|
Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Land forces & warfare
No soldier went off to the Civil War with quicker step than
17-year-old James Patrick Sullivan. A hired man on a farm in Juneau
County, Wisconsin, he was among the first to anwer Lincoln's call
for volunteers in 1861. Sullivan fought in a score of major
battles, was wounded five times, and was the only soldier of his
regiment to enlist on three separate occasions. An Irishman in the
Iron Brigade is a collection of Sullivan's writings about his hard
days in President Lincoln's Army. Using war diaries and letters,
the Irish immigrant composed nearly a dozen revealing accounts
about the battles of his brigage-Brawner Farm, Second Bull Run,
South Mountain, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg as well as the
fighting of 1864. Using his old camp name, "Mickey of Company K,"
Sullivan wrote not so much for family or for history, but to
entertain his comrades of the old Iron Brigade. His
stories-overlooked and forgotten for more than a century- are
delightful accounts of rough-hewn "Western" soldiers in the Eastern
Army of the Potomac. His Gettysburg account, for example, is one of
the best recollections of that epic battle by a soldier in the
ranks. He also left a from-the-ranks view of some of the Union's
major soldiers such as George McClellan, Irvin McDowell, John Pope,
and Ambrose Burnside. An Irishman in the Iron Brigade is in part
the story of the great veterans' movement which shaped the nation's
politics before the turn-of-the-century. Troubled by economic
hardship, advancing age, and old war injuries, Sullivan turned to
old comrades, his memories, and writing, to put the great
experiences of his life in perspective.
Despite the importance of warfare in the collapse of the Roman Empire, this is the only comprehensive study of the subject available. Hugh Elton discusses the practice of warfare in Europe, from both Roman and barbarian perspectives, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. He analyzes the military practices and capabilities of the Romans and their northern enemies at political, strategic, operational, and tactical levels, and covers civil wars, sieges, and naval warfare.
Since 1950, there has been almost continuous military unrest in
Africa. This study offers an overview of warfare in this period,
examining a military tradition that ranges from the highly
sophisticated electronic, air and armour fighting between South
Africa and Angola-Cuban forces, to the spears and machetes of the
Rwandan genocide. The author explores two themes: first, that
warfare in North Africa has principally been a matter of identity
and secondly, that warfare south of the Sahara is comparable with
that of pre-colonial Africa - conflicts of frontiersmen trying to
extend their control over land and resources. Exploring liberation
campaigns, civil wars, ethnic conflicts and wars between nations,
this study provides an authoritative military history of Africa
over half a century.
All the patterns used by the formidable troops of the Waffen-SS,
from the first revolutionary designs of the late 1930s to
little-known innovations of 1945, are explained and illustrated by
means of more than 120 colour photographs of rare, original
surviving specimens. The book also covers similar and derivative
patterns used by German and foreign armies up to the modern day;
and gives invaluable advice on the identification of original
wartime uniforms. Useful for collectors, uniform historians and
military modellers alike, this title aims to resolve the confusion
surrounding this subject and establishes and complete and concise
system of identification and terminology.
During WWII, Germany fielded a variety of six- and eight-wheeled
armored cars, which were used in numerous ways, including
reconnaissance, antitank, infantry support, and other roles. The
earliest of these vehicles, the 6-Rad, or six-wheeled vehicles,
were based on 6 x 4 truck chassis. Once the limitations of this
design became evident, later models utilized specially designed
all-wheel-drive power trains, with the final model, the 234 series,
incorporating a unibody design. Similarly, armament evolved from
7.92 mm machine gun to 75 mm PaK 40 cannon and 7. 5 cm StuK40
howitzers. Based on the authors earlier work, through over 250
photographs this volume explores 12 major types of these vehicles
and delves into the subtle changes made during production.
The Battle of the Bulge took the Allied armies by surprise in
1944\. It was a result of the extraordinary recovery of Hitler's
panzer divisions following crushing defeats on the Eastern and
Western fronts. In a daring offensive he hoped his panzers would
unhinge the American and British push on the Rhine by charging
through the Schnee Eifel, thereby prolonging the war. The
consequence was one of the best-known battles of the entire
conflict, and Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history is the
ideal introduction to it. The story is told through a sequence of
revealing contemporary photographs and a concise text. They give a
sharp insight into the planning and decision-making, the armoured
forces involved, the terrain and the appalling mid-winter
conditions, the front-line fighting and the experience of the
troops involved. The armoured battle, which was critical to the
outcome, is the main focus. Through a massive tank offensive the
Germans aimed to cut through the US 1st Army to Antwerp and
Brussels, in the process trapping three Allied armies. The
confusion and near collapse of the Americans as their defences were
overrun is vividly recorded in the photographs, as is their
resistance and recovery as the German spearheads were slowed, then
stopped.
One of the greatest and most terrible years in world history.'This
war has now assumed the character', wrote Benito Mussolini, before
1941 was six months old, 'of a war between two worlds', and the
Italian dictator had rarely predicted more truly. Before the year
had ended, following Hitler's surprise assault on Russia and the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, thirty-seven nations were engaged
in an all-out war reminiscent of Armageddon, 'the battle of that
great day of God Almighty'. Richard Collier's latest narrative
spans both this entire, devastating year, as well as the events
that led up to it. From the hunting of the Bismarck through the
North Atlantic to the triumphs of Rommel's Afrika Korps, from the
horror and heroism of besieged Leningrad to the debacles of Hong
Kong, Malaya and the Far East, this is a panorama of truly
world-wide proportions. An unputdownable narrative of the most
extraordinary year in world history, perfect for readers of Max
Hastings, James Holland and Antony Beevor.
This title explores the conception and design of a range of
enormous and powerful tanks that came to be designated as
'super-heavy'. The fascinating super-heavy tanks of World War II
were heirs to the siege machine tradition - a means of breaking the
deadlock of ground combat. As a class of fighting vehicle, they
began with the World War I concept of the search for a
"breakthrough" tank, designed to cross enemy lines. It is not
surprising that the breakthrough tank projects of the period prior
to World War II took place in the armies that suffered the most
casualties of the Great War (Russia, France, Germany). All of the
principal Axis and Allied nations eventually initiated super-heavy
development projects, with increasingly heavy armor and armament.
Much as the casualties of World War I prompted the original
breakthrough tank developments, as Germany found itself on the
defensive, with diminishing operational prospects and an
increasingly desperate leadership, so too did its focus turn to the
super-heavy tanks that could turn the tide back in their favor.
Although only a small number of super-heavy tanks were built, much
less saw active service, their impressive appearance and
specifications - not to mention the possibilities of what might
have been - have captured the interest of AFV enthusiasts,
historians and military personnel. This illustrated and detailed
study explores and compares these designs in unprecedented depth.
In April 1861, Dick and Tally Simpson, sons of South Carolina
Congressman Richard F. Simpson, enlisted in Company A of the Third
South Carolina Volunteers of the Confederate army. Their letters
home--published here for the first time--read like a historical
novel, complete with plot, romance, character, suspense, and
tragedy. In their last year of college when the war broke out, Dick
and Tally were hastily handed their diplomas so they could
volunteer for military duty. Dick was twenty; Tally was
twenty-two.
Well educated, intelligent, and thoughtful young men, Dick and
Tally cared deeply for their country, their family, and their
comrades-in-arms and wrote frequently to their loved ones in
Pendleton, South Carolina, offering firsthand accounts of dramatic
events from the battle of First Manassas in July 1861 to the battle
of Chickamauga in September 1863. Their letters provide a picture
of war as it was actually experienced at the time, not as it was
remembered some twenty or thirty years later. It is a picture that
neither glorifies war nor condemns it, but simply "tells it like it
is." Written to a number of different people, the boys' letters
home dealt with a number of different subjects. Letters to "Pa"
went into great detail about military matters in Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia--troop movements, casualties, and how well
particular units had fought; letters to "Ma" and sisters Anna and
Mary were about camp life and family friends in the army and
usually included requests for much-needed food and clothing;
letters to Aunt Caroline and her daughter Carrie usually concerned
affairs of the heart, for Aunt Caroline continued to be Dick and
Tally's trusted confidante, even whenthey were "far, far from
home."
The value of these letters lies not so much in the detailed
information they provide as in the overall picture they convey--a
picture of how one Southern family, for better or for worse, at
home and at the front--coped with the experience of war. These are
not wartime reminiscences, but wartime letters, written from the
camp, the battlefield, the hospital bed, the picket line--wherever
the boys happened to be when they found time to write home. It is a
poignant picture of war as it was actually experienced in the South
as the Civil War unfolded.
My dear Aunt
With pleasure do I attempt to scratch you a few lines. I have
passed the line of sentinels and am now far out in the woods
sitting on the ground writing with a pencil about long enough to
ketch with two fingers and on a little piece of plank about as
large as my paper, so you must excuse this scrawl....We are now in
the land of danger, far, far from home, fighting for our homes and
those near our hearts. I have been from home for months at a time,
but I never wished to be back as bad in my life. How memory recalls
every little spot, and how vividly every little scene flashes
before my mind. Oh! if there is one place dear to me it is home
sweet home. How many joys cluster there. To join once more our
family circle (I mean you all) and talk of times gone by would be
more to me than all else besides...your
Most affectionate nephew
R W S
In November 1950 The US 1st Marine Division was trapped in the
Chosin Reservoir following the intervention of Red China in the
Korean War. Fought during the worst blizzard in a century, the
ensuing battle is considered by the United States Marine Corps to
be 'the Corps' Finest Hour.' The soldiers who fought there would
later become known as the `Frozen Chosen'. Published now in
paperback, this incredible story is based on first hand interviews
from surviving veterans, telling of heroism and bravery in the face
of overwhelming odds, as a handful of Marines fought desperately
against wave after wave of Chinese forces. Sometimes forced into
desperate hand to hand combat, the fighting retreat from Chosin
marked one of the darkest moments for Western forces in Korea, but
would go on to resonate with generations of Marines as a symbol of
the Marine Corps' dogged determination, fighting skill, and
never-say-die attitude on the battlefield.
No soldier went off to the Civil War with quicker step than
17-year-old James Patrick Sullivan. A hired man on a farm in Juneau
County, Wisconsin, he was among the first to anwer Lincoln's call
for volunteers in 1861. Sullivan fought in a score of major
battles, was wounded five times, and was the only soldier of his
regiment to enlist on three separate occasions. An Irishman in the
Iron Brigade is a collection of Sullivan's writings about his hard
days in President Lincoln's Army. Using war diaries and letters,
the Irish immigrant composed nearly a dozen revealing accounts
about the battles of his brigage-Brawner Farm, Second Bull Run,
South Mountain, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg as well as the
fighting of 1864. Using his old camp name, "Mickey of Company K,"
Sullivan wrote not so much for family or for history, but to
entertain his comrades of the old Iron Brigade. His
stories-overlooked and forgotten for more than a century- are
delightful accounts of rough-hewn "Western" soldiers in the Eastern
Army of the Potomac. His Gettysburg account, for example, is one of
the best recollections of that epic battle by a soldier in the
ranks. He also left a from-the-ranks view of some of the Union's
major soldiers such as George McClellan, Irvin McDowell, John Pope,
and Ambrose Burnside. An Irishman in the Iron Brigade is in part
the story of the great veterans' movement which shaped the nation's
politics before the turn-of-the-century. Troubled by economic
hardship, advancing age, and old war injuries, Sullivan turned to
old comrades, his memories, and writing, to put the great
experiences of his life in perspective.
Since the first edition of this book appeared in 1982, El Salvador
has experienced the most radical social change in its history. Ten
years of civil war, in which a tenacious and creative revolutionary
movement battled a larger, better-equipped, U.S.-supported army to
a standstill, have ended with twenty months of negotiations and a
peace accord that promises to change the course of Salvadorean
society and politics.This book traces the history of El Salvador,
focusing on the two actors--the oligarchy and the armed
forces--that shaped the Salvadorean economy and political system.
Concentrating on the period since 1960, the author sheds new light
on the U.S. role in the increasing militarization of the country
and the origins of the oligarchy-army rupture in 1979. Separate
chapters deal with the Catholic church and the revolutionary
organizations, which challenged the status quo after 1968. In the
new edition, Dr. Montgomery continues the story from 1982 to the
present, offering a detailed account of the evolution of the war.
She examines why Duarte's two inaugural promises, peace and
economic prosperity, could not be fulfilled and analyzes the
electoral victory of the oligarchy in 1989. The final chapters
closely follow the peace negotiations, ending with an assessment of
the peace accords and an evaluation of the future prospects for El
Salvador. An Epilogue analyzes the 1994 elections. Dr. Montgomery's
prognosis in the first edition--that no lasting, viable political
solution was possible without the participation of the
revolutionary organizations--has been borne out by events: Today
the FMLN is a legal political party.
What was it like to be a soldier on a Napoleonic battlefield? What
happened when cavalry regiments charged directly at one another?
What did the generals do during battle? Drawing on memoirs,
diaries, and letters of the time, this dramatic book explores what
actually happened in battle and how the participants' feelings and
reactions influenced the outcome. Rory Muir focuses on the dynamics
of combat in the age of Napoleon, enhancing his analysis with vivid
accounts of those who were there-the frightened foot soldier, the
general in command, the young cavalry officer whose boils made it
impossible to ride, and the smartly dressed aide-de-camp, tripped
up by his voluminous pantaloons. This book sheds new light on how
military tactics worked by concentrating on the experience of
soldiers in the firing line. Muir considers the interaction of
artillery, infantry, and cavalry; the role of the general,
subordinate commanders, staff officers, and aides; morale, esprit
de corps, and the role of regimental officers; soldiers' attitudes
toward death and feelings about the enemy; the plight of the
wounded; the difficulty of surrendering; and the way victories were
finally decided. He discusses the mechanics of musketry, artillery,
and cavalry charges and shows how they influenced the morale,
discipline, and resolution of the opposing armies. This is a volume
that will fascinate all readers with an interest in military
history, European history, or the psychology of combat.
This volume explores the nature of civil war in the modern world
and in historical perspective. Civil wars represent the principal
form of armed conflict since the end of the Second World War, and
certainly in the contemporary era. The nature and impact of civil
wars suggests that these conflicts reflect and are also a driving
force for major societal change. In this sense, Understanding Civil
Wars: Continuity and change in intrastate conflict argues that the
nature of civil war is not fundamentally changing in nature. The
book includes a thorough consideration of patterns and types of
intrastate conflict and debates relating to the causes, impact, and
'changing nature' of war. A key focus is on the political and
social driving forces of such conflict and its societal meanings,
significance and consequences. The author also explores
methodological and epistemological challenges related to studying
and understanding intrastate war. A range of questions and debates
are addressed. What is the current knowledge regarding the causes
and nature of armed intrastate conflict? Is it possible to produce
general, cross-national theories on civil war which have broad
explanatory relevance? Is the concept of 'civil wars' empirically
meaningful in an era of globalization and transnational war? Has
intrastate conflict fundamentally changed in nature? Are there
historical patterns in different types of intrastate conflict? What
are the most interesting methodological trends and debates in the
study of armed intrastate conflict? How are narratives about the
causes and nature of civil wars constructed around ideas such as
ethnic conflict, separatist conflict and resource conflict? This
book will be of much interest to students of civil wars, intrastate
conflict, security studies and international relations in general.
Waged across an inhospitable terrain which varied from open African
savannah to broken mountain country and arid semi-desert, the
Anglo-Boer wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902 pitted the British Army
and its allies against the Boers' commandos. The nature of warfare
across these campaigns was shaped by the realities of the terrain
and by Boer fighting techniques. Independent and individualistic,
the Boers were not professional soldiers but a civilian militia who
were bound by the terms of the 'Commando system' to come together
to protect their community against an outside threat. By contrast
the British Army was a full-time professional body with an
established military ethos, but its over-dependence on conventional
infantry tactics led to a string of Boer victories. This fully
illustrated study examines the evolving nature of Boer military
techniques, and contrasts them with the British experience,
charting the development of effective British mounted tactics from
the first faltering steps of 1881 through to the final successes of
1902.
This definitive overview of the development and use of artillery
makes the complex artillery systems of today understandable, while
at the same time showing how they have evolved and how they are
likely to change in the future. The author, until recently chief of
artillery for the British Army, is considered one of the world's
foremost experts on the subject. Unlike other books that either
describe the technical aspects of present-day firepower or outline
its history during specific wars, this work provides both a
detailed explanation of the modern artillery system and a history
of its development over the past six hundred fifty years,
identifying its enduring principles and changing practices against
an ever-changing background of technology, tactics, and strategy.
When an earlier version of this book was published in 1989, it
became known as the best single source on field artillery in the
English language. This new edition has been fully updated and
substantially expanded to cover a wide range of contemporary
military debates and the role of firepower, and is certain to be
regarded as the ultimate work on the subject for years to come. J.
B. A. Bailey assesses major developments over the past decade,
analyzing artillery operations in airborne, urban, littoral,
desert, jungle, mountain, artic, and nocturnal environments. He
examines direct fire, counterfire, the suppression of enemy air
defenses, and force protection methods. He explains field artillery
from its primitive beginnings to its dominance as an art in World
War II and its potent utility in operations since 1945 and into the
future. The book will be of particular interest to military
historians and those engaged in debating firepower's future.
Published in cooperation with the Association of the United States
Army. 15 photographs. 8 line drawings. Appendixes. Notes.
Bibliography. Index. 7 x 10 inches.
This is the comprehensive account of the long and difficult road
traveled to end the fifty-year armed conflict with the FARC, the
oldest guerrilla army in the world; a long war that left more than
eight million victims. The obstacles to peace were both large and
dangerous. All previous attempts to negotiate with the FARC had
failed, creating an environment where differences were
irreconcilable and political will was scarce. The Battle for Peace
is the story not only of the six years of negotiation and the peace
process that transformed a country, its secret contacts, its
international implications, and difficulties and achievements but
also of the two previous decades in which Colombia oscillated
between warlike confrontation and negotiated solution. In The
Battle for Peace Juan Manuel Santos shares the lessons he learned
about war and peace and how to build a successful negotiation
process in the context of a nation which had all but resigned
itself to war and the complexities of twenty-first-century
international law and diplomacy. While Santos is clear that there
is no handbook for making peace, he offers conflict-tested guidance
on the critical parameters, conditions, and principles as well as
rich detail on the innovations that made it possible for his nation
to find common ground and a just solution.
In 1941, the U.S. Army activated the 758th Tank Battalion, the
first all-black tank battalion. This took years of protests and a
lot of political clout because African Americans had to fight for
the right to fight. Segregation and discrimination had reached
critical levels and the Pittsburgh Courier called for the "Double V
Campaign." It appealed for victory abroad against the forces of
global domination and victory at home against racism. Two other
all-black tank battalions joined the 5th Tank Group, the 761st in
1942 and the 784th in 1943. The 758th fought the Nazis and the
Fascists in Northern Italy from the beautiful beaches of the
Liguria Sea through the Po Valley and up into the rugged Apennine
Mountains. They breached the Gothic Line with the 92nd "Buffalo"
Infantry Division. Victorious over history's most racist regimes,
many black service members returned home with hopes of a more
tolerant nation. Most were bitterly disappointed. Segregation was
still the law of the land; racism was alive and well. For many
black veterans, disappointment became determination to fight
discrimination with the same sense of purpose that had defeated the
Axis. After the war they deactivated but unlike their sister
battalions, the 761st and 784th, they were reborn in the 64th Tank
Battalion keeping their distinguished unit insignia, a black
rampant elephant head with white tusks and the scrolled motto - "We
Pierce." And reborn again as the 64th Armored Regiment comprised of
four separate battalions, the 1/64th, 2/64th, 3/64th, and 4/64th.
The ancestral 758th Tank Battalion established in 1941 began with
the rudimentary Stuart light tank, advanced to the Sherman medium
tank, the Pershing medium/heavy tank, the Patton main battle tank,
and now to the ultra-modern Abrams main battle tank. They went from
the meek 37 millimeter cannon to a technically advanced 120
millimeter main gun augmented by a thermal viewer, an inter-vehicle
tracker, a guided missile system, and other high-tech devices. This
unit fought racial discrimination up until it became integrated in
1953, although discrimination continued at the individual level,
the unit overcame it. They entered the Korean War to fight for
Democracy ironically a segregated unit but returned to the United
States fully integrated.
This facsimile reprint of the very rare 345th Bombardment Group (M)
war book appears here in a new quality edition. The 345th
Bombardment Group, the famed "Air Apaches," flew against the
Japanese in heavily armed B-25s in hair-raising low level bombing
and strafing attacks.
Learning, innovation and adaptation are not concepts that we
necessarily associate with the British army of the First World War.
Yet the need to learn from mistakes, to exploit new opportunities
and to adapt to complex situations are enduring and timeless. This
revealing work is the first institutional examination of the army's
process for learning during the First World War. Drawing on
organisational learning and management theories, Aimee Fox
critiques existing approaches to military learning in wartime.
Focused around a series of case studies, the book ranges across
multiple operational theatres and positions the army within a
broader context in terms of its relationships with allies and
civilians to reveal that learning was more complex and
thoroughgoing than initially thought. It grapples with the army's
failings and shortcomings, explores its successes and acknowledges
the inherent difficulties of learning in a desperate and lethally
competitive environment.
Far from being an anachronism, much less a kit-bag of techniques,
people's war raises what has always been present in military
history, irregular warfare, and fuses it symbiotically with what
has likewise always been present politically, rebellion and the
effort to seize power. The result is a strategic approach for
waging revolutionary warfare, the effort "to make a revolution."
Voluntarism is wedded to the exploitation of structural
contradiction through the building of a new world to challenge the
existing world, through formation of a counterstate within the
state in order ultimately to destroy and supplant the latter. This
is a process of far greater moment than implied by the label
"guerrilla warfare" so often applied to what Mao and others were
about. This volume deals with the continuing importance of Maoist
and post-Maoist concepts of people's war. Drawing on a range of
examples that include Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, the Caucasus, and
Afghanistan, the collection shows that the study of people's war is
not just an historical curiosity but vital to the understanding of
contemporary insurgent and terrorist movements. The chapters in
this book were originally published as a special issue of Small
Wars & Insurgencies.
World War II marked the zenith of railway gun development. Although
many of the railway guns deployed at the start of the conflict were
of World War I vintage, Germany's ambitious development programme
saw the introduction of a number of new classes, including the
world's largest, the 80cm-calibre Schwerer Gustav and Schwerer Dora
guns, which weighed in at 1,350 tons and fired a huge 7-ton shell.
This book provides an overview of the types of railway guns in
service during World War II, with a special focus on the German
railway artillery used in France, Italy and on the Eastern Front,
and analyzes why railway guns largely disappeared from use
following the end of the war.
This title from Peko Publishing is the third in the World War Two
Photobook series. The book takes a general look at Pz.Kpfw.I - IV
plus 35 & 38(t). The contents of captions focused on the
various modifications of these panzers. Covers the entire war
period; from 1939 to 1945 and all theaters.
|
You may like...
Book People
Paige Nick
Paperback
R360
R279
Discovery Miles 2 790
Sea Prayer
Khaled Hosseini
Hardcover
(1)
R400
R364
Discovery Miles 3 640
Young Mungo
Douglas Stuart
Paperback
R340
R308
Discovery Miles 3 080
Still Life
Sarah Winman
Paperback
R385
Discovery Miles 3 850
|