Gunter Horst Beetz was born in Berlin in 1926. Growing up as part of a typical family-his father was a banker, his mother a housewife-he joined the Hitler Youth-somewhat against his wishes-and after a short period manning anti-aircraft guns in Berlin he ultimately found himself in Normandy, fighting the Allies, where he was captured in July ......

Thirty was the number of minutes it took for one Coastal Command crew to sink two U-boats. This remarkable achievement was carried out by the crew of Flying Officer Kenneth Kayo Moore in their 224 Squadron Liberator on the evening of 7/8 June 1944\. Whilst patrolling the western end of the English Channel, Moore s crew first despatched U-629, ......

Late on the night of May 16, 1943, Wing Commander Guy Gibson led 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force on a mission code-named Operation Chastise--an audacious bombing raid across the English Channel. Their aim? Destroy three dams in the Ruhr Valley, the industrial heartland of Germany. The dams were fiercely protected. Torpedo nets in the water ......

1918, the climactic year of World War I, began with the Kaiserschlacht, a massive series of German infantry-led attacks, supported by artillery and air power, that sought to break the Allied resolve before the full weight of the American Expeditionary Forces could be brought to bear. After weathering the storm, the British, French and American ......

Drawing on a wide range of Vietnamese-language sources, the author presents a detailed account of the continuing efforts of North Vietnam to invade the South, enlivened by a large number of previously unpublished photographs, and colour profiles for modellers. A year after the Paris peace accord had been signed, on 17 January 1973, peace had ......

Rejected as a bomber by the RAF, the B-17 was used extensively as a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft by Coastal Command. This book tells the fascinating story of these operations, a vital but often overlooked part of the fight against the U-Boats. All the aircraft involved are listed, and the tedious but essential work of their crews ......