This book describes all aspects of the fighting in and around Arnhem in as much detail as possible and with correct 'balance'. It highlights the story of the holding of the area around the Arnhem road bridge by the 2nd Parachute Battalion and by other troops.

The Battle of Berlin was the longest and most sustained bombing offensive against one target in the Second World War. Bomber Commands Commander-in-Chief, Sir Arthur Harris, hoped to wreak Berlin from end to end and produce a state of devastation in which German surrender is inevitable. He dispatched nineteen major raids between August 1943 and March 1944 more than 10,000 aircraft sorties dropped over 30,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. It was the RAFs supreme effort to end the war by aerial bombing. But Berlin was not destroyed and the RAF lost more than 600 aircraft and their crews. The controversy over whether the Battle of Berlin was a success or failure has continued ever since. Martin Middlebrook brings to this subject considerable experience as a military historian. In preparing his material he collected documents from both sides (many of the German ones never before used); he has also interviewed and corresponded with over 400 of the people involved in the battle and has made trips to Germany to interview the people of Berlin and Luftwaffe aircrews. He has achieved the difficult task of bringing together both sides of the Battle of Berlin the bombing force and the people on the ground to tell a coherent, single story. The author describes the battle, month by month, as the bombers waited for the dark nights, with no moon, to resume their effort to destroy Berlin and end the war. He recounts the ebb and flow of fortunes, identifying the tactical factors that helped first the bombers, then the night fighters, to gain the upper hand. Through the words of the participants, he brings to the reader the hopes, fears and bravery of the young bomber aircrews in the desperate air battles that were waged as the Luftwaffe attempted to protect their capital city. And he includes that element so often omitted from books about the bombing war the experiences of ordinary people in the target city, showing how the bombing destroyed homes, killed families, affected morale and reduced the German war effort. Martin Middlebrooks meticulous attention to detail makes The Bomber Battle of Berlin one of his most accomplished book to date.

While best known as being the scene of the most terrible carnage in the WW1 the French department of the Somme has seen many other battles from Roman times to 1944. William the Conqueror launched his invasion from there; the French and English fought at Crecy in 1346; Henry V's army marched through on their way to Agincourt in 1415; the Prussians came in 1870. The Great War saw three great battles and approximately half of the 400,000 who died on the Somme were British - a terrible harvest, marked by 242 British cemeteries and over 50,000 lie in unmarked graves. These statistics explain in part why the area is visited year-on-year by ever increasing numbers of British and Commonwealth citizens. This evocative book written by the authors of the iconic First Day on the Somme.is a thorough guide to the cemeteries, memorials and battlefields of the area, with the emphasis on the fighting of 1916 and 1918, with fascinating descriptions and anecdotes.

In July 1943 a series of heavy bombing raids virtually destroyed the North German city of Hamburg. In one night alone some 40,000 people were killed largely as a result of the terrible firestorm. To this day controversy rages as to the morality of these attacks and their consequences. With his trademark thoroughness Martin Middlebrook has delved deep into the archives to uncover the facts. As ever he draws on copious eyewitnesses and participants a total of 547 British, American and German. The testimonies of the Hamburg survivors are particularly revealing and harrowing providing a first hand description of what it was like to be subjected to prolonged and intense air attack. Paradoxically while Hamburg was arguably Bomber Commands greatest achievement it remains its - and Air Marshal Harris - most criticised. Often overlooked was the USAAFs role and this together with the contribution to the failure of German air defences of a new device, Window, are fully covered. Firestorm Hamburg is a masterly description of a major air campaign and the Authors aim of achieving a better understanding of the background, conduct and results is fully realised. He does not shirk from studying the moral dilemma.In July 1943 a series of heavy bombing raids virtually destroyed the North German city of Hamburg. In one night alone some 40,000 people were killed largely as a result of the terrible firestorm. To this day controversy rages as to the morality of these attacks and their consequences. With his trademark thoroughness Martin Middlebrook has delved deep into the archives to uncover the facts. As ever he draws on copious eyewitnesses and participants a total of 547 British, American and German.

On 17 August 1943, the entire strength of the American heavy bomber forces in England set out to raid two major industrial complexes deep in southern Germany, the vast Messerschmitt aircraft factory and the vital KGF ballbearing plant. For American commanders it was the culmination of years of planning and hope, the day when their self-defending formations of the famous Flying Fortress could at last perform their true role and reach out by daylight to strike at targets in the deepest corners of industrial Germany. The day ended in disaster for the Americans. Thanks to the courage of the aircrews the bombers won through to the targets and caused heavy damage, but sixty were shot down and the hopes of the American commanders were shattered. Historically, it was probably the most important day for the American air forces during the Second World War.While researching this catastrophic raid the Author interviewed hundreds of the airmen involved, German defenders, slave workers and eye witnesses. This took him twice to both the USA and Germany.The result is a mass of fresh, previously unused material with which the author finally provides the full story of this famous day s operations. Not only is the American side described in far greater depth than before but the previously vague German side of the story both the Luftwaffe action and the civilian experiences in Schweinfurt and Regensburg, are now presented clearly and in detail for the first time. The important question of why the RAF did not support the American effort and follow up the raid on Schweinfurt as planned is also fully covered.REVIEWS One of the Greatest Air Battles fought in World War II. Mr Middlebrook is a meticulous English researcher whose work on RAF Bomber Command is legendary. This book was Mr Middlebrooks first attempt presenting the American perspective of the Air War and he chose one of the most vicious, 60 B-17's and over 600 men were lost on this mission. Martin has taken this battle and presented it from both sides by using the interviews from the participants along with official documents and photos. The scope and size of this Air Battle and Middlebrook's attention to detail makes this a compelling read for those interested in the 8th Air Force. The interviews with the participants and letting them tell the story vs the author is what makes this book special and worth buying. Mr Middlebrook has researched this book to the point he feels he has solved the decades old mystery of the Wheels Down" event which has haunted the 100th Bomb Group. You will need to read the book to understand the event and his research. Suffice it to say that his documentation provides some very compelling proof this event happened to another group. My view point on the incidents vary's but no matter who you believe, the wheels down incident will forever be associated with "the Bloody Hundredth." You will enjoy this book immensely, I did "Michael P. Faley 100th Bomb Group Historian & Photo Archives

Martin Middlebrook is the only British historian to have been granted open access to the Argentines who planned and fought the Falklands War. It ranks with Liddell Hart's The Other Side of the Hill in analyzing and understanding the military thinking and strategies of Britain's sometime enemy, and is essential reading for all who wish to understand the workings of military minds.returncharacterreturncharacterThe author has managed to avoid becoming involved in the issue of sovereignty and concentrates entirely upon the military story. He has produced a genuine 'first' with this balanced and unique work. Among the men he met were the captain of the ship that took the scrap-metal merchants to South Georgia; the admiral in charge of planning the Falklands invasion; the marine commander and other members of the invasion force; two brigadier-generals, five unit commanders and many other men of the large army force sent to occupy and defend the islands.; the officer in charge of the Argentine garrison at Goose Green; and finally the brigadier-general responsible for the Defence of Port Stanley and soldiers of all ranks who fought the final battles.

"Enthralling eye witness histories" John Keegan
On the night of 17-18 August 1943, RAF Bomber Command attacked a remote research establishment on the German Baltic coast. The site was Peenemunde, where Hitler's scientists were developing both the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 rocket whose destructive powers could have swung the course of the War. The raid was meticulously planned and hopes were high. But the night sky was so cloudless that the British bombers presented an easy target for German night fighters, and over 40 were lost.
Martin Middlebrook draws on the memories of over 400 people involved in the dramatic events on that night: RAF and Luftwaffe aircrew, German personnel at the research site and foreign laborers who had been forced to work there. The result is a truly compelling account of this hazardous attempt to disrupt Hitler's V-weapons program.

Bomber Command's campaign started on the very first day of the Second World War and ended within a few hours of the final victory in Europe five and a half years later. It was an attempt to win the war in Europe by strategic bombing on such an enormous scale that historians have only recently begun to piece together the finer details of the individual raids. There have been many books about Bomber Command, but Martin Middlebrook, the aviation historian, and his research colleague, Chris Everitt, were the first to compile a complete review of all the raids and the background stories to this fascinating campaign. They undertook the gargantuan task not only of documenting every Bomber Command operation but also of obtaining information from local archives in Germany, Italy and the occupied countries, on the effects of the raids. Little of this material had been published previously, and never before had the two sides of Bomber Command's war been brought together in this way. The Bomber Command War Diaries has become the standard basic work of reference on this extraordinary campaign. This edition includes retrospective observations and a new appendix.

This book describes one twenty-four-hour period in the Allied Strategic Bomber Offensive in the greatest possible detail. The author sets the scene by outlining the course of the bombing war from 1939 to the night of the Nuremberg raid, the characters and aims of the British bombing leaders and the composition of the opposing Bomber Command and German night fighter forces. The aim of the Nuremberg raid was not unlike many hundreds of other RAF missions but, due to the difficulties and dangers of the enemy defences and weather plus bad luck, it went horribly wrong. The result was so notorious that it became a turning point in the campaign. The target, the symbolic Nazi rally city of Nuremberg, was only lightly damaged and 96 out of 779 bombers went missing. Middlebrook recreates the events of the fateful night in astonishing detail. The result is a meticulous dramatic and often controversial account. It is also a moving tribute to the bravery of the RAF bomber crews and their adversaries.

The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words - Guardian 'For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first; we strolled along as though walking in a park. Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways' On 1 July 1916, a continous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns. By the end of the day there were more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatal. Martin Middlebrook's now-classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources from the time, and on the words of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.