The war for the British life-line of the English Channel
Throughout history the English Channel has both preserved Britain and been its most vulnerable border. This short span of sea was dominated by the Royal Navy for over 150 years before the outbreak of the Great War. A new war-the first major conflict of the technological age-brought new dangers and challenges. A constant traffic of men and materials crossed the Channel to serve and supply the armies locked in a death struggle on the continent and this vital artery had to remain open and effective at all times to ensure victory and survival. Enemy submarines, surface flotillas and batteries of artillery remained dangerously close at hand, and well defended ports and harbours provided a continual threat to allied traffic and forces. This is the story of a fierce naval war fought in a narrow sea-way by one who experienced it. It is a story of naval battles and daring raids, of the bombing arm of the emergent air force and of the submarine service at its most daring. Above all it is a riveting story of human courage and endurance that will fascinate every student of the First World War.

The Great War in the Middle East as seen by a British artilleryman
Antony Bluett, a serving member of the Honourable Artillery Company, has given us a vital account of the Great War as it was fought in the Egyptian Desert, across the Sinai peninsula into Palestine, the capture of Jerusalem and on to victory in Lebanon and Syria. He tells his story as he saw the war from with his battery of guns-which played its part in this untypical theatre of fluid manoeuvring that brought about the fall of the declining Turkish Ottoman Empire. His was not simply a war of artillery duels and the ever present danger of bombs from enemy aircraft. The very environment was an enemy, fluctuating between searing daytime heat and freezing cold nights on difficult terrain. We are introduced to the difficulties of handling horses, guns and wagons in a war far different to that of the Western Front. The entire campaign is entertainingly recounted including lively accounts of the activities of the Welsh, Scottish and London infantry regiments, the colonial light horsemen and Cameliers together with the long suffering Egyptian labourers who carved camps, fortifications and roads out of the most inhospitable landscape.

This book completely rewrites the history of the origins of the Dardanelles Campaign and Winston Churchill's role in it, adding a new perspective to the military and political history of World War I. Churchill's Dilemma: The Real Story Behind the Origins of the 1915 Dardanelles Campaign is an entirely original study of the origins of the disastrous Dardanelles Campaign of 1915 and Winston Churchill's role in it. The work challenges long-held beliefs about Churchill's actions as First Lord, including the perceptions that he had a preoccupation with the Dardanelles bordering on obsession, and that he only reluctantly promoted a naval-only attempt to force the Dardanelles because there were no troops available for a full-scale amphibious assault on the Peninsula. Opening with a brief study of prewar naval policy in the age of the mine and submarine and the implications of the growing threat from Germany, this in-depth study shows that neither perception is true. Churchill's preoccupation was with northern Europe, not the Mediterranean. He promoted his naval-only operation because he hoped this would preempt a major British military commitment to a southern theatre that would compromise his northern aspirations. In studying the motivations that drove and the other key players in this drama, this groundbreaking work does nothing less than unlock the true origins of the Dardanelles campaign.

This is a fascinating and hard-hitting account kept in the journal of a young Marine Corps infantryman during his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. The epilogue follows the author back to Vietnam in the 1990's.

Ever since the American Revolution, military service has been a proud tradition for the Zumwalt family. Tradition initially led the author to join his father and brother in the Navy, before later transferring to the US Marine Corps. During his 26 years in uniform, the author saw service in three conflicts-Vietnam, Panama and the first Persian Gulf war. It was Vietnam, however, that ultimately would launch him on an unexpected journey-long after the guns of that war had fallen silent-triggered by the loss of a brother who had fought there. This journey was an emotional one-initially of anger towards the Vietnamese and the conflict that claimed his older brother. But it unexpectedly took a change in direction. In Vietnam almost two decades after Saigon's fall, the author, in a private talk with a former enemy general officer, came to understand an aspect of the war he never before had. In that talk, they shared personal insights about the war-discovering a common bond. It unlocked a door through which the author passed to start his own healing process. It began a journey where he would meet hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong veterans-listening to their personal stories of loss, sacrifice and hardship. It opened the author's eyes to how a technically inferior enemy, beaten down by superior US firepower, was able to get back up-driven by an "iron will" to emerge triumphant. "Bare Feet, Iron Will" takes the reader on a fascinating journey, providing stories-many never before told-as to how enemy ingenuity played a major role in the conflict, causing us not to see things that were there or to see things there that were not It shares unique insights into the sacrifice and commitment that took place on the other side of Vietnam's battlefields. About the Author JAMES G. ZUMWALT Lieutenant Colonel James Zumwalt is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the 1989 intervention into Panama and Desert Storm. An author, speaker and business executive, he also currently heads a security consulting firm named after his father-Admiral Zumwalt & Consultants, Inc. He writes extensively on foreign policy and defense issues, having written hundreds of articles for various newspapers, magazines and professional journals. His articles have covered issues of major importance, oftentimes providing readers with unique perspectives that have never appeared elsewhere. His work, on several occasions, has been cited by members of Congress and entered into the US Congressional Record.

When the Germans invaded her small Belgian village in 1914, Marthe Cnockaert's home was burned and her family separated. After getting a job at a German hospital, and winning the Iron Cross for her service to the Reich, she was approached by a neighbor and invited to become an intelligence agent for the British. Not without trepidation, Cnockaert embarked on a career as a spy, providing information and engaging in sabotage before her capture and imprisonment in 1916. After the war, she was paid and decorated by a grateful British government for her service. Cnockaert's is only one of the surprising and gripping stories that comprise Female Intelligence. This is the first history of the female spies who served Britain during World War I, focusing on both the powerful cultural images of these women and the realities, challenges, and contradictions of intelligence service. Between the founding of modern British intelligence organizations in 1909 and the demobilization of 1919, more than 6,000 women served the British government in either civil or military occupations as members of the intelligence community. These women performed a variety of services, and they represented an astonishing diversity of nationality, age, and class. From Aphra Behn, who spied for the British government in the seventeenth century, to the most well known example, Mata Hari, female spies have a long history, existing in juxtaposition to the folkloric notion of women as chatty, gossipy, and indiscreet. Using personal accounts, letters, official documents and newspaper reports, Female Intelligence interrogates different, and apparently contradictory, constructions of gender in the competing spheres of espionage activity.

"Fight of the Phoenix" is a historical personal account of duties as an Advisor in the Delta of Vietnam in 1972. The author counters claims of other Advisors and Academics and sets the record straight on the vicious nature of the Communist insurgency that killed their own people and the spectacular success of the Phoenix Program throughout the country and especially in the Delta Region MR-4 in targeting and neutralizing the enemy Viet Cong insurgents.

While we were still in Paris, I felt, and have felt increasingly ever since, that you accepted my guidance and direction on questions with regard to which I had to instruct you only with increasing reluctance.. ..". I must say that it would relieve me of embarrassment, Mr. Secretary, the embarrassment of feeling your reluctance and divergence of judgment, if you would give your present office up and afford me an opportunity to select some one whose mind would more willingly go along with mine." These words are taken from the letter which President Wilson wrote to me on February 11, 1920. On the following day I tendered my resignation as Secretary of State by a letter, in which I said:

Investigative reporter Patrick J. Sloyan, a former member of the White House Press Corps, revisits the last years of John F. Kennedy's presidency, his fateful involvement with Diem's assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement. Using recently released White House tape recordings and interviews with key inside players, The Politics of Deception reveals: The Politics of Deception is a fresh and revealing look at an iconic president and the way he attempted to manage public opinion and forge his legacy, sure to appeal to both history buffs and those who were alive during his presidency.

A topical presentation of firsthand accounts from some of the thousands of army and navy nurses who served both stateside and overseas during World War II, this book tells the stories of the brave women who used any and all resources to save as many lives as possible. Although military nurses could have made more money as civilians, thousands chose to leave the warmth and security of home to care for the young men who went off to war. They were not saints but vibrant women whose performance changed the face of both military and civilian nursing. Jackson's account follows both army and navy nurses from the time they joined the military, through their active service, to their lives today.

The jobs done by military nurses were valuable and varied. Some worked in clean stateside hospitals. Some found themselves nursing in tents or bombed-out buildings. Others entered hospitals so recently occupied by Axis forces that Nazi propaganda still covered the walls. While often treating ordinary accidents and illnesses, they were responsible for men with wounds so disfiguring that it took all of their willpower to maintain the hopeful attitude that the men so desperately required. From the humorous account of a nurse in her forties, who joined the war effort despite the smirks of those much younger, to the sorrow shared when men and women were separated and became prisoners of war, these are the stories of women who lived under extraordinary circumstances in an amazing time, women who, even today, bear emotional scars along with their lasting pride.

For five horrifying years in Vilna, the Vilna ghetto, and concentration camps in Estonia, Herman Kruk recorded his own experiences as well as the life and death of the Jewish community of the city symbolically called "The Jerusalem of Lithuania." This unique chronicle includes many recovered pages of Kruk's diaries and provides a powerful eyewitness account of the annihilation of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. This volume includes the Yiddish edition of Kruk's diaries, published in 1961 and translated here for the first time, as well as many widely scattered pages of the chronicles, collected here for the first time and meticulously deciphered, translated, and annotated. Kruk describes vividly the collapse of Poland in September, 1939, life as a refugee in Vilna, the manhunt that destroyed most of Vilna Jewry in the summer of 1941, the creation of a ghetto and the persecution and self-rule of the remnants of the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," the internment of the last survivors in concentration camps in Estonia, and their brutal deaths. Kruk scribbled his final diary entry on September 17, 1944, managing to bury the small, loose pages of his manuscript just hours before he and other camp inmates were shot to death and their bodies burnt on a pyre. Kruk's writings illuminate the tragedy of the Vilna Jews and their courageous efforts to maintain an ideological, social, and cultural life even as their world was being destroyed. To read Kruk's day-by-day account of the unfolding of the Holocaust is to discern the possibilities for human courage and perseverance even in the face of profound fear. Co-published with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Possibly THE book of the tank during the Great War
This is a very substantial and important book. Quite simply, anyone interested in the history of tank warfare should read and own it for it is essential. It was written by a British tank commander of the Great War who has given us a comprehensive account of tanks as machines and tanks at war. First, it is an account of the creation and development of the tank. Second, it describes the war of the tank in all its theatres of operation including the Western Front, the Middle East and including the French and German forces. Third, it provides an insight into armaments, armour, maintenance, breakdown and battle damage recovery and into many aspects of keeping an early armoured squadron operational. Fourth, it offers an excellent history of the engagements of British tanks and, finally, it is a brilliant eyewitness account of the tank of the Great War in action-from one who was personally involved-including much battle description, dialogue and anecdotal incident. A successful book in every way.

The 'Normans' during the Great War in Europe
It would misleading and unfair to the entertainment value and writing ability of the author of this book to describe it as a regimental history. Nothing justifiably so classified began with the expletive, 'Fed up ' Nevertheless, this excellent account takes the reader to the heart of the light infantry regiment raised in Guernsey and from its nearby islands, a regiment of local men who were proud of their independence and their heritage as decedents of the Norman warriors who accompanied Duke William on the conquest of England-the country they all acknowledged as nothing less than their own. Blicq, the author, was one of their number-an ordinary soldier and proud to be one of the worst in the battalion So he predictably brings an element of humour into his graphic portrayal of his comrades and indeed, the text is full of wry period dialogue. Intimate portrait of life on the march, in camp and in the trenches is vividly painted giving the reader a picture of the Guernsey men's experience of life and death on the Western Front. The reader joins Blicq-half of the infamous 'Duo' into battle at Hendecourt, Cambrai, Marcoing, Masnieres through the near catastrophic German onslaught of 1918 to the Passchendaele sector and Doulieu-Estaires. This is a remarkable story of the men of a small island state who loyally and with humour and determination rallied to its call and, in many cases, sacrificed to the last full measure, leaving an appalling legacy of death and injury for the Channel Islands in the post war period. This is an unusual view of a unit at war on the Western Front from original sources and recommended. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.