The Airmen And The Headhunters

A true story of downed B-24s in Japanese-occupied Borneo and a native tribe that “makes us—like the airmen—rethink our definitions of civilized and savage” (Entertainment Weekly). November 1944: Their B-24 bomber shot down on what should have been an easy mission off the Borneo coast, a scattered crew of Army airmen cut themselves loose from their parachutes—only to be met by loincloth-wearing natives silently materializing out of the mountainous jungle. Would these Dayak tribesmen turn the starving airmen over to the hostile Japanese occupiers? Or would the Dayaks risk vicious reprisals to get the airmen safely home in a desperate game of hide-and-seek? A cinematic survival story featuring a bamboo airstrip built on a rice paddy, a mad British major, and a blowpipe-wielding army that helped destroy one of the last Japanese strongholds, The Airmen and the Headhunters is also a gripping tale of wartime heroism unlike any other you have read.

In this book, ten scripts derived from highly regarded sources bring World War II to life for students in grades 6–12 and serve as a springboard for further investigation of this pivotal world event. World War II mobilized 100 million military personnel and resulted in the deadliest conflict in human history. Everyone from students in grade six to adults will be engrossed by tales documenting the actions of Hannah Szenes, a young Hungarian woman who lost her life trying to save Jews, the sobering and shocking occurrences during the Bataan Death March, and the daring POW rescues like the raid at Cabanatuan. Each script in War Stories for Readers Theatre: World War II not only brings history to life, but also provides a perspective that readers may not have encountered. While some topics are familiar, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, most readers are unaware of the motivations behind it. Some of the narratives are created from interviews with living World War II veterans. Every reader will be inspired to explore each subject more deeply after experiencing these intimate views of the specific events during World War II.

The true story of the 42 Australian, New Zealand and British guerrillas and their Borneo warrior allies who fought behind Japanese lines in World War II and forced the surrender of the last two Japanese companies, ten weeks after World War II’s official end. Over 1,000 Japanese were killed in the Semut I operation, a casualty rate out of all proportion to the small size and armaments of the force. But rather than revere and praise their leader, after the war, many of the guerrillas recounted their hatred for their British major, Tom Harrisson. “One of those amazing stories that wars throw up.” Steven Carroll The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age “Kill the Major reveals much that will be news to the descendants of the Kelabit warriors.” Dr Philip Raja President, Rurum Kelabit Sarawak “While it is now 75 years since Special Operations Australia (SOA) conducted its most successful operation throughout the course of the Second World War, the author has provided a refreshing review of events, and he has reignited much debate over the legacy of Operation Semut!” Major (Rtd.) Jim Truscott Commando—The Magazine of the Australian Commando Association “Malone’s fascinating book reveals that the Allied guerrillas, with the help of traditional headhunting local tribesmen, did an outstanding job after being dropped into the Borneo jungle during the Pacific War. In particular, Malone builds a strong argument that the 9th Division should have accepted the guerrillas’ accurate intelligence and moved inland to round up the two big groups of Japanese roaming the interior. Instead, following the official Japanese surrender, they chose to withdraw, leaving the loyal locals at the mercy of the Japanese.” Brian Toohey National security writer and former Canberra and Washington correspondent, Australian Financial Review

'Using Nature's Shuttle' is a suspenseful, by turns comic or tragic, but always lively account of how young, idealistic scientists - often the first of their families to go to a university - engaged in basic research that led them to make history in the new fields of plant microbiology and molecular biology. The book passes on the true story of what young scientists in a public Belgian university learned about a million-year-old single cell soil bacterium. This bacterium was able to genetically modify certain plants to produce food that only that bacterium strain could eat. These scientists and their colleagues and rivals figured out how to use that knowledge to genetically modify a variety of plants to make them safer and healthier for man, beast, and the environment. Their genetic modifications made plants cheaper and easier for farmers to grow as well as capable of improving the health and welfare of people in the Third World. The author, Judith M. Heimann, a former diplomat and writer of three published non-fiction books and contributor to two TV documentaries based on them, tells this multi-sided story chiefly through the information she gathered by conducting intensive interviews of each of more than two dozen of the scientists involved. She sees this book as presenting the actual science, as opposed to the current rash of anti-science on this subject, and as encouraging a new generation of young people to opt for careers in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics subjects).

Battlefield Events: Landscape, Commemoration and Heritage is an investigative and analytical study into the way in which significant landscapes of war have been constructed and imagined through events over time to articulate specific narratives and denote consequence and identity. The book charts the ways in which a number of landscapes of war have been created and managed from an events perspective, and how the processes of remembering (along with silencing and forgetting) at these places has influenced the management of these warscapes in the present day. With chapters from authors based in seven different countries on three continents and comparative case studies, this book has a truly international perspective. This timely longitudinal analysis of war commemoration events, the associated landscapes, travel to these destinations and management strategies will be valuable reading for all those interested in war landscapes and events.