|
Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
The Bosnian war of 1992-1995 was one of the most brutal conflicts
to have erupted since the end of the Second World War. But although
the war occurred in 'Europe's backyard' and received significant
media coverage in the West, relatively little scholarly attention
has been devoted to cultural representations of the conflict.
Stephen Harper analyses how the war has been depicted in global
cinema and television over the past quarter of a century. Focusing
on the representation of some of the war's major themes, including
humanitarian intervention, the roles of NATO and the UN, genocide,
rape and ethnic cleansing, Harper explores the role of popular
media culture in reflecting, reinforcing -- and sometimes
contesting -- nationalist ideologies.
They flew low and slow, at treetop level, at night, in monsoons,
and in point-blank range of enemy guns and missiles. They were
missions no one else wanted, but the ones all other pilots prayed
for when shot down. Flying the World War II-vintage Douglas A-1
Skyraider, a single-engine, propeller-driven relic in a war of
"fast-movers," these intrepid US Air Force pilots, call sign Sandy,
risked their lives with every mission to rescue thousands of downed
Navy and Air Force pilots.
With a flashback memory and a style all his own, George J. Marrett
depicts some of the most dangerous aerial combat of any war. The
thrilling rescue of "Streetcar 304" and William Jones's selfless
act of heroism that earned him the Medal of Honor are but two of
the compelling tales he recounts. Here too are the courages Jolly
Green Giant helicopter crews, parajumpers, and forward air
controllers who worked with the Sandys over heavily defended
jungles and mountains well behind enemy lines.
Passionate, mordantly witty, and filled with heart-pounding
adrenaline, "Cheating Death" reads like the finest combat fiction,
but it is the real deal: its heroes, cowards, jokers, and
casualties all have names and faces readers will find difficult to
forget.
This comprehensive volume tells the rarely recounted stories of the
numerous foreign air forces that supported the German Luftwaffe as
part of the Axis' quest to dominate the European and Pacific
theaters-a highly compelling and often overlooked chapter of World
War II history. The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the
German Luftwaffe presents an untold history of that global
conflict's little-known combatants, who nonetheless contributed
significantly to the war's outcome. While most other books only
attempt to address this subject in passing, author Frank Joseph
provides not only an extremely comprehensive account of the "unsung
heroes" of the Axis fliers, but also describes the efforts of Axis
air forces such as those of the Iraqi, Manchurian, Thai or
Chinese-specific groups of wartime aviators that have never been
discussed before at length. This book examines the distinct but
allied Axis air forces of Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the
Middle East, and Asia. An extensive introduction provides coverage
of Luftwaffe volunteers from Greece, Lithuania, Holland, Denmark,
Norway and even the United States. Detailed descriptions of the
personnel themselves and the aircraft they operated are portrayed
against the broader scope of combat missions, field operations, and
military campaigns, supplying invaluable historical perspective on
the importance of their sorties. Photographs of the aircraft
described in the text A comprehensive bibliography lists source
materials
|
Making a Night Stalker
(Hardcover)
David Burnett; Edited by Kendra Middleton Williams; Foreword by George Diaz
|
R671
R607
Discovery Miles 6 070
Save R64 (10%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
|
Early in 1945 the British Liberation Army (BLA), who had battled
their way from the Normandy beaches to the borders of Germany,
embarked on Operation Eclipse. This was the 'end-game' of the
Second World War, the unique military campaign to invade and
conquer Hitler's Third Reich and liberate 20 million enslaved
nationals from Holland, Denmark and Norway; to free multitudes of
displaced persons (DPs) or slaves; and inter alia to free the
survivors of twenty concentration camps and many Allied POW camps.
The Allied Military Government (AMG) brought law and order to 23
million German nationals in the allocated British zone of
occupation (BAOR) and appropriate retribution too. A thrilling race
with Stalin's Red Army ensued to reach the Baltic. A matter of a
few hours and Denmark and Norway would have been swept into the
evil Soviet empire. The author fought vigorously as a junior RHA
officer in the five great river battles - Rhine, Dortmund-Ems,
Weser, Aller and the Elbe. Soon after VE Day he was the junior
officer in War Crimes Tribunals in Hamburg and Oldenburg and
witnessed Mr Alfred Pierrepoint administering the hanging of prison
camp guards.
The gripping, vividly told story of the largest POW escape in the
Second World War - organized by an Australian bank clerk, a British
jazz pianist and an American spy. In August 1944 the most
successful POW escape of the Second World War took place - 106
Allied prisoners were freed from a camp in Maribor, in present-day
Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two
ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before
the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with
the help of intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was
on a mission to work with the partisans who moved like ghosts
through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces. How these
three men came together - along with the partisans - to plan and
execute the escape is told here for the first time. The Greatest
Escape, written by Ralph Churches' son Neil, takes us from Ralph
and Les's capture in Greece in 1941 and their brutal journey to
Maribor, with many POWs dying along the way, to the horror of
seeing Russian prisoners starved to death in the camp. The book
uncovers the hidden story of Allied intelligence operations in
Slovenia, and shows how Ralph became involved. We follow the
escapees on a nail-biting 160-mile journey across the Alps, pursued
by German soldiers, ambushed and betrayed. And yet, of the 106 men
who escaped, 100 made it to safety. Thanks to research across seven
countries, The Greatest Escape is no longer a secret. It is one of
the most remarkable adventure stories of the last century.
Charts the incredible rise of South Korea, from colonisation and
civil war to today's thriving nation. South Korea has a remarkable
history. Born from the ashes of imperial domination, partition and
a devastating war, back in the 1950s there were real doubts about
its survival as an independent state. Yet South Korea endures:
today it is a boisterous democracy, a vibrant market economy, a
tech powerhouse, and home to the coolest of cultures. In just
seventy years, this society has grown from a shrimp into a whale.
What explains this extraordinary transformation? For some, it was
individual South Koreans who fought to change their country, and
still strive to shape it. For others, it was forward-looking
political and business leaders with a vision. Either way, it's
clear that this is the story of a people who dreamt big, and whose
dreams came true. Shrimp to Whale is a lively history of South
Korea, from its millennia-old roots, through the division of the
Peninsula, dictatorship and economic growth, to today's global
powerhouse.
|
|