The Unknowns

The Unknowns PDF

Author: Patrick K. O'Donnell

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 080214926X

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The award-winning combat historian and author of Washington’s Immortals honors the Unknown Soldier with this “gripping story” of America’s part in WWI (Washington Times). The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is sacred ground at Arlington National Cemetery. Originally constructed in 1921 to hold one of the thousands of unidentified American soldiers lost in World War I, it now receives millions of visitors each year. “With exhaustive research and fluid prose,” historian Patrick O’Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of the Tomb itself, and the stories of the soldiers who took part in its consecration (Wall Street Journal). When the first Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in Arlington, General John Pershing selected eight of America’s most decorated veterans to serve as Body Bearers. These men appropriately spanned America’s service branches and specialties. Their ranks include a cowboy who relived the charge of the light brigade, an American Indian who heroically breached mountains of German barbed wire, a salty New Englander who dueled a U-boat for hours in a fierce gunfight, a tough New Yorker who sacrificed his body to save his ship, and an indomitable gunner who, though blinded by gas, nonetheless overcame five machine-gun nests. In telling the stories of these brave men, O’Donnell shines a light on the service of all veterans, including the hero they brought home. Their stories present an intimate narrative of America’s involvement in the Great War, transporting readers into the midst of dramatic battles that ultimately decided the conflict.

Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier PDF

Author: Jeff Gottesfeld

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Published: 2021-03-16

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 1536224367

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With every step, the Tomb Guards pay homage to America’s fallen. Discover their story, and that of the unknown soldiers they honor, through resonant words and illustrations. Keeping vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington National Cemetery, are the sentinel guards, whose every step, every turn, honors and remembers America’s fallen. They protect fellow soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, making sure they are never alone. To stand there—with absolute precision, in every type of weather, at every moment of the day, one in a line uninterrupted since midnight July 2, 1937—is the ultimate privilege and the most difficult post to earn in the army. Everything these men and women do is in service to the Unknowns. Their standard is perfection. Exactly how the unnamed men came to be entombed at Arlington, and exactly how their fellow soldiers have come to keep vigil over them, is a sobering and powerful tale, told by Jeff Gottesfeld and luminously illustrated by Matt Tavares—a tale that honors the soldiers who honor the fallen.

The Unknown Soldier

The Unknown Soldier PDF

Author: Neil Hanson

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-01-11

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1446421902

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Of all the million British dead of the First World War, only one - the Unknown Soldier - was ever returned to his native land. An anonymous symbol of all those lost without trace in the carnage of the battlefields, he was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey amid an outpouring of grief that brought the whole nation to a standstill, far outweighing even the emotion expressed over the death of Princess Diana over eighty years later. Inspired by this example, almost every combatant nation buried its own Unknown Soldier and the graves became the focus of a pilgrimage that still continues today. Drawing on largely unpublished letters and diaries, Neil Hanson has resurrected the lives and experiences of three unknown soldiers - a Briton, a German and an American. Every word is based on the testimony of those who fought, those who died and those who mourned. Few books have ever shown the terrible reality of warfare in such compelling, unforgettable detail, or told such a moving story of human life and loss. Amid all their sufferings, the common humanity of the men and their loved ones shines through. Each soldier lives on in the memory of his family to this day. They stand at the head of a ghost army three million strong, all of whom have no known grave. Their story is the story of the Unknown Soldier.

Among the Kings

Among the Kings PDF

Author: Mark Scott

Publisher:

Published: 2020-11

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9781780732671

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It was the war to end all wars and became one of the bloodiest and cruellest conflicts in history.Into the hands of author Mark Scott came a poignant survivor of those nightmare years - a notebook carried through the trenches by his great grandfather, Jimmy Scott, nestled in the pocket of his uniform. In it was a list of names, written with the tiny pencil still attached to the fragile cover. With this family heirloom in his hand, the author vowed to discover the stories of these men who gave their all in the Great War. Along the way he unravelled a remarkable connection to the story of the Unknown Warrior, unearthing valuable new documents that detailed for the first time the full untold story of this event - and what happened to the bodies of those not selected for burial in Westminster Abbey in 1920 - those who, like thousands of others, are "Known Unto God."Reading at times like a detective story, this is the moving, often heart-breaking, account of the men whose names Jimmy Scott carefully pencilled into his little notebook.

Daisy and the Unknown Warrior

Daisy and the Unknown Warrior PDF

Author: Tony Bradman

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2020-10-01

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 180090004X

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Reluctant reader favourite Tony Bradman returns with a captivating historical tale inspired by the true story of Britain's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 8+

The Flag

The Flag PDF

Author: Andrew Richards

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1612004482

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This “well-researched” biography “brings home something of what it was to be an army chaplain amid the battles in France and Flanders” (Methodist Recorder). Between 1916 and 1918, chaplain David Railton supported the soldiers on the Western Front in their worst moments. He buried the fallen, comforted the wounded, wrote to the families of the missing and killed, and helped the survivors to remember and mark the loss of their comrades so that they were able to carry on. He was with his men at many battles, including High Wood, the Aisne, and Passchendaele. He received the Military Cross for rescuing an officer and two men under heavy fire on the Somme. It was Railton’s idea to bring home the body of an unidentified fallen comrade from the battlefields to be buried in Westminster Abbey, and on Armistice Day 1920, he was there in the Abbey as the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest with full honors. Although suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he returned to work as a parish priest in Margate, where he took particular interest in supporting ex-servicemen who had returned home to the aftermath of a terrible war and crippling unemployment. This is the first book to explore David Railton’s life and “the padre’s flag” he used as an altar cloth and shroud throughout the war—the flag that was consecrated a year after the burial of the Unknown Warrior and hangs in Westminster Abbey to this day.

Dawnthief

Dawnthief PDF

Author: James Barclay

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2010-08-05

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 1591028485

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The Raven: six men and an elf, sword for hire in the wars that have torn apart Balaia. For years their loyalty has been only to themselves and their code. But, that time is over. The Wytch Lords have escaped and The Raven find themselves fighting for the Dark College of magic, searching for the location of Dawnthief. It is a spell created to end the world, and it must be cast if any of them are to survive. Dawnthief is a fast paced epic about a band of all-too-human heroes. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Name Beneath the Stone

The Name Beneath the Stone PDF

Author: Robert Newcome

Publisher: Universe

Published: 2019-09-23

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781912690558

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Three generations, one family, connected by an historic secret. 1917 - Private Daniel Dawkins fights at Messines Ridge and Passchendaele. He writes home to his true-love Joyce, but reveals little of his extreme bravery, his kindness, his loyalty to his comrades and the horrors they experience on the Western Front. 1920 - Captain Peter Harding is tasked with a secret mission to assist in the selection of a body dug up from the battlefields of Flanders to be buried in Westminster Abbey as the 'Unknown Warrior'. Events take place on that expedition that come to haunt him for the rest of his life. 2011 - Sarah Harding discovers Daniel's letters and Peter's diaries. Together with historian James Marchant she pieces together the hidden truth behind the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and must decide what to do with it. Values are challenged and characters are tested in this gripping novel which asks 'what if the identity of the Unknown Soldier was discovered - and should that secret ever be revealed?'