{"title":"Colin D Heaton","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into military history with Colin D. Heaton. Explore meticulously researched accounts of conflict, leadership, and courage. A must-read for history enthusiasts seeking in-depth analysis and gripping narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"four-war-boer-book-colin-d-heaton-9781612001753","title":"Four War Boer","description":"The amazing life of Pieter Krueler (1885-1986) provides a window into a full century of conflict such as one man rarely experiences. Four-War Boer traces Krueler’s highly colourful life from the Second Boer War, where he first served as a 14-year-old scout, through his service in World War I with the German army in East Africa, to the Spanish Civil War to World War II, this time with the Allies, and on into the latter part of the 20th century, when he served as a mercenary during the 1960s Congo Crisis. Later, by this time in his eighties, he became a civilian trainer for the original Selous Scouts of Rhodesia, and later still a trainer for South African commandos.  This biography of a most remarkable man and warrior is based on six years of historical research through hard-to-find secondary and published primary sources as well as extensive interviews with Krueler himself. Interviews with German officers and others who knew and worked with Krueler amply document the biography, adding first-person testimony and giving the work the immediacy of a memoir.   Following the Boer defeat by the British, sided with the Germans during the East African Campaign. He also operated in the Belgian Congo where he led native African soldiers on extremely dangerous missions. After WWI, Krueler’s distrust of both the rising Fascist and Communist movements in Europe led him to volunteer as a mercenary during the Spanish Civil War, where he worked with the Pyrenees Basque movement. In World War II, he worked as a reserve officer instructor, and later as a coast watcher to guard the coast of South Africa from German incursion.   Krueler later served as a mercenary with Michael Hoare during the 1960s Congo Crisis, before serving South Africa to train commandos. A chapter of this book is devoted to the formation of Rhodesia’s highly elite Selous Scouts, along with highlights of several previously classified missions. This material includes a wealth of fascinating new information, and breaks the great secrecy surrounding Rhodesian and South African special operations, as unveiled through the experience of a man who was a founding father of counterinsurgency in Africa.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622493757713,"sku":"GOR011101674","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50259793445137,"sku":"CIN1612001750G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612001750.jpg?v=1751088749"},{"product_id":"german-aces-speak-ii-book-colin-heaton-9780760345900","title":"The German Aces Speak II","description":"The much-anticipated sequel to The German Aces Speak gives voice to four more of WWII’s most noteworthy German pilots. When The German Aces Speak published in 2011, Air \u0026amp; Space\/Smithsonian magazine welcomed Colin Heaton’s and Anne-Marie Lewis’s masterful command of interview-based narrative, writing, “. . . what might have been numbing recitations of dogfights are instead vivid descriptions of life as a warrior during World War II.” Indeed, it is this unexpected perspective, brought to life by the authors’ neutrality and thoughtful research, that illuminates a side of war largely hidden from the American public: the experience of the German Luftwaffe pilot. In The German Aces Speak II, Heaton and Lewis paint a picture of the war through the eyes of four more of Germany’s most significant pilots—Johannes Steinhoff, Erich Alfred Hartmann, Gunther Rall, and Dieter Hrabak—put together from numerous interviews personally conducted by Heaton from the 1980s through the 2000s. The four ex-Luftwaffe fighter aces bring the past to life as they tell their stories about the war, their battles, their off-duty lives, their lives after the war, and, perhaps most importantly, how they felt about serving under the Nazi leadership of Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler. Together, the memories of the events captured in The German Aces Speak II continue one of today’s most unique World War II book series, unearthing a facet of the war that has gone widely overlooked for the American public.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49781318549777,"sku":"CIN0760345902G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49959468499217,"sku":"CIN0760345902VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0760345902.jpg?v=1751328899"},{"product_id":"german-aces-speak-book-colin-d-heaton-9780760341155","title":"The German Aces Speak","description":"For the first time, four German WWII pilots share their side of the story. Few perspectives epitomize the sheer drama and sacrifice of combat more perfectly than those of the fighter pilots of World War II. As romanticized as any soldier in history, the WWII fighter pilot was viewed as larger than life: a dashing soul waging war amongst the clouds. In the sixty-five-plus years since the Allied victory, stories of these pilots heroics have never been in short supply. But what about their adversaries-the highly skilled German aviators who pushed the Allies to the very brink of defeat? Of all of the Luftwaffes fighter aces, the stories of Walter Krupinski, Adolf Galland, Eduard Neumann, and Wolfgang Falck shine particularly bright. In The German Aces Speak, for the first time in any book, these four prominent and influential Luftwaffe fighter pilots reminisce candidly about their service in World War II. Personally interviewed by author and military historian Colin Heaton, they bring the past to life as they tell their stories about the war, their battles, their lives, and, perhaps most importantly, how they felt about serving under the Nazi leadership of Hermann Goring and Adolf Hitler. From thrilling air battles to conflicts on the ground with their own commanders, the aces memories disclose a side of World War II that has gone largely unseen by the American public: the experience of the German pilot.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49788555165969,"sku":"CIN076034115XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/076034115X.jpg?v=1750882407"},{"product_id":"night-fighters-book-colin-d-heaton-9781591143604","title":"Night Fighters","description":"Night Fighters chronicles the historical, technological, tactical and strategic evolution of limited visibility aerial combat between Great Britain and Germany during WW II.   The subjects interviewed for his project were the key individuals responsible for the creation and execution of their respective national policies governing the conduct of the nocturnal air war. The science developed by both nations assisted in increasing the momentum and lethality of that conflict. This arena of WW II produced a plethora of technological innovations, the results of which are seen today in everyday military and civilian life. This book provides a detailed historical analysis of the men, methods, machines and devices that forever altered the course of aviation and scientific history.  Where this book differs from previous works is the collective and extensive interviews with the participants of the air war, in their own words. This book also provides an impartial, comparative and contrasting analysis of both sides, and is endorsed by the historical figures.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50302982586641,"sku":"CIN1591143608G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50338194948369,"sku":"CIN1591143608VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1591143608.jpg?v=1751374916"},{"product_id":"star-of-africa-book-colin-heaton-9780760343937","title":"The Star of Africa","description":"\"Heaton expertly portrays Marseille as one of history's great fighter pilots, as well as a man who lived life to the full and who fought with honor.\" — Dennis Showalter  The Star of Africais  a biography of the dramatic life and meteoric career of German  Luftwaffe Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille, the \"Star of Africa.”  Marseille, a legendary figure in the annals of military history, had 158  kills to his name and was one of the rare recipients of the Knight’s  Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, the Third Reich’s highest  honor awarded for valor in combat. Unlike other German fighter aces,  Marseille is also a famous figure in the public imagination in the  United States and other English-speaking countries, where his rebellious  nature, iconoclastic behavior, and early death have nourished his  reputation just as greatly as his exceptional skill and chivalrous  conduct as an adversary.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50571558912273,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50571560386833,"sku":"CIN0760343934VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0760343934.jpg?v=1751075144"},{"product_id":"star-of-africa-book-colin-d-heaton-9781944353872","title":"The Star of Africa","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Star of Africa\u003c\/em\u003e plunges you into the blistering cockpit of Hans-Joachim Marseille, the Luftwaffe's most dazzling maverick. Against the backdrop of North Africa's sun-scorched skies, Marseille carved his legend: 158 confirmed victories; a string of near-impossible dogfights won by instinct and raw courage; and the coveted Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Marseille's genius did not come at the cost of his conscience. Refusing to swallow the Nazi doctrine around him, he spun forbidden jazz through his radio, befriended a South African POW, and lived by an honor code that led him to guide crippled Allied fighters safely to the desert floor, sometimes risking anti-aircraft fire to slip them notices of their downed comrades. Through interviews with fellow pilots and German officers who watched him grow from undisciplined renegade to the \"Star of Africa,\" Colin D. Heaton paints a vivid portrait of a man whose soaring heroism and tragic end-caused not by enemy fire but by mechanical fate-reshaped the morale of an entire fighter wing and left an indelible mark on aviation history. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52534871851281,"sku":"NLS9781944353872","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52725121810705,"sku":"NIN9781944353872","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781944353872.jpg?v=1760669601"},{"product_id":"star-of-africa-book-colin-d-heaton-9781944353865","title":"The Star of Africa","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52537126977809,"sku":"NLS9781944353865","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52725121712401,"sku":"NIN9781944353865","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781944353865.jpg?v=1760677139"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-colin-d-heaton.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}