The initial Australian and British victory over Rommels Afrika Korps on Easter Monday 1941 at Tobruk was Germanys first defeat in World War II. Incongruously the vital actions of Queenslands 2-15 Battalion on that day have been generally ignored. For the first time, this investigation places that lost body of infantrymen nearly four miles from the outer perimeter near El Adem crossroads. There they were dug in around two gallant Royal Horse Artillery batteries, which incurred heavy losses ...

The WWII historian's bracingly accurate analysis of what might have happened if Hitler ordered Operation Sea Lion to breech the shores of England.In June 1940, German troops gathered just across the English Channel, poised for the invasion of Britain. With France defeated and Britain cowed, Hitler seemed ready for his greatest gamble. In this compelling alternative history, the Germans launch the invasion that, in reality, was never more than a plan.Landing b...

This book reviews the complex set of military operations played out in the Netherlands during September 1944 involving the forces of Britain, Canada, Poland, the USA and Germany. As far as space permits we have attempted toprovide a wide selection of sources covering each of the belligerents.We are also proud to present the previously unpublished war diary of Captain Graham Davies, which brings a new perspective on the often overlooked contribution made by the artillerymen in support of bo...

One of the greatest tragedies in Australian military history occurred at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915, when hundreds of Australian light horsemen were repeatedly ordered to charge the massed rifles and machine-guns of the Turkish enemy. It was a hopeless endeavour, and the resulting bloodbath has horrified every generation since and been the subject of considerable scrutiny by historians. The charge at The Nek, so vividly realised in Peter Weirs famous film Gallipoli, came to epitomise both ...

In the early morning of August 19, 1942, over five thousand Canadian troops landed on the beach at Dieppe to reclaim the shore from German troops occupying France. It was a mission doomed from the start. Mere hours later, over two-thirds of the men were dead, wounded, or taken prisoner by German forces. It was the worst disaster in Canadian military history, and historians have found no convincing explanation for why the operation was mounted in the first place.Through first-hand a...

PARATROOPERS Ready for Anything – From WWII to Afghanistan Contents Introduction: The Formation of the British Parachute Regiment Section 1: World War II : Operation Colossus; Operation Biting; Operation Torch; Operation Husky; Operation Tonga; Operation Hasty; Operation Dragoon; Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem; The Battle of the Bulge; Operation Varsity; Operation Doomsday Section II: The Post-War Years :...

'One of the best half-dozen personal accounts of the Normandy campaign' - Richard HolmesStuart Hills embarked his Sherman DD tank on to an LCT at 6.45 a.m., Sunday 4 June 1944. He was 20 years old, unblooded, fresh from a public-school background and Officer Cadet training. He was going to war. Two days later, his tank sunk, he and his crew landed from a rubber dinghy with just the clothes they stood in. After that, the struggles through the Normandy bocage in a re...

At Fromelles in July 1916 two divisions – one British and one Australian – within a few weeks of arriving in France – went into action for the first time. Their task was to prevent the Germans from moving troops to the Somme where a major British offensive was in progress, but the attack on 19/20 July was a disaster with nearly 7,000 casualties in a few hours. This account explores this battle which for many epitomises the futility of the Great War. In those few hours many...

A gripping account of the Second World War, from the perspective of a young tank commander.In 1944, David Render was a nineteen-year-old second lieutenant fresh from Sandhurst when he was sent to France. Joining the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry five days after the D-Day landings, the combat-hardened men he was sent to command did not expect him to last long. However, in the following weeks of ferocious fighting in which more than 90 per cent of his fellow tank command...

The Battle of Arnhem has acquired a near-legendary status in British military history as an audacious plan to land paratroopers into the Netherlands and spearhead an attack against the German-held Ruhr. Beyond images of brave paratroopers and scenes from A Bridge Too Far, this was in fact one of the most complex and strategically important operations of the war.It was expected that the British would sweep through and connect with the Arnhem force within a ...

The story of the first great tank battle, and the genesis of one of the most formidable weapons of the twentieth century.Cambrai was the last - and most influential - battle fought by the British on the Western Front in 1917. With many of the Allies on the brink of collapse, only Britain was still capable of holding the Germans at bay.Over time, many myths have grown up around what happened at Cambrai. The events of this iconic attack are now buried beneath...

The struggle for naval supremacy and the naval arms race inspired by HMS Dreadnought may have captured the headlines, but the opening stages of the naval war were dominated by the threat from German cruisers stationed outside European waters, until they were hunted down and sunk by the Royal Navy, notably at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914.Germany switched its focus to the U-boat, seeing it as a weapon capable of winning the war by starving Britain into surrender. Unrestr...