New Releases by Joseph A. Springer

March 19, 1945 – Off the coast of Japan, the USS Franklin had just launched its aircraft in an attack of the shipping industry in Kobe Harbor when a single enemy aircraft pierced the cloud cover and made a low level run on the ship known as “Big Ben.” In a matter of seconds, the aircraft’s 250kg bomb would strike the Franklin, piercing the deck and setting off a chain reaction of exploding ordnance and aviation fuel. Afire, listing heavily to starboard, and with over 1,000 killed or wounded, it appeared as if the USS Franklin would find her end among the waters of the Pacific. The events that followed, however, would make the story of Big Ben one of the most dramatic and inspiring in naval history. Now available in paperback from historian Joseph Springer, Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II tells the heroic tale of the near-miraculous efforts that went into saving the USS Franklin—from the selfless contributions of the hundreds of officers and enlisted men who voluntarily remained onboard to the assistance of the USS Santa Fe in rescuing crewmen from the sea, fighting the fires, and closing in alongside the Franklin to take off the numerous wounded and nonessential personnel. Told in the survivors’ words, the story of the legendary ship’s arduous journey from Okinawa to the Brooklyn Navy Yard unfolds in harrowing detail. It is a tremendous tale of endurance and seamanship, and unlike any in the proud history of the U.S. Navy.

They were the shock troops of the American Army. In their ranks were lumberjacks, miners, skiers--men from the United States and Canada, accustomed to hardship and living on their own. Their training was extraordinary: forced marches of 100 miles in the Montana wilderness with 50-pound backpacks was typical. Weapons training was equally rigorous and the men became as dangerous with their hands and a knife as they were with rifle and machine gun. In Italy they became the unit called to accomplish the impossible. At Monte Cassino, and at Anzio, they earned the respectful accolade from their German enemies. In this book, the men of the First Special Service Force tell the full story of their unit, regarded as the parent of the Green Berets.