Plaster, a three-tour veteran of Vietnam tells the story of the most highly classified United States covert operatives to serve in the war: The Studies and Observations Group, code-named SOG. Comprised of volunteers from such elite military units as the Army?s Green Berets, the USAF Air Commandos, and Navy SEALs, SOG agents answered directly to the Pentagon?s Joint Chiefs, with some missions requiring approval from the White House. Now for the first time, the dangerous assignments of this top-secret unit can at last be revealed!

    As Robertson notes in his preface to Stonewall Jackson, this study "is not a biography of a great general; it is the life of an extraordinary man who became a great general...The intent here is to see life as Jackson saw it, to hear his words, to read his thoughts, to walk beside him and know more than he knew at a given time and place".

    Ambrose, bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II.In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. From the high command down to the ordinary soldier, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy. From the hedgerows of Normandy to the overrunning of Germany, Ambrose tells the real story of World War II from the perspective of the men and women who fought it.

    At the time, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist C.L. Sulzberger received widespread praise for his authoritative account of the six-year war that involved more than fifty-six nations, resulted in the death of some 22 million people, and shaped the course of history. His work became a standard reference on the war. Stephen E. Ambrose, one of the most highly regarded historians of our time, oversaw a major revision of this classic work. Seamlessly incorporating new material and insights, Ambrose produced a comprehensive and riveting account of the war’s key characters and events. In planes and foxholes, in deserts and jungles, on ships and beaches, Ambrose shines a light on the people involved - the leaders, the fighters, the victims. He also added new chapters on the atrocities of the Holocaust and revelations about the secret war of espionage. Ambrose’s analysis also offers insight into the events that precipitated the Cold War. This book captures the courage, commitment, military genius, and horror of the war that gave birth to a new era in world politics. For students, history buffs, and fascinated readers, The American Heritage History of World War II is the definitive single-volume work on the subject and will endure as a major narrative of world history.

    Overy's engrossing book provides extensive details of teh slaughter, brutality, bitterness and destruction on the massive front from the White Sea to the flank of Asia.--Chicago Tribune The Russian war effort to defeat invading Axis powers, an effort that assembled the largest military force in recorded history and that cost the lives of more than 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians, was the decisive factor for securing an Allied victory. Now with access to the wealth of film archives and interview material from Russia used to produce the ten-hour television documentary Russia's War, Richard Overy tackles the many persuasive questions surrounding this conflict. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes--of something deep within the Russian soul?

    This landmark study chronicles the Imperial Navy's instrumental role in Japan's rise from an isolationist feudal kingdom to a potent military empire.

    . ."By 1969, the NVA had grown more experienced at countering the tactics of the long range patrols, and SIX SILENT MEN: Book Three describes some of the fiercest fighting Lurps saw during the war. Based on his own experience and extensive interviews with other combat vets of the 101st's Lurp companies, Gary Linderer writes this final, heroic chapter in the seven bloody years that Lurps served God and country in Vietnam. These tough young warriors--grossly outnumbered and deep in enemy territory--fought with the guts, tenacity, and courage that have made them legends in the 101st.

    It shines a spotlight and shares new details about the admiral's leadership of the mission to recapture the port of New Orleans from the Confederacy - a campaign historians consider one of the most daring in military history.Farragut is perhaps best known for his order to “Damn the torpedoes.... Full speed ahead." during the Battle of Mobile Bay, which has become a touchstone and rallying cry for the United States Navy.A sweeping and riveting telling of Farragut's career and campaigns, Lincoln's Admiral offers fascinating insights into the strategy and decisions of one of the greatest military leaders on the Civil War - and of all time.

    "Buchanan makes the subject come alive like few others I have seen." --Dennis Conrad, Editor, The Nathanael Greene Papers."John Buchanan offers us a lively, accurate account of a critical period in the War of Independence in the South. Based on numerous printed primary and secondary sources, it deserves a large reading audience." --Don Higginbotham, Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

    It's almost something out of a Clancy novel, yet it's true. The best thing I can say about it is I didn't want it to end."--Col. David Hackworth, New York Times bestselling author of About FaceBy the spring of 1970, American troops were ordered to pull out of Vietnam. The Marines of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel "Wild Bill" Drumright, were assigned to cover the withdrawal of 1st Marine Division. The Marines of 1st RECON Bn operated in teams of six or seven men. Heavily armed, the teams fought a multitude of  bitter engagements with a numerically superior and increasingly aggressive enemy.Michael C. Hodgins served in Company C, 1st RECON Bn (Rein), as a platoon leader. In powerful, graphic prose, he chronicles his experience as a patrol leader in myriad combat situations--from hasty ambush to emergency extraction to prisoner snatch to combined-arms ambush. . . ."THIS MEMOIR IS GRIPPING."--American WayFrom the Paperback edition.

    Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion. In the belly of his bomber, the Bock's Car, was a newly developed, fully armed weapon that had never been tested in a combat situation--a weapon capable of a level of destruction never before dreamed of in the history of the human race...a bomb whose terrifying aftershock would ultimately determine the direction of the twentieth century and change the world forever. The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. His book is an extraordinary chronicle of the months of careful planning and training; the set backs, secrecy and the snafus; the nerve-shattering final seconds and the astonishing aftermath of what is arguably the most significant single event in modern history: the employment of an atomic weapon during wartime.

    It was a bitter pill. After working on their own in Vietnam for more than two years, the Brigade LRRPs were ordered to join forces with the division once again.But even as these formidable hunters and killers were themselves swallowed up by the Screaming Eagles' Division LRPs to eventually become F Co., 58th Infantry, they continued the deadly, daring LRRP tradition. From saturation patrols along the Laotian border to near-suicide missions and compromised positions in the always dangerous A Shau valley, the F/58th unflinchingly faced death every day and became one of the most highly decorated companies in the history of the 101st.

    The outcome of this offensive--the only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemy--was disastrous. The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known; the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and little-studied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg. Peter Cozzens presents here the first book-length study of these two complex and vicious battles. Drawing on extensive primary research, he details the tactical stories of Iuka--where nearly one-third of those engaged fell--and Corinth--fought under brutally oppressive conditions--analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level. He also provides compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price, exposing the ways in which their clashing ambitions and antipathies affected the outcome of the campaign. Finally, he draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles of Iuka and Corinth, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.During the late summer of 1862, Confederate forces attempted a three-pronged strategic advance into the North. The outcome of this offensive--the only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemy--was disastrous. The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known; the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and little-studied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg. Peter Cozzens details the tactical stories of Iuka and Corinth, analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level and providing compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price. He also draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.

    Most accounts of the grand assault focus on General Robert E. Lee’s reasons for making the charge, its preparation, organization, and ultimate failure. Author David Shultz, however, in “Double Canister at Ten Yards”: The Federal Artillery and the Repulse of Pickett’s Charge, July 3, 1863, focuses his examination on how and why the Union long-arm beat back the Confederate foot soldiers.After two days of heavy fighting on July 1 and 2, 1863, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. General George G. Meade, correctly surmised General Lee would remain on the offensive on July 3 and strike the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. Meade informed Maj. Gen. Winfield Hancock, whose infantry lined the ridge, that his sector would bear the brunt on the morrow and to prepare accordingly. Meade also warned to his capable chief of artillery, Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt, and tasked him with preparing his guns to deal with the approaching assault.Shultz, who has studied Gettysburg for decades and walked every yard of its hallowed ground, uses official reports, letters, diaries, and other accounts to meticulously explain how Hunt and his officers and men worked tirelessly that night and well into July 3 to organize a lethal package of orchestrated destruction to greet Lee’s vaunted infantry in an effort that would be hailed by many historians as “The High Water Mark of the Confederacy.” The war witnessed many large scale assaults and artillery bombardments, but no example of defensive gunnery was more destructive than the ring of direct frontal and full-flank enfilading fire Hunt’s batteries unleashed upon Lee’s assaulting columns. The iron rain broke and drove back the massed attack within a short time, leaving a fraction of the attacking force to cross the Emmitsburg Road to scale the deadly Ridge.“Double Canister at Ten Yards” will change the way you look at Pickett’s Charge, and leave you wondering yet again why an officer as experienced and gifted as General Lee ordered it in the first place.

    The series is scheduled to appear on A&E in the U.S. this fall. "Sharpe's Victory" relates the stories of all 14 films with on-set anecdotes and detailed historical information on Sharpe's battles and the military world leading up to Waterloo.130 color and b&w illustrations.

    It was the campaign that was supposed to the rebellion, but it resulted in a series of battles that changed America's history and that of the world. Stirring narrative history, skilfully told through the perspective of those who fought in the campaign, Saratoga brings to life as never before the inspiring story of Americans who did their utmost in what seemed a lost cause, achieving what proved to be the crucial victory of the Revolution. A New York Times Notable Book, 1997

    Sobered by that sight, Gantter and his fellow infantrymen moved across northern France and Belgium, taking part in the historic and bloody Battle of the Bulge, before slowly penetrating into and across Germany, fighting all the way to the Czechoslovakian border.With depth, clarity, and remarkable compassion, Gantter--an enlisted man and college graduate who spoke German--portrays the extraordinary life of the American soldier as he and his comrades lived it while helping to destroy Hitler's Third Reich. From dueling with unseen snipers in ruined villages to fierce battles in which the lightly armed American infantry skirmished against Hitler's panzers, Gantter skillfully captures one infantryman's progress across a continent where guns, fear, and death lay in wait around every bend in the road.

    First published in 1992 and now available in a paperback edition, a biography of Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps as Medical Officer to the 10th Battalion, the Kings (Liverpool Regiment) and was twice awarded the Victoria Cross.

    I didn't want to kill him. For a split second I hesitated. It was snowing. I was soaking and a million miles from home. I was looking at him, he was looking at me. Then, from the back of the trench, came a burst of automatic fire that cut past my head, and I pressed the trigger.Even by SAS standards Mike Curtis has had a remarkable career. Born and bred in the Welsh valleys, he followed his schoolmates into the coal mines at the age of fifteen. In 1979 he applied to join the Parachute Regiment. Enlisted in 2 Para battalion, he served in Northern Ireland and then went out to the island of South Georgia when the garrison of Royal Marines there was taken captive by Argentinian special forces. He joined the SAS in 1983. In Close Quarter Battle Curtis describes his gruelling experiences in the Falklands before focusing on two of his major SAS operations: first in Iraq, where he spent forty-two days Scud-busting hundreds of miles behind enemy lines; then in Bosnia, where he worked closely with all factions and later led a close protection team guarding visiting heads of state.From the Hardcover edition.

    It also features accounts of the defence of the Sugar Loaf Line and of the operations of Federal warships on the Cape Fear River.

    Like its predecessor, this tour of historic sites on the Gettysburg battlefield and surrounding area offers both a glimpse into the past as well as modern views of each photographic site and includes more previously unpubished views of the field..

    There he fought the war from the command cupola of an M48 Patton tank, an experience far removed from the stereotypical grunt in the rice paddies. The M48 was fifty-two tons of hell on wheels, equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun and a 90mm main gun, and Birdwell's hard-charging unit was responsible for securing the main supply route between Saigon and Tay Ninh. After extensive interviews with Birdwell, acclaimed Vietnam War historian Keith William Nolan transports the reader to the confident days of 1967 when Dwight Birdwell, then nineteen years old and raring for a fight, was first assigned to Troop C 3d Squadron, 4th Cavalry (25th Division) - a time when there really seemed to be a light shining at the end of the tunnel. Then came the Tet offensive and everything changed. Birdwell won the Silver Star and Purple Heart on January 31, 1968, when the tanks and armored personnel carriers of C/3/4th Cav smashed headlong into the communist regiment that had broken through the wire at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Tet was an allied victory. The decimated Viet Cong, reinforced by North Vietnamese Army regulars, refused to admit it though. Birdwell was wounded two more times, and won a second Silver Star in a little battle-wrecked hamlet called An Duc on the Fourth of July 1968. The pressure was relentless. Demoralized by heavy losses and the realization that the politicians and generals didn't really know how to win the war, the only goal for many of the troops became survival. By the time Birdwell rotated out, malingering, marijuana, and all the other problems that were to wreck the Army inVietnam had taken root, and Birdwell himself had reached the verge of combat fatigue.

    Written by the foremost Western practitioner/writers, these eight essays are based on experiences with authentic Japanese traditions and teachers gained during decades spent living, researching, and training in Japan. Together they offer a fascinating, literate, and insightful view into the classical warrior ways of feudal Japan. Compiled and edited by Diane Skoss (herself licensed in Toda-ha Buko-ryu naginatajutsu, an ancient warrior tradition), the book also contains thirty-three photographs, bibliographical references, a Japanese glossary with kanji, and a detailed index. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Foreword by Major George H. Bristol Preface by Diane Skoss Introduction: Keiko Shokon by Diane Skoss The Koryu Bujutsu Experience by Hunter B. Armstrong The Meaning of Martial Arts Training: A Conversation with Sawada Hanae by Meik Skoss Field Guide to the Classical Japanese Martial Arts by Diane Skoss Marishiten: Buddhist Influences on Combative Behavior by David A. Hall Tenjin Shinyo-ryu Jujutsu by Meik Skoss Kato Takashi: Reflections of the Tatsumi-ryu Headmaster by Liam Keeley Koryu Meets the West by Ellis Amdur Glossary Index

    For Alter and Throne documents the uprising by the Catholics of the Vendee region, who waged war to defend their religion and their king.

    A veteran navy fighter pilot chronicles the training of a class of eight men and women learning to fly the FA-18 Hornet.

    "Combat!" was television's longest-running World War II drama and honored the frontline U.S. infantryman. The book includes comments from Rick Jason ("Lt. Hanley"), Dick Peabody ("Littlejohn"), Tom Lowell ("Billy Nelson"), Pierre Jalbert ("Caje"), Conlan Carter ("Doc"), Jack Hogan ("Kirby"), director Robert Altman, Robert Blees, Georg Fenady, special effects wizard A.D. Flowers, and stuntman Earl Parker. The book has production notes, backstage stories, recollections of the actors, bloopers, reviews of all 152 episodes, and photos. A section of color photos of "Combat!" collectibles is also included. The compendium is printed on high-quality paper, with a gloss color cover and over 150 photos throughout (both black-and-white and color). Softbound, 8-1/2 by 11 inches. Foreword by Rick Jason.

    Bridging the fields of military history and the history of technology—and challenging past assumptions about Europe's "gunpowder revolution"—Hall discovers a complex and fascinating story. Military inventors faced a host of challenges, he finds, from Europe's lack of naturally occurring saltpeter—one of gunpowder's major components—to the limitations of smooth-bore firearms. Manufacturing cheap, reliable gunpowder proved a difficult feat, as did making firearms that had reasonably predictable performance characteristics. Hall details the efforts of armorers across Europe as they experimented with a variety of gunpowder recipes and gunsmithing techniques, and he examines the integration of new weapons into the existing structure of European warfare.

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

    This volume – which completes Blackburn’s award-winning trilogy, extending its coverage to the entire war – brings wartime Canada and England to life in captivating, often comic, detail. With the skill of a novelist and the instincts of a seasoned reporter, this gifted storyteller traces the evolution of Canada’s 4th Field Regiment from a motley assortment of ill-equipped recruits to the cream of the Allied artillery, more than ready to distinguish itself in the maelstrom of the battle for Normandy.The Second World War comes to a generation of Canadians one sunny September weekend in 1939. It is a Canada woefully unprepared for conflict, and 4th Field Regiment is rapidly assembled from a grab-bag of volunteers from all walks of life – many of them mavericks and misfits from a depression-ravaged land. The regiment passes its first year in Canada in makeshift accommodation, including hastily converted stables and pigsties in the exhibition grounds of Ottawa and Toronto. For the first few months the soldiers must wear incomplete and moth-eaten uniforms from the Great War, and their early training is conducted using obsolete equipment or no equipment at all. One year into the war, the regiment arrives in England without weapons or vehicles, and a month later, with Britain moving toward the greatest crisis in her history, the regiment is finally equipped with guns – French ones with wooden wheels, dating from 1898.From these inauspicious beginnings, the regiment slowly evolves – with mishap and occasionally mayhem along the way – into a proud and polished regiment, which in 1942 is declared “the best field regiment in Britain.” By the time the Allied troops land on the beaches in Normandy, the boys of 4th Field are more than ready to go to war.From the Hardcover edition.

    Examines the lives of many U-Bootwaffe officers, including the famous and the not-so-well known, to determine what type of men they were.

    It depicts their humor, despair, fear and courage while flying mission after mission, their friendships brutally "scrubbed" by mounting casualties. You'll taste the terror of flying each mission through heavy black barrages of flak and flame, bearing wounded or dead buddies. Praised for its "gutsy realism," its "stoic humor and crusty humanity," this book transports the reader into the very belly of the Flying Fortress, as its bombs rain on Nazi Germany and its young crew learns the real meaning of war.

    For 40 years the men from all three armed services, the SAS and the Foreign Office conducted an intelligence war against the massive Soviet military strength.

    documents to offer the first comprehensive study of fighter combat over North Vietnam. Marshall Michel's balanced, exhaustive coverage describes and analyzes both Air Force and Navy engagements with North Vietnamese MiGs but also includes discussions of the SAM threat and U.S. countermeasures, laser-guided bombs, and U.S. attempts to counter the MiG threat with a variety of technological equipment. Accessible yet professional, the book is filled with valuable lessons learned that are as valid today as they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Some 29 photos and 33 drawings and maps, including diagrams of both American and North Vietnamese formations and tactics, are included.

    Collectively these memories offered explanations and consolations to Canadians and instilled in them the hope that a new sense of national identity could be born out of war.

    Over twenty years of intensive research went into finding the original documents needed to create this new history on the development, characteristics, and tactical capabilities of the Tiger series. Tom Jentz has conducted an exhaustive search for surviving records of the design/assembly firms (including Henschel, Krupp, Nibelungenwerk, Porsche, and Wemann), the Heereswaffenamt, the D656 series of manuals on the Tiger, and the war diaries and operations reports from the German units. The written records were supplemented by examing thousands of photos. On-sight research into almost all the surviving Tigers provided details that could only be obtained from actual specimens. New information was found on the evolution of the heavy tank series, the key decisions on the design of the Tigers, the significant modifications made during the production runs, production statistics, the Tigers characteristics and tactical capabilities, an exact accounting of the issue of the Tigers to the combat units, and combat accounts written directly after the actions. Tom Jentz is also the author of Germany's Panther Tank, The Quest for Combat Supremacy; Panzertruppen 1933-1942; and Panzertruppen 1943-1945 (all three titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

    This volume is an unexpurgated translation of the originally classified Soviet General Staff Study No.14.

    27524Phone: (910) 594-0789Fax: (910) 594-0074Email: bentonville@ncdcr.gov

    In 1965, the U.S. Marines landed in Vietnam. It was supposed to be just another deployment. America was going to do what the French before them could not—clean up that dirty little brush war in South Vietnam. But, new to the front lines, the Marines were experiencing the smoke and bloodshed of war for the first time. That year, the war’s carnage became frighteningly real to television audiences back home—but the Marines were already displaying the fighting courage of experienced heroes. They had quickly learned the first rule of combat: Kill or be killed.With the explosive firepower of his military classics Marine Sniper and Silent Warrior, Charles Henderson gives a startlingly realistic account of the Marines’ hellish introduction to a new kind of warfare—and the raw truth about how it produced a new kind of American soldier.

    The author teaches you strategies for both avoiding conflict and getting outof a dangerous situation quickly and safely.Learn how mental attitude, body language, assertiveness, and the ability to overcome fear canprevent you from becoming a prime target for criminals. Learn which parts of the body are the mosteffective weapons in fending off an attacker, and which are the most likely targets for attack. Defendyourself from sudden grabs, strangles, weapons, and road rage. And find out how to deliver the SASfive-second knockout, a defence previously available only to British SAS Special Forces soldiers.Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and instructive artworks and including expert advicethroughout, The SAS Self-Defence Manual is a comprehensive guide to selfdefencefor both men and women.

    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.

    It also uncovers the considerable art of warfare in this period, the high level of craftsmanship achieved in the manufacture of all forms of embellished helmets and swords.

    

    

    Intended to provide the Royal Engineers, with skilled labor and to relieve the infantry from some of its non-combatant duties, Pioneers became the work horses of the Expedentiary Forces. The Coldstream Guards and over three dozen Country regiments each created at least one pioneer battalion. Several New Army battalions were raised specifically as Pioneers, while others were converted Territorials or Kitchener units formed originally as conventional infantry. Adopting a badge of a cross rifle and pick, these battalions wired, dug and reverted in all weathers and in all terrain. On many occasions they abandoned their working tools and fought alongside the infantry in repelling enemy attacks. In their efforts to stem the German offensives of 1918, several Pioneer units fought themselves to virtual annihilation. Often confused with the Pioneer Corps of the Second World War, the work of the Pioneer battalions has been largely ignored or misunderstood. Far from being the units of the ages and inform, these sixty-eight battalions played a major role in the Allied victory. Pioneer Battalions in the Great War traces the reasons behind the creation of these units, the work they performed and the dramatic transitions many of them had to undergo. It also examines how and why Pioneers have never received the recognition they deserve.

    Drawing heavily from interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, describes service in the Navy, Marines, Signal Corp, Red Cross, Salvation Army, YMCA; and as Army Nurses, reconstruc

    Both authors have travelled to the sight of Richthofen's final crash, studied the landscape and have discovered what many eye-witnesses of the time could see, and more importantly, what they could not have seen.During research for "Under the Guns of the Red Baron", a file of letters written by eye-witnesses to von Richthofen's crash, dated in the 1930s, was discovered. These letters were written many years before later reports became clouded in the mists of time.The final result is a detailed account of von Richthofen's last flight in which he persued a Sopwith Camel across the allied front line, and ended in a mortal wound from a single bullet.

    Published to coincide with the eightieth anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, this book explores, on a world-wide basis, the real nature of the participants' experiences.

    The majority of the images that appear in this book comes from personal albums. At the outbreak of World War II, Goering's Luftwaffe stood poised on the brink of great conquest. This title presents a series of archive photographs charting the Luftwaffe from 1939 to 1942 and examines aircraft designs, operations and the crews that made the Luftwaffe airborne.

    

    The M1 Garand was the battle rifle issued to American forces during World War II and the Korean War. It was the first semiautomatic rifle design to be used by combat forces in any army of the world. Developed in the 1930s, it was standardized in 1936 and saw its first combat in the Philippines in December 1941. Few other rifles have developed such a distinguished record as both a battle rifle and a match target rifle in the history of this or any other nation. General George Patton called the M1 Garand "the greatest battle implement ever devised." The M1 Garand with its capability of firing one round every time the trigger was pulled gave the American soldier a distinct firepower advantage over enemy soldiers armed with bolt action rifles that had to be cocked before each shot. During World War II, nearly four million M1 Garands were built at the Springfield National Armory and Winchester Repeating Firearms factories. They were issued to American troops in training camps and combat zones in every theater of the war. And hundreds of thousands were issued to French, Belgian, Greek, Italian and Philippine allies as well. During the Cold War years until the early 1960s, he M1 Garand was the mainstay of our small arms support programs to allied and friendly nations. In the last days of World War II, special variations of the M1 Garand, designated the M1C were developed and produced as sniper rifles. More were built during and after the! Korean War as the M1D. Also, during the Korean War, the M1 Garand was put back into production at Springfield, and in the factories of two private concerns, bringing the total production to almost 6,000,000. Hundreds of thousands of M1 Garands were issued to soldiers of the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam. Thousands of M1 Garands were manufactured in the 1950s as Match Target rifles and these are also eagerly sought by collectors. After Congress approved the reimportation of certain military rifles for collecting purposes in 1986, it is estimated that nearly half a million of the 1.5 to 2 million M1 Garands shipped overseas to allied and friendly nations were allowed to be reimported. Collector's snapped them up eagerly and began to restore them to original condition. But the M1 Garand had undergone a such continuous process of improvement and upgrading that by the end of production in 1955, hardly a single part remained as it had originally been designed. The collector attempting to restore an M1 Garand to original, as-manufactured condition must first determine when his rifle was manufactured, then which part or parts need replacing. Keep in mind that there were four different manufacturers of the rifle, all of whom also made spare parts. Fortunately, every part of the M1 Garand carries at least one clue to its manufacturer and the date when it was made. Every major part was stamped with a "part number" and these part numbers were changed every time the part was redesigned for improvement. Other clues are the type and color of finish, specific machine tool marks, factory codes and so on, all translated in "The M1 Garand: 1936 to 1957." With this book in hand, the collector will find it easy to examine his or her rifle and determine which parts must be replaced to return it to its original state. The book also explains how to determine if replacement parts are correct and if they are of original manufacture or are so-called "after-market" parts of non-military origin. The book also describes and tells how to identify the real sniper versions of the M1 Garand, also the match target versions. It also tells how to determine which rifles were sent to various armies overseas. For instance, did a particular rifle serve with British forces, Greek, Italian, Danish, Philippine allies or any of the dozen or so other nations receiving the M1 Garand as military aid. If you are a collector of the M1 Garand, or are interested in the history of American

    Pearl Harbor is in flames. Enter: the Eighth.In 1941 the RAF fought a desperate battle of survival against the Luftwaffe over Britain. Then, from across the Atlantic, came a new generation of American pilots, gunners, and bombardiers, a new generation of flying machines called the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, the P-47 Thunderbolt, and the P-51 Mustang fighter. Soon these brave young men were hurtling themselves and their unproven planes across the Channel and into the teeth of enemy firepower, raining down bombs on the German military machine, and going up against Hitler's best fliers in the sky.This is the dramatic oral history of the Army Air Corps and the newly created Eighth Air Force stationed in Britain, an army of hard-fighting, hard-playing flying men who suffered more fatalities than the entire U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific campaign of World War II. Here, in their own words, are tales of survival and soul-numbing loss, of soldiers who came together to fight a kind of war that had never been fought before--and win it with their courage and their blood.But the road to victory was paved with sacrifice. From its inaugural mission on July 4, 1942, until V-E Day, the Eighth Air Force lost more men than did the entire United States Marine Corps in all its campaigns in the Pacific. The Mighty Eighth chronicles the testimony of the pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners who daily put their lives on the line. Their harrowing accounts recall the excitement and terror of dogfights against Nazi aces, maneuvering explosive-laden aircraft through deadly flak barrages, and fending off waves of enemy fighters while coping with subzero temperatures.Beginning with the opening salvos from a mere dozen planes, crewmen describe the raids on Berlin and Dresden, the fiasco at Ploesti, Romania, and Black Thursday over Schweinfurt. They fell to the terror of seeing aircraft destroyed--helplessly watching as comrades crash and burn, or parachute over enemy territory, where they will attempt to evade enemy capture through the underground. Others tell of mourning downed airmen murdered by vengeful citizens and soldiers, and of those who endured captivity in POW camps. -->

    It has many names and designations - Skytrain, Spooky, Puff the Magic Dragon, DC-3, C-47, R4D, Li-2 and others. But the name that most pilots know it by is the Gooney Bird. And it has played many roles besides being an aerial workhorse to transport people and cargo. It has been a bomber, fighter, airborne communications center, amphibian, living quarters, hospital, flying washing machine, and command post. When some of the more than 10,000 built, and additional hundreds in Japan and Russia, ended their days, they have been made into a hamburger stand, tea house, mobile home, seaside cottage, an officers club and even a chicken coop. Many have been put on static display at more than 200 museums around the world. After more than sixty years, 1,000 of them are still flying the world\s skies. The DC-3/C-47 has surpassed all other aircraft ever built in faithful service, dependability and achievement. This is the story of its conception, design and amazing life in war and peace. Carroll glines is also the author of The Doolittle Raid, Attack on Yamamoto, and Chennault\s Forgotten Warriors: The Saga of the 308th Bomb Group in China (all available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

    This is the story of the "Handschar," a Muslim combat formation created by the Germans to "restore order in Bosnia." What actually transpired was quite different.

    The fight began with Federal officer Nathaniel Lyonís capture of the ammunition-packed St. Louis Arsenal. Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson unleashed the call for war and hastily formed militia units to defeat the Federals. In a bold campaign designed to destroy the vaunted state guard, Lyon and Federal Col. Franz Sigel launched a two-pronged attack. Ten miles north of the small town of Carthage, Jackson met Sigel and heavily outnumbered the Federal colonelís force. Sigel was forced to improvise a series of remarkable rearguard actions designed to save his supply wagons and his army. The Battle of Carthage is the first book devoted to this influential, early war battle. The book features detailed tactical coverage of the battle and in-depth biographical sketches, with critical evaluations of both sidesí major participants. The authorsí exhaustive battle analysis contains new interpretations of how and why the fighting evolved. This story of the battle of Carthage includes comprehensive original maps, photos and illustrations, a detailed discussion of casualties, explanatory endnotes, an order of battle, and an interview with coauthor David C. Hinze.

    With Charity for All offers a powerful argument for the continuity of Lincoln's generous approach to Reconstruction, and it provides a wealth of information showing how the president's mind worked. I only wish I had had this first-rate book before me when I was writing my Lincoln biography."""""""" --David Herbert Donald, Journal of American History Harris m

    Marines" is the only single-volume, definitive combat history of the United States Marines, covering more than two centuries of battles in the air and on land and sea--literally "from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli," from Suribachi to Somalia. It presents graphic narratives of such epic engagements as Belleau Wood, Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Saipan, Okinawa, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and many more. You will meet the Marine sharpshooters in the "fighting tops" of our young country's legendary frigates, as they took on the British navy during the American revolution; discover the exploits of Marine pilots in the "Banana Wars," in the skies over the Pacific during World War II, and later over Korea and Vietnam; and share the tension and terror of stalking the enemy on a Marine patrol in the jungles of the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia.An award-winning military historian and a retired Marine colonel, Joseph H. Alexander served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He tells the Marine combat story in a no-holds-barred narrative, with dozens of sidebars full of fascinating vignettes and Marine lore accompanied by nearly one hundred rare combat photographs and vivid sketches and numerous maps.

    In the course of this the Dutch rose up successfully against their Spanish rulers and established a Republic in the early 16th century which was the envy of its contemporaries. This volume brings together papers by 11 leading military historians from the Netherlands who discuss the processes by which the Dutch organised and financed the military apparatus which was eventually to defeat the leading land and maritime power of their day, and to maintain the position of Holland as a world power until well into the 18th century. Articles cover military matters such as changes in strategy and tactics and issues such as the financing of the war, effort, the navy, privateering and the arms trade.

    This book presents for the first time a complete and accurate picture of their development, organization and operational use before and during the war.

    Following his mother’s death, Alexandre joined his father in Normandy in 1776. Later, he moved to Paris alone. In 1786, after losing financial support for his libertine Parisian life, Thomas-Alexandre enlisted as a private in the French army under his mother’s name—Dumas. From there began a distinguished military career that saw early rapid advancement, peaked with high favor from Napoleon, and ended after unjust attempts on Dumas’ life.

    The author provides a blow by blow of the regiment's battles, focusing on the accounts of individual officers and men. The text is accompanied by diagrams battles and campaigns and some b&w photographs. Annotation c. by Book News

    Nazaire.

    "Stonewall" Jackson's legendary Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The Battle of Kernstown has been the least understood encounter of that famous spring in 1862 - until now. Gary Ecelbarger's new book brings to light the strategy, tactics, and personalities associated with March 23, 1862, by using hundreds of rare first-hand accounts from Kernstown soldiers. "We Are In For It!" demonstrates why one Civil War veteran considered the infantry fire at Kernstown to be "as heavy as it was at Antietam, Gettysburg, or the Wilderness."

    

    Brigadier Wingate was not the usual product of an army staff college, his approach was to drive the enemy from their hideouts using guerilla tactics with an Indian division known as the Chindits.

    

    Commonly referred to as the Dixie Mission, the unit sent to Yenan was responsible for transmitting weather information, assisting the Communists in their rescue of downed American flyers, and laying the groundwork for an eventual rapprochement between the Communists and Nationalists, the two sides struggling in the ongoing Chinese Civil War. With extensive use of archival sources and numerous interviews with the men who traveled and served in Yenan, Carolle Carter argues that while Dixie fulfilled its assignment, the members steered the mission in different directions from its original, albeit loosely described, intent. As the months and years passed, the Dixie Mission increasingly emphasized intelligence gathering over evaluating their Communist hosts' contribution to the war effort against Japan. Carter strips away simplistic portrayals to reveal a diverse and dedicated collection of soldiers, diplomats, and technicians who had ongoing contact with the Chinese Communists longer than any other group during World War II, but who were destined to be a largely ignored resource during the Cold War.

    A professor of history at the University of Berlin, editor of the Prussian Annals—the most famous journal of political commentary of his day—and a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, he also moved among political, cultural, and military elites. Delbrück pioneered the techniques of modern military history, studying tactics and technology as well as the social, political, and economic context of military operations. His four-volume History of the Art of War is a classic of German and military history. This volume reveals the tension between Delbrück’s patriotism and his scholarship, which helped him to recognize German military failings. The twenty-four readings, comprising letters written to his mother while he served in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and essays, reviews, commentaries, and speeches on military figures, historians, and events through World War I, show his talents as a historian and political commentator. Arden Bucholz’s introduction and headnotes illuminate the context of Delbrück’s life and work.

    The Gurkhas have been staunch friends in every war fought by Great Britain and they have proved to be an unusually effective fighting force: In the Second World War, nearly a quarter of a million came down from the hills of Nepal to fight against Germany and Japan -- each and every one being a volunteer -- and throughout the 19th century and onto the Falklands campaign in 1982, the Gurkha regiments were continually used to support British colonial interests. Their renown in battle earned the respect of friend and foe; their valor has won countless decorations for gallantry, including thirteen Victoria Crosses.

    More thrilling than any fiction, this book charts the true story of RAF crewman Denys Teare's year in Occupied France, a year spent a half-step ahead of Gestapo troopers determined to hunt him down.

    Army.

    Sweeping battle narrative, coupled with new, detailed maps and orders of battle make Napoleon and Austerlitz a must.

    Moments of hilarity interspersed with impatience and frustration are recorded verbatim, along with an underlying sense of urgency about winning a war that hung in the balance for too long.Written to the Dead of Women at Macdonald College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Mary Buch’s letters lay untouched for over fifty years after her return to Canada from England in 1945. Today they serve as a looking-glass into the War Years that is tinged with the freshness of youthful spontaneity and the promise of a brighter tomorrow.Carolyn Gossage has interwoven colourful contextual sidebars that provide today’s reader with an overview of times and circumstances that have become increasingly elusive in the intervening years.

    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.

    This volume is a collection of his favorite paintings of the Civil War that feature subjects from a Northern viewpoint.

    No true tale of the sea makes better reading."-Clive CusslerHere is the true tale of a small-time salvage diver, the crushing depths of the sea, and the richest prize ever found-$100 million in pure gold. Follow salvage diver Keith Jessop as he battles nature, governments, traitors, salvage monopolies, and, of course, lawyers to claim the grand prize of wrecks-the HMS Edinburgh. Filled with ten tons of Russian gold, the ship had been sought by many, but never found. Through unyielding determination, extraordinary physical prowess, and keen intelligence, Keith Jessop risks all to reach his final destination, and keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

    The book covers the Gilded Age and Progressive Era through the Spanish-American War and World War I.

    It examines the combat claims of British, German, American, Italian, Russian and Finnish pilots, and explains how these claims were submitted and verified. Also described are the tactics they employed to ensure success on the frontline, along with the psychological stresses endured by the men.

    Presents six actual World War II evasion stories, providing maps and photographs which enable the reader to follow the downed airmen's paths to safety.

    This is the story of the extraordinary efforts of a small band of engineers, designers, and spies who created America's first reconnaissance satellite -- the highly secret Corona project -- from the first desperate requests for intelligence on the USSR, through a series of failures, to Corona's ultimate success.

    Full accounts are given of the famous events of the period, such as the loss of the turret ship "Captain", the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, the ramming of the "Victoria" by the "Camperdown" in 1893, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. Illustrated throughout with many rare contemporary photographs, this is an indispensable study of one of the most exiting periods in warship development.

    This book examines all aspects of the Irish ringforts; their shape and size, their date and function with special attention to national distribution patterns.

    Here Glyn Harper examines his formative years, including his WW1 experiences, and shows how they influenced his style of leadership and performances on the battlefield. Beginning with the ill-fated Greek expedition of 1941 and the disaster in Crete, the book covers events in North Africa and the Italian Campaign. Known affectionately by the men as Kip, his military career ended abruptly when he stepped on a mine at Monte Cassino and lost both feet. However that wasn't the end of his story, and he led an interesting and significant career post-war. First published in hardback in in 1997, Glyn Harper's book has become a deserving classic and is now available in a new format.