On 6 June 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy. The invasion followed several years of argument and planning by Allied leaders, who remained committed to a return to the European continent after the Germans had forced the Allies to evacuate at Dunkirk in May 1940. Before the spring of 1944, however, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other British leaders remained unconvinced that the invasion was feasible. At the Teheran Conference in November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill promised Josef Stalin that Allied troops would launch Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, in the spring. Because of their continuing concerns about Overlord, the British convinced the Americans to implement a cover plan to help ensure the invasion's success. The London Controlling Section (LCS) devised an elaborate two-part plan called Operation Fortitude that SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) helped to fine tune and that both British and American forces implemented. Historians analyzing the Normandy invasion frequently devote some discussion to Operation Fortitude. Although they admit that Fortitude North did not accomplish all that the Allied deception planners had hoped, many historians heap praise on Fortitude South, using phrases such as, "unquestionably the greatest deception in military history." Many of these historians assume that the deception plan played a crucial role in the June 1944 assault. A reexamination of the sources suggests, however, that other factors contributed as much, if not more, to the Allied victory in Normandy and that Allied forces could have succeeded without the elaborate deception created by the LCS. Moreover, thepersistent tendency to exaggerate the operational effect of Fortitude on the German military performance at Normandy continues to draw attention away from other, technical-military reasons for the German failures there.

Who was the enigmatic Jean Moulin, a man as skilled in deception as he was in acts of heroism? The memory of this French Resistance hero, who was betrayed to the Gestapo and tortured by Klaus Barbie, the infamous 'Butcher of Lyon', is revered alongside that of other national icons. But Moulin's story is full of unanswered questions and the truth of his life is far more complicated than the legend. Patrick Marnham, winner of the Marsh Prize for biography, thrillingly tells the epic story of France's greatest war hero, bringing to light the shadowy and often deceitful world of the French Resistance, and offers a shocking conclusion to one of the great unsolved mysteries of World War II.

In November 1941 the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, with a crew of 645, disappeared off the coast of Western Australia. When German sailors picked up from lifeboats claimed that their ship, the Kormoran, a lightly merchant raider, had sunk the pride of the Australian navy theories sprang up to explain the loss. Had a second German warship been involved, or a Japanese submarine, even though Japan was not yet in the war? Based on the German coded accounts and interviews with German survivors, this book pieces together what really happened in the desperate fight between the two ships, whose wrecks were finally located 10,000 feet down on the floor of the Indian Ocean in March 2008.

"This lively, provocative study challenges the widely held belief that the Japanese did not intend to invade the Hawaiian Islands." --Choice "A disquieting book, which shatters several historical illusions that have almost come to be accepted as facts. It will remind historians how complex and ambiguous history really is." --American Historical Review

German general Hermann Balck (1897--1982) was considered to be one of World War II's greatest battlefield commanders. His brilliantly fought battles were masterpieces of tactical agility, mobile counterattack, and the technique of Auftragstaktik, or "mission command." However, because he declined to participate in the U.S. Army's military history debriefing program, today he is known only to serious students of the war. Drawing heavily on his meticulously kept wartime journals, Balck discusses his childhood and his career through the First and Second World Wars. His memoir details the command decision-making process as well as operations on the ground during crucial battles, including the Battle of the Marne in World War I and his incredible victories against a larger and better-equipped Soviet army at the Chir River in World War II. Balck also offers observations on Germany's greatest generals, such as Erich Ludendorff and Heinz Guderian, and shares his thoughts on international relations, domestic politics, and Germany's place in history. Available in English for the first time in an expertly edited and annotated edition, this important book provides essential information about the German military during a critical era in modern history.

"Our Mothers' War" is an eye-opening and moving portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of women's experiences during this pivotal era been brought together in one book. Now, "Our Mothers' War" re-creates what American women from all walks of life were doing and thinking, on the home front and abroad. These heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking accounts of the women we have known as mothers, aunts, and grandmothers reveal facets of their lives that have usually remained unmentioned and unappreciated.

"Our Mothers' War" gives center stage to one of WWII's most essential fighting forces: the women of America, whose extraordinary bravery, strength, and humanity shine through on every page.

The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to provide a comprehensive survey of writings about the Holocaust. The authors present an overview of topics including Christian anti-judentum, anti-semitism, the moral and religious response to the Nazi persecution and genocide of the Jews, and post-World War II responses to the Holocaust as they have appeared in the thousands of books and articles published on the Holocaust. The bibliography is divided into four topics with introductory comments that frame the theories put forward in the books and articles. A broad array of past and recent scholarship from a variety of venues and points of view are represented.

US Army Center of Military History Publication 12-1-1. United States Army in World War 2. Text written and photographs compiled and edited by Kenneth E. Hunter and Margaret E. Tackley. Contains a collection of 500-plus pictures with text of the United States Army in action in the Pacific Theater of World War 2.

During the 1930s in coastal South Carolina, ten year old Matt Cogswell (white) and 11 year old George Wigfall (black) become inseparable pals. It is George's father who gave him the uncomplimentary name - Fathead. The boys share many happy adventures and growing experiences until George moves away to a big city. Matt does not understand. He is disillusioned and distressed. George's widowed mother remarries and the boy's name is changed. A decade passes and the US is involved in WWII. The two men find themselves in the crew of the same US Navy destroyer. George recognizes Matt but the white lad, now a commissioned officer, looks down on the unrecognized enlisted steward's mate. Seeing the way the black man dallies with white prostitutes on liberty in foreign and northern US ports further exasperates the situation. Not until the ship is attacked and badly damaged by German aircraft while escorting a convoy to Europe do the two men come to remember their past friendship.

• Rare memoir of a risky job performed by relatively few troops
• Honest and observant narrative describes the good, bad, and ugly of the war
• Covers World War II's closing months in eastern France and Germany

Cpl. Bill Hanford had one of the U.S. Army's most dangerous jobs in World War II: artillery forward observer (FO). Tasked with calling in heavy fire on the enemy, FOs accompanied infantrymen into combat, crawled into no-man's-land, and ascended observation posts like hills and ridges to find their targets. But beyond the usual perils of ground combat, FOs were specially targeted by the enemy because of their crucial role in directing artillery fire. Hanford spent much of his time fighting in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France and then in Germany in late 1944 and early 1945.

A spellbinding war memoir of a torpedoing and the fight for survival of 24 men in a lifeboat. Hank Rosen, Cadet-Midshipman aboard a Liberty ship, tells the dramatic story of 30 days adrift in the Indian Ocean."Gallant Ship, Brave Men" is an epic tale of heroism and sacrifice that builds suspense and proudly records the role of the Merchant Marine in World War II. "What an amazing story! I found it completely engrossing. Couldn't stop reading it, until I finished." Rear Admiral Joseph Stewart USMS, Superintendent United States Merchant Marine Academy

The Scandinavian [Nordic] countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland experienced the effects of the German invasion in April 1940 in very different ways. Collaboration, resistance, and co-belligerency were only some of the short-term consequences. Each country's historiography has undergone enormous changes in the seventy years since the invasion, and this collection by leading historians examines the immediate effects of Hitler's aggression as well as the long-term legacies for each country's self-image and national identity. The Scandinavian countries' war experience fundamentally changed how each nation functioned in the post-war world by altering political structures, the dynamics of their societies, the inter-relationships between the countries and the popular view of the wartime political and social responses to totalitarian threats. Hitler was no respecter of the rights of the Scandinavian nations but he and his associates dealt surprisingly differently with each of them. In the post-war period, this has caused problems of interpretation for political and cultural historians alike. Drawing on the latest research, this volume will be a welcome addition to the comparative histories of Scandinavia and the Second World War.

One-of-a-kind retelling of the Normandy campaign Places the 1944 battle for France in its social, economic, scientific, and technological context

GI Ingenuity is in large part an old-fashioned combat narrative, with mayhem and mass slaughter at center stage. But the book goes farther, combining military history with the history of science, technology, and culture to show how the American soldier improvised, innovated, and adapted on the battlefield. Among the improvisations and technologies covered are tanks equipped with hedgerow cutters, the coordination of air and ground attacks, and the use of radios and aircraft to direct artillery fire--all of which contributed to American success on D-Day and afterwards.

Part I is a compendium of World War II service recollections embracing the unusual, bizarre and humorous, most of which never appeared in the news or any publications. However, I do believe readers will be very interested in the other side of war. Part II is an incisive review of Vietnam, and why we failed or should never have been involved militarily. Part III is a current analysis of terrorism and the Iraq war, including a new proposal to address the global aspects of terrorism and the Palestinian issue.

In Polish Hero Roman Rodziewicz: Fate of a Hubal Soldier in Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Postwar England, Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm traces the remarkable and tragic tale of Roman Rodziewicz, a true Polish hero of the Second World War. Roman s childhood was spent in Manchuria where his father, first deported to Siberia, later worked as an engineer for a Chinese company. Following the loss of his parents early in life after returning to free Poland, Roman was trained to manage a self-sufficient estate farming and producing various livestock, vegetables, and honey. Prior to the German invasion of Poland, Roman attended military school at the Suwalki Cavalry Brigade. After the surrender of the Polish army, the partisan forces of Major Hubal continued to fight the Germans. The brave anti-German activities of the Hubal partisans beckoned Roman and he joined them. About eight months later Major Hubal was killed. Roman escaped and joined the underground as an officer fighting the German occupation forces. Captured and tortured, Roman was subsequently imprisoned in Auschwitz and later Buchenwald. After the American army rescued Roman, he joined the Polish army in Italy. At the end of World War II Roman settled in England. One of the greatest misfortunes of his life was losing contact with his fiance Halinka, and later learning she had married believing him to be dead. Two weeks after her marriage, she received a letter from Roman that he had survived the war. They met many years later, and Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm witnessed the meeting of Halinka and Roman in Warsaw. Roman continues to live in England now having reached the age of 100 years in January 2013. Polish Hero Roman Rodziewicz explores the incredible story of one Polish soldier of World War II, and provides an illuminating contribution to the historical record of the period."

An important reevaluation of World War II on the Eastern Front Detailed look at how the Soviet Union created more new divisions in a few months than the U.S. did during the entire war More than 60 tables list losses, tank and weapon production, and unit formation, with special emphasis on rifle and tank divisions and brigades

When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the German Army quickly annihilated a major portion of the Red Army. Yet the Red Army rebounded to successfully defend Moscow in late 1941, defeat the Germans at Stalingrad in 1942 and Kursk in 1943, and deliver the deathblow in Belarus in 1944. Dunn examines these 4 battles while explaining how the Soviets lost a third of their prewar army yet returned to beat one of the most highly trained and experienced armies the world has ever seen.