The place the Germans had chosen for this stand was Monte Cassino.Over the next few months it was to turn into one of the most famous, bitterly fought and controversial conflicts of World War II. It was here, under the shadows of the famous and ancient Benedictine Abbey, that four fierce and punishing battles were fought out between the Allies and the German Army. Few battles of the Second World War compare with Cassino for drama of the conflict nor for the prolonged agony of the combatants or the controversy over the tactics of the commanders that was to rage for years afterwards. 'Cassino: Portrait of a Battle' is the inside, first-hand account of that titanic struggle. Fred Majdalany, who fought in the battle as an infantry officer, provides the definitive history of Cassino, from the highest strategic level down to the bitter fighting on the ground, and the heroism and suffering of individual soldiers.It is a classic World War Two story that will appeal to students, military specialists and the general reader alike. Fred Majdalany's books have been widely praised. "Majdalany recounts the battle with the clarity of full comprehension."—New Yorker"A shrewd and valuable survey. . . . The course of the battle is lucidly and succinctly described in its successive stages."—Times Literary Supplement

    Foxes of the Desert is the definitive work on the Afrika Korps and the other German forces who served in the Western Desert and Tunisia during World War II. Dominating the story are the personality and the brilliant strategy and tactics of the wily, fast-thinking and hard-hitting Desert Fox, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In fascinating detail the author tells the full story of the great German master of desert armored warfare and his men and the other German forces in North Africa, during their many months of bitterly contested fighting against the pick of Britain's forces under such commanders as Wavell, Auchinleck, and finally Montgomery, and the Americans under Eisenhower. Here are the famous siege of Tobruk; Rommel's celebrated surprise push in the early spring of 1941 when the Afrika Korps captured Mersa el Brega and Agedabia and rolled on far eastward into Bardia and Sollum; the battle of Halfaya (Hellfire) Pass; the great tank battle on the Gazala front; the Germans' capture of Tobruk, with 33,000 prisoners and vast booty; the fateful battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein; and the bloody campaign in Tunisia. Interwoven are fascinating accounts of the work of the German Secret Service; of the British Long Range Desert Group, and of its German counterpart, the Brandenburg Group. Numerous other commando operations and exciting exploits of espionage and sabotage are described in detail for the first time. As a result of personal interviews with over a thousand combatants, tireless reading, and painstaking research, Paul Carell has skillfully blended a mass of new and exciting information into a dramatic and completely authentic narrative. As a story of strategy and battle, Foxes of the Desert is both exhaustive and engrossing, and, as authorative history, it cannot be overlooked by anyone wishing a full understanding of World War II. This edition contains a new preface by Paul Carell who is also the author of Invasion! They're Coming!, Scorched Earth, Hitler Moves East, Stalingrad: The Defeat of the German 6th Army, and Operation Barbarossa in Photographs.

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    Patton At the start of the war the Nazi armed forces was one of the most feared war machines in history. It had swept away all opposition and threatened all of Europe with its dominating force. But its supremacy was not to last. In fact the gains made by Nazi Germany over the course of 1940 to 1942 were rolled back in ten short months as Patton and the Third Army roared through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria. Through the course of this offensive Patton and his men faced some of the toughest fighting of World War Two, most notably when the Germans attempted to reverse the tide in the Battle of the Bulge. Colonel Brenton G. Wallace was there to witness all of this as he served, and went on to earn five battle stars, with the Third Army through the course of its movements into Germany. His book, Patton and his Third Army is a remarkable account of this fascinating leader and his troops that changed the course of World War Two and revolutionized warfare. Wallace uncovers the actions of the Third Army from its preparations in Britain, to its first engagements with the enemy, through to the major battles around the Falaise Pocket and countering the German offensives, breaking across the Moselle into Germany until they eventually subdued the Nazi forces. This book provides fascinating insight into the strategies used by Patton to defeat the Germans. It is full of direct quotes from Patton that demonstrate his determination to win, such as: “When you have an adversary staggering and hanging on the ropes, don’t let up on him. Keep smashing, keep him off balance and on the run until you have knocked him out completely. That is the way to get this dirty business over quickly and at the smallest cost.” Patton and his Third Army is essential reading for anyone interested in the European Theater of war and finding out more about this remarkable figure who Eisenhower said was “born to be a soldier”. Brenton G. Wallace was an American army officer and architect. Through the course of the war he was awarded the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star from the United States, the Croix de Guerre with Star of Vermeil from France and also made part of the Order of the British Empire. He served under Patton as an assistance chief of staff and retired from the army as a Major General in the United States Army Reserve. His work Patton and his Third Army was first published in 1946. He passed away in 1968.

    But it led to the destruction of the Third Reich, and was cataclysmic for Germany with millions of men killed, wounded or registered as missing in action. It was this colossal mistake -- rather than any action in Western Europe -- that lost Hitler the Second World War.Drawing on hitherto unseen archival material, including previously untranslated Russian sources, Jonathan Dimbleby puts Barbarossa in its proper place in history for the first time. From its origins in the ashes of the First World War to its impact on post-war Europe, and covering the military, political and diplomatic story from all sides, he paints a full and vivid picture of this monumental campaign whose full nature and impact has remained unexplored.At the heart of the narrative, written in Dimbleby's usual gripping style, are compelling descriptions of the leaders who made the crucial decisions, of the men and women who fought on the front lines, of the soldiers who committed heinous crimes on an unparalleled scale and of those who were killed when the Holocaust began. Hitler's fatal gamble had the most terrifying of consequences.Written with authority and humanity, Barbarossa is a masterwork that transforms our understanding of the Second World War and of the twentieth century.