This Present Emergency

Oct 12, 2024 12:30 AM

Author:Andrew Jeffrey

This is an examination of the part played by Edinburgh and South-East Scotland in World War II. In October 1939 the River Forth was the target of the first air raid on Britain. As well as looking at this battle, this book examines the German military effort against Edinburgh and surrounding communities. As the Forth was a vital port in the war effort, it was heavily garrisoned and fortified. Jeffrey describes plans which were made to counter the threat of invasion. Captain Archibald Ramsay (MP for Peebles and South Midlothian) spent more than four years of the war in Brixton prison, regarded as a pro-fascist. Research reveals that in the years up to 1940, support among influential Scots for Hitler was more widespread than has previously been thought. Documents describe the efforts made by MI5 to ensnare Nazi sympathisers. Edinburgh was also the scene of a secret war, which included the career of Robert Petter, a German spy arrested in Waverley station. The text also covers the strategic deception operations, undertaken to convince the Germans that the allied invasion of Norway was imminent, military training in the area and the social changes brought about by the war.

Reviews

This book, magnificently edited by Joshua Levine, is a great tribute to the extraordinary spirit of an army shattered in battle but determined not to surrender

—— Peter Snow, from the introduction

Dramatic, detailed, intimate and immediate

—— Saga magazine

The most compelling, honest account of a conflict that killed, by some estimates, between two and three million Vietnamese and other Asians, as well as 58,000 Americans...Raw with human emotions and unvarnished by government propaganda.

—— Independent

A personal dialogue, a place to shelter her soul and her spirit...Raw emotion is manifest in the diary.

—— Observer

Remarkable...This is an important and profoundly moving book, which redresses the one-sided macho and gun-toting coverage of the Vietnam War.

—— Sydney Morning Herald

In a society increasingly consumed with economic growth and material goods, the book has revived a sense of idealism. Written in a simple but powerful style, it reminds war veterans of their sacrifices and educates a new generation - born after the war's end - about the hardships their elders faced.

—— Los Angeles Times

This combination of revolutionary fervor with the vulnerabilities and self-doubts of a too-sensitive young woman might be called ideology with a human face, reminding readers that it was people like them, trapped in a moment of history, who died on their behalf.

—— New York Times

The fascinating diary of a young Viet Cong doctor who died in the Vietnam War.

—— Chicago Tribune

'Nicholas Stargardt evokes the individual voices of children under Nazi rule. In re-creating their wartime experiences, he has produced a challenging new historical interpretation of the Second World War

—— History Today

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