Showing results by publisher "Quercus" in History

Former SAS soldier Big Phil Campion tells it like is in this brutally honest account of his insanely dangerous life as a private military operator. From playing chicken with a suicide bomber in backstreet Kabul to taking on pirates with his bare hands, this is true-life action-packed drama at its best.

From the best-selling author of true military classics Zero Six Bravo, The Nazi Hunters and Churchill's Secret Warriors. In the Spring of 1940, as Britain reeled from defeats on all fronts and America seemed frozen in isolation, one fear united the British and American leaders like no other: the Nazis had stolen a march on the Allies towards building the atomic bomb. So began the hunt for Hitler's nuclear weapons - nothing else came close in terms of priorities.

In the winter of 1939 in the cold snow of no-man's-land, two loners met and began an extraordinary journey together, one that would bind them for the rest of their lives. One was an orphaned puppy, abandoned by his owners as they fled the approaching Nazi forces. The other, a lost soul of a different sort - a Czech airman, flying for the French Air Force but soon to be bound for the RAF and the country that he would call home.

In the winter of 1941 an alien-seeming object was captured in a death-defying dash by an RAF reconnaissance pilot flying a lone unarmed Spitfire across the French coast. Balanced upon the cliffs near Le Havre was what appeared to be a giant convex dish, directed across the Channel at the war-torn British coastline. With Britain's cities being pounded by fearsome bombing raids, teams of experts studied the photograph worriedly.

SAS Great Escapes Three recounts the untold stories of six of the most daring escapes pulled off by warriors of the world's most famous fighting force in WWII. Ranging from the birth of the SAS, to the post D-day battles for Nazi-occupied Europe, they cover some of the most iconic operations of the Regiment, and its key characters, while also including untold tales of courage and endurance beyond measure.

So secret was this mission, the SAS seizure of a train to raid deep into enemy territory to liberate a concentration camp, that it wasn't until 1968 - twenty-seven years after the formation of the SAS - that a short mention of it was made in the Rover and Wizard annual, under the headline 'Who Dares Wins'. No further published record exists. Best-selling author Damien Lewis has unearthed the full incredible story from long-hidden files and first hand-testimony, his latest elite forces narrative delivering a scintillating tale of bravery, daring and determination which simply beggars belief.

An awful lot has happened in the last 100 years or so. In fact, when you look at how much went on in the 20th century, it's amazing it didn't take longer than that. And what have we learnt? A few obvious lessons include: megalomaniac men with moustaches in charge of countries tend to turn out to be bad; anyone who thinks they can explain let alone sort out the Middle East is wrong; France simply cannot be relied upon; America may or may not be the cause of everything good and bad in the world (depending on who you ask).

In Leningrad: Siege and Symphony, Brian Moynahan sets the composition of Shostakovich's most famous work against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it. Drawing on extensive primary research in archives as well as personal letters and diaries, he vividly tells the story of the cruelties heaped by the twin monsters of the 20th century, Stalin and Hitler, on a city of exquisite beauty, and of its no less remarkable survival.

As a SEAL sniper and combat veteran, Brandon Webb was tasked with revamping the US Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) Scout/Sniper School, incorporating the latest advances in technology to create an entirely new course that continues to test even the best warriors. In this revealing new book, Webb takes listeners through every aspect of the elite training.

Judy, a beautiful liver and white English pointer, and the only animal POW of WWII, truly was a dog in a million. Whether she was dragging men to safety from the wreckage of a torpedoed ship, scavenging food to help feed the starving inmates of a hellish Japanese POW camp, or by her presence alone bringing inspiration and hope to men living through the 20th century's darkest days, she was cherished and adored by the British, Australian, American and other Allied servicemen who fought to survive alongside her.

Between 1994 and 1997, James Brown's loaded magazine became the the must-buy and must-be-in publication of the decade. It won every award going, year after year, and came to define not only its audience but also a generation. Bright, loud, funny, provocative, ambitious and careless, loaded was read from the barracks of Afghanistan to the England dressing room at Euro '96. It captured a hedonistic lifestyle of alcohol, cocaine and more. The last great hurrah before the end of the century.

The thrilling and true story of the development and operational deployment of human torpedoes - Chariots - and X-craft midget submarines in British naval service during WWII and of the extraordinary men who crewed these dangerous vessels. The commando frogmen who rode the Chariots and operated as divers from the X-craft were the forerunners of today's Special Boat Service, the SBS. Their aim was to attach an explosive charge underneath an enemy ship to destroy the vessel.

Vogue magazine started, like so many great things do, in the spare room of someone's house. But unlike other such makeshift projects that flare up then fizzle away, Vogue burnt itself into our cultural consciousness. Today, 125 years later, Vogue spans 22 countries, has an international print readership upwards of 12 million and nets over 67 million monthly online users. Uncontested market leader for a century, it is one of the most recognisable brands in the world and a multi-million dollar money-making machine. It is not just a fashion magazine, it is the establishment.

The extraordinary story of a propaganda campaign like no other: the covert British operation to manipulate American public opinion and bring America into the Second World War. When William Stephenson - 'our man in New York' - arrived in the United States towards the end of June 1940 with instructions to secure aid for Britain and 'organise' American public opinion, Britain was on the verge of defeat. Surveys at that time showed that just 14 percent of the population wanted to go to war against Germany. But over the followings months, US public opinion shifted....

Belinda Black was just seventeen years old when she began working as a nursing assistant at the large and foreboding 'madhouse', as it was then known to the villagers of her hometown in the north of England. Following in the footsteps of her mother, she went on to spend a decade caring for patients with widely varying mental health problems, all locked up together and out of view of society.

Smoky the Brave is the extraordinary, touching and true story of a heroic dog and her adoptive masters in the jungles of the Pacific War. In February 1944, as Japanese military advances threatened to engulf Australasia, a tiny, four-pound Yorkshire terrier was discovered hiding in a Japanese shell scrape amidst the thick jungles of Papua New Guinea. The GIs who discovered her presumed she had been some kind of Japanese army mascot, but it soon turned out that she understood neither commands rendered in Japanese nor English.

In February 1944, the French Resistance in the Amiens area was in turmoil. Its strength had been decimated by German aggression and the work of a number of traitors in their midst, and hundreds of its members languished in the city's formidable jail, awaiting an almost certain death at the hands of their captors. When two Allied intelligence officers were incarcerated alongside them it became clear that immediate action was imperative.

In the spring of 1945, at Rechnitz on the Austrian-Hungarian border, not far from the front lines of the advancing Red Army, Countess Margit Batthyany gave a party in her mansion. The war was almost over, and the German aristocrats and SS officers dancing and drinking knew it was lost. Late that night, they walked down to the village, where 180 enslaved Jewish labourers waited, made them strip naked, and shot them all before returning to the bright lights of the party.

In 1940, Private Raymond Bailey, a 21-year-old Vauxhall motors apprentice, was captured in northern France, becoming a Nazi prisoner of war. But he wouldn't remain one for long... The Longest Walk Home is the incredible account of his daring 2,000 mile escape across Europe and over the Pyrenees, to the safety of British Gibraltar, and home in time for Christmas. Along the way Ray has nerve-shredding encounters with German soldiers and the Spanish Civil Guard. Often he is exhausted and starving.

An eye-opening book about how societies are designed to support the status of those in power at the destructive expense of those without it. From 1958, China declared war on sparrows, contributing to the deaths of more than 10 million people. In the 19th century, the Shuar people of Ecuador were driven by economic need to wage bloody wars to procure shrunken heads for the Western curio market, which nearly destroyed their society. There have been 55 prime ministers of Great Britain, of whom 48 have been privately educated, creating a society built for and by the privileged.