Obedience to the Führer. Obedience to the death.Hitler's elite SS bodyguards prided themselves on doing whatever it took, even if death was the price. They called themselves the "old hares", and they left a trail of terror as they butchered their way across Europe. Of the 30,000 soldiers who signed up, only thirty would survive the war.Some perished in the abortive push on Normandy in 1944, directed by the Führer. Others suffered gruesome deaths at the hands of the Russians...

In the shadows was another war… An unputdownable account of the Nazi spy operation and how it ultimately failedDuring the Second World War there was, behind the scenes, a bitter conflict was stamped 'Top Secret'. It was a war of infiltration and misdirection, espionage and assassination. And the Nazis were determined not to let anyone best them.Revealing the full extent of Nazi's secret intelligence networks, bestselling author Charles Whiting takes the reader into organisa...

The epic story of how the Second World War was won.On 4 January 1945, General 'Blood and Guts' Patton confided gloomily to his diary, 'We can still lose the war.' The Nazis were attacking in Eastern France, Luxembourg and Belgium. General Eisenhower's allied armies had lost over 300,000 men in battle (with a similar number of non-battle casualties) and they were still in the same positions they had first captured three months before.Would the German will to resist never be ...

When peace plans are threatened, Common Smith swings into actionGermany, 1929. England, France and the USA are preparing to de-militarise the West Bank of the Rhine. German nationalists, financed by the great industrialists, have other ideas. They plan a series of strikes against Allied troops marching westwards. The Hell's Angels - barnstorming German ex-pilots who fled to America after the war - are recalled to Germany for the final attack. Common Smith VC and the crew of Swordfi...

From the carnage of war a new hero is born.The slaughter of World War One is over, but already secret little wars are breaking out all over 'New Europe'.Sub-Lieutenant de Vere Smith VC, at twenty the youngest Victoria Cross holder in the British Empire, is asked by the head of the Secret Service to help convoy arms to the Poles, under threat from Russia and Germany.Jumping at the chance, Smith refits his old patrol boat,

Common Smith is in a race against time to retrieve sensitive British intelligence before it falls into enemy handsYugoslavia, Winter 1924. The British official courier plane from Cairo to Gibraltar has been forced down in the mountains off the Yugoslavian coast by snow. The plane was on its way to London bearing vital documents about Moscow's plans for the Balkans, including an uprising in Yugoslavia. It is vital that no one finds these plans, including the Royal Y...

When an entire army retreats, Common Smith VC must turn the tideSpring, 1922. The Greek army is retreating from Turkey and Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish dictator, intends to have their convoy sunk. The resulting chaos will help a defeated Germany and Russia, unless someone intervenes.'C', the mysterious head of the British Secret Service, knows that Britain is already far too stretched, the French have their own problems, and America has retreated into isolation.As al...

A kidnapped princess sends Common Smith racing to the land of the rising sunChina, 1927. Communists and Nationalists are fighting each other, and bandits and warlords plague the country.Imperial Japan is eager to provoke a war, and when Princess Sadie, a member of the Japanese royal family, is kidnapped, her life is at stake. For if she dies, the Japanese will have the excuse they need to invade.The mission of Common Smith VC and the redoubtable cre...

An assassination threat risks plunging Europe into a second world war. Only Common Smith can avert calamityGermany, 1923. The beaten Fatherland is in turmoil, inflation is raging and millions are unemployed. Adolf Hitler is raising a right-wing traditionalist Germany to march on Berlin and Von Horn, the perverted head of the secret German Intelligence Unit, plans to murder the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine."C", head of MI6, orders Comm...

Common Smith's most dangerous mission yet...Russia, 1924. Lenin, Communist Dictator of Russia, is dying. In the wings, his chief aides are jostling for power, and in the provinces revolution is brewing once more. Soviet Russia is on the brink of explosion...Caught up in the turmoil is Serge, the illegitimate teenage son of Tsar Nicholas II, who was executed by the Communists in 1918. Determined to save this member of his extended family, King George V of Britain or...

A fascinating account of the first German city ever besieged by the U.S. Army and the monumental battle that took place amongst its ruined walls.Aachen saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War. Through the determined defense of their city the citizens of Aachen held off the oncoming American forces for six weeks, giving the Nazis time to mobilize their troops for what would become the Battle of the Bulge. Had it not been for dogged resistance of th...

As a teenager Audie Murphy left his home in Texas to join in the fight against the Nazis. By the end of the war, he had fought in the bloody battle of Anzio, helped liberate Rome, marched his way across France, repelled German counterattacks in Alsace, before finishing in Germany. He was wounded three times, killed over two hundred enemies, and won every medal for valor that the United States had to offer.Charles Whiting charts Murphy's journey through World War Two, shedding light...