This New York Times bestselling account of books parachuted to soldiers during WWII is a “cultural history that does much to explain modern America” (USA Today). When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops, gathering 20 million hardcover donations. Two years later, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million specially printed paperbacks designed for troops to carry in their pockets and rucksacks in every theater of war. These small, lightweight Armed Services Editions were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights. This pioneering project not only listed soldiers’ spirits, but also helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity and made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon. “A thoroughly engaging, enlightening, and often uplifting account . . . I was enthralled and moved.” — Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried “Whether or not you’re a book lover, you’ll be moved.” — Entertainment Weekly

Additional Authors Include Robert Blake, C. S. Forster, MacKinlay Kantor, And Many Others. With Thirty-Two Illustrations.

The untold stories of bravery, triumph, and redemption in the depths of the darkest world war. Behind the great powers, global military conflict, and infamous battles are more than 100 incredible stories that bring to life the Second World War. During the six years of war were countless little-known moments of profound triumph and tragedy, bravery and cowardice, and good and evil. These amazing and unbelievable stories of brotherhood, redemption, escape, and civilian courage shed new light on the war that gripped the entire world. Experience the action through the eyes of people like: Lieutenant Jacob Beser, who was aboard both the Enola Gay and Bock's Car and felt the force of the shockwave that nearly destroyed the planes after dropping the H-bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Professor William Miller, who collapsed during a death march of POWs in Germany and was saved by the same man who had rescued him from what would have been a fatal car wreck in Pennsylvania five years earlier. The brave civilians who answered the British Admiralty's call to help rescue an army from Dunkirk during the height of a dangerous battle and sailed small fishing boats into relentless German fire, ultimately saving 335,000 men from This is the perfect book for any history buff looking for the untold stories of military and civilian daring during World War 2.

A collection of the greatest stories ever written about World War II. World War II brought grief and destruction, but it also inspired some of the most impassioned literature in history. Classic Stories of World War II includes excerpts from novels such as James Jones’s From Here to Eternity and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, as well as real-life accounts of the Battle of Britain by Guy Gibson and the exploits of the French Resistance by Nancy Wake. More than a dozen riveting stories of the war from esteemed authors are featured, providing the reader with a rich variety of perspectives that will bring a new understanding of this global conflict.

Both poignant and inspiring, these are the moving stories of men and women who met amid the chaos of the most devastating war in history and became the loves of one another’s lives. Many are now enjoying their seventies and eighties together after more than fifty happy years of marriage. They met in many remarkable ways, some in the briefest of chance encounters, and their love endured heart-rending ordeals of long separation and the constant threat that a husband or lover might not return. As these couples reflect on the profound experience of the war, the stories they most like to tell are of the deep bonds they forged during that tumultuous time, bonds so strong that they lasted a lifetime. As one man put it, “We’ve all got war stories. Some of us like to tell them and some don’t. But the story of how we fell in love with our wives, well, that’s still with us every day, and I know a lot of us can still get a little choked up over it. The war was a long time ago, one part of our lives. But we’re still living the love stories.” Bestselling author and master interviewer Larry King tells the stories of these love affairs just as the couples recalled them, capturing the special feeling of those times in their own words. The stories are complemented with a wealth of personal photographs and reproductions of touching memorabilia, including V-mail letters, cartoons, cards, newspaper accounts, and even the ticket stub from the movie seen on a first date. The stories reflect a wonderful range of experiences, from couples who met and got married within a few weeks to those who waited years after a brief first meeting to see each other again. There are stories of falling in love at first sight, stories of tragedy transformed by love, and stories of the remarkable resourcefulness that can be exercised by two people determined to be together. A treasure trove of unique reminiscences,Love Stories of World War IIoffers an unprecedented view into this personal side of the World War II experience and celebrates the incredible legacy of remarkable relationships forged in the midst of tragedy.

Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought—and whose outcome was in greater doubt—than readers might imagine. This is the war that Americans at the home front would have read about had they had access to the previously censored testimony of the soldiers on which Miller builds his gripping narrative. Miller covers the entire war—on land, at sea, and in the air—and provides new coverage of the brutal island fighting in the Pacific, the bomber war over Europe, the liberation of the death camps, and the contributions of African Americans and other minorities. He concludes with a suspenseful, never-before-told story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, based on interviews with the men who flew the mission that ended the war.

Forty-five scenes from the battle of Britain, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, battle of Stalingrad, Allied invasion of France, dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, the fall of Berlin, and more.

Before W. C. Heinz embarked on his illustrious career as one of the premier sports writers of the past fifty years, he served as a war correspondent for the New York Sun. Now for the first time ever, Heinz's finest work on World War II, written both during and after the war, is collected in one volume. From his first-person account aboard the U.S.S. Nevada during D-Day in 1944 to his legendary dispatches from the towns and battlefields of the European front, Heinz vividly conveys the courage, humor, and humanity of men under fire. Whether describing a battle scene or a soldier, Heinz brings home the war like few others ever have. In the second half of the book, he and his fourteen-year-old son, Bud, revisit the beaches of Normandy with D-Day veteran Major General Earl Rudder, who recounts his experiences there; in another story he describes, in his patented you-are-there style, the morning three German spies were executed; and in the concluding piece, Heinz revisits many of the towns he journeyed through as the American army fought its way across Europe twenty years before.When We Were One is a superb collection of writing on World War II that ranks with the finest ever assembled on any war.

"In times of war, soldiers on the front lines must show their bravery. But acts of courage by some people aren't known until years after the fighting ends. From flying bombing missions in the dead of night, to tricking the enemy with fake encampments and unbreakable codes, to surviving horrific treatment by the enemy through sheer force of will, these incredible true tales will show how courage in war is often displayed by history's unsung heroes."--Publisher's description.

Ernest Hemingway stalks U-Boats. A Belgian woman halts the Panzers. Adolf Hitler plays Santa Claus. If you think these are tall tales, guess again. More than 140 of the most bizarre, curious, and downright strange incidents from World War II are documented here based on personal interviews, archives and declassified documents.