Larkhill S Wartime Locators

Artillery survey suffered during the pacifist inter-war period but the war in North Africa highlighted its importance. By the end of 1942 ten major survey units had been formed. Nine were conventional serving in all the main theatres, including the Far East. They played a key part in victories such as El Alamein, Anzio, Caen and Imphal, with their flash-spotting, sound-ranging and surveying of gun lines. A tenth regiment was secretly involved tracing the flight of Hitler's V1 and V2 rockets in order to locate their launch bases. These 'soldier-scientists' were all trained at the School of Survey, Larkhill, on Salisbury Plain. Their work took them to the front line and a considerable number were casualties or became POWs. This is the story of the contribution of these 4,000 men who made up the Survey Regiments. It tells of the heroes, such as Robert (Tug) Wilson of the SBS and the skilful men whose actions under the most difficult and dangerous conditions have received little acknowledgement until now.

"Artillery survey suffered during the pacifist inter-war period but the war in North Africa highlighted its importance. By the end of 1942 ten major survey units had been formed. Nine were conventional serving in all the main theatres, including the Far East. They played a key part in victories such as El Alamein, Anzio, Caen and Imphal, with their flash-spotting, sound-ranging and surveying of gun lines. A tenth regiment was secretly involved tracing the flight of Hitlers V1 and V2 rockets in order to locate their launch bases. These ‘soldier-scientists were all trained at the School of Survey, Larkhill, on Salisbury Plain. Their work took them to the front line and a considerable number were casualties or became POWs. This is the story of the contribution of these 4,000 men who made up the Survey Regiments. It tells of the heroes, such as Robert (Tug) Wilson of the SBS and the skilful men whose actions under the most difficult and dangerous conditions have received little acknowledgement until now."

The question of how ordinary people related to totalitarian regimes is still far from being answered. The tension between repression and consensus makes analysis difficult; where one ends and the other begins is never easy to determine. In the case of fascist Italy, recent scholarship has tended to tilt the balance in favour of popular consensus for the regime, identifying in the novel ideological and cultural aspects of Mussolini's rule a 'political religion' which bound the population to the fascist leader. The Party and the People presents a different picture. While not underestimating the force of ideological factors, Paul Corner argues that 'real existing Fascism', as lived by a large part of the population, was in fact an increasingly negative experience and reflected few of those colourful and attractive features of fascist propaganda which have induced more favourable interpretations of the regime. Distinguishing clearly between the fascist project and its realisation, Corner examines the ways in which the fascist party asserted itself at the local level in the widely-differing areas of Italy, at its corruption and malfunctioning, and at the mounting wave of popular resentment against it during the course of the 1930s - resentment and hostility which, in effect, signalled the failure of the project. The Party and the People, based largely on unpublished archival material, concludes by suggesting that the abuse of power by fascists mirrors much wider problems in Italy related to the relationship between the public and the private and to the modes of utilisation of power, both in the past and in the present.

The official account of the Royal Artillery's activities in the Normandy campaign, this volume breaks down the historic achievements of the Regiment, integrating newly published research with a detailed account of their activities, logistics and equipment in the offensive. Gunners in Normandy includes mention of every regiment that served, a Roll of Honour, and a list of the dead by unit. This book presents the definitive record of events, assembled from interviews with veterans, papers and documents from the Firepower Archives, terrain studies, personal memoirs, war diaries and other official documents. Serious students of the battle for Normandy should find this essential reading, with comprehensive coverage of the role of the Royal Artillery, and much material not published anywhere else, including orders of battle, the details of targets engaged by the guns and their effectiveness.

For all those fans who wonder where their favorite movies were filmed or what it would be like to visit the sites, this book is the ultimate resource. It features information on blockbuster, cult, and art house favorites from Saturday Night Fever to Men in Black, from Belle du Jour to Ben Hur. The entries for individual films include brief descriptions of key scenes shot at the location, travel details, photographs, film stills, behind-the-scenes information, and insights as to what these places are really like. Also included are full-color features on major sites of special interest—Vertigo’s San Francisco, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and a world Star Wars tour, among others—along with more obscure locations that have become sought-after travel destinations simply because of their connection to the movies.