The Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon

The Longest Winter

Kershaw digs deep into the folk memories of the young men who survived virtually impossible odds, blending their accounts seamlessly into the harrowing narrative of battle. His journalistic approach is brilliantly complemented by his intimate, sharp, plain prose

Alex Kershaw is a British author, journalist and screenwriter. Since 1990, Kershaw has been a regular contributor to leading magazines and newspapers around the world, including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Observer, El Pais, Le Monde and many others. From 1991-2000, he was a contributing editor of GQ magazine. He is the author of biographies of Jack London and Robert Capa and, most recently, the widely-acclaimed WWII story The Bedford Boys. He lives in America with his wife and son.

A cold winter morning in the Ardennes Forest, 1944, and Hitler launches his last and most audacious attack on the unprepared Allies. Standing between the German forces and the desperately regrouping Allies were just eighteen young Americans, hidden in fox holes. 
 
In a fierce day-long battle, this small band of soldiers repulsed the German attack three times, inflicting severe casualties and defending a strategically vital hill despite being vastly outnumbered. They surrendered only when they ran out of ammunition. But then the real battle for survival began ... 
 
Alex Kershaw's brilliant account draws on the words of the decorated men who fought this heroic action, bringing vividly to life their struggle on the battlefield and later off it - as POWs.

One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey From the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau

The Liberator

Told for the very first time, The Liberator is the remarkable true story of one soldier’s extraordinary journey to World War II victory, from the invasion of Italy to the liberation of Dachau.

Exceptional... A worthy addition to vibrant classics of small-unit history like Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers.

Gripping… Kershaw has produced another gem, with vivid combat scenes and an admirable character in the leading role.

A poignant war story that culminates in the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau… [A] fast-paced examination of a dedicated officer navigating – and somehow surviving – World War II.

Alex Kershaw is the author of seven previous books, including the bestsellers The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter. He has written for several British newspapers, including the Guardian, Independent and Sunday Times. Born in York, England, he now lives in America with his wife and son.

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The true story behind the hit NETFLIX drama 
 
From the invasion of Italy to the gates of Dachau, no World War II infantry unit in Europe saw more action or endured worse than the one commanded by Felix Sparks. 
 
The US Army 157th regiment, known as the Thunderbirds, drew many of its men from more than fifty different Native American tribes, mixed in with Mexican-Americans and men more used to herding cattle in the American southwest. Felix Sparks, tasked with leading the diverse regiment regarded by generals as one of the US's finest fighting forces, was a maverick officer, and the only man to survive his company's wartime odyssey from bitter beginning to victorious end. 
 
Here, his remarkable true story is told for the first time, along with those of the men who bravely fought alongside him. 
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'Exceptional....The Liberator balances evocative prose with attention to detail and is a worthy addition to vibrant classics of small-unit history like Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers' Wall Street Journal 
 
'A revealing portrait of a man who led by example and suffered a deep emotional wound with the loss of each soldier under his command ... The Liberator is a worthwhile and fast-paced examination of a dedicated officer navigating - and somehow surviving - World War II.' Washington Post 
 
'A history of the American war experience in miniature, from the hard-charging enthusiasm of the initial landings to the clear-eyed horror of the liberation of the concentration camps.' The Daily Beast 
 
'Kershaw has ensured that individuals and entire battles that might have been lost to history, or overshadowed by more 'important' people and events, have their own place in the vast, protean tale of World War II ... Where Kershaw succeeds, and where The Liberator is at its most riveting and satisfying, is in its delineation of Felix Sparks as a good man that other men would follow into Hell - and in its unblinking, matter-of-fact description, in battle after battle, of just how gruesome, terrifying and dehumanizing that Hell could be.' Time

To Save a People

The epic and heroic story of how Raoul Wallenberg saved more than 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the death camps

It's to be hoped that, thanks to people like Alex Kershaw, the memory of this true freedom-fighter will be more venerated than he was by Hungary's self-styled "liberators".

Alex Kershaw has delivered a masterpiece about Raul Wallenberg, as witnessed from every perspective.

Alex Kershaw describes in this intensely moving, graphic and skilfully researched study, the extraordinary story of how Wallenberg succeeded on saving 100,000 Jews from certain death.

Alex Kershaw is the author of the widely acclaimed books The Bedford Boy, The Longest Winter, The Few and two biographies: Jack London and, more recently, Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa. He has been a journalist and screenwriter in the UK and now lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

New York Times bestselling author Alex Kershaw has written the first full biography of one of the most remarkable men to have outwitted Hitler - Raoul Wallenberg, the young Swedish diplomat who almost single-handedly saved the lives of countless Hungarian Jews, at unimaginable risk and great cost to himself. As a Holocaust survivor said, 'Schindler saved hundreds. Wallenberg saved tens of thousands.' This is the story of how he achieved this and of his personal duel with Adolf Eichmann, the SS colonel charged with obliterating Hungarian Jewry, who sent half a million Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz. This confrontation reaches its climax in 1944 when Soviet and German troops are fighting hand-to-hand through the suburbs of Budapest and Eichmann's push for the Final Solution is personally opposed by Wallenberg. The book also sheds new light on Wallenberg's fate - he disappeared into the Soviet Union after the war to a highly controversial and disputed death. (The Americans were so determined to discover what happened to him that they made him an honorary citizen in order to prise information out of the Russians.) It's an inspiring story which moves at the pace of a master thriller-writer, but the truth behind it is heartbreaking.

Alex Kershaw

Fine, deeply moving, scintillating...in the battle scenes this book soars heavenward like one of the Spitfires

Kershaw digs deep into the folk memories of young men who survived virtually impossible odds...harrowing, intimate, excellent.

Outstanding heroism...compelling.  Kershaw's writing gives you a sense of "being there"

Fascinating, remarkable, riveting, terrifying.  Kershaw does justice to the veterans and makes accessible their amazing story

July-October 1940

In the summer of 1940 a handful of volunteer pilots defied their country to fight when we needed them most. This is the story of their Battle of Britain. 
 
In the early days of World War Two when Britain stood alone against the terror of Hitler's all-conquering Third Reich, her future hung in the balance; her defence in the hands of the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the Royal Air Force's Fighter Command. They were Churchill's Few. In defiance of their own country's strict neutrality laws, a handful of American adventurers flew with them. This is their story - and a fresh perspective on the greatest air battle the world has ever seen. 
 
'Fine, deeply movingm scintillating...in the battle scenes this book soars heavenward like one of the Spitfires.' - Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph

Alex Kershaw

Praise for The Few

Fine, deeply moving, scintillating...in the battle scenes this book soars heavenward like one of the Spitfires

Praise for Alex Kershaw

Kershaw digs deep into the folk memories of young men who survived virtually impossible odds...harrowing, intimate, excellent.

Fine, deeply moving, scintillating...in the battle scenes this book soars heavenward like one of the Spitfires

Praise for Alex Kershaw

Kershaw digs deep into the folk memories of young men who survived virtually impossible odds...harrowing, intimate, excellent.

Fine, deeply moving, scintillating...in the battle scenes this book soars heavenward like one of the Spitfires

Praise for Alex Kershaw

Kershaw digs deep into the folk memories of young men who survived virtually impossible odds...harrowing, intimate, excellent.

Books by Alex Kershaw

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