Queen Salote of Tonga


Book Description

When Queen Salote of Tonga attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London in 1953, she was greeted as the tallest queen of the smallest kingdom and gained universal admiration for her natural dignity and the warmth of her personality. This account of Queen Salote's life and times is more than a biography, for it also describes the politics and social structure of a small kingdom that was a world in microcosm.




The American GI in Europe in World War II: The March to D-Day


Book Description

Firsthand accounts and contextual narrative chronicling the U.S. war effort before D-Day. Sidebars on patrols, service troops, the replacement system, Rangers, and more. Based on interviews with more than 200 veterans.




Stanley Johnston's Blunder


Book Description

In Stanley Johnston’s Blunder: The Reporter Who Spilled the Secret Behind the U.S. Navy's Victory at Midway, Elliot Carlson tells the story of Stanley Johnston, a Chicago Tribune reporter who may have exposed a vitally important U.S. naval secret during World War II. In 1942 Johnston is embarked in the aircraft carrier USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea. In addition to recording the crew’s doomed effort to save the ship, Johnston displays great heroism, rescuing many endangered officers and men from the sea and earning the praise of the Lexington’s senior officers. They even recommend him for a medal. Then his story darkens. On board the rescue ship Barnett, Johnston is assigned to a cabin where messages from the Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Chester Nimitz, are routinely, and carelessly, circulated. One reveals the order of battle of Imperial Japanese Navy forces advancing on Midway Atoll. Containing information obtained by the Navy’s codebreakers, this dispatch is stamped “Top Secret.” Yet it is casually passed around to some of the Lexington’s officers in the cabin while Johnston is present. Carlson captures the outrage among U.S. Navy brass when they read the 7 June 1942 Chicago Tribune front-page headline, “NAVY HAD WORD OF JAP PLAN TO STRIKE AT SEA.” Admirals note that the information in the Tribune article parallels almost precisely the highly secret material in Nimitz’s dispatch. They fear Japanese commanders will discover the article, grasp that their code has been cracked, and quickly change it, thereby depriving the U.S. Navy of a priceless military asset. When Navy officials confirm that Johnston wrote the story after residing in that Barnett stateroom, they think they understand the “leak.” Drawing on seventy-five-year-old testimony never before released, Carlson takes readers inside the grand jury room where jurors convened by the Roosevelt administration consider charges that Johnston violated the Espionage Act. Jurors hear conflicting testimony from Navy officers while Johnston claims his story came from his own knowledge of the Japanese navy. Using FBI files, U.S. Navy records, archival materials from the Chicago Tribune, and Japanese sources, Carlson, at last, brings to light the full story of Stanley Johnston’s trial.




Book of Prospectuses


Book Description




The Spurs Alphabet


Book Description

A complete record of every player to have made a first team appearance for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.




Scratch One Flattop


Book Description

A study of the historic World War II naval battle, the first involving aircraft carriers and first in which neither warship was in sight of the other. By the beginning of May 1942, five months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Navy was ready to challenge the Japanese moves in the South Pacific. When the Japanese sent troops to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Americans sent the carriers Lexington and Yorktown to counter the move, setting the stage for the Battle of the Coral Sea . . . In this book,historian Robert C. Stern analyzes the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first major fleet engagement where the warships were never in sight of each other. Unlike the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea has received remarkably little study. Stern covers not only the action of the ships and their air groups but also describes the impact of this pivotal engagement. His analysis looks at the short-term impact as well as the long-term implications, including the installation of inert gas fuel-system purging on all American aircraft carriers and the push to integrate sensor systems with fighter direction to better protect against enemy aircraft. The essential text on the first carrier air campaign, Scratch One Flattop is a landmark study on an overlooked battle in the first months of the United States’ engagement in World War II. “His research into sources on both sides is exhaustive and he has used Japanese translators where necessary and appropriate to best illuminate materials. His effort has taken years of meticulous scholarship and it shows. . . . Highly recommended.” —Lisle A. Rose, The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord




The Science of War


Book Description

The Second World War, with its emphasis on innovative weapons and defence technology, brought about massive changes in the role of scientists in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Canadian scientists, working through the auspices of the National Research Council and the Department of National Defence, made important contributions to the development of alliance warfare. Before 1939, Canada had only a minute military establishment and a limited industrial and academic capacity for research and development. With the outbreak of war, all this changed dramatically. This book explains how and why Canada was able to play in the big leagues of military technology, including the development of radar, RDX explosives, proximity fuses, chemical and biological warfare, and the atomic bomb. It also investigates the evolution of the Canadian national security state, which attempted to protect defence secrets both from the Axis powers and from Canada's wartime ally, the Soviet Union. The Science of War provides both a cross-disciplinary overview of the scientific and military activity of this period in several countries and a fascinating analysis of what the author calls 'Big Science' in Canada.




The Companion to British History


Book Description

First published in 1996, this comprehensive guide to the history of Britain and its peoples will be indispensable reading for the general enthusiast, as well as students. It is packed full of fascinating detail on everything from Hadrian’s Wall to the Black Death to Tony Blair. The book was assembled over more than thirty years and has seen updates in three editions. "He has done for historical encyclopaedias what Samuel Johnson did for dictionaries." Andrew Roberts, The Daily Telegraph "An astonishing synthesis of information." Roger Scruton, The Times "An astonishing achievement, a compelling book for dipping into, a splendid work." Simon Hoggart, The Guardian "This marvellous book, which contains tens of thousands of historical facts will enlighten, amuse, and inform. Every home should have one." Simon Heffer, The Daily Mail "If you were marooned on that mythical desert island with only one history book, this would be the one to take. Buy three copies – one for the children, one for the grandchildren- and one for yourself." John Charmley, The Daily Telegraph




They Fought in the Fields: The Women's Land Army


Book Description

"The Women's Land Army" was the forgotten victory of the Second World War. While troops fought on the front line, a battalion of young women joined up to take their place as agricultural workers. Despite many of them coming from urban backgrounds, these fearless, cheerful girls learnt how to look after farm land, operate and repair machinery, rear and manage farm animals, harvest crops and provide the work force that was badly needed in the years of the war. Back-breaking work such as thinning crops, continuous hoeing and digging made way for disgusting tasks such as rat-killing. Yet despite it all, the land girls were exuberant, fun-loving and hard-working, and became known for their articulate, feisty, humorous and modest attitude. It therefore comes as no surprise that despite hostility and teasing at the beginning, these robust farm workers won the hearts of the nation, and at the disbandment of the Land Army in the 1950s, the farming community were forced to eat their words. With delightful photographs documenting the camaraderie of the Land Army and real-life memories from those who joined, this nostalgic look at one of the real success stories of the Second World War will make modern women stand proud of what their grandmothers achieved in an era before our own.




Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers


Book Description

Provides an introduction to American pulp fiction during the twentieth century with brief author biographies and lists of their works.