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“Remarkably detailed . . . It is a tribute to Wladyslaw Gnys, the decorated ace pilot, but also to the charming and humble man himself.” —Hamilton Magazine Polish pilot Wladyslaw (Wladek) Gnys was credited with shooting down the first two German aircraft of World War II on September 1, 1939. On this day, as Gnys’ squadron took off near Kraków to intercept the German invaders, German Stuka pilot Frank Neubert attacked, killing the captain. Wladek, who barely survived himself, evaded the pursuing Stukas and went on to make the first Allied kills, while Neubert was credited with the first aerial kill of the war. Fifty years after the invasion of Poland, in the summer of 1989, Gnys and ...
The previously untold story of a Cold War spy unit, “one of the best examples of applied unconventional warfare in special operations history” (Small Wars Journal). It is a little-known fact that during the Cold War, two US Army Special Forces detachments were stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin. The existence and missions of the two detachments were highly classified secrets. The massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies posed a huge threat to the nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the expected juggernaut, if and when a war began. This plan was Special Forces Berlin. Their mission—should hostilities c...
The account of these elite paratroopers’ encounter with the Germans is “a story of raw courage in the face of seemingly impossible odds . . . a great read” (World War II). In December 1944, an enormous German army group crashed through the thin American line in the Ardennes forest. Caught by surprise, the Allies were initially only able to throw two divisions of paratroopers to buttress the collapse—the 82nd Airborne, which was rushed to the area of St. Vith, and the 101st, which was trucked to Bastogne. After their successful campaign in Holland, Col. Reuben Tucker’s elite 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was resting and refitting in France when news came of the German breakthrou...
From the author of Bismarck: “A work of simply outstanding scholarship . . . unreservedly recommended for . . . World War II Military History collections” (Midwest Book Review). The successes of the German Blitzkrieg in 1939-41 were as surprising as they were swift. Allied decision-makers wanted to discover the Germans’ secrets, even though only partial, incomplete information was available to them. The false conclusions drawn became myths about the Blitzkrieg that have lingered for decades. It has been argued that rather than creating a new way of war based on new technology, the Germans fitted the new weapons into their existing ideas on warfare. The conduct of German soldiers, parti...
This myth-busting military biography reveals the true story of the legendary WWII German flying ace—and how his story was manipulated during the Cold War. Over the course of 1,404 wartime missions, Luftwaffe fighter pilot Erich Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills. His storied career contains all the dramas you would expect: frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War. Then, just as Hartmann’s career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators deeply invested in his reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann’s legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. Black Tulip digs beneath this one-dimensional account of Hartmann’s life, revealing a man who was neither a full-blown Nazi nor an impeccable knight.
Herbert Hoover, out of office since his defeat in 1932 by Franklin Roosevelt, maintained a strong international reputation due to his achievements as an engineer and his success during World War I and beyond in organizing aid for the starving millions of Europe. And yet, in nearly all accounts of the ferocious debate over American aid to Europe before the United States entered World War II, Hoover’s role has been overlooked. Hoover vs. Roosevelt tells the story of American efforts to stay out of war following the German invasion of Poland. Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., called it “the most savage political debate of my lifetime.” Both men fiercely disagreed on how to respond but th...
In 1940, at the French port of Dunkirk, more than 300,000 trapped Allied troops were dramatically rescued from destruction at the hands of Nazi Germany by an extraordinary seaborne evacuation. The true history of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians involved in the nine-day skirmish has passed into legend. Now, in this gift edition, the story Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle' is narrated by bestselling author Joshua Levine in its full, sweeping context, including new interviews with veterans and survivors.
As the 66th volume in the prestigious Nebraska Series on Motivation, this book focuses on understanding emotion and motivation as two factors that not only influence social and cognitive processes, but also shape the way we navigate our social world. Research on emotion has increased significantly over the past two decades, pulling from scholarship in psychology, neuroscience, medicine, political science, sociology, and even computer science. This volume is informed by the growing momentum in the resulting interdisciplinary field of affective science, and examines the role of emotion and motivation in our perceptions, decision-making, and social interactions, and attempts to understand the n...