NOW WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY W. STANLEY MOSS'S DAUGHTER GABRIELLA BULLOCK AND AN AFTERWORD BY PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR Ill Met By Moonlight is the true story of one of the most hazardous missions of the Second World War. W. Stanley Moss is a young British officer who, along with Major Patrick Leigh Fermor, sets out in Nazi-occupied Crete to kidnap General Kreipe, Commander of the Sevastopool Division, and narrowly escaping the German manhunt, bring him off the island - a vital prisoner for British intelligence. As an account of derring-do and wartime adventure, made into a classic film starring Dirk Bogarde, Ill Met By Moonlight is one of the most brilliantly written, exciting and compelling stories to come out of the Second World War.

In this new novel Gunter Grass examines a subject that has long been taboo - the sufferings of the Germans during the Second World War. He explores the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the deadliest maritime disaster of all time, and the repercussions upon three generations of a German family.

The best-selling classic of the power of love and forgiveness in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

Discover the brave, shocking and remarkable true story of two RAF lieutenants' capture during the Gulf War 'HEROISM UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY' Independent 'THE MOST COMPELLING STORY OF THE GULF WAR' Daily Mail _________ RAF Flight Lieutenants John Peters and John Nichol were shot down over enemy territory on their first mission of the Gulf War. Their capture in the desert, half a mile from their blazing Tornado bomber, led to seven harrowing weeks of torture, confinement and interrogation. An ordeal 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 Hussein'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.

'The wartime spy career of Mathilde Carre - aka "the Cat" and "Agent Victoire" - is so extraordinary it almost defies belief' The Times An exhilarating true story of espionage, resistance, and one of WW2's most charismatic double-agents. Occupied Paris, 1940. A woman in a red hat and a black fur coat hurries down a side-street. She is Mathilde Carre, codenamed 'the Cat', later known as Agent Victoire - charismatic, daring and a spy. These are the darkest days for France, yet Mathilde is driven by a sense of destiny that she will be her nation's saviour. Soon, she is at the centre of the first great Allied intelligence network of the Second World War. But as Roland Philipps shows in this extraordinary account of her life, when the Germans close in, Mathilde makes a desperate and dangerous compromise. Nobody - not her German handler, nor the Resistance and the British - can be certain where her allegiances now lie... 'A truly astonishing story, meticulously and brilliantly told' Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline 'Gripping... Enough plot twists and moral ambiguity to satisfy any spy novelist' Spectator

They were American and British air force officers in a German prison camp. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, forged passports, faked weapons, and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from German surveillance. It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred men-every one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and night for more than a year. Made into the classic 1963 war film of the same name starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough.

A The Spectator Book of the Year 2022 A New Statesman Book of the Year 2022 'An illuminating and riveting read' - Jonathan Dimbleby Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. In The Making of the Modern Middle East - in part based on his acclaimed podcast, 'Our Man in the Middle East' - Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control. With his deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan's Turkey, Assad's Syria and Netanyahu's Israel and his long experience of covering events in the region, Bowen offers readers a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.

Lancaster pilot Victor Wood's aircraft arrived too early over Gelsenkirchen when the target was shrouded in darkness and the Main Force miles behind.
His bomber was suddenly struck with terrifying force by flak and turned upside-down. An engine was on fire, the unconscious mid-upper gunner, slumped over his turret, was being sprayed with petrol and their bombload had been struck by shrapnel. Could Vic get his crew back to base safely?
Find out in Mel Rolfe's expertly researched and narrated book, which records nineteen similarly exceptional stories as night after night young men went off on sorties, knowing the unpalatable truth that they might not see another dawn.

"This lieutenant gets up there and says, 'American soldiers don't huddle and put their hands in their pockets on a cold day. They stand at attention.' . . . [there was a] buzz . . . in Spanish . . . 'Hey, they called us Americans!'"-Armando Flores, Army Air Corps. Many Catholic families blessed their children before they left home. After the Blessing tells the stories of many young Mexican Americans who left home to fight for their country. During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), many families fled Mexico to prevent their underage sons from being forced to fight. Ironically, the offspring of these immigrants often ended up across the ocean in a much larger war. Despite the bias and mistreatment most Mexican Americans faced in the US, some 500,000 fought bravely for their country during World War II. Their stories range from hair-raising accounts of the Battle of the Bulge to gut-wrenching testimony about cannibalism in the Pacific. In After the Blessing Mexican Americans reveal their experiences in combat during WWII-stories that have rarely been told.

What happens when a regular person accidentally finds themselves lost in the middle of a war? In 1991, BBC journalist Chris Woolf travelled to Afghanistan. The government in Kabul was fighting for survival, after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. The parallels to today are extraordinary. Woolf was visiting a colleague to see if he'd like the life of a foreign correspondent. They hitched a ride with an aid convoy and bumbled straight into the war. They kept going, despite the horror and terror. There was no choice. Amid the darkness, Woolf discovered the generosity and hospitality of ordinary Afghans. They became the first journalists to pass through the battle lines to meet with legendary warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud, and carried home a vital message for the peace process. They met with Soviet POW/MIAs and recorded messages for loved ones. Unlike a conventional war story, Woolf shares an intimate portrait of first encounters with death and real fear. He explores the lingering effects of trauma, and explains how he put his experience to good use. The author introduces readers to just enough of Afghanistan's history, geography, culture and politics for readers to understand what's going on around him. What people are saying: "Bumbling Through the Hindu Kush is at once gripping, informative, suspenseful, and at times it reads like a thriller." - Qais Akbar Omar, author of "A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story." "Chris Woolf has written a truly personal tale that is both gripping and historically significant for the war between the Soviet-backed government and Mujahidin in Afghanistan. His mix of personal, cultural, and wartime reflections make this a story well worth the time of Afghanistan aficionados and casual readers alike." - Dr Jonathan Schroden, former strategic adviser to the US military's Central Command, and to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan "Combat can feel like the ant on an elephant's tail: overwhelmed and along for the ride. Chris Woolf's memoir of his ten days in late 1991 "bumbling" into the war in Afghanistan is just such an up-and-down tale, with the momentary highs and gut-crushing lows common to combat. When the teenage goat herder fires his AK-47 in the first few pages - you'll know how that ant feels, just holding on, exhilarated, terrified, never really knowing what comes next." - Lt-Col ML Cavanaugh, US Army; Senior Fellow, Modern War Institute at West Point; lead writer and co-editor, "Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict." The perfect Christmas gift for all those who like military history and think they understand war. The author believes in giving back, so a portion of the proceeds is donated towards helping Afghan kids with disabilities (enabledchildren.org), and towards clearing landmines in Afghanistan and around the world (HALOTrust.org).

As Fenella Wilson points out in her Introduction to this collection of Neil Munro's writings on war, the theme is represented in each aspect of his career as a writer - in his fiction, journalism and poetry. A number of the short stories here, including two Para Handy tales, were published Munro's lifetime, as was his introduction to Fred Farrell's 1920 The 51st Division War Sketches, and some of the Poems. What has not previously 'seen the light of day' since The Great War are the reports which Munro wrote as a war correspondent, as a civilian and later in uniform, in 1914, 1917 and 1918. They are vivid, personal, accounts from the Western Front, widely published in a range of newspapers of the time. Stories of Scottish regiments - in kilts, with their Pipers - abound. They cushion, but don't diminish, the reality of everyday life both for soldiers on all sides in the conflict, and for the local population, amid the 'havoc' of the battlefields; 'the filthy job of human slaughter'.

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.

Written just after the heat of battle and in the language of the time, this extraordinarily moving account expresses in a brutally honest and personal way the ordinary soldier's experience of one of the most horrific series of battles ever fought. Fleurbaix, Bapaume, Beaumetz, Lagnicourt, Bullecourt, The Menin Road, Villers-Bretonneux, Peronne and Mont St. Quentin. Downing describes the mud, the rats, the constant pounding of the guns, the deaths, the futility, but also the humour and heroism of one of the most compelling periods in world history. His writing is spare, beautiful in its clarity and heart-breakingly vivid. Quite simply the finest and most graphic description of these actions ever written. Anyone with an interest in war and the ordinary person's struggle to survive must read this book