Download or read book Attack on the Scheldt written by Graham A. Thomas and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Allied advance across northwest Europe in 1944, the opening up of the key port of Antwerp was a pivotal event, yet it has been neglected in histories of the conflict. The battles in Normandy and on the German frontier have been studied often and in detail, while the fight for the Scheldt estuary, Walcheren and Antwerp itself has been treated as a sideshow. Graham Thomass timely and graphic account underlines the importance of this aspect of the Allied campaign and offers a fascinating insight into a complex combined-arms operation late in the Second World War. Using operational reports and vivid first-hand eyewitness testimony, he takes the reader alongside 21 Army Group as it cleared the Channel ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, then moved on to attack the Scheldt and the island stronghold of Walcheren. Overcoming entrenched German resistance there was essential to the whole operation, and it is the climax of his absorbing narrative.

Download or read book Juno Beach written by Mark Zuehlke and published by D & M Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On June 6, 1944 the greatest armada in history stood off Normandy and the largest amphibious invasion ever began as 107,000 men aboard 6,000 ships pressed toward the coast. Among this number were 18,000 Canadians, who were to land on a five-mile long stretch of rocky ledges fronted by a wide expanse of sand. Code named Juno Beach. Here, sheltered inside concrete bunkers and deep trenches, hundreds of German soldiers waited to strike the first assault wave with some ninety 88-millimetre guns, fifty mortars, and four hundred machineguns. A four-foot-high sea wall ran across the breadth of the beach and extending from it into the surf itself were ranks of tangled barbed wire, tank and vessel obstacles, and a maze of mines. Of the five Allied forces landing that day, they were scheduled to be the last to reach the sand. Juno was also the most exposed beach, their day’s objectives eleven miles inland were farther away than any others, and the opposition awaiting them was believed greater than that facing any other force. At battle's end one out of every six Canadians in the invasion force was either dead or wounded. Yet their grip on Juno Beach was firm.

Download or read book Walcheren 1944 written by Richard Brooks and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2011-06-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osprey's study of the Walcheren campaign of World War II (1939-1945). Walcheren is a saucer-shaped island in the estuary of the river Scheldt, commanding maritime access to Antwerp, the largest port in Western Europe. The Allies captured Antwerp intact on September 4, 1944, but their eyes were on the Rhine crossings at Arnhem, not the lower Scheldt. The failure of Operation Market-Garden later that month brought home the Allies' logistical weakness. As autumn gales drew near, every shell and petrol tin had still to be landed at Cherbourg or across the Normandy beaches. Complete US Army divisions were immobilized for lack of transport. It was vital to re-open Antwerp. The continued German presence on Walcheren, however, prevented Allied shipping from entering the Scheldt. In the fall of 1944, Walcheren had the most heavily fortified coastline in the world. Its seaward defences consisted of 30 coastal and field batteries, mounting 50-60 guns from 75mm to 220mm in caliber, manned by high quality naval personnel behind massive concrete emplacements. Supporting strongpoints had anti-aircraft guns, flame-throwers rocket-launchers and Goliath remote controlled demolition vehicles. The sand dunes protecting the low-lying island from the North Sea were laced with barbed wire, mines and dragon's teeth. Defending infantry came from Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser's 70.Infanterie-Division, a 'white bread division' consisting of men with gastric problems. Allied intelligence estimated the total garrison at 4,000, but 8,000 eventually surrendered. On November 1, 1944, in a double-pronged attack, the men of 52nd (Lowland) Division plus No. 4 Army Commando seized Flushing (Infatuate I) while in the west 4th Special Service Brigade with three Royal Marine Commandos and No. 10 Inter-Allied Commando would take Westkapelle, and fight their way north and south along the dunes, taking the coastal batteries as they went (Infatuate II). All this was to be supported with HMS Warspite and two 15-inch gun monitors; the Support Squadron Eastern Flank (SSEF) with 25 specialized Landing Craft with guns and rockets; 350 Army guns south of the Scheldt, most of them heavier than 25-pounders; and the Typhoon and Spitfire fighter bombers of 84 Group RAF. In fighting described by one survivor as 'worse than Dieppe and D-Day put together' the Army and Royal Marines forced their way ashore, supported by specialized armour and tracked vehicles, and over the next eight days cleared the positions of their German defenders in bitter street fighting. The first Liberty ships unloaded at Antwerp on December 1, just over a fortnight before the Ardennes offensive began. If Walcheren had not fallen when it did, opening Antwerp just in time, the Allies would have been hard pressed to withstand the German attack, or replace the fuel stocks lost in its opening days, let alone cross the Rhine in the following spring, and meet the Russians on the Elbe. The Walcheren campaign was not merely a dramatic combined operation pulled off against the odds; it helped determine the course of the war and the shape of the post-war world.

Download or read book Cinderella Army written by Terry Copp and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Except for a brief period during the Rhineland battle, the First Canadian Army was the smallest to serve under Eisenhower's command. The Canadian component never totalled more than 185,000 of the four million Allied troops serving in Northwest Europe. It is evident, however, that the divisions of 2nd Canadian Corps played a role disproportionate to their numbers. Their contribution to operations designed to secure the channel ports and open the approaches to Antwerp together with the battles in the Rhineland place them among the most heavily committed and sorely tried divisions in the Allied armies. By the end of 1944 3rd Canadian Division had suffered the highest number of casualties in 21 Army Group with 2nd Canadian Division ranking a close second. In the armoured divisions, 4th Canadian was at the top of the list as was 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade among the independent tank brigades. Overall Canadian casualties were 20 per cent higher than in comparable British formations. This was a direct result of the much greater number of days that Canadian units were involved in close combat."--Jacket.

Download or read book Fighting the People s War written by Jonathan Fennell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 967 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.

Download or read book Monty s Men written by John Buckley and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian John Buckley offers a radical reappraisal of Great Britain’s fighting forces during World War Two, challenging the common belief that the British Army was no match for the forces of Hitler’s Germany. Following Britain’s military commanders and troops across the battlefields of Europe, from D-Day to VE-Day, from the Normandy beaches to Arnhem and the Rhine, and, ultimately, to the Baltic, Buckley’s provocative history demonstrates that the British Army was more than a match for the vaunted Nazi war machine.div /DIVdivThis fascinating revisionist study of the campaign to liberate Northern Europe in the war’s final years features a large cast of colorful unknowns and grand historical personages alike, including Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery and the prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill. By integrating detailed military history with personal accounts, it evokes the vivid reality of men at war while putting long-held misconceptions finally to rest./DIV

Download or read book Strangling the Axis written by Richard Hammond and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Hammond offers a major reassessment of the role of the war at sea in Allied victory in the Mediterranean region.

Download or read book The Battle for the Rhine 1944 written by Robin Neillands and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2006 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robin Neillands' new history of the Battle of Normandy (Cassell, 2002) was hailed by the SUNDAY TIMES as one of the best military history books of the year. This continues the story from the breakout from Normandy to the arrival of the Allied armies on the Rhine at the beginning of 1945. The story is dominated by two great battles: the Allied airborne offensive into Holland that ended in bitter failure at Arnhem, and Hitler's last great offensive in the Ardennes that December, the 'Battle of the Bulge'. This book ends where Robin's previous book THE CONQUEST OF THE REICH begins, thus forming a trilogy that takes us from the Normandy landings to the fall of Berlin.

Download or read book An Army of Never Ending Strength written by Arthur W. Gullachsen and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An army may march on its stomach, but it needs more than hot dinners to fight. As Canadians battled through Northwest Europe in the late stages of the Second World War, how did they reinforce their front line? And at what cost? An Army of Never-Ending Strength investigates the operational record of the First Canadian Army during 1944–45 to provide detailed insight into its administrative systems, structure, and troop and equipment levels. In a close analysis of monthly resources, losses, and replacement flow, Captain Arthur W. Gullachsen demonstrates the army’s effectiveness at reinforcing its three traditional combat arms. The total fighting power of the infantry, armour, and artillery units was never inhibited for long. An Army of Never-Ending Strength draws a powerful conclusion: the administrative and logistical capability of the Canadian Army created a constant state of overwhelming offensive strength, which made a marked contribution to eventual Allied victory.

Download or read book Prisoners of the Empire written by Sarah Kovner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pathbreaking account of World War II POW camps, challenging the longstanding belief that the Japanese Empire systematically mistreated Allied prisoners. In only five months, from the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to the fall of Corregidor in May 1942, the Japanese Empire took prisoner more than 140,000 Allied servicemen and 130,000 civilians from a dozen different countries. From Manchuria to Java, Burma to New Guinea, the Japanese army hastily set up over seven hundred camps to imprison these unfortunates. In the chaos, 40 percent of American POWs did not survive. More Australians died in captivity than were killed in combat. Sarah Kovner offers the first portrait of detention in the Pacific theater that explains why so many suffered. She follows Allied servicemen in Singapore and the Philippines transported to Japan on “hellships” and singled out for hard labor, but also describes the experience of guards and camp commanders, who were completely unprepared for the task. Much of the worst treatment resulted from a lack of planning, poor training, and bureaucratic incoherence rather than an established policy of debasing and tormenting prisoners. The struggle of POWs tended to be greatest where Tokyo exercised the least control, and many were killed by Allied bombs and torpedoes rather than deliberate mistreatment. By going beyond the horrific accounts of captivity to actually explain why inmates were neglected and abused, Prisoners of the Empire contributes to ongoing debates over POW treatment across myriad war zones, even to the present day.

Download or read book Coastal Convoys 1939 1945 written by Nick Hewitt and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2009-04-20 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using official records from the National Archives personal accounts from the Imperial War Museum and other sources, Coastal Convoys 1939 1945: The Indestructible Highway describes Britains dependence on coastal shipping and the introduction of the convoy system in coastal waters at the outset of the war. It beings to life the hazards of the German mining offensive of 1939, the desperate battles fought in coastal waters during 1940 and 1941, and the long struggle against German air and naval forces which lasted to the end of the Second World War. Reference is also made to the important role played by coasters during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and the Normandy landings in 1944.

Download or read book Walcheren 1809 written by Martin R. Howard and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 1809, with the Dutch coast a pistol held at the head of England, the largest British expeditionary force ever assembled, over 40,000 men and around 600 ships, weighed anchor off the Kent coast and sailed for the island of Walcheren in the Scheldt estuary. After an initial success, the expedition stalled and as the lethargic military commander, Lord Chatham, was at loggerheads with the opinionated senior naval commander, Sir Richard Strachan, troops were dying of a mysterious disease termed Walcheren fever. Almost all the campaigns 4,000 dead were victims of disease. The Scheldt was evacuated and the return home was followed by a scandalous Parliamentary Inquiry. Walcheren fever cast an even longer shadow. Six months later 11,000 men were still registered sick. In 1812, Wellington complained that the constitution of his troops was much shaken with Walcheren.

Download or read book The Conscription Crisis of 1944 written by Robert M. Dawson and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1961-12-15 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late summer of 1944 the people and Government of Canada had every reason to view with satisfaction the progress of the war and their own part in it. The landing in Normandy had been successful, the enemy was in retreat from Belgium and Holland, Germany itself had been entered. The end of hostilities in Europe seemed in sight, and the Canadian Government in October began to plan for the celebrations to take place on the day victory was announced. Suddenly this atmosphere of imminent success and relaxed tension was broken by the unexpected re-appearance of the ghost of conscription. In mid-October Colonel Ralston, the Minister of National Defence, returned abruptly from an inspection trip overseas to report to Prime Minister King that infantry reinforcements for the units fighting in Italy and Northwest Europe were an acute problem and that there seemed no hope of increasing them to the required numbers in the required time. Many, from the Minister himself down, felt that the manpower pools could only be filled by immediate conscription from overseas service of men already called up for home defence under the National Resources Mobilization Act. The Government of Canada was thus confronted with a crisis of the first magnitude, which brought with it the threat of a schism that would cripple the war effort and set people against people, province against province for many years to come. This book provides an engrossing account of how between mid-October and mid-November this crisis was faced and resolved. Professor Dawson is keenly aware of the drama in the clash of personalities, of political views, of beliefs and conducts the eagerly following reader day by day through absorbing events and discussions to the morning of November 22 when Prime Minister King decided on the Order-in-Council drafting 16,000 men. The moment of solution was a historic one: conscription had been put forward by the majority in such a fashion that the minority could accept it, if not with enthusiasm, at least with substantial goodwill. The contrast with 1917 was inescapable. Professor Dawson has given a brilliant essays on the relation of political decision to popular consent in a democracy and it will attract and hold the attention of everyone interested in the arts of government.

Download or read book Patton s Peers written by John A. English and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2009-02-05 with total page 639 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • Covers Canadian Harry Crerar, Briton Miles Dempsey, Frenchman Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, and the Americans Courtney Hodges, William Simpson, and Alexander Patch • History of the campaign for northwest Europe, including the race across France, the liberation of the channel ports, the battles of the Huertgen Forest and the Bulge, crossing the Rhine, the climactic battle for Germany, and more • Corrects the historical misperception that Patton contributed more to victory than other generals • Assesses commanders' individual performances • Impressively researched in primary and secondary sources • New interpretations and an entertaining narrative will appeal to both general readers and scholars Through the force of his personality and the headline-grabbing advance of his U.S. Third Army, Gen. George S. Patton has eclipsed the other six men who, like him, led field armies in the great Allied campaign to liberate northwest Europe in 1944-45. Certain to rank among the lassics of World War II history like Eisenhower's Lieutenants by Russell Weigley, Patton's Peers presents a masterful reassessment of the eleven-month struggle from D-Day to Germany's surrender, shedding long-overdue light on the contributions of these forgotten Allied field army commanders. Seasoned military historian John A. English unearths the vital roles played by these six generals. As the leader of an army of several hundred thousand troops, each had to plan operations days and eeks in advance, coordinate air support, assess intelligence, give orders to corps commanders, manage a staff of sometimes difficult subordinates, and deal with superiors like Eisenhower, Bradley, and Montgomery. Some performed less ably than the rest while others rivaled Patton in their achievements. All deserve to be lifted from Patton's shadow.

Download or read book Politics and Cultures of Liberation written by Frank Mehring and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics and Cultures of Liberation: Media, Memory, and Projections of Democracy focuses on mapping, analyzing, and evaluating memories, rituals, and artistic responses to the theme of “liberation.” How is the national framed within a dynamic system of intercultural contact zones highlighting often competing agendas of remembrance? How does the production, (re)mediation, and framing of narratives within different social, territorial, and political environments determine the cultural memory of liberation? The articles compiled in this volume seek to provide new interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives on the politics and cultures of liberation by examining commemorative practices, artistic responses, and audio-visual media that lend themselves for transnational exploration. They offer a wide range of diverse intercultural perspectives on media, memory, liberation, (self)Americanization, and conceptualizations of democracy from the war years, through the Cold War era to the 21st century.

Download or read book Fight to the Finish written by Tim Cook and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 942 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2016 Ottawa Book Award The magisterial second volume of Tim Cook's definitive account of Canadians fighting in the Second World War. Historian Tim Cook displays his trademark storytelling ability in the second volume of his masterful account of Canadians in World War II. Cook combines an extraordinary grasp of military strategy with a deep empathy for the soldiers on the ground, at sea and in the air. Whether it's a minute-by-minute account of a gruelling artillery battle, vicious infighting among generals, the scene inside a medical unit, or the small details of a soldier's daily life, Cook creates a compelling narrative. He recounts in mesmerizing detail how the Canadian forces figured in the Allied bombing of Germany, the D-Day landing at Juno beach, the taking of Caen, and the drive south. Featuring dozens of black-and-white photographs and moving excerpts from letters and diaries of servicemen, Fight to the Finish is a memorable account of Canadians who fought abroad and of the home front that was changed forever.

Download or read book Atlas of the European Campaign written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1944 the Allies opened the long-awaited second front against Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, and this was to be the start of a long struggle throughout Western Europe for the Allied forces in the face of stiff German resistance. The European Theatre was where the bulk of the Allied forces were committed in the struggle against Nazi Germany. It saw some of the most famous battles and operations of the war – Normandy, Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge – as the Allies sought to liberate Western Europe in the face of bitter and hard-fought German resistance. From the beaches of D-Day through to the final battles in war-ravaged Germany, the war across the breadth and depth of Western Europe is brought to life through scores of carefully researched and intricately detailed maps.