{"title":"Wolfgang W E Samuel","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"german-boy-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9780340822609","title":"German Boy","description":"As the third Reich crumbled in 1945, scores of Germans fled the advancing Russians troops. Among them, a little boy and his family found themselves in war-torn Strasbourg before being forced into a disease-ridden refugee camp. The true story of their fight for survival, this book documents the young Wolfgang Samuel's harsh and terrifying experiences as, for reasons he is too young to understand, he encounters arbitary arrest, rape, hunger and constant fear. With the resilience only children can muster, Wolfgang maintained his youth and innocence in little ways - befriending other little refugees, playing with shrapnel, and delighting in the planes flown by Americans. Bringing fresh insight to the dark history of Nazi Germany and the horror left in its wake, this book offers a recollection of an innocent's incredible journey.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49520538681617,"sku":"GOR001213517","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51898336739601,"sku":"GOR001331551","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52388486152465,"sku":"GOR003208290","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0340822600.jpg?v=1751390543"},{"product_id":"american-raiders-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781578066490","title":"American Raiders","description":"The last battle of World War II was not for military victory but for the technology of the Third Reich. In American Raiders, Wolfgang Samuel assembles from official Air Force records and survivors' interviews the largely untold stories of the disarmament of the once mighty Luftwaffe and of Operation Lusty - the hunt for Nazi technologies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49898043539729,"sku":"CIN1578066492A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50686187176209,"sku":"CIN1578066492VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":51860377534737,"sku":"CIN1578066492LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52106752098577,"sku":"CIN1578066492G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1578066492.jpg?v=1763117950"},{"product_id":"coming-to-colorado-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781578069026","title":"Coming to Colorado","description":"In his acclaimed memoir German Boy: A Refugee's Story, Wolfgang W. E. Samuel relates his experiences as a child surviving war and its hellish aftermath in occupied Germany. On January 24, 1951, exactly six years after his traumatic flight from Russian tanks, Samuel finds himself standing at the railing of a ship taking him to the land of his dreams--America. Coming to Colorado is the story of a refugee from war and deprivation, who at age sixteen, not understanding a word of English and with barely an eighth-grade education, leaves behind all that is familiar. Scarred by the violence, rape, and death he has seen, Samuel must first learn to be a boy again. But every relationship he tries to build must overcome the specter of his childhood experience in World War II and the chaos that followed.  Shortly after his arrival in Colorado, Samuel spends what little money he has on a pair of second lieutenant's bars that he finds in a Denver pawnshop. These bars, just like those worn by the American pilots he idolized during the Berlin Airlift, remind him of the airmen and the planes that instilled in him a dream to fly.  That aspiration, however, faces long odds. Struggling to learn the English language and American customs, Samuel begins to lose faith in his abilities, suffers depression, and is haunted by both recurring nightmares of his violent past and survivor's guilt. Coming to Colorado charts the path of Samuel's eventual triumph. In 1960, his proud mother saw pinned on his shoulders the gold bars of a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. It was the end of a struggle for the German boy, who had become, as he wished, the ultimate American.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50010373914897,"sku":"GOR005313392","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50336913391889,"sku":"CIN1578069025G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50337125204241,"sku":"CIN1578069025VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51340291473681,"sku":"GOR014229419","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51734406856977,"sku":"CIN1578069025A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1578069025.jpg?v=1763482947"},{"product_id":"war-of-our-childhood-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781578064823","title":"The War of Our Childhood","description":"One survivor tells of the fire-bombing of Dresden. Another recounts the pervasive fear of marauding Russian and Czech bandits raping and killing. Children recall fathers who were only photographs and mothers who were saviors and heroes.  These are typical in the stories collected in The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II. For this book Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, a childhood refugee himself after the fall of Nazi Germany, interviewed twenty-seven men and women who as children--by chance and sheer resilience--survived Allied bombs, invading armies, hunger, and chaos.  \"\"Our eyes carried no hate, only recognition of what was,\"\" Samuel writes of his childhood. \"\"Peace was an abstraction. The world we Kinder knew nearly always had the word 'war' appended to it.\"\"Samuel's heartfelt narratives from these innocent survivors are invariably riveting and often terrifying. Each engrossing story has perilous and tragic moments--school children in Leuna who are sent home during an air raid but are strafed as moving targets; fathers who exist only as distant figures, returning to their families long after the war--or not at all; mothers who are raped and tortured; families who are forced into a seemingly endless relocation that replicates the terrors of war itself. In capturing such experiences from nearly every region of Germany and involving people of every socio-economic class, this is a collection of unique memories, but each account contributes to a cumulative understanding of the war that is more personal than strategic surveys and histories.  For Samuel and the survivors he interviewed, agony and fright were part of everyday life, just as were play, wondrous experience, and above all perseverance.  \"\"My focus,\"\" Samuel writes, \"\"is on the astounding ability of a generation of German children to emerge from debilitating circumstances as sane and productive human beings.\"\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50031392948497,"sku":"CIN1578064821G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50932974387473,"sku":"GOR012098893","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037775855889,"sku":"NIN9781578064823","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51176489943313,"sku":"CIN1578064821VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51323107508497,"sku":"CIN1578064821A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53181300900113,"sku":"NLS9781578064823","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1578064821.jpg?v=1763224627"},{"product_id":"german-boy-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781578062744","title":"German Boy","description":"What was the experience of war for a child in bombed and ravaged Germany? In this memoir, the voice of innocence is heard. In this gripping account, a boy and his mother are wrenched from their tranquil lives to forge a path through the storm of war and the rubble of its aftermath.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50035276448017,"sku":"GOR013842028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50914148942097,"sku":"CIN1578062748VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037714415889,"sku":"NIN9781578062744","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51417331368209,"sku":"CIN1578062748G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52589849739537,"sku":"NLS9781578062744","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1578062748.jpg?v=1763220817"},{"product_id":"i-always-wanted-to-fly-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781578063994","title":"I Always Wanted to Fly","description":"Until now, no book has covered all of Cold War air combat in the words of the men who waged it. In I Always Wanted to Fly, retired United States Air Force Colonel Wolfgang W. E. Samuel has gathered first-person memories from heroes of the cockpits and airstrips.  Battling in dogfights when jets were novelties, saving lives in grueling airlifts, or flying dangerous reconnaissance missions deep into Soviet and Chinese airspace, these flyers waged America's longest and most secretively conducted air war.  Many of the pilots Samuel interviewed invoke the same sentiment when asked why they risked their lives in the air--\"\"I always wanted to fly.\"\" While young, they were inspired by barnstormers, by World War I fighter legends, by the legendary Charles Lindbergh, and often just by seeing airplanes flying overhead. With the advent of World War II, many of these dreamers found themselves in cockpits soon after high school. Of those who survived World War II, many chose to continue following their dream, flying the Berlin Airlift, stopping the North Korean army during the \"\"forgotten war\"\" in Korea, and fighting in the Vietnam War.  Told in personal narratives and reminiscences, I Always Wanted to Fly renders views from pilots' seats and flight decks during every air combat flashpoint from 1945--1968. Drawn from long exposure to the immense stress of warfare, the stories these warriors share are both heroic and historic.  The author, a veteran of many secret reconnaissance missions, evokes individuals and scenes with authority and grace. He provides clear, concise historical context for each airman's memories. In I Always Wanted to Fly he has produced both a thrilling and inspirational acknowledgment of personal heroism and a valuable addition to our documentation of the Cold War.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50127089238289,"sku":"CIN157806399XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50322481840401,"sku":"GOR013926796","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52106749608209,"sku":"CIN157806399XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/157806399X.jpg?v=1750958940"},{"product_id":"in-defense-of-freedom-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781628462173","title":"In Defense of Freedom","description":"The twenty-seven stories in this book serve as a graphic reminder of the selfless heroism of America's World War II Army Air Forces flyers and how necessary they were to achieve Allied victory. Wolfgang Samuel and the pilots he interviewed reveal the peril these men faced to achieve a daunting task, impossible without their bravery. And their sacrifices were stunning--American bomber crews suffered the highest casualties (KIA, MIA, POW, wounded) of all American armed services in World War II. The stories preserved in this book bear that grave danger out. A member of a heavy bomber crew in the 8th Air Force in the period from mid-1942 to spring 1944 was less likely to survive than a US Marine fighting on Iwo Jima or Okinawa. The stories in this unique book are about men who went face to face with their adversaries, who saw their buddies die, who crashed planes, and who became prisoners of war. Many later went on to become the backbone of the postwar Air Force, serving in Korea and Vietnam and during the Cold War. Young Ken Chilstrom led a flight of eight A-36 fighter bombers on a low-level foray in Italy. Only he and two others came home. Bob Hoover thought he could take on the entire German air force, but on his first mission he was shot down, nearly perished, and suffered the remainder of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp. Wolfgang Samuel's new book is all about men like Ken, Bob, and the many friends they lost, who saw World War II through to the end and gave freedom to so many others.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50292927758609,"sku":"CIN1628462175VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50397422780689,"sku":"CIN1628462175A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694028849425,"sku":"CIN1628462175G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53345916551441,"sku":"GOR013025256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1628462175.jpg?v=1751408663"},{"product_id":"flights-from-fassberg-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781496833648","title":"Flights from Fassberg","description":"Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, Colonel, US Air Force (Ret.), interweaves his story and that of his family with the larger history of World War II and the postwar world through a moving recollection and exploration of Fassberg, a small town in Germany few have heard of and fewer remember. Created in 1933 by the Hitler regime to train German aircrews, Fassberg hosted Samuel's father in 1944-45 as an officer in the German air force. As fate and Germany's collapse chased young Wolfgang, Fassberg later became his home as a postwar refugee, frightened, traumatized, hungry, and cold.  Built for war, Fassberg made its next mark as a harbinger of the new Cold War, serving as one of the operating bases for Allied aircraft during the Berlin Airlift in 1948. With the end of the Berlin Crisis, the airbase and town faced a dire future. When the Royal Air Force declared the airbase surplus to its needs, it also signed the place's death warrant, yet increasing Cold War tensions salvaged both base and town. Fassberg transformed again, this time into a forward operating base for NATO aircraft, including a fighter flown by Samuel's son.  Both personal revelation and world history, replete with tales from pilots, mechanics, and all those whose lives intersected there, Flights from Fassberg provides context to the Berlin Airlift and its strategic impact, the development of NATO, and the establishment of the West German nation. The little town built for war survived to serve as a refuge for a lasting peace.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50386935677201,"sku":"CIN1496833643G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52607575064849,"sku":"CIN1496833643VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496833643.jpg?v=1763476832"},{"product_id":"p-38-lightning-and-the-men-who-flew-it-book-wolfgang-w-e-samuel-9781496856500","title":"The P-38 Lightning and the Men Who Flew It","description":"The P-38 Lightning was one of the fastest operational fighters of World War II, famous for its successes in North Africa and the Pacific. In The P-38 Lightning and the Men Who Flew It, Wolfgang W. E. Samuel shares the stories of the young men who climbed into the cockpits of the P-38 to fight for freedom, and of those who created, tested, and deployed these fearsome machines.   The P-38 was the product of the Lockheed Corporation, the first fighter they ever built, principally conceptualized by Kelly Johnson, whose design was to meet Air Corps specifications. To do that he came up with a twin-engine aircraft with a tricycle landing gear unlike any other military aircraft of the time. But it was no easy plane to fly. Many pilots died in training and routine flying before ever meeting an opponent in combat.   P-38 units were formed quickly once the United States entered World War II in December 1941. Training was rushed to get pilots and planes to Europe as quickly as possible to serve as bomber escorts. Although the P-38 could fly at the high altitudes the bombers flew, it was not the right aircraft for the mission. At high altitudes without an engine in front of the cockpit to keep the pilot warm, the plane was frigid. Pilots suffered and were sometimes so weakened by the brutal cold that they had to be lifted out of the cockpit upon landing, and the bombers suffered severe losses. In North Africa’s warmer air, however, the P-38 came into its own. With four 50-caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon in its nose, the P-38 was a formidable adversary. With proven success in the Mediterranean, P-38 squadrons were transferred to the Pacific Theater, where they flourished.   This book focuses on the men who flew this challenging aircraft and the men who designed and decided how to deploy it. Samuel shares stories of bravery and ingenuity alongside an aviation history long neglected. The P-38’s Pacific deployment is covered in some detail, including the actions of Richard Bong, who became the US forces’ ace of aces while flying a P-38. In the Pacific skies, the P-38, its pilots, and designers made the heroic history captured here.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51627392991505,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51627393450257,"sku":"NGR9781496856500","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51627393483025,"sku":"NIN9781496856500","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51746359574801,"sku":"CIN1496856503G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52940518490385,"sku":"CIN1496856503VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":53022191485201,"sku":"CIN1496856503LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53115590213905,"sku":"CIN1496856503A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496856503.jpg?v=1763481875"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-wolfgang-w-e-samuel.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}