They served across the globe; from the North African desert to the jungles of Burma, from the skies of occupied Europe to the icy Arctic Ocean. 'The Unknown Warriors', as Winston Churchill named them, were the men and women who fought for the country during the Second World War. When an appeal for memories of wartime and what they thought of their country in the 21st century appeared in the local newspapers, many put pen to paper or dusted off their old typewriters to send a r...

Throughout World War One, journalists risked their lives to bring news from the frontlines. Although America did not enter the war until April 1917, their newspapers had been full of news about the war since the summer of 1914. This is the story of the war using articles and interviews that were featured in regional newspapers from throughout the United States.In chronological order, the book contains, for example, interviews with soldiers in the trenches, survivors of ships sunk b...

COPP (Combined Operations Pilotage Parties) were formed in December 1942, when the need for invasion beach reconnaissance and assault guidance for invasion fleets were officially recognised. COPPs were a revolutionary concept: independent teams, led by Lieutenants, Royal Nay qualified Navigators and Hydrographers – capable of navigating cruisers or aircraft carriers – teamed with Captains, Royal Engineers, preferably commando trained: to make small boat reconnaissances of heavily defended ...

Acclaimed historian and best-selling author Antony Beevor vividly brings to life the epic struggles that took place in Second World War Crete - reissued with a new introduction.'The best book we have got on Crete' ObserverThe Germans expected their airborne attack on Crete in 1941 - a unique event in the history of warfare - to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. They had no idea that the British, using Ultra intercep...

Peter Liddle was a pioneer in the recording of memories of personal experience in the First World War and in the social background of those who lived through those years. Later he moved into the recording of men and women for whom the Second World War was the formative experience of their lives. In a planned two volume collection of the most outstanding interviews of the four thousand he made, for the first volume he has chosen memories which take the reader back as many as a hundred and t...

A British soldier walked over to the German front line to deliver newspapers; British women married to Germans became 'enemy aliens' in their own country; a high-ranking British POW discussed his own troops' heroism with the Kaiser on the battlefield. Just three amazing stories of contact between the opposing sides in the Great War that eminent historian Richard van Emden has unearthed – incidents that show brutality, great humanity, and above all the bizarre nature of a conflict between t...

Captivity, Slavery and Survival as a Far East POW is the incredibly moving story of Gus Anckorn, a British soldier who was captured by the Japanese and held for over three and a half years. Before the war, Gus was a magician and throughout the war, entertained both fellow soldiers and Japanese guards with his tricks.Gus has a brilliant sense of humor and a 'tell it as it is' attitude which got him into a number of scrapes with both the Japanese and his own side. He has a remarkable humilit...

The day after the Battle of Balaklava, the Russians attempted an armed reconnaissance of the Allied right flank aimed at the exposed Inkermann position, but the remnants of the British 2nd Division bloodily repulsed them.This book describes the Battle of Inkermann - an engagement which lasted for less than twelve hours, but was one of the bloodiest single engagements in Europe between 1815 and 1914.

This is Mike Sadler’s story, one of five true-life recollections from the Second World War in Tales From The Special Forces Club.The Special Forces Club is a fabled gentlemen’s club, based in the heart of London. It has a closely guarded secret: you have to be a genuine hero to be a member.Mike Sadler was in Rhodesia working on a farm when he decided to join up and fight Hitler. He would become one of the legendary men in the Long Range Desert Group, roaming behind Erwin Ro...

Edgehill, 1642: Surveyingthe disastrous scene in the aftermath of the first battle of the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell realizes that war can no longer be made in the old, feudal way: there has to be system and discipline, and therefore - eventually - a standing professional army.From the 'New Model Army' of Cromwell's distant vision, former soldier Allan Mallinson shows us the people and events that have shaped the army we know today. How Mar...

From ancient times to the Bay of Pigs and the Falklands War, military history has been marked as much by misjudgements and incompetence as by gallantry and glory. Such blunders have sometimes ended in tragedy, sometimes in farce - such as the English troops, supposedly marching on Cadiz in 1625, who instead got drunk in a salt marsh. And sometimes they have ended in triumph, despite all the odds. In this fascinating and entertaining collection, author Geoffrey Regan not only recounts some of ...

Masterly biography of the 'greatest commander of the 20th century'.Field Marshal Slim is less well known than other Second World War generals, but is now widely regarded as the best. To the men under his command he was 'Uncle Bill', probably the most respected and loved military leader since the Duke of Marlborough. Born into an impoverished family in Bristol in 1891 and brought up in the Black Country, he was commissioned as a temporary Second Lieutenant on the ou...