JOHN HUGHES WILSON

The Battle of Hamel is arguably, the most important battle of the First World War yet it is still relatively unknown. It was turning point of the Great War and saw American troops fighting alongside Australian troops in their first taste of war on foreign soil, making the reputation of the man who led the troops, General Monash of the Australian Army.In the summer of 1918 the war was in the balance but the battle plan was beautifully conceived and executed, and without the Allies victory, Amiens would not have been possible.It is special for three reasons, firstly it lasted only ninety minutes with very few casualties. Secondly it was the battle that set up the troops for Amiens after which the Germans were rolled back to Berlin. Finally and most importantly it is the first time American troops fought on foreign soil and really entered international politics.Formerly on the course at Sandhurst it has now been replaced by more modern examples but Hamel is still the perfect battle a century on, superbly prepared. When most battles are fought the original plans go out of the window, not so with Hamel.

In mid summer 1918 a top secret mission, which has remained classified information for a century, was set in motion to kill Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was felt that by killing their head of state and commander in chief it would serve as a mortal blow to the German forces and they would collapse very quickly after the assassination. The facts are borne out in never-before-published notebooks, maps and pilots flying records, kept secret for a hundred years. The implications of this secret attack raise many new and explosive - questions. Exactly who ordered an attack to kill the Kaiser? Was it sanctioned by the C-in-C, Sir Douglas Haig? By the War Office? Was the King informed of the attempt to kill his royal cousin? Was Lloyd George, the Prime Minister asked? We do not know; but someone in London must have sanctioned the attack. The Official History makes no mention of any attack, and public records say nothing.John Hughes-Wilson has woven an exciting and well-paced historical novel to mark this centennial event from the research on discovering this mission. The story, based on true events, looks at this long hidden secret and puts it into the context of the time. It explores areas rarely examined: secret service operations in 1914-18; dirty, undercover intelligence work; the very real political intrigues between Whitehall and the generals and the heroics of the aircrew of the day, whose life expectancy at one point in 1917 was only eleven days in action.

Lee Harvey Oswald, whatever anyone says, could not possibly have been the lone assassin of JFK in 1963. And John Hughes-Wilson, a former senior British Intelligence officer, not only names names, but also identifies the shadowy plotters who palnned the elimination of the president. The trail leads ot the very heart of the US government. The organisations most threatened by the Kennedy brothers were the oil barons of Texas, the CIA-controlled Cuban Amigrs and the Mafia. The Mob funded Vice President Lyndon Johnson's whole career as a senator. They even paid Richard Nixon's bills. They were also blackmailing J Edgar Hoover, Head of the FBI. This is a fascinatingly murky tale, summed up in a carefully ambiguous letter from LBJ to one of the leaders of the Dallas oil men, which says, 'If certain obstacles were to be removed ...

A History of the First World War in 100 Objects narrates the causes, progress and outcome of the First World War by telling the stories behind 100 items of material evidence of that cataclysmic and shattering conflict.From weapons that created carnage to affectionate letters home and from unexpected items of trench decoration to the paintings of official war artists, the objects are as extraordinary in their diversity and story-telling power as they are devastating in their poignancy.Each object is depicted on a full page and is the subject of a short chapter that fans out from the item itself to describe the context, the people and the events associated with it. Distinctive and original, A History of the First World War in 100 Objects is a unique commemoration of the war to end all wars.

The book that gives an insider's view of some of the great intelligence blunders of recent history. Including Stalin's Operation Barbarossa, Hitler being misled by his own intelligence staff, the bungling that enabled an attack on Pearl Harbor, lack of preparation for the Viet Cong's offensive 1968, Arab Israeli war 1973, Falkland Islands, Gulf War 1991...New material to include: The US failure to run warning system before 9/11; the War on Terrorism; the Islamic Terrorist threat; mis-use of intelligence by UK government in War with Iraq; intelligence problems of Middle East; challenges of 21st century.

Meet T.O.M. Gunn, a young infantry lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters, just back on leave from India as Europe catches ablaze in the chaotic summer of 1914. The British Expeditionary Force is off to France and Gunn is determined to join the war before its over. He joins a hastily formed mixed battalion of reservists, regular and territorial soldiers to find themselves pitchforked into the mayhem of the Battles of the Marne, the Aisne and then the drawn out agony of Ypres as the high hopes of summer sink into the frozen trenches of the winter of 1914. But by the time of the Christmas Truce with the Germans, Thaddeus Gunn and his men begin to realise that this is going to be a long war and they will be lucky to survive.

This book is a professional military-intelligence officers and a controversial insiders view of some of the greatest intelligence blunders of recent history. It includes the serious developments in government misuse of intelligence in the recent war with Iraq. Colonel John Hughes-Wilson analyses not just the events that conspire to cause disaster, but why crucial intelligence is so often ignored, misunderstood or spun by politicians and seasoned generals alike. This book analyses: how Hitlers intelligence staff misled him in a bid to outfox their Nazi Party rivals; the bureaucratic bungling behind Pearl Harbor; how in-fighting within American intelligence ensured they were taken off guard by the Viet Congs 1968 Tet Offensive; how over confidence, political interference and deception facilitated Egypt and Syrias 1973 surprise attack on Israel; why a handful of marines and a London taxicab were all Britain had to defend the Falklands; the mistaken intelligence that allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power until the second Iraq War of 2003; the truth behind the US failure to run a terrorist warning system before the 9/11 WTC bombing; and how governments are increasingly pressurising intelligence agencies to spin the party-political line.

The Cold War was an undeclared war, fought silently and carefully between ideological opponents armed with the most fearsome weapons mankind has ever seen. Hughes-Wilson takes a cool look at this war, from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR thereafter. He examines the suspicion and paranoia -- on both sides -- of the greatest stand-off in history. Written by one of Britains leading, popular, military historians, this book makes accessible for the first time one of the key periods to shape our world.

This book is a professional military-intelligence officers and a controversial insiders view of some of the greatest intelligence blunders of recent history. It includes the serious developments in government misuse of intelligence in the recent war with Iraq. Colonel John Hughes-Wilson analyses not just the events that conspire to cause disaster, but why crucial intelligence is so often ignored, misunderstood or spun by politicians and seasoned generals alike. This book analyses: how Hitlers intelligence staff misled him in a bid to outfox their Nazi Party rivals; the bureaucratic bungling behind Pearl Harbor; how in-fighting within American intelligence ensured they were taken off guard by the Viet Congs 1968 Tet Offensive; how over confidence, political interference and deception facilitated Egypt and Syrias 1973 surprise attack on Israel; why a handful of marines and a London taxicab were all Britain had to defend the Falklands; the mistaken intelligence that allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power until the second Iraq War of 2003; the truth behind the US failure to run a terrorist warning system before the 9/11 WTC bombing; and how governments are increasingly pressurising intelligence agencies to spin the party-political line.

Three hundred and fifty-one men were executed by British Army firing squads between September 1914 and November 1920. By far the greatest number, 266 were shot for desertion in the face of the enemy. The executions continue to haunt the history of the war, with talk today of shell shock and posthumous pardons.Using material released from the Public Records Office and other sources, the authors reveal what really happened and place the story of these executions firmly in the context of the military, social and medical context of the period.