Battles & Campaigns

A gripping new thriller from the bestselling author of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB

The harrowing story of the Allied airmen who experienced the true horrors of Nazism firsthand. It was the summer of 1944 as liberating Allied forces surged towards Paris following the D-Day landings. For a large group of downed airmen being held in that city's infamous Fresnes Pr...ison, they were about to face evacuation into the blackest, bloody heart of Germany and experience the most acute evil of the war. Amid great secrecy, those 168 airmen - including several from Australia and New Zealand - were transported on a filthy, overcrowded nightmare train journey which ended at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp, accompanied by orders for their execution. At Buchenwald they witnessed extreme depravity that would haunt them to the end of their days. Yet, on returning home, they were confronted by decades of denials from their own governments that they had ever been held in one of Hitler's most vile concentration camps. In conducting his original deep research for this book - now completely expanded and updated - Colin Burgess personally interviewed or corresponded with dozens of the surviving airmen from a number of nations, including their valorous leader, New Zealand Squadron Leader Phil Lamason. Destination Buchenwald tells a compelling story of extraordinary bravery, comradeship and endurance, when a group of otherwise ordinary servicemen were thrust into an unimaginable Nazi hell. 'This was the first book to provide an insight into our experiences as a group of captured allied airmen, betrayed to the Gestapo, tortured and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. I consider it to be one of the best interpretations of the events as it reflects the voices of the survivors and their challenges to stay alive in such dehumanising circumstances.' Sqn Ldr Stanley Booker, RAF (Rtd.), MBE, Legion D'Honneur: Last surviving member of the Buchenwald airmen
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The moving and inspiring story of an Auschwitz survivor who shares what he's learned about gratitude, tolerance and kindness.

Two girls must unearth an ancient myth hidden deep beneath the mysterious Splint Hall... 1945. War has ended, but for sisters Flora and Isobel the struggles still continue. They've lost their father and had their home destroyed in a bombing raid, and now they must go to live with... their aunt and her awful husband Mr Godfrey in their ancestral home, Splint Hall. From the moment of their arrival it seems that this is a place shrouded in mysteries and secrets. Who are the strange men who arrive with packages at night? What is the source of the strange blue sparks coming from the ground? And why do the locals seem to hate their family so much? As the girls begin to unearth an ancient myth and family secret, the adventure of a lifetime begins.
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A moving and dramatic World War II Land Girl saga by the author of Lily's War and Bobby's War.