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The Daughters of Izdihar (The Alamaxa Duology #1)
by Hadeer ElsbaiFrom debut author Hadeer Elsbai comes the first book in an incredibly powerful new duology, set wholly in a new world, but inspired by modern Egyptian history, about two young women—Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing—who find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magicAs a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she’s limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go—crushed under her father’s gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into a wealthy merchant family. Her new spouse, Nico, is indifferent and distant and in love with another woman, a bookseller named Giorgina.Giorgina has her own secret, however: she is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. She has no money and no prospects. Her only solace comes from her activities with the Daughters of Izdihar, a radical women’s rights group at the forefront of a movement with a simple goal: to attain recognition for women to have a say in their own lives. They live very different lives and come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think. The cause—and Nico—brings them into each other’s orbit, drawn in by the group’s enigmatic leader, Malak Mamdouh, and the urge to do what is right.But their problems may seem small in the broader context of their world, as tensions are rising with a neighboring nation that desires an end to weaving and weavers. As Nehal and Giorgina fight for their rights, the threat of war looms in the background, and the two women find themselves struggling to earn—and keep—a lasting freedom.
The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice
by Gayle Tzemach LemmonThe extraordinary story of the women who took on the Islamic State and won <P><P>In 2014, northeastern Syria might have been the last place you would expect to find a revolution centered on women's rights. But that year, an all-female militia faced off against ISIS in a little town few had ever heard of: Kobani. By then, the Islamic State had swept across vast swaths of the country, taking town after town and spreading terror as the civil war burned all around it. From that unlikely showdown in Kobani emerged a fighting force that would wage war against ISIS across northern Syria alongside the United States. In the process, these women would spread their own political vision, determined to make women's equality a reality by fighting--house by house, street by street, city by city--the men who bought and sold women. <P><P>Based on years of on-the-ground reporting, The Daughters of Kobani is the unforgettable story of the women of the Kurdish militia that improbably became part of the world's best hope for stopping ISIS in Syria. Drawing from hundreds of hours of interviews, bestselling author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon introduces us to the women fighting on the front lines, determined to not only extinguish the terror of ISIS but also prove that women could lead in war and must enjoy equal rights come the peace. In helping to cement the territorial defeat of ISIS, whose savagery toward women astounded the world, these women played a central role in neutralizing the threat the group posed worldwide. In the process they earned the respect--and significant military support--of U.S. Special Operations Forces.Rigorously reported and powerfully told, The Daughters of Kobani shines a light on a group of women intent on not only defeating the Islamic State on the battlefield but also changing women's lives in their corner of the Middle East and beyond. <p><p><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Daughters of Mars
by Thomas KeneallyIn 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's dairy farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Used to tending the sick as they are, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first in the Dardanelles, then on the Western Front. Yet they find courage in the face of extreme danger and become the friends they never were before. And eventually they meet the kind of men worth giving up their precious independence for - if only they all survive.At once epic in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars brings the First World War to vivid life from an unusual perspective. Profoundly moving, it pays tribute to the men and women who voluntarily risked their lives for peace.
The Daughters of Mars: A Novel
by Thomas KeneallyIn 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's dairy farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Used to tending the sick as they are, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first in the Dardanelles, then on the Western Front. Yet they find courage in the face of extreme danger and become the friends they never were before. And eventually they meet the kind of men worth giving up their precious independence for - if only they all survive.At once epic in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars brings the First World War to vivid life from an unusual perspective. Profoundly moving, it pays tribute to the men and women who voluntarily risked their lives for peace.
The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War
by Catherine Grace KatzThe untold story of the three intelligent and glamorous young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and of the conference&’s fateful reverberations in the waning days of World War II. Tensions during the Yalta Conference in February 1945 threatened to tear apart the wartime alliance among Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin just as victory was close at hand. Catherine Grace Katz uncovers the dramatic story of the three young women who were chosen by their fathers to travel with them to Yalta, each bound by fierce family loyalty, political savvy, and intertwined romances that powerfully colored these crucial days. Kathleen Harriman was a champion skier, war correspondent, and daughter of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman. Sarah Churchill, an actress-turned-RAF officer, was devoted to her brilliant father, who depended on her astute political mind. Roosevelt&’s only daughter, Anna, chosen instead of her mother Eleanor to accompany the president to Yalta, arrived there as keeper of her father&’s most damaging secrets. Situated in the political maelstrom that marked the transition to a post- war world, The Daughters of Yalta is a remarkable story of fathers and daughters whose relationships were tested and strengthened by the history they witnessed and the future they crafted together.
The Dauntless Dive Bomber of World War Two
by Barrett TillmanPopularly known as the Douglas Dauntless, the U.S. Navy's SBD dive bomber was well named. Though considered obsolete at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dauntless turned the tide of war in the Pacific with the destruction of four Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway, making its mark in aviation history for sinking more enemy carriers than any other aircraft. Still in service at war's end, the Dauntless was the only U.S. carrier aircraft in operation from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. The Dauntless was the only American Navy aircraft to fly in al five of the naval engagements fought exclusively by aircraft carriers and was credited with sinking the first Japanese fleet submarine and dropping the first bombs on Japanese-occupied soil during the war. The SBD was also active in the Atlantic, sinking Vichy French shipping at Casablanca and German vessels in Scandinavian waters. In between his authoritative accounts of these missions, Barrett Tillman tells the rousing story of the men who took the "slow but deadly" Dauntless into combat, loving her for her ruggedness and dependability while wishing for more speed and firepower. Among the people he describes is the pilot who nearly single-handedly knocked out a Japanese carrier and died in the process, and SBD squadron that flew unexpectedly into the Pearl Harbor attack. Filled with fascinating photographs, this book was widely acclaimed in 1976 when first published and is now available for the first time in paperback.
The Dauntless in Battle
by Peter C. SmithThe Douglas SBD Dauntless, a monoplane dive-bomber designed by Ed Heinemann for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps, arrived in service in the months just preceding America&’s entry into World War II. The first such aircraft were being shipped out to the USMC units just as the Japanese Task Force arrived in position to launch their attack on Pearl Harbor, while those Dauntless embarked aboard the American aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet became among the very first casualties of that surprise attack. Very quickly the Dauntless established herself as a highly accurate naval bomber at sea. However, when the Army Air Force adopted the type (as the Banshee) they lacked the Navy&’s expertise at this method of attack and the hastily-deployed units that tried to stem the tide of enemy victory in the Dutch East Indies were overwhelmed and took heavy losses, which gave the USAAC the excuse to abandon the type. The US Navy and Marine flyers fared quite differently. In the early raids on Japanese-held islands - and in 1942 at the naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, Eastern Solomons and elsewhere - she proved herself a key and decisive instrument to first halt and then turn the die against Japanese expansion. The SBD (nicknamed &‘Slow But Deadly&’) fought ashore the bitter fighting a Guadalcanal and the subsequent Solomon Island campaigns working from both shore and carrier bases. The Royal New Zealand Air Force also formed a squadron with this aircraft that fought at Bougainville with distinction. The Dauntless continued to fight a sea until right up to 1944 and then carried on with the Marine Corps to provide the American Army with close air support in their conquest of the Philippines. The Dauntless also served with the French Air Force and Navy in North Africa, Europe and, post-war, in Vietnam. This is her story.
The Dawn Prayer: A Memoir
by Matthew Schrier"What is your name?" asked General Mohammad. "Matthew," I said. I had stopped saying Matt a while ago because it means &‘dead' in Arabic. On New Year's Eve in 2012, Matthew Schrier was headed home from Syria, where he'd been photographing the intense combat of the country's civil war. Just 45 minutes from the safety of the Turkish border, he was taken prisoner by the al Nusra Front—an organization the world would come to know as the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. Over the next seven months he would endure torture and near starvation in six brutal terrorist prisons. He'd face a daily struggle just to survive. And, eventually, he'd escape. In this gripping, raw, and surprisingly funny memoir, Schrier details the horrifying and frequently surreal experience of being a slight, wisecracking Jewish guy held captive by the world's most violent Islamic extremists. Managing to keep his heritage a secret, Schrier used humor to develop relationships with his captors—and to keep himself sane during the long months of captivity. The Dawn Prayer (Or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison): A Memoir is a tale of patriotism and unimaginable bleakness shot through with light . . . of despair and friendship, sacrifice and betrayal, in a setting of bombed-out buildings and shifting alliances. It's the story of the first Westerner to escape al Qaeda—not a battle-hardened soldier, but an ordinary New Yorker who figured out how to set his escape plan in motion from a scene in Jurassic Park. From the prisoners' fiercely competitive hacky sack games and volleyball tournaments (played using a ball made of shredded orange peels and a shoelace) to his own truly nail-biting outbreak, Matthew Schrier's story is unforgettable—and one you won't want to miss.
The Dawn of Aviation: The Pivotal Role of Sussex People and Places in the Development of Flight
by Roy Brooks Josh Spoor“This well-researched book evocatively conjures up the halcyon days of the swashbuckling amateurs who took to the skies in untested contraptions.” —Sussex Life magazineShoreham airport, founded in 1910, is the oldest airport in the UK and the oldest purpose-built commercial airport in the world. Yet aviation began in Sussex far earlier, with balloonists making landfall at Kingsfold near Horsham in 1785.The Dawn of Aviation recounts, in vivid style, the way in which successive generations of men—and women—carved out within the ancient and delightful county of Sussex, a memorable place in the history of British aviation. From balloons of the last 18th century, which were later employed by the military in 1880, to kites that could life a man into the air, to unmanned gliders, to the powered, controlled flight made possible by internal combustion engines in 1908, when Alec Ogilvie flew a Wright Brothers biplane along the coast at Camber, this well-researched, engaging account will appeal to aviation enthusiasts and British history buffs alike.“An enjoyable and informative account of how flying originally came to the attractive corner of the UK.” —The Aviation Historian
The Dawn of Carrier Strike: The World of Lieutenant W P Lucy DSO RN
by David HobbsA biography of a British pilot set against the backdrop of the Royal Navy&’s fight to regain control of its aviation after the First World War. The establishment of the RAF came at a cost—and it was the Royal Navy that paid the price. In 1918 it had been pre-eminent in the technology and tactics of employing aircraft at sea, but once it lost control of its own air power, it struggled to make the RAF prioritize naval interests, in the process losing ground to the rival naval air forces of Japan and the United States. This book documents that struggle through the cash-strapped 1920s and &’30s, culminating in the Navy regaining control of its aviation in 1937, but too late to properly prepare for the impending war. However, despite the lack of resources, British naval flying had made progress, especially in the advancement of carrier strike doctrine. These developments are neatly illustrated by the experiences of Lieutenant William Lucy, who was to become Britain&’s first accredited air &‘ace&’ of the war and to lead the world&’s first successful dive-bombing of a major warship. Making extensive use of the family archive, this book also reproduces many previously unseen photographs from Lucy&’s album, showing many aspects of life in the Fleet Air Arm up to the end of the Norway campaign. The inter-war concentration on carrier strike would be spectacularly vindicated during World War II—and it was the Royal Navy that had led the way.
The Dawn of Christianity: How God Used Simple Fishermen, Soldiers, and Prostitutes to Transform the World
by Robert J. HutchinsonDrawing upon the most recent discoveries and scholarship in archaeology and the first-century Near East, The Dawn of Christianity reveals how a beleaguered group of followers of a crucified rabbi became the founders of a world-changing faith.How did Christianity truly come to be? Where did this worldwide faith come from? The Dawn of Christianity tells the story of how the first followers of Jesus survived the terror and despair of witnessing the one they knew to be the messiah—God&’s agent for the salvation of the world—suddenly arrested, tried, and executed. Soon after Jesus&’ death, his relatives and closest followers began hearing reports that Jesus was alive again—reports that even his most loyal disciples at first refused to believe. Using the most recent studies by top Christian and secular scholars, Robert Hutchinson, known for his popular books on Christianity and Biblical Studies, reconstructs all of the known accounts of these early resurrection appearances and follows the witnesses to the resurrection as they experience brutal persecution at the hands of zealots such as Saul of Tarsus and then become committed evangelists to the major population centers in Antioch, Damascus, Rome, and Athens—and ultimately across the world. A riveting thriller of the most improbable history-changing movement imaginable, The Dawn of Christianity brings to life the compelling story of the birth of Christianity.
The Dawn of Guerrilla Warfare: Why the Tactics of Insurgents against Napoleon Failed in the US Mexican War
by Benjamin J. SwensonHistoriographically groundbreaking transnational history of the Mexican-American War. While one military empire in Europe lay in ruins, another awakened in North America. During the Peninsular War (1808-1814) the Spanish launched an unprecedented guerrilla insurgency undermining Napoleon’s grip on that state and ultimately hastening the destruction of the French Army in Europe. The advent of this novel “system” of warfare ushered in an era of military studies on the use of unconventional strategies in military campaigns and changed the modern rules of war. A generation later during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Winfield Scott and Henry Halleck used the knowledge from the Peninsular War to implement an innovative counterinsurgency program designed to conciliate Mexicans living in areas controlled by the U.S. Army, which set the standard informing a growing international consensus on the proper conduct for occupation. In this first transnational history of the Mexican-American War, historian Benjamin J. Swenson chronicles the emergence of guerrilla warfare in the Atlantic World. He demonstrates how the Napoleonic War in Spain informed the U.S. Army’s 1847 campaign in the heart of Mexico, romantic perceptions of the war among both Americans and Mexicans, the disparate resistance to invasion and occupation, foreign influence on the war from monarchists intent on bringing Mexico back into the European orbit, and the danger of disastrous imperial overreach exemplified by the French in Spain.
The Dawn of Liberation (Winston S. Churchill War Speeches #5)
by Winston S. ChurchillThis fifth volume of wartime speeches and broadcasts from the Nobel Prize–winning prime minister brings the close of WWII to electrifying life. Legendary politician and military strategist Winston S. Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items, and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role on the world stage. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for &“his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.&” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his skilled writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs. This fifth and final volume in the series of the great orator&’s wartime speeches, broadcasts, public messages, and other communications take readers through the momentous final events of World War II, culminating in Allied victory. Passionate, inspiring, informative, and amusing, no fan of WWII military history should be without this comprehensive, fascinating series.
The Dawn's Early Light: The War of 1812 and the Battle That Inspired Francis Scott Key to Write "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Ser.)
by Walter LordLord's stunning account of the War of 1812, when a young nation won its independence once and for allAt the dawn of the nineteenth century, the great powers of Western Europe treated the United States like a disobedient child. Great Britain blocked American trade, seized its vessels, and impressed its sailors to serve in the Royal Navy. America's complaints were ignored, and the humiliation continued until James Madison, the country's fourth president, declared a second war on Great Britain. British forces descended on the United States, shattering its armies and burning its capital, but America rallied, and survived the conflict with its sovereignty intact. This is the story of the turning points of that strange war, which inspired the writing of "The Star Spangled Banner" and led to the Era of Good Feeling that all but erased partisan politics in America for almost a decade. It was in 1812 that America found its identity, and first assumed its place on the world stage.
The Day After He Left for Iraq: A Story of Love, Family, and Reunion
by Melissa SeligmanThe emotional true story of a family separated by war. We feel for the men and women who are risking their lives at war, but what of the families they've left behind? In gorgeous prose, a military wife describes a year in her family's life-a year in which her husband leaves for war and returns, and prepares again to leave. Melissa Seligman's son is a newborn, and her daughter, a toddler, when her husband ships out to Iraq. Starting with that day, and focusing on the months that follow, she movingly describes the balancing act her life has become: being a loving mother to her young children, with the haunting knowledge that her husband, their father, could be killed at any time. Seligman doesn't hesitate to express her inner pain. She watches her daughter acting out in fury. Then there's her own anger. Ultimately, though, she comes to accept her life and appreciate the strength and determination of her loving children and husband. It's a book to read in one sitting, and to think about for years.
The Day After: Why America Wins the War but Loses the Peace
by Brendan R. GallagherSince 9/11, why have we won smashing battlefield victories only to botch nearly everything that comes next? In the opening phases of war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, we mopped the floor with our enemies. But in short order, things went horribly wrong.We soon discovered we had no coherent plan to manage the "day after." The ensuing debacles had truly staggering consequences—many thousands of lives lost, trillions of dollars squandered, and the apparent discrediting of our foreign policy establishment. This helped set the stage for an extraordinary historical moment in which America's role in the world, along with our commitment to democracy at home and abroad, have become subject to growing doubt. With the benefit of hindsight, can we discern what went wrong? Why have we had such great difficulty planning for the aftermath of war?In The Day After, Brendan Gallagher—an Army lieutenant colonel with multiple combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, and a Princeton Ph.D.—seeks to tackle this vital question. Gallagher argues there is a tension between our desire to create a new democracy and our competing desire to pull out as soon as possible. Our leaders often strive to accomplish both to keep everyone happy. But by avoiding the tough underlying decisions, it fosters an incoherent strategy. This makes chaos more likely.The Day After draws on new interviews with dozens of civilian and military officials, ranging from US cabinet secretaries to four-star generals. It also sheds light on how, in Kosovo, we lowered our postwar aims to quietly achieve a surprising partial success. Striking at the heart of what went wrong in our recent wars, and what we should do about it, Gallagher asks whether we will learn from our mistakes, or provoke even more disasters? Human lives, money, elections, and America's place in the world may hinge on the answer.
The Day Before Midnight
by Stephen Hunter“A breathtaking, fascinating look at what could happen—given the possibility of an atomic ‘given.’ A wrap-up you'll never forget.”—Robert Ludlum The countdown begins when welder Jack Hummel is abducted from his suburban Maryland home and whisked to the South Mountain MX missile site—a top-secret nuclear complex now taken over by paramilitary terrorists. All that stands between the Uzi-armed commandos and the launch button is a half-ton titanium block. They want Jack Hummel to cut through it—so they can unleash a devastatingly brilliant plot that threatens global disaster. Now a Delta Force veteran and a think-tank defense wizard must get inside South Mountain—by defeating their own super-security systems and a darkly ingenious enemy leader… while Jack Hummel's torch burns closer and closer to the launch key… while the clock ticks closer to midnight—and Armageddon.
The Day Lincoln Lost
by Charles RosenbergAn inventive historical thriller that reimagines the tumultuous presidential election of 1860, capturing the people desperately trying to hold the nation together—and those trying to crack it apart.Abby Kelley Foster arrived in Springfield, Illinois, with the fate of the nation on her mind. Her fame as an abolitionist speaker had spread west and she knew that her first speech in the city would make headlines. One of the residents reading those headlines would be none other than the likely next president of the United States.Abraham Lincoln, lawyer and presidential candidate, knew his chances of winning were good. All he had to do was stay above the fray of the slavery debate and appear the voice of reason until the people cast their votes. The last thing he needed was a fiery abolitionist appearing in town. When her speech sparks violence, leading to her arrest and a high-profile trial, he suspects that his political rivals have conspired against him.President James Buchanan is one such rival. As his term ends and his political power crumbles, he gathers his advisers at the White House to make one last move that might derail Lincoln’s campaign, steal the election and throw America into chaos.A fascinating historical novel and fast-paced political thriller of a nation on the cusp of civil war, The Day Lincoln Lost offers an unexpected window into one of the most consequential elections in our country’s history.
The Day My Grandfather Was a Hero
by Paulus Hochgatterer"This is a beautiful book, a masterpiece of brevity and depth" New European"This tense novella builds to a final reckoning" The TimesIn October 1944, a thirteen-year-old girl arrives in a tiny farming community in Lower Austria, at some distance from the main theatre of war. She remembers very little about how she got there, it seems she has suffered trauma from bombardment. One night a few months later, a young, emaciated Russian appears, a deserter from forced labour in the east. He has nothing with him but a canvas roll, which he guards like a hawk. Their burgeoning friendship is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of a group of Wehrmacht soldiers in retreat, who commandeer the farm.Paulus Hochgatterer's intensely atmospheric, resonant novel is like a painting in itself, a beautiful observation of small shifts from apathy in a community not directly affected by the war, but exhausted by it nonetheless; individual acts of moral bravery which to some extent have the power to change the course of history.Longlisted for the Austrian Book Prize 2017, this subtle, evocative novella will appeal to readers of Hubert Mingarelli's A MEAL IN WINTER and Jenny Erpenbeck's THE END OF DAYS. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
The Day My Grandfather Was a Hero
by Paulus Hochgatterer"This is a beautiful book, a masterpiece of brevity and depth" New European"This tense novella builds to a final reckoning" The TimesIn October 1944, a thirteen-year-old girl arrives in a tiny farming community in Lower Austria, at some distance from the main theatre of war. She remembers very little about how she got there, it seems she has suffered trauma from bombardment. One night a few months later, a young, emaciated Russian appears, a deserter from forced labour in the east. He has nothing with him but a canvas roll, which he guards like a hawk. Their burgeoning friendship is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of a group of Wehrmacht soldiers in retreat, who commandeer the farm.Paulus Hochgatterer's intensely atmospheric, resonant novel is like a painting in itself, a beautiful observation of small shifts from apathy in a community not directly affected by the war, but exhausted by it nonetheless; individual acts of moral bravery which to some extent have the power to change the course of history.Longlisted for the Austrian Book Prize 2017, this subtle, evocative novella will appeal to readers of Hubert Mingarelli's A MEAL IN WINTER and Jenny Erpenbeck's THE END OF DAYS. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
The Day Peace Broke Out: The VE-Day Experience
by Mike BrownAt 3 p.m. on 8 May 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a long-awaited speech in which he officially declared the war in Europe to be over. After six bitter years of conflict, however, perceptions of how victory over Nazism was to be celebrated and what post-war Britain should look like were very different from the visions of the people and the politicians in 1939. Illustrated with photographs, adverts, posters and cartoons, The Day the Peace Broke Out describes the VE-Day celebrations in Britain and across the world through the memories of those who were there, combined with contemporary newspaper and magazine articles. Mike Brown, an authority on the British Home Front of the Second World War, charts the nation's progressive change of heart from defeatism to growing confidence of certain victory. He looks at the immediate post-VE-Day period and the celebration of victory over Japan in August 1945. What should have been a story with a happy ending concludes with the harsh realisation of post-war austerity and the increasing disillusionment that led many Britons to conclude that they had won the war but lost the peace.
The Day Rommel Was Stopped: The Battle of Ruweisat Ride, 2 July 1942
by Chris Jephson Major F. R. JephsonThe true story of a forty-eight-hour showdown and the desperate gamble that prevented the Desert Fox from reaching the Suez Canal—and beyond. Biographer Sir John Wheeler-Bennett once wrote, &“The actual turning of the tide in the Second World War may be accurately determined as the first week of July 1942.&” This book argues that the time may be even more exact: about 2100 hours on July 2, 1942, when Erwin Rommel&’s tanks withdrew for the first time since the fall of Tobruk on June 20, or, arguably, January 14 at El Agheila. At dusk the day before, Rommel had broken through the center of the British defenses at El Alamein. His tanks had overwhelmed the gallant defense of the 18th Indian Infantry Brigade in Deir el Shein at the foot of the Ruweisat Ridge. At that moment, and for the next twelve hours, there was no further organized defense between the spearhead of the Afrika Korps and Alexandria. Throughout the next day, only a handful of men and guns stood between Rommel and his prize. In Cairo, black clouds of smoke from burning files showed that many people believed Rommel would not stop short of the Suez Canal, his stated objective. But on July 3, Rommel called off his attack and ordered his troops to dig in where they stood. The Delta was saved. Just a few weeks earlier, the 18th Indian Infantry Brigade, which took the brunt of the initial attack, and the guns of the small column known as Robcol that stopped Rommel, had been in northern Iraq. Gen. Auchinleck&’s desperate measure, pulling them 1,500 miles from Iraq into the western desert, succeeded—but if Robcol had failed, it is doubtful that Rommel would have stopped at the canal; it does not require much imagination to see his forces threatening to link up with Barbarossa in the Ukraine. This vivid account of the battle of Ruweisat Ridge, the beginning of the battle of Alamein, was written by an officer who was part of Robcol on that fateful day.
The Day Trip
by Stephen W. Cheshire<p>Just when a teenager thinks his life can’t get any better, an alien invasion throws a wrench in the works. And he needed a parent’s signature for this?<p> <p>Girls, guns, and of course some very good friends. Bradley Harrison is your everyday teenager and can’t ask for much more out of high school life. He spends his senior year looking forward to college, scoping out good-looking women, and blowing off steam at the local gun range.<p> <p>However, a trip to the Big Apple is going to change his life forever. An alien species called the Armazoids, way ahead of our time, lands in New York the night before and starts an invasion. Bradley has to guide a small group of people through an infected city.<p> <p>But what happens when the girl he loves, her best friend, another pupil he hates, plus the teacher he despises are kidnapped by the invaders? How does he get them back to Earth? Can he help prevent another invasion in the near future?<p> <p>Find out in . . . The Day Trip. Just when a teenager thinks his life can’t get any better, an alien invasion throws a wrench in the works. And he needed a parent’s signature for this?<p> <p>Girls, guns, and of course some very good friends. Bradley Harrison is your everyday teenager and can’t ask for much more out of high school life. He spends his senior year looking forward to college, scoping out good-looking women, and blowing off steam at the local gun range.<p> <p>However, a trip to the Big Apple is going to change his life forever. An alien species called the Armazoids, way ahead of our time, lands in New York the night before and starts an invasion. Bradley has to guide a small group of people through an infected city.<p> <p>But what happens when the girl he loves, her best friend, another pupil he hates, plus the teacher he despises are kidnapped by the invaders? How does he get them back to Earth? Can he help prevent another invasion in the near future?<p> <p>Find out in . . . The Day Trip.<p>
The Day We Lost The H-bomb: Cold War, Hot Nukes, and the Worst Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History
by Barbara MoranInThe Day We Lost the H-Bomb, science writer Barbara Moran marshals a wealth of new information and recently declassified material to give the definitive account of the Cold War’s biggest nuclear weapons disaster. On January 17, 1966, a U. S. Air Force B-52 bomber exploded over the sleepy Spanish farming village of Palomares during a routine airborne refueling. The explosion killed seven airmen and scattered the bomber’s payload–four unarmed thermonuclear bombs–across miles of coastline. Three of the rogue H-bombs were recovered quickly. Tracking down the fourth required the largest search-and-salvage operation in U. S. military history. Moran traces the roots of the Palomares incident, giving a brief yet in-depth history of the Strategic Air Command and its eccentric, larger-than-life commander, General Curtis LeMay, whose massive deterrence strategy kept armed U. S. bombers aloft at all times. Back on the ground, Moran recounts the myriad social and environmental effects of an accident that spread radioactive debris over hundreds of acres of Spanish farmland, alarmed America’s strategic allies, and damaged Spanish-American diplomatic relations. As the American military floundered in its attempt to keep the story secret, the events in Spain sometimes took on farcical overtones. Constant global media hype was fueled by the hit James Bond movie Thunderball, with its plot about an atomic weapon lost at sea. In addition, there were the unwanted attentions of a rusty- hulled Soviet surveillance ship and even awkward public relations stunts, complete with American diplomats in swim trunks. The Day We Lost the H-Bombis a singular work of military history that effortlessly and dramatically captures Cold War hysteria, high-stakes negotiations, and the race to clean up a disaster of unprecedented scope. At once epic and intimate, this book recounts in stunning detail the fragile peace Americans had made with nuclear weapons–and how the specter of imminent doom forced the United States to consider not only what had happened over Palomares but what could have happened. This forgotten chapter of Cold War history will grip readers with the tension of that time and reawaken the fears and hopes of that dangerous era. From the Hardcover edition.
The Day We Went to War
by Terry Charman11:15 am, 3 September 1939. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain confirms the nation's fears by announcing that Britain is at war with Germany. Outbreak is the definitive history of the build-up to, outbreak and first few months of the Second World War. Drawing on the Imperial War Museum's extensive archives, this book features the personal stories of real men and women who lived through the startling events of that year, as well as those who were actively involved in the political negotiations and their aftermath. Featuring numerous photographs and the voices of key players, as well as contributions from well-known figures who were directly affected by the build up to war, Outbreak is a gripping record of an extraordinary year in British history.