Download Free Shan Hackett Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Shan Hackett and write the review.

'Shan' Hackett is remembered by his own and succeeding generations for a variety of achievements and attributes. A superb fighting soldier, he served with the Trans-Jordan Force, had fought through North Africa and was involved in the formation of the Long Range Desert Group, the SAS and Popski's Private Army. He went on to raise 4th Parachute Brigade which he commanded with flair at Arnhem where he was wounded and captured. He escaped and got back to British lines. He rose to high rank filling key command and staff appointments in the British Army and NATO.Always an intellectual, yet highly practical man, he retired to become Principal of King's College London where he was revered by staff and students. He wrote many acclaimed works including The Third World War and its sequel The Third World War - The Untold Story. He was constantly in demand in Britain for his television programs and radio commentary up to his death in 1997
More than half a century after his death, Lt Col. Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. He was the most decorated British soldier of the Second World War, receiving four DSOs, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur, and he pioneered tactics used today by the SAS and other special operations units worldwide. Rogue Warrior of the SAS tells the remarkable life story of 'Colonel Paddy', whose exceptional physical strength and uniquely swift reflexes made him a fearsome opponent. But his unorthodox rules of war and his resentment of authority would deny him the ultimate accolade of the Victoria Cross. Drawing on personal letters and family papers, declassified SAS files and records, together with the Official SAS Diary compiled in wartime and eyewitness accounts from many who served with him, the picture emerges of a soldier who, although a flawed hero, was unquestionably one of the most distinctive combatants of the campaigns in the Western Desert and Europe.
An action-packed biography of “one of the legitimate storybook heroes of World War II” and the special forces regiment he founded (The New York Times). In the dark and uncertain days of 1941 and 1942, when Rommel’s Afrika Korps was sweeping toward Egypt and the Suez Canal, a small group of daring raiders made history for the Allies. They operated deep behind German lines, driving hundreds of miles through the deserts of North Africa. They hid by day and struck by night, destroying aircraft, blowing up ammunition dumps, derailing trains, and killing many times their own number. These men were the Special Air Service. The SAS was the brainchild of David Stirling, a deceptively mild-mannered man with a brilliant idea. Under his command, small teams of resourceful, highly trained men penetrated beyond the front lines of the opposing armies and wreaked havoc where the Germans least expected it. From Virginia Cowles, whose biographies have been praised as “splendidly readable” (Sunday Times) and “fascinating” (Kirkus Reviews), this is a classic account of these raids, an amazing tale of courage, impudence, and daring packed with action and high adventure. Her narrative, based on the eyewitness testimony of the men who took part, gives a compelling insight into the early years of the SAS.
“The fighting spirit of Allied paratroopers comes through with exciting clarity” in this account of two separate invasions of Germany in World War II (Kirkus Reviews). A main selection of the Military Book Club In September 1944, as the Allies drove across Europe after Normandy, British field marshal Bernard Montgomery launched Operation Market Garden to secure the lower Rhine—Germany’s last great natural barrier in the west—and passage to Berlin. Though Allied soldiers outnumbered Germans two to one, they suffered devastating casualties and were forced to retreat. Then, in March 1945, Montgomery orchestrated another airborne attack on the Rhine, called Operation Plunder. This time the Allies overwhelmed the German defenses, secured the eastern bank, and began their final march into the heart of the Third Reich. Including detailed maps and personal accounts from those on both sides of the battle, this “vivid war story” examines Allied attempts to breach Germany’s borders, and illustrates how lessons learned from failure helped form the second plan of attack—and seal Germany’s defeat (Publishers Weekly).
Genuinely new story of the Second World War - the full account of England's last war against France in 1940-42. Most people think that England's last war with France involved point-blank broadsides from sailing ships and breastplated Napoleonic cavalry charging red-coated British infantry. But there was a much more recent conflict than this. Under the terms of its armistice with Nazi Germany, the unoccupied part of France and its substantial colonies were ruled from the spa town of Vichy by the government of Marshal Philip Petain. Between July 1940 and November 1942, while Britain was at war with Germany, Italy and ultimately Japan, it also fought land, sea and air battles with the considerable forces at the disposal of Petain's Vichy French. When the Royal Navy sank the French Fleet at Mers El-Kebir almost 1,300 French sailors died in what was the twentieth century's most one-sided sea battle. British casualties were nil. It is a wound that has still not healed, for undoubtedly these events are better remembered in France than in Britain. An embarrassment at the time, France's maritime massacre and the bitter, hard-fought campaigns that followed rarely make more than footnotes in accounts of Allied operations against Axis forces. Until now.
The array of new technologies that came on the scene in the early 20th century resulted in widely varied new forms of military special operations once civilization embarked on its greatest war. Suddenly, fighting men could be delivered by parachute, submarine, glider, jeeps, and fast amphibious craft deep into enemy territory to perform special tasks; yet others would continue to perform missions the same as their ancestors in previous wars—on foot using stealth, endurance and patience. This work contains discussions of the employment of various special purpose, special mission organizations during World War II. These units operated in Allied and Axis countries and in various theaters of war including Europe, North Africa, the Pacific, Asia, and the continental United States. Representing every major combatant, the operations include various kinds of raids, intelligence gathering missions, support to partisan/guerrilla groups, prisoner rescues, direct-action missions, and at least two where the object was simply to steal something. Some missions would have been officially denied if the operations had been caught in the act. The book is divided into two sections: Behind Enemy Lines and Behind Friendly Lines, to demonstrate that special-purpose organizations can be employed wherever needed, even in areas controlled by military units of their own or allied countries. Many of the units described run the gamut of special mission types, from commando to parachute units, reconnaissance to sabotage units, and partisan training units as well as those with combined missions. Many of the operations described in this book continue to serve as templates for modern Special Operations missions, while still others—the first attempts of their kind—continue to serve as examples of what not to try under the circumstances. Michael F. Dilley served for 20 years in the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence branch. After retiring from the Army, the author served for about ten years as an employee of the Department of Defense, then as a contractor for various U.S. Government agencies in several fields for 15 years. Author of several books and many articles, a number of these chapters are based on his previous writings for the legendary Behind the Lines magazine.
This is the first volume of a most impressive tribute and accurate four part work that uniquely presents a complete account of the air operations throughout Market-Garden in September 1944 when British, US and Polish airborne troops made a gallant attempt to seize and hold bridges across the Lower Rhine in Holland as a springboard for crossing into Germany. Market, the aerial side of the proceedings, was at the time the largest airborne operation in history. In this unprecedented and insightful account, the exploits of the First Allied Airborne Army are relayed in full detail; supplemented with historical notes regarding the ground operations, this is sure to offer an unparalleled account of the events as they unfolded in the skies above Holland.If successful, the war could be over by Christmas. What could go wrong? That it did and on such a massive scale is the underlying theme throughout this series. The action was at times very confused, so a narrative of events contained in sixteen timelines at intervals throughout this series cuts through the fog of battle to explain the situation from its over-optimistic beginning to the tragic conclusion.
The Battle of Arnhem was a major World War II battle at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden, the dramatic but unsuccessful campaign fought by the British Army in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. This was the first-time airborne troops were used by the Allies on such a scale, and the objective was a series of nine bridges that might have provided an Allied invasion route into Germany. Airborne and Land Forces successfully liberated Eindhoven and Nijmegen but were thwarted by the Nazis at the Battle of Arnhem, in their efforts to secure the last bridge over the River Rhine. Only a small British force was able to reach the Arnhem Road Bridge but was overwhelmed by Nazi defenders and, after nine days of fighting, the shattered remains of the Division were withdrawn. The British 1st Airborne Division lost most of its strength and didn’t see combat again. What is less well known in this famous saga, however, is the vital contribution of hundreds of Irish soldiers from a host of backgrounds, with a mixture of experience and range of ranks. Men from the north of Ireland and men from the south gave their all to this Allied campaign, and in A Bloody Week, their dramatic story is finally being told.
Operation Market Garden was Major Digby Tatham Warter’s first action. As the OC of ‘A’ Company, 2 Para, he led the advance to the Arnhem road bridge, brushing aside German resistance to reach the objective. Over the course of the next four days, Digby - a well-known eccentric - enhanced his reputation further by displaying solid leadership and a fearlessness that left everyone who witnesses it in awe. Picking up an umbrella and bowler hat from one of the houses, Tatham Warter strolled around the perimeter oblivious to shot and shell, instilling confidence in his men and inspiring them to battle on in the face of overwhelming odds. Wounded and captured at the battle’s end, Digby escaped and linked up with the Dutch Resistance. For weeks he strutted around the area disguised as a deaf and dumb Dutchman to fool the Germans. He collected over hundred paratroopers (‘evaders’) and forged a plan to lead them through enemy lines to safety. His post-war years are just as exciting. This is his story.
Arnhem - it was the last major battle lost by the British Army, lost not by the men who fought there but by the overconfidence of generals, faulty planning and the failure of a relieving force given too great a task. If the operation of which Arnhem formed a part had been successful, the outcome of the war and the history of post-war Europe would have been greatly altered. Yet is it worth another book? I had fulfilled all my literary ambitions by researching and writing thirteen full-length books and was ready to retire from that laborious craft when Peter van Gorsel, head of Penguin's Dutch office, asked me to write a book on Arnhem for the fiftieth anniversary in 1994. It was the first time that my publishers had requested a book; all previous subjects had been my choice. I eventually agreed for several reasons. I had not previously researched and written about the British Army in the Second World War and had not previously done any work in Holland; so two fresh fields were opened up to me. I also felt that the fighting in and around Arnhem had still not been described in the detail that it merited.