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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
Soldiers disguised as a herd of cows, cork bath mats for troops
crossing streams and a tank with a piano attachment for camp
concerts are just some of the absurd inventions to be found in this
book of cartoons designed to keep spirits up during the Second
World War. These intricate comic drawings poke gentle fun at both
the instruments of war and the indignity of the air-raid shelter in
Heath Robinson's inimitable style.
One of the brightest Canadian scientists of his generation, Omond
McKillop Solandt was a physiologist by training, an engineer by
disposition, and a manager by necessity. A protege of insulin's
co-discoverer, Charles Best, Solandt worked as a scientist for the
British government during the Second World War, including as a
pioneer of operational research and a manager of scientific
establishments. Ending the war as a colonel, he served on the
British Mission to Japan, where he studied the effects of the
atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, before returning to Canada
to become chairman of the newly created Defence Research Board.
There he spearheaded Canada's attempt to create a new and
innovative government science infrastructure that served the needs
of the Canadian military at the dawn of the nuclear age and worked
alongside allies in Britain and the United States. In Maestro of
Science, Jason S. Ridler draws on interviews with Solandt and his
colleagues and declassified records from Canada and the United
Kingdom to paint a vivid picture of the influence and achievements
of a Canadian leader in Cold War military research.
This ground-breaking comparative perspective on the subject of
World War II war crimes and war justice focuses on American and
German atrocities. Almost every war involves loss of life of both
military personnel and civilians, but World War II involved an
unprecedented example of state-directed and ideologically motivated
genocide-the Holocaust. Beyond this horrific, premeditated war
crime perpetrated on a massive scale, there were also isolated and
spontaneous war crimes committed by both German and U.S. forces.
The book is focused upon on two World War II atrocities-one
committed by Germans and the other by Americans. The author
carefully examines how the U.S. Army treated each crime, and gives
accounts of the atrocities from both German and American
perspectives. The two events are contextualized within multiple
frameworks: the international law of war, the phenomenon of war
criminality in World War II, and the German and American collective
memories of World War II. Americans, Germans and War Crimes
Justice: Law, Memory, and "The Good War" provides a fresh and
comprehensive perspective on the complex and sensitive subject of
World War II war crimes and justice. . Provides historic
photographs related to war crimes and trials . An extensive
bibliography of primary sources and secondary literature in English
and German related to World War II war crimes and trials
Witnessing the Holocaust presents the autobiographical writings,
including diaries and autobiographical fiction, of six Holocaust
survivors who lived through and chronicled the Nazi genocide.
Drawing extensively on the works of Victor Klemperer, Ruth Kluger,
Michal Glowinski, Primo Levi, Imre Kertesz and Bela Zsolt, this
books conveys, with vivid detail, the persecution of the Jews from
the beginning of the Third Reich until its very end. It gives us a
sense both of what the Holocaust meant to the wider community swept
up in the horrors and what it was like for the individual to
weather one of the most shocking events in history. Survivors and
witnesses disappear, and history, not memory, becomes the
instrument for recalling the past. Judith M. Hughes secures a place
for narratives by those who experienced the Holocaust in person.
This compelling text is a vital read for all students of the
Holocaust and Holocaust memory.
This epic story opens at the hour the Greatest Generation went
to war on December 7, 1941, and follows four U.S. Navy ships and
their crews in the Pacific until their day of reckoning three years
later with a far different enemy: a deadly typhoon. In December
1944, while supporting General MacArthur's invasion of the
Philippines, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey neglected the Law of
Storms, placing the mighty U.S. Third Fleet in harm's way. Drawing
on extensive interviews with nearly every living survivor and
rescuer, as well as many families of lost sailors, transcripts and
other records from naval courts of inquiry, ships' logs, personal
letters, and diaries, Bruce Henderson finds some of the story's
truest heroes exhibiting selflessness, courage, and even
defiance.
First published in 2002. From the foreword: "This insightful work
by David N. Spires holds many lessons in tactical air-ground
operations. Despite peacetime rivalries in the drafting of service
doctrine, in World War II the immense pressures of wartime drove
army and air commanders to cooperate in the effective prosecution
of battlefield operations. In northwest Europe during the war, the
combination of the U.S. Third Army commanded by Lt. Gen. George S.
Patton and the XIX Tactical Air Command led by Brig. Gen. Otto P.
Weyland proved to be the most effective allied air-ground team of
World War II. The great success of Patton's drive across France,
ultimately crossing the Rhine, and then racing across southern
Germany, owed a great deal to Weyland's airmen of the XIX Tactical
Air Command. This deft cooperation paved the way for allied victory
in Westren Europe and today remains a classic example of air-ground
effectiveness. It forever highlighted the importance of air-ground
commanders working closely together on the battlefield. The Air
Force is indebted to David N. Spires for chronicling this landmark
story of air-ground cooperation."
Exiled Emissary is a biography of the colorful life of George H.
Earle, III - a Main Line Philadelphia millionaire, war hero awarded
the Navy Cross, Pennsylvania Governor, Ambassador to Austria and
Bulgaria, friend and supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, humanitarian,
playboy, and spy. Rich in Casablanca-style espionage and intrigue,
Farrell's deeply personal study presents FDR and his White House in
a new light, especially when they learned in 1943 that high-ranking
German officials approached Earle in Istanbul to convey their plot
to kidnap Hitler and seek an armistice. When FDR rejected their
offer, thereby prolonging World War II, his close relationship with
Earle became most inconvenient, resulting in Earle's exile to
American Samoa. Earle eventually returned to the United States,
renewing his warnings about communism to President Truman, who
underestimated the threat as a "bugaboo." Now, over four decades
following Earle's death, Farrell has uncovered newly declassified
records that give voice to his warnings about a threat we now know
should have never been dismissed.
What were the consequences of the German occupation for the economy
of occupied Europe? After Germany conquered major parts of the
European continent, it was faced with a choice between plundering
the suppressed countries and using their economies to produce what
it needed. The decision made not only differed from country to
country but also changed over the course of the war. Individual
leaders; the economic needs of the Reich; the military situation;
struggles between governors of occupied countries and Berlin
officials, and finally racism all had an impact on the outcome. In
the end, in Western Europe and the Czech Protectorate, emphasis was
placed on production for German warfare, which kept these economies
functioning. New research, presented for the first time in this
book, shows that as a consequence the economic setback in these
areas was limited, and therefore post-war recovery was relatively
easy. However, plundering was characteristic in Eastern Europe and
the Balkans, resulting in partisan activity, a collapse of normal
society and a dramatic destruction not only of the economy but in
some countries of a substantial proportion of the labour force. In
these countries, post-war recovery was almost impossible.
This is the remarkable story of one of the Second World War's most
unusual animal heroes - a 14-stone St Bernard dog who became global
mascot for the Royal Norwegian Forces and a symbol of freedom and
inspiration for Allied troops throughout Europe. From a happy and
carefree puppyhood spent as a family pet in the Norwegian fishing
town of Honningsvag, the gentle giant Bamse followed his master at
the outbreak of the war to become a registered crew member of the
mine-sweeper Thorodd. Often donning his own steel helmet as he took
his place in the Thorodd's bow gun turret, Bamse cut an impressive
figure and made a huge contribution to the morale of the crew, and
he gallantly saved the lives of two of them. After Norway fell to
the Germans in 1940, the Thorodd operated from Dundee and Montrose,
where Bamse became a well-known and much-loved figure, shepherding
the Thorodd's crew-members back to the boat at pub closing time,
travelling on the local buses, breaking up fights and even taking
part in football matches. Mourned both by locals and Norwegians
when he died in 1944, Bamse's memory has been kept alive both in
Norway, where he is still regarded as a national hero, and in
Montrose, where a larger-than-life statue of him was unveiled in
2006 by HRH Prince Andrew. Written from extensive source material
and eyewitness accounts, Sea Dog Bamse is a fitting tribute to the
extraordinary life of an extraordinary dog.
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