England 1940. Amid the terrifying ruins, a brave young girl carries on through the horror unfolding all around her, as the full might of the Third Reich prepares it's assault upon her beloved island. This is the story of how an ordinary citizen was caught up in events beyond her youthful grasp. Yet she, her family, her neighbors, and her nation courageously faced these overwhelming challenges with perseverance. The moment was dark indeed, particularly for this school girl, and countless others, who watched as their homes, and nation, were systematically destroyed night and day by the ruthless foe from across the channel. Throughout these sleepless nights, Anne DeLacey carried the images of this destruction as her constant companion. Yet in spite of the carnage, she emerged steadfast from the rubble, and, with renewed vigor, lives on to tell her tale in Enemy Planes Above Us. Contact author: [email protected] Visit Author Website: www.annedelacey.com
ACES AGAINST JAPAN II The American Aces Speak Eric Hammel Leading combat historian Eric Hammel comes through again with an engrossing new collection of thirty-eight first-person accounts by American World War II fighter aces. Coupled with a clear overview of America’s far-flung air war against Japan and a clear appreciation of the burgeoning industrial might backing the American war effort, Hammel’s detailed interviews bring forth the most thrilling in-the-cockpit experiences that World War II’s fabled Army, Navy, Marine, and Flying Tiger aces have chosen to tell. Ride with 2d Lieutenant Jack Donalson as he downs three Zeros over Luzon on the second desperate day of World War II in the Philippines. Share three lonely air battles over Burma and China with Flying Tiger aces RT Smith, Dick Rossi, and Joe Rosbert. Hear the cry of victory as 2d Lieutenant Don McGee survives yet another encounter with Zeros over embattled Port Moresby, New Guinea, in his substandard P-39 Airacobra. Feel your heart beat with anxiety as an injured Ensign Ed Wendorf races against time to land his damaged Hellcat aboard the USS Lexington before he bleeds to death. And thrill to the hunt as Pearl Harbor veteran 1st Lieutenant Frank Holmes seeks personal revenge against Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto on one of history’s most important and most thrilling fighter missions. The American Aces Speak series is a highly charged five-volume excursion into life and death in the air, told by men who excelled and triumphed in aerial combat and lived to tell about it. In sum, it is an emotional rendering of what brave airmen felt and how they fought in the now-dim days of America’s living national history. These are America’s eagles, and the stories are their own, in their very own words. Critical Acclaim for The American Aces Speak Series The Book World says: “Aces Against Japan is a thunderous, personal, high-adventure book giving our ‘men in the sky’ their own voice” Book Page says: “Eric Hammel’s book is recommended reading. It is a must for any historian’s bookshelf.” The Library Journal says: “No PR hype or dry-as-dust prose here. Hammel allows his flyers to tell their stories in their own way.Exciting stuff aviation and World War II buffs will love.” The Friday Review of Defense Literature says: “Aces Against Japan is replete with individual heroism and personal feats that almost defy comprehension.A thoroughly enjoyable foray into the cockpits of World War II fighter pilots.” The Providence Sunday Journal says: “A treat that deftly blends a chronology of the Pacific War with tales that would rival a Saturday action matinee.” Infantry Magazine says: “If you would like to read one book that will give you a broad overview and yet a detailed look at what a fighter pilot’s air war was likethis is the book.” The Bookshelf says: “Hammel is one of our best military historians when it comes to presenting that often complex subject to the general public. He has demonstrated this facility in a number of fine books before [Aces Against Germany] and now he does so again. Not to be missed by either buff or scholar.”
Imagine if you will, living through World War II in England. The times were traumatic and terrifying. Now imagine that you are seeing the war Through the Eyes of a Child. Author Violet Apted describes what her life was like as a young girl in Ashford Kent in the years 1939 to 1945. Experience her perception of the events, as well as the restrictions placed on her and the effects this had on her life. British children during the war years experienced a vastly different childhood from today. They witnessed the deaths of family and friends, and faced the reality that their own lives were in constant danger. Yet the naivety and boundless innocence of a child weaves its way throughout this heartwarming story. Violet and her childhood friends were never sure if there would be a tomorrow. You will feel this young girl's fears and share her hopes, as she remembers the horrors and dangers that no child should ever have to know. Perhaps if we take Violet's story to heart we can learn from history's mistakes, and no longer will we know War, Through the Eyes of a Child. Violet Apted's mother used to say she was born with a pen in her hand. Now retired, the author lives in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. War, Through the Eyes of a Child is her fourth book. "This is the book I always planned to write." The fifth is underway.
Filling an essential gap in the understanding of warfare during World War II, author Donald E. Anderson describes life as a young enlisted man in Hawaii prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor when he had only six months left in his tour. In Combat Infantry, he provides an emotional and firsthand account of the Pearl Harbor bombing and his next four years of service as he fought disease and injury, spending time in New Caledonia and New Zealand. A member of the 35th Regiment, 25th Division, he captures in vivid detail the fighting in the jungles of Guadalcanal and later, five months of continuous combat on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Anderson describes the grueling combats and deprivations faced by army infantrymen to liberate the islands. Anderson tells of a soldier's world that was confined to muddy foxholes, a dustclouded stretch of mined road, or a rocky, fog-shrouded mountain ridge where fear and fatigue took its toll. In Combat Infantry, he pays tribute to those who were killed in action. They are not just names carved on a stone monument, but living, breathing souls who gave their lives for freedom.
This work probes the restaging, representation, and reimagining of historical violence and atrocity in contemporary Chinese fiction, film, and popular culture. It examines five historical moments including the Musha Incident (1930) and the February 28 Incident (1947).
The period between World War I and World War II was one of intense change. Everything was modernizing, including our technology for making war—witness machine guns, trench warfare, biological agents, and ultimately The Final Solution. This modernization and eye toward the future was reflected in many facets of pop culture, including fashion, home-wear design, and the popular literature of the time. In sci-fi, a specific genre emerged—that of the ‘future war.’ Fred Krome has collected many of these future war stories together for the first time in Fighting the Future War. Bolstered by a comprehensive introduction, and introduced with historical information about both the authors of the stories and the historical time period, these stories provide a view into the field of pulp science fiction writing, the issues that informed the time period between the world wars, and the way people envisioned the wars of tomorrow. Revealing anxieties about society, technology, race and politics, the genre of the future war story is important material for students of history and literature.
“A vivid and compelling account by a true master of oral history.” —General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret.), Supreme Allied Commander, Europe On February 19, 1945, nearly 70,000 American soldiers invaded a tiny volcanic island in the Pacific. Over the next thirty-five days, approximately 28,000 soldiers died, including nearly 22,000 Japanese and 6,821 Americans, making Iwo Jima one of the costliest battles of World War II. In his most important work to date, best-selling author Larry Smith lets twenty-two veterans of the conflict tell the story of this epic clash in their own words. Many of these soldiers were no more than teenagers when they answered their country’s call, and yet the men relate the momentous events of this terrible conflict as if they occurred just last year, instead of more than half a century ago. Describing the initial charge across the treacherous black ash of the landing beach under heavy fire is Chuck Lindberg, the last survivor of the two teams that planted the flags on Mount Suribachi—a moment captured forever in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph for the Associated Press. General Fred Haynes recounts his heroic attempts to keep order amid tremendous casualties on the battlefield. Woody Williams and George Wahlen, two of the battle’s twenty-six Medal of Honor recipients, tell their unbelievable stories, and Samuel Tso relates his role as one of the famous Navajo code talkers. Though the flags went up just days after the invasion, the fighting wasn’t over: through nearly eight miles of tunnels, thousands of Japanese troops defended the island despite hundred-degree heat, famine rations, and the overpowering stench of sulfur. To get both sides of the story, Smith interviewed the daughter of Captain Tsunezo Wachi, one of the most prominent Japanese survivors, and presents new evidence about the disappearance of the famed Japanese commander Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who waged a brilliant defense of the island only to allegedly commit suicide rather than submit to the Americans. Smith also investigates the controversy surrounding Rosenthal’s famous photograph of the flag raising, and he interviews bomber and fighter crewmen to hear firsthand whether they believed the terrible cost of capturing the island was truly justified by its strategic use as an emergency stop for B-29 Superfortress bombers. Through the story of Navy Cross recipient John Ripley, Smith brings the history of the island up-to-date—from its return to Japan in 1968 to the dramatic discoveries made in the caves of Iwo in the 1980s and the Japanese-American Reunion of Honor now held annually on the island. With dozens of photographs and maps, Iwo Jima is a stunning history of this emblematic battle, but it is also a personal history of the generation of soldiers, many now in their final years, who waged one of the most important wars in American history.
