It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange’s bestselling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement. Unlike previous accounts, Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida’s Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, an uncritical reliance upon which has tainted every previous Western account. It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle. Parshall and Tully examine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy’s doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading World War II naval historian John Lundstrom, Shattered Sword is an indispensable part of any military buff’s library.Shattered Sword is the winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and was cited by Proceedings as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.

      In 1970, on his second tour to Vietnam, Nick Brokhausen served in Recon Team Habu, CCN. Officially, it was known as the Studies and Observations group. In fact, this Special Forces squad, which Brokhausen calls “an unwashed, profane, ribald, joyously alive fraternity,” undertook some of the most dangerous and suicidal reconnaissance missions ever in the enemy-controlled territory of Cambodia and Laos. But they didn’t infiltrate the jungles alone. They fought alongside the Montagnards—oppressed minorities from the mountain highlands, trained by the US military in guerilla tactics, armed, accustomed to the wild, and fully engaged in a war against the North Vietnamese. Together this small unit formed the backbone of ground reconnaissance in the Republic of Vietnam, racking up medals for valor—but at a terrible cost.   “In colorful, military-jargon-laced prose leavened by gallows humor, Brokhausen pulls few punches describing what it was like to navigate remote jungle terrain under the constant threat of enemy fire. A smartly written, insider’s view of one rarely seen Vietnam War battleground.” —Booklist

    They were Easy Company, 101st Army Airborne--the World War II fighting unit legendary for their bravery against nearly insurmountable odds and their loyalty to one another in the face of death. Every soldier in this band of brothers looked to one man for leadership, devotion to duty, and the embodiment of courage: Major Dick Winters.This is the riveting story of an ordinary man who became an extraordinary hero. After he enlisted in the army's arduous new Airborne division, Winters's natural combat leadership helped him rise through the ranks, but he was never far from his men. Decades later, Stephen E. Ambrose's Band of Brothers made him famous around the world.Full of never-before-published photographs, interviews, and Winters's candid insights, Biggest Brother is the fascinating, inspirational story of a man who became a soldier, a leader, and a living testament to the valor of the human spirit--and of America.

    In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the man’s fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there account–based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research–journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as...ROBERTS RIDGEFor an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anaconda–a hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan –the taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkers–and when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Roberts’s fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him out–no matter what the cost.Drawing on the words of the men who were there–SEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilots–this harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at the highest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of America’s high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.

    Solitary and solemn, it is the table where no one will ever sit.As a special gift to her Uncle John, Katie and her sisters are asked to help set the white table for dinner. As their mother explains the significance of each item placed on the table Katie comes to understand and appreciate the depth of sacrifice that her uncle, and each member of the Armed Forces and their families, may be called to give. "It was just a little white table...but it felt as big as America when we helped Mama put each item on it and she told us why it was so important."We use a Small Table, girls," she explained first, "to show one soldier's lonely battle against many. We cover it with a White Cloth to honor a soldier's pure heart when he answers his country's call to duty.""We place a Lemon Slice and Grains of Salt on a plate to show a captive soldier's bitter fate and the tears of families waiting for loved ones to return," she continued."We push an Empty Chair to the table for the missing soldiers who are not here...""Margot Theis Raven has been a professional writer working in the fields of radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and children's books for 30 years. Margot's first children's book, "Angels in the Dust," won five national awards, including an IRATeacher's Choice Award. Her first book with Sleeping Bear Press, "Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot," was the runner-up for the 2004 Texas Bluebonnet Award. She lives with her family in Charleston, South Carolina.Mike Benny's illustrations have appearedin" Time, GQ, New Yorker" and "Sports Illustrated"Magazines. He has also been awarded two Gold Medals from the Society of Illustrators. This is Mike's first children's book. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Mary Ann and daughter Adele.

    Peleliu was the setting for one of the most savage struggles of modern times, a true killing ground that has been all but forgotten—until now. Drawing on interviews with Peleliu veterans, Bill Sloan's gripping narrative seamlessly weaves together the experiences of the men who were there, producing a vivid and unflinching tableau of the twenty-four-hour-a-day nightmare of Peleliu. Emotionally moving and gripping in its depictions of combat, Brotherhood of Heroes rescues the Corps's bloodiest battle from obscurity and does honor to the Marines who fought it.

    From the lean days of Depression-era Texas to the thrill of being one of the few who flew Spitfires, from a death-defying crash landing in Occupied France to capture and torture by the Gestapo, imprisonment in the Great Escape camp, Stalag Luft III, and years spent becoming a serial escape artist, this is the wartime memoir of a true hero, a real-life Cooler King. Recounted in a wonderfully honest and self-deprecating voice, William Ashs Under the Wire is a classic in the makinga riveting story of bravery by one of the last of his generation. QUOTES Ashs book is full of such wit, and held together with the sort of wry adventure story that begs to be immortalized on film as a cross between Tom Jones and The Great Escape. Metro News Toronto (4 of 5 stars) [A] remarkable story. Toronto Star

    Liverpool 1920s: Michael Quinn the cobbler returns home after the First World War forever changed by his experiences on the front line. He moves his family from their comfortable home to live over a shop in Liverpool's notorious Scotland Road. Though admired and liked by his customers, behind closed doors he rules his family with a fist of steel. Fourteen-year-old Vera Quinn longs for a life of her own. But when their mother dies, she must keep house for her father Michael and her brothers, Eddy and young Benny. So begins a life of hardship, until an unexpected series of events leads Vera to discover she is far stronger than she could have ever known…

    One of these is Jason Dunham, a twenty-two-year-old Marine corporal from the one-stoplight town of Scio, New York, whose stunning story reporter Michael M. Phillips discovered while he was embedded with a Marine infantry battalion in the Iraqi desert. Corporal Dunham was on patrol near the Syrian border, on April 14, 2004, when a black-clad Iraqi leaped out of a car and grabbed him around his neck. Fighting hand-to-hand in the dirt, Dunham saw his attacker drop a grenade and made the instantaneous decision to place his own helmet over the explosive in the hope of containing the blast and protecting his men. When the smoke cleared, Dunham’s helmet was in shreds, and the corporal lay face down in his own blood. The Marines beside him were seriously wounded. Dunham was subsequently nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for military valor.Phillips’s minute-by-minute chronicle of the chaotic fighting that raged throughout the area and culminated in Dunham’s injury provides a grunt’s-eye view of war as it’s being fought today—fear, confusion, bravery, and suffering set against a brotherhood forged in combat. His account of Dunham’s eight-day journey home and of his parents’ heartrending reunion with their son powerfully illustrates the cold brutality of war and the fragile humanity of those who fight it. Dunham leaves an indelible mark upon all who know his story, from the doctors and nurses who treat him, to the readers of the original Wall Street Journal article that told of his singular act of valor.

    Tall, Dark and Dangerous by Suzanne Brockmann released on Nov 29, 2005 is available now for purchase.

    A soldier swears an oath to uphold the constitution and protect our country, while a soldier's spouse takes the unwritten oath to a life of constant moves, lengthy separations and endless anxieties

    With well-crafted prose that puts you into the Phantom's cockpit, Cobleigh vividly recounts the unexplainable loss of his wingman, the useless missions he flew, the need to trust his reflexes, eyesight, and aggressiveness, and his survival instincts in the heat of combat. He discusses the deaths of his squadron mates and the contradictions of a dirty, semi-secret war fought from beautiful, exotic Thailand. This is an unprecedented look into the state of mind of a pilot as he experiences everything from the carnage of a crash to the joy of flying through a star-studded night sky, from the illogical political agendas of Washington to his own dangerous addiction to risk. Cobleigh gives a stirring and emotional description of one man's journey into airborne hell and back, recounting the pleasures and the pain. the wins and the losses. and ultimately, the return.

    But nothing offered more fatal choices than being inside a B-17 bomber above Nazi-occupied Europe. From the hellish storms of enemy flak and relentless strafing of Luftwaffe fighters, to mid-air collisions, mechanical failure, and simple bad luck, it?s a wonder any man would volunteer for such dangerous duty. But many did. Some paid the ultimate price. And some made it home. But in the end, all would achieve victory. Here, author Travis L. Ayres has gathered a collection of previously untold personal accounts of combat and camaraderie aboard the B-17 Bombers that flew countless sorties against the enemy, as related by the men who lived and fought in the air?and survived.

    is rebuilding its fleet while the badly damaged Submarine Division Seven holds the line against the Japanese Navy. The loss of even one more submarine could be devastating--and every enemy ship that slips through means more lives lost. But Lieutenant Commander Jack Tremain is determined to whip into shape a boat that's returned from a hellish patrol and make the Japanese pay--even if this is his last mission ever.

    Nathaniel Fick’s career begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, after his junior year at Dartmouth. He leads a platoon in Afghanistan just after 9/11 and advances to the pinnacle—Recon— two years later, on the eve of war with Iraq. His vast skill set puts him in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadliest conflict since Vietnam. He vows to bring all his men home safely, and to do so he’ll need more than his top-flight education. Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between military ideals and military practice, which can mock those ideals.In this deeply thoughtful account of what it’s like to fight on today’s front lines, Fick reveals the crushing pressure on young leaders in combat. Split-second decisions might have national consequences or horrible immediate repercussions, but hesitation isn’t an option. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an inspiring account of mastering the art of war.

    Such vets typically can’t hold jobs. They are incapable of intimacy, creative work, and self-realization. Some can’t leave the house because they are afraid they will kill or be killed. The key to healing, says psychotherapist Ed Tick, is in how we understand PTSD. In war’s overwhelming violence, the soul—the true self—flees and can become lost for life. He redefines PTSD as a true identity disorder, with radical implications for therapy. First, Tick establishes the traditional context of war in mythology and religion. Then he describes in depth PTSD in terms of identity issues. Finally, drawing on world spiritual traditions, he presents ways to nurture a positive identity based in compassion and forgiveness. War and the Soul will change the way we think about war, for veterans and for all those who love and want to help them. It shows how to make the wounded soul whole again. When this work is achieved, PTSD vanishes and the veteran can truly return home.

    Volume 1 also features an introduction by Gene Wolfe and an original Slammers story, “A Death in Peacetime.”Contents:* Introduction by Gene Wolfe* Foreword: Becoming a Professional Writer by Way of Southeast Asia* Under the Hammer* Supertanks* The Butcher’s Bill* The Church of the Lord’s Universe* But Loyal to His Own* Powerguns* Caught in the Crossfire* Backdrop to Chaos* Cultural Conflict* The Bonding Authority* Hangman* Table of Organization and Equipment, Hammer’s Regiment* Standing Down* Code-Name Feirefitz* The Interrogation Team* The Tank Lords* Liberty Port* Night March* The Immovable Object* The Irresistible Force* A Death in Peacetime* Afterword: Accidentally and by the Back Door

    After the last shot was fired and the troops marched home, approximately three million soldiers remained unaccounted for. An unassuming English chaplain first proposed a symbolic burial in memory of all the missing dead; subsequently the idea was picked up by almost every combatant country. Acclaimed author Neil Hanson focuses on the lives of three soldiers — an Englishman, a German, and an American — using their diaries and letters to offer an unflinching yet compassionate account of the front lines. He describes how each man endured nearly unbearable conditions, skillfully showing how the Western world arrived at the now time-honored way of mourning and paying tribute to all those who die in war.

     Night Catch is a timeless story that connects families while they are apart and offers comforting hope for their reunion.

    The West Side Boys were a strange-looking bunch, wearing pink shades, shower caps, fluorescent wigs and voodoo charms they believed made them invulnerable to bullets - an impression re-enforced by ganja, heroine, crack cocaine and gallons of sweet palm wine. In 1999 a twelve man patrol of Royal Irish Rangers, who were training government troops in Sierra Leone, were captured and held hostage by the West Side Boys. They were held prisoner in a fortified jungle hideaway, with severed heads decorating the palisades, defended by some 400 heavily armed soldiers. Operation Barras, the rescue mission, was a combined force of 100 Paras, twelve members of the Special Boat Squadron, helicopters from the Navy and RAF and, spearheading the operation, 40-strong D squadron of the SAS. Against amazing odds the hostages were rescued - over 150 of the enemy were killed. Operation Certain Death is a thrilling true story of all out war. No hostages taken. Blood-letting on a vast scale inflicted on a very blood-thirsty enemy. A gripping piece of true military history, perfect for fans of action adventure stories and anyone interested in the top secret division of the British Army.

    Halliday's combat memoir begins in 1970, when Halliday has just landed in the middle of the Vietnam War, primed to begin his assignment with the 606th Special Operations Squadron. But there's a catch: He's stationed in a kind of no-man's-land. No one on his base flies with ID, patches, or rank. Even as Richard Nixon firmly denies reporters' charges that the United States has forces in Laos, Halliday realizes that from his base in Thailand, he will be flying top-secret, black-ops night missions over the Laotian Ho Chi Minh Trail. A naive yet thoughtful twenty-four-year-old, Halliday was utterly unprepared for the horrors of war. On his first mission, Halliday's C-123 aircraft dodges more than a thousand antiaircraft shells, and that is just the beginning. Nothing is as he expected -- not the operations, not the way his shell-shocked fellow pilots look and act, and certainly not the squadron's daredevil, seat-of-one's-pants approach to piloting. But before long, Halliday has become one of those seasoned and shell-shocked pilots, and finds himself in a desperate search for a way to elude certain death.Using frank, true-to-life dialogue, potent imagery, and classic 1970s song lyrics, Halliday deftly describes the fraught Laotian skies and re-creates his struggle to navigate the frustrating Air Force bureaucracy, the deprivations of a remote base far from home and his young wife, and his fight to preserve his sanity. The resulting nonfiction narrative vividly captures not only the intricate, distorted culture of war but also the essence of the Vietnam veteran's experience of this troubled era.A powerhouse fusion of pathos and humor, brutal realism and intimate reflection, "Flying Through Midnight" is a landmark contribution to war literature, revealing previously top-secret intelligence on the 606th's night missions. Fast-paced, thrilling, and bitingly intelligent, Halliday illuminates it all: the heart-pounding air battles, the close friendships, the crippling fear, and the astonishing final escape that made the telling of it possible.

    . .Nam-Sense is the brilliantly written story of a combat squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division. Arthur Wiknik was a 19-year-old kid from New England when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968. After completing various NCO training programs, he was promoted to sergeant "without ever setting foot in a combat zone" and sent to Vietnam in early 1969. Shortly after his arrival on the far side of the world, Wiknik was assigned to Camp Evans, a mixed-unit base camp near the northern village of Phong Dien, only thirty miles from Laos and North Vietnam. On his first jungle patrol, his squad killed a female Viet Cong who turned out to have been the local prostitute. It was the first dead person he had ever seen.Wiknik's account of life and death in Vietnam includes everything from heavy combat to faking insanity to get some R & R. He was the first man in his unit to reach the top of Hamburger Hill during one of the last offensives launched by U.S. forces, and later discovered a weapons cache that prevented an attack on his advance fire support base. Between the sporadic episodes of combat he mingled with the locals, tricked unwitting U.S. suppliers into providing his platoon with a year of hard to get food, defied a superior and was punished with a dangerous mission, and struggled with himself and his fellow soldiers as the anti-war movement began to affect his ability to wage victorious war.Nam-Sense offers a perfect blend of candor, sarcasm, and humor - and it spares nothing and no one in its attempt to accurately convey what really transpired for the combat soldier during this unpopular war. Nam-Sense is not about heroism or glory, mental breakdowns, haunting flashbacks, or wallowing in self-pity. The GIs Wiknik lived and fought with during his yearlong tour did not rape, murder, or burn villages, were not strung out on drugs, and did not enjoy killing. They were there to do their duty as they were trained, support their comrades - and get home alive. "The soldiers I knew," explains the author, "demonstrated courage, principle, kindness, and friendship, all the elements found in other wars Americans have proudly fought in."Wiknik has produced a gripping and complete record of life and death in Vietnam, and he has done so with a style and flair few others will ever achieve.

    Over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions flew into Afghanistan's Shahikot valley - and into the mouth of a buzz-saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, higher-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight.After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Coalition forces quickly toppled the Taliban regime from the seat of government. But, believing the war to be all but over, the Pentagon and US Central Command refused to commit the forces required to achieve total victory in Afghanistan. Instead, they delegated responsibility for fighting the war's biggest battle to a tangle of untested units thrown together at the last moment.Then the world watched as Anaconda seemed to unravel.Denied the extra infantry, artillery and close air support with which they trained to go to war, the soldiers of this airborne assault fought for survival in brutal high-altitude combat. Backed up by a small, but crucial, team of special forces, they were all that stood between the Coalition and a military disaster.

    It provides accounts of leadership successes and failures under the most severe conditions.

    Avery Chenoweth, this tribute to the U.S. Marines shines with all the pride of the Marines themselves.Salute the few, the proud, the Marines. From their founding in 1794 to their most recent actions--including the second battle of Falluja--the entire history of the U.S. Marine Corps comes vividly to life in these lushly illustrated pages. Pore through the comprehensive images of nearly every Marine hero, uniform style, sidearm, saber, weapons platform, recruiting poster, plane, helicopter, boat, and mess kit. Many of the photos were shot recently right at the Historical Center at Quantico, Virginia, and they include rare and never-before-seen artifacts from the Marines' long history. Colonel H. Avery Chenoweth provides fascinating background information and context to compliment the visual journey.

    Robert Citino takes us on a dramatic march through Prussian and German military history to show how that primal theme played out time and time again. Citino focuses on operational warfare to demonstrate continuity in German military campaigns from the time of Elector Frederick Wilhelm and his great sleigh-drive against the Swedes to the age of Adolf Hitler and the blitzkrieg to the gates of Moscow. Along the way, he underscores the role played by the Prussian army in elevating a small, vulnerable state to the ranks of the European powers, describes how nineteenth-century victories over Austria and France made the German army the most respected in Europe, and reviews the lessons learned from the trenches of World War I.

    Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland in early September 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan moved his reorganized and revitalized Army of the Potomac to meet him. The campaign included some of the bloodiest, most dramatic, and influential combat of the entire Civil War. Combined with Southern failures in the Western Theater, the fighting dashed the Confederacy's best hope for independence, convinced President Abraham Lincoln to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, and left America with what is still its bloodiest day in history.One of the campaign's participants was Ezra A. Carman, the colonel of the 13th New Jersey Infantry. Wounded earlier in the war, Carman would achieve brigade command and fight in more than twenty battles before being mustered out as a brevet brigadier general. After the horrific fighting of September 17, 1862, he recorded in his diary that he was preparing "a good map of the Antietam battle and a full account of the action." Unbeknownst to the young officer, the project would become the most significant work of his life.Appointed as the "Historical Expert" to the Antietam Battlefield Board in 1894, Carman and the other members solicited accounts from hundreds of veterans, scoured through thousands of letters and maps, and assimilated the material into the hundreds of cast iron tablets that still mark the field today. Carman also wrote an 1,800-page manuscript on the campaign, from its start in northern Virginia through McClellan's removal from command in November 1862. Although it remained unpublished for more than a century, many historians and students of the war consider it to be the best overall treatment of the campaign ever written.Dr. Thomas G. Clemens (editor), recognized internationally as one of the foremost historians of the Maryland Campaign, has spent more than two decades studying Antietam and editing and richly annotating Carman's exhaustively written manuscript. The result is 'The Maryland Campaign of September 1862', Carman's magisterial account published for the first time in two volumes. Jammed with firsthand accounts, personal anecdotes, maps, photos, a biographical dictionary, and a database of veterans' accounts of the fighting, this long-awaited study will be read and appreciated as battle history at its finest.About the Authors: Ezra Ayres Carman was born in Oak Tree, New Jersey, on February 27, 1834, and educated at Western Military Academy in Kentucky. He fought with New Jersey organizations throughout the Civil War, mustering out as a brevet brigadier general. He was appointed to the Antietam National Cemetery Board of Trustees and later to the Antietam Battlefield Board in 1894. Carman also served on the Chattanooga-Chickamauga Battlefield Commission. He died in 1909 on Christmas day and was buried just below the Custis-Lee mansion in Arlington Cemetery.Thomas G. Clemens earned his doctoral degree at George Mason University, where he studied under Maryland Campaign historian Dr. Joseph L. Harsh. Tom has published a wide variety of magazine articles and book reviews, has appeared in several documentary programs, and is a licensed tour guide at Antietam National Battlefield. An instructor at Hagerstown Community College, he also helped found and is the current president of Save Historic Antietam Foundation, Inc., a preservation group dedicated to saving historic properties. REVIEWS "Ezra Carman's long-unpublished history of the 1862 Maryland Campaign is an essential source on the operations that produced the bloodiest day in American military history and largest surrender of U.S. troops before World War II and there is no one better qualified than Thomas Clemens to bring it to print. Not only does this volume make Carman's study broadly accessible to students of the war, but Clemens's many years studying the events of September 1862 and unmatched knowledge of Carman and his work enable him to skillfully and authoritatively explain and scrutinize Carman's take on events. In addition to being a magnificent contribution to literature on the Civil War, this outstanding book will also advance the process of securing Clemens a place alongside Carman and Harsh in the pantheon of Maryland Campaign scholars. I cannot recommend it highly enough." -- Ethan S. Rafuse, author of McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union and Antietam, South Mountain, and Harpers Ferry: A Battlefield GuideFrom reading the manuscript and Clemens's expert editing, one easily sees why modern Antietam scholars lean heavily upon Carman's pioneering work. One wishes all Civil War battlefields had been likewise gifted with such a worthy and dedicated veteran sponsor. Soon, with the completion of the pair of volumes comprising The Maryland Campaign of 1862, all readers will have easy and affordable access to a classic of Civil War historiography, as well as a mammoth editorial project of significant scholarship in its own right.Civil War Books And Authors, 06/2010

    

    He arrived in Vietnam in 1964 and volunteered to join the worlds first attack helicopter company. The Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company (UTT) had deployed to Vietnam in 1962. It came equipped with the U.S. Armys brand new UH-1 Huey, a helicopter originally designed as an aerial ambulance. The crews, not happy with a passive combat role, began experimenting with ways to strap guns on their aircraft and attack the enemy. Through a deadly process of trial and error the pilots pushed their machines to the edge. Mistakes were made, crews were lost and lessons were learned. These lessons evolved into combat tactics and became fondly known as the 12 Cardinal Rules of Attack Helicopter Combat. Upon joining the unit the author learned about the rules. He studied them and on his first day in combat, developed his own 13th rule. Over his ensuing three years in Vietnam, the rules, especially the 13th, helped him survive over one thousand combat missions. This book provides the reader with a cockpit level view of dozens of those missions and describes several additional near disaster situations encountered by the author during over 25 years flying Army Aircraft. The author is successful in striking a balance between the grim realities of combat and the often humorous aspects of life among a group of high spirited aviators who fly into the jaws of death daily without a parachute on their back. He suggests that the 13 rules, although developed during a different war and at a different time, are applicable to armed helicopter combat operations in the 21st Century. The book contains about 200 pages and is nicely illustrated with 50 photographs.

    Griffin is a novelist. The name is one of eight pseudonyms of William E. Butterworth, who was born on November 10, 1929 in Newark, New Jersey.Butterworth enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in 1946 and underwent counterintelligence training at Fort Holabird. After assignment to the Army of Occupation in Germany where he served on the staff of the Commander of the U.S. Constabulary, Major General I.D. White, Butterworth left the service in 1947, but rejoined and again served with White from 1951 to 1953 in Korea. After leaving the service for the second time, Butterworth remained in Korea as a combat correspondent. He was later appointed chief of the publications division of the Signal Aviation Test and Support Activity at the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama.At first, Butterworth wrote fiction for young adults. He has written more than 125 books, many of them military thrillers or police dramas. Butterworth received the Alabama Author's Award in 1982 from the Alabama Library Association.

    From the time of the Civil War to present day conflicts, countless soldiers have recorded thousands of stories of miraculous interventions. This Psalm, and its 16 short verses, carry promise of protection from every evil known to man. This book explains the covenant of protection promised in Psalm 91 specifically for military personnel and their families!

    Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like No Other. Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic poleis of Athens & Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in the collapse of Athens & the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrote the standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has given readers throughout the ages a vivid & authoritative narrative. But Hanson offers something new: a complete chronological account that reflects the political background of the time, the strategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle in multifaceted theaters & insight into how these events echo in the present. He compellingly portrays the ways Athens & Sparta fought on land & sea, in city & countryside, & details their employment of the full scope of conventional & nonconventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture & terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles & Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, & thinkers including Sophocles & Plato. Hanson’s perceptive analysis of events & personalities raises many thought-provoking questions: Were Athens & Sparta like America & Russia, two superpowers battling to the death? Is the Peloponnesian War echoed in the endless, frustrating conflicts of Vietnam, Northern Ireland & the current Middle East? Or was it more like America’s own Civil War, a brutal rift that rent the fabric of a glorious society, or even this century’s “red state—blue state” schism between liberals & conservatives, a cultural war that manifestly controls military policies? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life & unearths the often surprising ways in which the past informs the present. Brilliantly researched, dynamically written, A War Like No Other is like no other history of this important war.

    This book brings together first-hand accounts of the lead-up to battle, the horrors of the conflict and its aftermath. It is a story told through the letters, diaries and naval documents many previously unpublished of the people who witnessed it, from Nelson and his officers to the crews from both sides. They show sad farewells between sailors and their loved-ones; the pursuit of the French navy; the tension of waiting as the fateful day dawns; carnage and chaos in the heat of the battle as guns fire from all sides; and Nelson's agonizing death on the Victory after being hit by a musket ball. Vivid, exciting and moving, this graphic recreation tells the very human story behind these historic events.

    Bob Mayer argues that for most, the one most common obstacle standing in the way is fear. Who Dares Wins shares the time-tested techniques of the Special Forces, proven elite warriors trained to conquer fear, dare to be different, and accomplish what others consider impossible. Mayer outlines specific steps for discovering what is holding you back and offers hands-on exercises for increasing motivation to reach those goals. Bringing his unique blend of practical Special Operations Strategies and Tactics mixed with the vision of an artist, Mayer helps readers get to know themselves, identify blind spots, and overcome fear to achieve success. "Bob Mayer gives us a unique and valuable window into the shadowy world of our country’s elite fighting forces and how you can apply many of the concepts and strategies they use for success in your own life and organization." —Jack Canfield, creator of the Chicken Soup book series

    was the Novice Director, then Mother Prioress of the Cologne Carmel when Edith Stein lived there. This is Posselt’s tribute to Saint Edith Stein, a wreath of recollections, lovingly woven together. It is also the first-ever biography published about that “Great Woman of the Twentieth Century.”Having been out of print for half a century, the original text is here re-edited and enhanced by scholarly perspectives and updated and corrected in the light of knowledge which was not available to the author at the time.Enriched by a broader range of contemporary literature about the philosopher, educator, spiritual writer, and victim of the catastrophe that engulfed her as part of her Jewish people, this new presentation of the biography everyone cites so frequently brings the reader closer to the real Edith Stein.The editors have avoided weighing down this engaging life story with intrusive scholarly notes and commentaries. Instead they have relegated such material to a separate section of “Gleanings.” This gives the reader the option of enjoying the biography unencumbered by supplementary matter or delving into the Gleanings when desired.The three editors/translators are close to the Stein family as well as to her Carmelite family which she entered in 1933. Susanne Batzdorff is Edith Stein’s niece, who has known her in person. Josephine Koeppel and John Sullivan are both Carmelites who have occupied themselves with the life and work of the saint and have talked with several Carmelite religious who lived with Edith Stein. Complementing their notes and comments that deepen theknowledge of the famous phenomenologist and Carmelite is an insightful “Foreword” contributed by Sr. Amata Neyer, O.C.D., who knew Posselt personally. She has served as prioress of the Cologne Carmel and as archivist for its Edith Stein Archive.

    Unlike traditional biographies of combat leaders which focus primarily on military operations or regimental histories, the author concentrates on personal accounts, anecdotes and reminiscences in order to highlight these leaders` personalities, and to draw out the human face behind the military facade. The author argues that written records tend to glorify the actions of battalions as well as individuals, magnifying achievements while suppressing the mistakes and glossing over failures. This book, on the other hand, provides a truer picture of the strength of character and convictions of each of these leaders. The book throws new light on many historical events and the role of political leaders during India`s fight for independence and the partitioning of the subcontinent. The author gives an overview of India`s military history after independence, including major operations such as the wars with China in 1962, and with Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1971. He describes many hitherto unknown or little known facts and incidents concerning smaller operations like Nathu La in 1967 and Goa in 1962.

    Told as fiction, it is a compilation of the stories the author heard from her father and interviews with veterans who fought at Iwo Jima. She takes the characters from pre-war days through the war to the present. She successfully captures the horror of young boys sent to war and caught in a hellish battle.

    In Colossus Reborn he recounts the miraculous resurrection of the Red Army, which, with a dazzling display of military strategy and operational prowess, stopped the Wehrmacht in its tracks and turned the tide of war.A major achievement in the recovery and preservation of an entire nation's military experience, Colossus Reborn is marked by Glantz's unrivaled access to and use of Soviet archival sources. This allows him to illuminate not only Russian victories in the Battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk, but also to rescue a host of major forgotten battles, many of which had been suppressed to preserve reputations and national pride. As he reveals in unprecedented detail, disastrous defeats vied with resounding victories throughout the early years of the conflict, as the Red Army struggled to find itself in the Great Patriotic War.Beyond the battles themselves, Glantz also presents an in-depth portrait of the Red Army as an evolving military institution. Assessing more clearly than ever before the army's size, strength, and force structure, he provides keen insights into its doctrine, strategy, tactics, weaponry, training, officer corps, and political leadership. In the process, he puts a human face on the Red Army's commanders and soldiers, including women and those who served in units--security (NKVD), engineer, railroad, auto-transport, construction, and penal forces--that have till now remained poorly understood.The world's top authority on the Soviet military, Glantz has produced a remarkable study that adds immeasurably to our understanding of the one part of World War II that's still struggling to emerge from the shadows of history.

    This firsthand account by his granddaughter reveals an extraordinary individual—a scientist with a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from MIT, an aviation pioneer who was the first to fly across the United States in less than 24 hours and the first to fly “blind” (using only his plane’s instruments), a barnstormer well known for aerobatics, a popular racing pilot who won every major air race at least once, recipient of both the Congressional Medal of Honor and Presidential Medal of Freedom, a four-star general, and commander of both the 8th, 12th and 15th Air Forces. This memoir provides insights into the public and private world of Jimmy Doolittle and his family and sheds light on the drives and motivation of one of America's most influential and ambitious aviators.

    But there was one bit of classified information the military hadn't shared with her--their trainer, tough-as-nails Lieutenant Colonel Jake Scatalone, was under orders to prove women had no place in Special Forces. No matter how well Vanessa and her team performed, they would fail.Then Scatalone disappeared on a crucial mission in hostile territory. And Vanessa made the military a deal it couldn't refuse: send in the Medusas. If they succeeded, they would become an official team. If they died, no one would ever have to know....

    Negotiating the flier's release is the President's shadowy, power-hungry special envoy, Rick Solares. Though the pilot is set free, Brick suspects there is more to the arrangement than meets the eye. And when the woman he loves falls victim to the terrorists, his devotion to duty turns into a desire for vengeance. With the help of his Roadrunner squadron, Maxwell will risk everything to make the enemy pay...

    (jg) Everett Alvarez was flying a retaliatory air strike against naval targets in North Vietnam, antiaircraft fire crippled his A-4 fighter-bomber, forcing him to eject over water at low altitude. Alvarez relates the engrossing tale of his capture by fishermen, brutal treatment by the North Vietnamese, physical and mental endurance, and triumphant repatriation nearly nine years later in 1973.Alvarez spent more time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam than any other flier. As Senator John McCain, a fellow POW, has written, “During his captivity, Ev exhibited a courage, compassion, and indomitable will that was an inspiration to us all.” Indeed, the book, which was written with Anthony S. Pitch, is remarkable for its lack of rancor. Alvarez directs his strongest words against the small number of POWs who broke ranks and collaborated with the enemy. As one reviewer wrote, Alvarez “relates the misery of his condition with a detachment that robs it of its shock value.” Chained Eagle also tells the story of the Alvarez family’s ordeal during his years of imprisonment: His sister became an anitwar activist, his wife divorced him, and relatives died. Yet throughout his time as a prisoner of war, Alvarez remained duty-bound and held steadfast to his religious faith and the values enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

    Even David Stirling, founder of the regiment, contributed to the project—most historians believe he died without giving a single interview. It is also a very human story of a gang of misfits coming together to create a unit like no other: a maverick son of a Scottish laird; a boy who lied about his age to enlist; a policeman; a cheeky cockney; a Lincolnshire boxer; an Irish rugby international imprisoned for beating up his commanding officer; and, an Oxford rowing president and a quietly spoken man of God. The Originals covers the regiment's formation in 1941 to its supposed disbanding in 1945. With only two founding members alive today, it is not only an important document but a thrilling and moving read that will leave you reeling.

    Now, Always a Marine covers the author's struggle to leave that lifestyle behind following his departure from the service. Back on civvy street for the first time in over 7 years, Preece finds it extremely difficult to adapt, and struggles to shake off the belligerent mentality he developed while in the Marines, and succeed in work and family life. Always a Marine is the action-packed, often shocking account of one ex-Marine's 13-year struggle to control the aggression he learned as a serviceman in order to become a respectable citizen.

    An elite combat chopper pilot, Autry has been tested under fire and always come out on top. But his new assigment might change all that. He's been tasked to lead a new unit of the elite Night Stalkers, a unit that can outfly the rest of the pilots in SOAR (Special Operations Air Regiment), outshoot the best gunners in the SEALs or Deltas, and operate as indepdently as the most lawless gureillas. The results: an experimental unit expected to fail: the X–Battalion. It won't be easy. The pilots he has at his command are the craziest, most dangerous, most unpredictable men in the military, men capable of thinking beyond rules and regulations, but men equally capable of breaking them. Autry will need every one of them if they are to survive their first mission. North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung had procurred a weapon of apocalyptic destruction, and all intelligence points to his willingness to use it within the next 48 hours. If he deploys the weapon, he will poison the entire planet with radioactive fallout. The only way to stop him is with a group that can move silently, strike powerfully, and not worry about breaking a few rules along the way. The only way to stop him: X–Battalion.

    His troop of Scimitar light-armoured vehicles was attached to the 1 CHESHIRE Battle Group (under the charismatic command of Colonel Bob Stewart). Fresh from Germany he and his men found themselves in a highly political and lethally dangerous civil war. They witnessed appalling atrocities and human tragedy on a giant scale. Both the soldiers and civilians showed massive courage and resilience.Thanks to the Author's diary we have here an extraordinary spontaneous and important account of British troops performing vital military and humanitarian tasks. War correspondent and MP, Martin Bell describes it as 'earning its place among the impartial narratives of the Bosnian War.

    In his nearly fifty years in the Navy he rose to become a fine seaman, a master of gunnery, a battle commander the equal of his friend - and rival in love - Nelson. He was also an accomplished writer and wit, a doting father, inveterate gossip and consummate diplomat and strategist. Collingwood's service took him to Boston, where he lived and fought during the American War of Independence; to Antigua, where he and Nelson both fell in love with Mary Moutray; to Corsica; Sicily; and Menorca, where he began as a young midshipman and ended his career as the effective viceroy of the Mediterranean. ADMIRAL COLLINGWOOD is an intimate portrait of a forgotten British naval hero and a thrilling portrait of the glory years of the age of sail.

    The parallels between Chairman Mao's thoughts on strategy and those of Sun Tzu belie a direct lineage of culture and genius projected across twenty five centuries. First, Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War, considers the rational and classical stratagems underlying the conduct of a successful war. Second, Problems of Strategy in Guerrilla War Against Japan, discusses the conduct of guerrilla actions relative to, and within, conventional warfare. Third, On Protracted War, deals with a wide range of topics including mobile warfare, guerrilla warfare, positional warfare, war of attrition and war of annihilation. Fourth, Problems of War and Strategy summarizes the lessons of the previous discourses and reiterates the famous dictum: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Other Special Editions in this series that deal with the subject of warfare and strategy include: The Art of War By Sun Tzu - Special Edition The Art of War By Baron De Jomini - Special Edition The Art of War & The Prince By Machiavelli - Special Edition

     Mike and Kate Blaise fell in love during high school in small-town Macon, Missouri. Sharing a deep sense of patriotism, they both entered the U.S. Army—she as a commissioned officer and he as an enlisted infantry soldier who later became a helicopter pilot with the Air Cavalry. Forced to accept the realities of a military marriage yet determined to stay with her husband, Kate passed up her dream assignment in the United States to be with Mike, who was deployed to Korea. But they never imagined a day like 9/11 or the military aftermath that sent them to Iraq, where Mike would lose his life in combat. A memoir unlike any other, The Heart of a Soldier captures the human side of war through the eyes of a unique insider. Delivering a candid take on life as a woman in the military as well as the grueling challenges facing all who serve, Kate Blaise takes us from the dreams of her idealistic youth to her final days with Mike, when she served in the battalion that provided support to his unit in Iraq. In vivid scenes, she describes her personal evolution as a female officer and a wife—and the incalculable price she and Mike paid in service to a country they love. Both a tribute and a work of riveting narrative, The Heart of a Soldier puts an unforgettable new face on love and war. "Kate Blaise reminds us that every war is, ultimately, a story of sacrifice and human tragedy. Kate's personal story -- and the sacrifice she made in Iraq -- humble us all.” —Andrew Exum, author of THIS MAN’S ARMY: A Soldier’s Story from the Front Lines of the War on Terrorism

    a carefully crafted story based on documents and personal accounts, some illus.

    Little has been written, however, of the air support that guaranteed the drive’s success. Paving the way for the rush to Baghdad was “the hammer from above”–in the form of attack helicopters, jet fighters, transport, and other support aircraft. Now a former Marine fighter pilot shares the gripping never-before-told stories of the Marines who helped bring to an end the regime of Saddam Hussein.As Jay Stout reveals, the air war had actually been in the planning stages ever since the victory of Operation Desert Storm, twelve years earlier. But when Operation Iraqi Freedom officially commenced on March 20, 2003, the Marine Corps entered the fight with an aviation arm at its smallest since before World War II. Still, with the motto “Speed Equals Success,” the separate air and ground units acted as a team to get the job done.Drawing on exclusive interviews with the men and women who flew the harrowing missions, Hammer from Above reveals how pilots and their machines were tested to the limits of endurance, venturing well beyond what they were trained and designed to do. Stout takes us into the cockpits, revealing what it was like to fly these intense combat operations for up to eighteen hours at a time and to face incredible volumes of fire that literally shredded aircraft in midair during battles like that over An Nasiriyah .With its dynamic descriptions of perilous flights and bombing runs, Hammer from Above is a worthy tribute to the men and women who flew and maintained the aircraft that so inspired their brothers in arms and terrified the enemy.From the Hardcover edition.

    It is the riveting story of America's military superiority being surpassed as our greatest enemy masters space-to-Earth weapons technology - neutralizing the U.S. arsenal of nuclear missiles. America's only hope: The Old Dog Zero One, a battle-scarred bomber fully renovated with modern hardware - and equipped with the deadliest state-of-the-art armaments known to man? Silver Tower (Director: Patrick Lawlor): Iran has been invaded. And America responds in a grueling counterattack by air, by sea - and by a brave new technology that will redefine war. The most sophisticated laser defense system ever. It is called Silver Tower. And it will change the balance of world power forever.

    Germany is winning on every front. This is the story of how one of the world’s first commando units, put together for the invasion of Norway, helped turn the tide in Italy.1942. When the British generals recommend an audacious plan to parachute a small elite commando unit into Norway in a bid to put Nazi Germany on the defensive, Winston Churchill is intrigued. But Britain, fighting for its life, can’t spare the manpower to participate. So William Lyon MacKenzie King is contacted and asked to commit Canadian troops to the bold plan. King, determined to join Roosevelt and Churchill as an equal leader in the Allied war effort, agrees.One of the world’s first commando units, the First Special Service Force, or FSSF, is assembled from hand-picked soldiers from Canadian and American regiments. Any troops sent into Norway will have to be rugged, self-sufficient, brave, and weather-hardened. Canada has such men in ample supply.The all-volunteer FSSF comprises outdoorsmen — trappers, rangers, prospectors, miners, loggers. Assembled at an isolated base in Helena, Montana, and given only five months to train before the invasion, they are schooled in parachuting, mountain climbing, cross-country skiing, and cold-weather survival. They are taught how to handle explosives, how to operate nearly every field weapon in the American and German arsenals, and how to kill with their bare hands.After the Norway plan is scrapped, the FSSF is dispatched to Italy and given its first test — to seize a key German mountain-top position which had repelled the brunt of the Allied armies for over a month. In a reprise of the audacity and careful planning that won Vimy Ridge for the Canadians in WWI, the FSSF takes the twin peaks Monte la Difensa and Monte la Remetanea by storming the supposedly unscalable rock face at the rear of the German position, and opens the way through the mountains.Later, the FSSF will hold one-quarter of the Anzio beachhead against a vastly superior German force for ninety-nine days; a force of only 1,200 commandos does the work of a full division of over 17,000 troops. Though badly outnumbered, the FSSF takes the fight to the Germans, sending nighttime patrols behind enemy lines and taking prisoners. It is here that they come to be known among the dispirited Germans as Schwartzer Teufel (“Black Devils”) for their black camouflage face-paint and their terrifying tactic of appearing out of the darkness.John Nadler vividly captures the savagery of the Italian campaign, fought as it was at close quarters and with desperate resolve, and the deeply human experiences of the individual men called upon to fight it. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with veterans, A Perfect Hell is an important contribution to Canadian military history and an indispensable account of the lives and battlefield exploits of the men who turned the tide of the Second World War.

    displayed its new navy of steel-hulled ships firing explosive shells and wrested an empire from a fading European power- The hairsbreadth American victory at Midway, where aircraft carriers launched planes against enemies 200 miles away--and where the tide of World War II turned in the space of a few furious minutes- Operation Praying Mantis in the Persian Gulf, where computers, ship-fired missiles, and smart bombs not only changed the nature of warfare at sea, but also marked a new era, and a new responsibility, for the United States.Symonds records these encounters in detail so vivid that readers can hear the wind in the rigging and feel the pounding of the guns. Yet he places every battle in a wide perspective, revealing their significance to America's development as it grew from a new Republic on the edge of a threateningfrontier to a global superpower.Decision at Sea is a powerful and illuminating look at pivotal moments in the history of the Navy and of the United States. It is also a compelling study of the unchanging demands of leadership at sea, where commanders must make rapid decisions in the heat of battle with lives--and the fate ofnations--hanging in the balance.

    Through the camera’s eye, we see the war from both the combatants’ perspective and that of the Vietnamese civilians, for whom the conflict was a constant and horrendous backdrop. Some of the photographs are well known, verging on the iconic, others are less well circulated but no less evocative. All make indelible impressions on the viewer–perhaps more so now than when they were taken, thirty to fifty years ago. The essays accompanying the photographs tell us about what happened to the photos’ subjects, both when the shutter captured them and since; about the challenges facing the photographers in the heat of battle; and how, in some cases, the photographers changed history by bringing Vietnam’s senseless violence to ordinary Americans’ doorsteps, thereby helping turn public opinion against the war. Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Under Fire is a potent, often poignant reminder of the men and women whose work helped forge the collective memory of a generation.

    A definitive encyclopedia of the most importnat tanks in history: over 230 tanks are shown in more than 750 color and black and white photographs.

    On September 13, 1759, British and French forces fought one of the most decisive battles of history, on the Plains of Abraham outside the Canadian capital of Quebec. The British force decisively routed the French, seized the city and ultimately all of Canada. Both the French and British commanders fell in the battle, and ever since the pathos and heroism of the encounter have engrossed historians. The struggle for Quebec was far more than one climactic battle. The campaign involved an immense military and naval operation, an 18th-century D-Day, which had begun the year before. Matthew Ward has researched extensively in archives in Britain and Canada to look at the entire campaign for Quebec, from its inception in Whitehall to its ultimate culmination in Montreal in 1760. He has probed beyond the actions of commanders and generals, to examine the experiences of the campaign for the ordinary soldier and civilian. What emerges is not just a picture of bravery and heroism, but also of a campaign which became increasingly brutal and cruel, both sides resorting to practices such as the routine scalping of enemy dead. It is also a surprising picture of the day-to-day, often mundane, lives of civilians and troops many thousands of miles from home.

    MIG’s secret modeling and painting techniques of military vehicles. Step-by-step process of gold medal winner Diorama ‘Stalingrad’ presented at the Euromilitaire show.

    He was an enlisted man, a member of the reserves working on the base, a re-activated sailor, and finally a retired Chief, working at the Navy Base in Portland, Oregon.Growing up as a Navy "brat" in a tropical paradise was a special life for Bob. His Dad, the Navy, and Hawaii managed to keep life exciting.Bombs Dropped Oscar slept the night of December 6th on the submarine base, and his family came to pick him up the next morning just before 8:00 A.M, right when the bombs started falling. They had a front row seat as the planes swooped over and over, bombing and strafingeverything in their sight. Their escape and eventual evacuation is an interesting part of history. Trinette Weber's retelling of of her husband's experiences creates a personal memoir that captures this historic moment in time.

    It is the true story of the man behind Pearl Harbor---Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto---and the courageous young American fliers who flew the million-to-one suicide mission that shot him down.Yamamoto was a cigar-smoking, poker-playing, English-speaking, Harvard-educated expert on America, and that intimate knowledge served him well as architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next sixteen months, this military genius, beloved by the Japanese people, lived up to his prediction that he would run wild in the Pacific Ocean. He was unable, however, to deal the fatal blow needed to knock America out of the war, and the shaken United States began its march to victory on the bloody island of Guadalcanal.Donald A. Davis meticulously tracks Yamamoto's eventual rendezvous with death. After American code-breakers learned that the admiral would be vulnerable for a few hours, a desperate attempt was launched to bring him down. What was essentially a suicide mission fell to a handful of colorful and expendable U.S. Army pilots from Guadalcanal's battered "Cactus Air Force":- Mississippian John Mitchell, after flunking the West Point entrance exam, entered the army as a buck private. Though not a "natural" as an aviator, he eventually became the highest-scoring army ace on Guadalcanal and the leader of the Yamamoto attack. - Rex Barber grew up in the Oregon countryside and was the oldest surviving son in a tightly knit churchgoing family. A few weeks shy of his college graduation in 1940, the quiet Barber enlisted in the U.S. Army. - "I'm going to be President of the United States," Tom Lanphier once told a friend. Lanphier was the son of a legendary fighter squadron commander and a dazzling storyteller. He viewed his chance at hero status as the start of a promising political career.- December 7, 1941, found Besby Holmes on a Pearl Harbor airstrip, firing his .45 handgun at Japanese fighters. He couldn't get airborne in time to make a serious difference, but his chance would come. - Tall and darkly handsome, Ray Hine used the call sign "Heathcliffe" because he resembled the brooding hero of Wuthering Heights. He was transferred to Guadalcanal just in time to participate in the Yamamoto mission---a mission from which he would never return.They flew the longest over-water fighter mission ever and ambushed and killed Yamamoto. After his death, the Japanese never won another major naval battle. But the victorious American pilots seemed cursed by the samurai spirit of the admiral and were tormented for the rest of their lives by what happened that day. Davis paints unforgettable personal portraits of men in combat and unravels a military mystery that has been covered up at the highest levels of government since the end of the war.

    “The Singers” includes Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, and dozens more; “ The Songwriters” features Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, Stephen Foster, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and a host of others; a lively section discusses the Big Bands; and a decade-by-decade insert puts the entire history of popular music in perspective through words and pictures. Each one of the more than 200 listings in the book features the artist’s personal and professional history, great songs, and important contributions, plus photos (many rare), record covers, anecdotes, quotes, and more. Sidebars and features throughout cover topics of interest—everything from Arrangers, Vocal Groups, and Keepers of the Flame to Tin Pan Alley, Parodists, and Classical Crossovers—making this the most thorough survey of its kind. Throughout, all of the great songs are discussed—literally hundreds of songs, from “Stardust” to “My Funny Valentine” to “White Christmas.” Illustrated biographies, discographies, chronologies, and indices make The American Songbook a full-fledged reference as well as a pictorial feast.

    A powerful and compelling account of combat at the personal level where wars are fought.

    This book tells the untold story about the victims, the soldiers who were there and the history of the events leading up to the tragic incident. But more than just the story, this book highlights the lessons America's school system can learn from the tragedy to protect itself from terrorism.

    Phillips painting—a tight formation of F-4 Phantoms screaming over Crater Lake, Oregon; the Blue Angels soaring near the California coast; a violent confrontation between a German Bf-109 and a RAF Spitfire above Sussex’s Beachy Head; a line of Bell Hueys passing through a monsoon-soaked valley in Vietnam—a viewer can almost feel the pressure on his body from the groundblurring speed of the plane, his mouth go dry in the desert air, or the chill on his neck when it’s so cold it hurts to breathe. Phillips is also a superb landscape and “skyscape” painter who places his subjects in geographic and historical context. A wealth of aviation and military history by Ann and Charlie Cooper accompanies the paintings, as do Phillips’s own archival photographs.

    Although famous to thousands of people in many nations, Sinbad was happiest at sea, treading the decks of the sleek Campbell, where he was treated as just another member of the crew. He slept and ate his chow with the men and even had his own battle station. Battles and hurricanes never dulled his love of standing on the heaving deck with spray breaking over his wiry body. To Coast Guardsmen on the Campbell and all over the world he was real hero. This new edition, the first in 60 years, includes photos of Sinbad and an introduction by Mike Walling, author of Bloodstained Sea, The U.S. Coast Guard in the Battle of the Atlantic 1941-1944.

    (the later jumping very close from Ste-Mere-Eglise).Michel de Trez's books have rightly earned a worldwide reputation for excellent, highly detailed content and spectacular presentation of the subject matter.Previous books by Michel include: 'American Warriors', 'At the Point of No Return' and 'First Airborne Taskforce' (in large hardback format and 'The Way we Were' series of 81/2 x 11 paperbacks, including books on Doc McIlvoy, Ben Vandervoort, Forrest Guth and Bob Piper. All these books are also available exclusively from Casemate.

    The most critically acclaimed account of Australian Prisoners of War of the Japanese ever published.

    illustrated.126 rare and unpublished photos. .....................................The Panzerwrecks series of books are about destroyed, surrendered and abandoned German armour of 1944-45. Each landscape volume contains over 100 large format rare and unpublished black and white photographs most of which are printed at 260x170mm or larger onto high quality 130gsm art paper..........................................Features: Modified Panthers of I./Pz.Rgt.26, (13x photos), Jagdtiger 323 of 3.Kp/s.Pz.Jg.Abt.653, (7x photos), and Panzer IV/70(A), (10x photos). Also production version of the flakpanzer Ostwind, Steel wheel Panthers, Panther II, Halftracks, Beutepanzers, flakpanzers and loads more.

    Grand museums and families lost countless valuables and works of art to Nazi lootings in what has been called "the rape of Europa." Parker's story begins just outside the Bavarian salt mines as the American and Russian armies are closing in. Amid the chaos, SS officers scramble to hide ill-gotten treasures that will finance the "Fourth Reich." Only a precious journal detailing an inventory of treasure caches around the Tirol holds a clue.Forty plus years later, the hunt for Europe's lost art falls to a husband and wife team who become entangled in this web of stolen treasures. Dix and Maria Connor face down a secret and deadly network trafficking in Titians, Bruegels and remnants of Peter the Great's magnificent Amber Room. From northeast Italy to Brussels, these amateur detectives risk everything to right the wrongs of history. Crisscross Europe's past and present in this thinking man's action novel.The lust for loot crosses paths with history’s ghosts in this high-octane thriller.

    Cupid and the Cowboy by Carol Finch released on Feb 08, 2005 is available now for purchase.

    Navy's first and only helicopter gunship squadron of the Vietnam War. The squadron was established in country to support the fast, pugnacious river patrol boats of the brown water navy. Flying combat-worn Hueys borrowed from the Army, the mission of the Seawolves quickly expanded to include rapid response air support to any friendly force in the Delta needing immediate, no-holds-barred assistance. Operating in two-plane detachments from specifically configured LSTs, hastily constructed bases, and primitive campsites, the navy gunships and their crews responded to calls within minutes. Flying in all kinds of weather, day and night, they arrived at tree-top level with forward-firing rockets and flex-guns blazing. Door gunners hung outside the violently maneuvering helicopters delivering a hail of fire with their hand-held M-60 machine guns. The Seawolves inserted SEALs deep into enemy territory, and extracted them, often despite savage enemy opposition. They rescued friendly combatants from almost certain capture or death, and evacuated the wounded when Medevac helicopters were not available. Gleaned from historical documents and the colorful recollections of more than sixty Seawolf warriors, this is the first complete history of the most decorated Navy squadron of the Vietnam War. Naval aviator Richard Knott recounts the story of the Seawolves from the dawning of the concept to the moment the last squadron commander turned out the lights.

    Soviet secret projects now come under the spotlight. This first volume covers bomber concepts from the various design bureaus from the 1940s onwards. Many unusual and sophisticated aircraft are featured in these pages, allowing comparisons between what the Soviets were working on and what was being produced in the West during that period.

    Revisiting the scene now, Paul West delivers in his 40th book an equally remarkable memoir of his father, a half-blinded, shell-shocked veteran of three years of trench warfare during "The War to End All Wars." But the time recounted mostly occupies 1939 to 1945, while ten-year-old Paul grows to fifteen. Together, father and son play war games, guarding the English coast from foxholes under the kitchen table, or watching as real Nazi bombers on moonlit nights pass overhead. The father, meanwhile, is forever instructing the son in the details of his own experience. In this engaging memoir, Paul West recreates his own youth, and gives us in twenty-five chiseled chapters a view of two lives evoking the deep effects of war, and conveying the distance between those who survive its devastation, and those who must bear its consequence.

    But who was the real Winston Churchill? Michael Paterson has taken Churchill's prolific commentaries on himself and juxtaposed them with the opinions of those who knew him. From his dramatic escape as a prisoner of war in South Africa, his political career, his dark days following the Dardanelles failure and his resurgence as Britain's great wartime prime minister this is a truly rounded portrait of Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is a unique biography and a fascinating insight into one of the best-known public figures of recent history. Drawing on contemporary first hand accounts, many previously unpublished, we can see Churchill through the eyes of those who knew him, those that met him and those that opposed him - including Hitler and Goering.

    She summarizes the extent and implications of the problem, and makes policy recommendations for various national and international agencies. No index is provided. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

    321 EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Squadron was posted to Northern Ireland at the outset of the Troubles to provide bomb disposal expertise. Since then it has answered over 50,000 'bomb scare' calls, over 5,500 of them to deal with actual devices. It is impossible to estimate the number of lives, or value of property, saved by its work. But the cost is clear. Conspicuous courage is an essential qualification and 321 EOD is the most decorated unit in the entire British Army. Its members have been awarded 2 George Crosses, 29 George Medals and 281 other medals for outstanding gallantry. 20 officers have lost their lives; 24 have been severely injured. One still serves despite the loss of a hand. It is grimly appropriate that the unit has as its mascot and radio call-sign the cartoon cat, Felix, with his nine lives and ability to withstand mayhem. As peace emerges in Northern Ireland, 321 EOD is now ready to tell its story for the first time. Written with its full co-operation, A Special Kind of Courage traces the history and development of bomb disposal and the use of explosives by terrorists; the human courage and techniques used to counter it; and the international dimension - how violent revolutionary groups abroad, such as ETA in Spain, copied the methods of Irish terrorists. It describes how 321 EOD's pioneering devices - notably the remote-controlled 'wheelbarrow' - have been exported around the world, earning it a global expertise that is sought by many other nations facing the threat of terrorism. Written with the full co-operation of past and present members of the squadron, and with a new Postscript for the paperback edition, this is the extraordinary story of the courage, skill and cool professionalism of the most decorated unit in the British Army.

    From Utah Beach, through the hedgerows of Normandy, the liberation of France, the Battle of the Bulge, the assault on Germany and the chase into Czechoslovakia, follow in Sergeant Hobert Winebrenner's "Bootprints." Wounded twice and captured once, with five Bronze Battle Stars and one Silver Star, he saw much in his "Walk Through World War II."

    Marine Corps. Put very simply, the intent is to describe how we can reach effective military decisions and implement effective military actions faster than an adversary in any conflict setting on any scale. In so doing, this publication provides a framework for all Marines for the development and exercise of effective command and control in peace, in crisis, or in war. This publication represents a firm commitment by the Marine Corps to a bold, even fundamental shift in the way we will view and deal with the dynamic challenges of command and control in the information age. The Marine Corps' view of command and control is based on our common understanding of the nature of war and on our warfighting philosophy, as described in Fleet Marine Force Manual 1, Warfighting. It takes into account both the timeless features of war as we understand them and the implications of the ongoing information explosion that is a consequence of modern technology.

    Shelled, bombed, shot at by snipers and poisoned by mustard gas, he somehow managed to survive the momentous and infamous battles of Passchendaele, Ypres, Messines and the Somme - and then in 1930, now in his thirties, he revisited France and the scenes of his boyhood terror. Len wrote a journal of his trip back to the battlefields in 1930, drawing on the detailed notes he had kept as a boy soldier from 1916-1919 before the Second World war, and wrote about the memories that surfaced, and the way he was now able to think about things as an adult that had been happening all around him as that frightened young boy His nephew, Allan Marriott, has used Len's extraordinary record to tell the story of life in the trenches from two perspectives - the raw and vulnerable boy and the seasoned man - providing a unique insight into one of the blackest periods of our recent history.

    Her dad has left for the faraway country of Iraq to fulfill his duty as a soldier, and Allie is going with her mom and pesky little brother, Spencer, to live with her grandma in Edna, Idaho—"Hicksville"—while her mom is expecting a new baby. And if that isn't enough, Allie has to learn all about living with Nanna, her great-grandmother who has Alzheimer's disease. Throughout this time of struggles, discovery, and even a bit of fun, Allie comes to understand that memories, as well as loved ones, can be both precious and fragile.

    Book by Philip Makanna, Javier Arango

    Marine Ronald Winter flew some of the toughest missions of the Vietnam War, from the DMZ grasslands to the jungles near Laos and the deadly A Shau Valley, where the NVA ruled. Whether landing in the midst of hidden enemy troops or rescuing the wounded during blazing firefights, the work of helicopter crews was always dangerous. But the men in the choppers never complained; they knew they had it easy compared to their brothers on the ground.Masters of the Art is a bare-knuckles tribute to the Marines who served in Vietnam. It’s about courage, sacrifice, and unsung heroes. The men who fought alongside Winter in that jungle hell were U.S. Marines, warriors who did their job and remained true to their country, no matter the cost.

    This book offers a new perspective on one of the twentieth century's bloodiest battles by examining the development of German military ideas from the end of the Franco-German War in 1871 to the First World War. Its use of recently released German sources held in the Soviet Union since the Second World War sheds new light on German ideas about attrition before and during the First World War.

    S. armed forces. In addition to providing conventional army, navy, and air force units, the American military fought Vietcong insurgents and North Vietnamese regulars with Army Special Forces. From 1968 to 1969, Daniel H. Fitzgibbon, a Columbus, Indiana native, served as a captain with the Fifth Special Forces Group in South Vietnam. Fitzgibbon wrote letters home about his experiences running two Special Forces A team camps. Fitzgibbon's mother saved these letters and gave them back to the veteran, who typed and copied them. "To Bear Any Burden" examines Fitzgibbon's war, from his arrival in South Vietnam to his life as commander.

    Originally published: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.

    He was one of the first above-the-knee, double amputees of the war. His story recounts the hope, faith, gratitude and humor that have defined him throughout his life. BIO000000; OCC019000

    - During World War II, tens of thousands of American GIs had their first introduction to the European Theatre of Operations in the small towns, green fields, rolling hills and forests of Northern Ireland. In the main, these troops had crossed the dangerous U-boat infested Atlantic Ocean directly from the United States. We, the 82nd Airborne Division were different. In order to add some combat experienced seasoning to the armies preparing for the coming assault on Hitler's 'Fortress Europe, ' High Command plucked our Division from the Mediterranean theatre and dispatched us to the British Isles. We collected and assembled our widely dispersed elements from Italy, Sicily and North Africa and gathered around the Algerian port of Oran, before setting sail for 'parts unknown'. Just after Thanksgiving Day 1943 we sailed far out into the Atlantic Ocean on the United States Navy transport ship Frederick Funston before heading east and arriving at the Northern Ireland port of Belfast towards the middle of December. Expecting, as we were, to be heading for England, we were surprised indeed when we found ourselves trundling from Belfast towards the little country town of Castledawson. When we got there, we discovered our camp to be bare-boned basic - corrugated iron huts for accommodation, single coal burning stoves for heat, limited bathing facilities and a scant supply of hot water. Small encampments were scattered all around the countryside in places with exotic sounding names like Ballymena, Ballyscullion and Cookstown. Apprehensive, though full of our usual 'can't beat us' attitude, we shook off the residue of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, unloaded our gear and adjusted to our new conditions. We had temporarily lost one of our vital components - the 504th Regimental Combat Team, who remained in Italy - but we were about to acquire two new parachute regiments, the 507th and 508th. In command of the division were two top men - Major General Matthew B Ridgway and Brigadier General James M Gavin. Quickly we acclimatized to the limited daylight and found darkness to be our cover and friend. Soon we had abandoned the confines of our camps and discovered the charm and refuge of the warm and friendly Irish pubs. During our brief time in Northern Ireland we rested, recuperated, reorganized and rebuilt. Replacements arrived and together our training began again in earnest. However, even as we were picking up steam, camps and billets were being prepared for us in the British Midlands and in the early spring of 1944 we left for England to receive airborne training and prepare for our part in the D-Day invasion. Now, some sixty years later, John McCann has undertaken the monumental task of chronicling the days when the 82nd Airborne Division 'passed through' Northern Ireland. In recent years I have come to know John and have benefited from his warm personality and firm dedication to this work. I know his book will be a winner and a source of knowledge and background information for all current and future readers

    Some were outstanding successes and some were unmitigated disasters. North Sea Battle: In the early weeks of World War II, Britain and Germany were determined to attack one another's warships in their respective naval bases. Both RAF and Luftwaffe learned the folly of sending unescorted bombers into enemy territory. Flames over France: In May 1940, the RAF and French Air Force launched a series of desperate hit-and-run attacks on the German armoured columns advancing into France and Belgium. The cost was appalling. Precision Attack: In August 1940, a newly-formed Luftwaffe unit called Erprobungsgruppe 210 (Test Group 210), equipped with bomb-carrying Messerschmitts, was assigned a mission to wipe out British radar stations in a series of lightning low-level attacks.

    Initially activated as an assault gun battalion and redesignated in April 1943, the 653 received its first Ferdinand heavy tank destroyers (later modified and renamed Elephants) in May 1943 and went into action on the Eastern Front a month later. In 1944, the unit converted to the even more massive Jagdtiger. The seventy-five-ton, heavily armored Jagdtiger was the behemoth of the battlefield and boasted a 128mm gun-as opposed to the Ferdinand's 88-with a range of more than thirteen miles, making it deadly despite its limited mobility. Outfitted with these lethal giants, the 653 saw service in Russia, Italy, Austria, and Germany.

    On the other hand there are those who view Haig as a man who successfully struggled with appalling difficulties to produce an army which took the lead in defeating Germany in 1918, winning the greatest series of victories in British Military history. Just as the success of the Alanbrooke war diaries can be put down to its 'horse's mouth' view of Churchill and the conduct of WWII, so Haig's Diaries, hitherto only available in bowdlerised form, give the C-in-C's view of Asquith - he records him getting drunk and incapable - and his successor Lloyd George, of whom he was highly critical. As Haig records the relationship it was stormy ('I have no great opinion of L.G as a man or leader' - Sept 1916).

    There are already a number of books in print that deal with the other plans that failed, Tobruk, Benghazi & Jalo.

    Each story is a recollection from a past or present serviceman or woman or their loved one, sharing their story of how God answered their prayer.? Stories range from our current struggle in the mideast to past conflicts such as World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

    They operate behind enemy lines, sometimes for months at a time, are trained to work in all climates and cultures, and have a "no surrender" will of spirit if ever taken prisoner. This book provides an insider’s view of what it takes to become a member of the Army’s Special Forces, the elite Green Berets. It describes the skills they learn and equipment and tactics used to engage in unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, special reconnaissance, anti-terrorism missions, information operations, and counter-proliferation.

    Can also be adapted to a driving tour as well. Contains three tours with the battle area broken down into 2-3 mile routes.

    Army in particular, have studied the German way of war, specifically as practiced in the 20th century. While acknowledging that Germany--and before that nation came into existence, Prussia--produced some excellent armies, major problems with the German way of war must not be ignored. Despite the military prowess of Germany, it lost both of the major wars of the 20th century. The author explores the reasons why a nation with such a strong military reputation was unable to win its wars and achieve its goals. He emphasizes that military power, tactical and operational brilliance, and victories in the field can easily be squandered if a nation has failed to set achievable goals and develop strategies to reach them. This failure should not be lost on modern nations as they proceed into the 21st century.

    It is graphic design's most sinister manifestation made to change perceptions, destory morale, and help takes lives. Paper War offers a rare opportunity to understand the dynamics of propaganda. A timeless tale of the flexible and immediate use of information in one battle, on a single day-Cassino, Italy, May 11, 1944. Through leaflets that he collected that day, a British solider who was serving as a liaison officer in the Indian army recounts the Nazi's skilful but ultimately unsucessful campaign to win the battle through showering the enemy with paper, as well as bombs. The images in the propaganda pieces from that day are varied, vivid, and arresting; particularly when considering the logistics of design, production and delivery in the heat of battle. The solider tells the compelling story of how the Nazis misidentified the Allied troops, firing a total of 14 different leaflets in a succession of four languages; English, Polish, Urdu and Hindi, Very different messages accompanied by very different graphics were used to appeal to - and terrify - each intended audience, and they are all reproduced here at full size, with complete translations. Appealing to anyone interested in military history, communication arts & design, and propaganda. The book contains an introduction by Randall Bytwerk, an acknowledged expert and author on the propaganda of Nazi Germany.

    It overcomes the shortcomings inherent in martial art instruction manuals by focusing not on technique, but on the strategy and philosophy of movement behind the technique. Written by a first generation student under the authority and supervision of the system's Founder and Grand Master, this work is an excellent introduction to the system. FCS is one of the most practical combat oriented martial systems in existence, bridging the gap between the ancient fighting arts and the modern world.

    The Outpost War tells the story of the First Marine Division's move to western Korea, where these assault-trained troops were ordered to dig in and fight a defensive war. It describes their deadly learning curve and includes reports on such battles as Bunker Hill and the Hook. The use of previously unpublished archival material blended with first-person oral accounts places the reader on the battle line.

    

    Beginning from the point where an individual finds himself trapped behind enemy lines, the book describes the many techniques that special force soldiers rely on to survive in enemy territory while evading capture. Key topics include the will to survive; handling stress in captivity; escape techniques; survival in a variety of environments including urban, rural, jungle, and desert; how to forage for food; tracking and covering your tracks; navigation with or without a map; and ultimately seeking recovery by friendly forces. It also includes many real life accounts of escape and evasion from World War II, Vietnam, and the Gulf War, as well as tips and advice from special force members around the world such as the SAS, the Green Berets, and the Russian Spetsnaz.