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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
The extraordinary story of Captain Llewellyn Wynne Jones' 1918
service in East Africa told through his personal military campaign
diary and photograph albums. Llewellyn's granddaughter, born some
36 years after his death, researches his military life and family
history to uncover the fascinating, courageous and ultimately
tragic story of his life. The book is beautifully illustrated with
original photographs from Llewellyn's campaign albums and from a
rich family photographic archive. It includes family artefacts,
letters, newspaper reports and interviews which combine to bring
this exceptional young man's few years to life once more 100 years
on.
Controlling Sex in Captivity is the first book to examine the
nature, extent and impact of the sexual activities of Axis
prisoners of war in the United States during the Second World War.
Historians have so far interpreted the interactions between captors
and captives in America as the beginning of the post-war friendship
between the United States, Germany and Italy. Matthias Reiss argues
that this paradigm is too simplistic. Widespread fraternisation
also led to sexual relationships which created significant negative
publicity, and some Axis POWs got caught up in the U.S. Army's new
campaign against homosexuals. By focusing on the fight against
fraternisation and same-sex activities, this study treads new
ground. It stresses that contact between captors and captives was
often loaded with conflict and influenced by perceptions of gender
and race. It highlights the transnational impact of fraternisation
and argues that the prisoners' sojourn in the United States also
influenced American society by fuelling a growing concern about
social disintegration and sexual deviancy, which eventually
triggered a conservative backlash after the war.
The claim by the Ministry of Defence in 2001 that 'the experience
of numerous small wars has provided the British Army with a unique
insight into this demanding form of conflict' unravelled
spectacularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. One important reason for
that, David French suggests, was because contemporary British
counter-insurgency doctrine was based upon a serious misreading of
the past.
Until now, many observers believed that during the wars of
decolonisation in the two decades after 1945, the British had
discovered how western liberal notions of right and wrong could be
made compatible with the imperatives of waging war amongst the
people, that force could be used effectively but with care, and
that a more just and prosperous society could emerge from these
struggles. By using only the minimum necessary force, and doing so
with the utmost discrimination, the British were able to win by
securing the 'hearts and minds' of the people. But this was a
serious distortion of actual British practice on the ground. David
French's main contention is that the British hid their use of naked
force behind a carefully constructed veneer of legality. In
reality, they commonly used wholesale coercion, including cordon
and search operations, mass detention without trial, forcible
population resettlement, and the creation of free-fire zones to
intimidate and lock-down the civilian population. The British waged
their counter-insurgency campaigns by being nasty, not nice, to the
people.
The British Way in Counter-Insurgency is a seminal reassessment of
the historical foundation of British counter doctrine and practice.
In 1942, the United States War Department distributed a handbook to American servicemen that advised them on the peculiarities of the "British, their country, and their ways."
Over sixty years later, this newly published reproduction from the rich archives of the Bodleian Library offers a fascinating glimpse into American military preparations for World War II. The guide was intended to alleviate the culture shock for soldiers taking their first trip to Great Britain, or, for that matter, abroad. The handbook is punctuated with endearingly nostalgic advice and refreshingly candid quips such as: "The British don't know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don't know how to make a good cup of tea. It's an even swap."
By turns hilarious and poignant, many observations featured in the handbook remain relevant even today. Reproduced in a style reminiscent of the era, "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain" is a powerfully evocative war-time memento that offers a unique perspective on the longstanding American-British relationship and reveals amusingly incisive American perceptions of the British character and country.
The Women of the Great War
It has been a salient feature of twentieth century warfare that
the industrial nature of conflict, combined with the huge number of
men required and the numerous machines and armaments involved, has
meant that industry has-of necessity-had to increase its capacity
to keep the fighting forces constantly and consistently supplied.
Yet each conflict has inevitably drained the places of industry of
the very workforce it required to function effectively. The
solution in both World Wars has been for women to step forward to
fill the roles formally undertaken by men who were by then enlisted
into the armed services. Of course, women invariably proved
themselves to be equal to the tasks assigned to them and indeed
without them wartime industrial production would inevitably have
been compromised to the point of peril for the military outcome.
The work was invariably hard and often dangerous, but women on the
home front have long been regarded as the essential, if largely
unsung, heroines of the war effort. The principal benefit of this
book is that it not only describes the activities of women in the
workplace, but that it includes many photographs of women at work,
demonstrating the multitude of weapons, armaments, equipment and
vehicles they manufactured during the First World War. This concise
Leonaur edition includes two books-that were originally so short as
to not have seen re-publication in modern times-for good
value.
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.
While serving as a crew chief aboard a U.S. Air Force Rescue
helicopter, Airman First Class William A. Robinson was shot down
and captured in Ha Tinh Province, North Vietnam, on September 20,
1965. After a brief stint at the "Hanoi Hilton," Robinson endured
2,703 days in multiple North Vietnamese prison camps, including the
notorious Briarpatch and various compounds at Cu Loc, known by the
inmates as the Zoo. No enlisted man in American military history
has been held as a prisoner of war longer than Robinson. For seven
and a half years, he faced daily privations and endured the full
range of North Vietnam's torture program. In The Longest Rescue:
The Life and Legacy of Vietnam POW William A. Robinson, Glenn
Robins tells Robinson's story using an array of sources, including
declassified U.S. military documents, translated Vietnamese
documents, and interviews from the National Prisoner of War Museum.
Unlike many other POW accounts, this comprehensive biography
explores Robinson's life before and after his capture, particularly
his estranged relationship with his father, enabling a better
understanding of the difficult transition POWs face upon returning
home and the toll exacted on their families. Robins's powerful
narrative not only demonstrates how Robinson and his fellow
prisoners embodied the dedication and sacrifice of America's
enlisted men but also explores their place in history and memory.
During World War II, Allied casualty rates in the air were high. Of
the roughly 125,000 who served as aircrew with Bomber Command,
59,423 were killed or missing and presumed killed-a fatality rate
of 45.5%. With odds like that, it would be no surprise if there
were as few atheists in cockpits as there were in foxholes; and
indeed, many airmen faced their dangerous missions with beliefs and
rituals ranging from the traditional to the outlandish. Military
historian S. P. MacKenzie considers this phenomenon in Flying
against Fate, a pioneering study of the important role that
superstition played in combat flier morale among the Allies in
World War II. Mining a wealth of documents as well as a trove of
published and unpublished memoirs and diaries, MacKenzie examines
the myriad forms combat fliers' suspicions assumed, from jinxes to
premonitions. Most commonly, airmen carried amulets or
talismans-lucky boots or a stuffed toy; a coin whose year numbers
added up to thirteen; counterintuitively, a boomerang. Some
performed rituals or avoided other acts, e.g., having a photo taken
before a flight. Whatever seemed to work was worth sticking with,
and a heightened risk often meant an upsurge in superstitious
thought and behavior. MacKenzie delves into behavior analysis
studies to help explain the psychology behind much of the behavior
he documents-not slighting the large cohort of crew members and
commanders who demurred. He also looks into the ways in which
superstitious behavior was tolerated or even encouraged by those in
command who saw it as a means of buttressing morale. The first
in-depth exploration of just how varied and deeply felt
superstitious beliefs were to tens of thousands of combat fliers,
Flying against Fate expands our understanding of a major aspect of
the psychology of war in the air and of World War II.
Based on the latest scholarship by experts in the field, this work
provides an accessible guide to the Crusades fought for the
liberation and defense of the Holy Land-one of the most enduring
and consequential conflicts of the medieval world. The Crusades to
the Holy Land were one of the most important religious and social
movements to emerge over the course of the Middle Ages. The warfare
of the Crusades affected nearly all of Western Europe and involved
members of social groups from kings and knights down to serfs and
paupers. The memory of this epic long-ago conflict affects
relations between the Western and Islamic worlds in the present
day. The Crusades to the Holy Land: The Essential Reference Guide
provides almost 90 A-Z entries that detail the history of the
Crusades launched from Western Europe for the liberation or defense
of the Holy Land, covering the inception of the movement by Pope
Urban II in 1095 up to the early 14th century. This concise
single-volume work provides accessible articles and perspective
essays on the main Crusade expeditions as well as the important
crusaders, countries, places, and institutions involved. Each entry
is accompanied by references for further reading. Readers will
follow the career of Saladin from humble beginnings to becoming
ruler of Syria and Egypt and reconquering almost all of the Holy
Land from its Christian rulers; learn about the main sites and
characteristics of the castles that were crucial to the Christian
domination of the Holy Land; and understand the key aspects of
crusading, from motivation and recruitment to practicalities of
finance and transport. The reference guide also includes survey
articles that provide readers with an overview of the original
source materials written in Latin, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian,
and Syriac. Presents concise, accessible articles written by more
than 40 leading experts in the field that explain key concepts and
describe important institutions of the Crusades Covers all main
Crusades as well as the distinct countries and various
personalities involved Includes maps that make clear the course of
Crusades and main areas of campaigning in the Eastern Mediterranean
region Documents the Christian principalities established in the
course of the Crusades and the Muslim states that opposed them
This book is an intimate account of an ordinary individual's
extraordinary life journey that transcends both cultural and social
boundaries. Th e author was born and lived in Korea during his
formative years, and has been living in the United States for the
following 47 years. Th is individual's unique story of his
environment is informative and his approach to his life time
challenges highlights every passage of the book. Th e book is
thoughtprovoking as well as enlightening...a rare gem in its
subject, style, and exposition. This book enlightens and entertains
its readers at the same time eff ortlessly.
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