Max Hastings

Bringing together the work of nine leading historians, and superbly illustrated with contemporary photography and colour maps, The Second World War gives readers a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of history’s greatest conflict. The period from 1939 to 1945 saw some of the most devastating and remarkable events in living memory. Labouring beneath a daily burden of fear, sacrifice, deprivation and uncertainty, soldiers and civilians of all nationalities were driven to extremes of selfless loyalty, dogged determination or bitter cruelty by the demands of a world at war. This book tells the stories of the men and women who lived and died during the Second World War, from politicians to factory workers, and from High Command to the conscripted men on the front lines. The experience of war is brought to life through a wealth of contemporary documentation, private writings and historical research, whilst the political, military and historical significance of the war is assessed and examined. From Europe's Western and Eastern Fronts to the war at sea, and from the Pacific to the Mediterranean and North Africa, every fighting front of the Second World War is covered in this truly comprehensive volume.

A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams in north-west Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron on the night of 16/17 May 1943, was an epic that has passed into Britain's national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who led the raid. In the 21st Century, however, he urges that we should see the dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was entirely real, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the 'bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised as ruthlessly as they did about the entire bomber offensive. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Mohne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. He argues that what modern Germans call the Mohnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris gained much of the public credit, though he bitterly opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. Harris also made perhaps the operation's biggest mistake - failure to launch a conventional attack on the huge post-raid repair operation which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches on Ruhr industry. Here once again is a dramatic retake on familiar history by a master of the art. Hastings sets the Dams Raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history.

The last weeks of World War II on the Western Front in Europe witnessed extraordinary scenes of heroism, horror, melodrama and pathos. In Plunder, Max Hastings presents a cast of fascinating people British, American and German, in a series of great events in which some distinguished themselves through wonderful deeds, others through the basest crimes. The book takes its title from Montgomery's 'Operation Plunder', the 23 March 1945 crossing of the Rhine, witnessed by Winston Churchill and embracing huge amphibious and airborne landings. The author describes the American coup in capturing Remagen bridge and the 'battles of the breakout' which followed. Thereafter he recounts stories of Nazi Werewolves; of US General George Patton's reckless and doomed dispatch of an armoured column fifty miles behind German lines to liberate his son-in-law from a prison camp; the heartbreaking liberation of Belsen concentration camp; the wonderful achievement of Ian Liddell of the Coldstream Guards, among the last VC winners of the war and surely one of the most deserving; the last big SAS operation of the war. Finally come accounts of the tortuous succession of German surrenders, and the weeks of Admiral Karl Donitz's posturing as the Third Reich's last Fuhrer. Plunder is the latest history from Max Hastings, and offers his signature narrative of conflict, blending personal experiences into the 'big picture', highlighting deeds and personalities that will be unfamiliar to many readers. He mingles accounts of the battles with stories of people - warlords, soldiers, slave labourers, prisoners, fugitives, victims - who played many and various roles in the last European act of history's most terrible war.

Soldier. Reformer. Industrial pioneer. Erroll Prior-Palmer was one of the few men to reach the highest levels of both the British Army and British industry. A brilliant but unconventional leader, he combined battlefield command with a restless appetite for innovation that would later reshape global trade. Born in 1903 and marked early by adversity, Erroll overcame severe dyslexia and a brutal schooling to pass out top at Sandhurst, uniquely winning both the Sword of Honour and the Saddle of Honour. In war, he proved a formidable commander, leading from the front in Normandy and beyond. As a brigadier, he commanded the swimming tanks that landed on Sword Beach on D-Day, then took the 8th Armoured Brigade through every major battle to the end of the war in Europe. Forced to leave the army after a near-fatal polo accident, Erroll began a second career that would eclipse even his military achievements. Recruited into a struggling shipping empire, he engineered a dramatic turnaround before leading one of the most significant industrial revolutions of the twentieth century: the shift to containerisation. As founding chief executive of Overseas Containers Limited, he drove the creation of the world’s first trans-oceanic container route, overcoming political resistance, industrial unrest and immense financial risk. A man of contradictions, shaped by privilege, hardship and unrelenting drive, Erroll’s life spanned war, empire, and technological transformation. This is the story of a leader who refused to accept limits, and in doing so helped change the modern world.

Between 1941 and 1944, the British army contributed relatively little to World War II. On D-Day (June 6, 1944) that changed--35,000 British infantrymen, airmen, and special service operatives were sent headfirst into the whitest heat of war, almost overnight. Max Hastings' Sword Beach tells the story of a handful of British soldiers and their critical role in D-Day's parachute and seaborne offensive. On Sword, the codename of one of the two beaches assaulted by the British, scores of soldiers were killed by the first shots that they ever heard fired in anger. One British corporal insisted on apologizing to his enemy prisoners, and the Free French troops, 120-men strong, suffered 60 percent losses in the first days of fighting. In granular detail, Sword Beach describes a small number of men on a single day who faced the transition from make-believe battle to war at its most violent.

THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER A Times Best History Book of the Year; A Waterstones Best Book of the Year 'Reads like a thriller… I couldn't put Max Hastings's new book down' DAILY MAIL 'Hastings is a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier' THE TIMES Operation Biting was one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and probably the most successful. In February 1942 RAF intelligence was baffled by a newly-identified radar network on the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe, codenamed Würzburg. The brilliant scientist Dr RV Jones proposed an assault to capture key components. The nearest accessible enemy set stood upon a steep cliff at Bruneval in Normandy. Winston Churchill enthused, as did Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of Combined Operations. A company of the newly-formed Airborne Forces was committed to the operation, which took place on the night of 27/28 February. Amid heavy snow 120 men landed, some of whom were misdropped almost two miles from their objective. They nonetheless launched the assault, dismantled the German radar, and after three nail-biting hours in France and a fierce battle with Wehrmacht defenders, escaped in the nick of time by landing-craft across stormy seas to Portsmouth. Max Hastings recounts this cliffhanging tale in a wealth of previously unchronicled detail. He portrays its remarkable personalities: the ‘boffin’ RV Jones; the peacock Mountbatten; the troubled husband of Daphne Du Maurier, Gen. ’Boy’ Browning, who commanded the Airborne Division; ‘Colonel Remy’, the French secret agent whose men reconnoitered Bruneval at mortal risk; Major John Frost, who led the paras into action; Charlie Cox, the little RAF technician who stripped the Würzburg and became an unexpected hero; Wing-Commander Charles Pickard, a legendary bomber pilot who led the drop squadron. Seldom have so many fascinating personalities been brought together to fulfil a mission that became a front-page triumph in a season of British defeats. Recounted in Hastings’ familiar best-selling blend of top-down and bottom-up action detail, Operation Biting tells a story that has become almost forgotten yet deserves to rank among the epic tales of courage and daring that took place in the greatest conflict in history.

Korejskaja voj-na 1950-1953 godov stala odnim iz perelomnykh sobytij vtoroj poloviny XX veka i chut ne privela k jadernoj. Priskorbnaja aktualnost temy objasnjaet, pochemu kniga vydajuschegosja voennogo istorika Maksa Khejstingsa o sobytijakh tekh dnej, vpervye opublikovannaja v 1987 godu, do sikh por polzuetsja populjarnostju. V novom izdanii avtor ustojal pered soblaznom perepisyvat tekst, osnovannyj na sotnjakh intervju, vzjatykh v 1980 e gody u ochevidtsev i uchastnikov sobytij - ot komandirov i soldat neskolkikh armij, do politikov i diplomatov, v tom chisle s kitajskoj storony. Eti istorii konkretnykh ljudej pridajut chelovecheskoe izmerenie opisaniju cheredy srazhenij, kazhdoe iz kotorykh, po mneniju avtora, tjanet na polnotsennyj epos ili roman uzhasov, kak i vse perezhitoe zapadnymi voennymi v severokorejskom plenu. Kak zhurnalist i issledovatel, Khejstings privlekaet vse dostupnye materialy, chtoby kak mozhno bolee bespristrastno razobratsja v istokakh, khode, logike i urokakh etoj voj-ny, opisyvaja nastroenija, politicheskie raznoglasija i proschety, stojaschie za prinjatiem voennykh reshenij.

'The messy, dirty, bloody reality of Operation Overlord comes alive in Sword, Hastings's portrait of the individual soldiers who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy. He brings these men to life with sensitivity and beautiful prose' THE TIMES

On 6 June 1944 when the allied armies landed on D-Day, the Second World War had already lasted almost five years.

In Armageddon, one of Britain's most highly regarded historians tells the epic story of the bloody last eight months of the war in Europe.'Hastings triumphs . . . he conveys brilliantly what fighting was like for those who had to do it' – David Stafford, The Times'Masterly' – Craig Brown, Mail on SundayIn 1944 German forces suffered catastrophic defeats during the battles for Holland and the German border. Yet in the following weeks the ailing Wehrmacht was able to achieve one of the greatest military feats of the Second World War. The Germans regrouped and found the strength to halt the seemingly inexorable Allied advance, prolonging the war into 1945. Drawing on original research and fascinating individual experiences, Max Hastings's definitive account provides a fresh and gripping insight into the final twists and turns of the war, revealing how Europe's fate hung in the balance until the bitter end.'Magisterial . . . Armageddon is a magnificent achievement' – Christopher Silvester, Financial Times

'Much excellent gossip, some of it wildly indiscreet . . . Hastings is a brilliant reporter' – Sunday Telegraph'The acuity of his insights make this book a wholly compelling read' – ObserverIn 1985 Max Hastings was offered the editorship of a nearly bankrupt national institution – the Daily Telegraph – in a surprise move by its owners. This candid and entertaining memoir tells the story of what happened next both to him and to the newspaper he revived. It is all here: the rows with prime ministers, the coverage world events, the daily office dramas. Max describes his complex relationship with proprietor Conrad Black and offers an extraordinary perspective on the fall of Margaret Thatcher, decline of John Major and rise of Tony Blair. From the troubles of the Royal Family to the difficulties of dealing with lawyers, celebrities and statesmen, Editor is a compelling and vivid account of a turbulent ten years by the man with the inside scoop.'I doubt any book captures so well the romance and thrill of running a great newspaper' – Nicholas Shakespeare, Evening Standard

'A superb account of journalists, soldiers and the experience of modern battle, written by one of the greatest war reporters of our time' – Robert Harris, author of An Officer and a Spy‘Gripping and compulsively readable’ – Saul David, Sunday TelegraphMax Hastings grew up with romantic dreams of a life amongst warriors. But after a painful false start with the Parachute Regiment, he became a journalist instead. Going to the Wars is his vivid, insightful account of his years as a foreign correspondent. His first taste of danger came at the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, followed by the Biafra and Vietnam Wars. He left Saigon by helicopter from the American Embassy as the city fell to the Khmer Rouge, masqueraded as a game hunter to seek out the secrets of the Rhodesian civil war and was almost shot by marauding Turkish soldiers during the invasion of Cyprus. His greatest moment came at the end of the Falklands War, when he walked alone into Port Stanley, ahead of the British landing force, in determined pursuit of a scoop.'A first-class piece of reportage. It is filled with tales of derring-do, modestly told' Jon Swain, The Sunday Times'His memoirs have . . . honesty, pace and readability' – Jeremy Paxman

In this enthralling history, internationally bestselling author Max Hastings recounts the odds-defying Operation Biting, a 1942 parachute commando raid on Northern France to steal vital components of German intelligence--one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and one of the most successful. In February 1942, RAF intelligence was baffled by a newly identified radar network on the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe, codenamed W rzburg. British intelligence proposed an assault to capture key components. Incredibly brave agents of the French Resistance risked their lives to probe the German defenses on the Normandy coast. Then a company of Airborne forces were dropped into France in the dead of night amid heavy snow. Launching their attack, the allied soldiers dismantled the German's radar, and after three nail-biting hours and a fierce battle with Wehrmacht defenders, escaped in the nick of time using landing-craft that carried them back across the stormy seas to Portsmouth. Operation Biting retells this dramatic operation through a gallery of amazing characters from Winston Churchill, who promoted the raid, to Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Combined Operations, to the brave unsung commandos who fought their way through enemy territory. A cliffhanger of a story that ratchets the suspense to the last page, Operation Biting sheds new light on an exciting and little-known chapter of the Second World War.

‘A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … Compelling’ Daily Mail ‘An unmissable read’ Sunday Times Soldiers is a very personal gathering of sparkling, gripping tales by many writers, about men and women who have borne arms, reflecting bestselling historian Max Hastings’s lifetime of studying war. It rings the changes through the centuries, between the heroic, tragic and comic; the famous and the humble. The nearly 350 stories illustrate vividly what it is like to fight in wars, to live and die as a warrior, from Greek and Roman times through to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here you will meet Jewish heroes of the Bible, Rome’s captain of the gate, Queen Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Wellington, Napoleon’s marshals, Ulysses S. Grant, George S. Patton and the modern SAS. There are tales of great writers who served in uniform including Cobbett and Tolstoy, Edward Gibbon and Siegfried Sassoon, Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and George MacDonald Fraser. Here are also stories of the female ‘abosi’ fighters of Dahomey and heroic ambulance drivers of World War I, together with the new-age women soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stories reflect a change of mood towards warfare through the ages: though nations and movements continue to inflict terrible violence upon each other, most of humankind has retreated from the old notion of war as a sport or pastime, to acknowledge it as the supreme tragedy. This is a book to inspire in turn fascination, excitement, horror, amazement, occasionally laughter. Max Hastings mingles respect for the courage of those who fight with compassion for those who become their victims, above all civilians, and especially in the twenty-first century, which some are already calling ‘the Post-Heroic Age’.

THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER'Reads like a thriller... I couldn't put Max Hastings's new book down' DAILY MAIL'Hastings is a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier' THE TIMES

THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER 'Reads like a thrillerâ?¦ I couldn't put Max Hastings's new book down' DAILY MAIL 'Hastings is a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier' THE TIMES

'The literary VC goes without doubt to Max Hastings . . . the story of a march that left behind a trail of blood and death, torture and heroism' - Sunday TelegraphWritten from the perspective of the French Resistance, British SOE and SAS, and the German SS, Das Reich is bestselling historian Max Hastings's gripping and powerful examination of wartime brutality in the aftermath of D-Day. Within days of the D-Day landings in June 1944, the elite 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich marched north through France to reinforce the front-line defenders of Hitler’s Fortress Europe. Veterans of the bloodiest fighting of the Russian Front, 15,000 men with their tanks and artillery, they were hounded for every mile of their march by saboteurs of the Resistance and agents of the Allied Special Forces. Along their route they took reprisals so savage they will live for ever in the chronicles of the most appalling atrocities of war, including the massacre of 642 men, women and children from Ordour-sur-Glane. Even-handed and insightful, Das Reich vividly brings to life a dark period of the Second World War, revealing stories of cruelty on both sides as well as stories of heroism and sacrifice.