The Straits of Dardanelles that separates Europe & Asia Anatolia were fortified in the 15th century with massive bronze bombards & history has proved that unwelcome ships have to run a formidable gauntlet. On 18 March 1915 a powerful fleet of British & French warships attempted to overwhelm the shore defences of the Dardanelles to allow minesweepers to clear the Straits. The attack failed at huge cost; three ships sunk & three more seriously damaged. By bringing together many threads of information including extracts from British intelligence sources that had previously determined that a naval attack alone would not succeed this definitive work examines the flaws of Winston Churchills strategy & identifies the inadequacies of pitting warships against shore fortifications. The Allied inability to control the Straits necessitated the disastrous Allied invasion of Gallipoli that cost the lives of some 250 000 men. From the 19th century the Ottoman army & Turkeys coastal defences relied entirely on the German firm of Krupp for guns. The author describes how this choice was a crucial element to the successful defence of the Dardanelles. Many of the fortifications on the Gallipoli peninsula & the Asian shore are still accessible. The Defence of the Dardanelles identifies those that can be visited many of which still have wrecked guns emplaced. ...

To mark the centenary of its foundation the British Security Service MI5 has opened its archives to an independent historian. The Defence of the Realm" the book which results is an unprecedented publication. It reveals the precise role of the Service in twentieth-century British history from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909 to root out the spies of the Kaiser up to its present role in countering Islamic terrorism. It describes the distinctive ethos of MI5 how the organization has been managed its relationship with the government where it has triumphed & where it has failed. In all of this no restriction has been placed on the judgements made by the author. The book also casts new light on many events & periods in British history showing for example that though well-placed sources MI5 was probably the pre-war department with the best understanding of Hitlers objectives & had a remarkable willingness to speak truth to power; how it was so astonishingly successful in turning German agents during the Second World War; & that it had much greater roles than has hitherto been realized during the end of the Empire & in responding to the recurrent fears of successive governments (both Conservative & Labour) & or Cold War Communist subversion. It has new information about the Profumo affair & its aftermath about the Magnificent Five & about a range of formerly unconfirmed Soviet contacts. It reveals that though MI5 had a file on Harold Wilson it did not plot against him & it describes what really happened during the failed IRA attack in Gibraltar in March 1988." ...

Gaius Valerius Verrens returns to Rome from the successful campaign against Boudicca in Britain. Now hailed a Hero of Rome Valerius is not the man he once was
- scarred both physically & emotionally by the battles he has fought his sister is mortally ill his father in self-imposed exile. & neither is Rome the same city as the one he left. The Emperor Nero grows increasingly paranoid. Those who seek power for themselves whisper darkly in the emperors ears. They speak of a new threat one found within the walls of Rome itself. A new religious sect the followers of Christus deny Neros divinity & are rumoured to be spreading sedition. Nero calls on his Hero of Rome to become a Defender of Rome to seek out this rebel sect to capture their leader a man known as Petrus. Failure would be to forfeit his life & the lives of twenty thousands Judaeans living in Rome. But as Valerius begins his search a quest which will take him to the edge of the empire he will discover that success may cost him nearly as much as failure.
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Following work recently brought into sharper focus by the Defence of Britain Project this is the first extensive overview of the military structures of the twentieth century combining both documentary & fieldwork research. The book presents details of all those elements of the landscape both urban & rural which have resulted from the need to defend against conflict
- actual or threatened. Defending Britain" explains both the form & purpose of structures such as anti-invasion defences airfields naval installations & barracks munitions dumps & firing ranges Cold War bunkers & radar sites factories & stores all of which are well illustrated. The final section provides the reader with a comprehensive gazetteer of surviving examples to visit throughout Britain."
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When a teenaged boy is discovered stabbed to death in the woods adjoining the local high school a wave of shock ripples through the suburban community of Newton outside of Boston. Assistant district attorney Andy Barber is used to dealing with murder & its after-effects but with his own son Jacob also a student at the school he too is anxious for a swift arrest & conviction. But as the kids appear to be stonewalling the cops & the investigation stalls evidence emerges that ties Jacob to the crime
- & suddenly Andy faces a very different challenge: preventing his son from being convicted of murder. Together with his wife Laurie the family closes ranks in the midst of an increasingly hostile community as Andy prepares for the trial of his life the one trial he cannot afford to lose. Especially when the emergence of his own dark family secrets threatens to undermine Jacobs defence. & as the drama reaches its climax Andy & Laurie have to face every parents toughest questions: how well do you really know your own child & how far would you go to save them?
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For two thousand years London has been at the heart of Britains development as a nation providing a focus for its political life. The military element is now usually visible only through the pageantry which attends royal occasions but this masks a more serious underlying intent. Frequently the target for both foreign invaders & domestic factions it has been required to defend itself against everything from seaborne raiders to aerial bombardment & the threat of nuclear war. At the same time the direction of military affairs has been centred on London along with the military infrastructure of barracks depots magazines dockyards & munitions factories. The evidence for much of this can be seen in the landscape from the mediaeval Tower of London & the underground nuclear citadels in the urban centre to the royal palaces moated sites airfields & anti-invasion defences in the suburbs & the green belt. This book describes the various elements of Londons military heritage & places them in their historical & social context. From the castles & strong-houses of the mediaeval & Tudor monarchs & statesmen to the pseudo-fortresses of the Victorian militia & rifle volunteers; the airfields of the anti-Zeppelin fighters of the Royal Flying Corps & the Battle of Britain bases of the RAF to the pillboxes of the defences against invasion in 1940 & the anti-nuclear defences of the Cold War & beyond. ...

The Rhine River represented the last natural defensive barrier for the Third Reich in the fall of 1944. Although Hitler had been reluctant to allow the construction of tactical defense lines in France the final defense of the Reich was another matter. As a result construction of a Rhine defense line began in September 1944. Steven J Zaloga examines the multiple phases of construction undertaken to strengthen the Westwall (Siegfried Line) to fortify many of the border villages & finally to prepare for the demolition of the Rhine bridges. Using detailed maps color artwork & expert analysis this book takes a detailed look at Germanys last line of defense. ...

Twenty years ago Kantar set about distilling his bridge wisdom into a trilogy of books for the intermediate player one each on Bidding Play & Defence. Each consisted of several hundred short tips & the author believes that any reader who absorbs even a fraction of them will improve his or her game by at least 25%. The tips in this book have been completely revised & updated by the author in the light of modern bidding & a number of new tips have been added. ...

The prevailing image of European Jews during the Holocaust is one of helpless victims but in fact many Jews struggled against the terrors of the Third Reich. In Defiance Nechama Tec offers a riveting history of one such group a forest community in western Belorussia that would number more than 1 200 Jews by 1944-the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. Tec reveals that this extraordinary community included both men & women some with weapons but mostly unarmed ranging from infants to the elderly. She reconstructs for the first time the amazing details of how these partisans & their families-hungry exposed to the harsh winter weather-managed not only to survive but to offer protection to all Jewish fugitives who could find their way to them. Arguing that this success would have been unthinkable without the vision of one man Tec offers penetrating insight into the group's commander Tuvia Bielski. Tec brings to light the untold story of Bielski's struggle as a partisan who lost his parents wife & two brothers to the Nazis yet never wavered in his conviction that it was more important to save one Jew than to kill twenty Germans. She shows how under Bielski's guidance the partisans smuggled Jews out of heavily guarded ghettos scouted the roads for fugitives & led retaliatory raids against Belorussian peasants who collaborated with the Nazis. Herself a Holocaust survivor Nechama Tec here draws on wide-ranging research & never before published interviews with surviving partisans-including Tuvia Bielski himself-to reconstruct here the poignant & unforgettable story of those who chose to fight. The saga of the Bielski partisans is one of the most elevating & inspiring stories in the chronicle of death & despair that is the Holocaust... Defiance is an accomplished & startling work of Holocaust documentation." --Los Angeles Times " Powerful & meticulous. This story is like almost no other." --Leon Wieseltier The New Republic" ...

The Blenheim IF flew some of Fighter Command's early offensive operations & the type soon proved vulnerable when pitted against single-seat fighters. However for much of 1940 the Blenheim fighter squadrons provided the RAF's main long-range convoy escort & nightfighter capability. In the mid-1930s in an attempt to capitalise on its expertise in power-operated gun turrets the Boulton Paul Company developed the Defiant a single-engined fighter in which all the armament was concentrated in the turret behind the pilot. Intended as a 'bomber destroyer' the Defiant had its combat debut over Dunkirk & initially achieved some considerable success. A number of American-built aircraft called Douglas DB-7 light bombers (named Havoc by the RAF) were fitted with radar for nightfighter duties & others successfully replaced the Blenheim as night intruders. A total of 11 pilots claimed five or more victories when flying these three types to become aces whilst no fewer than 33 who became aces claimed at least part of their scores when flying the Blenheim Defiant or Havoc. ...