Second World War

Diary of a Young Girl

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 8 mins)
• By Anne Frank
• Narrated By Helena Bonham Carter
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In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a 'secret annexe', fearing discovery. All that time, Anne kept a diary.An intimate record of tension and struggle, adolescence and confinement, anger and heartbreak, Anne Frank's diary is one of those unique documents, famed throughout the world.It portrays innocence and humanity, suffering and survival in the starkest and most moving terms.

SAS Ghost Patrol: The Ultra-Secret Unit That Posed as Nazi Stormtroopers

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 5 mins)
• By Damien Lewis
• Narrated By Leighton Pugh
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SAS Ghost Patrol is the explosive true story of the day in 1942 when the SAS donned Nazi uniforms to perpetrate the most audacious and daring mission of the war. Beyond top secret, deniable in the extreme (and of course enjoying Churchill's enthusiastic blessing), this is one of the most remarkable stories of wartime lawlessness, eccentricity and raw courage in the face of impossible odds - a thoroughly British undertaking.

The Holocaust: A New History

• UNABRIDGED (19 hrs and 33 mins)
• By Laurence Rees
• Narrated By Jonathan Keeble
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Laurence Rees, in his magnum opus, combines largely unpublished testimony with the latest academic research to create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in over three decades. Rees argues that whilst hatred of the Jews was always at the epicentre of Nazi thinking - and the Holocaust was the most appalling crime in history - what happened cannot be fully understood without considering the murder of the Jews alongside other Nazi plans to kill millions of non-Jews as well.

All Hell Let Loose

• UNABRIDGED (32 hrs and 16 mins)
• By Max Hastings
• Narrated By Cameron Stewart
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The complete magisterial history of the greatest and most terrible event in history, from one of the finest historians of the Second World War. This shows the impact of war upon hundreds of millions of people around the world - soldiers, sailors and airmen; housewives, farm workers and children. Reflecting Max Hastings's 35 years of research on World War II, All Hell Let Loose describes the course of events, but focuses chiefly upon human experience.

The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 9 mins)
• By Boris Johnson
• Narrated By Simon Shepherd
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The point of The Churchill Factor is that one man can make all the difference. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death, Boris Johnson explores what makes up the 'Churchill Factor' - the singular brilliance of one of the most important leaders of the 20th century.

Berlin: The Downfall: 1945

• UNABRIDGED (18 hrs and 8 mins)
• By Antony Beevor
• Narrated By Peter Noble
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The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Reich in January 1945. Political instructors rammed home the message of Wehrmacht and SS brutality. The result was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known, with tanks crushing refugee columns under their tracks, mass rape, pillage and destruction. Over seven million fled westwards from the terror of the Red Army. Antony Beevor reconstructs the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse.

Unbroken

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 56 mins)
• By Laura Hillenbrand
• Narrated By Edward Herrmann
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The incredible true story of Louis Zamperini, now a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie. Motion Picture Artwork © Universal Studios 2014. All Rights Reserved. In 1943 a bomber crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Against all odds, one young lieutenant survives. Louis Zamperini had already transformed himself from child delinquent to prodigious athlete, running in the Berlin Olympics. Now he must embark on one of the Second World War’s most extraordinary odysseys.

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 46 mins)
• By Norman Ohler, Shaun Whiteside - translator
• Narrated By Jonathan Keeble
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The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping best seller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops; resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.

Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man

• UNABRIDGED (21 hrs and 24 mins)
• By Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
• Narrated By Roy McMillan

Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings, who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades.

The Second World War

• UNABRIDGED (39 hrs and 23 mins)
• By Antony Beevor
• Narrated By Sean Barrett
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A magisterial, single volume history of the greatest conflict the world has ever known by our foremost military historian. The Second World War began in August 1939 on the edge of Manchuria and ended there exactly six years later with the Soviet invasion of northern China. The war in Europe appeared completely divorced from the war in the Pacific and China, and yet events on opposite sides of the world had profound effects.

The Second World War: Milestones to Disaster

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Winston Churchill
• Narrated By Christian Rodska

Churchill's history of the Second World War is, and will remain, the definitive work. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction.

Hitler: A Biography

• UNABRIDGED (44 hrs and 5 mins)
• By Ian Kershaw
• Narrated By Damian Lynch
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Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. From his illegitimate birth in a small Austrian village to his fiery death in a bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin, Adolf Hitler left a murky trail, strewn with contradictory tales and overgrown with self-created myths. One truth prevails: the sheer scale of the evils that he unleashed on the world has made him a demonic figure without equal in the 20th century.

Born Survivors

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 5 mins)
• By Wendy Holden
• Narrated By Anne Dover
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Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel and Anka each passed through its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they were newly pregnant and facing an uncertain fate without their husbands. Alone, scared and with so many loved ones already lost to the Nazis, these young women were privately determined to hold on to all they had left: their lives and those of their unborn babies.

The War in the West: A New History: Volume 2: The Allies Fight Back 1941-43

• UNABRIDGED (24 hrs and 55 mins)
• By James Holland
• Narrated By Leighton Pugh
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In the second volume of his acclaimed new history of the Second World War, James Holland examines the momentous turning points of 1941-1943: Hitler's invasion of Russia, America's entry into the conflict, the devastating Thousand Bomber Raids over Germany, the long struggle in the deserts of North Africa and the defeat of the U-boats in the crucial Battle of the Atlantic. As in his first volume, Germany Ascendant, he interweaves his account of the well-known events of the period with the personal stories of individuals caught up in them - on all sides.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Churchill's Mavericks: Plotting Hitler's Defeat

• UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 18 mins)
• By Giles Milton
• Narrated By Jonathan Keeble
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Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, a country house called The Firs in Buckinghamshire was requisitioned by the War Office. Sentries were posted at the entrance gates, and barbed wire was strung around the perimeter fence. To local villagers it looked like a prison camp. But the truth was far more sinister. This rambling Edwardian mansion had become home to an eccentric band of scientists, inventors and bluestockings. Their task was to build devastating new weaponry that could be used against the Nazis.

The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45

• UNABRIDGED (17 hrs and 59 mins)
• By Ian Kershaw
• Narrated By David Timson
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The last months of the Second World War were a nightmarish time to be alive. Unimaginable levels of violence destroyed entire cities. Millions died or were dispossessed. By all kinds of criteria it was the end: the end of the Third Reich and its terrible empire but also, increasingly, it seemed to be the end of European civilization itself. In his gripping, revelatory new book Ian Kershaw describes these final months, from the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945.

The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 41 mins)
• By Seth F. Stevens, Peter Meyerowitz
• Narrated By Jonathan Todd Ross
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The remarkable untold WWII story of the US airman who was shot down over Nazi-occupied France and evaded Gestapo pursuers for more than six months. Arthur Meyerowitz was on his second air mission over France when he was shot down in 1943. He was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as Harmful Lil' Armful who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground. After fleeing the wreck, Meyerowitz knocked on the door of an isolated farmhouse....

The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War

• UNABRIDGED (20 hrs and 43 mins)
• By Jonathan Dimbleby
• Narrated By Jonathan Dimbleby

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Battle of the Atlantic, written and read by Jonathan Dimbleby. The Battle of the Atlantic was - though often overlooked - crucial to victory in the Second World War. If the German U-boats had prevailed, the maritime artery across the Atlantic would have been severed. Mass hunger would have consumed Britain, and the Allied armies would have been prevented from joining in the invasion of Europe.

Ardennes 1944: Hitler's Last Gamble

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Antony Beevor
• Narrated By Sean Barrett

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Ardennes 1944 by Antony Beever, read by Sean Barrett. On 16 December 1944, Hitler launched his last gamble in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes on the Belgian/German border. Although Hitler's generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east.

The Storm of War

• UNABRIDGED (28 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Andrew Roberts
• Narrated By Christian Rodska
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One of the best selling History titles of 2009. Examining the Second World War on every front, Andrew Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-making process and a different strategy, Hitler’s Axis might even have won. Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler after the war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their former Führer once he was safely beyond defending himself?

SAS Ghost Patrol: The Ultra-Secret Unit That Posed as Nazi Stormtroopers

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 5 mins)
• By Damien Lewis
• Narrated By Leighton Pugh
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

SAS Ghost Patrol is the explosive true story of the day in 1942 when the SAS donned Nazi uniforms to perpetrate the most audacious and daring mission of the war. Beyond top secret, deniable in the extreme (and of course enjoying Churchill's enthusiastic blessing), this is one of the most remarkable stories of wartime lawlessness, eccentricity and raw courage in the face of impossible odds - a thoroughly British undertaking.

Escaping Hitler: The Freedom Trails

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 13 mins)
• By Monty Halls
• Narrated By Leighton Pugh

Some of the most extraordinary stories of courage and endurance in the Second World War concern the freedom trails, the escape routes out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Over 5,000 British, Commonwealth and American servicemen made the journey over the Pyrenees, the Slovenian mountains and the Italian Alps. Many also died en route, killed by the perilous conditions or caught by the German army. In this audiobook, Monty Hall recreates the stories of some of the most charismatic figures of the Second World War.

The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 41 mins)
• By Seth F. Stevens, Peter Meyerowitz
• Narrated By Jonathan Todd Ross
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The remarkable untold WWII story of the US airman who was shot down over Nazi-occupied France and evaded Gestapo pursuers for more than six months. Arthur Meyerowitz was on his second air mission over France when he was shot down in 1943. He was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as Harmful Lil' Armful who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground. After fleeing the wreck, Meyerowitz knocked on the door of an isolated farmhouse....

Air Force Blue: The RAF in World War Two - Spearhead of Victory

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 1 min)
• By Patrick Bishop
• Narrated By Tim Frances
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In a return to sweeping social history of wartime, Patrick Bishop explores the lives and wartime experiences of thousands of men and women who served in all units of the air force. On 1st April 2018, the Royal Air Force will be 100 years old - a short life by military standards but an extraordinarily important and eventful one. From the start it was special, standing sometimes awkwardly but always proudly a little apart from the existing services.

101 Amazing Facts About the Second World War

• UNABRIDGED (37 mins)
• By Jack Goldstein
• Narrated By Lawrence Keefe

Do you know the origin of the word Nazi? Who were the key figures involved in the Second World War, and what terrible weapons did they unleash? How did the war begin, and when did it actually end? In this fascinating audiobook, narrator Lawrence Keefe talks us through over 100 amazing facts about the Second World War. With sections including key figures, statistics, weapons and more, this is an excellent addition to anyone's audiobook collection.

Diary of a Wartime Affair

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 36 mins)
• By Doreen Bates
• Narrated By Christine Mackie
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London, 1934. Doreen Bates is working in the same office as E, an older married man. They strike up a passionate affair and Doreen records it all in her diary - secret midnight walks, countryside escapades and stolen moments of intimacy. But Doreen longs for a child with E. Despite all the taboos at the time and against the wishes of E, Doreen gets pregnant and is amazed when twins are born during the war. However, Doreen faces an uncertain future - will E ever leave his wife and join his new family?

Train to Nowhere: One Woman's War: Ambulance Driver, Reporter, Liberator

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 36 mins)
• By Anita Leslie
• Narrated By Deryn Edwards
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Train to Nowhere is a war memoir seen through the sardonic eyes of Anita Leslie, a funny and vivacious young woman who reports on her experiences with a dry humour, finding the absurd alongside the tragic. Daughter of a baronet and first cousin once removed of Winston Churchill, she joined the Mechanised Transport Corps as a fully trained mechanic and ambulance driver during WWII, serving in Libya, Syria, Palestine, Italy, France and Germany.

The War in the West: A New History: Volume 2: The Allies Fight Back 1941-43

• UNABRIDGED (24 hrs and 55 mins)
• By James Holland
• Narrated By Leighton Pugh
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In the second volume of his acclaimed new history of the Second World War, James Holland examines the momentous turning points of 1941-1943: Hitler's invasion of Russia, America's entry into the conflict, the devastating Thousand Bomber Raids over Germany, the long struggle in the deserts of North Africa and the defeat of the U-boats in the crucial Battle of the Atlantic. As in his first volume, Germany Ascendant, he interweaves his account of the well-known events of the period with the personal stories of individuals caught up in them - on all sides.