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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Land forces & warfare > General
This ethnography describes the intense contradictions that exist between the cultural values of American life and the cultural values needed to survive in combat, as represented through the experiences of forward-deployed U.S. Army units in Germany during the height of the Cold War. Living in constant military readiness, yet participating in peacetime community and family processes, Army personnel had to tolerate the contradictions and live by both sets of principles. In soldier perception, family life and community activities ought to have been guided by American rather than military values. Yet the military ran the community, and military activities penetrated and disrupted family life. In Germany the penetration and disruption was much exacerbated by isolation, for these Americans did not generally have the language or cultural skills to escape from the military community. Rather, they were marooned in an intensely judgmental fish bowl community where there was no private life. The resulting scrutiny and the measures people took to avoid it and sustain autonomy corrupted the community, its families, and the units themselves. The scrutiny, with its attendant risks, and the intense contradiction in values led to feelings of profound alienation.
This short history is the first broad and selective survey of the phenomenon known as "jointness"--the co-operative operations of land and naval forces until the twentieth-century and of land, sea, and air forces since World War I. Touching on operational, doctrinal, and political dimensions, the survey ranges from the ancient Mediterranean to recent times while focusing on European and American experiences from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, including Desert Storm. Illustrative cases and reference materials are attuned to the interests of scholars, defense analysts, and students of military affairs. Jointness, subject of major concern to military historians, policymakers, politicians, and military professionals has in the past been covered within certain periods on a case by case or topical basis. This history begins instead with a broad survey from ancient to modern times and then focuses more closley on joint operations since World War I with wide-ranging examples to illustrate trends and patterns of Jointness. The survey closes with a discussion of the central problem of friction and other paradoxes connected with joint military operations. A selected bibliography provides an array of sources both for general readers and military professionals. Maps and appendices further enrich this important history.
The end of the Cold War brought about dramatic changes in the militaries across Europe. The armed forces of former Communist European countries have undergone a double transition: the move to market-based liberal democracies and a rapid movement towards a radically different relationship with the civilian population. NATO has also played a leading role in the change process for the former Eastern Bloc. This book aims to give students a broad introduction to the military's role in the post-Cold War Europe.
"England's Last Hope" studies how the part-time auxiliary
Territorial Force was raised, clothed, trained, housed and
administered during the crucial years of its development in the
years before the Great War. As such, it fills a fundamental gap in
the understanding of how the force's units were able to take the
field as part of the BEF in 1914.
Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. military forces have participated in an increasingly complex array of military operations, from disaster relief and peacekeeping to deadly combat. The unique nature of many of these missions calls into question what it means to be a soldier and may require adjustments not only in military doctrine, but also in the military's combat-oriented warrior identity. Franke examines the extent to which individuals who will lead U.S. forces in the 21st century are prepared cognitively to shift among mission requirements. Using survey methods, Franke explores the social, political, and professional attitudes and values of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. By comparing cadets' responses across classes, he assesses the effects of military socialization on their commitment to the military's dual-mission purpose and their cognitive preparation for combat and non-combat assignments. By developing a dynamic model of social identity, Franke extends the applicability of social identity theory from the experimental laboratory environment to a genuine social field setting. Assessing the dynamic relationship between identity, values, and attitudes for identifications that are normatively meaningful to respondents, he illustrates the importance of individuals' identification with social groups for their behavioral choices.
An Army officer must lead men into frightening and dangerous situations and sometimes make them do things that they never thought they could do. This book recounts how British officers have led their men, and commanded their respect, from the days of Marlborough to the Second Iraq war of 2003. Anthony Clayton explores who the officers, men and now women, have been and are, where they came from, what ideals or traditions have motivated them, and their own perceptions of themselves. His account tells the fascinating story of how the role of the military officer evolved, illustrated by a selection of captivating images, and the personal memoirs, biographies and autobiographies of officers.
The Dorsetshire Regiment's battle honours include the Indian North West Frontier, the Boer War, Gallipoli, the Western Front, the Normandy Landings, Arnhem, Kohima, Kosovo, Iraq - and as part of the Rifles - Afghanistan. Full accounts of the Dorset Rifle Volunteers, Dorset Yeomanry, Barracks, Forts & Gunsites, the arrival of the tank and build up to D-Day.
A photo chronicle of the HJ in over 230 b/w and 30 color photos including its late war formation and campaigns throughout Normandy and Austria.
For centuries, mounted cavalry dominated the battlefield through shock and mobility. Man maintained a symbiotic relationship with the horse, which became particularly sacrosanct on the battlefield and even created a new, exalted social class. These mounted warriors sought to preserve their prestige despite the advent of new technologies threatening to render them obsolete. In Cavalry from Hoof to Track, Roman Jarymowycz traces the evolution of the cavalry from the warhorse to the armored tank and demonstrates how its survival is a history of determined and creative responses to the changing dynamics of modern warfare. Ultimately, he argues, the very concept of cavalry exists as its own state of mind. The cavalry and its doctrine are misunderstood, and its tactics and operations remain a mystery for many civilians. New technology and the increased integration of the armed forces create the illusion that the cavalry no longer exists as a distinct military entity and philosophy. Jarymowycz clarifies these misconceptions by offering a comprehensible overview while explaining military terminology and outlining basic cavalry principles. The book concludes by suggesting how the cavalry will continue to evolve in response to contemporary third world conflicts, perhaps even reverting to its original, tactical role of close quarter combat.
At 17, Curtis "Kojo" Morrow enlisted in the United States Army and joined the 24th Infantry Regiment Combat Team, originally known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Seven months later he found himself fighting a bloody war in a place he had never heard of: Korea. During nine months of fierce combat, Morrow developed not only a soldier's mentality but a political consciousness as well. Hearing older men discussing racial discrimination in both civilian and military life, he began to question the role of his all-black unit in the Korean action. Supposedly they were protecting freedom, justice, and the American way of life, but what was that way of life for blacks in the United States? Where was the freedom? Why were the Buffalo Soldiers laying their lives on the line for a country in which African-American citizens were sometimes denied even the right to vote? Morrow's story of his service in the United States Army is a revealing portrait of life in the army's last all-black unit, a factual summary of that unit's actions in a bloody "police action", and a personal memoir of a boy becoming a man in a time of war.
A ground-breaking study of how literature both reflected and contributed to the eclipse and subsequent revival of militarism in the nineteenth century. Focusing on four major disputes in the Crimea, India, the Sudan, and South Africa as well as the role of the army in Britain, John Peck examines how Victorian writers responded to military issues. At the heart of the book is a dilemma that characterises the Victorian period: the impossibility of reconciling imperial aggression with liberal domestic values.
Since the 1980s, the American M2/M3 Bradley has overcome its controversial debut, and is now regarded as among the finest cavalry/infantry fighting vehicles in the world. This book is a concise look at the background, development, and Army operational history of the Bradley from the 1980s to the present. The author, who brings a unique perspective and authority as a Bosnia veteran and former M1A1 tank gunner with the United States Army's 1/104th Cavalry, was granted behind-the-scenes access to the US Army's collection of rare vehicles at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He also includes the Bradley's service in lesser known places-not just Iraq and Afghanistan-such as Cold War Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Korea, and Africa. The book is superbly illustrated with more than 200 color images. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.
Of late, there has been a growing interest in how non-Western peoples have been and continue to be depicted in the literatures of the West. In anthropology, attention has focused on the range of literary devices employed in ethnographic texts to distance and exoticize the subjects of discourse, and ultimately contribute to their subordination. This study eschews the tendency to regard virtually all depictions of non-Western "others" as amenable to the same kinds of "orientalist" analysis, and argues that the portrayals found in such writings must be examined in their particular historical and political settings. These themes are explored by analyzing the voluminous literature by military authors who have written and continue to write about the "Gurkhas", those legendary soldiers from Nepal who have served in Britain's Imperial and post-Imperial armies for more than two centuries. The author discovers that, instead of exoticizing them, the military writers find in their subjects the quintessential virtues of the European officers themselves: the Gurkhas appear as warriors and gentlemen. However, the author does not rest here: utilizing a wealth of literary, historical, ethnographic sources and the results of his own fieldwork, he investigates the wider social and cultural contexts in which the European chroniclers of the Gurkhas have been nurtured.
Feuer has fine-tuned our understanding of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection by unearthing and publishing for the first time an illuminating combat diary. . . . Serious students of American military history will appreciate the opportunity to compare nearly a century of changing interpretations with a most valuable primary source. The editor of the "Bilibid Diary," Feuer has once again rendered conspicious service to the historical profession. " Barry F. Machado Professor of History Washington and Lee University " The story of the Old Army as revealed through the eyes of Colonel Jacob Kreps, this book dramatically portrays life in action with the U.S. Infantry on the Western frontier, in the Spanish-American War, and in the Philippine Insurrection. Drawing on the first hand accounts preserved in the diary of Kreps, who served for more than 30 years with the U.S. Twenty-second Infantry Regiment, A. B. Feuer details the hardships endured by the soldiers in combat action. Feuer recounts the experiences of the distinguished U.S. Twenty-second Infantry Regiment beginning in 1883. He also discusses numerous other U.S. Army units--infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, medical, quartermaster and signal--and offers important data on the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. Some of the accounts, such as that of the Pasig River battle and the Mindanao campaign, fill in missing chapters in the chronicles of war history. This book, which includes original maps and photographs, is valuable to anyone interested in military history.
Between September 1939 and June 1940, the British Expeditionary Force confronted the German threat to France and Flanders with a confused mind-set, an uncertain skills-set and an uncompetitive capability. This book explores the formation's origins, the scale of defeat in France and the campaign's considerable legacy.
Describing the radical transformation in German Infantry tactics that took place during World War I, this book presents the first detailed account of the evolution of stormtroop tactics available in English. It covers areas previously left unexplored: the German Infantry's tactical heritage, the squad's evolution as a tactical unit, the use of new weapons for close combat, the role of the elite assault units in the development of new tactics, and detailed descriptions of offensive battles that provided the inspiration and testing ground for this new way of fighting. Both a historical investigation and a standard of excellence in infantry tactics, Stormtroop Tactics is required reading for professional military officers and historians as well as enthusiasts. Contrary to previous studies, Stormtroop Tactics proposes that the German Infantry adaption to modern warfare was not a straightforward process resulting from the top down intervention of reformers but instead a bottom up phenomenon. It was an accumulation of improvisations and ways of dealing with pressing situations that were later sewn together to form what we now call Blitzkrieg. Focusing on action at the company, platoon, and squad level, Stormtroop Tactics provides a detailed description of the evolution of German defensive tactics during World War I--tactics that were the direct forbears of those used in World War II.
An Army officer must lead men into frightening and dangerous situations and sometimes make them do things that they never thought they could do. This book recounts how British officers have led their men, and commanded their respect, from the days of Marlborough to the Second Iraq war of 2003. Anthony Clayton explores who the officers, men and now women, have been and are, where they came from, what ideals or traditions have motivated them, and their own perceptions of themselves. His account tells the fascinating story of how the role of the military officer evolved, illustrated by a selection of captivating images, and the personal memoirs, biographies and autobiographies of officers.
Having evolved over the past two and a quarter centuries to become the premier military force in the world, the U.S. Army has a heritage rich in history and tradition. This historical dictionary provides short, clear, authoritative entries on a broad cross section of military terms, concepts, arms and equipment, units and organizations, campaigns and battles, and people who have had a significant impact on Army. It includes over 900 entries written by some 100 scholars, providing a valuable resource for the interested reader, student, and researcher. For those interested in pursuing specific subjects further, the book provides sources at the end of each entry as well as a general bibliography. Appendixes provide a useful list of abbreviations and acronyms and a listing of ranks and grades in the U.S. Army.
This overview explores the use of black people, either through coercion or enticement, in the armed forces of predominantly white societies in times of crisis when the supply of white soldiers was exhausted or when whites refused to fill the ranks of a wartime army. A chronological review, the study begins with references to Biblical armies and ends with the technological environment of the modern world, looking at how blacks were employed, exploited or rewarded for their service over the centuries. While the balance sheet is mixed, military institutions have proven to be leaders in integration and equality for blacks both in the United States and in Europe. Inequality still exists in the modern American military; however, the authors contend, it is more likely to be based upon educational disparities than on the color of a soldier's skin. African American soldiers played a significant role in the creation and expansion of the United States. The authors write about conquistadors who utilized blacks as soldier slaves. They recount the stories of the black men who fought during the Revolutionary War. They detail the experience of the Buffalo Soldiers in securing and protecting the western wilderness and follow the black soldier fighting alongside Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. From the decks of the battleship DEGREESIMaine DEGREESR to the Philippine Islands, from the hills of Vietnam and the deserts of the Middle East, and, finally, to the all-volunteer army, this book reveals the impact that black soldiers have made on American history.
I would have climbed up a mountain to get on the list to serve
overseas]. We were going to do our duty. Despite all the bad things
that happened, America was our home. This is where I was born. It
was where my mother and father were. There was a feeling of wanting
to do your part. To Serve My Country, to Serve my Race is the story of the
historic 6888th, the first United States Women's Army Corps unit
composed of African-American women to serve overseas. Filled with compelling personal testimony based on extensive interviews, To Serve My Country is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers. It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they, in turn, transformed the U.S. military forever.
Since the 1980s, the American M1 Abrams series of tanks has been widely regarded as among the finest main battle tanks in the world. This volume is a concise look at the background, development, and Army and Marine operational history of the Abrams from the 1970s to the present. The author, who brings a unique perspective and authority as a former M1A1 tank gunner with the United States Army's 1/104th Cavalry, was granted behind-the-scenes access to photograph the US Army's collection of rare tanks at Fort Benning, Georgia. He also shows the Abrams tank's service in lesser known places-not just Iraq and Afghanistan-such as Cold War Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and others. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.
After almost two centuries of on-and-off resistance to white encroachment on Indian lands, a band of Ohio Indians attacked and almost destroyed the army of the infant U.S.A. The battle for the Indian village of Kekionga, unmentioned in any history textbook, stunned President Washington and Congress and provoked both a change in military policy and the first legislative investigation of an executive department under the Constitution. This history of the relations between Native Americans and European settlers, principally during the colonial and revolutionary periods, focuses on the clash of two very different civilizations in the struggle for control of the land. It also sets in world perspective the savagery of the French and Indian Wars, disposing of the myth that brutally inhumane treatment of the enemy was characteristic only of Indian fighting methods. Subsequent to the Indians' supression after Kekionga, government and private indifference to Indian rights and gross mistreatment persisted until the last quarter of the 20th century.
Hono sapiens, homo pugnans, and so it has been since the beginning of recorded history. In the Middle Ages, especially, armed conflict and the military life were so much a part of the political and cultural development that a general account of this period is, in large measure, a description of how men went to war.
"Defending Albion" is the first published study of Britain's response to the threat of invasion from across the North Sea in the first two decades of the twentieth century. It examines the emergency schemes designed to confront an enemy landing and the problems associated with raising and maintaining the often derided Territorial Force. It also explores the long-neglected military and political difficulties posed by the spontaneous and largely unwanted appearance of the "Dad's Army" of the Great War, the Volunteer Force.
Dressed in black uniforms emblazoned with the SS flash, Heinrich Himmler's horsemen carried the SS banner across the German countryside and to equestrian competitions throughout Germany and Europe. They rode as the Equestrian SS, an SS cavalry force designed to win elite support, to enhance social prestige, and to attract farmers to Himmler's essentially urban organization. The Equestrian SS was the only SS organization acquitted at the Nuremberg Trials. Yet the Equestrian SS trained to be a security and occupation force. In mounted Death's Head regiments in Poland and in the SS Cavalry Brigade in Russia, Equestrian SS personnel fulfilled their obligations as devoted SS political soldiers. Driven by SS training, SS horsemen murdered thousands of Jews in Eastern Europe. Wilson provides numerous anecdotes, statistics, and capsule biographies of Equestrian SS personnel. This carefully researched study is essential reading for scholars and lay people interested in the history of Nazi Germany, the SS, and the Holocaust. |
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