This is the official history of the Seventh Air Force. It is not a ""brass hat"" story; it is told from the point of view of the men themselves, often in their own words, with realistic vigor and with the lively sense of humor that made it possible to achieve victory in the Pacific. Originally published in 1946. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out...
In 1862 at the age of thirty-two, Centreville, Michigan, physician John Bennitt joined the 19th Michigan Infantry Regiment as an assistant surgeon and remained in military service for the rest of the war. During this time Bennitt wrote more than two hundred letters home to his wife and daughters sharing his careful and detailed observations of army life, his medical trials in the field and army hospitals, dramatic battles, and character sketches of the people he encountered, including his regime...
American flyer Watt parachuted out of his burning bomber into Nazi-occupied Belgium. Assisted by selfless patriots who helped him elude the Gestapo, he began the treacherous journey to Spain, where his life was still in danger since he had fought against ruler General Franco in the Spanish Civil War six years earlier.
Hundreds of thousands of military veterans seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) each year. Service dogs have been used for many years in the civilian sector to help their disabled owners perform necessary tasks in daily life; likewise, the organized use of therapy dogs to bring comfort and companionship to hospital and nursing-home patients dates back more than four decades. Reporting for Duty explores the unique and special bond between wounded warriors-especially those suff...
Veteran voices from the Commonwealth tell for the first time how the Second World War changed their lives irreversibly and blew the British Empire apart. Christopher Somerville skillfully links the voices, guiding them into covering such topics as racial prejudice, attitudes to Britain before and after the war, why Commonwealth citizens even volunteered and the inevitable disillusionment by 1945. The result is a rare and faithful memoir to the five million Commonwealth citizens who fought for th...
'The Struggle' is a very readable account of an interesting life. The author was born in a rather poor peasant family in Poland. Through his own effort he made his way into the elite, becoming an officer and a fighter pilot of the Polish Air Force. During World War II he was among thousands of Polish airmen who came to Britain to fight the Germans, eventually rising to command a fighter squadron. After the war he was among thousands of Poles who settled in Britain, unable to return to their oppr...
Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families
This book is crafted around soldiers’ personal descriptions of their war experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq that culminate in life-altering injuries to the brain and psyche, along with the equally dramatic story of their recoveries. An irony of America’s 21st century wars has been that while our combat medical and medevac capabilities have grown enormously (from a rough average of 4:1 wounded to dead in World War II to 8:1 today), the nature of many of America’s soldiers’ wounds has undergone a...
Growing up in suburban Pretoria, Steve Joubert dreamed of a career as a pilot. After undergoing SAAF pilot training, a freak injury put an end to his hopes of flying fighter jets. Instead he learned to fly the versatile Alouette helicopter. He had barely qualified as a chopper pilot when he was sent to the Border, where he flew missions over Namibia and southern Angola to supply air cover to troops on the ground. As a gunship pilot, Steve saw some of the worst scenes of war, often arriving first...
James ""Jim"" Davis lived what he considered ""an impossible dream"" as he piloted a B-24, as part of the 8th Air Force, on nearly thirty missions in the European Theatre during World War II. He flew support missions for Operations Cobra and Market Garden and numerous bombing missions over occupied Europe in the summer and fall of 1944, attacking enemy airfields, airplane factories, railroad marshalling yards, ship yards, oil refineries, and chemical plants. While he and his crew survived withou...
"In three days the number of so-called 'volunteers' reached over three hundred men. Very quickly they organized us into military units. Just like that I became a North Korean soldier and was on the way to some unknown place." -- from the book South Korean Lee Young Ho was seventeen years old when he was forced to serve in the North Korean People's Army during the first year of the Korean War. After a few months, he deserted the NKPA and returned to Seoul where he joined the South Korean Marine...
Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Ireland – every crewmember aboard the Spirit of Falmouth had served in one of these trouble spots, had had almost unimaginably traumatic experiences there, and then had trouble readjusting to civilian life. Some were hospitalised, others ended up living on the streets, many of them found themselves alone and isolated. This unique and inspiring account follows the Spirit of Falmouth’s June 2016 voyage around the country these men had sworn to protect. The tall ship is...
Ungentle Goodnights uses the records of the United States Naval Asylum (later the United States Naval Home), a residence for disabled and elderly sailors and Marines established by the U.S. government, to recover the lives of the 541 men who were admitted there as lifetime residents between 1831 and 1866. The records of the Naval Asylum are an especially rich source for discovering these lower-deck lives because would-be residents were required to submit summaries of their naval careers as part...