The Last War
The Last War

Author: Sandipan Deb

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2012-12-19

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1447242432

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The Greatest Story Ever Told...Again Bombay 1955. Aging Parsi businessman Rustom Pestonjee chances upon brilliant archer Yash Kuru at the Gateway of India. Struggling to make ends meet to feed his two nephews and adopted son, Yash accepts Pestonjee’s offer to become a hitman for one night, the start of a unique relationship. When Pestonjee dies, Yash pledges to be regent of his mentor’s empire of crime, and hand it over one day to the most deserving man from a yet-unborn generation of Kurus. Yash’s august ‘dharma’ will now determine the destinies of three generations of Kuru men and women. Mumbai 2007. A family torn asunder and an empire up for grabs. Yash’s grand-nephews battle it out for control of the city’s underworld, as Rishabh, Vikram and Jeet try to reclaim what Rahul and Ranjit had seized from them through deceit. Can the wily Kishenbhai’s strategy defeat Karl Fernandes’ deadly warcraft? Will pitiless Jahn get the revenge she yearns for? Who will own Mumbai? A modern-day version of The Mahabharata, The Last War is a page-turning account of brothers in arms and families at war. In the gritty expanse of India’s most dynamic city, from its ritzy high-rises to its mean streets and slums, loyalties are tested, blood is drawn and only ‘dharma’ can justify the means to a devastating end.

Six Months in 1945
Six Months in 1945

Author: Michael Dobbs

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2012-10-16

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 0307960897

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When Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met in Yalta in February 1945, Hitler’s armies were on the run, and victory was imminent. The Big Three wanted to draft a blueprint for a lasting peace—but instead they set the stage for a forty-four year division of Europe into Soviet and Western spheres of influence. After fighting side by side for nearly four years, their political alliance was beginning to fracture. Although the most dramatic Cold War confrontations such as the Berlin airlift were still to come, a new struggle for global hegemony had got underway by August 1945 when Truman used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Six Months in 1945 brilliantly captures this momentous historical turning point while illuminating the aims and personalities of larger-than-life political giants.

Lost in Shangri-La
Lost in Shangri-La

Author: Mitchell Zuckoff

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-04-26

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0062087142

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“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew—what an utterly compelling and deeplysatisfying read!" —Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoffunleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War IIrescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S.military personnel into a land that time forgot. Fans of Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor, and David Grann’s The Lost Cityof Z will be captivated by Zuckoff’s masterfullyrecounted, all-true story of danger, daring, determination, and discovery injungle-clad New Guinea during the final days of WWII.

The OSS and Ho Chi Minh
The OSS and Ho Chi Minh

Author: Dixee Bartholomew-Feis

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2006-05-12

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0700616527

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Some will be shocked to find out that the United States and Ho Chi Minh, our nemesis for much of the Vietnam War, were once allies. Indeed, during the last year of World War II, American spies in Indochina found themselves working closely with Ho Chi Minh and other anti-colonial factions-compelled by circumstances to fight together against the Japanese. Dixee Bartholomew-Feis reveals how this relationship emerged and operated and how it impacted Vietnam's struggle for independence. The men of General William Donovan's newly-formed Office of Strategic Services closely collaborated with communist groups in both Europe and Asia against the Axis enemies. In Vietnam, this meant that OSS officers worked with Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, whose ultimate aim was to rid the region of all imperialist powers, not just the Japanese. Ho, for his part, did whatever he could to encourage the OSS's negative view of the French, who were desperate to regain their colony. Revealing details not previously known about their covert operations, Bartholomew-Feis chronicles the exploits of these allies as they developed their network of informants, sabotaged the Japanese occupation's infrastructure, conducted guerrilla operations, and searched for downed American fliers and Allied POWs. Although the OSS did not bring Ho Chi Minh to power, Bartholomew-Feis shows that its apparent support for the Viet Minh played a significant symbolic role in helping them fill the power vacuum left in the wake of Japan's surrender. Her study also hints that, had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and their quest for independence, rather than caving in to the French, we might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam. Based partly on interviews with surviving OSS agents who served in Vietnam, Bartholomew-Feis's engaging narrative and compelling insights speak to the yearnings of an oppressed people-and remind us that history does indeed make strange bedfellows.

Last War of the Superfortresses
Last War of the Superfortresses

Author: Leonid Krylov

Publisher: Helion and Company

Published: 2024-07-12

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1804516414

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In Last War of the Superfortresses the authors provide a detailed history of the confrontation between Soviet fighters and the United States Far East Air Force’s B-29 ‘Superfortress’ bombers during the Korean War of 1950–1953, drawing on Military documents in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation in Podolsk as well as published Western sources. The recollections of pilots who served in the 64th Fighter Air Corps, and who participated personally in the events described, are also widely used. Almost all the battles that took place between Soviet fighters and the ‘Superfortresses’ are analyzed in detail and the authors have, on the basis of a comparison of Soviet archive documents and data from published Western sources, attempted to clarify the actual losses on both sides in these battles. Particular attention has been paid to key events in the history of the confrontation between the MiG-15 and B-29 such as the air battles of April and October 1951, which had a significant impact on the course of the Korean War and influenced the development of military aviation in both the USSR and the USA. Extensive losses in combat with the MiGs served as one of the most influential arguments for curtailing the piston engine B-36 and B-50 bomber programs and boosting development of one of the most famous aircraft in the history of global aviation – the B-52 ‘Stratofortress.’ The authors analyze the advantages and the disadvantages of the La-11 and the MiG-15bis – the principal fighters of the 64th Fighter Air Corps – from the point of view of their ability to intercept the B-29s. Attention has been paid to the tactics of the opposing sides, and to how these changed over the course of the war, along with the technical aspects of the confrontation between Soviet fighters and ‘Superfortresses’. Last War of the Superfortresses is illustrated with photographs from the personal archives of veterans of the 64th Fighter Air Corps, the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, and the US National Archives. An extended color profile section showing camouflage and markings of nearly 40 aircraft is also included. “If you are interested in the conflict in Korea or just fancy something different, this book will not disappoint. It is an education, and it comes with all the style we have come to expect from this publisher. Recommended.” War History Online "... This is a book loaded with statistics and excellent narrative accounts of air to air, jet to bomber and jet to jet arrangements." Airborne Quarterly

The Last War Trial
The Last War Trial

Author: Edward Sylvester Ellis

Publisher: University of Arkansas Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780976800781

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The adventures of Fred Linden, Terry Clark, and their friend Deerfoot continue in this third and final volume of the Deerfoot Series, set at the close of the eighteenth century in the southwestern part of the present state of Missouri.

Rescue Board
Rescue Board

Author: Rebecca Erbelding

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2019-03-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0525433740

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Featured historian in the Ken Burns documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust on PBS • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • In this remarkable work of historical reclamation, Holocaust historian Rebecca Erbelding pieces together years of research and newly uncovered archival materials to tell the dramatic story of America’s little-known efforts to save the Jews of Europe. “An invaluable addition to the literature of the Holocaust.” —Andrew Nagorski, author of The Nazi Hunters and Hitlerland “Brilliantly brings to life the gripping, little-known story of [a] transformative moment in American history and the crusading young government lawyers who made it happen.” —Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Last Hope Island For more than a decade, a harsh Congressional immigration policy kept most Jewish refugees out of America, even as Hitler and the Nazis closed in. In 1944, the United States finally acted. That year, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board, and put a young Treasury lawyer named John Pehle in charge. Over the next twenty months, Pehle pulled together a team of D.C. pencil pushers, international relief workers, smugglers, diplomats, millionaires, and rabble-rousers to run operations across four continents and a dozen countries. Together, they tricked the Nazis, forged identity papers, maneuvered food and medicine into concentration camps, recruited spies, leaked news stories, laundered money, negotiated ransoms, and funneled millions of dollars into Europe. They bought weapons for the French Resistance and sliced red tape to allow Jewish refugees to escape to Palestine. “A landmark achievement, Rescue Board is the first history of the War Refugee Board. Meticulously researched and poignantly narrated, Rescue Board analyzes policies and practices while never losing sight of the human beings involved: the officials who sought to help and the victims in desperate need. Top-notch history: original and riveting.” —Debórah Dwork, founding director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University, and coauthor of Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933–1946