Category: News

A Winter in Belfast, a new book by Dave Ellis

A Winter in Belfast is a frank diary transcript of a young officer’s experiences in The Parachute Regiment during a tour of duty in Belfast in the winter of 1976-77. 

His hard-hitting account captures the reality of the daily lives of 10 Platoon D Company 2 PARA – the sad, the funny, the boredom and the ridiculous. Though the violence was less intense than in previous years, daily shootings and endless riots being a thing of the past, the frequent bombings and shootings meant that the toll of dead and wounded soldiers, police and civilians continued to mount. 

See this book in the ABN book list

The British Infantry – a new book by Col. Philip (‘Tom’) Cobley

Dr/Col. Philip (‘Tom’) Cobley MBE late PARA, now retired and living in USA, has most generously donated the royalties from his three books: The Final Tally, Combat Command and The British Infantry to the Airborne Charity Support our PARAs ‘in perpetuity’. This is a very generous gift and should any other ABN author wish to consider doing the same, advice as to how proceed is available from plansdir@supportourparas.org


For more details on these and other books by Airborne authors see: Books by ABN Authors

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No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege

‘Fiercely immersive. Truly heroic.’ Tom Marcus, bestselling author of Soldier Spy ‘Vivid and brilliantly written: a pulsating account of the battle for Musa Qala, the Rorke’s Drift of our times.’ Martin Bell, OBE, war reporter In Helmand province in July 2006, Major Adam Jowett was given command of Easy Company, a hastily assembled and under-strength unit of Paras and Royal Irish rangers. Their mission was to hold the District Centre of Musa Qala at any cost. Easy Company found themselves in a ramshackle compound, cut off and heavily outnumbered by the Taliban in the town. In No Way Out, Adam evokes the heat and chaos of battle as the Taliban hit Easy Company with wave after wave of brutal attack. He describes what it was like to have responsibility for the lives of his men as they fought back heroically over twenty-one days and nights of relentless, nerve-shredding combat. Finally, as they came down to their last rounds and death stared Easy Company in the face, the siege took an extraordinary turn . . . Powerful, highly-charged and moving, No Way Out is Adam’s tribute to the men of Easy Company who paid a heavy price for serving their country.

DO NOT DELETE

It Never Snows in September by Robert Kershaw

On the afternoon of 17 September 1944, Lieutenant Joseph Enthammer, a Wehrmacht artillery officer based in Arnhem, gazed up to the clear skies, hardly believing what he saw. White ‘snowflakes’ appeared to hang in the air. ‘That cannot be’ he thought. ‘It never snows in September! They must be parachutists!’ They were.

He was witnessing the first wave of the British parachute assault on Arnhem. The war had reached the Reich. The blow moreover had come as a total surprise. The Allies had expected operation Market-Garden to bring the collapse of the Wehrmacht in the West and shorten World War 2. But the Germans resolved to fight.

This ground-breaking military study uniquely chronicles this period of the war through the eyes of the ordinary German soldier and analyses the reasons for the eventual outcome. A major work of military history, this new paperback edition is certain to stimulate renewed debate about one of the most controversial operations of World War 2.

A Street in Arnhem by Robert Kershaw

In this long-awaited book, Robert Kershaw follows up his best-selling account of Operation Market Garden It Never Snows in September to focus on the experiences of Dutch civilians and British and German soldiers in one street while fighting to survive at the heart of one of the most intense battles of World War II. He tells the story from the perspective of what could be seen or heard from the Utrechtseweg, a road that runs seven kilometers from the Arnhem railway station west to Oosterbeek. This stretch of road saw virtually every major event during the fighting for Arnhem the legendary Bridge Too Far during September 1944.

The story is about the disintegration of a wealthy Dutch suburb caught unexpectedly in the war it had escaped for so long. The book charts the steady destruction of an exclusive rural community, where wealthy Dutch holiday-makers had relaxed before the war. The destruction of this pretty village is charted through the eyes of British, Polish and German soldiers fighting amid its confused and horrified inhabitants. It portrays a collage of human experiences, sights, sounds, visceral fears and emotion as ordinary people seek to cope when their street is so suddenly and unexpectedly overwhelmed in a savage battle using the most deadly weapons of the day.

Kershaw’s new research reveals the extent to which most people in this battle, whether soldiers or civilians, saw only what was immediately happening to them, with no idea of the larger picture. Many original Dutch, German and English accounts have been unearthed through interviews, diary accounts and letters, as well as post-combat reports charting the same incidents from both sides. The story is told as a docudrama following the fortunes of participants within a gripping narrative format. Holland had not witnessed conflict since the Napoleonic wars. What happens when your street, where you have lived for generations, is suddenly overwhelmed by conflict? A Street in Arnhem with its alternating revelations of horror and courage tells that story and provides some of the answers.