Robert Kershaw
Author
Born in 1950 and a graduate of Reading University, Robert Kershaw joined the Parachute Regiment in 1973. He served numerous regimental appointments before being selected to command the 10th Battalion (10 PARA). His active service includes several tours in Northern Ireland, the First Gulf War and Bosnia. He has exercised in many parts of the world and served in the Middle East and Africa. His final army appointment was with the Intelligence Division at HQ NATO in Brussels Belgium.
On leaving the Army in 2006 he became a full-time author and is recognised as one our major military historians. His narrative history combines succinct analysis drawn from thirty four years as a serving soldier with the physical and psychological impact of conflict on ordinary soldiers. His The Street about what occurred on the pivotal highway in Arnhem during the battle of September 1944 was published in the UK by Ian Allan and by Balans in Holland in 2014. His 24 Hours at Waterloo was published by Random House in 2014 and is widely regarded as the outstanding recent book on the battle. 24 Hours at The Somme followed in 2016. His acclaimed Landing on the Edge of Eternity: Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach was published by Pegasus in 2018. Borodino Field - 1812 /1941 was published by the History Press in 2021.
His critically acclaimed Dünkirchen 1940 - The German View of Dunkirk was published by Osprey/Bloomsbury in 2022.
In 2024 Osprey/Bloomsbury will publish his The Hill the story ofthe pivotal capture of Hill 107 in May 1941 during the German invasion of Crete.
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Dunkirchen by Robert Kershaw
The British evacuation from the beaches of the small French port town of Dunkirk is one of the iconic moments of military history. The battle has captured the popular imagination through LIFE magazine photo spreads, the fiction of Ian McEwan and, of course, Christopher Nolan's hugely successful Hollywood blockbuster. But what is the German view of this stunning Allied escape? Drawing on German interviews, diaries and unit post-action reports, Robert Kershaw creates a page-turning history of a battle that we thought we knew.
Dünkirchen 1940 is the first major history on what went wrong for the Germans at Dunkirk. As supreme military commander, Hitler had seemingly achieved a miracle after the swift capitulation of Holland and Belgium, but with just seven kilometres before the panzers captured Dunkirk - the only port through which the trapped British Expeditionary force might escape - they came to a shuddering stop. Hitler had lost control of his stunning advance. Only a detailed interpretation of the German perspective - historically lacking to date - can provide answers as to why.
Drawing on his own military experience, his German language skills and his historian's eye for detail, Robert Kershaw creates a new history of this familiar battle. With a fresh angle on this famous conflict, Dünkirchen 1940 delves into the under-evaluated major German miscalculation both strategically and tactically that arguably cost Hitler the war.
- "Kershaw's book is a welcome rebalancing; a thoughtful, well-researched and well-written contribution to a narrative that has long been too one-sided and too mired in national mythology." Roger Moorhouse, The Times
