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Ark Royal: Sailing Into Glory
By Mike Rossiter. 2006
In June 1941 the Ark Royal won one of Britain's most famous naval victories. The German destroyer, Bismarck, had been…
ravaging the British fleet in the Atlantic. Sailing through a ferocious storm the Ark Royal tracked the Bismarck. A dozen swordfish bombers took off from her deck and pounded shell after shell into the German battleship, sending her to the ocean floor. It was a signal victory that resonated around the world. Hitler, furious at the loss of the German fleet's flagship, demanded that the Ark Royal be destroyed at whatever cost.HMS Ark Royal is one of the Royal Navy's most iconic ships. When she was launched in 1938 she was one of the most sophisticated weapons at the disposal of British military command. The aircraft carrier was the latest, and soon to be one of the most feared, developments in naval warfare. In her first two years of operation the Ark Royal survived countless attacks, and was considered one of the luckiest ships in the Navy.But her air of invincibility was to prove wishful thinking. Within one month of sinking the Bismarck, the Ark Royal too was destroyed while sailing off the coast of Gibraltar. And there she has rested, one kilometre below the surface of the Mediterranean, until her wreck was discovered by Mike Rossiter in 2004.In gripping detail, and using the testimony of survivors of the sinking and men who lived, flew and fought on the Ark Royal, Mike Rossiter tells the remarkable story of the life and legend of this most iconic of ships. Also, and for the first time, he reveals the story of the quest to discover the wreck of this naval legend.Aircraft Recognition: A Penguin Special
By R.A. Saville-Sneath. 1941
When this book was first published in 1941, aircraft recognition was far more than just a pleasant pastime; it was…
often a matter of life and death… This classic text provides a definitive catalogue of the aeroplanes, enemy and friendly, seen over British skies during the Second World War. R.A. Saville-Sneath set out to produce a handy classification guide, with many diagrams, a full glossary and some useful mnemonics, showing how each type of aircraft could be identified quickly and easily. The basic structures, tail units, positions of the wings and engines, and even the sounds made by the different planes, form part of the essential 'vocabulary' for distinguishing Albacores and Ansons, Beauforts and Blenheims, Heinkels, Hurricanes and Junkers, Messerschmitts and Moths, Spitfires and Wellingtons. For anyone interested in aviation the book provides a mine of information about a golden age. For those who lived through one of the most glorious episodes in the history of combat it will prove vividly evocative of those extraordinary days.THE ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUIDE for anyone who thinks they'd survive the world's most hostile environments - or at least imagine…
they could do.-----------------------------First issued to British airmen in the 1950s the beautifully illustrated Air Ministry Survival Guide provides invaluable practical tips and instruction on how to keep calm and carry on in any hostile environment.Whether you're lost in the desert, arctic, jungle, or adrift on the open ocean, you'll be better off armed with sensible advice on how to:- Build a structurally sound igloo- Pull faces to prevent frostbite (and when to expect bits to fall off should you fail)- Fashion a mask to prevent snowblindness- Make a hat out of seat cushions- Behave in the event of meeting hostile locals- Stay safe from poisonous reptiles and insects- Use a 'fire thong'- Punch man-eating sharks (which are cowards)Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall (Spike Milligan War Memoirs)
By Spike Milligan. 1972
Volume one of Spike Milligan's legendary memoirs is a hilarious, subversive first-hand account of WW2'The most irreverent, hilarious book about…
the war that I have ever read' Sunday Express'Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense' Guardian______________'At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy". I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .' In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been something we said'), through his attempts to avoid enlistment ('time for my appendicitis, I thought') and his gunner training in Bexhill ('There was one drawback. No ammunition') to the landing at Algiers in 1943 ('I closed my eyes and faced the sun. I fell down a hatchway'). Filled with bathos, pathos and gales of ribald laughter, this is a barely sane helping of military goonery and superlative Milliganese.______________ 'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen Fry'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese 'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard 'Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal' Terry Wogan 'A totally original comedy writer' Michael PalinThe Ghost Tattoo
By Tony Bernard. 2022
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FOR BEST HOLOCAUST MEMOIRFor readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Watchmakers,…
a powerful, profoundly moving Holocaust memoir from a rarely told perspective—the story of a son&’s quest to understand his father, a heroic, complicated Jewish survivor—and to uncover the hidden past and desperate choices he made when the Nazis recruited him to police his own people in their Polish ghetto. Growing up, Tony Bernard knew that his father, Henry, had been in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. He was familiar with the tattoo bearing his Auschwitz number—B1224—and the faint scar resulting from a suicide attempt while in a camp in Blizyn. As an Australian boy growing up on Sydney&’s sunny Northern Beaches where Henry was a well-respected doctor, Tony simply accepted these facts. Only as a young man, on a trip to Poland with his father, did he begin to uncover the secrets that filled Henry with regret, anguish, and guilt. Henry&’s experiences in the concentration camps were harrowing, and he survived through ingenuity, grit, and countless miracles of chance. Yet there was another, deeper story—of what happened before his deportation to the camps. In 1940, Henry was recruited into the Jewish Order Service in his Polish hometown—an organization set up by the Nazis to help maintain order among Jews. Like many other young recruits, Henry believed he would help protect his community. Instead, the ghetto police, as they became known, were forced to assist the Nazis in the subjugation and mistreatment of their own people. Faced daily with impossible choices, desperate to keep his loved ones alive, Henry was both victim and unwilling participant. The Ghost Tattoo is a haunting, emotionally resonant memoir of war and its aftermath. It is also a singular account of resistance, resilience, and hope. Henry was eventually called to Germany to testify in a trial against Nazi murderers, where his evidence proved pivotal. After decades of silence, he seized the chance to bear witness—for history, for his family, and for all those who did not survive.The Knitter caters for skilled knitters with more than 10 challenging patterns in each issue. The Knitter has beautiful, original…
patterns and inspiration from world-class designers. Our patterns aren’t just fabulous to look at, they’re enjoyable to make, with a few unusual techniques and intriguing ways with yarns for you to try.Hitler's Boy Soldiers: The Hitlerjugend Story (Images of War)
By Hans Seidler. 2013
Founded in 1922 the Hitler Youth movement was the second oldest Nazi group. Comprising male youths aged 14 18, by…
December 1936 membership stood at over 5 million. During the Second World War, the role of Hitlerjugend evolved from assisting with the postal, train and fire services into full war fighting. Recruits went into units such as the elite 12th SS Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend and we see graphic images of this Waffen-SS force in action both on the Eastern and Western fronts.Even as the Nazi cause faced inevitable defeat these units fought with fanatical and disturbing bravery and after defeat in May 1945, elements carried out guerrilla actions in the Bavarian and Austrian mountains.The reader will find much original material on this legendary but distasteful Nazi organization.On Spartan Wings: The Royal Hellenic Air Force in World War Two
By John Carr. 2012
This WWII history chronicles the courageous but ill-prepared Greek air force from the Battle of Greece to the Battle of…
El Alamein and beyond. On October 28th, 1940, when Greece was invaded by Mussolini&’s Italy, the Royal Hellenic Air Force was severely outgunned. Without warning, the RHAF&’s paltry fleet was pitted against the much larger and more advanced Regia Aeronautica, whose pilots had recently honed their skills in the Spanish Civil War. Though the British Royal Air Force gave whatever assistance it could, the aerial war was unequal from the beginning. Greek flying aces such as Marinos Mitralexis managed to keep morale high. But even as individual pilots and crewmembers fought valiantly, the RHAF was seriously depleted by the end of 1940. The end came in April 1941 when Hitler sped to the rescue of Italy&’s faltering forces. The Luftwaffe overwhelmed what was left of the RHAF, leaving a single mira, or squadron, to escape intact to Egypt. Out of this small squadron grew three full mirai, whose pilots, now equipped with modern aircraft, played a decisive part in the Allied victory at El Alamein. Until Greece was liberated in October 1944, the RHAF units ranged over targets in the Aegean Sea, Italy and Yugoslavia. In this comprehensive history, John Carr draws on meticulous research and firsthand accounts to shed light on the skill and heroism of the Greek airmen and their contributions to WWII air warfare.Strike of the Sailfish: Two Sister Submarines and the Sinking of a Japanese Aircraft Carrier
By Stephen L. Moore. 2023
A gripping true-life thriller about the first US submarine to sink a Japanese aircraft carrier—and the sub&’s tragic twist of…
fateIn 1939 off the New England coast, the submarine USS Squalus accidentally sinks to the bottom of the sea during a training exercise, killing half her crew. Coming to the rescue is the USS Sculpin, in many ways the Squalus&’s twin. As their oxygen supply dwindles, the remaining crew aboard the Squalus are saved in a time-consuming, white-knuckle operation. Eventually the sunken submarine is raised, repaired, and returned to duty, with a new name: the Sailfish.Four years later, on patrol during the darkest days of the Pacific War, the Sailfish&’s radarman picks up the tell-tale signs of a Japanese convoy, known by U.S. intelligence to include aircraft carriers, the most formidable of all enemy ships. Never before has an American submarine taken down a carrier—much less in the middle of a typhoon. Immediately, the crewmen swing into action, embarking on a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as this once-dead boat evades enemy cruisers to stalk closer and closer to their prized target. Little do they know that aboard the Japanese carrier are survivors of an attack on the USS Sculpin, the very boat that saved the Squalis-turned-Sailfish back in &’39.Author Stephen L. Moore takes readers inside the nine-hour duel, narrating the action aboard both the Sailfish and the doomed carrier, where the American POWs fight against all odds to save their own lives before the ship goes down. Employing a wealth of new information, including long-lost survivors' accounts, fresh interviews with the last of the sub's crew, and official patrol reports, Strike of the Sailfish is the thrilling story of this strange chapter of naval history.Finding the Few: Some Outstanding Mysteries of the Battle of Britain Investigated and Solved
By Andy Saunders. 2009
An &“extraordinarily researched&” account of a quest to find MIA fighter pilots decades after World War II (Barrett Tillman). …
1940: The air over Britain is filled with danger. Courageous and heroic men fly and fight, often sacrificing their lives to keep the nation free. Some of them will disappear into the summer sky without leaving a trace . . . This remarkable book records the lives of RAF pilots who were shot down and remained missing for decades—until diligent research efforts by author Andy Saunders and others brought identification to them and closure to their families. Each case represents a fascinating human story of drama, love, and tragedy; these stories are filled with startling detective work, remarkable coincidences, and shocking controversy. Finding the Few ends with a mystery still unsolved, and features photographs throughout, standing as a fitting testament to those men lost but not forgotten.Desert Diggers: Writings From a War Zone 'Somewhere in the Middle East' 1940-1942
By David Mitchelhill-Green. 2024
Desert Diggers: Writings from a War Zone &‘Somewhere in the Middle East&’ 1940-1942 draws upon hundreds of soldiers&’ letters in a…
fresh and captivating narrative of the war in North Africa. Desert Diggers follows the first men to volunteer after the outbreak of war in 1939, tracing their adventures in exotic ports before further training in Palestine. A hunger for action grew: &‘Most of the chaps are ... anxious to get into anything that looks like a fight&’, one soldier wrote to his brother. From Egypt, &‘the hottest and dustiest place on God's earth&’ was the Diggers&’ next destination and their &‘blooding&’ in the battles for Bardia and Tobruk. After Rommel failed to storm Tobruk in April-May 1941, Nazi propaganda denigrated the garrison, &‘caught like rats in a trap&’. Amid frequent bombing and shelling, Berlin&’s scornful broadcasts were an unintended tonic. &‘Frequently we laughed and joked until the tears came into our eyes&’, a Digger quipped. From Tobruk, to the blunting of Rommel&’s attacks at El Alamein, the price of victory was palpably high: &‘some of my best mates didn't come out of it&’, lamented a corporal to his sister. Returning to Australia in 1943, some men maimed or traumatised, brought a further test for the Diggers ...Told in the words of the men who served, Desert Diggers offers a new personal perspective on the Western Desert campaign. With immediacy and raw emotion, these skillfully woven letters provide a remarkable and compelling account of the Australian experience of war.Offers a fascinating window into how the fraught politics of apology in the East Asian region have been figured in…
anglophone literary fiction.The Pacific War, 1941-1945, was fought across the world’s largest ocean and left a lasting imprint on anglophone literary history. However, studies of that imprint or of individual authors have focused on American literature without drawing connections to parallel traditions elsewhere. Beyond Hostile Islands contributes to ongoing efforts by Australasian scholars to place their national cultures in conversation with those of the United States, particularly regarding studies of the ideologies that legitimize warfare. Consecutively, the book examines five of the most significant historical and thematic areas associated with the war: island combat, economic competition, internment, imprisonment, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Throughout, the central issue pivots around the question of how or whether at all New Zealand fiction writing differs from that of the United States. Can a sense of islandness, the ‘tyranny of distance,’ Māori cultural heritage, or the political legacies of the nuclear-free movement provide grounds for distinctive authorial insights? As an opening gambit, Beyond Hostile Islands puts forward the term ‘ideological coproduction’ to describe how a territorially and demographically more minor national culture may accede to the essentials of a given ideology while differing in aspects that reflect historical and provincial dimensions that are important to it. Appropriately, the literary texts under examination are set in various locales, including Japan, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand, New Mexico, Ontario, and the Marshall Islands. The book concludes in a deliberately open-ended pose, with the full expectation that literary writing on the Pacific War will grow in range and richness, aided by the growth of Pacific Studies as a research area.'A vastly entertaining tale, bursting with astonishing stories and extraordinary characters ... A fascinating read' Sunday Telegraph'Brilliant ... An amazing…
story, one I hadn't heard too much about' Dan SnowIT IS THE DEPTHS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR.The Germans like to boast that there is 'no escape' from the infamous fortress that is Colditz.The elite British officers imprisoned there are determined to prove the Nazis wrong and get back into the war.As the war heats up and the stakes are raised, the Gestapo plant a double-agent inside the prison in a bid to uncover the secrets of the British prisoners. Captain Julius Green of the Army Dental Corps and Sergeant John 'Busty' Brown must risk their lives in a bid to save the lives of hundreds of Allied servicemen and protect the secrets of MI9.Drawn from unseen records, The Traitor of Colditz brings to light an extraordinary, never-before-told story from the Second World War, an epic tale of how MI9 took on the Nazis and exposed the traitors in their midst.Propaganda played an essential role in influencing the attitudes and policies of German National Socialism on racial purity and euthanasia,…
but little has been said on the impact of medical hygiene films. Cinematically Transmitted Disease explores these films for the first time, from their inception during the Weimar era and throughout the years to come. In this innovative volume, author Barbara Hales demonstrates how medical films as well as feature films were circulated among the German people to embed and enforce notions of scientific legitimacy for racial superiority and genetically spread “incurable” diseases, creating and maintaining an instrumental fear of degradation in the German national population.World War II Massachusetts (Military)
By James L. Parr. 2024
Over 500,000 Massachusetts residents answered the call to military duty in the Second World War, while the rest of the…
state's citizens fought the war on the home front. Everyone in the family, including pets, found creative and essential ways to contribute. Thousands worked in factories, volunteered for Civil Defense, watched for enemy aircraft, and took part in salvage collections and bond drives, all while dealing with rationing, blackouts, rumors and a host of other wartime inconveniences. And while thousands of service members left to fight overseas, the Bay State also welcomed thousands more to serve on its military bases that were such an important part of our nation's defense. Author James Parr reveals the stories of these brave and dedicated citizens--from the famous to the ordinary--as they faced wartime challenges.'A vastly entertaining tale, bursting with astonishing stories and extraordinary characters ... A fascinating read' Sunday Telegraph'Brilliant ... An amazing…
story, one I hadn't heard too much about' Dan SnowIT IS THE DEPTHS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR.The Germans like to boast that there is 'no escape' from the infamous fortress that is Colditz.The elite British officers imprisoned there are determined to prove the Nazis wrong and get back into the war.As the war heats up and the stakes are raised, the Gestapo plant a double-agent inside the prison in a bid to uncover the secrets of the British prisoners. Captain Julius Green of the Army Dental Corps and Sergeant John 'Busty' Brown must risk their lives in a bid to save the lives of hundreds of Allied servicemen and protect the secrets of MI9.Drawn from unseen records, The Traitor of Colditz brings to light an extraordinary, never-before-told story from the Second World War, an epic tale of how MI9 took on the Nazis and exposed the traitors in their midst.Valor is the magnificent story of a genuine American hero who survived the fall of the Philippines and brutal captivity…
under the Japanese, from New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton.Lieutenant William Frederick “Bill” Harris was 25 years old when captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing ordeal had just begun.Shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually set off through hostile waters to China. After 29 days of misadventures and violent storms, Harris and his crew limped into a friendly fishing village in the southern Philippines. Evading and fighting for months, he embarked on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by treacherous islanders and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama, Harris was continuously starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never surrendered. Teaching himself Japanese, he eavesdropped on the guards and created secret codes to communicate with fellow prisoners. After liberation on August 30, 1945, Bill represented American Marine POWs during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before joining his father and flying to a home he had not seen in four years.Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military documents, personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by his daughter, Harris’ experiences are dramatically revealed through his own words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired fighter pilot Dan Hampton. This is the stunning and captivating true story of an American hero.Stalin’s Failed Alliance: The Struggle for Collective Security, 1936–1939
By Michael Jabara Carley. 2024
In the spring of 1936, the Soviet effort to build an anti-Nazi alliance was failing. Stalin continued nevertheless to support…
diplomatic efforts to stop Nazi aggression in Europe. In Stalin’s Failed Alliance, the sequel to Stalin’s Gamble, Michael Jabara Carley continues his re-evaluation of European diplomacy during the critical events between May 1936 and August 1939. This narrative history examines the great crises of the pre-war period – the Spanish Civil War, Anschluss, and Munich accords – as well as both the last Soviet efforts to organize an anti-Nazi alliance in the spring–summer of 1939 and Moscow’s shocking volte-face, the signing of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact. Carley’s history traces the lead-up to the outbreak of war in Europe on 1 September 1939 and sheds light on the Soviet Union’s efforts to organize a defensive alliance against Nazi Germany, in effect rebuilding the anti-German Entente of the First World War. The author argues for the sincerity of Soviet overtures to the western European powers and that the non-aggression pact was a last-ditch response to the refusal of other states, especially Britain and France, to conclude an alliance with the USSR against Nazi Germany. Drawing on extensive archival research in Soviet and Western archival papers, Stalin’s Failed Alliance aims to see the European crisis of the 1930s through Soviet eyes.The Fear and the Freedom: How the Second World War Changed Us
By Keith Lowe. 2017
Bestselling historian Keith Lowe's The Fear and the Freedom looks at the astonishing innovations that sprang from WWII and how…
they changed the world.The Fear and the Freedom is Keith Lowe’s follow-up to Savage Continent. While that book painted a picture of Europe in all its horror as WWII was ending, The Fear and the Freedom looks at all that has happened since, focusing on the changes that were brought about because of WWII—simultaneously one of the most catastrophic and most innovative events in history. It killed millions and eradicated empires, creating the idea of human rights, and giving birth to the UN. It was because of the war that penicillin was first mass-produced, computers were developed, and rockets first sent to the edge of space. The war created new philosophies, new ways of living, new architecture: this was the era of Le Corbusier, Simone de Beauvoir and Chairman Mao. But amidst the waves of revolution and idealism there were also fears of globalization, a dread of the atom bomb, and an unexpressed longing for a past forever gone. All of these things and more came about as direct consequences of the war and continue to affect the world that we live in today. The Fear and the Freedom is the first book to look at all of the changes brought about because of WWII. Based on research from five continents, Keith Lowe’s The Fear and the Freedom tells the very human story of how the war not only transformed our world but also changed the very way we think about ourselves.Bradley (Great Generals Series)
By Alan Axelrod. 2009
Alan Axelrod applies his signature insight and compelling prose to the life, strategy and legacy of the general Bradley who…
remains the model for all commanders today as the man who revolutionized the National Guard, shaped the US army's focus on the individual soldier, and emphasized cooperation and coordination among the military services--a cornerstone of modern U.S. military doctrine.Dubbed by the World War II press as "The GI General" because of his close identification with his men, Omar Bradley rose to command the U. S. 12th Army Group in the European Campaign. By the spring of 1945, this group contained 1,300,000 men--the largest exclusively American field command in U.S. history. Mild mannered, General Bradley was a dedicated mentor, the creator of the Officer Candidate School system, and a methodical tactician who served through World War II. Then, as a five-star general, he lifted the Veterans Administration from corruption and inefficiency to a model government agency, served as U.S. Army chief of staff, first chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and head of NATO.