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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War

The Fighting Bunch - The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the... The Fighting Bunch - The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the Revolution (Paperback)
Chris DeRose
R326 Discovery Miles 3 260 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the Revolution, New York Times bestselling author Chris DeRose reveals the true, never-before-told story of the men who brought their overseas combat experience to wage war against a corrupt political machine in their hometown. Bill White and the young men of McMinn County answered their nation's call after Pearl Harbor. They won the freedom of the world and returned to find that they had lost it at home. A corrupt political machine was in charge, protected by violent deputies, funded by racketeering, and kept in place by stolen elections - the worst allegations of voter fraud ever reported to the Department of Justice, according to the U.S. Attorney General. To restore free government, McMinn's veterans formed the nonpartisan GI ticket to oppose the machine at the next election. On Election Day, August 1, 1946, the GIs and their supporters found themselves outgunned, assaulted, arrested, and intimidated. Deputies seized ballot boxes and brought them back to the jail. White and a group of GIs - The Fighting Bunch - men who fought and survived Guadalcanal, the Bulge, and Normandy, armed themselves and demanded a fair count. When they were refused the most basic rights they had fought for, the men, all of whom believed they had seen the end of war, returned to the battlefield and risked their lives one last time. For the past seven decades, the participants of the Battle of Ballots and Bullets and their families kept silent about that conflict. Now in The Fighting Bunch, after years of research, including exclusive interviews with the remaining witnesses, archival radio broadcast and interview tapes, scrapbooks, letters, and diaries, Chris DeRose has reconstructed one of the great untold stories in American history.

Fighters of the Dying Sun - The Most Advanced Japanese Fighters of the Second World War (Hardcover): Justo Miranda Fighters of the Dying Sun - The Most Advanced Japanese Fighters of the Second World War (Hardcover)
Justo Miranda
R924 R747 Discovery Miles 7 470 Save R177 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

The first B-29 flew over Tokyo on 1 November 1944. It was a photographic reconnaissance aircraft ironically named 'Tokyo Rose'. The Ki.44 fighters of the 47th Sentai took off to intercept it but as it turned out the Superfortress flew at such an altitude and speed that they could not reach it. The Ki-44-II-Otsu had been specifically designed for this type of interception and could reach the astonishing rate of climb of 5,000 m in four minutes; however it was not good enough. During the following ten months, a devastating bombing campaign of thousands of Superfortress destroyed 67 Japanese cities and half of Tokyo. The cultural shock and the political consequences were huge, when it was realised that the Japanese industry was not able to produce the specially heat and stress-resistant metallic alloys that were required to manufacture the turbo superchargers needed by the fighters in charge of defending the Japanese mainland. They lacked the essential chromium and molybdenum metals to harden the steel. This fact thwarted the manufacturing of numerous advanced projects of both conventional fighters and those derived from the transfer of German technology fitted with turbojets and rocket engines. They are thoroughly described in this book.

Out of Step - A Study of Young Delinquent Soldiers in Wartime; Their Offences, Their Background and Their Treatment Under an... Out of Step - A Study of Young Delinquent Soldiers in Wartime; Their Offences, Their Background and Their Treatment Under an Army Experiment (Paperback)
Joseph Trenaman
R896 Discovery Miles 8 960 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

In the early years of the War the Army was burdened with a great number of troublesome soldiers who would not take to the discipline. They were not only useless as fighting men, but were also likely to be a bad influence on others. Normal methods of punishment were tried repeatedly, to little effect, and as the expanding Army began to run short of manpower new methods were tried to deal with the delinquents. In September 1941 new experimental Special Training Units were established with the aim of converting them into good soldiers through careful individual treatment and retraining. The units aimed to achieve retraining through education and not punishment, and this book, first published in 1952, is a careful analysis of the aims and results of the programme.

Nagasaki - The Forgotten Bomb (Paperback): Frank W. Chinnock Nagasaki - The Forgotten Bomb (Paperback)
Frank W. Chinnock
R961 Discovery Miles 9 610 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book, first published in 1970, examines the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, when an entire industrial city was devastated and the bulk of its population killed or wounded. Coming days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki has largely been forgotten. This book traces the decision by the US to use the second bomb, and the choice of Nagasaki as its target. It follows the bomber to the skies over Nagasaki, and the terrible events that unfolded. Using diaries, written accounts and the testimonies of hundreds of Japanese civilians who survived the bombing, this book provides the definitive text on the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

The Decision to Drop the Bomb (Paperback): Len Giovannitti, Fred Freed The Decision to Drop the Bomb (Paperback)
Len Giovannitti, Fred Freed
R964 Discovery Miles 9 640 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book, first published in 1967, examines the circumstances and events that led to the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, devastating Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death of President Roosevelt three weeks before the end of the European war led to an incoming President, Truman, who had heard nothing of the project before taking office. He and his advisers had no precedents to guide them as they considered what to do, and withing their closely drawn circle there were genuine differences of opinion about the use of atomic weapons. This book traces the course of the discussions between the politicians and their technical advisers, the part played by personal relationships, and the attempt by some of the scientists to stop the bomb being used without warning. In addition, it supplies a thorough analysis of developments abroad, and in particular the situation in Japan. It shows that the debate in Washington and the atomic plants was careful and wide-ranging, and that issues are no less complex for being supremely important. The result is to provide both a study of decision-making and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the closing months of the Second World War.

Enigma: How Breaking the Code Helped Win World War II (Hardcover): Michael Kerrigan Enigma: How Breaking the Code Helped Win World War II (Hardcover)
Michael Kerrigan
R645 R492 Discovery Miles 4 920 Save R153 (24%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

At its peak in January 1945, 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park, reading 4000 messages a day, decrypting German and Japanese communications and helping the Allies to victory. But while we know that Bletchley was the centre of Britain's World War II code-breaking, how did its efforts actually change the course of the war? Enigma: How Breaking the Code Helped Win World War II tells the story of Bletchley's role in defeating U-boats in the Atlantic, breaking the Japanese codes, helping the Allies to victory in North Africa, deciphering the German military intelligence code, learning of most German positions in western Europe before the Normandy Landings, defeating the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean, and helping sink the German battleship Scharnhorst off Norway. In tracing these events, the book also delves into the stories of major Bletchley characters, 'boffins' such as Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, and 'Debs' such as Joan Clarke and Margaret Rock. An accessible work of military history that ranges across air, land and naval warfare, the book also touches on the story of early computer science. Illustrated with 120 black-&-white and colour photographs, artworks and maps, Enigma: How Breaking the Code Helped Win World War II is an authoritative and novel perspective on WWII history.

Mussolini's Army against Greece - October 1940-April 1941 (Paperback): Richard Carrier Mussolini's Army against Greece - October 1940-April 1941 (Paperback)
Richard Carrier
R1,220 Discovery Miles 12 200 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book analyses why the Italian army failed to defeat its Greek opponent between October 1940 and April 1941. It thoroughly examines the multiple forms of ineffectiveness that plagued the political leadership as well as the military organisation. Mussolini's aggression of Greece ranks among the most neglected campaigns of the Second World War. Initiated on 28 October 1940, the offensive came to a halt less than ten days later; by mid-November, the Greek counter-offensive put the Italian armies on the defensive, and back in Albania. From then on, the fatal interaction between failing command structures, inadequate weapons and equipment, unprepared and unmotivated combatants, and terrible logistics lowered to a dangerous level the fighting power of Italian combatants. This essay proposes that compared to the North African and Russian campaigns where the Regio Esercito achieved a decent level of military effectiveness, the operation against Greece was a military fiasco. Only the courage of its soldiers and the German intervention saved the dictator's army from complete disaster. This book would appeal to anyone interested in the history of the world war, and to those involved in the study of military effectiveness and intrigued by why armies fail.

The Secret Listeners - The Men and Women Posted Across the World to Intercept the German Codes for Bletchley Park (Paperback,... The Secret Listeners - The Men and Women Posted Across the World to Intercept the German Codes for Bletchley Park (Paperback, Pb Reissue)
Sinclair McKay 1
R315 Discovery Miles 3 150 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Behind the celebrated code-breaking at Bletchley Park lies another secret...The men and women of the ' Y' (for Wireless' ) Service were sent out across the world to run listening stations from Gibraltar to Cairo, intercepting the German military's encrypted messages for decoding back at the now-famous Bletchley Park mansion. Such wartime postings were life-changing adventures - travel out by flying boat or Indian railways, snakes in filing cabinets and heat so intense the perspiration ran into your shoes - but many of the secret listeners found lifelong romance in their far-flung corner of the world. Now, drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans, Sinclair McKay tells their remarkable story at last.

The Nazi Menace - Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War (Paperback): Benjamin Carter Hett The Nazi Menace - Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War (Paperback)
Benjamin Carter Hett
R499 R415 Discovery Miles 4 150 Save R84 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

A panoramic narrative of the years leading up to the Second World War--a tale of democratic crisis, racial conflict, and a belated recognition of evil, with profound resonance for our own time. Berlin, November 1937. Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in eastern Europe. Some generals are unnerved by the Fuhrer's grandiose plan, but these dissenters are silenced one by one, setting in motion events that will culminate in the most calamitous war in history. Benjamin Carter Hett takes us behind the scenes in Berlin, London, Moscow, and Washington, revealing the unsettled politics within each country in the wake of the German dictator's growing provocations. He reveals the fitful path by which anti-Nazi forces inside and outside Germany came to understand Hitler's true menace to European civilization and learned to oppose him, painting a sweeping portrait of governments under siege, as larger-than-life figures struggled to turn events to their advantage. As in The Death of Democracy, his acclaimed history of the fall of the Weimar Republic, Hett draws on original sources and newly released documents to show how these long-ago conflicts have unexpected resonances in our own time. To read The Nazi Menace is to see past and present in a new and unnerving light.

Killing the Rising Sun - How America Vanquished World War II Japan (Paperback): Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard Killing the Rising Sun - How America Vanquished World War II Japan (Paperback)
Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard 1
R531 R442 Discovery Miles 4 420 Save R89 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Garibaldi's Radical Legacy - Traditions of War Volunteering in Southern Europe (1861-1945) (Paperback): Enrico Acciai Garibaldi's Radical Legacy - Traditions of War Volunteering in Southern Europe (1861-1945) (Paperback)
Enrico Acciai
R1,205 Discovery Miles 12 050 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Between the two world wars, thousands of European antifascists were pushed to act by the political circumstances of the time. In that context, the Spanish Civil War and the armed resistances during the Second World War involved particularly large numbers of transnational fighters. The need to fight fascism wherever it presented itself was undoubtedly the main motivation behind these fighters' decision to mobilise. Despite all this, however, not enough attention has been paid to the fact that some of these volunteers felt they were the last exponents of a tradition of armed volunteering which, in their case, originated in the nineteenth century. The capacity of war volunteering to endure and persist over time has rarely been investigated in historiography. The aim of this book is to reconstruct the radical and transnational tradition of war volunteering connected to Giuseppe Garibaldi's legacy in Southern Europe between the unification of Italy (1861) and the end of the Second World War (1945). This book seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of the long-term, interconnected, and radical dimensions of the so called Garibaldinism.

The Oxford History of the Third Reich (Paperback): Robert Gellately The Oxford History of the Third Reich (Paperback)
Robert Gellately
R428 R350 Discovery Miles 3 500 Save R78 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Histories you can trust. At age thirty in 1919, Adolf Hitler had no accomplishments. He was a rootless loner, a corporal in a shattered army, without money or prospects. A little more than twenty years later, in autumn 1941, he directed his dynamic forces against the Soviet Union, and in December, the Germans were at the gates of Moscow and Leningrad. At that moment, Hitler appeared - however briefly - to be the most powerful ruler on the planet. Given this dramatic turn of events, it is little wonder that since 1945 generations of historians keep trying to explain how it all happened. This rich history provides a readable and fresh approach to the complex history of the Third Reich, from the coming to power of the Nazis in 1933 to the final collapse in 1945, distilling our ideas about the period and providing a balanced and accessible account of the whole era.

Britain'S Secret Defences - Civilian Saboteurs, Spies and Assassins During the Second World War (Hardcover): Andrew... Britain'S Secret Defences - Civilian Saboteurs, Spies and Assassins During the Second World War (Hardcover)
Andrew Chatterton
R550 R486 Discovery Miles 4 860 Save R64 (12%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The narrative surrounding Britain's anti-invasion forces has often centred on 'Dad's Army'-like characters running around with pitchforks, on unpreparedness and sense of inevitability of invasion and defeat. The truth, however, is very different. Top-secret, highly trained and ruthless civilian volunteers were being recruited as early as the summer of 1940. Had the Germans attempted an invasion they would have been countered by saboteurs and guerrilla fighters emerging from secret bunkers, and monitored by swathes of spies and observers who would have passed details on via runners, wireless operators and ATS women in disguised bunkers. Alongside these secret forces, the Home Guard were also setting up their own 'guerrilla groups', and SIS (MI6) were setting up post-occupation groups of civilians - including teenagers - to act as sabotage cells, wireless operators and assassins had the Nazis taken control of the country. The civilians involved in these groups understood the need for absolute secrecy and their commitment to keeping quiet meant that most went to their grave without ever telling anyone of their role, not even their closest family members. There has been no official and little public recognition of what these dedicated men and women were willing to do for their country in its hour of need, and after over 80 years of silence the time has come to highlight their remarkable role.

German Medium Tank Panzerkampfwagen Iv - Ausf. G/H/J (Paperback): Michal Kuchciak German Medium Tank Panzerkampfwagen Iv - Ausf. G/H/J (Paperback)
Michal Kuchciak
R441 Discovery Miles 4 410 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Panzerkampfwagen IV (PzKpfw IV) - German medium tank from World War II. Until the fall of 1942, it was the heaviest tank in the army of the Third Reich. Initially, it was armed with a 75 mm short-barreled cannon, but as a result of the experience gained it was rearmed with long-barreled guns.

D-Day - 75th Anniversary Edition (Paperback): Antony Beevor D-Day - 75th Anniversary Edition (Paperback)
Antony Beevor 1
R414 R342 Discovery Miles 3 420 Save R72 (17%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER - REISSUED WITH A NEW FOREWORD FOR THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY 'Magnificent, vivid, moving, superb' Max Hastings, Sunday Times ______________ This is the closest you will ever get to war - the taste, the smell, the noise and the fear The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was awesome and what followed was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. Antony Beevor's inimitably gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war. He lands the reader on the beach alongside the heroes whose stories he so masterfully renders in their full terrifying glory. ______________ 'A thrilling story, with all Beevor's narrative mastery' Chris Patten, Financial Times 'Beevor's D-Day has all the qualities that have made his earlier works so successful: an eye for telling and unusual detail, an ability to make complex events understandable, and a wonderful graphic style' Ian Kershaw, Guardian, Books of the Year 'D-Day's phenomenal success is both understandable and justified' James Holland 'D-Day is a triumph . . . on almost every page there's some little detail that sticks in the mind or tweaks the heart. This is a terrific, inspiring, heart-breaking book' Sam Leith, Daily Mail

The Secret War - Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939-1945 (Paperback, Edition): Max Hastings The Secret War - Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939-1945 (Paperback, Edition)
Max Hastings 1
R300 R240 Discovery Miles 2 400 Save R60 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

'As gripping as any spy thriller, Hastings's achievement is especially impressive, for he has produced the best single volume yet written on the subject' Sunday Times 'Authoritative, exciting and notably well written' Daily Telegraph 'A serious work of rigourous and comprehensive history ... royally entertaining and readable' Mail on Sunday In The Secret War, Max Hastings presents a worldwide cast of characters and extraordinary sagas of intelligence and Resistance to create a new perspective on the greatest conflict in history. The book links tales of high courage ashore, at sea and in the air to the work of the brilliant 'boffins' battling the enemy's technology. Here are not only the unheralded codebreaking geniuses of Bletchley Park, but also their German counterparts who achieved their own triumphs and the fabulous espionage networks created, and so often spurned, by the Soviet Union. With its stories of high policy and human drama, the book has been acclaimed as the best history of the secret war ever written.

Eight Days in May - How Germany's War Ended (Paperback): Volker Ullrich Eight Days in May - How Germany's War Ended (Paperback)
Volker Ullrich; Translated by Jefferson Chase
R265 R212 Discovery Miles 2 120 Save R53 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

'Superb' David Aaronovitch, The Times 'A punchy account that is a proper page-turner' Financial Times 'The last days of the Third Reich have often been told, but seldom with the verve, perception and elegance of Volker Ullrich's rich narrative' Richard Overy, author of The Bombing War 1 May 1945. The world did not know it yet, but the final week of the Third Reich's existence had begun. Hitler was dead, but the war had still not ended. Everything had both ground to a halt and yet remained agonizingly uncertain. Volker Ullrich's remarkable book takes the reader into a world torn between hope and terror, violence and peace. Ullrich describes how each day unfolds, with Germany now under a new Fuhrer, Admiral Doenitz, based improbably in the small Baltic town of Flensburg. With Hitler dead, Berlin in ruins and the war undoubtedly lost, the process by which the fighting would end remained horrifyingly unclear. Many major Nazis were still on the loose, wild rumours continued to circulate about a last stand in the Alps and the Western allies falling out with the Soviet Union. All over Europe, millions of soldiers, prisoners, slave labourers and countless exhausted, grief-stricken and often homeless families watched and waited for the war's end. Eight Days in May is the story of people, in Erich Kastner's striking phrase, stuck in 'the gap between no longer and not yet'. 'A fast-paced, brilliant recounting of the turbulent last days of the Third Reich, with all the energy and chaos of a Jackson Pollock canvas' Helmut Walser Smith, author of Germany: A Nation in its Time

The Navy of World War II, 1922-1947 (Paperback): Paul Silverstone The Navy of World War II, 1922-1947 (Paperback)
Paul Silverstone
R1,493 Discovery Miles 14 930 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The Navy of World War II, 1922-1946 comprehensively covers the vessels that defined this momentous 24-year period in U.S. naval history. Beginning with the lean, pared-down navy created by the treaty at the Washington Naval Conference, and ending with the massive, awe-inspiring fleets that led the Allies to victory in the Second World War, the fourth volume in the celebrated U.S. Navy Warship series presents a detailed guide to all the warships that exhibited the might of the U.S. Navy to the fullest. Showcasing all the ships-both the famous and the often overlooked-that propelled the U.S Navy to prominence in the first half of the twentieth century, The Navy of World War II catalogues all the warships from this era, including those that did battle in the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters from 1941-1946. From the fleet attacked at Pearl Harbor, to those that fought valiantly in the Battle of the Guadalcanal, to the official surrender of the Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri, this latest volume is the definitive guide to the warships that defined this pivotal period in U.S. naval history. Each volume in the U.S. Navy Warship series represents the most meticulous scholarship for its particular era, providing an authoritative account of every ship in the history of the U. S. Navy from its first incarnation as the Continental Navy to its present position as one of the world's most formidable naval superpowers. Featuring convenient, easy-to-read tabular lists, every book in the series includes an abundance of illustrations, some never before published, along with figures for actions fought, damages sustained, casualties suffered, prizes taken, and ships sunk, ultimately making the series an indispensable reference tool for maritime buffs and military historians alike. A further article about Paul Silverstone and the Navy Warships series can be found at: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18s180&SecId=180&AId=58892&ATypeId=1

The Glamour Boys - The Secret Story of the Rebels who Fought for Britain to Defeat Hitler (Paperback): Chris Bryant The Glamour Boys - The Secret Story of the Rebels who Fought for Britain to Defeat Hitler (Paperback)
Chris Bryant
R313 R258 Discovery Miles 2 580 Save R55 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

A STORY OF UNSUNG BRAVERY AT A DEFINING MOMENT IN BRITAIN'S HISTORY 'Superb' Stephen Fry 'Thrillingly told' Dan Jones 'Fascinating' Neil MacGregor 'Astonishing' Peter Frankopan We like to think we know the story of how Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, but there is one chapter that has never been told. In the early 1930s, a group of young, queer British MPs visited Berlin on a series of trips that would change the course of the Second World War. Having witnessed the Nazis' brutality first-hand, these men were some of the first to warn Britain about Hitler, repeatedly speaking out against their government's policy of appeasing him. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hated them. Branding them 'the glamour boys' to insinuate something untoward about them, he had their phones tapped and threatened them with deselection and exposure. At a time when even the suggestion of homosexuality could land you in prison, the bravery these men were forced to show in their personal lives gave them extraordinary courage in public. Undaunted, they refused to be silenced and when war came, they enlisted. Four of them died in action. And without them, Britain would never have faced down the Nazis. A Guardian Book of Autumn 2020

Bomber Command (Paperback): Max Hastings Bomber Command (Paperback)
Max Hastings
R408 Discovery Miles 4 080 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Bomber Command is journalist and military historian Sir Max Hastings' compelling account of one of the most controversial struggles of the Second World War.

RAF Bomber Command’s offensive against the cities of Germany was one of the epic campaigns of the Second World War. More than 56,000 British and Commonwealth aircrew and 600,000 Germans died in the course of the RAF’s attempt to win the war by bombing. The struggle began in 1939 with a few primitive Whitleys, Hampdens and Wellingtons, and ended six years later with 1,600 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes razing whole cities in a single night.

Max Hastings traced the developments of area bombing using a wealth of documents, letters, diaries and interviews with key surviving witnesses. Bomber Command is, in turn, a fascinating, meticulously-researched, and vivid assessment of the RAF's integral role in the Second World War.

Berlin - Life and Loss in the City That Shaped the Century (Hardcover): Sinclair McKay Berlin - Life and Loss in the City That Shaped the Century (Hardcover)
Sinclair McKay
R475 R379 Discovery Miles 3 790 Save R96 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

The Sunday Times-bestselling author of Dresden returns with a monumental biography of the city that defined the twentieth century - Berlin 'I loved this book . . . apposite and wise . . . To anyone who knows Berlin a little and is fascinated by it, but would like to understand it better, this is a wonderful aid' David Aaronovitch, The Times Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. This history is often viewed as separate acts: the suffering of the First World War, the cosmopolitan city of science, culture and sexual freedom Berlin became, steep economic plunges, the rise of the Nazis, the destruction of the Second World War, the psychosis of genocide, and a city rent in two by competing ideologies. But people do not live their lives in fixed eras. An epoch ends, yet the people continue - or try to continue - much as they did before. Berlin tells the story of the city as seen through the eyes not of its rulers, but of those who walked its streets. In this magisterial biography of a city and its inhabitants, bestselling historian Sinclair McKay sheds new light on well-known characters - from idealistic scientist Albert Einstein to Nazi architect Albert Speer - and draws on never-before-seen first-person accounts to introduce us to people of all walks of Berlin life. For example, we meet office worker Mechtild Evers, who in her efforts to escape an oncoming army runs into even more appalling jeopardy, and Reinhart Cruger, a 12-year-old boy in 1941 who witnesses with horror the Gestapo coming for each of his Jewish neighbours in turn. Ever a city of curious contrasts, moments of unbelievable darkness give way to a wry Berliner humour - from banned perms to the often ridiculous tit-for-tat between East and West Berlin - and moments of joyous hope - like forced labourers at a jam factory warmly welcoming their Soviet liberators. How did those ideologies - fascism and communism - come to flower so fully here? And how did their repercussions continue to be felt throughout Europe and the West right up until that extraordinary night in the autumn of 1989 when the Wall - that final expression of totalitarian oppression - was at last breached? You cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin; and you cannot understand Berlin without understanding the experiences of its people. Drawing on a staggering breadth of culture - from art to film, opera to literature, science to architecture - McKay's latest masterpiece shows us this hypnotic city as never before. 'Remarkable . . . A majestic work of non-fiction' Matthew d'Ancona 'A masterful account of a city marked by infamy . . . If there is a book that must be read this year, this is it' Amanda Foreman 'Stunning . . . It's eye-opening, enlightening and wonderfully told' Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed 'An electrifying new account of Berlin' Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich 'One of my favourite historians' Dan Snow

Truly of the Few - The Polish Airforce in the Defence of Britain (Hardcover): Penny Starns Truly of the Few - The Polish Airforce in the Defence of Britain (Hardcover)
Penny Starns
R499 Discovery Miles 4 990 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Flying alongside the Royal Air Force, with stoical determination, and far from home, Polish pilots put their lives on the line in defence of Britain during the Second World War. The legendary Polish 303 Squadron made a tremendous impact in the Battle of Britain by becoming the best scoring Squadron. Whereas members of 307 Squadron were responsible for defending major cities against incoming German night raiders during the Blitz; and later defended historic cities during the Baedeker raids. Others were given the task of protecting coastal areas or, as special operations units, gathering intelligence and assisting underground resistance forces. As the war progressed, Polish airmen were assigned to offensive raids, infiltrating enemy territory and destroying Germany's industrial and rocket bases. They also made a vital contribution to D-Day and the subsequent liberation of Europe. This book tells the compelling and dramatic story of the Polish Air Force in Britain through detailed combat reports, logistics of battle strategies, oral history testimonies, operational records and a wide variety of previously unpublished written and visual material. Firmly set within the context of each phase of aerial combat, the book documents the heroic contribution made by the Polish Air Force, not only to one of the most famous battles in history but also to the ultimate success of long-term Allied objectives.

D-Days in the Pacific (Paperback, 1st Simon & Schuster pbk. ed): Donald L. Miller D-Days in the Pacific (Paperback, 1st Simon & Schuster pbk. ed)
Donald L. Miller
R802 R688 Discovery Miles 6 880 Save R114 (14%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Although most people associate the term D-Day with the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, it is military code for the beginning of any offensive operation. In the Pacific theater during World War II there were more than one hundred D-Days. The largest -- and last -- was the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, which brought together the biggest invasion fleet ever assembled, far larger than that engaged in the Normandy invasion.
"D-Days in the Pacific" tells the epic story of the campaign waged by American forces to win back the Pacific islands from Japan. Based on eyewitness accounts by the combatants, it covers the entire Pacific struggle from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Pacific war was largely a seaborne offensive fought over immense distances. Many of the amphibious assaults on Japanese-held islands were among the most savagely fought battles in American history: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, New Guinea, Peleliu, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, Okinawa.
Generously illustrated with photographs and maps, "D-Days in the Pacific" is the finest one-volume account of this titanic struggle.

East Central Europe and Communism - Politics, Culture, and Society, 1943-1991 (Paperback): Sabrina P. Ramet East Central Europe and Communism - Politics, Culture, and Society, 1943-1991 (Paperback)
Sabrina P. Ramet
R1,142 Discovery Miles 11 420 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

The communists of East Central Europe came to power promising to bring about genuine equality, paying special attention to achieving gender equality, to build up industry and create prosperous societies, and to use music, art, and literature to promote socialist ideals. Instead, they never succeeded in filling more than a third of their legislatures with women and were unable to make significant headway against entrenched patriarchal views; they considered it necessary (with the sole exception of Albania) to rely heavily on credits to build up their economies, eventually driving them into bankruptcy; and the effort to instrumentalize the arts ran aground in most of the region already by 1956, and, in Yugoslavia, by 1949. Communism was all about planning, control, and politicization. Except for Yugoslavia after 1949, the communists sought to plan and control not only politics and the economy, but also the media and information, religious organizations, culture, and the promotion of women, which they understood in the first place as involving putting women to work. Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Robert K. Merton on functionalist theory, this book shows how communist policies were repeatedly undermined by unintended consequences and outright dysfunctions.

The Faces of Margraten - They Will Remain Forever Young (Hardcover): Jori Videc, Sebastiaan Vonk, Arie-Jan Van Hees The Faces of Margraten - They Will Remain Forever Young (Hardcover)
Jori Videc, Sebastiaan Vonk, Arie-Jan Van Hees
R1,488 Discovery Miles 14 880 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In the rolling hills of the Limburg Province, near the village of Margraten, they slowly loom up, row after row: thousands of white marble crosses and Stars of David. They mark the final resting place of American soldiers who died fighting to liberate the Netherlands during World War II. While the headstones provide the names and ages of those lost, they cannot tell us who these soldiers were, what their lives were like, or who they left behind. Nor can the peace and quiet at the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands reflect the harrowing experience and violent final moments of the men and women who forever rest here. Through hundreds of personal photographs and more than 250 stories, The Faces of Margraten gives these soldiers faces and voices again, telling not only the history of World War II and the ending of the German occupation of the Netherlands, but also revealing how and why the Dutch people have never forgotten their liberators. Concluding with a list of all the soldiers' names, this commemorative book stands as a testament to the service and sacrifice of the more than 10,000 Americans buried or memorialized as missing in Margraten.

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