Men, Ideas, and Tanks

Author: J. P. Harris
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719048142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
Men, ideas and tanks reviews the development of British military ideas on armoured forces from 1903 to 1939. Great Britain was the nation which first developed the tank, first used it in action and first gained dramatic results by employment. The British continued to be world leaders in the field of mechanised warfare until the early 1930s. Now available in paperback for the first time, J. P. Harris original work offers new interpretations of the early history of British armoured forces and explains why Great Britain had lost the lead by the outbreak of the Second World War. This work will be of interest to all those concerned with British military history in the first half of the twentieth century, with the history of mechanised warfare and with the history of military thought.

British Tank Production and the War Economy, 1934-1945

Author: Benjamin Coombs
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472512820
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
British Tank Production and the War Economy, 1934-1945 explores the under-researched experiences of the British tank industry in the context of the pressures of war. Benjamin Coombs explores the various demands placed on British industry during the Second World War, looking at the political, military and strategy pressures involved. By comparing the British tank programme with the Canadian, American, Russian and Australian equivalents, this study offers an international perspective on this aspect of the war economy. Topics covered include the premature contraction of the tank programme and dependence on American armour, the supply of the Valentine tank to the Russian authorities and the ongoing employment of the tank in the postwar peacetime markets.

Armoured Warfare

Author: Alaric Searle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441158057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
This book charts the history of armoured warfare from the first use of the tank in 1916 right through to the 21st century, adopting military, political and global perspectives. Alaric Searle explores the origins of the tank, the part it played in the First World War and its contribution to the outcome of the war. He considers its role as a tool of propaganda, the military controversies of the interwar period and the employment of armoured forces in all the major theatres in the Second World War. Since the First World War, major and medium-sized powers have invested heavily in armoured forces. Searle looks at the conduct of mechanised warfare in Korea, Indo-China and Vietnam, and during conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli Wars and the Gulf Wars. Armoured Warfare adopts a global perspective, providing the most comprehensive survey of the history of the subject currently available. With a detailed bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, it is an ideal companion for those studying armoured warfare, modern military history and war studies.

South Africans versus Rommel

Author: David Brock Katz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 081176608X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
After bitter debate, South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire at the time, declared war on Germany five days after the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Thrust by the British into the campaign against Erwin Rommel’s German Afrika Korps in North Africa, the South Africans fought a see-saw war of defeats followed by successes, culminating in the Battle of El Alamein, where South African soldiers made a significant contribution to halting the Desert Fox’s advance into Egypt. This is the story of an army committed somewhat reluctantly to a war it didn’t fully support, ill-prepared for the battles it was tasked with fighting, and sent into action on the orders of its senior alliance partner. At its heart, however, this is the story of men at war.

Combined Arms Warfare in the Twentieth Century

Author: Jonathan Mallory House
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
The original version of this text was published in 1984 as a textbook on military history for officers in the U.S. Army. The revised version includes an appendix of terms and acronyms, and concepts are explained in nontechnical terms, making it more comprehensible to the general reader. Also incorporated is a description of combined arms warfare from the late-1970s to the end of the 20th century, which takes into account developments that were not obvious in 1984. The main topics are how the major armies of the world fight on the battlefield; what concepts, weapons, and organizations have developed for this purpose; and how the different armies have influenced each other in these developments. House is a former military officer and analyst for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. c. Book News Inc.

Slaughter and Stalemate in 1917

Author: Alan Warren
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538143119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Book Description
What went wrong for British forces in 1917? Relive the key battles through first-hand accounts and little-known incidents of World War I. This book offers a fresh, critical history of the 1917 campaign in Flanders. Alan Warren traces the three major battles fought by the British Expeditionary Force in the final months of 1917, from the mines of Messines to the mud of Passchendaele and the tanks at Cambrai. Drawing on a rich array of sources, Warren provides a vivid account of two tragically mismanaged battles, showing that Cambrai further underlined what went wrong for British forces at Passchendaele and thus more fully explains the course of events on the Western front. His compelling narrative history features first-hand accounts, little-known dramatic incidents, and portraits and assessments of the main generals. All readers interested in World War I and the tragic mistakes that led, in the words of Winston Churchill, to “a forlorn expenditure of valour and life without equal in futility” will find this an invaluable military history.

Modernism, History and the First World War

Author: Trudi Tate
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719050008
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
Reframing difference is the first major study of two overlapping strands of contemporary French cinema, cinema beur (films by young directors of Maghrebi immigrant origin) and cinema de banlieue (films set in France's disadvantaged outer-city estates). Carrie Tarr's insightful account draws on a wide range of films, from directors such as Mehdi Charef, Mathieu Kassovitz and Djamel Bensalah. Her analyses compare the work of male and female, majority and minority film-makers, and emphasise the significance of authorship in the representation of gender and ethnicity. Foregrounding such issues as the quest for identity, the negotiation of space and the recourse to memory and history, she argues that these films challenge and reframe the symbolic spaces of French culture, addressing issues of ethnicity and difference which are central to today's debates about what it means to be French. This timely book is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between cinema and citizenship in a multicultural society.

Rise of the Tank

Author: Michael Foley
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783463937
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
Rise of the Tank will be concentrated on the period of the development of the tank and its use in the First World War. This will appeal to those interested in new developments in war and those interested in the First World War generally. The book will be especially relevant due to the forthcoming centenary of the beginning of the war and for this reason it will be easy to promote the book as there will be a lot of media interest.??Using the resources of the Imperial War Museum, The National Archives and the Tank Museum, Rise of the Tank will have lots of information available on the development and use of the early tanks as well as personal reminiscences of those who fought in them.??The author, Michael Foley, has also collected a great deal of material from the period such as the First World War field service pocket book of a 2nd lieutenant of the 10th Tank Battalion and copies of various magazines of the period. He will have also be accessing First World War newspapers to find original and rare archive sources.

Britain and Victory in the Great War

Author: Peter Liddle
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473891639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 729

Book Description
How can we begin to make sense of the Great War now that over 100 years have passed since it ended with the defeat of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman empire and Bulgaria, and the collapse of Tsarist Russia? The conflict had such a profound influence on world history that is it difficult to reconcile the different perspectives and draw clear conclusions. That is why this thought-provoking collection of original essays on the outcome of the war and its aftermath is of such value.It completes the trilogy of ground-breaking volumes conceived and edited by Peter Liddle which presents the latest scholarly thinking about the Great War from an international perspective. The first two volumes Britain Goes to War and Britain and the Widening War made this stimulating new writing accessible to a broad readership and this final volume has the same aim.A group of over twenty expert contributors reconsider the military reasons for the outcome of the fighting and look at the consequences for the principal nations involved. They explore the way the war and the peace settlement shaped the twentieth century and had an enduring impact within Europe and beyond.

Band of Brigands

Author: Christy Campbell
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 000721460X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Book Description
"Tanks were one of the great but unknown, and unreliable, innovations of World War I. Manned by a motley 'band of brigands', amongst them mechanics, plumbers, motorcyclists, circus performers and polar explorers, they were developed in great secrecy, prepared as a surprise advantage for the frontline of trench warfare. The men of the British Tank Corps went on to see battle at its most brutal. Tasked with crushing and burning the enemy to carve a path for the infantry, they fought in stifling armoured boxes packed with petrol and explosives, aware that at any moment a shell-hit might incinerate them all. Christy Campbell, former defence correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph tells properly for the first time the remarkable and harrowing story of how the first men in tanks went to war."--Cover