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Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island
- The World War II Battle That Saved Marine Corps Aviation
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
The pivotal true story of the first fifty-three days of the standoff between Imperial Japanese and a handful of Marine aviators defending the Americans dug in at Guadalcanal, from the New York Times bestselling author of Indestructible and Race of Aces.
On August 20, 1942, twelve Marine dive-bombers and nineteen Marine fighters landed at Guadalcanal. Their mission: defeat the Japanese navy and prevent it from sending more men and supplies to "Starvation Island," as Guadalcanal was nicknamed. The Japanese were turning the remote, jungle-covered mountain in the south Solomon Islands into an air base from which they could attack the supply lines between the U.S. and Australia. The night after the Marines landed and captured the partially completed airfield, the Imperial Navy launched a surprise night attack on the Allied fleet offshore, resulting in the worst defeat the U.S. Navy suffered in the 20th century, which prompted the abandonment of the Marines on Guadalcanal.
The Marines dug in, and waited for help, as those thirty-one pilots and twelve gunners flew against the Japanese, shooting down eighty-three planes in less than two months, while the dive bombers, carried out over thirty attacks on the Japanese fleet. Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island follows Major John L. Smith, a magnetic leader who became America’s top fighter ace for the time; Captain Marion Carl, the Marine Corps’ first ace, and one of the few survivors of his squadron at the Battle of Midway. He would be shot down and forced to make his way back to base through twenty-five miles of Japanese-held jungle. And Major Richard Mangrum, the lawyer-turned-dive-bomber commander whose inexperienced men wrought havoc on the Japanese Navy.
New York Times bestselling author John R. Bruning depicts the desperate effort to stop the Japanese long enough for America to muster reinforcements and turn the tide at Guadalcanal. Not just the story of an incredible stand on a distant jungle island, Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island also explores the consequences of victory to the men who secured it at a time when America had been at war for less than a year and its public had yet to fully understand what that meant. The home front they returned to after their jungle ordeal was a surreal montage of football games, nightclubs, fine dining with America’s elites, and inside looks at dysfunctional defense industries more interested in fleecing the government than properly equipping the military. Bruning tells the story of how one battle reshaped the Marine Corps and propelled its veterans into the highest positions of power just in time to lead the service into a new war in Southeast Asia.
Critic reviews
"Intricately researched but intimately written, Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island takes us into the cockpits and muddy foxholes of the aviators that fought the Japanese in the skies over Guadalcanal. Bruning writes like the best war reporters of that generation, delivering a gripping personal account of survival during the very darkest period of World War II."—Jon Parshall, coauthor of Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
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Gunflint Falling
- Blowdown in the Boundary Waters
- By: Cary J. Griffith
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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On July 4, 1999, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a bizarre confluence of meteorological events resulted in the most damaging blowdown in the region's history. Gunflint Falling tells the story of this devastating storm from the perspectives of those who were on the ground before, during, and after the catastrophic event.
By: Cary J. Griffith
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The Infernal Machine
- A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the epic struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and between two centuries—from Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite and the assassination of Czar Alexander II to New York City in the shadow of World War I.
By: Steven Johnson
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The Hill
- The brutal fight for Hill 107 in the Battle of Crete
- By: Robert Kershaw
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this remarkable history, we discover each of the individuals whose actions determined the outcome of the battle for Hill 107, the key event that decided the campaign to capture the vitally strategic island of Crete in May 1941. Drawing upon original combat reports, diary entries, letters and interviews, the battle is brought vividly to life. The narrative feels like a Shakespearean tragedy, the soldiers revealing their stories in and around the shadows of Hill 107.
By: Robert Kershaw
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MacArthur Reconsidered
- General Douglas MacArthur as a Wartime Commander
- By: James Ellman
- Narrated by: Kent Klineman
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One of America's most controversial generals, Douglas MacArthur's rise through the US Army's ranks was meteoric. However, he did not lead large formations of men in combat until he assumed command of forces in the Philippines in 1941. When war commenced with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, MacArthur's performance on the battlefield was a failure: he underestimated the Japanese, and his poorly trained forces were outmaneuvered and outfought by a much smaller invading force.
By: James Ellman
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Laughter in Ancient Rome
- On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear-a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena?
By: Mary Beard
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Left for Dead
- Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The best-selling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters tells the story of a wild encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard abandoned in the Falklands for eighteen months.
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Taking London
- Winston Churchill and the Fight to Save Civilization
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Great Britain, summer 1940. The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Adolf Hitler’s powerful armies control Europe. England stands alone against this juggernaut, the whole world knowing it is only a matter of time before Nazi Germany unleashes its military might on the island nation. In London, a new prime minister named Winston Churchill is determined to defeat the Nazi menace, no matter the costs. Luckily for Churchill, one quirky Englishman has seen the future.
By: Martin Dugard
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Codename Nemo
- The Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and the Elusive Enigma Machine
- By: Charles Lachman
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On June 4, 1944, the course of World War II was forever changed. That day, a US Navy task force achieved the impossible—capturing a German U-Boat. Called Operation Nemo, it was the first seizure of an enemy ship in battle since the War of 1812, one of the greatest achievements of the US Navy and a victory that shortened the duration of the war. A deeply researched, fast-paced World War II narrative for the ages, Charles Lachman’s white-knuckled war saga and thrilling cat-and-mouse game is told through the eyes of the men on both sides of Operation Nemo.
By: Charles Lachman
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1217
- The Battles that Saved England
- By: Dr Catherine Hanley, Tina Ross - cartographer
- Narrated by: Veronika Hyks
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
1217 charts the nascent sense of national identity that began to swell. Three key battles would determine England’s destiny. The fortress of Dover was besieged, the city of Lincoln was attacked, and a great invasion force set sail and, unusually for the time, was intercepted at sea. Catherine Hanley expertly navigates medieval siege warfare, royal politics, and fighting at sea to bring this remarkable period of English history to life.
By: Dr Catherine Hanley, and others
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Dark Sun
- The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Here, for the first time, in a brilliant, panoramic portrait by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, is the definitive, often shocking story of the politics and the science behind the development of the hydrogen bomb and the birth of the Cold War.
By: Richard Rhodes
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Vanishing Act
- The Enduring Mystery Behind the Legendary Doolittle Raid Over Tokyo
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the dark days after the devastating Pearl Harbor attacks during the spring of 1942, the United States was determined to show the world that the Axis was not invincible. Their bold plan? Bomb Tokyo. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25s, known as the Doolittle Raiders, hit targets across Japan before escaping to China. The eighth plane, however, did not follow the other raiders. Instead, Plane 8's pilots, Captain Edward "Ski" York and Lieutenant Bob Emmens, never attacked Tokyo, but headed across Japan to the Soviet Union, supposedly due to low fuel.
By: Dan Hampton
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The Struggle for Taiwan
- A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between
- By: Sulmaan Wasif Khan
- Narrated by: Austin Yang
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As tensions over Taiwan escalate, the United States and China stand on the brink of a catastrophic war. Resolving the impasse demands we understand how it began. In 1943, the Allies declared that Japanese-held Taiwan would return to China at the conclusion of World War II. The Chinese civil war led to a change of plans. The Communist Party came to power in China and the defeated Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan, where he was afforded US protection. The specter of conflict has loomed ever since.