Best of
War

1944

Brave Men


Ernie Pyle - 1944
    Long before television beamed daily images of combat into our living rooms, Pyle’s on-the-spot reporting gave the American public a firsthand view of what war was like for the boys on the front. Pyle followed the soldiers into the trenches, battlefields, field hospitals, and beleaguered cities of Europe. What he witnessed he described with a clarity, sympathy, and grit that gave the public back home an immediate sense of the foot soldier’s experience. There were really two wars, John Steinbeck wrote in Time magazine: one of maps and logistics, campaigns, ballistics, divisions, and regiments and the other a "war of the homesick, weary, funny, violent, common men who wash their socks in their helmets, complain about the food, whistle at Arab girls, or any girls for that matter, and bring themselves through as dirty a business as the world has ever seen and do it with humor and dignity and courage—and that is Ernie Pyle’s war." This collection of Pyle’s columns detailing the fighting in Europe in 1943–44 brings that war—and the living, and dying, moments of history—home to us once again.

Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World


Jan Karski - 1944
    This definitive edition — which includes a foreword by Madeleine Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary — is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.With elements of a spy thriller, documenting his experiences in the Polish Underground, and as one of the first accounts of the systematic slaughter of the Jews by the German Nazis, this volume is a remarkable testimony of one man's courage and a nation's struggle for resistance against overwhelming oppression.Karski was a brilliant young diplomat when war broke out in 1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland. Taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army, which had simultaneously invaded from the East, Karski narrowly escaped the subsequent Katyn Forest Massacre. He became a member of the Polish Underground, the most significant resistance movement in occupied Europe, acting as a liaison and courier between the Underground and the Polish government-in-exile. He was twice smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, and entered the Nazi's Izbica transit camp disguised as a guard, witnessing first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust.Karski's courage and testimony, conveyed in a breathtaking manner in "Story of a Secret State," offer the narrative of one of the world's greatest eyewitnesses and an inspiration for all of humanity, emboldening each of us to rise to the challenge of standing up against evil and for human rights.

Kaputt


Curzio Malaparte - 1944
    Telling of the siege of Leningrad, of glittering dinner parties with Nazi leaders, and of trains disgorging bodies in war-devastated Romania, Malaparte paints a picture of humanity at its most depraved.Kaputt is an insider’s dispatch from the world of the enemy that is as hypnotically fascinating as it is disturbing.

Volokolamsk Highway


Aleksandr Bek - 1944
    True story of one batallion's fight against the Nazis as well as their own fears in the early stages of the Defense of Moscow.

Helmets and Lipstick: An Army Nurse in World War Two


Ruth G. Haskell - 1944
    troops in North Africa during Operation Torch. First published at the height of the war in 1944, Haskell’s memoir is a classic account of combat nursing in World War 2, an important addition to the literature of the war in North Africa and of the history of non-combatants in the Second World War.

Invasion Diary: A Dramatic Firsthand Account of the Allied Invasion of Italy


Richard Tregaskis - 1944
    Following the defeat of Axis forces in North Africa, Allied military strategists turned their attention to southern Italy. Winston Churchill famously described the region as the “soft underbelly of Europe,” and claimed that an invasion would pull German troops from the Eastern Front and help bring a swift end to the war.   On July 10, 1943, American and British forces invaded Sicily. Operation Husky brought the island under Allied control and hastened the downfall of Benito Mussolini, but more than one hundred thousand German and Italian troops managed to escape across the Strait of Medina. The “soft underbelly” of mainland Italy became, in the words of US Fifth Army commander Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, “a tough old gut.”   Less than a year after landing with the US Marines on Guadalcanal Island, journalist Richard Tregaskis joined the Allied forces in Sicily and Italy. Invasion Diary documents some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, from bombing runs over Rome to the defense of the Salerno beachhead against heavy artillery fire to the fall of Naples. In compelling and evocative prose, Tregaskis depicts the terror and excitement of life on the front lines and recounts his own harrowing brush with death when a chunk of German shrapnel pierced his helmet and shattered his skull.   An invaluable eyewitness account of two of the most crucial campaigns of the Second World War and a stirring tribute to the soldiers, pilots, surgeons, nurses, and ambulance drivers whose skill and courage carried the Allies to victory, Invasion Diary is a classic of war reportage and “required reading for all who want to know how armies fight” (Library Journal).  This ebook features an illustrated biography of Richard Tregaskis including rare images from the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.

Days and Nights


Konstantin Simonov - 1944
    It is the tale of seventy days and nights in which a young Red Army officer seized and held three apartment houses in Stalingrad. It defines, as well, the subtle ways in which patriotism and a desire for happiness have taken first importance in the minds and hearts of many Russian men and women. It has been called by critics the best novel of the Red Army and its long war against the Germans. Days and Nights is the first novel by Russia's most successful young reporter and playwright. It is an attempt to describe, without propaganda stereotypes, the new sense of themselves Russians have acquired during the war. So far as the publishers know, this is the first serious non-political novel to come out of the Soviet Union. The characters are simple, believable human beings, whose souls belong neither to Dostoevsky nor Marx, but to themselves and their country.

The Dyess Story - The Eye-Witness Account of the DEATH MARCH FROM BATAAN [Illustrated Edition]


William Edwin Dyess - 1944
    One such man was Lt.-Colonel William Edwin ‘Ed’ Dyess, he and his unit of the 21st Pursuit squadron flew their obsolete P-40 Warhawks against the superior Japanese fighters until no more planes remained. Undaunted he fought on as an infantryman refusing to be evacuated and leave his men, despite the hopeless situation after the battle of Bataan. Before his eventual capture by the Japanese his deeds of selfless bravery were legendary, including giving his own plane to a fellow aviator so he could fly to safety and ensuring that the future president of the United Nations General Assembly, Colonel Carlos Romulo could escape. Dyess and his brave men deserved a better fate than that which awaited them at the hands of their Japanese captors on the infamous Bataan Death March. Driven north from Bataan, the American and Philippino prisoners were beaten, starved and prodded at the tip of the bayonet toward prison camps that had been callously unprovided with the basic means of existence. Dyess and his fellows swore that they would not submit to this regime and die like many had along the roads and decided on a plan of escape. In the only successful mass prison escape, Dyess along with his men broke out of their prison camp and made contact with resistance groups. After a time waging further Guerilla operations, Dyess and two other American servicemen were evacuated by submarine to Australia. As Dyess recuperated the American Government knowing the effect that the truth of the atrocities committed by the Japanese would galvanize public opinion allowed the release of his story via the Chicago Tribune. The story created a huge storm of outrage directed at the Japanese and of respect and admiration for Dyess and his fellow soldiers who had endured so much on their behalf. Dyess returned to active service as soon as was possible but tragically died in an airplane accident in 1943, a hero to his men and country.A tragically vivid and gruelling account of one of the most heroic escape stories yet told.

Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress


Raphaël Lemkin - 1944
    Introduction to the Second Edition by William A. Schabas. Introduction to the First Edition by Samantha Power. Originally published: Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law, 1944. xxiii (vii-xxiii new introductions), xxxviii, 674 pp. In this path-breaking study Polish emigre Raphael Lemkin [1900 - 1959] coined the term "genocide" and defined it as a subject of international law. While the term has come to mean the extermination of a people, Lemkin used it to describe all programs that sought to increase the "Aryan" birthrate while working to exterminate the social, cultural and economic independence of non-Germanic peoples. This study was an elaboration of ideas he first proposed in 1933 in his address to the Fifth International Conference for the Unification of Penal Law (1933), which argued that attacks on racial, religious and ethnic groups should be considered international crimes. Important for the prosecution of the Nazis, this pioneering work helped to establish the framework for all subsequent efforts to punish crimes against humanity."In 1933 a government arose in Germany whose policy was directed not towards the murder of individuals only but of a whole civilization. The decrees of this government together with those of Fascist Italy and those of the puppet regimes of the Axis Powers, in relation to the various countries which they occupied, have been collected with great care by Dr. Lemkin and are on record for all time. The work has been splendidly done. (...) This book is one which will be of enduring value to jurists, historians, students of politics, and practical men." --British Yearbook of International Law 22 (1945) 313-314.

The Cross and the Arrow


Albert Maltz - 1944
    Takes place during WW2, in a hidden Tank plant, in Germany

Purple Heart Valley: A Combat Chronicle Of The War In Italy


Margaret Bourke-White - 1944
    The story of the Liri valley battles is accurate and the photographs illustrate both the actual battlefield, individuals, and the conditions that the 5th Army troops had to deal with during the Winter Campaign in 1943/1944 leading up to the Battle for Monte Cassino. If you are interested in the WWII Italian Campaign and the battle prior to Monte Cassino, then this book is a rare find from the period. Those interested in the actions of the 34th, 45th, 36th and 3rd Infantry Divisions in the earliest and difficult days of the war in Europe can get a real first hand look the 5th Army actions of that time.

The Sad Sack


George Baker - 1944
    

Pictorial History of the Second World War: Fifth Year, Volume 3


Wm. H. Wise & Co. - 1944
    This is part of a five volume pictorial history of the Second World War.

Two Worlds Of Music


Berta Geissmar - 1944
    

Pictorial History of the Second World War: First and Second Years, Volume 1


Wm. H. Wise & Co. - 1944
    This is part of a five volume pictorial history of the Second World War.

Tobruk 1941


Chester Wilmot - 1944
    Like Gallipoli, the coastal fortress of Tobruk in northern Africa has a special place in Australia's war annals. For eight months in 1941 the Australian Imperial Force helped hold the besieged town against German forces that had hitherto suffered no check. With the distinctive mix of vigour and intelligence that made him a celebrated correspondent during and after the Second World War, Chester Wilmot here tells the story of the fighting in and around Tobruk from January to December 1941. His compelling book, based on personal observation, official documents and eyewitness accounts, is given even greater impact by the use of enemy sources, including extracts from the diaries of German officers.