Silent Invaders: Combat Gliders of the Second World War

Combat gliders were called by some as ‘Death Crates’, ‘Purple Heart Boxes’, ‘Flying Coffins’ and ‘Tow Targets’. They were not pretty and had no graceful lines. Viewed from the front, they had a pug nose and a sloping Neanderthal forehead. Their wings looked like the heavily starched ears of a jackrabbit placed at right angles on a canvas-covered frame. Twice the length of the body, these wings were eighty-four feet in length, 70 per cent as long as the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. They could not become airborne, let alone fly, unless assisted by an engine-powered tow plane. And for those riding in the back, it was like flying ‘through the gates of hell’. The men who were trained and assigned to guide gliders into battle were said to be the only pilots who had no motors, armament, parachutes and no second chances. Like the aircraft they commanded, they were called inglorious names such as The Bastards Nobody Wanted, Glider Gladiators in Wooden Chariots; Hybrid Jackasses and Glory Boys. Beautifully written, profoundly illustrated and researched, Silent Invaders: Combat Gliders of the Second World War is a work that is dedicated to those brave men under impossible odds from the British and American servicemen on D-Day, the doomed Operation Market Garden in Holland and Hitler’s radical commando raid to rescue Mussolini.

History

Best, Gary

Military

Fonthill Media

JFK had won the Presidency in 1960 by a razor thin majority, and his reelection campaign for 1964 was expected to be as close. He began it in November 1963 with a kick-off multi-city, four-day swing across the important state of Texas. It was going unexpectedly well when shots were fired into his triumphant motorcade in downtown Dallas that ripped history apart, changing it forever The assassination of American President John F. Kennedy in 1963 came at the very height of both the Cold War following the Second World War and the Pax Americana that was thought to exist at the war's conclusion in 1945. The United States and its allies possessed a far greater number of nuclear weapons than their Soviet adversaries, but the latter could unleash World War 3 and a nuclear Armageddon that would destroy them all. The sudden and totally unexpected murder in broad daylight in an American city of one of the most popular presidents in history was the murder mystery of the 20th century. The Cold War could have become hot and nuclear within minutes. The murderer had to be found and vital questions had to be answered quickly. Who did it, why and who ordered Kennedy's assassination? Was the deed part of a conspiracy: foreign, domestic or both? Were none of the these questions part of the bloody puzzle and was it entirely possible that only one man was responsible? The questions remain to this very day and Dallas Fifty Years On: The Murder of John F. Kennedy reveals sensational new evidence, eyewitness accounts and top secret documentation.

Dallas 50 Years On: The Murder of John F. Kennedy

Taylor, Blaine

Americas

The city of Revere is comprised of 3,750 acres along the Atlantic Ocean and is situated midway between the cities of Lynn and Boston. The geographic area that is currently called Revere was first known as Rumney Marsh. The earliest inhabitants of this area were the Rumney Marsh Indians belonging to the Pawtucket Tribe of a great nation called Aberginians.

Revere Through Time (America Through Time)

William J. Craig

When humans learned, in 1903, they could cruise over land in a heavier than air flying machine, they never dreamed of using an advanced model of the airplane as an instrument of war. The novelty of flying intrigued a young Glenn H. Curtiss-an inventor obsessed with speed. In the decade before World War One, Curtiss a dedicated tinkerer developed speedy float planes and flying boats which came to the attention of the U.S. Navy. During the run-up to America's involvement in the European war, ships carrying supplies to allies were being destroyed by the German U-boats. It was because of these losses of men and material that Navy brass decided a long range bomber should be developed to counter the German submarine menace. It was then Glenn Curtiss was contracted to draw plans for a large flying boat capable of flying across the Atlantic. Initially, four flying boats were built, but by this time the war had ended ant the mission of the flying boats no longer existed. However, America decided to send its new giant flying machines across the Atlantic as a show of Yankee know-how.

The U.S. Navy-Curtiss Flying Boat NC-4: An Account of the First Transatlantic Flight

Simpson, Richard V.

Feldpost: The Wartime Letters of Friedrich Reiner Niemann documents the life and frontline experiences of a German soldier from the 6th Infantry Division from 1941-1945. Niemann, a well-educated youth from an artist family in Cologne, was sent to the Russian Front four times. In his extensive correspondence, Niemann describes the fighting at Rzhev, Russia, 1942-1943, and his survival of the destruction of his division during the Soviet summer offensive in 1944. His is a rare view of battles that annihilated entire German divisions and armies. He wrote his final two letters home from the front in Poland on 12 January 1945 before he disappeared during the Soviet Vistula-Oder Offensive. After the Second World War, the Niemann family preserved Reiner's letters and photographs, and shipped them to New Orleans when Reiner's sister, Liselotte Andersson, had emigrated. Neglected in an attic for over fifty years, the documents surfaced only after Hurricane Katrina flooded the family house. Andersson's daughter-in-law, author Whitney Stewart, discovered the letters in 2012 and contacted Denis Havel to translate them. Together, Havel and Stewart uncovered historical details that enabled them to follow Reiner's trail and tell his story.

Feldpost: The War Letters of Friedrich Reiner Niemann

Biographies & Memoirs

Havel, Denis

Historical

In March 1935, Goering unveiled to the world his formerly "black,' secret German Air Force, the later dreaded Luftwaffe. That April, he married his second wife, a popular German stage actress, and in May solidified Germany's pre-1939 surprisingly good relations with neighboring Poland. In March 1936, the Luftwaffe took part in the peaceful occupation of the formerly French-occupied Rhineland, and by the end of the year, Goering was also the recognized economic dictator of the Third Reich via heading the Nazi Four Year Plan. A State Visit to Rome in January 1937 made him a main player regarding the future Reich alliance with Fascist Italy and that November, he hosted Europe's largest hunting exposition of 50 years at Berlin. Overshadowing all of this, however, was the top-secret Hossbach war conference, at which Hitler announced his intention go to war by 1943 in order to seize Russian territory for an expanded German empire in the east. In all of the above, Goering was the main player, second only to Hitler, especially regarding the economy and the air force.

Hermann Goering: From Secret Luftwaffe to Hossbach War Conference 1935-37: The Personal Photograph Albums of Hermann Goering

Leaders & Notable People

The soldiers in Hood’s Texas Brigade who fought at Antietam on September 16 - 17, 1862, described intense and harrowing experiences of the fierce battle in the days, weeks and decades after the battle. Their experiences were written in official reports, diary entries, interviews, newspaper articles, and letters to families at home. These memories provide a fascinating and descriptive account of the battle against the Union Army of the Potomac at Miller’s Cornfield, the Dunker Church and other locations at the battlefield. The 1st Texas Infantry at Miller’s Cornfield would suffer an 82.3 per cent casualty rate and their heroics were written down by the soldiers of the 1st Texas Infantry. All the other regiments of Hood’s Texas Brigade would suffer over a 50 per cent casualty rate at the battle. Included are testimonials of Union soldiers who fought against the soldiers of Hood’s Texas Brigade are included together for the first time in Texans at Antietam: A Terrible Clash of Arms, September 16-17, 1862, by Joseph L. Owen, Philip McBride and Joe Allport.

Texans at Antietam: A Terrible Clash of Arms, September 16-17, 1862

MCBRIDE, PHILIP

Owen, Joe

Allport, Joe

In 1919, Hermann Goering went to Denmark as a stunt flyer, then on to Sweden to fly passengers, one of whom introduced the daredevil to his future first wife, a then married Swedish Countess; they scandalized Stockholm. Goering joined the Nazi Party, as commander of the early SA Stormtroopers. In the celebrated Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, Goering was severely wounded, and fled. Thus began a four-year exile in which Goering became a practicing morphine addict in Austria, Italy, and Sweden, and was committed to an insane asylum in a straitjacket. Goering returned to Germany under a political amnesty, and blackmailed Hitler into putting him up for election to the Reichstag as a Nazi candidate in 1928. He won, and four years later, was elected its President. He helped convince Germany's power elite to name Hitler Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Taking over Prussia's police force-and during the upheaval of the Reichstag fire and trial-Goering ruthlessly smashed all non-Nazi parties. Then came the inter-Party Blood Purge of the Night of the Long Knives of 30 June 1934 that Goering directed in Berlin. This cemented his position as the Fuhrer's second-in-command, after having been declared insane!

Hermann Goering: Beer Hall Putsch to Nazi Blood Purge 1923-34: The Personal Photograph Albums of Hermann Goering

Vietnam War Army Helicopter Nose Art brings to light over 250 recently recovered Vietnam War photographs from Army aviation veterans. The vast majority of these photographs have never before been published, with them all capturing that quintessential and unmistakable American war custom of embellishing one’s assigned aircraft with personalized markings. Each is accompanied by a caption containing data particular for each featured image: helicopter name, unit, serial number, photo date, photo location, crew names, artist name, photo contributor, and anecdotal information.Against a backdrop of censorship, political correctness, and military directives to the contrary, in-country Army helicopter nose art flourished in Vietnam, and the failure to acknowledge this archetypal convention in any study of Army aviation history demonstrates a lack of respect for the personal cost of conflict.Although ‘Iron Butterfly’ may not be as well-known as ‘Memphis Belle’ or ‘Enola Gay’ from World War II, it nonetheless carried its crews into battle with just as much passion for life and sense of duty as its predecessors. We all know the ugly politics of that war; these pictures show us the human side of it.

Vietnam War Army Helicopter Nose Art

BRENNAN, JOHN

The year 1938–39 was when Hitler set out on the road of pre-war bloodless conquests, which led to the actual shooting combat over Poland in September 1939. Both willing and unwilling, Hermann Goering was his main acolyte in achieving the peaceful military occupations of Austria and the Czech–German Sudetenland in 1938, followed by that of Bohemia and Moravia, plus Memel in 1939. Prior to this, Goering played perhaps the key role in the Nazi overthrow of the Third Reich’s conservative military and foreign services, being named field marshal as his reward. Having helped Franco win the Spanish Civil War, Goering’s Air Force Legion Kondor also returned home victorious, having acquired valuable air war experience in aces, aircraft, and tactics, which served Goering well in the first phase of World War II. A major factor in making the Allies back down to Germany at the infamous Munich Pact Conference, Goering’s Luftwaffe was the key bargaining chip that gained these unprecedented territorial acquisitions for Hitler—all without a shot being fired. He also helped achieve alliances with Fascist Slovakia and Italy.

Hermann Goering: Blumenkrieg, From Vienna to Prague 1938-39: The Personal Photograph Albums of Hermann Goering

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