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One of the most feared and controversial players in the United States Army during the Second World War, George S. Patton was unstoppable. He was both revered by the enemy as well as dreaded; Adolf Hitler found him to be one of the most impressive and callous men to be faced on the battlefront. General Patton was not known for his compassion. He led the Western Task Force during the invasion of North Africa and across Europe with relentless speed and persistence and never took no or laziness for an answer. However, there was much more to the general than he let on.
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Marion Milton “Black Mack” Magruder, USMC, was one of the first American pilots to learn the art of Airborne Radar Intercept Operations and maintenance. During World War II, Magruder and three other pilots were selected by Maj. Gen. R. J. Mitchell to learn the specialized techniques from England’s Royal Air Force. Pressed for time after the attack on Pearl Harbor, they finished a one-year program in an astonishing three months. This biography follows Magruder through his WWII military actions, highlighting his accomplishments as leader of the top-scoring Nightfighter Squadron in the Pacific Theatre.
Conveying both heroic and light-hearted stories, from hunting and fishing in Great Falls to attending college in Los Angeles, from his Army training at camps like Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, to his flight training experiences in San Antonio, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, the author paints vivid images of his formative experiences and explains what shaped his values, perspectives, and evident pride for his family and his country. His accounting of his 1942 enlistment and all that followed offers an insider’s view of basic training, flight training, Instructor’s School, and the role of a flight instructor.
Since the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, countless historians, military experts, and World War II aficionados have debated the strategic decisions regarding the placement of the United States Naval Fleet in the Pacific. Now, for the first time, author Skipper Steely presents a detailed biography of the man who fought to prevent the massacre—Adm. James Otto Richardson. Through his comprehensive treatment of the life and times of Admiral Richardson, Steely explores four decades of American foreign policy, traditional military practice, U.S. intelligence, and the administrative side of the military, exposing the largely untold story of the events leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
While it’s common to say that the most predictable thing about the next war is its unpredictability, that wasn’t the case in the run-up to war with Japan. From Commodore Matthew Perry’s voyage into Japanese waters in 1853 to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States and Japan were on a collision course.
“Lee Surrenders!” “President Murdered!” “Booth Killed!” screamed the headlines of American newspapers in April 1865, leaving little room for mention of a maritime disaster that to this day is America’s worst. On April 27, 1865, the Sultana, a 260-foot, wooden-hulled steamboat, smaller than the Titanic but carrying more passengers, exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee.
Revered by some as the ultimate warrior and condemned by others as ruthless assassins, the combat sniper is more than just a crack shot. This collection of biographies, written by leading military historians, explores the careers of the top snipers of World War II.
In Truman’s Dilemma: Invasion or The Bomb, military historian Paul D. Walker examines the circumstances of the war in the Pacific and weighs the factors that resulted in America’s attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb. Walker argues that, faced with the genuine threat of overwhelming military and civilian casualties, Truman made the correct decision in a difficult situation.
The USS Midway first set sail in 1945 with thousands of young men on board. By the time it made its final return to port in 1992, more than 220,000 Americans had served on the carrier. During those years, the crew—whose average age was nineteen—witnessed significant world affairs, such as Cold War espionage missions, an attack by an Israeli aircraft, confrontations with Mao Tse-Tung, and the liberation of Kuwait.
In the brutal and deadly conflict that swept the world in the 1940s, the newly formed United States Army Air Forces played a crucial role. The inherently dangerous missions relied on pilots in peak mental and physical condition. Dr. Lamb Myhr spent the Second World War as a flight surgeon working tirelessly to “keep them flying.” From Africa to Normandy and beyond, Myhr cared for injured and sick pilots, delivered civilian babies, and tended to the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.