On 4 September 1944, the British 11th Armoured Division entered Antwerp, capturing the docks intact. Basing his account on official war diaries, unit histories and personal recollections, Peter Beale examines the background, considers the actions taken and forgone between 4 and 26 September and reviews their effects on subsequent operations.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 British tank crews were ill-equipped, under trained and badly led. As a consequence the lives of hundreds of crewmen were wasted unnecessarily. This was due not only to the poor design and construction of British tanks, but also to the lack of thought and planning on the part of successive pre-war governments and the War Office. Death by Design explores how and why Britain went from leading the world in tank design at the end of the ...

‘What if’ are two of the saddest words in the English language.If the British had moved straight on after the capture of Antwerp in September 1944 the war might have been over by Christmas, with thousands of lives spared. Stranglehold imagines how this could have happened.This stirring and fast-moving tale supposes that, on 4 Sept 1944, an attractive young woman member of the Dutch Resistance made her way through the German lines and convinced the British Commander...

Against the backdrop of the sweeping conquest of Western Europe by Hitler's mighty Panzer Divisions in WWII, Australia produced 66 cruiser tanks - the Sentinel tank - but none ever took the field of battle. The story of Australian tanks in WWII portrays governments under pressure and bureaucratic bungles that saw opportunities lost and precious resources squandered when the nation was under greatest threat. This careful dissection of government process in the crucible of war is a rare gem ...

If the British had moved straight on after the capture of Antwerp in September 1944 the war might have been over by Christmas, with thousands of lives spared. 'Stranglehold' imagines how this could have happened. This stirring and fast-moving tale supposes that, on 4 Sept 1944, an attractive young woman member of the Dutch Resistance made her way through the German lines and convinced the British Commander that by advancing immediately (instead of waiting for two weeks as the British in fa...

The classic account of one of the most dramatic battles of World War II.A Bridge Too Far is Cornelius Ryan's masterly chronicle of the Battle of Arnhem, which marshalled the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled and cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-Day.In this compelling work of history, Ryan narrates the Allied effort to end the war in Europe in 1944 by dropping the combined airborne forces of the American a...

An eyewitness account of the fight for supremacy at sea during World War II, as told by a man who was in the thick of combat against Nazi Germany.The Battle of the Atlantic was an unremitting assault by enemy boats and aircraft against Allied merchant ships that were the lifeline of Great Britain—and the vigilant defense against them made by the Royal Navy and other allied forces.Captain Donald Macintyre—a winner of the Distinguished Service Cross who parti...

A detailed history of the World War II battle, featuring experiences from over 500 participants, by the author of The First Day on the Somme.The Battle of Arnhem was a turning point in the war, a gamble by Montgomery, using three airborne divisions to capture a series of bridges spanning the wide rivers of Holland and unleash the Allied armies into the plains of northern Germany. If the bridges had been captured and held, and the ground forces had been able...

"A superb and well written book, highly recommended as a true account of one man's war from Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic during WWII." —The ArmourerAlthough strictly forbidden to keep diaries, Denis Edwards managed to record his experiences throughout nearly all his time in Europe in 1944–45. He brilliantly conveys what it was like to be facing death, day after day, night after night, with never a bed to sleep in nor a hot meal to go home to. This is warfare in the ...

A remarkable World War II survival story and combat memoir by "an indestructible wartime tank commander" ( The Telegraph).In campaign after campaign, from the defense of Calais in 1940 to the defeat of Germany in 1945, Bill Close served as a tank commander in Britain's Royal Tank Regiment—and he survived.His tanks were hit eleven times by enemy shellfire and he bailed out. He was wounded three times. He finished the war as one of the most experienc...

D-Day - June 6, 1944 - was a pivotal day in human history. This was the great turning point of the Second World War, when the largest armada ever assembled took a third of a million Allied men across the English Channel.The invasion force of 150,000 troops from Britain, the United States, Canada and many other nations fighting on the Allied side on D-Day under the command of Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery landed on five beaches to spearhead Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-oc...

Three New York Times –bestselling World War II histories, including the true story of the miraculous evacuation portrayed in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk .The monumental scope and breathtaking heroism of World War II are brought to vivid life in three riveting accounts that span the conflict's Western Front, Eastern Front, and Pacific Theater.The Miracle of Dun...