corera gordon secret pigeon service operation columba resistance and the struggle to liberate europe
Corera Gordon Secret Pigeon Service. Operation Columba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe
Between 1941 and 1944, sixteen thousand plucky homing pigeons were dropped in an arc from Bordeaux to Copenhagen as part of 'Columba' - a secret British operation to bring back intelligence from those living under Nazi occupation. The messages flooded back written on tiny pieces of rice paper tucked into canisters and tied to the legs of the birds. Authentic voices from rural France, the Netherlands and Belgium - they were sometimes comic, often tragic and occasionally invaluable with details of German troop movements and fortifications, new Nazi weapons, radar system or the deployment of the feared V-1 and V-2 rockets that terrorized London. Who were the people who provided this rich seam of intelligence? Many were not trained agents nor, with a few exceptions, people with any experience of spying. At the centre of this book is the 'Leopold Vindictive' network - a small group of Belgian villagers prepared to take huge risks. They were led by an extraordinary priest, Joseph Raskin - a man connected to royalty and whose intelligence was so valuable it was shown to Churchill, leading MI6 to parachute agents in to assist him. A powerful and tragic tale of wartime espionage, the book brings together the British and Belgian sides of the Leopold Vindictive's story and reveals for the first time the wider history of a quirky, quarrelsome band of spy masters and their special wartime operations, as well as how bitter rivalries in London placed the lives of secret agents at risk. It is a book not so much about pigeons as the remarkable people living in occupied Europe who were faced with the choice of how to respond to a call for help, and took the decision to resist.
2017 Руб.
Fesperman Dan The Arms Maker of Berlin
A ruthless arms billionaire and a disgraced history professor share a terrible secret. Nat Turnbull is dragged abruptly from his quiet academic life when his former mentor Professor Gordon Wolfe is arrested for stealing top secret archive documents dating back to the Second World War. Coerced into examining the archives for the FBI, Nat finds intriguing references both to Wolfe's activities in an Allied intelligence office in Switzerland during the war, and to a mysterious student resistance group in Berlin known as the White Rose. Following Wolfe's cryptic clues to Europe, soon Nat is in a desperate race to unlock the truth, before it gets him killed.
1566 Руб.
Hlad A.L. The Long Flight Home
Is love strong enough to survive a war? September 1940. As enemy fighter planes blacken the sky, Susan Shepherd finds comfort at her home in Epping Forest, where she and her grandfather raise homing pigeons. Of all Susan's birds, it's Duchess who is the most extraordinary, and the two share a special bond. Thousands of miles away, Ollie Evans, a young American pilot decides to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. But Ollie doesn't expect his quest to bring him instead to the National Pigeon Service - a covert new operation involving homing pigeons - and to Susan. The National Pigeon Service has a dangerous mission to air-drop hundreds of pigeons into German-occupied France. Despite their growing friendship Ollie and Susan must soon be parted - but will Duchess's devotion and sense of duty prove to be an unexpected lifeline between them? Based on true events, The Long Flight Home is an uplifting and timeless wartime novel, that reminds us how, in times of hardship, hope is never truly lost.
2125 Руб.
Taylor Peter Operation Chiffon. The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland
On the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Peter Taylor tells for the first time the gripping story of Operation Chiffon, the top-secret intelligence operation that helped bring peace to Ireland. April 1998: the Good Friday Agreement is signed, ending decades of violence and bloodshed in Northern Ireland. The process of getting the IRA to end its so-called 'armed struggle' was always the prerequisite of the search for peace. It was Operation Chiffon that finally helped make it possible. Operation Chiffon takes us inside the top-secret intelligence operation whose roots go back to the bloodiest years of the conflict in the early 1970s, involving officers from MI6 and, later in the 1990s, MI5. The remarkable story, which has remained hidden for forty years, is now revealed by legendary BBC journalist Peter Taylor with unique access to the officers involved. Drawing on exclusive interviews and Taylor's fifty years of covering the conflict, the book narrates in first-hand detail how those involved risked their careers - and their lives - to help secure the fragile peace that exists today. Taylor vividly brings this covert operation to life and in the process chronicles the history of Sinn Fein, rising from obscurity in the early days of the Troubles to becoming the largest political party in Ireland today. It is a story fraught with uncertainty and danger that, as Brexit risks destabilising what was achieved in the Good Friday Agreement twenty-five years ago, is more important than ever to remember.
5547 Руб.
Tchaikovsky A. Dragonfly Falling
The Wasp Empire's armies are on the move - and the city of Tark will be first to feel their might. Salma and Totho prepare for battle, alongside their Ant-kinden brethren. And within Tark's walls, they'll face a force greater than any Lowlander has ever seen. Stenwold Maker predicted this threat, and the Empire's secret service now deems him too dangerous to live. So he's to be eliminated, and his beloved city of Collegium destroyed. For if this centre of learning is lost, it will crush Lowland resistance.
803 Руб.
Tchaikovsky A. Dragonfly Falling
The Wasp Empire's armies are on the move - and the city of Tark will be first to feel their might. Salma and Totho prepare for battle, alongside their Ant-kinden brethren. And within Tark's walls, they'll face a force greater than any Lowlander has ever seen. Stenwold Maker predicted this threat, and the Empire's secret service now deems him too dangerous to live. So he's to be eliminated, and his beloved city of Collegium destroyed. For if this centre of learning is lost, it will crush Lowland resistance.
803 Руб.
Follett Ken Hornet Flight
As the Nazis bring Denmark to its knees, a resistance forms – and make a discovery that could turn the tide of war. From the master storyteller Ken Follett, Hornet Flight is a startling thriller set amidst the Danish Resistance of the Second World War. Europe in Darkness 1941. The Nazis have Denmark in their vice-like grip, their malign presence corroding everything its inhabitants hold dear. Even the police betray their countrymen and work with the Gestapo to hunt down spies. A Glimmer of Hope In this hostile climate the Danish resistance discover a secret that could change the course of the war – proof of an advanced German radar installation that is causing catastrophic losses to Allied planes bringing the fight to Germany. A Dangerous Mission The resistance must get the information to the British and will have only one chance, using a near-derelict Hornet Moth bi-plane mouldering away in a church. If they succeed the balance of the war will be tipped in the Allies’ favour but failure will see them killed . . .
3129 Руб.
Chomsky Noam, Pappe lan On Palestine
Co-authored by two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, an indispensable book for understanding the situation in Gaza right now What is the future of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement directed at Israel? Which is more viable, the binational or one state solution? Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky discuss these critical questions and more in this urgent and timely book, a sequel to their acclaimed Gaza in Crisis.
2534 Руб.
Taylor Andrew The Second Midnight
A secret mission… 1939. As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Alfred Kendall is tasked with carrying out a minor mission for the British Intelligence Service. Travelling to Prague, he takes his troubled young son, Hugh, as cover. A terrible choice… When Hitler invades Czechoslovakia, Alfred is given an ultimatum by the Czech Resistance. They will arrange for him to return to England, but only if he leaves his son Hugh behind as collateral. A young boy stranded in Nazi terrain… Hugh is soon taken under the wing of a Nazi colonel – Helmuth Scholl. But even though Scholl treats Hugh well, his son, Heinz, is suspicious of this foreigner. And as the war across the continent intensifies, they are set on a path that will ultimately lead towards destruction…
4681 Руб.
Fleming Ian Thunderball
There's no better time to rediscover James Bond. SPECTRE - the international terrorist organization led by Blofeld - is holding the world to ransom with two stolen nuclear weapons. Operation Thunderball is launched to stop them, and, in a race against time, Bond travels to the Bahamas to uncover the stolen bombs before SPECTRE can put its deadly plan into action. With less than a week to find the hidden weapons Bond must enter a world of fine yachts and casinos to infiltrate the secret operation and foil Blofeld.
2605 Руб.
Fleming Ian Thunderball
There's no better time to rediscover James Bond. SPECTRE - the international terrorist organization led by Blofeld - is holding the world to ransom with two stolen nuclear weapons. Operation Thunderball is launched to stop them, and, in a race against time, Bond travels to the Bahamas to uncover the stolen bombs before SPECTRE can put its deadly plan into action. With less than a week to find the hidden weapons Bond must enter a world of fine yachts and casinos to infiltrate the secret operation and foil Blofeld.
3335 Руб.
Furst Alan Blood of Victory
November, 1940. I.A Serebin, a writer from Odessa and former decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, is on his way to Istanbul following a cryptic letter from a former lover. Ostensibly there on official business for the International Russian Union, an emigre organisation based in Paris, he is drawn into a clandestine world of international spies and political players. With war in Europe drawing nearer, Serebin is recruited by the British secret services - his mission to stop the export of Romanian oil to Germany. In a race against time, Serebin's journey will take him from the glittering salons of Paris to the back alleys of Bucharest and the Black Sea ports, in a covert operation to staunch the flow of oil, the precious 'blood of victory'.
2210 Руб.
Follett Ken A Column of Fire
A World in Turmoil 1558, and Europe is in revolt as religious hatred sweeps the continent. Elizabeth Tudor has ascended to the throne but she is not safe in this dangerous new world. There are many who would see her removed, not least Mary Queens of Scots, who lies in wait in Paris. A New Order Elizabeth determines to set up a new secret service: a group of resourceful spies and courageous agents entrusted to keep her safe and in power. As she searches for those who will make the difference, one man stands out. A Man Who Would Die For His Queen For Ned Willard the opportunity to serve his queen is God-sent. He cannot stay in Kingsbridge and watch the love of his life marry another, and as fires burn and extremism begins to spark throughout Europe, Ned makes his choice. He will spend his life protecting his monarch from the tyrants who aim to destroy her or die trying . . .
3316 Руб.
Still William Passengers. True Stories of the Underground Railroad
Discover a powerful collection of the hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and mortal struggles of enslaved people seeking freedom: These are the true stories of the Underground Railroad. A secret network of safe houses, committees and guides that stretched well below the Mason-Dixon Line into the brutal slave states of the American South, the Underground Railroad remains one of the most impressive and well-organised resistance movements in modern history. It facilitated the escape of over 30,000 slave 'passengers' through America and into Canada during its peak years of 1850-60, and, in total, an estimated 100,000 slaves found their freedom through the network. Abridged from William Still's The Underground Railroad Records - an epic historical document that chronicles the first-hand stories of American slaves who escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad - Passengers tells of the secret methods, risks and covert sacrifices that were made to liberate so many from slavery. From tales of men murdered in cold blood for their part in helping assist runaways and terrifyingly tense descriptions of stowaways and dramatic escape plans, to stories of families reunited and the moments of absurdity that the Underground Railroad forced its 'passengers' to sometimes endure, Still's narratives testify to the humanity of this vast enterprise.
2865 Руб.
Oz Amos To Know A Woman
Following the bizarre accidental death of his wife, Israeli secret service agent Yoel Ravid retires to the suburbs with his daughter, mother and mother-in-law. After a lifetime of uncovering other people's secrets he is forced to look back at the lies he has told himself; at the desolate enigma of his wife's life and death; his years of service to the state and the riddle of his daughter's behaviour.
2611 Руб.
Forsyth Frederick The Fist Of God
During those fateful weeks before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, a fragment of radio intercept had referred to Qubth-ut-Allah, a devastating secret weapon that could rain death and destruction on the Allied forces. Despite Allied scepticism, Major Mike Martin, an SAS man who can pass as an Arab, is sent into Kuwait to assess Iraqi strength and help the resistance. What he discovers there takes him into the heart of Baghdad, where he is to 'run' the Iraqi spy known as Jericho, the sleeper who might be prepared to provide vital information for money. It is a highly dangerous operation, the results of which cause the Allies to delay their ground assault for four days - while Martin parachutes into the Iraqi mountains on the most hazardous mission of his life: to find and destory Qubth-ut-Allah - the Fist of God.
2346 Руб.