The men featured in this book originally came from Germany’s big city police forces, where they had previously dealt with traffic control, street crime and the often violent street demonstrations occurring during Germany’s politically turbulent 1920s. They shared their long-standing police traditions and comradeship and held the safety and security of their homeland at heart. With the rise to power of the Nazi Party and the assimilation of the German police under Himmler’s SS and military ...

Of the millions of German soldiers who went to war, many were armed with their personal cameras and intent on photographically chronicling their Dienstzeit, or military service, via meticulously prepared albums or by turning their photos into postcards sent to family and friends or as a single photo to carry into battle. Others were professional photographers and film makers recruited by the military and the Nazi State propaganda ministry to produce images for their agendas. In the era bef...

From birth, Nazi propaganda bombarded children with images romanticising war and a glorious death for the Fuehrer and Fatherland. Third Reich social planners emphasised physical activity over the intellect, all toward ensuring absolute loyalty to the Fuehrer and to Nazi ideology, ultimately in preparation for military service. Well over 3 million boys and girls were involved in organisations such as the Hitler Youth. Evidence of the intensity of the indoctrination programme can be seen in ...

While many films have attempted to convey the experience of the Second World War European battlefield, none adequately portray the mayhem and suffering that befell untold thousands of horses, their bodies impacted by bullet, flame and bomb as well as disease, starvation and backbreaking toil in the searing heat of summer and the freezing winds and snows of winter. In great part, the role of the horse in the Second World War, and in particular their use by the Third Reich, has been eclipsed...

No other combatant nation employed motorcycles on the scale produced by the Third Reich. During Nazi Germany’s campaigns, first of invasion, then of the retreat that followed, motorcycles served a variety of functions: as couriers, for reconnaissance, for medical evacuation, as assault shock troops taking the brunt of battle, even as tank destroyers and for delivering hot meals to the frontline. As the Third Reich gained absolute control of Germany and sought to spread its domain by fire a...

Through both World Wars, young African conscripts from Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, the Congo and elsewhere found themselves fighting for their colonial rulers, facing unknown enemies in unknown lands. German soldiers regarded their African enemies with a mixture of curiosity and malice, sometimes posing for snapshots with black POWs, sometimes summarily executing them on the battlefield. Mistreated by their own commanders during wartime, African troops had to fight for equal postwar compens...

Take an exhilarating ride through the history of the American bike, biker, and the biker nation in this fascinating and comprehensive chronicle of the biker era and today's ever-expanding legion of motorcycle enthusiasts. Impassioned, idiosyncratic, and razor sharp, Born to Be Wild traces a century's worth of the culture, the bikers, and the bikes themselves.Who are these bikers? Are they those hard-living, leather-clad, tattooed guys often associated with images of the He...

“The baddest man on two wheels.”—Rolling StoneOne of the founders and the most famous member of the infamous Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club, Ralph “Sonny” Barger says, “Let’s Ride” with this ultimate guide to motorcycling. With expert co-author Darwin Holmstrom—former writer for Motorcyclist magazine and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycles—Barger, “The archangel of all Hells Angels” (New York Post) is ready to take you on the ride of your life with this exhil...

With hundreds of police officers lining the street across from the cemetery on one side, and 3,000 Hells Angels attending a funeral and a shooting at the same service inside the cemetery, the resulting traffic jam between the two sides made for an interesting Saturday afternoon on October 15, 2011.This essay IS NOT an account of the funeral for Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew and the subsequent shooting that took place inside the cemetery. This is about what happened outside the cemeter...

There are few men who are as quintessentially American as Sonny Barger. He is patriotic—a veteran who loves his country. He is independent—choosing his own path on his motorcycle, living life on his own terms. He is outspoken—he has boldly criticized injustices in American law and society despite the backlash this has evoked from the establishment. Yet the element that he finds most important, most sacred, most American, is freedom.In Freedom, Sonny articulates many of the principl...

Step inside the inner workings of a biker gangYou’ll never meet the bikers in this novel, or visit the mythical rust-belt city of Springfield. But through the eyes of Ned “Crash” Aiken, you will experience the world of the outlaw biker gang—a world shaped by desperation, casual brutality, and fascinating rites of passage.Biker follows the career trajectory of “Crash” from his days as a small-time high school drug dealer to his rapid rise through the ranks ...

Ralph "Sonny" Barger first gained the attention of the book world with his bestselling memoir Hell's Angel. Now he uses what he’s learned from a life insidea subculture few will ever know to create his no-holds-barred first novel, giving readers a taste of thecamaraderie, the pain, and the thrills of what it’s like to live life on two wheels.Everett John "Patch" Kinkade just wants to be left alone. The former president of the Infidelz, the most powerful motorcycle club in Californi...