Search results for ""Pen Sword Books Ltd""
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Auschwitz Death Camp: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives
The concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau was the site of the single largest mass murder in history. Over one million mainly Jewish men, women, and children were murdered in its gas chambers. Countless more died as a result of disease and starvation. Auschwitz Death Camp is a chilling pictorial record of this infamous establishment. Using some 250 photographs together with detailed captions and accompanying text, it describes how Auschwitz evolved from a brutal labour camp at the beginning of the war into what was literally a factory of death.The images how people lived, worked and died at Auschwitz. The book covers the men who conceived and constructed this killing machine, and how the camp provided a vast labour pool for various industrial complexes erected in the vicinity.Auschwitz Death Camp is shocking proof of the magnitude of horror inflicted by the Nazis on innocent men, women and children. Such evil should not be forgotten lest it re-appear.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Walking Arras
Walking Arras marks the final volume in a trilogy of walking books about the British sector of the Western Front. Paul Reed once more takes us over paths trodden by men who were asked to make a huge ' and, for all too many, the ultimate ' sacrifice. The Battle of Arras falls between the Somme and Third Ypres; it marked the first British attempt to storm the Hindenburg Line defences, and the first use of lessons learned from the events of 1916. But it remains a forgotten part of the Western Front. It also remains one of the great killing battles of the Great War, with such a high fatal casualty rate that a soldier's chances of surviving Arras were much slimmer than even the Somme or Passchendaele. Most soldiers who served in the Great War served at Arras at some point; it was a name very much in the consciousness of the survivors of the Great War. Ninety years later, while there has been development at Arras, it is still an impressive battlefield and one worthy of the attention of any Great War enthusiast. This book will give a lead in seeing the ground connected with the fighting in 1917. Making a slight departure from the style of the previous two walking books, the chapters look at the historical background of an area and then separately describe a walk; with supplementary notes about the associated cemeteries in that region.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Evacuees: Children's Lives on the WW2 Homefront
On the outbreak of the Second World War, during the first week of September 1939 over three million people were evacuated. Operation Pied Piper was the largest ever transportation of people across Britain, and most of those moved to safety in the countryside were schoolchildren. Social historian Gillian Mawson has spent years collecting the stories of former evacuees and this book includes the personal memories of over 100, in their own words. Their accounts reveal what it was like to settle into a new home with strangers, often staying for years. While many enjoyed life in the countryside, some escaping inner-city poverty, others endured ill-treatment and homesickness. A fascinating insight into the realities of wartime life, and a valuable oral history of a unique moment in British history.
£19.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Beneath the Killing Fields
Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since 1918. This subterranean world is an ambiguous environment filled with material culture that that objectifies the scope and depth of human interaction with the diverse conflict landscapes of modern war. Covering the military reasoning for taking the war underground, as well as exploring the way that human beings interacted with these extraordinary alien environments, this book provides a more all-encompassing overview of the Western Front. The underground war was intrinsic to trench warfare and involved far more than simply trying to destroy the enemy's trenches from below. It also served as a home to thousands of men, protecting them from the metallic landscapes of the surface.With the aid of cutting edge fieldwork conducted by the author in these subterranean locales, this book combines military history, archaeology and anthropology together with primary data and unique imagery of British, French, German and American underground defences in order to explore the realities of subterranean warfare on the Western Front, and the effects on the human body and mind that living and fighting underground inevitably entailed.
£19.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Battles of Coronel and the Falklands, 1914
The defeat that Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock suffered at Coronel in 1914 at the hands of Maximilian Graf von Spee, one of Germany's most brilliant naval commanders, was the most humiliating blow to British naval prestige since the eighteenth century and a defeat that had to be avenged immediately. On 8 December 1914, the German squadron steamed towards Port Stanley, unaware that in the harbour lay two great British battle-cruisers, the 'Invincible' and 'Inflexible'. Realizing this, Spee had no option but to turn and flee. Hour by hour during that long day, the British ships closed in until, eventually, Spee was forced to confront the enemy. With extraordinary courage, and against hopeless odds, the German cruisers fought to the bitter end. At five-thirty that afternoon, the last ship slowly turned and rolled to the bottom. Cradock and Britain had been avenged.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy-Carignan (1663-1736), French born of an Italian mother, was destined for the church, but fled France as a young man and chose the life of a soldier. He entered the service of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I in 1683 and rose rapidly to become one of the greatest military commanders of the age, playing a leading role in the wars against both the Ottoman Turks and the French. James Falkner, in this the first full biography of Eugene to be published in English for forty years, reconstructs his military campaigns in compelling detail and describes his career as a politician and statesman. Eugene first showed his military genius during the siege of Vienna in 1683 where the Ottoman Turkish threat to western Europe was thrown back, and he commanded the Imperial army at the resounding victory over the Ottomans at Zenta in 1697. Most famously for English readers, he joined John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in the victory over the French at Blenheim in 1704 and serve
£15.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd British Fiji Class Cruisers and their Derivatives
A follow-up to the author's highly regarded history of British Town' class cruisers, this book takes the same approach, combining coverage of the development, design details and career highlights of the original class as well as the Uganda, Minotaur and Tiger designs that were derived from them. Often called the Colony' class, they were an attempt to incorporate the characteristics of the preceding Town' class within the reduced 8,000-ton limit agreed under the 1936 London Treaty. In general layout, they resembled the earlier class but adopted upright rather than raked funnels and masts. The use of a flat, transom stern conferred both hydrodynamic and internal space advantages.Not surprisingly, they turned out to be very cramped ships which struggled to accommodate all the wartime additions of extra electronics and light AA guns, as well as the increased crew needed to man them. Many of the later modifications to existing ships and alterations to the succeeding designs were attempts to
£45.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam
A century before Britain became involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, whole villages and towns in England, Ireland, Italy, Spain and other European countries were being depopulated by slavers, who transported the men, women and children to Africa where they were sold to the highest bidder. This is the forgotten slave trade. Starting with the practice of slavery in the ancient world, Simon Webb traces the history of slavery in Europe and examines the experiences of those who were forcibly taken from their homes. He describes how thousands of European boys were castrated and then sold in Africa and the Middle East, and also explains how the role of the newly-independent United States helped to put an end to the trade in European and American slaves. He also discuss the importance of towns such as Bristol, which had been an important staging-post for the transfer of English slaves to Africa over 1,000 years before it became a major centre for the slave trade in the eighteenth century. Reading this book will forever change how you view the slave trade and show that many commonly held beliefs about this controversial subject are almost wholly inaccurate and mistaken.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Wargames Terrain and Buildings: WWI Trench Systems
Although it was a global conflict, for many WW1 is synonymous with the war in the trenches of the Western Front. For anyone wargaming these battles a good trench system is a must. Douglas Hardy is a very experienced wargamer and terrain modeller and a member of the Western Front Association who has walked the battlefields many times. From the initial choice between stand-alone pieces on a mat or a fixed, bespoke layout, through to final detailing, he shares his experience, giving practical advice on building your own trench system. He considers the differences between British, German and French trenches, which differed in design and construction, as well as developments in defences through the phases of the war. A trench system is not just the trench itself of course, but also the dugouts, barbed wire entanglements, sandbags, gun emplacements and pillboxes. Shell holes and shattered forests are also covered. Each element is explained in step-by-step detail, illustrated with numerous colour photos and there are also reference photos of real trenches.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Stringbag: The Fairey Swordfish at War
During World War Two an American naval officer stared at a Swordfish for the first time. 'Where did that come from?' he asked. 'Fairey's', came the reply from a British naval officer standing nearby. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'That figures', he replied. This is a narrative account of the operations of the Fairey Swordfish throughout World War Two. The most famous of these was the attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto, crippling three battleships and damaging several other ships as well as the seaplane base and an oil storage depot. The Swordfish played a prominent part in the Battle of Matapan and in the sinking of the Bismark. Less happily, Swordfish were used in the unsuccessful and ill-prepared raid on the Germans at Petsamo and in the abortive attack on the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the Channel Dash in 1942. Throughout the book, the text is interwoven with personal accounts by naval airmen.
£15.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Seleukid Empire of Antiochus III, 223-187 BC
The second volume in John Grainger's history of the Seleukid Empire is devoted to the reign of Antiochus III. Too often remembered only as the man who lost to the Romans at Magnesia, Antiochus is here revealed as one of the most powerful and capable rulers of the age. Having emerged from civil war in 223 as the sole survivor of the Seleukid dynasty, he shouldered the burdens of a weakened and divided realm. Though defeated by Egypt in the Fourth Syrian War, he gradually restored full control over the empire. His great Eastern campaign took Macedonian arms back to India for the first time since Alexander's day and, returning west, he went on to conquer Thrace and finally wrest Syria from Ptolemaic control. Then came intervention in Greece and the clash with Rome leading to the defeat at Magnesia and the restrictive Peace of Apamea. Despite this, Antiochus remained ambitious, campaigning in the East again; when he died in 187 BC the empire was still one of the most powerful states in the world.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Shooting Down the Stealth Fighter: Eyewitness Accounts from Those Who Were There
With its futuristic and unmistakable design, the Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, the so-called 'Stealth Fighter', was the wonder of the age. Virtually undetectable by radar, this ground-attack aircraft could slip unseen through enemy defences to deliver its deadly payload on unsuspecting targets. Its effectiveness had been well demonstrated during the Gulf War of 1991, during which the F-117A achieved almost legendary status. But, at 20.42 hours on 27 March 1999, the military and aviation worlds were stunned when the impossible happened - a virtually obsolete Soviet-built surface-to-air missile system which had first been developed more than thirty years earlier, detected and shot down an F-117A, callsign 'Vega 31'. This incident took place during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. It was, and remains, at least officially, the only time that a stealth aircraft was detected and shot down by a ground-based missile system. In this book the authors, both of whom served in the Kosovo War, take the reader through every moment of that astounding event, from both the perspective of Lieutenant Colonel Dani's 3rd Battalion, 250th Air Defence Missile Brigade, a Yugolsav Army unit, and that of the pilot of the F-117A, Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Patrick Zelko, who ejected and survived the loss of his aircraft. The reader is placed in the cabin of the missile fire control centre and alongside 'Dale' Zelko in the cockpit of his stealth fighter as each second dramatically unfolds. Stealth characteristics are now regarded as a standard part of modern military aircraft design but with each generation of aircraft becoming increasingly, almost cripplingly, expensive to produce and operate compared with the simpler surface-to-air defence systems, the outcome of the battle between missile and stealth hangs in the balance. That this is the case might be seen in the strange fact that it is claimed that two other F-117As did not return to the U.S. at the end of the Kosovo War, though, mysteriously, their fate has never been revealed. Were they too victims of Yugoslav missiles? Though intended for the general reader, _Shooting Down the Stealth Fighter_ covers the technical details of the weapons involved and their deployment - and the authors should know, as one of them, Djordje Anicic, was a member of the Yugoslav team which brought down Zelko's aircraft.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Long Range Desert Group in Action 1940-1943: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives
The Long Range Desert Group has a strong claim to the first Special Forces unit in the British Army. This superb illustrated history follows the LRDG from its July 1940 formation as the Long Range Patrol in North Africa, tasked with intelligence gathering, mapping and reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines. Manned initially by New Zealanders, in 1940 the unit became the LRDG with members drawn from British Guards and Yeomanry regiments and Rhodesians. So successful were the LRDG patrols, that when the Special Air Service were formed, they often relied on their navigational and tactical skills to achieve their missions. After victory in North Africa the LRDG re-located to Lebanon before being sent on the ill-fated mission to the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean. Serving independently, when the Germans overwhelmed and captured the British garrisons, many LRDG personnel escaped using their well-honed skills. Many images in this, the first pictorial history of the LRDG, were taken unofficially by serving members. The result is a superb record of the LRDG's achievements, the personalities, their weapons and vehicles which will delight laymen and specialists alike.
£15.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Arsenal: The Story of a Football Club in 101 Lives
ARSENAL: THE STORY OF A FOOTBALL CLUB IN 101 LIVES tells the history of the Gunners through the biographies of key individuals associated with the club from its formation in the gas-lit days of Victorian Britain through to the present day. From David Danskin, the Scottish mechanical engineer and footballer who was the driving force behind the team raised at Dial Square, a workshop at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, to Arsene Wenger, the longest-serving and most successful manager in Arsenal's history. The in-depth stories of the characters - players, managers, chairmen - here paint a fascinating picture of how the club - indeed, the game of football itself - has developed from workers playing for fun to today's multi-million-pound business.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Faithful in Adversity: The Royal Army Medical Corps in the Second World War
The Royal Army Medical Corps was present during all engagements in the Second World War. From the frozen wastes of Norway through to liberation from the death camps of Germany and the Far East, RAMC personnel were frequently close to the front line, risking their lives to provide medical support to a mobile army in a mechanised war. Nearly 3,000 army medics were killed during the war as a result of enemy action and exposing themselves to dangerous tropical diseases. Using much previously unpublished material from public and private family archives, this book charts the story of those who remained true to the motto of the RAMC: Faithful in Adversity.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A Hidden History of the Tower of London: England's Most Notorious Prisoners
Famed as the ultimate penalty for traitors, heretics and royalty alike, being sent to the Tower is known to have been experienced by no less than 8,000 unfortunate souls. Many of those who were imprisoned in the Tower never returned to civilisation and those who did, often did so without their head! It is hardly surprising that the Tower has earned itself a reputation among the most infamous buildings on the planet. There have, of course, been other towers. Practically every castle ever built has consisted of at least one; indeed, even by the late 14th century, the Tower proudly boasted no less than 21. Yet even as early as the 1100s, the effect that the first Tower had on the psyche of the local population was considerable. The sight of the dark four-pointed citadel - at the time the largest building in London - as it appeared against the backdrop of the expanding city gave rise to many legends, ranging from the exact circumstances of its creation to what went on within its strong walls. In ten centuries what once consisted of a solitary keep has developed into a complex castle around which the history of England has continuously evolved. So revered has it become that legend has it that should the Tower fall, so would the kingdom. Beginning with the early tales surrounding its creation, this book investigates the private life of an English icon. Concentrating on the Tower's developing role throughout the centuries, not in terms of its physical expansion into a site of unique architectural majesty or many purposes but through the eyes of those who experienced its darker side, it pieces together the, often seldom-told, human story and how the fates of many of those who stayed within its walls contributed to its lasting effect on England's - and later the UK's - destiny. From ruthless traitors to unjustly killed Jesuits, vanished treasures to disappeared princes and jaded wives to star-crossed lovers, this book provides a raw and at times unsettling insight into its unsolved mysteries and the lot of its unfortunate victims, thus explaining how this once typical castle came to be the place we will always remember as THE TOWER.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Americans on D-Day and in Normandy: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives
The experiences and achievements of the United States land, sea and air forces on 6 June 1944 and the weeks following have been deservedly well chronicled. Omaha Beach saw the fiercest fighting of the whole OVERLORD invasion and the opposition faced in the US sector shocked commanders and men at all levels. The outcome was in the balance and, thanks to the courage and determination shown by the attackers, game-changing failure was narrowly averted. This superb Images of War book examines, using contemporary and modern images and maps, the course of the campaign and its implication for both the American troops and the civilian population of the battlezone. These revealing images, both colour and black and white, are enhanced by full captions and the author's thoroughly researched text. The result is a graphic reminder of the liberation of Northern France and the extraordinary sacrifice made by men not just of the United States military but the other Allied nations.
£15.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Iran-Iraq War: The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988
The bloody eight-year Iran-Iraq war is now almost forgotten, overshadowed by the subsequent Gulf War and Iraq War. However, it is best remembered for the unique so-called 'Tanker War' which threatened to strangle the world's oil supplies. At the time Tucker-Jones as a defence analyst wrote extensively on the war and now brings his expertise to bear with this account of a conflict fuelled by festering regional rivalries, the Cold War and the emerging threat posed by militant Shia Islam. Fought on land, at sea and in the air using some of the most modern weapons money could buy, Western-backed Saddam Hussein's Sunni Iraq and Shia Iran under the ayatollahs fought themselves to a standstill. Once Saddam's armoured blitzkrieg had been halted and Iran's human-wave counterattacks fought off, it became a war of attrition with major battles fought for the possession of Khorramshahr and Basra. Both sides resorted to chemical weapons and bombarding each other with missiles. When the war spilled over into the waters of the Gulf it sparked open Western intervention. Escalating attacks on oil tankers finally culminated in a ceasefire.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Normandy 1944: The Battle of the Hedgerows: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives
Just as the Anglo-Canadian forces in the east found it difficult to advance beyond Caen after D-Day, so the US First Army laboured to advance through the Norman bocage country in the west. The lethal struggle that developed there was a defining episode in the Normandy campaign, and this photographic history is a vivid introduction to it. Through a selection of over 150 carefully chosen and meticulously captioned�wartime photographs Simon Forty traces the course of the battle and gives the reader a graphic impression of the conditions, the terrain and the experience of the troops. The Germans mounted a tenacious defence. They fought from prepared positions in the high hedgerows. Each cramped field and narrow lane became a killing ground. But the Americans adapted their tactics and brought in special equipment including bulldozers and tanks with hedgerow cutters to force their way through. The losses were appalling as the Germans used snipers, mines, machineguns and artillery to great effect. Inexorably, however, and with enormous bravery, First Army solved their tactical problems, inflicted heavy casualties on the defenders and ground their way to Saint-L�.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Tank Wrecks of the Eastern Front 1941 - 1945
Four years of armoured battle on the Eastern Front in the Second World War littered the battlefields with the wrecks of destroyed and disabled tanks, and Anthony Tucker-JonesOs photographic history is a fascinating guide to them. It provides a graphic record of the various types of tank deployed by the Red Army and the Wehrmacht during the largest and most destructive confrontation between mechanized armies in military history. During the opening stages of the war the German victors regularly photographed and posed with destroyed Soviet armour. Operation Barbarossa left 17,000 smashed Soviet tanks in its wake, and the heavy and medium tanks such as the T-28, T-35, KV-1 and the T-34 proved to be a source of endless interest. Once the tide turned it was the turn of wrecked and burnt-out panzers D the Mk IVs, Tigers and Panthers D to be photographed by the victorious Red Army. As well as tracing the entire course of the war on the Eastern Front through the trail of broken armour, the photographs provide a wide-ranging visual archive of the tank types of the period that will appeal to everyone who is interested in tank warfare and to modellers and wargamers in particular.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Germany in the Great War: Arras, Third Ypres & Cambrai
This book documents the experiences of the Central Powers, specifically Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire during 1917, as they fought on land, at sea and in the air. Drawing on hundreds of contemporary photographs, many of them never previously published, this book examines the experiences of these three nations, spotlighting not only the events that occurred throughout the year, but the lives of those individuals fighting and dying to defend their homelands, families and friends. Each chapter includes a succinct overview of a single front or theatre of operation, complimenting the hundreds of professional and amateur photographs contained within. Though many of the images are of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies on the _Westfront_ and _Ostfront_, several additional chapters also explore the fighting across other, lesser-known fronts, including the _Sudwest Front_ and in Sinai and Palestine, and Mesopotamia. This book is an excellent pictorial guide that would be of benefit to anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of what life was like from the perspective of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman armies, and their peoples during the fourth year of the First World War.
£16.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Visiting the Somme and Ypres Battlefields Made Easy: A Helpful Guide Book for Groups and Individuals
Recommended in the Foreign Office Ministerial Reading List - Summer 2014 It does what it says on the tin, introducing the reader to the nuances of planning an itinerary for the Somme or the Ypres Salient. A comprehensive beginners guide. - Despatches (The Guild of Battlefield Guides) History teacher Gareth Hughes has compiled a clear, easy-to-read starter guide to the Western Front battlefields for teachers leading school parties, as well as the self-touring novice. He gives essential tour 'highlights' with suggestions for lunch stops, free time ideas and other helpful information for you to get the best out of your battlefield trip and be inspired to trace your own relatives' war stories. - Family Tree Magazine The book is well written and packed with useful information and some good supporting images - WWI Centenary This splendid book, released to coincide with the centenary of the war, will be invaluable to those visiting the battlefields, sites, museums, memorials and cemeteries of France and Belgium. It is intended for those planning and leading school groups and similar parties but is also ideal for individual/family visitors. Rather than list every site etc it provides realistic itineraries to the best places in the two major areas of the Somme and Ypres. Even these are flexible to allow party leaders suitable discretion. The author provides helpful information for each site such as its context in the War, visitor orientation, the narrative (the essential facts to engage, inform and entertain), suggested activity and relevant photos and maps. This combines to make every visit of maximum benefit and interest and yet reduce the workload of the party leaders. There are also valuable tips for lunch breaks, free time ideas and other helpful pointers.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Roman Legends Brought to Life
The legends of early Rome are among the most memorable of any in the world. They are also highly instructive. They taught generations of Romans about duty and obedience. Duty and obedience might not seem to amount to much these days, but it was precisely these virtues that made Rome great. The legends are not, however, merely self-congratulatory and they are rarely simple exercises in nationalist propaganda. On the contrary, many reveal their ancestors' dark side, which they expose unflinchingly. As in the case of Greek mythology, there is no authorised version of any Roman legend. The legends survived because they reminded the Romans who they were, what modest beginnings they came from, how on many occasions their city nearly imploded, and what type of men and women shaped their story. Defeat, loss, failure. That's where this story - the story of the boldest, most enduring, and most successful political experiment in human history - begins. It's the story of how a band of refugees escaped from the ruins of a burning city and came to establish themselves hundreds of miles to the west in the land of Hesperia, the Western Land, the land where the sun declines, aka Italia. It's the story of a people who by intermingling, compromise and sheer doggedness came to dominate first their region, then the whole of peninsula Italy, and finally the entire Mediterranean and beyond.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Border Towns Buses of London Country Transport North of the Thames 19692019
London Transport was created in 1933 with monopoly powers. Not only did it have exclusive rights to run bus (and tram and trolleybus) services in the Greater London area, it also ran services in a Country Area all around London. Green Line express services linked the country towns to London and in most cases across to other country towns the other side of the metropolis. This country area extended north as far as Hitchin, east to Brentwood, south to Crawley and west to Windsor. But what of the towns at the edge of the country area? Here the green London Transport buses would meet the bus companies whose operations extended across the rest of the counties of Essex, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire etc. In some cases the town was at a node where more than one company worked in. At Luton there was a municipal fleet. Elsewhere, such as at Aylesbury there were local independent operators who had a share in the town services. It would all change from 1970 when the London Transport Country A
£25.20
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Red Army Weapons of the Second World War
While the Red Army's arsenal at the start of the Second World War included weapons dating back to the Great War or earlier, the 1930s' modernization programme had introduced the automatic Tokarev pistol and self-loading Tokarev rifle. Its small arms were soon replaced by mass-produced sub-machine guns, such as the PPSh 1941, nicknamed the PePeSha,'. Supplementing the submachine guns, the Degtyarev Light Machine Gun DP-27. Fitted with a circular pan magazine, it received the not-unsurprising nickname Record Player.' New mortars and towed artillery pieces, ranging from 76mm to 203mm, entered service in the pre-war years. In addition to a wide range of towed, self-propelled and anti-tank guns, the Soviets fielded the Katyusha rocket launchers in 1941, nicknamed the Stalin's organ' by the Germans. The 1930s saw the introduction of the BT light tank series. The iconic T-34 medium tank series came into service in late 1940, joined by the IS-2 heavy tank from early 1944, the prefix letters IS' translates to Joseph Stalin. These formidable AFVs led the Red Army to victory in May 1945 over Nazi Germany. All these weapons and more are covered with numerous images in this authoritative overview of the subject.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Captured at Singapore: A Diary of a Far East Prisoner of War
What would it be like to leave your loved ones behind knowing you may never see them again? Then depart on a ship in the dead of night heading for an unknown destination and find yourself in the heat of a battle which concludes in enemy conditions so terrible that your survival in captivity is still under threat? Cultivated from a small, faded, address book secretly written by a young soldier in the Royal Army Service Corps, Captured at Singapore, is a POW story of adventure, courage resilience and luck. In 1940, Londoner Stanley Moore became Driver T/170638 and trained for desert warfare along with many others in the British Army's 18th Division. Their mission, they thought, was to fight against Hitler and fascism in the Middle East. But in a change of plan and destination, he and his fellow servicemen became sacrificial lambs on a continent much further from home. After tough rudimentary combat training in England, Stan's division set off on a secret overseas mission. After months at sea, and several unexpected ports of call, their convoy was redirected to the other side of the world as the Imperial Japanese Army rampaged across Manchuria, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. Singapore was under sole British jurisdiction and a large naval base had been built after the First World War to defend the island at the foot of the Malay Peninsula. The British Government believed Japan would never attack their prize territory and so left Singapore to fight for itself with limited troops and outdated equipment. But after an attack on Pearl Harbor, the under-trained and undersupplied 18th Division was redirected to fight the Japanese. Using extensive research and personal documents, the authors' account - via their father's small, faded, diary and his 1990 tape recording - tells of Stan's journey and arrival in Keppel Harbour under shellfire; the horrific 17 day battle to defend the island, the Japanese Admonition and the harrowing forced labour conditions after capitulation. Only a small percentage of the 85,000 British troops returned after the war. Captivity and years of trauma ultimately stole years of the young soldiers' lives, which they were later ordered to forget by the British Government. The aim of this work is to provide information for future generations to understand how ordinary men died under horrific conditions of war, and how the lucky survived.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Doenitz, U-Boats, Convoys: The British Version of His Memoirs from the Admiralty's Secret Anti-Submarine Reports
The memoirs of Admiral Karl Doenitz, Ten Years and Twenty Days, are a fascinating first-hand account of the Battle of the Atlantic as seen from the headquarters of the U-boat fleet. Now, for the first time noted naval historian Jak P. Mallmann Showell has combined Doenitz's memoirs in a parallel text with the British Admiralty's secret Monthly Anti-Submarine Reports to produce a unique view of the U-boat war as it was perceived at the time by both sides. The British Monthly Anti-Submarine Reports were classified documents issued only to senior officers hunting U-boats, and were supposed to have been returned to the Admiralty and destroyed at the end of the War, but by chance a set survived in the archives of the Royal Navy's Submarine Museum in Gosport, allowing the reader a hitherto unavailable insight into the British view of the Battle of the Atlantic as it was being fought. Together with the authors commentary adding information that was either unknown or too secret to reveal at the time, this book gives possibly the most complete contemporary account of the desperate struggle in the North Atlantic in the Second World War.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Strike Wings: Special Anti-Shipping Squadrons 1942-45
In November 1942 the RAF formed special Strike Wings to attack the heavily defended and seemingly invulnerable convoys that brought Germanys vital supplies of iron ore from Scandinavia down the coast of Europe to feed its war machine. The outcome was a series sea/air battles at close quarters, fought with increasing ferocity until the last days of the war. The Germans tried everything against the Beaufighters and Mosquitos of the Strike Wings fighters, intense flak, parachute mines and even flame-throwers and the casualties were appallingly heavy on both sides. In this classic account of one of the neglected yet crucial theatres of the air war Roy Nesbit, himself a survivor of strike aircraft of Coastal Command, describes these complex battles from British and German records, assisted by first-hand accounts from some of the brave airmen who took part. He also analyzes the effects of the tactics employed on the German war economy, with some startling conclusions. The result is a fascinating, clearly written and vivid history of events that were little publicized during the war for reasons of security. His book includes detailed diagrams of some of the key attacks and features some astonishing photographs taken in action.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The German Army in the Spring Offensives 1917: Arras, Aisne and Champagne
After the great battles of 1916, the Allied Armies planned to launch massive attacks North and South of the Somme. The German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 forced the new French CinC General Nivelle to rethink and the French embarked on a major attack in the Aisne area and along the Chemin des Dames, with the British conducting large scale diversionary operations around Arras. The French suffered disastrously and, rendered incapable of further offensive operations, it fell to the British to step up the pressure, which they did albeit at a terrible price. This latest work by expert Jack Sheldon describes the event of Spring 1917 from the defenders perspective. In particular it reveals the methods the Germans used to smash the French attacks and Oberst Fritz von Lossbergs transformation of the defences in the Arras front. Actions described in detail are the bitter battles around Monchy Le Preun, the Roeux Chemical works and Bullecourt as well as the capture of Vimy Ridge.
£15.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A Battalion in Burma
Between December 1943 and August 1944, Second Suffolk, as part of the 5th (Indian) Division, played a key role opposing the Japanese in Burma and later at the critical battle at Imphal. The odds could not have been higher or the challenges greater. The Japanese had already earned an awesome reputation as a formidable and ruthless enemy who could only be described as fanatical. The rugged jungle terrain, over which the Battalion had to fight, was tough and unforgiving and pushed all ranks to the limits of their physical and mental endurance. Against them too was the harsh tropical climate and the extremes of the monsoon season. The combination of these three factors called for the highest standards of leadership and discipline. Supplies too were often not forthcoming but despite these difficulties and a lack of appreciation of their efforts in the press at home, morale of the stolid regular Suffolk soldier and his newer drafted comrades, always remained high as they learned to fight
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Maximinus Thrax: From Common Soldier to Emperor of Rome
Maximinus was a half-barbarian strongman of frightening appearance and colossal size who could smash stones with his bare hands and pull fully laden wagons unaided. Such feats impressed the emperor Severus who enlisted him into the imperial bodyguard whereupon he embarked on a distinguished military career. Eventually he achieved senior command in the massive Roman invasion of Persia in 232 and three years later became emperor himself in a military coup. Supposedly over seven feet tall (it is likely he had a pituitary disorder), Maximinus was surely one of Rome's most extraordinary emperors. He campaigned across the Rhine and Danube for three years until a rebellion erupted in Africa and the snobbish senate engaged in civil war against him. This is a narrative account of the life and times of Maximinus, from his humble origins up to and beyond the civil war of 238, written for enthusiasts of Roman history and warfare.
£16.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Battle on the Aisne 1914: The BEF and the Birth of the Western Front
The river Aisne featured prominently in August 1914 during the Retreat from Mons and in September was the scene of bitter fighting when the BEF re-crossed it in their unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the German Army entrenched along the Northern Crest. The fighting was hugely costly to the BEF which had already fought three major engagements and marched over 200 miles in a month. The three British Corps lost over 700 officers and some 15,000 men. Little wonder one officer wrote that he felt he was in the company of ghosts. Historian Jerry Murland places the Aisne battles in their context, both from the BEF and German viewpoints. He highlights the early deficiencies and unpreparedness of the British Army staff and logistics organisation as well as friction among the command structure, all of which hampered effective operations.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Corinthian War, 395–387 BC: The Twilight of Sparta's Empire
At the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC, Sparta reigned supreme in Greece. Having vanquished their rival Athens and quickly dismantled the wealthy and powerful Athenian Empire, Sparta set its sights on dominating the Mediterranean world and had begun a successful invasion of the vast Persian Empire under their legendary king Agesilaus II. But with their victory over Athens came the inheritance of governing Athens’s empire - and Sparta desperately lacked both a cogent vision of empire and the essential economic and trade infrastructure to survive in the role of hegemon. Sparta’s overextension of empire compounded with internal political conflict to antagonize the rest of Greece with heavy-fisted and uneven interventionism. Soon the unlikely confederacy of Athens, Corinth, Thebes, Argos, and Persia united against Sparta in a war that, despite a Spartan victory, had devastating ramifications for their empire. The Corinthian War (395 - 387 BC) was a fascinating entanglement of clashing empires, complex diplomatic alliances and betrayals, and political fissures erupting after centuries of tension. Situated between the great Peloponnesian War and the Theban-Spartan War, the Corinthian War is often overlooked or understood as an aftershock of the civil war Greece had just endured. But the Corinthian War was instead a seminal conflict that reshaped the Greek world, illustrating the limits of Sparta’s newfound imperial experiment as they grappled with their own internal cultural conflicts and charted the rise - and fall - of their newfound hegemony and the future of Greece.
£19.80
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up
Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency investigates the infamous political scandal sparked after horrific photographs of war crimes during the Malayan Emergency were leaked to the British press. These photographs depicted British forces and their allies in Malaya scalping corpses and posing with decapitated human heads. The subsequent scandal, involving British generals, police, trade unions, and even Winston Churchill, led to the further discoveries that British forces had deployed over 1,000 men from Bornean headhunting tribes to Malaya, were publicly displaying corpses to terrify Malaya's civilian population into submission, and that photographs of such atrocities had become popular souvenirs among British troops. Using newly uncovered photographs, eyewitness accounts, and government documents, this research is the first ever attempt by any historian to create a complete history of the British-Malayan Headhunting Scandal, its political consequences, the stories of those involved, and its attempted cover-up.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Broadmoor Inmates: True Crime Tales of Life and Death in the Asylum
'Broadmoor Inmates: True Crime Tales of Life and Death in the Asylum' brings together the histories of people who died in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, each having committed a crime that led to them being pronounced criminally insane, necessitating their confinement and containment for their own protection, as well as that of the public. Nowadays, staff have a wide range of therapeutic tools at their disposal but historically the only treatment offered to patients was work, leisure activities and abundant fresh air. All human life is here - the addicts, the mentally deranged, the delusional, the tragic and the chronically and postnatally depressed - men and women whose acts of madness led them to be reviled and feared, but who were often as much victims of their own internal demons as were those they harmed. As well as wife murderers James Potter and Peter Whittle, the characters within include Henry Dommett, James Senior and Mary Ann Parr, who each killed their own children and Christiana Edmunds, who poisoned several people in Brighton to divert suspicion from herself, after attempting to murder her love rival. Other vignettes include serial arsonist John Green, counterfeiter Emma Jackson and James Stevenson and Roderick Edward McClean, both of whom took exception to the accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to the throne, the latter attempting to assassinate her. Daniel McNaughten became so paranoid about the 'Tory' spies that he believed followed him constantly that he killed a civil servant in 1843, mistakenly believing his victim to be prime minister Sir Robert Peel. Such was McNaughten's derangement that his crime spawned a new standard for the legal definition of insanity. Generously illustrated throughout, this book will prove of interest to those with a fascination for historical true crime and the way its perpetrators were dealt with by society.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Hitlers RAF Collaborators
During the Second World War over 200,000 British prisoners of war were detained by the Third Reich. A large proportion of these PoWs were members of the Royal Air Force, or airmen who served in it. A number of them have been immortalised in the many books and movies that have portrayed their valiant exploits and escapes, none more so than the events surrounding the Great Escape in 1944. The names of camps such as Stalag Luft III, at Sagan, and Colditz Castle are well known to the general public, the prisoners incarcerated there often being held in high regard. But there were a few PoWs whose loyalty to the cause and their fellow prisoners might not have been as strong. The names of Pilot Officer Railton Freeman, Sergeant Jack Alcock and Sergeant Raymond Hughes are among those found in that inglorious group of alleged traitors, for all three men betrayed their colleagues and the nation. The trio assisted the Nazi regime in making radio broadcasts, or even joining the British Frei Ko
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd British Steam Locomotive Builders
This useful and well researched book is a must for any serious railway historian or locomotive enthusiast, 704 pages with reference to 350 builders, 541 illustrations and 47 diagrams. The material in this book has been carefully selected to cover all the leading former steam locomotive manufacturers in the British Isles.
£18.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Britains Iron Chancellor
PHILIP SNOWDEN was a proud Yorkshireman, a founding father of the Labour Party, its first Chancellor of the Exchequer and eventually was seen as a traitor by the movement he did so much to build. Growing up in the poverty of a weaving village in the Pennines, Snowden was paralysed in his twenties but overcame his disability by teaching himself to walk again with the aid of two sticks. He came to socialism in the 1890s and helped build Labour from a fringe sect into a governing party. Snowden was Labour's undisputed economic expert for decades and served as chancellor three times in the 1920s and 30s. He would be expelled from the party for joining Ramsay MacDonald's controversial National Government in 1931 and has been condemned as a turncoat ever since. A gifted orator, Snowden was regarded as the archetypal Yorkshireman; strong-willed and straight-talking, caustic and biting in his criticism but warm in friendship. He earned the moniker Iron Chancellor' after doggedly standing up to
£25.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A History of Women in Psychology and Neuroscience
Since virtually its first moments as an academic science, women have played a major role in the development of psychology, gaining from the outset research opportunities and academic positions that had been denied them for centuries in other branches of scientific investigation. Look wherever you will, in any branch of psychology or neuroscience in the last century and a half, and what you will find are a plethora of women whose discoveries fundamentally changed how we view the brain and its role in the formation of our perceptions and behaviors.A History of Women in Psychology and Neuroscience tells the story of 267 women whose work opened new doors in humanity''s ongoing attempt to learn about its own nature, from Christine Ladd Franklin''s late 19th century studies of how the brain perceives color to Virginia Johnson''s pioneering studies of the human sexual response, and Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke''s early association of neurological conditions with their underlying brain regions to
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Geographies of War
A global history of the geography of war from antiquity to modern and contemporary conflict illustrated and brought to life by histories of inter-state war, geopolitical rivalry, 'hot' and 'cold' war and terrorism. Geography is a basic element in all stages of war including preparation, planning, onset of conflict, waging wars, assessment of results, post-conflict negotiations, analysis and preparation for future conflict. Geography is the vital element in strategy and tactics, and in the spatial context, on land, water and space. It is central to all historical activities from human and animal transport to wind power, coal, seam, oil, jet propulsion atomic weaponry and the threat of cyber conflict. This is essentially a 'modern geography', and not only physical, but political social, economic, cultural and 'human', with emphasis on personal experience. And technical mapping is included - the author's particular expertise - and accessible to specialist and general readers. A global history of the geographies of war in the context of great power geopolitics to local conflicts.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The RAF's Armourers: Safely Making Aircraft Dangerous Since the First World War
It is said that one of the earliest trades in the world is that of the Armourer. Historically, it is a profession dated slightly after prostitution, but well before banking! Since the birth of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 through to the modern Royal Air Force, the role of the Armourer has been pivotal. Not for nothing did the founder of the RAF, Lord Trenchard, once declare: The Armourer - without him there is no need for an air force.' In the years since the need for RAF Armourers was first recognised, it has been a role that has evolved with the times. What has remained constant, however, is the fact that it is still a fascinating and potentially dangerous trade with many different branches and specialisms. In this book the authors, one of whom, Tony Lamsdale, is himself a former RAF Armourer, reveal the previously untold story of how the trade has adapted to the most modern of military machines, the aircraft. The authors look at the shared history of the Armourer and the RAF through the eyes of those who served. These veterans' stories span decades, and their first-hand accounts and insights into conflict and peace-time operations demonstrate the qualities and characteristics that make Armourers unique. The book starts with a brief history of the Armourer, then before capturing the adventures and exploits of RAF Armourers from the Second World War and on into the Cold War. The dangerous duties of the Armourers on deployment in such places as the Falklands, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan are all explored. There is also the question of having to learn of bomb dumps, the use of small arms and the unique world of the Armourer with its own peculiar language and the camaraderie of the crew room. With each chapter brought to life through personal anecdotes and shared experiences, this book provides an insight into an utterly essential role which has remained largely hidden - until now.
£25.20
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Air Marshal Sir Keith Park: Victor of the Battle of Britain, Defender of Malta
The Battle of Britain from July to September 1940 is one of the finest moments in our Nation's history. While credit rightly goes to The Few', victory could never have happened without the inspirational command and leadership of New Zealander Keith Park. He and Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding ensured that Fighter Command was prepared for the Nazi onslaught. Promoted to Air Vice Marshal, Park took over No 11 Group, responsible for the defence of London and South East England in April 1940\. A shrewd tactician and hands-on commander, Park carefully husbanded his limited resources and famously wore down Goering's Luftwaffe, thus forcing Hitler to abandon his invasion plans. Shamefully Dowding and Park were dismissed from their commands in the aftermath of victory due to internal RAF politics. Fortunately, Park's career was far from over and his management of the defence of Malta made significant contribution to victory in the Mediterranean. This balanced and well overdue account hopefully ensures that Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park receives the credit for victory that he so richly deserves.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Kamikaze: Japan's Last Bid for Victory
In this fascinating book the author examines the Japanese concept of Kamikaze, the deliberate self-sacrifice of life in the cause of victory. This attitude, while incomprehensible to their American and European enemies, has its roots in the samurai tradition of fighting for their master or nation regardless of personal safety. By late 1944 the Japanese had already proved themselves fanatical but the actions of the Kamikaze Corps of pilots from the Leyte Gulf battle onwards took matters to a new level. Allied forces were shocked to find themselves the subject of widespread deliberate suicide attacks by pilots. These continued during the invasion of the Philippines in early 1945 and reached a climax during the Battle of Okinawa from 1 April to June 1945\. In total over 1000 kamikaze airmen perished. Graphic description of these suicide attacks and the resulting loss of life and ships litter this revealing and shocking book. The author's in depth study of the historic and cultural reasons for this seemingly reckless courage is important and illuminating.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England
Many Anglo-Saxon kings are familiar. AEthelred the Unready is one, yet less is written of his wife, who was consort of two kings and championed one of her sons over the others, or his mother who was an anointed queen and powerful regent, but was also accused of witchcraft and regicide. A royal abbess educated five bishops and was instrumental in deciding the date of Easter; another took on the might of Canterbury and Rome and was accused by the monks of fratricide. Anglo-Saxon women were prized for their bloodlines - one had such rich blood that it sparked a war - and one was appointed regent of a foreign country. Royal mothers wielded power; Eadgifu, wife of Edward the Elder, maintained a position of authority during the reigns of both her sons. AEthelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, was a queen in all but name, while few have heard of Queen Seaxburh, who ruled Wessex, or Queen Cynethryth, who issued her own coinage. She, too, was accused of murder, but was also, like many of the royal women, literate and highly-educated. From seventh-century Northumbria to eleventh-century Wessex and making extensive use of primary sources, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England examines the lives of individual women in a way that has often been done for the Anglo-Saxon men but not for their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters. It tells their stories: those who ruled and schemed, the peace-weavers and the warrior women, the saints and the sinners. It explores, and restores, their reputations.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Evolution of Gun Making
A variety of factors surround military firearms 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 Honoré 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 interc
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd SOE in The Netherlands
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd First Manned Rocket Launch
Well before Yuri Gagarin or Alan Shepard, Lothar Sieber became the first man to take off vertically from the ground under rocket power on March 1, 1945. The plane crashed after flying for 55 seconds and he was killed. The launch marked a milestone on the road to spaceflight, even though it remained virtually unknown to the general public for more than half a century. But the Natter was a weapon of war born out in the closing months of World War II when Germany was desperately looking for 'wonder weapons' to fight the inevitable defeat. A vertical take-off rocket fighter, the Natter would reach the Allied bomber altitude in seconds, then the pilot would get within firing distance of a bomber, and fire all 24 rockets into the nose in a single shot. Its fuel running out, the pilot will then glide the plane at high speed to a lower altitude, at which point he will trigger the plane to break up, a large parachute opening at the rear, popping off the nose and the pilot with it. The pilot
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Rescue Ships and The Convoys
The Rescue Ships and the Convoys tells the history of one of the least known aspects of Second World War maritime history. Despite the threat of heavy losses of ships and lives, no hospital ships, which had to be lit, could accompany the convoys as they would betray a convoy's position. The solution was to create a fleet of 30 small Merchant Navy vessels of about 1,500 gross tons, mostly from coastal trade. These Rescue Ships', commanded and manned by Merchant Navy personnel, carried medical teams, and life-saving equipment including operating theatres, hospital beds, Carley' floats, and hoists. Undeterred either by either enemy action or atrocious weather conditions, these vessels accompanied close to 800 convoys and saved 4,194 lives from ships sunk in the North Atlantic and with the Arctic convoys. During their service, seven Rescue Ships were lost. This is a story packed with suspense, danger, achievement and tragedy. As the author, Vice Admiral Schofield, who was closely inv
£22.50