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Brothers in arms : one legendary tank regiment's bloody war from D-day to VE-day / by Holland, James,1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In the annals of World War II, certain groups of soldiers stand out, and among the most notable were the Sherwood Rangers. Originally a cavalry unit in the last days of horses in combat, whose officers were landed gentry leading men who largely worked for them, they were switched to the "mechanized cavalry" of tanks in 1942. Winning acclaim in the North African campaign, the Sherwood Rangers then spearheaded one of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, led the way across France, were the first British troops to cross into Germany, and contributed mightily to Germany's surrender in May 1945. Inspired by Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, acclaimed WWII historian James Holland memorably profiles an extraordinary group of citizen soldiers constantly in harm's way. Their casualties were horrific, but nonetheless their ranks immediately refilled. Informed by never-before-seen documents, letters, photographs, and other artifacts from Sherwood Rangers' families-an ongoing fraternity-and by his own deep knowledge of the war and of tank warfare, Holland offers a uniquely intimate portrait of the conflict at ground level. He introduces heretofore unknowns such as Commanding Officer Stanley Christopherson, squadron commander John Semken, Sergeant George Dring, the remarkable regimental chaplain Leslie Skinner, and other memorable characters who helped the regiment become the single unit with the most battle honors of any ever in the British army. Following the Sherwood Rangers' brutal journey over the dramatic eleven months between D-Day and VE-Day, weaving their exploits into the larger narrative and strategy of the war, Holland argues that the U.S.-built Sherman tank in which they fought was one of the finest in action, and he presents a vivid and original perspective on the endgame of WWII in Europe"--
Subjects: Great Britain. Army. Nottinghamshire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sisters in resistance : how a German spy, a banker's wife, and Mussolini's daughter outwitted the Nazis / by Mazzeo, Tilar J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1944, the war had reached its climax in continental Europe. News of secret diaries kept by Italy's former Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, had permeated public consciousness. What wasn't reported, however, was how three women-a Fascist's daughter, a German spy, and an American socialite-risked their lives to ensure the diaries would reach the Allied forces, who would use the papers as key evidence against the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. Just a year earlier, Edda Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's daughter, had given Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband's journals to the press. Knowing the diaries will expose Nazi lies and create a foundation for a criminal war crimes prosecution, Hitler and Mussolini vow to do everything in their power to see the diaries destroyed-even if it means liquidating Mussolini's daughter. To do this, they ordered Hilde Beetz, a German spy, to seduce Ciano in prison in order to learn the diaries' location. As the seducer becomes the seduced, however, Hilde shifts her loyalties and becomes a double agent, joining forces with Edda to save Ciano from execution. When this fails, Edda flees to Switzerland with Hilde's daring assistance to keep Ciano's final wish: to see the diaries published for use by the Allies. When the head of United States' intelligence, Alan Dulles, learns of Edda's escape, he sends in socialite Frances De Chollet, an "accidental" spy, assigned by chance to a mission that would change her life. Her task is to find Edda, gain her trust, and, crucially, hand the diaries over to the Americans. Against all expectations, what develops is a rich and humanizing friendship between the two women. One step ahead of the Gestapo agents who are hunting Edda, together they succeed in preserving one of the most important historic documents of the Second World War. Drawing from in-depth research and first-person interviews with people who witnessed parts of this true story, Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this little-known moment in cultural history and shows how, without Edda, Hilde, and Frances's involvement, certain convictions would never have been possible at Nuremberg. Sisters in Resistance is a powerful look at women's intelligence work during WWII, a moving story of unlikely wartime friendships, and an inspirational investigation into three people who, navigated the place where truth, loyalty, justice, and betrayal collide"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa.; Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944; Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944.; Purwin, Hilde, 1919-2010.; Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel. Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Amt VI.; Espionage, German; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Avenue of spies [sound recording] : a true story of terror, espionage, and one American family's heroic resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris / by Kershaw, Alex,author.; Deakins, Mark,narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Mark Deakins."The best-selling author of The Liberator brings to life the incredible true story of an American doctor in Paris, and his heroic espionage efforts during the Second World War. The leafy Avenue de Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris's hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son Phillip at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high. Just down the road at Number 31 was the 'mad sadist' Theodor Dannecker, an Eichmann protege charged with deporting French Jews to concentration camps. And Number 84 housed the Parisian headquarters of the Gestapo, run by the most effective spy hunter in Nazi Germany. From his office at the American Hospital, itself an epicenter of Allied and Axis intrigue, Jackson smuggled fallen Allied fighter pilots safely out of France, a job complicated by the hospital director's close ties to collaborationist Vichy. After witnessing the brutal round-up of his Jewish friends, Jackson invited Liberation to officially operate out of his home at Number 11--but the noose soon began to tighten. When his secret life was discovered by his Nazi neighbors, he and his family were forced to undertake a journey into the dark heart of the war-torn continent from which there was little chance of return. Drawing upon a wealth of primary source material and extensive interviews with Phillip Jackson, Alex Kershaw recreates the City of Light during its darkest days. The untold story of the Jackson family anchors the suspenseful narrative, and Kershaw dazzles readers with the vivid immediacy of the best spy thrillers. Awash with the tense atmosphere of World War II's Europe, Avenue of Spies introduces us to the brave doctor who risked everything to defy Hitler"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Jackson, Sumner Waldron; Jackson, Sumner Waldron.; Americans; Audiobooks.; Physicians; Spies; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Ancient bones : unearthing the astonishing new story of how we became human / by Böhme, Madelaine,1967-author.; Begun, David R.,writer of foreword.; Billinghurst, Jane,1958-translator.; Braun, Rüdiger,1966-author.; Breier, Florian,author.; translation of:Böhme, Madelaine,1967-Wie wir Menschen wurden.English.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-321) and index.A thrilling new account of human origins, as told by the paleontologist who led the most groundbreaking dig in recent history.-- Somewhere west of Munich, Madelaine Böhme and her colleagues dig for clues to the origins of humankind. What they discover is beyond anything they imagined: the fossilized bones of Danuvius guggenmosi ignite a global media frenzy. This ancient ancestor defies our knowledge of human history--his nearly twelve-million-year-old bones were not located in Africa--the so-called birthplace of humanity--but in Europe, and his features suggest we evolved much differently than scientists once believed.In prose that reads like a gripping detective novel, Ancient Bones interweaves the story of the dig that changed everything with the fascinating answer to a previously undecided and now pressing question: How, exactly, did we become human? Placing Böhme's discovery alongside former theories of human evolution, the authors show how this remarkable find (and others in Eurasia) are forcing us to rethink the story we've been told about how we came to be, a story that has been our guiding narrative--until now.
Subjects: Evolution (Biology); Human beings.; Human evolution.; Paleoanthropology;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lilac girls : a novel / by Kelly, Martha Hall,author.;
"On a September day in Manhattan in 1939, twenty-something Caroline Ferriday is consumed by her efforts to secure the perfect boutonniere for an important French diplomat and resisting the romantic advances of a married actor. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish Catholic teenager, is nervously anticipating the changes that are sure to come since Germany has declared war on Poland. As tensions rise abroad - and in her personal life - Caroline's interest in aiding the war effort in France grows and she eventually comes to hear about the dire situation at the Ravensbruck all-female concentration camp. At the same time, Kasia's carefree youth is quickly slipping away, only to be replaced by a fervor for the Polish resistance movement. Through Ravensbruck - and the horrific atrocities taking place there told in part by an infamous German surgeon, Herta Oberheuser - the two women's lives will converge in unprecedented ways and a novel of redemption and hope emerges that is breathtaking in scope and depth"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Ravensbrück (Concentration camp); Nazis; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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A bookseller in Madrid : a novel / by Escobar, Mario,1971-author.; Abernathy, Gretchen,translator.; translation of:Escobar, Mario,1971-Librera de Madrid.English.;
"For as long as she can remember, Barbara Spiel has always found solace in books. Born in Germany and having come of age in a tumultuous era, she flees her home country as the Nazis rise to power in the early 1930s. Her destination? Madrid. There she's determined to realize her long-held dream of opening a bookshop and creating a safe haven for young idealists and independent thinkers to come together to transform the world. Yet Spain isn't immune from its own troubles. The winds of change are blowing through both city and countryside, and it's impossible to predict what will happen. When the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War puts Barbara and everyone around her in peril -- including the Spanish Socialist parliamentarian she's fallen deeply in love with -- the terror and hatred seem all too familiar. It's like Germany all over again, only with its own cast of extremist characters. Hounded simultaneously by Stalinist checas, Francoist Facists, and the German Gestapo, Barbara fights to keep her bookstore the safe haven that she's always imagined it would be. But with war brewing both inside Spain and outside its borders throughout the entirety of Europe -- and beyond -- Barbara isn't sure who exactly she can trust, or if people really are who they claim to be."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Booksellers and bookselling; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The last train to London : a novel / by Clayton, Meg Waite,author.;
In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna's streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan's best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents' carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis take control. There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss--Hitler's annexation of Austria--as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape. Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Kindertransports (Rescue operations); Jews; Jewish children; Jewish refugees;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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The secret life of Violet Grant / by Williams, Beatriz.;
"Passion, redemption, and a battered old suitcase full of secrets: the New York Times-bestselling author of A Hundred Summers returns with another engrossing tale of lost love and female ambition that crosses generations. Manhattan, 1964. Vivian Schuyler, newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable for a budding Kennedy-era socialite: break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine. But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family's past, and the hushed-over crime passional of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history. Berlin, 1914. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her marriage to the philandering and decades-older scientist Dr. Walter Grant for one reason: for all his faults, he provides the necessary support to her liminal position as a young American female physicist in prewar Germany. The arrival of Dr. Grant's magnetic former student at the beginning of Europe's fateful summer interrupts this delicate detente. Lionel Richardson, a captain in the British Army, challenges Violet to escape her husband's perverse hold, and as the world edges into war and Lionel's shocking true motives become evident, Violet is tempted to take the ultimate step to set herself free and seek a life of her own conviction with a man whose cause is as audacious as her own. As the iridescent and fractured Vivian digs deeper into her aunt's past and the mystery of her ultimate fate, Violet's story of determination and desire unfolds, shedding light on the darkness of her years abroad and teaching Vivian to reach forward with grace for the ambitious future--and the love--she wants most"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Romantic suspense fiction.; Aunts; Family secrets; Nieces; World War, 1914-1918;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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Admiral / by Stockwin, Julian,author.;
1814: Ashore on leave, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd learns of a dismal harvest and general hardship among the population. In Germany, Napoleon Bonaparte is celebrating victories that once again make his name feared throughout Europe. An armistice is signed and while the Allies lick their wounds Bonaparte sets to preparing for a grand advance. And, in a fragile peace, and saddled with huge war debts, the government has no choice but to place HMS Thunderer, along with many other Royal Navy ships, in reserve, until the Navy can decide what to do with their great fleets. Meanwhile, Kydd is offered an admiral's flag but this is the West Africa station and the anti-slavery operations set in fever-ridden swamps. Despite the obvious dangers and hardships, Kydd sees this as the realisation of his life's ambition and readies for sea in his beloved Thunderer as his flagship. In a turn of the tide Bonaparte is defeated by the Allies and exiled to the tiny island of Elba. Then electrifying news breaks out -- the tyrant has escaped and is marching on Paris, the citizens flocking to join him. The British government as well is rocked by a realisation that Napoleon's invasion fleet is still in being and if the French navy declares for him they can sail from the ports now free of blockade and make the invasion of England a reality. The Channel Fleet has been stood down, its ships in various stages of repair, its commander on leave in the country. There's one man in active service who happens to be on the spot -- Admiral Sir Thomas Kydd. With frantic haste he's appointed temporary commander-in-chief to sail with all the men-o'-war that can be scraped together to stand athwart the French. Kydd knows this will probably mean the sacrifice of not only his ships but himself and his men. He calls on subterfuge and daring to flaunt defiance and resolution until the Battle of Waterloo settles the matter. Then, he has the satisfaction of seeing Napoleon Bonaparte carried off to St Helena, from whence he can never return.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Sea fiction.; War fiction.; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821; Admirals; Battleships; Kydd, Thomas (Fictitious character); Seafaring life;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last train to London [sound recording] : a novel / by Clayton, Meg Waite,author.; Lee, John,narrator.; Harper Audio (Firm),publisher.; Blackstone Audio, Inc.,publisher.;
Read by John Lee.In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna's streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan's best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents' carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis take control. There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss--Hitler's annexation of Austria--as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape. Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Kindertransports (Rescue operations); Jews; Jewish children; Jewish refugees;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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