Master of the Battlefield


Book Description

Master of the Battlefield charts the biography of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery from his decisive victory at El Alamein through the Battle of Normandy. It details the most complex, full years of Montgomery's career, following the time he became a household name after his North African campaign, and including his battles in Sicily and Italy, and the final Allied conquest in France in 1944. Based on Montgomery's secret diaries, letters and vast collections of private papers, which have remained confidential and inaccessible until now, this is the authorized biography of Montgomery in his most important years as commander. - Jacket flap.




The Brigade


Book Description

Battalion- and company-level account of the vital contributions of Canadian soldiers to victory in Europe in World War II. Based on war diaries, casualty reports, and after-action interviews. The author is one of Canada's preeminent military historians.




Ardennes-1944: An Analysis Of The Operational Defense


Book Description

This study examines the nature of the defense at the operational level of war by analyzing the Battle of the Bulge in Dec. 1944 using the concepts of blitzkrieg and "web" defense. The monograph begins by discussing the influence of defensive theory on the operational concepts of blitzkrieg and "web" defense. The German concept of blitzkrieg incorporates Clausewitz’s theory of the offense by emphasizing surprise, speed, and concentration at the decisive point. The counter to the blitzkrieg offense is found in COL F.O. Miksche’s concept of "web" defense. The Battle of the Bulge provides an excellent example of a "web" defense pitted against a blitzkrieg offense. The German blitzkrieg in the Ardennes in 1944 failed for many reasons: 1) Army Group B did not concentrate its strength against the most vulnerable section of the Allied line; 2) The rugged Ardennes terrain could be easily defended against attacks by mechanized forces; 3) Key American commanders (Eisenhower, Gerow, and Middleton) quickly recognized the value of holding several key road junctions (St. Vith, Malmedy, Bastogne, Marche, and Rochefort) which dominated movement through the Ardennes; 4) The Allies held the shoulders of the German penetration; 5) The Allies quickly concentrated armored and motorized units to blunt the German penetration; and 6) Army Group B lacked operational reserves and adequate logistic support. The analysis of the Ardennes shows that the defense is indeed the stronger form of war and that a "web" defense can be employed effectively against a blitzkrieg offense...The Allies effectively used a "web" defense to counter these threats. If NATO is to defeat a Soviet attack without resorting to the use of nuclear weapons, it must adopt a viable operational defensive concept. "Web" defense is such a concept.




A New History of Documentary Film


Book Description

A New History of Documentary Film includes new research that offers a fresh way to understand how the field began and grew. Retaining the original edition's core structure, there is added emphasis of the interplay among various approaches to documentaries and the people who made them. This edition also clearly explains the ways that interactions among the shifting forces of economics, technology, and artistry shape the form. New to this edition: - An additional chapter that brings the story of English language documentary to the present day - Increased coverage of women and people of color in documentary production - Streaming - Black Lives Matter - Animated documentaries - List of documentary filmmakers, organized chronologically by the years of their activity in the field




Montgomery


Book Description

The unique leadership and lasting legacy of the greatest British army commander of the Second World War and one of the most professional and well-liked generals in the allied coalition. Bernard Law Montgomery was a dedicated battlefield tactician, though a controversial one. In North Africa in 1942, he commanded the Eighth Army to a great triumph against Rommel at El Alamein, which Churchill hailed as the beginning of the end of the war. During the planning stages for the invasion of Sicily, Montgomery proved himself to be a splendid organizer and a great believer in simplicity. But he was also known as a complicated man whose legacy remains tainted by his insensitive and boastful nature and desire for personal glory—all of which can have dangerous consequences on the battlefield. In the end, though, it was only due to Montgomery's influence that the weight of the Allied attack at Normandy was increased, and the Allied success of D-Day owes much to his far-sightedness. In the field, especially during the planning stages, he was at his best. An inspirational commander whose self-confidence was legendary, Montgomery's military life has proved to be a great lesson for leaders in the years since.




Battlefields from Event to Heritage


Book Description

What is -- or makes a place -- a 'historic battlefield'? Treating battles as events in the past and battlefields as places in the present, and drawing on examples from prehistory to the 20th century, this book exposes the complexity of the concept of a historic battlefield and how it forms part of a Western understanding of the world.







Rose Petals & Gun Powder


Book Description

This encompassing tale of matter-bending storytelling begins on the lip of the Gulf of Mexico, 1947. Sampson `Apocalypse' Baker and Edison Thomas, polar opposites and WWII veterans, were not born under the star of luck. Their nomadic lives led as mercenary handymen --traveling the US in a patchy 1938 Ocean Blue LaSalle sedan outfitted with an Allison Liberator engine and the remnants of useful armor plating --have found their way through a partially sealed aqueduct discovered during a supernatural storm. Moments after their unorthodox arrival, they wander out from the decaying tunnel and discover a lost yet grand metropolitan island set out to sea, one haunted by the remains of humans fused to buildings and set free to feed; ravens who see these newly arrived combatants' activities and seemingly both help and hinder their progress; villains who defy the laws of both mortality and physics; and a mysterious woman who literally has the curse of death embalmed in her fingertips, never knowing the touch of human contact while carrying with her the most beautiful desires ever known to life. All are among the denizens of Static City, unwilling fallout from `The Accident' --an event upon the island of measured unfolding origin that changed all they knew forever. Rose Petals and Gunpowder, an intricately spun fictional novel combining carefully crafted elements of action, adventure, emotional interaction with larger-than-life characters, science fiction and suspense transport the reader into a world of tilted reality, changing what they think is possible through creative and risk-taking writing. This work by the author is the newest of a series of non-linear novels --currently the fourth completed --competing to be a fresh offering for the discerning adult audience seeking a fulfilling reading experience. This title joins the previously published Twisted Delirium: The Infinite Dream.




Beyond the Beachhead


Book Description

By 1945, the US Army had sixty-eight infantry divisions, forty-two of which fought in the great campaign in northwest Europe that began with the amphibious landings on D-Day and ended eleven months later with Germany's surrender. Beyond the Beachhead examines the experience of one infantry division, the 29th, during forty-five days of combat from Omaha Beach on D-Day to the liberation of St. Lt. Using interviews, official records, and unit histories and supplementing his narrative with meticulously detailed maps, Balkoski follows the 29th from the bloody landings at Omaha through the hedgerows of Normandy, illustrating the brutal realities of life on the front line. Expanded edition includes a new chapter on the final battles of the Normandy campaign.




Jack Clayton


Book Description

In François Truffaut’s opinion The Innocents was ‘the best English film after Hitchcock goes to America’. Tennessee Williams said of The Great Gatsby: ‘a film whose artistry even surpassed the original novel’. The maker of both films was Jack Clayton, one of the finest English directors of the post-war era and perhaps best remembered for the trail-blazing Room at the Top which brought a new sexual frankness and social realism to the British screen. This is the first full-length critical study of Clayton's work. The author has been able to consult and quote from the director's own private papers which illuminate Clayton’s creative practices and artistic intentions. In addition to fresh analyses of the individual films, the book contains new material on Clayton's many unrealised projects and valuably includes his previously unpublished short story ‘The Enchantment’ – as poignant and revealing as the films themselves. This is a personal and fascinating account of the career and achievement of an important, much-loved director that should appeal to students and film enthusiasts.