Nineteen months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt sent twelve "vice consuls" to Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia on a classified assignment. Their objective? To prepare the groundwork for what eventually became Operation TORCH - the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa that repelled the Nazis and also enabled the liberation of Italy.The twelve Americans included an ex-Cartier jewel salesman and wine merchant from a patrician family; a madcap Harvard anthropologist; a Coca-Cola salesman and Paris playboy who ran with Ernest Hemingway and the Lost Generation crowd; a rather Elizabethan adventurer-cum-interpreter; a construction expert; a distinguished lawyer; some American ex-French Foreign Legionnaires and Paris bankers; and an Annapolis graduate and hero of WWI. These vice consuls were soon caught up in a web of espionage and treachery that included double-dealing mistresses, Gaullist and Vichy agents, and a homicidal French monk.Based on recently declassified foreign records, as well as the memoirs of Ridgeway Brewster Knight (one of the twelve "apostles"), FDR'S 12 Apostles is a fascinating account of international intrigue.Set in exotic locales from Paris to Casablanca to Tangier, the story takes us through the pivotal TORCH invasion and the eventual assassination of Vichy French leader Francois Darlan. Hal Vaughan's fast-paced narrative is a potent cocktail of heroic acts and bizarre twists and turns - involving Christians, Muslims, and Jews - in an arena of conspiracy and backstabbing. Hal Vaughan provides the first true look at the intricate and covert planning that planted the seeds of victory in the Mediterranean Theater.

This book provides students with an understanding of the motives behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the consequences of this action on Japan, on the United States, and on the outcome of World War II. This essential reference guide is devoted to one of the most important military events in American history: the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941, "the day of infamy." Distinguished military historian Spencer C. Tucker is the editor of this thorough study of the Japanese attack that contains reference entries as well as primary documents and oral histories describing the circumstances that led up to the attack, the event itself, and its immediate aftermath and consequences, thereby providing readers with the necessary context to understand all aspects of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Readers will understand why Japanese leaders decided to go to war with the United States, what they expected to accomplish in attacking Pearl Harbor, why this key American base was not better defended, and what the aftereffects of the attack were for the outcome of the war. Biographies on major players in the crisis such as Franklin Roosevelt, Chester Nimitz, Isoroku Yamamoto, and Hideki Tojo will provide insight into the individuals who played key roles in the events before, during, and after December 7, 1941. Addresses historical controversies such as whether Roosevelt knowingly allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor in order to bring the United States into World War II and what the consequences of a third Japanese carrier strike might have been Includes primary source documents-including oral histories by participants in and victims of the attack-that help readers to better grasp the motivations behind the Japanese attack, the reasons why Pearl Harbor was not better able to resist, and what it was like to live through the attack itself Provides an ideal resource for high school and college students as well as interesting reading for general audiences seeking authoritative historical information on the Pearl Harbor attacks

Major General Maurice Rose (1899-1945), commander of 3rd Amored, First Army's legendary "Spearhead" division, was the highest-ranking American Jewish officer ever killed in battle, and the only individual casualty to spark a War Crimes Investigation. This, the first and only biography of this important World War II figure, tells the dramatic story of Rose's life--from his childhood as a son of a rabbi, through his experiences in World War I and in the U.S. cavalry, to his meteoric rise as America's answer to Rommel. In 1943, Rose negotiated and accepted the surrender of the German Army in Tunisia, the first large-scale surrender to an American force during World War II. At the Battle of Carentan in June 1944, he saved the 506th Parachute Infantry (of Band of Brothers fame), and might very well have saved the entire Normandy beachhead from a catastrophic German counterattack. His brilliant, daring, and aggressive defensive tactics during the Battle of the Bulge prevented an enemy breakthrough to the Meuse River and beyond, thereby frustrating the German advance. Based on original archival research and exclusive interviews, this biography shatters old myths and factual distortions, and offers a refreshingly inquisitive and critical perspective. Steven L. Ossad and Don R. Marsh reveal new insights into Rose's controversial death--was he killed because he was Jewish or because he went for his weapon?--and about the even more controversial investigations that followed. As compelling and extraordinary as the life that it describes, this biography pays long-overdue tribute to one of America's greatest heroes.

This study explores the role of refugees in international relations by looking at the largest involuntary migration of Ukrainians in history. Using both Western and newly-available Soviet sources it sheds light on Grand Alliance policies towards World War II Ukrainian refugees. It demonstrates how the activities of this particular group of refugees had an impact on international refugee policy and provides insight into the origins of the Cold War.

Important and insightful essays provide a penetrating assessment of Christian responses in the Nazi era.

On 7 November 1938, an impoverished seventeen-year-old Polish Jew living in Paris, obsessed with Nazi persecution of his family in Germany, brooding on revenge - and his own insignificance - bought a handgun, carried it on the Metro to the German Embassy in Paris and, never before having fired a weapon, shot down the first German diplomat he saw. When the official died two days later, Hitler and Goebbels used the event as their pretext for the state-sponsored wave of anti-Semitic violence and terror known as Kristallnacht, the pogrom that was the initiating event of the Holocaust. Overnight this obscure young man, Herschel Grynszpan, found himself world-famous, his face on front pages everywhere, and a pawn in the machinations of power. Instead of being executed, he found himself a privileged prisoner of the Gestapo while Hitler and Goebbels prepared a show-trial. The trial, planned to the last detail, was intended to prove that the Jews had started the Second World War. Alone in his cell, Herschel soon grasped how the Nazis planned to use him, and set out to wage a battle of wits against Hitler and Goebbels, knowing perfectly well that if he succeeded in stopping the trial, he would certainly be murdered. Until very recently, what really happened has remained hazy. Hitler's Scapegoat, based on the most recent research - including access to a heretofore untapped archive compiled by a Nuremberg rapporteur - tells Herschel's extraordinary story in full for the first time.

World War II saw pilots from around the world battling in the skies over Europe, Asia and Africa, with victory resting upon their nerve, skill and the capabilities of some of history's most iconic aircraft. In the chaos of battle, it was vital that they could quickly identify friend from foe. But do you know your Hurricane from your Bf 109, or what the legendary P-51 Mustang looks like? Do you know the wingspan of the A6M Zero-sen, or how fast it could fly? THE WORLD WAR II FIGHTER PLANES SPOTTER'S GUIDE answers all of these questions and more, providing essential information on over 90 legendary aircraft, from the celebrated Spitfire to the jet-powered Me 262. Featuring full-colour artwork to aid recognition, as well as all the details you need to assess their performance, this is the perfect pocket guide to the Allied and Axis fighters of World War II.

"Justice at Nuremberg" traces the history of the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial held in 1946-47, as seen through the eyes of the Austrian bliogemigrblioge psychiatrist Leo Alexander. His investigations helped the United States to prosecute twenty German doctors and three administrators for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The legacy of Nuremberg was profound. In the Nuremberg code--a landmark in the history of modern medical ethics--the judges laid down, for the first time, international guidelines for permissible experiments on humans. One of those who helped to formulate the code was Alexander. "Justice at Nuremberg" provides a detailed insight into the origins of human rights in medical science and into the changing role of international law, ethics and politics.

Lee Heide's wartime adventures read like fiction but they are factual, brought to life by skillful characterization and dialogue. Raised in Vancouver, he was trained as a navigator and flew overseas in a Hudson aircraft in June, 1941. In England he joined an RAF crew for training on Beaufort torpedo bombers. Sent to Malta, he survived a year of the blitz on that island, with heavy losses to his squadron. Upon converting to Beaufighters he was twice posted as missing. The first time, he and his pilot were washed ashore, after five days in a dinghy, on enemy-held Elba whence they escaped by boat to Corsica. The second time his aircraft was shot up in the Aegean and forced to land in Turkey where he was interned. A meticulous recorder, Heide's descriptions of places and events in the Middle East are informative and entertaining. The title Whispering Death was the name given by the Germans to the Beaufighter--one of the outstanding attack aircraft of the war. Readers will not lightly put down this autobiography
Review
from Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Autumn 2000
This is another small-press memoir that brings us a dimension of war that is not widely known. The author, a Vancouver native, flew overseas in a Hudson bomber in 1941 and then, after further training in England, was posted to the Middle East, where he flew as a navigator on Beaufort and Beaufighter torpedo bombers over the Mediterranean (the title refers to the nickname given to the Beaufighter). He spent a year operating from Malta and, after conversion to Beaufighters, survived two forced landings. The first, in the sea, resulted in a five-day ordeal before he and his pilot washed ashore onthe island of Elba, from which they escaped to Corsica. This was followed by instructional duties on Cyprus, which lasted only until a pilot friend convinced him that it was better to be killed on operations than be killed by a student pilot. Heide and his pilot were posted to an operational squadron on Tobruk, and then went through a second ditching. On this occasion, they managed to reach land, but it was neutral Turkey and they were interned (albeit in quite pleasant conditions) for a short period of time before returning to the squadron. The war in the desert wound up in late 1944, and Heide was back in Canada, newly demobilized and with a DFC and a British wife, by the spring of 1945. A keen observer, Heide spins a good tale; Whispering Death is an informative and entertaining book with lots of good anecdotes and local colour.

The volume looks at the renewal of interest in, and extensive re-evaluation of, the wartime occupation of France by the Nazis. The author places the phenomenon in its literary and historical context, revealing how, until 1970 a collective and predominantly Gaullist myth of the resistance was able to establish itself in France. This myth was subsequently undermined as the author shows in his survey of the works of prominent writers such as Francois Mauriac, Marcel Ayme, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Claude Simon. He also looks at some younger writers in greater detail.

Raoul Wallenberg is widely remembered for his humanitarian activity on behalf of the Hungarian Jews in Budapest at the end of World War II, and known as the Swedish diplomat who disappeared into the Soviet Gulag in 1945. Today, Wallenberg's example is used to communicate humanitarian values and human rights in many democratic societies. His story incorporates a classical hero narrative which has survived the 'un-heroic' 20th century.
In 2008, there exist thirty-one Wallenberg monuments in twelve countries on five continents, from Hungary to Sweden, from Canada to Chile, from Australia to Russia. The rich diversity of the monuments invites to discuss the different concepts of Wallenberg and heroism as expressed in the artists' works. The art-historical focus of this interdisciplinary study makes it a valuable contribution to the discussion of personal monuments, as well as to the socio-historical research on the commemoration of Wallenberg and the concept of the hero.

"The night before, a Japanese seaplane under cover of darkness, landed on the other side of the harbor - unnoticed. In the early morning, he took off and dove at a liberty ship, a short distance off Sweetbrier's port bow. The area wasn't even alerted - not a single shot was fired. He just came over the top of the mountain, picked out the liberty ship and dove right into it. Men were killed and damage was done. Our lookouts saw it all; it was a single float seaplane."

Radio Tokyo summarizing multiple raids on this date, claimed that they had sunk: one battleship, two cruisers, and two transports in this harbor - it didn't happen.Thus ended a busy month of almost daily air raids. Frequently there were multiple raids each day and night interrupting our scheduled navigational work. During this month of May 1945 there were 68 GQs representing 73 hours and 43 minutes at battle stations.

Includes chapters on devastating enemy attacks at Okinawa on LST 808 and battleship Pennsylvania.

Follow along as the author relates his experiences from the time he enlists in the Army Air Force in 1942, thru training as an Aviation Cadet and finally as the pilot-in-command of a B-17 Flying Fortress as the 8th Air Force mounts its attack against Hitler's Germany. Enjoy moments of humor, live incidents of aviation suspense and feel the sorrow of tragic times.

The following study is primarily concerned with the unifying and destructive forces that affected the Anglo-American relationship between 1938 and 1944, as those involved searched for a strategic solution to the war in Europe. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill's methods of leadership are compared and their personal relationship investigated. Anglo-American tensions are disclosed and assessed with regard to clandestine warfare, special operations and rearming the French and operation ANVIL, the invasion of southern France, is examined for its role in the Anglo-American strategic conflict.

This book provides a penetrating look into U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt's strategy to bait Adolf Hitler into declaring war on America in order to defeat Germany militarily, thus preventing the Nazis from developing the atomic bomb. In late 1939, President Roosevelt learned that Hitler was attempting to develop an atomic bomb to use against the United States. The president responded by directing his own scientific community to develop an atomic bomb and began making plans to go to war with Germany. However, he was hampered by public opinion, with 80 percent of the American people against U.S. involvement in another ground war in Europe. Roosevelt seized an opportunity in 1940, when Japan and Nazi Germany formed a military alliance. To bait Germany into war, FDR shut down Japan's war-making economy, prompting Tokyo to attack Pearl Harbor. A few days later, Hitler declared war on America. Using declassified documents, this book shows how Pearl Harbor was not about Japan; it was about the United States going to war with Germany. It reveals how the U.S. Navy's intelligence gathering system could break virtually any Japanese naval code, but Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was kept in the dark about the impending Pearl Harbor attack by his own government. Shows how Roosevelt had the courage and insight to see the threat that a Nazi atomic bomb posed to the United States and outlines his strategy to bait Germany into declaring war on America Explains how Japan's Bushido Code, which demands "death before dishonor," influenced Tokyo's decision to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor Demonstrates how the U.S. Navy's intelligence gathering system was second to none in terms of code breaking and locating the Imperial Japanese Navy's warships Uses declassified top-secret documents and other primary sources to prove that Roosevelt could have prevented the Pearl Harbor attack

When the Romans thought they controlled the world, this was really the lands around the Mediterranean. The Asians occupied the rest of the world, most of which the West never knew existed. This is a story of Asian royals in France, Britain and the U.S. during W.W.II. They discuss religion, history and the East-West Divide. There were many alliances which were made to kepp the invaders of the West out of Asia. The Asian groups did beat the Greek and Roman Empires, as well as, the United Knights of Europe. All of the wars which occurred in the last century could have been avoided, if Asia, including Russia, had a mutual defense agreement. This was accomplished in the thirteenth century by Hun-Mongol royals. Also, there was a meeting of Asian leades in China around the middle of 2006.

General Motors, the largest corporation on earth today, has been the owner since 1929 of Adam Opel AG, Russelsheim, the maker of Opel cars. Ford Motor Company in 1931 built the Ford Werke factory in Cologne, now the headquarters of European Ford. In this book, historians tell the astonishing story of what happened at Opel and Ford Werke under the Third Reich, and of the aftermath today. Long before the Second World War, key American executives at Ford and General Motors were eager to do business with Nazi Germany. Ford Werke and Opel became indispensable suppliers to the German armed forces, together providing most of the trucks that later motorized the Nazi attempt to conquer Europe. After the outbreak of war in 1939, Opel converted its largest factory to warplane parts production, and both companies set up extensive maintenance and repair networks to help keep the war machine on wheels. During the war, the Nazi Reich used millions of POWs, civilians from German-occupied countries, and concentration camp prisoners as forced laborers in the German homefront economy. Starting in 1940, Ford Werke and Opel also made use of thousands of forced laborers. POWs and civilian detainees, deported to Germany by the Nazi authorities, were kept at private camps owned and managed by the companies. In the longest section of the book, ten people who were forced to work at Ford Werke recall their experiences in oral testimonies. For more than fifty years, legal and political obstacles frustrated efforts to gain compensation for Nazi-era forced labor; in the most recent case, a $12 billion lawsuit was filed against the computer giant I.B.M. by a group of Gypsy organizations. In 1998, former forced laborers filed dozens of class action lawsuits against German corporations in U.S. courts. The concluding chapter reviews the subsequent, immensely complex negotiations towards a settlement - which involved Germany, the United States, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic, Israel and several other countries, as well as dozens of well-known German corporations.

Eighteen essays on the failure of diplomatic efforts by the US and Japan between the two world wars--the problems that thwarted diplomacy, the possible avoidability of the Pacific War. The collection serves as a retroactive study in peace research as well as a study in diplomatic history.

This book describes the struggle for power between two totalitarian dictatorships in the north of Europe and the battle for survival of a small nation caught between them. In the Winter War of 1939-40, Finland successfully fought off a Soviet invasion. Then, with no one to turn to but Germany, it became the only democratic state in the Axis powers. Ultimately, it succeeded in extricating itself from the war and, despite the shadow of Russia looming over it, averted a communist takeover.

Codenames were a vital feature of World War II, serving as mental shorthand for those in the know, and obscuring the issues for those who were not. Codenames were used from the highest level, in the planning of grand strategic moves affecting the conduct of the whole war, to the lowest command divisions, in the conduct of small-scale tactical operations. This encyclopedia, first published in 1986, removes the mystery surrounding many of the important code names from the era. With around 3,000 entries drawn from all sides - the U.K., U.S.A., Germany, the U.S.S.R. and Japan - Christopher Chant's work provides a uniquely comprehensive and full overview of major operations, names and code words. Thorough and exciting, this key reference reissue is an exceptionally valuable resource for military historians, enthusiasts and general readers with an interest in World War II.

Security and Special Operations offers the first comprehensive history of the Security Section of the Special Operations Executive and its relationship with MI5 during the Second World War. The book makes extensive use of recently declassified files in order to examine the development of liaison between the two organizations. It explores SOE's involvement with MI5's double cross operations and offers a fresh perspective on both the 'Englandspiel' disaster in Holland and the case of the notorious agent Henri Dericourt.

For much of the twentieth century, the prevalence of dictatorial regimes has left business, especially multinational firms, with a series of complex and for the most part unwelcome choices. This volume, which includes essays by noted American and European scholars such as Mira Wilkins, Gerald Feldman, Peter Hayes, and Wilfried Feldenkirchen, sets business activity in its political and social context and describes some of the strategic and tactical responses of firms investing from or into Europe to a myriad of opportunities and risks posed by host or home country authoritarian governments during the interwar period. Although principally a work of history, it puts into perspective some commercial dilemmas with which practitioners and business theorists must still unfortunately grapple.

Leadership, Direction and Legitimacy of the RAF Bomber Offensive from Inception to 1945 offers a fresh approach to the debate on the RAF's strategic bomber offensive by using modern strategic leadership theory as an analytical tool to examine the campaign. In particular, it looks at the legality and legitimacy of the offensive and explores the key interfaces between the military leaders, the politicians and allies. It also looks at the major controversies in the aims and objectives of the campaign and the personalities involved.Modern literature from the leadership field is used to consider the challenges facing those charged with the formulation and execution of the offensive. Aspects of the senior leadership disputes are also dealt with in the context of the leadership literature and in the wider context of the strategic challenges then facing Churchill, Sinclair and Portal.Furthermore there is a multi-disciplinary bent to the book that enables the reader to move beyond the narrow confines of military considerations to the thorough investigation of the legality, legitimacy and morality of the offensive that is provided.