Eyewitness to World War II: Unforgettable Stories From History's Greatest Conflict

by Stephen Hyslop

Overview

This elegant narrative edition of Neil Kagan's best-selling Eyewitness to World War II offers incredible first-person stories and amazing moments of heroism, providing new context and perspective on history's greatest conflict. The unforgettable story of World War II is told through the words of those who lived it--both on the battlefield and the home front--creating a dramatic tapestry of the wartime experience. Personal writings and recollections of Roosevelt, Hitler, and Patton, as well as letters composed by soldiers at battle and diaries of women serving in the military at home, present an absorbing narrative that tells the entire history of the war from several perspectives. In this absorbing reader's edition, a carefully curated selection of memorable, significant photographs and illuminating maps from the 2012 book accompanies the revised text. Comprehensive and compelling, this finely wrought book is as gift-worthy as its predecessor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426218897
Publisher:	National Geographic Digital
Publication date:	05/08/2018
Sold by:	DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE -EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
File size:	85 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Stephen Hyslop G.

Read an Excerpt

They still remember. People around the world still honor those young Americans who helped secure their liberty by ending the tyranny of Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini. Schoolchildren on Guam sing songs of tribute to the Marines who stormed their beaches in 1944 and freed that island from Japanese occupiers. The youngsters of Normandy wave American flags on June 6 to commemorate D-Day. The good people of Melbourne have not forgotten the U.S. troops who defended Australia by fighting and dying on land, at sea, and in the air in the struggle for Guadalcanal. In my travels to those battlefields, I have seen the locals offer both solemn memorials and spontaneous expressions of gratitude to the visiting veterans, honors received with tears and heartfelt thanks by the elderly soldiers, sailors, Marines, coast guardsmen, merchant mariners, and airmen.
 
People around the world also remember the evils against which the allies fought. Visiting Manila in 2000, I had the honor of accompanying a group of elderly American veterans known as the Battling Bastards of Bataan, whose determined and courageous but ultimately futile struggle to hold off Japanese invaders ended in a death march to nightmarish prison camps. a Filipino guide accompanying our tour bus had the driver stop at a low statue cut from dark rock, a memorial easily missed on the busy city street. The guide told us this was a monument to all those civilians in his country who died in the war—hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, many of them killed, he said, by Japanese troops. it was a stark reminder of what those American veterans and their allies had been fighting against. Their struggle was a “good war,” not because the combat they engaged in was any les brutal than others, nor because their generation was better than others, but because it was a war that had to be fought, against aggressors who had to be defeated. After vanquishing Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, American helped right those countries and transform them into democratic allies, thereby winning not just the war but the peace….
 
—Hugh Ambrose, author of The Pacific

Table of Contents

Foreword Winston Groom 6

Introduction: A World Gone Mad 10

Chapter 1 Day of Destiny 28

Chapter 2 Awakening Superpowers 60

Chapter 3 Striking Back at Japan 106

Chapter 4 War in the Mediterranean 146

Chapter 5 Long Road to Rome 174

Chapter 6 Island Fighting 216

Chapter 7 The Western Front 272

Chapter 8 Victory Over Germany 318

Chapter 9 Victory Over Japan 364

Contributors 415

Text Rights and Permissions 417

Illustrations Credits 419

Index 421

Editorial Reviews

This book captures both the scale and the human emotion [of WWII]” –Baltimore Sun

“This incredibly dramatic and moving compilation of reportage, first-person accounts and archival photos reminds us why war is hell.” –Sacramento Bee

From the Publisher