Bøger om Tidlige 20. århundrede

La divisione Florian Geyer era nata come un'unità predisposta per combattere le forze partigiane ma si trovò a svolgere anche compiti di prima linea a cui non era preparata. Rispetto alle altre divisioni delle SS la Florian Geyer si trovò svantaggiata nei combattimenti regolari soprattutto per quanto riguardava la preparazione tattica degli ufficiali intermedi. Queste carenze furono sopperite, in parte, dal forte spirito di corpo degli uomini della divisione che non venne mai meno neppure alla fine, facendone così un unità d'élite.Le vicende della 22° divisione Maria Theresia rimangono strettamente legate alla terribile battaglia di Budapest. Questa unità delle SS seppe tenere testa alle preponderanti forze nemiche, questo malgrado che la formazione della divisione risalisse a soli pochi mesi prima della decisiva battaglia. La maggior parte dei suoi uomini era rappresentato da coscritti, inoltre, il suo armamento, non era certo dei più all'avanguardia. Nonostante ciò i suoi soldati preferirono l'annientamento totale piuttosto che la resa, dimostrando un valore non comune.

Artworks and archival documents from Lebanon's turbulent postwar yearsThis volume revisits a turbulent chapter in Lebanese modernism, from the 1958 crisis to the 1975 outbreak of civil war. Through 230 works by 34 artists and more than 300 archival documents, it shows how collisions between art, culture and polarized political ideologies turned Beirut's art scene into a microcosm for larger transregional tensions.

When Anthony Fokker introduced his Eindecker with its practical machine gun synchronisation system, allowing him to fire a machine gun on the line of flight between the rotating propeller blades, the true fighter aircraft was born.

"This new volume corrects the previous faults and presents the story of a pilot who was the right man at the right time." -- Air ClassicsThe first full reappraisal of one of Britain's great fighter aces, this book examines the truth behind Tuck's 1956 biography, Fly for Your Life. It looks at the evidence behind the myths, checks out some of the exaggerated stories and reveals the real Stanford Tuck. In January 1942 Bob Tuck was the top-scoring British fighter ace with an official score of 29 enemy aircraft destroyed. With film-star looks he was the glamorous role model for the RAF publicity machine and an eager press and public wanting wartime heroes. He had joined the RAF in 1935 and quickly showed his excellent flying skills. In 1940 his Spitfire squadron was fighting over Dunkirk where he proved himself an expert shot. During the Battle of Britain his legendary prowess grew and he was posted to command a leaderless and demoralized squadron, this time flying Hurricanes. He continued to prove he was an outstanding fighter ace, gaining the rare distinction of three DFCs and then the DSO for his leadership. He was shot down over France in January 1942. Imprisoned in Stalag Luft III. His room-mate was Roger Bushell, the mastermind of the Great Escape and Tuck worked with him on the committee and was to be his partner in the escape. In January 1944 however, around 20 POWs, including Tuck, were purged to a new camp. Still determined to escape, when his camp was moved out on the Long March westwards, Tuck and a Polish officer took a risky chance and made their way east to Russian forces and thence to England. This book reveals a more complex man than the one-dimensional hero of the previous biography. Post war, he became good friends with the Luftwaffe ace, Adolf Galland, and was a key advisor with him on the film, Battle of Britain, and, often with his other friend, Douglas Bader, made many media appearances. His health suffered in later years from the impact of his war service and his imprisonment and he died aged 70 in 1987.

"Isaac Deutscher's celebrated biographies of Stalin and Trotsky had always been conceived as a part of a larger project eventually culminating in a study of Lenin's life and politics. The three works would have constituted, he hoped, "a triptych of some artistic unity." But it was not to be; by the time of his sudden death in 1967, Deutscher had only managed to complete the first chapter, this book, which covers Lenin's family background, birth and early years in the backwater town of Simbirsk up to the execution of his brother, Alexander Ulyanov, a traumatic but formative event. Based on a lifetime of background research, including access to the closed section of Trotsky's archives, Lenin's Childhood gave, at the time of its posthumous publication, a novel interpretation of the earliest influences in Lenin's personality and thinking. Most of all, it offers a glimpse into a work unfinished, a work which would have striven save Lenin from fanatical anti-revolutionary condemnation, and, perhaps more importantly, from uncritical communist beatification"--

"a provocative and stimulating addition to the study of World War II." HistoryNet Perfect for readers of Max Hastings, James Holland and Stephen E. Ambrose. By September 1944 the Germany army in France had been decimated and survivors were streaming back to the Reich. The British SAS commanders were clearing the way for the American armies of George S. Patton, Alexander Patch and Courtney Hodges. By the afternoon of September 11, 1944, men of the U.S. 5th Armored Division penetrated the poorly defended Siegfried Line. Yet just when the Rhine was ripe for the taking General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered all further advances to be halted. Could combination of American forces supported by the British SAS have crossed the Rhine and thrust into the heart of Germany in the autumn of 1944? Did Eisenhower's rigid adherence to his broad-front strategy delay the end of the war by several months and cause thousands of men to lose their lives in the bloody struggles in the Ardennes and the Hurtgen Forest during the Battle of the Bulge? Charles Whiting's brilliant book Death on a Distant Frontier is a hard-hitting reappraisal of Eisenhower's tactics. Through extensive research Whiting shines a light on the conflicts of personalities between the various generals and explores how Eisenhower conducted the war to ensure that his insiders reaped the glory of being the first American army to cross the Rhine. As a veteran of this campaign, Whiting was a witness to the turmoil that reigned during this fourth month period, yet through his fast-paced narrative and informed analysis he is able to provide vivid insight into this much-overlooked period of the Second World War when the Allies could have broken through into Nazi Germany.

On June 6, 1944 the greatest armada in history stood off Normandy and the largest amphibious invasion ever began as 107,000 men aboard 6,000 ships pressed toward the coast. Among this number were 18,000 Canadians, who were to land on a five-mile long stretch of rocky ledges fronted by a wide expanse of sand. Code named Juno Beach. Here, sheltered inside concrete bunkers and deep trenches, hundreds of German soldiers waited to strike the first assault wave with some ninety 88-millimetre guns, fifty mortars, and four hundred machine guns. A four-foot-high sea wall ran across the breadth of the beach and extending from it into the surf itself were ranks of tangled barbed wire, tank and vessel obstacles, and a maze of mines.Of the five Allied forces landing that day, they were scheduled to be the last to reach the sand. Juno was also the most exposed beach, their day's objectives eleven miles inland were farther away than any others, and the opposition awaiting them was believed greater than that facing any other force. At battle's end one out of every six Canadians in the invasion force was either dead or wounded. Yet their grip on Juno Beach was firm.

Selection of journal entries culled from Charles Burchfield's journals: the poetry of place, published by SUNY Press, 1993.

On the cover: Four Children in a Louisiana Landscape, or Bélizaire and the Frey Children, 1837. Oil on canvas. Attributed to Jacques Amans, Courtesy of Jeremy K. Simien. Even when African Americans were included in portraits, as in the case with Four Children in a Louisiana Landscape, sometimes they were subsequently removed. This work had been owned and kept in storage by the New Orleans Museum of Art since 1972, but in 2004 it was deemed "not relevant" to their mission and deaccessioned. At that time, the painting pictured only three white children, although a shadow of a fourth figure was visible. Subsequent conservation uncovered the titular fourth child: an African American boy leaning against the tree behind the others. Louisiana collector Jeremy K. Simien acquired the painting in 2021, and author Katy Morlas Shannon identified the boy as a fifteen-year-old enslaved house servant named Bélizaire. Bélizaire was born to an enslaved woman named Sally in New Orleans in 1822. Sally and Bélizaire were sold to Frederick Frey, a German merchant and head of Union Bank in New Orleans, in 1828. The portrait was commissioned by Frey in 1837, likely from Jacques Amans, a French portraitist working in New Orleans. Bélizaire was painted over for unknown reasons at some later point. The subsequent uncovering of the figure as well as Bélizaire's story speaks not only to the concealment of enslavement that long occurred in the South, but also to the possibility and imperative of recovery. The urgency of these ideas is now being recognized by major art museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently acquired the painting, and Bélizaire's likeness and history will be featured before an international audience despite one-time attempts to erase him.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Imagined Fronts: The Great War and Global Media at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 2023-July 7, 2024.

A surprising look at the Latin American influences on one of the most significant modern architects of the twentieth century

"First published in French as Les enfants du dernier salut, by âEditions France Ioisirs, 2017"--Verso title page.

A supplement for the award-winning World War II wargame, Bolt Action, focusing on the Axis offensives through Eastern Ukraine and into the North Caucasus.After the failure of Barbarossa to utterly defeat the Soviet Union, a new plan was devised, Case Blue. This plan involved pushing through the southern Soviet Union to reach the Caucasus and secure the oil fields that Germany so desperately needed. While initially there was great success and sweeping advances as the autumn began, the Axis advances began to falter in the wake of Soviet resistance and counter attacks, culminating in the battles in and around Stalingrad.This Campaign Book for Bolt Action contains new linked scenarios, rules, troop types, and Theatre Selectors, providing plenty of options for novice and veteran players alike.

An illustrated account of the dramatic engagement between the Luftwaffe's Me 163 units and Allied bombers during the closing years of World War II.In the summer of 1944, US Army Air Force (USAAF) aircrews flying over the Third Reich reported observing small, high-speed 'batlike' aircraft flying close to their formations. The Luftwaffe's extraordinary Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor was making its devastating debut with Jagdgeschwader (JG) 400. Capable of reaching high altitudes in the shortest possible time by using a volatile rocket fuel, the Me 163 was the Luftwaffe's most impressive yet dangerous aircraft, and the fastest in the world. Luftwaffe expert Robert Forsyth details the testing of the aircraft and its lethal SG 500 'Fighter Fist' weapons system, as well as its deployment against the B17s and B24s of the USAAF's Eighth Air Force and, from late 1944, the Lancasters and Halifaxes of RAF Bomber Command. These duels started a deadly form of warfare, with the bomber squadrons striking at Germany's synthetic oil refineries and jet airfields, and the Me 163s of JG 400 trying to stop them using cutting-edge aeronautical technology.Using specially commissioned artwork, original photographs and rare first-hand interviews with the pilots that fought the decisive dogfights, this exciting book describes the pivotal encounters over Northern Europe.

A comprehensive. illustrated account of the wartime Italian battle fleet, from its ships and technology to command structure, logistics, codebreaking and more.In the 1920s, the Italian Navy faced great challenges. Mussolini's ambitious Italy turned away from its alliance with Britain and France, and the Regia Marina faced the prospect of confronting both the French Navy and the Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy. In the years leading up to World War II, the Regia Marina built and deployed a powerful battleship-led fleet - known in Italy as 'La Squadra' - intended to make the Mediterranean an Italian sea once more. In this book, Italian naval historian Enrico Cernuschi offers a fresh assessment of the wartime Italian battle fleet, based on his lifetime of primary-source research from both Italian and Allied sources. It offers a comprehensive portrait of this proud armada, how it was devised and built, and how it operated and fought. It covers a multitude of factors often overlooked, such as Italy's naval codebreakers, the fleet's logistics, and the qualities and limitations of Italian industry that supported it. The book also provides a concise account and analysis of the battle fleet's activities through the war, from major clashes such as the Battle of Calabria to lesser-known expeditions. The author's research into Italian wartime primary sources overturns some myths still commonplace in Anglo-American accounts. Illustrated with superb new artwork, maps and 3D diagrams, and featuring rare photos, this book is a fascinating account of Italy's great fleet of World War II.

Packed with illustrations, this is a new history and analysis of how the Royal Navy's most important fleet operated and fought the German Navy in the crucial first years of World War II.Throughout its history, the Royal Navy's most powerful fleet has been the one guarding home waters. In this book, naval historian Angus Konstam explores the fighting power, the roles, and the battles of the Home Fleet, in the crucial first years of World War II when it was Britain's most powerful fighting force, anchored in the northern bastion of Scapa Flow. He explains the complex responsibilities of the fleet, charged simultaneously with preventing the powerful German Navy from breaking out into the Atlantic; preparing to challenge any cross-Channel invasion force; and attacking German naval operations in the North Sea. Home Fleet actions included the loss of HMS Hood, the sinking of the Bismarck and countering the invasion of Norway, Germany's biggest amphibious operation of the war.Packed with striking new artwork and 3D diagrams and maps, this book offers a detailed portrait of the Home Fleet during these most crucial years of the war, from the capabilities of the warships to logistics and intelligence-gathering, to how the fleet was organized and commanded, and how and why it fought as it did.

The full history of how the United States targeted and destroyed the Japanese capital from the air, in a ten-month long campaign by the US Army Air Force and the US Navy.In November 1944, the US Army Air Force launched a 111-plane B-29 strike against Tokyo, the first raid since the morale-boosting Doolittle Raid of 1942. From then until August 13, 1945, the United States would attack Tokyo 25 times, 20 from B-29s based in the Marianas and five from US Navy carrier task forces. The campaign included the single deadliest air raid in human history, when around 100,000 people were killed by the firestorm created by the Operation Meetinghouse raid of March 10, 1945. This book, the first to examine the full history of the United States' air campaign against the greatest target in Japan, looks at the USAAF's and US Navy's efforts to use air power to eliminate Tokyo's strategic value to the Empire. It considers how the campaign developed from daylight bombing to firebombing and anti-ship mining, and finally how the target was handed over to the US Navy, whose carrier-based bombers and fighter-bombers continued to strike Tokyo during July and August 1945.Using specially commissioned battlescenes, strategic maps and diagrams, this volume presents a detailed picture of how Tokyo was vanquished from the air.

Brought to life by the personal accounts of six Navy pilots and one British POW, this is the history of the U.S. Navy airstrikes on Japanese-held Hong Kong.Commander John Lamade started the war in 1941 a nervous pilot of an antiquated biplane. Just over three years later he was in the cockpit of a cutting-edge Hellcat about to lead a strike force of 80 aircraft through the turbulent skies above the South China Sea. His target: Hong Kong. As a storm of antiaircraft fire darkened the sky, watching from below was POW Ray Jones. For three long years he and his fellow prisoners had endured near starvation conditions in a Japanese internment camp. Did these American aircraft, he wondered, herald freedom? Trawling through historic records, Steven K. Bailey discovered that the story of the U.S. Navy airstrikes on Japanese-held Hong Kong during the final year of World War II had never been told. Operation Gratitude involved nearly 100 U.S. Navy warships and close to a thousand planes. Target Hong Kong brings this massive operation down to a human scale by recounting the air raids through the experiences of seven men whose lives intersected at Hong Kong in January 1945: Commander John D. Lamade, five of his fellow U.S. Navy pilots and the POW Ray Jones. Drawing upon oral histories, diary transcripts, and U.S. Navy documents, this book expertly narrates the intertwined experiences of these servicemen to bring the history to life.

A fully illustrated new assessment of the German tank force that won its greatest victory in France during 1940.The German conquest of France in 1940 was arguably the Wehrmacht's greatest military achievement, conquering France in several weeks after having failed to do so in World War I. New Panzer tactics, dubbed 'Blitzkrieg', were at the heart of the German victory.In this book, renowned armor expert Steven J. Zaloga reassesses the armored force that made the triumph possible, and explains that although the German Panzers won their reputation in France, they were far from being a technological juggernaut. The vast majority were the small PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II light tanks. The more effective medium tanks such as the PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV were available in relatively small numbers. Their effectiveness had far more to do with training and doctrine than technology. With illustrations including unpublished photos and superb new artwork, this book examines the wide range of German tanks employed in France in 1940, as well as their organization and tactical doctrine.

A history of the Soviet Navy's cruisers, from the opening shots of the October Revolution through to the combat they saw during World War II.The Soviet Navy of World War II boasted a cruiser fleet that was among the most eclectic to see service. In this book, noted military historian and Soviet specialist Alexander Hill explains the role of cruisers in the Soviet Navy from the dramatic days of the October Revolution of 1917 through to the struggle they fought with Nazi Germany during World War II. Illustrated throughout with rare photos and original artwork, including a cutaway of Aurora, famous for its role in the Bolshevik October Revolution, and with profiles of the key classes, this book outlines the Soviets' development of a cruiser force. Having inherited a number of cruisers from the Imperial Russian Navy, the new Soviet Navy went on to complete two unfinished Tsarist light cruisers during the 1920s. In the late 1930s, the Soviets built their first large warships, the Kirov class, and in 1940 Nazi Germany sold the unfinished heavy cruiser Lützow to the USSR. The final cruiser-sized warship to see action was the former Imperial royal yacht Shtandart, renamed Marti and armed as a minelayer, which was used in the defence of Leningrad. Researched in the main from Russian-language sources, this study explores the cruiser fleet that saw considerable action in World War II, particularly in support of the Red Army.

The first book to cover the full history of the RAF's air war against Hamburg, one of the most important target cities in Germany. The city of Hamburg became synonymous with the destructive power of RAF Bomber Command when, during summer 1943, the city suffered horrific destruction in a series of four heavy firebombing attacks, Operation Gomorrah. However, few know how varied or long the Hamburg campaign was. In this book, RAF air power expert Dr Richard Worrall presents the complete history of the RAF's air campaign against the city, a campaign that stretched well beyond the devastating fire raids of 1943. Dr Worrall explains how Germany's second city was an industrial centre of immense proportions and proved a consistent target for Bomber Command throughout World War II. It was home to oil refineries, U-boat pens, and ship-building and submarine-building yards, all sustained by a large industrial workforce. Bomber Command evolved tactically and technically throughout the war, and the Luftwaffe's defensive capabilities would do likewise in response. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources available on this topic, and packed with photos, artwork, maps and diagrams, this is an important new history of the air campaign against the industrial and naval heart of Nazi Germany.

An exploration into why and how Thermopylae is one of the most blood-soaked patches of ground in history - and what its past can tell us about our future.'Brilliantly demonstrated.' - Tom HollandSince the dawn of the Classical Era up to World War II, thousands have lost their lives fighting over the pass at Thermopylae. Historians Cole and Livingston provide an exciting account of each of the 27 battles and holding actions that took place. The epic events of 480 BC when 300 Spartans attempted to hold the pass has been immortalised in poetry, art, literature and film. But no history has ever detailed the other events from the very first battle through to the battles fought by Romans, Byzantines, Huns and Ottomans during the early and late medieval periods and finally the two desperate struggles against German occupying forces during World War II. The Killing Ground details the background and history of each conflict, the personalities and decision making of the commanders, the arms and tactics of the troops, and how each battle played out. Cole and Livingston have surveyed the ground to provide a boots-on understanding of each battle. Their command of multiple ancient and medieval languages means they have provided their own translations of much of the source material, ensuring new insights into each battle. This uncompromising scholarship is woven together into a compelling and unforgettable history that grips the reader from start to finish.

A remarkable collection of accounts of intrepid American aircrew shot down over enemy lines during World War II and how they got away. To be an airman in the Eighth Air Force flying over the war-torn skies of Europe required skill, tenacity, and luck. Those who were shot down and evaded capture needed all of that and more if they were to make it back to friendly lines. These are their stories. Each is compiled from the original intelligence debrief written by the pilots or aircrew themselves. Bill Yenne details how a spider web of escape routes sprang up, created by the local Résistance. Downed airmen were clothed, given false papers, and hidden so they could be smuggled back to England. These efforts were then supplemented by Allied intelligence agents. But the risks remained the same. Capture could mean death. Their accounts are sometimes funny, often heartbreaking. P-47 pilot Joel McPherson feigned appendicitis and was able to escape from the local German military hospital - after he had his appendix removed. He spent weeks operating as a getaway driver for a Maquis bank robber gang before making it into neutral Spain. Bomber crewmen Fred Hartung and Norman Therrien found refuge at a French château, but later nearly froze to death crossing the icy Pyrenees with the Gestapo on their trail. The accounts of these men and others from the Mighty Eighth make this a story of defiance, foolhardiness, and bravery against the odds.

Fully illustrated, this absorbing study explores the evolving sniping technology and tactics employed by both sides in Asia and the Pacific during 1941-45. During World War II, both the Japanese and their Allied opponents made widespread use of snipers armed with a variety of rifles, scopes and accessories and prepared by widely differing levels of training and tactical doctrine. The challenges of fighting in a variety of harsh environments, from the Pacific islands to the vast expanses of China, prompted improvisation and innovation on both sides in the ongoing war between snipers and their adversaries. Often operating at relatively close ranges in restrictive terrain, snipers made particularly ingenious use of camouflage and deception as the fighting spread across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, while troops tasked with countering enemy marksmen had to learn the hard way how best to defeat a seemingly invisible enemy. Small arms expert John Walter considers the strengths and limitations of the rifles, scopes and accessories deployed by Japanese snipers and their Allied counterparts, as well as their different approaches to sniping tactics and training. Specially commissioned artwork and carefully chosen photographs illustrate this enthralling study of the sniping war in Asia and the Pacific during World War II.

A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones. The last months of World War II on the Eastern Front saw a ferocious fight between two very different air forces. Soviet Air Force (VVS) Commander-in-Chief Alexander Novikov assembled 7,500 aircraft in three powerful air armies to support the final assault on Berlin. The Luftwaffe employed some of its most advanced weapons including the Me 262 jet and Mistel remotely-guided bomb aircraft. Using photos, 3D diagrams, maps and battlescene artwork, William E. Hiestand, a military analyst with a longstanding interest in Soviet military history, explains how Germany's use of high-tech weaponry and massed Soviet air assaults was not just the culmination of World War II air combat, but also pointed to how the future rivalry with NATO would play out. The VVS used powerful and flexible air armies to control and employ its huge force of aircraft - organizational and employment concepts that would shape Soviet plans and preparations for combat during the Cold War. For the first time, this volume explains how air power helped win the war on the Eastern Front, and how victory shaped Soviet air power doctrine for the decades to come.

This highly illustrated title details the history of the Jagdpanzer, the self-propelled German tank destroyers introduced in the second half of World War II. Throughout World War II all sides grappled with how to deal with the threat of enemy armour. The German Army had adopted the 3.7cm anti-tank gun in the inter-war years. However, it was already apparent that the towed weapons lacked firepower and more powerful weapons were introduced in 1942 and 1943.By 1942, hard-pressed Panzerjäger (anti-tank) units equipped with towed anti-tank weapons fighting on the Eastern Front increasingly sought assistance from StuG-equipped assault artillery units. By late 1943 the StuG was being issued to new tank destroyer units and at the same time a dedicated Jagdpanzer (hunting tank) was ordered, based on the chassis and running gear of the PzKpfw IV.This highly illustrated study by German armour expert Thomas Anderson uses archival material and after-action reports to describe the development of the Jagdpanzer, and the many variants built on other German tank chassis. It also covers in detail how Jagdpanzer units were organized as well as their operational experience on the battlefield.