Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor

Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor PDF

Author: Berry Craig

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2020-11-01

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1949669289

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When the air raid alarm sounded around 7:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Gunner's Mate Second Class James Allard Vessels of Paducah was preparing to participate in morning colors aboard the USS Arizona. In the scramble for battle stations, Vessels quickly climbed to a machine gun platform high atop the mainmast as others descended below decks to help pass ammunition up to gunners. At 8:06, a bomb exploded and the Arizona sank. Vessels's lofty perch saved his life, but most of his shipmates were not so lucky. In Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor, Berry Craig employs an impressive array of newspapers, unpublished memoirs, oral histories, and official military records to offer a ground-up look at the day that Franklin D. Roosevelt said would "live in infamy," and its aftermath in the Bluegrass State. In a series of vignettes, Craig uncovers the untold, forgotten, or little-known stories of ordinary people -- military and civilian -- on the most extraordinary day of their lives. Craig concludes by exploring the home front reaction to this pivotal event in American history. Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor swept away any illusions Kentuckians had about being able to stay out of World War II. From Paducah to Pikeville, people sprang to action. Their voices emerge and come back to life in this engaging and timely history.

BattleFire!

BattleFire! PDF

Author: Arthur L. Kelly

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2014-04-23

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0813146003

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“From Pearl Harbor to Leyte Gulf and Okinawa to Iwo Jima, the stories are presented as the individual soldiers, sailors, and marines lived them.” —Gun Week Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941: High on the bridge of the USS West Virginia Sfc. Lee Ebner was looking forward to the end of his watch and a relaxed Sunday morning breakfast. But the two low-flying planes painted with rising sun insignia and bearing down on the ship had other plans for him and his fellow seamen. Ten hours later, at Clark Field in the Philippines, Pfc. Jack Reed felt the brunt of another Japanese air attack and within weeks found himself a part of the gruesome Bataan Death March that was to claim the lives of hundreds of his comrades. On another continent, four years into the war, Capt. Benjamin Butler led his exhausted company up a steep, fog-shrouded Italian mountain toward a well entrenched German defensive position. The odds against their survival were appalling, though worse was to come in the months ahead. Such were the experiences of many young men-plucked from their local communities all across America, trained for war, and hurled into the strange reality of combat thousands of miles from home. In this stunning collection of World War II oral histories, Arthur Kelly recreates the experiences of twelve young men from Kentucky who survived the seemingly unsurvivable, whether in combat or as prisoners of war. “A fascinating collection . . . A story of men at their best in the worst of times.” —Louisville Courier-Journal “This excellent book continues the current trend of exploring the individual soldier’s experiences in World War II.” —Military Review

Committed to Victory

Committed to Victory PDF

Author: Richard E. Holl

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2015-10-09

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0813165652

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When World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, Kentucky was still plagued by the Great Depression. Even though the inevitably of war had become increasingly apparent earlier that year, the citizens of the Commonwealth continued to view foreign affairs as a lesser concern compared to issues such as the lingering economic depression, the approaching planting season, and the upcoming gubernatorial race. It was only the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that destroyed any lingering illusions of peace. In Committed to Victory: The Kentucky Home Front During World War II, author Richard Holl offers the first comprehensive examination of the Commonwealth's civilian sector during this pivotal era in the state's history. National mobilization efforts rapidly created centers of war production and activity in Louisville, Paducah, and Richmond, producing new economic prosperity in the struggling region. The war effort also spurred significant societal changes, including the emergence of female and minority workforces in the state. In the Bluegrass, this trend found its face in Pulaski County native Rose Will Monroe, who was discovered as she assembled B-24 and B-29 bombers and was cast as Rosie the Riveter in films supporting the war effort. Revealing the struggles and triumphs of civilians during World War II, Holl illuminates the personal costs of the war, the black market for rationed foods and products, and even the inspiration that coach Adolph Rupp and the University of Kentucky basketball team offered to a struggling state. Committed to Victory is a timely and engaging account that fills a significant gap in the literature on a crucial period of American history.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

The Attack on Pearl Harbor PDF

Author: John C. Davenport

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1438104332

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Traces events leading up to and resulting from the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on American battleships at Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

Kentucky Fighting Men

Kentucky Fighting Men PDF

Author: Richard G. StoneJr.

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0813189055

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Kentuckians by the thousands have fought in all of the American wars of the industrial age. Fathers, sons, and brothers from the Bluegrass State spilled each other's blood in countless Civil War battles and skirmishes. Over the next century their descendants bore arms on the seven seas, the Far Western frontier, in the Caribbean and Philippine islands, and in China. Kentuckians took part in both world wars of the twentieth century in every capacity. Kentucky Fighting Men, 1861–1945 features individual Kentuckians who represent the overall context of the American military experience from the Civil War through World War II. Richard G. Stone, Jr. presents accounts that illuminate the heroism, ennui, tragedy, ghastly horror, absurdity, and the infinite variety of warfare and military life.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor PDF

Author: Stephanie Fitzgerald

Publisher: Capstone

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0756555949

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." Early that morning hundreds of Japanese fighter planes unexpectedly attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than 2,000 Americans were killed and the battleships of the Pacific Fleet lay in ruins. The brutal attack launched the United States into war, a conflict that engulfed the world.

Fallen Tigers

Fallen Tigers PDF

Author: Daniel Jackson

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 0813180813

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Mere months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a volunteer group of American airmen to the Far East, convinced that supporting Chinese resistance against the continuing Japanese invasion would be crucial to an eventual Allied victory in World War II. Within two weeks of that fateful Sunday in December 1941, the American Volunteer Group—soon to become known as the legendary "Flying Tigers"—went into action. For three and a half years, the volunteers and the Army Air Force airmen who followed them fought in dangerous aerial duels over East Asia. Audaciously led by master tactician Claire Lee Chennault, daring pilots such as David Lee "Tex" Hill and George B. "Mac" McMillan led their men in desperate combat against enemy air forces and armies despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Aviators who fell in combat and survived the crash or bailout faced the terrifying reality of being lost and injured in unfamiliar territory. Historian Daniel Jackson, himself a combat-tested pilot, recounts the stories of downed aviators who attempted to evade capture by the Japanese in their bid to return to Allied territory. He reveals the heroism of these airmen was equaled, and often exceeded, by the Chinese soldiers and civilians who risked their lives to return them safely to American bases. Based on thorough archival research and filled with compelling personal narratives from memoirs, wartime diaries, and dozens of interviews with veterans, this vital work offers an important new perspective on the Flying Tigers and the history of World War II in China.

Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor

Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor PDF

Author: Berry Craig

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2020-11-01

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1949669297

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When the air raid alarm sounded around 7:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Gunner's Mate Second Class James Allard Vessels of Paducah was preparing to participate in morning colors aboard the USS Arizona. In the scramble for battle stations, Vessels quickly climbed to a machine gun platform high atop the mainmast as others descended below decks to help pass ammunition up to gunners. At 8:06, a bomb exploded and the Arizona sank. Vessels's lofty perch saved his life, but most of his shipmates were not so lucky. In Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor, Berry Craig employs an impressive array of newspapers, unpublished memoirs, oral histories, and official military records to offer a ground-up look at the day that Franklin D. Roosevelt said would "live in infamy," and its aftermath in the Bluegrass State. In a series of vignettes, Craig uncovers the untold, forgotten, or little-known stories of ordinary people—military and civilian—on the most extraordinary day of their lives. Craig concludes by exploring the home front reaction to this pivotal event in American history. Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor swept away any illusions Kentuckians had about being able to stay out of World War II. From Paducah to Pikeville, people sprang to action. Their voices emerge and come back to life in this engaging and timely history.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor PDF

Author: George Morgenstern

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2017-04-07

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 1787204537

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First published in 1947, Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War is widely regarded as the first Revisionist book about the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the complex history which preceded and followed it. Although it drew both criticism and praise on its initial release, this book covers many aspects of that war, its antecedents and its consequences, and ranks among the best of the numerous volumes published on the subject. “Those who object to historical skepticism may complain that my book is no contribution to the political canonization of its central figure. That is no concern of mine. As to the purpose my book is intended to serve, some observations from the minority report of the Joint Congressional Committee which investigated the Pearl Harbor attack are pertinent: ‘In the future the people and their Congress must know how close American diplomacy is moving to war so that they may check in advance if imprudent and support its position if sound ... How to avoid war and how to turn war -- if it finally comes -- to serve the cause of human progress is the challenge to diplomacy today as yesterday.’“—George Morgenstern