The Military category has 1,612 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 5,283 ratings. The most-rated is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
Hitler's Last Plot
Summary
Revealed for the first time: how the SS rounded up the Nazis' most prominent prisoners to serve as human shields for Hitler in the last days of World War II. In April 1945, as Germany faced defeat, Hitler planned to round up the Third Reich's most valuable prisoners and send them to his "Alpine Fortress", where he and the SS would keep the hostages as they made a last stand against the Allies. The prisoners included European presidents, prime ministers, generals, British secret agents, and German anti-Nazi clerics, celebrities, and officers who had aided the July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler - and the prisoners' families. Orders were given to the SS: If the German military situation deteriorated, the prisoners were to be executed - all 139 of them. So began a tense, deadly drama. As some prisoners plotted escape, others prepared for the inevitable, and their SS guards grew increasingly volatile, drunk, and trigger-happy as defeat loomed. As a dramatic confrontation between the SS and the Wehrmacht threatened the hostages caught in the middle, the US Army launched a frantic rescue bid to save the hostages before the ax fell. Drawing on previously unpublished and overlooked sources, Hitler's Last Plot is the first full account of this astounding and shocking story, from the original round-up order to the prisoners' terrifying ordeal and ultimate rescue. Told in a thrilling, pause-resisting narrative, this is one of World War II's most fascinating episodes. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Ian Sayer and Jeremy Dronfield (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Jack Tar
Summary
The Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors and marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain and beyond, often unwillingly, these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill, courage and sheer determination. They cast a long shadow, with millions of their descendants alive today, and many of their everyday expressions, such as 'skyscraper' and 'loose cannon', continuing to enrich our language. Yet their contribution is frequently overlooked, while the officers became celebrities. Jack Tar gives these forgotten men a voice in an exciting, enthralling, often unexpected and always entertaining picture of what their life was really like during this age of sail. Through personal letters, diaries and other manuscripts, the emotions and experiences of these people are explored, from the dread of press-gangs, shipwreck and disease, to the exhilaration of battle, grog, prize money and prostitutes. Jack Tar is an authoritative and gripping account that will be compulsive listening for anyone wanting to discover the vibrant and sometimes stark realities of this wooden world at war.
©2008 Roy Adkins, Lesley Adkins (P)2008 Hachette Audio UK
Tin Cans and Greyhounds
Summary
This action-packed narrative history of destroyer-class ships begins with destroyers' first incarnation as torpedo boats in 1898 through the last true combat service of the ships in the Vietnam War. Nicknamed "tin cans" or "greyhounds", destroyers were quick naval ships used to defend larger battleships - and they proved indispensable in America's military victories. In Tin Cans and Greyhounds, author Clint Johnson brings listeners inside the quarter-inch hulls of destroyers to meet the men who manned the ships' five-inch guns and fought America's wars from inside a "tin can" - risking death by cannon shell, shrapnel, bomb, fire, drowning, exposure, and sharks.
©2019 Clint Johnson (P)2019 Tantor
Defeating Lee
Summary
Fair Oaks, the Seven Days, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Petersburg - the list of significant battles fought by the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, is a long and distinguished one. This absorbing history of the Second Corps follows the unit's creation and rise to prominence, the battles that earned it a reputation for hard fighting, and the legacy its veterans sought to maintain in the years after the Civil War. More than an account of battles, Defeating Lee gets to the heart of what motivated these men, why they fought so hard, and how they sustained a spirited defense of cause and country long after the guns had fallen silent.
©2011 Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks
The Greatest Battles in History: The Battle of Okinawa
Summary
"If you die there will be no one left who knows the truth about the Battle of Okinawa. Bear the temporary shame but endure it. This is an order from your army Commander." (Mitsuru Ushijima to Colonel Hiromichi Yahara) Near the end of 1944, as Allied forces were pushing across the Pacific and edging ever closer to Japan, plans were drawn up to invade the Ryuku islands, the most prominent of them being Okinawa. Military planners anticipated that an amphibious campaign would last a week, but instead of facing 60,000 Japanese defenders as estimated, there were closer to 120,000 on the island at the beginning of the campaign in April 1945. The Battle of Okinawa was the largest amphibious operation in the Pacific theater, and it would last nearly three months and wind up being the fiercest in the Pacific theater during the war, with nearly 60 thousand American casualties and over 100 thousand Japanese soldiers killed. In addition, the battle resulted in an estimated 40 thousand - 150 thousand Japanese civilian casualties. Okinawa witnessed every conceivable horror of war both on land and at sea. American ground forces on Okinawa had to deal with bad weather (including a typhoon), antitank moats, barbed wire, mines, caves, underground tunnel networks, and fanatical Japanese soldiers who were willing to use human shields while fighting to the death. Allied naval forces supporting the amphibious invasion had to contend with Japan's notorious kamikazes, suicide pilots who terrorized sailors as they frantically tried to shoot down the Japanese planes before they could hit Allied ships. As one sailor aboard the USS Miami recalled, "They came in swarms from all directions. The barrels of our ship's guns got so hot we had to use fire hoses to cool them down."
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
Somme
Summary
No conflict better encapsulates all that went wrong on the Western Front than the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The tragic loss of life and stoic endurance by troops who walked towards their death is an iconic image which will be hard to ignore during the centennial year. Despite this, this book shows the extent to which the Allied armies were in fact able repeatedly to break through the German front lines. The author has uncovered some remarkable stories, as yet unknown, of action and heroism in the face of battle. He weaves in these firsthand experiences, creating a remarkable portrait of life at the front.
©2016 Hugh Sebag-Montefiore (P)2016 Penguin Books Ltd
Hard Tack and Coffee
Summary
First published more than 100 years ago, Hard Tack and Coffee is John Billings' absorbing account of the everyday life of a US Army soldier during the Civil War. It is written by a person who would know the material best, a genuine Civil War soldier.
Public Domain (P)1992 Jimcin Recordings
American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890
Summary
As the year 1890 wound to a close, a band of more than three hundred Lakota Sioux Indians led by Chief Big Foot made their way toward South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation to join other Lakotas seeking peace. Fearing that Big Foot's band was headed instead to join "hostile" Lakotas, U.S. troops surrounded the group on Wounded Knee Creek. Tensions mounted, and on the morning of December 29, as the Lakotas prepared to give up their arms, disaster struck. Accounts vary on what triggered the violence as Indians and soldiers unleashed thunderous gunfire at each other, but the consequences were horrific: some 200 innocent Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered. American Carnage-the first comprehensive account of Wounded Knee to appear in more than 50 years-explores the complex events preceding the tragedy, the killings, and their troubled legacy. In this gripping tale, Jerome A. Greene-renowned specialist on the Indian wars-explores why the bloody engagement happened and demonstrates how it became a brutal massacre. Epic in scope and poignant in its recounting of human suffering, American Carnage presents the reality-and denial-of our nation's last frontier massacre. It will leave an indelible mark on our understanding of American history.
©2014 University of Oklahoma Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks
The Apocalypse Factory
Summary
It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs. In the desert of Eastern Washington State, far from prying eyes, scientists Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and many thousands of others manufactured plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki and for the bombs in the current American nuclear arsenal, enabling the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilization. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and storytelling, Steve Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Olson recounts how a small Washington town played host to some of the most influential scientists and engineers in American history as they sought to create the substance at the core of the most destructive weapons ever created. The Apocalypse Factory offers a new generation this dramatic story of human achievement and, ultimately, of lethal hubris.
©2020 Steve Olson (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Where You Go
Summary
When Alex Moore leaves New York in search of a slower pace, her life is turned upside down at the sight of her oldest friend and first love Luke Waterford. Alex is shocked by their instant attraction and the sense of home she feels with a man she hasn’t seen in 10 years. Luke’s time in the army has made him more beautiful, more interesting, more appealing than ever. Alex has fought for stability, career success, and a chance to put down roots, but the closer she gets to Luke, the more she fears she’ll have to sacrifice everything she thought she wanted. Note: This military romance includes sweet heat and mild language.
©2018, 2019, 2020 Claire Cain (P)2020 Claire Cain
In the Ruins of Empire
Summary
Americans are accustomed to thinking that World War II ended on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Yet on the mainland of Asia, in the vast arc stretching from Manchuria to Burma, peace was a brief, fretful interlude. In some parts of Asia, such as Java and Southern Indonesia, only a few weeks passed before new fighting broke out between nationalist forces and the former colonial powers. In China, a fragile and incomplete peace lasted only a few months, and peace fared no better in Northern Indochina and Korea. The result was years of grim and bitter struggles, during which many suffered far more greatly than they had during the war itself. In the Ruins of Empire is a sequel to the author's well-known Eagle Against the Sun. In it, Ronald Spector describes how Vietnamese farmers struggled to survive another war with the French, while U.S. soldiers and marines were amazed to find themselves sent to China and Korea instead of back to their hometowns. In the meantime, five million Japanese soldiers, farmers, and diplomats who were stranded on mainland Asia found themselves in new roles as insurgents, victims, mercenaries, and peacekeepers. Much of the material in this book has never been published before, and it casts new and startling light on events that shook the countries of Asia. Spector examines recently released material on these events from Soviet and Chinese archives and two top-secret intelligence records released by the United States, as well as newly available Japanese documents. In addition, the author chronicles the individual stories of some of the Americans who were sent in to rescue prisoners of war and to tend to the surrender and repatriation of millions of Japanese.
©2007 Ronald Spector (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.
World War 2: Famous Snipers and Sniper Battles Revealed
Summary
Learn about the rise and importance of snipers in WWII. Upon hearing the word "sniper", most people immediately think of deadly assassins and computer-animated games, and while there is nothing wrong with this perception, the fascinating truth about snipers is available within this engrossing audiobook. The sniper is seen as the most glamorous member of any army, a true master of their craft able to snuff out life from hundreds of meters away. The sheer knowledge of a sniper in the enemy ranks brought shivers down the spines of many troops on the front line during World War II. Within this book, you will go on a metaphorical journey through the bloody history of the sniper from its origins in the Battle of Saratoga in New York as early as 1777 right through to World War II and everything in between. Prepare to be dazzled and horrified as you delve into the barely-heard-before stories of some of the world's deadliest and most prolific snipers such as Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Simho Häyhä, and Matthäus Hetzenauer. Discover the evolution in the technology of this most deadly form of art during World War II and learn the gory details of the destructive power of these weapons.This book contains some of the most informative and despicable stories of the aforementioned snipers, who hauntingly aimed to kill more and more people during their careers. These trained, cold-blooded killers kept a tally of kills and were proud when they increased into the hundreds, one even wearing a bloodstained uniform with pride long after the war had ended as proof that they had been effective in their role. This audiobook is a must-buy for anyone who wishes to be gripped, horrified, and entertained by one of the forefront authors on World War II.
©2015 Success Publishing Inc. (P)2019 Success Publishing Inc.
Blackstone's Heart
Summary
Former Marine Special Ops Ethan Blackstone thought his day would start off with business as usual at Blackout Security Inc., until a call for help from Austin's top DA changes everything. Krista Jameson is a romance novelist. She's also the DA's only daughter and Ethan's first love from long ago. With the success of her latest book, a crazed fan has marked her as his. When her stalker writes threatening letters to Krista's father, it forces him to hire security and unexpectedly brings Ethan back into her life. Ethan was dangerous to her heart as a teenager, the man he was now could be lethal. Will being forced to work together rekindle a flame that was never truly dead? As the danger to Krista grows, so, too, does their passion. Together, they will face her nightmare, but as their past meets their present, will they have a future once the danger ends?
©2019 Michelle Kee (P)2019 Michelle Kee
The Air Force Way of War
Summary
On December 18, 1972, more than 100 US B-52 bombers flew over North Vietnam to initiate Operation Linebacker II. During the next 11 days, 16 of these planes were shot down and another four suffered heavy damage. These losses soon proved so devastating that Strategic Air Command was ordered to halt the bombing. The US Air Force's poor performance in this and other operations during Vietnam was partly due to the fact that they had trained their pilots according to methods devised during World War II and the Korean War, when strategic bombers attacking targets were expected to take heavy losses. Warfare had changed by the 1960s, but the USAF had not adapted. Between 1972 and 1991, however, the Air Force dramatically changed its doctrines and began to overhaul the way it trained pilots through the introduction of a groundbreaking new training program called "Red Flag." In The Air Force Way of War, Brian D. Laslie examines the revolution in pilot instruction that Red Flag brought about after Vietnam. The program's new instruction methods were dubbed "realistic" because they prepared pilots for real-life situations better than the simple cockpit simulations of the past. In addition to discussing the program's methods, Laslie analyzes the way its graduates actually functioned in combat during the 1980s and '90s in places such as Grenada, Panama, Libya, and Iraq.
©2015 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks
A Brief History of the Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy
Summary
Why did the medieval Church bless William of Normandy's invasion of Christian England in 1066 and authorise cultural genocide in Provence? How could a Christian army sack Christian Constantinople in 1204? Why did thousands of ordinary men and women, led by knights and ladies, kings and queens, embark on campaigns of fanatical conquest in the world of Islam? The word 'Crusade' came later, but the concept of a 'war for the faith' is an ancient one. Geoffrey Hindley instructively unravels the story of the Christian military expeditions that have perturbed European history, troubled Christian consciences and embittered Muslim attitudes towards the West. He offers a lively record of the Crusades, from the Middle East to the pagan Baltic, and fascinating portraits of the major personalities, from Godfrey of Bouillon, the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, to Etienne, the visionary French peasant boy who inspired the tragic Children's Crusade. Addressing questions rarely considered, Hindley sheds new light on pressing issues surrounding religious division and shows how the Crusades have helped to shape the modern world and relations between Christian and Muslim countries to this day. Geoffrey Hindley lectures internationally on medieval history. His many books include The Shaping of Europe, Saladin: A Biography, The Book of Magna Carta and A Brief History of the Crusades. He also co-founders of the Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science. He lives in France.
©2004 Geoffrey Hindley (P)2013 Audible Ltd
World War II Dunkirk
Summary
The movie Dunkirk premiered in 2017, decades after the event that turned certain defeat into a military miracle that inspired the people of Great Britain. The epic saga of the ordinary British civilians who sailed across the English Channel to rescue their trapped soldiers, while the German military launched its might to prevent the evacuation, is a stirring tale. The British government hoped that perhaps the mini-armada would be able to rescue 50,000 troops, but the 861 vessels who responded to their country’s plea brought more than 300,000 soldiers safely home. The film has garnered awards and earned the impressive rank of the highest-grossing World War II film of all time. But even more stirring than cinema is the true story of the events that unfolded in the embattled port of Dunkirk, where, against all odds, the British Army was rescued from Hitler’s forces by a fleet of “Little Ships” determined to bring their boys home. Inside you will hear about: Britannia rules the waves The Phoney War Defending the perimeter The "Little Ships" The "Dunkirk Spirit" And much more!
©2018 Hourly History (P)2018 Hourly History
Forgotten Patriots
Summary
Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown. Just over 6,800 of those men died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. Evidence suggests that at least 17,500 Americans may have died in these prisons---more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. It was in New York, not Boston or Philadelphia, where most Americans gave their lives for the cause of independence. New York City became the jailhouse of the American Revolution because it was the principal base of the Crown's military operations. Beginning with the bumper crop of American captives taken during the 1776 invasion of New York, captured Americans were stuffed into a hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships. The prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed---those who escaped alive told of comrades so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. Despite the extraordinary number of lives lost, Forgotten Patriots is the first-ever account of what took place in these hellholes. The result is a unique perspective on the Revolutionary War as well as a sobering commentary on how Americans have remembered our struggle for independence---and how much we have forgotten.
©2008 Edwin G. Burrows (P)2008 Tantor
Gibraltar
Summary
For over three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the overwhelming forces of Spain and France. It became the longest siege in British history, and the obsession with saving Gibraltar was blamed for the loss of the American colonies in the War of Independence. Located between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, on the very edge of Europe, Gibraltar was a place of varied nationalities, languages, religions and social classes. During the siege, thousands of soldiers, civilians and their families withstood terrifying bombardments, starvation and diseases. Very ordinary people lived through extraordinary events, from shipwrecks and naval battles to an attempted invasion of England and a daring sortie out of Gibraltar into Spain. Deadly innovations included red-hot shot, shrapnel shells and a barrage from immense floating batteries. This is military and social history at its best, a story of soldiers, sailors and civilians, with royalty and rank and file, workmen and engineers, priests, prisoners of war, spies and surgeons all caught up in a struggle for a fortress located on little more than two square miles of awe-inspiring rock. Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History is rich in dramatic human detail - a tale of courage, endurance, intrigue, desperation, greed and humanity. The everyday experiences of all those involved are brought vividly to life with eyewitness accounts and expert research.
©2017 Roy & Lesley Adkins (P)2017 Little, Brown Book Group
A Review & Rebuttal of Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War"
Summary
This analysis is dedicated to the Vietnam Veterans, those killed in action, wounded in action, missing in action, the survivors (who returned home to a thankless nation), and their families. The vast majority of Vietnam Veterans served honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. You are not forgotten.
©2019 George A. Ross (P)2020 George A. Ross
Under Pressure
Summary
Hanging on display in the United States Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., is a battered and scratched steel plate, two feet in diameter, edged with more than one hundred little semicircles. For more than 80 years, people have wondered how it came to be there and at the story it could tell. Under Pressure: The Final Voyage of Submarine S-Five is that story. On Monday, August 30, 1920, the S-Five, the newest member of the U.S. Navy's fleet of submarines, departs Boston on her first cruise - to Baltimore for a recruiting appearance at the end of the week. Two days later, as part of a routine test of the submarine's ability to crash dive, her crew's failure to close a faulty valve sends 75 tons of seawater blasting in. Before the valve can be jury-rigged shut, the S-Five sits precariously on the ocean floor under 180 feet of water. The salt in the seawater combines with the sulfuric acid in the sub's batteries to create a cloud of chlorine gas. They have little air, no water, and only the dimmest of light by which to plan their escape. By shifting the water in the sub toward the bow torpedo room, the crew is able to stand the 240-foot-long sub on its nose, bringing it close to vertical, and, using trigonometry, he calculates that at least part of the boat's stern is now above sea level. In a race against time the crew starts cutting a hole out of the highest point in the sub: the telephone-booth-size tiller room. With no acetylene torch, no power tools -- nothing but ratchet drills and hacksaws -- the crew must cut through nearly an inch of strengthened steel or die in the attempt. An incredible drama, a story of heroism and of heroes, Under Pressure is that most remarkable of books, a true story far more dramatic than any fiction.
©2002 A. J. Hill (P)2013 Audible, Inc.