World War II

They dropped from the skies, roared over the hedgerows, and turned the tide of history—this is the untold story of the airmen who helped liberate France. By June 1944, Allied air forces were ready to unleash hell on the Germans in occupied France. Massive numbers of bombers and fighters had...

The Last Full Measure tells the forgotten story of the sacred mission to return America’s fallen from foreign battlefields. In the fall of 1944, German flak shredded an American bomber in the skies over Austria. Four crew parachuted from the burning aircraft, but six spiraled five miles to...

On September 1, 1939, the day World War II broke out in Europe, Gen. George Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff of the U.S. Army. Ten months later, Roosevelt appointed Henry Stimson secretary of war. For the next five years, from adjoining offices in the Pentagon, Marshall and Stimson headed...

The year opened with the Axis powers inflicting a series of disasters on the newly formed Allies: Pearl Harbor, followed by Japan's conquest of the Philippines and Southeast Asia; Rommel running unchecked in North Africa; devastating defeats of the Red Army at Kharkov, Crimea, and southern...

When Lt. Cdr. Waldo Drake, USNR arrived in Pearl Harbor in June 1941 as the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s first Public Relations Officer (PRO), he was an admired maritime reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Reserve Officer appointed to intelligence duties. By October 1944, he was hated by most of...

Award-winning author, Thomas J. Cutler offers an in-depth and inspiring look at the truly heroic story of Ernest Evans and the crew of USS Johnston during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. The term “hero” is overused today, but the story of Ernest Evans and the crew of USS Johnston...

Fighting Falcons offers a compelling account of Marine Fighting Squadron 221 (VMF-221), a unit that played a key role in the Pacific during World War II. Formed in 1941, VMF-221 flew in some of the most significant campaigns of the war, from the Battle of Midway and the long fight for the...

Bloomsbury presents Java Sea 1942: Japan's conquest of the Netherlands East Indies by Mark Stille, read by Thomas Judd A study of the battle of the Java Sea, a key Japanese victory in their advance throughout Southeast Asia. The battle of the Java Sea, fought in February 1942, was the first...

Bloomsbury presents 1942: Hitler's Gamble for Victory by Richard Hargreaves, read by Charles Armstrong A unique history of the Axis powers attempt to win the Second World War in 1942, told through the eyes of those who were there. Drawing upon sources in German, Russian, Italian, Hungarian...

A remarkable true story about saving life in wartime, not taking it The Lifesavers were a little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War. As part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional and iconoclastic, they pushed and...