**THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER** The book that inspired Steven Spielberg's acclaimed TV series, produced by Tom Hanks and starring Damian Lewis. In Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose pays tribute to the men of Easy Company, a crack rifle company in the US Army. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the dangerous parachute landings on D-Day and their triumphant capture of Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest' in Berchtesgaden. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. Repeatedly send on the toughest missions, these brave men fought, went hungry, froze and died in the service of their country. A tale of heroic adventures and soul-shattering confrontations, Band of Brothers brings back to life, as only Stephen E. Ambrose can, the profound ties of brotherhood forged in the barracks and on the battlefields. 'History boldly told and elegantly written . . . Gripping' Wall Street Journal 'Ambrose proves once again he is a masterful historian . . . spellbinding' People

Voyager / Veteran is designed to provide a paradigm model (for how one thinks about change) needed and practiced for conducting exceptional and meaningful job search for veterans. This approach to job search embodies a combination of traditional and unconventional tools and simple universal truths. The paths taken are diverse: inclusive of anecdotal examples, formal and informal training, educational disciplines, cultural, and social values. The focus is most certainly one of compassion, inquiry, and self-discovery, all directed at fostering a productive mindset resulting in the development and realization of a veteran's true career and employment potential, a journey towards self-sufficiency and sustainability.

In 1898 John H. Patterson arrived in East Africa with a mission to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. Over the course of several weeks Patterson and his mostly Indian workforce were systematically hunted by two man-eating lions . In all, 100 workers were killed, and the entire bridge-building project was delayed. As well as being stalked by lions, Patterson had to guard his back against his own increasingly hostile and mutinous workers as he set out to track and kill the man-eaters.
Patterson's account of the lions' reign of terror and his own attempts to kill them is the stuff of great adventure. Consider this description of the aftermath of an attack by the lions: ..".we at once set out to follow the brutes, Mr. Dalgairns feeling confident that he had wounded one of them, as there was a trail on the sand like that of the toes of a broken limb.... we saw in the gloom what we at first took to be a lion cub; closer inspection, however, showed it to be the remains of the unfortunate coolie, which the man-eaters had evidently abandoned at our approach. The legs, one arm and half the body had been eaten, and it was the stiff fingers of the other arm trailing along the sand which had left the marks we had taken to be the trail of a wounded lion...." This classic tale of death, courage, and terror in the African bush is still a page-turner, even after all these years.

From hallucinogenic mushrooms and LSD, to coca and cocaine; from Homeric warriors and the Assassins to the first Gulf War and today's global insurgents - drugs have sustained warriors in the field and have been used as weapons of warfare, either as non-lethal psychochemical weapons or as a means of subversion. Lukasz Kamienski explores why and how drugs have been issued to soldiers to increase their battlefield performance, boost their courage and alleviate stress and fear - as well as for medical purposes. He also delves into the history of psychoactive substances that combatants 'self- prescribe', a practice which dates as far back as the Vikings. Shooting Up is a comprehensive and original history of the relationship between fighting men and intoxicants, from Antiquity till the present day, and looks at how drugs will determine the wars of the future in unforeseen and remarkable ways.

The number of older war veterans receiving disability benefits is steadily growing and is predicted to rise in the next decade. This book provides comprehensive knowledge about health and psychosocial concerns of veterans aging with disabilities and unmet needs and compares policy in three countries that have been involved in massive warfare in the 20th century--the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US), and Israel. Using a cross-national comparative study of the policies, legislation and services provided by these three countries, which have significant numbers of aging disabled military veterans, this book provides evidence-based knowledge on the trajectories and attendant mental-health and psychosocial problems this sub-group faces when aging with a disability. It sheds light on the paradox in which most veterans with disabilities in the UK, USA and Israel are older, while the current legislation and budget target younger veterans with disabilities. The book reflects the current debate regarding the desired policy toward older veterans with disabilities in these countries and whether to provide them with proactive health services prior to retirement to prevent "accelerated aging". It also evaluates the dilemma of whether to serve aging veterans separately as a unique population or to provide them with the same services used by the general population. This book will be of interest to all academics and students working in disability studies, rehabilitation studies, gerontology, psychology, sociology, social work, social policy, and law more broadly.

Since the creation of the standing army in 1661, when each regiment was known by the name of its current colonel, there have been many reforms and rationalizations of the British army. From 31 cavalry regiments and 113 infantry regiments in 1881, at the time of this title's first publication in 1988, the army had reduced to just 16 regiments of armour and 39 regiments of infantry through processes of absorption and amalgamation. The Handbook of British Regiments provides insight into the lineage and history of the approximately 85 regiments and corps which formed the British army towards the end of the 1980s. Comprehensive in coverage, each has a separate entry giving factual details in a layout standardized for easy comparison, including current title, colonel-in-chief, uniform and history, amongst others. A key title amongst Routledge reference reissues, this handbook provides an accessible guide to specialists as well as lay enthusiasts, and illustrates a sense of the continuity and inherited tradition of each regiment and corps.

Gender Ideologies and Military Labor Markets in the U.S. offers a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between changes in military gender ideologies and structural changes in U.S. military and society.

By investigating how social and military change have influenced gender ideologies, the author develops an approach that (re-)connects military gender ideologies to the social conditions of their production and distribution and explains their transformation as effects of changing social and political relations and conflicts. Examining the role of different groups of social actors, media debates on women 's military participation and gender ideologies inherent in depictions of military women, the author seeks to contextualise these ideologies are within structural change in the U.S. military and society, relating them to the gender-specific division of labour on civilian and military labor markets.

This work provides a deeper understanding of the nexus between military re-structuring processes, women 's military integration, and changes of gender ideologies in regard to war and the military, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of gender, security studies and American politics.

This book has two main aims: first, to provide a rare, detailed description of the use of a psychoanalytically informed, reflexive research method to achieve an in-depth understanding of social phenomena. Stressing the 'both/and' nature of psycho-social research, it demonstrates that utilizing psychoanalytic and sociological theories as complementary frameworks of understanding can enable researchers to discover aspects of human experience that ordinarily remain outside conscious awareness. Second, the book throws some much needed light onto the complex, intrapsychic and interpersonal influences that impact upon military wives who accompany members of the Armed Forces to postings overseas. It describes the personal losses that these women commonly sustain each time they relocate, which inevitably evoke mourning, depressive anxiety and related defences. In addition, wives' unwitting collusion with the patriarchal military institution, which fails to recognize them as individuals, further undermines their identities. These largely unconscious emotional upheavals have potentially profound consequences, both for servicemen's wives and for the military itself. The book recommends various policy changes that would result in wives' losses becoming better recognized, enabling them to be worked through more quickly. These arguments are particularly relevant at a time when the military is over-stretched, given that unhappy wives can adversely affect the retention of servicemen.

What if you could combine the agility, adaptability, and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organization? When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq in 2003, he quickly realized that conventional military tactics were failing. The allied forces had a huge advantage in numbers, equipment and training - but none of the enemy's speed and flexibility. McChrystal and his colleagues discarded a century of conventional wisdom to create a 'team of teams' that combined extremely transparent communication with decentralized decision-making authority. Faster, flatter and more flexible, the task force beat back al-Qaeda. In this powerful book, McChrystal and his colleagues show how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be relevant to any leader. Through compelling examples, the authors demonstrate that the 'team of teams' strategy has worked everywhere from hospital emergency rooms to NASA and has the potential to transform organizations large and small. 'A bold argument that leaders can help teams become greater than the sum of their parts' Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit 'An indispensable guide to organizational change' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

For the first time in print a book identifies each regiment and illustrates the change in uniforms, the colour of the facings and the nature and shape of the lace for the officers, NCOs and private soldiers over the period of the Napoleonic War 1793-1815. In British Napoleonic Uniforms, Carl Franklin's lavishly illustrated third volume for The History Press, these changes to the uniforms of all the numbered regiments of cavalry and infantry are discussed in detail. It is illustrated with more than two hundred full-colour plates of the uniforms and every aspect of their regimental distinctions. The book is divided into four parts. Part One looks at the commonalities of the cavalry and considers uniforms appropriate to each regiment such as headwear, the evolution of the uniforms and horse furniture. Part Two considers the uniforms of the heavy and light cavalry regiments. It includes full-page colour illustrations of the Household Cavalry, the Heavy Cavalry (Dragoon Guards and Dragoons), and Light Cavalry (the Light Dragoons and Hussars). Part Three shows the commonalties of the infantry and considers the uniform appropriate to each regiment, such as those of the Drummers and Highland Regiments, as well as their tartans. Part Four discusses the uniforms and distinctions of the infantry, including the regiments of Foot Guards and Infantry of the Line (Fusiliers, Light Infantry, Riflemen and Highland Regiments). For this revised edition Carl Franklin has updated many of the artworks and provided a colour guide specifically for modellers.

'Shrieking from the clouds, the Stukas achieved the measure of surprise they needed. The accuracy of the raid was good. Every runway was hit, the length of them just bomb craters, rock and earth. Fires were started in all the hangers eventually spreading to enormous proportions. As the operations room disappeared in one large explosion, the Station Commander fell dead with a piece of jagged concrete driven straight through his skull...' 500 Squadron was formed in 1930 at Manston in Kent. Initially recruited from Kent men and women, it became international when war broke out. The Battle Honours are the English Channel and North Sea, Dunkirk, Biscay Ports, Atlantic, North Africa, the Mediterranean and Italy. In peacetime, it won the coveted Cooper and Esher Trophy twice for the best performance in the auxiliary squadrons. Sadly, it fell victim to defence cuts in 1957 when allauxiliary squadrons were disbanded. The squadron may have disappeared from the Royal Air Force Order of Battle, but it will never be forgotten.Its history lies in the annals of the service and the fact that the Old Comrades Association of 500 Squadron holds an annual reunion at their ancestral home, RAF Manston in Kent.

A Black Cat Abroad is the untold WWII story of a 'Terrier' nicknamed 'Oscar': R.E.H. Hadingham (1915-2004), CBE, MC & Bar TD, better known as 'Buzzer', who was later chairman of Slazenger's and then the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Beginning with his work in London and Territorial Army training, it describes life in Wimbledon under the cloud of impending war. On 29th July 1939, Buzzer was commissioned into 167 Brigade, 67th (East Surrey) Anti-Tank Regiment R.A. T.A., the 'Black Cats'. Three years later he embarked from Liverpool, carrying a sun-helmet, destination unknown. Momentous challenges followed, not least a 3-year separation from his family. Here are fresh aspects of an epic 3,000-mile journey from Iraq to action in North Africa, before conflicts in Italy: Salerno, Anzio, and the lesser-known 'Monte Cassino of the Adriatic': Gemmano. Leading toward the 80th Anniversary of the Italian Campaign (1943-1945), relevant historic anecdotes and key operational recollections reveal a young, energetic 303 Anti-Tank Battery Commander's personal perspectives, and the first officer in his Territorial Regiment to receive a batt le honour. This remarkable, first-hand account by the 'poet of Wimbledon' is intended as a special tribute to all brave men who served in the 'Black Cats' - and as a commemoration of the fallen.

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

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.

Leicestershire and Rutland, occupying the area between the Great North Road and Watling Street have seen the movement of armies from Roman times to the Civil War, with the decisive battles of Bosworth and Naseby fought within or close to their borders. The Victorian era saw the development of both the regular and volunteer forces that would later fight in two world wars, while the development of military flight in both defensive and offensive roles was a twentieth-century theme. Leicestershire and Rutland witnessed defence against the Zeppelins in the First World War; jet engines and US airborne forces in the Second World War; and elements of Britain's nuclear deterrent during the Cold War. The eavesdroppers of the 'Y' Service at Beaumanor Hall provided much of the raw material for Bletchley Park's code-breakers during the Second World War. Evidence of this military activity is visible in the landscape: castles of earthwork, stone or brick; barracks and volunteer drill halls; airfields, missile sites and munitions factories; pillboxes, observer corps posts and bunkers. This book places sites into their social, political, historical and military contexts, as well as figures such as William the Conqueror, Richard III, and Oliver Cromwell.

This volume brings together a set of scholarly, readable and up-to-date essays covering the most significant naval mutinies of the 20th century, including Russia (1905), Brazil (1910), Austria (1918), Germany (1918), France (1918-19), Great Britain (1931), Chile (1931), the United States (1944), India (1946), China (1949), Australia, and Canada (1949).
Each chapter addresses the causes of the mutiny in question, its long- and short-term repercussions, and the course of the mutiny itself. More generally, authors consider the state of the literature on their mutiny and examine significant historiographical issues connected with it, taking advantage of new research and new methodologies to provide something of value to both the specialist and non-specialist reader. The book provides fresh insights into issues such as what a mutiny is, what factors cause them, what navies are most susceptible to them, what responses lead to satisfactory or unsatisfactory conclusions, and how far-reaching their consequences tend to be.

Michael Palin recreates the extraordinary life and tragic death of a First World War soldier - his great-uncle Harry.

From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who died in tragic circumstances, he was determined to find out more about him.

The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence he could. He studied every relevant official document. He tracked down what remained of his great-uncle Harry's diaries and letters, and pored over photographs of First World War battle scenes to see whether Harry appeared in any of them. He walked the route Harry took on that fatal, final day of his life amid the mud of northern France. And as he did so, a life that had previously existed in the shadows was revealed to him.

Great-Uncle Harry is an utterly compelling account of an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life. A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir this is Michael Palin at his very finest.

In the global theatre of contemporary warfare, courage and endurance are crucial for overcoming adversity. However, for Caroline Paige, a jet and helicopter navigator in the Royal Air Force, adversity was a common companion both on and off the field of battle.In 1999, Paige became the first ever openly serving transgender officer in the British military. Already a highly respected aviator, she rose against the extraordinary challenges placed before her to remain on the front line in the war on terror, serving a further sixteen years and flying battlefield helicopters in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.Detailing the emotional complexities of her transition, Paige reveals the external threats she faced in warzones around the world and the internal conflict she suffered while fighting prejudice at home. The result is a story of secrecy and vulnerability, of fear and courage, of challenge and hope.Criss-crossing battle lines both foreign and domestic, True Colours is the unflinchingly honest and inspirational account of one woman's venerable military career and the monumental struggle she overcame while grappling with gender identity on the quest for acceptance.

The final part of the Lion and the Rose trilogy detailing the TF battalions of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in the Great War. Established in August 1914, the 2/5th spent the next thirty months in England perfecting their ability to `form fours'; engaged in almost every sort of training other than that which they would need at the Front. When they deployed to France in February 1917, they were pitted against an aggressive and experienced foe. This book tells the story of their struggle to learn the skills necessary to survive in the pitiless arena of modern warfare and their progress to become the fighting equals of any by the end of the war. With no history written for either 57 Division or the 2/5th, this book-based on dozens of contemporary and unpublished sources, tells their story for the first time. The book contains sketch maps of the sectors the battalion fought in and accurate coordinates for all positions; previously unpublished photographs of men from the battalion; the most complete battalion roll yet compiled and narrates the individual parts played by 1,000 of the officers and men during the war.

From the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43, a brilliant new history of the last days of the war 'Seldom is war so vividly described...An assault on the senses...Painful to read, impossible to put down' Gerard DeGroot, The Times 'Epic and moving...Holland brings this cramped universe vividly to life' Patrick Bishop, Daily Telegraph ______ It took a certain type of courage to serve in a tank in the Second World War. Encased in steel, surrounded by highly explosive shells, a big and slow-moving target, every crew member was utterly vulnerable to enemy attack from all sides. Living - and dying - in a tank was a brutal way to fight a war. The Sherwood Rangers were one of the great tank regiments. They had learned their trade the hard way, in the burning deserts of North Africa. From D-Day onwards, they were in the thick of the action til the war's end. They and their Sherman tanks covered thousands of miles and endured some of the fiercest fighting in Western Europe. Their engagements stretch from the Normandy beaches to the bridges at Eindhoven. They were the first British unit into Germany, grinding across the Siegfried Line and on into the Nazi heartland. Through compelling eye-witness testimony and James Holland's expert analysis, Brothers In Arms brings to vivid life the final bloody scramble across Europe and gives the most powerful account to date of what it was really like to fight in the dying days of World War Two.

In Our Veterans, Suzanne Gordon, Steve Early, and Jasper Craven explore the physical, emotional, social, economic, and psychological impact of military service and the problems that veterans face when they return to civilian life. The authors critically examine the role of advocacy organizations, philanthropies, corporations, and politicians who purport to be "pro-veteran." They describe the ongoing debate about the cost, quality, and effectiveness of healthcare provided or outsourced by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). They also examine generational divisions and political tensions among veterans, as revealed in the tumultuous events of 2020, from Black Lives Matter protests to the Trump-Biden presidential contest. Frank and revealing, Our Veterans proposes a new agenda for veterans affairs linking service provision to veterans to the quest for broader social programs benefiting all Americans.

Admiral William H. McRaven is a part of American military history, having been involved in some of the most famous missions in recent memory, including the capture of Saddam Hussein, the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, and the raid to kill Osama bin Laden.Sea Stories begins in 1960 at the American Officers' Club in France, where Allied officers and their wives gathered to have drinks and tell stories about their adventures during World War II -- the place where a young Bill McRaven learned the value of a good story. Sea Stories is an unforgettable look back on one man's incredible life, from childhood days sneaking into high-security military sites to a day job of hunting terrorists and rescuing hostages.Action-packed, inspiring, and full of thrilling stories from life in the special operations world, Sea Stories is a remarkable memoir from one of America's most accomplished leaders.