Search results for [Military biography] at Tsuga Consortium

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Road to surrender : three men and the countdown to the end of World War II / by Thomas, Evan,1951-author.;

Includes bibliographical references and index."This suspenseful and propulsive account of the days leading up to the end of World War II, is told through the stories of three men: Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atomic bomb; Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in Europe and the Pacific, who was in charge of actually dropping the bombs; and Shigenori Tōgō, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who was the only one in Emperor Hirohito's Court and Supreme War Council who knew and believed that Japan must surrender. 1945 was Stimson's last year of his career as a statesman in the administrations of five presidents. When Truman, a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson's recommendation to drop the bomb, you are there as Army Air Force commander General Spaatz accepts the order, gets into one of the planes, and the planes take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war, and that a prolonged war would cause even greater destruction. But Spaatz and Stimson were on only one side of the story. On the other side of the world was a commander whom they would never meet. From the start of the Pacific war, Foreign Minister Tōgō worked to mediate negotiations between the Japanese Prime Minister, the Emperor, and his Court, all of whom believed surrender was impossible. Finally, Tōgō convinced the Emperor that surrender was the best option for Hirohito, and for Japan"--

Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Spaatz, Carl, 1891-1974.; Stimson, Henry L. (Henry Lewis), 1867-1950.; Tōgō, Shigenori, 1882-1950.; Atomic bomb.; Capitulations, Military; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;

The Marriott cell : an epic journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to freedom / by Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel,author.; Shaben, Carol,author.;

Includes bibliographical references."The revealing, widely anticipated story by the internationally award-winning journalist is as riveting as a political thriller: it opens an astonishing window onto the closed world of geo-political power brokering as he takes us behind his headline-generating seizure and 438-day imprisonment in Cairo's notorious Scorpion Prison with leading terrorists; through the love story that made front-page news; to the profoundly personal drama of one man's fight for freedom, supported by Canadians across the country and media world-wide. With a foreword by international human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney. On the night of December 29, 2013, the Egyptian government's anti-terror forces led a dramatic raid on the Marriott Hotel, seizing Fahmy, Canadian-Egyptian bureau chief for the independent English Al Jazeera, and two fellow journalists in what quickly became an international cause célèbre condemned as a travesty of justice. Inside the maximum-security Scorpion Prison, Fahmy found himself with some of the most hardened Al Qaeda and ISIS extremists and Muslim Brotherhood leaders: always intrepid, he never stopped being a journalist, courageously taking advantage of his unexpected proximity to "interview" them and gain insight into their goals, into the feuds between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE on the one hand, and Qatar and its allies, including Turkey, on the other, and surfacing shocking details of torture inside military camps. Thrown into the toxic mix is the complex geo-political power brokering of our Western governments also, which left three men, wrongly convicted of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood and "fabricating news," struggling in a terrifying web he describes as "Global McCarthyism" and a war on journalism. Threaded through it all is an inspiring love story, as Fahmy's fiancée, Marwa, used every means at her disposal to fight for his release and his health, even to risking her own freedom smuggling cell phones and messages in and out of prison."--

Subjects: Biographies.; Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel; Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel.; False arrest; False imprisonment; Journalists; Journalists; Prisons;

Return of a king : the battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 / by Dalrymple, William.;

Includes bibliographical references (p. [483]-497), and index.LSC

Subjects: Shāh Shujāʻ, Amir of Afghanistan, 1780?-1842.; British;

© 2013., Alfred A. Knopf,

The war we won apart : the untold story of two elite agents who became one of the most decorated couples of WWII / by Ayed, Nahlah,author.;

Includes bibliographical references and index."Love, betrayal, and a secret war: the untold story of two elite agents, one Canadian, one British, who became one of the most decorated wartime couples of WWII. On opposite sides of the pond, Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, and Guy d'Artois, a French-Canadian soldier and thunderstorm of a man, are preparing to go to war. From different worlds, they make their way to fight in Winston Churchill's secret army against the German forces and, unlike most involved in the world's deadliest conflict to date, to fight from behind enemy lines. Their lives first intersect during clandestine training to become agents with the Special Operations Executive. Sonia and Guy learn how to parachute into enemy territory, how to kill, blow up rail lines, support the French resistance, and eventually ... how to love each other. But not long after their hasty marriage, their love is tested by separation, by a titanic invasion -- and by indiscretion. Written in vivid, heart stopping prose, we follow their stories of uncommon courage -- as Sonia plunges into Nazi-occupied France and slinks into black market restaurants to throw off German forces who knew she'd arrived, while at the same time participating in sabotage operations against them by night; and as Guy, in another corner of France, trains hundreds into a resistance army, fashioning himself a military leader, weapons instructor, and peacemaker all at once. Reconstructed from hours of unpublished interviews and hundreds of archival and personal documents, Ayed tells a story of sacrifice and youthful folly; a story about the ravaging costs of war paid for disproportionately by the young. But more than anything, The War We Won Apart is a story about love: two secret agents who were supposed to land in enemy territory together, but were fated to fight the war apart."--

Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Butt, Sonia.; Butt, Sonia; D'Artois, Guy.; D'Artois, Guy; Spies; Women spies; World War, 1939-1945;

Crash of the heavens : the remarkable story of Hannah Senesh and the only military mission to rescue Europe's Jews during World War ll / by Century, Douglas,author.;

Includes bibliographical references and index."In the years before World War II, thousands of young Jewish men and women escaped Europe, seeking safety in the British Mandate for Palestine. By 1942, horrifying reports began to spread about ghettos being liquidated, industrialized killing centers in Poland, and a chilling campaign to exterminate Europe's entire Jewish population. When it became clear that the Allies were unwilling to spare any forces from the war effort to save civilians, the Jewish community in Palestine came up with a daring plan. Working with British Military Intelligence, an elite unit of young Jewish paratroopers volunteered to return to Eastern Europe. Once behind enemy lines, they would use their expertise in the local languages and terrain to rescue thousands of downed Allied pilots and escaped POWs who were trapped with no way to communicate -- highly trained airmen desperately needed by the British and American air forces to fly more bombing missions. At the same time, these volunteer commandos would help Jewish civilians escape deportation to Auschwitz and other death camps or take up arms in resistance against the Nazis. Hannah Senesh was one of only three female paratroopers who risked everything to infiltrate occupied Europe. In 1939, at just eighteen years old, Hannah emigrated from Hungary to the British Mandate for Palestine, where she dreamed of being a poet and a schoolteacher. Instead, she became a poet and a paratrooper. Five years after fleeing Europe, Hannah parachuted back into occupied territory as a freedom fighter with the most crucial role in her team: the wireless operator tasked with sending and deciphering top-secret British radio codes. Though captured almost immediately after crossing the border into Hungary, she refused to give up her radio codes or any information about her mission, despite enduring months of horrific torture. Her final act of defiance -- choosing to die before a firing squad rather than beg for clemency -- cemented her legendary status as the "Jewish Joan of Arc." Hannah's legacy lives on today in the widely published diary she'd kept since age thirteen and in her poetry which has inspired generations. Each year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a short poem Hannah composed on the shores of the Mediterranean in 1942 is sung at ceremonies around the world. Titled "Eli, Eli," or "My God, My God," it has become a modern hymn, taught in schools, sung in synagogues, and printed in thousands of prayer books"--

Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Senesh, Hannah, 1921-1944.; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Jewish women; Parachute troops; World War, 1939-1945;

While Israel slept : how Hamas surprised the most powerful military in the Middle East / by Katz, Yaakov,1979-author.; Bohbot, Amir,author.;

"A powerful indictment of the political and military decisions that led to October 7. While Israel Slept tells the gripping inside story of how Hamas, Israel's weakest enemy, succeeded in launching a surprise attack on one of the world's most powerful militaries. Through a detailed examination of the events leading up to October 7, 2023, the book exposes the intelligence and strategic failures that enabled this devastating invasion. It takes readers back in time, showing how years of complacency, mistaken intelligence analysis, and a misguided policy of containment enabled Hamas to prepare for an assault that Israel did not believe was possible and that would change the Middle East. The book unveils the dramatic events of the night before the attack, highlighting the cracks in Israel's military and political leadership. It provides unprecedented details on how key warnings were missed, and how Israel ignored the growing threat from Hamas, believing that the group was weak and deterred. By exposing these failures, While Israel Slept offers a stark, sobering account of how overconfidence and complacency paved the way for disaster, while underscoring the critical lessons Israel must embrace to safeguard its future"-- Provided by publisher.

Subjects: Israel. Tseva haganah le-Yiśraʼel.; Israel-Hamas War, 2023-; Military intelligence; October 7 Hamas Attack, Israel, 2023.;

Napoleon : a life / by Zamoyski, Adam,author.;

Includes bibliographical references (pages 671-728) and index."The definitive biography of Napoleon, revealing the true man behind the legend. The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment, and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context." --

Subjects: Biographies.; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821.; France. Armée; Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815.;

The peace : a warrior's journey / by Dallaire, Roméo,author.; Humphreys, Jessica Dee,author.;

Includes bibliographical references and index."In The Peace, Roméo Dallaire shows us the face of war through the prism of his own life in the military. His has been the journey of a man raised as a Cold Warrior, who became a New World Order warrior after the Berlin Wall fell. That man believed in the mandate of the UN to reinforce peace in Rwanda in 1994, only to see his mission collapse and the country descend into the hell of genocide. The battered, tortured person who emerged from that catastrophe grew determined to become a warrior who now fought against the new world disorder--to prevent genocide, to find ways to intervene in conflicts in defence of humanity. Dallaire helped craft doctrines called the "will to intervene" and "the right to protect," and then witnessed those initiatives fail to be deployed because of the same old power politics, national self-interest and general indifference that allowed the Rwandan genocide to unfold. Now in his final act, Dallaire has become a warrior working towards a better future in which those old paradigms are cracked. In The Peace he names all the things that undermine true peace and security because they reinforce the dangerous, self-interested belief that "balance" of power is the best we can do. Too often we settle for a definition of "at peace" that means we are content to stand by when the bombs are falling elsewhere because we ourselves are not under attack. Drawing on his own experience and witness, Dallaire shows us a path to what he calls "the peace," a state where, above all else, humanity values the ties that bind us and the planet together--and acts accordingly. The Peace is the cri de coeur of a warrior who has been to hell and back, and hopes to guide us to a better place."--

Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Dallaire, Roméo.; International relations.; Peace.; Security, International.;

Book of queens : the true story of the Middle Eastern horsewomen who fought the War on Terror / by Mahdavi, Pardis,1978-author.;

Includes bibliographical references."Book of Queens reaches back centuries to the Persian Empire and a woman disguised as a man, facing an invading army, protected only by light armor and the stallion she sat astride. Mahdavi draws a thread from past to present: from her fearless Iranian grandmother, who guided survivors of domestic violence to independent mountain colonies in Afghanistan where the women, led by a general named Mina, became their country's first line of defense from marauding warlords. To the female warriors who helped train and breed the horses used by US Green Berets when they touched down in October 2001, with a mission but insufficient intelligence on the ground--women whose contributions were then forgotten. Pardis Mahdavi chases the legacy of Caspian horses and the women whose lives are saved by them, drawing on decades of research, newly-discovered diaries, and exclusive military sources. Among those intersecting stories is that of American Louise Firouz, who helped bring the breed back from the brink of extinction, connecting Virginia traders to British royals to the son of the Shah. Firouz's life is forever changed when she meets Mahdavi's own family, who run an unusual smuggling operation in addition to raising horses in a wild bid for freedom. Book of Queens is an epic tale of hidden women whose communal knowledge was instrumental in saving an animal as ancient as civilization, and who were the genesis of their own liberation"--

Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Firouz, Louise.; Caspian horse; Horsemen and horsewomen; War horses; War on Terrorism, 2001-2009; Women soldiers;

Vagabond : a memoir / by Curry, Tim,author.;

"A celebration of Tim Curry's life's work -- including the iconic Dr. Frank-N-Further in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" -- and a testament to his profound impact on the entertainment industry as we know it today, There are few stars in Hollywood today that can boast the kind of resume Emmy award-winning actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a "character actor," portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance, and a genuine understanding of human darkness. He's had dozens of roles across movies, TV shows, and musicals; lent his instantly recognizable voice to dozens of voice roles, audiobooks, and videogames; and he's changed the lives of countless fans in the process. Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind-the-scenes of his rise to fame from his early beginnings as a military BRAT with difficult family dynamics, to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time. He goes in-depth about what it was like to work on some of the most emblematic works of the 20th century, constantly switching between a camera and a live audience. He also explores the voicework that defined his later career and provided him with a chance to pivot after surviving a catastrophic stroke in 2012 that nearly took his life. With the upcoming 50th anniversary of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and the 40th anniversary of Clue, there's never been a better time for Tim to share his story with the world"--

Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Curry, Tim.; Motion picture actors and actresses;

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