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meticulously researched study Ian Fletcher & Natalia Ishchenko reconstruct the battle in vivid detail using many rare & unpublished eyewitness accounts from all sides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 ...

Hitlers desperate last throw during the depths of winter 1944/45 came perilously close to being a major disaster for the Allies. Their offensive through the Ardennes fell on the Americans & caught them totally by surprise. Unaccustomed to set-backs the situation was for a time extremely serious & in some areas panic set in & events went out of control. It was only after the most bitter fighting & massive reinforcement that the rot was stopped. In this book the drama of those worrying weeks is captured in superb photographs. ...

Evil Pharoah Oba has imprisoned the gods who protect Egypt & now bloodthirsty monsters roam the l&. Only one boy can stop them: Akori an orphaned farm-boy with a huge destiny. Akori must brave the crocodile-infested waters of the Nile to battle two evil gods
- the terrifying Crocodile King & his gruesome wife the Frog Goddess
- both hungry for his blood... Dont miss a single battle in this huge new adventure series!

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Life in the monastery is simple for Edwin & Luke two young boys who are training to be monks. It seems that nothing will disrupt the peace & order. Then news arrives that the Vikings have invaded & they are forced to run for their lives. If the Vikings catch them they will be taken away & become slaves. But with the elders in danger will they turn back to help them? A Viking story blending Norse mythology with historical fact & Terry Dearys vividly imagined characters. ...

In the RSPCBs most dangerous mission to date Ulf the werewolf visits a haunted castle to investigate some very spooky goings-on. But little does he know that hes heading into a trap: the evil Baron Marackai is lying in wait with a beastly plan
- & this time hes got help from the dead! Can Ulf unravel the ghostly mystery or will he end up as zombie food? The future of the RSPCB depends on him...
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Koushun Takamis notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of 42 junior high school students are taken to a deserted island where as part of a ruthless authoritarian program they are electronically collared provided with weapons of varying potency & sent out onto the isl&. If they are in the wrong part of the island at the wrong time their collars will explode. If they band together to save themselves a collar will explode at random. If they try to escape from the island they will be blown up. Their only chance for survival lies in killing their classmates. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan
- where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller
- Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century & a potent story of politics & survival in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic & is now available for the first time to the UK mainstream.

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The Battle of Loos saw a change in Allied strategy which up until then had been a series of small-scale assaults that achieved little or no ground gained. Loos was to be different Kitcheners Army was deployed in strength for the first time & an ambitious plan aimed to take ground over a 20-mile front. As the fog of war descended the first days gains were lost over subsequent days fighting & in the end the Big Push saw little achieved with Allied losses of about 50 000 men. Through"es & maps the text explores the unfolding action of the battle & puts the reader on the frontline. If you truly want to understand what happened & why
- read Battle Story.
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The Fall of Singapore remains a crushing defeat that sent shockwaves around the British Empire during the Second World War. Singapore had always been seen as an impenetrable fortress that would protect the British Empires stake in the Far East
- a legacy of the great days of global dominion. The British Army were aware of the threat to Singapore & Malaya from the first days after Pearl Harbor but they viewed the Japanese Army as an inferior fighting force incapable of standing up to the defences & trained troops of the British. Yet in December 1941 the Japanese launched a swift attack on the Singapore airfields nearly wiping out the entire fleet of RAF frontline aeroplanes. On 10 December the Japanese also destroyed two of the Royal Navys premier battleships off the Malay coast. Suddenly the fate of Singapore rested solely in the hands of the Army. Despite having 90 000 British soldiers posted in Singapore they were quickly overwhelmed by the speed & ferocity of the invading Japanese forces numbering 75 000 men. The brutality of the Japanese tactics & their sheer ferocity shocked the British & they were soon forced to retreat. By January/ February 1942 the British last stand melted away & the Japanese swept into the city slaughtering those who stood in their way. Over 100 000 men were taken prisoner & many thousands (possibly up to 50 000) residents of the city were massacred. To understand what happened & why read Battle Story.
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