Kenneth John Macksey (1 July 1923 – 30 November 2005) was a British author and historian who specialized in military history and military

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

, particularly of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. After serving in the

Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Scimitar Reconnaissance Vehicle. It includes most of the ...

from 1941 as a Driver Mechanic, Macksey was commissioned in 1944. He served during the rest of

in the

79th Armoured Division The 79th Armoured Division was a specialist armoured division of the British Army created during the Second World War. The division was created as part of the preparations for the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, D-Day. Major-General Percy ...

under the command of

Percy Hobart Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, (14 June 1885 – 19 February 1957), also known as "Hobo", was a British military engineer noted for his command of the 79th Armoured Division during the Second World War. He was responsible for ...

, earning a

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

; he later wrote a biography of Hobart. Macksey gained a permanent commission in 1946, was transferred to the Royal Tank Regiment in 1947, reached the rank of major in 1957 and retired from the Army in 1968. 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. He also wrote the novel ''First Clash'' that describes a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

–

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...

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. ''First Clash'' was written under contract to the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Forc ...

and focuses on the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

role in such a conflict. Macksey also edited the ''The Hitler Options'', the first volume of '' Greenhill's Alternate Decisions'' series of alternate history anthologies in 1995. In Macksey's ''

Guderian Guderian is a German surname. Other spellings are '' Guderjahn'' and '' Guderjan''. It is present in Greater Poland and Mazovia Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European ...

: Panzer General'', he debunked the view of historian Sir

Basil Liddell-Hart Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian and military theorist. He wrote a series of military histor ...

regarding Hart's influence on the development of German tank theory before 1939.

Publications

* * * * * * * * * (Published in the US as ; re-published as ) * ; re-published as * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macksey 1923 births 2005 deaths Royal Armoured Corps officers British Army personnel of World War II British military writers Recipients of the Military Cross Historians of World War II 20th-century British historians British biographers Royal Tank Regiment officers