The smallest of the extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany during World War II, Sobibor was where now-retired auto worker John Demjanjuk has been accused of working as a prison guard. Sobibor also was the scene of the war's biggest prisoner escape.   Richard Rashke's interviews with eighteen of  those who survived provide the foundation for this volume. He also draws on books, articles, and diaries to make vivid the camp, the uprising, and the escape. In the afterword, Rashke relates how the Polish government in October 1993, observed the fiftieth anniversary of the escape and how it has beautified the site since a film based on his book appeared on Polish television.

    By the end of the war, all but a few hundred of them had died in bombing raids or, more commonly, in death camps. This is the real-life story of some of the few of them - a young mother, a scholar and his countess lover, a black-market jeweler, a fashion designer, a Zionist, an opera-loving merchant, a teen-age orphan - who resourcefully, boldly, defiantly, luckily survived. In hiding or in masquerade, by their wits and sometimes with the aid of conscience-stricken German gentiles, they survived. They survived the constant threat of discovery by the Nazi authorities or by the sinister handful of turncoat Jewish "catchers" who would send them to the gas chambers. They survived to tell this tale, which reads like a thriller and triumphs like a miracle.

    Told with the same stylistic flair and attention to detail as the bestselling At Dawn We Slept, Miracle at Midway brings together eyewitness accounts from the men who commanded and fought on both sides. The sweeping narrative takes readers into the thick of the action and shows exactly how American strategies and decisions led to the triumphant victory that paved the way for the defeat of Japan. "A stirring, even suspenseful narrative . . . The clearest and most complete account so far." (Newsday) "Something special among war histories . . . No other gives both sides of the battle in as detailed and telling a manner."(Chicago Sun-Times) "A gripping and convincing account." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

    Here they play at being soldiers in what seems to be complete isolation. That is, until the Germans begin revealing their whereabouts and leaving signs of their presence: a scarecrow, equipment the squad had dropped on a retreat from a reconnaissance mission and, strangest of all, a small fir tree hung with fruit, candles, and cardboard stars. Suddenly, Knott and the others must unravel these mysteries, learning as they do about themselves, about one another, and about the "enemy," until A Midnight Clear reaches its unexpected climax, one of the most shattering in the literature of war.

    Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man.During the dark days of World War II, “Wild Bill” Donovan, more than any other person, was responsible for what William Stevenson, author of A Man Called Intrepid, described as “the astonishing success with which the United States entered secret warfare and accomplished in less than four years what it took England many centuries to develop.”Drawing upon Donovan’s diaries, letters, and other papers; interviews with hundreds of the men and women who worked with him and spied for him; and declassified and unpublished documents, author Richard Dunlop, himself a former member of Donovan’s OSS, traces the incredible career of the man who almost single-handedly created America’s central intelligence service. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

    Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan saint who gave up his life for another at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Patricia Treece chronicles the remarkable life of this Polish priest, theologian, journalist, evangelist and "martyr of charity" in the words of those who knew him. The first person testimonies include those of family members, friends, fellow Franciscan friars, death camp survivors--even that of the prisoner for whom Kolbe died. Treese uses this unique biographical approach like a master artist, revealing the extraordinary virtues of this "prophet of the civilization of love" (Pope John Paul II). She shows how St. Maximilian exemplified the Franciscan ideal of loving without limits, loving even his Nazi oppressors, loving even unto death. St. Maximilian Kolbe is truly a hero and inspiration for those of any creed.

    A fearless young Swede whose efforts saved countless Hungarian Jews from certain death at the hands of Adolf Eichmann, Raoul Wallenberg was one of the true heroes to emerge during the Nazi occupation of Europe.

    Ken Harrison’s experiences as a Prisoner of war take the reader to the work camps of Singapore, to Thailand “Death Railway” and to the dockyards of Nagasaki. His journey culminates in a visit to the bomb-devastated Hiroshima long before the arrival of the occupation forces.

    It was an appropriate greeting to the young man, enjoying his first taste of freedom after spending time in three concentration camps, including the infamous Bergen-Belsen. A short time later, suddenly abandoned again to a Virginia military school, Spanjaard, then 16 years old, felt compelled to confront his past, particularly the loss of his beloved father, who died a few days after being released from Bergen-Belsen. This true story is unique because Barry Spanjaard is believed to be the only American citizen to be confined in Hitler's camps and dispels the idea that such a tragedy could only happen to people "over there - not here." His American citizenship was his and his family's tool to survival. His family never went into hiding, and Barry was able to keep his mother and father out of the camps for several years because of his American citizenship. His American citizenship was also the key which finally opened the doors to freedom in a prisoner exchange. Spanjaard recounts his meeting and the befriending of Anne Frank, his job as a personal messenger boy to Camp Commandant Josef Kramer and the destruction of his fellow Jews, with a cynical humor, without taking away from the seriousness of the situation. It reveals a youngster suddenly propelled to adult responsibilities, who nevertheless remains a teenager finding friends and life's remaining joys wherever he can."It is a book that young adults should read and then pass on to their parents."

    Although the bombing "crept back" from its target, and the cloudless sky made the British aircraft perfect targets, they succeeded in disrupting Hitler's weapons program. Containing the remembrances of over 400 people from both sides--flight crews, researchers at the site, and foreign laborers forced to work there--this classic history is thoroughly irresistible.

    P. Willmott presents the first of a three-volume appraisal of the strategic policies of the countries involved in the Pacific War.

    

    Compilied from over seventy-five interviews with surviving officers and enlisted men, these powerful firsthand accounts give us a soldier's-eye portrait of the Marine Pacific war experience -- the camaraderie, the women, the loneliness, the fear -- and the profound emotional as well as spiritual rewards that resulted. Former machine gunners, riflemen, mortarmen, and engineers share the horrifying and humorous stories that defined their days in the Pacific. Through this filter of recollection, one truism is reflected time and again: "there is no such thing as an ex-Marine." A tour-de-force that pays tribute to the spirit of the nation's premier fighting force, Semper Fi, Mac is a multifaceted portrayl of men, war, bravery, honor -- and, as "The Marines' Hymn" so proudly proclaims, fidelity to the military tradition that inspired them.

    battleship California depicts the devastation at Pearl Harbor from the hazardous vantage point of the open birdbath atop the mainmast.

    Possessed of great warmth, wit and, above all a humanity which informs every word in this extraordinary account of Jersey life during the German Occupation, he served the island community with unfailing resourcefulness and not a little courage for five long and stressful years. However, despite the awfulness of the time, Dr Lewis infuses his account of it with an irrepressible joie de vivre which is utterly delightful. It is an uplifting story of winning against the odds, by turns hysterically funny and then unbearably sad. Above all it has an immediacy which takes the reader right into the heart of the Occupation, you can smell the fear, feel the pain, suffer the loss, sense the victory as do the characters in this history and they are many and varied. You will meet the good Jersey folk like the brave and tragic Mrs Gould from St Ouens and the not so good Jersey folk in the shape of the collaborators and informers or the “Jerry bags” like the exotic Ginger Lou. Here too you will meet some of the most wretched victims of the war, the Russian Todt workers who were hidden and helped by the locals and of course the many sorts of Germans who made up the occupying force. It is a story of compelling interest.I had the good fortune to meet John Lewis and his wife in 1991 at his lovely Jersey home. He talked for hours that seemed like minutes of his life during the war years. He was just as I’d hoped he would be - endlessly kind, witty and understanding. I came away from that meeting feeling happy, elated and much wiser, as you will surely do after reading of the Doctor’s Occupation. John Nettles

    With dramatic, driving power, John Keegan describes the massed armies—American, Canadian, English, French, German, and Polish—at successive stages of the invasion. As he details the strategies of the military engagements, Keegan brilliantly shows how each of the armies reflected its own nation's values and traditions. In a new introduction written especially to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day, he contemplates the ways the events at the battle of Normandy still reverberate today.“The best military historian of our generation.” –Tom Clancy “John Keegan writes about war better than almost anyone in our century.” –The Washington Post Book World “Very dramatic… Very well done… a book which conjures romance from some very hard fighting.” –A. J. P. Taylor, The New York Review of Books “The story of this vast, complex, and risky amphibious assault, and the campaign which followed, has been told many times, but never better than by John Keegan.” –The Wall Street Journal

    by Lawrence Wilson

    Early on in her career she was employed on several international assignments as a representative of the British Empire, culminating in 'showing the flag' on a grand scale in the world cruise of 1923-24. She thus became one of the most recognisable symbols of the Royal Navy; her destruction by Bismarck in 1941 was received with shocked disbelief throughout the country.

    Displaying photographic coverage second to none, it has a wealth of submarine plans and profiles that illustrate every aspect of design and operation. Track the constant improvements implemented from World War I to World War II and beyond: the single-drive models, small and midget versions, the move to high submerge speed, the change to Type XXI and XXIII constructions, and production in the twilight of Nazi defeat. A Selection of the Military Book Club.

    Marshall; one of the greatest generals in our history, a private, often enigmatic man, whose life was marked by incredible peaks and awesome depths. Time and again Marshall put his career on the line before his political superiors and military contemporaries and rivals. He made what seemed like a tragic mistake at Pearl Harbor, but turned that disaster into a launching pad to victory. By facing down arrogant statesmen and politicians, he single-handedly decided policy that meant the difference, not just between victory or defeat, but between peace or war. He had to fight for his nation’s interests and sometimes its very life -both as Chief of Staff during World War II and as Secretary of State in the raw, cold, hungry postwar world that followed. The remarkable thing about Marshall was that he never lied, either in his own interest or in his country’s. A superb negotiator and a brilliant public speaker, he could manipulate the most stubborn, difficult and politically agile men, including Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill. He had wit, persuasion, and charm a great deal of charm, as a number of famous and beautiful women discovered. In a world of overpaid heroes and untrustworthy officials, Marshall made it to the top and maintained his principles, though not without pain, struggle and suffering.This book lays bare the anguishing incidents in Marshall’s life. It tells the awful truth about his wedding night. It tells of the General’s torment when his stepson was killed by a German sniper in Italy, while knowing that he could have kept his stepson alive. It tells of how General MacArthur hated Marshall and tried to hamstring his career. It shows how General Eisenhower — who owed everything to Marshall — finally showed his gratitude in an abysmal act. It discloses the secret events behind Marshall’s mission to China and why it failed. It reveals untold stories about how Marshall went about organizing and winning World War II for the Allies, then, having won the war, how he went on to save the peace by keeping Europe from starvation with the Marshall Plan, stemming the panic in Washington over MacArthur’s behavior in Korea, counselling Presidents,‘ and instilling confidence in prime ministers.There will never be another man like Marshall..

    “Hap” Arnold, an incurable maverick whom the U.S. Army never learned to control became, nonetheless, one of only four permanent five-star generals in the nation’s history, and one of America’s most important military leaders of all time. During forty-one years of active service, he compiled an unparalleled record as an airman and was truly the father of the modern Air Force. In 1911, four years after his graduation from West Point, the Wright brothers taught him to fly, and he became the holder of U.S. Army pilot’s license number two. His rise through the ranks was marked by controversy, and when he took command of the Army Air Corps in 1938, it was a puny collection of 20,000 men and a few hundred planes, none good enough to face Germany’s modern air force. By 1944, under the impetus of his compelling, relentless dynamism, it had grown into an organization of 2.4 million men and women and 80,000 aircraft. Never before or since has a military machine of comparable size and technical complexity been created in so short a period; at the height of World War II, Arnold commanded the mightiest air force the world had ever seen.This is the only definitive biography of Hap Arnold. Thanks to the cooperation of the Arnold family, the Air Force, and the Library of Congress, author Thomas M. Coffey had access to Arnold’s private as well as his official papers. and those of many of his associates. Coffey’s research also included more than one hundred extensive interviews with Arnold’s surviving colleagues, friends, and family members. The result is a three-dimensional portrait, fascinating but fair, of a turbulent man and his turbulent times.

    Twenty famous fighter aerodromes have been explored and there's a listing of The Few in its entirety. An update is also available for #1.75 (cde F016).

    

    Before Pearl Harbor, American servicemen in the Philippines led a life of colonial ease. But from December 1941 to May 1942, defeated and humiliated by the Japanese and deceived by Washington, they fought and dies to buy America some desperately needed time to regroup and respond to the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific.

    

    

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    Examines the role of the air force in World War II, including the nonstop bombing over Germany and the slow island by island battles in the Pacific.