The Veteran's Bookstore
| From 1941-1945 the United States engaged in World War II. This conflict and the results of it shaped modern world history as no other war ever had. These books offer a sampling of that war and its aftermath. |
Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen
by Bob Greene.
Millions of American soldiers, many of whom had never left their hometowns before, crossed the nation by rail during the years of World War II on their way to training camps and distant theaters of battle. In a little town in Nebraska, countless thousands of them met with extraordinary hospitality--the "miracle" of veteran journalist Bob Greene's title. "The best America there ever was. Or at least, whatever might be left of it."
|
In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
by Doug Stanton.
On July 29, 1945, the heavy cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by torpedos from a Japanese submarine. The ship had just left Tinian, carrying a cargo that would end World War II: the bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima just three weeks later. Of almost 1200 crewmen, only a little more than 300 survived the harrowing ordeal of floating in shark-invested waters for 5 days waiting to be rescued. An incredible story of bravery and survival, topped off with an unbelievable Navy cover-up and court marshal. |
 A Bridge Too Far
by Cornelius Ryan.An account of a significant World War II battle discusses the airborne struggles at Arnhem and documents the related human issues with the words of Dutch civilians, British and American strategists, common soldiers, and commanders. |
 The Corps:Semper Fi (Book 1)
by W. E. B. Griffin.
First in the author's five-volume series The Corps, Semper Fi sets the stage for WW II. It is the '30s, and we meet the old corps, as it existed between WW I and WW II -- on station in Shanghai, at Quantico, in Washington, all nicely contrasted with civilian life stateside.
|
 The Corps:Call to Arms (Book 2)
by W. E. B. Griffin
From Pearl Harbor to Midway, from the Philippines to the South Pacific, the soldiers of the Corps unite in a glorious battle of courage and honor. Call to Arms is their story--a story of lovers and fighters, leaders and heroes, America's proudest Marines.
|
 The Corps:Counterattack (Book 3)
by W. E. B. Griffin
No one captures the drama of war as brilliantly as bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin. The Corps is his multi-volume portrait of the Marine Corps, the brave men and women who fought, loved and died in the sweeping turmoil of WW II.
COUNTERATTACK, the third book in the series, highlights America's first bold counterstrike against the Japanese: Guadalcanal. Bitterly resisted by Japanese troops, the U.S. Marines fought a close, bloody and gruelling battle to its successful conclusion.
|
 The Corps: Corps Battleground (Book 4)
by W. E. B. Griffin
Book Four in the continuing saga of The Corps, from the author of Counterattack which became an immediate national bestseller in hardcover. "The Corps combines the best elements of military history and the war story", wrote Publishers Weekly, "the telling detail and political tangle of one mated to the energy and sweep of the other". Here is a story of one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Pacific, the epic struggle for Guadalcanal.
|
 The Corps: Line of Fire (Book 5)
by W. E. B. Griffin
Two marines trapped on a small Coastwatcher island while reporting on Japanese air activity must rely for their survival on the special rescue team that has been assembled to save them.
|
 American Caesar by William Manchester. The author served in the Pacific as a combat Marine during World War II. He later went on to become an award-winning journalist and writer of some of the most poignant assessments of modern history. In this book, he takes an uncompromising look at General Douglas MacArthur, one of the most controversial military figures of the 20th century. |
 At Dawn We Slept:The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor by Gordon William Prange. The monumental history of Pearl Harbor that The New York Times
called "impossible to forget"--now with a new chapter by Goldstein
and Dillon. Based on 37 years of massive research and countless
interviews, this is a landmark study written with the dramatic sweep
of a martial epic. 16 pages of photographs.
|
The Avengers by Rich Cohen.
Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews, has written what he calls "a Holocaust story without a concentration camp" about Jewish resistance fighters during World War II. The Avengers: A Jewish War Story describes how three young Jews--Cohen's cousin Ruzka Korczak, her friend Abba Kovner, and Kovner's future wife Vitka Klemperer--created an armed, underground movement behind the German lines in Poland with the goal of sabotaging the Nazis and helping the Russians advance. Cohen reports that Kovner described the group's dilemma this way: "If we act cowardly, we die; if we act courageously, we die. So we might as well act courageously."
|
 Bataan:Our Last Ditch:The Bataan Campaign, 1942
by John W. Whitman.
Based on letters, interviews with veterans, and the US Army's official
history, Lt. Col. Whitman (army staff, the Pentagon) provides a
detailed military history of the attack, defense, and fall of Bataan.
|
Battle of Wits : The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II
by Stephen Budiansky. A million pages of new World War II codebreaking records have been released by the U.S. Army and Navy and the British government over the last five years. Now, Battle of Wits presents the history of the war that these documents reveal. From the Battle of Midway until the last German code was broken in January 1945, this is an astonishing epic of a war that was won not simply by brute strength but also by reading the enemy's intentions.
|
 The Caine Mutiny : A Novel of World War II
by Herman Wouk.
Novel by Herman Wouk, published in 1951. The novel was awarded the
1952 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The Caine Mutiny grew out of Wouk's
experiences aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific in World War
II. The novel focuses on Willie Keith, a rich New Yorker assigned to the
USS Caine, who gradually matures during the course of the book. But the
work is best known for its portrayal of the neurotic Captain Queeg, who
becomes obsessed with petty infractions at the expense of the safety of ship
and crew. |
Citizen Soldiers
By Stephen E. Ambrose.The book that influenced the making of the movie Saving Private Ryan. |
 D-Day June 6, 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II
by Stephen E. Ambrose.
This monumental narrative provides a compelling portrait of the
strategic dimesnions of the invasion that changed the course of the
World War II, skillfully melding eyewitness accounts of American,
British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, materials from
government and private archives, and never-before-utilized sources
from the homefront. Photos & maps.
|
 Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal by Max Brand. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with pilots and ground crew of the legendary 212th Marine Fighter Squadron, bestselling author Max Brand brings a pivotal World War II campaign to life in all its grit and glory. Photos throughout. |
Flags of Our Fathers
by James Bradley, Ron Powers (Contributor).
The Battle of Iwo Jima, fought in the winter of 1945 on a rocky island south of Japan, brought a ferocious slice of hell to earth: in a month's time, more than 22,000 Japanese soldiers would die defending a patch of ground a third the size of Manhattan, while nearly 26,000 Americans fell taking it from them. The battle was a turning point in the war in the Pacific, and it produced one of World War II's enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point.
One of those young Americans was John Bradley, a Navy corpsman who a few days before had braved enemy mortar and machine-gun fire to administer first aid to a wounded Marine and then drag him to safety. For this act of heroism Bradley would receive the Navy Cross, an award second only to the Medal of Honor.
|
 Goodbye Darkness : A Memoir of the Pacific War
by William Manchester. Noted journalist and historian William Manchester returns to the Pacific where he fought during World War II as a Marine. A compelling and gripping rememberance. |
The Greatest Generation
by Tom Brokaw.
Veteran reporter and NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw went to France to make a documentary marking the 40th anniversary of D-day in 1984. Although he was thoroughly briefed on the historical background of the invasion, he was totally unprepared for how it would affect him emotionally. Flooded with childhood memories of World War II, Brokaw began asking veterans at the ceremony to revisit their past and talk about what happened....The result is a moving series of essays about the men and women who, tempered by their war experience, went on to create the most significant and explosive growth of a nation in modern history.
|
 Marine! The Life of Chesty Pullerby Burke Davis. From commanding the Horse Marines in Peking to leading the Inchon landing, Puller became a legend in his own time. Now, Davis offers a no-holds-barred biography of this courageous hero--the only Marine in history ever to win five Navy Crosses. |
My War
by Andy Rooney, Tom Brokaw (Foreword).
On July 7, 1941, a young Colgate University football player named Andy Rooney reported for U.S. Army training. He was, Rooney allows, not prime military material. He had a knack for enraging the drill instructors with his wisecracks, and for pulling harsh assignments as a result, and his shenanigans got him disqualified from officer candidacy. Still, Rooney survived boot camp and served for a time as an artilleryman until being reassigned to the daily newspaper Stars and Stripes. Lucky for him, too: in 1942 his old outfit ran into trouble in North Africa, fighting against Erwin Rommel, and although few of them were killed, Rooney writes, "there's a good possibility I would have spent all of 1943, 1944, and six months of 1945 in a German prison camp."
|
 Nuts!:The Battle of the Bulge:The Story and Photographs
by Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon, J. Michael Wenger, The commemorative account of World War II's best-known engagement
on the Western Front, this book commemorates the great battle that
thwarted Hitler's final gamble in the West. Arranged in an accessible
documentary-style format, the extensive collection of photos and
authoritative text. Maps. |
 Patton:A Genius for War
by Carlo D'Este.Based on exclusive access to his personal and public papers, and with the full cooperation of his family, Patton is an intimate look at the colorful, charismatic, and sometimes controversial man who became the one general the Germans respected and feared the most during World War II. Photos. |
 Saving Private Ryan: A Film by Steven Speilberg
|
 The Second World War
by John Keegan. The best one-volume treatment available, The Second World War by John
Keegan is an outstanding synthesis of an enormous amount of material on
"the largest single event in human history." The book proceeds
chronologically through the war, but chapters appearing at appropriate
moments focus on particular themes, such as war production, occupation,
bombing, resistance, and espionage. Keegan's ability to translate the war's
grand strategies is impressive, and the battle descriptions are superb.
Generals obviously play a key role in this narrative, but ordinary soldiers
also receive proper credit, as do the often-overlooked merchant marines
whose heroic efforts to supply Great Britain made the Allied victory
possible.
|
 US Carriers at War by Peter Kilduff .
Some of the greatest exploits of US Navy aircraft carrier operations - in
both the Atlantic and the Pacific - are told in this book by American aviation
historian Peter Kilduff. The product of extensive research, this book
portrays in personal account and from official documentation the stories of
courage in the face of adversity and triumph after struggle that marked the
air operations from the flight decks of the US Navy aircraft carriers at war. |
 The War Journal of Major Damon 'Rocky' Gause
by Damon Rocky Gause, Damon L. Gause (Introduction), Stephen E. Ambrose
An American pilots remarkable diary, copied in a small notebook hidden in a footlocker for over 50 years, records his amazing escape from the notorious March of Death ordeal inflicted by Japanese soldiers on American and Filipino POW's and his further dangerous adventures during the last days of Bataan and Corregidor in the 1942 Philippines.
|