4th Hussar

This vivid WWII memoir recounts the exploits of a 4th Queen’s Own Hussar through the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatre of combat. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Peter Crichton was quick to enlist and escape his journalistic job in London. The adventuresome young man transferred to the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars and soon found himself fighting a desperate and ill-fated rear-guard action in the mountains of Northern Greece. One of the few in his Regiment to be evacuated, Crichton went on to see combat in the battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein. But he also found time to play polo and fall in love. Crichton was later deployed to Yugoslavia where he was attached to Tito’s partisans, a guerilla resistance movement that fought their way North, island by island, hurrying the Germans’ withdrawal. After four and a half years’ absence, he returned to London on VE Day, 1945, grateful to be alive.

In his foreword to this book, Winston Churchill rightly calls it a ‘plain yet careful record of the fortunes and services of the 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars in the Great War (which) deserves and will repay attentive study from those to whom the history of the regiments of the British Army is of vivid interest'. The 4th Queen’s Own were one of the Army’s elite cavalry regiments which fulfilled their traditional role in the open warfare which characterised the campaigns in 1914 and 1918 at the beginning and end of the Great War. In between, of course, came the static horrors of trench warfare, when, as Churchill tactfully says: ‘the fond hopes which cavalry Generals and cavalry soldiers cherished of a great eruption of cavalry through the German lines as the culmination of a decisive battle never materialised’. Nevertheless, the 4th took part in the retreat from Mons in 1914; the first and second battle of Ypres - in which they experienced the first German poison gas attack - and the battles of Loos, the Somme and Arras. In 1918 they saw action in both the great German spring offensives and the victorious allied counter-attacks that summer and autumn. Illustrated with maps, photographs and appendices containing rolls of honour, decorations, lists of officers etc. this is a complete unit history for those interested in cavalry regiments in the Great War.

John Strawson describes joining the 4th Hussars in the Middle East in 1942 and serving with them until amalgamation with the 9th Hussars in 1958 as The Queen s Royal Irish Hussars. He commanded the Regiment during the Borneo campaign and was Colonel from 1975 to 1985. His account of war in Italy and of operations in Malaya and Borneo are of special interest.This light-hearted memoir reveals devotion to his family, friends, Regiment and to horses. His adventures with horses and hounds, whipping-in to the legendary Loopy Kennard, and during his time as Master of the Staff College Draghounds are particularly diverting. Addiction to reading and writing led to authorship of twelve military history books.Military appointments included command of a brigade, two years at SHAPE and finally Chief of Staff, UK Land Forces. He then describes working as Westland Aircraft s Military Adviser, mainly in the Middle East and gives a vivid account of life in Cairo in the latter 1970s.In sum General Strawson shows how enjoyable, how varied, sometimes how demanding a soldier s life can be, above all how rewarding, made so by the priceless quality of the regimental system and the comrades with whom he served."

As a young man Winston Churchill set out to become a hero, to make a name for himself in the public eye as a soldier and so make possible a life of politics and statesmanship. There were many chances to fail and many close calls in the face of sword, spear and bullet along the way. Yet Churchill survived and succeeded – an early measure of his courage and stubborn will that the world would come to know so well in the Second World War. This is the first full-length, fully-researched biography of Churchill's colourful military career. Using an unrivalled range of sources, and with previously unpublished photographs, and detailed maps by Sir Martin Gilbert, it brings to life Churchill's motives, abilities, experiences, successes and failures, and his unswerving sense of destiny as an officer in the British Army. The result is a story to echo the man himself – rich in action, courage, charismatic self-belief, patriotism and humour. Making extensive use of the contemporary accounts of Churchill and his fellow soldiers and archival documents from three continents, illustrated with many maps and previously unpublished photographs, Douglas S. Russell vividly brings to life the military career of the vigorous young officer of hussars who later became the greatest Briton of the twentieth century. From Sandhurst to the mountainous North-West Frontier of India, to the charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, from the South African veldt to the deadly trench warfare of the Great War, the author – whom Sir Martin Gilbert calls 'a keen portraitist' – tells the gripping story of Churchill's army life with careful attention to historical detail and all the drama that the real life adventures of his subject deserve.