IN A RAGING INFERNO: COMBAT UNITS
OF THE HITLER YOUTH 1944-1945
by Hans Holztrager
The story of the Hitler Youth and its
combat role at the end of WWII complete with eyewitness accounts.
In the desperate closing months of WWII boys and girls of the
Hitler Jugend, some as young as ten, were thrown into combat for
the Third Reich against the advancing Allied and Soviet armies.
The book includes colour plates by military artist, Stephen Andrew
and there are supplementary uniform notes. Appendices include
combat reports and notes on war crimes committed by Hitler Youth
units.
As new in illustrated boards - Large format, 148pp, 4 colour
plates, 50 + b/w photos, maps,
Leading historian Martin Middlebrook's meticulous account of
the Battle of Arnhem in WWII, from the start of that complicated
operation to the finish. The operation was meant to end the war in
Europe but, due to a major failure in intelligence the presence of
9 and 10 SS Panzer Divisions in the Arnhem area was overlooked.
The British and Polish Parachute forces in the vicinity of the the
drop zone were decimated. This is an exhaustive summary of what
went wrong in the last major defeat suffered by the British Army.
New in d/w - 501pp, 38 photos, 13 maps, appendices, index
The definitive account of a mission thought to be an impossible
one. Thirteen men embarked on a secret mission via T-class
submarine led by ‘Blondie’ Hasler via a secret secluded bay, the
icy temperatures of Scottish lochs and the unpredictable waters of
the Bay of Biscay, they ventured into the Nazi-occupied harbours
of Bordeaux. The story takes us from MI9 to an escape network care
of a Countess, through the vineyards and dwellings of the French
heroes and heroines, to incarceration in the Concentration Camps,
or out of Gibraltar and, for many, death by firing squad.
Early in 1945 the British Army embarked on Operation Eclipse.
This was the `end-game’ of the Second World War, the campaign to
invade and conquer Hitler’s Third Reich and liberate 20 million
enslaved nationals from Holland, Denmark and Norway, to free
multitudes of displaced persons and slaves, and to free the
survivors of concentration camps and POW camps. The Allied
Military Government brought law and order to 23 million German
nationals in the British zone of occupation and appropriate
retribution too. And in a thrilling race with Stalin’s Red Army
they reached the Baltic. A matter of a few hours meant that
Denmark and Norway were not swept into the Soviet Bloc.
More than most other campaigns of WWII, Operation Weserübung
has been shrouded in mystery. Weserübung was the first combined
operation ever where air force, army and navy operated closely
together. Troops were transported directly into battle
simultaneously by warship and aircraft, and success required
co-operation between competing services. It was also the first
time that paratroopers were used. The following days were to
witness the first dive bomber attack to sink a major warship and
the first carrier task-force operations.
