On April 21, 1945, the twelve-member crew of the Black Cat set off on one of the last air missions in the European theater of World War II. Ten never came back. This is the story of that crew—where they came from, how they trained, what it was like to fly a B-24 through enemy flak, and who was waiting for them to come home.Historian Thomas Childers, nephew of the Black Cat's radio operator, has reconstructed the lives and tragic deaths of these men through their letters home and through in-depth interviews, both with their families and with German villagers who lived near the crash site. In so doing he unearths confusion about the exact number of crash survivors and ugly rumors of their fate at the hands of the German villagers. His search to determine what really happened leads him to the crash site outside of Regensburg to lay the mystery to rest.In the tradition of Young Men and Fire, Wings of Morning is history as commemoration-an evocation of people and events that brings to life a story of love, loss, and a family's quest for truth.

Wings Of Morning: The Story Of The Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany In World War II

History

Childers, Thomas

Military

Da Capo

Attempts to find out what happened to the ten men who were lost on April 25, 1945 during one of the last air missions over Europe

Wings Of Morning: The Story Of The Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany In World War Ii

Biographies & Memoirs

Da Capo Press

One of our most enduring national myths surrounds the men and women who fought in the so-called "Good War." The Greatest Generation, we're told by Tom Brokaw and others, fought heroically, then returned to America happy, healthy and well-adjusted. They quickly and cheerfully went on with the business of rebuilding their lives. In this shocking and hauntingly beautiful book, historian Thomas Childers shatters that myth. He interweaves the intimate story of three families—including his own—with a decades' worth of research to paint an entirely new picture of the war's aftermath. Drawing on government documents, interviews, oral histories and diaries, he reveals that 10,000 veterans a month were being diagnosed with psycho-neurotic disorder (now known as PTSD). Alcoholism, homelessness, and unemployment were rampant, leading to a skyrocketing divorce rate. Many veterans bounced back, but their struggle has been lost in a wave of nostalgia that threatens to undermine a new generation of returning soldiers. Novelistic in its telling and impeccably researched, Childers's book is a stark reminder that the price of war is unimaginably high. The consequences are human, not just political, and the toll can stretch across generations.

Soldier From The War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II

Americas

Mariner Books

One of our most enduring national myths surrounds the men and women who fought in the so-called "Good War." The Greatest Generation, we're told by Tom Brokaw and others, fought heroically, then returned to America happy, healthy and well-adjusted. They quickly and cheerfully went on with the business of rebuilding their lives. In this shocking and hauntingly beautiful book, historian Thomas Childers shatters that myth. He interweaves the intimate story of three families?including his own?with a decades' worth of research to paint an entirely new picture of the war's aftermath. Drawing on government documents, interviews, oral histories and diaries, he reveals that 10,000 veterans a month were being diagnosed with psycho-neurotic disorder (now known as PTSD). Alcoholism, homelessness, and unemployment were rampant, leading to a skyrocketing divorce rate. Many veterans bounced back, but their struggle has been lost in a wave of nostalgia that threatens to undermine a new generation of returning soldiers. Novelistic in its telling and impeccably researched, Childers's book is a stark reminder that the price of war is unimaginably high. The consequences are human, not just political, and the toll can stretch across generations.

Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany

The dramatic true story of an American pilot, a French schoolteacher, and a British-trained leader of the French underground in the climactic year of World War II In a small village in France during the fateful summer of 1944, three disparate lives converged in an unlikely secret alliance. Just after D-Day, Colette Florin hid downed American bomber pilot Roy Allen in her rooms above the tiny girls' school where she taught. While concealing him not only from the Germans but from her neighbors in the small village, she was drawn deeper into the clandestine world of the regional underground. There she met the local leader of the resistance: Pierre Mulsant, a young Frenchman trained by the British secret service who had parachuted into France in the spring of 1944. Drawn from extensive interviews, letters, and archival documents in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, In the Shadows of War tells their interrelated stories, following these three fascinating people from their Resistance activities in rural France, to Paris and captivity by the Gestapo, to Germany and Buchenwald concentration camp. It is a human story of love and loss, of courage and sacrifice by ordinary people who did not make policy or formulate strategy but whose lives were profoundly altered by war.

Henry Holt and Co.

A "masterful example of nonfiction brought to life"* ―the harrowing account of an aviator's World War II journey and the two people who helped him along the way
 In a small village in France during the fateful summer of 1944, three disparate lives converged in an unlikely secret alliance. Just after D-Day, Colette Florin hid downed American bomber pilot Roy Allen in her rooms above the tiny girls' school where she taught. While concealing him, she was drawn deeper into the clandestine world of the regional underground. There she met the local leader of the Resistance: Pierre Mulsant, a young Frenchman trained by the British secret service who had parachuted into France in the spring of 1944. Drawn from extensive interviews, letters, and archival documents in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, In the Shadows of War follows the fateful twists and turns of Allen's journey from rural France to Paris, capture by the Gestapo, imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and then a POW camp, and eventual liberation. It is an unforgettable, profoundly moving human drama of love and courage and sacrifice.
*The Washington Post Book World

Leaders & Notable People

Holt Paperbacks

The first study based on a large national sample of both urban and rural districts examines the Nazi constituency -- how it was formed, from which social groups, under what conditions, and with what promises. Using advanced statistical techniques to analyze each national election of the Weimar era, Childres offers a new and challenging interpretation of who voted for Hitler's NSDAP and why. He also provides a systematic examination of Nazi campaign strategy.

The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933

Europe

The University of North Carolina Press

The first study based on a large national sample of both urban and rural districts examines the Nazi constituency -- how it was formed, from which social groups, under what conditions, and with what promises. Using advanced statistical techniques to analyze each national election of the Weimar era, Childres offers a new and challenging interpretation of who voted for Hitler's NSDAP and why. He also provides a systematic examination of Nazi campaign strategy.

The Formation of the Nazi Constituency 1919-1933 (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust) (Routledge Library Editions: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust)

In the years preceding publication of this book in 1986 much progress was made in identifying the social sources of support for Hitler’s NSDAP and in determining the tactics employed by the party to mobilise its constituency at grass roots level. It has emerged that the Nazi’s roots were far more diverse than previously assumed, extending beyond the lower middle class to encompass both the affluent bourgeoisie and the working class. This book collects together original studies which represent a distillation of some of the contemporaneous research.

Routledge

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Childers, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Childers, Thomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Childers, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Wings Of Morning: The Story Of The Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany In World War II

Wings Of Morning: The Story Of The Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany In World War Ii

Soldier From The War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II

Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II

In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany

In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany

The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933

The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933

The Formation of the Nazi Constituency 1919-1933 (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust) (Routledge Library Editions: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust)

The Formation of the Nazi Constituency 1919-1933 (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust) (Routledge Library Editions: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust)