Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature

Follow us on

Special Lifetime Achievement Award for Sir Max Hastings, FRSL

On 17 November, 2008, a special Medal was conferred upon Sir Max Hastings, FRSL, for his important and lasting contributions to military history.

Sir Max Hastings at RUSI copyright A McIntyre Max Hastings, a notable journalist and military historian, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Medal and delivered a lecture on the subject of journalism and military history to a distinguished audience at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) in Whitehall on 17 November. Recent titles by Max Hastings include Nemesis: the Battle for Japan, 1944-5 and Armageddon: the Battle for Germany, 1944-5.

The world is a better place for Sir Max's contributions; it is because of him that our nation understands better what our Armed Forces are doing, and why our taxpayers and voters should continue giving them our wholehearted support." - The Duke of Westminster

Winner of the 2008 Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature

Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War
Chris Bellamy

There have been many individual accounts of particular moments in the vicious war between the Nazi regime and the Soviet behemoth, but none which sets out to tell the full and dreadful story of that absolute war: absolute because both sides aimed to 'exterminate the opponent, to destroy his political existence' and total because it was fought by all elements of society, not simply the armed forces, but civilians - men, women, children - too. It benefits from his remarkable insight into strategic issues as well as exhaustive research in hitherto unopened Russian archives. It is the definitive study of what the Soviets called - and what their fifteen successor states still call - the Great Patriotic War.