A raw, honest and evocative account of life as the most highly decorated serving soldier in the British Army. From the breakneck pace of an opening where he is in action in Helmand province, under fire from the Taliban, Mick Flynn pulls no punches. It's obvious that he is a trained killer. But how did it reach this point? The journey starts with his childhood, a working class lad, learning to fight and finding himself repeatedly on the wrong side of the law. Even after joining the Army he is found at fault and jailed, an experience that finally shocks him into behaving himself. From there, it is off to Northern Ireland and straight into hotspots where Mick's courage and determination are all that keep him alive. There's love too: his estranged wife, Denise, is being brought back into the picture, just as Mick tries to start a new life with his girlfriend Rachel. Can he manage to separate his ferocious soldiering persona from the real Mick? As things remain complicated, Mike flings himself into further tours of duty, in Bosnia, Iraq, the Falklands. Action-packed, shoots-from-the-hip narration from an engaging hero, this is gritty realism at its most shocking.

Responding to a diplomatic stalemate and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, Yemen's civil actors work every day to build peace in fragmented local communities across the country. This book shows how their efforts relate to longstanding justice demands in Yemeni society, and details three decades of alternating elite indifference toward, or strategic engagement with, questions of justice. Exploring the transformative impact of the 2011 uprising and Yemenis' substantive wrestling with questions of justice in the years that followed, leading Yemen scholar Stacey Philbrick Yadav shows how the transitional process was ultimately overtaken by war, and explains why features of the transitional framework nevertheless remain a central reference point for civil actors engaged in peacebuilding today. In the absence of a negotiated settlement, everyday peacebuilding has become a new site for justice work, as an arena in which civil actors enjoy agency and social recognition. Drawing on seventeen years of field research and interviews with civil actors, Yadav positions Yemen's non-combatants not--or not only--as victims of conflict, but as political agents imagining and enacting the justice they wish to see.

In "L'art du si ge n o-assyrien," Fabrice De Backer investigates the people, materials, tools, machines, and tactics employed during the first millenium B.C. by the Neo-Assyrians to take and defend fortified cities. The story of besieged people, along with their customs, treatment by the winners, and consequences of the conquest are also discussed. Based on the combination of archaeology, iconography, philology and ethnographical comparisons, the analysis of the particular assets of siege-engines or architectural features are developed, along with the best means employed at that time to overcome them. De Backer proposes more than a simple census of all the means known so far, he also develops and enhances our knowledge of siege-warfare in a pragmatic and efficient manner.

Originally published in 1943, this book presents the content of the Lees Knowles Lectures for that year, which were delivered by Roger Keyes at Trinity College, Cambridge. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in naval history and military strategy.

At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, despite many difficulties and falling manpower, coalmining was the most important industry in Great Britain. It employed around a million persons in well over 3,000 pits ranging from small hillside drift mines with a few hands to substantial collieries with workforces and pit communities the size of villages and small towns. A few months into the conflict, Lloyd George in a patriotic speech to a coal conference proclaimed that coal was 'everything for us, the country's life and blood, its international coinage'. As well as digging coal for the war effort, often in dreadful and dangerous conditions, miners demonstrated 'their old work in a new guise' when serving in huge numbers during the Great War. Thousands voluntarily swapped the pit for what many thought would be a better and safer option, around a quarter of a million enlisting by 1915; and about one in five of all military volunteers came from the coalfields of England, Scotland and Wales, an astonishing proportion. The massive response to the Call for Arms was most obvious in industrial areas where the so-called 'Pals battalions' were established and it was these recruits who suffered so heavily during the disastrous Somme offensive of 1916. The sheer number and range of gallantry awards including several VCs - also testify to the immense contribution of former miners. The many thousands of pitmen who paid the ultimate price are inscribed on public war memorials in coalfield communities, often dominating the listings. Such was the response from large pits that many others are commemorated on memorials specially erected by colliery and coal companies, one the earliest in the village of Brampton in South Yorkshire on behalf of Cortonwood Colliery. Whether working below and above ground at collieries or as part of the armed forces, miners played a very significant role during the Great War of 1914-18, a total contribution that deserves to be told.

Erwin Rommel is the arguably the most well-known German general of the Second World War. Revered by his troops and applauded by his enemies, the so-called Desert Fox achieved legendary status for his daring exploits and bold manoeuvres during the North African campaign. In this book, richly illustrated with over 400 images, the author examines the privations and challenges Rommel faced in leading his coalition force. Endeavouring to reach the Nile Delta, we find Rommel's Axis soldiers poorly-prepared to undertake such an audacious operation. Much-admired by his men in the front lines, we discover a demanding and intolerant leader, censured by subordinate officers and mistrusted by his superiors in Berlin. Certainly no diplomat, we observe posed interactions with Italian and junior German officers through an official lens. We note Rommels readiness to take advantage of his enemys weakness and study his extraordinary instinct for waging mobile warfare. We consider his disregard for the decisive factor of supply and view his armys reliance on captured equipment. We learn how this brave and ambitious commander was celebrated by German propaganda when the Wehrmachts fortunes in the East were waning. Conversely, analyse why Winston Churchill honoured him as a daring and skillful opponent. Finally, we picture this energetic, ambitious, at times reckless, commander as he roamed the vast Western Desert battlefield. This is the story of Rommel in North Africa.

Volume IV of The Cambridge History of War offers a definitive new account of war in the most destructive period in human history. Opening with the massive conflicts that erupted in the mid-nineteenth century in the US, Asia and Europe, leading historians trace the global evolution of warfare through 'the age of mass', 'the age of machine', and 'the age of management'. They explore how industrialization and nationalism fostered vast armies whilst the emergence of mobile warfare and improved communications systems made possible the 'total warfare' of the two World Wars. With military conflict regionalized after 1945 they show how guerrilla and asymmetrical warfare highlighted the limits of the machine and mass as well as the importance of the media in winning 'hearts and minds'. This is a comprehensive guide to every facet of modern war from strategy and operations to its social, cultural, technological and political contexts and legacies.

Hybrid warfare has been an integral part of the historical landscape since the ancient world, but only recently have analysts - incorrectly - categorised these conflicts as unique. Great powers throughout history have confronted opponents who used a combination of regular and irregular forces to negate the advantage of the great powers' superior conventional military strength. As this study shows, hybrid wars are labour-intensive and long-term affairs; they are difficult struggles that defy the domestic logic of opinion polls and election cycles. Hybrid wars are also the most likely conflicts of the twenty-first century, as competitors use hybrid forces to wear down America's military capabilities in extended campaigns of exhaustion. Nine historical examples of hybrid warfare, from ancient Rome to the modern world, provide readers with context by clarifying the various aspects of conflicts and examining how great powers have dealt with them in the past.

In contrast to the many books that use military, diplomatic, and historic language in analyzing the Korean War, this book takes a cultural approach that emphasizes the human dimension of the war, an approach that especially features Korean voices. There are chapters on Korean art on the war, translations into English of Korean poetry by Korean soldiers, and American soldier poetry on the war. There is a photographic essay on the war by combat journalist and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Max Desfor. Another chapter includes and analyzes songs on the Korean War - Korean, American, and Chinese - that illuminate the many complex memories of the war. There is a discussion of Korean films on the war and a chapter on Korean War POWs and their contested memories. More than any other nonfiction book on the war, this one shows us the human face of tragedy for Americans, Chinese, and most especially Koreans. June 2000 was the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War; this moving volume is intended as a commemoration of it.

[This] substantial book...makes an important and stimulating contribution. MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY Warfare in Europe in the middle ages underwent a marked change of emphasis as urban life expanded. The concentration of wealth represented by a city was a valuable objective, and the static nature of a siege was infinitely preferable to the uncertainties of campaign. As the incidence of sieges increased, so pitched battles declined. The studies in this book, intended for specialists as well as general readers, follow the history of siege warfare, exploringthe urban milieu within which it developed, and the evolution of siege technology up to the advent of gunpowder weaponry. The logistics of specific sieges, from the Crusader kingdoms in the Near East and the Byzantine Empire as well as medieval Europe, are also considered, with evidence from literature, engineering, architecture and cliometrics. IVY CORFIS is professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; MICHAEL WOLFE is professor in the department of history at Penn State University, Altoona. Contributors: MICHAEL WOLFE, JAMES F. POWERS, MICHAEL TOCH, DENYS PRINGLE, ERIC McGEER, PAUL E. CHEVEDDEN, MICHAEL HARNEY, HEATHER ARDEN, WINTHROP WETHERBEE, KELLY DEVRIES, MICHAEL MALLETT, BERT S. HALL.

We are at a time when international law and the law of war are particularly important. The testing of nuclear weapons that is being used in the rhetoric surrounding threats of war is creating new fears and heightening current tensions. Richard Falk has for decades been an outspoken authority calling for nuclear disarmament and the enforcement of non-proliferation treaties. In this collection of essays, Falk examines the global threats to all humanity posed by nuclear weapons. He is not satisfied with accepting arms control measures as a managerial stopgap to these threats and seeks no less than to move the world back from the nuclear precipice and towards denuclearization. Falk's essays reflect the wisdom and innovative thinking he has brought to his long career as a scholar and activist, as he reminds nuclear weapons states of their obligation under international law and moral imperative to seek nuclear disarmament.

The first of two ground-breaking, prize-winning volumes on the Waterloo campaign, this book is based upon a detailed analysis of sources old and new in four languages. It highlights the political stresses between the Allies and their resolution, examining the problems of feeding and paying for 250,000 Allied forces assembling in Belgium during the undeclared war', and how a strategy was thrashed out. Hussey investigates the neglected topic of how the slow and discordant Allies beyond the Rhine hampered the plans of Bl cher and Wellington, thus allowing Napoleon to snatch the initiative from them. Napoleon's operational plan is analysed (and Soult's mistakes in executing it) and accounts from both sides help provide a vivid impression of the fighting on the first day, 15 June. The volume ends with the joint battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras the next day.

While the development of tanks had largely led to the replacement of cavalry in most armies by 1939, the Soviets retained a strong mounted arm. In the terrain and conditions of the Eastern Front they were able to play an important role denied them elsewhere. John Harrel shows how the Soviets developed a doctrine of deep penetration, using cavalry formations to strike into the Axis rear, disrupting logistics and lines of communication, encircling and isolating units. Interestingly he shows that this doctrine did not stem from the native cavalry tradition of the steppe but from the example of the American Civil War. The American approach was copied by the Russians in WWI and the Russian Civil War, refined by the Soviets in the early stages of World War Two and perfected during the last two years of the war. The Soviet experience demonstrated that deep operations (cavalry raids) against enemy rear echelons set the conditions for victory. Although the last horse-mounted units disappeared in the 1950s, their influence led directly to the formation of the Operational Manoeuvre Groups that, ironically, faced US forces in the Cold War.

An interwoven study in many ways refreshing and original... A good book, the first major product of one of the more vital debates in recent early medieval scholarship. HISTORY A major re-statement of the nature of Anglo-Norman warfare, with special emphasis on the role of the familia regis, the King's military household. This study of the battles waged between 1066 and 1135 by the Anglo-Norman kings of England - William the Conqueror, William Rufus and Henry I -is a major restatement of the nature of medieval warfare in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Bringing together the two major trends in recent medieval military history, the study of military organisations and the study of campaigns, Stephen Morillo illuminates the interrelationship of military organisation and social and political structures and brings many new perceptions to bear, such as the central role of the familia regis, the King's military household. The roles of armies and castles and the normal activities of warfare are examined to show why sieges were far more common than pitched battles. Siege and battle tactics are analysed in the context of social and political influences, administrative structures and campaign patterns, and a connection is proposed in most pre-modern warfare between government strength and infantry quality. Dr STEPHEN MORILLOteaches at Wabash College, Indiana. He has published numerous articles on Anglo-Norman warfare.

The true story of the most famous SAS operation in history. 'Bravo Two Zero' was the code-name of the famous SAS operation: a classic story of bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. BRAVO TWO ZERO by patrol commander 'Andy McNab' became an international bestseller, as did the book by 'Chris Ryan' (THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY). Both men became millionaires. Three members of the patrol were killed. One, veteran sergeant Vince Phillips, was blamed in both books for a succession of mistakes. As Michael Asher reveals, the stories in BRAVO TWO ZERO and THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY grew considerably in the telling. Their heroic tales of taking out tanks with their rocket launchers, mowing down hundreds of Iraqi soldiers, the silent stabbing of the occasional sentry, were never mentioned at their post-war debriefings... In an investigation literally in the footsteps of the patrol, Michael Asher tells the true story.

When the Romans left Britain around AD 410 the island had not been fully subjugated. In the Celtic fringe of Caledonia - now Northern Scotland - these unconquered native peoples were presented with the opportunity to pillage what remained of Roman Britain. By way of response the Post-Roman Britons of what is now Scotland did their best to defend themselves from attack, and to preserve what they could of the economic and administrative systems left behind by the Romans. While some old Roman forts were maintained, the Post-Roman Britons in the area created new strongholds, or re-occupied some of the long-abandoned hill-forts first built by their ancestors before the coming of the Romans. Meanwhile the Caledonians - who evolved into the Picts - relied on fortifications to maintain control over their land.
Then a new wave of invaders arrived from across the Irish Sea. The Scots came first to conquer, then to settle. In their wake came the Angles and Saxons, driving north to occupy most of Scotland as far as the Firth of Forth, and later the Vikings arrived from the north and east. During the variety of ensuing struggles, the Picts, Scots, Vikings, Northumbrians and North Britons made extensive use of fortifications, the remains of which still dot the modern landscape.
This book traces the origins and development of these North British forts. It also touches on the way they served as secular or religious centers, seats of power, or as barriers against invasion. It will also discuss the mystery surrounding the Picts, and show how modern archaeology has done much to reveal the way these enigmatic people waged war, and defended their strongholds.

The Chaco War was the first modern conflict in South America. Over time, it became the topic of many volumes published in both Bolivia and Paraguay - first by veterans, such as the commanders-in-chief, and the commanders of army corps', regiments or battalions, and by other ranks, in the form of personal memoirs or wider histories, and using a wide variety of sources. Subsequently, the conflict attracted attention of many foreign writers, foremost from the United States of America and Europe, who researched it with great interest. Hundreds of related articles have also been published. Nevertheless, 'The Chaco War, 1932-1935' is the first ever concise history of this conflict, providing the reader with the full background to this conflict, the military build-up of the Bolivian and Paraguayan armed forces, a blow-by-blow account of Bolivian penetration of this territory since the early 20th Century, precise details on troops mobilised for the war by both sides, all of the battles fought between the belligerents, and their casualties. Two very different military concepts faced each other: the German General Hans Kundt, a First World War veteran, hired by the Bolivian Government, was a proponent of the typical Prussian tactics of front attacks regardless of cost, but also of the strategy of taking and controlling as much territory as possible without annihilating the enemy. The Paraguayan Lieutenant-Colonel Jose Felix Estigarribia (later promoted to Colonel, and then General), took his specialization courses in Chile and France, and was a proponent of tactics of using trench warfare for defence, and flanking the enemy when in the offensive. Eventually, Estigarribia's ideas proved their worth - partially because his forces managed to capture huge stocks of Bolivian arms and ammunition throughout the war. This is also the first book to provide an exclusive collection of photographs from the archives of the Institute of History and Military Museum of Ministry of National Defence of Paraguay, and several private archives in Paraguay and Bolivia. Perfectly complementing the earlier volume The Chaco Air War of the Latin America@War series, The Chaco War provides an indispensable, single-point-source-of-reference for enthusiasts and professionals alike.

The blow to British pride and confidence caused by the crushing defeat of their army in Afghanistan during the winter of 1841/2 compares in its impact to the disaster in New York on 11 September 2001. The British had replaced a popular and effective monarch with a weak one in the mistaken belief that he would keep the Russians at bay. Two years later, nearly all the British and Indian soldiers in the region were killed in a popular uprising. Margaret Kekewichs perceptive new study of the conflict describes the British defeat, their re-occupation of Afghanistan in the spring of 1842, then their final withdrawal at the end of the year. Her account, which is based on the graphic diaries written by two British eyewitnesses, gives a fascinating insight into the conflict in Afghanistan 150 years ago. The story is told by, first, Lady Sale who together with over 100 women, children and soldiers was captured and imprisoned by the Afghans. The second account comes from the Reverend Allen, a young chaplain to the army that invaded Afghanistan in April 1842 to avenge British humiliation and rescue the prisoners. Both these eyewitnesses deplored the follies that had led to war and defeat and also the suffering that was inflicted on many innocent Afghans. At a time when British forces are deeply engaged in another war in Afghanistan, Margaret Kekewich offers a balanced and thought-provoking new perspective on a previous conflict in the region.

Did Japan surrender in 1945 because of the death and devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or because of the crushing defeat inflicted on their armies by the Soviet Union in Manchukuo, the puppet state they set up in north-east China? Indeed, the Red Army's rapid and total victory in Manchukuo has been relatively neglected by historians. Charles Stephenson, in this scholarly and highly readable new study, describes the political, diplomatic and military build-up to the Soviet offensive and its decisive outcome. He also considers to what extent Japan's capitulation is attributable to the atomic bomb or the stunningly successful entry of the Soviet Union into the conflict. The military side of the story is explored in fascinating detail - the invasion of Manchukuo itself where the Soviet 'Deep Battle' concept was employed with shattering results, and secondary actions in Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But equally absorbing is the account of the decision-making that gave rise to the offensive and the political and diplomatic background to it, and in particular the Yalta conference. There, Stalin allowed the Americans to persuade him to join the war in the east; a conflict he was determined on entering anyway. Charles Stephenson's engrossing narrative throws new light on the last act of the Second World War.

This is the first full-scale examination of the politics, economics, adminstration, and execution of the expeditions to the West Indies which were mounted by the British against the French during the Revolutionary Wars. Hitherto these have been regarded as a side-show to the campaigns that were taking place in Europe; but the author, emphasizing the importance of the Caribbean in the Atlantic economy of the late eighteenth century, explains them as a bid for decisive supremacy in the battle for trade, seapower, and the sinews of war. Britain committed tens of thousands of soldiers to the struggle, while France retaliated by inciting colonial rebellion in a war which changed the future of the Caribbean, altered European attitudes to negroes, and enabled Britain to sustain its war effort in Europe. Soldiers, Sugar, and Seapower sets the West Indies expeditions in their proper place as one of the most difficult and dangerous wars in British history, and places the fighting in its political, economic, and logistical context.

In The African Wars Chris Peers provides a graphic account of several of the key campaigns fought between European powers and the native peoples of tropical and sub-tropical Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His pioneering and authoritative study describes in vivid detail the organization and training of African warriors, their weapons, their fighting methods and traditions, and their tactics. He concentrates on the campaigns mounted by the most successful African armies as they struggled to defend themselves against the European scramble for Africa. Resistance was inconsistent, but some warlike peoples fought long and hard - the Zulu victory over the British at Isandhlwana is the best known but by no means the only occasion when the Africans humiliated the colonial invaders.

This timely analysis of security in Europe identifies the factors that enable and hinder the creation of networks of defence cooperation across the continent. Going beyond regional arrangements established by NATO and the European Union, this book considers the subregional level by focusing on bilateral and minilateral defence collaborations. It provides a new conceptual framework to assess the rationales, leadership and the complex dynamics within these alliances, and highlights how they shape and interact with NATO and EU initiatives.

In 1912, the Balkan states formed an alliance in an effort to break free from the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Forming an army of some 645,000 troops from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenego, they took on a force of 400,000 Turkish soldiers. Both sides were equipped with the latest weapons technology. This book looks at the diverse and sometimes colourful uniforms worn by both sides, paying special attention to insignia, weapons and equipment. It also gives an overview of the campaigns that became a 'priming pan' of World War I.

Why did Napoleon succeed in 1805 but fail in 1812? Could the European half of World War II have been ended in 1944? These are only two of the many questions that form the subject-matter of this meticulously researched, lively book. Drawing on a very wide range of sources, van Creveld examines the specifics of war: namely, those formidable problems of movement and supply, transportation and administration, so often mentioned - but rarely explored - by the vast majority of books on military history. In doing so he casts his net far and wide, from Gustavus Adolphus to Rommel, from Marlborough to Patton, subjecting the operations of each to a thorough analysis from an unusual point of view. In this edition with a new introduction, van Creveld revisits his now-classic text, and comments in a new afterword on the role of logistics in high-tech, modern warfare.

Major General Julian Thompson first wrote No Picnic when the momentous events of April - June 1982 were fresh in his mind. As Commander of 3 Commando Brigade, he was at the heart of the planning and conduct of the War. Under his direct command had been the Royal Marine Commandos and the two battalions of the Parachute Regiment who conducted the lion's share of the fighting.returncharacterreturncharacterNo-one therefore is better qualified to tell the extraordinary story of there-taking of the Falkland Islands from the Argentinians. The author, now a celebrated military historian, has revised his early book and added for this 25 Anniversary edition more of his own personal thoughts and impressions.returncharacterreturncharacterIt is all too easy to overlook just how perilous and risky a venture this expedition to the depths of the Southern Hemisphere was. Victory and defeat hung in the balance. Even those who feel they know about this most remarkable of wars will learn more from reading this classic account.