Last Stand: Besieged and Surrounded

Five encircled forces. Five desperate struggles to survive when escape was almost impossible.In the second volume of The Last Stand military-history series, Martin Swan examines five remarkable battles in which British and Commonwealth forces found themselves surrounded, isolated and facing enemies determined to destroy them.From the mountains of nineteenth-century Afghanistan to the jungles and ridges of Burma during the Second World War, Besieged and Surrounded explores what happens when an army loses its freedom of movement and must survive with the men, weapons and supplies it still possesses.Discover the stories of:Jellalabad, 1841-1842 - an isolated British and Indian garrison fighting for survival as the First Anglo-Afghan War collapsed around it.Mafeking, 1899-1900 - 217 days of bombardment, shortages, improvisation and endurance during the Second Boer War.Tobruk, 1941 - Australian, British and other Allied troops holding the vital North African port against Axis forces.The Admin Box, 1944 - British and Indian troops turning Japanese encirclement tactics against their attackers through armour, artillery and aerial resupply.Kohima, 1944 - the brutal struggle in the mountains of India where fighting around a tennis court became one of the defining episodes of the Burma Campaign.Rather than treating these battles simply as heroic last stands, Swan examines why the defenders survived: preparation, leadership, terrain, logistics, firepower, innovation and the vital assistance that came from beyond the perimeter.The book also considers the experiences of civilians and the contributions of Indian, Australian and other Commonwealth forces while distinguishing documented history from the legends that grew around these famous sieges.Surrounded did not always mean defeated. Sometimes the most important objective was simply to hold for one more day.The Last Stand: Book Two - Besieged and Surrounded is an accessible military history for readers interested in the British Army, Commonwealth forces, siege warfare and the battles that shaped modern military history.