Ben Kite: The Second World War Collection

Save 40% on this three-book Ben Kite bundle.

Discover how British and Commonwealth forces fought during the Second World War through three detailed studies combining operational analysis with personal accounts. Bringing together Stout Hearts, Through Adversity and Undaunted, this collection explores the mechanics of warfare and the experiences of the people who served, from the Normandy battlefields to air operations around the world.

Stout Hearts: The British and Canadians in Normandy 1944 examines how an army functions in battle. Using the Normandy campaign as its setting, Kite explains how tanks fight, engineers overcome obstacles, wounded soldiers receive care, and air and naval forces support troops on the ground. Photographs, maps and accounts from combatants bring these processes to life, showing how the different elements of a military force worked together and what this demanded of those involved.

Through Adversity: Britain and the Commonwealth’s War in the Air 1939–1945, Volume 1 explores the breadth of the air war through its tactics, techniques, technology and aircrew experiences. Subjects range from the defence of Britain to anti-shipping operations in the Mediterranean and close air support in Burma. Accounts from RAF, Commonwealth and Fleet Air Arm personnel, alongside those from occupied nations, reveal the international character of the effort and the hazards faced by those flying its missions.

Undaunted: Britain and the Commonwealth’s War in the Air 1939–45, Volume 2 expands the study with air intelligence, photographic reconnaissance and Special Duties operations. It examines support for ground campaigns in the Western Desert, Italy, North-West Europe, Burma and the South-West Pacific, alongside airborne forces and air transport. Chapters on air-sea rescue, prisoners of war, escape and evasion, and the ‘Guinea Pigs’ add a powerful human dimension to the operational history.

Illustrated throughout with historical photographs and maps, these books offer an engaging collection for readers interested in the Normandy campaign, military aviation and the relationship between tactics, technology and individual experience.

Explore Ben Kite’s accounts of war on land and in the air—and save 40% with this three-book bundle.