Böcker av Nicholas Milton

In 1940, Captain Charles Knight and his golden eagle survived a German torpedo attack on the Dutch steamship Volendam.As the Battle of the Atlantic raged, on Thursday 29 August 1940, the Dutch steamship Volendam set sail from Liverpool bound for Canada via New York. With a German invasion of Britain imminent, on board were 321 children or 'sea-vacs' and over 500 other passengers, including a 56-year-old naturalist, filmmaker and falconer by the name of Captain Charles Knight. Travelling with him was his showbiz partner, a golden eagle with a six-foot wingspan. His name was Mr Ramshaw and he had made Knight a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic.At 11 pm the next night, a huge explosion tore through the ship which soon began to list badly. The German submarine, U-60, had fired two torpedoes at the Volendam, who was abandoned to her fate. In the chaos left behind was Knight's golden eagle, Mr Ramshaw, and a 9-year-old boy called Robert. Miraculously both survived, Knight being reunited with Mr Ramshaw days later while the British government produced a classic Gaumont film about the attack called 'Children torpedoed by Nazis'.The amazing life of Captain Charles Knight and his golden eagle, Mr Ramshaw, reads like an adventure from The Boy's Own Paper. It is the story of how Knight rose, from working in a tobacconist's shop in Kent before the First World War, to become one of the most famous naturalists, filmmakers and falconers in the world.

When Soviet troops were liberating Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945 among the piles of half burnt corpses and emaciated prisoners left behind, they were amazed to find nesting boxes for birds. The same boxes were found in the walled garden at the house of Rudolf Hoess, the notorious camp commandant. In his safe, they also discovered a research paper on the birds of Auschwitz with a personal dedication. It read 'I owe this to the great understanding which the commandant of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz, SS-Sturmbannführer Höß, gave to the scientific development of this area and the research tasks that the German expansion in the East brings with it.'The nesting boxes and research paper belonged to one of the most erudite but naive guards ever to serve at the camp, Dr. Günther Niethammer. On his arrival in 1940 Niethammer's passion for birds soon became known throughout Auschwitz and led to him being assigned to 'special duties' by Hoess. So instead of guard duties, Niethammer shot game to order for commandant and conducted the most infamous bird survey of all time. Turning a blind eye to the heinous treatment of the prisoners and the extermination of the Jews, Niethammer instead shot birds and created a macabre museum of bird skins at the camp working with one of the inmates. After leaving Auschwitz, he carried out further bird surveys in occupied Crete, Bulgaria, and Italy. When the war was finally over Niethammer was put on trial but spent just 3 years in prison before returning to the Museum Koenig where his career, although tainted by association with Auschwitz, still flourished until his death in 1974. This is the story of the one of the greatest ornithologists of his generation who was seduced by the Nazis and became 'The Birdman of Auschwitz'.

Find out about the children's games produced as wartime propaganda.

A celebration of the contribution that birds made in the Second World War.

Radical reassessment of the life and work of Chamberlain, offering a fresh perspective on the history of Appeasement.