First Published in 2015. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor Francis, an informa company.

Award-winning journalist and author Kevin Sites asks the difficult questions of these combatants, many of whom he first met while in Afghanistan and Iraq and others he sought out from different wars: What is it like to kill? What is it like to be under fire? How do you know what's right? What can you never forget? Sites compiles the accounts of soldiers, Marines, their families and friends, and also shares the unsettling narrative of his own failures during war (including complicity in a murder) and the redemptive powers of storytelling in arresting a spiraling path of self-destruction. He learns that war both gives and takes from those most intimately involved in it. Some struggle in perpetual disequilibrium, while others find balance, usually with the help of communities who have learned to listen, without judgment, to the real stories of the men and women it has sent to fight its battles.

27th April 1944. Exercise Tiger. German E-boats intercept rehearsals for the D-Day landings...

One dark night, in 1944, a beautiful stretch of the Devon coast became the scene of murderous horror. The villages around the area had recently been cleared of civilians and had become the focus of intense military activity. Tales began to leak out of night-time explosions and seaborne activity. This was practice for Exercise Tiger, the main rehearsal for the Utah Beach landings...

Ken Small tells a gripping tale of wartime disaster and rescue in the words of the soldiers who were there, and which was buried by officials until it became almost forgotten. But this man's curiosity turned into a fight to honour the memory of nearly 1,000 American soldiers and sailors who died needlessly in one of the great fiascos of World War II.

Hailed as one of the finest books to emerge from the Vietnam War, If I Die in a Combat Zone is a fascinating insight into the lives of the soldiers caught in the conflict. First published in 1973, this intensely personal novel about one foot soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam established Tim O'Brien's reputation as the outstanding chronicler of the Vietnam experience for a generation of Americans. From basic training to the front line and back again, he takes the reader on an unforgettable journey - walking the minefields of My Lai, fighting the heat and the snipers in an alien land, crawling into the ghostly tunnels - as he explores the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war no one believes in.

An utterly compelling and much needed reminder of what war is really all about. In 1982 Private Ken Lukowiak served with 2 Para in the Falklands. He was away from home for little more than eight weeks, yet the experience of war was to change his life for ever. Ten years passed before he was able to write about this brief period in his life. In those ten years he was brought face to face with the legacy of his Parachute Regiment training and with the knowledge that he had seen many men die - some of whom he himself had killed. From the voyage 'down South' on the MV Norland, from Goose Green to Fitzroy and the anti-climactic journey home Lukowiak illustrates the madness and black comedy of the soldier's world. He tells his painfully honest story in spare and brutal language and is both profound and often profoundly shocking.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER Discover the incredible true story of WW2's most extraordinary spy - from the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor. 'His best book yet' The Times ________________ From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula Kuczynski Burton conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis' power. A fanatical opponent of the fascism that ravaged her homeland, she was drawn to communism as a young woman, motivated by the promise of a fair and peaceful society. She eventually became a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent. In Agent Sonya, Britain's most acclaimed historian vividly reveals the fascinating tale of a life that would change the course of history. Classic Ben Macintyre - a gripping ride, based on meticulous research, that reads like a novel - this is the greatest spy story never told. ________________ 'Macintyre has found a real-life heroine worthy of his gifts as John le Carre's nonfiction counterpart' New York Times 'This book is classic Ben Macintyre . . . quirky human details enliven every page' Clare Mulley, Spectator 'She is the strongest character of all in Macintyre's bestselling series of wartime tales . . . I raced through the pages to keep up with the plot' Julian Glover, Evening Standard BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT BOOK COLDITZ: PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE IS AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW!

**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.

Among the fiercest opponents of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II was journalist James "Jimmie" Matsumoto Omura. In his sharp-penned columns, Omura fearlessly called out leaders in the Nikkei community for what he saw as their complicity with the U.S. government's unjust and unconstitutional policies-particularly the federal decision to draft imprisoned Nisei into the military without first restoring their lost citizenship rights. In 1944, Omura was pushed out of his editorship of the Japanese American newspaper Rocky Shimpo, indicted, arrested, jailed, and forced to stand trial for unlawful conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet violations of the military draft. He was among the first Nikkei to seek governmental redress and reparations for wartime violations of civil liberties and human rights. In this memoir, which he began writing towards the end of his life, Omura provides a vivid account of his early years: his boyhood on Bainbridge Island; summers spent working in the salmon canneries of Alaska; riding the rails in search of work during the Great Depression; honing his skills as a journalist in Los Angeles and San Francisco. By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Omura had already developed a reputation as one of the Japanese American Citizens League's most adamant critics, and when the JACL leadership acquiesced to the mass incarceration of American-born Japanese, he refused to remain silent, at great personal and professional cost. Shunned by the Nikkei community and excluded from the standard narrative of Japanese American wartime incarceration until later in life, Omura seeks in this memoir to correct the "cockeyed history to which Japanese America has been exposed." Edited and with an introduction by historian Arthur A. Hansen, and with contributions from Asian American activists and writers Frank Chin, Yosh Kuromiya, and Frank Abe, Nisei Naysayer provides an essential, firsthand account of Japanese American wartime resistance.

In one of the world's most intractable and under-reported rebellions, the Naxalites have been engaged in a decades-long battle with the Indian state. Presented in the media as a deadly terrorist group, the movement is made up of Marxist ideologues and lower-caste and tribal combatants who seek to overthrow a system that has abused them. In 2010, anthropologist Alpa Shah embarked on a seven-night trek with some of these communist guerrillas, walking 250 kilometres through the dense, hilly forests of eastern India. Speaking to leaders and living for years with villagers in guerrilla strongholds, Shah seeks to understand how and why some of India's poor have shunned the world's largest democracy and taken up arms to fight for a fairer society--and asks whether they might be undermining their own aims. Nightmarch is a compelling reflection on dispossession and conflict at the heart of contemporary India. SHORT-LISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING, 2019 SHORT-LISTED FOR THE NEW INDIA FOUNDATION BOOK PRIZE, 2019 WINNER OF THE 2020 ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY BOOK PRIZE A 2018 New Statesman Book of the Year

BOOK TWO IN THE SERIES, SURVIVE TO FIGHT, IS AVAILABLE NOW! THE FIRST IN A BRAND NEW SERIES FROM SAS: WHO DARES WINS STAR. A country in turmoil. A rescue mission gone wrong. A hero on unlike any other fighting to save a broken world. Matt 'Mace' Mason is deployed on a deniable SAS mission in war-torn Yemen, becoming embroiled in a hostage rescue that goes terribly wrong. Pulling at the strings of the local political scene is not only the local warlord who is destined to become Mace's nemesis, General Ruak Shahlai, but hardbitten American arms dealer Erica Atkins, who controls a whole international network to her advantage. As well as his own team, Mace has to work, initially unwillingly, with female CIA Agent (and Islamic scholar) Redford. Together they will need to prevent an attack that would spark a regional war and create the largest environmental disaster the world has ever seen. DON'T MISS THE FIRST IN THE NEW MACE MASON SERIES FROM AN AUTHOR WHO HAS BEEN THERE AND DONE IT ALL, BILLY BILLINGHAM. About the Author Billy Billingham spent 17 years in the SAS. He was responsible for planning and executing strategic operations and training at the highest level in locations including Iraq, Afghanistan, South America and Africa, and has led countless hostage rescues. He later became a bodyguard to A list celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Sir Michael Caine, and Tom Cruise. Since 2015, Billy has been one of the lead presenters on the popular Channel Four series SAS: Who Dares Wins. Of the lead line-up, he is the only one with a genuine SAS career.

The Sunday Times No.1 bestseller. 'Sixty special forces against 100,000 - a feat of British arms to take the breath away' Frederick Forsyth. They were branded as cowards and accused of being the British Special Forces Squadron that ran away from the Iraqis. But nothing could be further from the truth. Ten years on, the story of these sixty men can finally be told. In March 2003 M Squadron - an SBS unit with SAS embeds - was sent 1,000 kilometres behind enemy lines on a true mission impossible, to take the surrender of the 100,000-strong Iraqi Army 5th Corps. From the very start their tasking earned the nickname 'Operation No Return'. Caught in a ferocious ambush by thousands of die-hard fanatics from Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen, plus the awesome firepower of the 5th Corps' heavy armour, and with eight of their vehicles bogged in Iraqi swamps, M Squadron launched a desperate bid to escape, inflicting massive damage on their enemies. Running low on fuel and ammunition, outnumbered, outmanoeuvred and outgunned, the elite operators destroyed sensitive kit and prepared for death or capture as the Iraqis closed their deadly trap. Zero Six Bravo recounts in vivid and compelling detail the most desperate battle fought by British and allied Special Forces trapped behind enemy lines since World War Two. It is a classic account of elite soldiering that ranks with Bravo Two Zero and the very greatest Special Forces missions of our time.

This is the story of the real bodyguard, Lee Sansum, ex-Royal Military Policeman, martial arts champion, and expert in close protection. Part of Mohamed and Dodi Al-Fayed's protection team, Lee had to guard the most famous woman in the world, Princess Diana. He formed a close bond with Diana and the young princes, particularly Harry, and it was only by a stroke of luck that he was not in the car the night Diana died. That night proved to be the turning point in his own life. Over the course of his career, Lee has worked with the rich and famous, such as Hollywood stars Tom & Nicole, Pele and Sylvester Stallone, and he gives a candid account of what it's like to work in a job where lives are literally at stake. Growing up in a tough part of Greater Manchester, Lee learnt the hard way that to survive you need to stand up to bullies and be harder than your opponent. A career in the Royal Military Police took him to the "Bandit Country" of South Armagh, where he pulled an AWOL squaddie out of a honey trap moments before an IRA active service unit arrived to kill him. He worked undercover in Northern Ireland and joined the SIB, the Army's own internal affairs unit, before entering the world of private security, operating in the world's hotspots, such as Libya and the breakaway state of Somaliland. Lee's story is one of quiet strength, of how reading a situation is invaluable to getting out of trouble. It is one of achieving personal goals and overcoming trauma through the help of his wife, Kate, and through his love of martial arts. It is also a fitting tribute to one of the outstanding figures of our age.

THE STORY OF BRITAIN'S LEADING FORENSIC EXPLOSIVES SCIENTIST, WHO FOR NEARLY THREE-DECADES INVESTIGATED SOME OF THE MOST PROMINENT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL BOMB ATTACKS IN HISTORY. Cliff Todd devoted his life to bringing bomb makers to justice. He and his colleagues at the Ministry of Defence's Forensic Explosives Laboratory are the unsung heroes of terrorist bomb attacks - the men and women in white suits who piece together who planted the bombs, what a device consisted of and how the perpetrators might give themselves away. They played a pivotal role in uncovering the secrets behind some of the world's most horrifying terrorist outrages. Explosive tells the stories of these high-profile cases and details, for the first time, the contribution Todd and his team made in tracking down bombers during a time when Britain was under attack first by the IRA and then by Islamic extremists inspired by al-Qaeda. Explosive takes the reader into the murky world of the amateur bomb maker, and reveals what Todd's department achieved in many now infamous attacks, including the device concealed in a radio cassette player that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, the IRA attacks on Warrington in Cheshire, the Bali nightclub bombings of 2002, and the 7/7 onslaught in central London that claimed 56 lives and injured 784 others in 2005. In Explosive, Todd takes us step by step through the investigations, explaining the chemistry, the forensic work and the emotional toll on him and his staff as they sought to recreate and understand what had happened at some of the most shocking tragedies in modern peacetime history.

A profound rumination on the concept of freedom from the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm 'Sebastian Junger bears witness to a hard-won and an uncertain new world, framed in vital and brilliant prose: a true and honest accounting of everything that underlies the frantic performance of life' Philip Hoare, author of Albert and the Whale Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don't coexist easily: we value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking book, Sebastian Junger examines this tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. For much of a year, Junger and three friends-a conflict photographer and two Afghan war vets-walked the railroad lines of the east coast. It was an experiment in personal autonomy, but also in interdependence. Dodging railroad cops, sleeping under bridges, cooking over fires and drinking from creeks and rivers, the four men forged a unique reliance on one another. In Freedom, Junger weaves his account of this journey together with primatology and boxing strategy, the role of women in resistance movements and apache renegrades, and the brutal reality of life on the Pennsylvania frontier. Written in exquisite, razor-sharp prose, the result is a powerful examination of the primary desire that defines us.

'Essential reading, not just for those interested in the Eastern Front, but for anyone who wants to understand Russia.' Antony Beevor, Sunday Times They died in their millions, shattered by German shells and tanks, freezing behind the wire of prison camps, driven forward in suicidal charges by the secret police. Yet in all the books about the Second World War on the eastern front, there is very little about how the Russian soldier lived, dreamed and died. Catherine Merridale's discovery of archives of letters, diaries and police reports have allowed her to write a major history of a figure too often treated as part of a vast mechanical horde. Here are moving and terrible stories of men and women in appalling conditions, many not far from death. They allow us to understand the strange mixture of courage, patriotism, anger and fear that made it possible for these badly fed, dreadfully governed soldiers to defeat the Nazi army that would otherwise have enslaved the whole of Europe. The experience of the soldiers is set against a masterly narrative of the war in Russia. Merridale also shows how the veterans were treated with chilling ingratitude and brutality by Stalin, and later exploited as icons of the Great Patriotic War before being sidelined once more in Putin's new capitalist Russia.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have served in the Middle East, putting their lives on the line and fighting for not only the future of our nation, but the future of the countries they helped free from tyranny. Regardless of one's political views or otherwise about these wars, Americans overwhelmingly support the men and women serving their country. Many of us, however, are curious about what these soldiers have seen, felt, and done while fighting in the epicenter of fundamental Islamists and terrorists.Letters From The Front Lines is a moving collection of letters, e-mails, and blog entries from those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was put together by Rear Admiral Stuart F. Platt (retired), who served under President Ronald Reagan as the Navy's first Competition Advocate General.

Both the courage and the inhumanity displayed during wartime are chronicled in these three diaries penned by Ray Parkin, who served during World War II. Engaging narratives and pictures detail his experience on the "HMAS Perth in the Sunda Strait battle with the Japanese naval force that eventually sunk his ship. Also recounted are Parkin's 15 months as a prisoner of war, during which he helped construct the Burma-Siam railway. Details of his final 12 months of captivity in a crowded tramp steamer reveal the endurance of soldiers who survived submarine attacks and weathered a typhoon. These stories provide a single man's perspective on the war but also offer insight into the Japanese way of thinking and the traumas of combat.

Paul Bruce was a tough, idealistic young trooper in the SAS when he was dispatched to Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles. His top secret mission was to execute IRA suspects in cold blood. Bruce and his SAS comrades shot down one terrified victim after another, leaving their bodies to be buried in deep, unmarked woodland graves. In this historic book, the author reveals where his victims lie secretly buried as well as chronicling the mental breakdown of crack SAS troops ordered to carry out the dirtiest job in a secret war.

The explosive true story of a gun for hire. 'Hard eyes stare out of massive beards, their faces marked by the scars of battle. With these guys their webbing looks like it belongs to them, rather than it's been hung on a pair of reluctant shoulders. There's not a word been said to us, but the ante has clearly been upped. There's a dark and sinister feeling in the air. It doesn't take a genius to figure it's about to kick off.' Former SAS soldier Big Phil Campion tells it like is in this brutally honest account of his insanely dangerous life as a private military operator. From playing chicken with a suicide bomber in backstreet Kabul, to taking on pirates with his bare hands, this is true-life action-packed drama at its best.

The explosive book from ex-MI5 surveillance officer Tom Marcus takes the reader on a non-stop, adrenalin-fuelled ride as he hunts down those who would do our country harm.

Tom spent years working covertly to stop those who want to do us harm. In his bestselling memoir Soldier Spy, he told how he was recruited and described some of his top-secret operations. In I Spy, he takes us deeper undercover as he puts his life on the line once more.

I Spy plunges the reader straight into the action as Tom and his team race to prevent terrorists from causing carnage on our streets and outsmart Russian agents, blocking a daring plot that threatens the security of the nation. Relying on their quick wits, training and courage, the extraordinary men and women of MI5 are under intense pressure every day. Not everyone is suited for the work, and Tom shows how the incredibly tough challenges he faced growing up gave him the mental strength and skills to survive in a dangerous world.

Gritty and eye-opening, this is a unique insight into a hidden war and the sacrifices made by those who fight it. You will never take your safety for granted again.

Derived by the author from interviews and oral histories, these eighty-nine original Hasidic tales about the Holocaust provide unprecedented witness, in a traditional idiom, to the victims' inner experience of "unspeakable" suffering. This volume constitutes the first collection of original Hasidic tales to be published in a century.

"An important work of scholarship and a sudden clear window onto the heretofore sealed world of the Hasidic reaction to the Holocaust. Its true stories and fanciful miracle tales are a profound and often poignant insight into the souls of those who suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis and who managed somehow to use that very suffering as the raw material for their renewed lives." -- Chaim Potok

"A beautiful collection." -- Saul Bellow

"Yaffa Eliach provides us with stories that are wonderful and terrible -- true myths. We learn how people, when suffering dying, and surviving can call forth their humanity with starkness and clarity. She employs her scholarly gifts only to connect the tellers of the tales, who bear witness, to the reader who is stunned and enriched." -- Robert J. Lifton

"In the extensive literature on the Holocaust, this is a unique book. Through it we can attain a glimpse of the victims' inner life and spiritual resources. Yaffa Eliach has done a superb job." -- Jehuda Reinharz

Based upon interviews with a wide-range of former German Army and SS soldiers, these unique personal episodes vividly depict the extraordinary circumstances of the Third Reich's final days as armies closed in from all sides. Le Tissier's interviews link the brutality of combat with the humanity of the desperate battles.

Inspired by the incredible true story of the most decorated servicewoman of the second world war.

Nancy Wake was an Australian girl who, aged, 16 ran away from her abusive mother to the other side of the world.

Nancy Wake was a wife who, when her husband was snatched by the Gestapo, fought to be trained by SOE and returned to France to take her revenge.

Nancy Wake was a soldier who led a battalion of 7,000 French Resistance fighters who called her Field Marshall. Who had a 5-million Franc bounty on her head. Who killed a Nazi with her bare hands. Who defeated 22,000 Germans with the loss of only 100 men. Who sold her medals because, "I'll probably go to hell and they'd melt anyway."

Discover the roots of her legend in a thriller about one woman's incredible quest to turn the tide of the war, save the man she loves and take revenge on those who have wronged her.