The Last Battle
The Last Battle

Author: Stephen Harding

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2013-05-07

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0306822091

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The incredible story of the unlikeliest battle of World War II, when a small group of American soldiers joined forces with German soldiers to fight off fanatical SS troops May, 1945. Hitler is dead, the Third Reich is little more than smoking rubble, and no GI wants to be the last man killed in action against the Nazis. The Last Battle tells the nearly unbelievable story of the unlikeliest battle of the war, when a small group of American tankers, led by Captain Lee, joined forces with German soldiers to fight off fanatical SS troops seeking to capture Castle Itter and execute the stronghold's VIP prisoners. It is a tale of unlikely allies, startling bravery, jittery suspense, and desperate combat between implacable enemies.

Bloody Okinawa
Bloody Okinawa

Author: Joseph Wheelan

Publisher: Hachette Books

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 0306903210

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A stirring narrative of World War II's final major battle—the Pacific war's largest, bloodiest, most savagely fought campaign—the last of its kind. On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool. Waves of Japanese kamikaze and conventional warplanes sank 36 warships, damaged 368 others, and killed nearly 5,000 US seamen. When the slugfest ended after 82 days, more than 125,000 enemy soldiers lay dead—along with 7,500 US ground troops. Tragically, more than 100,000 Okinawa civilians perished while trapped between the armies. The brutal campaign persuaded US leaders to drop the atomic bomb instead of invading Japan. Utilizing accounts by US combatants and Japanese sources, author Joseph Wheelan endows this riveting story of the war's last great battle with a compelling human dimension.

The Last Men in the Last Battles of World War Ii
The Last Men in the Last Battles of World War Ii

Author: Joe B. Keys

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Published: 2020-03-12

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1480887927

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Welcome to a meeting with The Last Men in the Last Battles of World War II. Travel with them as they scale enemy escarpments, attack heavily armed caves and fly in cockpits against Kamikazes, visit them on Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Peliliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and learn why Admiral Nimitz said, “Among these men uncommon valor was a common virtue.” This book presents selected stories about thousands of Army Infantry, Sailors, Pilots and Marines who fought a brutal enemy. Hear Chaplain Sydney Wood-Cahusac say of those who did not return “Immortality is not our gift to give, but we can recall them as individuals, as human beings, as friends and not just as number.” The Keys, through personal interviews with eleven of these men, their sons, or best friends, have captured stories that present them as real persons with feelings about the war, the enemy and their buddies wounded and dying nearby. Read stories of how Sergeant Major Hank Clark led others to save New Zealand and how Mustang pilot Bill Stringer downed three enemy planes, though badly wounded while sleeping in his cockpit. Some Cam Home captures stories about the men’s families, jobs, joys, and problems after returning home.

Sheer Misery
Sheer Misery

Author: Mary Louise Roberts

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-04-20

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 022675314X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The senses -- The dirty body -- The foot -- The wound -- The corpse.

The Final Storm
The Final Storm

Author: Jeff Shaara

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2012-01-10

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 0345497953

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER With the war in Europe winding down in the spring of 1945, the United States turns its vast military resources toward a furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan—the heavily fortified island of Okinawa. The three-month battle in the Pacific theater will feature some of the most vicious combat of the entire Second World War, as American troops confront an enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the shame of surrender. Meanwhile, stateside, a different kind of campaign is being waged in secret: the development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists who build it know just what they are about to unleash. Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city. As President Harry S Truman mulls his options and Japanese physician Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a clinic near Hiroshima, citizens on the home front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming.

Cross Channel Attack
Cross Channel Attack

Author: Gordon A. Harrison

Publisher: BDD Promotional Books Company

Published: 1993-12

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 9780792458562

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Discusses the Allied invasion of Normandy, with extensive details about the planning stage, called Operation Overlord, as well as the fighting on Utah and Omaha Beaches.

The Second World War
The Second World War

Author: Antony Beevor

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2012-06-05

Total Pages: 848

ISBN-13: 0316084077

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A masterful and comprehensive chronicle of World War II, by internationally bestselling historian Antony Beevor. Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of WWII. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, the Second World War. In this searing narrative that takes us from Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 to V-J day on August 14, 1945 and the war's aftermath, Beevor describes the conflict and its global reach -- one that included every major power. The result is a dramatic and breathtaking single-volume history that provides a remarkably intimate account of the war that, more than any other, still commands attention and an audience. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's grand and provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on this complex, tragic, and endlessly fascinating period in world history, and confirms once more that he is a military historian of the first rank.