History Books
Pen & Sword Books Ltd HMS London
Book SynopsisHistory of the Ship told through the accounts of those who served on her.
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Night Fighter Navigator
Book SynopsisOne of the top scoring night fighter navigators of WWII
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Scourge of Henry VIII
Book SynopsisA unique look at the Tudors via one of their greatest enemies.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Sertorius and the Struggle for Spain
Book SynopsisClassic tale of the defiant underdog as the rebel Sertorius defies the might of Rome.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The African Wars
Book SynopsisConsiders the training, weapons and fighting methods of the African warriors.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Tyrants of Syracuse War in Ancient Sicily
Book SynopsisConcludes this exciting military history of one of the most important cities in the Classical world.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Straits from Troy to Constantinople
Book SynopsisTells the history of this pivotal region, the doorway between Europe and Asia.
£21.25
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A Storm of Spears
Book SynopsisReexamines the literary, pictorial and archaeological evidence for hoplite warfare minutely, and combines this with the insights of experimental archaeology using replica weapons and equipment.
£14.39
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Betrayal of an Army
Book SynopsisThe Mesopotamia Campaign ranks among the greatest British military disasters and this is the first book to cover the Mesopotamia Commission in detail, written by published author and expert on the subject.
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Pirate Killers
Book SynopsisGraphic history of the Royal Navys fight against African pirates in the nineteenth century.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Tracing Your Family History with the Whole Family
Book SynopsisExplores family history research as in-family research by all ages.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759
Book SynopsisAnalysis of a crucial battle in British naval historyRe-examines a neglected moment in naval warfareGripping account of this daring attack on the French FleetPlaces the battle in the wider context of the Seven Years war, particularly upon the war in North America.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Men of the Battle of Britain
Book SynopsisTells the stories of the men who earned the award of the 1939-1945 Star with Battle of Britain Clasp between 10 July and 31 October 1940.
£36.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Tanks on the Streets
Book SynopsisAt 12.08pm on Friday 31 January 1919, Margaret Buchanan drives her tram into George Square in Glasgow's city centre. She slows down to avoid the youths and men holding their arms up to stop her; some even jump onto the front of her tram. Swirling around her tram is a sea of heavy-coated men who have been on strike since Monday, demanding a reduction to a forty-hour working week. Crucially, the tram workers have not joined the strike; they are being abused as scabs'. Constables and officers of Glasgow's police force use their hands to try to part the crowd to allow the tram to proceed, but their efforts fail and batons are drawn. Within minutes, the violence will have spread across and beyond the Square; men will have been injured; the Sheriff will have read the Riot Act; strike leaders will lie stunned and bleeding inside the City Chambers; policemen and protestors will lie beaten in the streets. The violence and destruction in the Square, the streets to the north and south, in Glasgow Green and even south of the River Clyde, involves thousands of men. The city authorities believe the situation is beyond the control of the outnumbered police; the Sheriff sends a message to the local army commander requesting assistance. For the first time in history, tanks will be despatched as military aid to the civil power'. They will be accompanied by 10,000 soldiers. At approximately 12.30pm on Friday 31 January 1919, a century of myth-making commences. Using thousands of pages of court papers, memoirs and news reports, this book is the first attempt to tell the story of what happened in day-by-day detail.
£14.24
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Years of Endurance Life Aboard the Battlecruiser
Book SynopsisThis memoir is perhaps one of the most immediate and vivid recollections of life in a Royal Navy battlecruiser to come out of World War I. John Muir, a surgeon, was the senior medical officer aboard HMS Tiger from her commissioning in October 1914 until his departure in the autumn of 1916 when she was then undergoing repairs at Rosyth to the damage incurred at the battle of Jutland in June that year. Vivid, authoritative, empathetic and beautifully written, this memoir takes the reader right to the center of the action in the first years of the war. But more than a narrative of events, his story is also one about the officers and men who were his comrades in those years; about their qualities, their anxieties and the emotional dimension of their experiences. His insights are those of a man trained to understand the human heart, and they bring vividly to life a generation of men who fought at sea more than one hundred years ago. This is a spellbinding and gripping memoir, brought to a n
£11.69
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Real Gladiator
Book SynopsisCovers a fascinating period of Roman history from the stability and competence of Marcus Aurelius to the chaos after Commodus. From a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust as the contemporary Cassius Did described it.
£17.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Panzer III German Army Light Tank
Book Synopsis10 pages of full colour illustrations depicting 20 different vehicles and their markings.
£17.09
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Reliving Britain in the 1940s
Book SynopsisThe first book to offer an introduction to re-enacting civilian and military aspects of Britain in the 1940s.
£21.25
Pen & Sword Books Ltd British Coastal Forces
Book SynopsisThe first ever comprehensive history of British coastal forces.
£40.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Ladies of Magna Carta
Book SynopsisLadies of Magna Carta examines the impact and influence that women had on the Baron's Rebellion and the production of the Magna Carta.
£14.39
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Tank Battles of World War I
Failure to exploit the potential of an original idea is a recurring phenomenon in our national history. Few failures, however, can have been so costly in human life as that of our military commanders early in 1916 to appreciate that the tank was a war winning weapon. The slaughter of the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres salient had to be endured before accepted conventional methods were abandoned and the tank given a chance. Bryan Cooper describes the early tank actions in vivid detail, with many eye-witness accounts. He tells of the courage and endurance of the crews not just in battle but in the appalling conditions in which they had to drive and fight their primitive vehicles. Scalded, scorched and poisoned with exhaust fumes, constantly threatened with being burned to death, these crews eventually laid the foundation for the Allied Victory in World War I. The book is well illustrated with many original photographs which give the present day reader a glimpse of the infancy of a dominant weapon of modern war.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The EBoat Threat
Book SynopsisOut of print for 30 years and highly sought afterUnique study of this vital part of the Naval War in WW2Very few books on this subject
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Ironclads of Cambrai
Book SynopsisA Brilliant book on the revolution of tank warfare Daily Express; A vividly clear account of a triumph that nearly wasnt . Evening Standard
£14.39
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Into Touch
Book SynopsisWritten by celebrated author and script writer (Silent Witness/All the Kings Men, Under the Guns of the Red Baron).
£16.19
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Hunters and the Hunted
Book SynopsisExtraordinary sea chases, battles and blockades in the remotest corners of the world World War One.
£14.39
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Lord Chelmsford and the Zulu War
Book SynopsisThe Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 was perhaps subjected to much controversy as a result of the epic Zulu victory at the battle of Isandlwana. Lord Chelmsford, the General Officer commanding the invasion force during the war, sustained severe criticism from both journalists and parliament following his actions and conduct at Isandlwana. In 1939 and on the sixtieth anniversary of the battle, Major, the Hon Gerald French, wrote a controversial but riveting book titledLord Chelmsford and the Zulu War, is based on defending both Lord Chelmsfords actions and reputation. The foreword to the book was written by General Sir Bindon Blood who served under Chelmsford in India and a devoted admirer.French however, had fallen into the error of selective inaccurate source material and false reports that were, at the time, specifically designed to shield Lord Chelmsford from the Isandlwana debacle and conveniently lay such blame on the shoulders of Colonel Anthony Durnford, Royal Engineers, who was present a
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Air War Northern Ireland
Book SynopsisContent should appeal to both military aviation enthusiasts as well as those with an interest in recent British military history.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd From Antiquarian to Archaeologist
Book SynopsisThe first time that this collection of essays has been published together All essays are centred on a very popular subject at the moment Suitable for students and university libraries, or for anyone with an interest in the history of archaeology
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Invasion Scare 1940
Book SynopsisThis is by no means a work of chauvinistic self-congratulations; it is rather a distinguished historian's assessment of the last great invasion scare the British Isles have endured since the Martello towers were built in 1805.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd JG 26
Book SynopsisAll aviation and World War II buffs will want this book. Library Journal
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Matchlocks to Flintlocks
Book SynopsisA story of war and the persons and institutions that waged it during the two key centuries when warriors became soldiers and soldiers became servants of the state.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Battle of Actium 31 BC
Book SynopsisCompelling narrative account that seeks to reveal exactly what happened on that fateful day.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Edward IIs Nieces The Clare Sisters
Book SynopsisThe de Clare sisters Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth were born in the 1290s as the eldest granddaughters of King Edward I of England and his Spanish queen Eleanor of Castile, and were the daughters of the greatest nobleman in England, Gilbert the Red' de Clare, earl of Gloucester. They grew to adulthood during the turbulent reign of their uncle Edward II, and all three of them were married to men involved in intense, probably romantic or sexual, relationships with their uncle.When their elder brother Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, was killed during their uncle's catastrophic defeat at the battle of Bannockburn in June 1314, the three sisters inherited and shared his vast wealth and lands in three countries, but their inheritance proved a poisoned chalice. Eleanor and Elizabeth, and Margaret's daughter and heir, were all abducted and forcibly married by men desperate for a share of their riches, and all three sisters were imprisoned at some point either by their uncle Edward II o
£18.19
Pen & Sword Books Ltd British Naval Intelligence through the Twentieth
Book SynopsisWhen published in 2020 it offered the first comprehensive account of how intelligence influenced and sustained British naval power from the mid nineteenth century through to the end of the Cold War.The book describes why and how intelligence was collected and assesses its real impact on policy and operations. It confirms that naval intelligence was critical to Britain's survival and ultimate victory in the two World Wars but significantly reappraises its role, highlighting the importance of communications intelligence to an effective blockade in the First, and according Ultra less dominance compared to other sources in the Second. It reveals that coverage of Germany before 1914 and of the three Axis powers in the interwar period was more comprehensive and effective than previously suggested; and while British power declined rapidly after 1945, the book shows how intelligence helped the Royal Navy to remain a significant global force for the rest of the twentieth century, and in submarine warfare, especially in the second half of the Cold War. This compelling history of naval intelligence, now in a new and revised paperback edition, will appeal to a wide body of naval historians and enthusiasts interested in the crucial part it played on naval policy and operations. **WINNER** of the Mountbatten Maritime Literary Award, 2021**Highly Commended** by the Society for Nautical Research in their award for the 2021 Anderson Medal . Named as the Naval Review's **Book of the Quarter.**'**British Naval Intelligence** is an unprecendented and important addition to our knowledge.' Professor Gwythian Prins'An original and masterful history of British naval intelligence. Remarkably valuable, and in many ways the definitive, addition to the serious study of naval history.'Captain Stephen Maffeo'A remarkable book which for the first time puts intelligence in its place and tells us what happened and why. For any modern naval officer, gives a systematic picture of naval warfare in a way not done by anybody else.'Rear Admiral James Goldrick
£18.75
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Battle of Tsushima
Book SynopsisIn 1905 Japan and Russia were at war. With the Russian Far East Fleet destroyed, the Czar decided to send his Baltic Fleet half way around the world to exact revenge. This mammoth journey took many months and was, in itself, an amazing feat of seamanship. But, at the end of this epic adventure, the Russians were totally overwhelmed and the vast majority of the fleet went to the bottom. There was no alternative for the Czar but to sue for an ignominious peace. The story of the journey and the final battle remain fascinating, the people involved acting and deporting themselves like characters from a novel. Russian Admiral Rozhestvensky was a gunnery expert but someone who had never held active command in a major sea battle. Japanese Admiral Togo had trained in Britain, enlisting as a cadet on the Training Ship Worcester, even though he was far too old and was forced to lie about his age. Inept generalship on the part of the Russians, combined with brilliant seamanship from the Japanese Admiral Togo, saw the complete destruction of the Russian fleet. The naval battle of Tsushima is one of the forgotten actions of the twentieth century, but it has a significance that is immense in world history.
£14.62
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Hitlers Housewives
Book SynopsisThe meteoric rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party cowed the masses into a sense of false utopia. During Hitler's 1932 election campaign over half those who voted for Hitler were women. Germany's women had witnessed the anarchy of the post-First World War years, and the chaos brought about by the rival political gangs brawling on their streets. When Hitler came to power there was at last a ray of hope that this man of the people would restore not only political stability to Germany but prosperity to its people. As reforms were set in place, Hitler encouraged women to step aside from their jobs and allow men to take their place. As the guardian of the home, the women of Hitler's Germany were pinned as the very foundation for a future thousand-year Reich. Not every female in Nazi Germany readily embraced the principle of living in a society where two distinct worlds existed, however with the outbreak of the Second World War, Germany's women would soon find themselves on the frontline. Ultimately Hitler's housewives experienced mixed fortunes throughout the years of the Second World War. Those whose loved ones went off to war never to return; those who lost children not only to the influences of the Hitler Youth but the Allied bombing; those who sought comfort in the arms of other young men and those who would serve above and beyond of exemplary on the German home front. Their stories form intimate and intricately woven tales of life, love, joy, fear and death. Hitler's Housewives: German Women on the Home Front is not only an essential document towards better understanding one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies where the women became an inextricable link, but also the role played by Germany's women on the home front which ultimately became blurred within the horrors of total war. This is their story, in their own words, told for the first time.
£21.75
Pen & Sword Books The French at Waterloo Eyewitness Accounts
Book SynopsisAndrew Field, who has published four best-selling books on the Battle of Waterloo, has established himself as one of the leading experts on the French perspective of the campaign. Using selected extracts from French eyewitness accounts that haven't been published before in English, he has added a new dimension to our understanding of what happened on the battlefield on 18 June 1815. Now he takes his pioneering work a step further by publishing these accounts, with all their vivid and personal detail, in full. For the first time readers will be in a position to make their own interpretations of them and compare them to the recollections of soldiers from the allied armies, in particular the British, which have largely determined our assumptions about the battle for the last 200 years. They will also gain a heightened insight into the trauma that the French eyewitnesses went through as they tried to explain how the French lost a battle they claim they had been on the point of winning.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Aurelian and Probus
Book SynopsisThis is a narrative military history of the emperors Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (Aurelian', reigned 270-275) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (276-282) which also includes the other reigns between the years 268 and 285. It shows how these two remarkable emperors were chiefly responsible for the Empire surviving and emerging largely intact from a period of intense crisis. It was Aurelian who first united the breakaway regions, including Zenobia's Palmyra, and it was Probus who then secured his achievements.The reigns of Aurelian and Probus have been subjected to many studies, but none of these have approached the extant material purely from the point of view of military analysis. Most importantly, the previous historians have not exploited the analytical opportunities provided by the military treatises that describe the strategy and tactics of the period Roman army. It is thanks to this new methodology that Ilkka Syvänne has been able to reconstruct the military campaigns of these two soldier
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Gurkha Odyssey
Book SynopsisA compelling journey through Gurkha history written with grace and style it is indeed a wonderful read - Field Marshal Lord Bramall KG GCB OBE MCIt is 1814 and the Bengal Army of the Honourable East India Company is at war with a marauding Nepal. It is here that the British first encounter the martial spirit of an indomitable foe the Gurkha hillman from that mountainous independent land.Impressed by their fighting qualities and with the end of hostilities in sight the Company begins to recruit them into their own ranks. Since then these light-hearted and gallant soldiers have campaigned wherever the British Army has served - from the North-West Frontier of India through two World Wars to the more contemporary battlefields of the Falkland Islands and Afghanistan's Helmand Province, with well over one hundred battle honours to their name and at a cost of many thousands of casualties.Seen through the prism of his own Regiment and service, General Duffell vividly recounts some of the his
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books DDay Dakotas
£22.46
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Norway Campaign and the Rise of Churchill
Book SynopsisA balanced overview of this ill-fated venture.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Vikings and their Enemies
Book SynopsisThe Vikings had an extraordinary historical impact. From the eighth to the eleventh centuries, they ranged across Europe raiding, exploring, colonizing and their presence was felt as far away as Russia and Byzantium. They are most famous as warriors, yet perhaps their talent for warfare is too little understood. Philip Line, in this scholarly and highly readable survey of the Viking age, uses documentary sources the chronicles, sagas and poetry and the latest archaeological evidence to describe how the Vikings and their enemies in northern Europe organized for war. His graphic survey includes Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Carolingian Empire and its successor kingdoms and the lands of the eastern Baltic. He gives an up-to-date interpretation of Viking approach to violence and their fighting methods that will be fascinating reading for anyone who is keen to understand how they operated and achieved so much in medieval Europe.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd War of the White Death
Book SynopsisOn 30 November 1939 Stalins Red Army attacked Finland, expecting to crush the outnumbered, ill-equipped Finnish forces in a matter of days. But, in one of the most astonishing upsets in modern military history, the Finnish defenders broke the Red Armys advance, inflicting devastating casualties and destroying some of the divisions that had been thrown against them. Eventually, in March 1940, the overhauled Red Army prevailed through the deployment of massive force. The Finns were compelled to cede territory and cities to their overbearing neighbour, but the moral victory was theirs. The courage and skill their army displayed in the face of the Soviet onslaught and the chaotic and reckless performance of their opponents - had an important influence on the massive struggle that was about to break out between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For this highly illustrated and original portrayal of this famously unequal struggle, Bair Irincheev has brought together a compelling selection of
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Military Archaeology
Book SynopsisMilitary and battlefield archaeology has always beenviewed as a sub-discipline to that oftraditional historical archaeology. Onceconsidered the pursuit of learned historyprofessors and their disciples today, military archaeology has flourished around theworld into what can only best be describedas a hugely popular pastime, and in someinstances a multi-million-pound business.With technologies available today, eventhe student on the most modest of budgetscan become an archaeologist (if only in thelayman's term).Yet despite it's popularity in unearthinganswers to the questions of our turbulentpast, there are surprisingly few textsavailable on what is arguably a fascinatingand historically important subject. Theobjective herein is to present an analysisof various battles fought around the worldfrom medieval times to the present, and thearchaeology recovered from investigationscarried out by professionally sanctionedgroups and hobbyists. The context hereincludes general battlefield recovere
£21.25
Pen & Sword Books Ltd How to Survive in Tudor England
Book SynopsisImagine you were transported back in time to Tudor England and had to start a new life there,without smartphones, internet or social media. When transport means walking or, if you'relucky, horseback, how will you know where you are or where to go? Where will you liveand where will you work? What will you eat and what shall you wear? And who can you turnto if you fall ill or are mugged in the street, or God forbid if you upset the king? In a periodwhen execution by beheading was the fate of thousands how can you keep your head inTudor England?All these questions and many more are answered in this new guidebook for time-travellers:How to Survive in Tudor England. A handy self-help guide with tips and suggestions to makeyour visit to the 16th century much more fun, this lively and engaging book will help thereader deal with the new experiences they may encounter and the problems that might occur.Enjoy interviews with the celebrities of the day, and learn some new words to set the moodfor
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Augustus at War
Book SynopsisExamines the many wars fought during the reign of Augustus which more than doubled the size of Romes territory.
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Bronze Age Military Equipment
Book SynopsisThis book is a fascinating discussion of the development of the military equipment of the earliest organized armies.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd AD69
Book SynopsisFamously bloody and anarchic period of Roman historyAuthors clear narrative untangles the twists and turns of shifting alliances and analyses the military events. Very well-established author with a strong following
£13.49
