The greatest deception of the Second World War – and possibly in the whole of military history – took place in April 1943 when a body was found floating in the sea off the Spanish coast. The documents found on him would eventually find their way to Hitler's desk and send German troops hurtling in the wrong direction. The dead man convinced the Axis powers that the Allies were about to attack Greece and not the real target, Sicily. The course of the war was changed....

A perfectly told tale of defeat and glory—and a paean to gallantry in the face of the absurd—inspired by a real-life secret mission during World War II.Orphaned in the first months of World War One, when his father is killed in action, Willie Maryington dreams only of joining the same cavalry regiment and going to the front. The Armistice dashes seventeen-year-old Willie’s plans, but not his dreams of glory, and he makes the regiment the center of his adult existence. Yet, as the y...

First published in 1950, Operation Heartbreak tells the fictional story of Wilie Marygton, a career soldier who was too young for WWI and too old for WWII. Born into a military family, Willie's one goal in life is to take part in a battle, so he is exhilarated when he receives his commission, and is scheduled to leave for the Western Front on November 9, 1918. However, news of the Armistice changes his orders, and he instead spends the next 20 years in various posts in India and Africa, wh...

Originally published in 1935, this is the first volume of the autobiography of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861-1928), who commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of WWI. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice of 11 November 1918.Written with access to Earl Haig's fulsome dairies that he kept throughout the First World War...

The first volume in William Manchester's masterful, magnum opus account of Winston Churchill's life. The Last Lion: Visions of Glory follows the first fifty-eight years of Churchill's life--the years that mold him into the man who will become one of the most influential politicians of the twentieth century.In this, the first volume, Manchester follows Churchill from his birth to 1932, when he began to warn against the re-militarization of Germany. Born of a...

A gripping chronicle of the personal and national rivalries that led to the twentieth century’s first great arms race, from Pulitzer Prize winner Robert K. MassieWith the biographer’s rare genius for expressing the essence of extraordinary lives, Massie brings to life a crowd of glittery figures: the single-minded Admiral von Tirpitz; the young, ambitious Winston Churchill; the ruthless, sycophantic Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow; Britain’s greatest twentieth-centur...

This fascinating collection of letters traces the exchanges between a young subaltern on the front, Gerard ‘Ged’ Garvin, and his mother and father at home. Correspondence was eagerly awaited by all. Ged savored letters home like ‘Jim Hawkins trickling the doubloons through his fingers’. Equally, his mother and father at home were always fearful that each letter they received would be the last. In a letter J. L. Garvin sent to his son 21 July 1916 he wrote: ‘Of course there’s no fresh lette...

In this charming and intimate memoir, the youngest daughter of Winston Churchill shares stories from her remarkable life—and tells of the unbreakable bond she forged with her father through some of the most tumultuous years in British history.Through a combination of personal reminiscences and never-before-published diary entries, Mary Soames, the youngest daughter of Clementine and Winston Churchill, describes what it was like growing up as the scion of one of the...

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...

In this book you will find the best of that wit - ripe plums of humour taken from Churchill's parliamentary replies and ripostes, prepared addresses, asides and off-the-cuff remarks - all revealing a trenchant sharpness of mind, fine appreciation of humour and devastating sense of fun.

The first major biography of Winston Churchill to focus on his inner life and psychology'An extraordinary biography...Pearson...has a sensitive pen, matching the wit of his subject, and shows perceptive intuition towards the delicate relationships between the members of the Churchill family and their assorted spouses and lovers.' International Journal on World PeaceHe was a lion of a man who helped shape the course of this century ...

A different commentary on the First World War, this memoir is a compelling and insightful not from a soldier who has served in the front line but rather from a man who served in the war office. Thoroughly compulsive reading, putting so much into context and giving great insight into the major strategic decisions of the First World War.