The First Victory
The Second World War and the East Africa Campaign
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The First Victory
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Narrated by:
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Michael Page
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By:
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Andrew Stewart
About this listen
Surprisingly neglected in accounts of Allied wartime triumphs, in 1941 British and Commonwealth forces completed a stunning and important victory in East Africa against an overwhelmingly superior Italian opponent. A hastily formed British-led force, never larger than 70,000 strong, advanced along two fronts to defeat nearly 300,000 Italian and colonial troops. This compelling book draws on an array of previously unseen documents to provide both a detailed campaign history and a fresh appreciation of the first significant Allied success of the war. Andrew Stewart investigates such topics as Britain's African wartime strategy; how the fighting forces were assembled (most from British colonies, none from the US); General Archibald Wavell's command abilities and his difficult relationship with Winston Churchill; the resolute Italian defense at Keren, one of the most bitterly fought battles of the entire war; the legacy of the campaign in East Africa; and much more.
©2016 Andrew Stewart (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
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The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern learner can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A totally absurd effort in racist German Bashing with some grudging respect for the German soldier and German Army.
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Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Those Who Dared, Won!
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The Panzer Killers
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4 out of 5 stars
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Pronunciation counts
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5 out of 5 stars
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All the details
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Assyria
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of Assyria and its formative role in global history. Assyria’s wide-ranging conquests have long been known from the Hebrew Bible and later Greek accounts. But nearly two centuries of research now permit a rich picture of the Assyrians and their empire beyond the battlefield.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding Historical Book
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To Besiege a City
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
At a huge cost, the Red Army and the civilian population of Leningrad ultimately endured a bitter 900-day siege, struggling against constant bombing, shelling, and starvation. Throughout the siege, Soviet forces tried to break the German lines and restore contact with the garrison. To Besiege a City charts the first of these offensives which began in January 1942 and was followed by repeated assaults.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding
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Sicily '43
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 190
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 169
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion 11 months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soil. Operation HUSKY, as it was known, was enormously complex, involving dramatic battles on land, in the air, and at sea. Yet, despite its paramount importance to ultimate Allied victory, and its drama, very little has been written about the 38-day Battle for Sicily.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great writing, great narration, interesting topic
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Case Red
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then engaging a tough defense along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and St. Nazaire. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not Forczyk's best offering
- By S.C. James on 01-30-18
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Hitler's Soldiers
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 262
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and occupation.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Thorough and scholarly
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Mao's Army Goes to Sea
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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From 1949 to 1950, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) made crucial decisions to establish a navy and secure China's periphery. The civil war had been fought with a peasant army, yet in order to capture key offshore islands from the Nationalist rival, Mao Zedong needed to develop maritime capabilities. Mao's Army Goes to Sea is a ground-breaking history of the founding of the Chinese navy and Communist China's earliest island-seizing campaigns.
By: Toshi Yoshihara
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5 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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Blitzkrieg
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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In the spring of 1940, the Germans launched a military offensive in France and the Low Countries that married superb intelligence, the latest military thinking, and new technology. It was a stunning victory, altering the balance of power in Europe in one stroke, and convincing the entire world that the Nazi war machine was unstoppable. But as Lloyd Clark, a leading British military historian and academic, argues, much of our understanding of this victory, and blitzkrieg itself, is based on myth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very good and detailed about the Fall of France
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Rommel
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 351
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 311
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 308
This exciting series opens with “the Desert Fox”, the most famous German field marshal in World War II, Erwin Rommel. A hero of the people of the Third Reich and widely respected by his opponents, Rommel proved himself highly adept at blitzkrieg warfare. He displayed an outstanding ability to seize the initiative and retain it, and here, Charles Messenger draws on the skills behind this ability for the benefit of modern-day leaders.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not particularly new, insightful, or good.
- By William Simkiss on 08-17-21
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Nomonhan, 1939
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- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
Stuart Goldman convincingly argues that a little-known, but intense, Soviet-Japanese conflict along the Manchurian- Mongolian frontier at Nomonhan influenced the outbreak of World War II and shaped the course of the war. The author draws on Japanese, Soviet, and western sources to put the seemingly obscure conflict - actually a small undeclared war - into its proper global geo-strategic perspective.The book describes how the Soviets, in response to a border conflict provoked by Japan, launched an offensive in August 1939 that wiped out the Japanese forces at Nomonhan.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Nomonhan: Why Japan Demurred
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 08-03-14
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Kiev 1941
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- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 216
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 193
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 190
In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The book you must read on Hitler's War with Russia
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By: David Stahel
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Collision of Empires
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 280
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 279
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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4 out of 5 stars
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
In the spring of 1940, the Germans launched a military offensive in France and the Low Countries that married superb intelligence, the latest military thinking, and new technology. It was a stunning victory, altering the balance of power in Europe in one stroke, and convincing the entire world that the Nazi war machine was unstoppable. But as Lloyd Clark, a leading British military historian and academic, argues, much of our understanding of this victory, and blitzkrieg itself, is based on myth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very good and detailed about the Fall of France
- By Arthur on 03-15-17
By: Lloyd Clark
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Rommel
- Leadership Lessons from the Desert Fox
- By: Charles Messenger
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 351
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 311
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 308
This exciting series opens with “the Desert Fox”, the most famous German field marshal in World War II, Erwin Rommel. A hero of the people of the Third Reich and widely respected by his opponents, Rommel proved himself highly adept at blitzkrieg warfare. He displayed an outstanding ability to seize the initiative and retain it, and here, Charles Messenger draws on the skills behind this ability for the benefit of modern-day leaders.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not particularly new, insightful, or good.
- By William Simkiss on 08-17-21
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Nomonhan, 1939
- The Red Army's Victory that Shaped World War II
- By: Stuart D. Goldman
- Narrated by: John FitzGibbon
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
Stuart Goldman convincingly argues that a little-known, but intense, Soviet-Japanese conflict along the Manchurian- Mongolian frontier at Nomonhan influenced the outbreak of World War II and shaped the course of the war. The author draws on Japanese, Soviet, and western sources to put the seemingly obscure conflict - actually a small undeclared war - into its proper global geo-strategic perspective.The book describes how the Soviets, in response to a border conflict provoked by Japan, launched an offensive in August 1939 that wiped out the Japanese forces at Nomonhan.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Nomonhan: Why Japan Demurred
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 08-03-14
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Kiev 1941
- Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 216
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 193
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 190
In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The book you must read on Hitler's War with Russia
- By Kindle Customer on 05-28-19
By: David Stahel
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Hitler's Soldiers
- The German Army in the Third Reich
- By: Ben H. Shepherd
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 262
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and occupation.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Thorough and scholarly
- By Mary A. on 03-23-18
By: Ben H. Shepherd
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Haig's Enemy
- Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany's War on the Western Front
- By: Jonathan Boff
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
During the First World War, the British army's most consistent German opponent was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Commanding more than a million men as a General, and then Field Marshal, in the Imperial German Army, he held off the attacks of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French and then Sir Douglas Haig for four long years. But Rupprecht was to lose not only the war, but his son and his throne. In Haig's Enemy, Jonathan Boff explores the tragic tale of Rupprecht's war - the story of a man caught under the wheels of modern industrial warfare.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Insightful look inside dysfunctional WW1 Germany
- By J.Brock on 11-04-19
By: Jonathan Boff
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The Drive on Moscow, 1941
- Operation Taifun and Germany’s First Great Crisis of World War II
- By: Niklas Zetterling, Anders Frankson
- Narrated by: Dave Courvoisier
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4 out of 5 stars 85
At the end of September 1941, more than a million German soldiers lined up along the frontline just 180 miles west of Moscow. They were well trained, confident, and had good reasons to hope that the war in the East would be over with one last offensive. Facing them was an equally large Soviet force, but whose soldiers were neither as well trained nor as confident. When the Germans struck, disaster soon befell the Soviet defenders.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Add the maps, lose the accents
- By Carrick on 07-03-14
By: Niklas Zetterling, and others
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When Britain Saved the West
- The Story of 1940
- By: Robin Prior
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
From the comfortable distance of seven decades, it is quite easy to view the victory of the Allies over Hitler's Germany as inevitable. But in 1940 Great Britain's defeat loomed perilously close, and no other nation stepped up to confront the Nazi threat. In this cogently argued book, Robin Prior delves into the documents of the time - war diaries, combat reports, Home Security's daily files, and much more - to uncover how Britain endured a year of menacing crises.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very detailed; a bit dry in spots
- By No on 09-07-15
By: Robin Prior
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Hitler's Final Push
- The Battle of the Bulge from the German Point of View
- By: Danny S. Parker - editor
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4 out of 5 stars 125
Notes on one of the most infamous and bloody battles of World War II - from the German perspective. As the Allied armies swept toward the Reich in late 1944, the German high command embarked on an ambitious plan to gain the initiative on the western front and deal a crippling blow to the Allied war effort. As early as August 1944, when the Germans were being crushed in the east and hammered in Normandy, Hitler was talking of an offensive aimed at destroying as many American and British divisions as possible in a massive surprise assault.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not what was expected
- By S.C. James on 05-30-16
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Case Red
- The Collapse of France
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then engaging a tough defense along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and St. Nazaire. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not Forczyk's best offering
- By S.C. James on 01-30-18
By: Robert Forczyk
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Three Armies on the Somme
- The First Battle of the Twentieth Century
- By: William Philpott
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
On July 1, 1916, British and French forces launched the first attack on the German armies lined up along the Somme in what was to become the defining battle of World War I. To this day, July 1 is often remembered for being the bloodiest day in British military history. Indeed, the British suffered some 62,000 casualties in that one day of fighting alone. As gruesome as that statistic is, it's just one of the many dark legacies left by the Somme Offensive.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An insightful and exhaustive analysis of the Somme
- By Anthony on 06-07-12
By: William Philpott
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A Savage War
- A Military History of the Civil War
- By: Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, Williamson Murray
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 24 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
The Civil War represented a momentous change in the character of war. It combined the projection of military might across a continent on a scale never before seen with an unprecedented mass mobilization of peoples. Yet despite the revolutionizing aspects of the Civil War, its leaders faced the same uncertainties that have vexed combatants since the days of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Book about Conclusions
- By Terry Masters on 10-18-17
By: Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, and others
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The First World War
- By: Hew Strachan
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
A century has passed since the outbreak of World War I, yet as military historian Hew Strachan argues in this brilliant and authoritative new book, the legacy of the "war to end all wars" is with us still. The First World War was a truly global conflict from the start, with many of the most decisive battles fought in or directly affecting the Balkans, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. Even more than World War II, the First World War continues to shape the politics and international relations of our world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding narrative of the military action
- By Tad Davis on 04-30-17
By: Hew Strachan
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When Titans Clashed
- How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
- By: David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story5 out of 5 stars 77
Revised and updated to reflect recent Russian and Western scholarship on the subject, this new edition maintains the 1995 original's distinction as a crucial volume in the history of World War II and of the Soviet Union and the most informed and compelling perspective on one of the greatest military confrontations of all time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The largest conflict in human history
- By Eddie on 05-15-22
By: David M. Glantz, and others
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Third Reich Victorious
- Alternate Histories of World War II
- By: Peter G. Tsouras
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4 out of 5 stars 88
This book is a stimulating and entirely plausible insight into how Hitler and his generals might have defeated the Allies, and a convincing sideways look at the Third Reich's bid at world domination in World War II. What would have happened if, for example, the Germans captured the whole of the BEF at Dunkirk? Or if the RAF had been defeated in the Battle of Britain?
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3 out of 5 stars
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A fresh look at WW2 - false but makes one wonder.
- By Eggert Eggertsson on 09-05-15
By: Peter G. Tsouras
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Sun Tzu at Gettysburg
- Ancient Military Wisdom in the Modern World
- By: Bevin Alexander
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Imagine the impact on world history if Robert E. Lee had listened to General Longstreet at Gettysburg and withdrawn to higher ground instead of sending Pickett uphill against the entrenched Union line. Or if Napolon, at Waterloo, had avoided mistakes he'd never made before. The advice that would have changed the outcome of these crucial battles is found in a book on strategy written centuries before Christ was born.
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4 out of 5 stars
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How Different History Could Be
- By Lifeisshort on 09-13-14
By: Bevin Alexander
What listeners say about The First Victory
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J. H. Robinson
- 05-01-24
Great look at a forgotten theater
Great look at the East African theater in WWII. Well narrated, would recommend to anyone interested in WWII.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mark McCandless
- 08-06-24
A fascinating campaign well told by this book.
At a reasonable length, it tells about a campaign as important as the western desert that receives far more attention. Its success was overshadowed by failures in over places, such as Greece, Crete, and the Western Desert, so didn't get the attention it deserved, but it had large strategic consequences. The principle actors are well drawn, particularly Gen. Wavell-- all three principle architects of this first victory were under appreciated by the British High Command.
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