British Military War

**One of AudioFile Magazine's Best Audiobooks of 2019** "The winning combination of George Newbern's engaging narration and Rick Atkinson's vivid new work of history--the first in a planned trilogy about the American Revolution--brings to life what could have been a dry account of Revolutionary...

The Most Wounded Warrior in British Military History Shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear. Survived two plane crashes. Tunneled out of a prisoner-of-war camp. Lost an eye and a hand, then pulled off his own mangled fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. His response to it all? "Frankly, I enjoyed the war." A True Story That Defies Belief Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, VC lived through what should have killed him a dozen times over. This meticulously researched biography unveils the astounding true story of Britain's most decorated and wounded ...

The indisputable classic of military history that uncovers the shortcomings of military leadership and explains why generals fail The Crimea, the Boer War, the Somme, Tobruk, Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs: these are just some of the milestones in a century of military incompetence, of costly...

The first in an action-packed spy series introducing Lieutenant Dragan Kelly. It is 1942. HMS Visigoth has been torpedoed off the coast of German occupied Norway. Sole survivor Lieutenant Dragan Kelly finds himself behind enemy lines, unsure who to trust. The Norwegian resistance share rumours about a mysterious Nazi plant where an Armageddon weapon of terrifying power is under construction. Should Kelly escape to Russia or stay and investigate it? And what of the stunningly beautiful but enigmatic resistance fighter Sybilla? Kelly falls in love with her, but is she all she claims to be? ...

1879. The British Empire marches into Zululand, and disaster. Newly commissioned and untested, Second Lieutenant William Blackwood arrives from Monmouthshire to the wild frontier of South Africa, as Her Majesty’s forces prepare to crush the Zulu Kingdom. For Blackwood, it is meant to be the beginning of a proud military career: clean uniforms, sharp commands, and the steady march of empire. Instead, he finds confusion, chaos, and the first bitter lessons of war. Tasked with reinforcing a remote column of British and colonial troops, Blackwood is plunged into a campaign of dust-choked ...

Autumn 1879. The empire marches north. Lieutenant William Blackwood and the Monmouthshire Fusiliers return from Africa, only to be swept into another conflict as Afghanistan erupts in violence. The murder of the British mission in Kabul sends shockwaves through the Raj, forcing an immediate reaction. Major General Roberts is ordered to form a new field force, and Blackwood’s regiment is ordered to the frontier to force a passage into the mountains. From the furnace heat of Bombay to the thin air of the Shutargardan Pass, the advance is relentless. Roads crumble into mule tracks. Supply ...

March 1879. Zululand burns, and the fate of the frontier will be decided on the blood-red heights of Kambula. Second Lieutenant William Blackwood, marches north with the Monmouthshire Fusiliers as Her Majesty’s forces prepare to strike a hammer blow against the enemy. Assigned to Colonel Evelyn Wood’s elite flying column on the untamed frontier, Blackwood is swept into a relentless campaign of raids, skirmishes, and mountain warfare. Here, loyalty is measured in blood, and every patrol could be a man’s last. From the shattered ridges of Hlobane to the storm-wracked heights of Kambula,...

In the days between May 24th and 28th, 1940, the British War Cabinet held a historical debate over whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue the war. In this magisterial work, John Lukacs demonstrates the decisive importance of those five days. Lukacs takes us hour by hour into the critical unfolding of events at 10 Downing Street, where Churchill, who had only been prime minister for a fortnight, painfully considered his war responsibilities.

**One of AudioFile Magazine's Best Audiobooks of 2019** "The winning combination of George Newbern's engaging narration and Rick Atkinson's vivid new work of history--the first in a planned trilogy about the American Revolution--brings to life what could have been a dry account of Revolutionary...

Hitler's Blitzkrieg erupts across Western Europe, thrusting British Private Bill Brooks into the hellish maw of modern war. Commanded by his elder brother, Lieutenant Jameson Brooks, Bill confronts staggering German assaults in the blood-soaked fields of Belgium and France. As the war darkens, Bill's hopes of making it to his French bride, Augusta, and keeping her safe from the Nazi wave, look more impossible. In London, Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister on the very day the German offensive begins. Haunted by the ghosts of his Gallipoli failure, he battles a fractious Parliament...

Were World Wars I and II–which can now be seen as a thirty-year paroxysm of slaughter and destruction–inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Were the bloodiest and most devastating conflicts ever suffered by mankind fated by forces beyond man’s control? Or were they products of calamitous...

When Belize is invaded by a powerful neighbour, it's Britain that must spring to the defence of this old outpost of empire. But intervening in distant Central America will test the limits of the former colonial power. And in the end the outcome will turn on the skill, boldness and heart-bursting bravery of a handful of British forces already in country....

‘SAS Shadow Warriors’ is an explosive account of some of the Special Air Service’s most dangerous and little known operations. It takes the reader on a rollercoaster of a ride from the jungles of Malaya, through the plains and mountains of the middle-east, to missions against international terrorism. Also featured are four stories of incredible derring-do from the Rhodesian SAS archives. It is a must read for those interested in military history, or fans of the SAS and Special Forces in general. ‘SAS Shadow Warriors’ is the latest book by the author of ‘Bravo Ten’, Andy Ryan.

From influential British historian A. J. P. Taylor comes the audio edition of The Origins of the Second World War. Controversial for its thesis that Hitler was an opportunist with no thorough plan, The Origins of the Second World War is an extensive exploration of the international politics and foreign policy that led up to the one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century.

New Zealand: A Novel spans almost 500 years and covers the respective discoveries of New Zealand by Pacific Islanders and Europeans. From the outset the two stories are interposed. It starts in the 1300’s with the departure of Islanders from Hawaiki in search of land far to the south. The hardy, brown-skinned people who arrive here first call themselves Maori and they call their new home Aotearoa – land of the long, white cloud. The fascinating, eventful and sometimes violent lives of descendants of those first arrivals are traced through the centuries until the arrival of Europeans ...

June 1879. The Zulu Kingdom stands defiant, and Lord Chelmsford’s redcoats march for its heart. The campaign nears its climax, and the British forces gather their strength for the final advance on Ulundi. After months of marching, building, and battle, Lieutenant William Blackwood and the Monmouthshire Fusiliers push east through the wild country of the White Mfolozi. Behind them lie the forts they have built and the comrades they have buried; ahead, the capital of the Zulu kingdom and the promise of victory hard-won. Ordered to join Lord Chelmsford’s main column in the drive toward ...

Based on the remarkable true story of Irish convict John Graham, WHITE SPIRIT is an epic historical adventure set in 19th Century Australia. After escaping from the notorious Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, Graham finds refuge with the Kabi, a tribe of Aborigines who eventually accept him as one of their own. Attempts to recapture Graham are orchestrated by a variety of contrasting characters working for the all-pervasive British Empire. They include Moreton Bay's tyrannical, opium-addicted commandant Lord Cheetham, the dashing yet warlike Lieutenant Hogan, native tracker Barega and the penal...

War does not make heroes. It reveals them. The Western Front. On the blood-soaked fields of the Somme, thousands of men climb from their trenches into a storm of steel, mud, and fire. Among them is a young British soldier who believed the war would be over by Christmas. He was wrong. As the offensive begins, he and his comrades are thrown into a nightmare of shattered earth, relentless artillery, and impossible orders. Each advance costs lives. Each yard gained is paid for in blood. Cut off, outnumbered, and fighting to survive, they must face not only the enemy—but the breaking point of ...

The monumental struggle fought against Imperial Japan in the Asia/Pacific theater during World War II is primarily viewed as an American affair. While the United States did play a dominant role, the British and Commonwealth forces also made major contributions. It was a difficult and often desperate conflict fought against a skilled and ruthless enemy that initially saw the British suffer the worst series of defeats ever to befall their armed forces.

In February 1944, in one of the most astonishing battles of World War II, a ragtag collection of British clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews, managed to defeat a much larger and sophisticated contingent of some of the finest infantry in the Japanese army on their march toward India.