Best of
Military-History

1999

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War


Mark Bowden - 1999
    soldiers were dropped by helicopter into a teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia, to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord. The action was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they spent a long and terrible night fighting thousands of armed Somalis. By morning, eighteen Americans were dead, and more than seventy badly injured. Mark Bowden's gripping narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern war ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage and brutality of battle.

Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War


Ed Kugler - 1999
    After enlisting in the Marines at seventeen, then being wounded in Santo Domingo during the Dominican crisis, Kugler arrived in Vietnam in early 1966.As a new sniper with the 4th Marines, Kugler picked up bush skills while attached to 3d Force Recon Company, and then joined the grunts. To take advantage of that experience, he formed the Rogues, a five-sniper team that hunted in the Co Bi-Than Tan Valley for VC and NVA. His descriptions of long, tense waits, sudden deadly action, and NVA countersniper ambushes are fascinating.In DEAD CENTER, Kugler demonstrates the importance to a sniper of patience, marksmanship, bush skills, and guts--while underscoring exactly what a country demands of its youth when it sends them to war.

Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire


Richard B. Frank - 1999
    Frank gives a scrupulously detailed explanation of the critical months leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb. Frank explains how American leaders learned in the summer of 1945 that their alternate strategy to end the war by invasion had been shattered by the massive Japanese buildup on Kyushu, and that intercepted diplomatic documents also revealed the dismal prospects of negotiation. Here also, for the first time, is a comprehensive account of how Japan's leaders were willing to risk complete annihilation to preserve the nation's existing order. Frank's comprehensive account demolishes long-standing myths with the stark realities of this great historical controversy.

The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day


Victor Davis Hanson - 1999
    Theban general Epaminondas marched an army of farmers two hundred miles to defeat their Spartan overlords and forever change the complexion of Ancient Greece. William Tecumseh Sherman led his motley army across the South, ravaging the landscape and demoralizing the citizens in the defense of right. And George S. Patton commanded the recently formed Third Army against the German forces in the West, nearly completing the task before his superiors called a halt. Intelligent and dramatic, The Soul of Battle is narrative history at it's best and a work of great moral conviction.

First Force Recon Company: Sunrise at Midnight


Bill Peters - 1999
    Bill Peters and the Force Recon Marines had one of the most difficult, dangerous assignments in Vietnam. From the DMZ to the Central Highlands, their job was to provide strategic and operational intelligence to ensure the security of American units as the withdrawal of the troops progressed. Peter's accounts of silently watching huge movements of heavily armed NVA regulars, prisoner snatches, sudden-death ambushes, and extracts from fiercely fought firefights vividly capture the realities of Recon Marine warfare and offer a gritty tribute to the courage, heroism, and sacrifice of the U.S. Marines.

Hornet's Sting


Derek Robinson - 1999
    For Woolley and his fellow pilots, only two things can take their mind off combat's tedious brutality: the nurses and a potent brew called "Hornet's Sting." But, as the big summer offensives begin, not even those provide any comfort...Strong, cynical, and extremely well-researched, Robinson's novel captures the reality of the air war and a pilot's life during that horrific time.

Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950


Martin Russ - 1999
    Marines were marching north to the Yalu river in late November 1950. These three regiments of the 1st Marine Division--strung out along eighty miles of a narrow mountain road--soon found themselves completely surrounded by 60,000 Chinese soldiers. Despite being given up for lost by the military brass, the 1st Marine Division fought its way out of the frozen mountains, miraculously taking thier dead and wounded with them as they ran the gauntlet of unceasing Chinese attacks.This is the gripping story that Martin Russ tells in his extraordinary book. Breakout is an unforgettable portrayal of the terror and courage of men as they face sudden death, making the bloody battles of the Korean hills and valleys come alive as they never have before.

Vipers in the Storm: Diary of a Gulf War Fighter Pilot


Keith Rosenkranz - 1999
    Here he recounts these experiences in searing, you-are-there detail, giving readers one of the most riveting depictions ever written of man and machine at war.

Baptism: A Vietnam Memoir


Larry Gwin - 1999
    We and the 1st Battalion."A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only twenty-three years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highlands, he served almost nine months as executive officer for Alpha Company, 2/7, fighting against crack NVA troops in some of the war's most horrific battles.The bloodiest conflict of all began November 12, 1965, after 2nd Battalion was flown into the Ia Drang Valley west of Pleiku. Acting as point, Alpha Company spearheaded the battalion's march to landing zone Albany for pickup, not knowing they were walking into the killing zone of an NVA ambush that would cost them 10 percent casualties.Gwin spares no one, including himself, in his gut-wrenching account of the agony of war. Through the stench of death and the acrid smell of napalm, he chronicles the Vietnam War in all its nightmarish horror.

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918


Joseph E. Persico - 1999
    The final hours pulsate with tension as every man in the trenches hopes to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in World War I." "The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M., yet in the final hours they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand casualties suffered - more than during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Why? Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment, and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion." "Joseph E. Persico puts the reader in the trenches with the forgotten and the famous - among the latter, Corporal Adolf Hitler, Captain Harry Truman, and Colonels Douglas MacArthur and George Patton. Mainly, though, he follows ordinary soldiers' lives, illuminating their fate as the end approaches." Persico sets the last day of the war in historic context with a reprise of all that led up to it, from the 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand, which ignited the war, to the raw racism black doughboys endured except when ordered to advance and die in the war's final hour.

A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars


Vincent J. Esposito - 1999
    This superb historical atlas provides a comprehensive overview of the battles and campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte between 1796 and 1815.

Dustoff: The Memoir of an Army Aviator


Michael J. Novosel - 1999
    In fact, it looked like he might never see military action. After fast-talking his way into the aviation cadet program (he was too short to pass the physical) and earning his wings, he became a heavy-bomber instructor for the Army Air Corps. But it wasn’t until Germany’s defeat that the ace pilot finally saw combat. Assigned as a B-29 Super-fortress command pilot, he reached Tinian just before the Enola Gay took off to end World War II in the skies over Hiroshima.Despite being a senior airline pilot, when the war in Vietnam started, Novosel applied again for active duty. The only thing that the air force was willing to give reserve lieutenant colonels like Novosel to fly, however, was a desk. Resigning his commission, he approached the army, which decided that flying dustoffs (medevac helicopters) in Vietnam was a perfect job for this seasoned aviator. With two tours, 2,038 hours of combat flight, 2,345 aerial missions that evacuated 5,589 wounded, and a Congressional Medal of Honor, it’s easy to see that Mike Novosel is a genuine, 24-karat American war hero.

Devil's Own Luck: Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic 1944-45


Denis Edwards - 1999
    He brilliantly conveys what it was like to be facing death, day after day, night after night, with never a bed to sleep in nor a hot meal to go home to. This is warfare in the raw ' brutal, yet humorous, immensely tragic, but sadly, all true.

The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause: The Firsthand Account of One of the Greatest Escapes of World War II


Damon Gause - 1999
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Fire In The Sky: The Air War In The South Pacific


Eric M. Bergerud - 1999
    Despite operating under primitive conditions in a largely unknown and malignant physical environment, both sides employed the most sophisticated technology available at the time in a strategically crucial war of aerial attrition. In one of the largest aerial campaigns in history, the skies of the South Pacific were dominated first by the dreaded Japanese Zeros, then by Allied bombers, which launched massed raids at altitudes under fifty feet, and finally by a ferocious Allied fighter onslaught led by a cadre of the greatest aces in American military history. Utilizing primary sources and scores of interviews with surviving veterans of all ranks and duties, Eric Bergerud recreates the fabric of the air war as it was fought in the South Pacific. He explores the technology and tactics, the three-dimensional battlefield, and the leadership, living conditions, medical challenges, and morale of the combatants. The reader will be rewarded with a thorough understanding of how air power functioned in World War II from the level of command to the point of fire in air-to-air combat.

Ortona: Canada's Epic World War II Battle


Mark Zuehlke - 1999
    A masterful retelling one of the major victories of Canadian troops over the German army’s elite division during WWII.

Thucydides on Strategy: Grand Strategies in the Peloponesian War and Their Relevance Today


Athanassios G. Platias - 1999
    Scholars have also admired the text's deep political and military dimensions.Written in the fifth century B.C.E., the "History of the Peloponnesian War" has been placed alongside Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and Carl von Clausewitz's "On War" as one of the great treatises on strategy. The perfect companion to Thucydides's impressive text, this volume details the strategic concepts at work within the "History of the Peloponnesian War" and demonstrates how, through case studies of recent conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Thucydidean thought remains vital to the analysis of strategic operations.Some scholars have credited Thucydides with founding the discipline of international relations. Written by scholars with extensive experience in this and related fields, "Thucydides on Strategy" situates the historian solidly within the annals of classical history and within the world of modern war.

Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862


Joseph L. Harsh - 1999
    It focuses on military policy and strategy, examining the context necessary to understand that strategy and the circumstances under which the two commanders, Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan, laboured.

Sword & Spirit


Diane Skoss - 1999
    With the growing popularity of the martial arts, more and more people are looking for reliable information on the fighting traditions of the redoubtable Japanese warriors. These rare and often misunderstood arts are demystified in the eight essays in Sword & Spirit. The authors are all highly skilled and qualified practitioners, who have spent decades living, training, and researching in Japan--and they are unique in that they can tell their tales in English.Volume one of the Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan series, Koryu Bujutsu, was hailed by Wayne Muromoto of Furyu: The Budo Magazine as "...probably the best book on martial arts this year, if not for several years past and hence..." Don't miss these beautiful, well-researched books!

No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War


Tim Cook - 1999
    Tim Cook shows that the serious threat of gas did not disappear with the introduction of gas masks. By 1918, gas shells were used by all armies to deluge the battlefield, and those not instructed with a sound anti-gas doctrine left themselves exposed to this new chemical plague.This book provides a challenging re-examination of the function of gas warfare in the First World War, including its important role in delivering victory in the campaign of 1918 and its curious postwar legacy.

A Willingness to Die: Memories from Fighter Command


Brian Kingcome - 1999
    He became acting CO for No 92 Squadron at Biggin Hill and led over sixty operations, achieving the highest success rate of any squadron in the Battle of Britain. In May 1943 Britan joined Desert Air Force in Malta and took command of 244 Wing. At this time he was confirmed Flight Lieutenant, acting Squadron Leader, acting Wing Commander and at twenty-five was one of the youngest Group Captains in the Royal Air Force. Brian Kingcome may have been the last Battle of Britain pilot of repute to put his extraordinary story into print; looked upon by other members of his squadron as possibly their finest pilot, his nonetheless unassuming memoirs are related with a subtle and compassionate regard for a generation who were, as he felt, born to a specific task. Britan's memoirs have been edited and introduced by Peter Ford, ex-National Serviceman in Malaya.

The Fifty-Year War: Conflict and Strategy in the Cold War


Norman Friedman - 1999
    But in The Fifty-Year War I can. . . . For the men and women who are going to lead the world in the first generation of the Twenty-First Century, this account of how the Cold War was fought and won is indispensable. For those of us who lived through it. . . . Friedman's account is enthralling. Having spent much of my life reading about, studying, worrying about, participating in the Cold War, I thought there was nothing new for me to learn about it. Boy was I wrong. Read The Fifty-Year War and see why. -- Stephen Ambrose

Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World


Stuart A. Herrington - 1999
    Army's top counterintelligence officer. In this thrilling and informative account he details one of the most damaging and delicate cases of espionage ever committed against the United States. Between 1972 and 1988, thousands of highly classified documents were sold to the Soviet Union and her Warsaw pact surrogates. They were secrets so sensitive that had war broken out in Central Europe, our ability to defend our NATO allies would have been seriously compromised. It was up to Herrington and his team to root out the elusive spy ring responsible for this treachery. An intriguing page-turner with more twists and turns than a spy novel, Traitors Among Us guides us through the intricate spy catcher's world of Cold War Berlin, showing us how the "game" was played when the stakes were as high as national survival.

Germany's Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I: Design, Production & Modifications


Thomas L. Jentz - 1999
    This includes details on the development series known as the D.W., VK 30.01(H), VK 30.01(P), VK 36.01(H), VK 45.01(P) as well as the Tiger I. All of this illustrated with scale drawings by Hilary L. Doyle, combined with drawings, sketches, and photographs depicting external modifications as well as internal views. Over thirty years of intensive research went into finding the original documents needed to create this history of the development, characteristics, and tactical capabilities of the Tiger. An exhaustive search was made for surviving records of the design/assembly firms (including Krupp, Henschel, Porsche, and Wegmann), the Heereswaffenamt, the Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen, the D656 series of manuals on the Tiger, and the war diaries with their supporting reports from German army units. This is supplemented by the authors' collecting hundreds of photos and climbing over, under, around, and through nearly every surviving Tiger I.

Salt and Steel: Reflections of a Submariner


Edward L. Beach - 1999
    With warmth and humor, Captain "Ned" Beach relates the many highlights of his distinguished naval career.

Three Days at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership


Gary W. GallagherWilliam Glenn Robertson - 1999
    Because it was a defining event for both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia, the debates began almost immediately after the battle, and they continue today.Three Days at Gettysburg contains essays from noted Civil War historians on leadership during the battle. The contributors to this volume believe there is room for scholarship that revisits the sources on which earlier accounts have been based and challenges prevailing interpretations of key officers' performances. They have trained their investigative lens on some obvious and some relatively neglected figures, with an eye toward illuminating not only what happened at Gettysburg but also the nature of command at different levels.The contributors to this volume believe there is room for scholarship that revisits the sources on which earlier accounts have been based and challenges prevailing interpretations of key officers' performances. They have trained their investigative lens on some obvious and some relatively neglected figures, with an eye toward illuminating not only what happened at Gettysburg but also the nature of the command at different levels.

The Encyclopedia of Modern Military Weapons


Chris Bishop - 1999
    

Tiger I on the Eastern Front


Jean Restayn - 1999
    Jean Restayn's text is backed up by 250 photographs, most of them never published before, and 50 color plates showing markings, insignia and camouflage schemes. Also included is a complete operational history and order of battle for all Eastern Front units, both Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, who were equipped with the Tiger.

Gettysburg: Day Two A Study In Maps


John Imhof - 1999
    Each map shows the battlefield as a whole, rather than small sections of it, allowing the reader to see how events were interrelated. Each map is followed by several heavily-footnoted pages of text explaining what is occurring on the maps.

Second Manassas: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge


Scott C. Patchan - 1999
    Lee ordered Maj. Gen. James Longstreet to conduct a reconnaissance and possible assault on the Chinn Ridge front in Northern Virginia. At the time Longstreet launched his attack, only a handful of Union troops stood between Robert E. Lee and Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia. Northern Virginia’s rolling terrain and Bull Run also provided Lee with a unique opportunity seldom seen during the entire Civil War—that of "bagging" an army, an elusive feat keenly desired by political leaders of both sides. Second Manassas: Longstreet’s Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge details the story of Longstreet and his men’s efforts to obtain the ultimate victory that Lee desperately sought. At the same time, this account tells of the Union soldiers who, despite poor leadership and lack of support from Pope and his senior officers, bravely battled Longstreet and saved their army from destruction along the banks of Bull Run. Longstreet’s men were able to push the Union forces back, but only after they had purchased enough time for the Union army to retreat in good order. Although Lee did not achieve a decisive victory, his success at Chinn Ridge allowed him to carry the war north of the Potomac River, thus setting the stage for his Maryland Campaign. Within three weeks, the armies would meet again along the banks of Antietam Creek in western Maryland. Uncovering new sources, Scott Patchan gives a vivid picture of the battleground and a fresh perspective that sharpens the detail and removes the guesswork found in previous works dealing with the climactic clash at Second Manassas.

First Across the Rhine: The Story of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion in France, Belgium, and Germany


David E. Pergrin - 1999
    This book shows how this important division provided critical access over the Rhine in the face of enormous resistance.

Tommy Goes to War


Malcolm Brown - 1999
    The eloquence and humanity of the British soldier shine through, and the work stands as a moving tribute to a lost and noble generation. Yet war is a time of contradictions, and alongside the image of the "noble Tommy" we are presented with forthright critisisms of the British command and, more disturbingly, a taste of the blood-lust that was awakened in these unlikely warriors.

Bradley: A History of American Fighting and Suport Vehicles


R.P. Hunnicutt - 1999
    Bradley covers the development and use of full-tracked, nontank fighting and support vehicles.

Fort Anderson: The Battle For Wilmington


Chris E. Fonvielle Jr. - 1999
    Fort Anderson was one of several Civil War battles fought for control of the city; this large-format book is heavily illustrated.

Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign


Carl von Clausewitz - 1999
    The others, historical analyses of the wars that roiled Europe from 1789 through 1815, informed and shaped Clausewitz's military thought, so they offer invaluable insight into his dialectical, often difficult theoretical masterwork.Among these historical works, perhaps the most important is Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign, which covers a crucial period in the French Revolutionary Wars. During this campaign the young, largely unknown Corsican, in his first command, led the French Army to triumph over the superior forces of the Austrian and Sardinian Armies. Moving from strategy to battle scene to analysis, this first English translation nimbly conveys the character of Clausewitz's writing in all its registers: the brisk, often powerful description of events as they unfolded; the critical reflections on strategic theory and its implications; and, most bracing, the dissection and sharp judgment of the actions of the French and Austrian commanders.From the thrill of the Battle of Montenotte--the youthful Bonaparte's first offensive--to the remorseless logic of Clausewitz's assessments, Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign will expand readers' experience and understanding of not only this critical moment in European history but also the thought and writings of the modern master of military philosophy.

In Honored Glory


Robert Vaughan - 1999
    Maine rests at anchor. Then America's most powerful battleship suddenly explodes, and the Spanish American War has begun... "Remember the Maine" was the battle cry that sent thousands of American soldiers on the adventure of a lifetime... war with Spain in Cuba. But for the soldiers who would face a barrage of Spanish gunfire, it would be a war like none other. A novel of men and women thrust into the heart of war. This is the saga of a nation doing battle for the first time since it's own Civil War, on a hot, exotic island where glory would only be earned in blood.

S.A.S. Encyclopedia of Survival


Barry Davies - 1999
    It covers every area of survival from basic fieldcraft techniques to the modern GPS navigation and signalling equipment. Packed with specially commissioned photographs and illustrations. This book is based on SAS training and techniques. Covers arctic, desert, jungle survival and escape and evasion.

Fort Robinson and the American West, 1874–1899


Thomas R. Buecker - 1999
    Established in 1874 just south of the Black Hills, Fort Robinson witnessed many of the most dramatic, most tragic encounters between whites and American Indians, including the Cheyenne Outbreak, the death of Crazy Horse, the Ghost Dance, the desperation and diplomacy of such famed Plains Indian leaders as Dull Knife and Red Cloud, and the tragic sequence of events surrounding Wounded Knee.In Fort Robinson and the American West, 1874–1899, Thomas R. Buecker explores both the larger story of the Nebraska fort and the particulars of daily life and work at the fort. Buecker draws on historic reminiscences, government records, reports, correspondence, and other official accounts to render a thorough yet lively depiction.

The Antietam Campaign


Gary W. Gallagher - 1999
    Crucial political, diplomatic, and military issues were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan maneuvered and fought in the western part of the state. The climactic clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the single bloodiest day of the war.Approaching topics related to Lee's and McClellan's operations from a variety of perspectives, contributors to this volume explore questions regarding military leadership, strategy, and tactics, the impact of the fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in which participants and people behind the lines interpreted and remembered the campaign. They also discuss the performance of untried military units and offer a look at how the United States Army used the Antietam battlefield as an outdoor classroom for its officers in the early twentieth century.The contributors are William A. Blair, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, Lesley J. Gordon, D. Scott Hartwig, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, Carol Reardon, and Brooks D. Simpson.[for catalog, in place of 3rd paragraph]]The contributors: William A. BlairKeith S. BohannonPeter S. CarmichaelGary W. GallagherLesley J. GordonD. Scott HartwigRobert E. L. KrickRobert K. KrickCarol ReardonBrooks D. Simpson The Maryland campaign of September 1862 ranks among the most important military operations of the American Civil War. The climactic clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the single bloodiest day of the war. Exploring topics related to Lee's and McClellan's operations from a variety of perspectives, contributors to this volume examine questions of military leadership, strategy, and tactics; the performance of untried military units; and the ways in which the battle has been remembered. The contributors are William A. Blair, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, Lesley J. Gordon, D. Scott Hartwig, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, Carol Reardon, and Brooks D. Simpson. The editor is Gary W. Gallagher.

Guerrillas, Unionists, and Violence on the Confederate Home Front


Daniel E. Sutherland - 1999
    But as Daniel Sutherland reminds us, the impact of battles and elections cannot be properly understood without an examination of the struggle for survival on the home front, of lives lived in the atmosphere created by war. Sutherland gathers eleven essays by such noted Civil War scholars as Michael Fellman, Donald Frazier, Noel Fisher, and B. F. Cooling, each one exploring the Confederacy's internal war in a different state. All help to broaden our view of the complexity of war and to provide us with a clear picture of war's consequences, its impact on communities, homes, and families. This strong collection of essays delves deeply into what Daniel Sutherland calls "the desperate side of war," enriching our understanding of a turbulent and divisive period in American history.

Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814


Stephen W.H. Duffy - 1999
    The first full biography of America's most accomplished naval commander in the Age of Sail, Johnston Blakeley.

Doniphan's Epic March: The 1st Missouri Volunteers in the Mexican War


Joseph G. Dawson III - 1999
    There they handed the Mexican army one of its most demoralizing defeats and helped the United States win its first foreign war. Their leader Colonel Alexander Doniphan, also a volunteer, was a "natural soldier" of towering stature who became a national hero in the wake of his wartime exploits. Doniphan was a small-town Missouri lawyer untrained in military matters when he answered President Polk's call for volunteers in the war with Mexico. Working from a host of primary sources, Joseph Dawson focuses on Doniphan's extraordinary leadership and chronicles how the colonel and his 1st Missouri Mounted Regiment helped capture New Mexico and went on to invade Chihuahua. Contending with wildfires, sandstorms, poor provisions, and the threat of attack from Apaches, they eventually came face-to-face with the formidable cannon and cavalry of a much larger Mexican force. Yet, at the Battle of Sacramento, these hardy volunteers outflanked General Jose Heredia's army and claimed a stunning American victory on foreign soil. Dawson explores and analyzes the many facets of Doniphan's exploits, from the decision to proceed to Chihuahua in the wake of the Taos Revolt to the tactics that shaped his victory at Sacramento, describing that battle in heart-stopping detail. He tells how Doniphan's legal expertise enabled him to supervise America's first military government administering a conquered land at Santa Fe and highlights Doniphan's remarkable cooperation with U.S. Army officers at a time when antagonism typified relationships between volunteers and regulars. He also introduces readers to other key personalities of the campaign, from fellow officers Stephen W. Kearny and Meriwether L. Clark to James Kiker, the controversial scout whom Doniphan reluctantly trusted. Dawson's thorough account captures the expansionist mood of America in the mid-nineteenth century and helps us understand how American soldiers were motivated by the idea of Manifest Destiny. His portrait of Doniphan and his troops reinforces the importance of the citizen-soldier in American history and provides a new window on the war that changed forever the hopes and dreams of our border nations.

Panzer Modelling


Tony Greenland - 1999
    For the second edition, Tony has revised Chapter 9: The Collection: a variety of new models are shown in full colour photos in The Collection along with caption details of their construction and finishing. For this edition Tony has also revised Chapter 3: Models Available, to bring this up to date with the latest developments from all the top manufacturers. This chapter is also supported by new colour photographs and illustrations. This best selling title is packed with great photographs, tips and techniques and useful advice.

The Ideals Guide to American Civil War Places


Ideals Publications Inc. - 1999
    Expert research, writing, and photography make this travel guide wonderfully informative.Twenty states are represented in the volume, forming the twenty divisions of the book. Each chapter begins with a discussion of the state's overall political and military position in the war, information that heightens one's appreciation of the site. Accompanying this introductory information is a map of the state that pinpoints the areas of interest. Major campaigns are outlined, with Union and Rebel commanders, strength of forces, and number of casualties listed. Battlegrounds, cemeteries, museums, homes, prisons, and monuments are visited, and each has a listing of addresses, hours of operation, admission fees, if any, and short descriptions of what can be found at the site.Each chapter boasts beautiful scenic photographs of the sites as they are today, while some Matthew Brady photos of the actual union camps add to the sense of history one feels when touring sites of our heritage. Portraits of the generals painted by their contemporaries heighten the awareness of real people having once lived, plotted, and fought on the ground now traveled.For a better understanding of the events that took place, a Chronology lists the dates of major events and battles, and for those new to the study of the Civil War, a glossary helps in understanding military terms. A complete index cross-references not only each place and site listed, but each person and event included in the book.The Ideals Guide toAmerican Civil War Places is remarkably comprehensive and detailed, yet remains small enough to be tucked into a travel bag or automobile compartment. This is a guidebook every travel department should have.

Gulf War: The Complete History


Thomas Houlahan - 1999
    The book sets the record straight on a numberof popular misconceptions about the war. Features detailed and accurateaccounts of every major ground action of the Gulf War.

Courage Alone: Italian Airforce 40-43-Op: The Italian Airforce 1940-1943


Chris Dunning - 1999
    Using research from a mass of original documentation, including personal accounts and combat diaries, the author takes an objective view and shows that the men who flew the Macchis, Fiats, and Savoias were no less skilled or determined than their opponents.The book discusses area commands, theaters, squadron allocations, anti-shipping operations, aircrew, and details of the top fighter aces. Comprehensive tables provide information on aircraft equipment, squadron allocation, and unit histories.With drawings from original aircraft handbooks, almost 250 photographs, more than 100 color profiles, and unit badges, Courage Alone provides a detailed reference source for historians, modelers, and enthusiasts alike.

One Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam


Timothy N. Castle - 1999
    radar base in the mountains of neutral Laos--led to the disappearance of a small group of elite military personnel, a loss never fully acknowledged by the American government. Now, thirty years later, one book recounts the harrowing story--and offers some measure of closure on this decades-old mystery.Because of the covert nature of the mission at Lima Site 85--providing bombing instructions to U.S. Air Force tactical aircraft from the "safe harbor" of a nation that was supposedly neutral--the wives of the eleven servicemen were warned in no uncertain terms never to discuss the truth about their husbands. But one wife, Ann Holland, refused to remain silent. Timothy Castle draws on her personal records and recollections as well as upon a wealth of interviews with surviving servicemen and recently declassified information to tell the full story.The result is a tale worthy of Tom Clancy but told by a scholar with meticulous attention to historical accuracy. More than just an account of government deception, One Day Too Long is the story of the courageous men who agreed to put their lives in danger to perform a critical mission in which they could not be officially acknowledged. Indeed the personnel at Site 85 agreed to be "sheep-dipped"--removed from their military status and technically placed in the employ of a civilian company.Castle reveals how the program, code-named "Heavy Green," was conceived and approved at the highest levels of the U.S. government. In spine tingling detail, he describes the selection of the men and the construction and operation of the radar facility on a mile-high cliff in neutral Laos, even as the North Vietnamese Army began encircling the mountain. He chronicles the communist air attack on Site 85, the only such aerial bombing of the entire Vietnam War.A saga of courage, cover-up, and intrigue One Day Too Long tells how, in a shocking betrayal of trust, for thirty years the U.S. government has sought to hide the facts and now seeks to acquiesce to perfidious Vietnamese explanations for the disappearance of eleven good men.

The Battle of Hamel: The Australians' Finest Victory


John Laffin - 1999
    

Sidewinder: Creative Missile Development At China Lake


Ron Westrum - 1999
    The story of how that unorthodox group of scientists overcame Navy bureaucracy and more heavily funded projects to develop the world's best air-to-air missile.

Gun Camera - World War II: Photography from Allied Fighters and Bombers Over Occupied Europe


L. Douglas Keeney - 1999
    The story begins as American bombers fall prey to Nazi flak and fighters and continues through the recapture of European skies as seen from American P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Thunderbolts and British Spitfires. Also depicted are breathtaking images of ground strafings and crews coaxing crippled bombers into perilous belly landings.

World War II Day By Day


Antony Shaw - 1999
    These books are a historical companion to each major war in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The fate of soldiers, battalions, armies, can change in the blink of an eye—with this comprehensive book readers can follow the conflicting sides in their strategy, weaponry, and policies.World War II Day by Day is a chronological history of the second World War from the beginning of the Polish campaign in September 1939 to the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. All the major war theaters are covered, as is the fighting in the air and the sea. The dated entries, which are written as though they have just happened, thereby recapturing the immediacy of the war, analyze the major battles and campaigns of the war, such as Stalingrad, Kursk, Midway, D-Day, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Berlin.Accompanying the entries in World War II Day by Day are longer features on various aspects of the conflict, such as the war's decisive weapons, strategic decisions, and policies. There are also biographical entries on the individuals who shaped and prosecuted the war in both Europe and the Pacific theaters: leaders such as Chamberlain, Stalin, Zhukov, MacArthur, Hitler, Manstein, and Eisenhower.

Neither Sharks Nor Wolves: The Men of Nazi Germany's U-Boat Arm, 1939-1945


Timothy Patrick Mulligan - 1999
    A character study of the German submarine force that challenges traditional and revisionist views of the service.

They Deserved a Better Fate: The Second Kansas State Militia Regiment and the Price Raid 1864


Roy Bird - 1999
    The regiment was organized from Shawnee County during October 1864, with a mix of infantry and cavalry companies. At the Battle of Byram's Ford (also called the Battle of the Big Blue River) on October 22nd, the 2nd Kansas Militia was overrun and scattered, with many men being captured. After Price's Raid, the unit was disbanded.

The Penguin Book of War: Great Military Writings


John KeeganJohn Scott - 1999
    Whether it is being used to transmit myth, to glorify personal or tribal heroism, to fix a version of events or personal achievements, or merely to entertain, there can be no doubt that war makes magnificent literature. In this comprehensive anthology, Keegan reaps his material from the sweep of military history, from the Greek theoretical treatises on the art of warfare to the nineteenth-century novels which used war as a vehicle by which to shape their Romantic heroes, and the inspired journalistic reportage of the late 20th century.

Tiger Patterns: A Guide to the Vietnam War's Tigerstripe Combat Fatigue Patterns and Uniforms


Richard Denis Johnson - 1999
    The pattern itself, in all of its classic forms, is both exotic and unique and carries with it an immediate, esthetic sense of the full drama of that not to distant Southeast Asian conflict. There exists however, surrounding this one camouflage pattern numerous misconceptions. Tiger Patterns analyzes to the most minute degree, the finite variances which defined the many original, Vietnam era tigerstripe patterns and uniform cuts and establishes dependable identification techniques and practices, whether your particular interests area as a historian, veteran, modeler, or collector and enthusiast.

A History of the Peninsular War - Volume I


Charles William Chadwick Oman - 1999
    There are historians who have sought for the origins of the Peninsular War far back in the eternal and inevitable conflict between democracy and privilege: there are others who—accepting the Emperor’s own version of the facts—have represented it as a fortuitous development arising from his plan of forcing the Continental System upon every state in Europe. To us it seems that the moment beyond which we need not search backward was that in which Bonaparte formulated to himself the idea that he was not the successor of the greatest of the Bourbons, but of the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. It is a different thing to claim to be the first of European monarchs, and to claim to be the king of kings. Louis XIV had wide-reaching ambitions for himself and for his family: but it was from his not very deep or accurate knowledge of Charlemagne that Napoleon had derived his idea of a single imperial power bestriding Europe, of a monarch whose writ ran alike at Paris and at Mainz, at Milan and at Hamburg, at Rome and at Barcelona, and whose vassal-princes brought him the tribute of all the lands of the Oder, the Elbe, and the middle Danube...

A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections


Brian Cloughley - 1999
    The scope of this book is wide because field marshals and generals ruled the country for many years. The author describes Pakistan's violent internal politics and erratic international relations in the context of military involvement, with the deep knowledge gained through long associations with the country and its armed forces.

Schnaufer: Ace of Diamonds


Peter Hinchcliffe - 1999
    The published diaries include ove 600 photographs mostly taken from Trautloft's own family albums — many not previously published.

The Grand Fleet: Warship Design And Development 1906-1922


D.K. Brown - 1999
    The building of the new Dreadnought battleships and the controversial battlecruisers are covered in this book, as well as developments in the design of cruisers and smaller craft, and the new weapons of naval warfare--submarines and aircraft carriers. Brown provides a full analysis of the experience of battle damage along with an examination of the effect that damage had on post-World War I designs to the Washington Naval Treaty of 1923. Heavily illustrated with 200 contemporary photographs and line drawings of the most significant ships, this book will be a vital addition to the collections of naval historians and enthusiasts.

The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066


Kelly DeVries - 1999
    CHOICE He places the invasion in a broad context. He outlines the Anglo-Scandinavian nature of the English kingdom in the eleventh century, traces the careers of the major leaders, and devotes a chapter each to the English and Norwegian military systems. JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066 was not the only attack on England that year. On September 25, 1066, less than three weeks before William defeated King Harold II Godwinson at the battle of Hastings, that same Harold had been victorious over his other opponent of 1066, King Haraldr Hardradi of Norway at the battle of Stamford Bridge. It was an impressive victory, driving an invading army of Norwegians from the earldom of Northumbria; but it was to cost Harold dear. In telling the story of this neglected battle, Kelly DeVries traces the rise and fall of a family of English warlords, the Godwins, as well as that of the equally impressive Norwegian warlord Hardradi.KELLY DEVRIES is Associate Professor, Department of History, Loyola College in Maryland.

John Paul Jones: America's First Sea Warrior


Joseph Callo - 1999
    This fresh look at America's first sea warrior avoids both the hero worship of the past and the recent, inaccurate deconstructionist views of John Paul Jones's astonishing life. The author goes beyond a narrow naval context to establish Jones as a key player in the American Revolution, something not done by previous biographers, and explains what drove him to his achievements. At the same time, Admiral Joseph Callo fully examines Jones's dramatic military achievements--including his improbable victory off Flamborough Head in the Continental ship Bonhomme Richard--but in the context of the times rather than as stand-alone events.The book also looks at some interesting but lesser-known aspects of Jones's naval career, including his relationships with such civilian leaders as Benjamin Franklin. How Jones handled those often-difficult dealings, Callo maintains, contributed to the nation's concept of civilian control of the military. Suggesting that Jones might well be the first U.S. apostle of sea power, the author also focuses on the fact that Jones was the first serving American naval officer who emphasized the role naval power would play in the rise of the United States as a global power. Another neglected aspect of Jones's career that gets attention and analysis is his brief tour in the Russian navy, a revealing chapter of his life that has been underreported in the two hundred years since Jones's death. Rather than looking at Jones in a rearview mirror, Callo illuminates how this unique naval hero is linked to the nation's present and future. As a result, he gives us a sea saga that tells much about our own lives and times.

The Red Lancers


Ronald Pawly - 1999
    Their part in the Napoleonic Wars is covered, from the 1812 Russian Campaign, through the defensive campaigns in Germany and France in 1813-14, to the fateful 100 days of 1815 and to the final sunset at Waterloo.

Quebec 1759: The Heights of Abraham 1759, The Armies of Wolfe and Montcalm


René Chartrand - 1999
    Includes comprehensive order of battle diagrams, specially commissioned maps, and is supported by contemporary photographs and unit insignia and colors.

Eighth Army's Greatest Victories: Alam Halfa to Tunis 1942-1943


Adrian Stewart - 1999
    While much depleted, the Afrika Korps escaped from the El Alamein battlefield in good order and fell back on strong defensive positions in Tunisia, bolstered by some of the world's most difficult terrain. German paratroopers and Hermann Goring Division panzergrenadiers were sent to North Africa as reinforcements, Italian units were more capable in the defensive role, and Montgomery could not be sure of the loyalty of Germany's nominal Vichy French allies.Not even the creation of a second front in North Africa with the arrival of the Americans and fresh British units was enough to dislodge the Axis forces. The author describes in detail the hard campaigning and desperate battles that were necessary to bring about final victory in North Africa. A full description is given of the often-neglected air aspect of the campaign. The Allied cause was greatly aided by the operations of the Desert Air Force, which was largely British, but in which many key American air leaders got their first operational experience.

Road to Berlin: The Allied Drive From Normandy


George Forty - 1999
    The major decisions, fateful actions, principal liberated cities, captured strongholds, and defeated armies march across the pages. Beginning with the Normandy landing, the story demonstrates the buildup of resources, the securing of ports and bridgeheads, and the exhausting of the enemy on the way to the final battles leading to the linkup with the Russians.

Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution


Nicholas A. Lambert - 1999
    After examining a prodigious quantity of primary sources, Nicholas A. Lambert concludes that Admiralty decision-making was in fact driven by factors unrelated to the German building program. Winner of the Society for Military History's 2000 Distinguished Book Award, Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution explores the intrigue and negotiations between the Admiralty and leading domestic politicians and social reformers of the day, such as Herbert H. Asquith, David Lloyd George, and Winston Churchill. Lambert also explains how Great Britain's naval leaders responded to these non-military, cultural challenges under the direction of Admiral Sir John Fisher, the service head of the Admiralty from 1904 to 1910, who believed in a radically new approach to naval defense. For mainly political reasons, however, Fisher concealed his military technological revolution and worked surreptitiously to create a new model fleet capable of protecting all of Britain's imperial interests across the globe

Seapower and Naval Warfare, 1650-1830


Richard Harding - 1999
    The book is intended for undergraduate courses on 18th century European history, and for amateur and professional military historians, and for navy colleges, and navy and ex-navy professionals.

Canada's Navy: The First Century


Marc Milner - 1999
    Until 1939, the navy was essentially a national orphan - neglected by government, spurned by Canadians, composed largely of expatriate Britons, and lacking a clearly identifiable national role. The Second World War and the postwar years saw that role defined. During the war, the navy underwent an astonishing expansion that brought together Canadian industry, government, and people to produce the third largest navy in the world by 1945. That navy made a decisive contribution to winning the war in the Atlantic, and, with the outbreak of the Cold War, went on to confirm Canada's new and important role as part of a wider western alliance in the defence of shipping in the Atlantic. Since that time, naval history has been a struggle to reconcile naval ambitions for fleet development with those of the government, and to find a national identity for the service itself.The result has been the renaissance of the last two decades, which has seen the navy re-emerge from the wreckage of unification as an independent institution and with the fleet completely rebuilt. At the end of the century, the navy is the most modern and capable of Canada's armed services, and having discarded the imperial cloak of its early years, it is now identified with the nation it serves. Milner suggests that this remarkable metamorphosis may have been brought about by the coalescing of the visions of the navy, the nation, and the state. How long this will continue remains for the next century to determine.Based on extensive archival research and interviews, Canada's Navy: The First Century is a comprehensive examination, certain to provoke discussion, of a body with a rich and fascinating history. This book will appeal not only to readers of Canadian history and naval affairs, but also to those interested in the interwoven issues of maritime politics and economics, as well as national and foreign policy, and defence and strategic studies.

Camp Colt to Desert Storm: A History of U.S. Armored Forces


George F. Hofmann - 1999
    In the years since, additional technological developments--including nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, computer assisted firing, and satellite navigation--have continued to transform the face of combat. The only complete history of U.S. armed forces from the advent of the tank in battle during World War I to the campaign to drive Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991, Camp Colt to Desert Storm traces the development of doctrine for operations at t

In the Morning: Veterans of Victoria County, Cape Breton


Bonnie Thornhill - 1999
    In 1993 Bonnie Thornhill recognized the need to identify and recognize those individuals from Victoria County, Nova Scotia, who served their country during both World Wars. She coordinated a group of dedicated volunteers who transversed the entire county in search of information about veterans. The pursuit of history took five years - it was a most humbling experience. Some of the people profiled in In The Morning perished, others survived. All lived on the line between life and death. Their accumulated stories give a sense of the impact of the war not only upon the individual, but upon their family, their community and their country. Lives were altered forever. None of them sought war. Above all else, they cherished peace enough to face what they were expected to do. In The Morning provides a moving account of individuals to whom today we owe an everlasting debt.

The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II


Robert J. Cressman - 1999
    Navy's war in every theater.

The German Order of Battle: Panzers and Artillery in World War II


George F. Nafziger - 1999
    Includes discussion of several formations that were armored but were outside the scope of the panzer division, including the panzergrenadier divisions, the various sturmges

The Field Men: The SS Officers Who Led the Einsatzkommandos--The Nazi Mobile Killing Units


French L. MacLean - 1999
    Their mission - for the glory of Greater Germany - was to butcher as many human beings as they could get their hands on - men, women and children who were at that very moment peacefully sleeping in their warm beds in dozens of large cities and scores of small hamlets from the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea, and from the border with old Poland to the outskirts of Moscow. The field men of the Einsatzkommandos, the men of Bach and Beethoven, Grimm and Gutenberg - and now Hitler and Heydrich - were very thorough at what they did. Over the course of the next two years, by means of machine-guns, carbines, gas vans, explosives, rifle butts or ax handles, the field men would slaughter 1,300,000 people. The Field Men, a companion volume to MacLean's The Camp Men: the SS Officers Who Ran the Nazi Concentration Camp System, covers the entire gamut, from the organization of the units, to the SS officers who served in this scourge on the Eastern Front. Some 380 SS officers are described in full detail and extensively analyzed. The photographic section of the book contains over 175 photographs, while detailed maps show the locations for each unit throughout the campaign.

The Grand Illusion: The Prussianization of the Chilean Army


William F. Sater - 1999
    The authors focus on Chile’s attempt to import and assimilate foreign military methods, doctrine, and matériel. They incorporate research from Chilean, Austrian, German, British, and American archives to offer a new interpretation of Chile’s military reforms. The authors argue that the Chilean army adopted only the most superficial aspects of the German military ethos, which eventually led to the creation of a large but ineffective army. The transfer of technology and doctrine failed because German institutions and policies did not suit Chile. Political infighting, greed, and corruption further encumbered the assimilation process. The authors’ findings call into question the widely accepted thesis that developed nations could, and in fact did, change the nature of the military in developing countries.

In The Service Of The Tsar Against Napoleon


Denis Davidov - 1999
    Here, for the very first time in English, are his captivating memoirs which, with dash and lan, convey the Russian perspective on this cataclysmic conflict. Davidovs memoirs cover the confrontation between the French and Russians in Prussia in 18067, including the horrific battle of Eylau; the Russian invasion of Finland in 1808; the French invasion of Russia in 1812; and the War of Liberation in Germany in 181314. The memoirs cover the 1812 campaign in particular in great detail as it was here that Davidov made his legendary reputation. Gregory Troubetzkoy is an expert on Russian aspects of the Napoleonic Wars.