{"title":"Walter S Zapotoczny Jr","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the thought-provoking worlds crafted by Walter S. Zapotoczny Jr. Explore tales of human experience, resilience, and the search for meaning in the face of adversity. Start your literary journey here.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"crushing-the-japanese-surface-fleet-at-the-battle-of-the-surigao-strait-book-walter-s-zapotoczny-jr-9781781558737","title":"Crushing the Japanese Surface Fleet at the Battle of the Surigao Strait","description":"In late 1944, the Second World War in the Pacific was going badly for Japan. The U.S. Pacific fleet had moved to the Mariana Islands in support of General MacArthur’s army, which had landed on the east coast of Leyte in October. The U.S. 7th Fleet was near the Surigao Strait off Leyte. The Japanese strategy was to entrap the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet by its naval forces from the north in the Sibuyan Sea, and with assault from the south from Surigao Strait. On the afternoon of 24 October, 7th Fleet torpedo-boats moved through Leyte Gulf and Surigao Strait into the Mindanao Sea south of Leyte, and by dusk were in position on their patrol-lines. Covering the northern part of the strait, were posted the destroyer squadrons, cruisers, and battleships to form the horizontal bar to a \"T\" of vast fire power which the enemy would be forced to approach vertically as he moved forward. With overwhelming force, the impenetrable gauntlet defeated the Japanese at Surigao Strait and played a significant in winning the Battle of Leyte Gulf and in so helping to secure the beachheads of the U.S. Sixth Army on Leyte against Japanese attack from the sea.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742220919057,"sku":"NGR9781781558737","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49797203624209,"sku":"CIN1781558736G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53352253522193,"sku":"GOR014868598","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1781558736.jpg?v=1751247838"},{"product_id":"road-to-auschwitz-book-walter-s-zapotoczny-jr-9781781558805","title":"Road To Auschwitz","description":"The holocaust began for the Slovka Jews in Autumn of 1938, when Slovakia became an autonomous region. Jewish property was confiscated and businesses liquidated at bargain prices all in an effort to \"Aryanize\" the country. But by March 26, 1942 the first trainloads of Jews deported from Slovakia embarked to their final destination at Auschwitz, and death camps in the Lublin area. The mechanism for rounding up the Jews and subsequent forced deportation was the Hlinka Guard. By October 1942 the Hlinka Guard had overseen the deportation of some 60,000 Slovak Jews. During the 1944-1945 German occupation, another 13,500 Jews were deported and 5,000 imprisoned. Many of the Jews ended up at the Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp. After a brief respite, the Hlinka guard once again took to rounding up, and persecuting Jews throughout Slovakia. Slovak Gypsies (Roma) were also persecuted by the Hlinka Guard. 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The 31 pilots of Mexican Expeditionary Force 201st Fighter Squadron flew missions supporting ground troops in the Philippines and long-range sorties over Formosa.    The Aztec Eagles helped the Allies defeat Japan. They helped end the isolationism of Mexico. They paved the way for important agreements between the United States and Mexico. They helped modernize the Mexican Air Force and demonstrated that Mexico could mount a successful expeditionary force. Significant as these achievements are, perhaps the unit's most important legacy is that the Aztec Eagles fought for honor and for Mexico as Allies in WWII, creating national pride throughout their homeland. 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As members of the Hitler Youth, Kurt and his friends enjoyed camping, weapons training.and complete indoctrination into the Nazi philosophy of world domination. Eventually Kurt became part of the infamous Einsatzgruppen, a group notorious for atrocities committed against Jews and Russians at the German Eastern Front. 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It is an examination of how the motivations of individual soldiers to fight and win can make the difference in battle, especially in the face of overwhelming odds. In December 1944, the American 28th Infantry Division occupied an 85-mile front extending along Germany's borders with Belgium and Luxembourg. There they repelled a desperate attempt by Hitler to drive a wedge through the Allied lines to the port of Antwerp, which he believed would buy his scientists the time they needed to complete development of the super weapons forecast to turn the tide of the war. This book explores the first-hand accounts of men of the 28th Infantry Division, who, with extraordinary tenacity, held the line through December 1944 and January 1945, and the chaplains who attended their religious needs. 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The Nazi high command struggled for ideas to reduce the effect of the ceaseless bombing and thereby create some breathing space to build and strengthen their new weapon: jet-propelled aircraft. They believed that this new invention could turn the tide of the war.  At the end of 1944 a proposal was offered by Oberst Hans-Joachim \"Hajo\" Herrmann. His plan called for 1,500 fighter aircraft to conduct a massive attack against an Allied bomber formation on April 7, 1945, inflicting such casualties that the Allies would think twice about continuing their bombing campaign. Attacking bombers was not a new idea, but the method of attack was new. The German pilots were to fly their planes into the bombers, causing enough damage to bring down the aircraft. Unlike the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who carried explosives on board and died in the attack, the German pilots were instructed to bail out and parachute to safety to fly another day. 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Not only was this one of the bloodiest and most disastrous U.S. campaigns of the war, its strategic importance was eclipsed twice over: first by Field Marshal Montgomery’s Operation Market-Garden, which aimed to open a route of advance into Germany via the capture of a series of Dutch bridges, and second, by Germany’s surprise attack in mid-December through the Ardennes in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. This hard fought and well-earned Allied victory overshadowed the debacle that was occurring less than 20 miles to the north of the Ardennes.  The 28th Infantry Division bore much of the pain in the Hürtgen Forest, losing 6,840 men killed, wounded, or missing. But despite these losses, the division played a crucial role in the broader Allied effort to repel the German forces in the region. 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