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Dunkirk 1940 Whereabouts Unknown
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Book Synopsis Dunkirk 1940: 'Whereabouts Unknown' by : Tim Lynch
Download or read book Dunkirk 1940: 'Whereabouts Unknown' written by Tim Lynch and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They called it 'the slaughter of the innocents'. The barely trained and poorly equipped men of the Labour Divisions were never meant to fight, but when the German blitzkreig sliced through the Allied armies they were all that stood in the way of the annihilation of the British Expeditionary Force. Paying with their lives they bought precious time as the army fell back towards Dunkirk, and long after the last of the little ships reached home, the men of the Labour Divisions fought on. Dunkirk 1940: Whereabouts Unknown uses official reports, diaries and personal accounts to tell the story of the chaos, terror and heroism of the amateur soldiers of 137th Infantry Brigade during the fall of France.
Book Synopsis Retreat & Rearguard: Dunkirk 1940 by : Jerry Murland
Download or read book Retreat & Rearguard: Dunkirk 1940 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic story of how a quarter million men were evacuated from the coast of France—and how the British Expeditionary Force fought on. This book, part of the Retreat and Rearguard series, covers the actions of the BEF during the retreat from the Dyle Line to the evacuation points of Dunkirk, Boulogne, Calais, Saint-Valery-en-Caux, and finally the Cherbourg Peninsula. Some of the engagements are relatively well known (Cassell, the Arras counter-attack, and the notorious Le Paradis SS massacre), but the author has unearthed many less known engagements from the long and painful withdrawal. While the main Dunkirk evacuation from the port and beaches was over by early June, elements of the BEF fought on until June 21. In relating those often heroic actions, this book catches the atmosphere of desperate defiance that typified this never-to-be-forgotten period.
Book Synopsis The Western Dunkirk Corridor 1940 by : Jerry Murland
Download or read book The Western Dunkirk Corridor 1940 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of 144 Brigade’s defense of Wormhoudt and Bambecque must rank in importance alongside the defense of Cassel and Hazebrouck by 145 Brigade; however, what is often forgotten in the uncertainty that surrounded Wormhoudt and Bambeque is the heroic defense of West Cappel and Vwyfeg (les Cinq Chemins today) by the Welsh Guards and the 1/Fife and Forfar Yeomanry (1/F&F Yeomanry). Brigadier Norman’s composite brigade was the final piece in the jigsaw of defense on the western flank of the Dunkerque Corridor and, after the last stand of the 2/Royal Warwicks and the 8/Worcesters, Norman’s Brigade, held the line south of Bergues, containing the attacking German units at great cost, until the perimeter at Dunkerque had been established. He and the remnants of his brigade left Yvfweg just as the Germans were entering it from the south. The full story of the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkerque can be read in Battleground Europe: The Dunkerque Perimeter and Evacuation 1940. The defense of Wormhoudt in 1940 has long been associated with the massacre of British servicemen after they had surrendered and been taken prisoner. The events in the barn at La Plaine au Bois will always be considered one of the most appalling acts of the Second World War, carried out by elements of the Liebstandarte Regiment, in what looked very much like revenge; a massacre that was almost second nature to this group of fanatical followers of Adolf Hitler. Up against the regular troops of the 2/Warwicks and their supporting units, the Liebstandarte found no easy victory at Wormhoudt in an encounter that saw their regimental commander, Gruppenführer Otto ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, having to take shelter in a roadside ditch away from the fury of the Cheshire machine gunners. Then again, what is often overshadowed by the events in the barn is the series of other murders of civilians and British soldiers that took place as the Liebstandarte overwhelmed the fragile defense of the Warwicks. Captain ‘Tony’ Crook, the Warwicks’ Medical Officer, draws attention to just one of these incidents as he was marched into captivity past the bodies of A Company men, who he felt sure had been murdered in cold blood. Another incident involving the Worcesters at Bambecque is related by Lieutenant Roger Cleverley of C Company, who writes in his diary that all the wounded were shot by a commander of the Liebstandarte. Apart from hearsay and diary entries, there is little other evidence to support the deaths of these men but, in the opinion of the author, there is no doubt whatever that many British soldiers met a premature end after they had surrendered in the fields and on the pavements of Wormhoudt and Bambecque.
Book Synopsis The Dunkirk Perimeter and Evacuation 1940 by : Jerry Murland
Download or read book The Dunkirk Perimeter and Evacuation 1940 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of a disastrous WWII setback, including numerous photos, maps, and information for visitors. This book tells the story of the fierce fighting around the Dunkirk Perimeter during May and June 1940 between the retreating British Expeditionary Force and its French allies and the advancing German army. This grievous military setback was soon transformed into a morale-boosting symbol of the resilience of the British against a Germany that had crushed so many nations in a matter of weeks. With over 200 black and white photographs and fourteen maps, this book looks at the units deployed around Dunkirk and Nieuport and their often desperate actions to prevent the inevitable advance of German forces opposing them. The evacuation of the BEF from the beaches east of Dunkirk is covered in detail from the perspective of the Royal Navy and from the standpoint of the soldier on the beaches. Also included are details for travelers to the sites involved. In addition to visits to the relevant cemeteries, the book includes three appendices and two car tours, one tour covering the whole of the Dunkirk perimeter and the other covering Ramsgate and Dover, although there is plenty of scope for walking in both tours. There is also a walk around De Panne, which takes the tourist along the beach that saw so much of the evacuation, and into the back areas of the town where the Germans left their mark when clearing up after the British had gone.
Book Synopsis Frankforce and the Defence of Arras 1940 by : Jerry Murland
Download or read book Frankforce and the Defence of Arras 1940 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no other city in France that has the same associations in time of conflict that the British have with Arras. Since the campaigns of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, in the early 18th century, British soldiers have fought in and around Arras, occasionally as an enemy but, more often, as defenders of French and Allied democracy. Battlefield visitors to the area will immediately recognize the names of towns and villages that were as significant to the men of Marlboroughs army as they were to those who fought in the First and Second World Wars.This book serves both as guide to the Second World War battlefields that surround the city and its environs as well as detailing the actions of the British armored attack of 21 May 1940. The book looks at the strategic situation that led up to the famous Arras counterstroke and, using material that has not been published before, examines the British and German actions between 20 and 23 May. The only Victoria Cross action that took place during this time is looked at in detail; as is the fighting that took place in Arras and during the breakout.Despite its shortcomings, the counterstroke achieved the essential element of surprise and caused widespread alarm amongst the German command and hit Rommels 7th Panzer Division at precisely the moment when his armored units were ahead of the infantry and gunners. The British infantry fought well and both the Durham battalions were fortunate that their commanding officers and senior NCOs were men who had already fought in one conflict and possessed the determination to rally their less experienced junior ranks and fight on regardless. Such was the case with the two tank battalions, although sadly they lost both their commanding officers and over half the tanks that went into the engagement. The attack did enable the British to tighten their hold on Arras albeit temporarily and, as is often cited, built doubts in the minds of German High Command as to the speed of their advance and contributed to the subsequent Hitler halt order of 24-27 May.The author has gone to some lengths to track down accounts from those individuals who served in the area during May 1940 and fought the enveloping tide of the German advanceThe book is supported by three car tours, one of which takes the visitor along the tragic path taken by the Tyneside Scottish on 20 May and two walking routes, which concentrate on Arras.137 black and white photographs (integrated) and a number of maps derived from regimental histories; and six tour maps provide the battlefield visitor with illustrations of the battlefields as they were in 1940 and as they are today.
Download or read book Case Red written by Robert Forczyk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then conducting a tough defence along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest and St Nazaire. While France was in its death throes, politicians and soldiers debated what to do – flee to England or North Africa, or seek an armistice. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940, and explains the great impact it had on the course of relations between Britain and France during the remainder of the war. It also addresses the military, political and human drama of France's collapse in June 1940, and how the windfall of captured military equipment, fuel and industrial resources enhanced the Third Reich's ability to attack its next foe – the Soviet Union.
Book Synopsis The Caretakers by : Caitlin Galante DeAngelis
Download or read book The Caretakers written by Caitlin Galante DeAngelis and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-01-16 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When World War I ended, hundreds of British veterans stayed in France to work for the newly chartered Imperial War Graves Commission. Through the 1920s and 1930s, these veteran-gardeners married local women, raised bilingual children, and dedicated themselves to caring for the graves of their fallen comrades. When World War II swept through Europe in 1940, more than 200 War Graves gardeners were stranded in Nazi-occupied France. Their bosses explicitly ordered them to remain at their posts, even when their villages were under attack by the invading Germans. While some escaped, others were arrested by the Nazis. A handful managed to stay free and join the French Resistance. With their English-language skills and unshakable loyalty to the Allied cause, the gardeners and their families took on crucial roles in the effort to save British and American airmen shot down in France. In some cases, they hid the airmen in World War I cemeteries. In The Caretakers, internationally renowned cemetery expert Caitlin Galante DeAngelis tells the true story of three of these unlikely heroes: Ben Leech, a barman from Manchester who became a cemetery gardener in Beaumont-Hamel and joined the Resistance; Rosine Witton, the wife of a British gardener, who served as a key conductor on the famous Comet Line and survived Ravensbrück; and Robert Armstrong, an Irish gardener who worked for the Resistance until he was captured by the Nazis and sentenced to death. Through meticulous research, never-before-published journals and papers, and compassionate storytelling, DeAngelis honors the sacrifices made by War Graves gardeners and their families.
Download or read book GWB Sheffield written by Tim Lynch and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-02-02 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The First World War claimed over 995,000 British lives, and its legacy continues to be remembered today. Great War Britain: Sheffield offers an intimate portrayal of the city and its people living in the shadow of the Great War for five years. A beautifully illustrated and highly accessible volume, it recounts the tale of a Boy Scout leader's journey to Gallipoli, the terror of the first air raids, and the university's best and brightest who formed their own Pals battalion only to lose poets, writers and students on the Somme. It contrasts the strikes and political unrest with patriotism and sacrifice in the city they called 'the armourer to the Empire'. The Great War story of Sheffield is told through the voices of those who were there and is vividly illustrated with evocative images.
Book Synopsis Operation Market Garden by : Tim Lynch
Download or read book Operation Market Garden written by Tim Lynch and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2016-08-04 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 20 September 1944, a force of US paratroopers launched a desperate, near suicidal river crossing in an effort to reach their airborne brethren trapped at Arnhem, only to see their efforts squandered by British tank crews who, instead of racing ahead, sat down to drink tea. The story of the Waal crossing – as told by American veterans of the operation – has become a part of the Arnhem legend, a legend of airborne heroism set against the timidity of the armoured forces sent to relieve them; of American professionalism wasted by British incompetence. But what really happened? Why was the operation even necessary? Using first-hand accounts and official records, Operation Market Garden examines the legend of the Waal Crossing and the truth behind it, revealing how a culture of elitism mixed with national and personal rivalries led to arguably the greatest western Allied defeat of the war.
Book Synopsis They Did Not Grow Old by : Tim Lynch
Download or read book They Did Not Grow Old written by Tim Lynch and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1918, 135 teenagers arrived in France as part of the thousands sent to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. The German Spring offensive had failed, but it was far from over. The coming months would see some of the fiercest, bloodiest, yet least remembered fighting of the war as these young men finally broke the trench stalemate and forced the enemy into retreat. During this time, one in four of these teenaged soldiers would be killed and over half of them wounded. Looking beyond the war as portrayed by poets and playwrights, Tim Lynch tells the story of Britain's true Unknown Soldiers – the teenage conscripts who won the war only to be forgotten by history. These were not the naïve recruits of 1914 who believed it would all be over by Christmas, but young men who had grown up in wartime – men who knew about the trenches, the gas and the industrialised slaughter, but who, when their time came, answered their country's call anyway. For the first time, following the experiences of a typical reinforcement draft, this book explores what turned men so often dismissed as 'shirkers' into a motivated, efficient and professional army, but it also reminds us that in the cemeteries of France and Flanders, behind every headstone is a personal story.
Book Synopsis Dunkirk 1940: Whereabouts Unknown by : Tim Lynch
Download or read book Dunkirk 1940: Whereabouts Unknown written by Tim Lynch and published by History Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "They called it 'the slaughter of the innocents'. The barely trained and poorly equipped men of the labour divisions were never meant to fight, but when the German blitzkrieg sliced through the Allied armies in 1940, they were all that stood in the way of the annihilation of the British Expeditionary Force. While the Allied generals bickered amongst themselves, all command and control lost, their men died to buy precious time as the main army fell back towards Dunkirk. Long after the last of the rescue ships reached home, the men of the labour divisions fought on. That summer saw a thousand small acts of heroism, from the officer with multiple wounds who refused to leave his command, to the lone infantryman who held off a German panzer with a single anti-tank gun; refusing to surrender, he died at his post, alone. Based on original research, official reports, diaries and personal accounts, Dunkirk 1940 reveals the crucial and largely forgotten heroism of the amateur soldiers, in particular those of 137th Infantry Brigade, during the chaos and terror of the fall of France"--Dust jacket.
Book Synopsis From Dunkirk to the Rhineland by : C.N. Murrell
Download or read book From Dunkirk to the Rhineland written by C.N. Murrell and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles (Charlie to his comrades) Murrell kept detailed diaries of his service with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards throughout the Second World War as Guardsman (later Sergeant).This book starts on 10 May 1940 with the Blitzkrieg on Arras and the retreat to Dunkirk. The Dunkirk beaches and his own undignified evacuation are described in some detail and occasional humor.The second part begins on 20 June 1944 when the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards set sail for Normandy and they take part in the Battle for Caen with engagements at Cheux, Cagny and Colombelles and thence to the Bocage country with a particularly bloody fight at Montchamp.The final element covers the race for and liberation of Brussels, a fiercely fought engagement at Hechtel Operation MARKET GARDEN, Nijmegen and the Island, winter in Belgium and Holland and the Rhineland Battle.As a member of the Intelligence Section, the Author was aware of the big picture. Very observant, he has a literary style and ability unusual in a ranker. He often writes in his trench whilst under mortar or shell fire and one experiences the fear that he (and millions of others) felt. He describes several near death experiences and the casualties and deaths of his comrades and other horrors of war, sometimes in graphic detail. There are descriptions of hair-raising motorcycle rides, the fanaticism of the SS, the sadness of lettering crosses of his dead comrades, the ecstatic receptions in liberated villages and towns, culminating in the liberation of Brussels, the uneasy relationship with American troops, the importance of alcohol in his (and others) war and the joy of returning to England.The many sketches are an important accessory to the journals.
Book Synopsis The Evacuation from Dunkirk by : W.J.R. Gardner
Download or read book The Evacuation from Dunkirk written by W.J.R. Gardner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the Naval Staff History of "Operation Dynamo", originally published internally in 1949. British ships evacuated nearly 100,000 men of the BEF from the beaches, and over 200,000 from harbours. Other nations' vessels carried more than 30,000.
Book Synopsis The BEF in France 1939-1940 by : John Grehan
Download or read book The BEF in France 1939-1940 written by John Grehan and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British force in Europe from 1939_1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force.??The British Expeditionary Force was started in 1938 in readiness for a perceived threat of war after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and the claims on the Sudetenland, which led to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. After the French and British had promised to defend Poland, the German invasion of that country began and war was declared on 3 September 1939.??The BEF was sent to France in September 1939 and deployed mainly along the BelgianFrench border during the so-called Phoney War leading up to May 1940. The BEF did not commence hostilities until the invasion of France on 10 May 1940. After the commencement of battle, they were driven back through Belgium and north-western France, forcing their eventual evacuation from several ports along the French northern coastline in Operations Dynamo, Ariel and Cycle. The most notable evacuation was from the Dunkirk region and from this the phrase Dunkirk Spirit was coined.
Download or read book Dunkirk written by Tim Lynch and published by History Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Dynamo, and its rescues from beaches and harbour, has gone down in history as a victory from certain defeat. Here Tim Lynch presents the true story of this miraculous event using stunning, rare images from the Mirrorpix archive.
Book Synopsis Bearing Witness by : John R. Carpenter
Download or read book Bearing Witness written by John R. Carpenter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been said that during times of war, the Muses fall silent. However, anyone who has read the major figures of mid-twentieth-century literature—Samuel Beckett, Richard Hillary, Norman Mailer, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others—can attest that it was through writing that people first tried to communicate and process the horrors that they saw during one of the darkest times in human history even as it broke out and raged on around them. In Bearing Witness, John Carpenter explores how across the world those who experienced the war tried to make sense of it both during and in its immediate aftermath. Writers such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Theodore Plievier questioned the ruling parties of the time based on what they saw. Correspondents and writer-soldiers like John Hersey and James Jones revealed the chaotic and bloody reality of the front lines to the public. And civilians, many of who remain anonymous, lent voice to occupation and imprisonment so that those who didn’t survive would not be forgotten. The digestion of a cataclysmic event can take generations. But in this fascinating book, Carpenter brings together all those who did their best to communicate what they saw in the moment so that it could never be lost.
Book Synopsis Wall, Watchtower, and Pencil Stub by : John R. Carpenter
Download or read book Wall, Watchtower, and Pencil Stub written by John R. Carpenter and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been said that during times of war, the Muses fall silent. However, anyone who has read the major figures of mid-twentieth-century literature—Samuel Beckett, Richard Hillary, Norman Mailer, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others—can attest that it was through writing that people first tried to communicate and process the horrors that they saw during one of the darkest times in human history even as it broke out and raged on around them. In Bearing Witness, John Carpenter explores how across the world those who experienced the war tried to make sense of it both during and in its immediate aftermath. Writers such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Theodore Plievier questioned the ruling parties of the time based on what they saw. Correspondents and writer-soldiers like John Hersey and James Jones revealed the chaotic and bloody reality of the front lines to the public. And civilians, many of who remain anonymous, lent voice to occupation and imprisonment so that those who didn’t survive would not be forgotten. The digestion of a cataclysmic event can take generations. But in this fascinating book, Carpenter brings together all those who did their best to communicate what they saw in the moment so that it could never be lost.
