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These are the memoirs of one of the most remarkable fighting figures of the Second World War, who was involved in some its more exciting and dangerous operations.

This book examines the way in which these air arms competed for prominence within the military structures of six major European nations - Germany, Britain, France, Soviet Union, Poland and Italy - with different resources, ambitions and philosophies, in the years from the beginning of aviation right up to the start of the Second World War.

This book paints an uncompromising portrait of Tendi Sherpa, who has successfully climbed twenty-one mountains over 8,000m, including fourteen ascents of Everest.

A key section of this book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales.

Blenheim, Ramilles, Oudenarde, Malplaquet much has been written about the brilliant victories of the Duke of Marlborough's Anglo-Dutch army over the armies of Louis XIV of France during the War of the Spanish Succession.

Over the course of his 75 year career Field Marshal Bramall - or Dwin as he is universally known - has been in the forefront of military thinking. Clearly destined to reach the pinnacle of his profession he shone in a succession of prestigious appointments both in command and on the staff.

Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls is a set of wargame rules for naval battles in the age of sail. With them you can recreate the triumphs of Nelson or Hawke or tackle pirates on the Spanish Main. The rules themselves are very simple and easy to learn.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla is one of the central figures of the late Roman Republic. Indeed, he is often considered a major catalyst in the death of the republican system. the ambitious general whose feud with a rival (Marius) led to his marching on Rome with an army at his back, leading to civil war and the terrible internecine bloodletting of the proscriptions. In these things, and in his appropriation of the title of dictator with absolute power, he set a dangerous precedent to be followed by Julius Caesar a generation later. **Lynda Telford believes Sulla's portrayal as a monstrous, brutal tyrant is unjustified. While accepting that he was responsible for much bloodshed, she contends that he was no more brutal than many of his contemporaries who have received a kinder press. Moreover, even his harshest measures were motivated not by selfish ambition but by genuine desire to do what he believed best for Rome. The author believes the bias of the surviving sources, and modern biographers, has exaggerated the ill-feeling towards Sulla in his lifetime. After all, he voluntarily laid aside dictatorial power and enjoyed a peaceful retirement without fear of assassination. The contrast to Caesar is obvious. **Lynda Telford gives a long overdue reappraisal of this significant personality, considering such factors as the effect of his disfiguring illness. The portrait that emerges is a subtle and nuanced one; her Sulla is very much a human, not a monster.

Of German stock dating back to 1530 in Saxony, Eric George Ackermann GM was born on the Isle of Wight in 1919 and became a leading figure in the world of signals and electronic intelligence.

A world where little light penetrates. Of dense vegetation, tangled roots, fetid mud and swamps. Where the helicopter, sophisticated weaponry and technology have revolutionized military combat. But where survival still depends on acute observation and listening for the slightest sound. The jungle.

Merton Naydler joined the RAF at the age of nineteen and served for the next six years until May 1946. He flew Spitfires and Hurricanes during a tour of duty that took him to North Africa, Burma and Malaya.

Many thousands of men died during the Great War. They came from every place and class. The very cream of the Nation joined up thinking it a great adventure but, all too often, never returned. This book is dedicated to the memory of an elite few of such men - the Rugby Internationals who fell in The Great War. Among the hundreds of thousands who served and died for their country were one hundred and thirty Rugby Internationals.**To place the loss of these men in perspective, it is important to appreciate that Rugby Union was, arguably, bigger in its day than soccer is today. It attracted men from every walk of life. Many became national icons just as David Beckham and Wayne Rooney are now. These were men whose names were common currency in almost every household in Britain; men who were widely admired and emulated.**Yet their physical strength, fitness, prowess and courage made these heroes no less vulnerable to enemy bullets, shells and mines than their less celebrated comrades-in-arms. One hundred years on, the Author decided that any player who perished, whether he had won a single cap for his country or a hundred, would be included within this book.**Into Touch encapsulated the magnitude of a generation's sacrifice. Thanks to the Author's research into these players' service for their country, both on the playing field and battlefield, it will fascinate all with an interest in The Great War and, most particularly, those with a love for The Glorious Game and its history.**As featured in the Cardiff Times and Derby Telegraph.

The blow to British pride and confidence caused by the crushing defeat of their army in Afghanistan during the winter of 1841/2 compares in its impact to the disaster in New York on 11 September 2001. The British had replaced a popular and effective monarch with a weak one in the mistaken belief that he would keep the Russians at bay.

Women in the Second World War explores the experiences of women who served in the armed forces, or complimentary services. Using interviews, anecdotes, memoirs and/or accounts from the women (or, where appropriate, their children), the book tells the women’s personal accounts of what their lives were like and what particular experiences they had while serving.They were all ordinary British women, and tell here in their own words their experiences on active service.Their accounts cover the whole spectrum, from famous battles, such as Monte Cassino, to being shipwrecked by a tornado, to simple acts of kindness, which in themselves seem nothing, but at the same time meant something very special to those young women, and were fondly remembered, even sixty years afterwards. The huge variety of services and experiences featured in the book reflect how widely spread the women’s contribution to the war effort was, from tilling the soil below, to servicing the engines of aircraft about to take off to the sky above, and everything in between.

This book examines that first journey, as well later ones, and discusses the agents and operations which members of the Shetland Bus were involved in throughout the war.

An excellent introduction to the shadowy world of espionage, how the superpowers went about it and how it impacted on the wider Cold War.

Describes the outstanding contribution made by the Hurricane.

In this volume Professor Sean McGrail introduces the reader to a relatively new branch of Archaeology - the study of water transport - how early rafts, boats and ships were built and used. Concepts, such as boatbuilding traditions, ship stability and navigation without instruments, are first described. Archaeological research is then discussed, including sea levels in earlier times, how to distinguish the vestigial remains of a cargo vessel from those of a fighting craft; and the difference between a boat and a ship. Chapters 2 and 3, the heart of the text, deal with the early water transport of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe, from the Stone Age to Medieval times. Each chapter includes a description of the region's maritime geography and an exposition of its boat-building traditions. The third element is a discussion of the propulsion, the steering and the navigation of these early vessels. The sparse, often jumbled, remains of excavated vessels have to be interpreted, a process that is assisted by consideration of early descriptions and illustrations. Studies of the way traditional builders of wooden boats ply their trade today are also a great help. Experimental boat archaeology is still at an early stage but, when undertaken rigorously, it can reveal aspects of the vessel's capabilities. Such information is used in this volume to further our understanding of data from boat and ship excavations, and to present as coherent, comprehensive and accurate a picture as is now possible, of early European boatbuilding and use.

Walter Tull would have been a remarkable individual no matter when he had been born, but to achieve what he did, during the time that he did, makes him even more remarkable. He was an orphan at just six years of age, and despite not wanting to, his step mother, Clara, had no choice but to place him and his elder brother, Edward, in to a children's home in the East End of London. As neither Walter or Edward had ever traveled outside of Folkestone before, the upheaval must have come as quite a shock. Two years after entering the home, Walter and Edward were split up when Edward was adopted and went to live in Glasgow.Walter's sporting prowess saw him play for top local amateur side, Clapton Football club, signing for them in 1908, but it was to be a short lived affair, as by the following year he had signed as a professional for the prestigious Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, making his first team debut against Manchester United.In October 1911 Walter was transferred to Northampton Town Football Club, where he would go on to play over one hundred first team games, before the First World War brought a premature end to his career as a professional footballer. With the outbreak of war, Walter wasted no time enlisting in the British Army, initially as a Private in the newly formed 17th (Football) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. Further promotions followed and in no time at all he had reached the rank of Sergeant.He was put forward for a commission and passed out as a 2nd Lieutenant on 29 May 1917. He went on to become the first black officer in the British Army, to lead white troops in to battle, and was fondly regarded by the men who served under him.Walter was killed in action whilst leading his men in a counter attack against German defensive positions on Monday 25 March 1918\. He died a hero. He was well liked and respected by all who knew him. Like many men of his generation his life was cut short for the greater good whilst in the service of his country, so that others might prevail.

This is the shocking true story behind the botched introduction of Automatic Half-Barrier level-crossings into Britain.January 1968 saw the convening of the first Parliamentary Court of Inquiry into a railway accident in Britain since the Tay Bridge Disaster nearly a century before. Why was this? Because Britain's 'Railway Detectives', the Railway Inspectorate, who would normally investigate all aspects of railway safety, were also in charge of the introduction of automatic Continental-style, level-crossings into this country. At Hixon in Staffordshire, one of these newly installed 'robot' crossings on British Rail's flagship Euston to Glasgow mainline, was the scene of a fatal high-speed collision between a packed express train and an enormous, heavily laden low-loader. For once, the 'Railway Detectives' were the ones having to explain their actions, in the full glare of media attention, to an expectant and increasingly worried nation. (There was another awful, fatal collision at an automatic crossing at Beckingham, Lincolnshire, in April of 1968).Using previously undisclosed information, the author has been able to cast fresh light on to not only the Hixon Disaster, but also the extraordinary story of the largely successful attempts, by British Railways and the Railway Inspectorate of the time, to hide the truth of just how close we came to having dozens of 'Hixons' right across the rail network.

This book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales.

The 1917 Battle of Cambrai featured the first massed tank attack in military history and provoked the biggest German counter-attack against the British since 1914. The British aimed to break through the German Hindenburg Line, then threaten the rear of the German positions to the north.

In the early 1880s Muhammad Ahmed, the self-styled Mahdi, unleashed a spectacularly successful jihadist uprising against Egyptian colonial rule in the Sudan. The Egyptian military met with a series of disasters, including the rout of major expeditions led by hired-in British colonels, William 'Hicks Pasha' and Valentine 'Baker Pasha'.

The B-17 Flying Fortress, a term coined by a Seattle Daily Times report in 1935, was a quantum leap in offensive air power.

The Hunting Falcon was written by Hans-Joachim Buddecke, a top German First World War ace. Though his autobiography of his experiences as a combat pilot were published in the Spring of 1918, in the last year of the war, Buddecke did not see his book in print; he was shot down over the Western Front on 10 March 1918.

This second volume in the three-volume illustrated history of the evolution of armored maneuver warfare in the British army covers the period of the Second World War, in which the tank came of age and developed into the principal land weapon of decision.

The standout feature of this book is the focus on the equine half of the partnership, from an author who practices the arts of horsemanship on a daily basis, including combat with sword and lance.