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- Author: Sir Edmund Ironside
- Publisher:
- ISBN:
- Category : Europe
- Languages : en
- Pages : 458
Time Unguarded
Time Unguarded
The Ironside Diaries, 1937-1940
Ironside
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- Author: Lord Edmund Ironside
- Publisher: The History Press
- ISBN: 0750987405
- Category : Biography & Autobiography
- Languages : en
- Pages : 620
The Field Marshal was a born commander and, besides being a gifted linguist, was mobilised as a Subaltern for the Boer War to act as a secret agent and to streamline the peace process. With an appetite for battle, in WW1 he became the Allied C-in-C of the Expeditionary Force in North Russia and, being ranked as a knighted Major General at the age of 39, he then modernised the Staff training to deal with armoured and aerial warfare. His Generalship was tested out in the Raj and, in 1939, on the day war was declared, the British Army leadership as CIGS was placed in his hands, so that he was able to defend Calais and free-up the BEF escape route to Dunkirk. Back in business as C-in-C Home Forces he was given his baton. Ironside surely had one of the most varied and long military careers of any military leader in the 20th century.
Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939–1941
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- Author: Martin Gilbert
- Publisher: Rosetta Books
- ISBN: 0795344635
- Category : Biography & Autobiography
- Languages : en
- Pages : 1031
The sixth volume in the official biography: “A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement” (Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War). Starting with the outbreak of war in September 1939 and ending with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, this volume in the epic biography of Winston S. Churchill draws on remarkably diverse material: from the War Cabinet and other government records to Churchill’s own archive and diaries and letters of his private secretariat to the recollections of those who worked most closely with him. On the day Hitler invaded Poland, Churchill, aged sixty-four, had been out of office for ten years. Two days later, he became First Lord of the Admiralty, in charge of British naval policy and at the center of war direction. In May 1940 he became prime minister, leading his nation during a time of grave danger and setbacks. His first year and a half as prime minister included the Dunkirk evacuation, the fall of France, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the Battle of the Atlantic, the struggle in the Western Desert, and Hitler’s invasion of Russia. By the end of 1940, Britain under Churchill’s leadership had survived the onslaught and was making plans to continue the war against an enemy of unlimited ambition and ferocious will. One of Churchill’s inner circle said: “We who worked with Churchill every day of the war still saw at most a quarter of his daily tasks and worries.” Martin Gilbert has pieced together the whole, setting in context much hitherto scattered and secret evidence, in order to give an intimate and fascinating account of the architect of Britain’s “finest hour.” “The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times
Norway 1940
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- Author: Harry Plevy
- Publisher: Fonthill Media
- ISBN:
- Category : History
- Languages : en
- Pages : 416
A comprehensive, chronologically arranged account of the two-month campaignEmbraces viewpoints of all the combatants: British, French, German, Norwegian and PolishMany first-hand accounts, previously unpublished or not in general circulation Ostensibly fought for control of Swedish iron ore to Germany, the Norwegian campaign made an important but largely overlooked contribution to the conduct of the Second World War. It convincingly proved the supremacy of air power in modern warfare and, particularly, the vulnerability of land and sea forces to sustained undefended air assault. It was the first conflict in which one side, the Germans, used all three arms of their forces in integrated combined assault – Blitzkreig – and in which parachute and glider-borne troops were used to secure airfields and strategic targets. In contrast, the Allies tried to conduct the campaign on land, with an overreliance on infantrymen and inadequate air support. Norway 1940: Chronicle of a Chaotic Campaign deals with the strategic and political imperatives in an integrated and comprehensive manner, as well as operations, in a complex and rapidly changing two-month campaign. While other books on the campaign have tended to focus on a limited perspective, such as naval operations or the higher levels of political decision-making with no combatant or personal perspective, this book makes much use of many previously unpublished contemporary writings and eyewitness accounts of the people involved in the Norwegian campaign. 32 black-and-white photographs
Tropical Warfare in the Asia-Pacific Region, 1941-45
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- Author: Kaushik Roy
- Publisher: Routledge
- ISBN: 1317538315
- Category : History
- Languages : en
- Pages : 266
This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the land war during the Second World War in South-East Asia and the South and South-West Pacific. The extensive existing literature focuses on particular armies – Japanese, British, American, Australian or Indian – and/or on particular theatres – the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Malaya or Burma. This book, on the contrary, argues that warfare in all the theatres was very similar, especially the difficulties of the undeveloped terrain, and that there was considerable interchange of ideas between the allied armies which enabled the spread of best practice among them. The book considers tactics, training, technology and logistics, assesses the changing state of the combat effectiveness of the different armies, and traces the course of the war from the Japanese Blitzkrieg of 1941, through the later stalemate, and the hard fought Allied fightback. Although the book concentrates on ground forces, due attention is also given to air forces and amphibious operations. One important argument put forward by the author is that the defeat of the Japanese was not inevitable and that it was brought about by chance and considerable tactical ingenuity on the part of US and British imperial forces.
Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941
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- Author: Daniel Todman
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- ISBN: 0190621826
- Category : History
- Languages : en
- Pages : 864
Great Britain's refusal to yield to Nazi Germany in the Second World War remains one of the greatest survival stories of modern times. Commemorated, evoked, and mythologized as it has been-chiseled and engraved onto countless monuments, the subject of an endless stream of books and films-its triumphant outcome was by no means predetermined. In December 1940, months after war was declared, the director of plans at the War Office in London was asked to draft a paper on how to win the war. He replied that he could only plan "for not losing." Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941 is the first of two volumes in which Daniel Todman offers a brilliantly fresh retelling, an epic history to fit an epic story. "Opening with his discovery of some war medals sitting in a hearing-aid box that likely belonged to his grandfather, Todman realizes that despite it all a new generation seems unaware of what was truly at stake when Churchill invoked Britain's "finest hour." The war was far greater than any single heroic hour. For six years, Britain was at the dark heart of history, finding its way forward hour by hour, day by day, year by year. This volume spans the beginning and the end of the beginning, from the massive changes required to get the country onto a war footing, through the failure of appeasement, the invasion of Poland, the "phony war," the fall of France, the "miracle" of Dunkirk, the Battles of Britain, and the Blitz, ending with America's course-changing entrance into the conflict in late 1941. Todman's colossal project seamlessly merges economic, strategic, social, cultural, and military history in one compelling narrative. Rapid industrialization, social disruption, food rationing, Westminster politics, class snobbery, and the mobilization of a global empire are woven together with the major opening battles. Here, also, are key individuals-the politicians, industrialists, pub owners, housewives, the pilots of the RAF, and the sailors at Dunkirk-caught in the maelstrom that threatened to engulf not just a small island nation but the world itself.
The British Defence of Egypt, 1935-1940
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- Author: Steven Morewood
- Publisher: Psychology Press
- ISBN: 9780714649436
- Category : History
- Languages : en
- Pages : 304
A comprehensive and challenging analysis of the British defence of Egypt, primarily against fascist Italy, in the critical lead-up period to the Second World War. Culminating in the decisive defeat of the Italian military threat at Sidi Barrani in December 1940, this is a fascinating new contribution to the field. The security of Egypt, a constant of British imperial strategy, is a curiously neglected dimension of the still burning appeasement debate. Steven Morewood adds to the originality of his interpretation by suggesting the old view should be reinstated: that Mussolini should and could have been stopped in his empire-building at the Abyssinian hurdle. Thereafter, as Nazi Germany tore the Versailles peace settlement to shreds, the drift to war accelerated as British resolve and credibility were brought into question. The fascist dictators in Rome and Berlin held no respect for weakness and Mussolini became the conduit through which Hitler could apply pressure to a sensitive British interest through reinforcing Libya at critical moments.
