terça-feira, 31 de janeiro de 2012

SIPS revela grau de confiança nas Forças Armadas

O Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA - realizou uma pesquisa sobre a percepção dos brasileiros sobre ameaças e sobreo grau de confiança nas forças armadas.

Seguem abaixo os links para os sumários sobre a pesquisa. Ao fim do artigo, temos o link para o estudo completo.



segunda-feira, 23 de janeiro de 2012

United States Army in the World War II

Há alguns anos atrás, pesquisando alguns livros, tomei conhecimento dos "Green books": uma coleção extensa de livros que o exército americano publicou sobre a sua atuação na Guerra.

O livros abordam os diversos aspectos da participação, desde a preparação e logística, até as campanhas realizadas, contendo também livros sobre assuntos mais técnicos e até mesmo pictoriais.

Até então, eu tinha acesso apenas aos PDF que estavam no ibiblio, faltando alguns volumes.

A pouco tempo tornei a buscar estes livros, e tive a feliz descoberta que a seção de História do Exército Americano disponibilizou todos os livros para download, em PDF: 47.172 páginas, em 79 livros.

Pelo o que pude comparar, os arquivos são os mesmos em termos de qualidade, a diferença é que na ibiblio, os livros vem separados dos mapas, em PDFs diferentes, enquanto que no site do Exército, os mapas estão juntos com os livros (em formatos de páginas diferentes).

Infelizmente nem todos os volumes têm capas coloridas - que são fantásticas - apenas os volumes reeditados na edição comemorativa do 50º aniversário.


Enfim, não estou me aguentando de vontade e acho que irei imprimir todos eles! :-)

Como são a versão "oficial" da participação do Exército Americano na Guerra, alguns autores fazem resalvas ao citar principalmenteos números estimados de baixas que constam neste material, mas eles são fonte bibliográfica certa em quase todas as publicações do assunto.

Abaixo, relaciono os livros da coleção, com os links para download. Boa leitura!


sexta-feira, 20 de janeiro de 2012

Cavalos de Guerra

Via Chartwell Bulletin e Daily Mail

Foi lançado nos cinemas a poucos dias o filme Cavalos de Guerra (War Horses), dirigido pelo aclamado Spielperg. O filme, inspirado em uma peça de teatro, conta a história de um rapaz e seu cavalo em plena 1º Guerra Mundial, e acaba por narrar também as ações de Winston Churchill para repatriar milhares de cavalos, após o fim da guerra.

Veja a reportagens abaixo, do Daily Mail.

Churchill's mission to rescue the war horses and how he made officials bring tens of thousands home

By Chris Hastings

Winston Churchill intervened to secure the safe return of tens of thousands of war horses stranded in Europe after the First World War.

The heroism of the million-strong army of horses that served alongside British troops – often in hellish conditions – is celebrated in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster War Horse, which opens in the UK this month.

And now, historic documents uncovered by The Mail on Sunday reveal many of them were to owe their lives to Churchill’s compassion.

British military chiefs were heavily dependent on horsepower to carry men, supplies and artillery, and spent more than £36 million during the war to buy up 1.1 million horses from Britain, Canada and the United States.

War Office documents found in the National Archives at Kew show that tens of thousands of the animals were at risk of disease, hunger and even death at the hands of French and Belgian butchers because bungling officials couldn’t get them home when hostilities drew to a close.

Churchill, then aged 44 and Secretary of State for War, reacted with fury when he was informed of their treatment and took a personal interest in their plight after the 1914-1918 war.

He secured their speedy return after firing off angry memos to officials within his own department and at the Ministry of Shipping, who had promised to return 12,000 horses a week but were struggling to get a quarter of that number back.

In a strongly worded missive dated February 13, 1919, Churchill told Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke, then Quartermaster-General: ‘If it is so serious, what have you been doing about it? The letter of the Commander-In-Chief discloses a complete failure on the part of the Ministry of Shipping to meet its obligations and scores of thousands of horses will be left in France under extremely disadvantageous conditions.’

Churchill’s intervention led to extra vessels being used for repatriation, and the number of horses being returned rose to 9,000 a week.

Terry Charman, senior historian with the Imperial War Museum, says Churchill was an animal lover and his motivation could have been based purely on animal-welfare concerns.

‘It is quite possible he could have been moved by the plight of the animals,’ he said. ‘He loved everything from cats to canaries. There is a famous story that on one occasion he was unable to carve a goose which had grown up at his home in Chartwell.

‘He would certainly have been aware of the work carried out by the horses, because, prior to his appointment as Secretary of State, he had served on the front line with the artillery.’

But other more pressing military concerns would also have played their part. Prime Minister Lloyd George had specifically appointed Churchill to the position of Secretary of State in January 1919 to speed up demobilisation.

Churchill would have been mindful that delays in recovering the horses would have been a serious distraction from the main job at hand.

Spielberg’s War Horse is based on the bestselling 1982 children’s book by Michael Morpurgo and tells the story of one boy’s attempts to be reunited with his horse Joey after the animal is sent to the front lines in France.

segunda-feira, 2 de janeiro de 2012

Sem teto


Prime Minister to Minister of Health. 21 Jun 1941.

Is it not possible to reduce more rapidly the number of homeless people in the London rest centres? I am hoping that this week will show that they have practically all been dispersed. One cannot tell when another heavy attack may not be made upon us, and a quiet week should be a precious gain.

W. C. The Grand Alliance.

Odious expression


Prime Minister to Minister of Food. 21 Mar 1941.

I hope the term "Communal Feeding Centres" is not going to be adopted. It is an odious expression, suggestive of Communism and the workhouse. I suggest you call them "Brititish Restaurants". Everybody associates the word "restaurant" with good meal, and they may as well have the name if they cannot get anything else.

W. C. The Grand Alliance.

Mais comida!


Prime minister to Professor Lindermann. 11 Mar 1941.

I am expecting you to have ready for me to-night the general layout of the imports programme under different heads, so that I can see where I can scrape off whith a pencil another half-million tons for food.
W. C. The Grand Alliance.

Let everyone kill a hun


Nos mesmos anexos que comentei na postagem anterior, Churchill pondera sobre a possibilidade da invasão e as preparações necessárias. Inevitável lembrar de "we shall fight on the beaches..."


Prime Minister to Secretary of State for War and C.I.G.S

We have to contemplate the descent from the air of perhaps a quarter of a million parachutists, glider-borne or crash-landed aeroplane troops. Everyone in uniform, and anyone else who likes, must fall upon these wherever they find them and attack them with the utmost alacrity -

"Let everyone
Kill a Hun."

This spirit must be inculcated ceaselessly into all ranks of H.M. forces - in particular military schools, training establishments, depots. All the rearward services must develop a quality of stern, individual resistance. No building  occupied by troops should be surrendered without having to be stormed. Every man must have a weapon of some kind, be it only a mace or a pike. The spirit of intense individual resistance to this new form of sporadic invasion is a fundamental necessity. I have no doubt a great deal is being done.

Please let me know exactly how many uniformed men you have on ration strength in this Island, and how they are armed.

I should like Sir Alan Brooke to see this minute and enclosure, and to give me his views about it. Let me also see some patterns of maces and pikes.

W. C. The Grand Alliance.