Big Guns, Brave Men
Big Guns, Brave Men

Author: Rodney Earl Walton

Publisher:

Published: 2024-09-17

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781682479612

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although it was the largest and final battle of the Pacific War, the Battle for Okinawa has long been overshadowed by other dramatic events in 1945. The books that have been written about it emphasize the role of infantrymen, armor, and U.S. Marines. This work takes a fresh perspective and focuses on the vital role played by the U.S. Army's forward artillery observers-the eyes and ears of American artillery who were among the least recognized heroes of the war. According to Rodney Earl Walton, U.S. artillerymen matched Japanese gunners in intensity and surpassed them in effectiveness because their forward observers were able to provide a much shorter response time to requests for artillery support. Divided into teams consisting of four or five men led by an artillery lieutenant, these observers would spend three days on the front lines directing artillery against enemy positions, return to their artillery battery for three days, and then rotate up to the line of battle again. While trying to maximize the damage inflicted on the enemy, the men had to deal with the ever-present possibility of firing on their own forces. The ability to shift artillery fire throughout the battlefield was a new development in World War II, and its evolution is fully examined in the book. Walton, the son of one of the forward observers on Okinawa, spent more than twenty years investigating what happened to his father and other artillerymen during the conflict. Interviews with the artillerymen and the infantrymen they supported are central to his story, which is filled with gripping and sometimes humorous accounts of what happened. The work stands as a stirring tribute from the "baby boom generation" to the "greatest generation.

Big Guns
Big Guns

Author: Steve Israel

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2019-04-23

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 150111803X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From Steve Israel, the Congressman-turned-novelist who writes “in the full-tilt style of Carl Hiaasen” (The Washington Post), a comic tale of the mighty firearm industry, a small Long Island town, and Washington politics: “Congress should pass a law making Big Guns mandatory reading for themselves” (Nelson DeMille). When Chicago’s Mayor Michael Rodriguez starts a national campaign to ban handguns from America’s cities, towns, and villages, Otis Cogsworth, the wealthy chairman and CEO of a huge arms company in Asabogue, Long Island, is worried. In response, he and lobbyist Sunny McCarthy convince an Arkansas congressman to introduce federal legislation mandating that every American must own a firearm. Events soon escalate. Asabogue’s Mayor Lois Leibowitz passes an ordinance to ban guns in the town—right in Otis Cogsworth’s backyard. Otis retaliates by orchestrating a recall election against Lois and Jack Steele, a rich town resident, runs against her. Even though the election is for the mayor of a small village on Long Island, Steele brings in the big guns of American politics to defeat Lois. Soon, thousands of pro-gun and anti-gun partisans descend on Asabogue, and the bucolic town becomes a tinderbox. Meanwhile, Washington politicians in both parties are caught between a mighty gun lobby and the absurdity of requiring that every American, with waivers for children under age four, carry a gun. What ensues is a discomfiting, hilarious indictment of the state of American politics. “New York congressman-turned-novelist Steve Israel delivers a second brilliant political satire” (Booklist, starred review). “An entertaining satire” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Big Guns is “a wonderfully irreverent satire about the fractured and fractious American political and lobbying system…a rollicking comedic trip” (Publishers Weekly).

Big Guns, Brave Men
Big Guns, Brave Men

Author: Rodney E Walton

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2013-05-15

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1612511317

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although it was the largest and final battle of the Pacific War, the Battle for Okinawa has long been overshadowed by other dramatic events in 1945. The books that have been written about it emphasize the role of infantrymen, armor, and U.S. Marines. This work takes a fresh perspective and focuses on the vital role played by the U.S. Army’s forward artillery observers—the eyes and ears of American artillery who were among the least recognized heroes of the war. According to Rodney Earl Walton, U.S. artillerymen matched Japanese gunners in intensity and surpassed them in effectiveness because their forward observers were able to provide a much shorter response time to requests for artillery support. Divided into teams consisting of four or five men led by an artillery lieutenant, these observers would spend three days on the front lines directing artillery against enemy positions, return to their artillery battery for three days, and then rotate up to the line of battle again. While trying to maximize the damage inflicted on the enemy, the men had to deal with the ever-present possibility of firing on their own forces. The ability to shift artillery fire throughout the battlefield was a new development in World War II, and its evolution is fully examined in the book. Walton, the son of one of the forward observers on Okinawa, spent more than twenty years investigating what happened to his father and other artillerymen during the conflict. Interviews with the artillerymen and the infantrymen they supported are central to his story, which is filled with gripping and sometimes humorous accounts of what happened. The work stands as a stirring tribute from the “baby boom generation” to the “greatest generation.

The Ultimate Dad's Army Quiz Book
The Ultimate Dad's Army Quiz Book

Author: Nigel Freestone

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

Published: 2013-01-09

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13: 1909143863

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Are you a fan of the classic British sitcom Dad's Army? Do you miss the slapstick humour and camaraderie of the well-drawn characters? Is this iconic TV show one of your all-time favourites? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are certain to enjoy The Ultimate Dad's Army Quiz Book. What is the name of the fictional town where Dad’s Army is set? Which legendary wartime music hall star sang the Dad’s Army’s signature tune for which he was paid a fee of 100 guineas? How many TV episodes in total were made of the programme? The answers to these and many more thought provoking-questions can all be found in this new quiz book. Dip inside and test your knowledge of the characters and the actors who brought them to life, the writers, locations and individual episodes. Travel back in time and lose yourself in the nostalgia, pathos and word play of one of the most successful and best-loved British sitcoms of all time, Dad’s Army.

Jimmy Perry and David Croft
Jimmy Perry and David Croft

Author: Simon Morgan-Russell

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780719065569

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Offers an analysis of the four collaborative sitcoms of Jimmy Perry and David Croft, 'Dad's Army', 'It Ain't half Hot, Mum!', 'Hi-de-Hi!' and 'You Rang M'Lord?'. Considers the themes and ideas that run through the series in terms of their representation of class and gender, and in terms of other sitcoms and cultures which produced them.

Big Guns
Big Guns

Author: Angus Konstam

Publisher: Casemate

Published: 2017-08-19

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 161200489X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A concise, illustrated introduction to artillery from medieval times to the modern era. Over seven centuries, the artillery piece has evolved from a status symbol to one of the most deadly weapons wielded by man. Using gunpowder weapons was initially something of a black art, but over time, gunnery became a science, a dependable method of breaching fortifications or overcoming an enemy on the battlefield. By the nineteenth century, most European armies had artillery units manned with trained gunners; Napoleon, originally an artillery officer, then took the use of artillery to a new level. Over the following decades, rapid advances in gun technology paved the way for the devastatingly powerful heavy artillery that literally transformed the landscape during World War I. The use of rolling and box barrages shaped how armies fought on the front lines, and powerful naval guns dictated the outcome of battles at sea. By World War II, the range of artillery had expanded to include self-propelled guns and powerful antitank and antiaircraft guns. In this informative introduction, historian Angus Konstam concisely explains how the development and evolving deployment of artillery led to big guns becoming the key to victory in two world wars and a potent force on the modern battlefield.

Abergavenny's War
Abergavenny's War

Author: Tim Butters

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2017-10-15

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1445673533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Capturing the experiences of the people of Abergavenny in the Second World War in their own words.

The Rifle
The Rifle

Author: Andrew Biggio

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-06-01

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1684511399

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It all started because of a rifle. The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero’s journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all -- WWII veterans. It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories. For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

In Search of the Real Dad’s Army
In Search of the Real Dad’s Army

Author: Stephen Cullen

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2012-02-29

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1848842694

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What was the Home Guard? Who were the men and women who served in it? And what can be said of their real role and significance once the popular myths have been stripped away? Despite the fame of the Home Guard – of Dad’s Army – the true story of this wartime organization tends to be neglected. The myths obscure the reality. Stephen Cullen’s aim in this thoroughgoing new study is to cut through the misunderstandings in order to reassess the Home Guard and its contribution to Britain’s war effort – and to deepen our understanding of the men and women who were members of it. He sets the Home Guard in the long historical context of domestic defense planning, then focuses on the preparations made before the outbreak of the Second World War. In detail he traces the changing role of the Home Guard during its wartime existence as it adapted to meet the multitude of challenges it faced – from civil defense and intelligence gathering to training for guerrilla warfare. Using vivid eyewitness testimony and oral history, he takes a grassroots look at the men - and women – from all ages and social backgrounds who made up this national defense force. The equipment, uniforms, weapons and vehicles they used and the field defenses they manned are described as their role developed over the course of the war. He also examines the evolution of popular views of the Home Guard from wartime days to the present – the notion of the People’s Army, the thinking of early Home Guard commentators like George Orwell, and the writings of more recent historians who have sought to explain an organization that retains such an extraordinary hold on the popular imagination.

Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy
Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy

Author: George M. Brooke, Jr.

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1643364065

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An inside look at the Confederacy's military science and technology Loaded with previously unavailable information about the Confederate Navy's effort to supply its fledgling forces, the wartime diaries and letters of John M. Brooke (1826–1906) tell the neglected story of the Confederate naval ordnance office, its innovations, and its strategic vision. As Confederate commander of ordnance and hydrography in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, Brooke numbered among the military officers who resigned their U.S. commissions and "went South" to join the Confederate forces at the onset of conflict. A twenty-year veteran of the United States Navy who had been appointed a midshipman at the age of fourteen, Brooke was a largely self-taught military scientist whose inventions included the Brooke Deep-Sea Sounding Lead. In addition to his achievements as an inventor, Brooke was a draftsman, diarist, and inveterate letter-writer. His copious correspondence about military and personal matters from the war yields detailed and often unexpected insights into the Confederacy's naval operations. Charged with developing a vessel that could break the Union blockade, Brooke raised the Merrimack, a wooden vessel scuttled by the Union Navy, and outfitted it with armor plates as the CSS Virginia. Brooke's papers trace his conception of the plan to create the first Confederate ironclad warship and offer insight into other innovations, revealing a massive amount of factual information about the Confederacy's production of munitions.