Jonathan Trigg

‘We knew that this time we were on the verge of a battle such as the world had never seen. Soon our excited talk rose to a pitch that would have rejoiced the hearts of any freebooters, or of Frederick’s grenadiers. A few days later there were very few of that party still alive.’Everyone is familiar with the story of the Battle of the Somme: on the morning of Saturday 1 July 1916 the finest army that Great Britain ever produced climbed out of their trenches and jauntily walked towards the German lines. In a few terrible, blood-soaked minutes they were mown down in their tens of thousands by merciless German machinegun fire – the flower of an entire generation lost, lions led by donkeys. The Somme was the worst defeat Britain ever suffered, a tragic lesson in history – but is this true? If it was then why did one German staff officer of the time write that ‘the Somme was the muddy grave of the German field army’?In truth the Battle of the Somme didn’t end on that fateful Saturday but continued for over four months as the astounding German victory of 1 July gradually evolved into a shattering defeat that would alter German strategy for the rest of the war. It would see the core of their army in the West gradually ground into the mud. The mass of histories on the battle have focused on the British experience, and especially on the tragedy of 1 July, but the German side has been largely forgotten. This is the story of the German soldiers who manned those deadly machineguns on 1 July and who were then forced to fight a losing battle until its remorseless end.

Starting with leaflet drops in 1940, the aerial offensive against the Nazis’ homeland grew into a huge armada that pulverised much of Germany, seriously damaging her ability to make war and killing hundreds of thousands. By day, the Flying Fortresses of the Mighty Eighth US Airforce confronted the day fighters of Luftflotte Reich, and then it was the turn of Bomber Command’s Lancasters to fight off the deadly predators of the Nachtjagd (night hunters). The tactics and technology of Allied escort fighters evolved quickly though the war years, as they did for the defending German fighters. For the Allied airmen who fought this war the price was frighteningly high, for those who opposed them – in the air and on the ground – it was even higher. As the bombing increased, Nazi high command was forced to devote more and more resources to try and defeat the Allied campaign, just when those same resources were desperately needed elsewhere, both on the Russian Front and, after D-Day on 6 June 1944, on the new Western Front. Written from the ‘other side’ and told as much as possible through the words of the veterans, this is an important book on one of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War.

Pět měsíců, jeden týden a tři dny pekla. Německá ofenzíva, jejímž cílem bylo dobýt Stalingrad, začala v srpnu 1942 za účasti 6. armády Friedricha Pauluse a částí 4. tankové armády. Útok byl podpořen intenzivním bombardováním, které velkou část města proměnilo v ruiny. Bitva se zvrhla v boje o každý dům. Obě strany bojovaly o město na Volze zuřivě a s velkým zaujetím. V polovině listopadu byli Něm - ci na pokraji vítězství, zatímco sovětští obránci se drželi posledních úzkých pruhů země podél západního břehu řeky. Rudá armáda však v té době zahájila operaci Uran, jež cílila na slabší rumunské armády chránící boky 6. armády. Špatně vybavené rumunské jednotky byly přemoženy a 6. armáda byla odříznuta a ob - klíčena. Hitler byl odhodlán udržet město za každou cenu a zakázal 6. armádě pokus o průlom. Trval na tom, aby byla zásobována ze vzduchu. Výsledkem byla německá porážka. V únoru 1943 se bez jídla a munice vzdalo asi 91 000 hladovějících a vešmi prolezlých Němců sovětským jednotkám. Ztráty na obou stranách byly obrovské – jenom Sověti měli téměř půl milionu mrtvých a více než 650 000 nemocných nebo zraněných. Autor Jonathan Trigg svým jedinečným stylem odhaluje lidské utrpení skryté za těmito statistikami prostřednictvím vzpomínek a dopisů německých vojáků. Tohle byla válka ve své nejsyrovější podobě – tohle byl Stalingrad.

When civil rights protests in the 1960s gave way to armed struggle, the Provisional IRA in Derry ? both city and county ? led the fight against the British security forces. In the city Martin McGuinness ? a young butcher? s assistant from the Bogside ? quickly rose through the ranks, launching a bombing campaign that reduced the city centre to rubble. In tandem, the IRA? s active service units fought the British Army in the streets and alleys of the Bogside, Creggan, Shantallow and the Waterside. Out in the townlands, a new generation from the county? s traditional republican families waged an equally ruthless war against their neighbours in the RUC and UDR. The Derry Brigade? s success would help propel McGuinness to the very top of the IRA? s Army Council.By the early 1980s the Derry Brigade appeared untouchable. However, in reality, Special Branch and British Intelligence had infiltrated it from top to bottom and almost destroyed the brigade. By the mid-1990s its war was all but over, its ranks decimated by death and incarceration. This is the story of that war told by those from all sides who survived it.