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The Young Lions: A Novel (Phoenix Fiction Ser.)
by Irwin ShawOne of the great World War II novels, this New York Times–bestselling &“masterpiece&” captures the experiences of three very different soldiers (The Boston Globe). Standing alongside Norman Mailer&’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones&’s From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions is one of the most powerful American novels to tackle the Second World War. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, Irwin Shaw&’s work is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of ordinary soldiers on both sides. The story follows the individual dramas—and ultimately intertwined destinies—of Christian Diestl, a Nazi sergeant; Noah Ackerman, a Jewish American infantryman; and Michael Whitacre, an idealistic urbanite from the New York theatrical world. Diestl first appears as a dashing ski instructor in Austria, mouthing his loyalty to Nazi ideals. As the war progresses, Diestl&’s character continues to erode as he descends into savagery. Ackerman must endure domestic anti-Semitism and beatings in boot camp before proving himself in the European theater. Eventually, as part of the liberating army, he comes face-to-face with the unimaginable horrors of the death camps. Whitacre, trading cocktail parties for Molotov cocktails, confronts the barbarism of war, and in fighting simply to survive, finds his own capacity for heroism. Shaw&’s sweeping narrative is at once vivid, exciting, and brutally realistic as well as poignant in its portrayal of the moral devastation and institutional insanity of war. Penned by a master storyteller at the height of his craft, The Young Lions stands the test of time as a classic novel of war and the human experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Irwin Shaw including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s estate.
The Young Lions: A Novel
by Irwin ShawOne of the great World War II novels, this New York Times–bestselling &“masterpiece&” captures the experiences of three very different soldiers (The Boston Globe). Standing alongside Norman Mailer&’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones&’s From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions is one of the most powerful American novels to tackle the Second World War. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, Irwin Shaw&’s work is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of ordinary soldiers on both sides. The story follows the individual dramas—and ultimately intertwined destinies—of Christian Diestl, a Nazi sergeant; Noah Ackerman, a Jewish American infantryman; and Michael Whitacre, an idealistic urbanite from the New York theatrical world. Diestl first appears as a dashing ski instructor in Austria, mouthing his loyalty to Nazi ideals. As the war progresses, Diestl&’s character continues to erode as he descends into savagery. Ackerman must endure domestic anti-Semitism and beatings in boot camp before proving himself in the European theater. Eventually, as part of the liberating army, he comes face-to-face with the unimaginable horrors of the death camps. Whitacre, trading cocktail parties for Molotov cocktails, confronts the barbarism of war, and in fighting simply to survive, finds his own capacity for heroism. Shaw&’s sweeping narrative is at once vivid, exciting, and brutally realistic as well as poignant in its portrayal of the moral devastation and institutional insanity of war. Penned by a master storyteller at the height of his craft, The Young Lions stands the test of time as a classic novel of war and the human experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Irwin Shaw including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s estate.
'Young Man, You'll Never Die': A World War II Fighter Pilot In North Africa, Burma & Malaya (Reminiscence Ser.)
by Merton NaydlerA British Royal Air Force pilot recounts fighting over African deserts and Asian jungles during World War II in this military memoir. Merton Naydler joined the RAF at the age of nineteen and served for the next six years until May 1946. He flew Spitfires and Hurricanes during a tour of duty that took him to North Africa, Burma, and Malaya. This well written and extremely entertaining memoir portrays wartime life in the desert environment where sand, flies, life under canvas made living and flying a daunting experience. When Naydler was posted to Burma he was filled with &“a deep and genuine dread.&” After a long uncomfortable trip, he joined 11 Squadron and was then faced with Japanese Zeroes in combat over dense tropical jungle rather than Bf 109s over a barren desert terrain. &“Daytime flying was hot as hell, the humidity intense&”—the author&’s description of his new posting that goes on to describe life in &“Death Valley,&” named because of the likeliness of falling victim to tropical disease rather than enemy aircraft . . . This is the story of a sergeant pilot who learned his trade the hard way in action over Africa and then honed his combat skills in the skies over Japanese-held tropical forests where he was eventually commissioned.
Young Nelsons
by D.A.B Ronald"The fought like young Nelsons." The words of a schoolmaster, writing from aboard HMS Mars after the battle of Trafalgar, describing the valor of his pupils in the heat of battle. Made immortal by the novels of Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester and Alexander Kent, these boy sailors, alongside those of every other Royal Navy ship, had entered the British Navy to fight the French across every ocean of the world. There was a long-standing British tradition of children going to sea, of boys who volunteered to fight for Britain, and along the way found adventure, glory, wealth and fame. During the Napoleonic Wars, these children, some as young as eight or nine, were also fighting for the very survival of Britain. For twenty years, the image of young Nelsons on the frontline of war caught the imagination of the nation. Drawing on many first-hand accounts, letters, poems and writings, this book tells the dramatic story of Britain's boy sailors during the Napoleonic Wars for the very first time.
A Young Patriot: The American Revolution as Experienced by One Boy
by Jim MurphyIn the summer of 1776, Joseph Plumb Martin was a fifteen-year-old Connecticut farm boy who considered himself "as warm a patriot as the best of them." He enlisted that July and stayed in the revolutionary army until hostilities ended in 1783. Martin fought under Washington, Lafayette, and Steuben. He took part in major battles in New York, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He wintered at Valley Forge and then at Morristown, considered even more severe. He wrote of his war years in a memoir that brings the American Revolution alive with telling details, drama, and a country boy's humor. Jim Murphy lets Joseph Plumb Martin speak for himself throughout the text, weaving in historical back fround details wherever necessary, giving voice to a teenager who was an eyewitness to the fight that set America free from the British Empire.
Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution
by Layne Johnson Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt Marcella Fisher AndersonMajor events of the American Revolution are brought to life in this collection of historical fiction that shows young people caught up in the dangers, hardships, and conflicts of America's fight for independence. <P><P>A young girl proves her courage in Concord on April 19, 1775, and a young boy and his dog catch a Tory spy after they cross the Delaware with Washington's men on Christmas night, 1776. Other stories show life during the siege of Charleston, a journey home in the middle of the battle of Saratoga, a young soldier's decision at Valley Forge, family conflicts in Savannah, an unlikely friendship at the surrender at Yorktown, and finally, a young boy witnessing the inauguration of President Washington. <P><P>Brief introductions provide historical background for each of the fifteen stories. Sidebars, maps, and illustrations help make history alive and exciting. Also included are a timeline and suggestions for further reading.
The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor: Or a Key to the Leading of Rigging and to Practical Seamanship
by Darcy LeverWidely used among young 19th-century officers in the Royal Navy and East India Company, this now-rare volume offers clear definitions and copious illustrations of the principles of rigging and other aspects of seamanship -- tacking, use of a compass, splicing ropes, making sails, and much more. A must for ship fanciers and naval historians.
Young Stalin
by Simon Sebag MontefioreWinner of the Costa Biography AwardWhat makes a Stalin? Was he a Tsarist agent or Lenin's bandit? Was he to blame for his wife's death? When did the killing start? Based on revelatory research, here is the thrilling story of how a charismatic cobbler's son became a student priest, romantic poet, prolific lover, gangster mastermind and murderous revolutionary. Culminating in the 1917 revolution, Simon Sebag Montefiore's bestselling biography radically alters our understanding of the gifted politician and fanatical Marxist who shaped the Soviet empire in his own brutal image. This is the story of how Stalin became Stalin.
Young Stalin
by Simon Sebag MontefioreWinner of the Costa Biography AwardWhat makes a Stalin? Was he a Tsarist agent or Lenin's bandit? Was he to blame for his wife's death? When did the killing start? Based on revelatory research, here is the thrilling story of how a charismatic cobbler's son became a student priest, romantic poet, prolific lover, gangster mastermind and murderous revolutionary. Culminating in the 1917 revolution, Simon Sebag Montefiore's bestselling biography radically alters our understanding of the gifted politician and fanatical Marxist who shaped the Soviet empire in his own brutal image. This is the story of how Stalin became Stalin.Read by Sean Barrett(p) 2007 Orion Publishing Group
The Young T. E. Lawrence
by Anthony SattinAn intimate biography of the years that turned T. E. Lawrence into Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence of Arabia's heroism during the Arab revolt and his disgust at the subsequent betrayal of the Arabs in the postwar negotiations have become the stuff of legend. But T. E. Lawrence's adventures in the Levant began long before the outbreak of war. This intimate biography is the first to focus on Lawrence in his twenties, the untold story of the awkward archaeologist from Oxford who, on first visiting "The East," fell in love with Arab culture and found his life's mission. Few people realize that Lawrence's classic autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was not the first book to carry that iconic title. Lawrence himself burned his original draft. Anthony Sattin here uncovers the story Lawrence wanted to conceal: the truth of his birth, his tortuous relationship with a dominant mother, his deep affection for an Arab boy, and the personal reasons that drove him from student to spy. Drawing on surviving letters, diaries, and accounts from close confidantes, Sattin brings a biographer's eye for detail and a travel writer's verve to Lawrence's extraordinary journeys through the region with which his name is forever connected. In a masterful parallel narrative, The Young T. E. Lawrence charts the maturation of the man and the incipient countries he treasured, both coming of age at a time when the world's foundations were coming undone.
Young Titan: The Making Of Winston Churchill
by Michael SheldenMost people today think of Winston Churchill as simply the wartime British bulldog - a jowly, cigar-chomping old fighter demanding blood, sweat and tears from his nation. But the well-known story of the elder statesman has overshadowed an earlier part of his life that is no less fascinating, and that has never before been fully told. It is a tale of romance, ambition, intrigue and glamour in Edwardian London, when the city was the centre of the world, and when its best and brightest were dazzled by the meteoric rise to power of a young politician with a famous name and a long aristocratic background.Winston Churchill gave his maiden speech in Parliament at the very beginning of King Edward VII's reign in 1901 when he was only 26. By the time the guns of August 1914 swept away the Edwardian idyll, he was First Lord of the Admiralty - the civilian head of the largest navy in the world. In the intervening years, he often cut a dashing figure, romancing several society beauties, tangling with some of the most powerful political figures of his time, championing major social reforms, becoming one of the leading orators of the day, publishing six books, supervising an armed assault on anarchists, and working harder perhaps than anyone else to prepare his nation for war.
Youngblood: A Novel
by Matt Gallagher&“An urgent and deeply moving novel&” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) about a young American soldier struggling to find meaning during the final, dark days of the War in Iraq.The US military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles to accept how it’s happening—through alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupted by the arrival of veteran Sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked hard to establish. As Iraq plunges back into chaos and bloodshed and Chambers’s influence over the men grows stronger, Jack becomes obsessed with a strange, tragic tale of reckless love between a lost American soldier and Rana, a local sheikh’s daughter. In search of the truth and buoyed by the knowledge that what he finds may implicate Sergeant Chambers, Jack seeks answers from the enigmatic Rana, and soon their fates become intertwined. Determined to secure a better future for Rana and a legitimate and lasting peace for her country, Jack will defy American command, putting his own future in grave peril. For fans of Phil Klay’s Redeployment or Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Youngblood provides startling new dimension to both the moral complexity of war and its psychological toll.
Your Country Needs You: Expansion of the British Army Infantry Divisions, 1914–1918
by Martin MiddlebrookTaking the politics of Field Marshal Lord Kitchener's appointment as War Minister as his starting point, the author describes in his lively and authoritative style the dramatic events and dynamic personalities key to the ever-deepening British commitment. The reader is skilfully guided through the early mobilisation, dispatch of the British Expedition Force, withdrawal of overseas garrisons and the response from the Territorial Army. At the same time, Kitchener's now legendary appeal to the civilian population produced 'The New Army'.
Your Death Would be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War
by Martha HannaPaul and Marie Pireaud, a young peasant couple from southwest France, were newlyweds when World War I erupted. With Paul in the army from 1914 through 1919, they were forced to conduct their marriage mostly by correspondence. Drawing upon the hundreds of letters they wrote, Martha Hanna tells their moving story and reveals a powerful and personal perspective on war. Civilians and combatants alike maintained bonds of emotional commitment and suffered the inevitable miseries of extended absence. While under direct fire at Verdun, Paul wrote with equal intensity and poetic clarity of the brutality of battle and the dietary needs (as he understood them) of his pregnant wife. Marie, in turn, described the difficulties of working the family farm and caring for a sick infant, lamented the deaths of local men, and longed for the safe return of her husband. Through intimate avowals and careful observations, their letters reveal how war transformed their lives, reinforced their love, and permanently altered the character of rural France. Overwhelmed by one of the most tumultuous upheavals of the modern age, Paul and Marie found solace in family and strength in passion. Theirs is a human story of loneliness and longing, fear in the face of death, and the consolations of love. Your Death Would Be Mine is a poignant tale of ordinary people coping with the trauma of war.
Your Death Would Be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War
by Martha HannaPaul and Marie Pireaud, a young peasant couple from southwest France, were newlyweds when World War I erupted. With Paul in the army from 1914 through 1919, they were forced to conduct their marriage mostly by correspondence. Drawing upon the hundreds of letters they wrote, Martha Hanna tells their moving story and reveals a powerful and personal perspective on war. Civilians and combatants alike maintained bonds of emotional commitment and suffered the inevitable miseries of extended absence. While under direct fire at Verdun, Paul wrote with equal intensity and poetic clarity of the brutality of battle and the dietary needs (as he understood them) of his pregnant wife. Marie, in turn, described the difficulties of working the family farm and caring for a sick infant, lamented the deaths of local men, and longed for the safe return of her husband. Through intimate avowals and careful observations, their letters reveal how war transformed their lives, reinforced their love, and permanently altered the character of rural France. Overwhelmed by one of the most tumultuous upheavals of the modern age, Paul and Marie found solace in family and strength in passion. Theirs is a human story of loneliness and longing, fear in the face of death, and the consolations of love. Your Death Would Be Mine is a poignant tale of ordinary people coping with the trauma of war.
Your Travel Guide to Civil War America
by Nancy DayThis book takes readers on a journey back in time in order to experience life during the Civil War, describing clothing, accommodations, food, local customs, transportation, a few notable personalities, and more.
You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger
by Roger HallWith a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. First published in 1957 to critical and popular acclaim, his book has become a cult favorite in intelligence circles. The story follows Hall's experiences from a junior officer fleeing a tedious training assignment in Louisiana to his quirky and rigorous OSS training rituals in the United States, England, and Scotland. Quick to pick up on the skills necessary for behind-the-lines intelligence work, he became an expert instructor. But he was only reluctantly given operational duties because of his reputation as an iconoclast. In his droll story-telling style, Hall describes his first parachute jump in support of the French resistance as a comedy of errors that terminated prematurely. His last assignment in the war zone came when William Colby appointed him section head of an operations group that made its way on foot through Sweden. Called one of the funniest and most perceptive works ever written about life in the OSS, the book includes a wealth of unforgettable personalities that Hall encountered over the years.
Yours Cheerfully: A Novel (The Emmy Lake Chronicles #2)
by AJ PearceFrom the author of the &“jaunty, heartbreaking winner&” (People) and international bestseller Dear Mrs. Bird, a new charming and uplifting novel set in London during World War II about a plucky aspiring journalist.London, November 1941. Following the departure of the formidable Henrietta Bird from Woman&’s Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the challenge of becoming a young wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles (now stationed back in the UK) is blossoming, while Emmy&’s best friend Bunty, still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, is bravely looking to the future. Together, the friends are determined to Make a Go of It. When the Ministry of Information calls on Britain&’s women&’s magazines to help recruit desperately needed female workers to the war effort, Emmy is thrilled to be asked to step up and help. But when she and Bunty meet a young woman who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must tackle a life-changing dilemma between doing her duty and standing by her friends. Every bit as funny, heartwarming, and touching as Dear Mrs. Bird, Yours Cheerfully is a celebration of friendship—a testament to the strength of women and the importance of lifting each other up, even in the most challenging times.
You’ve Got to Tell Them: A French Girl's Experience of Auschwitz and After
by Ida Grinspan Bertrand Poirot-Delpech Charles B. PotterOn a quiet winter night in 1944, as part of their support of the Third Reich’s pogrom of European Jews, French authorities arrested Ida Grinspan, a young Jewish girl hiding in a neighbor’s home in Nazi-occupied France. Of the many lessons she would learn after her arrest and the subsequent year and a half in Auschwitz, the most notorious concentration camp of the Holocaust, the first was that “barbarity enters on tiptoes . . . [even] in a hamlet where everything seemed to promise the peaceful slumber of places forgotten by history.”Translated by Charles B. Potter, You’ve Got to Tell Them is the result of a friendship that formed in 1988, when Grinspan returned to visit Auschwitz for the first time since 1945 and where she met Bertrand Poirot-Delpeche, a distinguished writer for the Paris newspaper Le Monde. Sometimes speaking alone, sometimes speaking in close alternation, Grinspan and Poirot-Delpeche simultaneously narrate the story of her survival and the decades that followed, including how she began lecturing in schools and guiding groups that visited the death camps. Replete with pedagogical resources including a discussion of how and why the Holocaust should be taught, a timeline, and suggestions for further reading, Potter’s expert translation of You’ve Got to Tell Them showcases a clear and moving narrative of a young French girl overcoming one of the darkest periods in her life and in European history.
Ypres: Contemporary Combat Images from the Great War (The Illustrated War Reports)
by Bob CarruthersThis powerful collection, depicting the grim realities of the four-year struggle for the Ypres salient, showcases the work of the contemporary combat artists and illustrators from the Great War era. Included here are the works of serious artists, propagandists, illustrators and humourists. The result is a stunning and vivid graphic record of life and death in the most infamous campaign of the Great War, as reported to contemporary audiences at a time when the events of the Great War were still unfolding. During the Great War artists and illustrators produced a highly accurate visual record of the fleeting moments the bulky cameras couldn't reproduce. These works form a body ofwar reportage that are as valid as the written word. Today, the work of the combat illustrators and the official war artists from the Great War era is overlooked by historians in favour of photographs, but these illustrations are nonetheless important, as they provide a contemporary record of hand-to-hand fighting, trench raids, aerial dogfights, sea battles, desperate last stands, night actions and cavalry charges
Ypres: Nieuwpoort to Ploegsteert (Battle Lines: The Western Front By Car, By Bike and On Foot)
by Jon Cooksey Jerry MurlandBattle Lines Ypres, the first volume in Pen & Swords new series of walking, cycling and driving guides to the Western Front, is the essential companion for every visitor to the Ypres Salient and the battlefields of Belgium. Many of the most famous - and most memorable - Great War sites are featured here. Expert guides Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland take visitors over a series of routes that can be walked, biked, or driven, explaining the fighting that occurred in each place in vivid detail. They describe what happened, where it happened, and why, and who was involved, and point out the sights that remain there for the visitor to see. Their accounts give a fascinating insight into the landscape of the front line and the acts of war that took place there a century ago.
Ypres 1914: Langemarck (Battleground Early Battles 1914 Ser.)
by Nigel Cave Jack SheldonThese three Battleground Europe books on Ypres 1914 mark the centenary of the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the fighting was even more than usually chaotic and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men British, French, Indian and German - who fought over the unremarkable undulating ground that was to become firmly placed in British national conscience ever afterwards.When, in October 1914, the newly created German Fourth Army attacked west to seize crossings over the Yser, prior to sweeping south in an attempt to surround the BEF, two things prevented it. To the north, it was the efforts of the Belgian army, reinforced by French troops, coupled with controlled flooding of the polders but, further south, the truly heroic defence of Langemarck, for three days by the BEF and then by the French army, was of decisive importance. The village stood as a bulwark against any further advance to the river or the town of Ypres. Here the German regiments bled to death in the face of resolute Allied defence and any remaining hope of forcing a decision in the west turned to dust.
YPRES 1914: An Official Account Published By Order Of The German General Staff
by The German General Staff"An official German account, written close to the action, of the early Great War battles of the Yser and first Ypres in the autumn of 1914. Interesting revelation of German attitudes to the two battles that stopped their steamroller advance through Flanders.The full title of this book is "The Battle of the Yser and of Ypres in the Autumn 1914" and it gives equal coverage to both. It was written by a Captain Otto Schwink, a General Staff Officer, in 1917 - too close in time to the operations it describes to have permitted proper research and so provide a more objective account. It was intended primarily for public consumption and was how the German General Staff wished the campaign to be seen. Nevertheless, it is interesting to read the other side's point of view and balance is to some extent restored by the series of footnotes provided throughout the narrative by our own Historical Section (Military Branch)."--N&M Press Reprint
Ypres Passchendaele: 1st Ypres; 2nd Ypres (Gas Attack); 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele) 4th Ypres (The Lys) (Major & Mrs Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide)
by Tonie Holt Valmai HoltA guide to these historic Belgian landmarks of the First World War, with maps and photos. Covering the Battles of Ypres, including the notorious Passchendaele, this guidebook takes readers on a historic trip through some of the best-known and most important sites of the area in Belgium. Part of a series of guides, it serves as an introduction to the historic battlefields, whether on the ground or from an armchair. Included are selections from the Holts' more detailed guides of the most popular and accessible sites, many full color maps and photographs, and detailed instructions on what to see and where to visit.
The Yugoslav Wars
by Darko Pavlovic Nigel Thomas K. MikulanOsprey's examination of Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia's involvement in the Yugoslav Wars (1991-1995), as well as their involvement in the conflicts of the years that followed. Following the death of the Yugoslavian strongman President Tito in 1980, the several semi-autonomous republics and provinces that he had welded into a nation in 1945 moved inexorably towards separation. As the world watched a series of wars ripped through this modern European state. In this second of two volumes, experts on the Balkan region give an unprecedented, clear and concise explanation of the armies of the the Bosnian Civil War 1992-5 as well as the conflicts in Kosovo and Macedonia. This includes the regular and militia forces which fought in these campaigns and which ultimately resulted in the UN/NATO policing of the region that continues to this day. The book is illustrated with rare photos and an extraordinary range of colour uniform plates.