Frontsoldaten

Frontsoldaten PDF Author: Stephen G. Fritz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813127815
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Alois Dwenger, writing from the front in May of 1942, complained that people forgot "the actions of simple soldiers.I believe that true heroism lies in bearing this dreadful everyday life." In exploring the reality of the Landser, the average German soldier in World War II, through letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral histories, Stephen G. Fritz provides the definitive account of the everyday war of the German front soldier. The personal documents of these soldiers, most from the Russian front, where the majority of German infantrymen saw service, paint a richly textured portrait of the Landser that illustrates the complexity and paradox of his daily life. Although clinging to a self-image as a decent fellow, the German soldier nonetheless committed terrible crimes in the name of National Socialism. When the war was finally over, and his country lay in ruins, the Landser faced a bitter truth: all his exertions and sacrifices had been in the name of a deplorable regime that had committed unprecedented crimes. With chapters on training, images of combat, living conditions, combat stress, the personal sensations of war, the bonds of comradeship, and ideology and motivation, Fritz offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy, revealing war through the eyes of these self-styled "little men." A fascinating look at the day-to-day life of German soldiers, this is a book not about war but about men. It will be vitally important for anyone interested in World War II, German history, or the experiences of common soldiers throughout the world.

Frontsoldaten

Frontsoldaten PDF Author: Stephen G. Fritz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813127815
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Alois Dwenger, writing from the front in May of 1942, complained that people forgot "the actions of simple soldiers.I believe that true heroism lies in bearing this dreadful everyday life." In exploring the reality of the Landser, the average German soldier in World War II, through letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral histories, Stephen G. Fritz provides the definitive account of the everyday war of the German front soldier. The personal documents of these soldiers, most from the Russian front, where the majority of German infantrymen saw service, paint a richly textured portrait of the Landser that illustrates the complexity and paradox of his daily life. Although clinging to a self-image as a decent fellow, the German soldier nonetheless committed terrible crimes in the name of National Socialism. When the war was finally over, and his country lay in ruins, the Landser faced a bitter truth: all his exertions and sacrifices had been in the name of a deplorable regime that had committed unprecedented crimes. With chapters on training, images of combat, living conditions, combat stress, the personal sensations of war, the bonds of comradeship, and ideology and motivation, Fritz offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy, revealing war through the eyes of these self-styled "little men." A fascinating look at the day-to-day life of German soldiers, this is a book not about war but about men. It will be vitally important for anyone interested in World War II, German history, or the experiences of common soldiers throughout the world.

War Stories

War Stories PDF Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338290215
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Restart, a story of telling truth from lies -- and finding out what being a hero really means. There are two things Trevor loves more than anything else: playing war-based video games and his great-grandfather Jacob, who is a true-blue, bona fide war hero. At the height of the war, Jacob helped liberate a small French village, and was given a hero's welcome upon his return to America.Now it's decades later, and Jacob wants to retrace the steps he took during the war -- from training to invasion to the village he is said to have saved. Trevor thinks this is the coolest idea ever. But as they get to the village, Trevor discovers there's more to the story than what he's heard his whole life, causing him to wonder about his great-grandfather's heroism, the truth about the battle he fought, and importance of genuine valor.

The Mammoth Book of True War Stories

The Mammoth Book of True War Stories PDF Author: Jon E. Lewis
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ISBN: 9780786706297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Bringing together stirring tales of battle and bloodshed from across the centuries, this collection of true war stories includes tales that range from the wars of ancient Greece to the deserts of Saudi Arabia in 1991. Original.

Forever a Soldier

Forever a Soldier PDF Author: Tom Wiener
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 9780792262077
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Contains thirty-seven narratives, drawn from letters, diaries, private memoirs, and oral histories in which American veterans describe their experiences serving in conflicts from the First World War to the twenty-first-century war in Iraq.

Devil's Guard

Devil's Guard PDF Author: George R. Elford
Publisher: Delta
ISBN: 0307483770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Condemned to death for the bloodbaths of World War II, they served their sentence—on the killing fields of Vietnam. The fascinating, true story of the French Foreign Legion’s Nazi battalion WHAT THEY DID IN WORLD WAS II WAS HITORY’S BLOODIEST NIGHTMARE. The ashes of World War II were still cooling when France went to war in the jungles of Southeast Asia. In that struggle, its frontline troops were the misfits, criminals, and mercenaries of the French Foreign Legion. And among that international army of the desperate and the damned, none were so bloodstained as the fugitive veterans of the German S.S. WHAT THEY DID IN VIETNAM WAS ITS UGLIEST SECRET—UNTIL NOW. Loathed by the French, feared and hated by the Vietnamese, the Germans fought not for patriotism of glory but because fighting for France was better than hanging from its gallows. Here now is the untold story of the killer elite whose discipline, ferocity, and suicidal courage made them the weapon of last resort.

Now It Can Be Told

Now It Can Be Told PDF Author: Philip Gibbs
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
In 'Now It Can Be Told,' Philip Gibbs offers a candid and unvarnished portrait of World War I, which stands out in stark contrast to the sanitized versions that were permissible under wartime censorship. Gibbs masterfully employs a rich, journalistic prose style that captures the harrowing experiences and untold stories of soldiers on the Western Front. His work is not only a literary accomplishment but also a piece of historical journalism that has significantly contributed to the contemporary understanding of the Great War. Within the literary context, his narrative breaks free from the constraints of his time, providing a raw and essential account of the true costs of conflict. Philip Gibbs, an esteemed war correspondent, bore witness to the atrocities of the First World War, through which he experienced the indelible traumas and heroism of the battlefield firsthand. This direct exposure to the horrors of war informed his reflective and compassionate approach in documenting the lives of soldiers and civilians affected by the conflict. Gibbs's narrative is fuelled by an urgency to reveal the truths that wartime censorship had suppressed, a testament to his commitment to journalistic integrity and transparency. The book comes highly recommended for readers with an interest in military history, journalism, and the literature of war. Gibbs's 'Now It Can Be Told' transcends its own era to resonate with contemporary audiences seeking a deeper understanding of the human condition amidst the chaos of war. It is an essential read for anyone who wishes to grasp the reality of warfare beyond the romanticism and valor often depicted, unveiling the courage, tragedy, and sometimes the mundanity, of life on the front lines.

The Great War

The Great War PDF Author: Various
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763675547
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Combines evocative photographs and illustrations in a treasury of stories by 11 international writers that were inspired by artifacts connected to World War I. Illustrated by the Kate Greenaway Medal-winning artist of A Monster Calls.

Close Quarters

Close Quarters PDF Author: Larry Heinemann
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307517705
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
From the moment his first novel was published, Larry Heinemann joined the ranks of the great chroniclers of the Vietnam conflict--Philip Caputo, Tim O’Brien, and Gustav Hasford. In the stripped-down, unsullied patois of an ordinary soldier, draftee Philip Dosier tells the story of his war. Straight from high school, too young to vote or buy himself a drink, he enters a world of mud and heat, blood and body counts, ambushes and firefights. It is here that he embarks on the brutal downward path to wisdom that awaits every soldier. In the tradition of Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line, Close Quarters is the harrowing story of how a decent kid from Chicago endures an extraordinary trial-- and returns profoundly altered to a world on the threshold of change.

Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific

Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific PDF Author: Larry Smith
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393285634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
“A vivid and compelling account by a true master of oral history.” —General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret.), Supreme Allied Commander, Europe On February 19, 1945, nearly 70,000 American soldiers invaded a tiny volcanic island in the Pacific. Over the next thirty-five days, approximately 28,000 soldiers died, including nearly 22,000 Japanese and 6,821 Americans, making Iwo Jima one of the costliest battles of World War II. In his most important work to date, best-selling author Larry Smith lets twenty-two veterans of the conflict tell the story of this epic clash in their own words. Many of these soldiers were no more than teenagers when they answered their country’s call, and yet the men relate the momentous events of this terrible conflict as if they occurred just last year, instead of more than half a century ago. Describing the initial charge across the treacherous black ash of the landing beach under heavy fire is Chuck Lindberg, the last survivor of the two teams that planted the flags on Mount Suribachi—a moment captured forever in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph for the Associated Press. General Fred Haynes recounts his heroic attempts to keep order amid tremendous casualties on the battlefield. Woody Williams and George Wahlen, two of the battle’s twenty-six Medal of Honor recipients, tell their unbelievable stories, and Samuel Tso relates his role as one of the famous Navajo code talkers. Though the flags went up just days after the invasion, the fighting wasn’t over: through nearly eight miles of tunnels, thousands of Japanese troops defended the island despite hundred-degree heat, famine rations, and the overpowering stench of sulfur. To get both sides of the story, Smith interviewed the daughter of Captain Tsunezo Wachi, one of the most prominent Japanese survivors, and presents new evidence about the disappearance of the famed Japanese commander Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who waged a brilliant defense of the island only to allegedly commit suicide rather than submit to the Americans. Smith also investigates the controversy surrounding Rosenthal’s famous photograph of the flag raising, and he interviews bomber and fighter crewmen to hear firsthand whether they believed the terrible cost of capturing the island was truly justified by its strategic use as an emergency stop for B-29 Superfortress bombers. Through the story of Navy Cross recipient John Ripley, Smith brings the history of the island up-to-date—from its return to Japan in 1968 to the dramatic discoveries made in the caves of Iwo in the 1980s and the Japanese-American Reunion of Honor now held annually on the island. With dozens of photographs and maps, Iwo Jima is a stunning history of this emblematic battle, but it is also a personal history of the generation of soldiers, many now in their final years, who waged one of the most important wars in American history.

Our Best War Stories

Our Best War Stories PDF Author: Christopher Lyke
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781953665553
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The best new and established voices from the Forever Wars! Thirty-six prize-winning works of 21st century war poetry, fiction, and non-fiction!Since 2016, administered by the Chicago-based literary journal Line of Advance, the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards have served to highlight not only some of the best contemporary voices writing about modern wars-Vietnam to Afghanistan-but to creatively commemorate the life of a U.S. Army leader and writer, beloved by his family and troops.In 2020, the annual competition expanded to include the voices of writers who are immediate family members of those serving, or who have served, in the U.S. military.Finalists are awarded cash-prizes, and publication in Line of Advance. Many have gone on to write and publish larger works, including award-winning novels and poetry collections. Past Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Award winners and finalists include:Eric Chandler: U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, former F-16 fighter pilot over Iraq and Afghanistan, outdoor sports writer, and author of the 2017 poetry collection Hugging This Rock: Poems of Earth & Sky, Love & War.U.S. Marine Corps veteran, winner of the inaugural Syracuse University Press Veterans' Writing Award for best book-length fiction or non-fiction, and author of the forthcoming novel Revolutions of All Colors.Travis Klempan: U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Iraq War veteran, and author of the novel Have Snakes, Need Birds.Ray McPadden: U.S. Army Ranger veteran, winner of the American Library Association's W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, and author of the novel And the Whole Mountain Burned.Bill Upton, U.S. Army veteran, a former crew chief on C-7A "Caribou" aircraft over Vietnam, and author of the memoir Pizza and Mortars: Ba-muoi-ba & Body Bags.