LESSONS LEARNED, A HISTORY FESTIVAL ABOUT WORLD WAR TWO - 15 NOVEMBER

THE JOCKEY CLUB ROOMS, NEWMARKET, SUFFOLK

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, EA Festival has invited world-renowned historian James Holland to curate and co-present a one-day festival, Lessons Learned, at The Jockey Club Rooms on Saturday, 15th November. The day of talks will explore some of the lesser known but pivotal stories of the war, featuring top historians expert in the military history of that period. Lessons Learned comprises five talks plus lunch in the company of the speakers. 

PROGRAMME

11 - 11:45 am

Doors open for coffee and tea.

11:45 am - D-DAY: LESSONS FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR

James Holland looks at the dramatic events of D-Day, 6 June 1944, and how the Western Allies were able to achieve this extraordinary operation just four years after the strategic catastrophe of France’s defeat.  Offering a sweep through the War in the West, Holland will discuss how both Britain and the United States had to rapidly rearm, rethink and redraw earlier plans and come together to form the most successful military coalition the world has ever known.  As Europe and the West face uncertainty and turbulence today, Holland will look at what lessons can be learned from the experience of the Second World War.

1 pm - 2: 15 pm

Lunch with the speakers

2:30 pm - A DEFINING MOMENT: TUNISGRAD

Professor Saul David, one of Britain’s foremost military historians, restores Tunisia to its rightful place among the decisive battles of the Second World War with his new book Tunisgrad. With Guadalcanal in the Pacific and Stalingrad in Russia, the campaign in North Africa was one of three crushing Axis defeats in early 1943 that changed the course of the conflict. Unlike the others, however, historians have tended to dismiss it—at the time the Americans even called it a “sideshow.” In fact, the campaign ended Axis sea power in the Mediterranean, destroyed 2,400 enemy aircraft (40 percent of the Luftwaffe’s strength), and led to the surrender of more than 250,000 German and Italian troops—an even larger capitulation than Stalingrad. It was also the first campaign fought by Anglo-American forces together, forging the partnership that would carry the Allies to ultimate victory. David, acclaimed for Crucible of Hell and Operation Thunderbolt, combines forensic analysis with gripping narrative to show why the German public itself named the disaster “Tunisgrad.”

3:20 pm - AGENT ZO: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ELZBIETA ZAWACKA

Award-winning historian Clare Mulley uncovers the astonishing life of Elżbieta Zawack - ‘Zo’ - in her new book, Agent Zo. The only female member of the Polish elite special forces, the ‘Silent Unseen,’ Zo was also the only woman to parachute from Britain into Nazi-occupied Poland. After the war, she was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated Polish women in history. But the Soviet-backed regime imprisoned her and buried her remarkable story for decades. Drawing on new archival research and exclusive interviews with those who knew and fought alongside Zo, Mulley restores this forgotten heroine to the historical record and redefines how we view women’s contribution to the Second World War.

4:15 pm - WOLFPACK: HOW HUMAN ENDURANCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL BRILLIANCE DEFINED THE U-BOAT WAR

Naval historian Stephen Prince talks to award-winning author Roger Moorhouse about his latest book, Wolfpack. Together, they will examine the Battle of the Atlantic through the lens of the German U-boat campaign that threatened Britain’s survival, and how the Allies ultimately overcame the U-boat menace and secured the sea lanes that kept the war effort alive. Germany’s U-boat crews suffered the highest per-capita losses of any arm of service in the war—around 30,000 dead, more than 75% of those who served—most with no grave but the sea. Moorhouse will tell us how, drawing on archival records, war diaries, and memory testimony, he pieced together the human stories while charting the strategic countermeasures that turned the tide.

5:10 pm - A BETTER WORLD: AMERICA AND THE POST WORLD WAR II DREAM

In our final talk, James Holland examines the vision that President Roosevelt—and his successor, Harry S. Truman—had for securing long-term peace and prosperity after 1945.  Beginning with Roosevelt’s Good Neighbour Policy in the 1930s, through the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter of 1941, Holland will trace not only how America rearmed but how it began planning for the postwar world. These efforts resulted in the famous Bretton Woods conference that saw the birth of the IMF and World Bank, and, under Truman, led to the Marshall Plan – the first time ever the victors economically bailed out the vanquished.  As Holland will argue, these policies led to eighty years of peace in the West.

6 pm

END

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CURATOR & CO-HOST

JAMES HOLLAND

James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories, he has presented - and written - a large number of television programmes and series. He has a weekly Second World War podcast with Al Murray, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, and is Chair of the Chalke Valley History Festival. He is a research fellow at St. Andrew's University.

SPEAKERS

SAUL DAVID

Saul David began writing at 25 and has authored fifteen books, including The Homicidal Earl: The Life of Lord Cardigan, The Indian Mutiny: 1857 (shortlisted for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature), Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 (Waterstone’s Military History Book of the Year); Victoria’s Wars: The Rise of Empire, All the King’s Men, 100 Days to Victory, Operation Thunderbolt (later adapted into the film Entebbe), The Force and Crucible of Hell (shortlisted for the 2021 British Army Military Book of the Year). In addition, he has authored three historical novels set in the late Victorian era: Zulu Hart, Hart of Empire, and The Prince and the Whitechapel Murders. 

ROGER MOORHOUSE

Roger Moorhouse is a British historian and author specialising in modern German and Central European history, particularly the Third Reich, Holocaust, and World War II. A fluent German speaker, he earned an MA from the University of London and began his career collaborating with Norman Davies on Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City (2002). His acclaimed books include Berlin at War (short‑listed for the Hessell‑Tiltman Prize), The Devils’ Alliance, First to Fight, and The Forgers (2023). A visiting professor at the College of Europe in Natolin since 2016, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2015 and awarded the Polish Order of Merit in 2020. 

CLARE MULLEY

Clare Mulley is an award-winning author mainly focused on female experience during the Second World War. Her books include Agent Zo, shortlisted for The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, and awarded Silver in the Military History Magazine Best Books of 2025; Also The Women Who Flew For Hitler, The Spy Who Loved and The Woman Who Saved The Children. Clare has contributed to numerous TV documentaries, as well as radio and podcasts, reviews widely across the papers, and has served as a judge for several literary prizes. She is a recipient of the Polish honour, the Bene Merito, and the Daily Mail Biographers Club Prize.

STEPHEN PRINCE

Stephen Prince is Head of the Naval Historical Branch and Royal Navy Red Teaming, advising the First Sea Lord and Ministry of Defence on strategy and policy. A graduate of Warwick and King’s College London, he has held academic and operational posts from Britannia Royal Naval College to ISAF Kabul. Formerly Assistant Head of Naval Staff, he now leads historical analysis and red teaming, and has published widely in strategic and defence journals. (‘Red teaming’ is a military term of art and means thinking like the enemy - or sceptic - to improve one’s own planning and resilience.)