Bøger om 2. verdenskrig

This illustrated study assesses the British Crusader and the Italian M13/40, two medium tanks that played crucial roles in World War II's Desert War.

An illustrated account of the little-known operations of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force's flying boat units during World War 2.

An award-winning US Marine Corps armor historian's account of the role of US and Japanese tanks on Iwo Jima. The battle of Iwo Jima is iconic and known for its brutality: this was the only battle in which the number of US casualties outnumbered those of the Japanese. But as is often the case with the Pacific campaigns, the tank action on the island has generally been overshadowed by that of infantry. The tank, however, played an important role as a support weapon - especially on the US side - despite the rough terrain and unconventional enemy tactics. Using unpublished official records and veterans' accounts, award-winning USMC armor specialist Romain Cansière sheds new light on Japanese and USMC armored operations on the island. This book offers new information on the battle in a complete, concise, and accessible format, and its illustrations include unpublished photographs from private collections and meticulously researched new color profiles, highlighting the tanks' modifications and their diverse camouflage and markings.

Packed with personal accounts of the action, this is a vivid narrative history of the often-overlooked USAAF campaign in North Africa and Sicily in World War II. In 1942, the Western Allies needed to take the offensive against the Axis to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union. With planning for a cross-Channel invasion beset by logistical and operational difficulties, in May 1942 President Roosevelt ordered his military leaders to prepare to support the British in the Mediterranean. This led to the first USAAF units arriving in the Middle East in July, firstly as reinforcements for the British and later as part of the Operation Torch landings in French Morocco and Algeria in November. In little over ten months from the summer of 1942, the USAAF in North Africa grew from nothing to a senior partner, providing aircraft and crews the other Allies were unable to match. The Axis forces that had controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean had been swept from the African continent - thanks in no small part to the efforts of the USAAF.Using first-hand accounts from pilots and other aircrew, Tom Cleaver describes how the USAAF units that landed in Morocco were forced to learn their own lessons in combat with veteran Luftwaffe units, and how the experience gained in the skies over North Africa and Sicily was invaluable in developing the air forces that would dominate the skies over Europe in the latter years of the war.

The first book to examine the battleship-led 1941 Pacific Fleet as it was intended to fight. Packed with illustrations, this study explains how the US Navy saw the approaching war unfolding.

In April 1945, Soviet forces descended on Berlin in the final phase of the war in Europe. The fighting was fierce as soldiers fanatically loyal to the Nazi party - and those afraid of the vengeance their opponents might enact - sought to stave off the end of the regime as long as possible. Even as it became clear that defeat was inevitable, Hitler and his subordinates determined to fight to the bitter end, resulting in a bitter, brutal end to the war. As the Russian tanks crushed the remaining pockets of resistance, the city was turned into a nightmarish dystopia. Pillage, plunder, mass rape and unceasing destruction followed. In this vivid account with contemporary photographs, the author covers both German and allied viewpoints, exploring explores the strategies, the battles, the civilian experiences and the personalities involved in this fateful the final days of the Third Reich. ABOUT THE SERIES Sirius Military History provides gripping, illustrated accounts of different battles and conflicts, featuring contemporary photographs, feature spreads and fascinating testimonies.

A novel about a courageous young woman in World War II Germany who becomes involved with the resistance while helping smuggle Jewish children to safety.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel comes a powerful, sweeping historical novel about a courageous woman in World War II Germany.Sophia Alexander, the beautiful daughter of a famous surgeon in Berlin, has had to grow up faster than most young women. When her mother falls ill, Sophia must take charge of her younger sister, Theresa, and look after her father and the household, while also volunteering at his hospital after school. Meanwhile, Hitler’s rise to power and the violence in her very own town have Sophia concerned, but only her mother is willing to share her fears openly.After tragedy strikes and her mother dies, Sophia becomes increasingly involved in the resistance, attending meetings of dissidents and helping however she can. Circumstances become increasingly dangerous and personal when Sophia assists her sister’s daring escape from Germany, as Theresa flees with her young husband and his family. Her father also begins to resist the regime, secretly healing those hiding from persecution, only to have his hospital burned to the ground. When he is arrested and sent to a concentration camp, Sophia is truly on her own, but more determined than ever to help.While working as a nurse with the convent nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, Sophia continues her harrowing efforts to transport Jewish children to safety and finds herself under surveillance. As the political tensions rise and the brutal oppression continues, Sophia is undeterred, risking it all, even her own freedom, as she rises to the challenge of helping those in need—no matter the cost.In Only the Brave, Danielle Steel vividly captures the devastating effects of war alongside beautiful moments of compassion and courage.

Witnessing the Disaster examines how histories, films, stories and novels, memorials and museums, and survivor testimonies involve problems of witnessing: how do those who survived, and those who lived long after the Holocaust, make clear to us what happened? How can we distinguish between more and less authentic accounts? Are histories more adequate descriptors of the horror than narrative? Does the susceptibility of survivor accounts to faulty memory and the vestiges of trauma make them any more or less useful as instruments of witness? And how do we authenticate their accuracy without giving those who deny the Holocaust a small but dangerous foothold? These essayists aim to move past the notion that the Holocaust as an event defies representation. They look at specific cases of Holocaust representation and consider their effect, their structure, their authenticity, and the kind of knowledge they produce. Taken together they consider the tension between history and memory, the vexed problem of eyewitness testimony and its status as evidence, and the ethical imperatives of Holocaust representation.

"Franco's Friends" tells the little-known true story of how MI6 orchestrated the coup that brought General Franco to power.

A Promise at Sobibór is the story of Fiszel Bialowitz, a teenaged Polish Jew who escaped the Nazi gas chambers. Between April 1942 and October 1943, about 250,000 Jews from European countries and the Soviet Union were sent to the Nazi death camp at Sobibór in occupied Poland. Sobibór was not a transit camp or work camp: its sole purpose was efficient mass murder. On October 14, 1943, approximately half of the 650 or so prisoners still alive at Sobibór undertook a daring and precisely planned revolt, killing SS officers and fleeing through minefields and machine-gun fire into the surrounding forests, farms, and towns. Only about forty-two of them, including Fiszel, are known to have survived to the end of the war. Philip (Fiszel) Bialowitz, now an American citizen, tells his eyewitness story here in the real-time perspective of his own boyhood, from his childhood before the war and his internment in the brutal Izbica ghetto to his harrowing six months at Sobibór--including his involvement in the revolt and desperate mass escape--and his rescue by courageous Polish farmers. He also recounts the challenges of life following the war as a teenaged displaced person, and his eventual efforts as a witness to the truth of the Holocaust. In 1943 the heroic leaders of the revolt at Sobibór, Sasha Perchersky and Leon Feldhendler, implored fellow prisoners to promise that anyone who survived would tell the story of Sobibór: not just of the horrific atrocities committed there, but of the courage and humanity of those who fought back. Bialowitz has kept that promise.

In May of 1939 the Cuban government turned away the Hamburg-America Line's MS St. Louis, which carried more than 900 hopeful Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany. The passengers subsequently sought safe haven in the United States, but were rejected once again, and the St. Louis had to embark on an uncertain return voyage to Europe. Finally, the St. Louis passengers found refuge in four western European countries, but only the 288 passengers sent to England evaded the Nazi grip that closed upon continental Europe a year later. Over the years, the fateful voyage of the St. Louis has come to symbolize U.S. indifference to the plight of European Jewry on the eve of World War II. Although the episode of the St. Louis is well known, the actual fates of the passengers, once they disembarked, slipped into historical obscurity. Prompted by a former passenger's curiosity, Sarah Ogilvie and Scott Miller of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum set out in 1996 to discover what happened to each of the 937 passengers. Their investigation, spanning nine years and half the globe, took them to unexpected places and produced surprising results. Refuge Denied chronicles the unraveling of the mystery, from Los Angeles to Havana and from New York to Jerusalem. Some of the most memorable stories include the fate of a young toolmaker who survived initial selection at Auschwitz because his glasses had gone flying moments before and a Jewish child whose apprenticeship with a baker in wartime France later translated into the establishment of a successful business in the United States. Unfolding like a compelling detective thriller, Refuge Denied is a must-read for anyone interested in the Holocaust and its impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Christopher R. Browning addresses some of the most heated controversies that have arisen from the use of postwar testimony: Hannah Arendt's uncritical acceptance of Adolf Eichmann's self-portrayal in Jerusalem; the conviction of Ivan Demjanuk (accused of being Treblinka death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible") on the basis of survivor testimony and its subsequent reversal by the Israeli Supreme Court; the debate in Poland sparked by Jan Gross's use of both survivor and communist courtroom testimony in his book Neighbors; and the conflict between Browning himself and Daniel Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners, regarding methodology and interpretation in the use of pre-trial testimony. Despite these controversies and challenges, Browning delineates the ways in which the critical use of such problematic sources can provide telling evidence for writing Holocaust history. He examines and discusses two starkly different sets of "collected memories"--the voluminous testimonies of notorious Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann and the testimonies of 175 survivors of an obscure complex of factory slave labor camps in the Polish town of Starachowice.

In September, 1939, George Lucius Salton's boyhood in Tyczyn, Poland, was shattered by escalating violence and terror under German occupation. His father, a lawyer, was forbidden to work, but eleven-year-old George dug potatoes, split wood, and resourcefully helped his family. They suffered hunger and deprivation, a forced march to the Rzeszow ghetto, then eternal separation when fourteen-year-old George and his brother were left behind to labor in work camps while their parents were deported in boxcars to die in Belzec. For the next three years, George slaved and barely survived in ten concentration camps, including Rzeszow, Plaszow, Flossenburg, Colmar, Sachsenhausen, Braunschweig, Ravensbrück, and Wobbelin. Cattle cars filled with skeletal men emptied into a train yard in Colmar, France. George and the other prisoners marched under the whips and fists of SS guards. But here, unlike the taunts and rocks from villagers in Poland and Germany, there was applause. "I could clearly hear the people calling: "Shame! Shame!" . . . Suddenly, I realized that the people of Colmar were applauding us! They were condemning the inhumanity of the Germans!" Of the 500 prisoners of the Nazis who marched through the streets of Colmar in the spring of 1944, just fifty were alive one year later when the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division liberated the Wobbelin concentration camp on the afternoon of May 2, 1945. "I felt something stir deep within my soul. It was my true self, the one who had stayed deep within and had not forgotten how to love and how to cry, the one who had chosen life and was still standing when the last roll call ended."

W.E. Fairbairn is a legendary figure in the history of Military Combatives and the Fairbairn -Sykes Fighting Knife he designed with E.A. Sykes has achieved a legendary status of its own. There have been numerous books, primarily aimed at collectors, written about the Fairbairn -Sykes and it's variations. This book however, based on accounts from O.S.S. veterans and extensive research of O.S.S. records, is the first to take an in depth look at the actual fighting system developed for using the knife

"Echoes from Hiroshima" is more than a historical novel; it is a gripping journeythrough the tragic events that took place in Hiroshima in 1945.Through the eyes of several characters, this book highlights the unimaginable consequencesof the atomic bomb and how its echoes continued for generations.At the centre is Emiko Saito, a survivor - a hibakusha - whose life was foreverchanged by the bomb. We follow her struggle to survive andprocess, while trying to preserve her memories as a legacy forfuture generations.This novel is a silent witness to the power of stories and memories.It is a reflection on the darkness of the past, but also a shining light that casts hopecasts hope for a more peaceful future.It is a book for those who are moved by the human spirit,by history, and by the inexhaustible power of hope.It is a reminder that although the echoes of the past can be painful, they also show us the way to a better future.

When Peg Ryan has a chance to join her Marine fighter pilot husband in Tsingtao, China in 1947, she jumps at it. After their separation during World War II and his year in China, her family could be whole again. Soon Peg and her seven-year-old daughter are on a transport ship to China forming friendships with other Marine families. Once the Riviera of the Orient, Peg discovers Tsingtao's layered complexity as she lives in a mansion with servants, volunteers at a local orphanage, and befriends those who mingle with the international community. Her life becomes tangled with others through loves, losses, births, deaths, and intrigue in a city where little is as it seems. As Mao's troops threaten the city and its strategic port, Peg will discover if coming to China has saved or destroyed her family.

"Daphne Cavin's poignant story of love, loss and sacrifice was one of the most memorable I encountered in writing The Greatest Generation. Her daughter now completes the story with this very heartfelt book." - Tom BrokawThe war claimed Daphne Kelley's young husband's life, but it couldn't keep Raymond - and his abiding love - from being with her when she needed him most.First told in Tom Brokaw's landmark bestseller, The Greatest Generation, Daphne and Raymond Kelley's story provides what New York Times book reviewer Michael Lind called, "perhaps the most compelling" love story in Brokaw's book.Taking its title from a poem newlywed Daphne sent her soldier-husband during World War II, When You Come Home tells of their young love in the heartland at the brink of war, and of the crushing uncertainty and fear as they find themselves a world apart. When her poem comes back to Daphne - blood-stained by Raymond's mortal wounds - she accepts the loss. And yet, through her pain, the grieving young widow finds that her faith provides hope and healing amidst the wounds of war.

Das Gebiet der heutigen Ukraine gehörte zu den zentralen Tatorten der deutschen Besatzungsverbrechen und des Holocaust. Im September 1941 richteten die Deutschen dort das Reichskommissariat Ukraine ein, das zum Zeitpunkt seiner größten Ausdehnung aus Teilen des damaligen Ostpolens sowie der Sowjetrepubliken Belarus und Ukraine bestand. Zur Jahreswende 1941/42 ließ das Reichssicherheitshauptamt dort auch stationäre Dienststellen der Kommandeure der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD aufbauen. Sie führten weitgehend die verbrecherische Tätigkeit der sogenannten Einsatzgruppen fort, die weiter nach Osten vorstießen. Doch mit einem Unterschied: Sie waren gekommen, um zu bleiben und die Dystopie eines deutsch-dominierten Osteuropas in die Praxis umzusetzen. In der Folge erschossen die Angehörigen dieser Dienststellen unzählige als Juden und Roma verfolgte Menschen und Kriegsgefangene, errichteten ein eigenes Lagersystem, verfolgten den Widerstand, richteten eine einheimische Kriminalpolizei ein und nahmen aktiv Einfluss auf die Kirchenpolitik. Die Studie untersucht erstmals die Geschichte und das Personal der Dienststellen im Reichskommissariat Ukraine und wirft damit auch neues Licht auf die Praxis der Besatzung und den Holocaust.

Im Deutschland des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer als brillanter Chemiker bekannt, während mehrere seiner Verwandten ¿ darunter Dietrich Bonhoeffer ¿ in den Widerstand gegen Hitler verwickelt waren, was zu ihrer Hinrichtung führte. Dieses Buch zeichnet die Verflechtung von Wissenschaft, Religion und Politik im Dritten Reich und im Leben von Karl-Friedrich, seiner Familie und seinen Kollegen, darunter Fritz Haber und Werner Heisenberg, nach. Der für den Nobelpreis nominierte Karl-Friedrich war ein Experte für schweres Wasser, ein Bestandteil der Atombombe. Während des Krieges geriet er zwischen die Fronten vonVerwandten, die Hitler töten wollten, und Freunden, die Hitler beim Bau einer Atomwaffe halfen. Karl-Friedrich entpuppt sich als eine komplexe Figur ¿ ein Agnostiker, dessen Bruder ein renommierter Theologe war, und ein Chemiker, der sowohl widerwillig deutsche Atomwissenschaftler beriet als auch mit Paul Rosbaud, einem Spion der Briten, zusammenarbeitete. Die wissenschaftliche Welt von Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer ist die Geschichte eines Mannes, der die Chemie, seine Familie und seine Nation liebt und versucht, inmitten des Chaos allen gerecht zu werden.

This book aims to place the Ottoman Empire within its proper context in the Napoleonic Age and calls for a recognition of the crucial role of the Sublime Porte in the War of Second Coalition (1798-1802). The Ottoman-Russian joint naval expedition (1798-1800) to the Ionian Islands under the French occupation provides the framework for an examination of the Ottoman willingness to join the European system of alliance in the Napoleonic age which brought the victory against France in the Levant in the War of Second Coalition (1798-1802). Collections of the Ottoman Archives and Topkap¿ Palace Archives in Istanbul as well as various chronicles and treatises in Turkish supply most of the primary sources for this dissertation. Appendices, charts and maps are provided to make the findings on the expedition, finance aand logistics more readable.

In the dying embers of Europe's largest conflagration, the three teams are on a collision course that will lead them to one of the evilest places on earth-the ideological heart of the Nazi SS.

"The true story of Japan's surrender in World War II and how it nearly didn't happen! In the final days of World War II, Japan lay in ruins and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been obliterated. A tense drama unfolds in Tokyo as Japan teeters on the edge of Armageddon. Japan's Longest Day tells the true story of the day immediately before the surrender, as a group of fanatical army officers attempt to prevent the Emperor from surrendering--an act of high treason which will inevitably result in Japan's total annihilation. This dramatic story recounts events that most people outside Japan are completely unaware of: The fierce disagreement between the army and the Japanese government as Emperor Hirohito prepares to announce the nation's unconditional surrender to the Allies, Attempts by War Minister Korechika Anami to change the Emperor's mind. Treasonous actions by a fanatical group of officers who vow to fight on, even if it means the death of every single Japanese citizen. The shocking plot to overthrow the government as Anami faces a fateful choice between loyalty to the cause and loyalty to the Emperor. Japan's Longest Day is beautifully told by award-winning manga artist Yukinobu Hoshino, who brings to life the story of Japan's most fateful day in elegant graphic novel form."--Publisher.

Little known outside of Central Europe, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) mounted one of the largest and longest lasting armed resistance against the totalitarian forces that occupied their homeland. This handbook focuses on the struggle against Nazi and Soviet occupations in the UPA's campaign for Ukrainian independence. Thirteen maps and 114 images, including historical images and modern reenactor photographs, allow the reader to expand their knowledge of this area of history as well as to provide the information needed to refight battles in miniature. The scenarios themselves can be adapted to your favorite rulesets and suggestions are included to fight small-scale actions using Warlord Games Bolt Action ruleset.