Operation Colossus

“Provides an excellent overview of the development of parachute troops as well as an exciting battle narrative and gripping human interest story.” —Argunners Magazine Formed by a collection of free-thinking army and air force officers, the fledgling British paratrooper unit, known as the “SAS,” deployed trial and error in terms of tactics and equipment before an elite few were selected to make the first British parachute raid of the war, which took place in Basilicata, Italy on 10 February 1941. Collectively known as “X-Troop,” these men were parachuted by specially selected bomber crews into the heart of enemy territory, where they successfully destroyed their target, the Tragino Aqueduct, before becoming the object of an exhaustive manhunt by Italian troops and civilians. Captured, they were variously interrogated, imprisoned, and the Italian SOE agent placed on trial for treason and executed. Given the distances that had to be covered, the logistical complications and the lack of any precedent, the raid was a remarkable feat. Its success or failure depended on a group of men using methods and equipment thus far untried by the British Army. They were truly “guinea pigs” for those that would follow in their footsteps. Often overlooked in British military history, Paterson brings this extraordinary episode to light, drawing on verbatim testimony and interrogating the truth of previous accounts. From the formation of the unit and the build up to its first deployment, through Operation Colossus and its aftermath, to its ongoing legacy today, this is the fascinating story of the modern-day British Parachute Regiment. “Well written with all the flash and dash of typical commando warfare.” —Historical Miniatures Gaming Society

The incredible details of the bold, near-disastrous first Allied airborne commando raid. Audacious to the extreme, Operation Colossus was a raid in the early, dark days of the Second World War, when Britain stood seemingly alone. After the country's defeats in western Europe in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill insisted on an aggressive raiding campaign. Conducted on February 10, 1941, Operation Colossus was one such raid, meant to steal back the initiative and create as much chaos for the Axis powers as possible. However, bad luck stalked the mission, as one mishap after another seemed to foredoom the operation. In the aftermath, there were recriminations as well as accolades. Few military operations have proven as controversial.

The author of the Horrible Histories series tells the unpleasant truth about what the poor have endured in this sharp-witted, pull-no-punches book. British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once described the rich and poor as “two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets.” Today we’re well aware of the habits, thoughts, and feelings of the rich, because historians write about them endlessly. The poor, though, are largely ignored and, as a result, their contributions to our modern world are forgotten. Here, Terry Deary takes us back through the centuries with a poignant but humorous look at how life treated the ordinary people who scratched out a living at the very bottom of society. Their world was one of foul food, terrible toilets, danger, disease and death—the last usually premature. Wryly told tales of deprivation, exploitation, sickness, mortality, warfare, and religious oppression fill these pages—the teacher turned child-catcher who rounded up local waifs and strays before putting them to work; the agricultural workers who escaped the clutches of the Black Death only to be thwarted by lordly landowners; the hundreds of children who descended into the inky depths of hazardous coal mines. You’ll discover ingenuity: how cash-strapped citizens used animal droppings for house building, how sparrow’s brains were incorporated into aphrodisiacal brews, and how extra money was made by mixing tea with dried elder leaves—and learn how courtship, marriage, sport, entertainment, education, and, occasionally, achievement briefly illuminated the drudgery. The Peasants’ Revolting Lives explores, commemorates, and celebrates the lives of those who endured against the odds. From medieval miseries to the idiosyncrasies of being a twenty-first-century peasant, tragedy and comedy sit side by side in these tales of survival in the face of hardship.

Drawing on evidence never before seen in the West, including combat records of early engagements, David Glantz claims that in 1941 the Red Army was poorly trained, inadequately equipped, ineptly organized, and consequently incapable of engaging in large-scale military campaigns - and both Hitler and Stalin knew it. He provides a complete and convincing study of why the Soviets almost lost the war that summer, dispelling many of the myths about the Red Army that have persisted since the war and soundly refuting Viktor Suvorov's controversial thesis that Stalin was planning a preemptive strike against Germany.

In 1940, almost a year after the outbreak of World War II, Allied radio operators at an interception station in South London began picking up messages in a strange new code. Using science, math, innovation, and improvisation, Bletchley Park code breakers worked furiously to invent a machine to decipher what turned out to be the secrets of Nazi high command. It was called Colossus. What these code breakers didn't realize was that they had fashioned the world's first true computer. When the war ended, this incredible invention was dismantled and hidden away for almost 50 years. Paul Gannon has pieced together the tremendous story of what is now recognized as the greatest secret of Bletchley Park.

"Beyond the battles themselves, Glantz also presents an in-depth portrait of the Red Army as an evolving military institution. Assessing more clearly than ever before the army's size, strength, and force structure, he provides keen insights into its doctrine, strategy, tactics, weaponry, training, officer corps, and political leadership. In the process, be puts a human face on the Red Army's commanders and soldiers, including women and those who served in units - security (NKVD), engineer, railroad, auto-transport, construction, and penal forces - that have till now remained poorly understood."--BOOK JACKET.

The dramatic, untold story of the brilliant team whose feats of innovation and engineering created the world’s first digital electronic computer—decrypting the Nazis’ toughest code, helping bring an end to WWII, and ushering in the information age. • Winner, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Middleton Award for "a book ... that both exemplifies exceptional scholarship and reaches beyond academic communities toward a broad public audience." • A Kirkus Best Book of 2022 • Planning the invasion of Normandy, the Allies knew that decoding the communications of the Nazi high command was imperative for its success. But standing in their way was an encryption machine they called Tunny (British English for “tuna”), which was vastly more difficult to crack than the infamous Enigma cipher. To surmount this seemingly impossible challenge, Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker, brought in a maverick English working-class engineer named Tommy Flowers who devised the ingenious, daring, and controversial plan to build a machine that would calculate at breathtaking speed and break the code in nearly real time. Together with the pioneering mathematician Max Newman, Flowers and his team produced—against the odds, the clock, and a resistant leadership—Colossus, the world’s first digital electronic computer, the machine that would help bring the war to an end. Drawing upon recently declassified sources, David A. Price’s Geniuses at War tells, for the first time, the full mesmerizing story of the great minds behind Colossus and chronicles the remarkable feats of engineering genius that marked the dawn of the digital age.

One of the least-known stories of WWII was Operation Mars, a Soviet operation designed to dislodge the German Army from its position west of Moscow. This account of a catastrophe censored from postwar Soviet histories reveals key players and details major events, using sources in German and Russian archives to reconstruct the historical context of Operation Mars and review the entire operation from High Command to platoon level. Includes bandw photos and maps. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR