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.

A classic account of one man's experiences on the Western Front, now republished in a revised and expanded edition in anticipation of the centenary of the First World War.
Nearly 100 years have passed since the guns blazed in the ever-deepening mud of Passchendaele. Yet places such as Ypres, the Marne and the Somme can never remain mere names in a chronicle of war -- they are heavy with meaning as the setting for the near-destruction of a generation of men. It is this aura of tragedy that makes Huntly Gordon's book -- consisting mainly of his own letters written home from the front - such a potent memoir. Gordon was a typical product of his generation -- sensitive, intelligent, unpretentious; capable of detached, trenchant and reasoned judgement. As the glorious summer of 1914 drew to a close, it was difficult for the 16 year-old Gordon to realize that the world he had planned and prepared for at Clifton College was a world in which he now had to prepare for war. By 1916 he had left school, and after an intensive and ill-balanced course at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery. In June 1917, he was at the Ypres Salient, getting his 'baptism' at Hell Fire Corner in one of those intensive artillery duels that formed the prologue to Passchendaele in July 1917 before being engaged for six weeks in the havoc of the battle itself. In the opening months of 1918, his battery was to fight a series of rearguard actions near Baupaume during the brutal German offensive of March 21. A transfer to a quiet sector to rest and refit was eventually possible, but they arrived there just in time to face the final German onslaught of April 12.
In "The Unreturning Army" Huntly Gordon recalls his experiences of a tumultuous conflict and field of battle that seem almost inconceivable to us now. And his words, for the most part written at the time, have an immediacy, freshness and poignancy that will not fail to enlighten and astonish and move the reader of today.

A young reader's edition of The Volunteer - Jack Fairweather's Costa Book of the Year 2020. An extraordinary, eye-opening account of the Holocaust. Occupied Warsaw, Summer 1940: Witold Pilecki, a Polish underground operative, accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands interned at a new concentration camp, report on Nazi crimes, raise a secret army and stage an uprising. The name of the camp - Auschwitz. Over the next two and half years, and under the cruellest of conditions, Pilecki's underground sabotaged facilities, assassinated Nazi officers and gathered evidence of terrifying abuse and mass murder. But as he pieced together the horrifying Nazi plans to exterminate Europe's Jews, Pilecki realized he would have to risk his men, his life and his family to warn the West before all was lost. To do so meant attempting the impossible - but first he would have to escape from Auschwitz itself... For children aged 12 and up. Written from exclusive access to previously hidden diaries, family and camp survivor accounts, and recently declassified files. Critically acclaimed and award-winning journalist Jack Fairweather brilliantly portrays the remarkable man who volunteered to face the unknown. This extraordinary and eye-opening account of the Holocaust invites us all to bear witness.

Shelby Foote's monumental historical trilogy, "The Civil War: A Narrative," is our window into the day-by-day unfolding of our nation's defining event.  Now Foote reveals the deeper human truth behind the battles and speeches through the fiction he has chosen for this vivid, moving collection.



These ten stories of the Civil War give us the experience of joining a coachload of whores left on a siding during a battle in Virginia  . . .marching into an old man's house to tell him it's about to be burned down . . .or seeing a childhood friend shot down at Chickamauga.



The result is history that lives again in our imagination, as the creative vision of these great writers touches our emotions and makes us witness to the human tragedy of this war, fought so bravely by those in blue and gray.

'A great and inspiring book from Doncaster's bravest son. Read it in a day' - Jeremy Clarkson 'Ben is the embodiment of positive thinking. What he has achieved, in large part through willpower, is nothing short of miraculous. An inspiration to us all' - Ant Middleton The story of Ben Parkinson MBE, the most injured soldier to have survived Afghanistan --- What were you doing when you were 22? Where were you in the world? What did you want to do with your life? Ben Parkinson was a 6'4" Paratrooper. He was in Afghanistan fighting for his country. He wanted to always be a soldier, to be a father and to get home in one piece. But we don't always get what we want. So the question is: how do we react when that happens? Easy: You find something new to fight for. Ben Parkinson MBE is an inspiration to everyone. He suffered 37 injuries when his Land Rover hit a mine in Helmand in 2006, including brain damage, breaking his back and losing both his legs. This book follows the story of what led him to that moment his life changed forever - and what happened next. Doctors didn't think Ben could survive the trauma - then they didn't think he would wake up, or talk again, or walk again. Time after time, Ben pushed the ceiling on what was possible, going on to carry the Olympic flame in 2012 and receiving an MBE for the enormous feats he has undertaken for charity. What he has achieved in the face of adversity - for others as well as for himself - is nothing short of a miracle. Nerve-wracking, heart-warming and full of classic soldier's humour, Losing the Battle, Winning the War is a book you'll be thinking about long after the last page. 'Ben Parkinson is my hero. His story is one of immeasurable courage and character, a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit' Dan Jarvis MP, author of Long Way Home

The product of nearly 25 years of research, Pershing: General of the Armies remains one of the most authoritative biographies of the man known as "Black Jack." Newly appointed head of the American Expeditionary Forces, Pershing sailed for Europe in May 1917. Once in France, he set about the task of building an army. By October the Americans were at the front and over the next year became involved in increasingly significant battles, all vividly recounted here: Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, and the 47-day slugfest in the Meuse-Argonne. Although the impact of the American forces on the outcome of the war has been much debated, there is no question that the troops acquitted themselves well under Pershing s command. Pershing s postwar life included an unsuccessful run for president, a stint as Chief of Staff, and a secret romance with a French woman 34 years younger than he; nonetheless, his influence as a leader extended into World War II."

Immediate Action is a no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary life, from the day Andy McNab was found in a carrier bag on the steps of Guy's Hospital to the day he went to fight in the Gulf War. As a delinquent youth he kicked against society. As a young soldier he waged war against the IRA in the streets and fields of South Armagh. As a member of 22 SAS Regiment he was at the centre of covert operations for nine years - on five continents. Recounting with grim humour and in riveting, often horrifying, detail his activities in the world's most highly trained and efficient Special Forces unit, McNab sweeps us into a world of surveillance and intelligence-gathering, counter-terrorism and hostage rescue.There are casualties: the best men are so often the first to be killed, because they are in front. By turns chilling, astonishing, violent, funny and moving, this blistering first-hand account of life at the forward edge of battle confirms Andy McNab's standing in the front rank of writers on modern war.

'The wartime spy career of Mathilde Carre - aka "the Cat" and "Agent Victoire" - is so extraordinary it almost defies belief' The Times An exhilarating true story of espionage, resistance, and one of WW2's most charismatic double-agents. Occupied Paris, 1940. A woman in a red hat and a black fur coat hurries down a side-street. She is Mathilde Carre, codenamed 'the Cat', later known as Agent Victoire - charismatic, daring and a spy. These are the darkest days for France, yet Mathilde is driven by a sense of destiny that she will be her nation's saviour. Soon, she is at the centre of the first great Allied intelligence network of the Second World War. But as Roland Philipps shows in this extraordinary account of her life, when the Germans close in, Mathilde makes a desperate and dangerous compromise. Nobody - not her German handler, nor the Resistance and the British - can be certain where her allegiances now lie... 'A truly astonishing story, meticulously and brilliantly told' Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline 'Gripping... Enough plot twists and moral ambiguity to satisfy any spy novelist' Spectator

An urgent, insightful account of the human side of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine by seasoned war reporter Tim Judah Making his way from the Polish border in the west, through the capital city and the heart of the 2014 revolution, to the eastern frontline near the Russian border, Tim Judah brings a rare glimpse of the reality behind the headlines. Along the way he talks to the people living through the conflict - mothers, soldiers, businessmen, poets, politicians - whose memories of a contested past shape their attitudes, allegiances and hopes for the future. Together, their stories paint a vivid picture of what the second largest country in Europe feels like in wartime: a nation trapped between powerful forces, both political and historical. 'Visceral, gripping, heartbreaking' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Haunting . . . timely . . . Interviewing a wide range of people who have been caught up in the recent conflict, Judah concentrates skilfully and affectingly on the human cost' Alexander Larman, Observer 'Comes close to the master, Ryszard Kapuscinski' Roger Boyes, The Times 'A kaleidoscopic portrait . . . Judah looks at the present - what Ukraine looks and feels like now' Marcus Tanner, Independent

Often overlooked in accounts of World War II is the Soviet Union's quiet yet brutal campaign against Polish citizens, a campaign that included, we now know, war crimes for which the Soviet and Russian governments only recently admitted culpability. Standing in the shadow of the Holocaust, this episode of European history is often overlooked. Wesley Adamczyk's gripping memoir, "When God Looked the Other Way," now gives voice to the hundreds of thousands of victims of Soviet barbarism.
Adamczyk was a young Polish boy when he was deported with his mother and siblings from their comfortable home in Luck to Soviet Siberia in May of 1940. His father, a Polish Army officer, was taken prisoner by the Red Army and eventually became one of the victims of the Katyn massacre, in which tens of thousands of Polish officers were slain at the hands of the Soviet secret police. The family's separation and deportation in 1940 marked the beginning of a ten-year odyssey in which the family endured fierce living conditions, meager food rations, chronic displacement, and rampant disease, first in the Soviet Union and then in Iran, where Adamczyk's mother succumbed to exhaustion after mounting a harrowing escape from the Soviets. Wandering from country to country and living in refugee camps and the homes of strangers, Adamczyk struggled to survive and maintain his dignity amid the horrors of war.
"When God Looked the Other Way" is a memoir of a boyhood lived in unspeakable circumstances, a book that not only illuminates one of the darkest periods of European history but also traces the loss of innocence and the fight against despair that took root in one young boy. It is also a book that offers astark picture of the unforgiving nature of Communism and its champions. Unflinching and poignant, W"hen God Looked the Other Way" will stand as a testament to the trials of a family during wartime and an intimate chronicle of episodes yet to receive their historical due.

Brought to you by Penguin. A TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'His best book yet' The Times 'Macintyre's page-turner is a dazzling portrait of a flawed yet driven individual who risked everything (including her children) for the cause' Sunday Times DISCOVER THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF THE SPY WHO ALMOST KILLED HITLER - FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR Ursula Kuczynski Burton was a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent. Codenamed 'Agent Sonya', her story has never been told - until now. Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis' power. As a fanatical opponent of the fascism that ravaged her homeland, Ursula was drawn to communism as a young woman, motivated by the promise of a fair and peaceful society. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. In Agent Sonya, Britain's most acclaimed historian Ben Macintyre delivers an exhilarating tale that's as fast-paced as any fiction. It is the incredible story of one spy's life, a life that would alter the course of history . . . 'Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else' John Preston 'Macintyre has found a real-life heroine worthy of his gifts as John le Carre's nonfiction counterpart' New York Times 'This book is classic Ben Macintyre . . . quirky human details enliven every page' Spectator (c) Ben Macintyre 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

The First Cavalry Division came under surprise attack in Sadr City on April 4, 2004, now known as "Black Sunday." On the homefront, over 7,000 miles away, their families awaited the news for forty-eight hellish hours-expecting the worst. ABC News' chief correspondent Martha Raddatz shares remarkable tales of heroism, hope, and heartbreak.

A Sunday Times bestseller. A miraculous true-life Second World War survival story that is being featured on the BBC's ONE SHOW (The show attracts on average a daily audience of 5 million viewers) with a ten minute dramatised documentary to be broadcast in early October 2018. A Daily Mail true life story feature is in development. Further review and BBC radio coverage Trade Advertising to accompany the release `I could see that still no one had been able to get out from the cockpit. It must have been at this moment that I thought I was going to die because I became remarkably calm'. Trapped inside a burning Lancaster bomber, 20,000 feet above Berlin, airman John Martin consigned himself to his fate and turned his thoughts to his fiancee back home. In a miraculous turn of events, however, the twenty-one-year-old was thrown clear of his disintegrating airplane and found himself parachuting into the heart of Nazi Germany. He was soon to be captured and began his period as a prisoner of war. This engaging and compulsively readable true-life account of a Second World War airman, who cheated death in the sky, only to face interrogation and the prospect of being shot by the Gestapo, before having to endure months of hardship as a prisoner of war.

A brilliantly vivid Second World War memoir by one of 'the Few' Spitfire fighter pilots. Following the D-Day landings, Battle of Britain hero Tom Neil was assigned as an RAF liaison to an American fighter squadron. As the Allies pushed east, Neil commandeered an abandoned Spitfire as his own personal aeroplane. Erasing any evidence of its provenance and stripping it down to bare metal, it became the RAF's only silver Spitfire. Alongside his US comrades, he took the silver Spitfire into battle until, with the war's end, he was forced to make a difficult decision. Faced with too many questions about the mysterious rogue fighter, he contemplated increasingly desperate measures to offload it, including bailing out mid-Channel. He eventually left the Spitfire at Worthy Down, never to be seen again. THE SILVER SPITFIRE is the first-hand, gripping story of Neil's heroic experience as an RAF fighter pilot and his reminiscences with his very own personal Spitfire.

This engaging study pits the volunteers of Kitchener's 'New Armies' against the German veterans who defended the Somme sector in the bloody battles of July-November 1916. The mighty struggle for the Somme sector of the Western Front in the second half of 1916 has come to be remembered for the dreadful toll of casualties inflicted on Britain's 'New Armies' by the German defenders on the first day of the offensive, 1 July. The battle continued, however, throughout the autumn and only came to a close in the bitter cold of mid-November. The British plan relied on the power of artillery to suppress and destroy the German defences; the infantry were tasked with taking and holding the German trenches, but minimal resistance was anticipated. In the event the defences were damaged but not destroyed, and small numbers of defenders, many of whom had garrisoned the Somme sector for many months and knew the ground well, inflicted appalling casualties on the British attackers. Both sides incurred major losses, however; German doctrine emphasised that the first line had to be held or retaken at all costs, a rigid defensive policy that led to very high casualties as the Germans threw survivors into ad hoc, piecemeal counterattacks all along the line.
Featuring specially commissioned full-color artwork and based on meticulous reassessment of the sources.

'An adrenalin-fuelled, gritty story of heroism on the frontline in Afghanistan' Andy McNab

The rounds were single shot from the same two enemy positions, trying to pick me off. They were kicking up the dirt around me. Then all hell broke loose as the gunship's Gatling vomited ammo right over my head. The sound was deafening. It was now or never. I got up and ran.

A captain in 29 Commando, Johnny Mercer served in the army for twelve years. On his third tour of Afghanistan he was a Joint Fires Controller, with the pressurized job of bringing down artillery and air strikes in close proximity to his own troops. Based in an area of northern Helmand that was riddled with Taliban leaders, he walked into danger with every patrol, determined to protect them. Then one morning, in brutal close quarter combat, everything changed . . .

In We Were Warriors Johnny takes us from his commando training to the heat, blood and chaos of battle. With brutal honesty, he describes what it is like to risk your life every day, pushing through the fear that follows watching your friends die. He took the fight back to the enemy with a relentless efficiency that came at a high personal cost. Back in the UK, seeing the inadequate care available for veterans and their families, he was inspired to run for Parliament in the hope he could improve their plight. Unflinching, action-packed and laced with wry humour, We Were Warriors is a compelling read.

Franz (Frank) Oberle was nine years old when his family was relocated from Forchheim, Germany to Poland. There, he was taken from his parents to an isolated school where adolescents were being prepared for indoctrination into Hitler's Youth Movement. As the tide of war changed, he became a refugee fleeing the Russian advance only to arrive in Dresden as the city became the target of the most horrific Allied bombing raid of the war. Surviving on grass and stolen eggs, Franz and a friend walked 800 kilometres to his ancestral village on the edge of the Black Forest -- only to find that his parents had not returned and to be rejected by his remaining family. The indomitable Franz not only survived amid a disillusioned populace of the Fatherland, but, with Joan, his youthful sweetheart at his side, he also dreamed of a new life in a new land. With her blessings, he set off for Canada, promising to send for her when he was able to provide for her. Their subsequent life together in BC has encompassed tragedy and pure joy, hard work and hard times, failure and triumph as Frank Oberle rose from self-educated immigrant to acclaimed federal politician. 'Finding Home', the first volume of Oberle's memoirs, is set against backdrops of World War II and the raw British Columbia frontier. It covers Oberle's fascinating life story up until the time he, as a successful business person, returned to Germany after little more than a decade in the promised land, knowing that in Canada, he, Joan and their children had found their true home. Rich in detail, drama, and humour, this is a love story, an inspirational saga, and a book that sings the song of the Canadian immigrant.

Even by SAS standards Mike Curtis has had a remarkable career. A former coal miner and likely Welsh international, he served with 2 Para in the Falklands before going on to join the SAS. In C.Q.B. he describes his gruelling experience in the Falklands and also focus on two more of his major SAS operations; the first in Iraq where he spent several weeks behind enemy lines; the second in Bosnia where he worked closely with all factions and latterly led a close protection team guarding visiting heads of State. Goose Green, the first land battle of the Falklands conflict, was the longest, hardest-fought, and most controversial. The outcome there was to set the tone for the remainder of the war, affect international opinion and the morale and determination of both armies. The SAS infiltrated Iraq in two guises - as road-watch patrols and mobile fighting columns. Constituting the biggest SAS overland fighting force since the Second World War, Mike Curtis's troop constituted a coherent, mobile weapon able to operate round the clock and defend itself against surprise attack. C.Q.B. is also the first published account of the SAS's activities in former Yugoslavia by a Close Quarter Battle Specialist and John Major's personal bodyguard.