Bøger af John Waite

Written neither as a conventional biography or battalion history, this work centres on the remarkable life of Joe Waite, a boy soldier of the Great War. Though, in telling his story, the names and lives of 64 of his fallen comrades are also revealed. All were lost in just one month of fighting, during the hell that was the Third Battle of Ypres - also known as Passchendaele.Born in a tough, working-class neighbourhood in Coventry, in the heart of the industrial Midlands, Joe's childhood was blighted by the loss of his mother and tempered by his father's decision to separate him from his siblings and re-marry. The need to earn his keep forced him into factory work from an early age, soon resulting in a humbling brush with the law. Eventually, the outbreak of war, and later, a family row over a pair of boots, lead to his enlistment in the army, at just 16 years old.Hiding the secret of his true age from his comrades in the 1/7th (TF) battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Joe left Coventry and its troubles far behind as he fought his way across Northern France, including at the infamous Battle of the Somme. His time on the Western Front would eventually draw to a close outside the town of Ypres in Belgium, in October 1917. In that month, and still officially too young to fight, Joe was awarded a Military Medal for his bravery at the Battle of Broodseinde.Using sources such as war diaries, personal, public, and military records, the account of not only the battle, but also the story of each man of Joe's unit who fell there, is told. With further reference to a unique eyewitness account, voice is also given to what thoughts and feelings the men may have experienced as they fought in the mud of Ypres. Then, as the culmination of an exhaustive and painstaking research project, the stories of the fallen are told, together, for the first time. From civilian life to military service, each mini-biography is a sensitive and respectful telling of the unique and varied accounts of so many men, from so many different backgrounds, allowing for a renewed appreciation of a generation now lost to history.These stories tell of men from all over Britain and even beyond. Men who eventually became soldiers in an infantry battalion originally raised in Coventry, but whose makeup changed so much, as war exerted its toll. Where records allow, it also tells of how their families and communities remembered the fallen, so many of whom have no known resting place. Standing chiefly as a fitting tribute to those lost soldiers, this work concludes with the story of Joe's life after the Great War. With one final tragedy to come, its telling will eventually lead to a stark truth; that it isn't only through the eyes of a soldier that the cruelty of war can be seen so harshly.

It is the Spring of AD43 and a huge fleet carrying over 40,000 Roman soldiers crosses the wild northern sea to seize the mysterious isle of Britannia, for the glory of Rome and their emperor, Claudius. Along with the other warriors who come ashore, Marcus Sulpicius Vepitta and his comrades in the XIIII Gemina Legion soon find themselves pitched headlong into a sequence of murderous battles, fighting to conquer a land that has for so long lain beyond the grasp of one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. Yet, even before the great invasion armada had left the shores of Gaul, Claudius' army had already been shaken to its core by the threat of mass mutiny and Vepitta had unwittingly become embroiled in the affairs of others, as a long simmering quest for retribution finally began. Amidst the unrelenting savagery of total war, Vepitta comes to find his loyalty and honour tested as never before. And, as the beleaguered Britons begin to crumble before the relentless Roman war machine, he soon learns that he has been sucked deep into the schemes of a young Roman noble woman, who yearns for justice - at any cost.

Of all the armies that have marched through the pages of history, few have captured the imagination as fully as the Legions of Rome. History echoes with the deeds of the mighty Roman Legions, but that hard won glory would never have been possible without the extraordinary skill and courage of the individual Legionaries themselves. Just what kind of man did it take to serve and fight in an army capable of holding most of the known world under the control of the Caesars? Marcus Sulpicius Vepitta was one such man. Meticulously researched and drawing heavily on the work of both classical writers and modern scholars, Legionary is his story. This is not a tale of a man rising to fame and riches, just an ordinary young recruit as he submits to the iron discipline of the XIIII Gemina Legion. Proudly claiming his place in its ranks as it joins a huge army gathering in Gaul to seize the distant land of Britannia for the Emperor Claudius. This book invites the reader to suspend disbelief and step back two thousand years in time to enter Vepitta's world. A world very different from our own, where modern sensibilities and morality have no place and a conscience is something that very few can enjoy as the mighty Roman Legions engage the native Britons in ferocious battles for control of Rome's newest province.

A new interpretation of a battle that decided 2,000 years of Britain's cultural heritage.

To rule Britannia