Officially Licensed & developed in partnership with the RAF this title is part of the fact-filled interactive sticker & activity books. It features bitesize information with stickers to complete scenes & content related activities. The target age is 8-12 boys & girls. Each book also has cut out & keep Plane Collector Cards detailing all the essential stat info on the planes featured in the book. Over 45 stickers in each title. It combines the sticker element of a Panini comic with fun content-related activities quizzes & facts. You will benefit from the very broad range of RAF licensed merchandise set hit the shelves this year including toys & games. ...

The Nazi Blitzkrieg was unlike any invasion the world had ever seen. It hit Europe with a force & aggression that no-one could counter. Within weeks the German armies were at the French coast & looking across at Britain a country still reeling from the opening salvoes of the war. It seemed impossible that she would be able to resist invasion. But between the Nazis & glory stood more than just the pilots of Fighter Comm&. There was Bomber & Coastal Command the Royal Navy & the incredible Auxiliary Patrol Service. In this darkest hour Britain's defence was truly a national effort & one that had been considerably better prepared for than the German attack. For the first time The Battle of Britain" tells this most epic of stories from a 360degree perspective drawing on extensive new research from around the world that challenges some of the long-held myths about the battle. Holland paints a complete picture of that extraordinary summer
- a time in which the fate of the world truly hung by a thread."
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RAF fighter pilot George Barclay kept a personal diary of his time flying Hurricanes & Spitfires in 1940
- 41 including his rare
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The Battle of Britain: Portraits of the Few is an exceptional tribute to the small group of legendary pilots that served with the Royal Air Force through one of the most critical periods of the Second World War. Portraits of the Few contains over 60 colour illustrations capturing the images & character of the military aviators who were designated the Few by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Accompanying the portraits painted by artist David Pritchard are action filled accounts written by Second World War aviation author Christopher Yeoman recounting gripping combats & ferocious encounters as the respective men successfully resist the might of the Luftwaffe. Indeed the aerial battle fought during the long & glorious summer of 1940 is now viewed as one of the most decisive episodes in all of British history. Each & every day proved consequential ultimately shaping the islands future. It was a struggle which will never be forgotten by the wartime population of Great Britain; it will never be forgotten for generations to come. The Battle of Britain: Portraits of the Few celebrates the airmens legacy & is a unique tribute to this group of extraordinary men. Battle of Britain fighter pilot Squadron Leader Geoffrey Wellum DFC on receiving his own portrait: Thank you so very much for the truly excellent water colour the likeness is remarkable. I was touched & became slightly emotional when I first opened the box & there I was looking back at myself all those years ago."" ...

Sid Peggy & Amy adore the two gerbils Bubble & Squeak but their mother detests them. A major family battle results & its clear life is never going to be quite the same again. But after a near fatal encounter between Bubble & Ginger the cat Mrs Sparrow begins to see that life with 2 gerbils might not be so bad after all. ...

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly & so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4 1942 a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk & their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II one of Americas leading naval historians Craig L. Symonds paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity courage & sacrifice. Symonds begins with the arrival of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese attack & describes the key events leading to the climactic battle including both Coral Sea--the first battle in history against opposing carrier forces--and Jimmy Doolittles daring raid of Tokyo. He focuses throughout on the people involved offering telling portraits of Admirals Nimitz Halsey Spruance & numerous other Americans as well as the leading Japanese figures including the poker-loving Admiral Yamamoto. Indeed Symonds sheds much light on the aspects of Japanese culture--such as their single-minded devotion to combat which led to poorly armored planes & inadequate fire-safety measures on their ships--that contributed to their defeat. The authors account of the battle itself is masterful weaving together the many disparate threads of attack--attacks which failed in the early going--that ultimately created a five-minute window in which three of the four Japanese carriers were mortally wounded changing the course of the Pacific war in an eye-blink. Symonds is the first historian to argue that the victory at Midway was not simply a matter of luck pointing out that Nimitz had equal forces superior intelligence & the element of surprise. Nimitz had a strong hand Symonds concludes & he rightly expected to win. ...

Angus Konstams gripping account tells the story of this crucial but under-studied naval battle & explains why the hopes of the German Kriegsmarine went down with their last great ship; only 37 of the German battlecruisers 1700 crew were saved.
- The Nautical Magazine Angus Konstams book is an excellent read & strongly recommended...thoughtful & totally engrossing... If you are interested in the Royal Navy in the Second World War the Arctic convoy campaign or capital ship actions The Battle of North Cape is well worth its cover price.
- Naval Review On 25 December 1943 the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst slipped out Altenfjord in Norway to attack Artic convoy JW55B which was carrying vital war supplies to the Soviet Union. But British naval intelligence knew of the Scharnhorsts mission before she sailed & the vulnerable convoy was protected by a large Royal Naval force including the battleship Duke of York. In effect the Scharnhorst was sailing into a trap. One of the most compelling naval dramas of the Second World War had begun.ANGUS KONSTAM is a highly respected & widely published military historian. The body of his work encompasses everything from ancient Greece to the Second World War. However his main field is maritime & naval history. He has published books on Blackbeard: Americas Most Notorious Pirate The History of Pirates PT Boats: US Naval Torpedo Boats The History of Shipwrecks Hunt the Bismarck & the 7th U-Boat Flotilla. His most recent books include Salerno 1943: The Allied Invasion of Italy & Piracy.

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On 20 September 1854 the combined British & French armies confronted the Russians at the river Alma in the critical opening encounter of the Crimean War. This was the first major battle the British had fought on European soil since Waterloo almost 40 years before. In this compelling & meticulously researched study Ian Fletcher & Natalia Ishchenko reconstruct the battle in vivid detail using many rare & unpublished eyewitness accounts from all sides
- English French & Russian. Their groundbreaking work promises to be the definitive history of this extraordinary clash of arms for many years to come. It also gives a fascinating insight into military thinking & organization in the 1850s midway between the end of the Napoleonic era & the outbreak of the Great War.
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From 1939 until 1942 Hitler's U-boats
- his 'grey wolves'
- threatened to accomplish what his air force had hitherto been unable

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In the middle of December 1944 at a time when most people thought Germany was finished the German army launched a surprise attack against the American army in Belgium. Thousands of crack troops & large numbers of tanks breached the thin American lines & drove deep into Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge would be a brutal bloody struggle in a dismal winter landscape against an enemy imbued with Adolf Hitlers fanatic conviction that victory could be snatched from defeat. Before it ended the Battle of the Bulge would involve over a million men & thousands of guns tanks & other fighting vehicles. In that dark December fighting both bitter winter storms & a grim & determined enemy the American soldier faced his greatest challenge in the European war ...