In July 1944 the Allies were stunned by the appearance of the Messerschmitt Me-262, the world’s first operational jet warplane. This new German fighter was more than 100mph faster than any other aircraft in the skies. Although always greatly outnumbered, the Me-262 gained scores of victories over Allied fighters and bombers, and by the end of the war, many of the Luftwaffe’s greatest aces had clamoured to be in their cockpits. No wonder military leaders believed that if it had been introduced earlier, this jet could have changed the outcome of the war.Sharks of the Air tells the story of Willi Messerschmitt’s life, and shows how this aeronautical genius built many revolutionary aeroplanes—not excluding the Luftwaffe’s mainstay, the Me-109—and culminating in the Me-262. It describes how his various warplanes fought in Spain, Poland, France, Britain, the U.S.S.R., and over Germany, and it provides thrilling accounts of air battles drawn from combat reports and interviews with veterans. This book also shows how Messerschmitt—like other geniuses such as Porsche, von Braun, and Speer— was affected by cut-throat Nazi politics, and describes his intense rivalries with other aircraft designers. It reveals aspects of his life never before made public, including his love affair with the beautiful Baroness Lilly Michel-Rolino, a rich aristocrat who left her husband to live with Willi. Finally, it shows how in Word War II Messerschmitt believed he was loyally supporting the Fatherland, until he realised too late that Hitler was a madman. Like many of the technical innovations of Nazi Germany in the war, production arrived too late in order to change the final outcome.

Jean Restayn presents the legendary tank’s participation in the fighting in North Africa ,Italy and North-West Europe. A wide selection of this period photos, and 48 color plates of individual and identified tanks, provides historians and modellers with a throng of details on the units and machines pitted against the Allies.

In 1944 George Grod, a strip cartoon, modeling and aviation enthusiast, discovered with amazement some American magazines which an MP billeted near his village lent him. What he liked best were the gleaming advertisements scattered throughout the pages.In the eighties, during an “old papers” fair, George came across some old numbers of Life Magazine and from there he started an unbridled search for original magazines dating back to between 1942 and 1945. Now presented in this single volume, we see the return of all his great themes - aviation, kits, cartoon strips, the love of art and even the cinema. The book is not just a collection of beautiful pictures all strung together or a sample from a huge collection; it is above all the testimonial of a period, the reflection of that immense war effort the American people made during the last World War, seen through the kaleidoscope of publicity and propoganda. It is also a tribute to the most glamorous of our liberators.George Grod worked alongside great film-makers like Verneuil, Minnelli, Zinnemann, Lumet and Zanuck before working on the television series les Dossiers Noirs with his friend Jean-Michel Charlier who took part later in the Grands Maïtres de la BD (Grand Masters of the Cartoon Strip) which he created for the Visiteurs de Mercredi (Wednesday’s visitors). This book is a must for anyone interested in art, history or World War II; an impressive edition to anyone’s collection.

“This book is essential reading; a must-have in your military library” - Military Modelcraft After Hitler conquered Poland, the British began to exert control of the neutral Norwegian coast, an action that threatened to cut off Germany’s iron-ore conduit to Sweden and outflank from the start its hegemony on the Continent. Germany quickly responded with a dizzying series of assaults, using every tool of modern warfare developed. Airlifted infantry, mountain troops and paratroopers were dispatched to the Scandinavian nation, seizing Norwegian strong points while forestalling larger but more cumbersome Allied units. The German Navy also set sail, taking a brutal beating at the hands of Britannia, while ensuring with its sacrifice that key harbours could be held open for resupply. As dive bombers soared overhead, small but elite German units traversed forbidding terrain to ambush Allies trying to forge inland. At Narvik, 6,000 German troops battled 20,000 French and British, until the Allies were finally forced to withdraw by the great disaster in France, leaving Norway to the wolves. As a veritable coda to the campaign, the aircraft carrier Glorious, while trying to sail back to Britain, was hammered under the waves by the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst. The air, airborne, sea, amphibious, infantry, armour and commando aspects of this brief but violent campaign are here covered in meticulous detail.

While surrounded by the Axis powers in World War II, Switzerland remained democratic and never succumbed to the Nazi goliath. This book tells the story with emphasis on two voices rarely heard. One voice is that of scores of Swiss who lived in those dark years, told through oral history. They mobilised to defend the country and laboured on the farms. The other voice is that of Nazi Intelligence, those who spied on the Swiss and planned subversion and invasion. Exhaustive documents from the German military archives reveal a chilling rendition of attack plans which would be dissuaded in part by Switzerland's armed populace and Alpine defences.Laced with unique maps and photos, the book is organised into four units. The first, A War of Words and Nerves, depicts how the Swiss mobilised an active"spiritual defence" of their country. The second unit, To Resist to the Death, concerns military preparations. Swiss soldiers recall an epoch when every day could have been "the day" when all hell would break lose and they would meet the enemy. Blitzkrieg plans against Switzerland devised by the German Wehrmacht in 1940 are described in detail.Struggle for Survival: Food, Fuel and Fear, the third unit, presents oral histories of daily life during the war with its shortages, alarms, and rumours. Espionage and Subversion, the fourth and final unit, covers strategic issues and intelligence activities. In total, Halbrook brings together a complete picture of the unfaltering tenacity of the Swiss at War.

One of the most notorious Americans of the twentieth century was a failed Broadway actress turned radio announcer named Mildred Gillars (1900–1988), better known to American GIs as “Axis Sally.” Despite the richness of her life story, there has never been a full-length biography of the ambitious, star-struck Ohio girl who evolved into a reviled disseminator of Nazi propaganda.At the outbreak of war in September 1939, Mildred had been living in Germany for five years. Hoping to marry, she chose to remain in the Nazi-run state even as the last Americans departed for home. In 1940, she was hired by the German overseas radio, where she evolved from a simple disc jockey and announcer to a master propagandist. Under the tutelage of her married lover, Max Otto Koischwicz, Gillars became the personification of Nazi propaganda to the American GI. Spicing her broadcasts with music, Mildred used her soothing voice to taunt Allied troops about the supposed infidelities of their wives and girlfriends back home, as well as the horrible deaths they were likely to meet on the battlefield. Supported by German military intelligence, she was able to convey personal greetings to individual US units, creating an eerie foreboding among troops who realised the Germans knew who and where they were. After broadcasting for Berlin up to the very end of the war, Gillars tried but failed to pose as a refugee and was captured by US authorities. Her 1949 trial for treason captured the attention and raw emotion of a nation fresh from the horrors of the Second World War. Gillars’s twelve-year imprisonment and life on parole, including a stay in a convent, is a remarkable story of a woman who attempts to rebuild her life in the country she betrayed.Written by Richard Lucas, a freelance writer and lifelong short-wave radio enthusiast, Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany is the first thoroughly documented look at this mythologised figure of World War II.

This is the previously untold story of one of the most ferocious and prolonged air/naval battles in history: the battle at the radar picket stations during the American assault on Okinawa in spring 1945. It weaves together the experiences of the ships and their crews, Navy, Army, and Marine Corps pilots, and Japanese kamikazes in an account which provides the complete story of this infamous battle. The US fleet and its accompanying airpower that took station off Okinawa was of gigantic proportions, such that the Japanese could only rely on suicide attacks to inflict critical damage. While losses in the main fleet have been well covered in the literature, less well known has been the terrific battle waged on the picket line, the fleet’s outer defence against the swarms of Japanese marauders. Of the 206 ships that served on radar picket duty, twenty-nine percent were sunk or damaged by Japanese air attacks, making theirs the most hazardous naval surface duty in World War II. The great losses were due in large part to the relentless nature of the kamikaze attacks, but also to the improper use of support gunboats, failure to establish land-based radar at the earliest possible time, the assignment of ships ill-equipped for picket duty, and, as the battle went on, crew fatigue. The intricate nature of the US air cover is also described in full. Toward the end of the battle, the radar picket ships became the prime kamikaze target as Japanese pilots despaired of getting through the “big blue blanket” of American fighter planes to reach larger prey at Okinawa. About the AuthorRobin L. Rielly, the author of seven previous books, has written an engrossing narrative of air/naval combat. Combining firsthand action with astute tactical and strategic analysis, he has gone far toward completing our understanding of one of World War II’s epic campaigns.

Contrary to the Hollywood-style romanticism of popular novels and films, the Second World War was more than courage on the battlefield, plucky defiance and doomed love affairs. Family and civilian life had to go on. In the midst of black-outs, road-blocks and austerity, households had to feed and clothe themselves, to travel, to decorate and furnish their homes. In this meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated account, Mike Brown and Carol Harris draw on contemporary sources including government advice, periodicals and books to provide an authoritative, entertaining account of life in the time of air-raid sirens and rationing.

During the 20th century, two generations of Canadians crossed the Atlantic to offer their support to threatened democracy in Europe, united with Britain through Commonwealth association. These soldiers distinguished themselves at Vimy during the Great War, then at Dieppe, Sicily, Normandy and later, Holland, during World War II. Canada was also active in defending the shipping lanes in the North Atlantic and the Canadian Merchant Navy completed over 25,000 voyages across the Atlantic between 1939 and 1945. Over the course of the World War II, 1.1 million Canadians served in the army, navy, and air force. Of these men, more than 45,000 lost their lives and another 54,000 were wounded. The suffering and the hardships of both wars affected many Canadians at home and abroad.This abundantly illustrated book tells the story of the Canadians' heroic contribution to the liberation of Europe.

With his parting words “I shall return,” General MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain, Russell Volckmann, refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon and raised a Filipino army of over 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war killing over 50,000 Japanese enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur’s HQ in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann.This book establishes how Volckmann’s leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. His ability to synthesise the realities and potential of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashita’s forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Volckmann, the Americans would have gone in “blind” during their counter-invasion, resulting in much greater loss of life and potentially stalling the entire Pacific campaign. American Guerilla also establishes Volckmann as the progenitor of modern counterinsurgency and the true “Father” of Army Special Forces. In 1950, Volckmann wrote two field manuals that became the Army’s first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations. At a time when U.S. military doctrine was conventional in outlook, he marketed the ideas of guerrilla warfare as a critical force multiplier for any future conflict, ultimately securing the establishment of the Army’s first special operations unit. Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure in modern military history, and in much of the Special Forces literature. This long overdue book not only chronicles his dramatic military exploits, but analyses how his leadership paved the way for modern special warfare doctrine.

Col. Mark James Alexander was the only airborne officer to lead three different battalions into combat in World War II, successively commanding the 2nd and 1st Battalions, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion, 508 PIR, of the 82nd Airborne Division. A legend in his own time, he fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France, and even after being seriously wounded in Normandy, insisted on playing a role in the Battle of the Bulge. Airborne Generals Gavin and Ridgway recognised Alexander’s superior battle skills and were more than happy to use him to plug holes in the ranks. His reputation excelled among the rank and file, right down to the lowest private. He led from the front, pressing the attack while simultaneously looking out for his men. In Sicily, Alexander’s battalion landed 25 miles from its drop zone, into a network of Italian pillboxes, upon which the Colonel personally directed fire. Dropped into the desperate inferno at Salerno, he refused to give ground against German counterattacks, forming his paratroopers against enemy efforts to push Allied forces back into the sea. At Normandy one seasoned lieutenant, John “Red Dog” Dolan, 505 PIR, called him “the finest battalion commander I ever served under,” after Alexander had led the 1/505 for ten days through the bloody battle for La Fière Bridge and Causeway. This memoir is based on the transcription of hundreds of hours of recorded interviews made by Alexander’s grandson, John Sparry, over a period of years late in his life. Providing valuable insight into the beloved commander who led three of the most infamous battalions in the US Army, Jump Commander also contains a wealth of new detail on 82nd Airborne operations, and casts insight on some of the most crucial battles in the ETO. This highly readable and action-packed narrative may well be the last remaining memoir to be written in the voice of a major airborne officer of the Greatest Generation.

The Normandy landings have spawned hundreds of publications in the last 75 years, but until now, not a single one showed the main landings sites from above. The photographs in this book, taken by François Levalet with the help of a kiten form a series of astonishing compositions : a brand new way of seeing the landing beaches and of discovering, from a completely new angle, places you thought you know very well. Yves Buffetaut texts put the photos into perspective, and offer, in a few pages, a very complete overview of the D-Day landings.

Published in 1942 with the title Damals, this album is aimed at enhancing the reputation of the SS-Totenkopf-Division, a rather unusual motorized Waffens-SS formation whose nucleus had been shaped with concentration camp guards, the sadly famous ss-Totenkopfverbände. Proof had to be given through text and photos that in 1940, on the battlefields of France, this division displayed the same value as the best Wehrmacht divisions.Eric Lefèvre has added a historical account of the unit and a biography of its commander SS-Gruppenführer Eicke to the original facsimile. Each of the 89 photos and each text forms the subject of remarks and necessary annotations by the same writer.Eric Lefèvre is a well-known specialist of the WWII German Amy.TrilingualEnglish/French/German

The experiences of Australian prisoners of war (POWs) or Kriegsgefangeners held captive in Germany has been largely forgotten or ignored- overshadowed by the horrid stories of Australians imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. Yet, as David Coombes makes known, the stories are interesting and significant - not only providing an account of what those young Australian soldiers experienced, and the spirit they showed in responding to captivity - but also for the insight it provides into Germany in the last eighteen months of the war.Drawing on previous inaccessible records - including interviews conducted by the late David Chalk as well as private papers and unpublished manuscripts (all part of the Chalk Collection) - Coombes focuses on one Australian brigade, the 4th Infantry, from its formation in 1914, through Gallipoli to its baptism of fire on the Western Front, culminating in the first battle of Bullecourt - which, in turn, leads to the prisoner of war experience. An unknown future was certainly what awaited those mostly young soldiers as POWs - whether it be exposed to their own artillery fire while working for the enemy 'behind the line'; in a hospital ward somewhere in France or Germany; or behind wire, in a camp, in Germany.What remained constant, and gave them reason to stay alive, often in the most horrendous circumstances, was their desire to be free - to get back to their family and loved ones in Australia.

Granqist's account of his wartime experiences adds another important chapter to the story of Australian World War II POWs while showcasing the spirit, humour, persistence, and ingenuity of a well trained soldier.

The first attacks on Australia by the Japanese were made by four submarines of the Sixth Submarine Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Together, these 80-man boats laid mines, and then waited in their killing zones for targets to torpedo. On 20 January 1942, it all went horribly wrong. Sunk with all hands, the submarine I-124 remains outside Darwin today, testimony to bravery but also to folly. Avonmore Books’ new edition of a 1990s work features new and improved graphics; a host of photographs, and the complete story of the submarine action, and events through the decades beyond – for the sunken vessel did not lie easy. Code seekers; treasure hunters; and potential salvors eventually led to the formation of the Historic Shipwrecks Act.