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Operation Alacrity
By Norman Herz. 2004
To win the war against German U-boats, the Allies had to protect their convoys in the vast black hole of…
the mid-Atlantic known as the Azores Gap. In 1943 they devised a plan to set up air bases on the Azores Islands, owned by neutral Portugal. It was essential for the operation to remain secret because the Allies had to get there before the Germans, who had their own plan to build bases. Author Norman Herz took part in the Allied operation as a corporal with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 928th Engineer Aviation Regiment. At the time he was given little information about the operation and told never to talk about what he did. After the war, Operation Alacrity remained mostly unknown, kept secret, Herz suggests, so the U.S. government would not be embarrassed--they had claimed they would not invade the Portuguese territory. In researching the book, Herz found not a word of the operation mentioned in any official U.S. history of World War II but a treasure trove of declassified memos and others documents from the files of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S. U.K. Chiefs of Staff and in state department files. The story is filled with diplomatic intrigue and double-dealing, including secret meetings between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and Churchill's use of a 1373 treaty with Portugal to justly landing in the Azores. The story also involves all of the Allied engineering branches, from U.S. Navy Seabees to RAF Sappers. The success of their operation is undeniable. U-boats stopped patrolling the Azores Gap and not a single Allied troopship was lost again in the area. Today the base is an important link to American and NATO defense worldwide.The Dragon's War
By Maochun Yu. 2006
Making full use of significant new sources in Chinese-language materials, U.S. Naval Academy professor Maochun Yu provides Western readers with…
the first detailed account of military and intelligence operations conducted inside China by foreign powers between 1937 and 1945. He also addresses the profound impact of these operations upon China's nationalism, wartime politics, and overall military campaigns. Arguing that operations by the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France, in particular, challenged the authority and legitimacy of the Chinese nationalist government, he illustrates how the failure of the Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-shek to control these operations contributed to its demise following World War II. This provocative work unveils like never before the extraordinary intrigue, command and operational manipulations, international espionage, and politics surrounding military and intelligence operations in wartime China among the allies. It covers such topics as foreign military aid programs to China; the Chinese secret police's massive joint intelligence organization with the U.S. Navy; special intelligence initiatives conducted by the British, Free French, and Americans; secret British and American dealings with the Chinese Communists; America's first covert overseas military operation (the Flying Tigers); and Soviet and American military personnel in the China theater. The author points to the remarkable political and military ramifications that these operations had in China, including the inadvertent creation of conditions that allowed the rise of Communist China. With its implications on the world scene today, such an important new perspective of China during its war against Japan will appeal to a general audience as well as to students of World War II and specialists in the military and intelligence communities.Pacific War Remembered
By John T. Mason. 1986
In this remarkable oral history collection, thirty-three participants in the turbulent epic that began with the day of infamy at…
Pearl Harbor and ended with the signing of the surrender documents in Tokyo Harbor tell their stories. Their remembrances of heartbreak, frustration, heroism, hope, and triumph were collected over a period of twenty-five years by John T. Mason. Their recollections reveal perspectives and facts not included in traditional works of history. Each selection, introduced with a preface that places it in the context of the Pacific War, takes the reader behind the scenes to present the personal, untold stories of naval history.Included are Admiral William S. Sullivan's account of the problems involved in clearing Manila Harbor of some five hundred wrecked vessels left by the departing Japanese and Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid's description of the communications breakdown at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. There are also the very personal recollections of humor and horror told by the unknown actors in the war: the hospital corpsman, the coxswain, and the machinist's mate. Originally published in 1986, this volume is an unusual and lasting tribute to the ingenuity and teamwork demonstrated by America's forces in the Pacific as well as a celebration of the human spiritNazi Steel
By Marcus O. Jones. 2012
This study explores an exemplary instance of the close interaction between private and official interests in planning and executing the…
programs of the Nazi government, namely the acquisition in 1941 of the Rombach steel works by the German industrialist Friedrich Flick. The industrial concern headed by Flick was among the largest and most influential steel producers and manufacturers of war material in the German economy during World War II. Its activities in the occupied territories of western Europe centered on control of the Rombach works, a large operation established in Lorraine in the late nineteenth-century by German industrialists and expropriated by France, along with the entire region, in the aftermath of the First World War. After successful military operations against France in 1940, the Nazi regime actively sought the collusion of the German industrial community in mobilizing the productive capacity of occupied territories for the war effort, and numerous private German businessmen advanced claims on the lucrative assets in Lorraine and adjacent regions. In his bid to gain control of the Rombach works, Flick was successful for reasons specific to his position within the Nazi German economic system and the character of his interests. This account of his activities, then, serves as a fine example of Nazi economic and occupation policy and its response to party, business, and bureaucratic influences.Nothing Less Than Full Victory
By Edward G Miller. 2007
At the onset of World War II, the U.S. Army was a third-rate ground force of 145,000 with some generals…
who still believed in the relevance of horse cavalry. Its soldiers were untrained, its doctrine out of date, and its weapons hopelessly obsolete. Four years later, the U.S. Army was engaged in a global war with a force of more than 8 million men armed with modern weapons and equipment. Nothing Less than Full Victory is the story of how American ground troops in Europe managed to defeat one of the most proficient armies in history. The author, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, draws on his twenty years of experience in military logistics and eight years of scholarly research to examine the Army s remarkable transformation. Focusing on areas rarely considered in other books on World War II, Edward G. Miller analyzes the performance of American soldiers in the 1944 45 campaign in western Europe against a background of logistics, organization, training, and deployment. In doing so, this groundbreaking work refutes decades of assumptions to reset the historical framework for comparison of U.S. and German performance over the course of the campaign. Lieutenant Colonel Miller s skillful melding of little-known individual and small-unit combat action with the various facets of generating, deploying, and projecting power allows the reader to understand as never before the true significance of what took place. This book is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.Double Edged Secrets
By W. J. Holmes. 1979
Assigned to the combat intelligence unit in Honolulu from June 1941 until the end of World War II, author W.…
J. Holmes was an important part of the naval organization that collected, analyzed, and disseminated intelligence information, and his compassionate understanding of the business of intelligence gathering is unique. Here, he not only captures the mood of the period but also gives rare insight into the problems and personalities involved. The reader comes to fully appreciate the painful moral dilemma faced daily by commanders in the Pacific once the Japanese naval codes were broken. Every time the Americans made use of the enemy messages they had decoded, they increased the probability that the Japanese would realize what had happened and change their codes, thereby causing the U.S. Pacific Fleet to lose a vital edge. Withholding the information, however, could - and sometimes did - result in the loss of American lives and ships. This illuminating study reveals not only the difficulties of collecting intelligence, but of deciding when to use it.The Battle of Tassafaronga
By Russell Crenshaw. 2010
The Battle of Tassafaronga, November 30, 1942, was the fifth and last major night surface action fought off Savo Island…
during World War II s Guadalcanal campaign. It ended a string of Japanese victories, but it was also a horrible embarrassment to the U.S. Navy, which had three heavy cruisers damaged and one sunk to enemy torpedoes. After the battle, American commanders erroneously reported that multiple enemy ships had been sunk or seriously damaged, leading Admiral Nimitz to focus on training as the missing ingredient. Not until more than half a century later did Captain Russell S. Crenshaw, Jr., the destroyer Maury s gunnery officer during the battle, discover that the outcome hinged instead on critical shortcomings that had been built into the U.S. Navy before the war defective torpedoes, poor intelligence, blinding gunfire, over-confidence, and a tendency to equate volume of fire with effectiveness of fire factors that turned the battle into a crucible in which the very nature of the U.S. Navy and its weapons was tested [and] a miniature of what might have been, under other circumstances, a truly devastating defeat.Requiem for Battleship Yamato
By Richard Minear, Yoshida Mitsuru. 1923
Admiral Arleigh (31-Knot) Burke
By Ken Jones, Hubert Kelly. 1898
Germany's Last Mission to Japan
By Joseph Mark Scalia. 1996
When U-234 slipped out of a Norwegian harbor on her maiden voyage in March 1945, the submarine carried a precious…
assortment of armaments and a select group of officials destined for Japan. En route came word that Germany had surrendered, and the boat's commander, Johann Heinrich Fehler, suddenly found himself in a rogue submarine. U-234 was not only loaded with the most technically advanced weaponry and electronic detection devices of the era, but also two Japanese naval officers still at war with the Allies who preferred death to surrender. This dramatic account of the fateful voyage offers an intriguing look at the individuals involved. Until now, the legacy of U-234 has centered on her ominous cargo, including 560 kilograms of uranium oxide, the presence of which has been the focus of countless theories and conjecture.With this book Joseph Mark Scalia argues that the submarine's value lies not in her inanimate cargo but in the individuals accompanying the material to Japan. Through exhaustive research into U.S. Navy interrogation records, European and Japanese archives, and interviews with former U-234 crewmembers and other principals, Scalia has produced a fascinating portrait of proud warriors coping with defeat. Among them was a high-ranking naval judge sent to Tokyo to purge the residual elements from an infamous spy ring, an anti-aircraft and air defense expert, a top naval construction engineer, a radar expert, a Messerschmitt designer who later became project manager for the F-105 Thunderchief, and a Luftwaffe general who directed the 1939 aerial blitz of Poland and was implicated in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.Because this is the first book to be solely devoted to U-234, it also provides a thorough examination of the 1600-ton Type XB minelaying submarine, from launch to surrender on 15 May 1945 to an American destroyer. In addition, the work evaluates the technology carried aboard--an actual ME-262 fighter and masking measures for submarines were included--and places the mystery of the uranium oxide cargo in perspective.Alone on Guadalcanal
By Martin W. Clemens. 1998
This remarkable memoir tells the compelling story of the near-mythic British district officer who helped shape the first great Allied…
counteroffensive. Scottish-born and Cambridge-educated, Martin Clemens managed to survive months behind Japanese lines in one of the most unfriendly climates and terrains in the world. After countless partisan and spy missions, in 1942 he emerged from the jungle and integrated his Melanesian commando force into the heart of the 1st Marine Division's operations, earning the unfettered admiration of such legendary Marine officers as Vandegrift, Thomas, Twining, Edson, and Pate. The book is based on a journal Clemens kept during the war and might well be the last critical source of analysis of the Solomon's campaign. His eyewitness accounts of harrowing long-distance patrols and life on the run from shadowy Japanese intelligence operatives and treacherous islanders are unmatched in the literature of the Pacific War. First published in 1998, the story is essential and enjoyable reading.Intrepid Aviators
By Gregory G. Fletcher. 2012
The true story of the World War II Pacific naval battle that pitted the USS Intrepid's naval aviators against Japan's superbattleship…
Musashi. . . and made a dramatic difference in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. October 24, 1944: As World War II raged, six young American torpedo bombers were sent on a search-and-destroy mission in the Sibuyan Sea. Their target: the superbattleship Musashi, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The pilots were tasked with preventing the immense enemy warship from inflicting damage on American supply ships. Little did these men know that they had embarked on the opening round of history’s greatestand lastepic naval battle. Two bomber crews launched in the first wave of attackers were shot out of the sky. Only pilot Will Fletcher survived the crash landing. Adrift at sea, Will made his way to land and escaped into the jungles of the Philippines, where he eluded capture by the Japanese with the help of Filipino guerrillas, whose ranks he joined to fight against their common enemy. Intrepid Aviators is the thrilling true story of these brave bomber pilots, their daring duel with the Musashi, and Will Fletcher’s struggle to survive as a guerrilla soldier. The sinking of Musashi inflicted a crucial blow in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and marked the first time in history that aviators sank a Japanese battleship on the high seas. MAIN SELECTION OF THE MILITARY BOOK CLUB INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS .Hong Kong 1941-45
By Giuseppe Rava, Benjamin Lai. 2014
On 8th December 1941, as part of the simultaneous combine attack against Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) invaded…
the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia and the British colony of Hong Kong. After only 18 days of battle the defenders, a weak, undermanned brigade was overwhelmed by a superior force of two battle-harden IJA divisions. What makes the battle of Hong Kong was not the scale - just 14,000 defended the colony - but the intensity of this battle fought not only by the British Army, Navy and Air Force but also Canadians, Hong Kong's own defence force, the Indian Army as well as many civilians. The campaign itself is characterized by a fierce land battle, with long artillery duals and as well as fast naval actions with intense actions at the Gin Drinkers Line as well as the battle of Wong Nai Chung Gap where a handful of defenders took on an entire Japanese regiment. Less known but equally important are individual valour such as CSM John Robert Osborne winning a posthumous VC, throwing himself over a Japanese grenade to save fellow combatants. Capitulation by the defenders on 25 December 1941 marks the end of one battle and the beginning of another. A subject not significantly covered by Western historian is local resistance to Japanese occupation. Lead by the communist Chinese, many continued to fight the Japanese forming the Guangdong people's Anti-Japanese East River Guerrilla Detachment that by 1945 grew from 200 to a 6,000-strong force. The guerrillas rescued downed allied pilots, harassed the Japanese with bombing and assassinated traitors and collaborators. Those Allies POW that managed to escape to China continued the fight in a secretive new organization - the British Army Aid Group (BAAG).As the war draw to a close, the question of reestablishing British control became a highly contentious diplomatic dual between China, USA and Britain, but with the death President of Roosevelt in 1945, decolonization lost its main champion and Britain was able to outmaneuver Chiang Kai Shek, the Chinese Generalissimo, and recover Hong Kong as a British Colony. After three years and eight months of Japanese occupation, Rear Admiral Sir Harcourt sailed into Hong Kong on board the cruiser HMS Swiftsure to reestablish control over the colony and accepted the formal surrender of Japan on 16 September 1945.Now the Hell Will Start
By Koerner, Brendan I.. 2008
An epic saga of hubris , cruelty, and redemption, Now the Hell Will Start tells the remarkable tale of the…
greatest manhunt of World War II. Herman Perry, besieged by the hardships of the Indo-Burmese jungle and the racism meted out by his white commanding officers, found solace in opium and marijuana. But on one fateful day, Perry shot his unarmed white lieutenant in the throes of an emotional collapse and fled into the jungle. Brendan I. Koerner spent nearly five years chasing Perry's ghost to the most remote corners of India and Burma. Along the way, he uncovered the forgotten story of the Ledo Road's GIs, for whom Jim Crow was as powerful an enemy as the Japanese-and for whom Herman Perry, dubbed the jungle king, became an unlikely folk hero. .Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front
By Jeff Rutherford. 2014
By 1944, the overwhelming majority of the German Army had participated in the German war of annihilation in the Soviet…
Union and historians continue to debate the motivations behind the violence unleashed in the east. Jeff Rutherford offers an important new contribution to this debate through a study of combat and the occupation policies of three frontline infantry divisions. He shows that while Nazi racial ideology provided a legitimizing context in which violence was not only accepted but encouraged, it was the Wehrmacht's adherence to a doctrine of military necessity which is critical in explaining why German soldiers fought as they did. This meant that the German Army would do whatever was necessary to emerge victorious on the battlefield. Periods of brutality were intermixed with conciliation as the army's view and treatment of the civilian population evolved based on its appreciation of the larger context of war in the east.The First Heroes
By Craig Nelson. 2002
18 April 1942. Sixteen planes take off from a US Navy carrier in the mid-Pacific. A squadron of young, barely…
trained flyers under a famous daredevil, Jimmy Doolittle, they are America's first retaliation towards Japan since Pearl Harbor. Their mission: to bomb Japan's 's five main cities including Tokyo. Critically compromised by the discovery of the US fleet by Japanese spies, they are not expected to come back. Having successfully delivered their bombs, most of the squadron run out of fuel and are forced to crash land in Japan, China and the Soviet Union. The stories of their journeys home are as heroic as that of the raid itself. Incredibly of the 80 flyers who left the USS . . . 90% eventually returned alive to the US. The First Heroes tells the extraordinary story of the daring raid and shows for the first time the real story of what was to be the turning point in the war against Japan.Post-Zionism, Post-Holocaust
By Elhanan Yakira, Michael Swirsky. 2010
This book contains three independent essays, available in English for the first time, as well as a post-scriptum written for…
the English edition. The common theme of the three essays is the uses and abuses of the Holocaust as an ideological arm in the anti-Zionist campaigns. The first essay examines the French group of left-wing Holocaust deniers. The second essay deals with a number of Israeli academics and intellectuals, the so-called post-Zionists, and tries to follow their use of the Holocaust in their different attempts to demonize and delegitimize Israel. The third deals with Hannah Arendt and her relations with Zionism and the State of Israel as reflected in her general work and in Eichmann in Jerusalem; the views that she formulates are used systematically and extensively by anti- and post-Zionists. Elhanan Yakira argues that each of these is a particular expression of an outrage: anti-Zionism and a wholesale delegitimation of Israel.Atrocity, Deviance, and Submarine Warfare: Norms and Practices during the World Wars
By Nachman Ben-Yehuda. 2013
In the early 20th century, the diesel-electric submarine made possible a new type of unrestricted naval warfare. Such brutal practices…
as targeting passenger, cargo, and hospital ships not only violated previous international agreements; they were targeted explicitly at civilians. A deviant form of warfare quickly became the norm. In Atrocity, Deviance, and Submarine Warfare, Nachman Ben-Yehuda recounts the evolution of submarine warfare, explains the nature of its deviance, documents its atrocities, and places these developments in the context of changing national identities and definitions of the ethical, at both social and individual levels. Introducing the concept of cultural cores, he traces the changes in cultural myths, collective memory, and the understanding of unconventionality and deviance prior to the outbreak of World War I. Significant changes in cultural cores, Ben-Yehuda concludes, permitted the rise of wartime atrocities at sea.The Economics of World War II
By Mark Harrison. 1998
This book provides a new quantitative view of the wartime economic experiences of six great powers; the UK, the USA,…
Germany, Italy, Japan and the USSR. What contribution did economics made to war preparedness and to winning or losing the war? What was the effect of wartime experiences on postwar fortunes, and did those who won the war lose the peace? A chapter is devoted to each country, reviewing its economic war potential, military-economic policies and performance, war expenditures and development, while the introductory chapter presents a comparative overview. The result of an international collaborative project, the volume aims to provide a text of statistical reference for students and researchers interested in international and comparative economic history, the history of World War II, the history of economic policy, and comparative economic systems. It embodies the latest in economic analysis and historical research.Axis Midget Submarines
By Paul Wright, Mark Stille. 2014
During World War II, Germany, Japan, and Italy built approximately 2,000 small, inherently stealthy, naval craft to perform special operations…
and conventional naval missions. Much more numerous and more technically advanced than their Allied counterparts, they saw service worldwide, operating in the Pacific, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Indian Ocean, North Sea, and the English channel. Manned by courageous crews, these vessels made daring attacks on Allied ships in heavily protected anchorages using torpedoes and mines. Most notable were attacks against Gibraltar - launched from an Italian cargo vessel interred in nearby neutral Spain that had been converted into a clandestine support base and equipped with an underwater hatch - and Pearl Harbor. They were used against shipping in coastal waters and, near the end of the war, in desperate attempts to offset their opponents' overwhelming naval superiority during the US advance across the Pacific and the Allied amphibious landings in France and Italy. This volume will detail the history, weapons, and operations of German, Japanese, and Italian midget submarines.