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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
'Invasion Rabaul' is a gut-wrenching account of courage and
sacrifice, folly and disaster, as seen through the eyes of the
Allied defenders who survived the Japanese assault on Britain
during the opening days of World War II.
"An author's quest to discover what really happened to his uncle
in World War II"
To all appearances, Anthony "Tony" Korkuc was just another
casualty of World War II. A gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress,
Korkuc was lost on a bombing mission over Germany, and his family
believed that his body had never been recovered. But when they
learned in 1995 that Tony was actually buried at Arlington National
Cemetery, his nephew Bob Korkuc set out on a seven-year quest to
learn the true fate of an uncle he never knew.
"Finding a Fallen Hero" is a compelling story that blends a
wartime drama with a primer on specialized research. Author Bob
Korkuc initially set out to learn how his Uncle Tony came to rest
at Arlington. In the process, he also unraveled the mystery of what
occurred over the skies of Germany half a century ago.
Korkuc dug up military documents and private letters and
interviewed people in both the United States and Germany. He
tracked down surviving crewmembers and even found the brother of
the Luftwaffe pilot who downed the B-17. Dozens of photographs help
readers envision both Tony Korkuc's fateful flight and his nephew's
dogged search for the truth.
A gripping chronicle of exhaustive research, "Finding a Fallen
Hero" will strike a chord with any reader who has lost a family
member to war. And it will inspire others to satisfy their own
unanswered questions.
In May 1944, with American forces closing in on the Japanese
mainland, the Fifth Fleet Amphibious Force was preparing to invade
Saipan. Control of this island would put enemy cities squarely
within range of the B-29 bomber. The navy had assembled a fleet of
landing ship tanks (LSTs) in the West Loch section of Pearl Harbor.
On May 21, an explosion tore through the calm afternoon sky,
spreading fire and chaos through the ordnance-packed vessels. When
the fires had been brought under control, six LSTs had been lost,
many others were badly damaged, and more than 500 military
personnel had been killed or injured. To ensure the success of
those still able to depart for the invasion--miraculously, only one
day late--the navy at once issued a censorship order, which has
kept this disaster from public scrutiny for seventy years.
"The Second Pearl Harbor" is the first book to tell the full story
of what happened on that fateful day. Military historian Gene
Salecker recounts the events and conditions leading up to the
explosion, then re-creates the drama directly afterward: men
swimming through flaming oil, small craft desperately trying to
rescue the injured, and subsequent explosions throwing flaming
debris everywhere. With meticulous attention to detail the author
explains why he and other historians believe that the official
explanation for the cause of the explosion, that a mortar shell was
accidentally detonated, is wrong.
This in-depth account of a little-known incident adds to our
understanding of the dangers during World War II, even far from the
front, and restores a missing chapter to history.
From Paris to Stalingrad, the Nazis systematically plundered all
manner of art and antiquities. But the first and most valuable
treasures they looted were the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman
Empire. In "Hitler's Holy Relics, "bestselling author Sidney
Kirkpatrick tells the riveting and never-before-told true story of
how an American college professor turned Army sleuth recovered
these cherished symbols of Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich before they
could become a rallying point in the creation of a Fourth and
equally unholy Reich.
Anticipating the Allied invasion of Nazi Germany, Reichsfuhrer
Heinrich Himmler had ordered a top-secret bunker carved deep into
the bedrock beneath Nurnberg castle. Inside the well-guarded
chamber was a specially constructed vault that held the plundered
treasures Hitler valued the most: the Spear of Destiny (reputed to
have been used to pierce Christ's side while he was on the cross)
and the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire, ancient artifacts
steeped in medieval mysticism and coveted by world rulers from
Charlemagne to Napoleon. But as Allied bombers rained devastation
upon Nurnberg and the U.S. Seventh Army prepared to invade the city
Hitler called "the soul of the Nazi Party," five of the most
precious relics, all central to the coronation ceremony of a
would-be Holy Roman Emperor, vanished from the vault. Who took
them? And why? The mystery remained unsolved for months after the
war's end, until the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower, ordered Lieutenant Walter Horn, a German-born art
historian on leave from U.C. Berkeley, to hunt down the missing
treasures.
To accomplish his mission, Horn must revisit the now-rubble-strewn
landscape of his youth and delve into the ancient legends and
arcane mysticism surrounding the antiquities that Hitler had looted
in his quest for world domination. Horn searches for clues in the
burnt remains of Himmler's private castle and follows the trail of
neo-Nazi "Teutonic Knights" charged with protecting a vast hidden
fortune in plundered gold and other treasure. Along the way, Horn
has to confront his own demons: how members of his family and
former academic colleagues subverted scholarly research to help
legitimize Hitler's theories of Aryan supremacy and the Master
Race. What Horn discovers on his investigative odyssey is so
explosive that his final report will remain secret for decades.
Drawing on unpublished interrogation and intelligence reports, as
well as on diaries, letters, journals, and interviews in the United
States and Germany, Kirkpatrick tells this riveting and disturbing
story with cinematic detail and reveals-- for the first time--how a
failed Vienna art student, obsessed with the occult and dreams of
his own grandeur, nearly succeeded in creating a Holy Reich rooted
in a twisted reinvention of medieval and Church history.
The brand-new instalment in Fenella J. Miller's bestselling
Goodwill House series.August 1940 As Autumn approaches, Lady Joanna
Harcourt is preparing for new guests at Goodwill House - land
girls, Sally, Daphne and Charlie. Sally, a feisty blonde from the
East End, has never seen a cow before, but she's desperate to
escape London and her horrible ex, Dennis. And although the hours
are long and the work hard, Sal quickly becomes good friends with
the other girls Daphne and Charlie and enjoys life at Goodwill
House. Until Dennis reappears threatening to drag her back to
London. Sal fears her life as a land girl is over, just as she
finally felt worthy. But Lady Joanna has other ideas and a plan to
keep Sal safe and doing the job she loves. Don't miss the next
heart-breaking instalment in Fenella J. Miller's beautiful Goodwill
House series. Praise for Fenella J. Miller: 'Curl up in a chair
with Fenella J Miller's characters and lose yourself in another
time and another place.' Lizzie Lane 'Engaging characters and
setting which whisks you back to the home front of wartime Britain.
A fabulous series!' Jean Fullerton
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