Most books on world history overly emphasize the role of Western nations in the vast saga of mankind - the author of this book rectifies the gaps in books by Western historians by beginning the narration of world history with East Asia, and progresses from there through the rest of Asia to the Middle East.

    There are Gurkhas from the Himalayan foothills and Fijians from the South Sea Islands. There are men who learned their skills with the Japanese antiterrorist paramilitaries and many from southern Africa. There was even one guy who'd served in the Chinese People's Army and Chilean commandos and Sri Lankan antiterrorist experts who joined the mercenary gold rush to Iraq. They don't share a common ideology or common loyalty, but what they do share is a thirst for adventure and a hunger for big bucks; Iraq is the one place they are certain to find both..."For the first time a private military contractor delivers a frontline report on life as a hired gun in Iraq. ""Anyone entering Iraq must travel the road from Amman to Baghdad along the Fallujah bypass and around the Ramadi Ring Road. It's the most dangerous trunk route in the world, used as a personal fairground shooting gallery by insurgents and Islamists with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs. For newcomers to the country it's terrifying - but hell only really begins when that first journey ends...""" "Amidst the ongoing controversy over the widespread employment of private military contractors in Iraq, "Highway to Hell" is a mercenary's graphic, first-person expose of life in "the second biggest army in Iraq." Not since the days when the East India Company used soldiers of fortune to depose fabulously wealthy maharajas and conquer India for Great Britain, and mercenaries fought George Washington's Continental Army for King George, has such a large and lethal independent fighting force been assembled. Hired to do everything from securing American bases and supply routes to guarding the thousands of government officials, executives, aid workers, journalists, and other civilians now populating the Middle East's most notorious target range, today's clandestine soldiers of fortune earn up to $1,000 a day, while remaining almost entirely immune from government oversight, military authority, or Iraqi law John Geddes, a former warrant officer in Britain's elite SAS and veteran of several wars, became a private military contractor in Iraq immediately following President George W. Bush's declaration of the end of hostilities in early May 2003. In "Highway to Hell "Geddes gives an unsparing account of his harrowing, often bloody, and occasionally absurd adventures in the wild west of Iraq. After a chaotic chase on the Ramadi Ring Road, he takes out insurgents with a sniper rifle (while nursing the mother of all hangovers). He provides security to a cameraman during to a shootout on the rooftop of a Baghdad hotel alongside Kalashnikov-wielding Iraqi waiters (and accepts a marriage proposal that is almost drowned out by RPG fire). He witnesses American contractors shooting and pushing other vehicles off the road first and asking questions later (or, rather, not at all). From rushing a TV crew into the mayhem of a suicide bombing's aftermath to accompanying an oil executive to a meeting in the heart of darkness of Sadr City, Geddes presents a stunning, chilling inside look at the face of contemporary warfare.

    The station is in a quiet area, and the company commander thinks this will be a good opportunity for Lt. Tom Conroy ("K Company") to exercise his first independent command. Tom worries about whether his men, hard cases like Link Hayward, will obey him. Then Indians attack the station, and Tom's worries get a whole lot more serious.

    A first hand account of my tour of duty in Vietnam.

    Young Thomas witnessed the atrocities that the Nazis had carried out in Spain and trained his pilots to show no mercy when towards the end of the book, he breached the rules to attack German planes. Published by The Electronic Book Company

    He does, but not by the path he expected. Confused records, a drunken instructor, and an ineffective squadron commander all affect Dave's future. Frustration and danger surround him. And then he's in the thick of the Battle for Okinawa, one of the most difficult invasions in history. Join Dave as he returns to the Pacific, deals with surprises and challenges ...and becomes a legend! Packed with flying excitement, this final book of The Watson Saga brings it all together!

    Within months he was driving big lorries and cranes in the Battle of Britain, recovering crashed planes. He went on to the North African Western Desert, Egypt, Libya, Tunis and El Alamein. From there to Italy: Naples, Monte Cassino, invasion of Sicily. Then Corsica followed by France, landing near St Tropez in the D-Day of the South. Finally after four years abroad, back to the UK, a wedding and release from the RAF. Along the way he was blown up, bombed, burnt, and ill.He was not one of the commanders, or the shooting and bombing action heroes. He was responsible for the transport that contributed to everything else being possible. He tells of the problems in organising vehicles, keeping them on the road, repairing, bodging, cannibalising, improvising and inventing. This is the not often heard voice of an ordinary young bloke going through a terrible time, and doing what he could. That surely makes him a hero too.

    The stresses of combat flying in England's summer skies during the Battle of Britain, and night-fighting in the icy darkness of The Blitz, together with the loss of friends and a shattered heart, have left him broken and grounded. Fortress Malta, and the unrelenting Nazi siege that aims to grind it away, will be the furnace that forges him anew...

    William Calvert was an exception to the rule. His advancement was due solely to his actions against the enemy. As Admiral the Earl St. Vincent said of him. “Luck! It has nothing to do with luck. I don’t consider being wounded three times in as many years as luck! No this young man plans meticulously, trains and exercises his crew to the highest degree, and then it is a matter of bravery and innovation!”“Like a young Nelson without the vanity!” Added Admiral Gambier.The French Revolution is in progress and Britain awaits war. 17 year old William Calvert joins the Royal Navy as a Master’s Mate. This is the Navy of the time of Nelson. Already fully trained in Navigation and Seamanship by his late Merchant Captain and Owner father, Will soon proves his worth.When the Master falls ill and the second Master is sent to another ship, Will deputises as Master on a 74 gun ship-of-the-line. The Squadron soon becomes aware of Will’s outstanding ability, when with a hurricane threatened; as a result of his precautions his ship comes through the storm with the least damage. Promoted to Master he also saves his ship during a full gale in the Atlantic. Back in Britain, with the country at war, Will is sent as Master to the frigate Artful. Although injured he finds himself the sole officer on the quarterdeck at the moment the frigate is about to engage two French frigates.Promoted to Lieutenant he joins HMS Victory where he is noticed by Admiral Lord Jervis. After the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, Will is sent back to Britain, where with the Admiral’s strong recommendation; he is appointed Commander of the schooner Snipe. A ship to become famous for its daring exploits.

    While unconscious, the world has fallen apart and he finds himself alone and unaware that a virus has spread across the globe and has turned a majority of the population into undead monsters. After he realizes that the world he knew no longer exists, his one motivation for survival is to get back to his wife Angie and son Sam who are 8,000 miles away in West Texas. John has to figure out how to make an impossible journey across the globe absent modern infrastructure, all while battling flesh eating zombies, hostile survivors, thirst, starvation, and nature itself. He has no idea if his family survived the apocalypse, but he will travel 8,000 miles to find out. In part one of this series, John struggles to escape Afghanistan with a group of fellow survivors. They are challenged with traveling across a foreign and hostile land with little understanding of the extent of the zombie apocalypse. The group charges ahead into the unknown, with the hope that they may one day be reunited with their families back home. Meanwhile, Angie encounters her own challenges back in the United States. She struggles to keep her son safe while desperately seeking a sanctuary, where they can survive the apocalypse.

    

    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.

    The time of the story is in the 6th century B.C.E, long before that favorite trio of fiction writers of ancient Rome - Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra - whose actions caused the fall of the Republic. It is the story of a fictional character but within the framework of the historical record (what little there is) and includes the well known names of that time, including Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the first Consuls of the Republic, and Tarquinius Superbus, the overbearing King with the insatiable appetite for conquest. And of course, the person of Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus - that woman of many romantic myths and tragic tales of that time.

    One of the best military aviaton memoirs ever written’ Rowland White, author of Vulcan 607 ‘I only have to think Speed, and I am at 600 knots in seconds. Think Height and I am gazing down from a eight-mile-high perch within one minute. Think Freedom and I am wrested away from a dank, cold world, cloudbase at 300 feet, through a brief shock of cloud to emerge into a golden blue world, another dimension, crystal clear for miles and miles’ Fighter Pilot. Robert Prest had never wanted to be anything else. And even as a boy he had set his sights on flying the awesome McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. The big, twin-engined interceptor offered an irresistible combination of charisma, power and performance. Air combat, strike, gunnery, bombing and rocketry, the F-4 was jack-of-all-trades, master of most. From the lonely pursuit of Soviet intruders out over the North Sea and strength-sapping high-g dogfights, to maintaining Quick Reaction Alert on Germany’s Eastern border, ready to scramble Battle Flight at a moment’s notice, Prest and his fellow aviators stood toe-to-toe with a powerful opponent. But the defence of the West came at a cost, and comrades in arms would pay with their lives. No other book so vividly brings to life the high-pressure, high stakes, high-speed world of an RAF fighter pilot on the Cold War frontline. But it’s more than that. In capturing a sense of the wonder and magic of flying, Prest’s book ranks aviation classics from writers like Saint-Exupéry, Richard Bach, Cecil Lewis and Ernest Gann. ‘The best book I’ve ever read about flying fast jets for the Cold War RAF. Both thrilling and elegaic, F-4 Phantom makes poetry of complex, exacting world of the fighter pilot. This is as close as you’ll ever get to flying the Phantom yourself.’ Rowland White, author of Vulcan 607 ‘What First Light does for Spitfires and the Battle of Britain, Robert Prest does for the F-4 Phantom in RAF service … Superbly written.’ Royal Aeronautical Society Insight Perfect for fans of books like Skyfaring, Apache, First Light, Tornado Down, Fate is the Hunter or Sagittarius Rising

    On the way he encounters many adventures, strives to solve a mysterious theft, and meets an old friend getting ready for gladiatorial combat. In other stories we visit Elissa, the evil priestess, and Vespillo, the trusty watchman, and discover more about their colourful histories. We see a young boy’s first battle, and travel all the way to the barbaric Hadrian’s Wall. These are vivid tales of ancient Rome, perfect for fans of Wallace Breem, Simon Scarrow and Ben Kane.