Book picks similar to
Panzers: Push for Victory: Global Conflict by Tom Zola
alternate-history
strategic-battles
tanks
world-at-war
Army of Shadows: The WWII Collection
Max Hennessy - 1977
France, Winter 1944: The long-awaited liberation is at handThe bombing missions had gone well, and the crew of the Lancaster bomber had begun to relax. Then the Messerschmitt came out of the darkness, its guns blazing.Of the nine-man crew only Neville and Urqhart survive, parachuting into the heart of occupied France. Joining forces with the men of the French Resistance, they must enter a deadly game of cat and mouse with a ruthless enemy...
A nerve-shredding thriller of the Second World War, steeped in historical research, perfect for fans of Alistair MacLean, Jack Higgins and Wilbur Smith.
The Original's Return
David Watkins - 2013
Returning to Britain, he jumps at the chance to lead a small team in Devon. The task sounds more like a holiday; exactly what Knowles and his men need.The mission: watch Jack Stadler. Jack has always led a quiet life, but now he is suffering blackouts and has violent fantasies. When the first dismembered body is found, Knowles begins to realise he has made a terrible mistake…
Drums Along the Khyber
Philip McCutchan - 1969
James Ogilvie is the third generation.Pitchforked with mixed feelings into imperial Britain’s elite military academy, Sandhurst, and then into the family regiment, he finds himself in 1894 a subaltern en route to India – a torrid journey out that teaches him the first lessons of military life and the command of men.His initiation is made more difficult by the vindictive attentions of the adjutant, Captain Black, and by the high expectations placed on him by his own irascible father, his Divisional Commander on the North West Frontier of India.Ogilvie gets his first taste of action when the Royal Strathspeys are sent through the Khyber Pass to contain the rebel Ahmed Khan outside Jalalabad. Fighting the border tribesmen brings brushes with death, but also many opportunities for the kind of glory that can forge a distinguished military career. But as the campaign goes on, Ogilvie also starts to doubt the entire Imperial project.‘Drums Along the Khyber’ is a thrilling historical adventure story, rich in period detail. It is the first in the Ogilvie series of novels by Philip McCutchan. ‘The adventure-writer succeeds who makes you read faster than you really can…Drums Along the Khyber has something of this quality’ – The Sunday Times Philip McCutchan (1920-1996) grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest resulting in several fiction books, from amongst his large output, about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years.Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
Hindustaan: An Epic Adventure of the Mughal Empire
Mainak Dhar - 2011
That superpower was what we know today as India under the Mughal Empire. Years of internal strife, attacks by Afghan raiders and finally conquest by the British led to the decline and destruction of this mighty empire.But what if India had never been conquered by the British? What if it remained a mighty and prosperous nation under the rule of the Mughal Empire?A nation known as Hindustaan.Dilli, 1857. The Mughal Empire is at the peak of its power and is gearing up to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its victory over the British, an occasion where the popular Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar is widely expected to announce his successor. The Empire is thrown into sudden chaos when the Emperor is assassinated and a new regime seizes power in a bloody coup. In this maelstrom, three unlikely companions find themselves thrown together by fate. Ranveer, a young officer in the elite Mughal cavalry, who is now hunted by the very Empire he served; Theo, a rakish English traveller with a mysterious past and Maya, a beautiful and spirited Princess they rescue. Together, they embark on a series of dramatic adventures across Hindustaan. A journey that takes them from bloody skirmishes with Afghan raiders, rescue missions in remote forts, joining a coalition of rulers who band together against the new despotic regime to protect their independence, and finally back into the heart of Dilli for a dramatic mission.The stage is set for a monumental struggle that will decide not just their fate, but that of the whole of Hindustaan.
The Fall of Night
Christopher G. Nuttall - 2014
Britain – and the European Union – is struggling to remain civilised. Unemployment is high, ethnic and religious tensions are rising sharply, crime is skyrocketing, the value of money is falling and the whole system is on the verge of collapse. Across the continent, united only in name, countless individuals struggle to keep themselves afloat and survive for a few more days. But weakness invites attack and covetous eyes set their sights on the remains of Europe’s industry and trained population. As a military juggernaut descends on an unprepared continent, the remains of Britain’s once-proud military must fight to defend their country ... or watch helplessly as Britain falls into darkness. [As always, my books are DRM-free. Samples of this title (and others) can be downloaded from my website: www.chrishanger.net. Reviews and comments are always welcome.]
The Fighting Tenth: The Tenth Submarine Flotilla and the Siege of Malta (Submarine Warfare in World War Two)
John Wingate - 2021
Kalvan Kingmaker
John F. Carr - 2000
Beam Piper's groundbreaking parallel world's SF novel, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and the sequel, Great Kings' War by John F. Carr and Roland Green. The Paratime Police patrol an infinity of alternate earths. Their prime directive is to protect the Paratime Secret thereby keeping this infinity of worlds from mixing and destroying each other, or from learning the parasitical Home Time Line is secretly looting their resources.When Penn. State Policeman Calvin Morrison is accidentally dropped off from a cross-time conveyer onto Styphon's House Subsector, he threatens both the Paratime Secret and leadership of the gunpowder theocracy, who owe their power to their secret knowledge of the "fireseed" formula. In just a few weeks, by the use of his knowledge of military strategy, Kalvan saves the small princedom of Hostigos from an invasion orchestrated by Styphon's House.Kalvan Kingmaker opens right after Kalvan's decisive victory over the Holy Host of Styphon. With Great King Kaiphranos of Hos-Harphax in mourning over his eldest son's death, the time is ripe for the Army of Hostigos to invade Harphax and topple the Iron Throne. At the holy city of Balph, the Inner Circle is reeling. Archpriest Roxthar, a rare true believer in Styphon, is conducting a full-blown inquisition of Styphon's corrupt upper priesthood. Once his reformation is complete, Roxthar's next job will to rebuild the Holy Host and defeat and destroy the Usurper Kalvan.Meanwhile, there is a great migration of nomads across the Sea of Grass; they are the wild card. As the nomads pour across the Great Middle River, pushing the clans and tribes that live there into the Great Kingdoms, the big question soon becomes: Will Styphon's House be buried by the human wave, or will they use the nomads in their war to the death with Kalvan and Hos-Hostigos?
Many Dead Bankers
Casey Christie - 2012
Midweek lunch time. The sound of gunfire reverberates under the hulking structures of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers. The Wharf and its bankers are under terrorist attack by extremists in black Kevlar combat gear with fully automatic assault rifles and explosives. Bankers and their families are cut down in broad daylight and the authorities and their unarmed police force are powerless to stop the slaughter.Mark Andrews, an out of shape, retail bank manager, sits at a bar in the middle of the mayhem and waits for his one true love, Amelia Brown.Then he receives a surreal phone call from his mysterious friend, Captain John Taylor - is he British Army SAS? And can he help Mark save himself, Amelia and the city's bankers?
Guarding His Fake Family
Katie Knight - 2021
Alisha Lewis, the sister of one of his squad mates, could be his key to his next bestseller—if their smoldering chemistry doesn’t get in the way. She’s sexy, smart and just happens to be an investigative reporter working on what might be the perfect story. After the adrenaline rush of a stakeout-gone-bad, they share a night of passion—one they both agree was a mistake. But that one night has lasting consequences when Alisha learns she’s pregnant.Alisha didn’t expect Simon to insist on staying near to keep her and the baby safe. But when an abduction happens on their doorstep, she's glad the towering SEAL is there to protect her, and their unborn child. Soon, they’re up to their necks in crooked cops, kidnappers, and the kidnap victim’s abandoned baby. Not to mention the red-hot passion that continues to flare between them.Worse yet? As they work to solve the mystery, Alisha realizes she’s starting to fall hard for the sexy SEAL. But will they be able to survive long enough to fall in love?
Tin Soldiers
Michael Farmer - 2003
To prevent a total conquest of the region, a U.S. Army Heavy Brigade must stand against Iraq's greater numbers and updated technology-while the locals are bent on grinding the small American force into the ancient desert sand.
Bitter Seeds
Ian Tregillis - 2010
The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in betweenRaybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities--a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present--Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.
First Admiral
William J. Benning - 2012
And, in a desperate attempt to protect the secret of the potentially dangerous Trion technology - the ability to manipulate the fundamental particle of the universe - their leader sends one last covert mission to Earth. The mission goes horribly wrong, leaving Billy Caudwell; an overweight, acne-scarred 14 year old, with the Mind Profile of a military genius, a huge battle fleet and a mission to unite the intelligent species of the universe in a Universal Alliance. With people to rescue, space fleets to battle and villains to defeat, Billy has to overcome his own inhibitions, insecurities and a vicious bully before he can start saving the universe. Welcome, dear readers, to the exciting universe of First Admiral.
North Reich
Robert Conroy - 2012
From Conroy's introduction: North Reich tells what might have happened if Hitler had not so foolishly declared war on the United States. FDR certainly understood that Germany was the greatest threat, but might have been helpless to do anything about it. War between the United States and Germany was still considered inevitable, but not in December of 1941. North Reich is the story of the war that was going to come sooner or later. However, in this instance, the fighting takes place not in Europe but in North America.
The Fighting Captain
Alan Burn - 1993
Without the convoys no supplies; without supplies certainly no Second Front. Captain Frederic Walker RN devised and employed tactics which were the only sure means of combating and ultimately defeating the U-boat Wolf packs, but it was only when the Lords of the Admiralty came to employ these tactics that the U-boats were finally defeated.No one did more to regain control of the North Atlantic than Captain Walker. His relentless battle with the U-boat Wolf packs, amounting almost to a personal duel with Admiral Donitz, is an epic saga which has long deserved a larger page in the story of our nation's history, though he did achieve the rare distinction of winning the DSO and three bars. Alan Burn, who served under Walker, brilliantly recaptures the feeling of those dramatic days - the sheer bloody hell of the Atlantic weather, the ever-present menace of the lurking U-boats, but above all the quite remarkable and indomitable spirit which Walker managed to inspire in all who served in the ships under his command. Not only the citizens of Liverpool, where Walker is still revered as a local hero, but all who hold freedom dear will appreciate this well-merited tribute to a largely unsung hero who did as much as any man to preserve that freedom.
Ambon: The truth about one of the most brutal POW camps in World War II and the triumph of the Aussie spirit (Hachette Military Collection)
Roger Maynard - 2014
Over a thousand of these soldiers were Australian. By the end of the war, just one-third of them had survived and Ambon became a place of nightmares, one of the most notorious of all POW camps the war had seen.Many of the men captured were massacred, and of those who initially survived, many later succumbed to the sadistic brutality of the Japanese guards. Starvation also took a fearful toll, and then there were the medical 'experiments'. It was a place almost without hope for those who held on, made worse by the fact that the savagery inflicted on them wasn't limited to their captors but also came from their own. One soldier described their hopelessness towards the end with the bleak words: 'The men knew they were dying.'Yet astoundingly there were survivors and in Ambon they speak of not just the horrors, but the bravery, endurance and mateship that got them through an ordeal almost impossible to imagine.The story of Ambon is one of both the depravity and the triumph of the human spirit; it is also one that's not been widely told. Until now.