The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of the Second World War. This volume highlights the scale and complexity of this bitterly contested campaign, one that encompassed far more than just attacks by German U-boats on Allied shipping.The team of leading scholars assembled in this study situates the German assault on seaborne trade within the wider Allied war effort and provides a new understanding of its place within the Second World War. Individual chapters offer orig...

The failed naval offensive to force a passage through the Straits of the Dardanelles in 1915 drove Winston Churchill from office in disgrace and nearly destroyed his political career. For over a century, the Dardanelles campaign has been mired in myth and controversy. Many believe it was fundamentally misconceived and doomed to fail, while others see it as a brilliant concept that might have dramatically shortened the First World War and saved millions of lives. Churchill is either the her...

Winston Churchill had a longer and closer relationship with the Royal Navy than any British statesman in modern times, but his record as a naval strategist and custodian of the nation's sea power has been mired in controversy since the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign in 1915. Today, Churchill is regarded by many as an inept strategist who interfered in naval operations and often overrode his professional advisers - with inevitably disastrous results.Churchill and Seapower is the first major...

A "truly exceptional" account of how Churchill's experiences in the armed forces helped him lead Britain to victory in World War II ( Booklist).No defense minister in modern times has faced the challenges that Winston Churchill did during the Second World War. Fortunately, he had a unique and intimate inside knowledge of all three services, which allowed him to assess their real needs—a crucial task when money, material resources, and, especially, manpower...

Miles Dempsey, Commander of the British Second Army in the invasion of Europe 1944-45, is almost unknown to the general public. Yet his part in Britains contribution to that campaign was second only to Montgomerys in importance. Dempsey survived two and a half years of bitter fighting as an infantry officer on the Western Front before accompanying his beloved Royal Berkshire Regiment in the little-known North West Persia campaign of 1920-21. In six years he rose from Major to command over ...

World War I, The Great War involved the mobilisation of some 70 million soldiers worldwide. It produced images of such pervasive horror on the Western Front that it defined warfare in human memory long into the twentieth century. The war also left a grim legacy: 13 million people died, 9 million of them combatants. Over one-third of those who died were missing, having no known graves. The chapters in this book had their origins in an international conference, 1918 Year of Victory, convened...

Soldier by instinct, sailor by fate… The relationship that defined a career – and saved a nationThe Navy almost finished the career of Britain's greatest wartime leader. As a young minister responsible for the senior service from 1911, Churchill ruffled feathers and gave scant regard for the feelings of the admirals. When disaster struck in the First World War, it was the navy that led to his political downfall.But when he returned to power after years in the wilderness, th...

Passchendaele In Perspective explores the context and real nature of the participants experience, evaluates British and German High Command, the aerial and maritime dimensions of the battle, the politicians and manpower debates on the home front and it looks at the tactics employed, the weapons and equipment used, the experience of the British; German and indeed French soldiers. It looks thoroughly into the Commonwealth soldiers contribution and makes an unparalleled attempt to examine tog...

Is there a distinctive style of New Zealand command? An examination of New Zealand military commanders and the style of New Zealand command is long overdue, and this superb new book now fills the gap. Glyn Harper, Joel Hayward and a team of top military historians profile the most important commanders in New Zealand history, both Maori and Pakeha, from the nineteenth century to the recent past. Each writer is an expert on the commander concerned, with the subjects drawn from all three arms...

This analysis of the decision-making that led to the Somme offensive is "a major addition to the literature on the military history of the Great War." (Jay Winter, author of The Great War in History)Despite superior air and artillery power, British soldiers died in catastrophic numbers at the Battle of Somme in 1916. What went wrong, and who was responsible? This book meticulously reconstructs the battle, assigns responsibility to military and political leaders...

The history of the German and British military strategies over the Scandinavian region in the early days of World War II.On nine April 1940, the German Armed Forces seized Norway and Denmark in an operation remarkable for its precision and boldness. The Chamberlain War Cabinet was caught on the hop and responded with ineptitude.Churchill and the Norway Campaign, 1940 reveals the story of this ill-fated campaign. It describes the attempts of naval a...

"A detailed and fascinating account" of a little known WWII showdown in Belgium between the British Expeditionary Force and the German army ( Barnsley Chronicle).This is an important reassessment of a critical period in the British Expeditionary Force's fight against the German armies invading France in 1940. On May 25, Lord Gort, the British commander, took the decision to move 5th Division north in order to plug a growing gap in his army's eastern defens...