Mary Edwards Walker. However, Mary’s life was more than just a medal. Not only was Mary a leading suffragist, the first female surgeon to serve in the United States Army, and an advocate of women’s dress reform, she was a woman who put the lives of others before hers. She sacrificed her personal happiness, her comforts, and her reputation in order to fight for the ideals she believed in, both during and after her service in the American Civil War. Mary was a nonconformist in every way, refusing to bow down to society’s establishments. When society towered above her, demanding her to surrender, Mary planted herself like a tree and stood her ground. Mary’s life is a testament to the idea of selflessness. Today, many Americans stand on her shoulders.This book is more than a simple biography of Mary's life. Instead, this book seeks to understand the woman behind the medal. It seeks to discover the core of Mary's being and the inspirations that turned her into who she was. People may know Dr. Walker. The question is: who was Mary?

    

    Japan’s onslaught into China that year unleashed a tidal wave of events that fundamentally transformed this region and killed about twenty-five million people. From just two nation states with real sovereignty, Thailand and Japan, and two with compromised sovereignty, China and Mongolia, the region today encompasses at least nineteen major sovereign nations. This extraordinary World War II narrative vividly describes in exquisite detail the battles across this entire region and links those struggles on many levels with their profound twenty-first-century legacies.Beginning with China’s long-neglected years of heroic, costly resistance, Tower of Skulls explodes outward to campaigns including Singapore, the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies, India, and Burma, as well as across the Pacific to Pearl Harbor. These pages cast penetrating light on how struggles in Europe and Asia merged into a tightly entwined global war. They feature not just battles, but also the sweeping political, economic, and social effects of the war, and are graced with a rich tapestry of individual characters from top-tier political and military figures down to ordinary servicemen, as well as the accounts of civilians of all races and ages.In this first volume of a trilogy, award-winning historian Richard B. Frank draws on rich archival research and recently discovered documentary evidence to tell an epic story that gave birth to the world we live in now.

    The men who took it through walls of flak and surface-to-air missiles to help defeat the world's fourth-largest army were as untested as their airplanes, so they relied on personal determination and the amazing A-10 to accomplish their missions, despite the odds.Hogs in the Sand is the gripping journey of one of those pilots as he fights an increasingly terrifying war, all the while attempting to win over a woman and keep control of his internal demons. For anyone who has admired the Warthog, seen it in action, or called upon it to be their salvation, this story will fulfill a desire to virtually strap into the cockpit, while gaining unprecedented understanding of the mind of a modern combat pilot.

    But behind the pomp and bravado of its departure, a sober reality lurked. A mere 20 Sea Harriers operating from two aircraft carriers would take on the might of the Argentine air force, some 200 planes strong. The MOD estimated that within four days and against such formidable air power, half the harriers would likely be lost.To reinforce that meagre force, and in just three weeks, the RAF formed, trained and equipped a brand new squadron from scratch. Not since the Second World War had so much been expected of such a small band of pilots. Their home would be a container ship converted into a makeshift carrier. 809 Naval Air Squadron was born.Other covert operations mounted by MI6 and the SAS in Latin America would provide vital intelligence to protect the task force from attack but in the vanguard of the conflict it would be the Sea Harriers of the 809 whose heroics in the South Atlantic which would become legendary.With characteristic insider knowledge and in thrilling detail, Rowland White tells the story of those amazing exploits - the dogfights, the twenty-three kills, the deadly Exocet attacks, the ejections –demonstrating just why the Harrier is mentioned in the same breath as the Spitfire, the Lancaster and the Vulcan and is destined to join them in the ranks of our most celebrated aeronautical achievements.

    

    The sole India–China conflict that remains etched in our collective memory is the 1962 war, which India tragically lost. But five years later, in 1967, India and China faced off once again in the heights of Cho La and Nathu La at the Sikkim border.This time, overcoming the odds, India triumphed. The fallout of these forgotten battles was immense. China shied away from actively allying with Pakistan and the US during the 1971 India–Pakistan war. And despite several stand-offs in the half century since then, Beijing has never again launched a military offensive against India. This incredible book tells us why these battles ushered in an era of peace.Full of thrilling international intrigue and nail-biting battle scenes, this book is based on extensive research and interviews with army officers and soldiers who participated in these historic battles. It aims to rectify a blind spot in history and shine the spotlight on a story of incredible bravery that India should be proud of.

    fighter pilot to break his record of twenty-six enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command. What developed was a wild three-year sprint for fame and glory, and the chance to be called America's greatest fighter pilot. The story has never been told until now. Based on new research and full of revelations, John Bruning's brilliant, original book tells the story of how five American pilots contended for personal glory in the Pacific while leading Kenney's resurgent air force against the most formidable enemy America ever faced.The pilots-Richard Bong, Tommy McGuire, Neel Kearby, Charles MacDonald and Gerald Johnson-riveted the nation as they contended for Rickenbacker's crown. As their scores mounted, they transformed themselves from farm boys and aspiring dentists into artists of the modern dogfight. But as the race reached its climax, some of the pilots began to see how the spotlight warped their sense of duty. They emerged as leaders, beloved by their men as they chose selfless devotion over national accolades. Teeming with action all across the vast Pacific theater, Race of Aces is a fascinating exploration of the boundary between honorable duty, personal glory, and the complex landscape of the human heart

    Operation HUSKY, as it was known, was enormously complex, involving dramatic battles on land, in the air, and at sea. Yet, despite its paramount importance to ultimate Allied victory, and its drama, very little has been written about the 38-day Battle for Sicily.Based on his own battlefield studies in Sicily and on much new research, James Holland's Sicily '43 offers a vital new perspective on a major turning point in World War II and a chronicle of a multi-pronged campaign in a uniquely diverse and contained geographical location. The characters involved--Generals George Patton and Bernard Montgomery among many--were as colorful as the air and naval battles and the fighting on the ground across the scorching plains and mountaintop of Sicily were brutal. But among Holland's great skills is incorporating the experience of on-the-ground participants on all sides--from American privates Tom and Dee Bowles and Tuskegee fighter pilot Charlie Dryden to British major Hedley Verity and Canadian lieutenant Farley Mowat (later a celebrated author), to German and Italian participants such as Wilhelm Schmalz, brigade commander in the Hermann G�ring Division, or Luftwaffe fighter pilot major Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff and to Italian combatants, civilians and mafiosi alike--which gives readers an intimate sense of what occurred in July and August 1943.Emphasizing the significance of Allied air superiority, Holland overturns conventional narratives that have criticized the Sicily campaign for the vacillations over the plan, the slowness of the Allied advance and that so many German and Italian soldiers escaped to the mainland; rather, he shows that clearing the island in 38 days against geographical challenges and fierce resistance was an impressive achievement. A powerful and dramatic account by a master military historian, Sicily '43 fills a major gap in the narrative history of World War II.

    As the “tip of the spear,” his role is to ensure the route taken by U.S. and Afghan troops are free of IEDs — improvised explosive devices. Many soldiers do not survive their last step; those who do often lose at least one limb.While rescuing an Afghan soldier outside a mud-hut compound in 2010 — knowing that he was in “uncleared” territory — Ryan stepped on an IED with his right foot. The device exploded, leaving his foot dangling at the end of his leg.American soldiers losing a limb is an all-too-common occurrence. But what makes Ryan’s story different is that after undergoing two dozen surgeries and a tortuous rehabilitation, he was medically retired but fought to return to active duty. Multiple skin grafts to his leg and right foot successfully reattached his lower leg, and he was aided in his recovery by wearing a new prosthetic device known as an IDEO (Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis). Once he passed a series of crucial physical tests, Ryan was able to rejoin the Green Berets within a year and physically perform his duties, redeploying to Afghanistan in March 2012.In 2016, he volunteered to return to Afghanistan with Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group. During a firefight with the Taliban, he risked his life under heavy enemy fire to rescue three Afghan soldiers cut off from friendly forces and return the bodies of two dead Afghan soldiers under the ethos that “no one gets left behind.” For his heroic efforts on the battlefield, SFC Ryan Hendrickson was awarded a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor.An engaging and harrowing account, Tip of the Spear tells the amazing story of one Green Beret’s indomitable spirit.

    

    Volumes have been written about them, past and present. Understandably, most of these revolve around the skill, cunning and bravery that characterizes this distinctive band of brothers, but there are other dimensions to those who take to the skies to do battle that have not been given the emphasis they deserve - until now.You do not have to be an aviation aficionado to enjoy Colonel Steve Ladd's fascinating personal tale, woven around his 28-year career as a fighter pilot. This extremely engaging account follows a young man from basic pilot training to senior command through the narratives that define a unique ethos. From the United States to Southeast Asia; Europe to the Middle East; linking the amusing and tongue-in-cheek to the deadly serious and poignant, this is the lifelong journey of a fighter pilot.The anecdotes provided are absorbing, providing an insight into life as an Air Force pilot, but, in this book, as Colonel Ladd stresses, the focus is not on fireworks or stirring tales of derring-do. Instead, this is an articulate and absorbing account of what life is really like among a rare breed of arrogant, cocky, boisterous and fun-loving young men who readily transform into steely professionals at the controls of a fighter aircraft.From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog is a terrific read: the legacy of a fighter pilot.

    But how did this period of nearly continuous warfare affect the world beyond Europe? The immensity of the fighting waged by France against England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and the immediate consequences of the tremors that spread from France as a result, overshadow the profound repercussions that the Napoleonic Wars had throughout the world. In this far-ranging work, Alexander Mikaberidze argues that the Napoleonic Wars can only be fully understood with an international context in mind. France struggled for dominance not only on the plains of Europe but also in the Americas, West and South Africa, Ottoman Empire, Iran, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Taking specific regions in turn, Mikaberidze discusses major political-military events around the world and situates geopolitical decision-making within its long- and short-term contexts. From the British expeditions to Argentina and South Africa to the Franco-Russian maneuvering in the Ottoman Empire, the effects of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars would shape international affairs well into the next century. In Egypt, the Wars led to the rise of Mehmed Ali and the emergence of a powerful Egyptian state; in North America, the period transformed and enlarged the newly established United States; and in South America, the Spanish colonial empire witnessed the start of national-liberation movements that ultimately ended imperial control. Skillfully narrated and deeply researched, here at last is the complete global story of the period, one that expands our contemporary view of the Napoleonic Wars and their role in laying the foundations of the modern world.

    Throughout the summer of 1944, southern England was transformed into one huge armed camp as the allied forces made their final preparations for D-Day. It was at this crucial moment in history that the Fox emerged from his lair.The Fox had many names and many disguises, but behind them all lay the resource and ingenuity of a dedicated German agent. His very existence was not suspected until a totally unexpected E-Boat attack on a landing resulting in hundreds of casualties, and the loss of a set of top-secret plans detailing the invasion.Desperate to stop them falling into enemy hands, two officers are tasked with recovering the plans and taking out the Fox. Failure would mean the total defeat of the allied forces. Failure is not an option… A gripping, action-packed D-Day thriller from a master of the war story, perfect for fans of Frederick Forsyth, John le Carré and Alistair MacLean.

    Cox comes this insightful new history of the critical Guadalcanal and Solomons campaign at the height of World War II. His previous book, Morning Star, Rising Sun, had found the US Navy at its absolute nadir and the fate of the Enterprise, the last operational US aircraft carrier at this point in the war, unknown. This new volume completes the history of this crucial campaign, combining detailed research with a novelist's flair for the dramatic to reveal exactly how, despite missteps and misfortunes, the tide of war finally turned. By the end of February 1944, thanks to hard-fought and costly American victories in the first and second naval battles of Guadalcanal, the battle of Empress Augusta Bay, and the battle of Cape St George, the Japanese would no longer hold the materiel or skilled manpower advantage. From this point on, although the war was still a long way from being won, the American star was unquestionably on the ascendant, slowly, but surely, edging Japanese imperialism towards its sunset.Jeffrey Cox's analysis and attention to detail of even the smallest events are second to none. But what truly sets this book apart is how he combines this microscopic attention to detail, often unearthing new facts along the way, with an engaging style that transports the reader to the heart of the story, bringing the events on the deep blue of the Pacific vividly to life.

    Marines of this tiny yet strategically important volcanic island. The book is based on each author's own observations while on the island, plus the experiences of dozens of men involved in various aspects of the intense fighting. Presented in chronological order, the battle unfolds from the initial D-Day air force bombings and naval barrage, to the amphibious assault, to the slow gains made each day as the Marines inched forward under heavy fire. Despite its small size, Iwo Jima was considered the most heavily fortified island in the world, supporting thousands of nearly bomb-proof shelters and caves, hundreds of reinforced machine-gun, mortar, tank, and artillery positions, and more than 20,000 fanatical Japanese defenders. Included is a roster of Marines killed or missing in the battle, plus 12 maps and 32 pages of photographs.

    This book is the first English-language work to comprehensively cover the subject, and includes all major models of French rifles.

    

    

    

    An improvised game of cricket was often the circuit-breaker Harry and his team needed after the tension of operations. He began a tradition of organising matches wherever he was sent, whether it was in the mountains of East Timor with a fugitive rebel leader, or on the dusty streets of Baghdad, or in exposed Forward Operating Bases in the hills of Afghanistan. Soldiers, locals and even visiting politicians played in these spontaneous yet often bridge-building games.As part of the tradition, Harry also started to take a cricket bat with him on operational tours, eleven of them in total. They'd often go outside the wire with him and end up signed by those he met or fought alongside. These eleven bats form the basis for Harry's extraordinary memoir. It's a book about combat, and what it takes to serve in one of the world's most elite formations. It's a book about the toll that war takes on soldiers and their loved ones. And it's a book about the healing power of cricket, and how a game can break down borders in even the most desperate of circumstances.

    

    Though the nation's soldiers, sailors and airmen occupy a special place in people's hearts, standard narratives of contemporary Indian history rarely cover the military dimension. In his first book, India's Wars: A Military History, 1947-1971, Arjun Subramaniam attempted to set this right by taking readers on a journey until the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Full Spectrum: India's Wars, 1972-2020 takes the story forward. It is a sweeping account of war and conflict in contemporary India over the past five decades. Covering every major operation that the armed forces have participated in - including insurgencies in the north-east, terrorism and proxy wars in Jammu and Kashmir, separatist violence in Punjab, the IPKF intervention in Sri Lanka, and the continued stress along the LoC and LAC - it fuses the strategic, operational, tactical and human dimensions of war and conflict into a racy narrative that reflects their changing character in modern times.

    The U.S. Army stood at fewer than 200,000 men--unprepared to defend the country, much less carry the fight to Europe and the Far East. And yet, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the American army led the Allied invasion of North Africa, beginning the campaign that would defeat Germany, and the Navy and Marines were fully engaged with Japan in the Pacific.The story of America's astounding industrial mobilization during World War II has been told. But what has never been chronicled before Paul Dickson's The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is the extraordinary transformation of America's military from a disparate collection of camps with dilapidated equipment into a well-trained and spirited army ten times its prior size in little more than eighteen months. From Franklin Roosevelt's selection of George C. Marshall to be Army Chief of Staff to the remarkable peace-time draft of 1940 and the massive and unprecedented mock battles in Tennessee, Louisiana, and the Carolinas by which the skill and spirit of the Army were forged and out of which iconic leaders like Eisenhower, Bradley, and Clark emerged; Dickson narrates America's urgent mobilization against a backdrop of political and cultural isolationist resistance and racial tension at home, and the increasingly perceived threat of attack from both Germany and Japan.An important addition to American history, The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is essential to our understanding of America's involvement in World War II.

    Or, rather, didn't appear. They arrived in the dark, their black outlines cloaking them from sight. More importantly, their odd, angular shapes, which made them look like flying origami, rendered them undetectable to Iraq's formidable air defenses. Stealth technology, developed during the decades before Desert Storm, had arrived. To American planners and strategists at the outset of the Cold War, this seemingly ultimate way to gain ascendance over the USSR was only a question. What if the United States could defend its airspace while at the same time send a plane through Soviet skies undetected? A craft with such capacity would have to be essentially invisible to radar - an apparently miraculous feat of physics and engineering. In Stealth, Peter Westwick unveils the process by which the impossible was achieved.At heart, Stealth is a tale of two aerospace companies, Lockheed and Northrop, and their fierce competition - with each other and with themselves - to obtain what was estimated one of the largest procurement contracts in history. Westwick's book fully explores the individual and collective ingenuity and determination required to make these planes and in the process provides a fresh view of the period leading up to the end of the Soviet Union. Taking into account the role of technology, as well as the art and science of physics and engineering, Westwick offers an engaging narrative, one that immerses readers in the race to produce a weapon that some thought might save the world, and which certainly changed it.

    Over 35,000 volunteers from fifty-two countries around the world came to defend democracy against the troops of Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini. Ill-equipped and disorderly, yet fueled by a shared sense of purpose and potential glory, disparate groups of idealistic young men and women banded together to form a volunteer army of a size and kind unseen since the Crusades, known as the International Brigades. These passionate liberal fighters-from across Europe, China, Africa and the Americas-would join the Republican cause, fighting for over two years on the bloody battlegrounds of Madrid, Jarama and Ebro. Were they heroes or fools? Saints or bloodthirsty adventurers? And what exactly did they achieve? In this magisterial history, award-winning historian Giles Tremlett tells-for the first time-the story of the Spanish Civil War through all the human drama of an historic mission to halt fascist expansion in Europe. The International Brigades shows just how far ordinary people will go to save democracy against overwhelming odds.

    Not just another flag-waving story of air combat, Jayhawk describes the war as it really was--a conflict with far-reaching tentacles that gripped and tore at not only the combatants, but also their families, friends and the way they lived their lives.Stout examines the story of Cooper's growing up in gentle and idyllic pre-war Manila and how he grew to be the man he is. At 100 years old, few men are left alive who can share similar experiences. Stout reviews Cooper's journey to the United States and his unlikely entry into the United States Army Air Forces. Trained as a B-25 pilot, Cooper was assigned to the iconic 345th Bomb Group and flew strafing missions that shredded the enemy, but likewise put himself and his comrades in grave danger. A husband and father, Cooper was pulled two ways by the call of duty and his obligation to his wife and daughter. And always on his mind was the family he left behind in the Philippines who were in thrall to the Japanese.

    How had the once unstoppable, mighty Wehrmacht faltered so disastrously? Certainly it had suffered defeats before, in particular the vast catastrophe of Stalingrad, but it was in 1944 that the war was ultimately lost. It was no longer a case of if but rather when the Red Army would be at the gates of Berlin.Prit Buttar retraces the ebb and flow of the various battles and campaigns fought throughout the Ukraine and Romania in 1944. January and February saw Army Group South encircled in the Korsun Pocket. Although many of the encircled troops did escape, in part due to Soviet intelligence and command failures, the Red Army would endeavor to not make the same mistakes again. Indeed, in the coming months the Red Army would demonstrate an ability to learn and improve, reinventing itself as a war-winning machine, demonstrated clearly in its success in the Iasi-Kishinev operation.The view of the Red Army as a huge, unskilled horde that rolled over everything in its path is just one myth that The Reckoning reassess. So too does it re-evaluate the apparent infallibility of German military commanders, the denial of any involvement in (or often even knowledge of) the heinous crimes committed in the occupied territories by German forces, and the ineffectiveness of Axis allies, such as the Romanians at Iasi, to withstand the Soviet forces. Like all myths, these contain many truths, but also a great many distortions, all of which are skillfully unpicked and analysed in this powerful retelling of 1944 on the Eastern Front.

    His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war.In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war.A definitive biography of a preeminent military figure by a renowned military historian, The Scourge of War is a masterful account of Sherman' life that fully recognizes his intellect, strategy, and actions during the Civil War.

    Special Forces camp at Plei Me in the Central Highlands, where about a dozen green berets were training a few hundred South Vietnamese troops. In response, the U.S. choppered in a relief force of elite soldiers from Project Delta under legendary Chargin' Charlie Beckwith and dropped an unprecedented million pounds of munitions just yards from the camp's perimeter. The camp held out, but operations in the area continued. Within weeks, the Battle of Ia Drang broke out, the first major battle between the U.S. Army and North Vietnamese regulars. Based on archival research and interviews with veterans, Saliba covers the battle for Plei Me camp in close, vivid, and very human detail. He also gives careful attention to the strategic picture and shows how this clash laid the groundwork for the Battle of Ia Drang.

    Behind it lay a debate that had been raging for some weeks prior among American military and political leaders. The surrender fulfilled the commitment that Franklin Roosevelt had made in 1943 at the Casablanca conference that it be "unconditional." Though readily accepted as policy at the time, after Roosevelt's death in April 1945 support for unconditional surrender wavered, particularly among Republicans in Congress, when the bloody campaigns on Iwo Jima and Okinawa made clear the cost of military victory against Japan. Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945 had been one thing; the war in the pacific was another. Many conservatives favored a negotiated surrender.Though this was the last time American forces would impose surrender unconditionally, questions surrounding it continued through the 1950s and 1960s--with the Korean and Vietnam Wars--when liberal and conservative views reversed, including over the definition of "peace with honor." The subject was revived during the ceremonies surrounding the 50th anniversary in 1995, and the Gulf and Iraq Wars, when the subjects of exit strategies and "accomplished missions" were debated. Marc Gallicchio reveals how and why the surrender in Tokyo Bay unfolded as it did and the principle figures behind it, including George C. Marshall and Douglas MacArthur. The latter would effectively become the leader of Japan and his tenure, and indeed the very nature of the American occupation, was shaped by the nature of the surrender. Most importantly, Gallicchio reveals how the policy of unconditional surrender has shaped our memory and our understanding of World War II.

    Hanley tells the story of the Korean War through the eyes of 20 individuals who lived through it--from a North Korean refugee girl to an American nun, a Chinese general to a black American prisoner of war, a British journalist to a US Marine hero.This is an intimate, deeper kind of history, whose meticulous research and rich detail, drawing on recently unearthed materials and eyewitness accounts, brings the true face of the Korean War, the vastness of its human tragedy, into a sharper focus than ever before. The "Forgotten War" becomes unforgettable.In decades as an international journalist, Hanley reported from some 100 countries and covered more than a half-dozen conflicts, from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq.

    

    Though largely forgotten in descriptions of the war, an eight-day barrage of artillery fire made this seemingly rapid offensive possible. At the forefront of this offensive were the brave field artillerymen known as "redlegs."In Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War, a veteran and former redleg of the 1st Infantry Division Artillery (otherwise known as the "Big Red One"), Col. L. Scott Lingamfelter, recounts the logistical and strategic decisions that led to a coalition victory. Drawing on original battle maps, official reports, and personal journals, Lingamfelter describes the experience of the First Gulf War through a soldier's eyes and attempts to answer the question of whether the United States "got the job done" in its first sustained Middle Eastern conflict. Part military history, part personal memoir, this book provides a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the largest US artillery bombardment since World War II.

    Later, in 1200 CE, India was reduced to a vassal state and became a source for never ending supply of slaves and wealth, reducing the Hindu population by 80 million at one count.What had gone wrong in these five or six centuries?Why were Turks so interested in India?What did India have or didn't, which attracted them in hordes?Why did they burn whole cities and wipe out the whole population even after winning?This book interestingly answers all these questions about the medieval history and battles of India.The book is written in a layman language making it an easy and binge read.

    These men of the Indian Army, carrying their disabled imam, find their way to the East Mole and embark for England in the dead of night. On reaching Dover, they borrowed brass trays and started playing Punjabi folk music, upon which even "many British spectators joined in the dance." Where had they come from and why were they in France? And what happened to them after that? Ghee Bowman reveals in full, for the first time, the story of these soldiers, from their arrival in France on December 26, 1939 to their return at war's end to an India on the verge of partition. It is one of the war's hidden stories that casts fresh light on Britain and its empire.

    On October 4, 1777, it was a small village on the outskirts of the colonial capital whose surrounding fields and streets witnessed one of the largest battles of the American Revolution. The bloody battle represented George Washington's attempt to recapture Philadelphia, but has long been overshadowed by better-known events like Brandywine, Saratoga, and Valley Forge. Award-winning author Michael C. Harris's impressive Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for the Control of Philadelphia, October 4, 1777, elevates this important action from obscurity in the first full-length study of this pivotal engagement.General Sir William Howe launched his campaign to capture Philadelphia in late July 1777, with an army of 16,500 British and Hessian soldiers aboard a 265-ship armada sailing from New York. Six difficult weeks later, Howe's expedition landed near Elkton, Maryland, and moved north into Pennsylvania. Washington's rebel army did all it could to harass Howe and fought and lost a major battle at Brandywine on September 11. Philadelphia fell to the British.On October 4, obscured by darkness and a heavy morning fog, Washington launched a surprise attack on the British garrison at Germantown. His early attack found initial success and drove the British legions before him. The recapture of the colonial capital seemed within Washington's grasp until poor decisions by the American high command brought about a reversal of fortune and a clear British victory. Like Brandywine, however, the bloody fight at Germantown proved that Continental soldiers could stand toe-to-toe with British Regulars. The Battle of Germantown began a protected quasi-siege of the British garrison in Germantown prior to the travails soon to come that winter at Valley Forge.Harris's Germantown is the first complete study to merge the strategic, political, and tactical history of this complex operation and important set-piece battle into a single compelling account. Following up on his award-winning Brandywine, Harris's sweeping prose relies almost exclusively on original archival research and a deep personal knowledge of the terrain. Complete with original maps, numerous illustrations, and modern photos, and told largely through the words of those who fought there, Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for the Control of Philadelphia, October 4, 1777 is sure to please the most discriminating reader and assume its place as one of the finest military studies of its kind.

    A corps made up of American Loyalists, it saw its first action in New York and then engaged in almost every battle in the Southern colonies. Led by a twenty-four-year-old libertine who purchased his commission to escape enormous gambling debts, the Legion gained notoriety for its ruthless tactics. Excelling in “special operations,” they frequently overwhelmed the Continental forces they fought, becoming the most feared British regiment of the war.     Banastre Tarleton and the Americans he led have always been characterized as brutal, immoral villains—most recently in the movie, The Patriot. But this study subverts our pre-conceived notions of patriotism. The men who filled the Legions ranks were not weak-willed collaborators or treacherous renegades, but free men as motivated by conscience as the Patriots they battled. Few were wealthy. None had a vested stake in the British Government. Each believed that in defending the Crown; they were upholding the rule of law and preserving individual liberty.      These men followed Banastre Tarleton clear across America for years, sacrificing not only their families and homes but, in many instances, their lives. Self-interest could not have persuaded them to do this. Patriotism and fidelity did. Relying on first-hand accounts—letters, diaries, and journals—The British Legion is the enthralling story of those forgotten Americans and the young Englishman who led them.

    Lessons exist throughout the book and Bratten's storytelling brings to life America's relationship with World War I in the stories of men who left the comforts of home and traveled to the other side of the earth to fight "to the last man." A Combat Studies Institute Press publication.Recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Writing Award from the Army Historical Foundation for best unit history.

     Free BONUS Inside! In every war, there are those battles that mark a turning point, after which everything is different. These are the battles that help determine how the war will proceed. The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of those battles in the American Revolutionary War. While it was a battle that the American rebels lost, it was significant because it showed that a rag-tag band of civilian soldiers could in fact stand up to the best trained and most experienced military in the world at that time. Despite losing the battle, the American colonists managed to repulse the British advances twice before finally running out of ammunition during the third assault. Additionally, they killed or injured over 1,000 British soldiers as compared to only suffering a little over 400 casualties among their own ranks. It came as a surprise to the British who had gone into the battle supremely confident that they would easily win. They didn’t count on the spirit of the colonial rebels who were, by that time, committed to the fight. The Battle of Bunker Hill changed the entire tone of the American Revolutionary War—from that point forward, the British knew they were in for a long, difficult fight, and the colonists had the confidence they needed to declare their independence from Great Britain and establish their own new country, the United States of America. Discover a plethora of topics such as The Shot Heard Round the World: Lexington and Concord Preparing for Battle The Battle of Bunker Hill Battle Analysis Notable Participants Political Consequences And much more! So if you want a concise and informative book on the Battle of Bunker Hill, simply scroll up and click the "Buy now" button for instant access!

    Introducing the concept of military inequality, Lyall demonstrates how a state's prewar choices about the citizenship status of ethnic groups within its population determine subsequent battlefield performance. Treating certain ethnic groups as second-class citizens, either by subjecting them to state-sanctioned discrimination or, worse, violence, undermines interethnic trust, fuels grievances, and leads victimized soldiers to subvert military authorities once war begins. The higher an army's inequality, Lyall finds, the greater its rates of desertion, side-switching, casualties, and use of coercion to force soldiers to fight.In a sweeping historical investigation, Lyall draws on Project Mars, a new dataset of 250 conventional wars fought since 1800, to test this argument. Project Mars breaks with prior efforts by including overlooked non-Western wars while cataloguing new patterns of inequality and wartime conduct across hundreds of belligerents. Combining historical comparisons and statistical analysis, Lyall also marshals evidence from nine wars, ranging from the Eastern Fronts of World Wars I and II to less familiar wars in Africa and Central Asia, to illustrate inequality's effects.Sounding the alarm on the dangers of inequality for battlefield performance, Divided Armies offers important lessons about warfare over the past two centuries-and for wars still to come.

    While the attack was a tactical success for Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, it was also one of the most reckless strategic decisions in the history of warfare, for it awakened a sleeping giant—the US military—and triggered some of the most harrowing and ferocious military actions the world had ever seen.Hide Full DescriptionFor the United States, the war started and ended in the Pacific Theater, with the war against Japan. From 1941 to 1945, Japan and the United States waged the largest naval war in history—and in the end, it changed the course of history and re-made the modern world.World War II: The Pacific Theater takes you inside the sweeping story of the American fight against the Japanese. Taught by Professor Craig L. Symonds, a distinguished military historian at the US Naval War College, and former chairman of the History Department at the US Naval Academy, these 24 vivid lectures chronicle the global trajectory of the war in the Pacific: the epic battles, the military strategy and tactics, the leaders and commanders, the amphibious landings, the air attacks, and the submarine campaigns.Professor Symonds transports you to the rolling seas of the Pacific, into the jungles of Guadalcanal and the Philippines, and across the black sands of Iwo Jima. You’ll meet fascinating figures such as General Douglas MacArthur, Admiral William Halsey, Admiral Chester Nimitz, the codebreakers at Station Hypo, and countless others, including Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen.Produced by The Great Courses in partnership with HISTORY®, World War II: The Pacific Theater gives you an inside look at the strategy of the war on both sides and explores the tactical advantages each nation held, from industrial dynamism to advanced technology to sheer willpower.Witness the Strategy of War in ActionBesides giving a comprehensive survey of the Pacific War, this course offers a deep dive into military strategy. For instance, though Japan’s primary goal in the 1930s was the conquest of China, Admiral Yamamoto insisted on attacking the American fleet in Pearl Harbor. Why?Professor Symonds reveals Japan’s complex calculus: how the country needed a supply line of oil from the South Pacific to fuel a war in China, how the United States controlled the Philippines, and why it therefore seemed to make sense to attack the US base in Hawaii.Yamamoto believed that preemptively taking out a significant portion of the American fleet would cripple the United States and allow Japan free reign of the ocean. Although the “day of infamy” was tactically successful, America maintained its handful of aircraft carriers, which six months later allowed the US Navy to alter the direction of the Pacific War with a furious 10-minute onslaught during the Battle of Midway.World War II in the Pacific was the largest naval war in history, and throughout this course, Professor Symonds leads you through the evolving nature of naval warfare. Among other topics, Professor Symonds unpacks:The crucial importance of aircraft carriers;The division of command in the Pacific between General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz;The relationship among the Navy, the Marines, the Army, and the Air Force;The grinding campaign in Guadalcanal and the island-hopping campaign in the Central Pacific;The role of codebreakers stationed in Hawaii—and the limits of their intel; andThe particular roles of strategic air power and submarine warfare.Delve into Battles from Pearl Harbor to OkinawaThe Pacific Theater includes some of the most famous (and occasionally infamous) names in modern warfare, inspiring legions of Hollywood films and haunting the halls of military colleges for generations. Strap on your packs and lace up your boots, and travel with Professor Symonds back to some of the most epic battles in history:The Philippines. Reflect on General MacArthur’s missteps early in the war that culminated in the Bataan Death March and MacArthur’s escape to Australia. Then witness his triumphant return three years later.Midway. Find out why the Japanese were so interested in a tiny American base in the middle of the ocean. This story of codebreaking, a surprise attack, and 10 minutes that changed the course of the war is truly breathtaking.Guadalcanal. Delve into the thick jungle and bitter fighting for this critical island outpost in the Solomon Islands.Tarawa. Find out why a little bad luck with the tides turned this battle into one of the most harrowing and costly assaults in the history of the US Marine Corps.Iwo Jima. Look beyond the iconic photograph of Marines hoisting the American flag on Mount Suribachi and examine the tragic consequences of this important battle.Okinawa. See how this bloody battle—known as Operation Iceberg—crushed any prospect for a Japanese victory and watch as kamikaze fighters nonetheless continued to hurl themselves at American ships.A Dynamic StoryOne of the most fascinating aspects of this course is how it reveals the way supply chains and industrial output affected the trajectory of the war. For example, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor had more to do with supplies of oil and rubber from South Asia than with any interest in conquering American territory. As these lectures show, only a few years later, the lack of supplies wrecked Japan’s ability to wage war effectively.Meanwhile, American manufacturing output was truly staggering: millions of tons of new shipping, from destroyers and tank landing ships to cargo ships and aircraft carriers. Thanks to American industry, the military was able to resupply the Navy and the Marines as they hopped from island to island, and battle to battle.The story of the Pacific Theater is a dizzying sequence of raids and battles, invasions and onslaughts, all aided by the deadly tools of war. Professor Symonds clarifies the war and offers a remarkable military history of the conflict. World War II: The Pacific Theater is an absolute must for military buffs, history enthusiasts, and anyone wishing to deepen their knowledge of world history. Settle in for a thrilling ride.

    It charts the British love affair with the ‘flipped’ bullpup rifle and machine gun - weapons with their firing mechanism positioned behind the trigger - from a faltering start in the Edwardian period, through the controversy of the NATO rifle trials, to the troubled history of the current SA80 family. The book covers the following arms in detail:Thorneycroft rifleGodsal rifleKorsak’s Light Automatic Gun, 7.92 mm, (E.M. 1)Thorpe’s Automatic Rifle, .280 inch, (E.M. 1 aka ‘Cobra’)Janson’s Automatic Rifle, .280 inch (E.M. 2) aka ‘Mamba’)Rifle, 7 mm, No. 9 Mk. I; Rifle, 7 mm, X1E1; and Rifle, .30 inch, X2E14.85 mm Enfield Weapon System (Individual Weapon and Machine Gun)SA80 Individual Weapon (L85A1, A2, A3) and Light Support Weapon (L86A1, A2)SA80 Carbine (L22A2) and grenade launchersSeveral more civilian, prototype, developmental, and other weaponsEach chapter describes the weapon's conception, development, trial and intended role. Essential technical aspects of design and operation are framed in their historical context and the whole is laid out in a clear, logical, and chronological manner. These stories are lavishly illustrated with top quality photography of key examples from the world’s best collection of these exotic and poorly-understood weapons. As the contemporary debate over the relative merits of bullpup and conventional small arms builds pace, this work is a timely reflection on the efforts of the most prolific of the bullpup nations. Thorneycroft to SA80 is both a comprehensive reference work to support serious research, and an aesthetically pleasing illustrated publication for the firearms enthusiast.

    No water. Out of ammo. Safety is south. But between there and here is 150 miles of barren desert – freezing at night, boiling in the day – populated solely by Ernst Rommel’s fearsome and deadly Afrika Corps.What would you do? Give up? Or get on with it? For the seven SAS supermen in Damien Lewis’s explosive new audio exclusive, the answer was simple: Escape. Evade. Survive. From the mountains of Italy, to the deserts of Africa, these heroes epitomise the bravery, esprit de corps and daring do of Britain’s finest elite fighting force. Fans of Ant Middleton’s First Man In and Ben MacIntyre’s SAS: Rogue Heroes are in for a treat, as the SAS’s master chronicler, Damien Lewis, has produced a gripping, heart-in-the-mouth, real-life thriller. A Sunday Times number one best-selling author, this fresh look at the most audacious escapes the SAS made in the Second World War is white-knuckle listening of the highest calibre. Because if you put a fence in front of these men...they’ll climb it.

    The enemy--Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA)--was, of course, the most critical challenge. But the terrain and weather were also factors that could adversely affect the employment of both armored vehicles and helicopters alike. The dearth of doctrine and tactics for the employment of armored cavalry in a counterinsurgency was equally challenging--especially during the pre-deployment training and initial combat operations.But just as importantly, there was an institutional bias within the Army that an insurgency was an infantryman's war. Despite the thick jungle and monsoonal rains, despite the lack of doctrinal guidance, Blackhorse leaders found a way to overcome the obstacles and accomplish the mission. Within a year of their arrival in Vietnam, Blackhorse troopers overcame ambushes that featured volleys of anti-tank weapons, multitudes of mines, and coordinated assaults by reinforced enemy regiments against troop-sized positions. They defeated an entire enemy division twice their size. Most importantly, the 11th Cavalry successfully demonstrated the ability to operate on and off the roads, in the jungle, and during both the wet and dry seasons. By the spring of 1967, Army leaders were beginning to realize the value of armored forces in Vietnam. With the Blackhorse Regiment leading the way, armor was considered an essential part of the combat team.This is a history of the Blackhorse Regiment in the Vietnam War, and the stories of some of the 20,000 young Americans who served in its ranks during the war.

    With its powerful gun and sloped armor, the T-34 was more than a match for the best German tanks at that time and the Germans regarded it with awe. German Field Marshal von Kleist, who commanded the latter stages of Barbarossa, called it 'the finest tank in the world'. Using original wartime documents author and historian Peter Samsonov, creator of the Tank Archives blog, explains how the Soviets came to develop what was arguably the war's most revolutionary tank design.

    How was the war in Europe fought over the course of seven long, arduous years? What led to Germany’s early sustained gains, and what eventually stymied its advances? Why did the war in Europe unfold the way it did, and what socio-economic factors led to Germany’s unconditional surrender after millions of lives were lost?For award-winning Professor David R. Stone of the U.S. Naval War College, it all boils down to a matter of strategy. Strategic choices—political ones, economic ones, military ones—are the organizing principles that can help any of us make sense of the war in Europe. “Political and military leaders had to make hard decisions,” Professor Stone says. “We can learn a lot by looking at those choices.”World War II: Battlefield Europe is Professor Stone’s expansive 24-lecture exploration of the 20th century’s defining conflict. Designed in partnership with HISTORY® and using a distinctly European perspective (in which the United States is a supporting player instead of a main character), this course provides a fresh lens through which to study the European Theater’s major battles, larger-than-life personalities, twists of fate, and tales of intrigue. You’ll uncover the strategic decisions behind U-boat assaults, urban bombing campaigns, Operation Barbarossa, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the invasion of Italy, the French resistance, the fall of Berlin, V-2 rockets, and so much more. By the end of the last lecture, you’ll better understand why the war in Europe unfolded the way it did—and why its legacy resonates for all players down to this very day.While World War II had two theaters of combat, the European Theater of 1939 to 1945 was the violent core of this global conflict between the forces of totalitarianism and those of freedom. It was on the European continent where Nazi Germany began its project of expansion and murder. It was on the European continent where Allied and Axis forces clashed at Stalingrad, el-Alamein, Anzio, and Normandy. And it was on the European continent where Nazi Germany was ultimately defeated and the stage was set for the Cold War that would consume the post-war world.Strategic Looks at Epic BattlesIn developing World War II: Battlefield Europe, Professor Stone came up with the conservative estimate that there are over 300,000 books and 30,000 scholarly articles dealing with World War II. It’s a conflict that’s so enormous, no one can master it all at once.That’s why these lectures dig deep into the European Theater of war, and specifically the real-life military and political strategies behind some of the war’s most definitive battles.The Battle of Britain: From the second half of 1940 through most of 1941, the British Royal Air Force and its German equivalent, the Luftwaffe, waged a desperate struggle for control of the skies over England. Dubbed the Battle of Britain by Winston Churchill, the fight raises a number of important strategic questions, including whether Germany’s shift from attacking the RAF to bombing British cities (which appealed to Hitler’s desire to make Britain suffer) might have cost the Nazis their chance at victory.The Battle of Stalingrad: While Stalingrad (known today as the city of Volgograd) was one of World War II’s most decisive battles, the regional industrial center in the southeastern section of European Russia wasn’t important in itself. But the city sits where the Volga River takes a big swing westward as it flows south into the Caspian Sea, which meant the Germans couldn’t let the city remain in Soviet hands as it was too big a threat to the flank of their push to grab the oil fields around the Azerbaijani city of Baku.The D-Day Invasion: Training for war is, naturally, serious business. It was even more so for the Allied invasion of Europe. Two months before the landing at Utah Beach, 750 American soldiers died at Slapton Sands in southwest England during a training exercise, which was attacked by the Germans. Because a number of the dead Americans had been briefed on the D-Day invasion plans, their bodies had to be recovered to ensure they hadn’t been captured and the plan wasn’t compromised.The Battle of the Atlantic: What finally turned the tide in favor of Allied submarines and sea forces? Much of the eventual victory was due to technological developments, including better sonar and radar with which to find enemy subs; a forward-firing battery of depth charges known as “the hedgehog”; and a torpedo known as “Fido” (deliberately called a mine to be misleading to the enemy), which could track submerged submarines and, more important, could be dropped from Allied aircraft.Provocative Questions, Illuminating AnswersA large part of military strategy isn’t just executing plans, but learning lessons from both victory and defeat. Professor Stone contextualizes the defining moments of World War II by illustrating what the various armies on the European continent took away from their clashes.For example, after the Soviet victory at the Battle of Moscow in 1941, Hitler, who’d always had trouble taking the advice of military professionals, fired his army commander-in-chief and made himself the German army’s supreme commander. Stalin, on the other hand, came to the right conclusion: Civilian leaders should trust military professionals to make the decisions they’re not competent to make.Throughout World War II: Battlefield Europe, you’ll get the opportunity to explore challenging and provocative questions about why the European Theater turned out the way it did. Using military and historical expertise, Professor Stone uncovers answers to these and other long-simmering issues.How did European anti-Semitism evolve from a belief system rooted in religion to one rooted in race and biology?What kept other European powers from re-engaging Germany and stopping Hitler long before he grew too powerful?Why did Hitler break his non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union—and what made him think such a radical move would work?Could the Allied forces have done anything to stop, or even just to slow down, the horrors of the Holocaust?Why, with Berlin under siege and German defeat inevitable, did Hitler keep fighting—and why did his army let him do it?A Definitive Learning ExperienceWorld War II: Battlefield Europe puts you in the heat of battle alongside an award-winning military historian. In his role as Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College, Professor Stone is adept at helping laypeople understand the secret mechanics of warfare: how decisions are made, how forces move, and how battles are won (and lost).In addition to Professor Stone’s brilliant scholarship, these lectures are powered by HISTORY’s extensive, high-quality coverage of World War II. Strategic maps, photographs, film footage, and illustrated recreations make this course a definitive learning experience unlike anything The Great Courses has ever before produced.“Informed citizens need to understand their history,” says Professor Stone. With its profound effect on the world for decades following the conflict, World War II is a central part of that history.

      Working in a secretive organization known as Section T, a team of physicists, engineers, and everyday Joes and Janes took on a devilish challenge. To help the Allies knock airplanes out of the air, they created one of the world’s first “smart weapons.” Against overwhelming odds and in a race against time, mustering every scrap of resource, ingenuity, and insight, the scientists of Section T would eventually save countless lives, rescue the city of London from the onslaught of a Nazi superweapon, and help bring about the Axis defeat. A holy grail sought after by Allied and Axis powers alike, their unlikely innovation ranks with the atomic bomb as one of the most revolutionary technologies of the Second World War. Until now, their tale was largely untold.   For fans of Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre, set amidst the fog of espionage, dueling spies, and the dawn of an age when science would determine the fate of the world, 12 Seconds of Silence is a tribute to the extraordinary wartime mobilization of American science and the ultimate can-do story.

    As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once noted: "We have a perfect record in predicting the next war. We have never once gotten it right." In the face of such great uncertainty, militaries must be able to adapt rapidly in order to win. Adaptation under Fire identifies the characteristics that make militaries more adaptable, illustrated through historical examples and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Authors David Barno and Nora Bensahel argue that militaries facing unknown future conflicts must nevertheless make choices about the type of doctrine that their units will use, the weapons and equipment they will purchase, and the kind of leaders they will select and develop to guide the force to victory. Yet after a war begins, many of these choices will prove flawed in the unpredictable crucible of the battlefield. For a U.S. military facing diverse global threats, its ability to adapt quickly and effectively to those unforeseen circumstances may spell the difference between victory and defeat.Barno and Bensahel start by providing a framework for understanding adaptation and include historical cases of success and failure. Next, they examine U.S. military adaptation during the nation's recent wars, and explain why certain forms of adaptation have proven problematic. In the final section, Barno and Bensahel conclude that the U.S. military must become much more adaptable in order to address the fast-changing security challenges of the future, and they offer recommendations on how to do so before it is too late.

    Of these, nearly 188,000 are buried anonymously in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries, with a stone bearing the epitaph 'Known Unto God.' The remains of a further 339,000 lie scattered across the wartime battlefields, having been buried in marked graves that were subsequently obliterated as front lines moved backwards and forwards, or destroyed forever in the carnage mechanized warfare wrought upon the human body.For the families of those who were reported missing, months of agonizing uncertainty could await, as searches were made to establish the precise fate of their loved ones. Sometimes rumors that an individual was recovering from wounds in a hospital, unable to contact his family, or had been taken prisoner by the enemy could circulate, causing a toxic admixture of hope, tinged with anxiety then dashed by the despair of the confirmation of death.This book traces the history of the searching services that were established to assist families in eliciting definitive news of their missing loved ones. Then, using previously unpublished material, most of it lovingly preserved in family archives for over a century, the lives of eight soldiers, whose families had no known resting place to visit after the conclusion of the war, are recounted. These young men, their lives full of promise, vanished from the face of the earth. The circumstances of their deaths and the painstaking efforts undertaken, both by family members and public and voluntary organizations, to piece together what information could be found are described. The eventual acceptance of the reality of death and the need to properly commemorate the lives of those who would have no marked grave are examined. For three of the eight men, recent discoveries have meant that over a century since they were given up as missing, their remains have been identified and allowed families some degree of closure.

    Daly thinks fighting in Korea will be an adventure and a way to live up to a family tradition of service and soldiering. He comes home decorated, wounded, and traumatized, wondering what's next. His quest for a new mission will take him to JFK's White House, Bobby Kennedy's fateful campaign, the troubles in Northern Ireland, and a South African township devastated by the AIDS epidemic. Chuck's life is a true story of living up to Kennedy's challenge to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."At every juncture, he's had two options: make peace or die. Daly chose to make peace with his fate every time, and that decision led him to a remarkable life of service.

    The colony's eventful years as a part of the British Empire form an important and compelling interlude in Gulf Coast history that has for too long been overlooked. For a host of reasons, including the fact that West Florida did not rebel against the British Government, the colony has long been dismissed as a loyal but inconsequential fringe outpost, if considered at all. But the colony's history showcases a tumultuous political scene featuring a halting attempt at instituting representative government; a host of bold and colorful characters; a compelling saga of struggle and perseverance in the pursuit of financial stability; and a dramatic series of battles on land and water which brought about the end of its days under the Union Jack. In Fourteenth Colony, historian Mike Bunn offers the first comprehensive history of the colony, introducing readers to the Gulf Coast's remarkable British period and putting West Florida back in its rightful place on the map of Colonial America.

     Free History BONUS Inside! Almost 2,100 years ago, a gladiator walked out of the arena. And he never walked back into it. Spartacus, a Thracian whose early life is hidden in the mists of history, is one of the most infamous figures of antiquity. Perhaps the most famous gladiator of all, parts of Spartacus’ story inspired elements of the award-winning film Gladiator (2000). Yet even though his story is familiar to millions, he remains a strangely mysterious figure, one whose innermost heart was never revealed to the world. All of the existing records about Spartacus and the war that he started and lost were written by Roman historians. None of the slaves’ account of these events has survived the onslaught of the years; thus, many of Spartacus’ actions, and all of his motives, are matters of speculation. Even Plutarch, a contemporary, could only guess at what this hero of the oppressed truly wanted or how he really felt. Diving into this great man’s psyche and puzzling together his thoughts and feelings is a fascinating subject. And his story makes for gripping reading. In Spartacus: A Captivating Guide to the Thracian Gladiator Who Led the Slave Rebellion Called the Third Servile War against the Roman Republic, you will discover topics such as Thrace and Its Enemies On the Romans’ Side Sold The Real Gladiator Ambush Facing the Legions The Lone Volunteer At the Feet of the Alps Defeat Betrayed by the Pirates Crassus’ Wall The Last Stand Aftermath Legacy And much, much more! So if you want to learn more about Spartacus, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

    Light Book Awards for MemoirHonorable Mention Award in the 2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards for Nonfiction/MilitaryAs an only child isolated within a troubled family, F. Scott Service found solace in fantasy and imagination, until a fateful day led to the discovery of his father’s Korean War field jacket hidden in a closet. What began as innocent emulation and approval, eventually spiraled into the calamitous loss of everything he had built as an adult. Faced with a grievous divorce, post-traumatic stress, homelessness, substance abuse, and the failure of everything he had willed himself to believe was truth, one night communing with a loaded pistol became the mechanism for self-clarity. From that darkest time, only elemental deconstruction and reconstruction of identity would allow him to forge a reclamation with his true, original self. Visceral, with breathtaking candor, Playing Soldier powerfully captures the unlearning of expectation, the celebration of individuality, and the nourishing of self-acceptance once buried by cultural stamps of approval and societal convention. Braided with humor, courage, fear, despair, and hope, his unflinching, evocative story of passage into adulthood, the Iraq War, and beyond, speaks to anyone who has confronted adversity from without and grappled for their dreams from within.

    From the high-ranking officer who wrote the still-classified British military analysis of the war in Iraq comes the authoritative history of two conflicts which have overshadowed the beginning of the 21st century. Inextricably linked to the ongoing “War on Terror,” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated more than a decade of international politics, and their influence is felt to this day.Blood, Metal and Dust is the first military history to offer a comprehensive overview of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, providing in-depth accounts of the operations undertaken by both US and UK forces. Brigadier Ben Barry explores the wars which shaped the modern Middle East, providing a detailed narrative of operations as they unfolded. With unparalleled access to official military accounts and extensive contacts in both the UK and the US militaries, Brigadier Barry is uniquely placed to tell the story of these controversial conflicts, and offers a rounded account of the international campaigns which irrevocably changed the global geopolitical landscape.

     Free History BONUS Inside! The late 1980s and early 1990s were times of significant changes. The Cold War was nearing its end as communism was slowly unraveling, new cyber and communication technologies were becoming more widespread, media was becoming more important and diverse, the economy was steadily growing in most parts of the world, and right-wing political parties and movements were gaining popularity across the globe. Amid all of those changes, a short but impactful war between the United States, aided by several allies, and Iraq occurred. Today it is known by many names, like the First Iraq War, Kuwait War, and, most commonly, the Gulf War or the First Gulf War. It was a rather short conflict, lasting just shy of seven months between late 1990 and early 1991. Yet it was still rather impactful as it showcased several essential innovations and changes in political and technological aspects of warfare, some of which are still part of modern conflicts. The Gulf War became a famous landmark in contemporary history. It signaled the break with the old ways of the 20th century and illuminated the path to our world today. For that reason, the Gulf War is still remembered and seen as an essential event in our recent past. In The Gulf War: A Captivating Guide to the United States-Led Persian Gulf War against Iraq for Their Invasion and Annexation of Kuwait , you will discover topics such as Iraqi-Kuwaiti Relations and the Prelude to the War Circumstances and Causes of the Gulf Conflict The Invasion of Kuwait and the Beginning of the War Military Forces of the Gulf War The War among the Clouds The First Battles in the Desert Iraqi Defeat and the Aftermath of the War Casualties, Consequences, and the Legacy of the Gulf War And much, much more! So if you want to learn more about the Gulf War, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

    One of these, Prussian Army officer Johann August Ernst von Willich, led a remarkable life of integrity, commitment to a cause, and interaction with leading lights of the nineteenth century. After resigning from the Prussian Army due to his republican beliefs, Willich led armed insurrections during the revolutions of 1848–49, with Friedrich Engels as his aide-de-camp. Ever committed to the goal of universal human rights, he once dueled a disciple of Karl Marx—whom he thought too conservative. Willich emigrated to the United States in 1853, eventually making his way to Cincinnati, where he served as editor of the daily labor newspaper the Cincinnati Republican. With exhaustive research in both English and German language sources, author David Dixon chronicles the life of this ingenious military leader—a man who could also be stubborn, impulsive, and even foolhardy—risking his life unnecessarily in the face of overwhelming odds. As soon as shots were fired at Fort Sumter, fifty-year-old Willich helped raise a regiment to fight for the Union. Though he had been a lieutenant in Europe, he enlisted as a private. He later commanded an all-German regiment, rose to the rank of brigadier general and was later brevetted major general. Dixon’s vivid narrative places the Civil War in a global context. For Willich and other so-called “Forty-Eighters” who emigrated after the European revolutions, the nature and implications of the conflict turned not on Lincoln’s conservative goal of maintaining the national Union, but on issues of social justice, including slavery, free labor, and popular self-government. It was a war not simply to heal sectional divides, but to restore the soul of the nation and, in Willich’s own words, “defend the rights of man.”DAVID T. DIXON is the author of The Lost Gettysburg Address, and his articles have appeared in both popular and scholarly periodicals.

    The 'macho pulps' - boasting titles like Man's Conquest, Battle Cry, and Adventure Life - portrayed men courageously defeating their enemies in battle, while women were reduced to sexual objects, either trivialized as erotic trophies or depicted as sexualized villains using their bodies to prey on unsuspecting, innocent men. The result was the crafting and dissemination of a particular version of martial masculinity that helped establish GIs' expectations and perceptions of war in Vietnam. By examining the role that popular culture can play in normalizing wartime sexual violence and challenging readers to consider how American society should move beyond pulp conceptions of 'normal' male behavior, Daddis convincingly argues that how we construct popular tales of masculinity matters in both peace and war.

    This force, built around the 4th Infantry Division, would, in partnership with Kurdish forces and with the assistance of Turkey, engage Saddam's army in the North as part of a coming invasion. Faddis expected to be on the ground in Iraq within weeks, the entire campaign likely to be over by summer. Over the course of the next year, virtually every aspect of that plan for the conduct of the war in northern Iraq fell apart.The 4th Infantry Division never arrived, nor did any other conventional forces in substantial number. The Turks not only refused to provide support, they worked overtime to prevent the United States from achieving success. And an Arab army that was to assist US forces fell apart before it ever made it to the field.Alone, hopelessly outnumbered, short on supplies, and threatened by Iraqi assassination teams and Islamic extremists, Faddis's team, working with Kurdish peshmerga, miraculously paved the way for a brilliant and largely bloodless victory in the North and the fall of Saddam's Iraq. That victory, handed over to Washington and the Department of Defense on a silver platter, was then squandered. The decisions that followed would lead to catastrophic consequences that continue to this day.This is the story of the brave and effective team of men and women who overcame massive odds to help end the nightmare of Saddam's rule. It is also the story of how incompetence, bureaucracy, and ignorance threw that success away and condemned Iraq and the surrounding region to chaos

    But it wasn't. Somehow, Nazi Germany managed to stave off final defeat until May the following year. In the end the agony was brought to a close with the hammer and sickle flying over the ruins of Berlin. The much-vaunted 'Thousand Year Reich' had lasted just a dozen years, but in that time it had wrought havoc across the globe. With defeat came the wholesale surrender of the once-proud Wehrmacht; hosts of men suddenly found themselves miles from home in territories ravaged by war. Amongst their ranks were thousands of non-Germans from all over Europe, men - mostly ex-Waffen-SS - who had thrown in their lot with the Germans; they were now 'collaborators' and 'traitors' and would return home to face the justice of the victors. Previous histories have focused on the fate of Adolf Hitler and his cronies, cocooned in the bunker underneath the rubble of Berlin, but on the German side in particular, as defeat loomed this was a battle that would be fought by junior officers and simple soldiers as the Wehrmacht fell apart. Following on from his successful 'D-Day Through German Eyes; How the Wehrmacht Lost France' Jonathan Trigg seeks with this second volume to tell the story of Nazi Germany's final defeat through the voices of the men - and women - who witnessed it first-hand. This narrative is written from the 'other side' and told as much through the words of the veterans as is possible.

    Lawrence “of Arabia,” his ideas on warfare, and the context of the military campaigns, peace settlements, and the legacies that followed.One hundred years ago, Captain Lawrence and an unlikely band of Arab irregulars captured the strategic port of Aqaba after an epic journey through waterless tracts of desert. Their attacks on railways during the Great War are well known and have become the stuff of legend, but while Lawrence himself has been the subject of fascinating biographies, as well as an award-winning film, the context of his war in the desert, and his ideas on war itself, are less well-known.This new title offers a high-paced evaluation of T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia” and the British military operations in the Near East, revising and adding to conventional narratives in order to tell the full story of this influential figure, as well as the Ottoman-Turkish perspective, and the Arabs' position, within the context of the war. It is also a study of warfare and the manner in which Lawrence, and others, made their assessments of what was changing, what was distinctive, and what was unique to the desert environment. This book sets Lawrence in context, examines the peace settlement he participated in, and describes how Lawrence's legacy has informed and inspired those partnering and mentoring local forces to the present day.

    As the Cold War turned hot in the Pacific, antifascist critique disclosed a continuity between U.S. police actions in Asia and a rising police state at home. Writers including James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and W.E.B. Du Bois discerned in U.S. domestic strategies to quell racial protests and urban riots the same logic of racial counterintelligence structuring America's devastating hot wars in Asia.Christine Hong examines the centrality of U.S. militarism to the Cold War cultural imagination. She assembles a transpacific archive--including war writings, Japanese accounts of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, black radical human rights petitions, Korean War-era G.I. photographs, Filipino novels on guerrilla resistance, and Marshallese critiques of U.S. human radiation experiments--and places these materials alongside U.S. government documents to theorize these works as homologous responses to unchecked U.S. war and police power. In so doing, Hong shows how the so-called Pax Americana laid the grounds for solidarity--for imagining collective futures of total liberation.

    Striking, beautiful, and haunting, Uncommon Grit takes a unique, unprecedented look at the toughest training in the military -- and the world -- from the vantage point of someone who lived through it. Retired Navy SEAL Darren McBurnett includes vivid descriptions of both the physical and mental evolutions that occur as a result of the immensely challenging SEAL training process.His stunning photographs, partnered with his compelling insights and sharp sense of humor, allow the reader to laugh, cringe, gasp, and even envision themselves going through this extraordinary experience.

    Although much historical attention has focused on the events in England and the key battles of Edgehill, Marston Moor, and Naseby, this was a conflict that engulfed the entirety of the Three Kingdoms and led to a trial and execution that profoundly shaped the British monarchy and Parliament.This beautifully presented atlas tells the whole story of Britain's revolutionary civil war, from the earliest skirmishes of the Bishops Wars in 1639–40 through to 1651, when Charles II's defeat at Worcester crushed the Royalist cause, leading to two decades of Stuart exile. Each map is supported by a detailed text, providing a complete explanation of the complex and fluctuating conflict that ultimately meant that the Crown would always be answerable to Parliament.

    Rob joins the Minutemen in routing British troops. Over the next six years, privation, suffering and combat transform the Minutemen into a real army and Rob into a real soldier, leading the victorious final Yankee assault at Yorktown.

    In Good Faith is the first of a two-volume, accessible narrative history of America's involvement in Indochina, from the end of World War II to the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The books chart the course of America's engagement with the region, from its initially hesitant support for French Indochina through the advisory missions following the 1954 Geneva Accords, then on to the covert war promoted in the Kennedy years, the escalation to total war in the Johnson era, and finally to the liquidation of the American war under Nixon.Drawing on the latest research, unavailable to the authors of the classic Vietnam histories, these two volumes tell the whole story for the first time, including the truth behind the events of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which opened the door to Washington's entry into the war, and which can now be told in full thanks to recently declassified National Security Agency top secret material. Examining in depth both the events and the key figures of the conflict, this is a definitive new history of American engagement in Vietnam.In Good Faith tells the story from the Japanese surrender in 1945 through America's involvement in the French Indochina War and the initial advisory missions that followed. It describes how these missions gradually grew in both scope and scale, and how America became ever more committed to the region, especially following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 which led to the first bombing missions over North Vietnam. It finishes at the climax of one of those operations, Rolling Thunder, and just prior to the first commitment of US ground forces to the war in Vietnam in the spring of 1965.

    It discusses the use of eight weapons or weapon combinations from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, selected with an eye toward their iconic status in popular culture, as well as five different combative contexts. The aim of this book is to familiarize the reader with the use of medieval weaponry in a general way. It is not a how-to book on martial arts, but the reader will come away with a fresh appreciation for the sophistication of medieval fencing and a reasonably accurate picture of what medieval fighting looked like on the personal level.

    Maori were quick to adopt westernweaponry and evolve their tactics — and even political structures — as theylooked for ways to confront the might of the Imperial war machine. And Britain,despite being a military and economic super power, was challenged by a capableenemy in a difficult environment.This detailed examination of the Wars from a military perspective focuses onthe period of relatively conventional warfare before the increasingly ‘irregular'fighting of the late 1860s. It explains how and where the battles were fought, andtheir outcomes. Importantly, it also analyses the intelligence-gathering skills andprocesses of both British and Maori forces as each sought to understand andovercome their enemy.

    At this time, military operations were handled by field marshals under the overall command of the Swedish Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. The book expands our understanding of the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War by focusing on its later operations, including those against Polish and Danish opponents, and not only on the better-known operations in Germany against the Catholic League and the Holy Roman Empire. Meanwhile, Oxenstierna continued his administrative reforms, which enabled Sweden consistently to raise troops, despite the small population of Sweden and its territories, and enabled an intelligence and logistics system which could supply the armies, despite the vast geographical depth of operations. While the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus positioned Sweden as an emerging great power, it was the subsequent developments of the army under Oxenstierna that enabled the Swedish rise to regional great power status. While the army of Gustavus Adolphus has been described elsewhere, the Swedish army's later developments are less well known. Moreover, the book includes current research that has not yet appeared in the English language. It also describes the 1643-1645 Swedish invasion of Denmark ('Torstensson's War') and the battles and sieges, including those of Vienna and Prague, that led up to the Peace of Westphalia, which concluded the Thirty Years War. Finally, the book covers the military aspects of the establishment of Sweden's first American colony.

    A black corporal beseeches Abraham Lincoln to ensure that his regiment receives proper payment for performing their duties. Mohandas Gandhi urges Adolf Hitler to turn back the tide of war. A suicide bomber in Iraq explains his simple motivation to his family. This poignant collection offers a nuanced and moving look at the act of armed conflict. Each of these 30 remarkable letters sheds light on what it means for us to take up arms against one another and record a piece of that terrible deed. They encapsulate the full experience of battle, from feats of courage and sacrifice to the grief that follows acts of violence, ultimately affirming the power of the written word.

    Patton Jr. is one of the most successful yet misunderstood figures in American military history. Despite the many books and articles written about him, none considers in depth how his love of history shaped the course of his life. In this thematic biography, Furman Daniel traces Patton’s obsession with history and argues that it informed and contributed to many of his successes, both on and off the battlefield.   Patton deliberately cultivated the image of himself as a warrior from ages past; the more interesting truth is that he was an exceptionally dedicated student of history. He was a hard worker and voracious reader who gave a great deal of thought to how military history might inform his endeavors. Most scholars have overlooked this element of Patton’s character, which Daniel argues is essential to understanding the man’s genius.

    This analysis reassesses the strategy and tactics of the period . The book shows how cooperation between the West Roman Master of Soldiers, Aetius, and East Roman Emperor Marcian saved Western civilization from the barbarian nightmare posed by the Huns of Attila. A fresh appraisal of the great clash at the Catalaunian Fields in 451 offers new insights into the mechanics of the fighting and shows that it was a true battle of nations which decided nothing less than the fate of human civilization. Had Aetius and his allies lost the battle and had Marcian not cooperated with Aetius in 451 and 452, we would not have seen the rise of the West and the rise of the scientific thinking.

    Yet our understanding of both the military campaign as well as the "war of annihilation" conducted throughout the occupied territories depends overwhelmingly on "top-down" studies. The three million German soldiers who crossed the Soviet border and experienced this war are seldom the focus and are often entirely ignored. Who were these men and how did they see these events? Luther and Stahel, two of the leading experts on Operation Barbarossa, have reconstructed the 1941 campaign entirely through the letters (as well as a few diaries) of more than 200 German soldiers across all areas of the Eastern Front. It is an original perspective on the campaign, one of constant combat, desperate fear, bitter loss, and endless exertions. One learns the importance of comradeship and military training, but also reads the frightening racial and ideological justifications for the war and its violence, which at times lead to unrelenting cruelty and even mass murder. Soldiers of Barbarossa is a unique and sobering account of 1941, which includes hundreds of endnotes by Luther and Stahel providing critical context, corrections, and commentary.

    It is famed as a triumph of the Greek hoplite heavy infantry phalanx against massively superior Persian numbers. But this exciting re-assessment of the evidence, including new archaeological findings, overturns many long-held assumptions. In particular the authors argue that the Greek numerical inferiority was less marked than previously thought, largely because the hoplites were accompanied by many light infantrymen who are given unprecedented credit for their role in the fighting. The contribution of these poorer citizens, it is argued, led to the immediate strengthening of democracy in Athens.The authors also tackle the much-debated mystery of the whereabouts of the Persian cavalry, generally thought to have been absent on the day of battle. Their bold answer is that it was not only present but played a central role in the fighting. However, the Greeks managed to defeat the Persian cavalry by their ingenious use of the terrain. Karyanos and Lagos also claim to have located the site of the Greek camp. This thoroughly researched and compelling re-assessment is an exciting new take on this justly famous event.

    This vivid first-hand record of his experiences has become a classic among aviation memoirs and is a fascinating counterbalance to the numerous accounts written by Allied pilots.Knoke joined the Luftwaffe on the outbreak of war, and eventually became commanding officer of a fighter wing. An outstandingly brave and skillful fighter, he logged over two thousand flights and shot down fifty-two enemy aircraft. He had flown over four hundred operational missions before being wounded in an astonishing 'last stand' towards the end of the war. He was awarded the Knight's Cross for his achievements.In a text that reveals his intense patriotism and discipline, he describes being brought up in the strict Prussian tradition, the rise of the Nazi regime and his own wartime career set against a fascinating study of everyday life in the Luftwaffe. He also reveals the high morale of the force until its disintegration.His memoirs are both a valuable contribution to aviation literature and a moving human story.

    

    The book begins with Charlemagne, who united large regions of current-day France, Germany and Italy into the Holy Roman Empire and ends with Robert the Bruce, who gallantly defended Scotland against the attempted usurpation of England. There are many famous warrior kings in the book, including Alfred the Great of Wessex, whose victories over the Vikings led to the unification of England under a single ruler, William I of Normandy, whose triumph at Hastings in 1066 changed the course of English history, while Frederick I Barbarossa led his army to victory in Germany and Italy solidifying and expanding the lands under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor. Among the lesser known monarchs discussed in the work are Cnut, whose victory at the battle of Ashingdon won the English crown and resulted in the creation of the North Sea Empire, which ruled over the kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway, while during the reign of Louis IX of France the knights of Europe answered his call for the Seven Crusade to expel the Muslims from the Holy City of Jerusalem. From Charlemagne to Robert the Bruce, the warrior kings created a new Europe with a centralized power base and set the stage for the following Age of Absolutism.

    The regiment was made up of companies from DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Milton, Newton, and Walton counties. Fighting in the Western Theater, they were major participants at Cumberland Gap, Champion's Hill, Vicksburg, Resaca, Atlanta, Nashville, and Bentonville. These Georgians proved to be capable fighters and were, on four occasions, assigned to cover the retreat of the Army of Tennessee. The furious charge of the 42nd Georgia that carried the Federal trenches near the Troup Hurt House was a pivotal moment in the Battle of Atlanta. Their capture of a Federal battery is depicted in the recently restored Atlanta Cyclorama painting. This detailed narrative highlights first person accounts drawn from soldier's letters, diaries, and field reports, as well as from Federal soldiers directly across the trench lines.

    It was the father who unified Macedonia into the first European nation and who created the army with which his son conquered the Persian Empire and inaugurated the Hellenistic Age.This volume is not the standard biography, but rather an examination of the major controversies concerning his life and reign. How did Philip in roughly twenty years transform a divided territory and little more than a geographical conception into a national state? How did he change the very nature of ancient Western warfare? How did he transform this formerly exploited region into the master of the Greek world?Each chapter discusses one of the major academic controversies surrounding this transformative figure, bringing new clarity to the career of a man whose reputation has been so overshadowed by his illustrious son.

    Contains all three books in Kemp’s trilogy: “Mine Were of Trouble”, “No Colours or Crest”, and “Alms for Oblivion.”

    

    This pamphlet covers the attack, the defense, retreat, firefight, and the assault with hand grenades by the Assault Platoon. It includes original illustrations such as maps and unit formations as visual representations. Parts from the draft of a regulation from December 1944 that according to our research was never published are also included. In addition, various German pamphlets and regulations are also referenced in this book.This translation features a side by side German-English translation and remains true to the original's formatting. Footnotes and supplementary information were added to provide the reader with additional context and insight into the German Army structure, the meaning of various concepts and their modern equivalents.

    Watched by Mussolini himself, on 9 March 1941 the Italians launched their Spring Offensive, designed to stem four months of humiliating reverses. The objective was a pair of parallel valleys dominated by the Greek-held Hill 731 that had to be taken at all costs.The Italian Eighth Corps, part of Geloso's 11th Army, had the task of seizing the heights, spearheaded by 38 (Puglie) Division. Holding the position was the Greek 1 Division of II Corps, with 4 and 6 Division on the flanks.For 17 days, after a massive artillery barrage (which reduced the hill's height by 6 metros), the Italians threw themselves with great courage against the Evzones on the hill, to be repeatedly smashed with appalling losses. It was an Iwo Jima-type merciless fight at close quarters, where bayonets held the place of honor but the battered Greeks held.Mussolini had wanted a spring victory to impress the Fuhrer. Instead, the bloody debacle of Hill 731 could well have contributed to Hitler's decision to postpone his invasion of Russia by at least four weeks, a costly delay.

    In the aftermath of the battle, Henry III's decision to disinherit all the surviving Montfortians served to prolong the war for another two years. Hundreds of landless men took up arms again to defend their land and property: the redistribution of estates in the wake of Evesham occurred on a massive scale, as lands were either granted away by the king or simply taken by his supporters._The Disinherited_, as they were known, defied the might of the Crown longer than anyone could have reasonably expected. They were scattered, outnumbered and out-resourced, with no real unifying figure after the death of Earl Simon, and suffered a number of heavy defeats. Despite all their problems and setbacks, they succeeded in forcing the king into a compromise. The Dictum of Kenilworth, published in 1266, acknowledged that Henry could not hope to defeat the Disinherited via military force alone.The purely military aspects of the revolt, including effective use of guerilla-type warfare and major actions such as the battle of Chesterfield, the siege of Kenilworth and the capture of London, will all be featured. Charismatic rebel leaders such as Robert de Ferrers, the 'wild and flighty' Earl of Derby, Sir John de Eyvill, 'the bold D'Eyvill' and others such as Sir Adam de Gurdon, David of Uffington and Baldwin Wake all receive a proper appraisal.

    

    As the case progressed, fifteen members of his household were indicted for murder, and his armor-bearer and butler were convicted. Through the lens of this murder and its context, this book will explore violence, social norms and deviance, and crime and punishment 'at home' during the Hundred Years War.The case of William Cantilupe has been of interest to historians for many years, ever since Rosamund Sillem brought it to light in her work on the Lincolnshire Peace Rolls in the 1930s, but this is the first time it has received a book-length treatment, taking relationships between the lords and their servants into account. The verdict - guilty of petty treason - makes this one of the first cases where such a verdict was given, and this reveals the deep insecurities of England at this time, where the violent rebellion of servants against their masters (and wives against their husbands) was a serious concern, enough to warrant death by hanging (for men) and death by burning (for women). The reader is invited to consider the historical interpretations of the evidence, as the motives for the murder were never recorded. The relationships between Sir William and his householders, and indeed with his own wife and, and whether the jury were right to convict him and his alleged accomplice in the first place.