The Second World War Experience

A four-volume series, published in association with the Imperial War Museum, covering the whole six-year global conflagration. Each volume contains removable documents and memorabilia in pockets or pasted in, featuring personal accounts from British veterans and contemporary letters, diaries, maps and archival facsimile memoabilia from the Imperial War Museum. Memorabilia includes: Order No 1 – the German order to invade Poland which led to the British declaration of war against Germany; The fake passport used by Sub-Lieutenant Heinz Kummer of the Graf Spee to flee back to Germany following the Battle of the River Plate; and, Montgomery’s personal diary charting the events of the evacuation from Dunkirk; Roosevelt’s handwritten notes for his ‘day of infamy’ speech which saw America’s entry into the war; the order to McArthur to abandon the Philippines; Stalin’s handwritten notes on his ‘scorched earth’ policy; and the letters home of a British officer in Africa telling of his harrowing involvement in the battles of Gazala and Tobruk; Montgomery’s orders for El Alamein; Stalin’s annotated proof of his famous 5 September 1942 order regarding partisan warfare; and diary kept by a German soldier on the North African front; Montgomery’s hand-written D-Day notes; Eisenhower’s draft ‘in case of failure’ message written before D-Day; and, diary of a sergeant in the Royal Hampshire regiment covering his involvement in the D-Day landings, battle for Normandy and Operation ‘Market Garden’ – the battle for Arnhem.