Böcker av David Bruhn

Chico State, long known as a party school-Playboy magazine ranked it number one in the nation from 1987 through 2002-offered students an inviting environment in which to enjoy social life on and off campus while pursuing their studies. The non-athletic scholarship school drew runners to Chico like San Juan Capistrano beckons swallows homeward. One reason was Bidwell Park, which stretches miles and miles from downtown to the upper reaches of Chico Creek Canyon. In recognition of its beauty, a Warner Brothers Studio crew ventured 500 miles north from Hollywood in 1938 to film "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (a motion picture starring Errol Flynn) in Chico's "Sherwood Forest." An attraction for some was the surname of the men's cross country and track coach. He was a college All-American in football, who had played for the Green Bay Packers professional football team for a short time under Vince Lombardi, whose well-known mantra was, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." The coach's brother was a world-class miler and two-time Olympian. The women runners came under the tutelage of three successive women coaches. A solid Chico State PE teacher preceded two remarkable women athletes-both former hurdlers. The second coach was an international-level competitor, and decades later a head Olympic coach. Her successor was an even better athlete, having competed in the 1964 Olympics Games. This is the story of Wildcat and Lady 'Cat runners who came under very different coaching philosophies in the 1969-1979 era. One hundred eleven photographs; appendices; and an index to full names add value to this work.

Running programs in Chico in the 1970s were similar to those elsewhere. Famed University of Oregon coach Bill Bowerman had introduced the sport of jogging; American Frank Shorter was the winner of the marathon at the 1972 Olympics; and Steve Prefontaine, running for Oregon, drew thousands of fans to see him race. A distant 384 miles south of Eugene, Oregon, lay Chico, a small rural town in northern California. In these exciting times, a high school coach there put together the top Cross Country teams and developed the best collection of distance runners the town had seen, then or since. Included among the male and female athletes were the "Charlie's Angels"-seven high school girls which, in 1977, Harrier magazine ranked second in the nation. Five years earlier, an elite miler at the local college had the community abuzz with his quest to break the magic four-minute barrier. Meanwhile, two feisty marathoners (former college boxers) were leading the road-racing contingent in town. While doing so, they met the existing Olympic Trials qualifying standard for the 26.2-mile race. This book transports readers back to an age of innocence and excellence to run in the footsteps of the athletes of that era. One hundred and fourteen photographs add value to this work.

In January 1942, following the United States' entry into WWII, German U-boats began a reign of terror off America's Eastern Seaboard; over the next several months, sinking hundreds of ships almost at will. With the combatant ships of the then-small U.S. Navy, spread thin in distant theaters, Vice Admiral Andrews desperately sought vessels to protect the coast. Those available consisted of Navy remnants of World War I, private yachts and fishing vessels hastily obtained and armed, and a few small Coast Guard cutters. This force was insufficient to protect major ports, let alone escort merchantmen. Andrews needed help, and got it when Great Britain sent twenty-four King's ships to America to operate under his command. Eventually, with a gradual increase in the numbers of aircraft and ships available to search for and find U-boats, the enemy moved on to South African waters where the hunting was easier. The eighteen remaining King's ships followed, and began anew, to assist a small, unprepared Navy to combat the deadly menace. One hundred, thirty-two photographs, maps and diagrams; appendices; a bibliography; and an index to full names, places, and subjects add value to this work.2022, 6x9, paper, index, 398 pp

As war with Japan was imminent, the British laid minefields off Hong Kong and Singapore; the Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies; and the Australians off New Zealand and Australia, in an attempt to prevent enemy invasion. Ships hastily converted to this task were referred to as "night raiders." Duty aboard a "floating ammunition dump" was hazardous enough; missions carried out under the cloak of darkness increased the odds of survival in enemy waters. As MacArthur, Halsey, and Spruance's forces advanced toward Japan, minesweepers worked with "night raiders"-clearing waters off landing beaches, while minelayers strove to deny the enemy freedom of the sea. Australian seaplanes ("Black Cats") flew long, perilous night-missions to mine Japanese harbors, and British submarines and planes joined in the attack on shipping. Late in the war, USAAF bombers ringed the Japanese home islands with thousands of mines. When hostilities ended, war-weary "sweep sailors" remained in Asian waters-ridding the sea of "shipkillers." The little-known efforts of these valiant men are illuminated in this rare look into history. One hundred and forty-four photographs, maps, and diagrams; appendices; and an index to full-names, places and subjects add value to this work.

Cloaked by jungle foliage, the unheralded seaplane tenders operated ahead of the Fleet, like the Navy's famed PT boats. As Halsey's South Pacific, MacArthur's Southwest Pacific, and Spruance's Central Pacific forces advanced toward Japan, these ships served as afloat-bases for patrol planes referred to as the "eyes of the fleet." The large fabric-clad PBY "Catalinas" and later PBM "Mariners" combed the seaways for Japanese forces and carried out bombing, depth charge, and torpedo attacks on enemy ships and submarines. Nighttime anti-shipping operations-"Black Cat" or "Nightmare" missions-were dangerous and daytime combat operations even more so, when encounters with more maneuverable and heavily-armed fighters necessitated hiding in clouds to survive. The Japanese were keen to destroy the scouts and their floating bases, and seaplane tenders often lived a furtive existence, particularly early in the war. Pilots, plane crews and shipboard personnel received scores of awards for valor, including the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Silver and Bronze Star Medals.

In WWI under a crippling naval blockade of its North Sea ports which ultimately resulted in the starvation of thousands of its citizens and as land warfare in Europe drags on, Germany endeavours to counter-blockade Britain via U-boat attacks on shipping and by mining waters round the British Isles. Hundreds of fishing vessels from every port and harbour in Britain are pressed into minesweeping duties and minelayers sow fields to restrict and destroy German vessels. Their efforts allow the powerful Royal Navy to hold the German Navy in port - except for occasional skirmishes, including the Battle of Jutland. American destroyers hunt U-boats in British waters, while minelayers create a barrier between the Orkney Islands and Norway, to try to deny the enemy entry into the Atlantic. Desperate, Germany mounts a U-boat offensive off North America in the summer 1918, to induce the U.S. to bring her destroyers home. Although nearly one hundred vessels are sunk, this action fails. Germany surrenders in late autumn 1918 and allied vessels are left with the deadly task of removing thousands of mines laid in the war. One hundred and fifty photographs, maps, and diagrams; appendices; and an index to full-names, places and subjects add value to this work.