{"product_id":"9780812997354","title":"Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eCitizens of London\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThose Angry Days, \u003c\/i\u003ea groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over continental Europe in the early days of World War II, the city of London became a refuge for the governments and armed forces of six occupied nations—Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Czechoslovakia, and Poland—who escaped there to continue the fight. So, too, did General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed representative of free France.     \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e As the only European democracy still holding out against Hitler, Britain became known to occupied countries as “Last Hope Island.” Getting there, one young emigré declared, was “like getting to heaven.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In this epic, character-driven narrative, acclaimed historian Lynne Olson takes us back to those perilous days when the British and their European guests joined forces to combat the mightiest military force in history. Here we meet the courageous King Haakon of Norway, whose distinctive “H7” monogram became a symbol of his country’s resistance to Nazi rule, and his fiery Dutch counterpart, Queen Wilhelmina, whose anti-fascist radio broadcasts rallied the spirits of her defeated people. Here, too, is the Earl of Suffolk, a swashbuckling British aristocrat whose rescue of two nuclear physicists from France helped make the Manhattan Project possible. Surprising bit players emerge as well: a young Audrey Hepburn, who served as a courier for the Dutch resistance, and four-year-old Madlenka Korbel, the daughter of an exiled Czech government official, who survived Luftwaffe bombardment and grew up to become U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eLast Hope Island\u003c\/i\u003e also recounts some of the Europeans’ heretofore unsung exploits that helped tilt the balance against the Axis: the crucial efforts of Polish pilots—more than a hundred in all—during the Battle of Britain; the vital role played by French and Polish code breakers in cracking the Germans’ reputedly indecipherable Enigma code; and the flood of top-secret intelligence about German operations—gathered by spies throughout occupied Europe—that helped insure the success of the 1944 Allied invasion.   \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A fascinating companion to \u003ci\u003eCitizens of London, \u003c\/i\u003eOlson’s bestselling chronicle of the Anglo-American alliance, \u003ci\u003eLast Hope Island\u003c\/i\u003e recalls with vivid humanity that brief moment in time when the peoples of Europe stood together in their effort to roll back the tide of conquest and restore order to a broken continent.","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47022926168304,"sku":"9780812997354","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812997354_p0.jpg?v=1763745617","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812997354","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}