John Grehan
Autor von Slaughter on the Somme
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John Grehan has written, edited or contributed to more than 300 books and magazine articles covering a wide span of military history from the Iron Age to the recent conflict in Afghanistan. John has also appeared on local and national radio and television to advise on military history topics. He mehr anzeigen was employed as the Assistant Editor of Britain at War Magazine from its inception until 2014. John now devotes his time to writing and editing books. Alexander Nicoll has been involved in writing and publishing military history for thirty years. He began his career with local history, and has since written numerous books and magazine articles, predominantly on subjects relating to the two world wars. weniger anzeigen
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Unearthing Churchill's Secret Army: The Official List of SOE Casualties and Their Stories (2012) 19 Exemplare
The Lines of Torres Vedras: The Cornerstone of Wellington's Strategy in the Peninsular War 1809-1812 (2000) 17 Exemplare
Churchill's secret invasion : Britain's first large-scale combined operations offensive 1942 (2013) 15 Exemplare
The BEF in France 1939-1940: Manning the Front through to the Dunkirk Evacuation (Despatches from the Front) (2014) 15 Exemplare
Operations in North Africa and the Middle East 1942-1944: El Alamein, Tunisia, Algeria and Operation Torch (Despatches… (2015) 13 Exemplare
The Boer War 1899-1902: Ladysmith, Magersfontein, Spion Kop, Kimberley and Mafeking (Despatches from the Front) (2014) 11 Exemplare
Liberating Europe: D-Day to Victory in Europe 1944-1945 (Despatches from the Front) (2014) 11 Exemplare
The Battle of Hastings 1066 - The Uncomfortable Truth: Revealing the True Location of England's Most Famous Battle (2012) 10 Exemplare
The War in East Africa 1939-1943: From the Campaign Against Italy in British Somaliland to Operation Ironclad, the… (2015) 9 Exemplare
Dunkirk Nine Days That Saved an Army: A Day by Day Account of the Greatest Evacuation (2018) 9 Exemplare
RAF and the SOE : special duty operations in Europe during WW2 : an official account (2016) 9 Exemplare
The Battle for Burma 1943-1945: From Kohima & Imphal Through to Victory (Despatches From The Front) (2015) 9 Exemplare
Hitler's Wolfsschanze: The Wolf's Lair Headquarters on the Eastern Front - An Illustrated Guide: The… (2021) 7 Exemplare
Battleground Sussex: A Military History of Sussex From the Iron Age to the Present Day (2012) 7 Exemplare
Dunkirk Evacuation - Operation Dynamo: Nine Days that Saved an Army (Images of War) (2020) 6 Exemplare
Battle of Midway: America's Decisive Strike in the Pacific in WWII (Images of War) (2019) 5 Exemplare
Voices from the Past: The Battle of Waterloo: History's most famous battle told through eyewitness accounts,… (2015) 5 Exemplare
The first VCs : the stories behind the First Victoria Crosses in the Crimean War and the definition of courage (2016) 5 Exemplare
Assassinations Anthology: Plots and Murders That Would Have Changed the Course of WW2 (2017) 5 Exemplare
Great Naval Battles of the Pacific War: The Official Admiralty Accounts: Midway, Coral Sea, Java Sea, Guadalcanal and… (2022) 4 Exemplare
The Berlin Airlift: The World's Largest Ever Air Supply Operation (Images of Aviation) (2019) 4 Exemplare
Disaster in the Far East, 1940–1942: The Defence of Malaya, Japanese Capture of Hong Kong and the Fall of Singapore (2015) 3 Exemplare
Okinawa: The Last Naval Battle of Ww2: the Official Admiralty Account of Operation Iceberg (2023) 3 Exemplare
The Doolittle Raid: The First Air Attack Against Japan, April 1942 (Images of Aviation) (2020) 2 Exemplare
Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Largest Sea Battle of the Second World War (Images of War) (2021) 2 Exemplare
The Battle for Burma, 1943–1945: From Kohima & Imphal Through to Victory (Despatches from the Front) 1 Exemplar
The Dieppe Raid: The Allies Assault Upon Hitlers Fortress Europe, August 1942 (Images of War) (2023) 1 Exemplar
The Battle of Tinian: The Capture of the Atomic Bomb Island, July-August 1944 (Images of War) (2023) 1 Exemplar
The Allied Assault on Hitler's Channel Island Fortress: The Planned Operation to Eject the Germans in 1943 (2023) 1 Exemplar
Combined operations : an official history of amphibious warfare against Hitler's Third Reich, 1940-1945 (2023) 1 Exemplar
Hitler's V-Weapons: An Official History of the Battle Against the V-1 and V-2 in WWII (2020) 1 Exemplar
The Hitler Assassination Attempts: The Plots, Places and People that Almost Changed History (2022) 1 Exemplar
Medical Officers on the Infamous Burma Railway: Accounts of Life, Death and War Crimes by Those Who Were There With… (2022) 1 Exemplar
The Hunt for Moore's Gold: Investigating the Loss of the British Amy's Military Chest During the Retreat to… (2019) 1 Exemplar
Western Front, 1914–1916: Mons, Le Cataeu, loos, the Battle of the Somme (Despatches from the Front) 1 Exemplar
Berlin Wall 1 Exemplar
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Still, there’s some interesting “military sociology” that can be extracted. In hindsight we know that the Italian armed forces performed poorly in WWII; however this wasn’t known at the time. Both English generals express modest surprise at Italian performance; it’s noted that Italian defensive positions were skillfully laid out and thoroughly equipped with mines, barbed wire and concrete emplacements but the Italians tended to hunker down in them and were outflanked by British mobile units. (The exception to this was the position at Keren in Eritrea, where the geography made it more or less impossible to outflank, resulting in a long and bloody battle before it was captured).
Another interesting observation was the ethnic makeup of the British army. Almost all the units that fought against the Italians were native Africans with English officers and NCOs: the King’s African Rifles (from Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe). and regiments from Sudan, Nigeria and the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Ethiopians were first guerrillas fighting behind the lines (always referred to as “Ethiopian patriots”); later some were organized into formal military units. There were some units from South Africa involved; I assume these were all white although it’s never spelled out. The South African units were usually specialists – armored cars, artillery, and the South African Air Force. There were also some Indian troops. None of the English generals ever mention the racial makeup of units, probably assuming that it would be understood. There’s no overt racism against African troops, although in one case some surprise is expressed when an African unit preforms aggressively and successfully even though all its English officers and NCOs had been killed or wounded. In that regard in note that casualties among English officers and NCOs seem to be high; they were “leading from the front”. (I note President Obama’s paternal grandfather was in the King’s African Rifles during WWII, although as near as I can tell he didn’t join the unit until later and served in Burma, not the East African campaign).
The situation is a little different with respect to Ethiopians. The “patriot” guerillas were not under English command and the generals claim they could not be counted on to cooperate. However, Wavell does comment that Ethiopians fought well, even “recklessly”, once it was clear that the campaign was going to be successful. A major concern was fears for Italian civilians in conquered areas – the language is very discrete, of course, but there’s a definite undertone of black men, white women, and fates worse than death. In fact, the English used this idea as a lever to get Italian military to surrender, sending messages that they didn’t have the resources to protect Italian civilians unless Italian soldiers laid down their arms. (As it happened, although there were some incidents, the Ethiopians were much more civilized toward the Italians that the Italians had after they overran Ethiopia). The English field commanders come across as puzzled with regard to the Ethiopians – were they supposed to treat them as allies, as neutrals, or what? There’s quite a bit of frustration expressed over negotiations with Emperor Haile Selassie and the Ethiopian government; the generals seemed to want to treat Ethiopia as a colony. Considerable bickering ensued as the Ethiopians insisted on their rights. (For more about the Ethiopian campaign, see Lost Lions of Judah and Prevail)
Another interesting observation made by the English generals is the amount of development in the captured territory. The Italians had gone to considerable lengths to build factories and develop infrastructure; an English general commented that there were more miles of paved roads in Italian Ethiopia than in the all the English colonies adjacent combined.
The capture of Madagascar came about when Japan entered the war. The English were afraid Vichy would allow Japanese and/or German submarines to base there and wreak havoc with shipping in the Indian Ocean. The invasion is documented as very much a hastily conceived venture, with troops scraped up from here and there and ships not “combat loaded”; however after some fighting to preserve national honor the French came to terms (I expect the English, African, French, Senegalese and Malagasy soldiers and civilians killed were probably not consoled by ideas of national honor).
Military dispatches are not the place to find exciting writing, and the lack of maps greatly limits the utility of this fairly expensive volume. However, it’s interesting enough for what’s “written between the lines” and it deals with an aspect of WWII not handled well elsewhere.… (mehr)