The Sunday Times bestseller 'One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings' DAILY MAIL In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the 'island fortress' must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain's fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb. The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain's war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon. This is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britain's wartime services. As always, he blends the 'big picture' of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen. Operation Pedestal describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier Eagle, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships. Most moving of all is the story of the tanker Ohio, indispensable to Malta's survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted. Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.

Military demolitions are the destruction by fire, water, explosive, and mechanical means of areas, structures, facilities, or materials to accomplish a military objective. The "U.S. Army Explosives and Demolitions Handbook" is a guide to the use of explosives in the destruction of military obstacles from the Department of the U.S. Army. This guide includes information on types, characteristics, and uses of explosives and auxiliary equipment; preparation, placement, and firing of charges; safety precautions; handling, transportation, and storage of explosives; deliberate and hasty demolition methods; and much more.
Applicable to nuclear and nonnuclear warfare, and having offensive and defensive uses, the knowledge one will come away with from reading this handbook is invaluable.

Providing an intellectual biography of the challenging concept of genocide from inception to present day, this topical Handbook takes an interdisciplinary approach to shed new light on the events, processes, and legacies in the field. Reaching beyond the traditional study of canonical genocides and related pathologies of behaviour, this Handbook strives to spell out the multiple dimensions of genocide studies as an academic realm. In doing so, it incorporates a vast range of methods and disciplines, including historiography, archival research, listening to testimony, philosophical inquiry, film studies, and art criticism. Contributors address a broad array of episodes, including genocides of indigenous populations in the Americas and Africa, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, twentieth century genocides in Indonesia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and twenty-first century genocides in Iraq, Myanmar, and China. By developing a cross-disciplinary framework, this Handbook showcases the diversity that comprises the field and creates a rich understanding of the origin, effects, and legacy of genocide. With a wide variety of perspectives, this Handbook will prove an invigorating read for students and scholars of international and human rights, public policy, and political geography and geopolitics, particularly those interested in genocide studies and the UN Genocide Convention.

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.

This book is a transcript of diaries, letters and recollections all written by Thomas Cheshire during the Great War. Thomas Allen Cheshire was born in Crewe in Cheshire in 1889. He served under the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was 25 when he started writing letters and diaries from the Front line to be sent to his sweetheart, Kit. Dedicated to her, he wanted to give an insight into the social conditions of the war, and to portray the soldier's true character. His first diary commences on the 4th August 1914 when he describes the mobilisation of Great Britain. He continues his daily diaries throughout August, detailing the training, preparation and travels until finally setting sail aboard the SS Caledonia on August 22nd, setting foot on French soil on the 23rd and joining the Battle of Mons on the 25th August 1914. October's diary continues with another battle - the Battle of Meteren. The 2nd diary covers the period from the end of October 1914 to January 1915 and in Thomas's letter to Kit he dedicates the two diaries as a wedding present. Thomas describes life in the trenches in this diary, his meeting of The King in December, and also the `rest' at Christmas. In April 1915, Thomas was badly injured in the arm and sent home from The Front. The 3rd diary is a series of recollections detailing his recuperation during 1915, although it wasn't finished and ready to send to Kit until February 1918. Kit and Thomas got married in January 1916 and welcomed a baby son in February 1917. His marriage and the birth of his only son are touched upon in the 4th Diary, although this was never completed. The last entry is dated 1st March 1918 and Thomas passed away on the 16th October 1918. The diaries and recollections survived the war and were kept and treasured by Kit, until she gave them to a member of Thomas's family for safekeeping. They were then lent to Malcolm to read and he was so taken by them that he felt they ought to be transcribed so that a wider audience could appreciate them. He took upon the task and spent many hours trying to do the diaries justice. Although he completed the actual transcript, Malcolm sadly passed away before publication. The book was completed for Malcolm by his family to honour his wish and in dedication of all his hard work.

The Independent Companies of Foreigners are widely regarded as the worst examples of foreign units in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. They were formed, in the last years of these wars, to receive French deserters who had come over to the British in Spain. Each company was intended to serve separately in the garrisons of the West Indies. Instead two of them were used in an active role on the East Coast of America a " this did not turn out well. Drawing of British, French and American sources, this book provides a fuller picture of the men, why the units were formed, why they were used as they were and what actually happened. Judgement can then be made whether the bad reputation of the units, and the soldiers in them, is justified.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, published to exceptional reviews in both the US and the UK, American Prometheus is as compelling a work of biography as it is a significant work of history.

Physicist and polymath, as familiar with Hindu scriptures as he was with quantum mechanics, J. Robert Oppenheimer - director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb - was the most famous scientist of his generation.

In their meticulous and riveting biography, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin reveal a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man, profoundly involved with some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.

Die geestelike leidsman, J.D. Kestell is die enigste Vrystaatse predikant wat tot aan die einde van die Anglo-Boereoorlog in die veld was – en hoewel president M.T. Steyn die pos as veggeneraal aan hom aangebied het, het hy verkies om geestelike leiding tydens die oorlog te gee. Sy wedervaringe gedurende die Anglo-Boereoorlog word beskryf in die van die beroemdste boeke oor die oorlog.

This account of the life of Jacques Vaillant de Guelis follows him from his birth in Cardiff, through school and University and French Military Service. Newly married he was recalled to France in 1939 and was assigned to a company of British engineers as liaison officer until reportedly captured. He escaped via Dunkirk, only to return to France a few days later. He retreated south, escaped over the Pyrenees only to be caught again and flung into the Miranda del Ebro Concentration camp. On his release he returned to England where he was recruited by the fledgling SOE, after an interview with Churchill. He became a familiar figure in Baker Street as a recruiting and conducting officer until he was sent to France on a fact- finding mission in 1941. A stay in Algiers in 1942-3 followed when he took part in the liberation of Corsica before returning to London and leading his 2nd mission to France in 1944. In 1945 he joined SAARF and led his last mission to Germany which culminated in collision with another vehicle when he was badly injured. He died later as a result

Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and events on the Eastern Front that same year were pivotal to the history of World War II. It was during this year that the radicalization of Nazi policy -- through both an all-encompassing approach to warfare and the application of genocidal practices -- became most obvious. Germany's military aggression and overtly ideological conduct, culminating in genocide against Soviet Jewry and the decimation of the Soviet population through planned starvation and brutal antipartisan policies, distinguished Operation Barbarossa-the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union-from all previous military campaigns in modern European history. This collection of essays, written by young scholars of seven different nationalities, provides readers with the most current interpretations of Germany's military, economic, racial, and diplomatic policies in 1941. With its breadth and its thematic focus on total war, genocide, and radicalization, this volume fills a considerable gap in English-language literature on Germany's war of annihilation against the Soviet Union and the radicalization of World War II during this critical year. Alex J. Kay is the author of Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940-1941 and is an independent contractor for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on War Consequences. Jeff Rutherford is assistant professor of history at Wheeling Jesuit University, where he teaches modern European history. David Stahel is the author of Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East and Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East.

This Research Handbook provides a broad yet detailed treatment of international arms control law. It takes stock of existing arms control agreements, addresses current challenges and aims to indicate avenues for the future development of this distinct branch of public international law. Split across nine thematic parts, this comprehensive Handbook goes beyond the pure encyclopaedic approach by providing analytical and doctrinal guidance. Chapters provide extensive analysis of international arms control law, addressing both conventional weapons and new technologies, contextualising arms control law and politics through identifying actors, forums and regulatory approaches. The impressive list of contributors also explore geographical zones of arms control including Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Investigating both complex theoretical and recent practical approaches into arms control law, this Research Handbook will be an ideal read for interested students and academics as well as practitioners involved in conflict, security and international law.

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.

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.""

'Eject! Eject!' When the call is made to abandon an aircraft, it's only the beginning of the story... From the Sunday Times bestselling writer John Nichol, author of Spitfire, Lancaster and Tornado, comes a brilliant new book that reveals the astonishing story of an invention that has saved many thousands of lives around the world, including his own: the ejection seat. Nichol tells the remarkable tale of how the ejection seat was first conceived during the Second World War as countless lives were lost in accidents and in battle. In the wake of the war, that technological race to save aircrew lives using explosive seats continued at an incredible pace. Nichol tells the story of the brave men who risked their lives testing those early devices, and interviewed the first British pilot to eject back in 1949, when ejection, from pulling the handle to being under the parachute, took thirty seconds. Today, that figure is down to around one second. Packed with interviews with aircrew who know exactly how it feels to 'Bang Out' from an aircraft at high speed, both in peace and in war, the book gives the reader a vivid sense of what that life-saving experience feels like, but also features the moving accounts of what happens next, from the viewpoint of both the crews and their families, who often have little or no information about whether or not their loved ones have survived. Because ejecting is just the start of a journey..... Packed with dramatic action, incredible science and moving recollections, Eject! Eject! is an essential read.

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.

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