Author : Jay Winik
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 656 pages
File Size : 39,86 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1501125362
"Chronicles the events of 1944 to reveal how nearly the Allies lost World War II, citing the pivotal contributions of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin,"--Novelist.
Author : James D. Hornfischer
Publisher : Bantam
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 23,22 MB
Release : 2009-03-25
Category : History
ISBN : 0307490882
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Son, we’re going to Hell." The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death. Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home. In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail. Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.
Author : Cornelius Ryan
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 22,54 MB
Release : 2010-02-16
Category : History
ISBN : 1439126461
The unparalleled, classic work of history that recreates the battle that changed World War II—the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Longest Day is Cornelius Ryan’s unsurpassed account of D-Day, a book that endures as a masterpiece of military history. In this compelling tale of courage and heroism, glory and tragedy, Ryan painstakingly recreates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism and free Europe from the grip of Nazi Germany. This book, first published in 1959, is a must for anyone who loves history, as well as for anyone who wants to better understand how free nations prevailed at a time when darkness enshrouded the earth.
Author : Alex Kershaw
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 13,5 MB
Release : 2010-09-07
Category : History
ISBN : 1458777839
In the early morning hours of October 24, 1944, the legendary U.S. Navy submarine Tang was hit by one of its own faulty torpedoes. The survivors of the explosion struggled to stay alive one hundred-eighty feet beneath the surface, while the Japanese dropped deadly depth charges. As the air ran out, some of the crew made a daring ascent through the escape hatch. In the end, just nine of the original eighty-man crew survived. But the survivors were beginning a far greater ordeal. After being picked up by the Japanese, they were sent to an interrogation camp known as the ''torture Farm.'' When they were liberated in 1945, they were close to death, but they had revealed nothing to the Japanese, including the greatest secret of World War II. With the same heart-pounding narrative drive that made The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter national bestsellers, Alex Kershaw brings to life this incredible story of survival and endurance.
Author : Phillip T. Parkerson
Publisher : Casemate
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 28,71 MB
Release : 2023-04-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1636243002
"If the doings of the U.S. Navy in World War II are of any interest to you, the book is worth a read." — PowerShips The Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) was one of the most famous US combat ships of World War II, already internationally renowned following her participation in the naval battles in the Solomons in 1942. After repairs and modifications, in 1943 the Boise was sent to the Mediterranean theater, there to participate in the invasions of Sicily, Taranto, and Salerno, and enhancing her fame by destroying enemy tanks during armored counterattacks in both Sicily and Salerno. From the Mediterranean, Boise was sent to the Southwest Pacific theater to join the US 7th Fleet for the campaign in New Guinea in 1943–44 and then the invasion of the Philippines. She fought in the battle of Leyte Gulf, notably in the night engagement in the Surigao Strait, where battleships faced off against each other for the last time in maritime history. Boise was credited with helping to sink a Japanese battleship. She also fought off the suicide planes known as kamikazes at Leyte and later at Lingayen Gulf during the invasion of Luzon. MacArthur used her as his flagship for the Luzon attack, thereby adding to her already considerable fame, then after helping retake Corregidor and other islands in the Philippines, Boise carried the general on a triumphant tour of the islands. This tour was interrupted for the invasion of Borneo, but completed when the beach was secured. After MacArthur left the ship in June 1945, she returned to the US for overhaul which was just complete as the war ended, by which time she had been awarded 11 battle stars, more than any other light cruiser in her class. This full account of USS Boise’s war not only gives us an insight into how one ship navigated a global conflict, but also an insight into the experiences of the men who served on her, and a new perspective on the naval campaigns of the war.
Author : Scott McGaugh
Publisher : Da Capo Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 24,79 MB
Release : 2016-10-11
Category : History
ISBN : 0306824469
On October 24, 1944, more than two hundred American soldiers realized they were surrounded by German infantry deep in the mountain forest of eastern France. As their dwindling food, ammunition, and medical supplies ran out, the American commanding officer turned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to achieve what other units had failed to do. Honor Before Glory is the story of the 442nd, a segregated unit of Japanese American citizens, commanded by white officers, that finally rescued the "lost battalion." Their unmatched courage and sacrifice under fire became legend-all the more remarkable because many of the soldiers had volunteered from prison-like "internment" camps where sentries watched their mothers and fathers from the barbed-wire perimeter. In seven campaigns, these young Japanese American men earned more than 9,000 Purple Hearts, 6,000 Bronze and Silver Stars, and nearly two dozen Medals of Honor. The 442nd became the most decorated unit of its size in World War II: its soldiers earned 18,100 awards and decorations, more than one for every man. Honor Before Glory is their story-a story of a young generation's fight against both the enemy and American prejudice-a story of heroism, sacrifice, and the best America has to offer.
Author : Sam Glanzman
Publisher : Courier Dover Publications
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 26,96 MB
Release : 2015-04-15
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN : 0486798127
"An unabridged republication of the following works originally published by Marvel Comics, New York: A Sailor's Story (1987) and A Sailor's Story, Book Two: Winds, Dreams, and Dragons (1989)"--Title page verso.
Author : Lauren Tarshis
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
Page : 105 pages
File Size : 50,7 MB
Release : 2019-01-29
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 1338317407
It was a battle that would change the course of World War II... New York Times bestselling author Lauren Tarshis commemorates the Normandy landings in this pulse-pounding story of the largest seaborne invasion in history. Eleven-year-old Paul’s French village has been under Nazi control for years. His Jewish best friend has disappeared. Food is scarce. And there doesn’t seem to be anything Paul can do to make things better. Then Paul finds an American paratrooper in a tree near his home. The soldier says the Allies have a plan to crush the Nazis once and for all. But the soldier needs Paul’s help. This is Paul’s chance to make a difference. Soon he finds himself in the midst of the largest invasion in history. Can he do his part to turn horror into hope? New York Times bestselling author Lauren Tarshis tells the story of the battle that became the foundation for the Allied victory in World War II. Includes a section of nonfiction backmatter with more facts about the real-life event.
Author : Matthew Cobb
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 541 pages
File Size : 11,38 MB
Release : 2013-04-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0857203193
'I had thought that for me there could never again be any elation in war. But I had reckoned without the liberation of Paris - I had reckoned without remembering that I might be a part of that richly historic day. We were in Paris on the first day - one of the great days of all time.' (Ernie Pyle, US war correspondent) The liberation of Paris was a momentous point in twentieth-century history, yet it is now largely forgotten outside France. Eleven Days in August is a pulsating hour-by-hour reconstruction of these tumultuous events that shaped the final phase of the war and the future of France, told with the pace of a thriller. While examining the conflicting national and international interests that played out in the bloody street fighting, it tells of how, in eleven dramatic days, people lived, fought and died in the most beautiful city in the world. Based largely on unpublished archive material, including secret conversations, coded messages, diaries and eyewitness accounts, Eleven Days in August shows how these August days were experienced in very different ways by ordinary Parisians, Resistance fighters, French collaborators, rank-and-file German soldiers, Allied and French spies, the Allied and German High Commands. Above all, it shows that while the liberation of Paris may be attributed to the audacity of the Resistance, the weakness of the Germans and the strength of the Allies, the key to it all was the Parisians who by turn built street barricades and sunbathed on the banks of the Seine, who fought the Germans and simply tried to survive until the Germans finally surrendered, in a billiard room at the Prefecture of Police. One of the most iconic moments in the history of the twentieth century had come to a close, and the face of Paris would never be the same again.
Author : James D. Hornfischer
Publisher : Bantam
Page : 690 pages
File Size : 42,37 MB
Release : 2017-11-14
Category : History
ISBN : 0345548728
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The extraordinary story of the World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the U.S. Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower Winner, Commodore John Barry Book Award, Navy League of the United States • Winner, John Lehman Distinguished Naval Historian Award, Naval Order of the United States With its thunderous assault on the Mariana Islands in June 1944, the United States crossed the threshold of total war. In this tour de force of dramatic storytelling, distilled from extensive research in newly discovered primary sources, James D. Hornfischer brings to life the campaign that was the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender—and that forever changed the art of modern war. With a close focus on high commanders, front-line combatants, and ordinary people, American and Japanese alike, Hornfischer tells the story of the climactic end of the Pacific War as has never been done before. Here are the epic seaborne invasions of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam, the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams, the largest banzai attack of the war, and the daring combat operations large and small that made possible the strategic bombing offensive culminating in the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring, authoritative, and cinematic portrayal of World War II’s world-changing finale. Illustrated with original maps and more than 120 dramatic photographs “Quite simply, popular and scholarly military history at its best.”—Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture “The dean of World War II naval history . . . In his capable hands, the story races along like an intense thriller. . . . Narrative nonfiction at its finest—a book simply not to be missed.”—James M. Scott, Charleston Post and Courier “An impressively lucid account . . . admirable, fascinating.”—The Wall Street Journal “An extraordinary memorial to the courageous—and a cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent today.”—Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, author of Sea Power “A masterful, fresh account . . . ably expands on the prior offerings of such classic naval historians as Samuel Eliot Morison.”—The Dallas Morning News
