Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross

Extraordinary accounts of heroism and the servicemen who earned the Victoria Cross

This profound study by Roderick Bailey goes a long way to identifying the common characteristics of the bravest of the brave ... Here is a testament to what is good about humankind against the backdrop of what can be the worst. The abiding thought with which the reader is left is one of hope; that adversity can indeed bring out the best in us. These "Forgotten Voices" are eloquent in proclaiming this enduring truth

General Sir Richard Dannatt, from the Introduction

A significant and important book ... Over the last 45 years I have read hundreds of VC books but this volume has a unique place because of the "voices" of the VCs themselves ... Highly recommended and should be read by anyone with an interest in the VC

'It wasn't until after he was safely back in the aircraft again that I heard that he'd actually been out on the wing to try to put the fire out ... Remember that we were flying at about 90 miles an hour at a height of 13,000 feet' 
Squadron Leader RP Widdowson on Sergeant James Ward, who earned his VC in 1941 
 
The Victoria Cross, awarded to the most courageous and determined servicemen, is the highest military decoration that can be bestowed. 
 
In Forgotten Voices: Victoria Cross, first-hand accounts of soldiers, sailors and airmen describe the incredible events that earned these extraordinary men the VC in the last century. 
 
Captivating and often humbling, these stories depict exceptional acts of bravery in unimaginable situations, of men who would say they were just doing their duty. 
 
Introduction by General Sir Richard Dannatt.

A Powerful New History of the Normandy Landings in the Words of Those Who Were There

Forgotten Voices of D-Day

A startling new oral history of the turning point of World War 2: D-Day

The most recent of Ebury's admirable series ... a wonderful selection of first-hand accounts of D-Day by British servicemen

Incomparable. The voices speak with utter immediacy of fear, determination, bewilderment, indifference, and unmistakable courage

Roderick Bailey is a historian at the University of Oxford where he specialises in the history of medicine and the study of war and conflict. His previous books include the Sunday Times bestseller Forgotten Voices of the Secret War and, as an official SOE historian appointed by the Prime Minister, Target: Italy – The Secret War against Mussolini. Away from academia he has worked widely as an official observer of international elections in post-conflict and post-communist countries. In 2011 he deployed to Afghanistan as a British Army reservist and was awarded a Queen’s Commendation.

6 June 1944: the day Allied forces crossed the Channel and began fighting their way into Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. Initiated by airborne units and covered by air and naval bombardment, the Normandy landings were the most ambitious combined airborne and amphibious assault ever attempted. Their success marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. 
 
Drawing on thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony recorded by the Imperial War Museum, Forgotten Voices of D-Day tells the compelling story of this turning point in World War 2. Hearing from paratroopers and commandos, glider pilots and landing craft crewmen, airmen and naval personnel, we learn first-hand what it was like as men waited to go in, as they neared the beaches and drop zones, and as they landed and met the enemy. Accounts range from memories of the daring capture of 'Pegasus' bridge by British glider-bourn troops to recollections of brutal fighting as the assault forces stormed the beaches. 
 
Featuring a mass of previously unpublished material, Forgotten Voices of D-Day is a powerful and important new record of a defining moment in modern history.

An Inside History of Special Operations in the Second World War

Forgotten Voices of the Secret War

The definitive oral history of a unique and extraordinary organisation tasked to 'set Europe ablaze' in World War 2

Roderick Bailey's assembly of tales deserves a warm welcome, both for readability - there is not a dull page - and for surprise: a great deal of it is unknown to [the] general public

Roderick Bailey has skilfully braided their stories into a coherent narrative, and the quality of their egregious courage catches at the heart

a fascinating and at times gruesome and moving read, and is an ideal introduction to the whole subject of the SOE...thoroughly recommended

'The Gestapo kept me three days in this interrogation house. They especially wanted to know what I did after my escape, and precise things on the organisation of the SOE. And just for fun I suspect, because I had really not much to tell them, they pulled one of my toenails out...' - Robert Sheppard, SOE agent 
 
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British organisation created early in World War 2 to encourage resistance and carry out sabotage behind enemy lines: in Winston Churchill's famous phrase, to 'set Europe ablaze'. 
 
Drawing on the vast resources of the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive and featuring a mass of previously unpublished personal testimonies, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War tells the stories of SOE agents, HQ staff, diplomats, aircrew and naval personnel in their own words. As the war unfolds, we learn of parachute drops into enemy territory, torture by the Gestapo and nerve-wracking sabotage missions in far-flung climes. 
 
Forgotten Voices of the Secret War is both an incredible account of espionage during World War 2 and a fitting testament to the efforts and sacrifices of a dedicated group of courageous men and women.

SOE in the Land of the Eagle

The Wildest Province

The full story of Britain's Special Operations Executive in Albania and the extraordinary challenges and conditions they faced.

What makes Bailey's book so readable is not only his grasp of strategy but his hold on tactics and personalities.... The Wildest Province...establishes him as a modern historian of great skill... Anyone interested in human nature under stress, or problems of counter-insurgency, or sheer adventure, will read it with profit

This is a gripping account of two wars...a rich and rounded account...he has mastered a mass of complex material, and analysed it with great clarity and fairness...it is hard to imagine the task being done better than this... History more breathtaking than any thriller

Reminiscent of John Buchan and The Thirty-Nine Steps... Extreme stuff

Beautifully written and impeccably researched... a compelling work and by far the most comprehensive yet undertaken on the subject...The Wildest Province is a must-have acquisition for anyone remotely interested in the region, the war, its politics or the experiences of the men who fought there. I devoured the book quickly

A tribute to average men with the guts to be extraordinary... The author's research is monumental

Thanks to the excellent investigative work of Roderick Bailey we now have this gripping account of the British soldiers who fought with the partisans in occupied Albania... tells in pacy details the considerable hardships in their struggle to survive... this is an unknown but important chapter in war history, which has now found a fine chronicler'

Denis MacShane (Minister for the Balkans 2001-2005)

Authoritative... More than a decade's study and an impressive range of archival and oral sources has allowed him to weave a complex but engrossing story

[Bailey's] accomplished account makes grim reading

In 1943, small teams of elite British soldiers began parachuting into the mountains of Axis-occupied Albania. They were members of Britain's Special Operations Executive, and their task was to find and arm bands of local guerillas and harass the Axis as best they could. None had been to Albania before, or knew what awaited them. 
 
Trying to survive in extreme conditions and formidable terrain, these young Britons lived in constant danger of capture and death, and were plagued by illness, lice and frostbite. Casualties were appalling and most guerillas keener to kill each other than fight Italians and Germans. In his extraordinary new book, Roderick Bailey draws on interviews with survivors, long-hidden diaries and recently declassified files to tell the full story of this remarkable corner of SOE history and finally settle the question of whether or not British communists in SOE, perhaps even colleagues of the Cambridge spies, had conspired to betray British interests.

Roderick Bailey

'A story destined to be told. A fascinating history of blood for the front line. Humbling, awe inspiring and life affirming.'

'The dazzling story of the heroic, extraordinary efforts by small groups of doctors to overcome every impediment to achieve a remarkable aim: to save lives by introducing blood transfusions on the battlefield . . . This account by a master historian is fresh and vital, history at its best.'

History more breathtaking than any thriller

Melissa Katsoulis on The Wildest Province

Bailey’s first book establishes him as a modern historian of great skill

Excellent . . . Deserves to be regarded as definitive

Inspiring . . . The great skill of this book is to demonstrate that war is both brutal and dizzyingly unpredictable

Precious testimony to our past . . . with an absolutely flawless series of sources

Gripping history . . . readable, fast-paced

A very good read . . . The nightmarish and brutal world of underground work against Fascism in Italy is well covered . . . Drama is ever present

Bailey is a fine historian who has researched his subject and given his tale a strong narrative drive

Incomparable. The voices speak with utter immediacy of fear, determination, bewilderment, indifference, and unmistakable courage.

Andro Linklater on Forgotten Voices of D-Day

However well you know the history behind the landings, Forgotten Voices of D-Day is bound to offer everyone who reads it a brand new perspective

Soldier (the British Army’s magazine) on Forgotten Voices of D-Day

A wonderful selection of first-hand accounts

Richard Holmes on Forgotten Voices of D-Day

A significant and important book . . . Highly recommended.

Jon Mulholland on Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross

Bailey’s assembly of tales deserves a warm welcome . . . A great deal of it is unknown to the general public

M. R. D. Foot on Forgotten Voices of the Secret War

The Trailblazers of the Second World War Who Took Blood into Battle

The Lifesavers were a little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War. 
 
As part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional and iconoclastic, they pushed and pulled blood from hundreds of thousands of donors into the veins of battle casualties all over the world. Deploying expert teams – officially the smallest units in the British Army – who risked their own lives to reach the wounded and sick, they transformed survival rates with an impact comparable to that of penicillin. 
 
Among them were pre-war GPs, conscientious objectors and a communist doctor who had transfused his first casualty in the Spanish Civil War. Prominent was Gladwin Buttle, a larger-than-life dynamo, who, in North Africa, defied shortages by sending blood into the desert in cleaned-out whisky bottles and sterilizing kit with a broken-down steamroller. Directing was Lionel Whitby – ‘the greatest vampire the world has known’ he was called in 1945 – whose own life was saved in 1918 by blood transfused on the Somme. 
 
Their skills and innovations saw action in some of the most important battles in recent history, forging lifelines that allies sought to replicate but enemies – to their cost – did not. Some continue to inspire life-saving methods of emergency care today. 
 
Bestselling historian Roderick Bailey follows their trailblazing work from the start of the conflict to its end, from Dunkirk and El Alamein to Normandy and the Burmese jungle. Unearthed from rigorous research among diaries, letters and other first-hand accounts, The Lifesavers – a gripping narrative of the Second World War presented from an entirely new angle – tells the full tale for the first time.

Roderick Bailey

Praise for The Lifesavers

'A story destined to be told. A fascinating history of blood for the front line. Humbling, awe inspiring and life affirming.'

'The dazzling story of the heroic, extraordinary efforts by small groups of doctors to overcome every impediment to achieve a remarkable aim: to save lives by introducing blood transfusions on the battlefield . . . ...

Exemplary

'A story destined to be told. A fascinating history of blood for the front line. Humbling, awe inspiring and life affirming.'

'The dazzling story of the heroic, extraordinary efforts by small groups of doctors to overcome every impediment to achieve a remarkable aim: to save lives by introducing blood transfusions on the battlefield . . . ...

Exemplary

'A story destined to be told. A fascinating history of blood for the front line. Humbling, awe inspiring and life affirming.'

'The dazzling story of the heroic, extraordinary efforts by small groups of doctors to overcome every impediment to achieve a remarkable aim: to save lives by introducing blood transfusions on the battlefield . . . ...

Exemplary

Books by Roderick Bailey

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