Ten chapters take the reader chronologically through the key moments of the war: from the retreat to Dunkirk to the battle of the Atlantic; the savage fighting in the jungles of the far East to the RAF Bomber Command's campaign in Europe; the discovery of the Nazi's concentration camp system to the war's ultimate conclusion at the Nuremburg trials. One hundred documents are researched and selected by the Imperial War Museum's expert archivists, with commentary from their head Antony Richards explaining the significance of each and placing it in context to the war's progression. Readers will be able to engage and empathise with the writers in a thought-provoking and immediate way.
Anthony Richards is the head of Documents and Sound at IWM. Since 1995, he has worked on the diaries, letters and memoirs in the museum's care and is responsible for its extensive collection of personal testimony in both written and audio form. He has contributed to many publishing projects and is author of The Somme: A Visual History.
IWM (Imperial War Museums) is a leading authority on conflict and its impact, from the First World War to the present. A family of five museums, IWM illustrates and records all aspects of modern war and of the individual's experience of it, whether allied or enemy, service or civilian, military or political, social or cultural.