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William Collins
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- #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR, WRITING ON THE AREA HE KNOWS AND HANDLES BEST: THE THICKEST ACTION AND BIGGEST HUMAN STORIES OF WW2, WITH A BRITISH SKEW - THIS IS A STORY NEVER BEFORE COVERED BY COMMERCIAL HISTORY - RETURNING TO THE SUCCESS OF HIS MOST RECENT WW2 NARRATIVES: CHASTISE (50K HBs, 40K PBs) AND OPERATION PEDESTAL (41K HBs, 31K PBs) - HUGE SALES RECORD:
All Hell Let Loose - 142k HB, 150k PB Catastrophe - 111k HB, 105k PB Vietnam - 102k HB, 87k PB The Secret War - 84k HB, 84k PB Competition: SAS;Break Point;The Crew;Barbarossa;The Western Front;Enemy at the Gates;Grey Goose of Arnhem;Normandy 44;First Light;The Volunteer;The Second World War;Anglo-Saxons. Antony Beevor;James Holland;Saul David;John Nichol;Ben Macintyre;Ian Kershaw;Laurence Rees;David Price;Jonathan Dimbleby;Marc Morris -
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A masterly history of the Dambusters raid from bestselling and critically acclaimed Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the overnight destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams in north-west Germany by the RAF''s 617 Squadron, was an epic that has passed into Britain''s national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who won the VC leading the raid. In the 21st Century, however, Hastings urges that we should review the Dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew''s heroism was wholly authentic, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, who invented the ''bouncing bombs''. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised wildly. What Germans call the Mohnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis'' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams at the cost of devastating losses. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Mohne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers under Hitler. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur ''Bomber'' Harris gained much of the credit, though he opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. He also made what the author describes as the operation''s biggest mistake - the failure to launch a conventional attack on the Nazis'' huge post-raid repair operation, which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches upon Ruhr industry. Chastise offers a fascinating retake on legend by a master of the art. Hastings sets the dams raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history.
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An extraordinary new account of the Cuban Missile Crisis and how it created some of the most dangerous, unstable years in world history - from the number one bestselling historian Max Hastings.
In the style of his bestselling history Vietnam , this book sees veteran war reporter and historian Max Hastings take on the Cuban Missile Crisis. In these gripping, authoritative pages, Hastings tells the story of a war that seemed like a stalemate, and a threat that could have meant apocalypse. Threaded together are close-up character portraits and big picture analysis, military collisions and accounts of the social, political forces that dictated decisions.
This is a new history for a new generation, putting fresh, international context on an astonishing military and political showdown. In those throes of the Cold War, hundreds of millions of people around the world were, for some days, terrified that a nuclear holocaust was imminent. Bringing together the threads of American bellicosity and Soviet brinksmanship, it becomes clear that while both sides eventually stepped away from destruction, that does not mean disaster was not terrifyingly close.
Casting new light on an epic clash of wills, this is the story of when the abyss beckoned.
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An epic, intimate new account of one of the greatest naval dramas of World War II, from number one bestselling historian Max Hastings. Operation Pedestal was a crucial relief mission that became an epic, bloody naval battle and a pivotal moment in the Second World War. In 1942, the Luftwaffe had a stranglehold on Malta. In the months of April and May, they dropped more bombs on the island than on London in the entire Blitz. British attempts to bring in supplies and reinforcements were failing with heavy losses, and the people on Malta were closing in on starvation as the Axis attempted to force their surrender. Operation Pedestal saw an armada of fifty British ships, painstakingly loaded with food and medical supplies, ammunition and fuel, attempt to fight its way in convoy to the island. The ensuing battle was brutal on both sides, Italian submarines and German planes dealing serious damage alongside the naval skirmishing. Over the course of a few fierce days, Britain scraped a victory and ensured Malta''s survival - though at the loss of a horrifying number of ships and lives. It was an emblematic moment when, in the cruel accountancy of war, the price was worth paying. In his signature brilliant style, Max Hastings gives a thrilling narrative of this little-known but crucial naval battle, retelling the intense action which perfectly encapsulates the spirit and power of the Royal Navy, surely the fiercest and most iconic fighting force of WW2.
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SOLDIERS - ADVENTURES, TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDIES FROM THE BIBLE TO AFGHANISTAN
Max Hastings
- William Collins
- 28 Octobre 2021
- 9780008454234
''A fascinating collection of military stories ... The sort of book that can be picked up at intervals ... [but] once tasted, is hard to put down'' Washington Post From bestselling author Max Hastings, a collection of the most extraordinary stories of war, courage, tragedy, strategy and survival.
Men at War is a collection of the very best stories about soldiers, brought together by the award-winning, bestselling historian Max Hastings. In his almost sixty years of military study and his work in the midst of modern conflicts as a foreign correspondent, these are the stories that left a mark.
In these pages you will find heroes and cowards; triumphs, tragedies and comedies. It illustrates, mostly through people''s own words, what it''s been like to fight in wars, to live and die as a warrior, from Greek and Roman times through to today''s Iraq and Afghanistan.
The characters include the Black Prince and Cromwell, Wellington at Waterloo, Siegfried Sassoon at the Somme, George Orwell in the Spanish Civil War and Evelyn Waugh as a commando. But there are also Americans, Frenchmen, Israelis, Russians, not to mention the women warriors of Dahomey, Queen Boudicca and the women who serve today in the US Marines.There are more than 300 stories in all,and an astounding variety of soldiers'' experiences through the ages.Many have been responsible for wonderful achievements but a few, also, for dreadful crimes.Some relate horrors, while others tell terrific jokes.
This is a book that might make you feel as grateful that whatever the troubles of our own times, we are spared the mud and blood and anguish, if also the moments of glory, that the soldiers in these pages bring so vividly to life.
