The Military & War category has 616 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 4,582 ratings. The most-rated is The Operator.
Sailor and Fiddler
Summary
In an unprecedented literary accomplishment, Herman Wouk, one of America's most beloved and enduring authors, reflects on his life and times from the remarkable vantage point of 100 years old. Many years ago, the great British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin urged Herman Wouk to write his autobiography. Wouk responded, "Why me? I'm nobody." Berlin answered, "No, no. You've traveled. You've known many people. You have interesting ideas. It would do a lot of good." Now, in the same year he has celebrated his 100th birthday, Herman Wouk finally reflects on the life experiences that inspired his most beloved novels. Among those experiences are his days writing for comedian Fred Allen's radio show, one of the most popular shows in the history of the medium; enlisting in the US Navy during World War II; falling in love with Betty Sarah Brown, the woman who would become his wife (and literary agent) for 66 years; writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Caine Mutiny as well as a big hit Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial; and the surprising inspirations and people behind such masterpieces as The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, Marjorie Morningstar, and Youngblood Hawke. Written with the wisdom of a man who has lived through two centuries and the wit of someone who began his career as a professional comedy writer, the first part of Wouk's memoir ("Sailor") refers to his Navy experience and writing career, the second ("Fiddler") to what he's learned from living a life of faith. Ultimately, Sailor and Fiddler is an unprecedented reflection from a vantage point few people have lived to experience.
©2016 Herman Wouk (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Surgeon in Blue
Summary
The first full-length biography of the Civil War surgeon who, over the course of the war’s bloodiest battles - from Antietam to Gettysburg - redefined military medicine. Jonathan Letterman was an outpost medical officer serving in Indian country in the years before the Civil War, responsible for the care of just hundreds of men. But when he was appointed the chief medical officer for the Army of the Potomac, he revolutionized combat medicine over the course of four major battles - Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg - that produced unprecedented numbers of casualties. He made battlefield survival possible by creating the first organized ambulance corps and a more effective field hospital system. He imposed medical professionalism on a chaotic battlefield. Where before 20 percent of the men were unfit to fight because of disease, squalid conditions, and poor nutrition, he improved health and combat readiness by pioneering hygiene and diet standards. Based on original research, and with stirring accounts of battle and the struggle to invent and supply adequate care during impossible conditions, this new biography recounts Letterman’s life from his small-town Pennsylvania beginnings to his trailblazing wartime years and his subsequent life as a wildcatter and the medical examiner of San Francisco. At last, here is the missing portrait of a key figure of Civil War history and military medicine. His principles of battlefield care continue to be taught to military commanders and first responders.
©2013 Jeffrey Moore (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Long Walk
Summary
In the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches and works by such masters of the memoir as Mary Karr and Tobias Wolff, a powerful account of war and homecoming that grabs readers by the throat even as it touches their hearts. Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq. Days and nights he and his team - his brothers - would venture forth in heavily armed convoys from their Forward Operating Base to engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of either disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices that had been discovered, or picking up the pieces when the alert came too late. They relied on an army of remote-controlled cameras and robots, but if that technology failed, a technician would have to don the eighty-pound Kevlar suit, take the Long Walk up to the bomb, and disarm it by hand. This lethal game of cat and mouse was, and continues to be, the real war within America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But The Long Walk is not just about battle itself. It is also an unflinching portrayal of the toll war exacts on the men and women who are fighting it. When Castner returned home to his wife and family, he began a struggle with a no less insidious foe, an unshakable feeling of fear and confusion and survivor's guilt that he terms The Crazy. His thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest book immerses the reader in two harrowing and simultaneous realities: the terror and excitement and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the enemy within - the haunting memories that will not fade, the survival instincts that will not switch off. After enduring what he has endured, can there ever again be such a thing as "normal"? The Long Walk will hook you from the very first sentence, and it will stay with you long after its final gripping page has been turned.
©2012 Brian Castner (P)2012 Random House Audio
Fighting With the Filthy Thirteen
Summary
In 2004 the world was first introduced to The Filthy Thirteen, a book describing the most notorious squad of fighting men in the 101st Airborne Division (and the inspiration for the movie “The Dirty Dozen”). In this long awaited work one of the squad’s integral members - and probably its best soldier - reveals his own inside account of fighting as a spearhead of the Screaming Eagles in Normandy, Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge. Jack Womer was originally a member of the 29th Infantry Division and was selected to be part of its elite Ranger battalion. But after a year of grueling training under the eyes of British Commando instructors, the 29th Rangers were suddenly dissolved. Bitterly disappointed, Womer asked for transfer to another elite unit, the Screaming Eagles, where room was found for him among the division’s most miscreant squad of brawlers, drunkards, and goof-offs. Beginning on June 6, 1944, however, the Filthy Thirteen began proving themselves more a menace to the German Army than they had been to their own officers and the good people of England, embarking on a year-of ferocious combat at the very tip of the Allied advance in Europe. In this work, with the help of Stephen DeVito, Jack provides an amazingly frank look at close-quarters combat in Europe, as well as the almost surreal experience of dust-bowl-era GI’s entering country after country in their grapple with the Wehrmacht, finally ending up in Hitler’s mountaintop lair in Germany itself. Throughout his fights, Jack Womer credited his Ranger/Commando training for helping him to survive, even though most of the rest of the Filthy Thirteen did not. And in the end he found the reward he had most coveted all along: being able to return to his fiancée Theresa back in the States.
©2012 Stephen C. DeVito and Jack Womer (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
George Patton
Summary
Explore the captivating life of George Patton. General George S. Patton remains a household name to this day even though he died decades ago. Not only was he a brilliant military commander, he was also a forceful personality and a flamboyant human being whose strong character led him through many difficulties. This biography aims to tell Patton's story in a captivating manner that will bring him to life for the education and enjoyment of young and old. It will explore his many adventures, but above all, it will investigate who Patton was as a person. This captivating history audiobook covers topics such as: The boy who couldn't read Always a warrior Ane soft spot Fencing, sword design, and the 1912 olympics An ivory-handled revolver American tanks Do not surrender A Purple Heart for George A taste of action Lions tremble at his approach Dead mules in Messina Normandy and oOeration Fortitude Play ball And much more! So listen to this audiobook now if you want to learn more about the remarkable life of George Patton!
©2018 Captivating History (P)2018 Captivating History
Dad's Maybe Book
Summary
Best-selling author Tim O’Brien shares wisdom from a life in letters, lessons learned in wartime, and the challenges, humor, and rewards of raising two sons. A moving audio edition of Tim O’Brien’s poignant memoir, read by the author “We are all writing our maybe books full of maybe tomorrows, and each maybe tomorrow brings another maybe tomorrow, and then another, until the last line of the last page receives its period.” In 2003, already an older father, National Book Award-winning novelist Tim O’Brien resolved to give his young sons what he wished his own father had given to him - a few scraps of paper signed “Love, Dad”. Maybe a word of advice. Maybe a sentence or two about some long-ago Christmas Eve. Maybe some scattered glimpses of their rapidly aging father, a man they might never really know. For the next 15 years, the author talked to his sons on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from a father who was no longer among the living. O’Brien traverses the great variety of human experience and emotion, moving from soccer games to warfare to risqué lullabies, from alcoholism to magic shows to history lessons to bittersweet bedtime stories, but always returning to a father’s soul-saving love for his sons. The result is Dad’s Maybe Book, a funny, tender, wise, and enduring literary achievement that will squeeze the listener's heart with joy and recognition.
©2019 Tim O’Brien (P)2019 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Just Another Day in Vietnam
Summary
Uniquely adopting a third-person omniscient point of view, Nightingale eschews the "I" of memoir in favor of multiple perspectives and a larger historical vision that afford equal time and weight to ally and enemy alike. Examples of the many perspectives based on real-life characters include: Hu, a VC "informant" whose false information led the Rangers straight into the jaws of a ferocious ambush; General Tanh, the COSVN commander; Major Nguyen Hiep, the 52d Ranger Commander; and Ranger POWs later returned by the North. Nightingale moreover offers the point of view of an American advisor to elite Vietnamese troops, a vital perspective regrettably underrepresented in the literature of Vietnam, including Burns' documentary. Added to this are well-informed conjecture of enemy psychology; insight into the dedication and often misunderstood role of the elite Vietnamese Ranger forces; the intelligence acquired from debriefing captured Rangers, whose captors had told them that the entire battle had been a carefully staged attack planned by COSVN as part of a larger Total War strategy developed by the leadership of the North Vietnamese Army; and an eyewitness account by a gifted author who is a rare survivor of one of the most vicious - and heretofore forgotten - battles of the war.
©2019 Keith M. Nightingale (P)2021 Tantor
The Scourge of War
Summary
In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life-and-times account of William Tecumseh Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army". Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war.
©2020 Brian Holden Reid (P)2021 Tantor
1000 Days on the River Kwai
Summary
Memoirs by former prisoners of war of the Japanese invariably make for moving story but Colonel Owtram's account of his years of captivity has a special significance. After being captured in Singapore and transported to the infamous Burma railway, he was appointed the British Camp Commandant at Chungkai, one of the largest POW camps. Many ex-prisoners testified to the mental and physical courage that he showed protecting POWs from the worst excesses of their captors. Of course his account does not admit to this, but what is clear is that in addition to the deprivation and hardship suffered by all POWs, the author bore heavy responsibility for those under his charge and the daily trauma of dealing with the unpredictable Japanese. It is not only the prisoners who suffered but their families at home. The postscript by the author's daughters vividly demonstrates the agonies of doubt and worry that loved ones went through and the effect of the experience on all.
©2020 H C Owtram (P)2020 Pen and Sword Military
Inside Marine One
Summary
Colonel Ray "Frenchy" L'Heureux always dreamed of being a pilot. Growing up, he built airplane models and dreamed about soaring over the Earth. When he was 12, his mom treated him to a flying lesson at the local airfield. Taken on a short flight by an instructor and allowed to operate the controls for part of the flight, he was hooked forever. It wasn't until he was running low on college funds and saw a recruiter at his college that he joined the Marines and began the journey towards his dream from Parris Island to Bravo Company, and then officer training school. One day at an airfield when President Reagan landed on his way to a fundraiser, Frenchy's life changed forever when he encountered HMX1, the squadron that flies the President in Marine One. When he saw the white-topped Sea King and White Hawk helicopters, he was determined to become part of that elite group. Inside Marine One is Colonel L'Heureux's inspiring story of a young man who dreamed of flying, trained, studied, and worked hard to become the pilot who ended up serving four US Presidents - George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. It's also a personal guided tour inside the world's most famous helicopter by a man who knows that flying machine better than any other. Inside Marine One is a great American success story of a young boy who dreamed big, worked hard, and finally flew the President of the United States as his number one passenger.
©2014 Colonel Ray L’Heureux with Lee Kelley (P)2014 Tantor
My Adventures as a Spy
Summary
Robert Baden-Powell's memories of some of his espionage operations between the 1880s and the outbreak of the First World War. AUTHOR: Robert Baden-Powell was born in 1857 and is probably best remembered as the hero of the siege of Mafeking in 1899/1900 during the Boer War and as the man who started the Scout and Guide Movements. He wrote many books over the course of his life, some of which he illustrated himself. This book was first published in February 1915, seven months after the outbreak of the First World War, and is a collection of anecdotes and memories about the work of spies, based on his own experiences in Africa, Europe and Asia. ABRIDGER: Michael Bartlett is a writer with much radio, television and stage plays to his credit, though perhaps he is best known for writing “The Archers” for Radio 4 and “Rainbow” for Thames Television. He is also a producer and has directed plays, readings and documentaries for the BBC, for commercial radio and for audio publication. READER: Michael Cochrane has appeared in many plays in the theatre, on television and on radio as well as in a number of films. He has also read many audio books, including the Gold Award winning “Lord Edgware Dies”. His recent television appearances include “General Simmerson in “Sharpe’s Challenge” and Judge Hynes in “Wire in the Blood”. He also plays Oliver Sterling in “The Archers” on Radio 4. MUSIC: The piano music, Baden-Powell Schottische, is played by Alexandra White.
©1915 The Scout Association (P)2006 Crimson Cats Audio Books
Ancora Kobane
Summary
Matteo Caccia ci racconta la storia di Karim Franceschi, nato nel 1989 a Casablanca e cresciuto a Senigallia, che nel 2014 parte per Kobane con un progetto umanitario, poi decide di restare in Siria e unirsi alla lotta armata contro l'Isis. Nel 2016 fonda una brigata internazionale che avrà un ruolo importantissimo nella caduta di Raqqa, capitale dello Stato Islamico. Nel corso delle 10 puntate sarà la voce di Karim stesso a raccontare la sua storia: le ragioni delle sue scelte, i sentimenti, le paure e le speranze in 2 anni di lotta accanto agli uomini e alle donne di Kobane. A casa Karim non ci riesce a stare, decide di tornare indietro per creare la propria squadra d'assalto. Ma la guerra è cambiata, Kobane è libera e ora bisogna sbaragliare l'Isis a casa sua, nella sua roccaforte: Raqqa. Chi sarà davvero disposto a combattere la battaglia più dura di tutte? Matteo Caccia è il narratore delle vicende - storiche e umane - che ruotano intorno alla vita di Karim e che ne dettano decisioni ed emozioni. Il racconto è arricchito da documenti sonori e musiche originali a cura di Luca Micheli che ha firmato anche la regia, testimonianze dirette di amici, parenti, giornalisti "embedded", compagni e compagne di lotta e contributi raccolti dalla redazione a cura di G.L.
©2020 Audible Originals (P)2020 Audible Studios
Hawkeye
Summary
For more than 30 years, Giora Even-Epstein flew fighters for the Israel Air Force, achieving recognition as a highly skilled military aviator and the highest-scoring jet-mounted ace with the most number of confirmed victories in the French Mirage. Having overcome numerous hurdles just to learn how to fly, he went on to compile a record of Arab MiGs and Sukhoi kills that bettered any other combat aviators' tally in the entire world. This fast-moving autobiography details his experiences particularly in the intense conflicts of 1967, the Six Day War, and 1973, the Yom Kippur War. The listener shares the cockpit with him as he describes every action he undertook with 101 and 105 Squadron, including the greatest jet-versus-jet air battle in history with four MiG-21 kills in one engagement. His final score was 17. After his last battle he became commander of the First Jet Squadron, 117, began civilian flying, retrained to command 254 MMR Squadron in the 1982 Lebanon War, and flew the F-16 at the age of 50 before retirement. His story is of one man's unfaltering dedication to his dreams and his country. As the leading jet ace it is one well worth telling and, critically, it can be told in his own words.
©2020 Giora Even-Epstein (P)2021 Tantor
Vera Brittain and the First World War
Summary
Vera Brittain and the First World War tells the remarkable story of the author behind Testament of Youth while charting the book's ascent to become one of the most loved memoirs of the First World War period. Such interest is set to expand even more in this centenary year of the war's outbreak. In the midst of her studies at Oxford when war broke out across Europe, Vera Brittain left university in 1915 to become a VAD (voluntary aid detachment) nurse. There she treated soldiers in London, Malta, and Etaples. The events of the First World War were to have an enormous impact on her life. Four of Brittain's closest friends, including her fiancé, Roland Leighton, and her brother, Edward Brittain, MC, were killed in action, sparking a lifelong commitment to pacifism. In 1933 she published Testament of Youth, the first of three books dealing with her experience of war. In equal measures courageous, tragic, and deeply fascinating, Testament of Youth is one of the most compelling and important works of war literature ever to have been written by a British woman. Mark Bostridge's Vera Brittain and the First World War, published to coincide with the film of Testament of Youth, explores the effects of the First World War on Vera Brittain both in terms of her personal life and in terms of its effect on her development as a writer and her eventual decision to become a pacifist.
©2014 Mark Bostridge (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
I'm in Seattle, Where Are You?
Summary
An award-winning Iraqi writer creates a new world for himself in Seattle in search of lost love. As the US occupation of Iraq rages, novelist Mortada Gzar, a student at the University of Baghdad, has a chance encounter with Morise, an African American soldier. It’s love at first sight, a threat to them both, and a moment of self-discovery. Challenged by society’s rejection and Morise’s return to the US, Mortada takes to the page to understand himself. In his deeply affecting memoir, Mortada interweaves tales of his childhood work as a scrap-metal collector in a war zone and the indignities faced by openly gay artists in Iraq with his impossible love story and journey to the US. Marginalized by his own society, he is surprised to discover the racism he finds in a new one. At its heart, I’m in Seattle, Where Are You? is a moving tale of love and resilience.
©2021 Mortada Gzar. Translation © 2021 by William Hutchins. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Wild Blue
Summary
The very young men who flew the B24s over Germany in World War II against terrible odds were an exemplary band of brothers. In The Wild Blue, Stephen Ambrose recounts their extraordinary brand of heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship. Ambrose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and chose those few who would undertake the most demanding and dangerous jobs in the war. These are the boys - turned pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners of the B24s - who suffered over 50 percent casualties. Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B24s as their crews fought to the death through thick, black, deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine or else went down in flames. Twenty-two-year-old George McGovern, who was to become a United States senator and a presidential candidate, flew 35 combat missions (all the Army would allow) and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. We meet him and his mates, his co-pilot killed in action, and crews of other planes - many of whom did not come back. As Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers portrayed the bravery and ultimate victory of the American soldier from Normandy on to Germany, The Wild Blue makes clear the contribution these young men of the Army Air Forces stationed in Italy made to the Allied victory.
©2001 Stephen E. Ambrose (P)2011 Simon & Schuster