"The Battle for Arctic Europe"

A couple of years ago I was notified that a Polish publishing house wanted to translate Slaget om Nordkalotten which translates as "The Battle for Arctic Europe". I just learnt it will be out in the shops in Poland on Tuesday.

Here is the cover of the Polish translation:

The cover photos feature: OSS NORSO paratroopers bound for Norway; a OSS "Sepals" base in Sweden; the interior of a British Hurricane found on the Russian Kola Peninsula and Soviet soldiers together with a RAF pilot from New Zealand, also on Kola.

I wrote this book together with James F. Gebhardt in the 1990s. It was published the first time in 1999 by Historiska Media. It has sold something like 40,000 copies all editions included.

I learnt about the intention of the Polish company Bellona to publish our book. But this was something like two years ago. Poland was hit badly by the global financial crisis and virtually all publishing plans in Poland were affected, i.e. put on hold or terminated. There was a deal but nothing happened, and I started thinking there would be no Polish version.

Well, it was a pleasure to today learn that after all it will be available in Polish, starting on Tuesday, February 8, 2011.

The title Europa Pólnocna 1939-1945 means "Northern Europe 1939-1945". This may seem a bit strange but it is evidently published in a series called "Wars and Campaigns" and I reckon each book will cover one geographical area. The book is focused on WWII above the Arctic Circle, i.e. in Arctic Europe, but as the book at least gives a rough idea of the fighting also in southern Norway and Finland I suppose the Polish title is OK.

Here is the Polish publisher´s page about the book.

There is more about Poland and Poles in Swedes at War, not least about the amazing Swedish-born Polish Habsburg Princess who became a Polish partisan in early 1940. So I hope that book too will eventually appear in Polish.