Download or read book Samson and the Dunkirk Circus written by John Jonah Oliver and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of a small unit of 150 men of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and 450 men of the Royal Marines in the first few months of World War One, who travelled about France and Belgium terrorizing the German Army, to the extent that the Germans put a price on their heads! This RNAS unit was commanded by a man small in stature who was phased by nothing: he and his men just wanted to fight the Germans. They never had enough aircraft for all the pilots, so they started to look for a new way to take the fight to the Germans. They had heard about armoured cars in Belgium and set about designing their own. Lieutenant Commander Charles R Samson and his two brothers took the car out and went looking for a fight. They covered a lot of ground picking up intelligence and they had such fun doing it that they convinced the Admiralty to build them more armoured cars so they could take the fight to the enemy. They helped rescue thousands of French troops trapped in Douai and Belgium Troops trapped in Antwerp. They then helped push the German Army back at Ypres, during the First Battle of Ypres. Once the trenches had reached the coast there was not the freedom to roam looking for Germans, but they still carried out a lot of operations supporting the Belgian Army in attacking the enemy. In March 1915 the unit was pulled out of France and sent to the Dardanelles. This small unit was highly decorated for their bravery and yet they are in no official or unofficial histories. Their story has not been told and the development work they carried out has been ignored. The British Army and the Royal Air Force have taken credit for a number of the RNAS actions, innovations and discoveries, while the Royal Navy have just wiped their hands of these men.

Download or read book The Salient written by Alan Palmer and published by Constable. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ypres today is an international 'Town of Peace', but in 1914 the town, and the Salient, the 35-mile bulge in the Western Front, of which it is part, saw a 1500-day military campaign of mud and blood at the heart of the First World War that turned it into the devil's nursery. Distinguished biographer and historian of modern Europe Alan Palmer tells the story of the war in Flanders as a conflict that has left a deep social and political mark on the history of Europe. Denying Germany possession of the historic town of Ypres and access to the Channel coast was crucial to Britain's victory in 1918. But though Flanders battlefields are the closest on the continent to English shores, this was always much more than a narrowly British conflict. Passchendaele, the Menin Road, Hill 60 and the Messines Ridge remain names etched in folk memory. Militarily and tactically the four-year long campaign was innovative and a grim testing ground with constantly changing ideas of strategy and disputes between politicians and generals. Alan Palmer details all its aspects in an illuminating history of the place as much as the fighting man's experience.

Download or read book Flight Lieutenant Thomas Tommy Rose DFC written by Sarah Chambers and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-04-20 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flight Lieutenant Thomas ‘Tommy’ Rose, a First World War fighter ace, was a pioneer of private flying. He installed and managed the UK’s first fuel pump for private aviation at Brooklands before becoming Sales Manager for Phillips and Powis Aircraft Ltd. The chief flying instructor at several early flying schools, Tommy became the Chief Test Pilot for Miles Aircraft and was the winner of air races and pageants. He was undoubtedly a pilot who could always be relied on to amaze the onlookers with his fast, accurate stunts and low-level flying. Mentioned in Despatches in 1916 and awarded the DFC in 1918, Tommy was attacked in his aircraft several times, yet his astonishing ability at the controls of his aircraft enabled him to land without serious injury. By the time of the Armistice, Tommy had been credited with eleven ‘kills’. He continued to demonstrate these skills after the war and though this true trailblazer was widely known in his glory days during the early part of the twentieth century, little is remembered about him today. Yet Tommy Rose achieved the most incredible feats of aviation and was considered one of the finest pilots of his era, completing over 11,200 flying hours up to 1949. In the 1930s, Tommy took the Imperial Airways route through East Africa, to set up a new world record on the UK to Cape Town passage, beating Amy Mollison (Johnson) who took the shorter course down the west coast. He also won the King's Cup Air Race in 1935. Tommy flew many of the early RAF fighters from Maurice Farman to the Spitfire Mk.IX, and, from late 1939, when he was appointed Chief Test Pilot for Phillip & Powis Aircraft Ltd at Woodley (forerunners of Miles Aircraft Ltd), he test flew all Miles monoplane training and target towing aircraft, leaving in January 1946. His last position was as General Manager of Universal Flying Services Ltd at Fairoaks Aerodrome in Surrey. The result of decades of research by the author, through this book the life and adventures of one of history’s most accomplished and daring aviators can finally be told.

Download or read book Men Ideas and Tanks written by J. P. Harris and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Men, ideas and tanks reviews the development of British military ideas on armoured forces from 1903 to 1939. Great Britain was the nation which first developed the tank, first used it in action and first gained dramatic results by employment. The British continued to be world leaders in the field of mechanised warfare until the early 1930s. Now available in paperback for the first time, J. P. Harris original work offers new interpretations of the early history of British armoured forces and explains why Great Britain had lost the lead by the outbreak of the Second World War. This work will be of interest to all those concerned with British military history in the first half of the twentieth century, with the history of mechanised warfare and with the history of military thought.

Download or read book The Devil s Chariots written by John Glanfield and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-20 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scholarly and clear-sighted book … is a happy marriage of history and technology and deserves to become standard reading for serious students of the First World War.' Prof. Richard Holmes 'Fascinating. Excellent pictures and a readable text as well. A wonderful story well told.' Military Illustrated 'The Devil's Chariots is the best single work on the development, from concept to fielding, of British armour in the First World War… Glanfield is also entertaining in addition to being enlightening… The Devil's Chariots is a decent read, and for specialists in the field it will be required reading… The research is both broad and solid, and it appears that this will be the last word on this topic for some time to come.' Robert L. Bateman, contributor to The Journal of Military History, Lexington VA, and a member of the Society for Military History 'This book is in a class of its own … it brings a new maturity to the study of the tank, most particularly from the human perspective, and best of all, it is very readable'. David Fletcher, Senior Archivist, Tank Museum, Bovington, author of The Tank 'This volume would be a great addition to the library of anyone wishing to try to understand World War 1 better. I greatly enjoyed this evidently well-researched and highly interesting book… It taught me much. I am grateful.' Royal Naval Sailing Association Journal 'Fascinating … all military procurement officers should read it… All this is excellently set out, especially the people who made [the tank weapon] possible and those who resented such new ideas.' Brig Fraser Scott, contributor to The Journal of the Royal Artillery Institution 'John Glanfield sheds new light on the tank's pioneers, their bizarre experimental machines and later triumphs… This intensely researched work … is drawn from previously unpublished primary sources.' Gun Mart 'This is classic research by a world authority.' The Driffield Post 'The author has a sharp eye for detail … an exemplary history of a pivotal aspect of the First World War.' Worcester Evening News 'The Devil's Chariots can fairly claim to be the most intensively researched and detailed account of the tank's origins yet to appear.' Classic Arms & Militaria 'John Glanfield has combined meticulous historical research with a gift for narrative to present a story that both students of the Great War and the general reader will find fascinating. I thoroughly recommend this book.' John Gregory, contributor to The Journal of the Henry Williamson Society The Devil's Chariots is the product of six years of research by author John Glanfield, who wanted to tell the story of the birth of the tank in World War I, and, importantly, the men behind it. Based on personal recollections and official reports Glanfield uncovers the British tank pioneers and their odd machines, the men who supported the new weapon, those who refused to accept their worth and the brave crews who took them into battle.

Download or read book The Development of British Naval Aviation 1914 1918 written by Alexander Howlett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) revolutionized warfare at sea, on land, and in the air. This little-known naval aviation organization introduced and operationalized aircraft carrier strike, aerial anti-submarine warfare, strategic bombing, and the air defence of the British Isles more than 20 years before the outbreak of the Second World War. Traditionally marginalized in a literature dominated by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, the RNAS and its innovative practitioners, nevertheless, shaped the fundamentals of air power and contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the First World War. The Development of British Naval Aviation utilizes archival documents and newly published research to resurrect the legacy of the RNAS and demonstrate its central role in Britain’s war effort.

Download or read book Khaki Jack written by E. C. Coleman and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most famous fighting divisions of the British Army in World War One was the Royal Naval Division. Ernie Coleman tells its story, from training at Crystal Palace to the Zeebrugge Raid.

Download or read book The First Blitz written by Andrew Hyde and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2012-10-18 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1917, the Germans launched a major air campaign against the British mainland, which shocked the whole nation and terrorized the southeast of England. These attacks by German bombers caused hundreds of deaths and injuries, but until now, the full details of these raids have NEVER before been told. These range from the massacre of Canadian troops resting in Folkstone on May 25, 1917, to the widespread carnage of shoppers a couple of miles away in the city center. Who is any the wiser that Sherness, then a major dockyard for the Royal Navy, barely escaped a similar fate when it too was singled out for the same treatment or that a 50kg bomb struck Upper North Street School in London's Poplar on June 13, 1917. It not only took the lives of 18 schoolchildren, many as young as 5 years, but also crippled and mutilated twice as many again. Terrible as this was, it was just one of scores of similar tragedies, which terrified the populace of London and horrified the world. The account of this campaign plus the political and military circumstances surrounding it, follows years of original and painstaking research, interviews and correspondence with those who remember that period.

Download or read book Iron Fist Classic Armoured Warfare written by Bryan Perrett and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The greatest tank battles of history from the Great War to the Gulf, examined by one of Britain's bestselling military writers. The story of the evolution of armoured warfare in the 20th century, which has seen tanks and other armoured vehicles develop from lumbering, primitive and vulnerable Goliaths to the immensely potent and manoeuvrable agents of lightning battlefield success. This is a collection of the greatest moments of armoured history from the conception of the tank as a means to break the stalemate of the Western Front to Blitzkreig, the great tank battles of the Second World War and the 'mother of all battles' in the Gulf in 1991.

Download or read book Churchill and Fisher written by Barry Gough and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 2017-10-06 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid study of the politics and stress of high command, this book describes the decisive roles of young Winston Churchill as political head of the Admiralty during the First World War. Churchill was locked together in a perilous destiny with the ageing British Admiral 'Jacky' Fisher, the professional master of the British Navy and the creator of the enormous battleships known as Dreadnoughts. Upon these 'Titans at the Admiralty' rested British command of the sea at the moment of its supreme test — the challenge presented by the Kaiser's navy under the dangerous Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Churchill and Fisher had vision, genius, and energy, but the war unfolded in unexpected ways. There were no Trafalgars, no Nelsons. Press and Parliament became battlegrounds for a public expecting decisive victory at sea. An ill-fated Dardanelles adventure, 'by ships alone' as Churchill determined, on top of the Zeppelin raids on Britain brought about Fisher's departure from the Admiralty, in turn bringing down Churchill. They spent the balance of the war in the virtual wilderness. This dual biography, based on fresh and thorough appraisal of the Churchill and Fisher papers, is a story for any military history buff. It is about Churchill's and Fisher's war — how each fought it, how they waged it together, and how they fought against each other, face to face or behind the scenes. It reveals a strange and unique pairing of sea lords who found themselves facing Armageddon and seeking to maintain the primacy of the Royal Navy, the guardian of trade, the succour of the British peoples, and the shield of Empire.

Download or read book Dreadnought to Polaris Maritime Strategy Since Mahan written by University of Western Ontario. History Department and published by Toronto: Copp Clark Publishing Company; Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1973 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Winston S Churchill The Challenge of War 1914 1916 written by Martin Gilbert and published by Rosetta Books. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 755 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume three of this authoritative Churchill biography chronicles his years of triumphant leadership in the Admiralty during World War I. Acclaimed British historian Sir Martin Gilbert continues the official biography of Sir Winston S. Churchill the eventful period between 1914 and 1916, with a full account of his achievements as first lord of the Admiralty during the Great War. These include Churchill’s efforts to prolong the siege of Antwerp, his support for the use of air power, and his part in the early development of the tank. It shows the forcefulness with which he argued for an offensive naval policy, first against Germany, then against Turkey. Gilbert examines the political crisis of May 1915, during which the Conservative Party forced Asquith to form a coalition government. The Conservatives insisted that Churchill leave the center of war policymaking for a position of increasing political isolation. In the next seven months, while the Gallipoli campaign was being fought, Churchill served as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with no authority over military or naval policy. Resigning from the cabinet in November 1915, Churchill was appointed lieutenant-colonel, commanding an infantry battalion in the trenches of the Western Front. In May 1916, he returned from the trenches, hoping to reenter political life, but his repeated attempts to regain his once-substantial influence were unsuccessful. “A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement . . . rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.” —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War “The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times

Download or read book Churchill written by Ted Morgan and published by Touchstone Books. This book was released on 1984-01-12 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Winston S Churchill 1914 1916 the challenge of war Companion pt 1 July 1914 April 1915 pt 2 May 1915 December 1916 written by Randolph Spencer Churchill and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 1074 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book In Flanders Flooded Fields written by Paul Van Pul and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2007-01-17 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 1914 four armies were converging on Dunkirk. While France was preparing to defend its main Channel port, the Germans were determined to take it while the British were busy using it. Caught in the middle was the Belgian Army. Belgium was almost totally overrun, safe for a small strip of land near the Pas-de-Calais.This is the story of what happened between Antwerp and Dunkirk that fateful month and how the King of the Belgians safeguarded the independence of his small nation from its all-powerful neighbours.Contains 25 custom-made maps, several drawings and 138 seldom seen photographs.

Download or read book Winston S Churchill 3 The challenge of war 1914 1916 written by Randolph Spencer Churchill and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 1090 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dunkirk written by Christopher Nolan and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Nolan's previous films have reflected the uncertainties of the twentieth-first century. With Dunkirk, Nolan has gone back into the past and brought to life one of the momentous events of the twentieth-century - the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, telling the tale by land, sea, and sky.Dunkirk opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea, they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.The film features a prestigious cast, including Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, and newcomer Fionn Whitehead, with Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy.The screenplay is accompanied by a conversation about the film between Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan,as well as selected storyboards.