At exactly 1.30 p.m. on 1 September 1918, the dozen men of Nine Platoon, 21st Australian Infantry Battalion, rose from Elsa Trench and walked across a weedy beet-field toward the German defenders of Mont St Quentin. Within hours, three were dead and five more were wounded, one of whom died six weeks later. The survivors returned from war, more-or-less intact, to live through the next sixty-odd years in the shadow of that traumatic event. Men of Mont St Quentin tells the story of the men of Nine Platoon and their families. This is the first time that the story of such a group of Australians has been told - only made possible because Garry Roberts, the father of one of the dead, was so grieved by his son Frank's death that he obsessively collected accounts of what happened that afternoon. The Roberts' family papers, used here in this way for the first time, reveal the lives of Frank's comrades and their families as they came to terms with loss and life after war. In the hands of Peter Stanley, one of Australia's leading military historians, a famous battlefield in France becomes unforgettably connected with Australian men and their families in the long aftermath of the Great War.

**DAILY MAIL BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019** **SUNDAY TELEGRAPH CHRISTMAS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019** 'So blissfully good that I'd give it to a reader of any age . . . deeply touching, unforgettable family memoir' ALLISON PEARSON, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Uplifting and enlightening . . . Venning has a good eye for what makes the Walker story both unique and universal . . . Thrilling' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Superb . . . With its sweeping narrative, readable style, sense of humanity and breadth of research, the saga casts a highly personal light on some of the most significant episodes of [the Second World War]' DAILY EXPRESS 'A heart-pounding narrative that feels fresh . . . this marvellous book also depicts a world that was soon to vanish' DAILY MAIL 'A moving book . . . This account of one family's experience takes us to hidden crannies of the war that more official accounts might not bother with . . . Once read, never forgotten' THE TIMES 'A sensationally good book . . . I see reflections of my own family, and beyond them, like those mirrors tilted slightly into infinity, I can see literally miles of others lined up, inexorably linked forever by a shared experience . . . this is an exceptional book and should be required reading in modern history classes' JOANNA LUMLEY 'An extraordinary, compelling picture of a family entwined in the Second World War . . . at turns funny, sad, redemptive and tragic. Fabulous' JAMES HOLLAND 'A loving tribute . . . Brimming with anecdote and rich in fascinating detail' KEGGIE CAREW ~ How would it feel if all your sons and daughters were caught up in war? What would it be like to spend six years fearing what a telegram might bring? That was the heart-wrenching reality faced by so many families throughout the Second World War, including the parents of the Walker children. From the Blitz to the battlefields of Europe and the Far East, this is the remarkable story of four brothers and two sisters who were swept along by the momentous events of the war. Harold was a surgeon in a London hospital alongside his sister Ruth, a nurse, when the bombs began to fall in 1940. Peter was captured in the fall of Singapore. Edward fought the Germans in Italy, and Walter the Japanese in Burma, while in London, glamorous Bee hoped for lasting happiness with an American airman. In To War With the Walkers, Annabel Venning, Walter's granddaughter, tells the enthralling and moving tales of her relatives, six ordinary young men and women, who each faced an extraordinary struggle for survival.

Republished to coincide with the new ITV film, My Boy Jack? starring Daniel Radcliffe, this is the full account of the tragic life of John 'Jack" Kipling. On 27th September 1915 John Kipling, the only son of Britain's best loved poet, disappeared during the Battle of Loos. The body lay undiscovered for 77 years. Then, in a most unusual move, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)re-marked the grave of an unknown Lieutenant of the Irish Guards, as that of John Kipling. There is considerable evidence that John's grave has been wrongly identified and for the first time in this book, the authors name the soldier they believe is buried in 'John's grave'. This is the first biography of John's short life, analysing the devastating effect it had on his famous father's work.

The shocking, true story of a soldier gone rogue, and the court martial case that divided America. This is the full story of Eddie Gallagher, a US recruit who was inspired to serve his nation, who became addicted to combat, and whose need to prove himself among his fellow soldiers pushed him to extremes. His actions during a combat deployment to Mosul would divide his platoon, then the SEALs, the Navy, the armed forces, the government, and even the American public, when the President intervened in his trial. Alpha is an examination of how culture within the military has evolved since 9/11. In an endless war without major victories, the media has instead celebrated achievements of SEAL missions - such as the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the rescuing of Captain Phillips, and the survival of Marcus Luttrell. But the SEALs' popularity blinded the public to what was also happening within the armed forces. When Gallagher was accused of killing an unarmed enemy combatant, it created a scandal that reached the White House and millions around the world.

A soldier is badly wounded in a mobile, fast-moving theatre of war. Without rapid surgery, he will die. There are no helicopters to move him out to a hospital.
This was the problem faced by the military medical authorities in the Second World War. Their solution: take the medical services to the wounded They set up mobile ambulance units, field dressing stations and blood transfusion units, all based on trucks so that they could move swiftly to keep up with the troops.
They also set up field surgical units, which were mobile operating rooms based on three trucks and managed by the surgeons themselves. They operated in everything from tents to wine cellars, abandoned schoolhouses and hospitals to monasteries and cathedrals. Working often in conditions that would be condemned in modern hospitals, they did whatever it took to save lives.
This is the story of one such unit, the 2nd Canadian Field Surgical Unit under the command of the young surgeon Rocke Robertson: from its set-up and training in England to the historic Allied landings in Sicily; through the killing grounds of central Sicily and southern Italy to the horrific Battle of Ortona on Italy's Adriatic coast. Operating in stifling heat and raw cold, fighting off dust, flies, exhaustion and malaria, they dealt with wounds and patient loads that stretched their imagination, ingenuity and strength to the breaking point.
These units were the precursors of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) in the Korean War, where the wounded soldiers were transferred swiftly and smoothly by helicopter to a medical facility set up behind the lines.
Written by Rocke Robertson's son, this is a vivid and intimate account of a field surgical unit in action - saving lives while bullets fly.

Nearly two million people were slaughtered in the four-year Nigerian/Biafran Civil War. American educated Nnamdi Agbakoba writes a chilling account of bloodshed and almost miraculous survival in The Terrors of War. As much a story of war as of peace, of cowardice as of heroism, he reveals the spiritual lessons learned, as well as a powerful philosophical viewpoint found in the Bible and the Koran. Woven together, The Terrors of War is a uniquely compelling book. Author Agbakoba takes his account far beyond the events of the mid-sixties, when Nigeria's Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces was assassinated and the country was drowning in a sea of anarchy, starvation, and brutality. He delves into fascinating parallels between that civil war and the American presence in Iraq. The chapters on the America/Iraq crisis parts 1, 2 and 3 ministers loads of scriptural therapy very appropriate for application in the current crisis in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and elsewhere. There are no wiser words than those of the author: War is a reflection of a total breakdown of diplomatic dialogue and discussions aimed at resolving differences. War breaks out when compromise, tolerance, forgiveness, and diplomatic discussions completely fail. In Terrors of War, the futile and violent results of hatred are studied. . .and important conclusions are reached.

On December 19, 1944, Gene Garrison turned nineteen. He spent his birthday in a muddy foxhole, listening to the cries of wounded comrades while exploding artillery shells sent shrapnel raining down on him and the enemy prepared to attack. It was his first day in combat. "Unless Victory Comes" recounts Garrison's journey as he was transformed from a fresh-faced kid from the farmlands of Ohio into a hardened soldier fighting for survival. From his baptism under fire, to the bitter fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, to the end of the war on the Czechoslovakian border, Gene Garrison witnessed the war from the ground up. This is the story of one young man, far from home, surrounded by strangers, facing death yet never losing hope that he would live to see his family again.

This powerful story documents the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of extraordinary navy corpsman George Wahlen. After decades of silence, this survivor of one of World War II's most horrific battles divulges the gritty details of his incredible experiences. Upon landing with a company of 250 marines, Wahlen fought alongside them. Under repeated grenade and mortar fire himself, Wahlen refused evacuation, choosing instead to aid those he perceived to be in greater danger. Witnesses of his heroics remain dumbfounded he survived, and while his incredible feats of bravery saved countless marines, the intensity of the battle left few men of the company unscathed--they suffered the highest killed-in-action ratio of any marine company during a single battle in U.S. history. The significance of his story lies in the historic context of the battle for Iwo Jima; while many remember the iconic flag-raising photograph captured during this conflict, few realize the battle was the most costly of World War II for America. After receiving a Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman in 1945, Wahlen has been the quintessential quiet hero, refusing the adulation usually bestowed on nationally recognized veterans.

G.I. Resister has to do with a nation so deeply cleaved by the ill-fated and unjust war in Vietnam that a generation later the United States has only just begun to heal. Perrin's story is a part of that, both in the hurt and the healing.

Told by the grandson of the head of the family, this is the gripping odyssey of another Frank family from the deceptively good life of Berlin in the 1920s, through the rise of Hitler and their flight to apparently safe Holland, the nightmarish ordeal of their thousand-day-long "submersion" in a small apartment in The Hague, to the joy and pain of liberation and their final journey to America, the same route Anne Frank might have taken had she not been betrayed. Based on personal testaments, records, and family interviews, the book describes their life behind closed curtains in constant fear of discovery. In 1945, after many adventures and appalling vicissitudes, they finally emerged to face the uncertainties of postwar Holland and the promise of the New World. Both a history and a memoir, this extensively researched book gives the first account of the war in Holland, the occupation, and the resistance (including the Jewish resistance) to be published for several years. Despite that resistance, and the help of the Dutch citizens who sheltered their Jewish neighbors, most of Dutch Jewry was destroyed.

Medicine and Duty is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st Alberta Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, that was originally compiled and written by McGill in the 1930s. Anticipating that his memoir would be published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, McGill instead was met with disappointment when the publishing house, forced by financial constraints, was unable to see the project to its final conclusion. Decades later, editor Marjorie Barron Norris came upon a draft of the manuscript in the Glenbow Museum archives, and utterly compelled by what she found, took it upon herself to resurrect McGill's story. Performing an exhaustive edit of the original manuscript, Norris has also included a wealth of information adding detailed explanatory notes and topographical maps, as well as excerpts of letters Captain McGill sent home to friends and family. These letters are literally written "from the trenches" and lend an unsettling atmosphere and stark realism to the original memoir. Wartime accounts written by medical officers are quite rare, and often more than other regular officers, the M.O.'s position in the battalion provides a unique perspective on the day-to-day lives of soldiers under his command. Norris's painstaking archival research and careful editing skills have brought back to light a gripping first-hand account of the 31st Battalion and, on a larger scale, of Canada's participation in World War I, making this book of great interest not only to military historians, but also to any Canadian compelled by the incredible sacrifice of soldiers during wartime.

The classic tale of battle, roguery, and capture from the Army of Northern Virginia. From his looting of farmhouses during the Gettysburg campaign and robbing of fallen Union soldiers as opportunity allowed to his five arrests for infractions of military discipline and numerous unapproved leaves, John O. Casler's actions during the Civil War made him as much a rogue as a Rebel. Though he was no model soldier, his forthright confessions of his service years in the Army of Northern Virginia stand among the most sought after and cited accounts by a Confederate soldier. First published in 1893 and significantly revised and expanded in 1906, Casler's Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade recounts the truths of camp life, marches, and combat. Moreover, Casler's recollections provide an unapologetic view of the effects of the harsh life in Stonewall's ranks on an average foot soldier and his fellows. A native of Gainesboro, Virginia, with an inherent wanderlust and thirst for adventure, Casler enlisted in June 1861 in what became Company A, 33rd Virginia Infantry, and participated in major campaigns throughout the conflict, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Captured in February 1865, he spent the final months of the war as a prisoner at Fort McHenry, Maryland. His postwar narrative recalls the realities of warfare for the private soldier, the moral ambiguities of thievery and survival at the front, and the deliberate cruelties of capture and imprisonment with the vivid detail, straightforward candor, and irreverent flair for storytelling that have earned ""Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade"" its place in the first rank of primary literature of the Confederacy. This edition features a new introduction by Robert K. Krick chronicling Casler's origins and his careers after the war as a writer and organizer of Confederate veterans groups.

The gripping life story of the great war correspondent Marie Colvin told by one of her closest friends

Winner of the James Tait Black Award

Marie Colvin was glamorous, hard-drinking, braver than the boys, with a troubled and rackety personal life. She reported from the most dangerous places in the world and her anecdotes about encounters with figures like Colonel Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat were incomparable. She was much admired, and as famous for her wild parties as for the extraordinary lengths to which she went to tell the story.

Fellow foreign correspondent Lindsey Hilsum draws on unpublished diaries and interviews with friends, family and colleagues to produce a story of one of the most daring and inspirational women of our times.

A Sunday Times Book of the Year

'A stunningly good biography' WILLIAM BOYD

An explosive expose of how British military intelligence really works-from the inside. This book presents the stories of two undercover agents: Brian Nelson, who worked for the Force Research Unit (FRU), aiding loyalist terrorists and murderers in their bloody work; and the man known as Stakeknife, deputy head of the IRA's infamous "Nutting Squad," the internal security force that tortured and killed suspected informers.
This book is copublished with O'Brien Press, Dublin and is for sale only in the United States, it's territories and dependencies, Canada, and the Philippines.

Concerned with the logistical details of supplying the Army of the Potomac as it bogged down during the Peninsula campaign or of commandeering a steamboat to relieve the siege and get food to stranded soldiers at Chattanooga, Le Duc tells his story of mud-choked roads, incompetent commanders, and what he understands as the crucial factor necessary for the Union's success in battle: a well-supplied army. Through his close association with Generals McClellan and Meade, Hooker and Sherman, Le Duc learned to master the army's bureaucracy and overcome the hardships of trying to keep Union supplies on the move. His compelling memoir is unique in depicting the details of life in the Quartermaster Department. William G Le Duc (1823-1917) moved to the Minnesota Territory in 1850. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he volunteered into the Quartermaster Department and mustered out four years later as brevet brigadier general. He later served as the US Commissioner of Agriculture from 1877 until 1881 and retired to his home in Hastings, Minnesota.

A rare treat for World War II history buffs and fans of the strange, absurd, and unexplained

Acclaimed military historian William Breuer takes readers on a trip through the looking glass to acquaint them with the weirder side of World War II. Featuring a cast of characters including double- and triple-agents, femme fatales, fearless leaders, and men at arms, The Spy who Spent the War In Bed is a collection of seventy concise, vividly rendered tales of war, ranging from laugh-out-loud funny, to inspiring, to just-plain-bizarre. For instance, there’s the one about how reputed Irish Republican Army members in New York conned Nazi intelligence out of a small fortune. There’s also a thrilling account of how four American newsmen bagged an entire German platoon. And there’s the haunting tale of the "Mystery Plane," an experimental aircraft that took off on a short test flight over England one sunny afternoon in 1938 and simply vanished into a cloudless summer sky. This book draws on personal interviews, official archives, and declassified documents, as well as the vast literature on World War II.

William B. Breuer (Cleveland, TN) is the author of more than twenty-five books.

Critical acclaim for William B. Breuer

"A first-class historian."
–The Wall Street Journal

Top Secret Tales of World War II

"A book for rainy days and long solitary nights by the fire. If there were a genre for cozy nonfiction, this would be the template."
–Publishers Weekly

"Perfect for the curious and adventure readers and those who love exotic tales and especially history buffs who will be surprised at what they didn’t know. Recommended for nearly everyone."
–Kirkus Reviews

Daring Missions of World War II

"The author brings to light many previously unknown stories of behind-the-scenes bravery and covert activities that helped the Allies win critical victories."
–Albuquerque Journal

Secret Weapons of World War II

"Rip-roaring tales . . . a delightful addition to the niche that Breuer has so successfully carved out."
–Publishers Weekly

As 1914 drew to a close, little did anyone in Australia know that four years of warfare lay ahead. Mothers could not forsee the anguish they would suffer, nor wives and sweethearts their heartbreak. Young men had little idea of the grim reality of war as they marched off to do their patriotic duty for King and country.

Praise for The Rescue

"Steven Trent Smith grapples boldly with several big subjects: the Japanese occupation of the Philippines; the capture of Japan’s ‘Z Plan’ (the decisive-battle strategy for destroying the U.S. Pacific Fleet); the rescue by submarine of forty Americans stranded in the Philippines; the climactic Battle of the Philippine Sea. Meticulously researched and well written, The Rescue ties these elements together into an epic that is emotionally engaging from start to rousing finish."
–Martin Russ, author of Breakout and The Last Parallel

"Smith’s thoroughly researched, detailed account of the brave American and Filipino guerrillas on Negros Island in the Philippines will do much to introduce readers to this little known aspect of World War II in the Pacific. . . . This is a fascinating story well told."
–Elizabeth Norman, author of the award-winning We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese

"The Rescue is a delightful journey with the gallant few who resisted the Japanese occupation of the Philippines and who shaped the larger events wh ich led to victory in the Pacific. Smith’s brilliant research and unique storytelling make this account a must for all who enjoy history and a grand adventure."
–Peter Huchthausen, author of October Fury

"With a photojournalist’s eye for action and detail, Steven Trent Smith’s The Rescue is a remarkable achievement. The incredible mission to save forty Americans stranded in the Philippines reads more like a work of fiction. . . . A must-read for all those interested in one of the great secret submarine operations of World War II and all action adventure fans alike!"
–Richard P. Henrick, author of Crimson Tide and Nightwatch

In the author's words, taken from the preface:
"I went on active duty on the first day of July 1943, and was discharged in March 1946. Between those dates I experienced the frightening, the pathetic, the moving, the ridiculous, the funny and the unbelievable, all to a degree I would not have thought possible.
Just short of my twenty-second birthday I entered the Army a bookish, somewhat introverted person. For what happened then, read on."
A remarkable story of courage, resourcefulness, tragedy and humor, Blood and Candles is unlike any other account of World War II that has ever been published.
The author's combat duty lasted for seven months during which he served as a runner or scout, sometimes finding himself alone behind enemy lines. Once he was even captured by the Americans and was almost shot as a German spy posing as an American. How he got out of that jam and many others will keep the reader fascinated from cover to cover.
While the climax of the book describes some of the most intense combat of the war, in which almost everyone around him was killed or seriously wounded, the author's experiences during basic training and after the War, attending the Sorbonne under the auspices of the Army, are equally fascinating.

The battered faces of the two British airmen which appeared on the world's television screens in January 1991 are lasting images of the suffering and brutality of war. The pictures here show the pilot and the navigator as they are today.

RAF Flight lieutenants John Peters and John Nichol were shot down over enemy territory on their first airbourne mission of the Gulf War. Their capture in the desert, half a mile from their blazing Tornado bomber, began a nightmare seven-week ordeal of torture and interrogation which brought both men close to death.

In Tornado Down, John Peters and John Nichol tell the incredible story of their part in the war against Saddam Hussien's regime. It is a brave and shocking and totally honest story: a story about war and its effects on the hearts and minds of men.

When Chief Gunner Hashiro Hayashi took dead aim on British Columbia's Estevan Point Lighthouse and wireless station on a June morning in 1942, the realities of war had come to North America. Sixty years later, the fascinating events of that era and their impact on both the Canadian and American psyches remain unknown to much of the world.After conducting decades of research and interviews with veterans on both sides of the conflict, author Brendan Coyle now reveals the campaign that included three attacks on British Columbia, an air raid on Portland, Oregon, and the harsh battles fought in Alaska. From the foreword: "Brendan Coyle has done a magnificent job in this comprehensive review of the war on the West Coast. No other single volume has so neatly tied together the myriad stories of how the war affected people in British Columbia, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska,"-Jim Delgado, Executive DirectorVancouver Maritime Museu