World War, 1939-1945 - France.

* * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.

Both concise and wide-ranging, this encyclopedia covers massacres, atrocities, war crimes, and genocides, including acts of inhumanity on all continents; and serves as a reminder that lest we forget, history will repeat itself. The 400-plus entries in Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia provide accessible and concise information on the difficult subject of abject human violence committed on all continents. The entries in this two-volume work describe atrocities, massacres, and war crimes committed in the 20th century, thereby documenting how human beings have repeatedly proven their capability to commit horrific acts of inhumanity even in relatively recent times and within the modern era. The encyclopedia covers countries, treaties, and terms; profiles individuals who had been formally indicted for war crimes as well as those who have committed mass atrocities and gone unpunished; and addresses human rights violations, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace.

The story of 144 Brigade’s defense of Wormhoudt and Bambecque must rank in importance alongside the defense of Cassel and Hazebrouck by 145 Brigade; however, what is often forgotten in the uncertainty that surrounded Wormhoudt and Bambeque is the heroic defense of West Cappel and Vwyfeg (les Cinq Chemins today) by the Welsh Guards and the 1/Fife and Forfar Yeomanry (1/F&F Yeomanry). Brigadier Norman’s composite brigade was the final piece in the jigsaw of defense on the western flank of the Dunkerque Corridor and, after the last stand of the 2/Royal Warwicks and the 8/Worcesters, Norman’s Brigade, held the line south of Bergues, containing the attacking German units at great cost, until the perimeter at Dunkerque had been established. He and the remnants of his brigade left Yvfweg just as the Germans were entering it from the south. The full story of the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkerque can be read in Battleground Europe: The Dunkerque Perimeter and Evacuation 1940. The defense of Wormhoudt in 1940 has long been associated with the massacre of British servicemen after they had surrendered and been taken prisoner. The events in the barn at La Plaine au Bois will always be considered one of the most appalling acts of the Second World War, carried out by elements of the Liebstandarte Regiment, in what looked very much like revenge; a massacre that was almost second nature to this group of fanatical followers of Adolf Hitler. Up against the regular troops of the 2/Warwicks and their supporting units, the Liebstandarte found no easy victory at Wormhoudt in an encounter that saw their regimental commander, Gruppenführer Otto ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, having to take shelter in a roadside ditch away from the fury of the Cheshire machine gunners. Then again, what is often overshadowed by the events in the barn is the series of other murders of civilians and British soldiers that took place as the Liebstandarte overwhelmed the fragile defense of the Warwicks. Captain ‘Tony’ Crook, the Warwicks’ Medical Officer, draws attention to just one of these incidents as he was marched into captivity past the bodies of A Company men, who he felt sure had been murdered in cold blood. Another incident involving the Worcesters at Bambecque is related by Lieutenant Roger Cleverley of C Company, who writes in his diary that all the wounded were shot by a commander of the Liebstandarte. Apart from hearsay and diary entries, there is little other evidence to support the deaths of these men but, in the opinion of the author, there is no doubt whatever that many British soldiers met a premature end after they had surrendered in the fields and on the pavements of Wormhoudt and Bambecque.

A chronicle of the WWII British Expeditionary Force unit that faced a German firing squad after surrendering at the Battle of Dunkirk. In 1939, the BEF was deployed to counter the German aggression in Europe. The men of 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, were some of the first to land in France. Less than a year later, they would be massacred by the Waffen-SS in one of the most egregious war crimes of the Second World War. After deploying to the Maginot Line sector in January of 1940, the Norfolks experienced some of the war’s most monumental firsts—including the first decorations to be awarded, and the first British officer killed in action. But more tragedy was to come when the Germans launched their May offensive. As the Allies withdrew towards the English Channel, the Norfolks were ordered to defend a section of the Canal Line. After several days, they were surrounded and forced to surrender. The next morning, ninety-nine men of the Battalion were marched to a paddock and machine-gunned in cold blood by their SS captors. Miraculously, two men survived and helped bring the SS officer responsible, Fritz Knoechlien, to justice after the war.

“A chilling description of the ordeals that captured men and women were put through by the Third Reich regime and their Italian allies.” —Daily Mail Seventy years ago, the Nuremberg Trials were in full swing in Germany. In the dock were the leaders of the Nazi regime and most eventually received their just desserts. But what happened to the other war criminals? In June 1946, Lord Russell of Liverpool became Deputy Judge Advocate and legal adviser to the Commander in Chief for the British Army of the Rhine in respect of all trials held by British Military Courts of German war criminals. He later wrote: “At the outbreak of the Second World War, the treatment of prisoners was governed by the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention of 1929, the Preamble of which stated that the aim of the signatories was to alleviate the conditions of prisoners of war. “During the war, however, the provisions of the Convention were repeatedly disregarded by Germany. Prisoners were subjected to brutality and ill-treatment, employed on prohibited and dangerous work, handed over to the SD for ‘special treatment’ in pursuance of Hitler’s Commando Order, lynched in the streets by German civilians, sent to concentration camps, shot on recapture after escaping, and even massacred after they had laid down their arms and surrendered.” Tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war died at the hands of the Nazis and their Italian allies. This book is for them lest we forget. “A sobering and harrowing book, detailing many forgotten crimes committed against POWs who should have been offered the protection of the Geneva Convention, but tragically were not.” —Recollections of WWII

In Nazi Germany the SS was an instrument of terror and repression. This powerful spearhead was known as the Waffen-SS. A hand-picked elite of magnificent fighting men whose courage was outstanding, but also a force of cruel fanatics capable of hideous atrocities against all accepted rules of warfare. This detailed history looks at both faces of the SS formations, giving a vivid picture of the diabolical architects of the world's most terrible private army.