Taking Paris is the story of the dark days during World War II when Paris fell into German hands. As the Germans ruthlessly crushed all opposition, a patriotic band of Parisians known as the Resistance secretly rose to fight back. But these young men and women could not do it alone. Over 120,000 Parisians died under German occupation. Countless more were tortured in the city's Gestapo prisons and sent to death camps. The longer the Nazis held the city, the greater the danger its citizens faced. As the armies of America and Great Britain prepared to launch the greatest invasion in history, the Resistance spies risked all to ensure the Germans were defeated and Paris once again free. 

Martin and I will be discussing this gripping WWII story and the forthcoming 11th book in the Killing series coauthored with Bill O'Reilly. 

I hope you will subscribe to the Point the Spear podcast, which will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox and many other platforms debuting on August 11th. Also look for more exciting guest announcements soon.

We've got some genuinely outstanding guests coming to the podcast over the next couple of months, besides the ones already announced Dr. Allen Guelzo and Ben Milligan. I wanted to provide a sneak preview of who is coming to the podcast. These guests are confirmed, but the schedule is not set in stone except for the premiere episode with Ben Milligan on August 11th.

COMING PODCAST EPISODES IN THE NEXT TWO MONTHS:

Major General Mari K. Eder

Mari K. Eder, retired commanding U.S. Army Major General, is a renowned speaker and author and a thought leader on strategic communication and leadership. General Eder has served as Director of Public Affairs at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and as an adjunct professor and lecturer in communications and public diplomacy at the NATO School and Sweden's International Training Command. 

She has authored an outstanding new book, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line, which takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation. These women served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII—in and out of uniform. Theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come.

Dr. Tony Brooks

After enlisting in the U.S. Army in 2003 at the age of 21, Dr. Tony Brooks attended and graduated from Infantry and Airborne school, followed by the four-week Ranger Indoctrination program, officially checking in to the 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington, in September 2004. He deployed to eastern Afghanistan in April 2005, based at Bagram Airfield. His first mission was Operation Red Wings II. 

On June 28th, 2005, a four-man Navy SEAL reconnaissance team under Operation Red Wings was ambushed in northeastern Afghanistan—as depicted in the book and film Lone Survivor. A quick reaction force was dispatched. Turbine 33, carrying eight Navy SEALs and eight members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade—careening the dual-rotor Chinook toward the rugged peak of Sawtalo Sar. The result was the single deadliest incident in Special Operations history at the time.

Author Tony Brooks gives a first-hand account of the daring recovery of Turbine 33 and the subsequent search for the remaining compromised Navy SEAL recon team—one of whom was Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor. The Rangers were up against lack of intel, treacherous terrain, violent weather, and an enemy that was raised to fight.

Bob Welch

Bob Welch co-author of Leave No Man Behind, is an award-winning columnist, speaker, and author whose 15 books are distinguished by heart, humor, and hope. A storyteller by nature, Welch mines much of his speaking fodder from his books and the nearly 2,000 columns he's written for The Register-Guard, Oregon's second-largest newspaper. He has twice won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists' highest award for writing.

Bob is the author of Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's "Band of Brothers." His latest book is Saving My Enemy: How Two WWII Soldiers Fought Against Each Other and Later Forged a Friendship That Saved Their Lives. Don Malarkey grew up scrappy and happy in Astoria, Oregon—jumping off roofs, playing pranks, a free-range American. Fritz Engelbert's German boyhood couldn't have been more different. Regimented and indoctrinated by the Hitler Youth, he was introspective and a loner. Both men fought in the Battle of the Bulge, the horrific climax of World War II in Europe. A paratrooper in the U.S. Army, Malarkey served a longer continuous stretch on the bloody front lines than any man in Easy Company. Though he never killed an enemy soldier, Engelbert spent decades wracked by guilt over his participation in the Nazi war effort. On the sixtieth anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, these two survivors met. Malarkey was a celebrity featured in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, while Engelbert had passed the years in the obscurity of a remote German village. But both men were still scarred— haunted—by nightmares of war. And finally, after they met, they were able to save each other's lives.

Jared Frederick

Jared Frederick is the author of several books, including Dispatches of D-Day: A People's History of the Normandy Invasion. Before his current position as an instructor of history at Penn State Altoona, he served as a seasonal park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Frederick has appeared on C-SPAN, PBS, in numerous independent documentaries, and on Turner Classic Movies as a guest host. He has also received awards for his teaching skills and efforts on behalf of student veterans.

His latest book is Hang Tough: The WWII Letters and Artifacts of Major Dick Winters. Beneath this marble image of a reserved officer is the story of a common Pennsylvanian tested by the daily trials and tribulations of military duty. Dick Winters wartime correspondence with a pen pal and naval reservist, DeEtta Almon, paints an endearing portrait of life on both the home front and battlefront—capturing the humor, horror, and humility that defined a generation.  

Colin Cahoon

Colin P. Cahoon is a writer of historical nonfiction and historically based fiction, a patent attorney, and former Army helicopter pilot. He grew up in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico and earned his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering at New Mexico State University, which he attended on an Army ROTC scholarship. Colin received his Regular Army commission in 1983 and graduated with honors from the aero scout track of flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama in 1984. He served with distinction as an Aero Scout Platoon Leader in the 307th Attack Helicopter Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division, where he accumulated over 1000 hours of flight time in UH-1 and OH-58 helicopters.

His latest book is Mended Wings: The Vietnam War Experience Through the Eyes of Ten American Purple Heart Helicopter Pilots. Follow the lives of ten Purple Heart heroes as they relate the Vietnam War experience from the perspective of the helicopter cockpit. Get to know the generation of men who fought with pride, determination, skill, and courage only to be shunned when they brought their battered bodies and haunting memories home. Their fathers and uncles were heralded as the "greatest generation." Meet the forgotten generation.

Tim Gray

Join me for a conversation with Tim Gray, founder, and president of the nonprofit World War II Foundation. The organization honors the legacy of the veterans and survivors of one of history’s most crucial periods by producing educational documentary films (29 to date) with several more in post-production). These documentaries air on television networks around the world via American Public Television. Each of their films range from 60 to 90 minutes in length. They make these documentaries available for free to educators, students, and the public. Their goal is to preserve these important stories for current and future generations.

Mitchell Yockelson

On his episode we talk about his WWI book, Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I. It has gotten glowing reviews including this one from Brad Meltzer.  “Get ready to dig into one of the wildest and deadliest battles in history. The beautifully researched Forty-Seven Days takes you right there and shows you all the minute details, from the pings of a bullet to Pershing’s confidence and fears.”—Brad Meltzer, New York Times bestselling author of The President’s Shadow.

Don Milne

From Louisville, Kentucky, Don Milne is the founder of the nonprofit initiative Stories Behind the Stars. A lifelong history buff, he started a blog after the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 2016 to honor individual and mostly forgotten World War II fallen by writing short obituaries about them. Over the next four years, his WW2 Fallen 100 blog resulted in more than 1,200 stories and was read more than 1.5 million times. More than 1,300 people involved in the Stories Behind the Stars project have written nearly 10,000 accounts, including every story of the fallen from one state (Utah) and stories about every D-Day soldier lost on the first day at Normandy.

(photo) Ben Milligan, Author and former SEAL.

"By Water Beneath the Walls is the SEAL book we needed. A deep dive into the SEALs' roots, it is written with style and insight that could come only from someone who is part of the community. Milligan uses razor-sharp analysis and masterful storytelling to leave us with a clear understanding of not only how the SEALs came into being, but, more important, why."—Kevin Maurer, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Lions of Kandahar and No Easy Day

Ben will join me on Point of the Spear to discuss the book, his SEAL career, and his life after the military. The audio podcast episode will debut on all major podcast platforms at 5 AM EST, August 11, 2021. Look for our trailer soon and subscribe to Point of the Spear.

(Cover Art) Robert E. Lee: A Life.

On the podcast episode, Allen and I will be discussing his forthcoming book, Robert E. Lee: A Life (Knopf) which is releasing on September 28, 2021. The book is already receiving widespread praise.

"Deeply researched and elegantly written, this nuanced portrait captures Lee's ambiguous place in American history."  

—Publisher Weekly

"Allen C. Guelzo has written exactly what the nation urgently needs right now--an example of mature thinking about complex, flawed people who took difficult actions in contexts, not of their making or choosing. In today's blizzard of facile, overheated, and grandstanding judgments about the past, this unsentimental biography illustrates the intellectual responsibility that the present owes to the past."

—George F. Will

—Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill, Walking with Destiny

Allen and I will be recording our conversation on his Robert E. Lee book soon and look for the podcast episode's release in September. More podcast guests will be announced in the coming weeks, and a complete schedule will be posted soon. 

Reel History Film Series

Mark the date in your calendar July 28, 2021 at 4P EST/3P CST/1P PST

Serving for Justice

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Join filmmakers Dr. Jeffrey Sammons and Rob Child as they discuss their documentary, Serving for Justice, as a part of The National WWII Museum’s Reel History Film Series.

Amidst the horrors and indignities of Jim Crow America, one million African Americans served their country to protect democracy abroad and expand it at home during World War II. Serving for Justice tells the story of a combat unit struggling to succeed in battle—and to prove their full citizenship even when their lives seemed to matter less. It is a story of fortitude, brotherhood, and faith in America's ideals.

This documentary was executive produced by Steven W. Jones and Arthur R. Collins, Jr., founders of Ebony Doughboys Productions.

Temporary Holding Cover Art

I'll be having more announcements about the book, but this is the first official one. Below is more about the story.

The remarkable story of the seven African American soldiers ultimately awarded the World War II Medal of Honor, and the 50-year campaign to deny them their recognition.

In 1945, when Congress began reviewing the record of the most conspicuous acts of courage by American soldiers during World War II, they recommended awarding the Medal of Honor to 432 recipients. Despite the fact that more than one million African-Americans served, not a single black soldier received the Medal of Honor. The omission remained on the record for over four decades.

But recent historical investigations have brought to light some of the extraordinary acts of valor performed by black soldiers during the war. Men like Vernon Baker, who single-handedly eliminated three enemy machineguns, an observation post, and a German dugout. Or Sergeant Reuben Rivers, who spearhead his tank unit's advance against fierce German resistance for three days despite being grievously wounded. Meanwhile Lieutenant Charles Thomas led his platoon to capture a strategically vital village on the Siegfried Line in 1944 despite losing half his men and suffering a number of wounds himself.

Ultimately, in 1993 a US Army commission determined that seven men, including Baker, Rivers and Thomas, had been denied the Army's highest award simply due to racial discrimination. In 1997, more than 50 years after the war, President Clinton finally awarded the Medal of Honor to these seven heroes, sadly all but one of them posthumously.

The content will be engaging conversations with fellow military history authors and filmmakers as well as current Medal of Honor recipients. These soldiers indeed proved they were the "Point of the Spear," which is the reason for investing time and energy into producing a weekly show.

We are in the process of reaching out to guests now, and I promise you won't be bored. Each weekly podcast will feature lively conversations that provide a behind-the-scenes look at some prominent commanders and battles down through time. 

Point of the Spear with Robert Child will be available on all the major podcast platforms including, Apple Podcast, Spotify and Castbox, and several others. 

Look for more announcements to come on this upcoming exciting venture!