Bill Sloan has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 4 ratings. The most-rated is The Ultimate Battle.
The Ultimate Battle
Summary
Respected historian Bill Sloan tells the full story of the Battle of Okinawa as it has never been told before, through the eyes of the men in battle. Using the same grunt's-eye-view narrative style of Sloan's acclaimed Brotherhood of Heroes, The Ultimate Battle is the full story of the largest land-sea-air battle ever waged by the United States, a battle whose staggering casualties and take-no-prisoners ferocity led Truman to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. From April through June 1945, more than 250,000 American and Japanese lives were lost, including those of nearly 150,000 civilians who either committed suicide or were caught in the crossfire. This book tells a gripping story of heroism, sacrifice, and death.
©2007 Bill Sloan (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Brotherhood of Heroes
Summary
A Band of Brothers for the Pacific, this is the gut-wrenching but ultimately triumphant story of the Marines' most ferocious, yet largely forgotten, battle of World War II. Between September 15 and October 15, 1944, the First Marine Division suffered more than 6,500 casualties fighting on a hellish little island in the Pacific. Peleliu was the scene for one of the most savage struggles of modern times, a true killing ground that has all but been forgotten, until now. Drawing on extensive interviews with Peleliu veterans, Bill Sloan follows the men of K/3/5 and a handful of others throughout the campaign and rescues the Corp's bloodiest battle from obscurity. Misled by poor intelligence, the 9,000 Marine infantry-men who landed on Peleliu's beaches found themselves facing 11,000 Japanese who had turned the island into an intricate network of caves and underground fortifications unrivaled in the history of warfare. Sloan's gripping narrative seamlessly weaves together the experiences of the men who were there, producing a vivid and unflinching look at the nightmare that was Peleliu-a ferocious melee of non-stop infantry attacks, hand-to-hand combat, flame-thrower assaults, and night skirmishes, many in temperatures that topped 115 degrees. With casualties in some infantry units averaging more than sixty percent, Peleliu is the bloodiest battle in the Corps' history. Surprisingly, Peleliu received little public notice back in the States even as it was being fought and was virtually forgotten after the war. At last rectifying this historical injustice, Brother of Heroes will stand with Ghost Soldiers and Flags of Our Fathers as a modern classic in military history as a riveting read.
©2005 Bill Sloan (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.
Undefeated
Summary
Called “a master of the combat narrative” (The Dallas Morning News), author Bill Sloan captures the valor, fortitude, and suffering of the American defenders of the Philippines as no other author has. Abandoned by their government, the men and women of the American garrison struggled against impossible military odds, rampant disease, and slow starvation to delay inevitable surrender by the largest American military force ever. Rather than picturing these defenders as little more than helpless victims of an overwhelmingly powerful and sadistic enemy-as most previous books about the Philippines campaign have done-Undefeated credits American troops with the unexcelled heroism and indomitable spirit they displayed under the worst imaginable conditions. Interwoven throughout this panoramic narrative are the harrowing personal experiences of dozens of American soldiers, airmen, and Marines. Sloan also provides intimate, in-depth profiles of General Douglas MacArthur, who evacuated to Australia as the situation on Bataan worsened, and of General Jonathan Wainwright, who succeeded him as top U.S. commander in the Philippines and himself became a prisoner of the Japanese.
©2012 Bill Sloan (P)2012 Tantor
Their Backs Against the Sea
Summary
In the midst of the largest banzai attack of the war, US Army Lt. Col. William O'Brien, grievously wounded and out of ammunition, grabbed a sabre from a fallen Japanese soldier and flailed away at a small army of assailants, screaming to his men, "Don't give them a damn inch!" When his body was recovered the next day, 30 dead enemies were piled around him. The Battle of Saipan lasted 25 hellish days in the summer of 1944, and the stakes couldn't have been higher. If Japan lost possession of the island, all hope for victory would be lost. For the Americans, its capture would result in secure air bases for the new B-29s that would put them within striking distance of the Japanese homeland. The outcome of the war in the Pacific lay in the balance. In this gritty, vivid narrative, award-winning author Bill Sloan fuses fresh interviews, oral and unit histories, and unpublished accounts to describe one of the war's bloodiest and most overlooked battles of the Pacific theater. Combining grunt's-view grit with big picture panorama (and one of the ugliest interservice controversies of the war), Their Backs Against the Sea is the definitive dramatic story of this epic battle - and an inspiring chronicle of some of the greatest acts of valor in American military history. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Bill Sloan (P)2017 Hachette Audio