THE BOOKS OF PETER C. SMITH

MILITARY HISTORY

Many campaigns in World War II involved all three services and a natural cross-over of research resulted. With fellow author and long-time friend Edwin R. Walker, who himself had served in the Army in the Middle East at the period, a detailed study was accomplished of the Aegean Campaign of autumn 1943, Germany's last victory in the Mediterranean Theatre of War. By accessing German and Italian sources as well as British archives, a truer picture than hitherto always presented of this disaster emerged and yet more old historians myths were exposed, chief among them the old chestnut (still being trotted out today) the oft-quoted "fact" that the German paratroops were never employed in airborne operations after Crete in 1941. This perennial falsehood was shown up for the nonsense that it is.

A similar misfortune had overtaken British arms at Tobruk the year before, and again, it was Churchill's impatient and intolerant dabbling that lay behind the defeat. A special relationship developed with the Royal Marines during my research into the first all-colour, all artwork comprehensive history, which concerned this most famous Corps. This relationship was renewed and refreshed many years later with the subsequent more orthodox history written in conjunction with Captain Derek Oakley, RM, and which resulted in the author receiving the Royal Marines Historical Society Award for research. Finally, it had long been fashionable for critics and contemporary historians to sneer at the achievements of the British redcoat in achieving victories in battles against overwhelming odds in the many colonial wars of the 19th Century. It was time to redress the balance and set the record straight on just what the British Tommy did achieve against a variety of hitherto "invincible" foes with "butt and bayonet."