Bøker av James Lucas

Blood, fire and iron: An unforgettable portrait of the most feared soldiers of World War TwoIn the closing years of the 1930s, German agent-provocateurs worked in secrecy. These crack units of elite soldiers paved the way for the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland, the spark that would ignite a war across Europe. In time, they would go on to shape the conflict with terrifying ferocity and skill. The mysteries of German special forces are revealed here, with incisive analysis of naval, military and aerial operations, and vivid descriptions of suicide pilots, human torpedoes and explosive motor boats. James Lucas delivers one of the fullest and most accessible ever accounts of the elite troops known as Kommandos, across both their achievements and failures to stave off impending military defeat. This is war at its toughest, most harrowing and most extreme.

The year the once all-conquering German army was finally defeated.By the summer of 1944, Germany was in crisis. The Allied landings had forced another battle arena upon an army already fighting on the vast Eastern front. The July bomb plot attempt on Hitler's life made the dictator even more paranoid and suspicious of his own military commanders. In this absorbing study, James Lucas examines the army's changing structure and weaponry throughout this final year of war, and reveals the often surprising measures taken to confront a situation Hitler had never contemplated, and never really accepted. From D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and on to the Fall of Berlin, the author examines the last battles fought by the German army - which had by no means given up its struggle - as the Allies swept across Europe, charting the very unique experiences of a military force moving from dominance to defeat. Perfect for readers of Antony Beevor and Max Hastings.

Unstoppable and deadly, this is the gripping story of some of the most feared soldiers in the warThe daring, courage and skill of the highly-trained men who spearheaded German assaults in the blitzkrieg of 1940, dropping from the air to seize and overwhelm key invasion points, showed to an alarmed world that a new dimension had been added to the science of warfare. One spectacular success was the invasion and capture of Crete in May 1941, all be it achieved at a terrible price. The German paratroopers were an elite, justifying again and again their great reputation for courage and hard fighting in Russia, North Africa and Italy. Bestselling military historian James Lucas has researched deeply in Allied and German archives and interviewed many of the leading members of the Fallschirmjaegar who survived the war. This is an unmissable and dramatic account of the Second World War's most frightening elite, perfect for readers of James Holland and Max Hastings.

Intellectually ambitious and culturally engaged, these poems speak of Sartre, Zola and Jackson Pollock, of Western Australia's firewatch trees and Dubbo's gibbons, of the poet-batsman Stevie Smith, of youth and age. Ranging in form, James Lucas's poems ask to be reread rather than assented to, and are written in the belief that poetry is both solvent and fresh lick of paint.

Whether you are formally in charge or find yourself in a position of de facto influence anywhere in your organization, this book will open your mind to new ways of thinking and allow you to turn uncertainty into opportunity.

This is the remarkable and courageous war record of the famous Das Reich 2nd SS Division, a fearsome unit which saw heavy fighting throughout the war, from France to the Eastern Front and back to Germany.