American civilians who were on the home front during World War II would each have different stories to tell. With most, almost certainly their stories would not be as dramatic as the stories of many of those who lived in the battle zones of Europe and the Far East. Despite the difference, there would be many moving stories to tell of Americans who lost loved ones or received them home wounded or tarnished in some way by the war. Our parents welcomed us home untarnished, but changed by our ...

Just after 2100 hours, the mission’s leader Wing Commander Guy Gibson gave the signal. The red light went on and the Merlin engines of the thirteen Lancaster bombers roared into life. They had been in intensive training for eight weeks for the most famous bombing raid of World War II. RAF 617 squadron, the Dambusters, were finally ready to go...Read about the RAF’s daring Dambusters mission, along with the bombing and defence of London in the Battle of Britain and the merciless Bom...

Southern England. Late summer 1940. The nation is fighting for its very survival and the Luftwaffe's aerial offensive is unrelenting. All that lies between invasion and salvation for Britain is the 'thin blue line' of RAF Fighter Command and its pilots.This newly illustrated anniversary edition of Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot reveals what it was like to fly a fighter plane in the Battle of Britain. Who were the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of 1940? H...

Hours of great reading await, with tales of war and military adventure by some of the greatest writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ranging from classics of the Civil War to the World Wars to the future of war -- and many other battlefields -- here more than 640 pages of military fiction! Included are the complete novel "The Red Badge of Courage," pulp stories by Arthur J. Burks, Johnston McCulley, Norman A. Daniels; science fiction by randall Garrett, Harry Harrison, Lester Del Rey; cl...

`Shimmering in the morning sun, wave upon wave of bombers, driving for London. Stepped above and behind, the serried ranks of Messerschmitts. Covering mile upon mile of sky, as far as the eye could see. It was at once magnificent and terrible. I broke hard into attack, pulling the Spitfire into a climbing, spiralling turn as I did so…`Read about the development of the Spitfire in Taking to the Skies; heroic anecdotes of the pilots in The Battle of Britain; and amazing aerial combat...

At dawn, they saw her masts on the horizon and immediately prepared for battle. They were up against a formidable foe; the Admiral Graf Spee had already sunk nine British merchant ships in the South Atlantic. Now, her modern prototype diesel engines were set at maximum power and she was heading straight for them at full speed...Read about the Royal Navy’s determined hunt for the enemy battleship Graf Spee in the South Atlantic; Germany`s lethal U Boats and the Battle of the Atlanti...

DESCRIPTION“An excellent book to read at this time during the anniversary of the bombing of the German dams by what seemed impossible odds.” Review.**Guy Gibson: Legend of the Dam Busters tells the dramatic story of a renowned British flying legend and his leadership of the infamous raid on the Ruhr dams in May 1943, providing a fitting and timely tribute to a truly courageous aviator.This short i...

Just sixteen minutes into D-Day and their glider had already crash-landed onto the field. Scrambling out to storm the bridge, the young British soldiers began the fight of their lives. Five miles inside enemy territory, they ran headlong into the day that shaped the twentieth century, paving the way for the invasion of Normandy. There was no going back…Read about the daring capture of Pegasus Bridge by British Airborne troops in the first hours of D-Day, along with the s...

In the bunker, the Führer still believed he could win the war. The Russian Red Army was ruthlessly rolling from the east towards the gates of Berlin. Overhead, British and American bombers were attacking in force. While outside, the corpses of dead German deserters were hanging from the lamp-posts. Hitler’s death squads were in the streets to the very end...Read about the Race for Berlin between the Allied armies; the Downfall of Berlin and of Hitler; and The Surrender of Berlin an...

A huge column of blood red smoke rose a thousand feet as the battleship USS Arizona blew up. The USS Oklahoma capsized. The California, Nevada and West Virginia were all sunk at their moorings. 181 Japanese warplanes had attacked the US Pacific Fleet as it lay at anchor in Pearl Harbor. There had been no formal declaration, but the United States of America was now at war...Read about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, along with the merciless invasion of South East Asia by the a...

The Germans were masters of Blitzkrieg. But in the rubble of a ruined city, the Russians knew the troops of the Third Reich were reluctant to engage in the hand-to-hand battle that victory required. The Soviet soldiers were fearless; time was blood. The Red Army commander’s tactics were brutally simple – defend the city or die...Read about the Attack by the German army on Stalingrad; the brutal Fighting in the Streets and Sewers; and the eventual Final Encirclement by the do-or-die...

In 1939 a 21 year old joined the N.Z.R.A.F. as a reservist. When World War II was declared he was called up and sent to Woodburn training camp in Blenheim and taught to fly. In August 1940 he sailed from New Zealand for England and went to war. As the sea voyage progressed from holiday cruise to deadly dangerous, he kept a diary and then gave it to a steward to post home from LA.He was a foundation member of 485 NZ Spitfire Squadron. He watched his best friends die before his eyes,...