Showing results for "Lady di" in Military

Tadeusz Borowski’s concentration camp stories were based on his own experiences surviving Auschwitz and Dachau. In spare, brutal prose he describes a world where where the will to survive overrides compassion, and prisoners eat, work, and sleep a few yards from where others are murdered; where the difference between human beings is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket, or the luxury of a pair of shoes with thick soles; and where the line between normality and abnormality vanishes.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this gripping Civil War history, Fox Business's Gerri Willis charts the making of a spymaster genius. Wealthy Southern belle Elizabeth Van Lew had it all. Money, charm, wit—the most elegant mansion in Richmond. So why risk everything to become a Union...

It's possible that the world would have remembered Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) if only because she was the wife of one of America's greatest presidents, and was present for his shocking assassination. But Mary was one of the most unique women to ever be first lady, and she was in the White House during the country's most trying time. Yet history hasn't exactly been kind.

Numerous women from all social classes were actively engaged in the Crimean war, often in the most surprising ways. Based on dozens of rare and often unpublished accounts, No Place for Ladies is a rich, colourful and fascinating picture of very different women at war.

Florence Nightingale is remembered the world over as the “Lady with the Lamp,” moving quietly through darkened hospital corridors during the Crimean War, bringing comfort and hope to wounded soldiers. Yet to leave her story at that glowing image is to miss the extraordinary breadth of her life’s work. Florence Nightingale was not only a nurse but also a visionary reformer, a relentless campaigner, and one of the first to use data and statistics as weapons for systemic change.

You would think the Ghost of Camp Chase Cemetery would be a Confederate soldier. But it's not. She's called The Lady in Gray. You will enjoy learning about Lydia Aber, who, in 1861, disguises herself as a boy to save her reckless younger brother. Her quest for family becomes a crucible of survival, forcing her to navigate bloody battlefields.

Nazi Germany's North African defeat opened up the possibility of taking the war in the West to the European continent for the first time since France's lightning conquest by the Wehrmacht in 1940. The British chose Sicily as the target for military operations in the summer of 1943. The preparations included bombing missions over Italy ahead of an amphibious landing, and on April 4, 1943, one of the planes that took off from Libya to bomb Naples was the Lady Be Good, a B-24D Liberator bomber with a crew that had never flown a combat mission.

August 1943. As World War II consumes much of the globe, Americans at home have no idea the extent of the horror their servicemen face. What they also don’t know is that Eleanor Roosevelt has boarded a military transport plane, heading to the Pacific theater on a mission to discover and report first hand accounts of the war. Anticipating familiar backlash from those who would prefer a prim and proper First Lady, as well as to help ensure her safety, Eleanor and the rest of the White House keep the journey a closely guarded secret.

If anyone considered an army wife to be merely the kite’s tail, Beatrice Ayer Patton had the perfect retort: “How high can a kite soar without its tail?” General George Patton once remarked that World War II undoubtedly would have lasted a lot longer were it not for his soldiers and his wife. Those who knew the Pattons were aware of the vital role Beatrice played in his reaching his destiny, but few others understood the singular impact of this remarkable woman whom people described as having “a personality which radiates like a brilliant gem”.

In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, Lyudmila Pavlichenko left her university studies and ignored the offer of a position as a nurse to become one of Soviet Russia's 2,000 female snipers. Less than a year later, she had 309 recorded kills, including 29 enemy sniper kills. She was withdrawn from active duty after being injured. She was also regarded as a key heroic figure for the war effort. 

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, solved the problem for a lot of American kids who wanted to be Army pilots but didn't meet the two years of college requirement for acceptance into the aviation cadet program. In mid-1942, under wartime pressures, the Army Air Corps dropped that requirement and made an exception for applicants who could pass a stiff written test.

The Archerfish, a diesel powered Balao-class submarine crafted in the 1940s, won a unique, heroic place in military history and the memories of her crew members. Here is her story: from her assembly in New England and her dedication by Eleanor Roosevelt's personal secretary, to her service in World War II, where she broke the back of the Japanese Navy, and her critical role in the Cold War.

Hal Mapes was a waist gunner on a B-17, and was one of only two men to survive the collision of two bombers in the sky over Chartres, France. As a POW, he took part in the 80-plus day march across Germany near the end of the war. "Best diet I was ever on," he would say more than 50 years later. "We didn't have anything to eat."

While the role of the first lady has changed dramatically over the course of the nation's history, one thing remains constant: American's have always been fascinated by the wives of the President. Insights into their formative years, their daily routines within the White House, their influence...

The Second World War changed the course of modern history. It is filled with incredible stories of daring risks and exceptional struggles, but in the popular imagination, these stories are more often than not the stories of men. There is, however, a hidden treasure trove of untold stories of heroic women who have risked their lives in the monumental battle against fascism. We’ve heard of women who became nurses treating soldiers with battlefield injuries, partisans who fought occupying armies, and skilled laborers who worked in wartime industries.