World War I & II

From a brave American veteran comes an eyewitness account of a gruesome chapter in World War II history.

Captured when America surrendered the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula, James Bollich experienced first-hand the march that cost more than 8,000 American and Filipino lives. Now, he shares the unforgettable experience of his three and a half years of Japanese imprisonment.  

This journal relates his personal experience, first focusing on the sixty-five-mile march that deprived prisoners of food, water, and rest. Prisoners received harsh punishments for any infraction, one of the most brutal of these being the policy of beheading them for taking a sip of water. Rather than force him to give up, these things made Bollich fight for life even more. Witnessing his comrades falling beside him and watching his own body waste away to ninety pounds, he never yielded his will to survive.

After completing the march, he remained a prisoner of war, first at an old Philippine army base, then in another camp at Mukden, Manchuria. He relates his imprisonment in detail, from starvation and torture to digging their own comrades graves in the hot sun, without hats or water. Through it all, he remained courageous and hopeful that he would one day make it back home. His story reminds both past and present generations of the horror and brutality of the Pacific war, all the while providing an inspiring testament to the will of the human spirit.

This journal recounts the 65-mile journey, during which prisoners had no food, water, or rest. The author survived the POW camps on the Philippine island of Luzon.

“There was no way to anticipate the horrors of the holocaust that awaited us on the Dog Green Sector.”

—Dr. Harold Baumgarten

It was the bravery and heroism of the 116th Infantry that began one of the longest days of combat in American war history. In the face of heavy fire and despite suffering the loss of eight hundred men and officers, the 116th Infantry overcame beach obstacles, took the enemy-defended positions along the beach and cliffs, pushed through the mined area, and continued inshore to successfully accomplish their objective.

A member of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, veteran Harold Hal Baumgarten gives his firsthand account of the June 6, 1944, landing on Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach. A multidecorated hero, Baumgarten was wounded five times before being evacuated. In 1991, he served as a consultant for the filming of the WWII movie Saving Private Ryan.

A history of how seven Lakota Sioux aided the United States’s fight against Japan and bring and end to the Second World War.

In World War II, code-making and code-breaking reached a feverish peak. The fabled Enigma Cipher had been broken, and all sides were looking for a secure, reliable means of communication. Many have heard of the role of the Navajo Code Talkers, but less well-known are the Sioux Code Talkers using the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota dialects.

Told by the great-niece of John Bear King, who served in the First Cavalry in the Pacific Theatre as a Sioux Code Talker, this comprehensively informative title explores not only the importance of the indigenous peoples to the war, but also their culture and values. The Sioux Code Talkers of World War II follows seven Sioux who put aside a long history of prejudice against their people and joined the fight against Japan. With a personal touch and a deft eye for engaging detail, author Andrea M. Page brings the Lakota story to life.

A popular career choice for most five year olds, firefighting conjures images of pump trucks, sirens, and ladders. This informative and fun ABC journey gives a bit of firefighting history with B is for bucket brigade and moves into the 21st century with T is for thermal imaging camera. The colorful illustrations sport a spotted Dalmatian hidden on every page.

An in-depth look at the doomed U.S. Army Air Force attack on Romanian oil fields vital to Hitler's success.

In 1943, the Allied powers were grasping for anything to undercut Hitler's power and relieve his relentless pressure on the Red Army, which had already suffered a staggering 11 million casualties. The U.S. Army Air Force planned Operation Tidal Wave, which would take off from Benghazi, Libya, fly low and maintain complete radio silence to escape Axis observation, and bomb Hitler's vital oil fields in Ploesti, Romania. On August 1, 177 B-24 bombers prepared to take off. Fourteen hours later, only 88 B-24s returned.

Operation Tidal Wave was a massive strategic defeat. However, it proved the mettle of the USAAF and provided a rallying point for the public. Author William R. Bradle offers the definitive account of this doomed operation: the strengths, weaknesses, heroism, and failings and takes readers into the thick of the action with thrilling accounts from many of the crews.

Praise for The Daring World War II Raid on Ploesti

"This account of the Ploesti mission does an admirable job of laying out the planning, personalities, and attendant conflicts among many participants, the mistakes made and losses inflicted by the Germans and Romanians. An eminently readable story that further emphasizes and demonstrates the mettle of the Greatest Generation." —New York Journal of Books

Now in paperback! A secret American Army unit made up of actors, writers, artists, and set designers and relying on dummy equipment played a key role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Known as the Ghost Army and trained in the art of military deception, the Twenty-third Headquarters Special Troops launched its unique mission in France shortly after the Normandy invasion. Its goal: to confuse, mislead, and deceive the German Army.

Using top-secret government files declassified in 1996 and extensive interviews with many of the participants, author Jack Kneece recounts in these pages this remarkable story of military boldness and ingenuity—all carried out under the strictest secrecy.

A contingent of only 1,100 men, the Twenty-third regularly assumed the identities of much larger, more heavily armed units in its effort to confound the enemy by simulating large concentrations of men and materiel. It did so by using dummy tanks, trucks, and artillery, fake aircraft, and even cast-iron paratroopers. Phony radio traffic and convincing sound effects added to the illusion.

German soldiers referred to the unit as “the Phantom Army,” noting that at one moment it might be poised in front of them, and minutes later it could be attacking from the flank or the rear. It was, in a word, deception—skillful, calculated deception on a grand military scale.