Search results for ""Casemate""

Most books gloss over submarines at Midway and, if they are mentioned at all, conclude they failed miserably and had little impact on the outcome of the battle. It is undeniable that carrier aviation and intelligence saved the day, but the role of the submarine was an important one in defence of an anticipated amphibious assault.Midway Submerged is a comprehensive examination of a little-known aspect of this pivotal naval battle, explaining how Nimitz used his submarines at Midway, and the Japanese misused theirs based on a flawed tactical plan. Based on in-depth archival research not only into the battle itself, but also submarine design and construction, and tactical and operational doctrine for both the United States and Japan, it brings a whole new dimension to the discussion of the battle of Midway. It examines the intended role of the submarine in the plans and doctrine of both navies, and what the submarines were expected to accomplish for both fleets during the battle, before assessing the actual accomplishments, successes, and failures of the submarine forces on both sides. Of particular importance, the book offers an analysis of how well these vessels fulfilled the expectations placed on them by their respective naval planners, concluding that submarines played a more important role in the outcome than has been previously understood.

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This book presents the remarkable personal journals of a German soldier who participated in Operation Barbarossa and subsequent battles on the Eastern Front, revealing the combat experience of the German-Russian War as seldom seen before.Hans Roth was a member of the anti-tank (Panzerjäger) battalion, 299th Infantry Division, attached to Sixth Army, as the invasion of Russia began. Writing as events transpired, he recorded the mystery and tension as the Germans deployed on the Soviet frontier in 1941. Then a firestorm broke loose as the Wehrmacht broke across the front. During the Kiev encirclement, Roth’s unit was under constant attack as the Soviets desperately tried to break through the German ring. At one point, a friend serving with the SS led him to a site where he witnessed civilians being massacred (which may well have been Babi Yar). After suffering through a horrible winter against apparently endless Russian reserves, his division went on the offensive again, this time on the northern wing of 'Case Gelb', the German drive toward Stalingrad. In these journals, attacks and counterattacks are described in 'you are there' detail, as if to keep himself sane, knowing that his honest accounts of the horrors in the East could never pass through Wehrmacht censors. When the Soviet counteroffensive of winter 1942 commences, his unit is stationed alongside the Italian 8th Army, and his observations of its collapse, as opposed to the reaction of the German troops sent to stiffen its front, are particularly fascinating.These journals, including original maps, some of which Roth himself helped compose, were recently discovered by his descendants, who arranged for the translation of their long-lost grandfather’s journals. Roth was able to bring three of them back to his wife during the war, but never brought back a fourth journal, as his fate after the summer of 1943 in Russia is still unknown. What he did leave behind, now finally revealed, is an incredible first-hand account of the horrific war the Germans waged in Russia.

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Francis Marion is certainly the stuff of which legends are made. His nickname “The Swamp Fox,” bestowed upon him by one of his fiercest enemies, captures his wily approach to battle. The embellishment of his exploits in Parson Weems’ early biography make separation of fact from fiction difficult, but certainly represents the awe, loyalty, and attraction he produced in those around him. His legacy is enshrined in the fact that more places in the United States have been named after him than any other soldier of the American Revolution, with the sole exception of George Washington. Even today’s U.S. Army Rangers include Marion as one of their formative heroes. Surely much about leadership can be learned from such an intriguing personality.Leading like the Swamp Fox: The Leadership Lessons of Francis Marion unlocks those lessons. Divided into three parts, the book first presents the historical background and context necessary to appreciate Marion’s situation. The main body of the book then examines Marion’s leadership across eight categories, with a number of vignettes demonstrating Marion’s competency. The summary then captures some conclusions about how leadership impacted the American Revolution in the South CarolinaLowcountry. An appendix provides some information about how the reader might explore those physical reminders of Marion and his exploits that exist today. Readers interested in history or leadership, or both, will all find something for them in Leading like the Swamp Fox.

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December 1942 saw the bloodiest Christmas in the history of mankind. From the islands in the Pacific to the China front, from the trenches in Russia to the battle lines in North Africa, in the skies over Europe and in the depths of the Atlantic, men were killing each other in greater numbers than ever before. The Holocaust continued, and innocent civilians were murdered by the thousands throughout the evil Nazi empire, even as the perpetrators celebrated the birth of Christ.Millions stationed in far-off lands amid the greatest conflict in human history feared this was their last Christmas in freedom, or their last Christmas alive. At the same time as the slaughter continued unabated, throughout the world there were random acts of kindness, born out of an instinctive feeling of the essential brotherhood of man. These gestures also straddled religious barriers and sometimes included those of non-Christian faiths. Even some Japanese, otherwise embarked on a self-declared crusade against the West, relented for a few precious hours in acknowledgment of the holiday.At the same time, Christmas 1942 saw the injunction of ‘good will to man’ distorted in ugly and callous ways. At Auschwitz, SS guards played cruel games with their prisoners. In Berlin, the German heart of darkness, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels spent time with his family while still buried in feverish fantasies about the Jewish world conspiracy.Christmas 1942 saw the entire range of man’s conduct towards his fellow man, reflecting the extremes of behaviour, good and bad, that World War II gave rise to. The way the holiday was marked around the world tells a deeper and more universal story of the human condition in extraordinary times.

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This is the first full-length biography of the Civil War general who saved the Union army from catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, and went on to play major roles in the Chattanooga and Mobile campaigns. Immediately after the war, as commander of U.S. troops in Texas, his actions sparked the "Juneteenth" celebrations of slavery's end, which continue to this day.Granger's first battle was at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, and he soon thereafter rose through the ranks - cavalry, then infantry - in early 1863 vying with Forrest and Van Dorn for control of central Tennessee. The artillery platform he erected at Franklin, dubbed Fort Granger, would soon overlook the death knell of the main Confederate army in the west.Granger's first fame, however, came at Chickamauga, when the Rebel Army of Tennessee came within a hair’s-breadth of destroying the Union Army of the Cumberland. Without orders - even defying them - Granger marched his Reserve Corps to the scene of the hottest action, where Thomas was just barely holding on with the rump of Rosecrans' army. Bringing fresh ammunition and hurling his men against Longstreet’s oncoming legions, Granger provided just enough breathing space to prevent that Union defeat from becoming the worst open-field battle disgrace of the war.Granger was then given command of a full infantry corps, but just proved too odd a fellow to promote further. At Chattanooga he got on the nerves of U.S. Grant for going off to shoot cannon instead of commanding his troops (he’d actually indulged this impulse also at Chickamauga) and Sherman had no use for him either. So he went down to join Farragut in the conquest of Mobile, Alabama, leading land operations against the Confederate forts.This long-overdue biography sheds fascinating new light on a colourful commander who fought through the war in the West from its first major battles to its last, and even left his impact on the Reconstruction beyond.

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Albert Nofi tells the story of the American War through a range of insightful and entertaining essays, anecdotes, and facts. Did you know...• During the final days of the war some Richmond citizens were wont to throw 'Starvation Parties', at which elegantly attired guests would gather at soirees where the finest silver and crystal table ware was used, though there were usually no refreshments save water;• Union Rear-Admiral Goldsborough was nicknamed 'Old Guts', not so much for his combativeness as for his heft, weighing about 300 pounds, and was described as "… a huge mass of inert matter";• 30.6 percent of the 425 Confederate generals, but only 21.6 percent of the 583 Union generals, had been lawyers before the war;• In 1861, J. P. Morgan made a huge profit by buying 5,000 condemned US Army carbines and selling them back to another arsenal, taking the Army to court when they tried to refuse to pay for the faulty weapons;• Major General Loring was reputed to have so rich a vocabulary than one of the men once remarked he could "curse a cannon up hill without horses";• Many militia units had a favourite drink: the Charleston Light Dragoons' punch took around a week to make while the Chatham Artillery required 1 pound of green tea leaves be steeped overnight;• There were five living former presidents when the Civil War began, and seven veterans of the war (plus one draft dodger) went on to serve as President.

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"Die Wehrmacht im Kampf" Battles and Problems of the Second World War is a series originally edited by Hermann Teske and published in German in the 1950s and 1960s. Written by former members of the German Army in World War II, it provides valuable and historically significant information on the perspective of the German Army of many crucial campaigns and battles. Now being published in English for the first time, each volume has a modern introduction by Matthias Strohn, a lecturer at Sandhurst and The University of Buckingham and an expert on the German Army.This volume in the Die Wehrmacht im Kampf series examines the principles of mobile defensive operations by analysing examples of defensive combat that took place on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. It is written by Ferdinand Maria von Senger und Etterlin, a German officer in the panzer troops who fought in several defensive battles against the Russians.

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Peter Clark's year in Vietnam began in July 1966, when he was shipped out with hundreds of other young recruits, as a replacement in the 1st Infantry Division. Clark was assigned to the Alpha Company. Clark gives a visceral, vivid and immediate account of life in the platoon, as he progresses from green recruit to seasoned soldier over the course of a year in the complexities of the Vietnamese conflict.Clark gradually learns the techniques developed by US troops to cope with the daily horrors they encountered, the technical skills needed to fight and survive, and how to deal with the awful reality of civilian casualties. Fighting aside, it rained almost every day and insect bites constantly plagued the soldiers as they moved through dense jungle, muddy rice paddy and sandy roads. From the food they ate (largely canned meatballs, beans and potatoes) to the inventive ways they managed to shower, every aspect of the platoon's lives is explored in this revealing book. The troops even managed to fit in some R&Rwhilst off-duty in the bars of Tokyo.Alpha One Sixteen follows Clark as he discovers how to cope with the vagaries of the enemy and the daily confusion the troops faced in distinguishing combatants from civilians. The Viet Cong were a largely unseen enemy who fought a guerrilla war, setting traps and landmines everywhere. Clark's vigilance develops as he gets used to 'living in mortal terror,' which a brush with death in a particularly terrifying fire fight does nothing to dispel. As he continues his journey, he chronicles those less fortunate; the heavy toll being taken all round him is powerfully described at the end of each chapter.

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In an era of battlefield one-upmanship, the raid on the Nation's capital in July 1864 was prompted by an earlier failed Union attempt to destroy Richmond and free the Union prisoners held there. Jubal Early's mission was in part to let the North have a taste of its own medicine by attacking Washington and freeing the Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout in southern Maryland. He was also to fill the South's larder from unmolested Union fields, mills and barns. By 1864 such southern food raids had become annual wartime events. And he was to threaten and, if possible, capture Washington. This latter task was unrealistic in an age when the success of rifle fire was judged to be successful not by accuracy, but by the amount of lead that was shot into the air. Initially, the Union defenders of the city were largely former slaves, freemen, mechanic, shopkeepers and government clerks, as well as invalids. They might not have known much about riflery and accuracy, but they were capable of putting ample lead on the long until Regular Union regiments arrived. Jubal Early hesitated in attacking Washington, but he held the City at bay while his troops pillaged the countryside for the food Lee's Army needed to survive.This new account focuses on the reasons, reactions and results of Jubul Early's raid of 1864. History has judged it to have been a serious threat to the capital, but James H. Bruns examines how the nature of the Confederate raid on Washington in 1864 has been greatly misinterpreted - Jubal Early's maneuvers were in fact only the latest in a series of annual southern food raids. It also corrects some of the thinking about Early's raid, including the reason behind his orders from General Lee to cross the Potomac and the thoughts behind the proposed raid on Point Lookout and the role of the Confederate Navy in that failed effort. It presents a new prospective in explaining Jubal Early's raid on Washington by focusing on why things happened as they did in 1864. It identifies the cause-and-effect connections that are truly the stuff of history, forging some of the critical background links that oftentimes are ignored or overlooked in books dominated by battles and leaders.

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Winston Churchill famously instructed the head of the Special Operations Executive to “Set Europe ablaze!” Agents of both the British Special Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services underwent rigorous training before making their way, undetected, into Occupied Europe. Working alone or in small cells, often cooperating with local resistance groups, agents undertook missions behind enemy lines involving sabotage, subversion, organizing resistance groups and intelligence-gathering.The SOE’s notable successes included the destruction of a power station in France, the assassination of Himmler’s deputy Reinhard Heyrich, and ending the Nazi atomic bomb program by destroying the heavy water plant at Vemork, Norway. OSS operatives established anti-Nazi resistance groups across Europe, and managed to smuggle operatives into Nazi Germany, including running one of the war's most important spies, German diplomat Fritz Kolbe.All of their missions were incredibly dangerous and many agents were captured, tortured, and ultimately killed – the life expectancy of an SOE wireless operator in occupied France was just six weeks.In No Moon as Witness, historian James Stejskal examines why these agencies were established, the training regimen and ingenious tools developed to enable agents to undertake their missions, their operational successes, and their legacy.

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This extensively illustrated volume tells the dramatic yet successful story of US aircraft carriers in World War II by class, ranging from early pre-war designs to escort carriers built from destroyer hulls, to the gigantic fleet carriers serving as the predecessors of modern-day super carriers.Besides covering the famous great carrier battles in the Pacific, this book also tells of the equally important actions of US flat tops hunting and destroying German U-boats in the Atlantic, making an enormous contribution to the elimination of the U-boat dangers and the safe arrival of transatlantic supplies, so desperately needed for the launch of D-Day.Including profiles and explanatory text boxes, the concise text gives a clear overview of each ship’s career, its fate and its significance in American naval history. Moreover, the reader learns about the technical evolution of US carriers throughout the war, and the various aircraft launched from these magnificent vessels to engage their Japanese or German foes. This volume provides an overview of preserved World War II flat tops serving as floating museums for future generations as well as a dive to the sunken USS Saratoga at Bikini Atoll.

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Lord Alanbrooke was Churchill's right-hand man during World War II, and as Chief of the Imperial General Staff he had an integral part in shaping the strategy of Britain and the Allies. Despite this crucial role, he is very little known compared to military commanders such as Montgomery, Alexander, Slim, Mountbatten, Patton, or Eisenhower. This new biography of Lord Alanbrooke uses archival material and his diaries to trace his life, including his experiences in World War I and the development of his military career in the interwar years, with a focus on his post as the Chief of the Imperial General Staff during World War II.Voted the greatest Briton of the 20th century, Churchill has long been credited with almost single-handedly leading his country to victory in World War II. However without Brooke, a skilled tactician, at his side the outcome might well have been disastrous. Brooke more often than not served as a brake on some of Churchill's more impetuous ideas. However, while Brooke's diaries reveal his fury with some of Churchill's decisions, they also reveal his respect and admiration for the wartime prime minister. In return Churchill must surely have considered Brooke one of his most difficult subordinates but later wrote that he was "fearless, formidable, articulate, and in the end convincing".As CIGS, Brooke was integral to coordination between the Allied forces, and so had to wrestle with the cultural strategy clash between the British and Americans. Comments in his diaries offer up his opinions of both his British and American military colleagues – his negative assessments of Mountbatten’s ability, and acerbic comments on the difficult character of de Gaulle and the weaknesses of Eisenhower. Conversely he was clearly over-indulgent in the face of Montgomery's foibles. Brooke was often seen as a stern and humourless figure, but a study of his private life reveals an little-seen lighter side, a lifelong passion for birdwatching, and abiding love for his family. The two tragedies that befell his immediate family were a critical influence on his life. Sangster completes this new biography with a survey of the way various historians have assessed Brooke, explaining how he has lapsed into seeming obscurity in the years since his crucial part in the Allied victory in World War II.

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The Red Air Force versus the Luftwaffe in the skies over Eastern Europe. June 1941: Having conquered most of Western Europe, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the vast Soviet Union. Disregarding his Non-Aggression Pact with Joseph Stalin, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, a full-scale invasion of the Soviet homeland... aimed squarely at Moscow. In the skies over Russia, the battle-hardened airmen of the Luftwaffe made short work of the Red Air Force during opening days of Barbarossa. To make matters worse, Stalin had executed many of his best pilots during the perennial "purges" of the 1930s. Thus, much of the Red Air Force was destroyed on the ground before meeting the Luftwaffe in the skies. By 1944, however, the Soviet airmen had regained the initiative and fervently wrested air superiority from the now-ailing Axis Powers.

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The record of Carrier Air Group 15 in World War II is astonishing by any measure: it scored 312 enemy aircraft destroyed, 33 probably destroyed, and 65 damaged in aerial combat, plus 348 destroyed, 161 probably destroyed, and 129 damaged in ground attacks. Twenty-six Fighting 15 pilots became aces, including their leader, Commander David McCampbell, who became the U.S. Navy’s “Ace of Aces.” Twenty-one squadron pilots were killed in action and one in an operational accident aboard the carrier Essex.The fighter squadron’s partners, Bombing Squadron 15 and Torpedo Squadron 15, scored 174,300 tons of enemy shipping, including 37 cargo vessels sunk, 10 probably sunk, and 39 damaged. As well, Musashi, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk, along with a light aircraft carrier, a destroyer, destroyer escort, two minesweepers and other craft - plus the Zuikaku, the last surviving carrier that participated in the Pearl Harbor attack. Incredibly, every pilot of Torpedo 15 was awarded the Navy Cross, the highest award for bravery after the Medal of Honor.All of this took place between May and November, 1944. No other American combat unit in any service came close to a similar score in such a short time period. Air Group 15 participated in the two greatest naval battles in history, the Philippine Sea - also known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot - and Leyte Gulf, which saw the end of Japanese naval power. On June 19, 1944, Fighting 15 shot down 68.5 attacking Japanese aircraft, a one-day record unmatched by any other U.S. fighter squadron.In documenting the saga of Air Group 15's momentous six months at war, the author provides an intimate and insightful view of the group’s fabled combat tour, including details of daily life and human interactions aboard the fleet carrier USS Essex during the busiest phase of the Pacific War.

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"What is unique about this book is the perspective. To a modern-day reader, specialops conjure images of highly trained and exotically equipped soldiers leaping out ofhelicopters and Zodiac boats to wipe out terrorists. . . . In an era when warfare was supposed to be gentlemanly and follow certain rules, did Washington and his contemporaries embrace special operations? The answer would seem to be, ‘Yes.' Even if they didn't use the term 'special ops,' they were willing to employ elite reconnaissance units, spies and partisan bands. Washington didn't have SEAL Team 6. But he made good use of what he had.” - The National InterestWhen the American Revolution began, the colonial troops had little hope of matching His Majesty's highly trained, experienced British and German legions in confrontational battle. In this book, renowned author, and former U.S. Army Colonel, Robert Tonsetic describes and analyzes numerous examples of special operations conducted during the Revolution.

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On the four sides of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, serried tablets display the names of 660 honoured commanders of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Most are those of generals and marshals of the French Army – but 26 are the names of admirals, commanders of the fleets of Republican and Napoleonic France.In Napoleon's Admirals, Richard Humble presents not only their individual stories, but an entirely new appraisal of the Anglo-French naval war of 1793–1814: the longest sea war in modern history, exploding many myths along the way.The aristocratic officers of the French Navy did not emigrate en masse when the Revolution came, leaving the Navy leaderless and doomed to repeated defeats at sea. Of the 26 ‘Admirals of the Arc,’ 23 had learned their trade in the French royal and merchant navies of the Ancien Régime. Republican France could call on a wide range of seasoned combat veterans from the American Revolutionary War (1778–83), whose stories are a revelation in themselves. These former King’s officers stayed, and loyally tried to serve their country as the Revolution pursued its wasteful and unpredictable course. Three of them paid for their loyalty under the guillotine.Contrary to popular British belief, the naval war did not end with Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in October 1805. Thanks to an energetic warship-building program, the French Navy recovered quickly from Trafalgar, and Napoleon’s conquests created an ever-widening network of new French naval bases for the British Admiralty to cover. Collingwood, Nelson’s deputy at Trafalgar, was still commanding in the Mediterranean four years later. The Admiralty had not dared to recall him and he died at sea, utterly exhausted, in March 1810. Four months later the French inflicted the greatest humiliation suffered by the Royal Navy in the entire naval war: the annihilation of an entire British frigate squadron in the battle of Grand-Port, Mauritius, in August 1810.In this account of the men who imposed such a strain on the world’s greatest navy for 21 years, Richard Humble has provided a remarkable addition to the well-worn pages of conventional naval history.

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This is an account of the battle of Kham Duc, one of the least known and most misunderstood battles in the American Phase of the Second Indochina War (1959 to 1975). At the time it was painted as a major American defeat, but this new history tells the full story.The authors have a unique ability to reassess this battle – one was present at the battle, the other was briefed on it prior to re-taking the site two years later. The book is based on exhaustive research, revisiting Kham Duc, interviewing battle veterans, and reading interview transcripts and statements of other battle participants, including former North Vietnamese Army (NVA) officers.Based on their research, the authors contend that Kham Duc did not 'fall' and was not 'overrun'. In fact, it was a successful effort to inflict mass attrition on a major NVA force with minimum American losses by voluntarily abandoning an anachronistic little trip-wire border camp serving as passive bait for General Westmoreland's 'lure and destroy' defensive tactics, as at Khe Sanh.

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Sighted Sub, Sank Same examines the United States Naval air campaign against German U-boats prowling for allied merchant shipping traversing the waters of the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean; an economic war waged to cut the lifeline of food and armaments sailing across the Atlantic from North America. This battle of the Atlantic evolved into a far-ranging conflict beyond the North Atlantic and the eastern seaboard of the United States. It covered the frigid waters off Iceland down to the warm waters of Florida, through the Caribbean Sea, across the ocean to the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean Sea, down to Africa, and across the South Atlantic to Brazil’s southern tip. Nazi Germany’s efforts to deny supplies from reaching Europe came at a high price, losing 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 men between 1939 and 1945 with land and carrier-based naval air units sinking 83 German submarines of the 159 sunk by American aircraft. German allies saw their submarines targeted as well in the Atlantic with Imperial Japanese submarine I-52 and the Italian Archimede falling victim to American naval aircraft armed with depth bombs or acoustic homing torpedoes.This story of the United States Navy’s use of air power to hunt down and destroy German submarines unfolds in dramatic detail in Sighted Sub, Sank Same. The book contains over 200 colour and black and white photographs allowing for a visual imagery of the campaign while personal interviews, interrogation reports, personal correspondence, and after-action reports weave a fascinating history about the naval air campaign in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean Theaters during World War II.

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A concise introduction to Ancient Egyptian warfare from the Neolithic period through to the Iron Age, covering everything from battle tactics to weaponry and battle injuries. The excellent preservation of Egyptian artefacts including bows, axes and chariots, means that it is possible to track the changing nature of Egyptian military technology, as well as the equipment and ideas that were adopted from other civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. As well as discussing such crucial issues as military strategy, martial ideology, construction of fortresses and waging of siege warfare, this book includes the study of practical ques­tions of life, death and survival of individual soldiers on the battlefield.

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"If Alpe d’Huez was a rigorous climb, with its mathematical progression of tight corners and steep inclines, the Izoard is far more awesome, a rocky wilderness at 7,743 feet, which needs only a few bleached skulls at the roadside to complete its sense of desolation."Geoffrey Nicholson’s The Great Bike Race is universally revered by modern cycling critics as the benchmark English-language volume of the sport and has risen to mythical status. It was the first book in English to tell the entire story of a full tour and truly captivates the reader from start to finish. Nicholson’s classic, vivid descriptions of the racing, the personalities, tactics and intrigues of the 1976 race are rotated with insightful thematic chapters where he lifts the lid on the broader culture and lengthy traditions of cycling’s most famous race and the greatest annual sports event in the world.

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Many think of the United States Marine Corps as a second land army, and while it has been employed in that capacity, it is foremost a naval expeditionary force able to seize, secure, and defend advanced naval bases in support of major campaigns.The Corps dates back to the Revolutionary War, but while they served in the conflicts of the 19th century, they are famed for their part in the wars of the 20th century. On the Western Front in World War I they were blooded at Belleau Wood. Between the wars the Corps developed amphibious tactics which were employed to great effect during the Pacific island campaigns during World War II including the infamous battles of Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The names of the Corps is forever entwined with the battles of Inchon and Chosin Reservoir in Korea, and Hue and Khe Sanh in Vietnam. The US Marines have continued their expeditionary role to this day, undertaking not only combat operations but also peacekeeping, peace enforcement, humanitarian relief, and short-notification/limited-duration contingency operations.This concise history charts the evolution of the Corps as it has adapted to changing combat over two centuries.

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The German Army invaded France on 10 May 1940, and in just over ten days their rapid advance, led by three panzer corps, had left three French field armies, Belgian forces and the British Expeditionary Force with their backs to the sea, trapped along the northern coast of France. General Gort realised that evacuation was the only option, and so began a chaotic withdrawal towards the port of Dunkirk. While the Luftwaffe continued to attack pockets of Allied forces, the German ground forces were ordered to halt their advance on 22 May. These orders were changed four days later, but these crucial four days of inaction allowed the Allies time to retreat into Dunkirk and prepare a defensive perimeter. The fighting during the last days of May was desperate, with the remnants of the French First Army surrounded at Lille, holding off seven German divisions until finally forced to surrender, and the Belgian Army forced to capitulate to the east of Dunkirk. Though the cost was devastatingly high, Dunkirk was held long enough for over 300,000 Allied troops to be evacuated back to England, with the remainder of the rearguard of French troops surrendering on 4 June. The British narrative of the retreat and evacuation that prompted perhaps Winston Churchill's most famous wartime speech has always been well-known; however only now is Hans-Adolf Jacobsen's detailed account of the battle from the German perspective available in English.

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Second place in the Military History Monthly Book of the Year Award 2018Striking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but willing to use audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning and executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors - this is unconventional warfare.T. E. Lawrence was one of the earliest practitioners of modern unconventional warfare. His tactics and strategies were used by men like Mao and Giap in their wars of liberation. Both kept Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom close at hand. This book looks at the creation of the HEDGEHOG force, the formation of armoured car sections and other units, and focuses the Hejaz Operations Staff, the Allied officers and men who took Lawrence’s idea and prosecuted it against the Ottoman Turkish army assisting Field Marshal Allenby to achieve victory in 1918.Stejskal concludes with an examination of how HEDGEHOG has influenced special operations and unconventional warfare, including Field Marshal Wavell, the Long Range Desert Group, and David Stirling's SAS.

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The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was the spearhead of the assault by Sepp Dietrich’s Sixth Panzer Armee on the northern flank of the German Ardennes offensive. Divided into Kampfgruppen, the lead was Kampfgruppe Peiper whose armored force included SS Heavy Tank Battalion 501 equipped with King Tigers.The attack was launched on a snowy, freezing December 16, but from the outset, the division lost time against schedule. It captured a fuel dump at Büllingen, but brave defense forced Peiper onto the southern Rollbahn D whose tight, winding roads proved difficult to negotiate and soon the Kampfgruppe was strung out over 25 kilometres with its heavy armor—the King Tigers—slowly losing ground as vehicle after vehicle succumbed to automotive failures. Pushing through Stavelot and Trois Pont, the advanced units of the Kampfgruppe reached Stoumont before lack of fuel—the Americans had retaken Stavelot and closed off the route for German resupply—and US Army action forced it to halt at La Gleize.Six days later, on Christmas Eve, with no hope and no fuel, Peiper and his men abandoned their vehicles and made their way back to their lines: only 770 got there. They left behind 135 armored vehicles including the King Tiger that today stands in front of the museum at La Gleize. They also left scattered on their route the murdered bodies of US servicemen—at Malmedy, Ligneuville, and Wereth—and civilians, massacres that would lead to postwar trials and continued recriminations.The Past & Present Series reconstructs historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link between now and then.

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Over seven centuries the artillery piece has evolved from a status symbol to one of the most deadly weapons wielded by man. Using gunpowder weapons was initially something of a black art, but over the centuries gunnery became a science, a dependable method of breaching fortifications, or overcoming an enemy on the battlefield.By the 19th century, most European armies had artillery units manned with trained gunners; Napoleon, originally an artillery officer, then took the use of artillery to a new level. Over the following decades, rapid advances in gun technology paved the way for the devastatingly powerful heavy artillery that literally transformed the landscape during World War I. The use of rolling and box barrages shaped how armies fought on the front lines and powerful naval guns dictated the outcome of battles at sea.By World War II the range of artillery had expanded to include self-propelled guns, and powerful antitank and anti-aircraft guns. In this informative introduction, Angus Konstam concisely explains how the development and evolving deployment of artillery led to big guns becoming the key to victory in two world wars and a potent force on the modern battlefield.

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The denouement of the battle of Normandy, the fighting around Falaise and Chambois in August 1944 and the pursuit of the retreating German armies to the Seine provided the Allies with an immense victory. After ten weeks of hard attritional fighting, the Allies had broken loose from the bocage and the Germans’ deep defenses around Caen: by the end of September they would be close to the German border. As US First Army and British Second Army squeezed the western and northern edges of the German salient, so Third Army rushed headlong eastwards and then north to create the lower of two pincers—the other formed as the Canadian First Army and the Polish 1st Armoured Division pushed south of Caen. As could be expected, the Germans did not simply give up: they fought furiously to keep the pincers from closing. When they did, attacks from inside the pocket to break out and outside the pocket to break in led to fierce fighting between Chambois and Argentan. When the dust settled, between 80,000 and 100,000 troops had been trapped by the Allied encirclement. Estimates vary considerably, but it seems safe to say that at least 10,000 of the German forces were killed and around 50,000 became PoWs. The rest, however, escaped, but without most of their equipment, destroyed in the battle or abandoned in the retreat over the Seine. Those that did were subsequently to reform, rearm and conduct an effective defense into late 1944.The Past & Present Series reconstructs historical battles by using photography, juxtaposing modern views with those of the past together with concise explanatory text. It shows how much infrastructure has remained and how much such as outfits, uniforms, and ephemera has changed, providing a coherent link between now and then.

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The history of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, begins in May 1917 when, as part of its wartime mobilization, the Army authorized four training camps for signal troops. One camp, located in central NJ, would eventually be known as Fort Monmouth, in honor of the soldiers of the American Revolution who fought and died at the nearby battle of Monmouth. This camp was located on the site of an old racetrack and luxury hotel, remnants of the famed Gilded Age at the Jersey Shore. Though much of the site was overgrown and infested with poison ivy, it afforded the Army significant advantages: proximity to the port of Hoboken and a train station, good stone roads, and access to water. Corporal Carl L. Whitehurst was among the first men to arrive at Camp Little Silver. He later recalled that the site appeared to be a jungle of weeds, poison ivy, briars, and underbrush. The Army Signal Corps carved a camp out of that wilderness, and trained thousands of men for war there. The Signal Corps also built l

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In this engaging book we see how an 18-year-old miner shoveling ore from deep in the ground in Utah suddenly found himself, only two years later, 30,000 feet in the air over Nazi Germany, piloting a Flying Fortress in the first wave of America's air counteroffensive in Europe. Like thousands of other young Americans, Ray Brim was plucked by the U.S. Army to be a combat flyer, and was quickly pitted against the hardened veterans of the Luftwaffe. Brim turned out to have a natural knack for flying, however, and was assigned to the select squadron developing lead Pathfinder techniques, while experimenting with radar. He was among the first to test the teeth of the Luftwaffe's defenses, and once those techniques had been honed, thousands of other bomber crews would follow into the maelstrom, from which 80,000 never returned. This work gives us vivid insights into the genesis of the American air campaign, told with the humor, attention to detail and humility that captures the heart and so

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This is the story of an almost completely forgotten summer art school that flourished first in Darby, PA, and then in Fort Washington, PA, between 1898 and 1918. The Darby School of Art was founded and operated by Thomas Anshutz and Hugh Breckenridge, two artists who taught during the academic year at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Anshutz and Breckenridge brought a lot of new ideas about painting back to Philadelphia after their European sojourns, and introduced those ideas to a public that was initially not very responsive to Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and semi-abstract art. But an appreciation for modern styles of painting began to slowly grow among Philadelphia artists and collectors, and Anshutz and Breckenridge were in the forefront of this development. They also sympathized with what some have called the "New Woman" movement, which backed women who wanted to pursue careers outside of the home.In this new history, expert Mark Sullivan argues that the Philadelphia area was a genuine hub of avant-garde painting in the early twentieth century, even though it has earned the reputation of lagging far behind New York City in its openness to new styles of painting. It also discusses how the Darby School should be recognized as an institution that got behind the idea of women as professional artists at a time when that concept was quite radical.

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The Vistula-Oder offensive was a massive Soviet Army operation on the Eastern Front which was launched on 12 January 1945 and paved the way for the Battle of Berlin. Its main objective was a major advance from the River Vistula to the River Oder, bringing Soviet forces within fifty miles of the gates of Berlin. The offensive faced a German defensive line east of Warsaw. These 450,000 German troops were outmatched three to one by the Soviet forces. The Red Army assault began what would be a devastating three weeks for the German forces of Army Group A.German attempts to hold their lines and avoid being sucked into a maelstrom of destruction were unsuccessful. Army Group A would collapse almost all the way back to Berlin, ending the Third Reich’s desperate efforts to cling onto land captured in Poland five years earlier, and stem enemy forces spilling over into Germany and threatening Berlin. The battle saw some 295,000 soldiers killed and 147,000 captured, as well as thousands of tanks, artillery, and machine guns destroyed. Within two months of the offensive the battle of Berlin was launched.This fully illustrated book relates this story of defeat and survival, offering a detailed visual record of Nazi Germany’s demise between two main rivers in Poland and Germany.

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In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six weeks, hundreds of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war are killed. At the very onset of the atrocities, the Danish supervisor at a cement plant just outside the city, 26-year-old Bernhard Arp Sindberg, opens the factory gates and welcomes in 10,000 Chinese civilians to safety, beyond the reach of the blood-thirsty Japanese. He becomes an Asian equivalent of Oskar Schindler, the savior of Jews in the European Holocaust.This biography follows Sindberg from his childhood in the old Viking city of Aarhus and on his first adventures as a sailor and a Foreign Legionnaire to the dramatic 104 days as a rescuer of thousands of helpless men, women, and children in the darkest hour of the Sino-Japanese War. It describes how after his remarkable achievement, he receded back into obscurity, spending decades more at sea and becoming a naturalized American citizen, before dying of old age in Los Angeles in 1983, completely unrecognized. In this respect, too, there is an obvious parallel with Schindler, who only attained posthumous fame.The book sets the record straight by providing the first complete account of Sindberg’s life in English, based on archival sources hitherto unutilized by any historian as well as interviews with surviving relatives. What emerges is the surprising tale of a person who was average in every respect but rose to the occasion when faced with unimaginable brutality, discovering an inner strength and courage that transformed him into one of the great humanitarian figures of the 20th century and an inspiration for our modern age, demonstrating that the determined actions of one person—any person—can make a huge difference.

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The Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) was one of the most famous US combat ships of World War II, already internationally renowned following her participation in the naval battles in the Solomons in 1942. After repairs and modifications, in 1943 the Boise was sent to the Mediterranean theatre, there to participate in the invasions of Sicily, Taranto, and Salerno, and enhancing her fame by destroying enemy tanks during armoured counterattacks in both Sicily and Salerno.From the Mediterranean, Boise was sent to the Southwest Pacific theatre to join the US 7th Fleet for the campaign in New Guinea in 1943–44 and then the invasion of the Philippines. She fought in the battle of Leyte Gulf, notably in the night engagement in the Surigao Strait, where battleships faced off against each other for the last time in maritime history. Boise was credited with helping to sink a Japanese battleship. She also fought off the suicide planes known as kamikazes at Leyte and later at Lingayen Gulf during the invasion of Luzon. MacArthur used her as his flagship for the Luzon attack, thereby adding to her already considerable fame, then after helping retake Corregidor and other islands in the Philippines, Boise carried the general on a triumphant tour of the islands. This tour was interrupted for the invasion of Borneo, but completed when the beach was secured. After MacArthur left the ship in June 1945, she returned to the US for overhaul which was just complete as the war ended, by which time she had been awarded 11 battle stars, more than any other light cruiser in her class.This full account of USS Boise’s war not only gives us an insight into how one ship navigated a global conflict, but also an insight into the experiences of the men who served on her, and a new perspective on the naval campaigns of the war.

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The most eye-opening, and terrifying, story in Chip Reid's career as a journalist was the six weeks he spent with 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as a correspondent for NBC News. Traveling shoulder-to-shoulder with the young Marines, he had unparalleled access, witnessing them in combat, and interviewing as many as he could persuade his bosses to put on air, allowing them to tell their war stories in their own words.It took only 22 days for the Marines of 3/5 to fight their way to Baghdad, but the effects on those who fought have lasted a lifetime. They lost a number of their own in battle, and others suffered life-threatening injuries. Of those who returned - even if they avoided physical scars - many have had to find their own way through survivor's guilt and the nightmare of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with all its attendant miseries.Twenty years on, Chip sat down with the Marines of 3/5 once more. They told Chip inspiring stories of heroism in battle, of camaraderie and comrades lost, of patriotism and belief in mission, of recovery and success in both military and civilian life, and of the new appreciation for life that results from Post-Traumatic Growth. Visceral and searingly honest, this book is a tribute to the Marines for their service, and for the many sacrifices they made then, and that many still make today.

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North Africa was one of the richest parts of the Roman Empire, the agricultural powerhouse of the Mediterranean. It was also home to some of the emperor’s biggest imperial estates, and prosperous cities of all kinds. Its loss to the Vandals in the first half of the 5th century AD was the mortal blow which precipitated the fall of the western empire, and set the eastern empire back for decades. Its reconquest then became an obsession with each new emperor in Constantinople. Time and again the eastern Romans failed in this goal, until Justinian I finally succeeded in the AD 530s. Although North Africa’s restoration to the world of Rome only lasted a short time, it has widely been regarded as a positive development.However, new research – published here for the first time – shows that post-Roman North Africa thrived under the Vandals. To them it was Vandal heaven, a place where they found a way as the new incumbent elite to live comfortably alongside the late Roman inhabitants, despite their different interpretations of Christianity. Together, the two cultures flourished. When the eastern Romans – now styled Byzantines – returned, they weren’t welcome. This is evidenced in the surviving built environments, namely chains of small forts along the frontier and interior, where the Byzantines used mounted troops to keep an unhappy local population under control. Dr Elliott presents a brand-new interpretation of post-Roman North Africa, providing a compelling argument for how the region today came to be part of the Arab world, in contrast to the regions along the northern Mediterranean freeboard which maintain their Roman-ness to this day.

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After decades of poising on the brink, the United States and China finally go to war when China invades the island of Taiwan. Deploying their most futuristic technologies in this grand strategic competition of the 21st century, the stakes could not be higher. Not only the future of the Taiwanese people but the fate of the world lies in the balance. In an era when humans no longer just use machines, but partner with them in all aspects of military operations, this fictional account views this future war through the eyes of the American, Chinese, and Taiwanese caught up in the maelstrom, revealing the heartbreak, courage, leadership, and despair of high-tech warfare played out on land, at sea, in space, and in cyberspace. White Sun War asks readers to ponder anew an essential question for the future of security in western Pacific and the entire Indo-Pacific region: is a war for Taiwan winnable?

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Developed in response to the 1899 Hague Convention, the 37-mm gun met the restrictions on the size of weapons that could fire explosive shells, yet was also light and lethal enough to be used in battle. After World War I, in which the French Model 1916 37-mm was used extensively, several countries developed or adopted the 37-mm gun.Behind in their development of an anti-tank gun, the United States relied on the German Pak 36 37-mm design as a basis for development. By the mid 1930s, the US Ordnance Department designed the M3 37-mm gun and M4 carriage resulting in a towed anti-tank gun, the first anti-tank gun in the U.S. Army. This gun proved effective at the beginning of World War II, but as German armour protection increased, it could not penetrate the frontal armuor of many German tanks and was relegated to lesser roles. However, the gun proved effective against the Japanese tanks and Japanese strong points in the Far East.The US military used the gun on several production and experimental armoured vehicles including the M3 Lee Medium Tank, the M3 Stuart Light Tank, the M5 Stuart Light Tank, the M8 Armored Car, the T17E1 Staghound Armored Car and the M3A1E3 Scout Car. The gun was also used on several non-armoured vehicles, the P39 Aeracobra, and selected naval vessels. Despite its small size, the U.S. M3 37-mm gun served throughout the war, on many vehicles and performed exactly as designed.Fully illustrated, this is the first complete account of the development and use of the US 37-mm gun in World War II.

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In late 1971, the People's Army of Vietnam launched Campaign 'Z' into northern Laos, escalating the war in Laos with the aim of defeating the last Royal Lao Army troops. The NVA troops numbered 27,000 and brought with them 130mm field guns and T-34 tanks, while the North Vietnamese air force launched MiG-21s into Lao air space. General Giap's specific orders to this task force were to kill the CIA army under command of the Hmong war lord Vang Pao and occupy its field headquarters in the Long Tieng valley of northeast Laos.They faced the rag-tag army of Vang Pao, fewer than 6,000 strong and mostly Thai irregulars, recruited by the Thai army to fight for the CIA in Laos. By the time the NVA launched their first attack, 4,000 Tahan Sua Pran had been recruited, armed, trained and rushed in position in Laos to defend against the impending NVA invasion. They reinforced Vang Pao's indigenous army of 1,800 Lao hillstribe guerrillas.Despite the odds being overwhelmingly in the NVA's favour, the battle did not go to plan. It raged for more than 100 days, the longest in the Vietnam War, and it all came down to Skyline Ridge. As at Dien Bien Phu, whoever won Skyline, won Laos. Against all odds, against all WDC expectations, the NVA lost, their 27,000-man invasion force decimated.James Parker served in Laos. Over many years he pieced together his own knowledge with CIA files and North Vietnamese after-action reports in order to tell the full story of the battle of Skyline Ridge.

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One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the “Dirlewanger Special Unit.” Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. First used to guard the Jewish ghetto in Lublin and support security operations carried out in occupied Poland by SS and Police forces, the unit was soon transferred to Belarus to combat the increasingly active Soviet partisan movement. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during August–September 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. One month later, it fought one of its most controversial actions near the town of Ipolysag, Hungary, now known by its Slovak name of Šahy, between 13 and 18 December 1944. As a result of its overly hasty and haphazard deployment, lack of heavy armament, and a confusing chain of command, it was virtually destroyed by two Soviet mechanized corps.Consequently, the Wehrmacht leadership blamed Dirlewanger and the performance of his troops for the encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest during late December 1944 that led to the annihilation of its garrison two months later. The brigade’s defeat at Ipolysag also led to its compulsory removal from the front lines by General der Panzertruppe Hermann Balck and its eventual shipment to a rest area where it would be completely rebuilt, so thorough was its destruction. Despite its lackluster performance, the brigade was rebuilt once again and sent to East Prussia in February 1945, but never recovered from the thrashing it received at the hands of the 6th Guards Army in December.

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The Allied amphibious operation codenamed Shingle was launched in late January 1944. It was opposed by German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno. Success depended on the element of surprise, and the speed with which the invaders could build up strength and move inland. This was understood by General Mark Clark, commander of the US Fifth Army, but not fully understood by his subordinate commanders.This German account focuses on the landing at Anzio as it was the only one that failed to achieve its objective of smashing the German defense and achieving operational freedom of movement. The battle lasted over six weeks, with mistakes made by leadership on both sides, and consequently also great sacrifice by solders on both sides. But the operation was not a German success either, and attempts to prevent the creation of a strong bridgehead failed. Ultimately the Allies would reach Rome, and the Allies applied lessons from this battle to facilitate the success of Overlord, launched five months later.While not complete, as the author did not have access to some of the war diaries of higher levels of German command, this is still one of the best German accounts of Operation Shingle and is here translated into English for the first time.

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Not even old enough to drink, Corporal Savannah Cannon is a young enlisted United States Marine deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2010. As a tactical data networking specialist, she is sent away from everyone she knows and attached to a Regimental Combat Team where women are not allowed to repair communications. Her experiences over the next few months shed light on the unique and difficult positions women are placed in when supporting combat roles, while offering a raw look at the painful choices women must sometimes make.Cannon finds herself in a combat zone, ostracised from family, friends, and even her fellow Marines as the men are told to avoid her. The connections she makes are born from trauma and desperation and the choices she makes will echo throughout many lives.Corporal Cannon is not the story of a heroine; it is the hard-hitting account of just one of the flawed individuals who make up the United States' fighting forces. Mistakes in the battlefield can have dire consequences, personally and professionally. Reflecting on her time in service, the author weaves a story of past and present, and the healing that can come with admitting our mistakes and moving past them.

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When HMS Dreadnought was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1906 this revolutionary new class of big-gun iron-clad warship immediately changed the face of naval warfare, rendering all other battleships worldwide obsolete. The Admiralty realised that as soon as the ship was revealed to the global naval community Britain would be a in race to stay ahead, and so the first dreadnoughts were built in record time. While there were those who regarded the vessel as a triumphant revolution in naval design, the dreadnought initially had its critics, including those who thought its slower, heavier guns left it vulnerable to the secondary armament of other warships. Nevertheless, other countries, notably Germany, and the United States soon began to lay down dreadnoughts. The culmination of this arms race would be the confrontation of the British and German fleets at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 - the greatest clash of naval firepower in history. This book gives detailed insights into the design, operation and combat history of these incredible vessels.

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"The ultimate reference on Army Special Operations in Vietnam. One thing for sure, you will want to read this book." Vietnam veteran, 173rd Airborne Brigade"It's a book that any aspiring future Special Forces troop should read." Major General Jack Singlaub, (ret), U.S. Army Special Forces, CIA and OSSDuring the Vietnam War, the Special Forces men of the top-secret Studies and Observations Group ran covert operations deep behind enemy lines - along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, into the enemy’s secret Cambodian sanctuaries, even striking into the heartland of North Vietnam. In 1972 the U.S. military destroying all known photos of the top-secret Studies and Observations Group, with the intention that details could never be made public. But unknown to those in charge, SOG veterans brought back with them hundreds of photographs of SOG in action and kept them secret for more than three decades. This new edition brings together an amazing collection of more than 700 irreplaceable photos bring to life the stories of SOG legends Larry Thorne, Bob Howard, Dick Meadows, George Sisler, "Q" and others, and documents what really happened deep inside enemy territory: Operation Tailwind, the Son Tay raid, SOG's defense of Khe Sanh, Hatchet Force operations, Bright Light rescues, HALO insertions, string extractions, SOG's darkest programs and much more. This book captures some of the most dramatic combat photos to emerge from the war, creating a stunning mosaic telling SOG's entire story.

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For almost half a century, the hottest front in the Cold War was right across Berlin. From summer 1945 until 1990, the secret services of NATO and the Warsaw Pact fought an ongoing duel in the dark. Throughout the Cold War, espionage was part of everyday life in both East and West Berlin, with German spies playing a crucial part of operations on both sides: Erich Mielke's Stasi and Reinhard Gehlen's Federal Intelligence Service, for example.The construction of the wall in 1961 changed the political situation and the environment for espionage - the invisible front was now concreted and unmistakable. but the fundamentals had not changed: Berlin was and would remain the capital of spies until the fall of the Berlin Wall, a fact which makes it all the more surprising that there are hardly any books about the work of the secret services in Berlin during the Cold War. Journalist Sven Felix Kellerhoff and historian Bernd von Kostka describe the spectacular successes and failures of the various secret services based in the city.

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Since the earliest recorded military history, scouting and reconnaissance have been key tools employed by military commanders to obtain a picture of the tactical situation and make informed decisions. Scouts known as sciritae were deployed by the Spartans and had a privileged position in their order of battle. The Spartans were so aware of the advantage their scouting operations gave them that they went to great lengths to keep them secret. As military tactics, weapons and equipment developed over the centuries, methods of scouting and reconnaissance evolved and adapted but always remained true to the spirit of the scout – light on their feet, taking only what they need and returning with the information that could turn potential defeat into victory. Military Reconnaissance provides a concise but revealing picture of the art of military scouting and reconnaissance from the highly toned Spartan warriors, the scouts employed by Julius Caesar, through the middle ages to the Napoleonic Wars to the role of the scout in modern warfare.

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Bagration was the code word that the Soviet Army gave for their summer offensive in 1944. This massive offensive led to the destruction of the German Army Group Center and was the greatest military defeat ever experienced by the German Army during World War Two. This book provides an absorbing insight into the German defeat and the Russian offensive using a wide variety of rare and previously unpublished photographs. With detailed captions and text together with 20 artist profiles and maps, the book shows the compelling story of how German Army Group Center tried to counter the overwhelming might of the Soviet Army as it poured thousands of men, weapons and armor across the German lines, smashing its way through.What ensued was a swift and bloody battle of attrition as the German Army tried to contain the might of its unstoppable enemy. In the days and weeks that followed German units fought and gradually retreated under the constant hammer blows of Russian ground and aerial bombardments, and endless armored and infantry attacks. Many German units fighting to the grim death were duty-bound not to withdraw, and what followed was a disaster of a colossal magnitude. As the Soviet might punched a massive hole in the German lines it sent huge shock waves through Army Group Center forcing them to retreat or face total annihilation.However, the Russian offensive was so quick that many of the German units with their precious panzer and infantry divisions quickly became encircled and destroyed - its remnants retreating west in order to save itself. By the end of the battle this cataclysm was bigger than that experienced at Stalingrad. It saw the German Army being pushed out of Russia towards Poland with the loss of over 300,000 men and most of its weaponry lost.The story of the destruction of Army Group Center during the summer of 1944 has been completely overshadowed by the D-Day campaign in Normandy three weeks earlier. Yet, the battle in which the German forces endured on the Eastern Front that fateful summer was more catastrophic than that experienced by the Allies on the Western Front, but little is known of the operation. This book reveals the lesser-known battle in the East and shows how the German forces fought and lost against overwhelming odds.

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In Romans at War ground-breaking research is presented in an accessible, entertaining, and sumptuously illustrated format, including:• A new consideration of the nature of late Roman military leaders; the author argues they were effectively independent warlords.• Cutting edge research regarding the Severan campaigns to conquer Scotland in the early 3rd century AD.• A new analysis of the nature of late Roman troops, both mounted and foot.The Roman military machine was the pre-eminent in the ancient world, projecting power across the known world over a vast chronology, and an increasing huge and diverse geography. One of the most powerful instruments of war in the history of conflict, it proved uniquely adept at learning from setbacks, always coming back the stronger for it. In so doing it displayed two of the most important traits associated with the world of Rome. Firstly grit, that key ability to remain steadfast and to overcome adversity, even in the most challenging of circumstances, as faced for example by the Republic in the Second Punic War against Hannibal. Secondly, the ability to copy the successful technical and tactical innovations of their enemies, enabling the Roman military to always stay one step ahead of its opponents on campaign and in battle.In this grand tour covering every aspect of the Roman military, leading expert Dr Simon Elliott first provides a detailed background to the Roman Republic and Empire to provide context for all that follows. He then looks specifically at the Roman military in its three key chronological phases: the Republic, the Principate Empire and the Dominate Empire. Next he forensically examines specific examples of the Roman military on campaign and in battle, and of its engineering prowess. Finally, he examines the many enemies faced by the Roman Republic and Empire. This all provides a firm structure to enable the reader to come to grips with this incredible military machine, one whose exploits still resonate in the world to this very day.

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Since the fall of Saigon in 1975 there have been many books published on why (and whether) America lost the war in Vietnam. The senior American commander in charge of prosecuting the war during its buildup and peak of fighting, Admiral U.S.G. Sharp, concluded his memoir, saying: “The real tragedy of Vietnam is that this war was not won by the other side, by Hanoi or Moscow or Peiping. It was lost in Washington, D. C.” This remains an all too common belief. The stark facts, though, are that the Vietnam War was lost before the first American shot was fired. In fact, it was lost before the first French Expeditionary Corps shot, almost two decades earlier, and was finally lost when the South Vietnamese fought partly, then entirely, on their own.Offering an informed and nuanced narrative of the entire 30-year war in Vietnam, this book seeks to explain why. It is written by a combatant not only in six violent, large battles and many smaller firefights, but a leader with a full range of pacification duties, a commander who lost 43 wonderful young men killed and many more wounded, men who were doing what their country asked of them. This story is the result of a quest for answers by one who, after decades of wondering what it was about – what was it all about? – turned to a years-long search of French, American, and Vietnamese sources. It is a story of success on the one hand, defeat on the other, and the ingredients of both, inspirational or sordid as they may be.It is a story mostly lived and revealed by the people inside Vietnam who were directly involved in the war: from leaders in high positions, down to the jungle boots and sandals level of the fighters, and among the Vietnamese people who were living the war. Because of what was happening inside Vietnam itself, no matter what policies and directives came out of Paris or Washington, or the influences in Moscow or Beijing, it is about a Vietnamese idea which would eventually triumph over bullets.

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The port of Tobruk, Libya, was besieged by German and Italian forces in April 1941. Following an abortive attempt in June, the Allies tried to relieve the siege in late November, when the Eighth Army launched Operation Crusader, which aimed at destroying the Axis armored force then advancing. After a number of inconclusive engagements, the British 7th Armoured Division was defeated by the Afrika Korps at Sidi Rezegh. Edwin Rommel was then forced to withdraw his troops to the defensive line at Gazala, making the operation the first Allied victory over German land forces in World War II. This account of the tank warfare during Operation Crusader in front of Tobruk in the fall of 1941 examines the roles of commanders in the battles of Operation Crusader, in particular the part of Erwin Rommel, who achieved some defensive successes during the battle. As well as examining the part of commanders, it discusses the parameters of the battle: the terrain, weather, visibility, logistics, intelligence, and the forces involved. It then narrates the course of the battle, and the result of the battle.

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