Underground Structures of the Cold War

Underground Structures of the Cold War

Author: Paul Ozorak

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 1783830816

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“A vivid reminder of the ever-present threat of a global apocalypse that formed the backdrop to the Cold War. This is an excellent book.” —History of War Medieval castles, the defensive systems of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the trenches and bunkers of the First World War, the great citadels of the Second World War—all these have been described in depth. But the fortifications of the Cold War—the hidden forts of the nuclear age—have not been catalogued and studied in the same way. Paul Ozorak’s Underground Structures of the Cold War: The World Below fills the gap. After the devastation caused by the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the outbreak of the Cold War, all over the world shelters were constructed deep underground for civilians, government leaders and the military. Wartime structures were taken over and adapted and thousands of men went to work drilling new tunnels and constructing bunkers of every possible size. At the height of the Cold War, in some countries an industry of bunker-makers profited from the public’s fear of annihilation. Paul Ozorak describes when and where these bunkers were built, and records what has become of them. He explains how they would have been used if a nuclear war had broken out, and in the case of weapons bases, he shows how these weapons would have been deployed. His account covers every sort of facility—public shelters, missile sites, command and communication centers, storage depots, hospitals. A surprising amount of information has appeared in the media about these places since the end of the Cold War, and Paul Ozorak’s book takes full advantage of it.


Modern European Military Fortifications, 1870-1950

Modern European Military Fortifications, 1870-1950

Author: J.E Kaufmann

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2004-10-30

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0313072906

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This selected bibliography on modern European fortifications, from 1850 to 1950, provides a selection of the most important books and articles written on this topic. The work covers regions and countries and includes many sources on such popular topics such as the Maginot Line along with lesser known fortifications such as the Salpa Line and the Swiss National Redoubt. References for the fortifications that appear cover everything from the Iberian Peninsula to the Soviet Union and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean countries. This work includes not only American and English, but also non-English publications. This source features books and articles done in the nineteenth and twentieth century ending in December 2000. Each contributor is a member of SITE O, an international fortifications research group. In addition to helpful annotations, each chapter includes summaries on the fortifications. Also features a multi-lingual glossary and reference maps.


Anatomy of Victory

Anatomy of Victory

Author: John D. Caldwell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-11-09

Total Pages: 569

ISBN-13: 153811478X

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This groundbreaking book provides the first systematic comparison of America’s modern wars and why they were won or lost. John D. Caldwell uses the World War II victory as the historical benchmark for evaluating the success and failure of later conflicts. Unlike WWII, the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraqi Wars were limited, but they required enormous national commitments, produced no lasting victories, and generated bitter political controversies. Caldwell comprehensively examines these four wars through the lens of a strategic architecture to explain how and why their outcomes were so dramatically different. He defines a strategic architecture as an interlinked set of continually evolving policies, strategies, and operations by which combatant states work toward a desired end. Policy defines the high-level goals a nation seeks to achieve once it initiates a conflict or finds itself drawn into one. Policy makers direct a broad course of action and strive to control the initiative. When they make decisions, they have to respond to unforeseen conditions to guide and determine future decisions. Effective leaders are skilled at organizing constituencies they need to succeed and communicating to them convincingly. Strategy means employing whatever resources are available to achieve policy goals in situations that are dynamic as conflicts change quickly over time. Operations are the actions that occur when politicians, soldiers, and diplomats execute plans. A strategic architecture, Caldwell argues, is thus not a static blueprint but a dynamic vision of how a state can succeed or fail in a conflict.


Strange Victory

Strange Victory

Author: Ernest R. May

Publisher: Hill and Wang

Published: 2015-07-28

Total Pages: 604

ISBN-13: 1466894288

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Ernest R. May's Strange Victory presents a dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940. Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances? Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field. Why did Hitler want to turn against France at just this moment, and why were his poor judgment and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? It is May's contention that in the future, nations might suffer strange defeats of their own if they do not learn from their predecessors' mistakes in judgment.


A Fearsome Heritage

A Fearsome Heritage

Author: Dr John Schofield

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-07-08

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1315435837

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From massive nuclear test sites to the more subtle material realities of everyday life, the influence of the Cold War on modern culture has been profound and global. Fearsome Legacies unites innovative work on the interpretation and management of Cold War heritage from fields including archaeology, history, art and architecture, and cultural studies. Contributors understand material culture in its broadest sense, examining objects in outer space, domestic space, landscapes, and artistic spaces. They tackle interpretive challenges and controversies, including in museum exhibits, heritage sites, archaeological sites, and other historic and public venues. With over 150 color photos and illustrations, including a photographic essay, readers can feel the profound visual impact of this material culture.


Military Communications

Military Communications

Author: Christopher H. Sterling

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2007-10-16

Total Pages: 607

ISBN-13: 1851097376

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An alphabetically organized encyclopedia that provides both a history of military communications and an assessment of current methods and applications. Military Communications: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century is the first comprehensive reference work on the applications of communications technology to military tactics and strategy—a field that is just now coming into its own as a focus of historical study. Ranging from ancient times to the war in Iraq, it offers over 300 alphabetically organized entries covering many methods and modes of transmitting communication through the centuries, as well as key personalities, organizations, strategic applications, and more. Military Communications includes examples from armed forces around the world, with a focus on the United States, where many of the most dramatic advances in communications technology and techniques were realized. A number of entries focus on specific battles where communications superiority helped turn the tide, including Tsushima (1905), Tannenberg and the Marne (both 1914), Jutland (1916), and Midway (1942). The book also addresses a range of related topics such as codebreaking, propaganda, and the development of civilian telecommunications.


Female Administrators of the Third Reich

Female Administrators of the Third Reich

Author: Rachel Century

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-10

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1137548932

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This book compares female administrators who specifically chose to serve the Nazi cause in voluntary roles with those who took on such work as a progression of established careers. Under the Nazi regime, secretaries, SS-Helferinnen (female auxiliaries for the SS) and Nachrichtenhelferinnen des Heeres (female auxiliaries for the army) held similar jobs: taking dictation, answering telephones, sending telegrams. Yet their backgrounds and degree of commitment to Nazi ideology differed markedly. The author explores their motivations and what they knew about the true nature of their work. These women had access to information about the administration of the Holocaust and are a relatively untapped resource. Their recollections shed light on the lives, love lives, and work of their superiors, and the tasks that contributed to the displacement, deportation and death of millions. The question of how gender intersected with Nazism, repression, atrocity and genocide forms the conceptual thread of this book.


Emergency War Plan

Emergency War Plan

Author: Sean M. Maloney

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2021-02

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 1640122346

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Using strategic plans, intelligence analysis, and other materials that have only recently been declassified, Emergency War Plan examines the theory and practice of nuclear deterrence during the 1945–1960 period of the Cold War.


Facing the Bear

Facing the Bear

Author: Trevor Royle

Publisher: Birlinn

Published: 2019-10-08

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 1788850858

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The author of Culloden explores Scotland’s history during the Cold War. Between the end of the Second World War and the collapse of Communism, confrontation with the Soviet Union was an everyday reality. As part of NATO’s response, Scotland played a key role in the alliance’s forward maritime defense strategy, aimed at containing the Soviet threat from naval and air forces. During this period, 10 percent of the UK’s naval and air forces were based in Scotland, and there was a substantial U.S. presence, as well as top secret satellite and command stations. In Facing the Bear, Trevor Royle paints a fascinating portrait of this extraordinary period, examining not just the wider military and political contexts, but also showing how the defense industry brought huge economic benefits, how CND maintained a high-profile presence, and how anti-nuclear sentiments underpinned much of the left’s thinking in Scotland and contributed to the hegemony enjoyed by the Labour Party in Scotland during the Cold War. Praise for Facing the Bear “Engrossing . . . . Like a military commander at the top of his game, Royle marshals his material to maximum effect to show how Scotland has been shaped by, and also helped shape, the Cold War . . . . He ranges far and wide and has that rare talent to marry the local with the geopolitical . . . . But this is not simply a story of military hardware and confrontation. Royle is very interesting on how the Cold War influenced our cultural life from the novel to poetry and the protest song.” —Barclay McBain, The Herald (UK)