The History Network

Returning Home: Irish Ex-Servicemen After the Second World War

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:23:30 +0000

Returning Home: Irish Ex-Servicemen After the Second World War (Paperback)

By (author) Bernard Kelly

Returning Home investigates one of the least well known periods in Irish history the story of the estimated 12,000 Irish veterans who returned to Ireland after the end of the Second World War. They came back to a country in which jobs were scarce, commemoration was a divisive issue and the public had little understanding of the veteran s experiences. Even worse, an estimated 5,000 deserters from the Irish army faced potentially severe punishment when they returned home. Based on interviews with surviving veterans and drawing on a wide array of archival sources, Returning Home explores how Irish ex-servicemen coped with the difficult task of re – integration into Irish civilian society. It details their impact on government policy, their economic difficulties, struggles with psychological problems, the vexed issue of Remembrance and the treatment of deserters from the Irish forces. Returning Home makes an important contribution to how we view Ireland s connection to the Second World War and Irish participation in it. Bernard Kelly is from Galway and is an Irish and British military historian, who has an MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD from NUI Galway. He is currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
List Price:	£16.99 GBP
New From:	£16.99 In Stock

Irish Volunteers in the Second World War

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:30:41 +0000

John Kelly, who had left rural County Kilkenny in 1935 to join the British army, found himself sitting in a bar in newly-liberated Tunis is 1943, having a drink with some American conscript soldiers. Upon hearing his accent, the Americans said ‘Say, you guys are neutral, you’re not in the war at all!’ John explained he was a pre-war volunteer, causing the Americans to exclaim ‘Are you god damn mad or something?’ It was a fair question. Why did John, and tens of thousands of other Irish men and women, voluntarily leave the safety of neutral Ireland and risk death or injury to fight in the Second World War?

This episode was written by

Bernard is a Postdoctoral research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, whose PhD degree examined Irish veterans of the British forces. His first book Returning Home: Irish ex-servicemen after the Second World War is published by Irish Academic Press.

Irish Volunteers in the Second World War

Elite Units of the Hellenistic Era

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:44:10 +0000

Jasper, Murray and Lindsay are joined by Michael Park to look at Elite units of the Hellenistic Era, the discussion revolves round what is elite and how do you define elite, which proved more troublesome that one may expect.

Dont forget if you want more information on the magazine you can find their website at www.ancient-warfare.com

Elite Units of the Hellenistic Era

1209 The Lancaster Bomber

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:21:34 +0000

The Lancaster Bomber was one of the finest heavy bombers in the service of any nation during the second world war. It was the plane which the dambusters flew with the bouncing bomb, the plane which bombed the Tirpitz and the plane which night after night pounded Germany, delivering two-thirds of all the bombs dropped.

The Lancaster Bomber

Securing Seas and Shores: Fleets of the Roman Empire

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:00:02 +0000

In the usual wide ranging discussion Jasper, Michael, Lindsay and special guest Jesse Obert look at the Roman Navy. Questioning the received view of the fleets being used in anti piracy duties, and were the fleets even standing forces or more of an adhoc thing brought together when needs must?

And the fleets what kind of shipping did they comprise of, and how did they make war?

Fleets of the Roman empire

Season 09

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:08:37 +0000

Download the complete ninth season.

We’ve rerecorded, and chaptered them into one file, making it easier to listen to a whole season when on the go!

Chapters:

The Battle of Ligny
Baden Powell & Mafeking
The Aircraft Carrier
Medieval Warfare
The Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Midway
Howitzer
Clausewitz
Carthage
Genghis Khan & the Mongols
The Battle of Quebec, 1759

Dur: 3hrs 05min File: AAC

1208 The Battle of Vimy Ridge

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:06:21 +0000

Vimy ridge is an escarpment in France close to the Belgium border, gently rising on one side and somewhat steeper on the reverse, it has clear views for miles around from its crest. During the first months of the first world war it was seized by the Germans, who for nearly three years, tenaciously held on it to it against French assaults. At the end of 1916 the Canadians took responsibility for that part of the front line…

The Battle of Vimy Ridge

1207 VTOL

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:46:30 +0000

VTOL stands for Vertical Take off and Landing. While helicopters clearly fit a description of vertical take off and landing, the terms VTOL V/STOL STOVL and the like are reserved for aircraft who also fly conventionally using forward thrust to create the necessary lift to remain airbourne.

Militarily there is always a balancing act between speed, range and payload, and while specialist military helicopters exist such as the Apache for example, typically a helicopter’s speed, range and payload capacity is never going to match that of a fighter or a specially designed aircraft.

So military aircraft designers always had in the back of their minds to produce a fighter aircraft capable of delivering maximum speed, payload and/or weapons load, and range while maintaining the versatility of the helicopter’s take off and landing credentials.

VTOL

1206 The Fires of Languedoc: The Cathar Crusade

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:53:06 +0000

In 1208, Pope Innocent III called forth a crusade to destroy enemies of the Catholic Church. This crusade was not to fight Muslim armies in the Middle East or Spain, but rather to fight fellow Christians in southern France. Soldiers from northern France, under the leadership of the French crown, marched south to destroy the Cathar heresy infesting the land. The Cathars or Albigensians turned their backs to the Church in Rome and instead chose to believe in dualism—two Gods, one good and the other evil. Catharism spread throughout the Languedoc region and the Catholic Church grew fearful of further expansion. Innocent III offered the southern lands to the French noblemen who took up the cross and stamped out Catharism. Fear over the loss of Church influence over a newly urbanized community led the pope to call for a crusade against southern France and the destruction of a community. Plagued by war for twenty years, southern France suffered greatly and power shifted forever to the north, where the city of Paris became the symbol for all of France. Tens of thousands of Christians died because of the Cathar Crusade with entire cities razed until the French crown secured its control over the rebellious lands and the Cathar armies destroyed.

This episode was written by listener Michael Gabbe-Gross. Michael is a graduate student of history at the California State University, Sacramento with an emphasis in military history. He is in the final stages of completing his thesis on the “Phoenix Program,” a counterinsurgency operation during the Vietnam War.

The Fires of Languedoc: The Cathar Crusade

The Assyrians At War

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:00:03 +0000

In this episode we look at the Assyrians, 930BC to 630BC, their empire stretched from Egypt to Babylon, it was the first great iron age empire with resources to fund a standing army equipped with iron weapons. They excelled at siege warfare, something very difficult to successfully achieve in the ancient world. We delve into all these aspects plus look at the putting down of internal dissent, propaganda, chariots and the use of specialised infantry.

Jasper, Lindsay and Michael are joined by Mark Schwartz.

The Assyrians At War