Second World War Books

Book SynopsisTerror by Night, first published in 1945, tells the thrilling story of how the SBS, and Greek Sacred Squadron planned and executed their daring raids, dealing out death and destruction to the enemy and striking fear into his heart in the Aegean. Their extraordinary achievements deservedly rank high in the history of Special Forces.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsForeword by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Preface Introduction by Joseph Bialowitz 1 Before War 2 War Begins 3 The Rosenbergers 4 Fritz 5 Summer 1942 6 Fall 1942 7 November 1942 to April 1943 8 Life in Sobibór 9 Planning Vengeance 10 Escape from Sobibór 11 New Dangers 12 Liberation and Victory 13 Life as a Displaced Person 14 Resettling in the United States Epilogue: Life after Sobibór Notes

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In May 1918, Angela and Leopold Mond received a knock on the front door. It was the postman and he was delivering the letter every family in the United Kingdom dreaded: the notification of a loved one's battlefield death, in their case the death in action of their eldest child, their son, Lieutenant Francis Mond. The twenty-two year old Royal Flying Corps pilot, along with his Observer, Lieutenant Edgar Martyn, had been shot down over no man's land, both being killed instantly. If there was one crumb of comfort, it was the news that a brave Australian officer, Lieutenant A.H. Hill, had gone out under fire and recovered both bodies: there would, at the very least, be a grave to visit after the war. And then, nothing. No further news was forthcoming. Angela Mond wrote to the Imperial War Graves Commission asking for further details but there was confusion. No one knew where Mond's and Martyn's bodies were buried. There had been an initial trail: both bodies had been taken to the village of Corbie and a lorry summoned to take them away, but from that last sighting both men had simply disappeared. It seems incredible that all traces of the burial of two officers duly identified, should be lost,' wrote Angela to the authorities in December 1918. And so began one of the most extraordinary private investigations undertaken in the aftermath of the Great War. Aged 48 and the mother of five children, Angela, a wealthy and well-connected socialite from London's West End, embarked on an exhaustive personal quest to find her son, an investigation that took her to the battlefields and cemeteries of France and into correspondence with literally hundreds of French civilians and British and German servicemen. In the meantime, as she searched, she bought the ground on which her son's plane had crashed and erected a private memorial to Francis, a memorial that still survives. Angela's quest for her son is reflective of the wider yearning amongst those who lost loved ones in the Great War: the absolute need find a form of solace through the resolution of a search. More than 750,000 servicemen and women had been killed, half of whom had no known grave. After the Great War there were families who hunted for their missing sons for a decade or more and when no body was recovered, back doors were forever left unlocked just in case that son should one day return. Lieutenant Francis Mond's case was exceptional, perhaps unique in the circumstances of his death and subsequent disappearance, but the emotions behind the search for his body were shared by families all over the country.

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Book SynopsisBased on select writings from an exceptional Amsterdam archive containing more than two thousand Dutch diaries from World War II, The War Diaries illuminates a part of history we haven't seen in quite this way before. Nina Siegal, an accomplished journalist and novelist, weaves together excerpts from the daily journals of collaborators, resistors, and the persecuteda Dutch Nazi police detective, a Jewish journalist imprisoned at Westerbork transit camp, a grocery store owner who saved dozens of livesinto a braided nonfictional narrative of the Nazi occupation and the Dutch Holocaust, as individuals experienced it day by day.Siegal provides the context, both historical and personal, while she tries to make sense of her own relationship to this past. As a second-generation survivor born and raised in New York, she attempts to understand what it meant for her mother and maternal grandparents to live through the war in Europe in those times. When Siegal moved to Amsterdam, those questions Trade Review Praise for The War Diaries ‘A beautiful, poignant book about the darkest period in modern Dutch history…This book gives a powerful voice to forgotten witnesses’ David de Jong, author of Nazi Billionaires ‘Nina Siegal has accomplished a remarkable feat. She has given us a day-by-day narrative of the Holocaust in the Netherlands by splicing together excerpts from a few of the hundreds of diaries stored in an Amsterdam archive…With thoughtful and insightful observations of her own, Siegal helps us understand how 75 percent of the 140,000 Jews of Holland, a prosperous and cultivated Western European country, could have been murdered, posing a warning for our own deeply fractured country’ Joseph Berger, author of Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence ‘An astonishing, essential book that asks us to bear witness to an unbearable history, even as it invites us to think hard about what history is—how it gets written, and what stories it tells. This book is powerfully moving and necessarily terrifying. By way of rigorous research and intimate storytelling, Nina Siegal brings us close to her diary keepers—making it impossible to turn away from the difficult, necessary questions their lives raise about survival, suffering, complicity, and memory’ Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams ‘Like an archaeologist excavating an ancient temple, Nina Siegal has dug up hundreds of stories of life under the unprecedented horror of Nazism, revealing the changing thoughts and shifting moods of heroes, villains, and victims. Until now, we only had a black-and-white image of these lives. Now, thanks to Siegal, we see them in living color’ Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Sontag

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Book SynopsisFuelled by hate. Unable to form normal human relationships. Unwilling to debate political issues.In many ways Adolf Hitler seemed an unlikely leader, yet he inspired millions, leading Germany into the cataclysmic events of the Second World War.But how was Hitler able to exert such power over those around him? Award-winning historian and documentary maker Laurence Rees draws on twenty years of research into the Third Reich, as well as contemporary accounts of people who knew Hitler, to examine the nature of Hitler''s appeal and reveal the role his unique ''charisma'' played in his success.''Offering acerbic insight ... this arresting account asks and answers all the right questions''Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewOffering acerbic insight ... this arresting account asks and answers all the right questions * Daily Telegraph *Laurence Rees asks, as always, the right questions, and provides excellent answers. Blending the oral testimony of contemporaries with documentary evidence, he offers sharp insight into the adulation of Hitler by millions of Germans that underpinned his 'charismatic rule' -- Professor Sir Ian KershawLaurence Rees has done more for good history on television in this country than anyone else. Over several series, he has examined the most terrible aspects of the Second World War with a passionate longing to understand, while rejecting facile moral judgment -- Sir Antony BeevorLaurence Rees is currently producing the best documentaries ever made about the Nazi era -- Clive James

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Book SynopsisSpike Milligan was born at Ahmednagar in India in 1918. He received his first education in a tent in the Hyderabad Sindh desert and graduated from there, through a series of Roman Catholic schools in India and England, to the Lewisham Polytechnic.He then plunged into the world of Show Business, seduced by his first stage appearance, at the age of eight, in the nativity play of his Poona convent school. He began his career as a band musician, but has since become famous as a humorous scriptwriter and actor in both films and broadcasting. Spike received an honorary CBE in 1992.

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Book SynopsisIn Vichy France, 1942, a group of men sit outside an office, waiting to be interviewed. The reason they have been pulled off the street and taken there is obvious enough. They are, for the most part, Jews. But how serious an offence this is, and how they are to suffer for it, is not clear, and they hope for the best. But as rumours pass between them of trains full of people locked from the outside and furnaces in Poland, and although they reassure themselves that nothing so monstrous could be true, their panic rises.Arthur Miller''s claustrophobic play of how the inconceivable becomes allowed to pass, Incident at Vichy is one of the most indispensable, moving pieces of art about the Holocaust.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Deeply researched, convincingly authenticated, this extraordinary study of the magical and supernatural at the highest levels of Nazi Germany will astonish.”—Robert Carver, Spectator“A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.”—David Aaronovitch, The Times “This is a dense and scholarly book about one of the pulpiest subjects of the past 70 years – the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult, which has been much debated across popular culture both in fiction (Captain America, Hellboy, Wolfenstein, the Indiana Jones series, Iron Sky, The Keep and countless others) and in innumerable schlocky works of pseudoscience with runes and swastikas on the covers. As it turns out, though, even this sober, academic treatment of the topic reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page.”—Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph“[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“This original and compellingly argued book shows a significant link between Nazism and the supernatural.” —Lisa Pine, English Historical Quarterly“This fascinating supernatural history explores the Third Reich’s obsession with the occult. Astrology, the paranormal and paganism were just as much part of Hitler’s mad credo as his pseudo-scientific belief in a master race, and Kurlander shows how the party used such practices to gain power and shape policy.”—Sebastisan Shakespeare, Tatler “Kurlander’s is a thoughtful, well-written and extremely welcome contribution.”—Roger Moorhouse, BBC History“The author has turned a massive amount of research into a comprehensive account of the supernatural in Nazi Germany, and has surely made his point that we cannot understand the Third Reich apart from this bizarre aspect of its existence.”—Kyle Jantzen, German History"Hitler’s Monsters is a book I’ve long been wishing to read. Now that it’s been written, I couldn’t be more delighted. Eric Kurlander delivers in just about every way possible. His writing is crisp and compelling; his haunting narrative richly documented, utterly convincing, and certain to change popular understanding of National Socialist history in Germany."—Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, author of Hitler’s Holy Relics "Eric Kurlander’s provocative new study offers compelling reasons to take a critical look at the neglected history of occultism in Nazi Germany. It should spark renewed attention to the topic and more informed debates about its significance."—Peter Staudenmaier, author of Between Occultism and Nazism"In this thought-provoking and original book, Kurlander explores the monstrousness of Hitler’s Germany by taking seriously the demons, vampires, witches, and werewolves that populated the Nazi world and made possible the building of a Third Reich right in the middle of the twentieth century."—Peter Fritzsche, author of An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler "Until now, no one has offered a sustained treatment of the links between Nazism and occultism. Eric Kurlander has unearthed myriad examples of these links, and in fields as diverse as agriculture, archaeology and armaments manufacture. Their cumulative effect in Hitler’s Monsters is positively jaw-dropping."—Monica Black, author of Death in Berlin "In this stunning new book, historian Eric Kurlander shows how the Third Reich was monstrous in more ways than commonly supposed. The regime's modern planning and methods of conquest and biopolitics were shot through with the search for esoteric pagan, even supernatural knowledge. We cannot think of “racial science” in the same way again."—A. Dirk Moses, author of German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past

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Book SynopsisA remarkable Holocaust memoir, a powerful testament to human courage and fortitude, for readers of Edith Eger''s The Choice.''This memoir is heartbreaking.'' Elie Wiesel, author of Night''Profoundly observed... remarkably lived... ferocious bravery.'' New York Times __________Alicia Jurman is five-years-old when her story begins. It is 1935 and she is living in the East Polish town of Buczacz. Although brought up in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism, nothing could have prepared her for the Russian invasion of Poland and the full horror of the Nazi Occupation.At thirteen, while fleeing the Nazis through war-ravaged Poland, Alicia began saving the lives of strangers. Her family cruelly wrenched from her, Alicia rescued other Jews from the Gestapo, led them to safe hideouts, and lent them her courage and hope. Even the sight of her mother''s brutal murder could not quash this remarkable child''s faith in human goodness - or her determination to prevail against overwhelming odds.After the war, Alicia continued to risk her life, leading Polish Jews on an underground route to freedom in Palestine. She swore on her brother''s grave that if she survived, she would speak for her silenced family. This book is the eloquent fulfilment of that oath.__________What readers are saying about Alicia:***** ''I just kept turning the pages to the end.''***** ''So much bravery... We need to remember history like this.''***** Probably the most astonishing book I have ever read.''Trade ReviewProfoundly observed... amid all this ferocious bravery, small, sweet details emerge with a rending power. * New York Times *Gripping, assiduously detailed... the author serves as a model of active home-front heroism * Kirkus *A powerful, intimate, searingly impressive memoir of a uniquely courageous and unusually intuitive young girl of the Holocaust nightmare and the years following. * Chaim Potok, author of The Chosen and The Promise *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive study of Hitler's self-propelled artillery.

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Book SynopsisA richly illustrated guide to modelling Landing Craft and Amphibians filled with 80-100 photographs and drawings.

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Book SynopsisNigel Fryatt explores all you need to know about the direct descendant of the original World War Two Jeep.

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Book SynopsisWorld War II was a significant period of development for American missile programs, during which time the US built pioneering examples of guided weapons systems. However, whilst the German missiles of World War II are famous around the world, their American counterparts have remained shrouded in secrecy, despite the fact that they formed the basis for the later revolutions in precision warfare.Among the most sophisticated missiles of World War II was the US Navy's radar-guided Bat anti-ship missile, which was on the verge of deployment in the final months of the war. The war also saw the first use of guided assault drones, including the US Army Air Force's Aphrodite program of 1944, and the US Navy's Project Anvil and TDR-1.This book draws back the veil on these weapons, examining the principal avenues of missile development in America during World War II, including the early glide bombs, radio-controlled bombs and electro-optically controlled bombs. Some of the more peculiTable of ContentsIntroduction Cruise Missiles Guided Glide Bombs Guided Vertical Bombs Air Defense Missiles Air-to-Air Missiles Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missiles Analysis Further Reading

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Book SynopsisFirst flown in 1940, the prototype Vought F4U Corsair instantly became the fastest fighter in the world and the fastest US aircraft of any description. Powered by a huge 18-cylinder Pratt and Whitney Double Wasp engine driving an enormous 13 feet 4 inch propeller, the first Corsairs were capable of 417mph. This figure would rise to nearly 450mph in later versions. Production began in 1941, not only by Vought but also by Goodyear and Brewster, and the F4U entered service with the US Navy in September 1942. The aircraft subsequently came to be extensively used from land and sea by the US Marines, Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Air Force. Famous squadrons like VMF-214 'The Black Sheep' and VF-17 'Jolly Rogers', along with many others, maintained total ascendancy over the Japanese for the rest of the war - a remarkable achievement for a single type. After the Second World War the Corsair remained in production and was used with distinction by the French in Indo-China and again by the US Navy in Korea. Since then Corsairs have achieved significant success in air races and more and more are being restored to fly for museums and warbird enthusiasts the world over. This comprehensive new book combines technical information and detailed development history with a fascinating combat history told, in many cases, by the Second World War and Korean War pilots themselves. Well researched, readable and illustrated with scores of rare and previously unpublished photographs, Vought F4U Corsair is the perfect book for any fan of the 'bent wing bird'.

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Book SynopsisFollowing his first book in the TankCraft series on the British army's Shermans during the battle for Normandy, Dennis Oliver has compiled a companion volume on those used by the US Army throughout the campaign in Western Europe. These were the tanks that made up the bulk of the American armoured forces that swept across occupied France and advanced into Hitler's Germany. Wartime photographs and carefully researched, exquisitely presented colour illustrations show in detail the types of Sherman - including the main variants - that played a vital role in Allied operations. As with all the books in the TankCraft series, a section of this work displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also explained. This book will give the modeller all the information and knowledge required to recreate an authentic miniature representation of the most famous American armoured vehicle of the Second World War.

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Book SynopsisThe major contribution made by Coastal Forces to the Allied war effort has had surprisingly little coverage in the literature of the Second World War. Motor torpedo boats, PT boats, motor gunboats, launches and submarine chasers served with distinction throughout the War, and in every theatre. They performed invaluable service as patrol boats, convoy escorts, minelayers and minesweepers, harbour defence vessels, light landing craft, RAF rescue boats and transports for agents and clandestine missions. Allied Coastal Forces, now a recognised classic work and first published in 1990, remains the only publication to deal comprehensively - in words, photographs and drawings - with the technical detail of all these boats. Design, construction and subsequent development are all covered, and the builders, construction lists, fates and the technical data are given for each type. Separate sections cover armament and equipment, sea-going qualities and habitability. This first volume covers all the designs of the Fairmile Marine Company (including those craft built and equipped for Canada), together with the 72ft Harbour Defence Motor Launch and the US Navy 110ft subchaser. The authors, firmly established as the recognised authorities on small warships, unearthed a remarkable body of information now included in this major work, and their finely detailed drawings, redrawn form original builders' plans, offer an unparalleled view of all these remarkable designs. The new editions of their work will be welcomed by naval enthusiasts and modellers alike.

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Book SynopsisMuch has been written about the Royal Air Force during the Second World War-memoirs, biographies, histories of Fighter and Bomber commands, technical studies of the aircraft, accounts of individual operations and exploits - but few books have attempted to take the reader on a journey through basic training and active service as air or ground crew and eventual demobilization at the end of the war. That is the aim of James Goulty's Eyewitness RAF. Using a vivid selection of testimony from men and women, he offers a direct insight into every aspect of wartime life in the service. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the individual's experience of the RAF - the preparations for flying, flying itself, the daily routines of an air base, time on leave, and the issues of discipline, morale and motivation. A particularly graphic section describes, in the words of the men themselves, what it felt like to go on operations and the impact of casualties - airmen who were killed, injured or taken prisoner. A fascinating varied inside view of the RAF emerges which is perhaps less heroic and glamorous than the image created by some post-war accounts, but it gives readers today a much more realistic appreciation of the whole gamut of life in the RAF seventy years ago.

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Book SynopsisThe Italian campaign was one of the most debated of the Second World War, splitting the American and British allies, and causing great disharmony. After the fall of Rome and the surrender of Italy, the invasion of Normandy led to the Italian campaign becoming a sideshow as the D-Day Dodgers' fought their way through Italy to the Alps against a grinding defence and extreme weather. In a sequence of 200 wartime photographs Simon Forty sums up the major events of the conflict - from the landings on Sicily to the crossing of the Po. Commanded first by Sir Harold Alexander and then Mark Clark, the Allied armies (US Fifth and British Eighth) drew men not only from Britain, the United States, France and Poland but from all over the Commonwealth - from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa - as well as such other countries as Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Greece and Palestine. The devastation caused by the war in the cities, towns and countryside is part of the story, but perhaps the most powerful impression is made by the faces of the soldiers themselves as they look out from the Italian front of so long ago.

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Book SynopsisDespatches in this volume include that on the first and second battles of Narvik in 1940; the despatch on operations in central Norway 1940, by Lieutenant General H.R.S. Massy, Commander-in-Chief, North West Expeditionary Force; Despatch on operations in Northern Norway between April and June 1940; the despatch on carrier-borne aircraft attacks on Kirkenes (Norway) and Petsamo (Finland) in 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey; the despatch on the raid on military and economic objectives in the Lofoten Islands (Norway) in March 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey, Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet; and the despatch on the raid on military and economic objectives in the vicinity of Vaagso Island (Norway) in December 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey. This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in what was one of the most significant periods in British military history.

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Book SynopsisThe gripping, vividly told story of the largest prisoner of war escape in of the Second World War – organized by an Australian bank clerk, a British jazz pianist and an American spy.In August 1944, the most successful POW escape of the Second World War took place - 106 Allied prisoners were freed from a camp in Maribor, in present-day Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with the help of U.S. intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was on a mission to work with the partisans: a group who moved like ghosts through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces.Told here for the first time is the story of how these three men came together – along with the partisans – to plan and execute the escape is told here for the first time. The Greatest Escape, written by Ralph Churches’ son Neil, takes us from Ralph and Les’s capture in Greece in 1941 and their brutal journey to Maribor, with many POWs dying along the way, to the horror of seeing Russian prisoners starved to death in the camp. The book uncovers the hidden story of Allied intelligence operations in Slovenia, and shows how Ralph became involved. We follow the escapees on a nail-biting 160-mile journey across the Alps, pursued by German soldiers, ambushed and betrayed. And yet, of the 106 men who escaped, 100 made it to safety. Thanks to research across seven countries, The Greatest Escape is no longer a secret.It is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of the last century.

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Book SynopsisThe origins of most of the west’s Special Forces can be traced back to the Long Range Desert Group which operated across the limitless expanses of the Libyan Desert, an area the size of India, during the whole of the Desert War from 1940 – 1943. After the defeat of the Axis in North Africa they adapted to serve in the Mediterranean, the Greek islands, Albania, Yugoslavia and Greece. They became the stuff of legend. The brainchild of Ralph Bagnold, a pre-war desert explorer, featured, in fictional terms in The English Patient, who put all of his expertise into the creation of a new and, by the standards of the day, highly unorthodox unit. Conventional tactical thinking shunned the deep heart of the vast desert as it was thought to be a different planet, a harsh, inhospitable wilderness where British forces could not possibly survive even less operate effectively. Bagnold, Pat Clayton and Bill Kennedy Shaw created a whole new type of warfare.Using specially adapted vehicles and the techniques they’d learned in the‘30s, recruiting only men of the right temperament and high levels of fitness and endurance, the first patrols set out bristling with automatic weapons. The 30-cwt Chevy truck and the famous Jeep have become iconic, the LRDG, in a dark hour, was the force which took the fight to the enemy, roving over the deep desert – a small raider’s paradise, attacking enemy convoys and outposts, destroying aircraft and supplies, forcing the Axis to expend more and more resources protecting their vulnerable lines.Their work was often dangerous, always taxing, exhausting and uncomfortable. They were a new breed of soldier. The Axis never managed to equip any similar unit, they never escaped their fear of the scorching wilderness. Once the desert war was won they transferred their skills to the Mediterranean sector, re-training as mountain guerrillas, serving in the ill-fated Dodecanese campaign, then in strife torn Albania, Yugoslavia and Greece, fighting alongside the mercurial partisans at a time the Balkans were sliding towards communist domination or civil war.In addition LRDG worked alongside the fledgling SAS and they established, beyond all doubt, the value of highly trained Special Forces, a legacy which resonates today.Trade ReviewEnthralling’ is the word I am looking for. Highly recommended. * War History Online *Very absorbing book * Gun Mart *

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Book SynopsisOn Christmas Eve 1944, the men of the IV SS-Panzerkorps were preparing to celebrate the occasion as best they could. Taking advantage of the pause in the fighting around Warsaw, they looked forward to partaking in that most German of holidays, including the finest Christmas dinner their field kitchens could still prepare in this fifth year of the war. They had earned it too; after five months of unrelenting combat and the loss of many of their friends, troops from the corps headquarters, headquarters troops, and its two divisions - the 3rd SS Panzer Division “Totenkopf” and the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking” - were eagerly anticipating what the holiday would bring, including presents from home and perhaps sharing a bottle of schnapps or wine with their comrades.This was not to be, for that very evening, the corps commander, SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille, received a telephone call notifying him that the 35,000 men of his corps would begin boarding express trains the following day that would take them from the relative quiet of the Vistula Front to the front lines in Hungary, hundreds of kilometers away. Their mission: Relieve Budapest! Thus would begin the final round in the saga of the IV SS-Panzerkorps. In Hungary, it would play a key role in the three attempts to raise the siege of that fateful city. Threatened as much by their high command as by the forces of the Soviet Union, Gille and his troops overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their attempts to rescue the city’s garrison, only to have their final attack called off at the last minute. At that moment, they were only a few kilometers away from the objective towards which they had striven for nearly a month. After the relief attempt’s failure sealed the fate of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians and Germans, the only course of action remaining was to dig in and protect the Hungarian oilfields as long as possible.face=Calibri>Table of ContentsIntroduction to the Second Volume List of Maps List of Figures Illustrations Chapter 13: The Lost Month of December 1944 Chapter 14: The Hungarian Theater of Operations Chapter 15: Arrival in Hungary Chapter 16: Preparations for the Relief of Budapest Chapter 17: The First Relief Attempt of Budapest – Operation Konrad I Chapter 18: The Second Relief Attempt of Budapest – Operation Konrad II Chapter 19: Change of Mission Chapter 20: The Third Relief Attempt of Budapest – Operation Konrad III Chapter 21: The Final Push Chapter 22: Battling to a Stalemate Appendix A: IV. SS-Pz.Korps Battle and Campaign Participation Credits Appendix B: Selected Orders of Battle Appendix C: German Army and Waffen-SS Rank Equivalents Appendix D: Glossary Endnotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisShortly after the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom was described as one vast aircraft carrier anchored off the coast of Europe. During a seven year period 500 airfields were constructed to serve the needs first of the RAF and later the USAAF as they carried the war to German-occupied Europe. The airfields that were constructed took many different forms from training airfields and Advanced Landing Grounds to grass fighter airstrips and vast complexes used to accommodate heavy bombers. This book charts the history of each Second World War airfield in and around the UK providing a unique insight in to the construction, operational life and post-war history of each airfield. Alongside detailing the history of each airfield, this work comprehensively records the details of each unit that operated from airfields around the UK. The information provided in this meticulously researched book is supported by a wealth of 690 photographs providing an illustration into the life of each wartime station.

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Book SynopsisThe armour clashes in May 1940 were the biggest the world had yet seen, as the sweeping German advances of that period came to epitomize Blitzkrieg. The Wehrmacht's Panzer III was well matched by the French Somua S35 tanks, the two representing very different design philosophies and yet both ranking among the best in the world at the time. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned colour artwork, this work draws upon the latest research to provide a definitive analysis of the clash between these two high-quality, cutting-edge tank designs. It describes one of the key duels at the heart of a new type of warfare, in the epic battles at the outset of Hitler's conquest of France and the Low Countries.Table of ContentsIntroduction /Chronology /Design and Development /Technical Specifications /The Combatants /The Strategic Situation /Combat /Statistics and Analysis /Conclusion /Further Reading /Index

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Book SynopsisHeinz Knocke was one of the outstanding German fighter pilots of World War II and this vivid first-hand record of his experiences has become a classic among aviation memoirs, a best-selling counter-balance to the numerous accounts written by Allied pilots. Knoke joined the Luftwaffe on the outbreak of war, and eventually became commanding officer of a fighter wing. An outstandingly brave and skilful fighter, he logged over two thousand flights, and shot down fifty-two enemy aircraft. He had flown over four hundred operational missions before being crippled by wounds in an astonishing 'last stand' towards the end of the war. He was awarded the Knight's Cross for his achievements. In a text that reveals his intense patriotism and discipline, he describes being brought up in the strict Prussian tradition, the rise of the Nazi regime, and his own wartime career set against a fascinating study of everyday life in the Luftwaffe, and of the high morale of the force until its disintegration. His memoirs are set in a new perspective, and are both a valuable contribution to aviation literature and a moving human story.

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Book Synopsis'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' The courageous pilots of the Royal Air Force who faced the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, affectionately known as 'the Few', are rightly hailed as heroes. Recently, efforts have been made to recognise the thousands who supported RAF operations behind the scenes. And yet one group remains missing from the narrative: the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. The Women Behind the Few explores the Second World War from the perspective of the WAAFs working behind the scenes to collect and disseminate vital intelligence - intelligence that resulted in Allied victory. WAAFs worked within the Dowding System, the world's most sophisticated air defence network, as well as in the Y Service, intercepting German communications. Throughout the Blitz, they used radar to aid Fighter and Bomber Commands in protecting Britain's civilians. WAAFs also assisted with the Allied offensive bombing campaign and were behind the discovery of the terrifying German V-weapons. Their work was critical ahead of the Normandy landings and they were present in their hundreds at Bletchley Park. In this thrilling book, Sarah-Louise Miller brings the women of the force back to life, celebrating their wartime contribution to British military intelligence. Hidden behind the Few but vital to their success, WAAFs supplied the RAF with life-saving information. Here, for the first time, is their story.

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Book SynopsisThe welcome given to refugees from fascist Europe is part of our fond nostalgia for Britain's role in the Second World War, nestling in our imagination next to images of evacuees clutching teddy bears, and milkmen picking their way through bomb rubble during the Blitz. But there is a darker side to this story. Then, as now, there was great suspicion, resentment and fear towards new arrivals, much of it kindled by the tabloid press. Then, as now, politicians dealt with a reluctance to accommodate refugees by hiding behind bureaucratic hurdles and obfuscation. Many of the 10,000 Kindertransport children who arrived here in the late 1930s have warm memories of the kindness they were shown, but half a million refugees were refused entry and most of them died as a result. And those who were accepted found their troubles far from over. While Britain fearfully awaited invasion in 1940, 30,000 Jews were interned as 'enemy aliens' and some were sent off to the colonies on dangerous and sometimes fatal voyages. Nor were Jews the only refugees clamouring for the thin gruel of public sympathy. Those fleeing fascism and civil war elsewhere in Europe found that whether they were met with kindness or hostility depended on the locals' political affiliations and newspapers of choice. Interweaving personal testimonies with historical sources, Paul Dowswell casts a fresh eye on the wartime era, painting a vivid picture of what life was really like for Britain's refugees.

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Book SynopsisThis guide book covers the present-day battlefield, and the actions that took place on and immediately behind the D-Day beaches, and Major and Mrs Holt's Pocket Guide to Normandy has been put together to take you around the area.This book, part of a new series of guides, is designed conveniently in a small size, for those who have only limited time to visit, or who are simply interested in as an introduction to the historic battlefields, whether on the ground or from an armchair. They contain selections from the Holts' more detailed guide of the most popular and accessible sites plus handy tourist information, capturing the essential features of the Battles.The book contains many full colour maps and photographs and detailed instructions on what to see and where to visit.

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Book SynopsisOn paper at least the French army in 1939 was the most powerful land army in the world. Sheltered behind the fortifications of the Maginot line was an army which drew its troops from colonies and territories all over the world. It included spahis from algeria, calvary from Morocco, Chasseur Alpin from the high Vosges and some of the world's most modern and powerful tanks. The horrendous losses of the Great War had developed a psychological dependence on fortifications and a lack of flexibility in both tactics and strategy. It's officers were prepared to fight the positional warfare of 1914-18 not the 'Blitzkrieg' of 1940. This book, the first of a five volume set, looks at the uniforms, equipment and organisation of France's military forces during WW2. It details the French army on the eve of war and the troops which fought the "Phoney War", the campaign in Norway and the lightning invasion of France in May-June 1940. Also detailed are the forces of "Greater France" in North Africa, the Middle East and Indochina. Finally, it examines the army and armistice and Vichy France.Table of ContentsThe Army of 1939-40 and Vichy France · The Organisation of the Army in 1939-40 · Uniforms and Equipment 1939-40 · The Army of the Armistice 1940-42 · The Plates

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Book SynopsisBetween 1933 and 1945, Germany was under the grip of the Third Reich. Headed by Adolf Hitler, this National Socialist state endeavoured to control every aspect of the nation’s political, social, economic, religious and cultural life, and indoctrinate every German citizen in its ideology. This intrinsically racist regime also embarked on an expansionist foreign policy that, at its peak, brought most of continental Europe under Nazi control. The resulting war – and genocide – killed millions of soldiers and civilians and its effects continue to be felt to this day. Nazism, it has been suggested, was “the ultimate embodiment of evil”, and historians have grappled with one fundamental question since 1945: how was any of this possible in a modern, cultured nation in the heart of 20th century Europe? There is no easy way to sum up the Third Reich, but in this short book Caroline Sharples tells the story of Hitler’s rise to power and looks at the arguments which have raged about the Third Reich, in particular the argument about how much power Hitler actually had. Was he, as some believe, an omnipotent leader with clear ideological goals and a clear programme for implementing them? Or was the Third Reich much more confused, with ad hoc decision making and intense power rivalries generating a “cumulative radicalism” which eventually brought it down?

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