Sautter & Lemonnier, L.. Note sur les Applications de la Lumiere Electrique a la'Art Militaire et la Marine Militaire. Paris: L. Sautter, Lemonnier & Cie., 1879. 1st edition. 32pp 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Good condition. The title continues: "pour signeurs, eclairage a grandes distances, travaux de nuit, etc."
The pamphlet was published by the manufacturers and distributors, L. Sautter, Lemonnier & Co who were "Constructeurs de Phares lenticuleurs et de Machines de Gramme", and to this time were known particularly for their work in lens for lighthouses. This is a very early work on the military applications of the electric light, and is also quite rare, seemingly unknown to the OCLC/WorldCat as there are *no* copies listed. This copy was formerly in the collection of the U.S. War Department (with a very light rubberstamp on the fron cover dating its acquisition in 1883) and more rececntly from the Library of Congress. $500.00
Allied Bombing and a Report on Damage to German Industry-- Fliegerangriff in der Nachct vom 17./18.8.40 auf die Hydrier. 1940. Fine condition. With 27 original photographs displaying bombing damage Title: : Fliegerangriff in der Nachct vom 17./18.8.40 auf die Hydrierwerk Scholven A.G. $750.
I've written a number of times on this blog about WWI images, many of which are in my own collection of News Service Photo Group images, like the one just below, which can be found here. Many of them are remarkable, astonishing even--especially those relating to soldiers whose war has ended, finding them as prisoners of war. At least they weren't dead, like the dozens of millions of other soldiers.
(Original photograph available at our blog bookstore here.)
I uncovered another of these images, tonight, long misplaced.
Image: black and white photo, 5x7 inches. Good condition. $400.00
There were over 8 million soldiers taken prisoner during WWI, that in addition to the 21 million who were wounded and the 9.7 million killed: 38 million. Plus 6.8 million civilians who were killed: 45 million. And the numbers for civilians wounded are just, well, not reliable, as they were not really collected, or collectible. At the end of it all, there were probably between 50 to 75 million soldiers and civilians killed or wounded or taken captive during the war...not including civilians who were killed by the hardships or starvation caused by the conflict. Big, big numbers.
Some of these soldiers were taken in entire armies, surrenders of hundreds of thousands; and some came in pairs, or singles, as in the photo above. There are two captured Germans here, the two men in the middle, who are flanked by a British soldier and (I think) a Canadian officer, with two locals in the background. The short man front-and-center was paraded no doubt for his propaganda value--certainly not five feet tall, slender, with a tiny, not-average face. The Tommy is certainly enjoying the situation, while the officer maintains composure.
The photograph was made in 1918, a few months before the end of the war, but there was still fighting to be done, and the value of showing the the British and Allied publics the "face" of a now-wilting enemy must have been considerable. There was considerable control and tightness over the sort of images allowed to be produced and published coming from the front line, photographs being made by a "pool" of news photographers the contents of which were closely evaluated by military censors before being allowed to circulate to newspapers and magazines.
04/25/2012
[BROADSIDE] Grave Folly of Pro-Czech Policy... published by the Militant Christian Patriots, September 1938. Rare. From the Pamphlet Collection of the Library of Congress. 10x8 inches. Old vertical fold. Very good copy. $175
Here's a slathering piece of propaganda published by the Militant Christian Patriots (of London) on how the British government was dealing with the Nazi/Seudeten problem in September 1938. In their gunsights was Anthony Eden, who was seen by this group as a Bolshevist supporter, and who as the Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was against the appeasement policy of the government towards Nazi territorial acquisitions, particularly in this case with Czechoslovakia. Eden. identified here as "backed by the Zionists, Fabian_Scoailists and "pacifist" League of Nations enthusiasts" was a multiple threat, and seen to be capable of directing national policy towards a confrontation with Germany over the looming Czech problem. On the other hand, Neville Chamberlain, who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at this time (and from May 1938-May 1940), was seen as a better ideological fit with his issues and policies of appeasement of the German nationalist needs and territorial rape. Chamberlain certainly gave what Christian Militants wanted--a free hand to Hitler in Czechoslovakia (and more), and perhaps an acknowledgement of defeat to the Nazi nation. Winston Churchill certainly thought so:
"We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat... you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude...we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road...we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged..." Winston Churchill, MP, 1938
The Christian Militants saw it all differently, tending to agree with Hitler on the Czech matter, and seeking to keep the U.K. out of confrontation and thus away from war by giving Hitler (and then Mussolini) what they demanded to satisfy their growing national needs.
"I am asking neither that Germany be allowed to oppress three and a half million Frenchmen, nor am I asking that three and a half million Englishmen be placed at our mercy. Rather I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the inalienable right to self-determination take its place." -Adolf Hitler's speech at the NSDAP Congress 1938
Eden resigned his position earlier in the year, in March 1938, but stayed in the fray. As everyone knows things went badly at the end of the month of September, 1938, with Chamberlain letting everything go and appeasing Hitler in the Munich Conference (known to the Czechs as the "Munich Dictates" and worse) in which bits of Czechoslovakia were given to Germany in a series of meetings in which that country was not invited.
And so the P.M. returned to the home country having done nothing in Germany but give away a part of someone else's country, all in a feeble attempt at maintaining peace for Europe's key players. He landed at Heston Aerodrome and held a piece of flimsy paper in his hand, which was battered by a tiny wind, and declared that there would be "peace in our time" because Hitler's signature said it would be so, all of which was a "prelude to peace" in Europe as a whole:
"My good friends, this is the second time there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Now I recommend you go home, and sleep quietly in your beds."
Less than a year later it would all come crashing down, the appeasement policy (such as it was) a shambles, and the world plunged into war. Chamberlain would last as P.M. for a little longer, until May 1940, when he was at last replaced--by Winston Churchill.
Collection of Air Warden/Air Raid Precaution Mimeographs
(1) Lecture Manual for Air Raid Warden Instructions, March 9, 1942. Mimeograph, 11x8 inch sheets; 28 leaves and 27 leaves of appendices.Printed by the WPA in San Francisco.
(2) Course Outline, Aerial Bombardment Protection. 11x8 inch mimeograph sheets, printed by New York University, College of Engineering, 1942.
with (2b) Separately printed and bound sections of the above. Chapter XIX (Air Raid Shelters), pp 59-72.
(3) Air Raid Shelter Requirements, by Horace W. Peaslee (Chair, American Institute of Architects). 1942. 16pp. Mimeograph sheets.
All rare. The three: $350.00
From the Pamphlet Collection, the Library of Congress.
Corps Parachutiste. No date, and no place of publication other than "Imprime en Angleterre" (stamped on the back cover). 7x5 inches, 16pp, illustrated with photos. Very nice condition. In printed wrappers. $150
From the "Pamphlet Collection" of the Library of Congress, which stamped the pamphlet 17 April 1944. I do not know exactly when this was printed, except to say that it was 1940-1944. My guess is that it was printed in England for distribution to French in exile and also to the French in France.
There are no copies whatsoever located in WorldCat/OCLC.
The full work, as follows (a small gift to others with a soft spot for Airborne):
History of the Second Division (Regular) AEF. Text. -AND- History of the Second Division (Regular) AEF, Notes. "Copyright 1936, The Second Division Historical Committee, Major General Preston Brown, Chairman." 13.5x8", two volumes, 282+156pp.Copies of typed sheets, three-hole-punch-bound at left. Nice copies.
This is evidently what would be published as the The Second Division, American Expeditionary Force in France, 1917-1919, by J.W. Wright (text) and Oliver L. Spaulding (Notes), as the work above and this share the same copyright number. The authors are not identified in this work.
This copy is a Copyright Deposit copy--or, rather, one of them--and was purchased from the Library of Congress. Both volumes were issued with stiffer, larger paper wrappers, but these are now detached and chipped. The text however is in excellent condition.
From Wikipedia: "The 2nd Infantry Division was first constituted on 21 September 1917 in the Regular Army. It was organized on 26 October 1917 at Bourmont, Haute Marne, France. At the time of its activation, the Indianhead Division was composed of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, which included the 9th Infantry Regiment and the 23rd Infantry Regiment; the 4th Marine Brigade, which consisted of the 5th Marine Regiment, the 6th Marine Regiment and the 6th Machine Gun Battalion; a battalion of field artillery; and various supporting units. Twice during World War I the division was commanded by US Marine Corps generals, Brigadier General Charles A. Doyen and Major General John A. Lejeune, the only time in U. S. Military history when Marine Corps officers commanded an Army division."
This small archive—from the estate of J.D. Coker, who served in the U.S. Navy on the US Strategic Bombing Survey Ships' Bombardment section, and who later became a leading official in the U.S. Atomic Preparedness programs (such as the President's Committee on Emergency Preparedness)—are mimeographs and manuscripts that comprise what seems to be the summary of the Navy's bombardment of Kamaishi, Muroran, Hitachi, Kushimoto, Shimizu and Hamamatsu. This was about the extent of the Allied naval bombardments against Japan, as it was not possible for battleships to maneuver close enough to the Japanese homeland to fire against industrial and production centers. (It may have also been the case that the aircraft used to protect the assaulting ships could have perhaps done as much damage to the targets as the ships themselves.)
This announcement comes from the U.S. Army public relations office in Manila ("General Relsease - 40") and dated 18 September 1945. It states that "what remains of the Japanese 10th Imperial Division was surrendered September 15th by Lt. Gen. Okamoto to Brig. Gen. Leo M. Kreber", this coming weeks after the formal signing of the Instrument of Surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on 2 September 1945.
The 10th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army (formed 1898) was transferred to the Japanese 14th Area Army in the Philippines from China. There it was involved in the Battle of Luzon (9 January to 15 August 1945), where the "what remains" of it statement comes from. In that battle, more than 250,000 Japanese troops were engaged, with more than 205,000 killed (with only 9,000 captured). On the Allied side, 175,000 troops were engaged, with 8,000 killed and 29,000 wounded.
The surrender of the Japanese forces in Manila was one of the last of the major surrenders of armies and army groups would surrender: the Japanese army would surrender at Singapore on 12 September, Saigon on 13th September, and Hong Kong on 14th September. There were pockets of resistance that would hold out for years afterwards, but so far as large organized forces were concerned, this was pretty much the end of the fighting.
Translation by Col. H.H. Hossfeld of Lt. General von Tschischwitz, Armee und Marine bei der Eroberung der Baltischen Inseln im Oktober 1917: Erfahrungen und Betrachtungen as The Army and Navy During the Conquest of the Baltic Islands in October, 1917.
Washington Army War College, 1933. 246x200mm, 187pp, with a small packet of 20 photographically reproduced maps in a pocket in the rear of the book.
This is a carbon typescript of the translation of the work translated by Hossfeld, and is marked on the cover "3 copies, Copy No. 2". According to NUC/WorldCat the other two copies of this work are located in the libraries at the U.S. Army Military Institute (MHR) and Library of the Marine Corps (QMC) . Before being transferred from the collections at the Library of Congress this copy was in the library at the U.S. Naval War College (so stamped on verso of the title page) before being discarded. Very good condition. $450
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