Politics of Forgetting: New Zealand, Greece and Britan at War by Martyn Brown

$15.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

Greece was a poor country in turmoil and pain during the 1940s. A military dictatorship was followed by invasion and terrifying occupation by Germany and its allies, starvation, civil war, political unrest and mutiny in its free military armed forces. New Zealand entered this arena and found a bond with a people that it still celebrates to this day. Absent is the complex, divisive and sometimes violent and surreal relationship between the two countries and the inescapable influence of Britain. Their story stretches from the mountains and open country of Greece and Crete to Middle East deserts, autumn-swept plains of Italy, and the blood-splattered streets of post-liberated Athens. Ironically New Zealand has forgotten the unpalatable but also sacrificed something that would have enhanced its own national storytelling about the war. ...Show more

One More Hour by Desmond Scott

$5.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

A Fair Sort of Battering: New Zealanders Remember the Italian Campaign by Megan Hutching

$20.00 NZD

Category: Second World War | Reading Level: Very Good

The New Zealand Division landed in Italy in October 1943 and entered the line at the Sangro River on 14 November. They fought up the east side of Italy, becoming bogged down at Orsogna for two months, from where they were withdrawn in January 1944. They then swapped coasts and moved across the Apennines to the west side of the country where they came to a screeching halt at Cassino. Three hard-fought battles took place here before the New Zealanders could move past and on to Rome and almost as far as Florence. The Division was then transferred across the country again and began the long hard slog over rivers and through river valleys up the east until finally reaching Trieste in May 1945. It was unpleasant fighting and a great contrast to the desert war. Here it was cold and wet and it snowed. But there were also compensations - many of the men got on well with the Italian people, who most greeted them with great enthusiasm. This book tells the story of those who participated in the campaign - infantry (including 28 Maori Battalion), engineers, artillery, a nurse and a Tui (New Zealand women who worked in the New Zealand Club in Egypt and Italy). ...Show more

Kursk 1943 by Mark Healy

$10.00 NZD

Category: Second World War | Series: Campaign Ser.

In the summer of 1943 the German army stood poised for a major offensive. The attack was aimed at the Kursk salient, which the Germans intended to isolate, trapping large numbers of Russian troops and paving the way for the decisive campaign to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. Warned of the immine nt attack by good intelligence, the Russians had turned the salient into a mass of strong defensive positions. In the decisive clash that followed, the Soviets bled German forces white. The counter-offensive which followed began an advance that would end in the ruins of Berlin.In the summer of 1943 the German army stood poised for a major offensive. The attack was aimed at the Kursk salient, which the Germans intended to isolate, trapping large numbers of Russian troops and paving the way for the decisive campaign to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. Warned of the imminent attack by good intelligence, the Russians had turned the salient into a mass of strong defensive positions. In the decisive clash that followed, the Soviets bled German forces white. The counter-offensive that followed began an advance that would end in the ruins of Berlin.After the successful battles around Kharkov in early 1943, the German army stood poised for a major offensive in the summer of 1943. This attack was aimed at the Kursk salient, a large bulge in the front that the Germans intended to pinch off, thus trapping large numbers of Russian troops and breaking the front open for the decisive campaign to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. Soviet intelligence was well aware of German intentions however, and the Red Army had turned the salient into a mass of defensive positions. In the decisive clash of steel that followed, the Soviets bled Germany's vital Panzer forces white and finally took the initiative. The counter-offensive that followed began an advance that would finally end in the ruins of Berlin. This then, was the deciding confrontation of World War II. Mark Healy details the individual actions that took place and explains why Stalin and Zhukov were prepared to lose 50% of the Soviet tank force in this encounter. He also examines the reasons for the German defeat in spite of the fact that they had a technological edge over their opponents for the first time since the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Furthermore, not only are the armored forces of each side investigated, but air power and the role that this played in the battle is also looked at in this wonderfully detailed title. ...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

German Generals Talk by B. H. Liddell Hart

$20.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

The German Generals who survived Hitler's Reich talk over World War II with Capt. Liddell Hart, noted British miltary strategist and writer. They speak as professional soldiers to a man they know and respect. For the first time, answers are revealed to many questions raised during the war. Was Hitler th e genius of strategy he seemed to be at first? Why did his Generals never overthrow him? Why did Hitler allow the Dunkirk evacuation?Current interest, of course, focuses on the German Generals' opinion of the Red Army as a fighting force. What did the Russians look like from the German side? How did we look? And what are the advantages and disadvantages under which dictator-controlled armies fight?In vivid, non-technical language, Capt. Liddell Hart reports these interviews and evaluates the vital military lessons of World War II. ...Show more

Stalingrad - The Battle That Shattered Hitler's Dream of World Domination by Rupert Matthews

$5.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

This outstanding illustrated history looks at the titanic struggle that laid waste the second city of the Soviet Union, the greatest battle the world has ever seen. The bitter Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of World War II on the Eastern Front. The relentless German advances that had seen th e panzers sweep hundreds of miles into Russia was finally brought to a halt by sheer force of numbers. Before Stalingrad the Russians never won, after Stalingrad they could not lose. A vital read, this title is written to appeal to a general audience of those who are interested in 20th century history, as well as specialists. ...Show more

D-Day The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor

$5.00 NZD

Category: Second World War | Reading Level: very good

"As near as possible to experiencing what it was like to be there...It is almost impossible for a reader not to get caught up in the excitement". (Giles Foden, "Guardian"). The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. Antony Beevor's gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war. ...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

Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe by Deborah Dwork

$10.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

This is a history of the experience of Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe, and of the adults that helped them. One-and-a-half million Jewish children died in the Holocaust. Many more survived - they hid, fled, or were transported to safety. Hundreds of thousands were brutally separated from their p arents - toddlers torn from their mothers' sides. Others hid, sometimes for years, or were cared for by strangers. Those that did not die carry forever the appalling memory of their ordeal. This book recreates the experience of hundreds of those Jewish children. For five years, Deborah Dwork met and interviewed child survivors in France, Holland, Italy, Poland, England, Israel and the US. These were deeply harrowing encounters, honoured in this book by simple and unadorned telling. Though children are at the centre of the story, the book is inevitably a wider history of Judeocide. There is much that is wholly new, and at both the scholarly level and that of the general reader, the text is immensely powerful. ...Show more

The Navy's Here

$12.00 NZD

Category: Second World War