Mutiny at Salerno

Mutiny at Salerno PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher: Potomac Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
On 20 September 1943, almost 200 members of the crack 50th (Tyne Tees) and 51st (Highland) Divisions were arrested for refusing repeated orders to join unfamiliar units fighting at the blood-soaked Salerno beachhead.

Mutiny at Salerno

Mutiny at Salerno PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher: Potomac Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
On 20 September 1943, almost 200 members of the crack 50th (Tyne Tees) and 51st (Highland) Divisions were arrested for refusing repeated orders to join unfamiliar units fighting at the blood-soaked Salerno beachhead.

Grampy's War

Grampy's War PDF Author: Colin Simmons
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1445229358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
As with most people of his generation, Fred Britt didn't really mention the war unless he was with fellow veterans. But when Colin Simmons found 20 hours of tapes that Fred had recorded of his experiences, after he died, 'I thought it would be nice if people could hear and read about his experiences, the story of the common man. On the tapes my Grandad asks if one of his grandchildren could do something with them. I had no idea what he did during the war. By doing this I am ensuring that his name and what he went through has not been forgotten.' Fred served with them through his training in the UK, over to Africa (at the end of El Alamein), the Invasion of Pantelleria, Sicily, & Italy, including the battles of the River Sangro, and Anzio. When Victory over Europe was declared he was then dispatched to Africa to begin training for the invasion of Japan. When that was averted he was then sent to the Middle East and was involved in the Palestine War. He returned to his family in Portsmouth in 1946.

Durban 1942

Durban 1942 PDF Author: G. R. Rubin
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781852850807
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
On 13 January 1942 hundreds of army and air force servicemen due to sail from Durban on the British troopship City of Canterbury refused to board the vessel in defiance of their commanders and of the British Military and Naval authorities in South Africa. Gerry Rubin sees this unusual and dramatic incident in the round. Besides examining the legal case itself, its precedents and its outcome, he looks at both the human factors involved and at the wider background. In so doing he deals with a little-mentioned aspect of the war but one familiar to hundreds of thousands of servicemen: the journey by troopship via the Cape to the Middle and Far East.

The Savage Storm

The Savage Storm PDF Author: James Holland
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802161057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
Acclaimed WWII historian James Holland both narrates and reframes the controversial first months of the Italian Campaign and sets a new standard in the chronicling of war Following victory in Sicily, while the central command planned the spring 1944 invasion of France, Allied troops crossed into southern Italy in September 1943, expecting to drive Axis forces north and liberate Rome by Christmas. Italy quickly surrendered but German divisions fiercely resisted, and the hoped-for quick victory descended into one of the most challenging and protracted battles of the entire war. James Holland’s The Savage Storm, chronicling the dramatic opening months of the Italian Campaign in unflinching and insightful detail, is unlike any campaign history yet written. Holland has always narrated war at ground level, but here goes further by chronicling events almost entirely through the contemporary eyes of those who were there on all sides and at all levels—Allied, Axis, civilians alike. Weaving together a wealth of letters, diaries, and other documents—from the likes of American General Mark Clark, German battalion commander Georg Zellner, New Zealand lance-corporal Roger Smith, legendary war reporter Ernie Pyle, and Italian politician Filippo Caracciolo—Holland traces the battles as they were experienced across plains, over mountains, through shattered villages and cities, in intense heat and, towards the end of December 1943, frigid cold and relentless rain. Such close-up views persuade Holland to recast important aspects of the campaign, reappraising the reputation of Mark Clark himself and other senior commanders of the U.S. Fifth and British Eighth armies. Given the shortage of Allied shipping and materiel allocated to Italy because of the build-up for D-Day, more was expected of Allied troops in Italy than anywhere else, and, as accounts at the time attest, a huge price was paid by everyone for each bloodily contested mile. Putting readers vividly in the moment as events unfolded, with characters made unforgettable by their own words, The Savage Storm is a defining account of the pivotal months leading to Monte Cassino, and a landmark in the writing about war.

An Unpatriotic History of the Second World War

An Unpatriotic History of the Second World War PDF Author: James Heartfield
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1780993781
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
The Second World War was not the 'Good War' of legend. James Heartfield explains that both Allies and Axis powers fought for the same goals - territory, markets and natural resources.

Gunners from the Sky

Gunners from the Sky PDF Author: Paul Chrystal
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399088092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
This is the story of the 1st Air Landing Light Regiment RA and its role in the Italian campaign and at the Battle of Arnhem. It is also the story of one of its soldiers: 14283058 Gunner Eric Wright Chrystal, father of the authors. Eric joined the army in September 1942 and, after training, joined the newly formed glider-borne regiment the following year. He first saw action in Italy in 1943, where he was seriously wounded. On 17 September 1944, two years to the day since he enlisted, he and the regiment were landed by glider near to Arnhem in the Netherlands. The authors recount set their father’s experiences in context by describing the formation of the unit and the many months of training in England. Their involvement in the Italian campaign, where Eric served with E Troop, 3 Battery, is then recounted, detailing their actions at Rionero, Foggia and Campobasso, where Eric was wounded. It then moves on to describe 1st Air Landing Light Regiment’s preparation for and involvement in Operation Market (the Airborne half of Market Garden). This very detailed account of the fighting highlights the regiment’s pivotal (but often neglected) role near Arnhem bridge. Here, after nine days of intense combat, Eric was among the many captured and held until the end of the war. The inclusion of Eric’s own eyewitness testimony lends a very personal touch to this excellent account of the regiment’s experience of combat and life in the PoW camps.

Soldier, Sailor, Beggarman, Thief

Soldier, Sailor, Beggarman, Thief PDF Author: Clive Emsley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199653712
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The first serious investigation of criminal offending by members of the British armed forces both during and immediately after the two world wars of the twentieth century.

Conscription in Britain, 1939-1964

Conscription in Britain, 1939-1964 PDF Author: Roger Broad
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780714657011
Category : Draft
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Compulsory military service in Britain can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times, but it was only in the twentieth century that it became universal. Conscription occurred during both world wars with a total of eight million men in total being conscripted into the army, navy and air forces, and after the end of the Second World War compulsory service continued for another eighteen years to meet overseas commitments and under the threat of the Cold War. Conscription in Britain 1939-1963 outlines the historical record of conscription from the fyrd of the Dark Ages, through to Nelson's day and up to and including the First World War. The book goes on to concentrate on conscription during the Second World War and National Service which continued in the decades afterwards. The strategic and political considerations that governed British military recruitment in the period 1939-1963 are described and analyzed. Individual experiences in the services are examined, putting human flesh on the strategic and political skeleton. The book looks at aspects of conscription including the demands made on the services, how officers and men were selected and trained, and how discipline was imposed. The years following the Second World War are also investigated, considering the effect of twenty four years continuous conscription on the services themselves; on women's rights; on attitudes towards authority and patriotism; on race issues and on the breakout of individualism in the 1960s.

Blood, Sweat, and Toil

Blood, Sweat, and Toil PDF Author: Geoffrey G. Field
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191623555
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Blood, Sweat, and Toil is the first scholarly history of the British working class in the Second World War. It integrates social, political, and labour history, and reflects the most recent scholarship and debates on social class, gender, and the forging of identities. Geoffrey Field examines the war's impact on workers in the varied contexts of the family, military service, the workplace, local communities, and the nation. Extensively researched, using official documents, diaries and letters, the records of trade unions and numerous other institutions, Blood, Sweat, and Toil traces the rapid growth of trade unionism, joint consultation, and strike actions in the war years. It also analyses the mobilization of women into factories and the uniformed services and the lives of men conscripted into the army, showing how these experiences shaped their aspirations and their social and political attitudes. Previous studies of the Home Front have analysed the lives of civilians, but they have neglected the importance of social class in defining popular experience and its centrality in public attitudes, official policy, and the politics of the war years. Contrary to accounts that view the war as eroding class divisions and creating a new sense of social unity in Britain, Field argues that the 1940s was a crucial decade in which the deeply fragmented working class of the interwar decades was 'remade', achieving new collective status, power, and solidarity. Employing a contingent, non-teleological conception of class identity and indicating the plural and shifting mix of factors that contributed to workers' social consciousness, he criticizes recent revisionist scholarship that has downplayed the significance of class in British society.

Mutiny at Salerno, 1943: an Injustice Exposed

Mutiny at Salerno, 1943: an Injustice Exposed PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781729248195
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
'A detailed account... David is right to stress that the mutiny stemmed from the men's reluctance to fight amongst strangers rather than their reluctance to fight at all, and that many of the mutineers preserved a dignified and soldierly attitude throughout the proceedings.' Richard Holmes, TLS In late September 1943, almost 200 veterans of General Montgomery's Eighth Army were arrested for refusing repeated orders to join units of the US Fifth Army at the Salerno beachhead in southern Italy. Within six weeks, all but one had been found guilty of mutiny, their sentences ranging from five years' penal servitude to death. Fifty years on, Saul David became the first military historian to gain access to the court martial papers - normally restricted for 75 years. In addition to crucial defence documents and the testimony of eye-witnesses, these papers have enabled Saul David to expose: How poorly-equipped Eighth Army veterans, some still recovering from wounds and illness, were needlessly sent as reinforcements to Salerno when Fifth Army men were available. How transit camp authorities deliberately deceived the reinforcements as to their destination. How the defence team at the trial was forced, by lack of time, lack of witnesses and the hostility of the court, to offer a case based on no evidence and doomed to fail. How, after the humane intervention of the adjutant-general and the suspension of the sentences, insensitive staff officers and victimization in their new units caused many mutineers to desert. How, as a result of their convictions, the former war heroes were stripped of their campaign and gallantry medals and branded as cowards. Concluding that the men were victims of a terrible injustice, Mutiny at Salerno provides a compelling case for a free pardon. It is a book that no one interested in World War Two will want to miss. 'Mutiny' has been critically acclaimed: 'An important book' (Military Illustrated) 'Mr David has added considerably to the knowledge of the Salerno mutiny. This book should be read by anyone with an interest in the episode.' (Prof. Peter Rowe,RUSI Journal) 'A thoroughly enjoyable and interesting book and the author makes his case well' (Journal of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) Saul David is Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham and the author of several critically acclaimed history books, including The Indian Mutiny: 1857 (short-listed for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature), Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency, Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 (a Waterstones Military History Book of the Year) and, most recently, Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire.He has also written two best-selling historical novels set in the wars of the late 19th Century, Zulu Hart and Hart of Empire. An experienced broadcaster, he has presented and appeared in history programmes for all the major TV channels and is a regular contributor to Radio 4.