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Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755364503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
This ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book. Doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. VICTORIA CROSS HEROES tells the stories of over 150 individuals whose bravery has earned them the Victoria Cross, Britain's most prestigious medal for courage in action. The book is introduced by Michael Ashcroft, who owns over ten per cent of all VCs ever awarded. He explains the history of the medal and the story of his fascination with it. The main text of the book tells the stories of both those recipients whose medals are in his collection and those whose stories featured in the television series. Each chapter covers a different conflict, from the Crimean War to Iraq.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755364503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
This ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book. Doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. VICTORIA CROSS HEROES tells the stories of over 150 individuals whose bravery has earned them the Victoria Cross, Britain's most prestigious medal for courage in action. The book is introduced by Michael Ashcroft, who owns over ten per cent of all VCs ever awarded. He explains the history of the medal and the story of his fascination with it. The main text of the book tells the stories of both those recipients whose medals are in his collection and those whose stories featured in the television series. Each chapter covers a different conflict, from the Crimean War to Iraq.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1785901400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
Foreword by Lance-Sergeant Johnson Beharry VC THE VICTORIA CROSS is Britain and the Commonwealth's most prestigious gallantry medal for courage in the face of the enemy. It has been bestowed upon 1,355 heroic individuals from all walks of life since its creation during the Crimean War. Lord Ashcroft, who has been fascinated with bravery since he was a young boy, now owns 200 VCs, by far the largest collection of its kind in the world. Following on from the bestselling Victoria Cross Heroes, first published in 2006 to mark the 150th anniversary of the award, Victoria Cross Heroes: Volume II gives extraordinary accounts of the bravery behind the newest additions to Lord Ashcroft's VC collection - those decorations purchased in the last decade. With nearly sixty action-packed stories of courageous soldiers, sailors and airmen from a range of global conflicts including the Indian Mutiny of 1857-58, the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 and the First and Second World Wars, this book is a powerful testament to the strength of the human spirit and a worthy tribute to the servicemen who earned the Victoria Cross. Their inspirational deeds of valour and self-sacrifice should be championed and never forgotten.
Author: The Imperial War Museum
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781849083898
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The Victoria and George Crosses are the highest military and civil decorations of the United Kingdom, awarded for gallantry. The Victoria Cross, introduced in 1856, is awarded to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries for valour in the face of the enemy, while the George Cross was introduced during World War II so that civilians could also be awarded for acts of heroism, or conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger. There have been 1,356 Victoria Crosses awarded, and there have been 404 recipients of the George Cross since 1940. The Imperial War Museum is opening the Lord Ashcroft Gallery in November 2010 to showcase not only their large collection of Victoria and George crosses, but also Lord Ashcroft's collection, which he has loaned to the Museum for 10 years. The gallery will therefore contain the largest collection of VCs and GCs in the world. The museum envisages around 150,000 visitors a year. This fully illustrated book contains the stories of over 80 recipients: a mixture of individuals - including men, women and children from different countries - who performed their acts of heroism across the last century and a half.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1785907158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
The Falklands War, which may prove to be the last 'colonial' war that Britain ever fights, took place in 1982. Fought 8,000 miles from home soil, it cost the lives of 255 British military personnel, with many more wounded, some seriously. The war also witnessed many acts of outstanding courage by the UK Armed Forces after a strong Task Force was sent to regain the islands from the Argentine invaders. Soldiers, sailors and airmen risked, and in some cases gave, their lives for the freedom of 1,820 islanders. Lord Ashcroft, who has been fascinated by bravery since he was a young boy, has amassed several medal collections over the past four decades, including the world's largest collection of Victoria Crosses, Britain and the Commonwealth's most prestigious gallantry award. Falklands War Heroes tells the stories behind his collection of valour and service medals awarded for the Falklands War. The collection, almost certainly the largest of its kind in the world, spans all the major events of the war. This book, which contains nearly forty individual write-ups, has been written to mark the fortieth anniversary of the war. It is Lord Ashcroft's attempt to champion the outstanding bravery of our Armed Forces during an undeclared war that was fought and won over ten weeks in the most challenging conditions.
Author: Robert Hamilton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781909242425
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The Victoria Cross had been in existence over 60 years when Archduke Franz Ferdinand fell to an assassins bullet, the event that triggered a Europe-wide call to arms in August 1914. It was an award that democratised military honours, for it was open to all ranks, the sole qualification being a display of conspicuous bravery in the field. The sovereign whose name it bore was personally responsible for the Crosss simple legend: For Valour. Forged, it is said, from cannons captured during the Crimean War, the medals were rather too plain for some tastes. The Times derided the VC as a dull, heavy, tasteless prize when the first investiture ceremony took place in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857. But its virtue, quite deliberately, lay in its very simplicity. It was the action for which the medal was given that should dazzle, not the decoration itself. The Victoria Cross became pre-eminent: first in line when pinned to a uniform or appended to a recipients name. Over 500 VCs had been awarded by the outbreak of the First World War. That figure more than doubled during the four-year-long conflict. Trench warfare, when the rival camps might be dug in less than 100 yards apart, afforded endless opportunities to show courage and mettle in the face of the enemy. Many were honoured for attacking feats, often taking the fight to the foe when the odds were stacked against survival. But hurling oneself into the fray was but one of valours many faces. Stretcher-bearers, medical staff, pipers and chaplains also showed the same strength in adversity, the same disregard for personal safety, the same willingness to exceed the call of duty. And, in over 180 instances, a readiness to make the ultimate sacrifice for King and Country. The call to act could come at any moment. In William McFadzeans case it came when the safety pins slipped from two grenades in a crowded trench just before the Somme battle. He flung himself onto the bombs, saving his comrades at the cost of his own life. For Rex Warneford it came in the skies over Ghent on 7 June 1915, when he became the first man to down a German airship in flight. He was thrown from his plane during a flight ten days later. For Jack Cornwell it came during the Battle of Jutland, when, mortally wounded, he stuck doggedly to his post awaiting orders. He was 16 years old. This book chronicles the inspiring, thrilling, humbling and deeply moving stories behind the 628 Victoria Crosses awarded during the course of the Great War. Without inscription, those 628 medals, like all the others cast by London jewelers, Hancocks over the past century and a half, would have no intrinsic worth. Once earned, inscribed and conferred, they assume inestimable value.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755363914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349
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Book Description
Since the dawn of aerial combat in the First World War, the heroism of the men who put their lives at risk in the air has known no bounds. There were no more heroic airmen than the fighter pilots and bomber crews of the Second World War - men who sacrificed their own lives in order to save their crew or who, although in extreme pain, managed to get their aircraft home rather than risk becoming PoWs. In telling the stories of more than eighty such men, Heroes of the Skies paints a picture of aerial combat from the First World War right through to Afghanistan, and allows us to celebrate the extraordinary feats of our flying heroes.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 075536452X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301
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Book Description
This ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book; but doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. In a broadcast to the nation in September 1940 King George VI announced the institution of the George Cross - a civilian equivalent of the Victoria Cross awarded to recognize the many acts of supreme gallantry being performed outside of the battlefield. From Thomas Alderson, the first recipient of the medal, who heroically rescued several people from trapped houses during one terrible Blitz night, to Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, who threw himself onto a live grenade in the Helmand province to save the lives of his comrades (and somehow survived), to Barbara Harrison, an air stewardess who died in 1968 after helping many passengers escape from an onboard fire, this book tells the amazing stories of everyone of the George Cross's 159 direct recipients. GEORGE CROSS HEROES pays tribute to the extraordinary courage displayed by so many of the commonwealth's men and women in so many incredible situations over the last 70 years.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1785904191
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262
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Book Description
FOREWORD BY GENERAL SIR MIKE JACKSON After the pain of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is hard to imagine the UK being drawn into another war. Defence chiefs warn that there is a real prospect of future conflict, but they have struggled to persuade most politicians to take them seriously. Our leaders have concluded there are no votes in defence, and have progressively run down the armed forces. Today, the army is at its smallest since the Napoleonic Wars; the RAF is less than half its size twenty five years ago, and the Royal Navy will struggle to muster the ships and weapons required to protect our new aircraft carriers. Is there really a risk of war? Is our military less capable and, if so, what could that mean for our future? White Flag? explains what has happened to our armed forces in recent years and asks whether their decline endangers our safety and prosperity.
Author: Michael Ashcroft
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755364511
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
This ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book. Doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. This book tells the stories of forty heroes, all awarded bravery medals for their conduct during Special Forces missions over the last 150 years. Often covert hit-and-run operations involving very small numbers of highly skilled men, those who partake in these missions know that their goals involve a high level of risk. They are men who would die for their country, no questions asked. With many incredible stories, particularly from the Second World War, including the Cockleshell Heroes, and other conflicts from the twentieth century, such as the Iranian Embassy siege, this collection of real-life action adventure brings the bravery of Britain's heroes to life. Every medal in Lord Ashcroft's extensive collection tells a story and these are some of the most thrilling.
Author: Glyn Harper
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1775490874
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Profiles in courage - the definitive history of the Victoria Cross and New Zealand, fully updated in this new edition. For 150 years the highest Commonwealth military decoration for gallantry has been the Victoria Cross. These are the extraordinary stories of the New Zealand VCs. Since its instigation in 1856 more than 40 Victoria Crosses have been awarded to men whose courage in the face of the enemy was recognised by their comrades. Acts of Valour tells the story of each one, from the New Zealand Wars to the Second World War and the modern battlefields of Afghanistan in the 21st century. Many more were nominated for a VC than ever received it, with some of those famously declined — Malone of Chunuk Bair, Manahi, Perkins and Stott — igniting controversy that continues today. The events, politics and philosophies of this exclusive award are examined by two leading military historians — each story powerful and unique, with compelling accounts of the battles that made our nation and forged our history. Informative, exciting and provocative, Acts of Valour presents a detailed insight into our military history — and the heroes who walked amongst us, right up to Corporal Willie Apiata, the most recent recipient of the VC, in 2007. Fully revised and updated for the pivotal centennial anniversaries of WWI.
