Military Audiobooks | History

War Paint: The 1st Infantry Division’s LRP/Ranger Company in Fierce Combat in Vietnam

The men who served with in the 1st Infantry Division with F company, 52nd Infantry, (LRP) later redesignated as Company I, 75th Infantry (Ranger) –engaged in some of the fiercest, bloodiest fighting during the Vietnam War, suffering a greater relative aggregate of casualties that any other LRRP/LRP/ Ranger company. Their base was Lai Khe, within hailing distance of the Vietcong central headquarters, a mile inside Cambodia, with its vast stockpiles of weapons and thousands of transient VC and NVA soldiers. Recondo-qualified Bill Goshen was there, and has written the first account of these battle-hardened soldiers. As the eyes and ears of the Big Red One, the 1st Infantry, these hunter/killer teams of only six men instered deep inside enemy territory had to survive by their wits, or suffer the deadly consequences. Goshen himself barely escaped with his life in a virtual suicide mission that destroyed half his team. His gripping narrative recaptures the raw courage and sacrifice of American soldiers fighting a savage war of survival: men of all colors, from all walks of life, warriors bonded by triumph and tragedy, by life and death. They served proudly in Vietnam, and their stories need to be told.

Bill Goshen (Author), Jake Robards (Narrator)

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Guns Up!: A Firsthand Account of the Vietnam War

THIS GUT-WRENCHING FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE WAR IS A CLASSIC IN THE ANNALS OF VIETNAM LITERATURE."Guns up!" was the battle cry that sent machine gunners racing forward with their M60s to mow down the enemy, hoping that this wasn't the day they would meet their deaths. Marine Johnnie Clark heard that the life expectancy of a machine gunner in Vietnam was seven to ten seconds after a firefight began. Johnnie was only eighteen when he got there, at the height of the bloody Tet Offensive at Hue, and he quickly realized the grim statistic held a chilling truth.The Marines who fought and bled and died were ordinary men, many still teenagers, but the selfless bravery they showed day after day in a nightmarish jungle war made them true heroes. This new edition of Guns Up!, filled with photographs and updated information about those harrowing battles, also contains the real names of these extraordinary warriors and details of their lives after the war. The book's continuing success is a tribute to the raw courage and sacrifice of the United States Marines.From the Paperback edition.

Johnnie Clark (Author), Jimmy Starace (Narrator)

Audiobook

Love Stories: Love Stories of World War II

Larry King, whose previous books have sold more than one million copies, tells the moving and heartwarming stories of couples who met by chance and fell in love during World War II, based on his original interviews. Poignant, inspiring, humorous, and unforgettable, these are the stories of men and women who, amid the chaos of a devestating war, became the loves of each other’s lives. The stories in Loves Stories of World War II cover a wonderful range of experiences, from couples who met and got married within a few weeks to those who waited years after a brief first meeting to see one another again. There are charming stories of falling in love at first sight, stories of tragedy transformed by love, and stories of the remarkable resourcefulness that can be exercised by two people determined to be together. A treasure trove of unique reminiscences, Love Stories of World War II offers an unprecendented view into the personal side of the World War II experience and celebrates the incredible legacy of remarkable relationships forged in the midst of tragedy.

Larry King (Author), Jill Eikenberry (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission

A tense, powerful, grand account of one of the most daring exploits of World War II. On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a surreally hellish camp near the city of Cabanatuan. The prisoners included the last survivors of the Bataan Death March left in the camp, and their extraordinary will to live might soon count for nothing elsewhere in the Philippines, the Japanese Army had already executed American prisoners as it retreated from the advancing U.S. Army. As the Rangers stealthily moved through enemy-occupied territory, they learned that Cabanatuan had become a major transshipment point for the Japanese retreat, and instead of facing the few dozen prison guards, they could possibly confront as many as 8,000 battle-hardened enemy troops. Hampton Sides's vivid minute-by-minute narration of the raid and his chronicle of the prisoners' wrenching experiences are masterful. But Ghost Soldiers is far more than a thrilling battle saga. Hampton Sides explores the mystery of human behavior under extreme duress the resilience of the prisoners, who defied the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and unspeakable tortures; the violent cultural clashes with Japanese guards and soldiers steeped in the warrior ethic of Bushido; the remarkable heroism of the Rangers and Filipino guerrillas; the complex motivations of the U.S. high command, some of whom could justly be charged with abandoning the men of Bataan in 1942; and the nearly suicidal bravado of several spies, including priests and a cabaret owner, who risked their lives to help the prisoners during their long ordeal. At once a gripping depiction of men at war and a compelling story of redemption, Ghost Soldiers joins such landmark books as Flags of Our Fathers, The Greatest Generation, The Rape of Nanking, and D-Day in preserving the legacy of World War II for future generations. From the Hardcover edition.

Hampton Sides (Author), James Naughton (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Album of Memories: Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation

“I cannot go anywhere in America without people wanting to share their wartime experiences….The stories and the lessons have emerged from long-forgotten letters home, from reunions of old buddies and outfits, from unpublished diaries and home-published memoirs….As the stories in this album of memories remind us, it truly was an American experience, from the centers of power to the most humble corners of the land.” —Tom Brokaw In this beautiful American family album of stories from the Greatest Generation, the history of life as it was lived during the Depression and World War II comes alive and is preserved in people’s own words. Photographs and time lines also commemorate important dates and events. An Army Air Corps veteran who enlisted in 1941 at age seventeen writes to describe the Bataan Death March. A black nurse tells of her encounter with wartime segregation. Other members of the Greatest Generation describe their war—in such historic episodes as Guadalcanal, the D-Day invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and Midway—as well as their lives on the home front. Starting with the Depression and Pearl Harbor, moving on through the war years in Europe, in the Pacific, and at home, this unique book preserves a people’s rich historical heritage and the legacy of a nation’s heroism in war and its courage in peace—in the shaping of their lives and of the world we have today.

Tom Brokaw (Author), Tom Brokaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

LRRP Company Command: The Cav’s LRP / Rangers in Vietnam, 1968 – 1969

A book about fine leadership in combat, LRRP Company Command focuses on Captain George Paccerelli as he molds the men of the Air Cav’s LRRP company into a successful reconnaissance unit. Jorgenson spent 7 years in the Army; three as an infantryman and four as a journalist. After surviving a number of missions as a LRRP with Hotel Company (Airborne), Jorgenson transferred to Alpha (aka Apache) Troop, where he walked point for its reaction force, the Blues. Jorgenson brings his considerable experience as a soldier and journalist to bear in this absorbing account.

Kregg P. Jorgenson (Author), Don Leslie (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Man Who Flew The Memphis Belle

As a young man growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, Robert Morgan was a fast-driving party boy-a hell-raiser. But when his mother committed suicide upon learning she had inoperable brain cancer, Morgan's life changed dramatically. He was no longer a carefree playboy; he was a man searching for meaning. He found that meaning at the controls of an airplane, and in the flak-and fighter-filled skies over Occupied France and Nazi Germany. The plane was a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Morgan named her the "Memphis Belle" in honor of his fiancee, a Memphis beauty named Margaret Polk. He and his crew flew 25 successful daylight missions over Europe in the "Belle," and were immortalized by Hollywood director William Wyler in a 1944 documentary called "The Memphis Belle," In those 25 harrowing missions, Morgan never lost a crew member. The only casualty associated with the "Belle" was Morgan's engagement to the plane's namesake; it simply couldn't survive the War Department's publicity demands. A powerful chronicle of loyalty, love, and astonishing bravery, "The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle" takes you into the heart of the war above 20,000 feet, and into the unforgettable life of one of America's greatest World War II heroes.

Col. Robert Morgan, Ron Powers (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator)

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Death in the Jungle: Diary of a Navy Seal

With 257 combat missions in Vietnam under his belt, Gary Smith is a living witness to the realities of Naval Special Warfare. He worked with some of the toughest and most highly motivated men in the world, executing missions in the murderous terrain of the Rung Sat Special Zone and Dung Island. The key to their success: go where no ordinary soldier would go and no VC would expect them. Through death reigned as king in the jungles as king in the jungles of Vietnam, Gary Smith considered it a privelege and an honor to serve under the officers and with the men of Underwater Demolition Team 12 and SEAL Team 1. Because he and his teammates, trained to the max, gave each other the courage at attain the unattainable…

Alan Maki, Gary R. Smith, Gary Smith (Author), Eric Conger (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Album of Memories: Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation

Tom Brokaw (Author), Tom Brokaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain

The adventures of the daring Thomas Cochrane, called 'the sea wolf' by Napoleon, are so extraordinary that his life reads like a page-turning work of fiction. Cochrane became a household name when in 1800 he took command of the tiny brig, the Speedy, and created mayhem in the Mediterranean earning himself and his crew a fortune in prize money.

Robert Harvey (Author), Richard Matthews (Narrator)

Audiobook

Flags of Our Fathers

Now abridged for young people, Flags of Our Fathers is the unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history: the raising of the U. S. flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima-and into history. The son of one of the flag raisers has written a powerful account of six very different men who came together in the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island.

James Bradley, Ron Powers (Author), Barry Bostwick (Narrator)

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The Greatest Generation Speaks

The heartwarming New York Times bestseller by the author of The Greatest Generation "When I wrote about the men and women who came out of the Depression, who won great victories and made lasting sacrifices in World War II and then returned home to begin building the world we have today … it was my way of saying thank you. I was not prepared for the avalanche of letters and responses touched off by that book. "I had written a book about America, and now America was writing back." Tom Brokaw touched the heart of the nation with his towering #1 bestseller The Greatest Generation, a moving tribute to those who gave the world so much — and who left an enduring legacy of heroism and grace. The Greatest Generation Speaks was born out of the vast outpouring of letters Brokaw received from people eager to share their personal memories and experiences of a momentous time in America’s history. These letters and reflections cross time, distance, and generations as they give voice to lives forever changed by war: eighty-year-old Clarence M. Graham, who recounts his harrowing experience as a soldier captured by the Japanese — and provides a gripping eyewitness account of the dropping of the atomic bomb; Patricia Matthews Dorph, a soldier’s daughter who shares the love letters her parents exchanged during the war, a lasting legacy of passion, devotion, and enduring love; Rabbi Judah Nadich, the first Jewish chaplain to serve in the war; Lorraine Davis, a civilian who helped form the Club of ’44, a group of wartime wives who still meet today. From the front lines of battle to the back porches of beloved hometowns, The Greatest Generation Speaks brings to life the hopes and dreams of a generation who fought our most hard-won victories, and whose struggles and sacrifices made our future possible.

Tom Brokaw (Author), Tom Brokaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

Military Audiobooks in History