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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
Terry s father, Norris Wadsworth, was sent to help start a
pineapple plantation and cannery on a new frontier in the
Philippines. While the rich, dark soil produced golden fruit, the
Wadsworths and other families built their homes on a remote plateau
at the edge of the jungle. The compound was eventually called, Del
Monte, a namesake to their company. The tropical oasis with a 9
hole golf course and even a grass airstrip became a popular
destination for many government and military dignitaries. As a
young child, Terry s days were full of happiness and adventure.
Life, like the growing pineapple, was sweet. She had a little pony,
attended a small school, and enjoyed playing with the other young
Del Monte children. The only threats to her edenic life were
occasional cobra and python snakes found around, and sometimes even
in, their home. That is, until a much fiercer enemy struck 5000
miles away at Pearl Harbor. Within hours of the surprise attack in
Hawaii, the Japanese military launched a similar assault on the
Philippine islands and began their campaign to overtake the
American Protectorate. Just before the war started the Del Monte
management had helped the U.S. Army Air Corps build an airbase with
two long, grassy runways nearby. Soon, the peaceful skies above
their paradisiacal home were swarming with military war machines.
Terry and her family found themselves on the dangerous battle
front. General Douglas MacArthur, Philippine President Manuel
Quezon and their families, plus many other important people hid
from the Japanese in Terry s remote home as they waited to secretly
fly from Del Monte to Australia. As the fighting intensified, Terry
s family abandoned Del Monte to hide in the dense, mountain jungle
and wait for an opportunity to also escape to Australia. While the
families were in hiding, Del Monte itself became a target of the
Japanese military. Bombs and shells rained down, on the homes,
cannery, and airfield. Eventually the Japanese pushed the American
forces into retreat. Terry and her family found themselves with
only one option. Surrender As they surrendered to the Japanese,
Terry s father counseled her, Live each day to the best of your
ability. Do not get caught up looking so far ahead that, worrying
about the future, you get discouraged and lose hope. The advice
served her well, as the next three years of her interment as a
prisoner of war were full of hardship and suffering. Though
stripped of her possessions and freedom, Terry was grateful to be
alive and to be with her parents. Together, the family hovered on
the brink of starvation, battling deadly infections and disease,
and eluding death at the hands of their captors. Yet, despite these
conditions, they found purpose in living a meaningful life. Each
prisoner had a job to perform and holidays were still observed,
even if it meant singing Christmas carols in the hold of a rat
infested cargo ship or feasting on wormy prunes for Thanksgiving.
Terry s unconquerable spirit, as an eight to eleven year old
prisoner of war, is a reminder that even in the most deplorable
circumstances, life is what you make of it. Meanwhile, General
McArthur and the United States military returned to take back the
Philippines from Japan. Military leaders learned of a Japanese plan
to execute all prisoners of war before they could be freed. A
special American military unit was charged with the dangerous
assignment to pass behind enemy lines, 70 miles deep into Japanese
territory, and liberate the prisoners. Terry s life and the lives
of thousands of other men, women, and children depended on the
success of this miraculous rescue mission
Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace,
Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his
service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western
mythology during the Cold War. Over 1,404 wartime missions,
Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career
contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the
frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays
to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the
wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the
Cold War that ended with conflict and angst. Just when Hartmann’s
second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers
and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation.
These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory
stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe
pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann’s legacy
became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in
support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account
of his life – devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and
service under Hitler – has gone unchallenged for almost a
generation. Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann
and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these
men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were
complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex
human rather than the heroic caricature we’re used to, and it
argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we’ve inherited about
men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as
they do about the heroes themselves.
'The most significant issue that Dockrill addresses is that of how
Japan views the war in retrospect, a question which not only tells
us a lot about how events were seen in Japan in 1941 but is also, a
matter still of importance in contemporary East Asian politics.'
Antony Best, London School of Economics This multi-authored work,
edited by Saki Dockrill, is an original, unique, and controversial
interpretation of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific. Dr
Dockrill, the author of Britain's Policy for West German
Rearmament, has skilfully converted the proceedings of an
international conference held in London into a stimulating and
readable account of the Pacific War. This is a valuable
contribution to our knowledge of the subject.
This book recounts a little-known history of the estimated 2,000
babies born to black GIs and white British women in the second
world war. The African-American press named these children 'brown
babies'; the British called them 'half-castes'. Black GIs, in this
segregated army, were forbidden to marry their white girl-friends.
Nearly half of the children were given up to children's homes but
few were adopted, thought 'too hard to place'. There has been
minimal study of these children and the difficulties they faced,
such as racism in a (then) very white Britain, lack of family or a
clear identity. The book will present the stories of over fifty of
these children, their stories contextualised in terms of government
policy and attitudes of the time. Accessibly written, with stories
both heart-breaking and uplifting, the book is illustrated
throughout with photographs. -- .
A medical officer in the 34th "Red Bulls" Infantry Division on the
front lines of World War II, Lt.Col./Maj. Arthur L. Ludwick, Jr.,
was responsible for the well-being of traumatized and wounded
American soldiers through some of the bloodiest engagements in
North Africa and Italy: Kasserine and Fondouk Passes, Hill 609,
Monte Pantano, Cassino, and Anzio. He was awarded both the Purple
Heart and Silver Star, unusual combat commendations for an unarmed
medical officer. His articulate letters home detail his
experiences, with keen observations of the people and landscapes he
encountered. Based on Ludwick's letters and an archive of
interviews, military documents and photos, this multifaceted
narrative, compiled by his daughter, also tells the story of her
discovery of her father as the young man she never knew.
This 1942 parts list was prepared as "specified by the
Quartermaster General's office." Parts are comprehensively listed,
diagramed and illustrated. Many pages bear the original greasy
finger smudges
"If you who read this can say, I am not under fire; I am not under
torture; I am not on the run; if I hear a noise at six in the
morning, I know it is a neighbour or a milkman, not the secret
police; no one in my country is arrested and held without prompt
charge and trial ...then you owe it, in a larger degree than most
historians have so far allowed, to the resistance that occupied
Europe put up to Hitler."An instant classic upon its initial
publication in 1976, this fluent and persuasive book was the first
to analyse the whole field of wartime resistance to the Nazis in
Europe, to explain what resisters could and could not do, and to
assess whether they achieved their aims. It is a truly epic theme,
with its drama of intelligence, deception, escape and subversion.
In gathering the threads of this important narrative into the
fabric of a single volume, M. R. D. Foot, one of the most
distinguished historians of his time, achieved a work of gripping
and major significance.
As the Second World War raged throughout Europe, modernist writers
often became crucial voices in the propaganda efforts of both
sides. Modernism at the Microphone: Radio, Propaganda, and Literary
Aesthetics During World War II is a comprehensive study of the role
modernist writers' radio works played in the propaganda war and the
relationship between modernist literary aesthetics and propaganda.
Drawing on new archival research, the book covers the broadcast
work of such key figures as George Orwell, Orson Welles, Dorothy L.
Sayers, Louis MacNeice, Mulk Raj Anand, T.S. Eliot, and P.G.
Wodehouse. In addition to the work of Anglo-American modernists,
Melissa Dinsman also explores the radio work of exiled German
writers, such as Thomas Mann, as well as Ezra Pound's notorious
pro-fascist broadcasts. In this way, the book reveals modernism's
engagement with new technologies that opened up transnational
boundaries under the pressures of war.
Based on never previously explored personal accounts and archival
documentation, this book examines life and death in the
Theresienstadt ghetto, seen through the eyes of the Jewish victims
from Denmark. "How was it in Theresienstadt?" Thus asked Johan Grun
rhetorically when he, in July 1945, published a short text about
his experiences. The successful flight of the majority of Danish
Jewry in October 1943 is a well-known episode of the Holocaust, but
the experience of the 470 men, women, and children that were
deported to the ghetto has seldom been the object of scholarly
interest. Providing an overview of the Judenaktion in Denmark and
the subsequent deportations, the book sheds light on the fate of
those who were arrested. Through a micro-historical analysis of
everyday life, it describes various aspects of social and daily
life in proximity to death. In doing so, the volume illuminates the
diversity of individual situations and conveys the deportees'
perceptions and striving for survival and 'normality'. Offering a
multi-perspective and international approach that places the case
of Denmark into the broader Jewish experience during the Holocaust,
this book is invaluable for researchers of Jewish studies,
Holocaust and genocide studies, and the history of modern Denmark.
Originally published in 1994, This Working-Day World is lively
collection of essays presenting a social, political and cultural
view of British women's lives in the period 1914-45. The volume
describes women's activities in many different areas, ranging from
the weekly wash to the rescue of child refugees. Each essay, from
an international list of contributors, is based on new research
which will complement existing studies in a range of disciplines by
adding information on, among other topics, women's teacher training
colleges, and women in the BBC, in medical laboratories and in Art
schools. The book does not, however, idealise women: the militarism
and racism of the period infected women too, and this is revealed
in the account of women in the British Union of Fascists, and the
analysis of the Pankhursts' merging of patriotism and gender
issues. Through studies and personal accounts, This Working-Day
World reveals past issues that are still pertinent to debates in
today's society. As we read the chapter on the recently discovered
Diary of Doreen Bates which outlines possibly the first female
civil servant campaign for rights as a single mother, we hear
echoes of issues being discussed today. Indeed, as we approach the
end of the century it is a good moment to look back and re-evaluate
areas and degrees of progress - or the reverse - in society, and in
British women's lives in particular. With its unusual photographs,
this accessible and informative collection provides a rich resource
for students in twentieth century social and cultural history, and
women's studies courses, and an enlightening volume for general
readers.
Based on detailed archival research and site visits, Scarred
Landscapes is the first environmental history of Vichy France. From
mountains and marshlands to foresters and resisters, it examines
the intricate and often surprising connections between war,
history, and the 'natural' environment during these turbulent
years.
THE SUNDAY TIMES NON FICTION BESTSELLER WHSmith NON-FICTION BOOK OF
THE YEAR 2018 'The best book you will ever read about Britain's
greatest warplane' Patrick Bishop, bestselling author of Fighter
Boys 'A rich and heartfelt tribute to this most iconic British
machine' Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607 'As the
RAF marks its centenary, Nichol has created a thrilling and often
moving tribute to some of its greatest heroes' Mail on Sunday
magazine The iconic Spitfire found fame during the darkest early
days of World War II. But what happened to the redoubtable fighter
and its crews beyond the Battle of Britain, and why is it still so
loved today? In late spring 1940, Nazi Germany's domination of
Europe had looked unstoppable. With the British Isles in easy reach
since the fall of France, Adolf Hitler was convinced that Great
Britain would be defeated in the skies over her southern coast,
confident his Messerschmitts and Heinkels would outclass anything
the Royal Air Force threw at them. What Hitler hadn't planned for
was the agility and resilience of a marvel of British engineering
that would quickly pass into legend - the Spitfire. Bestselling
author John Nichol's passionate portrait of this magnificent
fighter aircraft, its many innovations and updates, and the people
who flew and loved them, carries the reader beyond the dogfights
over Kent and Sussex. Spanning the full global reach of the
Spitfire's deployment during WWII, from Malta to North Africa and
the Far East, then over the D-Day beaches, it is always accessible,
effortlessly entertaining and full of extraordinary spirit. Here
are edge-of-the-seat stories and heart-stopping first-hand accounts
of battling pilots forced to bail out over occupied territory; of
sacrifice and wartime love; of aristocratic female flyers, and of
the mechanics who braved the Nazi onslaught to keep the aircraft in
battle-ready condition. Nichol takes the reader on a hair-raising,
nail-biting and moving wartime history of the iconic Spitfire
populated by a cast of redoubtable, heroic characters that make you
want to stand up and cheer.
This volume provides a historical narrative, historiographical
reviews, and scholarly analyses by leading scholars throughout the
world on the hitherto understudied topic of Shanghai Jewish
refugees. Few among the general public know that during the Second
World War, approximately 16,000 to 20,000 Jews fled the Nazis,
found unexpected refuge in Shanghai, and established a vibrant
community there. Though most of them left Shanghai soon after the
conclusion of the war in 1945, years of sojourning among the
Chinese and surviving under the Japanese occupation generated
unique memories about the Second World War, lasting goodwill
between the Chinese and Jews, and contested interpretations of this
complex past. The volume makes two major contributions to the
studies of Shanghai Jewish refugees. First, it reviews the present
state of the historiography on this subject and critically assesses
the ways in which the history is being researched and commemorated
in China. Second, it compiles scholarship produced by renowned
scholars, who aim to rescue the history from isolated perspectives
and look into the interaction between Jews, Chinese, and Japanese.
By the end of 1941, having suffered significant setbacks in its
offensive to take Moscow, the German Army and its armoured forces
began to lose their aura of invincibility, both to the Allies and
the German home front. This book, part of the Third Reich's attempt
to bolster morale, showcases the actions of the 3rd Panzer
Division. The division performed well in the early phases of
Operation Barbarossa but experienced grave hardship in the drive on
Moscow. Written by war correspondents who watched the battles
unfold firsthand, Panzer Wedge has a unique"you-are-there"
perspective that captures the heady spirit of the offensive's
beginning as well as the dogged fighting that brought it to a halt.
The book will appeal to anyone who enjoys accounts of World War II
combat, especially tank warfare, and to historians researching how
the war effort was reported on the German home front. It offers
significant insight into the conflict that has so long captured the
imagination of history enthusiasts everywhere. About the Author Lt.
Fritz Lucke served with the German Army during World War II. Robert
Edwards, a retired U.S. Army armour officer, has taught at West
Point. He lives in Navarre, Florida. Michael Olive has been
researching military history for decades, with a focus on tanks and
aircraft. He lives in British Columbia.
"This book adds to this growing body of scholarship on the Italian
Resistance by analysing, for the first time, how the 'three wars'
are represented over the broad spectrum of Resistance culture from
1945 to the present day. Furthermore, it makes this contribution to
scholarship by bridging the gap between historical and cultural
analysis. Whereas historians frequently use literary texts in their
writings, they are often flawed by an insufficiently nuanced
understanding of what a literary text is. Likewise, literary
critics who have discussed writers such as Calvino and Vittorini,
or films such Pais and La notte di San Lorenzo, only refer in
passing to the historical context in which these works were
produced. By fusing historical and cultural analysis, author Philip
Cooke makes a unique contribution to our understanding of a key
period of Italian history and culture"--
This is the epic story of those tens of thousands of communists
exiled from Spain after Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War.
With their iron discipline and fervent dedication to Stalin's
cause, they did not hesitate, when the moment came in the Second
World War, to throw themselves again into the struggle against
fascism. In the Service of Stalin is the first full scholarly study
of their experiences. David Wingeate Pike examines the contribution
of the Spanish communists to the resistance in France and recounts
their sufferings in Mauthausen, the concentration camp in Austria
to which most who were captured were consigned. He also traces the
experiences of those thousands who were admitted into the Soviet
Union, where they fought in the Red Army or languished and perished
in the prisons and slave camps of the Gulag. Professor Pike's
unparalleled access to the archives, many previously unexplored,
and the information derived from his interviews with survivors
combine to make this both an important addition to our knowledge of
the Second World War and an enthralling, often moving account of
the experiences of some of its participants.
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