Sub-titled 'True Tales from the RAF, Indian and Finnish Pilots Who Flew the Single-Seat Fighter and Two-Seat Trainer'. The Folland Gnat was used by the RAF mainly in the advanced training role in the 1960s and 70s, and was an ideal lead-in trainer for high-performance aircraft such as the iconic Lightning, the first RAF supersonic fighter. It was also used by the famous Yellowjacks formation aerobatic team, formed in 1964, the forerunner of the world-famous Red Arrows team which was equipped with the Gnat for over a decade before being replaced by the Hawk in 1980. Lesser known, the Gnat was also used as a lightweight fighter by both the Indian and Finnish air forces. Later called the Ajeet (Midge), it saw combat experience in the Indo-Pakistani wars, most notably in the Battle of Boyra. Today over 60 years since the aircraft first flew, several Gnats continue to be operated from North Weald Airfield in Essex under the brand the Gnat Display Team. Gnat Boys has become one of the most sought-after books about aviation covering a very special era in history, and this book relates the history of the aircraft and untold stories by those who flew in them. They include well-known and distinguished aviators including those from Indian and Finnish air forces and there is also a focus on the civilian life of the Gnat into the 21st century with accounts from those who continue to fly the aircraft with the Heritage Aircraft Trust. Smoke on, go! 254pp, very well illustrated with colour and other photos.

Sub-titled 'True Tales from the Operators of the Jet Provost and Strikemaster', the book is written with all the know-how of an ex-RAF officer. As a versatile and undemanding aircraft, the Jet Provost established itself as the basic trainer for the RAF from the late 1950s until its retirement in September 1993. This magnificent flying machine is explored through the vivid memories of former air crew from the RAF and foreign air forces. The aircraft had relative success within the civilian and military display flying circuit in the 1960s and 70s. It was also part of the prestige Golden Eagle Flight at RAF Cranwell which taught the then Prince of Wales how to fly. When the Mk.5 model became the BAC 167 Strikemaster after some modifications, it assumed a counter-insurgency and light-attack role and allowed it to be sold to air forces including Ceylon, Nigeria, New Zealand, Sudan and Venezuela where it played an effective role in many border disputes and internal warfare. It was crucial to the Sultan of Oman Air Force during the Dhofar War. The book includes a foreword by Squadron Leader Terry Lloyd who was leader of the 1964-65 Red Pelicans display team and is one of the 'Boys' series not to be missed for all aviation fans. 176 large pages, packed with colour and other photos and advertising.

At the outbreak of the Second World War there were six 'concentration camps' in Germany, holding around 20,000 prisoners, but during the following six years the number of camps grew to over 15,000 with six purpose-built killing centres operating a production line of extermination under Operation 'Reinhard', more popularly known as the 'Final Solution'. Himmler, the Police President of Munich, lost no time in establishing the first formal concentration camp in an old gunpowder factory outside the city at Dachau. Its very name became synonymous with death alongside Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück (exclusively for women) and Belsen. However, hidden away in eastern Poland whose existence was only revealed in 1945, were six more including Auschwitz and Treblinka. A colour map at the introduction orientates us through this hellish number of concentration and labour camps established in the Greater Reich and the occupied countries. Chapters cover Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, France, Holand, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Poland and of course Berlin and even Alderney in the Channel Islands. All are illustrated with comparison photographs which are the forte of this publisher. Some of the camps have been preserved but at others only a memorial stands to mark its passing as we see in the 'Then and Now' colour and archive picture comparisons. We give a warning that there are images of skeletal semi-naked dead bodies piled in heaps and on carts, shallow graves and the bodies of men and women exhumed in villages by the US 4th Armored with a notice affixed to the cross reading 'Here lie 800 murdered bodies killed by the Nazis of Namering (sic) Germany in April 1945.' And gallows and charred bodies on a grill made out of railway lines, previously unreleased photographs from a whipping table with a pile of 40 naked bodies, quarries and prisoners with picks and shovels, maps of the camps and the Valley of Death crematorium, pictures of families and visitors paying their respects in modern times, underground bunkers and discovered buildings. Chapter by chapter, country by country, mugshot by mugshot even colour images of escape attempts such as Sobibor in spring 1943 where camp guards and 11 SS officers were killed, there are grim images of tiny children in striped pyjamas and the furnaces and railway tracks - these images are only for the strong minded. 456 glossy quality images, 21.9 x 30.5cm. Hundreds of colour and other images.

Sub-titled 'True Tales from Operators of the RAF's First Single-Engined Jet' and written by an aviator who helps crew for the last airworthy ex-RAF Vampire in the world, the T.11 WZ507. Sliding out of the shadows of WWII, the de Havilland Vampire with the distinctive whine of its Goblin engine, quickly proved itself an effective alternative to piston-powered fighters. It entered service with the RAF in 1946 and held a number of notable records - the first fighter to exceed 500mph, the first to set a world altitude record of almost 60,000ft, the first to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, and the first jet to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Not bad for something built partly of wood. The book brings to life the trials and tribulations of operating a first-generation jet across the globe and their insightful anecdotes and exceptional experiences on every page. We follow squadrons across the dusty deserts of Iraq to exercises in West Germany, tales of aerial handling, incidents and accidents including the much-maligned spin characteristics, and squadron life. Together they paint a portrait of a pioneering time in aviation advancement right up to the T.11 still flying from Coventry Airport. With unique images throughout in both colour and sepia and mono. 208 large pages.

Sub-titled 'The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War', this mammoth 932 page Cambridge University Press softback offers an unprecedented, panoramic history of the 'citizen armies' of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. Drawing on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file, Jonathan Fennell fundamentally challenges our understanding of the war and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change. He uncovers how fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies, and he traces how soldiers' political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, proved instrumental to the changes of the postwar era. 'Fennell draws on a wide literature and deep archival research to explore how the Commonwealth armies fought key battles and campaigns, but he never loses sight of the role of citizen soldiers and how they exerted agency in calamitous defeats and gritty victories.' - Tim Cook. The book forces us to rethink the way we view the armies of the British Empire and the modern British experience, wartime cohesion within participating societies and comradeship which in turn brought classes together in the post-war 'quiet revolution' that ended the Empire and redefined the Commonwealth. It is a hugely impressive and sweepingly ambitious book which brings together the military histories of all the British Commonwealth nations for the first time and asks vital questions about the relationship between wartime experience, society and politics in a trans-national way and the scale, size and significance of this book is nothing but staggering. Fennell is a Senior Lecturer of Defence Studies at King?s College London. Tables, maps, list of abbreviations, 932pp in heavyweight softback.

Sub-titled 'One SAS Trooper's Extraordinary Account of the Falklands War', Tony Hoare always knew he wanted to be in the SAS. Both his grandfather and father had been soldiers and Tony signed up for the Cadets at the age of 13, then the Infantry at 17, and enlisted into the Royal Green Jackets before passing arduous SAS selection in 1978. Less than four years later, Tony and his team were sent to a collection of islands just off the coast of Argentina called the Falklands, where tensions were rising and war was on the horizon. No amount of training could prepare Tony for what happened over the course of the next 12 weeks, as the Falkland Islands became a battleground between British and Argentinian forces. As helicopters crashed, and ships sank, Tony, at the centre of the action, battled across treacherous terrain and against a fearsome enemy, doing whatever it took to retake the islands. This is the full, explosive, boots-on-the-ground story from a soldier at the heart of the action, who was on the frontline throughout the entire conflict and 'all soldiers would have wanted him alongside them when things got brutal. This is a no-hold account of the Falklands War from a man who was in the fight.' - Andy McNab. The book is especially poignant on what it was like to lose friends and dealing with PTSD. Tony concludes that they 'did alright, didn't we?' 306pp.