{"title":"Max Hastings","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"operation-pedestal","title":"Operation Pedestal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the island fortress must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britains fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britains war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britains wartime services. As always, he blends the big picture of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOperation Pedestal\u003c\/em\u003e describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier \u003cem\u003eEagle\u003c\/em\u003e, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships. Most moving of all is the story of the tanker \u003cem\u003eOhio\u003c\/em\u003e, indispensable to Maltas survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted. Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47264064340262,"sku":"operation-pedestal","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/d63b317b-5674-45ef-8479-a20836842c02.jpg?v=1701091662"},{"product_id":"plunder","title":"Plunder","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe last weeks of World War II on the Western Front in Europe witnessed extraordinary scenes of heroism, horror, melodrama and pathos.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ePlunder\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Max Hastings presents a cast of fascinating people British, American and German, in a series of great events in which some distinguished themselves through wonderful deeds, others through the basest crimes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe book takes its title from Montgomery’s ‘Operation Plunder’, the 23 March 1945 crossing of the Rhine, witnessed by Winston Churchill and embracing huge amphibious and airborne landings. The author describes the American coup in capturing Remagen bridge and the ‘battles of the breakout’ which followed. Thereafter he recounts stories of Nazi Werewolves; of US General George Patton’s reckless and doomed dispatch of an armoured column fifty miles behind German lines to liberate his son-in-law from a prison camp; the heartbreaking liberation of Belsen concentration camp; the wonderful achievement of Ian Liddell of the Coldstream Guards, among the last VC winners of the war and surely one of the most deserving; the last big SAS operation of the war. Finally come accounts of the tortuous succession of German surrenders, and the weeks of Admiral Karl Donitz’s posturing as the Third Reich’s last Fuhrer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ePlunder\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the latest history from Max Hastings, and offers his signature narrative of conflict, blending personal experiences into the ‘big picture’, highlighting deeds and personalities that will be unfamiliar to many readers. He mingles accounts of the battles with stories of people – warlords, soldiers, slave labourers, prisoners, fugitives, victims – who played many and various roles in the last European act of history’s most terrible war.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504058376565,"sku":"590-66A-6C8","price":27.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/16616d45-f346-40a0-9dde-be8906a62e18.jpg?v=1786881994"}],"url":"https:\/\/goldsborobooks.pro\/collections\/max-hastings.oembed","provider":"Goldsboro Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}