With Recce at Arnhem

With Recce at Arnhem PDF Author: Mike Gallagher
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473869161
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
Determined to 'do his bit' Des Evans absconded from a reserved occupation and joined the newly formed Reconnaissance Corps. He saw action in North Africa and Italy before being evacuated back to England with pneumonia in early 1944. Fully recovered he volunteered as a wireless operator with 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron and after parachute training joined C Troop before the ill-fated but glorious attempt to seize the Rhine Bridge at Arnhem.Des vividly describes the intense action that followed the drop. Ambushed twice and badly wounded he was made a POW and eventually succeeded in escaping.Fresh first-hand accounts of the bitter fighting at Arnhem are rare indeed and this one is brutally honest, at times shockingly so. Des Evans was born in Liverpool in 1923. Despite being in a Reserve Occupation he finally succeeded in joining the Army. This book covers his wartime service in North Africa, Italy and at Arnhem. Post war he served in Italy, Palestine, Germany and the Suez Canal Zone. Cuckolded by his first wife he was convicted of the manslaughter of her lover. On release from prison he met Betty and they enjoyed nearly 40 years together until dementia necessitated residential care. Betty died in March 2010 and Des followed her three months later.

With Recce at Arnhem

With Recce at Arnhem PDF Author: Mike Gallagher
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473869161
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
Determined to 'do his bit' Des Evans absconded from a reserved occupation and joined the newly formed Reconnaissance Corps. He saw action in North Africa and Italy before being evacuated back to England with pneumonia in early 1944. Fully recovered he volunteered as a wireless operator with 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron and after parachute training joined C Troop before the ill-fated but glorious attempt to seize the Rhine Bridge at Arnhem.Des vividly describes the intense action that followed the drop. Ambushed twice and badly wounded he was made a POW and eventually succeeded in escaping.Fresh first-hand accounts of the bitter fighting at Arnhem are rare indeed and this one is brutally honest, at times shockingly so. Des Evans was born in Liverpool in 1923. Despite being in a Reserve Occupation he finally succeeded in joining the Army. This book covers his wartime service in North Africa, Italy and at Arnhem. Post war he served in Italy, Palestine, Germany and the Suez Canal Zone. Cuckolded by his first wife he was convicted of the manslaughter of her lover. On release from prison he met Betty and they enjoyed nearly 40 years together until dementia necessitated residential care. Betty died in March 2010 and Des followed her three months later.

Surgeon at Arms

Surgeon at Arms PDF Author: Lipmann Kessel
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783830506
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Surgeon at Arms is without doubt one of the most interesting and dramatic personal memoirs to come out of the Second World War. The author, a surgeon, was parachuted into Arnhem with the First Airborne Division. His professional skill was at once tested to the limit and the modest detachment with which he describes serious operations performed under appalling conditions would alone be enough to merit the reissue of the book. But of equal significance is the authors account of his unceasing efforts to stop the Germans evacuating the hospital, a struggle which must inevitably be seen against his Jewish background. Add to this the authors hair-raising escape and the heroism of the Dutch Resistance and you have all the ingredients of a truly remarkable book.The flame of Arnhem has lately been rekindled by Cornelius Ryans book and the thirtieth anniversary ceremonies. But Ryan was an historian; Kessel was a participant; and it is only through the eyes of the participants that the reader can honestly assess the validity of the historians viewpoint. Lipmann Kessels book has lost nothing of its freshness or its drama in the thirty years since the events it describes took place. Now republished after being unavailable for many years, it warmly deserves to find a new generation of readers.

The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II

The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II PDF Author: Richard Doherty
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781846031229
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Osprey's study of Britain's Reconnaisance Corps of World War II (1939-1945). Either creeping through the landscape or mounted in armored cars and Bren carriers, Reconnaissance Regiments became a vital addition to all British infantry divisions. After the disastrous defeat in France in 1940, at the hands of German forces with strong recce units mounted in light armored vehicles, the Bartholomew Committee called for the formation of a British equivalent. This was achieved by forming the new elite Reconnaissance Corps.Their spearhead role meant that they were consistently at the forefront of all dramatic action, and most famously served with the 1st and 6th Airborne at Arnhem and with the Chindits in Burma.Within every theater of war, ranging from the jungles to the deserts, the Reconnaissance Corps made a critical contribution to the Allied war effort. However, with the disbandment of the Corps at the end of the war, their record has been unjustly forgotten.With a selection of rare and unpublished frontline photographs taken from private collections, this fascinating new insight into a forgotten elite unit of the British Army recounts the experiences of those soldiers who operated ahead of the army throughout the course of the war.

Churchill's Spaniards

Churchill's Spaniards PDF Author: Séan F Scullion
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804516937
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
Unveils the untold story of over a thousand Spanish Republicans who joined the British Army to continue their fight against fascism during WWII. Very little, if anything at all, has been told about the service of over one thousand Spanish Republicans who volunteered to join the British Army during the Second World War. Churchill’s Spaniards remedies this and tells their story, men who were ‘continuing the fight’ against fascism from 1939 to 1946. Churchill’s Spaniards is not the story of the Spanish Civil War, nor the equally well-known one of the International Brigades. It is the story – against the backdrop of Churchill’s efforts to keep Spain out of the war – of the recruitment, training and deployment of often battle-hardened Spanish Republicans into the service of the United Kingdom. These fighting men served widely across British Armed Forces: as members of the elite SAS and Commandos, in the ranks of the Infantry and of the Pioneer Corps and as members of the Special Operations Executive. Further Spaniards fought in almost all of the battles and campaigns in the West from the Fall of France and the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, to the campaigns in North Africa and Italy, as well as those in North-West Europe. Using a wide range of material from Britain, France and Spain as well as previously unpublished eyewitness and official accounts along with groundbreaking new research, Séan Scullion finally tells the story of these previously overlooked men.

Arnhem 1944

Arnhem 1944 PDF Author: Martin Middlebrook
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0811708268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
* Exciting overview of the World War II battle made famous by the classic movie and book A Bridge Too Far * Boots-on-the-ground story of British paratroopers fighting off Germans in Holland during Operation Market Garden * Masterly analysis of why the operation failed * Draws from the personal experiences of more than 500 participants * Written by an accomplished military historianMartin Middlebrook has written numerous works of military history, including the classic The First Day on the Somme (978-1-84415-465-4). He lives in England

Blood and Steel 2

Blood and Steel 2 PDF Author: Donald E. Graves
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1848328516
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Overwhelmed by the strength of the Allied air and ground forces, following the D-Day landings and subsequent bitter fighting in Normandy, the Germans were compelled to abandon their efforts to hold France and much of the Low Countries and retreat to the Rhine.??The Wehrmacht Archive helps reveal the experience of German soldiers and armed forces personnel as they withdrew through a remarkable collection of translated original orders, diaries, letters, after-action reports and other documentation. ??The book also draws upon Allied technical evaluations of weapons, vehicles and equipment, as well as transcripts of prisoner of war interrogations. The reader will learn from official documents about the Germans' efforts to cope with Allied air and artillery superiority, create new tactical methods for all arms and maintain discipline in the face of superior numbers.

1st Airborne

1st Airborne PDF Author: Simon Forty
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612005411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
“An interesting introductory read . . . [on] this infamous ‘bridge too far’ division” in the series that brings World War II battles to life (Classic Military Vehicle). After being held in reserve during the battle of Normandy and spending three months waiting for action, 1st Airborne played a leading role in Operation Market—the air component of Operation Market Garden, an audacious attempt by the Allies to bypass the Siegfried Line and advance into the Ruhr in September 1944. It was to be 1st Airborne’s last action of the war. Encountering more resistance than expected, including II SS Panzer Corps, the division landed too far from Arnhem bridge, and fought bravely but in vain. Held up en route, particularly at Nijmegen, XXX Corps’ advance to Arnhem stuttered and ran late. After nine days of fighting, 1st Airborne had lost 8,000 men around Arnhem when the survivors retreated across the Lower Rhine to safety. During those nine days, however, they had created a legend: first as the small unit under Lt-Col John Frost held the “bridge too far” and then as the Oosterbeek perimeter came under sustained attack waiting for XXX Corps to arrive. The Past & Present Series reconstructs historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link between now and then.

Arnhem

Arnhem PDF Author: Robert Jackson
Publisher: Airlife Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
On September 17th, 1944, three Allied airborne divisions - two American, one British, totaling 30,000 men - landed at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem in Holland. Their task was to lay an 'airborne carpet' across Holland to the Rhine, seizing vital bridges and opening up a route for an advance into northern Germany by the British Second Army. This book covers all aspects of that massive operation, which was code-named "Market Garden" and deals with the German side as well as the British and American. Above all, it tells of the epic and heroic stand of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, where the paratroops fought against increasingly hopeless odds for nine days. They were supposed to have held on for only two, until the ground offensive reached them. It never did.

Bash On, Recce!

Bash On, Recce! PDF Author: Lorne E. Stephen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description


Tony's war

Tony's war PDF Author: Britta von Zweigbergk
Publisher: Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Pu
ISBN: 9781843862918
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
These 'British Isles' of ours are populated by people who originate from throughout the world; from North, South, East and West. Individually, or as family groups, they will have come to start a new life; to escape from persecution, hunger or despair. It is our strength because somehow we learn to adapt ourselves to meet our own, and other's needs, no matter how daunting they may be. Tony and Nita Zweigbergk learned to do just that during their, very different, childhood and teenage years. Then they met and fell in love. Then along came World War II. We are privileged to share these experiences, plus by reading between the lines we are able to share the boredom, depression, comradeship, fun, fear and sorrow that became the life of those who lived 'on the edge of life and death' to ensure our precious freedom.