‘Between Friday and Monday we never slept at all. Everyone’s face was one mass of sand ... The guns were so hot, all the paint had gone’ Bombardier Ray Ellis Had the Allies lost in North Africa, Rommel’s Afrika Korps would have swept through the Middle East, cutting the vital supply line through the Suez Canal to Australia and India, and taking the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. Britain would have been isolated, without oil, and unable to fight. These historic battles of 1940–1943 were fought over vast distances on rugged terrain, with supply lines often stretched to breaking point. It was here that David Stirling formed the SAS to perform audacious sabotage missions, and the Long Range Desert Group collected intelligence from behind enemy lines. This is the story of the Allies’ first victory against Hitler’s army, told in the voices of the men who were there, which proved that the seemingly unstoppable Germans could be beaten.

Tells the story of the Allies's hard-won campaign in North Africa - starting with early Allied victories with the Desert Rats; unfolding with the strengthening of the Germans with the rise of Rommel; and ending with Montgomery's victory at Alamein, which chased the Axis Forces back into Italy.

The subject of the new major film by Christopher Nolan It could have been the biggest military disaster suffered by the British in the Second World War, but against all odds the British Army was successfully evacuated, and 'Dunkirk spirit' became synonymous with the strength of the British people in adversity. On the same day that Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, Nazi troops invaded Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium. The eight-month period of calm that had existed since the declaration of war was over. But the defences constructed by the Allies in preparation failed to repel a German army with superior tactics.The British Expeditionary Force soon found themselves in an increasingly chaotic retreat. By the end of May 1940, over 400,000 Allied troops were trapped in and around the port of Dunkirk without shelter or supplies. Hitler's army was just ten miles away. On 26 May, the British Admiralty launched Operation Dynamo. This famous rescue mission sent every available vessel - from navy destroyers and troopships to pleasure cruisers and fishing boats - over the Channel to Dunkirk. Of the 850 'Little Ships' that sailed to Dunkirk, 235 were sunk by German aircraft or mines, but over this nine day period 338,000 British and French troops were safely evacuated. Drawing on the wealth of material from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk presents in the words of both rescued and rescuers in an intimate and dramatic account of what Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle of deliverance'.

The definitive history of the battle of El Alamein?"The end of the beginning," as Churchill said?the bloody conflict that would change the course of World War II. It was the Allied victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 that inspired one of Churchill's most famous aphorisms: “This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” In this thrilling historical account, Jonathan Dimbleby describes the political and strategic realities that lay behind the battle, charting the nail-biting months that led to the victory at El Alamein in November 1942. Drawing on official records and the personal insights of those involved, Dimbleby creates a vivid portrait of a struggle which for Churchill marked the turn of the tide?and which for the soldiers on the ground involved fighting and dying in a foreign land. 16 pages of B&W photographs

Adolf Hitler’s war in Africa arose from the urgent need to reinforce the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, whose 1940 invasion of Egypt had been soundly beaten. Of secondary importance to his ideological dream of conquering the Soviet Union, Germany’s Führer rushed a small mechanised force into the unfamiliar North African theatre to stave off defeat and avert any political fallout. This fresh account begins with the arrival of the largely unprepared German formations, soon to be stricken by disease and heavily reliant upon captured materiel, as they fought a bloody series of see-sawing battles across the Western Desert. David Mitchelhill-Green has gathered a wealth of personal narratives from both sides as he follows the brash exploits of General Erwin Rommel, intent on retaking Libya; the Nile firmly in his sights. Against this backdrop is the brutal human experience of war itself.

Adopted in 1938 and remaining in British service until 1991, the popular and reliable Bren was an iconic light machine gun, and arguably the most recognizable Commonwealth weapon of World War ll. Gas-operated and magazine-fed, it was based on a Czech design and was issued in large numbers during and after World War ll, as a section-level automatic weapon. Offering remarkable accuracy for an LMG, the Bren had an effective range of 600 yards, but could reach out to over 1,500 yards. It was generally fired from the prone position using a bipod, but could be fired from the hip when necessary. If kept clean, the Bren gave a reliable service in the harshest of environments, from the deserts of Libya to the Korean mountains in winter. As well as widespread infantry use, the Bren was widely supplied to resistance movements in Occupied Europe. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and based on meticulous research, this is an engaging story of the iconic light machine gun that equipped British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and in a host of postwar conflicts, right up to the Falklands and beyond.

Take a visual journey through North Africa during the Second World War with Anthony Tucker-Jones and Ian Spring as they chart the path of Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps through a series of stunning, rare color photographs. Taken from Ian Spring’s incredible digital archive of over 32,000 original color photographs dated between 1936 and 1946, more than 250 images in Rommel’s Afrika Korps In color offer readers a vivid, detailed insight into this German expeditionary force and their long North African Campaign. Fascinating color photographs of German soldiers, weaponry, tanks and aircraft fill these pages, and are balanced by the equally captivating and rare photographs of the people and the landscapes of North Africa. Renowned author and military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones’ remarkable text accompanies Ian Spring’s collection of rare photographs, together making for a highly informative and utterly engrossing read. Rommel’s Afrika Korps In color affords readers a new way of reading and learning about one of the most unique campaigns in the Second World War, and will stay with them long after they turn the final page.