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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
To mark the end of the war in Europe the flag was hoisted in front
of the School, and on 8 May and 9 May 1945 there was a holiday to
celebrate VE Day. On 10 May there was a short ceremony at Morning
Assembly to celebrate the Allied victory. This book is not only
about those 463 ex-pupils and staff who were in the Armed Forces,
forty-one of whom were killed in the War, or about those who were
wounded, or those who were prisoners of war in German, Italian or
Japanese hands. It is also about the life of the school in the
years 1939 - 1945 and the 998 pupils who were there at the time,
forty-one of whom were at Prince Henry's for the length of the war.
It is dedicated to everybody associated with Prince Henry's Grammar
School before and during the Second World War. Lest we forget.
"It is impossible to reproduce the state of mind of the men who
waged war in 1917 and 1918," Edward Coffman wrote in "The War to
End All Wars." In "Doughboys on the Great War" the voices of
thousands of servicemen say otherwise. The majority of soldiers
from the American Expeditionary Forces returned from Europe in
1919. Where many were simply asked for basic data, veterans from
four states--Utah, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Virginia--were given
questionnaires soliciting additional information and "remarks."
Drawing on these questionnaires, completed while memories were
still fresh, this book presents a chorus of soldiers' voices
speaking directly of the expectations, motivations, and experiences
as infantrymen on the Western Front in World War I.
What was it like to kill or maim German soldiers? To see friends
killed or maimed by the enemy? To return home after experiencing
such violence? Again and again, soldiers wrestle with questions
like these, putting into words what only they can tell. They also
reflect on why they volunteered, why they fought, what their
training was, and how ill-prepared they were for what they found
overseas. They describe how they interacted with the civilian
populations in England and France, how they saw the rewards and
frustrations of occupation duty when they desperately wanted to go
home, and--perhaps most significantly--what it all added up to in
the end. Together their responses create a vivid and nuanced group
portrait of the soldiers who fought with the American Expeditionary
Forces on the battlefields of Aisne-Marne, Argonne Forest, Belleau
Wood, Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, Metz, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel,
Sedan, and Verdun during the First World War.
The picture that emerges is often at odds with the popular
notion of the disillusioned doughboy. Though hardened and harrowed
by combat, the veteran heard here is for the most part proud of his
service, service undertaken for duty, honor, and country. In short,
a hundred years later, the doughboy once more speaks in his own
true voice.
This extraordinary book tells the story of a remarkable family
caught in Japan at the outbreak of the Second World War in the
Pacific. With letters, journal extracts and notes from Hamish
Brown's parents, as well as his own recollections, it brings the
era to life: not only life in the dying days of the British Empire,
but also the terrible reality of the invasion of Singapore into
which they escaped.
In central Brussels stands a statue of a young woman. Built in
1923, it is the first monument to a working-class woman in European
history. Her name was Gabrielle Petit. History has forgotten Petit,
an ambitious and patriotic Belgian, executed by firing squad in
1916 for her role as an intelligence agent for the British Army.
After the First World War she was celebrated as an example of stern
endeavour, but a hundred years later her memory has faded. In the
first part of this historical biography Sophie De Schaepdrijver
uses Petit's life to explore gender, class and heroism in the
context of occupied Europe. Petit's experiences reveal the reality
of civilian engagement under military occupation and the emergence
of modern espionage. The second part of the book focuses on the
legacy and cultural memory of Petit and the First World War. By
analysing Petit's representation in ceremony, discourse and popular
culture De Schaepdrijver expands our understanding of remembrance
across the 20th century.
Possibly there is nothing more conducive to thoughts of the
Eternal, than having one's face slammed into red, wet muck, with
explosions so close your body arcs and bounces off the ground, hot
shards burn in your flesh, and concussions are bright flashes of
dirty fire beating a tattoo on the light receptors in the backs of
your eyes. Your head aches; throbbing from visual shock waves.
Time has come to an end; there is no right, no wrong, only
whatever follows a life that is now over. The dark reaper is here.
What's it going to be like on the other side? Is there an "other
side"?
The old timers use the maxim, "There are no atheists in a
fox-hole." Possibly so; I can only give my own experience, and I
never had the opportunity to be in one. Combat aviators crash and
sometimes burn instead. But close calls almost always give rise to
interminable questions; especially when the survived experience is
seared into the human psyche.
For some, satisfactory answers never seem to come. For myself,
may I pro-offer both scorching experience, and incredible
life-lessons learned? Then, should you ever fall into similar
adventure; you man go into it better prepared than I was.
JWV
The First World War at sea by Americans who fought in it
It's easy to understand why this book was originally published
under the jingoistic title of 'Over the Seas for Uncle Sam'-perhaps
edited by rather than 'written' by Elaine Sterne-for when it was
written the subject was nothing less than reportage. The passage of
time provides new perspectives on works such as this, and for that
reason we have changed the title to alert readers to the unique
nature of the content. Sterne's book contains fifteen first hand
accounts by those serving in the United States Navy in the first
American conflict of the modern age on a global stage. The United
States entry into the First World War in April, 1917, (particularly
in terms of it's immediately engaged naval contribution) was
pivotal, if not essential. The Allied war effort was being
strangled for want of materials as a result of the German U-Boat
successes against merchant shipping, especially in the Atlantic
Ocean. These accounts by serving men and women in the U. S
Navy-including contributions by marines-are mainly from the
enlisted ranks, with a few from officers. They are told in 'their
own words, ' and enable the modern student of the period to read of
the experiences of those service men and women whose voices-in the
absence of a work such as this-would have been forever lost to
posterity.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
The string of military defeats during 1942 marked the end of
British hegemony in Southeast Asia, finally destroying the myth of
British imperial invincibility. The Japanese attack on Burma led to
a hurried and often poorly organized evacuation of Indian and
European civilians from the country. The evacuation was a public
humiliation for the British and marked the end of their role in
Burma."The Evacuation of Civilians from Burma" investigates the
social and political background to the evacuation, and the
consequences of its failure. Utilizing unpublished letters,
diaries, memoirs and official reports, Michael Leigh provides the
first comprehensive account of the evacuation, analyzing its source
in the structures of colonial society, fractured race relations and
in the turbulent politics of colonial Burma.
United States Army Center of Military History publication, CMH Pub
12-3-1. 2nd edition.Photographs selected and text written by
Kenneth E. Hunter. Mary Ann Bacon, editor. This book deals with the
European Theater of Operations, covering the period from build up
in Britain through V-E Day.
In 2003, Major William Edwards and Lt. Colonel Robert P. Walters of
the 165th Military Intelligence Battalion were given the
near-impossible task of improving the U.S. Army's security posture
at Abu Ghraib prison under unfathomable conditions. With input from
officers who served with them, their candid firsthand accounts of
life at the notorious prison reveal unpublished details of the
human devastation that took place there, along with unexpected
glimpses of humanity.
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