War and defence operations Books

Book SynopsisThe thrilling story of Britain's death-struggle with Revolutionary France, wherein Napoleon is checkmated by Nelson's brilliant naval exploits.Trade Review"Ambitious, sweeping, and painstakingly delineated." -- Kirkus Reviews"This spirited work contributes significantly to a developing interpretation of the years 1794–1815 as an era of worldwide, total war." -- Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisNew York Times Bestseller The devastation of Pearl Harbor and the American victory at Midway were prelude to a greater challenge: rolling back the vast Japanese Pacific empire, island by island.Trade Review"A beautiful blend of history and prose and proves again Mr. Toll’s mastery of the naval-war narrative, carrying the reader smoothly from the marble halls of Washington to the Pacific’s gritty, red-stained beaches." -- Jonathan W. Jordan - Wall Street Journal"A gripping narrative of the central Pacific campaign…. Toll is strong on the operational details of battle, but he is no less skilled at presenting something that is frequently missing from military histories, a well-rounded depiction of the home front on both sides." -- Walter R. Borneman - New York Times Book Review"Heavily researched…. Toll’s absorbing text flows smoothly and quickly, helped along by anecdotes and stories involving combatants and political leaders on both sides." -- S. I. Dunn - Dallas Morning News"In The Conquering Tide, Ian Toll takes his place as one of the great storytellers of war. He is equally vivid and commanding describing landing on a carrier at night, making grand strategy in Washington, and brawling in a bar in Australia. Toll is a master; he is writing for the ages." -- Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and Ike's Bluff"A lucid and learned exposition of the grand chess match between high commanders in the middle years of the Pacific War, vividly evoking the grit and gristle of its many horrors and triumphs. Ian W. Toll is a superb historian whose writing appeals to both the head and the heart." -- James D. Hornfischer, author of Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is an important book about the central issue of our time - the struggle against Islamist extremism. Kaufman understands this fight and has made an effective case for the imperative of taking bold action to defeat this threat to our security and the ideals we cherish. - Senator Joseph Lieberman ""A corrective to much of the contemporary hysteria of the hour. As Kaufman shows, for all the heartbreak of our present efforts in Iraq, ultimately it remains the best practical and moral course to foster some third way other than either autocracy or theocracy."" - Victor Davis Hanson, Stanford University ""Kaufman presents a thoughtful, comprehensive case. It ranks as the most historically powerful support of Mr. Bush and his doctrine, including the Iraq war."" - Washington Times ""In this excellent new book, Kaufman describes the Bush approach to foreign policy as the latest example of what he calls 'moral democratic realism,' an approach he attributes to FDR, Truman, and Reagan as well."" - National Review

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Book SynopsisIt details the various plans made for Home Defence between 1939 and 1945.

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Book SynopsisHeavily illustrated history of Second World War amphibious operations.

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Book SynopsisBy the early 19th century, 90 percent of the Emperor's court and the majority of the army were opium addicts. This book recounts the tragic story of the 2 Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860 between Britain and China through the eyes of the Chinese as well as the Imperial West.

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Book Synopsis1917, the fourth year of the war to end all wars, is documented in archive photographs in this series covering the naval war in detail.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly the right book at the right time. * The Times *Galeotti’s work is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand current events in Ukraine. -- Gillian Tett * The Financial Times *Putin’s Wars is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Russia’s military. * Literary Review *The definitive work on this subject to date. * History of War *Mark Galeotti is one of the most insightful and incisive analysts on Russia’s past, present, and future. Russia’s February 2022 expanded invasion of Ukraine tragically highlights the critical importance of understanding the connection between politics and war. Galeotti vividly shows how Russia has waged its wars... [and] how those wars shaped the country’s politics and, in turn, how politics shaped Moscow’s military campaigns. * Joshua C. Huminski, Director, Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence and Global Affairs, Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress *This is a vivid account of how Putin has used armed force during his time in power, culminating in the deadly war in Ukraine. * Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King’s College London *An accessible, lucid and vivid comprehensive contemporary account of the inner workings, logic and rationales of the central military pillar of Putinism. I unreservedly recommend this gem. * Dr Graeme P. Herd, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies *Putin’s Wars is Galeotti at his finest: writing that moves like a spy novel and enough information for the student or professional reader … An excellent and accessible contribution to the field for seasoned Russian observers and those interested in the larger sweep of how it all transpired. * Dr Yuval Weber, Bren Chair of Russian Military and Political Strategy at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at the US Marine Corps University *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note List of Illustrations List of Maps and Diagrams Abbreviations Cast of Characters Chronology 1. Introduction PART ONE: BEFORE PUTIN 2. Born in Chaos 3. A Military in Crisis 4. The First Chechen War 5. The Wars of Russian Assertion PART TWO: ENTER PUTIN 6. Putin’s Priorities 7. The Second Chechen War 8. Ivanov, the Initiator 9. Serdyukov, the Enforcer 10. Georgia, 2008 (1): Tbilisi’s Move … 11. Georgia, 2008 (2): … Moscow’s Counter 12. ‘New Look’ Army PART THREE: THE NEW COLD WAR 13. Shoigu, the Rebuilder 14. Crimea, 2014 15. Donbas, 2014– 16. Lessons of the Donbas War 17. Syria, 2015– (1): The Unexpected Intervention 18. Syria, 2015– (2): Lessons of the Syrian Campaign PART FOUR: REARMING RUSSIA 19. Rumble for Ruble 20. Armiya Rossii 21. The Sky is Russia’s! 22. Contesting the Sea 23. Power Projection: Blue and Black Berets 24. The Spetsnaz 25. The Nuclear Backstop PART FIVE: THE FUTURE 26. Political Warfare 27. New Generation Warfare 28. The Challenges of the Future 29. Ukraine 2022: Putin’s Last War? 30. Conclusions: The Eurasian Sparta? 31. Ukraine 2023: A Dispatch on a War in Progress Notes Selected English-language Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisContains approximately 160 pages of integrated images from the period and covers the six-year history of the Waffen-SS. Ideal reading for anyone with an interest in the Second World War from the German's perspective.

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Book SynopsisOver 150 wartime photographs of the Japanese, American, British and Russian armoured vehicles that fought in the Far East between 1937 and 1945.

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Book SynopsisFor much of its 2,000-year history, the Roman Catholic Church was a formidable political and military power, in contrast to its pacifist origins and its present concentration on spiritual matters. The period of political and military activism can be dated to roughly between 410, when Pope Innocent I vainly tried to avert the sack of Rome by the Visigoths, and about 1870, when Pope Pius IX was abandoned by his protectors, the French Army, and forced to submit to the new Italian state by surrendering any political power the Vatican had left. During those centuries, the popes employed every means at their disposal, including direct military action, to maintain their domains centred on Rome. Some pontiffs, such as Alexander VI, Julius II (15th century), plus the energetic Borgia popes later, built the Papal States into a power in their own right. In the following century and a half, Europe's destructive religious wars almost always had a papal component, with the Lateran and later Vatican fielding their own armies. Climaxing the story are the little-known yet bitter late-nineteenth century battles between the papal volunteers from all over Europe and America, and the Italian nationalists who ultimately prevailed. John Carr narrates the story of Papal military clout with engaging verve.

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Book SynopsisIn the first volume in this series on the Korean War, North Korea Invades the South, North Korean ground forces, armour and artillery crossed the 38th Parallel, and, in blitzkrieg style, rolled back UN and South Korean forces down the Korean peninsula. Despite the US and South Korea committing army, air force and navy units, supported by forces from Australia, Britain, New Zealand, France and Canada, by 31 July, eleven enemy divisions were concentrated in a disconnected line from Ch?nju to Y?ngdong. Along the south coast, North Korean divisions pushed eastward towards Masan. To the east and centre of the peninsula, the enemy closed in on Kimch'?n and the Naktong River line. On the east coast, three North Korean divisions secured the Y?ngd?k-P'ohang axis, placing them within mortar range of the UN airfield at Y?nil. Reeling, the UN forces desperately defended the 140-mile-line lodgement area that incorporated the port of Pusan. Supreme commander of UN forces, General Douglas MacArthur, had his back to the sea, facing thirteen enemy infantry divisions, two new tank brigades and an armoured division. On 1 September, North Korean forces launched their strongest offensive to date, and in the first two weeks of the month, American casualties became the heaviest of the war. Of particular concern to General Walker was the danger of losing the town of Taegu in the centre. The resultant loss of the strategic Taegu-Pusan railway would be catastrophic. MacArthur and Washington were running out of options, but the Pusan Perimeter had to be defended at all costs.

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Book SynopsisThis is a book of two stories. The first is the sad tale of how at least 749 American servicemen lost their lives on a pre-D-Day landing exercise, code-named 'Operation Tiger', on the evening of 23/24 April 1943\. The second, was the unanswerable question of whether the attacking E-Boats of the German Kriegsmarine had fully grasped the importance of what they had stumbled across. Because of the time scale between the operation and the actual D-Day landings, secrecy surrounding the tragedy had to be stringently adhered to, and even after the invasion of Normandy, only scant information about the incident and those who were killed was ever released. The other factor which was of major concern, was if the Germans had understood the significance of the vessels they had attacked, then the intended Allied invasion of Europe was in grave danger of having to be postponed for an indefinite period of time. In late 1943, as part of the build-up to the D-day landings at Normandy, the British government had set up a training ground at Slapton Sands in Devon, to be used by the American forces tasked with landing on Utah Beach, in Normandy. Coordination and communication problems between British and American forces, resulted in friendly fire deaths during the exercise, making a bad situation even worse. The story was then lost to history until it was picked up again by Devon resident, Mr Ken Small after he discovered evidence of the aftermath washed up on the shore at Slapton Sands in the early 1970s. In 1974, Mr Small bought the rights to a submerged American tank, which he had discovered in the waters close to the beach at Slapton Sands. In 1984, he raised the tank, which is now a memorial close to the sea front.

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Book SynopsisThis classic Images of War book takes up the story of the massive American contribution to the campaign in north West Europe during the autumn and early witner of 1944. Following the dramatic breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, events moved fast with the liberation of Paris quickly following and the Allies closed in on the German border. But the apparent collapse of the Nazis was illusory. As lines of communication lengthened and German resistance stiffened, the Allied High Command was divided on the right strategy. The ill-fated Operation Market Garden brought home the reality that the war would continue into 1945\. The Siegried Line was penetrated and Aachen fell but the American First Army suffered heavy casualties in the Hurtgen Forest. As winter set in, the third Army crossed the Moselle River and into the Saar. The stage was set for the costliest battle in American history - The Bulge, to be covered in the Third and final volume of this trilogy. With his superb collection of images and grasp of the historic significance of the actions so graphically described, Brooke Blades' latest book will be appreciated by all with an interest in the final stages of the Second World War.

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Book SynopsisNow revised and updated: "This book is an unbelievable accomplishment. [W]hatever your politics, you should read this book. It is incredibly carefully reported... I think every member of Congress should read this book." Chris Hayes

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Book SynopsisToday, throughout Vermont, it is possible to identify hundreds and hundreds of Civil War–related sites. Throughout Vermont are soldier homes, halls where war meetings encouraged enlistments, churches where soldier funerals were held and abolitionists spoke, monuments to those who served, hospital sites, and homes where women gathered to make items for the soldiers. The Vermont State House is a virtual Civil War museum. A building survives in Woodstock where the war was administered. Cemeteries hold the gravestones of many of the 34,000 who fought. A field even exists where in 1803 a Quaker preacher heard a voice from above fortell a bloody war over slavery. With the help of this book, Civil War sites can be located as in no other state, taking the reader through the beautiful Vermont landscape of hill farms and small towns that looks more like the Civil War era than that of any other state.

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Book SynopsisIn 2011, Michael Falco set out to document the American Civil War's 150th anniversary by photographing reenactments of more than 20 major battles—from the First Manassas, Antietam, and Chancellorsville to Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Appomattox. But rather than shooting these historic re-creations in high-definition, Falco opted for a different, older medium: a pinhole camera. This antebellum photographic technology, shot from an on-the-ground perspective, captures these battlefields in a way that feels more “real” and fully realized than even the famous daguerrotypes made during the war itself. In Falco's transporting photographs, the smoke-filled battle reenactments become blurred and dreamlike, echoing the sentiments found in the actual letters and journals of soldiers who fought and died there. Throughout, historical photographs from the period offer context to the modern-day re-creations, showing just how much—or how little—has changed on this hallowed ground. One hundred and fifty years after the last soldier fell, Echoes of the Civil War provides beautiful and compelling evidence of a Civil War landscape that is, literally and metaphorically, still with us.Trade Review" A Civil War enthusiast since his childhood, photographer Michael Falco set out on a four-year, battlefield-to-battlefield odyssey coinciding with the war’s 150th anniversary. The result is the wonderfully haunting Echoes of the Civil War: Capturing Battlefields through a Pinhole Camera (Countryman Press, $35, 288 pages, ISBN 9781581573800). “Soldiers’ journals and memoirs describe the battlefields as dream-like,” Falco writes, “and that is how they appear through the patient eye of the pinhole camera.” While exploring major battle sites from Bull Run to Appomattox, Falco became not just a chronicler but a re-enactor himself, dressing in period clothing as he set up his primitive wooden box camera, using modern film but no lens, viewfinder or shutter. Along with these evocative photos, Falco interweaves past and present through his narrative as he “tumbled down the rabbit hole of Civil War history.” Echoes of the Civil War will hold great appeal for history and photography buffs alike. " -- Bookpage

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Book Synopsis“I thought my men were invincible,” admitted Robert E. Lee. A string of battlefield victories through 1862 had culminated in the spring of 1863 with Lee’s greatest victory yet: the battle of Chancellorsville. Propelled by the momentum of that supreme moment, confident in the abilities of his men, Lee decided to once more take the fight to the Yankees and launched this army on another invasion of the North. An appointment with destiny awaited in the little Pennsylvania college town of Gettysburg. Historian Dan Welch follows in the footsteps of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac as the two foes cat-and-mouse their way northward, ultimately clashing in the costliest battle in North American history. Based on the Gettysburg Civil War Trails, and packed with dozens of lesser-known sites related to the Gettysburg Campaign, The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign offers the ultimate Civil War road trip.Trade ReviewThis book would be extremely useful to anyone planning a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield, and an ideal companion on such a journey. * Miniature Wargames - Arthur Harman *…shows a deep knowledge of the subject and the style of writing is clear and easy to follow…buy this book! * Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy *Important and fascinating addition to the literature of the American Civil War… * Books Monthly *

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Book SynopsisThe Battle of Tom’s Brook, recalled one Confederate soldier, was “the greatest disaster that ever befell our cavalry during the whole war.” The fight took place during the last autumn of the Civil War, when the Union General Phil Sheridan vowed to turn the croprich Shenandoah Valley into “a desert.” Farms and homes were burned, livestock slaughtered, and Southern families suffered.The story of the Tom’s Brook cavalry affair centers on two young men who had risen to prominence as soldiers: George A. Custer and Thomas L. Rosser. They had been fast friends since their teenage days at West Point, but the war sent them down separate paths—Custer to the Union army and Rosser to the Confederacy. Each was a born warrior who took obvious joy in the exhilaration of battle. Each possessed almost all of the traits of the ideal cavalryman—courage, intelligence, physical strength, innerfire. Only their judgment was questionable.Their separate paths converged in the Shenandoah Valley in the summer of 1864, when Custer was ordered to destroy, and Rosser was ordered to stop him. For three days, Rosser’s gray troopers pursued and attacked the Federals. On the fourth day, October 9, the tables turned in the open fields above Tom’s Brook, where each ambitious friend sought his own advancement at the expense of the other. One capitalized upon every advantage fate threw before him, while the other, sure of his abilities in battle and eager to fight, attempted to impose his will on unfavorable circumstances and tempted fate by inviting catastrophe. This longoverlooked cavalry action had a lasting effect on mounted operations and influenced the balance of the campaign in the Valley.Based upon extensive research in primary documents and gracefully written, awardwinning author William J. Miller’s Decision at Tom’s Brook presents significant new material on Thomas Rosser, and argues that his character was his destiny. Rosser’s decisionmaking that day changed his life and the lives of hundreds of other men. Miller’s new study is Civil War history and high personal drama at its finest.

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Book SynopsisOn the third day of Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee launched a magnificent attack. For pure pageantry it was unsurpassed, and it also marked the centerpiece of the war, both time-wise and in terms of how the conflict had turned a corner—from persistent Confederate hopes to impending Rebel despair. But Pickett’s Charge was crushed by the Union defenders that day, having never had a chance in the first place.The Confederacy’s real “high tide” at Gettysburg had come the afternoon before, during the swirling conflagration when Longstreet’s corps first entered the battle, when the Federals just barely held on. The foremost Rebel spearhead on that second day of the battle was Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade, which launched what one (Union) observer called the "grandest charge that was ever seen by mortal man.”Barksdale’s brigade was already renowned in the Army of Northern Virginia for its stand-alone fights at Fredericksburg. On the second day of Gettysburg it was just champing at the bit to go in. The Federal left was not as vulnerable as Lee had envisioned, but had cooperated with Rebel wishes by extending its Third Corps into a salient. Hood’s crack division was launched first, seizing Devil’s Den, climbing Little Round Top, and hammering in the wheatfield.Then Longstreet began to launch McLaws’ division, and finally gave Barksdale the go-ahead. The Mississippians, with their white-haired commander on horseback at their head, utterly crushed the peach orchard salient and continued marauding up to Cemetery Ridge. Hancock, Meade, and other Union generals desperately struggled to find units to stem the Rebel tide. One of Barksdale’s regiments, the 21st Mississippi, veered off from the brigade in the chaos, rampaging across the field, overrunning Union battery after battery. Barksdale himself was killed at the apex of his advance. Darkness, as well as Confederate exhaustion, finally ended the day’s fight as the shaken, depleted Federal units on their heights took stock. They had barely held on against the full ferocity of the Rebels, on a day that decided the fate of the nation. Barksdale’s Charge describes the exact moment when the Confederacy reached its zenith, and the soldiers of the Northern states just barely succeeded in retaining their perfect Union.Trade ReviewRecommended for the serious student of Gettysburg. I read this from cover to cover! * Miniature Wargames - John Drewienkiewicz *

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Book SynopsisJohn J. Pershing considered Fox Conner to have been "a brilliant soldier" and “one of the finest characters our Army has ever produced.” During World War I, General Conner served as chief of operations for the American Expeditionary Force in Europe. Pershing told Conner: “I could have spared any other man in the A.E.F. better than you.”Dwight D. Eisenhower viewed Fox Conner as “the outstanding soldier of my time.” In the early 1920s, Conner transformed his protégé Eisenhower from a struggling young officer on the verge of a court martial into one of the American army’s rising stars. Eisenhower acknowledged Fox Conner as “the one more or less invisible figure to whom I owe an incalculable debt.” This book presents the first complete biography of this significant, but now forgotten, figure in American military history.In addition to providing a unique insider’s view into the operations of the American high command during World War I, Fox Conner also tells the story of an interesting life. Conner felt a calling to military service, although his father had been blinded during the Civil War. From humble beginnings in rural Mississippi, Conner became one of the army’s intellectuals. During the 1920s, when most of the nation slumbered in isolationism, Conner predicted a second world war. As the nation began to awaken to new international dangers in the 1930s, President Roosevelt offered Fox Conner the position of army chief of staff, which he declined. Poor health prevented his participation in World War II, while others whom he influenced, including Eisenhower, Patton, and Marshall, went on to fame.Fox Conner presents the portrait of the quintessential man behind the scenes in U.S. military history. Readers will find this book, and the man, fascinating.Trade ReviewGeneral Fox Conner is a figure from American military history that more people ought to know. I encourage anyone with an interest in well written (and thoroughly researched) works of history to read Steven Rabalais' new book on General Conner.

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of the most highly decorated German regimental commander of World War II, known as the 'Panzer Graf' (Armoured Count). An aristocratic Silesian, whose ancestors had faced the Mongols at Leignitz, Strachwitz first won the Iron Cross in the Great War. After fighting with the Freikorps and in between the wars, he was serving with the 1st Panzer Division when the Polish campaign inaugurated World War II.Leading from the front, his exploits as commander of a panzer battalion earned him further decorations during the French campaign. Transferred to the newly formed 16th Panzer Division, he participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then Operation Barbarossa where he earned the Knight’s Cross. The following year, during the advance on Stalingrad, he won the Oak Leaves for destroying 270 Soviet tanks at Kalach. Now commander of a regiment, he reached the Volga and fought ferociously on the northern rim of Sixth Army’s perimeter. Severely wounded during the battles, he was flown out of the Stalingrad pocket.Upon recuperation, he was named commander of the Grossdeutschland Division’s panzer regiment, and won the Swords to the Knight’s Cross during Manstein’s counteroffensive at Kharkov. After fighting through Kursk and the ensuing defensive battles, he was transferred the next year to Army Group North where he won the Diamonds to the Knight’s Cross at Narva.For the rest of the war, sandwiched around a stay in hospital, he commanded ad hoc battlegroups, and pioneered the formation of 'tank hunter brigades', consisting of deep-penetration infantry armed with panzerfausts and other demolitions who would ambush Soviet tanks. Wounded 12 times during the war, and barely surviving a lethal car crash, he was finally able to surrender to the Americans in May 1945.Australian author/researcher Raymond Bagdonas, though impaired by the disappearance of 16th Panzer Division’s official records at Stalingrad, and the fact that many of the Panzer Graf’s later battlegroups never kept them, has nevertheless written an intensely detailed account of this combat leader’s life, as well as ferocious armoured warfare in World War II.

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Book SynopsisThe Frantic operations were conceived in late 1943 as Soviet advances made Soviet airfields accessible to Allied long-range aircraft. American aircraft could hit targets in central Europe, refuel and rearm at Soviet bases, then fly back to bomb additional targets. In addition to hitting Nazi war industries, the political objectives of Frantic were to build closer cooperation with the Red Army as the end of the war drew nearer. For the first two weeks of the Warsaw Uprising, Soviet forces stood outside the city, and Stalin refused to let the RAF land at Soviet bases after dropping supplies to the Polish freedom fighters. But eventually the United States persuaded him to let them use Frantic to supply the Poles. On 18 September 1944, American B-17 Flying Fortresses dropped arms, ammunition, medical supplies, and food over the city of Warsaw. The assistance came too late for the Polish freedom fighters. For many, Frantic 7 remains a mere gesture to placate Western public opinion, but the events of that day, and the courage of 1,220 airmen who risked their lives to bring them aid, are still remembered by the Poles of Warsaw. This book gives a full narrative of Frantic 7, using the first-hand accounts of those on the ground in Warsaw to tell the stories of the young aircrew. It puts Frantic 7 in context, and explains how the diplomatic wrangling set the stage for the breakdown in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States.Trade ReviewAn amazingly detailed account of the US Air Force's attempt to help the Poles in Warsaw. Inspiring! * Books Monthly *The strength of the book lies largely in the human interest story. * Miniature Wargames - Chris Jarvis *

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Book SynopsisIn December 1943, among rising realisation that the Allies are planning to invade, Field Marshal Rommel was assigned the title of General Inspector for the Atlantic Wall. His mission was to assess their readiness – what he finds disgusts him. The famed Atlantic Wall, the first defence against invasion, is nothing more than a paper tiger, woefully unprepared for the forces being massed across the English Channel. His task to turn back the Allied assault already seems hopeless.Alongside Rommel are a set of elite commanders, each driven by their own ambitions, ideas and armies. At the frontline sits Erich Marcks, the wounded General tasked with the mighty burden of building up the coastal defences, all with inadequate supplies and a shortage of men. He is flanked by Hans von Salmuth, a relative novice but a favourite of the Führer, who has been assigned the lofty duty of defending Calais; the place Command believes will be the focal point of the Allied Invasion. At the rear, General Major Bayerlien is preparing the elite panzer divisions for what may lie ahead, while General Major Pemsel is struggling to coordinate efforts to prepare the Seventh Army, believing that should an invasion come, he will be the hub of the German response.All of these local commanders are subject to the whims of Hitler, hundreds of miles away but continually issuing orders increasingly divorced from the reality of the war. Countdown to D-Day takes a journal approach, tracing the daily activities and machinations of the OKH as they try to prepare for the Allied invasion.Trade ReviewThis is an interesting read on an interesting subject: the anecdotes of food preferences, and other personal and professional insights, bring the commanders to life in a way that standard documentary styles do not usually achieve. * Miniature Wargames 08/08/2019 *Well researched, this book does provide fascinating insights into the tense and complex relationships between the German High Command. * Military Historical Society Bulletin 17/07/2019 *'With vast depth, this is a very impressive look at what happened in the run up to D-Day, from the German side.' * The Armourer *Essential to a library on the subject… * 3945km.com *

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Book SynopsisOn the night of 20 November 1914, everything pointed to the likelihood of invasion by a German army, whisked across the North Sea on a fleet of fast transports. The Royal Navy's Grand Fleet prepared to sail south from remote bases in Scotland; shallow-draught monitors were moored in the Wash; and 300,000 troops stood by to repel the enemy on the beaches. Fortunately, the night passed without incident. For thirty years prior to the First World War, writers, with a variety of motivations, had been forecasting such an invasion. Britain regarded the army as an imperial police force and, despite the experience gained in military exercises involving simulated invasions, the Royal Navy was still expected to fulfil its traditional role of intercepting and destroying enemy forces. However, as the technology of warfare developed, with the proliferation of ever more powerful warships, submarines, mines, and torpedoes, alongside the added promise of aerial assault, it became obvious that these long-established notions of the Navy's invincibility might no longer be realistic. The perceived threat of invasion, whether justified or not, persisted throughout the First World War, and this book describes the measures taken to protect Britain against enemy attack by land, sea, or air.

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Book SynopsisBorn of the Desert is a classic account of the early years of the SAS. The Special Air Service was formed in 1941 and quickly earned a reputation for stealth, daring and audacity in the Western Desert Campaign. This elite force utilised the endless expanse of the desert to carry out surprise attacks and hit and run raids behind the Afrika Korps' lines, sowing confusion, fear and consternation. Malcolm James served as Medical Officer with the SAS throughout 1942 and 1943, and Born of the Desert is his atmospheric account of his life in the North African desert, the bitter fighting against Italian and German targets and the forging of a remarkable elite unit. James captures the excitement of this dramatic mode of warfare and brings to life the deadly beauty of the desert, the harsh environment and the strong bonds of comradeship and interdependence which resulted. Born of the Desert was written soon after the events depicted and has an immediacy which places it above other Second World War memoirs. The original text has now been augmented by supplementary notes by David List, and appendices on SAS casualties and awards by David Buxton.

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Book Synopsis'Fascinating and essential stuff.' Gary Sheffield in Military Illustrated This gripping volume charts the progress of the Allied breakout of Normandy through German eyes. Beginning with Operation COBRA and ending with the offensive which led to the liberation of Paris, this critical phase of the war in the west is examined and described by five senior German officers. From staff officers at OKW to divisional generals on the ground, these officers critique their performance, examine Allied superiority, and evaluate their own efforts to contain Allied forces in Normandy. They look at such key events as the counter-attack at Mortain, the American offensive, British and Canadian efforts and the sequence of events that led to the fighting around the Falaise gap. The officers originally submitted the reports presented here to Allied intelligence during post-war debriefing sessions. This volume brings together a selection of these reports to provide a broad overview of German hopes balanced with the realisation that they could not hope to contain the Allied efforts for long. With supplementary material by David C.Isby, this is a fascinating glimpse into how a defeated army sought hard to turn the tide of defeat.

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Book SynopsisRomania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia were all German allies in the Second World War, unlike the other countries of Europe which had either been forcibly occupied by the Nazis or remained neutral.SOE Missions mounted within their borders were thus doubly hazardous for they were conducted in enemy-populated territory, heavily policed by military forces and gendarmerie. Furthermore all these states had well developed and experienced security services, usually supplemented by Gestapo and Abwehr units.A further complication to the activities of SOE in these countries was that they had all been effectively conceded by Western Allies to Russia; not surprisingly therefore, operations in the Soviet 'sphere of influence' were to prove diabolically difficult.This is a story about the courage of individuals in the face of overwhelming odds. Hunger, ill-health, exhaustion, cold and treachery all combined to make life for those members of SOE who parachuted into these Fascist outposts of Fortress Europe as insufferable as it was dangerous.

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Book SynopsisThere is a chapter of World War II history that remains largely untold; the monumental struggles of an entire nation have been forgotten, and even intentionally obscured. Giving a full overview of Poland's participation in World War II. Following their valiant but doomed defence of Poland in 1939, members of the Polish armed forces fought with the Allies wherever and however they could. Full of previously unpublished accounts, and rare photographs, this title provides a detailed analysis of the devastation the war brought to Poland, and the final betrayal when, having fought for freedom for six long years, Poland was handed to the Soviet Union.Table of ContentsIntroduction /1: Dawn of Darkness (the pre-war situation and the invasion of Poland in 1939) /2: French Misfortunes (The aftermath of the invasion, and the difficulties of the Polish forces trying to re-form in France, the fall of France, and the Polish evacuation to England) /3: Everything was in Secret (The story of the largest, most complex and most active resistance movement of the war) /4: On Wings of Eagles (Air War over Poland in 1939, over France in 1940, and then in England until the end of the war) /5: Warriors from a Wasteland (the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Polish PoWs and civilians deported to Soviet camps, and then the 100,000 survivors allowed to re-form a Polish army following Germany's declaration of war on the Soviet Union. /6: A Bloody Job Well Done (1st armored division, their formation, and their role in the Normandy breakout, and on into Germany) /7: A Bridge Not Far Enough (the 1st Polish Independant Parachute brigade, their formation, and their role in Operation Market Garden) /8: Poles Under Soviet Command (The actions of those Poles unable to leave Russia who fought as part of the 2nd Polish Corps, fighting under Soviet command from Stalingrad to Berlin) /9: Glory and Heartbreak (The Warsaw Uprising) /10: For Your Freedom (The devastation wrought on Poland by the war, the post-war settlements and the fate of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Polish troops and civilians) /Notes /Further Reading /Index

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