Panzers: Push for Victory Book 1: Battle of Kursk


Tom Zola - 2014
    Adolf Hitler, the "Führer" of the German Reich, unexpectedly dies in a plane crash in Hungary. The German High Command takes over the regime, disempowers the Nazi Party and reorganizes the military forces. Germany swiftly has to overcome recent setbacks in North Africa and on the Eastern Front. Furthermore, an allied invasion already casts its long shadow. The German generals understand that it is not about the ultimate victory anymore but merely about achieving a stalemate to save the Reich on the negotiating table. First, they have to stabilize Germany's positions on the Eastern Front. Therefore the High Command gathers its panzer forces and throws them into a daring all or nothing gamble for the city Kursk. Tom Zola, a former sergeant in the German Army, is a military fiction writer, famous for his intense battle descriptions and realistic action scenes. In 2014 the first book of his PANZERS series was released in German language, setting up an alternate history scenario in which a different German Reich tries to turn around the fortunes of war at the pinnacle of the Second World War. Zola doesn’t beat around the bush; his stories involve brutal fighting, inhuman ideologies and a military machine that overruns Europe and the whole world without mercy. He has developed a breathtaking yet shocking alternate timeline that has finally been translated into English.

Star Legions: The Ten Thousand Complete Series Box Set (Books 1 - 7)


Michael G. Thomas - 2017
    They have little in common, other than their love of wealth and adventure, and a bitter hatred for each other. Known simply as the Black Legion, they will blaze a trail of death and destruction that will be remembered for generations. This complete box set contains the full text of every Star Legions novel. That’s right, all seven books! Buy the box set today and read the entire series from start to finish: Battle for Cilicia For Xenophon, the Black Legion is an escape from the state that tried to kill him and his family. Exiled from his homeworld he joins the mercenaries, along with Glaucon, the rich playboy, Roxana, the veteran naval commander, and Tamara, the blue-haired castaway with a hidden past and a violent personality. Nothing will prepare them for the carnage awaiting them as they enter the borders of the Median Empire, the largest and most powerful entity in the known Galaxy, ruled with an iron fist by the tyrant, Emperor Artaxerxes and his legions of slave soldiers. Assault on Khorram Burning with rage from the combat losses at Cilicia, the Black Legion wants payment, and Lord Cyrus has a target that will satisfy even the most greedy of his warriors. It is a target so rich that he wonders if the mercenaries will even have enough ships to carry off the loot. Warlords of Cunaxa Xenophon and his comrades have proven their worth, and now the combined fleets of the Black Legion and their allies are poised to end the conflict. Both sides have mobilised every warrior and ship they can, for what will be a final apocalyptical battle between the Terrans and the Emperor himself. Last Stand With victory against the Emperor now impossible, the Legion finds itself lacking purpose and money. They came to the Empire with promises of glory and reward, but now they are trapped and surrounded on all sides by enemies. The massacre of the Legion’s officer corps leaves it vulnerable, and it falls to warriors like Xenophon to hold back their desire for revenge and to put them on a path home. Sea of Fire They must continue on to the Sea of Fire, the deadly border region between Hayastan and the Carduchian Wilderness, or face utter annihilation at the Emperor’s hands. Ancient stories tell of these dead sectors of space, vast ocean of emptiness, with few worlds or moons able to supply the fleet. The Eternal Fortress The long and bloody expedition has taken its toll on both the soldiers and the ships of the Legion. He is aware that a retreat into the Empire will mean a confrontation with the Emperor. A confrontation which they cannot win. There remains only one alternative. To run the gauntlet of the Eternal Fortress. Vengeance The Black Legion bursts out of the Median Empire laden with riches and leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake. As the exhausted men and women breathe a sigh of relief upon reaching the Free Colonies of Trebizond, they are stunned to find themselves in the middle of a war.

Drums Along the Khyber


Philip McCutchan - 1969
    James Ogilvie is the third generation.Pitchforked with mixed feelings into imperial Britain’s elite military academy, Sandhurst, and then into the family regiment, he finds himself in 1894 a subaltern en route to India – a torrid journey out that teaches him the first lessons of military life and the command of men.His initiation is made more difficult by the vindictive attentions of the adjutant, Captain Black, and by the high expectations placed on him by his own irascible father, his Divisional Commander on the North West Frontier of India.Ogilvie gets his first taste of action when the Royal Strathspeys are sent through the Khyber Pass to contain the rebel Ahmed Khan outside Jalalabad. Fighting the border tribesmen brings brushes with death, but also many opportunities for the kind of glory that can forge a distinguished military career. But as the campaign goes on, Ogilvie also starts to doubt the entire Imperial project.‘Drums Along the Khyber’ is a thrilling historical adventure story, rich in period detail. It is the first in the Ogilvie series of novels by Philip McCutchan. ‘The adventure-writer succeeds who makes you read faster than you really can…Drums Along the Khyber has something of this quality’ – The Sunday Times Philip McCutchan (1920-1996) grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest resulting in several fiction books, from amongst his large output, about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years.Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

Assignment: Casablanca


Peter J. Azzole - 2019
    Their mission is simply to provide a temporary Top Secret special intelligence communications center to support U.S. members of a high level Allied war planning meeting.An easy mission quickly goes awry. Only two months after the Allied assault and occupation of Casablanca (Operation TORCH), the city remains a hotbed of Vichy and German sympathizers and spies. One unexpected event leads to another. Things get dicey, with life threatening situations, shots fired and dead bodies. Tony is diverted from Casablanca on a brief classified fact-finding mission to a neutral country's island. That mission gets complicated and ultimately results in spy catching and another death. Returning to Casablanca, events result in Tony meeting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.Between "Casablanca's" covers are communications intelligence, counter-intelligence, military politics, diplomatic tension, WWII history, family dynamics, and in the final analysis, a very exciting, twisting and fast moving story.

TANGLED


Simone Elise - 2019
     Sophia never saw herself falling in love and she certainly didn't see herself falling in love with the golden boy at her high school. But it happened and before she knew it, she was pulled into his world. She thought everything was going great — till he dumped her, on her birthday — in front of all her family and friends and on top of that was cheating on her with her best friend Kayla. He didn't just break her heart; he smashed it to pieces. A month after Kyle breaks her heart.  She is forced to start a new year without her boyfriend or best friend. How could her life get any worse? Well cue her parent’s sudden departure and where does Soph have to stay while they are away? At Kyles. She is forced to stay with him and his family but she soon finds the man that keeps her sane, isn't the golden boy — Kyle any more. It's his older bad boy brother, who just got out of prison.

Vietnam: There & Back: A Combat Medic's Chronicle


Jim "Doc" Purtell - 2018
    Army. He did so at a time when the country was pro-Vietnam and serving seemed an honorable thing to do. Little did he know that the tide would turn a mere six months later as drastically as it did. VIETNAM: THERE AND BACK is a candid account of the time when he and several other combat vets found themselves conducting operations in the jungles of Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive. Purtell describes in gritty detail what it was like to live and fight with an infantry company only to return to anti-Vietnam sentiment so strong that he and his fellow veterans felt nobody cared about them or the sacrifices they made.

Daisy Jones and The Six / The Flatshare / Such a Fun Age


Taylor Jenkins Reid - 2020
    From the moment Daisy walked barefoot on to the stage at the Whisky, she and the band were a sensation. Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They sold out arenas from coast to coast. This is the story of their incredible rise: the desire, the rivalry – and the music.Then, on 12 July 1979, Daisy Jones and the Six split up. Nobody knew why. Until now…The Flatshare: ( 9781250295651 / 1250295653)By Beth O'LearyTiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they're crazy, but it's the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy's at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven't met yet, they're about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window...Such a Fun Age: (9780525541905 / 052554190X)By Kiley ReidWhen Emira is apprehended at a supermarket for 'kidnapping' the white child she's actually babysitting, it sets off an explosive chain of events. Her employer Alix, a feminist blogger with the best of intentions, resolves to make things right.But Emira herself is aimless, broke and wary of Alix's desire to help. When a surprising connection emerges between the two women, it sends them on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know - about themselves, each other, and the messy dynamics of privilege.

The Uglies


Thomas Burchfield - 2012
    The time: closer than we may realize.Unemployment is in high double-digits. The acrid stench of civil war smokes the air. The 1930s Great Depression all over . . . just a little more high-tech.Arch and Tess Uglias are blue-collar residents of the desolate Rust Belt city of Gary, Indiana. Arch, an unemployed auto-plant worker and ex-race car driver, and Tess, an unemployed nurse, are both staring homelessness and starvation in face.Meanwhile, Frank Regis, an aging disciple of the legendary bank robber Willie Sutton, is masterminding a string of bank robberies throughout Indiana. The Regis gang is a fractious collage of professional criminals, like Frank, and once law-abiding folks who have turned to crime out of desperation.After one of their drivers is killed during a getaway, the Regis gang goes in search of a replacement, a road that leads them to Arch Uglias. Though a law-abiding citizen and square guy his whole life, Arch, like some of the other gang members, feels compelled to take the wheel. And Tess becomes an outspoken, unwilling, uncooperative part of the package.From there, it’s a boisterous, bawdy and dangerous drive through a desperate world for the Regis gang, from the ruins of the Midwest to the ruins of the West Coast with ruthless law enforcement in pursuit and mistrust and murder blossoming among them. In the end, the war that has been raging at the edges suddenly draws them into its bloody vortex, leading to a fierce climax of double cross and desperate escape.“The Uglies,” an original screenplay by Thomas Burchfield (“Dragon’s Ark,” “Whackers”), drives the same perilous roads as such classics as “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Getaway. It is a wild, bawdy, and action-packed saga about crime and pursuit, friendship and survival. It’s also the story of people who realize the need to stick together as the world around them falls to pieces.

Securing Ara


Melissa Kay Clarke - 2019
    He’s also the most reserved and plays his cards close to his chest – not only when it comes to his job, but also his personal life. The wild and crazy bachelor lifestyle doesn’t appeal to him. He’d rather have one girl in his life than a revolving door of many and he’s got his eye on the one that he wants. The only problem is he needs to convince her of his sincerity.   Dr. Ara Palmer worked hard to get where she was in her career. As a Navy psychologist and trauma therapist, she finds satisfaction in helping her clients cope with problems and situations inherent to military service. Most would call it boring, but she found it to be thrilling – a little too thrilling lately as her life seems to have become one long list of accidents and mishaps. But, what if those accidents weren’t misfortune?   A mission gone wrong gets Railroad captured in a hostile country. He’s surprised to find someone from the team’s past has masterminded the whole thing in a bid to take them out, one at a time. With the others hurt, another team, headed by Wolf Steel, is sent in to rescue the hostages. Time is of the essence as one of them is critically wounded. They have to get them out, and now, before it’s too late for one of Railroad’s friends and for Ara. She’s been targeted and it’ll be game over if he doesn’t get home in time to save her.

Lower Deck: Life Aboard a British Destroyer in World War II


John Davies - 1945
    Sikh (due to wartime restrictions, the ship's name in the book is the H.M.S. Skye); the ship is stationed in the eastern Mediterranean in the defense of Malta. Centering on the lives of the crewmen who are part of a gun crew, the book portrays the ship's almost daily encounters with German and Italian ships and planes (as the author states: “...Daylight each morning brings with it almost complete certainty of attack...the comparatively confined waters, the proximity and strategic excellence of Axis air bases, means that to avoid discovery and attack is virtually impossible.”) Eventually, the Skye's luck runs out and on September 14, 1942, she is sunk by German artillery with the loss of 115 men, with more men taken prisoner, and others rescued by nearby friendly ships. Includes a Glossary of naval terms used in the book.

FALL EAGLE ONE


Warren Bell - 2011
    Nazi Germany reels from nightly battering of her cities by the RAF. Catastrophe looms at Stalingrad. With the Allies poised to invade Western Europe, Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring desperately seeks to delay the invasion and slow the Red Army’s inexorable westward march. He turns to Siegfried von Rall, the “best pilot in the Luftwaffe,” to solve his dilemma. Siegfried hatches strategic air strikes designed to buy time for Germany to refine Hitler’s vaunted “Victory” weapons. Two targets galvanize his attention: Soviet hydro plants in the Urals and killing FDR. He chooses cutting-edge aircraft and a team of combat experienced experts for the missions. Göring fast-tracks detailed planning and training. In Britain, codebreaker Evan Thompson reads Siegfried’s radio messages but can’t detect his objective. The chilling truth emerges only after an Amerika-Bomber bearing “smart bombs” leaves Norway for the U.S. FALL EAGLE ONE has aerial combat, trans-Atlantic assassination flights, Eastern Front action, codebreaking at Bletchley Park, intrigue at the highest levels of the German High Command, and fast-paced wartime romance.

What They Did There: Profiles from the Battle of Gettysburg


Steve Hedgpeth - 2014
    "What They Did There: Profiles From the Battle of Gettysburg" offers a unique view of its subject, telling the story of the battle not through convention narrative but via 170 mini-bios of not only combatants blue and gray, but of civilians, doctors, nurses, artists, photographers, Samaritans; saints, sinners and the moral terrain in-between.

The Proud Bastards: One Marine's Journey from Parris Island through the Hell of Vietnam


E.Michael Helms - 1990
    Michael Helms boarded a bus to the legendary grounds of Parris Island, where mere boys were forged into hardened Marines—and sent to the jungles of Vietnam. It was the first stop on a journey that would forever change him—and by its end, he would be awarded the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. From the brutality and endurance-straining ordeals of boot camp to the endless horror of combat, Helms paints a vivid, unflinchingly realistic depiction of the lives of Marines in training and under fire. As powerful and compelling a battlefield memoir as any ever written, Helms's “grunt's-eye” view of the Vietnam War, the men who fought it, and the mindless chaos that surrounded it, is truly a modern military classic.

Dick Bong: Ace of Aces


George C. Kenney - 1960
     Between December 27, 1942, and December 17, 1944, he shot down forty Japanese aircraft. This achievement meant that he was the U.S.A.’s top flying ace through the course of the Second World War. George C. Kenney, commanding officer of the Fourth Air Force, knew Bong well and his biography of the young hero brings Bong’s short career in the air force to life. One of Kenney and Bong’s first encounters had been when Bong had been cited and temporarily grounded for looping the Golden Gate bridge, flying at low level down Market Street in San Francisco, and blowing the clothes off an Oakland woman’s clothesline. Kenney reprimanded him saying ““there is no need for me to tell you again that this is a serious matter. If you didn’t want to loop around that bridge or fly down Market Street I wouldn’t have you in my Air Force, but you are not going to do it any more and I mean what I say.” Yet, Kenney was also aware of Bong’s flying skill and although he might have been a bit of a daredevil he acknowledged that for the U. S. Air Force to pose a serious threat to the Japanese “We needed kids like this lad.” Dick Bong: America's Ace of Aces is a remarkable book that uncovers the short, but fascinating, career of America’s greatest fighter pilot. It is full of brilliant insights provided by Kenney who was able to watch this young man develop before his life was cruelly cut short testing a jet aircraft shortly before the war ended. “Both flight enthusiasts and students of the second world war will read with considerable interest of the events of Dick Bong's life in a book which sticks close to its subject” Kirkus Reviews George C. Kenney was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. He is best known as the commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), a position he held from August 1942 until 1945. Kenney wrote three books about the SWPA air campaigns he led during World War II. He also wrote The Saga of Pappy Gunn in 1959 and Dick Bong: Ace of Aces in 1960, which described the careers of Paul Gunn and Richard Bong, two of the most prominent airmen under his command. He passed away in 1977.

The Ballad of John MacLea


A.J. MacKenzie - 2019
    Tasked with routing out enemy agents and thwarting an elaborate espionage ring, which includes beautiful American double agent Josephine Lafitte, MacLea’s mission is betrayed. Now, trapped in a dramatic showdown aboard a captured American warship headed for the breach at Niagara Falls, battle-hardened MacLea finds himself fighting not just for freedom, but for his life.