Robert Leckie was 21 when he enlisted in the US Marine Corps in January 1942. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his journey, from boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifice of war, painting an unsentimental portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and all too often die in the defence of their country.From the live-for-today rowdiness of Marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what it's really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Unparalleled in its immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow is a gripping account from an ordinary soldier fighting in extraordinary conditions. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud, the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come.Helmet for My Pillow is a grand and epic prose poem. Robert Leckie's theme is the purely human experience of war in the Pacific, written in the graceful imagery of a human being who - somehow - survived - Tom Hanks

    By September 1939 he was commanding 21st Infantry Regiment in the Battle of Warsaw against overwhelming German forces. Taken prisoner, he escaped to join the Polish Army in France before evacuating to England.In 1941 he formed the First Polish Independent Parachute Brigade and trained and commanded it for the next three years. While created for the liberation of Poland, the Brigade and the author parachuted into Arnhem in September 1944 and fought with great courage.His frank style and opinions resulted in major disagreements with his British senior officers such as Boy Browning and he was forced to resign.Freely I Served is both a personal memoir and a tribute to the many brave Polish soldiers who fought to regain their country from occupation. An inspiring and revealing book.

    But as Japan’s deadly torpedoes suddenly rained down on the Pacific fleet, soldiers, generals, and civilians alike felt shock, then fear, then rage. From the chaos, a thousand personal stories of courage emerged. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, letters, and diaries, Walter Lord recounts the many tales of heroism and tragedy by those who experienced the attack firsthand. From the musicians of the USS Nevada who insisted on finishing “The Star Spangled Banner” before taking cover, to the men trapped in the capsized USS Oklahoma who methodically voted on the best means of escape, each story conveys the terror and confusion of the raid, as well as the fortitude of those who survived.

    Its tactics were unconventional, extempore and swift. The patrols moved with disconcerting speed from point to point, attacking forts, petrol dumps, aerodromes and convoys. They were able to cross thousands of miles of desert and arrive with uncanny accuracy at predetermined rendezvous, possibly marked visually by only a pile of stones. By the end of the war in North Africa, they had won themselves a reputation out of all proportion to their short existence.This is the story of Y2 patrol of the LRDG, told by its leader, Captain (now Colonel) Lloyd Owen, who joined the group in 1941, soon after its inception. Graphically he tells of the lightening-fast attacks, the nerve-wracking and often tedious intelligence work. He had a lively collection of men, too, and these he brings to life – likeable, sardonic, capable and always utterly dependable,But it is also the fascinating story of an officer learning a new kind of war, a man learning a new job of work. Lloyd Owen knew little of the desert and its ways when he volunteered, and his story traces, incidentally, the widening of his knowledge, experience, and, as a result, his confidence and determination.

    Personal account of the first phase of the Barbarossa campaign up to early 1942, written by a German doctor who served with the Wehrmacht in this theatre of operations.

    The outcome of the Desert War depended on this.Operations from the beleaguered island were hazardous both at sea and in port. The Naval Base was under constant air attack. Due to the courage and tenacity of the crews by the time the Malta-based submarines were at full strength a staggering 50% of Axis shipping bound for Africa failed to arrive at its destination. The submarines sank some 75 enemy vessels totalling 400,000 tons.Periscope Patrol picks out the highlights of their actions and sets them against the bombed-out background of Malta, the island awarded the George Cross for its single handed stand. This is a hugely readable and informative account of submarine warfare at its toughest and roughest.