Best of
Military-History

2002

First Light


Geoffrey Wellum - 2002
    It is the story of an idealistic schoolboy who couldn't believe his luck when the RAF agreed to take him on as a "pupil pilot" at the minimum age of seventeen and a half in 1939. In his fervor to fly, he gave little thought to the coming war." "Writing with wit, compassion, and a great deal of technical expertise, Wellum relives his grueling months of flight training, during which two of his classmates crashed and died. He describes a hilarious scene during his first day in the prestigious 92nd Squadron when his commader discovered that Wellum had not only never flown a Spitfire, he'd never even seen one." A battle-hardened ace by the winter of 1941, though still not out of his teens, 'Boy' Wellum flew scores of missions as fighter escort on bombing missions over France. Yet the constant life-or-death stress of murderous combat and anguish over the loss of his closest friends sapped endurance. Tortured by fierce headaches, even in the midst of battle, he could not bear the thought of "not pulling your weight," of letting the other pilots risk their lives in his place. Wellum's frank account of his long, losing bout with battle fatigue is both moving and enlightening.

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943


Rick Atkinson - 2002
    In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.

The Fall of Berlin 1945


Antony Beevor - 2002
    Political instructors rammed home the message of Wehrmacht and SS brutality. The result was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known, with tanks crushing refugee columns under their tracks, mass rape, pillage and destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred because Nazi Party chiefs, refusing to face defeat, had forbidden the evacuation of civilians. Over seven million fled westwards from the terror of the Red Army.Antony Beevor reconstructs the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse, telling a terrible story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge and savagery, but also one of astonishing endurance, self-sacrifice and survival against all odds.

Steel My Soldiers' Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam


David H. Hackworth - 2002
    Hackworth had just completed the writing of a tactical handbook for the Pentagon, and now he had been ordered to put his counterguerilla-fighting theories into action. He was given the morale-drained 4/39th—a battalion of poorly led draftees suffering the Army's highest casualty rate and considered its worst fighting battalion. Hackworth's hard-nosed, inventive and inspired leadership quickly turned the 4/39th into Vietnam's valiant and ferocious Hardcore Recondos. Drawing on interviews with soldiers from the Hardcore Battalion conducted over the past decade by his partner and coauthor, Eilhys England, Hackworth takes readers along on their sniper missions, ambush actions, helicopter strikes and inside the quagmire of command politics. With Steel My Soldiers' Hearts, Hackworth places the brotherhood of the 4/39th into the pantheon of our nation's most heroic warriors.

Forgotten Voices of the Great War


Max Arthur - 2002
    Gripping, poignant, surprising and even humorous, the personal experiences of these soldiers, civilians, marines and medics from both sides tell us what it was really like to live through what was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Skilfully assembled by acclaimed author and historian Max Arthur using the IWM’s remarkable sound archive, Forgotten Voices of the Great War became an instant classic on first publication with close to half a million copies sold.In 1972, the Imperial War Museum began a momentous and important task. A team of academics, archivists and volunteers set about tracing First World War veterans and interviewing them in order to record the experiences of ordinary individuals in war. Since then the Sound Archive has grown to become the largest and most important oral history collections in the world. It now contains over 34,000 recordings, including interviews with veterans of both world wars – both service personnel and non-combatants – recordings relating to Britain and the Empire in the inter-war period 1919–1939, conflicts since 1945 and the Holocaust.In 2002, Ebury Press published the first edition of Forgotten Voices of the Great War. It was both the first time many of these recordings had been transcribed and published, and the only comprehensive oral history of the First World War. Twelve further books covering aspects of the Second World War, the Falklands and the Victoria Cross followed, selling well over a million copies to date.

China Marine: An Infantryman's Life After World War II


Eugene B. Sledge - 2002
    Sledge's story in the HBO miniseries The Pacific !China Marine is the extraordinary sequel to E.B. Sledge's memoir, With the Old Breed, which remains the most powerful and moving account of the U.S. Marines in World War II. Sledge continues his story where With the Old Breed left off and recounts the compelling conclusion of his Marine career.After Japan's surrender in 1945, Sledge and his company were sent to China to maintain order and to calm the seething cauldron of political and ideological unrest created by opposing factions. His regiment was the first Marine unit to return to the ancient city of Peiping (now Beijing) where they witnessed the last of old China and the rise of the Communist state. Sledge also recounts the difficulty of returning to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, and resuming civilian life while haunted by shadows of close combat. Through the discipline of writing and the study of biology, he shows how he came to terms with the terrifying memories that had plagued him for years.Poignant and compelling, China Marine provides a frank depiction of the real costs of war, emotional and psychological as well as physical, and reveals the enduring bond that develops between men who face the horrors of war.

Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It


Gregory A. Freeman - 2002
    naval history.Sailors to the End tells the dramatic and until now forgotten story of the 1967 fire on board the USS Forrestal during its time at Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam. The aircraft carrier, the mightiest of the U.S. fleet, was preparing to launch attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired a rocket across the flight deck and into an aircraft occupied by pilot John McCain. A huge fire ensued, and McCain barely escaped before a 1,000-pound bomb on his plane exploded, causing a chain reaction with other bombs on surrounding planes. The crew struggled for days to extinguish the fires, the five thousand men on board experiencing different kinds of hell -- some trapped in damaged compartments waiting to die, some battling rivers of flaming jet fuel in order to rescue their buddies. Almost all of them were innocent eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds, but in an instant they were thrust into a tragedy that nearly destroyed the ship and took the lives of 134 men.Written with the intensity and excitement of a thriller, and based on never-before-disclosed information and extensive interviews with the fire's survivors, here is the first full, minute-by-minute account of the disaster. Told through the stories of a dozen sailors, including John Beling, the carrier's beloved captain who was made a scapegoat for the disaster, Sailors to the End follows the Forrestal from its home in Norfolk, Virginia, through its mission in Vietnam. Focusing on the fateful fire and its aftermath, this book provides a gripping tale of heartache and heroism as young men find themselves trapped on a burning ship with bombs exploding all around them.Sailors to the End also corrects the official view of the fire, providing evidence that the U.S. government compromised the ship's safety by insisting on increased bombing despite the shortage of reliable weapons. For thirty-five years, the terrible loss of life has been blamed on the sailors themselves, but this meticulously documented history shows that they were truly the victims and heroes, deserving recognition for their efforts during a sweeping tragedy that until now has been only a footnote in history. Gregory A. Freeman dramatically brings this story to life, creating a work that is both riveting and moving.

The Second World War: Milestones to Disaster


Winston S. Churchill - 2002
    This is Churchill’s own abridgement of his original six-volume history.

Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit


Eric L. Haney - 2002
    They are the U.S. Army's most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won't hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal the never-before-told story of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).Inside Delta Forece The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers, terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy by parachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone in hostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemy targets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He is the ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force Operator.In this dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary counterterrorist unit. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process—designed to break the strongest of men—that singles out the best of the best: the Delta Force Operator.With heart-stopping immediacy, Haney tells what it's really like to enter a hostage-held airplane. And from his days in Beirut, Haney tells an unforgettable tale of bodyguards and bombs, of a day-to-day life of madness and beauty, and of how he and a teammate are called on to kill two gunmen targeting U.S. Marines at the Beirut airport. As part of the team sent to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Haney offers a first-person description of that failed mission that is a chilling, compelling account of a bold maneuver undone by chance—and a few fatal mistakes.From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to rescuing missionaries in Sudan and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Eric Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force brings honor to these singular men while it puts us in the middle of action that is sudden, frightening, and nonstop around the world.From the Hardcover edition.

Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage


Noah Andre Trudeau - 2002
    From Chancellorsville, where General Robert E. Lee launched his high-risk campaign into the North, to the Confederates' last daring and ultimately-doomed act, forever known as Pickett's Charge, the battle of Gettysburg gave the Union army a victory that turned back the boldest and perhaps greatest chance for a Southern nation.Now acclaimed historian Noah Andre Trudeau brings the most up-to-date research available to a brilliant, sweeping, and comprehensive history of the battle of Gettysburg that sheds fresh light on virtually every aspect of it. Deftly balancing his own narrative style with revealing firsthand accounts, Trudeau brings this engrossing human tale to life as never before.

The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid--America's First World War II Vict Ory


Craig Nelson - 2002
    Roosevelt sought to restore the honor of the United States with a dramatic act of vengeance: a retaliatory bombing raid on Tokyo. On April 18, 1942, eighty brave young men, led by the famous daredevil Jimmy Doolittle, took off from a navy carrier in the mid-Pacific on what everyone regarded as a suicide mission but instead became a resounding American victory and helped turn the tide of the war. The First Heroes is the story of that mission. Meticulously researched and based on interviews with twenty of the surviving Tokyo Raiders, this is a true account that almost defies belief, a tremendous human drama of great personal courage, and a powerful reminder that ordinary people, when faced with extraordinary circumstances, can rise to the challenge of history.

A Storm in Flanders: The Ypres Salient, 1914-1918: Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front


Winston Groom - 2002
    In 1914, Germany launched an invasion of France through neutral Belgium -- and brought the wrath of the world upon itself. Ypres became a place of horror, heroism, and terrifying new tactics and technologies: poison gas, tanks, mines, air strikes, and the unspeakable misery of trench warfare. Drawing on the journals of the men and women who were there, Winston Groom has penned a breathtaking drama of politics, strategy, and the human heart.

Behind Hitler's Lines: The True Story of the Only Soldier to Fight for both America and the Soviet Union in World War II


Thomas Happer Taylor - 2002
    Fortunately, D-Day paratrooper Joseph Beyrle met author Thomas H. Taylor in time to record Behind Hitler's Lines, the true story of the first American paratrooper to land in Normandy and the only soldier to fight for both the United States and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. It is a story of battle, followed by a succession of captures, escapes, recaptures, and re-escapes, then battle once more, in the final months of fighting on the Eastern Front. For these unique experiences, both President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin honored Joe Beyrle on the fiftieth anniversary of V-E Day. Beyrle did not strive to be a part of history, but history kept visiting him. Twice before the invasion he parachuted into Normandy, bearing gold for the French resistance. D Day resulted in his capture, and he was mistaken for a German line-crosser - a soldier who had, in fact, died in the attempt. Eventually Joe was held under guard at the American embassy in Moscow, suspected of being a Nazi assassin. Fingerprints saved him, confirming that he'd been wounded five times, and that he bore a safe-conduct pass written by marshal Zhukov after the Wehrmacht wrested Joe, at gunpoint, from execution by the Gestapo. In the ruins of Warsaw his life was saved again, this time by Polish nuns. Some of Joe's story is in his own words - a voice that will be among the last and best we hear firsthand from World War II.

The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh


Edward F. Murphy - 2002
    For more than thirty years, virtually the only people who knew about the Hill Fights were the Marines who fought them. Now, for the first time, the full story has been pieced together by acclaimed Vietnam War historian Edward F. Murphy, whose definitive analysis admirably fills this significant gap in Vietnam War literature. Based on first-hand interviews and documentary research, Murphy’s deeply informed narrative history is the only complete account of the battles, their origins, and their aftermath.The Marines at the isolated Khe Sanh Combat Base were tasked with monitoring the strategically vital Ho Chi Minh trail as it wound through the jungles in nearby Laos. Dominated by high hills on all sides, the combat base had to be screened on foot by the Marine infantrymen while crack, battle-hardened NVA units roamed at will through the high grass and set up elaborate defenses on steep, sun-baked overlooks.Murphy traces the bitter account of the U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh from the outset in 1966, revealing misguided decisions and strategies from above, and capturing the chain of hill battles in stark detail. But the Marines themselves supply the real grist of the story; it is their recollections that vividly re-create the atmosphere of desperation, bravery, and relentless horror that characterized their combat. Often outnumbered and outgunned by a hidden enemy—and with buddies lying dead or wounded beside them—these brave young Americans fought on.The story of the Marines at Khe Sanh in early 1967 is a microcosm of the Corps’s entire Vietnam War and goes a long way toward explaining why their casualties in Vietnam exceeded, on a Marine-in-combat basis, even the tremendous losses the Leathernecks sustained during their ferocious Pacific island battles of World War II. The Hill Fights is a damning indictment of those responsible for the lives of these heroic Marines. Ultimately, the high command failed them, their tactics failed them, and their rifles failed them. Only the Marines themselves did not fail. Under fire, trapped in a hell of sudden death meted out by unseen enemies, they fought impossible odds with awesome courage and uncommon valor.From the Hardcover edition.

Pompey Elliott


Ross McMullin - 2002
    During the Great War he was a charismatic, controversial, and outstandingly successful military leader. An accomplished tactician and ‘the bravest of the brave’, he was renowned for never sending anyone anywhere he was not prepared to go himself. As a result, no Australian general was more revered by those he led or more famous outside his own command.A man of unimpeachable integrity and unwavering commitment, he was also forthright and volatile. His tempestuousness generated a host of anecdotes that amused his men and disconcerted his superiors.Yet surprisingly little had been written about Elliott until the original edition of this book appeared in 2002. Now in a new format and with a foreword by Les Carlyon, this comprehensive, deeply researched biography tells Elliott’s fascinating story. It vividly examines Elliott’s origins and youth, his peacetime careers as a lawyer and politician, and his achievements — as well as the controversies he aroused during his years as a soldier.Ross McMullin’s masterly work retrieves a significant Australian from undeserved obscurity. It also judiciously reassesses notable battles he influenced — including the Gallipoli Landing, Lone Pine, Fromelles, Polygon Wood, and Villers-Brettoneux — and illuminates numerous aspects of Australia’s experiences during his lifetime, particularly the often-overlooked period of the aftermath to the Great War.Reviews:'For readers interested in military history, and more broadly the society that shaped the first AIF, the book is close to a masterpiece of traditional biography, specific in scope and monumental in structure … McMullin’s book provides a great deal — at 700 odd pages, a great, great deal — to delight in.' - Stephen Matchett, Sydney Institute Quarterly'In the ultimate sentence of the book McMullin says: “an Australian as famous, inspirational, and historically significant as "Pompey” Elliott deserves to better remembered.“ With this book, the first fully researched account of Elliott’s life and times, McMullin makes a significant contribution to ensuring that this happens.’ - Geoff Pryor, Canberra Times‘A striking aspect of Ross McMullin’s scrupulous biography is how little Elliott has been exaggerated by posterity … Pompey Elliott is a large book, and rightly. It encompasses a period and individuals of more than mere military significance. It is difficult to dissent from McMullin’s judgment that Fromelles — an engagement not one in a thousand Australians would know of today, because it hasn’t occasioned a movie or mini-series — remains “perhaps the most tragic 24 hours ever experienced by Australians”, its losses being equivalent to the entire Australian casualties of the Boer War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War put together.’The assiduous McMullin has scored several scoops, including the revelation that Elliott argues successfully against an appallingly misconceived advance on St Denis Wood shortly after the battle of Mont St Quentin in September 1918—in the lives preserved, an achievement as considerable as any great battlefield coup.' - Gideon Haigh, The Age

The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock


Francis Augustin O'Reilly - 2002
    Burnside; embarrassed Abraham Lincoln; and distinguished Robert E. Lee as one of the greatest military strategists of his era. Francis Augustin O'Reilly draws upon his intimate knowledge of the battlegrounds to discuss the unprecedented nature of Fredericksburg's warfare. Lauded for its vivid description, trenchant analysis, and meticulous research, his award-winning book makes for compulsive reading.

Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life


Carlo D'Este - 2002
    Eisenhower, from apprehensive soldier to one of our greatest heros. In the weeks leading up to D-Day, Dwight D. Eisenhower seethed with nervous energy. He had not expected his military career to bring him to this moment. The son of pacifists, Ike graduated from high school more likely to teach history than to make it. Casting new light on this profound evolution, "Eisenhower" chronicles the unlikely, dramatic rise of the supreme Allied commander. Beginning with the lasting effect of Eisenhower's impoverished youth, bestselling biographer Carlo D'Este follows his subject through West Point and a sometimes troubled marriage; toil under MacArthur in the Philippines during the 1930s; the inner sanctums of the War Department; the general's painful North African apprenticeship; and, finally, the dramatic events leading to the Allied victory in May 1945. Exposing for the first time numerous myths that have surrounded the war hero and his family (such as his romance with his wartime driver, Kay Summersby), D'Este also probes Eisenhower's famous clashes with his American peers and the British chiefs of staff, as well as his relations with legendary figures, including Winston Churchill and George S. Patton. Unlike other biographies of the general, "Eisenhower" captures Ike's true character, from his youth to the pinnacle of his career and afterward.

Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001


Norman Polmar - 2002
    Their crews carried out intelligence-collection operations, sought out and stood ready to destroy opposing submarines, and, from the early 1960s, threatened missile attacks on their adversary’s homeland, providing in many respects the most survivable nuclear deterrent of the Cold War. For both East and West, the modern submarine originated in German U-boat designs obtained at the end of World War II. Although enjoying a similar technology base, by the 1990s the superpowers had created submarine fleets of radically different designs and capabilities. Written in collaboration with the former Soviet submarine design bureaus, Norman Polmar and K. J. Moore authoritatively demonstrate in this landmark study how differing submarine missions, antisubmarine priorities, levels of technical competence, and approaches to submarine design organizations and management caused the divergence.

The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II


Wolfgang W.E. Samuel - 2002
    Another recounts the pervasive fear of marauding Russian and Czech bandits raping and killing. Children recall fathers who were only photographs and mothers who were saviors and heroes. These are typical in the stories collected in The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II. For this book Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, a childhood refugee himself after the fall of Nazi Germany, interviewed twenty-seven men and women who as children--by chance and sheer resilience--survived Allied bombs, invading armies, hunger, and chaos. "Our eyes carried no hate, only recognition of what was," Samuel writes of his childhood. "Peace was an abstraction. The world we Kinder knew nearly always had the word war appended to it." Samuel's heartfelt narratives from these innocent survivors are invariably riveting and often terrifying. Each engrossing story has perilous and tragic moments--school children in Leuna who are sent home during an air raid but are strafed as moving targets; fathers who exist only as distant figures, returning to their families long after the war--or not at all; mothers who are raped and tortured; families who are forced into a seemingly endless relocation that replicates the terrors of war itself. In capturing such experiences from nearly every region of Germany and involving people of every socio-economic class, this is a collection of unique memories, but each account contributes to a cumulative understanding of the war that is more personal than strategic surveys and histories. For Samuel and the survivors he interviewed, agony and fright were part of everyday life, just as were play, wondrous experience, and above all perseverance. "My focus," Samuel writes, "is on the astounding ability of a generation of German children to emerge from debilitating circumstances as sane and productive human beings." Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, a retired colonel in the U. S. Air Force, is the author of German Boy: A Refugee's Story and I Always Wanted to Fly: America's Cold War Airmen, both published by University Press of Mississippi. He lives in Fairfax, Va.

Zero Dark Thirty


Samuel Brantley - 2002
    For Sam Brantley it was a harsh and horrific lesson in the realities of jungle combat. The war had always been somewhat distant, flying thousands of feet above the trees and rice paddies. Now, during the summer of the Tet Offensive, the war was in his face and what he saw -- and did -- changed his life forever.

The Civil War Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant


Ulysses S. Grant - 2002
    His writings provide a revealing look into the life of the commander in chief of the Union army as well as the seminal eyewitness account of the War between the States.The Civil War Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant is a popular abridgment of his two-volume Personal Memoirs, which he arranged to have published to provide for his family after his death. (It was a huge bestseller and broke all records in American publishing at the time.) He died less than one week after completing its writing.This abridgment covers Grant's experiences in the Civil War, from the first shot at Sumter to Appomattox, giving the reader a front-line seat next to the greatest Union general of the war.

Don Troiani's Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War


Don Troiani - 2002
    His Civil War paintings and limited edition prints hang in the finest collections in the country and are noted by collectors from around the world. Now, in Don Troiani's Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War, the artist turns his brush to one of the most colorful and captivating aspects of Civil War history: the individual units that earned their reputations on the battlefield and the distinctive uniforms they wore. In addition to 130 paintings of battle scenes and individual figures, the book also includes more than 250 full-color photographs of the uniforms the soldiers wore and the accouterments they carried. Supporting the illustrations is text by two of the leading military artifact experts. Taken together, it makes for one of the most comprehensive books on Civil War uniforms ever undertaken

Ours to Hold It High: The History of the 77th Infantry Division in World War II


Max Myers - 2002
     The soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division saw some of the bloodiest action of the Second World War. Ours to Hold It High is brilliant history of the division’s actions through the course of World War Two as it island-hopped its way towards victory in the face of ferocious Japanese resistance. The story begins in America in 1942 when the division was re-activated and the units were formed and given training before they sailed west to fight. Part one of the book covers these initial two years and the various forms of rigorous training that the men went through to prepare them for the amphibious warfare that they would meet in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Parts two, three, four, and five of the book provides brilliant insight into the combat history of the unit from Guam to Okinawa. The actions of each unit of the division are uncovered to give a thorough overview of the tumultuous and chaotic action that the men saw. This is account is not written by a historian sitting at a desk in the United States, instead it was written by the soldiers who were there on the frontlines. Max Myers, the unit historian, has compiled their accounts to form this fascinating book. The actions of the 77th have become famous throughout the globe, particularly with the assistance of films such as Hacksaw Ridge that have immortalized the division. Almost every member of the 77th contributed in one way or another to this history. The Commanding General and members of his staff, the commanders and staff members from the organizations, and many other individuals devoted some of their time to revision and correction of preliminary manuscripts. Ours to Hold It High was initially published in 1947 and Max Myers, the main editor, passed away in 2011.

The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B.C.


Henry T. Aubin - 2002
    What saved the City of David? The Bible credits divine intervention. Modern scholars have long speculated that a plague spread through the ranks of the Assyrian soldiers, forcing them to withdraw.Now, in this ground-breaking account, award-winning author Henry Aubin argues that it was the Kushites, the black Africans who formed Egypt’s 25th dynasty, who saved Jerusalem, the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In his powerful, wide-ranging analysis, Aubin shows how Western scholarship turned its back on the theory of black African involvement.The account of the long-forgotten African and Hebrew alliance that rescued Jerusalem will change the face of Jewish and African history and contribute to a fresh understanding of our world today.

Frozen Chosin: U.S. Marines at the Changjin Reservoir


Edwin H. Simmons - 2002
    Chosin is the Japanese word for the Changjin Reservoir.

U.S. Amphibious Ships And Craft: An Illustrated Design History


Norman Friedman - 2002
    warship design history series, Norman Friedman describes the ships and the craft of the U.S. amphibious force, from its inception in the 1920s through World War II to the present. He explains how and why the United States successfully created an entirely new kind of fleet to fight and win such World War II battles as D-Day and the island landings in the Pacific. To an extent not previously documented, his book lays out the differing views and contributions of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marines as well as the British, and how they affected the development of prewar and wartime amphibious forces. Current and future amphibious forces and tactics are explained, together with their implications for ships and craft, from 40,000-ton amphibious carriers down to tracked amphibious vehicles.As in earlier volumes in the series, this study uses previously unpublished sources to illustrate not only what was actually built but what was planned and never brought into service. For example, the book offers the first comprehensive and fully illustrated account of abortive attempts in the 1960s and beyond to build new fire support ships (LFS). With nearly two hundred photographs and specially commissioned line drawings and extensive appendixes, the work conveniently brings together details of the ships and their service histories found elsewhere only in scattered official references.

Gods and Generals: The Paintings of Mort Künstler


James I. Robertson Jr. - 2002
    James I. Robertson, Jr., in this extraordinary visual history of the Civil War's dramatic first two years. A companion history to the motion picture of the same name, Gods and Generals is based on the best-selling Jeff Shaara novel, and surveys a crucial period in the War Between the States through incomparable art-work and a matchless narrative. Gods and Generals chronicles the momentous events of 1861 through early 1863 by following the lives of four principal figures from the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Winfield S. Hancock and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. On fields of fire and glory, like First and Second Manassas, the Seven Days Battles, Antietam and Chancellorsville, the epic American struggle of brothers-against-brother unfolds in this exceptional work. Among the Americans caught in the flame of battle, none were more remarkable than Lee, Jackson, Hancock and Chamberlain. Lee, known for the caliber of his character as much as the mettle of his military genius, saved the South from what appeared to be almost certain defeat in mid-1862, and molded his rag-tag troops into a fighting force that at times seemed invincible. "Stonewall" Jackson, meanwhile, rose from a mediocre professor at VMI to become Robert E. Lee's invaluable "right arm," but in mid-spring of 1863 his greatest success would be earned at a terrible price for the South. Facing Lee's army—and often failing—was the Army of the Potomac. Despite the discouragement of defeat, the army's common soldier remained determined to fight and was dedicated to victory—led by officers like Winfield S. Hancock, a gifted West Pointer, and Colenel Joshua L. Chamberlain, a college professor-turned-soldier. The glory and the tragedy of the American Civil War—and the fascinating figures from its history—are depicted in Gods and Generals with unique depth and emotion. The classic art of Mort Künstler and the captivating narrative by James I. Robertson, Jr. capture this pivotal period in America's bloodiest war unlike any other work of art and history.

Keiko Shokon: Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan: 3


Diane Skoss - 2002
    Book annotation not available for this title.

Uniforms and Equipment of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II


Mike Hewitt - 2002
    This new, detailed volume presents the subject with a superb collection of actual vintage items, and rarely seen World War II era photographs. Among the subjects covered are: the Imperial Japanese army uniform series; undergarments; footwear; headwear; personal field equipment; extreme climate uniforms; work and specialty uniforms; soldier's personal items; and firearms. A short chapter examines reproductions.

Brigades of Gettysburg


Bradley M. Gottfried - 2002
    Gottfried pieces together each brigade’s experience at Gettysburg. Whether stories of forced marches, weary troops, or the bitter and tragic end of the battle, you’ll experience every angle of this epic battle. Learn what happened when the guns stopped firing and the men were left with only boredom and dread of what was to come.This collection is a lively and fascinating narrative that empowers the everyday men who fought furiously and died honorably. Every detail of the Battle of Gettysburg is included in this comprehensive chronicle.

SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales, and Legends


Rich Graham - 2002
    This once highly classified program is fully revealed through the words of pilots, commanders, mechanics, and instructors involved in the Blackbird's creation and flight-testing. From grueling reconnaissance missions to the Persian Gulf conflict, this insightful book tells stories of bravery and daring determination.

Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers


Thomas E. Simmons - 2002
    For everyone it was a time of confusion and fear, destruction and death on a scale never before seen. Much has been written of the generals, campaigns, and battles of the war, but it was young, ordinary American kids who held our freedom in their hands as they fought for liberty across the globe.Forgotten Heroes of World War II offers a personal understanding of what was demanded of these young heroes through the stories of rank-and-file individuals who served in the navy, marines, army, air corps, and merchant marine in all theaters of the war. Their tales are told without pretense or apology. At the time, each thought himself no different from those around him, for they were all young, scared, and miserable. They were the ordinary, the extraordinary, the forgotten.Multiply their stories by hundreds of thousands, and you begin to understand the words of war correspondent Martha Gellhorn: "There are those who received brief, poor, or no recognition, all those history leaves unmentioned, not because they are lesser but because they are too many."Recorded more than fifty years after the war, the stories in Forgotten Heroes of World War II were shared quietly, shyly, honestly, and often painfully by these extraordinary ordinary Americans. All of them begin with similar statements -- "There's really not much to tell. I was just there like everyone else. All I wanted to do was get home..." Each was uncomfortable for being singled out to speak of experiences he felt were common to so many others.None of these heroes see themselves as heroes. Indeed, the word seems to embarrass them. Yet they and thousands like themstood their watch and did their duty in spite of fear and danger. One by one they are leaving us. It will soon be too late to thank them. It will never be too late to remember what they did.

The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles


Christopher Foss - 2002
    It was the development of the internal combustion engine that allowed a vehicle to possess both features on the battlefield. The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles is a definitive guide to over 1500 armored vehicles that have emerged from the first gasoline engine to the present day. In 1916, during World War I, the tank made its debut on the Western Front for the British, and the face of warfare changed almost overnight. In each nation's quest for battlefield dominance, many different types of armored vehicles have been produced, some more successful than others, all of which are covered in the encyclopedia, with each entry being accompanied by a photograph or artwork, full specifications and a development and career history. The book is divided into sections by country, with entries arranged chronologically. A detailed index is provided for easy cross-referencing. With such in-depth coverage of the subject, The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles is an essential reference guide for anyone interested in the history of military vehicles.

Operation "Market Garden" Then and Now


Karel Margry - 2002
    The story opens with the planning and preparation of the double undertaking - of Market by the newly created First Allied Airborne Army in the UK and Garden by the British Second Army on the Belgian-Dutch border. The scene then switches to describe the German military situation in the Netherlands on the eve of battle. The massive initial airborne landings of September 17, 1944, are then recounted with equal attention to each of the three airborne divisions involved. The break-out battle by the Guards Armoured Division, spearhead of the ground army, is likewise illustrated with a wealth of photographs. The second day of the operation, September 18, sees the Guards reaching the 101st Airborne at Eindhoven, making their first contact with the airborne army.

Eject!: The Complete History of U.S. Aircraft Escape Systems


Jim Tuttle - 2002
    Detailed descriptions of the technologies behind each ejection system's development and use are accompanied by photographs, diagrams, and fascinating firsthand accounts from pilots and crewmembers who have used escape systems.

Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic's Serbia


Τάκης Μίχας - 2002
    Distinguished Greek journalist Takis Michas covered the war in the Balkans during the 1990s and saw at first hand the effects of Greek support for Serbia. In this account, he follows Greek-Serbian relations and tackles the difficult question of how the Greek people could ignore Serbian aggression and war crimes.The pro-Serbian stance taken by Athens shocked many who assumed that all members of NATO would follow the lead of the United States and the United Nations. Instead, Greece supported Serbia from the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia in 1991 through the NATO bombing and occupation of Kosovo eight years later. Michas combines journalistic accounts with anecdotes and personal interviews to show a pattern of Greek support for Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic that implicates Greek politicians from all parties, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greek media, and ultimately the Greek people themselves.The evidence and conclusions presented will disturb those who believe that a new liberal order replaced the ideological standoff of the Cold War, but they will not surprise those who suspect that older allegiances have now claimed the loyalties of many of the world's peoples.

The Rebel Raiders: The Astonishing History of the Confederacy's Secret Navy


James Tertius de Kay - 2002
    This riveting true story of the Anglo-Confederate alliance that led to the creation of a Southern navy illuminates the dramatic and crucial global impact of the American Civil War.Like most things in the War between the States, it started over cotton: Lincoln’s naval blockade prevented the South from exporting their prize commodity to England. In response, the Confederacy came up with a unique plan to divert the North’s vessels and open the waterways–a plan that would mean covertly building a navy in Britain, a daring strategy that involved an unforgettable cast of colorful characters.James Bulloch–Northerner by circumstance, Southerner by birth, he risked his life to enter England and build a fleet under the very noses of Northern spies; Lord John Russell–the British foreign secretary who was suspected of subverting his own legal system to allow the secret ships; Charles Francis Adams–son and grandson of presidents, who exhausted every avenue to stop the Confederate-British collusion; Raphael Semmes–the fanatically loyal Southern captain who disabled or destroyed sixty Northern ships before meeting his match near Cherbourg, France; and The Alabama–a wooden gunship that took to the sea named for a Southern state to wreak havoc on the Northern cause.With The Rebel Raiders, naval historian James Tertius deKay brings to dazzling life an amazing, little known piece of history that is at once an important work of Civil War scholarship and a suspenseful tale of military strategy, international espionage, and a legal crisis whose outcome still affects the world.

Hour of Redemption: The Heroic WWII Saga of America's Most Daring POW Rescue


Forrest Bryant Johnson - 2002
    General MacArthur's Army of Liberation slices across the Philippines to strike at Manila and cut off the Japanese Imperial Army's retreat to the north. But 25 miles behind enemy lines, outnumbered by a force six times its own strength, an elite team of US Rangers, Filipino guerillas and Alamo Scouts is about to penetrate the very heart of the Japanese pow camp at Cabanatuan. Their mission: rescue the American POWs left to die after the infamous Bataan Death March - and get out alive.

A Scythe of Fire: A Civil War Story of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment


Warren Wilkinson - 2002
    They included upstanding men like Melvin Dwinnel, a teacher and a publisher, as well as the likes of James Potter Williamson, whose listed occupation was "loafer." They met in Rome, Georgia, in May 1861, and became the first regiment to enlist for the duration of the hostilities--most others held together for a single season.United by a deep love for the land left behind and a fierce determination to fight for their homes and way of life, the men of the 8th persevered through brutal battles, miserable conditions, and dimming prospects of a Confederate victory.Using diaries, letters home to loved ones, and other historical documents, Steven E. Woodworth follows these brave men from the red clay of Georgia, through the Battle of Bull Run, to Maryland, into the bloody battle of Gettysburg, through Tennessee and the brutal Battle of Chickamauga, and finally to their ultimate defeat at Appomattox. Through every struggle, he reveals their motivations and sometimes painful decisions, telling a story of human hopes and fears and ultimately showing this most divisive war at its most personal.

Fort Robinson and the American Century, 1900–1948


Thomas R. Buecker - 2002
    In contrast, Fort Robinson—occupied and used for more than fifty years since its abandonment by the U.S. army—has taken on new roles. This book recounts the story of this famous northwestern Nebraska army post as it underwent remarkable transformation in the first half of the twentieth century.In the early 1900s, Fort Robinson hosted the last of the African American buffalo soldiers to serve in Nebraska. In the 1920s and 1930s the fort procured and issued thousands of horses for the U.S. army’s largest remount depot. During World War II, Fort Robinson housed the army’s primary war dog training center and served as a major internment camp for German prisoners of war. After 1948, Fort Robinson became a beef research center and is now the state’s premier park.Fort Robinson and the American Century, 1900-1948, is based on more than twenty years of archival research as well as the personal recollections of the men and women who served at the fort. More than ninety photographs and five maps supplement the narrative.

Lee's Cavalrymen


Edward G. Longacre - 2002
    All the major players and battles are involved, including Joseph E. Johnston, P. G. T Beauregard, and J. E. B. Stuart. As evidenced in his previous books, Longacre's painstakingly thorough research will make this volume as indispensable a reference as its predecessor.

Armies of the Aztec and Inca Empires, Other Native Peoples of the Americas, and the Conquistadores


Ian Heath - 2002
    Ian Heath has assembled 247 drawings and other illustrations to depict the native peoples of South America and the eastern parts of North America as well as Spanish, English, French and even German adventurers and explorers. The accompanying text also offers a clear account of the rise and development of the various European colonies. Includes extensive bibliography.

Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Forces of WWII


Christopher Shores - 2002
    All details of their combat are arranged in tabular form. Included are a selection of photographs from hitherto private collections.

AWACS and Hawkeyes: The Complete History of Airborne Early Warning Aircraft


Edwin Armistead - 2002
    This authoritative book details the history of AWACS around the world, from the first combination of aircraft and radar in the 1930s to today's highly sophisticated technologies and hardware. Complete histories of previously classified programs, technological evolutions, obstacles, and combat operations are provided. A photo section illustrates major aircraft types.

The Illustrated Directory of Submarines of the World


David Miller - 2002
    Each entry gives specifications, followed by development and battle histories where relevant.

The War with Japan: The Period of Balance, May 1942-October 1943


H.P. Willmott - 2002
    In the months following the attack, Japan was successful in a series of victories throughout Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Then, from May 1942 to October 1943, the Japanese and the United States engaged in a series of fierce clashes in the Southwest Pacific. Both the U.S. and Japanese forces were evenly matched, and their troops fought one another to exhaustion. This engrossing book looks at the war with Japan, focusing on this "period of balance" between American and Japanese forces. The War with Japan explains how the battles fought in the Coral Sea in May and off Midway Islands in June 1942 represented the first engagements that were not the result of decisions made by the Japanese before the outbreak of war. Both the U.S. and Japanese had to consider their next moves in a strategic situation that was much like a gun lying in the street: it was there for either side to pick up and use. H. P. Willmott examines the conflict in this context. The campaigns that raged in the lower Solomons and along the Kakoda Trail for control of eastern New Guinea, along with the ferocious battles in the Coral Sea and off Midway Islands, were the turning point of the war in the Pacific. The fight for control of Guadalcanal saw the Imperial Navy and U.S. Navy fight one another, and themselves, until they were completely spent. But between February and October 1943, the Americans gained a critical edge when the U.S. Navy took delivery of the first of the massive warships that were to carry the fighting to the Japanese home islands. After November 1943, this strong U.S. fleet-built during the period of hostilities-outfought the Japanese navy. The War with Japan explores all these aspects of Japanese defeat. This fascinating probe into the war with Japan is ideal for all readers who are interested in military history and World War II.

Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire 1500-1700


Jos Gommans - 2002
    Jos Gommans looks at warfare as an integrated aspect of pre-colonial Indian society.Based on a vast range of primary sources from Europe and India, this thorough study explores the wider geo-political, cultural and institutional context of the Mughal military. Gommans also details practical and technological aspects of combat, such as gunpowder technologies and the animals used in battle. His comparative analysis throws new light on much-contested theories of gunpowder empires and the spread of the military revolution.

The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History


Philip Bobbitt - 2002
    But now our world has changed irrevocably. What faces us in this era of fear and uncertainty? How do we protect ourselves against war machines that can penetrate the defenses of any state? Visionary and prophetic, The Shield of Achilles looks back at history, at the “Long War” of 1914-1990, and at the future: the death of the nation-state and the birth of a new kind of conflict without precedent.

In the Camps: Teens Who Survived the Nazi Concentration Camps


Toby Axelrod - 2002
    Students read each book, individually take the test on the computer, and receive gratification when they score well. Schools using the Accelerated Reader program have seen a significant increase in reading among their students.Globally and locally, teens are confronted with a wide variety of social issues and difficult political realities. These titles are excellent for community service learning and tolerance building.

Hell's Gate: The Battle of the Cherkassy Pocket January to February 1944


Douglas E. Nash - 2002
    It was at Cherkassy where the last German offensive strength in the Ukraine was drained away. Hell's Gate is a riveting hour by hour and day by day account of this desperate struggle analyzed on a tactical level through maps and military transcripts, as well as on a personal level, through the words of the enlisted men and officers were there.

Avenging Bataan: The Battle of Zigzag Pass


B. David Mann - 2002
    Outraged by this news, the entire country and particularly the Army vowed to avenge the defeat and the infamous Bataan Death March. "Avenging Bataan: The Battle of Zigzag Pass" is a well-researched and detailed historical account of the struggle to liberate Bataan in 1945 by opening the highway through Zigzag Pass. Featuring coverage of both the American and Japanese forces, this account provides insight into the day by day life and death struggle of battle. The story is told through interviews, letters, and reports by men - from both sides - who fought the battle . Complete with the historical background of events leading up to and surrounding the Battle of Zigzag Pass, the author's research includes strategic information along with personal accounts. A gripping portrayal of both the Americans and Japanesse at war, "Avenging Bataan" helps preserve the legacy of World War II for future generations.

A Foxhole View: Personal Accounts of Hawaii's Korean War Veterans


Louis Baldovi - 2002
    Here are highly personal accounts of the war from the rank and file of the infantry--told in the distinctive voices of Hawaii's soldiers.

The Atlas of Eastern Front Battles


Will Fowler - 2002
    This book chronicles the titanic struggle in maps, photographs, diagrams, and text. Within each chapter are information boxes, weapons profiles, and explanatory maps that lead up to the main action.Contents:The Siege of Leningrad, June 1941-January 1944 --Winter attack on Moscow and Soviet counter attack, October 1941-March 1942 --Siege of Sevastapol, December 1941-July 1942 --Stalingrad, August 1942-February 1943 --Kursk, July 1943 --The battle for Berlin, April 1945.

Wellington's Army: Uniforms of the British Soldier,1812-1815


Charles Hamilton Smith - 2002
    Wellington's Army presents a collection of these sought after plates in a special, large format and provides a superb evocation of British military uniforms during the closing years of the Peninsular War and at the epic battle of Waterloo. The plates, drawn from life and completed in 1814, cover all the branches of service including line infantry; light infantry and rifles; heavy and light cavalry; general officers; foreign troops; artillery and engineers; and cadets and veterans. Each plate is accompanied by an incisive text by the leading expert on Wellington's troops - Philip Haythornthwaite - which discusses the unit in question, the uniform and its significant features. Wellington's Army also includes an extensive introduction analyzing the evolution of the British Army of the period and examining the colorful life of Charles Hamilton Smith.

The German Army in World War II


Nigel Thomas - 2002
    On 1 September 1939, the date of Hitler's assault on Poland, his army numbered 3,180,000 - this figure would grow to 9,500,000 before dropping back to 7,800,000 by the time of the unconditional German surrender in May 1945. The range of specialist uniforms and equipment that were developed in response to the different demands of each theatre of war, from the days of Blitzkrieg advance to the final retreat, are all described and illustrated. Hilter's major campaigns in Western Europe, the Soviet Union, North Africa and the Balkans are also summarized.

On War and Leadership: The Words of Combat Commanders from Frederick the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf


Owen Connelly - 2002
    What they have to say--which is remarkably similar across generational, national, and ideological divides--is a fascinating take on military history by those who lived it. It is also worthwhile reading for anyone, from any walk of life, who makes executive decisions.The leaders showcased here range from Frederick the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf. They include such diverse figures as Napoleon Bonaparte, commanders on both sides of the Civil War (William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson), German and American World War II generals (Rommel and Patton), a veteran of the Arab-Israeli wars (Moshe Dayan), and leaders from both sides of the Vietnam War (Vo Nguyen Giap and Harold Moore). What they have had in common is an unrivaled understanding of the art of command and a willingness to lead from the front. All earned the respect and loyalty of those they led--and moved them to risk death.The practices of these commanders apply to any leadership situation, whether military, business, political, athletic, or other. Their words reveal techniques for anticipating the competition, leading through example, taking care of the troops, staying informed, turning bad luck to advantage, improvising, and making bold decisions.Leader after leader emphasizes the importance of up-front muddy boots leadership and reveals what it takes to persevere and win. Identifying a pattern of proven leadership, this book will benefit anyone who aspires to lead a country, a squadron, a company, or a basketball team. It is a unique distillation of two and a half centuries of military wisdom.

GIs and Fräuleins: The German-American Encounter in 1950s West Germany


Maria Höhn - 2002
    In GIs and Fräuleins, Maria Höhn offers a rich social history of this German-American encounter and provides new insights into how West Germans negotiated their transition from National Socialism to a consumer democracy during the 1950s.Focusing on the conservative reaction to the American military presence, Höhn shows that Germany's Christian Democrats, though eager to be allied politically and militarily with the United States, were appalled by the apparent Americanization of daily life and the decline in morality that accompanied the troops to the provinces. Conservatives condemned the jazz clubs and striptease parlors that Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe opened to cater to the troops, and they expressed scorn toward the German women who eagerly pursued white and black American GIs. While most Germans rejected the conservative effort to punish as prostitutes all women who associated with American GIs, they vilified the sexual relationships between African American men and German women. Höhn demonstrates that German anxieties over widespread Americanization were always debates about proper gender norms and racial boundaries, and that while the American military brought democracy with them to Germany, it also brought Jim Crow.

A Signal War: A Canadian Soldier's Memoir of the Liberation of the Netherlands


John Raycroft - 2002
    Raycroft's journey provides the reader with an articulate and thought-provoking answer to the question "What was it like to be there?"

The American Home Guard: The State Militia in the Twentieth Century


Barry M. Stentiford - 2002
    States have intermittently created, maintained, deployed, and disbanded countless militia organizations outside the scope of the better-known National Guard. Barry M. Stentiford tells the story of these militia units—variously called home guards, State Guard, National Guard Reserve, and State Defense Forces. Stentiford traces the evolution of the militia over the past century, demonstrating its transformation from an amalgamation of state militia units into the National Guard, a reserve of the army. Ironically, the very existence of the National Guard made the creation of other militia forces necessary during periods of war. The home guards or State Guard were organized to fill the vacuum left when the National Guard was called up, depriving states of an organized militia that could be mobilized for repelling invasions, suppressing riots, controlling strikes, or guarding the waterfront. Stentiford carefully analyzes the challenges that faced the State Guards as states sought to build their new militia with leftover men and material. He also examines the role of the State Guard: providing relief during and after natural disasters, providing military training for future draftees, and broadening participation in military units during wartime by giving a role to men who, because of their age or occupation, could not join the federal forces. The State Guard gained a new significance in the Cold War, especially as the political unpalatability of a draft and reductions in the size of the full-time military expanded the functions of the National Guard in military policy. Today modern state militias, born to an ancient tradition, must define a role for themselves in a society that increasingly views them as anachronistic. They mut also compete ideologically with so-called unorganized militias for the title of true heir to the American militia tradition.

Morshead: Hero of Tobruk and El Alamein


David Coombes - 2002
    Drawing on previously inaccessible private records and recent scholarship, David Coombes provides a candid account of this famous field commander and shows why Morshead's distinguished career fits into Australia's military tradition.

Armies of the 19th Century: Asia. Central Asia and the Himalayan Kingdoms


Ian Heath - 2002
    During the nineteenth century these territories which are now part of or border on Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and China were the main theater of the Great Game, in which British and Russian agents competed for influence over the native princes.

The Dynastic State and the Army under Louis XIV: Royal Service and Private Interest, 1661-1701


Guy Rowlands - 2002
    Based on massive archival research, it examines the army not only as a military institution but also as a political, social and economic organism. Guy Rowlands asserts that the key to the development of Louis XIV's armed forces was the king's determination to acknowledge and satisfy the military, political, social and cultural aspirations of his officers, and maintain the solid standing of the Bourbon dynasty.

Gustavus Adolphus: A Hero of the Reformation


C.A. LaCroix - 2002
    This principled and righteous king, and famed general, is a model Christian for young men in many respects. "One of the most important men in the history of the Reformation. His deep conviction and determination to see truth triumph cost him his life; but in losing it, he delivered nations..." (Tom Nettles). Great family reading or a book for anyone interested in godly military heroes. From his boyhood, the grace of God formed in him skills and character with which he was destined to serve the interests of the kingdom of God. With the armies of Sweden at his command, he set out to preserve the freedom to preach the Word of God in Europe, resisting those who would have stamped out the truth of the Reformation. Even in the victories of his conquest, his character as a man of faith shone, as one of the mighty who nonetheless loved mercy in regard to even his enemies, and who said to his friends, "All that God has given me, I have given you without reserve, nor do I demand anything of you in return."

United States Submarines


David Hinkle - 2002
    and the Naval Submarine League, Levin Associates presents the story of America's undersea operations as it has never before been told. The Navy purchased its first submarine, Holland VI, in 1900 for 160,000 dollars. Since that time, and through many advances necessitated by the challenges of World War II and the Cold War, the submarine has become a 300-foot-long, 30-foot-wide and tall vessel, filled with some of the world's most sophisticated technology. More important than the machines themselves are the courageous, highly skilled, all-volunteer personnel who serve in the Submarine Force. In each submarine, over 100 crew members work and live together for months at a time to defend their country and protect US interests around the world. Now, a century after its founding, the spirit and essence of the United States Submarine Force is celebrated for the first time in a definitive, magnificently illustrated, large-format book published with the Naval Submarine League.Written by an outstanding team, including historians, authors, and experts associated with the Navy, as well as several distinguished active and retired Submarine officers, United States Submarines has over 350 pages of riveting and informative text and stories of the submarine experience. Essays on submarine history and today's submariners focus not only on the subs, torpedoes, and related technologies, but especially on the people that make it all work. The thoughtful incorporation of full-colour and vintage photography, portraits, recruiting posters, and historically inspired paintings complements the text, while adding the excitement that only spectacular illustrations can bring to a book. United States Submarines enables the history of America's submariners to be cherished permanently in a handsome package that every submariner and Navy personnel will be proud to own and -- with its unique medallion-inlaid cover -- to display.This book will be read again and again by past and present submariners, their families and friends, and the countless others that have been inspired by the exploits of the United States Submarine Force and the mysteries and excitement of undersea warfare.

ANZAC A Retrospect


Cecil Malthus - 2002
    

Imperial Chinese Military History: 8000 BC - 1912 Ad


Marvin C. Whiting - 2002
    It is intended to fill the biggest of the gaps in military knowledge about non western warfare. It describes China's major wars, its growth in military theory and technology and the first use of gunpower. Here you will meet the theorist SunTzu and Wu Chi; the bandit, Liu Bang, who faught his way to the throne. You will ride with the great commanders Han Xin; Cao Cao(Tso Tso), and Zhuge Liang, "He of the five inches of limber tounge". You will meet the greatest conqueror of them all; Genghis Khan and that paragon of loyalty YueFei.

Late Roman Warlords


Penny MacGeorge - 2002
    Ranging from the Balkans and Italy to northern France, this study uses a wide range of historical evidence, folklore, letters, poems, sermons, archaeology, and coins. Recent historical theories are discussed and new interpretations offered, including how these warlords may throw light on post-Roman Britain.

Fighting Pharaohs: Weapons and Warfare


Robert B. Partridge - 2002
    Fighting Pharaohs looks in some detail at the range of weapons used, the training of troops and the tactics for battles and sieges, before looking at the military campaigns of the Pharaohs. Drawing on contemporary evidence, over three thousand years are covered, from Narmer to Cleopatra.

Goring's Grenadiers: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions 1942-1945


Antonio J. Muñoz - 2002
    The complete hisotry of the Luftwaffe Field Divisions, of which 22 were formed, including Division Miendl and the smaller regiments!Hundreds of Photos, maps, line drawings, 6 color plates, orders of battle, etc!

Pittsburgh During The American Civil War, 1860 1865


Arthur B. Fox - 2002
    

Vital Crossroads: Mediterranean Origins of the Second World War, 1935–1940


Reynolds M. Salerno - 2002
    This ubiquitous Anglo-German perspective fails to recognize complex causes and repercussions of international events, misappropriates historical responsibilities, and overlooks many global and imperial factors of the war's origins. Reynolds M. Salerno shows that the situation in the Mediterranean played a decisive role in the European drama of the late 1930s and profoundly influenced the manner in which the Second World War unfolded. Vital Crossroads is the result of the author's remarkable access to and extensive research in twenty-eight archives in five different countries.Concentrating on the period from the Mediterranean crisis of 1935 to Italy's declaration of war in June 1940, Salerno demonstrates that the international politics of pre-World War II Europe--particularly in the Mediterranean--can only be understood as the multilateral interaction of British, French, German, and Italian foreign and defense policies. Control of the Mediterranean, he asserts, was a central concern for the European powers in 1935-40, and a fundamental reason why Europe went to war and why the conflict unfolded as it did. As a result, France and Italy influenced and often determined the nature and direction of Allied and Axis policy to an extent disproportionate to their nations' military and economic strength.Salerno contends that the Allies' reluctance to take decisive action against Fascist Italy in 1939-40 contributed to the fall of France in 1940, Britain's desperate situation in 1940-41, and the post-war collapse of Britain as a world power. At a time when the Allied powers dreaded the ability of the German military to march across the European continent, they also feared that the Italian armed forces would strive to fulfill Mussolini's grand imperial ambitions in the Mediterranean.--Tim Boxer, 16 Minutes Magazine, 6/20/03. "Journal of European Studies"

The Zeebrugge Raid


Philip Warner - 2002
    The aim was to block the Zeebrugge Canal, thereby denying U-boat access, although this meant assaulting a powerfully fortified German naval base. The raid has long been recognised for its audacity and ingenuity but, owing to the fact that the official history took overmuch notice of the German version of events, has been considered only a partial success. The error of that view is now exposed, for in this stirring account there is evidence from many sources that the raid achieved much more than is usually credited to it. The raid is presented from a variety of viewpoints, from the airmen who took part in the preliminary bombing to the motor launches which picked up survivors. The crews of the launches and coastal motor boats were frequently 'amateur' sailors but their courage and skill were second to none. Philip Warner has talked with many of the survivors and corresponded with others, some of whom now live in distant parts of the world.

Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991


Kenneth M. Pollack - 2002
    Pollack, formerly a Persian Gulf military analyst at the CIA and Director for Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council, describes and analyzes the military history of the six key Arab states—Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Syria—during the post–World War II era. He shows in detail how each Arab military grew and learned from its own experiences in response to the specific objectives set for it and within often constrained political, economic, and social circumstances. This first-ever overview of the modern Arab approach to warfare provides a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the Arab militaries, some of which are the United States’ most likely adversaries, and some of which are our most important allies.

Romans, Celts and Vikings (British History)


Philip Steele - 2002
    Book for children about the invasions and occupations in the British Isles between 700BC and 1065AD.

Germany's Northern Challenge: The Holy Roman Empire and the Scandinavian Struggle for the Baltic 1563-1576


Jason Lavery - 2002
    This book examines the empire's reaction to a foreign crisis, the Seven Years' War of the North, and the connections between foreign policy and internal imperial politics. This study highlights the empire's internal organization and politics by introducing the concepts of initiative and consensus.

Bloody Victory : Canadians And The D-Day Campaign 1944


J.L. Granatstein - 2002
    

One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864


Gary D. Joiner - 2002
    In a year of stellar triumphs by Union armies across the South, the Red River Campaign stands out as a colossal failure. General William Tecumseh Sherman's scathing summation describes it best, "One damn blunder from beginning to end." Taking its title from Sherman's blunt description, One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864 is a fresh inspection of what was the Civil War's largest operation between the Union Army and Navy west of the Mississippi River. In a bold, but poorly managed effort to wrest Louisiana and Texas from Confederate control, a combined force of 40,000 Union troops and 60 naval vessels traveled up the twisting Red River in an attempt to capture the capital city of Shreveport. Gary D. Joiner provides not a recycled telling of the campaign, but a strategic and tactical overview based on a stunning new array of facts gleaned from recently discovered documents. This never-before-published information reveals that the Confederate army had laid a clever trap by engineering a drop in the water level of the Red River to try to maroon the Union naval flotilla. Only the equally amazing ingenuity of the Union troops saved the fleet from certain destruction, despite a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Mansfield. The Red River campaign had lasting implications. One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End magnifies just how devastating the diversion of so many men and so much material to this failed campaign was to the Union effort in the pivotal year of 1864. Because of the Union Army's failures, Northern plans to capture Mobile were scrapped. Military careers were made and lost. And at time when the Confederacy was teetering on the brink of oblivion, Southern morale was bolstered. Joiner puts together

The Columbia History of the Vietnam War


David L. AndersonGary R. Hess - 2002
    Laying the chronological and critical foundations for the volume, David L. Anderson opens with an essay on the Vietnam War's major moments and enduring relevance. Mark Philip Bradley follows with a reexamination of Vietnamese revolutionary nationalism and the Vietminh-led war against French colonialism. Richard H. Immerman revisits Eisenhower's and Kennedy's efforts at nation building in South Vietnam, and Gary R. Hess reviews America's military commitment under Kennedy and Johnson. Lloyd C. Gardner investigates the motivations behind Johnson's escalation of force, and Robert J. McMahon focuses on the pivotal period before and after the Tet Offensive. Jeffrey P. Kimball then makes sense of Nixon's paradoxical decision to end U.S. intervention while pursuing a destructive air war.John Prados and Eric Bergerud devote essays to America's military strategy, while Helen E. Anderson and Robert K. Brigham explore the war's impact on Vietnamese women and urban culture. Melvin Small recounts the domestic tensions created by America's involvement in Vietnam, and Kenton Clymer traces the spread of the war to Laos and Cambodia. Concluding essays by Robert D. Schulzinger and George C. Herring account for the legacy of the war within Vietnamese and American contexts and diagnose the symptoms of the "Vietnam syndrome" evident in later debates about U.S. foreign policy. America's experience in Vietnam continues to figure prominently in discussions about strategy and defense, not to mention within discourse on the identity of the United States as a nation. Anderson's expert collection is therefore essential to understanding America's entanglement in the Vietnam War and the conflict's influence on the nation's future interests abroad.

King's African Rifles: A Study in the Military History of East and Central Africa, 1890-1945


H. Moyse-Bartlett - 2002
    

Re-Examining the Cold War: U.S.-China Diplomacy, 1954-1973


Robert S. Ross - 2002
    Much of the literature on U.S.-China relations posits that each side was motivated either by ideologically informed interests or by ideological assumptions about its counterpart. But as these contributors emphasize, newly accessible archives suggest rather that both Beijing and Washington developed a responsive and tactically adaptable foreign policy. Each then adjusted this policy in response to changing international circumstances and changing assessments of its counterpart's policies. Motivated less by ideology than by pragmatic national security concerns, each assumed that the other faced similar considerations.

Setting the Context: Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses and Joint War Fighting in an Uncertain World - including Desert Storm


James R. Brungess - 2002
    He contends that the demise of the Soviet Union presents the perfect transitional period for SEAD planners to create new approaches to countering the information-based integrated air defense system nets. He looks at the foundations and evolution of SEAD, identifies pertinent variables, and shows how they have changed. Colonel Brungess concludes that fiscal reality demands that the services forge joint SEAD tactics and doctrine.Contents * FOREWORD * PREFACE * INTRODUCTION * Chapter 1 * HISTORY AND DOCTRINE * The Evolutionary Construct * Vietnam * Bekaa Valley * Libya * Persian Gulf * The Larger Context * Notes * Chapter 2 * CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING SEAD EFFECTIVENESS * Methods of Analysis * The Historical Approach * The Engineering Approach * The Commonsense Approach * The Objective-based Approach * Setting the Context: Continuums as Assessment Tools * Challenges for Objective-based Criteria * Notes * Chapter 3 * SERVICE APPROACHES TO SEAD * Navy SEAD * Air Force SEAD * Army SEAD * Marine SEAD * Notes * Chapter 4 * THE MERITS OF JSEAD: THE QUEST TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVENESS * The Personality of JSEAD and the Threat * The World of "Joint" and JSEAD * Brave New World: 'True" Joint SEAD * The Four Continuums: How to Use Them * The Need: Resource-based Continuum * The Threat: Capability-based Continuum * The Piecemeal/Integrated Tactics Continuum * The Defensive/Offensive Continuum * The General Context: A New Way of Looking at JSEAD * Notes * Chapter 5 * JSEAD: STRATEGY, TACTICS, AND THE CHANGED THREAT * The Essence of the Threat * Requirements of the Information-based IADS * Detecting * Locating and Identifying * Tracking * Weapons Allocation and Employment * Defeating the IADS: Information Denial * Detection as Information * Locating and Identifying as Information * Information Denial in the "Endgame" * Adjusting to Fiscal Reality * SEAD Tactics: Variations, Combinations, and Innovations * Variations: The "IADS Sweep" * Combining Old Tactics: SEAD and the Modern Long-Range SAM * Innovations: Information Denial via Computer Warfare * Joint SEAD Strategy: Dividing the Turf * JSEAD Tactics: So What? * Notes * Chapter 6 * WHERE TO NEXT: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS * Conclusions * SEAD as an Evolutionary Concept * Requirement for a Paradigm Shift * The Lead/Lag Issue: Joint Doctrine and JSEAD * Shifting the Focus of Criteria: * Overall Objectives * Recommendations * Education * Training * Equipment * Full Circle: The Strategy-Doctrine-Tactics Continuum

The Challenges of High Command: The British Experience


Gary D. Sheffield - 2002
    The contributors cast new light on themes as diverse as the trench warfare of World War I, the conduct of the Gallipoli and Norway campaigns, and the command performance of Bomber Harris and Bill Slim. The book concludes with a major review of how military operations should be conducted in the new political and technological conditions of today and includes an informal and frank commentary by General Sir Mike Jackson on his experience in Bosnia and Kosovo.

A Virginia Village Goes to War: Falls Church During the Civil War


Bradley E. Gernand - 2002
    

Operation "Market Garden" Then and Now Vol 2


Karel Margry - 2002
    But at Arnhem the tide of battle has already turned. The main force of lst Airborne is thrown back to the Oosterbeek perimeter, leaving John Frost's isolated force at the road bridge to fight it out till the end. As the Polish Brigade is dropped south of the Rhine, and the ground army desperately tries to relieve the beleaguered British paras, down in the south the Germans launch repeated attacks on the narrow corridor in an attempt to cut the Allied supply artery. As savage battles rage for possession of Hell's Highway, the airborne battle is lost and on September 26 the survivors of lst Airborne are evacuated back across the Rhine.

Combat History Of The 654th Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung


Karlheinz Munch - 2002
    If you enjoyed Münch's previous work on sPJA 653, you'll love this one. The complete battle diaries of the battalion are provided and complement the text which covers the unit from its formation through its receipt of the Ferdinand and its fighting at Kursk and, later, the Jagdpanther and its employment in the West. More great Ferdinand photos and, if you're tired of seeing the same old photos of the Jagdpanther, this book will be especially enjoyable for you. There are at least 100 photos of the rare beast, of which about 90% are previously unpublished.

Peacemonger


Marrack Goulding - 2002
    Here, he provides an insider's account of the organization's successes and failures in this most contentious activity.

Flying Higher: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II


Wanda Langley - 2002
    In the US all military pilots were needed for combat duty, which left critical piloting jobs vacant across the land. Who would deliver the newly manufactured planes to their domestic bases? Who would train new flight crews and tow targets for anti-aircraft practice, test new planes and retest old ones? The answer was: women. These elite pilots were the WASPs. Civilians all, they earned their wings so that they could undertake hazardous, and sometimes deadly, flight assignments. At the same time, these young women loved their work. They leapt at the chance to fly an array of fighter planes, and even the big B-29 bombers that scared off many men. They were an intrepid group whose service was as essential at the time as it was later overlooked. Adventurous in play as well as work, the WASPs got into, and out of, some hair-raising episodes. Wanda Langley has conducted extensive interviews with former WASPs, and has the insider's details of their escapades, as well as their training and service.Much of the story is seen in the life of Marie Michell, a nineteen-year-old WASP and fine pilot whose death in a crash underscores the dangers these women faced on a daily basis while doing what they did best to serve their country in war.

Know Your Enemy: How the Joint Intelligence Committee Saw the World


Percy Cradock - 2002
    As a result, historians have available a unique archive revealing British thinking at the highest level about the world situation and threats confronting the West in the critical years after World War II.This book, by Sir Percy Cradock - for many years himself Chairman of the JIC as well as the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Advisor - explores these hitherto top secret records and the interplay of JIC estimates and warnings with British foreign policy decisions over the first 23 years from 1945. He concentrates on the great crises of the Cold War, Berlin, Korea, Suez, Cuba, Vietnam and Czechoslovakia, but also examines some lesser emergencies involving Britain alone, such as Kuwait, confrontation with Indonesia, and Rhodesia. He compares the British organization and performance with the parallel system of US intelligence and the very different machinery of the KGB. In a final chapter he reflects on the intimate relations between intelligence and policy, and how Britain adjusted to a long period of declining power.This study aims to be a valuable addition to historical knowledge and to offer an insight into the development of Western as well as British foreign policy.

West Point: The First 200 Years: The First 200 Years


John Grant - 2002
    Military Academy at West Point in March of 2002, this PBS companion book is a celebration and examination of West Point's remarkable role in our nation's history. It reveals the Academy's tremendous influence on our country, highlighting the most significant eras and themes of a school that in many ways is a microcosm of the nation that it serves. Through engaging narrative and striking contemporary and archival photography, it offers a multifaceted portrait of the Academy in all of its tradition and pageantry, its academic and military excellence, and its fluctuation between clinging to the past and reinventing itself.Beginning with the legendary events that took place at the site of West Point prior to the establishment of the Academy, the text explores the school's humble beginnings, its later contributions as a leading engineering institution, its enormous presence in the Civil War, and the social challenges faced by West Point throughout its 200-year history, including race and gender issues. Woven into the fabric of the account are stories of the larger-than-life characters that people the Academy's past, including Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Douglas MacArthur as well as such "colorful" former cadets as Edgar Allen Poe and James Whistler.Stunning photographs of the campus as it looks today, fascinating black-and-white images from the Academy's archives, and photos of artifacts and memorabilia from the West Point Museum's collections are featured throughout the pages of this lavishly illustrated volume. The perfect souvenir of the Academy's 200th anniversary, this book will be a treasure not just forWest Point alumni and their families, but for anyone with a spark of interest in American history.

Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History


Colin S. Gray - 2002
    The book argues that the conduct of an RMA has to be examined as a form of strategic behaviour, which means that, of necessity, it must work as strategy works. The great RMA debate of the 1990s is reviewed empathetically, though sceptically, by the author, with every major school of thought allowed its day in court.The author presents three historical RMAs as case studies for his argument: those arguably revealed in the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon; in World War I; and in the nuclear age. The focus of his analysis is how these grand RMAs functioned strategically. The conclusions that he draws from these empirical exercises are then applied to help us understand what, indeed, is - and what is not - happening with the much vaunted information-technology-led RMA of today.

Bloody Battle for Tilly: Normandy 1944


Ken Tout - 2002
    Lying to the South of the city of Caen, Tilly was one of a number of stone-built villages that had been fortified by the Germans to hold up the Allied advance, and it saw what was probably the worst of the infantry fighting following D-Day. The Canadian 3rd Division made five attempts to capture the village and lost well over half its fighting men within a month. This work focuses on the infantry travail around the fortified villages south of Caen. It draws on eyewitness accounts to give a portrayal of the battle and a fitting tribute to the youth of Canada and Britain who fought, and the many who died, during the breakout from Normandy in the last summer of the war in Europe.

Victory on the Potomac: The Goldwater-Nichols Act Unifies the Pentagon


James R. Locher - 2002
    In the mid-1980s a high-stakes political struggle to redesign the relationships among the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and warfighting commanders in the field resulted in the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Author James R. Locher III played a key role in the congressional effort to repair a dysfunctional military whose interservice squabbling had cost American taxpayers billions of dollars and put the lives of thousands of servicemen and women at risk. Victory on this front helped make possible the military successes the United States has enjoyed since the passage of the bill and to prepare it for the challenges it must still face.Victory on the Potomac provides the first detailed history of how Congress unified the Pentagon and does so with the benefit of an insider's view. In a fast-paced account that reads like a novel, Locher follows the bill through congressional committee to final passage, making clear that the process is neither abstract nor automatic. His vivid descriptions bring to life the amazing cast of this real-life drama, from the straight-shooting chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Barry Goldwater, to the peevishly stubborn secretary of defense, Caspear Weinberger.Locher's analysis of political maneuvering and bureaucratic infighting will fascinate anyone who has an interest in how government works, and his understanding of the stakes in military reorganization will make clear why this legislative victory meant so much to American military capability.

Retreat to Victory?: Confederate Strategy Reconsidered


Robert G. Tanner - 2002
    Many have come to believe that the South might have won the Civil War if it had only avoided head-on battles, conducted an aggressive guerrilla campaign, and maneuvered across wide swaths of territory to exhaust the Union's willingness to continue the war. Retreat to Victory? Confederate Strategy Reconsidered challenges this widely held theory. Robert G. Tanner argues that deep retreats and battle avoidance (the strategy of maneuver rather than combat) were not available to Southern leaders in planning their wartime strategy. The South fought as it did for valid reasons, according to Tanner, and this book examines these reasons in detail, including the South's need to protect its slave-based economy, to establish a state's rights-oriented government, and to win independence from the Union. Tanner uses Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz's classic On War as a means for evaluating Confederate actions. On War provides a single measure for testing claims that the South could have prevailed by avoiding battles and forcing the Union to hold large tracts of land. Provocative and carefully researched, Retreat to Victory offers a fresh perspective on Confederate strategy and makes an important contribution to the field that no serious student of American history will want to miss.

The Last Kilometer: Marching to Victory in Europe, 1944-1945


A. Preston Price - 2002
    Army, this is the story of life as an infantryman during the final phases of World War II. Having served as an 81-mm mortar forward observer with the 1st Infantry Division (theBig Red One), the author skillfully recreates this military combat experience through both personal recollections and excerpts from his letters home. The gripping and straightforward narrative leads the reader through the processes of preparing, marching, attacking, digging in, sleeping, defending, and moving out again to the next objective. These descriptions of everyday heroism highlight the plight of ordinary men as they valiantly battle the enemy even in the face of their own probable demise.From the Battle of the Bulge to VE Day, A. Preston Price takes us through France, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. We are there as troops cross the Roer River, clash in the Remagen Bridgehead, attack the Ruhr and Harz regions, and fight for the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi rule. Devoid of overly dramatic descriptions, this is a clear and precise eyewitness description of war and of the American soldiers who fought in the name of the United States and freedom. It will appeal to everyone interested in American history, military history, strategical analysis, and historical biography.