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War and military biography, War
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A close-up, action-filled narrative about the crucial role the U.S. Navy played in the early years of the Cold War,…
from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fleet at Flood Tide&“James D. Hornfischer, the dean of American naval historians, has written a book of dizzying sweep and uncommon ambition.&”—Hampton Sides, author of Ghost SoldiersThis landmark account of the U.S. Navy in the Cold War, Who Can Hold the Sea combines narrative history with scenes of stirring adventure on—and under—the high seas. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the victorious Navy sends its sailors home and decommissions most of its warships. But this peaceful interlude is short-lived, as Stalin, America&’s former ally, makes aggressive moves in Europe and the Far East. Winston Churchill crystallizes the growing Communist threat by declaring the existence of &“the Iron Curtain,&” and the Truman Doctrine is set up to contain Communism by establishing U.S. military bases throughout the world.Set against this background of increasing Cold War hostility, Who Can Hold the Sea paints the dramatic rise of the Navy&’s crucial postwar role in a series of exciting episodes that include the controversial tests of the A-bombs that were dropped on warships at Bikini Island; the invention of sonar and the developing science of undersea warfare; the Navy&’s leading part in key battles of the Korean War; the dramatic sinking of the submarine USS Cochino in the Norwegian Sea; the invention of the nuclear submarine and the dangerous, first-ever cruise of the USS Nautilus under the North Pole; and the growth of the modern Navy with technological breakthroughs such as massive aircraft carriers, and cruisers fitted with surface-to-air missiles.As in all of Hornfischer&’s works, the events unfold in riveting detail. The story of the Cold War at sea is ultimately the story of America&’s victorious contest to protect the free world.
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Adventure and exploration, Biography, War and military biography
Human-narrated audio
Memoir of a naval aviator over "twenty-five years of technological and flying development in the U.S. Navy from the 1940s…
into the 1960s." Traces the integration of jet aircraft into naval operations, describing how jets have transformed aviation warfare. c1997.
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United States history, War, Biography, War and military biography
Human-narrated audio
A portrait of a distinguished military leader in the first half of the nineteenth century. Traces his youth in Virginia,…
his legal training, and his performance in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War of the 1840s. Depicts the personal vanity and arrogance that marred his reputation as a brilliant soldier
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History, Biography, War and military biography
Human-narrated audio
Autobiography by a retired lieutenant colonel of the United States Air Force who was one of the original African American…
fighter pilots in World War II. Dryden discusses his experiences in a segregated military institution where he and his colleagues, although they never lost a bomber, were denied privileges at American bases because of their race
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War and military biography, World War II
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An American fighter pilot doomed to die in Buchenwald but determined to survive.On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set off…
on his forty-fourth combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 170 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of Nazi concentration camps. Tom Clavin's Lightning Down tells this largely untold and riveting true story.Moser was just twenty-two years old, a farm boy from Washington State who fell in love with flying. During the War he realized his dream of piloting a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. But on that hot August morning he had to bail out of his damaged, burning plane. Captured immediately, Moser’s journey into hell began.Moser and his courageous comrades from England, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere endured the most horrific conditions during their imprisonment... until the day the orders were issued by Hitler himself to execute them. Only a most desperate plan would save them.The page-turning momentum of Lightning Down is like that of a thriller, but the stories of imprisoned and brutalized airmen are true and told in unforgettable detail, led by the distinctly American voice of Joe Moser, who prays every day to be reunited with his family.Lightning Down is a can’t-put-it-down inspiring saga of brave men confronting great evil and great odds against survival.
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War, Biography, Historical biography, War and military biography, United States history
Human-narrated audio
Presents a detailed account of Ewell's life, and a balanced view of the Confederate general's personality. Discusses his military training…
and expeditions, including his service in Mexico and the Civil War, and his postwar career as a stock farmer
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War, War and military biography
Human-narrated audio
Twenty-five excerpts from accounts of aerial fighting covering World War I through the Vietnam War. Includes stories by pilots from both sides of the conflicts. Some violence
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War and military biography, War, General non-fiction
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Beginning as a young boy, Jules takes you through the unique process of becoming a Naval Aviator, engages you into…
his experiences as a brand new pilot in a combat squadron and, finally becoming a flying warrior. Having survived two combat cruises aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from 1966–1968, compiling 332 career carrier take offs and landings, being shot at daily by enemy fire while completing 200 combat missions over Vietnam, he clearly shares the views of the aviators who flew along with him on these missions while fighting this unpopular war. Jules was awarded the Nation’s Distinguished Flying Cross, 21 Air Medals, and many other accolades. After reading this book the reader will have a new understanding and appreciation about the Warriors who protect not only their comrades in arms, but the defense of the nation as well.
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Biography, War and military biography, General non-fiction
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Travis County STAR Flight, in Austin, Texas, is recognized as one of the premier public-safety helicopter programs in the United…
States. Life Inside the Dead Man’s Curve is a firsthand account of the tragedy and triumph witnessed by STAR Flight crews as they respond to a myriad of emergencies, everything from traumatic injuries to rescues—and more. The author, Kevin McDonald, recounts how he turned his passion for flying into an extraordinary career filled with real-life twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. From his early days as a naval aviator, to his twenty years as a STAR Flight pilot, Kevin takes the reader on a powerful, emotional roller-coaster ride. Even if you’re not an aviation enthusiast, you need to strap in for this read. This is more than a book about flying helicopters—it’s a book about life, life inside the dead man’s curve.
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War and military biography, Asian history, World War II, History
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In this moving memoir a young man comes of age in an age of violence, brutality, and war. Recounting his…
experiences during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, this account brings to life the shocking day-to-day conditions in a Japanese labor camp and provides an intimate look at the collapse of Dutch colonial rule. As a boy growing up on the island of Java, John Stutterheim spent hours exploring his exotic surroundings, taking walks with his younger brother and dachshund along winding jungle roads. His father, a government accountant, would grumble at the pro-German newspaper and from time to time entertain the family with his singing. It was a fairly typical life for a colonial family in the Dutch East Indies, and a peaceful and happy childhood for young John. But at the age of 14 it would all be irrevocably shattered by the Japanese invasion. With the surrender of Java in 1942, John’s father was taken prisoner. For over three years the family would not know if he was alive or dead. Soon thereafter, John, his younger brother, and his mother were imprisoned. A year later he and his brother were moved to a forced labor camp for boys, where they toiled under the fierce sun while disease and starvation slowly took their toll, all the while suspecting they would soon be killed. Throughout all of these travails, John kept a secret diary hidden in his handmade mattress, and his memories now offer a unique perspective on an often overlooked episode of World War II. What emerges is a compelling story of a young man caught up in the machinations of a global war—struggling to survive in the face of horrible brutality, struggling to care for his disease-wracked brother, and struggling to put his family back together. It is a story that must not be forgotten.
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War and military biography, European history, World War II
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Two war diaries that reveal &“just what it was like, day by day, living in a Wehrmacht unit&” (Internet Modeler).…
This book is built around two recently discovered war diaries—one by a member of the 23rd Panzer Division, which served under Manstein in Russia, and the other by a member of Rommel&’s Afrika Korps. Together, along with detailed timelines and brief overviews, they comprise a fascinating up-close look at the German side of World War II. The stories are told primarily in the first person present tense, as events occurred, and without the benefit—or liability—of postwar reflection. The first diary, author unknown, covers April 1942 to March 1943, the momentous year when the tide of battle turned in the East. It first details the unit&’s combat in the great German victory at Kharkov, then the advance to the Caucasus, and finally the lethal winter of 1942–43. The second diary&’s author was a soldier named Rolf Krengel, and the diary was the original, handwritten copy. It starts with the beginning of the war and ends shortly after the occupation. Serving primarily in North Africa, Krengel recounts with keen insight and flashes of humor the day-to-day challenges of the Afrika Korps. During one of the swirling battles in the desert, Krengel found himself sharing a tent with Rommel at a forward outpost. Neither of the diarists was famous, nor of especially high rank. These are simply the brutally honest accounts written at the time by men of the Wehrmacht who participated in two of history&’s most crucial campaigns.
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War and military biography, Journals and memoirs, World War II
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This candid memoir of a GI serving under General Patton offers a rare glimpse into the realities of life and…
combat in Europe during WWII.Though General Patton’s army is famous for dashing armored attacks, some of the most intensive fighting of World War II was done by Patton’s infantry—the foot sloggers who were deployed to reduce enemy strong points. This candid account of the US infantry in the European theater takes the reader from the beaches of Normandy to the conquest of Germany—all through the eyes of an infantryman who had the unique perspective of speaking the enemy’s language.A fluent German speaker, Michael Bilder was called upon for interrogations and other special duties. As a combat lifeguard, he also played a key role in successive river crossings. Here, Bilder relates his experiences of infantry life, from German snipers to intoxicated Frenchwomen, to the often morbid humor of combat. He also describes the Battle of Metz in all its horror, as well as the 5th Infantry’s drive into the Bulge, where they faced their first winter battle against enemy veterans of Russia.
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War and military biography, War
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A vivid memoir of the conflict&’s early years combined with &“an insightful review of our problems in Iraq&” (Publishers Weekly).…
Winner of The Army Historical Foundation&’s Distinguished Writing Award. Shortly after the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the war in Iraq became the most confusing in US history, the high command not knowing who to fight, who was attacking coalition troops, and who among the different Iraqi groups were fighting each other. Yet there were a few astute officers like Lt. Col. Christopher Hughes, commanding the 2nd Battalion of the 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, who sensed the complexity of the task from the beginning. In War on Two Fronts, Lt. Col. Hughes writes movingly of his &“no-slack&” battalion at war in Iraq. The war got off to a bang for Hughes when his brigade command tent was fragged, leaving him briefly in charge of the brigade. Amid the nighttime confusion of fourteen casualties, a nearby Patriot missile blasted off, panicking nearly everyone while mistakenly bringing down a British Tornado fighter-bomber. As Hughes&’ battalion forged into Iraq, they successfully liberated the city of Najaf, securing the safety of Grand Ayatollah Sistani and the Mosque of Ali while showing an acute cultural awareness that caught the world&’s attention. It was a feat that landed Hughes within the pages of Time, Newsweek, and other publications. The Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne then implemented creative programs in the initial postwar occupation, including harvesting the national wheat and barley crops while combating nearly invisible insurgents. Conscious that an army battalion is a community of some seven-hundred-plus households, and that when a unit goes off to war, the families are intimately connected in our internet age, Hughes makes clear the strength of those connections and how morale is best supported at both ends. Transferred to Washington after his tour, Hughes also writes an illuminating account of the herculean efforts of many in the Pentagon to work around the corporatist elements of its bureaucracy in order to better understand counterinsurgency and national reconstruction, which Lawrence of Arabia described as &“like learning to eat soup with a knife.&” This book helps explain the sources of mistakes made—and the process needed to chart a successful strategy. Written with candor and no shortage of humor, mixed with brutal scenes of combat and frank analysis, it is a must-read for all who seek insight into our current situation in the Mideast.
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War and military biography, War, World War II
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Left for Dead at Nijmegen recalls the larger-than-life experiences of an American paratrooper, Gene Metcalfe, who served in the 82nd…
Airborne during WWII. From his recruitment into the military at Camp Grant to his training with the 501st Paratroop Infantry Regiment at Camp Toccoa, it wasn't until D-Day itself that he first arrived in England to join the 508th PIR. When Metcalfe boarded the C-47 which would drop him at Groesbeek Heights, just outside of Nijmegen, Holland, he was handed a box of twelve dozen condoms by an over-confident British lieutenant. He was to be among the first to jump into what should have been a picture-book meadow, free of German troops. Instead, it was defended by three German anti-aircraft cannon emplacements. As he jumped into a hail of bullets and exploding shells he watched his plane roll over and plummet into the ground. It was at that moment he realized the condoms had either been a bad joke or the planners of Operation Market Garden had seriously underestimated German resistance. Gene was listed as KIA and left for dead by his patrol, who presumed the worst when they saw his injuries from a shell explosion. The rest of his story is equally gripping, as he became a POW held outside Munich, being moved between various camps ridden with disease and a severely undernourished population. Eventually, after making an escape attempt and being captured within sight of the snow-capped Swiss mountains, his camp was liberated by American troops in April 1945. Gene's story is both remarkable for his highly unusual encounter, and his subsequent experiences.
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Biography, War and military biography, European history, War, World War I
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The story of the World War I fighter pilot the Red Baron himself sought to emulate . . .German air ace Oswald Boelcke…
was a national hero during World War I. He was the youngest captain in the German air force, decorated with the Pour le Mérite while still only a lieutenant, and credited with forty aerial victories at the time of his death.Becoming a pilot shortly before the outbreak of the war, Boelcke established his reputation on the Western front first in reconnaissance, then in scouts, before finally becoming the best known of the early German aces, along with Max Immelmann. After Immelmann’ s death, he was taken off flying and traveled to the Eastern front where he met a young pilot called Manfred von Richthofen. Transferred back to the Western Front in command of Jasta 2, he remembered von Richthofen when new small fighting units were formed and chose him as a pilot for his new Staffel. Boelcke was tragically killed in a flying accident during combat in October 1916, although not before the reputation of his unit, together with his own, had been firmly established forever.This absorbing biography was written with the blessing of Boelcke’s family. Professor Werner was given access to his letters and other papers, and presents here a rounded and fascinating portrait of a great airman and a remarkable soldier who became known as the father of the German Jagdflieger.This edition has been completely reoriginated while remaining faithful to the language of the time of its original translation from German in the 1930s.
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War and military biography, Journals and memoirs, World War I
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The dramatic experiences of an ambulance driver in the Great War, told through personal correspondence and photographs.Though the United States…
was late to enter the Great War, a number of idealistic young Americans wished to take part from the beginning. One of these was Avery Royce Wolf, a highly educated scion of a family in America’s burgeoning industrial heartland.Volunteering as an ambulance driver with the French Army in the Verdun sector, Royce sent back a constant stream of highly detailed letters describing the experience of frontline combat, as well as comments on strategy, the country he encountered, and the Allies’ prospects for success.This treasure trove of brilliant letters, only recently discovered, is accompanied by several albums worth of rare, high-quality photos depicting aspects of the Great War in France never previously published. Full of action, including the suspense and terror of the Ludendorff Offensive, as well as interesting firsthand analyses such as comparing French and German trench works, Letters from Verdun brings the reader amazingly close to the frontlines of the Great War.
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War and military biography, War
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“Spotlights the career of a fascinating modern warrior, while also shedding light on some of the conflicts that have raged…
throughout the world” (Tucson Citizen).A former South African Air Force pilot who saw action throughout the region from the 1970s on, Neall Ellis is the best-known mercenary combat aviator alive. Apart from flying Alouette helicopter gunships in Angola, he fought in the Balkan war for the Islamic forces, tried to resuscitate Mobutu’s ailing air force during his final days ruling the Congo, flew Mi-8s for Executive Outcomes, and piloted an Mi-8 fondly dubbed “Bokkie” for Colonel Tim Spicer in Sierra Leone. Finally, with a pair of aging Mi-24 Hinds, Ellis ran the Air Wing out of Aberdeen Barracks in the war against Sankoh’s vicious RUF rebels. As a “civilian contractor,” Ellis has also flown helicopter support missions in Afghanistan, where, he reckons, he had more close shaves than in his entire previous four decades.From single-handedly turning the enemy back from the gates of Freetown to helping rescue eleven British soldiers who’d been taken hostage, Ellis’s many missions earned him a price on his head, with reports of a million-dollar dead-or-alive reward. This book describes the full career of this storied aerial warrior, from the bush and jungles of Africa to the forests of the Balkans and the merciless mountains of Afghanistan. Along the way the reader encounters a multiethnic array of enemies ranging from ideological to cold-blooded to pure evil, as well as examples of incredible heroism for hire.
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War and military biography, Journals and memoirs, World War II
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A young soldier’s memoirs of fighting in WWII: “Fascinating . . . A personal record like this is a valuable resource to anyone…
interested in the period”(Military Model Scene).After the Citadel and Officer Candidate School, Andrew Z. Adkins Jr., was sent to the 80th Infantry Division, then training in the California-Arizona desert. There, he was assigned as an 81mm mortar section leader in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry Regiment.When the division completed training in December 1943, it was shipped in stages to the United Kingdom and then Normandy, where it landed on August 3, 1944. Lieutenant Adkins and his fellow soldiers took part in light hedgerow fighting that served to shake the division down and familiarize the troops and their officers with combat. The first real test came within weeks, when the 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry, attacked high ground near Argentan during the drive to seal German forces in the Falaise Pocket. While scouting for mortar positions in the woods, Adkins met a group of Germans and shot one of them dead with his carbine. This baptism in blood settled the question faced by every novice combatant: He was cool under fire, capable of killing when facing the enemy. He later wrote, “It was a sickening sight, but having been caught up in the heat of battle, I didn’t have a reaction other than feeling I had saved my own life.”Thereafter, the 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry, took part in bloody battles across France, sometimes coping with inept leadership and grievous losses, even as it took hills and towns away from the Germans. In the fighting graphically portrayed here, Adkins acted with skill and courage, placing himself at the forefront of the action whenever he could. His extremely aggressive delivery of critical supplies to a cut-off unit in an embattled French town earned him a Bronze Star, the first in his battalion.This is a story of a young soldier at war, a junior officer’s coming of age amid pulse-pounding combat. Before his death, Andy Adkins was able to face his memory of war as bravely as he faced war itself. He put it on paper, honest and unflinching. In 1944-45, he did his duty to his men and country—and here, he serves new generations of military and civilian readers.
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War and military biography, Sports biography, War, World War II, Sports and games
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“Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound.…
This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it.” — John GrishamAn extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August.When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war – the invasion of Okinawa—their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.” Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in “The Mosquito Bowl” would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence. Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America’s campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa.
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War and military biography, War
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The Freedom Shield brings together stories of veterans of the 191st Assault Helicopter Company, tasked with carrying troops into battle,…
attacking enemy positions and evacuating the wounded in their UH-1 Iroquois "Huey" helicopters. The unit was assembled from a hodgepodge selection of hand-me-down aircraft, used equipment and overlooked personnel—its appearance belied the invaluable work the crews of the 191st would undertake during the Vietnam War. This narrative of the Company, told through collected stories of veterans, defines a breed of soldier newly minted in Vietnam: the combat assault-helicopter crewman. The 191st pilots, crews, and support personnel vividly share the details of what it was like to be at war, forced to rely on your fellow crewmembers for your own survival. Their accounts of helicopter combat at the height of the Vietnam conflict accurately recreate the sights and sounds of the battlefields, the fear and horror of watching close friends torn to pieces, their feelings on returning to base. Their message is infinitely clear: 'The price of freedom is painful.'