Shooting Through - Campo 106 Escaped POWs after the Italian Armistice by Katrina Kittel

$35.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

In early September 1943, Italy capitulated to the Allies. Australian prisoners of war, POWs, seized this watershed moment and snatched supplies before walking out of Italy's rice farms scattered on the Piedmont plain west of Milan.Escapes were mostly easy but freedom was vexed. The ultimate challenge fo r escaped POWs was to navigate and to outlive the volatile context of post-armistice Italy beyond their prison camps. Wearing uniforms or a motley clash of civilian cast-off clothing, escapers had a price on their heads as they headed north towards alpine passes and neutral Swiss territory, or as they wandered in search of advancing Allied Lines in south Italy. During their treks through mountains, valleys and 'freedom trails', Australians teamed up with New Zealand, British and South African POWs to dodge German and fascist militia and to take up arms with fledgling Resistance brigades. Not all escaped POWs survived.At its heart, Shooting Through highlights a unique shared history between Australian escapers and the Italians who risked severe retributions to host and guide the POWs.Drawing extensively on first-hand accounts sourced from Australian and British archives, as well as memoirs and oral accounts by ex-POWs and Italian witnesses, Katrina Kittel weaves the stories of thirty escaper groups through time and theme to reveal key evasion routes and the various outcomes that befell escaped POWs in Italy. The veterans' accounts burst with humour and compassion as they offer their insights into Italy's war. From her perspective as a graduate historian and as a daughter to a former POW, Katrina Kittel has uncovered a richer story behind the few enigmatic details that her father, Colin Booth, and many of his fellow POWs chose to share with their families.Shooting Through includes a nominal roll of Australian POWs interned at the Campo 106 rice farms.Shooting Through includes a foreword by Professor Peter Monteath. ...Show more

Mark of the Lion: The Story of Charles Upham, VC and Bar by Kenneth Sandford

$15.00 NZD

$31.00 (51% off)

Category: Second World War | Reading Level: very good

Charles Upham was the great New Zealand war hero. He was one of the few people in history to have won the Victoria Cross twice, setting new standards of personal heroism during World War II. A quietly spoken sheep farmer back home in Canterbury, at the front in Crete and North Africa he destroyed enemy machinegun posts single-handed and led a frontal assault on enemy guns. His exploits and individual heroism are the stuff of Kiwi legend. He then spent the rest of the war in prisoner-of-war camps, including the famous Colditz Castle, where he made life a misery for the German guards, constantly trying to escape. This bestselling book was first published by Hutchinson in Britain in 1962 and reprinted many times. It has become a classic. In a new Afterword written for this edition, Bruce Wallace, author of Battle of the Titans, describes Upham's life following the war until his death in 1994. Also available as an eBook ...Show more

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson

$10.00 NZD

Category: Second World War | Series: Liberation Trilogy

In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in WW II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the riveting story of the war in North Africa The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and misca lculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power. Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel. Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa. ...Show more

Stalingrad, 1942-1943 - The Infernal Cauldron by Stephen Walsh

$15.00 NZD

Category: Second World War | Reading Level: very good

Mark of the Lion

$125.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

New Zealand Medical Services in Middle East and Italy

$120.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs., Wellington., 1956. Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. First Edition. xv + 721pp, photos, maps, charts. Volume of the official history of New Zealand in the second world war. Jacket is chipped and creased

Medical Servies in New Zealand and the Pacific

$140.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

War Brides by Fallows Carol

$10.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

Popular journalist and author Carol Fallows recreates the urgency and immediacy of these whirlwind wartime romances u the humour and bittersweet moments of the first meeting, the anxious watching and waiting for news of soldier-sweethearts at the front, and the exciting u and terrifying u journey to a s trange new land. But reaching Australia was just the beginning. As the brides stepped off the cramped transports and into their soldiers' arms, they were also embracing the challenge of carving out a new life, with an unknown and often hostile family, new language, unfamiliar culture, climate and food. Inspired by her own parents' romance, Fallows is passionate about sharing these extraordinary stories before they are lost forever. ...Show more

The History of 30 Assault Unit - Ian Fleming's Red Indians by Craig Cabell

$25.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

The Second World War spawned a plethora of crack special forces units (Long Range Desert Group, SAS, SBS, Phantom and Commandos) but 30 Assault Unit remains, even today, far more secretive and exclusive than the others. Formed by Ian Fleming, who was working for Naval Intelligence, 30 AUs mission was to penetrate and operate behind enemy lines, capture by whatever means necessary vital intelligence and feed it back to London where it could be assimilated and acted upon. This crack team of commandos included mavericks such as Patrick Dalzel-Job (generally regarded as the model for Flemings fictional secret agent 007), and less well known (despite their conspicuous bravery) figures such as Captains Huntingdon-Whiteley, Captain Martin-Smith. Lieutenant Commander Curtis and Lieutenant McFee. The author has trawled archives and interviewed veterans in order to piece together the history and record of this elusive special forces unit who fought with great distinction and achieved results disproportionate to their size. ...Show more

Divisional Signals

$50.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

Myth and Reality: The New Zealand Soldier in World War II by John McLeod

$20.00 NZD

Category: Second World War | Reading Level: very good

The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire

$125.00 NZD

Category: Second World War