Best of
Military-History

1975

Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day


Anthony Cave Brown - 1975
    (SEE QUOTE.)

Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan


Clay Blair Jr. - 1975
    Here for the first time is the definitive history of the submarine war against Japan--the only full-scale submarine war the United States ever fought--which has for the most part been shrouded in secrecy for three decades. Only recently have the codebreakers who played such a pivotal role in the submarine war been willing to talk about their work. And only recently have the private papers, diaries, and official reports of the submarine admirals and skippers been made available to historians.In preparing to write this book, Clay Blair, Jr. combed hundreds of thousands of pages of recently declassified documents and personal letters. In individual interviews he listened to scores of skippers, staff officers, and codebreakers speaking freely. He researched in depth the development of submarine and torpedo from prewar days down to the present time. The result is a revealing and immensely exciting book that sets the submarine war within the framework of history and the overall war in the Pacific.Silent Victory takes you into the submarine war at all levels--the highest strategy sessions in Washington, the terrifying moments in a submarine trapped on the bottom for hours as depth charges explode around it, the zany efforts of a torpedo crew coaxing an emaciated chicken to lay an egg. It tells of the jealous infighting of admirals vying for power . . . of "overcautious" skippers, trained in peacetime and ill suited for war, and the mutinies they provoked . . . of the shocking torpedo scandal and the toll it took . . . of the later breed of younger skippers whose daring was so effective against Japanese shipping that the war, as Blair argues, could have ended months earlier, saving thousands of lives.The complete saga that led to victory is here supplemented by ● 37 specially drawn maps showing submarine activity in the context of every important naval engagement in the Pacific ● 32 pages of photographs ● 12 appendixes, including a calendar of all submarine war patrols ● an index of over 2,000 entries. A work of great scholarship and scope, Silent Victory is a timeless contribution to the history of World War II.

To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World


Arthur Herman - 1975
    From the navy's beginnings under Henry VIII to the age of computer warfare and special ops, historian Arthur Herman tells the spellbinding tale of great battles at sea, heroic sailors, violent conflict, and personal tragedy -- of the way one mighty institution forged a nation, an empire, and a new world.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Assault In Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program


Thomas Gallagher - 1975
    Target: The seemingly impregnable factory-fortress where the Nazis manufactured and stored materials for their nuclear program. (SEE QUOTE.)

Stonewall in the Valley: Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Spring 1862


Robert G. Tanner - 1975
    Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson has long fascinated those interested in the American Civil War as well as general students of military history, all of whom still question exactly what Jackson did in the Shenandoah in 1862 and how he did it. Since Robert G. Tanner answered many questions in the first edition of Stonewall in the Valley in 1976, he has continued to research the campaign. This edition offers new insights on the most significant moments of Stonewall's Shenandoah triumph.

The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians


Brian Garfield - 1975
    The ensuing fifteen-month campaign, memorialised in John Huston's extraordinary documentary film, was 'the weirdest war ever waged': a terrible, elemental and always three-sided battle, between the Americans, the Japanese and the weather. Frozen puddies of oil could be lifted like boards. Servicement burned summer clothing for fuel. Aircrews flew amidst icy rain, driven upside-down by gales. The eventual liberation of the island of Attu was second only to Iwo Jima in the percentage of American casualties. Brian Garfield's book, never before published in the UK, is the definitive history of this 'Forgotten War'.

The Heights of Courage: A Tank Leader's War on the Golan


Avigdor Kahalani - 1975
    Despite early losses, Israel managed to outfight its opponents. The brief and bloody Yom Kippur War stands as a unique chapter in modern military history. Fought primarily by tank units, the war became a story not only of battle strategy and tactics, but also one of human discipline, endurance and sacrifice.While many historians have chronicled the events of the Yom Kippur War, few have been seasoned by actual combat. Avigdor Kahalani, commander of a tank battalion on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War, describes this experience in The Heights of Courage. Beginning with a description of the initial Syrian offensive, he recounts the personal endeavors of his men, their fears and their ambitions, as well as their emotional and physical hardships. His stark account traces the efforts of the Israel Armored Corps as they struggle to overcome extreme difficulties and setbacks. The author describes their ultimate penetration into enemy territory and their approach to within forty kilometers of Damascus.

The Roman Army


Peter Connolly - 1975
    An exploration of the Roman Army for the non-academic reader, this work covers such topics as armour and weapons, camping and marching, battle tactics and famous battles, fortifications and sieges.

Gunpowder and Galleys


John F. Guilmartin Jr. - 1975
    It describes how the strategic considerations in galley warfare were substantially different from those in campaigns involving galleons or ships of the line, and includes detailed descriptions of all the major actions in the Mediterranean and around the Arabian peninsula. Guilmartin challenges traditional thinking in a variety of diverse but interlinked areas, ranging from bronze cannon-casting, the applicability of Mahanian ideas about sea power to the Mediterranean world, to the demise of the nomadic horse archers of Asia.

The Bravest Battle: The Twenty-eight Days of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising


Dan Kurzman - 1975
    Despite the starvation and disease that claimed 50,000 lives per year, the Jews were not dying swiftly enough to suit Heinrich Himmler, who ordered in 1942 that the Warsaw Ghetto be dismantled and the 450,000 inhabitants be deported to the gas chambers at Treblinka. On April 19, 1943, the first day of Passover, two thousand German troops, singing confidently, marched into the ghetto to round up the remnant of remaining Jews. Suddenly, a fifteen-year-old girl tossed a grenade in their midst. Within minutes the German army had been routed. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had begin.This is the first full-scale, step-by-step account of the climatic twenty-eight-day struggle of the poorly armed Jews against their Nazi exterminators. The Bravest Battle took more than two years to write and involved interviewing more than 500 people, including most of the surviving fighters. This moving history cannot be matched for its authenticity and drama. The Bravest Battle is a testament to the Warsaw Jews, who fought for survival with dignity and courage.

Fire and Stone: The Science of Fortress Warfare 1660-1860


Christopher Duffy - 1975
    Provides a detailed analysis of the arts of fortification and siegecraft as they were carried on between 1660 and 1860, a period when fortress warfare exercised an often decisive influence upon strategy, politics and urban life.

Destroyer Captain


Roger Hill - 1975
    Spanning 1942 to 1945, Hill commanded HMS Ledbury during the tragedy of Arctic convoy PQ17 and played an outstanding role in Operation Pedestal. The pressures of command and the strain of years of continual fighting are conveyed here.

Survivors: Vietnam POWS Tell Their Stories


Zalin Grant - 1975
    Here is the uncensored reality of the war."--Gilbert A. Harrison, former editor-in-chief, New RepublicThis book is the moving story of nine American soldiers and pilots who were captured and held prisoner for five years. It could only be told in their own words; so author Zalin Grant interviewed each of the men and wove their accounts together to form a single, compelling narrative of war and survival. They describe the details of their daily existence in a Vietcong jungle prison as the war ebbed and flowed around them: the rats, the terror of American bombing raids, the sickness, starvation, and torture. Through the juxtaposition of their individual stories we see the subtle, destructive tensions that operate on a group of men in such desperate circumstances. Marched up the Ho Chi Minh trail to Hanoi, the prisoners' physical ordeal gave way to an agonizing moral dilemma. Should they join the "Peace Committee," a group of POWs protesting the war? Or should they resist their captors by all possible means as ordered by the secret American commander of the Hanoi prison? After years in the jungle on the edge of survival, each man had to answer the questions: Who am I? What do I believe? These men form a cross section of the army we sent to Vietnam. Their words illuminate not only their individual background and experience, but also the meaning of this war for all of us.

Eagle and Sword: The Beginnings of the Military Establishment in America


Richard H. Kohn - 1975
    

Prisoner of War: Six Years in Hanoi


John M. McGrath - 1975
    Pictures and text describe the maltreatment and tortures endured by American POWs in Vietnam.

War of Illusions: German Policies From 1911 to 1914


Fritz Fischer - 1975
    

Civil War Times Illustrated Volume XIII


William C. Davis - 1975
    The year's special issue (October 1974) was "The Guerilla War" and was written by Albert Castel.

Too Serious a Business: European Armed Forces and the Approach to the Second World War


Donald Cameron Watt - 1975
    The text analyzes this breakdown as it affected the European Armed Forces, and proposes that the military contributed to the problem by its failure to master new applications of technology - and its equally great failure to present civilian leaders with viable strategic plans. The author has also written How War Came.

The American Civil War


Peter J. Parish - 1975
    

The Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome


Phil Barker - 1975
    Coverage of Rome's enemies includes Gallic, British, Pictish, Scots/Irish, German, Dacian, Sarmatian, Frankish, Saxon, Vandal, Visigothic, Ostrogothic, Hunnic, Pontic, Parthian, Armenian, Jewish, Palmyran, Sassanid and Blemye armies. It examines tactics and strategy, organisation and formations and orders of battle as well as providing a detailed guide to the dress and equipment of the armies of the period. Comprehensive illustrations by Ian Heath complement Phil Barker's text and the result is a wealth of information for anyone interested in the warfare of the time. Long out of print, the book has been a source of inspiration to wargamers and academic historians alike. It is reprinted here in its complete 1981 fourth edition with an updated bibliography.

The Art Of War: Waterloo To Mons


William Mcelwee - 1975
    

Hermann Goring: From Regiment to Fallschirmpanzerkorps


Roger James Bender - 1975
    One of the few books available on the HG units, this book covers the commanders, Knight's Cross Holders, uniforms, insignia, standards, flags, pennants, and recruitment., over 210 photos, maps, 6" x 9"

Carlism and Crisis in Spain 1931-1939


Martin Blinkhorn - 1975
    Carlism represents the oldest existing movement of the traditionalist right in Europe. In 1931 Carlists had already been in conflict with Spanish liberalism and leftism for over a century, seeking to reverse the trends of the nineteenth century and restore a religiously inspired corporative monarchy and harmonious society. During the 1930s they attacked and plotted the overthrow of the democratic Second Republic, participated in the rising of 1936 and then played a major political and military role within Nationalist Spain. Dr Blinkhorn discusses Carlism's internal politics, power struggles and sources of support; its ideology; its relations with other elements in the Spanish right, principally Falangism and Catholic conservatism; its attitude towards the Republic, liberalism and the left; its view of contemporary events elsewhere in Europe; its stress on paramilitarism and conspiracy against the Republican regime; and its wartime role.

Ireland in the War Years 39-45, Revised Edition


Joseph T. Carroll - 1975
    It describes how Mr. De Valera carried out a policy of neutrality in spit of the fact that Southern Ireland was a Dominion and that Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, was a belligerent and in the face of increasing pressure from first Britain and later the United States to enter the war on the side of the allies.

The French Navy and the Seven Years' War


Jonathan R. Dull - 1975
    This book is the fullest account ever written of the French navy’s role in the hostilities. It is also the most complete survey of both phases of the war: the French and Indian War in North America (1754–60) and the Seven Years’ War in Europe (1756–63), which are almost always treated independently. By considering both phases of the war from every angle, award-winning historian Jonathan R. Dull shows not only that the two conflicts are so interconnected that neither can be fully understood in isolation but also that traditional interpretations of the war are largely inaccurate. His work also reveals how the French navy, supposedly utterly crushed, could have figured so prominently in the War of American Independence only fifteen years later. A comprehensive work integrating diplomatic, naval, military, and political history, The French Navy and the Seven Years’ War thoroughly explores the French perspective on the Seven Years’ War. It also studies British diplomacy and war strategy as well as the roles played by the American colonies, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Portugal. As this history unfolds, it becomes clear that French policy was more consistent, logical, and successful than has previously been acknowledged, and that King Louis XV’s conduct of the war profoundly affected the outcome of America’s subsequent Revolutionary War.

Brasseys Infantry Weapons Of The World


J.I. Owen - 1975
    Water stains at the top of pages