Showing titles in Military & Wars

June, 1942 - Libya. Free French Officer Susan Travers was one of the few women on the front lines in Africa during World War Two. After the Germans surrounded the military camp of Bir Hakeim, a shocking order was issued. The French troops were going to break out in the middle of the night - crossing through dangerous minefields and enemy territory - to reach their British allies. And Officer Travers would be leading the charge.

Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother, Jamie, is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—sneaking out to join him. So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie.

The year is 1945 in Austria, where an SS officer and some of his men visit a stable, determined to find the Jewish boy they believe the owner is hiding there. Luckily, just as Jakob - the boy in question - is about to be found, the men are called away...but not before the SS officer shoots and kills Jakob’s favorite horse. It’s very clear then, to Jakob and his guardian, that they are no longer safe there. Traveling through Nazi territory with that many horses will be incredibly difficult and risky, but the alternative - staying - is even more dangerous.

Johnny Maxwell and his friends have to do something when they find Mrs Tachyon, the local bag lady, semi-conscious in an alley...as long as it's not the kiss of life. But there's more to Mrs Tachyon than a squeaky trolley and a bunch of dubious black bags. Somehow she holds the key to different times, different ears: including the Blackbury Blitz in 1941. Suddenly, now isn't the safe place Johnny once thought it was as he finds himself caught up more and more with then.

When war breaks out in September 1939, Laura, Andy and Tim Clark are evacuated to the countryside. The Colonel's comfortable home in Dorset is a huge contrast to their cramped terraced house in London, where their loving parents struggle to put the next meal on the table. Though unused to having children around, the Colonel proves to be a kind and generous, if gruff, guardian until a terrible turn of events means the kids must move on.

When Ada’s clubfoot is surgically fixed at last, she knows for certain that she’s not what her mother said she was—damaged, deranged, crippled mentally as well as physically. She’s not a daughter anymore, either. Who is she now? World War II rages on, and Ada and her brother, Jamie, move with their guardian, Susan, into a cottage with the iron-faced Lady Thorton and her daughter, Maggie. Life in the crowded home is tense. Then Ruth moves in. Ruth, a Jewish girl, from Germany.

It's a deadly game of hide and seek. Liam Scott has joined Recce Platoon, and it looks like he will be heading for Somalia. His mission is to gather intelligence from behind enemy lines, carrying out top-secret surveillance and dead-letter drops. But he's new to the game and there's a lot to learn. Soon Liam is monitoring a den of Al Shabaab militants and hunting a key terrorist target. Can Recce Platoon find their man and get out undiscovered? If the militants find them first, it's game over...

When a steamboat arrives heralding the news that Iowa has been called up to represent the Union of the United States of America, Ike is beside himself with excitement. For months, the promise of war has enveloped small-town Keokuk like a grand game that everyone's in on - everyone but Ike, his swaybacked pony, and his best friend and checkers partner, Albirdie. Left behind with Mother and the aunts and girl cousins while the Button men march forth toward glory, Ike's fate is sealed.

Clarry and her older brother, Peter, live for their summers in Cornwall, staying with their grandparents and running free with their charismatic cousin, Rupert. But normal life resumes each September - boarding school for Peter and Rupert, and a boring life for Clarry at home with her absent father, as the shadow of a terrible war looms ever closer. When Rupert goes off to fight at the front, Clarry feels their skylark summers are finally slipping away from them. Can their family survive this fearful war?

Edmund, a young apprentice, is awaiting punishment as a counterfeiter when a knight intervenes on his behalf - and compels Edmund to join Richard Lionheart's forces in the Holy Land. There, amidst the savagery of the 12th-century Crusades, Edmund learns both courage and compassion, and discovers that cruelty is sometimes considered the will of Heaven. Set in medieval England and the war-torn shores of the Middle East, Cadnum's tale weaves together a rich tapestry of storms at sea, the brutality of hand-to-hand combat, and one of the classic horse and lance battles in recorded history.

The tide of war has turned against the Nazis, but desperation has made them more brutal than ever. After the Gestapo hung members of the White Rose for distributing leaflets. Their father solicits the help from the Edelweiss Pirates to save a Jewish girl in hiding.

Caleb knows that the decaying German bunker at Rocquaine Bay on his island of Guernsey is haunted. Samuel Vogel, his arch enemy at school, has told him. But when his Grandpa Bertie hands him a brass ring that could have saved his Great Grandpa Alfred, a Spitfire pilot, from being shot down during World War 2, and learns of the arrest by the Nazis of his Great Grandma Mary, Caleb wishes he could fix things. But how? Paul Haston's book is a coming of age, historical fiction with a magical twist for children aged 9-12.

Civil War, 1863. Virginia. Union soldiers Colonel Thomas Rose and Major A. G. Hamilton were captured by the Confederate Army and taken to Libby Prison - one of the most horrific prisons ever run. Few ever made it out of the overcrowded, vermin-infested prison alive. But neither fear, nor darkness, nor squealing rats could keep Rose and Hamilton from freedom. They and other POWs would fight against the odds to attempt the largest prison escape in American history.

Europe, 1940. With war on their doorstep, German classmates Klara and Rachel, and French brothers Lucien and Paul, are forced to leave their homes. They are taken to Gurs, a French detention camp in the south-west of France. It's a crowded place, with little comfort and even less food. When Klara and Rachel are promised safe refuge in a remote French village, Lucien and Paul are anxious to join them—and will risk their own lives to get there.

1942. Japan has bombed Sydney Harbour. Sixteen-year-old Ossie lies about his age to protect his country, even though it means abandoning his only family, a one-eyed dog named Lucky. Kind-hearted Mrs Plum is already looking after forty-six dogs for soldiers. She's becoming desperate because there are no wartime rations for dogs. Help arrives when thirteen-year-old Kat Murphy volunteers to take Lucky and persuades the girls at her school to also help. As Kat grows to love Lucky, she realises he can still see his master.

Based on the true story of Indian WWI gunner and recipient of the Victoria Cross, Khudadad Khan. The story is told from four perspectives: Lotte, a Belgian farmgirl whose village is the flashpoint for a battle; Ernst, a German teenage infantry soldier whose grandiose dreams of war lie in tatters; Khudadad Khan, the gunner fighting with the British Army; and the walnut tree that shelters them all.

Nate knows he looks Chinese on the outside - but what is he on the inside? Adopted by two white mums, he struggles to know where he fits in. Mum and Momo are always trying to get him to embrace his Chinese heritage, but Nate doesn't even know where to start with it all! He can't speak Chinese, and he doesn't know anything about Chinese customs. So what if a First World War shell casing engraved with a Chinese dragon turns up in a history exhibition at school - why should he be interested in it? But, when Nate touches the shell, someone extraordinary appears.

Jack can't wait for the school trip to the D-Day landing beaches. It's his chance to learn more about the war heroes he has always admired – brave men like his dad, who is a reserve soldier. But when his dad is called up to action and things at home spiral out of control, everything Jack believes about war is thrown into question. Finding comfort only in the presence of his loyal dog, Finn, Jack is drawn to the heart-wrenching true story of one particular D-Day paratrooper.

Lily has lots of worries. She's struggling to compete in her fell-running races and, worse, she's losing her gran to Alzheimer's. But then she discovers her great-great-grandfather's diaries from the First World War. Could his incredible story of bravery help her reconnect with her gran and even give her the inspiration she needs to push through and win?

This is a story of friendship. This is a story of hope. It’s the story of an era that helped shape our country and define our times, told through one boy’s extraordinary journey through his own small patch of America. And it’s the story of a debt he can never repay to someone he knows only as The Bicycle Man.