Operation Compass

Operation Compass
Author: Victor Gregg
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2017-01-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1448216796

Operation Compass was the first large Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) during the Second World War. The Western Desert Force, composed of around 30,000 men from British and other Commonwealth forces, advanced from Mersa Matruh on a five-day raid against the Italian positions of the 10th Army. Operation Compass continued long beyond its original limitations in order to exploit British success. Victor Gregg takes us behind the scenes of this unforgiving terrain, to the sangars rather than the trenches, in an astonishing first-hand account of warfare. Through tender friendships and tea runs, devastating news from home and visible enemies on the horizon, Gregg goes beyond the graphic descriptions of injuries and front-line action to show the psychological impact of daily life both on and off the battlefield.

Operation Compass 1940

Operation Compass 1940
Author: Jon Latimer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2013-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1846035287

A highly illustrated, absorbing account of the first battle of the desert war: the British against the Italians. Operation Compass was originally envisaged as a spoiling attack, combined with a reconnaissance in force to disrupt the Italian forces that had advanced into Egypt in September 1940. Lt Gen. Richard O'Connor launched what amounted to a British 'Blitzkrieg'. In less than two months the British forces swept 500 miles along the coast of North Africa. 7th Armoured Division raced across the desert to cut off the retreating Italians, and O'Connor's men destroyed 9 Italian divisions, and took 130,000 prisoners. In March 1941 General Rommel and the Afrikakorps landed at Tripoli.

Operation Paperclip

Operation Paperclip
Author: Annie Jacobsen
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2014-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0316221058

The explosive story of America's secret post-WWII science programs, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51 In the chaos following World War II, the U.S. government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery. They were also directly responsible for major advances in rocketry, medical treatments, and the U.S. space program. Was Operation Paperclip a moral outrage, or did it help America win the Cold War? Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and with access to German archival documents (including previously unseen papers made available by direct descendants of the Third Reich's ranking members), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and dossiers discovered in government archives and at Harvard University, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into a startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secret of the twentieth century. In this definitive, controversial look at one of America's most strategic, and disturbing, government programs, Jacobsen shows just how dark government can get in the name of national security.

Desert Prelude 2

Desert Prelude 2
Author: Hakan Gustavsson
Publisher: Mushroom Model Publications
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2011-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 9788361421184

This is the second of two volumes providing an in-depth look at the air war over the North African desert in the early days of World War II. The equipment, organization and operations of the Regia Aeronautica, RAF and French Air Force are described in detail. Possibly the last major combat in which both sides flew fighter bi-planes, it saw the Italian air arm take on the rather sparsely-equipped Allied forces in Egypt and Libya. This volume completes the story, up to the point in 1941 when German forces arrived to bolster the retreating Italian forces.

Wavell's Campaigns In The Middle East: An Analysis Of Operational Art

Wavell's Campaigns In The Middle East: An Analysis Of Operational Art
Author: Major Lawrence Rucker Snead III
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 76
Release: 2014-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782897461

Today the United States confronts an uncertain world. The strategic environment has changed. It no longer has one main enemy and a military force to confront that foe. Instead, the United States must be prepared to deal with a multiple of possible threats as its military continues to downsize. This new regional orientation and world situation requires that the US Military be ready to fight simultaneous major regional contingencies to achieve the victories that the American people expect. Therefore, this study examines Field Marshall Wavell’s campaigns in the Middle East in WWII to provide a historical case study of a similar situation. There he had to simultaneously conduct a large number of campaigns and operations over four theaters of operations against different enemies under difficult conditions to achieve strategic objectives. It compares this case study with the current strategic military requirements facing the US and current US Military doctrine to determine if the US is prepared to deal with multiple simultaneous regional contingencies. Finally, this monograph indicates that the US Military needs to update both its National Military Strategy and it’s doctrine in order to be prepared to fight and win multiple simultaneous major regional contingencies in the future. In addition, this study has indicated a number of implications for the conduct of operational art by the US Military.

Monty’s Marauders

Monty’s Marauders
Author: Patrick Delaforce
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2008-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844156303

When Monty was given Allied command of the D Day landings he wasted no time gathering around him individuals and formations he could trust. Foremost among the latter were two armoured brigades: 4th (Black Desert Rats) and 8th (Red Fox's Mask). Both these brigades had unrivalled fighting records whether in North Africa, Sicily or Italy. They had proved themselves in bitter fighting against Rommel's Afrika Korps and the Italians. Once ashore in Normandy the two superb brigades went on to enhance their reputations on the journey to the heartland of Hitler's Third Reich and final victory. The author has written a fast moving and enthralling account of war at the sharp end.

Strategic and Operational Deception in the Second World War

Strategic and Operational Deception in the Second World War
Author: Michael I. Handel
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136286888

First Published in 1987. New information obtained from the declassification of Ultra intercepts and other Second World War documents as well as from recent scholarly research has credited Allied deception operations with an even more important contribution to winning the war than was previously supposed. Yet deception is only one factor in the achievement of victory; it cannot guarantee success. It must be fully understood and exploited by the highest levels of command. Most histories of deception operations during the Second World War have focused on those that were successful. Instances in which deception operations failed to achieve their objectives are discussed by John Campbell, who describes an early attempt to convince the Germans that the Allies intended to invade at Pas de Calais in the summer of 1943, and by Katherine Herbig, who gives the first detailed description of US deception operations in the Pacific. Klaus-Jurgen Moiier questions the actual effectiveness of deception operations against the Germans. He argues that many successes attributed to the Allies' use of deception were in fact achieved by independent considerations on the German side. Professor Moiier builds a particularly strong case in challenging the success of Operation Fortitude North, in which the Allies tried to divert German troops to Norway before invading Normandy. Although very little is known of Soviet deception operations on the Eastern Front, it must be remembered that they were conducted on a much larger scale than those of either the British in Europe or the Americans in the Pacific. Colonel David Glantz's account of Soviet deception and covert activities offers a version of the historiography of the war between the USSR and Germany which may explain some of the monumental German failures. Tom Cubbage not only contributes a synthesis of the primary and secondary sources available on the deception operations preceding Overlord, but also reviews the so-called Hesketh Report - Fortitude: A History of Strategic Decep­tion in North Western Europe April 1943 to May 1945, Colonel Roger Hesketh's official report on Allied deception operations against the Germans in north-west Europe which was declassified in 1976, yet remains unpublished. It indicates that Professor Muller's suspicions that the Allies over-estimated the impact of Forti­tude are unfounded. Edited and with a comprehensive introduction by Michael Handel, these important and original studies put the entire deception effort during the Second World War into a more balanced and accurate perspective.