Victory in Defeat

Victory in Defeat PDF Author: Gregory Urwin
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612510043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
Told here for the first time in vivid detail is the story of the defenders of Wake Island following their surrender to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The highly regarded military historian Gregory Urwin spent decades researching what happened and now offers a revealing look at the U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilian volunteers in captivity. In addition to exhaustive archival research, he interviewed dozens of POWs and even some of their Japanese captors. He also had access to diaries secretly kept by the prisoners. This information has allowed Urwin to provide a nuanced look at the Japanese guards and how the Americans survived three-and-a-half years in captivity and emerged with a much lower death rate than most other Allies captured in the Pacific. In part, Urwin says, the answer lies in the Wake Islanders’ establishment of life-saving communities that kept their dignity intact. Their mutual-help networks encouraged those who faltered under the physical and psychological torture, including what is today called water boarding. The book notes that the Japanese camp official responsible for that war crime was sentenced to life imprisonment by an American military tribunal. Most spent the war at a camp just outside Shanghai, one of the few places where Japanese authorities permitted the Red Cross to aid prisoners of war. The author also calls attention to the generosity of civilians in Shanghai, including Swiss diplomats and the American and British residents of the fabled International Settlement, who provided food and clothing to the prisoners. In addition, some of the guards proved to be less vicious than those stationed at other POW camps and occasionally went out of their way to aid the men. As the first historical work to fully explore the captivity of Wake Island’s defenders, the book offers information not found in other World War II historie

Victory in Defeat

Victory in Defeat PDF Author: Gregory Urwin
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612510043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

Get Book Here

Book Description
Told here for the first time in vivid detail is the story of the defenders of Wake Island following their surrender to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The highly regarded military historian Gregory Urwin spent decades researching what happened and now offers a revealing look at the U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilian volunteers in captivity. In addition to exhaustive archival research, he interviewed dozens of POWs and even some of their Japanese captors. He also had access to diaries secretly kept by the prisoners. This information has allowed Urwin to provide a nuanced look at the Japanese guards and how the Americans survived three-and-a-half years in captivity and emerged with a much lower death rate than most other Allies captured in the Pacific. In part, Urwin says, the answer lies in the Wake Islanders’ establishment of life-saving communities that kept their dignity intact. Their mutual-help networks encouraged those who faltered under the physical and psychological torture, including what is today called water boarding. The book notes that the Japanese camp official responsible for that war crime was sentenced to life imprisonment by an American military tribunal. Most spent the war at a camp just outside Shanghai, one of the few places where Japanese authorities permitted the Red Cross to aid prisoners of war. The author also calls attention to the generosity of civilians in Shanghai, including Swiss diplomats and the American and British residents of the fabled International Settlement, who provided food and clothing to the prisoners. In addition, some of the guards proved to be less vicious than those stationed at other POW camps and occasionally went out of their way to aid the men. As the first historical work to fully explore the captivity of Wake Island’s defenders, the book offers information not found in other World War II historie

Victory in World War II

Victory in World War II PDF Author: Nigel Cawthorne
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 178828643X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
"Before Alamein we never won a battle, after Alamein we never lost one." Winston Churchill Although this is an exaggeration, it is perhaps a pardonable one. The second battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was followed in April 1943 by the complete withdrawal of German troops from North Africa. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Red Army had entered the hell of Stalingrad and emerged victorious. In the Pacific, American troops had captured and held the strategically vital island of Guadalcanal, in the teeth of frantic Japanese counter-attacks. In Burma, the Chindits were continuing to harass the enemy while British forces regrouped in preparation for the recapture of the country. The tide of the war had begun inexorably to turn in favour of the Allies. Victory covers all fronts in detail as it charts the progress of the final years of World War II.

Days of Defeat and Victory

Days of Defeat and Victory PDF Author: Yegor Gaidar
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295801220
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
Yegor Gaidar, the first post-Soviet prime minister of Russia and one of the principal architects of its historic transformation to a market economy, here presents his lively account of governing in the tumultuous early 1990s. Though still in his forties, Gaidar has already played a pivotal role in contemporary Russian political history, championing the cause of dramatic economic reform, aggressive privatization of state enterprises, and painful fiscal discipline in the face of widespread popular resistance. Gaidar’s youthfulness, energy, and daring are symbolic of a new phenomenon in Russian politics - the emergence of a younger generation of politicians with a distinctly technocratic bent, looking firmly to the United States and Europe for inspiration and sharing little of the old generation’s nostalgia for Communist stability. It was largely the implementation of Gaidar’s policies that drove the Russian parliament to rebel against Boris Yeltsin in 1993, leading to the bloody tank assault on the parliament itself. Though Yeltsin prevailed, it was clear that the political and social costs of “shock therapy” were too great for Russia’s fragile democracy to bear, and Gaidar himself was ousted to appease the conservatives. His unfinished agenda was put on hold, though he later returned when Yeltsin needed to placate international financial forces. Gaidar remains active in Russian politics, having formed his own political party, Russia’s Democratic Choice. In this book, he brings his story through Yeltsin’s cliffhanger re-election in 1996, and assesses the still-precarious state of the market reforms and democratic politics.

From Defeat to Victory

From Defeat to Victory PDF Author: Emily Dotson
Publisher: Destiny Image Incorporated
ISBN: 9780768422603
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description


The Final Days of Jesus

The Final Days of Jesus PDF Author: Mark D. Smith
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 071889510X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In The Final Days of Jesus, Mark Smith brings his experience as a classical historian to bear on the life of the historical Jesus, piecing together the volatile political context of first-century Judaea, as well as the lives of Pontius Pilate, Annas, and Joseph Caiaphas. The claim that 'the Jews crucified Jesus' has spawned a long and tragic history of Christian anti-Semitism. Smith challenges this claim through detailed exploration of Roman, Jewish, and Christian written sources and a broad range of archaeological evidence, such as the ossuary of Caiaphas, the 'Hidden Gate', and the rich vein of research devoted to the archaeology of ritual purity. The result is an earthy and nuanced portrait of Jewish life under Roman rule. From his discussion of the multiplicity and brutality of Roman executions to the intricate personal relationships among elites that provided the means of collaboration and redress, Smith details the complex push-pull of forces between Rome and the Temple as they collided in one history-changing week.

Victory Over Defeat

Victory Over Defeat PDF Author: Marilynn Morris Markwald
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781589097575
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
In 1949, on a blind date, I was introduced to a charming student from Germany who was studying at the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary in Maywood (Chicago suburb), Illinois. Eight months later Rudi Markwald and I were married. During the first years of our marriage he was reluctant to talk about his war experiences, but as time passed, while he was serving parishes from Illinois to Santiago, Chile, and we were rearing four children, he began to talk about the years of growing up in Berlin during the rise of Hitler; of serving three years in the Luftwaffe in Russia; and as infantryman at the Battle of the Bulge. With the self-assurance of a true mystic, he told of his turn around confrontation with God while he was a prisoner of war. During numerous visits to post-war Berlin I came to know his family and friends. I played cards and board games with them while listening to their stories -- stories told by ordinary, non-political people who had been caught under a totalitarian government that was relentless and unyielding toward anyone who thought "outside the box." I tried to persuade Rudi to write all this down, but his reply was always, "Who would want to read it? We were not heroes, resistance fighters, religious objectors or political agitators. We were just ordinary, middle class citizens who struggled through WWI, inflation, anarchy, depression, National Socialism, war and defeat -- hoping after each crisis that things would get better." He did admit to keeping some abbreviated diaries, which I eagerly opened, but the entries were in his own German shorthand, which I could not decipher. Finally he agreed that perhaps the grandchildren would find a small memoir interesting, but he insisted that I write it, because he was busy writing some church history paper. In close consultation with him, and in his voice, I began piecing together a chronological account of his life before our marriage. The events are actual, but because his memory was fading, I reconstructed some conversations and changed the names of most (not all) of the characters. The narrative was finished and waiting for publication, but Rudi did not live to see his memoir published. At the age of 91 his heart gave out, and he died -- in the faith that he lived and preached for sixty years.

Choosing Victory, Overcoming Defeat

Choosing Victory, Overcoming Defeat PDF Author: Kay Arthur
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
ISBN: 0736935630
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Readers will discover the keys to victorious living and winning life's battles in this enriching Old Testament study of how Joshua, Ruth, and the judges overcame defeat by following God's path to success.

The Victory with No Name

The Victory with No Name PDF Author: Colin Gordon Calloway
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199387990
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
"A balanced and readable account of the 1791 battle between St. Clair's US forces and an Indian coalition in the Ohio Valley, one of the most important and under-recognized events of its time"--

Between Victory and Defeat

Between Victory and Defeat PDF Author: Subhankar Bhattacharyya
Publisher: Global Collective Publishers
ISBN: 1954021461
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Torn between the high Marxist ideals of the bygone days and the lures of an aggressively captivating market economy, Abhi, the protagonist, can keep his trust in none but himself. The novella is a political thriller that breathlessly narrates the inside story of the deteriorating student politics in Bengal during the early days of the 21st century. A page-turner. An admirer of Che Guevara, Abhi, the erstwhile GS (general secretary) of the college union, fights from the beginning with the shadows of his unknown enemies. And when he is about to enter into the heart of the matter, he gets devastated discovering the truth. An action thriller, the novella is not without a romantic angle. However, here, too, the readers keep guessing: Does Diya, the bold and the beautiful fresher from the Department of English, nurture romantic feelings for Rishi, the newly elected GS from the rival union? Or does she have a weakness for Abhi, the defeated one?

With Our Backs to the Wall

With Our Backs to the Wall PDF Author: David Stevenson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674063198
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 747

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Book Description
With so much at stake and so much already lost, why did World War I end with a whimper-an arrangement between two weary opponents to suspend hostilities? After more than four years of desperate fighting, with victories sometimes measured in feet and inches, why did the Allies reject the option of advancing into Germany in 1918 and taking Berlin? Most histories of the Great War focus on the avoidability of its beginning. This book brings a laser-like focus to its ominous end-the Allies' incomplete victory, and the tragic ramifications for world peace just two decades later. In the most comprehensive account to date of the conflict's endgame, David Stevenson approaches the events of 1918 from a truly international perspective, examining the positions and perspectives of combatants on both sides, as well as the impact of the Russian Revolution. Stevenson pays close attention to America's effort in its first twentieth-century war, including its naval and military contribution, army recruitment, industrial mobilization, and home-front politics. Alongside military and political developments, he adds new information about the crucial role of economics and logistics. The Allies' eventual success, Stevenson shows, was due to new organizational methods of managing men and materiel and to increased combat effectiveness resulting partly from technological innovation. These factors, combined with Germany's disastrous military offensive in spring 1918, ensured an Allied victory-but not a conclusive German defeat.