The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat


Michael Jones - 2009
    Yet this feat of endurance was a prelude to a long and arduous retreat in which Soviet troops, inspired by deep beliefs in the sacred Motherland, pushed back German forces steeled by the vision of the Ubermensch--the iron-willed fighter. Supported by tanks and ski battalions, Soviet troops engaged in this desperate struggle in the harshest Russian weather.Michael Jones draws upon a wealth of new eyewitness testimonies from both sides of the conflict to vividly chronicle this pivotal chapter in the Second World War as he takes us from the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the morning of June 22 through the counteroffensive that carried into the spring of 1942. From the German soldier finding his comrades frozen into blocks of ice to the Russian lieutenant crying with rage at the senseless destruction of his unit, the author shows us the faces of war when the Wehrmacht was repelled and the titanic and cruel struggle of two world powers forged the fate of Europe.

What Now, Lieutenant?


Robert Babcock - 2011
    Such is this work by Bob Babcock. What makes this work unique is that it is based upon his wartime writing as it occurred, without the softening of time and the refining of modern memory applied to past experience. In it you will find the thinking of a young officer as he struggles to take in all that he is responsible for while experiencing everything himself for the first time. It is an honest, unvarnished look at Soldiering in 1966-1967 and is as fine an example of the early American experience in Vietnam that one is likely to come across...” The personal account of Bob Babcock’s experiences as a platoon leader and executive officer with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967.

Summary: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow


Readtrepreneur Publishing - 2017
    We have managed to overcome and even come up with solutions to major world problems like famine, plague, and war.   This book Homo Deus discusses the evolution of man over the years; from simple-minded beings who believed in God to intelligent man who questions God’s existence and would rather rely on Science and data computation to get their answers. (Note: This summary is wholly written and published by readtrepreneur.com It is not affiliated with the original author in any way) “History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods.” – Yuval Noah Harari Homo Deus tells us of the journey throughout man’s quest for power as they attempt to become more godlike, and the reasons behind why they could accomplish so much. Humankind has always thought of themselves as more superior than the other species and believed that their existence has great meaning and meant for a higher purpose. P.S. Open your eyes and mind as you learn more about our own species – mankind. As we read along, Homo Deus will make us ponder – Are we really that great as we think? Are we bettering ourselves, or self-destructing?   P.P.S. This is a ZERO-RISK investment. Should you find this book unworthy of the original coffee price of $3.99, get a REFUND within 7 days! The Time for Thinking is Over! Time for Action! Scroll Up Now and Click on the “Buy now with 1-Click” Button to Download your Copy Right Away! Why Choose Us, Readtrepreneur? Highest Quality Summaries Delivers Amazing Knowledge Awesome Refresher Clear And Concise Disclaimer Once Again: This book is meant for a great companionship of the original book or to simply get the gist of the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, search for this link: http://amzn.to/2t3cUk3

The Reich Intruders: RAF Light Bomber Raids in World War II


Martin W. Bowman - 2005
    Much of it is told by the men who flew the Blenheim, Boston, Mitchell and Mosquito aircraft that carried out many daring daylight and night-time raids on vitally important targets in Nazi occupied Europe and Germany. These were not the famous thousand bomber raids that hit the wartime headlines, but low-level, fast-moving surprise raids flown by small formations of fleet-footed and skilfully piloted twin-engine light bombers. Their targets were usually difficult to locate and heavily defended because of their strategic importance to the Nazis. 2 Group also played a vital part in the invasion of Europe both before and after D-Day. Often they would fly at wave-top height across the English Channel or North Sea to avoid detection and then hedge-hop deep into enemy territory to deliver their precision attack. Enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire were a constant risk. This is a remarkable story of skill and bravery by a little known branch of the RAF.

Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad


William Craig - 1973
    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.

Leviathan: The Rise of Britain as a World Power


David Scott - 2013
    

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall


Anna Funder - 2003
    In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight, and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their countrymen and women, there are a thousand stories just waiting to get out. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany - she meets Miriam, who as a 16-year-old might have started World War III, visits the man who painted the line which became the Berlin Wall and gets drunk with the legendary 'Mik Jegger' of the East, once declared by the authorities to his face to 'no longer to exist'. Written with wit and literary flair, Stasiland provides a rivetting insight into life behind the wall.

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918


Adam Hochschild - 2011
    In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain's leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper. These critics were sometimes intimately connected to their enemy hawks: one of Britain's most prominent women pacifist campaigners had a brother who was commander in chief on the Western Front. Two well-known sisters split so bitterly over the war that they ended up publishing newspapers that attacked each other. Today, hundreds of military cemeteries spread across the fields of northern France and Belgium contain the bodies of millions of men who died in the war to end all wars. Can we ever avoid repeating history?

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary


Marta Hillers - 1953
    The anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject--the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.

Island Victory: The Battle of Kwajalein Atoll


S.L.A. Marshall - 1982
     This was the first time the Americans had penetrated the “outer ring” of the Japanese Pacific sphere. From now until the end of the war the combined forces of the Navy, Marine Corps and Army would island hop their way to the Japanese mainland. Yet, the Battle of Kwajalein Atoll, particularly on the island of Roi-Namur where there were only 51 survivors of the original 3,500 garrison left, gave the Americans an insight into the fierce resistance that the Japanese would put up over the remaining months of the war. Drawn directly from the testimonies of several hundred infantrymen, Island Victory provides insight into what it was like to feel the heat of battle on the beaches of those Pacific islands. "Written accounts of war simply do not get any closer to the actions and feelings of those [who] were there. Island Victory is a highly recommended, 'must read' book." — The Midwest Book Review "The real value of Island Victory lies in the unadorned words of these soldiers, recorded so openly and methodically by Marshall after the battle. . . . The Kwajalein victors interviewed so painstakingly by Sam Marshall provide a priceless candor and authenticity, the emotional testimonies of young men still flushed with adrenalin, guilt, and relief." — Joseph H. Alexander, Journal of Military History S. L. A. Marshall was a chief U.S. Army combat historian during World War II and the Korean War. He had served on the border with Mexico during the Pancho Villa Expedition before serving in France during World War I. He wrote over thirty books about warfare. Island Victory was first published in 1944. Marshall passed away in 1977.

Run Rachel Run: The Thrilling, True Story of a Teen’s Daring Escape and Heroic Survival During the Holocaust


Rachel Blum - 2017
    (Not just based on a true story.) Rachel Blum was 12 when the Nazis invaded her town. Over the next three years, she witnessed war, risked her life to smuggle food for her family, escaped liquidation, hid with a kind Polish couple whose son worked for the SS, was questioned if she was a Jew by an SS General and engineered an incredibly dangerous scheme to overturn a moving trainload of 1,000 Nazi soldiers.Hers is not just an incredible, action-packed story, but represents a character arc that young women, as well as young men, as well as adults of all types can draw inspiration from. She did not begin as a selfless, courageous young girl she came to be. Her strength and determination evolved through her experiences.Once you start “Run Rachel Run,” you won’t be able to put it down. Once you finish, you’ll be shivering in awe how invigoratingly heroic the story of Rachel Blum is. Reviews “This is incredible!” Jessica Classen “What a testimony of courage and love” Rick Dearmore “Wonderful and inspiring and brave person” Helen Schwab An Excerpt July, 1944. Ivan Roluk couldn’t believe he was listening to a 15-year-old girl – and putting his life and the life of his family in her hands!But she was right. Driving trains for the Nazis for three years now, he knew exactly who the Germans were. He knew that there were once more than 20,000 Jews in the girl’s home town of Ludmir, and now there was only one. The courageous young girl, Rachel.Rachel -- who had just convinced him to risk his life, as well as the life of his wife and son.There was a risk either way, of course. The war was coming to an end and who knew what the Germans would do to them once they didn’t need his services any longer. It was a risk to do it, but a risk not to do it.He looked behind him. The 20 train cars filled with over 1,000 wounded Nazi soldiers snaked behind his engine-car like a meandering river. In the caboose at the tail of the train was his wife, his son and the little Jewish girl.Suddenly, he heard a slam. What was that? It sounded like the door connecting the engine-car to the first car, which was occupied by high-ranking Nazi officers. Was one of them coming up front?The moment of truth had arrived.He thrust the throttle full ahead….The train jerked forward…. He looked out the window. There, up ahead, was the bend! Had he waited too long?There was no more time to think. There was no more time for fear. It truly was now or never. He leaned out the open side door….

Gateway to Hell: Vietnam 1968: Thoughts and personal experiences of an infantry soldier


Coleman Luck - 2018
    The personal experiences of former Army infantry First Lieutenant George Coleman Luck Jr during his year in Vietnam - 1968

Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford, the Thirties Socialite


Lyndsy Spence - 2015
    As the young wife of Bryan Guinness, heir to the Guinness family brewing empire, she lived a gilded life until fascist leader Oswald Mosley turned her head. This ground-breaking biography adopts a new approach in exploring the life of Diana Mitford - removing her from her famous family and fascism to look at the woman behind the myths. Combining the traditional rituals of the upper classes - the debutante season, social movements of the 1920s and social upheaval of the 1930s - allows Diana to be presented as a young woman desperately trying to find her place in a rapidly changing world. Benefitting from never-before published letters, diaries and archives has allowed her story to take shape. It is a character study of a beautiful woman whose charm and personality enthralled all who met her, but whose life would ultimately act as a cautionary tale.

1913: The Defiant Swan Song


Virginia Cowles - 1967
    1913 It's the eve of the First World War. One era ends as another is set to begin. Before life is changed forever in the maelstrom of war, the excess and extravagance of European high society blazes its trail. Acclaimed historian Virginia Cowles paints a picture of the glamour and scandals within the upper echelon of society of seven major cities, through rich prose and lively anecdotes. Rumours thrived in the public eye - King George V's speculated alcoholism, the devotion of the Russian Empress to the charlatan Rasputin - Archduke Franz Ferdinand's quick temper and conspicuous affairs. It was not only nobles who caused scandals however; even the ballet was drawn into controversy. The fame of Isadora Duncan, with her self-taught dancing in bare feet and a Greek tunic, drew equal derision and adoration. 'A Defiant Swan Song' chronicles all the highs and lows of 1913 - from major cultural events such as the suffragette movement in London, to the folly and fame of ruling elite. Parties and affairs, fashion and intrigue, dancing and duelling abound. But life was was not all one endless party before the war. Cowles reveals the tensions and divisions behind the mask of European society. 1913 would be the beginning of the end. Recommended for fans of Simon Sebag Montefiore, Andrew Roberts and Antonia Fraser. Virginia Cowles, who was brought up in Boston, left America for Europe at an early age to become a well-known journalist and historian, and is the author of 'Winston Churchill: The Era and The Man', 'Edward VII and His Circle', and 'The Kaiser', amongst other books. She was married to Aidan Crawley, M.P., and had three children. Praise for Virgina Cowles ’One of the most delightful books I have read. Miss Cowles has given us a tour-de-force, well researched, comprehensive, frank … [it] abounds in amazing stories of extraordinary personalities’ Books and Bookmen ‘Splendidly readable’ The Sunday Times

Three Years in Hell: The Brexit Chronicles


Fintan O'Toole - 2020
     In 2011 Queen Elizabeth made her first ever state visit to the Irish Republic. It was a great, moving occasion. 'In settling once and for all its relationship with Ireland,' Fintan O'Toole writes, 'Britain was also settling its relationship with the rest of the world taking its place as a normal, equal democracy.' It was not to last. Three Years in Hell is the fiercely intelligent, funny and sorrowful record of a slow-motion catastrophe. At its heart is the enigma of English nationalism. On the morning after the 2016 referendum O'Toole wrote: 'It is a question the English used to ask about their subject peoples: are they ready for self-government? But it is now one that has to be asked about the English themselves... England seems to be stumbling towards a national independence it has scarcely even discussed, let alone prepared for. It is on the brink of one of history's strangest nationalist revolutions.' The story culminates in the election of Boris Johnson, running against a weak, accidental Labour leader who promised to remain 'neutral' on the most important question of our time.