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Operation Greif
- The History of the Infamous Waffen-SS Commando Operation During the Battle of the Bulge
- Narrated by: KC Wayman
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
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Publisher's summary
After the successful amphibious invasion on D-Day in June 1944, the Allies began racing east toward Germany and liberating France along the way. The Allies had landed along a 50 mile stretch of French coast, and despite suffering 8,000 casualties on D-Day, over 100,000 still began the march across the western portion of the continent. By the end of August 1944, the German Army in France was shattered, with 200,000 killed or wounded and a further 200,000 captured. However, Adolf Hitler reacted to the news of invasion with glee, figuring it would give the Germans a chance to destroy the Allied armies that had water to their backs. As he put it, “The news couldn’t be better. We have them where we can destroy them.”
While that sounds delusional in retrospect, it was Hitler’s belief that by splitting the Allied march across Europe in their drive toward Germany, he could cause the collapse of the enemy armies and cut off their supply lines. Part of Hitler’s confidence came as a result of underestimating American resolve, but with the Soviets racing toward Berlin from the east, this final offensive would truly be the last gasp of the German war machine, and the month-long campaign was fought over a large area of the Ardennes Forest, through France, Belgium, and parts of Luxembourg. From an Allied point of view, the operations were commonly referred to as the Ardennes Offensive, while the German code phrase for the operation was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (“Operation Watch on the Rhine”), with the initial breakout going under the name of “Operation Mist”. Today, Americans know it best as the Battle of the Bulge.
When the bulge did form, the Allies became understandably nervous, and Hitler hoped to capitalize on German momentum with a top-secret special operation that he named Operation Greif. This mission would utilize German soldiers, trained in sabotage techniques and disguised in American and British uniforms, and have them cross Allied lines to hold strategic targets for the German advance while destroying communication lines and ammunition depots. Most importantly, they would cause chaos and confusion by misdirecting the enemy, as Hitler explained in his orders: “I want you to command a group of American and British troops and get them across the Meuse and seize one of the bridges. Not, my dear Skorzeny, real Americans or British. I want you to create special units wearing American and British uniforms. They will travel in captured Allied tanks. Think of the confusion you could cause! I envisage a whole string of false orders which will upset communications and attack morale.”
The Skorzeny he was addressing was none other than Otto Skorzeny, who had become famous by the late stages of the war because of his role in rescuing Benito Mussolini via the Gran Sasso raid. One thing that characterized Skorzeny was a continuing talent for self-aggrandizement and exaggeration of his role in events, which naturally worked on someone like Hitler. In the wake of the Gran Sasso raid, Hitler awarded Skorzeny the Knight’s Cross (one of the highest German awards for valor) and promoted him to Sturmbannführer (major). Heinrich Himmler, who personally disliked and distrusted Skorzeny, seized the opportunity to raise the profile of the SS and to suggest that the success of the Gran Sasso raid was entirely due to the SS. As a result, it would be Skorzeny who led the Waffen-SS operation that Hitler envisioned for the Battle of the Bulge.
Ultimately, the operation and the battle itself would not be enough. After resisting the German attack, the Allied armies began advancing, and with that, the race to Berlin was truly on, with the Allied armies in Western Europe desperate to reach the German capital before Stalin’s Soviets could arrive.
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Story
The battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of World War II. The German capture of the city, their encirclement by Soviet forces shortly afterwards, and the hard-fought but futile attempts to relieve them, saw bitter attritional fighting and extremes of human misery inflicted on both sides. In this title, a renowned expert on warfare on the Eastern Front reveals the often-overlooked German counteroffensive post-Stalingrad, and how it prevented the whole Axis front line from collapsing.
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Best of its kind!
- By Max on 02-10-20
By: Prit Buttar
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No Greater Ally
- The Untold Story of Poland’s Forces in World War II
- By: Kenneth K. Koskodan
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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There is a chapter of World War II history that remains largely untold: the story of the fourth largest Allied military of the war, and the only nation to have fought in the battles of Leningrad, Arnhem, Tobruk, and Normandy. This is the story of the Polish forces during the Second World War, the story of millions of young men and women who gave everything for freedom and in the final victory lost all. In a cruel twist of history, the monumental struggles of an entire nation have been largely forgotten, and even intentionally obscured. No Greater Ally redresses the balance,
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Polish pronunciation was crap
- By F. Jakubiec on 11-08-18
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Poland 1939
- The Outbreak of World War II
- By: Roger Moorhouse
- Narrated by: Roger Moorhouse
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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For Americans, World War II began in December of 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor; but for Poland, the war began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler's soldiers invaded, followed later that month by Stalin's Red Army. The conflict that followed saw the debut of many of the features that would come to define the later war-blitzkrieg, the targeting of civilians, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate aerial bombing-yet it is routinely overlooked by historians.
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Always Overlooked
- By C. G. Telcontar on 05-27-21
By: Roger Moorhouse
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The Frozen Chosen
- The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The Frozen Chosen is an account of the breakout from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea by the First Marine Division from November to December 1950, following the intervention of Red China in the Korean War. Fought during the worst blizzard in a century, it is considered by the US Marine Corps to be the Corps' finest hour. Fourteen Medals of Honor, a record for any American battle, and 85 Navy Crosses attest to the intensity of the battle.
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Fascinating story, very bad narration
- By Mat J Monk on 03-31-17
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Ardennes 1944
- The Battle of the Bulge
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his "last gamble" in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes in Belgium, believing he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp and forcing the Canadians and the British out of the war. Although his generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east. Many were exultant at the prospect of striking back.
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Beevor excellent as always
- By Reed on 11-30-15
By: Antony Beevor
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A Time for Trumpets
- The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge
- By: Charles B. MacDonald
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 28 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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On December 16, 1944, the vanguard of three German armies, totaling half a million men, attacked US forces in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg, achieving what had been considered impossible - total surprise. In the most abysmal failure of battlefield intelligence in the history of the US Army, 600,000 American soldiers found themselves facing Hitler's last desperate effort of the war. The brutal confrontation that ensued became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the greatest battle ever fought by the US Army - a triumph of American ingenuity and dedication.
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Outstanding history
- By J. Norman Reid on 11-22-16
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The Mighty Endeavor
- American Armed Forces in the European Theater in World War II
- By: Charles B. MacDonald
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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From the first landings at Casablanca straight through to the crossing of the Elbe River and V-E Day, this book tells the gripping story of the European theater of operations battles of World War II that American soldiers, sailors, and airmen took part in and of the strategy behind them. The book's core is its account of such famous and dramatic episodes as the landings in North Africa, Kasserine Pass, Salerno and Anzio; D-day; the liberation of Paris; the Battle of the Bulge; the crossing of the Rhine; and the race across Germany.
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Great background on US Armed Forces in the ETO and MTO
- By Dan McGrew on 05-16-17
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Crete 1941
- The Battle and the Resistance
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Nazi Germany expected its airborne attack on Crete in 1941 to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. Little did they know that the British, using Ultra intercepts, had already laid a careful trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle around.
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Engrossing
- By Jean on 02-01-16
By: Antony Beevor
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The Last Battle
- When US and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe
- By: Stephen Harding
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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May 1945. Hitler is dead, and the Third Reich is little more than smoking rubble. No GI wants to be the last man killed in action against the Nazis. But for cigar-chewing, rough-talking, hard-drinking, hard-charging Captain Jack Lee and his men, there is one more mission: rescue 14 prominent French prisoners held in an SS-guarded castle high in the Austrian Alps. It's a dangerous mission, but Lee has help from a decorated German Wehrmacht officer and his men, who voluntarily join the fight.
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A Maddening Book
- By Reggie on 09-23-17
By: Stephen Harding
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Tigers in the Mud
- The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius
- By: Otto Carius
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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World War II began with a metallic roar as the German Blitzkrieg raced across Europe, spearheaded by the most dreaded weapon of the 20th century: the Panzer. No German tank better represents that thundering power than the infamous Tiger, and Otto Carius was one of the most successful commanders to ever take a Tiger into battle, destroying well over 150 enemy tanks during his incredible career.
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A troubled, yet worthwhile read...
- By Alek on 05-25-18
By: Otto Carius
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The Drive on Moscow, 1941
- Operation Taifun and Germany’s First Great Crisis of World War II
- By: Niklas Zetterling, Anders Frankson
- Narrated by: Dave Courvoisier
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of September 1941, more than a million German soldiers lined up along the frontline just 180 miles west of Moscow. They were well trained, confident, and had good reasons to hope that the war in the East would be over with one last offensive. Facing them was an equally large Soviet force, but whose soldiers were neither as well trained nor as confident. When the Germans struck, disaster soon befell the Soviet defenders.
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Add the maps, lose the accents
- By Carrick on 07-03-14
By: Niklas Zetterling, and others
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From the Realm of a Dying Sun, Volume 1
- IV. SS-Panzerkorps and the Battles for Warsaw, July - November 1944
- By: Douglas E. Nash Sr.
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 28 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The histories of the first three SS corps are well known - the actions of I, II, and III (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps and their subordinate divisions, including the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Das Reich, Hitlerjugend, Hohenstaufen, Frundsberg, and Nordland divisions, have been thoroughly documented and publicized. Overlooked in this pantheon is another SS corps that never fought in the west or in Berlin but one that participated in many of the key battles fought on the Eastern Front during the last year of the war - the IV SS-Panzerkorps.
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Excellent top to bottom
- By Anonymous User on 11-01-20
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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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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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names, places,troop strength and commanders
- By richard on 02-19-15
By: Robert Forczyk
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A Frozen Hell
- The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940
- By: William R. Trotter
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1939, tiny Finland waged war - the kind of war that spawns legends - against the mighty Soviet Union, and yet, their epic struggle has been largely ignored. Guerrillas on skis, heroic single-handed attacks on tanks, unfathomable endurance, and the charismatic leadership of one of this century's true military geniuses - these are the elements of both the Finnish victory and a gripping tale of war.
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Causes and consequences of ruso-finish 1939 war
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 04-06-18