Pen & Sword Books

Explores the transition from hand-crafted to mechanized production of military firearms, focusing on the French Model 1777 and Russian Model 1808 muskets.A variety of factors surround military firearms – they needed to be produced in large numbers to a standardised pattern at an affordable price. This book examines the transition from traditional hand-craft methods to the beginnings of mechanised manufacture using as examples the French Model 1777 and the Russian Model 1808 infantry muskets.A number of factors led to this choice. The French Model 1777 musket, designed by Honoré Blanc working under General Gribeauval, contained many novel features which became blueprints for the arms of numerous countries and was copied in its entirety by Russia. Another factor is that they are the only firearms whose manufacture is covered in contemporary accounts. A third factor is that they provide contrasts in their methods of manufacture; the French 1777 musket was largely produced by hand-craft methods, whereas in Russia we see the beginnings of extensive mechanisation in the early 19th century.Another important aspect which appears is ‘interchangeability’ — the ability to exchange identical parts of identical mechanism without ‘special adjustment’. This is a vital factor at the foundation of modern manufacturing and first appears in early 18th century France, was pursued again by Blanc in 1777 and was picked up in Russia.For the first time, all these ‘technologies’ are examined, explained, compared and contrasted in extensive detail.

Explores the rise of two empires through division, conflict, and eventual reunification, blending historical events with vivid narratives.An alternative history of success rather than decline anf fall. The actual history is set out and the alternative history with Old Time Lines (OTL) for reference. It is a vivid narrative, deeply researched, full of events and people, great and minor igur6es who come to life. It is a story of division and controversy concerning imperial and dynastic ambition and struggle, often caustic family relationships, cultural and religious disputes with surviving paganism and the classical philosophy of Neo-Platonism, and exandng Christianity in church and state in both Empires. The Empires are expanding in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Division and crisis is followed by restoration, more division but finally re-unification.

Explores the rise and fall of Roman emperors, their struggles, family politics, and global influence.This is not a success story but one of transition and ultimate fall. It is detailed, hugely researched, full of action, peronality, and a vivid narrative of political struggle for imperial power as Roman Emperor. It is especially impresive on the role of women, the tangled personal lives, of the elite family competition. And all against the backdrop of transition and decline. But struggle and competition take the Roman Empire and its agents, military and civil, to action on a global scale, to extreme northern Europe, Europe, the Balkaons, Near and Middle East, South and East Asia, Africa and even fringes of (later) America. And all to defend or extend imperial interest. But defense against declne is always presnent and a consant plea is for 'Something to be done' to keep the show on the road. The actual history is set out in brief with the time lines, original Original Time Lines (OTL). Here is the changing and struggling Empire with Western and Eastern Empires and emperors and popes, and Catholic and Orthordox churches, and with theology, philosophy and culture emerging from a Classical world. The list of emperors and empresses runs from AD 496–950 — from mid-empire to imperial evening and fall.

This biography explores Dorothy L. Sayers' legacy as a crime writer, feminist, scholar, and advertising pioneer, highlighting her lasting influence.Dorothy L. Sayers: the name conjures images of Lord Peter Wimsey's sleuthing adventures, and masterful translations of Dante. Yet, she was more than a literary luminary of the interwar Golden Age of crime fiction; she was a trailblazer, a feminist, and a scholar, whose influence resonates to this day.In this new biography, delve into the complexities of Sayers' life and legacy. From her iconic status as one of the 'Queens of Crime' alongside Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh, to her thought-provoking explorations of feminism and Christian philosophy.Through thematic analysis of Sayers' writings and beliefs, the author illuminates the depth and breadth of her influence. From her incisive fiction and scholarly interests to her contributions as an advertising copywriter where she penned the line, 'Guinness is good for you', Sayers left an indelible mark on literature and beyond.As a crime writer, historian, and poet, Wade brings his own passion and expertise to this rich investigation. Join him on a journey through the life and works of Dorothy L. Sayers, and discover the enduring legacy of a true literary icon whose influence is rich and productive, mainly in her fiction, but also in many other areas of life.

The battle of Munda was Julius Caesar’s final victory, analyzing tactics, commanders, and the aftermath leading to his downfall.After four years of fighting and two major victories, Julius Caesar had the upper hand in the Third Roman Civil War and had control of Rome itself. Yet despite this success, his surviving opponents still fought on, with the two sons of Pompeius Magnus taking command of the war against Caesar, along with Titus Labienus, previously one of Caesars’ own trusted subordinates. This opposition made another stand at Munda in Spain, which proved to be the final battle of Caesar’s career, and the closest he came to defeat.Gareth Sampson describes the campaigns that set the context for the battle and analyses in detail the opposing commanders and their forces, their relative strengths and weaknesses, organization, equipment, and tactics. The battle itself is recounted in detail through its various phases before considering the aftermath of the victory which saw Caesar’s victory unravel almost immediately, leading to his downfall on the Ides of March.

During the Ardennes Offensive, Kampfgruppe Peiper faces encirclement and a desperate battle for survival against elite American divisions.During the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, Kampfgruppe Peiper ran out of fuel in the small village of La Gleize, surrounded and caught in a vice-like grip by three elite American divisions: the 82nd Airborne Division, the 3rd Armored Division and the 30th Infantry Division.Behind it, 1. SS Panzer-Division ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ did everything it could to come to its rescue and resume the offensive. A race against time ensued between the Americans, who wanted to annihilate the fighting group of one of Germany’s most famous SS commanders, and the German soldiers who tried to come to the rescue of their brothers in arms.The clash between these units of seasoned veterans resulted in a bloody melee around the perimeter of La Gleize.Would Peiper be able to pull through once again?

A Holocaust survivor recounts his memories from pre-war Poland to liberation, honoring lost family and culture.These are the memories of a man who had been a young Jewish boy in Central Poland. His 9th birthday came in mid July 1939. Less than two months later they are his memories of the Nazi era, from the very beginning of WW11 until he was liberated by the Russians on the 8th May 1945. This age of death when Nazis attempted the absolute annihilation of all Jews in Europe regardless of age, character or gender, is now referred to as the Holocaust.These memories include those of his vibrant family life in Poland before the war. They are his homage and his memorial to his parents, his little sister and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins who were wiped out by the Nazis along with centuries of their culture.Arriving in the UK on 14th August 1945 he was in the first group of Concentration Camp child survivors brought into England at the invitation of King George V1. The story of these children’s arrival and initial rehabilitation in the Lake District is told in the 2020 BBC film ‘The Windermere Children’.His memories conclude with some glimpses of his life immediately after liberation, and later when he was settled in the UK.From dozens of known relatives, he and his elder brother thought for a long time that they were the only family members to have survived from their town. Later they discovered there was a third survivor, an even younger cousin.The author married the Holocaust survivor of this memoir. He wanted the tale of how they met to be told and the book begins with this. All the material concerning life in Poland, life during the war and vignettes of post war life have simply been written down by the author. Everything was read and re-read by the survivor who felt that these recollections were true to what he remembered.

The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry fought in WWII across diverse terrains, demonstrating extraordinary bravery, sacrifice, and resilience.From 1939 to 1945, units of The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry were involved in some of the fiercest battles of the Second World War. From the snowy wastes of Scandinavia to the deserts of North Africa, and from the mountains of Italy to the steaming jungles of Asia, the men of the KOYLI fought against the forces of all three of the dictatorships that came so close to conquering the world.Before taking part in the fighting, three battalions of KOYLI had left the regiment to become 53rd, 57th, and 94th Anti-Aircraft Regiments within the Royal Artillery, and 149th Armoured Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps. Thus, the KOYLI comprised five infantry battalions during the period of the world conflict. They were ordinary men from the quiet towns and villages of Yorkshire, who suddenly found themselves thrown into a deadly fight against the mightiest military machine the world had ever seen, and their story is one of incredible hardship, bravery, and sacrifice in some of the most daunting and inhospitable places on Earth.Illustrated throughout with over 100 photographs and maps, this new history offers a unique and detailed look at one of the Second World War’s most extraordinary regiments.

Experience the life and death struggle of close combat in thick jungle by a soldier who blended with the shadows and led the way into some of the most dangerous places in Vietnam."…we'd feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof on the LZ, and we'd walk among the LZ's regulars knowing we were elite. It didn't matter if they saw us that way, it was enough that we knew we were bad-ass motherfuckers in the baddest place in the universe. I understood how inane that macho-thinking was but as I soared high above the jungle with the cool air in my face I was as caught up in it as the rest of them."One of the most dangerous occupations during the Vietnam War was walking point, a role Ed Mann took on and specialized in. He served a tour of duty in Vietnam as an infantry soldier in the famed 1st Air Cavalry Division from June of 1969 to June of 1970.Mann was wounded several times, receiving several decorations including the Silver Star, while experiencing the extreme hardships of the war with his fellow soldiers. He would continue to walk point for his entire tour, becoming more like the jungle as the days turned into weeks and months.Mann acknowledges the way it was changing him during his time in Vietnam — «I was repulsed by the senselessness and savagery of the war and I was saddened by the price it exacted but I was seduced by it too; proud to be performing an important role in a deadly fight for survival and lured by the adrenaline rushes.»An intensely immersive, gritty, and tension-filled account of his experience that will transport you to the war in the jungle in a way that sets it apart from other Vietnam memoirs.

Guides readers through Elton John's extensive discography, revealing the stories, musical intricacies, and hidden meanings behind his legendary albums.In 1969, Elton John and Bernie Taupin gave the world Empty Sky, a heady mix of rock, folk, rhythm and blues, jazz, psychedelia, and classicism that announced the arrival of one of the most potent creative teams in the history of popular music. In the fifty-five years since that release, Elton's astounding output of thirty-one studio albums, nine soundtrack albums (ten if you count the unreleased Lestat!), and three collaboration albums has enchanted new generations, as grandparents who grew up with “Your Song” and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” on their turntables have shared their love of Elton with parents who played “Sacrifice” and "The One” on their cd players who in turn are sharing it with their children who know The Lion King soundtrack by heart and dance to "Cold Cold Heart” in their bedrooms through Spotify playlists and YouTube remixes.Elton John: Album by Album takes you on a guided journey through those forty-four albums that have engaged three full generations of music lovers, exploring the history behind the production of each, uncovering the hidden stories and meanings of each track, and delving into the musical nuts and bolts of Elton John's unique gift for conveying the meaning of Bernie Taupin's lyrics through his unrivalled and almost otherworldly sense of tonal architecture.Whether you have been spinning Elton records since the days of "Lady Samantha”, or found your way to his work in the post-Rocketman revival of appreciation for his legendary career, Elton John: Album by Album has what you need to navigate your way through the vast richness of his recorded catalogue, allowing you to answer such questions as "How did Ray Cooper make a gong sound like a spaceship?”, «Why is "Ego” in Lokrian mode anyway?” and "Just what is the Pilot, and why would anybody want to be taken there?”

Relive 2024's gaming highs, lows, and industry upheavals with this expertly curated year-in-review.There’s no such thing as a quiet year in video games, and 2024 has been no different.For players, a steady stream of high-profile game releases has meant there’s always been something new to play regardless of what console, handheld, PC or mobile device they were using. Meanwhile, behind the scenes 2024 has been one of the most turbulent years in the history of the games industry, with widespread job losses, studio cuts, acquisitions and other controversies.Video Games Chronicle, the expert source for video game news, has covered 2024’s goings-on every step of the way, and this book summarises the entire year in one handy volume. Designed like an old-school games magazine, this book presents the VGC website’s best coverage of 2024 in a more traditional format.Our News section takes you through all the major stories that took place throughout the year, allowing you to relive every moment (for better or worse). Our Reviews section contains every notable VGC game review from 2024, ‘remastered’ and presented to you in physical form (we’re big on preservation, you see). Our Features section offers some of our best long-form articles from the past year. Finally, our Previews section takes a look at some of the games coming in 2025.The world of online games media is a fast-moving one, and news and reviews usually arrive at breakneck speed then disappear from our consciousness to be replaced with the latest stories. With this book, we hope to provide a more permanent summary of the year, while also harking back to the days of the games magazines we loved so much.

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.

From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler’s Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought.The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launches of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt.The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin’s war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network.As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler’s War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off.The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler’s orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there.Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines or Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.

A fresh exploration of the Titanic disaster reveals how class, gender, and racial prejudices shaped contemporary responses.When it set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage, RMS Titanic was a marvel of modern technology and the latest in luxury, providing a gilded setting and false sense of security for its passengers to act out their imagined ideal lives in a reflection of pre-First World War society. When disaster struck in the form of an iceberg four days into its maiden voyage, that society was frozen in a moment of time, revealing class, gender and racial discrimination that pervaded contemporary social attitudes.Kevin Brown takes a fresh approach in exploring the social attitudes to class, manliness, heroism and cowardice, social redemption, the proper role of women and the social, religious and racial prejudices revealed by the sinking. He re-evaluates the code of women and children first, revealing how attitudes glorifying manliness influenced the behaviour of passengers and crew during the sinking, as well as suggesting a narrative of chivalry and self-sacrifice to create heroes from the victims and brand the surviving men as cowards; an interpretation that is challenged here.Eyewitness accounts evoke the horror of the night and reveal the underlying ideas of the day. They also show that women played a less passive role than expected of them. The responses to the sinking by politicians across the spectrum, the labour movement and suffragettes, suffragists and anti-suffragists is explored to show more critical contemporary responses to the disaster that challenge the heroic narrative. It was a world that was never so confident in modernity after the disaster but yet still held on to illusions of chivalry.

In 1930, as a young woman, Christa Schroeder became a stenographer for the Nazi party, before being noticed by Hitler who, in 1933, hired her as his private secretary. Schroeder remained by Hitler’s side, fiercely loyal, for twelve years, living at the Wolfsschanze and even joining him and his staff in the Führerbunker in Berlin in January 1945.In 1945, interned in the Augsburg camp, Christa Schroeder was interrogated by French liaison officer Albert Zoller who asked her to recount her years spent with the Führer. Schroeder’s testimony, published here in the form of interviews with Zollers, gives an intimate, astonishing and incredibly detailed insight into the private life and personality of Adolf Hitler throughout the 1930s and 1940s.An exceptional testimony, Twelve Years With Hitler is an essential source document on Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. Translated into English here for the first time, Albert Zoller’s interviews with Christa Schroeder are guaranteed to shock and fascinate any military history enthusiast.Albert Zoller was a French liaison officer who interviewed Adolf Hitler's private secretary Christa Schroeder while she was in detention in the Augsburg camp, Germany, in 1945.

Explores how gravestones offer valuable genealogical and social history insights, aiding family research and uncovering hidden stories.Everyone dies, it’s the one certainty in life. Whilst burials have been taking place for thousands of years, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the start of the gravestone boom as public graveyards became commonplace and personalised gravestones became more financially viable. The information provided on gravestones and monuments make them a valuable primary source for anyone wanting to trace their family history. They can provide details that are not available in the official records, holding clues to break down brick walls, but also work hand in hand with original records and documents.Taking an in depth look at what our ancestors left behind on their gravestones and monuments, Amanda Leedham advises the reader how to record this information, and explores how it can aid family research and paint a picture of our ancestors' lives. From exploring the types of occupations listed, to how family ties are portrayed, and from child mortality, to the perception of women, this book is also a great insight into social history. In addition, the author looks into the beliefs and fears of the period in terms of burial, such as bodysnatchers and being buried alive, and how the depiction of death changed and burial traditions developed. The evidence that the graves give us for how people died, from illness to things such as accidents or murder, is also explored.With meticulous research into military graves, the author looks at the different types of military gravestones and the difference between personal graves and the Commonwealth War Graves in Britain. There is also large case study on how graves can help with our ancestors’ sense of place and belonging. All of this is complemented with official documents, records, and extensive use of the national and local newspapers to show how important gravestones can be.

Charles Agate's daring parachute testing at RAF Ringway transformed airborne warfare, while his post-war struggles reveal a complex legacy.By 1940 the Allies had fallen behind the Axis powers in parachute design and research. Other than as a means of escape from a doomed aircraft, the British regarded parachuting as of little military value. All that changed when the Germans used paratroops, the Fallschirmjäger, to devastating effect in the invasion of the Low Countries, and Churchill demanded immediate action. The call went out for men who would be prepared to risk their lives testing parachutes, jumping and landing techniques.Charles Agate was a 34-year-old schoolteacher with a taste for adventure when he joined a pioneering group of mavericks at RAF Ringway in Manchester. The breath-taking risks they took alongside the essential work of the women of the WAAF changed the course of the war and the face of airborne warfare. Their work though often came at a terrible cost.Between 1941 and 1945 Agate and his fellow Parachute Jump Instructors (PJIs) completed thousands of jumps, often from low altitude or using prototype parachutes. They jumped carrying heavy kit bags, had sandbags strapped to their legs, and landed in deep freezing water. They also trained thousands of raw recruits for the key airborne operations of the war, as well as over 600 Special Operation Executive agents for dropping into enemy territory, frequently accompanying them as dispatchers on these hazardous flights. They were proud of the knowledge they were acquiring and imparting at Ringway, but, as the authors reveal, this led to disputes with the Americans over tactics and equipment as they prepared for the Allied invasion of France.Agate amassed a record 1,601 jumps and was awarded the Air Force Cross. He and his fellow PJIs at Ringway were also personally thanked by Churchill for their unique contribution to the war effort. His last jump, in 1946, with his flying suit stuffed with winnings won on a horse called Airborne at the Epsom Derby, was reported in the press worldwide.He acknowledged after the war that he had seen ‘21 good soldiers hit the deck’ during training at RAF Ringway, and these tragedies, as well as the effects of risking his life on a daily basis, took a heavy emotional toll on him and many of the other PJIs. The Man Who Tested Parachutes explores Agate’s ‘lost’ post-war years: his struggles with his mental health, and the impact on his family. It charts his journey to becoming the unconventional head teacher of a village school and his clashes with local authorities. Finally, it describes unflinchingly the last dark twist in the life of this complex man, alone in his flat overlooking the sea just before Christmas 1986.This book tells the story of an ordinary man who took extraordinary risks, and the men and women who served alongside him. It also remembers the young recruits who died before they were able to take part in the key battles for which they were being trained.

William Phipps, a self-made treasure hunter and royal governor, rose to prominence but faced controversy in seventeenth-century Boston.William Phipps’ rise to fame and fortune was meteoric. His short and hectic life was punctuated with many unlikely achievements, of which raising treasure from the wreck of a Spanish galleon was the most famous. For this, he was knighted. Locating his Spanish prize was no fluke. Phipps had worked on the project for years. As in all his endeavours, success was achieved mainly by force of character. His determination and drive saw him become, in turn, a shipwright, a mariner, treasure hunter, merchant, general, an admiral, an Indian fighter and a reforming royal governor.Born a backwoodsman, Phipps became one of the wealthiest and most influential men in seventeenth-century Boston. He mixed with members of the colony’s most prestigious families, whose members were clerics, magistrates, merchants, and lawmakers. But he was never fully accepted as their equal.Boston was a victim of its own ultra-Puritan origins. Its ruling families were entrenched and committed to its drawn-out (and until this point largely unsuccessful) campaign for independence from England and English laws. Appointed by an English king to govern the province of Massachusetts Bay, Phipps brought his pugnacious, overbearing, no-nonsense approach to bear. He had his admirers, but he also made many enemies. These included his own deputy governor, who thought himself belittled when Phipps put a stop to the hanging of Salem's ‘witches’.There were sufficient detractors to persuade the Lords of Trade to investigate, and Phipps was recalled to London to answer his critics. There was no investigation and no hearing. Phipps did not survive long enough. He died in London, his life ended by a flu-like infection. He was just forty-four. Phipps had been a champion for his ungrateful New England colony and even after death an inspiration for a new generation of English inventors and investors. He ignited interest in diving and diving bells, and in new means of finance and investment.

Explores the brutal exploitation and horrific conditions of forced labor camps in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.Shortly after their rise to power, the Nazis established specific Arbeitslager (labour camps) which housed Ostarbeiter (eastern workers), Fremdarbeiter (foreign workers) and other forced labourers who were rounded up and brought in from the east. These were distinct from the SS-run concentration camps.The use of forced labour grew significantly in 1937 due to rearmament requirements and again after the outbreak of warThe invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 further heightened demands for labour and the availability of new workers in areas under Nazi occupation. Vast numbers were deported to forced labour camps, where they worked either producing war materials or on construction projects.As in the Nazis’ view, inmates were slaves pure and simple and replaceable with others, there was a complete disregard for the health of prisoners. Required to work long hours with little or no time for rest or breaks they were subject to insufficiencies of food, equipment, medicine and clothing. As a result of these conditions and brutal treatment, death rates were shockingly high.By 1945, more than fourteen million people had been exploited in the network of hundreds of forced labour camps that stretched across Nazi-occupied Europe. In true Images of War series style, this superbly illustrated book graphically describes the growth of the slave camp system and the conditions inflicted on the luckless labour force.

A snow-capped hill in modern day Czech Republic, dominated by a small church with black onion dome, stands on a field of battle that cemented Napoleon’s position as Emperor of the French. His throne was secure. His power was limitless. Europe lay at his feet. The Battle of Austerlitz is almost universally regarded as the most impressive of Napoleon's many victories. The magnitude of the French achievement against a larger Russian and Austrian force was unprecedented, the great victory being met by sheer amazement and delirium in Paris, where, just days earlier, the nation had been teetering on the brink of financial collapse. It was a time when Napoleon's Grande Armée was at the apogee of its power.Trained on the Channel coast for over two years, the Grande Armée was considered to be the most powerful, and in many respects the most glamourous, fighting force in Europe. Using archive documents from the time, this book sets out to chart the story of the men who made up the army. Incorporating rare eye-witness reports, that have to date never been used in English or French histories, we assess if the army was indeed the best in the world. Men like Grouchy, Oudinot, Ney, D’hautpoul and many other famous names put the army through its paces — it is their judgements that confirm or deny the effectiveness of the army.These men also minutely examined the men’s clothing and equipment. Using these reports we present for the first time the true story of the Grande Armée. This has been possible due to the author’s access to a vast resource, as yet untapped by the vast majority of researchers and historians for understanding Napoleonic era in general. These are the regimental archive boxes preserved in the French Army Archives. From the regimental inspections, as well as the observations of Divisional commanders written at the time, these sources provide, potentially bias free empirical data — it is based on personal assessments thus is not error free — from which we can reconstruct the life story of a regiment, its officers and above all its clothing.More uniquely, the text is supported by an unrivalled collection of full colour illustrations, many of which have never been published before, including images of original items of equipment that are held in both museums and private collections to which the author has been granted special access.In this beautifully illustrated book, Paul Dawson critically re-examines the mythos and presents the judgement call made at the time about the army, that has ever since been overtly romanticised by both lovers and haters of Napoleon.