From the roots of the conflict, through a profile of the two armies, to descriptions of the great battles and events of the war this work captures in one lavishly illustrated volume one of America’s first great crises.Scarcely three decades after the United States won its independence, the massive strength of Mother country returned, seeking to enforce its will on its wayward offspring. The combats were various in scale and ferocity, stretching from the wilds of the Canadian border to the swamps of New Orleans, while on the high seas the fledgling American navy slugged it out bravely with fearsome Brittania, achieving shocking success. On land the Americans initially had less luck and witnessed the burning of their new capital at Washington DC by British redcoats, even as a gallant bastion off Baltimore continued to hold its flag high beneath the “rockets’ red glare.” Though unnecessary at the end for geopolitical purposes (the war had already ended), General Andrew Jackson punctuated the conflict profoundly with a disastrous defeat of Wellington’s veterans near the Crescent City. Author Arnold Blumberg is a Visiting Scholar at the History Department of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and a contributor to a number of leading military history journals. Illustrated with 100 images of the fighting and the soldiers, this book illuminates an exciting, even if frequently forgotten, episode in history.

Here is the firsthand account of a member of one of the United States Army’s three-man Tactical Psychological Operations Teams, groups of men tasked with winning the hearts and minds of Iraq’s civilian population through leaflets, loudspeakers, conversation, and bribery. Transcribed from and inspired by Russell Snyder’s personal wartime journal, it is a story of introspection, relating how the feelings of eagerness and uncertainty in a young man unfamiliar with war were replaced with the dread knowledge that, buried within his soul, beneath a façade of goodwill and morality, lurked the capacity to kill his fellow men.There are scenes of battle retold within the pages of Hearts and Mines, descriptions of the feelings of seeing once-familiar human bodies destroyed beyond recognition. Some days are described as being full of hope and appreciation for the beauty of the world, others with despair for the omnipresent cruelty and destruction which has a habit of consuming men when they feel unaccountable for their actions. It captures the sensory experience of living in a singular environment full of strange plants and animals, friends true and false, and determined enemies, encapsulating the existential fear of mortar and rocket attacks, as well as the ridiculousness of military bureaucracy, such as was demonstrated by a sergeant major’s decision to punish graffiti artists by removing the doors of all the camp’s toilets.

While the Civil War is mainly remembered for its epic battles between the Northern and Southern armies, the Union was simultaneously waging another campaign, dubbed “Anaconda”, that was gradually depriving the South of industry and commerce. When an independent Dixie finally met its end, it was the North’s coastal campaign that was responsible.Strangling the Confederacy examines the various naval actions and land incursions the Union waged from Virginia down the Atlantic Coast and through the Gulf of Mexico to methodically close down every Confederate port that could bring in weapons or supplies. The Union’s Navy Board, a unique institution at the time, undertook the correct strategy. Its original decision to focus on ten seaports that had rail or water connections with the Confederate interior shows that it understood the concept of decisive points. In a number of battles the Federals were able to leverage their superior technology, including steam power and rifled artillery, in a way that made the Confederate coastal defences highly vulnerable, if not obsolete. On the other hand, when the Federals encountered Confederate resistance at close-quarters they often experienced difficulties, as in the failures at Fort Fisher, and the debacle at Battery Wagner.What makes Strangling the Confederacy particularly unique is its use of modern military doctrine to assess and analyse the campaigns. Kevin Dougherty, an accomplished historian and former career Army officer, concludes that, without knowing it, the Navy Board did an excellent job at following modern strategic doctrine. While the multitude of small battles that flared along the Rebel coast throughout the Civil War have heretofore not been as well known as the more titanic inland battles, in a cumulative sense Anaconda, the most prolonged of the Union campaigns, spelled doom for the Confederacy.

Like many heroes of World War II, General Albert C. Wedemeyer's career has been largely overshadowed by such well-known figures as Marshall, Patton, Montgomery and Bradley. Wedemeyer's legacy as the main planner of the D-Day invasion is almost completely forgotten today, eclipsed by politics and the capriciousness of human nature. In the late 1930s Wedemeyer had the unique experience of being an exchange student at the German Kriegsakademia, the Nazis’ equivalent of Fort Leavenworth’s Command and General Staff School. As the only American to attend, he was thus the only ranking officer in the US who recognised the revolutionary tactics of Blitzkrieg once they were unleashed, and he knew how to respond.As US involvement in the European conflagration approached, Wedemeyer was taken under the wing of George C. Marshall in Washington, but although he conceived the plans for US mobilisation, to his great disappointment he was not appointed to field command once the invasion commenced; further, he had run afoul of Winston Churchill due to the latter’s insistence on emphasising the Mediterranean theatre in 1943.Perhaps because of Churchill’s animosity, Wedemeyer was transferred to the Burma-China theatre, where a year later he would replace General Stilwell. Ultimately, Wedemeyer's service in the Asian theatre became far more significant, though less known. Had the US political establishment listened to Wedemeyer on China during the years 1943-48, it is possible China would not have been lost to the Communists and would have been a functioning US ally from the start, thus eliminating the likelihood of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

"The days of Congo and Angola when you had the image of mercenaries as drunken guys going around shooting up the place..

Praise for Michael O. Logusz:“Logusz has a flair for vivid detail, whether describing the terror Colonists felt during Indian raids on their settlements or the chaos of battles in the unfamiliar wilderness.” – Library Journal“…a fascinating book. .. Logusz brings this part of the Revolutionary War to life with excellent detail.” – IPMSThis is the second volume of Michael O. Logusz’s epic work on the Wilderness War of 1777, inwhich the British Army, with its German, Loyalist, and Indian auxiliaries, attempted to descendfrom Canada to sever the nascent American colonies, only to be met by Patriot formationscontesting the invasion of their newly declared nation.In his first volume, on the Saratoga campaign, the author described how Burgoyne’s main thrust was first stalled and then obliterated during its advance down the Hudson River. Burgoyne had hoped to be met by a corresponding British thrust from New York City, but this never materialised. However, the British had indeed launched a third thrust from the west, embarking from Lake Ontario at Oswego and thence forging its way down the Mohawk Valley.This third British thrust, under General Barry St. Leger, was perhaps the most terrifying of all, as it overran a sparsely populated wilderness where every man and boy had long needed to bear arms to protect against the ravages of the Iroquois Federation. At Fort Stanwix, a Patriot fort held fast, though surrounded by St. Leger’s forces and his Mohawk and Loyalist auxiliaries. A relief column some 800 strong under Nicholas Herkimer attempted to relieve the fort, but it was ambushed en route with most of its men killed or wounded, including the entire male population of several nearby communities. It was a truly epic disaster.

Praise for Mike Guardia:“…meticulously researched, with facts verified by exhaustive sleuthing…a fine work of investigative history.”– Military Writers Society of AmericaThe fires on Bataan burned on the evening of April 9, 1942, illuminating the white flags of surrender against the night time sky. Woefully outnumbered, outgunned, and ill-equipped, battered remnants of the American-Philippine army surrendered to the forces of the Rising Sun. Yet amongst the chaos and devastation of the American defeat, Army Captain Donald D. Blackburn refused to lay down his arms.With future Special Forces legend Russell Volckmann, Blackburn escaped from Bataan and fled to the mountainous jungles of North Luzon, where they raised a private army of over 22,000 men against the Japanese. Once there, Blackburn organised a guerrilla regiment from among the native tribes in the Cagayan Valley. “Blackburn’s Headhunters,” as they came to be known, devastated the Japanese 14th Army within the western provinces of North Luzon and destroyed the Japanese naval base at Aparri, the largest enemy anchorage in the Philippines.After the war, Blackburn remained on active duty and played a key role in initiating Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia. Following his return to the United States, Blackburn was appointed “Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities,” where he was the architect of the famous Son Tay Prison Raid. This book follows Donald D. Blackburn through both his youthful days of desperate combat against an Empire, and through his days as a commander, imparting his lessons to the newly realised ranks of America’s own Special Forces.

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne is the product of contributions by 530 soldiers who were on the ground or in the air over Bastogne. They lived and made this history and much of it is told in their own words. The material contributed by these men of the 101st Airborne Division, the Armour, Tank Destroyer, Army Air Force, and others is tailored meticulously by the author and placed on the historical framework known to most students of the Battle of the Bulge. Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle nearly 60 years old come together in this book, when memories related by one soldier fit with those of another unit or group pursuing the battle from another nearby piece of terrain.

Many professional historians have recorded the actions of D-Day but here is an account of the airborne actions as described by the actual men themselves in eyewitness detail. Participants range from division command personnel to regimental, battalion, company and battery commanders to chaplains, surgeons, enlisted medics, platoon sergeants, squad leaders and the rough, tough troopers who adapted quickly to fighting in mixed, unfamiliar groups after a badly scattered drop – and yet managed to gain the objectives set for them in the hedgerow country of Normandy. George Koskimaki was part of the 101st Airborne’s daring parachute landing into occupied France that day. Now, drawing on more than five hundred firsthand accounts, including the never-before-published experiences of the trailblazing pathfinders and glider men, Koskimaki re-creates those critical hours in all their ferocity and terror. Told by those who ultimately prevailed, ordinary Americans who faced an extraordinary challenge, D-Day with the Screaming Eagles is the real history of that climactic struggle beyond the beachhead.

William Mortimer Moore has written a fine biography of Leclerc, who played almost as important a part as De Gaulle himself in restoring French pride in the Second World War'. – Antony Beevor, author of D-Day: The Battle of Normandy'Superb. General Leclerc is one of the few authentic French heroes of the Second World War, and in this exhaustively researched and fast-moving account of his extraordinary life, Mortimer Moore does him full justice. ' – Professor Saul David, author of Zulu: the Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879But for his early death, many Frenchmen believe Leclerc would have been their greatest figure to emerge from World War II. De Gaulle himself admitted to his son-in-law that he gave up smoking when Leclerc died, in case France needed him, because Leclerc was no longer there.From the fall of France until 1943, Leclerc dovetailed his operations with the British effort in North Africa, establishing himself as a dynamic combat leader in the battles against Rommel. But once the conflict shifted to European soil he became even more prominent as the commander of the 2nd French Armored Division. For the next two years he was under the operational control of either Patton's Third Army, Hodges' First Army, at the Westwall, or Patch's Seventh Army in the south. His career not only includes the liberation of Paris, for which he is most famous, but the retaking of Strasbourg and the reduction of the Colmar Pocket. Aside from a fast-paced narrative covering combat at all levels of command, Leclerc's story will make fascinating reading for any serious student of the full scope of World War II.

September 17, 1944; thousands of 101st Airborne Division paratroopers, known as the Screaming Eagles, descend from the sky over Holland, dropping deep behind German lines in a daring daylight mission to seize and secure the road leading north to Arnhem and the Rhine. Their success would allow the Allied army to advance swiftly into Germany. The Screaming Eagles accomplish their initial objectives within hours, but keeping their sections of “Hell’s Highway” open takes another 72 days of fierce round-the-clock fighting against crack German troops and tank divisions. Hell's Highway is the dramatic name given to the vital stretch of road that the British 3rd Guards Armoured Division had to advance down rapidly on their route to relieve the American Paras (82nd Airborne) at Nijmegen and the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. Drawing on interviews with more than 600 paratroopers, George E. Koskimaki chronicles, with vivid firsthand accounts, the dramatic, never-before-told story of the Screaming Eagles’ valiant struggle. Hell’s Highway also tells of the Dutch citizens and members of the underground who were liberated after five years of Nazi oppression and who never forgot America’s airborne heroes. This renowned force risked their lives for the freedom of a small country . . . and the world.About the AuthorGeorge Koskimaki is a noted historian of the 101st Airborne Division. His other books include D-Day With The Screaming Eagles and The Battered Bastards of Bastogne. He lives in Northville, MI, USA.

During the final days of World War II, German SS officers crammed trains, cars, and trucks full of gold, currency, and jewels, and headed for the mountains of Austria. Fearful of arrest and determined to keep the stolen loot out of Allied hands, they concealed their treasures and fled. Most of these men were eventually apprehended, but many managed to evade capture. The intensive post-war Allied investigation that followed recovered only a sliver of this mountain of gold. What happened to the rest of it, and what fate befell these men?Authors Alford and Savas answer these questions and many more. Their groundbreaking study is based upon thousands of pages of previously unpublished and recently declassified documents. The result is a fresh and absolutely original reading experience that offers insights into the minds and methods of these SS thieves, the Office within which they laboured, how they achieved their positions of near-absolute power, the complex Allied investigation into their activities, and what happened to the vast sums of wealth they looted from Europe's Jews.Nazi Millionaires deftly captures the high drama surrounding these men and women and the secrets they carried with them during the closing days of World War II – and in some cases, to the grave. It is a remarkable tale of greed, lust, fraud, deceit, treachery, and murder. It is one you will long remember.About the Authors: Kenneth D. Alford, of Richmond, Virginia, is the author of Great Treasure Stories of World War II and The Spoils of World War II. Theodore P. Savas has written or edited a dozen books, including Silent Hunters: German U-Boat Commanders of World War II.

The Battle of Spion Kop was fought during the campaign to relieve Ladysmith, South Africa, and was the single bloodiest episode in the campaign, as well as a harbinger of the bitter and desperate fighting still to come in the Second Boer War.Spion Kop, just northeast of Ladysmith, was the largest hill in the region, being over 1,400 feet high, laying almost exactly at the centre of the Boer line. If the British could capture this position and bring artillery to the hill, they would command the flanks of the surrounding Boer positions. On the night of 23 January 1900, a large British force under Major General Edward Woodgate was dispatched to secure the height, with Lt. Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft selected to lead the initial assault. However, the Boers refused to give up the position and a bitter two days of fighting ensued. In the initial darkness the British mistakenly entrenched at the centre of the hill instead of the crest, and suffered horribly from Boer marksmen clinging to the periphery. Suffering badly themselves, the Boers were finally inclined to admit defeat when they discovered that the British had retreated, leaving behind their many dead. Yet, in light of the devastation wrought on both sides, the British were finally able to rally and relieve Ladysmith four weeks later. Ron Lock, esteemed author of many Zulu warfare histories, brings to life this bitter and previously overlooked campaign in vivid and complete detail, with supporting sources including then-journalist Winston Churchill’s battle report, as well as many previously unpublished illustrations and six newly commissioned maps. His account will be valuable to both historians and strategists wanting to better understand this difficult and devastating conflict.

Long relegated to a secondary position behind Gettysburg, Vicksburg has more recently earned consideration by historians as the truly decisive battle of the Civil War and is indeed fascinating on many levels. A focal point of both western armies, the Federal campaign of manoeuvre that finally isolated the Confederates in the city was masterful. The Navy’s contribution to the Federal victory was significant. The human drama of Vicksburg’s beleaguered civilian population is compelling, and the Confederate cavalry dashes that first denied the Union victory were thrilling. But perhaps more than any other factor, the key to the Federal victory at Vicksburg was simply better leadership. It is this aspect of the campaign that Leadership Lessons: The Campaigns for Vicksburg, 1862–1863 seeks to explore.The first section of this book familiarises the reader with the challenges, characteristics, and styles associated with leadership during the Civil War in general. It also outlines the Vicksburg Campaign by explaining the strategic significance of the Mississippi River and Vicksburg, detailing the opposing forces and the terrain, discussing the failed attempts to capture Vicksburg over the winter of 1862–63, and tracing the brilliant campaign of manoeuvre and logistics that allowed Grant to ultimately lay siege and win a Federal victory. The second section of the book contains 30 “leadership vignettes” that span the actions of the most senior leaders down to those of individual soldiers. Each vignette focuses the campaign overview to the specific situation in order to provide appropriate context, explains the action in terms of leadership lessons learned, and concludes with a short list of “take-aways” to crystallise the lessons for the reader.

“He was one of the last great foreign correspondents” – Larry Meredith, United Press“The story of how Guard gate-crashed journalism is in itself an epic.” – Newspaper World magazine“..

In August 2006, many thought America had lost the war in Iraq, as the senior U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer there wrote that control of al Anbar Province, the seat of the raging Sunni insurgency, was irrevocably lost to the insurgents. During that time, there were over 100 attacks per day against U.