Best of
Military

1988

Semper Fidelis


Johnnie M. Clark - 1988
    A machine gunner deep in the Vietnam bush, Shawn fought and won battles with no names, and watched brave friends give the ultimate sacrifice. Death chased him. Rain, leeches, and malaria sapped his strength. And back home in an ungrateful country, right and wrong were decided by what was easiest. Prayer was his last refuge, but it was hardest of all.

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam


Neil Sheehan - 1988
    A field adviser to the army when US involvement was just beginning, he quickly became appalled at the corruption of the S. Vietnamese regime, their incompetence in fighting the Communists & their brutal alienation of their own people. Finding his superiors too blinded by political lies to understand the war was being thrown away, he secretly briefed reporters on what was really happening. One of those reporters was Neil Sheehan.--Amazon (edited) Neil Sheehan was a Vietnam War correspondent for United Press International & the NY Times & won a number of awards for reporting. In 1971 he obtained the Pentagon Papers, which brought the Times the Pulitzer gold medal for meritorious public service. A Bright Shining Lie won the National Book Award & the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction. He lives in Washington DC.MapsThe funeral Going to war Antecedents to a confrontation The Battle of Ap Bac Taking on the system Antecedents to the man A second time aroundJohn Vann staysAcknowledgmentsInterviewsDocumentsSource NotesBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Swords around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee


John R. Elting - 1988
    Elting examines every facet of this incredibly complex human machine: its organization, command system, logistics, weapons, tactics, discipline, recreation, mobile hospitals, camp followers, and more. From the army's formation out of the turmoil of Revolutionary France through its swift conquests of vast territories across Europe to its legendary death at Waterloo, this book uses excerpts from soldiers' letters, eyewitness accounts, and numerous firsthand details to place the reader in the boots of Napoleon's conscripts and generals. In Elting's masterful hands the experience is truly unforgettable.

The Boats of Cherbourg: The Navy That Stole Its Own Boats and Revolutionized Naval Warfare


Abraham Rabinovich - 1988
    The boats, ordered by Israel from a local shipyard, had been embargoed for more than a year by French President Charles de Gaulle. In a brazen caper, the Israelis were now running off with them. As the boats raced for home and Paris fumed, the world media chortled at Israel’s hutspa. But the story was far bigger than they knew.Eight years before, the commander of the Israeli navy had assembled senior officers for a brainstorming session. The navy faced downgrading to a coast guard unless it could reconstitute itself as a fighting force on a starvation budget. What to do? A desperate proposal emerged from the two-day meeting.Israel’s fledgling military industries had developed a crude missile which was rejected by both the army and air force. The navy would now try adapting it. If placed on small patrol boats, the missiles, with their large warheads, could give these cheap vessels the punch of a heavy cruiser.Over the next decade, engineers working virtually round-the-clock developed the first missile boats in the West. Of a dozen boat platforms ordered in Cherbourg seven sailed before the embargo. The five that escaped completed the flotilla. But the Soviets had meanwhile also developed missile boats which they distributed to their Arab allies. Their powerful and accurate missiles had twice the range of Israel’s. To secure Israel’s sea lanes, the navy devised electronic countermeasures that would hopefully divert the enemy missiles.On the first night of the Yom Kippur War, an Israeli squadron engaged three Syrian missile boats in the first ever missile-to-missile battle at sea. The Syrian boats fired first but all three were sunk. Two nights later, three Egyptian missile boats were sunk. The electronic umbrella had worked and no Israeli boat was hit. A new naval age had dawned.

Blackjack-34: One Deadly Day of Courage, Carnage, and Ultimate Sacrifice for the Mobile Guerrilla Force in Vietnam


James C. Donahue - 1988
    Their mission: to find and engage an enemy battalion that was thought to be operating in an enemy-controlled area north of Quon Loi, Vietnam.   Now Donahue bears witness to the horrific events of that day and the exceptional grit and heroism of his teammates. Blackjack-34 is a magnificent tribute to the warriors of the Mobile Guerrilla Force―their courage and willingness to press on, no matter what the odds.

The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militarische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805


Charles Edward White - 1988
    The study focuses on the most important Prussian military reformer--Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, who in 1801 founded the Militarische Gesellschaft (Military Society) in Berlin. The Gesellschaft became the focal point for the transformation of the Prussian army from a robotic war machine into a modern fighting force that was instrumental in defeating Napolean in 1813 and in 1815. The author examines the following elements of this military society: its membership; the specifics of its agenda; the intellect, imagination, and habits of thought, reflection, and objective analysis of its members; Scharnhorst's particular contributions.

Tigers in Combat II


Wolfgang Schneider - 1988
    Based on combat diaries, the text tells the history of each unit, but most of the book is devoted to photos of the tanks and the men who manned them. It offers as unique and comprehensive a look at these lethal machines as is possible sixty years after World War II.

Bitter Victory: The Battle For Sicily, July August 1943


Carlo D'Este - 1988
    In recounting the second-largest amphibious operation in military history, Carlo D'Este for the first time reveals the conflicts in planning and the behind-the-scenes quarrels between top Allied commanders. The book explodes the myth of the Patton-Montgomery rivalry and exposes how Alexander's inept generalship nearly wrecked the campaign. D'Este documents in chilling detail the series of savage battles fought against an overmatched but brilliant foe and how the Germans--against overwhelming odds--carried out one of the greatest strategic withdrawals in history. His controversial narrative depicts for the first time how the Allies bungled their attempt to cut off the Axis retreat from Sicily, turning what ought to have been a great triumph into a bitter victory that later came to haunt the Allies in Italy. Using a wealth of original sources, D'Este paints an unforgettable portrait of men at war. From the front lines to the councils of the Axis and Allied high commands, "Bitter Victory" offers penetrating reassessments of the men who masterminded the campaign. Thrilling and authoritative, this is military history on an epic scale.

U.S. Army Special Forces Medical Handbook


Glen C. Craig - 1988
    Special sections cover wartime emergencies (burn and blast injuries; nuclear, biological and chemical warfare; and emergency surgery) as well as primitive and veterinary medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics and orthopedics. Also includes practical survival techniques.

Secret Warriors


Steven Emerson - 1988
    From the author of The American House of Saud.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History


Chuck Hansen - 1988
    More than 330 black-and-white photographs document the design and development of this complex and controversial technology.

Firepower: A History of the American Heavy Tank


R.P. Hunnicutt - 1988
    

Thunder Alley


Mack Maloney - 1988
    Earth's only hope is a maverick pilot named Ryder Long and a handful of misfits as they make a desperate assault on Thunder Alley.

Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft


Enzo Angelucci - 1988
    One hundred and fifty different aircraft are covered in this text, individually and in detail from the Aichi D3A to the Yokosuka P1Y. This book also presents 500 full colour illustrations which show the aircraft's profiles, camouflage and markings, plus original photographs and technical specifications.

Hamburger Hill: The Brutal Battle for Dong Ap Bia: May 11-20, 1969


Samuel Zaffiri - 1988
    The battle for Ap Bia Mountain (Hill 937), was one of the fiercest of the entire Vietnam War.

The Last of the Bengal Lancers


Francis Ingall - 1988
    When he first went to India in 1929, all the officers were English and all the enlisted men were Indian (Hindu, Sikh and Moslem). India was part of theBritish Empire and the Army was basically involved with hunting down outlaw bands of horsemen and keeping them in order. One of his first experiences there was leading a charge on horseback (swords in hand) of the 5th D.C.O. Lancers in the battle of karawal near the Khyber Pass. Later, in the Second World War, he commanded the 6th Lancers in a drive through northern Italy. By this time he had traded their horses for light armour (manufactured by General Motors), but the hazards were no less great. In one 2-hour punch, Ingall's forces cut a swathe through the remnants of the three German Divisions and penetrated 50 miles into enemy territory. For this he won the DSO. He was also awarded an OBE by King George VI for his service as founder and head of the Pakistan Military Academy which he was invited to found by no less person then Mohammad Ali Jinnah himself. Ingall serves as the academy's Commandment until 1951. Since then he has revisited the area several times as an honoured guest of the state, In 1982 he was appointed Honorary Council General of Pakistan, in California, where he now lives, by it's president General Zia-ul-Haq, who described Ingall as 'one of the founding fathers or our army.' During his many years in India and Pakistan he knew and worked with with the areas most important dignitaries such as Lord Mountbatten and Lord Ismay, Gandhi and Nehru. This is an autobiography full of incident and humour which will delight not only the old and bold but but all those who enjoy reading about the last days of the Raj.

Welcome to Flanders Fields


Daniel G. Dancocks - 1988
    Rich with historical detail, 'Welcome to Flanders Fields' recreates the atmosphere and events of The Second Battle of Ypres, and gives voice to the soldiers who, in a baptism by fire, gave their hearts and their lives in the Allied cause.

Modern Air Combat: The Aircraft, Tactics and Weapons Employed in Aerial Warfare Today


Bill Gunston - 1988
    Illustrated throughout.

The Barbarians: A Soldier's New Guinea Diary


Peter Pinney - 1988
    You can hardly read it; I had good eyes then. And now it's starting to fade and discolour, and the binding has rotted; and I know it doesn't dovetail with a lot of glorifying bull written by patriotic war historians, but to my knowledge no one else kept any personal notes of those times, so I've had some rooster edit out the rubbish and knock the remainder into shape, and here it is.

The Experience Of World War I


Jay Murray Winter - 1988
    In The Experience of World War I, J.M. Winter marshalls acomprehensive range of historical materials, hundreds of vivid illustrations, and numerous eye-witness accounts to provide an illuminating and gripping chronicle of this cataclysmic event and its aftermath. How did the assassination of one man, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, trigger such vast devastation? What was combat like for the common soldier? Why did the generals persist in large-scale offensives after catastrophic losses early in the war? What was the impact of the war on European politics, the world economy, and the arts? To answer these and myriad other questions, Winter examines the war year by year, describing the conflict as it was experienced by politicians, generals, soldiers and civilians. Illustrated with hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, the book uncoversmany intriguing aspects of the war: it reveals that soldiers in fact spent only two weeks per month in the front trenches, describes how the father of tycoon Rupert Murdoch broke the story of the disaster at Gallipoli, and outlines the unprecedented logistics problems the military faced (it took 20boxcars of food per day to feed 17,000 men--and there were 5 million men in the British army alone). There is also a wealth of fascinating sidebar material covering a wide variety of secondary topics, from women's war poetry to the sinking of the LusitaniaT. The book is further enhanced by numerousfirst-hand accounts of life during the war, drawn from diaries, memoirs and other writings of both men and women, from all countries and social groups, and it also includes a full chronology, many full-color maps, and tables of essential data. Combining political, military, and social history, this evocative account captures the Great War in all its complexity, from the bloody battles of Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele, to the flood of post-war literary and artistic works, including All Quiet on the Western Front and Jean Renoir'sfilm La Grande Illusion

Total War: What It Is, How It Got That Way


Thomas Powers - 1988
    Gathered here are statements from the pens and mouths of men who made war. Many of the myths surrounding war are explored, and the harrowing examination will help readers draw their own conclusions about the biggest issue facing mankind this century.

The Berlin Raids


Martin Middlebrook - 1988
    Bomber Command s Commander-in-Chief, Sir Arthur Harris, hoped to wreak Berlin from end to end and produce a state of devastation in which German surrender is inevitable . He dispatched nineteen major raids between August 1943 and March 1944 more than 10,000 aircraft sorties dropped over 30,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. It was the RAF s supreme effort to end the war by aerial bombing. But Berlin was not destroyed and the RAF lost more than 600 aircraft and their crews. The controversy over whether the Battle of Berlin was a success or failure has continued ever since. Martin Middlebrook brings to this subject considerable experience as a military historian. In preparing his material he collected documents from both sides (many of the German ones never before used); he has also interviewed and corresponded with over 400 of the people involved in the battle and has made trips to Germany to interview the people of Berlin and Luftwaffe aircrews. He has achieved the difficult task of bringing together both sides of the Battle of Berlin the bombing force and the people on the ground to tell a coherent, single story. The author describes the battle, month by month, as the bombers waited for the dark nights, with no moon, to resume their effort to destroy Berlin and end the war. He recounts the ebb and flow of fortunes, identifying the tactical factors that helped first the bombers, then the night fighters, to gain the upper hand. Through the words of the participants, he brings to the reader the hopes, fears and bravery of the young bomber aircrews in the desperate air battles that were waged as the Luftwaffe attempted to protect their capital city. And he includes that element so often omitted from books about the bombing war the experiences of ordinary people in the target city, showing how the bombing destroyed homes, killed families, affected morale and reduced the German war effort. Martin Middlebrook s meticulous attention to detail makes The Bomber Battle of Berlin one of his most accomplished book to date. Martin Middlebrook has written many other books that deal with important turning-points in the two world wars, including The First Day on the Somme, Kaiser s Battle, The Peenemunde Raid, The Somme Battlefields (with Mary Middlebrook), The Nuremberg Raid 30-21st March 1944 and Arnhem 1944 (all republished and in print with Pen and Sword). Martin Middlebrook is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and lives near Stroud, Gloucestershire."

The Great Book Of Modern Warplanes


Bill Gunston - 1988
    The majority of the aircraft featured have been battle-tested in the skies over Iraq and the Balkans. The remainder are either currently being flight-tested or are ready for production.

Marines In World War II - The Seizure Of Tinian [Illustrated Edition]


Carl W. Hoffman - 1988
    Many of the assaults turned into brutal bloody encounters, marred often by a lack of experience in these difficult operations against extensive prepared positions; Tinian proved to be the most successful of all of the seaborne operations of the Pacific War.Contains 66 photos and 13 maps and charts.“TINIAN is a small island. In 1944 it was held by only 9,000 Japanese. Yet it was so well defended by nature against an amphibious operation that it might have proved a formidable and costly barrier to the final conquest of the Marianas. It had only one beach area suitable-by previous standards-for a major amphibious landing and that beach was heavily mined and skillfully defended.“The enemy, although long alerted to our intentions to attack Tinian, was tactically surprised when we avoided his prepared defenses and landed on two small beaches totalling in width only about 220 yards. Before he could recover from the shock, he was out-numbered and out-equipped on his own island. His subsequent effort to throw us into the water resulted in complete failure. We then pushed the length of the island in nine days, while suffering casualties light in comparison with those of most other island conquests.“As a participant in the operation, I naturally take pride in this achievement, as well as in Admiral Raymond A. Spruance’s evaluation: "In my opinion, the Tinian operation was probably the most brilliantly conceived and executed amphibious operation in World War II."”-C. B. CATES, GENERAL, U. S. MARINE CORPS, COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS

Rescuers


Leroy Thompson - 1988
    And that's where hostage rescue units (HRUs) come in. The FIRST and ONLY book on HRUs, The Rescuers covers the training, ops, weapons and equipment of 50+ units. Five classic rescues bring to life a unit's anti-terrorist tactics.

Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A Memoir


H. Robert Charles - 1988
    Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.

From the Ground Up: The Autobiography of an Aeronautical Engineer


Fred E. Weick - 1988
    Wick. His efforts to improve flight performance and safety have led to major design advances since the 1920's.

The Starwolves


Thorarinn Gunnarsson - 1988
    A genetically engineered race designed to help the republic survive. They have been fighting for over 50000 years and have never acheived anything but a stalemate. But the time has come. The union (The starwolves long time enemies) Have realized that humanity is on the decline and that they must make their last stand. They are fighting for the survival of their species. Which race will have what it takes to survive" and "Space opera like no other. This , along with the series to follow, was written in such a distinctive style that my friends and I sometimes refer to clever science fiction as "starwolfish." It begins fifty thousand years into a hopelessly stalemated conflict. The hero is a Starwolf, a nearly-human genetically engineered warrior. These fighters were designed millennia ago to defend Earth and nearby worlds from the oppressive Union, a corrupt collection of trade monopolies. Armed with their wits and a terribly outnumbered fleet of intelligent war, the Starwolves must keep the outer worlds of human civilization from the Union's grip. They are so bound by this cause that they cannot create their own culture, art, and civilization. The hero wants to change that, and give his people a future worth all the bloodshed. Remarkably, his counterparts in the Union are not your classic 'pure evil' cliched space opera villains. They are trying to save the beleaguered human race by giving it a common enemy, uniting to destroy the Starwolves. It is a titanic struggle, and the story is told with wit and humanity. A nice break from all the 'good guy versus bad guy' space opera stories.

Gaston's War: A True Story of a Hero of the Resistance in World War II


Allan Mayer - 1988
    

Modern Submarine Warfare


David Miller - 1988
    Major classes of submarines currently in service are explored. Over 300 color photos.

Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia


M.J. Whitley - 1988
    This study is the first to comprehensively detail in one volume all the destroyers built between 1939 and 1945 by the navies of the world.

The British Assault on Finland, 1854-1855: A Forgotten Naval War


Basil Greenhill - 1988
    

The World's Great Attack Aircraft


Roy Wilkinson - 1988
    It gives a brief overview of each aircraft along with ordnance loads, unit markings, fold-out poster, specifications, cutaway diagrams and graph comparisons with other similar aircraft of flight performance.

Military Effectiveness


Allan Reed Millett - 1988
    

Pine Gap: Australia And The Us Geostationary Signals Intelligence Satellite Program


Desmond Ball - 1988
    

The Battle of the Somme: A Topographical History


Gerald Gliddon - 1988
    A compendium of the battle from June to November 1916, it details events at every town, village and wood associated with the battle. Set out topographically, it covers everything from the famous battle sites such as High Wood and Mametz Wood to obscure villages on the outlying flanks.The author draws on the testimony of those who took part to present all aspects of what was to become a symbol of the horrors of the Great War, a battle that resulted in over a million casualties.As John Terraine commented when reviewing the first edition, ‘What gives this book its special quality is the commentary, the collation of references to people, to units or to literature associated with each one of these localities.’ In addition to its unique topographical survey, it includes a chronology of events, a section on the role of the Royal Flying Corps, a bibliography, an appendix giving the orders of battle and an index to formations and units.This book (originally published as When the Barrage Lifts) has proved a necessary addition to the library of any student of the First World War and an essential handbook for the increasing number of visitors to the battlefield. It is the indispensable guide to the Battle of the Somme.

Ice Island


Irving A. Greenfield - 1988
    On board is a defecting Soviet bio-geneticist carrying a deadly formula that could bring about world-wide devastation, and Admiral Jack Boxer and his crew aboard an experimental submarine begin a desperate race to retrieve him.

Armada: A Celebration Of The Four Hundredth Anniversary Of The Defeat Of The Spanish Armada, 1588 1988


Peter Padfield - 1988
    9 1/4" x 12". Color & b&w photos, illus.