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The most notorious, and most contentious, cavalry charge in history still remains an enigma. Though numerous books have been written…
about the charge, all claiming to reveal the truth or to understand the reason why; exactly what happened at Balaklava on 25 October 1854 continues to be fiercely debated. Voices from the Past, The Charge of the Light Brigade relives that fateful day not through the opinions of such historians but from the words of those that were there. This is the story of the charge told by the soldiers of both sides, in the most detailed description of the Battle of Balaklava yet written. Gallop with the light dragoons and lancers into the mouths of the Russian cannon as the shells and cannonballs decimate their ranks. Read of the desperate efforts to return down the Valley of Death as the enemy pressed around the remnants of the Light Brigade, and of the nine Victoria Crosses won that day.Possibly more significant are the accusations and counter-arguments that followed the loss of the Light Brigade. Just who was responsible for that terrible blunder? The leading figures all defended their own positions, leading to presentations in Parliament and legal action. Yet one of those senior figures made an astonishing admission immediately after the battle, only to change his story when the charge became headline news. Just who was it that made the fatal error that cost the British Army its Light Brigade?Voices of the Second World War: A Child's Perspective
Par Sheila A. Renshaw. 1941
Voices of the Second World War: A Childs Perspective is a collection of firsthand accounts from people who experienced the…
Second World War from all over Europe: stretching from Russia to the Channel Islands, and Norway to Malta.While some children appear to have been hardly aware of the war, for those who lived through bombing, occupation, deprivation, starvation and fear, the memories remain with them even today.The accounts have been relayed according to their perspective at the time and the contributors were happy to share their experiences and memories, keen in the knowledge that they were being documented as personal chroniclers of one of the twentieth century's most catastrophic events.Archie Bowman: Foot Soldier, German POW and League of Nations Man
Par Hamish Ross. 2018
In 1915, Archie Bowman, a philosophy professor at Princeton, was granted leave of absence to join the British army. He…
served in the HLI and was captured at the Battle of the Lys.Prison camp, though, turned out not to be the living death he expected: he was fluent in German and became the main go-between with camp authorities and British prisoners; he gave talks to hundreds of prisoners, and wrote up in verse form his account of the battle and his capture and two-day march into captivity. When he was transferred to another camp, his writings were confiscated; but in his new camp his responsibilities increased, and he became key negotiator and formed a bond with the Commandant, a fellow academic, who secured the release of his confiscated work, which, when completed, was published as prison camp verses.After the Armistice, he was posted to the British Army of the Rhine in Cologne, where he found his most interesting work in the service, interviewing German civilians wishing to travel into another Occupied Zone.Although Bowman didnt become a pacifist he was convinced more could be done to prevent wars; and he dedicated himself to the cause of peace and championed the ideal of the League of Nations, at the cost of his health.Based on the archived Bowman Papers, it is a fascinating story of a man of high principle and great depth of feeling who had the love and support of his wife Mabel.The Fighting Padre: Pat Leonard's Letters From the Trenches, 1915–1918
Par John Leonard, Philip Leonard-Johnson. 2010
Pat Leonard served throughout the Great War as a Chaplain to the Forces in France, Belgium and, after the Armistice,…
in Germany. Along with the many hundreds of letters he wrote to the relatives of those parishioners who died or were wounded, he found time to describe for his parents back at home the awful reality of life in the Trenches, and on the makeshift aerodromes from which the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps operated from the Observers seat which liberated his spirit from the mud of Flanders. Very much a front-line priest, his descriptions provide an unusually objective view of army life, and of the job of the multitasked chaplain who was expected to undertake the roles of counselor, comforter, caterer, censor, entertainment officer and sports supreme to name but a few. The extracts selected from his letters are full of detail, humor, self deprecation and just sometimes when judged by todays standards, mild political incorrectness! Known as a veritable fighting parson (because of his prowess in the boxing ring) he also played rugby for the RAF, was mentioned in dispatches, and was decorated for bravery. 90 years have passed before this opportunity arises to share his account of a life which the world remembers as dreadful beyond belief. Reading it demonstrates that despite the ghastliness, human qualities emerged with which we should all be proud. Pat Leonard was born in 1889 into a clergy family in Cumbria, MPG (Pat) Leonard went from being Head of School at Rossall to Oriel College, Oxford on a mathematics scholarship. After graduating and obtaining a TA Commission in the Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, Leonard served as a curate in a Manchester parish before being accepted as Chaplain to the 8th Battalion, the Kings Own, from September 1915 in the battlefields of the Somme Awarded the DSO for bravery and mentioned in dispatches, he transferred to the RFC in early 1918. After the war he was much involved in the development and growth of TocH throughout the world. Subsequently after a period as Rector of Hatfield and ten years in Glasgow as Provost of St. Marys Cathedral he was consecrated Bishop of Thetford in 1953.August 1914: Surrender at St Quentin
Par John Hutton. 2010
The great retreat of the British Expeditionary Force from Mons in August 1914 is one of the most famous in…
military history, and it is justly celebrated. But not all the British soldiers who were forced back by the German offensive performed well. Two colonels, Elkington and Mainwaring, tried to surrender rather than fight on, and were disgraced. This is their story. In this compelling account John Hutton shows, in graphic detail, the full confusion of the retreat, and the dire mental state to which brave men can be reduced by extreme stress, uncertainty and fatigue. But he also describes how Elkington redeemed himself. He joined the French Foreign Legion, fought gallantly, was severely wounded and was reinstated by King George V. His is one of the more remarkable stories to come out of the Great War, as is the story of the attempted surrender at St. Quentin itself.The Steep Atlantick Stream: A Memoir of Convoys & Corvettes
Par Robert Harling. 1946
First published in 1946, this atmospheric memoir of the battle of the Atlantic offers one of the most original accounts…
of war at sea aboard a corvette, escorting convoys in both the North and South Atlantic. The author, an RNVR lieutenant, experienced the terrors of U-boat attacks and the hardships of autumn gales as well as the relief of shore runs in ports as far apart as Halifax and Freetown. The narrative begins with Harling’s voyage from the Clyde to New York on the Queen Mary (or QM, as she was known during her martial career), on route to join a newly-built corvette in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was to be her First Lieutenant, and his service at sea started in the spring of 1941, just as the battle of the Atlantic was entering its most crucial stage. During the first east-bound convoy he was to experience attacks by U-boats, the loss of merchant vessels and a steep learning curve as the ship’s crew struggled to live in the harsh wartime conditions. Later that summer they made return voyages to Iceland where runs ashore offered some solace from dangerous days at sea. Time was also spent in the South Atlantic with voyages to Freetown and Lagos, before a short interlude when he experienced the excitement of fighting with Coastal Forces. The corvette subsequently returned to escorting convoys from Halifax to Europe. His narrative is both serious and humorous, and his picture of wartime Britain, his descriptions of being buffeted by great storm-tossed seas in the ‘cockleshell corvettes’, and the recounting of grim losses are all too real and authentic. His story ends as he leaves his ship after a violent cold developed into pneumonia, and soon afterwards he hears the heart-breaking news of her loss, along with the captain and half the crew, after being torpedoed. He is left to ponder on the many tombless dead consigned by the war to the Steep Atlantick Stream.My Escape from Donington Hall: Preceded By An Account Of The Siege Of Kiao-chow In 1915
Par Gunther Plüschow. 2015
It was an escape from a PoW camp as daring and fraught with danger as any immortalised by Hollywood. Yet…
the story is less familiar than most as it concerns the only German prisoner of war to escape from captivity in mainland Britain and make it home during either World War.After being caught in Gibraltar during an earlier attempt to return to his homeland, Pluschow and other captured Germans were shipped to Plymouth and then on to the PoW camp at Donington Hall, where he arrived in May 1915.On July 4 he and fellow prisoner Oskar Trefftz broke out by climbing over two 9ft barbed wire fences, before changing clothes and walking 15 miles to Derby where they caught a train to London.By the next morning the men's escape was featured in the Daily Sketch newspaper with both names and descriptions of the pair. They went their separate ways but Trefftz was recaptured at Millwall Docks. Realising he had to alter his appearance, Pluschow removed his smart tie and handed his coat in at the cloakroom at Blackfriars station. The German then used scraped-up coal dust, boot polish and Vaseline to change his fair hair to greasy black and covered himself in soot to make him appear as a dock worker. Pluschow then stowed away on a Dutch steamer ship at Tilbury docks, talked his way past a policeman in Holland before travelling to Germany by train. Upon his return home he received a hero's welcome and was presented with the Iron Cross First Class.This extraordinary story is told in Gunther's own words for the first time in English.On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Par Ronald C. White. 2023
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of A. Lincoln and American Ulysses comes the dramatic and definitive biography of Joshua…
Lawrence Chamberlain, the history-altering professor turned Civil War hero.&“A vital and vivid portrait of an unlikely military hero who played a key role in the preservation of the Union and therefore in the making of modern America.&”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of And There Was LightA KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEARBefore 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin College. His colleagues were shocked when he volunteered for the Union army, but he was undeterred and later became known as one of the North&’s greatest heroes: On the second day at Gettysburg, after running out of ammunition at Little Round Top, he ordered his men to wield their bayonets in a desperate charge down a rocky slope that routed the Confederate attackers. Despite being wounded at Petersburg—and told by two surgeons he would die—Chamberlain survived the war, going on to be elected governor of Maine four times and serve as president of Bowdoin College.How did a stuttering young boy come to be fluent in nine languages and even teach speech and rhetoric? How did a trained minister find his way to the battlefield? Award-winning historian Ronald C. White delves into these contradictions in this cradle-to-grave biography of General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, from his upbringing in rural Maine to his tenacious, empathetic military leadership and his influential postwar public service, exploring a question that still plagues so many veterans: How do you make a civilian life of meaning after having experienced the extreme highs and lows of war?Chamberlain is familiar to millions from Michael Shaara&’s now-classic novel of the Civil War, The Killer Angels, and Ken Burns&’s timeless miniseries The Civil War, but in this book, White captures the complex and inspiring man behind the hero. Heavily illustrated and featuring nine detailed maps, this gripping, impeccably researched portrait illuminates one of the most admired but least known figures in our nation&’s bloodiest conflict.Pathway to the Stars: 100 Years of the Royal Canadian Air Force
Par Michael Hood, Tom Jenkins. 2023
Pathway to the Stars takes readers on a remarkable journey spanning one hundred years of the Royal Canadian Air Force.…
This beautifully illustrated book shares the rich history of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) on its 100th anniversary. Produced in partnership with the RCAF Foundation, Pathway to the Stars tells the story of the people, the technologies, and the events that shaped the RCAF from 1924 to 2024. Presenting 100 stories to align with 100 years of the RCAF, the book explores the many ways in which the RCAF contributed to advances in aviation over the past century, from the invention of the G-suit to the development of the first helicopter landing system on a naval ship to the design of the first flight-safety organization for investigating crashes. As we look forward to the next generation of the RCAF, Pathway to the Stars brings to light an inspirational story about Canada and its place in the world over the past century. Proceeds from this book support the ongoing programs of the RCAF Foundation, a Canadian charity that works to celebrate Canada's rich aviation history and future.A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy
Par Ron Kovic. 2024
Ron Kovic, author of Born on the Fourth of July and one of the country's most powerful and passionate antiwar…
voices, completes his Vietnam Trilogy with this poignant, inspiring, and deeply personal elegy to America. WHEN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD RON KOVIC enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1964, he couldn’t foresee that he would return from Vietnam paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life. His best-selling 1976 memoir Born on the Fourth of July became an antiwar classic and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Tom Cruise as Kovic. His follow-up, Hurricane Street, chronicled his advocacy for Vietnam veterans’ rights. A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy completes Kovic’s Vietnam Trilogy, delving deep into his long and often agonizing journey home from war and eventual healing, forgiveness, and spiritual redemption. The book opens with Kovic’s never-before-revealed Vietnam diary (July 7, 1967–July 26, 1968). His entries from this period portray a patriotic young soldier with a strong moral and religious conscience. Kovic then recalls his political awakening after his return from Vietnam confined to a wheelchair following his horrific injury. He also chronicles the tremendous guilt he feels over his accidental killing of a fellow Marine while on patrol. This killing psychologically torments him as much as his severe disability. After years of social, political, and sexual turmoil—and on the brink of suicide—Kovic experiences a powerful epiphany that gives him a reason and purpose to live; a renewed faith and strength to carry on. Although his trauma is severe, his third memoir is ultimately the inspirational story of a survivor finding a way to rise above his depression and despair, forgiving his enemies and himself, and growing deeply committed to a new life.Born For War: One SAS Trooper's Extraordinary Account of the Falklands War
Par Tony Hoare. 2022
'Tony is the real deal.' Andy McNabThe full, explosive, boots-on-the-ground story of the Falklands War, from a soldier at the…
heart of the action, published for the 40th anniversary of the conflict. Tony Hoare always knew he wanted to be in the SAS.Both his grandfather and father had been soldiers, and so Tony signed up for the Cadets at 13, then the Infantry at 17 and enlisted into the Royal Green Jackets before passing arduous SAS selection in 1978.Less than four years later, Tony and his team were sent to a collection of islands just off the coast of Argentina called the Falklands, where tensions were rising and war was on the horizon.No amount of training could prepare Tony for what happened over the course of the next twelve weeks, as the Falkland Islands became a battleground between British and Argentinian forces. As helicopters crashed and ships sank, Tony, at the centre of the action, battled across treacherous terrain and against a fearsome enemy, doing whatever it took to retake the islands.From one of the only soldiers who was on the frontline throughout the entire conflict, this is a thrilling account of what really happened in the Falklands, an explosive story of land, sea and air battles from a trooper who saw it all.John Lisle reveals the untold story of the OSS Research and Development Branch—The Dirty Tricks Department—and its role in World…
War II.In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), walked in the door. “You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course,” Donovan said as an introduction. “Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff…I think you’re it.”Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Their inventions included Bat Bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. Moreover, they forged documents for undercover agents, plotted the assassination of foreign leaders, and performed truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects.Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, The Dirty Tricks Department tells the story of these scheming scientists, explores the moral dilemmas that they faced, and reveals their dark legacy of directly inspiring the most infamous program in CIA history: MKULTRA.The Complete History of the SAS: The World's Most Feared Elite Fighting Force
Par Nigel McCrery. 2021
Specializing in covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, the SAS is one of the world's most famous, feared and respected…
elite fighting forces. This book tells the full, fascinating story of the regiment, from formation in the sand dunes of Africa during World War II to present action in the Middle East, and incorporates jungle, desert and urban warfare, counter-terrorism and an insider's view at the selection and training methods employed by this usually secretive unit.As well as an insightful foreword by Andy McNab – one of the most famous members of the SAS – this revised, updated edition includes completely new chapters, features and information, including Key Missions in WWII, The Battle of Mirbat, Iranian Embassy Siege, Kenyan Hotel Rescue and Victoria Cross Awards.Insurgent Hunter: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL Turned Counterinsurgent Agent in Iraq
Par Jack Treadway, Stephen Templin. 2024
When you hunt men, men will hunt you.In this epic thrill ride filled with triumph and tragedy, Jack Treadway takes…
readers deep into the shadows of covert warfare. As a new SEAL learning to hunt men, a clandestine mini wet submarine comes within inches of slicing and dicing him. In SEAL Team Five, he shuffles through a vomit-spewed C-130 transport plane to jump into something worse—a treacherous snowy mountain in the Korean peninsula. Then he breaks his back in a Special Mission Unit assignment and breaks away from the SEAL Teams. Jack stalks deeper into the darkness from SEAL to Office of Special Investigations (OSI) counterintelligence officer in Iraq. His most elusive prey is a high value target on the kill or capture list—an al Qaeda financier codenamed Kaiser Soze. Jack and his team remove more than a hundred enemy insurgents from the battle space. When a high-ranking Iraqi ally—who secretly works for Iran—kills three members of Jack&’s team, he wants bloody revenge.Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine—A Memoir
Par Jt Blatty. 2024
“… an intimate, finely-written memoir about the truths and realities shared by soldiers everywhere ... devastatingly moving ...”—Jon Lee Anderson,…
staff writer, The New Yorker; author of Che Guevara and The Fall of BaghdadUS combat veteran and photographer JT Blatty journeyed to Ukraine in 2018 to capture oral history and portraits of Donbas volunteer soldiers. In frontline bunkers and Kyiv flats, her story began to blend with theirs in a universal bond of combat veterans, compelling her to stay as a new war began.“… powerful, engaging narrative … a sense of place and people that is usually only arrived at by being there ..."—Alexa Dilworth, independent writer and editor; former publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke UniversityBrothers in Arms: Churchill's Special Forces During WWII's Darkest Hour
Par Damien Lewis. 2022
From a critically acclaimed and #1 internationally bestselling author, the most riveting WWII story of Churchill's legendary SAS, the special…
forces unit of the British Army, chronicling one close-knit band of warriors from the SAS foundation through to the Italian landings—which truly turned the tide of war. In 1941, as World War Two raged, scores of men stepped forward to answer Winston Churchill&’s call for volunteers for Special Service, a high-risk opportunity to undertake the most hazardous, top-secret duties of war. Comprised of some of the finest fighting units in the entire British Army, these warriors longed to leave behind their mind-numbing garrison duties for battle. They hungered to pit themselves against a seemingly omnipotent enemy and brave a bloody and bruising baptism by fire. A rightfully proud regiment with an unrivalled esprit de corps, they were disavowed as unruly by top brass, unyieldingly vaunted by Churchill, and courageously loyal to the clandestine &“butcher and bolt&” raids that made their sacrifices—and their triumphs—legendary. But even as the combat-worn ranks of the SAS risked all to deliver the first resounding defeats on Nazi Germany, there were well-founded fears that their fortunes would change. In Brothers in Arms, Damien Lewis pays tribute to the mavericks and visionaries who founded elite-forces soldiering—the SAS. Exhaustively researched from an invaluable trove of never-before-seen documents, wartime letters, diaries, mission reports, rare photos, undeveloped film, plus interviews with WWII veterans and their surviving families, Damien follows one close-knit band of men from the founding of the SAS through to the Italian landings, which truly turned the tide of the war. It is a breathtaking narrative of do-or-die action and unbelievable daring chronicling the exploits of some of the most fearless, revered, and under-the-radar soldiers of the 20th century.Frederick the Great: A Military History (Modern Wars In Perspective Ser.)
Par Dennis Showalter. 2012
A biography of the Prussian king and military legend from &“America&’s leading historian&” (Jeremy Black, author of Imperial Legacies). …
Famed for his military successes and domestic reforms, Frederick the Great was a remarkable leader whose campaigns were a watershed in the history of Europe, securing Prussia&’s place as a continental power and inaugurating a new pattern of total war that was to endure until 1916. However, much myth surrounds this enigmatic man, his personality, and his role as politician, warrior, and king. From a renowned military historian and winner of a Pritzker Literature Award, this book provides a refreshing, multidimensional depiction of Frederick the Great and an objective, detailed reappraisal of his military, political, and social achievements. Early chapters set the scene with an excellent summary of eighteenth-century Europe and the Age of Reason; an analysis of the character, composition, and operating procedures of the Prussian army; and an exploration of Frederick&’s personality as a young man. Later chapters examine his stunning victories at Rossbach and Leuthen; his defeats at Prague and Kolín; and Prussia&’s emergence as a key European power. Written with style and verve, this book offers brilliant insights into the political and military history of the eighteenth century—and one of history&’s most famous rulers.Hope Unseen: The Story of the U.S. Army's First Blind Active-Duty Officer
Par Scotty Smiley, Doug Crandall. 2010
The inspiring, unflinching true story of &“blind&” faith, as Major Scotty Smiley awakes in a hospital bed and realizes his…
world is permanently dark he must stretch his faith like never before. Courageous, heartfelt, and honest, Hope Unseen challenges readers to question their doubts, not their beliefs, and depend upon God no matter what.A nervous glance from a man in a parked car. Muted instincts from a soldier on patrol. Violent destruction followed by total darkness. Two weeks later, Scotty Smiley woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center, helpless . . . and blind.Blindness became Scotty&’s journey of supreme testing. As he lay helpless in the hospital, Captain Smiley resented the theft of his dreams—becoming a CEO, a Delta Force operator, or a four-star general.With his wife Tiffany&’s love and the support of his family and friends, Scotty was transformed—the injury only intensifying his indomitable spirit. Since the moment he jumped out of a hospital bed and forced his way through nurses and cords to take a simple shower, Captain Scotty Smiley has climbed Mount Rainier, won an ESPY as Best Outdoor Athlete, surfed, skydived, become a father, earned an MBA from Duke, taught leadership at West Point, commanded an army company, and won the MacArthur Leadership Award.Scotty and Tiffany Smiley have lived out a faith so real that it will inspire you to question your own doubts, push you to serve something bigger than yourself, and encourage you to cling to a Hope Unseen.