A detailed study of the Syrian and Lebanon campaign of World War II.In June 1941, Australian, British, Indian and Free French forces invaded the Vichy French-controlled mandate of Syria and Lebanon. They faced an enemy that had more artillery, tanks and aircraft. They fought in rocky, mountainous terrain, through barren valleys and across swollen rivers, and soon after the initial advance faced a powerful Vichy French counter-attack on key strategic positions. Desp...

World War I altered the landscape of the modern world in every conceivable arena. Millions died; empires collapsed; new ideologies and political movements arose; poison gas, warplanes, tanks, submarines, and other technologies appeared. "Total war" emerged as a grim, mature reality. In The Great War, Peter Hart provides a masterful combat history of this global conflict. Focusing on the decisive engagements, Hart explores the immense challenges faced by the commanders on all sides. He surv...

"With the ingenious use of maps, diagrams and statistics, this indispensable work explains the strategies of the combatants and the diplomatic history." — The BeaconThis is a unique study of the conflict of 1914–18 on land, sea and in the air, through maps, diagrams and illustrations. Within the scope of some 250 maps, Arthur Banks has presented both broad general surveys of political and military strategy, and the most closely researched details of major i...

A century has now gone by, yet the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 is still infamous as arguably the most ill conceived, badly led and pointless campaign of the entire First World War. The brainchild of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, following Turkey's entry into the war on the German side, its ultimate objective was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey, thus allowing the Allies to take control of the eastern Mediterranean and increase pressure on the Ce...

El Alamein, Britain's victory in the deserts of North Africa in 1942, was the first major reversal of fortunes for Hitler's Third Reich.Before the Battle of El Alamein in 1942, the British had never won a major battle on land against the Germans; nor indeed had anyone else. Drawing on a remarkable array of first-hand accounts, this book reveals the personal experiences of those on the frontline and provides fascinating details of how the war was actually fought. It...

For the first time showcasing a unique and extensive range of Australian War Memorial photographs, Gallipoli: a Ridge too far describes the pivotal events of that momentous year as they affected all the countries involved. The book combines fresh perspectives from the worlds leading authorities, including Turkish and German historians, together with soldiers letters and diary accounts. In early August 1915, after months of stalemate in the trenches on Gallipoli, British and Dominion troops...

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 ...

The war in the Middle East was a struggle between the Ottoman Turks, British, French and Russians for control of the lands and peoples held by the Ottoman Empire since the 1400s. Although known as the 'Sick Man of Europe', the empire still controlled significant parts of the Middle East. Intense diplomatic pressure from Germany culminated in a decision to join the Central Powers in October 1914. Russia had long coveted Ottoman territory, and the two empires clashed in the Caucasus. The Tur...

In a campaign part sponsored by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 remains one of the most resounding Allied defeats of the First World War, with both the Allied and Ottoman armies suffering in excess of 200,000 casualties.Despite this, many believed it would be a sure-fire success due to the preceding naval campaign, but increased losses at sea prompted the Allies to send in ground troops. Comprising a large ANZAC contin...

The importance of the Australian contribution to the Allied war effort during World War I should never be underestimated.Some 400,000 Australians volunteered for active duty, an astonishing 13 per cent of the entire (white) male population, a number so great that the Australian government was never forced to rely on conscription. Casualties were 52 per cent of all those who served, ensuring that the effects of the war would be felt long after the armistice....

The causes of the “war to end all wars” have been debated exhaustively over the years since Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated on June 28, 1914. Whatever the precise reasons for the rush to war caused by this act of terrorism, the conflict itself sounded the death knell of the great powers that fought it. Caused by the expansionist policies of the Old World empires, World War I ended in 1918 only after the Central Powers had been crushed following the entry of United S...

Illustrated by contemporary photos and specially commissioned maps, this book is a fascinating account of Rommel's greatest victory.Following a lull in the desert war which saw the Germans and British reinforce their armies, Rommel suddenly attacked British fortifications with an assault on the northern sector of the British line near Gazala.Pinning down the British in the north and outflanking the 1st Free French Brigade, Rommel succeeded in encircling the...