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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence
Few escapades of the Second World War have captured the public's
imagination more than the successful abduction of German General
Kreipe from enemy-occupied Crete in 1944. It was an operation
instigated and daringly executed by two British SOE officers -
Patrick Leigh Fermor and William (Billy) Stanley Moss. The war
didn't stop for Billy Moss after this operation though, and it is
his continuing story that is told here. He reflects movingly on
what it means to fight and deal in death, how the success of
operations behind enemy lines in a foreign country is dependent on
the goodwill of local inhabitants, and, surprisingly, on moments of
high humour that punctuate the turmoil of war. War of Shadows is a
book in three parts - each displaying differing aspects of World
War II and its eventual conclusion, and all told with that
tell-tale blend of poignancy and humour so characteristic of the
time.
Van al die gebeure in die Kaapkolonie gedurende die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog het die teregstelling van Hans Lötter, asook dié van kmdt. Gideon Scheepers, die meeste emosie onder Afrikaners ontketen. Lötter en sy mederebelle in die Kolonie het die verbeelding van die plaaslike bevolking aangegryp en die Britte maande lank hoofbrekens besorg. Sy gevangeneming, verhoor en teregstelling deur ’n Britse vuurpeloton op Middelburg, Kaap, het groot woede en verontwaardiging veroorsaak en hom verewig as Boeremartelaar in die Afrikaner-volksoorleweringe. Nou word sy boeiende verhaal vir die eerste keer volledig vertel.
Prison Pens presents the memoir of a captured Confederate soldier
in northern Virginia and the letters he exchanged with his fiancee
during the Civil War. Wash Nelson and Mollie Scollay's letters, as
well as Nelson's own manuscript memoir, provide rare insight into a
world of intimacy, despair, loss, and reunion in the Civil War
South. The tender voices in the letters combined with Nelson's
account of his time as a prisoner of war provide a story that is
personal and political, revealing the daily life of those living in
the Confederacy and the harsh realities of being an imprisoned
soldier. Ultimately, through the juxtaposition of the letters and
memoir, Prison Pens provides an opportunity for students and
scholars to consider the role of memory and incarceration in
retelling the Confederate past and incubating Lost Cause
mythology.,br> This book will be accompanied by a digital
component: a website that allows students and scholars to interact
with the volume's content and sources via an interactive map,
digitized letters, and special lesson plans.
Despite recent attempts at 'negotiation', the attitudes of both Kim
Jong-un's regime and the West seem unchanged. North Korea is still
shrouded in mystery, and there are no clear plans for the future...
Can we trust either side to bring about peace? And if so, how? This
provocative insider's account blasts apart the myths which paint
North Korea as a rogue state run by a mad leader. Informed by
extraordinary access to the country's leadership, Glyn Ford
investigates the regime from the inside, providing game-changing
insights, which Trump and his administration have failed to do.
Acknowledging that North Korea is a deeply flawed and repressive
state, he nonetheless shows that sections of the leadership are
desperate to modernise and end their isolation. With chapters on
recent developments including the Trump / Kim summit, Ford supports
a dialogue between East and West, whilst also criticising Trump's
facile attempts. Talking to North Korea provides a road map for
averting a war in North East Asia that would threaten the lives of
millions.
The official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of
the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War are seriously
wrong, with significant inaccuracies and omissions. Groundbreaking
research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers'
records has revealed that hospitalisations for wounding, illness
and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than
officially acknowledged today. Why has it taken nearly one hundred
years for this to come to light? Was it a conspiracy to suppress
the toll, incompetence of Australia's official war historians Bean
and Butler, or was it simply the unquestioning acceptance of the
official record? You are invited on the journey in this book to
find the truth. The findings are startling and will rewrite
Australia's casualty statistics of the First World War. Lest we
forget.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement was one of the defining moments in the
history of the modern Middle East. Yet its co-creator, Sir Mark
Sykes, had far more involvement in British Middle East strategy
during World War I than the Agreement for which he is now most
remembered. Between 1915 and 1916, Sykes was Lord Kitchener's agent
at home and abroad, operating out of the War Office until the war
secretary's death at sea in 1916. Following that, from 1916 to 1919
he worked at the Imperial War Cabinet, the War Cabinet Secretariat
and, finally, as an advisor to the Foreign Office. The full extent
of Sykes's work and influence has previously not been told.
Moreover, the general impression given of him is at variance with
the facts. Sykes led the negotiations with the Zionist leadership
in the formulation of the Balfour Declaration, which he helped to
write, and promoted their cause to achieve what he sought for a
pro-British post-war Middle East peace settlement, although he was
not himself a Zionist. Likewise, despite claims he championed the
Arab cause, there is little proof of this other than general
rhetoric mainly for public consumption. On the contrary, there is
much evidence he routinely exhibited a complete lack of empathy
with the Arabs. In this book, Michael Berdine examines the life of
this impulsive and headstrong young British aristocrat who helped
formulate many of Britain's policies in the Middle East that are
responsible for much of the instability that has affected the
region ever since.
Raymond Lodge's death from shell shrapnel in 1915 was unremarkable
in a war where many young men would die, but his father's response
to his untimely death was. Sir Oliver Lodge, physicist, scientist,
part inventor of the wireless telegraph and the spark plug, could
not let go of Raymond and went on a controversial and bizarre
journey into the realm of life after death. Following Sir Oliver's
journey, Dear Raymond, explores the untapped topic of spirituality
pre- and post-war, the influence that a national tragedy can have
on a nation's belief system and the long lasting effects from this
time that we still feel today. Alongside Lodge were some of the
great names of the day, as a member of the Ghost Club and the
Fabian Society he was in contact with famous men such as Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, who went on his own mission into the afterlife after
losing a son. Lodge's exploration and the controversy it exploded
opens our eyes to how modern religion has been shaped and changed
by the conflicts of the Twentieth Century.
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