The Second World War saw heroic efforts made by the Allied forces from its very outset, but in May 1940 disaster befell the British Expeditionary Force in France. Isolated from the rest of their allies, they faced insurmountable numbers of enemy troops. All was so very nearly lost, until the German land forces were given the surprise order by Adolf Hitler to halt briefly. Taking advantage of this unexpected but welcome turn of events, the British troops fled for the beaches of Dunkirk and fortified them while the Royal Navy dispatched almost 900 ships and boats to rescue British and Allied soldiers from the jaws of defeat. In all, over 300,000 men were evacuated, while 40,000 brave rearguard troops lost their lives or their freedom for the good of their allies. Operation Dynamo, and its remarkable evacuations from the beaches of Dunkirk, was hailed by Winston Churchill as a 'miracle of deliverance', but he also warned that 'wars are not won by evacuations'. This was only the beginning of a conflict that was to last five long years, but for now the fight for freedom could continue. Here Tim Lynch presents the true story of this miraculous event using stunning, rare images from the Mirrorpix archive.

The First World War claimed over 995,000 British lives, and its legacy continues to be remembered today. Great War Britain: Sheffield offers an intimate portrayal of the city and its people living in the shadow of the Great War for five years. A beautifully illustrated and highly accessible volume, it recounts the tale of a Boy Scout leader's journey to Gallipoli, the terror of the first air raids, and the university's best and brightest who formed their own Pals battalion only to lose poets, writers and students on the Somme. It contrasts the strikes and political unrest with patriotism and sacrifice in the city they called 'the armourer to the Empire'. The Great War story of Sheffield is told through the voices of those who were there and is vividly illustrated with evocative images.

In June 1918, 135 teenagers arrived in France as part of the thousands sent to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. The German Spring offensive had failed, but it was far from over. The coming months would see some of the fiercest, bloodiest, yet least remembered fighting of the war as these young men finally broke the trench stalemate and forced the enemy into retreat. During this time, one in four of these teenaged soldiers would be killed and over half of them wounded. Looking beyond the war as portrayed by poets and playwrights, Tim Lynch tells the story of Britain's true Unknown Soldiers - the teenage conscripts who won the war only to be forgotten by history. These were not the naive recruits of 1914 who believed it would all be over by Christmas, but young men who had grown up in wartime - men who knew about the trenches, the gas and the industrialised slaughter, but who, when their time came, answered their country's call anyway. For the first time, following the experiences of a typical reinforcement draft, this book explores what turned men so often dismissed as 'shirkers' into a motivated, efficient and professional army, but it also reminds us that in the cemeteries of France and Flanders, behind every headstone is a personal story.