-
Nov 22, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos |John McKay
John, congratulations on the publication of your new novel Target Arnhem. It’s a great World War II story, combining battlefield action with a nail biting espionage plot. Could you tell us a bit about the different storylines? Thank you Alan. This is the second book in the Manner of Men series, (although it can be read as a standalone).
-
Nov 10, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos
Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale often features as a daring bit-part player in World War II espionage books, but now this extraordinary character takes centre stage in Tim Spicer’s insightful biography. Dunderdale was an iron fist in a velvet glove. He combined charm with the ruthless edge necessary to be an effective spymaster. His 40-year career of ‘licensed thuggery’ spanned the Dreadnought era to the Atom bomb. Biffy was born in Odessa at the turn of the 20th century, to English expat parents.
-
Sep 12, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Damien Lewis |Alan Bardos
Your book SAS Forged in Hell, tells the story of the part 1 SAS played in the Sicily and Italian campaigns of World War II. Could you start by telling us about the role they carried out under their commander Major Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne in those campaigns, which were very different to the operations they carried out in North Africa and the context around it? After David Stirling’s capture in February ‘43 there were fresh attempts made to disband the SAS.
-
Aug 24, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Oliver Webb-Carter |Alan Bardos
The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was a complex operation that required precise information about the movement and disposition of the US Pacific Fleet, based at Hawaii. This information was gathered on the ground by a spy named Takeo Yoshikawa, who cabled regular reports to Tokyo. These reports proved to be invaluable to the success of the Japanese attack. However, this constant supply of information almost gave the game away.
-
Aug 4, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos
Dead Ground is a World War II thriller of the highest order and continues Graham Hurley’s “non-linear” The Spoils of War series, with each book covering a different aspect of World War II. The last book The Blood of Others was set around the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The books in the series are not written in chronological order but are linked by returning characters and can be read as standalone stories.
-
Jun 9, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos |Alex Gerlis
In your new book Every Spy a Traitor you move away from a World War II/Post War setting and focus purely on a ‘Cold War’ with the Soviet Union in the 1930s. What was it that attracted you to the period? I liked the idea of a series that covered a longer time span, because in the Second World War, particularly in Europe you’re dealing with a 5/6 year timescale. I fancied the idea of something that was a bigger sweep of history.
-
May 26, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos
Queen High is CJ Carey’s sequel to her much acclaimed novel Widowland, both books are counter factual dystopian novels in a similar vein to 1984, Fatherland and Brave New World. They are set in a 1950s Britain where Lord Halifax became Prime Minister rather than Winston Churchill and has formed an ‘Alliance’ with Nazi Germany. Wallis Simpson sits on the throne and to all intents and purposes Britain is occupied; placed under the protection of Nazi philosopher and ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.
-
May 18, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Oliver Webb-Carter |Alan Bardos
Was Taranto the inspiration behind Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor? The Fleet Air Arm’s raid on the Italian naval base of Taranto in 1940 was the first-time carrier launched aircraft were used to attack enemy ships, in a heavily defended harbour. It has been overshadowed by Japan’s much larger raid on Pearl Harbor, but it proved the concept of carrier born aircraft to the Japanese as they considered the risks of launching their own carrier born attack.
-
May 18, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos
Jimmy Burns’ biography of Walter Bell, charts the life of one of Britain’s most successful and influential intelligence officers. The fact that Bell is so little known outside of intelligence circles testifies to this success. Walter Bell appears to have been a classic grey man in the background. Unseen but involved in everything, the faithful spy who ultimately took his secrets to the grave.
-
Apr 21, 2024 | 
aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos
The Rome Escape LineLt Colonel Sam Derry’s memoir is an intriguing account of daring escapes and the day-to-day struggles of a clandestine organisation operating under the nose of an enemy who is actively hunting it down. Derry was taken prisoner during the North African campaign, escaped and was recaptured a few months later by the same German unit and interviewed by the same intelligence officer.
