Bøger af Peter Hodgkinson

Conrad Hugh Dinwiddy - husband, father, sportsman, politician, surveyor, inventor and gunner - was a civilian turned artilleryman. He was one of those individuals who turned a keen brain to the technological developments necessary in winning the First World War. He invented an aerial range-finder, an aiming post scheme for night-firing, and put forward schemes for the firing of artillery from barges and the use of monorail in artillery supply. He died at the Battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917.This book delves into his pre-war world, examines his inventions and the science of accurate artillery fire, and explores the life of a 6-inch howitzer battery on the Western Front using his letters home. It also charts the careers of his brothers, two of whom were Territorial officers, two being naval officers, and one a Regular army captain, taken prisoner at the fall of Kut in 1916.

In 1947, Mary Deben travels to a remote cottage in Connemara, Ireland to write her 'Spanish novel'. She recalls her recruitment in 1937 of Tom Lees, a young Irish writer, to be her 'eyes and ears' on their journey to report on the Irish Blueshirts in the Spanish Civil War. As she was prevented from going to the front, only Tom witnesses action with the calamitous Irish Brigade. Experiencing the horrifying menace of the fascists and the complicity of the Press on the Francoist-Nationalist side, Mary has to escape from Spain leaving Tom to an unknown fate. Ten years later, in Connemara, Mary remains remorseful of having enlisted Tom. Unwittingly, she becomes involved in the child abuse scandal of the Industrial Schools. Recruiting a young Christian Brother, she gathers evidence of the abuse in a local school and learns of Tom's fate. A meeting with an extraordinary stranger also has unexpected consequences.

This book considers a relatively unknown series of actions of the victorious Hundred Days of 1918: the operations at the River Selle.

The 6th Infantry Division was the last division planned as part of the BEF of 1914. It took part in the fighting on the Aisne and the Battle of Armenti¿s in 1914; and then served in the Ypres salient for 18 months (including its recapture of Hooge in August 1915), before its translation to the Somme in 1916 to take part in the Battles of Flers-Courcelette, Morval and the Transloy Ridges. In 1917 it was involved in heavy fighting at Loos as a result of the Battle of Arras, and again in the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. In 1918 it would bear the brunt of the German offensive as part of Third Army on 21 March, and would finish its war with Fourth Army in the Hundred Days campaign from the Hindenburg Line onwards.A brief operational history was published in 1920. This new history covers the operations in detail, but devotes two chapters to study of the division¿s commanders from its four major-generals to its battalion COs; a chapter to the divisional and brigade staff; a chapter to training and another on the development of divisional firepower; and reviews medical services, engineering and logistics. The book seeks to place the division within the context of the tactical and operational development of the British Army in the First World War.

This collection questions the received wisdom contained in the debate about capital punishment. It asks questions and proposes remedies for a raft of issues identified as having been overlooked in the traditional discourse. It provides a long overdue review of the disparate groups and strategies that lay claim to abolitionism.