Search results for ""Author Paul Kendall""

The Battle of the Aisne fought in September 1914 introduced a new and savage mode of warfare to the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, their French allies and to the German Army. Both officers and men were trained to fight mobile wars. When they reached the north bank of the Aisne, the ‘Old Contemptibles’ would be stopped by the Germans entrenched on high ground, armed with machine guns and supported by heavy artillery. The British commanders would naively send their troops on futile assaults up slopes devoid of cover to attack the German lines dug in on the ridges along the Chemin des Dames and concealed by woodland. The British did not even have grenades. The BEF suffered 12,000 casualties. Their commanders, who were not trained to fight a modern war, were lost for a solution or even a strategy. It was on the Chemin des Dames that the first trenches of the Western Front were dug and where the line that would stretch from the Swiss frontier to the North Sea began. The Battle of the Aisne saw the dawn of trench warfare and a stalemate that would last for the next four years. Wide-ranging archival research by author Paul Kendall makes this the first in-depth study of the battle in print. His correspondence with surviving relatives of those who fought brings a human face to the terrible casualty statistics that would come to define the trenches.

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The Zeebrugge Raid was a daring mission to attempt to block the German submarines at Bruges. These submarines were responsible for sinking a third of all Allied merchant shipping during the First World War and in early 1918 there was a danger that the German submarine campaign could have starved Britain into submission. The book explores how Haig's plan to break out from the Ypres Salient and capture Bruges and the German Naval Base there was thwarted in the hellish quagmire at Passchendaele during November 1917. The Allied forces were exhausted were in no fit state to carry out a further campaign. The only hope was to block the entrance at Zeebrugge. It was therefore left to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Light Infantry in 1918 to stop the Flanders-based submarines. The raid was a suicide mission with a remote chance of surviving or returning home. With this knowledge the men who took part demonstrated great courage and fortitude, at night, challenged by the tide and the German gun batteries. This book features personal accounts of those men from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Light Infantry who took part in the raid. They were ordinary men who performed extraordinary, heroic deeds.

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In the spring of 1917 the Arras offensive was begun to break the stalemate of the Western Front by piercing the formidable German defences of the Hindenburg Line. The village of Bullecourt lay at the southern end of the battle front, and the fighting there over a period of six weeks from 11 April until late May 1917, epitomised the awful trench warfare of World War I. In Bullecourt 1917, Paul Kendall tells the stories of the fierce battles fought by three British and three Australian divisions in an attempt to aid Allenby’s Third Army break out from Arras. Approximately 10,000 Australian and 7,000 British soldiers died, many of whom were listed as missing and have no known grave. The battle caused much consternation due to the failure of British tanks in supporting Australian infantry on 11 April, but despite the lack of tank and artillery support the Australian infantry valiantly fought their way into the German trenches. It took a further six weeks for British and Australian infantry to capture the village. This book tells the story of this bitter battle and pays tribute to the men who took part. Crucially, Paul Kendall has contacted as many of the surviving relatives of the combatants as he could, to gain new insight into those terrible events on the Hindenburg Line.

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Henry VIII is one of history's most memorable monarchs. Popularly known for his six wives, and the unfortunate fate which befell Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Henry initiated many reforms and changes which still affect our lives today. The annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon set in motion the separation of the English church from Rome and the establishment of the Church of England, which in turn led to the dissolution of the monasteries, the hauntingly evocative remains of which can be seen across the United Kingdom. Henry also oversaw the legal union between England and Wales, and he is also known as the father of the Royal Navy', with one of his great warships, the Mary Rose, lost in 1545 and recovered in 1982, becoming one of the most famous wrecks in maritime history. In addition to the monasteries, other buildings around the UK continue to remind us of the times of the Tudors - there is the site of Greenwich Palace at the Royal Naval College Greenwich, where Henry was born; his great palace at Hampton Court; Lambeth Palace where Thomas More refused to sign the oath to make Henry the Head of the Church, and the Bell Tower in the Tower of London where More was imprisoned before he was beheaded. Henry's breach with the Pope led to the threat of war with Catholic France and Spain, which prompted Henry to construct a series of powerful forts around the English and Welsh coasts. These elegant and symmetrical defensive structures are still awe-inspiring. In this engaging and hugely informative book, the author takes us on a journey across the country, from Deal Castle on the south coast, to Tower Green where Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard lost their heads, and far north to Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire. Along the way we see places where Henry stayed, where the Mary Rose was recovered, the homes of his consorts and Smithfield where prominent individuals convicted of heresy were burned at the stake. Travel, then, not just across the country, but also back in time through 100 objects from the days of the second Tudor monarch - Henry VIII.

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The Wars of the Roses, which saw England and Wales ravaged by warfare for three decades and dynasties rise and fall, decimated the nobility of an entire generation, and saw the rise of the merchant class, the decline of medieval feudalism and opened the country to the enlightened ideals of the Renaissance. Such has been its lasting effects the red and white rose of the Tudors is still a national symbol. This book is an exploration of the buildings, monuments, towns and battlefields of that turbulent era across both England and Wales - places that can still be visited and experienced today. The stories of the great battles of St Albans, Stoke Field, Wakefield, Townton, Barnet, Tewksbury and, of course, Bosworth, are told along with beautiful photographs to help guide the reader round these important sites, as well as the dozens of smaller engagements where the supporters of the Houses of York and Lancaster fought and died. Here are castles and manor houses galore, all of which played their part in this protracted struggle for the throne of England, such as Richard of York's imposing powerbase of Lulow Castle and the magnificent Tudor stronghold of Bamburg. These are compared with the scant remains of Fotheringhay Castle, the birthplace of Richard III - the man whose remains were so dramatically uncovered in Leicester - and Micklegate Bar, York, was where Richard's head was placed on a spike. We see the Clocktower of St Albans and Gabriel' the bell that was rung in 1455 alerting of the Yorkist advance, as well as the Tower of London where Henry VI met his death and the possible burial place of the two princes. These, and scores of other places, monuments, plaques, buildings and battlegrounds, represent not only a journey across England and Wales, but a journey back in time to the bloody conflict that was the War of the Roses.

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A twentieth century icon, Lawrence of Arabia, as Thomas Edward Lawrence is more commonly known, spent thirteen out of his forty-six years in the region from which he drew his name. This was as a scholar researching his university thesis, a spy surveying Sinai for the British Army before the First World War, an intelligence officer in Cairo, a liaison officer to the Arabs, and as a diplomat who galvanised and united the Arab tribes into an effective fighting force. He became an explosives expert and a guerrilla fighter who influenced Arab leaders in defeating their Ottoman occupiers. The story of his achievements in Arabia, derailing Turkish trains and attacking enemy strongholds, has become the stuff of legend. But his life after the disappointment of witnessing the Arabs being denied independence at the end of the First World War is as intriguing as his more famous escapades in the desert. Uncomfortable with the fame and celebrity status that Lowell Thomas's lectures brought upon

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The forty-four-year reign of Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and the last Tudor monarch, was considered a golden age. It saw the emergence of the great playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, while the exploits of Sir Francis Drake and other sea-dogs' helped establish England's position among the great maritime powers. This book looks at Elizabeth's life through some of the many artefacts, buildings, documents and institutions that survive to this day. From the execution of her mother, Ann Boleyn, when she was just two-and-a-half-years-old, to her imprisonment on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, Elizabeth's early life was a turbulent one, but her accession to the throne ushered in a period of stability. During her reign, England's wealth and prestige grew through her patronage of seafaring privateers such as Drake, John Hawkins and Walter Raleigh. She encouraged the exploration and colonialization of North America, marking the birth of the British Empire and the establishment of British trade routes. Elizabeth was responsible for expanding the English Navy, its defeat of the Spanish Armada being considered one of England's greatest military victories. In this magnificently illustrated book we see her birthplace at Greenwich Palace, her childhood homes, her prison in the Tower of London, the palaces she lived in, ruins of stately homes she visited, such as Gorhambury House, Kenilworth House, Upnor Castle and the Elizabethan town walls at Berwick, the many fortifications built during her reign to defend her realm, through to her final resting place in Westminster Abbey. Also found in this fascinating volume are books that she presented to her father and step-mother, Katherine Parr, with the binding embroidered by Elizabeth, her clothes, letters she wrote in her own hand, her coronation chair, her coat of arms asserting her title as Governor of the Church of England and her signature signing the death warrant of her cousin, the 4th Duke of Norfolk. This book is not just a journey back in time to the reign of Elizabeth I, but also a tour across the country to visit the sites which still evoke that golden era of the Virgin Queen.

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