This comprehensive volume explores the significant submarine campaigns across all theaters of World War II, offering detailed accounts of naval strategies and battles. It delves into the technological advancements of submarines and their impact on warfare, highlighting key missions and notable submarines from various nations. The book provides a thorough analysis of tactics used by both Allied and Axis powers, making it an essential resource for history enthusiasts and military scholars interested in naval warfare during this pivotal period.
When Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess set off for Britain on a peace mission in May 1941, he launched one of the great mysteries of the Second World War. Had he really acted alone, without Hitler’s knowledge? Who were the British he had come to see? Was British intelligence involved?Award-winning historian Peter Padfield presents striking new evidence that demands the wholesale reappraisal of the episode. For, allied to a powerful argument that Hess must have had both Hitler’s backing and considerable encouragement from Britain, Padfield demonstrates that he also brought with him a draft peace treaty committing Hitler to the evacuation of occupied European countries. Made public, this would have destroyed Churchill’s campaign to bring the United States into the war.Expertly woven into a compelling narrative that touches on Lord (Victor) Rothschild and the Cambridge spy ring, possible British foreknowledge of Operation Barbarossa and the ‘final solution’, MI6’s use of Hess to prevent the bombing of London and the mysterious circumstances of his death in Spandau prison – including the previously unseen witness accounts from that day – Hess, Hitler and Churchill is among the most important history books of recent years.
This is the dramatic story of the deadly competition in Dreadnought battleships between Great Britain and imperial Germany in the years before the World War I. It is the story of two great empires set on a collision course to the Armageddon of 1914.
Charting the influences and pressures that moulded Doenitz and led him to put all his trust in Hitler, this biography then provides an account of the pressures and inner struggles he experienced as the U-boat admiral, Supreme Commander of the Navy, and Hitler's most trusted confidant.
Remarkably, this is the first full-length biography of a man often seen as the very personification of evil. Heinrich Himmler was not only head of Hitler's SS police and Gestapo, but was also in charge of the death camps in the East. The account of Himmler's life and his impact on the rise and fall of the Nazi state make a gripping and horrifying story. But more than this, it is a profound moral and intellectual inquiry into the nature of evil in the human character.
In May 1941, Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, flew a German fighter plane to Scotland, crashing near Dungavel House. Once a close confidant of Hitler, he was quickly labeled a traitor in Berlin. Imprisoned in England, Hess faced intense questioning from British MI6 and even Winston Churchill. The documents he carried were confiscated and remain classified. After the war, Hess was tried at Nuremberg and became one of seven former Nazis imprisoned at Spandau in Berlin. Unlike the others who were released, he remained until his death in 1987, under circumstances that suggest possible suicide. Official accounts state he acted alone, but many historians challenge this view. Award-winning historian Peter Padfield presents compelling new evidence that prompts a reevaluation of the events surrounding Hess's flight. The narrative explores the roles of Churchill and British intelligence, the implications of Nazi sympathizers within the British aristocracy, and the potential foreknowledge of the "final solution." This investigation into Hess's actions and the mystery of his death offers a gripping perspective on a pivotal moment in World War II.
