When the first American servicemen arrived in England in March 1942, the indigenous population greeted their presence with mixed feelings. A certain level of resentment of these newcomers was harboured by the English and expressed by many in the in the well-worn phase of the time 'over-paid, over-sexed and over here'. But without the presence of American servicemen in Britain and its huge military and industrial muscle, the war with Germany would probably have been lost. Using a combination of contemporary eyewitness and documentary sources plus latter-day interviews, linked together by engaging narrative, Helen Milligate takes a look at the background to 'the friendly invasion' - where they all came from, who they were, where they were stationed and what they did. She examines how the 'Yanks' got on with the locals, how they fitted in (or didn't), their impact on the social structure of England in the 1940s, the problems they brought with them and their impressions of England. She concludes with the journey home once the war in Europe had ended, describing what the Yanks left behind them and the wives and sweethearts they took 'stateside'.

This book presents a photographic record of the service of a distinguished county regiment whose origins go back to the Seven Years' War, in the middle of the eighteenth century. Formed in 1881, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the KSLI, formerly the 53rd and 85th Regiments, did tours of duty around the world in the days of the Empire - serving in India, the Far East, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean. This book also shows the KSLI on active service which took them to Egypt in 1882, the Sudan in 1885, and South Africa during the Boer War. Much expanded, the KSLI rendered outstanding service during the First World War. The eight battalions that went overseas served on the Western Front (notably in the Ypres Salient, on the Somme, and in the great offensives of 1918), in Palestine and in Salonika. During the Second World War, the KSLI played a major part in engagements in France in 1940, in Tunisia, in Italy and in North West Europe. Post-war campaigning took them back to Palestine, to Korea, and to Kenya, with peaceful interludes in Germany and Malaysia. The regiment ceased to exist as a distinct unit in 1968, when it was absorbed into the new Light Infantry as the 3rd Battalion. This fascinating book presents a vivid picture of the life of the regiment in times of peace and war through photographs from the regimental archives, the majority of which have never before been published.

Imported defence systems are like crutches that can provide only temporary sustenance but not enduring muscle strength. Dependence on imports makes a nation hostage to the policies of the exporting nations and captive to the dictates of unscrupulous foreign vendors. Therefore, 'Make in India' is a highly overdue clarion call and a mission statement. The book identifies reasons for the dismal state of the Indian defence industry and suggests corrective measures. It recommends the integration of the private sector and support to MSMEs. The need for an ecosystem to foster innovations has also been emphasised. As the defence industry is characterised by rapid obsolescence, regular infusion of the latest defence technologies is essential. FDI is not just a question of getting funds but accesses the latest know-how as well. Similarly, the powerful leverage of offsets can be used to obtain technologies that industrially advanced nations are unwilling to sell. Finally, the book suggests the establishment of a Defence and Aerospace Commission to oversee all functions pertaining to armament production, acquisitions and exports.

As witnesses to History's ups and downs, flags - and in particular infantry flags - reveal how short-lived ideas and their symbols can be when they are the unfortunate victims of auto-da-fe's thought up by different regimes. Today museums have only managed to preserve a few rare specimens and the period texts and documents are mostly incomplete. This is particularly true for the Army of Italy flags, those of the volunteers and those of the half-brigades from 1794-1803, which are still mainly unknown to this day. Faced with this type of major difficulty, and if a coherent picture of the flags is to be painted, a whole gamut of particularly inescapable assumptions has to be made. Nevertheless since historical exactitude does not allow for even the smallest unverifiable interpretations, it is up to us to warn our readers that the flags illustrated here are those that our research has enabled us to reproduce. Each individual regimental history has been established so as to follow the trail these flags left as they changed from regiment to half-brigade. These histories are not always able follow the rank numbering in the corps since there was often no direct association between them. For the reader to find his way around, an asterisk designates a battalion which was in at the foundation of the new regiment, and also shows that this unit's flag was most certainly adopted provisionally.

This volume is designed to be an in-depth and nuanced philosophical treatment of the virtue of obedience in the context of the professional military and the broader civilian political community, including the general citizenry. The nature and components of obedience are critical factors leading to further discussions of the moral obligations related to obedience, as well as the related practical issues and implications. Pauline Shanks Kaurin seeks to address the following questions: What is obedience? Is it a virtue, and if it is, why? What are the moral grounds of obedience? Why ought military members and citizens be obedient? Are there times that one ought not be obedient? Why? How should we think about obedience in contemporary political communities? In answering these questions, the book draws on arguments and materials from a variety of disciplines including classical studies, philosophy, history, international relations, literature and military studies, with a particular focus on cases and examples to illustrate the conceptual points. While a major focus of the book is the question of obedience in the contemporary military context, many similar (although not exactly the same) issues and considerations apply to other political communities and in, particular, citizens in a nation-state.

The desegregation of the American armed forces--one of the most sweeping changes in the military's history--is widely remembered as a straightforward, relatively effortless process and a shining example of the effectiveness of America's military command. "Foxholes and Color Lines" challenges this view, revealing both the intense political conflict at the time and the strenuous opposition to racial integration within all branches of the armed forces.

All those nagging questions you have about the universe are answered here, like "Is there a dark side to the Moon? What happens when a comet hits the sun? Do the Martian canals have any water in them? Is the moon hot inside? What would happen if the sun were to collide with a black hole? Mars has polar ice caps: could polar bears live on Mars? If I could go back to the time of the dinosaurs, would the sky look the same as it does today? "and many more.

The British Eighth Army, which played a decisive role in defeating the Axis in North Africa, was one of the most celebrated Allied armies of the Second World War, and this photographic history is the ideal introduction to it. The carefully chosen photographs show the men, weapons and equipment of the army during campaigns in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The battles the army fought in the Western Desert in 1941 and 1942 are the stuff of legend, as is the second Battle of El Alamein when, under Montgomery, it defeated the German and Italian forces commanded by Rommel. The book gives a vivid insight into the fighting and the desert conditions, and it shows what a varied, multinational force the army was, for it brought together men from Britain, the British Empire and Commonwealth as well as Free French, Greeks and Poles.

In this second half of the 18th century, military tactics changed, going from static siege tactics to rapid manoeuvres, giving the cavalry a predominant role again on the fi eld of battle. The changes in uniform, organisation and tactics of the Dragoon regiments evolved over three periods. The main corps gradually joined with the cavalry, becoming a key element in the new strategy of movement. The first period, included ordinances from 1750 and 1757, and mainly improved the troop's comfort. The second period of change reorganised and unifi ed the corps. Finally the last period provided the republic with the most modern corps and army in the world.