The second of two Battelground Europe titles covering this highly significant battle of spring 1918.The German offensive in Flanders in April 1918 came close to catastrophe for the British Armies, but ultimately ended in strategic defeat for the Kaisers men. Following close on the heels of the devastating Operation Michael attack in March, which had been aimed against the British front on the Somme and Arras, this offensive, Operation Georgette, was aimed at strangling the vital railways a...

Sean is a survivor. Against the odds he has survived a nation-wide disaster. He is made aware that he must travel the length of Aotearoa for a purpose that is revealed late in the story. Amongst all the carnage, there is hope and friendship although evil lurks constantly.

The world needs changing – that much is clear. But how best to do it? Change how you vote? Get out and protest? Have an argument?The fact is that the power sits in your pocket. Changing how we spend our money has more potential to change the world than almost anything else we can do with our time on this planet.Consumer spending accounts for over 60% of GDP across the world and it will hit a staggering $77 trillion a year by 2029. But the v...

Swimming Sydney is a tale of 52 swims in and around Sydney that take place over the course of a calendar year. From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Chris Baker swims at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour enclosures, hidden rivers, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and in a backyard pool. Taking his weekly plunges, he swims with the many tribes of Sydney: a septuagenarian aqua aerobics class; a six-month-old baby learning to swim; a Saturday morning LGBTQIA+ swim squad; ...

The world needs changing – that much is clear. But how best to do it? Change how you vote? Get out and protest? Have an argument?The fact is that the power sits in your pocket. Changing how we spend our money has more potential to change the world than almost anything else we can do with our time on this planet.Consumer spending accounts for over 60% of GDP across the world and it will hit a staggering $77 trillion a year by 2029. But the v...

The sector north of Ypres is best known for the inundation of much of the ground to the east of the Yser that acted as a block to the German advance in the autumn of 1914. From that time on military activities were extremely limited. Much of this line was manned by Belgian troops, with some assistance from the French army at its southern end and of the British army on the Channel coast. The role of the Belgian army in the Great War is little known, apart from the opening months, when 'brav...

The Battle of the Lys, fought in April 1918, was critical for the Allies and for Germany. The outcome of the Great War hung in the balance. After the successful German offensive on the Somme, their breakthrough on the Lys threatened Ypres and the British hold on Flanders and brought them close to victory on the Western Front. The Allied line was broken it was only saved by improvisation and great gallantry—and the German onslaught tested Allied cooperation under the newly appointed General...

In the hundreds of books written about battleships, the authors tend to draw down the curtain on the careers of these great vessels in September 1945, with the surrender of Japan. Yet, on that day some ninety-eight battleships or ex-battleships might be spotted around the world, and eleven of them were in or around Tokyo Bay for the surrender itself. What happened to all those ships? This new book takes a fresh look at the slow demise of the battleship. It examines the decisions made by th...

Do you feel confident at work? Are there times when you lack confidence but can’t show it? The role of confidence in successful leadership is both significant and undisputed and yet organisations are full of leaders and teams who don’t have as much as they want and, even worse, are not doing anything about it.Attempts to develop confidence are usually confined to empty affirmations and vanilla-flavoured self-help books. In contrast, this book provides an evidence-based code that ou...

Spectacular nebulae where stars are born, beautiful star clusters from the early formation of the Milky Way, and galaxies as far as a billion light years away, all feature in this book of stunning images from astrophotographer Chris Baker.The author takes the reader on a journey through time and space to the Deep Sky, far beyond our Solar System. It is a pictorial description of the awe-inspiring wondrous objects that exist out there."The images are of objects from hundreds to many million...

The German offensive in Flanders in April 1918 came close to catastrophe for the British Armies, but ultimately ended in strategic defeat for the Kaisers men. Following closely on the heels of the devastating Operation Michael attack in March on the Somme and around Arras, named as Operation Georgette, the offensive was aimed at strangling the vital railways and roads that supplied the British at Ypres.Having assembled an overwhelming numerical advantage, the Germans attacked in thick fog ...

The Christmas Truce is seen as a satisfying and hopeful event in a war that is often regarded as unnecessary, bitter, hopeless and futile. Many accounts give a warm, poignant view of the truce, to the extent that it has gained totemic significance in the minds of the general public. Inspired by the centenary, and in the light of documentary evidence unavailable when previous accounts have been published, Chris Baker examines the events leading up to the 1914 truce. In December 1914, some o...