Results for "true" in World War II

Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves' actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed.

During World War II, Canada trained tens of thousands of airmen under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Those selected for Bomber Command operations went on to rain devastation upon the Third Reich in the great air battles over Europe, but their losses were high. German fighters and anti-aircraft guns took a terrifying toll. The chances of surviving a tour of duty as a bomber crew were almost nil.

Four days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a 21-year-old pilot. Suddenly, a German Messerschmitt fighter pulled up on his tail. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would later be called 'the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.'

Between dusk and dawn on the night of March 24-25, 1944, a small army of Allied soldiers crawled through tunnels in Germany in a covert operation the likes of which the Third Reich had never seen. The prison break from Stalag Luft III in Eastern Germany was the largest of its kind in the Second World War. Seventy-nine Allied soldiers and airmen made it outside the wire - but only three made it outside Nazi Germany. Fifty were executed by the Gestapo.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was concerned that middle-aged men were being cold-shouldered from service and so on 14th May 1940, Anthony Eden broadcast to the nation, announcing the formation of the Local Defence Volunteers. Within 24 hours over ¼ million men had offered their services, grateful for the chance at last to do something for their Country's defence. At the end of July this force was proudly renamed, and the Home Guard were born. Featuring stories told by Ronald Quartington, Keith Chisman, John Smythe and James Roffey.

Between the 26th May and 4th June 1940, 338,226 men were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk, after having been surrounded by German troops during the Battle of France. 222 naval vessels and 665 civilian craft had continuously ferried between Dunkirk and the British coast, a miraculous landmark in modern history. This is their story. Their real story. Featuring stories told by Ernie Wiggins, Walter Sullivan, Alan Wayland, Tom Waldren, Wally Stokes and Dick Sharpe.

An interview with a British World War II soldier whose name just happens to be James Ryan (Jim). On the 6th June 1944, 19-year-old Jim Ryan, a tank driver, came ashore 3 hours after the start of what would go down in history as "D-Day". By midnight 57,000 American and 75,000 British and Canadian troops were encamped on the beachhead, pinned down by heavy German artillery fire. From boarding his landing craft hampered by terrible weather, setting off on an incredible journey to the disembarkation on Sword Beach, this is the true story of one man's personal war.

On August 23rd 1940 the Luftwaffe launched the biggest bombing on Great Britain since The Day of the Eagle. One flight of bombers, confused by heavy cloud, dropped its bombs and headed for home. On August 25th, British bombers struck in Berlin and incensed, Hitler ordered that London be "razed to the ground". Shortly before 4 o'clock on September 7th, 300 German bombers arrived and dropped their incendiaries on some of the poorest streets of London. The Blitz had begun!

The biography of remarkable SAS Original Reg Seekings, from his humble beginnings in the Cambridgeshire Fens to his instrumental role in the success of the SAS during the Second World War. Starting at the very bottom of the ranks, Seekings was a farm labourer’s son who climbed from private to...

Three lives. Two nations. One war. What happened next defies belief — except it really happened. He carried out the most devastating surprise attack in modern history. He barely survived torment in a Japanese prison cell—but left a changed man. She went out of her way to love the enemies who hounded her parents into the jungle.

Rarely has a book had such an impact on so many of us here at Ignatius Press. It is one of the most powerful and moving books we have come across. If you can only buy one book this season, this must be the one. Here is the astonishing true story of the harrowing experiences of a young German seminarian drafted into Hitler’s dreaded SS at the onset of World War II.

The inspiring story of Joe Sacco and his part in the greatest battles of World War II, from Omaha Beach to the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. In his riveting debut, Where the Birds Never Sing, Jack Sacco recounts the realistic, harrowing, at times horrifying, and...

When Singapore fell to the Japanese in December 1941, Captain Freddie Spencer Chapman chose to take the fight to the enemy. Trekking deep behind enemy lines into the jungle, this veteran explorer turned special forces operative unleashed a one-man commando campaign of such destructive power and...

Hungary, 1944. Almost half a million Jewish Hungarians are deported to Auschwitz. Among the few surviving Hungarian Jews from this era were young men who, like Ervin Wolf, were forced into the brutal Labor Service where they were cut off from the outside world and forced to endure inhumane brutalities and servitude. Once freed, a new oppression took hold as communist rule under Stalin turned friends to foes, enveloped the nation in fear and suspicion, and tested everyone’s character and strength.

British Heroes of World War II: True Stories of Individual Bravery from the Battlefields of World War II tells the incredible true stories of men and women whose bravery left a lasting impact on the Allies' victory. From covert operations behind enemy lines to heroic acts in fierce battlefield confrontations, these stories showcase the unbreakable human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.

A Spy in the Family: An Incredible True Story of Espionage and Betrayal is the first audiobook to reveal the full, astonishing story of ‘Václav Jelínek’, aka Erwin van Haarlem, using previously unseen documents from the UK, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic Fascinating tale of how...

From the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Higher Call, Spearhead, and Devotion comes an astonishing true story set in an untold arena of World War II. “Tidal Wave is epic in every way. Like all good WWII books, it reminds us again, in the starkest terms possible, how much we owe to...

Landing on the Anzio beachhead in February 1944, Phil is put in charge of an Ammunition Pioneer Platoon in the 3rd Infantry Division. Their job: deliver ammunition to the frontline foxholes—a dangerous assignment involving regular forays into No Man’s Land. As Phil fights his way up the Italian boot, into Southern France and across the Rhine River into Germany, he is caught up in some of the most intense combat ever. But it’s what happens in the final stages of the war and his homecoming that makes Phil’s story incredibly special and heartwarming. 

A rousing tale of espionage and unsung valor, this is the captivating true story of Vera Atkins, Great Britain's spymistress from the age of 25. With her fierce intelligence, blunt manner, personal courage, and exceptional informants, Vera ran countless missions throughout the 1930s. After rising to the leadership echelon in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by Winston Churchill, she became head of a clandestine army in World War II.

What if you were flying into war with barely three weeks of training? What if your first dogfight ended with your guns still on safety? What if a single wrong turn landed you in a prison camp halfway across Europe, unsure if you'd ever see home again? This is the extraordinary true story of Ken Cam, a young RAF Spitfire pilot hurled into the chaos of World War II far from ready—but never backing down.