New Releases

For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing even when it meant becoming the highest-ranking American prisoner of the Japanese.

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. But it was no easy plane to fly.

John Basilone was a man who embodied self-sacrifice. Prior to his passing, he engaged in several incredible battles with America’s foes in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It was during the heat of battle at Guadalcanal that this Marine proved himself a thousand times over. Under heavy fire, he left his position to run across hostile terrain to grab up much-needed ammunition so that he could resupply his gunners. In the end, only Basilone and two other men from his unit were left standing, but they nevertheless managed to hand the Japanese a stunning defeat.

El 13 de agosto de 1944, el joven piloto estadounidense Joe Moser, de solo 22 años, despegó para cumplir su misión número 44 sobre la Francia ocupada. Moser, quien pasó de ser un chico de granja a cumplir su sueño de pilotear un Lockheed P-38 Lightning, una de las armas más letales de las fuerzas aéreas estadounidenses contra la poderosa Luftwaffe alemana, muy pronto descubriría los horrores de la guerra: su avión fue derribado para posteriormente ser capturado y enviado a Buchenwald, el terrible campo de concentración nazi.