" "In 1942, Hitler's Nazi regime trained eight operatives for a mission to infiltrate America and do devastating damage to its infrastructure. It was a plot that proved historically remarkable for two reasons: the surprising extent of its success and the astounding nature of its failure. Soon after two U-Boats packed with explosives arrived on America's shores?one on Long Island, one in Florida?it became clear that the incompetence of the eight saboteurs was matched only by that of American authorities. In fact, had one of the saboteurs not tipped them off, the FBI might never have caught the plot's perpetrators?though a dozen witnesses saw a submarine moored on Long Island. As told by Michael Dobbs, the story of the botched mission and a subsequent trial by military tribunal, resulting in the swift execution of six saboteurs, offers great insight into the tenor of the country--and the state of American intelligence--during World War II and becomes what is perhaps a cautionary tale for our times.

<Font size="+1">THE GRIPPING SAGA OF THE RISE AND FALL OF THE JAPANESE NAVAL AIR FORCE IN WORLD WAR II THROUGH THE CAREER OF ONE OF ITS BEST FIGHTER ACES Written by Martin Caidin from Saburo Sakai's own memoirs and journalist Fred Saito's extensive interviews with the World War II fighter pilot, "Samurai!" vividly documents the chivalry and valor of the combat aviator who time after time fought American fighter pilots and, with 64 kills, would survive the war as Japan's greatest living ace. Here are the harrowing experiences of one of Japan's greatest aces: from fighter pilot school -- where the harsh training expelled over half of his class -- to the thrilling early Japanese victories; from his incredible six hundred mile fight for life from Guadalcanal to his base in Rabaul, to the poignant story of the now-handicapped veteran's return to the air during the final desperate months of World War II.

During the Pacific leg of World War II, the U.S. Navy struck an astounding blow to the Japanese-a defeat which would become one of the greatest David and Goliath stories in the history of warfare. Japan's Shinano was a mammoth 72,000-ton aircraft carrier, equipped with a huge arsenal of guns, and carrying some 4,000 men. Yet, a small U.S. submarine, the Archer-Fish, less than a thirtieth the size of Shinano and carrying just 82 men, managed to sink the gargantuan vessel into the embattled Pacific with just four strategically placed torpedoes. Here, vividly told by the Commander of the Archer-Fish, is the incredible true story of this crushing victory-and a fascinating account of heroism, history, and warfare.

During World War II, the civilian Office of Censorship supervised a huge and surprisingly successful program of news management: the voluntary self-censorship of the American press. In January 1942, censorship codebooks were distributed to all American newspapers, magazines, and radio stations with the request that journalists adhere to the guidelines within. Remarkably, over the course of the war no print journalist, and only one radio journalist, ever deliberately violated the censorship code after having been made aware of it and understanding its intent. "Secrets of Victory" examines the World War II censorship program and analyzes the reasons for its success. Using archival sources, including the Office of Censorship's own records, Michael Sweeney traces the development of news media censorship from a pressing necessity after the attack on Pearl Harbor to the centralized yet efficient bureaucracy that persuaded thousands of journalists to censor themselves for the sake of national security. At the heart of this often dramatic story is the Office of Censorship's director Byron Price. A former reporter himself, Price relied on cooperation with--rather than coercion of--American journalists in his fight to safeguard the nation's secrets.

This 1991 book tells about the secret history of the Battle of the Atlantic, between Allied shipping and Nazi submarines. The German Navy used a version of Enigma that defied code breakers in the early years of the war. After key documents were captured by the British, they were able to decode the messages. This book tells this story in about 360 pages, with an index and bibliography. The 'Preface' lists the acknowledgments. The Battle of Britain failed to defeat the British, next came the Battle of the Atlantic to destroy supply ships. The British used ASDIC and RADAR to detect submarines, but this had a limited range. Only decoded German naval messages would locate the submarines, and allow a convoy to avoid them. The U-boats were controlled by radio from France with constant communication. When a damaged U-boat surfaced, the captain of the attacking British destroyer decided to board it and capture its codebooks. Chapter 3 tells of the history of the Enigma cypher machine. Necessity is the mother of invention. Chapter 4 tells how this perfectly unbreakable system began to be broken: it use by imperfect men (p.69). The prohibition against keys with repeated letters provided a guide to cryptanalysts (p.70)! Chapter 7 reminds us that intelligence is secondary to strength (p.91). The sinking of U-33 led to the recovery of three rotors (p.111). Since small German ships did not use Enigma but a code known to the British, the latter were used to decode the former (p.144). The capture of the U-110 and its Enigma, ocean charts, and coding keys was priceless (Chapter 13). The capture of a weather ship brought a new supply of key settings (Chapter 14). Warnings of U-boats saved convoys (Chapter 15). Capturing a cipher book from the U-559 allowed breaking the new four-rotor code (Chapter 19). Chapter 20 tells how one convoy evaded U-boats. The cavity magnetron allowed ultra-high frequency radar which could not be detected by U-boats (Chapter 21). The Nazis believed this explained the Allies' success (p.261). The operational efficiency of U-boats was improved by having them resupplied at sea by special submarine tankers (Chapter 22). Sinking one reduced the effectiveness of many U-boats. The use of escort carriers allowed active attacks on U-boats, not just defensively (p.267). Sinking these supply ships and U-boats won the Battle of the Atlantic. ULTRA was the greatest secret of World War II (p.276). It could both avoid the enemy, and lead to an attack, with a minimal force. Another important factor was the huge production from American shipyards and aircraft factories. [Unmentioned is the war on the Eastern front, which required most Nazi military forces.] The British and Americans used a five or ten rotor machine with a more complex motion; and total censorship of this (p.279). The motivation for intelligence is described on pages 280-281. Another factor for efficiency was that American and British forces cooperated, while Germany had seven major code-breaking agencies that operated separately. A similar comparison could be made to the intelligence agencies. The British were unified, the Germans had competitive agencies. This book provides a short history, but I think it omitted areas for space considerations.

<div>Albert Speer is a great enigma. An unemployed architect when Hitler came to power in 1933, he was soon designing the Third Reich's most important buildings. In 1942 Hitler appointed him Armaments Minister and he quadrupled production, an astonishing achievement that kept the German Army in the field and prolonged the war. Yet Speer's life was full of contradictions. The only member of the Nazi elite with whom Hitler developed more than a purely functional relationship (he has even been called "Hitler's unrequited love"), Speer was always an outsider in Hitler's inner circle. He saw himself as an artist, above the crass power struggles of the roughnecks around him, but his enormous ambition blinded him to the crimes in which he played a leading role. Brilliantly illustrated, this gripping account of one man's rise and fall helps explain how Germany descended so far into crime and barbarism. </div>

This major study of the Soviet-German conflict in World War II has enjoyed an outstanding reputation among those interested in military history and in such areas as the development of Soviet command skills and the exigencies of total land war across a huge front. Save for the introduction of nuclear weapons, the Soviet victory over Germany was the most fateful development of World War II. Both wrought changes and raised problems that have constantly preoccupied the world in the more than twenty years since the war ended. The purpose of this volume is to investigate one aspect of the Soviet victory - how the war was won on the battlefield. The author sought, in following the march of the Soviet and German armies from Stalingrad to Berlin, to depict the war as it was and to describe the manner in which the Soviet Union emerged as the predominant military power in Europe. Earl F. Ziemke is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he received a Ph.D. degree in history. In World War II he served with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific theater. In 1951 he joined the staff of the Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, and in 1955 he moved to the Office of the Chief of Military History. Since 1967 he has been a member of the history faculty at the University of Georgia. He is the author of a number of books on military history.

The Allied invasion of France on D-Day in June 1944 was one history's riskiest and most successful gambles. After hard fighting, American, British, and Canadian troops won a toehold in Nazi-held Europe. But Germany's elite Panzer divisions hadn't been present at the beaches. Due to poor intelligence and a divided command, the tanks with black crosses only came to the invasion area after the first landings. But when the German Panther and Tiger tanks finally arrived, they were seeking a battle of annihilation, presenting the Allied attack inland with a ring of fire and steel. For nearly two months, the Allies hammered the enemy, even as the Germans attempted to throw them back into the sea. Some of the most intense armored battles ever fought in war were fought in Normandy, bringing glory and infamy to hardened and colorful soldiers such as Kurt "Panzer" Meyer, Jochen Peiper, and Max Wunsche, and enhancing their reputations for ferocious, desperate combat. In the end, their actions would decide the outcome of the war. Told in an engaging style and packed full of fascinating details of the 1st SS Panzer Corps, "Steel Inferno" offers a unique perspective on one of the greatest military engagements in history.