Mission World War 2

Critical acclaim for William B. Breuer "A first-class historian." --Wall Street Journal For Top Tales of World War II "As evidenced time and again by the prolific Breuer, WWII continues to be a source of absorbing espionage tales. . . . This is a book for rainy days and long solitary nights by the fire. If there were a genre for cozy nonfiction, this would be the template." --Publishers Weekly "A perfect book for the curious and adventure readers and those who love exotic tales and especially history buffs who will be surprised at what they didn't know. Recommended for nearly everyone." --Kirkus Reviews For Secret Weapons of World War II "Rip-roaring tales . . . a delightful addition to the niche that Breuer has so successfully carved out." --Publishers Weekly

The reader is transported back through time to Poland during World War II and becomes a fugitive fleeing the Nazis through the streets of Warsaw.

Learn the Hidden Secrets of World War 2! Newly updated November 2015 - NOW IN PAPERBACK! World War II was much more than just a war among several nations. With the war came new forms of warfare, covert missions, special operations, sabotage, destruction, and espionage and so on among the enemies. Spies were employed, plans were formulated, and disguises were put up by both the Axis and the Allies to obtain information or to hinder the progress of the war. This resulted in some of the most unconventional, creative and ingenious operations that played an important role in shaping the course of the war. There were several secret missions and raids that were carried out between the Allies and the Axis powers during the Second World War. Listed in this book are just few of the several raids and covert missions that the war gave birth to. This book is written in such a way as to give an overview of the few missions. Each chapter throws light on one single mission and gives a broad view to help facilitate the understanding of the reader. You'll Learn About... Operation Flipper Operation Collar Operation Caeser Operation Eiche Operation Ruthless Operation Jaywick Operation Alpha Operation Frankton and Operation Archery World War 2 Secret Missions: Brave and Daring Secret Missions of WWII teaches you about some of the many raids, operations, and covert missions of this conflict. You'll discover a fascinating world of spies, secret plans, and disguises that both the Allies and the Axis used to gain information and other advantages over each other. Purchase World War 2 Secret Missions: Brave and Daring Secret Missions of WWII now, and start exploring this age of espionage, secret combat, and dangerous missions!

In this remarkable tale of courage, historian Dawn Trimble Bunyak recounts the experiences of her uncle, Lawrence Pifer, a technical sergeant who survived fourteen months of internment as a prisoner of war in World War II Nazi Germany. A radio operator and ball turret gunner on the American B-17 bomber Slightly Dangerous, Pifer was shot down during a raid on March 4, 1944. As he parachuted from the plummeting plane, Pifer witnessed the deaths of two of his fellow crewmembers. Captured by Nazi soldiers and taken to a series of German Stalag Luft camps, Pifer and other servicemen-mostly in their teens and twenties-endured torture, starvation, disease, and forced marches. When British forces liberated Pifer's group, he pushed his POW experiences deep into the recesses of his mind, not to recall them in detail for decades. Years later, a POW group at a Veterans Administration hospital helped Pifer realize that he was ready to tell his story. After forty hours of interviews with Pifer, Dawn Trimble Bunyak retells the enthralling story of an average enlisted man's struggle to survive in the face of hopelessness, with only his strong faith and pride in country to sustain him. In his foreword, historian Arnold Krammer shows how popular views of the prisoner-of-war experience have changed dramatically over time yet how rare are such first-person accounts as Pifer's. Enhanced by numerous photographs and maps and an appendix of prisoners' poetry, Our Last Mission is one of only a few oral histories that details the daily experiences of one of the 94,000 American POWs in Europe during World War II.

A gripping account of the final American bombing mission of World War II and how it prevented a military coup that would have kept Japan in the war. How close did the Japanese come to not surrendering to Allied forces on August 15, 1945? The Last Mission explores this question through two previously neglected strands of late—World War II history, whose very interconnections could have caused a harrowing shift in the course of the postwar world. On the final night of the war, as Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, a band of Japanese rebels, commanded by War Minister Anami's elite staff, burst into the palace. They had plotted a massive coup that aimed to destroy the recordings of the Imperial Rescript of surrender and issue false orders forged with the Emperor’s seal commanding the widely dispersed Japanese military to continue the war. If this rebellion had succeeded, the military would have proceeded with large-scale kamikaze attacks on Allied forces, costing huge casualties and just possibly provoking the Americans to drop a third atomic bomb on Japan over Tokyo–and continue to drop more bombs as Japanese resistance stiffened. Meanwhile, in the midst of an “end-of-war” celebration on Guam, Air Force radio operator Jim Smith and his fellow crewmen received urgent orders for a bombing mission over Japan’s sole remaining oil refinery north of Tokyo. As a stream of American B-29B bombers approached Tokyo, Japanese air defenses, fearing the approaching planes signaled the threat of a third atomic bomb, ordered a total blackout in Tokyo and the Imperial Palace, completely disrupting the rebels’ plans. Smith and his fellow crewmembers completed the mission, and a few hours later, the Emperor announced the surrender over Japan’s airwaves, dictating the end of the war. The Last Mission is an insightful piece of speculative investigation that combines narrative storytelling with historical contingency and explores how two seemingly unrelated events could have profoundly changed the course of modern history.

In Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis: Combat Missions over Europe during World War II, historian Kevin A. Mahoney provides a detailed combat history of the crucial role played by this air force from November 1943 through May 1945. Presented by month in chronological order, Mahoney describes all the major bombing and fighter missions carried out by this air force within a strategic context. Each chapter includes an introduction describing developments in the evolution of the strategic air campaign against the Germans, highlights the purpose and importance of the month’s operations, and reviews the Luftwaffe’s resistance and changes in tactics and important developments in the Fifteenth Air Force’s organization. Each monthly narrative further explores most missions, detailing the number of aircraft lost during these missions. Losses are based on an exhaustively researched database compiled by Mahoney that contains details of almost 3,000 aircraft. Target damage is mentioned, while enemy opposition is also described for each mission. Appendices include four short essays on bombing operations (planning and flying of missions, tactics and techniques, bomb types, and bombing accuracy), tactics employed by fighter escort in aerial combat and strafing, combat crews and their aircraft (including a comparison of American fighters and bombers, the training of the crews, and their combat tours), and the Fifteenth Air Force command structure (including the use of intelligence, photo and weather reconnaissance, and the considerable effect of weather on Fifteenth Air Force operations). This work of military history is ideal for students and scholars of the air war in Europe.

Like a scene from Where Eagles Dare, a small team of American spies parachutes into Italy behind enemy lines. Their orders: link up with local partisans and sabotage the well-guarded Brenner Pass—the Nazis' crucial supply route through the Alps—thereby bringing the German war effort in Italy to a grinding halt.

On November 18, 1944, the end of the war in Europe finally in sight, American co-pilot Lieutenant Lee Lamar struggled alongside pilot Randall Darden to keep Bottoms Up, their B-24J Liberator, in the air. Over Pula in what is now Croatia, they were once more hit by German fire. Lamar all but surrendered to death before fortuitously bailing out and being captured. in 2006 Lamar received an email from Croatian archaeologist Luka Bekic who had discovered the wreckage of Bottoms Up.