Visar resultat för..."Pen and Sword"

Addressing the ever-changing, overlapping trajectories of war and journalism, this introduction to the history and culture of modern American war correspondence considers a wealth of original archival material. In powerful analyses of letters, diaries, journals, television news archives, and secondary literature related to the U.S.'s major military conflicts of the twentieth century, Mary S. Mander highlights the intricate relationship of the postmodern nation state to the free press and to the public. Pen and Sword: American War Correspondents, 1898-1975 situates war correspondence within the larger framework of the history of the printing press to make perceptive new points about the nature of journalism and censorship, the institution of the press as a source of organized dissent, and the relationship between the press and the military. Fostering a deeper understanding of the occupational culture of war correspondents who have accompanied soldiers into battle, Mander offers interpretive analysis of the reporters' search for meaning while embedded with troops in war-torn territories. Broadly encompassing the history of Western civilization and modern warfare, Pen and Sword prompts new ways of thinking about contemporary military conflicts and the future of journalism.

German armoured vehicles continue to generate great interest among historians and military vehicle enthusiasts alike. Many of these lightly armoured vehicles were used for transporting soldiers and in the provision of medical care. Alexander Ludeke has devoted himself to the Radpanzertechnik in particular in this Fact File volume, providing a concise technical history of these German Military Vehicles.

We most often think of the Victorian female offender in her most archetypal and stereotypical roles; the polite lady shoplifter, stowing all manner of valuables beneath her voluminous crinolines, the tragic street waif of Dickensian fiction or the vicious femme fatale who wreaked her terrible revenge with copious poison. Yet the stories in popular novels and the 'Penny Dreadfuls' of the day have passed down to us only half the story of these women and their crimes. From the everyday street scuffles and pocket pickings of crowded slums, to the sensational trials that dominated national headlines; the women of Victorian England were responsible for a diverse and at times completely unexpected level of deviance. This book takes a closer look at women and crime in the Victorian period. With vivid real-life stories, powerful photos, eye-opening cases and wider discussions that give us an insightful illustration of the lives of the women responsible for them. This history of brawlers, thieves, traffickers and sneaks shows individuals navigating a world where life was hard and resources were scarce.Their tales are of poverty, opportunism, violence, hope and despair; but perhaps most importantly, the story of survival in the ruthless world of the past.

This splendid and timely book will be invaluable to those visiting the battlefields, sites, museums, memorials and cemeteries of the D-Day Normandy landings. It is intended for those planning and leading school groups and similar parties but is also ideal for individual/family visitors.Rather than list every site etc it provides realistic itineraries to the best places in the Normandy area. Even these are flexible to allow party leaders suitable discretion.The author provides helpful information for each site such as its context in the War, visitor orientation, the narrative (the essential facts to engage, inform and entertain), suggested activity and relevant photos and maps.This combines to make every visit of maximum benefit and interest and yet reduce the workload of the party leaders.There are also valuable tips for lunch breaks, free time ideas and other helpful pointers.

For readers with family ties to Manchester and Salford, and researchers delving into the rich history of these cities, this informative, accessible guide will be essential reading and a fascinating source of reference. Sue Wilkes outlines the social and family history of the region in a series of concise chapters. She discusses the origins of its religious and civic institutions, transport systems and major industries. Important local firms and families are used to illustrate aspects of local heritage, and each section directs the reader towards appropriate resources for their research. No previous knowledge of genealogy is assumed and in-depth reading on particular topics is recommended. The focus is on records relating to Manchester and Salford, including current districts and townships, and sources for religious and ethnic minorities are covered. A directory of the relevant archives, libraries, academic repositories, databases, societies, websites and places to visit, is a key feature of this practical book.

The Avro Vulcan was the last V Bomber to see active service in its primary role during the Falklands conflict. It is the most popular of the three and one aircraft has recently become airborne again after a long period of rejuvenation. It has always been a major attraction at air shows throughout the world, attracting crowds who delight in its unique delta-wing shape and amazing manoeuvrability. The book examines the origins of the design, the prototypes and experimental aircraft and goes on to explain the modifications that were made to the last of the breed. The author David Fildes, had access to many previously unpublished photographs and experimental design plans. This is because he was a leading member of the Avro Heritage Centre at Woodford now known has the Avro Heritage Museum and discovered a great deal of unpublished material in their archives.

This, the fourth volume in Andrew Field's highly praised study of the Waterloo campaign from the French perspective, depicts in vivid detail the often neglected final phase the rout and retreat of Napoleon's army. The text is based exclusively on French eyewitness accounts which give an inside view of the immediate aftermath of the battle and carry the story through to the army's disbandment in late 1815\. Many French officers and soldiers wrote more about the retreat than they did about the catastrophe of Waterloo itself. Their recollections give a fascinating insight to the psyche of the French soldier. They also provide a first-hand record of their experiences and the range of their reactions, from those who deserted the colours and made their way home, to those who continued to serve faithfully when all was lost. Napoleon s own flight from Waterloo is an essential part of the narrative, but the main emphasis is on the fate of the beaten French army as it was experienced by eyewitnesses who lived through the last days of the campaign.

In England in the eighth century, in the midst of the so-called Dark Ages, Offa ruled Mercia, one of the strongest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. For over 30 years he was the dominant warlord in the territory south of the Humber and the driving force behind the expansion of Mercia s power. During that turbulent period he commanded Mercian armies in their struggle against the neighbouring kingdoms of Northumbria and Wessex and against the Welsh tribes. Yet the true story of Offa s long reign and of the rise and fall of Mercia are little known although this is one of the most intriguing episodes in this little-recorded phase of England s past. It is Chris Peers s task in this new study to uncover the facts about Offa and the other Mercian kings and to set them in the context of English history before the coming of the Danes.

The book examines the impact which the Great War had on the Public Schools and the sacrificial contribution made to the victory which came in 1918. The war consumed about a fifth of all the public schoolboys who fought, while the survivors were scarred by the loss of so many friends. Based largely on source material from school archives and histories, it moves from the naive excitement of the summer of 1914 to the many moving stories that emerge from the carnage of the Western Front. It looks at school life in those war years, boys with their futures on hold and the prospect of death always very close, Headmasters and staff devastated by the loss of so many young lives. About one distinguished Headmaster, who died in January 1919, it was said that the War killed him as straightly and surely as if he had fallen at the front".The book ranges across many topics including the selflessness and pride of Public Schools across the British Empire and in Ireland; the role of the Officers Training Corps in militarising a generation; the letters written from the Front to teachers; the pride taken by schools in the Victoria Crosses etc won by Old Boys; the statistical terms in which the Public Schools contribution can be measured; the ways in which schools commemorated the war, and still do so today. Finally the legacy of the war is examined, both the effect on the schools themselves but also the contribution made by writers and artists to the disillusionment of the inter-war years.

Prince, Pen, and Sword offers a synoptic interpretation of rulers and elites in Eurasia from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Four core chapters zoom in on the tensions and connections at court, on the nexus between rulers and religious authority, on the status, function, and self-perceptions of military and administrative elites respectively. Two additional concise chapters provide a focused analysis of the construction of specific dynasties (the Golden Horde and the Habsburgs) and narratives of kingship found in fiction throughout Eurasia. The contributors and editors, authorities in their fields, systematically bring together specialised literature on numerous Eurasian kingdoms and empires. This book is a careful and thought-provoking experiment in the global, comparative and connected history of rulers and elites.

The origins of 1/1250 and 1/200 scale models can be traced back to the first years of the twentieth century and their use as identification aids by the military during the First World War. When peace came the manufacturers aimed their increasingly sophisticated products at collectors, and ever since then acquiring, enhancing, modifying or scratch-building miniature ship models has been an avidly pursued hobby around the world.This new book focusses on models of the ships of the Second World War, probably the most popular subject for miniature model collectors, and the author, a well-known modeller himself, addresses all the practical issues that might confront those many collectors who like to enhance, convert, and modify their models, or even scratch-build models of ships not commercially available.The book covers both Allied and Axis warships, naval airplanes, merchant conversions and even an Italian armed schooner, and provides historic and technical information on the ships represented as well as practical advice on modelling them. The latter is extensive with twenty-five chapters covering everything from initial production techniques such as spin casting, silicon mould casting, resin casting, die-casting, plastic mould injection, and 3D printing through techniques for enhancing and modifying models to eventually researching and scratch-building an uncommon ship or type. The focus is always on particular vessels and the vast array covered by the author builds into a fascinating panorama of the vessels that fought across the world's oceans in that era.The combination of intriguing background and historical information, combined with detailed practical information and more than 300 stunning photographs will make this book irresistible to any collector or modeller and, indeed, to anyone with an interest in the navies of the Second World War.

The Germanic nations of northern Europe resisted the Romans, forcing them to confine their empire within the heavily militarized Rhine and Danube frontiers. Despite fierce wars and repeated invasions, German tribes retained their independence until, in Late Antiquity, they surged forth to overrun and dismantle the Roman Empire itself.This collection of Greek and Latin sources gives accounts of ancient Germans beyond the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire written by those who were present at the time. These records include German service in the Roman army, the impact of civil war and the origin and development of later tribal groups. Chapters cover the Batavian Revolt (AD 69-70), the Marcomannic Wars of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 166-180), and later Rhine campaigns against the Alamanni. The final chapters cover the Migration Era, with the Germanic conquest of the Roman Empire, from the Gothic invasions to the Vandal capture of North Africa.This book is a valuable resource for ancient historians, classicists, archaeologists, and interested others, featuring events from the formation of the Rhine-Danube frontiers in the first century, to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.

The Germanic tribes occupied lands extending from the river Rhine east to the Vistula, and from the Danube north to Scandinavia. Their homelands formed the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire, but despite large-scale military and political efforts, the Romans never conquered or fully subjugated this territory. Raoul McLaughlin presents new translations of all the significant Roman sources relating to contact and conflict between Rome and the people of the land they called Germania.The first great interaction between Rome and the Germans occurred with the mass population movements of 120 BC. The Cimbri and Teutones inflicted severe defeats on the Roman Republic before surging south to invade Italy. Over the succeeding centuries, Germans beyond the Rhine threatened the empire with raids, invasions and further migrations. In response the Romans launched retaliatory campaigns, pre-emptive strikes and large-scale operations to seize and control Germanic territory. When these conquests failed, every subsequent Roman emperor was forced to commit a large proportion of their military and economic resources to defend the Empire from the perceived Germanic threat.This volume covers events up to AD 68, including Julius Caesar's campaigns across the Rhine, the Augustan conquest of Germania as far as the Elbe and the great German retaliation in the Teutoburg Forest. This unique resource is for anyone interested in the Germanic peoples of ancient Europe, or the military and economic development of the Roman frontiers.

The original Xbox console changed the console industry forever and in the ORIGINAL XBOX: THE CONSOLE AND THE GAMES, the team at XboxEra got the community to rally together for this book, to celebrate twenty years since the original Xbox came to be.Originally funded by the community and produced exclusively for Kickstarter, this new version has been tweaked to bring this work of passion to more Xbox fans around the world. Featuring exclusive interviews, features and retrospectives on some of the best games to release on the platform, this is one book about the original Xbox that fans won’t want to miss.With 360 Full Colour pages, we’ve detailed over 790+ games - from Fable to MechAssault, Halo: Combat Evolved to the very first Forza Motorsport, this book is a celebration of the console that started it all.

As one of the foremost military commanders of the early seventeenth century Gustavus Adophus, king of Sweden, played a vital role in defending the Protestant cause during the Thirty Years War. In the space of two years -between 1630 and 1632 -he turned the course of the war, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld and conquering large parts of Germany. Yet in English remarkably little has been written about him and no full account of his extraordinary career has been published in recent times. That is why Lars Ericson Wolke's perceptive and scholarly study is of such value.The book sets Gustavus in the context of Swedish and European dynastic politics and religious conflict in the early seventeenth century, and describes in detail Swedish military organization and Gustavus's reforms. His intervention in the Thirty Years War is covered in graphic detail -the decision to intervene, his alliance with France, his campaigns across the breadth of Germany and his generalship at the two major battles he fought there. His exceptional skill as a battlefield commander transformed the fortunes of the Protestant side in the conflict, and he had established himself as a major European figure before his death on the battlefield.Lars Ericson Wolke, one of the leading experts on the military history of the Baltic and the Thirty Years War, offers a fascinating insight into Gustavus the man and the soldier.

The year 135 BC saw the outbreak of the so-called ‘First Servile War’, which proved to be just the first of a series of conflicts that ravaged the Roman Republic during the following century and changed forever the institutions of the Roman state. This bloody and violent period of civil wars and recurrent slave revolts (most famously that of Spartacus) saw the ascendancy of many famous generals who obtained great military victories, including: Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. They fought for complete dominance over Rome but, at the same time, conducted a series of imperialist campaigns that greatly expanded the territorial extension of the Roman Republic. In discussing these campaigns of conquest, the author shows how they were strongly linked with the civil conflicts and how the events that started in 135 BC progressively led to the birth of the Roman Empire under Octavian (Augustus).The author also describes the only civil war taking place during the Early Empire, i.e. that of AD 69 (‘The Year of the Four Emperors’) before providing a detailed description of the organization and equipment of the varied military forces that took part in the Roman civil wars during this crucial period, outlining crucial developments across the period. As usual for the Armies of the Past series, there are dozens of colour photos depicting replica arms, armour and dress in use.

The French Army of Napoleon could count on a brilliant mounted arm, consisting of three main types of cavalry: heavy, medium and light. The first, consisting of carabiniers and cuirassiers, was tasked with conducting frontal charges; the second, consisting of dragoons and lancers, could perform a variety of different duties; the third, consisting of hussars and mounted chasseurs, was tasked with scouting and skirmishing. The various regiments were all dressed in flamboyant uniforms and distinctive equipment. Perhaps more than any other troops they encapsulated the dash and glamour of Napoleonic warfare.Napoleon started his military career as an artillery officer and thus always paid great attention to the quality of his army's artillery, which consisted of both foot and horse units. Several of Bonaparte's greatest victories were achieved thanks to the superiority of his artillery, which was with undoubtedly the best in Europe during the period 1799-1815\. In addition to cavalry and artillery, the author also covers the minor technical corps' of Napoleon's army, such as the engineers and supply train. All are beautifully illustrated by the many colour plates in this book, and their organization, equipment and tactics described.

RAF and East German Fast-Jet Pilots in the Cold War is the result of ten years of research, involving many visits to the former German Democratic Republic by a small Anglo/German team of military specialists. Their purpose was to explore the lives of RAF and East German ?ghter and ?ghter-bomber pilots, in the air and on the ground, at work and play, during the Cold War in North Germany.The book is based largely on personal testimony from these pilots, coupled with facts drawn from of?cial archives and comment from other historical sources. Where possible, political considerations have been avoided and no outright criticism has been intended, readers being left to draw their own conclusions on the thinking, strategies, equipment and tactics discussed. Far from being an intellectual polemic on the Cold War, the text and photographs merely record a slice of history as seen through the eyes of a select few who took up arms in the defence of their respective homelands - and faced each other daily across the Iron Curtain.In an insightful conclusion, Nigel Walpole reassess the threat that both sides believed was genuine during those tense decades of the Cold War and examines the possible course and nature of a conflict which neither NATO nor the Warsaw Pact wanted but both actively planned for.

On 1 April 1945, US troops launched the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War on the heavily-defended island of Okinawa. Supporting the invasion, the USS West Virginia participated in the bombardment of entrenched Japanese defenders. That evening, a Japanese aircraft launched a Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka, a rocket-powered kamikaze plane. West Virginia was hit by an Ohka, becoming the first ship damaged by such a weapon. Twelve days later, the USS Mannert L. Able became the first ship sunk by an Ohka.The deployment of the Ohka was a desperate measure by Japan as the war turned against them. This manned flying bomb evolved from earlier kamikaze tactics. However, the Germans had also considered similar weapons. As early as 1944, figures close to Hitler, such as Otto Skorzeny and Hanna Reitsch, advocated for kamikaze missions. Hitler authorized the creation of the Leonidas Staffel to prepare for these attacks, leading to the development of the Messerschmitt Me 328 and Fieseler Fi 103R, also known as the Reichenberg.Though the Fi 103R began production in October 1944, the changing dynamics of the war rendered it obsolete by the time it was ready for use. The project was formally abandoned in March 1945. This book details the development of both the Ohka and Reichenberg.

While artillery has been described as the queen of the Napoleonic battlefield, this was an era when cavalry could still play a decisive role in battle, as well as being vital on campaign. This volume covers both British cavalry and artillery of the Napoleonic Wars, as well as supporting units such as engineers. Gabriele Esposito describes the history, organization and uniforms of the various units in full detail, following the evolution and combat history of each. Mounted troops deployed in the various British colonies as well as foreign cavalry units in British service will be all covered in specific chapters. The technical corps, most notably the artillery (both foot and horse) and the engineers, are given similar treatment. Royal Marines naval infantry and some other 'auxiliary' corps (like the Yeomanry/militia cavalry or the Sea Fencibles, all very little known) are also included. The book is lavishly illustrated with dozens of colour paintings.

James Bond has Q Branch to supply him with ingenious equipment to use on his missions; during the Second World War, SOE field agents had the Camouflage Section.The men and women of the Section, hailing from a variety of trades and professions, turned everyday items into concealment devices to carry weapons, ammunition, film, radios, false documents, microfilm and codes. These vessels ranged from oil cans, firewood and ornamental clocks, to record players, water bottles and tubes of toothpaste. Explosives and incendiary devices for industrial and military sabotage were concealed in dead rats, hollowed-out pieces of coal, books, torches, statues and suitcases. Convincing disguises were created to ensure that field agents would pass as locals in whatever region they were parachuted into. Essentially the Camouflage Section was responsible for keeping SOE agents behind enemy lines safe in the most nerve-wracking of circumstances—when under the suspicious gaze of the Gestapo.After the war, SOE’s Camouflage Section was dissolved, but not before its work was collated and published in a secret document. That document remained classified for thirty years. This is the first time it has been presented in book form to the general public.