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Night Work: A Novel of Vietnam (The Jim Hollister Trilogy #2)
by Dennis FoleyCaptain Jim Hollister leads his team on deadly missions through southern Vietnam in this gritty war novel from the author of Long Range Patrol.There is a little bit of Jim Hollister in all of us. Captain Jim Hollister ended his first tour of duty in Vietnam laid up in a field hospital. His most serious wounds were deep inside. Back home in America, he often woke up in the middle of the night in the grip of terrifying nightmares. But nothing—not even his long-suffering fiancée, Susan—could stop him from going back to serve his country. This time around, Jim serves as operations officer for Juliet Company, a Ranger squad with high demands placed on it to find and eliminate Viet Cong forces slipping across the Cambodian border. Fighting the enemy in the rice paddy terrain between Saigon and the border requires even more planning, training, and battlefield guile than do the tropical rain forests of the Central Highlands.Night Work brings to vivid life the courage and selfless dedication of the Army Rangers in Vietnam—and the profound costs of war.
Night and Hope (Quartet Encounters)
by Arnost Lustig George TheinerFirst published in 1962, Night and Hope is a collection of interrelated short stories by a young Czech writer who was a boy in the Terezín concentration camp near Prague during the war. They have already been received with great acclaim abroad and they now make their appearance for the first time in this country. They reveal what it was like to live in a sealed town which was in fact a reception station for the gas chambers of Auschwitz. A guard thrashes a poor old woman on the counter of her little shop and each are curiously resigned to their roles of giving and receiving degradation. Little boys play in the streets and are quietly regretful that they won’t grow up and wear fine clothes. A guard’s wife and her coffee-party friends stroll round the ghetto to collect anything that catches their eye—a wedding-ring, pathetic clothes....Arnošt Lustig’s stories are a new and vivid focus on this fearful tragedy as it affected the private individual. They are written with restraint yet nothing is glossed, and they take their place amongst the very best writing to have come out of the shambles of Hitler’s ‘Jewish Question’.“Arnošt Lustig has succeeded in putting truth into a poem. Nothing in art could mean more than that. His style is sober and modern, his sentence carries all attributes of that which connects prose with poetry and makes it obvious how slight and unperceivable the borderlines between genres.”—L. Askenazy, Literarni Noviny (Prague).“Each tale has a genuine unity of its own and is a small work of art in its own right. No one reading them could ever feel that they were only stories.”—The Times Literary Supplement (London).“No writer in Europe, in the East or in the West, has expressed as much truth about the time of the holocaust as Arnošt Lustig.”—Maariv (Tel Aviv).“Outstanding stories.”—The Bookman, London
Night in Shanghai: A Novel
by Nicole MonesThis novel of an American musician caught up in the dangers of 1930s China is &“historical fiction at its best&” (Alan Cheuse, NPR&’s All Things Considered). In 1936, classical pianist Thomas Greene is recruited to Shanghai to lead a jazz orchestra of fellow African American expats. After being flat broke in segregated Baltimore, he is now living in a mansion with servants of his own, the toast of a city obsessed with music, money, pleasure, and power, even as it ignores the rising winds of war. Song Yuhua is refined and educated, and has been bonded since age eighteen to Shanghai&’s most powerful crime boss in payment for her father&’s gambling debts. Outwardly submissive, she burns with rage—and risks her life spying on her master for the Communist Party. Only when Shanghai is shattered by the Japanese invasion do Song and Thomas find their way to each other. Though their union is forbidden, neither can back down from it in the turbulent years of occupation and resistance that follow. Torn between music and survival, freedom and commitment, love and world war, they are borne on an irresistible riff of melody and improvisation to Night in Shanghai&’s final, impossible choice. This stunningly researched novel that &“keeps the suspense mounting until the end&” not only tells the forgotten story of black musicians in the Chinese jazz age, but also weaves in a startling true tale of Holocaust heroism little-known in the West (Kirkus Reviews).
Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
by Howard BlumThe New York Times bestselling author returns with a tale as riveting and suspenseful as any thriller: the true story of the Nazi plot to kill the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. during World War II.The mission: to kill the three most important and heavily guarded men in the world.The assassins: a specially trained team headed by the killer known as The Most Dangerous Man in Europe.The stakes: nothing less than the future of the Western world.The year is 1943 and the three Allied leaders—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin—are meeting for the first time at a top-secret conference in Tehran. But the Nazis have learned about the meeting and Hitler sees it as his last chance to turn the tide. Although the war is undoubtedly lost, the Germans believe that perhaps a new set of Allied leaders might be willing to make a more reasonable peace in its aftermath. And so a plan is devised—code name Operation Long Jump—to assassinate FDR, Churchill, and Stalin.Immediately, a highly trained, hand-picked team of Nazi commandos is assembled, trained, armed with special weapons, and parachuted into Iran. They have six days to complete the daring assignment before the statesmen will return home. With no margin for error and little time to spare, Mike Reilly, the head of FDR’s Secret Service detail—a man from a Montana silver mining town who describes himself as “an Irish cop with more muscle than brains”—must overcome his suspicions and instincts to work with a Soviet agent from the NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) to save the three most powerful men in the world.Filled with eight pages of black-and-white photographs, Night of the Assassins is a suspenseful true-life tale about an impossible mission, a ticking clock, and one man who stepped up to the challenge and prevented a world catastrophe.
Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler's Revenge, April–May 1945
by Eric LeeThis fascinating account sheds light on a little-known Nazi rebellion led by Georgian prisoners-turned-soldiers in the final days of WWII.In April of 1945, members of the Georgian Legion serving on Nazi-occupied Texel Island rose up and slaughtered their German masters. Hitler ordered reinforcements and the fighting continued well after the war’s end. In Night of the Bayonets, historian Eric Lee examines this remarkable uprising from its bloods origins to its grim conclusion. Thousands of Georgians served in the Soviet forces during World War II. Many of those who were captured were forced to either “starve or fight” wearing Wehrmacht uniforms. But once deployed to the Netherlands, the Georgian soldiers made contact with the local Communist resistance. When their moment came, the Georgians massacred some 400 German officers using knives and bayonets. Hitler’s response was swift and merciless. It was not until May 20th—12 days after the war had ended—that Canadian forces finally put an end to the slaughter.
Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler's Revenge, April–May 1945
by Lee EricIn the final days of World War II in Europe, Georgians serving in the Wehrmacht on Texel island off the Dutch coast rose up and slaughtered their German masters. Hitler ordered the island to be retaken and fighting continued for weeks, well after the war's end. The uprising had it origins in the bloody history of Georgia in the twentieth century, a history that saw the country move from German occupation, to three short years of independence, to Soviet rule after it was conquered by the Red Army in 1921. A bloody rebellion against the Soviets took place in 1924, but it remained under Russian Soviet rule. Thousands of Georgians served in the Soviet forces during World War II and among those who were captured, given the choice of &“starve or fight&”, some took up the German offer to don Wehrmacht uniforms. The loyalty of the Georgians was always in doubt, as Hitler himself suspected, and once deployed to the Netherlands, the Georgian soldiers made contact with the local Communist resistance. When the opportunity arose, the Georgians took the decision to rise up and slaughter the Germans, seizing control of the island. In just a few hours, they massacred some 400 German officers using knives and bayonets to avoid raising the alarm. An enraged Hitler learned about the mutiny and ordered the Germans to fight back, showing no mercy to either the Georgians or the Dutch civilians who hid them. It was not until 20 May, 12 days after the war had ended, that Canadian forces landed on the island and finally put an end to the slaughter. Eric Lee explores this fascinating but little known last battle of the Second World War: its origins, the incredible details of the battle and its ongoing legacy.
Night of the Hawk (Patrick McLanahan Series #3)
by Dale BrownThe exciting final flight of the "Old Dog"--a shattering mission into Lithuania, where the Soviets' past could launch a terrifying future... "Dale Brown brings us the gripping conclusion of the saga that began so memorably with Flight of the Old Dog. A masterful mix of high technology and human courage." --W.E.B. Griffin
Night of the Intruders: The Slaughter of Homeward Bound USAAF Mission 311
by Ian McLachlanThis WWII history recounts the harrowing Allied bombing mission that led to heavy losses for American pilots as German fighters followed them home. On April 22nd, 1944, Allied forces launched an audacious assault on Germany&’s largest railway marshalling yards, located in the city of Hamm. The raid resulted in ferocious aerial combat against night fighters. But the worst was yet to come for the USAAF pilots who sought the sanctuary of their own airfields. The German fighters followed the air armada home after the raid, picking individual bombers off on their return over Europe and England as the American force struggled to land. Aviation historian Ian McLahclan vividly describes the aerial combat involving many famous USAAF, RAF and Luftwaffe units. With a combination of powerful human stories and fascinating technical details, this volume chronicles the mission from the planning stage to its bloody finale, untangling what went so horribly wrong.
Night of the Knives (Executioner #311)
by Don Pendleton Chuck RogersMack Bolan's takedown of a brutal African warlord reveals a more sinister plot. Someone has locked sights on Bolan, gunning for the warrior in a determined bid to put him down fast. Shifting gears, Bolan hunts the hunters as the trail leads him to Argentina. DAGGERS OR A WIRE A mysterious group with connections in high places is lining the pockets of criminals and drug smugglers from Africa to South America. As a wave of terror hits Buenos Aires, Bolan tracks the flow of blood to the heart of a conspiracy that will leave scores of innocents dead. At its center sits a handful of brilliant men with twisted visions and an insatiable lust for power. Their only language is violence-and they are about to receive a personal message from someone who speaks it fluently. The Executioner.
Night of the Long Knives: Hitler's Excision of Rohm's SA Brownshirts, 30 June – 2 July 1934 (History Of Terror Ser.)
by Phil CarradiceIn the summer of 1934 Adolf Hitler planned and conducted the most ruthless purge of his thirteen-year period as leader of Germany. The victims were not political opponents but friends, colleagues and fellow fascists who had helped the Nazi Party in its rise to power.The Night of the Long Knives broke the back and the will of the Sturmabteilung, the SA, the brawling street thugs who had bludgeoned political opposition into submission. The SAs ruthless bullyboy tactics played no small part in Hitlers establishment of a dictatorship that was to influence affairs in Germany and the world throughout the 1930s and beyond.In some respects the purge was inevitable. Hitler had to eliminate all potential rivals if he was to consolidate his position of power. And that meant that friends like Ernst Rhm, former German Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, and even former party comrades like Gregor Strasser were summarily shot without trial. Above all it was the SA that the army, the industrialists and, more than anyone else, Adolf Hitler feared. Rhm enjoyed a popularity that almost rivaled Hitlers and so he had to go.It was also an opportunity to settle personal scores. The Night of the Long Knives was a cull that eliminated somewhere between 300 and a thousand victims, the exact number has never been clear, many of them innocent of any intention to rival Hitler. It remains one of the most significant killings of modern times.
Night of the Wolves: 2345-2357 (Star Trek )
by S. D. PerryBefore the Dominion War and the decimation of Cardassia...before the coming of the Emissary and the discovery of the wormhole...before space station Terok Nor became Deep Space 9™...there was the Occupation: the military takeover of an alien planet and the violent insurgency that fought against it. Now that fifty-year tale of warring ideologies, terrorism, greed, secret intelligence, moral compromises, and embattled faiths is at last given its due in the three-book saga of Star Trek's Lost Era... Eighteen years into the Occupation, a new star rises in Bajor's sky. It is the seat of power in this system, a place of slave labor and harsh summary judgments, the symbol of Cardassian might and the futility of resisting it. But even as the gray metal crown of Terok Nor ascends to its zenith, ragtag pockets of Bajoran rebels -- including a fierce young fighter named Kira Nerys -- have begun to strike back at their world's oppressors, and they intend to show the Cardassians that the night belongs to them.
Nightcap at Dawn: American Soldiers' Counterinsurgency in Iraq
by J B. WalkerA group of U.S. soldiers emailed their observations and experiences from Iraq and their candid opinions on fighting an insurgency. This book is the result. This startling collection of emails is a thoughtful and compelling narrative that carries the reader from the alleys and city streets to the homes of long-suffering Iraqis, and from the soldiers' concrete bunkers to the "majestic" army base. Along the way, the reader is asked to consider the puzzles posed for a disciplined army engaged with an enemy that hides amid-and indeed, targets-a civilian population.
Nightfall Over Shanghai: A Novel (Shanghai Series #3)
by Daniel KallaPassion, espionage, and battlefield drama: the loves and fears of one remarkable family unfold against the Second World War’s Pacific theater.It’s 1944 and the Japanese are losing the war, but Shanghai is more dangerous than ever, particularly for the Adler family. After fleeing Nazi Europe, Dr. Franz Adler and his daughter, Hannah, have adjusted to life in their strange adopted city, but they are now imprisoned in the Shanghai Ghetto for refugee Jews.Franz is compelled to work as a surgeon for the hated Japanese military, while his beloved Eurasian wife, Sunny, is recruited into a spy ring, providing crucial information to the Allies about the city’s port. Inadvertently, Hannah is drawn into the perilous operation, just as she also becomes drawn to the controversial Zionism movement.After the Japanese launch a major new offensive against the Chinese, Franz is forced into the unthinkable: he is sent inland to work as a field doctor on the frontlines. There, he must contend with his tangled loyalties, aerial bombings overhead, and his uncertain feelings for a vulnerable Canadian nurse.In 1945, American B-52s bomb Shanghai in strategic raids. While the war seems to be winding down in the Far East, many questions remain unanswered for the Adlers. As the bombers circle ominously overhead, they must now struggle for more than simple safety. For the first time in many war-riven years, they face the challenge of re-envisioning their lives, and the prospect of forging a hopeful path forward for the future—if they can first survive.
Nightmare Alley: Nightmare Alley (The Rat Bastards Series #11)
by Len LevinsonWar brings them to life! Send them out on leave and they're a ragged band of losers who will tear any town apart. Bring them back and they're the most effective bloodletting machine the Japanese have ever had to face. The Rat Bastards. The MPs can't bust them because the Army needs them to win the war. This time they're faced with their bloodiest challenge ever, as the brass sends them on a trip to the closest thing to hell on earth...The Pacific war zone known as Nightmare Alley.
Nightmare Army
by Don PendletonVIRULENT TERROR Attacked by a horde of feral, rampaging villagers infected by a synthetic virus, Mack Bolan barely escapes the isolated mountain town in time to witness a mysterious black ops team as they raze the place and kill all its inhabitants. Determined to find the source of this powerful bioweapon, Bolan tracks the virus to a secret facility, where scientists are working to make the infected victims stronger, swifter and more deadly. But the wealthy industrialist who turns out to be funding this research has his sights set on all-out toxic warfare. Now that it's ready, the germ will be unleashed on a mass scale across the European Union, targeting specific ethnic groups for destruction. With millions of lives at stake, Bolan has no choice but to embark on a seek-and-destroy mission.
Nightmare Memoir: Four Years as a Prisoner of the Nazis
by Claude J. LetulleThis book is an account of harrowing experience of Letulle, a French soldier who was taken prisoner by the Nazis in the wake of crushing French defeat in World War II. His nightmares of serving in a camp where the Nazis performed gruesome medical experiments on their prisoners is painful to read and will induce nightmares in the readers--nightmares not easily shed.
Nightmare Range: The Collected Sueno and Bascom Short Stories
by Martin LimonTwenty years ago, Martin Limón published his first mystery story featuring Sergeant George Sueño, a young Mexican American army detective stationed on the US 8th Army base in South Korea in the early 1970s, the heart of the Cold War. George and his investigating partner, the rowdy and short-fused Sergeant Ernie Bascom, are assigned cases in which the 8th Army has come into conflict with local Korean law enforcement--often incidents in which American soldiers, who are not known for being on their best behavior in their Asian host country, have committed a crime. George Sueño's job is partially to solve crimes, but mostly to cover top brass's backside and make sure the US Army doesn't look bad. Thoughtful, observant George, who is conversant in Korean, constantly faces difficult choices about whether to follow his orders or his conscience.Nine critically acclaimed novels later, Soho Crime is releasing a collection of Martin Limón's award-winning short stories featuring Sergeants Sueño and Bascom. The stories within have been published over the last twenty years in a variety of magazines, mostly in Alfred Hitchcock, but have never before been available in book form. This beautifully produced limited-edition hardcover volume is sure to attract both critical attention and to appeal to collectors. A must-have for literary mystery readers.
Nightmare at Scapa Flow: The Truth About the Sinking of HMS Royal Oak
by H.J. WeaverA historian examines what really happened when the British World War II battleship was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Orkney. Sinking the battleship HMS Royal Oak in the Royal Navy&’s home anchorage, with the loss of more than 800 of her crew, was Germany&’s first shattering blow against Britain during World War II. Within six weeks the Germans achieved their goal of breaching the defenses of Scapa Flow. Germany claimed the sinking for the submarine U-47, commanded by Lt. Gunther Prien. Prien and his crew instantly became folk heroes, exploited to extract the maximum glory from their deed. A few months later, Prien&’s autobiography, Mein Weg Nach Scapa Flow, was published and sold an astonishing 750,000 copies. However, there are Royal Oak survivors, who, while accepting that their ship was torpedoed, say Prien and his crew could never have seen the inside of Scapa Flow because Prien&’s story differs from the truth. Much has been written on what is now one of the greatest submarine exploits of all time. Yet nobody has managed to sift fact from falsehood and reconcile the apparently irreconcilable German and British stories. Author H. J. Weaver has interviewed Royal Oak survivors, members of U-47&’s 1939 crew, Lt. Prien&’s widow and members of the firm that published his autobiography. Weaver&’s quest for the truth led through England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Orkney, Norway, West Berlin, Cologne, Freiburg, and even distant Amman. Every point of controversy he has patiently investigated until he was able to set down the documented, definitive account of the Royal Oak naval disaster in this book.
Nights at the Alexandra: A Novella
by William TrevorFrom the award-winning author of Love and Summer: A short novel about coming of age in WWII-era provincial Ireland that &“certainly lingers in the mind&” (Harriet Waugh, Spectator). At fifty-eight, Harry is a lifelong bachelor who never left the Irish village where he was born. But he will never forget the beautiful Englishwoman, and her much older German husband, who brought a new world into view when they escaped Hitler&’s Germany to come and live at Cloverhill. To fifteen-year-old Harry, Frau Messinger was a vision of elegance and culture unlike any he&’d ever known. Ignoring his family&’s suspicions, he was happy to fetch her packages in exchange for time spent in her company. But it wasn&’t only the horrors of history that drove Herr and Frau Messinger to Harry&’s village. And when Herr Messigner begins building a lavish art cinema, the Alexandra, as a gift to his dying wife, the project becomes Harry&’s lifelong obsession.
Nights in the Pink Motel
by Robert EarleNights in the Pink Motel is the first historical account of the strategic process that sought to reverse the negative consequences of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. It offers details and insights into the Iraqi insurgency and Coalition counterinsurgency available nowhere else. This book is a sustained, comprehensive account of all the conflicting factors that have made Iraq such an intractable international crisis and offers an intriguing narrative of how the American-led Coalition returned sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004, while defending Iraq's fledgling interim government against a rising insurgency and terrorism and helping ensure the success of Iraq's first national election in January 2005.The author, Robert Earle--recruited by the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, to serve as Negroponte's strategist--documents the Coalition's uncertainty about the nature of the insurgent/terrorist enemies, whose aim is to defeat democratization in Iraq. Earle's story explores the impediments frustrating the massive, $18 billion U.S. reconstruction effort and recounts the formulation of a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy issued by Negroponte and Multinational Force-Iraq Commanding General George Casey.The title of the book is derived from the name given to the author's dingy offices a former palace of Saddam Hussein in the Green Zone of Badgad where he wrestled with developing a startegy for peace. Upon drafting the strategy, Earle learns he must be evacuated from Iraq because of massive deep vein thrombosis in his left thigh.This narrative twist takes him from the company of senior diplomats, generals, and Iraqi politicians and places him in the medical pipeline of wounded soldiers.Upon arriving home, Earle thinks his nightmare assignment in Iraq is over, but Negroponte requests that he return to Baghdad to write a long message to the President, explaining that U.S. policy is failing and offering an alternative approach. Casey, meanwhile, also wants Earle to assess the evolution of Iraqi politics and possible outcomes of the risky January 2005 election.Returning to Iraq over the strenuous objections of State Department doctors, Earle occupies the dingy environs he calls the "Pink Motel" and completes his assignments, digging deeper into the realities of the international effort to end the violence and build the peace. Nights in the Pink Motel is a graphic, first-person account of the political, military, and human efforts to dispel the fog of 21st century warfare.The book is an essential contribution to understanding how all elements of national power must be combined to defeat insurgency and terror.
Nightshade: Nightshade (Star Trek: The Next Generation #24)
by Laurell K. HamiltonAfter two hundred years of civil war the planet Oriana is dying. Most of the surface vegetation is gone, the air is nearlyy unbreathable, and the people themselves are dying. Now, the two warring factions have finally sat down to talk peace, and Captian Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are sent ot help them negotiate a settlement. Picard, Lt. Worf, and Counsellor Troi beam down to Oriana, just as the Starship Enterprise is called away on another urgent mission. Alone on the planet, the U.S.S. Enterprise team learns that htere are people that would rather finish the devastating conflict than talk peace. Suddenly, Picard is accused of murder nad the delicate negotiations have fallen into the hands of Lt. Worf. Now, Worf and Troi must unravel the truth and prevent planet-wide disaster, before time runs out for the people of Oriana and the crew of the Starship Enterprise.
Nighttime Guardian
by Amanda StevensHe'd believed in her once...Years ago, Nathan Dallas had stood by young Shelby Westmoreland when she'd claimed a creature had risen from the river one foggy midnight.Townsfolk had accused Shelby of crying wolf, but she knew she'd seen something. And she never forgot Nathan. and she needed him more than ever Shelby was all woman now-and Nathan was back in town, under a cloud of scandal. His dark stare sent shivers of awareness and apprehension down her spine. But when wet footprints appeared and Shelby's belongings mysteriously moved or disappeared, Nathan answered her cry for help. With her elusive tormentor near, Nathan became Shelby's nighttime guardian...and keeper of her heart.
Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (The Weep #1)
by K. EasonSet in the universe of Rory Thorne, this new sci-fi mystery follows an unlikely duo who must discover the motive behind an unusual murder. THE TEMPLAR: When Lieutenant Iari hears screams in the night, she expects to interrupt a robbery or break up a fight. Instead she discovers a murder with an impossible suspect: a riev, one of the battle-mecha decommissioned after the end of the last conflict, repurposed for manual labor. Riev don't kill people. And yet, clearly, one has. Iari sets out to find it.THE SPY: Officially, Gaer is an ambassador from the vakari. Unofficially, he's also a spy, sending information back to his government, unfiltered by diplomatic channels. Unlike Iari, Gaer isn't so sure the riev's behavior is just a malfunction, since the riev were created using an unstable mixture of alchemy and arithmancy.As Gaer and Iari search for the truth, they discover that the murderous riev is just a weapon in the hands of a wielder with wider ambitions than homicide--including releasing horrors not seen since the war, that make a rampaging riev seem insignificant...
Nightwatch over Windscar (The Weep #2)
by K. EasonSet in the universe of Rory Thorne, the second book in this sci-fi series follows unlikely allies who must discover the secrets of ancient ruins. Iari is good at killing monsters. As a templar in the Aedis, a multi-species religious organization committed to protecting the Confederation, eliminating extra-dimensional horrors is her job. But after she helped stop separatists from sabotaging the entire Confederation, she discovered a new sort of monster: the rogue-arithmancer, political kind. Promoted and sent north to the tundra of Windscar, Iari leads a team of templars to investigate ancient, subterranean ruins, which local legend claims are haunted, and which have mysterious connections to the dangerous arithmancy used by the wichu separatists. Iari isn&’t worried about ghosts. She&’s worried about surviving separatists and a fresh attempt to upend the Confederation. Included in Iari&’s team are Char, a decommissioned battle-mecha and newly-joined templar, and Gaer, ostensible ambassador and talented arithmancer. As they delve into the ruins, they find remnants of long-ago battles, bits of broken armor and mechas—which unexpectedly reanimate and attack. It seems there is still dangerous arithmancy in Windscar--but the source isn&’t who Iari expected, and they&’re far worse than the separatists….
Nijmegen Bombardment On 22 February 1944: A Faux Pas Or The Price Of Liberation?
by Joris A. C. van EschA steadfast misbelief in precision bombing evolved into the leading concept for US Army Air Force during the Second World War. This concept envisioned the destruction of the German industrial and economic system as the swiftest path to victory. However, the belief in survivability of bombers through self defense proved incorrect, and the Allies realized that the Luftwaffe had to be defeated first, by attacking the German aircraft industry. On 22 February 1944, Eighth Air Force conducted a mission as part of this offensive. During this mission, the bombers were recalled because of severe weather. On the return trip, the airmen decided not to abandon the mission outright, but to attack targets of opportunity. Because of navigational errors a section of 446 Bombardment Group misidentified the Dutch city Nijmegen as in Germany, and bombed it. Due to aiming errors, the greater part of the bombs missed the designated marshalling yards by a kilometer, and hit the city center instead. The bombardment caused chaos on the ground. It surprised the citizens, ignorant by earlier faulty alarms, and damage caused great difficulties for the provision of aid relief. As a result, the bombardment killed about 800 citizens and destroyed the historic city center.