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In 2015 the Salvation Army celebrated the 150th anniversary of its birth in the poverty and squalor of London's East End. Today the Army is to be found in towns and cities throughout Britain, its members readily recognized through their military uniform and their reputation for good works widely acknowledged. Many people, however, are unaware of the origins and subsequent development of the organization. At times Salvationists were imprisoned, beaten up in street riots and ridiculed in the press for their religious beliefs. Despite this persecution the Army put in place a program of help for the poor and marginalized of such ambition that it radically altered social thinking about poverty.There have been very few attempts at writing a wider and accessible account which locates the Army in its historical context. This is something of an omission given that it has made a unique contribution to the changing social, cultural and religious landscape of Britain. The Salvation Army: 150 years of Blood and Fire aims to provide a history of the organization for the general reader and is for anyone who is interested in the interplay of people, ideas and events. The book reveals how the story of the Salvation Army raises fundamental questions about issues of power, class, gender and race in modern society; all as pertinent today as they were in Victorian Britain. The Salvation Army: 150 years of Blood and Fire also makes an extensive use of pictures illustrative of the Army's history gathered from around the world, most of which have never previously been published.

Arguably the greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, with twenty-eight Olympic medals to his name, was asked if he would like his children to follow in his footsteps. His answer, 'Honestly, in a perfect world, I'd say no. Just because I don't want them to live in my footsteps. And I also know everything about it - I know the ins and the outs, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, you know, as a parent, it just - it frightens me.' The truth is that the vast majority of the public don't understand this alarming answer from Phelps. The question as to why so many elite sportspeople fall off the edge of a cliff in life when they retire is often answered in either a too complicated or too simplistic way to give people a meaningful answer. This book changes that. Using brutally honest interviews with sport stars Matthew Hoggard, Paul Walsh, Gail Emms, Tom May, Johnny Nelson and Clare Shine, Luke Sutton breaks down why this happens for a reader in a way that hasn't been done yet. Anyone fascinated by sport or elite performance in general will be enthralled by this book. There is so much to take from it.

This book examines in words and pictures the network of British branch lines and other secondary routes that survived the mass closures of the 1960s. While nearly 4,000 route miles were lost between 1963 and 1970, the cuts were less severe than they might have been. Some lines were reprieved because of their social importance, even though they would never pay their way in purely commercial terms. They included some lengthy rural routes, such as those serving the Far North of Scotland, Central Wales and the Cumbrian Coast, as well as some urban backwaters such as Romford to Upminster and the St Albans Abbey branch. As the 1970s progressed, closures became scarce, but cost-cutting measures included the singling of some lines as well as scaled-down stations and simplified signaling. Yet even today, some pockets of traditional operation survive. Mechanical signal boxes still control many hundreds of miles across the network, in areas as diverse as West Cornwall, East Lincolnshire and South West Scotland. This book also celebrates several reopened and new lines, ranging from the major Borders Railway project in Scotland to the Stansted Airport and Barking Riverside branches in South East England - making the point that the branch line concept is far from dead.

The ships that dominate so much of the history of the Royal Navy in the Second World War are more often than not the carriers or battleships - Ark Royal, Warspite, Hood - and rarely do ships smaller than cruisers move center stage. Apart that is from one class, the Tribal class destroyers, heroes of the Altmark incident, of the battle of Narvik, and countless actions across all theaters of operation. Yet there has been surprisingly little written about these critical ships, still less about their wartime successors, the Battle class, or their postwar incarnations, the Daring class.This book seeks to rectify this by describing the three classes, each designed under different circumstances along destroyer lines but to general-purpose light cruiser form, from the interwar period through to the 1950s, and the author explains the procurement process for each class in the context of the needs and technology of the times. Taken together these classes represent the genesis of the modern general-purpose destroyer, breaking from the torpedo boat destroyer form into a self-reliant, multi-purpose combatant capable of stepping up to the cruiser's traditional peacetime patrol missions whilst also fulfilling the picket and fighting duties of the wartime light cruiser or heavy destroyer.This is the first work to analyze these three classes side by side, to examine their conception, their creation and their operational stories, many heroic, and provide an insight into ship design, operation and culture; and in doing so the book aims to contribute a better understanding of one of the most significant periods in the Royal Navy's history. In its clear description of the genesis of the modern destroyer, this book will give the reader a clearer picture of its future as well. Historians, professionals and enthusiasts will all enjoy this wide-ranging and detailed study.

The first systematic examination both of the German coastal campaign and the British response to it.

Paul McDonald is a former RAF fast-jet pilot whose flying career spanned 34 years. He spent 14 years on operational tours overseas including 2 tours at the height of the Cold War on a Tornado tactical nuclear squadron in Germany.

Propaganda Postcards of the Luftwaffe focuses on the efforts of the powerful Nazi propaganda machine to promote the technical achievements and might of the then newly created German airforce. The Luftwaffe had been announced to the world in March 1935, despite the restrictions contained in the Versailles Treaty signed after the First World War denying Germany the right to develop military aircraft. All major aircraft types used by the Luftwaffe together with many lesser known, obscure and secondary types are represented in this book. There is a section covering the main figures of the Luftwaffe and the leading aces who flew the aircraft. The German Air and Propaganda ministries worked together and, using professional photographers produced quality images, which were then made available to the general public in an attempt to inspire the nation and create strong moral.

This book describes the background to and the development of the Nazi Party Rallies held at Nuremberg each September from 1933 to 1939. These Reichsparteitage (National Party Days) were vast and meticulously staged managed extravaganzas in which ritual and ceremony played an important part.The Rallies had two key objectives. The first was to focus public attention on the successes of the Nazi Party and connect with the public conscience and build a close bond between Party and people.Even more important was the Rallies role in presenting Adolf Hitler as the saviour of the German nation sent to restore national pride, power and prosperity after the shame and economic disaster of the post war years and the deeply resented Versailles Treaty. The Hitler Cult was blatantly promoted with revolutionary use of propaganda by the latest technology and iron control of the media.Using the authors superb collection of postcards and images, The Nazis Nuremberg Rallies takes the reader on a visual journey through each years Reichsparteitage. A truly fascinating way to understand this uniquely successful and threatening phenomena.

The epic of Dunkirk has been told many times, but the numerous accounts from surviving soldiers and sailors were often a blur of fear and fighting with the days mingling into each other, leaving what is, at times, a confusing picture. In this book, adopting a day by day approach, the author provides a clear portrayal of the unfolding drama on the perimeter around Dunkirk, in the port itself and along the beaches to La Panne and the Belgian border.Reports from many of the captains of the vessels which took part in the great evacuation were submitted to the Admiralty immediately after the conclusion of Operation Dynamo. With access to these, and supported by the various records maintained by the Army and RAF, the author has been able to finally piece together the movements and actions of the many of the squadrons, units and ships involved.With the Admiralty reports and a mass of other first-hand accounts, many of which have never been published before, the true tale of the heroism of the rescued and the rescuers is laid bare. Operation Dynamo saw civilian volunteers and Royal Navy personnel manning every type of craft from the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta to the cockle boats of the Thames Estuary. The accounts of the men who crewed these vessels tell of being bombed and strafed by the Luftwaffe or shelled from the shore. There are stories of collisions in the dark, chaos on the beaches and tragic losses as ships went down. Similar tales are told by the men waiting on the beaches, defending the perimeter or flying in the skies overhead in a valiant effort to hold the German Army and Luftwaffe at bay.Yet this is ultimately a story, as Churchill described it, of 'deliverance', for against all the predictions, the BEF was saved to fight again another day. With civilians and servicemen working without respite for days and nights on end under almost continual attack to rescue the army, the nation pulled together as never before. It truly was Britain's finest hour.

This book covers the inception, growth and employment of Britain's airborne forces (parachute and glider-borne formations) between June 1940 and March 1945. It takes a comparative approach and follows tailored lines of development. Each of these lines influence each other.

Over sixty years ago, a battle took place that, if it had succeeded, could have shortened the Second World war by six months. The operation to take the bridges at Arnhem was given the code name 'Operation Market Garden', Market being the airside of the operation and Garden the subsequent ground operation. The main problem was communications between the ground forces and the resupply aircraft of the Royal Air Force.

Determined to 'do his bit', Des Evans absconded from a reserved occupation in 1939 and joined the newly formed Reconnaissance Corps. After parachute training, he joined C Troop in time to play his role in Operation Market Garden, the ill-fated but glorious attempt to seize the Rhine Bridge at Arnhem. In this gripping memoir, Des vividly describes b

This is a bold, painstakingly researched and wide-ranging assessment of the British Cheer in the Napoleonic era. Reference to the Cheer in accounts of the time is virtually ubiquitous and repeatedly the claim was made for cheering as an integral part of British offensive operations. However, more recent historians have tended to overlook this evidence.Based upon a vast range of contemporary sources, this book suggests that the Cheer wielded genuine power as a true 'weapon of war'. This book first surveys the history of acclamations in battle worldwide and British battle-cries from all periods, before addressing the question of what the British Cheer actually sounded like. Issues of acoustics, physics and the psychology of battlefield morale are considered, along with commentaries from significant military scholars throughout history. Examination of the Napoleonic-era Cheer then reveals the practically invincible 'recipe' of volley-cheer-charge that propelled the British Army to victory upon victory. Comparison is drawn with French and other national patterns of vocalizing, along with analysis of those occasions when the Cheer might be suppressed. Finally, the attitude of the Duke of Wellington towards cheering is reconsidered, with surprising results.This study encompasses a vast canvas of place and time in pursuit of the elusive yet galvanizing Cheer: from the Mahratta wars in India, through campaigns in Egypt, the Mediterranean, Flanders, the Caribbean and South America, as well as the war of 1812. The Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns feature prominently as the Cheer is heard thrillingly from Vimeiro to Talavera, Salamanca to Vitoria, Orthez to Toulouse and the shocking siege of Badajoz to the charge of the Scots Greys on the ridge of Mont Saint Jean. Anyone interested in the wars of Revolutionary France and Napoleon, the British army, the career of the Duke of Wellington, or indeed the wider questions of the psychological motivations of combat will find this book illuminating and thought-provoking.

In the Russian-Ukrainian war, both sides depended heavily on rockets and missiles. Some of these date from Soviet times and some are very modern, being deployed in warfare for the first time.The outbreak of the civil war in the east of Ukraine in 2014 showed that rockets and missiles, beside the artillery, are among the decisive factors in both regular Ukrainian military, and paramilitary nationalistic formations as well as in the separatists' bodies. For eight years hardly any day passed without these weapons being fired.On 24 February 2022, Russia unleashed a 'limited military operation' (as President Putin defined it) with a barrage of new equipment - cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles - pounding Ukrainian targets. The West responded with a pledge to supply modern weapons to the otherwise outdated Ukrainian military to counter the Russian threat, especially armor. Ukraine was turned into a vast depot for NATO ammunition and weapons including short-range air defense systems and antitank rockets. Western stocks gradually shrank while numerous cargo lanes transported these weapons to Poland to be hauled by trucks and railways to the Ukrainians. In the meantime, Russia pounded these locations and large quantities of the Western aid disappeared in flames and explosions - as yet more equipment poured into Ukrainian hands. The sheer amount is hard to estimate but large quantities were captured by the Russians and occasionally turned against the former owners.This book is a comprehensive guide to all missiles and rockets used by both sides as well as their effect on both military and civilian targets, including Russian ship-borne weapons and anti-ship missiles used so effectively by Ukraine against the Russian cruiser Moskva. Besides the numerous ex-Soviet, Ukrainian, and Russian anti-armor rockets (RPGs) and missiles, of particular interest are the anti-armor missiles and rockets supplied by NATO which includes Javelin and British NLAW, and Brimstone.The war in Ukraine was a full-scale conventional war between the two largest armies in Europe. But without modern weapons, Ukraine's ability to hold out for an extended period was limited. Its only hope was help by the West. Yet NATO supplies were precisely tracked and often destroyed immediately after unloading. Nevertheless, the Russian-Ukrainian war allowed manufactures and military experts to assess the true effectiveness of their weapons in the most realistic setting of all - the battlefield.In his examination of the weaponry used in the conflict, the author toured the Ukraine as the conflict unfolded, to photograph and report on the first major war of the twenty-first century.

Following the end of the First World War, the newly reformed state of Poland was wedged uncomfortably between the two dominant nations of Germany and the Soviet Union. With their diametrically opposed political philosophies, both of Poland's neighbors plotted continuously to reclaim its lands that had up until recently been part of the once great but now defunct German and Russian empires. In order to protect itself, Poland was obliged to plot and negotiate with both of its neighbors to try and prevent them from realizing their ambitions to eviscerate the country.The United States had been instrumental in the creation of the Polish state after the First World War, Wilson in particular stoking the Poles' growing powerful nationalistic fervor. As Norman Ridley reveals, this was the beginning of a turbulent period for Poland. There was, for example, the dramatic and improbable 'Miracle on the Vistula' when Polish forces defeated the communist Red Army in 1920 - and in so doing halted the spread of communism across eastern Europe. As well as bitter ethnic battles between Germany and Poland for the political control of Upper Silesia, there were also the burning ambitions of Weimar Germany, and later Nazi Germany, to reclaim lands stripped from them and incorporated into the new state of Poland at Versailles.Despite America's initial support after the war, the US thereafter showed little interest in Poland's predicament. While France was a traditional friend to the Polish peoples, and a significant supplier of military aid, its political influence over eastern European affairs weakened as its own political institutions fell prey to extremes of both left and right and its immediate post-war dominance waned. Britain was interested only in commerce and that made Germany and Russia significantly more important as trading partners than the predominantly agricultural and technically backward state of Poland.Despite the dominance of right-wing politics in Poland, the emergence of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany did little to bring the countries together. This even drove them further apart as the Führer ramped up his rhetorical assault on the perceived injustices of Versailles, which were soon to translate into territorial expansion over Austria and Czechoslovakia. Poland was to be the next in line.Britain and France belatedly roused themselves to challenge the threat posed by Hitler and the Nazis. After the capitulation of the Anschluss and the humiliation of Munich, London and Paris found themselves in the disagreeable position of seeing no option but to throw their whole weight behind the integrity of the Polish state if they were ever going to make any sort of stand against Nazi aggression.

The second of three volumes, this book represents the first English translation of the memoirs that rank among the best in the vast Napoleonic memoir literature. The author, Ilya Timofeyevich Radozhitskii, served with distinction during the wars against Napoleon and wrote down his reminisces shortly after the war based on the notes that he kept while campaigning. Born in 1788, Radozhitskii studied at the Imperial Orphanage, enlisted in the artillery unit in 1806, and steadily rose through the ranks, earning a reputation of a capable officer.Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 changed his life. Serving as an artillery lieutenant, he saw action in virtually every major battle of that historic campaign. In 1813-1814, Radozhitskii took part in the War of the German Liberation and the invasion of France, serving with distinction at Bischofswerde, Bautzen, Katzbach, and Leipzig before finishing the war as a staff captain in Paris in 1814. Upon Napoleon's return in 1815, Radozhitskii was assigned to the Russian Expeditionary Corps that was dispatched to France but arrived too late to confront Napoleon.Radozhitskii offers fresh insight into the life and daily experiences of Russian officers during the Napoleonic Wars. This volume follows Radozhitskii across Germany as the Russian army, buoyed by the victory over Napoleon in 1812, marched on to liberate German states. Radozhitskii's narrative contains striking descriptions of the wartime experiences of soldiers and officers, vivid accounts of the battles, and heartrending stories from the French retreat. When published in Russia, these memoirs garnered considerable public attention and Leo Tolstoy consulted them extensively while writing his famous "War and Peace".The first volume, entitled The Russian Campaign of 1812, was published by Pen & Sword in 2023.

It is for good reason that artillery is known as the 'king of battle'. In World War II the United States made good use of self-propelled howitzers, including those based on the chassis of the M4 Sherman tank. After 1945 the US developed both light and medium self-propelled howitzers, based on the M24 Chaffee, M41 Walker Bulldog and Sherman chassis. The first designs were plagued with problems and self-propelled artillery played only a minor role in the Korean War. By the mid 1960s, however, the M107 175mm, M109 155mm and M110 203mms self-propelled howitzers had entered service, and they proved their effectiveness during the Vietnam War. The M107 was relatively short-lived in US service, being retired in the late 1970s, but it played an important role with the Israel defense Forces. The M109 served with the US Army, as well as in many NATO armies and elsewhere, and saw action in the Middle East, in the Balkans, during the liberation of Kuwait, and in the invasion of Iraq. The M109 has now been in service for some sixty years and remains, in the guise of the M109A7, the current self-propelled howitzer of the US Army. The larger M110 203mm self-propelled howitzer similarly saw widespread service before it was retired in the early 1990s. Despite the emergence of rocket artillery, such as the Multiple Launch Rocket System, the self-propelled howitzer will remain one of the principal weapons systems of US military in the decades to come.The M107, M109 and M110 have proved popular subjects among modelers with a variety of kits available from the major manufacturers. As well as describing in detail the technical development and operational history of these guns, this book gives a full account of the wide range of modeling kits and accessories available in all the popular scales. Included is a modeling gallery which covers a range of variants and a section of large-scale color profiles which provide both information and inspiration for modelers and military enthusiasts alike.

Legio IX Hispana had a long and active history, later founding York from where it guarded the northern frontiers in Britain. But the last evidence for its existence in Britain comes from AD 108. The mystery of their disappearance has inspired debate and imagination for decades. The most popular theory, immortalized in Rosemary Sutcliffe's novel The Eagle of the Ninth, is that the legion was sent to fight the Caledonians in Scotland and wiped out there.But more recent archaeology (including evidence that London was burnt to the ground and dozens of decapitated heads) suggests a crisis, not on the border but in the heart of the province, previously thought to have been peaceful at this time. What if IX Hispana took part in a rebellion, leading to their punishment, disbandment and damnatio memoriae (official erasure from the records)? This proposed 'Hadrianic War' would then be the real context for Hadrian's 'visit' in 122 with a whole legion, VI Victrix, which replaced the 'vanished' IX as the garrison at York. Other theories are that it was lost on the Rhine or Danube, or in the East. Simon Elliott considers the evidence for these four theories, and other possibilities.

Its been a State secret for more than seventy years. The official line in the UK has always been that it never happened but this new work challenges the assertion that no German force set foot on British soil during the Second World War (the Channel Islands excepted), on active military service.Churchill's Last Wartime Secret reveals the remarkable story of a mid-war seaborne enemy raid on an Isle of Wight radar station. It describes the purpose and scope of the attack, the composition of the raiding German force and how it was immediately, and understandably, hushed-up by Winston Churchill's wartime administration, in order to safeguard public morale.Circumventing the almost complete lack of official British archival documentation, the author relies on compelling and previously undisclosed first-hand evidence from Germany to underpin the books narrative and claims; thus distinguishing it from other tales of rumored seaborne enemy assaults on British soil during the 1939-45 conflict.After examining the outcome and repercussions of this astonishing incident, what emerges is an event of major symbolic significance in the annals of wartime history.

Updated edition of the ground-breaking 2017 publication that offered the first comprehensive account of the work of Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service.When Neville Chamberlain made his famous 'Peace in Our Time' statement in 1938, he may not have been aware that a new section of the Secret Intelligence Service, Section D, was already making plans to mount a political and sabotage war against Nazi Germany. This new form of warfare encompassed bribery, black propaganda and sabotage by agents described as having no morals or scruples. It disregarded the conventions of neutrality and was prepared to hit the Nazi state wherever it could do most damage.A scientific section was established to develop new types of weapons, and membership was extended beyond the traditional public-school 'old boy network' of British intelligence to work with German and Austrian resistance groups - socialists, trade unionists, Catholics and Jews. Section D's plans ranged from leaflet campaigns in Germany, the sabotage of railways, factories and ports through to plans to block the River Danube by blowing up a mountain and an attempt to introduce foot and mouth disease into German cattle herds. Some aspects of the story are reminiscent of a Childers or Buchan novel - but they are true!The work of Section D prepared the way for the creation of resistance organizations in occupied Western Europe and was the forerunner of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It also paved the way for the Auxiliary Units guerrilla force in Britain. As such, Section D represents a key stage in the development of irregular warfare.

Clapham was a pivotal point in British railway history. Much technology had been invented and applied to accident prevention by 1988; much more was to come. The Clapham Train Accident considers Clapham in its wider context, using official reports and expert interviews to describe both the causes and the terrible effects. It looks beyond the railway to the external factors acting not only on British Rail, but also the government of the time, and considers the safety improvements that came about as a result.Finally, the book brings the story up to date and looks at why the lessons learned over thirty years ago still need to be retained in an industry where the baton of safety is all-too-easily dropped during reorganization, re-branding and after the departure of those who lived through darker days to make ours shine more brightly.The concatenation of events, the errors, the reorganizations, the financial constraints, that led to Clapham could happen to any business in any industry. On the morning of 12 December 1988, they happened to the railway.The Clapham Train Accident will act as a cautionary tale for safety practitioners old and new, not just in rail, but also other safety critical industries. It will help readers think actions through to all consequences, helping them too to make safer decisions, particularly when changing a system, technology or method of working.

This book is about women in World Wars I & II - women working in factories and on farms, or toiling perilously in field stations just behind the front lines, in inhospitable hospitals and convalescent homes. It is, therefore, about the prodigious contribution women made to the war efforts from 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, standing in for the men who had left their places of work for the various theaters of war from Greece and Italy to Belgium, from Mesopotamia to France. Their tasks were many and various: keeping the troops supplied with shells, bullets and explosives, keeping the nation from starving to death, keeping hundreds of thousands of wounded troops alive so that they might fight another day. The book is, in short, the uplifting but sometimes tragic story of the many women who stepped up to work in the factories, hospitals, field stations, in transport and in civil defense, on the farms and shipyards, or signed up to the various military and civil services during the two world wars of the 20th century, 'wars to end all wars...'.The book is different because it deals with women's labor in both world wars and in all occupations, it covers the discrimination and prejudice they faced from men at every level, military and civilian, even when they had demonstrated beyond doubt that they were quick learners, industrious and proficient, and usually as good as any man. The book raises the embarrassing question why it has it taken so long for the prodigious contribution women made in both wars to be recognized, and why some women workers still remain air brushed from our military history after more than a century.As it turned out, little was beyond their capabilities and it is reasonable to suppose that without their huge efforts and accomplishments both wars might have turned out very differently for us.

The Evacuation of Singapore to the Prison Camps of Sumatra aims to describe the events prior to, during and after the Fall of Singapore and the ways in which former prisoners are remembered on Bangka Island today. It is the product of many years of detailed historical research, interviews with camp survivors and personal experiences discovering and locating the former Japanese civilian prison camp sites of Bangka Island and Southern Sumatra.Judy's aim has been to compile an accurate description of the fate of evacuees from Singapore who were bombed and killed in the South China Sea and Bangka Strait or imprisoned in harsh Japanese civilian prison camps. Many families have not known the fate of their relatives until contacting the author through the Muntok Peace Museum website. The Peace Museum was established by prisoners' families in 2015. The author has also described her many visits to Bangka Island and Sumatra in detail so others may follow in her footsteps and know that their relatives who were imprisoned and died during WW2 are now remembered very respectfully in the small town of Muntok. Annual Memorial Services are held each February 16, attended by families and the Australian, New Zealand and British Embassies.All royalties to this book will be donated to the Muntok Red Cross in memory of the prisoners.

Before Britain had a prime minister - and before they invented America - the dictator Oliver Cromwell urged the artist Lely to paint him 'warts and all'. This book deals with some of the 'all', but is mostly about the warts, the moral blemishes that have dogged the leaders of two of the greatest countries on earth for 300 years.Scandalously, there are still no qualifications necessary for the job of prime minister or president, two of the most important positions in the world. And that lack of ability shows itself in spades throughout these pages. Robert Walpole knew that 'every man has his price' and bought people accordingly. Viscount Goderich broke down in tears, begging the king to fire him. George Washington, the revered saint of American creation, blew with the wind and owned slaves. Abraham Lincoln was prepared to send African Americans back to Africa to save the Union. William Gladstone popped out from Downing street to 'save' prostitutes. David Lloyd George gave people titles for money. Warren Harding had a string of mistresses, as did John Kennedy. And all this happened before Donald Trump!Thank God the fourth estate was there, the free press watching every move of politicians. Who was watching them, of course, is another story.If you thought - and prayed - that the occupants of No. 10 and the White House were honorable, competent people, you're in for a bit of a shock.

First hand accounts from Lieutenant James Cook, Joseph Banks, Sydney Parkinson, and James Magra.

Account of the end of the Spanish Civil War.

The popular image of railway travel during the Second World War is that of a sparse service of dirty and grossly overcrowded trains that were forever being delayed. The iconic 'is your journey really necessary' poster campaign is credited with discouraging the public from traveling by train. This book questions these assumptions and examines the mobility requirements of the British public during the war years and aligns these to the level of service provided by the railways. Throughout the war the railways were managed by the Railway Executive Committee (REC) whose members were all senior railway officers. The conflicts between the REC and the government in respect to controlling passenger numbers on the railway system, which was overcrowded with essential additional war related freight traffic, are examined; as are the propaganda campaigns aimed at restricting 'unnecessary' travel. The public's response to the travel restrictions are analyzed to determine how railway passengers' attitudes and reactions corresponded to the publicly accepted mythology. Many British citizens did reduce their railway journeys, but for others who had previously had little need to travel by train, the exigencies of war resulted in them having to make long and often difficult journeys by rail.

While battles and wars and 'the clash of civilizations' are as old as time itself, there is little doubt that the conflagration of 1914-1918 was something unique and terrifyingly new. There was not a corner of the globe that did not feel its effects, some more than others, but the scope of its impact on economies, populations, food supplies, the character of governments in general and the day-to-day lives of numberless ordinary people, were such as the world had never experienced, nor expected.Little did anyone dream that the assassination of relatively minor figures of the Habsburg royal family, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, carried out by an unknown Serbian teenager on the street corner of an obscure town called Sarajevo that few had ever heard of, could possibly provide a spark that would plunge the entire European continent into an industrialized war of catastrophic destruction. But it did: the two shots that youth fired were surely 'heard around the world', and several million people would perish or be maimed as a result.The story of World War I has been told by many different writers, historians and participants in many different ways, especially so before and during the centennial of its events that just concluded. All the World at War stands apart from many of these standard studies. It presents a familiar story from points of view that many readers might find surprising: unexpected details, different perspectives, atypical and generally insightful observations from contemporaries (often obscure to modern readers), who witnessed the events and personalities that pushed the war along from phase to phase. The narrative is chronologically arranged, beautifully written, with something new or intriguing on every page. This is a unique and finely paced account of 'The War to End all Wars' that didn't.

Joachim Murat, son of an innkeeper, had won his spurs as Napoleon's finest cavalry general and then won his throne when, in 1808, Napoleon appointed him king of Naples. He loyally ran this strategic Italian kingdom with his wife, Napoleon's sister Caroline, until, in 1814, with Napoleon beaten and in retreat towards ruin and exile, the royal couple chose to betray their imperial relation and dramatically switched sides.This notorious betrayal won them temporary respite, but just a year later Murat engineered his own dramatic fall. A series of blunders took the cavalier king from thinking he had secured his dynasty to fleeing his kingdom. His native France did not welcome him, initially because Napoleon had not forgiven him, then, after Napoleon's fall following Waterloo, because the restored Bourbons were offering a reward for Murat's head. Fleeing again, fate brought him to Corsica where, welcomed at last, Murat turned to plotting the reversal in his fortunes he so felt he deserved.Murat soon resolved to bet everything on a hare-brained plan to return to Naples as a conquering hero and king. His aim was to take a small band of followers, land near his capital, organs regime change and reclaim his throne. In September 1815, he set off and what happened next forms the core of this part-tragic, part-ridiculous story and a lesson in how not to stage a coup. Just five days after landing in Calabria, King Joachim was hauled before a firing squad and executed.There is a fine line in history between a fool and a hero. Had Murat succeeded then he would be lauded as daringly heroic but, alas, he failed, and his final adventure has been consigned to oblivion. This is unfortunate as the fall of Joachim Murat is the final act of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe as well as being a dramatic story in its own right. Based on research in the archives of Paris and Naples, Jonathan North's book aims to throw light on the fate of the mightily fallen Murat and restore some history to a tale that, until now, lay smothered under two centuries of fable and neglect.