Download or read book Major Cotterell at Arnhem written by Jennie Gray and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conscripted into the British Army in 1940, talented journalist Anthony Cotterell was never going to make a natural soldier. The Army eventually realised that his abilities lay elsewhere and he was transferred to a new department of the War Office where he could do what he did best – write. He would become one of the Army's top journalists, eventually covering the D-Day landings and the Normandy campaign. Anthony managed to blag himself a place in the parachute drop at Arnhem in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. Captured, on 23 September he was one of a group of British prisoners wounded or killed when SS guards opened fire. Treated in a German dressing station with the other wounded, Anthony then vanished without trace, the only member of the party to do so. In Major Cotterell at Arnhem, Jennie Gray tells the story of Anthony's rise to journalistic fame in the Army, the Arnhem adventure, the SS war crime and the disappearance. She then recounts the dramatic and painful three-year search to find Anthony mounted by the War Crimes Group, the Search Bureau and the Netherlands War Crimes Commission, in tandem with the private search made by Anthony’s devoted brother, Geoffrey Cotterell. Best-selling author Geoffrey has kindly co-operated in in the writing of this book. Complemented by Anthony's own words, official War Crime Group documentation and the letters about the search that Geoffrey wrote almost daily to his mother, this is a poignant story of one man lost in the tumult of war.
Download or read book Major Cotterell at Arnhem written by Jennie Gray and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conscripted into the British Army in 1940, talented journalist Anthony Cotterell was never going to make a natural soldier. The Army eventually realised that his abilities lay elsewhere and he was transferred to a new department of the War Office where he could do what he did best – write. He would become one of the Army's top journalists, eventually covering the D-Day landings and the Normandy campaign. Anthony managed to blag himself a place in the parachute drop at Arnhem in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. Captured, on 23 September he was one of a group of British prisoners wounded or killed when SS guards opened fire. Treated in a German dressing station with the other wounded, Anthony then vanished without trace, the only member of the party to do so. In Major Cotterell at Arnhem, Jennie Gray tells the story of Anthony's rise to journalistic fame in the Army, the Arnhem adventure, the SS war crime and the disappearance. She then recounts the dramatic and painful three-year search to find Anthony mounted by the War Crimes Group, the Search Bureau and the Netherlands War Crimes Commission, in tandem with the private search made by Anthony's devoted brother, Geoffrey Cotterell. Best-selling author Geoffrey has kindly co-operated in in the writing of this book. Complemented by Anthony's own words, official War Crime Group documentation and the letters about the search that Geoffrey wrote almost daily to his mother, this is a poignant story of one man lost in the tumult of war.
Download or read book This is WAR written by Jennie Gray and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-08-05 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony Cotterell wrote a unique form of war journalism – witty, sharp,engaging, and so vivid it was almost cinematic. As an official British Army journalist during the Second World War, he flew on bombing raids, sailed with merchant shipping convoys, crossed to France on D-Day, and took part in the Normandy Campaign. During this time he kept a diary, a hilarious and caustic record of his role in the war, a diary which abruptly ended after he vanished in mysterious circumstances after the battleof Arnhem bridge in 1944.Cotterell’s diary and selected war journalism, illustrated with previously unpublished photographs, are presented together here to shed new light not only on the everyday life of the British Army in the Second World War but also on the role of the pressduring times of conflict. The quality of his writing is truly captivating and his account of the Normandy campaign is surely the nearest that a modern reader will ever get to experiencing what it was like to be in the thick of a Normandy tank battle.
Download or read book Arnhem written by Ernest Watkins and published by . This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book comprises a two part report by Major Ernest Watkins, R.A., who participated with 1 Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. First published by the Army Bureau of Current Affairs in December of that year as part of its War series of pamphlets, it is among the earliest printed eyewitness accounts of the fighting at Arnhem, although circulation at the time was restricted to military personnel only. Watkins returned to the Dutch town in April 1945 after the Germans had been driven from the area and provided his impressions of the aftermath of the conflict in another ABCA article, 'Arnhem Revisited', published on June 23rd. This too has been included in the compilation. There is also a piece by Major Anthony Cotterell, written prior to the operation, that describes the frustrations of being constantly on standby only to be stood down again. Cotterell did not make it back. As for the outcome of the mission, to quote Watkins: "The operation itself was not a complete success because only two of the three river barriers were carried. But Arnhem has left in history a record which those who come after must strain every ounce of courage and endurance they possess even to equal." The text has been reset for this edition and a number of footnotes added, largely to help those who are unfamiliar with the less commonly recognised army acronyms and abbreviations.
Download or read book Arnhem written by Robert Elliott Urquhart and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Arnhem written by Robert Jackson and published by Airlife Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On September 17th, 1944, three Allied airborne divisions - two American, one British, totaling 30,000 men - landed at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem in Holland. Their task was to lay an 'airborne carpet' across Holland to the Rhine, seizing vital bridges and opening up a route for an advance into northern Germany by the British Second Army. This book covers all aspects of that massive operation, which was code-named "Market Garden" and deals with the German side as well as the British and American. Above all, it tells of the epic and heroic stand of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, where the paratroops fought against increasingly hopeless odds for nine days. They were supposed to have held on for only two, until the ground offensive reached them. It never did.
Download or read book The Armoured Campaign in Normandy written by Stephen Napier and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the D-day landings, this is a brutally frank appraisal of the planned use and actual results of the deployment of armour by both German and Allied commanders in the major tank battles of the Normandy campaign including operations Epsom, Goodwood, Cobra and Totalize. The Armoured Campaign in Normandy is a critique of Montgomery's plans to seize territory and break out and describes how they failed in the face of German resistance. It details the poor planning and mistakes of British senior commanders and how the German Army's convoluted chain of command contributed to their own defeat; these were decisions taken which cost the lives of the tank crews of both sides ordered to carry them out. Official reports, war diaries, after action reports, letters, regimental histories, memoirs of generals and recollections of tank men are used to tell the inside story of the campaign from an armour point of view to give a different but detailed perspective of the Normandy campaign from the men who fought in it.
Download or read book The First Household Cavalry Regiment 1943 44 written by Garry O'Connor and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mettle of the famous First Household Cavalry Regiment was tested to the maximum in action in the mountains of Italy in 1943–44. This book explores a largely undervalued and forgotten part of a costly and complex struggle. We directly experience what it was like to be there through the words of those who were. In late 1943 1st HCR was sent to Syria to patrol the Turko-Syrian border, it being feared that Turkey would join the Axis powers. In April 1944, 1st HCR was shipped to Italy. The Italian campaign was at that time well underway. During the summer of 1944, 1st HCR were in action near Arezzo and in the advance to Florence in a reconnaissance role, probing enemy positions, patrolling constantly. The Regiment finally took part in dismounted actions in the Gothic Line – the German defensive system in Northern Italy. Based upon interviews with the few survivors still with us and several unpublished diaries, there are many revelations that will entertain – and some that will shock. The 1st Household Cavalry 1943–44 is published on the 70th anniversary of the actions described, as a tribute to the fighting force made up from the two most senior regiments of the British Army and, in the words of His Grace the Duke of Wellington who has kindly provided the foreword, 'to gain insight into why such a war should never be fought again'.
Download or read book D Day Diary written by Carol Harris and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 6 June 1944 is one of the most memorable dates of the Second World War. It marked the beginning of the end of the conflict as Allied forces invaded Normandy and fought their way into Nazi-occupied Europe. Operation Overlord, as the invasion was codenamed, was an incredible feat. It also proved to be a turning point that would eventually result in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Around 150,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on the first day in the largest amphibious operation in history. Within a month more than 1 million men had been put ashore. As memory becomes history, first-hand accounts of this incredible moment become more and more precious. In D-Day Diary, historian Carol Harris brings together remarkable tales of bravery, survival and sacrifice from what was one of the war's most dramatic and pivotal episodes.
Download or read book Battle Story Tobruk 1941 written by Pier Paolo Battistelli and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The siege of Tobruk lasted 240 days during which the 'gallant garrison' of Allied soldiers, including the famous 'Desert Rats' held out against constant attacks from Rommel's Afrika Korps. The battle became one of the longest sieges in British military history and a potent symbol of British resistance. To understand what happened and why – read Battle Story. Diary extracts and quotes offer a real insight into what it was like for the Allied soldiers to live under siege. Maps highlight the adversities of the terrain and the strategic importance of the Tobruk fortress. Rare photographs place you on the frontline of the unfolding action. Orders of battle reveal the composition of the opposing forces' armies. Packed with fact boxes, this short introduction is the perfect way to explore this important battle.
Download or read book The Wartime House written by Mike Brown and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2005-10-31 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was it like to live in Britain during the Second World War? What kind of house did the average family live in? How did people cope with the ever-present threat of air-raids, not to mention the hardship of food and clothes rationing? How was a typical suburban home built? What were the choices open to householders when it came to interior decoration and furnishing? How did the war affect the domestic routines of an average household? The demands of a nation at war had many other far-reaching effects on the average home. How did women cope with bringing up a family single-handedly after their husbands were conscripted for military service? How did they use the rations and keep up their families spirits? What was it like to 'Make do and Mend' or 'Dig for Victory', or to sleep in an Anderson shelter? By looking at the lives of ordinary people who inhabited the semi-detached world of suburbia, Mike Brown and Carol Harris have painted a vivid picture of daily life on the Home Front in wartime Britain.
Download or read book Survivor of the Long March written by Charles Waite and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing prepares a man for war and Private Charles Waite, of the Queen's Royal Regiment, was ill-prepared when his convoy took a wrong turning near Abbeville and met 400 German soldiers and half a dozen tanks. 'The day I was captured, I had a rifle but no ammunition.' He lost his freedom that day in May 1940 and didn't regain it until April 1945 when he was rescued by Americans near Berlin, having walked 1,600 kms from East Prussia. Silent for seventy years, Charles writes about his five lost years: the terrible things he saw and suffered; his forced work in a stone quarry and on farms; his period in solitary confinement for sabotage; and his long journey home in one of the worst winters on record, across the frozen river Elbe, to Berlin and liberation. His story is also about friendship, of physical and mental resilience and of compassion for everyone who suffered. Part of that story includes the terrible Long March, or Black March, when 80,000 British POWs were forced to trek through a vicious winter westwards across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany as the Soviets approached. Thousands died. There are simply no memoirs of that terrible trek – except this one.
Download or read book British Interrogation Techniques in the Second World War written by Sophie Jackson and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British system of interrogation has always been distinctly different from other countries. Subtler, quieter and far more devious than its contemporaries, it has been admired by those who have inadvertently succumbed to it. So much so that the Nazis adopted some of the British methods in their own intelligence operations. During the Second World War the system became highly developed and vast numbers of people were employed in the collating and recovery of information. Vital data regarding military advances such as the Enigma machine and the Tiger Tank were wrung from prisoners not by force but by trickery and deceit. The eccentric, quirky, but also very successful, wartime interrogation methods of the British are revealed in this book, including their triumphant discoveries and also their occasional disastrous mistake.
Download or read book Dad s Army written by David Carroll and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2009-03-30 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immortalised by ' Dad's Army' - this is the true story of the men who manned the British frontline.
Download or read book Tobruk written by William F Buckingham and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The siege of Tobruk was the longest in British military history. The coastal fortress and deep-water port was of crucial importance to the battle for North Africa, and the key that would unlock the way to Egypt and the Suez Canal. For almost a year the isolated garrison held out against all attempts to take it, and in the process Tobruk assumed a propaganda role that outweighed its great strategic value, becoming a potent symbol of resistance when the war was going badly for the British. Goebbels referred to the garrison as 'rats,' and they proudly adopted the insult as a title, and became the 'Rats of Tobruk.' When it finally fell to German tanks on 21 June 1942 with the loss of 25,000 men, Churchill said it was 'one of the heaviest blows I can recall during the war'. William F. Buckingham's startling account, drawing extensively on official records and first-hand accounts from both sides, is a comprehensive history of this epic struggle, and essential reading for anyone with an interest in the Western Desert Campaign.
Download or read book Hitler s Vikings written by Jonathan Trigg and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nazis' dream of a world dominated by legions of Aryan 'supermen', forged in battle and absolutely loyal to Hitler, was epitomised by the Waffen-SS. Created as a supreme military élite, it grew to become Nazi Germany's 'second army', an immense force totalling almost one million men by the end of the War. An astonishing fact about the SS is that thousands of its members were not German. Men stepped forward from almost every nation in Europe — for many, sometimes complex reasons — that included hatred of Bolshevism and nationalist sentiment or even straightforward anti-Semitism. Foremost amongst them were Scandinavians from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Thousands were recruited from 1940 onwards and fought with distinction on the Russian Front. They served at first in national legions but were then brought together in the Wiking Panzer Division and the Nordland Panzer-grenadier Division. In Hitler's Vikings, Jonathan Trigg details the battles these men fought and what inspired them to join the Waffen-SS, based wherever possible on interviews with surviving veterans. Many of the photographs reproduced here have never before been published. Hitler's 'Vikings' were amongst the last men still fighting in the ruins of Berlin in 1945 — their story is truly remarkable. Jonathan Trigg served in the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, reaching the rank of Captain and completing tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Middle East. He is an established writer on military history, with a particular interest in foreign volunteer formations in the Second World War. Hitler's Vikings is his fourth volume in Spellmount's Hitler's Legions series.
Download or read book The Fighting Fourth written by James Dunning and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2010-06-17 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the legendary Lofoten and Dieppe raids, the D-Day landings and the capture of Flushing, James Dunning recounts the history of No. 4 Commando, an elite wartime special service unit, from formation in 1940 to disbandment five years later. The author, himself, a 'Fighting Fourth' veteran, describes how 500 volunteers, despite initial problems, prejudices and frustrations, developed into one of the most feared fighting formations of the Second World War. The extraordinarily tough and unorthodox training undertaken by No. 4 Commando prepared them for the raids of 1941 and 1942, their protracted involvement on D-Day and for 83 days' action in the struggle for Normandy. Their last major operation was the storming and capture of the vital port of Flushing in November 1944. This readable and authoritative history of the unit reveals their important role in the Second World War.
