By: Carl W. Hoffman
Narrated by: Eric Martin
4.5 out of 5 stars 4.6 (5 ratings)
Shattered Sword
The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
By: Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully
Narrated by: Tom Perkins
Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's best-selling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement. Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle.
Finally. It doesn't get any better then this
By Preston Leonard on 04-17-19
Battle for the Ruhr
The German Army's Final Defeat in the West
By: Derek S. Zumbro
Narrated by: Julian Elfer
With Allied armies poised on the banks of the Rhine, Nazi Germany tottered on the brink of collapse. The ensuing battles on German soil - especially those in the so-called Ruhr Pocket - were as fierce and hard-fought as any in the European theater. Going well beyond previous accounts, Derek S. Zumbro chronicles this key military campaign from a unique and fresh perspective - that of the defeated German soldiers and civilians caught in the final maelstrom of the war's Western front.
Perspective on a Battle Lost
By Kindle Customer on 04-21-19
Air Apaches
The True Story of the 345th Bomb Group and Its Low, Fast, and Deadly Missions in World War II
By: Jay A. Stout
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
The American 345th Bomb Group - the Air Apaches - was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes - often below 50 feet - the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan.
Great Story and a Great Performance
By Carter L. on 02-09-19
Twenty-Two on Peleliu
Four Pacific Campaigns with the Corps: The Memoirs of an Old Breed Marine
By: George Peto, Peter Margaritis - With
Narrated by: Paul Brion
Growing up on a farm in Ohio, George always preferred being outdoors and exploring. This made school a challenge, but his hunting, fishing, and trapping skills helped put food on his family's table. As a poor teenager living in a rough area, he got into regular brawls, and he found holding down a job hard because of his wanderlust. After working out West with the CCC, he decided that joining the Marines offered him the opportunity for adventure plus three square meals a day; so he and his brother joined the Corps in 1941.
The First Wave
The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II
By: Alex Kershaw
Narrated by: Paul Michael
Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Day's most perilous missions. The charismatic, unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando, returning to his native land, who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond.
By Bruce K on 06-29-19
The Collapse of the Third Republic
An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940
By: William L. Shirer
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
As an international war correspondent and radio commentator, William L. Shirer didn't just research the fall of France. He was there. In just six weeks, he watched the Third Reich topple one of the world's oldest military powers - and institute a rule of terror and paranoia. Based on in-person conversation with the leaders, diplomats, generals, and ordinary citizens who both shaped the events of this time and lived through them on a daily basis, Shirer shapes a compelling account of historical events - without losing sight of the personal experience.
So much information
By Daniel L Carmony on 05-14-19
By: John Keegan
Narrated by: James Langton
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the 20th century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society - and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment.
Waited a long time for this
By Will Cunningham on 06-14-19
The True Story of the "Bad Boy" Hero of the Pacific Theatre and His Famous Black Sheep Squadron
By: Gregory "Pappy" Boyington
Here, in his own words, is the true story of America's wildest flying hero, of his extraordinary heroism, and of his greatest battle of all-the fight to survive. The World War II air war in the Pacific needed tough men like Colonel Pappy Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron. The legendary Marine Corps officer and his bunch of misfits, outcasts, and daredevils gave a new definition to "hell-raising" - on the ground and in the skies.
By xtremejyhk on 06-06-19
Hitler's Empire
How the Nazis Ruled Europe
By: Mark Mazower
Narrated by: Michael Page
Drawing on an unprecedented range and variety of original research, Hitler's Empire sheds new light on how the Nazis designed, maintained, and lost their European dominion - and offers a chilling vision of what the world would have become had they won the war. Mark Mazower forces us to set aside timeworn opinions of the Third Reich, and instead shows how the party drew inspiration for its imperial expansion from America and Great Britain.
Page Turning Scholarship
By philip on 06-08-19
Landing on the Edge of Eternity
Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach
By: Robert Kershaw
Narrated by: Roger Clark
When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach in D-Day's first wave on June 6, 1944, it lost 96 percent of its effective strength. Sixteen teams of US engineers arriving in the second wave were unable to blow the beach obstacles, as first wave survivors were still sheltering behind them. This was the beginning of the historic day that Landing on the Edge of Eternity narrates hour by hour.
The Second Most Powerful Man in the World
The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff
By: Phillips Payson O'Brien
Narrated by: Christopher Grove
Aside from FDR, no American did more to shape World War II than Admiral William D. Leahy - not Douglas MacArthur, not Dwight Eisenhower, and not even the legendary George Marshall. No man, including Harry Hopkins, was closer to Roosevelt, nor had earned his blind faith, like Leahy. Through the course of the war, constantly at the president's side and advising him on daily decisions, Leahy became the second most powerful man in the world.
Great bio.
World War II at Sea
A Global History
By: Craig L. Symonds
World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina - at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world - and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; and much more.
Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East
By: David Stahel
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath.
The book you must read on Hitler's War with Russia
Big Week
The Biggest Air Battle of World War II
By: James Holland
During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces based in Britain and Italy launched their first round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. Their goal: to smash the main factories and production centers of the Luftwaffe while also drawing German planes into an aerial battle of attrition to neutralize the Luftwaffe as a fighting force prior to the cross-channel invasion, planned for a few months later. Officially called Operation ARGUMENT, this aerial offensive quickly became known as "Big Week," and it was one of the turning-points of World War II.
War in the Air: Sets stage with gripping narrative
By Nashville Cat on 11-17-18
Morning Star, Midnight Sun
The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August–October 1942
By: Jeffrey R. Cox
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Following the disastrous Java Sea campaign, the Allies went on the offensive in the Pacific in a desperate attempt to halt the Japanese forces that were rampaging across the region. With the conquest of Australia a very real possibility, the stakes were high. Their target: the Japanese-held Soloman Islands, in particular the southern island of Guadalcanal. Hamstrung by arcane pre-war thinking and a bureaucratic mind-set, the US Navy had to adapt on the fly in order to compete with the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy, whose ingenuity had fostered the creation of its Pacific empire.
great narration great storytelling.
By Ron Party on 05-24-18
Samurai!
By: Martin Caidin
Narrated by: Kevin Waites
Saburo Sakai became a living legend in Japan during World War II. Pilots everywhere spoke in awe of his incredible exploits in the air. Of all Japan's aces, Saburo Sakai is the only pilot who never lost a wingman in combat. For a man who engaged in more than 200 aerial combats, this was an incredible achievement. His remarkable book Samurai! written by Martin Caiden but with the assistance of Sakai and Fred Saito is a brilliant account of life as a Japanese pilot in the Second World War.
very poor narration
By RAP61 on 07-12-19
Kangaroo Squadron
American Courage in the Darkest Days of World War II
By: Bruce Gamble
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
In early 1942, while the American military was still in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single US Army squadron advanced to the far side of the world to face America's new enemy. Based in Australia with inadequate supplies and no ground support, the squadron's pilots and combat crew endured tropical diseases while confronting numerically superior Japanese forces. Yet the outfit, dubbed the Kangaroo Squadron, proved remarkably resilient and successful.
Enjoyable listen & historical
By: Roy E. Appleman, James MacGregor Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and others
On 1 April, 1945, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater began. The battle for the island of Okinawa would last for the next 82 days. Through the course of this dramatic battle, over 20,000 Americans would lose their lives, and over 75,000 Japanese were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes of World War II. Okinawa: The Last Battle is a remarkably detailed account of this monumental event by four soldiers who witnessed the action first-hand.
Saipan was the last barrier that prevented the Allied forces from launching their entire military might against the Japanese homeland.
Victory at Saipan was the key that opened the door to the soft underbelly of the Japanese Empire. Yet because the Japanese were aware of this vulnerability, they were willing to throw everything they had against the ever-encroaching American forces and fight to the death to defend this island.
Fifteen battleships began their bombardment of Japanese positions on June 13, 1944; they would fire more than 165,000 shells onto the island. Then, at 0700 on June 15, 8,000 Marines traveled in 300 LVTs to land on the West coast of Saipan to begin their assault. The Japanese high command realized that without resupply, the island would be impossible to hold, but they and their soldiers were to fight until the last man. To make things as difficult as possible for the US Marines, the Japanese used guerrilla tactics to disrupt the offensive and dug themselves in in the mountainous terrain of Central Saipan.
Carl Hoffman's brilliant account of this ferocious battle takes the listener through the course of its duration, from the initial discussion of plans and preparations right through to the eventual victory. This audiobook is essential for anyone interested in the Pacific theater of war during World War Two and for the huge impact that the Marine Corps made in some of the bloodiest battles ever to have taken place.
Public Domain (P)2019 Tantor
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