Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp

Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp PDF Author: Douglas E. Nash
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612003052
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
As the Allies were approaching the German frontier at the beginning of September 1944, the German Armed Forces responded with a variety of initiatives designed to regain the strategic initiative. While the "Wonder Weapons" such as the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 missile and the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter are widely recognized as being the most prominent of these initiatives upon which Germany pinned so much hope, the Volks-Grenadier Divisions (VGDs) are practically unknown. Often confused with the Volkssturm, the Home Guard militia, VGDs have suffered an undeserved reputation as second-rate formations, filled with young boys and old men suited to serve only as cannon fodder. This groundbreaking book, now reappearing as a new edition, shows that VGDs were actually conceived as a new, elite corps loyal to the National Socialist Party composed of men from all branches of Hitler's Wehrmacht and equipped with the finest ground combat weapons available. Whether fighting from defensive positions or spearheading offensives such as the Battle of the Bulge, VGDs initially gave a good account of themselves in battle. Using previously unpublished unit records, Allied intelligence and interrogation reports and above all interviews with survivors, the author has crafted an in-depth look at a late-war German infantry company, including many photographs from the veterans themselves. In this book we follow along with the men of the 272nd VGD's Fusilier Company from their first battles in the Huertgen Forest to their final defeat in the Harz Mountains. Along the way we learn the enormous potential of VGDs . . . and feel their soldiers' heartbreak at their failure. Among Douglas NashÕs previous works is HellÕs Gate: The Battle for the Cherkassy Pocket, January-February 1944, a work unsurpassed for insight into the other side of the hill in WWII.

Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp

Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp PDF Author: Douglas E. Nash
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612003052
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

Get Book

Book Description
As the Allies were approaching the German frontier at the beginning of September 1944, the German Armed Forces responded with a variety of initiatives designed to regain the strategic initiative. While the "Wonder Weapons" such as the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 missile and the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter are widely recognized as being the most prominent of these initiatives upon which Germany pinned so much hope, the Volks-Grenadier Divisions (VGDs) are practically unknown. Often confused with the Volkssturm, the Home Guard militia, VGDs have suffered an undeserved reputation as second-rate formations, filled with young boys and old men suited to serve only as cannon fodder. This groundbreaking book, now reappearing as a new edition, shows that VGDs were actually conceived as a new, elite corps loyal to the National Socialist Party composed of men from all branches of Hitler's Wehrmacht and equipped with the finest ground combat weapons available. Whether fighting from defensive positions or spearheading offensives such as the Battle of the Bulge, VGDs initially gave a good account of themselves in battle. Using previously unpublished unit records, Allied intelligence and interrogation reports and above all interviews with survivors, the author has crafted an in-depth look at a late-war German infantry company, including many photographs from the veterans themselves. In this book we follow along with the men of the 272nd VGD's Fusilier Company from their first battles in the Huertgen Forest to their final defeat in the Harz Mountains. Along the way we learn the enormous potential of VGDs . . . and feel their soldiers' heartbreak at their failure. Among Douglas NashÕs previous works is HellÕs Gate: The Battle for the Cherkassy Pocket, January-February 1944, a work unsurpassed for insight into the other side of the hill in WWII.

Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp

Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp PDF Author: Douglas E. Nash
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612003060
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
“For both students of the German Army in World War II as well as those interested in the late 1944 campaign, this is a must-read” (The NYMAS Review). As the Allies were approaching the German frontier at the beginning of September 1944, the German Armed Forces attempted to regain the strategic initiative. While the “wonder weapons,” such as the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 missile, and the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter, are widely recognized as being the most prominent of these initiatives upon which Germany pinned so much hope, the Volks-Grenadier Divisions (VGDs) are practically unknown. Often confused with the Volkssturm, the Home Guard militia, VGDs have suffered an undeserved reputation as second-rate formations filled with young boys and old men suited to serve only as cannon fodder. This groundbreaking book, now in a new edition, shows that VGDs were actually conceived as a new, elite corps loyal to the National Socialist Party composed of men from all branches of Hitler’s Wehrmacht and equipped with the finest ground combat weapons available. Whether fighting from defensive positions or spearheading offensives such as the Battle of the Bulge, VGDs initially gave a good account of themselves in battle. Using previously unpublished unit records, Allied intelligence and interrogation reports, and, above all, interviews with survivors, the author has crafted an in-depth look at a late-war German infantry company, including many photographs from the veterans themselves. In this book we follow along with the men of the 272nd VGD’s Fusilier Company from their first battles in the Hürtgen Forest to their final defeat in the Harz Mountains. Along the way, we learn the enormous potential of VGDs—and feel their soldiers’ heartbreak at their failure.

Communist Nations' Military Assistance

Communist Nations' Military Assistance PDF Author: John F Copper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042972473X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
This book looks at the military aid given by communist bloc countries to other bloc countries and to Third World nations. The authors analyze the military aid capabilities of communist donor nations, their specific motivations for offering military aid, and the policies and guidelines that govern arms assistance. They also discuss competitio

Success Without Victory

Success Without Victory PDF Author: Jules Lobel
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814765122
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Winners and losers. Success and failure. Victory and defeat. American culture places an extremely high premium on success, and firmly equates it with winning. In politics, sports, business, and the courtroom, we have a passion to win and are terrified of losing. Instead of viewing success and failure through such a rigid lens, Jules Lobel suggests that we move past the winner-take-all model and learn valuable lessons from legal and political activists who have advocated causes destined to lose in court but have had important, progressive long term effects on American society. He leads us through dramatic battles in American legal history, describing attempts by abolitionist lawyers to free fugitive slaves through the courts, Susan B. Anthony's trial for voting illegally, the post-Civil War challenges to segregation that resulted in the courts’ affirmation of the separate but equal doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson, and Lobel’s own challenges to United States foreign policy during the 1980s and 1990s. Success Without Victory explores the political, social, and psychological contexts behind the cases themselves, as well as the eras from which they originated and the eras they subsequently influenced.

Corps Commanders of the Bulge

Corps Commanders of the Bulge PDF Author: Harold R. Winton
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700623841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
If the Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last gasp, it was also America's proving ground-the largest single action fought by the U.S. Army in World War II. Taking a new approach to an old story, Harold Winton widens our field of vision by showing how victory in this legendary campaign was built upon the remarkable resurrection of our truncated interwar army, an overhaul that produced the effective commanders crucial to GI success in beating back the Ardennes counteroffensive launched by Hitler's forces. Winton's is the first study of the Bulge to examine leadership at the largely neglected level of corps command. Focusing on the decisions and actions of six Army corps commanders—Leonard Gerow, Troy Middleton, Matthew Ridgway, John Millikin, Manton Eddy, and J. Lawton Collins—he recreates their role in this epic struggle through a mosaic of narratives that take the commanders from the pre-war training grounds of America to the crucible of war in the icy-cold killing fields of Belgium and Luxembourg. Winton introduces the story of each phase of the Bulge with a theater-level overview of the major decisions and events that shaped the corps battles and, for the first time, fully integrates the crucial role of airpower into our understanding of how events unfolded on the ground. Unlike most accounts of the Ardennes that chronicle only the periods of German and American initiative, Winton's study describes an intervening middle phase in which the initiative was fiercely contested by both sides and the outcome uncertain. His inclusion of the principal American and German commanders adds yet another valuable layer to this rich tapestry of narrative and analysis. Ultimately, Winton argues that the flexibility of the corps structure and the competence of the men who commanded the six American corps that fought in the Bulge contributed significantly to the ultimate victory. Chronicling the human drama of commanding large numbers of soldiers in battle, he has produced an artful blend of combat narrative, collective biography, and institutional history that contributes significantly to the broader understanding of World War II as a whole. With the recent modularization of the U.S. Army division, which makes this command echelon a re-creation of the corps of World War II, Corps Commanders of the Bulge also has distinct relevance to current issues of Army transformation.

From Brittany to the Reich

From Brittany to the Reich PDF Author: Joseph Balkoski
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0811748715
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Continues Balkoski's acclaimed multivolume history of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in World War II

Market Dreams

Market Dreams PDF Author: Elaine Susan Weiner
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472026143
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Drawing on a rich trove of focus group data, interviews, and textual sources, Elaine Weiner's Market Dreams powerfully captures the varied responses of female managers and factory workers in the Czech Republic to their country's transition from socialism to capitalism. Her work, rooted in sociology and comparative feminism, is an important advance for the literature on women in Eastern Europe. "Market Dreams is a conceptually-sophisticated and empirically-rich account of how the discourses and practices of the free market penetrated the hearts and minds of everyday Czech citizens. Weiner's provocative analysis takes readers inside the worlds of female factory workers to expose the discontinuities between their radiant market dreams and their everyday realities--and juxtaposes them to the continuities experienced by female managers. In the process, it challenges many of our ideas about post/socialism, marketization, and gender and reveals the enduring power of stories in shaping social identities and actions." ---Lynne Haney, Associate Professor of Sociology, New York University "Through interviews and a careful analysis of newspaper articles written in the first decade after the collapse of state socialism, Weiner explores the complicated interconnections between personal stories and the emerging neoliberal metanarrative of the free market in the Czech Republic after 1989. Her book transcends many of the dichotomies with which researchers of post-state socialism have been struggling: 'East' vs. 'West,' losers and winners, emancipation vs. oppression, etc., and thus makes a truly novel contribution to our understanding of women's lives after state socialism." ---Éva Fodor, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, Central European University "Weiner's rich and innovative study of female Czech managers and workers exemplifies the importance of narrative analysis for understanding why gender and class have not (yet) reconfigured the sense of postcommunism's alternatives. This is critical reading for feminists, class analysts, and students of postcommunist social change." ---Michael Kennedy, Director, Center for European Studies, University of Michigan Elaine Weiner is Assistant Professor of Sociology at McGill University. Visit the author's website at: www.mcgill.ca/sociology/faculty/weiner/. Cover Credit: Frank Scherschel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The Philippines Reader

The Philippines Reader PDF Author: Daniel B. Schirmer
Publisher: South End Press
ISBN: 9780896082755
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
"The Philippines Reader" illuminates the history of the continuing struggle of the Philippines people for true independence and social justice. Daniel Schirmer and Stephen Shalom have put together a single volume readings and documents providing essential background-- from the turn-of-the-century U.S. war of conquest to the new administration of Corazon Aquino. Analytical articles from varying authors explore, among other topics, the nature of the U.S. colonial regime, the role of the church, conflicts with national minorities, the situation of labor, peasants and women, and U.S. policy, as well as prospects for the future. Documentary selections in this "Philippines Reader" come from such diverse sources as the CIA and the State Department; U.S. Presidents McKinley and Reagan; Philippine leaders Aguinaldo and Aquino; Philippine nationalist and left organizations such as the Anti-Base Coalition, Bayan, Kaakbay, and the New People's Army; and U.S. opponents of foreign intervention. The editors introduce, explain, and tie together over eighty readings making this the most complete introduction available on events in the Philippines.

The Essential Wisden

The Essential Wisden PDF Author: John Stern
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408178966
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 1097

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Book Description
All the highlights of 150 editions of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Victory Quilts

Victory Quilts PDF Author: Eleanor Burns
Publisher: Quilt in a Day.
ISBN: 9781891776236
Category : Quilting
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Victory Quilts represents a look back in history to the 1940s and life on the home front during the war years. This book offers patterns and techniques for 20 blocks, each one representing a slice of history with a story to tell. The blocks are traditional patterns, popular during the 1940s era. Along with strip piecing, Eleanor teaches her techniques for squaring up triangle-pieced squares, appliqu, flying geese patches, and much more. Make a sampler quilt "set on point" or straight set. Each method is clearly explained and has step-by-step illustrations in full color. Ribbon and swag borders are explained in detail and add unique interest to the quilt projects. Same block repeat patterns are included in addition to a table runner, wall hanging, and other projects. Victory Quilts contains yardage and cutting charts for 5 quilt sizes, and the blocks can be made in either 12" or 6" size. The book has 240 pages packed with lots of extra projects. Templates are included in sturdy cardstock paper. Take a step back in history to the greatest generation and stitch your quilt in memory of those long gone days!