Spartacus Review

Volume 4: 24th October, 2007

Second World War

Title: Contesting Home Defence

Author: Penny Summerfield & Corinna Peniston-Bird

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Publisher: Manchester University Press

Price: £15.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: The Home Front

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Contesting Home Defence makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front in the Second World War. It asks whether the Home Guard was a site of social cohesion or of dissension, explores the competing claims made for it at the time, and traces how it has been remembered since. It argues that the Home Guard at once contributed to and challenged the notion of national unity: official rhetoric was inclusive but recruitment practices were selective – and contested. Left-wingers inspired by international anti-fascist movements trained Home Guards in unauthorised guerrilla techniques; women formed their own armed organisation, sometimes helped by defiant Home Guard commanders.

Title: Luftwaffe at War

Author: E. R. Hooton

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Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £16.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: The Luftwaffe

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As in the campaign against Poland, it was the Luftwaffe that had perhaps the most important role. It won air superiority over the theatre of operations and was able to destroy much of the enemy's material before the army swept forward. This is the second volume in a new series that examines in detail the Luftwaffe's role in the battles of the Spring and Summer of 1940 and will be required reading for all aviation historians as well as those who model the aircraft of the period.

Title: The Last of the Hitlers

Author: David Gardner

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Publisher: BMM

Price: £16.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Adolf Hitler

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At the end of World War II, the man Adolf Hitler called "my loathsome nephew" changed his name and disappeared. The British born William Patrick Hitler, by then settled in the USA, remained anonymous. This title tells the story of David Gardner's search for Hitler, his discovery that he was dead and had had four sons. Those four sons established a pact that, in order for Adolf Hitler's genes to die with them, none of them would have children.

Title: T-34 Medium Tank

Author: Mikhail Baryatinskiy

Editor:

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing

Price: £14.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: T-34 Tank

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This book examines in detail the T-34, one of the most famous and successful vehicles in the history of armoured warfare. The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958 and was widely regarded as the world's best tank when the Soviet Union entered the Second World War, and although its armour and armament were surpassed by later WWII tanks, it is credited as the war's most effective and efficient and influential design.