Search results for ""Author Robert Kershaw""
Ebury Publishing 24 Hours at the Somme
The first day of the Somme has had more of a widespread emotional impact on the psyche of the British public than any other battle in history. Now, 100 years later, Robert Kershaw attempts to understand the carnage, using the voices of the British and German soldiers who lived through that awful day.In the early hours of 1 July 1916, the British General staff placed its faith in patriotism and guts, believing that one ‘Big Push’ would bring on the end of the Great War. By sunset, there were 57,470 men – more than half the size of the present-day British Army – who lay dead, missing or wounded. On that day hope died.Juxtaposing the British trench view against that from the German parapet, Kershaw draws on eyewitness accounts, memories and letters to expose the true horror of that day. Amongst the mud, gore and stench of death, there are also stories of humanity and resilience, of all-embracing comradeship and gritty patriotic British spirit. However it was this very emotion which ultimately caused thousands of young men to sacrifice themselves on the Somme.
£14.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Dunkirchen 1940
''Kershaw''s book is a welcome rebalancing; a thoughtful, well-researched and well-written contribution to a narrative that has long been too one-sided and too mired in national mythology.'' The Times The British evacuation from the beaches of the small French port town of Dunkirk is one of the iconic moments of military history. The battle has captured the popular imagination through LIFE magazine photo spreads, the fiction of Ian McEwan and, of course, Christopher Nolan''s hugely successful Hollywood blockbuster. But what is the German view of this stunning Allied escape? Drawing on German interviews, diaries and unit post-action reports, Robert Kershaw creates a page-turning history of a battle that we thought we knew. Dünkirchen 1940 is the first major history on what went wrong for the Germans at Dunkirk. As supreme military commander, Hitler had seemingly achieved a miracle after the swift capitulation of Holland and Belgium, but wit
£10.99
Ebury Publishing 24 Hours at Waterloo: 18 June 1815
‘One of the lancers rode by, and stabbed me in the back with his lance. I then turned, and lay with my face upward, and a foot soldier stabbed me with his sword as he walked by. Immediately after, another, with his firelock and bayonet, gave me a terrible plunge, and while doing it with all his might, exclaimed, “Sacré nom de Dieu!” ’The truly epic and brutal battle of Waterloo was a pivotal moment in history – a single day, one 24-hour period, defined the course of Europe’s future.In March 1815, the Allies declared war on Napoleon in response to his escape from exile and the renewed threat to imperial European rule. Three months later, on 18 June 1815, having suffered considerable losses at Quatre-Bras, Wellington’s army fell back on Waterloo, some ten miles south of Brussels. Halting on the ridge, they awaited Napoleon’s army, blocking their entry to the capital. This would become the Allies’ final stand, the infamous battle of Waterloo.In this intimate, hour-by-hour account, acclaimed military historian Robert Kershaw resurrects the human stories at the centre of the fighting, creating an authoritative single-volume biography of this landmark battle. Drawing on his profound insight and a field knowledge of military strategy, Kershaw takes the reader to where the impact of the orders was felt, straight into the heart of the battle, shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers on the mud-splattered ground.Masterfully weaving together painstakingly researched eyewitness accounts, diaries and letters – many never before seen or published – this gripping portrayal of Waterloo offers unparalleled authenticity. Extraordinary images of the men and women emerge in full colour; the voices of the sergeants, the exhausted foot-soldiers, the boy ensigns, the captains and the cavalry troopers, from both sides, rise from the page in vivid and telling detail, as the fate of Europe hangs by a thread.
£12.99
Hodder & Stoughton Tank Men
'I thought Tank Men was a triumph ... it is a really fine piece of work' -Richard Holmes'Some of the eye witness accounts Kershaw has collected for this comprehensive review of tank warfare have the power to chill the reader to the bone. This is warfare at the sharp end' -NOTTINGHAM EVENING POSTThe First World War saw the birth of an extraordinary fighting machine that has fascinated three generations: the tank.In Tank Men, ex-soldier and military historian Robert Kershaw brings to life the grime, the grease and the fury of a tank battle through the voices of ordinary men and women who lived and fought in those fearsome machines.Drawing on vivid, newly researched personal testimony from the crucial battles of the First and Second World Wars, this is military history at its very best.
£12.99
Amberley Publishing The Fury of Battle: A D-Day Landing As It Happened
Before the war, Normandy’s Plage d’Or coast was best known for its sleepy villages and holiday destinations. Early in 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took one look at the gentle, sloping sands and announced ‘They will come here!’ He was referring to Omaha Beach ‒ the primary American D-Day landing site. The beach was subsequently transformed into three miles of lethal, bunker-protected arcs of fire, with chalets converted into concrete strongpoints, fringed by layers of barbed wire and mines. The Germans called it ‘the Devil’s Garden’. When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944, it lost 96% of its effective strength. This was the beginning of the historic day that The Fury of Battle narrates hour by hour ‒ from midnight to midnight ‒ tracking German and American soldiers fighting across the beachhead. Two and a half hours in, General Bradley, commanding the landings aboard USS Augusta, had to decide whether to proceed or evacuate. On 6 June there were well over 2,400 casualties on Omaha Beach – easily D-Day’s highest death toll. The Wehrmacht thought they had bludgeoned the Americans into bloody submission, yet by mid-afternoon the troops were ashore. Why were the casualties so grim, and how could the Germans have failed? Robert Kershaw draws on American troops’ eyewitness accounts together with letters and post-combat reports to expose the horrors of Omaha Beach. He also cites the experiences of the Germans and of French civilians. These are stories of humanity, resilience, and dark humour; of comradeship holding beleaguered men together during an amphibious landing that looked as though it might never succeed.
£10.99