World History: First World War

The inspirational true story of an Allied POW appointed Kapellmeister to the Nazis in Auschwitz. When called up to fight in yet another World War, Drum Major Jackson promised his beloved wife Mabel that he would return to lead his band and play for her once more. In May 1940, he ...was captured at Dunkirk and interned in several German forced labour camps throughout Poland. Two years later he was transferred to Auschwitz IV, part of the notorious concentration camp complex where it is not widely known held Allied POWs. When his captors appointed Jackson their 'Kapellmeister' (man in charge of music), he seized the opportunity to provide entertainment for his fellow prisoners at rehearsals, and cover for escapees during concerts. Finally liberated in May 1945, malnourished and gravely ill, Jackson carried his secret war diary-an incredible expose on five years of life and death in Nazi concentration camps. THE MUSIC MAKER OF AUSCHWITZ IV, based on Jackson's diary, is written by his granddaughter. It is a thrilling testament to the resilience one man found in the darkest of times through his two greatest loves-music and the woman who waited for him.
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Relatively unusual personal memoir of a tunnelling officer

Comrades in distress we were, and it was now that one felt the existence of a brotherhood that establishes itself in circumstances of this kind ... A few of the men are very dejected, and appear to be losing all interest in themselves, their habits and practices not being approve...d by the majority. In some cases, for the most miserable reward, they cringe to the Germans for the chance of being of some service; others also, despite the fact their bodies can ill-afford the sacrifice, trade their boots and other clothing in exchange for food and smokes ... This is regrettable, but censure has no effect on the few. Most of us have resolved to maintain some sort of dignity, though 'tis difficult. So wrote Australian prisoner of war (POW) Corporal Lancelot Davies who was captured at the First Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 where Allied forces were 'badly smashed up'. Davies was one of almost 1,200 Australians captured that day, facing an uncertain future at the hands of their German captors. - he described the future as 'blank' and unpredictable. The experiences of Australian prisoners of war (POWs) or Kriegsgefangeners held captive in Germany has been largely forgotten or ignored - overshadowed by the horrid stories of Australians imprisoned by the Japanese during World War Two. Yet, as David Coombes makes known, the stories are interesting and significant - not only providing an account of what those young Australian soldiers experienced, and the spirit they showed in responding to captivity - but also for the insight it provides into Germany in the last eighteen months of the war. Coombes draws upon previous inaccessible records - including the interviews conducted many years before by Chalk - as well as private papers and unpublished manuscripts. He paints a vivid picture of young soldiers who survived the trauma of battle, only to find themselves facing an unknown fate at the hands of an often vindictive and cruel enemy. These 'comrades in distress', many wound
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Journey back to the 1950s and 60s with this nostalgic look at Britain's railways in their glory days. Packed with hundreds of photographs, journey logs, trainspotting notebooks and ephemera. This is a vivid recollection of the whole atmosphere of the railways during that glorious... era.
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Provides a detailed guide to the early fighting on the Somme in 1914 and 1915 in what became the British area.