In the mid-eighteenth century, most of the Mediterranean coastline and its hinterlands were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, a vast Islamic power regarded by Christian Europe with awe and fear. By the end of the First World War, however, this great civilisation had been completely subjugated, and its territories occupied by European powers. Sea of Troubles is the definitive account of the European conquest of the Levant and North Africa over three centuries. Ian Rutledge reveals the intense imperial rivalry between six European powers - Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary and Russia - who all jostled for control of the trade, lands and wealth of the Islamic Mediterranean. The competition between these states made their conquest a far more difficult and extended task than they encountered elsewhere in the world. Yet, as new contenders entered the contest, and as rivalries intensified in the early twentieth century, events would spiral out of control as the continent headed towards the First World War.

The Malayan Emergency (194860) was the longest war waged by British and Commonwealth forces in the twentieth century. Fought against communist guerrillas in the jungles of Malaya, this undeclared war without a name had a powerful and covert influence on American strategy in Vietnam. Many military historians still consider the Emergency an exemplary, even inspiring, counterinsurgency conflict. Massacre in Malaya draws on recently released files from British archives, as well as eyewitness accounts from both the government forces and communist fighters, to challenge this view. It focuses on the notorious Batang Kali Massacre known as Britains My Lai that took place in December, 1948, and reveals that British tactics in Malaya were more ruthless than many historians concede.Counterinsurgency in Malaya, as in Kenya during the same period, depended on massive resettlement programmes and ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate aerial bombing and ruthless exploitation of aboriginal peoples, the Orang Asli. The Emergency was a discriminatory war. In Malaya, the British built a brutal and pervasive security state and bequeathed it to modern Malaysia. The Malayan Emergency was a bitterly fought war that still haunts the present.

It opens with a brief history of the service, followed by a chapter that reviews its situation on the outbreak of war. The chapters that follow look at the structure of the RAF, from the Air Ministry and Chief of the Air Staff down to squadron level, to include each of the Commands, including Transport Command (a creation of the war years). The main aircraft types used are listed, as well as a full listing of squadrons and airfields in the British Isles. The training of personnel, and such matters as uniforms, rank insignia, medals and life on a typical airfield, are also covered. The main battles or campaigns in which the service was involved are also described.

Employing a range of archive black and white photographs, this book examines the US Marine Corps organisation and command structure, strategy, tactics and amphibious assault doctrine. Providing biographies of its most influential figures, it also surveys insignia, uniforms and equipment to provide a portrait of the US Marine Corps at war.

Overstretched from the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Royal Navy acquired First World War surplus destroyers from the United States Navy and embarked on a massive programme of construction, building and buying aircraft carriers, escort carriers and frigates and corvettes, building up a powerful submarine arm and, almost from scratch, re-creating the naval air arm taken from it in 1918.The service had to learn fast. It soon became clear that the Germans would not provide an opportunity for a major battleship to battleship fleet action along the lines of Jutland, but that submarine warfare and surface raiders were to be just as effective at undermining the British war effort. The Royal Navy was expected to be active in the North Atlantic and in British waters, and then after the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, it had to protect the Arctic convoys.Meanwhile, it also had to keep control of the Mediterranean, alone after the fall of France, supporting ground forces in North Africa and then in Greece, send convoys to Malta and disrupt the Axis supply lines both in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Norway, and then it had to face the Japanese in the Far East. By the wars end the Royal Navy had grown from its pre-war strength of 129,000 to 863,000 men. Its fleet had also grown from 12 to 61 battleships and cruisers, seven to 59 aircraft carriers, and 100 to 846 destroyers, by 1945.

In the Royal Navy vernacular, the term greenie describes the officers and ratings responsible for the electrical engineering functions of the fleet. Electrical engineering has driven the Royal Navy for far longer than one might imagine, from solving the problem of magnetic interference with the compass by the ironclad early in the 20th century onward. Author Commander Moore traces the development of technology from 1850 to todays integrated micro computers that control almost every aspect of navigation, intel, and strike capacity. At the same time, he describes how the Navys structure and manpower changed to accommodate the new technologies, changes often accelerated in wartime, particularly in World War II. Without the full cooperation of naval establishments and organisations and various public and private museums and manufacturers, this work would have been impossible to produce. Written in an anecdotal, narrative style but with a complete mastery of the science itself, it will appeal not only to those interested in the history of the Royal Navy but also those many thousands, past and present, who can claim the honour of calling themselves one of the Greenies.

It was in the closing year of the First World War, on 1 April 1918, that the Royal Air Force was born from the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. Since then, the RAF has helped lead the world in the development of aviation and air warfare. From the fighters and bombers of the Second World War, through the early jet age and into modern remotely piloted air systems, the last hundred years development has been astronomical, and the human story no less impressive. Here Peter Jacobs gathers the most poignant objects of the RAFs proud history and displays them together, in full splendid colour, for the first time. Aircraft, memorials, uniforms, equipment, and some items you would never expect its all here, ready to be explored.

This is a new and frightening insight into Japanese atrocities in the Second World War. The horrific conditions aboard hellships at sea are revealed including the torture, disease and massacre which

The X- and XE-Class submarines were conceived during the Second World War: around 51ft (16m) long, they were designed to be towed by a mother submarine and use their small size to complete stealth missions, such as attacking harbours and performing reconnaissance. Although they would not begin active service until 1942, the submarine crews achieved quite the record, racking up 167 honours between them, including four Victoria Crosses.Written by ex-submariner Keith Hall, X3 to X54 is a look at the entire life and evolution of the British midget submarine, from its early prototypes to its final journeys. With a wealth of imagery, including archive X-craft photographs as well as up-to-date views of the X51 (HMS Stickleback) from the Scottish Submarine Centre, this is the fascinating, yet little-known, story of Britains midget submarines.

September 1940: In the midst of the Second World War, The Luftwaffe unleashed a series of devastating raids on Southampton, all but destroying its Spitfire factories. But production didnt stop. Instead, manufacturing of this iconic fighter moved underground, to secret locations staffed by women, children and non-combatant men. With little engineering experience between them, they built a fleet of one of the greatest war planes that has ever existed. This is their story.

The Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock produced over 250 warships for the Royal Navy, including five royal yachts, between its founding in 1814 and its closure after the First World War. Prior to this, no ocean-going ships had ever been built on the south shores of Milford Haven, where the most complex piece of machinery used was the horse-drawn plough. Yet within twenty years Pembrokeshire men were building major British warships and they did so for the next hundred years. This long century, from the Napoleonic Wars until after the First World War, covered all the major changes in warship design and construction, from wood to iron and then steel, and from sail to steam, and paddle wheel to screw propulsion. In this authoritative and splendidly illustrated work, naval historian Lawrie Phillips, who was born and bred just outside the dockyard walls, tells the story of this royal yard, its ships and the Pembroke men who built them.

To encapsulate the British Army in one book is no easy task, but here, George Forty presents it as it was during the Second World War. When war was declared in 1939, the British Army was very much the Cinderella of the three armed services, with a total strength of around 865,000 men. However, just four years later when the Allies invaded north-west Europe, the British Army had grown into a powerful, well-organised and well-equipped fighting force of 3 million men and women. George Forty presents a comprehensive overview of the British Army during this important time.He includes full details of mobilisation and training, higher organisation and arms of the service; divisional organisations and non-divisional units; HQs and Staff; the combat arms and the services; the individual soldier, his weapons and equipment; tactics; vehicle markings and camouflage; the Auxiliary Territorial Service and other Womens Corps. Fully illustrated with an unusual collection of photographs and line illustrations, this is an indispensable reference guide for anyone interested in this fascinating period of British history.

Las Fuerzas Armadas españolas son una de las instituciones que han de velar por la seguridad de la sociedad yproteger su integridad ante cualquier tipo de amenazas. La de las Fuerzas Armadas es una contribucion crucial para la pervivencia de España y para la libertad de sus ciudadanos. Sin embargo, a pesar del papel imprescindible que desempeña en nuestras vidas, su cometido pasa a menudo inadvertido para los españoles.Fernando Alejandre Martinez, que ha servido casi cincuenta años en el ejercito y fue jefe del Estado Mayor de la Defensa entre 2017 y 2020, cuenta en Rey servido y patria honrada su particular vision del encaje de las Fuerzas Armadas en la vida publica española. Y explica, ademas, como han cambiado las amenazas interiores y exteriores a las que se expone una democracia como la nuestra, desde el terrorismo y el secesionismo hasta el auge de China y las intromisiones rusas.Este libro, que mezcla las memorias personales, las reflexiones sobre el mundo militar y el testimonio de los cambios que han experimentado España y el mundo durante casi medio siglo, es el documento mas lucido y profundo escrito en primera persona sobre una institucion tan vital como desconocida para la mayoria de los españoles: las Fuerzas Armadas.

In the 1940s and 1950s Ernie OMalley interviewed survivors of Irelands struggle for independence. These interviews, now being made available to the public for the first time, give a fascinating insight into the times and the people who fought.The West Cork interviews detail IRA intervention in Ulster, as well as giving prominence to the Cork No. 5 Brigade. Of eight interview subjects, five participated in the IRAs invasion of Northern Ireland. The interviewees talk about the Republican rifle exchange with the National Army which occurred secretly in May 1922, as Free State rifles supplied by Britain were swapped with IRA rifles, which were then sent to arm the IRA in Ulster. They also document the gruesome torture of Brigade Commander Ted OSullivan.

The powerful German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was stalked and engaged on Boxing Day 1943 by a superior Allied naval task force off the North Cape of Norway. In pitch darkness and mountainous seas, British warships led by HMS Duke of York and HMS Belfast engaged Scharnhorst in a clash of the titans that saw the pride of the German Navy sent to the bottom of the Barents Sea with heavy loss of life among its crew of the 2000 or so men onboard, only 36 were saved. In 2000, the Norwegian writer and investigative journalist, Alf R. Jacobsen, led the expedition that found and filmed the wreck of the Scharnhorst 1000ft down in the freezing ocean inside the Arctic Circle. His book tells for the first time the complete story of this important World War II naval engagement and the eventual rediscovery of the ship. The story of the destruction of the Scharnhorst and the clandestine activities around the German naval base in northern Norway are interwoven with the authors personal account of how, after a search lasting many years, he finally succeeded in locating and filming the wreck of the battle cruiser.

In the early twentieth century there was a war brewing on Britains doorstep. Northern Ireland was filled with discrimination and suspicion, a sense of foreboding that would soon erupt into full-blown rioting. As the fiftieth anniversary of the Troubles approaches, Ken Wharton takes a thorough look at the start of the Troubles, the precursors and the explosion of violence in 1969 that would last until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In all, the Troubles cost 50,000 casualties and nearly 2,000 civilians lives across Northern Ireland, the Republic and England. Utterly condemnatory of the paramilitaries, Wharton pulls no punches in his assessment of the situation then and seeks to dismiss apologists today. His sympathy lies first with those tasked with keeping order in the province, but also with the innocent civilians caught up in thirty years of bloodshed. Torn Apart is an in-depth look at the start of the Troubles, looking at the seminal moments and Northern Ireland today using the powerful testimony of those who were there at the time.

Can air power alone win a war?That has been the question since the Second World War. Air attacks failed miserably in Vietnam: Operation Linebacker had little effect, while bombing Hanoi just increased hatred for America yet air strikes in both Iraq and Libya helped bring about regime changes. No-fly zones may have worked in the Balkans, but they might as well not have been there for Saddam Husseins Iraq.From the Luftwaffes massed attack on Britain to NATOs interventions in Libya, aerial warfare has changed almost beyond recognition. The piston engine has been replaced by the jet, and in some cases the pilot has been completely replaced by the microchip. Carpet bombing is now a global positioning system and laser pinpointed strikes using precision-guided munitions. Whereas a bombers greatest enemies were once fighters and flak, the threats have now morphed into smart missiles from half a world away.In this compelling study, celebrated defence expert Anthony Tucker-Jones charts the remarkable evolution of aerial warfare from 1940 to the present day.

Admiral Lord Nelsons diamond Chelengk is one of the most famous and iconic jewels in British history. Presented to Nelson by the Sultan Selim III of Turkey after the Battle of the Nile in 1798, the jewel had thirteen diamond rays to represent the French ships captured or destroyed at the action. A central diamond star on the jewel was powered by clockwork to rotate in wear. Nelson wore the Chelengk on his hat like a turban jewel, sparking a fashion craze for similar jewels in England. The jewel became his trademark to be endlessly copied in portraits and busts to this day. After Trafalgar, the Chelengk was inherited by Nelsons family and worn at the Court of Queen Victoria. Sold at auction in 1895 it eventually found its way to the newly opened National Maritime Museum in Greenwich where it was a star exhibit. In 1951 the jewel was stolen in a daring raid by an infamous cat-burglar and lost forever. For the first time, Martyn Downer tells the extraordinary true story of the Chelengk: from its gift to Nelson by the Sultan of Turkey to its tragic post-war theft, charting the jewels journey through history and forging sparkling new and intimate portraits of Nelson, of his friends and rivals, and of the woman he loved.

Winner of Military History Monthlys 2017 Book of the Year Award The Classis Britannica was the Roman regional fleet controlling and protecting the waters around the British Isles in other words, Britains first-ever navy. For over 200 years it played a key role in the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire: it helped to establish the province of Britannia and assisted in Roman military campaigns, as well as controlling the continental coast through to the Rhine Delta. Outside of war, the Classis Britannica also offered vital support for the civilian infrastructure of Roman Britain, assisting in administration, carrying out major building and engineering projects, and running industry. Later, its mysterious disappearance in the mid-third century ad would contribute to Britain finally leaving the Empire 150 years later. In Sea Eagles of Empire, acclaimed historian Simon Elliott tells its story for the very first time.