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Books > History > World history > From 1900
The years of National Service cover almost two decades from 1945 to
1963. During that time 2.5 million young men were compelled to do
their time in National Service with 6,000 being called up every
fortnight. Some went willingly while others were reluctant. A few
were downright bloody-minded as they saw little difference between
their call up and the press gangs of Britain's distant past. At
first public opinion was behind the idea of peacetime conscription
or national service as they call it. It was clear in the immediate
post war political landscape that Britain had considerable
obligations and only a limited number of men still in service.
Overnight the national servicemen had to learn a new language.
!Fatigues!, 'Blanco', 'spit n polish', 'rifle oil', 'pull throughs'
and the dreaded 'bull' and 'jankers'. Once they had been shaved
from the scalp and kitted out all within a few hours of arrival,
the rookie National Servicemen all looked identical even if back in
the barrack room every man was still an individual. The arena for
the breaking in of these young men was the parade ground. In squads
they learnt how to obey orders instinctively and to react to a
single word of command by coping with a torrent of abuse from the
drill Instructors. After basic training the raw recruits would be
turned into soldiers, sailors and airmen and they would be posted
to join regiments at home or abroad. Nearly 400 national servicemen
would die for their country in war zones like Korea and Malaya.
Others took part in atomic tests on Christmas Island or were even
used as human guinea pigs for germ warfare tests. There are tragic
stories also of young men who simply couldn't cope with military
life and the pain of separation from their families. For some
suicide was the only way out.
'From School to Landing Craft' describes the period 1939 to 1947
for one man, age 17 at the outbreak of war, from two perspectives.
First, there is a factual account of his time in the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). Secondly, there is an account based on
extracts of letters between him, his family and friends. These
letters illuminate his transition from a comfortable middle class
upbringing in the London suburbs and at boarding school to the
deprivations and uncertainties of war. They provide a first hand
account, sometimes filtered by the naval censor, of family and
friends dealing with life-threatening circumstances. The
expectations and fears of anxious parents stand juxtaposed with
mundane 'everyday life' at home and in contrast to the resilient
adaptability of youth.
The story of this tragic loss, New Zealand's worst military
disaster, has not been told fully - until now In the annals of
military history, the World War I battle of Passchendaele is
recorded as New Zealand's worst military disaster. In just a few
short hours on a miserable Belgian morning over 1000 New Zealand
soldiers were killed and a further 2000 wounded in an attack on the
Germanfront line. In Massacre at Passchendaele, Glyn Harper brings
this ill-fated battle to life. The background to the situation
facing the Allies in October 1917 is outlined, and the first
assault on Passchendaele is described. This near-perfect military
operation brought the New Zealand soldiers much acclaim; however,
the second attack, on 12 October 1917, was anything but successful.
The rationale of the strategists, the concern of some officers and
the desperation of the fighting man are all recorded here.
Judicious use of diary extracts and recorded interviews transport
the reader to the centre of this harrowing event. An appendix lists
the names and details of the New Zealand soldiers killed at
Passchendaele, a tribute to their sacrifice. The military disaster
of Passchendaele was a pivotal event in New Zealand's history, and
a key influence on our attitudes to war in the following decades.
This book will help ensure that it remains an untold story no
longer.
It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle. Now Max Hastings, preeminent military historian takes us back to the bloody bitter struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950. Using personal accounts from interviews with more than 200 vets -- including the Chinese -- Hastings follows real officers and soldiers through the battles. He brilliantly captures the Cold War crisis at home -- the strategies and politics of Truman, Acheson, Marshall, MacArthur, Ridgway, and Bradley -- and shows what we should have learned in the war that was the prelude to Vietnam.
In August 1941 Winston Churchill (1874-1965) and President
Roosevelt (1882-1945) met secretly on HMS Prince of Wales, moored
just off the coast of Newfoundland. H. V. Morton and Howard Spring
(author of Fame is the Spur) were invited to accompany the Prime
Minister and his entourage, a trip, which was not without its
hazards. Only a handful of people knew Churchill had left Britain
and in America the press merely reported that Roosevelt was
enjoying a few days' away from Washington, fishing. The Prince of
Wales set off from Scrabster on 4th August 1941 and reached her
destination at Newfoundland on 9th August 1941. A routine was
quickly established on board and the crew soon became used to the
Prime Minister's timetable and requirements, especially his regular
film nights. Together with the Prime Minister's bodyguard,
Thompson, a number of key personnel accompanied Churchill on this
mission, including Lord Beaverbrook who joined the ship by flying
to Newfoundland's Placentia Bay. The Atlantic Treaty, whilst not
achieving all that Churchill had hoped for, was a key document in
the development of the war and post-war strategy.Churchill had
hoped that at the resolution of the meeting America would join the
war during the summer of 1941 but this was not to be. America did
finally join the war in December 1941 following the Japanese attack
on the US base at Pearl Harbour. H. V. Morton's account was not
released for publication until 1943 and subsequently numerous
documents have been made available at the National Archives.
Atlantic Meeting is a unique account of the events leading up to
Churchill's discussions with Roosevelt and a fascinating account of
the practicalities - and occasionally humour - involved in such a
perilous journey.
Tracing the interwoven traditions of modern welfare states in
Europe over five centuries, Thomas McStay Adams explores social
welfare from Portugal, France, and Italy to Britain, Belgium and
Germany. He shows that the provision of assistance to those in need
has faced recognizably similar challenges from the 16th century
through to the present: how to allocate aid equitably (and with
dignity); how to give support without undermining autonomy (and
motivation); and how to balance private and public spheres of
action and responsibility. Across two authoritative volumes, Adams
reveals how social welfare administrators, critics, and improvers
have engaged in a constant exchange of models and experience
locally and across Europe. The narrative begins with the founding
of the Casa da Misericordia of Lisbon in 1498, a model replicated
throughout Portugal and its empire, and ends with the relaunch of a
social agenda for the European Union at the meeting of the Council
of Europe in Lisbon in 2000. Volume 1, which focuses on the period
from 1500 to 1700, discusses the concepts of 'welfare' and
'tradition'. It looks at how 16th-century humanists joined with
merchants and lawyers to renew traditional charity in distinctly
modern forms, and how the discipline of religious reform affected
the exercise of political authority and the promotion of economic
productivity. Volume 2 examines 18th-century bienfaisance which
secularized a Christian humanist notion of beneficence, producing
new and sharply contested assertions of social citizenship. It goes
on to consider how national struggles to establish comprehensive
welfare states since the second half of the 19th century built on
the power of the vote as politicians, pushed by activists and
advised by experts, appealed to a growing class of industrial
workers. Lastly, it looks at how 20th-century welfare states
addressed aspirations for social citizenship while the
institutional framework for European economic cooperation came to
fruition
Nelson Mandela's comrade in the struggle, Denis Goldberg, spent 22
years in an Apartheid South African political prison from 1963 to
1985. In this memoir, Denis, the perennial optimist, writes about
the human side of the often painful road to freedom; about the joy
of love and death, human dignity, political passion, comradeship,
conflict between comrades...and a very long imprisonment. These
memoirs offer the reader an insight into an important chapter in
the history of our struggle from a different viewpoint because the
racist dogmas of apartheid dictated that he would be incarcerated
apart from his Black comrades and colleagues. That segregation
denied him both the companionship and the counsel of his fellow
accused. His was consequently an exceedingly lonely sojourn. But,
true to himself and the cause he had espoused from his youth, he
bore it with courage and immense dignity.
"Our Mothers' War" is an eye-opening and moving portrait of women
during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women
participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of
women's experiences during this pivotal era been brought together
in one book. Now, "Our Mothers' War" re-creates what American women
from all walks of life were doing and thinking, on the home front
and abroad. These heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking accounts
of the women we have known as mothers, aunts, and grandmothers
reveal facets of their lives that have usually remained unmentioned
and unappreciated.
"Our Mothers' War" gives center stage to one of WWII's most
essential fighting forces: the women of America, whose
extraordinary bravery, strength, and humanity shine through on
every page.
A reporter's vivid account of Central Asia's wild recent
history-violent in the extreme and rife with characters both heroic
and corrup It sounds like the stuff of a fiction thriller: two
revolutions, a massacre of unarmed civilians, a civil war, a
drug-smuggling highway, brazen corruption schemes, contract hits,
and larger-than-life characters who may be villains . . . or heroes
. . . or possibly both. Yet this book is not a work of fiction. It
is instead a gripping, firsthand account of Central Asia's
unfolding history from 2005 to the present. Philip Shishkin, a
prize-winning journalist with extensive on-the-ground experience in
the tumultuous region above Afghanistan's northern border, focuses
mainly on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Both nations have struggled
with the enormous challenges of post-Soviet independent statehood;
both became entangled in America's Afghan campaign when U.S.
military bases were established within their borders. At the same
time, the region was developing into a key smuggling hub for
Afghanistan's booming heroin trade. Through the eyes of local
participants-the powerful and the powerless-Shishkin reconstructs
how Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have ricocheted between extreme
repression and democratic strivings, how alliances with the United
States and Russia have brought mixed blessings, and how Stalin's
legacy of ethnic gerrymandering incites conflict even now.
The 9th Battalion The Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby) was part
of Lord Kitchener's "New Army" made up initially of men from the
north midlands This is their story complete with pictures of many
of the men The 9th Battalion was not an elite force, but a group of
ordinary working men who felt compelled to serve their country but
found themselves in the most extra-ordinary military conflagration
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