American Option : And, Yes, I Almost Became an American

Threading through the events of one war, World War II, is a plain tale of a child evacuee escaping the London blitz – and perhaps worse, if the imminence of invasion by gloating shock troops of Nazi elite is taken into account. And we see how children, a nation's heritage, are suddenly remembered by postwar writers. In that context, the story raises questions posed by history. The story's main title is chosen for two reasons. America no longer feels insecurely isolationist. Just less secure. In a world where national boundaries increasingly count for little more than lines on a map, its child population could also suffer evacuation to safer zones if a land war affected the country internally. For nothing now is beyond imagination in terms of terrorism in the name of culture, not a country. The second reason: As a child evacuee to America in a global political climate not unlike the present, the author chose an option. He would avoid the horrors which ultimately proved the lot of Europe's children had Britain not missed being overrun by a whisker. Winston Churchill, hesitated over relinquishing British children to different cultures. Visiting New York three weeks after 'nine-eleven'; aware of the city's spontaneous official and citizen response among numbing scenes, was to return to the London blitz, to the 1940s – even the smell was there. This is a story about courage and a family’s ultimate triumph.

Philip Morgan Cheek

Battle for the Hague 1940

This is the story of the first great air landing operation in history. The plan conceived by Adolf Hitler to capture The Hague by surprise, was carried out as part of the Blitzkrieg offensive in western Europe in May 1940. It became a dismal failure. It also became the only defeat of importance the Germans suffered during their campaign. The so successful course of their offensive, crowned by the surrender of France, enabled them initially to keep silent about the set-back or to present it as a side show. Only after the Second World War it was possible to throw more light on the fighting that took place in the Dutch polders. The defeat of the only German air landing division had not been without consequences. Hitler's enthusiasm for this new arm had diminished, so that its development was slowed down, an advantage for the Allies. Even greater than the heavy losses in air landing troops and paratroopers, were the gaps blown in the ranks of the German air transport fleet. According to authoritative German sources, the Germans never recovered from this blow during the Second World War. An invasion in England thus became a hazardous and difficult to carry out operation; the plans to attack Gibraltar and Malta underwent important changes and were finally cancelled.

Battle of Normandy - The Falaise Gap

The Battle of the Falaise Pocket was a disaster for the Germans in August 1944. This books sets the battle in the context of Allied Strategy in Northern Europe. Having set the scene, the readers is led through each phase of the action. The particular strength is that it draws heavily on German sources giving the reader a penetrating insight into an army trapped in a killing ground.

Battle of Sicily - How the Allies Lost Their Chance for Total Victory

Betrayal - The True Story of J Edgar Hoover & the Nazi Saboteurs Captured During WWII

The true story behind the Nazi saboteurs captured on Long Island in 1942, their betrayal by J. Edgar Hoover, and the shameful secret behind the case the established the reputation of the FBI. At 4 AM on a foggy morning in 1942, Nazi submarines discharged eight men along the coasts of Long Island and Florida. A few days later, J. Edgar Hoover further burnished his reputation by announcing the swift capture of Nazi soldiers found prowling our shores, intent on sabotage. Omitted from the record (and still denied by the FBI) is the true story behind Hoover’s greatest publicity coup: the saboteurs’ leader, George Dasch, betrayed his own country by turning himself in first to a disbelieving FBI. Hoover promised Dasch clemency and assurances that the jerry-rigged "military tribunal" created to try the men as "unlawful combatants" was merely a formality to protect loved ones from Nazi retribution. Using documentation from the FBI archives, interviews and memoirs, David Alan Johnson carefully recounts the mounting betrayals in this utterly engrossing saga.