Florida in World War II

Florida in World War II PDF Author: Nick Wynne
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Few realize what a vital role World War II and Florida played in each other's history. The war helped Florida move past its southern conservative mentality and emerge as a sophisticated society, and thousands of military men were trained under Florida's sunny skies. Here are stories from some of the one hundred military bases, including Tyndall Field, where Clark Gable trained, and Eglin Air Force Base, where Doolittle planned his raid on Tokyo. Read about Camp Gordon Johnston, referred to as "Hell by the Sea," built in a swampy, snake-infested subtropical jungle, and uncover the secrets of "Station J," a base that monitored the transmissions of German U-boats prowling off the coast. This fascinating collaboration between historians Nick Wynne and Richard Moorhead reveals the lasting impact of World War II on Florida as the United States heads into the seventieth anniversary of its entry into the war.

Florida in World War II

Florida in World War II PDF Author: Nick Wynne
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
Few realize what a vital role World War II and Florida played in each other's history. The war helped Florida move past its southern conservative mentality and emerge as a sophisticated society, and thousands of military men were trained under Florida's sunny skies. Here are stories from some of the one hundred military bases, including Tyndall Field, where Clark Gable trained, and Eglin Air Force Base, where Doolittle planned his raid on Tokyo. Read about Camp Gordon Johnston, referred to as "Hell by the Sea," built in a swampy, snake-infested subtropical jungle, and uncover the secrets of "Station J," a base that monitored the transmissions of German U-boats prowling off the coast. This fascinating collaboration between historians Nick Wynne and Richard Moorhead reveals the lasting impact of World War II on Florida as the United States heads into the seventieth anniversary of its entry into the war.

Florida in World War I

Florida in World War I PDF Author: Joe Knetsch and Pamela Gibson
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467148296
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
A century ago, sparsely populated and largely rural Florida rallied as America plunged into World War I. The state's sacrifices and contributions have rarely been awarded their proper due. The proud USS Florida, too often mentioned as a mere adjunct to the Atlantic Fleet, receives a just accounting, as does the utterly devastating loss of the USS Tampa, the highest death toll the navy suffered in the war. Sunshine State foresters served critical roles abroad, and local libraries became essential hubs for promoting rationing and reporting news from overseas. Floridian aid workers and soldiers training for departure were stricken with the Spanish flu, a pandemic that shook the globe with force equal to the war itself. Authors Joe Knetsch and Pamela Gibson provide a necessary and thorough chronicle of Florida in the Great War.

World War II in Fort Pierce

World War II in Fort Pierce PDF Author: Robert A. Taylor
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439626936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Few Florida communities felt the impact of World War II as much as the Atlantic-coast town of Fort Pierce. With a population that soared along with its economy, the small city made an important contribution to Allied victory by hosting a major military training base. Prior to that, the war had come only as close as the German submarines stalking targets off the southern coast of the peninsula. In 1943, however, the U.S. Navy commissioned its newest amphibious training base in Fort Pierce, and tens of thousands of young men would eventually prepare for combat on the towns sunny shores. The intensive physical and mental training was hardly a day at the beach, and within a few months, Fort Pierce had become a major military post with a national reputation. It also became the training site of some of the most elite units of the armed forces, including the Scouts and Raiders, U.S. Army Rangers, and the legendary frogmen.

US Naval Air Station, Melbourne Florida, World War II

US Naval Air Station, Melbourne Florida, World War II PDF Author: William R. Barnett
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 9780738856322
Category : Air bases
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Operational flight training in fighter aircraft in WW II was a highlight for young Navy pilots. The Naval Air Station, Melbourne, Florida was a specialized fighter training base that saw many of the young men become top gun fighter pilots. This book traces the training Navy cadets went through, the operational training they accomplished, and the history of NAS Melbourne from its grass roots through the war years. Activities and actions that went on at this Navy base are told along with stories about some of the people that ran the base. There are 60 images in the book along with a map of the base and close- up photos of the buildings. It is a history written in a way that takes the reader back in time and lets him "live" through those activities brought on by a war that no one wanted but had to cope with.

Rutherford County in World War II

Rutherford County in World War II PDF Author: Anita Price Davis
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738516462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
This highly anticipated follow-up to Rutherford County in World War II continues to illustrate the tremendous contributions of a brave community to the World War II effort. Rutherford County residents participated in almost every major campaign of the war, including Pearl Harbor, the air offensive in Europe, and D-Day, and those on the home front did all they could to support the troops. These patriotic photographs-many of which were collected by the authors during personal interviews with local veterans and other dedicated residents-memorialize this proud county's service and commitment to the war effort.

New Mexico in World War II

New Mexico in World War II PDF Author: Richard Melzer and John Taylor
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467106704
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
In 1941, New Mexico was an agrarian state with just over half a million people, many of whom lived without electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, or paved roads. However, the state provided more military volunteers per capita--including eight Medal of Honor winners--than any other state and had the highest casualty rate per capita in the country. New Mexico provided essential resources ranging from oil and coal to potash and copper. The state is often remembered for being the location where the first nuclear weapon was designed and tested in 1945, but more important at the time were the development of the proximity fuze and the testing of the top-secret Norden bombsight. The state also housed German and Italian prisoners of war, and, in one of the darkest moments in US history, incarcerated American citizens of Japanese descent in several concentration camps.

Embry-Riddle at War

Embry-Riddle at War PDF Author: Stephen G. Craft
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
"Stephen Craft mines archival sources and the rich treasure trove of personal memories of the men who fought the greatest air war in history. Interviews with those who graduated from wartime Embry-Riddle bring the story to life with rich and telling detail."--BOOK JACKET.

Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State

Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State PDF Author: Robert D. Billinger
Publisher: Florida History and Culture (P
ISBN: 9780813034416
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"They were Uncle Sam's smiling workers and they looked like all-American boys. There were at least 10,000 of them, deployed in 25 Florida camps between 1942 and 1946. They were also members of the Wehrmacht, Hitler's armed forces."--Forum "Most Americans were unaware their government was housing Hitler's soldiers on its shores. . . . Billinger weaves interviews with former prisoners, American soldiers who worked in the camps, newspaper accounts, and government documents into a stunning historical narrative."--Kansas City Star "A tropical paradise that for some became a tropical hell."--Sarasota Herald-Tribune "First came crewmen of destroyed U-boats, then thousands of Afrika Korps veterans who swamped the system in 1943. Pro-Nazi, arrogant, and tough, they defied U.S. authorities, terrorized anti-Nazi inmates, and rioted."--Choice "Filled with colorful personal accounts, this historical book packs the punch of fiction."--St. Petersburg Times "Billinger's first-rate history of this little-known chapter in American history teaches us that, in spite of wartime propaganda, our enemies are human, too."--Atlantic City Press "Hard to put down."--Daytona Beach News-Journal In the first book-length treatment of the German prisoner of war experience in Florida during World War II, Robert D. Billinger, Jr., tells the story of the 10,000 men who were "guests" of Uncle Sam in a tropical paradise that for some became a tropical hell. Having been captured while serving on U-boats off the Carolinas, with the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, with the paratroops in Italy, or with labor battalions in France, the POWs were among the 378,000 Germans held as prisoners in 45 states. Except for the servicemen who guarded them, the civilian pulp-cutters, citrus growers, and sugarcane foremen who worked them, and the FBI and local police who tracked the escapees among them, most people were--and still are--unaware of the German POWs who inhabited the 27 camps that dotted the Sunshine State. Billinger describes the experiences of the Germans and their captors as both sides came to the realization that, while the Germans' worst enemies were often their own comrades-in-arms, wartime enemies might also become life-long friends. Concentrating especially on the story of Camp Blanding in North Florida, Billinger based his research on both American and German archives. His account mixes rare photos with interviews with former prisoners; reports by the International Red Cross, the YMCA, and the U.S. military; and local newspaper articles. This book will be of great value to scholars and historians, as well as all readers with an interest in World War II. Those with an interest in Florida history will also find much to admire in this engaging account of a barely known wartime episode. A volume in The Florida History and Culture Series, edited by Raymond Arsenault and Gary R. Mormino.

Small Town, Big Secrets

Small Town, Big Secrets PDF Author: Sally J. Ling
Publisher: History Press (SC)
ISBN: 9781596290068
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Traces the development of the Floridian base, its impact on the small town of Boca Raton, the life of base soldiers and the development as well as the impact of airborne radar during the war.

War in Paradise

War in Paradise PDF Author: Eliot Kleinberg
Publisher: Florida Historical Society
ISBN: 9781886104037
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Eliot Kleinberg provides an unusual and illuminating look at World War II in the Sunshine State. From prisoner of war camp conspiracies to the invasion of American shores by German spies, the entire story of the war in Florida is contained here. He also supplies many previously unseen photographs of people and places impacted by this great conflict.