Red Devils The Trailblazers of the Parachute Regiment in WW2: An Authorized History

A gripping, widely-praised, authorized history of the Parachute Regiment in World War Two

'Gripping and authoritative' Andy McNab
'Superb accounts of the battles and a deep understanding of personalities' Patrick Bishop, The Telegraph


A GRIPPING, AUTHORIZED HISTORY OF THE DARING 'RED DEVILS' TOLD THROUGH THE FATES OF SIX HEROES . . .

In Britain they were known as The Parachute Regiment, but their German enemies christened them The Red Devils. Circus performers, solicitors, gravediggers, family men. . . they were ordinary people who became wartime heroes.

Showing what it took to succeed in this new regiment, Urban vividly brings to life six men and their experiences across D-Day, Arnhem and WW2 - from the recently-widowed Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, who had to leave his young son to head to the front, to Mike Lewis, whose photographs became iconic images of war.

Using deep archival research, British and German sources, and new material from the men's families, Red Devils paints a true and moving picture of the heart of war.
 

Mark Urban is the Diplomatic Editor of BBC's Newsnight program and was formerly defenze correspondent for the Independent. He formerly served in the British Army, both in the Royal Tank Regiment and in the Territorial Army.

He is the author of several books, including Task Force Black (his deep-dive look at the SAS in the Iraq War, which was a Sunday Times number one bestseller) and The Skripal Files, a Sunday Times Best Politics Book of 2018.