The Allies were determined to end the war in Europe quickly and with as little bloodshed as possible. But the Germans were by no means prepared to yield - though they could see the war was lost. Thus began one of the most crucial years in the history of the world, and its climax, the desperate battle for Berlin, brought to a close one of the darkest chapters mankind has ever witnessed. The Allied effort pushed on from all fronts. In the east, Stalin's mighty war machine began its great offensive. From out of the swirling fog and snow, the Soviet steamroller crashed through the German lines on the Vistula, 125 miles south of Warsaw. Driving across the Polish plain towards the Oder, Germany's historic frontier with the east, Russia's advancing armored columns created panic in East Prussia. In the west, Eisenhower and Montgomery joined the race to destroy the heart of Nazi Germany - and defend Europe against Stalin's vaulting ambition. Through vivid, firsthand accounts from soldiers and civilians, privates, generals, and refugees, Fallen Eagle chronicles the triumphs and tragedies of the war's closing months - from the devastating, triple air raids on Dresden to "Spring's Awakening," Hitler's last offensive, with which he planned to retake Budapest and retain its oil fields; from the legendary summit in Yalta between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill to an extraordinary account of Hitler's last days.

    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.

    Caught in the center of a vicious struggle between two superpowers, these islands would form an unconventional battleground for the US Marines and the Japanese Navy.This book offers you a new look at the WWII Pacific Theater, providing an enlightening glimpse into the battles and campaigns during the Allied offensive. With a breakdown of three significant US campaigns: Operation Watchtower, a riveting exploration of the spark that set off the Allied offensive in the Pacific islands, detailing the gruelling struggle for the island of Guadalcanal and its vital strategic position Operation Galvanic, an incredible account of the battle for the Tarawa Atoll and base that would give them a stepping stone into the heart of Japanese-controlled waters And Operation Backhander, which offers a gripping retelling of the war for Cape Gloucester, New Guinea, and the Bismarck SeaEach of these momentous operations are fascinating feats of strategy, planning, and bravery, handing the Allies what would eventually become a victory over the Pacific Theater and an end to Imperialist Japanese expansion. This brilliant book sheds light on this often-overlooked facet of WWII, providing students, history fans, and World War II buffs alike with a captivating breakdown of history and combat that defined the beginning of the US offensive in the Pacific.

    

    

    

    It was the only infantry division in the armies of the British Empire that accompanied Monty from during Alamein to BerlinAfter the 1940 disaster at St Vale'ry when many were killed or captured, the re-formed 51st were a superlative division, brilliantly inspired and led. The 'Highway Decorators' (after their famous HD cypher) fought with consummate success through North Africa and Tunisia and from Normandy into the heart of Germany. Blooded at Alamein - where they suffered over 2000 casualties - they pursued the Afrika Korps via Tripoli and Tunis fighting fierce battles along the way. They lost 1,500 men helping to liberate Sicily. Back to the UK for the second front, the Highlanders battled their way through Normandy bocage, the break-out to the Seine, triumphal re-occupation of St Vale'ry, and were the first troops to cross the Rhine, fighting on to Bremen and Bremerhaven. In the eleven months fighting in NW Europe in 1944 and 1945 the Highlanders suffered more than 9000 casualties.

    

    While this evil war has torn half the world apart, it has also pulled half the world together. Soldiers both men and women, under American and British flags, gather on the coast of England just days before D-Day. Four friends become brothers and face their greatest fears together. With the coastline packed with ships, and the sky full of planes, hundreds of thousands of soldiers prepare to stand in the crossroads of history. In an impossible moment in time, a young British woman meets an American soldier as he prepares to embark on his treacherous journey. He promised to return and she promised to wait. Join these courageous young men and women as they struggle to find the courage they never knew they had and the future they feared they'd never see.

    They were the forces that were feared by the enemy and praised by their allies. The two lightning bolts on the collar tabs and on their helmets were the mark of the soldiers of the New Order believing in the final victory of the Reich. The Waffen SS grew into a huge force of thirty-eight combat divisions comprising over 950,000 men. In the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen SS was condemned as part of a criminal organisation, and therefore Waffen SS veterans were denied many of the rights afforded other German combat veterans. However the Nuremberg Trials exempted conscripts from that condemnation.On several occasions, the Waffen SS was criticised by Heer commanders for their reckless disregard for casualties while taking or holding objectives. However, the Waffen SS divisions eventually proved themselves to a skeptical Heer as capable soldiers.The poor initial performance of the Waffen SS units was mainly due to the emphasis on political indoctrination rather than proper military training before the war. This was largely due to the shortage of experienced NCOs, who preferred to stay with the regular army. Despite this, the experience gained from the Polish, French and Balkan campaigns and the peculiarly egalitarian form of training soon turned Waffen SS units into elite formations.These are the stories of the men that once were part of this elite force. In this book you get a bit of history about the SS and Waffen SS, the war crimes committed by them and against them, their training, but most important of all you'll get the stories from veterans of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Das Reich, Totenkopf, Wiking, Hohenstaufen, Maria Theresia, Langemarck, SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500 and Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger, Italien, Wallonie, Nederland, 1st Estonian, and the notorious Dirlewanger Brigade. Seven decades after the war they finally have a voice...

    Unrivalled in its scope and as readable as any spy novel, A Century of Spies travels from tsarist Russia and the earliest days of the British Secret Service to the crises and uncertainties of today's post-Cold War world, offering an unsurpassed overview of the role of modern intelligence in every part of the globe. From spies and secret agents to the latest high-tech wizardry in signals and imagery surveillance, it provides fascinating, in-depth coverage of important operations of United States, British, Russian, Israeli, Chinese, German, and French intelligence services, and much more. All the key elements of modern intelligence activity are here. An expert whose books have received high marks from the intelligence and military communities, Jeffrey Richelson covers the crucial role of spy technology from the days of Marconi and the Wright Brothers to today's dazzling array of Space Age satellites, aircraft, and ground stations. He provides vivid portraits of spymasters, spies, and defectors--including Sidney Reilly, Herbert Yardley, Kim Philby, James Angleton, Markus Wolf, Reinhard Gehlen, Vitaly Yurchenko, Jonathan Pollard, and many others. Richelson paints a colorful portrait of World War I's spies and sabateurs, and illuminates the secret maneuvering that helped determine the outcome of the war on land, at sea, and on the diplomatic front; he investigates the enormous importance of intelligence operations in both the European and Pacific theaters in World War II, from the work of Allied and Nazi agents to the black magic of U.S. and British code breakers; and he gives us a complete overview of intelligence during the length of the Cold War, from superpower espionage and spy scandals to covert action and secret wars. A final chapter probes the still-evolving role of intelligence work in the new world of disorder and ethnic conflict, from the high-tech wonders of the Gulf War to the surprising involvement of the French government in industrial espionage. Comprehensive, authoritative, and addictively readable, A Century of Spies is filled with new information on a variety of subjects--from the activities of the American Black Chamber in the 1920s to intelligence collection during the Cuban missile crisis to Soviet intelligence and covert action operations. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in military history, espionage and adventure, and world affairs.

    Known to her coworkers as the Queen of Cuba, she was an overachiever who advanced quickly through the ranks of Latin American specialists to become the intelligence community's top analyst on Cuban affairs. But throughout her sixteen-year career at DIA, Montes was sending Castro some of America's most closely guarded secrets and at the same time helping influence what the United States thought it knew about Cuba. When she was finally arrested in September 2001, she became the most senior American intelligence official ever accused of operating as a Cuban spy from within the federal U.S. government. Unrepentant as she serves out her time in a federal prison in Texas, Montes remains the only member of the intelligence community ever convicted of espionage on behalf of the Cuban government.This inside account of the investigation that led to her arrest has been written by Scott W. Carmichael, the DIA's senior counterintelligence investigator who persuaded the FBI to launch an investigation. Although Montes did not fit the FBI's profile of a spy and easily managed to defeat the agency's polygraph exams, Carmichael became suspicious of her activities and with the FBI over a period of several years developed a solid case against her. Here he tells the story of that long and ultimately successful spy hunt. Carmichael reveals the details of their efforts to bring her to justice, offering readers a front-row seat for the first major U.S. espionage case of the twentieth century. She was arrested less than twenty-four hours before learning details of the U.S. plan to invade Afghanistan post-September 11. Motivated by ideology not money, Montes was one of the last true believers of the communist era. Because her arrest came just ten days after 9/11, it went largely unnoticed by the American public. This book calls attention to the grave damage Montes inflicted on U.S. security--Carmichael even implicates her in the death of a Green Beret fighting Cuban-backed insurgents in El Salvador--and the damage she would have continued to inflict had she not been caught.

    B-36 crews trained for the one flight when they would be ordered to drop combat nuclear bombs on the USSR. Flights of fifteen hours over continental United States to grueling thirty-hour nonstop flights overseas were routine, all without the benefit of in-flight refueling—not yet invented. The experiences of this crew, as they flew their assigned missions, are part of the history of our nation’s defense. They were part of our Cold War Shield.

    Richard van Emden's new book tells that story as never before through the words and pictures of the men who were there. The Soldier's War includes incredible never-published-before letters and photographs to reveal the true stories of a lost generation.The Soldier's War traces the war chronologically, taking stories from each year of the fighting and following the British Tommy through devastating battles and trench warfare to the armistice in 1918. The book also reflects on other lesser-known and more personal aspects of the war, such as the work of stretcher-bearers, army chaplains, and burial parties.Each chapter will begin with an exploration of the soldiers' post-war attitudes to an emotive and controversial aspects of the conflict. What were their attitudes towards the enemy? What did the troops at the front line really think about their generals? Did they remember their time in the war with any fondness?Central to The Soldier's War are the original and as-yet-unseen photographs that punctuate the narrative. Many soldiers carried lightweight VPK cameras (Vest Pocket Kodaks) and used them (illegally) to photograph the war as it unfolded. Between seventy-five and a hundred remarkable images will for the first time show trench-warfare as it really happened.

     HITLER'S GLADIATOR is the life of German general Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, who rose from private soldier in the kaiser's army to command of an SS Panzer Army in the closing stage""Clear and detailed . . . most scholarly." —- "The Sunday Times" (London)"An enlightened portrait of both Dietrich and his Germany." —- "Soldier Magazine"