Military Audiobooks | History

Lieutenant Dangerous: A Vietnam War Memoir

'A must-read war memoir… with zero punches pulled, related by one of the most incisive observers of the American political scene.' -KIRKUS (starred review) 'Funny, biting, thoughtful and wholly original.' -Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried Jeff Danziger, one of the leading political cartoonists of his generation, captures the fear, sorrow, absurdity, and unintended but inevitable consequences of war with dark humor and penetrating moral clarity. If there is any discipline at the start of wars it dissipates as the soldiers themselves become aware of the pointlessness of what they are being told to do. A conversation with a group of today's military age men and women about America's involvement in Vietnam inspired Jeff Danziger to write about his own wartime experiences: "War is interesting," he reveals, "if you can avoid getting killed, and don't mind loud noises." Fans of his cartooning will recognize his mordant humor applied to his own wartime training and combat experiences: "I learned, and I think most veterans learn, that making people or nations do something by bombing or sending in armed troops usually fails." Near the end of his telling, Danziger invites his audience-in particular the young friends who inspired him to write this informative and rollicking memoir-to ponder: "What would you do? . . . Could you summon the bravery-or the internal resistance-to simply refuse to be part of the whole idiotic theater of the war? . . . Or would you be like me?"

Jeff Danziger (Author), Jeff Danziger (Narrator)

Audiobook

Catkiller 3-2: An Army Pilot Flying for the Marines in the Vietnam War

Catkiller 3-2 provides unique insights into the role of the tactical air controller, airborne (TACA) in I Corps as seen through the eyes of one of the pilots who flew low-flying, unarmed, single-engine aircraft in support of marine ground units during the Vietnam War. When Gen. William Westmoreland changed the marines' role in I Corps into a combat one, the Marines found themselves in need of more fixed wing aircraft to handle the TACA missions. The advance party of the Army's 220th Reconnaissance Aircraft Company (RAC) arrived in Vietnam in late June 1965 thinking they were going to be assigned to III Corps Tactical Zone. However, because of the shortage of existing Marine Birddogs, the 220th was immediately reassigned to I Corps and came under the operational control of the Marines. No other work details the tactics, restrictions, aerial maneuvers, and dangers experienced by the army pilots and marine aerial observers flying these missions. As young lieutenants and captains, they had at their beck and call as much authority to request and control artillery and air strikes as ground commanders of much higher rank. Raymond G. Caryl provides unrivaled examples of the cultural mores, attitudes, and recreational activity of these young pilots and observers supporting the ground forces.

Raymond G. Caryl (Author), Tom Parks (Narrator)

Audiobook

Voices of the Pacific, Expanded Edition: Untold Stories from the Marine Heroes of World War II

From the bestselling author of A Higher Call and Spearhead comes an unflinching firsthand chronicle of the heroic US Marines who fought on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and in other pivotal battles during the Pacific War, a classic book now expanded with new stories from the flyboys overhead and the home front at war. Following fifteen Marines from Pearl Harbor, through their battles with the Japanese, to their return home after V-J Day, Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton have compiled an oral history of the Pacific War in the words of the men who fought on the front lines. With vivid, unforgettable detail, these Marines reveal harrowing accounts of combat with an implacable enemy, the camaraderie they found, the friends they lost, and the aftermath of the war's impact on their lives. With unprecedented access to the veterans and unpublished memoirs, Voices of the Pacific presents true stories of heroism as told by such World War II veterans as Sid Phillips, R.V. Burgin, and Chuck Tatum-whose exploits were featured in the classic HBO miniseries The Pacific-and their Marine buddies from the legendary 1st Marine Division.

Adam Makos, Marcus Brotherton (Author), Kimberly Farr, Michael Crouch, Mike Chamberlain (Narrator)

Audiobook

By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy SEALS

A gripping history chronicling the fits and starts of American special operations and the ultimate rise of the Navy SEALs from unarmed frogmen to elite, go-anywhere commandos-as told by one of their own. "Deeply researched, well organized, and incredibly engaging . . . This is our legacy with all the warts, the challenges, and the heroics in one concise volume."-Admiral William H. McRaven, #1 New York Times bestselling author and former commander, United States Special Operations Command How did the US Navy-the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans-ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one of the world's most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, even Central Africa? Behind the SEALs' improbable rise lies the most remarkable underdog story in American military history-and in these pages, former Navy SEAL Benjamin H. Milligan captures it as never before. Told through the eyes of remarkable leaders and racing from one longshot, hair-curling raid to the next, it's a tale of the unit's heroic naval predecessors, and the evolution of the SEALs themselves. But it's also the story of the forging of American special operations as a whole-and how the SEALs emerged from the fires as America's first permanent commando force, when again and again some other unit seemed predestined to seize that role. Here Milligan thrillingly captures the outsize feats of the SEALs' frogmen forefathers in World War II, the Korean War, and elsewhere, even as he plunges us into the second front of interservice rivalries and personal ambition that shaped the SEALs' evolution. In equally vivid, masterful detail, he chronicles key early missions undertaken by units like the Marine Raiders, Army Rangers, and Green Berets, showing us how these fateful, bloody moments helped create the modern American commando-even as they opened up pivotal opportunities for the Navy. Finally, he takes us alongside as the SEALs at last seize the mantle of commando raiding, and discover the missions of capture/kill and counterterrorism that would define them for decades to come. Written with the insight that can only come from a combat veteran and a member of the book's tribe, By Water Beneath the Walls is an essential new history of the SEAL teams, a crackling account of desperate last stands and unforgettable characters accomplishing the impossible-and a riveting epic of the dawn of American special operations.

Benjamin H. Milligan (Author), Kaleo Griffith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Tightening Dark: An American Hostage in Yemen

This riveting memoir follows a Lebanese-Muslim-American and thirty-year US Marine veteran who suffered a six-month ordeal at the hands of a brutal regime in Yemen-and remained loyal to his country through it all. As air strikes carpeted Yemen's capital, Sam Farran was one of only a few Americans in the war-ravaged country. He was there to conduct security assessments for a variety of international firms. Days after his arrival, he was brutally seized and taken hostage by Houthi rebels. Sam would spend the next six months suffering a horrific ordeal that would test his endurance, his loyalty and his very soul. Every day his captors asked him-as a fellow Muslim-to betray America and his Marine heritage in exchange for his freedom. Would he give in to the Houthis and return to his Middle Eastern roots? In the end--and despite daily threats to his life-Sam found the strength to resist, and came out of his ordeal with an increased sense of being, foremost, a US Marine. The Tightening Dark is an intimate, riveting and inspiring memoir of heroic strength, courage, survival and commitment to country. And a reminder that the best parts of the American dream are the dreamers-those who pledge to being American, regardless of where they are born.

Benjamin Buchholz, Sam Farran (Author), Fajer Al-Kaisi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Saving My Enemy: How Two WWII Soldiers Fought against Each Other and Later Forged a Friendship That

Saving My Enemy is a Band of Brothers sequel like no other. Guilt nearly killed one of the celebrated Band of Brothers members, Sgt. Don Malarkey. He was a hero for his service in World War II, especially in the Battle of the Bulge, yet he came to the brink of suicide, haunted by the memories of the German soldiers he killed. Across the ocean, Fritz Engelbert was shackled in shame for having been a pawn of Hitler-he too had fought in the Battle of the Bulge-but for the Germans. He could not find peace. Saving My Enemy is the touching true story of two soldiers on opposite sides of WWII whose unlikely friendship, forged in their eighties, dissolves six decades of guilt and shame that had pushed both men to despair. "I contend that every vet crying over his beer in some American Legion hall about something that happened seventy years ago is doing so not because of lost buddies, but because of lost honor, of shame. Long after World War II was over, Don helped restore that honor in Fritz. And Fritz did the same for Don. I was gripped by this story." -Jeff Struecker, a former US Army Ranger who heard this story directly from the men's families Malarkey and Engelbert had completely different backgrounds, but their stories collided amid the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the USA in WWII-the Battle of the Bulge. Beneath blankets of snow, the earth was hardened like iron. With temperatures dipping below zero degrees Fahrenheit, the conditions were as brutal as any in the history of warfare. This was Germany's last hope to stop the Allies and they were desperate for victory. Fritz, nineteen, a private in the Panzer-Lerh-Division, had the chief duty of being a krad messenger (on a military motorcycle). Don, twenty-three, is a sergeant in E Company, 506th Regiment, and is living in a foxhole in the woods overlooking villages below where Fritz and other German soldiers are awaiting the fight. Both men took quiet moments of introspection. Fritz remembered a dead American soldier he saw alongside the road and he "thought of his parents who would miss him dearly" and felt a certain "brotherhood with the enemy." Two weeks later, as Easy Company pushed Germany back, Don had a similar experience-he had just shot and killed a German soldier and was shocked to find he was only sixteen. "I looked at his face, eyes fixed forever. A face that I wouldn't forget. Not the next day. Not the next month. Not ever." Welch gives intimate glimpses into these men's souls as they fought each other during the war, lived in despair and guilt in the decades that followed, and finally found forgiveness and peace through each other. Don and Fritz's story is one of hope and inspiration that will not be forgotten.

Bob Welch (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Der 20. Juli 1944 - Gespräch mit Hans Sarkowicz

Philipp Freiherr v. Boeselager war Zeitzeuge der Ereignisse um den 20. Juli 1944. Als Ordonnanzoffizier des Oberbefehlshabers der Heeresgruppe Mitte erfuhr Boeselager von den Massentötungen und anderen Verbrechen und gelangte zu der Überzeugung, dass das verbrecherische Regime Hitlers gestürzt werden müsse. Er schloss sich dem Widerstand um Henning von Tresckow an und übernahm die Aufgabe, andere Offiziere für den Staatsstreich zu gewinnen. Im Juli 1944 zog Philipp - unter dem Kommando seines Bruders Georg v. Boeselager - 1200 Soldaten am Flugplatz nahe Brest zusammen, um diese nach einem geglückten Attentat schnell nach Berlin-Tempelhof zu fliegen. Als das Scheitern des Attentats bekannt wurde, kehrte Boeselager mit seinen Männern an die Front zurück. Hans Sarkowicz nähert sich in dem Gespräch behutsam dem Charakter Boeselagers. Für ihn stehen nicht die Fakten, sondern die emotialen und rationalen Beweggründe der 'Verschwörer' im Mittelpunkt der Fragen. Ein Zeitzeugnis der besonderen Art.

Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager (Author), Hans Sarkowicz, Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager (Narrator)

Audiobook

Unglaubliches überstanden: Ein Soldatenschicksal im Zweiten Weltkrieg

Als Eberhard Dennerlein 1936 in das Pionierbataillon 47 in München eintritt, legt er damit den Grundstein für sein weiteres Leben. Er verpflichtet sich, lebenslänglich der Wehrmacht zu dienen. Vom Unteroffizier steigt er auf zum Offizier und ist zunächst mit dem Bau von Brücken beauftragt, um dem Vormarsch in Polen den Weg zu bereiten. Bereits mit Anfang zwanzig wird er zum Kompanieführer ernannt. Nach Einsätzen in Holland, Belgien, Frankreich und später in Russland gerät er in russische Kriegsgefangenschaft. Während all dieser Zeit hat er in seinem Tagebuch seine Erlebnisse und Gedanken festgehalten, die so zu einem wichtigen Zeitdokument werden.

Klaus G. Förg (Author), Klaus G. Förg (Narrator)

Audiobook

Across Cultures and Empires: An Immigrant's Odyssey from the Soviet Army to the US War in Iraq and A

This fast-paced narrative based upon the author's experience serving in the Soviet army as an Azeri minority; working for the Soviet Communist Party and experiencing disillusionment with communism; watching the fall of the Soviet Union; living through the abortive coup against Gorbachev; working in the newly independent Azeri government during its unfolding conflict with Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict Moscow purposely exacerbated as it sought to regain a measure of control over its former republics; immigrating to the United States in search of freedom; working with the US Army in Iraq as an interpreter; and becoming a citizen of the United States. Across Cultures and Empires is above all an immigrant's story. Mahir Ibrahimov's fluency in multiple languages offers the perspective of someone who found a way to successfully cross boundaries amid the fall of empire and the resulting cascade of conflicts, even as he provides the listener with insight into an era where mass migration has become a defining dynamic. In the course of telling his personal story and reflecting upon his experiences, Ibrahimov offers clear observations on the deep connections he has made about freedom and America's role in the world, the different cultures he experienced, war, peace, the fight against terrorism, and the role of religion.

Mahir Ibrahimov (Author), Daniel Henning (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Rifle: Combat Stories from America's Last WWII Veterans, Told Through an M1 Garand

The Rifle is the inspirational story of a twenty-eight-year-old US Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all-WWII veterans. It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a US Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for fifty years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine's mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories. For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America's last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. Ninety-six signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

Andrew Biggio (Author), Shawn Compton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Above the Reich: Deadly Dogfights, Blistering Bombing Raids, and Other War Stories from the Greatest

Sensational eyewitness accounts from the most heroic and legendary American aviators of World War II, never before published as a book They are voices lost to time. Beginning in the late 1970s, five veteran airmen sat for private interviews. Decades after the guns fell silent, they recounted in vivid detail the most dangerous missions that made the difference in the war. Ed Haydon dueled with the deadliest of German aces--and forced him to the ground. Robert Johnson racked up twenty-seven kills in his P-47 Thunderbolt, but nearly lost his life when his plane was shot to ribbons and his guns jammed. Cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay was the Air Corps general who devised the bomber tactics that pummeled Germany's war machine. Robin Olds was a West Point football hero who became one of the most dogged, aggressive fighter pilots in the European theater, relentlessly pursuing Germans in his P-38 Lightning. And Jimmy Doolittle became the most celebrated American airman of the war--maybe even of all time--after he led the audacious raid to bomb Tokyo. Today these heroes are long gone, but now, in this incredible volume, they tell their stories in their own words.

Anne-Marie Lewis, Colin Heaton (Author), Arthur Morey, Barrett Leddy, Dominic Hoffman, Fred Sanders, Macleod Andrews, Mark Bramhall, Patricia Santomasso, Peter Bradbury, Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

Audiobook

Blitzkrieg

On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. The country needed to be subjugated quickly before Britain and France could intervene. Germany’s Panzer divisions proved unstoppable. Backed by the Luftwaffe, they smashed through Poland’s defences, destroying roads, bridges, and radio stations. The Polish defended valiantly, but were eventually forced to surrender. By 6th of October, Poland was in German hands. In the spring of 1940, the Blitzkrieg rolled through Europe again – within a few months, all of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway fell. But when Hitler attacked Britain, he discovered the British were tougher than expected. This issue of bringing history to life tracks the Germans’ early advances to discover how a relatively small nation could take a continent by storm. - World History invites you on a fascinating journey to bygone eras, allowing you to explore the greatest events in history. Take a trip back in time - to the frontlines of World War II, to the Viking raids, and the religious rituals of Ancient Egypt. World History is for everyone who would like to know more about the exciting and dramatic events of the past.

World History (Author), Sam Devereaux (Narrator)

Audiobook

Military Audiobooks in History