No Average Day : The 24 Hours of October 24 1944 / Rona Simmons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simmons, Rona, author.

Series:

American military experience.

American Military Experience Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military history.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (363 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Columbia : University of Missouri, 2024.

Columbia, Missouri : University of Missouri Press, [2024]

Summary:

On Tuesday, October 24, 1944, nearly three years after the United States entered World War II, over 2, 600 Americans perished-more than on any other single day of the conflict-yet the day remains overshadowed by more widely remembered dates in WWII history. Drawing from the accounts of men from diverse backgrounds who served in the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Corps, Rona Simmons offers a gripping retelling of the fateful day, hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First Class Paul Miller's demise in a prisoner of war camp and ends with the death of Navy Seaman Second Class Wanza E. Matthews after the Japanese submarine  I-56  attacked his ship off New Guinea. The sinking of the Japanese "hellship"  Arisan Maru -a lesser-known tragedy of the war-looms large, deftly interwoven through each part of the narrative.   Perhaps the most compelling aspect of  No Average Day  is its attention to the human side of conflict, telling the stories of ordinary individuals-clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews-as they grapple with the horrors of the war. Despite its narrow focus, or perhaps because of it,   No Average Day  reveals the vastness of World War II through a consideration of the largely overlooked events that unfolded on what, for members of the US Armed Forces, was its deadliest day.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Maps

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part One: Morning

Chapter 1. A Pencil for a Pick

Chapter 2. A Petty Officer of Pigeons

Chapter 3. A Dress Rehearsal

Chapter 4. The First "Kamikaze"

Chapter 5. And Then Another

Chapter 6. The "Photo Joes"

Chapter 7. The Second Time Around

Chapter 8. A Most Unlikely Place to Land

Chapter 9. To the Rescue

Chapter 10. Qualifying for the Scouts

Chapter 11. Even the Best of the Best

Chapter 12. A Distant and Unnecessary Death

Chapter 13. Boots on the Ground and in the Air

Part Two: Noon

Chapter 14. Rumors of a Rest

Chapter 15. Yankees in France

Chapter 16. Clinging to the Scrabble

Chapter 17. Into Thin Air

Chapter 18. Burma Bridge Busters

Chapter 19. A Day at the Beach

Chapter 20. A Not So Quiet War

Chapter 21. Of Wolfpacks and Windmills

Chapter 22. Rough Roads and Seas

Chapter 23. A Shark with Torpedoes

Part Three: Evening

Chapter 24. Lost in the Vosges

Chapter 25. Under Cover of Darkness

Part Four: Day's End

Epilogue

Appendix: List of American Military Who Died on October 24, 1944

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Title from eBook information screen..

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780826275066

0826275060

OCLC:

1458288897