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Above the Reich: Deadly Dogfights, Blistering Bombing Raids, and Other War Stories from the Greatest American Air Heroes of World War II, in Their Own Words
by Anne-Marie Lewis Colin HeatonSensational eyewitness accounts from the most heroic and legendary American aviators of World War II, never before published as a bookThey are voices lost to time. Beginning in the late 1970s, five veteran airmen sat for private interviews. Decades after the guns fell silent, they recounted in vivid detail the most dangerous missions that made the difference in the war. Ed Haydon dueled with the deadliest of German aces--and forced him to the ground. Robert Johnson racked up twenty-seven kills in his P-47 Thunderbolt, but nearly lost his life when his plane was shot to ribbons and his guns jammed. Cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay was the Air Corps general who devised the bomber tactics that pummeled Germany's war machine. Robin Olds was a West Point football hero who became one of the most dogged, aggressive fighter pilots in the European theater, relentlessly pursuing Germans in his P-38 Lightning. And Jimmy Doolittle became the most celebrated American airman of the war--maybe even of all time--after he led the audacious raid to bomb Tokyo. Today these heroes are long gone, but now, in this incredible volume, they tell their stories in their own words.
Above the Trenches: The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War
by Ian MackerseyThe 1914-18 conflict narrated through the voices of the men whose combat was in the air. <p><p> The empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young First World War airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander in chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new faces could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the squadron dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues as they drank to their memory. <p><p> Life for most of the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps was appallingly short. If they graduated alive and unmaimed from the flying training that killed more than half of them before they reached the front line, only a few would for very long survive the daily battles they fought over the ravaged moonscape of no-man's-land. Their average life expectancy at the height of the war was measured only in weeks. Parachutes that began to save their German enemies were denied them. <p><p> Fear of incarceration, and the daily spectacle of watching close colleagues die in burning aircraft, took a devastating toll on the nerves of the world's first fighter pilots. Many became mentally ill. As they waited for death, or with luck the survivable wound that would send them back to 'Blighty', they poured their emotions into their diaries and streams of letters to their loved ones at home. <p><p> Drawing on these remarkable testimonies and pilots' memoirs, Ian Mackersey has brilliantly reconstructed the First Great Air War through the lives of its participants. As they waited to die, the men shared their loneliness, their fears, triumphs - and squadron gossip - with the families who lived in daily dread of the knock on the door that would bring the War Office telegram in its fateful green envelope.
Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches
by Abraham LincolnPresents the full text of a selection of President Lincoln's greatest speeches, with historical notes and context provided by John Grafton.
Abraham Lincoln (Biographies)
by Laura K. MurrayHow much do you know about Abraham Lincoln? Find out the facts you need to know about the 16th president of the United States. You'll learn about the early life, challenges, and major accomplishments of this important American.
Abraham Lincoln and Coles County, Illinois
by Charles H. ColemanIn the predawn darkness of Friday, February 1, 1861, aboard a westbound train, Abraham Lincoln, left Coles County for the last time.Elected to the presidency the previous November and not yet having departed his home in Springfield for Washington, D.C., to be inaugurated, he had come on January 30 to visit his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, and to say farewell to friends and family in Charleston and the surrounding area.He would never return. Having led the United States through the Civil War, he would die at the hand of assassin John Wilkes Booth in Washington’s Ford Theater on another Friday—April 14, 1865.This book by history scholar Charles H. Coleman explores Lincoln’s close-knit family ties in and connection to Coles County, located in east-central Illinois: the home of his father and stepmother, Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, as well as his stepbrother John and his stepsisters, Sarah Elizabeth and Matilda, along with their families, and where Lincoln himself was a frequent visitor during his lifetime.
Abraham Lincoln And Jefferson Davis: A Comparison Of Civil War Commanders In Chief
by L-Cmdr Michael S. TrenchThis is a study of the effectiveness of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as Commanders in Chief during the Civil War. It begins by comparing their backgrounds prior to assuming the Presidency; then comparing their military strategies and command structures. The final area of comparison is their involvement in the first military draft in American history. Davis had extensive government and military experience, but exhibited personality traits early on that later hampered his performance as a war-time Commander in Chief. Lincoln had very little experience, but excelled at dealing with people. Lincoln tried several staff arrangements before finally appointing Grant as General in Chief. Davis changed his structure very little throughout the war. Although he appointed Lee as General in Chief in the first year, he lost his services by placing him in command of a field army. Both faced strong challenges from a powerful governor over the draft. Davis first tried to win over the governor, then appealed directly to the people. Lincoln publicly kept distant from the draft and worked behind the scenes.
Abraham Lincoln An Essay: An Essay
by Carl SchurzAbraham Lincoln “An Essay" from Carl Schurz. Confidante of Lincoln, U.S. Ambassador to Spain, a major-general in the Civil War, a U.S. Senator from Missouri, Secretary of the Interior in the Hayes administration, author of a biography of Henry Clay, president of the National Civil Service Reform League, and an editorial writer for Harper's Weekly (1829-1906) – Print ed.
Absaraka, Home of the Crows: A Military Wife?s Journal Retelling Life on the Plains and Red Cloud?s War
by Margaret CarringtonThe classic journal and firsthand account of one of the most disastrous military battles of the American frontier.On July 17, 1866, two soldiers and six wagoners were killed by Sioux Indians. In the next two weeks, fourteen more men died in Sioux attacks. The attacks continued through the summer and fall. On December 21, disaster struck. Recklessly pursuing Indians across a wooded ridge, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his company fell into an ambush. It was the worst military blunder of the Indian Wars before the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.Margaret Irvin Carrington, like many officers' wives, kept a journal of her stay in the outposts of the West. She recorded her impressions of the scenery and the inhabitants of Absaraka, in present-day Wyoming, Montana, and the western Dakotas. As the wife of the commander of Fort Phil Kearny, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, she experienced the sequence of events and the heightening of tensions that led to that bloody December day. She could not have known that her journal would come to such a shocking climax, with her husband's career at stake. Today, her journal has been reprinted several times over to present this exciting, eye-opening view into life on the plains as the wife of an officer.
Absaraka, Home of the Crows: Being the Experience of an Officer's Wife on the Plains
by Margaret Irvin Carrington"With acknowledgments to Lieutenant-General Sherman, whose suggestions at Fort Kearney, in the spring of 1866, were adopted, in preserving a daily record of the events of a peculiarly eventful journey, and whose vigorous policy is as promising of the final settlement of Indian troubles and the quick completion of the Union Pacific Railroad as his "March to the Sea' was signal in crushing the last hope of armed rebellion, this narrative is respectfully dedicated. MARGRET IRVIN CARRINGTON.
Abschied von Hamburg
by Dieter RudolphEin erfrischender und neuer Blick auf den Krieg in Deutschland, erzählt von einem deutschen Jungen aus Hamburg. Der Leser kann seine Erfahrungen der Höhen und Tiefen des Lebens während der Zerstörung Hamburgs im Feuersturm von 1943 miterleben. Die Familie erhält die verheerende Nachricht, dass sein Vater an der Ostfront vermisst wird, vermutlich tot, gemäss den Berichten, dass seine Panzereinheit total zerstört wurde. Dann endete glücklicherweise der Krieg. Mutter war mit einem britischen Soldaten befreundet. Dieser Waliser, der in den britischen Küchen arbeitete, war in der Lage die nötigen Lebensmittel zu liefern, um zu verhindern, dass diese Familie hungern musste, wenn auch mit schwierigen und außergewöhnlichen Mitteln, um seine eigene Position nicht zu gefährden. Dieter erzählt seine herzzerreissende Geschichte und nimmt uns mit auf seine Reise von der Zerstörung Hamburgs bis zur Friedenszeit an der walisischen Küste. Wie bei allen guten Erzählungen gibt es eine Wende und für Dieter noch mehr emotionalen Aufruhr. Aber mit der stets führenden Hand seines älteren Bruders Hans kann er sich all den Prüfungen stellen, die der Krieg ihm brachte und das Entsetzen, das er als kleiner Junge in einem fremden Land empfand, als die Familie nach Wales zog. Er war isoliert, nicht in der Lage, die Sprache zu sprechen. Aber er führt den Leser durch seine Abenteuer in diesem fremden Land und zeigt die Belastbarkeit der Jugend.
The Absence Of Grand Strategy: The United States In The Persian Gulf, 1972-2005
by Steve A. YetivGreat powers and grand strategies. It is easy to assume that the most powerful nations pursue and employ consistent, cohesive, and decisive policies in trying to promote their interests in regions of the world. Popular theory emphasizes two such grand strategies that great powers may pursue: balance of power policy or hegemonic domination. But, as Steve A. Yetiv contends, things may not always be that cut and dried. <p><p> Analyzing the evolution of the United States' foreign policy in the Persian Gulf from 1972 to 2005, Yetiv offers a provocative and panoramic view of American strategies in a region critical to the functioning of the entire global economy. Ten cases—from the policies of the Nixon administration to George W. Bush's war in Iraq—reveal shifting, improvised, and reactive policies that were responses to unanticipated and unpredictable events and threats. In fact, the distinguishing feature of the U.S. experience in the Gulf has been the absence of grand strategy. <p> Yetiv introduces the concept of "reactive engagement" as an alternative approach to understanding the behavior of great powers in unstable regions. At a time when the effects of U.S. foreign policy are rippling across the globe, The Absence of Grand Strategy offers key insight into the nature and evolution of American foreign policy in the Gulf.
The Absence of Grand Strategy: The United States in the Persian Gulf, 1972–2005
by Steve A. YetivGreat powers and grand strategies. It is easy to assume that the most powerful nations pursue and employ consistent, cohesive, and decisive policies in trying to promote their interests in regions of the world. Popular theory emphasizes two such grand strategies that great powers may pursue: balance of power policy or hegemonic domination. But, as Steve A. Yetiv contends, things may not always be that cut and dried. Analyzing the evolution of the United States' foreign policy in the Persian Gulf from 1972 to 2005, Yetiv offers a provocative and panoramic view of American strategies in a region critical to the functioning of the entire global economy. Ten cases—from the policies of the Nixon administration to George W. Bush's war in Iraq—reveal shifting, improvised, and reactive policies that were responses to unanticipated and unpredictable events and threats. In fact, the distinguishing feature of the U.S. experience in the Gulf has been the absence of grand strategy.Yetiv introduces the concept of "reactive engagement" as an alternative approach to understanding the behavior of great powers in unstable regions. At a time when the effects of U.S. foreign policy are rippling across the globe, The Absence of Grand Strategy offers key insight into the nature and evolution of American foreign policy in the Gulf.
Absent-Minded Beggars: Yeomanry and Volunteers in the Boer War
by Will BennettThe British Army suffered one of its greatest crises when in December 1899 the Boer irregulars inflicted three reverses in South Africa in 'Black Week'. A nation grown accustomed to success was stunned. Part of the answer was a very British blend of patriotism and pragmatism. For the first time civilian volunteers and part-time soldiers were allowed to fight overseas to the horror of traditionalist professional soldiers. Yet, by the end of the Boer War, almost 90,000 men had volunteered to serve the Colours. Much of sporting high society joined the newly formed Imperial Yeomanry. The Volunteers sent infantrymen to serve alongside the regulars and the City of London financed the raising of the City Imperial Volunteers. Men also came forward from the colonies. This book tells the story of these volunteer units.
Absolute Heart (Infernal Instruments of the Dragon #1)
by Michael Vance GurleyInfernal Instruments of the DragonAs the British Empire builds power based on new clockwork and steam technology, Ireland draws its might from its potent magical traditions. Only two boys with little in common can end the fighting between the two nations and prevent a terrible worldwide war. Gavin Haveland’s dreams are in the sky with the airships, while his reality as a High Councilman’s son means hiding secrets that will get him executed if revealed. Orion of Oberon is not just a powerful mage, he’s the nephew of the Irish queen, and the one she’s sent him on a quest for the ancient Dragon Stones that will bolster her fading power. In the process, he might restore his family to their rightful place in society. With enemies determined to stop them by any means necessary and war or peace hinging on their success, Gavin and Orion must find a way to work together, despite the centuries of mistrust between their nations.
Absolute Trust (True Heroes #3)
by Piper J. DrakeLOVE IS THE GREATEST RISK OF ALLAfter multiple tours of duty, Brandon Forte returns to his hometown on a personal mission: to open a facility for military service dogs like Haydn, a German shepherd who's seen his share of combat and loss. It also brings him back to Sophie Kim, a beacon of light in his life . . . and the one woman he can't have. But Forte's success means he's made enemies in high places. Enemies who are now after Sophie . . . When Forte enlisted and left without saying goodbye, Sophie did her best to move on. But with her first love back in town, looking sexier than ever, she's constantly reminded of what they could have had. Then after he risks himself for her, Sophie realizes she'll have to put her life in the hands of the man who broke her heart, knowing the danger -and the sparks between them- could consume them both.
Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War
by Chris BellamyIn Absolute War, acclaimed historian and journalist Chris Bellamy crafts the first full account since the fall of the Soviet Union of World War II's battle on the Eastern Front, one of the deadliest conflicts in history. The conflict on the Eastern Front, fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945, was the greatest, most costly, and most brutal conflict on land in human history. It was arguably the single most decisive factor of the war, and shaped the postwar world as we know it. In this magisterial work, Bellamy outlines the lead-up to the war, in which the fragile alliance between the two dictators was unceremoniously broken, and examines its far-reaching consequences, arguing that the cost of victory was ultimately too much for the Soviet Union to bear. With breadth of scope and a surfeit of new information, this is the definitive history of a conflict whose reverberations are still felt today.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point
by David LipskyNew York Times Bestseller: A &“fascinating, funny and tremendously well written&” chronicle of daily life at the US Military Academy (Time). In 1998, West Point made an unprecedented offer to Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky: Stay at the Academy as long as you like, go wherever you wish, talk to whomever you want, to discover why some of America&’s most promising young people sacrifice so much to become cadets. Lipsky followed one cadet class into mess halls, barracks, classrooms, bars, and training exercises, from arrival through graduation. By telling their stories, he also examines the Academy as a reflection of our society: Are its principles of equality, patriotism, and honor quaint anachronisms or is it still, as Theodore Roosevelt called it, the most &“absolutely American&” institution? During an eventful four years in West Point&’s history, Lipsky witnesses the arrival of TVs and phones in dorm rooms, the end of hazing, and innumerable other shifts in policy and practice. He uncovers previously unreported scandals and poignantly evokes the aftermath of September 11, when cadets must prepare to become officers in wartime. Lipsky also meets some extraordinary people: a former Eagle Scout who struggles with every facet of the program, from classwork to marching; a foul-mouthed party animal who hates the military and came to West Point to play football; a farm-raised kid who seems to be the perfect soldier, despite his affection for the early work of Georgia O&’Keeffe; and an exquisitely turned-out female cadet who aspires to &“a career in hair and nails&” after the Army. The result is, in the words of David Brooks in the New York Times Book Review, &“a superb description of modern military culture, and one of the most gripping accounts of university life I have read. . . . How teenagers get turned into leaders is not a simple story, but it is wonderfully told in this book.&”
Absolution
by Patrick FlaneryA bold and exciting literary novel set in South Africa that contemplates the elusive line between truth and self-perception. Ambitious and assured, Absolution propels the reader to the final page in a drive to discover the secrets and truths at its core. How or why did a young antiapartheid activist disappear twenty years earlier? How does that event link the present-day characters? And how does it explain the choices they have made or the lies they may tell themselves? Absolution is a big-idea novel about the pitfalls of memory, the ramifications of censorship, and the ways we are silently complicit in the problems around us. It's also a devastating, intimate, and stunningly woven story. Told in shifting perspectives, it centers on the mysterious character of Clare Wald, a controversial South African writer of great fame, haunted by the memories of a sister she fears she betrayed to her death and a daughter she fears she abandoned. Clare comes to learn that in this conflict the dead do not stay buried, and the missing return in other forms--such as the child witness of her daughter's last days who has reappeared twenty years later as Clare's official biographer, prompting an unraveling of history and a search for forgiveness. Part literary thriller, part meditation on the responsibility of the individual under totalitarianism, this is a masterpiece of rich, complicated characters and narration that captures the reader and does not let go.
Absolution
by Edie Jo GibsonNolan Foster fell in love with Brenda Sue Banks the moment he saw her. Her kind innocence filled his dark life with light. Until he crossed paths with Burrows, who would like to use Nolan's skills for illegal ventures and threatens Brenda Sue and her son for motivation. Nolan has to find a way to take down Burrows' empire while keeping her and her son safe, even if it means showing her his darkness and possibly losing her forever.Brenda Sue is intimately aware of what Nolan does for a living. She might be a kindergarten teacher, but she is more than aware of evil out in the world and understands it takes men like Nolan to get rid of it. He might be determined to keep her away from him for her safety, but she's got other things in mind. Love like theirs comes once in a lifetime, and he has been alone for too long. He needs her, and she's not about to walk away.
Absolution Gap (Revelation Space #4)
by Alastair ReynoldsThey are ancient killing machines, designed to locate and destroy any life form reaching a certain level of intelligence. Now, stirred from eons of sleep, the Inhibitors have descended on their latest target: Humanity." "The first wave of Inhibitors has sent war veteran Clavain and a ragtag group of refugees into hiding. Their leadership is faltering, and their situation is growing more desperate. But their little colony has just received an unexpected visitor: an avenging angel with the power to lead mankind to safety - or draw down its darkest enemy." As she leads them to an apparently insignificant moon light-years away, it begins to dawn on Clavain and his companions that to beat one enemy, it may be necessary to forge an alliance with something much worse.
Abundance of Valor: Resistance, Survival, and Liberation - 1944–45
by Will IrwinThe operation known as “Market Garden”—made famous in the book and film A Bridge Too Far—was the largest airborne assault in history up to that time, a high-risk Allied invasion of enemy territory that has become a legend of World War II, even as it still invites criticism from historians. Now a thrilling and revelatory new book re-creates the operation as never before, revealing for the first time the full adventures of the bold “Jedburgh” paratroopers whose exploits were almost unimaginably risky and heroic. Kicked off on September 17, 1944, Market Garden was intended to secure crucial bridges in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands by a parachute assault conducted by three Allied airborne divisions. Capture of the bridges would allow a swift advance and crossing of the Rhine by British ground forces. Jedburgh teams—Allied Special Forces—were dropped into the Netherlands to train and use the Dutch resistance in support of the larger operation. Based on new firsthand testimony of survivors and declassified documents, Abundance of Valor concentrates on the three teams that operated farthest behind enemy lines, the nine men whose treacherous missions resulted in deaths, captures, and hair-breadth escapes. Here in unprecedented detail are the heat and stench of fuel, oil, and sweat in the troop carriers going over, the remarkable (and misleading) initial success of the daylight parachute landings, and the deadly, brutally effective German response, particularly by crack SS armored units in the blood-soaked town of Arnhem. Abundance of Valor portrays with stunning verisimilitude the experiences of Lt. Harvey Allan Todd, who fought from a surrounded position against overwhelming numbers of the enemy before surviving capture, near-starvation, interrogation, and solitary confinement in German POW camps, and Maj. John “Pappy” Olmsted, who made a hazardous journey, in disguise, from safe house to safe house through enemy territory until finally reaching friendly lines.
The Abyss
by Niall FergusonExcerpted from Niall Ferguson’s sprawling bestseller The War of the World, The Abyss now stands on its own as one of the most thrilling short histories of World War I ever written. This is not a conventional military history about battles and generals. Rather, The Abyss examines how World War I saw the birth of total war—fought between societies as much as armies—and must therefore be understood in terms of the financial crises it unleashed, the multinational empires it destroyed, and the hateful ideas it propagated. The most remarkable thing about the war, Ferguson shows us, is how shockingly unexpected it was. At a time when economic integration and technology seemed to be rendering war between great powers impossible, World War I was the moment when that process went into reverse and the lethal forces of ethnic disintegration took over. Now, on the cusp of the 100th anniversary of its outbreak, we can see World War I as much more than just four years of industrialized slaughter. Weaving together the economics of empire and the ideology of race—and featuring an original preface by the author as well a teaser from his new paperback Civilization—The Abyss is world history at its finest.
Abyss (Kirk McGarvey Series #15)
by David HagbergIt's a pleasant summer afternoon in the Gulf Stream, twenty-five miles off Hutchinson Island on Florida's east coast, when NOAA scientist Dr. Eve Larsen is about to prove she has the answers not only to global warming but the solution to stopping killer storms across the planet. She is part of a multitrillion-dollar, multinational project to farm clean, endless energy from the ocean currents—and alter the planet's weather for the better. At that very moment, contract killer Brian DeCamp walks into the Hutchinson Island Nuclear Power Station aiming to cause a meltdown so catastrophic it'll make Chernobyl seem like nothing. Security cam footage leads to an intervention by legendary former CIA director Kirk McGarvey,, who manages to thwart the catastrophe … but the failed sabotage sets off a chain of events more terrifying than McGarvey could ever have imagined. The incident sets McGarvey on a trail of assassinations and dirty money that finally leads him to a charismatic preacher... controlled by a vicious derivative fund manager... who in turn is controlled not only by her own greed but by power brokers with enormous fortunes they will stop at nothing to protect.,... In Abyss, New York Times bestselling author David Hagberg pits The Expediter's Kirk McGarvey against the people who mean to destroy our future. With Big Oil ruthlessly hunting for profit after the BP disaster in the Gulf... the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962
by Max HastingsBestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history—the Cuban Missile Crisis—providing a people-focused narrative that explores the attitudes and conduct of Russians, Cubans, Americans, and a terrified world that followed each moment as it unfolded.In The Abyss, Max Hastings turns his focus to one of the most terrifying events of the mid-twentieth century—the thirteen days in October 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Hastings looks at the conflict with fresh eyes, focusing on the people at the heart of the crisis—America President John F. Kennedy, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and a host of their advisors.Combining in-depth research with Hasting’s well-honed insights, The Abyss is a human history that unfolds on a wide, colorful canvas. As the action moves back and forth from Moscow to Washington, DC, to Havana, Hastings seeks to explain, as much as to describe, the attitudes and conduct of the Soviets, Cubans, and Americans, and to recreate the tension and heightened fears of countless innocent bystanders whose lives hung in the balance. Reflecting on the outcome of these events, he reveals how the aftermath of this momentous crisis continues to reverberate today.Powerful, and riveting, filled with compelling detail and told with narrative flair, The Abyss is history at its finest.
Abyss: Abyss (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
by Dean WeddleNO LAW. NO CONSCIENCE. NO STOPPING THEM.They are the self-appointed protectors of the Federation. Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, answerable to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group commited to safeguarding the Federation at any cost. Mere days after the startling events of AVATAR, Dr. Julian Bashir faces his darkest nightmare when Section 31 compels him to undertake amission to stop one of their own. But this renegade is no ordinary agent. Like Bashir, Dr. Ethan Locken is genetically enhanced, a human superior in body and mind. But Locken dreams of remaking the galaxy in his own image—and creating a new human empire based on the example of the infamous Khan Noonien Singh. And as he begins to understand the terrifying truth about his opposite number, Bashir will learn more about himself than he ever wanted.