The Junior Officers' Reading Club PDF Download

Author: Patrick Hennessey
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101460059
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 242

View

Book Description
Hailed as a classic of war writing in the U.K., The Junior Officers' Reading Club is a revelatory first-hand account of a young enlistee's profound coming of age. Attempting to stave off the tedium and pressures of army life in the Iraqi desert by losing themselves in the dusty paperbacks on the transit-camp bookshelves, Hennessey and a handful of his pals from military academy form the Junior Officers' Reading Club. By the time he reaches Afghanistan and the rest of the club are scattered across the Middle East, they are no longer cheerfully overconfident young recruits, hungering for action and glory. Hennessey captures how boys grow into men amid the frenetic, sometimes exhilarating violence, frequent boredom, and almost overwhelming responsibilities that frame a soldier's experience and the way we fight today. Watch a Video

Author: Patrick Hennessey
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 9780241951279
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
When Patrick Hennessey returned home from Afghanistan, battle-worn, exhilarated, unsure if he'd see anything like it in his life again, he left behind him bands of friendship forged in the heat of the moment between living and dying. The comrades he left furthest behind were Qiam, Syed and Majhib.

Author: John R. Milam
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807833304
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

View

Book Description
A combat veteran of the Vietnam War draws on oral histories, after-action reports, diaries, letters, and other archival sources to debunk the view that the junior officers who served in Vietnam were poorly trained, unmotivated soldiers typified by Lt. William Calley of My Lai infamy.

Author: John Lewis-Stempel
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN:
Category : Command of troops
Languages : en
Pages : 396

View

Book Description
"Often fresh out of school, still with their recent Latin lessons fresh in their minds, many junior officers in the First World War went straight from being prefects to having to lead their men in a charge over the top, knowing that the German machine guns would be trained on the man at the front, knowing that so many of their predecessors had fallen before them. In this remarkable book, John Lewis-Stempel focuses on the oft-overlooked men who were crucial to Britain's war effort, the men who had to persuade the ordinary Tommy to follow them into action. Basing his account on a huge range of first person accounts, including poignant letters and diaries sent home or back to their school, Lewis-Stempel reveals what motivated these men who faced an average life expectancy of just six weeks once they reached the frontline. He shows the life they led in the trenches, how they sought to keep up the spirits of their men, and how they tried to behave with honour in a world where their codes of conduct were being quite literally shot to pieces."--Publisher's description.

Author: Mike Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 178738036X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

View

Book Description
"Why are we willing to die for our countries? How can ideology persuade someone to blow themselves up? When we go to war, morality, religion and ideology often take the blame. But Mike Martin boldly argues that the opposite is true: rather than driving violence, these things help to reduce it. While we resort to ideas and values to justify or interpret warfare, something else is really propelling us towards conflict: our subconscious desires, shaped by millions of years of evolution.

Author: Frank Ledwidge
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300229097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

View

Book Description
This new edition of Frank Ledwidge’s eye-opening analysis of British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan unpicks the causes and enormous costs of military failure. Updated throughout, and with fresh chapters assessing and enumerating the overall military performance since 2011—including Libya, ISIS, and the Chilcot findings—Ledwidge shows how lessons continue to go unlearned. “A brave and important book; essential reading for anyone wanting insights into the dysfunction within the British military today, and the consequences this has on the lives of innocent civilians caught up in war.”—Times Literary Supplement

Author: Jack Fairweather
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338686941
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

View

Book Description
With exclusive access to previously hidden diaries, family and camp survivor accounts, and recently declassified files, critically acclaimed and award-winning journalist Jack Fairweather brilliantly portrays the remarkable man who volunteered to face the unknown in the name of truth and country. This extraordinary and eye-opening account of the Holocaust invites us all to bear witness. Occupied Warsaw, Summer 1940: Witold Pilecki, a Polish underground operative, accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands interned at a new concentration camp, report on Nazi crimes, raise a secret army, and stage an uprising. The name of the camp -- Auschwitz. Over the next two and half years, and under the cruelest of conditions, Pilecki's underground sabotaged facilities, assassinated Nazi officers, and gathered evidence of terrifying abuse and mass murder. But as he pieced together the horrifying Nazi plans to exterminate Europe's Jews, Pilecki realized he would have to risk his men, his life, and his family to warn the West before all was lost. To do so meant attempting the impossible -- but first he would have to escape from Auschwitz itself...

Author: Paul Nanson
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473576857
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 109

View

Book Description
Transform your mindset and your life with these 10 simple lessons. THE INCREDIBLE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Inspirational . . . Sandhurst helped me to discover my potential. Now discover yours.' TIM PEAKE, ESA astronaut ___________ Winston Churchill never surrendered. Prince Harry has fought for mental health around the world. Tobias Ellwood risked his life to save others during the Westminster terrorist attack. Tim Peake became Britain's first astronaut on the International Space Station. Nicola Wetherill led the first all-female expedition across the Antarctic ice. Ed Withey even organized his wedding with military precision. The one thing all of these individuals have in common? Their world-class Sandhurst training. Stand Up Straight applies 10 simple but transformative lessons that every officer is taught during their time at the world-famous military academy. Modern and counter-intuitive, with lessons ranging from making your bed and ironing your shirt to achieving better discipline, emotional intelligence, resilience and fast decision-making under pressure, the book draws on first-hand battlefield experience as well as the leadership lessons taught at Sandhurst. The result is an inspiring and timeless book of practical advice and military wisdom that will help every reader raise their game and face life's everyday battles with confidence and calm. ___________ 'Brilliant, practical advice. Can help transform your mindset and life.' OLLIE OLLERTON ''Military Mindfulness' . . . can help us all reach our potential.' TELEGRAPH 'I loved this book.' CHRIS EVANS 'Brilliant military rules that can change your life . . . Sandhurst's precious life lessons, self-discipline, teamwork, even standing up straight, can make life run smoother, better, nobler, longer.' DAILY MAIL 'Follow the General's orders and fold your socks. You'll be a better person for it.' THE TIMES 'These military men are on to something. . . . increases your chances of tackling the to-do list with a sense of calm if not ease.' INDEPENDENT 'It's a fantastic read on how to sort yourself out.' PIERS MORGAN 'It's a fascinating book, full of good old-fashioned common sense . . . it's a game-raiser.' THIS ENGLAND

Author: David Axe
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 9781570036606
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140

View

Book Description
Army 101 is a war correspondent's critical look at the dual lives of ROTC student-cadets. Axe spent a year interviewing and following the lives of student-cadets and trainers with the USC Gamecock Battalion ("undergrads with guns," as he labels them) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a representative university ROTC program -- one of 270 currently in existence.

Author: Russell Lewis
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448131693
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

View

Book Description
In 2008 Major Russell Lewis commanded a company of two hundred soldiers from the British Army's legendary Parachute Regiment on a six-month tour in the most dangerous part of Afghanistan. Company Commander is his story, a riveting first-person account of incredible bravery, telling what it is like to have 200 Paras depending on you constantly, to make decisions which can and do cost lives, to see men under your command killed and injured and being under the most intense pressure imaginable every minute of every day for six long months. Company Commander is a true leader's story – a unique and vivid mix of front-line battles and strategic decision making and an intensely personal and inspiring account of a tour in the most perilous theatre of war on the planet.