Arnhem Lift

1953, first illustrated edition of glider pilot Louis Hagen's account of Arnhem

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Second edition (first printing of the illustrated edition). Hardback in dustwrapper. 22 × 14cm, 119pp.

This is an account of the airborne action at Arnhem in the Second World War. The airborne troops who landed at Arnhem in September 1944 suffered appalling casualties in the course of the nine-day battle. Of some 10,000 men who went into action, 1400 were killed and more than 6000—about a third of them wounded—were captured. British accounts have almost invariably praised the Germans' humane treatment of these prisoners, but had the young Sergeant "Lewis Haig" of the elite Glider Pilot Regiment been captured, his fate would have been different, for "Haig" (Louis Hagen) was of Jewish extraction. He was one of the few who got back, and in 1945 he anonymously published his personal account of the battle. It became a bestseller and was translated into six languages.

Condition

The book is in very good condition, the dustwrapper with some light edgewear and scuffing to the spine but not price-clipped.