The Diary of an Artillery Officer

The Diary of an Artillery Officer
Author: Arthur Hardie Bick
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2011-06-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1459700406

In the First World War the Canadian Field Artillery led the way in artillery technology and tactics by coordinating the intelligence reports from ground observation teams. The Diary of an Artillery Officer covers the work of the 1st Divisional Artillery in 1918 when it spearheaded the attacks on various European battlefields.

Desert Fire

Desert Fire
Author: Andrew Gillespie
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2001-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473813530

Forming part of the Royal Artillery's historical series, Desert Fire is the Battery Commander of O Battery (The Rockett Troop), 2nd Field Regiment RA's gripping description of the Gulf War. His first-hand account brings to life the power and destructive force of modern massed artillery and is a fitting tribute to all members of the Royal Regiment who played such a vital role in the desert campaign. Shows detailed plans and maps of events first time around in the Gulf.

Field of Fire

Field of Fire
Author: Jack Swaab
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2007-05-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0752495917

Jack Swaab joined the veteran 51st (Highland) Infantry Division on 3 January 1943. He kept a series of diaries over the following two and a half years, recording the combination of boredom and fear that characterises active service. In mid-March 1943 he saw battle for the first time as Montgomery attacked the Mareth Line. In July that year Swaab took part in the Allied landings on Sicily, writing of the scorching humidity of the Sicilian summer. In May 1944 he records the restless time as his regiment prepared for the invasion of Normandy. In September 1944 Swaab's role changed dramatically, as he moved from commanding a troop to being a forward observation officer. His new position meant that he was working closely with the infantry in the front line. Swaab's first five months as a forward observation officer came to an abrupt end on 13 February, when he was wounded in the leg by shellfire. He was again selected for FOO duty during Operation 'Varsity', the Rhine crossing, in March 1945, and received the Military Cross.

A Fighter from Way Back

A Fighter from Way Back
Author: Daniel Harvey Hill
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780873387392

Born in July 1821, Daniel Harvey Hill grew up in genteel poverty on a large plantation in York District, South Carolina. He entered West Point and graduated in the middle of the renowned Class of 1842. Following garrison duty as a junior lieutenant with the First and Third Artilleries, Hill joined the Fourth Artillery at Fortress Monroe in January 1846. Six months later he was en route to Mexico. Published here for the first time, Hill's diary vividly recounts the Mexican War experiences of this proud young officer. He was observant and opinionated, recording details about soldiers, officers, logistics, units, the health of the army, and the progress of the campaign. Hill, who later took up the Confederate cause and earned the sobriquet Lee's Maverick General, emerged from the Mexican conflict an authentic hero, winning brevet promotions to captain and major for gallant conduct at Contreras (Padierna) and Chapultepec. Young lieutenant Hill came of age in Mexico, and there he encountered firsthand a different culture and witnessed in horror helpless civilians and their treasures washed away in the boiling stream of violence that was war. Hill's fascinating diary recounts these a

Some Desperate Glory

Some Desperate Glory
Author: Edwin Campion Vaughan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2010-06-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1783031123

“An officer’s diary hidden away for 40 years reveals the horrors of World War One in harrowing detail.” —The Sun Some Desperate Glory charts the progress of an enthusiastic and patriotic young officer who marched into battle with Palgrave’s Golden Treasury—a collection of English poems—in his pack. Intensely honest and revealing, his diary evokes the day-to-day minutiae of trench warfare: its constant dangers and mind-numbing routine interspersed with lyrical and sometimes comic interludes. Vividly capturing the spirit of the officers and men at the front, the diary grows in horror and disillusionment as Vaughan’s company is drawn into the carnage of Passchendaele from which, of his original happy little band of 90 men, only 15 survived. “This diary of a few months in the life of a young officer on the Western Front in 1917 deserves to rank close behind Graves, Owen, Sassoon, among the most brilliant and harrowing documents of that devastating period.” —Max Hastings, author of Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 “This stark WW I diary by a 19-year-old subaltern in the British army begins with an account of his eager departure for the western front, and ends eight months later with an awesome description of the battle of Ypres in which most of his company died.” —Publishers Weekly

Illinois Artillery Officer's Civil War

Illinois Artillery Officer's Civil War
Author: Gordon Armstrong
Publisher: Virtualbookworm Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 1589397673

John Cheney was a well educated businessman living in Dixon, Illinois. In 1862 he raised an artillery company-Battery F, 1st Illinois Light Artillery-and served as its captain. Battery F fought in the Western Theatre in the Army of the Tennessee (Gens. Grant and Sherman). This volume draws on 318 entries from Cheney's Civil War diary and 100 letters he wrote home to his wife, plus additional documents, photos, and material relating to his life before, during and after the war. Cheney's letters and diary entries have a warmth and intimacy that is unusual in writing of that time. John Cheney served out a strong sense of duty to the country that had provided him with security and opportunity. Over time he developed health problems that tested that sense of duty. Cheney was entirely absorbed in his activities when in combat or advancing on Confederate troops. During times of inactivity he suffered boredom and experienced loneliness being separated from his wife and two children. During the Atlanta campaign, his 11-year-old son Royce accompanied him. Cheney was an ordinary man doing his best in the extraordinary occurrences of war.

Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War

Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War
Author: James C. Hazlett
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252072109

This is a detailed survey, replete with photographs and diagrams, of the field artillery used by both sides in the Civil War. In paperback for the first time, the book provides technical descriptions of the artillery (bore, weight, range, etc.), ordnance purchases, and inspection reports. Appendixes provide information on surviving artillery pieces and their current locations in museums and national parks.