When the Afrikakorps ruled America

When the Afrikakorps ruled America

Tricks, deceptions, destinies, mystifications, coincidences and forgotten stories of the Second World War

The first volume in an upcoming trilogy by an acclaimed journalist

Did you know that you only eat carrots for better eyesight because of one of the most successful lies of the Second World War, which has survived to this day? Or that the first major air raid on a German city was carried out by the Germans themselves by mistake? Or that the British successfully used a clairvoyant in America to get them to send troops against the Germans?

The Second World War has shrunk in our minds to the depiction of a few battles and a handful of repeatedly told behind-the-scenes episodes. Yet other unbelievable ruses, ingenious traps, seemingly bizarre ideas, destinies and coincidences that played a much larger role back then than we realise have been lost. Journalist and writer Milan Vodička restores these stories to their rightful place in an immensely readable, reportage-style book. Discover the massive British aircraft carriers made of sawdust and ice, or the foxes with radioactive glowing tails designed to force Japan to surrender. It details how criminal gangs of American deserters ruled Paris after the invasion, why the Soviet NKVD smuggled American pilots to freedom from Soviet internment, and why the British suffered half a million dead in the first days of the war, whom they still prefer not to acknowledge today out of shame. Or how the Afrikakorps ruled and performed the Nazi salute in hundreds of their camps all over America.

This book, the first volume of a three-part series, is not fiction. Like an archaeologist, Vodička fascinatingly uncovers a different war than the one you knew, challenging the idea that everything has already been said about it.

Milan Vodička is a journalist, publicist and writer, and a long-time editor at MF DNES. In his work, he focuses on world events, having visited some 130 countries, and deals with history, contemporary geopolitics and social transformations. He is the author of the bestsellers Den, kdy došly prachy, Winton Train and Co s námi bude? and co-author of the scripts for several historical documentaries by Czech Television.