First Raise A Flag

Martell offers a first hand account of how bitter and deadly rivalries dashed the hopes of the world's newest nation. --From publisher description.

When South Sudan's war began, the Beatles were playing their first hits and reaching the moon was an astronaut's dream. Half a century later, with millions massacred in Africa's longest war, the continent's biggest country split in two. It was an extraordinary, unprecedented experiment. Many have fought, but South Sudan did the impossible, and won. This is the story of an epic fight for freedom. It is also the story of a nightmare. First Raise a Flag details one of the most dramatic failures in the history of international state-building. three years after independence, South Sudan was lowest ranked in the list of failed states. War returned, worse than ever. Peter Martell has spent over a decade reporting from palaces and battlefields, meeting those who made a country like no other: warlords and spies, missionaries and mercenaries, guerrillas and gunrunners, freedom fighters and war crime fugitives, Hollywood stars and ex-slaves. Under his seasoned foreign correspondent's gaze, he weaves with passion and colour the lively history of the world's newest country. First Raise a Flag is a moving reflection on the meaning of nationalism, the power of hope and the endurance of the human spirit.

Raise the Flag Series Book 1 A diverse group of high school girls faces the challenges of standing up for what they believe is right. You'll cheer them on and learn more about yourself in each book of the Raise the Flag series! At King High, six girls who met at See You at the Pole meet again to pray for each other and for their school. And it's a good thing they do, because they're all going to need prayer this year. Even popular Tobey, who's in for more trouble than she could have dreamed up in a lifetime. As junior class president, member of the Judicial Board, cross-country team member, and star of the speech club, Tobey has gained a lot of friends on campus. But when she confronts the school's most popular coach about a very sensitive issue, Tobey is faced with a test of faith unlike any she has experienced before--and discovers a whole new, wonderful definition for the word "friend."

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men's paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island—an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo—three were killed during the battle—were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley's father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: “The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back. ” Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.

One of the decisive battles of the Second World War in the Pacific, Iwo Jima was described by Lieutenant-General Holland Smith, Commander Fleet Marine Forces Pacific, as "The most savage and most costly battle in the history of the Marine Corps " a titanic struggle that eclipsed all that had gone before. Situated halfway along the B-29 Superfortress route to the Japanese mainland, the island was of major strategic importance to the US Air Force, but also to the Japanese, 20,000 of whom were deeply entrenched in the island. This book provides a definitive account of the battle, from its origins to its hard-fought conclusion.

Packed full of wow-inducing facts and trivia, this colourful book offers much more than the average flag book. Find out how Lichtenstein and Haiti discovered they shared the exact same flag and which national flag was designed by a 15-year-old schoolgirl in this comprehensive and entertaining read.. Features 268 flags, including the national flag of every country in the world,an atlas-style chapter for each continent exploring the history of significant flags, and themed sections that introduce the many different types of flags, plus great moments in flag history (flags at the poles and in space for example) and how we communicate using flags. There's even a design-your-own flag activity and a fabulous flag quiz at the back of the book to help you get creative and test your flag knowledge!