PATRICK BISHOP

A thrilling tale of incredible courage and resilience, a true wartime story of William Ash.The Cooler King is at once uplifting and inspirational, and stands as a testament to the durability of decent values and the invincible spirit of liberty.The Cooler King tells the astonishing story of William Ash, an American flyer brought up in Depression-hit Texas, who after being shot down in his Spitfire over France in early 1942 spent the rest of the war defying the Nazis by striving to escape from every prisoner of war camp in which he was incarcerated. Alongside William Ash is a cast of fascinating characters, including Douglas Bader, Roger Bushell, who would go on to lead the Great Escape, and Paddy Barthropp, a dashing Battle of Britain pilot who despite his very different background became Ashs best friend and shared many of his adventures. Using contemporary documents and interviews with Ashs comrades, Patrick Bishop vividly recreates the multiple escape attempts, while also examining the P.O.W. experience and analysing the passion that drove some prisoners to risk death in repeated bids for freedom.

Adam Tomaszewski is a Polish airman, flying Hurricanes alongside British pilots as the Battle of Britain rages in the summer skies over Kent and Sussex. Facing death daily and far from his friends and family, Adam finds himself drawn to a maverick Irish soldier called Gerry Cunningham.'You're out of luck, brother,' are the first words Gerry says when they meet in the crush of men competing for the few women at a dance in a seaside hotel, but when Gerry betrays his lover Moira, Adam's fortunes seem to have changed. For the next four years, Adam's life and Gerry's are intertwined like good luck and bad, love and loss, life and death, their paths crossing at various points on Adam's perilous journey from the ruins of Poland to the rolling English countryside, from Egypt to Occupied France.A hauntingly evocative picture of wartime Britain, a twisting drama of fighting behind enemy lines, a compelling, suspenseful love story, A GOOD WAR proves Patrick Bishop - already acclaimed as a great historian of the war in the air - to be a superbly gifted novelist.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Extraordinary DOMINIC SANDBROOK SUNDAY TIMES An epic thriller droll moving with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in it OBSERVER Fascinating gripping SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Excellent a fresh unexpected take on the liberation of Paris JULIAN JACKSON author of France on TrialFrom the Sunday Times bestselling Patrick Bishop comes a heart stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944 one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2 When the Germans marched in and the lamps went out in the City of Light the millions who loved Paris mourned Liberation four years later triggered an explosion of joy and relief It was the party of the century and everybody who was anybody was there General Charles de Gaulle seized the moment to create an instant legend that would take its place alongside the great moments in French history After years of oppression and humiliation Parisians had risen to reclaim their city and drive out the forces of darkness or so the story went This fresh new account of the liberation packed with revelation tells the story of those heady days of suspense danger exhilaration and vengeance through the eyes of a range of participants refle

The Royal Air Force is synonymous with its heroic achievements in the summer of 1940, when Winston Churchills famous few - the Hurricane and Spitfire pilots of RAF Fighter Command - held Goerings Luftwaffe at bay in the Battle of Britain, thereby changing the course of the war. For much of the twentieth century, warplanes were fixed in the worlds imagination, a symbol of the perils and excitements of the modern era. But within the space of a hundred years, military aviation has morphed from the exotic to the mundane. An activity which was charged with danger - the domain of the daring - is now carried out by computers and pilotless drones. Aviators have always seemed different to soldiers and sailors - more adventurous, questing and imaginative. Their stories gripped the public and in both wars and air aces dominated each sides propaganda, capturing hearts and dreams. Writing with the verve, passion and the sheer narrative aplomb familiar to many thousands of readers from his bestselling Second World War aerial histories, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, Patrick Bishops Wings is a rich and compelling account of military flying from its heroic early days to the present.

A mediados de la primavera de 1940 Hitler y el ejército alemán parecían imparables, tras haber arrasado con todos aquellos que habían osado enfrentarse a ellos hasta el momento.Su único enemigo real en aquellos momentos era el Reino Unido, cuyo ejercito, aunque habia resultado vapuleado en Francia, habia conseguido evacuar casi milagrosamente mas de 300.000 hombres de las playas de Dunkerque en la Operacion Dinamo a finales de mayo de ese año.En este estado de cosas Hitler esperaba conseguir llegar a algun tipo de acuerdo con el gobierno britanico que pusiera fin a las hostilidades entre ambos paises, pero ante la negativa del gobierno de Winston Churchill de llevar a cabo ningun tipo de negociacion, sus opciones pasaban entonces por invadir el Reino Unido para asegurarse de que quedaba neutralizado como enemigo, y para ello se pusieron en marcha los preparativos de la operacion Leon Marino.La primera parte de esta operacion tenia como objetivo asegurar la destruccion de la RAF y asegurar la superioridad aerea de la Luftwaffe sobre las islas para poder acometer a invasion terrestre con garantias y aqui es donde entran en accion los aproximadamente 2.500 pilotos del Mando de Caza de la RAF y todo el personal de tierra que los apoyo.

El verano de 1940 parecía que iba a señalar el principio del fin para Gran Bretaña. Europa había caído bajo el empuje de los ejércitos de Hitler, y todo hacía presagiar que gran Bretaña sería el siguiente pais en ser invadido una vez fuese destruida la Real Fuerza Aerea. Sin embargo, fue en esta ultima mision donde los nazis tropezarian. A lo largo de 123 dias, Hermann Goering envio en continuas oleadas a los escuadrones de caza de la Luftwaffe con la intencion de dominar el espacio aereo britanico. Frente a ellos, apenas 3000 pilotos defendieron su patria con ferocidad. Este fascinante libro, escrito por el historiador y periodista Patrick Bishop, ofrece por primera vez la historia de esta decisiva batalla desde la perspectiva de los pilotos que la protagonizaron. Escrito a partir de cientos de entrevistas a los supervivientes, asi como multitud de diarios personales y cartas que hasta ahora no habian visto la luz, Bishop recrea con asombrosa proximidad y claridad lo que fue una insoportable y a la vez estimulante guerra de nervios.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Extraordinary DOMINIC SANDBROOK SUNDAY TIMES An epic thriller droll moving with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in it OBSERVER Fascinating gripping SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Excellent a fresh unexpected take on the liberation of Paris JULIAN JACKSON author of France on Trial From the Sunday Times bestselling Patrick Bishop comes a heart stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944 one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2 When the Germans marched in and the lamps went out in the City of Light the millions who loved Paris mourned Liberation four years later triggered an explosion of joy and relief It was the party of the century and everybody who was anybody was there General Charles de Gaulle seized the moment to create an instant legend that would take its place alongside the great moments in French history After years of oppression and humiliation Parisians had risen to reclaim their city and drive out the forces of darkness or so the story went This fresh new account of the liberation packed with revelation tells the story of those heady days of suspense danger exhilaration and vengeance through the eyes of a range of participant

SOLDIER, ESCAPER, SPYMASTER, POLITICIAN Airey Neave was assassinated in the House of Commons car park in 1979. Forty years after his death, Patrick Bishops lively, action-packed biography examines the life, heroic war and death of one of Britains most remarkable 20th century figures. Airey Neave was one of the most extraordinary figures of his generation. Taken prisoner during WW2, he was the first British officer to escape from Colditz and using the code name Saturday became a key figure in the IS9 escape and evasion organisation which spirited hundreds of Allied airmen and soldiers out of Occupied Europe. A lawyer by training, he served the indictments on the Nazi leaders at the Nuremburg war trials. An ardent Cold War warrior, he was mixed up in several of the great spy scandals of the period. Most people might consider these achievements enough for a single career, but he went on to become the man who made Margaret Thatcher, mounting a brilliantly manipulative campaign in the 1975 Tory leadership to bring her to power. And yet his death is as fascinating as his remarkable life. On Friday, 30 March 1979, a bomb planted beneath his car exploded while he was driving up the ramp of the House of Commons underground car park, killing him instantly. The murder was claimed by the breakaway Irish Republican group, the INLA. His killers have never been identified. Patrick Bishops new book, published to mark the 40th anniversary of his death, is a lively and concise biography of this remarkable man. It answers the question of who killed him and why their identities have been hidden for so long and is written with the support of the Neave family.

Two of Patrick Bishops bestselling books, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, are combined in one eBook edition. FIGHTER BOYS: In the summer of 1940, the future of Britain and the free world depended on the morale and skill of the young men of Fighter Command. This is their story. The Battle of Britain is one of the most crucial battles ever fought, and the victory of Fighter Command over the Luftwaffe has always been celebrated as a classic feat of arms. But, as Patrick Bishop shows in this superb history, it was also a triumph of the spirit in which the attitudes of the pilots themselves played a crucial part. Reaching beyond the myths to convey the fear and exhilaration of life on this most perilous of frontlines, Patrick Bishop offers an intimate and compelling account that is a soaring tribute to the exceptional young men of Fighter Command. BOMBER BOYS: Patrick Bishop looks at the lives and the extraordinary risks that the painfully young pilots of Bomber Command took during the air-offensive against Germany from 1940-1945. Like RAF pilots, the thousands of brave young men who joined Bomber Command took to the air to help Britain triumph in World War Two. But in the glow of victory, the fighter pilots were lauded for their efforts while the Bomber Boys faded in national memory. Crucial in the heat of combat, they were politically awkward afterwards. Yet with an average life expectancy shorter than that of soldiers on the Western front in WWI, these men faced death, injury and capture time and again to send bombs through the shrieking flak onto enemy territory. Bomber Boys is a tribute to their strength, courage and heroism filling in the historical blanks and immortalising their memory.

Afghanistan, 2008. After their eighteen-month epic tour of Helmand Province, the troops of 3 Para are back. This time, the weight of experience weighs heavily on their shoulders.In April 2006 the elite 3 Para Battle Group was despatched to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on a tour that has become a legend. All that summer the Paras were subjected to relentless Taliban attacks in one of the most gruelling campaigns fought by British troops in modern times.Two years later the Paras are back in the pounding heat of the Afghanistan front lines. The conflict has changed. The enemy has been forced to adopt new weaponry and tactics. But how much progress are we really making in the war against the insurgents? And is there an end in sight?In this searing account of 3 Paras return, bestselling author Patrick Bishop combines gripping, first-person accounts of front line action with an unflinching look at the hard realities of our involvement in Afghanistan. Writing from a position of exclusive access alongside the Paras, he reveals the ground truth of the mission our soldiers have been given. Its a sombre picture. But shining out from it are stories of courage, comradeship and humour, as well as a gripping account of an epic humanitarian operation through Taliban-infested country to deliver a vitally needed turbine to the Kajaki Dam.Frank, action-packed and absorbing, Ground Truth is a timely and important book that will set the agenda for discussion of the Afghan conflict for years to come.

Battle of Britain is a riveting chronicle of the epic struggle between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. It is the story of Britains fight for national survival, from the shock defeat and evacuation from Dunkirk in May/June 1940 to fighter Commands assertion of superiority over the Luftwaffe in mid-September. Battle of Britain takes the reader through that summer day by day, revealing the ongoing battles impact on flyers and civilians alike. By enhancing his narrative with eye-witness accounts, diary extracts and pilot profiles, Bishop brings the often horrific reality of air combat vividly to life. In Battle of Britain Patrick Bishop has written the definitive account of one of the pivotal moments in twentieth-century British history, and a nations finest hour.

** THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **Extraordinary DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES Thrilling MAX HASTINGS An epic thriller . . . droll, moving, with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in itOBSERVER Fascinating . . . grippingSUNDAY TELEGRAPH Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris JULIAN JACKSON, author of France on TrialFrom the Sunday Times-bestselling Patrick Bishop comes a heart-stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2.When the Germans marched in and the lamps went out in the City of Light the millions who loved Paris mourned. Liberation, four years later, triggered an explosion of joy and relief. It was the party of the century and everybody who was anybody was there. General Charles de Gaulle seized the moment to create an instant legend that would take its place alongside the great moments in French history. After years of oppression and humiliation Parisians had risen to reclaim their city and drive out the forces of darkness or so the story went.This fresh new account of the liberation, packed with revelation, tells the story of those heady days of suspense, danger, exhilaration and vengeance through the eyes of a range of participants, reflecting all sides of the conflict: Americans, French and Germans; resisters and collaborators. Among them are famous names like Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger and Pablo Picasso, but also some fascinating unknowns including a medic turned Resistance gunwoman, an androgynous Hungarian sculptor and a French bluestocking who quietly set about saving the nations art treasures from the Nazi looters.Paris 44 looks behind the mythology to tell the real story of the liberation and expose the conflicts and contradictions of France under the occupation the shame as well as the glory. This gripping war-time narrative will enthral anyone who has a place for Paris in their hearts.SHORTLISTED FOR THE FRENCH HERITAGE SOCIETY BOOK PRIZE

Patrick Bishop looks at the lives and the extraordinary risks that the painfully young pilots of Bomber Command took during the air-offensive against Germany from 1940-1945. As featured on the BBC 1 documentary BOMBER BOYS, presented by Ewan McGregor. They came from every corner of Britain and its Empire. They were the best of their generationheading for one of the worst tasks of the WWII. Like RAF pilots, the thousands of brave young men who joined Bomber Command took to the air to help Britain triumph in World War Two. But in the glow of victory, the fighter pilots were lauded for their efforts while the Bomber Boys faded in national memory. Crucial in the heat of combat, they were politically awkward afterwards. Yet with an average life expectancy shorter than that of soldiers on the Western front in WWI, these men faced death, injury and capture time and again to send bombs through the shrieking flak onto enemy territory. Bomber Boys is a tribute to their strength, courage and heroism filling in the historical blanks and immortalising their memory.

A gripping account of the epic hunt for Hitlers most terrifying battleship the legendary Tirpitz and the brave men who risked their lives to attack and destroy this most potent symbol of the Nazis fearsome war machine. Tirpitz was the pride of Hitlers navy. To Churchill, she was the Beast, a menace to Britains supply lines and a threat to the convoys sustaining Stalins armies. Tirpitz was said to be unsinkable, impregnable no other target attracted so much attention. In total 36 major Allied operations were launched against her, including desperately risky missions by human torpedoes and midget submarines and near-suicidal bombing raids. Yet Tirpitz stayed afloat. It was not until November 1944 that she was finally destroyed by RAF Lancaster Bombers flown by 617 Squadron the Dambusters in a gruelling mission that tested the very limits of human endurance. The man who led the raid Willie Tait was one of the most remarkable figures of the war, flying missions almost continuously right from the start. Until now his deeds have been virtually unknown. With exclusive co-operation from Taits family, Patrick Bishop reveals the extraordinary achievement of a man who shunned the spotlight but whose name will be renowned for generations to come. The book is a magnificent, accessibly written wartime adventure, perfect for fans of Ben Macintyres Agent Zigzag or Operation Mincemeat.

From the bestselling author of Fighter Boys, the true story of two ruthless adversaries and a wartime killing that shook the modern world. On a cold, bright morning in February 1942, fugitive Avraham Stern was cornered in a flat in Tel-Aviv and shot dead. His killer, Assistant Superintendent Geoffrey Morton, claimed Stern was trying to escape. But Stern was no ordinary criminal. And witnesses insisted he was executed in cold blood. Stern was a militant Zionist, self-proclaimed Jewish liberator of British Palestine and mastermind of bloody terrorist attacks targeting and killing policemen. On the run from Morton, a British colonial policeman assigned to capture him, his shooting inspired a cult of martyrdom that would ignite enmities between Jews, British and Arabs in the future hotbed of Israel. The Reckoning is the first book to tell the tale of a rebel who terrorized Palestine, the lawman determined to stop him and the events that led to their fatal meeting.

On the warm night of 18 August 1942, a flotilla pushed out into the flat water of the Channel. They were to seize the German-held port of Dieppe, destroy key installations, seize intelligence material and then sail for home.This was the greatest amphibious operation since Gallipoli, with the biggest accumulation of fighter power ever assembled. But by the morning of the attack, one of its architects already feared that the operation would "go down as one of the great failures in history". Its key players claimed it was essential to D-Day, with the media telling listeners that it was a success -- but the tragedy was all too predictable.Using first-hand testimony from combatants and civilians, and colourful analysis of the roles of Mountbatten and Montgomery, bestselling author Patrick Bishops gripping account brings Operation Jubilee powerfully and vividly to life, in an epic demonstration of how ambition, folly and courage came together in one of the most tragic episodes of the war.

Adam Tomaszewski is a Polish airman, flying Hurricanes alongside British pilots as the Battle of Britain rages in the summer skies over Kent and Sussex. Facing death daily and far from his friends and family, Adam finds himself drawn to a maverick Irish soldier called Gerry Cunningham.Youre out of luck, brother, are the first words Gerry says when they meet in the crush of men competing for the few women at a dance in a seaside hotel, but when Gerry betrays his lover Moira, Adams fortunes seem to have changed. For the next four years, Adams life and Gerrys are intertwined like good luck and bad, love and loss, life and death, their paths crossing at various points on Adams perilous journey from the ruins of Poland to the rolling English countryside, from Egypt to Occupied France.A hauntingly evocative picture of wartime Britain, a twisting drama of fighting behind enemy lines, a compelling, suspenseful love story, A GOOD WAR proves Patrick Bishop - already acclaimed as a great historian of the war in the air - to be a superbly gifted novelist.

High summer in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.Two young soldiers, Milo and Zac, are on a mission which could really make their names. Their special duties team is to ambush and capture a notorious Taliban leader.The operation has been meticulously planned and set up. But suddenly - all is chaos.The hunters are now the hunted. To reach safety they must make their way through fifty kilometres of hostile territory, with a Taliban captive and a young, frightened woman in tow. Perilous at every turn, the journey is the biggest test any of them has ever faced, and it will change their lives forever.

Boldly planned, bravely executed and brilliantly accomplished was Margaret Thatchers assessment of the Falklands campaign. But what did the war mean to the men in the trenches and below decks? This gripping first-hand account of the Falklands War, written by bestselling military historian Patrick Bishop and Sunday Times Editor John Witherow, reveals the true experiences of the British soldiers and seamen on the front line. The authors, then rookie reporters, lived alongside the fighting men, experiencing the daily realities of a British task force that was hugely outnumbered on a barren island 8,000 miles from home. The Falklands: The Winter War looks at the covert role of the SAS and the heroic death of Colonel H Jones at Goose Green, and considers just how close Britain came to defeat. This is an extraordinarily frank and unsparing account of a military campaign that has held a defining place within the British national conscience since victory in 1982.

In 2018 the RAF is one hundred years old. In his new book, destined to be a classic, Patrick Bishop examines the high point of its existence the Second World War, when the Air Force saved the nation from defeat then led the advance to victory. A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Air warfare was a terrible novelty of the modern age, requiring a new military outlook. From the beginning, the RAFs identity set it apart from the traditional services. It was innovative, flexible and comparatively meritocratic, advancing the quasi-revolutionary idea that competence was more important than background. The Air Force went into the war with inadequate machines, training and tactics, and the early phase was littered with setbacks and debacles. Then, in the summer of 1940, in full view of the population, Fighter Command won one of the decisive battles of the struggle. Thereafter the RAF was gilded with an aura of success that never tarnished, going on to make a vital contribution to Allied victory in all theatres. Drawing from diaries, letters, memoirs, and interviews, Air Force Blue captures the nature of combat in the skies over the corrugated wastes of the Atlantic, the sands of the Western Desert and the jungles of Burma. It also brings to life the intensely lived dramas, romances, friendships and fun that were as important a part of the experience as the fighting. Air Force Blue portrays the spirit of the RAF its heart and soul during its finest hours. It is essential reading for the millions in Britain and the Commonwealth whose loved ones served, and for anyone who wants to understand the Second World War.