Showing titles in Wars & Conflicts

In 2007, the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade posted to northeastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province. Battle Company, the best within the Brigade, was assigned the toughest Area of Operations. It was called the Korengal Valley. During their fifteen-month tour, Battle Company saw more combat than any unit since Vietnam. Raw and unapologetic, To Quell the Korengal is a first-hand account of life on the front lines.

Human Smoke delivers an indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources---including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries---the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.

Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi genocide claimed the lives of nearly three hundred thousand people diagnosed with psychiatric illness or cognitive deficiencies. Not until the 1980s would these murders, as well as the coercive sterilizations of some four hundred thousand others classified as “feeble-minded,” be officially acknowledged as crimes at all. The Question of Unworthy Life charts this history from its origins in prewar debates about the value of disabled lives to our continuing efforts to unlearn eugenic thinking today.

Together with his own life-changing encounters with animals around the world, Martin has celebrated the intelligence, loyalty, and companionship of some truly extraordinary creatures whose lives have been entwined with our own. By turns heart-warming, inspiring and always fascinating, Meetings With Remarkable Animals gives us a chance to meet them too.

Marion and Huguette Müller’s family was torn apart when the Nazis invaded France in 1940. After their mother was deported to Auschwitz, the sisters fled to the small Alpine ski resort village of Val d'Isère, where they were rescued by a brave young doctor. Through intrepid reporting and meticulous research, Whitehouse traces the story of the Müller sisters, solving decades-old mysteries in her attempt to deliver both closure and justice. With skill and urgency, Whitehouse raises moral questions at the heart of the tragedy of the Shoah.

Russian Roulette July – September 1941 If Hitler had expected a decisive victory in Russia, at speed, he was thwarted at every turn and while the Luftwaffe bombed Moscow and the Siege of Leningrad began, the Soviet Red Army refused to capitulate as they watched and waited for the winter snows. Trouble was also brewing in the Pacific as America took diplomatic action against the Japanese.

Battle Lines Drawn January – March 1940 As the New Year dawned and the people of Britain faced the introduction of rationing, all eyes turned northwards to Scandinavia, where Adolf Hitler was preparing for full-scale invasion. U-Boat attacks increased and at Scapa Flow a German Air Raid claimed the first British casualties.

The Fall of Singapore January – March 1942 With Britain no longer facing Hitler alone, the first GIs arrived in the UK, while the Japanese took the advantage afforded them by their surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. As Singapore fell, the Allies looked on in horror as Japan also had control of Java, Burma and New Guinea, as they edged ever closer towards Australia.

Brave New World July – September 1945 With Europe sifting through the rubble of a long and bitter war, the Japanese, true to their cultural heritage refused to surrender. The prospect of a protracted land campaign, resulting in the deaths of many more American military personnel, was too high a price to pay, leaving Truman to take the decision to end World War II swiftly, with the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Battle of Midway and Beyond April – June 1942 It was time for the American Navy to get back on course after Pearl Harbour, and in the four-day Battle for the Coral Sea, they claimed victory over the Japanese, before defeating them again in the decisive Battle of Midway. Elsewhere the Luftwaffe went back to targeting more British cities in the Baedeker Raids.

Fighting Further Afield October – December 1940 Worldwide, the conflict continued to escalate as Japan made their presence felt as signatories of the Tripartite Pact, giving Hitler’s Axis of Evil more power than ever. Britain stood alone as the nightly bombing raids of the Blitz devastated major cities, while overseas British troops joined the Allied campaign for supremacy in North Africa.

On Land, in the Air and all at Sea January – March 1941 The Luftwaffe continued its attempts to bomb Britain into submission, while the German Afrika Korps strengthened its position as Rommel, Hitler’s “Desert Fox”, took charge. At sea the naval forces battle each other and the elements, as the Japanese embark upon a spy mission to gather information about the American Fleet at Pearl Harbour.

First Blood April – June 1940 When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the wartime coalition government in May 1940 he pledged his “blood, toil, tears and sweat” and within days of his appointment he was called upon to honour his promise. As the Low Countries fell to Adolf Hitler, and France was poised to follow suit, rescuing thousands of Allied servicemen from the beaches of Dunkirk was Churchill’s top priority, as he proved beyond doubt that he was indeed the right man for the job.

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity July – September 1944 As the liberation of France got underway, the citizens of a nation oppressed since 1940 celebrated the Allied arrival with rapture. But there was still much to be achieved, on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. For Hitler the writing was on the wall, and when one of his own, Claus von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate the Fuhrer, he very nearly succeeded.

Tentative Steps July – September 1943 From their success in North Africa the Allies were ready to return to occupied Europe, first landing on Sicily before moving north onto mainland Italy under the command of Montgomery, known fondly by his men as Monty. But as the Italians surrendered, the Germans occupied Rome, making the battle for Italy a long, hard slog, while the plans for the invasion of Northern France steadily took shape.

Blueprint for Victory January – March 1944 As winter gave way to spring the world watched and waited as the Allied forces prepared for Operation Overlord. Brave and daring, risking all, US General Dwight D Eisenhower took charge of the campaign to deliver the fight for freedom directly to Adolf Hitler.

When it comes to the subject of war there are few conflicts that loom larger in our minds than the Second World War, fought between 1939 and 1945. Many of us can remember relatives and friends who were involved in the conflict, but as the years go by, passing on the lessons learnt from World War II to each new generation, becomes ever more important. Liam Dale's World War II History Journals fulfills that task, with year on year chapters covering the history of this landmark encounter in world history.

The Blitz, the Bismarck and Barbarossa April – June 1941 With Britain failing to fall at Hitler’s feet, the Blitz drew to a close, as the Fuhrer turned his attention eastwards. The sinking of the German battleship, the Bismarck, lifted the spirits of the British Navy, and as Hitler’s campaign for Russia, code named Operation Barbarossa, got underway, the course of World War II veered dramatically.

Facing the Music January – March 1943 The only option for the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad was surrender, while all across Russia the Red Army consolidated their advantage. Also, as German cities encountered the kind of bombing that Britain faced back in 1940, courtesy of the RAF, the Allied commanders planned a return to France at the Casablanca Conference.

El Alamein to Stalingrad July – September 1942 Hitler’s “Desert Fox”, Rommel pushed forward at El Alamein, but with the arrival of the maverick British General, Bernard Montgomery, to take charge of the Eighth Army in North Africa, the wind of change was about to blow. Meanwhile on the Russian Front Hitler’s troops advanced their Stalingrad campaign, with the Fuhrer boasting that this key city would soon be his.