Bøger udgivet af Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Barbara Villiers was a woman so beautiful, so magnetic and so sexually attractive that she captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain. Her beauty is legendary: she became the muse of artists such as Peter Lely, the inspiration of writers such as John Dryden and the lover of John Churchill, the future great military leader whom we also know as the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her greatest amorous conquest was King Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with whom she had a tempestuous and passionate relationship for the better part of a decade. But this loveliest of Stuart-era ladies had a dark side. She hurt and humiliated her husband, Roger Palmer, for decades with her unashamedly adulterous lifestyle, she plotted the ruin of her enemies, constantly gambled away vast sums of money, is remembered for the destruction of the Tudor-era Nonsuch Palace, and was known to unleash terrible rages when crossed. Crassly lampooned by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and subjected to verbal and written assaults, she was physically abused by a later, violent spouse. Barbara lived through some of the most turbulent times in British history: civil war, the Great Plague of London, which saw the deaths of around 100,000 people, the Great Fire of London, which destroyed much of the medieval city, and foreign conflicts such as the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Williamite wars, and the War of the Spanish Succession. An impoverished aristocrat who rose to become a wealthy countess and then a duchess, taking her lovers from all walks of life, Barbara laughed at the morals of her time and used her natural talents and her ruthless determination to the material benefit of herself and her numerous offspring. In great stately homes and castles such as Hampton Court Palace, her portraits are widely seen and appreciated even today. She had an insatiable appetite for life, love, riches, amusement, and power. She was simply âEUR¿ravenousâEUR(TM)âEUR¿

Entering service in early 1941, the Dornier Do 217 was designed as an improved version of the âEUR¿Flying PencilâEUR(TM), the Do 17 bomber. The Do 217E-1 twin radial-engine bomber first flew in October 1940, the same month that the production of the Do 17 ceased. The Do 217 was initially used for conventional bombing and anti-shipping missions around the United Kingdom, including the infamous Baedeker Blitz against British provincial cities in 1942\. The Do 217 was the main German bomber in this theatre until late 1943, when it started to be replaced by the Messerschmitt Me 410 and Junkers Ju 188\. During this period, the Do 217E was improved, leading to the introduction of the Do 217K or M, the difference between the two being the engines. The Do 217 would be deployed in all of the LuftwaffeâEUR(TM)s campaigns and fronts in the Second World War. Curiously, though, the only operational units to use the type on the Eastern Front were the night reconnaissance units, aside from which only occasionally did other Do 217 units fly missions against StalinâEUR(TM)s forces. With the delay in the Heinkel He 177 entering service, it was the Do 217 that became the first aircraft in history to be used to deploy precision-guided weapons in combat. This came on 21 July 1943, when Do 217s of KG 100 attacked Allied shipping in Augusta harbour, Sicily, using Fritz X radio-guided glide bombs. Then, on 25 August 1943 twelve Do 217E-5s from II./KG 100 attacked a convoy off the Spanish coast with a similar weapon to the Fritz X, the Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided glide bomb. This attack resulted in damage to three warships. In response to the intensifying Allied strategic bomber offensive, additional night fighters were needed by the Luftwaffe. The Do 217E-2 was therefore modified by fitting four MG17s and four MG-FF 20mm cannon in a solid nose. The rear firing guns, including the MG131 in the turret, were retained, as was the ability to carry bombs, creating the Do 217J-1 which was intended as a night intruder. The Do 217 also served extensively as a night fighter, with examples being fitted with Lichtenstein radar and obliquely mounted upward-firing MG151 cannon in the fuselage, the so called Schrÿge Musik modification. Despite the Do 217âEUR(TM)s versatility and wide-spread deployment âEUR" all of which is explored here by the author through a remarkable set of archive images, many of which have never been seen in print before âEUR" production ceased in October 1943\. By the following year, the Do 217 had become obsolete.

Among the most appalling cruelties perpetrated throughout the course of the Second World War was undoubtedly that of human medical and military experimentation conducted upon both living and deceased human beings. The various Nazi human experimentation programmes were initially carried out not so much in the pursuit of any particular scientific discipline, but largely as a result of the Third ReichâEUR(TM)s obsession with race and eugenics. However, this criminal sub-discipline of the Nazi fascination, with its warped racial ideologies, was excused as little other than collateral damage by many of the Nazi physicians and their assistants. GermanyâEUR(TM)s Axis ally, the Japanese Empire, notorious for its cruelty and sadism ran its own independent programmes of human experimentation such as Unit 731 where human beings were not only subject to the most appalling abuses but were injected with cocktails of poisons and/or diseases and in some instances were dissected while fully conscious without any anaesthesia being administered beforehand. It can be said that both Third Reich Germany and Imperial Japan had a more or less inexhaustible supply of human Guinea pigs throughout the Second World War for its ghastly enterprise in human medical experimentation. These unfortunate souls consisted largely of concentration camp inmates or in the case of the Japanese the indigenous peoples of the lands they conquered along with British, American, Indian and Australian Allied prisoners of war. Yet what was the true purpose of these so-called experiments and what requisites if any were, they to serve? And does any evidence suggest that mutual cooperation existed between Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire towards the collation of data through the execution of these ghastly endeavours? Another facet examined within this work is why those Japanese physicians involved in human experimentation and medical torture were excused indictments for war crimes when the evidence against them was clearly so overwhelming? And is there any truth to suggest that the Allied powers benefited from the material obtained through questioning at the end of the Second World War? The complicity of both the German and Japanese pharmaceutical companies also has to be brought into question as many cooperated willingly with the military making handsome profits in the process. This work is written in an attempt at analysing all of these factors within the context of a single volume, utilising the testimonies of perpetrator and victim through many new first-hand and archival sources. This volume also serves as a horrifying and sobering reminder of the capability of manâEUR(TM)s inhumanity through two of the worst military regimes of twentieth-century history.

In answer to Lord KitchenerâEUR(TM)s appeal, in late August and September 1914 many men joined AlexandraâEUR(TM)s Princess of WalesâEUR(TM)s Own Yorkshire Regiment, better known as The Green Howards. Recruits came from around the Middlesbrough area and the ironstone mines on the North Yorkshire moors, while others came from the East Durham coalfield and the Durham City area. The 8th and 9th Battalions left the Regimental Depot in Richmond in late September and moved to Frensham on the Hampshire/Surrey border, where they trained hard until bad weather forced a move to barracks in Aldershot. They arrived on the Somme front at the end of June 1916, but were not involved in the fighting until 5 July, when the 9th Battalion captured Horseshoe trench and Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell won the VC when he destroyed a German machine gun position. On 10 July both battalions took part in the capture of Contalmaison, a village that had been a first day objective. A second VC was awarded posthumously to Private William Short of the 8th Battalion during the fighting in Munster Alley in August 1916. The next year found the 23rd Division in the Ypres Salient, where they were in and out of the line until June 1917 when they took part in the Battle of Messines and the 8th Battalion had the honour of taking Hill 60. In November 1917 the division was sent to Italy to bolster the hard-pressed Italian Army, but the 9th Battalion returned to France in 1918 where they fought until the Armistice. The 8th Battalion stayed on in Italy and fought at the crossing of the Piave and Vittorio Veneto, which brought the war to an end in Italy.

Captain Vincent Bertrand was a French light infantry soldier who survived the key campaigns of Napoleon. Called to arms through conscription, he was directed from his hometown of Nîmes to the depot of the 7ÿme RÃ(c)giment LÃ(c)ger (7th Light Infantry Regiment), in Huningue, where he arrived on 16th November, 1805\. He did not leave this regiment composed almost exclusively of sons of the department of Gard, until 1815. His recollections focus on his loves, adventures and mishaps, as well as the pride of being part of an elite unit. It was this pride that kept him with his regiment and his musket operational during the retreat from Moscow in 1812, unlike his fellow soldiers. He tells of the discipline and organisation of the few soldiers still able to pull their triggers and thrust their bayonets, amidst the frostbite and chaos of those who had become stragglers or marauders. Bertrand's unfailing bravery and composure are evident throughout his memoirs, demonstrating character, discipline and patience, as well as dedication to his regiment and its values and standards. The non-combatants he saved, the esteem he earned from his comrades in battle, and the comfort he gave to a fellow convalescent on the brink of death, would all indicate he was a hero to some, and an admirable soldier to all. Bertrand gives sincere accounts of his time on the battlefields, in the cantonments in Austria, in Germany, in Poland, and finally of the painful stages of his captivity as an Austrian prisoner of war. His writing is entertaining and fast paced, but with plenty of unique detail. First published in 1909 by Bertrand's grandson, this is the first translation from French into English.

National armies, as we know them today, are a comparatively recent development. It has been assumed that the Romans had an army similar to the national institutions of advanced, almost exclusively European, powers at the end of the nineteenth century. But the assumption was wrong as is the belief that changes seen in the armies can be explained because the Romans âEURœreformedâEUR? their armies. Up to the death of Augustus, the Romans had no permanent military forces. Roman armies were raised for particular campaigns and disbanded at their conclusion. Repeated campaigns were conducted in places like northern Italy and Spain but the armies were always disbanded. These armies were not seen by Romans as part of a national institution as modern armies are; they were simply a part of the life of a Roman citizen, like religion or elections. These armies were more like a militia than a national army. There is little evidence even of systematic training and what changes can be detected can be better explained by contingent adaptation to circumstances rather than âEURœreformâEUR?. The emperor Augustus is commonly seen as the originator of the imperial armies but it was an unintended outcome of a long life.

When Hitler came to power in 1933 he promised the German people a technocratic state where science, technology and education would grow and flourish. Unfortunately, any attempts to achieve such a goal were dependent on his educational background which was fundamentally flawed and severely distorted. HitlerâEUR(TM)s schooling was a troubled time where he struggled with many subjects. In particular he found conflicting views between science and religion so difficult to understand it caused him to âEURœrun his head against the wallâEUR?. He was also heavily educated in subjects like myths, magic, pseudo-sciences and the occult which would become his versions of alternative science and alternative facts. These alternatives remained with him into adulthood where, as Fuhrer, his mentality and mindset towards science was highlighted when he announced: "A new age of magic interpretation of the world is coming, of interpretation in terms of the will and not the intelligence."HitlerâEUR(TM)s ideology and rise to power also came at an interesting time for physics which was hinting at that will not intelligence interpretation. The early decades of the twentieth century had seen a revolution in two apparently connected key areas of the subject known as quantum mechanics and relativity; these would have a dramatic influence on Hitler and the physics of the Third Reich. During the 1920s quantum mechanics was suggesting that just by observing an experiment a scientist could alter the outcome and reality. However, at the same time Albert EinsteinâEUR(TM)s theory of relativity was also developing and whereas the two areas were believed to be linked, to the Nazis there was a serious problem. Whereas German physicist Max PlanckâEUR(TM)s quantum physics was a non-Jewish science hinting at that promised magical underlying foundation to physics and reality, Einstein was Jewish and so was his theory. Moreover, relativity was difficult to understand and accept, especially amongst certain right-wing experimental physicists. Therefore, relativity was easy to reject with the magical quantum world eagerly accepted by the Nazis. However, with HitlerâEUR(TM)s ability to understand science clearly strained and steadfast from childhood together with his seething anti-Semitism, this decision set the Nazis on a research road very different from the Allies. As the decade progressed so did the ridicules towards Jewish science through Einstein and his theory. This set in motion extreme anti-Semitic attacks on him by those extreme right-wing experimental physicists many of whom would later find key roles in HitlerâEUR(TM)s government. As such, the theoretical physics dominated by Jewish scientists was rejected en mass with key Jewish scientists dismissed from their academic posts. Instead, the Third Reich favoured experimental, or applied, physics which shaped much of HitlerâEUR(TM)s war machine with the so-called magical interpretation of quantum mechanics and its apparent will over intelligence providing the basis for unconventional pseudo-scientific research, research like free energy, anti-gravity and hidden occultist physics through ancient texts. Through HitlerâEUR(TM)s key reforms in science and education and Heinrich HimmlerâEUR(TM)s SS, science became politicised with an added danger that certain areas were replaced with Nazi alternatives like pseudo-science, magic and the occult. The result was certain areas of true sciences became pseudo-sciences while the Third ReichâEUR(TM)s pseudo-sciences became the true sciences. Disciplines then became Aryan physics, Aryan chemistry, Aryan biology, Aryan mathematics, and so on, with all expected to prove their place within National Socialism or perish. From there science experienced an era of division and decline with loss of freedom and diversity, misapplication of innovation and the inevitable decline in some areas of the natural sciences, especially physics and mathematics. By the warâEUR(TM)s end HimmlerâEUR(TM)s SS had taken control of much of Nazi GermanyâEUR(TM)s scientific research and with the unthinkable dawning on the Nazis that they might lose the war, Hitler placed SS General Hans Kammler in charge of producing new and unconventional wonder weapons, even super weapons, through his own think tank along the lines as HimmlerâEUR(TM)s Ahnenerbe. HitlerâEUR(TM)s faith in Kammler meant he was promoted to only one rank below Himmler working with him in an intense effort to turn the war around, especially following the D-Day landings. To the very end Hitler continued to declare these super weapons would save Nazi Germany, but this led to intolerable strain on his generals when Hitler ordered troops to make last ditch attempts to protect certain locations, locations his generals did not fully understand and made no tactical sense as the Allies advanced on Berlin. Once again, Hitler had failed to understand the true situation while Kammler and Himmler had their own plans in place. It is clear the foundations of HitlerâEUR(TM)s education and its support by like-minded Nazis set in place a destiny that helped the downfall of the Third Reich. Consequently, over time the promised veneer of scientific and educational modernisation under his technocratic state suffered seriously and although this did not initially cause his government to collapse, it neither allowed it to thrive anywhere close to the many promises he made to the German people. All this was a far cry from GermanyâEUR(TM)s scientific research of the nineteenth century which saw staggering achievements up to HitlerâEUR(TM)s rise to power. These golden years built an unrivalled global reputation from the foundations of chemistry expanding into other scientific disciplines like physics and astronomy. In doing so GermanyâEUR(TM)s economy flourished and by the early twentieth century over half of the Nobel Prizes were won by German scientists or German speaking scientists many of whom were Jews. Although Hitler spoke of the golden years and promised to build upon them, it was yet another broken promise based on his lack of scientific understanding and how science needed to do its job. With fleeing Jewish scientists and failures under a dictator focused on pseudo-science and seething anti-Semitism, the Allies took full advantage of the destiny Hitler had created for himself.

Hersch effectively uses his fatherâEUR(TM)s unusual story to convey the horrors of the Holocaust. A valuable addition to Holocaust literature. - Publishers WeeklyHersch's amazing tale is told for the first time by his son Jack who has retraced his footsteps for his new book. - The Daily MailIn a warm and emotionally engaging story, Jack digs deeply into both his father's life and his own, revisiting - and reflecting on - his father's time at the hands of the Nazis during the last year of the Second World War, when more than mere survival was at stake - the fate of humanity itself hung in the balance. - GoodReadsIn June 1944, the Nazis locked eighteen-year-old Dave Hersch into a railroad boxcar and shipped him from his hometown of Dej, Hungary, to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, the harshest, cruelest camp in the Reich. After ten months in the granite mines of MauthausenâEUR(TM)s nearby sub-camp, Gusen, he weighed less than 80lbs, nothing but skin and bones. Somehow surviving the relentless horrors of these two brutal camps, as Allied forces drew near Dave was forced to join a death march to Gunskirchen Concentration Camp, over thirty miles away. Soon after the start of the march, and more dead than alive, Dave summoned a burst of energy he did not know he had and escaped. Quickly recaptured, he managed to avoid being killed by the guards. Put on another death march a few days later, he achieved the impossible: he escaped again. Dave often told his story of survival and escape, and his son, Jack, thought he knew it well. But years after his fatherâEUR(TM)s death, he came across a photograph of his father on, of all places, the Mauthausen MemorialâEUR(TM)s website. It was an image he had never seen before âEUR" and it propelled him on an intensely personal journey of discovery. Using only his fatherâEUR(TM)s words for guidance, Jack takes us along as he flies to Europe to learn the secrets behind the photograph, secrets his father never told of his time in the camps. Beginning in the verdant hills of his fatherâEUR(TM)s Hungarian hometown, we travel with Jack to the foreboding rock mines of Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, to the dust-choked roads and intersections of the death marches, and, finally, to the makeshift hiding places of his fatherâEUR(TM)s rescuers. We accompany JackâEUR(TM)s every step as he describes the unimaginable: what his father must have seen and felt while struggling to survive in the most abominable places on earth. In a warm and emotionally engaging story, Jack digs deeply into both his fatherâEUR(TM)s life and his own, revisiting âEUR" and reflecting on âEUR" his fatherâEUR(TM)s time at the hands of the Nazis during the last year of the Second World War, when more than mere survival was at stake âEUR" the fate of humanity itself hung in the balance.

The British Railways âEUR¿Pilot SchemeâEUR(TM) orders of 1955 included six North British Type 2 diesel-hydraulic locomotives, these being introduced during 1959 for use on the Western Region. Without operational experience, a further fifty-two locomotives were delivered between 1959 and 1962\. The fleet survived intact until 1968, when half of the class was withdrawn due to declining traffic levels across the UK, with successive National Traction Plans progressively selecting the less successful, non-standard and âEUR¿numerically-challengedâEUR(TM) classes for removal from traffic. All fifty-eight locomotives were withdrawn by New Years Day, 1972. This book, the second of two, builds on the overview of the class provided in Volume 1, and makes extensive use of available archive material and the personal observations of numerous enthusiasts. Previously unpublished information, covering the performance issues of these locomotives, form a central focus, together with details of fire incidents and accidents. Liveries and detail differences are given in-depth treatment to illustrate that there really were reasons and a logical progression behind the complicated series of design modifications applied to the Class. Volume 2 concludes with sections on storage, withdrawal and final disposal.

William and Mary, BritainâEUR(TM)s most mysterious monarchs, were married for reasons of dynastic convenience. Their union gradually developed into a happy and successful one, despite WilliamâEUR(TM)s frequent absences on military campaign. They shared interests such as art and gardening, both of which they practised at their palace retreat, Het Loo. Despite the fact that Mary was heir presumptive to her father, the Duke of York, they might have expected to remain in the Netherlands for the rest of their lives. Midway through their marriage, their way of life changed substantially when MaryâEUR(TM)s father, now King James II, was rejected by his English and Scottish subjects because of his fervent Catholicism. William, a foreigner, was accepted as a replacement primarily because of his British queen. The couple had Kensington Palace built, to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, and their renovations at Hampton Court Palace, also by Wren, gave the palace much of its present character. The monarchy was now fully answerable to Parliament, but wives were still generally subservient to their husbands. William and Mary ruled jointly for only seven years, with Mary working conscientiously to maintain order in the country during her husbandâEUR(TM)s absences. William continued to reign alone for only a further seven years after MaryâEUR(TM)s death. Their fourteen years on the throne were critical ones in the history of the British Isles, and the world of William and Mary was one that in many ways would be recognisable to us today.

The story of King Henry VIII, a man who married six times only to execute two of those wives, is part of Great BritainâEUR(TM)s national and international identity. Each year, millions of people walk around the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Hever Castle, plus many other historical sites, taking in and hoping to glean some sense of the man and the myth, and yet there is a period from Henry VIIIâEUR(TM)s life which remains largely overlooked, a period in which he chose not to execute wives, servants or ministers, but instead turned on another group entirely - his own family. Like practically all members of the nobility of the time, Henry VIII descended from King Edward III, which ensured a ready-made crop of royal cousins were in abundance at his court, and awkwardly for the king, these cousins often possessed much greater claims to the throne than he did. The house of Tudor was one which should never have been, let alone taken the throne. Upstarts in every sense of the word, their ancestry, whilst (almost) noble, was by no means as grand as many a family in England, and it is against this backdrop that this book was created. The Pole family, the subjects of the story, were royalty in secret. Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the family matriarch, was a niece of King Edward IV and Richard III, making her a first cousin of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen consort, and thus a first cousin once removed of Henry VIII. Margaret Pole was, therefore, one of the most senior members of the nobility at the Tudor court, and through her, her sons, her daughter, and her grandchildren possessed a dangerous name and dangerous bloodline, which put them on a collision course with the most volatile man ever to sit the throne of England. They were the old guard, the house of Plantagenet, the greatest ruling dynasty in English history, the true royal family, and this, coupled with the monumental shifts which England underwent during the reign of Henry VIII, all but ensured their destruction. For centuries, their story has been overlooked, or at best, fleetingly covered, but when one digs deep, a story as audacious and juicy as itâEUR(TM)s possible to be soon emerges.

The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, was the frontline in the Cold War, packed with hundreds of thousands of Soviet and East German troops armed with the latest Warsaw Pact equipment, lined up along the 1,400 km Inner German Border. However, because of the repressive East German police state, little human intelligence about these forces reached the West. Who were they? Where were they located? What were they doing? How were they equipped? What were their intentions? NATO was lined up in West Germany to face these forces and relied on getting up-to-date intelligence to warn of any threat, âEUR¿Indicators of HostilityâEUR(TM) that could be a precursor to an invasion. BRIXMIS, the British CommandersâEUR(TM)-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany, was on hand to provide that intelligence. Thanks to an obscure 1946 agreement between the British and Soviets that established âEUR¿liaison missionsâEUR(TM) in their respective zones of occupation, the British were able to send highly qualified military âEUR¿observersâEUR(TM) into East Germany to roam (relatively) freely and keep an eye on what was going on. What started as âEUR¿liaisonâEUR(TM), a point of contact between the British and Soviet occupation forces, developed into a very sophisticated intelligence gathering operation, sending âEUR¿toursâEUR(TM) out every day of the year, between 1946 and when the Mission closed in 1990\. These tours were undertaken in high-performance, highly modified marked vehicles, with personnel in uniform and unarmed, apart from professional photographic equipment and occasionally some top-secret gadgets from the boffins back in the UK. They joined their French and American colleagues in snooping around the opposition, photographing military bases, equipment, and manoeuvres, and trying to evade capture by the secret police and counterintelligence units. They faced danger and violence daily, but thanks to their bravery and professionalism, the West had accurate and up to date information on what was happening in East Germany which help keep the peace all that time. This is the story of this little-known unit and their exploits behind enemy lines.

Railway modelling offers a unique opportunity for the modeller to construct and operate an authentic simulation of the real thing. When one creates a model railway, one should strive to embed the sense of purpose from the real railway into their model. Simply moving trains around aimlessly around a layout may be enjoyable, but it doesnâEUR(TM)t reflect how the real railway operates. There is much focus on absolute accuracy with regards to locomotives and rolling stock but far fewer modellers in general pay attention to prototypical accuracy and replicating authentic railway operations in miniature. Operating your layout in a realistic fashion is not only more authentic, but it can also be an enjoyable pastime in its own right. It gives purpose to the movement of every train on the layout and, if it involves co-operation between more than one operator, involves teamwork and good communication which can be immensely satisfying. Finally, realistic operation is supported by many other factors, a sense of time and setting, sensible track layout, correct placement of signals, the proper formation of trains, realistic civil engineering, and layout âEUR¿clutterâEUR(TM). These all add to the overall atmosphere and setting of a real or fictional railway, tying it to a time and place, and making the whole ensemble more authentic and thus making the whole experience feel more âEUR¿realâEUR(TM). This book is intended to help those with an interest in the BR Blue (TOPS) and Sectorisation eras present their layout in a realistic manner using easy-to-understand sketches and drawings, previously unpublished period photographs and source material from the era. This book will give the reader ideas to help their N Gauge model railway come to life.

In the Fall of 1947, an eighty-four-year-old woman receives an extraordinary invitation. Though much that happened was a lifetime ago and in a different world, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, now the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, holds the heavy vellum envelop for a moment in her hands. Within is the end of a long journey seeking vindication for a husband who gave his life to the service of the Royal Navy and received, in return, ingratitude. Within is the reminder of a life lived with her family that is mostly gone. However, for one exquisite moment, it returns as she opens the envelope:_The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by Their Majesties to invite The Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven to the Ceremony of the Marriage of Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth,  with Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, Royal Navy in Westminster Abbey, on Thursday, 20th November 1947, at 11.30 oâEUR(TM)clock, a.m._Thus begins the story of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Victoria, the eldest daughter of Princess Alice and Prince Ludwig of Hesse, was born in April 1863\. One of the envied grandchildren of Queen Victoria, she was related to most of the Royal Families of Europe âEUR" a member of the fabled âEURœRoyal MobâEUR?. The obstacles that characterized VictoriaâEUR(TM)s life began with her motherâEUR(TM)s untimely death. Queen Victoria helped her granddaughter shoulder the responsibilities of caring for the motherless family, writing letters of advice and guidance, a correspondence lasting some thirty years. In April 1884, Victoria married the dashing Prince Louis of Battenberg, an officer in the Royal Navy, who eventually became BritainâEUR(TM)s First Sea Lord. Their daughter, Alice, was the future mother of Prince Philip and their youngest child, another Louis, was Viceroy of India. On the eve of World War I, Prince Louis of Battenberg, was forced to resign because of his German surname, which he later changed to Mountbatten. VictoriaâEUR(TM)s sister, Alix, who had taken the name Alexandra when she married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and her entire family was murdered in 1918. Progressive and intelligent, Victoria was the lynchpin of her family. Through cataclysms, both familial and historical, travelling from pre-revolutionary Russia to the British Mandate of Palestine, VictoriaâEUR(TM)s life was as exciting as it was triumphant.

This is the story of how the luxurious steam yachts of the Victorian and Edwardian eras were transformed into weapons of war. These beautiful vessels were the ultimate status symbols of British and European royalty, American magnates, the landed aristocracy and the nouveau riche, but when wars came, in 1898 and 1914, they were quickly transformed into warships, and many of their crews became warriors rather than servants. The US Navy was the first to recognise the potential of these elegant vessels. In the Spanish-American war of 1898, the USN âEUR" short of ships to operate a blockade of Spanish-owned Cuba âEUR" purchased twenty-eight of them and turned them into patrol craft and bombardment ships. In Britain in 1914 steam yachts became a stop gap navy, filling in for neglected investment in small craft. The USN followed suit in 1917\. Their wonderful interiors were ripped out, antiquated guns and sometimes depth charges fitted, and their crews signed into the naval reserves. Around the coasts of the Britain and France, in the Mediterranean and the USA, Canada, these former luxurious playthings now attacked land positions and fought surface warships and U-boats. They interdicted blockade runners, escorted convoys, were used as depot ships, served as hospitals afloat and undertook a host of other functions. In all, some 300 yachts fought at sea. This new book, lavishly illustrated with photographs and plans of pre-war and wartime steam yachts from a world now lost to view, tells their story and the stories of the men who served in them. It examines their peacetime origins and development, describes their owners and designers, and considers their naval deployment, the conditions under which the crews lived and worked, the many and varied duties assigned to the yachts, and their successes and failures together with the losses sustained. In just a couple of generations these beautiful craft progressed from status symbols to instruments of war to complete extinction; Steam Yachts at War tells this compelling story.

_DonâEUR(TM)t you know thereâEUR(TM)s a war on?!__Use it upâEUR¿ Wear it outâEUR¿ Make it doâEUR¿ Or do without!__Loose Lips Sink Ships!__Any Bonds Today?__Remember Pearl Harbor!_Those were the slogans Americans called out to each other on the home front during WW II. They forged their days surrounded by fellow patriots sharing in the greatest endeavour of their lives: winning the war. The American Home Front in WW II presents the striking story of those times starting with little-known events well before Pearl Harbor âEUR" the clashes between isolationists and those favoring intervention and AmericaâEUR(TM)s first peacetime draft. The shock of Pearl Harbor transformed America from a peacetime country to a full wartime economy. Factories produced an airplane every sixty-one minutes. Women and Blacks entered the workforce as never before bringing about earthshaking changes. Americans describe in their own words the rigors of everyday life: rationing, air raid drills, rigging up black curtains and scrap drives. But Americans found ways to enjoy themselves- movie attendance swelled with films such as Casablanca while Broadway brought audiences Oklahoma. The music of Glen Miller and the voice of a skinny newcomer named Frank Sinatra had Americans swinging and swooning. The American Home Front in WW II brings this story to life to capture the extraordinary level of patriotism and teamwork on the home front. It truly was a time when there were no strangers.

Daughter, Wife, Princess, Widow and Queen: Anne Neville had many faces. Shakespeare presents her to us as a woman consumed with rage, bitterness and grief. He has her cursing the killer of her husband and father, before marrying him and condemning herself to despair. She rages, screams and weeps but ultimately she is shown as nothing more than a passive victim of the men who used and exploited her. This could not be further from the truth. Born into one of the most powerful dynasties in medieval England, Anne knew her worth, and her power. She was a great survivor escaping the tide of blood that consumed England not just alive but emerging with a crown on her head. Tragedy would untimely engulf her, the death of her son ended all her hopes for a lasting legacy and her premature death was subject to rumour and speculation. But there is undoubtedly more to Anne than her marriage and her end. She is fascinating, elusive, a powerbroker and very much her fatherâEUR(TM)s daughter. This is AnneâEUR(TM)s story.

_WW2 Codebreaking People and Places_ is the first volume of a series on a glossary of codebreaking, âEUR¿People and PlacesâEUR(TM), brings to the reader an easily understandable account and listing, of those involved in collecting and analysing military intelligence, principally during the second world war. Whilst some will be well known, such as Alan Turing, many others have made significant contributions to codebreaking but fail to attract the attention of the media for the most part. From an individual named âEUR¿WrenâEUR(TM) who worked at a codebreaking outstation supporting Bletchley Park, to a mathematician who modified a codebreaking machine just prior to D-Day, to a ladies foundationwear factory in Hertfordshire that helped make machine components, these people and places now can be appreciated as to where they fitted-in within the overall picture of gathering, and processing enemy intelligence in wartime. The entries are cross-referenced to enable the reader to research as much or as little as they want, to dip-in to the glossary, to use it as a basis for further study, or just to learn a little more about the people that helped us win the war with our allied friends. .

The war of 1809 between France and Habsburg Austria, culminating in the titanic battle of Wagram, has been described often as NapoleonâEUR(TM)s last successful campaign. Napoleon said later that the manoeuvres and actions of the French army and their German allies in the opening two weeks of this conflict were among the most brilliant and skilful of his entire career. But matters might have gone very differently. A series of miscalculations, mistakes and poor communications, both prior to AustriaâEUR(TM)s declaration of war and in the early days of hostilities, might have resulted in a major setback, if not a disaster, for the French Emperor. That they did not is due in large part to the decisions and actions of Marshal Louis Davout, the so-called âEURœIron MarshallâEUR?This is the first English study of Marshal Davout's command and leadership in over fifty years. Little known outside of France, Louis Davout was one of the finest generals in Napoleon's army, as evidenced by his comprehensive defeat of the main Prussian force at Auerstadt in October 1806\. A hard, even harsh, disciplinarian, an utterly ruthless opponent on the field of battle, Davout was also a loving family man, meticulously concerned for the health and well-being of his troops, and able to command the loyalty of his divisional commanders for far longer than any of his contemporaries. In this new study, Martin Sullivan describes in detail the decision-making processes and actions of Marshal Davout, and from this analysis illustrates leadership concepts and theories which remain relevant to the world of today. Focusing upon the opening phase of the Wagram campaign, he examines in detail the decisions and actions of the participants, Davout, his opponent the Archduke Charles, and Napoleon himself. By this method the art of leadership may be seen exercised in the heat of an intense and deadly conflict.

This is the incredible story of David Charles "Mad Dog" Dolby and fierce firefight in Vietnam in 1966 that would see him awarded the Medal of Honor. As exceptional a feat as that was, Dolby would return to Vietnam for four additional tours. In 1967 he was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, the famous Screaming Eagles. On his third tour in 1969 he would join C Company (Ranger), 75th Infantry (Airborne), First Field Force Vietnam. For his final two tours in 1970 and 1971, Dolby would act as an Adviser to the Vietnamese Rangers, and finally to soldiers of the Royal Cambodian Army.

_Friends_ ran for ten years, beginning in 1994 and airing its final episode in 2005\. The show is inarguably the peak sitcom of its era. It's the most remembered, most quoted and so essential that companies have spent hundreds of millions on the streaming rights to _Friends_ in recent years. But why does _Friends_ mean so much to so many? What did this sitcom have that the other giant shows of that era didnâEUR(TM)t?This is a deep dive into the history of _Friends_, but itâEUR(TM)s also the history of ten years of network television. How did the world of sitcoms evolve through that decade? How much of a showâEUR(TM)s success is down to small details like schedules and syndication, and how much of it is down to the content itself?The landscape of television has changed drastically in the years since the end of _Friends_, but the biggest show of sitcomâEUR(TM)s golden age has endured like no other. This look at the history of _Friends_, its legacy and the history of television in general will show you why. Both why the television industry has become what it is today, and why _Friends_ has survived long beyond its decade. This is a celebration of _Friends_, an interrogation of its success, and a history of television that explains much of whatâEUR(TM)s on our screens today.

Tracing your Yorkshire ancestors using the internet has never been easier, with literally millions of records available to explore. But with so much material available, it can be difficult to know how to get started and what records to use. Rachel Bellerby's brand new guide is a follow-up to the best-selling Tracing Your Yorkshire Ancestors and is packed with up-to-date information on finding your Yorkshire forebears online. From the basics of birth, marriage and death, through migration and education, and looking at the tough times such as poverty and ill health, Rachel Bellerby guides us through the thousands of websites available, with tips and advice from family history professionals around Yorkshire. The themed chapters make it easy to decide what information you would like to find out and the best websites to use. With step-by-step guidance on smart searching and time saving tips, this guide has everything you need to enjoy the journey of tracing your Yorkshire ancestors on the internet, wherever in the world you live.

_Operation Bagration_ analyses the great Russian offensive in Belorussia in the summer of 1944 covering the planning of the operation as well as the German plans of the summer campaign of 1944\. In depth research sets out to determine the real ratio of the Soviet and German forces as well as their actual losses during the operation. As well as some good decisions, command on both sides made some crucial mistakes as well as main tactical errors all of which are studied in this book to produce a fully rounded view of the campaign and highlights a connection to Operation Overlord by proving that it was only due to the landing at Normandy that the Soviet forces were able to destroy the German Army Group Centre while the elite mobile forces were concentrated in France.

A rip-roaring gallop through the lives of the Royal Flying Corps air crew in the Great War. They lived their lives amidst a strange dichotomy as they moved from safety to dire danger, and back again in a matter of hours. This created a dreadful strain that could soon shred anyone's mental health. On the ground they were cloistered in simple but adequate accommodation several miles behind the lines. Farmhouses, barns and huts were used, but they were all far better than the squalor faced by the infantry scurrying in their muddy trenches. Flying personnel were blessed with beds and blankets. They could set up a decent mess and socialise to their heart's content. A smorgasbord of entertainments, with perhaps an old out of tune piano, access to drink and occasional vigorous games of mess rugby. There were visits to local towns which offered tantalizing glimpses - and sometimes more - of the female of the species. A glimpse was probably never enough for most of these very young men. What more could a chap want?But when they were flying over the front it was no laughing matter. Death lurked in the skies, zooming in its 'winged chariots' out of the sun, or bursting from the clouds. A moment's loss of concentration, or tactical blunder, could consign them to being shot down and falling thousands of feet until the crunching impact of terra firma brought a terrible relief. But better that than a punctured petrol tank, the first flickers of flame, then the roaring inferno and the agonies of incineration. There was little or nothing for them to laugh about in the air. But when back on the ground they tried to put aside their fears.

An edited collection with contributions by leading scholars and writers brought together by a prize-winning author who has edited the text and contributed chapters. The Grand Tour and touiing was a part of the education of every young lady and gentleman in the eighteenth century and also scholars, poets, writers. scientists and commentators. Visits to Greece and Italy via France and Switzerland, and taking in Turkey, were usual. Both sexes travelled extensively taking extended trips The book will examine first-hand accounts of the impact of foreign travel, and will include written sources including letters, travel diaries, journals and creative response in poems, music and paintings. The book is especially important, original and relevant in light of possible xenophobia and views of Europe and near-Europe as 'foreign'; and there have been several works expressing negative views. But travellers here saw their visits in a positive light and questions of 'otherness' and exoticism are examined with cultural appreciation overcoming 'cultural appropriation'. Questions examined include how men and women saw new worlds, what delighted them, personal influences and interaction with others - sexually, domestic relations and friendships - and influence on their work in poems, art and letters.

_âEUR¿By focusing attention on a poorly understood but vitally important aspect of ChurchillâEUR(TM)s career, Tucker-Jones has performed an important service. Churchill Cold War Warrior should be read, not only as a commentary on the ironies of history, but also as an essay on the potential and the limits of power.âEUR(TM) - _PROFESSOR RICHARD TOYE, AUTHOR OF WINSTON CHURCHILL: A LIFE IN THE NEWSIn Churchill Cold War Warrior, renowned military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones reassesses Winston ChurchillâEUR(TM)s neglected postwar career. He explains how in an unguarded moment Winston inadvertently sowed the seeds for the Cold War by granting Stalin control of Eastern Europe. Famously Churchill, at Fulton, then warned of the growing danger created by this partition of the continent. Winston after the Second World War wanted to prove a point. Shunned by the electorate in 1945, instead of retiring he was determined to be Prime Minister for a second time. Biding his time he watched in dismay as Britain scuttled from India and Palestine and weathered the East-West confrontation over Berlin. He finally got his way in 1951 and took the reins of a country with drastically waning powers. Churchill was confronted by a world in turmoil, with an escalating Cold War that had gone hot in Korea and an unravelling British Empire. Communism and nationalism proved a heady cocktail that fanned the flames of widespread conflict. He had to contain rebellions in Kenya and Malaya while clinging on in Egypt. Desperately he also sought to avoid a Third World War and the use of nuclear weapons.

After over half a century of secrecy, a Swiss bank safe was opened, it contained the long-lost research notes of Josef Mengele, as well as those of his chief assistant in Auschwitz. They had been deposited there by the assistant who himself had been a Jewish doctor. Sent to Auschwitz, he was forced to participate in Josef MengeleâEUR(TM)s gruesome human experiments. Following the war, he completely disappeared, assuming a new identity and shrouding himself in silence. He did write his story down, but ordered the documents to be sealed away until decades after his death. With the release date drawing closer, his granddaughter, a well-connected Vatican doctor, wanted to have the documents examined by a professional historian. Thus, a great investigation was launched to track him down and pin down his place in the medical system in Auschwitz and the horrendous medical experiments conducted there. However, after some time, doubts regarding the authenticity of the documents began to emerge. Thus, what promised to be a sensational historical breakthrough, soon turned into a criminal investigation into one of the greatest historical fraud attempts in recent decades. At the end of the second investigation, the person behind the forged documents was brought to trial and sentenced on 22 counts of fraud. This book thoroughly examines the way the fraud evolved over the span of three decades and how it succeeded in convincing so many people, while also comparing it to other historic hoaxes, particularly those concerning the Holocaust.

The Tudors as a dynasty executed many people, both high and low. But the nobility were the ones consistently involved in treason, either deliberately or unconsciously. Exploring the long sixteenth century under each of the Tudor monarchs gives a sense of how and why so many were executed for what was considered the worst possible crime and how the definition of treason changed over the period. This book examines how and why Tudor nobles like Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham; Queen Consort Anne Boleyn; Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, fell into the trap of treason and ended up on the block under the executionerâEUR(TM)s axe. Treason and the Tudor nobility seem to go hand in hand as, by the end of the sixteenth century and the advent of the Stuart dynasty, no dukes remained in England. How did this happen and why?

The dinosaurs are a source of endless fascination, and each new generation is inspired and enchanted by images of these wondrous and awe-inspiring creatures that dominated the Earth eons of time ago. The smallest was the size of a chicken; the largest on record, the titanosaur _Argentinosaurus huinculensis_, weighed about 95 tonsâEUR"fifteen times as much as an African bull elephant (todayâEUR(TM)s largest terrestrial creature). Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for no less than 181 million years: about 600 times longer than _Homo sapiens_ have existed on the planet (_Homo sapiens_ is defined as the primate species to which modern humans belong: the first modern humans having evolved in Africa about 300,000 years ago). Today, the consensus is that the dinosaurs became extinct when a meteorite impacted with the Earth 66 million years ago, covering it with a thick layer of soot and throwing up enormous quantities of dust which caused the sky to darken, and photosynthesis on which all terrestrial animals ultimately depend for their survival to cease. The unanswered question, however, is how did mammals, reptiles, and birds (which are the only species of dinosaur to survive) escape this holocaust?An entirely new theory is put forward for the first time to explain this mysterious and intriguing phenomenon.

Situated in the Welsh borderland to the West of Oswestry, the scenic Tanat Valley reached westwards into Wales, its Llangynog terminus nestling where the road starts the climb over the Berwyn mountain range towards Bala. It was a lightly populated area that sustained agriculture and some mineral extraction whose residents struggled to get their produce to market. During the 19th Century there were several schemes for a railway that failed due their inability to raise sufficient capital. The Tanat Valley Light Railway is, therefore, a true child of the 1896 Light Railways Act, promoted by the Oswestry Urban District Council the following year to take advantage of the grant-making facilities of that legislation. Because it took so long to obtain powers, and it was not opened until 1906, the Light Railway never really fulfilled its potential. Operated initially by the Cambrian Railways, it was not heavily worked, although it benefited from pipe traffic generated by renewals of Liverpool CorporationâEUR(TM)s Vyrnwy reservoir pipeline. Although closure came in stages during the 1950s, and was deemed to be complete in 1960, a short section of track remains in situ at Porthywaen. Author Peter Johnson has drawn on the material available at the National Archives at Kew and the Parliamentary Archives in the House of Lords as well as conducting extensive research in digitised newspapers to tell the Light RailwayâEUR(TM)s story, producing the first in-depth account of its development, operation and closure. Peter Johnson is also the author of The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway âEUR" the rise and fall of a rural byway, published by Pen & Sword Transport in 2024\. The two railways were connected at Blodwel Junction and the surviving section of the Tanat Valley Light Railway thence to Porthywaen enabled stone traffic on the Shropshire & MontgomeryshireâEUR(TM)s Nantmawr branch to continue until 1971.