This Remembrance Day, we’ve collected a series of WWII stories from the (grand)parents of our team here at Casemate. Our Publisher Ruth derives from a long lineage of military MacGyvers. Here, she tells the tale of her grandfather, who, whilst serving in the RAF, built his own tank using an old Japanese car. Our publisher… Read More »Casemate WWII Short Stories: The Man Who Built A Tank
An insight into Cold War espionage through the life of Hüseyin Yildirim, a mechanic turned Stasi spy handler. Written by Bernd von Kostka, expert and author of Capital of Spies, we’re given front-row seats to one of the deadliest duos in GDR history. In 1979, Hüseyin Yildirim was living in West Berlin and started to… Read More »The Turkish Spy Handler: Hüseyin Yildirim
An insight into Cold War espionage through the life and career of Karl-Heinz Kurras, a notorious Stasi spy. Written by expert Sven Felix Kellerhoff, this is was one of the GDR’s best kept secrets…until now. Nobody had expected his exposure as a Stasi agent. But by 2009, the time had come: around two dozen volumes… Read More »The Stasi Spy: Karl-Heinz Kurras
What can we learn about leadership from the world of science fiction? A lot, according to Jonathan Klug and Steven Leonard, editors of To Boldly Go. Here, they turn to Star Trek to understand why decisiveness is key to military leadership. On September 8, 1966, a young William Shatner promised to boldly go, to take… Read More »Science Fiction and Leadership
Simon Forty, author of ‘Red Army Into The Reich’, provides a visual explanation of the formation of the Volksstrum in WWII, with direct quotes from history’s most reviled figure. As the Russian and Western forces got closer to Germany itself and attrition led to infantry shortages, the German high command realised that it would need… Read More »The Formation of the Volkssturm
This week, Brian Walter, author of The Longest Campaign, shines the spotlight on not one individual, but the collective seamen and airman who served during WWII’s Atlantic Campaign. Who do you think is history’s most unsung hero and why? While history is replete with countless examples of men and women who performed laudable deeds, the… Read More »The Unsung Heroes of WWII’s Atlantic Campaign
In anticipation of his new book, Red Army Into The Reich, author and historian Simon Forty gives us an in-depth, visual tour of the last days of WWII on the Eastern Front – a perspective often overlooked today. On September 2, 1945, the formal documents of the surrender of the Japanese were signed on USS… Read More »WWII Is Over (Well, For Some…)
How much is historical fiction based on history? In four short questions, we ask author Richard Camp just how much his new WWII novel was inspired by real events and his own experience as a U.S. Marine. Scroll down and enjoy! What inspired you to write The Commandos? I noted in one of my Marine… Read More »The Inspiration Behind ‘The Commandos’
Brian Izzard wrote the first biography on the mastermind of the Dunkirk evacuation and D-Day landings: Admiral Bertram Ramsey. Before then, very little was known about this extraordinary man. Today, that changes. There were several British military leaders in World War 2 who were not averse to personal publicity. Montgomery and Mountbatten spring to mind.… Read More »History’s Unsung Hero: Admiral Ramsay
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