This anthology brings together 30 stories of military adventure of the 19th century an age of conflict when the entire world seemed to be at war. Amidst the suffering and hardship there are stories of remarkable bravery and triumph against all odds. Forward by Bernard Cornewell

The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II takes you into the Second World War—the most destructive conflict in history. Testaments from all sides gathered by editor Jon E. Lewis bear witness to that gigantic war, fought on vast terms but experienced on a human scale. The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II is more than a history of the 1935–45 conflict, a chronicle of events from Hitler’s blitzkreig across Europe to the war crime death sentences carried out by the Nuremberg court. This anthology is a firsthand record of what it felt like to live and fight in that time—whether as a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, a G.I. in a foxhole in Okinawa, a Frontsoldaten in the abattoir of Stalingrad, a woman worker alongside "Rosie the Riveter" at an aircraft plant, a U.S. Marine in boot camp, a kamikazi pilot in training, and many others. Of the famous, there are addresses by the titanic statesmen Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin, battle reports by commanders such as Erwin Rommel and Tokyo-bomber Jimmy Doolittle, on-the-ground descriptions of the Blitz by Edward R. Murrow, J. B. Priestley, and Virginia Woolf, and the experience of the Nazis’ genocide of Jewish Europeans by Anne Frank and Primo Levi. From the war in Europe and on the Atlantic, through the African campaign, the Russian Front, and the battle for the Pacific, and finally to the siege of Berlin and the atomic bombing of Japan, what unfolds in these pages is World War II in all its brutality, heroism, stupidity, inspiration, and destruction.

Among the favorite heroes in this Mammoth anthology are Captain Jack Aubrey, Adam Hardy, Horatio Hornblower, and Nathaniel Drinkwater in new adventures written especially for this volume, rare gems, and old favorites. There are also classic stories from such original masters as Herman Melville, Cutcliffe Hyne, Frederick Marryat, Showell Styles, and Harriet Hudson. With a special introduction by Alexander Kent, The Mammoth Book of Men O' War shows the sailors' life aboard the great ships that sailed for trade, discovery or warfare.

Great Stories and Classic Tales from the Golden Age of Naval Warfare

C. S. Forester's Captain Horatio Hornblower eludes an American privateer and Richard Woodman brings Nathaniel Drinkwater out of retirement in this collection of twenty-one sea stories, fifteen of them written especially for this volume. From the Hawaiian coast to the shores of England, at Trafalgar, at Copenhagen, and on the Nile, daring exploits and breathtaking encounters quicken these pages by celebrated writers like David Donachie, Jacland Marmur, William Hope Hodgson, Kenneth Bulmer, Nigel Brown, Harriet Hudson, Peter T. Garratt, Peter Tremayne, Derek Wilson, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.