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Books > Fiction > True stories > War / combat / elite forces > General
The famous story of mass escape from a WWII German PoW camp that
inspired the classic film. One of the most famous true stories from
the last war, The GREAT ESCAPE tells how more than six hundred men
in a German prisoner-of-war camp worked together to achieve an
extraordinary break-out. Every night for a year they dug tunnels,
and those who weren't digging forged passports, drew maps, faked
weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes to wear
once they had escaped. All of this was conducted under the very
noses of their prison guards. When the right night came, the actual
escape itself was timed to the split second - but of course, not
everything went according to plan...
Immediate Action is a no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary
life, from the day Andy McNab was found in a carrier bag on the
steps of Guy's Hospital to the day he went to fight in the Gulf
War. As a delinquent youth he kicked against society. As a young
soldier he waged war against the IRA in the streets and fields of
South Armagh. As a member of 22 SAS Regiment he was at the centre
of covert operations for nine years - on five continents.
Recounting with grim humour and in riveting, often horrifying,
detail his activities in the world's most highly trained and
efficient Special Forces unit, McNab sweeps us into a world of
surveillance and intelligence-gathering, counter-terrorism and
hostage rescue.There are casualties: the best men are so often the
first to be killed, because they are in front. By turns chilling,
astonishing, violent, funny and moving, this blistering first-hand
account of life at the forward edge of battle confirms Andy McNab's
standing in the front rank of writers on modern war.
Throughout the occupied territories, Catholic sisters were active
in resistance to the Nazis Based on letters and documents - not
seen for seventy years - written by the Catholic Sisters of Notre
Dame de Namur during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, this book
tells the remarkable story of these brave and faithful women, and
how they resisted the German forces. In great detail, these letters
document the lives of the sisters and convents under the Nazi
regime, revealing the hardships of being bombed and constant
hunger, and the executions of innocents. But they also tell the
story of how these remarkably courageous women worked to help
defeat the Nazis. Throughout the occupied territories, Catholic
sisters were active members of the resistance. From running
contraband to hiding resisters and Jews, and from spying for the
allies to small acts of sabotage, these extraordinary women risked
their lives to save others and to help bring an end to the war.
This is a story that deserves to be told.
1961. The height of the Cold War. Just hours before work begins on
the Berlin Wall, a KGB assassin and his young wife flee for the
West before the Iron Curtain comes down and traps them in the East
forever. This gripping story of real-life espionage and intrigue
began when the Soviets invented a special weapon that killed
without leaving a trace and put it in the hands of Bogdan
Stashinsky. It is a tale of exploding parcels, fake identities,
forbidden love and a man who knew the truth about the USSR's most
classified programme. By the time Stashinsky had his day in court,
the whole world was watching.
Mayday. Mayday. Mayday . . . Every member of the Goldfish Club has
been forced to broadcast these terrifying words from a stricken
aircraft, making them one of the most unusual fellowships in the
world. Formed during the Second World War to foster comradeship
among pilots who had been forced to bail out over water, the
Goldfish Club has taken on new airmen (and one woman) ever since
and there are hundreds of tales to be told. All are different. All
are utterly gripping. Award winning journalist and author Danny
Danziger has brought together some of the most powerful stories of
this extraordinary brotherhood. A few will leave you open-mouthed,
others may reduce you to tears, but all are a fascinating testament
to the resilience of the human spirit.
It was Christmas 1942 when eleven young women boarded the troopship
Strathaird and braved the attentions of U-Boats in the deep
Atlantic. Borrowing a cricketing phrase, they called themselves the
First Eleven. But they were not the first to arrive at the Special
Operations Executive's secret North African base near Algiers.
Code-named Massingham, it was formed by SOE to spearhead subversion
and sabotage in what Winston Churchill called 'the soft underbelly'
of Europe. Massingham was hidden away at the Club des Pins, a
former luxury resort nestling among pines next to a Mediterranean
beach. By the time SOE had got to work, there was little luxury
left. Setting the Med Ablaze tells the true stories of the men and
women of Churchill's secret base. Its life was short. Less than two
years after its formation, its job was done. But Massingham played
a key role in the Allied offensive in the Mediterranean islands,
Italy and France. If you enjoy historical nonfiction, this book is
for you.
It is the third of September 1939. It is just after half past
eleven in the morning. I am fifteen years and sixteen days old. The
radiogram at my home, the Woodman Hotel in Clent, has just been
switched off, the silence resonates around the room, and a deathly
hush has fallen. The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, has
declared that, despite the best efforts of the politicians of the
day to secure 'peace in our time', the inevitable has befallen us;
despite pledges to the contrary, Germany has invaded Poland, Hitler
has ignored requests to back down and so, therefore, 'Britain is
now at war with Germany'. Minutes after the broadcast ends, my
Father, Sidney Wheeler, goes quietly up to his room where he
methodically loads three bullets into his First World War revolver.
This is the true story of a fifteen-year-old girl's experience of
the Second World War, based around her parent's hotel in a sleepy
Worcestershire village. As war is declared, her father prepares
three bullets for the invasion. He will shoot the family and
himself when the Germans come. In their village, local Germans are
imprisoned (guilty or not). The blackout is immediate and has
tragic consequences. There is a court case over an alleged poker
game. An abortion nearly results in tragedy. Handsome young airmen
fly low over the hotel. Pamela has a premonition of death. The
business fails. An air raid very nearly kills them all. She is
called up first to factory work and then to the Land Army. She
marries by special licence. As the war comes to an end she is
living at home with her parents and a small baby, at which point
she is just twenty-one years of age. Amusing and entertaining,
surprising and often moving, Pamela's account vividly captures one
family's life on the home front in Worcestershire.
Dogfight tells the story of some of the most incredible air battles
of modern warfare. Alfred Price's action-packed accounts place you
in the cockpit, offering a rare insight into what it was like to
face the enemy thousands of feet above the frontline. From
operations over the fields of France during the First World War,
through to accounts of the indomitable spirit of the RAF during the
Battle of Britain, to the horrifying loss of life inflicted by
Hitler's Blitzkrieg offensive, when more than 300 aircraft fell in
air-to air combat during a single day of fighting; this book
details the battles and the men who fought in them. The jet age is
also heralded in by accounts of the air force's role in the Vietnam
War and the Falkland. The role of reconnaissance aircraft in modern
warfare is described alongside the precision of attacking pin-point
targets during the Gulf War in Iraq. This book not only uncovers
how the tactics of aerial warfare have changed through each major
conflict of modern times, but also the dramatic narrative allows
the reader to feel like they were there in the skies, flying
alongside these incredible pilots.
Robert Wilton Bungey was unquestionably an RAF hero. From the very
beginning of the Second World War he was patrolling Germany's
border with the AASF. In the retreat from France he survived
frantic day and night bombing missions flying obsolete, outclassed
Fairey Battles against overwhelming odds. Many others didn't
survive. When Fighter Command desperately needed pilots in the
Battle of Britain, he volunteered. He survived again when his
Hurricane was shot down near the Isle of Wight. Converting to
Spitfires, he commanded such aces as Jean 'Pyker' Offenberg, Paddy
Finucane and Bluey Truscott, his leadership from-the-front gaining
their trust and respect. While he was CO of 452 (RAAF) Squadron, it
topped Fighter Command's monthly tallies three times in a row.
Later, commanding RAF Hawkinge, he was linked with air-sea rescue
and Combined Operations Command. After more than three years of
active war service, he returned to Australia for Sybil, his English
bride waiting with a son he had never seen. But this story of
triumph against all the odds has an extraordinary ending: at once a
terrible tragedy and something of a miracle... Spitfire Leader is
illustrated with many photographs never before published.
Journalist and broadcaster Robert Kee was an RAF bomber pilot in
the Second World War. When his plane was shot down over
Nazi-occupied Holland, he was captured and spent three years and
three months in a German POW camp. From the beginning he was intent
on escape. After several false starts, he finally made it. First
published in 1947 as a novel, but now revealed to be an
autobiography, A Crowd Is Not Company recounts Kee's experiences as
a prisoner of war and describes in compelling detail his desperate
journey across Poland - a journey that meant running the gauntlet
of Nazism.
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