Rob Lofthouse - Böcker

Heraklion, May 1941. On the north coast of Crete, the British forces are redeploying troops, ahead of a German invasion of the island. A brutal defeat in Greece has forced them to withdraw from the mainland, weakened and dejected. For Captain Bentley Paine, of the Yorks & Lancs Regiment, the planned assault is a chance to finally prove himself in this war, not least to his infuriating assistant, Corporal Hallmark. But when the attack begins at dawn, no one can be prepared for the death and bloody fighting that will ensue. As German paratroopers fire at will, victory is decided in a matter of days. But both sides will face devastating losses, in a game-changing campaign, that will become one of the most intense and horrific battles of the Second World War.

Written by a retired British soldier, Trouble at Zero Hour is a breathless and vivid story, dramatizing three of the key Allied operations that turned the tide of the Second World War.6 June, 1944, somewhere over the Normandy coastline: Robbie Stokes sits in a glider, his Bren resting on the floor between his outstretched legs. The nose lowers and the glider descends rapidly: ten minutes of stomach-churning twists and turns until suddenly the call goes up to 'BRACE'. The belly makes contact with the ground and the first Allied troops tumble out into occupied Europe.For new recruit Robbie Stokes it is the beginning of ten months of brutal and relentless conflict that take him from D-Day, via Operation Market Garden and the battle for Arnhem Bridge, to the Rhine Crossing and the final push for victory. Three operations that change the course of the war and test Robbie Stokes and his band of brothers to their limits. If they fail, then the Allied invasion fails. They must succeed through their longest days.