For four centuries the British realm depended upon sea power to defend its interest and independence against a myriad of threats both military and economic. During this time the Royal Navy established itself as the sovereign of the Seas, helping transform England, and later Great Britain, from an unassuming island nation perched on the edge of the European continent to the centre of a global empire. Yet the advent of World War II presented Britain’s maritime services with their greatest challenge to date. At stake was the survival of the nation. The Longest Campaign tells the story of this epic struggle and the indispensable role that British sea power played in bringing about the victory that shaped the world we live in today. The Longest Campaign is a complete, balanced and detailed account of the activities, results and relevance of Britain's maritime effort in the Atlantic and off northwest Europe throughout World War II. It looks at the entire breadth of the maritime conflict, exploring the contributions of all participants including the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British merchant marine and their Commonwealth equivalents. It puts the maritime conflict in the context of the overall war effort and shows how the various operations and campaigns were intertwined. Finally it provides unique analysis of the effectiveness of the British maritime effort and role it played in bringing about the final Allied victory.

Between 1940 and 1945, large numbers of trucks of all categories were delivered to the U.S. Army by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors. Over 160,000 of these trucks were the G-506 light four-wheel drive trucks - which became the standard 1 1/2-ton, 4x4 truck for both the U.

Lying dead in Gettysburg in 1863, a solitary Union soldier lacked any standard means of identification. Only a single clue was clutched in his fingers: an ambrotype of his three young children.With this photograph the single clue to his identity, a publicity campaign to locate the soldier's family swept the North. Within a month, his grieving widow and children would be located in Portville, New York. The soldier, a devoted husband and father, was revealed as Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. Using many previously untapped sources, noted historian Mark H. Dunkelman recreates the fascinating story of 19th-century war, sentiment, and popular culture in full detail.The Humiston story touched deep emotions in Civil War America, inspiring a wave of prose, poetry, and song. Amid the outpouring of public sympathy, a charitable drive grew to assist the bereft family. At the end of the war, the crusade was expanded to establish a home in Gettysburg for orphans of deceased soldiers, The Homestead. The first residents of the institution were Amos Humiston's widow Philinda and her three children: Franklin, Alice, and Frederick. In this extensive account, a full portrait emerges of Amos Humiston, the husband and father destined to be remembered for his death tableau, and of his family, the widow and orphans who struggled for the rest of their lives with celebrity born of tragedy.This paperback reprint edition is updated with a new introduction by the author, as well as a foreword by Academy award-winning film director Errol Morris.

In the search for the deeper causes of the ‘War to end all wars’ the reading public has been presented with countless titles by military, diplomatic and intellectual historians. Some of these have, however, been motivated by a desire to show how their authors would have preferred the past events to have been, so as to promote some present-day agenda. This is the fallacy of ‘presentism’. John Moses was trained at the Universities of Munich and Erlangen by professors committed to the Rankean tradition of showing ‘how it actually was’, as far as humanly possible, based on diligent archival research and with the strictest objectivity and emotional detachment. Consequently, both Moses and Overlack have been at pains to identify the essential peculiarity of the Kaiser’s Germany and have focused sharply on the question of how its war planning impinged on Australasia.

Guy Gaunt’s infiltration of America’s leadership changed the course of history. When the Great War began he was the British naval attaché in Washington, beached for recklessness at sea. Taking over a network of disaffected immigrants he thwarted all efforts by the powerful German-American establishment in the United States to stop America from supporting the Allies. The exposure of a sinister German underground showed President Woodrow Wilson that America could not remain neutral. The Foreign Office never forgave him for outclassing its fledgling Secret Service. Toughened by early life in the turbulent Australian goldfields, Guy built a career by playing outside the rules. As well as dodging his way up the ranks of the Royal Navy, he married for money, snatched up a country estate, won a seat in Parliament and faked his disappearance to run off with the wife of the King’s doctor. His half-dozen siblings also made their mark in the world. Stirring accounts of her intrepid solo journeys across West Africa and China made the oldest, Mary, a literary star. The youngest, Lucy, ran Australia’s first university college for women. Cecil became a colonel in a prestigious British regiment. Ernest, an admiral as Guy would also become, led his ships at the Battle of Jutland. Clive was the Crown Prosecutor of Burma, Lancelot a Singapore legal wizard. There was never a family like these Gaunts. The others, however, could not outshine Guy. He was active again - new life, new wife - in World War II. But the Whitehall mandarins took a cruel revenge.

This edition of a work of the first of its kind to be published in Australia in 2006 is an updated analysis of what happened to soldiers who suffered psychologically in the First World War. Madness and the Military compellingly revisits this long-ignored aspect of Australian military history and suggests a link with so-called shell shock and moral injury. Hailed by experts as both compassionate and instrumental in opening a whole new field of Australian history, it tries to make sense of that forgotten generation of war veterans. It also effectively challenges a number of long-cherished myths surrounding both the commemoration of that war and the treatment of wartime psychological casualties.

The Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII aircraft profiles to date of Japanese aircraft in the “South Seas” theatre. Volume One illustrates, by unit, Japanese Army Air Force fighter aircraft operating in New Guinea and the Solomons from December 1942 to April 1944. In this theatre numerous different aircraft types and their variants were assigned to eleven fighter regiments which formed the 4th Air Army. Unit insignia, camouflage and command markings varied from unit to unit, giving a wide variety of colour and markings. The profiles, based on photos, Japanese documents, Allied intelligence reports and post-war wreck investigations, are accompanied by brief histories of the relevant units and explanations of their role in the theatre. The author, Michael Claringbould, is world-renown for his expertise in respect to wartime Japanese aviation. These profiles accurately portray Japanese Army Air Force fighters during this fascinating and esoteric component of the Pacific air war.

Dwight David Eisenhower is one of those men who marked their imprint on the history of the 20th century as Commander of the Allied forces in the Mediterranean and Europe during the World War II, but it is often forgotten that he held the Oval Office of the White House for eight years. The one who was affectionately nicknamed Ike since his childhood in Abilene was always a reasoned and reasonable man.

The Lafayette Escadrille was an all-volunteer squadron of Americans who flew for France during World War I. One hundred years later, it is still arguably the best-known fighter squadron ever to take to the skies. In this work the entire history of these gallant volunteers - who named themselves after the Marquis Lafayette, who came to America’s aid during its Revolution - is laid out in both text and pictorial form. In time for the centennial celebration, this work not only tells the fascinating story of the Lafayette Escadrille, it shows it. Already a student of the squadron, the author spent a full year sifting through university and museum archives in the United States and France for photographs and documents relating to the famed unit. To complement these images, he traveled extensively, taking snapshots of existing markers and memorials honoring the men of the Lafayette Escadrille. In France, he specifically sought out locations where the squadron operated and its pilots frequented. In several cases, he was able to match his present-day color photos with contemporary images of the same scene, thus creating a unique then-and-now comparison. To add even more color, the author included artwork and aircraft profiles by recognized illustrators, along with numerous full-color photographs of artifacts relating to the squadron's men and airplanes, as they are displayed today in various museums in the United States and France. The result is undoubtedly the finest photographic collection of the Lafayette Escadrille to appear in print. Along with the expert text revealing air-combat experiences as well as life at the front during the Great War, it is a never-before-seen visual history that both World War I aviation aficionados and those with a passing interest in history will appreciate.

This Volume Two of Pacific Adversaries conveys detailed stories of aerial warfare in the South Pacific, chosen because both Japanese and Allied records can be matched for an accurate accounting. Often the actual outcomes are very different to the exaggerated claims made by both sides upon which many traditional histories have relied to date. Further, for each of the chosen stories photographic or other evidence enables an accurate depiction of the aircraft involved. Through these chosen snapshots, Pacific Adversaries will portray the South Pacific conflict as accurately as possible. This second volume focuses exclusively on confrontations with the Japanese Navy Air Force (JNAF) in New Guinea and the Solomons, known to the Japanese as the “South Seas”. The JNAF first appeared in the South Pacific in December 1941 and was at the vanguard of offensive efforts during the course of 1942. Following the bloody Guadalcanal campaign, the JNAF fought a largely defensive war in New Guinea and the Solomons against increasingly powerful Allied forces. Perhaps surprisingly, right through to the end of 1943 the JNAF offered significant resistance to the Allies and never ceded air superiority in the vicinity of its key base of Rabaul. Only in 1944, when units were withdrawn to the Central Pacific and the Philippines, was the JNAF presence in the South Pacific finally wound down to just a token force. Never before have detailed accounts matched up adversaries so closely and in doing so shine light on key events in Pacific skies so many years ago.

Very few Australians today know of the fierce air battles fought across the Top End of Australia in World War II.For more than two years Japanese aircraft crossed the coast and bombed relentlessly. Savage dogfights were fought between the legendary Zero fighter and Allied Kittyhawks and Spitfires. Big twin-engine Betty bombers rained down blast and fire upon airfields and towns, even penetrating as far inland as Katherine, some 300 kilometres from the coast.Nearly 200 Japanese aircrew died in the onslaught. This book lists all of their names and describes all of the combat missions – and reveals for the first time that the number of combat flights, aircraft shot down, and aircrew who died is far higher than previously thought. Scores of aircraft were downed in combat operations ranging from Exmouth to Townsville, with the majority of action taking place in the Northern Territory. This new extensive research shows the number of air raids was higher than the previously suggested figure of 64, with 77 raids on the Territory alone, while 207 enemy combat flights were carried out across Northern Australia. 187 Japanese airmen died when their aircraft were brought down. In many cases their bodies lie in remote sites across the vast bush and coastal waters of the north. Many of the wrecks have never been found. The Empire Strikes South describes all of the aircraft used, and gives an insight into the world of fighter pilots and aircrew. With a full range of new colour graphics by renowned illustrator Michael Claringbould, this significant new research reveals a battle for Australia that has been previously unknown.

Only six escapees survived the Sandakan death marches of 1945 in North Borneo, the worst atrocity ever inflicted on Australian soldiers. 1787 Australian and 641 British POWs perished. Previous descriptions of the numerous violent acts have yielded little understanding of a situation where the real struggle was to keep one’s humanity when so many were losing theirs, whether Allied POWs, local residents of Borneo, Javanese slave labourers, or Japanese soldiers. Understanding this extraordinary story is aided by reference to a wide range of sources in different countries and disciplines, and by examining the perspectives of all players in this terrible game of survival.An unusual and extreme POW story, the Sandakan tragedy had four stages: active resistance in 1942-3, stubborn endurance in 1943–4, the collapse of civilized existence in 1945 and, finally, the postwar decades of torment for the six damaged survivors, the gradual assimilation of the story, the healing of the damage and the commemoration of the tragedy by the families and communities involved.

On a rainy evening during the Civil War’s second May, President Abraham Lincoln and two of his cabinet secretaries boarded a treasury department ship to sail to Union-held Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The trip resulted in the first and only time in the country’s history that a sitting president took direct control of military forces, both army and navy, to wage a campaign with wide-ranging consequences. This little-known slice of the war and its effect on the president is the subject of Steve Norder’s Lincoln Takes Command: The Campaign to Seize Norfolk and the Destruction of the CSS Virginia. For five days that May, Lincoln studied maps, suggested military actions and—in his quiet, respectful way—issued direct orders to subordinate commanders. Helped by movements farther up the Virginia peninsula, the president’s decisions resulted in a host of military actions and successes, including: a naval bombardment of a Confederate fort, the sailing of Union ships up the James River closer to the enemy capital, an amphibious landing of Union soldiers, the capture of Norfolk and the vital Portsmouth and Gosport navy yards, and the destruction of the Rebel ironclad CSS Virginia. Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s treasury secretary, described the actions as a “brilliant week’s campaign.” The president returned to Washington in triumph, hailed as a military and civilian leader. Indeed, some urged him to take direct command of the nation’s field armies.Norder’s years-long investigation draws upon a host of primary sources, including letters, diaries, official reports, and memoirs. This rich blending of material allows for a fresh perspective and interesting insights.Untold numbers of books have been penned about Abraham Lincoln, his presidency, and his struggles during the Civil War, but the fascinating week within the covers of Lincoln Takes Command—which helped shape him as a war president—has never has been told in such full detail. The successes that crowned his short time in Hampton Roads changed the nation’s commander in chief by giving him more of an understanding and confidence in his ability to see what needed to be accomplished, insight that sustained him through the rest of the war.

New Zealand, with close ties to Britain, was heavily involved in the war against Nazi Germany on the battle lines in Greece, Crete, the Middle East, North Africa and Italy. The experience was eye-opening for the new emerging nation, and a lasting bond between New Zealand and Greece was formed. Greece was a poor country in turmoil and pain during the 1940s. A military dictatorship was followed by invasion and terrifying occupation by Germany and its allies, starvation, civil war, political unrest and mutiny in its free military armed forces. New Zealand entered this arena and found a bond with a people that it still celebrates to this day. Absent is the complex, divisive and sometimes violent and surreal relationship between the two countries and the inescapable influence of Britain. Their story stretches from the mountains and open country of Greece and Crete to Middle East deserts, autumn-swept plains of Italy, and the blood-splattered streets of post-liberated Athens. Ironically New Zealand has forgotten the unpalatable but also sacrificed something that would have enhanced its own national storytelling about the war.

This modern and GPS located guidebook to the WW1 battlefields of Ypres and the Somme includes contextual information, maps, photographs and personal stories. This is the book that gives you the experience of a professional guide but allows you to ‘dip in’ andgo at your own pace in your own car. Many people visit the First World War battlefields and leave disappointed, not understanding the connection to the sites they go to or their significance. This guidebook by an experienced teacher, explains the sites, the context and the stories in a simple and easily understood way so that you can enjoy your visit more fully. The book is new and fit for the modern day with GPS locations that can be easily looked up on smart phones and other devices and mapdiagrams which show how to get the most out of the sites when there. There is also contextual information, diagrams and tables to help the understanding of the sites. The book is packed with over 100 maps, illustrations and photographs showing locations, routes and conditions at the time. It also includespersonal stories, the ones normally reserved for the professional guides. It is less about the big picture of brigades and armies and more about what happened on the ground and how you can link the stories to what you can still see.

A revised and updated single-source reference book which accurately details the German field forces employed in Normandy in 1944 and their losses. Dr. Zetterling provides a sobering analysis of the subject matter and debunks a number of popular myths concerning the campaign (the effectiveness of Allied air power; the preferential treatment of Waffen-SS formations in comparison to their army counterparts; etc. ). He supports his text with exhaustive footnoting and provides an organizational chart for most of the formations covered in the book. Includes numerous organizational diagrams, charts, tables and graphs.