Excerpts and artwork from log books belonging to Americans in German prison camps

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.

During WWII, my father was a soldier in a reconnaissance unit. During a mission in Cologne, Germany, he was captured by the German Army, and held as a Prisoner Of War. He was not only held in terrible conditions, but also made to march hundreds of miles between various camps. Through all this, he managed to keep hidden a diary of his experiences during this time. Should the diary have been found, it would have cost him his life. Still, he took that chance. His diary is a dated summary of all that he went through during his capture. In the diary, he made drawings of his surroundings and maps of both where he was captured and where he was marched across Europe. These were all done from memory. He also kept pictures and telegrams that he had collected during this time. The war took a heavy toll on him, both physically and mentally. Already a small man, he left imprisonment at only 80 pounds. He struggled with his health for the remainder of his life. Although, he never really talked about the war, we knew the atrocities he had witnessed had affected him greatly. Mom said he endured night sweats frequently and nightmares for years after. Despite the challenges from his past and continually failing health, my father pursued his passions and loved his family greatly until the time of his death. We lost my Father due to health complications resulting from the war in 1988, at the age of only 72. Our family lost a great man, father, and grandfather. His memory lives on in us today.

In January 1943, not long after his nineteenth birthday, Ralph Sirianni was drafted for active duty by the U.S. Army. Ordered to the European Theatre of Operations in February 1944, Sgt. Sirianni served as the right waist gunner on a B-17. On his seventh mission over Germany, the plane--severely damaged by German fighters--crashed near Wildeshausen. With shrapnel in his legs and shoulder, Sirianni bailed out, and he spent the following 15 months in the infamous Stalag Luft I prisoner of war camp. This memoir offers harrowing stories of combat, including detailed descriptions of each of Sirianni's combat missions; reveals the horrors of confinement and the despair of skin-of-the-teeth survival; and remembers camaraderie in the face of German abuse. Valuable for its vivid account of aerial warfare and imprisonment, this memoir is also a story of postwar reconciliation, both psychological and social. Appendices offer excerpts from Sirianni's POW log book and pilot George McFall's firsthand account of the ill-fated final mission.

An account of the capture and imprisonment of William Manningham, a Britsh Merchant Seaman during the Second World War. It details his capture by the German Raider Vir, the journey to Germany and life in the Milag Nord Prisoner of War camp. There are images from Milag Nord, including photographs, camp money and records of Red Cross Parcels.

Winner of the 2019 William E. Colby Award "The book I had been waiting for. I can't recommend it highly enough." —Bill Gates The era of autonomous weapons has arrived. Today around the globe, at least thirty nations have weapons that can search for and destroy enemy targets all on their own. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in next-generation warfare, describes these and other high tech weapons systems—from Israel’s Harpy drone to the American submarine-hunting robot ship Sea Hunter—and examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. “A smart primer to what’s to come in warfare” (Bruce Schneier), Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to explore the implications of giving weapons the freedom to make life and death decisions. A former soldier himself, Scharre argues that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but when the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart.

"Long before the Confederacy was crushed militarily, it was defeated economically," writes Charles L. Dufour. He contends that with the fall of the critical city of New Orleans in spring 1862 the South lost the Civil War, although fighting would continueøfor three more years. On the Mississippi River, below New Orleans, in the predawn of April 24, 1862, David Farragut with fourteen gunboats ran past two forts to capture the South's principal seaport. Vividly descriptive, The Night the War Was Lost is also very human in its portrayal of terrified citizens and leaders occasionally rising to heroism. In a swift-moving narrative, Dufour explains the reasons for the seizure of New Orleans and describes its results.