It's the summer of 1940 and the Nazis have crossed the English Channel to invade Britain. They advance North from the South coast and great swathes of Southern England come under German control. Fiction, of course, but an invasion of Britain was planned by Hitler to take place in the summer of 1940 - how far would the Germans have been able to advance? Would they have been successful? The Battle of Britain was launched in July 1940, first against fighter airfields, and later, from 1 September against London. On 16 July Hitler issued Fuhrer Directive No. 16 for preparations for a landing operation against England. on 17 September and cancelled on 12 October. This book explores the alternative - that Sealion began as planned on 21 September. Invasion: Operation Sealion follows the historical course of events up to 1 September, including the planning in Britain and Germany, and the aerial war. The British strategy for defending England is that actually adopted by General Alan Brooke when appointed to Southern Command on 26 June. account of the invasion. The fictional account is based on detailed study of German geological and geographical analysis of the English terrain and the maps and handbook sthat were published to convey this data to their commanders in the field. It is also founded on the Defence of Britain Project - a massive survey of 20th century installations such as pill-boxes, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters and anti-tank ditches, whilst the behaviour of German troops is firmly based on actual events in Europe earlier in 1940.

This terrifying alternative reality is actually based on historical facts. The book follows the real course of events up to1 September, including the planning in Britain and Germany, and the aerial war. The fictional story then supposes that the Germans halted their advance in France along the Seine and the Aisne after the fall of Paris and that Marshal Petain conceded an armistice at that point. The Panzer divisions are thus able to rest and re-equip in northern France... A brilliant blend of meticulous research and imagination, this book is bound to appeal to anyone with an interest in the causes and effects of historical events, and indeed to anyone interested in world war history itself.

Internal opposition to Nazism is often mythologized as heroic or dismissed as "too little, too late, and for the wrong reasons." These seminal writings trace the real and complex history of the German Resistance from the ascent of the Nazi Party to the July 1944 attempted assassination of Hitler. Informed by four decades of research and written by the premier historian of the German Resistance, this book constitutes the definitive work on those tens of thousands of Germans who fought the Third Reich from within.

Hans Mommsen considers the full spectrum of opposition, from small but still-dangerous acts of political disobedience to large-scale conspiracies to overthrow the government. Along the way he tells the incredible stories of such Germans as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who planted a briefcase bomb during a staff meeting at Hitler's East Prussian military headquarters, and the members of the Kreisau Circle, who clandestinely met to plan for Germany's postwar future as a democratic member of an integrated Europe.

While upholding resistance to Nazism as a value beyond reproach, Mommsen considers the varied and sometimes murky motives of those who resisted--motives that ranged from principled commitment to pragmatic self-interest by former Nazi sympathizers. He examines resisters' detailed and not-always-democratic programs to rebuild a state and reeducate a Nazified society and considers their sometimes ambivalent attitudes toward the unfolding Final Solution.

Available in English for the first time in this fluid translation, this book is a signal achievement by a major scholar--and the standard work on the German Resistance available in any language.

A vivid and highly-illustrated history of seafaring in the Middle Ages based on archaeological evidence and contemporary accounts. The first sailors braved the North Sea and the Baltic in open wooden boats: their aims were varied - to fish, to trade, to conquer and plunder. Without maps or compasses, they steered by the sun or by landmarks on the coast. Nevertheless they discovered Iceland and North America and explored the rivers that flowed through Europe and Russia into the Black Sea. With the Frisians and the Vikings, extensive trade routes, better ships, larger harboursand wealthy coastal towns developed. The pinnacle of these advances was the Hansa, an association of port cities running from Bruges to Riga. In recent years archaeologists have discovered much about the development of their ships: the elegant Viking longboat, the ubiquitous cog, the carrack and the caravel. Much, too, has been revealed about life in Viking settlements and the bustling Hanseatic cities. In the first paperback edition of this engaging and highly-illustrated study, Dirk Meier brings to life the world of the medieval seaman, based on evidence from ship excavations and contemporary accounts of voyages. Dr Dirk Meier teaches ancient and medieval history and is Head of Coastal Archaeology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany.

Those Germans, such as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who fought the Third Reich from within have often been mythologized as heroes in the fight against tyranny but the truth is far more complex. "Germans Against Hitler "traces the history of the German resistance, from the ascent of the Nazi party to the July 1944 attempted assassination of Hitler. Informed by more than four decades of research and written by the premier historian of the German Resistance, this book offers the most authoritative history of the tens of thousands of Germans who tried to resist Nazism.

Hans Mommsen considers the full spectrum of opposition, from small but still dangerous acts of political disobedience to large-scale conspiracies - such as the incredible Count Claus von Stauffenberg plot. He analyzes the ideologies of the Kreisau Circle and the conservative, socialist, church and military oppositions. These resistance groups all tried to find a viable alternative to Hilter to achieve a moral renewal of politics and society. Yet many of them rejected democracy and had a sometimes ambivalent attitude towards the persecution of the Jews. An honest, thought-provoking look at the WWII German resistance movement.