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History, Politics and Commentary - Military
"Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them." Attributed to Napoleon
The Territorials: The History of the Territorial and Volunteer Forces of New Zealand
Peter Cooke and John Crawford
Citizen soldiering has been part of our history since the first years of colonial settlement. From the early militias set up in the 1830s, primarily for internal security, right up to the current day, everyday men and women have been trained and ready to serve in the Boer War, the Great War, World War II and many other military engagements. The shape and purpose of the volunteer and territorial armies has changed over the years, but is marked throughout by bravery, adventure and initiative. This extensive and authoritative history ... read more
In 1968, at the age of 22 Karl Marlantes abandoned his Oxford University scholarship to sign up for active service with the US Marine Corps in Vietnam. Pitched into a war that had no defined military objective other than kill ratios and body counts, what he experienced over the next thirteen months in the jungles of South East Asia shook him to the core. But what happened when he came home covered with medals was almost worse. It took Karl four decades to come to terms with what had really happened, during the course of which he pa... read more
A magisterial new history of the British soldier - a man famously described by the Duke of Wellington as 'the scum of the earth'. From battlefield to barrack-room, this book is stuffed to the brim with anecdotes and stories of soldiers from the army of Charles II, through Empire and two World Wars to modern times. The British soldier forms a core component of British history. In this scholarly but gossipy book, Richard Holmes presents a rich social history of the man (and now more frequently woman) who have been at the heart of hi... read more
Brave men and women have taken up the sword since ages of old, and a fascination with this formidable weapon grips dedicated followers to this day. Here is a celebration of swords and swordsmen that spans time and place
The AK-47, or 'Kalashnikov', is the most abundant and efficient firearm on earth. It is so light it can be used by children. This book tells an alternative history of the world as seen through these terrible weapons. It traces them back to their origins in the early experiments of Gatling and Maxim.
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Tells the story of Manfred von Richthofen - from 11-year-old cadet to aerial combatant and charismatic leader. This biography looks at the times in which he lived: the equipment, his enemies and comrades, the battles, the political climate that led to his eventual disenchantment and evidence about the controversial circumstances of his death.
In his bestselling Night after Night, Max Lambert wrote about New Zealanders in Bomber Command. In this long-awaited companion volume, he features their daytime counterparts - fighter pilots who fought in Europe, Asia and the Pacific during World War Two. From the mid-1930s to 1945, young New Zealanders in their hundreds trained as fighter pilots. Initially outnumbered, outgunned and effectively lambs to the slaughter, they were an intrepid part of Churchill's celebrated few, defending Britain and her allies. Against huge odds they... read more
Auschwitz survivor and philosopher Victor Frankl wrote: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. While on one level a collection of moving personal histories of Kiwi airmen saved by the Resistance during WWII, on another it tells of significant and life-changing choices made in times of fear, desperation and hardship. When Kiwi airman John Sanderson was shot down over Laines-aux-Bois in May 1944, an ordinary Fren... read more
One night in June 1943 James Swift, along with the Lancaster bomber he piloted, vanished. In "Bomber County", his grandson Daniel seeks to discover what happened. At the same time he tries to understand the men who took part in these dangerous raids, as well as their devastating impact on the civilians below. In examining the life of one pilot, Daniel Swift also investigates why it is we have tried to forget what was then a new, shocking form of warfare, and why literature and poetry exploring these terrible losses have not found t... read more
Operation Fortitude was the ingenious web of deception spun by the Allies to mislead the Nazis as to how and where the D-Day landings were to be mounted. 'One of the most creative intelligence operations of all time' - Kim Philby The story of how this web was woven is one of intrigue, personal drama, ground-breaking techniques, internal resistance, and good fortune. It is a tale of double agents, black radio broadcasts, phantom armies, 'Ultra' decrypts, and dummy parachute drops. These diverse tactics were intended to c... read more
In this fascinating little book, Baden-Powell uses his extensive military experience and memories of service in Africa to distill soldiering down to 'the four C-s': Courage, Common sense, Cunning and Cheerfulness. With observations gleaned from his campaigns against the Zulus, the Ashanti and the Boers during the period 1876-1910 (and even from conversations with the German Kaiser), B-P discusses all aspects of military service from digging trenches and earth-works to 'inculcating cheerfulness in your men'. This period... read more
'Afghanistan is just like Iraq -- hot, dusty and full of people who want to kill you', SSgt Simon Fuller, Royal Engineer Search Advisor Bomb Hunters tells the story of the British army's elite bomb disposal experts, men who face death every day in the most dangerous region of the most lethal country on earth -- Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Bomb Hunters are up against the Improvised Explosive Device -- the IED -- the deadly homemade bombs planted by the Taliban. Hard to detect and easy to trigger, an estimated 10 bombs for every... read more
Ross Kemp has encountered conflict and warfare the world over, broadcasting from some of the most volatile military hot-zones. From meeting the world's deadliest gangsters, to perhaps his hardest assignment of all; embedded with the British Army in Afghanistan's Helmand province, where he witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict and was trained in the tactics they use to stay alive. Stationed with British forces for his award-winning television documentaries, Ross Kemp has not only experienced the terror and exhilara... read more
In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft - a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as better than sex. Just what was it like to be... read more
While others dived for cover - the bravest of the brave went in. Brendan O'Carroll's new book pays tribute to the courageous 'Khaki Angels': stretcher-bearers and other Kiwi frontline medical people who put others before self in two world wars, serving in Gallipoli, Europe, North Africa, Greece, Italy and the Pacific. Khaki Angels also looks at general wartime medical matters: field organisation, what caused death and injuries, what the injuries were like and how they were treated. And we meet some heroes.
Spoken from the Front will tell the stories of what Andy McNab describes as modern-day heroes fighting modern-day wars'. It will recount the courage and hardship of British servicemen and support staff as they have faced the unique difficulties posed by the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Andy will introduce and edit the book, but the interwoven stories will be told by those serving on the front line, in their own words. Their action-packed, dramatic, moving and often humorous testimonies will be told through interviews and dia... read more
Superb war novelist, Iain Gale, moves into the twentieth century and World War Two, telling the story of the eleven days that would change the course of history. There are some battles that change the course of history: Alamein is one of those. In October 1942, Britain and its allies were in trouble. Germany and its Axis partners were winning ground in Europe, in Russia, in the Atlantic and they were poised to take the Suez Canal. But it was in this North Africa battle that the stand was made, that the tide of World War Two began... read more
This is an account of that global campaign and the role of the New Zealanders who served as pilots, navigators, gunners, wireless operators, bomb aimers and ground staff from so many far flung airfields and ship.The book is largely about men, because that is the way it was: women were confined to support roles. Today their ranks are rapidly thinning and this is a tribute to their greatness. Some 67,000 New Zealanders served in the Royal New Zealand Air force, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy
A controversial and important book by BBC reporter and terrorism expert Peter Taylor. Newly updated to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and to include the death of Osama Bin Laden. During his 40-year career, award-winning journalist Peter Taylor has come face-to-face with some of the world's most notorious terrorists. In 1972 he was sent to Northern Ireland to report on 'Bloody Sunday' and in the aftermath of 9/11, he focused on Al Qaeda, breaking stories in the period up to the July bombings and the plot to blow up passenger pl... read more
