The Special Operations Executive developed a vast network of agents across Occupied Europe which played a vital role in developing and sustaining Resistance movements that persistently sought to subvert German control of their territories. The culmination of their efforts was seen when the Allied armies landed at Normandy in June 1944, with the SOE and the Resistance causing widespread destruction and disruption behind the German lines.None of this would have been possible had it not been ...

Collected frontline communications from the British Expeditionary Force sent during their efforts in France during World War II.The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force.The British Expeditionary Force was started in 1938 in readiness for a perceived threat of war after Germany annexed Austria in M...

Military historians John Grehan and Martin Mace's Gallipoli and the Dardanelles, 1915-1916 examines the naval World War I battle and aftermath.The fighting in the Gallipoli or Dardanelles campaign began in 1915 as a purely naval affair undertaken partly at the instigation of Winston Churchill, who, as First Lord of the Admiralty, had entertained plans of capturing the Dardanelles as early as September 1914. It was the Royal Navy that bore the brunt of the i...

Despatches in this volume include that on operations in Burma and North-East India between November 1943 and June 1944, by General Sir George J. Giffard; the despatch on operations in Assam and Burma between June 1944 June and November 1944, by General Sir George J. Giffard, Commander-in-Chief; the despatch on Naval operations in the Ramree Island area (Burma) in January and February 1945 by Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur J. Power, Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station; and the despatch on oper...

Despatches in this volume include that on the Battle of Britain, and air fighting 1940-1941, by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh C.T. Dowding, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Fighter Command, Air Operations by Fighter Command between November 1940 and the end of December 1941, the anti-aircraft defence of the United Kingdom between 1939 and 1945, and the report on air operations by Air Defence of Great Britain and Fighter Command in connection with the German flying bomb and rocket offensives, ...

The Middle East Command in the SecondWorld War covered a vast region, stretchingacross Egypt, Libya, Malta, Palestine andTransjordan, Cyprus, Sudan, Eritrea, most ofSyria and a small part of Iraq, and includedsome forty different languages. At one pointit also oversaw operations in Greece, Kenyaand British Somaliland. Its campaign area ranfor a thousand miles from the Jordan to theHorn of Africa.Initially under the leadership of General SirArchibald Wavell, Middle East Commandsearly action...

At 07.30 hours on 1 July 1916, the devastating cacophony of the Allied artillery fell silent along the front on the Somme. The ear-splitting explosions were replaced by the shrill sound of hundreds of whistles being blown. At that moment, tens of thousands of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches on their part of the Western Front, and began to make their way steadily towards the German lines opposite. It was the first day of the Battle of the Somme.By the end of the day, a number...

The epic of Dunkirk has been told many times, but the numerous accounts from surviving soldiers and sailors were often a blur of fear and fighting with the days mingling into each other, leaving what is, at times, a confusing picture. In this book, adopting a day by day approach, the author provides a clear portrayal of the unfolding drama on the perimeter around Dunkirk, in the port itself and along the beaches to La Panne and the Belgian border.Reports from many of the captains of the ve...

This historical study upends the traditional narratives surrounding the Norman Conquest by revealing the true location of its most important battle.The Duke of Normandy's victory at the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, 1066, was one of the most important events in English history. As such, its every detail has been analyzed by scholars and interpreted by historians. Yet one of the most fundamental aspect of the battle—the ground upon which it was fought—has never...

A chronological account of the battle with more than 200 photographs, including graphic images of the fighting and the huge naval bombardment."By pairing such sobering accounts with period photography, Saipan 1944 offers a brief but unvarnished glimpse at the horrors of combat in the Pacific Theatre." — The Northern MarinerAfter the astonishing Japanese successes of 1941...

A stunning collection of photos providing rare insight into the death and destruction inflicted upon Allied forces during the Dieppe Raid. As dawn was breaking on the morning of 19 August 1942, Allied troops leapt ashore to the east and west of the French port of Dieppe. These were British commandoes accompanied by U.S. Rangers, tasked to silence the German gun batteries that flanked Dieppe. Other troops – the men of the 2nd Canadian Division – landed closer to Dieppe to capture the German...

Officers led and men followed; all were expected to do their duty without thought of reward. Enlisted men rarely penetrated the officer ranks and promotion owed more to money than merit. Then came the Crimean War.The incompetence and ineffectiveness of the senior officers contrasted sharply with the bravery of the lower ranks. Fuelled by the reports from the first-ever war correspondents which were read by an increasingly literate public, the mumblings of discontent rapidly grew into a nat...