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Experimental Test Pilot - Chris Taylor - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Autobiographical readable/humorous account of ten years as an experimental/military test pilot at MOD Boscombe Down.

Ultimate Spitfires - Peter Caygill - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

The fastest, highest-flying, longer range marks of WWIIs most famous aeroplane. First-hand accounts of test-flying, combat and chasing V-1s.

Flying to the Limit - Peter Caygil - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

True stories of test-flying World War II's most famous aircraftIncludes British, German and American typesCompares the merits and drawbacks of each different fighter

Test Pilot - Chris Taylor - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

In the fascinating autobiography, the author details his testing civilian aircraft, from aeroplanes, helicopters, through to autogyros and even microlights.

Safety is No Accident: From 'V' Bombers to Concorde - John R W Smith - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Unusual story of the unsung heroes of aircraft advancement. Insight into the exciting and dangerous world of test flying. The author became Head of Aircraft Certification at the CAA. An insider's view of the Civil Aviation Authority

Cold War Test Pilot - Fraes Burrows Afc - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Howard Pixton: Test Pilot & Pioneer Aviator - Stella Pixton - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Biography of an aviation pioneer who deserves public recognition.

Up in Harm's Way: Flying With the Fleet Air Arm - Commander R. Mike Crosley - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Covers the author's flying career from the finish of World War II until his final appointment as CO of the Naval Test Squadron at Boscombe Down. Mike Crosley became involved with the introduction of Britain's first carrier-borne jet aircraft. The book explains how modern techniques, such as the angled flight deck, were developed and tested.

Flight Craft 18: British Military Test and Evaluation Aircraft - Robinson Neil - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

There can be few technologies in the history of the modern world that have progressed so rapidly, and have seen so much change in such a short timespan as that of aviation.

Final Wicket - Nigel Mccrery - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

While cricket remains popular today, at the beginning of the 20th Century it was THE national game. Cricketers were the sporting icons of their age, as footballers are today. When the call to arms was made in 1914 and the years of war that followed, it was answered in droves by young men, including Test and First Class cricketers. The machine guns and gas of the Western Front and other theatres did not discriminate and many hundreds of these star performers perished alongside their lesser known comrades. The author has researched the lives and deaths of over 200 top-class cricketers who made the ultimate sacrifice. He includes not just British players but those from the Empire. The enormity of the horror and wholesale loss of life during The Great War is well demonstrated by these moving biographies.

Challenge of K2: a History of the Savage Mountain - Richard Sale - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

K2 is one of the most demanding mountaineering challenges in the world and one of the most treacherous - K2 is a legend. Extreme, unpredictable weather and the acutely difficult climbing conditions test the technique, endurance and psychological strength of the most experienced mountaineers to the limit - and often beyond. Many of the men and women who have sought to reach the summit have failed, often with tragic consequences - over 70 of them have died or disappeared. Yet this, the second highest mountain on Earth, continues to exercise for the world's top mountaineers a special - all too often lethal - attraction, and this is the subject of Richard Sale's fascinating new book. As he traces the climbing history of K2 over the last 150 years, he shows in graphic detail how it acquired this awesome reputation: it was during the first serious attempts on the summit in the 1930s and 1950s that K2 became known as the Savage Mountain.

DNA - Graham S Holton - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Provides a clear, accessible introduction to using DNA testing in genealogy, with practical guidance and case studies.DNA research is one of the most important and rapidly advancing areas in modern science and the practical use of DNA testing in genealogy is one of its most exciting applications. This accessible, wide-ranging introduction, the first British publication in this field, has been revised in a completely new edition with new topics and illustrative case studies. It offers a clear and practical way into the subject, explaining the scientific discoveries and techniques and how it can be used by genealogists to gain an insight into their ancestry.The subject is complex and perhaps difficult for traditional genealogists to understand but, with the aid of this book, novices who are keen to take advantage of it will be able to interpret test results and use them to help answer genealogical questions which cannot be answered by documentary evidence alone. It will also appeal to those with some experience in the field because it places the practical application of genetic genealogy within a wider context, highlighting its role as a genealogical tool and suggesting how it can be made more effective.

One Step in a Poppy Field - Bronwyn Royce - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Thousands of miles away from where her son was deployed, a powerful premonition is devastatingly confirmed by a knock on the door from two faceless strangers bearing the news that her son had stepped on an improvised explosive device in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. He had lost both of his legs and suffered multiple other injuries, including partial amputation of all the fingers of his left hand. For 48 days she stood at his bedside, praying and willing him to pull through.Not only did he survive against all odds, but in time he began to test the limits of his new capabilities and undertook the first of, what would prove to be, many physical challenges. Just 18 months after injury, and as part of a team of four servicemen, he rowed across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.Told mostly from a mother’s perspective with contributions from Cayle, the genesis of the book was in the diary she kept while he was in a medically induced coma. It is the story of an extraordinarily brave man who has been through the agonies of rebuilding his life, with the encouragement of family and friends.This was never meant to be another book about war or Afghanistan; it is a message of how love and hope can overcome adversity. If even just one reader takes inspiration from this story then … mission accomplished.

The Dark Side of Jane Austen's World - Angela Youngman - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Jane Austen’s novels are read all over the globe, and adaptations of her works have graced both film and TV screens. Although sometimes criticised for being detached from the real world, providing nothing more than light-hearted plot-driven story lines, the reality is very different. Jane was aware of the evils of society, of the problems faced by women whether single or married. Underneath the entertaining story lines are much darker aspects of Regency and Georgian life. Staying single resulted in serious problems for young women; there were very few alternatives open to them, while marriage itself resulted in other risks. The threats of poverty or becoming a victim of crime were also an issue. Indeed, Jane’s aunt spent months in prison and faced the threat of transportation for theft. Other problems society faced included those posed by opium addiction, poor medical standards, and a lack of property leaving young men and women struggling to survive. Many sought solutions in India, leading to the creation of ‘fishing fleets’ with girls sent to marry total unknowns. Meanwhile, the issues of slavery brought more problems, and social disorder was rife. Jane Austen created classic stories that have endured the test of time, reflecting society in all its aspects, faults, values both good and bad. This is Jane Austen as you have never seen her before.

U.S. Marines at the Battle for Sangin - Landon Longgrear - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

U.S. Marines at the Battle for Sangin is a battle-intensive and deeply personal war memoir following a small Marine infantry detachment who arrive in Afghanistan with acts of killing beginning immediately. Not a week goes by before the Marines experience the deaths of friendly forces, Marine casualties, enemy combatants killed, numerous IED strikes, air strikes, predator drone strikes and around the clock patrolling in hostile territory where death is ever present. As a regional direct response Quick Reaction Force in the northern Sangin river valley of Helmand Province, the Marines are immediately put to the test narrowly avoiding one calamity after the next. The reader feels the author''s angst, threat awareness and a growing sense of hostility toward his elusive enemy. Combat operations greatly intensify as the Marines find their battlefield rhythm. Body counts rise and so does the emotional toll on the author. The reader is regularly taken into the author''s exhilarations from persevering through intense battle scenes but also submerged with him in the turmoil that results from the deliberate harm that he and his fellow Marines inflict on their enemy. There is a sober realization of the unavoidable dichotomy of war and the inner wounds that result from one''s participation in its cruelty, whether the recipient or doer of war''s violent actions. This untold story personalizes the broader themes of America''s war in Afghanistan through the brutal experiences of a small Marine unit who volunteered to fight it.

The Who: Album by Album - Dante Dicarlo - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

One of the British Invasion bands of the mid 1960s, The Who would soon go on to help revolutionise rock music, evolving from a pop band into the first generation of stadium rock giants. During their golden period, they would undergo changes in style and become one of the key protagonists in the transformation of popular guitar-based music from a casual singles market to a serious artform defined by the LP. Although The Who’s album output was not as vast as some of their contemporaries, they would break new ground with a series of iconic releases that advanced the notion of what a rock album could be, and still stand the test of time today. In this book, we will look back at each of The Who’s studio albums, exploring the historical context surrounding them, as well as looking into the recording process itself. Tackling each album song by song and examining the composition, production and the stories behind them, this book aims to give a detailed overview of The Who’s albums from the 1960s up to their most recent and possibly final album, 2019’s Who. This book contains notes on subsequent re-releases and remixes, comparing the key the differences and offering a concise, yet in depth respective, featuring both factual and critical analysis that will be valuable reading to all those interested in The Who and the history of classic rock albums.

Reporting the Nuremberg Trials - Noel Marie Fletcher - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

For the first time, journalists who shared details about Nazi crimes from the International Military Tribunal, better known as the Nuremberg Trial, have their own story told. As World War II in Europe drew to a close in 1945, the Allies prepared to hold Nazi leaders accountable for crimes against humanity and selected Nuremberg as the site for the trial. The U.S. military took the lead in refurbishing a courtroom and making accommodations for 325 journalists and 23 defendants plus Allied judges, prosecutors, translators and administrative staff. Because publicity was a main consideration, the latest innovations and technology were incorporated into the courtroom to enhance news coverage of the trial. Press passes were in demand worldwide for courtroom seats. A press pool was selected to witness the executions in which 10 criminals were hung on Oct. 16, 1946. Famous war correspondents and young journalists who later became household names were headquartered in a castle, explored bombed ruins and faced dangers as a lingering spirit of Nazism seethed within the city. The lengthy trial became an excruciating endurance test for journalists by the time it ended (far longer than expected) on Oct. 1, 1946, setting a precedent for coverage of subsequent justice at Nuremberg. The author, a long-time journalist and former foreign correspondent, provides an insider’s look at how the news was gathered and conveyed. The book is based on extensive research and insights gathered from Nuremberg, including at the location where the journalists were housed and at the courtroom itself.

Britain and Weapons of Mass Destruction Verification - John Walker - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

This is an insider’s history of the UK’s development of on-site inspections for nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons arms control and disarmament treaties from the late 1980s through to the first two decades of the 21st century. It provides for the first time in print a detailed narrative and analytical account from the personal perspective of a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office expert, who participated in scores of realistic and demanding verification exercises at British as well as overseas military and commercial facilities, including at the former Soviet nuclear weapons test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. The book draws on the author’s personal recollections, state papers in The National Archives and official reports submitted to the Conference on Disarmament and other international meetings to pull together a fascinating and riveting account of a key, but hitherto neglected part of Cold War and post-Cold War history. Despite the differences between nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and their means of production, the UK’s verification exercises recounted in detail here revealed many common lessons applicable to the design and implementation of on-site inspections regardless of treaty. Generally nuclear, chemical and biological arms control verification is discussed separately, but this volume uniquely discuses all three in an overall coherent overview of the lessons learned. In addition to the serious nature of the subject matter, the author also recounts the humour that was ever present and many other tales that never quite made it to the formal reports produced after the exercises.

The Woman Who Revolutionised Nurses' Training - Judith Vallely - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

In the heart of 19th-century London, a remarkable woman emerged from adversity to reshape the landscape of nursing education. Born in 1843, Rebecca Strong faced the challenges of widowhood and motherhood by the tender age of 20\. Her indomitable spirit and commitment to service led her to the hallowed halls of nursing, where she became a protege of none other than Florence Nightingale. Collaborating with the esteemed Scottish surgeon Sir William Macewen, Rebecca Strong became a catalyst for change in the field of healthcare. Together, they crafted a groundbreaking training scheme for nurses, incorporating visionary concepts that have withstood the test of time. Their legacy endures in the very fabric of nursing education, influencing generations of caregivers. Retiring in 1907 after a lifetime dedicated to healing, Rebecca Strong embarked on a global journey that transcended borders and cultures. Her adventures took her to the far reaches of the world, from meetings with the likes of Mussolini to forming lasting bonds with European royalty, including an enduring friendship with an Italian princess. Rebecca Strong's extraordinary journey came to a close in 1944, at the remarkable age of 100\. Her secret to longevity was as simple as it was profound: 'hard work and simple living.' This biography unveils the untold story of a woman whose resilience, innovation, and global influence forever altered the trajectory of nursing and healthcare. Rebecca Strong, a beacon of compassion and change, stands as a testament to the transformative power of one individual's dedication to healing and humanity.

Light Infantry of the Greek and Roman World - Jean Charl Du Plessis - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Ancient accounts of battle often neglected the role of lightly-armed infantry, presenting the deeds of the heavy infantry, such as Greek hoplites or Roman legionaries, or dashing cavalry charges as the decisive battle winners. This bias was partly due to the light infantry typically being drawn from the poorer sections of society, who could not afford to equip themselves with armour and because they generally fought from a distance, killing from afar with missile weapons, not bravely face-to-face like heroes worthy of recording. Modern research has generally followed this bias. Dr Jean Charl Du Plessis argues that while light infantry might have had a subordinate role in pitched battles, such clashes were relatively rare occurrences. Most ancient campaigns consisted mostly of foraging, raiding and pillaging of enemy territory, minor skirmishes and ambushes, all roles in which light infantry excelled. In particular they were indispensable for an army traversing mountainous or forested terrain. Moreover, he shows that even in pitched battles they were far from useless and made a valuable contribution, typically harassing the enemy as they deployed and screening friendly battle lines from similar treatment. Some, such as Cretan archers or Balearic slingers were highly sought-after specialists. Uniquely, the author draws on years of practical experimentation to demonstrate and test the various weapons used: slings, bows and javelins, including the use of the amentum throwing strap. This yields fresh evidence and insights into matters such as range, penetrative power and the level of skill and practice required. Overall, this is a valuable study of these forgotten heroes of ancient warfare.

The Wars Between Greeks and Carthaginians - Sotirios Drokalos - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Before the rise of Rome, the Greeks and Carthaginians were, for centuries, the two most powerful nations of the Western Mediterranean. From the Pillars of Hercules to Sicily and Cyrenaica, the Greeks and the Carthaginians founded cities, created trade routes, interacted with each other as competitors and collaborators, and often went to war. However, the long conflict between the Western Greeks and the Carthaginians has been neglected by modern historians, even though the wars between them are definitely among the greatest, longest, and most dramatic clashes of great powers in history when it comes to the historical breadth and the forces involved. Sotirios Drokalos gives these epic events the attention they deserve. The competition and conflicts between Greeks and Phoenicians in the West began by the time of the first colonizations during the eighth century BCE and the development of the cultural and economic activity of the two cultures. They intensified after the Greek colonies' consolidation and Carthage's rise as the most significant Phoenician city and a commercial empire during the sixth century BCE. Especially from the beginning of the fifth century BCE and for the next roughly 200 years, the Western Mediterranean was the field of a ruthless bipolar confrontation between the Greeks of the West and the Carthaginians, marked by the actions of remarkable personalities of the ancient world. This historical clash, apart from the vast and bloody battles, the invasions of one side by the other, the sieges and the mass slaughters, also included elements of cultural interaction and exchange, consisting essentially of a practical test of constitutions, social systems, and political views. Under this prism, studying that tumultuous era could be necessary today to better understand Mediterranean and European historical evolution.

Spectre of Invasion - Steve Dunn - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

By 1900, the British government and public had become gripped by a new and growing fear of invasion, not from traditional enemies such as France, but from Germany. Such terror was driven by lurid books and fanned by newspapers. These anxieties sparked off a fight between those who wanted a defence based on a larger standing army, with conscription to support it, and those who believed the Royal Navy was sufficient to defend the coast and deprecated the expense and role of a standing land force. With war declared in 1914, Britain’s coastline came under attack. Major German raids created terror, and the fear of invasion drove naval and military planning and dispositions to protect Britain’s littoral. Coastal towns such as Scarborough, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Southwold and even the Outer Hebrides came under attack and landings by German troops were feared daily. Running battles were fought with these attacking forces and both ships and lives ashore were lost. Spectre of Invasion examines all of the raids made and the success or failure of them, and relates these events from the point of view of naval and civilian participants. It tells the story of the Royal Navy and its role in the defence of the British coast in the First World War and examines the strategic and political developments resultant from invasion fears. And it considers how the plans laid for coastal defence fared under the test of conflict, laying bare what it was like to be part of the battles around the British coast, both as combatant and as citizen. Finally, it looks at Britain’s inability to co-ordinate naval and military effort throughout the War. This is a thought-provoking book which combines a fast-paced narrative with fascinating insights into Britain’s predicament in the years leading up to, and through, the First World War. It will appeal to anyone interested in this era of the country’s history and the fear on invasion that stalked the country in those years.

Atomic Attack - John Grehan - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

At 08.15 hours on 6 August 1945, one of the most seismic events in human history unfolded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. An atomic bomb, nicknamed _Little Boy_, exploded about 1,500 feet above the city with a force of 15,000 tons of TNT. Around five square miles of the city were destroyed in seconds and tens of thousands of its citizens and soldiers were killed. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was unleased against Nagasaki with similar devastating results. Less than a week later Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender, bringing the Second World War to an explosive end. The story of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki begins with the Manhattan Project. From its inception in 1939, the Manhattan Project, which at its height involved more than 125,000 individuals and ultimately cost billions of US dollars, is explored in this book, as is the organisation and training of the bomb crews of 393rd Bombardment Squadron of Colonel Paul Tibbets’ 509th Composite Group. For its attacks on Japan, the squadron was equipped with fifteen dazzling silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, which had been specially adapted to carry nuclear weapons. It is, of course, the dramatic events of 6 and 9 August 1945, which are featured most prominently in this book. Every step of the attacks, from the arming of _Enola Gay_ and _Bockscar_, which famously carried the two nuclear devices, to their take-off from Runway Able on the tiny island of Tinian, to the flights to the targets and the release of the bombs are revealed. Many are the unmistakable images of the detonation and effects of the two nuclear blasts, portrayed here in graphic contemporary photographs. Portraits of the key individuals are shown, as are the test sites, workshops, aircraft and the weapons themselves to provide a wide-ranging, comprehensive visual study of the steps which led to the first and only deployment of nuclear bombs in warfare.

China's Spies - Nigel West - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

While many of President Xia Jinping’s increasingly aggressive foreign policies, manifested by expansion into the South China Sea, trade confrontation with Australia, and political suppression in Hong Kong, have become obvious, there has been a covert dimension that has gone largely unreported outside the Allied intelligence community. Beijing’s Ministry of State Security, or MSS, has increasingly shifted its priorities to hostile penetration of the CIA. That this is the case has been demonstrated by the recent cases of individuals such as Glenn Shriver, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, Ron Rockwell Hansen, Kevin Mallory, Dickson Yeo, and Alexander Yuk Ching Ma. Of these, Shriver, an American student studying in China, became, as the FBI itself points out, ‘a target of Chinese intelligence services and crossed the line when he agreed to participate in espionage-type activity’. For his actions, in 2019 Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, pleaded guilty to attempting to spying for the People’s Republic of China and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Similarly, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former CIA case officer, was sentenced to nineteen years in prison for conspiring to communicate, deliver and transmit sensitive US information to the People’s Republic of China. Hitherto the MSS had concentrated, at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, on the collection of foreign technology and proprietary information, while also monitoring political dissidents, Tibetan and Taiwanese nationalists, and Uyghur and Falun Gong religious activists. The MSS also tended to recruit ethnic Chinese and were less interested in the collection of political intelligence or mounting influence operations. However, as Nigel West reveals, the MSS has undergone a radical change in doctrine, and, having consolidated its grip on supposedly independent commercial joint ventures and academic research institutions, is leveraging control over these ostensibly legitimate enterprises to access intelligence agencies now perceived as adversaries, such as the CIA and FBI. As the rhetoric and tensions between the West and China mounts, and with the current US administration calling America’s relationship with Beijing ‘the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century’, China’s unseen espionage offensive is one of the most serious developments in recent times. Its extent and effectiveness are explored in this absorbing – and chilling – new exposé.

Vergeltungswaffen - The Third Reich's V-Missiles - Jean Paul Pallud - Bog - Pen & Sword Books Ltd - Plusbog.dk

Whether it is their innovative technical development or the Nazi propaganda harping them as revolutionary wonder weapons, readers interested in World War II find the research on 'German secret weapons' very interesting. The V1, a flying bomb we would now call a cruise missile, opened in June 1944 and soon dozens of them were hitting England day and night. Churchill was so worried that he issued a memorandum proposing to drop poison gas on German cities. To strengthen the faith of the German people in the final victory, despite an increasingly desperate military situation, Nazi propaganda gave the name to this new weapon, V1 for Vergeltungswaffe 1, weapon of revenge number 1. The first V2s, a large liquid-fuelled rocket, were fired against Paris and London on September 8. The V1s and V2s, but also jet engines, were produced by slave workers in the underground factory of Mittelwerk. Inmates from nearby Dora concentration camps provided the labour force, the usual gruesome methods were employed, and over 20,000 of the forced laborers of the Mittelwerk perished. The SS finally seized power not onlye of the production of V-Weapons but also of their operational command. The last months of World War II, when Germany was on the defensive on all fronts and desperately looking for 'wonder weapons', saw a number of ineffective, albeit innovative, technical developments. Among them were the HDP and the Rheinbote, the third and fourth V-Weapons, which were launched into battle in small numbers. V-weapons were indeed inventive weapon concepts, but it must be remembered that Nazi Germany failed to realize that the real super-weapon was going to come from nuclear technology. The only real superweapon of World War II, the atomic bomb, was developed by the Western Allies. The Allied powers had recognized the technical potential of the V2s and to learn German technique of launching long-range rockets, an Operation 'Backfire' was conducted in the summer of 1945 with captured German personnel supervised by British technical experts. Three V2s were launched in October. The United States wasted no time in acquiring 120 top rocket scientist Germans and the first test of a V2 on American soil took place on March 3, 1946\. The Russians also captured German rocket technicians who quickly resumed their work in Russia.