Portuguese Army

Denis Pack was one of a phalanx of senior Anglo-Irish officers who served with great distinction in the British army in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, earning a reputation as one of the Duke of Wellington’s most able brigade commanders. Despite his remarkable and varied military career, he hasn’t received the individual attention he deserves, but this omission has now been remedied by Marcus de la Poer Beresford’s full biography.

This gigantic motion picture epic, based on the novel of the same name by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, has won worldwide critical acclaim. For the shooting of the film’s battle scenes, such as the Battle of Borodino or the 1812 Moscow fire, a regular army was mustered into service, as well as a specially created cavalry regiment. Over 120, 000 soldiers participated as extras in the crowd scenes. More than 35, 000 costumes were made for the production. The details of 19th-century Russia’s everyday life, the period costumes, society and its traditions, the psychological characteristics and the heroism of the people, the glory of Russian arms – all this attracts the viewer not less than the love story of the delightful Natasha Rostova and the Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

The song that went around the world has, like its story, long ago become a legend, and several times the subject of film plots. A cloth from which dreams are cut: One was named Betty, was called Lili and worked in a vegetable cellar. The other was a nurse and was named Marleen. The young soldier, who had to stand watch at the army base, loved them both. So much, that he immortalized them in a poem, in which both girls into merged one figure: Lili Marleen. A quarter century later the song became a hit that was sent nightly into the ether from a German soldiers’ radio station in Belgrade, overnight beginning its triumphant advance around the world.

An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in Dorset at the age of 46, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and–for two years–leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire.

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes lead a Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war has about 170,000 army) men to Greece and was confronted by 300 Spartans, and several hundred Arcadians. Xerxes waited for 10 days for King Leonidas to surrender or withdraw left with no options he moved. The battle lasted for about 3 days and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected, as a local shepherd, named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks.

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes lead a Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war has about 170,000 army) men to Greece and was confronted by 300 Spartans, and several hundred Arcadians. Xerxes waited for 10 days for King Leonidas to surrender or withdraw left with no options he moved. The battle lasted for about 3 days and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected, as a local shepherd, named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks.