The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom is a standard reference work covering, in the words its alternative title, 'a history of the House of Lords and all its members from the earliest times'. The third edition extends to six million words. The first edition of The Complete Peerage was written by ......
As the world plunged into war in August 1914 two Kaiserliche Marine fleets and several detached cruisers lay beyond the North Sea. These vessels posed a serious threat to British merchant vessels and naval superiority. Beyond the British blockade there was little chance of reinforcement and resupply of ammunition-their commanders had to make some ......
The Senior Leadership of Hitler's Storm Troops, 1920-1945, Volume 1
How did Adolf Hitler, who had never risen higher in military service than the rank of lance-corporal, attain mastery over Germany and most of Europe? Many factors contributed to the emergence of the Third Reich, and prominent among these were the actions of Hitler's earliest paramilitary army, the Sturmabteilungen (SA, Storm Troops), and the men ......
Perhaps one of the most dramatic events of the late Victorian period was the death of General Charles 'Chinese' Gordon at the hands of the Mahdi's fanatical warriors as they finally broke their way into the Sudanese city of Khartoum. The story is well known, recounted in numerous books and celebrated in the film 'Khartoum' starring Charlton ......
On the Russian Arctic convoys in 1942, Leonard H. Thomas kept a secret notebook containing detailed observations of life aboard his ship, HMS Ulster Queen, including intense recollections of hours spent at action stations in the engine room, keeping the ship going while under fire from both the skies above and waters below. He tells of how, while ......
In July 1824, Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley arrived in New York City at the end of a month-long voyage from Liverpool. The young MP and future 14th earl of Derby had left England under a cloud. His political career was off to a rough start, and he was in love with a woman he was forbidden to marry. The lengthy tour of America that he was about to ......
In the later third century AD, the outer reaches of the Roman empire were being threatened on all sides by hostile powers. Along the southern and eastern coasts of Britain, a series of ten, possibly twelve, vast fortified enclosures were built beside strategic harbours to defend against external threats, mainly from Germanic marauders. Through ......
The Avro Vulcan, arguably the best known of the British 'V-Bombers', was an integral part of Britain's nuclear deterrent. During the Cold War, several RAF squadrons were equipped with Vulcans, including some assigned to Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) sorties to counter immediately any threat launched by the Soviet Union. The Vulcan was also suited to ......
English-language historiography traditionally disregards Italian military history with sweeping generalizations about ineptitude, cowardice, and an ethnic/cultural aversion to warfare. This dismissive and demeaning approach obscures thoughtful analysis and discourse on the strengths, weaknesses, and ways in which Italy's military history is not ......
