Originally appearing at the same time as the pacifist novel All Quiet on the Western Front, this powerful collection provides a glimpse into the hearts and minds of an enemy that had been thoroughly demonized by the Allied press. Composed by German students who had left their university studies in order to participate in World War I, these letters reveal the struggles and hardships that all soldiers face.The stark brutality and surrealism of war are revealed as young men f...

Originally appearing at the same time as the pacifist novel All Quiet on the Western Front, this powerful collection provides a glimpse into the hearts and minds of an enemy that had been thoroughly demonized by the Allied press. Composed by German students who had left their university studies in order to participate in World War I, these letters reveal the struggles and hardships that all soldiers face.The stark brutality and surrealism of war are revealed as young men f...

Sven Hassel's iconic anti-war novel about the Russian Front.'An extraordinary book, which has captured the attention of all of Europe' NEW YORK TIMES'An incredible picture of totalitarianism, of stupefying injustice . . . Hassel is a first-rate storyteller' WASHINGTON POSTConvicted of deserting the German army, Sven Hassel is sent to a penal regiment on the Russian Front. He and his comrades are r...

A French painter-turned-soldier’s memoir of a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp and “one of the most sensational escapes from the Nazis in World War II” (Time).French painter Jean Hélion was friends with the likes of Mondrian, Giacometti, and Balthus, and had a role in shaping the path of modern art. But when Hélion’s infantry platoon was captured by the German army and sent to hard labor, Hélion was forced to live without his art. They Shall Not Have Me ...

This "brilliant and heartrending" memoir recounts one of the bloodiest battles of WWI—with a new introduction and a forward by the author's son (John Keegan).A joint operation between Britain and France, the 1916 Battle of the Somme was an attempt to gain territory and dent Germany's military strength. By the end of the action, the Allied Forces had made just twelve kilometers. For this slight gain, more than a million lives were lost.In this classic military...

Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and Birchenau. This book is a necessary reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilization. It was a shocking experience. It is a shocking book.

A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War, Russia 1941-44 is the haunting memoir of a young German soldier on the Russian front during World War II.Willy Peter Reese was only twenty years old when he found himself marching through Russia with orders to take no prisoners. Three years later he was dead.Bearing witness to--and participating in--the atrocities of war, Reese recorded his reflections in his diary, leaving behind an intelligent, touching,...

One of the great war memoirs, now featuring a foreword by the New York Times bestselling author of Matterhorn in time for the centenary of World War I and the Battle of the SommeA worldwide bestseller published shortly after the end of World War I, Storm of Steel is a memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism. Itilluminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, as seen through the eyes of an ordinary ...

The author of Saturday at M.I.9 and former British soldier recounts his escape from Nazi captivity during World War II in this military memoir.Wounded and captured at Calais in May 1940, Second Lieutenant Airey Neave wasted little time before attempting to escape. Always a thorn in his captors' sides, he earned his place in the "escape-proof" Colditz Castle. Undeterred, he had the distinction of being the first British officer to make a "home run," via Swit...

There are many books on the First World War, but award-winning and bestselling historian Peter Englund takes a daring and stunning new approach. Describing the experiences of twenty ordinary people from around the world, all now unknown, he explores the everyday aspects of war: not only the tragedy and horror, but also the absurdity, monotony and even beauty. Two of these twenty will perish, two will become prisoners of war, two will become celebrated heroes and two others end up as physic...

Includes the First World War Illustrations Pack – 73 battle plans and diagrams and 198 photos"A young British soldier who went to war on two wheels"When the Great War broke out, the author of this book decided to leave his university studies and join the struggle. What attracted him immediately was the potential to combine his military service with his love of motorcycles and so it was that he found himself one of a select group of motorcycle despatch riders within the 5th Di...