Hell Before Their Very Eyes

Hell Before Their Very Eyes PDF Author: John C. McManus
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421417650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The life-altering experiences of the American soldiers who liberated three Nazi concentration camps. On April 4, 1945, United States Army units from the 89th Infantry Division and the 4th Armored Division seized Ohrdruf, the first of many Nazi concentration camps to be liberated in Germany. In the weeks that followed, as more camps were discovered, thousands of soldiers came face to face with the monstrous reality of Hitler’s Germany. These men discovered the very depths of human-imposed cruelty and depravity: railroad cars stacked with emaciated, lifeless bodies; ovens full of incinerated human remains; warehouses filled with stolen shoes, clothes, luggage, and even eyeglasses; prison yards littered with implements of torture and dead bodies; and—perhaps most disturbing of all—the half-dead survivors of the camps. For the American soldiers of all ranks who witnessed such powerful evidence of Nazi crimes, the experience was life altering. Almost all were haunted for the rest of their lives by what they had seen, horrified that humans from ostensibly civilized societies were capable of such crimes. Military historian John C. McManus sheds new light on this often-overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on a rich blend of archival sources and thousands of firsthand accounts—including unit journals, interviews, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, letters, and published recollections—Hell Before Their Very Eyes focuses on the experiences of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history.

Hell Before Their Very Eyes

Hell Before Their Very Eyes PDF Author: John C. McManus
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421417650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book Here

Book Description
The life-altering experiences of the American soldiers who liberated three Nazi concentration camps. On April 4, 1945, United States Army units from the 89th Infantry Division and the 4th Armored Division seized Ohrdruf, the first of many Nazi concentration camps to be liberated in Germany. In the weeks that followed, as more camps were discovered, thousands of soldiers came face to face with the monstrous reality of Hitler’s Germany. These men discovered the very depths of human-imposed cruelty and depravity: railroad cars stacked with emaciated, lifeless bodies; ovens full of incinerated human remains; warehouses filled with stolen shoes, clothes, luggage, and even eyeglasses; prison yards littered with implements of torture and dead bodies; and—perhaps most disturbing of all—the half-dead survivors of the camps. For the American soldiers of all ranks who witnessed such powerful evidence of Nazi crimes, the experience was life altering. Almost all were haunted for the rest of their lives by what they had seen, horrified that humans from ostensibly civilized societies were capable of such crimes. Military historian John C. McManus sheds new light on this often-overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on a rich blend of archival sources and thousands of firsthand accounts—including unit journals, interviews, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, letters, and published recollections—Hell Before Their Very Eyes focuses on the experiences of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history.

Patton's Shadow

Patton's Shadow PDF Author: Nathan C. Jones
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817361561
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
General George S. Patton’s legendary image was carefully crafted during World War II and continues to shape our understanding of American history and culture today. Historian Nathan C. Jones explores the creation of the Patton legend and its enduring legacy in Patton’s Shadow.

Courage in Combat

Courage in Combat PDF Author: Richard J. Rinaldo
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612004571
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
These stories of military heroism, focusing on members of the Legion of Valor, offer a sweeping study of courage in service to America. Published in conjunction with the Legion of Valor of the United States of America, Courage in Combat shares the stories of military heroes from the Civil War onward. They are recipients of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, and the Air Force Cross. Their awards are our nation’s highest military decorations, given only to one in twenty thousand combatants. Among them are sergeants and generals, as well as corpsmen, civilians, engineers, “grunts,” and paratroopers. There are men and women, a mess attendant, aviators, spies and POWs, a cavalry scout, candidates for sainthood, and a president of the United States. The stories of these brave individuals relate personal accounts of heroism, as well as reflections on combat and war. This book also includes a short history of the Legion of Valor, America’s oldest military service organization, and an extensive list of its members, past and present. Courage in Combat explores the concept of courage through the lives, thoughts, and actions of this elite group—most of whom would say, “I was just doing my job.”

Know Me

Know Me PDF Author: Nancy Curci
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532094280
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Throughout the dozens of interviews in this book with veterans of four wars, veterans who have experienced combat, there seems to be a consistent thread that goes through the veterans’ words about wars, politics, weapons, biases, and human life. The words go, “War does not end war, it begets war,” “Stronger weapons may hinder but do not stop war.” “Individuals, in spite of their gender, color, or culture have become more equal in the military due to their courage, bravery, and proof of equal abilities.” Humans will go forth to protect their beliefs, their homes and their country when they believe it is a justified cause, and are willing to risk life and limb. There are three things that stayed the same throughout all the interviews. One: Wars are usually concocted by politics, greed, money and power and that these are the root of most wars. Two: The young, even before their brain is totally developed, are the ones who do the dying. Three: Although the military was ready to desegregate around 1947 the country still continued with the Jim Crow laws and the Green Book Travel Guide until sometime in the sixties. My question to you is, our young joined or were drafted, and they went to war, stayed the course, did the job, paid the price, and paid it forward. Could we at least pay it back? Could we at least know who they were and are? These are the people we are speaking about when we say “boots on the ground.”

Fulda Gap

Fulda Gap PDF Author: Dieter Krüger
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498569498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
This edited collection examines the role of the Fulda Gap—located at the border between East and West Germany—in Cold War politics and military strategy. The contributors analyze the strategic deliberations of the Warsaw Pact and NATO, the balance of forces, the role of the local peace movement, and various other topics, while weaving together the history of the Cold War at local, European, and global levels.

Reinventing the Warrior

Reinventing the Warrior PDF Author: Matthias André Voigt
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700636978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
On February 27, 1973, a group of roughly 300 armed Indigenous men, women, and children seized the tiny hamlet of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, at gunpoint, took hostages, barricaded themselves in the hilltop church, and raised an upside-down American flag. Taking place at the site of the infamous massacre in 1890, the highly symbolic confrontation spearheaded by the American Indian Movement (AIM) ultimately evolved into a prolonged, seventy-one-day armed standoff between law enforcement officers and modern-day Indigenous warriors. Among these warriors were Vietnam War veterans armed with Vietnam-era equipment and weaponry. By organizing in defense of the newly proclaimed Independent Oglala Nation, the AIM activists at Wounded Knee linked their nationalist quest for sovereignty and self-determination with a warrior masculinity they constructed from a mix of Indigenous cultures and contemporary cultural elements, including the Black civil rights movement, the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s, and the antiwar movement. As Matthias André Voigt shows, the takeover of Wounded Knee was only one moment among many in the complex interplay between protest activism, gender, race, and identity within AIM. While AIM is widely recognized for its militancy and nationalism, Reinventing the Warrior is the first major study to examine the gendered transformation of Indigenous men within the Red Power movement and the United States more generally. AIM activists came to regard themselves, like their ancestors before them, as warriors fighting for their people, their lands, and their rights. They sought to remasculinize their Indigenous identity in order to confront hegemonic masculinities—and, by implication, colonialism itself. By becoming “more manly,” Indigenous men challenged the disempowering nature of white supremacy. Voigt traces the story of the reinvention of Indigenous warriorhood from 1968 to the takeover of Wounded Knee in 1973 and beyond. His trailblazing work explores why and how Indigenous men refashioned themselves as modern-day warriors in their anticolonial nation-building endeavor, thereby remaking both self and society.

Final Battles of Patton's Vanguard

Final Battles of Patton's Vanguard PDF Author: Don M. Fox
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476638993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
By January 1945, Nazi Germany's defeat seemed inevitable yet much fighting remained. The shortest way home for American troops was towards Berlin. General George S. Patton's Third Army would carve its way into the German heartland, the Fourth Armored Division once again serving as his vanguard. This companion volume to the author's Patton's Vanguard: The United States Army Fourth Armored Division covers the final months of combat: the drive to Bitburg; the daring exploitation of the bridgeheads on the Moselle, Rhine and Main Rivers; Patton's ill-fated raid to rescue his son-in-law from a prisoner of war camp deep behind enemy lines; the first liberation of a concentration camp on the Western Front; the drive toward Chemnitz; the controversial push into Czechoslovakia; and the little-known encounter with General Andrey Vlasov's turncoat Russian Liberation Army.

Readers Comp to Military History Pa

Readers Comp to Military History Pa PDF Author:
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547561462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description
THE READER'S COMPANION TO MILITARY HISTORY is the first major reference work on military history to represent a global perspective. More than 150 distinguished military historians, biographers, and journalists contributed nearly 600 articles to this remarkable chronicle of warfare that combines compelling historical narrative with the latest in contemporary scholarship. Here is essential information on major events and battles, commanders, weaponry and technology, and strategy and tactics. Other topics include courage, discipline, the effects of weather on warfare, military justice, the role of propaganda, the evolution of uniforms, psychological warfare, and morale. Filled with surprising anecdotes and little-known facts, THE READER'S COMPANION TO MILITARY HISTORY

Folk Art

Folk Art PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk art
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description


A Legacy of Lessons Learned

A Legacy of Lessons Learned PDF Author: Karen Hennessy
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160935046
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Excerpt from A Legacy of Lessons Learned: Landstuhl Regional Medical Center During Wartime, 2001-2014: For over 25 years, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) has served as a model of "selfless service," stepping up to the demands of a suddenly increased rate of traumatically injured service members arriving from the battlefield. From Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield; through the attacks in Somalia, the Khobar Towers, and USS Co≤ to the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, LRMC has stood at the forefront of military healthcare, receiving our Nation's and our partners' wounded and ill from battlefields and contingencies across multiple theaters. From a community hospital providing routine healthcare delivery to personnel stationed in Europe and their families before 9/11, LRMC transitioned into a Level 1, triservice, integrated trauma center, providing lifesaving care to tens of thousands of evacuated service members, in addition to handling all the associated needs of these patients, from payroll assistance to chaplain services, service and unit liaison support, and veteran service organization support, as well as delivering ongoing healthcare to beneficiaries across Europe, Africa, and Asia. The goal of this text is to share the lessons learned by LRMC staff in converting from a peacetime to wartime footing, serving as a guide for US military hospitals in similar situations in the future. The innovations and solutions planned and implemented so successfully by LRMC staff will assist future military medical and line leaders in maintaining the highest quality of healthcare services for future generations of our service men and women in combat, improving upon the historically high survival rates seen in these conflicts. Related items: Physician References & Medical Handbooks can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/health-benefits/physician-references-medical-handbooks Army Medical Department (AMEDD) publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/1141 Army Medical Department Center and School publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/1065 Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/1306 Army Surgeon General Office publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/1142 The Borden Institute publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/1140