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Could Napoleon have won the battle of Waterloo? And what would have happened if he had? Or suppose Nelson had not destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir, would Napoleon have conquered India and become Emperor of the East? What if Hitler had not halted his panzer forces before Dunkirk and had entrapped the entire British Expeditionary Force? How would Churchill have then denied the Wehrmacht? If by chance Hitler had been assassinated in 1944 and the German General Staff taken control, would there have been a totally different kind of surrender? In examining these and other contingencies, Major General Strawson brings his experience of command in war and his skill as a military historian to present us with an enthralling catalogue of chance and speculation, while emphasising how profoundly the character of commanders influenced events and how events affected their character. -
Volume 3 of the award winning series that covers the dynamic history of the railroads during warfare from the American Civil War to World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. Whether under full attack or evacuating the wounded, the trains kept running. -
Warren Tute (1914-1989) a naval officer who took part in the Normandy landings, collaborated with historians John Costello & Terry Hughes to produce this volume book for the 30th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The book opens with a facsimile of a letter from Eisenhower to the troops and there is a foreword by Lord Mountbatten. There are the newspaper headlines of the day, cartoons, maps and fabulous colour and black and white photos - a comprehensive, pictorial study of the preparation for and the events of the epic force that was the D-Day landings of 1944. -
The story of the famous Polish Squadron stationed in Britain in Word War II. Their hearts are with their families and loved ones at home but their fears and feelings must be put aside when the German offensive intensifies and they are called up to defend Britain from Hitler's Luftwaffe. Also starring Cara Theobald, Anna Prus and Andrew Woodall. -
When the author, a wounded veteran of 21, arrived in Rome in 1944, the question most Italians asked him was: 'What took you so long?' What indeed? Were the Allied High Command to blame? Were the generals incompetent? Was the Anzio landing itself a tactical error? In 1956 Raleigh Trevelyan published, as The Fortress, the diaries he had surreptitiously kept in the Anzio trenches and, as a result, made contact with a number of Germans who had been only yards away from him twelve years earlier. Now that statesmen and generals have published their memoirs and official histories of the war have been written, it seems possible at long last to attempt an answer. This is a remarkable book, bringing together the skill and insight of an accomplished historian, the narrative drive of a gifted storyteller, and the rage and terror of a man experiencing at first hand the momentous events from Anzio to Monte Cassino and on to Rome. The reader follows the fate of the 'poor bloody infantry' on both sides of the line; sees a group of Romans adapting to the idea that the Germans are still there; penetrates the secrets of the Vatican; watches the Allied and German generals on the spot fight with their High Commands and hears what Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin thought about it at the time. Illustrated with black and white photographs and even some contemporary cartoons. -
In the darkest days of World War II, this is the true story of ten brave young men flying their twenty-fifth and final bombing mission in the Flying Fortress, Memphis Belle. Some say the team is exceptional; others that the Memphis Belle is the luckiest plane in the war. But this is a mission that can change everything. Only if the men can successfully destroy the munitions factory in the heart of Germany will they get to go home. Dangerous, almost impossible, it is a mission that will test their skill and teamwork to the limit - and each man will become a hero - whether he lives or dies. Monte Merrick also wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros film of the same name. -
By the summer of 1941 Rommel was Hitler's favourite general. Sent to North Africa to halt the British advance into Libya, he not only stopped the British offensive but drove them back to their Egyptian base. He seemed unbeatable on the field so the British planned to kill him. On the eve of the British offensive Operation Crusader, a specially trained commando team marched into the desert and attacked Rommel's headquarters. At the same time, the newly created SAS parachuted sabotage teams close to the German airfields to knock out the enemy air forces on the ground. The author reveals how poor planning and incompetence in high places was counterbalanced by fantastic bravery and brilliant improvisation that enabled a handful of survivors to escape back to British lines and tell the true story of Operation Flipper: the plot to kill Rommel.
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Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence and unmatched courage. In performance and character, he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War. But as war horses go, he had one serious problem. No one could ride him but one man, Major Michael Shanahan. Some even thought Bill took a sneering pleasure in watching would-be riders hit the dust. This is a remarkable tale of a bond between a determined trooper and his stoic but cantankerous mount. They fought together. They depended on each other for survival. And when the chips were down, Bill's heroic efforts and exceptional instincts in battle saved the lives of Shanahan and four of his men. By September 1918, 'Bill the Bastard' was known by the entire Light Horse regiment, who used his name not as an insult, but as a term of endearment. Bill had become a legend, a symbol of the courage and unbreakable will of the Anzac mounted force. There was no other horse like Bill the Bastard. -
By late May 1940 the German Army had raced across Northern France cutting the Allied armies in two. The British Expeditionary Force ,and thousands of French and Belgian soldiers, found themselves squeezed into a ever smaller pocket by the Wehrmacht while the Luftwaffe pounded them from the sky. For nine terrible days they held their ground until - eventually - they had to evacuate. A quarter of a million men battled their way across the bullet-swept beaches to ships - and escape. This is the story of what is simultaneously a terrible defeat and a stirring victory.
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