Military and Maritime History

Line Upon a Wind 20% off

Mostert, Noel Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £20.00 — You save £5.00  <convert> 

Following the acclaimed Frontiers, Noel Mostert's new book chronicles the first true 'world war'. In February 1793, France declared war on Britain and Holland. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that raged for the next twenty-two years saw European powers manoeuvring for mercantile and political advantage, in a complex and ever-changing web of alliances and coalitions. By 1815, the world was a different place, age-old certainties were shattered, established dynasties and kingdoms overthrown, the United States had been established as a world power and a new age was dawning. This was to be the longest, hardest and cruellest war ever fought at sea - on a scale comparable only with the Second World War. Methods of battle under sail, little changed for centuries, would be forced to change and develop at an unprecedented pace that brought with it the fearsome power of rockets, torpedoes and submarines. While the war on land saw the rise of the greatest soldier the world had known - Napoleon Buonaparte - the war at sea had the unprecedented genius of Horatio Nelson. Mostert writes with intriguing insight about the parallels between the two historic figures.

World's Greatest Twentieth Century Battlefields 15% off

Snow, Peter, Snow, Dan Normal price £18.99 — Discount price £16.14 — You save £2.85  <convert> 

This is the story of the most intense and bitterly fought battles of the twentieth century, and their lasting impact on the world. From Amiens in the First World War to the First Gulf War in 1990-1, each of the battles featured in this book marked a turning point in military history. Political journalist, Peter Snow and military historian, Dan Snow have written a high-octane, gripping narrative, punctuated by powerful eyewitness testimony that brings to life the experience of war. They reveal that these battles were shaped not just by distant military commanders but by men fighting on the frontline, whether the apocalyptic terrain of the Western Front or the hidden guerilla tunnels of Vietnam. What were the key factors that swayed the course of victory? Was it sheer grit and determination, military intelligence or strategic initiative? To answer these questions, the authors take us into the heat of the action when the battles were poised on a knife edge and split-second decisions determined their outcome.

Assault on Sicily 15% off

Ford, Ken Normal price £19.99 — Discount price £16.99 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

Operation 'Husky' was the only action in WWII where the whole Allied war effort was brought to bear on a single objective, with one army commanded by Patton and another by Montgomery. The seeds of rivalry between these two commanders that were sown in the Sicily campaign eventually grew to fruition.

First Total War 15% off

Bell, David A. Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

World War I has been called 'the war to end all wars', the first time combatants were mobilized on a massive scale to ruthlessly destroy an enemy. But as David A. Bell argues in this tour de force of interpretive history, the Great War was not, in fact, the first total war. For this, we need to travel back to the era of muskets and sailing ships, the age of Napoleon. According to Bell, it was then that warfare was transformed into the hideous spectacle that seems ever present today. Indeed, nearly every modern aspect of war took root in that time: conscription, unconditional surrender, total disregard for the rules of combat, mobilization of civilians, guerrilla warfare, and the perverse notion of war fought for the sake of peace. The revolutionaries were leading 'the last crusade for universal liberty'. A war for such stakes could only be apocalyptic - and terribly bloody. With a historian's keen insight and a journalist's flair for detail, Bell brings this period to life while keeping an eye on our own 'war of liberation' in Iraq. The parallels are astonishing, making this vivid narrative history as timely and important as it is unforgettable.

Slim's Burma Boys 15% off

Hill, John, Butt, Monica Normal price £18.99 — Discount price £16.14 — You save £2.85  <convert> 

"Slim's Burma Boys" relates the personal experiences of men who fought the "Forgotten War" of the Burma campaign. Hill wanted his readers to know what it was like to be there and with this in mind he selected a variety of operations and events from B Company of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Berkshire Regiment, which he commanded. He was one of the only men to survive the border crossing into Burma. The Company earned two Military Crosses, a Distinguished Conduct Medal, four Military Medals, and a mention in Despatches. Hill conveys the intensity of involvement in the action, experiencing the adrenaline rush as well as the fear and courage of those who took part in swollen river crossings, patrols, ambushes, skirmishes and major actions against a ruthless and determined enemy who would never surrender. His memoir is of general interest as well as a fitting memoir to his men and should be prescribed reading for all would-be officers and soldiers.

Churchill's Navy 15% off

Lavery, Brian Normal price £40.00 — Discount price £34.00 — You save £6.00  <convert> 

The history of the Royal Navy during the Second World War is an epic story of heroism and defiance, of stinging defeats but glorious triumphs. Typically books tend to concentrate on the battle history of the navy, and of course this book also examines this topic from convoys to amphibious war, from submarine operations to the last gunnery battles in the Atlantic. But it also looks at the ships themselves, recruitment, and the life and career paths of the officers that commanded and the men and women who served, the technical developments that influenced operations and tactics. It details the composition of the surface and submarine navy from the smallest torpedo boat to the massive battleships and aircraft carriers. This work will provide the most comprehensive assessment of all aspects of Churchill's Navy.

Napoleon In Egypt 15% off

Strathern, Paul Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 was the first attack on a Middle Eastern country by a Western power in modern times. With 400 ships and 55,000 men, it was the largest, long-distance seaborne force the world has ever seen. But Napoleon's assault was intended to be much more than a colonial adventure for he took with him more than a hundred scientists, mathematicians, artists and writers - a 'Legion of Culture' for the purpose of bringing Western civilization to 'backward' Egypt. Ironically, what these intellectuals discovered in Egypt would transform our knowledge of Western civilization and form the basis of Egyptology. Travelling to the far reaches of the Upper Nile, Napoleon's artists sketched the great temples and ruins of the Pharaohs, and his soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone, which would eventually lead to the deciphering of the mysterious Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. But there were also setbacks. Nelson's destruction of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile apparently put an end to Napoleon's ambitions, though the General himself did not see it that way. His secret plan was to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and invade India.

Crusader Warfare 15% off

Nicolle, David Normal price £30.00 — Discount price £25.50 — You save £4.50  <convert> 

This book presents as many aspects as possible of warfare during the period of the crusades within all the cultures most directly involved. To a large extent the current interest in the Crusades reflects the perceived threat of a so-called 'clash of civilisations'. While warnings of such a supposed clash in our own times are based upon a misunderstanding of the natures of both 'Western' and 'Islamic' civilisations, some commentators have looked to the medieval Crusades as an earlier example of such a clash. In reality they were no such thing. Instead the Crusades resulted from a remarkable variety of political, economic, cultural and religious factors. The Crusades, even excluding the Northern or Baltic Crusades, also involved an extraordinary array of states, ruling dynasties, ethnic or linguistic groups and the fighting forces associated with these disparate participants. This volume focuses on Western Europe and the Byzantium Crusades. Latin or Catholic Europe certainly had an 'eastern front'.

By Fire and Sword 15% off

Reid, Peter Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £21.25 — You save £3.75  <convert> 

For over 150 years, from 1314 to 1485, England fought an almost continuous war with its neighbours: the Campaign of the North when the armies of Robert the Bruce were vanquished, the long 116 year conflict with France, finally imploding into a bloody civil strife in the War of the Roses. Too often attention has been placed upon the bravery of knights and archers during these conflicts yet face to face confrontations were few. Peter Reid proposes that England's ability to discipline, provision and finance such a long campaign was at the heart of its success. England was so strong because the whole nation was converted into a political state of total war. The campaigns were just won not on the battle field but in the organisation of troops and supplies. Interweaving his argument with a dramatic recreation of the main events of the campaigns, on land and at sea, Peter Reid presents a new perspective on the turning point in English history. "A State of War" is a gripping and powerfully persuasive book.

A Seaman's Pocket-book June, 1943 - By the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty
(15% off)

Generals,
Mark Urban
(25% off)

Longbow, Robert Hardy
(15% off)

Forgotten Soldiers of the First World War, David Woodward (15% off)

Echoes of England:
The 8th Air Foce in World War Two, Martin Bowman
15% off

Boy Soldiers of the Great War,
Richard van Emden
(15% off)

Following the Drum, Annabel Venning (15% off)

Warship 2006, (10% off)

Behind the Lines

Twelve Days on the Somme, A Memoir of the Trenches 1916,
Sydney Rogerson
(10% off)

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Niall Barr argues in this fresh account that the long running controversies surrounding the commanders of Eighth Army - Generals Auchinleck and Montgomery - and that of their legendary opponent, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, have often been allowed to obscure the true nature of the Alamein campaign.

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