One Day in a Very Long War: Wednesday 25th October 1944 - Hardcover

In this new and exciting approach to history, John Ellis focuses on a single day when the Allied war machine was in top gear but victory was far from a foreseeable reality. Through a succession of illuminating vignettes, where concise background information is never allowed to swamp the vivid immediacy of the day's events, he describes a world-wide conflict as it is acted out by Allied and Axis forces; field-marshal or private; president, prime-minister; prisoner of war or munitions worker. Among the set-piece actions of the day are the titanic naval battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, Hitler planning an Ardennes offensive which is to lead to the Battle of the Bulge, the eruption of the Red Army into Eastern Europe, a frustrated wolf-pack in the Atlantic, the saturation bombing of Essen and Hamburg, V2 rocket attacks on London and the highly secret Manhattan Project. The war in the rear, where civilian families find themselves in the battle zone, the code-breakers are busy at Bletchley Park, or the 'final solution' is taking place at Auschwitz, brings the whole human race into the most bloody war the world has ever known. By setting just one day under the historical microscope, a pitiless tragedy is laid bare with heart-rending clarity.

John Ellis gained an MA in International Relations at the University of Sussex and took a PhD course in Military Studies at the University of Manchester. He has received accolades for his unique brand of military history from J. K. Galbraith, John Keegan, and Len Deighton, who called him 'an exceptionally gifted writer, one of the best historians we have.' general Sir John Hackett described Ellis' The Sharp End as 'the most comprehensive, best balanced, most sensitive and best informed study of the fighting man in our time. I was moved by its understanding and compassion.'