That cold morning in July 1943 still haunted 633 Squadron, for only a single Mosquito made it back from the suicidal but successful Operation Vesuvius. Now, barely a year later, the Germans were once more processing the secret “element” known as IMI in a strongly defended facility in Norway and were about to move their stocks to the safety of Germany. If successful, the whole tide of the war would be turned. Once again, it meant another “mission impossible” for 633 Squadron...Frede...

Spring 1944: In a fortified chateau hidden deep in the valleys of France, the Nazis are in the final stages of developing a terrifyingly deadly new weapon. Success would mean sure destruction for much of England and would dash all Allied hopes for a Normandy invasion. It’s up to the daring fighter pilots and crack navigators of the 633 Squadron to penetrate German defenses and, in the black of night, blast the doomsday project into extinction. Against incredible odds, this is the 633’s Ope...

Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England details the relationship between transnational mobility and the development of Tudor Catholicism. Almost two hundred Catholics felt compelled to exile themselves from England rather than conform with the religious reformations inaugurated by Henry VIII and Edward VI. Frederick E. Smith explores how these émigrés' physical mobility reconfigured their relationships with the men and women they left behind, and how it forced them to develop n...

Autumn 1943: An angry American press has blamed the RAF for heavy U.S. B-17 losses over Europe. To restore confidence, joint Allied operations are planned by RAF and 8th Air Force top brass. 633 Squadron, whose Rhine Maiden mission success has won them a glorious reputation, is called in to launch Operation Crucible. It is to be a Dieppe-style landing by the Americans, supported by the aces of 633 Squadron. Their hazardous role: to give ground support to troops against overwhelming firepow...

They called it VesuviusIt was the mission on which D-day depended and it was given to 633 Squadron, the R.A.F.’s crack squadron at a time when every ounce of skill counted. They were top pilots who flew with the recklessness of a passionate hatred for the enemy.But although they were fighting machines, they were also men. There was the Wing Commander, tough, cynical, careless of his life but not of his crews; Gillibrand, the big, brash flier who never knew when to stop; Ber...

The immense Allied landing on the coast of France signals invasion to the enemy, and the mighty German panzer divisions begin a furious race northward to the beaches of Normandy. With the outcome of the war at stake, the daredevil pilots of Squadron 633 take on their most harrowing mission ever: Operation Titan. A 100-mile flight through occupied territory to destroy the crucial and massively guarded bridge across the Loire River.Frederick E. Smith (1919-2012) joined the R.A.F. in ...

Learning Brazilian Portuguese often becomes easier when learners hear the language repeatedly in clear and memorable situations. This audiobook uses short everyday stories to introduce practical vocabulary, conversational phrases and natural pronunciation in a format designed for English-speaking beginners.Most stories last only a few minutes, making the collection well suited to commuting, daily listening sessions or repeated review. The shorter structure encourages consistent exp...

Learn Italian with these simple and entertaining short stories designed to make language learning enjoyable and effective. Each story is carefully structured for maximum comprehension: first presented in Italian, then translated into clear, natural English, and finally revisited in Italian for a second time. This proven approach to parallel text learning helps reinforce vocabulary, sentence structure, and pronunciation without feeling repetitive or overwhelming.Through story-based ...

Dirty little secrets can lead to public scandals and unexpected love affairs…Malcolm Campbell is the director of a south Los Angeles organization focused on mentoring gay youth, and his nineteen-year-old nephew, Blake, is being sent to stay with him for the summer. Malcolm has always been a community and family role model everyone looks up to. But he also has a secret he never knew he had… until it pops up on the Internet.Across town, in the closed and closeted world of Bla...

After a rough breakup, gay romance author Renny Ross heads to the Bay Area for a fresh start. His new gig writing the anniversary story for a local university is supposed to be a fresh chapter (thanks to university president Dr. Taylor James). But Renny didn’t expect to run into a familiar face from his past.After dropping off his youngest child at college, recently divorced Brent D. King DuPree, is on a journey to freedom, liberation, and living the life he put on hold for over tw...

The Self Possessed is a multifaceted, diachronic study reconsidering the very nature of religion in South Asia, the culmination of years of intensive research. Frederick M. Smith proposes that positive oracular or ecstatic possession is the most common form of spiritual expression in India, and that it has been linguistically distinguished from negative, disease-producing possession for thousands of years.In South Asia possession has always been broader and more diverse th...

Two newly single, Black, queer, and socially aware men have packed up to start again—in love, career, and life—in the West Hollywood neighborhood of LA.Zaire James, on the cusp of 30, has decided marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Despite friends, family, and coworkers loving Zaire’s “perfect” partner, divorce is a necessary step for finding himself and being free. If only it were that easy.Kenny Kane has made a career of deferring dreams, lowering expectations, and ...