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A Japanese American boy born just before Pearl Harbor joins the Army and is thrust into the maelstrom of Vietnam. Drawn to intelligence work, his watchword is "Intoku," Japanese for "good done in secret."Ishimoto is recruited by the legendary Colonel Charlie Beckwith to be a founder of Delta Force, the legendary elite Special Operations unit. He is on the ground in Iran for the Desert One disaster during Operation Eagle Claw, the ill-fated bid to rescue American hostages in Tehran.Part memoir of a remarkable life, this book will also be a valuable addition to Special Operations history as well as a practical guide to navigating extreme situations.

"The Devil's Playground" was anything south of the second canal to the men of Charlie Company's 2nd Platoon--Two Charlie--during their 2009-2010 deployment to the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. The valley had been a notorious hot spot throughout history, with the Russians unable to maintain a foothold in the 80s and Coalition forces now facing the same problem during Operation Enduring Freedom. The Two Charlie paratroopers deployed as part of the 2-508th PIR, Two Fury, of the 82nd Airborne Division, but always seemed to be on their own. They started their deployment attached to Canadian forces in Panjwai but were shortly moved into the Arghandab with one of the battalion's biggest Areas of Operation. They inherited a bare bones outpost that they worked hard to turn into the defendable position known as COP Tynes, while patrolling the grape fields and orchards of the valley. Little did they know that when the leaves returned to the valley in the spring, so too would the fighting.As the fighting picked up in the valley, the men of Two Charlie continued to sustain casualties as they fought day in and day out. There was never a dull moment in the Arghandab, and the fact that Two Charlie had to patrol, act as a quick reaction force, and secure their outpost on their own ensured that they never stopped. The men were constantly brought to their breaking point as their numbers dwindled and the fighting intensified. The men all started to believe that they weren't going to make it out of the valley alive. The one rule of the valley would be proved time and time again: in the end, the valley always wins. This book shares the story of the men of Two Charlie and their fight for survival in the Arghandab River Valley, the Devil's Playground.

An in-depth analysis of how drones have revolutionized ground combat, including combat experience from recent wars. Despite the dramatic effect drones have already had on the battlefield, drone technology is still in its infancy--perhaps analogous with at the stage of development that aircraft reached during World War I. Understanding what drones are currently capable of, how they operate, and how they may develop, is crucial for anyone with an interest in modern and future warfare. Building on an introductory discussion into the engineering and physics of drones, their capabilities and limitations, historian and systems engineer Lars Celander surveys the different types of drones, detailing their navigation, communication and sensor systems and the various weapons a drone can be equipped with. He explains not only the tactics of drone operations but the various techniques, tactics, and weapons currently utilized in counter-drone warfare. The costs of drones, hit probabilities, attrition rates, and production volumes are covered to provide context to the technological discussion. Analysis of how Azerbaijan used drones to defeat Armenia in 2020 and how drone warfare has evolved since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 demonstrates how drones are already revolutionizing warfare. The war in Ukraine is the first to see large-scale use of small drones, a usage so effective that it has rendered large-scale maneuver warfare largely impossible. Taking into account technologies like AI, the book concludes with informed predictions into the further evolution of drones.

At the beginning of 1943, the German armed forces were in crisis on the southern front in Russia. The Soviets had launched a series of offensives from November 1942 that pushed the Germans back hundreds of kilometers. The Germans had no more significant reserves available, and enormous breaches had opened between defensive lines. In early January 1943, the Soviets attacked again, with the aim of reconquering the industrial city of Kharkov and destroying the remaining German and Axis troops in southern Ukraine, including the 4. Panzerarmee, 1. Panzerarmee, Armeeabteilung Hollidt and Armeeabteilung Fretter‐Pico.After the encirclement of 6. Armee at Stalingrad and the destruction of the Axis forces there, the loss of these four armies would certainly have led to German defeat on the Eastern Front. Believing victory was near, Stalin and his generals decided to launch their new offensives even before the garrison of Stalingrad surrendered. The main effort fell on Army Group Don, newly formed and with little forces available. Facing a massive offensive, Commander Erich von Manstein was ordered to hold the city at any cost, risking the destruction of two divisions of the Waffen‐SS and the "Grossdeutschland" army division. SS Panzer Corps commander Paul Hausser disobeyed Hitler's order and ordered the retreat from Kharkov, saving the two SS divisions. This meant that Manstein had at his disposal forces needed to launch his counteroffensive.The subsequent battles for Kharkov saw the three divisions of the Waffen‐SS--Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Das Reich and Totenkopf-- fighting together for the first time. In the first phase of the offensive, the SS Das Reich and Totenkopf marched 100 kilometers south of Kharkov, blocking the Soviet army from capturing the bridges over the Dnieper River, while the Leibstandarte successfully defended the corps supply base in Krasnograd. After protecting the bridges over the Dnepr, the Das Reich and Totenkopf units headed north and regained control of the vital railway network south of Kharkov. The Soviet 3rd Tank Army was forced to abandon its attack against Krasnograd to regroup south of Kharkov and protect the city from Hausser's divisions. At that point the Leibstandarte joined the other divisions of the corps SS to eliminate Soviet forces and recapture Kharkov. With its reconquest, Southern Ukraine returned firmly under German control.This is a fully illustrated account of the decisive victory attained by the SS Panzer Corps divisions at a time of serious crisis for the Axis forces.

Before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, there were only nineteen men who played in the Major Leagues of baseball and in the NFL in the same season. Only one, Walter French, played for a World Series winner and an NFL Championship team. Little remembered today, his status as a two-sport star had him constantly in the news.

Vivid memoir of Marine gunship missions in Vietnam.

This book provides a comprehensive look at the air war over Europe during the climactic year of World War II. The centerpiece is a mission-by-mission diary of 1st Lieutenant Richard R. Ayesh, a bombardier who flew with the 100th Bombardment Group, 13th Combat Wing of the 8th Air Force--the legendary "Bloody 100th."

This intimately researched work tells the story of the thousand-plus civilian contractors who came to Wake Island in 1941 to build an air station for the U.S. Navy. Author Gilbert charts the contractors' hard-won progress as they scramble to build the naval base as well as runways for U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 Flying Fortresses while war clouds gath

Barry Broman joined the CIA in 1971 straight out of the Marine Corps, choosing a career in intelligence largely because he wanted to spend his working life in Southeast Asia. Over the next thirty years, he had the privilege of working with brave men and women who were prepared to put their lives on the line in support of the free world during the Cold War, and he enjoyed the life of adventure he had been seeking since childhood.This book brings together tales from his career as a CIA case officer during the Cold War, giving fascinating insights into handling double agents, working in denied areas, assessing and recruiting Soviet targets, flying with Air America, acting to discredit Soviet agents with Moscow, and what happened when a case officer set a "scavenger hunt" around Bangkok for fellow spies--and at least one active target.A selection of stories told in engaging style proving that often the truth is more unbelievable than fiction.

"The entry of daggers into the Forum" is an expression that identifies two precise historical moments: when two tribunes of the plebs--brothers Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Caius Sempronius Gracchus--were murdered in Rome in 133 and 122 BC amidst bloody riots. These deaths and subsequent events marked the rupture of the constitutional order in the Roman Republic and the beginning of a political crisis. Thus began a political process that would lead, over the span of three generations, to the end of the res publica, a transition of endless violence, ransacking, and destruction, including three bitter and bloody civil wars.Internal politics in Rome in this period was fueled by social conflict, the confrontation between two political alignments--the Optimates and the Populares--each headed by an eminent figure and was characterized by sectarianism and (factional) intolerance. It was characterized by speeches delivered in the Senate, in the streets, and in the courts with solemnity and intensity but equally by the daggers that flashed in the hands of conspirators and assassins; by street riots, with thousands of victims; by real or alleged coups d'état, with ferocious mass repressions; by summary executions; by victims abandoned to the fury of the mob; of widespread civil wars whose battles intertwined with those against enemies abroad; manhunts, horrendous crimes; the system of legalized killings that aimed at the annihilation of political opponents known as proscriptions; corruption; and brutal and mass killings.This book discusses this tumultuous period in Rome between 133 and 78 BC, covering the plots of the Senate of Rome against the Gracchi and their violent ends, the mysterious death of Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, destroyer of Carthage and of Numantia, the ferocious lynching of Lucius Apuleius Saturninus, the seditious tribune of the plebs, the civil war between Marius and Sulla, including the siege and capitulation of Rome and Marius' reign of terror, ending with the definitive victory and proscriptions of Sulla.

By October 1943, the German 17th Army had been forced to retreat from the Kuban bridgehead across the Kerch Strait to Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the German forces in the southern Ukraine. In November 1943, they eventually cut off the land-based connection of 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus. Hitler prohibited a sea evacuation of 17th Army because he thought the Red Army could use the Crimean Peninsula to launch air attacks against Romanian oil refineries.In November 1943, the Russian launched a massive amphibious assault at two locations on the eastern coast of the Crimea, but its units were unable to prevent an Axis counterattack that collapsed the southern bridgehead. The Red Army held the bridgehead at Yenikale, from which they launched further offensive operations, culminating in a huge offensive in April 1944. Although the 17th Army bitterly contested every bit of ground, it was unable to stop the advance. Soviet forces reached Kerch on April 11, forcing the 17th Army to retreat towards Sevastopol. The remaining Axis forces in the Crimea were concentrating around the city by the end of the third week of April.The Germans intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, as the Russians had done between 1941 and 1942. However, the fortifications of the city had not been restored and the city fell on 9 May. From mid-April, Romanian and German ships undertook a huge and complex evacuation operation. The last phase of the evacuation, following the fall of Sevastopol, saw 37,000 troops transported under constant attacks from Soviet aircraft and shore artillery. Overall around 57,000 men were lost during the evacuation.Fully illustrated with rare and unpublished photos, this is a detailed account of the dogged attempt to retake the Crimea in 1943-44.

A revealing look at how ordinary citizens were plucked from the hardscrabble 1930s and hurriedly turned into flyers--young men then pitted against each other in deadly machines miles above the ground in Europe. Ray Brim led the way for thousands of his compatriots in the type of "total war" in the skies that we will never see again . . .

It wasn't rockets or artillery that came through the skies one week during the war. It was the horrific force of nature that suddenly put both sides in awe. Sometimes wars are suspended and fighting stops for a while. A holiday that both sides recognize might do it, as happened in the Christmas truce during World War I. Weather might do it, too, a

A young pilot disappears on a routine mission, resulting in a rescue attempt on a remote and inhospitable island in the South Pacific.

A fully illustrated account of the conclusion of the Atlanta campaign, 1864.

This action-packed story of combat written by Dan Daly, a Vietnam combat veteran who was the Officer in Charge of PCF 76 makes you part of the Swift Boat crew. The six man crew of PCF 76 were volunteers from all over the United States, eager to serve their country in a highly unique type of duty not seen since the PT boats of WWII. This inexperienc

Britain in 1940 was not unprepared nor alone--this new history assesses the British armed forces and secret civilian organisations that stood ready to fight off a German invasion.

The true story of German secret agents engaged in a campaign of subversion and terror in the United States before and during World War I.

An account of the many unseen contributions made by civilians to conflict in support of the military in Afghanistan.

A multi-author exploration of leadership and strategy through the lens of classic science fiction.

A fully illustrated, accessible account of the Richmond campaign.

An insider's account of how, contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Army developed comprehensive plans for the initial invasion of Iraq and for subsequent stages of the conflict--plans that were received with little interest by Washington.

How Forward Air Controllers and Close Air Support fundamentally changed the American war machine in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

An intimate account of the Pacific War, through the experiences of one infantry company.

A new assessment of the intelligence that underpinned the decision of the Axis countries to go to war against the United States of America.

New narratives on the lived experience of the Revolutionary War through five case studies exploring the spectrum of loyalist experiences in Revolutionary Philadelphia.

A towering figure on a white horse, George Washington led his Continental Army to victory over the British Army in the longest battle of the Revolutionary War on June 28, 1778. This is that story, told by the people who experienced it.

Raising Philadelphia tells the dramatic story of Philadelphia's rise to become the cultural heart of Colonial America and the lives of the people transforming the city in their image.

An accurate, exciting diary-like chronicle of the day-to-day machinations of the German generals as they struggle to prepare to meet the enemy in the West.

The oldest American to join the U.S. Army, psychiatrist Lanny Snodgrass challenges the paradoxical age restrictions in military service, invoking an urgent call for reform through his extraordinary journey.