"From Pusan to Panmunjom" is the candid and revealing wartime memoir of the soldier who, at the age of thirty-two, became South Korea's first four-star general. It brings an unprecedented perspective to a cataclysmic war.

"Soldier Stories" chronicles the multi-dimensional drama of people who endured the shock and awe of war―and whose spirits triumphed over it.

• A priest in the infamous Bataan Death March who kept others alive with his faithful recitation of the Lord's Prayer
• The journey to faith by a skeptical B-17 copilot lost at sea
• A young American widow caught in the "Dresden Inferno" who survived the firestorm with her three children
• The lesson of post-war forgiveness learned by a British soldier tortured by the Japanese
• A rowdy, Arizona cowboy who achieved World War I flying ace status in a matter of weeks
• And many more

"Soldier Stories' "true, soul-stirring accounts of those who have risen to the challenge of unimaginable circumstances will inspire you no matter what obstacles you may face.

This distinctive volume contains twenty first-person narrative essays from Holocaust survivors who were children at the time of the atrocity. As children aged two to sixteen, these authors had different experiences than their adult counterparts and also had different outlooks in understanding the events that they survived. While most Holocaust memoirs focus on one individual or one country, ""And Life Is Changed Forever"" offers a varied collection of compelling reflections. The survivors come from Germany, Poland, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, and Czechoslovakia. All of the contributors escaped death, but they did so in myriad ways. Some children posed as Gentiles or were hidden by sympathizers, some went to concentration camps and survived slave labor, some escaped on the Kindertransports, and some were sent to endure hardships in a ""safe"" location such as Siberia or unoccupied France. While each essay is intensely personal, all speak to the universal horrors and the triumphs of all children who have survived persecution. ""And Life Is Changed Forever"" also focuses on what these children became - teachers, engineers, physicians, entrepreneurs, librarians, parents, and grandparents - and explores the impact of the Holocaust on their later lives.

The classic tale of battle, roguery, and capture from the Army of Northern Virginia. From his looting of farmhouses during the Gettysburg campaign and robbing of fallen Union soldiers as opportunity allowed to his five arrests for infractions of military discipline and numerous unapproved leaves, John O. Casler's actions during the Civil War made him as much a rogue as a Rebel. Though he was no model soldier, his forthright confessions of his service years in the Army of Northern Virginia stand among the most sought after and cited accounts by a Confederate soldier. First published in 1893 and significantly revised and expanded in 1906, Casler's Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade recounts the truths of camp life, marches, and combat. Moreover, Casler's recollections provide an unapologetic view of the effects of the harsh life in Stonewall's ranks on an average foot soldier and his fellows. A native of Gainesboro, Virginia, with an inherent wanderlust and thirst for adventure, Casler enlisted in June 1861 in what became Company A, 33rd Virginia Infantry, and participated in major campaigns throughout the conflict, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Captured in February 1865, he spent the final months of the war as a prisoner at Fort McHenry, Maryland. His postwar narrative recalls the realities of warfare for the private soldier, the moral ambiguities of thievery and survival at the front, and the deliberate cruelties of capture and imprisonment with the vivid detail, straightforward candor, and irreverent flair for storytelling that have earned ""Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade"" its place in the first rank of primary literature of the Confederacy. This edition features a new introduction by Robert K. Krick chronicling Casler's origins and his careers after the war as a writer and organizer of Confederate veterans groups.

Rare recollections of combat and camaraderie from the Army of the Potomac. Thomas W. Hyde, a native of Maine who rose rapidly through the Union ranks and eventually received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Antietam, published his portrait of the Army of the Potomac in 1894. More than a mere personal remembrance, ""Following the Greek Cross"" tells the story of an illustrious army unit and offers rare glimpses into the Northern perspective on the war and its significance in U.S. history. One of the most cited - and most difficult to find - Union memoirs, this volume returns to print with an expanded edition featuring new information about the author, more than a dozen photographs, and a complete index. Hyde began his military career in 1861 as a major of the Seventh Maine Infantry Regiment. When that unit became part of the Sixth Corps of the massive Army of the Potomac, Hyde was promoted to a staff post. He served on the staffs of several prominent Union officers, including John Sedgwick and Horatio G. Wright, major generals who between them commanded the Sixth Corps in several important campaigns in the Virginia theater. Hyde's unit was also among those who followed General Lee's army into Pennsylvania and fought at Gettysburg. In his correspondence Hyde writes engagingly about the war, his fellow soldiers, strategy and tactics, and daily life in the Union forces. He elaborates on their motivation for fighting, the strength of their camaraderie, and their unflagging determination to preserve the Union. Eric J. Mink's new introduction provides fresh insights on Hyde's origins, perspectives, and postwar achievements, which include the establishment of one of North America's most important shipyards, in Hyde's hometown of Bath, Maine.

"Wake Island Pilot" is the story of John F. Kinney - hero, POW escapee, and aviation pioneer. It contains the first full-length account of a successful escape by a Marine captured in one of the great battles of World War II. Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese struck the small U.S. garrison on Wake Island. As his squadron's engineering officer, young pilot John F. Kinney used all his considerable ingenuity to oversee the cannibalization of crippled planes for spare parts when he himself was not in the air fighting off the Japanese assault. His gallant efforts helped enable the desperate Marine and Navy defenders to hold out for an incredible two weeks, a truly epic struggle. After the island's inevitable surrender, Kinney was a Japanese prisoner in China for the next three and a half years. During this time, he put his amazingly inventive mechanical skills to work, creating from scratch numerous items, including a radio, to improve his fellow POWs' situation. Toward the end of the war, Kinney escaped from a prison train and, with the assistance of both Nationalist and Communist Chinese troops, made his way to an American airfield. He was thus one of the few Americans to escape from Japanese captivity outside the Philippines. General Kinney's subsequent Marine Corps career was equally distinguished: He flew fighters in the Korean War and helped develop the classic A4-D Skyhawk.

In the fourth Quarterly Essay of 2005, John Birmingham ponders the Aust ralian way of war. After East Timor and Bali, a combination of primal fear and primal ambition has transformed attitudes to our region, to security and to war as an instrument of politics. Australian defence policy has become more assertive and our armed forces are being radically restructured and hardened. Australia now has the capacity, and even the will, to act as a military power in its region. A Time for War begins with a gripping account of Operation Anaconda, the 2002 battle in Afghanistan to which Australian special forces made a crucial contribution. Birmingham also looks at our war dreaming- the sanctification of Anzac Day and the eclipse of the Vietnam Syndrome. Ranging from Sir John Monash to Peter Cosgrove, from Rudyard Kipling to The One Day of the Year, he finds that our armed forces can now do no wrong, and that politicians have taken note. The new militarism is not simply a response to September 11, he argues - it marks a deeper shift in the culture. 'It being an RSL, we would stand each night at six o'clock for the prayer of remembrance. It was always a moving occasion, a strange suspended moment when the pokies and racing channel, the piped music and the drunken bullshitting all fell away ...Friends from overseas who witnessed the quiet ceremony never failed to be impressed. One, a poet from Czechoslovakia, had always thought Australians to be a shallow, soulless, materialistic people, but she changed her mind after her first experience of the ode to the fallen among the half-empty schooners and chip packets.' - John Birmingham, A Time For War

The 95th Bomb Group (H) achieved fame as the first unit to strike Berlin in a daylight raid and as the only combat group in Europe to win three Presidential Distinguished Unit Citations for courage and daring. B-17s Over Berlin is a unique compilation of vivid personal tales of the legendary 95th, told by the surviving crewmen themselves and the English villagers who knew them. Crashes, captures, thrilling escapes - these are the true stories of the furious air combat over Germany, Norway, and Poland that helped turn the tide of World War II.

Set both in the present and in the dust-laden reaches of Angola in 1976, Buried in the sky is an album of stories about men and women and war. To the strains of the music of Bob Dylan and in long periods of boredom and inactivity, South Africa's soldiers tried to make sense of a war they could not see. The author, himself a conscript at that time, allows his comrades to tell their stories. We get to know Manie Dippenaar, whose hunting trip threatened to turn into an international incident; Private Smith, the boy from the Bluff who had love and hate tattooed on his knuckles and chose a novel way to roast a chicken as his means of revenge on a bad tempered major; Morphine Sister, who handled a gun like a mamba; and Spek, the surfer-boy who dreamed only of catching the next big wave.

In the author's words, taken from the preface:
"I went on active duty on the first day of July 1943, and was discharged in March 1946. Between those dates I experienced the frightening, the pathetic, the moving, the ridiculous, the funny and the unbelievable, all to a degree I would not have thought possible.
Just short of my twenty-second birthday I entered the Army a bookish, somewhat introverted person. For what happened then, read on."
A remarkable story of courage, resourcefulness, tragedy and humor, Blood and Candles is unlike any other account of World War II that has ever been published.
The author's combat duty lasted for seven months during which he served as a runner or scout, sometimes finding himself alone behind enemy lines. Once he was even captured by the Americans and was almost shot as a German spy posing as an American. How he got out of that jam and many others will keep the reader fascinated from cover to cover.
While the climax of the book describes some of the most intense combat of the war, in which almost everyone around him was killed or seriously wounded, the author's experiences during basic training and after the War, attending the Sorbonne under the auspices of the Army, are equally fascinating.

More thrilling than any fiction, this book charts the true story of RAF crewman Denys Teare's year in Occupied France, a year spent a half-step ahead of Gestapo troopers determined to hunt him down.

The late James Mahoney went overseas in the spring of 1944 as the leader of one of the four bomb squadrons in a B-24 bomb group (the original 492nd) which endured extraordinary losses for 89 days of operation before being disbanded. The enduring mystery of why such an exceptionally well qualified and prepared group suffered so singularly is one of many significant themes he addresses in his 52 vignettes. Mahoney was reassigned to a bomb group with much better luck (the 467th), and finished the war as their Deputy Commander.
As both a 'man among men' and a recognized natural leader, he was positioned to note character and ability, and took it as his charge to develop both of these in the course of administering to the technical and demanding business of a combat organization comprising 3,000 souls.
Later in life, wanting to make sense of what he experienced and to record the terrific sacrifice of his peers, he distilled and organized his memories. Overcoming his natural reticence to show his hand emotionally, and fearful that grisly accounts might register as sensational horror instead of sobering lesson, he labored carefully to build for his readers a rich context for his 'war stories'.
These memoirs take the reader through the methodology and equipment of aviation and strategic bombing in the era before stand-off weaponry, when hundreds of planes at a time, each with ten-man crews, flew in unpressurized planes through flak and fighter filled skies for hours at a time at 40 degrees below zero, to bomb targets in Hitler-occupied Europe.
He introduces the reader to his acquaintances and friends, commanders and charges - a range of memorable rascals, unforgettableheroes, and ordinary mortals showing their true mettle and courage under dire circumstances.
Jim Mahoney's account of his 13 months in combat is an engaging mix of timeless morals and enduring humor. The big themes are laid out with common sense, while the practical joke, the stroke of genius, or personal quirk are offered as clear windows to the host of characters and their relationships. These certainly capture the fact and flavor of the daylight bombing campaign over northern Europe and make a contribution to the historical record, but they also transcend that specific time and place, drawing the readers in any era into human drama, played out in all of its variety in the pressure-cooker of wartime.
The son's contribution has been to document some of the more unusual aspects of his father's account, so that these can be received as more than just precious memoir - as contributions to the historical record.This has entailed many interviews, travel to remnants of his father's Rackheath and North Pickenham bases in East Anglia, and contemplation of the horrible effectiveness of aerial bombardment on several of the Mighty Eighth Air Force's 'ground zeros' in Germany.
Additionally, the son supplies the reader with a variety of material designed to make the dated technology of aviation in its 20th century adolescence more understandable, and to put into broader contexts the struggles to control European airspace and weaken the foe through costly strategic bombardment.Tables and an extensive WW II timeline give a framework for understanding American involvement and the role of air power. A comprehensive glossary of terms makes the aviation and military lingo clear, and hisbibliography will equip the motivated reader to delve deeper.
Photographs from 'then' and 'now' bring the reader along on the son's odyssey, retracing the father's steps and honoring the sacrifices of survivors and the fallen alike.
A foreword by Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF (Ret.), fighter leader in three wars and a WW II ace, adds important insight to the riddle of why survivors of grisly combat action are typically so tight-lipped about their experience.
Reluctant Witness is the combined effort of a pragmatic realist and a hardened optimist. This rich account of one witness's experience is offered to a general audience of conscientious citizens everywhere, with encouragements to never let their guard down and enable the tyrant, or ever despair of their ability, when committed to what is just and fair, to set things right. Widespread appreciation of the waste and senselessness of war impells practical efforts to 'wage peace'.

Reviews "These highly-detailed memoirs of the CO of the 788th Bomb Squadron, flying B-24 Liberators from Rackheath at much the same time as our very 'own' Crew 5294. The account was completed by Lt Col Mahoney's son, Brian H. Mahoney and is a fine testament to both man and era."
- as reviewed in Fly Past, Britain's Top-Selling Aviation Monthly
January 2002 edition
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"At last, a book that tells what war in the air in WW II flying from England in American bombers was really like. Reluctant Witness is a brilliant and wholly appropriate title, describing as it does the brutality of war seen from very close quarters, in the cockpit and from the ground. James J. Mahoney saw death anddestruction all around him but the everlasting impression of the book is the wonderful detail and the vivid picture of incidents and events, some seemingly inconsequential at first, and the impact of war on ordinary men thrust into active service against an implacable foe. The descriptions and unfolding tales of the aerial endeavours of the 492nd and 467th Bomb Groups amid flak, fear, and fighters draws comparison with such writings as "I Saw Regensburg Destroyed." My particular favourites are 'Threes' and 'Ticket Punchers'. The first details the incredible coincidence/fate "call it what you will" that befell those with the 28-type Parachute. The latter tells of the sky pilots the chaplains, and the effect one had on the group when Al Shower tried to impose his strict discipline to remedy the soaring VD rate. Ironically, for a group that led in bombing accuracy and adhered to saluting and disciplinary regimes imposed by the iron will of the CO, the 467th led the tables in VD! The chapter explains why Shower's attempts to limit the spread were undermined. At the other end of the scale chapters such as Zero/Zero and Ferguson's Crew reveal starkly the grim and grisly reality behind bland statistics. The whole thrust of this book is directed towards man's inhumanity to man, not dull statistics and meaningless PR. We have both Messrs. James and Brian Mahoney to thank for the opportunity to enrich our understanding and education of the US Army Air Forces in WW2."
-Martin W. Bowman, renowned British author of over 60 military and aviation titles ----------------------------------

..."I just could not put your book down; you and father have written what I consider one of the finestrecords ever seen. Just finished it this morning and will start all over as I enjoyed it so much.We could almost feel your father in the room with us. Just wish we had talked with him a lot, lot more."
-David Hastings, Chair, Board of Governors of the Second Air Division Memorial Trust ----------------------------------

..." After two readings through of RELUCTANT WITNESS I find it to be an excellent accounting of that war and location. Of particular interest to me were the stories concerning events which occurred, there, following my rotation back to the States, such as hauling gas to Patton in France. Also extremely interisting are the management techniques used to develop 'Lead Crews' and other means and strategies which gave the 467th BG the best bombing record in the 8th at the war's end... Both authors can feel justly proud of the book!"
-Dick Bastien, an original 492nd co-pilot ----------------------------------

..." I received the book from Trafford a few days ago and have finished first reading. I have ordered one for a son in Austin, TX. I am now revisiting parts to refresh my memory. I was very surprised that JJM remembered me as our crew had no difficulty or real memorable times... I wish you great success with the book and thank for doing this thing for a lot of us survivors of the 492nd an 467th."
-Sgt. "Andy" Anderson, radio operator on the Carl Johnson crew ----------------------------------

..."I got a copy of Reluctant Witness. What an awesome book!! Just to be able to read your Dad's memories and memoirs plus your added analysis and info is incredible. I carry it around with me all the time in my briefcase bag and read through itboth at home and at work when I have time. Also find myself re-reading things again and again it's just so interesting!"
-Harry D. Greene, son of a 492nd BG veteran ----------------------------------

Rather than being a conventional regimental history, Fighting Tigers instead picks out fourteen classic actions and campaigns fought by men of the Leicestershire (later Royal Leicestershire) Regiment. These are some of the actions in which the bravery and determination of 'The Tigers' shone through most clearly. The book also illustrates the bonds of kinship which within a family regiment such as the Leicesters are extremely strong, with several generations serving at different times, and surnames often recurring. The book covers the Boer War, First World War, Second World War, Korean War and the 'undeclared' war in Borneo in 1963. The actions covered include Ladysmith and the Somme via the evacuation at Dunkirk to the jungles of Burma, and thence to the hills of Korea, along the way charting the characters and the commanders of various battalions, and chronicling the Honours and decorations which were gained.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's heroic opposition to Hitler in 1944 cost him his life. In this intriguing, well-paced tale of a journalistic coup, Marshall, the first to discover the real events behind Rommel's death, tells how he learned the facts from Rommel's widow and delves into the great general's background and death. He arrived at his conclusions based on his intimate knowledge of men on Rommel's staff and his access to Rommel's papers, including letters from the general to his wife. Here, for the first time in paperback, is the exciting story of how the world learned about the way the "Desert Fox" met his death.

As 1914 drew to a close, little did anyone in Australia know that four years of warfare lay ahead. Mothers could not forsee the anguish they would suffer, nor wives and sweethearts their heartbreak. Young men had little idea of the grim reality of war as they marched off to do their patriotic duty for King and country.

Critical acclaim for William B. Breuer

"A first-class historian."
–The Wall Street Journal

Top Secret Tales of World War II

"A book for rainy days and long solitary nights by the fire. If there were a genre for cozy nonfiction, this would be the template."
–Publishers Weekly

"Perfect for the curious and adventure readers and those who love exotic tales and especially history buffs who will be surprised at what they didn’t know. Recommended for nearly everyone."
–Kirkus Reviews

Daring Missions of World War II

" The author brings to light many previously unknown stories of behind-the-scenes bravery and covert activities that helped the Allies win critical victories."
–Albuquerque Journal

Secret Weapons of World War II

"Rip-roaring tales . . . a delightful addition to the niche that Breuer has so successfully carved out."
–Publishers Weekly

When Chief Gunner Hashiro Hayashi took dead aim on British Columbia's Estevan Point Lighthouse and wireless station on a June morning in 1942, the realities of war had come to North America. Sixty years later, the fascinating events of that era and their impact on both the Canadian and American psyches remain unknown to much of the world.After conducting decades of research and interviews with veterans on both sides of the conflict, author Brendan Coyle now reveals the campaign that included three attacks on British Columbia, an air raid on Portland, Oregon, and the harsh battles fought in Alaska. From the foreword: "Brendan Coyle has done a magnificent job in this comprehensive review of the war on the West Coast. No other single volume has so neatly tied together the myriad stories of how the war affected people in British Columbia, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska,"-Jim Delgado, Executive DirectorVancouver Maritime Museu

The Korean War was a major event in American history. It marked an abrupt end to the euphoria Americans felt in the wake of victory in World War II and turned out to be the harbinger of disaster in Vietnam a decade later.

Though three years of brutal fighting resulted in millions of casualties, the final truce line of 1953 corresponded almost exactly to the positions the opponents held when the fighting began. Back home, the returning veterans met with little interest in or appreciation of what they had endured. Consequently, literary responses to the Korean War did not find an eager readership. Few people, it seemed, wanted to read about what they perceived as a backwater war that possessed neither grand scale nor apparent nobility, a war that ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

Yet an important literature has come out of the Korean War. As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the war, these writings are well worth our attention. Many of the twelve stories and fifty poems assembled in Retrieving Bones have long been out of print and are almost impossible to find in any other source. The editors have enhanced this collection by providing maps, a chronology of the Korean War, and annotated lists of novels, works of nonfiction, and films. In a detailed introduction, Ehrhart and Jason discuss the milestones of the Korean War and place each fiction writer and poet represented into historical and literary contexts.

Among the writers and poets are

- James Lee Burke

- Eugene Burdick

- William Chamberlain

- Rolando Hinojosa

- Reg Saner

- Vern Sneider

- Stanford Whitmore

- Keith Wilson

When Vince Mendoza began to write his life story, he turned to his memory of visiting the deathbed of his great-grandmother, a Creek Indian who embodied the history and dauntless will of her people. The memory inspired both sorrow and boundless pride. "Son of Two Bloods," Mendoza's vibrant and candid account of his life, is full of such grief and rejoicing. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1947, Mendoza was the child of a Creek mother and a Mexican father. In this book he vividly portrays his Mexican and Indian relatives and his confusing, often painful, childhood interactions with the dominant white society. He left childhood behind when he was sent to Vietnam. There he found hatred, terror, and camaraderie in equal measures. On returning from Vietnam Mendoza faced professional, economic, and personal struggles but found consolation in love, family, and friendship. His moving account of his first wife's courageous, losing battle with cancer ends with renewal as Mendoza remarries and decides to explore his past, and his people, in writing. "Endure, then weep," he writes at last, "endure, and be rewarded, endure and rejoice, endure and learn."

Fragments is a story about how war can make everything explosive--even love--and how two friends try to put the pieces of their lives together again. "[Fragments] makes the usual semi-autobiographical account [of the Vietnam War] ...seem flimsy and discursive in comparison...The shapeliness and sense of larger design [is] so elegantly executed in Fragments."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times "The plot is believable, the characters sharply drawn, the prose clean and distinctive...Stand[s] with Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato, James Webb's Fields of Fire, Josiah Bunting's The Lionheads and John Del Vecchio's The 13th Valley...A strong, compelling novel."--Marc Leepson, Washington Post "There have been many books on Vietnam, and there will be many others. This is more a novel than the rest...Fuller has reassembled the exploded grenade."--Bob MacDonald, Boston Sunday Globe "Should our children ask about Vietnam, we would not go wrong to place this book in their hands...[Fragments] purveys more than information--it gives the war a literary form."--David Myers, New York Times "The best novel yet about the Vietnam War...It ranks with Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's From Here to Eternity. "--Daniel Kornstein, Wall Street Journal

Among the many technological advances of this century that have shrunk our country, few have had as great an impact as aviation. Technologies evolve and national priorities change, but the qualities necessary to design aircraft, fly them in war and peace, and manage airlines remain constant. In this, his second book about pioneers of Canadian aviation, Peter Pigott brings a richness and understanding of the individuals themselves to the reader.

Flying Canucks II takes us into Air Canada's boardroom with Claude I. Taylor, to the Avro Arrow design office with Jim Floyd, inside the incredible career of Aviation Hall of Fame pilot Herb Seagram, on C.D. Howe's historic dawn-to-dusk flight, and with Len Birchall in a Stranraer seaplane before he became, in Churchill's phrase, "The Saviour of Ceylon." It includes the story of how Scottish immigrant J.A. Wilson engineered a chain of airports across the country, how bush pilot Bob Randall explored the polar regions, and the ordeal of Erroll Boyd, the first Canadian to fly the Atlantic. The lives of "Buck" McNair and "Bus" Davey, half a century after the Second World War, are placed in the perspective of the entire national experience in those years. Whenever possible, Mr. Pigott has interviewed the players themselves, and drawing on his experience and contacts within the aviation community, has created a multi-faceted study of the business, politics, and technology that influenced the ten lives explored in depth in this book.

C.D. Howe, wartime Canada's absolute government czar used to say that running the country's airline was all he really wanted to do. With a rich aviation heritage such as this, Flying Canucks II depicts the elements and the enemy at their worst and the pioneers of Canadian aviation at their best.