Best of
World-War-Ii

1989

Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank


Eva Schloss - 1989
    Like many jews they fled to Amsterdam where they hid from the Nazis until they were betrayed and arrested in 1944. Eva was 15 years old when she was sent to Auschwitz - the same age as her friend Anne Frank. Together with her mother she endured the daily degradation that robbed so many of their lives - including her father and brother. After the war her mother married Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the Frank family. Only now, 40 years later has Eva felt able to tell her story.

The Second World War: A Complete History


Martin Gilbert - 1989
    This narrative captures the perspectives of leading politicians and war commanders, journalists, civilians, and ordinary soldiers, offering gripping eyewitness accounts of heroism, defeat, suffering, and triumph. This is one of the first historical studies of World War II that describes the Holocaust as an integral part of the war. It also covers maneuvers, strategies, and leaders operating in European, Asian, and Pacific theatres. In addition, this book brings in survivor testimonies of occupation, survival behind enemy lines, and the experience of minority groups such as the Roma in Europe, to offer a comprehensive account of the war’s impact on individuals on both sides. This is a sweeping narrative of one of the most deadly wars in history, which took almost forty million lives, and irrevocably changed countless more.

Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck


Hans von Luck - 1989
    El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front--von Luck fought there with some of the best soldiers in the world. German soldiers.Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman. Told with the vivid detail of an impassioned eyewitness, his rare and moving memoir has become a classic in the literature of World War II, a first-person chronicle of the glory--and the inevitable tragedy--of a superb soldier fighting Hitler's war.

The Girl with the White Flag


Tomiko Higa - 1989
    There, as some of the fiercest fighting of the war rages around her, she must live alone, with nothing to fall back on but her own wits and daring. Fleeing from encroaching enemy forces, searching desperately for her lost sisters, taking scraps of food from the knapsacks of dead soldiers, risking death at every turn, Tomiko somehow finds the strength and courage to survive.Many years later she decided to tell this story. Originally intended for juvenile readers, it is sure to move adults as well, because it is such a vivid portrait of the unintended civilian casualties of any war.

Nina's Journey: A Memoir of Stalin's Russia & the Second World War


Nina Markovna - 1989
    A powerful autobiography written in the grand Russian tradition telling the story of how Nina Markovna endured life under Stalin and the tumult of World War II, being tossed back and forth between the opposing German and Soviet armies.

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War


Paul Fussell - 1989
    Frank Kermode, in The New York Times Book Review, hailed it as "an important contribution to our understanding of how we came to make World War I part of our minds," and Lionel Trilling called it simply "one of the most deeply moving books I have read in a long time." In its panaramic scope and poetic intensity, it illuminated a war that changed a generation and revolutionized the way we see the world.Now, in Wartime, Fussell turns to the Second World War, the conflict he himself fought in, to weave a narrative that is both more intensely personal and more wide-ranging. Whereas his former book focused primarily on literary figures, on the image of the Great War in literature, here Fussell examines the immediate impact of the war on common soldiers and civilians. He describes the psychological and emotional atmosphere of World War II. He analyzes the euphemisms people needed to deal with unacceptable reality (the early belief, for instance, that the war could be won by "precision bombing," that is, by long distance); he describes the abnormally intense frustration of desire and some of the means by which desire was satisfied; and, most important, he emphasizes the damage the war did to intellect, discrimination, honesty, individuality, complexity, ambiguity and wit. Of course, no Fussell book would be complete without some serious discussion of the literature of the time. He examines, for instance, how the great privations of wartime (when oranges would be raffled off as valued prizes) resulted in roccoco prose styles that dwelt longingly on lavish dinners, and how the "high-mindedness" of the era and the almost pathological need to "accentuate the positive" led to the downfall of the acerbic H.L. Mencken and the ascent of E.B. White. He also offers astute commentary on Edmund Wilson's argument with Archibald MacLeish, Cyril Connolly's Horizon magazine, the war poetry of Randall Jarrell and Louis Simpson, and many other aspects of the wartime literary world. Fussell conveys the essence of that wartime as no other writer before him. For the past fifty years, the Allied War has been sanitized and romanticized almost beyond recognition by "the sentimental, the loony patriotic, the ignorant, and the bloodthirsty." Americans, he says, have never understood what the Second World War was really like. In this stunning volume, he offers such an understanding.

Dunkirk


Norman Gelb - 1989
     In less than three weeks, Hitler achieved the most extraordinary military triumph of modern times: Holland, Luxembourg, and Belgium had been overrun; the French army was about to collapse; and the entire British Expeditionary Force, which had been sent across the Channel to help stop the Germans, was trapped against the sea at Dunkirk. Unless they could be rescued, Britain would be left without an army. ‘Dunkirk’ is the first book to present an overview of those awful days and show the effect the battle on the beaches was having on the rest of the world. It is also the day-by-day story of a great escape, of the transformation of a massive defeat into what would ultimately prove a disaster for Germany. “Norman Gelb demonstrates in Dunkirk how productive it is to focus on an individual operation or battle … Dunkirk is both a good adventure read and an instructive case study yielding modern lessons.” — JOHN LEHMAN, Former Secretary of the Navy, The Wall Street Journal “Norman Gelb finds fresh angles … Dunkirk stands as an exemplar of the perils of vacillation and the possibilities of action.” — The New York Times Book Review “Mr. Gelb has excavated beneath surface events, delved into political and psychological factors, and produced an intelligent, fast-moving narrative.” — PROFESSOR ARNOLD AGES, Baltimore Sun — “Vivid and comprehensive … Absorbing … Sets a high standard for other reconstructions” — Kirkus Reviews NORMAN GELB was born in New York and is the author of seven highly acclaimed books, including The Berlin Wall, Scramble: A Narrative History of the Battle of Britain, and Less Than Glory. He was, for many years, correspondent for the Mutual Broadcasting System, first in Berlin and then in London. He is currently the London correspondent for New Leader magazine. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

We Remember the Holocaust


David A. Adler - 1989
    They tell us about Jewish life in Europe before the 1930s and about the violence of Hitler's rise to power. They describe the humiliations of Nazi rule, the struggle to keep families together, the fight for survival in the ghettos, the ultimate horror of the concentration camps. With its moving first-person voices and original photographs from private collections, We Remember the Holocaust is an intensely personal contribution to the history of a period that must never be forgotten.

Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy


Joseph Balkoski - 1989
    Using interviews, official records and unit histories, this book follows the 29th from bloody landings at Omaha through the hedgerows of Normandy, illustrating the brutal realities of life on the front line.

Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer


Brian D. O'Neill - 1989
     A well-researched, highly readable account of a B-17 combat crew's experience In 1943, when the outcome of World War II hung in the balance, B-17 crews of the Eighth Air Force flew harrowing, unescorted daylight bombing missions deep into Occupied Europe and Germany. These devastating raids have long been storied in film and fiction, but here is a firsthand, blow-by-blow account of these perilous missions as they really happened. In these pages, you'll see the events unfold as they were recorded and recalled by one crew's officers and enlisted men (pilot, copilot, navigator, radioman, and gunners), corroborated by other crews they flew with, and painstakingly correlated with the official records of the men's 303rd Hell's Angels Bomb Group.The publication of Half a Wing, Three Engines, and a Prayer in 1989 prompted a flood of fresh recollections, correspondence, and personal records from other veterans of the 303rd. This Special Revised Edition incorporates that wealth of new material into a vivid, thorough recreation -- complete with actual combat photographs -- of one of the most dramatic chapters in military aviation history.New in this Special Revised Edition: * New veteran interviews* Expanded coverage * Revised data * 90 photographs & illustrations* Epilogue: crewmen's post-war careersA well-researched, highly readable account of a B-17 combat crew's experience...excellent. -- Roger A. Freeman, author of The Mighty EighthThe best collection of stories about a B-17 Bomb Group that has ever been published. -- Harry D. Gobrecht, President, 303rd Bomb Group Association and author of Might in Flight: Daily Diary of the Eighth Air Force's 'Hell's Angels' Bomb Group

Surviving Treblinka


Samuel Willenberg - 1989
    Only a mere 70 survived the war. This memoir by one of those survivors, now living in Israel, describes Treblinka from his arrival there in 1942. He illustrates in detail the physical conditions of transport to, and life at, the camp, the brutality of the Nazis and the Ukrainian collaborators and the heroism of the inmates. Willenberg's grisly special duties as one of the camp's labour forces are described, as well his observation of the incongruities of camp life: the orchestra playing music to drown the screams of the dying, the forced community singing to make local inhabitants think that the place was nothing more than a labour camp. It culminates in a description of the organization and execution of the uprising on 2 August 1943, when a small group of prisoners, including Willenberg, succeeded in escaping from the camp after setting fire to it.

Iowa Class Battleships: Their Design, Weapons and Equipment


Robert F. Sumrall - 1989
    A unique compilation of technical data and the career histories of the lowa, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Missouri.

Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War Off America's East Coast, 1942


Homer Hickam - 1989
    Cruising up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard, they sank 259 ships, littering the waters with cargo and bodies. As astonished civilians witnessed explosions from American beaches, fighting men dubbed the area Torpedo Junction. And while the U.S. Navy failed to react, a handful of Coast Guard sailors scrambled to the front lines. Outgunned and out-maneuvered, they heroically battled the deadliest fleet of submarines ever launched. Never was Germany closer to winning the war.In a moving ship-by-ship account of terror and rescue at sea, Homer Hickam chronicles a little-known saga of courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the early years of World War II. From nerve-racking sea duels to the dramatic ordeals of sailors and victims on both sides of the battle, Hickam dramatically captures a war we had to win--because this one hit terrifyingly close to home.

Shake Down the Stars


Frances Donnelly - 1989
    Romantic saga which follows the fortunes of three beautiful friends as they prepare themselves for the turmoil of World War II.

The Borrowed Years: 1938-1941 America On The Way To War


Richard M. Ketchum - 1989
    A one-volume popular history of the three years before America entered World War II--those years when England, France, Poland, and Finland fought and we borrowed against the bank of history.

Child at War: The True Story of a Young Belgian Resistance Fighter


Mark Bles - 1989
    

Zemke's Wolf Pack: The Story of Hub Zemke and the 56th Fighter Group in the Skies over Europe


Hub Zemke - 1989
    Four 8-page black-and-white photo inserts.

Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II


Leonard Bridgman - 1989
    The classic, illustrated, standard reference encyclopedia to the fighting aircraft of World War II. An authoritative, comprehensive review of the airpower of 68 countries with more extensive information than in any previous edition or reprint of Jane's. Over 1,000 black-and-white photographs, line drawings, and data tables.

The Times Atlas of the Second World War


John Keegan - 1989
    Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Europe, this atlas contains hundreds of full-color maps and photos of every aspect of World War II in Europe, the Pacific, and on the Soviet front.

Sentenced to Live: A Survivor's Memoir


Cecilie Klein - 1989
    

Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon


Ida Vos - 1989
    Dreams and one other thing - her music, for Rosa is a talented violinist. Like other Jewish children, she can no longer go to school, but she still has her violin lessons with old Mr. Goldstein. Rosa's parents have a dream, too, one they hardly dare mention except in jokes about dancing in Avignon. But will their wartime dreams come true?

The Chronological Atlas of World War Two


Charles Messenger - 1989
    200 maps.

Auschwitz Chronicle 1939-1945


Danuta Czech - 1989
    Collected here in a monumental, unprecedented work of historical research is a day-by- day, month-by-month chronicle of the concentration camp from its planning in the winter of 1939 to its liberation in January 1945. Polish born Danuta Czech is former head of the research department at the Auschwitz Museum. 92 photos.

Mollie and Other War Pieces


A.J. Liebling - 1989
    J. Liebling’s coverage of the Second World War for the New Yorker gives us a fresh and unexpected view of the war—stories told in the words of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought it, the civilians who endured it, and the correspondents who covered it. The hero of the title story is a private in the Ninth Army division known as Mollie, short for Molotov, so called by his fellow G.I.s because of his radical views and Russian origins. Mollie was famous for his outlandish dress (long blonde hair, riding boots, feathered beret, field glasses, and red cape), his disregard for army discipline, his knack for acquiring prized souvenirs, his tales of being a Broadway big shot, and his absolute fearlessness in battle. Killed in combat on Good Friday, 1943, Mollie (real name: Karl Warner) was awarded the Silver Star posthumously. Intrigued by the legend and fascinated by the man behind it, Liebling searched out Mollie’s old New York haunts and associates and found behind the layers of myth a cocky former busboy from Hell’s Kitchen who loved the good life.Other stories take Liebling through air battles in Tunisia, across the channel with the D-Day invasion fleet, and through a liberated Paris celebrating de Gaulle and freedom. Liebling’s war was a vast human-interest story, told with a heart for the feelings of the people involved and the deepest respect for those who played their parts with heroism, however small or ordinary the stage.

Bonds of wire: A memoir


Kingsley Brown - 1989
    On July 3, 1942, RCAF Bomber Pilot Kingsley Brown was shot down over Holland, and so began what would prove to be a three-year incarceration in the most famous of all German prisoner of war camps, Stalag Luft 3, from which the Great Escape was launched.Brown recalls the years spent behind barbed wire with amazing good humour and generosity.

No Name on the Bullet: A Biography of Audie Murphy


Don Graham - 1989
    In world War II, over the course of more than two years of continuous combat in Europe, this Texas sharecropper's son entered the ranks of the immortals who can claim a sustained series of hard-to-believe (but thoroughly documented) exploits on the bloody battlegrounds of Sicily, Anzio, France, and Germany. For his heroic achievements, which left some 240 German soldiers dead, Murphy received the most medals ever awarded to an American soldier, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. When the portrait of this freckled, baby-faced foot soldier appeared on the cover of Life magazine, Audie Murphy became the living symbol of America's desire for its sons to return, unravaged, from the war. After the war, Murphy went on to launch a long and surprisingly durable career as a screen actor, starring in such films as The Red Badge of Courage, The Quiet American, his autobiographical war movie To Hell and Back, and a long series of Westerns (where he was inevitably cast as 'the Kid'). But just beneath the surface of his life lay a numbness, a delayed stress relieved only by bouts of womanizing, nocturnal adventures, reckless gambling, and dangerous practical jokes. Murphy would survive into the Vietnam era as an anachronism of sorts, whose baroque schemes for financial salvation plunged him into the American political and criminal netherworld - a hero badly out of time. Don Graham tells the story of this emblematic American life in vivid detail, with a rich appreciation for the ironies and multiple meanings to be found there, and with awe at the combat heroics of this 'fugitive from the law of averages.' Audie Murphy's grave is the most visited one in Arlington national Cemetery, save JFK's, even today; No Name on the Bullet explains why this is so to a whole new generation of Americans

Flight of the Enola Gay


Paul W. Tibbets - 1989
    Ready to ship...(A4

Writers on World War II: An Anthology


Mordecai Richler - 1989
    Contributors include Auden, Doctorow, Orwell, Shaw, Mailer, Sartre, Terkel, Vonnegut, Shirer, Levi, and many others.

Red Thrust: Attack on the Central Front, Soviet Tactics & Capabilities in the 1990s


Steven J. Zaloga - 1989
    Hardcover with Dust Jacket, Binding Tight, Text Clean, Pages Tanning, Unused Copy