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Operation Backhander
- 1944 Battle for Cape Gloucester
- Narrated by: James McSorley
- Length: 1 hr and 44 mins
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Operation Backhander
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Publisher's summary
A gripping insight into the war for New Guinea and the operation for Cape Gloucester.
Determined to capture a pivotal island in their war against the Japanese, the US 1st Marine Division was faced with a challenging task: to land on the fortified peninsula of Cape Gloucester and capture its two vital airfields.
Taking the peninsula and the island of New Britain would give them a vital stepping stone in their campaign to push the Japanese out of New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea. Struggling through difficult terrain and enemy ambushes, the marines fought their way to the heart of the peninsula and captured the airfields. Offering a fascinating insight into the often-gruesome battles which marked the Pacific Theater, Operation Backhander presents a captivating account of the Allies’ struggle against the Japanese army.
A must-listen for fans of WW2 Pacific naval history books, this riveting book sheds light on the campaign to capture Cape Gloucester, giving a day-by-day look into the beach landings, the skirmishes, and the months-long operation to force the Japanese into retreat and take this pivotal stepping stone for themselves.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
On 1 April, 1945, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater began. The battle for the island of Okinawa would last for the next 82 days. Through the course of this dramatic battle, over 20,000 Americans would lose their lives, and over 75,000 Japanese were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes of World War II. Okinawa: The Last Battle is a remarkably detailed account of this monumental event by four soldiers who witnessed the action first-hand.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good Okinawa History
- By Derail on 03-10-20
By: Roy E. Appleman, and others
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Bloody Okinawa
- The Last Great Battle of World War II
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Technical
- By J.Brock on 07-16-21
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Guadalcanal Marine
- By: Kerry L. Lane
- Narrated by: Kenneth Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
In Guadalcanal Marine, Lt. Col. Kerry L. Lane recounts the dark reality of combat experienced by the men of the 1st Marine Division fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. With 80 gripping photographs and his text, he brings to life the struggles of his companions as they achieve these two astonishing victories.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I want to give a very honest review.
- By Jfm on 07-12-15
By: Kerry L. Lane
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The Tank Killers
- A History of America's World War II Tank Destroyer Force
- By: Harry Yeide
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 164
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 141
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
The Tank Killers follows the men who fought in the tank destroyers from the formation of the force in 1941 through the victory over the Third Reich in 1945. It is a story of the American Tank Destroyer Force in North Africa, Italy, and the European Theater during World War II, and of American flexibility and pragmatism in military affairs.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dry and without detail
- By Vernon D. Burt on 08-06-18
By: Harry Yeide
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South Pacific Cauldron
- World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds
- By: Alan Rems
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Unlike most other World War II accounts, this work covers the South Pacific operations in detail. The audiobook includes many now-forgotten operations that deserve to be well remembered. Significantly, the official Australian history of World War II correctly observed that Australia's part in the Pacific war is barely mentioned in American histories. This volume finally brings the major Australian contribution to the fore.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A little dry but informative
- By Damien on 02-20-15
By: Alan Rems
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Days of Valor
- An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War
- By: Robert Tonsetic
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
During the War, Vietnam's coast had to be protected against Viet Cong ambushes and smuggling. The U.S. forces had destroyers, cruisers and gargantuan aircraft carriers, none suited for inshore patrol. This is the story of the Brown Water Navy, the garage-band flotilla assembled to do the job. Douglas Branson has been to Vietnam several times, including trips in 1966, 1995 and 2011. The first time, he was a 22-year-old, Brown Water Navy lieutenant JG. Subsequent visits were as a consultant/tourist.
By: Robert Tonsetic
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Where the Iron Crosses Grow
- The Crimea 1941-44
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 165
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 153
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Story4 out of 5 stars 152
The Crimea was one of the crucibles of the war on the Eastern Front, where first a Soviet and then a German army were surrounded, fought desperate battles, and were eventually destroyed. The fighting in the region was unusual for the Eastern Front in many ways, in that naval supply, amphibious landings, and naval evacuation played major roles, while both sides were also conducting ethnic cleansing as part of their strategy - the Germans eliminating the Jews and the Soviets purging the region of Tartars.
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2 out of 5 stars
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names, places,troop strength and commanders
- By richard on 02-19-15
By: Robert Forczyk
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D-Day in the Pacific
- The Battle of Saipan
- By: Harold J. Goldberg
- Narrated by: Gary D. MacFadden
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
In June 1944, the attention of the nation was riveted on the events unfolding in France. But in the Pacific, the Battle of Saipan was of extreme strategic importance. D-Day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan is a gripping account of one of the most dramatic engagements of World War II. The conquest of Saipan and the neighboring island of Tinian was a turning point in the war in the Pacific, making the American victory against Japan inevitable.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Written like an amateur's account of his battle
- By jack on 12-18-13
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Normandy '44
- D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 24 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 519
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 463
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 458
D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed the Allied landing, have become the defining episode of World War II in the west - the object of books, films, television series, and documentaries. Yet as familiar as it is, as James Holland makes clear in his definitive history, many parts of the OVERLORD campaign, as it was known, are still shrouded in myth and assumed knowledge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent account of Normandy but be weary...
- By S. H. Moore on 02-22-20
By: James Holland
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Blitzkrieg
- From the Ground Up
- By: Niklas Zetterling
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
The successes of the German Blitzkrieg in 1939-41 were as surprising as they were swift. Allied decision-makers wanted to discover the secret to German success quickly, even though only partial, incomplete information was available to them. The false conclusions drawn became myths about the Blitzkrieg that have lingered for decades.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An interesting perspective
- By OCreviewer on 09-11-19
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Utmost Savagery
- The Three Days of Tarawa
- By: Colonel Joseph H. Alexander United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 775
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 684
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 678
On November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, 5,000 men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the 300-acre Pentagon parking lots. Before the first day ended, one-third of the marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor and six thousand combatants would die.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Definitive Battle History of Tarawa
- By Iain on 02-23-11
By: Colonel Joseph H. Alexander United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
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Saipan
- The Battle that Doomed Japan in World War II
- By: James H. Hallas
- Narrated by: Tim Dixon
- Length: 22 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 353
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 313
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Story5 out of 5 stars 311
The story of the Battle of Saipan has it all. Marines at war: on Pacific beaches, in hellish volcanic landscapes in places like Purple Heart Ridge, Death Valley, and Hell's Pocket, under a commander known as "Howlin' Mad." Naval combat: carriers battling carriers from afar, fighters downing Japanese aircraft, submarines sinking carriers. Marine-army rivalry. Fanatical Japanese defense and resistance. A turning point of the Pacific War. James Hallas reconstructs the full panorama of Saipan in a way that no recent chronicler of the battle has done.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding!
- By Patrick on 03-08-20
By: James H. Hallas
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Retribution
- The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943-44
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
Making use of the extensive memoirs of German and Russian soldiers to bring their story to life, the narrative follows on from On A Knife's Edge, which described the encirclement and destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the offensives and counter-offensives that followed throughout the winter of 1942-43.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Solid, substantial military storytelling
- By Rodney W. Schmisseur on 12-21-19
By: Prit Buttar
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War at the End of the World
- Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea 1942-1945
- By: James P. Duffy
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
One American soldier called it "a green hell on Earth". Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps - New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Worth your time
- By Bob 2.0 on 07-09-23
By: James P. Duffy
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Sand and Steel
- The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France
- By: Peter Caddick-Adams
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 37 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story5 out of 5 stars 69
Sand and Steel gives us D-Day, arguably the greatest and most consequential military operation of modern times, beginning with the years of painstaking and costly preparation, through to the pitched battles fought along France's northern coast, from Omaha Beach to the Falaise and the push east to Strasbourg.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Details, details, details
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-11-21
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The Darkest Summer
- Pusan and Inchon 1950: The Battles That Saved South Korea---and the Marines---from Extinction
- By: Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
The outcome of the Korean War was decided in the first three months. The Darkest Summer is the hour-by-hour, casualty-by-casualty story of those months---a period that saw American and UN forces almost driven into the sea by the North Korean invaders, then stage an incredible turn-around that reversed the entire course of the war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great intro to Korea
- By I Ate Your Pug For Lunch and It was Tasty on 01-14-11
By: Bill Sloan
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Four Hours of Fury
- The Untold Story of World War II's Largest Airborne Operation and the Final Push into Nazi Germany
- By: James M. Fenelon
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than 2,000 Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized....
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5 out of 5 stars
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personal and powerful.
- By TXcustomer on 07-09-19
By: James M. Fenelon
What listeners say about Operation Backhander
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MolllyT
- 07-02-21
Well done!
WW2, Pacific-theater-of-operations, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, military-history, USMC, 1943, 1944, jungle-warfare*****
Detailed accounting of this particular campaign in the South Pacific. I think that it's good for me that this is one of several short segments of a whole as I would get lost in all the divisions and battalions of US Marines as it all came together. Well done! I listened to it with my USMC grandson.
The narrator is no-nonsense James McSorley who infuses it with controlled interest while making it clear that this is a nonfiction account.
I won this audio in a giveaway!
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