First published in 1918 Whizzbangs and Woodbines presents a candid portrait of life behind the lines on the Western Front by Reverend Durell, then Rector of Rotherhithe, and Chief Commissioner of the Church Army in France.The Church Army, along with its counterparts the YMCA, TOC-H and Salvation Army played an important part in the support and morale of soldiers in war. In addition to providing spiritual support,the Church Army welcomed more than 200,000 men each day to their recreation huts and provided visits and gifts to the wounded, tents and hostels near the front lines, drove ambulances, mobile canteens and kitchen cars.In addition to voluntary Church services, for those who wished to attend, a simple salvation from trench life was offered; music, singing, concerts, card games,billiards and refreshments, all small measures of joy in the midst of dangers and hardships and as vital to the continued war effort as bullets and shells. For a packet of woodbines and a cup of tea was restorative ammunition enough for the average British Tommy.

In the summer of 1943, at the height of World War II, battles were exploding all throughout the Pacific theater. In mid-November of that year, the United States waged a bloody campaign on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll, the most heavily fortified Japanese territory in the entire Pacific. They were fighting to wrest control of the island to stage the next big push toward Japan--and one journalist was there to chronicle the horror.
Dive into war correspondent Robert Sherrod's battlefield account as he goes ashore with the assault troops of the U.S. Marines 2nd Marine Division in Tarawa. Follow the story of the U.S. Army 27th Infantry Division as nearly 35,000 troops take on less than 5,000 Japanese defenders in one of the most savage engagements of the war. By the end of the battle, only seventeen Japanese soldiers were still alive.
This story, a must for any history buff, tells the ins and outs of life alongside the U.S. Marines in this lesser-known battle of World War II. The battle itself carried on for three days, but Sherrod, a dedicated journalist, remained in Tarawa until the very end, and through his writing, shares every detail.

First published in 1918, this book is a record of observations and evidence compiled by the then US Consul in Queenstown, Eire. A rare study from first-hand accounts. Contains detailed testimonies of survivors from over fifty vessels attacked and often sunk by German submarines during the Great War.A vivid and accurate picture of the tactics and motives of German submarine warfare is provided in the first part of the book. The second part concentrate son the attack and sinking of RMS Lusitania. The sinking of the Lusitania remains a controversial topic with the loss of 1,198 lives on 7May 1915

For more than twenty-five years, David Nott has taken unpaid leave from his job as a general and vascular surgeon with the NHS to volunteer in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993, to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out life-saving operations and field surgery in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major London teaching hospital.

The conflicts he has worked in form a chronology of twenty-first-century combat: Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Darfur, Congo, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and Syria. But he has also volunteered in areas blighted by natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal.

Driven both by compassion and passion, the desire to help others and the thrill of extreme personal danger, he is now widely acknowledged to be the most experienced trauma surgeon in the world. But as time has gone on, David Nott began to realize that flying into to a catastrophe - whether war or natural disaster – was not enough. Doctors on the ground needed to learn how to treat the appalling injuries that war inflicts upon its victims. Since 2015, the Foundation he set up with his wife, Elly, has disseminated the knowledge he has gained, training other doctors in the art of saving lives threatened by bombs and bullets.

War Doctor is his extraordinary story.

With more than 1,200 photos, the second volume of this series gets into the heart of the USAF uniforms and equipment used during the Vietnam War. Focusing on hundreds of Air Force named items, the book offers precise insight and references covering a selection of 70+ units. Flight suits, helmets, utility shirts, jungle jackets, plaques, and souvenir lighters are featured together to illustrate the history of these flying and ground units. From the air bases to the mighty B-52s, from the secret missions to the POWs, many aspects of USAF involvement in Southeast Asia are covered in this second volume.

Georg Bucher, a German infantryman from 1914 had lost almost all of his closest friends by 1918. The last friend he lost, Riedel, was crushed by a tank in one of the last battles of the war. This is his tale in their memory. A sergeant by 1918, Bucher describes nearly every part of the Western Front - the Marne, Verdun,Somme, Ypres, the Vosges and the 1918 Spring Offensive in vivid detail. He illustrates how his psychological state changed over the course of the war, how a soldier can in a split second turn from a human being into a killing machine without pity, killing as second nature, without thought.The raw endurance required to survive the trenches is narrated in undiluted fashion, no horrors are spared; the quagmire of 3rd Ypres, unrelenting lice and rats, the stench of death and descriptions ofa bhorrent actions such as (so Bucher alleges) French soldiers, under the influence of absinthe, mutilating some of his company for revenge on the Senegalese.Fans of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' or 'Storm of Steel' will be delighted to discover Bucher's work.

On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew back to London from his meeting in Munich with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. As he disembarked from the aircraft, he held aloft a piece of paper, which contained the promise that Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another again. He had returned bringing "Peace with honour--Peace for our time."

Drawing on a wealth of archival material, acclaimed historian David Faber delivers a sweeping reassessment of the extraordinary events of 1938, tracing the key incidents leading up to the Munich Conference and its immediate aftermath: Lord Halifax's ill-fated meeting with Hitler; Chamberlain's secret discussions with Mussolini; and the Berlin scandal that rocked Hitler's regime. He takes us to Vienna, to the Sudentenland, and to Prague. In Berlin, we witness Hitler inexorably preparing for war, even in the face of opposition from his own generals; in London, we watch as Chamberlain makes one supreme effort after another to appease Hitler.

Resonating with an insider's feel for the political infighting Faber uncovers, "Munich, 1938 "transports us to the war rooms and bunkers, revealing the covert negotiations and" "scandals upon which the world's fate would rest. It is modern history writing at its best.""

The story of the 39th Divisional Field Ambulances beings in the year of 1915 at various recruiting offices, and continues in a thin, uncertain stream of variable humanity, finding its way to the Sussex Downs, facing the sea, at Cow Gap, Eastbourne, Here the lines of white tents, the whitewashed stones, the martial sounds and atmosphere welcomed the embryo soldier to the service of his country, and to fellowship unique and abiding. These embryo soldiers were to become the men that would be responsible for the mobile frontline medical units and had special responsibility for the care of casualties of the Brigades in their Division. Via Ypres tells of these young men - mostly mere boys and non-militaristic in their education - faced with the task of preparing to go to war to take part in the great struggle. These happy, cheerful and perhaps a bit casual soon-to-be soldiers remained just so once training was over but also became the gallant and efficient men who were to be faced with the danger and misery that war cannot help but bring; in doing so potentially risk their lives to save those of their comrades.

`I was on a train, and a German soldier began shouting at me and poking me in the ribs with his machine gun. I just thought that was it, the game was up . . .' Downed airman Bob Frost faced danger at every turn as he was smuggled out of France and over the Pyrenees. Prisoner of war Len Harley went on the run in Italy, surviving months in hiding and then a hazardous climb over the Abruzzo mountains with German troops hot on his heels. These are just some of the stories told in heart-stopping detail as Monty Halls takes us along the freedom trails out of occupied Europe, from the immense French escape lines to lesser-known routes in Italy and Slovenia. Escaping Hitler features spies and traitors, extraordinary heroism from those who ran the escape routes and offered shelter to escapees, and great feats of endurance. The SAS in Operation Galia fought for forty days behind enemy lines in Italy and then, exhausted and pursued by the enemy, exfiltrated across the Apennine mountains. And in Slovenia Australian POW Ralph Churches and British Les Laws orchestrated the largest successful Allied escape of the entire war. Mixing new research, interviews with survivors and his own experience of walking the trails, Monty brings the past to life in this dramatic and gripping slice of military history.

This is a rare chance to re-discover a contemporary account of a military conflict which took place a Century ago. The Agony of Belgium, written in 1914 by Frank Fox, a war correspondent, recounts events that the modern European mind would probably wish to forget. The bravery and resilience of the relatively new and untested Belgian Army, following the rejection of the German Ultimatum by the King, deserves a wider audience. Throughout this account the courageous and noble qualities of King Albert in the dark days come to the fore. Whether at the Front as an active Commander-in-Chief; with his people during Zeppelin raids and artillery bombardments at Antwerp; declining refuge in France after the retreat from Ostend; or rallying his troops for rearguard actions his conduct was of the finest. His account of the "frightfulness" of the events in Louvain against the civilian population- including women and children- and the sacking of cultural treasures was not at first believed by Officials in Antwerp. However his reporting of Zeppelin raid shelped to arouse public opinion in the United States.Fox provides vivid descriptions of a terrible, and little known, conflict.

Scholars have argued that the end of the Cold War and the War on Terror have radically changed the context of war and defense, diminished the role of nation-states in favor of multi-lateral defense activities, and placed a new focus on human security. International peacekeeping has superseded the traditional act of war-making as the most important defense strategy among wealthy, liberal-democratic nations. And, per UN Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, all member nations must consider the needs of women and girls during repatriation, resettlement, and post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
Gender, Sex, and the Postnational Defense looks at the way that a postnational defense influenced by SC 1325 and focused on human security affects gender relations in militaries. Interestingly, despite the successful implementation of gender mainstreaming in training, the number of women involved in military peacekeeping remains low. Contradicting much of the gender mainstreaming literature, Annica Kronsell shows that increasing gender awareness in the military is a more achievable task than increasing gender parity.
Employing a feminist constructivist institutional approach, Kronsell questions whether military institutions can ever attain gender neutrality without confronting their reliance on masculinity constructs. She further questions whether "feminism" must always be equated with anti-militarism or if military violence committed in the name of enhancing human security can be performed according to a feminist ethics. Kronsell builds her theoretical argument on a case study of Sweden and the E.U.

Simon Norfolk's book Afghanistan; chronotopia is now recognised as a classic of photography. It establised Norfolk's reputation as one of the leading photographers in the world and has been exhibited in more than 30 venues worldwide. For the first time since 2001, Simon Norfolk has returned to the country. This time he follows in the footsteps of the Irish photographer John Burke, a superb, yet virtually unknown, war photographer whose eloquent and beautiful photographs of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880) form a most extraordinary record. Using unwieldy wet-plate collodion negatives and huge wooden cameras Burke shot landscapes, battlefields, archaeological sites, street scenes, portraits of British officers and ethnological group portraits of Afghans in what amounts to a record of an Imperial encounter. The range of work is tremendously broad and yet suffused with a delicate humanism. These are also the first ever pictures made in Afghanistan. With this book, one hundred and thirty years too late, John Burke's time has at last come. Norfolk's new work looks at what happens when you add half a trillion US war dollars to an impoverished and broken country such as Afghanistan. Very loosely re-photographic in nature, the work is more of an 'Improvisation on a theme' by John Burke, and is presented as an artistic collaboration between Burke and Norfolk. It features photographs by Burke never before published as well as Norfolk's new pictures from Kabul and Helmand.