Top War Books
Have a look at our top rated War Books available from the webs best merchants.
Dunkirk - Sean Longden - Military History
At 2 a.m. on the morning of the 3rd of June 1940, General Harold Alexander searched along the quayside, holding onto his megaphone and called 'Is anyone there? Is anyone there?' before turning his boat back towards England. Tradition tells us that the dramatic events of the evacuation of Dunkirk, in which 300,000 BEF servicemen escaped the Nazis, was a victory gained from the jaws of defeat. For the first time, rather than telling the tale of the 300,000 who escaped, Sean Longden reveals the story of the 40,000 men sacrificed in the rearguard battles. On the beaches and sand dunes, besides the roads and amidst the ruins lay the corpses of hundreds who had not reached the boats. Elsewhere, hospitals full of the sick and wounded who had been left behind to receive treatment from the enemy's doctors. And further afield - still fighting hard alongside their French allies - was the entire 51st Highland Division, whose war had not finished as the last boats slipped away. Also scattered across the countryside were hundreds of lost and lonely soldiers.These 'evaders' had also missed the boats and were now desperately trying to make their own way home, either by walking across France or rowing across the channel. The majority, however, were now prisoners of war who were forced to walk on the death marches all the way to the camps in Germany and Poland, where they were forgotten until 1945.
The virgin warrior
In this biography of Joan of Arc, the author portrays her as a self-confident, charismatic and supremely determined figure whose sheer force of will electrified those around her and struck terror into the hearts of the English soldiers and leaders. Subtitled, The Life & Death Of Joan Of Arc. France's heroine and England's scourge, lunatic, witch, religious icon, soldier and leader - there are many ways to describe Joan of Arc, but with so many legends and stories surrounding her, the truth of who she really was has been forgotten: a teenage peasant girl who claimed she heard voices and led an army into battle, changing the course of European history.
National Geographic: WWII Collection (Untold Stories / Churchill's German Army / D-Day: Men And Machines) (2 Discs)
Untold Stories Of World War Two: Witness the daring attempts of undercover Norwegian resistance fighters to destroy the Nazis' atomic bomb program. Relive the surprise air and underwater attack on America's battleships in Pearl Harbour. Find out why kamikaze fighters Japan's deadly weapons of destruction would sacrifice themselves to destroy U.S. battleships and aircraft carriers. Discover the extraordinary individuals who risked their lives in the Untold Stories of World War Two. ; ; Churchill's German Army: The Allied victory in World War Two was helped by a group of soldiers who were driven more than any others to defeat the Nazis. This is the unknown story of the Germans who fought for Britain. These are exceptional stories of bravery and sacrifice. They fought on all fronts and in some of the most infamous and bloody operations across Europe and beyond. If captured they faced agonising torture and certain execution. They were labelled suicide soldiers but they would become Churchill's German Army. ; ; D-Day: Men And Machines: It was a plan orchestrated by the greatest military minds the Allies could muster but there were others - now forgotten - who worked behind the scenes in total secret. A collection of mavericks inventors scientists even sports heroes with a specific command to design and build an all-new top secret mechanised armoury. Machines that could breathe fire tanks that could swim gadgets that could smash through Hitler's defences. This is their story and the story of the men who put these machines to the ultimate test on the battlefield.
Quartered Safe Out Here
'There is no doubt that [Quartered Safe Out Here] is one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War' John Keegan
The War That Never Was - Duff Hart-Davis - True Military / Combat Stories
For the very first time, "The War That Never Was" tells the fascinating story of a secret war fought by British mercenaries in the Yemen in the early 1960s. In a covert operation organised over whisky and sodas in the clubs of Chelsea and Mayfair, a group of former SAS officers - led by the irrepressible Colonel Jim Johnson - arranged for a squadron of British mercenaries to travel to the remote mountain regions of the Yemen, to arm, train and lead Yemeni tribesmen in their fight against a 60,000-strong contingent of Egyptian soldiers. It was one of the most uneven running battles ever waged; the Egyptians fielded a huge, professionally-trained army. The British fought back at the head of a ragtag force of tribal warriors and, ultimately, won. Egypt's President Nasser described the battle in the Yemen as 'my Vietnam'. It's a fascinating, forgotten, and rip-roaringly entertaining pocket of British military history, much in the spirit of Ben MvIntyre's bestselling "Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat".
High Citadel / Landslide - Desmond Bagley - Crime & Thriller
Double action thrillers by the classic adventure writer set in the South American Andes and British Columbia. HIGH CITADEL When Tim O'Hara's plane is hijacked and forced to crash land in the middle of the Andes, his troubles are only beginning. A heavily armed group of communist soldiers intent on killing one of his passengers - an influential political figure - have orders to leave no survivors. Isolated in the biting cold of the Andes, O'Hara's party must fight for their lives with only the most primitive weapons! LANDSLIDE Bob Boyd is a geologist, as resilient as the British Columbia timber country where he works for the powerful Matterson Corporation. But his real name and his past are mysteries - wiped out by the accident that nearly killed him. Then Boyd reads a name that opens a door in his memory: Trinavant - and discovers that Bull Matterson and his son will do almost anything to keep the Trinavant family forgotten forever! Includes a unique bonus - My Old Man's Trumpet, a previously unpublished short story about a New Orleans music shop owner.
The Forgotten Highlander - Alistair Urquhart - Military History
Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders captured by the Japanese in Singapore. He not only survived working on the notorious Bridge on the River Kwai , but he was subsequently taken on one of the Japanese 'hellships' which was torpedoed. Nearly everyone else on board died and Urquhart spent 5 days alone on a raft in the South China Sea before being rescued by a whaling ship. He was taken to Japan and then forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later a nuclear bomb dropped just ten miles away ...This is the extraordinary story of a young men, conscripted at nineteen and whose father was a Somme Veteran, survived not just one, but three close encounters with death - encounters which killed nearly all his comrades.
The Next Always - Nora Roberts - General & Literary Fiction
The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. Beckett is the architect of the family, and his social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there's another project he's got his eye on: the girl he's been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen. After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town's bookstore. Busy, with little time for romance, Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett's transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look ...at the building and the man behind it. With the grand opening inching closer, Beckett's happy to give Clare a private tour - one room at a time. It's no first date, but these stolen moments are the beginning of something new - and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next ...
Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross - Roderick Bailey - Military History
The Victoria Cross is one of the world's most famous medals. It was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 for 'most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy', and has been awarded only 1,356 times. Exploring the actions and events that lead to the VC being awarded, "Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross" is full of heroic tales, drama and action from the last century. Some testimonies come from soldiers, sailors and airmen who were awarded the VC; others come from those who witnessed extraordinary acts for which the medal was won. Collected from the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archives, most of the first-hand accounts in this book are published for the very first time. "Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross" explores the very nature of bravery by those whose job it was to be brave. It is a landmark addition to the "Forgotten Voices" series.
Lost Temple - Tom Harper - General & Literary Fiction
For three thousand years, the world's most dangerous treasure has been lost. Now the code that reveals its hiding place is about to be broken ...Sam Grant is a disgraced ex-SOE soldier and an adventurer by trade. But he has a secret: six years ago, a dying archaeologist entrusted him with his life's work - transcripts of mysterious writing found in a hidden cave on Crete. Deciphered, it could lead to one of the greatest prizes in history. But the treasure is as dangerous as it is valuable. The CIA wants it; so does the KGB. Helped by a brilliant Oxford professor, and a beautiful Greek archaeologist with her own secrets to hide, Grant is plunged into a labyrinth of ancient cults, forgotten mysteries and lost civilizations. But time is running out. The secrets of the distant past may hold the key to the newest threats of the modern world...
Forgotten Voices of the Somme - Joshua Levine - Military History
It is 1916, the Somme. With over a million casualties, it was the most brutal battle of the First World War. It is a clash that even now, over 90 years later, remains seared into the national consciousness, conjuring up images of muddy trenches and young lives tragically wasted. Its first day, July 1st 1916 - on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead - is the bloodiest day in the history of the British armed forces to date. On the German side, an officer famously described it as 'the muddy grave of the German field army'. By the end of the battle, the British had learned many lessons in modern warfare while the Germans had suffered irreplaceable losses, ultimately laying the foundations for the Allies' final victory on the Western Front. Drawing on a wealth of material from the vast Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, "Forgotten Voices of the Somme" presents an intimate, poignant, sometimes even bleakly funny insight into life on the front line: from the day-to-day struggle of extraordinary circumstances to the white heat of battle and the constant threat of injury or death.Featuring contributions from soldiers of both sides and of differing backgrounds, ranks and roles, many of them previously unpublished, this is the definitive oral history of this unique and terrible conflict.
Forgotten Voices of Burma - Julian Thompson - Military History
From the end of 1941 to 1945 a pivotal but often overlooked conflict was being fought in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II - the Burma Campaign. In 1941 the Allies fought in a disastrous retreat across Burma against the Japanese - an enemy more prepared, better organised and more powerful than anyone had imagined. Yet in 1944, following key battles at Kohima and Imphal, and daring operations behind enemy lines by the Chindits, the Commonwealth army were back, retaking lost ground one bloody battle at a time. Fighting in dense jungle and open paddy field, this brutal campaign was the longest fought by the British Commonwealth in the Second World War. But the troops taking part were a forgotten army, and the story of their remarkable feats and their courage remains largely untold to this day. The Fourteenth Army in Burma became one of the largest and most diverse armies of the Second World War. British, West African, Ghurkha and Indian regiments fought alongside one another and became comrades. In "Forgotten Voices of Burma" - a remarkable new oral history taken from Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive - soldiers from both sides tell their stories of this epic conflict.
The Forgotten Soldier
The devastating true story of a young Franco-German soldier trapped in the lethal machinery of total war on the Eastern Front in World War II.
The Forgotten Soldier
An international bestseller this is a German soldier's first-hand account of life on Russian front during the second half of World War II. When Guy Sajer joins the infantry full of ideals in the summer of 1942 the German army is enjoying unparalleled success in Russia. However he quickly finds that for the foot soldier the glory of military success hides a much harsher reality of hunger fatigue and constant deprivation. Posted to the crack Grosse Deutchland division with its sadistic instructors who shoot down those who fail to make the grade he enters a violent and remorseless world where all youthful hope is gradually ground down and all that matters is the brute will to survive. As the biting cold of the Russian winter sets in and the tide begins to turn against the Germans life becomes an endless round of pounding artillery attacks and vicious combat against a relentless and merciless Red Army. A book of stunning force this is and unforgettable reminder of the horrors of war.
Hannibal: Enemy of Rome - Ben Kane - Historical & Mythological Fiction
"Enemy Of Rome": The great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, has never forgotten the defeat and humiliation of his father by Rome. Now he plans his revenge and the destruction of the old enemy. "Soldier Of Carthage": While Hannibal prepares for war, the young son of one of his most trusted military commanders goes on an innocent adventure with his best friend - and disappears. "Slavery": Captured by pirates, put up for sale in the slave market, one of the boys is sold as a gladiator, the other as a field slave. They believe they will never see home or family again. "A World Aflame": But their destiny - interwoven and linked with that of their Roman masters - is to be an extraordinary one. The devastating war unleashed upon Rome by Hannibal will last for nearly twenty years. It will change their lives - and history - forever.
The Lost Gardens: Band 17/ Diamond
Stumbling upon a hidden and forgotten garden, three young friends find themselves transported to World War One, and caught up in the shocking truth of young soldiers...
The Undeclared Wars: The Korean And Vietnam Conflicts
After the devastating Second World War America was not a nation enthusiastic about sending its men and women into yet another bloody maelstrom. Unfortunately circumstances proved otherwise. This dramatic compilation details the causes and effects of "proxy wars" fought between two politically divergent superpowers on neutral soil in a foreign land; the effects these "undeclared" wars have on the collective national psyches of the soldiers that fight them and the leaders that orchestrate them; and their tragic reverberations for decades to come. ; ; Korean War: (June 25 1959 - July 27 1953 armistice signed war never officially ended) ; Explore how the tiny Asian country of Korea was divided in the aftermath of World War II and how the cold war politics between the United States and the Soviet Union led to a brutal conflict known as the "forgotten war." Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur's dispute with President Truman on the "end game" and his forced resignation are explored. And how new strategies developed; the evolution of tactical guerilla war and entertaining the actual use of nuclear weapons on battlefields as viable deterrents. ; ; Vietnam War: (September 26 1959 - April 30 1975) ; The Vietnam conflict was the longest war in American history - a conflict whose burden became unbearable and fraught with hard lessons. Explore why the most powerful nation in the world could not obtain victory over Ho Chi Minh and the communist North Vietnamese. Beginning with the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 to the TET Offensive the war perpetually escalated. Meanwhile devastating strategic and political incompetence and divisive anti-war protests in America nearly tore the country apart and crippled a Presidency. Fifty years later the effects of which are still being felt.