Battle Lines

A radio operator crawls through a burning bomber, blind, with a canister of white phosphorus in his hands.
A German fighter pilot lines up an easy kill and lowers his guns.
An admiral loads five thousand men onto his ships in the fog, and the enemy lands on an empty island.

World War II was fought on land, at sea and in the air, by people on every side. Battle Lines gathers twenty of its most gripping true episodes and tells each one the way a great short story is told: close to one person, under pressure, with the clock running.

Then it does what no thriller will. After every story, a Fact vs Fiction Verdict sorts out what is documented, what the author imagined, what the sources dispute and what is just legend. Every story also comes with a battle map and an engraving-style illustration.

Inside:

• Twenty stand-alone stories, each readable in one sitting
• Soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and resistance fighters: Americans, Britons, Poles, Finns, Germans and Japanese
• Raids, escapes, rescues, last stands and mysteries, from Auschwitz to Iwo Jima, the Atlantic to the Aleutians
• A map, an illustration and a verdict with sources for every story

Please note: these stories are dramatized. They are based on real events and real people, but scenes, thoughts and dialogue are the author's invention, and some characters are composites. The verdict after each story says exactly which parts are which. AI tools were used in research and drafting.

Pick up Battle Lines and find out what really happened, and what the legend added.