The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Most general histories of the Second World War written in the English language tend to take a broad view across the Washington/London/Berlin/Moscow/Tokyo centres of power and do not focus especially on the Soviet element of the conflict. Of course, this is in part due...
In the popular mind, World War Two endures as the ‘Good War’: a heroic struggle against evil with a happy ending. But there have always been nagging questions, not least whether any conceivable post-war world was worth the sacrifice of 50 or 60 million dead. Why did a...
In the late summer of 1942, the Royal Navy embarked on an operation to relieve the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. With Axis forces surrounding Malta, the islanders were close to starvation until relief came in the form of Operation Pedestal. But it was an...
Stephen Keoghane, you’ve edited L. C. Wheeler’s memoirs – what was it about his account that attracted you to the project? The majority of accounts of armoured regiments in the Second World War are written by officers, often very senior and their stories are...
Night can hide all manner of monsters, some of them imagined and some of them real. In Blackout, Scarrow vividly brings to life Berlin in 1939. A vibrant cosmopolitan city, confident after Germany’s victory over Poland. However in the depth of a freezing winter, with...
In The Baroness: Unmasking Himmler’s Most Secret Agent, John Lucas employs his investigative journalist’s intuition and delivers an intriguing espionage story. Yet, as he reminds the reader several times, the story of Baroness Anja Bergroth Manfredi de Blasiis is not...
In Bader’s Big Wing Controversy, prolific aviation combat history writer Dilip Sarker MBE FRHists offers a fresh look at a well-worn subject. Any readers who thought they might have absorbed everything it was possible to know about the fabled ‘Duxford Wing’ and its...
The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry was commissioned in May 1794 at the Bear Inn, Devizes, a town that still remains the regiment’s spiritual home. These county soldiers fought with distinction in South Africa and the Great War and at 3 o’clock on the 2nd September 1939, the...
Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on AmazonArticles Click on the links below to read the full article[dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...
Black Market in Paris Many of us grew up with the image of Private Walker in Dad’s Army. The spiv, a lovable comedy character selling stockings and chocolates illegally, getting into scrapes with authority and helping others while helping himself. He was the black...
