Dear Village
Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force That Built The Third Reich
$34.99
Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force That Built The Third Reich'Riveting, timely and truly revelatory. The Organisation Todt is the Nazi-era secret that still needs to emerge from the shadows' Damien Lewis, author of SAS Brothers in Arms and The Nazi Hunters'Charles Dick has done a major service to the history of the Third Reich. The Organisation Todt exploited camp prisoners and forced labourers as ruthlessly and murderously as the better-known SS, but its responsibility has never been properly explored' Richard Overy, author of Blood and RuinsDiscover for the first time the story of the Organisation Todt, a hidden and brutal organisation overseen by Hitler at the heart of the Nazi machine.Adolf Hitler described the Organisation Todt as 'the greatest construction organisation of all time'. It was from this organisation, headed by Albert Speer, that Hitler enlisted the nation's leading engineers and architects to build his empire of dreams. In time, it became a key partner to the SS and the Wehrmacht and led to the deaths of millions. Unknown Enemy reveals the full extent of the OT and its long arm across Europe and the Reich. In wartime, its operations relied mainly on Germany's slave labour system, the largest exploitation of foreign labour since the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Charles Dick takes us inside the OT's vast building projects throughout German-occupied Europe, from the Arctic circle to the Balkans, to tell the story of how engineers and builders, so-called 'ordinary men', perpetrated some of the gravest war crimes under its banner.Despite its extensive network, the Organisation Todt largely managed to slip under the radar of war prosecutors after Germany's defeat. Drawing on extensive new research, first-person accounts and survivor testimony, Unknown Enemy finally unearths its dark story.
Dear Village
Victory '45
$36.99
Victory '45 Celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day, bestselling historians James Holland and Al Murray tell the unflinching story of the eight surrenders that brought victory to the Allies and ended the Second World War. 'A gripping, eye-opening and satisfying new account' The Express From the Italian Alps to northern Germany, to London, New York, Washington and Tokyo, Victory '45 tells the story of the extraordinary summer when the greatest conflagration the world had ever known finally came to an end after eight surrenders that heralded the Allied victory. Comprised of eight chapters based around each of those surrenders and the victory celebrations which followed, it will be rich in character and human drama with revealing stories and perspectives behind the end of the war not yet told before. Each chapter will follow the viewpoints of a number of key characters as they traverse these world-changing events - from ordinary servicemen and women and civilians to generals and political leaders. What took place during the negotiations of those surrenders and the terms that were agreed there would determine the directions the participating countries would take in the years that followed and ultimately the shape of our current world.
Dear Village
Vietnam
$24.99
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and less familiar battles such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed 2 million people.Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom forty died for every American. US blunders and atrocities were matched by those committed by their enemies. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners’ victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, Marines from North Carolina, Huey pilots from Arkansas.No past volume has blended a political and military narrative of the entire conflict with heart-stopping personal experiences, in the fashion that Max Hastings’ readers know so well. The author suggests that neither side deserved to win this struggle with so many lessons for the 21st century about the misuse of military might to confront intractable political and cultural challenges. He marshals testimony from warlords and peasants, statesmen and soldiers, to create an extraordinary record.
Dear Village
War And Power
$36.99
War And Power A bold, revisionist study which challenges modern misconceptions about the creation of power and the operations of war, from a Professor of Strategic Studies War and power are two of the most widely discussed issues in all of human history, and yet they are, time and again, misunderstood - often disastrously so.Whilst we might think the outcome of war is determined by so-called 'Great Powers' who dominate their opponents with their impressive size and military prowess, the reality of modern conflict, as renowned strategic historian Professor Phillips Payson O'Brien demonstrates, is very different. He urges us instead to look for 'Full Spectrum Powers'.For if we are considering how powerful a nation is and who will win a war, we need to think less about weapons, and more about the economies and societies that produce them; less about individual battles, and more about sustaining campaigns and alliances in which states operate.Using fascinating examples from the late 19th century to the present day, War and Power explains how misunderstanding war and power has led to terrible, even preventable conflicts - such as the war in Ukraine - and how more accurate analysis can help us consider the potential conflict between the US and China.War and Power provides a bold new way of understanding the dangerous world around us.
Dear Village
Wings Over Malayan Jungle
$36.99
Wings Over Malayan JungleAustralian service personnel played a significant role in four Cold War conflicts throughout the 20th century, yet the Malayan Emergency remains one of the least recognized. This pivotal chapter in history tells the story of the Royal Australian Air Force’s No. 1 (B) Squadron during its deployment from 1951 to 1958—an arduous, often frustrating deployment that deserves high praise.The Emergency stands as a remarkable success in the broader fight against Cold War Communist expansion, and Australia’s contribution, particularly through its air operations, was instrumental in securing victory.As a contemporary RAAF review put it, this was a ‘different war,’ one where Lincoln bombers flew ‘through mist-swathed valleys and below rugged mountains,’ engaging the battle both above the dense jungles and within them. Wings Over Malayan Jungle seeks to document and preserve this crucial chapter of Air Force history, ensuring the valor and strategic impact of Australia’s role in the conflict are not forgotten.
