Tag: Armies

Free Download Gabriele Esposito, "Armies of the Crusaders, 1096-1291: History, Organization, Weapons and Equipment"
English | ISBN: 1399067443 | 2024 | 176 pages | EPUB | 140 MB
The Crusades were among the most astonishing historical events that took place during the Middle Ages. After centuries of relative isolation following the fall of the Roman Empire, Western Europe looked again towards the Middle East in search of lands to conquer. Incited by the Church to believe that the Holy Land must be ‘liberated’ from its Muslim rulers (who had by then occupied it for centuries), and that to do so would bring spiritual salvation, many thousands from all over Christian Europe ‘took the cross’ and joined the Crusades. Led by some of the most illustrious personalities of the age, such as Richard the Lionheart and Frederick Barbarossa, they fought numerous campaigns and even founded new ‘Crusader states’, some of which lasted for almost two centuries.

Free Download Harry Oliver, "Bees Knees and Barmy Armies – Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day"
English | 2010 | pages: 256 | ISBN: 1843582546 | EPUB | 2,7 mb
Why do we call the best of something ‘the bees’ knees’? Where did the term ‘barmy army’ come from? Which ‘colours’ do we ‘nail to the mast’? How are we ever ‘dressed to the nines’? Why do we refer to New York as ‘The Big Apple’? There are hundreds of phrases that we use on a daily basis without having a clue about where most of them come from. This book is nothing short of a fascinating ride around the greatest language in the world. So stop getting up to skullduggery, take a pew and have a butcher’s at this little tome. Learn about your language in one fell swoop and make sure you never get caught red handed using words you don’t understand to bark up the wrong tree! This book really is the cat’s whiskers. Once you’ve read one entry, you’ll want to read them all!

Free Download Peter Abbott, Eugene Pinak, Oleksiy Rudenko, "Ukrainian Armies 1914-55"
English | 2004 | pages: 51 | ISBN: 1841766682 | PDF | 14,3 mb
There can be no region in Europe whose history has been more tortured than Ukraine. During the 20th century Austria, Poland, Russia, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania vied for power over parts of this vast and fragmented area; and its divided peoples rose time and again in vain attempts to win their independence. For the first time in the West, this book gives a succinct summary of all the different armed forces raised among the Ukrainians, and of their uniforms and insignia. These are illustrated in colour and in a selection of extremely rare photographs, dating fromWorld War I (1914-1918)to the aftermath of World War II (1939-1945), when Ukrainian guerrillas continued to defy the Soviet authorities until the mid-1950s.

Free Download Graham Turner, "Scottish Renaissance Armies 1513-1550"
English | 2008 | pages: 68 | ISBN: 184603325X | PDF | 25,8 mb
This book details the armies of what is known as "the Rough Wooing" – the most active period of Scottish warfare, which saw conflicts against both the English Tudor monarchs and notable internal struggles between the Stuart kings and their unruly lords in the Marches and highlands. Militarily, this covers an important transition period, which saw the change from medieval to Renaissance armies, with the spread of firearms and cannon, the involvement of various foreign mercenaries and tactics ranging from lightning cavalry raids to pitched battles and sieges, as well as early instances of the classic Highland Clan charge. The author analyzes these changes in the context of the ongoing conflict as well as examining the colorful costumes, armor and heraldry worn during the period, a diverse mix of late medieval, Elizabethan and Highland clothing and armor.

Free Download David Nicolle, Viacheslav Shpakovsky, Angus McBride, "Medieval Russian Armies 1250 – 1500"
English | 2002 | pages: 47 | ISBN: 1841762342 | PDF | 6,1 mb
After disastrous defeats at the hands of the Mongols in the 13th century, the Russian principalities became vassals of the Khans of the Golden Horde for more than 200 years; and at the same time the western princes faced the German crusaders of the Teutonic Order. Remarkably, Russia responded with a new surge of military vigour. Eventually, freedom from the ‘Mongol yoke’ coincided with a degree of unity around a powerful new state – Muscovy. This exciting chapter of history is illustrated with rare early paintings, photos, diagrams, and eight plates reconstructing the mixed influences of East and West in the appearance of Russian warriors.

Free Download Michael Solka, Darko Pavlovic, "German Armies 1870-71 (2): Prussia’s Allies"
English | 2005 | pages: 52 | ISBN: 1841767557 | PDF | 16,8 mb
Although the war of 1870-71 has gone down in history as the ‘Franco-Prussian War’, nearly half of the German troops sent to the frontier were from other German states – both the willing members of the North German Confederation and the southern states who were in some cases more hesitant about accepting Prussian domination. Some contingents had only one or two regiments – though these might be of high quality, like the ‘Black Brunswickers’; others provided whole army corps, like Bavaria and Saxony. This book lists and illustrates the organization and varied uniforms of all these allied contingents, most of which fought well when it came to the test of battle.

Free Download Ottoman Armies 1820-1914
by Esposito, Gabriele;Rava, Giuseppe;, Giuseppe Rava
English | 2023 | ISBN: 0313315167 | 50 pages | True PDF EPUB | 23.63 MB
The first general history in English of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Ordered to Die is based on newly available Turkish archival and official sources. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Ottoman Army performed astonishingly well in the field and managed to keep fighting until the end of the war, long after many other armies had quit the field. It fought a multi-front war against sophisticated and capable enemies, including Great Britain, France, and Russia. Erickson challenges conventional thinking about Ottoman war aims, Ottoman military effectiveness, and the influence of German assistance.