30 War and Militaria 75095 ON THE ROAD TO BABADAG: Travels


in the Other Europe by Andrzej Stasiuk Poland’s leading travel writer Stasiuk has a superb ability to conjure up the essence of a location with a small telling detail. Following the trail of Adam Bodor’s bestselling Sinistra District he conjures up the Transylvanian warlord Coca and his rival Mukkerman. Driving southwest he asks the inhabitants if he is in Ukraine or Russia, but even they do not seem to be sure. The train between Budapest and Gonc runs through forests and limitless sunflowers, and at Szerencs the station is next to the biggest chocolate factory in Hungary. Finally he finds that ‘Albania is loneliness’. 255pp, map.


£14.99 NOW £4 75099 AT THE KREMLIN GATES: A Historical


Portrait of Moscow by Gerald R. Skinner A portrait of Moscow through time but with one constant, the Kremlin, which has been at once the supreme metaphor of State power and also a symbol of Russian national identity. The tension between Moscow as an urban community and the Moscow of empire and belief is fundamental to the city’s narrative. By tradition, the city is the easternmost bastion of western civilization. If Moscow has endured barely imaginable catastrophes, it has also been the scene of creative brilliance. This gripping book seeks to reconcile the differing images he had of the city before, during and after communism. 396 paperback pages, illus, chronology.


£14.99 NOW £4


75472 ODD MAN OUT IN THE ALPS


by Sir Ron Norman OBE Here is an author who delights in all things French. He is not only a wayside gourmet but also part ornithologist, part zoologist, and part botanist, with a historical curiosity that is insatiable. As a distinguished engineer, whose work on the hyperbolic paraboloid roof on the Commonwealth Institute in


Kensington is much admired, readers would perhaps not suspect the hidden depths of idiosyncratic fun in his writing. This makes for all the more pleasure in his account of two summers’ worth of walks following the Grand Randonée Cinq from Lake Geneva to Nice. We love the way in which he strides past the elegantly- dressed, perfumed, sophisticated denizens of Nice, utterly unconcerned in his bedraggled outfit, and contented in his memories of Mont Blanc, clematis, edelweiss, ibex and black woodpeckers. 215 pages with line drawings and colour plates. £16.95 NOW £4


75102 ATHENS: A Cultural and Literary


History by Michael Llewellyn Smith As British ambassador to Athens in the late 20th century, Michael Llewellyn Smith knows all the layers of invasion and occupation that have left their traces. Dominated by the classical city, Athens nowadays has little evidence of the Byzantines, Franks, Catalans and Florentines who created their own culture and architecture in the Middle Ages, although next to the magnificent cathedral there is the Byzantine Little Cathedral, its west front decorated with marble animals and signs of the zodiac rifled from more opulent buildings. Olympic Athens, the Colonels, and the modern city are all unpacked for our enjoyment. 257pp, paperback, line drawings. £12 NOW £2.75


75103 TOKYO: A Cultural and Literary


History by Stephen Mansfield From its obscure origins as a fishing village along a marshy estuary, Tokyo has grown into one of the world’s largest and most culturally vibrant metropolises. In the backstreets can be found wooden temples, fox shrines, mouldering steles and statues of Bodhisattvas that evoke a different age. This is a city of literature, inspiring authors like Murakami Haruki, of art, producing print masters Hokusai Hiroshige and Utamaro, and of the distinguished Kabuki theatre. It is a city of jaw- dropping, postmodernist architecture, but also a city of calamities such as the great fires of the Edo period, the floods, famines, typhoons and earthquakes. 268 paperback pages. Index of places and landmarks, illus. £12 NOW £4


WAR AND MILITARIA


How long was I in the army? Five foot eleven.


- Spike Milligan


76219 A CHOICE OF ENEMIES: America Confronts the Middle East


by Lawrence Freedman Following the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, there was a consensus that Al Qaeda must have been responsible, but the terrorist organisation had agents in over 60 countries. America was at war, but with whom? “Let’s pick them off one by one” said President George Bush: the U.S.


had a choice of enemies. The author analyses in impressive and readable detail the conflicts America engaged in under five presidents: Carter, Reagan, Clinton and the Bushes Senior and Junior. American policy is often perceived as being influenced by the oil lobby and by ties with Israel, and the author shows how the Middle East’s dominance of the oil market, projected to grow to 45% by 2030, has impacted on policy, while efforts to reform the Israeli-Arab relationship have failed. When the U.S. under Carter joined forces with Saudi


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Arabia and Pakistan to help resistance groups struggling against the Soviets in Afghanistan, it did not occur to them that they were helping to create a radical force that would one day challenge their own security in the shape of the Taliban. Iraq has been a pivotal area, and in the first Gulf War, Bush Senior, advised by Dick Cheney, withdrew the troops without achieving regime change on the assumption that the Iraqis themselves would topple Saddam. Weinberger had taken a similar pragmatic line when advising Reagan about Beirut, talking about “grey conflict areas”. An outstanding read, drawing all the threads together. 601pp, paperback. £12.99 NOW £6


76566 GOOD SOLDIER: The Biography of Douglas Haig by Gary Mead


Shortlisted for the Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature, and described by Allan Massie of the Daily Telegraph as ‘the best and fairest biography of Haig that I have ever read’, this admirable book gives as much attention to Haig’s early life and to the post-war years as to the four


years of the War itself. Posterity has not been kind to Douglas Haig, who commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front for much of the First World War. Received wisdom presents him as an idiot who sent men to their slaughter in scarcely credible numbers both at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and Passchendale a year later. This book re-examines Haig’s record in these battles and views his predicament with a fresh eye. More importantly, it re-evaluates Haig himself, exploring his character and convictions, both as revealed in his early life and army career before 1914, and in his unstinting work on behalf of ex-servicemen’s organisations after 1918. In this definitive volume, the man emerges from the myth. 509 paperback pages with maps, archive photos. £14.99 NOW £7.50


76573 HUMAN GAME by Simon Read


Shortly after the Great Escape of 76 Allied airmen from the infamous Stalag Luft III, 50 of the recaptured men were shot on the direct orders of Hitler. It was a chilling and brutal act in defiance of both international law and the Geneva Convention. A British bobby from Blackpool, Frank McKenna, was sent to post- war Germany on express orders


from Churchill to bring the Gestapo murderers to justice. In a quest that ranged from the devastated bombed-out cities of Europe to the horrors of the concentration camps, McKenna and his team were relentless in their hunt for the killers. The manhunt spanned more than three years and the search would lead into the darkest realms of Nazi fanaticism. Here is the gripping story of the hunt for the Great Escape murderers. 412pp in paperback.


£9.99 NOW £5


76608 DOUBLE CROSS: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre


This must be the most weird, jaw- dropping angle on World War Two that we have ever come across. On June 6th 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. This was mainly due to a then unrevealed masterpiece of trickery,


the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents and conning the Nazis into believing that the allies would attack at Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. This epic event in world history has never before been told from the perspective of the D-Day spies who were, without question, one of the oddest military units ever assembled. These included a colourful assortment of MI5 handlers - as well as their counterparts in Nazi Intelligence - and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter pilot, a bi-sexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming, and a volatile French woman whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire plan. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is uncovered here for the first time. We can guarantee that you will be held in thrall. 400 pages, illustrations, map, list of agents and their handlers.


£16.99 NOW £7.50


76339 GUIDE TO BATTLES: Decisive Conflicts In History by Richard Holmes and Martin Marix Evans


Organised chronologically and by region, these decisive conflicts in history are described in terms of full tactical, technological and historical context. The book tells the story of the world’s most dramatic and important clashes from the Greco- Persian Wars and Punic Wars


through medieval Wars of the Roses, the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, World Wars One and Two, the Americas with the War of Independence up to the Falklands War, Islamic wars, Japanese wars up the First and Second Gulf Wars, and in Africa the French conquest of Algeria to the Boer Wars. A marvellous overview with coverage of 300 key battles and extensive index for quick access to historical figures, locations, battle formations and much more. Generously illus with detailed maps, paintings and photos. OUP paperback, 429pp with small remainder mark. £10.99 NOW £6


75897 SOLDATEN: ON FIGHTING, KILLING, AND DYING by Sonke Neitzel and Harald Welzer


In 2001 Sonke Neitzel discovered a huge cache of transcripts of conversations between German POWs in World War II, recorded clandestinely by British Intelligence in the hope of hearing some classified information, and this is his book about the find. Obedience


and duty were Mayer’s overriding priority, and he did not withdraw in the Battle of Cherbourg until he was down to the last 30 men. One of his motivations was that if the tide of victory turned he could be court- martialled for defeatism. These surveillance protocols also contain first hand descriptions of the murder of Jews. SS Oberscharffuhrer Fritz Swoboda describes shooting five or six hundred people day after day, including women. He admits that even veterans lost their nerve, and had to be persuaded with bonuses. On the Russian front, the murder of countless Red Army soldiers was usually an act of revenge or retribution. Red Army executions took place because “troops were so bitter about the dishonest fighting style of the enemy”. 438pp. Small remainder mark. $30.50 NOW £7


74448 SOLDIERS: Army Lives and Loyalties from Redcoats to Dusty Warriors by Richard Holmes


Richard Holmes explores in minute detail the lives of soldiers, with all their extraordinary contradictions as they torment each other brutally in the barracks yet perform acts of heroism and kindness in times of need. He acknowledges that most soldiers in most eras have been driven to “take the king’s shilling” through unemployment. The Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, described his own recruits as “scum”, yet boasted of training them up to be “fine fellows”. Holmes examines royal and parliamentary influence on the army, including current attempts to modernise, the routines and training of regulars and territorials, class divisions, straight and gay sex, regimental colours, army chaplains and much else, always using eyewitness testimony. 656pp, colour photos. £25 NOW £6


75995 BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN WARFARE


by Richard Connaughton A series of thrilling recreations of eight of the most significant military encounters in the last three decades - Goose Green in Falklands 1982, the Invasion of Grenada, a member of the British Commonwealth by the United States in 1983, Operation Desert Storm 1990-91, the first modern Iraq War, the


Liberation of Kuwait 1990-91, operations in Mogadishu 1992-93 as immortalised in the book and film Black Hawk Down, the Siege of Gorazde 1995, and Operation Barras in Sierra Leone 2000, as well as more recent events at Fallujah 2003-2004, Iraq, and in Helmand Province 2006-2007, Afghanistan. There were changes in the type of conflict, technology, the role of the UN and NATO, an evaluation of the concept of peace keeping, public perceptions of the armed forces, and that which does not change, the warrior and family unit to which he belongs and in which he fights. 452pp, paperback, photos. £8.99 NOW £3.50


74674 REVERIES ON THE ART OF WAR by Maurice de Saxe


At the age of 12, Dresden-born Maurice de Saxe (1696- 1750) entered the Saxon army, beginning a long and successful military career that culminated in his promotion to Marshal of France where he retained full command of the main army directly under Louis XV in Flanders. This book was written in a mere 13 days. It stands as a classic of early modern military theory. His descriptions for establishing field camps was soon standard procedure. His ideas advanced weapon technology including the invention of a gun specially designed for infantrymen and the acceptance of breech- loading muskets and cannons. He introduced a specific attack column that required less training of the men. He even delved into the minds and emotions of the soldiers on the battlefield. Unabridged facsimile reprint publication, 122pp in softback. £8.99 NOW £2.50


74969 LENINGRAD: The Epic Siege of World


War II, 1941-1944 by Anna Reid Reid reappraises as honestly as possible the myths and the decades of Soviet propaganda surrounding the siege of Leningrad in World War II. She produces a gripping, authoritative narrative history of the two-and-a-half years that followed Hitler’s brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, during which some 750,000 civilians, or one in three of its population, died of starvation. Above all, she brings to life what it was actually like to be imprisoned in the blockaded city: the looting, murder and cannibalism - but also, by contrast, the extraordinary bravery, self-sacrifice and generosity of some of the inhabitants. Why did the city not fall to the Germans or collapse into anarchy? Was the size of the death toll as much the fault of Stalin as of Hitler? What decided who lived and who died? 492 pages, photos, maps. ONLY £7.50


74993 AGE OF AIRPOWER by Martin Van Creveld


An internationally recognised expert on military history and strategy narrates the story of airpower from the scenes of its greatest exploits to the ever more impersonal and computer-controlled weaponry of the future. In World War II, bombers and fighters, as well as the development of radar and cutting-edge reconnaissance-and-attack strategies helped decide the course of the war. In the Atlantic, airpower incinerated cities on strategic bombing campaigns, and tracked and destroyed submarines and merchant navies. In 1945, airpower made international headlines when B-29


American bombers dropped two atomic bombs. As guerilla warfare becomes the norm, and as ballistic missiles, satellites, cruise missiles and drones increasingly take the place of prohibitively expensive manned combat aircraft, airpower triumphs are becoming a thing of the past. 23 x 16cm. 499 pages, archive photos. £25 NOW £4


76180 ZEPPELIN BASE RAIDS: Germany 1914 by Ian Castle


Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first airship in July 1900 and between 1909 and the summer of 1914 some 10,000 enthusiastic passengers went on pleasure flights in his commercial airships. In London, the perceived Zeppelin threat was a constant source of


concern. To the ever-bullish Churchill, Samson’s squadron at Dunkirk now seemed to offer a solution to the problem. Despite limited resources, Churchill believed that attack was the best form of defence. In the four final months of 1914, the RNAS launched four separate attacks on Zeppelin bases in Germany - Düsseldorf/Cologne twice, Friedrichshafen and Cuxhaven. Colour artwork, maps, period photos and first hand accounts. 80 page large softback. £11.99 NOW £5.50


75297 DARING DOZEN: 12 Special Forces


Legends of World War II by Gavin Mortimer Offering a skilful analysis of some of the legendary Special Forces commanders from both the Axis and the Allied sides during the Second World War. The tactical abilities and vision of the likes of David Stirling, Ralph Bagnold, Orde Wingate, Friedrich von der Heydte, Prince Junio Valerio Borghese and Baron Adrian von Fölkersam were to change forever the way in which wars were fought. Prior to the outbreak of WWII the concept of ‘special forces’ did not really exist. The 12 extraordinary men profiled in this book not only re- shaped military policy but they led from the front. Each leader embodied the true essence of leadership and courage. 303 pages, archive photos. £17.99 NOW £6


75612 ULTIMATE RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS by David Miller


720 longarms organised A to Z by gun maker’s name within seven chronological chapters. We begin with American Civil War rifles like the ball lever action carbine and Springfield model 1863 frontier rifles before moving on to 20th century military rifles like the Arisaka Meiji 38th year rifle and carbine, the Remingtons, Berettas and Brownings, Bushmaster M17S Bullpup with its lightweight, short-stroke piston, gas-operated, air-cooled, semi-automatic rifle, an evil looking death machine. Modern rifles include the Marlin Camps, the squat shaped Universal Firearms Model 3000 Enforcer Carbine, double barrelled shotguns, semi-automatics and the beautifully styled Franz Sodia Over-and-Under with a rabbit decoration. Colour images, 272pp, softback. ONLY £7


75672 MEANING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Ernest Mandel


Both Japan and America, in the author’s interpretation, were aiming at world dominance of resources and trade, making their eventual conflict inevitable. World War II can only be understood in the context of imperialist ambitions and the failure of German social democrats to overthrow bourgeois rule. The legacy was 80 million deaths, including those who died of starvation and war- induced illness, together with the continuing shadow cast by the Bomb which led to the Cold War. The author believes that class and national conflicts were unchanged by the war in this classic Marxist analysis. 210pp, paperback.


£16.99 NOW £4


75688 TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI by Stephen Turnball


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Published by Osprey, here is the background, strategies, tactics and battlefield experiences of one of the greatest commanders in history. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the son of a peasant who rose from the ranks to military greatness. Hideyoshi brought Japan together under a single ruler, bringing an end to a period of continual warfare between rival Daimyos that had lasted for decades. By 1591 he had reunited Japan, a feat brought about through the skilful application of strategy, leadership and diplomacy at which he excelled. There are maps of the Odawara campaign of 1590, specially commissioned full page colour illus, paintings and bronzes, colourful woodblock prints, line art and modern colour photos. 64 page large softback. £11.99 NOW £5


75946 LONE SURVIVOR by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson


In June 2005 four US Navy SEALs left their base in Afghanistan for the Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious Al-Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold. Less than 24 hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs was alive. This is the story of Team Leader Marcus Luttrell and the four


desperate days he spent fighting the Al-Qaeda assassins sent to finish him off. It is also the story of the men who fought ferociously beside him until he was the only one standing. Photos including one of the author being decorated in the Oval Office. Map, 388pp, paperback. £7.99 NOW £4


75690 CONQUER OR DIE!: Wellington’s


Veterans and the Liberation of the New World by Ben Hughes


The artificial economic boom that 22 years of war with France had created was wiped out at a stroke and with many tens of thousands of army and navy personnel dismissed within two years of the Battle of Waterloo, when recession and huge unemployment stalked Britain. Over 6,000 men left over a period of two years and the


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