Название: The Last Year of the German Army: May 1944–May 1945
Автор: Jаmеs Luсаs
Издательство: Canelo
Год: 2023
Страниц: 244
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf, epub, mobi
Размер: 10.1 MB

The year the once all-conquering German army was finally defeated. By the summer of 1944, Germany was in crisis. The Allied landings had forced another battle arena upon an army already fighting on the vast Eastern front. The July bomb plot attempt on Hitler’s life made the dictator even more paranoid and suspicious of his own military commanders. In this absorbing study, James Lucas examines the army’s changing structure and weaponry throughout this final year of war, and reveals the often surprising measures taken to confront a situation Hitler had never contemplated, and never really accepted. From D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and on to the Fall of Berlin, the author examines the last battles fought by the German army – which had by no means given up its struggle – as the Allies swept across Europe, charting the very unique experiences of a military force moving from dominance to defeat.

Название: Ten Thousand Eyes: The amazing story of the spy network that cracked Hitler’s Atlantic Wall before D-Day
Автор: Riсhаrd Соlliеr
Издательство: Canelo History
Год: 2024
Страниц: 359
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf, epub
Размер: 10.2 MB

'Without the networks of the French Resistance, the invasion would not have been possible' Major General Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. Days after France fell in June 1940, Charles de Gaulle appointed Andre Dewavrin to create, from scratch, the Free French Intelligence Service. Recruiting agents among the sailors, farmers, painters, housewives and children of Occupied France, he managed cells of spies across the country, and focused their attention on one goal: preparing for the Allied invasion of France, even at the risk of torture and death. Hitler’s fortifications along the European coastline – known as the Atlantic Wall – were their target. Gun battery locations, troop movements, and more... All this information was funnelled back to the Allies by a network of brave individuals, creating a living map that became essential to the planning of D-Day, and the selection of Normandy as the invasion point.

Название: The Rifle 2: Back to the Battlefield
Автор: Andrew Biggio
Издательство: Regnery History
Год: 2023
Страниц: 320
Язык: английский
Формат: epub (true)
Размер: 11.8 MB

In this highly anticipated follow-up to The Rifle, Andrew Biggio brings to light more untold stories from the quickly vanishing ranks of the veterans of World War II. Biggio's discovery of the astonishing effect his 1945 M1 Garand rifle had on the old warriors who held it sparked a unique personal mission to put it in the hands of as many veterans as possible and document the wartime memories it evoked. In this second volume, he recounts more unforgettable stories from the last of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who fought the most dreadful war in history. They were the Greatest Generation, but they were also ordinary men, sharing in all of humanity's weaknesses and flaws while trying to respond to the call of duty. That rifle brought out some dark and painful secrets.

Название: Cheating Hitler: Allied Airmen Who Evaded Capture in WW2
Автор: Martin W. Bowman
Издательство: Air World/Pen & Sword
Год: 2023
Страниц: 242
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub
Размер: 10.1 MB

Renowned aviation historian Martin W. Bowman provides fascinating insight into how some Allied aircrew achieved the almost impossible and evaded capture. For most, and particularly the injured and the wounded, being shot down over Occupied Europe during the Second World War meant that capture was immediate, that imprisonment was almost inevitable. For some, evasion was possible, but rarely for long. For a relative handful, however, their evasion saw them eventually reach home once again. In this fascinating insight into how some Allied aircrew achieved the almost impossible and evade capture, the renowned aviation historian Martin W. Bowman has drawn together a set of tales of just some of these individuals. They are stories that illustrate the bravery and resourcefulness that characterized their experiences. British, American, Canadian and other Allied testimonies all feature to provide an authentic sense of the times at hand and the reality of life as an evader during this tumultuous and incredibly dangerous time. The stories of some Allied airmen, faced with sudden leaps into that dangerous unknown and their subsequent attempts at evasion, are retold here, many for the first time. This series of intoxicating chapters of evasion and life under the constant threat of recapture by the Nazis goes one step further in the drama of the war fought in the skies over the Third Reich and the subjugated countries of France, Belgium and Holland, revealing the constant nagging, and very real, fear that was endured by evaders and rescuers alike.

Название: The Lucky Seven: One airman’s remarkable true wartime story of escape and evasion from German-occupied Europe, and the brave resistance fighters who delivered him to freedom
Автор: Norman W. Holden
Издательство: NWH Holdings
Год: 2023
Страниц: 380
Язык: английский
Формат: epub (true)
Размер: 10.2 MB

One airman’s remarkable true wartime story of escape and evasion from German-occupied Europe, and the brave resistance fighters who delivered him to freedom. During the early afternoon hours of April 24, 1944, Second Lieutenant James J. Goebel, Jr. finds himself floating alone toward the war-torn Belgian landscape below. What was his safe passage home, his B-24 Liberator, is now engulfed in flames and hurls to the ground only to report back with a distant thud upon the earth. Just moments earlier, the B-24 and its crew of ten were en route back to England after their inaugural bombing mission and the successful pounding of the Nazi war machine. At the hand of sheer randomness and bad luck, an enemy fighter selected their heavy bomber for retribution from the 230 B-24s dispatched earlier that morning.

Название: Stranded in the Sky: The Untold Story of Pan Am Luxury Airliners Trapped on the Day of Infamy
Автор: Philip Jett
Издательство: ?Turner Publishing
Год: 2023
Страниц: 416
Язык: английский
Формат: epub
Размер: 10.1 MB

From the author of Taking Mr. Exxon and The Death of an Heir comes the untold story of four luxury airliners trapped in the Pacific Ocean on and after the Day of Infamy. In the first week of December 1941, four Pan American Airways System (Pan Am) flying clippers—the largest and most lavish transpacific airliners in the world—took off from the North American West Coast, loaded with wealthy and affluent passengers on their way to exotic destinations. On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service executed a surprise coordinated attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Within hours, Midway Atoll, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila—all of which were refueling stops for these Pan Am flying clippers—were targeted and bombed by the same Japanese forces that had devastated Pearl Harbor.

Название: Pearl Harbor's Revenge: How the Devastated U.S. Battleships Returned to War
Автор: Rod Macdonald
Издательство: Frontline Books
Год: 2023
Страниц: 362
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 17.5 MB

Early on Sunday, 7 December 1941, Japanese carrier-borne aircraft launched a surprise attack against the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor. It was a date that President Roosevelt declared “will live in infamy”. During the strike, Japanese planes attacked the seven US battleships lined up in Battleship Row – and the flag battleship USS Pennsylvania, in drydock for overhaul. The battleship USS Arizona exploded from a bomb hit at the forward magazine killing 1,177 officers and men. On USS Oklahoma, 429 men were killed – many trapped inside as the great battleship capsized after aerial torpedo strikes. USS West Virginia, meanwhile, was hit by at least seven torpedoes and several bombs, and engulfed in flames; she settled onto the bottom on an even keel. USS California was hit by a pair of torpedoes and a bomb, flooding slowly, she too settled on the bottom. The other four battleships present were more lightly damaged, with the crippled Nevada, the only battleship to get underway during the attack, being successfully beached.

Название: Hitler's Trojan Horse: The Fall of the Abwehr, 1943–1945
Автор: Nigel West
Издательство: Frontline Books
Год: 2023
Страниц: 400
Язык: английский
Формат: epub (true)
Размер: 14.3 MB

As the Second World War progressed and defeat for Hitler’s Third Reich in all theatres became ever more certain, the tight Abwehr network, built so effectively by its head, Admiral Canaris, began to unravel. High-level defections to the Allies and bitter disputes with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) added to a collapse in morale. Most notably was the increasing opposition within the officer ranks of the Army to Hitler fermented by Canaris and his deputy Generalmajor Hans Oster. The final years of the Abwehr were marked by the Abwehr’s efforts to undermine the regime, which came to a bloody conclusion following the Valkyrie assassination attempt of 20 July 1944. This saw the arrest of many Abwehr officials and the execution of Canaris and Oster.

Название: The Oxford Handbook of World War II
Автор: G. Kurt Piehler, Jonathan Grant
Издательство: Oxford University Press
Год: 2023
Страниц: 721
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 14.4 MB

World War II left virtually no nation or corner of the world untouched, dramatically transforming human life and society. It prompted the unprecedented mobilization of whole societies and witnessed a scale of state-sanctioned violence that staggers the imagination, with more than 100 million casualties. The war resulted in an almost complete collapse of any norms geared toward avoiding the unnecessary loss of civilian life and shaped the worldview and psyches of generations. The Oxford Handbook of World War II broadens traditional narratives of the war and in the process changes our understanding of this epic conflict. Organized both chronologically and thematically and with particular attention to the pre- and post-war eras, the Handbook revises and extends existing scholarship. With chapters on the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, the land war in Western Europe, the Battle of Britain, the impact of war on the major combatants (Great Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and China), the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the decision to use the atomic bomb in 1945, and the cultural responses to the war, the chapters span much of the twentieth century.

Название: SAS Great Escapes Two: Six Untold Epic Escapes Made by World War Two Heroes
Автор: Damien Lewis
Издательство: Quercus
Год: 2023
Страниц: 246
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf, epub, mobi
Размер: 10.2 MB

SAS Great Escapes Two recounts the hitherto untold stories of six of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed by the world's most famous fighting force during WWII. From the very earliest SAS missions to the push into Nazi-occupied Europe, they cover some of the key figures in the Regiment, including its founder, David Stirling, plus other lesser-known heroes. With each story comes an edge-of-the-seat, rollercoaster ride in classic Damien Lewis fashion, as readers are plunged into the escapees' experiences - sharing their most terrifying yet inspiring moments. These stunning accounts of survival beggar belief, revealing nerve-racking bluff and deception, knife-edge encounters with enemy hunter forces hellbent on wreaking vengeance and murder, but also incredible acts of mercy and kindness from those who risk all to help the escapees on their way. Each tale of breath-taking derring-do reveals how necessity really is the mother of all invention, as with every step and at every juncture these fugitives defied fate, snatching survival and freedom from the jaws of the enemy, and all the horrors that would have followed capture.