IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CHURCHILL by Richard Holmes (BBC Worldwide, £20):

AS well as Sir Winston Churchill's wartime activities, this TV tie-in with an eight-part BBC series examines his early life, including his troubled schooldays, flamboyant political father Randolph and attractive American mother Jennie. Military historian Holmes explores Churchill's many flaws as well as his successes.

UNDER THE WIRE by William Ash (Bantam, £16.99)

WILLIAM Ash is thought to be one of the real-life models for the Steve McQueen character of Captain Hilts, the Cooler King, in The Great Escape because he attempted so many breakouts from PoW camps during the Second World War and spent so much time in solitary confinement. This is his fascinating story.

WITNESSES OF WAR: Children's Lives Under The Nazis by Nicholas Stargardt (Cape, £20)

DRAWING upon letters, drawings, diaries and welfare files, the author pieces together this historical jigsaw to tell the individual stories of children under Nazi rule.

A LIFE IN SECRETS by Sarah Helms (Little, Brown, £20, pub May 26)

THIS fascinating biography tells the story of Vera Atkins, who became head of the French section of the top secret Specialist Operations Executive (SOE). She played a pivotal role in sending more than 400 British agents from the SOE's French section into Occupied France. After the war, more than 100 had not returned, so Atkins made it her mission to find out the fate of the missing agents, particularly the 12 women agents.

LOST VOICES OF THE ROYAL NAVY by Max Arthur (Hodder & Stoughton, £9.99)

FROM the best-selling author of Forgotten Voices Of The Great War comes an unforgettable collection of vivid eyewitness accounts of life in the Royal Navy from 1914 to 1945.

THE VICTORY IN EUROPE EXPERIENCE: from D-Day to the Destruction of the Third Reich (Carlton, £30)

IN this boxed and beautifully presented book, you can relive this momentous period of history by holding and examining maps, diaries, letters, top-secret documents, booklets, propaganda leaflets and posters which, until now, have remained filed or exhibited in the Imperial War Museum and other collections around the world. The collection also includes more than 200 photographs and an audio-CD of veterans' first-hand accounts.

WITH NAVAL WINGS by John Wellham (Spellmount, £18.99)

A tale of courage and endurance from a Fleet Air Arm pilot who gave distinguished service in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, East Indies and Far East and who was awarded the DSC and was Mentioned in Dispatches three times for his exploits. Wellham was a pioneer in the use of air power at sea: flying from HMS Eagle he helped to sink four ships at the Italian base at Bomb (his DSC mission), before taking part in the historic strike from HMS Illustrious on the Italian base at Taranto. Sunderland should be proud to have such a quiet hero as a citizen.

A Woman In Berlin (Virago, £15.99)

ANTONY Beevor writes the foreword to this account by an anonymous author who, through her diaries, describes life in Berlin in 1945 as it fell to the Russian army.

WORLD WAR II IN CARTOONS by Mark Bryant (Grub Street, £14.99)

SOME 300 cartoons by British, French, German, Japanese and Italian artists are featured in this alternative look at the war, featuring savage caricatures of allies and enemies and chronicles of events at home or abroad.

Published: 10/05/2005