It also illuminates the chaotic life of a nation during the Stalin era.

    It signaled the beginning of the end for the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler; it foretold the Russian juggernaut that would destroy Berlin and make the Soviet Union a superpower. As Winston Churchill characterized the result of the conflict at Stalingrad: " the hinge of fate had turned." William Craig, author and historian, has painstakingly recreated the details of this great battle: from the hot summer of August 1942, when the German armies smashed their way across southern Russia toward the Volga River, through the struggle for Stalingrad-a city Hitler had never meant to capture and Stalin never meant to defend-on to the destruction of the supposedly invincible German Sixth Army and the terror of the Russian prison camps in frozen Siberia. Craig has interviewed hundreds of survivors of the battle-both Russian and German soldiers and civilians-and has woven their incredible experiences into the fabric of hitherto unknown documents. The resulting mosaic is epic in scope, and the human tragedy that unfolds is awesome.

    The target received only light damage, while 96 of the 779 attacking aircraft disappeared. What happened that fateful night in 1944? A military writer internationally recognized for his superb research recreates the events in astonishing detail from archives, correspondence with the raid's planners, and interviews with RAF and Luftwaffe aircrews, plus civilians from the bombed area. A meticulous, dramatic, and often controversial testimony.

    In a compound in Yenan, soon after the Japanese onslaught of July 7, 1937, 'Num Wales'Helen Foster Snowtook down the words of 'Kim Sam', the former a young American journalist who knew she was in on one of the scoops of the century, the latter a Korean who has decided to struggle against the Japanese occupiers of his homeland by joining the Chinese Communists. He was old beyond his 32 years due to sickness, imprisonment, torture and private brought on by voluntary participation in the struggles against the decaying social system and the rising new order of foreign imperialism. In a moment of truth, this revolutionary revealed his innermost thoughts in a way few human beings do. As a Korean member of the Chinese Communist party, Kim San was in a unique position to observe and report on the Chinese Revolution and its relation to movements in neighboring Korea and Japan. But as important as this book is to those interested in the history of revolution in Asia, it directly alerts modern radicals to some of the questions any movement on the left must face: the relation between study and practice, love and revolution, ends vs. means. Beyond that, as a gripping tale of adventure it can enthrall even the most politically disinterested.

    This mission was Operation Tidal Wave. Its target—“the taproot of German might,” Hitler’s giant oil refineries at Ploesti. Hundreds of U.S. airmen had volunteered for the mission despite warnings that half might not return. In thirty minutes, more firepower was exchanged than in two Gettysburgs, and five men earned the Medal of Honor. Ploesti presents a vivid reconstruction of a dramatic and controversial mission.

    

    Originally published: London: Jonathan Cape, 1953.

    This volume tells the story of that offensive, one which eventually involved more than four and a half million troops, including ninety-one divisions, sixty-one of which were American. The focus of the volume is on the role of the American armies -First, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and, to a lesser extent, Fifteenth- which comprised the largest and most powerful military force the United States has ever put in the field. The role of Allied armies -First Canadian, First French, and Second British- is recounted in sufficient detail to put the role of American armies in perspective, as is the story of tactical air forces in support of the ground troops.

    A panoramic novel about the fighter war in the West 1939 - 1945.