Böcker utgivna av Pen & Sword Books Ltd

John LambsheadâEUR(TM)s highly popular One-hour Skirmish Wargames was designed for fights in the gunpowder era but now he is transporting the action back to the age of swords and sandals, of legionaries, hoplites and war elephants. These stand-alone rules (you donâEUR(TM)t need the first book) follow the same principles that made the original popular: streamlined game mechanics that are quick to learn and fast to play, allowing the players to concentrate on making tactical decisions and having fun rather than constantly having to look up and decipher over-complicated rules. Card-driven like the original, no dice are required. Although deceptively simple, the rules capture plenty of period flavour and allow for everything from slingers to chariots and stampeding elephants. There are sample force lists, a points system for building any force across this whole period and a couple of sample scenarios. The author explains his design choices and the logic behind the rules to make it easier for players to tweak them to suit their tastes and their specific armies or sub-period. He describes them as a toolkit, not a set of hard-and-fast tournament rules, and adaptation and customization of the rules is encouraged. Fast and furious fun is the order of the day.

A variety of factors surround military firearms âEUR" they needed to be produced in large numbers to a standardised pattern at an affordable price. This books examines the transition from traditional hand-craft methods to the beginnings of mechanised manufacture using as examples the French Model 1777 and the Russian Model 1808 infantry muskets. A number of factors led to this choice. The French Model 1777 musket, designed by HonorÃ(c) Blanc working under General Gribeauval, contained many novel features which became blueprints for the arms of numerous countries and was copied in its entirety by Russia. Another factor is that they are the only firearms whose manufacture is covered in contemporary accounts. A third factor is that they provide contrasts in their methods of manufacture; the French 1777 musket was largely produced by hand-craft methods, whereas in Russia we see the beginnings of extensive mechanisation in the early 19th century. Another important aspect which appears is âEUR¿interchangeabilityâEUR(TM) âEUR" the ability to exchange identical parts of identical mechanism without âEUR¿special adjustmentâEUR(TM). This is a vital factor at the foundation of modern manufacturing and first appears in early 18th century France, was pursued again by Blanc in 1777 and was picked up in Russia. For the first time, all these âEUR¿technologiesâEUR(TM) are examined, explained, compared and contrasted in extensive detail.

Samuel Herbert Dougal had a successful military career lasting over 20 years in the Royal Engineers, where he rose to the rank of Quartermaster-Sergeant. But he was also a forger, embezzler, thief, arsonist, serial womaniser and murderer. After leaving the army he preyed on well-off older women and one of them âEUR" Camille Cecile Holland âEUR" would become the central figure and victim of the Moat Farm Murder. In 1899, Dougal persuaded her to purchase Coldhams Farm, an isolated property at Clavering, Essex, which they renamed âEURœThe Moat FarmâEUR? and which she supposed was to be their love-nest. Instead, she disappeared shortly after they moved in, with Dougal reporting that she had gone travelling on a sudden whim. He also installed his real wife Sarah at the Moat Farm; she was his third wife and it is likely that he poisoned both the others whilst serving in Canada. He then began to systematically ransack Miss HollandâEUR(TM)s bank account using forged cheques, as well as selling off her substantial investments with forged letters to brokers and putting the farm into his own name. The womanising continued unabated and became the stuff of local legend. Four years later, when Miss HollandâEUR(TM)s funds were used up, Dougal tried to flee the country but was arrested at the Bank of England trying to change high value banknotes. After an unsuccessful attempt at escape on the way to the police station, he remained in custody for several months while an unsatisfactory trial for fraud dragged on before the Magistrates Bench. At last the police decided to look for a body, spending weeks to no avail dragging the moats which surrounded the farmhouse. At the very moment when the trial for fraud hung on a thread, Miss Holland was discovered in a filled-in drainage ditch with a bullet in her skull. Public hysteria was at fever-pitch and sightseers came in thousands from all over England. An inquest and trial for murder followed swiftly; Dougal was convicted and executed in July 1903\. His last word was âEURœGuiltyâEUR?.

_Operation Telic and the Liberation of Iraq_ is an anecdote-packed daily diary recounting the authorâEUR(TM)s experiences as a reserve officer and media handler with 7 Armoured (the Desert Rats) and 19 Mechanized Brigade during Operation TELIC in Iraq in 2003. A journalist in uniform, Abbott provides an insider-outsider account of British Army media ops in southern Iraq during the immediate post-conflict phase. With a sharp eye for detail, Abbott provides a behind-the-scenes account of the highs and lows of serving two âEUR¿mastersâEUR(TM) âEUR" his demanding military commanders on one hand and a voracious press on the other. One of his first missions is dealing with a barrage of media questions following the brutal murder of six Royal Military Police by a crazed mob in Majar-al-Kabir. Abbott recalls the adrenalin-filled atmosphere when the British Army garrison at Basra Palace is surrounded by a crowd firing mortars and unleashing hundreds of rounds from their AK-47s. ItâEUR(TM)s only after a tense stand-to that the nervous troops discover that they are not under attack: the crowd is celebrating the demise of Saddam HusseinâEUR(TM)s sons. There are plenty of lighter and un-woke moments, too, as Abbott tells stories that fortunately didnâEUR(TM)t make the news at the time. The author admits how criminal thoughts might just have crossed his mind over the $30 million flown in by the US government each week and stored feet from his camp-bed. Above all this is a vivid account of a controversial operation that cost many lives and severely tarnished the reputation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Unconvinced of the merits of military action before arriving in theatre, Abbott ends his tour in a positive mindset despite the failure to locate WMD. His diary is more SOS than SAS, with little of the derring-do of an Andy McNab adventure. Yet it's just as un-put-downable. More in the tradition of Leslie Thomas' Virgin Soldiers than Bravo Two Zero, itâEUR(TM)s an honest, authentic and often funny read which has the potential to appeal beyond a niche audience. There has been no account of the British in Iraq quite like this.

_The Lost Years_ tells the story of Roger Rothwell, captured by the Japanese on Christmas Day 1941 during the fall of Hong Kong, along with 900 of his fellow soldiers. He was one of only 150 who walked through the camp gates to freedom in 1945. The book describes his four long years of captivity in Shamsuipo and Argyle Street prison camps in beautifully written and sometimes harrowing detail. Experiences are told from notes made in a secretly kept diary of Roger's incarceration, the discovery of which would have meant his inevitable death at the hands of his captors. Roger recounts his enlisting in the British Army as a newly qualified teacher at the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, his time training for combat, his long and arduous journey to Hong Kong via Africa, his capture and eventual release, and finally, the journey home. _The Lost Years_ is a book which will fascinate those interested in World War Two, the bombing of London during the Blitz, and the experiences of Prisoners of War. The book is written with the attention to detail only a soldier could produce. It is a story of determination and a man who owed his life to the loyalty of his fellow prisoners and his love for the childhood sweetheart at home, who waited. It is written with humility and humour and is a fascinating account of one man's eagerness to serve his country, his experience of war, and his ultimate survival.

This book offers a no-holds-barred insight into the often passionate, sometimes controversial, subject of tension and mistrust between the worlds of archaeology and metal detecting with the intent of shedding new light upon and bringing into the open some of the working practices, procedures and thoughts which have fuelled an ill-wind that flurries through levels of archaeological academia. Beginning in the mists of history, the author explores the birth of archaeological investigation from a Kings search, the grave robbers, through the antiquarian collectors, museum artefact collections through to a profession which appears these days to rely upon the construction industry and its commercialism for survival. Integrating various sources of information to highlight analytical information as well cultural, social, and economic intervention to form an unbiased argument. The later appearance of metal detecting as a hobby which fired discontent, distrust, and deliberate efforts to either govern or ban the hobby. This distrust is echoed by the authorâEUR(TM)s extensive research which uncovered a deep-set denial of the use, by archaeologists, of an innovative invention which has become an essential tool for artefact recovery, the metal detector. This hobby, also listed as a sport, boasts a practitioner membership of over thirty-five thousand in the UK alone, the history of which is covered in depth from the development of electro-magnetism, leading to an ever-increasing number of inventions, including machines for the detection of explosive devices which morphed into the metal detector as we know it today.

In February 1917, German U-boats launched a savage unrestricted campaign against both Allied and neutral shipping. At its peak in April, 860,000 tons of Allied merchant shipping was sunk. BritainâEUR(TM)s supremacy at sea was being severely challenged and with it the chances of victory in the wider war. Taking up the challenge was BritainâEUR(TM)s new First Sea Lord, Sir John Jellicoe, until the previous December C-in-C of the Grand Fleet âEUR" famously described by Churchill as the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon. The battle he now faced was equally critical, although the timeline of defeat was a matter of days rather than hours âEUR" BritainâEUR(TM)s food stocks were dangerously low with wheat reserves down to six weeks and sugar to only two, while wide-scale shortages were crippling the industrial economy. Jellicoe outlined the gravity of the situation with total candor to Rear Admiral William Sims, USN, sent over before America officially declared war by Franklin Roosevelt, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The two men already knew each other from service together in China during the Boxer Rebellion, so JellicoeâEUR(TM)s plea for urgent American assistance was taken seriously by Sims. After the USA joined the war in April 1917, together they lobbied Washington for aid, addressing their needs directly to two reluctant Anglophobes at the head of the USN, Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels and Chief of Naval Operations, William Benson. Clearly, a radical new approach to anti-submarine warfare was called for, and Convoy was the leading contender. There were many objections to protecting shipping in this way, some ideological but most practical âEUR" a workable system, for example, effectively required state control of both shipping and distribution networks, something inconceivable in normal circumstances. However, Convoy had powerful advocates, including the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, who later claimed he had personally forced its adoption on a reluctant Admiralty. This self-serving political myth cast Jellicoe as an opponent of Convoy: nothing could be further from the truth. As both Jellicoe and Sims understood, the key requirement was a rapid increase in the number of destroyers for escort duties. America provided them, the first arriving in Queenstown, Ireland on 4 May and by June 46 were operating in European waters. This was the first step in an Anglo-American campaign that gradually brought the U-boat threat under control and led to its ultimate defeat. This book takes a fresh look at the undersea war as a whole and all the complex factors bearing on the campaign, only one of which was convoy. Its analysis is original, and its conclusions thought-provoking âEUR" an important contribution to the naval history of the Great War.

Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen is considered to be one of the most tragic characters in English history. In July 1553 when King Edward VI died at the age of just 15 years old, the Tudor dynasty fell into chaos. The king had no legitimate male heirs and was determined his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth would not inherit his throne, despite his father Henry VIII stating in his will that they should. We are led to believe that on Edward's instructions his cousin Lady Jane Grey was to be proclaimed queen. But who was she? Was she the innocent young girl that our history books tell us she was, or a religious fanatic with the aim of keeping Mary off the throne and England Protestant? Or was she nothing but a pawn to men in the game of power and politics, abused by her parents to marry against her will all for a crown she did not want? This book looks into her life from her early years in relative seclusion at the family home at Bradgate through to her tragic end on the scaffold at the Tower of London, executed on the orders of her cousin Queen Mary. What was her place within the Tudor royal family, was she ever entitled to claim the throne of England, and do we even recognise her as a true queen today?

Almost 500 years have passed since the death of Anne Boleyn, and yet, there has never been a suggestion she was guilty of the crimes which saw her executed. Attempts to muddy AnneâEUR(TM)s reputation throughout history have not lessened her popularity nor convinced anyone she was an adulterer. But many myths surrounding AnneâEUR(TM)s conviction for sleeping with George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton have cropped up due to centuries of lies, slander, and misinformation from detractors. One month after Anne was executed, the Convocation of Canterbury ratified the paperwork detailing her arrest, conviction, execution, and the annulment of the marriage between King Henry VIII and his second wife. As parliament had already ruled AnneâEUR(TM)s only child, Princess Elizabeth, was no longer heir to the throne, all the paperwork surrounding the trial was destroyed. No trace of her charges, witness statements, evidence, or even Archbishop Thomas CranmerâEUR(TM)s reasoning for annulling the royal marriage survived the mass destruction. Everyone was supposed to forget Anne Boleyn and accept Queen Jane. But why did Anne Boleyn ever need to die? King Henry had started little more than an infatuation with Jane Seymour in December 1535\. Yet, many saw the opportunity to pounce, not to reduce AnneâEUR(TM)s influence but to increase Princess MaryâEUR(TM)s standing. As Vicegerent Thomas Cromwell and Ambassador Eustace Chapuys whispered of alliances in secret meetings, the Catholic nobility and the White Roses began to hatch their plan to restore the kingâEUR(TM)s daughter, Princess Mary, to her rightful place at court. Just as Katharine of Aragon died, Anne Boleyn felt secure as EnglandâEUR(TM)s queen, only to find that her adversaryâEUR(TM)s death would soon bring on her own. Why did political and religious enemies of Thomas Cromwell seek him in the months leading to AnneâEUR(TM)s death, expecting his co-operation to restore Princess Mary? Did Jane Seymour have any significance and why did King Henry and Thomas Cromwell get into a public shouting match at a dinner party? The answers lie not in what evidence remains of court life in early 1536 but in the gaps left behind. None of the characters that played a role in Anne BoleynâEUR(TM)s death were strangers; all had connections, alliances and opportunities, and when their pasts and futures are laid together, we can see how a haphazard plan to end a queenâEUR(TM)s life had almost nothing to do with her at all.

Elvis PresleyâEUR(TM)s life was the ultimate rags to riches story, and it was the rags, as much as the riches that drove him, defined him, and made him the global icon he is today. Born in a shack in AmericaâEUR(TM)s Deep South in 1935, to impoverished parents struggling in the wake of the Great Depression, he sprung from a life of deprivation to one of international fame and untold wealth âEUR" all before he was twenty. Brought up dirt-poor, but surrounded by love and music from birth, Elvis was infused with the sounds of gospel and the raw, hard-life blues of the âEUR¿cotton countryâEUR(TM)sâEUR(TM) plantation workers. And when the family radio brought country singers, crooners and spiritual quartets to his young ears, his musical DNA was fully-formed. ElvisâEUR(TM) boarding pass for the rocket-ship to stardom was a voice of liquid gold and his striking appearance upgraded him to a VIP fast-track ticket into the entertainment stratosphere. His unique sense of style and musical talent went hand-in-hand in creating Elvis the Showman. As a teenager, before he sang a note, it was his unconventional look that singled him out among his peers. Later, it was his voice that stopped a conservative 1950s America in its tracks. This book looks at how Elvis broke down cultural and racial barriers and smiled in the face of safe dressing. His bold outfits were his trademark yet, no matter how dazzling, they never outshone him. They were also his force shield, superhero costumes that protected him from anxiety, pain, the glare of the spotlight and, in difficult times, from reality. It considers how ElvisâEUR(TM)s extraordinary style âEUR" as much as his pioneering music âEUR" defined his life and the experiences that he lived through. It includes exclusive interviews with:* Hal Lansky, whose family dressed Elvis for three decades, and who advised Austin Butler on what to wear playing him in the 2022 movie, Elvis. * Award-wining producer director, Steve Binder who resurrected ElvisâEUR(TM) career and put him in that black leather suit for the 1968 Comeback Special. * Butch and Kim Polston, who maintain ElvisâEUR(TM) legacy, recreating his spectacular 1970s Vegas jumpsuits, including those worn by Butler. _Elvis: The King of Fashion_ marvels at how an intensely shy and disadvantaged boy from the wrong side of Tupelo, Mississippi, went from homespun to Hollywood in the blink of an eye and became the most popular, successful, idolized and imitated solo performer of all time. Most of all, it regards the rollercoaster life of Elvis the man through a fashion lens as he strode like a colossus through the world of showbusiness, dressed like The King he never quite believed he was.

The author believes that all international strategic manoeuvrings in the region, mostly rely on information that is entirely fabricated and portrayed by PakistanâEUR(TM)s adversaries to harm its national interests. In his opinion, knowing a realistic picture of Pakistan and the Pakistan army in its true perspective, is important not only for people inside the country but also for the international community, so that they may pursue their relationships and cooperation in the region based on ground realities. Considering his personal experiences in security and counterintelligence operations during last four decades, he thought of writing this book. He believes that his narrative provides a virtuous material for analysts to ponder history through an authentic premise and predict futuristic security scenarios based on a realistic perspective. To present his arguments with facts and figures, in a cohesive manner, the author has presented the narrative in shape of a memoir of his lifelong experiences in a cohesive manner, taking full measure of the individuals, institutions and organisations that made a strong impression on his life. During the process, an effort has been made to take the readers along the same curve he followed so that they can clearly grasp the dynamics that drives the life of a Pakistani soldier.

This book starts with the Incident at Mosty, in which we explore a little-known event which took place on August 25, 1939 near the Czechoslovakian/Polish border. The next chapter is The Gleiwitz Incident where we tell the story of an incident on the night of August 31/September 1, 1939, where the German Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) staged a series of fake border incidents along the German-Polish frontier in Upper Silesia designed to give Nazi Germany an excuse for invading Poland. The most prominent of these provocations was the seizure of the German radio station in the town of Gleiwitz. Following from this we the describe the story of Westerplatte where the opening shots of the Second World War were fired in Poland: The Free City of Danzig, Westerplatte, The Military Transit Depot, Preparations for Defence, Preparing for Aggression, The Last Hours of Peace, The First Day of War, The Second Day, The Third Day, The Fourth Day, The Fifth Day, The Sixth Day, The Seventh Day, Hitler Visits Danzig, Westerplatte Today. Finally, we describe The Siege of Warsaw in 1939\. On September 8, 1939, one week into the Nazi invasion of Poland, German armoured troops reached the gates of Warsaw. The Polish government and High Command had left the city but a determined garrison awaited the enemy invader and the Poles were able to stave off two consecutive German attempts to take the capital by armoured attack. Thus began a siege that would last for three weeks and subject the Warsaw Army of over 100,000 and the civilian population of over one million to a ruthless campaign of aerial bombardment and heavy artillery shelling, causing thousands of casualties and widespread destruction. It was a hopeless battle that could only end in defeat and on September 27 the Polish garrison capitulated. The photos of the first penetration by tanks and infantry of the 4\. Panzer-Division taken on September 9 became standard repertoire of German propaganda publications on the Blitzkrieg in Poland.

This book gives the most up-to-date story of the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, AKA the Yorkshire Ripper. His confessions to police in 1981, and his later confession in 1992 to two further attacks, are gone into in greater detail than ever before, as are attacks on women that the police later felt they had enough evidence to charge him with. We also delve deep into the police investigation and highlight the many failings of the West Yorkshire Police Force and the many times Peter Sutcliffe should have been caught. Using Home Office files that the author had released under the FOI Act at the National Archives, this is the true story of the Yorkshire Ripper âEUR" and the 32 girls and women whose lives he affected forever. In researching this book, the author contacted some of the those whose lives were affected by Sutcliffe. One of those, Mo Lea, kindly agreed to write the foreword for the book having read it in full:_This book is a very valuable contribution, knocking all the other books out there about Sutcliffe well off the shelf!__This is a very thorough and incredibly well researched account of the murders and attacks of Peter Sutcliffe. Chris has produced a comprehensive report that is the best reference book on Peter SutcliffeâEUR(TM)s killing spree. Aspects of the consequences of the investigation are laid bare, clearly underlining where procedures went wrong, especially relating to how the police took John HumbleâEUR(TM)s hoax seriously.__Chris provides insight with an intelligent overview of how the findings of the Byford and Sampson Reports show how the West Yorkshire Police mishandled the investigation.__Compact, condense and a valuable read to anyone interested in his crimes._- Mo Lea, survivor of an attack by Peter Sutcliffe

Celebrating 100 years since the first submariner received the Congressional Medal of Honor, dive into pre-World War II submarine history through the first comprehensive, analytical, investigation into the life and times of Henry Breault. From 1900-41, Breault's life is reconstructed as lived through his Official Military Personnel File, census records, newspaper clippings, and connecting previous research. Breault's childhood, his enlistments in the Royal Navy Canadian Volunteer Reserve and the United States Navy are carefully reconstructed. From there, the conditions aboard the submarines he served on, his relationship with friends and family, his relationship to the women in his life, and his concept of masculinity and material identity allow us to better understand his life in the context he likely understood them. This book provides a new template for microhistorical observations into subjects whose primary sources are official military documentation to help better understand enlisted submariners.

Late Roman Combat Tactics by Dr. Ilkka Syvÿnne is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand land combat in the period from the Tetrarchy to the death of Heraclius, a period when the Romans faced serious and growing military threats on many fronts. The authorâEUR(TM)s detailed analysis provides the reader with a complete understanding of the combat equipment worn by the soldiers, types of troops, tactics, different unit orders and formations used by the late Romans and their enemies. Importantly, he lays out the developments and changes in these aspects across this critical period, assessing how the Romans adapted, or failed to adapt to the varied and changing array of enemies, such as Persians, Avars and Arabs. The discussion examines how the Romans fought at every level, so that it covers everything from the individual fighting techniques all the way up to the conduct of large-scale pitched battles. There is an immense amount of technical detail but the human element and the experience of the officers and ordinary soldiers is not forgotten, with such factors as morale and the psychology of battle (the âEUR¿face of battleâEUR(TM)) given due consideration. The thoroughly researched text is well supported by dozens of diagrams and illustrations. A thoroughly illuminating read on its own, Late Roman Combat Tactics is also the perfect companion to Dr SyvÿnneâEUR(TM)s eight-volume Military History of Late Rome.

In the past, while visiting the First World War battlefields, the author often wondered where the various Victoria Cross actions took place. He resolved to find out. In 1988, in the midst of his army career, research for this book commenced and over the years numerous sources have been consulted. _Victoria Crosses on the Western Front - The Final Advance in Flanders and Artois_ is designed for the battlefield visitor as much as the armchair reader. A thorough account of each VC action is set within the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It will allow visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close to, where each VC was won. Photographs of the battle sites richly illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each recipient, covering every aspect of their lives, warts and all, parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial/commemoration. A host of other information, much of it published for the first time, reveals some fascinating characters, with numerous links to many famous people and events.

Barbara Villiers was a woman so beautiful, so magnetic and so sexually attractive that she captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain. Her beauty is legendary: she became the muse of artists such as Peter Lely, the inspiration of writers such as John Dryden and the lover of John Churchill, the future great military leader whom we also know as the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her greatest amorous conquest was King Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with whom she had a tempestuous and passionate relationship for the better part of a decade. But this loveliest of Stuart-era ladies had a dark side. She hurt and humiliated her husband, Roger Palmer, for decades with her unashamedly adulterous lifestyle, she plotted the ruin of her enemies, constantly gambled away vast sums of money, is remembered for the destruction of the Tudor-era Nonsuch Palace, and was known to unleash terrible rages when crossed. Crassly lampooned by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and subjected to verbal and written assaults, she was physically abused by a later, violent spouse. Barbara lived through some of the most turbulent times in British history: civil war, the Great Plague of London, which saw the deaths of around 100,000 people, the Great Fire of London, which destroyed much of the medieval city, and foreign conflicts such as the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Williamite wars, and the War of the Spanish Succession. An impoverished aristocrat who rose to become a wealthy countess and then a duchess, taking her lovers from all walks of life, Barbara laughed at the morals of her time and used her natural talents and her ruthless determination to the material benefit of herself and her numerous offspring. In great stately homes and castles such as Hampton Court Palace, her portraits are widely seen and appreciated even today. She had an insatiable appetite for life, love, riches, amusement, and power. She was simply âEUR¿ravenousâEUR(TM)âEUR¿

Entering service in early 1941, the Dornier Do 217 was designed as an improved version of the âEUR¿Flying PencilâEUR(TM), the Do 17 bomber. The Do 217E-1 twin radial-engine bomber first flew in October 1940, the same month that the production of the Do 17 ceased. The Do 217 was initially used for conventional bombing and anti-shipping missions around the United Kingdom, including the infamous Baedeker Blitz against British provincial cities in 1942\. The Do 217 was the main German bomber in this theatre until late 1943, when it started to be replaced by the Messerschmitt Me 410 and Junkers Ju 188\. During this period, the Do 217E was improved, leading to the introduction of the Do 217K or M, the difference between the two being the engines. The Do 217 would be deployed in all of the LuftwaffeâEUR(TM)s campaigns and fronts in the Second World War. Curiously, though, the only operational units to use the type on the Eastern Front were the night reconnaissance units, aside from which only occasionally did other Do 217 units fly missions against StalinâEUR(TM)s forces. With the delay in the Heinkel He 177 entering service, it was the Do 217 that became the first aircraft in history to be used to deploy precision-guided weapons in combat. This came on 21 July 1943, when Do 217s of KG 100 attacked Allied shipping in Augusta harbour, Sicily, using Fritz X radio-guided glide bombs. Then, on 25 August 1943 twelve Do 217E-5s from II./KG 100 attacked a convoy off the Spanish coast with a similar weapon to the Fritz X, the Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided glide bomb. This attack resulted in damage to three warships. In response to the intensifying Allied strategic bomber offensive, additional night fighters were needed by the Luftwaffe. The Do 217E-2 was therefore modified by fitting four MG17s and four MG-FF 20mm cannon in a solid nose. The rear firing guns, including the MG131 in the turret, were retained, as was the ability to carry bombs, creating the Do 217J-1 which was intended as a night intruder. The Do 217 also served extensively as a night fighter, with examples being fitted with Lichtenstein radar and obliquely mounted upward-firing MG151 cannon in the fuselage, the so called Schrÿge Musik modification. Despite the Do 217âEUR(TM)s versatility and wide-spread deployment âEUR" all of which is explored here by the author through a remarkable set of archive images, many of which have never been seen in print before âEUR" production ceased in October 1943\. By the following year, the Do 217 had become obsolete.

Among the most appalling cruelties perpetrated throughout the course of the Second World War was undoubtedly that of human medical and military experimentation conducted upon both living and deceased human beings. The various Nazi human experimentation programmes were initially carried out not so much in the pursuit of any particular scientific discipline, but largely as a result of the Third ReichâEUR(TM)s obsession with race and eugenics. However, this criminal sub-discipline of the Nazi fascination, with its warped racial ideologies, was excused as little other than collateral damage by many of the Nazi physicians and their assistants. GermanyâEUR(TM)s Axis ally, the Japanese Empire, notorious for its cruelty and sadism ran its own independent programmes of human experimentation such as Unit 731 where human beings were not only subject to the most appalling abuses but were injected with cocktails of poisons and/or diseases and in some instances were dissected while fully conscious without any anaesthesia being administered beforehand. It can be said that both Third Reich Germany and Imperial Japan had a more or less inexhaustible supply of human Guinea pigs throughout the Second World War for its ghastly enterprise in human medical experimentation. These unfortunate souls consisted largely of concentration camp inmates or in the case of the Japanese the indigenous peoples of the lands they conquered along with British, American, Indian and Australian Allied prisoners of war. Yet what was the true purpose of these so-called experiments and what requisites if any were, they to serve? And does any evidence suggest that mutual cooperation existed between Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire towards the collation of data through the execution of these ghastly endeavours? Another facet examined within this work is why those Japanese physicians involved in human experimentation and medical torture were excused indictments for war crimes when the evidence against them was clearly so overwhelming? And is there any truth to suggest that the Allied powers benefited from the material obtained through questioning at the end of the Second World War? The complicity of both the German and Japanese pharmaceutical companies also has to be brought into question as many cooperated willingly with the military making handsome profits in the process. This work is written in an attempt at analysing all of these factors within the context of a single volume, utilising the testimonies of perpetrator and victim through many new first-hand and archival sources. This volume also serves as a horrifying and sobering reminder of the capability of manâEUR(TM)s inhumanity through two of the worst military regimes of twentieth-century history.

In answer to Lord KitchenerâEUR(TM)s appeal, in late August and September 1914 many men joined AlexandraâEUR(TM)s Princess of WalesâEUR(TM)s Own Yorkshire Regiment, better known as The Green Howards. Recruits came from around the Middlesbrough area and the ironstone mines on the North Yorkshire moors, while others came from the East Durham coalfield and the Durham City area. The 8th and 9th Battalions left the Regimental Depot in Richmond in late September and moved to Frensham on the Hampshire/Surrey border, where they trained hard until bad weather forced a move to barracks in Aldershot. They arrived on the Somme front at the end of June 1916, but were not involved in the fighting until 5 July, when the 9th Battalion captured Horseshoe trench and Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell won the VC when he destroyed a German machine gun position. On 10 July both battalions took part in the capture of Contalmaison, a village that had been a first day objective. A second VC was awarded posthumously to Private William Short of the 8th Battalion during the fighting in Munster Alley in August 1916. The next year found the 23rd Division in the Ypres Salient, where they were in and out of the line until June 1917 when they took part in the Battle of Messines and the 8th Battalion had the honour of taking Hill 60. In November 1917 the division was sent to Italy to bolster the hard-pressed Italian Army, but the 9th Battalion returned to France in 1918 where they fought until the Armistice. The 8th Battalion stayed on in Italy and fought at the crossing of the Piave and Vittorio Veneto, which brought the war to an end in Italy.

Captain Vincent Bertrand was a French light infantry soldier who survived the key campaigns of Napoleon. Called to arms through conscription, he was directed from his hometown of Nîmes to the depot of the 7ÿme RÃ(c)giment LÃ(c)ger (7th Light Infantry Regiment), in Huningue, where he arrived on 16th November, 1805\. He did not leave this regiment composed almost exclusively of sons of the department of Gard, until 1815. His recollections focus on his loves, adventures and mishaps, as well as the pride of being part of an elite unit. It was this pride that kept him with his regiment and his musket operational during the retreat from Moscow in 1812, unlike his fellow soldiers. He tells of the discipline and organisation of the few soldiers still able to pull their triggers and thrust their bayonets, amidst the frostbite and chaos of those who had become stragglers or marauders. Bertrand's unfailing bravery and composure are evident throughout his memoirs, demonstrating character, discipline and patience, as well as dedication to his regiment and its values and standards. The non-combatants he saved, the esteem he earned from his comrades in battle, and the comfort he gave to a fellow convalescent on the brink of death, would all indicate he was a hero to some, and an admirable soldier to all. Bertrand gives sincere accounts of his time on the battlefields, in the cantonments in Austria, in Germany, in Poland, and finally of the painful stages of his captivity as an Austrian prisoner of war. His writing is entertaining and fast paced, but with plenty of unique detail. First published in 1909 by Bertrand's grandson, this is the first translation from French into English.

National armies, as we know them today, are a comparatively recent development. It has been assumed that the Romans had an army similar to the national institutions of advanced, almost exclusively European, powers at the end of the nineteenth century. But the assumption was wrong as is the belief that changes seen in the armies can be explained because the Romans âEURœreformedâEUR? their armies. Up to the death of Augustus, the Romans had no permanent military forces. Roman armies were raised for particular campaigns and disbanded at their conclusion. Repeated campaigns were conducted in places like northern Italy and Spain but the armies were always disbanded. These armies were not seen by Romans as part of a national institution as modern armies are; they were simply a part of the life of a Roman citizen, like religion or elections. These armies were more like a militia than a national army. There is little evidence even of systematic training and what changes can be detected can be better explained by contingent adaptation to circumstances rather than âEURœreformâEUR?. The emperor Augustus is commonly seen as the originator of the imperial armies but it was an unintended outcome of a long life.

When Hitler came to power in 1933 he promised the German people a technocratic state where science, technology and education would grow and flourish. Unfortunately, any attempts to achieve such a goal were dependent on his educational background which was fundamentally flawed and severely distorted. HitlerâEUR(TM)s schooling was a troubled time where he struggled with many subjects. In particular he found conflicting views between science and religion so difficult to understand it caused him to âEURœrun his head against the wallâEUR?. He was also heavily educated in subjects like myths, magic, pseudo-sciences and the occult which would become his versions of alternative science and alternative facts. These alternatives remained with him into adulthood where, as Fuhrer, his mentality and mindset towards science was highlighted when he announced: "A new age of magic interpretation of the world is coming, of interpretation in terms of the will and not the intelligence."HitlerâEUR(TM)s ideology and rise to power also came at an interesting time for physics which was hinting at that will not intelligence interpretation. The early decades of the twentieth century had seen a revolution in two apparently connected key areas of the subject known as quantum mechanics and relativity; these would have a dramatic influence on Hitler and the physics of the Third Reich. During the 1920s quantum mechanics was suggesting that just by observing an experiment a scientist could alter the outcome and reality. However, at the same time Albert EinsteinâEUR(TM)s theory of relativity was also developing and whereas the two areas were believed to be linked, to the Nazis there was a serious problem. Whereas German physicist Max PlanckâEUR(TM)s quantum physics was a non-Jewish science hinting at that promised magical underlying foundation to physics and reality, Einstein was Jewish and so was his theory. Moreover, relativity was difficult to understand and accept, especially amongst certain right-wing experimental physicists. Therefore, relativity was easy to reject with the magical quantum world eagerly accepted by the Nazis. However, with HitlerâEUR(TM)s ability to understand science clearly strained and steadfast from childhood together with his seething anti-Semitism, this decision set the Nazis on a research road very different from the Allies. As the decade progressed so did the ridicules towards Jewish science through Einstein and his theory. This set in motion extreme anti-Semitic attacks on him by those extreme right-wing experimental physicists many of whom would later find key roles in HitlerâEUR(TM)s government. As such, the theoretical physics dominated by Jewish scientists was rejected en mass with key Jewish scientists dismissed from their academic posts. Instead, the Third Reich favoured experimental, or applied, physics which shaped much of HitlerâEUR(TM)s war machine with the so-called magical interpretation of quantum mechanics and its apparent will over intelligence providing the basis for unconventional pseudo-scientific research, research like free energy, anti-gravity and hidden occultist physics through ancient texts. Through HitlerâEUR(TM)s key reforms in science and education and Heinrich HimmlerâEUR(TM)s SS, science became politicised with an added danger that certain areas were replaced with Nazi alternatives like pseudo-science, magic and the occult. The result was certain areas of true sciences became pseudo-sciences while the Third ReichâEUR(TM)s pseudo-sciences became the true sciences. Disciplines then became Aryan physics, Aryan chemistry, Aryan biology, Aryan mathematics, and so on, with all expected to prove their place within National Socialism or perish. From there science experienced an era of division and decline with loss of freedom and diversity, misapplication of innovation and the inevitable decline in some areas of the natural sciences, especially physics and mathematics. By the warâEUR(TM)s end HimmlerâEUR(TM)s SS had taken control of much of Nazi GermanyâEUR(TM)s scientific research and with the unthinkable dawning on the Nazis that they might lose the war, Hitler placed SS General Hans Kammler in charge of producing new and unconventional wonder weapons, even super weapons, through his own think tank along the lines as HimmlerâEUR(TM)s Ahnenerbe. HitlerâEUR(TM)s faith in Kammler meant he was promoted to only one rank below Himmler working with him in an intense effort to turn the war around, especially following the D-Day landings. To the very end Hitler continued to declare these super weapons would save Nazi Germany, but this led to intolerable strain on his generals when Hitler ordered troops to make last ditch attempts to protect certain locations, locations his generals did not fully understand and made no tactical sense as the Allies advanced on Berlin. Once again, Hitler had failed to understand the true situation while Kammler and Himmler had their own plans in place. It is clear the foundations of HitlerâEUR(TM)s education and its support by like-minded Nazis set in place a destiny that helped the downfall of the Third Reich. Consequently, over time the promised veneer of scientific and educational modernisation under his technocratic state suffered seriously and although this did not initially cause his government to collapse, it neither allowed it to thrive anywhere close to the many promises he made to the German people. All this was a far cry from GermanyâEUR(TM)s scientific research of the nineteenth century which saw staggering achievements up to HitlerâEUR(TM)s rise to power. These golden years built an unrivalled global reputation from the foundations of chemistry expanding into other scientific disciplines like physics and astronomy. In doing so GermanyâEUR(TM)s economy flourished and by the early twentieth century over half of the Nobel Prizes were won by German scientists or German speaking scientists many of whom were Jews. Although Hitler spoke of the golden years and promised to build upon them, it was yet another broken promise based on his lack of scientific understanding and how science needed to do its job. With fleeing Jewish scientists and failures under a dictator focused on pseudo-science and seething anti-Semitism, the Allies took full advantage of the destiny Hitler had created for himself.

Hersch effectively uses his fatherâEUR(TM)s unusual story to convey the horrors of the Holocaust. A valuable addition to Holocaust literature. - Publishers WeeklyHersch's amazing tale is told for the first time by his son Jack who has retraced his footsteps for his new book. - The Daily MailIn a warm and emotionally engaging story, Jack digs deeply into both his father's life and his own, revisiting - and reflecting on - his father's time at the hands of the Nazis during the last year of the Second World War, when more than mere survival was at stake - the fate of humanity itself hung in the balance. - GoodReadsIn June 1944, the Nazis locked eighteen-year-old Dave Hersch into a railroad boxcar and shipped him from his hometown of Dej, Hungary, to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, the harshest, cruelest camp in the Reich. After ten months in the granite mines of MauthausenâEUR(TM)s nearby sub-camp, Gusen, he weighed less than 80lbs, nothing but skin and bones. Somehow surviving the relentless horrors of these two brutal camps, as Allied forces drew near Dave was forced to join a death march to Gunskirchen Concentration Camp, over thirty miles away. Soon after the start of the march, and more dead than alive, Dave summoned a burst of energy he did not know he had and escaped. Quickly recaptured, he managed to avoid being killed by the guards. Put on another death march a few days later, he achieved the impossible: he escaped again. Dave often told his story of survival and escape, and his son, Jack, thought he knew it well. But years after his fatherâEUR(TM)s death, he came across a photograph of his father on, of all places, the Mauthausen MemorialâEUR(TM)s website. It was an image he had never seen before âEUR" and it propelled him on an intensely personal journey of discovery. Using only his fatherâEUR(TM)s words for guidance, Jack takes us along as he flies to Europe to learn the secrets behind the photograph, secrets his father never told of his time in the camps. Beginning in the verdant hills of his fatherâEUR(TM)s Hungarian hometown, we travel with Jack to the foreboding rock mines of Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, to the dust-choked roads and intersections of the death marches, and, finally, to the makeshift hiding places of his fatherâEUR(TM)s rescuers. We accompany JackâEUR(TM)s every step as he describes the unimaginable: what his father must have seen and felt while struggling to survive in the most abominable places on earth. In a warm and emotionally engaging story, Jack digs deeply into both his fatherâEUR(TM)s life and his own, revisiting âEUR" and reflecting on âEUR" his fatherâEUR(TM)s time at the hands of the Nazis during the last year of the Second World War, when more than mere survival was at stake âEUR" the fate of humanity itself hung in the balance.

The British Railways âEUR¿Pilot SchemeâEUR(TM) orders of 1955 included six North British Type 2 diesel-hydraulic locomotives, these being introduced during 1959 for use on the Western Region. Without operational experience, a further fifty-two locomotives were delivered between 1959 and 1962\. The fleet survived intact until 1968, when half of the class was withdrawn due to declining traffic levels across the UK, with successive National Traction Plans progressively selecting the less successful, non-standard and âEUR¿numerically-challengedâEUR(TM) classes for removal from traffic. All fifty-eight locomotives were withdrawn by New Years Day, 1972. This book, the second of two, builds on the overview of the class provided in Volume 1, and makes extensive use of available archive material and the personal observations of numerous enthusiasts. Previously unpublished information, covering the performance issues of these locomotives, form a central focus, together with details of fire incidents and accidents. Liveries and detail differences are given in-depth treatment to illustrate that there really were reasons and a logical progression behind the complicated series of design modifications applied to the Class. Volume 2 concludes with sections on storage, withdrawal and final disposal.

William and Mary, BritainâEUR(TM)s most mysterious monarchs, were married for reasons of dynastic convenience. Their union gradually developed into a happy and successful one, despite WilliamâEUR(TM)s frequent absences on military campaign. They shared interests such as art and gardening, both of which they practised at their palace retreat, Het Loo. Despite the fact that Mary was heir presumptive to her father, the Duke of York, they might have expected to remain in the Netherlands for the rest of their lives. Midway through their marriage, their way of life changed substantially when MaryâEUR(TM)s father, now King James II, was rejected by his English and Scottish subjects because of his fervent Catholicism. William, a foreigner, was accepted as a replacement primarily because of his British queen. The couple had Kensington Palace built, to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, and their renovations at Hampton Court Palace, also by Wren, gave the palace much of its present character. The monarchy was now fully answerable to Parliament, but wives were still generally subservient to their husbands. William and Mary ruled jointly for only seven years, with Mary working conscientiously to maintain order in the country during her husbandâEUR(TM)s absences. William continued to reign alone for only a further seven years after MaryâEUR(TM)s death. Their fourteen years on the throne were critical ones in the history of the British Isles, and the world of William and Mary was one that in many ways would be recognisable to us today.

The story of King Henry VIII, a man who married six times only to execute two of those wives, is part of Great BritainâEUR(TM)s national and international identity. Each year, millions of people walk around the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Hever Castle, plus many other historical sites, taking in and hoping to glean some sense of the man and the myth, and yet there is a period from Henry VIIIâEUR(TM)s life which remains largely overlooked, a period in which he chose not to execute wives, servants or ministers, but instead turned on another group entirely - his own family. Like practically all members of the nobility of the time, Henry VIII descended from King Edward III, which ensured a ready-made crop of royal cousins were in abundance at his court, and awkwardly for the king, these cousins often possessed much greater claims to the throne than he did. The house of Tudor was one which should never have been, let alone taken the throne. Upstarts in every sense of the word, their ancestry, whilst (almost) noble, was by no means as grand as many a family in England, and it is against this backdrop that this book was created. The Pole family, the subjects of the story, were royalty in secret. Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the family matriarch, was a niece of King Edward IV and Richard III, making her a first cousin of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen consort, and thus a first cousin once removed of Henry VIII. Margaret Pole was, therefore, one of the most senior members of the nobility at the Tudor court, and through her, her sons, her daughter, and her grandchildren possessed a dangerous name and dangerous bloodline, which put them on a collision course with the most volatile man ever to sit the throne of England. They were the old guard, the house of Plantagenet, the greatest ruling dynasty in English history, the true royal family, and this, coupled with the monumental shifts which England underwent during the reign of Henry VIII, all but ensured their destruction. For centuries, their story has been overlooked, or at best, fleetingly covered, but when one digs deep, a story as audacious and juicy as itâEUR(TM)s possible to be soon emerges.

The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, was the frontline in the Cold War, packed with hundreds of thousands of Soviet and East German troops armed with the latest Warsaw Pact equipment, lined up along the 1,400 km Inner German Border. However, because of the repressive East German police state, little human intelligence about these forces reached the West. Who were they? Where were they located? What were they doing? How were they equipped? What were their intentions? NATO was lined up in West Germany to face these forces and relied on getting up-to-date intelligence to warn of any threat, âEUR¿Indicators of HostilityâEUR(TM) that could be a precursor to an invasion. BRIXMIS, the British CommandersâEUR(TM)-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany, was on hand to provide that intelligence. Thanks to an obscure 1946 agreement between the British and Soviets that established âEUR¿liaison missionsâEUR(TM) in their respective zones of occupation, the British were able to send highly qualified military âEUR¿observersâEUR(TM) into East Germany to roam (relatively) freely and keep an eye on what was going on. What started as âEUR¿liaisonâEUR(TM), a point of contact between the British and Soviet occupation forces, developed into a very sophisticated intelligence gathering operation, sending âEUR¿toursâEUR(TM) out every day of the year, between 1946 and when the Mission closed in 1990\. These tours were undertaken in high-performance, highly modified marked vehicles, with personnel in uniform and unarmed, apart from professional photographic equipment and occasionally some top-secret gadgets from the boffins back in the UK. They joined their French and American colleagues in snooping around the opposition, photographing military bases, equipment, and manoeuvres, and trying to evade capture by the secret police and counterintelligence units. They faced danger and violence daily, but thanks to their bravery and professionalism, the West had accurate and up to date information on what was happening in East Germany which help keep the peace all that time. This is the story of this little-known unit and their exploits behind enemy lines.