Best of
World-War-Ii

1985

And the Violins Stopped Playing


Alexander Ramati - 1985
    It is the true story of Roman Mirga and his family, Polish Gypsies who have to suffer the affects of the Holocaust. This amazing unique book gives an insight of how the Gypsies were treated under Hitler and the Nazi regime.

And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway--Breaking the Secrets


Edwin T. Layton - 1985
    The first book by a top-ranking American navy officer to answer these questions: : Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? How did they inflict so much damage? What went wrong in our system?

The Fringes of Power: 10 Downing Street Diaries, 1939 - 1955


John Colville - 1985
    An intimate and unvarnished view of Winston Churchill at his best.

The White Mouse


Nancy Wake - 1985
    Nancy Wake, a New Zealander who became one of the most highly decorated women of WW II, here she tells her own story.

Bull Halsey


E.B. Potter - 1985
    William F. Halsey was one of the leading American personalities of World War II. His reputation as a no-holds-barred fighter and his tough-guy expression earned him the nickname Bull, yet he was also known for showing genuine compassion toward his men and inspiring them to great feats in the Pacific. Originally disclaiming the praise heaped on him, Halsey eventually came to believe in the swashbuckling legend that surrounded him, and his conduct became increasingly controversial.Naval historian E. B. Potter, who established his reputation with an award-winning biography of Chester W. Nimitz, gets behind the stereotype of this national hero and describes Halsey at his best and worst, including his controversial actions at Leyte Gulf. To write this book Potter had full access to Halsey's family and to the admiral's private papers and provides detail of Halsey's youth and career before the war. First published in 1985, it remains the definitive study.

Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan


Ronald H. Spector - 1985
    

The Seeds Of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine 1919-1939


Robert A. Doughty - 1985
    Book by Doughty, Robert A.

The Miracle Tree


Christobel Mattingley - 1985
    Separated by the explosion of the atomic bomb, a husband, wife, and mother carry on with their lives in the ruins of Nagasaki and are eventually reunited one Christmas by a very special tree.

Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History


Gordon W. Prange - 1985
    The provocative sequel to At Dawn We Slept that continues Prange's masterful analysis of the attack on Pearl Harbor, delving further to examine the underlying causes and to ask whether the event that plunged America into World War II was really a surprise to President Roosevelt.

Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps


Robert H. Abzug - 1985
    What they saw transformed the definition of evil in the Western mind. Inside the Vicious Heart captures the shock of that discovery by telling the story of the camp liberations as experienced by American GIs and other eyewitnesses, including Eisenhower, Patton, Joseph Pulitzer, and Margaret Bourke-White. Through their diaries, letters, and photographs we see how those Americans finally made the world believe what until then had only been rumored.

The Secret Armies


Albert Marrin - 1985
    Describes the activities of famous spies, Resistance movements, and saboteurs and discusses how they helped turn the tide of the Second World War.

The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation


Ian Kershaw - 1985
    Kershaw expertly synthesizes data and evaluates complex historiography looking at the major themes and debates among scholars about Nazism. Drawing on the findings of a wide range of research, particularly the work of German scholars which has not been widely available in English editions, he uncovers interpretational problems, outlines the approaches taken by various historians, and provides clear evaluations of their positions.This edition reflects current concerns and fresh research and contains substantial revisions to the chapter on "Hitler and the Jews" and an updated survey of recent historical work including Goldhagen's controversial book, Hitler's Willing Executioners.

Standing Into Danger


Cassie Brown - 1985
    A storm was raging, visibility was zero, and the currents had turned wildly unpredictable. With only unreliable soundings to guide them across the jagged ocean floor, all three vessels ran aground on the sheer rock coast of Newfoundland.Attempts to carry lifelines ashore were thwarted by heavy surf, cold, oil slicks, and floating wreckage. A few sailors, however, overcame the odds and managed to reach the coast where the communities of Lawn and St. Lawrence effected a superhuman rescue operation.Two hundred and three American sailors died as the Wilkes, the Pollux, and the Truxtun were battered against the icy shore by the treacherous North Atlantic. And those who survived would return home to receive not a hero's welcome but the harsh interrogation of their naval superiors.

The Second World War Asia and the Pacific Atlas


Thomas E. Griess - 1985
    It examines the interrelationship of land, sea, and air forces as they battled over the vast reaches of the Pacific Theater of War.

Hitler: Memoirs Of A Confidant


Otto Wagener - 1985
    The author, at one point a prominent Nazi official shares his memories of Hit and recounts Hitler's conversations and opinions concerning politics, marria art, economics, and the Jews.

North Atlantic Run: The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle for the Convoys


Marc Milner - 1985
    At the height of The Battle of the Atlantic, half of the Allied convoy escorts on the main trade routes were Canadian, but history has largely ignores their contribution and their bitter sacrifices of their struggle against U-boat attacks in 1942 and 1943.pIn North Atlantic Run, noted military historian Marc Milner tells the story of this drama at sea, detailing the dynamic role played by Canada and The Royal Canadian Navy in the battle for the convoys.p

Carrier Strike: The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands,October 1942


Eric Hammel - 1985
    It was a Japanese victory-but it spelled the end for Japan in the war at sea. In Carrier Strike, critically acclaimed military historian Eric Hammel gives a blow-by-blow, edge-of-your-seat account of this crucial naval battle-a turning point in the bitter Guadalcanal Campaign. Drawing on American and Japanese battle reports and the recollections of aviators and seamen who were there, Hammel recreates World War II's fourth - and last - carrier versus carrier battle, the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942. Written in the heart-stopping style that Hammel's readers have come to expect, Carrier Strike offers the only up-to-date, up-close, in-depth look at the battle that cost Japan any hope of winning the war in the Pacific.

In the Clear Light


Fiona Kidman - 1985
    In the warrenlike old tenement the residents call Paddy’s Puzzle, Clara Bentley awaits the arrival of Ambrose, her black lover, an American marine. She also waits for the bomb that might fall when the air raid siren sounds at night. She waits for visits from the strange inhabitants of the Puzzle—prostitutes; blackmarketeers; old Ma Hollis, who helps her keep body and soul together; and a host of others. She waits, too, for the culmination of an illness that has weakened her irremediably.

The Indelible Image: Photographs of War, 1846 to the Present


Frances Fralin - 1985
    

The Type VII U-Boat


David Westwood - 1985
    The first submarine sinking of the war was by a Type VII boat, and some of the most dramatic events of the first year of the war involved a Type VII - the sinking of HMS Courageous by U29 in the Atlantic in September 1939 and the sinking of HMS Royal Oak by U47 in Scapa Flow a few weeks later. The 'Anatomy of the Ship' series aims to provide the finest documentation of individual ships and ship types ever published. What makes the series unique is a complete set of superbly executed line drawings, both the conventional type of plan as well as explanatory views, with fully descriptive keys. These are supported by technical details and a record of the ship's service history.