Sledge's memoir of his experience fighting in the South Pacific during World War II so devastatingly powerful is its sheer honest simplicity and compassion.Now including a new introduction by Paul Fussell, With the Old Breed presents a stirring, personal account of the vitality and bravery of the Marines in the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1923 and raised on riding, hunting, fishing, and a respect for history and legendary heroes such as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene Bondurant Sledge (later called "Sledgehammer" by his Marine Corps buddies) joined the Marines the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and from 1943 to 1946 endured the events recorded in this book. In those years, he passed, often painfully, from innocence to experience.Sledge enlisted out of patriotism, idealism, and youthful courage, but once he landed on the beach at Peleliu, it was purely a struggle for survival. Based on the notes he kept on slips of paper tucked secretly away in his New Testament, he simply and directly recalls those long months, mincing no words and sparing no pain. The reality of battle meant unbearable heat, deafening gunfire, unimaginable brutality and cruelty, the stench of death, and, above all, constant fear. Sledge still has nightmares about "the bloody, muddy month of May on Okinawa." But, as he also tellingly reveals, the bonds of friendship formed then will never be severed.Sledge's honesty and compassion for the other marines, even complete strangers, sets him apart as a memoirist of war. Read as sobering history or as high adventure, With the Old Breed is a moving chronicle of action and courage.

    This gripping study scrupulously reconstructs the Japanese attack, from its conception (less than a year before the actual raid) to its lightning execution; & it reveals the true reason for the American debacle: the insurmountable disbelief in the Japanese threat that kept America from heeding advance warnings & caused leaders to ignore evidence submitted by our own intelligence sources. Based on 37 years of intense research & countless interviews, & incorporating previously untranslated documents, At Dawn We Slept is history with the dramatic sweep of a martial epic.

    These are the best and most accurate representation of how the soldiers from these formidable military empires appeared. Making use of fresh archaeological evidence and new material on the manufacture and use of the weapons of the period, the author presents an attractive and impressive scholarly volume.

    Men and women, officers and draftees, prowar and antiwar veterans, all give personal accounts of the bloodshed they witnessed, and the horrifying circumstances they survived. Grunts recount losing their friends in combat; doctors remember the patients whose lives they desperately tried to save; soldiers try to understand how they could become willing participants in the slaughter of innocent civilians; and veterans, back in the US, discuss dealing with nightmares and a life far away from the constant presence of war.

    

    A snobbish, inept and generally insufferable youngster when he joined the frontline regiment, Vaughan was eventually humbled both by the tongue-lashings of superiors and by his ego-shattering experiences in the trenches. He is frank about his fear of death, which renders the material in the latter half of the diary all the more moving, for one discerns that Vaughan is gradually turning into a brave and capable leader of infantry. Some entries are punctuated by mad laughter while, at the same time, a tone of despair becomes more evident..."

     Fast and heavy-gunned, the battle-cruiser could overhaul and destroy anything at sea except the battleship. The brain child of Admiral Jacky Fisher, the battle-cruiser was intended to be light, fast, and able to avoid action with ships-of-the-line. However, the battle-cruisers came to be treated as fast battleships …And expected to fight as a battleship. But their design rendered them vulnerable and left them outmatched. This weakness was cruelly exposed at the battle of Jutland in 1916, where three of the battle-cruisers exploded. Known as the ‘Splendid Cats’ for their speed and viciousness, battle cruisers fought at Heligoland Bight, the Falkland’s Islands, Dogger Bank and Jutland. Following the First World War the battle-cruisers biggest enemy was the scrapyard. Once more the world was plunged into war, and four battle-cruisers would be lost during the Second World War. The most famous is perhaps the Hood, following the action against the Bismark. Only the Renown survived both world wars, yet she was condemned to the breaker’s yard in the summer of 1948. From the far side of the world to home waters, the battle-cruisers played a vital part in the British war effort. Combining meticulous research with a novelist’s flair for storytelling, Battle-Cruisers vividly describes the life and times of the sixteen battle-cruisers built for the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy. Yet ships do not fight on their own. This is also the story of the men who served, lived, fought and faced adversity in these floating worlds. Ronald Bassett (1924-1996) was born in Chelsea. During the Munich crisis, at age fourteen, he falsified enlistment papers to become a Rifleman of the King's Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles). Following active service, he was exposed and discharged. In his records, his colonel noted, ‘A good soldier. I am sorry to lose him.' Undismayed, he immediately entered the Royal Navy, in which he remained for fourteen years, serving in the Arctic, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, the Far East and, later, Korea. He died in Surrey.

    

    Extensive lists of units provide a record of every Army unit that served in Vietnam, down to and include separate companies, and also include US Army aviation and riverine units. Shoulder patches and distinctive unit insignia of all divisions and battalions. Extensive maps portray unit locations at each six-month interval. The title includes photographs and descriptions of all major types of equipment employed in the conflict.

    He then plunges right into the action: the massing of Chinese forces in about ten-to-one strength; the Marines' command problems due to the climate and terrain and high-level over confidence; and the onset of the overwhelming Chinese assault.With a wealth of tactical detail and small-unit action Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War is the most complete book written to date on this iconic battle. Author Eric Hammel's masterful account offers invaluable perspective on war at the gut level.

    The year was 1940, the occasion a preparedness parade, the helmets actually those of the 1917-1918 style. Yet to a small boy catching his first glimpse of Americas army as well as the metallic headgear seemed to represent old wars rather than new, a military past yet more remote than the Mexican border skirmishes for which the troopers in fact were outfitted.Thus begins this brilliant study of the American-led campaign for Europe in World War II. It is an analysis of command at both the strategic and the tactical level. All the complex ingredients of nations at war the burdens of history, the impact of technology, the roles of personalities, the confusions of the battlefield are presented in a powerful narrative which is as pleasurable to read as it is deeply founded in scholarship.The portraits of Field Marshal Montgomery and of Iikes lieutenants Omar N. Bradley, Jacob L. Devers, Courtney H. Hodges, George S. Patton, Jr., Alexander M. Patch, William H. Simpson, Leonard T. Gerow, J. Lawton Collins, and Matthew B. Ridgway, among others are the first detailed treatments that many of these leaders have received. Every major strategic and tactical decision in every battle of the American offensive is covered in detail with maps and careful descriptions of key terrain features, including many personal insights drawn from diaries kept at the American army group and army headquarters.This is a major and grippingly told reassessment of the leadership and the fighting capabilities of the Allied forces in climactic battles of World War II.Contents:PrefacePart One: The Armies1. The American Army2. Weapons and Divisions3. The View of the Far Shore4. By Air and by SeaPart Two: Normandy5. The Beach6. Cherbourg and Caumont7. The Bocage8. Cobra9. The Crossroads South of AvranchesPart Three: France10. The Short Envelopment11. The Riviera the the Rhone12. The Seine13. The Meuse14. The Twin Tyrants: Logistics...15...and TimePart Four: The Disputed Middle Ground16. Holland17. Attack in the Ardennes (I)18. Lorraine (I)19. The Reich Frontiers20. Autumn Interlude21. Lorraine (II)22. Alsace23. Huertgen Forest and Roer Plain24. On the Eve of a Breakthrough25. The Breakthrough26. The Doctrinal Response27. The Precarious Balance28. The Battles of Christmastide29. Attack in the Ardennes (II)30. "Inadequate Means’Part Five: Germany31. The Eifel32. Two Tumors Excised: Colmar and the Roer Dams33. To the Rhine34. The Crossing of the Rhine35. Eastward from the Rhine36. The Legions on the Rhine37. The Ruhr38. Berlin39. The National Redoubt40. The Elbe, the Moldau, and the Brenner PassEpilogueNotes and SourcesIndexReviews:“The publication of Eisenhower's Lieutenants is an event of significance in American military writing. . . . admirable . . . clearly the product of exhaustive, painstaking research." —The New York Times Book Review " . . . the best account we have of the World War II campaigns from Normandy to the Elbe." —American Historical Review " . . . precisely informative and broadly rewarding." — Kirkus Reviews " . . . an outstanding and highly recommended work." —Journal of American History " . . . by the dean of American military historians . . . " — Washington Post Bookworld” “I had thought I knew everything about World War II that I would ever want to know. I was wrong. Reading Eisenhower's Lieutenants was a wonderfully enriching experience. I learned more than I ever would have thought possible. This will unquestionably become one of the great classics of American military history.” — Stephen E. Ambrose

    Suvorov takes the reader through the mind-freezing savagery of a penal glass-house and the extravagant idiocy of army maneuvers on the grandest scale. He shows how an officer is trained, and how the hierarchy of the Soviet army is achieved and maintained. He gives brutally frank portraits of the senior commanders and politicians, and of the petty bureaucrats and Party informers. There is much satiric humor in his Suvorov's vivid narrative, which includes his experiences not only in training and garrison but in action, such as the infamous crushing of the Czech uprising.

    A comprehensive source of information on all military aircraft, complete with technical data, history, and hundreds of full-color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations.

    Yet his talent ensured his career flourished despite his Indian Army background and he was the first Commander of 8th Army in North Africa. Despite great political interference, he stopped Rommel s Afrika Corps at 1st Alamein only to be sacked by Churchill. After a spell in the wilderness he became C in C India during the dark period of Partition and, ironically, had to preside over the destruction of his beloved Indian Army.A private man of great humor and integrity he refused to be drawn into discussing or criticizing his tormentors be they Churchill, Montgomery or Mountbatten. He always argued that history would be his judge.This is a super piece of military biography by one of the most respected post war military historians."

     Despite it early entry into combat in Guadalcanal in 1942 and its subsequent long period of service in the Pacific, the Americal, as a unit could not lay claim to having beaten the Imperial Forces of Japan alone. Japan was beaten to her knees by the collective power of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Forces, and American Allies. The Americal Division was a significant member of this powerful team of armed might which successfully overcame aggression in the Pacific. The Story of the Americal is primarily that of humble beginnings and of riflemen within the ranks of the Infantry Regiments, without whom the Division's combat record would not be without its historical significance to the history of the U.S. Army. No mere words or praise or of appreciation for their daily sacrifices are sufficient to express the gratitude in the hearts of those who had seen them in action. The story of the Americal is also that of many men who worked with riflemen or for them, directly or indirectly. Theirs were the thankless tasks, performed under great hardships of all kinds, but without these valuable men the regiments could not have operated efficiently for long. As the Division itself fitted into the "big picture" as an active member of the greater team in the Pacific, so, too, did all the officers and men of the Americal fit in as active members of a team within a team. As was written here in this book, the history of the Americal Division was taken from reports of operations, unit journals, and message files, and from special reports and documents of historical significance. All of these papers were supplemented through personal interviews with former key staff and command officers in attempts to clear up otherwise obscure points of information. The battlefield can be and is a place of fluid movement and decisive action. During the early stages of this book, Captain Francis D. Cronin became aware of the shortage of records dealing with the activities of the service units within the Division. On the whole, this shortage of information was so great as initial first impressions within the first edition, that the hardworking units may have been overlooked in the story - such was not the case; however, as the second edition came out in 1978 and the final in 1981. The story remained the same, only new individual names were added to the honor roll list of awards and decorations in the span of 30 years. The war in the Pacific Theatre of Operations was much different than was the European Theatre of Operations for American and Allied service members. The history of the Americal Division represents the initial work of 2 years of compilation of documents, and 30 of correcting names within the pages to some lesser degree. A mere 6 weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor Hawaii Task Force 6814 (Codes A thru G respectively) were the first service men to leave the United States to fight in war. They would leave from the same port that 8 months later General George S. Patton would leave from, but these men weren't heading to North Africa or Europe - these men would travel on banana boats through the Panama Canal headed for the Pacific Theatre of Operations.

    His brilliantly fought battles were masterpieces of tactical agility, mobile counterattack, and the technique of Auftragstaktik, or "mission command." However, because he declined to participate in the U.S. Army's military history debriefing program, today he is known only to serious students of the war.Drawing heavily on his meticulously kept wartime journals, Balck discusses his childhood and his career through the First and Second World Wars. His memoir details the command decision-making process as well as operations on the ground during crucial battles, including the Battle of the Marne in World War I and his incredible victories against a larger and better-equipped Soviet army at the Chir River in World War II. Balck also offers observations on Germany's greatest generals, such as Erich Ludendorff and Heinz Guderian, and shares his thoughts on international relations, domestic politics, and Germany's place in history. Available in English for the first time in an expertly edited and annotated edition, this important book provides essential information about the German military during a critical era in modern history.

    Y'Blood leads the reader through every stage of the battle, from the dogfights to the persistent attacks on the Japanese carriers to the frantic efforts of the returning fliers to land on friendly carriers. He takes the battle from the initial planning through the invasion of the Marianas and the recriminations that followed, describing Admiral Spruance's decision to allow U.S. forces to remain on the defensive and giving blow-by-blow details of the action. This intensive study of what many believe to be a major turning point in the Pacific War has remained an important reference since it was first published in 1981. 272 pages. 25 photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Paperback. 6 x 9 inches.

    Between 12 and 17 August, 250,000 British troops and support were landed with clockwork efficiency in the north of France. They believed they were holding the French flank as the French counteroffensive broke far to the east. They were tragically wrong. To the north the Schlieffen plan unrolled. Two German armies, which were to sweep behind Paris and annihilate the French in a great battle of encirclement, were rumbling towards them. They met Von Kluck's 1st Army near a town called Mons and the desperate fighting which followed was to last four months. The British army was destroyed in the process, but their stand saved France. Ahead stretched the grim horror of trench warfare and unrelenting savagery. But Britain was not to forget the men of the Old Contemptibles who had given so much. The 'Mons Star' is still worn with pride amongst the few survivors of the great battles of those months.

    

    

    Besides being the only British territory occupied by the Germans in the World War II, it is perhaps less generally known that the Channel Islands were fortified out of all proportion to the rest of Hitler's Atlantic Wall: a legacy that is explored in individual chapters on Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey and Sark.

    Army's most influential officers.

    

    The price they paid for their audacity was high: sixty-nine heavy bombers and eleven escort fighters failed to return, the highest number in any raid mounted by the 8th Air Force. This account of the mission is a compellingly readable, skillfully researched, minute-by-minute description. It is also the first book on the subject to look at events from the perspective of both sides, drawing on material from over 160 USAAF personnel, Luftwaffe pilots, civilians and German flak gunners. Target Berlin captures the excitement and drama of the operation, bringing to the fore the mounting horror of a mission plagued by misfortune, strong defenses and bad luck. The gripping narrative also sheds light on what it was like to be in Berlin as the bombs began to fall.

    

    Its purpose is to provide the reader--whether infantryman or not--with hitherto unavailable insights on the role that infantry plays in the larger battle and how that has helped shape the world that we live in today. Unique aspects of the book include the treatment of technical issues in non-technical language, the extensive use of German and French sources generally unavailable to the English-speaking reader, and the shattering of some long-cherished myths. Combat motivation and combat refusal, the role played by small units (such as the squad and fire team), the role of infantry in the Blitzkrieg, and many other issues often papered over in the literature of infantry are discussed and analyzed in detail in this revised edition.

    This account presents his dramatic story of the air war from the cockpit of the now legendary spitfire. As a pre-war RAFVR pilot Duncan Smith completed his training during the first year of war. From contact with pilots seasoned over France and in the Battle of Britain, 'Smithy', as he was popularly known, became convinced that effective air fighting required a combination of strong leadership and teamwork. This is the thrilling account if his experiences, flying in formation and solo, written with an immediacy that places the reader in the cockpit along with him.