Author: United States. Army. Corps of Engineers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Air raid shelters
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Author: Victor Gregg
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 144821145X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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'Victor Gregg is the most remarkable spokesman for the war generation' Dan Snow In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut fictionalised his time as a prisoner of war in Dresden in 1945. Vonnegut was imprisoned in a cellar while the firestorm raged through the city, wiping out generations of innocent lives. Victor Gregg remained above ground throughout the firebombing. This is his true eyewitness account of that week in February 1945. Already a seasoned soldier with the Rifle Brigade, Gregg joined the 10th Parachute Regiment in 1944. He was captured at Arnhem where he volunteered to be sent to a work camp rather than become another faceless number in the huge POW camps. With two failed escape attempts under his belt, Gregg was eventually caught sabotaging a factory and sent to Dresden for execution. Before Gregg could be executed, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on Dresden in four air raids over two days in February 1945. The resulting firestorm destroyed six square miles of the city centre. 25,000 people, mostly civilians, were estimated to have been killed. Post-war discussion of whether or not the attacks were justified has led to the bombing becoming one of the moral questions of the Second World War. In Gregg's first-hand narrative, personal and punchy, he describes the trauma and carnage of the Dresden bombing. After the raid, he spent five days helping to recover a city of innocent civilians, thousands of whom had died in the fire storm, trapped underground in human ovens. As order was restored, his life was once more in danger and he escaped to the east, spending the last weeks of the war with the Russians.

Author: P. Joe Plant
Publisher: Paragon Publishing
ISBN: 1907611037
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Little, if anything, is known about Torpoint's passage through the years of World War II; in fact it is a time forgotten. This book goes some way to describe what actually did happen. It is not about one story, but about many individual stories, threaded together to record and validate one person's recollection together with others, to give a true account of the incident in question, which caused death and injuries to its civilian residents; also the fate of its servicemen who died in battle throughout the world. Due to censorship, the taking of photographs was not permitted. However, during research for the book, a few did come to light, including German Reconnaissance photos identifying Torpoint as a target and American GIs leaving on 1st June 1944 bound for the D-Day Landings - a truthful illustration of the times and incidents that did occur. This book also identifies a complete list of Torpoint's War fatalities, their courage, dedication and sense of sacrifice, which brought about their early demise. It is a chronicle of a short period in the town's history that students will learn from and that, for others, will hopefully rekindle lost family memories. "I can only congratulate Joe on a quite remarkable achievement. This book will provide a permanent insight to this and future generations of the dark days our predecessors had to endure, the contribution they made to eventual victory and the freedoms we enjoy today." Richard Carew Pole. Bt. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joe Plant was born in Crystal Palace London. During the London Blitz of March 1941 his family was bombed out so he has personal experience of being involved with incidents of falling bombs during the Blitz. He travelled north to Lancashire to seek refuge, returning before the end of the war to the devastation of London. In 1955 he was conscripted as a National Serviceman and served in Malaya during the Emergency (War). Demobed in 1957, in 1959 he married his wife Annette. From their marriage they have three children and seven grandchildren. In 1963 through a car accident Joe was was left partially sighted. He trained as a Design Draftsman, had to change his profession to become a Purchasing Manager, which took him to many foreign countries, before he was seconded to Devenport Dockyard in 1987. He moved to Torpoint where the family settled. In 1997, he became the Chairman of the re-formed Torpoint branch of the Royal British Legion.

Author: Mark Clapson
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
ISBN: 1911534491
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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The Blitz Companion offers a unique overview of a century of aerial warfare, its impact on cities and the people who lived in them. It tells the story of aerial warfare from the earliest bombing raids and in World War 1 through to the London Blitz and Allied bombings of Europe and Japan. These are compared with more recent American air campaigns over Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, the NATO bombings during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, and subsequent bombings in the aftermath of 9/11. Beginning with the premonitions and predictions of air warfare and its terrible consequences, the book focuses on air raids precautions, evacuation and preparations for total war, and resilience, both of citizens and of cities. The legacies of air raids, from reconstruction to commemoration, are also discussed. While a key theme of the book is the futility of many air campaigns, care is taken to situate them in their historical context. The Blitz Companion also includes a guide to documentary and visual resources for students and general readers. Uniquely accessible, comparative and broad in scope this book draws key conclusions about civilian experience in the twentieth century and what these might mean for military engagement and civil reconstruction processes once conflicts have been resolved.

Author: Brian Ladd
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9781900639286
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Berlin's traumatic past and vibrant present explored and explained in a guide to the culture, buildings and society of the city. Most people do not think of Berlin as a beautiful city, but it is filled with stunning sights, sounds and textures, all the more astonishing when the stories behind them are revealed. Today's Berlin is new and vibrant, but historyhas left its scars. A look in the right place is rewarded with glimpses of the glories of old Prussia as well as the abominations of Hitler's Third Reich and of the outer bulwark of the Soviet empire. Brian Ladd, a historian whohas been returning to Berlin for twenty-five years, pays homage to the familiar landmarks, but he also penetrates into obscure corners of the city and brings them alive with his shrewd and informed comment. He explains what the sights of Berlin have meant to Berliners who coped under kings and dictators, and who toiled, suffered and celebrated as their city was destroyed and rebuilt. This book invites you to share their passions as it draws you into the dynamic new capital that has risen from wreckage of post-war German history. BRIAN LADD is at the State University of New York at Albany. He has been a constant visitor to Berlin over a quarter of a century.

Author: Peter Marcuse
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1804294942
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In every major city in the world there is a housing crisis. How did this happen and what can we do about it? Everyone needs and deserves housing. But today our homes are being transformed into commodities, making the inequalities of the city ever more acute. Profit has become more important than social need. The poor are forced to pay more for worse housing. Communities are faced with the violence of displacement and gentrification. And the benefits of decent housing are only available for those who can afford it. In Defense of Housing is the definitive statement on this crisis from leading urban planner Peter Marcuse and sociologist David Madden. They look at the causes and consequences of the housing problem and detail the need for progressive alternatives. The housing crisis cannot be solved by minor policy shifts, they argue. Rather, the housing crisis has deep political and economic roots—and therefore requires a radical response.

Author: United States. War Department
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil defense
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Author: Stephen Wade
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783461330
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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This book features the design, creation and use of air raid shelters, including interviews with people who used them during the Second World War. The different types of bunkers/air raid shelters (both public and in peoples gardens) are covered and the strength and weakness of their designs discussed, using original designs and primary material. The nostalgia/social history of the book covers peoples experiences of staying in the air raid shelters. These are divided into topics, including getting to the shelters (how they reacted to the sirens or whether they just moved into the shelters, especially those in gardens, long-term), facilities, health issues, morale and safety, both real and perceived. In recent years, air raid shelters have been converted into different uses, including homes, and the book will finish with a brief chapter concerning the future and preservation of these once vital buildings.

Author: Jessica Francis Kane
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 1555970109
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A stunning first novel that is an evocative reimagining of a World War II civilian disaster On a March night in 1943, on the steps of London's Bethnal Green tube station, 173 people die in a crowd seeking shelter from what seemed to be another air raid. When the devastated neighborhood demands an inquiry, the job falls to magistrate Laurence Dunne. In this beautifully crafted novel, Jessica Francis Kane paints a vivid portrait of London at war. As Dunne investigates, he finds the truth to be precarious, even damaging. When he is forced to reflect on his report several decades later, he must consider whether the course he chose was the right one. The Report is a provocative commentary on the way all tragedies are remembered and endured.

Author: Sue Demont
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781916414204
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 49

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