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Escape: Our journey home through war-torn Germany
By Barbie Probert-Wright. 2006
Two sisters.One extraordinary true story.Germany, 1945. Trapped between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their mother, and with their…
father missing in action, sisters Barbie and Eva were confronted with an impossible choice.Should they stay and face invasion or risk their lives to find their mother?Together, they set out on a perilous three-hundred mile journey on foot across a country ravaged by war. Fuelled by courage and love, Eva and seven-year-old Barbie encounter incredible hardship, extraordinary bravery, and overwhelming generosity.Against all odds, they both survived.But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed . . .This is the powerful true story of their escape.(Previously published as Little Girl Lost)An Englishman at War: The Wartime Diaries of Stanley Christopherson DSO MC & Bar 1939-1945
By Stanley Christopherson. 2014
‘An astonishing record...There is no other wartime diary that can match the scope of these diaries’ James Holland‘An outstanding contribution…
to the literature of the Second World War’Professor Gary SheffieldFrom the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and the crossing of the Rhine, An Englishman at War is a unique first-person account of the Second World War. Stanley Christopherson’s regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, went to war as amateurs and ended up one of the most experienced, highly trained and most valued armoured units in the British Army. A junior officer at the beginning of the war, Christopherson became the commanding officer of the regiment soon after the D-Day landings. What he and his regiment witnessed presents a unique overview of one of the most cataclysmic events in world history and gives an extraordinary insight, through tragedy and triumph, into what it felt like to be part of the push for victory.Evelyn Prentis Bundle: A Nurse in Time/A Nurse in Action
By Evelyn Prentis. 1977
Desperate circumstances were something Evelyn Prentis had to get very used to when she began her life as a nurse.…
It was in 1934 that Evelyn left home for the first time to enrol as a trainee at a busy Nottingham hospital in the hope of £25 a year. A Nurse in Time is Evelyn's affectionate and funny account of those days of dedication and hardship, when never-ending nightshifts, strict Sisters and permanent hunger ruled life, and joy was to be found in a late-night pass and a packet of Woodbines.The second memoir in this collection is A Nurse in Action. Surprising Matron as well as herself, Evelyn Prentis managed to pass her Finals and become a staff-nurse. Encouraged, she took the brave leap of moving from Nottingham to London - brave not least because war was about to break. Not only did the nurses have to cope with stray bombs and influxes of patients from as far away Dunkirk, but there were also RAF men stationed nearby - which caused considerable entertainment and disappointment, and a good number of marriages ...But despite all the disruption to the hospital routine, Evelyn's warm and compelling account of a nurse in action, shows a nurse's life would always revolve around the comforting discomfort of porridge and rissoles, bandages and bedpans.Don't Forget to Write: The true story of an evacuee and her family
By Pam Hobbs. 2010
'Dad walked determinedly down the path, joined by two neighbours with five children between them. As we reached the corner…
of Kent Avenue, I looked back for one last wave. But Mum had buried her head in her pinny and it was a year before I saw her again.'In June 1940, 10-year-old Pam Hobbs and her sister Iris took the long journey from their council home in Leigh-on-Sea to faraway rural Derbyshire.Living away from Mum and Dad for two long years, Pam was moved between four foster homes. In some she and Iris found a second family, with babies to look after, car rides and picnics, and even a pet pig. But other billets took a more sinister turn, as the adults found it easy to exploit the children in their care.Returning to Essex, things would never be the same again, and the war was far from over. Making do with rations, dodging bombs and helping with the war effort, Pam and her family struggled to get by.In Don't Forget to Write, with warmth and vivid detail, Pam describes a time that was full of overwhelming hardship and devastation; yet also of kindness and humour, resilience and courage.The Day We Went to War
By Terry Charman. 2009
11:15 am, 3 September 1939. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain confirms the nation's fears by announcing that Britain is at war…
with Germany. Outbreak is the definitive history of the build-up to, outbreak and first few months of the Second World War. Drawing on the Imperial War Museum's extensive archives, this book features the personal stories of real men and women who lived through the startling events of that year, as well as those who were actively involved in the political negotiations and their aftermath. Featuring numerous photographs and the voices of key players, as well as contributions from well-known figures who were directly affected by the build up to war, Outbreak is a gripping record of an extraordinary year in British history.London during the Blitz was a time of hardship, heroism and hope.For Gillian Lynne – a budding ballerina – it…
was also a time of great change as she was evacuated from war-torn London to a crumbling mansion, where dance classes took place in the faded ballroom.Life was hard, but her talent and dedication shone through and an astonishing journey ensued, which saw Gillian dancing a triumphant debut in Swan Lake, performing in the West End with doodlebugs falling and touring a devastated Europe entertaining the troops.A Dancer in Wartime paints a vivid and moving picture of what life was really like during the hard years of the Blitz and brings to life a lost world.Dambusters: A Landmark Oral History
By Max Arthur. 2008
On the night of 16-17 May 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron headed for Germany. Their mission, for which…
they had been trained under a cloak of absolute secrecy, was to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley and in doing so cripple the Nazi industrial war effort. It was to become one of the most famous raids of WW2. For the first time, acclaimed oral historian Max Arthur has gathered together the voices of the 'Dambusters', including Guy Gibson, commander of the mission and Barnes Wallis, who developed the iconic Bouncing Bomb. These voices tell of the hard training and sheer bravery that went into this legendary mission. We also hear from the German civilians who suffered the attack, who speak of the devastation that was wrought in their lives. This was a raid like no other, and in this extraordinary collection Max Arthur has created an enduring record of a unique event in British military history.Diary of a Wartime Affair: The True Story of a Surprisingly Modern Romance
By Doreen Bates. 2016
'Unflinchingly honest... this diary is exceptional' Elizabeth Buchan'Tuesday 23 October, 1934 Another glorious sunny day. Lunch in Kens Gdns. E…
had not slept well "as I longed and longed for you". It made me happy that he wanted me. I suppose that is mean. He said, "I could pick you out in the dark from fifty women . . ." ' The diary of Doreen Bates is a candid, spellbinding portrait of a gutsy young woman working in London in the years before and during the Second World War, as well as an extraordinary account of her long affair with an older, married colleague - one that brazenly challenged the strict conventions of the day.'Startlingly frank and readable' David Kynaston'Absolutely engrossing' Virginia Nicholson'Astute, passionate, remarkably intimate, showing us the day-to-day picture of a long relationship' GuardianPart of the ALL-NEW LADYBIRD EXPERT SERIES.____________Why was North Africa such a key component in Britain's success over Mussolini and…
his Italian Army?How did they blunt Italy's actions?What challenges did they face?And what new technologies were brought to bear?When fascist dictator Mussolini declared war against Britain he was taking a huge risk . . . Italy lacked natural resources, and Britain and France's wealth.He hoped to create a new Roman Empire across the Mediterranean and into Africa. And with Hitler and the Nazi's by his side he had a great chance of doing so - but what was it that stopped him?Discover the answers and more inside James Holland's The Desert War, the thrilling and accessible account that explains what happened, who the key figures were and the tactics, triumphs and failures on both sides . . .Dear Joan: Love Letters from the Second World War
By Joan Charles, Tony Ross. 2010
Dear Joan comprises a unique series of letters between a young airman, Tony Ross, and Joan Charles, a girl whom…
he met briefly in England before he was posted to the Mediterranean during the Second World War. Through these letters, the book traces the development of their relationship from friendship to long-lasting love. With the enthusiasm of youth, Tony and Joan share their dreams of an ideal life in a reconstructed, post-Second World War Britain. Joan's letters reveal the problems of daily life in wartime Britain and give an insight into her voluntary work for the Fire Guard, the land army and the Red Cross, and the bureaucracy she encounters in her job with the Civil Service. Meanwhile, Tony describes the challenges of life in the desert, his increasing responsibilities in the RAF and his experiences in the numerous countries he visits throughout the Middle East. Dear Joan is a touching account of how Tony's and Joan's love began with a chance wartime encounter and quickly blossomed through letters exchanged throughout the Second World War, across the miles that separated them.Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War
By Cecil Beaton. 2012
At the beginning of the Second World War the Ministry of Information, through the advice of Kenneth Clark, commissioned Cecil…
Beaton to photograph the Home Front. Beaton set to work recording the destruction of the Wren churches in the City and the heroism of Londoners under attack. He conducted a survey of Bomber and Fighter Commands for the RAF, which was published with Beaton's own astute commentary. Beaton was an effective propagandist, but his voice, like his photographs, was touchingly elegant. Whatever his subject, Beaton was always a stylist.Beaton's wartime work for the Ministry amounted to seven thousand photographs, which are now housed with their negatives at the Imperial War Museums. They form a great document both of the landscape of war and of the passing of the Empire. He travelled through the Western Desert and on to Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan and Syria. In 1943 he left for India where he photographed the final days of the Raj in New Delhi and Calcutta before joining the Burma campaign. He ended the war deep in Chinese territory where he witnessed the Nationalist resistance to the Japanese. Beaton's inherent sense of theatre extended from palatial drawing rooms to the jungle and the desert. Whatever the circumstances he never departed from his radical aesthetic. Theatre of War is published in conjunction with the Imperial War Museums on the occasion of a major exhibition.The Broken House: Growing up Under Hitler – The Lost Masterpiece
By Horst Krüger. 2019
'Exquisitely written... haunting... Few books, I think, capture so well the sense of a life broken for ever by trauma…
and guilt' Sunday Times 'An unsparing, honest and insightful memoir, that shows how private failure becomes national disaster' Hilary MantelTwenty years after the end of the war, Horst Krüger attempted to make sense of his childhood. He had grown up in a quiet Berlin suburb. Here, people lived ordinary lives, believed in God, obeyed the law, and were gradually seduced by the promises of Nazism. He had been 'the typical child of innocuous Germans who were never Nazis, and without whom the Nazis would never have been able to do their work'. With tragic inevitability, this world of respectability, order and duty began to crumble.Written in accomplished prose of lingering beauty, The Broken House is a moving coming-of-age story that provides a searing portrait of life under the Nazis.The Bonfire Of Berlin
By Helga Schneider. 1995
Abandoned by her mother, who left to pursue a career as a camp guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau, loathed by her step-mother,…
cooped up in a cellar, starved, parched, lonely amidst the fetid crush of her neighbours, Helga Schneider endured the horrors of wartime Berlin. The Bonfire of Berlin is a searing account of her survival. The grinding misery of hunger, combined with the terror of air-raids, the absence of fresh water and the constant threat of death and disease served not to unite the tenants and neighbours of her apartment block but rather to intensify the minor irritations of communal life into flashpoints of rage and violence. And with Russian victory the survivors could not look forward a return to peacetime but rather to pillage and rape. It was only gradually that Schneider's life returned to some kind of normality, as her beloved father returned from the front, carrying his own scars of the war. This shocking book evokes the reality of life in a wartime city in all its brutality and deprivation, while retaining a kernel of hope that while life remains not all is lost.Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, The Bomber War is an accessible, insightful and authoritative introduction to the airborne…
Allied fight against Nazi Germany.- How did aeroplane technology change the theatre of war?- How did the Blitz affect Britain's ability to fight?- How did the Allies finally triumph?DISCOVER how the complex impact of bomber technology shaped the outcome of World War II. From the Blitz to the Battle of the Ruhr, the Bomber War transformed the state of warfare in the twentieth century. GERMANY'S DEADLY TACTICS, THE ALLIES' BRUTAL VICTORYWritten by historian, author and broadcaster James Holland and with immersive illustrations by Keith Burns, THE BOMBER WAR is an accessible and enthralling introduction to these critical battles and their impact on the outcome of World War II.Bomber Flight Berlin
By Mike Rossiter. 2010
'We believed in ourselves so much, no one ever panicked, even when the situation looked so desperate. We all believed…
that our best chance of staying alive was to stick together.'Flying Lancaster bombers was one of the most dangerous missions of the war. Yet night after night Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey King and the crew of C Charlie risked their lives in the skies over Germany. Together they faced incredible dangers, flak damage, close encounters with the fighter planes of the Luftwaffe, and crash landings. Against this background a friendship was formed that bound the crew of C Charlie together against all odds.Geoffrey King and the crew of C Charlie are unique in having flown together for fifty missions and living to tell the tale. Bomber Flight Berlin is the story of a group of ordinary men, from different walks of life, thrown together by the forces of war. It is the story of those missions above Berlin, as they flew into what seemed certain death, and aircraft all around them were blasted out of the sky. It is also a testament to a remarkable friendship.Far from being restricted to barbed wire camps or within the borders of a single nation, the detention of German…
soldiers remains a little-known part of history in the specific context of the triangular relationships between Ottawa, Washington, D.C., and London.It is from this perspective that the book Comment traiter les « soldats d’Hitler ? » (How to Treat “Hitler’s Soldiers”?) explores the political dynamics between Canadian, American, and British authorities regarding the treatment of German prisoners of war. Throughout the Second World War, these Allied forces detained close to 600,000 of “Hitler’s soldiers” on their respective territories. While managed by each state, these incarceration operations raise several issues involving interallied cooperation.This detailed analysis compares the captivity regimes developed by each government according to their national prerogatives and looks at important differences in how the three North Atlantic Allies dealt with enemy soldiers. Turcotte takes stock of the countries’ common and respective policies, which stemmed from participation in joint projects, regular meetings looking to better coordinate their actions, consultations and correspondence between them, as well as discussions on problems tied to the detention of prisoners of war and the solutions put forth. It also presents each state’s position on the 1929 Geneva Convention, the forced labour of detainees, and the denazification program. The conditions of captivity for German soldiers were therefore the result of mutual influence between the three main detaining powers of the Western Front, which was shaped by each of their experience. Following this argument, the author brings to light the key role Canada played within the Allied forces at the time. Published in French.Behind Enemy Lines: The Autobiography of Britain's Most Decorated Living War Hero
By Richard Bath, Sir Tommy Macpherson. 2010
With three Military Crosses, three Croix de guerre, a Légion d'honneur and a papal knighthood for his heroics during the…
Second World War, Sir Tommy Macpherson is the most decorated living soldier of the British Army. Yet for 65 years the Highlander's story has remained untold. Few know how, aged 21, he persuaded 23,000 SS soldiers of the feared Das Reich tank column to surrender, or how Tommy almost single-handedly stopped Tito's Yugoslavia annexing the whole of north-east Italy. Twice captured, he escaped both times, marching through hundreds of miles of German-held territory to get home. Still a schoolboy when war broke out, Tommy quickly matured into a legendary commando, and his remarkable story features a dizzyingly diverse cast of characters, including Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle.Battles of Conscience: British Pacifists and the Second World War
By Tobias Kelly. 2022
A ground-breaking new study brings us a very different picture of the Second World War, asking fundamental questions about ethical…
commitmentsAccounts of the Second World War usually involve tales of bravery in battle, or stoicism on the home front, as the British public stood together against Fascism. However, the war looks very different when seen through the eyes of the 60,000 conscientious objectors who refused to take up arms and whose stories, unlike those of the First World War, have been almost entirely forgotten.Tobias Kelly invites us to spend the war five of these individuals: Roy Ridgway, a factory clerk from Liverpool; Tom Burns, a teacher from east London; Stella St John, who trained as a vet and ended up in jail; Ronald Duncan, who set up a collective farm; and Fred Urquhart, a working-class Scottish socialist and writer. We meet many more objectors along the way -- people both determined and torn -- and travel from Finland to Syria, India to rural England, Edinburgh to Trinidad.Although conscientious objectors were often criticised and scorned, figures such as Winston Churchill and the Archbishop of Canterbury supported their right to object, at least in principle, suggesting that liberty of conscience was one of the freedoms the nation was fighting for. And their rich cultural and moral legacy -- of humanitarianism and human rights, from Amnesty International and Oxfam to the US civil rights movement -- can still be felt all around us. The personal and political struggles carefully and vividly collected in this book tell us a great deal about personal and collective freedom, conviction and faith, war and peace, and pose questions just as relevant today: Does conscience make us free? Where does it take us? And what are the costs of going there?'[An] excellent book' - DAILY TELEGRAPH'A moving tribute' - SPECTATORThe Battle of London 1939-45: Endurance, Heroism and Frailty Under Fire
By Jerry White. 2021
'Endlessly fascinating. . . White is such a brilliant historian' Mail on SundayLasting for six long years, the Blitz transformed…
life in the capital beyond recognition, marking a time of almost constant anxiety, disruption, deprivation and sacrifice for Londoners. With the capital the nation's frontline during the Second World War, by its end, 30,000 inhabitants had lost their lives.While much has been written about 'the Myth of the Blitz', its riveting social history has often been overlooked. Unearthing what it was actually like for those living through those tempestuous years, Jerry White paints a fascinating portrait of the daily lives of ordinary Londoners, telling the story through their own voices.'As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable' Sunday Telegraph'An impressive history of the capital at war. . . White, an accomplished chronicler of London's history, tells it with brio and a confident mastery of the sources' Literary ReviewThe Battle for Normandy, 1944: (WW2 #9) (The Ladybird Expert Series #15)
By James Holland. 2023
BOOK 9 OF THE LADYBIRD EXPERT HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, FROM AWARD-WINNING HISTORIAN JAMES HOLLANDFeaturing stunning illustrations from…
Keith Burns, bringing the story to life in vivid detailWhy did the Allies attack on D-Day?How did the Allies pick Normandy as a target?What was Operation Overload, the second front against the Nazis?JUNE 6 1944D-Day was a deciding conflict in World War II. But the invasion was not a straightforward attack.From feeding Nazi spies false information on the attack, to developing new technology like the Mulberry harbours, D-Day changed the course of the War for good.THE LARGEST SEABORNE INVASION IN HISTORYWritten by historian, author and broadcaster James Holland, The Battle for Normandy is an essential introduction to the naval invasion that began the liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis.__________Discover the full Ladybird Expert WW2 series:BlitzkriegThe Battle of BritainBattle of the AtlanticThe Desert WarThe Eastern FrontThe Pacific WarThe Bomber WarThe War in ItalyThe Battle for NormandyThe War in BurmaVictory in EuropeVictory Against Japan