The Race for the Rhine Bridges, 1940, 1944, 1945

The Race for the Rhine Bridges, 1940, 1944, 1945 PDF Author: Alexander McKee
Publisher: Pan
ISBN: 9780330240222
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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The Race for the Rhine Bridges, 1940, 1944, 1945

The Race for the Rhine Bridges, 1940, 1944, 1945 PDF Author: Alexander McKee
Publisher: Pan
ISBN: 9780330240222
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description


The Race for the Rhine Bridges

The Race for the Rhine Bridges PDF Author: Alexander McKee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780760723180
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Few World War II actions rival the dramatic battles for the bridges crossing the Rhine and its branches. In 1940, capture of the Arnhem, Nijmegen, and Maas-Waal crossings was the key to Germany's lightning conquest of the Netherlands; in 1944, the Allies' recapture of those bridges was vital to the planned invasion of north-western Germany and thrust into the Ruhr Valley industrial heartland. The strategy and execution of the Allies' airborne strikes are still debated because of their mixed results and high human costs. A participant in the 1945 battle for the Emmerich bridge, Alexander McKee provides an enthralling account of the 1940, 1944, and 1945 operations, all ambitious and innovative in their combinations of airpower and paratroop units with ground forces. He tellingly contrasts Germany's brilliant 1940 success at Arnhem, carried off with bravura against determined Dutch resistance, with the Allies' strategically costly failures in 1944 and their hard-won success in 1945, including the Remagen coup -the capture of an intact bridge that carried the Allied forces deep into Germany. McKee's account covers not only the foresights and flaws in planning and the successes and setbacks of execution, but also the intensity and horrors of battle.

The Race for the Rhine

The Race for the Rhine PDF Author: Alexander McKee
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 9780890834602
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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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.

An Encyclopaedia of World Bridges

An Encyclopaedia of World Bridges PDF Author: David McFetrich
Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport
ISBN: 1526794470
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 650

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Book Description
Bridges are one of the most important artefacts constructed by man, the structures having had an incalculable effect on the development of trade and civilisation throughout the world. Their construction has led to continuing advances in civil engineering technology, leading to bigger spans and the use of new materials. Their failures, too, whether from an inadequate understanding of engineering principles or as a result of natural catastrophes or warfare, have often caused immense hardship as a result of lost lives or broken communications. In this book, a sister publication to his earlier An Encyclopaedia of British Bridges (Pen & Sword 2019), David McFetrich gives brief descriptions of some 1200 bridges from more than 170 countries around the world. They represent a wide range of different types of structure (such as beam, cantilever, stayed and suspension bridges). Although some of the pictures are of extremely well-known structures, many are not so widely recognisable and a separate section of the book includes more than seventy lists of bridges with distinctly unusual characteristics in their design, usage and history.

The Race for the Rhine Bridges: 1940, 1944, 1945

The Race for the Rhine Bridges: 1940, 1944, 1945 PDF Author: Alexander McKee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
"The Rhine is Germany's main commercial highway, containing many of its major ports. In war, it is vital for the Germans to push an enemy to outflank the entire river barrier preparatory to taking the industrial target. During World War II, there were three great Rhine campaigns, the last which was the Allies' final push for the victory and the Germans' last hope of resistance. The soldiers who went forward to the attack of counterattack--or who dropped from the skies--were of many nationalities: Dutch, French, German, British, Canadian, and American. As the Germans lost ground, the ineveitable order to blow the bridges behind them came. Hitler ordered that any officer who failed to blow a bridge in time was to be shot. But he complicated the difficult decision by adding that anyone who blew a Rhine bridge too early was also to be shot." -- Taken from dust jacket.

Green Light!: A Troop Carrier Squadron's War From Normandy to the Rhine

Green Light!: A Troop Carrier Squadron's War From Normandy to the Rhine PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428915311
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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The Bridge at Remagen

The Bridge at Remagen PDF Author: Ken Hechler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780929521794
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Presents the story of the day that Allied forces crossed over the Rhine River during the last days of World War II and of the men of the U.S. 9th Armored Division who captured it.

Reader's Guide to Military History

Reader's Guide to Military History PDF Author: Charles Messenger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135959706
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 985

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Book Description
This book contains some 600 entries on a range of topics from ancient Chinese warfare to late 20th-century intervention operations. Designed for a wide variety of users, it encompasses general reviews of aspects of military organization and science, as well as specific wars and conflicts. The book examines naval and air warfare, as well as significant individuals, including commanders, theorists, and war leaders. Each entry includes a listing of additional publications on the topic, accompanied by an article discussing these publications with reference to their particular emphases, strengths, and limitations.

Hitler's Volkssturm

Hitler's Volkssturm PDF Author: David K. Yelton
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700611924
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Pressed by advancing enemy armies on both fronts, Adolf Hitler played his final card in World War II by mobilizing all German civilian males between sixteen and sixty and indoctrinating them for a final apocalyptic defense of the Reich. The Volkssturm, created as much to boost national morale as to bolster sagging defenses, has been viewed as a negligible factor in the war. David Yelton counters that view with new insights into why the German high command sought this means to prolong an unwinnable war-and why so many civilians chose to fight to the bitter end. Hitler's Volkssturm is the only book in English-and the most comprehensive in any language-on the German militia, illuminating its role and contributions to the Nazi war effort and shedding new light on the last days of the Third Reich. It examines the militia's strategic purpose, organization, training, and combat performance on both war fronts and explores factors contributing to its sporadic tactical successes and its overall failure. Yelton reveals why the Nazi leadership chose to assemble such last-ditch units rather than negotiating for peace and also why civilians in these units were more than willing to serve. The Volkssturm was, in fact, part of a broader, ideologically based strategy intended to turn the tide of the war. Yelton tracks the impact of this ideology on Nazi decision-making throughout the war's final year and illustrates how ideological assumptions were often a major reason for the failure of Nazi policies and strategies. In an unprecedented examination of the Volkssturm at the local level, Yelton also shows the negative impact of national power struggles and demonstrates how the Wehrmacht, industry, and public opinion exerted influence on the militia in ways often contrary to its official objectives. His extensive and insightful analysis illuminates German mobilization priorities, reveals that a substantial number of its commanders had experience in both the military and the Nazi Party, and clarifies the impact of Volkssturm mobilizations on the overall German war economy. Pathbreaking in both scope and depth, Hitler's Volkssturm stresses the factional lines and conflicting centers of power within the Nazi bureaucracy, clarifies policy formulation and implementation in the late Third Reich, and assesses the shifting power relationships among various groups and individuals. Ultimately, it gives us a more complete portrait of the Third Reich during the final phase of a devastating war and conveys important lessons about the use of militia forces in modern warfare.