"Riveting. . . . A compassionate account of a dramatic incident in modern naval history, told with cinematic immediacy and narrative skill." —Kirkus ReviewsThe aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was preparing to launch attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired a rocket into an aircraft occupied by pilot John McCain. A huge fire ensued, and McCain barely escaped before a 1,000-pound bomb on his plane exploded, causing a chain reaction wi...

The John S. Williams plantation in Georgia was operated largely with the labor of slaves—and this was in 1921, 56 years after the Civil War. Williams was not alone in using "peons," but his reaction to a federal investigation was almost unbelievable: he decided to destroy the evidence. Enlisting the aid of his trusted black farm boss, Clyde Manning, he began methodically killing his slaves. As this true story unfolds, each detail seems more shocking, and surprises continue in the aftermath...

October 2012. A replica of the famous HMS Bounty, an eighteenth-century tall sailing ship, set a collision course with a storm that became the largest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic—a clash that proved to be one of the most unforgettable stories of Superstorm Sandy.The Bounty, crewed by an eclectic team of seafarers and led by highly respected captain Robin Walbridge, departed from Connecticut as Sandy raced north. Walbridge, who...

The gripping account of the riot aboard the USS Kitty Hawk—and the first mutiny in U.S. Naval historyIn 1972, the United States was embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam, and the USS Kitty Hawk was headed to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Its five thousand men, cooped up for the longest at-sea tour of the war, rioted--or, as Troubled Water suggests, mutinied. Disturbingly, the lines were drawn racially, black against white. By the t...

Before the Nuremberg Tribunal, there were the civilians of the small German town of Rüsselsheim, who were tried in the first World War II War Crimes Trial.In August 1944, the nine-man crew of an American bomber was forced to bail out over Germany. As their captors marched them into Rüsselsheim, a small town recently bombed to smithereens by Allies, they were attacked by an angry mob of civilians—farmers, shopkeepers, railroad workers, women, and children. With a lo...

**The astonishing, never-before-told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II—when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia.“An amazing, riveting tale of unsung heroes who went above and beyond.”—James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers**During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local ...

A brand-new story about World War II’s daring African-American heroes from the author of The Forgotten 500.The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American pilots in the US military, and Operation Halyard was one of the most extraordinary rescue missions of World War II, described in Gregory Freeman’s The Forgotten 500. Now a newly discovered connection between them has come to light—the “Red Tails” flew fighter cover for the mission. The remar...

This is the story of Abu Ghraib that you haven't heard, told by the soldier sent by the Army to restore order and ensure that the abuses that took place there never happen again.In April 2004, the world was shocked by the brutal pictures of beatings, dog attacks, sex acts, and the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. As the story broke, and the world began to learn about the extent of the horrors that occurred there, the U.S. Army dispatched Colonel Lar...

The inside story of life aboard the deadly Nazi U-Boat that sank forty-nine ships.The history of one of World War II's most successful submarines, U-124, is chronicled in Grey Wolf, Grey Sea, from its few defeats to a legion of victories. Kapitanleutnant Jochen Mohr commanded his German submarine and navigated it through the treacherous waters of one of the most destructive, savage wars the world has known.

SURVIVORThrough six grueling years of warfare, USS Russell and her gallant crew pitted their prowess against a determined enemy.From the pre-Pearl Harbor Battle of the Atlantic to the campaigns in the Pacific, She was home to warriors who fought off attacks by submarines, planes and ships. She saw them through sixteen major engagements of World War Two including the Battles of Coral Sea, Java, Midway, Savo Island, Santa Cruz, and Guadalcanal She supported the land forces thro...

During World War II fighter pilots were, at times, detailed to perform out-of-the-ordinary operations. "Duck Hunting in a Hurricane" was an event that resulted in just such an operation in order to recover the Hurricane and bring back the ducks.

This WWII memoir of an NCO Royal Air Force pilot offers a vivid, personal account of wartime life and dangerous operations over Europe.In 1941, Graham White was passing a Royal Air Force recruiting center and, on the spur of the moment, signed up. As a non-commissioned RAF pilot, he went on to fly long-range night-fighters against the Luftwaffe. White experienced badly designed and dangerous aircraft, such as the Beaufighter with its Merlin engine. But he also flew...