Barrie William Edward Pitt was educated at Portsmouth Southern Grammar School before becoming a bank clerk. After service in the Second World War Pitt worked as a surveyor, joined 21 SAS (TA), with whom he rose to the rank of sergeant, and started to write for the magazine Adventure. Pitt also worked for a time as an information officer at the Atomic Energy Authority establishment at Aldermaston, where he demonstrated a talent for turning scientific information into readable prose In 1958, Pitt wrote a novel, The Edge of Battle, and Zeebrugge, an admired account of the First World War raid on the Belgian U-boat base. This led to a long and prolific career as an author and editor of popular histories. Under the overall editorship of Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, he was responsible for the first major part-work, Purnell's History of the Second World War, a 96-instalment mass circulation series which was launched in 1966 at the Imperial War Museum. He also worked as a researcher for the 1960s BBC television series The Great War.

Charles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler. Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years. After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy. His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II. One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer. "He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books." Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.

Martin Blumenson was a soldier in the US army, and a military historian, and a recognised authority on the life of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. Blumenson received a Bachelors and Masters degree from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He received a second master's degree in history from Harvard University. He also was an exellent pianist, performing at Carnegie Hall as a young man. He served as a U.S. Army officer in northwestern Europe during World War II. After the war he lived in France for a number of years, where he met his wife of 55 years, Genevieve Adelbert Blumenson, who died in 2000. Blumenson again served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and later worked in the Office of the Chief of Military History until 1967. After this he became an adviser on civil disorders for the Johnson administration.

British historian, was born in London, England in 1924. He joined the Royal Air Force at eighteen after that, as a war correspondent, he traveled throughout the Far East. He has worked on numerous British and American magazines and has written more than half a dozen books about the Second World War. Few of them are: The sands of Dunkirk, 1961, Duce! A biography of Benito Mussolini, 1971, and The war in the desert, 1977.

John Robert Elting was a soldier for thirty-five years (1933-­1968), with a couple of civilian interludes as a high school instructor. His first commission had been from the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Stanford University in 1932. He combined this with summer duty in Company H (machine-guns), 163rd Infantry Regiment, Montana National Guard, and then as an officer in the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1940 Elting became an ROTC instructor at Oregon State College. From then on he was continually in service until 1947 (71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion, the Tactics Department of the Armored School at Fort Knox, Combat Command B, 8th Armored Division in the Rhineland, Ardennes, Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns, 24th Field Artillery Battalion of the Philippine Scouts). In 1948 he was recalled, after a short civilian interlude as a teacher, and was assigned to the Armed Forces Information School and, from there, to the Military Academy, West Point. In 1954 John Elting's turn for overseas duty came up and he was posted to the J-2 (Intelligence) Division of the Far East Command, returning to West Point in 1957. There he began researching and writing the Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars, with Colonel Esposito acting as overall editor and advisor. Between 1965 and 1968, Colonel Elting served as G-2 of the Washington Military District, before retiring in 1968. After his retirement, Elting turned his attention to writing and research (in his own modest words, he "tried to be a historian"). He was the author, co-author or editor of sixteen books, including The Battles of Saratoga, American Army Life, A Dictionary of Soldier Talk, A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars, Swords Around a Throne and Napoleonic Uniforms. He took particular delight in the history of Napoleon's Army - and the French emperor's campaigns - and in the study of the American Revolution, but was a considerable authority on all aspects of military history. His knowledge was deep, and he gave generously of it, and for many he served as an inspiration. He also served as a historical consultant on the Time-Life World War II book series and authored "Battles for Scandinavia" in the series.