Defeat Into Victory

Defeat Into Victory
Author: William Joseph Slim Slim (Viscount)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 654
Release: 1956
Genre: Battles
ISBN:

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A personal account of military field command during the Second World War as told by Sir William Slim, who led the British forces in Burma. In Mar. 1942 he took command of the Burma Corps and then led the British 14th Army, formed in 1943. They were British, Australians, Canadians, South Africans, Burmese, Chinese, and African soldiers, but mainly drawn from the volunteer Indian Army. For three years Slim's soldiers tied down tens of thousands of Japanese troops in Burma which keep them from fighting in the Pacific. Slim relates the long retreat through Burma and the final hard-fought victory over the Japanese forces, capturing the harsh realities of war. This narrative was first published during his appointment as the 13th Governor General of Australia, granted by the, then new, Queen Elizabeth II, in May, 1953.

Blood, Metal and Dust

Blood, Metal and Dust
Author: Ben Barry
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472831020

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORY 2021, THE BRITISH ARMY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021, AS A FINALIST FOR THE 2020 ARMY HISTORICAL FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED WRITING AWARDS. FIRST RUNNER UP IN THE TEMPLER MEDAL BOOK PRIZE 2021. 'With a soldier's eye for telling operational details, Ben Barry offers an authoritative, compelling and inevitably bleak account of the American and British campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.' Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London Newly revised and updated with in-depth analysis of the current situation in Afghanistan after American withdrawal, Blood, Metal and Dust is an authoritative account of how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were played out, explaining their underlying politics and telling the story of what happened on the ground. From the high-ranking officer who wrote the still-classified British military analysis of the war in Iraq comes the authoritative history of two conflicts which have overshadowed the beginning of the 21st century. Inextricably linked to the ongoing 'War on Terror', the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated more than a decade of international politics, and their influence is felt to this day. Blood, Metal and Dust is the first military history to offer a comprehensive overview of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, providing in-depth accounts of the operations undertaken by both US and UK forces. Brigadier Ben Barry explores the wars which shaped the modern Middle East, providing a detailed narrative of operations as they unfolded. With unparalleled access to official military accounts and extensive contacts in both the UK and the US militaries, Brigadier Barry is uniquely placed to tell the story of these controversial conflicts, and offers a rounded account of the international campaigns which irrevocably changed the global geopolitical landscape.

Military Power

Military Power
Author: Stephen Biddle
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2010-12-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400837820

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In war, do mass and materiel matter most? Will states with the largest, best equipped, information-technology-rich militaries invariably win? The prevailing answer today among both scholars and policymakers is yes. But this is to overlook force employment, or the doctrine and tactics by which materiel is actually used. In a landmark reconception of battle and war, this book provides a systematic account of how force employment interacts with materiel to produce real combat outcomes. Stephen Biddle argues that force employment is central to modern war, becoming increasingly important since 1900 as the key to surviving ever more lethal weaponry. Technological change produces opposite effects depending on how forces are employed; to focus only on materiel is thus to risk major error--with serious consequences for both policy and scholarship. In clear, fluent prose, Biddle provides a systematic account of force employment's role and shows how this account holds up under rigorous, multimethod testing. The results challenge a wide variety of standard views, from current expectations for a revolution in military affairs to mainstream scholarship in international relations and orthodox interpretations of modern military history. Military Power will have a resounding impact on both scholarship in the field and on policy debates over the future of warfare, the size of the military, and the makeup of the defense budget.

Days of Defeat and Victory

Days of Defeat and Victory
Author: Yegor Gaidar
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0295801220

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Yegor Gaidar, the first post-Soviet prime minister of Russia and one of the principal architects of its historic transformation to a market economy, here presents his lively account of governing in the tumultuous early 1990s. Though still in his forties, Gaidar has already played a pivotal role in contemporary Russian political history, championing the cause of dramatic economic reform, aggressive privatization of state enterprises, and painful fiscal discipline in the face of widespread popular resistance. Gaidar’s youthfulness, energy, and daring are symbolic of a new phenomenon in Russian politics - the emergence of a younger generation of politicians with a distinctly technocratic bent, looking firmly to the United States and Europe for inspiration and sharing little of the old generation’s nostalgia for Communist stability. It was largely the implementation of Gaidar’s policies that drove the Russian parliament to rebel against Boris Yeltsin in 1993, leading to the bloody tank assault on the parliament itself. Though Yeltsin prevailed, it was clear that the political and social costs of “shock therapy” were too great for Russia’s fragile democracy to bear, and Gaidar himself was ousted to appease the conservatives. His unfinished agenda was put on hold, though he later returned when Yeltsin needed to placate international financial forces. Gaidar remains active in Russian politics, having formed his own political party, Russia’s Democratic Choice. In this book, he brings his story through Yeltsin’s cliffhanger re-election in 1996, and assesses the still-precarious state of the market reforms and democratic politics.

Victory in Defeat

Victory in Defeat
Author: Gregory J. W. Urwin
Publisher: Naval Inst Press
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781591148999

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In a book that draws on interviews with American POWs, as well as their Japanese captors, and diaries secretly kept by prison-camp inmates, the author of Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island offers a moving history of the incarceration of the American defenders of Wake Island after their surrender to the Japanese during World War II.

With Our Backs to the Wall

With Our Backs to the Wall
Author: David Stevenson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 747
Release: 2011-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674063198

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With so much at stake and so much already lost, why did World War I end with a whimper-an arrangement between two weary opponents to suspend hostilities? After more than four years of desperate fighting, with victories sometimes measured in feet and inches, why did the Allies reject the option of advancing into Germany in 1918 and taking Berlin? Most histories of the Great War focus on the avoidability of its beginning. This book brings a laser-like focus to its ominous end-the Allies' incomplete victory, and the tragic ramifications for world peace just two decades later. In the most comprehensive account to date of the conflict's endgame, David Stevenson approaches the events of 1918 from a truly international perspective, examining the positions and perspectives of combatants on both sides, as well as the impact of the Russian Revolution. Stevenson pays close attention to America's effort in its first twentieth-century war, including its naval and military contribution, army recruitment, industrial mobilization, and home-front politics. Alongside military and political developments, he adds new information about the crucial role of economics and logistics. The Allies' eventual success, Stevenson shows, was due to new organizational methods of managing men and materiel and to increased combat effectiveness resulting partly from technological innovation. These factors, combined with Germany's disastrous military offensive in spring 1918, ensured an Allied victory-but not a conclusive German defeat.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Author: David W. Wragg
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2000
Genre: Geschichte
ISBN: 9780750924740

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At many points in the 20th century, failures in command or political direction have resulted in military campaigns and operations failing to achieve their objectives. This text explores a selection of such instances including Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs, the Falklands and Serbia in 1999.

Uncle Bill

Uncle Bill
Author: Russell Miller
Publisher: Phoenix
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Marshals
ISBN: 9781780220826

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In 2011 the National Army Museum conducted a poll to decide who merited the title of 'Britain's Greatest General'. In the end two men shared the honour. One, predictably, was the Duke of Wellington. The other was Bill Slim. Had he been alive, Slim would have been surprised, for he was the most modest of men - a rare quality among generals. Of all the plaudits heaped on him during his life, the one he valued most was the epithet by which he was affectionately known to the troops: 'Uncle Bill'.

The Allure of Battle

The Allure of Battle
Author: Cathal Nolan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 729
Release: 2017-01-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199874654

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History has tended to measure war's winners and losers in terms of its major engagements, battles in which the result was so clear-cut that they could be considered "decisive." Cannae, Konigsberg, Austerlitz, Midway, Agincourt-all resonate in the literature of war and in our imaginations as tide-turning. But these legendary battles may or may not have determined the final outcome of the wars in which they were fought. Nor has the "genius" of the so-called Great Captains - from Alexander the Great to Frederick the Great and Napoleon - play a major role. Wars are decided in other ways. Cathal J. Nolan's The Allure of Battle systematically and engrossingly examines the great battles, tracing what he calls "short-war thinking," the hope that victory might be swift and wars brief. As he proves persuasively, however, such has almost never been the case. Even the major engagements have mainly contributed to victory or defeat by accelerating the erosion of the other side's defences. Massive conflicts, the so-called "people's wars," beginning with Napoleon and continuing until 1945, have consisted of and been determined by prolonged stalemate and attrition, industrial wars in which the determining factor has been not military but matériel. Nolan's masterful book places battles squarely and mercilessly within the context of the wider conflict in which they took place. In the process it help corrects a distorted view of battle's role in war, replacing popular images of the "battles of annihilation" with somber appreciation of the commitments and human sacrifices made throughout centuries of war particularly among the Great Powers. Accessible, provocative, exhaustive, and illuminating, The Allure of Battle will spark fresh debate about the history and conduct of warfare.

Defeat Into Victory

Defeat Into Victory
Author: Field-Marshal Viscount William Slim
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 615
Release: 2000-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1461660939

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Field Marshal Viscount Slim (1891-1970) led shattered British forces from Burma to India in one of the lesser-known but more nightmarish retreats of World War II. He then restored his army's fighting capabilities and morale with virtually no support from home and counterattacked. His army's slaughter of Japanese troops ultimately liberated India and Burma. The first edition of Defeat Into Victory , published in 1956, was an immediate sensation selling 20,000 copies within a few days. This is an updated version with a new introduction by David W. Hogan Jr.