Chippewa Falls' First World War II Casualty Young Harry Wellington Kramer was looking for adventure and a leg up in Depression-era Wisconsin. He found both aboard the Navy battleship USS California . Traveling across the western United States and the Pacific Ocean, Harry was quick to share his experiences with family and friends in Chippewa Falls. As he realized his dreams and served his country, his parents anxiously followed the developments that...

During World War II, a total of 165 men from Minnesota's smallest towns gave their lives for our country. Several were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star, and Bronze Star. All received the award no one wanted: the Purple Heart. Most of their stories have never been told publicly. Little Minnesota in World War II, by Jill A. Johnson and Deane L. Johnson, honors these brave men from the smallest rural towns....

World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate the masses. Through multinational research, One World, Big Screen reveals how the Grand Alliance--Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States--tapped Hollywood's impressive power to shrink the distance and bridge the differences that separated...

Diana Mosley was a society beauty who fell from grace when she left her husband, brewery heir Bryan Guinness, for Sir Oswald Mosley, an admirer of Mussolini and a notorious womanizer. This horrified her family and scandalized society. In 1933, Diana met the new German leader, Adolf Hitler. They became close friends and he attended her wedding as the guest of honor. During the war, the Mosleys' association with Hitler led them to be arrested and interned...

"January, 1940: After a bitter tragedy, young Australian woman Lucie and her French mother Yvonne are forced to leave home and seek help from the only family they have left-Lucie's uncle, Gerard. As the Second World War engulfs Europe, the two women find themselves trapped in German-occupied Paris, sharing a cramped apartment with the authoritarian Gerard and his extremist views. Drawing upon her artistic talents, Lucie risks her own safety to engage...

During the early years of World War II, American ships crossing the Atlantic with oil and supplies were virtually defenseless against German U-boats. Bombs and torpedoes fitted with TNT barely made a dent in the tough steel plating that covered the hulls of Axis submarines and ships. Then, seemingly overnight, a top-secret, $100 million plant appeared near Kingsport, Tennessee, manufacturing a sugar-white substance called Research Department Explosive...

As a young band of brothers flies over German-occupied France, they come under heavy fire. Their B-17 is shot down and the airmen--stumbling through fields and villages--scatter across Europe. Some struggled to flee for safety. Others were captured immediately and imprisoned. Now, for the first time, their incredible story of grit, survival, and reunion is told.

"The riveting story of the American scientists, tinkerers, and nerds who solved one of the biggest puzzles of World War II-and developed one of the most powerful weapons of the war."--

The bestselling autobiography of the legendary Louis Zamperini, hero of the blockbuster Unbroken. A modern classic by an American legend, Devil at My Heels is the riveting and deeply personal memoir by U.S. Olympian, World War II bombardier, and POW survivor Louis Zamperini. His inspiring story of courage, resilience, and faith has captivated readers and audiences of Unbroken, now a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie. In Devil at My Heels,...

Michael D. Gordin is professor of the history of science at Princeton University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly. Most Americans believe that the Second World War ended because the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan forced it to surrender. Five Days in August boldly presents a different interpretation: that the military did not clearly understand the atomic...