Kenneth Macksey

British writer and historian

Kenneth John Macksey MC (1 July 1923 – 30 November 2005) was a British author and historian who specialized in military history and military biography, particularly of the Second World War.

Life

After serving in the Royal Armoured Corps from 1941 as a Driver Mechanic,^[1] Macksey was commissioned in 1944.^[2] He served during the rest of Second World War in the 79th Armoured Division under the command of Percy Hobart,^[3] earning a Military Cross;^[4] he later wrote a biography of Hobart. Macksey gained a permanent commission in 1946,^[5] was transferred to the Royal Tank Regiment in 1947,^[6] reached the rank of major in 1957 and retired from the Army in 1968.^[7][8]

Amongst many other books, Macksey wrote a volume of alternate history entitled Invasion, which dealt with a successful invasion of England by Germany in 1940.^[9] He also wrote the novel First Clash that describes a NATO–Warsaw Pact clash in the late 1980s and which seems in retrospect to be alternate history, but it was published in 1985 before the purported events of the conflict.^[10] First Clash was written under contract to the Canadian Forces and focuses on the Canadian role in such a conflict. Macksey also edited The Hitler Options, the first volume of a series of "alternate decisions" alternate history anthologies from Greenhill Books, in 1995.^[11]

In Macksey's Guderian: Panzer General, he debunked the view of historian Sir Basil Liddell-Hart regarding Hart's influence on the development of German tank theory before 1939.

Publications

• The Shadow of Vimy Ridge. London: W. Kimber. 1965. OCLC 1601233.
• Armoured Crusader: A Biography of Major-General Sir Percy Hobart. London: Hutchinson. 1967. ISBN 0-09-084950-7.
• Africa Korps. New York: Ballantine Books. 1968. ISBN 0-345-21687-3.
• Panzer Division, the Mailed Fist. New York: Ballantine Books. 1968. ISBN 0-345-24992-5.
• Crucible of Power: The Fighting for Tunisia, 1942-1943. London: Hutchinson. 1969.
• Tank: A History of the Armoured Fighting Vehicle. London: Macdonald & Co. 1970. ISBN 0-356-03461-5.
• Beda Fomm: Classic Victory. New York: Ballantine Books. 1971. ISBN 0-345-02434-6.
• Anatomy of a Battle. New York: Stein and Day. 1974. ISBN 0-8128-1650-1 – via Archive Foundation.
• Guderian: Panzer General. London: Jane's Publishing. 1975. (Published in the US as Guderian: Creator of the Blitzkrieg. New York: Stein and Day. 1976. OCLC 3100080.; re-published as Guderian: Panzer General. London and Novato: Greenhill Books and Presidio Press. 1992. ISBN 1-85367-059-6.)
• Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe. New York: David McKay Company. 1978.; re-published as Kesselring: German Master Strategist of the Second World War. London: Greenhill Books. 2000. ISBN 1-85367-422-2.
• Rommel: Battles and Campaigns. London: Arms and Armour Press. 1979. ISBN 0-85368-232-1.
• The Tanks: a History of the Royal Tank Regiment, 1945–1975. London: Arms and Armour Press. 1979. ISBN 978-0-85368-293-6.
• The Tank Pioneers. London, New York: Jane's Publishing. 1981. ISBN 0-531-03734-7.
• A History of the Royal Armoured Corps, 1914–1975. Beaminster: Newtown Publications. 1983. ISBN 0-950853-60-7.
• Invasion: The Alternate History of the German Invasion of England July 1940. Ashcroft: Wren's Park Publishing. 2001 [1980]. ISBN 0-905778-79-0.
• First Clash: Combat close-up in World War Three. New York: Sterling Publishing. 1985. ISBN 978-0-7737-2060-2.
• Military Errors of World War II. London: Arms and Armour Press. 1987. ISBN 0-85368-830-3 – via Archive Foundation.
• with William Woodhouse (1991). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Modern Warfare: 1850 to the Present Day. London: Viking Books. ISBN 0-670-82698-7.
• The Hitler Options: Alternate Decisions of World War II. London: Greenhill Books. 1995. ISBN 978-1-84832-780-1.
• Why the Germans Lose at War: The Myth of German Military Superiority. London: Greenhill Books. 1999 [1996]. ISBN 1-85367-383-8 – via Archive Foundation.
• Without Enigma: The Ultra and Fellgiebel Riddles. London: Sharpe Books. 2018 [2000]. ISBN 978-0-7110-2766-4.
• The Searchers: Radio Intercept in the Two World Wars. London: Sharpe Books. 2018 [2003]. ISBN 978-1-09-535843-6.

Notes

1. A History of the Royal Armoured Corps (1983), biography on the rear dust-jacket flap
2. "Commissioning date 23 April 1944".^{[dead link]}
3. Armoured Crusader (1967), biography on the rear dust-jacket flap
4. "MC awarded 21 December 1944".^{[dead link]}
5. "Dated 5 October 1946".^{[dead link]}
6. "Dated 3 January 1947".^{[dead link]}
7. "Promotion date 1 July 1957".^{[dead link]}
8. "Retirement date 3 August 1968".^{[dead link]}
9. Invasion (1980)
10. First Clash (1985)
11. Schmunk, Robert B. Tsouras, Peter G.; Kenneth Macksey; Jonathan North (eds.). (eds.). "Greenhill's Alternate Decisions". Uchronia: The Alternate History List. Retrieved 20 December 2012.