Résultats de recherche de titre
Articles 161 à 180 sur 747
Shell-Shock: A History of the Changing Attitudes to War Neurosis
Par Anthony Babington. 1997
As Anthony Babington is careful to point out in his forwrd, this is not a medical book. It is, rather,…
a distillation, in words which any layman can understand, of the long struggle by the medical profession, and by influencail civilians of an understanding frame of mind, to persudae the Service Chiefs, in particuliar Senior army pfficers, that soldiers can only stand so much fighting. In the First World War, as Babington points out, men were shot at dawn for cowardice or desertion. One can only wonder that many more didn't crack up under the appalling stress to which they were subjected. By 1939 the situation had improved, and of course the Second World War was a much more mobile affair, without the set-piece mass slaughter that characterised the earlier conflict. It may also be remarked that it was much easier for the average private soldier to realize that he was fighting for a good cause, the Nazis being more readily identifiable as bogeymen than the soldiers of the Kaiser. There are those who argue that in the postwar era, things have gone too far in the opposite direction. Indeed Babington quotes the Duke of Edinburgh as saying: "We didn't have counsellers rushing around every time someone let off a gun asking "Are you alright" You just got on with it." Nonetheless few would argue that a counsellor is preferable to a firing squad. Judge Babington has produced a fascinating, if sometimes harrowing, study of the effects of war upon the fighting soldier, of the gradual understanding of the problem of battle fatigue and of the more merciful and sympathetic approach to its treatment. Readers of his earlier works will appreciate that it is a subject which he is uniquely qualified to handle.Living with Hitler: Accounts of Hitlers Household Staff
Par Karl Krause, Herbert Döhring, Anna Plaim. 2018
This collection paints a picture of Hitler from members of his household in the unique position of being seemingly ever-present,…
yet totally unconnected to events.The reader is introduced to Hitler's Bodyguard Karl Krause (1934-39), his house administrator Herbert Dhring (1935-43) and chambermaid Anna Plaim (1941-43). From these accounts we get a deeper sense of Hitler in close proximity.These accounts massively add to our understanding of Hitler as a three dimensional character, especially from subjects like Plaim who only knew Hitler's home life, having rarely left Berghof.The series is able to shed light on his likes and dislikes from foods to his hobbies, creating a strange sense of humanity. This collection also provides the reader with fresh anecdotes, observations and portraits of Hitler's entourage and relatives. Plaim's images of Eva Braun come from finding torn fragments in the bin, whilst Dhring sheds light on Martin Bormann's demeanour.The author gives a vivid account of Scottish military history from the coming of the Romans to Scotland to the…
Battle of Culloden in 1746. There are detailed descriptions of sixteen of the most important battles with up-to-date maps which enable the reader and visitor to find and understand the sites.Refuge in Hell: How Berlin's Jewish Hospital Outlasted the Nazis
Par Daniel Silver. 2004
“Fascinating footnote to Holocaust history . . . a Jewish hospital in the heart of Berlin that treated patients to the very end…
of Hitler’s reign” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)“One of the most incredible stories of World War II.” —Dallas Morning NewsHow did Berlin’s Jewish Hospital, in the middle of the Nazi capital, survive as an institution where Jewish doctors and nurses cared for Jewish patients throughout World War II? How could it happen that when Soviet troops liberated the hospital in April 1945, they found some eight hundred Jews still on the premises? Daniel Silver carefully uncovers the often surprising answers to these questions and, through the skillful use of primary source materials and the vivid voices of survivors, reveals the underlying complexities of human conscience.The story centers on the intricate machinations of the hospital’s director, Herr Dr. Lustig, a German-born Jew whose life-and-death power over medical staff and patients and finely honed relationship with his own boss, the infamous Adolf Eichmann, provide vital pieces to the puzzle—some have said the miracle—of the hospital’s survival. Silver illuminates how the tortured shifts in Nazi policy toward intermarriage and so-called racial segregation provided a further, if hugely counterintuitive, shelter from the storm for the hospital’s resident Jews. Scenes of daily life in the hospital paint an often heroic and always provocative picture of triage at its most chillingly existential. Not since Schindler’s List have we had such a haunting story of the costs and mysteries of individual survival in the midst of a human-created hell.“Gripping . . . one physician’s actions are depicted in all their fascinating complexity.” —The Washington Post Book WorldThe Gestapo on Trial: Evidence from Nuremberg (The Third Reich From Original Sources)
Par Bob Carruthers. 2014
The Nuremberg Trials were held by the four victorious Allied forces of Great Britain, the USA, France and the USSR…
in the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg from November 1945 to October 1946. Famous for prosecuting the major German war criminals, they also tried the various groups and organisations that were at the heart of Nazi Germany.This fascinating volume is concerned with the trial of the Gestapo and includes all the testimony from the Nuremberg Trials regarding this organisation, including the original indictment, the criminal case put forward for the Gestapo, the closing speeches by the prosecution and defence and the final judgment. The book also includes evidence regarding the S.D. and the defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was Obergruppenfhrer and General der Polizei und Waffen-SS.The witnesses called for the trial of the Gestapo and the SD include among others, Karl Hoffmann who was head of the Gestapo in Denmark; Dr. Werner Best, head of Department 1 of the Gestapo, who was relied on by Himmler and Heydrich to develop the legalities of their actions against the enemies of the state and the Jewish problem; Rolf-Heinz Hoeppner, who was responsible for the deportation of Jews and Poles and the settlement of ethnic Germans in Wartheland; and Dieter Wisliceny who participated in the ghettoisation and liquidation of many Jewish communities in Greece, Hungary and SlovakiaDestroyer at War: The Fighting Life and Loss of HMS Havock from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean 1939–42
Par Richard Osborne, David Goodey. 2017
It was headline news on 8 April 1942: One of the Navys most famous destroyers, a ship which survived bombs,…
torpedoes and full scale battles, has been wrecked. That destroyer was HMS Havock, described in another newspaper as Britains No 2 Destroyer of this war second only in fame and glory to the Cossack.Havock had earned her reputation guarding the convoys across the Atlantic in 1939 and at Narvik in the abortive bid to stave off the German occupation of Norway in 1940. Havock was then transferred to the Mediterranean, fighting at the Battle of Cape Spada in 1940 and in 1941 at the Battle of Matapan and in the evacuations of Greece and Crete.Havocks duties in the Med continued, escorting the convoys to the besieged island of Malta and the equally beleaguered garrison at Tobruk. Then in the Battle of Sirte in 1942 Havock was badly damaged and she limped into Malta for repairs. There she was heavy bombed and when Havock made a bid to reach Gibraltar, she was wrecked off Cape Bon. Her crew was captured and imprisoned in the infamous Laghouat internment camp.The authors have tracked down fifty of the surviving crew and from interviews have been able to compile one of the most detailed, and certainly one of the most dramatic, histories of a destroyer during the Second World War. Destroyer at War tells the story of the battles and operations of a famous ship, and its sad destruction, through newspaper reports, official documents, and the words of the men who sailed and fought in HMS Havock as she earned an astonishing eleven battle honors in her brief but glorious career.Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World's Greatest Scientist
Par Andrew Robinson. 2019
A "highly readable" account of the role Britain played in Einstein's life—by inspiring his teenage passion for physics and providing…
refuge from the Nazis (The Wall Street Journal).In late 1933, Albert Einstein found himself living alone in an isolated holiday hut in rural England. There, he toiled peacefully at mathematics, occasionally stepping out for walks or to play his violin. But how had Einstein come to abandon his Berlin home and go “on the run”?This lively account tells the story of the world’s greatest scientist’s time in Britain for the first time, showing why the country was the perfect refuge for Einstein from rumored assassination plots by Nazi agents. Young Einstein’s passion for British physics, epitomized by Newton, had sparked his scientific development around 1900. British astronomers had confirmed his general theory of relativity, making him internationally famous in 1919. Welcomed by the British people, who helped him campaign against Nazi anti-Semitism, he even intended to become a British citizen. So why did Einstein then leave Britain, never to return to Europe?“A vivid look at how the U.K. affected the German-born physicist’s life and thinking.” —Publishers Weekly“A marvelous job of pulling new and interesting material out of the Einstein archives . . . I suspect that even readers who have devoured many books about Einstein and are already familiar with his interactions with the English . . . will find much to learn and enjoy.” —Metascience Journal“Robinson has that rare knack for presenting a near-encyclopedic volume of historical information, anecdotes and contemporaneous accounts in a thoroughly delightful fashion.” —Physics WorldIncludes photographs and illustrationsThe Star of Africa: The Story of Hans Marseille
Par Colin Heaton, Anne-Marie Lewis. 2012
This WWII military biography chronicles the life of a legendary Nazi fighter pilot.German Luftwaffe Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille, the “Star of…
Africa”, is a legendary figure in the annals of military history. With 158 kills to his name, he was one of the rare recipients of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, the Third Reich’s highest honor awarded for valor in combat.Unlike other German fighter aces, Marseille is also a famous in the United States and other English-speaking countries. His rebellious nature, iconoclastic behavior, and early death have nourished his reputation just as greatly as his exceptional skill and chivalrous conduct as an adversary.The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service
Par John Bruning, C. Ruiz. 2010
A coin flip likely saved the life of Kenneth C. Ruiz. It was August 1942 and he was fresh out…
of the U.S. Naval Academy. He and a classmate flipped a coin to see who would stand watch on the bridge of their heavy cruiser, the USS Vincennes, off Savo Island as the Marines were landing on Guadalcanal. Ruiz was on the bridge when the ship took a direct hit and sank. He ended up in the Pacific without a life jacket, but his classmate and the entire radio room crew perished in the attack. "The luck of the draw" is a recurring theme in this powerful memoir. Following the demise of the Vincennes, Ruiz volunteered to serve on submarines for the balance of the war and had numerous harrowing experiences. He spent most of his time on the USS Pollack, which was sub-standard in terms of technology, but was still deadly and made a significant impact on Japanese shipping in the far reaches of the Pacific. A worthy addition to the litany of WWII books on submariners, The Luck of the Draw is filled with heartbreaking stories of how the smallest decisions made the difference between life and death for soldiers and sailors in the war.A critically acclaimed historian reveals the heroism and perseverance of a US Army special ops unit during one of the…
most overlooked campaigns of WWII.In August of 1943, a call went out for American soldiers willing to embark on a “hazardous and dangerous mission” behind enemy lines in Burma. The war department wanted 3,000 volunteers, and it didn’t care who they were; they would be expendable, with an expected casualty rate of eighty-five percent. The men who took up the challenge were, in the words of one, “bums and cast-offs” with rap sheets and reputations for trouble. One war reporter described them as “Dead End Kids,” but by the end of their five-month mission, those that remained had become the legendary “Merrill’s Marauders.”From award-winning historian Gavin Mortimer, Merrill’s Marauders is the story of the American World War II special forces unit originally codenamed “Galahad,” which, in 1944, fought its way through 700 miles of snake-infested Burmese jungle—what Winston Churchill described as “the most forbidding fighting country imaginable.” Though their mission to disrupt Japanese supply lines and communications was ultimately successful, paving the way for the Allied conquest of Burma, the Marauders paid a terrible price for their victory. By the time they captured the crucial airfield of Myitkyina in May 1944, only 200 of the original 3,000 men remained; the rest were dead, wounded, or riddled with disease. This is the definitive nonfiction narrative of arguably the most extraordinary, but also unsung, American special forces unit in World War II.Alamein
Par Stephen Bungay. 2013
From the author of The Most Dangerous Enemy, a study of the history, strategy, and logistics of the pivotal World…
War II battles at El Alamein.El Alamein was the Second World War land battle Britain had to win. By the summer of 1942 Rommel’s German forces were threatening to sweep through the Western Desert and drive on to the Suez Canal, and Britain desperately needed a victory.In July, Rommel was halted. Then, in October, after twelve days of attritional fighting, Montgomery’s Eighth Army broke through the German and Italian lines at El Alamein. It was a turning-point in the war after which, in Churchill’s words, “we never had a defeat.”Stephen Bungay’s superbly readable narrative complements his definitive study of the Battle of Britain, The Most Dangerous Enemy, illuminating every aspect of this most famous episode of the Desert War, from the crucial logistics of keeping the distant armies supplied to the terror of battle in tormenting heat that was the soldier’s war.Praise for Alamein“Terse and brilliantly written by a thorough master of his subject.” —John Lukacs, Los Angeles Times“A brilliant balance between lucid analysis and piquant detail . . . masterly chapters.” —Lawrence James, Daily Mail (UK)“A broad and pacy overview in a short compass.” —Hew Strachan, Times Literary Supplement (UK)Light in the Dark: The Last Sanctuary from the Holocaust
Par Robert Marshall. 2022
An extraordinary true story of survival and courage through the Holocaust.Poland, 1943. It was the last refuge of the desperate,…
a warren of sewers underneath their city. Above, as the Nazis destroyed the ghetto of the city of Lvov, a small band of Jews escaped into a grim network of tunnels, living for fourteen months with the city's waste, the sudden floods, the fumes and the damp, the rats, the darkness, and the despair.Their only support was a lone sewer worker, an ex-criminal who constantly threatened to leave them. Many died; some falling into the rushing waters of the river, some simply of exhaustion. At one point the survivors found themselves trapped in a chamber, filling to the roof with storm-water.Yet survive they did, even infiltrating the camps above to find their missing relatives. When the Russians liberated Lvov, they emerged from the sewers filthy, bent double, emaciated, unrecognizable... but alive.This powerful story based on a long series of interviews, and a hitherto private diary, creates a blazing testimony to human faith and endurance.All the King's Men: The Truth Behind SOE's Greatest Wartime Disaster
Par Robert Marshall. 2022
The story of one of the most astonishing episodes of espionage and deception of World War Two.This is the tale…
of two men: Claude Dansey, deputy head of MI6, and double agent Henri Dericourt, who was planted with the rival wartime secret service – SOE – at Dansey’s instructions. From there began a terrifying trail of destruction.After making contact with Dansey in 1942, Dericourt was recruited to SOE as the man desperately needed to organize top-secret flights in and out of occupied French territory. But at the same time Dericourt was in touch with German counter-espionage in Paris. As SOE congratulated themselves on a new asset, Dericourt gave the Nazis everything; every flight, operation and coded message he could.Against a background of unprecedented deception and betrayal, Dansey’s secret MI6 operation eventually led to the arrest of nearly one thousand men and women, hundreds of whom died in concentration camps.How did it go so wrong?A shocking, enthralling account of a devastating episode in the history of the British secret services, perfect for readers of Ben MacIntyre.Five Days in London, May 1940: May 1940
Par John Lukacs. 1999
A &“gripping [and] splendidly readable&” portrait of the battle within the British War Cabinet—and Churchill&’s eventual victory—as Hitler&’s shadow loomed…
(The Boston Globe). From May 24 to May 28, 1940, members of Britain&’s War Cabinet debated whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue what became known as the Second World War. In this magisterial work, John Lukacs takes us hour by hour into the critical events at 10 Downing Street, where Winston Churchill and his cabinet painfully considered their responsibilities. With the unfolding of the disaster at Dunkirk, and Churchill being in office for just two weeks and treated with derision by many, he did not have an easy time making his case—but the people of Britain were increasingly on his side, and he would prevail. This compelling narrative, a Washington Post bestseller, is the first to convey the drama and world-changing importance of those days. &“[A] fascinating work of historical reconstruction.&”—The Wall Street Journal &“Eminent historian Lukacs delivers the crown jewel to his long and distinguished career.&”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) &“A must for every World War II buff.&”—Cleveland Plain Dealer &“Superb…can be compared to such classics as Hugh Trevor-Roper&’s The Last Days of Hitler and Barbara Tuchman&’s The Guns of August.&”—Harper&’s MagazineHitler's Enforcers: Leaders of the German War Machine, 1939-45
Par James Lucas. 2022
The generals that defined the Nazi WarJames Lucas, military historian and British Army veteran, spoke with many veterans of both…
Axis and Allied armies, digging deeper into the question of what it is that makes a good soldier. His studies of German forces are some of the most insightful and significant ever undertaken, showing why they were such formidable foes.Here he has selected fifteen of the leading players in Hitler’s war effort, including men at or near the top, and describes their role in the German military hierarchy and their performance at strategic or battlefield level.They had, Lucas suggests, an extra dimension, an additional quality—administrative skill, the ability to motivate, great tactical awareness, originality of thought—which set them apart from others of equal rank. Here his subjects include iconic names like Kesselring, von Manstein, Model, Nehring and Rommel in a riveting book about command, control, military tactics and the hard realities of soldiering.Perfect for readers of Max Hastings or Ian Kershaw.After Liberation: Toward a Sociology of the Shoah<br/>Selected Essays
Par H. G. Adler, Jeremy Adler. 2023
H.G. Adler (1910–1988) was one of the founding figures of Holocaust scholarship whose monumental monograph Theresienstadt 1941-1945. The Face of…
a Coerced Community (1955; 1960) was the first study to present a fully documented account of the Final Solution. This collection gathers together, for the first time in English, some of Adler’s most important scholarly essays on the Shoah and connected themes. Ideas raised for the first time in his book on Theresienstadt are here taken up and developed at greater length, new accents are set, and new themes are explored. Spanning his thought across three decades they focus on the fate of the ‘coerced’ human being and reflect on freedom, enslavement, terror, concentration camps, persecution, the mass society, dread, loneliness, and ideology.1940: The World in Flames (The Second World War Histories)
Par Richard Collier. 2022
The most shocking year in history. Week by week, hour by hour.In his brilliant reconstruction, Richard Collier vividly brings one…
of the most momentous years in world history to life once again.This was a time of blitzkrieg and the Blitz; of the Battle of Britain and Dunkirk. From the fighting in Finland to the destruction of Coventry, from the sinking of the French fleet in Oran to the invasion of Norway, this is history at its most extraordinary and engaging.By recounting major episodes from the viewpoint of those actually involved, Collier provides enlightening glimpses of just what war represented to both the great and to the unknown, and reveals that while 1940 was a year of incredible folly, it was also a time of inestimable bravery.Perfect for readers of Anthony Beevor and Max Hastings, this is an unforgettable book about an unforgettable year, a year that shaped the world we know today.‘Masterly… you could be reading a spine-tingling thriller’ Sunday Express‘I would like to see this book made compulsory reading’ Evening StandardArnhem: Ten Days in the Cauldron
Par Iain Ballantyne. 2023
The account of the fateful bridge too far…‘It was a bridge too far and perhaps the whole plan was doomed…
to failure from the start, but we had to try, didn’t we?’17 September 1944: 30,000 airborne soldiers prepare to drop 64 miles behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Holland; tens of thousands of ground troops race down Hell’s Highway in tanks and armoured cars, trucks and half-tracks to link up with them. The goal – to secure eight bridges across the Rhine and end the war by Christmas. Ten days later, over 15,000 of these soldiers have died, 6,000 have been taken prisoner.Operation Market Garden was the daring plan to stage a coup de main in occupied territory, gain control of those bridges, and obtain a direct route into Hitler’s Germany. But the operation failed and the allied forces suffered a brutal military defeat.In the 75 years since, tactics have been analysed and blame has been placed, but the heart of Arnhem’s story lies in the selflessness and bravery of those troops that fought, the courage and resilience of the civilians caught up in confrontation, and the pure determination to fight for their lives and their freedom. This is the story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.In Ballantyne’s Arnhem, we go into battle with not only the famous commanders in the thick of the action, but also with all those whose fates were determined by their decisions. Based on first-hand interviews, military records, and diaries, we witness the confusion and mayhem of war – from the horrific and devastating to the surreal and mundane. But most of all, we witness the self-sacrifice and valour of the men who gave their lives to liberate strangers in a foreign country.Praise for Arnhem: Ten Days in the Cauldron‘Reminiscent of Stephen Ambrose at his best… some remarkable stories, which Ballantyne neatly dovetails into a rolling epic’ Dr Harry Bennett, University of Plymouth‘Breath-taking… I thoroughly enjoyed reading this account of Arnhem, adding, if you like, a trench-level perspective to those other accounts written from more senior, and sometimes more detached, points of view. Thoroughly recommended’ British Journal for Military HistoryAnatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals
Par Joel Dimsdale. 2016
An eminent psychiatrist delves into the minds of Nazi leadershipin &“a fresh look at the nature of wickedness, and at…
our attempts to explain it&” (Sir Simon Wessely, Royal College of Psychiatrists). When the ashes had settled after World War II and the Allies convened an international war crimes trial in Nuremberg, a psychiatrist, Douglas Kelley, and a psychologist, Gustave Gilbert, tried to fathom the psychology of the Nazi leaders, using extensive psychiatric interviews, IQ tests, and Rorschach inkblot tests. The findings were so disconcerting that portions of the data were hidden away for decades and the research became a topic for vituperative disputes. Gilbert thought that the war criminals&’ malice stemmed from depraved psychopathology. Kelley viewed them as morally flawed, ordinary men who were creatures of their environment. Who was right? Drawing on his decades of experience as a psychiatrist and the dramatic advances within psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience since Nuremberg, Joel E. Dimsdale looks anew at the findings and examines in detail four of the war criminals, Robert Ley, Hermann Göring, Julius Streicher, and Rudolf Hess. Using increasingly precise diagnostic tools, he discovers a remarkably broad spectrum of pathology. Anatomy of Malice takes us on a complex and troubling quest to make sense of the most extreme evil. &“In this fascinating and compelling journey . . . a respected scientist who has long studied the Holocaust asks probing questions about the nature of malice. I could not put this book down.&”—Thomas N. Wise, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine &“This harrowing tale and detective story asks whether the Nazi War Criminals were fundamentally like other people, or fundamentally different.&”—T.M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real&“Dunn shows how FDR&’s Third Hundred Days were critical to overcoming isolationism and rebuilding American leadership in an age of…
global turmoil.&” (E.J. Dionne Jr., New York Times bestselling co-author of One Nation After Trump) In the cold winter months that followed Franklin Roosevelt&’s election in November 1940 to an unprecedented third term in the White House, he confronted a worldwide military and moral catastrophe. Almost all the European democracies had fallen under the ruthless onslaught of the Nazi army and air force. Great Britain stood alone, a fragile bastion between Germany and American immersion in war. In the Pacific world, Japan had extended its tentacles deeper into China. Susan Dunn dramatically brings to life the most vital and transformational period of Roosevelt&’s presidency: the hundred days between December 1940 and March 1941, when he mobilized American industry, mustered the American people, initiated the crucial programs and approved the strategic plans for America&’s leadership in World War II. As the nation began its transition into the preeminent military, industrial, and moral power on the planet, FDR laid out the stunning blueprint not only for war but for the American Century. &“Dunn&’s achievement is to make the view of FDR&’s accomplishment clear.&” —The Boston Globe &“Susan Dunn is one of the great Roosevelt historians of our time.&” —Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author of Presidents of War &“Superbly researched and written.&” —James T. Patterson, Bancroft Prize-winning author of Grand Expectations &“The definitive telling of a pivotal episode in American history.&” —Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return of George Washington