Major Cotterell at Arnhem

Major Cotterell at Arnhem PDF

Author: Jennie Gray

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2012-01-31

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 075248138X

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Conscripted into the British Army in 1940, talented journalist Anthony Cotterell was never going to make a natural soldier. The Army eventually realised that his abilities lay elsewhere and he was transferred to a new department of the War Office where he could do what he did best – write. He would become one of the Army's top journalists, eventually covering the D-Day landings and the Normandy campaign. Anthony managed to blag himself a place in the parachute drop at Arnhem in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. Captured, on 23 September he was one of a group of British prisoners wounded or killed when SS guards opened fire. Treated in a German dressing station with the other wounded, Anthony then vanished without trace, the only member of the party to do so. In Major Cotterell at Arnhem, Jennie Gray tells the story of Anthony's rise to journalistic fame in the Army, the Arnhem adventure, the SS war crime and the disappearance. She then recounts the dramatic and painful three-year search to find Anthony mounted by the War Crimes Group, the Search Bureau and the Netherlands War Crimes Commission, in tandem with the private search made by Anthony’s devoted brother, Geoffrey Cotterell. Best-selling author Geoffrey has kindly co-operated in in the writing of this book. Complemented by Anthony's own words, official War Crime Group documentation and the letters about the search that Geoffrey wrote almost daily to his mother, this is a poignant story of one man lost in the tumult of war.

'This is WAR!'

'This is WAR!' PDF

Author: Jennie Gray

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2013-08-05

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0750953020

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Anthony Cotterell wrote a unique form of war journalism – witty, sharp,engaging, and so vivid it was almost cinematic. As an official British Army journalist during the Second World War, he flew on bombing raids, sailed with merchant shipping convoys, crossed to France on D-Day, and took part in the Normandy Campaign. During this time he kept a diary, a hilarious and caustic record of his role in the war, a diary which abruptly ended after he vanished in mysterious circumstances after the battle of Arnhem bridge in 1944. Cotterell's diary and selected war journalism, illustrated with previously unpublished photographs, are presented together here to shed new light not only on the everyday life of the British Army in the Second World War but also on the role of the press during times of conflict. The quality of his writing is truly captivating and his account of the Normandy campaign is surely the nearest that a modern reader will ever get to experiencing what it was like to be in the thick of a Normandy tank battle.

Major Cotterell at Arnhem

Major Cotterell at Arnhem PDF

Author: Jennie Gray

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2012-01-31

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 075248138X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Conscripted into the British Army in 1940, talented journalist Anthony Cotterell was never going to make a natural soldier. The Army eventually realised that his abilities lay elsewhere and he was transferred to a new department of the War Office where he could do what he did best – write. He would become one of the Army's top journalists, eventually covering the D-Day landings and the Normandy campaign. Anthony managed to blag himself a place in the parachute drop at Arnhem in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. Captured, on 23 September he was one of a group of British prisoners wounded or killed when SS guards opened fire. Treated in a German dressing station with the other wounded, Anthony then vanished without trace, the only member of the party to do so. In Major Cotterell at Arnhem, Jennie Gray tells the story of Anthony's rise to journalistic fame in the Army, the Arnhem adventure, the SS war crime and the disappearance. She then recounts the dramatic and painful three-year search to find Anthony mounted by the War Crimes Group, the Search Bureau and the Netherlands War Crimes Commission, in tandem with the private search made by Anthony's devoted brother, Geoffrey Cotterell. Best-selling author Geoffrey has kindly co-operated in in the writing of this book. Complemented by Anthony's own words, official War Crime Group documentation and the letters about the search that Geoffrey wrote almost daily to his mother, this is a poignant story of one man lost in the tumult of war.

Arnhem

Arnhem PDF

Author: Ernest Watkins

Publisher:

Published: 2016-03-29

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13: 9781910375464

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This book comprises a two part report by Major Ernest Watkins, R.A., who participated with 1 Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. First published by the Army Bureau of Current Affairs in December of that year as part of its War series of pamphlets, it is among the earliest printed eyewitness accounts of the fighting at Arnhem, although circulation at the time was restricted to military personnel only. Watkins returned to the Dutch town in April 1945 after the Germans had been driven from the area and provided his impressions of the aftermath of the conflict in another ABCA article, 'Arnhem Revisited', published on June 23rd. This too has been included in the compilation. There is also a piece by Major Anthony Cotterell, written prior to the operation, that describes the frustrations of being constantly on standby only to be stood down again. Cotterell did not make it back. As for the outcome of the mission, to quote Watkins: "The operation itself was not a complete success because only two of the three river barriers were carried. But Arnhem has left in history a record which those who come after must strain every ounce of courage and endurance they possess even to equal." The text has been reset for this edition and a number of footnotes added, largely to help those who are unfamiliar with the less commonly recognised army acronyms and abbreviations.

This is WAR!?

This is WAR!? PDF

Author: Jennie Gray

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2013-08-05

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0750953020

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Anthony Cotterell wrote a unique form of war journalism – witty, sharp,engaging, and so vivid it was almost cinematic. As an official British Army journalist during the Second World War, he flew on bombing raids, sailed with merchant shipping convoys, crossed to France on D-Day, and took part in the Normandy Campaign. During this time he kept a diary, a hilarious and caustic record of his role in the war, a diary which abruptly ended after he vanished in mysterious circumstances after the battleof Arnhem bridge in 1944.Cotterell’s diary and selected war journalism, illustrated with previously unpublished photographs, are presented together here to shed new light not only on the everyday life of the British Army in the Second World War but also on the role of the pressduring times of conflict. The quality of his writing is truly captivating and his account of the Normandy campaign is surely the nearest that a modern reader will ever get to experiencing what it was like to be in the thick of a Normandy tank battle.

The Sting of the Scorpion

The Sting of the Scorpion PDF

Author: Mike Morgan

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2011-11-30

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0752480340

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The exclusive, authorised inside story of the tough LRDG raiders of the Second World War, drawn from the unpublished records of the famous force. The unit won unrivalled mastery of the North African desert in their wide-ranging and heavily armed trucks, earning grudging praise even from Rommel, the Desert Fox himself, for their skilful reconnaissance, punishing raids and powers of evasion.

The Armoured Campaign in Normandy

The Armoured Campaign in Normandy PDF

Author: Stephen Napier

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2015-07-01

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0750964731

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Beginning with the D-day landings, this is a brutally frank appraisal of the planned use and actual results of the deployment of armour by both German and Allied commanders in the major tank battles of the Normandy campaign including operations Epsom, Goodwood, Cobra and Totalize. The Armoured Campaign in Normandy is a critique of Montgomery's plans to seize territory and break out and describes how they failed in the face of German resistance. It details the poor planning and mistakes of British senior commanders and how the German Army's convoluted chain of command contributed to their own defeat; these were decisions taken which cost the lives of the tank crews of both sides ordered to carry them out. Official reports, war diaries, after action reports, letters, regimental histories, memoirs of generals and recollections of tank men are used to tell the inside story of the campaign from an armour point of view to give a different but detailed perspective of the Normandy campaign from the men who fought in it.

Cloak of Enemies

Cloak of Enemies PDF

Author: Tom Keene

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2012-02-29

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0752483757

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The Special Operations Executive (SOE), also known as 'Churchill's Secret Army' or the 'Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare', was born from Churchill's vision 'to set Europe ablaze'. It was formed to conduct espionage and sabotage in enemy-occupied territory as well as aid local resistance groups in their own irregular warfare. After D-Day, it played a crucial role in the liberation of Europe. However, Tom Keene's book reveals for the first time how close it came to never existing at all. Many saw SOE as a threat to the existence of MI5 and other intelligence agencies, and some in the armed forces refused to work with the new agency, fearing its broad remit and lack of experienced operatives... SOE, in turn, became ever more secretive, hiding detail's of their operations from anyone outside the agency. This backstabbing climate of rivalry, confusion and secrecy within the higher echelons of government not only nearly destroyed SOE, but also had tragic repercussions for the daring Commandos who took part in the legendary 'Cockleshell Raid'. Cloak of Enemies exposes the secret war in the shadows and backrooms of Whitehall during the Second World War and its far-reaching consequences.

Flights Into History

Flights Into History PDF

Author: Ian McLachlan

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2010-07-06

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0752495941

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In this compelling sequel to Final Flights, aviation archaeologist Ian McLachlan has reconstructed the dramatic last flights of Second World War airmen, including the first Fortress to fall in combat from the USAAF's 447th Bomber Group; the final flight of an intruder Mosquito pursuing a German night fighter; the courage of a Lancaster pilot responsible for six lives aboard a burning aircraft; the story of a Spitfire's last flight and its heroic Belgian pilot. Exciting stories are also recounted of those whose misdirected courage saw them serve under the swastika. In reconstructing long-forgotten wartime events, often from buried wreckage, eyewitness accounts and contemporary documentation, aviation archaeologists can bring recognition to the individual flyers involved and shed new light on the air war over Britain and Europe during the Second World War. Even the discovery of small fragments can be significant. They provide evidence or prompt new research, revealing stories that offer a uniquely human dimension and reveal the hopes, fears, aspirations and pleasures of the aircrew involved. Ian McLachlan and other aviation archaeologists have now done them justice.