Nurses give Tube shelter garlic oil for prevention of flu as they take cover at St Johns Wood tube station during the Blitz or work at Villa Day Nursery, opened for the express purpose of releasing women for war work. A record output of 200,000 bricks in 48 hours was reached by a staff of eight women and two ex-soldiers, working to do their bit. Women assemble cylinder studs on crank cases of Rolls-Royce Merlin engines for the RAF bombers and other women workers destroy shells at the end of the war where the cordite was removed from 6-pounder shell cases. Here are Wrens on the River Tees 1945 or chatting to an American sailor in a pub in Northern Ireland, Sea Rangers at Cobham having a tea break sat on a blanket on the ground, a Petty Officer woman taking rifle training instruction, women rat catchers, land girls on horseback in the countryside or harvesting oats, WAAFs on an RAF base wheeling out their bicycles, women of the ATS who repaired army vehicles, operating searchlights or undertaking precision work in the Instrument Department. Plus boot polishing, fishing, keeping over 200 warships in order, manning AA guns, cutting logs in the Forestry Commission, gathering potatoes in a field - typically a man's job. 144pp of fantastic nostalgic photographs, last one a cheeky female chimney sweep.

Following in the tradition of the great poets Kipling and Tennyson, Harry Turner includes brief portraits of the three towering and brilliant historic personalities in his retelling of the story of the Battle of Waterloo in verse. The eve of Waterloo, the Duchess of Richmond's Ball 15th June 1815. 'Beneath a soaring, vaulted roof a thousand candles gleam, it is that fateful, balmy night, of Thursday, June 15th...' At around 11.30am on a Sunday morning in 1815, a few shots rang out as the curtain-raiser to one of Europe's most titanic military clashes. By late afternoon at the close of the Battle of Waterloo, nearly 40,000 men lay dead or wounded. Until that day the army of Napoleon Boneparte seemed almost invincible. Indeed by mid afternoon victory for the French seemed a distinct possibility. But the Allied army led by the Duke of Wellington, and ably assisted by the Prussian prince and general Marshall Blücher, finally delivered a fatal blow that not only defeated the French forces, but destroyed forever Napoleon's dreams of conquest and glory, in which he would stand astride Europe like a colossus. Events of that day confirm the Duke of Wellington as a military genius, and Blücher as an eccentric but loyal ally (he did once believe he was pregnant with an elephant.) For the British, the Battle of Waterloo was one of our greatest ever victories and the story of that extraordinary day still fascinates. Also includes abridged extracts from the Duke of Wellington's despatch to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War. Illus. and maps, 72pp.

Now in its final resting place at the bottom of the Potomac River in Maryland, the U-boat U-1105 is unique among German World War Two submarines. Technologically innovative, it was the only U-boat to conduct a wartime patrol while equipped with the snorkel, GHG Balkon passive sonar, and a rubberised coating known as Alberich designed to reduce its acoustic signature and hide from Allied sonar. Known as the Black Panther, one key development was the airmast (snorkel), allowing it to regain air and charge its batteries without ever having to surface. After the end of the war, it was the single most tested U-boat by the Western Allies and the last U-boat to sail across the North Atlantic under its own power during the winter of 1945-46. Highly illustrated with many new and previously unpublished pictures, this complete history includes its 'rediscovery' in the 1980s, technical detail on each of its late-war innovations, and a full colour underwater guide to all the key features of the wreck site. Each is individually captioned whether it is the top of the sky periscope mount with fishing line caught on it, or the gun mounts. Colour and black and white, 136pp, 24.7 x 26.2cm.

This impressive pictorial history puts Britain's World War II in a global context, starting with the fact that a total of 60 million died, the majority civilians. Stanley Baldwin, the prime minister between the wars, said that "if you want to save yourselves you have to kill more women and children more quickly than the enemy". The Blitz is central to British perception of the war, yet the Allied combined bomber offensive against Germany inflicted far more damage. The people who worked and fought for the Allied war effort were more diverse than is remembered today, with Punjabis, Nigerians and Canadians playing a key role, to name a few. The book starts with several pages of notes and maps explaining the Japanese push to expand its empire, which already included the Chinese province of Manchuria. This section is followed by the creation of Mussolini's empire, the rise of Nazism in the Weimar Republic, and the effective death of German democracy as Hitler assumed the dictatorship. An antisemitic kindergarten book and a photo of the 1934 Nuremberg rally underline the inter-war menace, while a die-cast Hurricane in the Dinky Toys range is a sign of Britain's growing defences. Although Jews could leave Germany they were unable to take money and possessions, which meant other countries were unwilling to admit them. Celia Horwitz, a Kindertransport girl, receives a letter from "Papi" whom she will never see again. The invasion of Norway found the Allies without adequate resources, and a photo of Rommel in the Battle of France shows that the Germans themselves were using Czech tanks. There are thumbnail features on individuals throughout, including Muhammed Akbar Khan, seen here in a fine portrait, who led his force of Muslim Punjabis and Pashtuns to safety in the evacuation of Dunkirk. A grim chapter on the Holocaust gives the locations and numbers exterminated at the different camps. Quality Thames & Hudson heavyweight 288 pages in conjunction with the IWM. Photos in colour and black and white on every page.

Including panoramic gatefolds, this sumptuously illustrated book sweeps through a century of military aviation covering the milestones and key technological developments. It features the designs and manufacturers who produced the early biplanes, helicopters, VTOL and swing-wing aircraft, heavy bombers, giant transporters and stealth intruders. These machines played their part in two global wars, the Cold War and numerous other conflicts, and their stories thus offer a fascinating window on world history as well as relating how military minds sought to gain mastery of the skies. Pilots who took to the air on scouting missions began taking pot shots at each other. Bombs were dropped from the cockpit. From these rudimentary beginnings, the twin branches of military aviation were born - the fighter and the bomber. It was a division that presented designers with different problems. Fighters needed to be fast and agile, but for the bomber, payload capacity was vital. As sleek, metal monoplanes with more powerful engines replaced their wooden-framed predecessors, fighters were also able to carry a useful bomb load. With the arrival of jet propulsion, swept wings and guided missiles, fighter-bombers such as McDonnell's F-4 Phantom became the forerunner to the modern multi-role combat aircraft. By the 1980s, radar-defending stealth was the buzzword, shown off in Lockheed's Nighthawk Fighter and Northrop's B-2 Spirit Bomber. The F-22 Raptor added super cruise to the mix, but the future may lie in unmanned drones, examples of which are already equipped as weapons-delivery platforms. With spectacular colour photography, many in close up of the Westland Lynx iconic helicopter, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, the Avro Lancaster, the B-52 Mitchell, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed's C-5 Galaxy and as we reach the centre pages a spectacular triple gatefold, a skyborne F-15E Eagle flying over Nevada and on the reverse the cockpit and wings in very close up of the F-37C Lightning II with its reinforced landing gear. Gloriously illustrated and huge in size, 192 pages of stunning photographs and excellent extended captions, text, fact boxes and full specifications.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.

While serving as a volunteer nurse for the Union Army in the American Civil War, Louisa May Alcott recorded her experiences in the letters she sent home, later published under this title. They provide a raw and honest account of the reality of battlefield medicine in a conflict that tore her country apart. Her compassionate narrative also highlights the under-appreciated role of women in medicine. This short book marked the beginning of her astonishingly successful career which culminated in the publication of Little Women. Born in November 1832, on her 30th birthday she spent six transformative weeks at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, Washington DC, 500 miles from home and surrounded by dead, dying and diseased soldiers where twice as many died of disease as from fighting the enemy. Alcott nearly suffered the same fate, contracting typhoid pneumonia and was only saved when her father arrived at the hospital to take her home. He was an abolitionist and her mother a suffragist and their involvement in a number of radical movements meant Louisa and her siblings were surrounded by some of the periods best known writers and thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and she received tuition from Henry David Thoreau. 112 page new full price paperback.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the life of a petty tyrant in an obscure corner of the Ottoman Empire became the stuff of legend. What propelled this cold-blooded archetype of Oriental despotism, grandly known as the Lion of Ioannina and the Balkan Napoleon, into the consciousness of Western rulers and the general public? This book charts the rise of Ali Pasha from Albanian brigand leader to a player in world affairs and, ultimately, to a gruesome end. Ali exploited the internal weakness of the Ottoman Empire to carve out his own de facto state in Albania and Western Greece. Although a ruthless tyrant guilty of cruel atrocities, his lavish court in Yanina (Ioannina) became an attraction to Western travellers, most famously Lord Byron, and his military prowess led Britain, Russia and France to seek his alliance during the Napoleonic Wars. His activities undermined the Sultan's authority and helped bring about the Greek War of Independence. Quentin and Eugenia Russell describe his remarkable life and military career as well as the enigmatic legacy he bequeathed in his homeland both as a nationalist hero and a tyrant, and further afield as inspiration for writers and artists of the Romantic movement. 18 x 24.89cm. 206 pages.

History, Organization, and Uniforms. Gabriele Esposito presents a detailed overview of the military history of Colonial North America during its earliest period, from the first colonial settlement in Jamestown to the end of the first continental war fought in the Americas. He follows the development of organization and uniforms not only for the British Colonies of North America but also for the French ones of Canada. Every colonial unit formed by the Europeans in the New World, as well as the regular troops sent to America by Britain and France, is covered in detail, from the early militias of the Thirteen Colonies to the expeditionary forces formed during the War of the Spanish Succession. Great military events like King Philip's War or Bacon's Rebellion are analysed, and the evolution of tactics employed in this theatre are discussed, showing how much warfare was influenced by the terrain and conditions in North America. Dozens of illustrations, including colour art works, show the first military uniforms ever worn in North America, as well as interesting details of weaponry and equipment used. "Good general historical background to these units, their equipment and organisation." Certainly this is a rare topic and great for wargaming and modellers. Many full page colour illus, and line art and photos. 17.78 x 25.15cm, 180 pages.

'He has great gifts as a psychologist and excellent insight into the Continental mind.' In the darkest days of the Second World War, with Europe falling under German occupation in 1935 and Britain facing invasion, a 36-year-old refugee from the Nazis, Louis de Wohl, made a curious offer to British Intelligence. His popular autobiography was filled with name dropping of minor European royalty and Hollywood moguls. Based on the widely-held belief that Hitler's every action was guided by his horoscope, de Wohl claimed he could reveal precisely what advice the Fuhrer's astrologers were giving him. Rather than being dismissed out of hand as a crank, Churchill could see de Wohl's worth for himself. He was subsequently made an army captain and quartered in the Grosvenor House Hotel, from where he passed detailed astrological readings to the War Office and Naval Intelligence, before being transferred to work for the SOE in the United States. Was it possible that senior military and naval intelligence officers could take the ancient and arcane practice of astrology seriously? Was de Wohl genuine or merely a charlatan and imposter? When he began his involvement with MI5 in 1938 and British Intelligence in 1940 he was already a successful practising astrologer to London's 'great and good.' James Parris examines the evidence, including recently released files, and reaches remarkable conclusions about this bizarre aspect of the war. Archive photos, 288 pages.

Many have questioned the decision to write about cooperation between enemies in warfare but far from surreptitiously sanitising the carnage of war or apologising for its injustices this project seeks to humanise it. These valiant and sometimes devastating efforts between enemies to constrain warfare and impose some boundaries order and meaning on what is fundamentally a radical anarchic and lawless activity is a moral philosophy. Drawing on an impressive survey of military history ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, many of the incidents recounted here are moving and inspiring and offer grounds for optimism about the future of warfare. The scholarship is impressively wide-ranging with an eye for anecdote, historical episode and quotation. Despite the strong influence of just war theory in military law and practice, warfare is commonly considered devoid of morality. Yet even in the most horrific of human activities, there is frequent communication and cooperation between enemies. One remarkable example is the Christmas truce - unofficial ceasefires between German and English trenches in December 1914 in which soldiers even mingled in No Man's Land. Yvonne Chiu offers a new understanding of why and how enemies work together to constrain violence in warfare. Chiu argues that what she calls an ethic of cooperation is found in modern warfare to such an extent that it is often taken for granted. The importance of cooperation becomes especially clear when wartime ethics reach a grey area: To whom should the laws of war apply? Who qualifies as a combatant? Should guerrillas or terrorists receive protections? Fundamentally, Chiu shows, the norms of war rely on consensus on the existence and content of the laws of war. In a wide-ranging consideration of pivotal instances of cooperation, Chiu examines weapons bans, treatment of prisoners of war, and the Geneva Conventions, as well as the tensions between the ethic of cooperation and the pillars of just war theory. A significant contribution to military ethics and political philosophy. 352 page paperback.