Over the centuries, proximity to major routes---the Great North Road, the Icknield Way, and Watling Street---has made Bedfordshire strategically important. Iron Age hillforts occupied significant locations, and castles consolidated Norman control after 1066. In later medieval times, two major events occurred: in 1224, the siege of Bedford Castle marked Henry III's attempt to reimpose royal authority after the chaos of John's reign; and the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461 was a major defeat for the Yorkists. During the wars of the twentieth century, the county's industrial base supported the armies fighting overseas. In the First World War, the county contributed significantly to the birth of the RAF as well as provided the base for the Home Defence armies. In the Second World War, its airfields despatched RAF and USAAF bombers over the continent, but the major activity was the secret war largely associated with the Bedford Triangle. After 1945, aeronautical research continued at RAF Thurleigh/Twinwood Farm and electronic intelligence-gathering was developed at Chicksands. 'Defending Bedfordshire' seeks to explain the significance of this dense concentration of military sites to be found in a relatively small county.

Originally published in 1994, This Working-Day World is lively collection of essays presenting a social, political and cultural view of British women's lives in the period 1914-45. The volume describes women's activities in many different areas, ranging from the weekly wash to the rescue of child refugees. Each essay, from an international list of contributors, is based on new research which will complement existing studies in a range of disciplines by adding information on, among other topics, women's teacher training colleges, and women in the BBC, in medical laboratories and in Art schools. The book does not, however, idealise women: the militarism and racism of the period infected women too, and this is revealed in the account of women in the British Union of Fascists, and the analysis of the Pankhursts' merging of patriotism and gender issues. Through studies and personal accounts, This Working-Day World reveals past issues that are still pertinent to debates in today's society. As we read the chapter on the recently discovered Diary of Doreen Bates which outlines possibly the first female civil servant campaign for rights as a single mother, we hear echoes of issues being discussed today. Indeed, as we approach the end of the century it is a good moment to look back and re-evaluate areas and degrees of progress - or the reverse - in society, and in British women's lives in particular. With its unusual photographs, this accessible and informative collection provides a rich resource for students in twentieth century social and cultural history, and women's studies courses, and an enlightening volume for general readers.

Based on never previously explored personal accounts and archival documentation, this book examines life and death in the Theresienstadt ghetto, seen through the eyes of the Jewish victims from Denmark. "How was it in Theresienstadt?" Thus asked Johan Grun rhetorically when he, in July 1945, published a short text about his experiences. The successful flight of the majority of Danish Jewry in October 1943 is a well-known episode of the Holocaust, but the experience of the 470 men, women, and children that were deported to the ghetto has seldom been the object of scholarly interest. Providing an overview of the Judenaktion in Denmark and the subsequent deportations, the book sheds light on the fate of those who were arrested. Through a micro-historical analysis of everyday life, it describes various aspects of social and daily life in proximity to death. In doing so, the volume illuminates the diversity of individual situations and conveys the deportees' perceptions and striving for survival and 'normality'. Offering a multi-perspective and international approach that places the case of Denmark into the broader Jewish experience during the Holocaust, this book is invaluable for researchers of Jewish studies, Holocaust and genocide studies, and the history of modern Denmark.

The Field Marshal was a born commander and, besides being a gifted linguist, was mobilised as a Subaltern for the Boer War to act as a secret agent and to streamline the peace process. With an appetite for battle, in WW1 he became the Allied C-in-C of the Expeditionary Force in North Russia and, being ranked as a knighted Major General at the age of 39, he then modernised the Staff training to deal with armoured and aerial warfare. His Generalship was tested out in the Raj and, in 1939, on the day war was declared, the British Army leadership as CIGS was placed in his hands, so that he was able to defend Calais and free-up the BEF escape route to Dunkirk. Back in business as C-in-C Home Forces he was given his baton. Ironside surely had one of the most varied and long military careers of any military leader in the 20th century.

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Complete set Since 1961 the Adelphi Papers have provided some of the most informed accounts of international and strategic relations. Produced by the world renowned International Institute of Strategic Studies, each paper provides a short account of a subject of topical interest by a leading military figure, policy maker or academic. The project reprints the first forty years of papers, arranged into thematic sets. The collection as a whole provides a rich and insightful account of international affairs during a period which spans the second half of the Cold War, the fall of the communist bloc and the emergence of a new regime with the United States as the sole superpower. There is a wealth of global coverage: Four volumes on east and southeast Asia as well as individual volumes on China, Japan and Korea Particular attention is given to the Middle East, with volumes addressing internal sources of instability; geo-politics and the role of the superpowers; the Israel-Palestine conflict; and the Iran-Iraq War and the first Gulf War. There is also a volume on oil and insecurity There are also two volumes on Africa, the site of most of the world's wars during the period. The IISS has obviously made a particular contribution to the understanding of military strategy, and this is reflected with material on topics such as urban and guerrilla warfare, nuclear deterrence and the role of information in modern warfare. Volumes on military strategy are complemented by approaches from other disciplines, such as defence economics. Key selling points: Early papers were only distributed by the IISS and will have achieved limited penetration of the academic market A host of major authors on a range of different subjects (eg Gerald Segal on China, Michael Leifer on Southeast Asia, Sir Lawrence Freidman on the revolution in military affairs, Raymond Vernon on multinationals and defence economics) Individual volumes will have a strong appeal to different markets (eg the volume on defence economics for economists, various volumes for Asian Studies etc)

In this new edition of The Global Seven Years War, Daniel Baugh emphasizes the ways that sea power hindered French military preparations while also furnishing strategic opportunities. Special attention is paid to undertakings - always French - that failed to receive needed financial support. From analysis of original sources, the volume provides stronger evidence for the role and wishes of Louis XV in determining the main outline of strategy. By 1758, the French government experienced significant money shortage, and emphasis has been placed on the most important consequences: how this impacted war-making and why it was so worrying, debilitating and difficult to solve. This edition explains why the Battle of Rossbach in 1757 was a turning point in the Anglo-French War, suggesting that Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick's winter campaign revitalized the British war effort which was, before that time, a record of failures. With comprehensive discussion of events outside of Europe, the volume sets the conflict on a world stage. One of the world's leading naval historians, Baugh offers a detailed, evaluative and insightful narrative that makes this edition essential reading for students and scholars interested in military history, naval history, Anglo-French relations and the history of eighteenth-century Europe.

A monumental work of research and analysis, this is a history of the Vietnam War in a single province of the Mekong Delta over the period 1930-1975. More precisely, it is a study of the Vietnamese dimension of the "Vietnam War, " focusing on the revolutionary movement that became popularly known as the "Viet Cong." There are several distinctive features to this study: (1) it provides an explanation for the paradox of why the revolutionary movement was so successful during the war, but unable to meet the challenges of postwar developments; (2) it challenges the dominant theme of contemporary political analysis which assumes that people are "rational" actors responding to events with careful calculations of self-interest; (3) it closely examines province-level documentation that casts light on a number of important historical controversies about the war. No other history of the Vietnam War has drawn on such a depth of documentation, especially firsthand accounts that allow the Vietnamese participants to spea directly to us.

Tom Hanks introduces the "remarkable" (Publishers Weekly) true story of two inseparable friends and soldiers portrayed in the HBO (R) miniseries Band of Brothers. William "Wild Bill" Guarnere and Edward "Babe" Heffron were among the first paratroopers of the U.S. Army-members of an elite unit of the 101st Airborne Division called Easy Company. The crack unit was called upon for every high-risk operation of the war, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden in Holland, the Battle of the Bulge, and the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden. In his own words, Guarnere gives a gripping account of D-Day from the paratrooper's perspective. Both men vividly re-create dropping into Holland to capture the roads and bridges between Eindhoven and Arnhem, known as Hell's Highway. Through much of 1944 both friends fought side by side-until Guarnere lost his right leg in the Battle of the Bulge and was sent home. Heffron went on to liberate slave labor and concentration camps and capture Hitler's Eagle's Nest hideout. United by their experience, the two reconnected at the war's end and were inseparable up until their deaths. Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends is a tribute to the lasting bond forged between comrades in arms under fire and to all the brave men who fought fearlessly for freedom. Includes photographs

This volume looks at Insurgencies and COIN from a global and longue duree perspective giving the reader a broad perspective on a subject of much contemporary relevance. Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency are topics of enduring interest on university courses in history but also politics and international relations - and with the current state of the world as it stands, the subject's relevance is only being reinforced - the global perspective here speaks to the direction of travel of interest in the subject. Most volumes on the Modern subject start at the end of the 18th century, but this volume challenges this western perspective and gives a much longer time frame for the subject than competitor texts, as well as being much more truly global in focus.

Drawing upon extensive original research, this book explores best practice in army lessons-learned processes. Without the correct learning mechanisms, military adaptation can be blocked, or the wider lessons from adaptation can easily be lost, leading to the need to relearn lessons in the field, often at great human and financial cost. This book analyses the organisational processes and activities which can help improve tactical- and operational-level learning through case studies of lessons learned in two key NATO armies: that of Britain and of Germany. Providing the first comparative analysis of the variables which facilitate or impede the emergence of best practice in military learning, it makes an important contribution to the growing scholarship on knowledge management and learning in public organisations. It will be of much interest to lessons-learned practitioners, and students of military and strategic studies, defence studies, organisation studies and security studies.

In November 1963, the president of South Vietnam and his brother were brutally executed in a coup that was sanctioned and supported by the American government. President Kennedy later explained to his close friend Paul "Red" Fay that the reason the United States made the fateful decision to get rid of the Ngos was in no small part because of South Vietnam's first lady, Madame Nhu. "That goddamn bitch," Fay remembers President Kennedy saying, "She's responsible ... that bitch stuck her nose in and boiled up the whole situation down there."
The coup marked the collapse of the Diem government and became the US entry point for a decade-long conflict in Vietnam. Kennedy's death and the atrocities of the ensuing war eclipsed the memory of Madame Nhu--with her daunting mixture of fierceness and beauty. But at the time, to David Halberstam, she was "the beautiful but diabolic sex dictatress," and Malcolm Browne called her "the most dangerous enemy a man can have."
By 1987, the once-glamorous celebrity had retreated into exile and seclusion, and remained there until young American Monique Demery tracked her down in Paris thirty years later. Finding the Dragon Lady is Demery's story of her improbable relationship with Madame Nhu, and--having ultimately been entrusted with Madame Nhu's unpublished memoirs and her diary from the years leading up to the coup--the first full history of the Dragon Lady herself, a woman who was feared and fantasized over in her time, and who singlehandedly frustrated the government of one of the world's superpowers.

Fully revised and restructured, the sixth edition of World War II: A Global History offers students a concise and yet thorough textbook that examines history's bloodiest conflict. The chapters alternate between chronological chapters on Europe and Asia-Pacific and thematic chapters on innovations, home fronts, brutal regimes, and logistics. This textbook includes the following features: A lively narrative of facts, events, people, and ideas that incorporates thoughtful analysis New material and restructured content on global factors that affected the causes, conduct, and consequences of World War II Balanced pace that does not bog readers down in too many details yet gives them sufficient depth and breadth for context Chapters, sections, and sidebars arranged in ways that can complement lectures and assignments Fifty new photographs that illustrate the human condition and weaponry during World War II. Global in focus, by blending both geographic and thematic chapters to ensure readers gain a comprehensive understanding of impact of the war worldwide, this is the perfect volume for all students of the biggest global conflict of the twentieth century.

Following America's entry into World War Two, there was a necessity for the Royal Navy to strengthen co-operation with the United States Navy. Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham's brief term as head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington was to endear him to the Americans so much so that they proposed him as Allied Naval Commander of the Expeditionary Force which was to invade North Africa in November 1942. In October 1943, Cunningham was summoned to replace the dying Pound as First Sea Lord, a position he held until his retirement from active service in June 1946. In that time he presided over the invasion of Normandy, operations in the Mediterranean, the sinking of the Scharnhorst and Tirpitz, the defeat of the late surge of U-boat activity, the British Pacific Fleet, and the problems of manpower, the futures of the Royal Marines and the Fleer Air Arm, and the conversion of the Royal Navy from its swollen wartime strength to a much-reduced peacetime cadre. Cunningham remained concerned over the future of the country's defence and that of the Royal Navy and he was able to speak in major defence debates in the House of Lords. He died suddenly in 1963 and was buried at sea. Cunningham was one of Britain's great sailors, a worthy successor to Nelson, whom he admired and many of whose qualities he displayed. This second volume of Cunningham's papers covers the period of his life described above. It includes official documents but also many letters to his family and brother-officers that exhibit his feelings, as well as his illuminating diary entries from April 1944 onwards.

Although each state is unique it is possible to identify certain common problems and issues with respect to defence governance and management. Governance and Management of Defence is a unique introduction to all the key principles of governance and management through the clear identification of these commonalities. The leading contributors that this volume brings together also show that if individuals are keen to reform practices within their defence establishments they need to be aware of the many constraints and obstacles that may challenge their endeavours. Each contributor is an acknowledged expert in their field and identifes examples of good practice from across the world and the steps taken to implement that practice. This new volume work supports teaching with accessible prompts for reflective activity. The editors recognize that many readers will not be native English speakers, so plain English is used throughout with international examples and case studies to make all the topics and themes clearly relevant and understandable. This is the ideal introductory text for any course that deals with management within the defence sector This book will be of great interest to all students of armed forces and defence management, politics and strategic and military studies.

A highly illustrated introduction to some of the greatest battles in world history, from the iconic encounters of the Ancient World such as Thermopylae and Cannae, through to the major clashes of the 20th century epitomized by Stalingrad and Khe Sanh. This concise study by renowned military historian Angus Konstam examines one hundred of the most famous battles from world history. It includes great naval engagements such as Salamis, Trafalgar, Jutland and Midway; pivotal land battles that decided the fate of nations, such as Hastings, Yorktown, Gettysburg and the Somme; and the impact of the new dimension of aerial warfare in the 20th century at Pearl Harbor, in the Battle of Britain and in the skies over Hiroshima. This highly illustrated book features over 200 full-colour battlescene and other artworks from Osprey's comprehensive archive and is the ideal introduction to the battles that changed the course of history.

"Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award"
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS after its initial publication, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb "remains the seminal and complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan.
Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly--or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the bomb, with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers--Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and von Neumann--stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight.
Richard Rhodes gives the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb "is a narrative tour de force and a document with literary power commensurate with its subject.

With the rise of drones and computer-controlled weapons, the line between war and video games continues to blur. In this book, the authors trace how the realities of war are deeply inflected by their representation in popular entertainment. War games and other media, in turn, feature an increasing number of weapons, tactics, and threat scenarios from the War on Terror. While past analyses have emphasized top-down circulation of pro-military ideologies through government public relations efforts and a cooperative media industry, The Military-Entertainment Complex argues for a nonlinear relationship, defined largely by market and institutional pressures. Tim Lenoir and Luke Caldwell explore the history of the early days of the video game industry, when personnel and expertise flowed from military contractors to game companies; to a middle period when the military drew on the booming game industry to train troops; to a present in which media corporations and the military influence one another cyclically to predict the future of warfare. In addition to obvious military-entertainment titles like America's Army, Lenoir and Caldwell investigate the rise of best-selling franchise games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, and Ghost Recon. The narratives and aesthetics of these video games permeate other media, including films and television programs. This commodification and marketing of the future of combat has shaped the public's imagination of war in the post-9/11 era and naturalized the U.S. Pentagon's vision of a new way of war.

This is a comprehensive new operational military history of the Ottoman army during the First World War. Drawing from archives, official military histories, personal war narratives and sizable Turkish secondary literature, it tells the incredible story of the Ottoman army's struggle from the mountains of the Caucasus to the deserts of Arabia and the bloody shores of Gallipoli. The Ottoman army, by opening new fronts, diverted and kept sizeable units of British, Russian and French forces away from the main theatres and even sent reinforcements to Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. Against all odds the Ottoman army ultimately achieved some striking successes, not only on the battlefield, but in their total mobilization of the empire's meagre human and economic resources. However, even by the terrible standards of the First World War, these achievements came at a terrible price in casualties and, ultimately, loss of territory. Thus, instead of improving the integrity and security of the empire, the war effectively dismantled it and created situations and problems hitherto undreamed of by a besieged Ottoman leadership. In a unique account, Uyar revises our understanding of the war in the Middle East.

This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles. This study shows how historians have built on the first international conference on the SOE at the Imperial War Museum in 1998. The release of many records then allowed historians to develop the first authoritative analyses of the organization's activities and several of its agents and staff officers were able to participate. Since this groundbreaking conference, fresh research has continued and its original papers are here amended to take account of the full range of SOE documents that have been released to the National Archives. The fascinating stories they tell range from overviews of work in a single country to particular operations and the impact of key personalities. SOE was a remarkably innovative organization. It played a significant part in the Allied victory while its theories of clandestine warfare and specialised equipment had a major impact upon the post-war world. SOE proved that war need not be fought by conventional methods and by soldiers in uniform. The organization laid much of the groundwork for the development of irregular warfare that characterized the second half of the twentieth century and that is still here, more potent than ever, at the beginning of the twenty-first. This book will be of great interest to students of World War II history, intelligence studies and special operations, as well as general readers with an interest in SOE and World War II.

In late 1941, President Roosevelt agonized over the rapid advances of the Japanese forces in Asia; they seemed unstoppable. He foresaw their intentions of taking India and linking up with the two other Axis Powers, Germany and Italy, in an attempt to conquer the Eastern Hemisphere. US naval forces had been surprised and diminished in Pearl Harbor and the army was not only outnumbered but also ill-prepared to take on the invading hoards. One of Roosevelt's few options was to form a defensive line on the eastern side of the Patkai and Himalayan Ranges; there, he could look for support from the Chinese and Burmese. It was the only defence to a Japanese invasion of India. To support and supply the troops who were fighting in hostile jungle terrain, where overland routes had been cut off, he desperately needed to set up an air supply from Eastern India. His problem was lack of aircraft and experienced pilots to fly the dangerous 'Hump, over the world's highest mountains. Hence the inception of Operation Seven Alpha, a plan to enlist the aircraft - DC-3s - and the pilots - veterans of World War One - of American Airlines.This newly formed elite Squadron would fly the medium-range aircraft in a series of long-distance hops across the Pacific and Southern Asia to the Assam Valley in India. They would then create and operate the vital supply route, carrying arms, ammunition and food Eastward to the Allied bases, before returning with wounded personnel. This is the story of that little-known operation, carried out in the early days of the Burma Campaign. The book is based on first-hand experiences of those who were involved, and it serves as a fitting tribute to the bravery and inventiveness of a band of men who answered their country's desperate call at the outset of the war against Japan in Asia.

This is a new examination of Halford Mackinder's seminal global geostrategic work, from the perspective of geography, diplomatic history, political science, international relations, imperial history, and the space age. Mackinder was a man ahead of his time. He foresaw many of the key strategic issues that came to dominate the twentieth century. Until the disintegration of the Soviet Union, western defence strategists feared that one power, or alliance, might come to dominate Eurasia. Admiral Mahan discussed this issue in The Problem of Asia (1900) but Mackinder made the most authoritative statement in "The Geographical Pivot of History" (1904). He argued that in the "closed Heart-Land of Euroasia" was a strategically placed region, with great resources, that if controlled by one force could be the basis of a World Empire. James Kurth, in Foreign Affairs, has commented that it has taken two World Wars and the Cold War to prevent Mackinder's prophecy becoming reality. In World War I and World War II Germany achieved huge territorial gains at the expense of the Russian empire and the Soviet Union. In the former conflict the Russian empire was defeated by Germany but the western powers insisted that the territorial gains made by Germany, at the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, be given up. In World War II Britain and the US gave material support to Stalin's totalitarian regime to prevent Nazi Germany gaining control of the territory and resources that might have been a basis for world domination. The west, highly conscious of Mackinder's dictum (1919) that "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland," quickly adopted policies to contain the Soviet Union. History has therefore proved Mackinder's work to be of vital importance to generations of strategic thinking and he remains a key influence in the new millennium. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of strategic studies and military history and of geopolitics in particular.

In this fully illustrated introduction, Dr Carter Malkasian provides a concise overview of the so-called "Forgotten War" in Korea. From 1950 to 1953, the most powerful countries in the world engaged in a major conventional war in Korea. Yet ironically this conflict has come to be known as the USA's "Forgotten War." Esteemed historian Dr Carter Malkasian explains how this conflict in a small peninsula in East Asia had a tremendous impact on the entire international system and the balance of power between the two superpowers, America and Russia. In this illustrated history, he examines how the West demonstrated its resolve to thwart Communist aggression and the armed forces of China, the Soviet Union and the United States came into direct combat for the only time during the Cold War. Updated and revised for the new edition, with specially commissioned color maps and new images throughout, this is a detailed introduction to a significant turning point in the Cold War.

As the oldest of the military religious orders and the one with an unexpected and dramatic downfall, the knighthood of the Templars continues to fascinate academics and students as well as the public at large. A collection of fifteen chapters accompanied by a historical introduction, The Templars: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Religious Order recounts and analyzes this community's rise and establishment in both the crusader states of the eastern Mediterranean and the countries of western Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, reflects on the proceedings launched against it and its subsequent fall (1307-1314), and explores its medieval and post-medieval legacy, including an assessment of current research pertaining to the Templars and suggestions for future explorations. Showcasing a wide range of methodological approaches and primary source materials, this volume unites historical, art-historical, theological, archaeological, and historiographical perspectives, and it features the work and voices of scholars from various academic generations who reside in eight different countries (Israel, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and the United States of America).