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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
The extraordinary untold story of Ernest Hemingway's dangerous
secret life in espionage A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A finalist
for the William E. Colby Military Writers' Award "IMPORTANT" (Wall
Street Journal) - "FASCINATING" (New York Review of Books) -
"CAPTIVATING" (Missourian) A riveting international
cloak-and-dagger epic ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the
liberation of Western Europe, wartime China, the Red Scare of Cold
War America, and the Cuban Revolution, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy
reveals for the first time Ernest Hemingway's secret adventures in
espionage and intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s (including
his role as a Soviet agent code-named "Argo"), a hidden chapter
that fueled both his art and his undoing. While he was the
historian at the esteemed CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime
American intelligence officer, former U.S. Marine colonel, and
Oxford-trained historian, began to uncover clues suggesting Nobel
Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway was deeply involved in
mid-twentieth-century spycraft -- a mysterious and shocking
relationship that was far more complex, sustained, and fraught with
risks than has ever been previously supposed. Now Reynolds's
meticulously researched and captivating narrative "looks among the
shadows and finds a Hemingway not seen before" (London Review of
Books), revealing for the first time the whole story of this hidden
side of Hemingway's life: his troubling recruitment by Soviet spies
to work with the NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB, followed in short
order by a complex set of secret relationships with American
agencies. Starting with Hemingway's sympathy to antifascist forces
during the 1930s, Reynolds illuminates Hemingway's immersion in the
life-and-death world of the revolutionary left, from his passionate
commitment to the Spanish Republic; his successful pursuit by
Soviet NKVD agents, who valued Hemingway's influence, access, and
mobility; his wartime meeting in East Asia with communist leader
Chou En-Lai, the future premier of the People's Republic of China;
and finally to his undercover involvement with Cuban rebels in the
late 1950s and his sympathy for Fidel Castro. Reynolds equally
explores Hemingway's participation in various roles as an agent for
the United States government, including hunting Nazi submarines
with ONI-supplied munitions in the Caribbean on his boat, Pilar;
his command of an informant ring in Cuba called the "Crook Factory"
that reported to the American embassy in Havana; and his
on-the-ground role in Europe, where he helped OSS gain key tactical
intelligence for the liberation of Paris and fought alongside the
U.S. infantry in the bloody endgame of World War II. As he examines
the links between Hemingway's work as an operative and as an
author, Reynolds reveals how Hemingway's secret adventures
influenced his literary output and contributed to the writer's
block and mental decline (including paranoia) that plagued him
during the postwar years -- a period marked by the Red Scare and
McCarthy hearings. Reynolds also illuminates how those same
experiences played a role in some of Hemingway's greatest works,
including For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea,
while also adding to the burden that he carried at the end of his
life and perhaps contributing to his suicide. A literary biography
with the soul of an espionage thriller, Writer, Sailor, Soldier,
Spy is an essential contribution to our understanding of the life,
work, and fate of one of America's most legendary authors.
Sierra Leone, 2000. While on patrol as part of a peacekeeping mission, eleven British soldiers are kidnapped.
The captors are a dangerous rebel group known as the West Side Boys. Fuelled by alcohol and drugs, the behaviour of the rebels is notoriously unpredictable. How long the soldiers have, no one knows. Rescuing them becomes the British military's highest priority, and so they bring in the SAS for Operation Barras, a mission that will go down in special forces history.
After negotiations break down, there are fears that the men being held in the compound could be executed at any moment, but there is no easy way in to save them. The only option is to shock the enemy on their home turf. A plan is put in place. The ambush begins.
Told from the perspectives of multiple people involved in the operation, and with Tony Hoare's expert insight into the forces, this is a heart-pounding retelling of one of the SAS's most dangerous missions.
Few escapades of the Second World War have captured the public's
imagination more than the successful abduction of German General
Kreipe from enemy-occupied Crete in 1944. It was an operation
instigated and daringly executed by two British SOE officers -
Patrick Leigh Fermor and William (Billy) Stanley Moss. The war
didn't stop for Billy Moss after this operation though, and it is
his continuing story that is told here. He reflects movingly on
what it means to fight and deal in death, how the success of
operations behind enemy lines in a foreign country is dependent on
the goodwill of local inhabitants, and, surprisingly, on moments of
high humour that punctuate the turmoil of war. War of Shadows is a
book in three parts - each displaying differing aspects of World
War II and its eventual conclusion, and all told with that
tell-tale blend of poignancy and humour so characteristic of the
time.
OFFICIAL TIE-IN TO THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE 12 STRONG, STARRING
CHRIS HEMSWORTH On September 11th, 2001 the world watched in
terror. On September 12th, 2001 they volunteered to fight. Twelve
soldiers gave us a reason to hope. THE DECLASSIFIED TRUE STORY OF
THE HORSE SOLDIERS. This is the dramatic account of a small band of
Special Forces soldiers who entered Afghanistan immediately
following September 11, 2001 and, riding to war on horses, defeated
the Taliban. Outnumbered 40 to 1, they capture the strategic Afghan
city of Mazar-e Sharif, and thereby effectively defeat the Taliban
throughout the rest of the country. They are welcomed as liberators
as they ride on horses into the city, the streets thronged with
Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban have been kicked out. The
soldiers rest easy, as they feel they have accomplished their
mission. And then, the action takes a wholly unexpected turn.
During a surrender of Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers are
ambushed by the would-be P.O.W.s and, still dangerously
outnumbered, they must fight for their lives in the city's ancient
fortress known as Qala-I Janghi, or the House of War . . . Praise
for Doug Stanton:- 'A thrilling action ride of a book.' New York
Times 'As gripping as the most intricately-plotted thriller.' Vince
Flynn 'A riveting story of the brave and resourceful American
warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against
Al Qaeda.' Tom Brokaw 'This reads like a cross between an
old-fashioned Western and a modern spy thriller.' Parade Magazine
'Spellbinding...action-packed prose. The book reads more like a
novel.' USA Today
The official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of
the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War are seriously
wrong, with significant inaccuracies and omissions. Groundbreaking
research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers'
records has revealed that hospitalisations for wounding, illness
and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than
officially acknowledged today. Why has it taken nearly one hundred
years for this to come to light? Was it a conspiracy to suppress
the toll, incompetence of Australia's official war historians Bean
and Butler, or was it simply the unquestioning acceptance of the
official record? You are invited on the journey in this book to
find the truth. The findings are startling and will rewrite
Australia's casualty statistics of the First World War. Lest we
forget.
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