Trail of hope : the Anders Army, an odyssey across three continents
Davies, Norman, 1939-2015
Book
Following the conquest of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, hundreds of thousands of Polish families were torn from their homes and sent eastwards to the arctic wastes of Siberia. This book is all about the World War II. Following the conquest of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, hundreds of thousands of Polish families were torn from their homes and sent eastwards to the arctic wastes of Siberia. Prisoners of war, refugees, those regarded as 'social criminals' by Stalin's regime, and those rounded up by sheer chance were all sent 'to see the Great White Bear'. However, with Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa just two years later, Russia and the Allied powers found themselves on the same side once more. Turning to those that it had previously deemed 'undesirable', Russia sought to raise a Polish army from the men, women and children that it had imprisoned within its labour camps. In this remarkable work, renowned historian Professor Norman Davies draws from years of meticulous research to recount the compelling story of this unit, the Polish II Corps or 'Anders Army', and their exceptional journey from the Gulag of Siberia through Iran, the Middle East and North Africa to the battlefields of Italy to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with Allied forces. Complete with previously unpublished photographs and first-hand accounts from the men and women who lived through it, this is a unique visual and written record of one of the most fascinating episodes of World War II.
Main title:
Trail of hope : the Anders Army, an odyssey across three continents / Norman Davies.
Author:
Davies, Norman, 1939-, author
Imprint:
Oxford : Osprey Publishing, 2015.
Collation:
1 volume : illustrations ; 25 cm
Notes:
Formerly CIP. Uk
Contents:
IntroductionI. Origins of the Polish Army in the USSRII. RussiaIII. Central AsiaIV. Growth and Consolidation of the Anders ArmyV. Evacuation from the USSRVI. Iran, 1942-43VII. The Carpathian BrigadeVIII. Iraq, 1943IX. Who were the Andersowcy?X. Civilian Diaspora: Africa/India/Teheran Children/Mexico/NZXI. PalestineXII. `Anders Aliyah'XIII. General Sikorski's Last Mission, June-July 1943XIV. EgyptXV. The Italian Campaign: to Monte Cassino (May 1944)XVI. Wojtek the BearXVII. Battle of AnconaXVIII. War's End, 1945XIX. Britain: End of the TrailXX. Retrospect: Historiography, Films, Museum, Memoirs, Internet
ISBN:
9781472816030 (hbk)
Dewey class:
940.5412438940.5412
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
724077