Showing titles in World War II

Here, in his own words, is the true story of America's wildest flying hero, of his extraordinary heroism, and of his greatest battle of all-the fight to survive. The World War II air war in the Pacific needed tough men like Colonel Pappy Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron. The legendary Marine Corps officer and his bunch of misfits, outcasts, and daredevils gave a new definition to "hell-raising" - on the ground and in the skies.

Bernard Montgomery, “the Spartan General”, was one of the giants of World War II. He was a field marshal, as well as an entirely powerful personality, who shaped much of how that aforementioned cataclysmic conflict turned out. If it weren’t for Montgomery’s steady hand in North Africa, for example, it would have been much harder for the Allies to prevail. Montgomery was born the humble son of a minister. As he matured, he grew increasingly bold and confident in his own abilities. He realized he was a natural leader of men—and others quickly came to realize it as well.

Poland suffered terribly under the Nazis. By the end of the war, six million had been killed. On 1 August 1944 Andrew Borowiec, a 15-year-old volunteer in the Resistance, lobbed a grenade from a Warsaw apartment block onto some German soldiers below – he felt he had come of age. Over that summer Andrew faced danger at every moment. Wounded the day after his 16th birthday, he was captured as he lay in a makeshift cellar hospital. Here he learned a lesson: there were decent Germans as well as bad.

Colditz Castle was Nazi Germany’s infamous ‘escape-proof’ wartime prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful Allied prisoners were sent. Despite having more guards than inmates, Australian Lieutenant Jack Champ and other prisoners tirelessly carried out their campaign to...

The remarkable true story of a Canadian paratrooper’s escape from behind enemy lines following the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. Ideal for listeners of James Holland, Anthony Beevor and Cornelius Ryan. On September 17, 1944, over 8,000 men of the British 1st Airborne Division landed in German-occupied Netherlands as part of the largest airborne invasion ever undertaken. Twenty-two-year-old Canadian paratrooper Leo Heaps was one of them.

In January 1940, navy nurse Dorothy Still eagerly anticipated her new assignment at a military hospital in the Philippines. Her first year abroad was an adventure. She dated sailors, attended dances, and watched the sparkling evening lights from her balcony. But as 1941 progressed, signs of war became imminent. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Dorothy and the other nurses braced for a direct assault. In that frantic dash, Dorothy transformed from a navy nurse to a war nurse. Along with the other women on the nursing staff, she provided compassionate, tireless, critical care.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The shocking true story of the USS Houston, FDR’s legendary lost cruiser, and the epic saga of the survivors who faced one of World War II’s most brutal ordeals—from the acclaimed author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors “Captivating [and]...

The heroic accounts of Australian Army Nursing Sisters Margaret Anderson and Vera Torney who survived the perilous evacuation of Singapore in 1942. The nursing profession is one historically filled with everyday heroes whose work often makes the difference between life and death. Yet Nursing...

Finding Hester explores the untold story of Hester Leggatt, a woman who helped trick the Nazis, and is a fascinating listen for fans of West End musical Operation Mincemeat and anyone with an interest in women’s war stories.

This is the true story of four brave women secretly sent into the darkness of Nazi-occupied France to carry out Winston Churchill’s plan to "set Europe ablaze." Caught in a web of deception surrounding the preparations for the D-Day invasion, their mission ended in betrayal and sacrifice. An engrossing history based on first-hand interviews with agents of the Special Operations Executive and revelations about the secret organization and the courageous women who served it.

Venu de l'aile gauche du nazisme, Joseph Goebbels commence sa carrière dans l'orbite de Gregor Strasser avant de se soumettre inconditionnellement à Hitler. Dès lors, son ascension épouse celle du Führer jusqu'à obtenir en 1933 le ministère de la Propagande, dont il fera l'un des piliers du IIIe Reich. Archétype du narcissique, d'un orgueil qui n'a d'égal que sa soif de pouvoir, il souffre en regard de violents accès de dépression résultant pour partie de son handicap physique.

On the morning of August 15, 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin flew the last combat mission of World War II out of Iwo Jima. Today, Captain Yellin is a sharp, engaging, 93-year-old veteran whose story is brought to life by best-selling author Don Brown.

The USS Seawolf was one of the greatest submarine raiders of all time. Having narrowly avoided the attack on Pearl Harbor the Seawolf set out for the seas of the Pacific to wreak havoc on Japanese shipping. Joseph Melvin Eckberg was on the Seawolf from her maiden voyage and remained with her until January 1943. As chief radioman he was instrumental in assisting Captain Frederick Warder to find and destroy enemy targets. From the claustrophobia of being trapped under water and the overwhelming fear of depth charges to the joys of aiding the war-effort and the camaraderie on the ship.

As a Russian recruit in World War II, Ivan Makarov witnessed General Chuikov pull out his pistol and shoot their regimental commander as a traitor. That was on his first day at the front. Thrown into an open field to face German tanks and artillery fire, with only rifles and machine guns to defend themselves with, almost 2,000 men of his regiment were wiped out in only six days at the Eastern Front. At this rate, Ivan struggled to comprehend how he would survive the hundreds of battles that lay before him, with death seeming to be the only certainty.

Summertime, 1935. On a lake near Berlin, a young man is out sailing when he glimpses a woman reclining in the prow of a passing boat. Their eyes meet - and one of history's greatest conspiracies is born. Harro Schulze-Boysen had already shed blood in the fight against Nazism by the time he and Libertas Haas-Heye began their whirlwind romance. She joined the cause, and soon the two lovers were leading a network of antifascists that stretched across Berlin's bohemian underworld.

Thomas Harding kannte seinen Großonkel Hanns Alexander als einen freundlichen Mann mit viel Familiensinn, der ein bürgerliches Leben als Bankangestellter in London geführt hatte, sich für die Synagoge engagierte und gerne Witze machte. Seine jüdische Familie stammte aus Berlin und war in den 1930er-Jahren in letzter Minute nach England ins Exil entkommen. Das wussten alle. Ansonsten wurde über den Krieg nicht gesprochen. Erst nach dem Tod von Hanns Alexander erfuhr Harding, dass er ein Nazijäger gewesen war.

This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who—in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old—joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps—a group of airmen whose mission was to sacrifice their lives by crashing planes into enemy ships. Their call sign was "ten dead, zero alive." This book offers a new perspective on these infamous suicide pilots. It is not a chronicle of war, nor is it a collection of research papers compiled by scholars. It is a transcript of Odachi's words.

From James D. Hornfischer, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers, a riveting account of the life of WWII hero Commander Ernest E. Evans and his heroics and sacrifice during the Leyte Gulf Battle of Samar. For the first time ever, acclaimed naval historian...

The dramatic story of Jagdverband 44, the squadron of aces founded by leading Luftwaffe pilot Adolf Galland equipped with the new Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Jagdverband (JV) 44 was formed as a result of conflict and dissent within the Luftwaffe’s high command. Following disagreement...

Chris Tarrant and his father Basil were very close, they played sport together, watched sport together and shared the same sense of humour. Chris loved and admired his father but it was only after his death he realised that he hardly knew him at all …Basil Avery Tarrant grew up in 1920s Reading, where the smell of beer and biscuits from the local factories filled the air. He worked as an administrator in a local factory and spent his Saturday nights down at the music halls.