MARTIN KING
EMMY AWARD WINNING AUTHOR
Military Historian
THE BOOKS
Books are my raison d'etre. Relating stories from war veterans and putting the reader right there in that foxhole or that trench. Listening to the terrifying sound of mortar and artillery rounds exploding in close proximity while bullets whizz past your head and bodies disintegrate before your very eyes. We are safe, we don't have to experience that but the veterans did and through these books you can put yourself in their shoes, where the action is. These are the untold stories that deserve your attention and respect. They certainly got mine.
THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
​The Allies' Greatest Conflict on the Western Front
"Martin King tells the human side of the story of the Battle of the Bulge better than anyone."
Commander Jeffrey Barta, US Navy (retired)
"I have walked the battlefields with Martin King, who has traversed them countless times with veterans of the Bulge. No one knows this story like Martin, and no one can tell it quite the way he does."
Rick Beyer, New York Times bestselling author of The Ghost Army of World War II
The vortex of a tornado is a vacuum, and that is where we were, in the centre of a storm of armour and artillery pushing forward into the Ardennes.
- John Hillard Dunn, 106th Division, US Army
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest land engagement of World War II. The German counter-attack, spearheaded by three Panzer armies, found the Allies unprepared and ill-equipped. As the fighting raged across the frosty forests of the Ardennes, it was left to a few untested US Infantry divisions to hold the Allied lines. Written by one of the world's leading experts on the subject, this account provides an essential introduction to the events of winter 1944-5 and to the many soldiers who risked their lives in defence of freedom.
Drawing on personal interviews, extensive research, and an unparalleled knowledge of the region, Martin King explores one of the most important battles of World War II.
Searching for Augusta The Forgotten Angel of Bastogne
THE LAST GREAT UNTOLD STORY OF WWII. In 1944/45 the Ardennes region of Belgium was experiencing the coldest winter in living memory. Between the rolling hills and pine forests there was a city being held under siege by determined Nazi forces. Bastogne was dying a slow protracted death. As the situation for those young Gi's and the citizens of Bastogne reached its nadir, black nurse Augusta Chiwy volunteered her services to US Army medic Dr. John 'Jack' Prior. By doing so she risked instant death but together they would form a dynamic team that saved countless lives in the most horrific, heartrending circumstances. 60 years later their story would inspire the author to embark on his own relentless quest to find out what became of this forgotten angel and her doctor. This is the book behind the multiple Emmy Award Winning documentary of the same name that will both break and warm your heart. In the television version of Band of Brothers, a passing reference is made to an African nurse assisting in an aid station, but no-one knew her real identity or the identities of the other procrastinators who endured such unimaginable hardship. This book will reveal the full story of three people, the nurse, the doctor and the historian who discovered this improbable, captivating love story.
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Publisher: Lyons Press (September 1, 2017)
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Language: English
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ISBN-10: 149302907X
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ISBN-13: 978-1493029075
Warriors of the 106th
The last Infantry Division
ISBN-13: 978-1612004587
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The 106th were fresh, green and right in the pathway of the 5th German Army when the Battle of the Bulge began at 0530 hours on December 16, 1944. This book covers the history along with the individual stories of the incredible heroism, sacrifice and tenacity of these young Americans in the face of overwhelming odds. From this division 6,800 men were taken prisoner but their story didn’t end there. For the ones who miraculously escaped, there was a battle to fight, and fight it they would with every ounce of strength and courage they could muster. They would fight debilitating weather conditions more reminiscent of Stalingrad than the Belgian Ardennes. They would fight a determined enemy and superior numbers and despite all adversity they would eventually prevail. One 106th GI waged his own personal war using guerilla tactics that caused serious consternation amongst the German troops. For another GI his main concern was recovering his clean underwear. These stories are heartwarming, heartbreaking, nerve-wracking and compelling. They aim to put the reader right there in the front lines, and in the stalags, during the final months of WWII.
The Tigers of Bastogne:
(Also available in paperback)
Voices of the 10th Armored Division During the Battle of the Bulge
ISBN-13: 978-1612001814
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The gallant stand of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne has long become part of historical and media legend. But how many students of the war realize there was already a U.S. unit holding the town when they arrived? And this unitthe 10th Armored Divisioncontinued to play a major role in its defense throughout the German onslaught. ALSO AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK
Voices of the Bulge: Untold Stories from Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge
ISBN-13: 978-0760340332
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This was the first book and although I digress that it could have been better, it came with a free DVD of veteran interviews. The powerful German counteroffensive operation code-named "Wacht am Rhein" (Watch on the Rhine) launched in the early hours of December 16, 1944, would result in the greatest single extended land battle of World War II. To most Americans, the fierce series of battles fought from December 1944 through to January 1945 is better known as the "Battle of the Bulge". Almost one million soldiers would eventually take part in the fighting. Different from other histories of the Bulge, this books tells the story of this crucial campaign with first-person stories taken from the authors' interviews of the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted personnel, who faced the massive German onslaught that that threatened to turn the tide of the battle in Western Europe and successfully repelled the attack with their courage and blood. Also included are stories from German veterans of the battles, including SS soldiers, who were interviewed by the authors.
The Fighting 30th Division:
They Called Them "Roosevelt's SS"
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ISBN-13: 978-1612003016
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In World War I the 30th Infantry Division earned more Medals of Honor than any other American division. In World War II it spent more consecutive days in combat than almost any other outfit. Recruited mainly from the Carolinas and George and Tennessee, they were one of the hardest-fighting units the U.S. ever fielded in Europe. What was it about these men that made them so indomitable? They were tough and resilient for a start, but this division had something else. They possessed intrinsic zeal to engage the enemy that often left their adversaries in awe. Their U.S. Army nickname was the Old Hickory" Division. But after encountering them on the battleifled, the Germans themselves came to call them "Roosevelt's SS." This book is a combat chronicle of this illustrious division that takes the reader right to the heart of the fighting through the eyes of those who were actually there. It goes from the hedgerows of Normandy to the 30th's gallant stand against panzers at Mortain, to the brutal slugs around Aachen and the Westwall, and then to the Battle of the Bulge. Each chapter is meticulously researched and assembled with accurate timelines and after-action reports.The last remaining veterans of the 30th Division and attached units who saw the action firsthand relate their remarkable experiences here for the first, and probably the last time. This is precisely what military historians mean when they write about "fighting spirit." There have been only a few books written about the 30th Division and none contained direct interviews with the veterans. This work follows their story from Normandy to the final victory in Germany, packed with previously untold accounts from the survivors. These are the men whose incredible stories epitomize what it was to be a GI in one of the toughest divisions in WWII.
To war with the 4th
A Century of Frontline Combat with the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, from the Argonne to the Ardennes to Afghanistan
ISBN-13: 978-1612003993
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​The 4th Infantry Division has always been there in America s modern wars. On 14 September 1918 the men of the Ivy Division stood up in their trenches and prepared to attack. It would be one of the first times that American troops would operate autonomously, aside from Anglo-Franco command. They would go over the top on uneven ground to be blown to pieces by German artillery and fall in their hundreds to the spitting of German machine guns, yet nevertheless win the day.
In World War II on D-Day they scrambled ashore across the sands of Utah beach and remained fighting in Europe until Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. From the Normandy campaign to the hell of the Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge, no other American division suffered more casualties in the European theater than the 4th, and no other division accomplished as much.
In Vietnam they would execute precarious search and destroy missions in dense jungles against a determined and resourceful enemy. They experienced a series of major engagements that would entail 33 consecutive days of vicious, close-quarters combat in the battle of Dak To in 1967. For their actions in Indochina they would receive no less than 11 Medals of Honor.
They fought in Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, and in May 2009, at the height of Operation Enduring Freedom, the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan for a 12-month combat mission. They operated in the birthplace of the Taliban along the Arghandab River Valley, west of Kandahar City, a place often ominously referred to as "The Heart of Darkness." The 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry Regiment saw heavy combat throughout.
Through firsthand interviews with veterans, across the decades, and the expert analysis of the authors, the role of one of America s mainstay divisions in its modern conflicts is in these pages illuminated.
LOST VOICES:
Of America's World War I and their families.
The battles and campaigns of World War One have been covered and meticulously studied from all angles by innumerable historians around the world. There would have been very little that we could have added to these. If we were going to broach the subject of America’s involvement then it had to be from an entirely new and different perspective. Our previous volumes always gave precedence to the voices of those who experienced war firsthand, and were largely transcribed from direct interviews with surviving veterans. The purpose of this volume is to provide a similar platform for those previously unheard voices whose lives were affected and impacted by the United States involvement in World War One, also known as the ‘Great War’.
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DAN SNOW BBC Presenter and eminent military historian wrote:
Few things bring history to life like the words of those who lived through it. One hundred years, and more, since the events of the First World War, the painstaking work of Martin King and Michael Collins now offers us a glimpse into those experiences, documenting a nation witnessing one of the most formative periods of its history. Insightful, moving, and important, this book is a valuable tool for anyone wanting to better understand America's role in this most brutal of conflicts.
ASIN: B07C5877FP
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