In the mid to late 1930s at just over 14 years of age, my father applied for a job at sea to fulfill a childhood dream to see the world. His employer, the Harrison Line Ltd., offered him work on the Passenger Cargo steamer, S.S. Davisian. Little did he know that his dream was going to be cut short by WWII and the sinking of the merchant ship he was working on. This book is a combination of his thoughts during that time, together with illustrations and photos of the time when his Merchant ship was attacked and sunk approx 410 miles north of Barbados and sunk in position 18,00N 54,30W on the voyage, London to the West Indies with general cargo, to his time in a German Prisoner of War Camp and finally, Drancy, a Concentration Camp located on the outskirts of Paris in occupied France. During the period of German occupation, 26 concentration camps were operated in the Occupied Zone. The central concentration camp in France was Drancy. Following the German occupation in 1940, Drancy was initially used as a camp for French and British prisoners of war. Beginning in the summer of 1941, when the roundup of Paris Jews began, Drancy was used to imprison Jewish prisoners. From the early 1930s, Drancy became a transit camp until 1940/41 for Jews and others who were being deported to the 'East', an expression Adolf Hitler preferred to use when referring to the 'Death Camps', in particular Auschwitz.

Film Treatment Available to legitimate producers Brief Overview: At just 14 years old, a boy from Liverpool, England, borrows his older brother’s birth certificate to pursue a dream of adventure at sea. In 1937, he joined a ship owned by the Harrison Line, enjoying three years of life at sea before World War II erupted. In 1940, his unarmed cargo ship is attacked by a German Raider disguised as a Swedish vessel. The Raider’s crew mercilessly plunders the ship before sinking it, killing some crew members and taking the rest, including the young boy, as prisoners of war. Journey to Drancy: After months of captivity at sea, the boy and his fellow POWs are transported to occupied France and confined in Drancy, a concentration camp notorious for its inhumane conditions. There, they endure torture, starvation, and the constant fear of being sent to Auschwitz. Drancy is a place of horror, where the screams of tortured men, women, and children fill the night. After six agonizing months, the boy is transferred to various German POW camps, where he continues to struggle for survival amidst gruelling conditions and dangerous escape attempts. He remains a POW until six months after the war’s end, finally returning to a world that has drastically changed. Post-War Injustice: Forty years after the war, Germany established a compensation fund for those who suffered in the Drancy Concentration Camp, France. However, when a British MP seeks to secure the compensation that Germany awarded for the few British survivors of Drancy, the government tribunal refuses, dismissing Drancy as merely a "transit camp." This decision stands in stark contrast to overwhelming evidence from survivors, historians, and authorities in Germany, France, Israel, and beyond, who recognize Drancy's true nature as a concentration camp. A full twenty-page stenographer's transcript of the tribunal meeting is included in the book

Resort City in the Sunbelt is a non-sensationalistic, scholarly account of Las Vegas from the building of the Hoover Dam to the construction of the MGM Grand Hotel. Historian Eugene Moehring provides a balanced view of the city’s urban development. Although a unique city in many ways, Las Vegas has displayed characteristics common to other sunbelt cities across the western United States—including underfunded social services, low-density urbanization with a heavy reliance upon automobiles, a sluggish response to problems within minority communities, a preference for efficient, business-like government, and a mania for low taxes. The gaming and resort aspects are fully considered, but Moehring emphasizes the city as part of the continually expanding sunbelt. From this important study, historians will conclude that, despite some of its unusual traits, Las Vegas is much like other western cities and therefore deserves recognition as one of the fastest-growing centers in postwar America. In a new and expanded epilogue to this edition, Moehring looks at the major events of the three decades leading up to 2000 and their underpinnings.

The dramatic tale of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in World War II received little attention prior to the publication of this book in 1982, when Winslow chronicled their short and tragic story of heroism and defeat.Greatly outnumbered by vastly superior forces, and saddled with defective equipment; a lack of supplies, reinforcements, and air cover; and, towards the end, an incompetent and bungled Allied combined command, the Asiatic fleet met the Japanese head-on. Within a matter of three months, however, the beleaguered ships were totally wiped out. Captain Walter Winslow, a naval aviator on board the USS Houston, flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, was in a unique position to tell the riveting story. As an active participant in all the major battles the fleet engaged in, he had an intimate understanding of the calamities that befell it. In addition, he drew upon the his own extensive notes he kept from a POW camp while interviewing other American, British, Dutch, and Australian prisoners from the Allied fleet. Winslow also painstakingly tracked down war documents and battle reports from all the ships assigned to the fleet to paint a complete picture filled with graphic details of the fleet’s only victory at Balikpapan; the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea that broke the back of the combined Asiatic fleet; the ghastly spectacle at Sunda Strait where the Houston struggled to survive; the suspenseful episode in the submarine Perch trapped in the mud at the bottom of the sea; and the daring escape from Corregidor of eighteen crewmembers from the USS Quail who refused to surrender to the Japanese forces.

In late 1944, 78 U.S. Navy sailors and officers climbed aboard a ship just 150 feet long and 23 feet wide, and headed toward the sound of gunfire. One of a class of gunboats known as "mighty midgets," LCS 52 carried an arsenal equal to ships twice its size. Yet its shallow draft enabled it to maneuver to within a few hundred feet of any beach. Packed inside the tiny craft, the diverse crew were farmers, students, cooks and teachers. They ranged from age 17 to middle-aged--a few had seen combat in the Atlantic and the Pacific. This book tells the story of the ship's extensive service in World War II's Pacific Theater. Most of the crew survived the war, as did LCS 52 itself, serving in the U.S. Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force until 1958, when it was decommissioned and used for artillery practice. A roll call of crew members is included, with biographical information when available.