Author: Jeremy A. Crang
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719047411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176
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Book Description
During the Second World War the British army absorbed approximately three million new recruits, the majority of whom were conscripts. Drawn from all occupational groups and social classes, the military authorities were confronted with the task of molding these civilians in uniform into an effective fighting force. This book analyzes the impact of this process of integration on the army as a social institution. Exploring such aspects of the army’s social organization as other rank selection, officer selection, officer promotion, officer-man relations, the soldier’s working life, army welfare, and army education, it assesses the ways in which the army changed in relation to its new intake, what the extent of any change that took place actually was, and how different the army of 1945 was to that of 1939.
Author: George Forty
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780753703328
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
Including a series of detailed appendices to support the main text, this volume presents a balanced and comprehensive account of the British Army's involvement in World War II.
Author: James Goulty
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473875064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 198
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Book Description
'What was it really like to serve in the British Army during the Second World War?Discover a soldier's view of life in the British Army from recruitment and training to the brutal realities of combat. Using first-hand sources, James Goulty reconstructs the experiences of the men and women who made up the 'citizen's army'. Find out about the weapons and equipment they used; the uniforms they wore; how they adjusted to army discipline and faced the challenges of active service overseas.What happened when things went wrong? What were your chances of survival if you were injured in combat or taken prisoner? While they didn't go into combat, thousands of women also served in the British Army with the ATS or as nurses. What were their wartime lives like? And, when the war had finally ended, how did newly demobilised soldiers and servicewomen cope with returning home?The British Army that emerged victorious in 1945 was vastly different from the poorly funded force of 865,000 men who heard Neville Chamberlain declare war in 1939. With an influx of civilian volunteers and conscripts, the army became a citizens force and its character and size were transformed. By D-Day Britain had a well-equipped, disciplined army of over three million men and women and during the war they served in a diverse range of places across the world. This book uncovers some of their stories and gives a fascinating insight into the realities of army life in wartime.
Author: Alan Allport
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300213123
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441
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Book Description
More than three-and-a-half million men served in the British Army during the Second World War, the vast majority of them civilians who had never expected to become soldiers and had little idea what military life, with all its strange rituals, discomforts, and dangers, was going to be like. Alan Allport’s rich and luminous social history examines the experience of the greatest and most terrible war in history from the perspective of these ordinary, extraordinary men, who were plucked from their peacetime families and workplaces and sent to fight for King and Country. Allport chronicles the huge diversity of their wartime trajectories, tracing how soldiers responded to and were shaped by their years with the British Army, and how that army, however reluctantly, had to accommodate itself to them. Touching on issues of class, sex, crime, trauma, and national identity, through a colorful multitude of fresh individual perspectives, the book provides an enlightening, deeply moving perspective on how a generation of very modern-minded young men responded to the challenges of a brutal and disorienting conflict.
Author: Alan Allport
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300170750
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441
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Book Description
More than three-and-a-half million men served in the British Army during the Second World War, the vast majority of them civilians who had never expected to become soldiers and had little idea what military life, with all its strange rituals, discomforts, and dangers, was going to be like. Alan Allport's rich and luminous social history examines the experience of the greatest and most terrible war in history from the perspective of these ordinary, extraordinary men, who were plucked from their peacetime families and workplaces and sent to fight for King and Country. Allport chronicles the huge diversity of their wartime trajectories, tracing how soldiers responded to and were shaped by their years with the British Army, and how that army, however reluctantly, had to accommodate itself to them. Touching on issues of class, sex, crime, trauma, and national identity, through a colorful multitude of fresh individual perspectives, the book provides an enlightening, deeply moving perspective on how a generation of very modern-minded young men responded to the challenges of a brutal and disorienting conflict.
Author: Malcolm A. Bellis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780854209996
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 145
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Book Description
Author: George Forty
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750951397
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244
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Book Description
To encapsulate the British Army in one book is no easy task, but here, George Forty presents it as it was during the Second World War. When war was declared in 1939, the British Army was very much the 'Cinderella' of the three armed services, with a total strength of around 865,000 men. However, just four years later when the Allies invaded north-west Europe, the British Army had grown into a powerful, well-organised and well-equipped fighting force of 3 million men and women. George Forty presents a comprehensive overview of the British Army during this important time. He includes full details of mobilisation and training, higher organisation and arms of the service; divisional organisations and non-divisional units; HQs and Staff; the combat arms and the services; the individual soldier, his weapons and equipment; tactics; vehicle markings and camouflage; the Auxiliary Territorial Service and other Women's Corps. Fully illustrated with an unusual collection of photographs and line illustrations, this is an indispensable reference guide for anyone interested in this fascinating period of British history.
Author: Martin Brayley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782001239
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178
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Book Description
The population of Britain was mobilized to support the war effort on a scale unseen in any other Western democracy – or in Nazi Germany. They endured long working shifts, shortages of food and all other goods, and complete government control of their daily lives. Most men and women were conscripted or volunteered for additional tasks outside their formal working hours. Under the air raids that destroyed the centres of many towns and made about 2 million homeless, more than 60,000 civilians were killed and 86,000 seriously injured. This fascinating illustrated summary of wartime life, and the organizations that served on the Home front, is a striking record of endurance and sacrifice.
Author: Martin Brayley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472804422
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Book Description
The Second World War was Britain's last conflict as a world power. For a year it saw Britain standing alone against the fascist dictatorships; winning it demanded the sacrifice of the entire national wealth. This first book of three describes the uniforms developed for European service. It traces the appearance of the 'Tommy' from pre-war mobilization, through the years of defeat and endurance, to D-Day and the long fighting advance to Northern Germany. The book also includes a campaign summary, infantry organization tables, lists of arms and services and basic specifications of a number of heavy weapons.
Author: Janet Macdonald
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526725363
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
During the Second World War, how were the multitude of items required by the soldiers in the front line selected, ordered and delivered, and how were they produced? In this the second volume in her detailed, scholarly study of the army’s logistical system, Janet Macdonald describes the necessity for central advanced planning for each expeditionary force as well as those engaged in home defence, and the complex organization of personnel who performed these tasks, from the government and military command in London to those who distributed the equipment on the battlefield. Armies have always required large amounts of material, but by the Second World War the numbers of men involved had grown exponentially, their equipment had become mechanized and their deployment was world wide. Elaborate planning and administration at every level had to ensure that items of all kinds were collected, transported and handed out in every theatre of the war. The scale of the operation was enormous and it had to be performed to critical timetables and was sometimes threatened by enemy action, and it was vital to the army’s success.
