World War Saga

The Pacific War in World War II pitted American fighting men against two merciless enemies: the relentless Japanese army and the combined forces of monsoons, swamps, mud, privation, and disease. The rowdy paratroopers of the eleventh Airborne Division-nicknamed "The Angels"—answered the call and fought in some of World War II's most dramatic campaigns, ranging from bloody skirmishes in Leyte's unforgiving rainforests to the ferocious battles on Luzon, including the hellscape urban combat of Manila.

The sixth and final book in the War at Home series by the author of The Morland Dynasty novels. Set against the evocative backdrop of World War I, this is an epic family drama featuring the Hunters and their servants.

Sailing across the Pacific, the battle-scarred heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis had just delivered a secret cargo that would trigger the end of World War II. Heading westward, she was sunk by a Japanese submarine. In 12 minutes, some 300 men went down with her. More than 900 other spent four horrific days and five nights in the ocean with no water to drink, savaged by a pitiless sun and swarms of sharks. Incredibly, no one knew they were there until a navy patrol plane accidentally discovered them. In the end, only 316 crewmen survived. How could this have happened - and why?

What happens to a young couple when the first flush of love fades? Alice and Amos Bell marry in 1925, when flappers and jazz prosper. Alice and her sister are ardent suffragists who live by their own rules, while their world overflows with parties, music, and dancing. But their struggle increases with the Depression years, followed by the World War II. Amos Bell does not deal with the stormy relationships with his children or his wife. As Alice’s health declines Amos’ infidelity dramas explode, with the German bombs dropping on Yorkshire being the least of their troubles.

Yugoslavia, 1941. Yugoslavia - hitherto neutral - finds itself at war with Germany as the pro-Nazi government is overthrown and replaced by a pro-Allied administration. The staff at the British Embassy make hasty plans to leave the country, but one of the military attachés, Captain Tony Davis, is separated from his comrades. Together with a motley crew of refugees, Davis escapes into the mountains of the west and begins a breathtaking series of adventures as he encounters the remnants of the Serbian army, the dreaded Ustase terrorists and, eventually, the Partisans.

1916. Poppy is being transferred to an enormous new munitions complex in Gretna, on the Scottish border. Even though it means moving far away from her best friends, Maggie and Annie, she is excited for the challenge. As a member of the Women's Police Service, it's her job to maintain law and order so that the factory workers can safely carry out their vital war work. She soon makes friends and even starts to open herself up to the possibility of love. But then she sees something in the dead of night, and suddenly the dangers of the war are no longer far away on distant shores.

The showdown should have been a brief affair, where the German Empire put its neighbours in their place. Encouraged by the spirit of adventure thousands of young men volunteered to defend the nation’s honour. On the other hand, in France, Britain and Russia optimism was just as high: the troops would be home by Christmas. But the reality was quite different. Soon the lines were locked in a deadly mud hell in the heart of Europe, and despite new weapons like poison gas, submarines, tanks and aircraft the war was protracted.

When war is declared, Lily sees an opportunity to escape her domineering father: she will join the Great Western Railway factory to win her financial independence and move out of home. Maggie doesn’t want to simply follow in her sisters’ footsteps and work in the laundries at the GWR. So, when the chance comes to volunteer for men’s work in the machine shop, she’s the first to raise her hand. Catherine, a clerk in the GWR office, has been helping with London’s evacuation efforts, organising trains to move children out of the city.

With her in-laws in desperate need of help, Marnie is forced to return to Suffolk, leaving her precious daughter Annie behind in Cornwall. But Lowestoft is a very different town to the one she left. Ravaged by war, and a mere twenty miles from enemy lines, the seaside town she once loved now resembles a military base, and is firmly in Hitler’s line of fire. As she tries to rebuild her life amidst the rubble and horror of war, Marnie struggles to free herself from the grief and shame of past mistakes.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler seizes power after seducing the German people with lavish promises of restoring order, prosperity and the Greater German Reich to its former glories. He then goes to on exploit other Western European powers’ fear of confrontation to rearm the country in direct defiance of the restrictive terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Before his neighbours can react, Hitler has transformed Germany’s armed forces into the most modern war machine of the day. And Hitler is not alone.

In a city scarred by war, can love and loyalty survive? In war-torn Poland, 1944, Julia searches for her missing father - a high-ranking officer - and risks everything to join the resistance in Warsaw. But her mission takes a terrifying turn when she's corralled into the ghetto by Nazis. Just when it seems she'll share her best friend's tragic fate, Nikolaj, her childhood sweetheart, resurfaces in a German uniform.

Blackpool, 1922. Martha and Trisha may have escaped poverty, but their fortunes have yet to turn. Happy on her wedding day, Trisha's new fairy-tale romance soon darkens as her husband, Walter, keeps her at arms length. Between his secrecy, and her mother-in-law's coldness, Trisha feels a stranger in her own home, and lonelier than ever. Meanwhile a spectre from Martha's past threatens the happiness she has found with Joshua and Bonnie. When she is called to help in her past love's hour of need, she must decide whether to risk exposing a secret that could cost her the trust of her daughter.

Sylvia is the spoiled only child of an ambitious mother, Lorna Ellis, who runs a dancing school in Blackpool. Approaching 21, Sylvia is under pressure to scoop up prizes by fair means or foul. Pearl is the oldest daughter in a large, chaotic family who all work at the Pleasure Beach. She often sneaks away to watch ballroom contestants in their glittery finery. Joy is an evacuee who lost her parents to the Blitz. Now she lives and works in a shabby boarding house and works as a cleaner. Though shy and modest, she falls in love with the newest dance craze - the American Jitterbug.

The liberation of occupied France is long overdue, but the operation requires the combined efforts of the resistance groups across Europe. Jeremy returns to France to prepare for the Allied invasion. An occupied country is a dangerous terrain to navigate, and as Jeremy works to set the plan in motion, even the smallest mistake can come at a fatal price. At Bletchley Park, Claire decodes a troubling message from German high command. Hitler is moving his secret weapons development resource from Norway to Bavaria.

When Alice is forced away from her spy training in London under tragic circumstances, she is distraught. That is, until she’s asked to join a local branch of codebreakers that might just be finding the key to winning the war. Young Imogen feels impotent to help her beloved Bude as war rages on. When she suspects the attractive new Vicar of betraying their country, she gets to work to uncover his deceit. Meanwhile, American entertainer to the troops Pearl pours her heart into supporting the troops to stop their moral from waning, but is jilted by her young soldier love.

July, 1914: In their sunlit Hampshire workshop, Alice Dalton mixes paints for the stained-glass artwork she and Edmund are working on, pausing only to joyfully cradle the soft swell of her stomach. But the looming war threatens her hard-won happiness. A knock at the door announces the arrival of Victor, her estranged brother, returning after six long years in America. But her elation at being reunited is short-lived as she realizes he still hasn’t forgiven her for her part in the heartbreak that sent him abroad.

Riga, 1943. Cycling the streets to deliver fresh loaves, Zenta passes empty houses, curtains open, doors unlocked, their occupants forced out by Russian or German hands. Above the newly built town hall, a Nazi flag waves in the breeze. Since her brother became a soldier and her sister joined the resistance, Zenta is all her parents have left. Then one morning her sister returns. Tired, worn, with a newly rounded belly, Estere is as determined as ever to fight for their freedom.

As the Great War rages across Europe, twenty-one-year-old Ruby Archer decides to ‘do her bit’ at an East End munitions factory. The work is relentless and deafening, but the camaraderie of the other girls carries her through. As the threat of another Zeppelin attack grows by the day, Ruby cannot ignore the abandoned animals scavenging the local streets. She rescues a stray kitten, Tess, and takes in an injured terrier Mac, but when all the local cats mysteriously disappear, she knows she needs to do more, and with the help of her friends plans to open a weekly animal clinic.

Des Lebens labyrinthisch irrer Lauf begleitet die Schönaus durch ihre schwersten Jahre. Während die Nazidiktatur ihren Lauf nimmt, versuchen alle Schönaus, ihren Weg in den veränderten Umständen zu finden. Dorothea lernt das unschöne Gesicht des neuen Regimes kennen, muss Opfer bringen und ihr Leben grundlegend ändern. Heinrich hat seinen Platz gefunden und lässt die hinter sich, die ihn bisher begleiteten. Charlotte konzentriert sich auf ihre Familie und versucht, unangenehme Wahrheiten auszublenden.

Alemania, mayo de 1938. El fantasma del nazismo amenaza Europa pero Felicia, fuerte e inconformista, maneja con decisión el timón de su amilia y su empresa. A su hija Belle no le importa la política, solo piensa en su carrera en el cine y en el hombre de sus sueños, con quien espera casarse muy pronto. La ceremonia se celebrará en la casa familiar de Lulinn y asistirá toda la familia salvo su madre, que ha decidido acompañar a su socio judío hasta la frontera. Al poco tiempo Susanne, su otra hija, recibe una propuesta de matrimonio de un joven oficial de las SS.