Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.712.non-fictionAbout 1300 Australians died in the desert campaigns of World War I, while another 3500 died in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Thousands more carried the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. Countless families were left behind to mourn the dead and comfort the injured. A ripple effect of grief passed down the generations. This is the story of Australia's desert wars as never before told. Using letters, diaries, interviews and unpublished memoirs, Desert Boys provides an intensely personal and gripping insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of two generations of Australian soldiers. In many cases these were fathers and sons going to successive wars with all the tragedy, adventure and hardship that brought.australian army - desert campaigns, desert warfare - 20th century

Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.625.non-fictionIn the wake of the September 11th horror, nothing could be timelier than this exploration of world terrorism and the forces that fight it--armies and missions often shrouded in mystery. A foremost expert on guerrilla warfare presents, for the first time, a comprehensive investigation of covert military operations from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Among the revelations: that the CIA handed out shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles "like lollipops" to Osama bin Laden and other mujahadeen leaders, weapons they may now turn against us how British SAS operated inside Afghanistan against the Russians and used "former special forces" personnel for clandestine missions why secret militia and locally recruited fighters successfully defeated guerrillas and terrorists in Oman, Malaya, and Borneo, but could not in Indochina and Algeria and how "fighting dirty" sometimes meant helping drug dealers in exchange for their support. Most relevant is the detailed analysis of why Russia failed to conquer Afghanistan, what we can learn from their experience, and the perils awaiting any invader. special forces - operations - 20th century, special forces - operations - 20th century

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.374.non-fictionhis is the largely unknown story of another Anzac force, which fought not at Gallipoli, but in Greece, during World War II. Desperately outnumbered and fighting in deeply inhospitable conditions, these Anzacs found themselves engaging in a long retreat through Greece, under constant air attack. Most of the Anzac Corps was evacuated by the end of April 1941, but many men got only as far as Crete. Fighting a German paratroop invasion there in May, large numbers were taken captive and spent four long years as prisoners of the Nazis. The campaign in Greece turned out to have uncanny parallels to the original Gallipoli operation: both were inspired by Winston Churchill, both were badly planned by British military leaders, and both ended in defeat and evacuation. Just as Gallipoli provided military academies the world over with lessons in how not to conduct a complex feat of arms, Churchill's Greek adventure reinforced fundamental lessons in modern warfare - heavy tanks could not be stopped by men armed with rifles, and Stuka dive-bombers would not be deflected by promises of air support from London that were never honoured. In this revised edition, based on fresh archival research, and containing a collection of previously unpublished photos, the truth finally emerges as to how the Australian, Greek, and New Zealand Governments were misled over key decisions that would define the campaign. world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - greece, greek campaign - australian involvement

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.356.non-fictionxamines the German Luftwaffe's air raid on Coventry, England, on November 14, 1940, and its impact and precedent as a new kind of air warfare.world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - germany, world war 1939-1945 - coventry

Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.224.non-fictionTimothy Hall tells the real story of Tobruk, the follies and bravery, the unexpected humaneness of both sides, the mutual respect of opposing armies locked in siege warfare and their common enemy - the North African desert.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – north africa, siege of tobruk

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.250.non-fictionTwenty-two U-boat veterans tell their stories in this collection of their experiences, recorded by the author during several years of travel throughout Germany. While many books have been written about the U-boat war, this is one of the few that focuses on the lives of the submariners, and rarer still is its concentration on the crewmen rather than the officers. Melanie Wiggins interviewed seventeen men of the enlisted ranks, along with five commanders, to take readers into the terrifying world of underwater warfare, where every single crewman made a crucial difference in the fate of his boat. As she searched for and interviewed U-boat men, Wiggins also collected photographs from scrapbooks and archives, and consulted war-era personnel records and secret diaries. Her attendance at a reunion of the crew of U-682 netted a wealth of information as did her interviews with submarine veterans in Gؤrlitz, former East Germany. Her interviews with Admiral Otto Kretschmer just two months before his death and ninety-four-year-old Commander Jѓrgen Wattenberg in Hamburg add important dimensions to the work. Among the individual sagas included are Radioman Hans Bѓrck's description of his 1942 patrol to Aruba and the visit of Japanese submarine I-30 at Lorient; Fireman 2nd Class Josef Erben's explanation of how his boat, U-128, got stuck on a large rock and had to be hauled free; POW Ernst Gؤ:thling's memories of being wounded in a British prison camp when German planes mistakenly dropped bombs in the area.world war 1939 – 1945 –naval operations - germany, germany - u-boats

Bibliography, Index, Chronology, ill (plates, col, b/w) maps. p.452.non-fictionFrom longbow, pike, and musket to Challenger tanks, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Gulf campaign, the Duke of Marlborough to Field Marshal Montgomery, The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army recounts the history of the British army from its medieval antecedents to the present day. Drawing on the latest scholarship, this survey shows how British fighting forces have evolved over the last five centuries. The continuities revealed are sometimes surprising: narrow recruitment patterns, friction between soldiers and civilians, financial constraints and recurrent political pressure for economies are constant themes. Commanders, campaigns, battles, organization, and weaponry are covered in detail within the wider context of the social, economic, and political environment in which armies exist and fight. The British army has been remarkably successful in fighting terms, losing only one major war (of American Independence 1775-83). As one of the engines of empire it has been active all over the world, as well as shaping the internal destiny of the nation in civil war and revolution. Its history is charted in a sequence of chronological chapters, each containing special feature articles, beginning with the medieval, Elizabethan, and Restoration army and moving on through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the two world wars of the twentieth. The book concludes with accounts of the army of British India, the amateur military tradition, the British way in warfare, and an assessment of what the future may hold in the light of the Options for Change review. Extensively illustrated in black and white and colour, and with a detailed chronology and further reading lists, this is the definitive one-volume history of the British army for specialists and non-specialists alike.great britain - military history, great britain - military tradition

Index, ill (some colour), portraits (some colour), maps (some colour) p.254.non-fictionThe human psyche, when confronted by the all-but-impossible, can produce the most extraordinary reactions, acts of heroism, self-sacrifice, endurance and sheer grit that in many instances remain unbelievable. Whether these are the product of the extreme pressures of warfare, acts of faith or compassion, or examples of utter tenacity and determination against all odds, the outcomes are incredible. Many of the behind-the-scenes stories have remained secret, until now. No other book gathers together so many riveting and heroic tales of rescue and survival in a single volume. Divided into seven chronological sections, this book provides revealing insights and explains the significance of each operation, although not all proved to be successful. Detailed maps of each encounter, timelines, diagrams, archival photographs and official documents accompany these gripping stories.military history, politics and war

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA pictorial and descriptive history of US tank destroyerstank destroyers - united states - history, world war 1939-1945 - tank warfare

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the DUKW amphibious vehicleamphibious vehicles - united states - history, amphibious warfare - history

ill )b/w,col) ,p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the AMTRAC amphibious vehicleamphibious warfare - history, armoured vehicles - amtrac - history

ill (b/w,col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the Tiger tankworld war 1939-1945 - tank warfare, tiger (tank)

ill (b/w,col), p.47non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of German self propelled gunsarmoured warfare - germany - history, self propelled guns - germany

ill (b/w,col),p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of Soviet tanksarmoured warfare - soviet union - history, tanks - soviet union

ill (b/w,col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of German self propelled gunsarmoured warfare - germany - history, self propelled guns - germany

ill (b/w,col) p.50.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of early German tanksarmoured warfare - germany - history, panzer i, panzer ii

ill (b/w,col) p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of British tanksarmoured warfare - britain - history, tanks - britain, matilda, crusader

ill (b/w, col), p.50.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the Panther tankarmoured warfare - germany - history, panther tank

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the Panzer IV tankarmoured warfare - germany - history, panzer iv

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the Sturmgeschutz III in action (STUG) anti tank and infantry support vehiclearmoured warfare - germany - history, sturmgeschutz iii

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of German railway gunsarmoured warfare - germany - history, german railway guns

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the Sherman tankarmoured warfare - united states - history, sherman tank

ill (b/w,col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the Stuart light tankarmoured warfare - united states - history, stuart light tanks

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the PzKpfw 38 (t) light tankarmoured warfare - germany - history, pzkpfw 38 (t)

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the T-34 tankarmoured warfare - soviet union - history, t-34 tank

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the SdKfz 251 armoured vehiclearmoured warfare - germany - history, sdkfz 251

ill (b/w, col), p.49.non-fictionA descriptive and pictorial history of the PzKpfw IIIarmoured warfare - germany - history, pzkpfw iii

p.253.fictionA fictional account of aerial warfare on the Western front in the first world warworld war 1914-1918 - aerial operations - fiction, aerial warfare - fiction

index, ill, maps, p.224.non-fictionThe Western Front in World War I was the scene of devastating trench warfare and astonishing human loss: nearly 750,000 soldiers perished in the battles fought in France and Belgium from 1914 to 1918. In The Western Front, renowned historian Richard Holmes traces the path those soldiers took, and presents the political, military, and human dilemmas of a bitter and bloody war.world war 1914-1918 - western front - history, world war 1914-1918 - military history

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.628.non-fictionThe Australian experience of war in all its complexity - from the homefront as well as the battlefront - as the men and women who experienced it chose to understand and remember it. The Great War is, for many Australians, the event that defined our nation. The larrikin diggers, trench warfare, and the landing at Gallipoli have become the stuff of the Anzac legend. But it was also a war fought by the families at home. Their resilience in the face of hardship, their stoic acceptance of enormous casualty lists and their belief that their cause was just, made the war effort possible. This book brings together all the dimensions of World War I. Combining deep scholarship with powerful storytelling, this book brings the war years to life: from the well-known battles at Gallipoli, Pozieres, Fromelles and Villers-Bretonneux, to the lesser known battles in Europe and the Middle East; from the ferocious debates over conscription to the disillusioning Paris peace conference and the devastating Spanish flu the soldiers brought home. We witness the fear and courage of tens of thousands of soldiers, grapple with the strategic nightmares confronting the commanders, and come to understand the impact on Australians at home and at the front of death on an unprecedented scale. A century after the Great War, this book brings lucid insight into the dramatic events, mass grief and political turmoil that makes the memory of this terrible war central to Australia's history.world war 1914-1918- australia - history, world war 1914-1918 - social conditions