays before today's modeller's everything they need to build a kit of one of these famous Royal Navy ships.

Following the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940, the RAF reluctantly deployed three squadrons of Bristol Blenheim light bombers and one squadron of Gloster Gladiators, an obsolescent biplane fighter, to assist the Greek defenders. The fear among the Allies was that with Greece in Axis hands, enemy supply lines to North Africa would be significantly shortened, threatening the Allied position there and in the Middle East. By the time Germany joined the invasion in April 1941, both the RAF and FAA had committed more squadrons and been joined by army units, but they were soon overwhelmed, retreating to Crete, from where they were evicted in May 1941 after a massive German paratroop operation. For the next three years the RAF and FAA attacked Axis forces on Crete, mainland Greece and in the Aegean with mixed success. In addition, Allied air arms, including USAAF units, dropped weapons and supplies to the Greek partisan groups. In late 1944, as the Germans were forced to withdraw from Greece, RAF units once again flew into Greek airfields, yet they were soon drawn into the bitter civil war, fighting alongside Greek government forces against Communist insurgents. After the final withdrawal of operational units in 1946, the RAF retained an air delegation in Athens until 1952, when Greece joined NATO. Richly illustrated with detailed maps and rare and previously unpublished photographs, Air War Over Greece 1940–1950: British, Dominions and United States Air Arms examines in unique detail a neglected corner of military aviation history.