Second World War Books

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Book SynopsisThis is the extraordinary story of the author’s twenty year quest to find gold coins which his father’s family buried in their backyard in Poland just prior to being deported by the Nazis into concentration camps. His father survived the war but died when the author was a teenager, leaving him only with the knowledge that he had buried coins somewhere in Poland, and no information about his family. During his quest, Biederman uncovers many interesting and disturbing facts about his father and mother and their families, such as the fact that his father was the third person on Oskar Schindler’s list and had a chance meeting with Adolph Hitler, and that his mother was selected as a cook for the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. The book details the author’s quest to unearth his family’s past and his father’s treasure and continues with his parent’s amazing post-war years in Europe and their eventual arrival in North America.Table of Contents Introduction The Quest Begins 1993–1996: Relocating to Windsor 1996: Travel to Poland Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland: July 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau: 1996 Krosno Airbase, Poland: August 27, 1941 Fate of My Father’s Family I Receive Unexpected News Maidstone Ontario: Spring 2001 New Information Changes Our Course December 4, 1939: Zeglarska 7, Lodz, Poland Europe: 2001 Majdanek Lodz Postwar Europe Maidstone, Ontario: 2001 through 2003 Yaron Svoray New York: July 2003 Maidstone, Ontario: 2003 Wednesday April 21, 2004: Maidstone, Ontario Poland: April 2004 Jedwabne Wolf’s Lair Berlin 1946 Warsaw: 2004 Windsor: Spring/Summer 2004 Lodz: October 2004 Wroclaw Gross-Rosen The Trip Home April 1949 and Beyond: The American Journey Back Home: Ontario, 2004 Late 2004–Present: Epilogue

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Book SynopsisIn the new year of 1944 the French Resistance in northern France was on its knees. Relentless attacks on its diverse and disorganised networks by the Gestapo and the Abwehr had put many of its best operatives in prison, or worse. But in the lead up to Operation Overlord, 'D Day', the Resistance had never been more important to the Allied war effort, and many groups were in the pay of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. One such was organised by a patriot called Dominic Ponchardier. For months he had watched helplessly as his friends and colleagues had been swept up by the Nazi drag net, and cast into the old prison on the eastern outskirts of Amiens. In desperation he asked his MI6 handlers for help, and once London agreed it led to one of the most daring missions of the war. On the morning of 18 February 1944, nineteen Mosquito bombers flew at low level across the channel, skimming just above the ground to drop their bombs on sections of the walls of Amiens Prison. Hundreds escaped, scores of whom evaded recapture to continue the fight against Nazi repression. It was an epic of precision bombing, in which one of the most notable RAF heroes of the war, Group Captain Charles Pickard, lost his life. Robert Lyman's book reveals, from previously unseen sources, the full truth of MI6's involvement in the French Resistance, and narrates in vivid detail a stirring tale of courage and skill.Trade ReviewUnbearably tense . . . will make you feel proud to be British - Daily ExpressHeroism, adventure, tragedy, a superman hero and the loathsome Boche. This comprehensive retelling of the story has not lost any of its firepower - Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisWhat was it like to be a pilot in Hitlers Luftwaffe during World War II? In this book, the veterans themselves provide the answer. Christer Bergström enjoys a reputation as one of the greatest experts on Luftwaffe during World War II. During over 40 years of research, he has visited and made interviews with hundreds of Luftwaffe pilot veterans. Here he recounts what the veterans themselves told him often things that dont usually appear in ordinary books about the war. The book is richly illustrated with, among other things, never before published photos from the veterans private photo albums.

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Book SynopsisSS Colonel Jochen Peiper was one of the most controversial figures of World War II. Himmler''s personal adjutant and Hitler''s favourite tank commander, Peiper spearheaded the Ardennes Offensive and became the central subject in the famous Malmédy massacre trial. In Hitler''s Warrior , Danny S. Parker crafts both a definitive biography of Hitler''s most enigmatic warrior and a unique study of the morally inverted world of the Third Reich.Trade ReviewPraise for Hitler's Warrior "A brilliant study of a controversial but exceptional warrior in Hitler's Germany. To truly understand what the United States confronted in the Second World War, you must read this utterly absorbing story."--Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Bedford Boys and The Liberator "Hitler's Warrior is a spellbinding account of the brutal life and mysterious postwar death of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. With the masterful control of twenty years of research, and a brilliant eye for detail, Danny Parker delivers a story about Himmler's personal adjutant that both horrifies and enthralls."--Annie Jacobsen, New York Times bestselling author of Area 51 and Operation Paperclip "Jochen Peiper's life and career illuminate the inner thoughts of Heinrich Himmler, the relationship between the SS and Waffen-SS, and the balance between ideology and opportunism in Nazi Germany. In this detailed and well-written biography of Peiper, Danny S. Parker probes deeply into important questions of history and memory."--Richard Breitman, American University and coauthor of FDR and the Jews "A full and thoughtful account of an important figure in the Nazi political and military system.--Gerhard L. Weinberg, William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "The most thorough and balanced account of the life of Jochen Peiper to have yet appeared--monumental research."--James J. Weingartner, author of Americans, Germans, and War Crimes Justice "Meticulously researched...reads like a novel. Clearly adds great depth to the study of the personal character of Jochen Peiper."--Military Review "[A] gripping book...and a chilling story of hunter turned quarry."-The Independent (UK)

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Book SynopsisWorld War II sent the youth of the world across the globe in odd alliances against each other. Never before had a conflict been fought simultaneously in so many diverse landscapes on premises that often seemed unrelated. Never before had a conflict been fought in so many different ways - from rocket attacks on London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya. It was only in time that these battles coalesced into one war.In The Second World Wars, esteemed military historian Victor Davis Hanson examines how and why this happened, focusing in detail on how the war was fought in the air, at sea, and on land-and thus where, when, and why the Allies won. Throughout, Hanson also situates World War II squarely within the history of war in the West over the past 2,500 years. In profound ways, World War II was unique: the most lethal event in human history, with 50 million dead, the vast majority of them civilians. But, as Hanson demonstrates, the war's origins were not entirely novel; it was reformulations of ancient ideas of racial and cultural superiority that fueled the global bloodbath.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most popular and enduring campaigns of World War II is that of the Western Desert, where Allied armies beat back the hard-pressed German and Italian forces under the grueling African sun. Covering crucial operations such as Crusader, Lightfoot, and Supercharge, and the great battles of Tobruk, El Alamein, and Gazala, this book brings the unforgiving battlefields of North Africa to the tabletop. In-depth information on the forces involved, linked scenarios, and new Theater Selectors make this an ideal resource for any Bolt Action player with an interest in the Desert War.

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Book SynopsisBehind the celebrated code-breaking at Bletchley Park lies another secret…The men and women of the ‘ Y’ (for Wireless’ ) Service were sent out across the world to run listening stations from Gibraltar to Cairo, intercepting the German military’s encrypted messages for decoding back at the now-famous Bletchley Park mansion. Such wartime postings were life-changing adventures – travel out by flying boat or Indian railways, snakes in filing cabinets and heat so intense the perspiration ran into your shoes - but many of the secret listeners found lifelong romance in their far-flung corner of the world. Now, drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans, Sinclair McKay tells their remarkable story at last.Trade Review'As McKay argues in this well-told story, the Y Service has been "sadly and curiously" uncelebrated. Yet were it not for all those encoded messages relayed with such care, the codebreakers at Bletchley would have had little to go on. It was their efforts that made the revolutionary leaps of Bletchley possible. They should be commemorated properly as having played their parts in one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century, he says. And he has done them proud.''The Secret Listeners draws our attention to the important contribution made by modest, patriotic men and women engaged in war work where individual decorations were rarely awarded and secrecy demanded that even their closest relatives were denied an insight into their contribution to the Allied victory.’‘Sinclair McKay has gathered together memories, from published works and from interviews with surviving veterans. This book is full of delightful episodes.’'A fascinating read' ‘ McKay’ s focus is rather on the personal experiences of the individual Y Service operators — it brings home not only the reality of what these people were doing but also the daily privations endured with remarkable resilience by so many in that war. As with those at Bletchley, the silence of that generation, their disciplined restraint for decades afterwards, is as impressive as their achievements. They felt the powerful pull of common cause and (mostly) had the privilege of knowing that their contribution was significant. Awful as it was for much of the time, for many nothing that followed ever quite lived up to it. We should be grateful that the survivors are talking now.’ 'As McKay argues in this well-told story, the Y Service has been "sadly and curiously" uncelebrated. Yet were it not for all those encoded messages relayed with such care, the codebreakers at Bletchley would have had little to go on. It was their efforts that made the revolutionary leaps of Bletchley possible. They should be commemorated properly as having played their parts in one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century, he says. And he has done them proud.' ‘ Sinclair McKay has gathered together memories, from published works and from interviews with surviving veterans. This book is full of delightful episodes.’ ‘ Sinclair McKay’ s account of this secret war of the airwaves is as painstakingly researched and fascinating as his bestselling The Secret Life Of Bletchley Park, and an essential companion to it.’ ‘ Their contribution enabled the code-breakers to achieve their break-through, something that, in turn, shortened the war and saved countless lives.’ 'The veterans who monitored radio traffic and transcrived Morse code are given full, overdue credit in this intriguing book' 'Author Sinclair McKay has once again unearthed a fascinating compendium of memories from surviving veterans whose vital contribution to the war effort had been shrouded in secrecy.' 'The Secret Listeners draws our attention to the important contribution made by modest, patriotic men and women engaged in war work where individual decorations were rarely awarded and secrecy demanded that even their closest relatives were denied an insight into their contribution to the Allied victory.’ 'McKay’ s story of the wireless interceptors is one of willing amateurs and gifted eccentrics, of patience, accuracy, and endurance. A fine book with a genuinely new angle on a familiar topic, full of vivid and fascinating characters.’

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Book SynopsisWhile many nations flocked to the side of the Allies, others joined forces with Germany as part of the Axis. This volume is the definitive guide to the armies of Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Finland. Fight the Winter War against the Soviets, hold back the British in North Africa, or help shore up the German offensives on the Eastern Front with this latest supplement for Bolt Action.Table of ContentsIntroduction /Army Lists /Theatres

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Book SynopsisCamp 21 Comrie, also known as Cultybraggan Camp, is the UK's best preserved prisoner of war camp. Lying in the heart of rural Perthshire in Scotland, the camp's history is a fascinating one. Built two miles south of the village of Comrie as a camp for detainees, its first prisoner was a British soldier but in the following years it housed thousands of prisoners of war captured in North Africa and Europe. Conditions at the camp were primitive but there was a re-education program which is explored in depth. Lectures were followed by occasional hot debates and the book takes a fresh look at the infamous murder of Feldwebel Wolfgang Rosterg, who may not have been the only man subjected to a fanatical show trial within the bounds of the camp. In addition, life stories of some of the prisoners are included, from submariners to ordinary soldiers as well as reminiscences from the British. The history of Camp 21 would be incomplete without mentioning Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy. He was allegedly held at the camp but was he really there or was this just a myth? And do the ghosts of the past still haunt the site as reported by some who've witnessed strange goings on?The book also features the camp's history during the Cold War, its ROC post and Cold War bunker and as late as the 1960s and '70s it was used by the Combined Cadet Forces for training purposes, as well as regiments that served in areas of conflict overseas. Following its closure it is now owned by the Comrie Development Trust. Camp 21 Comrie sets the camp's place not only in history but also as part of an expanding community project, inspiring people and being utilized for good.Trade Review`...the definitive story of a fascinating place. Valerie Campbell's excellent book leads us through the whole story... ...the beautifully researched and detailed story of Rolf Weitzel... ...book that will have a lasting value as a work reference, yet is also engaging to read'. Undiscovered Scotland -------------------- `…will appeal to anyone who enjoyed the author’s earlier work on the subject’. Caithness Courier

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Book SynopsisEl Alamein was the World War II land battle Britain had to win. By the summer of 1942 Rommel's German forces were threatening to sweep through the Western Desert and drive on to the Suez Canal, and Britain was in urgent need of military victory. Then, in October, after 12 days of attritional tank battle and artillery bombardment, Montgomery's Eighth Army, with Australians and New Zealanders playing crucial roles in a genuinely international Allied fighting force, broke through the German and Italian lines at El Alamein. It was a turning-point in the war after which, in Churchill's words, "we never had a defeat". Stephen Bungay's book is as much at home analysing the crucial logistics of keeping desert armies supplied with petrol and tank parts as it is reappraising the combat strategies of Montgomery and Rommel, and ranges widely from the domestic political pressures on Churchill to the aerial siege of Malta, key to the control of the Mediterranean. And in a chapter on "The Soldier's War", Bungay graphically evokes the phantasmagoric blur of thunderous cannonade and tormenting heat that was the lot of the individual men who actually fought and died in the desert.Trade Review'Terse and brilliantly written by a thorough master of his subject' - John Lukacs, Los Angeles Times; 'A brilliant balance between lucid analysis and piquant detail... masterly chapters' - Lawrence James, Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisComprising 448 pages, this illustrated book is the first comprehensive reference work covering winter uniforms used by the German Army, Air Force and Waffen-SS during the period from 1942 to 1945. The book is intended for collectors, historians, model makers and those with an interest in military history. Following the attack on the Soviet Union and the first experiences with the Russian winter in 1941-42, it quickly became clear to the powers that be standard German Army uniform was completely unsuitable for waging war in the east, where temperatures often dropped far below zero. This made it necessary to create a new uniform capable of dealing with the climactic conditions on the Eastern Front. This book describes the creation of the Winteranzug 42 winter uniform, the first of its kind, and the following versions for the army, air force and Waffen-SS later in the war. First the complete winter uniform - balaclava, parka, trousers and mittens - is illustrated schematically in all its details.

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Book SynopsisThe most complete English-language collection of the prose of Tadeusz Borowski, the most challenging chronicler of Auschwitz, with a foreword by Timothy Snyder, author of On TyrannyTrade Review“Borowski’s sharp-edged descriptions of life in Nazi concentration camps shatter the limits of even Kafka’s most surreal imaginings . . . conducting a conversation with darkness . . . in an icy style that cloaks hot rage.”—Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal“An excellent new translation. . . . For the first time in English, Borowski’s better-known Auschwitz stories have been placed in the broader context of his short writing career. Far from diluting the horror of his vision, this juxtaposition intensifies it.”—Katherine Lebow, Times Literary SupplementShortlisted for the National Translation Award in Prose, sponsored by the American Literary Translators Association“Thanks to Madeline Levine’s marvelous translation, we now have in English the most important work of the most challenging chronicler of Auschwitz.”—Timothy Snyder, from the forewordPraise for the Author: “Tadeusz Borowski joins the company of such artists as Elie Wiesel and André Schwarz-Bart. Like them, he paints a picture of the horror and madness that ruled the concentration camps, so brilliantly that the immediacy of the experience is almost too much to bear.”—New York Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisWhat do Germans mean when they say “never again”? Andrew Port examines German responses to the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda, showing how these events transformed the meaning of the Holocaust in Germany, inspired partial remilitarization, and changed the country’s relationship to refugees fleeing war-torn regions.Trade ReviewAmbitious, original and richly evidenced…Port offers an innovative contribution in the atrophied terrain of ‘memory studies.’ Never Again implies that Walter Benjamin’s ‘Angel of History’ is, at last, turning away from sentimental memorials and sentimental solemnity—and looking forward. -- Christopher Hale * History Today *Never Again thoroughly examines the German response to three genocides that took place elsewhere in the world after the Second World War—in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda—and considers, in particular, the role that the Nazi past and the Holocaust played in debates about them. -- Hans Kundnani * Times Literary Supplement *Port’s meticulously researched book is a well-written account of Germans struggling to do the right thing—whether on the political or personal level—against the backdrop of their own history…An important contribution. -- Gisela Dachs * Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs *A thrilling accomplishment. Ingeniously conceived and intrepidly executed, Never Again explores how German mastery of the Holocaust past proceeded through reflection on foreign atrocities, first in the postcolonial world and then in Europe itself. This is the most important study of memory, politics, and the ongoing construction of public norms written in a long time. -- Samuel Moyn, author of Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented WarGermans, in the communist East, the democratic West, and the reunified nation, cannot deal with atrocities in other countries without being haunted by their own dark history. How they have negotiated these dangerous political challenges, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, is the subject of Port’s fascinating, elegant, subtle, and always fair-minded book. -- Ian Buruma, author of The Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War IIA fascinating, carefully crafted look at how the powerful and dynamic factor of German memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust affected German foreign policy on the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Port’s nuanced and suggestive analysis also contributes in important ways to our understanding of the making of Berlin’s zigzag policies on Ukraine today. -- Norman M. Naimark, author of Stalin and the Fate of Europe: The Postwar Struggle for SovereigntyThis deeply researched book tells the story of how, by embracing human rights and engaging in humanitarian actions, Germany rejoined ‘the community of nations as a peaceful member.’ Port illuminates the highly topical question of how Germany’s past both shapes and constrains its responses to contemporary bloodshed. -- M. E. Sarotte, author of Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post–Cold War StalemateA highly original work, sensitive both to domestic debates and to far broader transnational and international considerations. By exploring how a concern with their own genocidal past informed German reactions to later genocides, Port illuminates not only the German responses to events elsewhere in the world but also the ways in which, in an increasingly mobile and globalizing society, German society was and is itself changing. -- Mary Fulbrook, author of Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for JusticeA brilliant new perspective on postwar German history. Even with hundreds of books written on attempts to cope with the Nazi past, the political consequences of shifting memory culture have seldom been discussed. In exploring how the Holocaust became an argument in German foreign policy, humanitarian aid, and military interventions, Port offers a wealth of insight—not only on Germany, but also on its global context. -- Frank Bösch, author of Mass Media and Historical Change: Germany in International Perspective, 1400 to the PresentFascinating reading. With Russia’s war on Ukraine, Germany faces its biggest crisis yet in its understanding of how the Holocaust and World War II should influence its military policy. Port’s timely book shows that this is not the first time Germans grappled with this issue. Examining earlier debates about the proper response to atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda, Never Again provides essential historical context for the contemporary dilemma of how to address Russian aggression. -- Hope M. Harrison, author of After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the PresentA splendid…brilliant study… [Port] builds a bridge between the emergence of a Holocaust-related culture of remembrance and a history of humanitarianism before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His book also addresses the contemporary problem of how society deals with mass violence in distant regions. Not least due to recent global political developments, this requires more than ever a competent classification by the specialist disciplines. -- Annette Weinke * Süddeutsche Zeitung *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The case of [Demjanjuk] the death camp guard turned autoworker, related with authority and clarity."--New York Times Book Review "Douglas relates with authority and clarity the story of these complex legal processes... [He] does justice to both the story's factual complexities and its moral and political conundrums...The Right Wrong Man, from its summary title to its thoughtful postscript is an impressive work, as well as a timely one in its demonstration of the power of legal systems to learn from past missteps."--Anthony Julius, New York Times Book Review "A masterful account... Douglas deftly delivers disquisitions on nuanced legal questions as if they were plot points in a thriller, making his demanding book a pleasure."--Wall Street Journal"A tour de force owing to Douglas' piercing analysis of all the legal complexities."--Foreign Affairs"[An] admirable book... Douglas's narrative and analysis of this convoluted legal odyssey [is] extraordinarily impressive."--Christopher R. Browning, Times Literary Supplement "[M]asterful... [D]eftly delivers disquisitions on nuanced legal questions as if they were plot points in a thriller, making his demanding book a pleasure even for readers unschooled in the particulars of international law."--The Wall Street Journal "As Holocaust historian Lawrence Douglas has written, the Eichmann proceedings were the 'Great Holocaust Trial,' an unparalleled reckoning with the universal moral burden of the Nazi regime and its crimes. But what came--what could possibly come--after Eichmann? This is the question that guides Douglas's new book, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial... By Douglas's account, the Demjanjuk affair was a tumultuous encapsulation of much of the post-Eichmann politics of international justice, shaped as they were by the wax and wane of European communism, the creation of a nascent global architecture of legal accountability for atrocities perpetrated both during the Holocaust and elsewhere, and the global process of coming to terms with Europe's violent past."--Daniel Solomon, The New Republic "An excellent legal-minded elucidation of the long trail toward the conviction of a notorious concentration camp guard."--Kirkus "[A] story that needed telling."--Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times "Sophisticated and suspenseful, the book provides a trenchant analysis of the legal and moral dilemmas surrounding trials for genocidal crimes against humanity."--Glenn Altschuler, Jerusalem Post "[A] tour de force."--Foreign Affairs "The Right Wrong Man is an important read about the accountability those who do wrong ultimately face."--San Francisco Book Review "Formidable ... a thoughtful treatise."--Cleveland Jewish Star "In his indispensable history of the Demjanjuk case, Lawrence Douglas, the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College, delivers a reader-friendly history of this controversial case that provides a valuable understanding of how German law evolved from eschewing the legal principles established by the Nuremberg Tribunal to the 2011 Demjanjuk case, which marked the first time a German court had ever tried, let alone convicted, 'one of the thousands of auxiliaries who served as foot soldiers of Nazi genocide.'"--Jack Fischel, Jewish Book Council "A perceptive and thought-provoking analysis... The story told by Lawrence Douglas in The Right Wrong Man is a vital part of that narrative of barbarism [and] a remorselessly fascinating account of the longest trial of any defendant accused of Nazi crimes."--Oliver Kamm, Jewish Chronicle "[A] thoughtful treatise."--Arnold Ages, Chicago Jewish Star "Lawrence Douglas's immensely readable book absorbs the reader in the twists and turns of the Demjanjuk saga, helping us understand both why justice required prosecuting Demjanjuk for his 'egregious moral complicity,' and how the job got done."--Kevin P. Spicer, CommonwealTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 The Beginning of the End of Something 17 2 John in America 26 3 Ivan in Israel 68 4 Demjanjuk Redux 109 5 Demjanjuk in Munich 137 6 Was damals Recht war ... 161 7 Memory into History 194 8 The Trial by History 216 9 The Right Wrong Man 247 Postscript 258 Acknowledgments 261 Notes 263 Sources 299 Index 321

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Book SynopsisReassesses conventional understanding of Japan’s Asia-Pacific War by defamiliarizing and expanding the rhetorical narrative. The nine chapters, diverse in theme and method, are united in their goal to recover a measured historicity about the conflict by either introducing new areas of knowledge or reinterpreting existing ones.

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Book SynopsisA rigorous new analysis of America''s legendary Big Week air campaign which enabled the Allies to gain air superiority before D-Day.In the years before the outbreak of World War II, there was a general consensus among military strategists that strategic bombing had the ability to win wars. However, no-one could foresee the devastation that German radar-directed interceptors would inflict on large bomber formations.With the increasingly urgent need to eliminate these German fighter-aircraft prior to D-Day, a concerted two-phase effort, code-named Operation Argument, was launched by USSAF. Targeting aircraft factories with hundreds of heavy bombers escorted by the new long-range P-51 Mustang, the operation, now known as the Big Week campaign, was designed to destroy aircraft production on the ground and force the Luftwaffe into combat to defend these vital facilities, allowing the new escort fighters to take their toll on the German interceptors. Packed with speTrade ReviewThe book is wonderfully supplemented by the usual stunning artwork known in many of the Osprey series. There are excellent maps, orders of battle, and a good selection of photographs. I found few if any editing errors in this book. It is a fantastic look at a very focused and short campaign in February 1944 that was deemed crucial to the success of the impending Allied invasion. In fact by April 1944, the USAAF switched priorities and focus by being subordinated to Eisenhower for invasion support. If you are looking for a compact yet comprehensive and affordable look at Operation Argument, then this is the book for you. -- Todd Shughart * Aviation News Magazine *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION CHRONOLOGY ATTACKER’S CAPABILITIES -The Pointblank Directive -Aircraft: their capabilities, roles, and missions -Commanders ORDERS OF BATTLE, February 1944 DEFENDER’S CAPABILITIES -The Luftwaffe’s air defence system -Aircraft: their capabilities, roles, and missions -Commanders CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES -“Black Week” – the crisis of American daylight strategic bombing -The Luftwaffe’s response -Operation Argument planning THE CAMPAIGN -Eighth AF Mission 226, February 20 -Eighth AF Mission 228, February 21 -Eighth AF Mission 230, February 22 -Fifteenth AF Missions, February 22, 23, and 24 -Eighth AF Mission No.233, February 24 -Eighth and Fifteenth AF Missions, February 25 AFTERMATH AND ASSESSMENT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

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Book SynopsisIn December 1944 the German military made its final attempt to end the Second World War by throwing in all its reserves in a desperate attempt to shatter the Allied lines. After breaking through the American-held sector in the Ardennes, two Panzer armies headed for the bridges over the River Meuse. However, a combination of poor planning, bad weather, tortuous terrain and, above all, the determined defence of keys towns and villages delayed the advance. The Allies were able to hold the northern and southern shoulders of the attack, hemming the Germans in. The Bulge had been created, and as the fortunes of battle were reversed, the Allies struck back.In Battle of the Bulge 1944–45, historian Andrew Rawson gives a clear, concise account of those dramatic days at the end of 1944, supported by a timeline of events and orders of battle. If you want to understand what happened and why – read on.

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Book SynopsisWidely hailed as a masterpiece, this is the first history of WWII to provide a truly global account of the war that encompassed six continents. Starting with the changes that restructured Europe and her colonies following the WWI, Gerhard Weinberg sheds new light on every aspect of World War II.Trade ReviewFrom reviews of first edition: 'Few historians could have taken on the daunting challenge of attempting a global history of the Second World War; but Gerhard Weinberg succeeds brilliantly. It is a masterly study which is unlikely to be surpassed.' Ian Kershaw, University of Sheffield'Weinberg's book is a clearly-written account of events, with enormous … reliable encyclopaedic summaries of anything about which you need to know.' Norman Stone, The Times'… a remarkable achievement … It certainly deserves to be placed alongside the war histories of John Keegan, Martin Gilbert and A. J. P. Taylor. As a sheer work of reference it outclasses even them.' Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Telegraph'This is a tour de force; classical diplomatic history at its best. Weinberg's global view of the war pays dividends again and again … '. David Reynolds, New York Times'This is an extraordinary book … an invaluable source for anyone needing in one place as many ideas as possible about the Second World War … Moral and humane feelings underpin his copious scholarship at every point, giving admirable depth and dimension to this monumental intellectual performance.' The Washington Post'… fully lives up to its subsidiary title and to the claims made by its publishers. This is a first class strategic history of the war.' The British Army Review'… a coherent - in fact, hypnotic - narrative offered up in a single, handsome volume … surely the finest one-volume history we have of the most important event of the century.' American Heritage'… a blockbuster of a survey, grounded, to a remarkable extent for so large a work, in primary sources and also in an evident mastery of the secondary literature. It is a joy to read: lively, vigorous, and...altogether a stylistic gem … [it] offers refreshingly forthright judgments on every major aspect of World War II strategy and policy.' Naval War College ReviewTable of Contents1. From one war to another; 2. From the German and Soviet invasions of Poland to the German attack in the West, September 1, 1939 to May 10, 1940; 3. The world turned upside down; 4. The expanding conflict, 1940–1941; 5. The Eastern Front and a changing war, June to December, 1941; 6. Halting the Japanese advance, halting the German advance; keeping them apart and shifting the balance: December 1941 to November 1942; 7. The war at sea, 1942–1944, and the blockade; 8. The war in Europe and North Africa 1942–1943: to and from Stalingrad; to and from Tunis; 9. The home front; 10. Means of warfare: old and new; 11. From the spring of 1943 to summer 1944; 12. The assault on Germany from all sides; 13. Tensions in both alliances; 14. The halt on the European fronts; 15. The final assault on Germany; 16. The war in the Pacific: from Leyte to the Missouri; Conclusions: the cost and impact of the war.

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Book SynopsisA new pictorial history of one of the most significant aircraft of the Second World War.

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Book SynopsisIn 1943, as war raged along the Eastern Front, the German forces attempted to push further east in the brutal Operation Citadel, which saw one of the largest armoured clashes in history: the Battle of Prokhorovka.Countered by two Soviet attacks, this operation saw the tide turn on the Eastern Front. For the first time a German offensive was halted in its tracks and the Soviets ended the conflict as the decisive victors. With a loss of over 200,000 men on both sides, this two-month clash was one of the costliest of the war. In this dramatic study, Anthony Tucker-Jones reassesses this decisive tank battle through the eyes of those who fought, using translated first-person accounts. Kursk 1943 is one volume that no military history enthusiast should be without.

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Book SynopsisAn in-depth history of the US Navy's light aircraft carrier the USS Princeton and its operational exploits in the Pacific Theater of World War II.This new history of the life and loss of the USS Princeton tells the story of one of the new class of aircraft carrier that proved essential to the US Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War. Starting life as the light cruiser Tallahassee before being converted to a light carrier as part of the plan to ramp up the strength of US naval air power, USS Princeton (CVL-23) joined the Pacific fleet in August 1943 and was immediately put to work as the United States was assembling new ships and crews for the Central Pacific campaign where the ship played a key role in conducting multiple strikes against the Japanese bastion at Rabaul. Princeton then joined Task Force 58, the Fast Carrier Task Force, and took part in the invasion of the Philippines, where the ship was lost

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Book SynopsisA three-volume study of the Holocaust. First published in 1961, Raul Hilberg's account of how Germany annihilated the Jewish community of Europe spurred discussion and shaped the field of Holocaust studies. This expanded edition includes new material, particularly from archives in Eastern Europe.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first extensive study of how anti-Semitism pervaded and shaped Nazi propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust, and how it pulled together diverse elements of a delusionary Nazi worldview. In an era when both anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories continue to influence world politics, Herf offers a timely reminder of their dangers.Trade ReviewHere, practically for the first time, we can see how Germans before and during World War II were at all times in their daily lives confronted with a carefully designed view of the world in which a mythical Jewish enemy was portrayed as threatening Germans and hence had to be killed. No prior study has shown as clearly as this one how central this theme was to German wartime propaganda in all its forms. -- Gerhard L. Weinberg, University of North CarolinaJeffrey Herf has written a brilliant book that reorients our understanding of the Holocaust. Arguing that racial antisemitism, however vicious, was an insufficient basis for genocide, Herf demonstrates that a major shift occurred in Nazi propaganda during the war: Jews were now presented as a political threat to the German nation, and as the instigators, through their puppets, America, England, and the Soviet Union, of a deadly world war against Germany. -- Susannah Heschel, author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish JesusA commendable and compelling elucidation of the Nazi propaganda which accompanied the Holocaust, indispensable for both students of the Third Reich and general readers. -- Jay W. Baird, author of The Mythical World of Nazi Propaganda, 1939-1945In this impressive book, Jeffrey Herf shows that the omnipresent image of the 'international Jew' as the source of Germany's victimhood was central to the propaganda and political imagination of the Nazi leadership, which made no secret of its intention to destroy European Jewry. -- Anson Rabinbach, Princeton UniversityWith the market so saturated with books that have "Nazi" in their titles, when a path-breaking new work does appear, one that explains the "why"--not just another documentation of the "how"--there is a chance it will slip under many readers' radar. One can only hope that such a fate will not befall Jeffrey Herf's incredibly important The Jewish Enemy, one of those rare works of Holocaust history that poses the most essential question: "Why did European, especially German, antisemitism, which had never led to an effort to murder all of Europe's Jews before, do so between 1941 and 1945 in the midst of World War II? What changed to make anti-Semitism a rationale for mass murder rather than for a continuation of centuries old patterns of persecution?"...[Herf is] the legitimate intellectual heir to [George] Mosse. -- Noah Strote * Forward *Jeffrey Herf's latest book, The Jewish Enemy--dealing with Nazi propaganda during the Holocaust--sheds new light on what happened then in Europe and is a trenchant refutation of those who try to make us believe that antisemitic hate speech is merely a cynical tool employed by politicians...At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the demented discourse of radical antisemitism has resurfaced in different idioms and cultural contexts. It would be complacent to assume that variants on the narrative explored in Jeffrey Herf's brilliant work will not play a part in the future as well...This is a book that should be read widely. -- Karl Pfeifer * Searchlight *What may be the most important book on the Holocaust in a generation...In The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust, [Herf] concedes that hatred and racism were important, but he argues that they don't explain Germany's unique efforts to destroy the Jews...The real answer isn't hate, but fear. Poring through miles of speeches, private comments, journal entries, party memoranda and all 24,000 pages of Goebbel's diaries, Herf concludes that the Nazis really believed that the Jews ran the world and wanted to destroy Germany. They believed that Jews controlled not only the Bolsheviks to the east but the capitalists to the west. -- Jonah Goldberg * Los Angeles Times *Many historians who have tackled Hitler and the Third Reich have found it impossible to take the Führer's rhetoric or Nazi ideology seriously. A. J. P. Taylor was infamous for treating Hitler as an ordinary statesman in the German mould. A succession of historians, including Rainer Zitelmann, Detlev Peukert and Götz Aly, continues to insist that Nazism was a rational modernizing force. It is hard to see how this approach will withstand Jeffrey Herf's patient, incisive and ultimately devasting analysis of the Nazi world-view in The Jewish Enemy. -- David Cesarani * Times Literary Supplement *Which of the major findings of this excellent study is more disturbing: that human beings are capable of inventing and believing the kind of vicious nonsense the Nazis believed about Jews, or that such profoundly irrational beliefs can become the basis of a meticulously devised and implemented program of industrial mass murder? It is indeed the case, to say the least, that 'an examination of modern political culture draws attention to the causal significance of many irrational and illusory ideological perspectives'...The Jewish Enemy is both a revealing, carefully documented historical study and a reminder of the timeless and astonishing human capacity for demented belief, bottomless hatred, and a correspondingly stunning readiness to act upon bizarre convictions and fantasies...This study is also highly informative about the methods and character of Nazi propaganda. The author makes use of sources not widely used before, such as the ubiquitous wall newspapers (also favored in communist states), posters, and archival materials (including directives to the press about the tasks and methods of propaganda), and the diaries of Goebbels, among others. Some striking visual images of 'the Jewish enemy' used in the press and posters are reproduced (remarkably similar to both Soviet anti-capitalist, anti-American propaganda and the images purveyed in Arab anti-Israeli propaganda). -- Paul Hollander * New Criterion *Through a chronological structure that moves seamlessly from an introductory section on pre-1939 Nazi propaganda themes and structures to the shifting narratives of the wartime period, Herf shows convincingly that the attacks on the regime's wartime "enemies" (Britain; after 1941 the Soviet Union and the United States) were underpinned by the same Überbegriff of an alleged "international Jewish conspiracy."...Herf's book adds much-needed intellectual ammunition to the argument that propaganda should be taken very seriously. -- Aristotle A. Kallis * H-Net *Undoubtedly, this is a much-needed study that convincingly demonstrates the centrality of radical anti-Semitic language in the Nazi leadership's thinking and the regime's wartime propaganda. Herf has succeeded in showing how in the minds of the regime's leaders and propagandists the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews were directly and inherently connected. -- Thomas Pegelow Kaplan * Canadian Journal of History *Herf is meticulous in his scholarship, and the book's vivid detail can certainly hold up to historians' scrutiny...This is a must-read. -- Dave Roy * Curled Up with a Good Book *Herf has made excellent use of many overlooked sources...Most shockingly, he shows the remarkable extent to which the German people were informed by Hitler and his colleagues that the Third Reich was engaged in annihilating Europe's Jews. The overall effect is one of a regime in thrall to its own paranoid fantasies, with devastating consequences that are all too familiar. -- Dan Stone * Journal of Genocide Research *Jeffrey Herf, one of the most prolific and challenging historians of twentieth-century Germany, has written an important book, the first comprehensive work detailing the structure of the Third Reich’s effort to inculcate antisemitism in the German population. This was a propaganda effort, and much of Herf’s book focuses on Joseph Goebbels; but Herf also carefully delineates changes in the antisemitic content of Hitler’s speeches and gives a great deal of attention to Otto Dietrich, the Reich press chief. The result for readers is a nuanced sense of the volume and flow of antisemitic propaganda—and The Jewish Enemy leaves no doubt that antisemitism, indeed murderous antisemitism, was an ideology propagated up front and in public. For some readers, this may seem an obvious point, but a great deal of older research underscored how the Nazis placed antisemitism in the background, emphasizing instead the material gains that ordinary citizens could expect from Nazi rule. Herf shows that nothing could be further from the truth...it is Herf’s significant achievement to gather the antisemitic propaganda of the Third Reich and demonstrate its patterns. For the first time, we have a nuanced account of how state-produced antisemitism changed during the war and how this antisemitism connected to the Holocaust. -- Helmut Walser Smith * Journal of Modern History *Table of ContentsPreface 1. The Jews, the War, and the Holocaust 2. Building the Anti-Semitic Consensus 3. "International Jewry" and the Origins of World War II 4. At War against the Alliance of Bolshevism and Plutocracy 5. Propaganda in the Shadow of the Death Camps 6. "The Jews Are Guilty of Everything" 7. "Victory or Extermination" Conclusion Appendix: The Anti-Semitic Campaigns of the Nazi Regime, as Reflected in Lead Front-Page Stories in Der V&omul;lkische Beobachter List of Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Bibliography Bibliographical Essay Index

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Book SynopsisAlthough Capa''s Falling Soldier image from the Spanish Civil War has been definitively proven to be a staged propaganda fake, no one has applied a similarly critical eye to his later work. This book is the first effort to establish the facts behind the fables surrounding his D-Day adventures and the images he produced during that period. This book examines the fictionalized account Robert Capa penned in his pseudo biography Slightly Out of Focus. Written in the hopes of it becoming a movie, Capa included many elements which were exaggerated or simply not true, while omitting many relevant events. As he himself said in the dust jacket for that book: Writing the truth being obviously so difficult, I have in the interests of it allowed myself to go sometimes slightly beyond and slightly this side of it. All events and persons in the book are accidental and have something to do with the truth.This new account carefully details the actual events surrounding Capa''s D-Day adventures, using

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Book SynopsisEmerging from modern history as a remarkable and much-loved family, the Mitfords have remained largely unrepentant concerning theirs and particularly Unity’s enthusiastic support of Hitler, the Nazis, Oswald Mosley and British fascism.

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Book SynopsisKarel Kuttelwascher may have had a German surname, but he was a Czech who became the scourge of the Luftwaffe bombers operating from France and the Low Countries in 1942. Flying with the RAF's legendary No. 1 Squadron, his destruction of fifteen aircraft in only three months earned him the DFC twice in a mere forty-two days, and made him the RAF's top night intruder ace. After his daring escape from German-occupied Czechoslovakia, he flew in the ferocious Battle of France and participated in the final weeks of the Battle of Britain as one of Churchill's 'Few'. During the early circus operations, he clocked up his first three kills before playing a part in the famous Channel Dash. However, it was in the lauded but lonely night intruder role that his individualistic skills came to the fore. Flying a long-range Hawker Hurricane IIC armed with 20-mm cannon, the man the wartime media dubbed the 'Czech Night Hawk' unleashed a reign of terror that included shooting down three Heinkel bombers in just four minutes.

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Book SynopsisA study of the Macchi Folgore and Veltro, the most successful Italian fighters in World War II. With specially commissioned profiles, the book examines how these fighters were conceived, their performance and the fascinating stories of their pilots.Italian fighters, such as the Fiat G.50 and Macchi C.200, had always struggled with their straight-line speed and restricted armament when engaging their Allied counterparts. To solve these problems, Macchi initially designed the C.202 Folgore using German engines, which contributed to create a faster aircraft, with a superior rate of climb and reachable altitude. Folgore''s success in various North African engagements then paved the way for the development of Macchi''s most successful fighter, the C.205V Veltro, which managed to combine increased speed and increased power. Packed with specially commissioned artwork and original photos, and written by Italian military aviation specialist Marco Mattioli, this fascinating booTrade ReviewPlenty of personal accounts from pilots talking about their experiences throughout the war, sprinkled throughout the book. There are also plenty of archive photos, along with a section colour artwork with 10 pages of beautiful colour profiles plus another 3 pages of squadron and more personal insignias. -- Robin Buckland * Military Model Scene *This is another in the outstanding Combat Aircraft series and it follows the same successful format of previous Osprey volumes. It is filled with photographs and personal accounts. The colour profile section is notable for the variety of schemes the Folgores and Veltros wore in various air arms. There is also a colour art section on the gruppo and stormo insignia painted on the sides of many Macchi fighters. The level of editing is superb and the book reads in a logical and easy to understand format. I highly recommend this latest volume on a lesser known subject known as the Macchi C.202 and C.205V. It’s a worthy addition to any military aviation historian or enthusiast’s shelves. -- Todd Shugart * The Aviation Enthusiast Book Club *Table of ContentsChapter 1 Ultimate Macchi Fighters Chapter 2 Folgores over Malta Chapter 3 FIghting over North Africa Chapter 4 Other Theatres Chapter 5 Defending Italian Soil Chapter 6 After the Armistice Chapter 7 In Foreign Service Appendices Colour Plates Commentary Index

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Book SynopsisThe biography of the RAF's top fighter pilot, Johnnie Johnson, who shot down more enemy aircraft than any other pilot during the Second World War.Trade ReviewSarkar has interviewed veteran pilots over the years and has drawn upon letters, diaries and family memories... to present this complete first person account of the air battles, bail-outs and crashes' * THE DAILY MAIL *Excellent... essential reading.' * SPITFIRE: THE JOURNAL OF THE SPITFIRE SOCIETY *

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Book SynopsisThe personal accounts of three young women who joined up in 1940.In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany. The British Army stood at just over one and a half million men, while the Germans had three times that many, and a population almost twice the size of ours from which to draw new waves of soldiers. Clearly, in the fight against Hitler, manpower alone wasn't going to be enough.Eighteen-year-old Jessie Ward defied her mother to join the ATS, Margery Pott signed up for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and nanny Kathleen Skin the WRNS. They left quiet homes for the rigours of training, the camaraderie of the young women who worked together so closely and to face a war that would change their lives for ever.Overall, more than half a million women served in the armed forces during the Second World War. This book tells the story of just three of them one from the Army, one from the Navy and one from the Air Force. But in their stories are reflected the lives of hundreds of thousands of others like them ordinary girls who went to war, wearing their uniforms with pride.

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Book SynopsisNOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES, featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Guillermo del ToroBefore the Second World War the Hollywood box office was booming, but the business was accused of being too foreign, too Jewish, too 'un-American'. Then the war changed everything. With Pearl Harbor came the opportunity for Hollywood to prove its critics wrong.America's most legendary directors played a huge role in the war effort: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Between them they shaped the public perception of almost every major moment of the war. With characteristic insight and expert knowledge Harris tells the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II, and how World War II changed Hollywood.Trade ReviewThe bombs fall on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and Hollywood rolls up its sleeves and swaps the diplomatic velvet glove for the patriotic steel fist . . . A story well worth telling * * Observer * *A captivating history . . . makes you want to revisit many of the films * * Daily Telegraph * *Mark Harris conducts a fastidious investigation into the five top filmmakers who put their careers on hold to help the war effort . . . Fascinating * * Total Film * *Harris deftly threads the story of each man into the wider canvases of Hollywood and the war * * Scotland on Sunday * *Gripping . . . reveals how an elite squad of Hollywood's greatest directors recorded the bravest - and bloodiest - actions of World War II * * Mail on Sunday * *Tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable * * New York Times * *Can't-put-it-down history of the World War II propaganda film * * San Francisco Chronicle * *Harris has a huge story to tell, and he does so brilliantly . . . an inspirational, if cautionary, tale of the triumph of the individual over the collective, of personal vision over groupthink, and ultimately of art over propaganda * * Wall Street Journal * *Harris is a lively commentator, and a master weaver of multifarious threads * * Empire * *Impeccably researched and irresistibly entertaining * * Belfast Telegraph * *Full of colourful anecdotes about the golden age of Hollywood as well as unflinching descriptions of what the directors faced on the frontline, the 500-plus pages just fly by. This would make a great movie... * * Aberdeen Evening Express * *This is as epic an undertaking as those historical Hollywood sagas of the '30s and '40s, including anecdotes from this golden age of film * * Good Book Guide * *I enjoyed the honesty of this book. It opened my eyes * * The Truth About Lies * *A startling account of how five exemplary film-makers (John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, Frank Capra) enlisted in every branch of the US forces, only to return, deeply moved and changed, to approach cinema in new ways * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisPublished for the first time, this illuminating and poignant correspondence offers a rare insight into the workings of the Cabinet War Rooms towards the end of the Second World War, and documents the rich wartime experiences of a woman with exclusive access to the closed world of Churchill''s inner circle.1939-1945 saw many important events of the Second World War. Yet a young secretary, Olive Christopher, was party to the political secrets of these crucial final years, working in Churchill''s Cabinet War Rooms.Trade Review'One of the most atmospheric eyewitness accounts of that time' -- Elizabeth Grice * The Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisFor those who loved Stephen E. Ambrose's Band of Brothers and E.B. Sledge's With the Old Breed. Drawing on toughness and skills forged in hardscrabble Depression-era North Carolina, Bronze Star recipient and expert B.A.R. rifleman Harold Frank invades Normandy, fights Germans, and endures a grueling stint in a German POW camp where he witnesses the fire-bombing of Dresden.From D-Day to Dresden with a Crack Shot B.A.R. Rifleman D-Day 1944: twenty-year-old PFC Harold Frank had moved as one with his battalion onto the shores of Utah Beach, pushing into France to cut off and blockade the pivotal Nazi-occupied deep-water port of Cherbourg. As a recognized crack shot with WW II's iconic American automatic rifle, Frank fought bravely across the bloody hedgerows of the Cotentin Peninsula. During the most intense fighting, Frank was ambushed and wounded in a deadly, nine-hour firefight with Germans. Taken prisoner and with a bullet lodged under one arm, Frank found himself dumped first in a brutal Nazi POW concentration camp, then shipped to a grueling work camp on the outskirts of Dresden, Germany, where the young PFC was exposed to the vengeance of a crumbling Nazi regime, the menace of a rapidly advancing Russian military—and the danger of thousands of Allied bombers screaming overhead during the firebombing of Dresden. Historian Mark Hager builds on hundreds of hours of interviews with Harold Frank, sharing the intimate and heart-pounding account of Frank’s journey as a child of the Great Depression to the bloody shores of the D-Day invasion, into the bowels of Nazi Germany, and back to the U.S. where as a young man Harold would spend years resolutely dealing with the lingering effects of starvation rations while determinedly building a new life—a life always mindful of the legacy of his POW experience and his faithful service in America’s hard-fought war against Nazi aggression.

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Book SynopsisOperation Market Garden, September 1944, the Netherlands. Three parachute drops and one armoured charge. The prize was the last bridge at Arnhem over the Neder Rijn. Taken intact it would provide the Allies with a back door into Germany - the famous Bridge Too Far'. This was one of the most audacious and imaginative operations of the war, and it failed, and Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history is a vivid introduction to it. In a sequence of almost 200 archive photographs accompanied by a detailed narrative he describes the landing of British and American parachutists and glider troops. At the same time British tanks spearheaded a sixty-mile dash along Hell's Highway' to link up with the lightly armed and heavily outnumbered airborne forces. Most books about the resulting battle concentrate on the struggle at Arnhem and the heroism of the British 1st Airborne Division. This book puts that episode in its wider context. In particular it focuses on the efforts of the US 101st and 82nd airborne divisions to hold off counterattacks by German battlegroups during the tanks' advance. The photographs give a dramatic insight into all sides of a remarkable but ill-fated operation which has fascinated historians and been the subject of controversy ever since. They also portray, as only photographs can, the men who were involved and the places and conditions in which the fighting took place.

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Book SynopsisGerman Machine Guns of the Second World War is a highly illustrated record of the German war machine between 1939 - 1945. Many of the photographs, all from the authors collection, come originally from the albums of individuals who took part in the war. Arranged by theatre chronologically, the book analyses the development of the machine gun and describes how the Germans carefully utilised weapons such as the MG34 and the much vaunted MG42 into both offensive and defensive roles. Supported by a host of other machine guns like the MP28, MP38/40 and the lethal Sturmgerher 44, it depicts how these formidable machine guns fought against an ever increasing enemy threat. Using over 250 rare and unpublished photographs together with detailed captions and accompanying text, this book provides a unique insight into German weaponry from early Blitzkrieg campaigns to the final demise of the Nazi empire.

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Book SynopsisWorld War II saw the appearance of numerous revolutionary armaments on both sides of the conflict that would radically change the nature of warfare, from jet aircraft to the ballistic missile and the atomic bomb. The greatest conflagration in history also saw the conception of the first surface-to-air guided missile systems: technology pioneered by German scientists and engineers through an extensive development programme which ran from 1942 to 1945. Although the programme did not achieve its main objective – to introduce a functional weapon system into the Luftwaffe air defence network – German research and development in most aspects of the technology was ahead of comparable research in the United Kingdom and the United States.The history of the transfer of German SAM technology to the Allies after 1945 has previously been overshadowed by the well-published transfers of the V-1 and V-2 guided missiles. This book presents the first complete history of Germany’s wartime development of surface-to-air missile (SAM) technology, how the Allies acquired this secret research towards the end of World War II in Europe and in the early postwar period, and how they then exploited this knowledge.

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Book SynopsisThe daughter of a D-Day paratrooper and her husband, a PTSD therapist, discover a family legacy of love, trauma, and resilience when they set out to explore a vast trove of WWII correspondence, official military documents, personal effects, and unique militaria found in closets and basements after her father’s death.Young Sue Gurwell had always known that her father had been a paratrooper. An old camo parachute from Holland served as her backyard tent, and high on a shelf she mustn’t touch, eight red devils in parachutes grinned from the front of mysterious drinking glasses Dad had sent Mom during the war. And then there was the special poem in his roll-top desk she sometimes snuck a peek at, written by a member of Dad’s regiment. This poem was a premonition of the sergeant’s death. “Yes,” her dad told her, “He was right—he died on D-Day.” But it’s not until 2016, after her parents had both passed away, that Susan Gurwell Talley and her husband Jack L. Talley begin to understand the true extent and significance of the wartime artifacts that had been staples of Sue’s childhood. The Talley’s discovered that Sue’s father, Lt. George L. Gurwell, Executive Officer, HqHq, 508th PIR, had silently squirreled away thousands of wartime documents in the family home. Like most combat veterans, George was never one to talk about the war; but the historic collection of official records, correspondence, photographs, maps, memorabilia, cultural artifacts, and unique ephemera constitute quite possibly the most extensive, various, and complete documentation of the 508th held privately today. This precious resource could not have passed into better hands than those of Jack and Sue Talley. Jack, a PhD psychologist specializing in PTSD, was the first to understand that George had PTSD symptoms that still lingered from the war years when he and George were introduced on June 6, 2001. That evening, the 57th anniversary of D-Day, George first opened up about the war, and preceded to talk late into the night. In that conversation lies the genesis of this book.

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Book SynopsisPacked with illustrations, this is a new history and analysis of how the Royal Navy''s most important fleet operated and fought the German Navy in the crucial first years of World War II.Throughout its history, the Royal Navy''s most powerful fleet has been the one guarding home waters. In this book, naval historian Angus Konstam explores the fighting power, the roles, and the battles of the Home Fleet, in the crucial first years of World War II when it was Britain''s most powerful fighting force, anchored in the northern bastion of Scapa Flow. He explains the complex responsibilities of the fleet, charged simultaneously with preventing the powerful German Navy from breaking out into the Atlantic; preparing to challenge any cross-Channel invasion force; and attacking German naval operations in the North Sea. Home Fleet actions included the loss of HMS Hood, the sinking of the Bismarck and countering the invasion of Norway, Ge

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Book SynopsisOn December 7, 1941, an imperial Japanese carrier strike force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, taking advantage of what was one of the most profound intelligence failures in US history. Galvanised into action, the branches of the U.S. military subsequently developed one of the greatest, albeit imperfect, intelligence-gathering and analysis networks of the combatant nations, opening an invaluable window onto the intentions of their enemies. The picture of U.S. military intelligence during World War II is a complex one. It was divided between the fields of signal intelligence (SIGINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT), combat intelligence and War Department intelligence, and between numerous different organisations, including the Military Intelligence Division (MID), Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the many intelligence units organic to Army, Navy, Army Air Forces, and Marine Corps.The documents collected in this book reveal the theoretical and practical principles behind wartime intelligence gathering and analysis, from the frontline intelligence officer to the Washington-based code-breaker. They explain fundamentals such as how to observe and record enemy activity and intercept enemy radio traffic, through to specialist activities such as cryptanalysis, photo-reconnaissance, prisoner interrogation, and undercover agent operations.The painstaking work of an intelligence operator required a sharp, attentive mind, whether working behind a desk or under fire on the frontlines. The outputs from these men and women could ultimately make the difference between victory and defeat in battle.

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Compelling and stunningly written' THE TIMES'Wildly exciting . . . a classic' SPECTATOR'Flawless . . . poetic . . . superbly portrayed' DAILY TELEGRAPH Three men. Three short, glittering lives. Young English painter Christopher Wood arrives in Paris in 1921 set on becoming the next great master. By day he studies; by night he attends parties with Picasso and Cocteau before paying too high a price for success. Richard Hilary, a confident if unprincipled Spitfire pilot, is suffering from terrible burns after being shot down. But the operations to restore him haven't deterred him from returning to action. And Jeremy Wolfenden, the cleverest of his set at All Souls College, leaves it all behind to report on the Cold War. But his louche private life makes him a plaything for the intelligent services, taking him on a fateful journey between East and West.The Fatal Englishman is a stunning tale of three short lives that burned brightly from a master storyteller.

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Book SynopsisThis new book will be an essential reference for modellers and wargamers who build and paint World War II British armoured fighting vehicles. It provides extensive information on different types of vehicles, describing when they were used, by whom and for what purpose. In addition, the many modifications made to vehicles during the war are included, with guidance on how to create these for models. Step-by-step building and painting guides illustrate vehicles in 1/35, 1/72 and 1/76 scale. This book features models, often with a comparison of models from different manufacturers, for the following: M3 Grant Mk1, including a North African version; Cromwell Mk IV; Royal Marine Centaur; Cavalier Observation Post; Sherman M4A1 and Crab; Crusader III AA Mk 1; Matilda; Morris and Guy Quads; Bedford QLs; Scammell Pioneer Heavy Artillery tractor conversion; Anti-tank guns, e.g. the 'Pheasant', field guns, anti-aircraft guns, etc and, finally, figures which include uniform painting guides.Trade ReviewThere is some great material, hints and tips in here, which I think will help both beginner and experienced modeller alike. Tom is a very capable modeller and he demonstrates his skill very well in his models. Recommended without any hesitation. -- Robin Buckland, Military Model Scene * Military Model Scene *

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