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Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Military history
A St Helena Who's Who details the island of St Helena and its
administration, including military, naval and civil offices as well
as the overall population in the 1820s and expenses. A must have
for Napoleon historians, this comprehensive book chronicles the
residents of Longwood, the 'Who's Who' of St Helena and what
flag-ships were stationed there. As well as listing the regiments
based on the island such as the 53rd Foot Regiment (2nd Battalion)
and artillery and engineers, Napoleon's visitors to the island are
recorded as well as the chronology of his death, the construction
of his tomb and reports on the post-mortem examination. Also, Sir
Hudson Lowe and the East India Company involvement in the island
are exhaustively covered as are stories of military figures,
marriages and the abolition of slavery.
In 1963, a frustrated President Kennedy turned to the Pentagon for help in carrying out subversive operations against North Vietnam- a job the CIA had not managed to handle effectively. Thus was born the Pentagon's Special Operations Group(SOG). Under the cover name"Studies and Observation Group," SOG would, over the next eight years, dispatch numerous spies to North Vietnam, create a triple-cross deception program, wage psychological warfare by manipulating North Vietnamese POW's and kidnapped citizens, and stage deadly assaults on enemy soldiers traveling the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Written by the country's leading expert on SOG, here is the story of that covert war-one that would have both spectacular and disastrous results.
I have found that there are many people who do not have any
knowledge of the Great War. But we should remember it, as nearly a
million people died. Their names are written on memorials all over
England, as well as France and Belgium. Do not forget them and the
sacrifice they made.
The story of Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe is an unusual and
fascinating tale. A fallen Emperor who once controlled most of
Europe makes friends with an impudent, pretty and spirited young
English girl, just about the celebrate her thirteenth birthday.
Betsy produced a book full of interest, but notwithstanding that
the book wanders backwards and forward chronologically, the general
tenor of the relationship between this young girl and Napoleon is
beyond question, and it was of an unusual and extremely friendly
nature. Napoleon's fall from an unprecedented position of power to
humiliating confinement must have been an impossible burden to have
lived with, and yet, despite this - or possibly because of it -
Napoleon befriended this child and held genuine affection for her.
Despite the naivety, the warmth of the friendship between the
ex-emperor and little 'Mees' Balcombe shines through, and her text
is well-worth providing in this new edition. Napoleon was at the
Briars for eight weeks, but the family were very close to the
community at Longwood, some two miles further up hill and inland,
and visited weekly, sometimes more often.It was here, as Betsy
matured and grew more responsible, that the friendship developed,
to the extent that she assisted Napoleon with his attempts at
English. She was daring as well as impudent and with an
irrepressible sense of humour she unlocked the inner child in
Napoleon that led to the famous friendship. He found her boldness
amusing and occasionally alarming. It must have been a welcome
diversion from his darker thoughts.
Two days after Christmas 1944, during the harshest winter in living
memory, 33 SAS troops parachuted into the valley of Rossano,
Northern Italy. Carried out in broad daylight, the parachute drop
was intended to deceive observing enemy forces into believing that
a full parachute brigade of 400 men had landed behind them. Drawing
on post-op reports and memoirs, this book is a fictionalised
account written from the perspective of one of the rank and file
parachutists who took part in the operation: the author's father.
Scrupulously researched and richly illustrated, Hann's personal
narrative brings to life the co-ordinated attemptsof the SAS and
local partisans to engage and evade the enemy. For the first time,
Hann provides a detailed account of some of the devastating
setbacks and triumphs of Operation Galia: one of the hardest fought
and most successful operations of the Second World War.
This work explores the value of the motorcycle to communications,
and how the despatch rider helped prevent German victory.
This manual lists the different types of fuzes fitted to both
British and German artillery and trench mortar projectiles and
details how 'safe' they are to handle.
'Absolutely extraordinary ... Findlay reveals a vast, hidden
European story that few nations have ever been brave enough to
confront' Keith Lowe' 'Beautifully written, poignant and acutely
perceptive' Sinclair McKay 'Moving and powerful' Julia Samuel
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In My Grandfather's Shadow is an unflinching, thought-provoking
fusion of memoir and history, and an exploration of the hidden
scars left across generations by the conflict and horrors of the
Second World War. In a quest to discover the truth about her German
grandfather, first a proud Wehrmacht General serving on the Eastern
front, then a broken POW on trial for Nazi war crimes, Angela
Findlay travels across Europe and Russia to uncover the untold
story of millions of Germans long buried not only in guilt and
shame but also trauma. Carefully breaking the silence surrounding
so many of World War Two's perpetrators, she challenges widespread
binary narratives and offers a way forward that allows the
intergenerational wounds to heal and us all to grasp the urgent
lessons of the darkest episode in modern history. Brave, profoundly
insightful and moving, In My Grandfather's Shadow is a courageous
look at a taboo subject and raises important questions about how
and why we should remember the past.
Unshackled Spirit was a unique 'Spitfire' fighter aircraft
purchased by allied prisoners of war whilst imprisoned in Germany;
the book explains how this remarkable achievement was possible
using previously restricted and secret material. In addition,
accounts are compiled from a collection of original YMCA personal
wartime logs as issued to RAF prisoners of war in 1944. 'Unshackled
Spirit' draws out the story of each aviator, how they became a
prisoner of war and life in the various camps across occupied
Europe. Extensive and amazingly detailed pieces of artwork are
taken from the logs and illustrated in the book. The balance of
fact and inspired drawings makes for an impressive collection from
a number of incarcerated aviators. The hardship of POW's and the
extraordinary means adopted to escape are touched upon, but more
importantly the aspect of how agencies helped by supplying all
manner of equipment to the thousands of men behind barbed wire. The
role of MI9 is revealed and how it participated in those agencies
exploring the efforts taken to smuggle escape material into the
prisoner of war camps without breeching the Geneva Convention and
finally the extraordinary measures taken to secure intelligence
during the process of prisoner repatriation.
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First Wave
(Paperback)
Kenneth James Stuart Ballantyne
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R357
Discovery Miles 3 570
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The Victoria Cross is a decoration awarded to 'those officers and
men who have served us in the presence of the enemy and shall then
have performed some signal act of valour and devotion to their
country.' The first VC awarded to a Gurkha was as a result of the
'most conspicuous bravery' in 1915 in France during the Great War.
In all, the Gurkha Brigade has won a total of 26 Victoria Crosses,
each with a unique tale of courage and devotion beyond the call of
duty. This is their story.
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