By the spring of 1936 an armed clash was imminent between the forces of Spain's extreme Left and extreme Right.Viewed largely as a confrontation between democracy and fascism, the resulting civil war proved to be of enormous international significance. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy intervened to assist General Franco, while the Soviet Union came to the aid of the Republican forces.This book explains the background to the war and charts the course of the ne...

By the spring of 1936 an armed clash was imminent between the forces of Spain's extreme Left and extreme Right.Viewed largely as a confrontation between democracy and fascism, the resulting civil war proved to be of enormous international significance. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy intervened to assist General Franco, while the Soviet Union came to the aid of the Republican forces.This book explains the background to the war and charts the course of the ne...

The bestselling author of STALINGRAD and BERLIN: THE DOWNFALL on the Spanish Civil War, drawing on masses of newly discovered material from the Spanish, Russian and German archives.The civil war that tore Spain apart between 1936 and 1939 and attracted liberals and socialists from across the world to support the cause against Franco was one of the most hard-fought and bitterest conflicts of the 20th century: a war of atrocities and political genocide and a military...

A proud Newfoundland soldier’s memoir gives unprecedented details of life as a German POW during the First World War.I’m going to tell my story. With those words, eighty-three-year-old Arthur Manuel set his remarkable First World War memoir in motion.Like many Great War veterans, Manuel had never discussed his wartime life with anyone. Hidden in the Manuel family records until its 2011 discovery by his grandson David Manuel, Arthur’s story is now b...

Though more than half a century has passed since the Spaish Civil War began in 1936, it is still the subject of intense controversy. What was it that roused left wing sympathisers from all over the world to fight for a cause for which their governments would not give active support? In his famous history, Hugh Thomas presents an objective analysis of a conflict - where fascism and democracy, communism and Christianity, centralism and regionalism were all at stake - and which was a much an ...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. A sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War, told through a dozen characters, including Hemingway and George Orwell: A tale of idealism, heartbreaking suffering, and a noble cause that failed.For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world, as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini....

The leading historian on the Spanish Civil War reveals the truth about one of the most horrifying events of the twentieth century – the destruction of Guernica.Guernica, a quiet market town in the Basque region of northern Spain. On Monday 26 April 1937, as the Spanish Civil War raged, the market square was busy with farmers and townspeople. Just before five o’clock in the afternoon the sky darkened as the Luftwaffe swarmed overhead and began an unrelentingly vicious assault, the f...

The author of Wellington at Waterloo delivers an in-depth history of the military commander's tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War.After gaining strategic and tactical experience in Colonial India, Arthur Wellesley went to battle against French forces in the Peninsular War. With his decisive victories there, he ascended to the peerage of the United Kingdom as the 1st Duke of Wellington. In this volume, historian Jac Weller delivers a complete account ...

Matthew Hall brings to life the fascinating story of Colonel Martin Herford, the most decorated doctor of World War II, covering his service in the Spanish Civil War until the end of World War II.Even though the doctors, nurses and stretcher-bearers of the military are every bit as courageous as the front line soldiers, they are very seldom written about. The image of a team of medics tucked away behind the front lines is far from accurate as very often the wounded...

Ron Liversedge could hardly wait for the call from the International Brigades. A veteran of the Great War, Canada's Great Depression, and scores of battles for social justice, he wanted to get to Spain to fight against Franco's attack on the young Spanish republic. It was the spring of 1937; Liversedge was nearly 40.The call came on May Day. Liversedge left Vancouver, on a clandestine journey through late depression North America, to a ship spiriting his fellow fighters to Europe, ...

The Lisbon Route tells of the extraordinary World War II transformation of Portugal's tranquil port city into the great escape hatch of Nazi Europe. Royalty, celebrities, diplomats, fleeing troops, and ordinary citizens desperately slogged their way across France and Spain to reach the neutral nation. Here the exiles found peace and plenty, though they often faced excruciating delays and uncertainties before they could book passage on ships or planes to their final destinations. A...

The Chaco War was massive territorial war between Bolivia and Paraguay, which cost almost a 100,000 lives.An old fashioned territorial dispute, the contested area was the Gran Chaco Boreal, a 100,000-square mile region of swamp, jungle and pampas with isolated fortified towns. The wilderness terrain made operations difficult and costly as the war see-sawed between the two sides.Bolivian troops, under the command of a German general, Hans von Kundt, had earl...