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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations
Donald Barnard came to England from St Lucia to join the RAF as a
bomber pilot. On his second tour of operations, he was shot down
over northern France in September 1942. He was rewarded with the
Distinguished Flying Cross whilst missing in action. Donald evaded
capture; assisted to Spain by an escape network, and later compiled
a detailed diary of his entire evasion exploits. Posted to test fly
Spitfires, flying in excess of 1,000 individual aircraft. Barnard
then moved to the Far East supply dropping in 1945. In Burma
disapproving of the delay in recovering the emaciated allied POWs,
he decided to take an aircraft without authority. 25 prisoners were
recovered from Bankok to Rangoon. After a full Court Martial, he
was dismissed from the RAF. He flew civilian aircraft after the war
in Australia and in Britain, joining No.2 Civil Anti Aircraft
Co-operation Unit in Norfolk, 1953. Flying ended for him in 1955,
and he died in 1997 at the age of 79. Rarely has the opportunity
been available to reproduce from a diary such a personal account of
evasion. A bomber and Spitfire pilot, Court Martialled for the
rescue of Japanese held emaciated allied prisoners of war, creates
a unique career story supported by French resistance sources
original photographs.
The Texas 26th Cavalry Regiment was formed in March, 1862, using
the 7th Texas Cavalry Battalion as its nucleus. Its companies were
from Huntsville, Houston, Lockhart, Galveston, Centerville, and
Hempstead, and Leon and Walker counties. Consi-dered to be one of
the best disciplined regiments in Confederate service, it was
assigned to H. Bee's and Debray's Brigade in the Trans-Mississippi
Depart-ment. The unit served along the Rio Grande and in January,
1864, contained 29 officers and 571 men. It was involved in the
operations against Banks' Red River Campaign, then returned to
Texas where it was stationed at Houston and later Navasota. Here
the 26th disbanded in May, 1865.
On the seventy-fifth anniversary, the authors of Pulitzer Prize
finalist The Eleventh Day unravel the mysteries of Pearl Harbor to
expose the scapegoating of the admiral who was in command the day
2,000 Americans died, report on the continuing struggle to restore
his lost honor--and clear President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the
charge that he knew the attack was coming. The Japanese onslaught
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 devastated Americans and
precipitated entry into World War II. In the aftermath, Admiral
Husband Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, was
relieved of command, accused of negligence and dereliction of
duty--publicly disgraced. But the Admiral defended his actions
through eight investigations and for the rest of his long life. The
evidence against him was less than solid. High military and
political officials had failed to provide Kimmel and his Army
counterpart with vital intelligence. Later, to hide the biggest
U.S. intelligence secret of the day, they covered it up. Following
the Admiral's death, his sons--both Navy veterans--fought on to
clear his name. Now that they in turn are dead, Kimmel's grandsons
continue the struggle. For them, 2016 is a pivotal year. With
unprecedented access to documents, diaries and letters, and the
family's cooperation, Summers' and Swan's search for the truth has
taken them far beyond the Kimmel story--to explore claims of
duplicity and betrayal in high places in Washington. A Matter of
Honor is a provocative story of politics and war, of a man willing
to sacrifice himself for his country only to be sacrificed himself.
Revelatory and definitive, it is an invaluable contribution to our
understanding of this pivotal event. The book includes forty
black-and-white photos throughout the text.
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