MARK URBAN

As part of the Light Division created to act as the advance guard of Wellingtons army, the 95th Rifles are the first into battle and the last out. Fighting and thieving their way across Europe, they are clearly no ordinary troops. The 95th are in fact the first British soldiers to take aim at their targets, to take cover when being shot at, to move tactically by fire and manoeuvre. And by the end of the six-year campaign they have not only proved themselves the toughest fighters in the army, they have also - at huge personal cost - created the modern notion of the infantryman.In an exhilarating work of narrative military history, Mark Urban traces the story of the 95th Rifles, the toughest and deadliest sharpshooters of Wellingtons Army.If you like Sharpe, then this book is a must, your Christmas present solved. Bernard Cornwell, Daily MailUrban writes history the way it should be written, alive and exciting. Andy McNab

From Lexington Green in 1775 to Yorktown in 1781, one regiment marched thousands of miles and fought a dozen battles to uphold British rule in America: the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Along the way, the Fusiliers adopted new tactics and promoted new leaders which together laid the foundations for the subsequent performance against Napoleon. Drawing on a wealth of new research, Mark Urban, author of the bestselling Rifles, reveals the inner life of the regiment - and, through it, of the British Army as a whole - as it lost the battle against the American revolutionaries, but simultaneously revolutionised the way Britain fought.

In 1812 two mighty armies manoeuvred across the Spanish plains. They were finely balanced, under skilful leaders. Each struggled to gain an advantage. Wellington knew that if he defeated the French, he could turn the tide of the war. Good intelligence was paramount, but the French were using a code of unrivalled complexity - the Great Paris Cipher. It was an unprecedented challenge, and Wellington looked to one man to break the code: Major George Scovell. Using a network of Spanish guerrillas, Scovell amassed a stack of coded French messages, and set to work decrypting them. As a man of low birth, Scovell - even with his genius for languages, and bravery on a dozen battlefields - struggled for advancement amongst Wellingtons inner circle of wealthier, better connected officers. Mark Urban draws on a wealth of original sources, including many cyphers and code-tables, to restore Scovell to his rightful place in history as the man who was the brains behind the intelligence battle against Napoleons army and a forerunner of the great code-breakers of the 20th Century.

An account of British intelligence since Gorbachev came to power in 1985. The author presents a list of what he claims are failures by every British intelligence organization, and raises questions about the value of the traditional structures and organizations that are a legacy of the Cold War.

This work gives a compelling account of the officer who waged the intelligence battle against Napoleon''s army, a forerunner to the great code-breakers of the 20th century. The French army, during the Peninsular War, used a code of unrivalled complexity - the ''Great Paris Cipher''. Major George Scovell used a network of Spanish guerillas to capture coded French messages, and then set to work decrypting them. The title suggests an emphasis on cryptography, but in fact, the story of George Scovell''s decryption of Napoleon''s ''Great Cypher'' is only a small part of this magisterial work. The greater portion of Urban''s book is a dynamic and fluid account of the Peninsular War, combining a solid and scrupulously accurate rendering of the plain military and tactical facts with the sort of three-dimensional modelling made possible by Scovell''s own campaign diaries. Having been at the centre of the action for much of the war, Scovell was in a position to give revealing portraits of many of the protagonists, including the Iron Duke himself, and new light is thrown upon Wellington''s character and command technique through Scovell''s accounts and the way Urban incorporates them into the bigger picture. The breaking of the ''Great Cypher'' itself proves to be crucial to the outcome of the war, and the detail of Scovell''s laborious and inventive chipping away at its secrets makes a nice counterpoint throughout to the almost Homeric story of epic battles and great armies sweeping back and forth across the plains of Europe from Corunna to Waterloo. (Kirkus UK)

The Skripal Files tells the full story behind the Salisbury Poisonings, one of the most shocking incidents to occur in Britain in recent memory. Broadcaster and historian Mark Urban interviewed Sergei Skripal in the months before the poisoning and explains why Skripal was targeted for assassination.A scrupulous piece of reporting, necessary, timely and very sobering John Le CarreChosen as one of the best political books of 2018 by the Sunday Times.4 March 2018, Salisbury, England.Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were enjoying a rare and peaceful Sunday spent together, completely unaware that they had been poisoned with the deadly nerve agent Novichok. Hours later both were found slumped on a park bench close to death.Following their attempted murders on British soil, Russia was publicly accused by the West of carrying out the attack, marking a new low for international relations between the two since the end of the Cold War.The Skripal Files is the definitive account of the Salisbury Poisonings and how Skripals story fits into the wider context of the new spy war between Russia and the West. The book explores Sergeis past as a spy in the Russian military intelligence, explains how he was turned to work as an agent by MI6, and his imprisonment in Siberia. His eventual release as part of a spy-swap brought him to Salisbury where, on that fateful day, he and his daughter found themselves fighting for their lives.

A GRIPPING, AUTHORISED HISTORY OF THE DARING RED DEVILS TOLD THROUGH THE FATES OF SIX HEROES.Riveting . . . Full of daring action, standout characters and cutting edge operations, this is unputdownableDamien LewisGripping and authoritative. Family men, circus performers, solicitors, communists, and reactionaries all fought together and shed blood for their country - a true and moving story of warAndy McNab------------------------------------Their German enemies called them the Red Devils. Montgomery described them as men apart - every man an Emperor. The cards they received on qualifying began: You are the elite of the British army.The Parachute Regiment.In this gripping, authorized account, bestselling historian Mark Urban tells the story of the wartime creation and development of Britains elite airborne infantry - who ranged from circus performers to solicitors, policemen to gravediggers, Christians and Jews to communists.Through the fates of six men - including recently widowed Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, who had to leave his little boy at home to head to the front, and Mike Lewis, whose photographs became iconic images of war - Urban vividly shows what it took to succeed in this new regiment. All six men would shed blood for their country in daring actions at D-Day, Arnhem and across the Second World War; two would not survive, and one would face disgrace.Based on deep archival research, British and German sources and new material from the mens families, and giving overdue recognition to the North African campaign, Urbans unvarnished history is a compelling and moving depiction of the highs and lows of battle.

The size of western armed forces, their stocks of weaponry and their readiness for combat are declining. Meanwhile, growing nationalism is hampering international cooperation and fuelling conflict everywhere. The wests will - as well as its capability - to shape the world is ebbing away.Beset by economic woes, western countries are continuing the post-Cold War process of disarmament at the very moment that many believe a new Cold War is starting. NATO members have compared Vladimir Putins foreign policy to that of Adolf Hitler, newly empowered groups such as ISIS, not to mention some governments, are tearing up the rulebook of acceptable international behaviour, and the military prowess that the western world once regarded as its prerogative is being dwarfed by countries like India and China.Tightly argued by Newsnights diplomatic and defence editor Mark Urban, THE EDGE is a sharp polemic that breaks new ground in examining the workings and consequences of these geo-political tectonics, and shows just how rapidly the balance of power has been upended.

The SAS describes its attitude to the use of lethal force as Big boys games, big boys rules. Anyone caught with a gun or bomb can expect to be shot. In Big Boys Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA Mark Urban meticulously explores the security forces covert operations in Northern Ireland: from the mid-1970s, when they were stepped up, to the Loughall ambush in 1987, in which eight IRA Provisionals were killed. While charting the successes and failures of special operations during the troubles, Urban reveals the unenviable dilemmas faced by intelligence chiefs engaged in a daily struggle against one of the worlds most sophisticated terrorist organisations.This is a book that needed to be written and which fulfils the essentials of any Ulster story; it expands understanding beyond fragmented jingoism and newspaper headlines. John Stalker, Sunday Times

When British and American forces invaded Iraq in April 2003, their intelligence operations got to work looking for the WMD their governments had promised us were there. They quickly realised no such weapons existed. Instead they become faced with an ever-increasing spiral of extremism and violence that was almost impossible to understand, let alone contain.This book tells the story of what happened next, one of the most dramatic and sustained operations in our recent military history. Up against the wall, under the aegis of the joint forces commanded by Major General McChrystal, our men moved into action using the wide variety of aircraft and weaponry at their disposal. Combining intelligence with brute force, the SAS went on the attack, night after night targeting Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups with an intensity never before practiced by the service, destroying the terrorist threat and saving lives.

From the evacuation of France in 1940 to the final dash to Hamburg in 1945, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment were on the front line throughout the Second World War. Theirs was a war that saw them serve in Africa as part of the Desert Rats, before returning to Europe for the Normandy landings. Wherever they went, the notoriety of the Filthy Fifth grew - they revelled in their reputation for fighting by their own rules.The Tank War explains how Britain, having lost its advantage in tank warfare by 1939, regained ground through shifts in tactics and leadership methods, as well as the daring and bravery of the crews themselves. Overturning the received wisdom of much Second World War history, Mark Urban shows how the tank regiments advances were the equal of the feats of the German Panzer divisions.Drawing on a wealth of new material, from interviews with surviving soldiers to rarely seen archive material, this is an unflinchingly honest, unsentimental and often brutal account of the 5th RTRs wartime experiences. Capturing the characters in the crews and exploring the strategy behind their success, The Tank War is not just the story of an battle hardened unit, but something more extraordinary: the triumph of ordinary men, against long odds, in the darkest of times.

Punchy. Trenchant. Heavyweight. Mark Urbans Tank blows the doors off, just as youd expect from such an accomplished author. Take cover! Damien Lewis, author of SAS Great EscapesAn authoritative history of the tank and the remarkable individuals who designed them and fought in them, from a former officer and best-selling historianTanks are the ultimate embodiment of industrial age warfare. In the popular imagination, they represent both a terrifying beast of destruction and a potent symbol of liberation.The technology behind these war machines has evolved relentlessly, and yet the coming of the information age has led many to predict that drones, missiles, and Artificial Intelligence have made the tank obsolete. Time and again, however, tanks have continued to shape and be shaped by -- battles around the world, from their introduction in 1916, through the Second World War and tank-on-tank fights in 1990s Iraq, to the current conflict in Ukraine.In TANK, best-selling historian and former officer in the Royal Tank Regiment Mark Urban draws on wide-ranging accounts from soldiers, designers, and politicians, from Winston Churchill to Volodymyr Zelensky, to tell the remarkable story of one of the most important developments in military history. Through the ten most important vehicles ever made, Urban chronicles the incredible advances in tank technology starting with the Mark IV, the first British tank to be used in large numbers in WW1, and following the story through the T-34 and Tiger to the M1 Abrams, a product of huge American Cold War investment that is still used to this day.Officially supported by The Tank Museum and using never-before-seen archival sources, interviews and declassified documents, this is a fascinating history of the vehicle that changed conflict forever.An illuminating and exciting drive through the mud and blood of twentieth-century warfare Dr Robert Lyman, author of Operation Suicide