World War II Generation Speaks, Omnibus Editions I and II (Signed)
About this book
The comparable price for autographed books in hardcover separately (6 vols.) is over $200. This 2-book bundle is (2) 2" thick, 3 lb. books offered here in hardcover and AUTOGRAPHED by the author, with one collector's bookmark.
Gray cloth binding with embossed spine and glossy color dust jacket.
CONTENTS:
THE FIRST 3 BOOK OMNIBUS EDITION, in one 822-page binding, The Things Our Fathers Saw--The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation : VOLUMES 1-3
*THE SECOND 3 BOOK OMNIBUS EDITION, in one 816-page binding, The Things Our Fathers Saw--The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation : VOLUMES 4-6
Volume I: Voices of the Pacific Theater-
The telephone rings on the hospital floor, and they tell you it is your mother, the phone call you have been dreading. You've lost part of your face to a Japanese sniper on Okinawa, and after many surgeries, the doctor has finally told you that at 19, you will never see again. The pain and shock is one thing. But now you have to tell her, from 5000 miles away.
Volume II: War in the Air--From the Great Depression to Combat-
HOW DO YOU THINK YOU FEEL when you wake up in a hospital and find out you killed your own mother?
JUST WHAT DO YOU DO in that moment when your plane's been hit, and you are about to crash far from home?
Volume 2 in the series deal with the Air War in the European Theater of the war. I had a lot of friends in the heavy bombers; they tell you all about what it was like to grow up during the Great Depression as the clouds of war gathered, going off to the service, and into the skies over Europe, sharing stories of both funny and heartbreaking, and all riveting and intense. It actually begins with my quest to learn more about a 20-year-old relative's death in the skies over Germany. I was told the entire crew perished on July 29, 1944. I could not be more wrong...
Volume III, First Edition: War in the Air--Combat, Captivity, and Reunion-
WHAT DO YOU FILL YOUR POCKETS WITH when you're rousted awake in the middle of a freezing German night to be death-marched across Germany?
WHEN YOUR BUDDY STAGGERS AND FALLS by the side of the road, and no longer even knows who you are, do you keep moving to keep yourself alive?
Volume 3 is about the Air War again, and this time I have some of my friends who were fighter pilots, including a Tuskegee Airman who had to deal with racism back home, on top of defeating fascism in Europe. There is also the story of my B-17 crew friends, sitting around a table and telling about the day they were all shot down over Germany, and how they survived the prisoner-of-war experience in the last year of the war.
Volume IV: Up the Bloody Boot/The War in Italy—The Things Our Fathers Saw
Volume 4 in this series will take you from the deserts of North Africa to the mountains of Italy with the men and women veterans of the Italian campaign who open up about a war that was so brutal, news of it was downplayed at home. The war in the Mediterranean, and particularly the Italian Campaign, is one that for many Americans is shrouded in mystery and murkiness. Yet it was here that the United States launched its first offensive in the west on enemy soil, and it was here that Allied forces would be slogging it out with a tenacious enemy fighting for its life in the longest single American Campaign of World War II.
Volume V: D-Day and Beyond/The War in France—The Things Our Fathers Saw
Volume 5 in this series is really the book I had in mind to write as I began to collect and process WWII interviews after being inspired at our veterans' return to Normandy for the 40th anniversary of D-Day. From the bloody beach at Omaha through the hedgerow country of Normandy and beyond, American veterans of World War II—Army engineers and infantrymen, Coast Guardsmen and Navy sailors, tank gunners and glider pilots—sit down with you across the kitchen table and talk about what they saw and experienced, tales they may have never told anyone before.
Volume VI: The Bulge And Beyond—The Things Our Fathers Saw
In THE BULGE AND BEYOND, you will be with the soldiers going into the heart of the bloodiest single battle fought by the US Army in American history, the so-called 'Battle of the Bulge'.
You will be with them as they sense the fear of the unknown, the crush of impending doom, the scale of being among the columns of young, tired men slogging into a forest, medieval and dark, with the complete inability to ever get warm again.
19,000 American GIs never saw their mothers again.
By the end of 2020, fewer than 300,000 of our WW II veterans were still with us, out of the over 16 million who put on a uniform. But why is it that today, nobody seems to know these stories?
Maybe our veterans did not volunteer to tell us; maybe we were too busy with our own lives to ask.
"For all of us to be free, a few of us must be brave, and that is the history of America".
Read how a generation of young Americans saved the world.
Because dying for freedom isn't the worst that could happen. Being forgotten is.
-- "A must-read in every high school in America. It is a very poignant look back at our greatest generation; maybe it will inspire the next one."
Reviewer, Vol. I
*NOTE: THIS OMNIBUS VOLUME (2) IS SLIGHTLY ABRIDGED. ONE NARRATIVE FROM EACH OF VOL.4-6 WAS EDITED OUT, TO MEET BOOK SPINE REQUIREMENTS. IF THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WISH, PLEASE ORDER VOLS. 4-6 SEPARATELY.
Formats and signed editions
Most titles are available in paperback and in collector's hardcover with an embossed spine and glossy colour dust jacket. Many are also available as ebooks and audiobooks.
Signed editions include a decorative bookplate that Matthew signs personally, by hand, adhered inside the front cover. Never autopen, and only available through this store.
Shipping and returns
Most titles ship from our fulfiller in Florida, some from us in upstate New York. We usually ship within a few days by USPS Ground Advantage, which carries insurance. We do not offer same or next day delivery, and we do not ship internationally.
Returns: there is a two week window to begin the process. Email us and we will send a shipping label, deducting its cost from your refund, less the irreversible 3 percent bank transaction fee and up to a 10 percent restocking charge once we recover and inspect the books. Digital products are not returnable.
Gift orders never include the price on the packing slip.
What readers say about the series.
Over 2,500 five star reviews across the series
My husband is a WW2 buff and has seen about every documentary ever made on the subject. What got him interested was his father and uncles' WW2 war stories. He was pulled into this book right away.
I bought the series because I hoped to find answers to questions I had about my dad. Some of them have been answered along with things I didn't understand about my six uncles.
My Dad served in the 3rd Armored Division, Normandy to Germany. He did not talk about it, it is nice to sit down and read about it. Thank you very much. My Dad, Eugene Harper.
Could not put this book down. Tears fell as I read pages and I smiled through others. I wish I could articulate the emotions that accompanied me through the stories of these beautiful people.
I feel like I am sitting in the room with the veteran as he speaks. Very nice series. 3 down, several to go.
By and large, they're all interesting and capture the experiences of young men thrown into the horrors of a vicious war, but this one is different. It should be required reading for every high school and college age student.
Questions people actually ask.
Do I have to read the series in order?
No. Each volume stands on its own and covers a different theater of the war. Most people start with the one closest to where their own family served.
What exactly does signed mean here?
Matthew signs a decorative bookplate for each volume personally, by hand, and it is adhered inside the front cover. Never autopen. Only available through this store.
Is this a good gift?
It is the most common reason people buy these books. We never print the price on the packing slip.
Are these appropriate for a teenager?
There is no sexualised content, but there is discussion of the violence of war and some swearing in the more emotional passages. Matthew did not censor the veterans. He suggests fourteen and up, high school age, maybe thirteen depending on maturity.
How long does shipping take?
We usually ship within a few days by USPS Ground Advantage, which carries insurance. No same or next day delivery, and no international shipping. Full details on the FAQ page.
Dying for freedom isn't the worst thing that could happen. Being forgotten is.
Every purchase helps ensure these stories are remembered, and supports veteran outreach and Holocaust education non-profits on a monthly basis.
Explore all the booksBooks ship from New York or Florida, usually within a few days, USPS Ground Advantage, insured.