James Holland

'Seldom is war so vividly described...An assault on the senses...Painful to read, impossible to put down' Gerard DeGroot, The Times 'Epic and moving...Holland brings this cramped universe vividly to life' Patrick Bishop, Daily Telegraph ______ It took a certain type of courage to serve in a tank in the Second World War. Encased in steel, surrounded by highly explosive shells, a big and slow-moving target, every crew member was utterly vulnerable to...

Based on his own battlefield studies in Sicily and on much new research over the past thirty years, James Holland's 'Sicily '43' offers a vital new perspective on a major turning point in World War II. It is a timely, powerful and dramatic account by a master military historian and will fill a major gap in the narrative history of the Second World War.

The Second World War is the most cataclysmic event in recent European history. In this new history James Holland looks at the conflict from a broader perspective than ever before, and in doing so, challenges some of the fundamentals of its by-now familiar story. The first part of this extraordinary new two-volume account spans oceans and continents from the perspectives of all the nations it will engulf.

Back in February 1944, a rag-taggle collection of clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews managed to hold out against some of the finest infantry in the Japanese Army, and then defeat them in what was one of the most astonishing battles of the Second World War. The Defence of the Admin Box, fought amongst the paddy fields and jungle of Northern Arakan over a fifteen-day...

From the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43 comes the untold story of the Sherwood Rangers. It took a certain type of courage to serve in a tank in World War Two. Encased in steel, surrounded by highly explosive shells, a big and slow-moving target, every crew member was utterly vulnerable to enemy attack from all sides. Living - and dying - in a tank was a brutal way to fight a war. The Sherwood Rangers were one of the great tank regiments....

April 1940. In the valleys of Norway, the British troops are being forced into retreat in this, their first battle with the Germans in World War II. Sergeant Jack Tanner and his patrol of Yorkshire Rangers find themselves being drawn into a desperate mission.

The night of May 16th, 1943. 19 specially adapted Lancasters take off from RAF Scampton, each with a huge 9,000 lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath them. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.

During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces launched their first-ever round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. The aim was to smash the main factories and production centres of the Luftwaffe and draw the German fighter force up into the air and into battle. Officially called Operation ARGUMENT, this monumental air assault very quickly became known simply as Big Week. Following the fortunes of pilots, aircrew and...