Combat Carriers And My Brushes With History

One sailor's true behind-the-scenes look at WWII's Pacific theater.

This comprehensive volume provides a wealth of information with annotated listings of more than 3,500 titles--a broad sampling of books on the war years 1939-1945. Includes both fiction and nonfiction works about all aspects of the war. Professional resources for educators aligned to the educational standards for social studies; technical references; periodicals and electronic resources; a directory of WWII museums, memorials, and other institutions; and topics for exploration complement this excellent library and classroom resource.

New York Times Bestseller The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, “one of the great storytellers of War” (Evan Thomas). In June 1944, the United States launched a crushing assault on the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The capture of the Mariana Islands and the accompanying ruin of Japanese carrier airpower marked a pivotal moment in the Pacific War. No tactical masterstroke or blunder could reverse the increasingly lopsided balance of power between the two combatants. The War in the Pacific had entered its endgame. Beginning with the Honolulu Conference, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with his Pacific theater commanders to plan the last phase of the campaign against Japan, Twilight of the Gods brings to life the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts. Ian W. Toll’s narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also reconstructs the Japanese and American home fronts and takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided. Drawing from a wealth of rich archival sources and new material, Twilight of the Gods casts a penetrating light on the battles, grand strategic decisions and naval logistics that enabled the Allied victory in the Pacific. An authoritative and riveting account of the final phase of the War in the Pacific, Twilight of the Gods brings Toll’s masterful trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. This prize-winning and best-selling trilogy will stand as the first complete history of the Pacific War in more than twenty-five years, and the first multivolume history of the Pacific naval war since Samuel Eliot Morison’s series was published in the 1950s.

The Mighty Moo is the tale of how a scrappy little World War II aircraft carrier and its untested crew earned a distinguished combat record and beat incredible odds to earn 12 battle stars in the Pacific. The USS Cowpens and her crew weren’t your typical heroes. She was a flattop that the US Navy initially didn’t want, with a captain nearly scapegoated for the loss of his last command, pilots who self-trained on the planes they would fly into combat, and sailors that had been in uniform barely longer than the ship had been afloat. Despite their humble origins, Cowpens and her band of second-string reservists and citizen sailors served with distinction, fighting in nearly every major carrier operation from 1943 to 1945, including the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Together they faced a deadly typhoon that brought the ship to the verge of capsizing, and at war’s end there was only one US aircraft carrier in Tokyo Bay to witness the Japanese surrender—The Mighty Moo. In the years to follow, Cowpens’ service has become the wellspring for a remarkable modern tradition, both within the US Navy and the small Southern town that still celebrates her legacy with a festival every year. The Mighty Moo is a biography of a World War II aircraft carrier as told through the voices of its heroic crew—a “Band of Brothers at sea.”

Handsomely illustrated, this story vividly describes the crucial naval actions in which carriers of all nations played a pivotal role.

Engaging combat narratives from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands War, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and the current Iraq War Razor-sharp analysis of the roles of ships, aircraft, commanders, tactics, and strategy Aircraft carriers surged into prominence during World War II--mainly in the Pacific, where the U.S. and Japan fought history's greatest carrier battles, like the Coral Sea and Midway. Since then, although there have been no engagements between carrier groups, carriers have played an important role in world events, serving as distant launching pads for attacks on targets around the globe. From the first improvised wooden platforms to today's nuclear-powered supercarriers, Hearn explores how combat experiences have driven the development and use of carriers in the world's navies.

Revised Second Edition. The roots of Tactical Airlift and Air Mobility Command Missions were founded in the Troop Carrier Groups of World War II. Meticulously researched and documented, Col Mark Vlahos' "Men Will Come" A History of the 314th Troop Carrier Group 1942 - 1945, will not only be the definitive history of this unit, but fills a major void in USAAF History. Activated March 9, 1942, the 314th participated in every major Airborne Operation in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations. Through the school of hard knocks, tough lessons were learned as the new Airborne, Air-land, and Glider missions matured in WWII. The 314th played a major role in this evolving process. As we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, this book is a must read for anyone interested in WWII Airborne, Troop Carrier Operations and the contribution of our Greatest Generation. -Gen Carlton Everhart II, USAF-Ret, former Commander Air Mobility Command. 327 photos, maps, documents; index. NOTE: This revised second edition includes a small number of typographical corrections but most importantly a number of additions in Appendix 9, specifically a number of aircraft were inadvertently missing from "Operation NEPTUNE #1 Mission Flight Crew Listing, June 5 - 6, 1944" and "Operation NEPTUNE #2 Mission Flight Crew Listing, June 7, 1944". A Merriam Press World War II History.