The epic of Dunkirk has been told many times, but the numerous accounts from surviving soldiers and sailors were often a blur of fear and fighting with the days mingling into each other, leaving what is, at times, a confusing picture. In this book, adopting a day by day approach, the author provides a clear portrayal of the unfolding drama on the perimeter around Dunkirk, in the port itself and along the beaches to La Panne and the Belgian border.Reports from many of the captains of the ve...

This historical study upends the traditional narratives surrounding the Norman Conquest by revealing the true location of its most important battle.The Duke of Normandy's victory at the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, 1066, was one of the most important events in English history. As such, its every detail has been analyzed by scholars and interpreted by historians. Yet one of the most fundamental aspect of the battle—the ground upon which it was fought—has never...

The bombing campaign conducted against Germany and German-occupied Europe in the Second World War was, and remains, one of the most controversial operations of the entire war. Much of Bomber Command's effort was what was defined as 'area' bombing, in which whole cities or districts were targeted. The ultimate aim of an attack on a town area, Sir Arthur Harris wrote in one of his despatches, is to break the morale of the population which occupies it ... namely, to produce (i) destruction an...

A chronological account of the battle with more than 200 photographs, including graphic images of the fighting and the huge naval bombardment."By pairing such sobering accounts with period photography, Saipan 1944 offers a brief but unvarnished glimpse at the horrors of combat in the Pacific Theatre." — The Northern MarinerAfter the astonishing Japanese successes of 1941...

A pictorial history of America's response to Pearl Harbor, with "hundreds of photos of the various stages of the raid" ( ModelingMadness).On April 1, 1942, less than four months after the world was stunned by the attack on Pearl Harbor, sixteen US aircraft took to the skies to exact retribution. Their objective was not merely to attack Japan, but to bomb its capital. The people of Tokyo, who had been told that their city was invulnerable from the air, would...

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on 7 December 1941, had severely damaged the United States Pacific Fleet but had not destroyed it, for the fleet’s aircraft carrier force had been at sea when the Japanese struck. This meant that, despite the overwhelming success of Japanese military forces across the Pacific, US carrier-based aircraft could still attack Japanese targets.After the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May 1942, in which both sides had lost one carri...

"Takes you right to the scene of the action in late May and early June 1940, when more than 300,000 soldiers were saved from capture or death." — RamblesThe "miracle" of Dunkirk is one of the most inspiring stories of all time. The British Expeditionary Force had been all but surrounded, and, with the French armies collapsing on all sides, it appeared that Britain was about to suffer the heaviest defeat in its history.When Winston Churchill's War Cab...

In the spring of 1942 Britain's far-flung empire was in the greatest peril. North Africa was being overrun by the German Afrika Korps and in south-east Asia the forces of Imperial Japan had captured Singapore and were threatening India. Only the most urgent reinforcement of both war fronts could prevent disaster. But Britain's shipping routes to Egypt and India passed the island of Madagascar. If the Japanese Navy, operating out of Madagascar, could severe Britain's communications with Cai...

Officers led and men followed; all were expected to do their duty without thought of reward. Enlisted men rarely penetrated the officer ranks and promotion owed more to money than merit. Then came the Crimean War.The incompetence and ineffectiveness of the senior officers contrasted sharply with the bravery of the lower ranks. Fuelled by the reports from the first-ever war correspondents which were read by an increasingly literate public, the mumblings of discontent rapidly grew into a nat...

Despatches in this volume include that on the Far East between October 1940 and December 1941, by Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham; the despatch on operations in Hong Kong between 8 and 25 December 1941, by Major-General C.M. Maltby, General Officer Commanding British Troops in China; the report on the air operations during the campaigns in Malaya and Netherland East Indies between December 1941 and March 1942; and the important despatch by Percival detailing the fall of Malaya a...

Germany's attempts to build a battleship fleet to match that of the United Kingdom, the dominant naval power on the 19th-century and an island country that depended on seaborne trade for survival, is often listed as a major reason for the enmity between those two countries that led to the outbreak of war in 1914. Indeed, German leaders had expressed a desire for a navy in proportion to their military and economic strength that could free their overseas trade and colonial empire from depend...

Despatches in this volume include the despatch fo the campaign from Alamein to Tunis, by Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis. Deputy Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces North Africa; despatch on operation in the Western Desert December 1940 to February 1941, by General Sir Archibald P. Wavell, Commander-in-Chief British land Forces, Middle East; despatch on Operation Torch, the landings in North Africa, by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew B. Cunningham; and the despatch in operations...