Military History

This is the lively autobiography of Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie who was at various times a Halton apprentice, bomber pilot, staff officer, station commander and technical adviser to the British film industry.In an animated narrative liberally laced with anecdotes, the author reflects on his formative years in Edinburgh and the part he played in the Trenchard Experiment at Halton in the late 1920s. We follow him to the outposts of the Empire during the 1930s with postings to Egypt and Iraq where he gained his wings. On his return to the UK in 1937, he found a very different Royal Air Force now frantically preparing for the inevitable cataclysm of war which was about to engulf the world.Hamish flew on two tours of operations with Bomber Command in the dangerous night skies over Europe in Whitleys and Stirlings before joining AVM Don Bennett's Staff at Pathfinder Force HQ. He finished the war as Station Commander at RAF Warboys where he transformed the Sergeants' and Airmen's Messes into meccas of popular entertainment with seating liberated from the Globe Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. At one stage he was the only Station Commander in Bomber Command with an elephant on the strength!Post war, he remained in the RAF and during this time helped introduce the Canberra into Bomber Command service. Upon retirement in 1958 he acted as a technical adviser on various feature films including The Battle of Britain and A Bridge Too Far.This is a well written, entertaining and very interesting account of the author's varied career in aviation, in peace and war, told by a raconteur par excellence, which will appeal to a wide range of readers.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, a young Peter Calvocoressi was serving in the Ministry of Economic Warfare, his role largely consisting of reviewing shipping manifests day in day out. In 1940, he decided to volunteer for the War Office but was turned away on account of a recently-sustained head injury. The note on his file? "No good for anything - not even intelligence." In spite of this, Calvocoressi was able to apply to the Air Ministry, was commissioned in RAF intelligence and, by early 1941, found himself at Bletchley Park.Calvocoressi was assigned to a section of Bletchley dealing with Luftwaffe Ultra intelligence where - as deputy head and, from 1944, as head - he spent the rest of the war translating and interpreting decrypted Enigma signals.The codebreaking operations at Bletchley Park came to an end in 1946, however all information about this wartime enterprise was classified and remained a secret until the mid-1970s, after which Calvocoressi recounted his experiences at Bletchley in Top Secret Ultra, published in 1980. This comprehensive new edition of Calvocoressi's book features exciting new material from his son David and from renowned historian and author (specialising in signals intelligence) Dr Joel Greenberg. This is required reading for anybody with an interest in this utterly and indisputably fascinating aspect of the Allied war effort during World War II.

The longest continuous military campaign of World War II, the Battle of the Atlantic is widely considered one of the most complex naval battles in history. Between 1939 and 1945, German U-Boats and warships, together with the Luftwaffe, fought against the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the United States Navy and convoys of Allied merchant ships in a series of devastating battles. In Warfare Beneath The Waves, eminent naval historian Axel Niestlé focuses on three particular convoy battles that took place during this period: the German attacks on Allied Convoy SC 7 in October 1940, on Allied Convoy SC 118 in February 1943 and on Allied Convoys JW 66 and RA 66 in April and May 1945. Niestlé takes readers through these individual battles in incredible detail, with a host of photographs, maps and diagrams supporting his detailed explanation and examination of the history, tactics and key personages behind these campaigns. The end of secrecy embargoes and the increasing availability of online archives, together with Niestlé's unmatched expertise in this area of military history, have come together to make Warfare Beneath The Waves a meticulously researched and incredibly important piece of writing about the Battle of the Atlantic. This is a must-read not only for fans of naval history, but for all fans of military history in general.

A snow-capped hill in modern day Czech Republic, dominated by a small church with black onion dome, stands on a field of battle that cemented Napoleon's position as Emperor of the French. His throne was secure. His power was limitless. Europe lay at his feet. The Battle of Austerlitz is almost universally regarded as the most impressive of Napoleon's many victories. The magnitude of the French achievement against a larger Russian and Austrian force was unprecedented, the great victory being met by sheer amazement and delirium in Paris, where, just days earlier, the nation had been teetering on the brink of financial collapse. It was a time when Napoleon's Grande Armée was at the apogee of its power.Trained on the Channel coast for over two years, the Grande Armée was considered to be the most powerful, and in many respects the most glamourous, fighting force in Europe. Using archive documents from the time, this book sets out to chart the story of the men who made up the army. Incorporating rare eye-witness reports, that have to date never been used in English or French histories, we assess if the army was indeed the best in the world. Men like Grouchy, Oudinot, Ney, D'hautpoul and many other famous names put the army through its paces - it is their judgements that confirm or deny the effectiveness of the army.These men also minutely examined the men's clothing and equipment. Using these reports we present for the first time the true story of the Grande Armée. This has been possible due to the author's access to a vast resource, as yet untapped by the vast majority of researchers and historians for understanding Napoleonic era in general. These are the regimental archive boxes preserved in the French Army Archives. From the regimental inspections, as well as the observations of Divisional commanders written at the time, these sources provide, potentially bias free empirical data - it is based on personal assessments thus is not error free - from which we can reconstruct the life story of a regiment, its officers and above all its clothing.More uniquely, the text is supported by an unrivalled collection of full colour illustrations, many of which have never been published before, including images of original items of equipment that are held in both museums and private collections to which the author has been granted special access.In this beautifully illustrated book, Paul Dawson critically re-examines the mythos and presents the judgement call made at the time about the army, that has ever since been overtly romanticised by both lovers and haters of Napoleon.

"The P-38 Lightning was one of the fastest operational fighters of World War II, famous for its successes in North Africa and the Pacific. In The P-38 Lightning and the Men Who Flew It, Wolfgang W. E. Samuel shares the stories of the young men who climbed into the cockpits of the P-38 to fight for freedom, and of those who created, tested, and deployed these fearsome machines. The P-38 was the product of the Lockheed Corporation, the first fighter they ever built, principally conceptualized by Kelly Johnson, whose design was to meet Air Corps specifications. To do that he came up with a twin-engine aircraft with a tricycle landing gear unlike any other military aircraft of the time. But it was no easy plane to fly. Many pilots died in training and routine flying before ever meeting an opponent in combat. P-38 units were formed quickly once the United States entered World War II in December 1941. Training was rushed to get pilots and planes to Europe as quickly as possible to serve as bomber escorts. Although the P-38 could fly at the high altitudes the bombers flew, it was not the right aircraft for the mission. At high altitudes without an engine in front of the cockpit to keep the pilot warm, the plane was frigid. Pilots suffered and were sometimes so weakened by the brutal cold that they had to be lifted out of the cockpit upon landing, and the bombers suffered severe losses. In North Africa's warmer air, however, the P-38 came into its own. With four 50-caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon in its nose, the P-38 was a formidable adversary. With proven success in the Mediterranean, P-38 squadrons were transferred to the Pacific Theater, where they flourished. This book focuses on the men who flew this challenging aircraft and the men who designed and decided how to deploy it. Samuel shares stories of bravery and ingenuity alongside an aviation history long neglected. The P-38's Pacific deployment is covered in some detail, including the actions of Richard Bong, who became the US forces' ace of aces while flying a P-38. In the Pacific skies, the P-38, its pilots, and designers made the heroic history captured here"--

Lindsay Powell offers a fresh reassessment of Tiberius Caesar, highlighting his leadership, reforms, and misunderstood legacy as emperor.History has not been kind to the memory of Tiberius Caesar (42 BC-AD 37), second emperor of the Romans. His reputation for capable generalship and sensible civic leadership are marred by reports of cruelty, treason trials and sexual depravity. Some historians have described him as a 'tyrant' or even a 'monster'. But does he deserve this negative appraisal?In Tiberius, Lindsay Powell presents a fresh and penetrating reassessment of the life and legacy of the extraordinary man handpicked by Augustus to succeed him. He shows that Tiberius was the right man for the job, at the right time.Tiberius built upon the innovations of Augustus by bolstering the Roman Commonwealth's institutions and reining in its expenditures. He used his proven leadership skills in military and diplomatic affairs to avoid war whenever possible. A no-nonsense disciplinarian willing to eschew popularity for the good of the Res Publica, he respected the Senate's independence, recruited competent public administrators, rooted out malpractice in provincial government, and was generous to communities blighted by disaster.Tiberius examines the known facts of the personal and professional life of Ancient Rome's third longest serving emperor. He was a poet, a collector of art and an astrologer. Lindsay Powell explores how he dealt with success, disappointment and loss all while under the unrelenting pressure of serving Augustus, and then carrying out his ultimate duty by ruling the empire in his own right.Descended from a famous family, his standing has been undermined by his infamous appointees: right-hand man, Aelius Sejanus, who betrayed him; prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilatus, who crucified Jesus of Nazareth; and his successor, Caius, better known as Caligula. Yet, when he died of old age (or was he murdered?), he left the Roman Empire both stronger and at peace.Meticulously researched, Tiberius is lucidly written by the author of the acclaimed biographies Marcus Agrippa and Germanicus.

Sarkar's sixth volume examines the fourth phase of the Battle of Britain, detailing Luftwaffe failures and Britain's resilience.In this, the sixth of Dilip Sarkar's unprecedented eight-volume series, the day-by-day events occurring in the fourth phase of the Battle of Britain are chronicled and set within a much wide context, including the operations of Bomber and Coastal Commands and the Home Front. Renowned for his evidence-based approach, the author has returned to primary sources, the analysis arising often challenging our previous understanding and the popular narrative.In Volume 5, Target London: 7 September 1940 - 17 September 1940, the beginning of the Blitz was explored at length. This illuminated the inescapable fact that Luftwaffe air intelligence completely failed to understand how Fighter Command was organised and controlled, nor that it was replacement pilots, not aircraft, that was Air Chief Marshal Dowding's greatest concern. Indeed, on 15 September 1940, Luftwaffe aircrews were briefed to expect but a token resistance over London from the last handful of RAF fighters - their morale shattered when their first attack was met by over 300, the second by nearly as many. This convinced Hitler that the Luftwaffe could not achieve the aerial superiority needed for the invasion of Britain to proceed. Two days later Operation Seelöwe was postponed 'indefinitely'.Reichsmarschall Herman Göring, however, still believed that the Luftwaffe could prevail - and so continued attacking the UK, changing tack, yet again. As London had proved it 'could take it', the Luftwaffe, whilst continuing to bomb the capital by night, now focussed its daylight attacks on the British aircraft industry. Naturally the Supermarine Spitfire factory at Southampton was a primary target; it was subsequently badly hit, with great loss of life. Other factories, in the West Country, were also targeted, and, owing to a navigation error due to cloud cover, the picturesque town of Sherborne was devasted on 30 September 1940.By that date, however, it was clear that Göring's He 111 force was unable to continue absorbing such losses and the type was exclusively switched to night-bombing - thereby substantially reducing the German daylight bombing force. On 20 September 1940, Me 109 fighter-bombers attacked London, and going forward the next and final phase would see such attacks, and high-flying fighter sweeps, dominate the daytime arena.Such raids, though, were never going to defeat Britain, so it is fair to say that the period reviewed in this volume really did see the 'Daylight defeat' of the Luftwaffe over England in 1940 - and the events involved are interpreted and recounted in great detail.

The Royal Navy invented the aircraft carrier and most of the key innovations which have enabled carriers to remain effective, exploiting continuing changes in aircraft technology, from biplanes to supersonic jets. This book tells (and explains) how that happened over more than a century of British carrier development, based largely on declassified official documents, both British and US. Major themes include British domination of the early years of carrier development, and the audacious and highly original plans for their use during World War I, which inspired later naval thinking on the potential of carrier aviation. The introduction of armoured flight decks in the 1930s was only the first of a sequence of British innovations, the most important of which made it possible for carriers to operate jet aircraft (the angled deck, the steam catapult, and the mirror landing sight). These British developments, particularly the steam catapult, were crucial to the survival of the US carrier force in the postwar era, to an extent often forgotten. Later the Royal Navy produced the first commando carriers, and played a crucial role in the VSTOL carrier revolution, and continues to demonstrate originality and innovation as seen in the current pair of large carriers. This book covers all British-built carriers, including those in Commonwealth and foreign service, with the historical context, both operational and technical, explained in detail, as is the connection to larger British national concerns. The book is heavily illustrated with photographs, but also reproduces official plans from the National Maritime Museum, many of which have never previously been published.

The 452nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, staffed by Black soldiers, protected vital installations and shot down 68 enemy aircraft during WWII.During the Second World War, the airplane became a true menace. Flying faster, higher, and capable of carrying a heavier payload, air forces of the warring nations formed a formidable threat to the forces on the ground.To counter this, special anti-aircraft artillery battalions were created by the US Army. Several of these battalions, including the 452nd Antiaircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion, were staffed by Black American soldiers. The 452nd AAA deployed in England in November 1943 and went ashore in Normandy, France, in June 1944. Assigned to XII Corps, part of General Patton's Third Army, the 452nd AAA was a valuable asset of the US Army. Armed with the deadly 40mm Bofor's gun and the .50 cal M45 Quadmount, these Black soldiers protected bridges, field artillery battalions and other vital installations during the Second World War. Some of the white soldiers from the field artillery battalions the 452nd AAA was protecting, doubted their abilities, but quickly came to appreciate the accuracy and coolness under fire of the Black soldiers.Credited with shooting down almost 68 hostile aircraft (one of the highest among AAA units in Europe), the 452nd AAA has rightfully earned its place in the history of the US Armed Forces during the Second World War. Although the battalion's motto was 'We Guard the Skyways', it would perhaps be more appropriate to call them 'Airplane Destroyers'.Almost 80 years after the war, this outstanding unit's history is finally made public.

"In 2013, while helping her mother, Ingrid, comb through family possessions, Karin Wagner came across a large folio handwritten in German in the back of a dresser drawer. When Karin asked her mother what the document was, Ingrid replied, "Oh, that is your grandfather's Great War memoir. "Schiller was a seventeen-year-old student in Bromberg, Prussia, when World War I broke out in August 1914. He enlisted in the German army and was assigned to an artillery unit on the Eastern Front. From 1915 to 1917, Schiller saw action in what is now Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. After the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 and Russia's withdrawal from the war, Schiller was transferred to the Western Front. He arrived in time for Germany's last great offensive in the west, where the attempt to break the Allied lines included what is believed to be the single greatest artillery bombardment in human history up to that point. After the German retreat and Armistice, Schiller reentered military service in the Freikorps, German mercenary groups fighting in former German territory in Eastern Europe, where the conflict dragged on even after the Treaty of Versailles. Schiller left military service in May 1920. Hans Schiller's Kriegserinnerungen (literally, "memories of war") was written in 1928 and based on diaries, since lost, that Schiller kept during the war. A Tale of Two Fronts, an edition of the memoir with historical context and explanatory notes, provides a vivid first-person account of German army life during World War I. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the experiences of common soldiers in World War I"--

From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought.The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt.The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin's war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network.As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off.The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler's orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there.Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.

Walk in the tank tracks and footsteps of Major General Stanislaw Maczek and his 1st Polish Armoured Division (1PAD) soldiers who fought, fell or were wounded liberating the town of Ypres on 6th September 1944. Also revealed is the great support offered by local Resistance groups who supplied topographical assistance, information concerning enemy strong points and troop numbers, offered limited engagements, and finally assisted with the temporary gaoling of the many German prisoners of war. The book also commemorates those townsfolk including children who lost their lives over this period of short but intense fighting. Such was the cost of freedom for the beleaguered citizens of Ypres during WW2. Also remembered are those Czechoslovak officers attached to 1PAD from the Independent Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade Group commanded by Brigadier General Alois Liska, whose HQ was located at nearby Wormhout, France, in preparation for his own Battlegroup's 'Siege of Dunkirk' deployment.

By September 1944 the Western Allies had reached the approximate positions they had held back in September 1939 at the outbreak of war. It had taken more than four years to claw back the territory lost in 1940. It was four years in which the strategic bomber had failed to deliver the victory the bomber advocated had promised. With Allied armies converging on Germany from all directions, they were running out of time to prove that countries could be bombed into defeat.Baughen describes the fierce battles that were fought right up to the German surrender in May 1945. He also explores the equally fierce debates behind the scenes about how air power should be used to complete the Allied victory, and analyses the lessons learned from six years of war.Even before Germany's surrender, thoughts were turning to the new enemy. The wartime alliance between Communist East and Capitalist West had always been one of convenience. Within weeks of the German surrender hostilities between the wartime allies were already a possibility. The seeds for post-war defence policy were already being sown.Meanwhile, in the Far East Hiroshima and Nagasaki had become the victims of the first atomic bombs. Days later Japan surrendered. The bomber advocates appeared to have the proof that bombing could win wars. But how related were the two events?Using contemporary documents, Baughen describes the how British air policy evolved in the late 1940s. Would the atomic bomb change the way wars were fought? Would conventional armies have any role in future wars? In the new atomic age, were there any lessons to be learned from the Second World War? How would the emerging cruise and ballistic missiles and associated guidance systems affect defence policy? Was a conventional defence to Soviet aggression possible?This is the story of the contribution air power made in the final battles of the Second World War, how the lessons of that conflict were misinterpreted and how the policies developed to incorporate the atomic bomb into Cold War defence thinking was leading the country into grave danger.

With the ending of the Second World War, Lief Bangsboll, after distinguished service with the O.S.S. behind enemy lines in Denmark, prepared himself for a life of peace and hopefully love with the young Canadian girl he had met while training at Camp X during the war. But the United States War Department and the Office of Strategic Services had other plans for the young soldier/agent.In September 1945, Lieutenant Bangsboll was secretly sent into Soviet-occupied Germany to assess and report upon Russian military activities in and around Berlin. In December 1945, a deadly incident occurred in which a KGB agent was killed, and Leif and his O.S.S. team were forced to escape back into the American sector of Germany. With his O.S.S. identity compromised and himself now target of the KGB, Lieutenant Bangsboll was re-assigned to the regular U.S. Army and became a member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. With the outbreak of the Korean War, Leif was part of the first airborne operation in which he and the 187th Airborne Regiment Combat Team parachuted into North Korea as part of the US/United Nations force confronting the North Korean invasion.During his year of combat in Korea, Captain Bangsboll, the platoon leader for the Headquarters Intelligence & Reconnaissance platoon, worked under Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Bank, also a former OSS agent. During that assignment Leif led numerous special operations missions behind enemy lines, including a mission to recover a large cache of American gold bullion which had been left behind when the U.S. 8th Army was overrun during a North Korean offensive. He also led a secret parachute mission to rescue American /United Nations' prisoners of war held in North Korea and a daring assault on a North Korean base which earned him the Silver Star for 'extraordinary courage in combat'.Captain Bangsboll played a crucial role in the develop of the United States' first Special Forces unit and was appointed as one of the initial Company Commander of a Green Beret/Special Forces unit. Then, as the Army Liaison Officer to the 302nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing in Sembach, West Germany, he flew as an observer, reporting on Soviet troop movements over Warsaw Pact held territory and instructed American pilots the skills of escape and evasion. As a Company Commander with the 10th Special Forces Group in Ulm, West Germany, he stood his ground, facing Soviet and East German combat troops poised to invade Western Europe during the tense days during the U2 spy plane incident and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

These are the memories of a man who had been a young Jewish boy in Central Poland. His 9th birthday came in mid July 1939. Less than two months later they are his memories of the Nazi era, from the very beginning of WWII until he was liberated by the Russians on the 8th May 1945. This age of death when Nazis attempted the absolute annihilation of all Jews in Europe regardless of age, character or gender, is now referred to as the Holocaust.These memories include those of his vibrant family life in Poland before the war. They are his homage and his memorial to his parents, his little sister and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins who were wiped out by the Nazis along with centuries of their culture.Arriving in the UK on 14th August 1945 he was in the first group of Concentration Camp child survivors brought into England at the invitation of King George VI. The story of these children's arrival and initial rehabilitation in the Lake District is told in the 2020 BBC film The Windermere Children.His memories conclude with some glimpses of his life immediately after liberation, and later when he was settled in the UK.From dozens of known relatives, he and his elder brother thought for a long time that they were the only family members to have survived from their town. Later they discovered there was a third survivor, an even younger cousin.The author married the Holocaust survivor of this memoir. He wanted the tale of how they met to be told and the book begins with this. All the material concerning life in Poland, life during the war and vignettes of post war life have simply been written down by the author. Everything was read and re-read by the survivor who felt that these recollections were true to what he remembered.