The dramatic defence of the Netherlands in May 1940 against the German invasion lasted only five days. It started with a massive German airborne landing in the capital west of the country and ended with a, for those days impressive, German air bombardment of the harbour-city of Rotterdam, devastating the city centre and shocking the Dutch supreme command. When hours later another major Dutch community was threatened with destruction from the air the Dutch supreme command decided to surrender....

Vitéz Andris Kursietis has been a researcher of military history for over fifty years, using resources that span the globe. His latest book, “Flag Officers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867 - 1918”, contains the military biographies of almost 4,500 generals and admirals who served the Dual Monarchy during the fifty-one years of its existence, ending with their participation in World War I (1914-1918) and the abolition of the Empire at the war’s end.

For his previous work on the Hun...

Besides the persecution and annihilation of the Jewish community, the quest for Lebensraum was a pillar of the Nazi’s ideology. The march east, operation ‘Barbarossa’ (1941), was essentially the final part of the geopolitics of the Third Reich. Historian Pierik takes readers into the world of ideas behind these politics, where cold blooded, rational elements go hand in hand with myths and radical beliefs.

An example of solid and, more importantly, understandable historiography

-Jan Je...