Military Disasters

Sailing across the Pacific, the battle-scarred heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis had just delivered a secret cargo that would trigger the end of World War II. Heading westward, she was sunk by a Japanese submarine. In 12 minutes, some 300 men went down with her. More than 900 other spent four horrific days and five nights in the ocean with no water to drink, savaged by a pitiless sun and swarms of sharks. Incredibly, no one knew they were there until a navy patrol plane accidentally discovered them. In the end, only 316 crewmen survived. How could this have happened - and why?

Perfect for curious young listeners, these eight titles provide exciting details about notable tragedies throughout history. Learn about the impact of catastrophes like the Titanic, Pompeii, the San Francisco Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Hindenburg, the Great Chicago Fire, and Pearl Harbor in this complete collection of iconic historical moments. With an easy-to-listen-to narrative in each book, listeners will be able to quickly learn about the shock and aftermath of these disasters.

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and at the bottom rests a B-1B bomber and its cargo of 24 nuclear weapons. Scott Tanner, a former Navy SEAL, and his eccentric partner, David Stafford, are called into action to recover the plane and its deadly cargo, a mission that could determine the fate of Crater Lake National Park forever. Tanner and Stafford soon discover the horrific facts surrounding the accident and are face to face with an enemy who will do anything to prevent the safe removal of the weapons. The terrorists are on the run and with them the means to detonate the ...

What do elite members of the military, first responders in the disaster zone, and high-performing leaders in fast-paced, high-pressure, modern day organizations have in common? The ability to have clarity of mind and purpose when surrounded by chaos. To operate at peak performance under risk. To be able to see clearly when others are blinded by fear, and act when others are paralyzed. To craft plans even with incomplete information, then execute those plans decisively...

In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn't been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan - a saga of lives saved, not wasted.

Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst nuclear disaster. In the 30 years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers not only its own citizens but all of humanity.

Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the 21st century's greatest humanitarian disasters.

At the beginning of 1940 Germany was at the pinnacle of its power. By May 1945 Hitler was dead and Germany had suffered a disastrous defeat. Hitler had failed to achieve his aim of making Germany a super power and had left its people to cope with the endless shame of the Holocaust. In The Hitler Years - Disaster 1940-1945, Professor Frank McDonough charts the dramatic change of fortune for the Third Reich and challenges long-held accounts of the Holocaust and Germany's ultimate defeat.

We were never meant to just survive—we were born to be resilient. In a world of rising chaos, uncertainty, and disconnection, Resilient by Nature offers a radical, grounded path forward. This is more than a survival manual—it's a blueprint for thriving in the 21st century. Drawing on decades of experience in wilderness skills, deep nature connection, emergency preparedness, and community resilience, Nate Summers and Eli Forest combine ancient scout teachings with cutting-edge modern tactics. Through vivid storytelling, hands-on exercises, and a bold new framework—the Survival-...

Former US Navy Top Gun Kevin Sullivan, captain of the ill-fated Perth-bound QF72, breaks his silence to give a gripping account of how a rogue computer went 'psycho', causing the Airbus A330 he was piloting to pitch down, nose first, towards the Indian Ocean—twice. Unlike other well-publicised near air disasters, the plane carrying 315 passengers and crew was out of control, a g-force of –8 propelling anyone and anything untethered through the cabin roof. It took the extraordinary skill and presence of mind of the veteran Top Gun to wrestle back control of the plane.

After the Yellowstone Caldera erupts, David Kessner and his family are sent running for their lives, only to find out this natural disaster was more sinister than they could have ever imagined. Every step of their path forward is frantic and reveals more and more of the truth...until they have nowhere else to run.

Killian ‘Ricochet’ Briscoe was lonely. Rumors flew about the coming changes with the team, whispers in corridors, and he knew that he needed to brace himself – never expecting to have his life handed to him on a silver platter… with a tarnished, dirty spoon. Fate had a sick sense of humor. Destiny Richards desperately needed help and bribing the man who yearned for his freedom seemed like the ideal solution. She wanted a family and Killian needed a place to call home for four weeks out of the year when he took leave from the Air Force. A fake marriage seemed like a perfect remedy to...

The year was 1922: World War I had just come to a close, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, and Asa Jennings, a YMCA worker from upstate New York, had just arrived in the quiet coastal city of Smyrna to teach sports to boys. Several hundred miles to the east in Turkey's interior, tensions between Greeks and Turks had boiled over into deadly violence. Mustapha Kemal, now known as Ataturk, and his Muslim army soon advanced into Smyrna, a Christian city, where a half a million terrified Greek and Armenian refugees had fled in a desperate attempt to escape his troops.

Romeo and Juliet eat your heart out... Corporal Leo Talbot wished things would lighten up on the team. No one could appreciate a few practical jokes, and he desperately needed an outlet for the darkness within him. No one would understand the scars on his soul… until he received that first email from Sadie. Sadie Gomez thought writing some soldier overseas was the stupidest idea that her grief counselor entrusted her to do – especially anyone with the last name of Talbot. The nightmares wouldn’t simply go away by discussing them, especially when Leo was dealing with his own issues. ...

Ava is a Grim Reaper...a special forces soldier patrolling an earthquake flattened London. John is a citizen who has lost his wife and child when the largest earthquake in the world flattened London. Ava battles a group of terrorists called "The Red Hand," when she and her team mates are ambushed. Ava escapes, but is badly wounded. John discovers her in a broken alley, where his grief is broken by the sudden attraction he has to this soldier, who if he is not careful, will kill him if he unmasks her. But he has to unmask her to save her. What happens next will change everything..for both of...

A riveting account of the greatest small-boat rescue in American history.

The British Navy's disastrous attempt to pass through the Dardanelles to Constantinople was a turning point in the history of World War I. Acclaimed naval military expert Dan van der Vat argues that the disaster at the Dardanelles prolonged the war by two years, led to the Russian Revolution, forced Britain to the brink of starvation, and contributed to the destabilization of the Middle East.

The gripping story of a chemical weapons catastrophe, the cover-up, and how one American Army doctor’s discovery led to the development of the first drug to combat cancer, known today as chemotherapy.

His mission was top secret: deliver mysterious components of some superweapon that would end this awful war to the island of Tinian, then return to the fleet to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Little did Captain Charles McVay III know that he would survive his ship's sinking, shark attacks, starvation, and five days adrift in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued. Discover this untold story of Captain McVay and his amazing men of courage: the crew of the USS Indianapolis.

In December 1944, while supporting General MacArthur's invasion of the Philippines, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey neglected the Law of Storms, placing the mighty US Third Fleet in harm's way. Drawing on extensive interviews with nearly every living survivor and rescuer, as well as many families of lost sailors, transcripts and other records from naval courts of inquiry, ships' logs, personal letters, and diaries, Bruce Henderson finds some of the story's truest heroes exhibiting selflessness, courage, and even defiance.