Books in Cassell Military Paperbacks series

Despite being the most capable cavalry leader of his generation, Sir John French has always aroused controversy. Posterity has judged him an unfeeling butcher, responsible for more deaths in the first two hours of the battle of Loos than all the casualties on both sides in the 1944 D-Day landings. But French has another side, revealed in his private papers—a side filled with affairs and personal torment. An esteemed Professor of Military and Security Studies tells French’s compelling, dramatic story.

An international bestseller, this is a German soldier's first-hand account of life on Russian front during the second half of World War II. When Guy Sajer joins the infantry full of ideals in the summer of 1942 the German army is enjoying unparalleled success in Russia. However, he quickly finds that for the foot soldier the glory of military success hides a much harsher reality of hunger, fatigue and constant deprivation. Posted to the crack Grosse Deutchland division, with its sadistic instructors who shoot down those who fail to make the grade, he enters a violent and remorseless world where all youthful hope is gradually ground down, and all that matters is the brute will to survive. As the biting cold of the Russian winter sets in, and the tide begins to turn against the Germans, life becomes an endless round of pounding artillery attacks and vicious combat against a relentless and merciless Red Army. A book of stunning force, this is and unforgettable reminder of the horrors of war.

In early July 1809 Napoleon crossed the Danube with 187,000 men to confront the Austrian Archduke Charles and an army of 145,000 men. The fighting that followed dwarfed in intensity and scale any previous Napoleonic battlefield, perhaps any in history: casualties on each side were over 30,000. The Austrians fought with great determination, but eventually the Emperor won a narrow victory. Wagram was decisive in that it compelled Austria to make peace. It also heralded a new, altogether greater order of warfare, anticipating the massed manpower and weight of fire deployed much later in the battles of the American Civil War and then at Verdun and on the Somme.

America’s most secret Special Forces unit does not even have a name. Formed as the “Intelligence Support Activity,” the group has had a succession of innocuous titles to hide its ferocious purpose: to operate undercover in the world’s most dangerous places and penetrate such enemy organizations as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. Here is the first detailed account of its history, and it traces the I.S.A. from its very beginnings to the present day, when it has accomplished such missions as locating Saddam Hussein. By translating intelligence information into direct action, it is well on its way to becoming the most effective and feared force in the U.S. military.

Vivid and unforgettable, this popular novel follows an RAF fighter squadron during the Battle for France and the Battle of Britain. These pilots are real human beings, not two-dimensional heroes. Unconvinced of the wisdom of their leaders, they concentrate only on staying alive and on forgetting their fears of being burned to death in their planes. Some turn to drink, some turn on their compatriots in order to survive, and others score a succession of aerial victories--while acting unforgivably on the ground.

Sent to France with the Royal Flying Corps at just 17, and later a member of the famous 56 Squadron, Cecil Lewis was an illustrious and passionate fighter pilot of the First World War, described by Bernard Shaw in 1935 as 'a thinker, a master of words, and a bit of a poet'. In this vivid and spirited account the author evocatively sets his love of the skies and flying against his bitter experience of the horrors of war, as we follow his progress from France and the battlefields of the Somme, to his pioneering defense of London against deadly night time raids.