Hart, Peter – The Bell Bookshop

Chain of Fire

Emma — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the 1880s, control over northeastern Africa was a political minefield into which Prime Minister Gladstone did not want to step – until his emissary Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum, and the city became the focal point for war. It was the height of European colonialism. Injustices were administered, bloody battles fought and civilians caught in the crossfire. Among the British officers were figures who would later adopt starring roles in the First World War, such as Egyptian Army sapper Captain Herbert Kitchener. By turns shocking and dynamic, Chain of Fire examines the terrible desert wars using the testimonies of the men who fought there.

Footsloggers

Emma — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Shortlisted for the 2023 Military History Matters Book of the Year AwardThe only way to truly understand what it was like to fight in the Second World War is to listen to the experiences of those men who were there. And often, there was nowhere more dangerous than on the ground. In Footsloggers, Peter Hart reconstructs one infantry battalion’s war in staggering detail. Based on his interviews with members of the 16th Durham Light Infantry, Hart bears witness not only to their comradeship, suffering, dreadful losses and individual tragedies, but also their courage and self-sacrifice as they fought their way across North Africa, Italy and Greece. This is a human look at the inhuman nature of war from the author of At Close Range and Burning Steel.

Burning steel

Emma — Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘Excellent … a raw and visceral, bird’s-eye view of the action from the men who were there’ The TimesThis is the story of a tank regiment: the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the Second World War. Raw and visceral personal recollections from the men themselves recall some of the most dramatic and horrific scenes imaginable – the sheer nerve-wracking tension of serving in highly inflammable Sherman tanks, the sudden impact of German shells, the desperate scramble to bail out, and the awful fate of those who couldn’t. Even if they made it out of the tank, they were still vulnerable to being brutally cut down by German infantry. Yet amidst these horrors, the humanity of these men shines through. And as we follow in their tracks, through letters, diaries and eye-witness accounts, they will change how we think about tank warfare forever.

Burning Steel

Emma — Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the story of a tank regiment: the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the Second World War. Raw and visceral personal recollections from the men themselves recall some of the most dramatic and horrific scenes imaginable – the sheer nerve-wracking tension of serving in highly inflammable Sherman tanks, the sudden impact of German shells, the desperate scramble to bail out, and the awful fate of those who couldn’t. Even if they made it out of the tank, they were still vulnerable to being brutally cut down by German infantry. Yet amidst these horrors, the humanity of these men shines through. And as we follow in their tracks, through letters, diaries and eye-witness accounts, they will change how we think about tank warfare forever.

At Close Range

Emma — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

WINNER OF THE MILITARY HISTORY MATTERS AWARD ‘Hart is a historian and author at the peak of his powers’ Richard van EmdenThe best way to understand what it was like to fight in the Second World War is to see it through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it. The South Notts Hussars fought at almost every major battle of the Second World War, from the Siege of Tobruk to the Battle of El Alamein and the D-Day Landings. Here, Peter Hart draws on detailed interviews conducted with members of the regiment, to provide both a comprehensive account of the conflict and reconstruct its most thrilling moments in the words of the men who experienced it. This is military history at its best: outlining the path from despair to victory, and allowing us to share in soldiers’ hopes and fears; the deafening explosions of the shells, the scream of the diving Stukas and the wounded; the pleasures of good comrades and the devastating despair at lost friends.

Last Battle

Emma — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Shortlisted for the Military History Monthly Book of the Year AwardBy August 1918, the outcome of the Great War was not in doubt: the Allies would win. But what was unclear was how this defeat would play out – would the Germans hold on, prolonging the fighting deep into 1919, with the loss of hundreds of thousands more young lives, or could the war be won in 1918? In The Last Battle, Peter Hart, author of Gallipoli and The Great War, and oral historian at the Imperial War Museum, brings to life the dramatic final weeks of the war, as men fought to secure victory, with survival seemingly only days, or hours away. Drawing on the experience of both generals and ordinary soldiers, and dwelling with equal weight on strategy, tactics and individual experience, this is a powerful and detailed account of history’s greatest endgame.