29 Best World War II, Biography & Autobiography Books
World War II, Biography & Autobiography is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top World War II, Biography & Autobiography audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 World War II, Biography & Autobiography audiobooks below.
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Saving My Enemy
- By: Bob Welch
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.65(80 ratings)
4.65(80 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDSaving My Enemy is a Band of Brothers sequel like no other. Guilt nearly killed one of the celebrated Band of Brothers members, Sgt. Don Malarkey. He was a hero for his service in World War II, especially in the Battle of the Bulge, yet he came toSaving My Enemy is a Band of Brothers sequel like no other.
Guilt nearly killed one of the celebrated Band of Brothers members, Sgt. Don Malarkey. He was a hero for his service in World War II, especially in the Battle of the Bulge, yet he came to the brink of suicide, haunted by the memories of the German soldiers he killed.
Across the ocean, Fritz Engelbert was shackled in shame for having been a pawn of Hitler–he too had fought in the Battle of the Bulge–but for the Germans. He could not find peace.
Saving My Enemy is the touching true story of two soldiers on opposite sides of WWII whose unlikely friendship, forged in their eighties, dissolves six decades of guilt and shame that had pushed both men to despair.
“I contend that every vet crying over his beer in some American Legion hall about something that happened seventy years ago is doing so not because of lost buddies, but because of lost honor, of shame. Long after World War II was over, Don helped restore that honor in Fritz. And Fritz did the same for Don. I was gripped by this story.”
–Jeff Struecker, a former US Army Ranger who heard this story directly from the men’s families
Malarkey and Engelbert had completely different backgrounds, but their stories collided amid the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the USA in WWII–the Battle of the Bulge. Beneath blankets of snow, the earth was hardened like iron. With temperatures dipping below zero degrees Fahrenheit, the conditions were as brutal as any in the history of warfare. This was Germany’s last hope to stop the Allies and they were desperate for victory.
Fritz, nineteen, a private in the Panzer-Lerh-Division, had the chief duty of being a krad messenger (on a military motorcycle). Don, twenty-three, is a sergeant in E Company, 506th Regiment, and is living in a foxhole in the woods overlooking villages below where Fritz and other German soldiers are awaiting the fight. Both men took quiet moments of introspection. Fritz remembered a dead American soldier he saw alongside the road and he “thought of his parents who would miss him dearly” and felt a certain “brotherhood with the enemy.” Two weeks later, as Easy Company pushed Germany back, Don had a similar experience–he had just shot and killed a German soldier and was shocked to find he was only sixteen. “I looked at his face, eyes fixed forever. A face that I wouldn’t forget. Not the next day. Not the next month. Not ever.”
Welch gives intimate glimpses into these men’s souls as they fought each other during the war, lived in despair and guilt in the decades that followed, and finally found forgiveness and peace through each other. Don and Fritz’s story is one of hope and inspiration that will not be forgotten.
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Days of Steel Rain
- By: Brent E. Jones
- Narrator: Dan Woren
- Length: 13 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 11, 2021
- Language: English
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4.51(94 ratings)
4.51(94 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDThis intimate true account of Americans at war follows theepic drama of an unlikely group of men forced to work together in the face of an increasingly desperate enemy during the final year of World War II. Sprawling across the Pacific, this untoldThis intimate true account of Americans at war follows theepic drama of an unlikely group of men forced to work together in the face of an increasingly desperate enemy during the final year of World War II.
Sprawling across the Pacific, this untold story follows the crew of the newly-built “vengeance ship” USS Astoria, named for her sunken predecessor lost earlier in the war. At its center lies U.S. Navy Captain George Dyer, who vowed to return to action after suffering a horrific wound. He accepted the ship’s command in 1944, knowing it would be his last chance to avenge his injuries and salvage his career. Yet with the nation’s resources and personnel stretched thin by the war, he found that just getting the ship into action would prove to be a battle.
Tensions among the crew flared from the start. Astoria‘s sailors and Marines were a collection of replacements, retreads, and older men. Some were broken by previous traumatic combat, most had no desire to be in the war, yet all found themselves fighting an enemy more afraid of surrender than death.
The reluctant ship was called to respond to challenges that its men never could have anticipated. From a typhoon where the ocean was enemy to daring rescue missions, a gallant turn at Iwo Jima, and the ultimate crucible against the Kamikaze at Okinawa, they endured the worst of the final year of the war at sea.
Days of Steel Rain brings to life more than a decade of research and firsthand interviews, depicting with unprecedented insight the singular drama of a captain grappling with an untested crew and men who had endured enough amidst some of the most brutal fighting of World War II. Throughout, Brent Jones fills the narrative with secret diaries, memoirs, letters, interpersonal conflicts, and the innermost thoughts of the Astoria men–and more than 80 photographs that have never before been published. Days of Steel Rain weaves an intimate, unforgettable portrait of leadership, heroism, endurance, and redemption. ... Read more -
A Bright and Blinding Sun
- By: Marcus Brotherton
- Narrator: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 24, 2022
- Language: English
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4.51(109 ratings)
4.51(109 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDFrom a New York Times bestselling author comes an incredible true war story of an underage soldier who experiences his first love and loss on the battlefields of Bataan and Corregidor–perfect for fans of The Boy Who Followed His Father intoFrom a New York Times bestselling author comes an incredible true war story of an underage soldier who experiences his first love and loss on the battlefields of Bataan and Corregidor–perfect for fans of The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz and Unbroken.
Joe Johnson Jr. ran away from home at the age of 12, hopping a freight train at the height of the Great Depression. He managed to talk his way into the U.S. Army two years later. Seeking freedom and adventure, he was sent to the Philippines.Adrift in spirit, Joe visited a teenage prostitute, and they became unlikely, smitten allies. Yet when the Japanese attacked on December 8, 1941, their hopes of being together had to wait.
Joe and his fellow soldiers fought for four brutal months in Bataan and Corregidor, until they were forced to surrender. The boy endured years of horror as a prisoner of war, only dreaming about seeing again the girl he’d come to love.
This lyrically written and deeply encouraging saga will remind you that every life can be lifted, forgiveness is the patron of restoration, and redemption is available to all.
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Bloody Ridge and Beyond
- By: Marlin Groft
- Narrator: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.44(143 ratings)
4.44(143 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDA story of sacrifice and defiance at Guadalcanal, from the New York Times bestselling coauthor of A Higher Call and Biggest Brother On the killing ground that was the island of Guadalcanal, a two-thousand-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy.A story of sacrifice and defiance at Guadalcanal, from the New York Times bestselling coauthor of A Higher Call and Biggest Brother
On the killing ground that was the island of Guadalcanal, a two-thousand-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy. Behind it lay the all-important air base of Henderson Field. And if Henderson Field fell, it would mean the almost certain death or capture of all 12,500 marines on the island.
But the marines positioned on the ridge were no normal fighters–they were the hard-fighting men of Edson’s Raiders, an elite fighting unit within an already elite Marine Corps. Handpicked for their toughness and submitted to a rigorous training program to weed out those less fit, they were the best of the best.
For two hellish nights in September 1942, about 840 marines–commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Austin “Red Mike” Edson–fought one of the most pivotal battles of World War II in the Pacific, clinging desperately to their position on what would soon be known as Bloody Ridge.
Wave after wave of attacking Japanese soldiers were repelled by the Raiders, who knew that defeat and retreat were simply not options. In the end, and against all odds, the defenders prevailed.
Bloody Ridge and Beyond is the story of the First Marine Raider Battalion, which showed courage and valor in the face of overwhelming numbers, as told by Marlin Groft, a man who was a member of this incredible fighting force.
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The Indomitable Florence Finch
- By: Robert J. Mrazek
- Narrator: Dan Woren
- Length: 10 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: July 21, 2020
- Language: English
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4.43(410 ratings)
4.43(410 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThe New York Times bestselling author of Fly Girls shares the riveting story of an unsung World War II hero who saved countless American lives in the Philippines.When Florence Finch died at the age of 101, few of her Ithaca, NY neighbors knew that... Read moreThe New York Times bestselling author of Fly Girls shares the riveting story of an unsung World War II hero who saved countless American lives in the Philippines.
When Florence Finch died at the age of 101, few of her Ithaca, NY neighbors knew that this unassuming Filipina native was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, whose courage and sacrifice were unsurpassed in the Pacific War against Japan. Long accustomed to keeping her secrets close in service of the Allies, she waited fifty years to reveal the story of those dramatic and harrowing days to her own children.
Florence was an unlikely warrior. She relied on her own intelligence and fortitude to survive on her own from the age of seven, facing bigotry as a mixed-race mestiza with the dual heritage of her American serviceman father and Filipina mother.
As the war drew ever closer to the Philippines, Florence fell in love with a dashing American naval intelligence agent, Charles “Bing” Smith. In the wake of Bing’s sudden death in battle, Florence transformed from a mild-mannered young wife into a fervent resistance fighter. She conceived a bold plan to divert tons of precious fuel from the Japanese army, which was then sold on the black market to provide desperately needed medicine and food for hundreds of American POWs. In constant peril of arrest and execution, Florence fought to save others, even as the Japanese police closed in.
With a wealth of original sources including taped interviews, personal journals, and unpublished memoirs, The Indomitable Florence Finch unfolds against the Bataan Death March, the fall of Corregidor, and the daily struggle to survive a brutal occupying force. Award-winning military historian and former Congressman Robert J. Mrazek brings to light this long-hidden American patriot. The Indomitable Florence Finch is the story of the transcendent bravery of a woman who belongs in America’s pantheon of war heroes. -
Fierce Valor
- By: Jared Frederick
- Narrator: Chris Abell
- Length: 9 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.42(75 ratings)
4.42(75 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFans of Stephen E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers will be drawn to this complex portrait of the controversial Ronald Speirs, an iconic commander of celebrated Easy Company during D-Day and beyond, whose ferocious courage and drive across threeFans of Stephen E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers will be drawn to this complex portrait of the controversial Ronald Speirs, an iconic commander of celebrated Easy Company during D-Day and beyond, whose ferocious courage and drive across three wars were matched by a devotion to duty and a hidden heart shadowed by lost love.
Fight Like You Mean to Win
His comrades called him “Killer.” Of the elite paratroopers who served in the venerated “Band of Brothers” during the Second World War, none were more enigmatic than Ronald Speirs. Rumored to have gunned down enemy prisoners and even one of his own disobedient sergeants, Speirs became a foxhole legend among his troops. But who was the real Lieutenant Speirs?
In Fierce Valor, historians Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr unveil the fuller story of Easy Company’s longest-serving commander. Tested by trials of extreme training, military rivalry, and lost love, Speirs’s international odyssey begins as an immigrant child in Prohibition-era Boston and continues through the bloody campaigns of France, Holland, and Germany. But 1945 did not mark an end to Speirs’s military adventures. Uncovered by sharp scholarship, his lesser-known exploits in Korea, the Cold War, and embattled Laos also come to light for the first time.
Packed with groundbreaking research, Fierce Valor unveils a compelling portrait of an officer defined by boldness on the battlefield and the inherent costs of war. His story serves as a telling reminder that few soldiers escape the power of their own pasts.
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Every Man a Hero
- By: Ray Lambert
- Narrator: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 7 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 28, 2019
- Language: English
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4.39(1287 ratings)
4.39(1287 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAN EXTRAORDINARY AND UNFORGETTABLE NEW FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF D-DAY Seventy-five years ago, he hit Omaha Beach with the first wave. Now Ray Lambert, ninety-eight years old, delivers one of the most remarkable memoirs of our time, a tour-de-force ofAN EXTRAORDINARY AND UNFORGETTABLE NEW FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF D-DAY
Seventy-five years ago, he hit Omaha Beach with the first wave. Now Ray Lambert, ninety-eight years old, delivers one of the most remarkable memoirs of our time, a tour-de-force of remembrance evoking his role as a decorated World War II medic who risked his life to save the heroes of D-Day.
At five a.m. on June 6, 1944, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ray Lambert worked his way through a throng of nervous soldiers to a wind-swept deck on a troopship off the coast of Normandy, France. A familiar voice cut through the wind and rumble of the ship’s engines. “Ray!” called his brother, Bill. Ray, head of a medical team for the First Division’s famed 16th Infantry Regiment, had already won a silver star in 1943 for running through German lines to rescue trapped men, one of countless rescues he’d made in North Africa and Sicily.
“This is going to be the worst yet,” Ray told his brother, who served alongside him throughout the war.
“If I don’t make it,” said Bill, “take care of my family.”
“I will,” said Ray. He thought about his wife and son-a boy he had yet to see. “Same for me.” The words were barely out of Ray’s mouth when a shout came from below.
To the landing craft!
The brothers parted. Their destinies lay ten miles away, on the bloodiest shore of Normandy, a plot of Omaha Beach ironically code named “Easy Red.”
Less than five hours later, after saving dozens of lives and being wounded at least three separate times, Ray would lose consciousness in the shallow water of the beach under heavy fire. He would wake on the deck of a landing ship to find his battered brother clinging to life next to him.
Every Man a Hero is the unforgettable story not only of what happened in the incredible and desperate hours on Omaha Beach, but of the bravery and courage that preceded them, throughout the Second World War–from the sands of Africa, through the treacherous mountain passes of Sicily, and beyond to the greatest military victory the world has ever known.
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American Warlords
- By: Jonathan W. Jordan
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 19 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.38(241 ratings)
4.38(241 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDAmerican Warlords is the story of the greatest “team of rivals” since the days of Lincoln. In a lifetime shaped by politics, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proved himself a master manipulator of Congress, the press, and the public. ButAmerican Warlords is the story of the greatest “team of rivals” since the days of Lincoln.
In a lifetime shaped by politics, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proved himself a master manipulator of Congress, the press, and the public. But when war in Europe and Asia threatened America’s shores, FDR found himself in a world turned upside down, where his friends became his foes, his enemies his allies. To help wage democracy’s first “total war,” he turned to one of history’s most remarkable triumvirates.
Henry Stimson, an old-money Republican from Long Island, rallied to FDR’s banner to lead the Army as Secretary of War and championed innovative weapons that helped shape our world today. General George C. Marshall argued with Roosevelt over grand strategy, but he built the world’s greatest war machine and willingly sacrificed his dream of leading the invasion of Europe that made his protege, Dwight Eisenhower, a legend. Admiral Ernest J. King, a hard-drinking, irascible fighter who “destroyed” Pearl Harbor in a prewar naval exercise, understood how to fight Japan, but he also battled the Army, the Air Force, Douglas MacArthur, and his British allies as they moved armies and fleets across the globe.
These commanders threw off sparks whenever they clashed: generals against politicians, Army versus Navy. But those sparks lit the fire of victory. During four years of bitter warfare, FDR’s lieutenants learned to set aside deep personal, political, and professional differences and pull a nation through the twentieth century’s darkest days.
Encircling Roosevelt’s warlords—and sometimes bitterly at odds with them—was a colorful cast of the Second World War’s giants: Winston Churchill, MacArthur, Josef Stalin, Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Charles de Gaulle. These and other larger-than-life figures enrich a sweeping story of an era brimming with steel, fire, and blood.
Drawing upon a wealth of primary sources, American Warlords goes behind closed doors to give readers an intimate, often surprising view of titans who led America from isolation to the summit of global power. Written in a robust, engaging style, author Jonathan W. Jordan offers a vivid portrait of four extraordinary Americans in the eye of the war’s hurricane.
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The Jersey Brothers
- By: Sally Mott Freeman
- Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 18 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.37(1198 ratings)
4.37(1198 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDThis extraordinary adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II is “liable to break the hearts of Unbroken fans, and it’s all true” (The New York Times).They are three brothers, allThis extraordinary adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II is “liable to break the hearts of Unbroken fans, and it’s all true” (The New York Times).
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They are three brothers, all Navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war’s most crucial moments. Bill, a naval intelligence officer, is tapped by FDR to set up and run his secret map room in the White House basement. Benny is the gunnery and antiaircraft officer on USS Enterprise, one of the few ships to escape Pearl Harbor and, by the end of 1942, the only aircraft carrier left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest, gets a plum commission in the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm’s way. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to Manila and listed as wounded and missing after a Japanese attack. Now it is up to Bill and Benny to find and rescue him…
Based on a decade of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and half-forgotten letters stashed away in attics, The Jersey Brothers is “a captivating tour-de-force” (San Antonio Express-News) that whisks readers from America’s front porches to Roosevelt’s White House to the battlefronts of the Pacific. But at its heart The Jersey Brothers is a family story, written by one of its own in intimate, novelistic detail. It is a remarkable tale of agony and triumph; of an ordinary young man who shows extraordinary courage as the enemy does everything short of killing him; and of brotherly love tested under the tortures of war.
“The Jersey Brothers shines in singularity. A blend of history, family saga and family questions, Freeman’s book [is] a winning and moving success, and adds an authoritative entry to the… vast canon of war literature” (Richmond Times Dispatch). -
Whatever It Took
- By: Henry Langrehr
- Narrator: Mike Ortego
- Length: 6 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 05, 2020
- Language: English
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4.34(298 ratings)
4.34(298 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USDPublished to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made aPublished to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom.
Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mere-Eglise. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning.
Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality–the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued.
Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return.
A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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Hanns and Rudolf
- By: Thomas Harding
- Narrator: Mark Meadows
- Length: 8 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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4.31(1736 ratings)
4.31(1736 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe untold story of the man who brought a mastermind of the final solution to justice May 1945. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsibleThe untold story of the man who brought a mastermind of the final solution to justice
May 1945. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. One of the lead investigators is Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, a German Jew who is now serving in the British Army. Rudolf Hoss is his most elusive target. As kommandant of Auschwitz, Hoss not only oversaw the murder of more than one million men, women, and children, he was the man who perfected Hitler’s program of mass extermination. Hoss is on the run across a continent in ruins, the one man whose testimony can ensure justice at Nuremberg.
Hanns and Rudolf reveals for the very first time the full, exhilarating account of Hoss’ capture, an encounter with repercussions that echo to this day. Moving from the Middle Eastern campaigns of the First World War to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s to the horror of the concentration camps and the trials in Belsen and Nuremberg, it tells the story of two German men–one Jewish, one Catholic–whose lives diverged and intersected in an astonishing way.
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Coffin Corner Boys
- By: Carole Engle Avriett
- Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.17(336 ratings)
4.17(336 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAs a young band of brothers flies over German-occupied France, they come under heavy fire. Their B-17 is shot down and the airmen–stumbling through fields and villages–scatter across Europe. Some struggled to flee for safety. Others wereAs a young band of brothers flies over German-occupied France, they come under heavy fire. Their B-17 is shot down and the airmen–stumbling through fields and villages–scatter across Europe. Some struggled to flee for safety. Others were captured immediately and imprisoned. Now, for the first time, their incredible story of grit, survival, and reunion is told.
In 1944, George Starks was just a nineteen-year-old kid from Florida when he and his high school buddies enlisted in the US military. They wanted to join the action of WWII. George was assigned to the Ninety-Second Bomb Group, in which the median age was twenty-two, and on his crew’s first bombing mission together received the most vulnerable spot of a B-17 mission configuration: low squadron, low group, flying number six in the bomber-box formation.
Airmen called George’s position the “Coffin Corner” because here exposure was most likely to draw hostile fire. Sure enough, George’s plane was shot down by a German Fw 190, and he jumped at 25,000 feet for the “first and only time,” as he tells the story. He landed near Vitry-en-Perthois to begin a 300-mile trek through the dangers of war-torn France towards the freedom of neutral Switzerland.
Through waist-deep snow, seering exhaustion, and close encounters with Nazis, George repeated to himself the mantra “just one more day.” He battled to keep walking. His comrades were scattered all across Europe and experienced places as formidable as German POW camps and as hospitable as Spain, each crew member always wondering about the fate of the others.
After the war, George made two vows: he would never lose touch with his men again and one day would attempt to thank those who had risked their lives to save his. Despite passage of time and demands of career and family, he accomplished both. He reunited with his crew and then twenty-five years later, returned to France to locate as many as he could of the brave souls who had helped him evade the enemy.
Join George as he retraces his steps to freedom and discover the amazing stories of sacrifice and survival and how ten young American boys plus their French helpers became heroes.
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The Art of Resistance
- By: Justus Rosenberg
- Narrator: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 7 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 28, 2020
- Language: English
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4.11(467 ratings)
4.11(467 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAn unforgettable World War II memoir set in Nazi-occupied France and filled with romance and adventure: a former Eastern European Jew remembers his flight from the Holocaust and his extraordinary four years in the French underground. JustusAn unforgettable World War II memoir set in Nazi-occupied France and filled with romance and adventure: a former Eastern European Jew remembers his flight from the Holocaust and his extraordinary four years in the French underground. Justus Rosenberg, now 98, has taught literature at Bard College for the past fifty years.
In 1937, as the Nazis gained control and anti-Semitism spread in the Free City of Danzig, a majority German city on the Baltic Sea, sixteen-year-old Justus Rosenberg was sent to Paris to finish his education in safety. Three years later, France fell to the Germans. Alone and in danger, penniless and cut off from contact with his family in Poland, Justus fled south. A chance meeting led him to Varian Fry, an American journalist in Marseille who was helping thousands of men and women escape the Nazis, among them artists and intellectuals Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, and Max Ernst.
With his German background, understanding of French cultural, and fluency in several languages, including English, Justus became an invaluable member of Fry’s refugee network as a spy and scout. The spry blond who looked even younger than his age flourished in the underground, handling counterfeit documents, secret passwords, and black market currency, surveying escape routes, and dealing with avaricious gangsters. When Fry was eventually forced to leave France, his trusted colleague Justus–Gussie, as he was affectionately known–could not get out. For the next four years, Justus relied on his wits and skills to escape captivity, survive several close calls with death, and continue his fight against the Nazis, working with the French Resistance and eventually the United States Army. At the war’s end, Justus emigrated to America and built a new life.
Justus’ story is a powerful saga of bravery, daring, adventure, and survival with the soul of a spy thriller. Reflecting on his past, Justus sees his life as a confluence of circumstances. As he writes, “I survived the war through a rare combination of good fortune, resourcefulness, optimism, and, most important, the kindness of many good people.”
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Those Who Fall
- By: John Muirhead
- Narrator: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.07(83 ratings)
4.07(83 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDAs a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber pilot, John Muirhead led missions into northern Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria during World War II. Ultimately, he was shot down and taken prisoner. John Muirhead’s re-creation of those years is a breathtakingAs a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber pilot, John Muirhead led missions into northern Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria during World War II. Ultimately, he was shot down and taken prisoner.
John Muirhead’s re-creation of those years is a breathtaking mingling of ravaging horrors and silent, surreal images; of raw, tumultuous memory and elegantly paced narrative; of lightening humor and measured reflection.
Seldom has a reader been made to feel terror so viscerally. Rarely has a reader ascended the skies so thrillingly. And never has one felt so close to the numbing fear, the boredom, the eerie beauty, and the dislocated sensibilities of war in the air as in Those Who Fall.
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Moondrop to Gascony
- By: Anne-Marie Walters
- Narrator: Nicola Barber
- Length: 9 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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4.07(57 ratings)
4.07(57 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDOn a cold, moonlit night in January 1944, Anne-Marie Walters, just twenty years old, parachuted into southwest France to work with the Resistance in preparation for the long-awaited Allied invasion. The daughter of a British father and a FrenchOn a cold, moonlit night in January 1944, Anne-Marie Walters, just twenty years old, parachuted into southwest France to work with the Resistance in preparation for the long-awaited Allied invasion. The daughter of a British father and a French mother, she was to act as a courier for George Starr, head of the “Wheelwright” circuit of the Special Operations Executive. Over the next seven months, Walters crisscrossed the region, carrying messages, delivering explosives, arranging the escape of downed airmen, and receiving parachute drops of arms and personnel in the dead of night–living in constant fear of capture and torture by the Gestapo. Then, on the very eve of liberation, she was sent off on foot over the Pyrenees to Spain, carrying urgent dispatches for London.
Anne-Marie Walters wrote Moondrop to Gascony immediately after the war, while the events were still vivid in her mind. It is a tale of high adventure, comradeship and kindness, of betrayals and appalling atrocities, and of the often unremarked courage of many ordinary French men and women who risked their lives to help drive German armies from French soil. And through it all shines her’s quiet courage, a keen sense of humor and, above all, her pure zest for life.
For this new edition, David Hewson, a former regular-army officer interested in military history, adds biographical details for the main characters, identifies the real people behind the code names, and provides background information. He also tells about Anne-Marie Walters’ early life and what happened to her in the postwar years.
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The Diggers of Colditz
- By: Jack Champ
- Narrator: Steve Shanahan
- Length: 9 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.06(39 ratings)
4.06(39 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDColditz Castle was Nazi Germany’s infamous ‘escape-proof’ wartime prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful Allied prisoners were sent. Despite having more guards than inmates, Australian Lieutenant Jack ChampColditz Castle was Nazi Germany’s infamous ‘escape-proof’ wartime prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful Allied prisoners were sent. Despite having more guards than inmates, Australian Lieutenant Jack Champ and other prisoners tirelessly carried out their campaign to escape from the massive floodlit stronghold, by any means necessary.
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In this riveting account – by turns humorous, heartfelt and tragic – historian Colin Burgess and Lieutenant Jack Champ, from the point of view of the prisoners themselves, tell the story of the twenty Australians who made this castle their ‘home’, and the plans they made that were so crazy that some even achieved the seemingly impossible – escape!
‘A stirring testimony of mateship . . . We are often on tenterhooks, always impressed by their determination, industry and courage’ Australian Book Review -
Sisters in Resistance
- By: Tilar J. Mazzeo
- Narrator: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: June 21, 2022
- Language: English
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4.06(251 ratings)
4.06(251 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDIn a tale as twisted as any spy thriller, discover how three women delivered critical evidence of Axis war crimes to Allied forces during World War II: “Mazzeo is a fascinating storyteller” (New York Journal of Books). In 1944, news ofIn a tale as twisted as any spy thriller, discover how three women delivered critical evidence of Axis war crimes to Allied forces during World War II: “Mazzeo is a fascinating storyteller” (New York Journal of Books).
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In 1944, news of secret diaries kept by Italy’s Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, had permeated public consciousness. What wasn’t reported, however, was how three women–a Fascist’s daughter, a German spy, and an American socialite–risked their lives to ensure the diaries would reach the Allies, who would later use them as evidence against the Nazis at Nuremberg.
In 1944, Benito Mussolini’s daughter, Edda, gave Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband’s journals to the press. To avoid the peril of exposing Nazi lies, Hitler and Mussolini hunted for the diaries for months, determined to destroy them.
Hilde Beetz, a German spy, was deployed to seduce Ciano to learn the diaries’ location and take them from Edda. As the seducer became the seduced, Hilde converted as a double agent, joining forces with Edda to save Ciano from execution. When this failed, Edda fled to Switzerland with Hilde’s daring assistance to keep Ciano’s final wish: to see the diaries published for use by the Allies. When American spymaster Allen Dulles learned of Edda’s escape, he sent in socialite Frances De Chollet, an “accidental” spy, telling her to find Edda, gain her trust, and, crucially, hand the diaries over to the Americans. Together, they succeeded in preserving one of the most important documents of WWII.
Drawing from in-depth research and first-person interviews with people who witnessed these events, Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this little-known moment in history and shows how, without Edda, Hilde, and Frances’s involvement, certain convictions at Nuremberg would never have been possible. -
The Last Days of Hitler, 7th Edition
- By: Hugh Trevor-Roper
- Narrator: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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4.05(2 ratings)
4.05(2 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIn late 1945 the fate of Adolf Hitler was a complete mystery. Missing for four months, he had simply vanished. Hugh Trevor-Roper, a British intelligence officer, was given the task of solving the mystery. With access to American counterintelligenceIn late 1945 the fate of Adolf Hitler was a complete mystery. Missing for four months, he had simply vanished. Hugh Trevor-Roper, a British intelligence officer, was given the task of solving the mystery. With access to American counterintelligence files and German prisoners, his brilliant detective work proved finally that Hitler had killed himself in Berlin. It also produced one of the most fascinating history books ever written.
Originally published in 1947, The Last Days of Hitler tells the extraordinary story of those final days of the Thousand-Year Reich–a dramatic, carefully planned finale to a terrible chapter of history.
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In Solitary Witness
- By: Gordon Charles Zahn
- Narrator: Pete Cross
- Length: 9 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: November 26, 2019
- Language: English
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4.04(1 ratings)
4.04(1 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis is the book that discovered Franz JA$?gerstA$?tter and his inspiring story of unyielding resistance to Nazi orders and his commitment to the dictates of conscience even at the cost of life itself. When German troops moved into Austria in 1938,This is the book that discovered Franz JA$?gerstA$?tter and his inspiring story of unyielding resistance to Nazi orders and his commitment to the dictates of conscience even at the cost of life itself. When German troops moved into Austria in 1938, JA$?gerstA$?tter was the only man in his village to vote against the Anschluss (Annexation of Austria). Although he was not involved in any political organization and did, in fact, undergo one brief period of military training, he remained openly anti-Nazi and declared he would not fight in Hitler’s war. This twentieth-century martyr, a husband and father of three, was beheaded for his refusal to serve a ruler his conscience could not accept.
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The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line
- By: Mari K. Eder
- Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.02(1079 ratings)
4.02(1079 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFor fans of Radium Girls and history and WWII buffs, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of fifteen unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made thingsFor fans of Radium Girls and history and WWII buffs, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of fifteen unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII–in and out of uniform, for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come.
The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line are the heroes of the Greatest Generation that you hardly ever hear about. These women who did extraordinary things didn’t expect thanks and shied away from medals and recognition. Despite their amazing accomplishments, they’ve gone mostly unheralded and unrewarded. No longer. These are the women of World War II who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen–in and out of uniform.
Liane B. Russell fled Austria with nothing and later became a renowned US scientist whose research on the effects of radiation on embryos made a difference to thousands of lives. Gena Turgel was a prisoner who worked in the hospital at Bergen-Belsen and cared for the young Anne Frank, who was dying of typhus. Gena survived and went on to write a memoir and spent her life educating children about the Holocaust. Ida and Louise Cook were British sisters who repeatedly smuggled out jewelry and furs and served as sponsors for refugees, and they also established temporary housing for immigrant families in London.
Retired US Army Major General Mari K. Eder wrote this book because she knew their stories needed to be told–and the sooner the better. For theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come.
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Frances Langford
- By: Ben Ohmart
- Narrator: Kathy Garver
- Length: 3 hours 14 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4(3 ratings)
4(3 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDEveryone was “In the Mood for Love,” when Frances Langford, renowned Big Band singer with a rich contralto voice, rose from performing at hometown parties in Mulberry, Florida, to Broadway, Old Time Radio, and movies duringEveryone was “In the Mood for Love,” when Frances Langford, renowned Big Band singer with a rich contralto voice, rose from performing at hometown parties in Mulberry, Florida, to Broadway, Old Time Radio, and movies during Hollywood’s Golden Era. Her signature song carried her from turntables to troops in World War Two, and then into the stuff of legends.
From the airwaves on Louella Parson’s Hollywood Hotel, Rudy Vallee’s The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour, and Dick Powell’s Campana Serenade (1942-1943), Frances achieved nationwide fame as Don Ameche’s insufferable wife, Blanche, on The Bickersons (1946-1951).
Her beauty eclipsed her broadcasts, when the movies plucked her from speakers to screens. Her film debut in 1935 in Every Night at Eight led to Broadway Melody of 1936, in which she popularized “Broadway Rhythm” and “You Are My Lucky Star;” Born to Dance in 1936; and in 1942 in Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney, in which she sang the rousing “Over There.”
For the first time, her personal interviews with author-publisher Ben Ohmart bring the treasured memories from her past to light. Return with her to the front lines from 1941 into the 1980s with Bob Hope and Jerry Colonna on USO tours through Europe, North Africa, and the South Pacific, entertaining thousands of GIs throughout the world.
Frances Langford. More than a voice. More than the GIs’ choice.
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Code Name: Lise
- By: Larry Loftis
- Narrator: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.97(5352 ratings)
3.97(5352 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDNATIONAL BESTSELLER A Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist Florida Book Awards Silver Medalist Featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, New York Newsday, and on Today! Best Nonfiction Books to Read in 2019–Woman’s Day The BestNATIONAL BESTSELLER
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A Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist
Florida Book Awards Silver Medalist
Featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, New York Newsday, and on Today!
Best Nonfiction Books to Read in 2019–Woman’s Day
The Best Nonfiction Books Coming Out This Year–BookBub
“A nonfiction thriller.”–The Wall Street Journal
From New York Times and international bestselling author of the “gripping” (Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Into the Lion’s Mouth comes the extraordinary true story of Odette Sansom, the British spy who operated in occupied France and fell in love with her commanding officer during World War II–perfect for fans of Unbroken, The Nightingale, and Code Girls.
The year is 1942, and World War II is in full swing. Odette Sansom decides to follow in her war hero father’s footsteps by becoming an SOE agent to aid Britain and her beloved homeland, France. Five failed attempts and one plane crash later, she finally lands in occupied France to begin her mission. It is here that she meets her commanding officer Captain Peter Churchill.
As they successfully complete mission after mission, Peter and Odette fall in love. All the while, they are being hunted by the cunning German secret police sergeant, Hugo Bleicher, who finally succeeds in capturing them. They are sent to Paris’s Fresnes prison, and from there to concentration camps in Germany where they are starved, beaten, and tortured. But in the face of despair, they never give up hope, their love for each other, or the whereabouts of their colleagues.
In Code Name: Lise, Larry Loftis paints a portrait of true courage, patriotism, and love–of two incredibly heroic people who endured unimaginable horrors and degradations. He seamlessly weaves together the touching romance between Odette and Peter and the thrilling cat and mouse game between them and Sergeant Bleicher. With this amazing testament to the human spirit, Loftis proves once again that he is adept at writing “nonfiction that reads like a page-turning novel” (Parade). -
Disciples
- By: Douglas Waller
- Narrator: George Newbern
- Length: 16 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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3.9(175 ratings)
3.9(175 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USD“A fantastic book, one of the very finest accounts of wartime spookery” (The Wall Street Journal)–a spellbinding adventure story of four secret OSS agents who would all later lead the CIA and their daring espionage and sabotage in“A fantastic book, one of the very finest accounts of wartime spookery” (The Wall Street Journal)–a spellbinding adventure story of four secret OSS agents who would all later lead the CIA and their daring espionage and sabotage in wartime Europe from the author of the bestselling Wild Bill Donavan.
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They are the most famous and controversial directors the CIA has ever had–Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey. Before each of these four men became their country’s top spymaster, they fought in World War II as secret warriors for Wild Bill Donovan’s Office of Strategic Services.
Allen Dulles ran the OSS’s most successful spy operation against the Axis. Bill Casey organized dangerous missions to penetrate Nazi Germany. Bill Colby led OSS commando raids behind the lines in occupied France and Norway. Richard Helms mounted risky intelligence programs against the Russians in the ruins of Berlin. Later, they were the most controversial directors the CIA has ever had. Dulles launched the calamitous operation at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. Helms was convicted of lying to Congress over the CIA’s role in the ousting of President Salvador Allende in Chile. Colby would become a pariah for releasing a report on CIA misdeeds during the 1950s, sixties and early seventies. Casey would nearly bring down the CIA–and Ronald Reagan’s presidency–from a scheme that secretly supplied Nicaragua’s contras with money raked off from the sale of arms to Iran for American hostages in Beirut.
Mining thousands of once-secret World War II documents and interviewing scores, Waller has written a worthy successor to Wild Bill Donovan. “Entertaining and richly detailed” (The Washington Post), Disciples is the story of these four dynamic agents and their daring espionage and sabotage in wartime Europe. -
Before Their Time
- By: Robert Kotlowitz
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.9(94 ratings)
3.9(94 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn this memoir of his experiences as a teenage infantryman in the US Third Army during World War II, Kotlowitz brings to life the harrowing story of the massacre of his platoon in northeastern France, in which he–by playing dead–was theIn this memoir of his experiences as a teenage infantryman in the US Third Army during World War II, Kotlowitz brings to life the harrowing story of the massacre of his platoon in northeastern France, in which he–by playing dead–was the only one to survive.
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The King’s War
- By: Mark Logue
- Narrator: Greg Patmore
- Length: 9 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.85(74 ratings)
3.85(74 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFollowing the New York Times bestselling The King’s Speech, this eagerly anticipated sequel takes King George VI and his confidant and speech therapist Lionel Logue into the darkest days of World War II. The broadcast that George VI made toFollowing the New York Times bestselling The King’s Speech, this eagerly anticipated sequel takes King George VI and his confidant and speech therapist Lionel Logue into the darkest days of World War II.
The broadcast that George VI made to the British nation on the outbreak of war in September 1939—which formed the climax of the multi-Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech—was the product of years of hard work with Lionel Logue, his iconoclastic, Australian-born speech therapist. Yet the relationship between the two men did not end there. Far from it: in the years that followed, Logue was to play an even more important role at the monarch’s side.
The King’s War follows that relationship through the dangerous days of Dunkirk and the drama of D-Day to eventual victory in 1945—and beyond. Like the first book, it is written by Peter Conradi, a London Sunday Times journalist, and Mark Logue (Lionel’s grandson), and again draws on exclusive material from the Logue Archive—the collection of diaries, letters, and other documents left by Lionel and his wife, Myrtle. This gripping narrative provides a fascinating portrait of two men and their respective families—the Windsors and the Logues—as they together face the greatest challenge in Britain’s history.
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Ministers at War
- By: Jonathan Schneer
- Narrator: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 12 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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3.78(205 ratings)
3.78(205 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIn May 1940, with France on the verge of defeat, Britain alone stood in the path of the Nazi military juggernaut. Survival seemed to hinge on the leadership of Winston Churchill, whom the king reluctantly appointed prime minister as Germany invadedIn May 1940, with France on the verge of defeat, Britain alone stood in the path of the Nazi military juggernaut. Survival seemed to hinge on the leadership of Winston Churchill, whom the king reluctantly appointed prime minister as Germany invaded France. Churchill’s reputation as one of the great twentieth-century leaders would be forged during the coming months and years as he worked tirelessly first to rally his country and then to defeat Hitler. But Churchill–regarded as the savior of his nation, and of the entire continent–could not have done it alone.
As prizewinning historian Jonathan Schneer reveals in Ministers at War, Churchill depended on a team of powerful ministers to manage the war effort as he rallied a beleaguered nation. Selecting men from across the political spectrum–from fellow conservative Anthony Eden to leader of the opposing socialist Labor Party Clement Attlee–Churchill assembled a war cabinet that balanced competing interests and bolstered support for his national coalition government. The group possessed a potent blend of talent, ambition, and egotism. Led and encouraged by Churchill, the ministers largely set aside their differences–at least at first. As the war progressed, discord began to grow. It reached a peak in 1945. With victory seemingly assured, Churchill was forced by his minsters at war to dissolve the government and call a general election, which, in a shocking upset, he lost to his rival Attlee.
Authoritatively recasting our understanding of British high politics during World War II, Schneer shows that Churchill managed the war effort by managing his team of supremely able yet contentious cabinet members. The outcome of the war lay not only in Churchill’s individual brilliance but also in his skill as an executive and in the collective ability of men who muted their personal interests to save the world from barbarism.
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I Marched with Patton
- By: Frank Sisson
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 20, 2020
- Language: English
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3.77(227 ratings)
3.77(227 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDPublished to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of General George Patton’s death, a gripping firsthand account of World War II written by a soldier with the American Third Army who served under the legendary warrior and participated inPublished to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of General George Patton’s death, a gripping firsthand account of World War II written by a soldier with the American Third Army who served under the legendary warrior and participated in many of the most consequential events of the conflict–including the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Dachau.
Following in the footsteps of the bestsellers All the Gallant Men, Every Man a Hero, Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In, and Never Call Me a Hero, I Marched with Patton is a remarkable eyewitness account that offers priceless insights into a foot soldier’s life on the front lines during World War II under the command one of the legendary figures in American military history.
Now a spry ninety-four years old, Frank Sisson looks back at his life and his service in the Third Army. Born in rural Oklahoma, Frank grew up fatherless during the Great Depression. In 1944, at age eighteen, he enlisted and was deployed to France where he marched with Patton, taking part in many of the key Allied movements of the war. Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge, nearly died crossing the Rhine with Patton, and was among the first American soldiers who liberated the notorious Dachau concentration camp.
After the war, Frank continued to serve in the army as a military police inspector in Berlin. When he finally returned home, he attended college and built a career in business.
Frank Sisson’s remarkable reminiscences provide a fresh, unique look at Patton’s leadership, the final year of World War II and its direct aftermath, and the experience of combat on the front lines.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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82 Days on Okinawa
- By: Art Shaw
- Narrator: Jim Seybert
- Length: 8 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 03, 2020
- Language: English
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3.77(293 ratings)
3.77(293 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDIn celebration of the 75th anniversary, a riveting first-hand account of the Battle of Okinawa–the Pacific War’s “bloodiest battle of all” (New York Times)–from the first officer ashore, who served at the front for theIn celebration of the 75th anniversary, a riveting first-hand account of the Battle of Okinawa–the Pacific War’s “bloodiest battle of all” (New York Times)–from the first officer ashore, who served at the front for the battle’s entire 82-day duration, heroism that earned him a Bronze Star.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, 1,500 Allied ships and 1.5 million men gathered off the coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa and launched the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War. They expected an 80% casualty rate. The first American officer ashore was Major Art Shaw, a unit commander in the U.S. Army’s 361 Artillery Battalion of the 96th Division, often called the Deadeyes. For the next three months, Major Shaw and his men served at the front lines of the Pacific’s bloodiest battle, their artillery proving decisive against a “phantom enemy” who had entrenched themselves into rugged, craggy island. Now, at 98, Art Shaw looks back to tell the story. 82 Days on Okinawa is an extraordinary eyewitness account of this critical World War II battle.
The first step of Operation Downfall–the ground invasion of Japan–the Battle of Okinawa became legendary for its brutality. Over 82 days, the Allies fought the Japanese Army in one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war, one in which more than 150,000 soldiers would die. When the final calculations were made, the totals said that the Deadeyes had killed 37,763 of the enemy. The 361 Field Artillery Battalion had played a crucial role in victory. It would be the last major battle of World War II, and a key pivot point leading to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese surrender in August, two months after the siege’s end.
A riveting first-person account of this turning point, 82 Days on Okinawa joins the ranks of Donald Stratton’s All the Gallant Men and Dusty Kleiss’ Never Call Me a Hero.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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Hitler’s First Hundred Days
- By: Peter Fritzsche
- Narrator: Jim Seybert
- Length: 14 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 17, 2020
- Language: English
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3.76(313 ratings)
3.76(313 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.98 USDThis unsettling and illuminating history reveals how Germany’s fractured republic gave way to the Third Reich, from the formation of the Nazi party to the rise of Hitler.Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were... Read moreThis unsettling and illuminating history reveals how Germany’s fractured republic gave way to the Third Reich, from the formation of the Nazi party to the rise of Hitler.Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both left and right. Then, in the spring of 1933, Germany turned itself inside out, from a deeply divided republic into a one-party dictatorship. In Hitler’s First Hundred Days, award-winning historian Peter Fritzsche offers a probing account of the pivotal moments when the majority of Germans seemed, all at once, to join the Nazis to construct the Third Reich. Fritzsche examines the events of the period — the elections and mass arrests, the bonfires and gunfire, the patriotic rallies and anti-Jewish boycotts — to understand both the terrifying power the National Socialists exerted over ordinary Germans and the powerful appeal of the new era they promised.Hitler’s First Hundred Days is the chilling story of the beginning of the end, when one hundred days inaugurated a new thousand-year Reich.
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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