The seminal account of the battle between Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Rommel’s Afrika Corps, amidst the endless harsh wastes of the Western Desert.In 1940, Alan Moorehead was sent to cover the North Africa campaign by the Daily Express, and he followed its dramatic course all the way to 1943. The three books he subsequently wrote about the Desert War – later collected as his ‘African Trilogy’ – were swiftly acclaimed as a classic account of the tussle betw...

Part of the SECOND WORLD WAR VOICES series in partnership with the podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, presented by comedian Al Murray and bestselling historian James Holland.With a new introduction by James HollandEclipse was the code name given by the Allies to the occupation of Germany. Moorehead's book describes his experiences in Sicily and southern Italy in 1943, which culminated in the...

A century has now gone by, yet the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 is still infamous as arguably the most ill conceived, badly led and pointless campaign of the entire First World War. The brainchild of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, following Turkey's entry into the war on the German side, its ultimate objective was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey, thus allowing the Allies to take control of the eastern Mediterranean and increase pressure on the Ce...

The Russian Revolution dismantled the ancient Tsarist autocracy and led to the rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and the old regime was replaced in February 1917. In the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government. The Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, appointed themselves as leaders and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Che...

The author of Case White: The Invasion of Poland delves into the strategy and weaponry of armored warfare during the early years of the Russo-German War.The German panzer armies that swept into the Soviet Union in 1941 were an undefeated force that had honed their skill in combined arms warfare to a fine edge. The Germans focused their panzers and tactical air support at points on the battlefield defined as Schwerpunkt—main effort—to smash through any defe...

The extraordinary drama of Malta's WWII victory against impossible odds told through the eyes of the people who were there.In March and April 1942, more explosives were dropped on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta - smaller than the Isle of Wight - than on the whole of Britain during the first year of the Blitz. Malta had become one of the most strategically important places in the world. From there, the Allies could attack Axis supply lines to North Africa; w...

The author of Wellington at Waterloo delivers an in-depth history of the military commander's tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War.After gaining strategic and tactical experience in Colonial India, Arthur Wellesley went to battle against French forces in the Peninsular War. With his decisive victories there, he ascended to the peerage of the United Kingdom as the 1st Duke of Wellington. In this volume, historian Jac Weller delivers a complete account ...

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...

Bestselling historians James Holland and Al Murray tell the unflinching story of the eight surrenders that brought victory to the Allies and ended the Second World War.‘A gripping, eye-opening and satisfying new account’ The Express_________From the Italian Alps to northern Germany, to London, New York, Washington and Tokyo, Victory ’45 tells the story of the extraordinary summer when the g...

In this compelling book, Richard Holmes tells the exhilarating story of the Duke of Wellington, Britain's greatest ever soldier.Seeing Wellington as a remarkable figure, Holmes follows his career from the ruins of his family seat in Ireland to the plains of India where Wellesley first gained his reputation as a brilliant commander, to the horrors of the Peninsular War and Waterloo.Combining his astute historical analysis with semi-biographical examination, Holmes artfully i...

The author of Case White offers an extensive history of German and Soviet armored warfare toward the end of World War II.By 1943, after the catastrophic German defeat at Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht's panzer armies gradually lost the initiative on the Eastern Front. The tide of the war had turned. Their combined arms technique, which had swept Soviet forces before it during 1941 and 1942, had lost its edge. Thereafter the war on the Eastern Front was dominated...

‘Jenkins sets about his task with infectious enthusiasm and draws out all the most important themes in America’s 250-year history' The TimesIn the two hundred and fifty years since its foundation, the United States of America has grown to become the world’s richest and most powerful union. How did this new nation come to dominate global culture, economics, politics and warfare?Informed by years of close observation, bestselling author Simon Jenkins...