Category Archives: Book

This week in the War, 25 Sept–1 Oct 1944: Colditz and The Red Fox

Posted on September 29, 2016 by secondbysecond

British Army lieutenant, Michael Sinclair, was killed this week in the war, on 25 September 1944. Sinclair, known to the Germans as The Red Fox, was shot and killed while attempting to scale the outer-perimeter fence of Colditz Castle, Germany’s … Continue reading →

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The week in the War, 17–23 July 1944: The July Bomb Plot

Posted on July 20, 2016 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 20 July 1944, a German officer named Claus von Stauffenberg carried a bomb from Berlin to the Wolf’s Lair (Wolfsschanze) headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia, with a view to putting paid to Hitler once … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 3–9 January 1944: From the diary of Helene Pitrou

Posted on January 5, 2016 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, the fictional French schoolgirl, Hélène Pitrou, makes another entry in her journal Dans Paris occupé. The entry is dated 5 janvier 1944. As in her entry of a year earlier, she remarks that everyone is … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 10–16 May 1943: The Dam Busters

Posted on May 15, 2015 by secondbysecond

It is over fifty years since Australian-born writer, Paul Brickhill, wrote his bestselling account of the bombing raid on the dams that provided water and hydro-electric power to industries in the Ruhr valley. The book led to a movie and … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 26 April–2 May 1943: “Mincemeat swallowed rod, line and sinker”

Posted on May 2, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, in the early hours of the morning of 30 April 1943, British submarine HMS Seraph surfaced off the coast of Spain. A canister was brought on deck and opened to reveal a dead body dressed … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 15–21 February 1943: STO—le Service du travail obligatoire, Vichy’s labour service law

Posted on February 20, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 16 February 1943, the law concerning the Service du travail obligatoire (STO)—the compulsory labour service law—was put into action by the government of Vichy France. It applied to young French males born between 1920 and 1922 and … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 18–24 January 1943: The relief of Leningrad

Posted on January 24, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 18 January 1943, Soviet forces finally broke through the German lines. Troops on the Leningrad Front were united with troops from the Volkov Front. After 497 days of encirclement, a narrow corridor barely five miles wide … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 28 Dec 1942–3 Jan 1943: New Year’s Day & the Diary of Helene Pitrou

Posted on December 30, 2014 by secondbysecond

“The New Year is starting well: People are talking about a possible landing by the Allies.” So begins the entry for New Year’s day in Dans Paris occupé: Journal d’Hélène Pitrou—the fictional diary of the fictional French schoolgirl, created by … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 31 Aug–6 Sept 1942: The Battle of Alam Halfa

Posted on September 6, 2014 by secondbysecond

The Battle of Alam Halfa was fought in the Egyptian desert between 31 August and 6 September 1942. This was a defensive battle designed to blunt Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps offensive and to prepare the way for the British Eighth … Continue reading →

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Vignette: D-Day—seventy years after

Posted on June 6, 2014 by secondbysecond

Today is the seventieth anniversary of D-Day, of the 6 June 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy. ‘D-Day’—which is military slang for the starting day of any operation—has come to mean the D-Day, the greatest amphibious invasion in history. It will … Continue reading →

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