{"title":"Books by Jon Cooksey","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780850528145","title":"Boulogne","description":"Boulogne - May 23 1940. A town under siege. A rampant German panzer division hammers at its gates. Panic in the street and chaos on the docks. Air Raids. Frightened refugees and dispirited Allied soliers scramble to escape. Churchill sends the Guards: the Irish and the Welsh, to help the French garrison stem the German tide. Two fine battalions with no support against an armoured division. A hopeless task. Hours later he pulls them out but some are left. The final act-riffles against tanks across the Bassin Napoleon. The last bullet. The bitter taste of surrender.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295101596021,"sku":"9780850528145","price":9.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780850528145_f33a290a-2289-48b7-adbd-1de54c34b312.jpg?v=1786015701"},{"product_id":"9780850526479","title":"Calais: 30 Brigade's Defiant Defence May 1940","description":"This is the story of the Battle of Calais, a short but bloody struggle to delay the German advance in May 1940. It is a story of uncertainty, of taut nerves, of heat, dust, raging thirst and hand-to-hand fighting in the narrow streets of the channel port now known to millions of Britons as a gateway to the Continent. The guide will take the visitor beyond the ferry terminal and hypermarkets to reveal the hidden Calais and the actions of individuals and units.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295193739637,"sku":"9780850526479","price":9.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780850526479_edfb5698-b09e-4669-8593-50dc77d3bede.jpg?v=1786015698"},{"product_id":"9781473893030","title":"The Battles of Arras North","description":"The First World War battlefields to the north of Arras – including Vimy Ridge – are among the most famous and most visited sites on the Western Front, rivaled only by those around Ypres and the Somme, and this clearly written, highly illustrated guide is the ideal introduction to them.Visitors can trace for themselves the course of each battle across the modern landscape and gain a fascinating insight into the nature of the fighting in the area – and the wider conflict across the Western Front – throughout the war. The book covers the key battles fought in the northern sector of the Arras front, including the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge and battles at Villers au Bois, Oppy Wood and Gavrelle.Expert guides Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland have devised a series of routes that can be walked, biked or driven, explaining the fighting that occurred at each place in vivid detail. They record what happened, where it happened and why, and point out the sights that remain for the visitor to see. Their guidebook is essential reading for visitors who wish to enhance their understanding of the war on the Western Front.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301483557237,"sku":"9781473893030","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781473893030_a5333a04-76e4-4abd-b4c6-4cf1524b1bf1.jpg?v=1786034528"},{"product_id":"9781526742391","title":"The Battles of Arras: South","description":"The First World War battlefields to the south of Arras - including Battery Valley and Observation Ridge, Telegraph Hill, Monchy-le-Preux, Wancourt, and Bullecourt - are among the most famous and most visited sites on the Western Front, rivalled only by those around Ypres and the Somme, and this clearly written, highly illustrated guide is the ideal introduction to them.   Visitors can trace for themselves the course of each battle across the modern landscape and gain a fascinating insight into the nature of the fighting in the area - and the wider conflict across the Western Front - throughout the war. The book covers the key battles fought in the southern sector of the Arras front, including the 1917 battles fought at Battery Valley, Monchy-le-Preux, Wancourt and Bullecourt.   Expert guides Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland have devised a series of routes that can be walked, biked or driven, explaining the fighting that occurred at each place in vivid detail. They record what happened, where it happened and why, and point out the sights that remain for the visitor to see. Their guidebook is essential reading for visitors who wish to enhance their understanding of the war on the Western Front.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303094464885,"sku":"9781526742391","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781526742391_69a7a0ca-f128-490f-9828-a6b35ee4883d.jpg?v=1786022399"},{"product_id":"9781844152032","title":"Operation Tonga","description":"The seizure of Pegasus Bridge by six glider borne platoons of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry under Major John Howard very early 6th June 1944, is one of the better-known stories of D-Day. Landing just yards from vital bridges over the River Orne and the Caen Canal near Benouville, Howard's men took and held the bridges in a remarkable coup de main operation with minimal casualties. The 7th Parachute Battalion dropped in soon afterwards to relieve Howard's men and the action remains, by any standards, a remarkable feat of arms. But it was only one act in a much grander production put on by 6th Airborne Division that night to secure and protect the eastern flank of the Allied landings inland from Sword, the British landing beach. Key bridges over the Dives had to be blown to foil possible German counter attacks and to north east, at Merville, a battery of guns which the allied planners thought could wreak havoc on the beaches and ships at sea, had to be eliminated. The task fell to the men of the 9th Parachute Battalion, whose actions in assaulting the Merville Battery became another D-Day epic - but for very different reasons.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307722256757,"sku":"9781844152032","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844152032_e9faa948-2ca3-4223-b8fc-44cdba2b37e1.jpg?v=1786027938"},{"product_id":"9781844157075","title":"Barnsley Pals: The 13th \u0026 14th Battalions York \u0026 Lancaster Regiment","description":"The 'Pals' battalions were a phenomenon of the Great War, never repeated since. Under Lord Derby's scheme, and in response to Kitchener's famous call for a million volunteers, local communities raised (and initially often paid for) entire battalions for service on the Western Front. Their experience was all too frequently tragic, as men who had known each other all their lives, had worked, volunteered, and trained together, and had shipped to France together, encountered the first full fury of modern battle on the Somme in July 1916. Many of the Pals battalions would not long survive that first brutal baptism, but their spirit and fighting qualities have gone down into history - these were, truly, the cream of Britain's young men, and every single one of them was a volunteer.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307803423093,"sku":"9781844157075","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844157075_91c8e926-8a62-4a88-bc76-3acf9305c849.jpg?v=1786027948"},{"product_id":"vest-pocket-kodak-the-first-world-war","title":"The Vest Pocket Kodak \u0026 The First World War","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen one thinks about the First World War, one doesn’t immediately imagine the soldiers recording the horrors of trench warfare by taking snaps with their pocket cameras. But that is exactly what happened.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaunched in April 1912, the Vest Pocket Kodak was one of the world’s first compact cameras. About the height and width of today’s iPhone, it was small enough to fit into the pocket of a waistcoat (the American ‘vest’) and became something of a craze on the eve of the war. It was advertised as the ‘Soldier’s Kodak’ and troops were encouraged to ‘Make your own picture record of the War.’ With the military banning journalists from reporting early setbacks in the war, newspaper editors offered soldiers a prize for their VPK photographs of £1,000 – over ten times a lieutenant’s salary. The images they preserved offer us a remarkably personal viewpoint, and create a fascinating link between the camera and the conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first half of the book sets the technology and timeline of the camera against those of the war. It looks at how the Vest Pocket Kodak was developed and advertised, and tells the story of its significance in creating a unique visual account of the Great War. The second half presents a commemorative album of images taken with the camera, a remarkable record of a lost generation, and a tragic reflection of the manufacturer’s advertising by-line: ‘Kodak pictures never let you forget.’\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487669920117,"sku":"9781781452790","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781781452790.jpg?v=1786354896"},{"product_id":"edgar-mobbs","title":"Edgar Mobbs","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Edgar Mobbs ran on a rugby field, people watched. Eyes were drawn to him. A towering, upright presence – long of stride with knees raised high; elegant and powerful. When opponents came too close, out would shoot the famous Mobbs’ hand-off – a carefully aimed piston smacking into the hapless tackler’s jaw. If the founders of Rugby Union could have designed their perfect rugger man – a captain of England, the Barbarians and Northampton Saints, a sporting colossus and a true ‘Boys Own’ sporting icon – it would have been Edgar Mobbs. Mobbs was the epitome of the Edwardian sporting hero: a fearsome competitor on the field and a ‘bloody good chap’ everywhere else. He played the game and his fans loved him, cheering wildly as he graced the turf from Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton to Twickenham and Toulouse. Men would follow him wherever he went and in 1914 they followed him to war; first to Loos, then to the Somme and finally to Ypres.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut on 31 July 1917, Edgar Mobbs ran alone. In a Belgian wood, not far from the place they called Passchendaele, his men watched with admiration and horror as their leader ducked, dodged and weaved, not around adversaries on a rugby field but through shell-holes and round tree stumps, the air cracking with bullets and fizzing with shrapnel. Mobbs ran. It was to be his final charge.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504858374517,"sku":"9781526733610","price":39.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781526733610.jpg?v=1786953776"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-jon-cooksey.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}