10 War and Militaria


77149 FAMOUS REGIMENTS OF THE BRITISH ARMY: Volume One A Pictorial Guide and


Celebration by Dorian Bond


As the amalgamation of all the famous regiments of the British army is completed, this book is a


timely reminder of their past glories. Here, 35 of the most famous regiments are featured, with details of their battle honours, their badges, their most famous sons, and the stories of gallant actions by holders of the Victoria Cross. The section on each regiment is accompanied by artworks and photos, illustrating insignia, uniforms and soldiers in action. The author reveals the stunning history of these unique bodies of men. For instance, the Glorious Glosters - the Gloucestershire regiment - were once known as the Slashers after a Montreal magistrate’s ear was cut off in 1764. Their badge today features the Sphinx because of their service in Egypt in 1801. Covering action wherever the regiments found it, in Flanders, Ireland, America, Africa, the West Indies, the Crimea, Burma, Germany and Korea, this nostalgic volume tells the stories of some of the most famous battles in history and the part each regiment played, from Ramillies to Talavera and Waterloo to Arnhem. 192 pages 25.5cm x 20cm very lavishly illustrated in colour and b/w. £18.99 NOW £8.50


77150 FAMOUS REGIMENTS OF THE BRITISH ARMY: Volume Two A Pictorial Guide and


Celebration by Dorian Bond


As with Volume One, which is also available in the present edition of Bibliophile code 77149, during the preparation of this


splendid book the author has not only visited many of the battlefields where members of British regiments fought and died but has also been in contact with all the relevant regimental museums to ensure accuracy, and the inclusion of the best illustrations and photos available. The sections devoted to each of the 35 regiments contain artworks and photos illustrating insignia, uniforms and soldiers in action down through the centuries, as well as battle honours. Many of these regiments have now gone. Either they have been disbanded entirely or they have been amalgamated once, twice or even thrice to form new regiments for the modern age. The tales of courage and loss are in themselves enthralling, but the author has also provided a good deal of information that is intriguing. Who were the so-called Minden regiments, for example? Why were the men of the East Surrey Regiment known as the ‘Young Buffs?’ Covering action wherever the regiments found it from the Ardennes to Tibet, this compelling account reveals the stories of some of the most famous battles in history. As with Volume One, all royalties earned from sales of this book have been donated to Help for Heroes. 208 pages 25.5cm x 20cm lavishly illustrated in colour and b/w. £19.99 NOW £8.50


77288 FAMOUS REGIMENTS OF THE BRITISH ARMY: Volumes One and Two by Dorian Bond


Buy volumes one and two and save even more. £38.98 NOW £15


76841 BRITAIN AGAINST NAPOLEON: The Organization


of Victory 1793-1815 by Roger Knight


It is not generally acknowledged that, although Britons always vaunt the Napoleonic War as a great victory, until 1811 the danger of invasion was very real, and between 1807 and 1812 Britain came very close to losing. The Duke of Wellington himself


famously admitted that the battle which finally defeated Napoleon was ‘the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life’. For more than 20 years, the French army was supreme in continental Europe. Only at sea was British power dominant. How was it that, despite multiple changes of government and the assassination of a Prime Minister, Britain survived and eventually won against a regime that at its peak commanded far greater resources and manpower? This unusual and gripping volume looks beyond the familiar exploits and bravery of the army and navy to the politicians and civil servants, and examines how they made it possible to continue the fight at all. It shows the degree to which, because of the magnitude and intensity of hostilities, the capacities of the whole British population were involved. Industrialists, farmers, shipbuilders, cannon founders, gunsmiths and gunpowder manufacturers all had continually to increase quality and output as the demands of the war remorselessly grew. The author shows that Intelligence was also central and that, despite a poor beginning, Whitehall’s methods steadily improved. Not only that, but no participants were more


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important than the bankers and international traders of the City of London, who played a critical role in financing the wars, and without whom the armies of Britain’s allies could not have taken the field. 678 pages with colour and b/w plates, maps. £30 NOW £10


76866 DOUBLE-CROSS SYSTEM


by J. C. Masterman


Written as an official report for MI5 in 1945, and originally published in 1972 with the permission of the British Government, this cogent and authentic book details the Allied handling of enemy agents and the British infiltration of Nazi spy-rings. Telling the stories of the agent’s codenamed Zigzag, Tricycle, Garbo and Snow, Masterman also tells the


story of a triumphant operation in World War Two’s intelligence effort. He was the Chairman of the Double- Cross Committee at the height of the war and here is his famous account of the double agents, deception and counter-espionage which were key to the victory of D- Day. In 1941 he had been assigned to the task of debriefing Dusko Popov, and it was this remarkable encounter between one of the Abwehr’s star agents and his MI5 handler that led to the creation of the Twenty Committee, the body created to supervise the conduct of double agent operations. 203pp in facsimile reprint paperback.


£8.99 NOW £4 77236 BOMBING WAR:


Europe 1939-1945 by Richard Overy


The award-winning author has spent much of his distinguished career studying the intellectual, social and military ideas and practices that shaped the cataclysm of the Second World War. Who better, then, to give the first full narrative account of the aerial devastation of the European continent between 1939


and 1945? From Stalingrad to the ports of the French west coast, from Clydeside to Malta, bombing was experienced by millions of ordinary Europeans. Interweaving strategy, politics, technology, combat and social policy to understand the real experience both of bombing and being bombed, this remarkable volume strips away the many post-war myths, to show how quickly bombing came to be taken for granted on all sides, and how the established rules of war, even for liberal democracies, were replaced by moral expediency. Before 1939, there were exaggerated ideas about what a bombing war could achieve, with Europeans being prepared for a nightmarish and immediate obliteration. Bombing was supposed to shorten wars by destroying industry and paralysing the enemy will. These expectations proved false. Bombing in fact imposed only limited economic damage. It was a long drawn-out affair that failed to undermine morale. Yet, the more it failed to deliver the expected knockout blow, the more effort went into attacking cities and their civilian populations, eroding any legal or moral constraints. Once the campaigns had started, the momentum for escalation became irreversible, with terrible consequences. The assault on the Home Front contributed little directly to the outcome of the war, but it did distort the strategy of both sides, by creating a new sphere for military combat which absorbed huge resources. It was this military dimension of the bombing war that really affected how the Allies or Germany and her cohorts won or lost in 1945. A whole new perspective on a much debated subject. A vast 852 pages with b/w archive photos, maps. £30 NOW £11


77161 SHERMAN


TANK: A Pocket History by John Christopher Once described as the ‘worst tank that ever won the war’, the Sherman Tank was never going to be the equal of the German heavies, the


Tiger and Panther in a direct tank-on-tank confrontation. The Sherman’s strength lay elsewhere - in its reliability, manoeuvrability, and the sheer weight of numbers produced. It became ubiquitous, and was produced in such prodigious quantities that the interchangeability of parts was what made the Medium Tank M4, as the Sherman was officially designated, a war winner. Built in the States in car factories, railway works and new bespoke factories, the Sherman came in many variants and was converted for other uses by the Allied forces. The Brits made it a bigger gun, made ‘funnies’ that could wade ditches, build bridges, even float in the sea and clear minefields. The Sherman lasted in service into Korea with the Americans and was sold overseas to Israel, Uganda, India, Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico, with the last coming out of service in 1989 in Chile. The book presents new and archive images of this most famous tank. Slightly larger than postcard size softback, 126pp, colour throughout. £8.99 NOW £3


77178 HUMAN GAME: Hunting the Great Escape


Murderers 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. 331pp with list of characters, bibliography and source notes. £18.99 NOW £6.50


76160 HITLER’S EAGLES: The Luftwaffe 1933-45


by Chris McNab


This meticulously researched and superbly detailed volume charts the turbulent history of the Luftwaffe from its secret origins in direct defiance of the Versailles Treaty, through its “official” birth in 1935 and domination of the skies in the early days of WWII to its annihilation over Berlin in 1945. In the 1920s and early 30s it was a necessarily shadowy organisation, but through foreign aircraft design agencies, civilian air transport and nationalistic gliding clubs, the seeds of a future air force grew. Under Commander-in-Chief Hermann Goring it rapidly gained men and machinery then combat experience during the Spanish Civil War, so by the time the war began, the Luftwaffe was unstoppable. The Messerschmitt Bf109 fighter, Junkers Ju87 divebomber and the Ju88 and Heinkel He111 heavy bombers terrorised the skies, seas and land, their pilots becoming celebrities. Failure to subdue the RAF during the Battle of Britain and inability to close down British industry and morale in the subsequent Blitz revealed the Luftwaffe’s shortcomings, but the fatally vain Goring managed to gloss over this with his decimation of the Soviet air force in the early months of Operation Barbarossa. With Albert Speer masterminding production, even under Allied bombardment aircraft output in 1944 was a stunning 39,807 units and it seemed that the Luftwaffe could survive. But such was the size of its nemesis, the unrelenting Allied strategic bombing campaign and its fighter backup, that eventually it would collapse as spectacularly as it rose. There is much discussion of uniforms, equipment, armament and tactics, over 150 photos and a wealth of colour artworks showing aircraft markings, cockpit layouts, uniforms etc. 400pp. Published by Osprey. £30 NOW £10


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


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. 300 key battles and extensive index for quick access to historical figures, locations, battle formations and much more. Maps, paintings and photos. OUP paperback, 429pp with small remainder mark. £10.99 NOW £5


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


75004 THE END: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw


At the end of WWII, millions had died or were dispossessed and the end of European civilizations seemed to have descended. The Third Reich did not surrender however until Germany was reduced to rubble and almost totally occupied, and even during these final near-apocalyptic months the Nazis refused to sue for peace. The generals obeyed their orders and the regime continued with its ruthless persecution of Jews, prisoners and foreign workers. The unavoidable result of this point-blank refusal to acknowledge defeat was that the regime had to be stamped out with unprecedented brutality, something that is historically very rare. It was Hitler himself, desperate to avoid the “disgraceful” surrender of 1918, who was critical to the Third Reich’s fanatical determination, with those below him either unwilling or unable to challenge his absolute authority - the fate of those behind the failed plot to kill him in July 1944 made sure of that. Kershaw’s erudite, revelatory and harrowing account of the death throes of the Third Reich from July 1944 to May 1945 draws upon much new research and original testimony. Maps and 41 b/w photos, 564pp. $35 NOW £10


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? 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. The author shows how the Middle East’s dominance of the oil market, projected to grow to 45% by 2030, has impacted on policy. 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 £5


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


Richard Holmes 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 £5.50


74993 AGE OF AIRPOWER by Martin Van Creveld


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 £3.50


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


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. 509 paperback pages, maps, archive photos. £14.99 NOW £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


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 operation was plagued with disaster from the start. Transport ships sank en route and those that actually got there faced disease, wild animals, mutiny and desertion. Those who survived made a massive contribution to Bolivar’s eventual success and the freedom of South America. Hughes begins with the raising of regiments in Britain, one ship sinking after leaving Portsmouth, with 200 lost, through the terrible conditions of travel and fighting to their defiant last stand at the Battle of Carabobo. Colour and b/w plates, maps, 376pp. £20 NOW £5.50


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


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