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This book brings to life a period long forgotten in the decades that have passed since the Great War ended in 1918. Until recently, most books written on the Battle of the Somme concentrated almost exclusively on the British effort with only a brief mention of the period before 1 July 1916 and the German experience in the battle. Most simply ignore

Few new personal accounts by Waffen-SS soldiers appear in English; even fewer originate from the multitude of non-German European volunteers who formed such an important proportion of this service's manpower. Twilight of the Gods was originally written in Swedish, and published in Buenos Aires shortly after the end of WWII. Erik Wallin, a Swedish soldier who volunteered for service with the Waffen-SS, and participated in the climactic battles on the Eastern Front during late 1944 and 1945, later telling his story to this book's editor, Thorolf Hillblad. Wallin served with the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, 11th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, a unit composed mainly of non-German volunteers, including Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. The division enjoyed a high reputation for its combat capability, and was always at the focal points of the fighting on the Eastern Front in the last year of the war. During this period it saw combat in the Baltic, in Pomerania, on the Oder, and finally in defense of Berlin, where it was destroyed. Erik Wallin served with his unit in all of these locations, and provides the reader with a fascinating glimpse into these final battles. The book is written with a 'no holds barred' approach which will captivate, excite and maybe even shock the reader - his recollections do not evade the brutality of fighting against the advancing Red Army. Twilight of the Gods is destined to become a classic memoir of the Second World War. An outstanding new World War II memoir, and a first-hand account of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front Written in an exciting and direct style that is guaranteed to grab and hold the reader's attention Contains much new information on the personnel and actions of 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland.

Wars in the 19th century were accompanied by a very heavy loss of life from infectious diseases. Typhus fever, dysentery, malaria, typhoid fever and yellow fever caused many more deaths than wounds inflicted by enemy actions. During the Peninsular War, for example, for every soldier dying of a wound, four succumbed to disease.

With heightened tensions mounting in the Cold War, President Dwight Eisenhower's request for more accurate intelligence information on the Soviet Union was the spark that ignited the U-2 project. Modified USAF bombers began overflights of the Soviet Union in 1951, but existing lower flying aircraft in the US inventory were vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and a number of cross-border flights were shot down. To meet the challenge and improve the survivability, the Lockheed Corporation received approval for their revolutionary design of a new recon aircraft on December 9, 1954. The company began work under a heavy veil of secrecy with only 81 people, including 25 engineers. A test pilot flew the first flight on August 1, 1955, after only eight months of production, a record-breaking result for rollout of a new project, especially one this complex and innovative. A dedicated and inventive group of contractors came together to support the project with partial pressure suits for pilots, high-resolution cameras, and an engine that could carry the aircraft to altitudes of 70,000 feet and higher. Nicknamed the Dragon Lady, the U-2 has flown over Cuba, Alaska, North and South poles, Vietnam, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, and Afghanistan. The U-2 is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. More recently it flew over the hurricane ravaged US Gulf Coast to collect imagery of the destruction over a 90,000 square mile area. First-person memoirs of many of the men who supported the early US spy plane project are included in this book. They include pilots, maintenance specialists, a flight surgeon, photographic specialists and some family members. The US also trained U-2 pilots from Taiwan and the UK and some of their photos and memoirs are in this coll

As with many other aspects of the British army, the outbreak of World War One started a process of change that was to result in a radically different provision of chaplaincy care once the war was over. Nothing was ever simple with chaplaincy as a number of churches becoming involved with the army, many for the first time. The structure was already under pressure before the war with the Catholic Church insisting on new rules for chaplaincy in the first decade of the twentieth century. The creation of the Territorial Force added a new dimension after 1907, bringing new players into the mix including the Jewish community. These chaplains challenged the traditional Garrison Church based ministry of the regulars. The book examines the muddled state of chaplaincy in August 1914 and looks at how chaplains were mobilized. It then reviews how organizational changes were often the result of pressure from the different churches. The unilateral decision of the Church of England, in July 1915, to leave the unified administration in France that had existed since August 1914 is examined in the light of the availability of the relevant volume of the diaries of Bishop Gwynne, a key participant in the change. Chapters also look at the experience of other Imperial forces and of the casualties suffered by chaplains. These all provide evidence of the expectations that various groups had of army chaplains. It is often forgotten that two chaplains were captured during the retreat from Mons in 1914. They were never far from the fighting throughout the war. The experiences of the war meant that the pre-war structure needed reform. The final chapter looks at the structure that was created in 1920 and then survived virtually unchanged until 2004. Army chaplaincy has always been a mix of Churc

A hardback reprint of the most complete guide to the organisation, structure and units of the First World War German Army yet published. A detailed account of the composition, structure and organisation of the First World War German Army has long been needed by English-language readers - this work fills the gap admirably. In more than 400 pages, the authors examine all aspects of the army. A detailed analytical text is followed by an extensive compendium of order-of-battle data. Topics covered include High Command & War Leadership, Composition of Army Groups, Armies, etc., Organisation of the Field Army (incl. Infantry; MG formations; Cavalry; Artillery; Pioneers; Air Force; Supply troops; Tank units; Pioneers; Signals troops; Railway & Transport troops; Medical troops; Field Gendarmerie, etc.), Organisations of the Home Front & Occupied Territories, extensive order-of-battle data, plus lists of units, army commanders & chiefs of staff. An essential First World War reference.

This is the story of military aviation in Rhodesia from the romantic days of 'bush' flying in the 1920s and '30s -when aircraft were refuelled from jerrycans and landing grounds were often the local golf course - to the disbandment of the Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) on Zimbabwean independence in 1980.

It is impossible to separate the Great Trek from events which took place as far back as the Portuguese explorers because those events shaped the backdrop to the causes of the Great Trek. Most writers have specialized in the trek itself whereas Binckes has adopted a broader approach that studies the impact of the earlier white incursions and migrations on southern Africa, to create a better understanding of the trek and its causes.

Capturing the experiences of a South African Air Force helicopter pilot during the South African Border War, this book describes the author's progress from rookie to seasoned combat aviator during one of history's most intense counterinsurgency conflicts.

To Rule the Winds is the story of how a coordinated force of the Royal Air Force's fighter squadrons came into being as Fighter Command in 1936 and what became of it after the Battle of Britain. It is a large story, to be told in a series of volumes.

"The famous poem by Rudyard Kipling is based on the life of Jameson, and the suffering he endured as a result of the doomed raid that he and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen carried out against Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic in 1896. In this engaging biography ... Ash recounts the life of this colonial statesman known as 'Dr Jim' or simply 'The Doctor'. He was an enigmatic man: when he died The Times estimated that his astonishing personal sway over his followers was equalled only by that of Parnell, the Irish patriot. During the fervour of the South African diamond rush Jameson established a small medical practice in Kimberley in 1878; it was here that he met and forged a lifelong friendship with Cecil John Rhodes. Jameson's thirst for adventure, coupled with Rhodes's dream of expanding the British Empire from the Cape to Cairo, led - under Royal Charter to the British South Africa Company - to the occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, with Jameson having laid the groundwork in his political dealings with Lobengula, king of the Matabele. And so began Jameson's rollercoaster adventure: from Administrator of Mashonaland, to the 'invasion' of Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), the Matabele War and the infamous 'Jameson Raid' and his subsequent trial and incarceration in London. Despite the raid, Jameson had a successful political life. He died on 26 November 1917 in London. His body was laid in a vault at Kensal Green cemetery where it remained until the end of the First World War. Ian Colvin wrote in 1923 that Jameson's body was then 'carried to Rhodesia and on the 22nd of May, 1920, laid in a grave cut in the granite on the top of the mountain which Rhodes had called 'The View of the World' (in the Matopos Hills near Bulawayo), close beside the grave of his friend.'"--Back cover.

During that long, hot summer of 1964, Ivan Smith, a mercenary volunteer in the Arme Nationale Congolais, came to witness and understand fear, the law of the jungle and the lust for killing that permeates Africa. A member of 'Mad Mike' Hoare's 5 Commando Group he and his companions were nominally soldiers but there was little in the way of campaigns, tactics and discipline. Of conventional warfare there was none. Loyalty to country or unit did not exist and the fear of death was the only commander. Many more mercenaries died from an accidental discharge, in a drunken shoot-out or from a bullet in the back than were ever killed in action by Simba rebels. Nearly half a century later, Ivan Smith re-lives the nightmare that was the Congo.

Join 'The Terrible Ones' on clandestine operations and in conventional warfare during the harsh bush war that raged through southern Angola in the 1980s. The conflict ended with the last major battle of the Cold War, one of the largest land battles of the latter part of the 20th century. This book presents an eyewitness account by a South African D

Wars always generate stories and everybody loves a story. Rob Milne has compiled this selection of Anglo-Boer War stories from all over South Africa and recounts them in a book that saddens, mystifies, but most of all entertains.

The Great Patriotic War (GPW) of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany, known in the West as the Eastern Front of WWII, continues to attract a number of military historians from different countries around the world. The frontline veterans' reminiscences occupy a prominent place among most important documents of that time. In contrast to official documents, these recollections reproduce the so-called truth of the foxholes, the genuine spirit of the war. Along with their honesty, the WWII veterans' memories are full of idiomatic expressions, specialized terms and abbreviations peculiar to that war. Regardless of their language, the memoirs reproduce the wartime vocabulary of the authors' nationalities, and reading them can be a difficult task for uninformed readers. As a consequence, special dictionaries appeared in print and later on Internet web sites. Unlike most of the Allied countries, no war jargon/slang dictionary has been published in Russia. This glossary is intended to begin to fill that gap. Several sources of the Red Army serviceman's slang were peculiar to the Soviet experience. The upheaval of the 1917 October Revolution and following Civil War, and the fundamental changes wrought by the political and social reforms and campaigns in the 1920s-1930s affected the Russian vocabulary substantially. The fact that the overwhelming majority of Red Army soldiers and officers came from rural households, and brought their local idioms and expressions into the trenches, also enriched the war vocabulary. Another set of figurative expressions arose as a result of Stalin's terrible purges of the 1930s, when people created euphemisms to avoid saying words like search, arrest and execution. Such expressions came into general circulation and also contributed to Russian wartime slang. Some words also appeared under the harsh conditions of the USSR far rear, where civilians struggled under conditions of hard labor and malnutrition. Lend-lease items entered the soldiers' parlance, often in the form of nicknames. Finally, any army has its traditions and slogans, many of which were revived in the Red Army during WW II. All of the aforementioned sources and others contributed to the Russian wartime vocabulary. The authors began this glossary as a translators' aid, but now they believe it will also be of interest to military historians and linguists who work with original Russian military sources, especially of the Second World War period.

The 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division 'Wallonien', which mostly consisted of French-speaking citizens of the Kingdom of Belgium - first as part of the Wehrmacht, and later in the ranks of the Waffen SS - fought as one of the national legions against the Red Army on the Eastern Front in February 1942.

This is Ken Wharton's second oral history of the Northern Ireland troubles told again from the perspective of the ordinary British soldier. This book looks deeper into the conflict, utilizing stories from new contributors providing revealing and long-forgotten stories of the troubles from the back streets of the Ardoyne to the bandit country of South Armagh. Ken Wharton - himself a former soldier - is now known and trusted by those who served and they are keen for their part in Britain's forgotten war to now be made public. For the first time, he tells the stories of the 'unseen victims' - the loved ones who sat and dreaded a knock at the door from the Army telling them that their loved one had been killed on the streets of Northern Ireland.

Portugal's three wars in Africa in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (Guine-Bissau today) lasted almost 13 years - longer than the United States Army fought in Vietnam. Yet they are among the most underreported conflicts of the modern era.

Wartime is costly. Whilst the human cost is a burden which remains part of our every waking thoughts for many years after the end of the conflict, the physical cost, at least in some cases, is easier to deal with.

"Historical accuracy comes from exhaustive research and a deft writer's hand. Hamilton's The Oder Front, 1945 will prove to be the definitive work on the little-understood Nazi defense outside the gates of the German capital.

"A testament to the experiences of the British Army during those troubled years. A splendid book..." - Britain At War Magazine, 09/2008 This is the story of the Troubles in Northern Ireland told from the perspective of the British soldiers who served there between 1969 and 1998.

To the uninitiated, German military symbols appearing on documents, maps, orders-of-battle, and throughout postwar German WWII military literature, can appear indecipherable. Yet an understanding of their meaning is key to being able to seriously read and research all aspects of the WWII German Armed Forces. This book aims to provide the reader with a clear and comprehensive reference to these symbols, as seen in photos, tables of organization and maps for the period May 1943 onwards. The first two parts of the book feature an overview of how the German Armed Forces used the symbols in the field. Parts III, IV and V deal with specific forms and categories of symbols used. The format used throughout has been to provide an image of the symbol, accompanied by the relevant German term and its English translation, along with any pertinent information that will aid the reader's understanding of the symbol and the unit that it represented. The final part of the book, containing a list of over 500 abbreviations and their German terms, supplemented by English translations, should prove invaluable to any reader who has more than a passing interest in the Second World War German Armed Forces.- The only English-language book available on this subject; a new book, NOT a photocopied reprint!- All images computer-enhanced for crystal-clear reproduction- Ideal reference for modelers and all those who take an active interest in the WWII German Armed Forces- A thoroughly researched guide to a little-known subject- Over 800 symbols illustrated; over 1,000 German terms & abbreviations translated into English.

"Originally published by Helion & Company 2000"--Title page verso.