Military Collection: Battles and Wars 2

The First World War, now a century ago, still shapes the world in which we live, and its legacy lives on, in poetry, in prose, in collective memory and political culture. By the time the war ended in 1918, millions lay dead. Three major empires lay shattered by defeat, those of Germany,Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans. A fourth, Russia, was in the throes of a revolution that helped define the rest of the twentieth century.The Oxford History of the First World War brings together in one volume many of the most distinguished historians of the conflict, in an account that matches the scale of the events. From its causes to its consequences, from the Western Front to the Eastern, from the strategy of the politicians tothe tactics of the generals, they chart the course of the war and assess its profound political and human consequences. Chapters on economic mobilization, the impact on women, the role of propaganda, and the rise of socialism establish the wider context of the fighting at sea and in the air, andwhich ranged on land from the trenches of Flanders to the mountains of the Balkans and the deserts of the Middle East.First published for the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, this highly illustrated revised edition contains significant new material to mark the 100th anniversary of the war's outbreak.

The book is primarily aimed at the layman to get a self-contained understanding of the immediate causes, the progress and outcome of battles, and the aftermath of allied victory and axis defeat in the First World War. It has been interspersed with useful political and military analysis to allow the reader a revealing understanding of the war without burdening him with unnecessary detail.

The acclaimed British historian offers a majestic, single-volume work incorporating all major fronts-domestic, diplomatic, military-for "a stunning achievement of research and storytelling." (Publishers Weekly). It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would end officially almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: the horrors we live with today were born in the First World War. It left millions-civilians and soldiers-maimed or dead. And it left us with new technologies of death: tanks, planes, and submarines; reliable rapid-fire machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced us to U-boat packs and strategic bombing, to unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. Most of all, it changed our world. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, whole populations lost their national identities as political systems, and geographic boundaries were realigned. Instabilities were institutionalized, enmities enshrined. And the social order shifted seismically. Manners, mores, codes of behavior; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions-all underwent a vast sea change. And in all these ways, the twentieth century can be said to have been born on the morning of June 28, 1914. "One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century." -The New York Times Book Review (cover)

"The War to End All Wars" is considered by many to be the best single account of America's participation in World War I. Covering famous battles, the birth of the air force, naval engagements, the War Department, and experiences of the troops, this indispensable volume is again available in paperback for students and general readers.

The Handbook of the American Army, 1914 was written by the British General Staff Intelligence Branch as a restricted document to provide details on the American military. It covers information on peace and war organizations, conditions of service in the Regular Army, plus details on the American General Staff, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers, Infantry, and Signal Corps units. American tactics are covered as well as the military education system. Also included in this book is a description of Infantry Equipment, Model of 1910.

USMC history chronicles the operations of the 4th U.S.M.C. Brigade in the Great War, along with many charts on organizational details. The 4th Brigade served with the 2nd Division (US regulars) and consisted of the 5th & 6th Marine Regiments They saw action in the battles of Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry, Blanc Mont, Soissons, and Verdun.

This is a compilation on the subject of trench warfare fortifications as taught by three national Armies - French, German and American. It is intended to be a companion volume to British Trench Tactics, 1917-1918 and is designed to give the enthusiast and scholar some idea of field engineering tasks on the Western Front during the Great War. The contents show the often similar but sometimes unique approaches to the art of trench warfare by the various armies. The book is made up of three parts, each part page-numbered separately, and there are hundreds of diagrams/drawings depicting trenches, earthworks, gun emplacements, MG posts, bomb-proof and other shelters, barbed wire entanglements along with detailed instructions on how to build them or prepare them.

A fact-packed reference work for anyone interested in the Imperial Russian Army, this book provides valuable insights into laws regarding service, organization, tactics, ranks, an alphabetical listing of all regiments, and more. Additional appendices have b&w drawings of uniforms, rank badges, company flags, etc.

"The Navy Everywhere" gives an account of the varied operations of Britain's Royal Navy in the little-known campaigns around the world during the Great War 1914-1918. There are chapters on operations in East Africa, including Dar-es-Salaam and the search for the German cruiser Konigsberg, operations in West Africa in the conquest of the German colony of Cameroon, operations in Serbia in the Balkans ( including attacks on Austro-Hungarian river gunboats on the Danube ), Kite Balloon ships off Gallipoli & East Africa, operations in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea Patrols, and Royal Navy Armored Cars in Romania.

The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I, was established on July 5, 1917, in France under Major General John J. Pershing. The AEF fought alongside the French, British, Canadian, and Australian Armies against the German empire. A small portion of troops also fought alongside Italian Army units against the Austro-Hungarian Army. The AEF helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive in the summer of 1918 and fought its major actions in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the latter part of 1918. - From the Museum of the American G.I.

This comprehensive review of the German Army was first prepared and published by the General Staff, War Office, in 1912 and was amended by them to bring it up to date with the outbreak of war. Its scope includes the army's organization, details of conditions of service and recruiting rates of pay, rank structure and list of abbreviations, and a glossary of military terms. There are separate chapters on the infantry, cavalry, artillery, and their tactics and on technical troops (sappers, pioneers, and the military communication Service). There are also chapters on the Rear Services, Colonial forces, and tables giving the complete peacetime deployment of the active Army as on 1st June 1914. There is a fully comprehensive index of 23 pages. Revised by the General Staff, War Office 1912. Amended to August 1914 (4th Edition).

The German book of which a translation is here given was written in the autumn of 1917 by Captain Otto Schwink, a General Staff Officer, by order of the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army, and is stated to be founded on official documents. It forms one of a series of monographs, partly projected, partly published, on the various phases of the war, but is the only one that is available dealing with Operations in which the British Army was engaged. - From Amazon

History of the great war based on official documents by direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence.

This ultra-rare handbook, the 8th Provisional edition, was originally prepared in Cairo by T.E.Lawrence ( later Lawrence of Arabia, and Philip Graves, Robert's brother. It presents a detailed study of the organization, weapons, equipment, and units of the Turkish Army. It includes a very detailed ORDER OF BATTLE for Feb.1916.

Originally issued by the British Air Ministry in October of 1918, it is a detailed study of both German Army & Naval aviation services in the Great War. It presents all known information on the general organization & training of every type of air unit, types of units, balloon corps, policy, general tactics, detailed tactics by type of plane, and types of communication equipment. The Naval Air Service is detailed in the same manner plus a section with technical details of aircraft with 3-view photos and 4-6 silhouettes of the aircraft at various angles, along with a full technical list of German aviation abbreviations.

Originally issued by the British War Office General Staff in June 1918, this superb reference work covers the German Army as it appeared at the time of its Spring offensive in 1918. Covers recruiting, officers & men, mobilization & expansion of the army, command & staff, infantry, MG, cavalry, artillery supply, engineer, medical, Landstrom & the Air Service.

This is a volume in the British official history set for ground operations on the Western Front in World War I. This volume covers the German offensive of March 1918.

A comprehensive history of the development and operations of the American Air Service in France in World War I. This is an organizational history of the American Air Service in France in World War I. There are chapters on the responsibilities of the Supply and Repair Division, Personnel Division, Design, and Projects Division, and Training Division. Also discussed are the activities of the Technical, Transportation, Liaison, and Photo sections.

"Night Bombing with the Bedouins" is an account of a squadron of Hendly Page night bombers in the first World War. It focuses on the squadron's personnel and details a typical bombing mission. It explains the nighttime navigation problems of WWI and the solutions both sides utilized. It contains a good first-hand account of a bombing mission over Germany. It does a good job of explaining aviation and navigational concepts to an easy-to-understand level.

The object of these books is to show how seaborne trade was affected during the war by naval operations and by conditions having their origin in the naval situation.

Noted historian John Toland tells of the unforgettable final year of the First World War. As 1918 opened, the Allies and Central Powers remained locked in a desperate, bloody stalemate, despite the deaths of millions of soldiers over the previous three and a half years. The arrival of the Americans "over there" by the middle of the year turned the tide of war, resulting in an Allied victory in November. In this book, participants on both sides, from enlisted men to generals and prime ministers to monarchs, vividly recount the battles, sensational events, and behind-the-scenes strategies that shaped the climactic, terrifying year. It's all here - the horrific futility of going over the top into a hail of bullets in no man's land; the enigmatic death of the legendary German ace, the Red Baron; Operation Michael, a punishing German attack in the spring; the Americans' long-awaited arrival in June; the murder of Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family, the growing fear of a communist menace in the east; and the armistice on November 11. The different points of view of Germans, Americans, British, French, and Russians add depth, complexity, and understanding to the tragedies and triumphs of the War to End All Wars.

This text analyses the origins of the First and Second World Wars in one single volume, drawing on a wide range of material, including original sources. In concise chapters, Frank McDonough surveys the key issues surrounding the causes of the First and Second World Wars, offers a critical survey of the conflict between historians and provides a lively selection of primary documents on major issues. The result is a unique perspective on the origins of the two most devastating military conflicts in world history.

The history of the Western Front and the First World War is one of battles of attrition against an entrenched enemy, with terrible casualties suffered by both sides in some of the worst fighting ever. In this history the picture has emerged of British generals remote and detached from the reality of the trenches who repeatedly sent their men to die in pointless attacks against the enemy. This book, by the renowned historian of the First World War John Terraine, scrupulously researched and brilliantly written, takes a more objective and accurate approach to the end of the Great War.

A bibliography of books concerning World War I.

World War I was one of the greatest upheavals in history, involving upwards of 70 million combatants--9 million of whom lost their lives--and setting off shock waves that were felt worldwide long after the Armistice of 1918. In "The Experience of World War I," J.M. Winter marshalls a comprehensive range of historical materials, hundreds of vivid illustrations, and numerous eye-witness accounts to provide an illuminating and gripping chronicle of this cataclysmic event and its aftermath. How did the assassination of one man, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, trigger such vast devastation? What was combat like for the common soldier? Why did the generals persist in large-scale offensives after catastrophic losses early in the war? What was the impact of the war on European politics, the world economy, and the arts? To answer these and myriad other questions, Winter examines the war year by year, describing the conflict as it was experienced by politicians, generals, soldiers and civilians. Illustrated with hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, the book uncovers many intriguing aspects of the war: it reveals that soldiers in fact spent only two weeks per month in the front trenches, describes how the father of tycoon Rupert Murdoch broke the story of the disaster at Gallipoli, and outlines the unprecedented logistics problems the military faced (it took 20 boxcars of food per day to feed 17,000 men--and there were 5 million men in the British army alone). There is also a wealth of fascinating sidebar material covering a wide variety of secondary topics, from women's war poetry to the sinking of the LusitaniaT. The book is further enhanced by numerous first-hand accounts of life during the war, drawn from diaries, memoirs and other writings of both men and women, from all countries and social groups, and it also includes a full chronology, many full-color maps, and tables of essential data. Combining political, military, and social history, this evocative account captures the Great War in all its complexity, from the bloody battles of Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele, to the flood of post-war literary and artistic works, including All Quiet on the Western Front and Jean Renoir's film La Grande Illusion.

Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Titles of the Year for 2017 "A uniquely colorful chronicle of this dramatic and convulsive chapter in American--and world--history. It's an epic tale, and here it is wondrously well told." --David M. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author ofFREEDOM FROM FEAR From August 1914 through March 1917, Americans were increasingly horrified at the unprecedented destruction of the First World War. While sending massive assistance to the conflict's victims, most Americans opposed direct involvement. Their country was immersed in its own internal struggles, including attempts to curb the power of business monopolies, reform labor practices, secure proper treatment for millions of recent immigrants, and expand American democracy. Yet from the first, the war deeply affected American emotions and the nation's commercial, financial, and political interests. The menace from German U-boats and failure of U.S. attempts at mediation finally led to a declaration of war, signed by President Wilson on April 6, 1917. America and the Great War commemorates the centennial of that turning point in American history. Chronicling the United States in neutrality and in conflict, it presents events and arguments, political and military battles, bitter tragedies and epic achievements that marked U.S. involvement in the first modern war. Drawing on the matchless resources of the Library of Congress, the book includes many eyewitness accounts and more than 250 color and black-and-white images, many never before published. With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David M. Kennedy,America and the Great Warbrings to life the tempestuous era from which the United States emerged as a major world power.

Originally published in the late 1940s as The Medical Department of the United States Navy with the Army and Marine Corps in France in World War I, this naval official history covers the navy's medical detachment with the Marines in France from 1917 to 1919. There are chapters on USMC operations at Verdun, Belleau Wood, Soissons, St Mihiel, and the Meuse Argonne Offensive. It lists the medics killed in action and their citations and awards. There are rosters for the combat medics serving with the USMC Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

This is a comprehensive new history of the French army's critical contribution to the Great War. Ranging across all fronts, Elizabeth Greenhalgh examines the French army's achievements and failures and sets these in the context of the difficulties of coalition warfare and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the enemy forces it faced. Drawing from new archival sources, she reveals the challenges of dealing with and replenishing a mass conscript army in the face of slaughter on an unprecedented scale and shows how, through trials and defeats, French generals and their troops learned to adapt and develop techniques that eventually led to victory. In a unique account of the largest Allied army on the Western Front, she revises our understanding not only of wartime strategy and combat but also of other crucial aspects of France's war, from mutinies and mail censorship to medical services, railways, and weapons development.

Considers the implications of America's involvement in World War I for intellectuals, minorities, politicians, and economists.

World War Two was the most devastating conflict in recorded human history. It was both global in extent and total in character. It has understandably left a long and dark shadow across the decades. Yet it is three generations since hostilities formally ended in 1945 and the conflict is now alived memory for only a few. And this growing distance in time has allowed historians to think differently about how to describe it, how to explain its course, and what subjects to focus on when considering the wartime experience. In "The Oxford Illustrated History of World War Two" a team of leading historians re-assesses the conflict for a new generation, exploring the course of the war not just in terms of the Allied response but also from the viewpoint of the Axis aggressor states. Under Richard Overy's expert editorial guidance, the contributions take us from the genesis of war, through the action in the major theatres of conflict by land, sea, and air, to assessments of fighting power and military and technical innovation, the economics of total war, the culture and propaganda of war, and the experience of war(and genocide) for both combatants and civilians, concluding with an account of the transition from World War to Cold War in the late 1940s. Together, they provide a stimulating and thought-provoking new interpretation of one of the most terrible and fascinating episodes in world history.

The documents in this book point readers to the major themes and issues of World War II, including major causes, course, and consequences of the war. The volume encourages understanding of the nature of total war and its potential for limitlessness. Coverage is worldwide, with attention toboth the European and Pacific Theaters and to home front as well as battlefront issues. Diplomacy and strategy blend with insights into the lives of ordinary people around the world - as factory workers, soldiers, mothers, propagandists, political leaders, and survivors. And the volume encouragescomparative perspectives and assists readers in thinking about continuity and change across the twentieth century, including focus on commemoration and memory to the present.The documents include such diverse items as excerpts from Mein Kampf; the Nazi-Soviet Pact; Charles Lindbergh on America First; Churchill on the 'finest hour'; Geneva Conventions; letters from prisoners of war; a Thanksgiving dinner menu; a K ration pack; dispatches from Ernie Pyle; photos of GlennMiller and Marlene Dietrich entertaining the troops; Woody Guthrie songs; movie posters; propaganda air drop leaflet; Japanese children's song; a ration cookbook; a comic book superhero; Simone de Beauvoir on occupation; the Japanese Emperor's surrender rescript; US censored haiku; an English warbride's marriage certificate; a Japanese lunchbox from the Smithsonian Enola Gay exhibit; transcripts of the Eichmann trial; and oral histories by America's "greatest generation."The entire book is be profusely illustrated with graphics (posters, photographs, maps, etc.) that themselves serve as documents, and there is a picture essay on the 'racial community,' using propaganda posters, photographs, and film stills. Each section of the book has an introductory essay, andeach document has a headnote or long caption. Back matter includes a chronology, further reading, and index. The author is a specialist on the American home front, for which he was won the Indiana Humanities Council Humanities Achievement Award, 1992, and has worked extensively on school and publichistory projects.

Highly regarded for its concise clarification of the complexities of World War II, this book illuminates the origins, course, and long-range effects of the war. It provides a balanced account that analyzes both the European and Pacific theaters of operations and the connections between them.

This five-volume set from Battery Press sets forth the totality of the Marine Corps effort in WW II. The contents are v. 1. Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal - v. 2. Isolation of Rabaul - v. 3. Central Pacific drive - v. 4. Western Pacific operations - v. 5. Victory and occupation .

Time-Life's 39 volume treatment of World War II.

In March 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget ordering each war agency to prepare "an accurate and objective account"of that agency's war experience. Soon after, the Army Air Forces began hiring professional historians so that its history could "be recorded while it is hot and that personnel be selected and an agency set up for a clear historian's job without axe to grind or defense to prepare." An Historical Division was established in Headquarters Army Air Forces under Air Intelligence, in September 1942, and the modern Air Force historical program began. With the end of the war, Headquarters approved a plan for writing and publishing a seven-volume history. In December 1945, Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, Deputy Commander of Army Air Forces, asked the Chancellor of the University of Chicago to "assume the responsibility for the publication" of the history, stressing that it must "meet the highest academic standards." Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Frank Craven of New York University and Major James Lea Cate of the University of Chicago, both of whom had been assigned to the historical program, were selected to be editors of the volumes. Between 1948 and 1958 seven were published. With publication of the last, the editors wrote that the Air Force had "fulfilled in letter and spirit" the promise of access to documents and complete freedom of historical interpretation. Like all history, The Army Air Forces in World War II reflects the era when it was conceived, researched, and written. However, these books met the highest of contemporary professional standards of quality and comprehensiveness. They contain information and experience that are of great value to the Air Force today and to the public. Together they are the only comprehensive discussion of Army Air Forces activity in the largest air war this nation has ever waged. Richard H. Kohn, Chief, Office of Air Force History.

Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer's monumental study of Hitler's German Empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of this century's blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic. This edition is based on an abridgment prepared by Reader's Digest. It is enhanced and complemented by nearly 400 illustrations.

This is a pictorial history and technical encyclopedia of Hitler's air power in W W 11.

Great Britain's refusal to yield to Nazi Germany in the Second World War remains one of the greatest survival stories of modern times. Commemorated, evoked, and mythologized as it has been-chiseled and engraved onto countless monuments, the subject of an endless stream of books and films-its triumphant outcome was by no means predetermined. In December 1940, months after war was declared, the director of plans at the War Office in London was asked to draft a paper on how to win the war. He replied that he could only plan "for not losing." "Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941" is the first of two volumes in which Daniel Todman offers a brilliantly fresh retelling, an epic history to fit an epic story. Opening with his discovery of some war medals sitting in a hearing-aid box that likely belonged to his grandfather, Todman realizes that despite it all a new generation seems unaware of what was truly at stake when Churchill invoked Britain's "finest hour." The war was far greater than any single heroic hour. For six years, Britain was at the dark heart of history, finding its way forward hour by hour, day by day, year by year. This volume spans the beginning and the end of the beginning, from the massive changes required to get the country onto a war footing, through the failure of appeasement, the invasion of Poland, the "phony war," the fall of France, the "miracle" of Dunkirk, the Battles of Britain, and the Blitz, ending with America's course-changing entrance into the conflict in late 1941. Todman's colossal project seamlessly merges economic, strategic, social, cultural, and military history in one compelling narrative. Rapid industrialization, social disruption, food rationing, Westminster politics, class snobbery, and the mobilization of a global empire are woven together with the major opening battles. Here, also, are key individuals-the politicians, industrialists, pub owners, housewives, the pilots of the RAF, and the sailors at Dunkirk-caught in the maelstrom that threatened to engulf not just a small island nation but the world itself.

An account of the aircraft, pilots, tactics, and results of the three-month Battle of Britain in 1940.

The history of the defence of the United Kingdom in WWII

"Hitler's U-boat War" is destined to become the definitive account of the German submarine war against the Allies, or "The Battle of the Atlantic." It is an epic sea story, the most arduous and prolonged naval battle in all history. For a period of nearly six years, the German U-boat force attempted to blockade and isolate the British Isles, in hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting the Allied strategic air assault on German cities as well as Overlord, the Allied invasion of Occupied France. Fortunately for the Allies, the U-boat force failed to achieve either of these objectives, but in the attempt they sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships, while the Allies sank nearly 800 U-boats. On both sides, tens of thousands of sailors perished. volumes. This first volume, The Hunters, covers the first three years of the war, August 1939 to August 1942. Told chronologically, it is subdivided into two major sections, the War Against the British Empire, and the War Against the Americas. Never before has Hitler's U-boat war been chronicled with such authority, fidelity, objectivity, and detail.

The author takes a professional military historian's view of the ten months from the declaration of war to what he considers to be the defeat of Dunkirk. It is enhanced by the poignant memories of day-to-day sufferings endured by the men involved as well the courage and despair shown. His account of those months does not make for comfortable history but it does shed a sane light on what has become folk mythology.

This is an excellent general overview of the WWII conflicts in North Africa, from the chaos of 1940 to the grinding inevitability of 1943.

"From 1941 to 1944, the U.S. Army conducted seven large-scale maneuvers across most of middle Tennessee. The rigorous training involved more than 800,000 soldiers in a series of simulated combat operations in which 25 airborne, infantry and armor divisions practiced and refined their deadly skills -- literally in the backyards of civilians. In the Presence of Soldiers is an unprecedented account of the massive 2nd Army Tennessee Maneuvers..." -- Book jacket.

This book is unique among military histories. Never before has such a detailed study been made of the organization, training and operations of a single division of the United States Army. Each action in which the Division took part has been minutely studied and checked against available operations reports and the memories of the men who were there. From the beaches of Normandy to Hitler's Berchtesgaden hideaway the 101st Airborne fought their way across Nazi-Occupied Europe to Victory. --Amazon.com. (The 101st is stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, just across the Tennessee state line near Clarksville.)

A wonderful and enduring tribute to American troops in the Second World War, "Here Is Your War" is Ernie Pyle's story of the soldiers' first campaign against the enemy in North Africa. With unequaled humanity and insight, Pyle tells how people from a cross-section of America's ranches, inner cities, small mountain farms, and college towns learned to fight a war. The Allied campaign and ultimate victory in North Africa was built on blood, brave deeds, sacrifice and needless loss, exotic vistas, endurance, homesickness, and an unmistakable American sense of humor. It's all here: the suspenseful landing at Oran; the risks taken daily by fighter and bomber pilots; grim, unrelenting combat in the desert and mountains of Tunisia; a ferocious tank battle that ended in defeat for the inexperienced Americans; and the final victory at Tunis. Pyle's keen observations relate the full story of ordinary G.I.s caught up in extraordinary times.--Bison Books,

By June 1941, Germany's war machine looked to be unstoppable. The Nazi blitzkrieg had taken Poland, France, and Holland with shocking speed. The Luftwaffe had bombed London, while German U-boats wrought havoc on Allied shipping on the Atlantic. And yet, as James Holland shows at the start of The Allies Strike Back, 1941-1943--the second volume in his magisterial narrative of World War II in the West--cracks were already appearing in Germany's apparent invincibility. Shortages of food and materiel were becoming critical. And, having failed to defeat Britain, Adolf Hitler fatefully pivoted east to invade the Soviet Union--territory he felt compelled to conquer for Germany's protection--and on June 22, 1941 precipitated the largest clash of arms the world had ever seen. Built for speed and quick conquest, German forces by that fall were bogged down in a horrible war of attrition that blunted the Nazi momentum. The Allies Strike Back offers fascinating new perspective on the critical middle years in World War II's western theatre, as the advantage between Axis and Allied forces swung back and forth on the Atlantic and eastern front, and in north Africa and Europe. Acclaimed historian James Holland has spent years conducting original research and interviews, mining newly available archives, visiting battlefields and uncovering letters and diaries previously unread. Acknowledging that strategy and tactics have been the focus of previous histories, he gives equal space to the logistics and supply of men and materiel without which no war can be fought. Allied and Axis leaders criss-cross Holland's narrative, but he also memorably introduces readers to heretofore unknown participants: Sgt. Ralph Schaps, who experienced the Louisiana Maneuvers that propelled him into Europe; Colonel Hermann Balck, in command of a German panzer regiment in Africa; U-boat captain Teddy Suhren, operating against Allied shipping in the Atlantic; Billy Drake, squadron commander in Britain's Desert Air Force that helped turn the tide in North Africa; and many others. Following the acclaimed first volume of his trilogy, The Rise of Germany, and offering frank assessments of successes and failures on both sides, James Holland has crafted a masterful and gripping narrative of the events that ultimately determined the outcome of World War II.

The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain's elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II. "Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and treachery (lots of treachery)--and all of it true."--Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake. In 1942 the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To "set Europe ablaze," in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently de­classified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women. There's Andrée Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines with the Gestapo hot on her heels; Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out of domestic life and into a meaningful adventure; and Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent member of French colonial high society and the SOE's unflap­pable "queen." Together, they destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial intelligence--laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war. Rigorously researched and written with razor-sharp wit, D-Day Girls is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance: a reminder of what courage--and the energy of politically animated women--can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high.

Describes the military effort by which the Allies regained the continent of Europe in World War II.

A description of General Eisenhower's wartime command, focusing on the general, his staff, and his superiors in London and Washington and contrasting Allied and enemy command organizations.

This bestseller explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war. In "The Bomber Mafia," Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the "Bomber Mafia," asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives. In "The Bomber Mafia," Gladwell asks, "Was it worth it?" Things might have gone differently had LeMay's predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. "The Bomber Mafia" is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.

The handbook was intended to provide a compact review, for use in the field, of the organization and equipment of the German army at war.

Ralph Martin served as combat correspondent for The Stars and Stripes and Yank during World War II. Here he focuses exclusively on the enlisted man in that war, from induction to Pearl Harbor ("heroes were everywhere") followed by Guam, Wake, the Philippines, etc., and the war on all European fronts. Martin's closeups are quick takes on the G.I. and a commemoration of their courage, heart and humor.

An account of the massacre on D-Day of soldiers storming the beach at Anzio. Includes photographs and maps.

An insight into the methods and equipment of the Commando and Ranger units, including the special tactics and techniques which they developed to spearhead the Allied invasions. It includes personal and eye-witness accounts, which aid understanding of the campaigns and their aims and achievements.

British aircraft designers and airmen were challenged to develop existing fighters and to produce new types against a background of limited time, resources and war-torn facilities.

"This book is the first full account of Native American experiences from the 1930s to 1945. It begins with their responses to the drift toward war in the 1930s, including their reactions to propaganda campaigns directed at them by Nazi sympathizers. It is also the only ethnohistory of their experiences during World War II. Included are the voices and recollections of Indian men who resisted the draft, those who fought in Europe and the Pacific, and of Indian women on the homefront. The book is also a careful reinterpretation of John Collier, commissioner of Indian affairs during the Roosevelt years. Townsend argues that Collier's attempt to fundamentally redirect policies to preserve traditional Native American lifeways inadvertently provided indians the resources, training, and services necessary for assimilation in the postwar years."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Normandy -- Normandy: operation overload -- The battle of the Hedgerows -- Just when you thought it was safe... -- Friendly fire: the Saint-lo breakout -- On the road again...and again -- Medmoiselle from Gay Paree -- Au revoir Paris, back to the war -- Southern France's D-Day -- Wintertime in Alsace-Lorraine -- Payback time -- Battle of the buldge -- Hey monsieur, you like hame? We got spam -- Tour de France -- Watch on the Rhine -- Deep in the heartland -- The fall of the third reich -- Dachau -- Berchtesgaden - From the Table of Contents

The Inspiring true story of a segregated unit whose exploits underscore the forgotten Latino Contribution to the Allied Victory in World War II As a child, Dave Gutierrez hung on every word his father recalled about his cousin Ramon and his service in World War II, where he earned a Silver Star, three Purple Hearts, and escaped from the Germans twice. Later, Dave discovered that Ramon Gutierrez was a member of Company E, 141st Infantry, a part of the 36th "Texas" Division that was comprised entirely of Mexican Americans--the only such unit in the entire U.S. Army. The division landed at Salerno, Italy, in 1943, among the first American soldiers to set foot in Europe. In the ensuing months, Company E and the rest of the 36th would battle their way up the mountainous Italian peninsula against some of Nazi Germany's best troops. In addition to the merciless rain, mud, jagged peaks, and swift cold rivers, including the Rapido, where Company E would face its greatest challenge. In an infamous episode, the 36th Division was ordered to cross the Rapido despite reports that the opposite bank was heavily defended. In the ensuing debacle, the division was ripped apart, and Company E sustained appalling casualties. The company rebounded and made the storied landings at Anzio and ultimately invaded southern France for a final push into Germany. The men of Company E distinguished themselves as rugged fighters capable of warring amid the rubble of destroyed villages and in the devastated countryside. Based on extensive archival research and veteran and family accounts, "Patriots from the Barrio" brings to life the soldiers whose service should never have gone unrecognized for so long. With its memorable personalities, stories of hope and immigration, and riveting battle scenes, this beautifully written book is a testament to the shared beliefs of all who have fought for the ideals of the American flag.

John Erickson in this volume tells the vivid and compelling story of the Red Army’s epic struggle to drive the Germans from Russian soil. Beginning with the destruction of the German Army at Stalingrad, he describes a campaign of almost unimaginable hardship and fighting that led to the Soviet invasion of the Reich and the triumphant capture of Berlin.

In this compelling work of history, Ryan narrates the Allied effort to end the war in Europe in 1944 by dropping the combined airborne forces of the American and British armies behind German lines to capture the crucial bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. Focusing on a vast cast of characters—from Dutch civilians to British and American strategists to common soldiers and commanders—Ryan brings to life one of the most daring and ill-fated operations of the war. "A Bridge Too Far" superbly recreates the terror and suspense, the heroism and tragedy of this epic operation, which ended in bitter defeat for the Allies.

Abstract: A star is born -- What's in a name -- Between the flower beds and the sea -- Wind, sand and sun -- The man from North Africa -- Preview in Tennessee -- Pine needles, snow, and apples -- Would you still be my darling -- Over there -- A military wedding -- Vive la France -- The sickle -- In the distance the Eiffel Tower -- All is kaput -- Corridor through the Siegfried Line -- Wet autumn -- The days before Christmas -- Snow battle -- Through the cabbage fields -- Across the heartland -- The last fight.

Friedrich Georg's book covers unconventional short- and medium-range weapons. In particular, this volume includes a wealth of information about the V-rocket program, not just the more familiar V-1 and V-2, but special variants of these two rockets as well as later experimental craft and weaponry. Following a fascinating examination of pre-war efforts to build flying bombs, the author examines the V-1 and V-2 projects in great detail. Particular attention is paid to special variants that have previously received little coverage. These include the V-2 A-4 'America Rocket', and V-2s designed to carry nuclear and radiological warheads. The capability of the Germans to deploy such weapons is also discussed. A large number of weird and wonderful projects that never left the drawing board are examined, including the FR-35, V-6, V-101, Waterfall, and Naval EMW A-7 rockets. The fascinating final section examines German plans to utilize such rocketry against London and Paris in 1945, as well as recounting the activities of V-weapons on other fronts, including Italy, Yugoslavia, and the Eastern Front. The text is supported by b/w photographs and 16 superb pages of color artwork, including profiles, computer-generated images of designs that never flew, and pictures of the author's own models.

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War, and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career - his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons. Kevin Ruane shows how Churchill went from regarding the bomb as a weapon of war in the struggle with Nazi Germany to viewing it as a weapon of communist containment (and even punishment) in the early Cold War before, in the 1950s, advocating and arguably pioneering what would become known as "mutually assured destruction" as the key to preventing the Cold War flaring into a calamitous nuclear war. While other studies of Churchill have touched on his evolving views on nuclear weapons, few historians have given this hugely important issue the kind of dedicated and sustained treatment it deserves. In Churchill and the Bomb, however, Kevin Ruane has undertaken extensive primary research in Britain, the United States and Europe, and accessed a wide array of secondary literature, in producing an immensely readable yet detailed, insightful and provocative account of Churchill's nuclear hopes and fears.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the riveting story of the war in North Africa. The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power. Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel. Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In the second volume of his epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy In An Army at Dawn--winner of the Pulitzer Prize--Rick Atkinson provided an authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa during World War II. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the strengthening American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943 and then, mile by bloody mile, fight their way north toward Rome. The decision to invade the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was controversial, but once under way, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis never wavered. The battles at Salerno, Anzio, the Rapido River, and Monte Cassino were particularly lethal, yet as the months passed, the Allied forces continued to drive the Germans up the Italian peninsula. And with the liberation of Rome in June 1944, ultimate victory at last began to seem inevitable. Drawing on a wide array of primary source material, written with great drama and flair, The Day of Battle is a masterly account of one of history's most compelling military campaigns.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The magnificent conclusion to Rick Atkinson's acclaimed Liberation Trilogy about the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II It is the twentieth century's unrivaled epic: at a staggering price, the United States and its allies liberated Europe and vanquished Hitler. In the first two volumes of his bestselling Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson recounted how the American-led coalition fought through North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now, in The Guns at Last Light, he tells the most dramatic story of all--the titanic battle for Western Europe. D-Day marked the commencement of the final campaign of the European war, and Atkinson's riveting account of that bold gamble sets the pace for the masterly narrative that follows. The brutal fight in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the disaster that was Operation Market Garden, the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and finally the thrust to the heart of the Third Reich--all these historic events and more come alive with a wealth of new material and a mesmerizing cast of characters. Atkinson tells the tale from the perspective of participants at every level, from presidents and generals to war-weary lieutenants and terrified teenage riflemen. When Germany at last surrenders, we understand anew both the devastating cost of this global conflagration and the enormous effort required to win the Allied victory. With the stirring final volume of this monumental trilogy, Atkinson's accomplishment is manifest. He has produced the definitive chronicle of the war that unshackled a continent and preserved freedom in the West. One of The Washington Post's Top 10 Books of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013

The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe A dramatic countdown of the final months of World War II in Europe, The Last 100 Days brings to life the waning power and the ultimate submission of the Third Reich. To reconstruct the tumultuous hundred days between Yalta and the fall of Berlin, John Toland traveled more than 100,000 miles in twenty-one countries and interviewed more than six hundred people-from Hitler's personal chauffeur to Generals von Manteuffel, Wenck, and Heinrici; from underground leaders to diplomats; from top Allied field commanders to brave young GIs. Toland adeptly weaves together these interviews using research from thousands of primary sources. When it was first published, The Last 100 Days made history, revealing after-action reports, staff journals, and top-secret messages and personal documents previously unavailable to historians. Since that time, it has come to be regarded as one of the greatest historical narratives of the twentieth century.

In this widely acclaimed history of a country at war, Alexander Werth unfolds in startling human terms the story of the Russian people and their leaders in the Soviet conflict with the Nazis from the disasters of the Second World War to the beginnings of the Cold War. Himself an eyewitness to the shattering historical drama he vividly records, Werth offers an intensely detailed chronicle of the events that exceeded in savagery and hatred of any other on Russian soil. From the hardships of the citizenry to the sweep of massive military operations to the corridors of diplomacy, this modern classic captures every aspect of the grim but heroic Soviet-German war that turned Russia into the most powerful nation in the Old World.

This thoroughly documented, scholarly work, very well written and organized, shows how in each of the three groups the sycophants switched and reswitched as the official line shifted. . . . Interesting to historian, political scientist, and student of propaganda methods, this work is for most academic and large public libraries.

This Battery Press Reprint of the Russian Army's Handbook from the War Office. It contains Notes on the Red Army (1940), Tactics and Organization, and Uniforms and Insignia. Printed in B&W, it also contains the War Office 1944 update.

A groundbreaking account of the Soviet Air Force in World War II, the original version of this book, Red Phoenix, was hailed by the Washington Post as both "brilliant" and "monumental." That version has now been completely overhauled in the wake of an avalanche of declassified Russian archival sources, combat documents, and statistical information made available in the past three decades. The result, "Red Phoenix Rising," is nothing less than definitive. The saga of the Soviet air force, one of the least chronicled aspects of the war, marked a transition from near annihilation in 1941 to the world's largest operational-tactical air force four years later. Von Hardesty and Ilya Grinberg reveal the dynamic changes in tactics and operational art that allowed the VVS to bring about that remarkable transformation. Drawing upon a wider array of primary sources, well beyond the uncritical and ultra-patriotic Soviet memoirs underpinning the original version, this volume corrects, updates, and amplifies its predecessor. In the process, it challenges many "official" accounts and revises misconceptions promoted by scholars who relied heavily on German sources, thus enlarging our understanding of the brutal campaigns fought on the Eastern Front. The authors describe the air campaigns as they unfolded, with full chapters devoted to the monumental victories at Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk. By combining the deeply affecting human drama of pilots, relentlessly confronted by lethal threats in the air and on the ground, with a rich technical understanding of complex military machines, they have produced a fast-paced, riveting look at the air war on the Eastern Front as it has never been seen before. They also address dilemmas faced by the Soviet Air Force in the immediate postwar era as it moved to adopt the new technology of long-range bombers, jet propulsion and nuclear arms. Drawing heavily upon individual accounts down to the unit level, Hardesty and Grinberg greatly enhance our understanding of their story's human dimension, while the book's more than 100 photos, many never before seen in the West, vividly portray the high stakes and hardware of this dramatic tale.

A very detailed-oriented account written from the Soviet perspective of the bloodiest battles of WW II.

The Russian war effort to defeat invading Axis powers, an effort that assembled the largest military force in recorded history and that cost the lives of more than 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians, was the decisive factor for securing an Allied victory. Now with access to the wealth of film archives and interview material from Russia used to produce the ten-hour television documentary Russia's War, Richard Overy tackles the many persuasive questions surrounding this conflict. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes--of something deep within the Russian soul?

A leading authority provides an integrated comprehensive survey of the Soviet's prodigious growth in military might from the last Czar to present-day ballistic missiles and satellites.
Covers basic research, development, production, and operative air regiments and commands.
Using source materials of unparalleled scope, it examines internal political pressures, the doctrinal significance of the force, and the assistance given to the Soviets by the West. It also covers historical and present use by the Soviets in war.

The Battle of Stalingrad was not only the psychological turning point of World War II: it also changed the face of modern warfare. From Antony Beevor, the internationally bestselling author of D-Day and The Battle of Arnhem. In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has itnerviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable. Historians and reviewers worldwide have hailed Antony Beevor's magisterial Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, “a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened—muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox.”

Records the planning and execution of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and looks at what it reveals about American leadership.

The Doolittle Raiders, as they became known, were a squadron of eighty scarcely trained young men led by the famous daredevil aviator Jimmy Doolittle. Their mission-the daring World War II bombing raid of Tokyo and other cities in April 1942-was successful until Japanese spies forced most of the squadron to crash-land in enemy-occupied China, where pilots were ferried underground across the country to safety. One plane landed in the Soviet port of Vladivostok, where the crew was eventually smuggled out of the country through Persia. Others were captured by the Japanese, confined to years of imprisonment and torture. The fact that 90 percent of the men involved came home alive was little short of a miracle. Extensively researched, including interviews with twenty of the twenty-seven remaining survivors, "The First Heroes" vividly recreates America's first great victory of World War II. Craig Nelson follows the Doolittle Raiders from their secret training on a Florida airfield to their tense days in transit across the Pacific to the bombing itself and finally to their courageous accounts of survival against astonishing odds. This story of America's striking back at its enemies after a vicious surprise attack will resonate widely with the general public today.

Captain Stephen Wentworth Roskill, CBE, DSC, FBA was a senior career officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War and, after his enforced medical retirement, served as the official historian of the Royal Navy from 1949 to 1960.

The planning, the strategy, the sacrifices and heroics--on both sides--illuminating the greatest naval war in history. On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative. Ian W. Toll's dramatic narrative encompasses both the high command and the "sailor's-eye" view from the lower deck. Relying predominantly on eyewitness accounts and primary sources, Pacific Crucible also spotlights recent scholarship that has revised our understanding of the conflict, including the Japanese decision to provoke a war that few in the country's highest circles thought they could win. The result is a page-turning history that does justice to the breadth and depth of a tremendous subject.

Originally published by Historical Section, Division of Public Information, headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1947 and 1948.
Two titles in one book.

This celebrated classic gives a soldier's-eye-view of the Guadalcanal battles--crucial to World War II, the war that continues to fascinate us all, and to military history in general. Unlike some of those on Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942, Richard Tregaskis volunteered to be there. An on-location news correspondent (at the time, one of only two on Guadalcanal), he lived alongside the soldiers: sleeping on the ground--only to be awoken by air raids--eating the sometimes meager rations, and braving some of the most dangerous battlefields of World War II. He more than once narrowly escaped the enemy's fire, and so we have this incisive and exciting inside account of the groundbreaking initial landing of U.S. troops on Guadalcanal. With a new Introduction by Mark Bowden--renowned journalist and author of "Black Hawk Down" --this edition of "Guadalcanal Diary" makes available once more one of the most important American works of the war.

The fourteenth in the Marine Corps operational monographs of the Pacific Campaigns of World War II. Forward by General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.

"This is the story of what one reporter saw and heard and thought during one battle. No official documents have been consulted. I have relied entirely upon my memory of what happened only a few days ago on Tarawa, and upon my notebooks, which I started filling assiduously as soon after the landing as I could dry them out. Later it seemed ridiculous that I should have been scribbling in notebooks during that first day and a half on Tarawa when it seemed certain that I would never have the chance to write any stories from them. I suppose that it was because I felt quite hopeless to do anything else. I had a feeling that I should have been doing something to help win the battle, if possible. Yet there was nothing prescribed in a war correspondent's list of duties. So I sat there on our twenty-foot beachhead, back against the slender seawall that was our protection, fulfilling the nearest thing I had to duty, while men were being killed all around me. This volume is the result" - From the Foreword

On the outcome of the Battle of Saipain hung the fate of the Pacific War, if the Japanese were to lost this island then the Home Islands would finally be in range of serious American bombing. As the fanatical resistance of the Japanese was raised to fever pitch by the exhortations of the high command, whilst the Marines who had learnt hard lessons on assault landings knew that the capture of Saipan could shorten the war immeasurably; so was set one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Pacific Campaign. The Japanese fought with insane courage, leading to massed banzai charges and civilian suicides; matches by the gritty determination of the experienced Marines to conquer.

By invading Guam, US forces were not only getting access to a fine harbor and a number of airfields to use in future operations but were also liberating a US territory captured by the Japanese in 1941.

The author does an excellent job of bringing together the surviving documents to not only document the various actions, but to explain (to the extent possible) the motivations. He does not excuse Kurita’s actions, or the larger failures of the Japanese leadership. But he also puts them into the larger context of the war, which is only fair. Additionally, the author accounts some of the heroic actions of individual sailors and airmen; not enough, of course, but to do them justice would require several books. And finally, the author minces no words about the failures of American leadership, without pretending that commanders should be infallible. No commander wins for long without taking chances, and taking chances means sometimes guessing wrong. In this instance Halsey got suckered, and brave crews in escort carriers and their screen not only paid the price, but with such heroism as to turn certain defeat into a very expensive victory. The photos in the book also do an amazing job of conveying some sense of the scale of violence.

A classic amphibious operation, the assault on Iwo Jima was a five-week-long decisive battle which cost the lives of 5,000 Marines and 20,000 Japanese defenders. This vivid portrait tells of that famous battle from World War II, and of the gallant men who fought it.

The story of part played by the United States Marines in the largest amphibious assault of the entire Pacific War during World War II. The battle lasted an exhausting and bloody 82 days from early April until mid-June 1945. The legendarily tough defence of the Japanese soldiers and citizens was matched by the American troops in the last major campaign that had led all the way from Pearl Harbor to the Home Islands of Japan. The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Japan lost over 100,000 soldiers, who were either killed, captured or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds. Simultaneously, tens of thousands of local civilians were killed, wounded, or committed suicide.

With a new preface by the author Controversial in nature, this book demonstrates that the United States did not need to use the atomic bomb against Japan. Alperovitz criticizes one of the most hotly debated precursory events to the Cold War, an event that was largely responsible for the evolution of post-World War II American politics and culture.

Hiroshima was an event of such magnitude that it divided history into two periods, before the bomb, and after it--'Day One' of a new age, in which all life would be at risk. Here in all its drama is the untold story of the dawn of that new age--the creation and the use of the atomic bomb. Never before have all the strands--scientific, political, moral, military and human--been woven together with such authenticity and such skill as to provide the reader with a full understanding of how the bomb was created and why it was used. 'Day "Day One" illuminates the scientific breakthroughs and the espionage: the manipulations and false assumptions by the highest policymakers on three continents; the extraordinary secret life in three American cities where 100,000 people worked to build the bomb--and the reality of Day One in Hiroshima, where 130,000 people died. Because of the decisions that were taken and the mistakes that were made, it is, for the first time, the complete unvarnished account of the greatest and most dangerous gamble in the long history of the human race.

Written 36 years after the event, here is the definitive scientific report on the only experience to date with nuclear warfare. The short- and long-range effects of the most portentous and terrifying event of the 20th century. Compiled by Japanese authorities, it combines the physical, psychological, and social consequences of the two events. - Goodreads.

Martin J. Sherwin's classic account of the political and diplomatic circumstances surrounding the development of the first atom bomb is as timely now as when it was written. His new introduction warns that until we understand its origins. the arms race will continue to force superpower relations to be conducted at the edge of the nuclear abyss.

On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were injured. Published on the seventieth anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki takes readers from the morning of the bombing to the city today, telling the first-hand experiences of five survivors, all of whom were teenagers at the time of the devastation.

Author Lesley M.M. Blume reveals how one courageous American reporter uncovered one of the deadliest cover-ups of the 20th century--the true effects of the atom bomb--potentially saving millions of lives. Just days after the United States decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. But even before the surrender, the US government and military had begun a secret propaganda and information suppression campaign to hide the devastating nature of these experimental weapons. The cover-up intensified as Occupation forces closed the atomic cities to Allied reporters, preventing leaks about the horrific long-term effects of radiation which would kill thousands during the months after the blast. For nearly a year the cover-up worked--until New Yorker journalist John Hersey got into Hiroshima and managed to report the truth to the world. As Hersey and his editors prepared his article for publication, they kept the story secret--even from most of their New Yorker colleagues. When the magazine published "Hiroshima" in August 1946, it became an instant global sensation, and inspired pervasive horror about the hellish new threat that America had unleashed. Since 1945, no nuclear weapons have ever been deployed in war partly because Hersey alerted the world to their true, devastating impact. This knowledge has remained among the greatest deterrents to using them since the end of World War II. Released on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, "Fallout" is an engrossing detective story, as well as an important piece of hidden history that shows how one heroic scoop saved--and can still save--the world.

Hiroshima Notes is a powerful statement on the Hiroshima bombing and its terrible legacy by the 1994 Nobel laureate for literature. Oe's account of the lives of the many victims of Hiroshima and the valiant efforts of those who cared for them, both immediately after the atomic blast and in the years that follow, reveals the horrific extent of the devastation. It is a heartrending portrait of a ravaged city -- the "human face" in the midst of nuclear destruction.

How do people turn fear and distrust into peace and friendship? This story of international middle school students living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan where they create the Birds of Peace Project is a story of hope, encouragement and practical examples of the positive difference every individual can make.

"The use of nuclear weapons on civilian populations has weighed heavily on our national conscience - with profound effects, argue Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell." "To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they have written the first book that assesses the political, ethical, and psychological impact of Hiroshima on our nation. The book opens on August 6, 1945, the day of the bombing of Hiroshima, with the official statement by President Harry S. Truman, which began our government's extensive distortion of information and management of the news media. The story comes to a climax nearly fifty years later, with an inside view of the recent debacle at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., when a wave of opposition forced the museum to cancel a full exhibit about the atomic bombing and its human effects." "Throughout Hiroshima in America, the authors offer a powerful and thought-provoking analysis of what we have lost by our unwillingness to face the truth about Hiroshima. They also present a landmark portrait of Harry Truman and an exploration of the factors that led him to authorize using the bomb, and defend that act for the rest of his life."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: "If we lose the war, we'll be tried as war criminals." James M. Scott reconstructs in granular detail that horrific night, and describes the development of the B-29, the capture of the Marianas for use as airfields, and the change in strategy from high-altitude daylight "precision" bombing to low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing. Most importantly, the raid represented a significant moral shift for America, marking the first time commanders deliberately targeted civilians which helped pave the way for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later. Drawing on first-person interviews with American pilots and bombardiers and Japanese survivors, air force archives, and oral histories never before published in English, Scott delivers a harrowing and gripping account, and his most important and compelling work to date.

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force, the Kido Butai, had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II, leading naval historian Craig L. Symonds paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice. Symonds begins with the arrival of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese attack, and describes the key events leading to the climactic battle, including both Coral Sea-the first battle in history against opposing carrier forces-and Jimmy Doolittle's daring raid of Tokyo. He focuses throughout on the people involved, offering telling portraits of Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, Spruance and numerous other Americans, as well as the leading Japanese figures, including the poker-loving Admiral Yamamoto. Symonds' account of the battle itself is masterful, weaving together the many disparate threads of attack-attacks which failed in the early going-that ultimately created a five-minute window in which three of the four Japanese carriers were mortally wounded, changing the course of the Pacific war in an eye-blink.

A history of the Korean War makes use of recently declassified documents that provide a background for the decisions that affected the course of the war.

The Battle of Pork Chop Hill fought during the Korean War, was made into a famous movie starring Gregory Peck. The outcome of this war and the tremendous loss of human life is what we have today. The war started on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. The fighting war ended on 27 July 1953 when an armistice was concluded. However, the two sides never signed a peace treaty. The two sides are still technically at war. South Korea has prospered and it is one of the most advanced countries in the world. North Korea is in a state of semi-starvation. War might break out again at any moment. North Korea is now testing atomic weapons and missiles that it says are capable of hitting San Francisco or New York. Meanwhile, twenty-five million South Koreans in Seoul are trembling in fear that a fighting war will break out again and Seoul might be overrun and everybody there killed.

This book shares with you the history of the Seventh Infantry in Korea. It was prepared by The Public Information Office Seventh Infantry Division for The Seventh Division Historical Council on 1 January 1953. --Amazon.com

An interesting account of the first weeks of the Korean War written by a now largely forgotten US diplomat. Noble works closely with the UN forces in Korea and even advises MacArthur. A major theme in the book is how fluid the initial weeks of the Korean War were, with embassy personnel and military officers constantly moving between locations in Korea, and between Korea and Japan as the frontlines change.

Military history generally deals with campaigns; the factors affecting the situation; the decisions of higher commanders, and with an analysis of the results accomplished. The human reactions of the thousands of lesser actors are as a rule painted with a broad brush only. The details are usually left to the historical novel or quasi-historical novel. Yet the actual story is far more convincing than any fictional account. What Andrew Geer has done in 'The New Breed' is to picture vividly the real-life, not fictional, Marine, as he fought the bitter battles of the Naktong, struggled with the mud flats and sea walls of Inchon, crushed the enemy barricades in Seoul, and cut his way through a Chinese army from the Chosin Reservoir to the sea. In telling this detailed story, however, Major Geer has not neglected the broad picture.

The author describes operations with clarity and a balance that have since become a model for official military history. Even better, he has analyzed the operations, interpreting their significance overall to the course of the conflict and their importance in the application of airpower to modern war. He shows the effects of close air support in enemy killed, supplies denied, and the turn of battle he assesses the success or failure of various strategies, tactics, techniques, and methods he emphasizes the difficulties the Air Force faced and how the challenges were met and overcome. He details the modifications to doctrine and procedure, the changes in organization necessitated by distance or shortages in men and equipment, or by austere and inadequate fields and facilities.

How presidents spark and sustain support for wars remains an enduring and significant problem. Korea was the first limited war the U.S. experienced in the contemporary period - the first recent war fought for something less than total victory. In Selling the Korean War, Steven Casey explores how President Truman and then Eisenhower tried to sell it to the American public. Based on a massive array of primary sources, Casey subtly explores the government's selling activities from all angles. He looks at the halting and sometimes chaotic efforts of Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles. He examines the relationships that they and their subordinates developed with a host of other institutions, from Congress and the press to Hollywood and labor. And he assesses the complex and fraught interactions between the military and war correspondents in the battlefield theater itself. From high politics to bitter media spats, Casey guides the reader through the domestic debates of this messy, costly war. He highlights the actions and calculations of colorful figures, including Senators Robert Taft and Joseph McCarthy, and General Douglas MacArthur. He details how the culture and work routines of Congress and the media influenced political tactics and daily news stories. And he explores how different phases of the war threw up different problems - from the initial disasters in the summer of 1950 to the giddy prospects of victory in October 1950, from the massive defeats in the wake of China's massive intervention to the lengthy period of stalemate fighting in 1952 and 1953.

Collins served as Army Chief of Staff during the Korean War; this is the first memoir by a member of the Joint Chiefs as then constituted. It will be read as an analog to Vietnam and a supplement to Ridgway's biography (Ridgway comes across here as a fierce soldier). What it tries to show is more interesting than specific military sequences or general comments on "limited war." Collins gets most exercised over lack of resources -- what he saw as a skimpy budget and an excessive post-WWII demobilization.

This is the story of the first jet versus jet war, the largest in a number of victories and losses, and one of the few military bright spots in the Korean War. It tells how an outnumbered force of F-86 Sabres limited by range and restricted by the rules of engagement, decisively defeated its foe. Based on the latest scholarship, author Kenneth Werrell uses previously untapped sources and interviews with sixty former F-86 pilots to explore new aspects of the subject and shed light on controversies previously neglected. For example, he found a much greater violation of the Yalu River than thus far has appeared in the published materials. The F-86 became a legend in "The Forgotten War" because of its performance and beauty, but most of all, because of its record in combat.

The classic account of the 2nd Infantry Division retreat from the Chongchon River, North Korea in November 1950.

"In Battle at best [S.L.A. Marshall] applies [the battle analysis] method -- the assessment of data gleaned from on-the-spot interviews with the troops themselves -- to eight critical actions of World War II and Korea. Taken together, these battles illustrate the infinite variety of combat experience and reveal new truths about soldiers under fire." - From the publisher's book jacket.

The struggle for Vietnam occupies a central place in the history of the twentieth century. Fought over a period of three decades, the conflict drew in all the world's powers and saw two of them--first France, then the United States--attempt to subdue the revolutionary Vietnamese forces. For France, the defeat marked the effective end of her colonial empire, while for America the war left a gaping wound in the body politic that remains open to this day. How did it happen? Tapping into newly accessible diplomatic archives in several nations and making full use of the published literature, distinguished scholar Fredrik Logevall traces the path that led two Western nations to lose their way in Vietnam. Embers of War opens in 1919 at the Versailles Peace Conference, where a young Ho Chi Minh tries to deliver a petition for Vietnamese independence to President Woodrow Wilson. It concludes in 1959, with a Viet Cong ambush on an outpost outside Saigon and the deaths of two American officers whose names would be the first to be carved into the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In between come years of political, military, and diplomatic maneuvering and miscalculation, as leaders on all sides embark on a series of stumbles that makes an eminently avoidable struggle a bloody and interminable reality. The author brings to life the bloodiest battles of France's final years in Indochina--and shows how from an early point, a succession of American leaders made disastrous policy choices that put America on its own collision course with history. An epic story of wasted opportunities and tragic miscalculations, featuring an extraordinary cast of larger-than-life characters, "Embers of War" delves deep into the historical record to provide hard answers to the unanswered questions surrounding the demise of one Western power in Vietnam and the arrival of another. This book will become the definitive chronicle of the struggle's origins for years to come. - From the publisher.

An in-depth study of American involvement in Vietnam, from French dominion to the final withdrawal of American forces, discusses the historical background, political maneuvers, military campaigns, participants in, and consequences of American involvement.

The art of guerrila warfare as well as sophisticated air and naval tactics are examined in a study of the weaponry and military operations of the Vietnam War.

There were no homecoming parades for the million men and women who served in the longest war America ever fought...the only war it has ever lost. This is a book about 65 of those nearly forgotten men who soldiered in the late 1960s in a gook-hunting, dirt-eating, dog-soldiering infantry unit called Charlie Company. They were boys then, 19 or 20 years old on the average. The army snatched them up out of small towns, suited them up as soldiers and sent them off to a place they could not locate on a map to fight a war they did not understand. CHARLIE COMPANY is not a military history. It is not a record of battles or a moral commentary. It is instead a chess game viewed by the pawns. It is a collective memoir of the war and the homecoming, filtered through time and pain, anger and guilt, bitterness and forgetfulness.

This latest addition to The New Press's People's History series offers an incisive account of the war America lost, from the perspective of those who opposed it on both sides of the battlefront as well as on the homefront. The protagonists in Neale's history of the "American War" (as the Vietnamese refer to it) are common people struggling to shape the outcome of events unfolding on an international stage--American foot soldiers who increasingly opposed American military policy on the ground in Vietnam, local Vietnamese activists and guerrillas fighting to build a just society, and the American civilians who mobilized to bring the war to a halt. His narrative includes vivid, first-person commentary from the ordinary men and women whose collective actions resulted in the defeat of the world's most powerful military machine.

No one can understand the complete tragedy of the American experience in Vietnam without reading this book. Nothing so underscores the ambivalence and confusion of the American commitment as does the composition of our fighting forces. The rich and the powerful may have supported the war initially, but they contributed little of themselves. That responsibility fell to the poor and the working class of America.--Senator George McGovern "Reminds us of the disturbing truth that some 80 percent of the 2.5 million enlisted men who served in Vietnam--out of 27 million men who reached draft age during the war--came from working-class and impoverished backgrounds. . . . Deals especially well with the apparent paradox that the working-class soldiers' families back home mainly opposed the antiwar movement, and for that matter so with few exceptions did the soldiers themselves.--New York Times Book Review "[Appy's] treatment of the subject makes it clear to his readers--almost as clear as it became for the soldiers in Vietnam--that class remains the tragic dividing wall between Americans.--Boston Globe

Summer's inspired analysis of America's war in Vietnam answers the most pressing questions remaining from that terrible conflict more than a decade before Robert McNamara's painful admissions.

This is the second volume in a series of nine chronological histories being prepared by the Marine Corps History and Museums Division to cover the entire span of Marine Corps involvement in the Vietnam War. This volume details the Marine activities during 1965, the year the war escalated and major American combat units were committed to the conflict. The narrative traces the landing of the nearly 5,000-man 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and its transformation into the Ill Marine Amphibious Force, which by the end of the year contained over 38,000 Marines. During this period, the Marines established three enclaves in South Vietnam's northernmost corps area, I Corps, and their mission expanded from defense of the Da Nang Airbase to a balanced strategy involving base defense, offensive operations, and pacification. This volume continues to treat the activities of Marine advisors to the South Vietnamese armed forces but in less detail than its predecessor volume, U. S. Marines in Vietnam, 1954-1964, The Advisory and Combat Assistance Era.

A report on the slaughter of 102 South Vietnamese civilians in 1968, and the investigation into the actions of the American soldiers who were involved in this mass murder.

The author recounts his life with the 3rd MPs preceding combat duty and reveals an informative, entertaining, seldom described side of war.

One of the most acclaimed books of our time--the definitive Vietnam War exposé and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. When he came to Vietnam in 1962, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann was the one clear-sighted participant in an enterprise riddled with arrogance and self-deception, a charismatic soldier who put his life and career on the line in an attempt to convince his superiors that the war should be fought another way. By the time he died in 1972, Vann had embraced the follies he once decried. He died believing that the war had been won. In this magisterial book, a monument of history and biography that was awarded the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, a renowned journalist tells the story of John Vann--"the one irreplaceable American in Vietnam"--and of the tragedy that destroyed a country and squandered so much of America's young manhood and resources.

Written by a 4-Star Marine General, the author was the first commander of the Third Marine Amphibious Force in Vietnam. He developed new and imaginative programs to bolster not only the security of the countryside but also its health, welfare, and self-reliance. A lively and moving account of both military and humanitarian missions. The main emphasis is on policies and techniques for winning the little people of the country.

A history of the air war in Vietnam focuses on the experiences of fourteen military pilots, including the aircraft and missions they flew, and the fate of POWs.

1. Nineteen Sixty-Eight; 2. Images of War; 3. Flags Into Battle; 4.The Fall of the South; 5. Raising the Stakes; 6. A Nation Divided; 7. America Takes Over; 8.A Contagion of War; 9.Setting the Stage; 10. Combat Photographer; 11. War in the Shadows; 12. The Aftermath; 13.Thunder From Above; 14. Rain of Fire; 15. Words of War; 16.Fighting for Time; 17. Passing the Torch; 18.South Vietnam on Trial; 19. A War Remembered; 20. Tools of War; 21.The False Peace; and 22. A Collision of Cultures

Norman tells the dramatic story of fifty women--members of the Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurse Corps--who went to war, working in military hospitals, aboard ships, and with air evacuation squadrons during the Vietnam War. Here, in a moving narrative, the women talk about why they went to war, the experiences they had while they were there, and how war affected them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The powerful account of an American army platoon fighting for survival during the Vietnam War in "an important book....not just a battle story--it's also about the home front" (The Today show). On January 31, 1968, as many as 100,000 guerilla fighters and soldiers in the North Vietnamese Army attacked thirty-six cities throughout South Vietnam, hoping to dislodge American forces during one of the vital turning points of the Vietnam War. Alongside other young American soldiers in an Army reconnaissance platoon (Echo Company, 1/501) of the 101st Airborne Division, Stanley Parker, the nineteen-year-old son of a Texan ironworker, was suddenly thrust into savage combat, having been in-country only a few weeks. As Stan and his platoon-mates, many of whom had enlisted in the Army, eager to become paratroopers, moved from hot zone to hot zone, the extreme physical and mental stresses of Echo Company's day-to-day existence, involving ambushes and attacks, grueling machine-gun battles, and impossibly dangerous rescues of wounded comrades, pushed them all to their limits and forged them into a lifelong brotherhood. The war became their fight for survival. When they came home, some encountered a bitterly divided country that didn't understand what they had survived. Returning to the small farms, beach towns, and big cities where they grew up, many of the men in the platoon fell silent, knowing that few of their countrymen wanted to hear the stories they lived to tell--until now. Based on interviews, personal letters, and Army after-action reports, The Odyssey of Echo Company recounts the searing tale of wartime service and homecoming of ordinary young American men in an extraordinary time and confirms Doug Stanton's prominence as an unparalleled storyteller of our age.

Harry Truman's administration began searching for an American response to the clash in Indochina between Frech colonialism and Vietminh communism in 1945. Thirty years and five administrations later, Gerald Ford and his aides tried unsuccessfully to solicit additional aid for South Vietnam from a reluctant Congress. For Truman, Ford, and every American leader in between, the dilemma in Vietnam hung ominously over the presidency. In Shadow on the White House, seven prominent historians examine how the leadership of six presidents and an issue that grew into a difficult and often unpopular war shaped each other. Focusing on the personalities, politics, priorities, and actions of the presidents as they confronted Vietnam, the authors consider the expansion of presidential power in foreign-policy formulation since World War II. In their analyses, they chronicle the history of executive leadership as it related to Vietnam, assess presidential prerogatives and motives on war and peace issues, and clarify the interconnection between the modern presidency and the nation's frustrating, tragic, and humiliating failure in Southeast Asia. Although other histories have been written about the Vietnam experience, this book is the first systematic and comparative survey on presidential leadership as it relates to the war issue. It is organized by presidential administrations, giving a detailed examination of each president's decisions and policies. Based on the most recently opened archival sources, the essays provide a framework on which to hang the kaleidoscopic events of the war.

Netanel Lorch, who fought as an officer in Jerusalem during Israel’s War of Independence and later founded the Israel Defense Forces’ Historical Section, offers a detailed military history of the years 1947-49. The book begins with the tensions of the British Mandate period in Palestine, including the international debates over proposed boundaries for the new Jewish state, and examines the chaos that followed the British evacuation, the invasion of five Arab armies supported by guerrilla fighters inside Israel, the defeat of the Arab armies, and the signing of armistice agreements at Rhodes. It surveys the strength, weaknesses, equipment and manpower of Jewish and Arab forces and describes the strategies and tactics used in operations launched by all sides, together with the results of the battles that led to Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

A Knesset member and former Director of Military Intelligence for Israel chronicles the series of wars that commenced with the 1948 War of Independence, highlighting the personal and political struggles that have shaped Israeli history.

In print for forty years, The Israel-Arab Reader is a thorough and up-to-date guide to the continuing crisis in the Middle East. It covers the full spectrum of the Israel-Arab conflict, including a new chapter recounting the Gaza withdrawal, the Hamas election victory, and the Lebanon-Israel War. Featuring a new introduction that provides an overview of the past 115 years of conflict, and arranged chronologically and without bias, this comprehensive reference includes speeches, letters, articles, timelines, and reports dealing with all the major interests in the area.

In 1956 and again in 1967 the volatile Middle
East exploded into war. Within days each time, the author was on the scene, interviewing soldiers and principals, studying the terrain, and analyzing strategy and tactics. "Sinai Victory" is a unique battlefield report of Israel's hundred hour conquest of Egypt east of the Suez in 1956.

Kennett Love's mammoth book on the Suez Crisis, written just thirteen years after it unfolded, is an impressive if certainly flawed chronicle. The main virtue of Love's book, compared to later tomes like Keith Kyle's Suez and Howard Neff's Warriors at Suez, is the depth of first-hand research: Lovett, a New York Times reporter, covered most of the events described firsthand, personally interviewed Eden, Eisenhower and Nasser (among others) and thus the book has a richness of anecdotal detail and penetrating on-the-spot analysis that wows even today. The book has a frustrating narrative structure, telling the Suez story for a chapter then looping back for an exposition dump concerning one or more of the participants, which makes some passages rougher sledding. It's also notable that Lovett, unlike most other chroniclers of the Crisis, focuses not on Britain's imperial folly but the irresolvable Arab-Israeli dispute, which isn't any closer to ending fifty years later (even if Egypt and Israel, at least, have formalized relations).

Suicide attacks on Israelis, bombings, assassinations, and bloodshed in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank dominate the news from the Middle East. It is the most troubled region on earth. At its heart is the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis - and the legacy of six days of the war in 1967. After the state of Israel emerged from the war in 1948, both sides knew more battles were coming. In June 1967, years of slow-burning tension exploded. In six extraordinary days, Israel destroyed the armed forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. But far from bringing peace, as many Israelis hoped, their stunning victory turned into a curse. From the initial battle order issued to the Israeli air force on Monday, June 5, 1967, to the final ceasefire on the evening of Saturday the 10th, the Six-Day War was a riveting human drama. Building on his first-hand experience of the region after his five years as the BBC's Middle East Correspondent, as well as extensive original research, Jeremy Bowen, presents a compelling new history of the conflict. Six Days recreates day by day, hour by hour, the bullying and brinkmanship that led four nations to war, interweaving testimonies of combatants from all sides in a seamless narrative. A rigorous and original piece of modern history is as vivid as fiction, Six Days not only sheds new light on one of the key conflicts of the twentieth century, it explains much about the Middle East and the problems the region still faces today.

Focuses on the events and ramifications of the Six-Day War of 1967 and argues that the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews was made worse by the war's outcome.

Historical record with photographs of Israeli Victory in June 1967, in the Six-Day War.

Essays commissioned by the Association of Arab-American University Graduates.

On June 8th, 1967, at the height of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Israeli air and naval forces attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence-collection ship in the service of Israel's closest ally, while that vessel steamed in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula. The Israelis killed 34 Americans, wounded 171, and nearly sank the ship. Dozens of theories exist about what happened that day. Official inquiries conducted in both the United States and Israel attributed the event to faulty communications and tragic error, but survivors remain outspoken and not alone in their belief that the Israelis acted deliberately.

Jansen does not hide her sympathy for the Palestinians, nor for the innocent Lebanese caught in the crossfire of their conflict with the Israelis. She places the invasion firmly in the context of previous Israeli aggression and expansionism, showing clearly that it differed only in degree - not in kind - from earlier Israeli operations.

A searing reassessment of U.S. military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades from retired army colonel and New York Times bestselling author Andrew J. Bacevich From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise--now more than thirty years old and with no end in sight. During the 1980s, Bacevich argues, a great transition occurred. As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new conflict--a War for the Greater Middle East--that continues to the present day. The long twilight struggle with the Soviet Union had involved only occasional and sporadic fighting. But as this new war unfolded, hostilities became persistent. From the Balkans and East Africa to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, U.S. forces embarked upon a seemingly endless series of campaigns across the Islamic world. Few achieved anything remotely like conclusive success. Instead, actions undertaken with expectations of promoting peace and stability produced just the opposite. As a consequence, phrases like "permanent war" and "open-ended war" have become part of everyday discourse. Connecting the dots in a way no other historian has done before, Bacevich weaves a compelling narrative out of episodes as varied as the Beirut bombing of 1983, the Mogadishu firefight of 1993, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the rise of ISIS in the present decade. Understanding what America's costly military exertions have wrought requires seeing these seemingly discrete events as parts of a single war. It also requires identifying the errors of judgment made by political leaders in both parties and by senior military officers who share responsibility for what has become a monumental march to folly. This Bacevich unflinchingly does. A twenty-year army veteran who served in Vietnam, Andrew J. Bacevich brings the full weight of his expertise to this vitally important subject. America's War for the Greater Middle East is a bracing after-action report from the front lines of history. It will fundamentally change the way we view America's engagement in the world's most volatile region.

After a million deaths and twice that number injured, after the destruction of much of the infrastructure of Iran and Iraq, disruption of trade throughout the Gulf and the involvement of the USA and USSR, was the Gulf War a pointless exercise, a futile conflict which achieved nothing and left the combatants at the end of it all back in exactly the same position from which they started in 1980? In this book, first published in 1989, the authors argue that the lack of territorial gain was irrelevant: the real advantages won by each side were far more important, intangible though they were. For Iran, the channelling of the energies of her people away from domestic concerns meant the continuation of the Islamic revolution and ensured the stability of the mullahs. In Iraq, the war propped up the increasingly shaky regime of Saddam Hussein. The outside world, especially the superpowers, was terrified of the spread of Muslim fundamentalism, so made no effort to prevent Iraq from trying to halt this spread. But Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the oil states also had vested interests in promoting the continuation of the war. - From Routledge

An account of the war in the Persian Gulf takes readers behind the scenes at the Pentagon and the White House to provide portraits of the top military commanders and to discuss what worked and what did not.

Writings by columnists, politicians, & political advisers on the 1990 events in Kuwait & Iraq.

Dr. Sulayman S. Nyang was a professor and former chairman of the African Studies Department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He was a co-principal investigator of Project MAPS and also a former deputy ambassador and head of the chancery of the Gambia Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Contents: Iraq and Kuwait: historical setting -- The Saddam factor: rise of an Iraqi "prince" -- Iraq, Kuwait and the road to war -- After the invasion -- Gulf War diplomacy: a gap never bridged -- From Shield to Storm: hosting the buildup -- The reactions of Muslim states to the Gulf Crisis -- Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world -- Conclusion: the emergence of Saudi Arabia. - From the book.

Rick Atkinson's account of the First Gulf War captures the essence the conflict and calls out the many sacrifices made by our service members in a war portrayed in the media (manipulated by the military) as a nearly bloodless computer game for the allied forces. Crusade's attention to detail brought back memory's of the time and put somethings in a historical perspective for me. What was interesting is that this account firmly meshed with the personal accounts of the war that other veterans have shared with me (from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps). With the book published so soon after the war, the only thing I can fault in is Mr. Atkinson's ability to predict the future. Calling out the conflict as insignificant with no impact, we can see clearly now (with hindsight being 20/20) that we were setting off the fuse for a chain of events leading to Global War On Terror. - From Amazon

The last quarter of the 20th Century saw political and military upheavals in the Persian Gulf area which included, among other things, an epochal revolution in Iran, a very long and bloody war between Iran and Iraq, a second war between Iraq and an American-led United Nations coalition, following the invasion and annexation of Kuwait by the Iraqi army, and continuing low level warfare between the British and American forces and Iraq well into the beginning of the century. The Middle East was and is to this date the theater for several, often overlapping conflicts. In this book, Morris Mottale examines the various conflicts that have plagued the region.

WINNER OF THE 2016 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NONFICTION "A Best Book of 2015"--The New York Times, The Washington Post, People Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Kansas City Star, and Kirkus Reviews In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.      When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it little realized that among them was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist mastermind and soon the architect of an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East. In Black Flags, an unprecedented character-driven account of the rise of ISIS, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick shows how the zeal of this one man and the strategic mistakes of Presidents Bush and Obama led to the banner of ISIS being raised over huge swaths of Syria and Iraq.    Zarqawi began by directing terror attacks from a base in northern Iraq, but it was the American invasion in 2003 that catapulted him to the head of a vast insurgency. By falsely identifying him as the link between Saddam and bin Laden, U.S. officials inadvertently spurred like-minded radicals to rally to his cause. Their wave of brutal beheadings and suicide bombings persisted until American and Jordanian intelligence discovered clues that led to a lethal airstrike on Zarqawi's hideout in 2006.    His movement, however, endured. First calling themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq, then Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, his followers sought refuge in unstable, ungoverned pockets on the Iraq-Syria border. When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, and as the U.S. largely stood by, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi's dream of an ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate.    Drawing on unique high-level access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Warrick weaves gripping, moment-by-moment operational details with the perspectives of diplomats and spies, generals and heads of state, many of whom foresaw a menace worse than al Qaeda and tried desperately to stop it. Black Flags is a brilliant and definitive history that reveals the long arc of today's most dangerous extremist threat.

An authoritative introduction to ISIS, from a leading authority on jihadism The Islamic State has stunned the world with its savagery, destructiveness, and military and recruiting successes. What explains the rise of ISIS, and what does it portend for the future of the Middle East? In this book, one of the world's leading authorities on political Islam and jihadism sheds new light on these questions. Moving beyond journalistic accounts, Fawaz Gerges provides a clear and compelling explanation of the deeper conditions that fuel ISIS. This unique history shows how decades of dictatorship, poverty, and rising sectarianism in the Middle East, exacerbated by foreign intervention, led to the rise and growth of ISIS--and why addressing those problems is the only way to ensure its end. An authoritative introduction to arguably the most important conflict in the world today, this is an essential book for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the social turmoil and political violence ravaging the Arab-Islamic world.

In "The Threatening Storm," Kenneth M. Pollack, one of the world's leading experts on Iraq, provides a masterly insider's perspective on the crucial issues facing the United States as it moves toward a new confrontation with Saddam Hussein. For the past fifteen years, as an analyst on Iraq for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, Kenneth Pollack has studied Saddam as closely as anyone else in the United States. In 1990, he was one of only three CIA analysts to predict the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. As the principal author of the CIA's history of Iraqi military strategy and operations during the Gulf War, Pollack gained rare insight into the methods and workings of what he believes to be the most brutal regime since Stalinist Russia. Examining all sides of the debate and bringing a keen eye to the military and geopolitical forces at work, Pollack ultimately comes to this controversial conclusion: through our own mistakes, the perfidy of others, and Saddam's cunning, the United States is left with few good policy options regarding Iraq. Increasingly, the option that makes the most sense is for the United States to launch a full-scale invasion, eradicate Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, and rebuild Iraq as a prosperous and stable society; for the good of the United States, the Iraqi people, and the entire region. Pollack believed for many years that the United States could prevent Saddam from threatening the stability of the Persian Gulf and the world through containment, a combination of sanctions and limited military operations. Here, Pollack explains why containment is no longer effective, and why other policies intended to deter Saddam ultimately pose a greater risk than confronting him now before he gains possession of nuclear weapons and returns to his stated goal of dominating the Gulf region. It is often said that war should be employed only as a last resort; Pollack writes. "I reluctantly believe that in the case of the threat from Iraq, we have come to the last resort." Offering a view of the region that has the authority and force of an intelligence report, Pollack outlines what the leaders of neighboring Arab countries are thinking, what is necessary to gain their support for an invasion, how a successful U.S. operation would be mounted, what the likely costs would be, and how Saddam might react.
He examines Iraq's economy, its armed forces, its political system, the status of its weapons of mass destruction
(as best we understand them), and the terrifying security apparatus that keeps Saddam in power. Pollack also analyzes the last twenty years of relations between the United States and Iraq to explain how the two countries reached the unhappy standoff that currently prevails. - From the publisher.

In the years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, journalists, commentators, and others have published accounts of the Bush Administration's war on terrorism. But no senior Pentagon official has offered an inside view of those years, or has challenged the prevailing narrative of that war—until now. Douglas J. Feith, the head of the Pentagon's Policy organization, was a key member of Donald Rumsfeld's inner circle as the Administration weighed how to protect the nation from another 9/11. In War and Decision, he puts readers in the room with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, General Tommy Franks, and other key players as the Administration devised its strategy and war plans. Drawing on thousands of previously undisclosed documents, notes, and other written sources, Feith details how the Administration launched a global effort to attack and disrupt terrorist networks; how it decided to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime; how it came to impose an occupation on Iraq even though it had avoided one in Afghanistan; how some officials postponed or impeded important early steps that could have averted major problems in Iraq's post-Saddam period; and how the Administration's errors in war-related communications undermined the nation's credibility and put U.S. war efforts at risk. Even close followers of reporting on the Iraq war will be surprised at the new information Feith provides—presented here with balance and rigorous attention to detail. Among other revelations, War and Decision demonstrates that the most far-reaching warning of danger in Iraq was produced not by State or by the CIA, but by the Pentagon. It reveals the actual story behind the allegations that the Pentagon wanted to "anoint" Ahmad Chalabi as ruler of Iraq, and what really happened when the Pentagon challenged the CIA's work on the Iraq–al Qaida relationship. It offers the first accurate account of Iraq postwar planning—a topic widely misreported to date. And it presents surprising new portraits of Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Richard Armitage, L. Paul Bremer, and others—revealing how differences among them shaped U.S. policy. With its blend of vivid narrative, frank analysis, and elegant writing, "War and Decision" is like no other book on the Iraq war. It will interest those who have been troubled by conflicting accounts of the planning of the war, frustrated by the lack of firsthand insight into the decision-making process, or skeptical of conventional wisdom about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism—efforts the author continues to support.

Author of the acclaimedThe Face of Battle, and, most recently,Intelligence in War, John Keegan now brings his extraordinary expertise to bear on perhaps the most controversial war of our time. The Iraq Waris an urgently needed, up-to-date and informed study of the ongoing conflict. In exclusive interviews with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, Keegan has gathered information about the war that adds immeasurably to our grasp of its causes, complications, costs and consequences. He probes the reasons for the invasion and delineates the strategy of the American and British forces in capturing Baghdad; he examines the quick victory over the Republican Guard and the more tenacious and deadly opposition that has taken its place. He then analyzes the intelligence information with which the Bush and Blair administrations convinced their respective governments of the need to go to war, and which has since been strongly challenged in both countries. And he makes clear that despite the uncertainty about weapons of mass destruction, regime change, and the use and misuse of intelligence, the war in Iraq is an undeniably formidable display of American power. The Iraq Waris authoritative, timely and vitally important to our understanding of a conflict whose full ramifications are as yet unknown.

In "The Gamble," Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began. Since early 2007 a new military order has directed American strategy. Some top U.S. officials now in Iraq actually opposed the 2003 invasion, and almost all are severely critical of how the war was fought from then through 2006. At the core of the story is General David Petraeus, a military intellectual who has gathered around him an unprecedented number of officers with both combat experience and Ph.D.s. Underscoring his new and unorthodox approach, three of his key advisers are quirky foreigners--an Australian infantryman-turned- anthropologist, an antimilitary British woman who is an expert in the Middle East, and a Mennonite-educated Palestinian pacifist. "The Gamble" offers news-breaking account, revealing behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders. We learn that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge. Many of Petraeus's closest advisers went to Iraq extremely pessimistic, doubting that the surge would have any effect, and his own boss was so skeptical that he dispatched an admiral to Baghdad in the summer of 2007 to come up with a strategy to replace Petraeus's. That same boss later flew to Iraq to try to talk Petraeus out of his planned congressional testimony. The Gamble examines the congressional hearings through the eyes of Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and their views of the questions posed by the 2008 presidential candidates. For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years--and that that outcome is a best case scenario. His stunning conclusion, stated in the last line of the book, is that "the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered by us and by the world have not yet happened."

From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around and the choice now facing America. During the fierce battle for Fallujah, Bing West asked an Iraqi colonel why the archterrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had fled in women's clothes. The colonel pointed to a Marine patrol walking by and said, "Americans are the strongest tribe." In Iraq, America made mistake after mistake. Many gave up on the war. Then the war took a sharp U-turn. Two generals, David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno, displayed the leadership America expected. Bringing the reader from the White House to the fighting in the streets, this remarkable narrative explains the turnaround by U.S. forces. In the course of fourteen extended trips over five years, West embedded with more than sixty front-line units, discussing strategy with generals and tactics with corporals. He provides an expert's account of counterinsurgency, disposing of myths. By describing the characters and combat in city after city, West gives the reader an in-depth understanding that will inform the debate about the war. This is the definitive study of how American soldiers actually fought –a gripping and visceral book that changes the way we think about the war, and essential reading for understanding the next critical steps to be taken.

A Wall Street Journal Best Nonfiction Book of 2012 Michael Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor deftly piece together the story of the most widely reported but least understood war in American history. This stunning account of the political and military struggle between American, Iraqi, and Iranian forces brings together vivid reporting of diplomatic intrigue and gripping accounts of the blow-by-blow fighting that lasted nearly a decade. Informed by brilliant research, classified documents, and extensive interviews with key figures--including everyone from the intelligence community to Sunni and Shi'ite leaders and former insurgents to senior Iraqi military officers--"The Endgame" presents a riveting chronicle of the occupation of Iraq to the withdrawal of American troops that is sure to remain the essential account of the war for years to come.

As National Public Radio's senior foreign correspondent, Anne Garrels has covered conflicts in Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. She is renowned for direct, down-to-earth, insightful reportage, and for her independent take on what she sees. One of only sixteen un-embedded American journalists who stayed in Baghdad's now-legendary Palestine Hotel throughout the American invasion of Iraq, she was at the very center of the storm. "Naked in Baghdad" gives us the sights, sounds, and smells of our latest war with unparalleled vividness and immediacy. Garrels's narrative starts with several trips she made to Baghdad before the war, beginning in October 2002. At its heart is her evolving relationship with her Iraqi driver/minder, Amer, who becomes her friend and confidant, often serving as her eyes and ears among the populace and taking her where no other reporter was able to penetrate. Amer's own strong reactions and personal dilemma provide a trenchant counterpoint to daily events. The story is also punctuated by e-mail bulletins sent by Garrels's husband, Vint Lawrence, to their friends around the world, giving a private view of the rough-and-tumble, often dangerous life of a foreign correspondent, along with some much-needed comic relief. The result is enthralling, deeply personal, utterly authentic--an on-the-ground picture of the war in Iraq that no one else could have written. As Chicago Sun-Times critic Lloyd Sachs wrote about Garrels's work in Baghdad, "a few choice words, honestly delivered, are worth more than a thousand pictures . . . In your mind's eye, they carry lasting truth."

Out of the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring and Syria, a new threat emerges. While Al-Qaeda is weakened, new jihadi movements, especially ISIS, are starting to emerge. In military operations in June 2014 they were far more successful that Al Qaeda ever were, taking territory that reaches across borders and includes the city of Mosul. The reports of their military coordination and brutality to their victims are chilling. While they call for the formation of a new caliphate once again the West becomes a target. How could things have gone so badly wrong? In The Rise of Islamic State, Cockburn analyses the reasons for the unfolding of US and the West's greatest foreign policy debacle and the impact that it has on the war torn and volatile Middle East.

Marcus Luttrell, the author of the #1 bestseller "Lone Survivor," shares war stories about true American heroism from himself and other soldiers who bravely fought alongside him. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell returned from his star-crossed mission in Afghanistan with his bones shattered and his heart broken. So many had given their lives to save him -- and he would have readily done the same for them. As he recuperated, he wondered why he and others, from America's founding to today, had been willing to sacrifice everything-including themselves-for the sake of family, nation, and freedom. In "Service," we follow Marcus Luttrell to Iraq, where he returns to the battlefield as a member of SEAL Team 5 to help take on the most dangerous city in the world: Ramadi, the capital of war-torn Al Anbar Province. There, in six months of high-intensity urban combat, he would be part of what has been called the greatest victory in the history of U.S. Special Operations forces. We also return to Afghanistan and Operation Redwing, where Luttrell offers powerful new details about his miraculous rescue. Throughout, he reflects on what it really means to take on a higher calling, about the men he's seen lose their lives for their country, and the legacy of those who came and bled before. A thrilling war story, Service is also a profoundly moving tribute to the warrior brotherhood, to the belief that nobody goes it alone, and no one will be left behind.

From Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Rick Atkinson (Liberation Trilogy) comes an eyewitness account of the war against Iraq and a vivid portrait of a remarkable group of soldiers. "A beautifully written and memorable account of combat from the top down and bottom up as the 101st Airborne commanders and front-line grunts battle their way to Baghdad.... A must-read."--Tom Brokaw For soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division, the road to Baghdad began with a midnight flight out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in late February 2003. For Rick Atkinson, who would spend nearly two months covering the division for The Washington Post, the war in Iraq provided a unique opportunity to observe today's U.S. Army in combat. Now, in this extraordinary account of his odyssey with the 101st, Atkinson presents an intimate and revealing portrait of the soldiers who fight the expeditionary wars that have become the hallmark of our age. At the center of Atkinson's drama stands the compelling figure of Major General David H. Petraeus, described by one comrade as "the most competitive man on the planet." Atkinson spent virtually all day every day at Petraeus's elbow in Iraq, where he had an unobstructed view of the stresses, anxieties, and large joys of commanding 17,000 soldiers in combat. And all around Petraeus, we see the men and women of a storied division grapple with the challenges of waging war in an unspeakably harsh environment. With the eye of a master storyteller, a brilliant military historian puts us right on the battlefield. In the Company of Soldiers is a compelling, utterly fresh view of the modern American soldier in action.

The inspiration for the film "12 Strong." From the New York Times, bestselling author of "In Harm's Way" comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory. "Horse Soldiers" is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential to defeat their opponent throughout the country. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city, and the streets thronged with Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban regime had been overthrown. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the "Horse Soldiers" were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city's immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed. Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton's account of the Americans' quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

"A thrilling action ride of a book" (The New York Times Book Review)--the New York Times bestselling, true-life account of a US Special Forces team deployed to dangerous, war-ridden Afghanistan in the weeks following 9/11. Previously published as Horse Soldiers, 12 Strong is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city's immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed. "A riveting story of the brave and resourceful American warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against Al Qaeda" (Tom Brokaw), Doug Stanton's account touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. With "spellbinding...action packed prose...The book reads more like a novel than a military history...the Horse Soldier's secret mission remains the US military's finest moment in what has since arguably been a muddled war" (USA TODAY).

COLBY AWARD WINNER * "One of the most important books to come out of the Afghanistan war."--Foreign Policy "A saga of courage and futility, of valor and error and heartbreak."--Rick Atkinson, author of the "Liberation Trilogy and The British Are Coming"; Of the many battlefields on which U.S. troops and intelligence operatives fought in Afghanistan, one remote corner of the country stands as a microcosm of the American campaign: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan. The area's rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made it a natural hiding spot for local insurgents and international terrorists alike, and it came to represent both the valor and futility of America's two-decade-long Afghan war. Drawing on reporting trips, hundreds of interviews, and documentary research, Wesley Morgan reveals the history of the war in this iconic region, captures the culture and reality of the conflict through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing missteps--some kept secret from even the troops fighting there--that doomed the American mission. The Hardest Place is the story of one of the twenty-first century's most unforgiving battlefields and a portrait of the American military that fought there.

The NATO contingent hasn't been forced from Afghanistan by Muslim radicals, but by drug runners. The Haqqani Network responsible for many of the highest visibility Kabul attacks is one of the oldest drug cartels in the region. With the supply of heroin on the rise in America and Europe, one has to wonder how much organized-crime lobbying had to do with the final defense strategy. Only with less smuggling of drugs out and ordnance in, can the problem be solved. Both have been broken down into easily concealable "pieces." All traffic along the 14 entrance highways must be better inspected to curtail their movement. Herein lies the most detailed study in existence of Pakistan's drug and militant madrasa networks. Also discussed is how a lone U.S. squad could--without a single artillery round or drone missile--rely on deception to defend a roadside outpost against hundreds of attacking narco-insurgents.

In 2010 the U.S. Army Special Operations Command created Cultural Support Teams, a pilot program to put women on the battlefield alongside Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and other special operations teams on sensitive missions in Afghanistan. The idea was that women could access places and people that had remained out of reach and could build relationships--woman to woman--in ways that male soldiers in a conservative, traditional country could not. Though officially banned from combat, female soldiers could be "attached" to different teams, and for the first time women throughout the Army, the National Guard, and the Reserves heard the call to join male soldiers on special ops missions. In Ashley's War, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uses exhaustive firsthand reporting and a finely tuned understanding of the complexities of war to tell the story of CST-2, a unit of women handpicked from across the Army, and of the remarkable hero at its heart: First Lieutenant Ashley White, who would become the first Cultural Support Team member killed in action and the first CST remembered on the Army Special Operations Memorial Wall of Honor alongside the Army Rangers with whom she served. Transporting readers into this little-known world of fierce women bound together by valor, danger, and the desire to serve, Ashley's War is a riveting combat narrative and a testament to the unbreakable bonds born of war.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 Investigates the causes, conduct, and consequences of the recent American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Understanding the United States? wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is essential to understanding the United States in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond. These wars were pivotal to American foreign policy and international relations. They were expensive: in lives, in treasure, and in reputation. They raised critical ethical and legal questions; they provoked debates over policy, strategy, and war-planning; they helped to shape American domestic politics. And they highlighted a profound division among the American people: While more than two million Americans served in Iraq and Afghanistan, many in multiple deployments, the vast majority of Americans and their families remained untouched by and frequently barely aware of the wars conducted in their name, far from American shores, in regions about which they know little. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan gives us the first book-length expert historical analysis of these wars. It shows us how they began, what they teach us about the limits of the American military and diplomacy, and who fought them. It examines the lessons and legacies of wars whose outcomes may not be clear for decades. In 1945 few Americans could imagine that the country would be locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union for decades; fewer could imagine how history would paint the era. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begins to come to grips with the period when America became enmeshed in a succession of ?low intensity? conflicts in the Middle East.

Follow along a Navy SEAL's firsthand account of American heroism during a secret military operation in Afghanistan in this true story of survival and difficult choices. On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive. This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left-blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers. A six-foot-five-inch Texan, Leading Petty Officer Luttrell takes us, blow by blow, through the brutal training of America's warrior elite and the relentless rites of passage required by the Navy SEALs. He transports us to a monstrous battle fought in the desolate peaks of Afghanistan, where the beleaguered American team plummeted headlong a thousand feet down a mountain as they fought back through flying shale and rocks. In this rich, moving chronicle of courage, honor, and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers one of the most powerful narratives ever written about modern warfare -- and a tribute to his teammates, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.