The rapid evolution of radio and radar systems for military use during World War II, and devices to counter them, led to a technological battle that neither the Axis nor the Allied powers could afford to lose. The result was a continual series of th…
If the Kingdom of God does not include everything, who is the ruler of that part not included? And if we do not live in the Kingdom of God, where are we? That Kingdom mentioned in the John gospel must have been located far off in some secret corner…
In the early 1880s the Mahdi unleashed a spectacularly successful jihadist uprising against Egyptian colonial rule in the Sudan. Early in1884 Cairo bowed to British pressure to withdraw. Beyond the Reach of Empire describes how Major General Charles…
Rudolf Witzig entered the history books as the heroic captor of Belgium's supposedly impregnable fortress Eben Emael in May 1940 - the first time that glider-borne troops were used in the war. To many people, he is also known as the commander of the…
'A magnificent biography which finally provides recognition to one of Bletchley's and Britain's lost heroes.' Michael Smith. The Official Secrets Act and the passing of time have prevented the Bletchley Park story from being told by many of its key…
Reinhard 'Teddy' Suhren fired more successful torpedo shots than any other man during the war, many before he even became a U-boat commander. He was also the U-boat service's most irreverent and rebellious commander; his lack of a military bearing w…
Located by the Baltic near the town of Barth in Western Pomerania, Germany, Stalag Luft I was one of a number of Stammlager Luftwaffe, these being permanent camps established and administered by the Luftwaffe, which were used to house Allied air for…
The Ismaili Assassins were an underground group of political killers who were ready to kill Christians and Muslims alike with complete disregard for their own lives. These devoted murderers were under the powerful control of a grand master who used…
The first operational military jet in the world, towards the end of the Second World War the ME 262 was to be the German 'miracle weapon'. Mano Ziegler was involved from its inception and contributed to the design, testing, training and even served…
The story of the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry is arguably the most widely-known in the entire panoply of English history, and over the last 200 years there have been hundreds of books portraying the Tape…
'These wartime reports provide illuminating insights into aspects of Lawrence's enigmatic character which would later be suppressed as his darker side emerged in Seven Pillars of Wisdom.' - Simon Courtauld in the Evening Standard Despite being writt…
Reichsmarschall G ring told Hitler that it would take less than a month for his much-vaunted Luftwaffe to conquer the RAF and pave the way for the German invasion of Great Britain. His prediction was to prove disastrously wrong, but for four long mo…
Captain William Siborne became an ensign in the 9th Foot in 1813 and was sent to France in 1815 as part of a battalion despatched to reinforce Wellingtons army. A notable topographer, after the events that year he was commissioned to create a scale…
They came to fight for freedom and their country, they came to fight Germans. Men of the Polish Air Force, who had escaped first to France and then to Britain, to fly alongside the Royal Air Force just as Fighter Command faced its greatest challenge…
By early 1944, offensives undertaken by the United States armed forces had driven the Japanese from many of their conquests in the south and central Pacific. The next American move was to sever Tokyo's communications with the remaining Japanese garr…
'This is a well-researched, detailed and compelling story.' Defender Magazine Billy Sing was a small, dark man - and a deadly killer. When, as a member of the Australian Imperial Force 5th Light Horse, he was thrust onto the narrow strip of land hel…
So much has been written on the subject of the Battle of Waterloo and the campaign that surrounds it that the reader might think that there is simply nothing new to tell. However, the archives of Europe are teeming with fascinating documents - perso…
On the morning of 3 July 1815, the French General R mi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, at the head of a brigade of dragoons, fired the last shots in the defence of Paris until the Franco-Prussian War sixty-five years later. Why did he do so? Traditional st…
A bad reputation has its commitments.' So wrote home Jochen Peiper from the fighting front in the East in 1943, characterizing his battle-hardened command during the Second World War. Peiper's War is a new serious work of military history by the ren…
In February 1810, Wellington formed what became the most famous British unit in the Peninsular War: the Light Division. Formed around the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry and the 95th Rifles, the exploits of these three regiments would become legendary.…
Despite the bewildering number of tomes devoted to the Napoleonic wars, much basic data as been hitherto unavailable to anyone other than the most ardent scholars. McGuigan and Burnham have collected a tremendous treasure trove of information in a r…
Panzer Commander is one of the classic memoirs of the Second World War. A professional soldier, Hans von Luck joined the Panzerwaffe in its earliest days, where he served under Erwin Rommel, and went on to fight in the Blitzkrieg in Poland, France a…
In turbulent Shanghai in the years between the world wars, the International Settlement was a mercantile powerhouse that faced unrest from Communist labour unions, criminal gangs, spies, political agitators, armed kidnappers and assassins. Adjoining…
Written by the renowned expert Nigel West, this book exposes the operations of Britain's overseas intelligence-gathering organisation, the famed Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and traces its origins back to its inception in 1909. In this meticulo…
In the face of the advancing Allied forces, Italy capitulated in September 1943, leaving thousands of Allied prisoners of war held in camps around the country to fend for themselves. Amongst those prisoners was Tony Davis who had been captured in No…
Although separated from the modern reader by a full century, the First World War continues to generate controversy and interest as the great event upon which modern history pivoted. Not only did the war cull the European peoples of some of their bes…
This classic account of Wellington's tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War is one of the best single-volume works ever written on the epic campaign.Jac Weller covers all the battles with the French in which Wellington was involved. Talavera, Bu…
In June 1944, the Nazis locked eighteen-year-old Dave Hersch into a railroad boxcar and shipped him from his hometown of Dej, Hungary, to Mauthausen concentration camp, the harshest, cruellest camp in the Reich. After ten months in the granite mines…
On the day that Roswell K. Doughty graduated from Boston University he also received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army of the United States of America. That, though, was in 1931 and it was not until 1942 that he was called to active duty…
Above the mud and misery of the trenches and the endless slugging matches of the First World War another contest was played out with all the military glamour, chivalric values and deadly outcome of a mediaeval, knightly tournament. This was the batt…
It was headline news on 8 April 1942: One of the Navy s most famous destroyers, a ship which survived bombs, torpedoes and full scale battles, has been wrecked . That destroyer was HMS Havock, described in another newspaper as Britain s No 2 Destroy…
German troops formed the majority of Wellington's forces present at the Battle of Waterloo including those of Nassau, Brunswick, Hanover and the King's German Legion, and they have left a large number of first-hand accounts of their role in the batt…
The Middle Ages were a turbulent and violent time, when the fate of nations was most often decided on the battlefield, and strength of arms was key to acquiring and maintaining power. Feudal oaths and local militias were more often than not incapabl…
There can be few weapons which have struck such fear into armed forces around the world, or made so many shocking headlines, as IEDs Improvised Explosive Devices. In effect a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military…
The art of power consists of getting what one wants. That is never more challenging than when a nation is at war. Britain fought a nearly non-stop war against first revolutionary then Napoleonic France from 1793 to 1815\. During those twenty-two yea…
The United States Marine Corps was one of the phenomena of the Second World War. Greatly expanded from its pre-war order of battle of scattered defence battalions, overseas garrisons and ship detachments, it became a multi-division force bearing the…
This is the definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of the Second World War.Sir Arthur Harris remains the target of criticism and vilification by many, while others believe that the contribution he and his men made to the Allie…
'An intriguing page-turning and personal account of that most secretive of wartime institutions, Bletchley Park, and of the often eccentric people who helped to win the war' - Beryl Bainbridge Bletchley Park, or 'Station X', was home to the most fam…
Singapore and Hong Kong had fallen to the forces of Imperial Japan, Thailand and Burma had been invaded and islands across the Pacific captured. But one place, one tiny island fortress garrisoned by a few thousand hungry and exhausted men, refused t…
In November 1998, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian security service or FSB, along with several former colleagues, publicly stated that their superiors had instigated an assassination attempt on a Russian tycoon and ol…
Britain was rapidly emerging as the most powerful European nation, a position France long believed to be her own. Yet with France still commanding the largest continental army, Britain saw its best opportunities for expansion lay in the East. Yet, a…
Revolution was on everyone's lips. The ancien regime had been cast aside and King Louis XVI had been executed in front of a mocking crowd. Every crowned head in Europe trembled with fear - ideas knew no frontier. The monarchies of Europe had to act…
They were volunteers to a man. These were the airborne troops who dropped into enemy territory ahead of any others, pinpointing the Drop Zone by means of a radio marker. They would then prepare the ground for the main forces that would follow. Once…
With his special forces training completed, Sergeant Roland Barker was allocated to Operation Arundel as its radio operator. Led by Major Bill Smallwood, he was parachuted into the Dolomites in 1944\. The team's brief was to cause havoc in the area…
A decorated First World War pilot, Hans Baur was one of the leading commercial aviators of the 1920s before being pitched into the thick of it as personal pilot to a certain 'Herr Hitler'. Hitler, who loathed flying, felt safe with Baur and would al…
Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, was the outstanding British individual of the nineteenth century. His victories at Seringapatam and Assaye extended British control in India and his famous campaign in Spain and Portugal helped to drive Napo…
Ernst Rohm was one of the key architects behind the rise of the Nazi Party. From 1919 until 1923, following the defeat of Germany in the First World War, Rohm served in the Freikorps and then NSDAP - the Nazi Party. He served as the party's patron,…
During the First World War, British soldiers were renowned for their chirpy songs and plucky sayings. Indeed, nothing would lift the spirits of the often exhausted and weary troops more than a hearty singalong. These cheery, and at times ribald and…
‘Although I am an infantryman, and proud of it, I have many times said that the Royal Regiment of Artillery, in my opinion, did more to win the last war than any other Arm of the Service.’ – Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks This v…
