War Combat

This is a first-hand account of a war the U.S. should not have entered. It is easy to read from the first page to the last, and gives some history of Vietnam and the ignored warning signs. It is written by a combat infantryman, or “grunt,” in the 5th Battalion 7th Cavalry, a battalion formed to join the other battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division’s airmobile operations. He, along with a core group of soldiers who trained together for over eight months, was sent to Vietnam in August 1966, a “band of brothers” mostly made up of draftees. Over the next year, the unit saw numerous ...

There are many, many studies of the Civil War. Books have been written on its economic effects, its political causes, its relationship to western expansion. But the real fascination of the war is the story of combat, men in battle. Combat: The Civil War tells this story in the words of men who actually marched into battle. We share their experiences, their fears, and their moments of bravery at Vicksburg, on board the Monitor, at Gettysburg, and at the bloody battle of Antietam. These eyewitness accounts are interspersed with brief commentaries by some of our most respected historians....

There was a truce on New Year’s Day, 1968, and Third Brigade of 25th Infantry Division used the respite to build a new fire support base near the Cambodian border, in a vast forested area of Viet Nam called War Zone C. They called it Fire Support Base Burt, manned by two infantry battalions and three batteries of artillery. When the truce ended at midnight, January 1, the Communist forces in the area responded by launching a massive assault on the base. Vastly outnumbered, the American soldiers repelled attack after attack and eventually forced the enemy to withdraw after suffering ...

November 1965. The Central Highlands. Ray Halvorsen, nineteen years old, lies in a shallow hole at Landing Zone X-Ray while mortar rounds walk across the elephant grass and the man beside him prays in a voice Ray cannot hear. Before the sun comes up, Ray will fire his rifle at a shape in the grass and watch it stop moving. Before the week is over, he will walk the column to Landing Zone Albany and learn why half the men around him will never walk out of it. Sixteen months earlier, a letter from the Webster County Local Board arrived on a Tuesday in late July at a farm outside Corwin, Iowa. ...

June 1966. Hollis Caudill, nineteen years old, stands in the open door of a Huey and learns what the valley costs. He is a door gunner with the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, flying resupply and extraction missions into the Vinh Thanh Valley during Operation Crazy Horse — one of the bloodiest helicopter operations of the Vietnam War. He has an M60, a crew chief who speaks in facts rather than comfort, and a 1964 Ford Galaxie waiting under a tarp at home in West Virginia. By the time the operation ends, he will have carried the dead from a burning ridge, watched a ship go down in a ...

What defines true bravery? Go beyond the battlefield headlines and into the heart of conflict with War Stories: Bravery, a gripping collection of 15 unforgettable true tales that redefine courage in the face of unimaginable adversity. From the shell-shocked beaches of Dunkirk and the brutal trenches of World War I to the fierce jungles of Vietnam, the desolate mountains of Afghanistan, and the urban warfare of Iraq, this meticulously researched anthology brings to life extraordinary acts of valor from 20th and 21st-century conflicts. These are the real stories of ordinary individuals pushed...

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

Navy SEAL Keith “Chunk” Redman has been one of the military’s top doorkickers since the day he pinned on his trident: loyal, single-minded, lethal. Tasked to lead a new, covert team of Tier One SEALs—the most elite special operators in the world—Chunk can no longer simply rely on the status quo. To safeguard America, he needs help to stay a step ahead of its adversaries.

Who, or what, was the real enemy in Vietnam? The ever-elusive, jungle-wise Viet Cong and their NVA allies? The oppressive heat and torrential rains? The leeches, mosquitoes, and the jungle itself? Or the army whose regulations made you carry a .45 even though the firing pin was broken? Perhaps, each in their own way, they all were... and John Shook battled them all. In One Soldier, he recounts his experiences and describes how he faced—and overcame—all the enemies a machine-gunner encountered in the Nam. Straight-from-the-shoulder, Shook tells of search and destroy patrols and night ...

On Combat looks at what happens to the human body under the stresses of deadly battle and the impact on the nervous system, heart, breathing, visual and auditory perception, memory -- then discusses new research findings as to what measure warriors can take to prevent such debilitations so they...

A former soldier settles into post-combat life, happy to train others rather than fight. Then a visitor from his past seeks him out for help and protection. Combat tracker Mitch Kearns is well past his glory days and spends his time teaching the feds how to pursue fugitives on the run. Fresh out of teaching a class for his fellow FBI agents, he runs into his mentor’s daughter, who’s in possession of a terrorist group's plans to obliterate the U.S. Mitch then faces an impossible task: get her to the authorities before hardened mercenaries can kill them. Cornered and desperate, they’re ...

What is the price of honor? It took 10 years for Vietnam War Nurse Diane Carlson Evans to answer that question - and the answer was a heavy one. 

An action-packed and painstakingly researched masterwork by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, Gettysburg stands as the first book in a series to tell the story of how history could have unfolded, how a victory for Lee would have changed the destiny of the nation forever.

A reconnaissance man and sniper, John Lewis Barkley served in Company K of the Fourth Infantry Regiment, a unit that participated in almost every major American battle. The York-like episode that earned Barkley his Congressional Medal of Honor occurred on October 7, 1918, when he climbed into an abandoned French tank and singlehandedly held off an advancing German force, killing hundreds of enemy soldiers.

What was it like to fly a MiG or Mirage in combat over Angola? Most books on the Angolan Bush War, especially those in English, present the South African perspective of events. Now a former MiG-23 Squadron Commander of the Cuban Air Force has collaborated with an ex-SAAF pilot to paint a remarkable new picture of the aerial conflict over Angola in the 1980s. In The MiG Diaries the recollections of Lt-Col Eduardo González Sarría are blended by Lionel Reid with those of air combatants from the Angolan, Cuban and South African air forces. Many are being published for the first time. Using ...

The author served with Special Forces units in Vietnam on five different tours from 1963 to 1971. He served in Vietnam in every rank between Specialist Fourth Class to Sergeant First Class. All the tours were at A-detachment level, or on what at the time were called "special projects." For those who are interested in the history of the role Army Special Forces played in the Vietnam war, this book would be a good place start your study.

In the war-torn skies over Europe, fate thrusts an unlikely squadron into the fight. When Captain Jack Carson and his pilots arrive in England, they have no aircraft, no missions, and no way to join the battle. That is, until the British make an unprecedented offer—Spitfires, the finest fighter planes in the world. With this golden opportunity comes immense pressure: the Americans must prove themselves against the best pilots Germany has to offer. Through the eyes of the cautious yet steadfast Jack Carson, the daring young ace Tommy Baker, the brilliant mechanic Stella Ward, and the ...

In this brilliant narrative of America's first limited war, Toland lets both the events and the participants speak for themselves, employing scrupulous archival research and interviews as the bases for the drama and accuracy of his writing. In Mortal Combat reveals Mao's prediction of the date and place of MacArthur's Inchon landing, Russia's indifference to the war, Mao's secret leadership of the North Korean military, and the true nature of both sides' treatment and repatriation of POWs.

Starting with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan probes the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war in different societies over the course of more than two thousand years. Following the progress of human aggression in its full historical sweep, from the strangely ritualistic combat of Stone Age peoples to the warfare of mass destruction in the present age, his illuminating and lively narrative gives us all the world's great warrior cultures.

An economic downturn has shaken China’s foundations, threatening the grip of its ruling elite. Facing internal unrest and an existential political crisis, Beijing's leaders take a desperate gamble—one that will plunge the world into chaos. Their strategy is bold, methodical, and ruthless: destabilize the United States from within, weaken its alliances, and pave the way for a bold military move to reclaim Taiwan. The first step? Mexico. As cartel violence surges and political instability threatens to engulf America's southern neighbor, few realize that a shadow war is already underway. A...