Bøger af Martin Middlebrook

Tells the controversial story of the RAF Bomber Commands most prolonged campaign. Written by one of the most respected military historians. Superbly researched, used many first hand accounts of crews and civilians who suffered the onslaught.

A comprehensive account of the most controversial Allied bombing offensive of WW2. Written by the foremost military/aviation historian. Superbly researched and objectively written giving all points of view. Loss of life was unprecedented due to the firestorm phenomenon.

Covers a 24 hour period of Allied Strategic Bombing Offensive in meticulous detail.

While best known as being the scene of the most terrible carnage in the WW1, the French department of the Somme has seen many other battles from Roman times to 1944. This work guides us to the cemeteries, memorials and battlefields of the area, with the emphasis on the fighting of 1916 and 1918, with descriptions and anecdotes.

The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words - Guardian'For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first; we strolled along as though walking in a park. Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways' On 1 July 1916, a continous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns. By the end of the day there were more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatal.Martin Middlebrook's now-classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources from the time, and on the words of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.

This is a unique record of every RAF Bomber Command raid during WW2. Comprehensive research coupled with graphic commentary make this an invaluable research tool and excellent read.

Originally published: Great Britain: Allen Lane, 1983.

The Battle of Berlin was the longest and most sustained bombing offensive against one target in the Second World War. Bomber Command's Commander-in-Chief, Sir Arthur Harris, hoped to 'wreck Berlin from end to end' and 'produce a state of devastation in which German surrender is inevitable'. He dispatched nineteen major raids between August 1943 and March 1944 - more than 10,000 aircraft sorties dropped over 30,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. It was the RAF's supreme effort to end the war by aerial bombing. But Berlin was not destroyed and the RAF lost more than 600 aircraft and their crews. The controversy over whether the Battle of Berlin was a success or failure has continued ever since. Martin Middlebrook brings to this subject considerable experience as a military historian. In preparing his material he collected documents from both sides (many of the German ones never before used); he has also interviewed and corresponded with over 400 of the people involved in the battle and has made trips to Germany to interview the people of Berlin and Luftwaffe aircrews. He has achieved the difficult task of bringing together both sides of the Battle of Berlin - the bombing force and the people on the ground - to tell a coherent, single story. The author describes the battle, month by month, as the bombers waited for the dark nights, with no moon, to resume their effort to destroy Berlin and end the war. He recounts the ebb and flow of fortunes, identifying the tactical factors that helped first the bombers, then the night fighters, to gain the upper hand. Through the words of the participants, he brings to the reader the hopes, fears and bravery of the young bomber aircrews in the desperate air battles that were waged as the Luftwaffe attempted to protect their capital city. And he includes that element so often omitted from books about the bombing war - the experiences of ordinary people in the target city, showing how the bombing destroyed homes, killed families, affected morale and reduced the German war effort. Martin Middlebrook's meticulous attention to detail makes The Bomber Battle of Berlin one of his most accomplished book to date.

On the night of 17-18 August 1943, RAF Bomber Command attacked a research establishment on the German Baltic coast. The site was Peenemunde, where Hitler's scientists were developing both the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 rocket whose destructive powers could have swung the course of the War. The raid was meticulously planned and hopes were high.

Martin Middlebrook is the only British historian to have been granted open access to the Argentines who planned and fought the Falklands War. It ranks with Liddell Hart's The Other Side of the Hill in analysing and understanding the military thinking and strategies of Britain's sometime enemy, and is essential reading for all who wish to understand the workings of military minds.The author has managed to avoid becoming involved in the issue of sovereignty and concentrates entirely upon the military story. He has produced a genuine 'first' with this balanced and unique work. Among the men he met were the captain of the ship that took the scrap-metal merchants to South Georgia; the admiral in charge of planning the Falklands invasion; the marine commander and other members of the invasion force; two brigadier-generals, five unit commanders and many other men of the large army force sent to occupy and defend the islands.; the officer in charge of the Argentine garrison at Goose Green; and finally the brigadier-general responsible for the Defence of Port Stanley and soldiers of all ranks who fought the final battles.