Book picks similar to
Empire of Defense: Race and the Cultural Politics of Permanent War by Joseph Darda
disasters-of-war
film
korean-war
literary-criticism
Mosquito Bites (The Watson Saga #2)
Roger Maxim - 2015
Navy Lieutenant Dave Watson is a fighter pilot who has experienced war in the Pacific and survived...almost. Wounded following the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, Watson is returned to the naval hospital in San Diego, California for treatment and recuperation. There, he meets up with an old friend-- a very special old friend. Dave heals his body and loses his heart. Once released back to flying duty, Watson receives his excitedly awaited new orders, but his orders are not what he hoped for nor expected. Follow him through the strange turn of events that leads to new friends, new experiences, and new danger. Find out that some mosquito bites are more lethal than others. Fasten your seatbelt and fly!
B-24 Co-Pilot: First Lieutenant John F. Lance
Kathryn Lance - 2016
A short book detailing: The most terrifying missions: The first mission to Balikpapan, an important Japanese fuel depot, and why it was considered impossible to achieve. Coping with boredom and fear: How joking and calculating survival odds helped deal with the realities. The snafus: The time a temporary Group Commander tried to bomb the US Seventh Fleet. True stories from a man who was there--as dictated toward the end of his life.
Jump Wings And Secrets
Raymond Hunter Pyle - 2015
For some it was a war with loneliness, boredom, and endless fatigue. For others it was a war with unyielding jungle, mountains, and disease. For still others it was a war with terror and death and all of the above. And then there was the secret war fought mostly by Army Special Forces and Navy Seals. For these secret warriors, the war was seldom boring and always dangerous. The mountains and jungles of Laos and Cambodia were their playground, and disease, terror, and death stalked them on every mission. Sergeant First Class Ed Potter, returning for his third tour in-country with the 101st Airborne, was on a short tour, just six months this time. While in the states, he had passed the Special Forces selection battery and did well in all phases of the SF assessment course. He expected orders to the SF Q course in six months. In the meantime he expected to be placed in a platoon sergeant’s job with the 101st at Camp Eagle or Camp Evans. His first surprise came when the replacement battalion sent him for an interview with a Special Forces Major who asked him if he would be interested in working for MACV-SOG and training and leading an airmobile quick reaction force to support Special Forces recon teams operating out of FOB1 at Phu Bai. His second surprise came when the major wouldn’t tell him what MACV-SOG, or the FOB was, did, or where they operated until after he volunteered and signed a confidentiality agreement. Ed jumped at the chance to work with the Special Forces instead of waiting out his time in a regular airborne infantry unit. He wouldn’t be Special Forces, but he would be working for them with the potential to share in part of their missions and training. What could be better for an NCO waiting to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg? An hour after the interview, Ed found himself on a helicopter heading for headquarters 5th Special Forces at Nha Trang and the beginning of a short tour that would seem longer and more dangerous than anything he had ever experienced.
Beach to the Baltic: A Rifleman's Story
Albert Talbot - 2017
This eighteen-year-old Chapel boy dotes on his widowed mother and loves the city of his birth and the Londoner’s carefree outlook on life. His attitude to war and life changes dramatically once he experiences the horrors of Normandy and the bloody battles that follow. Sadly, far too many of his friends succumb during these brutal actions and he must draw on hidden reserves to help him survive, mentally as well as physically. Watching his friends fall around him fills him with immense sorrow and gives him much to reflect on. But as time goes on this young man grows in stature, confidence and an unquestionable determination to survive his war. This semi-autobiographical historical novel is a true account taken from the memoirs of a rifleman who served in a London Battalion of The Rifle Brigade and covers a six-year period from enlistment to demobilization. The story, humorous, thought provoking and poignant shows what it was like for those brave young men who answered the call in 1939 to serve King and country.
Gardens Of Stone
Nicholas Proffitt - 1983
The film, which has been scheduled for release in April, will star James Caan, Anjelica Huston and James Earl Jones. (Entertainment)
SOG Chronicles: Volume One
John Stryker Meyer - 2017
The inaugural edition of 'SOG Chronicles Volume One' will be the first in a series of books focusing on the many untold stories from that eight-year secret war where Green Berets went deep behind enemy lines without conventional support from artillery, tanks, or ground support troops where communist forces massed 50,000-100,000 troops to combat them while keeping the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply lines open. The centerpiece of 'SOG Chronicles Volume One' is the 1970 story of Operation Tailwind, features a SOG element of 16 Green Berets and 120 indigenous soldiers that went deeper into Laos than any operation during the secret war. Every Green Beret received at least one Purple Heart, including the sole medic, Gary Mike Rose. He is slated to receive the Medal of Honor from President Donald J. Trump in October 2017 for his valor and medical skills tending to more than 60 wounded troops during that four-day mission. “John Meyer’s story about Operation Tailwind does justice to the valor and heroism of the men involved in the four-day battle. Meyer writes about this historic SOG mission with clarity and attention to detail that is long overdue in regards to this top secret mission. 'SOG Chronicles Volume One' is mandatory reading for anyone remotely interested in SOG history or simply in how the Green Berets operate deep behind enemy lines.” —Billy Waugh, SOG/CIA operative
Alpha One Sixteen: A Combat Infantryman's Year in Vietnam
Peter Clark - 2018
Clark was assigned to the Alpha Company. Clark gives a visceral, vivid and immediate account of life in the platoon, as he progresses from green recruit to seasoned soldier over the course of a year in the complexities of the Vietnamese conflict.Clark gradually learns the techniques developed by US troops to cope with the daily horrors they encountered, the technical skills needed to fight and survive, and how to deal with the awful reality of civilian casualties. Fighting aside, it rained almost every day and insect bites constantly plagued the soldiers as they moved through dense jungle, muddy rice paddy and sandy roads. From the food they ate (largely canned meatballs, beans and potatoes) to the inventive ways they managed to shower, every aspect of the platoon's lives is explored in this revealing book. The troops even managed to fit in some R&R whilst off-duty in the bars of Tokyo.Alpha One Sixteen follows Clark as he discovers how to cope with the vagaries of the enemy and the daily confusion the troops faced in distinguishing combatants from civilians. The Viet Cong were a largely unseen enemy who fought a guerrilla war, setting traps and landmines everywhere. Clark's vigilance develops as he gets used to 'living in mortal terror, ' which a brush with death in a particularly terrifying fire fight does nothing to dispel. As he continues his journey, he chronicles those less fortunate; the heavy toll being taken all round him is powerfully described at the end of each chapter.
Hal Moore: A Soldier Once . . . And Always
Mike Guardia - 2013
At the beginning of the Vietnam War, Moore commanded the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry in the first full-fledged battle between U.S. and North Vietnamese regulars. Drastically outnumbered and nearly overrun, Moore led from the front, and though losing 79 soldiers, accounted for 1,200 of the enemy before the Communists withdrew. This Battle of Ia Drang pioneered the use of “air mobile infantry”—delivering troops into battle via helicopter—which became the staple of U.S. operations for the remainder of the war. He later wrote of his experiences in the best-selling book, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young.Following his tour in Vietnam, he assumed command of the 7th Infantry Division, forward-stationed in South Korea, and in 1971, he took command of the Army Training Center at Fort Ord, California. In this capacity, he oversaw the US Army’s transition from a conscript-based to an all-volunteer force. He retired as a Lieutenant General in 1977.
D-Day
Peter H. Liddle - 2004
Harrowing and heroic, the events of D-Day were recorded in the personal writings of those who were there. Here, Francis Crosby has compiled a comprehensive collection of previously unpublished letters, diaries, photographs, and reminiscences that tell the story of D-Day as it has never been told before.With the use of new international archives, Crosby has culled vivid and detailed eye-witness accounts from each beach, as well as perspectives from land, sea, and air. This fascinating collection includes entries from American, British, and Canadian troops, the Merchant Navy and the Royal Air Force, and newly available German materials. Also included are contemporary and retrospective reactions of women "in the know" and those whom knew from "unofficial sources" of the immediate imminence of the assault.
Escape to Dunkirk (The Second World War Series Book 1)
Stuart Minor - 2019
As the German Blitzkrieg rolls across France, the British Army is forced to retreat back to the coast. It seems, as the net tightens around the surrounded divisions, that only a miracle can save them from destruction. As the Royal Navy attempts to rescue the men from the beaches, the British rearguard is locked in a vicious struggle to prevent the Germans from breaking through. Jack and his section, after weeks of brutal action, are forced to struggle on against the relentless enemy, the men standing together as they fight their way back to the blood soaked beaches, where their only hope of salvation lies beneath the smoke filled skies of Dunkirk. This is the first novel in a new series by Stuart Minor.
Sea Skimmer
Larry Jeram-Croft - 2011
There has never been a satisfactory explanation. This book, although a novel, is based on the personal experiences of the author, a Lynx helicopter pilot and many other true stories that have never been fully told before. So, how do you counter your own weapon system when it’s turned against you? The Falklands War posed just this problem. January 1982 and the Exocet sea skimming missile is a killer. The British should know, they co-developed it with the French. However, the Argentinians have them as well. Marcel Bertrand a French missile expert, who has been made redundant, is recruited to help them. 2 April 1982, Argentina invades the Falklands. Soon after, Lieutenant Jon Hunt flies his Lynx helicopter from HMS Prometheus with a Special Forces team to covertly infiltrate the Argentinian Air base at Rio Grande. His mission is to persuade Marcel who has been kept in the dark about the invasion, to agree to work for them. Once Jon explains the truth about the invasion Marcel and his girlfriend Maria agree to help and manage to modify the missiles warheads with a software update so that they won’t explode. As the war hots up, Argentina desperately tries to make their missiles more effective and the British try just as desperately to develop countermeasures. While down south, Jon Hunt discovers what it’s really like to fly in combat. Eventually Marcel and Maria find themselves in the Islands just as the British are closing in. A rescue attempt to get them out is led by Jon which culminates in a desperate encounter in the mountains surrounding Port Stanley just as the final fight for the Islands takes place around them. This is the first in a series of modern naval adventures, following the career of Lieutenant Jonathon Hunt through the turbulent modern military times of the last three decades
Beginning Of The End: The Leadership Of SS Obersturmbannführer Jochen Peiper
Han Bouwmeester - 2004
The name Peiper will always be linked to the Malmédy Massacre, the death of Belgian civilians and more than seventy American soldiers, but there is still a myth around Peiper. Why was a twenty-nine year old Waffen-SS officer chosen to lead the German spearhead unit during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944? Peiper was a special leader within the one of the most elite Waffen-SS divisions, the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler. Peiper was charismatic and extreme loyal to his unit. His men trusted him as a leader, even under the most extreme conditions. In Germany he was a well-known war hero. It was a logical decision that Peiper became the commander of the spearhead unit, but there were other factors leading to this decision: tactical considerations, a we-know-what-to-expect-principle, and Peiper was lucky that he was still alive and serving in the Waffen-SS.
The Sea Shall Not Have Them (WWII Naval Thrillers, #1)
Max Hennessy - 2019
An essential flight from France crash lands in the North Sea, leaving the four remaining crew members of the RAF Hudson stranded on a dinghy.One man is critically injured, and another, a rocket expert, is carrying a briefcase stuffed with vital war secrets, that could prove devastating if allowed to fall into the wrong hands.As the days begin to stretch out, they can only pray that the rescue team can locate the dinghy in time, before exposure kills them, or worse, the enemy finds them…
A novel which charts the daring and courage of four castaways, and the men who rescued them in a breathtaking mission with the most awesome of consequences, perfect for fans of Alexander Fullerton, David McDine and Alan Evans.
In The Blood
John Wingate - 2021
Along the way Sinclair finds himself braving typhoons, treacherous seas and an insane shipmate.And when a fogbound collision threatens to pollute the shores of the British Isles, the race is on to prevent an ecological disaster – before they all go down with the ship.For Sinclair these three years are set to be the most thrilling of his life so far – a rollercoaster ride of blood, sweat and fire.IN THE BLOOD is a rip-roaring, page-turning adventure story following Peter Sinclair during the early years of his maritime career.