Lee's radical decision to divide his small army - a violation of basic military rules - sending Stonewall Jackson on his famous march around the Union army flank. Jackson's death - accidentally shot by one of his own soldiers - is one of the many fascinating stories included in this definitive account of the battle of Chancellorsville.

    . . This book [is] one of the best on that war in Korea. . . . A wonderful account of common, decent men in desperate action."--LeatherneckDuring the early, uncertain days of the Korean War, World War II veteran and company lieutenant Joe Owen saw firsthand how the hastily assembled mix of some two hundred regulars and raw reservists hardened into a superb Marine rifle company known as Baker-One-Seven.As comrades fell wounded and dead around them on the frozen slopes above Korea's infamous Chosin Reservoir, Baker-One-Seven's Marines triumphed against the relentless human-wave assaults of Chinese regulars and took part  in the breakout that destroyed six to eight divisions of Chinese regulars. COLDER THAN HELL paints a vivid, frightening portrait of one of the most horrific infantry battles ever waged."Thoroughly gripping . . . The Chosin action is justly called epical; Lieutenant Owen tells the tale of the men who made it so."--Booklist

    In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was behind the often described operations of this famous 1916 battle at Jutland. Although the British fleet was victorious over the Germans, the cost in ships and men was high, and debates have raged within British naval circles ever since about why the Royal Navy was unable to take advantage of the situation. In this book Andrew Gordon focuses on what he calls a fault-line between two incompatible styles of tactical leadership within the Royal Navy and different understandings of the rules of the games.

    The account, written by the German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser and edited by American historian John T. Greenwood, provides the definitive explanation for Germany's startling success and the equally surprising military collapse of France and Britain on the European continent in 1940. In a little over a month, Germany defeated the Allies in battle, a task that had not been achieved in four years of brutal fighting during World War I.First published in 1995 as the official German history of the 1940 campaign, this book goes beyond standard explanations to show that the German victory was not inevitable and that French defeat was not preordained. Contrary to most accounts of the campaign, Frieser's illustrates that the military systems of both Germany and France were solid and that their campaign plans were sound. The key to victory or defeat, Frieser argues, was the execution of operational plans--both preplanned and ad hoc--amid the eternal Clausewitzian combat factors of friction and the fog of war. He shows why, on the eve of the campaign, the British and French leaders had good cause to be confident and why many German generals were understandably concerned that disaster was looming for them.This study explodes many of the myths concerning German blitzkrieg warfare and the planning for the 1940 campaign. Frieser's groundbreaking interpretation of the topic has been the subject of discussion since the German edition first appeared. This English translation is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.

    In riveting and revelatory detail, Aftermath documents the ways in which wars have transformed the terrain of the battlefield into landscapes of memory and enduring terror: in France, where millions of acres of farmland are cordoned off to all but a corps of demolition experts responsible for the undetonated bombs and mines of World War I that are now rising up in fields, gardens, and backyards; in a sixty-square-mile area outside Stalingrad that was a cauldron of destruction in 1941 and is today an endless field of bones; in the Nevada deserts, where America waged a hidden nuclear war against itself in the 1950's, the results of which are only now becoming apparent; in Vietnam, where a nation's effort to remove the physical detritus of war has created psychological and genetic devastation; in Kuwait, where terrifyingly sophisticated warfare was followed by the Sisyphean task of making an uninhabitable desert capable of sustaining life.Aftermath excavates our century's darkest history, revealing that the destruction of the past remains deeply, inextricably embedded in the present.

    Initially cast as target-spotters for gunships and air-assault forces, the scout pilots evolved into live bait as enemy weapons and tactics improved. Their small helicopters were vulnerable even to minor damage, and parachuting from a damaged bird was impossible. Casualty rates could be as high as 50%; a scout unit often resembled a WWI fighter squadron, with replacements dying almost before they could unpack. Yet fresh volunteers kept coming, even if only to stay out of the infantry. In his visceral memoir, Smith tells the familiar story of a young man who flunked out of college, sampled the 1960s counterculture and found himself first in the army, then in Vietnam. For Smith, the war was a theater of the absurd whose only meaning was survival. His narrative of low-altitude, high-risk operations in 1969-70 replicates that of others: initial confusion giving way first to proficiency and pleasure in stalking and killing anonymous enemies, later to a sense that both his skill and his luck are running out. Gritty enough to appeal to adventure fans, this memoir makes a useful contribution to a subject, American helicopter pilots in Vietnam, whose recorded history is largely still in its anecdotal stage.

    You couldn't live thirty minutes 'out there' with only six men."                [pg. 13]In 1965 nearly four hundred men were interviewed and only thirty-two selected for the infant LRRP Detachment of the lst Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. Old-timers called it the suicide unit. Whether conducting prisoner snatches, search and destroy missions, or hunting for the enemy's secret base camps, LRRPs depended on one another 110 percent. One false step, one small mistake by one man could mean sudden death for all.Author Reynel Martinez, himself a 101st LRRP Detachment veteran, takes us into the lives and battles of the extraordinary men for whom the brotherhood of war was and is an ever-present reality: the courage, the sacrifice, the sense of loss when one of your own dies. In the hills, valleys, and triple-canopy jungles, the ambushes, firefights, and copter crashes, LRRPs were among the best and bravest to fight in Vietnam.

    William H. McRaven helped to devise the strategy for how to bring down Osama bin Laden, and commanded the courageous U.S. military unit that carried it out on May 1, 2011, ending one of the greatest manhunts in history. In Spec Ops, a well-organized and deeply researched study, McRaven analyzes eight classic special operations. Six are from WWII: the German commando raid on the Belgian fort Eben Emael (1940); the Italian torpedo attack on the Alexandria harbor (1941); the British commando raid on Nazaire, France (1942); the German glider rescue of Benito Mussolini (1943); the British midget-submarine attack on the Tirpitz (1943); and the U.S. Ranger rescue mission at the Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines (1945). The two post-WWII examples are the U.S. Army raid on the Son Tay POW camp in North Vietnam (1970) and the Israeli rescue of the skyjacked hostages in Entebbe, Uganda (1976). McRaven—who commands a U.S. Navy SEAL team—pinpoints six essential principles of “spec ops” success: simplicity, security, repetition, surprise, speed and purpose. For each of the case studies, he provides political and military context, a meticulous reconstruction of the mission itself and an analysis of the operation in relation to his six principles. McRaven deems the Son Tay raid “the best modern example of a successful spec op [which] should be considered textbook material for future missions.” His own book is an instructive textbook that will be closely studied by students of the military arts. Maps, photos.

    Some were keen to enlist from the start, others were conscripted and some dead against. Eventually, all eight would be swept up into its devastating path as, despite astonishing displays of courage and strength of character, they met their fates on the battlefields of France, Flanders, East Africa and Gallipoli. Their's was a tragedy almost without parallel and one that has remained forgotten and unmarked for nearly 90 years. Until now...Kept in a small brown case handed down by the brothers' youngest sister, Edie, were hundreds of letters sent home from the front by the Beechey boys: scraps of paper scribbled on in the firing line and sent to their widowed mother Amy, heartfelt letters written from a deathbed, exasperated correspondences detailing the absurdities of life in the trenches. From it all emerges the remarkable tale of a family forced to sacrifice everything.

    Includes previously unpublished views of the field.

    As captain of PT 105, the author was in the same battle as John F. Kennedy when Kennedy's PT 109 was rammed and sunk. The famous incident, Keresey says, has often been described inaccurately and the PT boat depicted as unreliable and ineffective. This book helps set the record straight by presenting an authentic picture of PT boats that draws on the author's experience at Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Bougainville, and Choiseul Island. Action-filled, his account describes evading night bombers, rescuing coast watchers and downed airmen, setting down Marine scouts behind Japanese lines, engaging in vicious gun battles with Japanese barges and small freighters, and contending with heat, disease, and loneliness. First published in 1996, the book has been hailed for telling an exciting yet fully accurate story.

    The Civil War Memoirs of Private William McCarter, 116 Pennsylvania Infantry William McCarter, a 21-year-old Irish immigrant, was present at the storming of Marye's Heights at the battle of Fredericksburg and left behind observations of several prominent Union personalities as well as daily life in the Army of the Potomac.

    In this revelatory portrayal of the lives of the regular infantrymen who struggled to contain the Japanese advance, Eric Bergerud has given us a compelling and chilling record of the incredible hardships endured by these soldiers, and the heroic efforts that resulted in the reversal of the course of the war. Bergerud spent hundreds of hours interviewing the last surviving veterans of this remarkable campaign, and he has placed their personal experiences at the center of his analysis of military strategy."Aspires to do for the ground war in the South Pacific what Keegan achieved in Six Armies in Normandy."--Los Angeles Times

    The U.S. needs more highly trained Light Infantrymen that possess the skill sets identified in H.J. Poole's books.

    In exploring the question of why Nazism flourished in the 'Athens of the Isar', David Clay Large has written a compelling account of the cultural roots of the Nazi movement, allowing us to see that the conventional explanations for the movement's rise are not enough. Large's account begins in Munich's 'golden age', four decades before World War I, when the city's artists and writers produced some of the outstanding work of the modernist spirit. He sees a dark side to the city, a protofascist cultural heritage that would tie Adolf Hitler's movement to its soul. Large prowls his volatile world of seamy basement meeting places, finding that attacks on modernity and liberalism flourished, along with virulent anti-Semitism and German nationalism. From the violent experience of the Munich Soviet, through Hitler's failed Beer-Hall Putsch of 1923 and on to his appointment as German chancellor in 1933, Large unfurls a narrative full of insight and implication.

    He compares the army's organization and strategic doctrine with those of its chief opponents and explores in detail the reality of battle: tactics, weaponry, leadership, and, most of all, the important issue of morale.

    Taking issue with revisionist historians, Samuels argues that German success in battle can be explained by their superior tactical philosophy. The book provides a fascinating insight into the development of infantry tactics at a seminal point in the history of warfare.

    From being a defence of Portugal and those parts of Spain not under French control, it became an effort by the British, Spanish and Portuguese forces to drive the French out completely. Operations at the end of 1812 included the unsuccessful British siege of Burgos and the subsequent retreat; renewed campaigning on the east coast of Spain, including Murray's actions around Tarragona; and the beginning of the final offensive against the French, including the epic battles of Roncesvalles, Maya and Sorauren.

    Author Cecil B. Currey makes one primary reason clear: North Viet Nam's Senior Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. Victory at Any Cost tells the full story of the man who fought three of the world's great powers—and beat them all.

    Wolfgang Hirschfeld, whose diaries Geoffrey Brooks has translated is a born story teller. The principal chapters describe his experiences during six war patrols in U-109, in which he served as the senior telegraphist. His is a tale which covers the whole kaleidescope of emotions shared by men at war - a story of immense courage and fortitude, of remarkable comradeship born of the dangers, frustrations and privations shared and of transitory moments of triumph. Throughout runs a vein of humour, without which resistance to stress would have been virtually impossible. We get to know one of Germany's great U-boat aces, 'Ajax' Bleichrodt, holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and, in a special biographical appendix, learn how he finally cracked under the strain. The role of Admiral Karl Donitz, the dynamic commander of the U-boat service, so fascinatingly described by Hirschfeld, is of special interest - not least because even this dedicated Nazi had clearly realized by September, 1942, that the war was fast being lost. In 1944 Hirschfeld was promoted Warrant Officer and found himself on a large, schnorkel-equipped boat (U-234) heading for Japan with a load of high technology equipment and, in addition, a quantity of uranium ore. The possible significance of that uranium has been deeply researched by Geoffrey Brooks and is discussed in a second appendix.

    French successes in Spain continued but the army under Massena was forced finally to retreat from Portugal. The Allied offensive began to gather momentum, although their attempt to recapture Badajoz was unsuccessful. Beresford's campaign on the southern frontier of Portugal included one of the hardest-fought actions of the era, the Battle of Albuera, and Graham's victory at Barrosa aided the long-running defence of Cadiz against the French siege. Wellington saw victory at Fuentes de Onoro, and smaller scale successes for the British Army also occurred at E1 Bodon, Sabugal and Arroyo dos Molinos.

    This book traces the parallel development of night bombing within the RAF and that of the Luftwaffe's Night Fighter Force, culminating in the strategic bombing offensive and the German aerial defense against that offensive.

    For a period of nearly six years, the German U-boat force attempted to blockade and isolate the British Isles in hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting both the Allied strategic air assault on German cities and Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Occupied France. Fortunately for the Allies, the U-boat force failed to achieve either of these objectives, but in the attempt they sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships, while the Allies sank nearly 800 U-boats. On both sides, tens of thousands of sailors perished.     For decades, an authoritative and definitive history of the Battle of the Atlantic could not be attempted, since London and Washington agreed to withhold all official code-breaking and U-boat records in order to safeguard the secrets of code breaking in the postwar years. The accounts that did appear were incomplete and full of false conclusions and errors of fact, often leaving the entirely wrong impression that the German U-boats came within a whisker of defeating the Allies, a myth that is finally laid to rest in this account.     Clay Blair, acclaimed author of the bestselling naval classic Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, has drawn from the official records as well as the work of German, British, American, and Canadian naval scholars. Never before has Hitler's U-boat war been chronicled with such authority, fidelity, objectivity, and detail. The result is this magnificent and monumental work, crammed with vivid and dramatic scenes of naval actions and dispassionate but startling new revelations, interpretations, and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic.

    INFANTRY WEAPONS OF WORLD WAR II is the definitive guide detailing the weapons used by U.S. soldiers during World War II. This comprehensive book includes information about design, purchase, distribution and combatperformance as it describes the hardware that won the famous battles. It is heavily illustrated and includes many combat photos.

    This companion volume presents how the Panzertruppen fought during their defensive struggle with details on the units, organizations, types of Panzers, and tactics.

    Illustrated with hundreds of archive photographs and line drawings, Cruisers of World War Two is large-format, comprehensive reference on the subject.Within one volume, it describes all the cruisers extant, completed or laid down during the period 1939-1945 by the nations of the World.Each class is featured with full coverage of its design, construction and subsequent modifications, together with tabulated details of builder, dates, specification data notes on the fate of each ship.In format with the author's earlier work Destroyers of World War Two this book is a major contribution to naval literature, which will enable naval historians, modellers and veterans to study the subject with an extra thoroughness and accuracy.

    Hugh Elton discusses the practice of warfare in Europe, from both Roman and barbarian perspectives, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. He analyzes the military practices and capabilities of the Romans and their northern enemies at political, strategic, operational, and tactical levels, and covers civil wars, sieges, and naval warfare.

    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

    Ruger's unflinching dedication to traditional yet innovative design and to manufacturing excellence, with products sold at a reasonable price for a broad ranging clientele from the youthful plinker to the mature African safari devotee, from the ordinary citizen to the president of the United States.This richly illustrated, beautifully presented work is the official history of William B. Ruger of Sturm, Ruger & Co., and of Ruger firearms.  This volume features more than 185 color and over 100 black and white illustrations, with appendixes, index, and -- for the first time--serial number tables for all models by years of manufacture.

    

    Rory Muir looks beyond the purely military aspects of the struggle to show how the entire British nation played a part in the victory. His book provides a total assessment of how politicians, the press, the crown, civilians, soldiers and commanders together defeated France. Beginning in 1807 when all of continental Europe was under Napoleon's control, the author traces the course of the war throughout the Spanish uprising of 1808, the campaigns of the Duke of Wellington and Sir John Moore in Portugal and Spain, and the crossing of the Pyrenees by the British army, to the invasion of southern France and the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Muir sets Britain's military operations on the Iberian Peninsula within the context of the wider European conflict, and examines how diplomatic, financial, military and political considerations combined to shape policies and priorities. Just as political factors influenced strategic military decisions, Muir contends, fluctuations of the war affected British political decisions. The book is based on a comprehensive investigation of primary and secondary sources, and on a thorough examination of the vast archives left by the Duke of Wellington. Muir offers vivid new insights into the personalities of Canning, Castlereagh, Perceval, Lord Wellesley, Wellington and the Prince Regent, along with fresh information on the financial background of Britain's campaigns. This vigorous narrative account will appeal to general readers and military enthusiasts, as well as to students of early nineteenth-century British politics and military history.

    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.18 books are contained within this volume series (Voices of the Civil War)

    Vivid descriptions of conditions at Andersonville include the rise of the prison police force and the execution of "raiders." Saved by being assigned to the dispensary, Hyde was given the chance to observe arid record the medical care, death, and burying of many of his colleagues as well as life in the Confederacy around him.

    Germany challenged the Royal Navy's global dominance, the U.S. and Japan established themselves as major naval powers. The revolutionary "HMS Dreadnought" was succeeded by even larger and more powerful warships that clashed spectacularly at the battle of Jutland in 1916. Plans for a new generation of 'super dreadnoughts' were delayed by international treaties, but Japanese ambitions eventually led to a new arms race with the U.S.. This naval race produced the world's largest and most heavily-armed battleships, like the "Yamoto" and "Owa." Combat experience in World War II soon revealed that submarines and aircraft posed a lethal threat to even the greatest battleship. Only the U.S. Navy had the resources to maintain a battleship force after 1945, and these mighty warships have attached enemy coasts from Vietnam and the Lebanon to the 1991 Gulf War. Acclaimed naval illustrator Tony Gibbons has painted all classes of twentieth century battleship for "Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century." Every major battleship is shown in profile, with the 25 greatest battleships illustrated across the full width of the page, with accompanying plan and bow views. Naval historian Bernard Ireland reveals the fascinating background to each class of battleship. Each entry includes comprehensive technical data. Special features investigate what happened when battleships opened fire: Why British battle cruisers were so vulnerable to German shellfire, how American radar helped "USS Washington" sink the "Kirishima" off Guadalcanal and when was the "Bismarck" doomed to die.

    Examines the system of warfare between 1792 and 1815, including the methods for infantry, cavalry, and artillery.

    It lists over 8,200 Boeing B-17s from the World War II era on which some sort of name identification was obtained, showing name and where available, group, squadron, and serial number. The photos in this book are black and white.

    But in the first years of the twentieth century, a significant change occurred in Westford when mills that had opened in the town 's Forge Village and Graniteville sections began to recruit workers from Russia, Poland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Canada. Westford depicts what the arrival of the mills and the mill workers meant to the town and its evolution in the twentieth century. The book also describes the effect of the mills ' demise in the 1950s, and chronicles the town 's recent development into a very appealing bedroom community for workers in Boston."

    272pp. 60 illus. 13 maps/diags. 16x24c. Hardback in D.J. all fine

    Making use of newly available documentary sources and recent Western scholarship, the author reevaluates Communist revolutionary strategy during the Vietnam War. Based on primary materials in several languages, this respected work is essential for an understanding of Vietnam in the twentieth century.

    This theme is developed over time and across military cultures. A comparative framework allows the treatment of the overall theme by examining the concept of the operational art in the context of different nationalities, different military organizations, and different societies. This study situates the current operational art in its historical context.

    Author Pat Brennan's skilful pen strokes brush away the obscuring shadows in Secessionville: Assault on Charleston, the first full-length treatment of this important and long-neglected early-war battle.

    In contrast, The King's Army--a meticulously researched analysis of the royal army during the early civil wars--brings warfare back to the center of the picture. The King's Army makes an important contribution to the history of military forces, warfare, religion and society in France, and will be of great interest to those engaged in the debate over the Military Revolution in early modern Europe.

    This biography describes his military career, his two marriages and his diplomatic service as ambassador to France, Britain and China.

    This ground-breaking work presents a wealth of information on the campaign to defend the Allied fleet at Normandy from the torpedoes of Germany's high-performance E-boats.

    Previously understood only as a rear guard action on the way to Richmond and overshadowed by the events of the Seven Days, it was in fact a savage two days' engagement which at its height involved more than 20,000 troops in combat. This is the first full length book to treat the battle in all its strategic importance. The authors draw heavily on original sources to reconstruct the action and to highlight the stories of military and civilian participants in the battle and its aftermath. That original material offers new insights into events associated with the Battle of Williamsburg. An extensive appendix describes the location of the battlefield and includes descriptions of key sites which still exist.

    Selected from the vast stage of World War II are concise, fact-filled biographical sketches of the personages who shaped and directed the events of this titanic conflict. Arranged alphabetically from Abdul Illah ibn Ali, the regent of Iraq who was executed by his own people following the war, to Solly Zuckerman, the British scientist and adviser on strategic bombing decisions, the more than 1,000 entries form a comprehensive and invaluable reference to World War II. A major feature increasing the dictionary's usefulness is a wealth of comprehensive cross references used to link the entries of individuals referred to elsewhere in the book. Pertinent bibliographical information accompanies entries, and at the end of the book is a complete bibliography of works and sources used, as well as an extensive glossary.

    Keyed to official highway maps, this richly illustrated guide leads the traveler to virtually every principal landmark associated with the war, from Fort Phil Kearny where the Sioux besieged soldiers sent to guard the Bozeman Trail in the 1860s to Fort Buford, the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.

    now revealed for you to use. Now you can find out anything you want to know about anyone you want to know about Satisfy your need to know with these revealing professional manuals on investigation, crime and police sciences.What do you do when faced with the overwhelming firepower of ruthless authority? Fight back, that's what Ragnar Benson provides citizen defenders with the information they need to mount a successful campaign against overwhelming odds... and win Learn how to employ homemade explosives and detonators; build effective flame throwers; select accurate sniper rifles and scopes; generate smoke, and much more. Brief histories of armed resistance and tank warfare are included. This may be the most essential self-defense book ever written

    They used the enemy's booby-trapped trails and grenade-in-you-backpack tactics in a sprawling mass of jungle.James C. Donahue, a member of Operation Blackjack-31, chronicles the treacherous trek through War Zone D by thirteen handpicked Green Berets who infiltrated the VC's "secret zone" and proved just how far determination can go.

    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.18 books are contained within this volume series (Voices of the Civil War)

    Based largely on Osmar White's own war diary and the articles he wrote as a war correspondent, this deeply personal account stands out among the vast literature on World War II. Selected among the best 100 articles in Australian journalism of the twentieth century, White's eloquent record of the climactic events in the final days of the Third Reich remains as fresh and timely as ever.

    Major General Aubrey Newman provides instruction on a mentoring process for company officers, field grade officers, and general officers as they move up the ranks into staff and command positions. Remembering who you are, where you came from as part of the human element is important in leadership development.

    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.18 books are contained within this volume series (Voices of the Civil War)

    Marines in World War II Commemorative Series

    Visiting the islands where his father saw action, Richmond seeks to understand the man he knew so briefly--Tom Richmond died in 1960 when son Peter was only six--and wonders what it means to be ready to die for one's country.

    This volume is the first encyclopedic account of the United States' colonial military experience. It features 650 essays by more than 130 historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, and other scholarly experts on a variety of topics that cover all of colonial America's diverse peoples. In addition to wars, battles, and treaties, analytical essays explore the diplomatic and military history of over 50 Native American groups, as well as Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and Swiss colonies. It's the first source to consult for the political activities of an Indian nation, the details about the disposition of forces in a battle, or the significance of a fort to its size, location, and strength. Clearly, in addition to its reference capabilities, the book's detailed material is highly useful to students as a supplementary text and as a handy source for reporters and papers. The"Encyclopedia" begins with the Spanish conquistadors and ends with Pontiac's War in 1763. It explores topics as diverse as the Spanish mission system, privateering, captivity narratives, African American soldiers, medical services, sea laws, and armed confrontations with no European participants. More than 140 biographical sketches complement hundreds of essays on forts and geopolitically significant locales. Numerous maps and a detailed timeline of over 200 entries pinpoint dates, places, and locations. Ranging from Maine to Alaska and from New Mexico to Florida, with numerous excursions to Canada and the Caribbean, this information-packed Encyclopedia is destined to become the standard quick-reference work on colonial American history. The"Encyclopedia" provides easy access to information that is difficult to find and often unavailable in ordinary reference sources. Its wide geographical coverage helps filling gray areas in our understanding of key historical events as it covers topics that often are little more than footnotes in traditional histories. In-depth essays on major wars and conflicts draw on both primary and secondary sources to provide focused and comprehensive accounts. All of the New England and British expeditions against Canada, and many of the international colonial conflicts are included, with an extensive bibliography and copious cross-referencing to help researchers. The book's comprehensiveness and accessibility make it a valuable addition to every school library, as well as a ready teaching tool in the classroom.

    In the face of Anglo-American air supremacy, crippling fuel shortages and mutual mistrust these two air forces struggled to impede the Allied advance up the Italian peninsula. Air War Italy draws on the archives of Britain, Italy, Germany, the USA and Canada as well as the recollections, diaries and logbooks of participants on both sides. It is probably the first book about any World War II air campaign to use radio intercept data and ULTRA decrypts so extensively, permitting the reconstruction of a highly detailed diary of German and Italian air operations day-by-day. Air War Italy covers not only fighter combats but includes a mass of previously unpublished information on harassment missions by moonlight; freelance nightfighters; an Italian torpedo attack on Gibraltar; clandestine agent-dropping flights; the radar-controlled bombing of a British HQ; and the arrival of German jets in Italy. There is new material on camouflage and markings, around 150 photographs and over 30 aircraft colour profiles plus maps, airfield plans and orders of battle.

    When completed, this multi-volume project will stand as the definitive work on a complex subject that until now has been superficially treated or completely ignored.Koistinen focuses not upon battlefields and battles but upon the means used to make and sustain the armies and navies that have fought in such horrific arenas. Drawing upon a vast array of sources in a number of diverse fields, he analyzes how America has mobilized itself for the conduct of war. He argues that to fully understand that process we must closely examine the complex interrelations among economic, political, and military institutions within the context of relentless modernization and technological innovation.In this first volume, Koistinen describes how an undeveloped preindustrial economy forced Americans to fight defensive wars of attrition like the Revolution and the War of 1812. By the time of the Mexican War, however, a gradually maturing economy allowed the U.S. to use a much more offensive-minded strategy to achieve its goals. The book concludes with an exhaustive examination of the Civil War, a conflict that both anticipated and differed from the total wars of the industrialized era. Koistinen demonstrates that the North relied upon its enormous economic might to overwhelm the Confederacy through a strategy of annihilation, while the South bungled its own strategy of attrition by failing to mobilize effectively a much less-developed economy.With this and subsequent volumes, Koistinen's sweeping synthesis provides a panoramic view that enlarges and in significant ways alters our vision of the turbulent relationship between war and society in America.

    This major reassessment of the origins of the war, based on extensive original research in several countries is the first full analysis of the politics of armaments in pre-1914 Europe. Drawing on insights from political science, the book offers a fresh conceptual framework for the origins of the First World War, and provides a thought-provoking case-study of the broader relationships between armaments and international conflict.

    The fighting prowess and martial enthusiasm of the Arm of the Potomac's framed Irish Brigade, and other proud Irish American units like the 9th Massachusetts and 69th Pennsylvania, was fired by their hope of freedom for their native land. Daring and reckless, fiercely combative and willing to suffer terrible losses for their cause and country, the Irish volunteers of the Army of the Potomac battled with heroic endurance through the swamps of the Peninsula, the carnage of Antietam's Bloody Lane, up the bullet-swept slope of Marye's Heights and across Gettysburg's wheatfield. They experienced the glories of victory at Cemetery Ridge, and the horrors of Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. The product of years of research, Frank Boyle's detailed history of the Irish regiments of the Army of the Potomac follows these gallant sons of Erin through trial and tribulation, down the long and weary road to ultimate victory." Brian C. Pohanka

    The Union ironclad warship, Monitor, with its two eleven-inch Dahlgren smoothbores in a unique revolving turret assembly, leaves New York City under tow to serve blockade duty off the coast of North Carolina. Meanwhile, the Confederate ironclad Virginia (formerly the wooden frigate Merrimac) is raising havoc with Union blockaders in Hampton Roads. The inevitable showdown takes place on March 9. For more than four hours the two ironclads battle furiously at close range. The Merrimac finally withdraws and returns to Norfolk to protect the river approaches to Richmond, leaving the Monitor in control of the Roads and in position to protect the Union blockaders. In May, the Merrimac is destroyed by its own crew to prevent capture; in December, the Monitor sinks in a storm off Cape Hatteras while under tow from Hampton Roads to North Carolina waters. An exciting account of two ships that would change naval warfare forever.

    Though methods of warfare are integral to the book, the emphasis is on conduct in battle and siege rather than with tactics and strategy. It explores ideas of ransom and the treatment of prisoners, the extent to which there was a brotherhood in arms among noble opponents, and how the knights treated the peasantry and churchmen in wartime.

    The artillery found it necessary to mechanise some of its field pieces. Armoured cars were called upon to carry out tasks in addition to reonnaissance. Tank destroyers were designed to seek, and destroy enemy armour. Add to this fascinating array such oddities as spedy oversnow Aerosans (armoured, fast sledges) deployed by the Red Army, to enormous siege guns weighing over 100 tons, to small remotely controlled and tracked demolition vehicles, only six feet in length, to the massive and powerfully equipped armoured trains deployed by the Soviet Union and Germany.

    This companion guide to An Historical Guide to Arms & Armor documents the development of light weaponry.