This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Views: 156
The Final Storm opens a new front in Jeff Shaara’s gripping chronicle of World War II as soldiers, sailors, and marines sacrifice all for one final push toward decisive victory in the fierce maelstrom of the Pacific theater.As the war in Europe winds down in the wake of the Normandy invasion, the United States has turned its vast military resources toward an all-out effort against the Japanese. In the spring of 1945, Japan’s empire has been pressed slowly back toward its home islands, and the Americans mount a furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan itself—the heavily fortified island of Okinawa. The three-month battle will feature some of the most vicious combat of the entire war, as American troops confront an enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the shame of surrender. With a narrative dexterity befitting his status as a master storyteller, Shaara relates the story of the struggle for Okinawa through the eyes of combatants on both sides: Private Clay Adams, a young marine whose brother Jesse has already earned his share of glory as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in Europe; Admiral Chester Nimitz, who must unite rival army and marine commanders into a cooperative effort; General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the American ground commander trying to live up to the legacy of his father, who led Confederate troops during the Civil War; and General Mitsura Ushijima, the Japanese general in charge of defending the island, who understands what Tokyo will not believe: that his own fight to the death will only delay the inevitable—as the Americans continue their advance toward the home islands and ultimate victory.With the fights raging across the Pacific, a different kind of campaign is being waged in extraordinary secrecy: the development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists who build it know just what they are about to unleash. Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city. As the new president, Harry S Truman, mulls his options, and a Japanese physician named Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a clinic near the city of Hiroshima, citizens on the home front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming.A fitting conclusion to one of the most riveting sagas in military fiction, The Final Storm illuminates the heroism and sacrifice that defined the war in the Pacific, bringing the conflict to life as only Jeff Shaara can.From the Hardcover edition. Views: 156
Review'A grand romp very much in the tradition of Holmes and Watson. Packed with characters Dickens would have been proud of. Wonderful, well written.' --Time Out Product DescriptionNow here’s a murd’rous tale of woe, See a hero misbehave. For it shows a valiant soldier go, By railway to the grave.Yorkshire 1855. Colonel Aubrey Tarleton is a man respected by his neighbours in the small Yorkshire village of South Otterington – as much for his heroic feats in the army as for his social position. So the community is left stunned when Tarleton, deliberately, walks into the path of a speeding train. He is crushed to death on the track, but it is not his broken limbs that attract the attention of the train driver; rather, it is the note pinned to his chest, fluttering in the breeze: ‘Whoever finds me, notify Superintendent Tallis of the Detective Department at Scotland Yard’.The famous Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck, finds his superior officer in great distress when he arrives at the Yard the following morning. Tallis is clutching a letter from his now-deceased friend. In it, Tarleton makes it clear that he no longer wishes to live if he has to do so without his beloved wife, who has disappeared. When the news arrives that a man’s body has been found on the track near Thirsk, the coincidence is too great. Was Tarleton responsible for his wife’s disappearance, and was his suicide the act of a guilty man? Tallis cannot believe that to be the case and sets out for Yorkshire, accompanied by Colbeck and his trusty Sergeant Victor Leeming, determined to uncover the truth. Views: 156
"It was before the Idiot\'s marriage, and in the days when he was nothing more than a plain boarder in Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog\'s High-class Home for Single Gentlemen, that he put what the School-master termed his "alleged mind" on plans for the amelioration of the condition of the civilized." This humorous story describes how the Idiot sets out to improve the lot of civilized man through his inventions - the lot of barbarian man already being well tended to by missionaries and other do-gooders Views: 156
The story of the Australian miners and soldiers who tunnelled under Hill 60 near Ypres and eventually broke through to create a new frontline.On 7 June 1917, 19 massive mines shattered the Messines ridge near Ypres. Ten thousand German soldiers died and the largest man-made explosion in history up until that time smashed open the German frontline. Two of these mines, at Hill 60 and the Caterpillar, were fired my men of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company, made up of miners and engineers rather than parade-ground soldiers. This is the untold, devastatingly brutal story of the battle underground during the First World War, where men suffocated in the blue-grey clay, drowned in the liquid chalk, choked on the poisonous air or died violently in the darkness and foetid air in hand-to-hand fighting. Written by Will Davies, bestselling author of Somme Mud and In The Footsteps of Private Lynch, Beneath Hill 60 tells the complete and inspiring story behind the major motion picture. Views: 156
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. Views: 155
SUMMARY:
It was supposed to be a simple test flight, one that pilot Ariane Austin was on only as a last-ditch backup; intelligent, superhumanly fast automation would handle the test activation and flight of humanity's first faster-than-light vessel. But when the Sandrisson Drive activated, every automated system crashed, the nuclear reactor itself shut down, and only the reflexes and training of a racing pilot saved the test vessel Holy Grail from crashing into the impossible wall that had appeared before them, a wall which is just part of a monstrous enclosure surrounding a space twenty thousand kilometers across. With all artificial intelligences inert and their reactor dead, they had to find some other source of power to reactivate the Sandrisson Drive and—hopefully—take them home. And that was only the beginning. As Ariane, Dr. Simon Sandrisson, darkly enigmatic power engineer Marc C. DuQuesne, and the rest of the Holy Grail's crew explore the immense artifact, they discover that they are not alone; they have entered a place the alien inhabitants call ?The Arena,? and there is no way out without joining one of the alien factions . . . or winning recognition as a faction in their own right, playing by the Arena's rules ? and by the Arena's rules, one failed challenge could mean death or worse ? perhaps for the entire human race. Surrounded by alien factions, each with its own secret plans and motivations, some wielding powers so strange as to be magical, Ariane sets out to beat the Arena at its own game. With DuQuesne's strategies, Sandrisson's genius, and her own unyielding determination, she's going to bring the Holy Grail home ? even if she has to beat every faction in the Arena to do it! Views: 155
The First Day of Spring is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Mari Wolf is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Mari Wolf then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 155
Hurt and betrayed by his best friend, Avery is not exactly on a quest to find love when it literally stumbles upon him in the form of Dylan Kincaid, his new, sexy neighbor. Avery is quick to forgive the fact that Dylan's arrival brings with it a series of unfortunate events hairy enough to keep the most optimistic person down, and he sets about trying to get into Dylan's pants. But love isn't so easy to catch, and Avery will have to face Dylan's past and his own aversion to elevators on his way to happiness. Views: 155
The Dance Macabre (Paean on the nature of life and death as a Humanist Philosophy)in six cantosDanse Macabre (French), Danza Macabra (Italian and Spanish), or Totentanz (German), is a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death. Irrespective of one's class in life, the dance of death unites all. The idea consists of the personified death leading a row of dancing figures to the grave, typically with an emperor, king, youngster, and beautiful girl in the troupe. The image above reminds people of how fragile their lives and how vain the glories of earthly life are.[1] Its origins are postulated from illustrated sermon texts; the earliest artistic examples being in a cemetery in Paris circa 1424. Views: 155
"Will He Get His Wedding-Night Baby?"Virginal beauty Cally Maitland has become accustomed to life on the run since fleeing her marriage to British aristocrat Sir Nicholas Tempest.But Nicholas isn't prepared to let Cally go. He has a harsh ultimatum to deliver: give him their long-overdue wedding night–and provide him with an heir! Views: 154
Margaret Vandercook is the "Queen of the Campfire Stories," as many of her books were perfect reading for kids and young adults alike, whether the setting was on the ranch or the frontier. Nearly 60 years after her death, her books continue to be read across the world today. Views: 154
Nothing can be farther from the truth than this view of the subject. In reality, what the Church fought for during this long struggle was--not power, but--liberty. She refused to admit that she was a corporation existing by the permission, or the creation of the State. She claimed to be a spiritual society, existing by the fiat of the will of God, entirely independent in her own sphere, having a government of her own; executive, legislative, and judicial rights and duties of her own; an end of her own, far above and beyond the affairs of this world. It was for this liberty and independence that her martyrs had died, her confessors languished in prison, her saints prayed and suffered. When the rulers of the world became Christian, the difficulties in the way of her liberty did not cease; they only assumed a new form. Views: 153
