Paratroopers Recall Their Pacific War
ISBN 9798211619999 Publish Date 18 JAN 2023
Large Landscape Format, Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
Print Book, 13 x 11 in, 33 x 28 cm. 440 pages
Paratroopers Recall Their Pacific War
ISBN 9798211616868 Publish Date 20 JAN 2023
Large Landscape Format, Hard Cover, Image Wrap
Print Book, 13 x 11 in, 33 x 28 cm. 440 pages $330
Paratroopers Recall Their Pacific War
PDF FORMAT (783MB download) * FOR AVAILABILITY SEE Q&A NOTE BELOW*
TO ORDER A PDF VISIT THE IMAGEWRAP PREVIEW PAGE
503 in the SWPA
Paratroopers Recall Their Pacific War
by William T. Calhoun & Paul F. Whitman
Websites are ephemeral, transitory beings, likely to disappear at the slightest late payment of their hosting fees. OK, it's a commercial world, we understand. The average website lifespan is less than three years. For that reason, I decided that I should make a permanent version of the website I've spent twenty years doing, turning it into something that could survive a few more decades on your bookshelf. Something you'd be proud to leave on your coffee table. Something you can read without the necessity of batteries.
I did a series of four major books with Bill Calhoun, which we called the "Bless 'em All" series about the history of the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team during WWII. It ran to over 1200 pages in a "coffee table" style book series. It cost a fortune, because that's the nature of things when you won't sell your soul to a major publishing house. The 503d PIR is a limited market. It was my life's Opus.
I haven't found a donor yet to sponsor the donation of copies of the volumes to the Airborne Museum / Infantry Museum / Smithsonian - at least while I'm still alive.
So I felt that it might be worthwhile to reissue CORREGIDOR - THE ROAD BACK, which I published in 2013 as a larger work - this time, to condense the entirety of the history of the 503d PIR (and the 503d PRCT) into a single volume. To say it sort of got away from me is an understatement!! I felt caught between two extremes, actually – the “CORREGIDOR – THE ROAD BACK” was too simplistic, and the four volume BLESS ‘EM ALL SERIES was too complex. Thus, 503d in the SWPA is taking the middle road. Here's its index page.
I managed to locate a bunch of images which many people have never seen before, because not many expect that the Australian War Memorial has so many images of the 503d PIR in Australia and New Guinea.
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Q &
A |
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Q:What's with the PDF Version? |
A: The publishers (Reichling Press, trading as "Blurb") hold these out as a suitable
replacement for the ePub files which were readable on all
electronic formats. Yes and no. Being pdf files,
they are readable, but the display of two page spreads has
issues. Blurb's production process adds a 'Null'
page, (necessary for physical bookproduction) but which throws out all
PDF two-page spreads when the "two
page to a view" view is selected on your reader. |
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| Q: The PDF version breaks the two-page spreads. What can I do? |
I referred this issue to Blurb.
This is what they say:
"If you would like to view two pages of your PDF at a time, please try changing your PDF view settings as below: 1. In Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, go to View>Page Display and make sure that "Show cover page in two page view" is selected. 2. Then, go to View>Page Display and select Two Page View. (You can also choose Two Page Scrolling if you prefer. Try both and see which you prefer)." Not all of us have Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, so if that doesn't work for you, you might consider modifying the file if you have access to a pdf editing program. Use your editor to delete the first blank page , or move it to the end of the book. That way the two-page spreads will re-allign. |
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Q:Why no ePub version? |
A: Blurb have discontinued them. Follow the money. There were too many cost
issues involving the licensing fees for authors who didn't
use the fonts that Blurb had licenced. For a company
that markets itself as being creative, their limited font
range was crap. All fonts are NOT created
equal. My favorite font is
P22 Typewriter which can be had for free. I use it
extensively as it mimics typewriter text of the WWII era. |
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| Q: Is there a standard landscape version? |
A: No.
This version brings more and larger pages. If
you are going to spend a kings randsom on a book, we want to deliver
an heirloom treasure! |
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Q: Why are these books so effing expensive? |
A: Cost is a measure of rarity. That's the nature of print-on-demand books. You want one book, they print it specially for you. Just one copy. You're a rare individual, it's a RARE BOOK! Here's another way I think about it. Think of a book as being a collection of over four hundred photographic enlargements, bound, thirteen by eleven inches. How much will a photo service charge you for them? |
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| Q: Are there discount vouchers or promo coupons available to lower the price? |
A: Yes, but you have to look for them. I suggest you Google
the words "Blurb.com, Discount, Coupon, Promo" and the
current month. Sometimes you can score between 10% and 35%
depending on how much they need their cash-flow in San
Francisco. If you know me personally, I may be able to get
you the Author's own discount, but only when they offer it,
which isn't often. You'll need to trust me with your
credit card details. |
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| Q: If I join Blurb.com, do I get a membership discount? | A: No. Blurb wants authors, direct buyers. The discount on "your first book" is only for books you yourself have published. You've still got to look for coupons. | |
| Q: Is it available on Amazon? |
A: Amazon adds a hefty fee to the Blurb base cost. Even if you have free delivery from Amazon, it's
still cheaper
to buy it direct from Blurb. So the answer is "No." Isn't
Jeff Bezos rich enough? |
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| Q: Is it available on Apple? |
A: Apple requires that page numbers be removed from the
eBooks they sell through their iBooks Store. I have a
"thing" about page numbers. I like 'em. So the answer is
"No." Apple also adds their fee on top of the Blurb base
cost, and it's cheaper to buy it direct from Blurb. |
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Q: What is the answer to the Ultimate Question about Life, the Universe and Everything? |
A: 42. |
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