In this enthralling history, internationally bestselling author Max Hastings recounts the odds-defying Operation Biting, a 1942 parachute commando raid on Northern France to steal vital components of German intelligence-one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and one of the most successful. In February 1942, RAF intelligence was baffled by a newly identified radar network on the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe, codenamed Würzburg. British intelligence proposed an assault to capture key components. Incredibly brave agents of the French Resistance risked their lives to probe the German defenses on the Normandy coast. Then a company of Airborne forces were dropped into France in the dead of night amid heavy snow. Launching their attack, the allied soldiers dismantled the German's radar, and after three nail-biting hours and a fierce battle with Wehrmacht defenders, escaped in the nick of time using landing-craft that carried them back across the stormy seas to Portsmouth. Operation Biting retells this dramatic operation through a gallery of amazing characters from Winston Churchill, who promoted the raid, to Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Combined Operations, to the brave unsung commandos who fought their way through enemy territory. A cliffhanger of a story that ratchets the suspense to the last page, Operation Biting sheds new light on an exciting and little-known chapter of the Second World War.

Operation Biting - The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler's Radar

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

 'His masterpiece' Antony Beevor, Spectator

 'A masterful performance' Sunday Times

 'By far the best book on the Vietnam War' Gerald Degroot, The Times, Book of the Year

 Vietnam became the Western world's most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and less familiar battles such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh's warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed 2 million people.

 Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom forty died for every American. US blunders and atrocities were matched by those committed by their enemies. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners' victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, Marines from North Carolina, Huey pilots from Arkansas.

 No past volume has blended a political and military narrative of the entire conflict with heart-stopping personal experiences, in the fashion that Max Hastings' readers know so well. The author suggests that neither side deserved to win this struggle with so many lessons for the 21st century about the misuse of military might to confront intractable political and cultural challenges. He marshals testimony from warlords and peasants, statesmen and soldiers, to create an extraordinary record.

Vietnam - An Epic History of a Divisive War 1945-1975

The book John Kelly reads every time he gets a promotion to remind him of 'the perils of hubris, the pitfalls of patriotism and duty unaccompanied by critical thinking'

 The most vivid, moving - and devastating - word-portrait of a World War One British commander ever written, here re-introduced by Max Hastings.

 C. S. Forester's 1936 masterpiece follows Lt General Herbert Curzon, who fumbled a fortuitous early step on the path to glory in the Boer War. 1914 finds him an honourable, decent, brave and wholly unimaginative colonel. Survival through the early slaughters in which so many fellow-officers perished then brings him rapid promotion. By 1916, he is a general in command of 100, 000 British soldiers, whom he leads through the horrors of the Somme and Passchendaele, a position for which he is entirely unsuited and intellectually unprepared.

 Wonderfully human with Forester's droll relish for human folly on full display, this is the story of a man of his time who is anything but wicked, yet presides over appalling sacrifice and tragedy. In his awkwardness and his marriage to a Duke's unlovely, unhappy daughter, Curzon embodies Forester's full powers as a storyteller. His half-hero is patriotic, diligent, even courageous, driven by his sense of duty and refusal to yield to difficulties. But also powerfully damned is the same spirit which caused a hundred real-life British generals to serve as high priests at the bloodiest human sacrifice in the nation's history. A masterful and insightful study about the perils of hubris and unquestioning duty in leadership, The General is a fable for our times.

The General - The Classic WWI Tale of Leadership

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. In February 2002 Max Hastings retired from his position as a 'Fleet Street' Editor. His is an enormously illustrious career which started in 1985, when he was offered the Editorship of a national institution - the Daily Telegraph - in a surprise move by its owners. This candid memoir tells the story of what happened to him, and to a great newspaper, over the next decade. It is all here: the rows with prime ministers, the coverage of great events, the daily routine. Max Hastings describes his complex relationship with his proprietor, Conrad Black. He offers an extraordinary perspective on the decline of John Major, the troubles of the Royal Family, the difficulties of dealing with lawyers and celebrities, statesmen and stars. Editor: A Memoir is above all the story of the excitement and exhilaration of almost 10 years at the helm of one of the greatest newspapers in the world.

Editor - A Memoir

'A brilliant tour-de-force' - Times Literary SupplementBomber Command is acclaimed historian Sir Max Hastings' compelling account of one of the most controversial struggles of the Second World War. RAF Bomber Command's offensive against the cities of Germany was one of the epic campaigns of the Second World War. More than 56, 000 British and Commonwealth aircrew and 600, 000 Germans died in the course of the RAF's attempt to win the war by bombing. The struggle began in 1939 with a few primitive Whitleys, Hampdens and Wellingtons, and ended six years later with 1, 600 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes razing whole cities in a single night. Max Hastings traced the developments of area bombing using a wealth of documents, letters, diaries and interviews with key surviving witnesses. Bomber Command is, in turn, a fascinating, meticulously-researched, and vivid assessment of the RAF's integral role in the Second World War.

Bomber Command

Max Hastings is best known as an acclaimed journalist and military historian. But what is perhaps less well known is his love of the countryside and its pursuits, above all fishing and shooting, which he indulges as often as he can escape his urban working environment. In this classic selection of gentle, contemplative musings, Max Hastings shares some of his favourite rural moments; tramping the snipe bogs of Waterford; dogging hedges in Hampshire and moors in Sutherland; casting a fly from Scotland to Iceland and Alaska; and shooting in India and the west of Ireland. Combining a journalist's knack for storytelling with the enthusiasm of the dedicated amateur, Outside Days is the perfect companion for anyone who revels in the freedom of the outdoors.

Outside Days - Some Adventures With Rod and Gun

Pre-eminent military historian Max Hastings presents Winston Churchill as he has never been seen before.

Finest years: churchill as warlord 1940-45

8 juin 1944... La division " Das Reich ", forte de quinze mille hommes, deux cent neuf chars et pièces d'artillerie, s'ébranle à Montauban en direction de la Normandie. Entravée dans sa progression par la Résistance, par des opérations de commando et les bombardements de l'aviation alliée, elle va sur son trajet acquérir bientôt une terrible notoriété, en se livrant, à Tulle et à Oradour-sur-Glane, à deux représailles sanglantes dont le souvenir tragique ne s'est jamais effacé. Ces exactions barbares, perpétrées lors d'une phase critique des hostilités, allaient avoir indirectement d'importantes conséquences au niveau stratégique. En effet, si la division " Das Reich " était arrivée à temps sur les lieux du débarquement, elle aurait, selon toute vraisemblance, sinon permis aux forces allemandes de rejeter les alliés à la mer, du moins contribué à différer l'issue de la bataille, retardant du même coup la libération rapide de la France. Quel rôle la Résistance joua-t-elle dans le déroulement de ces événements ? Dans quelle mesure sa participation héroïque freina-t-elle la marche de la division ? Voici l'une des pages les plus douloureuses et les plus extraordinaires de la guerre secrète dont certains épisodes n'avaient encore jamais été racontés.

La division Das Reich et la Résistance - 8 Juin-20 juin 1944

J'ai toujours trouvé des femmes plus fidèles, plus disciplinés, moins névrotiques, plus travailleurs. Je pense juste que ce sont des collègues parfaits. Alors que Dieu sait, j'ai eu affaire à beaucoup d'hommes névrotiques.

Si vous ne pouvez pas trouver un emploi de pianiste dans un bordel, vous devenez un journaliste royal.

Il ne fait aucun doute qu'au début et au milieu des années 190, beaucoup d'entre nous dans les journaux de Broadsheet estimaient que nous avions toujours la responsabilité d'essayer de protéger la famille royale ou si vous aimez protéger la monarchie contre les agressions des médias.

Vous ne pouvez pas écrire comment les gens sont bons; Vous le savez et ne pouvez pas vous en éloigner.

Quand je pêche, je pense beaucoup au poisson, mais je pense aussi au livre que j'écris.

Beaucoup d'entre nous, lorsque nous sommes des enfants, croyez «eh bien, si le monde nous connaissait comme nous le sommes vraiment, ils sauraient ce que nous sommes vraiment merveilleux, intelligents, brillants et charmants.

Je suis vraiment un libéral humide et j'ai toujours été. Mais je suis en quelque sorte un libéral humide agressif.

Un gouvernement conservateur avec un mandat décent semble le seul espoir de s'attaquer de manière responsable à la catastrophe budgétaire.

Je serais misérable si je me couchais sans avoir écrit 1 000 mots sur quelque chose.

Les gens qui s'entendent à l'école sont ceux qui respectent les règles, et personne ne va plus loin dans la vie en jouant par le système.

Il était toujours inévitable que si vous avez de sérieux problèmes dans une famille, tout le monde est enclin à regarder la tête de cette famille et à voir s'ils voient une cause ou une raison être.

La seule caractéristique rédemptrice de la guerre est la confrérie qu'il forge.

Il est miraculeux à quel point l'ordinateur a facilité mon genre de travail.

Nous participons à une comédie divine et nous devons réaliser que la pièce est toujours une comédie, en ce sens que nous sommes tous finalement ridicules.

Ses oeuvres

Ses derniers livres