Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive. This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left-blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers. A six-foot-five-inch Texan, Leading Petty Officer Luttrell takes us, blow-by-blow, through the brutal training of America's warrior elite and the relentless rites of passage required by the Navy SEALs. He transports us to a monstrous battle fought in the desolate peaks of Afghanistan, where the beleaguered American team plummeted headlong a thousand feet down a mountain as they fought back through flying shale and rocks. In this rich , moving chronicle of courage, honor, and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers one of the most powerful narratives ever written about modern warfare-and a tribute to his teammates, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

    Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the new government. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce against the Mediterranean pirates, or drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? The foundersparticularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adamsdebated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once. How much of a navy would suffice? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships.From the decision to build six heavy frigates, through the cliffhanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of Founding Brothers and a narrative flair worthy of Patrick O'Brian. According to Henry Adams, the 1812 encounter between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere "raised the United States in one half hour to the rank of a first class power in the world." 16 pages of illustrations; 8 pages of color.

    Dick Winters was their commander—"the best combat leader in World War II" to his men. This is his story—told in his own words for the first time.On D-Day, Dick Winters parachuted into France and assumed leadership of the Band of Brothers when their commander was killed. He led them through the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany, by which time each member had been wounded. They liberated an S.S. death camp from the horrors of the Holocaust and captured Berchtesgaden, Hitler's alpine retreat. After briefly serving during the Korean War, Winters was a highly successful businessman. Made famous by Stephen Ambrose's book Band of Brothers—and the subsequent award-winning HBO miniseries—he is the object of worldwide adulation, Beyond Band of Brothers is Winters's memoir—based on his wartime diary—but it also includes his comrades' untold stories. Virtually all this material is being released for the first time. Only Winters was present from the activation of Easy Company until the war's end. Winner of the Distinguished Service Cross, only he could pen this moving tribute to the human spirit.

    . . April 1982. Argentine forces had invaded the Falkland Islands. Britain needed an answer. And fast.The idea was simple: to destroy the vital landing strip at Port Stanley. The reality was more complicated. The only aircraft that could possibly do the job was three months from being scrapped, and the distance it had to travel was four thousand miles beyond its maximum range. It would take fifteen Victor tankers and seventeen separate in-flight refuellings to get one Avro Vulcan B2 over the target, and give its crew any chance of coming back alive.Yet less than a month later, a formation of elderly British jets launched from a remote island airbase to carry out the longest-range air attack in history. At its head was a single aircraft, six men, and twenty-one thousand-pound bombs, facing the hornet’s nest of modern weaponry defending the Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands. There would be no second chances . . .

    Bringing to searing life the terrifying intimacy of hand-to-hand infantry combat, this stunning war memoir features an indelibly drawn cast of characters, not all of whom would make it out of the city alive, as well as chilling accounts of Bellavia's singular courage: Entering one house alone, he used every weapon at his disposal in the fight of his life against America's most implacable enemy.

    It seemed the planet-wrecking pirates were invincible. But they made a big mistake when they raided ex-commando leader Alicia DeVries' quiet home work, tortured and murdered her family, and then left her for dead. Alicia decided to turn "pirate" herself, and stole a cutting-edge AI ship from the Empire to start her vendetta. Her fellow veterans think she's gone crazy, the Imperial Fleet has shoot-on-sight orders. And of course the pirates want her dead, too. But Alicia DeVries has two allies nobody knows about, allies as implacable as she is: a self-aware computer, and a creature from the mists of Old Earth's most ancient legends. And this trio of furies won't rest until vengeance is served.In Fury Born is a greatly expanded new version of David Weber's popular novel Path of the Fury, which has gone through six large printings in its original mass market edition. David Weber has added considerable new material, revealing the earlier life of Alicia DeVries before she embarked on her mission of vengeance, and illuminating the universe of the original story. The result is a novel with almost twice the wordage of the original, and a must-buy for all David Weber fans.

    Upon this tactical foundation, Drake uses historical metaphor to provide a rich and detailed future-history that is both unique and strangely familiar. The characters that make up the Hammer’s Regiment are neither cartoon heroes nor propaganda villains; rather they are competent professionals engaged in a deadly business. The inevitable conflicts between policy, necessity, and human nature are often at the forefront of the Slammers narratives, and it is this rich fusion of elements that makes Drake’s Slammers fiction instantly identifiable and utterly compelling. The Hammer’s Slammers series is some of the most important and influential work in military SF. The Vietnam War made indelible marks on the science fiction genre, and Drake’s service with the Blackhorse Regiment during the war gives his fiction a unique perspective. It is this perspective that is sometimes lacking in military SF, and one that makes Drake’s work so important to the science fiction genre as a whole. This three-volume set collects all the Slammers short fiction and novels into a set of uniform editions, and presents a new, previously uncollected piece of fiction in each volume. This second volume collects the first four Slammers novels, At Any Price (1985), Counting the Cost (1987), Rolling Hot (1989) and The Warrior (1991). The novella “A Day of Glory” was written for this volume, and has been uncollected prior to the publication of tihs volume.

    Each of the four would lose a best friend forever.Five months after being deployed to Iraq, Lima Company’s 1st Platoon found itself in Fallujah, embroiled in some of the most intense house-to-house, hand-to-hand combat since World War II. Civilians were used as human shields or as bait to lure soldiers into buildings rigged with explosives; suicide bombers approached from every corner hoping to die and take Americans with them; radical insurgents, high on adrenaline, fought to the death. The Marines of the 1st Platoon (part of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment) were among the first to fight in Fallujah, and they bore the brunt of this epic battle. When it was over, the platoon had suffered thirty-five casualties, including four dead.This is their story.Award-winning author and historian Patrick O’Donnell stood shoulder-to-shoulder with this modern band of brothers as they marched and fought through the streets of Fallujah, and he stayed with them as the casualties mounted. O’Donnell captures not only the sights, sounds, and smells of the gritty street combat, but also the human drama of young men in a close-knit platoon fighting for their lives-and the lives of their buddies. We Were One chronicles the 1st Platoon’s story, from its formation at Camp Pendleton in California to its near destruction in the smoldering ruins of Fallujah.We Were One is an unforgettable portrait of the new “Greatest Generation.”With 16 pages of extraordinary photographs from the front lines of the Battle for Fallujah.

    At age nineteen, Tom Johnson flew in the thick of it, and lived to tell his harrowing tale. Johnson piloted the UH-1 "Iroquois"-better known as the "Huey"-as part of the famous First Air Cavalry Division. His battalion was one of the most decorated units of the Vietnam War, and helped redefine modern warfare. This riveting memoir gives the pilot's perspective on key battles and rescue missions, including those for Hue and Khe Sanh. From dangerous missions to narrow escapes, Johnson's account vividly captures the adrenaline rush of flying and the horror of war, and takes readers on an unforgettable ride.

    But when the Marines landed, the surviving Japanese poured out of their protective subterranean bunkers--and began one of the most brutal and bloody battles of World War II.For three straight days, attackers and defenders fought over every square inch of sand in a battle with no defined frontlines, and where there was no possibility of retreat--because there was nowhere to retreat to. It was a clash that would leave both sides stunned and exhausted, and prove both the fighting mettle of the Americans and the fanatical devotion of the Japanese.Drawn from new sources, such as participants' letters and diaries and exclusive firsthand interviews with survivors, One Square Mile of Hell is the true story of a battle between two determined foes, neither of whom would ever look at the other in the same way again.

    At noon a massive Zulu host attacked the 24th Regiment in its encampment at the foot of the mountain of Isandlwana, a distinctive feature that bore an eerie resemblance to the Sphinx badge of the outnumbered redcoats. Disaster ensued. Later that afternoon the victorious Zulus would strike the tiny British garrison at Rorke’s Drift. How Can Man Die Better is a unique analysis of Isandlwana – of the weapons, tactics, ground, and the intriguing characters who made the key military decisions. Because the fatal loss was so high on the British side there is still much that is unknown about the battle. This is a work of unparalleled depth, which eschews the commonly held perception that the British collapse was sudden and that the 24th Regiment was quickly overwhelmed. Rather, there was a protracted and heroic defence against a determined and equally heroic foe. The author reconstructs the final phase of the battle in a way that has never been attempted before. It was to become the stuff of legend, which brings to life so vividly the fear and smell the blood.

    naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death.Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home.In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail.Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true.

     In his first book, Michael Durant told his harrowing tale of being shot down in his Blackhawk over Mogadishu and held captive by a Somali warlord. It was a remarkable account, particularly because Special Operations pilots are notoriously reticent-they don't talk about their missions, at least not to anyone outside their small community. But now, with the publication of "The Night Stalkers," Durant and Steven Hartov shed a fascinating light on these mysterious super commandos and take readers into a world they have only imagined. From Iran to Grenada to Iraq, the 160th SOAR (A) has been at the point of the spear and in the thick of combat, delivering and supporting Delta operators, Rangers, and SEAL teams to any target, at any point on the globe, in all weather-night or day. Simply put, they are the best of the best, and here for the first time are their hair-raising true stories of battle, capture, victory, and loss.

    In the process, the book generates an astonishing wealth of original and fascinating insights on all major aspects of humankind's remarkable journey through the ages, engaging a wide range of disciplines.

    She more than proves her mettle when a diplomatic assignment and a scientific expedition both turn dangerous.

    I am writing this letter not for me but for my father, Kurt Frederick Muse. As you should know by now, he is a political prisoner in Panama. . .. Born in the United States and raised in Panama, Kurt Muse grew up with a deep love for his adopted country. But the crushing regime of General Manuel Noriega in the late 1980s threatened his, and a nation's, freedom. A nightmare of murder and unexplained disappearances compelled Kurt and a few trusted friends to begin a clandestine radio campaign, urging the people of Panama to rise up for their basic human rights. Six Minutes to Freedom is the remarkable tale of Kurt Muse's arrest and harrowing months of imprisonment; his eyewitness accounts of torture; and the plight of his family as they fled for their lives. It is also the heart-pounding account of the only American civilian ever rescued by the elite Delta Force. Timelier than ever, this is a thrilling and highly personal narrative about one man's courage and dedication to his beliefs. A Featured Alternate of the Military Book Club

    Active-duty Marine Colonel B. P. McCoy expertly relays his innermost thoughts and feelings, drawing on his mastery of personal leadership. He understands the intangibles that make up our modern-day warriors, those young Americans on whom we place so much responsibility when we send them into harm's way. Col McCoy describes the total cost of combat and the price paid by all who choose to become a warrior. By pointing to positive training examples and keying on the effects of situational training, battle drills, conducted prior to and during combat, he successfully trained his Marines and developed the proper habits that would be the difference between life and death during combat. He directed his Marines to become "experts in the application of violence" without sacrificing their humanity. The essence of war is violence and the act of killing legitimate human targets without hesitation. To accomplish this, he instituted meaningful training and used his refined principles as a human being to guide him in the leadership and administration on the moral code that rules the field of battle. He is the perfect example of all that we hold dear in our warrior culture. He loved his men, showed them the right way through his personal example, guided his actions with passion and relayed his feelings to his men completely. He was quick to note his own shortcomings and how he overcame them and was the inspiration to the team that triumphed when all Marines survived the day. Emotionally riveting, The Passion of Command provides inside information into the warrior culture and allows one to grasp the complexities when hardening the mind, body and spirit for the rigors of combat. Most find it hard to communicate the human effects of combat to people who have never experienced the harsh realities associated with actually engaging an enemy. Col McCoy doesn't have that problem; he opened the door and let the reader in.

    initiative since Panama, and tells how God taught him faith from the front in fear-soaked times. As readers go on-mission with Struecker through his harrowing tales, they will learn how to face their own fears with faith in a mighty God. Just as he told one of his charges in Mogadishu: "The difference between being a coward and a hero is not whether you're scared, it's what you do while you're scared."

    Two hundred thousand sailors, both pilots and "ground" crew, served in F-14 squadrons with the Tomcat over its decades of flight.This book is a grand remembrance of this great aircraft by those who flew it. Hundreds of pilots have included their favorite stories of the missions and planes that brought them home. Two hundred exceptional color photographs show the F-14 on the deck, in the air, and over the sea.

    From the stone axes of the earliest warfare to the heavy artillery of today''s modern armies,this awe-inspiring book portrays for the first time the entire spectrum of weaponry. Illustrations explain key features and working mechanisms of important weapons Beautifully photographed and richly cataloged-often in actual size Details weapons that changed the face of warfare, from the sword to the Gatling gun.

    Appy has created a staggering and monumental oral history of the type that is created only once in a generation. The vivid accounts of 135 men and women span the entire history of the Vietnam conflict from its murky origins in the 1940s to the chaotic fall of Saigon in 1975.The testimony in this book, sometimes detached and reflective, often raw and emotional, allows us to see and feel what this war meant to people on all sides - Americans and Vietnamese, generals and guerillas, policy makers and protesters, CIA operatives, pilots and doctors, artists and journalists, and a variety of ordinary citizens whose lives were swept up in a cataclysm that killed three million people.A remarkable, eye-opening and essential read for anyone with even a passing interest in one of the 20th century's defining conflicts.

    These stories are the real thing, passionate, imaginative, searing."-Richard Bausch, author of "Wives & Lovers" The first book of its kind, "Operation Homecoming "is the result of a major initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to bring distinguished writers to military bases and inspire U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen and their families to record their wartime experiences. Encouraged by such authors as Tom Clancy, Mark Bowden, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff, Jeff Shaara, and Marilyn Nelson, American military personnel and their loved ones wrote candidly about what they saw, heard, and felt while in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as on the home front. Taken together, these almost one hundred never-before-published eyewitness accounts, private journals, short stories, letters, and other personal writings become a dramatic narrative that shows the human side of warfare. - the fear and exhilaration of heading into battle;- the interactions between U.S. forces and Afghans and Iraqis, both as enemies and friends;- the boredom, gripes, and humorous incidents of day-to-day life on the front lines;- the anxiety and heartache of worried spouses, parents, and other loved ones on the home front;- the sheer brutality of warfare and the physical and emotional toll it takes on those who fight;- the tearful homecomings for those who returned to the States alive- and the somber ceremonies for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. From riveting combat accounts to profound reflections on warfare and the pride these troops feel for one another, "Operation Homecoming" offers an unflinching and intensely revealing look into the lives of extraordinary men and women. What they have written is without question some of the greatest wartime literature ever published. "Andrew Carroll has given America a priceless treasure."-Tom Brokaw, on "War Letters" Proceeds from this book will be used to provide arts and cultural programming to U.S. military communities. For more information, please go to www.OperationHomecoming.gov.

    In the morning, a modern British army was swept aside by the onset of a seemingly unstoppable Zulu host at Isandlwana. Nearby, at a remote border outpost on the Buffalo River, a single company of the 24th Regiment and a few dozen recuperating hospital patients were passing another hot, monotonous day. News of the disaster across the river came like a bolt from the blue. Retreat was not an option. It seemed certain that the Rorke's Drift detachment would share the terrible fate of their comrades. Following on from How Can Man Die Better, Colonel Snook brings the insights of a military professional to bear in this strikingly original account. It is an extraordinary tale a victory largely achieved by the sheer bloody-mindedness in adversity of the British infantryman, fighting at the remarkable odds of over thirty to one. The heroics of all eleven VC winners are recounted in detail, and we are offered new insights into how the Zulu attack unfolded and how 150 men achieved their improbable victory. The author describes the remainder of the war, from the recovery of the lost Queen's Colour of the 24th to the climactic charge of the 17th Lancers at Ulundi. We return to Isandlwana to consider culpability, and learn of the often tragic fates of many of the war's participants. Like Wolves is a remarkable work, and the author's unbridled respect for the fighting qualities of British soldier and his abiding affection for the Zulu people shines through.

    This model refers to a decision-making process and to the idea that military victory goes to the side that can complete the cycle from observation to action the fastest.This book aims to redress this state of affairs and re-examines John Boyd's original contribution to strategic theory. By highlighting diverse sources that shaped Boyd's thinking, and by offering a comprehensive overview of Boyd's work, this volume demonstrates that the common interpretation of the meaning of Boyd's OODA loop concept is incomplete. It also shows that Boyd's work is much more comprehensive, richer and deeper than is generally thought. With his ideas featuring in the literature on Network Centric Warfare, a key element of the US and NATO's so-called 'military transformation' programmes, as well as in the debate on Fourth Generation Warfare, Boyd continues to exert a strong influence on Western military thinking. Dr Osinga demonstrates how Boyd's work can helps us to understand the new strategic threats in the post- 9/11 world, and establishes why John Boyd should be regarded as one of the most important (post)modern strategic theorists.

    Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men's paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island—an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo—three were killed during the battle—were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley's father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: "The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back." Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.

    Offering a record of one of the pivotal events of World War II, as told through the personal accounts of the German and Soviet soldiers who fought in it, this book features photographs from the Battle of Stalingrad, from both sides of the front.

    

    Her role for most of the time was that of an expendable escort and she became the only ship to survive an Exocet hit. Incorporating vivid firsthand accounts and illustrated with photographs, the book also portrays the daily life of an escort under wartime conditions and describes only too clearly the tension, fear, storm, cold, disaster and sorrow which were so close at hand.New light is shed on the Belgrano affair and startling facts are revealed about other incidents including the high level conduct of the war. There is a detailed account of the successful deception plan, Operation Tornado, and the impact of the war on the families left at home.While attacking the enemy, Glamorgan faced missiles, bombs, shells and rockets. Personal accounts recall these attacks, and other operations including the Pebble Island raid. All the Exocet attacks on the Battle Group are included, culminating with the desperate fight to save the ship, which came perilously close to sinking. The aftermath and the trauma experienced by those who lost shipmates brings home the gruesome reality of war. Written by one who experienced at first hand that reality, Ordeal by Exocet is a gripping read for historian, enthusiast and general reader alike.

    Geoffrey Wellum's First Light was one example. The memoir of Timothy Vigors is another.Born in Hatfield but raised in Ireland and educated at Eton and Cranwell, Vigors found himself in France in 1940 flying Fairey Battle bombers. After the Fall he joined the fighters of 222 Squadron, with whom he saw frantic and distinguished service over Dunkirk and persevered through the dangerous days of the Battle of Britain, when he became an ace.Vigors transferred to the Far East in January 1941 as a flight commander with 243, then to 453 Squadron RAAF, and on December 10 of that year he led a flight of Buffaloes to cover the sinking Prince of Wales and Repulse. Dramatically shot down, burnt and attacked on his parachute, he was evacuated to Java, and from there, to India. As he describes these experiences in his handwritten account, the author provides a fascinating and valuable record, a newly discovered personal narrative of air combat destined to be seen as a classic.

    Now Bury Us Upside Down reveals the never-before-told story of the Vietnam War’s top-secret jet-fighter outfit–an all-volunteer unit composed of truly extraordinary men who flew missions from which heroes are made.In today’s wars, computers, targeting pods, lasers, and precision-guided bombs help FAC (forward air controller) pilots identify and destroy targets from safe distances. But in the search for enemy traffic on the elusive Ho Chi Minh Trail, always risking enemy fire, capture, and death, pilots had to drop low enough to glimpse the telltale signs of movement such as suspicious dust on treetops or disappearing tire marks on a dirt road (indicating a hidden truck park). Written by an accomplished journalist and veteran, Bury Us Upside Down is the stunning story of these brave Americans, the men who flew in the covert Operation Commando Sabre–or “Misty”–the most innovative air operation of the war.In missions that lasted for hours, the pilots of Misty flew zigzag patterns searching for enemy troops, vehicles, and weapons, without benefit of night-vision goggles, infrared devices, or other now common sensors. What they gained in exhilarating autonomy also cost them: of 157 pilots, 34 were shot down, 3 captured, and 7 killed. Here is a firsthand account of courage and technical mastery under fire. Here, too, is a tale of forbearance and loss, including the experience of the family of a missing Misty flier–Howard K. Williams–as they learn, after twenty-three years, that his remains have been found.Now that bombs are smart and remote sensors are even smarter, the missions that the Mistys flew would now be considered no less than suicidal. Bury Us Upside Down reminds us that for some, such dangers simply came with the territory.From the Hardcover edition.

    It follows Eddy Nugent, a bored fifteen-year-old, living in Manchester, as he travels through the drinking, swearing and sex-obsessed world of our nation's finest.

    This book collects the stories of those men, and of those who lived to a very old age and died only recently. They tell in their own words of suffering and courage, of humor and comradeship, and of experiences that some of them say they would not have missed for the world, in spite of the cost. Richard van Emden has interviewed veterans over many years and has not only recorded their words and given a brief historical background to each chapter, but, uniquely, included his own memories of these remarkable men, so that in the book we get to meet and know them. This book is a heartfelt tribute to those few old soldiers who today represent the sacrifices of a whole generation.

    Now he embarks upon his most ambitious epic, a trilogy about the military conflict that defined the twentieth century. The Rising Tide begins a staggering work of fiction bound to be a new generation's most poignant chronicle of World War II. With you-are-there immediacy, painstaking historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events that pulled America into the vortex of this monumental conflict.As Hitler conquers Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to hold the line. When Germany's ally Japan launches a stunning attack on Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war.Through unforgettable battle scenes in the unforgiving deserts of North Africa and the rugged countryside of Sicily, Shaara tells this story through the voices of this conflict's most heroic figures, some familiar, some unknown. As British and American forces strike into the "soft underbelly" of Hitler's Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus. In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.More than an unprecedented and intimate portrait of those who waged this astonishing global war, The Rising Tide is a vivid gallery of characters both immortal and unknown: the as-yet obscure administrator Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose tireless efficiency helped win the war; his subordinates, clashing in both style and personality, from George Patton and Mark Clark to Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. In the desolate hills and deserts, the Allies confront Erwin Rommel, the battlefield genius known as "the Desert Fox," a wounded beast who hands the Americans their first humiliating defeat in the European theater of the war. From tank driver to paratrooper to the men who gave the commands, Shaara's stirring portrayals bring the heroic and the tragic to life in brilliant detail.

    In 1982, David Morgan was an RAF officer, on secondment to the Royal Navy, when the Argentine invasion took place. He flew in the first British air strike against the enemy positions around Port Stanley, the raid memorably described by BBC reporter Brian Hanrahan who "counted them all out, and counted them all back." But three out of 30 British pilots were killed during the first week. Morgan was first on the scene at Bluff Cove, where Argentine jets had bombed the landing ships Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad, with great loss of life. He and his wingman pounced on four enemy Skyhawk fighter-bombers: he shot down two, his wingman hit the third; the fourth managed to escape after jettisoning his weapons and drop tanks. David Morgan was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery in 1982. He is also credited with downing several helicopters as well as pressing home ground attack missions in the teeth of heavy anti-aircraft fire. After the war, he met one of the Argentine pilots he fought, who had had him in his sights but discovered his guns were jammed. David Morgan is also a published poet and his writing style elevates his story above that of most other war memoirs. He includes heartfelt letters he sent back to England to his wife, his young children, and his former mistress. He had confessed to his affair just as the fleet sailed, and writes very movingly of the difficulty in rescuing personal relationships while sent to war the other side of the world. This intimate account of one pilot's war combines the adrenaline rush craved by every would-be Top Gun pilot with deeply sensitive reflection.

    . . a paper hug.

    From May 1967 through May 1968, Ted Arthurs was in the thick of it, humping an eighty-pound rucksack through triple canopy jungle, chasing down the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. As sergeant major for a battalion of 800 men, it was his job to see them through this jungle hell and get them back home again.

    He follows four men throughout: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled samurai who was the commander of all kamikazes and himself the last kamikaze of the war; and Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history."Sea of Thunder" climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS "Johnston" into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy -- and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.Thomas, a journalist and historian, traveled to Japan, where he interviewed veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy who survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf and friends and family of the two Japanese admirals. From new documents and interviews, he was able to piece together and answer mysteries about the Battle of LeyteGulf that have puzzled historians for decades. He writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures."Sea of Thunder" is a taut, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative of the last great naval war, an important contribution to the history of the Second World War.

    By March 1945, when Ben Robertson took to the skies above Japan in his B-29 Superfortress, the end of World War II in the Pacific seemed imminent.But although American forces were closing in on its home islands, Japan refused to surrender, and American B-29s were tasked with hammering Japan to its knees with devastating bomb runs.That meant flying low-altitude, night-time incendiary raids under threat of flak, enemy fighters, mechanical malfunction, and fatigue.It may have been the beginning of the end, but just how soon the end would come – and whether Robertson and his crew would make it home – was far from certain.

    A direct descendant of the legendary mountain man Smoke Jensen, he is destined to continue his ancestor's legacy of heroism. For the courage, strength, and honor of a man never dies... Into The Dark Lieutenant Colonel Art Jensen finds himself a soldier without an army after he is caught on tape killing an Iraqi terrorist in a Baghdad firefight--only to have the media make him out to be a murderer. A career spent serving his beloved country now seems to be over... Until Jensen receives a new set of orders--secret orders. He is promoted to brigadier general, and placed in charge of the Special Function Unit--a new, covert "black ops" team. A team of one. The terrorists are already here. Financed and trained by a billionaire Saudi prince determined to bring the infidel America to its knees, a number of sleeper cells within the U.S are being activated. Officially, the politically protected prince is untouchable, and his campaign of terror stands ready to begin. But Art Jensen is no longer a soldier bound by orders--he's a weapon, bound by duty and honor, and he has one mission: to destroy the enemy within.

    Drawing on oral history recordings, official archives and accounts by over 300 veterans, this title presents the history of this regiment.

    Coast Guard rescue swimmer. In startlingly clear and exceptional writing, it tells twelve heroic stories of the greatest maritime rescues attempted since the program was started in 1985. These feats, told through the eyes of the hero, reveal an understanding of how and why the rescuer, with flight crew assistance, risks his or her own life to reach out to save a stranger. The book covers diverse environments: oceans, hurricanes, oil rigs, caves, sinking vessels, floods, and even Niagara Falls. It is truly a can't-put-it-down collection.

    The award-winning, iconic photo of Marines raising the American flag during the battle is remembered by millions as the symbol of how hard fought the victory was in the war.Iwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle: United States Marines in thePacific takes this iconic flag-raising image one step further. In incredible duotone reproduction, over 500 photos taken by Marine Corps combat photographers during the battle are featured, including over 300 never-before-published that were discovered in Marine Corps archives by author and military historian Eric Hammel. The photos vividly recreate the battle, as it happened: the pummeling of inland targets, the strafing, and the rocket fire that accompanied the landing; the eerie silence that greeted the Marines as they set foot on the island; and then, as the newly-landed Marines regrouped on the shoreline, the horrors of all hell breaking loose. The book also includes detailed maps as well as profiles of each Medal of Honor winner from the battle - including the citation from the President to each honoree reproduced in its entirety that includes detailed descriptions of courage and valor under fire.The fighting on Iwo Jima—thirty-four of the bloodiest days of the Pacific War—comes to harrowing life in this volume, and this book is an instant classic in the genre and a necessary addition to any serious collection of World War II literature.

    Two years later, he volunteered to go for a second tour of duty. Determined not to die in a losing cause, and relentlessly searching for that next adrenaline rush, Rasimus and the other F-4 Phantom pilots continued the ferocious air war in the North--dodging SAMs and gunning for MiGs--and routinely cheated death.When America finally got serious about ending the war, Rasimus and the other pilots put it all on the line, pounding Hanoi with everything they had, and flying above POW camps to let the troops know they were not alone. Gripping, earnest, and unforgettable, Rasimus's combat memoir is, in the end, a heartfelt tribute to those who never made it back.

    Children will discover why drill sergeants have to be so tough, what it means to be patriotic and why we need Special Forces such as the Navy SEALS, the Green Berets and the Army Rangers. H is for Honor also explains why the annual Army/Navy football game is more than just a game, how much letters from home mean to soldiers, how often military families have to move and what life on base is like. With an underlying message of courage and commitment that every child can relate to, the book will be especially meaningful to those whose parents, siblings or other relatives serve in the Armed Forces.

    This volume covers the continuing Spanish resistance to French occupation, the renewed French invasion of Portugal, and the return to the Peninsula and subsequent victories of Sir Arthur Wellesley, including his outmanoeuvring of the French from Oporto and culminating in the hard-fought victory at Talavera.

    Originally dispatched to protect Belgian colonists in Jadotville, they were isolated, without water, supplies or support when they were attacked and forced to defend themselves in a brutal and bloody five day battle. Shamefully neglected by their superiors, they were portrayed as cowards upon their return home.Heroes of Jadotville: the Soldiers’ Story tells, in the words and memories of those who fought there, what really happened in Africa that fateful September. Rose Doyle uses interviews, reports, journals and letters to bring answers and clarity to an episode long ignored. She blows the lid on the real story of what happened in Africa, exposing how Irish peacekeeping soldiers became pawns in an international affair for control of Katanga and its vast mineral wealth. About the author:Rose Doyle is a writer and journalist. Her novels, seventeen in all, include Fate and Tomorrow (set in the Congo in 1902) and Shadows Will Fall – both international bestsellers. Trade Names, the book of her long-running series in The Irish Times, was published by New Island in 2004. Comdt Patrick Quinlan, who led the Irish UN troops at Jadotville, was her uncle.

    

    Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.

    Working with the French Resistance, the “Jeds” launched a stunningly effective guerrilla campaign against the German war machine. In this compelling narrative, Colin Beavan, whose grandfather Gerry Miller helped direct the operation for the OSS, tells the incredible story of the rowdy daredevils who carried out America’s first special-forces mission. Drawing on scores of interviews with Jeds, Beavan’s history reads like a spy thriller. Dodging Gestapo spies, the Jeds armed and trained fighters who liberated Paris, snarled German transport throughout France, and provided essential cover to the invading Allied forces. Beavan focuses on key figures like William Colby, Stewart Alsop, and John Singlaub—all of whom went on to high-profile postwar careers—and shows how Jedburgh pioneered the specialforces procedures still used in Iraq and Afghanistan today. This gripping history of the original special ops mission makes a major contribution to the literature of American warfare.

    After decades of silence, this survivor of one of World War II's most horrific battles divulges the gritty details of his incredible experiences. Upon landing with a company of 250 marines, Wahlen fought alongside them. Under repeated grenade and mortar fire himself, Wahlen refused evacuation, preferring to aid those he perceived to be in greater danger. Witnesses of his heroics remain dumbfounded he survived, and while his incredible feats of bravery saved countless marines, the intensity of the battle left few men of the company unscathed—they suffered the highest killed-in-action ratio of any marine company during a single battle in U.S. history. The significance of his story lies in the historic context of the battle for Iwo Jima; while many remember the iconic flag-raising photograph captured during this conflict, few realize the battle was the most costly of World War II for America. After receiving a Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman in 1945, Wahlen has been the quintessential quiet hero, refusing the adulation usually bestowed on nationally recognized veterans.

    Through those stories, the author was given the unique insight into the men who struggled to survive in a war many of us didn't understand. The author also brings to us some of his own experiences, in this engrossing time in our history. Fast paced and full of action and drama, this raw and powerful story takes you on a journey into the jungles, villages and hamlets of Vietnam, and the men in the thick of the fight. The author dedicates this story and all of his work to our Veterans and those that serve to protect our freedom today. The new 4th edition has new details and added content to more accurately describe the tour of an Army soldier in Vietnam.

    Essays from authors of diverse backgrounds--British and American, Civilian and Military--present an overwhelming argument for the necessity of the study of the past by today's military leaders in spite of these challenges. Part I examines the relationship between history and the military profession. Part II explores specific historical cases that reveal the repetitiveness of certain military problems.

    The author describes this as "What I did, and what you can do to find out what 'he' did in the army."The book gives an overview of the Army in World War II, from the basics up. Learn the difference between a corporal and a major, or a squad and a brigade. What can you tell from a serial number? What is the difference between the quartermaster corps and the transportation corps? What was the path most soldiers took from civilian life to trained soldier? What (and where) is the ETO, PTO and ATO? All the basic facts you need to understand Army service in WW2.He goes on to explain how to find information from such sources as discharges, uniforms, paperwork, the National Personnel records center, National Archives, other facilities and what you can expect from veterans organizations (and how to find them). Places to look for information and what you can or cannot get from them.Finally the book helps you to assemble the data you have collected and piece the story of your relatives' wartime service together. It also gives advice on preserving the memories - oral histories, photos, artifacts, documents, etc.Detailed appendices give information on such things as insignia of ranks and branches, listing of common MOS's, a breakdown of each division by sub unit, with a brief history and a listing of their campaigns, a capsule history of each campaign and a bibliography of useful books on various campaigns and units. Color illustrations of campaign ribbons, decorations and insignia accompany the detailed text.This book addresses an increasing need to record and understand the lives of the greatest generation and their service to the country.

    Wellington's army invaded southern France, only halting its operations when news was received of Napoleon's abdication. The events covered in this volume include the British siege and capture of St Sebastian; the final campaigning in eastern Spain; Wellington's invasion of France; and the last actions of the war in the Battle of Toulouse and the French sortie from Bayonne. A chapter on the place of the Peninsular War in history concludes Oman's monumental work.

    Each year, 4.5 million people come to the Wall. Many of them leave letters or other special objects. Every night, park rangers collect and inventory these mementos—now numbering well over 90,000—and put them into government storage.Michael Sofarelli, the son of a Vietnam War veteran, has combed through the archives searching for the most gripping letters and objects: a mother awaiting word of her missing son, a former comrade recounting a battle story, a pair of well-worn ballet slippers, and a collection of cigars. These items are not only a tribute to the fallen soldiers; they pay tribute as well to the families and friends who waited at home and the comrades who have never forgotten their brothers. They tell the story of a war that is still being fought by many who served and a conflict that changed the lives of many Americans forever.

    Indeed, during the last year of World War II, American spies in Indochina found themselves working closely with Ho Chi Minh and other anti-colonial factions--compelled by circumstances to fight together against the Japanese. Dixee Bartholomew-Feis reveals how this relationship emerged and operated and how it impacted Vietnam's struggle for independence.The men of General William Donovan's newly-formed Office of Strategic Services closely collaborated with communist groups in both Europe and Asia against the Axis enemies. In Vietnam, this meant that OSS officers worked with Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, whose ultimate aim was to rid the region of all imperialist powers, not just the Japanese. Ho, for his part, did whatever he could to encourage the OSS's negative view of the French, who were desperate to regain their colony. Revealing details not previously known about their covert operations, Bartholomew-Feis chronicles the exploits of these allies as they developed their network of informants, sabotaged the Japanese occupation's infrastructure, conducted guerrilla operations, and searched for downed American fliers and Allied POWs.Although the OSS did not bring Ho Chi Minh to power, Bartholomew-Feis shows that its apparent support for the Viet Minh played a significant symbolic role in helping them fill the power vacuum left in the wake of Japan's surrender. Her study also hints that, had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and their quest for independence, rather than caving in to the French, we might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam.Based partly on interviews with surviving OSS agents who served in Vietnam, Bartholomew-Feis's engaging narrative and compelling insights speak to the yearnings of an oppressed people--and remind us that history does indeed make strange bedfellows.

    Neither the Gudgeon nor the crew were ever seen again. This volume gives an account of this submarine's exploits, the men aboard and her demise.

    Anytime, Baby! is an unforgettable collection of final-phase Tomcat milestones captured and preserved forever in some of the most detailed and dynamic photographic compositions Hildebrandt has ever attempted. From riding along with VF-211, the last squadron to ever fly the F-14A, to flying with VF-32 on the last deployment of the F-14B in the Arabian Gulf in 2005, Hildebrandt has been witness to the end of an era. Anytime, Baby! is an important historic record as much as it is an artistic and beautiful tribute to the most popular American fighter in history. A true "must-have" addition for the aviation enthusiasts as well as former and current Navy and Marine Corp service personnel.

    In the midst of crashing bombs and depleted stores, the vastly outnumbered lines broke and commands disintegrated. Only one unit, 'Old Two Hon'erd," a small band of New Mexico National Guardsmen, remained intact. With only rifles, a few rounds of ammunition, and an unshakable esprit de corps, they prepared to die but not surrender. In her award-winning history, Dorothy Cave follows the members of a small unit who played a key role in this pivotal moment in history. They were the first unit to fire when the Japanese struck. They guarded the bridges of the strategic retreat as all others crossed into Bataan to make the now-famous stand. They were the last to lay down arms, and did so only when ordered by the high command. Then followed the Death March, starvation, and brutality of Japanese POW camps and Hell Ships. Laughing at their captors, they sabotaged the Japanese war machine at every chance. They were still fighting in Uncle Sam's army and only half returned. Amid human depravity, described in graphic detail, they kept their faith, honor, and a profound love of their country. Theirs is a legacy of courage and something beyond. Dorothy Cave's literary credits include two Southwest Writers' Awards, the Simon Scanlon Award, and the International Literary Award. She has served as historical consultant for two film documentaries on the Battle of Bataan and the ensuing POW experience, and appears in both films as commentator. This book, now, classic, is widely regarded as "the definitive volume" on the subject. Cave's other books, all from Sunstone Press, include "Four Trails to Valor," "Mountains of the Blue Stone," "Song on a Blue Guitar," and "God's Warrior: Father Albert Braun, O.F.M., Last of the Frontier Priests."

    The Talons and their mission are insidiously corrupted with murder for profit to further the political career and power by the president's trusted advisor, his Vice President.Kayla Sinclair was touted as the best woman downhill skier in the world and was predicted to win more medals than any woman in the history of the Olympic Games. Kayla was at the top of her game when an avalanche crashed down on her, causing her to spiral into a liquor bottle to escape her losses.A twist of fate brings these two emotionally damaged women together during a tumultuous time in the history of the country. Liberty discovers the heartbreak of betrayal and becomes the hunted. Can she find peace and absolution? Can she rekindle a small spark of humanity that still burns in a soul that is coated with the blood of those she's killed? Will Kayla overcome her demons and hatred for the mountain and allow her heart to heal and to love?

    One of the first (and the best-informed) Western observers to say that the United States could not win there either, he was killed in Vietnam in 1967 while accompanying a Marine platoon. Written by his widow Dorothy, Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar tells the story of this courageous and influential Frenchman, who experienced many of the major events of the twentieth century. His mother perished at Auschwitz, his father was killed by the Gestapo, and he himself fought in the Resistance. It focuses, however, on Vietnam and on two love stories. The first details Fall’s love for Vietnam and his efforts to save the country from destruction and the United States from disaster. The second shows a husband and father dedicated to a cause that continuously lured him away from those he loved. With a foreword by the late David Halberstam.

    Underground nuclear tests in Nevada have set off earthquakes. A Russian company has been offering to sell typhoons (hurricanes) on demand since the 1990s, and scientists have been searching for ways to move hurricanes for over fifty years. In the same amount of time we went from the Wright Brothers to Neil Armstrong, hundreds of environmental and weather modifying technologies have been patented in the US alone and hundreds more are being developed in civilian, academic, military and quasi-military laboratories around the world at this moment! This book lays bare the grim facts of who is doing it and why. * up-dates recent developments at HAARP, including its possible connection to the crash of the Space Shuttle Columbia * did HAARP play a role in Hurricane Katrina? Smith puts these technologies into context by examining the geopolitical conflicts that are driving their development from Globalization and the rise of Neo-Con Neo-Fascism to terrorism and "Peak Oil." ... [terrorists]... are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves? -- US Secretary of Defense William Cohen, April, 1997

    A surface ship officer in contrast to a "brown shoe" naval aviator--Fletcher led the carrier forces that won against all odds at Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons. These and other early carrier victories decided the Pacific War not only because they inflicted crippling losses but also because they denied Japan key strategic positions in the region. Despite these successes, by 1950 Fletcher had become one of the most controversial figures in U.S. naval history and portrayed as a timid bungler who failed to relieve Wake Island in December 1941 and who deliberately abandoned the Marines at Guadalcanal.

    Army National Guard, Paul Rieckhoff was charged with leading thirty-eight men in Iraq. He spent almost a year in one of the bloodiest and most volatile areas of Baghdad. And when he finally came home, he vowed to tell Americans the harrowing truth. He does just that, uncensored and unrehearsed, and with wit and passion (Arianna Huffington), in Chasing Ghosts-the first criticism of the Iraq war written by a soldier who fought in it.

    Tracing back four decades and more, Brainwashed for War - Programmed to Kill documents the atrocities carried out by the imperialist forces to subjugate the peoples of the world. Replete with documentary evidence, this volume exposes the vile propaganda warfare, mind-control, and brainwashing operations carried out by some of the most powerful clandestine intelligence agencies in the word - including Mossad, the CIA and MI6 - and how these operations have come to impact our lives today. Included in this opus of veritable knowledge for our future true independence and freedom are 14 appendices containing historical speeches and literature, declassified top secret documents, and intelligence doctrines - of which all but three are reproduced in full - amounting to just about 200 pages of arduously researched must-read information! - A gripping expose. The Military-Industrial Complex Propaganda behind the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the War on Terrorism. - Out in the Open: Mind-Control Programs/Operations of the Mossad, CIA, MI6, etc. - Truth Revealed. How we became War Junkies. - "By Way of Deception Thou Shalt Make War" - Slogan of the Israeli Mossad.------------How they make millions and LOVE war. . . . New technologies for political control . . . Secrets of mind control . . . War propaganda—half-truths, limited truths and lies . . . Brainwashed for War: Programmed to Kill 561 fascinating pages . . . including charts, graphs & diagrams Here’s an overview of some of the fascinating—and wide-ranging—topics addressed in BRAINWASHED FOR WAR: PROGRAMMED TO KILL . . . PART 1:A CENTURY OF WARS AND CONTINUING...The Economics of War—Part 1: War is Big Business The Economics of War—Part 2: Paper Money and War The War Constitution of the 20th Century The Mindset of Warmongers The National Security State—Military State Capitalism The Megadeath Intellectuals and the War Constitution PART 2:FUTURE WARS Perpetual Wars—Part 1: Burgers and Bullets Perpetual Wars—Part 2: Back to Hot Wars Again The WMD Lies, Again—Act 2, Scene 1 Another War Party: First Get the Sunnis, Next the Shiites! Dirty Wars: The Brutality Business Pain Merchants’ Trail of Bloodand the Odor of Death PART 3:PSYCHOLOGY OF WAR: MAKING WAR JUNKIES Torture and Murder Inc.: The Brutality Business Revisited The Brainwashed Mind: New Technologies for Political Control The Brainwashed Mind: The Secrets of Mind Control The Mind Rapists: Inside the Dark Labyrinth War Propaganda—Part 1: PsyOps in the 21st Century War Propaganda—Part 2: Half-Truths and Lies PART 4: ENDGAME: MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE VS THE AWAKENED MIND Packaging War—Part 1: The “Truth” Peddlers Packaging War—Part 2: The “Truth” Forgers The Empire Mindset—The Geographical Combatant CommanderPOSTSCRIPTAPPENDICESAppendix 1The War Criminals—They Hang Them, Don’t They?

    In the 70s, it was often repeated that terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead; today, it is more accurate to say that terrorists want a lot of people dead, and even more people crippled by fear and grief. A major strategic intent of modern terrorists is to use larger scale physical attacks to cause stress in the general population. These changes in terrorist strategy have made it clear that we need better psychological and social responses to terrorism and man-made disasters. The psychological science needed to provide proper and effective treatment for victims of horrendous events, such as September 11th, and future potential terrorist acts, simply does not exist, so military, medical, and psychological experts must work together to improve their understanding of mass casualty terrorism.In Psychology of Terrorism leading national and international experts present the first results of this effort, including the newest findings on treatment of and clinical responses to terrorism along with their respective underlying theories. They address the history of terrorism; types and effects of weapons of mass destruction or disruption; the role of the military, government agencies, and volunteer groups in responding to terrorist threats; psychological consequences of terrorism; and treatment of special populations such as children and older adults.This volume will be an ideal text for both academic and professional courses as well as a comprehensive resource for mental health clinicians and researchers, medical care providers, educators, public health specialists, government employees, police and fire departments, and non-profit agencies that provide services and craft policy.

    'In Pursuit' covers, in detail, all of the positives and negatives, the things to do and the things not to do in order to become a 'Top Gun' as a fighter pilot.

    Zabecki discovered translated copies of these files in a collection of old instructional material at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He presents his findings here for the first time, with a thorough review of the surviving original operational plans and orders, to offer a wealth of fresh insights to the German Offensives of 1918.David T. Zabecki clearly demonstrates how the German failure to exploit the vulnerabilities in the BEF's rail system led to the failure of the first two offensives, and how inadequacies in the German rail system determined the outcome of the last three offensives. This is a window into the mind of the German General Staff of World War I, with thorough analysis of the German planning and decision making processes during the execution of battles. This is also the first study in English or in German to analyze the specifics of the aborted Operation HAGEN plan. This is also the first study of the 1918 Offensives to focus on the 'operational level of war' and on the body of military activity known as 'the operational art', rather than on the conventional tactical or strategic levels.This book will be of great interest to all students of World War I, the German Army and of strategic studies and military theory in general.

    • This big, illustrated volume examines all of the significant tanks and armored vehicles of the world, from the very first tanks of World War One to modern combat engineer vehicles.• Divided into three easy-to-use sections, you're sure to find the information you're looking for quickly. Select from World War One and World War Two, The Cold War, and The Modern Era.• Each section is meticulously arranged by type: Tanks, armored vehicles, light vehicles, amphibious vehicles and half tracks.• Roll across Europe in a relentless Panther! Defend the Iron Curtain in a Russian T-10! Conduct modern warfare in the Gulf from a tough Bradley M2!• Also included are profiles of famous military transport like Tiger and Sherman Tanks, Rolls-Royce armored cars, and Scorpion recon tanks.

    Norman Polmar’s revised and updated, two-volume classic describes the political and technological factors that influenced aircraft carrier design and construction, meticulously records their operations, and explains their impact on modern warfare. Volume I provides a comprehensive analysis of carrier developments and warfare in the first half of the twentieth century, and examines the advances that allowed the carrier to replace the battleship as the dominant naval weapons system. Polmar gives particular emphasis to carrier operations from World War I, through the Japanese strikes against China in the 1930s, to World War II in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, and Pacific theaters. It begins with French inventor Clément Ader’s remarkably prescient 1909 description of an aircraft carrier. The book then explains how Britain led the world in the development of aircraft-carrying ships, soon to be followed by the United States and Japan. While ship-based aircraft operations in World War I had limited impact, they foreshadowed the aircraft carriers built in the 1920s and 1930s. The volume also describes the aircraft operating from those ships as well as the commanders who pioneered carrier aviation.Aircraft Carriers has benefited from the technical collaboration of senior carrier experts Captain Eric M. Brown and General Minoru Genda as well as noted historians Robert M. Langdon and Peter B. Mersky. Aircraft Carriers is heavily illustrated with more than 400 photographs—some never before published—and maps.Volume II, which is forthcoming from Potomac Books in the winter 2006-2007 (ISBN 978-1-57488-665-8), will cover the period 1946 to the present.

    It speaks to loss in each of the service branches, across the span of rank and rates, and offers invaluable insights and practical strategies for dealing with this life-altering tragedy. The authors expertly blend personal experience with guidance from leading experts on grief and traumatic loss and translate ten years of lessons learned into an effective guide. Short, easy-to-read chapters provide realistic profiles of widows and their responses to loss and the complications generated in the unique world of the military, as well as insight on how to make difficult decisions and cope with everyday situations. Although written primarily for the widow, this book will also prove useful to other family members, friends, and military professionals.

    John Monroe Smith is a living legend in Naval aviation: an all-American boy living his dream, a dream of becoming the best fighter pilot and carrier aviator in the Navy. He succeeded in being the best in a way that only one with unbridled passion, fierce commitment, boundless energy, unconditional dedication and relentless resolve can experience." -Ed Allen, Rear Admiral, USN (Retired) In the wake of the hard lessons of the Vietnam War, a pantheon of committed naval aviators struggled valiantly to modernize fighter aircraft and overhaul tactics. It was a seemingly titanic task marked by political intrigue, doctrinal apoplexy, and sadly, petty politics. This is the personal story of one of those naval aviators, Captain John Monroe "Hawk" Smith. It chronicles his growth as a naval officer, his seasoning as a fighter pilot, and his hardening as a commanding officer. It tells of the raw courage of naval aviators and captures the visceral loyalty, unswerving commitment, and the unsinkable camaraderie that is the brotherhood of naval aviation. Roger Ball! is a seven-g, heart-in-the-throat story of the very unforgiving profession of naval aviation.

    But the latter soon proved particularly pointless as the private first class found himself in the thick of two pivotal, fiercely fought Big Red One operations, going head-to-head against crack Viet cong and NVA troops in the notorious Iron Triangle and along the treacherous Cambodian border near Tay Ninh.Patrols, ambushes, plunging down VC tunnels, search and destroy missions–there were many ways to drive the enemy from his own backyard, as Ronnau quickly discovered. Based on the journal Ronnau kept in Vietnam, Blood Trails captures the hellish jungle war in all its stark life-and-death immediacy. This wrenching chronicle is also stirring testimony to the quiet courage of those unsung American heroes, many not yet twenty-one, who had a job to do and did it without complaint–fighting, sacrificing, and dying for their country. Includes sixteen pages of rare and never-before-seen combat photosFrom the Paperback edition.

    That sequence of articles is complete and the time has now come for a revised and expanded version of the results of their work as a single bound volume.The US Marine Corps has always enjoyed a special status among the American Armed Forces, as well as boasting distinctive uniforms and emblems.This new book presents the large variety of dress uniforms for both officers and enlisted men, as well as combat uniforms and specialty camouflage garments.Hundreds of items of clothing, equipment and insignia are illustrated by reenactment photos of the famous 'leathernecks' in the form of large format color plates. Many period photos found in official American archives are also reproduced and help place the reenactment shots in the correct historical context.This new volume maintains the usual exceptional quality standards of Histoire and Collections: carefully-researched historical background, hundreds of concisely captioned color photographs of authentic artifacts and reenactment photographs taken in studio conditions to allow the reader to see the uniforms and equipment in the greatest clarity.returncharacterreturncharacter returncharacterreturncharacter REVIEWS returncharacterreturncharacter"lavishly illustrated study of US Marine Corps uniforms and individual equipment...sumptous photography...Hundreds of crisp, high quality color photos..."Military Trader.Com, 8/07

    In addition to providing a fascinating account of the McCook men and the women whom they loved, the Whalens capture the political, military, and social climate of the time. This is not only a story about war. This is a story about life in early America. Thanks to twenty years of research and writing, the story of this legendary family and one of America's most self-sacrificing families of all time is finally seeing the light of day. From the first shot fired in the Civil War to the last, the Fighting McCooks were an ever-present force on the battlefield, in Washington, and beyond. Their lives were intimately intertwined with the most powerful men of the time, including President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and General Ulysses S. Grant. But the McCooks were just as comfortable on the front line of battle fighting shoulder to shoulder with their compatriots. Heroic and bold, they fought on forty-six battlefields. No major battle took place in the western theater of war that did not include at least one of the seventeen Fighting McCooks. When war broke out, the McCooks were as diverse as any large family and nearly all were college educated. They were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, politicians, and judges. Two were West Point and Naval Academy graduates. Yet they all had a common thread, they were determined to save the Union. In their quest, three became major generals, three brigadier generals, one naval lieutenant, four surgeons, two colonels, one major, one lieutenant, one private, and one chaplain. Four gave their lives.

    Developed late in World War I (1914-1918) to be a fearsome trench-warfare weapon, the Thompson submachine gun's fame and success came in unexpected quarters. An iconic and innovative design, the M1921 Thompson was soon adopted by Prohibition-era gangs and used ruthlessly on the streets of New York and Chicago. But its military career was relaunched with the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), used by armies, commandos and resistance groups worldwide.Using expert knowledge and first-hand accounts, this chronicle of one of the world's greatest submachine guns analyzes the Thompson's development, its legacy, and the experiences of the men who used it in combat. Features rare photographs and original artwork by Peter Dennis.

    Includes 8 pages of photographs and 1 map.

    In crafting his work to reflect poignant moments or critical circumstances of the conflict, he has turned to leading historians and scholars for informative details that he has then translated on canvas to create an indelible image of this defining ordeal in America's history. More than 160 of these images?supplemented by preliminary sketches, early studies, and photographs of works in progress?are the basis for this book. Kunstler has also explored the human side of this national struggle. Thus he has produced thoughtful studies of leaders at decisive moments, instances of daily camp life for the soldiers, and those early romantic notions that it would be a bloodless war, predicated on the belief that a show of inner strength would prevail. In the past twenty years, Kunstler's portfolio has been published in twelve books, including companion pieces for the epic films ?Ge

    At 13 Johnson Beharry quit school and worked as a decorator and labourer. In 1999 he scraped together the airfare for England and joined the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. He served six months in Kosovo, three months in Northern Ireland and then went to Iraq. On 1 May 2004, Beharry helped assist a foot patrol caught in a series of ambushes. His vehicle was hit by multiple rocket propelled grenades but he drove through the ambush and extracted his wounded colleagues from the vehicle, all the time exposed to further enemy fire. He was cited on this occasion for 'valour of the highest order'. While back on duty on 11 June 2004, a rocket propelled grenade hit Beharry's vehicle incapacitating his commander and injuring several of the crew. Despite his very serious head injuries, Beharry took control of his vehicle and drove it out of the ambush area before losing consciousness. He required brain surgery for his head injuries, and he was still recovering when he was awarded the VC in March 2005.

    The Encyclopedia of Warships is an exciting compendium of more than 300 of the finest battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, and cruisers ever built.Each ship is described in great detail and is illustrated with full-color artwork and photographs of the ship in action. You'll learn all about each vessel's design, development, and service record.It's arranged in chronological order by type of vessel and provides a selective guide to the most important fighting vessels from WWII onward. Naval buffs will especially enjoy the meticulous specification tables featuring information on dimensions, powerplant, performance, armament, speed, and complement. This requisite reference includes legendary grey ladies like the Bismarck and the U.S.S. Enterprise.

    In this groundbreaking book, Rob Morris has sought out remarkable but little-known stories of the air war from the men who lived and fought it.Based on hundreds of interviews with American veterans and their families, Untold Valor illuminates the courage of airmen whose exploits have until now remained untold. Read about Jewish aviators’ experiences as POWs in German camps. Learn about American airmen who were imprisoned, even killed, by the neutral Swiss and about two Air Corps enlisted men who changed U.S. policy toward liberated concentration camp survivors. Also discover the unusual story of Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering’s nephew, who flew B-17 missions against Germany. While some of the stories cover major events, most are about incidents and individuals misrepresented or overlooked by history books. Yet their efforts were vital, their lives forever changed.Detailed and moving, Untold Valor is certain to interest the serious air historian and the casual reader alike. With a foreword by the editor of B–17s Over Berlin.

    But on June 6, 1944, at Utah Beach, he learned more about war than he had gleaned from all the books he'd read combined. General Maxwell Taylor assigned Sergeant Nibley to educate the officers of the 101st Airborne about warfare. But it was the professor himself that received an education while fighting as a member of the most legendary unit of the United States Army. Most war memoirs come either from the bird's-eye view of the general or from the visceral but limited scope of the common soldier. Because of Nibley's unique situation, this book blends both perspectives. From the narrow view of a sergeant in a foxhole to the broader perspective of an intelligence specialist, his experience offers an intimate, realistic and articulate view of World War II.

    The Devil’s Sandbox is the story of the 2nd Battalion of Oregon’s 162nd Infantry Regiment (2/162) and provides readers an intimate look at the reality of National Guardsmen at war. This book explores not only portraits of battle, but forward-looking civil affairs projects aimed at rebuilding the nation of Iraq and the American community coping without many of its people - its accountants, lawyers, and mechanics - as a result of extended combat.

    When one man – CIA analyst Sam Adams – uncovered documents suggesting a Viet Cong army more than twice as numerous as previously reckoned, another war erupted, this time within the ranks of America's intelligence community. This clandestine conflict, which burst into public view during the acrimonious lawsuit Westmoreland v. CBS, involved the highest levels of the U.S. government. The central issue in the trial, as in the war itself, was the calamitous failure of our intelligence agencies to ascertain the strength of the Viet Cong and get that information to our troops in a timely fashion. The legacy of this failure – whether due to institutional inertia, misguided politics, or individual hubris – haunts our nation. And Sam Adams’ tireless crusade for “honest intelligence” resonates strongly today.To detractors like Richard Helms, Adams was an obsessive zealot; to others, he was a patriot of rare integrity and moral courage. Adams was the driving force behind the CBS ninety-minute documentary The Uncounted Enemy, produced by George Crile and hosted by Mike Wallace. Westmoreland brought a lawsuit seeking $120 million in damages against Adams and Wallace in what headlines around the country trumpeted as the libel trial of the century. Westmoreland dropped his suit before the case could be sent to the jury.Who the Hell Are We Fighting? is the first serious narrative history of Adams' controversial discovery of the Vietnam "numbers gap." Hiam's book is a timeless, cautionary tale that combines the best elements of biography, military history, and current affairs.

    Complete with facsimiles of key documents, it's a vivid introduction to Napoleon's astonishing career and his effect on world history. Best-selling author Richard Holmes brings the era's great battles to life while he recounts in detail how Napoleon transformed the French nation, forging a pattern that shapes modern governments to this day.

    Illustrated with many rare and previously unpublished photos with very detailed captions. Includes: M3A1 Scout Cars, Universal Carriers, Dingo, Daimler, Humber and Lynx Scout Cars, M10s, Stuarts and Shermans. Contains 136 b/w photos, 19 full-color plates of artwork, 1 table of unit serial numbers, 4 tables of organization & equipment.

    After my father's death, my mother spent many winters with my husband and I here in Florida. During these visits, she and I transcribed my father's World War II diaries into German from the old "Gabelsberger" shorthand, which only Mama was able to read. Subsequently, I translated them into English. These diaries fortunately were discovered by my sister Sigrid in the attic upon the sale of the old family home after my father's passing in 1989. She felt Mama and I should translate these books for the family. At a later point many friends and acquaintances encouraged me, to publish this diary, to document his thoughts, experiences, and innermost feelings from the beginning of his conscripted military service in 1939 through 1946, when he returned home after being released from a French POW labor camp. During the latter part of 1946 and into 1947, an epilog describes his daily struggles to return to normalcy, the resumption of his teaching career, and the search for food to feed his family. He describes his touching love for his family, as well as his anger and hatred for the insane war and its inept leaders. A war, he was forced to participate in as an ordinary German soldier. Many times he naively commented very unfavorably, sometimes using "choice words" about Hitler, the Nazi Party, and his superiors, a risk, if found out, could have cost him his life. I myself have many memories of the war and its horrors as a little girl without a father, spending night after night in a bunker, the "liberation" of our small town by the Americans. This has left deep and lasting impressions on me. Later on, I met a wonderful American with whom I fell in love and married, with my father proudly walking me down the aisle. This, in spite of the resentment he held against Americans, for shamefully turning him over to the French as a forced labor POW. I remember his sadness, when his little "Murschel," as he used to call me, left for America wit

    However, Robert Lyman reveals here how in the summer of 1941, beleaguered British forces put together a series of largely forgotten victories in Iraq, Syria and Iran that secured crucial supplies of oil and curbed dangerous German expansion in the region. It's an exciting story of victories achieved against the odds - fraught negotiations between London, Cairo and New Delhi, hastily assembled troops and campaigns fought and won in harsh desert conditions. The siege of the RAF base at Lake Habbaniya in Iraq is a brilliant example of this, and forms one of the most exciting passages in the book. 1941 could have been the year in which Britain lost the war - Lyman reveals here how close we came.

    Jack Lagan believes there is nothing so valuable at sea as standing on a deck and just knowing where you are using special knowledge about the sea and the sky and using your senses--in other words, practical technology-free navigation. Part 1 looks at the navigation achievements of the ancient seafarers--the Pacific islanders, the Vikings, the Phoenicians, the Arabs and the Chinese. Just how did the South Pacific islanders manage to populate every habitable island in an area bigger than North America? And did the Phoenicians really circumnavigate Africa 2,000 years before Vasco de Gama? Part 2 explains how to use the wind, swell, sun and stars to estimate position and hold a course. And how sea breezes, isolated clouds and seabirds can make a landfall safer. Part 3. shows how you can use DIY devices to calculate latitude, obtain bearings and estimate longitude. Part 4 describes how all these techniques can be used in survival situations The Barefoot Navigator is about wayfinding from what you can see around you and what you have in your head. It will fascinate navigators and landlubbers alike.

    Yet in 1759, Wolfe's victory, bought at the cost of his life, ensured that English, not French, would become the dominant language in North America. But was there more to James Wolfe than a celebrated death? This book seeks to answer that question.

    This is the story of the trials and exploits, the victories and defeats, of one of those units. This book takes us from the first ever assault against a terrorist ship carrying weapons of mass destruction to attack London, to the epic siege of the terrorist-held Qala-I-Janghi fortress in Afghanistan. In the interim, our half-a-dozen soldier-characters deliver suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars in cash to 'friendly' Afghan warlords; they penetrate the towering heights of the uncharted Naka Valley, where allied intelligence has identified the mother of all terrorist training camps; they fight in the labyrinthine tunnels running beneath the Afghan mountains; and they risk all to rescue their fellow soldiers from a downed aircraft stranded on a snow-blasted mountain peak. The book culminates in the single battle in which more terrorists were killed than any other in Afghanistan: the siege of Qala-I-Janghi, an ancient mud-walled fortress used to imprison the most dangerous Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. The battle for Qala-I-Janghi would last a staggering eight days, from the moment of the first shots being fired at the start of the uprising to the hour that the fort yielded up the last Al Qaeda fighters. It is a battle in which over 500 terrorists would die - but which would also claim the life of a US serviceman and dozens of Northern Alliance allies, with scores of severely wounded British and American soldiers. And in the final denouement, this savage battlefield turns out to be populated by the most ultimately shocking enemy - John Walker Lindh, the white American Taliban who held out in the forts' bunker until the very last. At the same time as the story of the fort siege played out on TV screens all across the world, our band of British and American special forces were involved in a secret, deadly dual to rescue their fellow men - a duel that only one side could win.

    In three weeks of intensive fighting—which not only witnessed the first British use of poison gas but also the debut of New Army divisions filled with citizen volunteers—British forces managed to drive up to two miles into the German positions. However, they were unable to capitalize on their initial gains. After suffering nearly 60,000 casualties and being driven from the German second line in some disorder, bitter recrimination followed. Nick Lloyd presents a radical new interpretation of Loos, placing it not only within its political and strategic context, but also discussing command and control and the tactical realities of war on the Western Front during 1915.

    Author John Chapman is a superb observer and chronicler of leadership events over many years and now shares his observations and the lessons learned about this essential military art.

    However, historians have only recently begun to treat the common Civil War soldier's daily life as a worthwhile topic of discussion in its own right. The View from the Ground reveals the beliefs of ordinary men and women on topics ranging from slavery and racism to faith and identity and represents a significant development in historical scholarship -- the use of Civil War soldiers' personal accounts to address larger questions about America's past. Aaron Sheehan-Dean opens The View from the Ground by surveying the landscape of research on Union and Confederate soldiers, examining not only the wealth of scholarly inquiry in the 1980s and 1990s but also the numerous questions that remain unexplored. Chandra Manning analyzes the views of white Union soldiers on slavery and their enthusiastic support for emancipation. Jason Phillips uncovers the deep antipathy of Confederate soldiers toward their Union adversaries, and Lisa Laskin explores tensions between soldiers and civilians in the Confederacy that represented a serious threat to the fledgling nation's survival. Essays by David Rolfs and Kent Dollar examine the nature of religious faith among Civil War combatants. The grim and gruesome realities of warfare -- and the horror of killing one's enemy at close range -- profoundly tested the spiritual convictions of the fighting men. Timothy J. Orr, Charles E. Brooks, and Kevin Levin demonstrate that Union and Confederate soldiers maintained their political beliefs both on the battlefield and in the war's aftermath. Orr details the conflict between Union soldiers and Northern antiwar activists in Pennsylvania, and Brooks examines a struggle between officers and the Fourth Texas Regiment. Levin contextualizes political struggles among Southerners in the 1880s and 1890s as a continuing battle kept alive by memories of, and identities associated with, their wartime experiences. The View from the Ground goes beyond standard histories that discuss soldiers primarily in terms of campaigns and casualties. These essays show that soldiers on both sides were authentic historical actors who willfully steered the course of the Civil War and shaped subsequent public memory of the event.

    Specification boxes provide information about each AFV's official name, date, country of origin, weight, dimensions, armament, and more.

    But while commanders close to the troops on Germany's various fronts were beginning to read it, those at the top were resolutely looking the other way.This seventh volume in the magisterial 10-volume series from the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt [Research Institute for Military History] shows both Germany and her Japanese ally on the defensive, from 1943 into early 1945. It looks in depth at the strategic air war over the Reich and the mounting toll taken in the Battles of the Ruhr, Hamburg, and Berlin, and at the Battle of the Radar Sets so central to them all. The collapse of the Luftwaffe in its retaliatory role led to hopes being pinned on the revolutionary V-weapons, whose dramatic but ultimately fruitless achievements are chronicled.The Luftwaffe's weakness in defence is seen during the Normandy invasion, Operation overlord, an account of the planning, preparation and execution of which form the central part of this volume together with the landings in the south of France, the setback suffered at Arnhem, and the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes.The final part follows the fortunes of Germany's ally fighting in the Pacific, Burma, Thailand, and China, with American forces capturing islands ever closer to Japan's homeland, and culminates in her capitulation and the creation of a new postwar order in the Far East. The struggle between internal factions in the Japanese high command and imperial court is studied in detail, and highlights an interesting contrast with the intolerance of all dissent that typified the Nazi power structure.Based on meticulous research by MGFA's team of historians at Potsdam, this analysis of events is illustrated by a wealth of tables and maps covering aspects ranging from Germany's radar defence system and the targets of RAF Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force, through the break-out from the Normandy beachhead, to the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

    Rowse published his memoir On Historians has such a witty and perceptive memoir been published by a celebrated historian.Captain Professor constitutes the memoir of one of the most distinguised British historians of the post war years, Professor Sir Michael Howard. Award the Military Cross in the Second World War, Howard recounts how between battles he befriended the young film director Franco Zefirelli, and fought the Germans in Italy with (the future Bishop) Simon Phipps and the (future) ballet critic Richard Buckle. In Oxford after the war, he gives delicious insights into academic life, including perceptive portraits of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Keith Thomas and A.L. Rowse.Howard had a major influence on the strategic and defence policy of the country and made his name as a military historian. His influence on the study of history in schools and universities has been considerable, and he has been substantially responsible for the burgeoning of First World War studies, its history and its literature. He claims, however, that he eventually pipped many more obvious candidates to the post to become the royally-appointed Regius Professor of History because he was the only candidate that the Queen of England had heard of.

    While the years 1939 to 1945 saw explosive growth in the manufacture of every type of armament imaginable, none was more emblematic of the industrial climate than the proliferation of aircraft factories. Zeroing in on the crux of the American military-industrial complex at a critical moment, this volume documents the production of legendary fighters and bombers by companies like Boeing, North American, Curtiss, Consolidated, Douglas, Grumman, and Lockheed. It was a production unmatched by the Axis powers or any other country, and a crucial part of why the allies won the war. Illustrated with 175 period photographs - including 50 rare color photos never before seen in print - The American Aircraft Factory in World War II conveys the incredible acceleration of aviation technology that took place during this period. Author Bill Yenne considers the various prewar governmental acts that got the plants rolling, as well as the notable gender shift that occurred on factory floors as women entered the work force like never before. He also describes the construction of megafactories like Willow Run, factory-design considerations, and the postwar conversion back to peacetime production. This beautiful coffee table book is an essential part of any World War II history buff's collection, and is a tribute to the veterans of the war - on the fighting and home fronts - who helped build and fly these amazing aircraft that would change the world forever.

    Rogue is hot on the trail of the Traitor General who sold out him and his buddies, three of who accompany him as sentient life-chips stored in his high-tech weaponry. Novelization of the SCi computer game title.

    Now they want him to be the military's new poster boy. Will the older woman assigned to manage the campaign take BB from working undercover to under the covers?Rules of Engagement by Barri Bryan: Mike O'Shea has never known any family or home outside of the Marine Corps. Carole Madison knows too well the pain of risking her heart. There's no denying the attraction they feel for each other, and a little holiday magic makes it even more than that.Baghdad Boy by Marie Carroll: Major Lee Jackson is a notorious ladies man. Tori Tucker has been sent to Iraq to cover the war. Will the feisty reporter get more than she bargained for when she gets stuck in an elevator with the bad boy of Baghdad?Gift Exchange by Lee Rowan: Unlike most of the men aboard the HMS Calypso, Lt. David Archer and Lt. William Marshall have no absent sweethearts to toast. The secret lovers risk all to find a way to celebrate their first Christmas together.The World She Wants by Denny S. Bryce: Destiny's Soldiers are 23rd century supersoldiers, designed as warriors and openly sexual. When the strong and beautiful Newton Stefanovich finds herself inexplicably drawn to a human, will she risk the danger and give in to her impulse?A Hero's Welcome by Melanie Anderson: Suzi Preston thought that she'd be spending the holiday house sitting in Maine. But when Captain Phillip Avery unexpectedly returns from duty overseas, her plans to enjoy a quiet winter alone change. Can Suzi put the fire back into the handsome wounded soldier?Come A'Courtin' by Philippa Grey-Gerou: The one thing that got Peter Renfrew through the Great War was his sure knowledge that when the war was over, he'd return to marry Katie Jacobs. The fact that she's now promised to someone else isn't going to slow him done any.