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White Horses
by Joan WolfJanuary 1813–the British army is preparing to cross the Pyrenees and advance against Napoleon's army. Only one thing stands in the way–funds. It will take two people masquerading as lovers to carry out a dangerous plan…
Wielding the Dagger: The MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914-1918 (Contributions in Military Studies)
by Mark D. KarauIn August 1914, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz convinced the German armed forces to create a new unit, called the MarineDivision Flandern, to garrison the Belgian coastline and prepare naval bases in for the implementation of a naval guerrilla war against Great Britain. The Germans called their strategy Kleinkrieg, or little war, and they intended to whittle away at British naval superiority by using their submarines and destroyers. Later expanded into the MarineKorps, the unit soon found itself in the middle of a land war as well. What had been intended as a garrison unit found itself on the frontlines when the war stalemated.The British had traditionally seen Belgium as a dagger pointed at the throat of England, and the Royal Navy feared what use the Germans might make of the position. The result was an active naval campaign in the English Channel. Karau brings to light the contributions of the MarineKorps Flandern, a force often neglected by historians. He examines the role of the MarineKorps in both land and naval wars and reaffirms the increasingly important role played by aircraft in the Flanders theater. If Belgium was a weapon pointed at the British throat, were the Germans properly equipped to wield the dagger?
Wings of the Morning (The Webster Family Trilogy)
by Beryl MatthewsFrom the author of the bestselling debut THE OPEN DOOR comes a moving and uplifting story about a generation of young people living through World War II.When war breaks out Annie Webster and her closeknit family find themselves - along with everyone else in the country - thrust into a world of uncertainty, danger and despair. Her brothers join up, her sweetheart Paul becomes a fighter pilot, and Annie, desperate to help, finds herself in the WAAF, where her intelligence and warmth singles her out for a role more daring than she can ever have known.All the time, the Battle of Britain is raging in the skies above her. The country has never needed its young people more, but will Annie and her loved ones survive its darkest hour?
Working for the Enemy: Ford, General Motors, and Forced Labor in Germany during the Second World War (Berghahn Ser.)
by Reinhold Billstein Karola Fings Anita Kugler Nicholas LevisGeneral Motors, the largest corporation on earth today, has been the owner since 1929 of Adam Opel AG, Russelsheim, the maker of Opel cars. Ford Motor Company in 1931 built the Ford Werke factory in Cologne, now the headquarters of European Ford. In this book, historians tell the astonishing story of what happened at Opel and Ford Werke under the Third Reich, and of the aftermath today. Long before the Second World War, key American executives at Ford and General Motors were eager to do business with Nazi Germany. Ford Werke and Opel became indispensable suppliers to the German armed forces, together providing most of the trucks that later motorized the Nazi attempt to conquer Europe. After the outbreak of war in 1939, Opel converted its largest factory to warplane parts production, and both companies set up extensive maintenance and repair networks to help keep the war machine on wheels. During the war, the Nazi Reich used millions of POWs, civilians from German-occupied countries, and concentration camp prisoners as forced laborers in the German homefront economy. Starting in 1940, Ford Werke and Opel also made use of thousands of forced laborers. POWs and civilian detainees, deported to Germany by the Nazi authorities, were kept at private camps owned and managed by the companies. In the longest section of the book, ten people who were forced to work at Ford Werke recall their experiences in oral testimonies. For more than fifty years, legal and political obstacles frustrated efforts to gain compensation for Nazi-era forced labor; in the most recent case, a $12 billion lawsuit was filed against the computer giant I.B.M. by a group of Gypsy organizations. In 1998, former forced laborers filed dozens of class action lawsuits against German corporations in U.S. courts. The concluding chapter reviews the subsequent, immensely complex negotiations towards a settlement - which involved Germany, the United States, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic, Israel and several other countries, as well as dozens of well-known German corporations.
World War II Infantry Tactics: Squad and Platoon (Elite)
by Stephen BullDespite all technological advances, final mastery of any battlefield depends upon the tight-knit group of footsoldiers trained to manoeuvre, shoot and dig in. This first of a two-part study examines the methods by which the Western infantry of World War II - the German, British and US armies - actually brought their firepower to bear. Drawing upon period training manuals for the evolving theory, and on personal memoirs for the individual practice, this first book covers the organization and tactics of the squad of ten or a dozen men, and the platoon of three or four squads. The text is illustrated with contemporary photographs and diagrams, and with colour plates bringing to life the movement of soldiers on the battlefield.
The World War Two Reader (Routledge Readers In History Ser.)
by Gordon MartelFrom highly respected field academic Gordon Martel, The World War Two Reader is a rare work that provides a complete and up-to-date overview of the recent historiography on World War Two. Huge in scope, both geographically and thematically, this excellent reader examines twenty-one articles by some of the best known and most innovative scholars in the field. Taking a global approach, Martel discusses all aspects of the war including: the military aspect the political and strategic backdrop ideology gender and women’s roles the home front social aspects. Including a comprehensive introduction, chronology, guides to key terms and figures, and introductions to chapters providing context and historiographical background, The World War Two Reader provides wide ranging and innovative reading for all students of the history of the modern world.
The Wrong Goodbye
by Toshihiko YahagiA classic slice of Japanese hard-boiled noir paying homage to the master of the genre: Raymond ChandlerThe Wrong Goodbye pits homicide detective Eiji Futamura against a shady Chinese business empire and U.S. military intelligence in the docklands of recession Japan. After the frozen corpse of immigrant barman Tran Binh Long washes up in midsummer near Yokosuka U.S. Navy Base, Futamura meets a strange customer from Tran's bar. Vietnam vet pilot Billy Lou Bonney talks Futamura into hauling three suitcases of "goods" to Yokota US Air Base late at night and flies off leaving a dead woman behind. Thereby implicated in a murder suspect's escape and relieved from active duty, Futamura takes on hack work for the beautiful concert violinist Aileen Hsu, a "boat people" orphan whose Japanese adoption mother has mysteriously gone missing. And now a phone call from a bestselling yakuza author, a one-time black marketeer in Saigon, hints at inside information on "former Vietcong mole" Tran and his "old sidekick" Billy Lou, both of whom crossed a triad tycoon who is buying up huge tracts of Mekong Delta marshland for a massive development scheme. As the loose strands flashback to Vietnam, the string of official lies and mysterious allegiances build into a dark picture of the U.S.-Japan postwar alliance. Translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum
Star Wars: US Tools of Space Supremacy
by Loring WirbelThe expansion of space militarization forms a common thread with the explicit unilateral empire-building of the Bush administration. But just as Star Wars did not begin with the Missile Defense Agency, preventive war theory did not originate with Donald Rumsfeld. *BR**BR*Advocates of military space always were on the front line of those demanding global dominance. Loring Wirbel argues that the seeds for the current space supremacy doctrine were sown at the end of the Cold War, in the early days of the Clinton administration. Examining the evolution of space-based tools, Wirbel shows that missile defense strategy is part of a dangerous US move to wage endless preventive war and demand global supremacy over allies and adversaries alike.*BR**BR*Star Wars: US Tools of Space Supremacy provides a fresh look at the role of space as an enabler of the Bush administration’s plans for endless preventive war. It debunks the benign notions of missile defence, and expands the definition of space supremacy to include the unilateral misuse of space-based intelligence, communications, and targeting technologies.
Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History)
by David Hackett FischerSix months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined. Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.
Business and Industry in Nazi Germany (Vermont Studies on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust #2)
by Francis R. Nicosia Jonathan HuenerDuring the past decade, the role of Germany's economic elites under Hitler has once again moved into the limelight of historical research and public debate. This volume brings together a group of internationally renowned scholars who have been at the forefront of recent research. Their articles provide an up-to-date synthesis, which is as comprehensive as it is insightful, of current knowledge in this field. The result is a volume that offers students and interested readers a brief but focused introduction to the role of German businesses and industries in the crimes of Hitler's Third Reich. Not only does this book treat the subject in an accessible manner; it also emerges as particularly relevant in light of current controversies over the nature of business-state relations, corporate social responsibility, and globalization.
Our Street: East End Life in the Second World War
by Gilda O'NeillOur Street is the perfect companion to Gilda O'Neill's bestselling My East End. This book focuses on the lives of Londoners in the East End during the Second World War. Showing the concerns, hopes and fears of these so-called 'ordinary people' Our Street illustrates these times by looking at the every day rituals which marked the patterns of daily life during WWII. It is an important book and also an affectionate record of an often fondly remembered, more communal, way of life that has all but disappeared.
Sabra and Shatila: September 1982
by Bayan Nuwayhed Al-HoutNow available for the first time in English, this classic book is the most comprehensive, authoritative account of the Sabra and Shatila massacre and what happened and who was responsible. *BR**BR*Taking place over three bloody days in the Lebanese capital Beirut, the Sabra and Shatila massacre was committed against Palestinian refugees by Lebanese militias, aided and supervised by the Israeli Army, which had encircled the district. Driven by the horror of what occurred, author Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, interviewed survivors and set up an oral history project immediately after the massacre to preserve testimonies. *BR**BR*Containing interviews with the victims families, in addition to statistical data and attempts to determine the number of victims, this book is a courageous attempt to make sense of what happened and an important political document in its own right.
The Kaiser's Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany during the Machine Age, 1870-1918
by Eric Dorn BroseThis volume covers a fascinating period in the history of the German army, a time in which machine guns, airplanes, and weapons of mass destruction were first developed and used. Eric Brose traces the industrial development of machinery and its application to infantry, cavalry, and artillery tactics. He examines the modernity versus anti-modernity debate that raged after the Franco-Prussian war, arguing that the residue of years of resistance to technological change seriously undermined the German army during World War I.
The Victorians at War, 1815-1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History
by Harold E. Jr.Capturing the strength of the British Army from 1815 to 1914, this groundbreaking reference presents the most recent research on the most significant wars, campaigns, battles, and leaders.The Victorians at War*, 1815–1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History surveys the major wars, campaigns, battles, and expeditions of the British Army as well as its weaponry, tactics, and all other aspects of its operations from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the dawn of World War I.Containing numerous maps depicting various theaters of war, this all-encompassing volume explains why the numerous military operations took place and what the results were. Biographies reveal fascinating facts about British and Indian Army officers and other ranks, while other entries deal with recruitment, training, education and literacy, uniforms, equipment, pay and conditions, social backgrounds of the soldiers, diseases and wounds they fell victim to, and much more. This volume is indispensable to those wanting to gain information about the British Army during this remarkable imperial era.
Working for the Enemy: Ford, General Motors, and Forced Labor in Germany during the Second World War
by Reinhold Billstein Karola Fings Anita Kugler Nicholas LevisGeneral Motors, the largest corporation on earth today, has been the owner since 1929 of Adam Opel AG, Russelsheim, the maker of Opel cars. Ford Motor Company in 1931 built the Ford Werke factory in Cologne, now the headquarters of European Ford. In this book, historians tell the astonishing story of what happened at Opel and Ford Werke under the Third Reich, and of the aftermath today. Long before the Second World War, key American executives at Ford and General Motors were eager to do business with Nazi Germany. Ford Werke and Opel became indispensable suppliers to the German armed forces, together providing most of the trucks that later motorized the Nazi attempt to conquer Europe. After the outbreak of war in 1939, Opel converted its largest factory to warplane parts production, and both companies set up extensive maintenance and repair networks to help keep the war machine on wheels. During the war, the Nazi Reich used millions of POWs, civilians from German-occupied countries, and concentration camp prisoners as forced laborers in the German homefront economy. Starting in 1940, Ford Werke and Opel also made use of thousands of forced laborers. POWs and civilian detainees, deported to Germany by the Nazi authorities, were kept at private camps owned and managed by the companies. In the longest section of the book, ten people who were forced to work at Ford Werke recall their experiences in oral testimonies. For more than fifty years, legal and political obstacles frustrated efforts to gain compensation for Nazi-era forced labor; in the most recent case, a $12 billion lawsuit was filed against the computer giant I.B.M. by a group of Gypsy organizations. In 1998, former forced laborers filed dozens of class action lawsuits against German corporations in U.S. courts. The concluding chapter reviews the subsequent, immensely complex negotiations towards a settlement - which involved Germany, the United States, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic, Israel and several other countries, as well as dozens of well-known German corporations.
Dispatches From the People's War in Nepal
by Li OnestoA Maoist revolution has been raging in Nepal since 1996. In 1999, Li Onesto became the first foreign journalist to travel deep into the guerrilla zones. Allowed unprecedented access, she interviewed political leaders, guerrilla fighters, villagers in areas under Maoist control, and relatives of those killed by government forces.*BR**BR*Millions in Nepal now live in areas under guerrilla control. Peasants are running grass-roots institutions, exercising what they call 'people's power'. Li Onesto describes these transformations -- the establishment of new governing committees and courts, the confiscation and re-division of land, new cultural and social practices, and the emergence of a new outlook.*BR**BR*Increasingly, the UK and US have directly intervened to provide political and military support to the counter-insurgency efforts of the Nepalese regime. Onesto analyzes this in the context of the broader international situation and the 'war on terrorism'.
1914-1918: The History of the First World War
by David Stevenson1914-1918, David Stevenson's history of the First World War, has been acclaimed as the definitive one-volume account of the conflictIn the summer of 1914 Europe exploded into a frenzy of mass violence. The war that followed had global repercussions, destroying four empires and costing millions of lives. Even the victorious countries were scarred for a generation, and we still today remain within the conflict's shadow. In this major analysis David Stevenson re-examines the causes, course and impact of this 'war to end war', placing it in the context of its era and exposing its underlying dynamics. His book provides a wide-ranging international history, drawing on insights from the latest research. It offers compelling answers to the key questions about how this terrible struggle unfolded: questions that remain disturbingly relevant for our own time.'It's harder to imagine a better single-volume comprehensive history of the conflict than this superb study' Ian Kershaw'Perhaps the best comprehensive one-volume history of the war yet written' New Yorker'David Stevenson is the real deal ... His defining characteristic is his outstanding rigour as an historian ... tremendously clever' Niall Ferguson'This history of the 1914-1918 conflict surpasses all others. It is tough, erudite and comprehensive' Independent
Admiral Lord Nelson: Context and Legacy
by D. CannadineAdmiral Lord Horatio Nelson was a colourful and complex character, whose supremely successful naval career quickly attained legendary status. By 1803 he was Britain's paramount hero and already maimed with the loss of an arm and blind in one eye. He returned to war when called back in May and spent a further two years at sea before dying at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Today, two centuries after his death, the 'immortal memory' of Nelson endures. In this book, leading historians provide a radical reappraisal of his life and times.
After Daybreak: The Liberation of Belsen, 1945
by Ben Shephard'The things I saw completely defy description': when British troops entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, they uncovered scenes of horror and depravity that shocked the world. But they also confronted a terrible challenge - inside the camp were some 60,000 people, suffering from typhus, starvation and dysentery, who would die unless they received immediate medical attention.After Daybreak is the story of the men and women who faced that challenge - the army stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers, medical students and relief workers who worked to save the inmates of Belsen - with the war still raging and only the most primitive drugs and facilities available. It was, for all of them, an overwhelming experience. Drawing on their diaries and letters, Ben Shephard reconstructs events at Belsen in the spring of 1945 - from the first horror of its discovery, through the agonising process of trying to save the survivors, to the point where Belsen became 'more like a Butlin's Holiday camp than a concentration one'. By the end of June 1945, some 46,000 people had survived at Belsen; but another 14,000 had been lost. Should we therefore see the relief of the camp as an epic of medical heroism - as the British believed? Or was the failure to plan for Belsen and the undoubted mistakes that were made there further evidence of Allied indifference to the fate of Europe's Jews - as some historians now argue? After Daybreak is a powerful and dramatic narrative, full of extraordinary incidents and characters. It is also an important contribution to medical history.
Alistair MacLean Arctic Chillers 4-Book Collection: Night Without End, Ice Station Zebra, Bear Island, Athabasca
by Alistair MacLeanFour classic tales of adventure in the frozen north, from the master of action and suspense, available for the first time in this e-bundle.
Alistair MacLean Sea Thrillers 4-Book Collection: San Andreas, The Golden Rendezvous, Seawitch, Santorini
by Alistair MacLeanFour classic tales of adventure at sea, from the master of action and suspense, available for the first time in this e-bundle.
Always a Marine: The Return to Civvy Street
by Steven PreeceIn Amongst the Marines, Steven Preece vividly depicted his excessive, violent lifestyle as an elite Royal Marine Commando. Now Always a Marine covers the author's struggle to leave that lifestyle behind following his departure from the service. Back on civvy street for the first time in over seven years, Preece finds it extremely difficult to adapt and struggles to shake off the belligerent mentality he developed while in the Marines. Despite these difficulties, he marries and starts a family, but this positive change is not enough to turn his life around. Preece soon discovers that his tendency towards violence will not be tolerated in the civilian workplace and, after finding himself blacklisted by many companies in his area, he is forced to look for employment abroad. This quest for work takes Preece to France, where he is caught up in a hotel fire; Germany, where he is double-crossed out of his job and later teams up with an ex-SAS trooper; Morocco, where an incident lands him in jail and he is later shot at by border police; and Thailand, where he fights in a boxing ring with a former French Legionnaire and gets caught up in a business scam.Having settled back in the UK, Preece's behaviour remains excessive. He severely injures his head and suffers minor brain damage after a heavy-drinking session. Upon recovering, he looks for something else to believe in and begins training in ninjutsu, the martial art of the ninjas, who view aggression as a sign of weakness. This, combined with the love of his family, finally enables him to put his past behind him. Always a Marine is the action-packed, often shocking account of one ex-Marine's 13-year struggle to control the aggression he learnt as a serviceman in order to become a respectable civilian.
Amateur Soldiers, Global Wars: Insurgency and Modern Conflict (Praeger Security International)
by Michael C. FowlerTransnational politics, modern communications, and access to the tools of warfare have combined to give political movements the ability to wage global war to promote their own agendas, a development that has changed the face of both politics and warfare. Fowler examines current aspects of conducting war, including mobilization, funding, training, fighting, and intelligence to demonstrate how they are accessible to anyone and are well-suited to waging insurgency efforts in many places around the world. Such efforts force governments to deal with unforeseen enemies who violently advance their agendas in a quest for increased power and authority.Because global insurgents, such as al Qaeda, build more direct connections between politics and the use of force, confronting them requires solutions that emphasize politics as much as the use of force. National governments must unite to seek cooperative solutions to issues that affect them. The implications of the adoption of such strategies by groups with varied agendas will undoubtedly change foreign policy planning for decades to come.
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird Martin J. Sherwin***SOON TO BE A MAJOR HOLLYWOOD FILM DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN***WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 'Reads like a thriller, gripping and terrifying' Sunday TimesPhysicist and polymath, as familiar with Hindu scriptures as he was with quantum mechanics, J. Robert Oppenheimer - director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb - was the most famous scientist of his generation. In their meticulous and riveting biography, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin reveal a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man, profoundly involved with some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.