A remarkable series of over 200 eye-witness accounts taken from diaries, letters, speeches, interviews and memoirs of those who were there: pilots, sailors, generals, infantrymen, war correspondents and leaders.
These include Spitfire pilot Richard Hillary’s account of bailing out of his plane in the Battle of Britain; a German sailor’s view of HMS Royal Oak being torpedoed at Scapa Flow; insights into Rommel’s ailing health from a lieutenant in the Afrika Korps; famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle’s account of GI meals during Operation Torch; Anne Frank’s recollection of the rounding up of Jews in Amsterdam; the last letters home from anonymous German soldiers in Stalingrad; the view from a Japanese cockpit over Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941; a German officer’s memories of the airborne assault on Crete in May 1941; the firestorm following the bombing of Dresden in July 1943 in the words of a German woman; a lieutenant in the 1st Airborne Divsion’s eyewitness account of the fighting in Arnhem; Martha Gellhorn on the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge; a British tank officer crossing the German border on 28 February 1945; on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea; an Allied intelligence officer being executed by the Japanese; the tunnels of Iwo Jima; and a kamikaze pilot’s final letter.
These include Spitfire pilot Richard Hillary’s account of bailing out of his plane in the Battle of Britain; a German sailor’s view of HMS Royal Oak being torpedoed at Scapa Flow; insights into Rommel’s ailing health from a lieutenant in the Afrika Korps; famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle’s account of GI meals during Operation Torch; Anne Frank’s recollection of the rounding up of Jews in Amsterdam; the last letters home from anonymous German soldiers in Stalingrad; the view from a Japanese cockpit over Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941; a German officer’s memories of the airborne assault on Crete in May 1941; the firestorm following the bombing of Dresden in July 1943 in the words of a German woman; a lieutenant in the 1st Airborne Divsion’s eyewitness account of the fighting in Arnhem; Martha Gellhorn on the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge; a British tank officer crossing the German border on 28 February 1945; on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea; an Allied intelligence officer being executed by the Japanese; the tunnels of Iwo Jima; and a kamikaze pilot’s final letter.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
Praise for the author's The British Soldier: The Autobiography
What a book. Five stars.
Praise for the author's England: The Autobiography
A triumph
Praise for the author's The British Soldier: The Autobiography
Compelling Tommy's-eye view of war.
Praise for the author's The British Soldier: The Autobiography
[T]his thoughtful compilation . . . almost unbearably moving
