Search results for ""author charles messenger""

Charles Messenger spent nineteen years in the Royal Tank Regiment before pursuing a career as a military historian and defence analyst. He is the author of over 40 books, including The Art of Blitzkrieg, The Commandos 1940 1946 and The Second World War in the West. He has also written biographies of three of the major German players in Normandy von Rundstedt, Rommel and Sepp Dietrich. He has written and co-directed major television series for BBC Worldwide. James Holland is an author and broadcaster who specialises in World War II. He is the author of both fiction and non-fiction books on the subject, including Normandy 44': D-Day and the Battle for France. He is also the co-founder of the Chalke Valley History Festival and presents the podcast We Have Ways of Making you Talk with Al Murray.

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In early 1942 the Third Reich opened a maximum security Prisoner Of War camp in Lower Silesia for captured Allied airmen. Called Stalag Luft III, the camp soon came to contain some of the most inventive escapers ever known. The escapers were led by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, code-named 'Big X'. In March 1944, Bushell masterminded an attempt to smuggle hundreds of POWs down a tunnel build right under the notes of their guards. In fact, only 79 Allied airmen clambered into the tunnel and only three made successful escapes. This remarkable escape would be immortalised in the famous Hollywood film THE GREAT ESCAPE, in which the bravery of the men was rightly celebrated. Behind the scenes photographs from the film are included in this definitive pictorial work on the most famous POW camp of World War II.

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Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt (1875-1953) was one of the foremost German commanders of the Second World War. After service on both the Western and Eastern Fronts during 1914-1918 he rose steadily through the ranks before retiring in 1938. Recalled to plan the attack on Poland, he played a leading part in this and the invasion of France in 1940. Thereafter he commanded Army Group South in the assault on Russia before being sacked at the end of 1941. Recalled again, he was made Commander-in-Chief West and as such faced the 1944 Allied invasion of France, but was removed that July. He resumed his post in September 1944 and had overall responsibility for the December 1944 Ardennes counter-offensive. Captured by the Americans, he was handed over to the British, who wanted to try him for war crimes. Only his ill health prevented this from coming about.

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First time in paperback Personal story of Germany’s top special forces man; fast-paced action Ongoing interest in Nazis can be seen from recent Man in the High Castle series – Amazon’s most streamed original series and Bill O’Reilly’s 2015 Hitler’s Last Days Iconic names and events – the rescue of Mussolini, action in the Ardennes, and much more Includes front matter by Dan Raviv, CBS news correspondent, and military historian and former Royal Tank Regiment officer Charles Messenger, author of nearly 40 books

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Originally published in 1964, this is a critically acclaimed classic history of the military engagements of the Somme that raged from July to November 1916. It tells of bloody battles interspersed with trench actions of dreadful intensity. In addition to the key confrontations, Farrar-Hockley provides a detailed background to the Somme planning and why it failed with dreadful casualties. In its entirety, the conflict along the Somme scarred the minds of a whole generation, becoming recorded by historians as the graveyard of the 'flower of British manhood'. With a new introduction by Charles Messenger, and a touching foreword by the author's son, Dair Farrar-Hockley, this new edition of The Somme is a testament to those who gave their lives on this famous battlefield.

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