`This is an excellent text which charts a safe path for students through the minefield that is contemporary British party politics in a wonderfully efficient yet engaging way.'---Colin Hay, University Of Sheffield --

In the summer of 1940 the British Isles stood isolated and alone facing the might of a seemingly unstoppable German war machine. Never before had the United Kingdom been in a state of such uncertainty and possible peril. Fortunately the full breadth of the English Channel held back Hitler's armies, and his ambition. Not so for the Channel Islands which stand just a few miles from the French coast. To abandon British territory to the enemy was unthinkable, yet the defence of the Channel Islands was impracticable, if not impossible. It was decided, therefore, to evacuate as many as wished to leave. This is the story of the muddled evacuation, of homes, animals and families left behind, of the German bombing of the islands, the fear of those left behind, and of those first days of German Occupation, told by the Islanders themselves through memoirs and letters, the local newspapers, and the politicians who decided the fate of tens of thousands of men women and children.

In late 1940 a group of five young Australian soldiers set out on a secret mission: one of the Second World War’s most daring operations and the first for Britain’s legendry Special Operations Executive.Leading a small force of Ethiopian freedom fighters on an epic trek across the harsh African bush from the Sudan, the small incursion force entered Italian-occupied Ethiopia and began waging a guerilla war against the 250,000-strong Italian army. One of these men, Ken Burke, was Duncan McNab's uncle.Using a combination of original research and personal anecdotes, McNab tells the little known story of Mission 101, and how a small group of Australians under British command helped to free a nation.

A comprehensive and integrated military, political, and strategic history of World War II, ranging from the daily life of conscripts and civilians to operational and strategic decision making at the highest levels. Filled with up-to-date scholarship yet supremely manageable and accessible, The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II offers the opportunity to explore a conflict that remains a source of fascination for scholars, students, and general readers alike. From the battlefields to the corridors of power, from the barracks to the home front, The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II provides a complete portrait of the war. Entries not only address major battles and campaigns, but political, economic, and cultural issues as well, plus brief portraits of the conflict's commanding personalities. Its global perspective notably corrects the usual Western focus of World War II studies, incorporating a wealth of information on often underreported topics such as the Eastern Front and the Sino-Japanese War.

Seventy-five years after the Battle of Britain, the Few's role in preventing invasion continues to enjoy a revered place in popular memory. The Air Ministry were central to the Battle's valorisation. This book explores both this, and also the now forgotten 1940 Battle of the Barges mounted by RAF bombers.

A hard-hitting history of special-forces operations over the past fifty years in the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel. After eight challenging years in Afghanistan, the new U.S. strategy, aimed at winning hearts and minds rather than search-and-destroy, refocuses the conflict on Special Forces: unorthodox soldiers who work outside of traditional military forces to combine secret military operations with nation building. Tony Geraghty, an expert author in this field for almost thirty years, unveils the extraordinary evolution of this refined style of war-making from its roots in anti-guerrilla warfare in Ireland and Palestine, by way of the creation of the C.I.A., the S.A.S., the Green Berets, America’s Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.), and many others, including Mossad. This history is more than a tale of derring-do, although James Bond-like characters stalk every page. It is a sweeping examination of Black Ops at a time when they represent the future of an open-ended global war against terrorism.

"This book was born of a series of documentay films about the German occupation of the Channel Islands from 1940 to 1945 entitled The Channel Islands at war. It is also the fulfilment of an ambition to tell in much more detail than was possible in those documentaries, the true story of those extraordinary years"--Back cover