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My Escape from Donington Hall: Preceded By An Account Of The Siege Of Kiao-chow In 1915
by Gunther PlüschowIt was an escape from a PoW camp as daring and fraught with danger as any immortalised by Hollywood. Yet the story is less familiar than most as it concerns the only German prisoner of war to escape from captivity in mainland Britain and make it home during either World War.After being caught in Gibraltar during an earlier attempt to return to his homeland, Pluschow and other captured Germans were shipped to Plymouth and then on to the PoW camp at Donington Hall, where he arrived in May 1915.On July 4 he and fellow prisoner Oskar Trefftz broke out by climbing over two 9ft barbed wire fences, before changing clothes and walking 15 miles to Derby where they caught a train to London.By the next morning the men's escape was featured in the Daily Sketch newspaper with both names and descriptions of the pair. They went their separate ways but Trefftz was recaptured at Millwall Docks. Realising he had to alter his appearance, Pluschow removed his smart tie and handed his coat in at the cloakroom at Blackfriars station. The German then used scraped-up coal dust, boot polish and Vaseline to change his fair hair to greasy black and covered himself in soot to make him appear as a dock worker. Pluschow then stowed away on a Dutch steamer ship at Tilbury docks, talked his way past a policeman in Holland before travelling to Germany by train. Upon his return home he received a hero's welcome and was presented with the Iron Cross First Class.This extraordinary story is told in Gunther's own words for the first time in English.
My Experiences In The World War – Vol. I [Illustrated Edition] (My Experiences In the World War #1)
by General of the Armies John Joseph PershingThe Pulitzer prize has been the sought after goal of many thousands of writers ever since it was first awarded in 1917. In 1932, the Pulitzer in the history category was awarded to General John "Black Jack" Pershing for his two volume memoirs spanning his time in command of the American Forces in World War One. Given that Pershing should receive such an illustrious prize in the literary arena outside of his army career was a just testament to his multi-faceted and outstanding talents. As the First World War raged into its fourth year, the lifeblood of the Allied forces on the Western Front laid spilt on the fields of Northern France and Flanders. Their only hope in facing the German onslaught lay in the newly mobilized American forces, who had joined the struggle against the central powers in Germany and Austro-Hungary. It would take a commander of towering strength, firm loyalty, and iron determination to change the small American peacetime army into the millions strong wartime colossus it was to become. Such a man was John "Black Jack" Pershing.AS he took command, Pershing was faced with four almightily difficult challenges to overcome in order to achieve success; the first to turn the raw American Doughboys into an army, trained in the new tactics of the industrial carnage of the Western Front. Secondly, to ship enough men, and supplies across the U-boat infested Atlantic to create such an army. Thirdly, to keep his allies hands off American manpower that became trained and ready for battle, they should fight under American flags and American leaders. It was only once the first three huge challenges were overcome could he think about his fourth, how his new troops could fight and beat the battle-hardened German army: but fight and beat them they did!A Pulitzer Prize winning classic!
My Experiences In The World War – Vol. II [Illustrated Edition] (My Experiences In the World War #2)
by General of the Armies John Joseph PershingThe Pulitzer prize has been the sought after goal of many thousands of writers ever since it was first awarded in 1917. In 1932, the Pulitzer in the history category was awarded to General John "Black Jack" Pershing for his two volume memoirs spanning his time in command of the American Forces in World War One. Given that Pershing should receive such an illustrious prize in the literary arena outside of his army career was a just testament to his multi-faceted and outstanding talents. As the First World War raged into its fourth year, the lifeblood of the Allied forces on the Western Front laid spilt on the fields of Northern France and Flanders. Their only hope in facing the German onslaught lay in the newly mobilized American forces, who had joined the struggle against the central powers in Germany and Austro-Hungary. It would take a commander of towering strength, firm loyalty, and iron determination to change the small American peacetime army into the millions strong wartime colossus it was to become. Such a man was John "Black Jack" Pershing.AS he took command, Pershing was faced with four almightily difficult challenges to overcome in order to achieve success; the first to turn the raw American Doughboys into an army, trained in the new tactics of the industrial carnage of the Western Front. Secondly, to ship enough men, and supplies across the U-boat infested Atlantic to create such an army. Thirdly, to keep his allies hands off American manpower that became trained and ready for battle, they should fight under American flags and American leaders. It was only once the first three huge challenges were overcome could he think about his fourth, how his new troops could fight and beat the battle-hardened German army: but fight and beat them they did!A Pulitzer Prize winning classic!
My Experiences in the Third World War and Other Stories: The Best Short Fiction Of Michael Moorcock Volume 1
by Michael MoorcockThe first part of Gollancz's definitive collection of Moorcock's short fiction, this selection features some of his finest work. From 'The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius' to 'The Cairene Purse', the stories here are incredibly varied in their style, execution and subject matter.The stories included in this volume are: My Experiences in the Third World War Casablanca Going to Canada Leaving Pasadena Crossing into CambodiaThe MountainThe Deep FixThe Frozen CardinalWolfThe Pleasure Garden of Felipe SagittariusThe Real Life Mr NewmanThe Cairene Purse
My Faraway Home: An American Family's WWII Tale of Adventure and Survival in the Jungles of the Philippines
by Mary Mckay Maynard[From the back cover:] "When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and attacked the Philippines, eight-year-old Mary McKay, her parents, and several other American families fled into the jungle for what they thought would be a short evacuation until they could be rescued by the Navy. Their wait lasted two years. My Faraway Home is the fascinating story of how they survived. Encountering typhoons, fires, and cobras, they lived on dwindling stores of canned food, traded with loyal Filipino villagers who wouldn't betray their hideout, and learned to improvise their own shoes (from rubber tyres), soap (from pig fat), and other necessities. Like the classics The Diary of Anne Frank or Empire of the Sun, My Faraway Home gives a fresh perspective on war through a child's eyes."
My Father Joachim von Ribbentrop: Hitler's Foreign Minister, Experiences and Memories
by Rudolf von RibbentropIn this memoir, the son of Nazi Germany&’s foreign minister looks back on his life, examining their relationship and his father&’s role in World War II. On 16 October 1946, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler&’s wartime Foreign Minister, was executed at Nuremberg, convicted on four counts including deliberately planning a war of aggression and war crimes. In this first English language edition of his memoirs, Rudolf von Ribbentrop candidly describes his relationship with his father when he was the German Ambassador in London and during the war years. Von Ribbentrop was an often-isolated figure among the Nazi elite. In his final report from London, von Ribbentrop informed Hitler that he was convinced Great Britain would fight for its position in the world. He went on to play a key role forging the short-lived pact with Stalin&’s Soviet Union. Far from being uncritical, the author sets out to paint an objective picture of his father&’s role. His unique position sheds light on the unfolding dramatic events leading up to, and then the execution of, the Second World war. While the author briefly describes his personal experiences including his war service with the SS, it is the insight this work provides into top level decision making at the heart of the Third Reich that will appeal most to both historians and laymen.
My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir
by John H. RichardsonAs his father nears death in his retirement home in Mexico, John H. Richardson begins to unravel a life filled with drama and secrecy. John Sr. was a CIA "chief of station" on some of the hottest assignments of the Cold War, from the back alleys of occupied Vienna to the jungles of the Philippines—and especially Saigon, where he became a pivotal player in the turning point of the Vietnam War: the overthrow of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. As John Jr. and his sister came of age in exotic postings across the world, they struggled to accommodate themselves to their driven, distant father, and their conflict opens a window on the tumult of the sixties and Vietnam. Through the daily happenings at home and his father's actions, reconstructed from declassified documents as well as extensive interviews with former spies and government officials, Richardson reveals the innermost workings of a family enmeshed in the Cold War—and the deeper war that turns the world of the fathers into the world of the sons.
My Father's House: A Novel (The Rome Escape Line Trilogy)
by Joseph O’ConnorFrom best-selling author Joseph O’Connor comes a gripping and atmospheric World War II literary thriller set in occupied Rome. A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE Inspired by the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who, together with his accomplices, risked his life to smuggle thousands out of occupied Rome right under the nose of his Nazi nemesis, My Father’s House is a “potent blend of excitement, suspense and intrigue” (The Washington Post). September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, a neutral, independent state nestled in the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly battle of wits as they attempt to aid those seeking refuge.Suspenseful and beautifully written, My Father’s House tells an unforgettable story of love, faith, sacrifice, and courage.
My Father's War: A True Story of Nazism and Treason
by Bjørn WestlieMy Father’s War is simultaneously a history of the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II and a son’s sincere attempt to understand the silences, motivations, and experiences of an estranged father. In this carefully researched book, combining family memoir and historical retelling, Bjørn Westlie uncovers his father’s actions as a volunteer soldier for the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the infamous Schutzstaffel (SS), in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Balancing his role as both son and critical investigator, Westlie unflinchingly interrogates his father’s fascist convictions, which speak to the appeal Hitler’s ideology held for a small, disgraced segment of Norway’s mid-century population. A story of collaboration, tragedy, and treason, My Father’s War reveals the little-known history of Norway's frontkjempere (front fighters), the atrocities the Waffen-SS committed against Ukrainian Jews, and the complex legacies of ethnonationalism in Norway. With an insightful introduction from translator Dean Krouk, My Father’s War is a contemporary classic of war literature. Committed to genuine understanding without falling into undue sympathizing, this sober and reflective book presents an eye-opening, moving, intense, and necessary account of the allure of fascism in a world at war—and its personal costs.
My Father, The Panda Killer
by Jamie Jo HoangSan Jose, 1999. Jane knows her Vietnamese dad can’t control his temper. Lost in a stupid daydream, she forgot to pick up her seven-year-old brother, Paul, from school. Inside their home, she hands her dad the stick he hits her with. This is how it’s always been. She deserves this. Not because she forgot to pick up Paul, but because at the end of the summer she’s going to leave him when she goes away to college. As Paul retreats inward, Jane realizes she must explain where their dad’s anger comes from. The problem is, she doesn’t quite understand it herself. <P><P> Đà Nẵng, 1975. Phúc (pronounced /fo͞ok/, rhymes with duke) is eleven the first time his mother walks him through a field of mines he’s always been warned never to enter. Guided by cracks of moonlight, Phúc moves past fallen airplanes and battle debris to a refugee boat. But before the sun even has a chance to rise, more than half the people aboard will perish. This is only the beginning of Phúc’s perilous journey across the Pacific, which will be fraught with Thai pirates, an unrelenting ocean, starvation, hallucination, and the unfortunate murder of a panda. <P><P> Told in the alternating voices of Jane and Phúc, My Father, The Panda Killer is an unflinching story about war and its impact across multiple generations, and how one American teenager forges a path toward accepting her heritage and herself.
My Fathers Son
by Dawyck HaigDawyck Haig, the only son of the great Field Marshal, was born in 1918, the year of his father's victory. His life has been hugely influenced by the legendary status accorded to his father and, after 1932, to himself. This unique memoir reveals a side of the Field Marshal that has never been seen before and makes mandatory reading for those who seek to understand one of the foremost military figures of the age. The author goes on to tell of his own experiences as a soldier in The Royal Scots Greys in World War Two, of his capture and imprisonment in Colditz. Designated a Prominente, he and other sons of well known men were singled out as potential hostages on the orders of Hitler and, as a result, lived under continuous threat of execution. This important memoir is sensitively written. It is heavily illustrated with photographs of Field Marshal Haig that have never been seen before. A fascinating and compelling book.
My Fault
by Margherita Sarfatti Brian SullivanMargherita Sarfatti first met Benito Mussolini in 1911 at the socialist daily Avanti! In what became a turbulent love affair she emerged as an important writer, art critic, and major adviser to the founder of the Fascist party. Even though she converted to Catholicism, she was cast aside once Hitler came to power and fled to South America in 1938. During her long exile where she constantly feared for her children who had remained in Italy and were in danger during the war, Sarfatti decided to tell the story of her relationship with Mussolini and the role she played in many important Fascist artistic, cultural, and ideological issues until 1934. Most of Italy's modern architecture and many of its painters owe Sarfatti both their success and lasting legacy. At first she wrote her memoir in English under the title My Fault. But in 1945 a daily newspaper in Buenos Aires, Critica, published a Spanish version in fourteen installments. In the full text Sarfatti bares all about her stormy relationship with the intensely womanizing dictator whom she knew was quite incapable of any kind of monogamous relationship. Yet the attraction remained long irresistible and that passion jumps off these pages with unrelenting strength. Brian Sullivan is America's foremost authority on Fascist Italy. After a PhD at Columbia he taught at Yale University and at the War College. With the late Phil Cannistraro he is the co-author of Il Duce's Other Woman (William Morrow, 1993) a major biography of Margherita Sarfatti. He lives in Rockville, Maryland.
My Fellow Americans
by Keir GraffThe United States in crisis In the near future, America simmers in suspicion and fear. The president expands the global front of the war on terror, then declares martial law and sits, unelected, for a third term. In Chicago, Jason Walker, amateur photographer and architecture enthusiast, inadvertently arouses the suspicions of Homeland Security. Detained, interrogated, and tortured, he's finally able to convince his captors of his innocence. But his freedom comes at a price. There's a terrorist group operating out of a Lebanese cultural center, they say. They need a man inside. And Jason Walker's mother was Lebanese, wasn't she? Caught between an arrogant government agent and a charismatic Lebanese immigrant who calls himself a patriot - and a girlfriend who chooses an awkward time to become a political activist Jason Walker struggles to decide who deserves his loyalty. And the stakes couldn't be higher ...
My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War
by Andrew CarrollFrom the New York Times bestselling author of War Letters and Behind the Lines, Andrew Carroll’s My Fellow Soldiers draws on a rich trove of both little-known and newly uncovered letters and diaries to create a marvelously vivid and moving account of the American experience in World War I, with General John Pershing featured prominently in the foreground. Andrew Carroll’s intimate portrait of General Pershing, who led all of the American troops in Europe during World War I, is a revelation. Given a military force that on the eve of its entry into the war was downright primitive compared to the European combatants, the general surmounted enormous obstacles to build an army and ultimately command millions of U.S. soldiers. But Pershing himself—often perceived as a harsh, humorless, and wooden leader—concealed inner agony from those around him: almost two years before the United States entered the war, Pershing suffered a personal tragedy so catastrophic that he almost went insane with grief and remained haunted by the loss for the rest of his life, as private and previously unpublished letters he wrote to family members now reveal. Before leaving for Europe, Pershing also had a passionate romance with George Patton’s sister, Anne. But once he was in France, Pershing fell madly in love with a young painter named Micheline Resco, whom he later married in secret. Woven throughout Pershing’s story are the experiences of a remarkable group of American men and women, both the famous and unheralded, including Harry Truman, Douglas Macarthur, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, Teddy Roosevelt, and his youngest son Quentin. The chorus of these voices, which begins with the first Americans who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion 1914 as well as those who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille, make the high stakes of this epic American saga piercingly real and demonstrates the war’s profound impact on the individuals who served—during and in the years after the conflict—with extraordinary humanity and emotional force.
My Fighting Congregation: An Army Chaplain in the Pacific
by Chaplain William C. Taggart Christopher CrossMy Fighting Congregation, first published in 1943, is the moving war-time account of U.S. Army Chaplain William Taggart as he describes his work with U.S. servicemen aboard ships in the Pacific, with troops fighting on Java, and while stationed in Australia. Simply told and an inspirational story of the valuable services performed by the Army’s chaplain service during World War II.
My First Days in The White House [Illustrated Edition]
by Huey Pierce LongIn this flamboyant fiction novel, Louisiana Governor Huey "Kingfish" Long, one of Franklin Roosevelt's political rivals, details a political fantasy in which he is president of the United States. Through imaginary conversations with men of power, he presents his aspirations, including the "Share Our Wealth" plan, created in 1934 under the motto "Every Man a King" and how he would enact the program if elected in 1936. The plan proposed new wealth redistribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on corporations and individuals to curb the poverty and homelessness endemic nationwide during the Great Depression. Long visualizes his inauguration as President of the United States and details his nomination picks for his executive cabinet, including William Edgar Borah as Secretary of State, James J. Couzens as Secretary of the Treasury, and Smedley Butler as Secretary of War.This book was published posthumously in 1935, following Long's assassination on Sunday, September 8, 1935. It is illustrated throughout with political cartoons.
My Flying Boat War: Survival and Success over the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific in WW2
by Wing Commander Hodgkinson DFC, RWing Commander Vic Hodgkinson DFC served as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force throughout WWII. Starting in 1939, he was a founding member of 10 Squadron RAAF, operating Short Sunderland flying boats. Loaned to the RAF in early 1940, the squadron played a crucial role in the Battle of the Atlantic, conducting air-sea rescues and attacks on German submarines. During this time, Vic participated in numerous air-sea rescues, including saving twenty-one survivors of a U-boat attack. He also conducted depth charge attacks on German submarines. Vic's resilience was tested when his Sunderland crashed into the Irish Sea near Bardsey Island in fog, resulting in the loss of six of his eleven crew members and a gruelling twelve-hour wait for rescue. Later, he flew missions in the Mediterranean, enduring heavy enemy fire to support Allied troops in Crete. Returning to the Atlantic, his crew successfully engaged a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. In 1942, Vic returned to Australia, serving with 20 and 40 Squadrons RAAF, flying various aircraft including the Catalina and Dornier Do 24. His missions ranged from supply drops and minelaying to bombing and reconnaissance. This is Vic&’s remarkable story, told in his own words for the first time.
My Four Worlds
by Smart Eze"My Four Worlds" is the autobiography of a blinded war veteran. Smart Eze, was born in Nigeria, began his education, but was unable to attend college due to financial reasons. Then the Biafran-Nigerian civil war erupted, and he became a Biafran soldier. He was blinded in a bomb explosion at age 23. He was taken to Austria for medical treatment, but remained totally blind. However, he received training in braille, cane use, and other skills. He eventually attended university and earned a Ph.D. He has worked for the United Nations and traveled around the globe. In 2012, he was in the USA training and receiving a guide dog for the blind from Guide Dogs of the Desert in California.
My French Whore: A Love Story
by Gene WilderThe beloved actor and screenwriter Gene Wilder's first novel, My French Whore, set during World War I, delicately and elegantly explores a most unusual romance. It's almost the end of the war and Paul Peachy, a young railway employee and amateur actor in Milwaukee, realizes his marriage is one-sided. He enlists, and ships off to France. Peachy instantly realizes how out of his depth he is—and never more so than when he is captured. Risking everything, Peachy—who as a child of immigrants speaks German—makes the reckless decision to impersonate one of the enemy's most famous spies.As the urbane and accomplished spy Harry Stroller, Peachy has access to a world he could never have known existed—a world of sumptuous living, world-weary men, and available women. But when one of those women—Annie, a young, beautiful and wary courtesan—turns out to be more than she seems, Peachy's life is transformed forever.
My Friend the Enemy
by Dan SmithPeter feels compelled to help a wounded German pilot, but he doesn't want to be a traitor--especially not to his father, who is off fighting the Nazis. A moving story about the moral dilemmas of war.Summer 1941: For Peter, the war is a long way away, being fought by his father and thousands of other British soldiers against the faceless threat of Nazism. But war comes frighteningly close to home one night when a German jet is shot down over the neighboring woods. With his feisty new friend Kim, Peter rushes to the crash site to see if there's anything he can salvage. What he finds instead is a German airman. The enemy. Seriously wounded and in need of aid...Continuing in the tradition of thought-provoking literature about the Second World War, Dan Smith's MY FRIEND THE ENEMY is a thrilling adventure that also personalizes the moral dilemmas faced by the children left behind on the home front.
My Friends
by Emmanuel BoveBove's tale of a World War I veteran living in postwar Paris, searching for friendship and warmth, is an ironic, entertaining masterpiece by one of France's favorite authors.My Friends is Emmanuel Bove’s first and most famous book, and it begins simply, though unusually, enough: “When I wake up, my mouth is open. My teeth are furry: it would be better to brush them in the evening, but I am never brave enough.” Victor Baton is speaking, and he is a classic little man, of no talent or distinction or importance and with no illusions that he has any of those things, either; in fact, if he is exceptional, it is that life’s most basic transactions seem to confound him more than they do the rest of us. All Victor wants is to be loved, all he wants is a friend, and as he strays through the streets of Paris in search of love or friendship or some fleeting connection, we laugh both at Victor’s meekness and at his odd pride, but we feel with him, too. Victor is after all a kind of everyman, the indomitable knight of human fragility. And, in spite of everything, he, or at least his creator, is some kind of genius, investing the back streets and rented rooms of the city and the unsorted moments of daily life with a weird and unforgettable clarity.
My Glorious Brothers
by Howard FastFor years, the people of Judea suffered under the oppressive rule of King Antiochus and the Syrian-Greeks. Under his reign, Jews were massacred and Judaism was effectively outlawed. Fed up with the injustices, peasant farmer Judas Maccabee and his brothers lead a revolt against the king and mold the people of Judea into an army.Judas' older brother Simon stands beside him as his faithful lieutenant and second in command. But while these brothers are united in ideals on the field of battle, their love of the same woman threatens to tear them apart.
My Golden Flying Years: From 1918 Over France, Through Iraq in the 1920s, to the Schneider Trophy Race of 1927
by Simon Muggleton D'Arcy GreigThis lively, funny memoir by a World War I pilot is &“recommended for its rare view of the RAF in its nascent years and beyond&” (Over the Front). Annotated by aviation historian Norman Franks, this is the autobiography of an early RAF pilot that conveys the sense of giddy adventure that existed among these elite flyers. The story begins in France in late 1918, when D&’Arcy Greig was flying FE2b night bombers, then through the early 1920s as he served in Iraq, piloting Bristol Fighters for three years, against rebel insurgents and dissident tribesmen. Back in England, Greig became an instructor at the Central Flying School, and finally he records his experiences commanding the RAF&’s High Speed Flight, and participating in the 1929 Schneider Trophy Race. This is a highly entertaining and amusing read, with Greig being a master of practical joking, having fun with explosives and enjoying other hilarious exploits that could only be contrived in these early days of flying. He comes into contact with many airmen already famous or who gained future fame, and his tale is well illustrated with many new, often private family photographs of the time.
My Grandfather's Knife: Hidden Stories from the Second World War
by Joseph PearsonEven the most ordinary of objects can tell a spectacular story A knife, a diary, a recipe book, a stringed instrument and a cotton pouch. Each belonged to an individual who was in their twenties during the Second World War: a fresh-faced prairie boy, a melancholic youth, a capable cook, a musician wounded at the front and a survivor. Over a cup of tea, try asking your friends what object they’d choose to represent their lives. The enthusiasm of their responses will give you an indication of how well objects anchor sprawling personal histories. Joseph Pearson, a Canadian historian and author, talked to elderly family members, friends, colleagues and acquaintances––people drawn from everyday life––asking them the same question: Is there an object that tells your wartime story? In many cases, he asked the question in reverse: Could he discover the wartime story of a deceased person through an object they once owned?Through rigorous research and in engaging prose, Joseph Pearson illuminates the often-dark history of the 20th century by bringing to life the stories of everyday objects in the hands of everyday people.
My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March, New Edition (Memories of War)
by Lester I. TenneyCaptured by the Japanese after the fall of Bataan, Lester I. Tenney was one of the very few who would survive the legendary Death March and three and a half years in Japanese prison camps. With an understanding of human nature, a sense of humor, sharp thinking, and fierce determination, Tenney endured the rest of the war as a slave laborer in Japanese prison camps. My Hitch in Hell is an inspiring survivor’s epic about the triumph of human will despite unimaginable suffering. This edition features a new introduction and epilogue by the author.