Author(s): Mike Osborne
Leicestershire and Rutland have seen the movement of armies from Roman times to the Civil War with the decisive battles of Bosworth and Naseby and many others. The Victorians saw the development of both the regular and volunteer forces, which would later fight in two world wars. The development of military flight was a twentieth-century theme, witnessing defence against Zeppelins in the First World War; jet engines and US airborne forces in the Second World War; and elements of Britain’s nuclear deterrent during the Cold War.
During the Second World War, the eavesdroppers of the ‘Y’ Service at Beaumanor Hall provided much of the raw material for Bletchley Park’s codebreakers. Evidence of this activity is visible in the landscape: castles of earthwork, stone or brick; barracks and volunteer drill halls; airfields, missile sites and munitions factories; pillboxes, observer corps posts and bunkers.
Defending Leicestershire and Rutland places sites and figures such as William the Conqueror, Richard III and Cromwell into their social, political, historical and military contexts.
BOOK ISBN | 9781781555781 |
FORMAT | 234 x 156 mm |
BINDING | Paperback |
PAGES | 208 pages |
PUBLICATION DATE | 15 July 2017 |
TERRITORY | World |
ILLUSTRATIONS | 119 black-and-white illustrations and photographs |