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Author: Brian Best Publisher: Frontline Books ISBN: 1526772477 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 251
Book Description
A historical analysis of the courageous military acts denied the highest award from the British honours system. The Victoria Cross is the most exclusive and prestigious of all gallantry awards. In order to retain this exclusivity, the standard of courage, endeavor or sacrifice required for a recommendation to be accepted for the award of the VC must be of the highest possible order. This has meant that many extremely courageous acts have failed to be rewarded with the VC, even though they appear to be just as remarkable in the level of danger and daring as some of those which were accepted for the medal. The reason for this, is that the awarding of the VC, indeed even the acknowledgment from a commanding officer that an individual’s action merits submission to the selection board, is entirely subjective. What one general might consider to be of exceptional valor might be regarded by another senior officer as merely a soldier carrying out his duty. When Trooper Clement Roberts rode into the thick of battle in South Africa to rescue a young war reporter who had been thrown from his horse, little did he know that he was saving the life of Britain’s future wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Recommended for the VC, Roberts was eventually awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Similarly, following the airborne operation at Arnhem in the Second World War, Captain Michael Dauncey was recommended by three other officers for the award of the Victoria Cross. These appeals, however, were rejected. The reasons behind the failure to award Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Mayne, a member of 1st SAS Regiment, the VC, despite repeated calls for his actions to be recognized in such a manner, was the subject of an Early Day Motion put before the House of Commons as recently as June 2005. In this revealing and unique analysis of actions that did not result in the award of the VC, despite recommendations to this effect, Brian Best has highlighted the uneven decisions made throughout the decades and in campaigns around the globe, that led to some men becoming national heroes and others, equally courageous, being merely footnotes in history. Praise for Unrewarded Courage “There have been plenty of books about the Victoria Cross and the men who were awarded them, but this is the first, I think, about acts of bravery and valour that apparently did not merit the award. Absolutely brilliant.” —Books Monthly (UK)
Author: Brian Best Publisher: Frontline Books ISBN: 1526772477 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 251
Book Description
A historical analysis of the courageous military acts denied the highest award from the British honours system. The Victoria Cross is the most exclusive and prestigious of all gallantry awards. In order to retain this exclusivity, the standard of courage, endeavor or sacrifice required for a recommendation to be accepted for the award of the VC must be of the highest possible order. This has meant that many extremely courageous acts have failed to be rewarded with the VC, even though they appear to be just as remarkable in the level of danger and daring as some of those which were accepted for the medal. The reason for this, is that the awarding of the VC, indeed even the acknowledgment from a commanding officer that an individual’s action merits submission to the selection board, is entirely subjective. What one general might consider to be of exceptional valor might be regarded by another senior officer as merely a soldier carrying out his duty. When Trooper Clement Roberts rode into the thick of battle in South Africa to rescue a young war reporter who had been thrown from his horse, little did he know that he was saving the life of Britain’s future wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Recommended for the VC, Roberts was eventually awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Similarly, following the airborne operation at Arnhem in the Second World War, Captain Michael Dauncey was recommended by three other officers for the award of the Victoria Cross. These appeals, however, were rejected. The reasons behind the failure to award Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Mayne, a member of 1st SAS Regiment, the VC, despite repeated calls for his actions to be recognized in such a manner, was the subject of an Early Day Motion put before the House of Commons as recently as June 2005. In this revealing and unique analysis of actions that did not result in the award of the VC, despite recommendations to this effect, Brian Best has highlighted the uneven decisions made throughout the decades and in campaigns around the globe, that led to some men becoming national heroes and others, equally courageous, being merely footnotes in history. Praise for Unrewarded Courage “There have been plenty of books about the Victoria Cross and the men who were awarded them, but this is the first, I think, about acts of bravery and valour that apparently did not merit the award. Absolutely brilliant.” —Books Monthly (UK)
Author: William Ian Miller Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674041054 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 361
Book Description
Few of us spend much time thinking about courage, but we know it when we see it--or do we? Is it best displayed by marching into danger, making the charge, or by resisting, enduring without complaint? Is it physical or moral, or both? Is it fearless, or does it involve subduing fear? Abner Small, a Civil War soldier, was puzzled by what he called the "mystery of bravery"; to him, courage and cowardice seemed strangely divorced from character and will. It is this mystery, just as puzzling in our day, that William Ian Miller unravels in this engrossing meditation. Miller culls sources as varied as soldiers' memoirs, heroic and romantic literature, and philosophical discussions to get to the heart of courage--and to expose its role in generating the central anxieties of masculinity and manhood. He probes the link between courage and fear, and explores the connection between bravery and seemingly related states: rashness, stubbornness, madness, cruelty, fury; pride and fear of disgrace; and the authority and experience that minimize fear. By turns witty and moving, inquisitive and critical, his inquiry takes us from ancient Greece to medieval Europe, to the American Civil War, to the Great War and Vietnam, with sidetrips to the schoolyard, the bedroom, and the restaurant. Whether consulting Aristotle or private soldiers, Miller elicits consistently compelling insights into a condition as endlessly interesting as it is elusive.
Author: Charles Cyril Turner Publisher: ISBN: Category : World War, 1914-1918 Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
" ... This is not an attempt to write a complete history of the aerial war, or to record all the wonderful and brave deeds of our airmen. A book that would include all these would be valuable as a work of reference, but it would be essentially different from the aim of this small effort. A certain number of the incidents here related have been toldelsewhere, and in some cases there has been no need to go beyond the official reports. Some have been published for the first time, and to some I have been able to add hitherto unpublished details ..."--The Preface, page vi
Author: Larry D. Harwood Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1625644949 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 363
Book Description
In this book Larry Harwood situates and evaluates Bertrand Russell’s thought on religion within the context of Russell’s biography. His well-known animus toward religious belief is highlighted and maintained without neglecting his quieter and comparatively unknown quest for something religious. The book argues that while Russell’s critique of religious belief is not unlike that of other thinkers, his superlative prose, extraordinary skill with words, and candor gave him an advantage and audiences beyond competing secular thinkers. Harwood argues that among secularists few have been as vehemently critical of religious belief and believers as Russell, while even fewer have displayed his appetite for some religious truth. The author presses these two antipodes in Russell’s mind to provide a holistic picture of the life and thought of arguably the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. By the conclusion of this study, the reader has witnessed Russell as not only a petulant and abiding critic of religious belief, but also as a thinker who has “carried the burden of God.”
Author: Margaret Irwin Publisher: A&C Black ISBN: 1448205697 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 319
Book Description
This, unlike most of Margaret Irwin's books, is not an historical novel. It is a peep-show at recent times, so fantastically gay that this, our London, appears as the iridescent scene of a pantomime or holiday charade. What happened behind the door at which one had to knock four times? Many wildly incongruous happenings, but chiefly an attack on other doors, the 'everlasting doors' of Prince's Gate, Queen's Gate, Emperor's Gate, to make them open wide to the rash young adventurer Dicky who had once gatecrashed them, but was resolved to 'spurn Kensington, march on Mayfair,' and conquer both the New World and the Old. How Dicky fought his way to fortune, and how Celia fought hers to freedom from behind the Gates of Kensington, by knocking four times on Dicky's door, is told in this story, which dances along as irresponsibly as a soap bubble against its brilliantly realized background, shading from the raffish to the respectable. For all its laughter and absurd situations, it is marked with the humorous sympathy and integrity that have distinguished all Margaret Irwin's work.
Author: Oliver Warner Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 0850529417 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 254
Book Description
Horatio Nelson was a hero from the time when his dramatic initiative won the battle of St Vincent in 1797, while his last battle, at Trafalgar, reduced the enemy naval forces so thoroughly that they were no longer able to have any bearing on the outcome of the war. As well as being a brilliant study of those naval battles which played such an important role in Napoleon's defeat, it also makes a close study of the admiral's art which, during the last years of the eighteenth century, developed faster than at any time since the previous century and led to Britain's mastery of the seas for more than 100 years. The Seven Years War and the War of the American Revolution stimulated the development of new ideas and the experience gained from them, as well as the developments in ship design and signalling, and the perfection of drill, transformed naval methods. Nelson became a master of them all. This technical prowess, combined with a remarkable ability to lead his men and his genius for making decisive moves, 'the Nelson touch', made him the consummate master of naval warfare. Highly readable, concise and insightful, this new edition will prove a popular choice for those seeking an introduction to naval warfare in the age of sail
Author: Steve Crawshaw Publisher: Union Square & Co. ISBN: 1402783868 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 219
Book Description
Remarkable, mischievous, inspiring—the eighty-odd stories in Small Acts of Resistance bring hidden histories to life. The courage of the people in these stories is breathtaking. So, too, is the impact and imagination of their actions.These mostly little known stories—including those written from eyewitness experience of the events and situations described—reveal the role ordinary people have played in achieving extraordinary change. “In the real world, it will never happen,” the skeptics love to tell us. As this book so vividly shows, the skeptics have repeatedly been proven wrong.Stories in this include how:· Strollers, toilet paper, and illegal ketchup helped end forty years of one-party Communist rule· Dogs (and what they wore) helped protestors humiliate a murderous regime· Internet videos about cuddly animals infuriated a repressive government which tried—and failed—to ban the craze· Football crowds found ways of singing the national anthem so as to defy a junta of torturers, now in jail· Women successfully put pressure on warlords to end one of Africa’s bloodiest wars· The singing of old folksongs hastened the collapse of an empire sustained by tanksIf you think individuals are powerless to change the world, read this remarkable book and you’ll surely change your mind.
Author: Matt Davies Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134193319 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 313
Book Description
Presenting the background and history of the war in Aceh, Matt Davies investigates the domestic and regional implications, and common misunderstanding surrounding its various issues.
Author: Glen Duncan Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307958434 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 397
Book Description
When I change I change fast. The moon drags the whatever-it-is up from the earth and it goes through me with crazy wriggling impatience . . . I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled—then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power . . . A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops. The woman is a werewolf. The woman is Talulla Demetriou. She’s grieving for her werewolf lover, Jake, whose violent death has left her alone with her own sublime monstrousness. On the run, pursued by the hunters of WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena), she must find a place to give birth to Jake’s child in secret. The birth, under a full moon at a remote Alaska lodge, leaves Talulla ravaged, but with her infant son in her arms she believes the worst is over—until the windows crash in, and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . . What follows throws Talulla into a race against time to save both herself and her child as she faces down the new, psychotic leader of WOCOP, a cabal of blood-drinking religious fanatics, and (rumor has it) the oldest living vampire. Harnessing the same audacious imagination and dark humor, the same depths of horror and sympathy, the same full-tilt narrative energy with which he crafted his acclaimed novel The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan now gives us a heroine like no other, the definitive twenty-first-century female of the species. BONUS MATERIAL: This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Glen Duncan's By Blood We Live.