The gripping, vividly told story of the largest POW escape in the Second World War - organized by an Australian bank clerk, a British jazz pianist and an American spy. In August 1944 the most successful POW escape of the Second World War took place - 106 Allied prisoners were freed from a camp in Maribor, in present-day Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with the help of intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was on a mission to work with the partisans who moved like ghosts through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces. How these three men came together - along with the partisans - to plan and execute the escape is told here for the first time. The Greatest Escape, written by Ralph Churches' son Neil, takes us from Ralph and Les's capture in Greece in 1941 and their brutal journey to Maribor, with many POWs dying along the way, to the horror of seeing Russian prisoners starved to death in the camp. The book uncovers the hidden story of Allied intelligence operations in Slovenia, and shows how Ralph became involved. We follow the escapees on a nail-biting 160-mile journey across the Alps, pursued by German soldiers, ambushed and betrayed. And yet, of the 106 men who escaped, 100 made it to safety. Thanks to research across seven countries, The Greatest Escape is no longer a secret. It is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of the last century.

Originally published in 1940, Why England Slept was written by then-Harvard student and future American president John F. Kennedy. It was Kennedy's senior thesis that analyzed the tremendous miscalculations of the British leaders in facing Germany on the advent of World War II, and in doing so, also addressed the challenges that democracies face when confronted directly with fascist states. In Why England Slept, at the book's core, John F. Kennedy asks: Why was England so poorly prepared for the war? He provides a comprehensive analysis of the tremendous miscalculations of the British leadership when it came to dealing with Germany and leads readers into considering other questions: Was the poor state of the British army the reason Chamberlain capitulated at Munich, or were there other, less-obvious elements at work that allowed this to happen? Kennedy also looks at similarities to America's position of unpreparedness and makes astute observations about the implications involved. This re-publication of the classic book contains excerpts from the foreword to the 1940 original edition by Henry R. Luce, an American magazine magnate during that era; the foreword to the 1961 edition, also written by Luce; and a new foreword by Stephen C. Schlesinger, written in 2015. Provides fascinating insights into the young mind and worldview of then-Harvard senior John F. Kennedy via his thesis, for which he'd toured Europe, the Balkans, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s Presents both a pointed indictment of British policy leading up to World War II as well as an examination of the weaknesses, merits, and pitfalls for democratic governments based on capitalist economies Features a new foreword written by Stephen C. Schlesinger, senior fellow at the Century Foundation in New York; author of Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations, winner of the 2004 Harry S. Truman Book Award; former director of the World Policy Institute at the New School (1997-2006); and former publisher of the magazine The World Policy Journal

Offering a unique and original perspective on Britain's 'Small Wars' leadership culture - this title is an essential reading for serving soldiers and scholars of military studies. It is based on original archival research. It offers fascinating survey of counterinsurgency operations - with relevance for today's military and security. Between 1948 and 1960, the British army conducted three important counterinsurgency operations in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus. During that time, military leaders inspired the evolution of a distinct organisational culture, known as 'small wars culture', which affected learning, discipline and attitudes towards leadership and fellow soldiers. Using a synthesis of organisational theory and archival research, this book explores how military leaders embedded and transmitted this particular military organisational culture within the British army and provides an analysis of leaders' characteristics, their support networks and past experiences. This book will be of interest to counterinsurgency specialists, the British Army and military historians and sociologists, as well as to serving military forces.

Experiences of a motor ambulance driver
The author of this book was a Princeton student who became a member and driver of the American Ambulance Field Service-a group of young volunteers who travelled to Europe to assist the French war effort during the Great War before the United States took an active part in the conflict. His is a personal story derived from diary notes he made on active service. Although he freely admits to the reader that he volunteered to see the war and experience some excitement predictably his actual experiences of the battlefield and the suffering of French soldiers and civilians alike made a profound impression upon him. Bryan provides the reader with a clear and interesting view of the life of an American volunteer driver and his impressions of war in the trenches with the French Army on the Western Front. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket.