Books published by publisher Alan Sutton Publishing

Operation "Berlin", the Soviet offensive launched on April 16, 1945 by Marshals Zhukov and Koniev, isolated the German Ninth Army and tens of thousands of refugees in the Spreewald "pocket", southeast of Berlin. Stalin ordered its encirclement and destruction and his subordinates, eager to win the race to the Reichstag, pushed General Busse’s 9th Army into a tiny area east of the village of Halbe. To escape the Spreewald pocket the remnants of 9th Army had to pass through Halbe, where barricades constructed by both sides formed formidable obstacles and the converging Soviet forces subjected the area to heavy artillery fire. By the time 9th Army eventually escaped the Soviet pincers, it had suffered 40,000 killed and 60,000 taken prisoner. Teenaged refugees recount their experiences alongside Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS veterans attempting to maintain military discipline amid the chaos and carnage of headlong retreat. While army commanders strive to extricate their decimated units, demoralized soldiers change into civilian clothing and take to the woods. Relating the story day by day, Tony Le Tissier shows the impact of total war upon soldier and civilian alike, illuminating the unfolding of great and terrible events with the recollections of participants.

Troop Leader is a unique account of one man's experience of the battle for Europe in 1944 and 1945. Bill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955. He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign, landing in Normandy on D+3, fought throughout the Battle for Normandy and into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks, and was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945. Against the rules, Bill kept diaries and notes of his experiences. His account is fresh and open, and his descriptions of battle are vivid. He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action, and this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative. The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy hedgerows in the height of summer, or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter, are graphic and compelling.

A comic satire upon textbook history squeezing in all the history you can remember from the Olden Days and dashing Queen Woadicea to the reigns of the Eggkings (Eggberd, Eggbreth and Eggforth, and their mysterious Eggdeath), from the dreadful story of Stephen and his aunt Matilda to the Magna Charter, from the six burglars of Calais to the disillusion of the monasteries and the life of Broody Mary, from William and Mary, when England was ruled by an orange, to the Boston Tea-Party and the annoying confusion between Napoleon and Nelson, to the Peace to end all Peace. This light-hearted look at England and history provides a colorful commentary for all those with a curiosity for the past.

The outbreak of war in 1914 was greeted with euphoria by many in Europe, and it was widely believed that the conflict would be 'over by Christmas'. In the event, millions of men and women were destined to spend the first of four festive seasons away from their families and loved ones, many on active duty overseas on the front line. Amid the shortages, tedium and dangers of life in the trenches, those at 'the sharp end' remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of comradeship and community, a time when the war could be set aside, if only for a day. Alan Wakefield shows how Christmas was celebrated by British, Dominion and Empire troops in the front line on the Western Front, in the Middle East, the Dardanelles, Italy, Salonika and Africa, and the British intervention in Russia from 1918 to 1920. What was the weather like? What news, both of loved ones and about the war itself, was reaching the front line? What kinds of food - and drink - were available to those in the trenches? Textual and illustrative material for the book will be drawn from the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive; personal recollections and interviews; contemporary newspaper articles, magazines, comics, leaflets and advertisements; and postcards and personal photographs.

& 1 color photo & 12 b/w drawings & 5 x 8 . Written by an officer of the famed Royal Highland Regiment (the Black Watch) & The most extensive British officer's diary of the American Revolution Like many of his fellow officers, John Peebles kept a diary throughout his military career. Unlike the diaries of his contemporaries, however, Peebles' covers nearly six years of the campaign in America, providing precise details of engagements such as Fort Washington, Brandywine, Monmouth, Verplanks Point, Charlestown, and Yorktown. But Peebles did far more than describe great events: His diary is as remarkable for its descriptions of the celebrations of the queen's birthday at Newport in 1777 as it is for its account of the taking of Fort Washington in 1776. Ira D. Gruber is a professor of history at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He has studied, taught, and written about the American Revolution for more than 30 years.

Walter Longcluse is clever, cunning and rich. Having insinuated himself into the affections of the Arden family, he becomes devoted to the beautiful young Alice, although she cannot bring herself to like this strange and mysterious friend of her brother's. Then Longcluse visits a gambling club with Alice's brother, Richard, and finds himself confronting the indiscreet Monsieur Lebas, with whom he had been mixed up in the past. Later the same evening Lebas is found stabbed. What is the secret of Longcluse's disfigurement and the 'dark' past which he reveals to no one? Why did Mrs Tansey, the Ardens' housekeeper, react so strongly when she recognized Longcluse's voice? What is it that Longcluse so fears?

Between 1939 and 1945, the civilian population in Britain was exposed to the grim and dangerous realities of war to an unprecedented degree. Yet many remember those years as bringing fulfilment, a sense of adventure, even exhilaration, and found the common danger gave their lives a shape and purpose that they have been unable to recapture in peacetime. Others see the wartime as essentially a time of nothing more valiant than endurance, of 'making do', a dismal episode of their lives remembered above all for its deprivations, restrictions and tedium. Yet others found that, while there was certainly intensity, it was to be found in the frustrations and disappointments they experienced, perhaps through an ambition being thwarted, a relationship abruptly severed, an education cut short, a childhood missed.This book gathers the personal stories of 35 people, drawn from all walks of life, and evokes as never before, the reality of life in Britain during the Second World War. Here is a uniquely personal portrait of a nation at war, with contemporary photographs, diaries, letters, poems, and other memorabilia belonging to the men and women whose wartime lives fill this absorbing book.

In these short stories Hardy's love of the eerie and the supernatural is brought out in full measure, as is his skill in depicting topographical detail. In the title story, set in Casterbridge, a young Hussar captain comes to the town when his regiment is posted to the barracks there. Before long he becomes engaged to Laura, said to be a born 'player of hearts'. Handsome and coveted by all the young maidens, Captain Maumbry seems the perfect match for Laura, who has long desired to enter heart and soul into a military romance. But then a new parson comes to town and though he first irritates the Captain by requesting a stop to regimental band-playing on Sundays, the two later become close friends. When the Captain subsequently announces his intention of resigning his commission and entering the Church as a curate, it causes consternation all round. What changes will it wreak on the small community, on Laura, and not least on Maumbry himself?

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.