The British regular army in the form of the 'Old Contemptibles' of the B.E.F have proved no match in numbers-if not in spirit-to the challenges of a Great War in Europe. More men were needed and Lord Kitchener's finger, pointing out from the recruiting poster, made that appeal directly and simply. A 'New Army' had to be quickly formed. It would not be a professional army, but one formed of citizens who would rally to the cause-ready to do their 'bit'-because their country needed them. Ian Hay Beith has written two of the classic accounts of the first of these volunteer amateur soldiers and they are brought together in this Leonaur book. They provide an invaluable insight into the training and battlefield field experiences of a 'new' Highland regiment from its early encounters of trench warfare to the 'Big Push' at Loos and on to the Somme. What makes them most memorable is the author's skill in bringing to life its cast of characters from Captain Wagstaffe and Lt. Bobby Little to a company of irrepressible 'Jocks' including Mucklewame, Tosh, Cosh, Buncle, Nigg and others. Created in the midst of the tragedies of the Western Front here is a well executed and readable account filled with wry humour. Those familiar with the fictitious 'MacAuslin' will find much to satisfy them in its pages.

Why didn't the Hungarian Jews do more to resist the 'Final Solution'? Why didn't the Allies bomb the gas chambers at Auschwitz? Why did the Allies sabotage schemes to save the Jews?
In this provocative book, historians from Hungary, Israel, Britain and the United States examine one of the greatest tragedies of World War II -- the deportation and murder of 435,000 Hungarian Jews during the last months of the war when German military and diplomatic power was on the wane. Could Jews in the West have done more to help, or were they 'prisoners' of civil servants and politicians in Whitehall and the US State Department? Drawing on new sources, leading scholars address these controversial issues and shed new light on a shameful period in history.

The first comprehensive history of the German Jews on the eve of Hitler's seizure of power, this book examines both their internal debates and their relations with larger German society. It shows that, far from being united, German Jewry was deeply divided along religious, political, and ideological fault lines. Above all, the liberal majority of patriotic and assimilationist Jews was forced to sharpen its self-definition by the onslaught of Zionist zealots who denied the "Germanness" of the Jews. This struggle for the heart and soul of German Jewry was fought at every level, affecting families, synagogues, and community institutions.

Although the Jewish role in Germany's economy and culture was exaggerated, they were certainly prominent in many fields, giving rise to charges of privilege and domination. This volume probes the texture of German anti-Semitism, distinguishing between traditional and radical Judeophobia and reaching conclusions that will give no comfort to those who assume that Germans were predisposed to become "willing executioners" under Hitler. It also assesses the quality of Jewish responses to racist attacks. The self-defense campaigns of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith included publishing counter-propaganda, supporting sympathetic political parties, and taking anti-Semitic demagogues to court. Although these measures could only slow the rise of Nazism after 1930, they demonstrate that German Jewry was anything but passive in its responses to the fascist challenge.

The German Jews' faith in liberalism is sometimes attributed to self-delusion and wishful thinking. This volume argues that, in fact, German Jewry pursued a clear-sighted perception of Jewish self-interest, apprehended the dangers confronting it, and found allies in socialist and democratic elements that constituted the "other Germany." Sadly, this profound and genuine commitment to liberalism left the German Jews increasingly isolated as the majority of Germans turned to political radicalism in the last years of the Republic. This full-scale history of Weimar Jewry will be of interest to professors, students, and general readers interested in the Holocaust and Jewish History.

The injustices committed against millions of Europe's Jews did not end with the fall of the Third Reich. Long after the Nazis had seized the belongings of Holocaust victims, Swiss banks concealed and appropriated their assets, demanding that their survivors produce the death certificates or banking records of the depositors in order to claim their family's property--demands that were usually impossible for the petitioners to meet. Now the full account of the Holocaust deposits affair is revealed by the journalist who first broke the story in 1995. Relying on archival and contemporary sources, Itamar Levin describes the Jewish people's decades-long effort to return death camp victims' assets to their rightful heirs. Levin also uncovers the truth about the behavior of Swiss banking institutions, their complicity with the Nazis, and their formidable power over even their own neutral government.

From the first attempt to settle the fate of German property in neutral countries at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, through the heated negotiations following publication of Levin's investigative article in 1995, to the Swiss banks' ultimate agreement to a $1.25 billion payment in 1997, the pursuit of restitution is a story of delaying tactics and legal complications of almost unimaginable dimensions. Terrified that the traditional and highly marketable wall of secrecy surrounding the Swiss banks would tumble and destroy the industry, the banks' managements were dismissive and uncooperative in determining the location and extent of the assets in question, forcing the United States, other European countries, and Jewish organizations worldwide to apply tremendous pressure for a just resolution. The details and the central characters involved in this struggle, as well as new information about Switzerland's controversial policies during World War II, are fascinating reading for anyone concerned with the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Hitler: Profile of a Dictator is a fascinating exploration of Hitler and his role in the Third Reich. The book unravels the complex historiographical debate surrounding this notorious figure by examining his personality, his ideas and the nature of his power.
Hitler: Profile of a Dictator surveys Hitler's career chronologically and includes coverage of:
* the young idealogue
* the Führer State
* Hitler's role in the outbreak of the Second World War
* Hitler's involvement in the Holocaust.
This second edition brings the continuing debate up to date in light of the most recent reseach, and speculates on the implications of the Irving trial.

HMS Cavalier is a 'C'-Class destroyer, one of 96 War Emergency Programme destroyers that were ordered between 1940 and 1942. She saw action on convoy duty off Russia, and later, in 1945, was sent to the Far East where she provided naval gunfire support during the battle of Surabaya. She continued with the British Pacific Fleet until May 1946. Now designated as a war memorial to the 142 RN destroyers and 11,000 men lost during WWII, she is on display at Chatham Historic Dockyard. As is the case for many museum ships there is a surprising shortage of informative and well illustrated guides, for reference during a visit or for research by enthusiasts - ship modellers, naval buffs, historians or students. This book, in the Seaforth Historic Ship series, redresses the gap. Containing more than 200 specially commissioned photographs, the book takes the reader on a superbly illustrated tour of the ship, from bow to stern and deck by deck. Significant parts of the vessel - for example, the gun turrets and engine rooms - are given detailed coverage both in words and pictures, so that the reader has at hand the most complete visual record and explanation of the ship that exists.In addition, the importance of the ship, both in her own time and now as a museum vessel, is explained. No other book offers such superb visual impact nor brings the ship so vividly to life.

First published in 1941 to considerable acclaim, this is a classic account of the last days of peace in Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War. William Russell was a young American diplomat working at the US Embassy, in Hermann Goering Strasse, during the grim days of 1939 just prior to and after Germany's invasion of Poland. He had studied in Germany before joining his country's diplomatic corps, so both his knowledge of history and considerable linguistic skills would enable him to gain a unique experience of one of the most momentous periods in world history. And he does not miss any opportunity to write a totally absorbing account of both the horror and the farce which so often accompanies such epic times. This quite remarkable account deserves to find a whole new readership, revealing as it does, in intimate detail, a time when American diplomacy was forced to handle a Europe fast falling into an abyss of nightmares.

This is the official Naval Staff history of the Norway campaign, originally published internally in 1951. It covers the period from early April 1940 to the completion of operations in June. The operation involved most of the Royal Navy's ships in the Home theatre at the time.

The Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum. Events had been building up to it for a long, long time before the Nazis came to power.
German history, along with the supposed civilizing effects of Judeo-Christianity, are, thefore, traced from Roman times to the chaotic conditions after WWI which allowed a fanatical, nationalist dictator to came to power.
The relentless infiltration of the Jews into Europe is outlined, explaining why they came. Also discussed is the inability of Germans to unite as a nation of German speakers and the disaster that befell Europe following Luther's protestant schism.
Most importantly, the essential factor provoking the present day Muslim terror campaign against the West is pointed out.
This work treats a number of highly important issues-the resolution of which will be essential to any harmonious evolution of humanity.

In 1939 Hitler went to war not just with Great Britain; he also went to war with the whole of the British Empire, the greatest empire that there had ever been. In the years since 1945 that empire has disappeared, and the crucial fact that the British Empire fought together as a whole during the war has been forgotten. All the parts of the empire joined the struggle and were involved in it from the beginning, undergoing huge changes and sometimes suffering great losses as a result. The war in the desert, the defence of Malta and the Malayan campaign, and the contribution of the empire as a whole in terms of supplies, communications and troops, all reflect the strategic importance of Britain's imperial status. Men and women not only from Australia, New Zealand and India but from many parts of Africa and the Middle East all played their part. Winston Churchill saw the war throughout in imperial terms. The British Empire and the Second World War emphasises a central fact about the Second World War that is often forgotten.

The neutrality maintained by Turkey during most of World War II allowed it to rescue thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in the Nazi-occupied or collaborating countries of Europe. In France, the Turkish consels in Paris and Marseilles intervened to protect Turkish Jews from the application of anti-Jewish laws introduced both by the German occupying authorities and the Vichy government, and rescued them from concentration camps, getting them off trains destined for the extermination chambers in the East, and arranging train caravans and other special transportation to take them through Nazi-occupied territory to safety in Turkey.;Despite opposition from both the Nazis and the British, morever, the Turkish government instructed its diplomats in Eastern Europe to provide all possible assistance to Jews being persecuted during the Holocaust, allowed the Jewish Agency and other rescue groups to operate openly from offices in Istanbul, enabling them to send money and supplies to Eastern Europe, and permitted almost 100,000 East European Jews to transit through Turkey on their way to Palestine. This book is based on research in Turkish diplomatic archives in Ankara and Paris as well as i

Is music removed from politics? To what ends, beneficent or malevolent, can music and musicians be put? In short, when human rights are grossly abused and politics turned to fascist demagoguery, can art and artists be innocent?
These questions and their implications are explored in Michael Kater's broad survey of musicians and the music they composed and performed during the Third Reich. Great and small--from Valentin Grimm, a struggling clarinetist, to Richard Strauss, renowned composer--are examined by Kater, sometimes in intimate detail, and the lives and decisions of Nazi Germany's professional musicians are laid out before the reader.
Kater tackles the issue of whether the Nazi regime, because it held music in crassly utilitarian regard, acted on musicians in such a way as to consolidate or atomize the profession. Kater's examination of the value of music for the regime and the degree to which the regime attained a positive propaganda and palliative effect through the manner in which it manipulated its musicians, and by extension, German music, is of importance for understanding culture in totalitarian systems.
This work, with its emphasis on the social and political nature of music and the political attitude of musicians during the Nazi regime, will be the first of its kind. It will be of interest to scholars and general readers eager to understand Nazi Germany, to music lovers, and to anyone interested in the interchange of music and politics, culture and ideology.

Nearly 50 years after Japan's attack, this text takes a fresh look at the air raid that plunged America into World War II. Michael Slackman scrutinizes the decisions and attitudes that prompted the attack and left the US unprepared to mount a successful defence.

THE LETTERS FROM THE SUITCASE by Rosheen and Cal Finnigan reveals the detailed and poignant wartime romance between David and Mary Francis. For readers of Sheila Hancock's MISS CARTER'S WAR or Helen Simonson's MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND 'I still have that recurring fear of something happening to me before I see you again, and before I can tell you myself just how much and how often I've realised during the last few months that I love you completely and to the exclusion of all others. Remember that, because if there wasn't you, my darling Mary, the world would seem very empty and meaningless.' Mary and David Francis were only twenty-one and nineteen when they met in 1938. They fell in love instantly, and against the wishes of David's parents, they lived together and married, in secret. These poignant letters reveal their intelligence and thoughtfulness, their passion, the everyday details of their lives working as a secretary at Bletchley Park and as a young officer in action on the other side of the world, and Mary's experience of bringing up a small baby alone in London. David was to die in India, five years after their first encounter, though his letters continued to reach Mary long after the event. At heart, this is the story of a young couple who were utterly devoted to one another. It is also the story of a father that Rosheen Finnigan never knew but came to love.

In the 25 years since the revelation of the so-called 'Ultra secret', the importance of codebreaking and signals intelligence in the diplomacy and military operations of the Second World War has become increasingly evident. Studies of wartime signals intelligence, however, have largely focused on Great Britain and the United States and their successes against, respectively, the German Enigma and Japanese Purple cipher machines. Drawing upon newly available sources in Australia, Britain, China, France and the United States, the articles in this volume demonstrate that the codebreaking war was a truly global conflict in which many countries were active and successful. They discuss the work of Australian, Chinese, Finnish, French and Japanese codebreakers, shed new light on the work of their American and British counterparts, and describe the struggle to apply technology to the problems of radio intercept and cryptanalysis. The contributions also reveal that, for the Axis as well as the Allies, success in the signals war often depended upon close collaboration among alliance partners.

In the 25 years since the revelation of the so-called 'Ultra secret', the importance of codebreaking and signals intelligence in the diplomacy and military operations of the Second World War has become increasingly evident. Studies of wartime signals intelligence, however, have largely focused on Great Britain and the United States and their successes against, respectively, the German Enigma and Japanese Purple cipher machines. Drawing upon newly available sources in Australia, Britain, China, France and the United States, the articles in this volume demonstrate that the codebreaking war was a truly global conflict in which many countries were active and successful. They discuss the work of Australian, Chinese, Finnish, French and Japanese codebreakers, shed new light on the work of their American and British counterparts, and describe the struggle to apply technology to the problems of radio intercept and cryptanalysis. The contributions also reveal that, for the Axis as well as the Allies, success in the signals war often depended upon close collaboration among alliance partners.

The soldiers of the Red Army identified the Reichstag as the victor's prize to be taken in Berlin. Stalin had promised Berlin to Marshal Zhukov, but the latter's blundering in the preliminary breakthrough battle threw his timetable and forced a complete change of plan for reducing the city. Stalin used the opportunity to chasten his subordinates by allowing Marshal Koniev, Zhukov's rival, to introduce one of his tank armies into the competition unknown to Zhukov. Abandoning the rest of his army group, Koniev personally directed this army in the hope of grabbing the prize.

Meanwhile, the Germans improvised a defence with inadequate resources. The remains of General Weidling's 56th Panzer Corps were reluctantly dragged into the city in a futile attempt to prolong the life of the Third Reich, whose leaders squabbled and schemed in their underground shelters, a world apart from the reality outside, where their subjects suffered and died unheeded. Ten days later, after the successive suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, the survivors chose between breakout and surrender.

This account of the battle lays the many myths created by Soviet propaganda after the event and details what exactly happened as the Red Army and the Allies raced to be the first to the Reichstag.

This book re-evaluates the architectural history of Nazi Germany and looks at the development of the forced-labour concentration camp system. Through an analysis of such major Nazi building projects as the Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds and the rebuilding of Berlin, Jaskot ties together the development of the German building economy, state architectural goals and the rise of the SS as a political and economic force. As a result, The Architecture of Oppression contributes to our understanding of the conjunction of culture and politics in the Nazi period as well as the agency of architects and SS administrators in enabling this process.

The first Japanese army unit was established in 1896. The Japanese railway engineers was a unique branch of the army which specialized in the operation and construction of railways and the employees of the Japanese National Railways conscripted into the army. This book tells the stories of the railway soldiers and JNR men during their training, their working experience in Burma, their engagements with the allied armies and their life after the surrender through the memoirs and testaments of those soldiers.

This book consists of a series of letters written by a young man during WWII. He went from banker to bombardier. He underwent starvation, depravation and his moral conflict with killing the enemy to a fear of being able to do his duty. Dead bodies laying around, flies, filth, hurricanes, no smokes, no candy, no female companionship.These are some of the things he lived with all the while flying in a cramped nose of a B-24 bomber with his pet dog beside him on all forty eight missions.

He earned the moniker "Torchman Tucker" after firebombing a village which gave him much personal conflict. He says in a letter to his mother, "I wonder what God thinks of me." Just before his first bombing mission, he wrote of his apprehension of being able to do the right thing for his crewmates and country.

His letters also tell a story about America. His crew was all boys by today's standard from all over the country. Busy with life farming, banking, and all the other normal things were suddenly immersed in the business of war. The farmer became their pilot, the banker became the bombardier, and the recent high school graduate became a waist gunner and so the story goes. In the end, they all did what was expected of them and they returned to America quietly trying to fit in society. But their lives had been changed forever.

In the desperate summer of 1942, Hitler seemed to be on the verge of victory in Russia and the Middle East. With Rommel nearing Cairo, a little known lieutenant-general, Bernard Montgomery, took charge of what Churchill called a "baffled and bewildered" British 8th Army. Assuming command, Montgomery issued his famous order, "Here we will stand and fight;...If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead," and led the Army to one of the Allies' greatest victories--El Alamein. "Monty" became an instantly recognizable Allied leader, but as a man with strong views, unbending principles, and outspoken frankness, he was both loved and disliked, praised and criticized. This bibliography presents and evaluates the extensive body of literature that has grown up around the controversial Field Marshal. Any serious study of World War II military campaigns must confront Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, an individualist with both admirers and detractors. This book provides an extensive historiographical overview of the literature in Part I and a bibliography of significant works in Part II. It is a basic reference and research guide for the student, scholar, and general reader.