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The dramatic story of Franz von Werra, famously the only Axis PoW to succeed in escaping and make it home during the Second World War, is told in the 1957 movie The One That Got Away. The film details von Werra’s interrogation by RAF intelligence in 1940, presenting an enlightening, but compressed, version of his treatment following his capture in the Battle of Britain. The script revealed a little of the tactics of his RAF interrogators, which so impressed von Werra that he was quick to tell the Luftwaffe High Command upon his return to Germany in 1941.Of course, von Werra was just one of many Luftwaffe airmen captured during 1939 and 1940. Many, if not all, were subject to processing and interrogation having been taken prisoner. Information was gleaned through ‘private’ discussions between senior officers and some lower ranks, obtained via covert microphones, as well as interrogation, stool pigeons. However, these tactics had been developed in the first months of the war and with the Battle of Britain producing vast quantities of PoWs, the new tactics were honed on these unsuspecting guinea pigs.The German airmen, most of whom at this stage of the war believed that victory was inevitable, provided Air Intelligence both wittingly and unwittingly, with a treasure trove of information which covered not only technical and tactical intelligence, but also possible war crimes, morale and more. Air Intelligence used tactics that any modern interrogator would recognise. The RAF also built up quite a library of information, much of it coming from what we now call ‘Open source’ material. This included newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts and information from previous prisoners. Carefully collated and analysed, in time, Air Intelligence built up a detailed picture of pilots, aircraft, units and the general social situation around a unit or airfield community. This book examines the development of Air Intelligence and its interrogation of Luftwaffe airmen from 1939 to the end of the 1940, providing a fascinating insight into a little-known part of both the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

The Byzantine Empire originated in AD 395 from the definitive subdivision of the Roman Empire into two distinct political entities: the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire. While the Western Empire disappeared in 476, due to Germanic invasions, the Eastern Empire endured for centuries. During Justinian’s reign (527-565) a good portion of the western territories were reconquered for a time and the Empire retained a distinctive ‘Roman’ nature at least until the reign of Heraclius (610-641). But during his reign, the Eastern Empire came under attack from the expanding Muslim Arabs, losing a much of its original Eastern territories. With Imperial power weakened and restricted largely to the Balkans and Anatolia, the ‘Roman’ nature of the Eastern Empire became progressively more Greek and transformed into what we know as ‘the Byzantine Empire’ (though they called themselves Romans to the end).Despite being surrounded by enemies, the Byzantines defended their remaining domains for a further half a millenium, their territories expanding and contracting with fluctuating fortunes. This tenacious survival was largely due to the ability of their military to adapt (as Roman armies always had) to emerging threats from a wide variety of enemies. The Byzantine Empire collapsed only in 1204, when attacked by forces of the Fourth Crusade, its ostensible allies. In addition to presenting an overview and analysis of the various campaigns of the period, Gabriele Esposito provides a complete review of Byzantine military organization, weapons, tactics and equipment. The clear text is lavishly illustrated with dozen of colour photographs of replica arms, armour and costume in use.

This is the story of Thomas Lancashire who joined the RAF in 1936 and became one of the famous Trenchard Brats at RAF Halton to be educated and learn the trade of fitter. He was first posted to 7 Squadron in 1939, at that time flying Whitley bombers but decided to advance himself to become a flight engineer on the new Stirling heavy bomber. He was posted to 15 Squadron at Wyton and completed a full tour that included the famous Lbeck raid, the Thousand Bomber assault on Cologne and the follow up on Essen during which he was almost shot down over Antwerp. In July 1942 he was rested and became an instructor until being posted to 97 Squadron flying Lancasters. On his ninth raid of this tour, 11 August 1943, the aircraft was attacked by a night fighter over Belgium but he successfully baled out and was eventually picked up by the Resistance and handed to an escape line. Eventually the group of evaders was betrayed by a German agent and placed in captivity, ending up in Stalag Luft IV at Mhlberg. During this time he escaped but was eventually recaptured and he was forced to share the growing despair and hardships in late 1944, enduring overcrowding, hunger and cold, until the Russian Army liberated the camp and he was airlifted back to the UK. His post-war career took him to Canada where he was employed on the Avro Arrow project until it was abandoned and he was forced to seek work in the USA. He worked with Boeing until his retirement .

The troops who fought their way up through the Italian peninsula in 1943 were labelled the ‘D-Day Dodgers’, but for the tens of thousands of men who were seriously wounded in the first months of the campaign, the mocking phrase was loaded with irony.It had all started so positively on 10 July 1943, when 2,600 ships landed more than 180,000 Commonwealth and American troops on the island of Sicily, part of what Churchill had described as the ‘soft under-belly of Europe’. This amphibious assault, supported by airborne landings, marked the start of the Italian Campaign. The Allies’ military planners thought it might be possible for a concentrated invasion to quickly knock Italy out of the war. The reality, however, was completely different. The situation was compounded by Italy’s surrender on 3 September 1943, an act which forced Hitler to launch Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy.In the months that followed, Allied troops were required to perform multiple amphibious assaults, engage in trench warfare, fight in mud, in freezing rain and snow, in the most challenging terrain imaginable. This book tells the story of the early months of the Italian campaign through the eyes of one 21-year-old private in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, Dennis Neil, who found himself lying severely wounded and near death on an Italian mountain on a bitterly cold day in November 1943. While a surgeon at a Field Hospital fought to save his life, his family received a telegram notifying them of the death of his elder brother in that same campaign.This is a story that traces one soldier’s journey to that mountainside and how his life changed irrevocably as a result of the wounds he suffered that day. It is a dramatic, and harrowing, story that is told in unparalleled detail, with the benefit of contemporary records and unpublished photographs, having been compiled through the memoirs of Dennis Neil by his son, John. Winston Churchill called Italy the ‘soft underbelly of the Axis’. It proved to be quite the opposite.

Engineering entrepreneur James Edmiston acquired the Sterling Armament Company in 1971 while still in his twenties. The company was notable for manufacturing one of the most famous sub-machine guns ever produced. The Sterling had seen limited use in the Second World War and by 1953 had been formally adopted by the British Army. Sterling guns were even the basis for the weapons used by the Storm Troopers in the Star Wars films.By the beginning of the 1970s the Sterling Armament Company had been in operational difficulties. James set about putting its troubles to rights and building on its reputation for manufacturing the best quality, high-performance machine guns that could be obtained. By the age of 40 he had turned the business around and was successfully selling Sterling guns to legitimate purchasers all around the world adhering strictly to the rigorous British licensing and export regulations.But all this suddenly changed when James, along with arms dealer Reginald Dunk, was wrongly charged with illegal arms exports through Jordan to Iraq at a time when British policies were reacting to rapidly fluctuating foreign regime changes and allegiances.Their defence resulted in a merry-go-round of legal wrangles involving the British Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Customs & Excise.In 1985 Reginald Dunk was persuaded to plead guilty to the charges after an important witness reneged on assurances to come to court to prove his innocence. James was acquitted and it later transpired that the authorities had only been after Dunk anyway perhaps to settle another, unrelated, score. So James had all along been a pawn in a wider game that seemed incomprehensible to him at the time.The case was to have serious repercussions in Whitehall when the Scott Report (commissioned in 1992 to inspect cases of reported arms sales in the 1980s to Iraq by British companies) discovered a cover-up in the Sterling case and that senior officials had blocked Dunks witnesses. The Report condemned the misconduct as disgraceful.Though his conviction was quashed and Dunk received more than 2m for wrongful conviction in 1999, compensation for James seemed impossible because of a curious anomaly in the legal system.It was only through the efforts of Lawrence Kormornick, the lawyer who had helped Dunk receive eventual acquittal and compensation, that James could have any hope of recompense. Another fifteen years of legal battles would ensue before the matter was brought to some sort of conclusion in 2008.The book follows a period of more than twenty-five years from the sudden and unimaginable accusation of illegal arms dealing, through the ensuing legal and personal struggles that James Edmiston experienced.Packed with ironies, twists of fate and many unanswered questions it is a compelling read for anyone interested in political intrigue and abuse of power, miscarriage of justice and learning about how an individual took on the state.

The Peiper Kampfgruppe was the spearhead of the 6th Panzer Army. Most often mentioned for its actions on Ardennes soil, today the Gepanzerte Kampfgruppe "Peiper" remains an object of interest for its actions during the engagements between Stavelot and La Gleize, as well as the engagement of its Tiger II against the American armoured units.Although the unit had exceptional crews, including some of the most emblematic aces of the Panzerwaffe, and benefited from the element of surprise, it suffered a bitter failure in the Ardennes. How could a vehicle considered to be among the most powerful of the conflict suffer almost 100 percent losses? In hindsight, can we speak of a tactical failur? his study, carried out by a duo of Ardennes authors experienced in this episode of the Second World War, meets the dual objective of reconstructing the facts and explaining why, in the end, the Tiger tank battalion N°501 (schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 501) was able to survive the Battle of the Bulge. It includes a summary of their confrontations, a history of the unit, as well as a tank-by-tank analysis of the causes of destruction. In total, the authors found sixteen different examples, and the machines lost one by one in the Ardennes make it possible to follow the unit''s course throughout the conflict.

According to conventional naval history, the Coastal Motor Boat was the brainchild of three enterprising young Royal Navy officers in the early stages of the First World War. This new book reveals that the truth was far more complex, and historically more significant. Research in previously unused family records shows that the shipbuilder John I Thornycroft played a pivotal role, building on his pre-war experience in the new sport of fast motor-boat racing, without which the technologically advanced CMB could never have been built.This book goes on to analyse the original role for which these boats were specifically designed – an attack on the German High Seas Fleet in its protected anchorages – and why the operation never took place. Later activities are covered but by the end of the war many regarded the CMB as a disappointment, if not a downright failure. This changed dramatically in 1919 with the RN’s intervention against the Bolsheviks, when CMBs spectacularly raided the Kronstad naval base following the single-handed sinking of the Russian cruiser Oleg by CMB.4. Although these operations have been written up many times previously, for the first time this book has had access to contemporary Soviet reports which throw much new light on these events and their significance.After the war, the Royal Navy lost interest in CMBs – unlike the Soviets who built large numbers of what were effectively copies – but the Thornycroft design continued to be built and operated by navies as far apart as those of Finland and China. Some of these saw action in the Second World War and these largely unreported actions are also covered.The story concludes with a description of the current project in Portsmouth Naval Base which aimed to build an exact replica of CMB.4. The information gleaned from this ‘experimental archaeology’ forms a fitting end to a book replete with new information and novel insights.

Richard of York, Father of Kings explores the life and legacy of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, shedding new light on his role in the Wars of the Roses and the events surrounding the Battle of Wakefield. While Richard III often dominates historical discussions, his father’s impact has been comparatively overlooked.The Battle of Wakefield in December 1460 marked a turning point in the Wars of the Roses. Richard of York’s death paved the way for his son Edward IV’s ascent to the throne and ultimately the Tudor dynasty through his grandchildren, Edward V and Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth’s marriage to Henry VII linked Richard of York’s legacy to the English monarchy. Historian Paul Dawson, however, presents a provocative reinterpretation of these events.Utilizing previously unseen archival documents from institutions such as the Bibliotheque nationale de France and The National Archives at Kew, Paul Dawson uncovers fresh insights into the Battle of Wakefield. These sources reveal a complex web of alliances stretching across Europe, challenging traditional narratives and recontextualizing Richard’s role in the geopolitical struggles of the era.This ground-breaking work provides a nuanced understanding of Richard of York’s influence on both English and European history, reshaping perceptions of this pivotal period in the late medieval world.

When North Korea mounted its audacious surprise invasion of South Korea in June 1950, the world was stunned. Within 3 days, the Soviet backed North Koreans had captured the South Korean capital of Seoul and threatened to soon take over the entire country. Facing imminent defeat, the South Koreans and their American allies put out the call for urgent reinforcements. Among the first to answer were the men of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade.Comprising units from five countries - Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India - the Commonwealth Brigade saw 9 months of brutal fighting. From the Pusan pocket in the far south, up to the border with Communist China, the disparate units of the Brigade were welded together into an extremely potent fighting force. The Commonwealth troops faced North Koreans, Chinese Communists and the equally brutal ‘General Winter’, emerging from numerous battles as a well-respected and effective force.This book is the first book which looks at the composition of each of the five countries which made up the Commonwealth Brigade and describes their commonalities and differences as well as how they were brought together to form a single effective unit. It also examines in detail the ‘friendly fire’ incident at Hill 282 when the Argylls were accidentally bombed by the US Airforce and the first VC of the war was awarded. This books also looks at the pivotal battle at Kapyong which helped to blunt the Chinese Spring Offensive of 1951. Unlike previous histories which often focussed on the actions of a single country, this book looks at the contributions of all of the Commonwealth forces as a whole and shows that it was the efforts of the Commonwealth troops together that led to their eventual success.

The fourth in a series of books that examine German officers who were promoted to the rank of general and who were also awarded the Knight’s Cross, this volume covers the last months of the Second World War. During the period from 13 February 1944 to Germany’s surrender on 9 May 1945, there were 115 generals who received the award. This total comprised eighteen full Generals; fifty-eight Generalleutnants and thirty-nine Generalmajors.One of these men was Generalleutnant Gustav Heistermann von Ziehlberg, who was awarded the Knight’s Cross, on 27 July 1944, whilst Commander of the 28th Jäger Division for actions in the Soviet Union. However he was arrested by the Gestapo in November 1944 in connection with the July bomb plot against Hitler. He was later stripped of all awards and executed by firing squad on 2 February 1945.On 26 March 1944, General der Infanterie Hans Krebs was awarded the Knight’s Cross and in February 1945 he received the Knight’s Cross with Oakleaves. During the last weeks of the war he served as Acting Chief of Operations Staff of the Army General Staff, succeeding Generaloberst Heinz Guderian who had been sacked by Hitler. Krebs moved his headquarters to Hitler’s bunker during the last days of the Reich and after Hitler’s suicide he met up with Soviet generals to try and negotiate Germany’s surrender, but this failed. Together with General Wilhelm Burgdorff, he shot himself later that same day.With each individual’s entry there is a detailed description of how and where the Knight’s Cross was won.

Soviet Secret Police Chiefs, 1926–1953. Commissars of Fear is a combined edition of two works by Boris V. Sokolov, detailing the lives and careers of the six Soviet secret police heads from Dzerzhinskii to Abakumov. The book brings together The People’s Commissars of Fear and its expanded version The People’s Commissars of Terror, offering a comprehensive view of the men who led Stalin’s apparatus of repression.This reflection on the Soviet era, particularly from the 1920s to the 1950s under Stalin, challenges romanticized views of the past by revealing it as a grim and tragic period. The fates of the six Soviet secret police chiefs—once powerful figures of state repression—serve as stark illustrations. These men, who were responsible for countless deaths during the Great Terror, ultimately shared the fate of their victims, executed by the same regime they served. The author stresses that they were not inherently monstrous but ordinary individuals shaped—and corrupted—by a criminal system. Had historical circumstances differed, they might have lived quiet lives. The positions they held sealed their destinies, making them too dangerous for the regime to keep alive due to the blood they had on their hands, which mirrored that of the top party leadership. Their tragic end highlights how power not only corrupted but consumed its own agents. The author concludes that it was not personal evil but the systemic, criminal nature of Soviet power that transformed these otherwise mediocre men into enduring symbols of terror.A note of gratitude is extended to individuals and institutions who supported the book’s research, especially the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI).

French carrier aviation traces its origins to the Foudre, a highly original ship initially designed to carry torpedo boats into action but later converted into a seaplane carrier. During the First World War this was supplemented by a number of merchant ships requisitioned to support aircraft and the former sloop Bapaume became the first French ship to launch wheeled aircraft while underway.The Washington Treaty of 1922 prevented the completion of traditional capital ships, so France, like the other major naval powers, decided to convert an incomplete battleship, the Béarn, to an experimental carrier. Between 1929 and 1936 there were fifteen ‘paper designs’, all covered in this book, but the only aviation ship added to the inter-war French navy was the highly unusual Commandant Teste, whose tactical rationale and service history is explored at length. France’s first purpose-designed carriers, Joffre and Painlevé were ordered just before the outbreak of the Second World War but the Armistice of 1940 meant that neither was ever completed.Some design work continued during the war, which culminated in the projected PA28 Clemenceau of 1948, but the ship proved too expensive and was cancelled in 1949. Instead, France acquired four second-hand ships from Britain and the USA which, as Dixmude, Arromanches, Lafayette and Bois Belleau, played a significant role in the postwar conflict in French Indochina.After budgeting and planning delays, the Marine National finally obtained its first modern indigenously built carriers with Clemenceau (1961) and Foch (1963). These important ships enjoyed long and successful careers, and their evolution and service histories form a major focus of this book. The final chapters cover developments up to the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and an epilogue looks at the French Navy’s plans for future naval aviation, making this a complete history from the earliest days to the present.

VF Eberle MC joined up on the outbreak of the war in No 2 Field Company Royal Engineers, 48th (South Midland) Division, the same company as his brother, who was a captain in it. He was commissioned before sailing for France at the end of March 1915 and remained with it for the rest of the war. In that time he saw action on the Somme and in the Advance to the Hindenburg Line before his Division took part for most of the Battle of Third Ypres (Passchendaele). Transferred to Italy at the end of 1917, he took part in the final stages of the war, including the Battle of Asiago.Besides his eloquent description of the work of a field company RE, he spends some time in outlining his role in the development of the Bangalore Torpedo.Based on his war time letters, diaries and records - which can now be consulted in the Imperial War Museum, it gives a detailed picture of the employment of a field company in war, both during periods of relative tranquility as well as during major offensives. There are relatively few memoirs of Royal Engineers'' officers, especially of those in his position, so close to the line. The memoirs benefit from his key eye for observation and his skilful use of the material available to him, making this a fine addition to the literature of the Great War.

The Early Anglo-Saxon Kings takes a new look at the adventus Saxonum, the arrival of the Saxons, recorded in the earliest literary sources. As the Roman provincial structure fragmented, new cultural identities emerged. In fifth century Britain whatever sense of pax Romana remained gave way to a war-band culture which dominated both Brythonic and Germanic peoples. Villas left abandoned were replaced by the mead-hall. These halls now rang with the songs and poems of bards and scops. Tales of famous battles such as mons Badonicus and Cattraeth filled the air.Out of the ashes of the former Roman diocese new kingdoms emerged. One major factor was the settlement of significant numbers of Germanic peoples in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. The first kings of these peoples are shrouded in legends and myth, such as the leaders of the first group of mercenaries, Hengest and Horsa, as well as Alle of the South Saxons, Cerdic and Cynric and later Ceawlin of Wessex. The book takes the reader from the early-fifth century through to the mid-seventh century and the death of the last great pagan Anglo-Saxon king, Penda of Mercia.An entertaining journey across the landscape of Britain in search of battle-sites and burial-mounds, this book brings to life the world that produced Y Gododdin and Beowulf; a world that saw warlords and kings carve out new kingdoms from the carcass of post-Roman Britain.

During the 20th Century, Scotland Yard detectives and their uniform counterparts, rarely armed, needed to be physically tough and brave given the ruthless criminals they confronted.In this thrilling book the Author draws on his and his comrades’ experiences. Among the incidents vividly described is that of a detective known as ‘Pat the Cat’ who was awarded British Empire Medal for Gallantry and Bar after being shot on one occasion, surviving a fusillade of bullets from a escape convict on another and, four years later, being severely injured thwarting an armed robbery.We learn of police officers, who despite being shot, went onto arrest the gunmen and the Flying Squad officer who dismantled an IRA bomb, primed to detonate outside Scotland Yard.PC Reggie Grose won his George Medal rescuing a group trapped in a building during the Blitz. After wartime service with No. 3 Commando he returned to undercover duties with the secretive Ghost Squad. Detective Sergeant Ryland only survived by sticking his thumb between the hammer of his assailant’s gun and the bullet’s percussion cap. Two officers tackled a mentally ill axe-man 50 feet above street level warding off his attack with a bin lid. An army deserter shot and wounded Police Dog Rex III before fire at a detective, who flattened him with his truncheon.These and many more tales of outstanding bravery await the reader in the pages of Scotland Yard’s Bravest and Best.

Even while the frontiers of the Wild West were being fought over, its myth was being forged. Sometimes this was in the form of incredibly popular pulp novels, on others the likes of the hugely successful Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show that even toured Europe and delighted monarchs. By the turn of the 20th Century, just as the era was being consigned to history, motion pictures began telling these stories in a new medium. Some of the early films were supervised by the very legends of the old west the movie was about. The era of the western was born.Some of the most important films of the 20th century were westerns. Many of Hollywood’s brightest stars regularly played cowboys and for decades, the simple western was a guaranteed way to make money and fill a movie theatre.Like every art form, over the years the western evolved. At times it was as wholesome as apple pie. There were times when it redefined cinema in terms of scope and storytelling. In other decades it created great anxiety about levels of violence and moral nihilism. The genre has been used to entertain, reveal the plight of indigenous peoples, explore racism, sexism and even homophobia. There have been westerns that have been analogies for the perils of McCarthyism. A few have been heaped with awards and critical acclaim, others were reviled by critics (and sometimes even their own studio) only to go on and be massive box office successes. Lines, images and scores from westerns have seeped into pop culture.Today the western no longer dominates cinemas as it once did but they are still hugely popular. Once again they have evolved with the times, becoming hit video games or massively popular shows on TV or streaming services.