The 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was raised in August 1914 and sailed for Gallipoli in July 1915. Upon arrival, the Battalion was almost immediately thrown into action at the Suvla Bay landings on 6 August 1915. The 6th Lincolns continued to serve at Gallipoli until the evacuation of Suvla. Following a period of respite in Egypt, the Battalion was transferred to the Western Front where it served until Armistice. Compiled from a previously unpublished manuscript written in the 1920's, this book provides a unique and colourful account of the Battalion's history throughout WW1, as told by Colonel F.G. Spring who served with the Battalion in 1915. The book also contains a Roll of Honour listing the names of all those who died with the Battalion, as well as the citations for those awarded medals for gallantry. Given that the Battalion War Diary for Gallipoli was lost, this publication is represents the most comprehensive account of the 6th Lincolns during the Great War.

It was 1862, the second year of the Civil War, though Kansans and Missourians had been fighting over slavery for almost a decade. For the 250 Union soldiers facing down rebel irregulars on Enoch Toothman's farm near Butler, Missouri, this was no battle over abstract principles. These were men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry, and they were fighting for their own freedom and that of their families. They belonged to the first black regiment raised in a northern state, and the first black unit to see combat during the Civil War. "Soldiers in the Army of Freedom" is the first published account of this largely forgotten regiment and, in particular, its contribution to Union victory in the trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War. As such, it restores the First Kansas Colored Infantry to its rightful place in American history.
Composed primarily of former slaves, the First Kansas Colored saw major combat in Missouri, Indian Territory, and Arkansas. Ian Michael Spurgeon draws upon a wealth of little-known sources--including soldiers' pension applications--to chart the intersection of race and military service, and to reveal the regiment's role in countering white prejudices by defying stereotypes. Despite naysayers' bigoted predictions--and a merciless slaughter at the Battle of Poison Spring--these black soldiers proved themselves as capable as their white counterparts, and so helped shape the evolving attitudes of leading politicians, such as Kansas senator James Henry Lane and President Abraham Lincoln. A long-overdue reconstruction of the regiment's remarkable combat record, Spurgeon's book brings to life the men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry in their doubly desperate battle against the Confederate forces and skepticism within Union ranks.

From Thermopylae to Belfast, elite military formations have been deployed against conventional or irregular forces. This study offers a superb analysis of elites in military history. A collection of brilliant studies by distinguished scholars, it illuminates, through a combination of overview and case study, a historical subject that has profound implications for the development of specialized forces in the post-Cold War Era. The study uses a comparative approach which investigates the topic over time and across culture.

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.

WINNER OF THE MILITARY HISTORY MATTERS AWARD 'Hart is a historian and author at the peak of his powers' Richard van Emden The best way to understand what it was like to fight in the Second World War is to see it through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it. The South Notts Hussars fought at almost every major battle of the Second World War, from the Siege of Tobruk to the Battle of El Alamein and the D-Day Landings. Here, Peter Hart draws on detailed interviews conducted with members of the regiment, to provide both a comprehensive account of the conflict and reconstruct its most thrilling moments in the words of the men who experienced it. This is military history at its best: outlining the path from despair to victory, and allowing us to share in soldiers' hopes and fears; the deafening explosions of the shells, the scream of the diving Stukas and the wounded; the pleasures of good comrades and the devastating despair at lost friends.

Leslie Wheeler was born in Devizes, Wiltshire in 1909, and in 1927 he enlisted in his local Territorial Army regiment, the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry. Leslie served throughout the Second World War in the Middle East, North Africa, and Italy as a senior non-commissioned officer and was then commissioned as quartermaster into the regiment that he clearly loved. His honest and revealing memoirs depict the final years of horsed cavalry in the British Army, the wartime transition to mobile but poorly equipped desert columns, and finally the transition to a tank regiment. The often-overlooked 1941 campaigns in Syria, Iraq, and Persia as well as El Alamein and the fight north through Italy are described by the author in a typically understated fashion. What makes this tale unique is the often amusing and sometimes cynical perspective of a senior and experienced soldier working tirelessly in the quartermaster’s department to keep his regiment supplied in peace and war.

'A humbling, inspiring account of some of the real founders of modern day Special Forces soldiering' Bear Grylls Praise for Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author Damien Lewis' SAS mission series: 'One of the great untold stories of WWII' - Bear Grylls on SAS Ghost Patrol 'A tale of bravery against desperate odds' - Sunday Times on Churchill's Secret Warriors 'True adventures laced with staggering bravery and sacrifice' - Sun on Hunting the Nazi Bomb SAS Nazi Hunters is the incredible, hitherto untold story of the most secret chapter in the SAS's history. Officially, the world's most elite special forces unit was dissolved at the end of the Second World War, and not reactivated until the 1950s. Among their last actions was a disastrous commando raid into occupied France in 1944, which ended in the capture,torture and execution of 31 soldiers. It can now be revealed that the SAS never was dissolved: it lived on, commanded personally by Churchill and hidden even from the British government. They were tasked with hunting through the ruins of the Reich for the SS commanders responsible for the murder of their comrades, including many who had escaped the failed justice of the Nuremberg trials. Along the way, they discovered before anyone else the full horror of Hitler's regime, and the growing threat from Stalin's Russia. Still studied by the SAS today and a central part of their founding myth, the story of the Nazi hunters is now told by bestselling author Damien Lewis.

The book tells the story of a little known artillery regiment, the 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, RA which saw constant action during the ill-fated Malayan Campaign of 1941/42 and whose members later experienced the worst kind of hell as POWs of a cruel and bestial enemy. Following the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the Regiment fought a brave and resolute rearguard action all the way down the Malayan Peninsular and onto the so called impregnable fortress of Singapore. Held in the highest respect by comrades and foe alike, this former territorial cavalry regiment fully deserved its Royal Artillery moto - Ubigue - 'everywhere'. In the years that followed, the Gunners slaved, suffered an d died on the infamous Burma Railway, in copper mines of Formosa and camps throughout the Far East. More men of the Regiment died as POWs than fell in action. They should not be forgotten. Included is a full nominal roll which allows the reader to identify the camp/s where each individual Gunner was held. A Roll of Honour provides the date, place and cause of death and place of burial/commemoration of the Regiment's casualties.

Trained as an assault brigade, the 56th landed on D-Day and successfully liberated Bayeux the following day. It was then employed in the crossing of the River Seine and the assault on, before fighting across Belgium and Holland culminating in the final assault on Arnhem in April 1945, by which time the brigade had served in four different divisions. No previous study has sought to explain how an infantry brigade is used in battle, let alone one holding the title Independent Holborn considers the styles of war as carried out by British forces and casts new light on the effectiveness of British infantry units and their contribution to war effort. Extensive use has been made of previously unseen primary evidence from The National Archives, IWM Archive and Regimental Museums. The evidence is used to explore issues pertinent to life in the Army at home during the war, training for war and the Campaign in North West Europe, as well as the role of the battalion.

Gabriel examines 18 ancient army systems, examining the organizational structure and weapons employed and the degree to which cultural values and imperatives shaped the form and application of military force. The tactical doctrines and specific operational capabilities of each army are analyzed to explain how certain technical limitations and societal/cultural imperatives affected the operational capabilities of ancient armies. Cross-cultural and cross-historical connections ground the analysis in the larger historical context of the ancient world.

Sumer and Akkad

The Armies of the Pharaohs

The Hittites

The Mitanni

Armies of the Bible

The Iron Army of Assyria

Chinese Armies

Persia and the Art of Logistics

The Greeks

Carthaginian Armies

Armies of India

Rome

The Iberians, Celts, Germans, and Goths

The Army of Byzantium

The Vikings

The Arab Armies

The Japanese Way of War

The Mongols

The Ottomans

This book also provides an introductory overview of war in the ancient world, from 2500 B.C.E. to 1453 C.E., as well as an examination of the evolution of modern warfare from 1453 to 2002 C.E.

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 book compares female administrators who specifically chose to serve the Nazi cause in voluntary roles with those who took on such work as a progression of established careers. Under the Nazi regime, secretaries, SS-Helferinnen (female auxiliaries for the SS) and Nachrichtenhelferinnen des Heeres (female auxiliaries for the army) held similar jobs: taking dictation, answering telephones, sending telegrams. Yet their backgrounds and degree of commitment to Nazi ideology differed markedly. The author explores their motivations and what they knew about the true nature of their work. These women had access to information about the administration of the Holocaust and are a relatively untapped resource. Their recollections shed light on the lives, love lives, and work of their superiors, and the tasks that contributed to the displacement, deportation and death of millions. The question of how gender intersected with Nazism, repression, atrocity and genocide forms the conceptual thread of this book.

When the 107th New York Volunteer Infantry arrived in Washington, D.C. in August 1862, President Lincoln personally honored them with a regimental banner. It was kept by Secretary of State William Seward and never saw a battlefield--the 107th saw many. This unit history presents a day-to-day chronicle of the regiment's actions during the Civil War, from Antietam to Chancellorsville to Gettysburg to their deadliest fight at New Hope Church. At the Siege of Atlanta, where citizens dug furnished caves to escape the shelling, the 107th took fire from determined rebel snipers and were among the first troops to enter the city.

The 16th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was one of a few Massachusetts regiments whose history was not recorded. From 1861-1864, it was deeply embroiled in the operations of the Army of the Potomac. Suffering from a lack of skilled leadership and later from horrific living conditions, the 16th saw heavy casualties. Of more than 1300 men, 112 were killed in battle, 360 were wounded and 52 died from their wounds. Disease claimed 115 and 65 were taken as prisoners of war, 32 of them dying in Confederate prisons. Another 344 went home afflicted with wounds or disease as disability discharges. This comprehensive biographical sketch chronicles for the first time the story of the 16th Massachusetts and the lives of most of its men, with all available genealogical details provided.

This fascinating history shows how African-American military men and women seized their dignity through barracks culture and community politics during and after World War II.

Drawing on oral testimony, unpublished correspondence, archival records, memoirs, and diaries, Robert F. Jefferson explores the curious contradiction of war-effort idealism and entrenched discrimination through the experiences of the 93rd Infantry Division. Led by white officers and presumably unable to fight -- and with the army taking great pains to regulate contact between black soldiers and local women -- the division was largely relegated to support roles during the advance on the Philippines, seeing action only later in the war when U.S. officials found it unavoidable.

Jefferson discusses racial policy within the War Department, examines the lives and morale of black GIs and their families, documents the debate over the deployment of black troops, and focuses on how the soldiers' wartime experiences reshaped their perspectives on race and citizenship in America. He finds in these men and their families incredible resilience in the face of racism at war and at home and shows how their hopes for the future provided a blueprint for America's postwar civil rights struggles.

Integrating social history and civil rights movement studies, Fighting for Hope examines the ways in which political meaning and identity were reflected in the aspirations of these black GIs and their role in transforming the face of America.

Not known to the historic pen, or platform orator," wrote a soldier in the 117th New York Volunteer Infantry, "but the private led in the horror of the fight." Drawing on firsthand accounts, this history of the regiment narrates the monotony and privation of camp life, the exhaustion of long marches and the terror of combat from the perspective of the regular soldier. The operations of the 115th are fully detailed, including actions in the 1863 Suffolk Campaign, the siege of Charleston, the captures of Petersburg and Richmond, and the conquest of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

During World War II 51,000 Italian prisoners of war were detained in the United States. When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, most of these soldiers agreed to swear allegiance to the United States and to collaborate in the fight against Germany. At the Letterkenny Army Depot, located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, more than 1,200 Italian soldiers were detained as co-operators. They arrived in May 1944 to form the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion and remained until October 1945. As detainees, the soldiers helped to order, stock, repair, and ship military goods, munitions and equipment to the Pacific and European Theaters of war. Through such labor, they lent their collective energy to the massive home front endeavor to defeat the Axis Powers. The prisoners also helped to construct the depot itself, building roads, sidewalks, and fences, along with individual buildings such as an assembly hall, amphitheater, swimming pool, and a chapel and bell tower. The latter of these two constructions still exist, and together with the assembly hall, bear eloquent testimony to the Italian POW experience. For their work the Italian co-operators received a very modest, regular salary, and they experienced more freedom than regular POWs. In their spare time, they often had liberty to leave the post in groups that American soldiers chaperoned. Additionally, they frequently received or visited large entourages of Italian Americans from the Mid-Atlantic region who were eager to comfort their erstwhile countrymen. The story of these Italian soldiers detained at Letterkenny has never before been told. Now, however, oral histories from surviving POWs, memoirs generously donated by family members of ex-prisoners, and the rich information newly available from archival material in Italy, aided by material found in the U.S., have made it possible to reconstruct this experience in full. All of this historical documentation has also allowed the authors to tell fascinating individual stories from the moment when many POWs were captured to their return to Italy and beyond. More than seventy years since the end of World War II, family members of ex-POWs in both the United States and Italy still enjoy the positive legacy of this encounter.

The First World War had a devastating impact on the Russian state, yet relatively little is known about the ways in which ordinary Russians experienced and viewed this conflict. Melissa Kirschke Stockdale presents the first comprehensive study of the Great War's influence on Russian notions of national identity and citizenship. Drawing on a vast array of sources, the book examines the patriotic and nationalist organizations which emerged during the war, the role of the Russian Orthodox Church, the press and the intelligentsia in mobilizing Russian society, the war's impact on the rights of citizens, and the new, democratized ideas of Russian nationhood which emerged both as a result of the war and of the 1917 revolution. Russia's war experience is revealed as a process that helped consolidate in the Russian population a sense of membership in a great national community, rather than being a test of patriotism which they failed.

After just four weeks of training, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders-a regiment of cowboys recruited into the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry-fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War with the skill of seasoned regulars. The unit reflected the future president's character as a wealthy Ivy Leaguer who went west to experience frontier life. Most of the Rough Riders were seasoned cowhands from the Southwest, but Ivy League athletes, sons of millionaires and lawmen filled out the ranks. Roosevelt molded this diverse group into a cohesive, efficient fighting force and led them to victory on San Juan Hill. Told from the perspective of the men in the regiment, this book traces the history of the Rough Riders from conception to disbanding, and Roosevelt's transformation into an American hero.

This work follows the Ninth Vermont from the horrors of its first combat and humiliating capture at Harpers Ferry in September 1862 to its triumphal march into Richmond in April 1865. Through diaries and letters written by members of the unit, one relives the riveting day-by-day account of the men in battle, on the march, and in camp. With seldom seen photographs of many of the regiment's members, detailed maps, and a complete regimental roster, this book tells a compelling story.

The 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion was activated on 25 July 1942 at Camp Carson, USA and, like many other tank destroyer battalions, would be sent to Europe. It saw combat in France, where a platoon earned the Distinguished Unit Citation, and later continued to fight gallantly in Germany and Austria until the war was over. However, unlike many other tank destroyer battalions that fought in the Second World War, this unit was crewed only by black soldiers. The men had been subjected to racism from their countrymen during training, although the battalion did eventually win the respect of the white soldiers they fought alongside. When the third platoon deployed their guns on the slopes near Climbach, France, they weren't just fighting against the Germans, but also against any prejudices that their white countrymen might have had. Having earned the respect of the 103d Infantry Division, the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion shared in their triumphs and tragedies. So when the division needed to retreat during a blizzard, or when Task Force Rhine pushed its way across the German plains, or when the division suffered heavy losses at Schillersdorf, the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion was there with them. Included in this book are lists of medals awarded to the men during the war, as well as a list of casualties and those that served in the unit.

Jocelyn Pereira's vivid and colourful narrative of the 5th Battalion' Coldstream Guards advance from Normandy to Cuxhaven in 1944-45 is a priceless piece of regimental history and a tribute to those who served in that final, testing phase of the war. It is a story of war, an intensely human endeavour, with its bursts of extreme activity interspersed with long periods of relative inactivity; with its highs and lows, good times and bad. It is a story of Guardsmen, of professionalism and discipline in the most demanding of circumstances, of initiative and resourcefulness, of determination and stubbornness, of fortitude and stoicism in adversity, of comradeship and consideration for others, of humour and unbreakable morale, of extraordinary gallantry and sacrifice. With a light touch, a dose of irreverence, modesty and understatement, and an evidently healthy disregard for dress regulations, Jocelyn Pereira captures that enduring Coldstream spirit. A Distant Drum also contains useful appendices for the historian, these include: a Roll of Honour, citations for awards and medals and lists of orders of battle throughout the campaign.