From the Nazi-prowled wastes of North Africa to the bloody corridors of Europe, they answered the call gladly. It was their duty, their job, their life. They marched off as boys, and they came back--those who made it--as soldiers and professionals forged in the heat of battle...

    Told with the same stylistic flair and attention to detail as the bestselling At Dawn We Slept, Miracle at Midway brings together eyewitness accounts from the men who commanded and fought on both sides. The sweeping narrative takes readers into the thick of the action and shows exactly how American strategies and decisions led to the triumphant victory that paved the way for the defeat of Japan. "A stirring, even suspenseful narrative . . . The clearest and most complete account so far." (Newsday) "Something special among war histories . . . No other gives both sides of the battle in as detailed and telling a manner."(Chicago Sun-Times) "A gripping and convincing account." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

    Dicken Quinney never forgot that first flight in a fragile contraption of sealing-wax and string, the start of a lifelong obsession with aviation. He was to spend the next four years in the deadly cut-and-thrust of aerial dogfights over France and Italy, collecting a chestful of medals, and a reputation as one of the Great War’s leading aces.He would hone his skills in an array of aircraft – the BE2, the 1½-Strutter, the Camel –  and as the war reaches its climax, Dicken is maturing into a daring pilot. But then he must undergo one final test in order to emerge victorious. And with his life intact… The Bright Blue Sky is a love letter to aviation, a brilliant read, perfect for fans of Thomas Wood, Wilbur Smith, and Mark Sullivan.

    His story includes conflict in the air over Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany, where the Typhoons fought their last actions and where Desmond Scott earned major decorations from Belgium, France and Holland.

    Bryan, author of "Friendly Fire"" "The 13th Valley" is dynamite! This is the most sensuously honest interpretation of the Vietnam experience I've ever read." --Al Santoli, author of "Everything We Had"

    Unconventional in many ways, disregardful of parade ground discipline, unorthodox in their dress, yet a force so tightly knit in the face of danger that those who knew anything about them could only marvel.

    The new monster in the IRA's armoury must be destroyed at birth. A top-secret, top-priority order goes out to 22 Special Air Service Regiment:SEEK AND DESTROY - NO MATTER WHERE.For the four-men Sabre team of the legendary SAS this will be their toughest mission... probing the inner sanctum of the IRA's terror machine, fighting in the bloody carnage and chaos of Ulster - never before has so much been at stake. They encounter both triumph and disaster - and the cruellest twist of fate.

    Although the bombing "crept back" from its target, and the cloudless sky made the British aircraft perfect targets, they succeeded in disrupting Hitler's weapons program. Containing the remembrances of over 400 people from both sides--flight crews, researchers at the site, and foreign laborers forced to work there--this classic history is thoroughly irresistible.

    The revised edition includes the two eventful decades of designs since the Spruance and Perry classes. The design evolution of the Arleigh Burke class, which has become the standard U.S. surface combatant, is described in detail for the first time, based on official sources. Friedman also describes the attempts to develop a follow-on class, beginning in the late 1980s and culminating in the current DD(X) program. Abortive attempts to develop new frigates are also detailed.Friedman provides fully detailed and illustrated descriptions of all classes of U.S. destroyers, from their torpedo boat forebears onward. Detailed ship profiles by the renowned naval expert A. D. Baker III are included, along with section views that show internal arrangements. Engineering plant features and complete descriptions of antiaircraft and antisubmarine weapon systems also are given. An entire chapter is devoted to destroyer combat experience in World War II, which had a major influence on ship design and development. As the only history of U.S. destroyers based on internal, formerly classified papers of the U.S. Navy, the book is vital reading for all who have served on board these ships and for all who would like to understand the origins of the present destroyer force and its future.

    P. Willmott presents the first of a three-volume appraisal of the strategic policies of the countries involved in the Pacific War.

    Compilied from over seventy-five interviews with surviving officers and enlisted men, these powerful firsthand accounts give us a soldier's-eye portrait of the Marine Pacific war experience -- the camaraderie, the women, the loneliness, the fear -- and the profound emotional as well as spiritual rewards that resulted. Former machine gunners, riflemen, mortarmen, and engineers share the horrifying and humorous stories that defined their days in the Pacific. Through this filter of recollection, one truism is reflected time and again: "there is no such thing as an ex-Marine." A tour-de-force that pays tribute to the spirit of the nation's premier fighting force, Semper Fi, Mac is a multifaceted portrayl of men, war, bravery, honor -- and, as "The Marines' Hymn" so proudly proclaims, fidelity to the military tradition that inspired them.

    battleship California depicts the devastation at Pearl Harbor from the hazardous vantage point of the open birdbath atop the mainmast.

    Conflicts in the Gulf, Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s have ensured that the lawsof war remain a topic of considerable international relevance.

    

    Displaying photographic coverage second to none, it has a wealth of submarine plans and profiles that illustrate every aspect of design and operation. Track the constant improvements implemented from World War I to World War II and beyond: the single-drive models, small and midget versions, the move to high submerge speed, the change to Type XXI and XXIII constructions, and production in the twilight of Nazi defeat. A Selection of the Military Book Club.

    

    

    “Hap” Arnold, an incurable maverick whom the U.S. Army never learned to control became, nonetheless, one of only four permanent five-star generals in the nation’s history, and one of America’s most important military leaders of all time. During forty-one years of active service, he compiled an unparalleled record as an airman and was truly the father of the modern Air Force. In 1911, four years after his graduation from West Point, the Wright brothers taught him to fly, and he became the holder of U.S. Army pilot’s license number two. His rise through the ranks was marked by controversy, and when he took command of the Army Air Corps in 1938, it was a puny collection of 20,000 men and a few hundred planes, none good enough to face Germany’s modern air force. By 1944, under the impetus of his compelling, relentless dynamism, it had grown into an organization of 2.4 million men and women and 80,000 aircraft. Never before or since has a military machine of comparable size and technical complexity been created in so short a period; at the height of World War II, Arnold commanded the mightiest air force the world had ever seen.This is the only definitive biography of Hap Arnold. Thanks to the cooperation of the Arnold family, the Air Force, and the Library of Congress, author Thomas M. Coffey had access to Arnold’s private as well as his official papers. and those of many of his associates. Coffey’s research also included more than one hundred extensive interviews with Arnold’s surviving colleagues, friends, and family members. The result is a three-dimensional portrait, fascinating but fair, of a turbulent man and his turbulent times.

    Reminiscence of the first twenty-one years of Wilfred Bion's life: eight years of childhood in India, ten years at public school in England, and three years of life in the army.

    

    

    Presents more than 600 photos of Mauser 98s, Selbstladegewehr 41s and 43s, optical sights by Goerz, Zeiss, etc., plus German snipers in action. An exceptional hardcover collector's edition for serious military historians everywhere.

    

    In the moonlight by Guy de MaupassantLove's awakening by Guy de MaupassantThe thief by Fyodor DostoevskyThe wedding by Fyodor DostoevskyThe overcoat by Nikolai GogolThe mysterious mansion by Honore de BalzacChrist in Flanders by Honore de BalzacThe kiss by Anton ChekovThe lottery ticket by Anton ChekovZodmirsky's duel by Alexandre DumasThe shot by Alexander PushkinThe long exile by Leo Tolstoy

    A brief history of modern rocketry from its first experimental stages in the 1920's to the sophisticated strategic and tactical missiles of today.

    The 306th Bombardment Group was one of the oldest bomb groups stationed in England and flew 341 missions to targets in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland.Maynard II. (Snuffy) Smith earned the Medal of Honor on his first mission, extinguishing tires, driving off an enemy attacker and saving the life of a fellow crewman while flying in a 306th plane.Arizona Harris gained undying fame while his guns sought out a German fighter plane as the Flying Fortress settled into the icy waters of the English Channel.There were heroes aplenty in the 306th, most of them undecorated, but for nearly three years this bomb group carried on against the enemy. In the early days of the war the odds seemed insurmountable, but as the battle moved on to the continent, the bombers sought out the oil refineries that fueled the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht, and slowed the enemy. When the first American bombing force to enter Germany raided Wilhelmshaven, it was the men of the 306th in the lead. To some this was their finest hour, but the harsh realities of war soon confronted them over Schweinfurt as they lost ten airplanes on “Black Thursday.” On two other raids ten of the group's Fortresses failed to return.Out of this bomb group came eleven men who commanded other bomb groups in the 8th AF during the war and a dozen general officers in the postwar United States Air Force.