The Royal British Legion
90 Years of Heroes
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The Royal British Legion
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Narrated by:
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Keeley Hawes
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Bernard Cribbins
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Nicky Henson
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Sean Barrett
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Philip Franks
About this listen
The Royal British Legion was founded in 1921. It is now the country’s leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces and their dependants. The RBL is behind the annual Poppy Appeal, the highest profile charity appeal in Britain.
This superbe book has the full support of the Royal British Legion and will tell the complete story of its history through exclusive access to its archives, thus providing a celebratory, as well informative, tribute to their work over the past 90 years. It will be the definitive history of this much-loved organisation, charting its work with soldiers and ex-servicemen through the stories of its heroes, famous as well as unknown, during the highest-profile military campaigns of the past 90 years. The book will be divided into nine chapters, each representing one decade in the RBL’s existence. Each chapter will celebrate one hero per year; 1921, 1922, 1923, etc. giving an account of that particular person, and what they achieved. Within each chapter will be special spreads that emphasise also the social history of the evolution of the RBL as a charity, supported with iconic imagery and text. Each one of the heroes, from 1921 right through to 2011, has been personally chosen by decorated royal marine, and RBL ambassador, Lance Corporal Matt Croucher GC. Men such as Major Robert Henry Cain VC (1909-1974), who destroyed six tanks during Operation ‘Market Garden’ at Arnhem in 1944 and was one of the only officers from his battalion to escape the German encirclement of the British 1st Airborne Division.
The book will be published in late autumn to coincide with the 2011 Poppy Appeal, which will be the biggest in the Legion’s history, with events running nationwide, TV advertising, celebrity involvement and a high-profile marketing campaign. Matt Croucher will be involved in the campaign as an ambassador for the RBL. For any serving member of the armed forces, or those retired from service, or members of the public who are keen to know about this beloved organisation; this will be a fascinating and valued purchase, knowing that royalties will be going to the charity themselves.
©2011 Matt Croucher (P)2011 Harper CollinsListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
‘This book is a fitting tribute to recognise . . . the Royal British Legion. Long may the Legion stand shoulder to shoulder with all who serve within our Armed Forces.' – Rt Hon David Cameron, Prime Minister
‘A remarkable organisation; as valued and needed today as when it was founded’ – Jeremy Clarkson
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Details, details, details
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-11-21
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Bloody Okinawa
- The Last Great Battle of World War II
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 88
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Technical
- By J.Brock on 07-16-21
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Normandy '44
- D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 24 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 543
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 484
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 479
D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed the Allied landing, have become the defining episode of World War II in the west - the object of books, films, television series, and documentaries. Yet as familiar as it is, as James Holland makes clear in his definitive history, many parts of the OVERLORD campaign, as it was known, are still shrouded in myth and assumed knowledge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent account of Normandy but be weary...
- By S. H. Moore on 02-22-20
By: James Holland
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Blitzkrieg
- From the Ground Up
- By: Niklas Zetterling
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
The successes of the German Blitzkrieg in 1939-41 were as surprising as they were swift. Allied decision-makers wanted to discover the secret to German success quickly, even though only partial, incomplete information was available to them. The false conclusions drawn became myths about the Blitzkrieg that have lingered for decades.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An interesting perspective
- By OCreviewer on 09-11-19
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South Pacific Cauldron
- World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds
- By: Alan Rems
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Unlike most other World War II accounts, this work covers the South Pacific operations in detail. The audiobook includes many now-forgotten operations that deserve to be well remembered. Significantly, the official Australian history of World War II correctly observed that Australia's part in the Pacific war is barely mentioned in American histories. This volume finally brings the major Australian contribution to the fore.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A little dry but informative
- By Damien on 02-20-15
By: Alan Rems
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Sicily '43
- The First Assault on Fortress Europe
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: Al Murray
- Length: 19 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 185
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 163
On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion 11 months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soil. Operation HUSKY, as it was known, was enormously complex, involving dramatic battles on land, in the air, and at sea. Yet, despite its paramount importance to ultimate Allied victory, and its drama, very little has been written about the 38-day Battle for Sicily.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great writing, great narration, interesting topic
- By ItalCali on 08-02-21
By: James Holland
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Project 9: The Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II
- American Military Experience, Book 1
- By: Dennis R. Okerstrom
- Narrated by: Charles Henderson Norman
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story5 out of 5 stars 5
Project 9: The Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II is a thoroughly researched narrative of the Allied joint project to invade Burma by air. Beginning with its inception at the Quebec Conference of 1943 and continuing through Operation Thursday until the death of the brilliant British General Orde Wingate in March 1944, less than a month after the successful invasion of Burma, Project 9 details all aspects of this covert mission.
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Case White
- The Invasion of Poland 1939
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 145
The German invasion of Poland on 1 September, 1939, designated as Fall Weiss (Case White), was the event that sparked the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The campaign has widely been described as a textbook example of Blitzkrieg, but it was actually a fairly conventional campaign as the Wehrmacht was still learning how to use its new Panzers and dive-bombers. The Polish military is often misrepresented as hopelessly obsolete and outclassed by the Wehrmacht, yet in fact it was well-equipped with modern weapons and armor.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Surprise
- By Kindle Customer on 11-24-19
By: Robert Forczyk
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War at the End of the World
- Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea 1942-1945
- By: James P. Duffy
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
One American soldier called it "a green hell on Earth". Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps - New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The WW2 New Guinea Campaign
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 09-26-18
By: James P. Duffy
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Tower of Skulls
- A History of the Asia-Pacific War, Vol. 1 (July 1937 - May 1942)
- By: Richard B. Frank
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 304
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 262
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Story5 out of 5 stars 258
This story casts penetrating light on how struggles in Europe and Asia merged into a tightly entwined global war. It features not just battles, but also the sweeping political, economic, and social effects of the war, and are graced with a rich tapestry of individual characters from top-tier political and military figures down to ordinary servicemen, as well as the accounts of civilians of all races and ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding
- By Patrick on 03-16-20
By: Richard B. Frank
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,956
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,530
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,515
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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By Water Beneath the Walls
- The Rise of the Navy SEALs
- By: Benjamin H. Milligan
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 22 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 428
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 384
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Story5 out of 5 stars 383
How did the US Navy - the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans - ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one of the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, even Central Africa?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extra. Ordinary.
- By Anonymous User on 12-15-21
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I Will Run Wild
- The Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Lance C Fuller
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
In many popular histories of the Pacific War, the period from the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor to the US victory at Midway is often passed over because it is seen as a period of darkness. Indeed, it is easy to see the period as one of unmitigated disaster for the Allies, with the fall of the Philippines, Malaya, Burma and the Dutch East Indies and the wholesale retreat and humiliation at the hands of Japan throughout Southeast Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very informative
- By dexter on 09-20-20
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Black Ops, Vietnam
- An Operational History of MACVSOG
- By: Robert M. Gillespie
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4 out of 5 stars 83
Without doubt the most unique U.S. unit to participate in the Vietnam War, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG) was a highly-classified, U.S. joint-service organization consisting of Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Marine Force Reconnaissance units, the Air Force, and the CIA. Committed to action in Southeast Asia even before the major U.S. build-up in 1965, it also fielded a division-sized element of South Vietnamese military personnel, indigenous Montagnards, ethnic Chinese Nungs, and Taiwanese pilots.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Reads like a telephone book
- By Klas Mellbourn on 08-22-16
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Four Hours of Fury
- The Untold Story of World War II's Largest Airborne Operation and the Final Push into Nazi Germany
- By: James M. Fenelon
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than 2,000 Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized....
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5 out of 5 stars
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personal and powerful.
- By TXcustomer on 07-09-19
By: James M. Fenelon
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Battleground Prussia
- The Assault on Germany’s Eastern Front 1944-45
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 23 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 134
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Story5 out of 5 stars 132
The terrible months between the arrival of the Red Army on German soil and the final collapse of Hitler's regime were like no other in the Second World War. The Soviet Army's intent to take revenge for the horror that the Nazis had wreaked on their people produced a conflict of implacable brutality in which millions perished. From the great battles that marked the Soviet conquest of East and West Prussia to the final surrender in the Vistula estuary, this book recounts in chilling detail the desperate struggle of soldiers and civilians alike.
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4 out of 5 stars
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WW II Battleground Ignored by Western Historians
- By AJC on 12-16-19
By: Prit Buttar
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Where the Iron Crosses Grow
- The Crimea 1941-44
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 158
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Story4 out of 5 stars 157
The Crimea was one of the crucibles of the war on the Eastern Front, where first a Soviet and then a German army were surrounded, fought desperate battles, and were eventually destroyed. The fighting in the region was unusual for the Eastern Front in many ways, in that naval supply, amphibious landings, and naval evacuation played major roles, while both sides were also conducting ethnic cleansing as part of their strategy - the Germans eliminating the Jews and the Soviets purging the region of Tartars.
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2 out of 5 stars
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names, places,troop strength and commanders
- By richard on 02-19-15
By: Robert Forczyk