Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross

Extraordinary first-hand accounts from Victoria Cross winners.

The Victoria Cross is one of the world's most famous medals. It was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 for 'most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy', and has been awarded only 1,358 times. Exploring the actions and events that lead to the VC being awarded, Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross is full of heroic tales, drama and action from the last century.

Some testimonies come from soldiers, sailors and airmen who were awarded the VC; others come from those who witnessed extraordinary acts for which the medal was won. Collected from the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archives, most of the first-hand accounts in this book are published for the very first time.

Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross explores the very nature of bravery by those whose job it was to be brave. It is a landmark addition to the Forgotten Voices series.

A graduate of Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities and a former Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, RODERICK BAILEY is a historian attached to the Imperial War Museum. He is the author of Forgotten Voices of D-Day, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War, which was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and the acclaimed The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle.