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A Field Marshal’s Memoirs: From the Diary, Correspondence and Reminiscences of Alfred, Count von Waldersee
by Count Alfred von WalderseeThe present volume is the 1924 English translation of Field-Marshal Alfred Count von Waldersee’s memoirs by Frederic Whyte.“Field-Marshal Alfred Count von Waldersee’s Denkwürdigkeiten are in three volumes in the German edition. The two first, covering the years 1832-1900, were issued at the end of 1922; the third, covering the period August 1900-March 1904, appeared late in 1923. The entire work was edited by Herr Heinrich Otto Meisner, with the approval and assistance of the Field-Marshal’s nephew, Lieut.-General George Count von Waldersee, who contributed a brief Preface to Volume I. The nephew acclaims the uncle as ‘Christian, Nobleman, Prussian, German, Soldier and Servant of his Sovereigns.”“There is a second Preface by Herr Meisner, who abstains from panegyrics and merely explains how the work has been pieced together. The Field-Marshal, it seems, had intended eventually to prepare a book of Reminiscences for the press, but only a very few pages of the Denkwürdigkeiten as printed were written with a view to publication. They have been compiled almost altogether from private diaries, correspondence and memoranda. Hence the impression which they give of absolute genuineness; hence, also, much of their value as a trustworthy historical document. As the well-known critic, Richard Bahr, remarked in the Münchener Zeitung, the work presents in this respect a welcome contrast with many of the autobiographical volumes which have recently appeared in Germany—’self-justification-screeds,’ as he calls them. The Reminiscences which the Field-Marshal contemplated writing might, indeed, have had to be placed in the same category, but here we have the author almost ‘un-retouched,’ and almost as natural and as ingenuous as Pepys.”—Frederic Whyte
The Field of Blood: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East
by Nicholas MortonA history of the 1119 Battle of the Field of Blood, which decisively halted the momentum gained during the First Crusade and decided the fate of the Crusader states In 1119, the people of the Near East came together in an epic clash of horses, swords, sand, and blood that would decide the fate of the city of the Aleppo--and the eastern Crusader states. Fought between tribal Turkish warriors on steppe ponies, Arab foot soldiers, Armenian bowmen, and European knights, the battlefield was the amphitheater into which the people of the Near East poured their full gladiatorial might. Carrying a piece of the true cross before them, the Frankish army advanced, anticipating a victory that would secure their dominance over the entire region. But the famed Frankish cavalry charge failed them, and the well-arranged battlefield dissolved into a melee. Surrounded by enemy forces, the crusaders suffered a colossal defeat. With their advance in Northern Syria stalled, the momentum of the crusader conquest began to evaporate, and would never be recovered.
Field of Fire (Seal Team Seven #19)
by Keith DouglassLieutenant Commander Blake Murdock and five members of Seal Team Seven are assigned to back up the CIA on a covert operation in Syria. Their mission: destroy the laboratory housing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb capable of rendering all electronic components within a hundred-mile radius inoperative. But just when the SEALs think they've been successful, an EMP is detonated just off the coast of Haifa, Israel, disabling the entire city. As Israel's military defends its land from Syrian invasion, Seal Team Seven must enter the fray - and rescue ten American college students trapped in the chaos.
Field Tested: Recruiting, Managing, and Retaining Veterans
by Emily KingVeterans are a tremendous source of untapped talent and come with a wealth of skills and experience beyond those of typical civilian employees. Field Tested gives readers the insight and tools they need to recruit and retain veterans, and to maximize their value in any organization. A must-read for leaders, managers, and human resources professionals across industries, Field Tested uncovers key cultural differences between the military and civilian workplace, and reveals how these differences can affect employee performance, satisfaction, and retention. Complete with real-world examples, practical models, and savvy advice, this book shows readers how to: ò Attract and interview veterans ò On-board them quickly and effectively ò Position them for success ò Ensure a smooth cultural transition ò Manage performance ò Help them develop lasting careers. Smart companies that hire veterans owe it to themselves and their employees to under stand the unique considerations involved. This one-of-a-kind guide reveals how to make the most of AmericaÆs top talent.
Fields of Battle: Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl, and the Boys Who Went to War
by Brian CurtisA riveting and emotional tale of the boys who played in the 1942 Rose Bowl and then served on the WWII battlefields—a story of football, wartime, and boys becoming men.In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the 1942 Rose Bowl was moved from Pasadena to Durham, North Carolina, out of fear of Japanese attacks on the West Coast. It remains the only Rose Bowl game to ever be played outside of Pasadena. Duke University, led by legendary coach Wallace Wade Sr., faced off against underdog Oregon State College, with both teams preparing for a grueling fight on the football field while their thoughts wandered to the battlefields they would soon be on. As the players and coaches prepared for the game, America was preparing for war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the Allied strategy in Europe; a discussion that would change the lives of the boys and men on the field in Durham.Finally, on New Year’s Day 1942, under dark gray skies and occasional rain, the two teams clashed on the gridiron in front of a crowd of 56,000, playing one of the most unforgettable games in history. Shortly afterward, many of the players and coaches entered the military and would quickly become brothers on the battlefield. Scattered around the globe, the lives of Rose Bowl participants would intersect in surprising ways, as they served in Iwo Jima and Normandy, Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Bulge. Four players from that Rose Bowl game would lose their lives, while many more were severely wounded. In one powerful encounter on the battlefield, OSC’s Frank Parker saved the life of Duke’s Charles Haynes as he lay dying on a hill in Italy. And one OSC player, Jack Yoshihara, a Japanese-American, never had the chance to play in the game or serve his country, as he was sent to an internment camp in Idaho. In this riveting an emotional tale, Brian Curtis sheds light on a little-known slice of American history and captures in gripping detail an intimate account of the teamwork, grit, and determination that took place on both the football fields and the battlefields of World War II. It was a game created by infamy and a war fought by ordinary boys who did the extraordinary.
Fields of Battle
by John KeeganAt once a grand tour of the battlefields of North America and an unabashedly personal tribute to the military prowess of an essentially unwarlike people, Fields of Battle spans more than two centuries and the expanse of a continent to show how the immense spaces of North America shaped the wars that were fought on its soil. of photos.
Fields of Blood: A Novel (Hannibal #2)
by Ben KaneHannibal's campaign to defeat Rome continues. Having brought his army safely over the Alps in winter, he now marches south to confront the enemy. With him is a young soldier, Hanno. Like his general, Hanno burns to vanquish Rome. Never has the possibility seemed so likely. Facing Hanno is his former friend, Quintus, whom Hanno met while in Roman captivity. A bitter quarrel with his father led Quintus to join the Roman infantry under an assumed name. Among his legionaries, he finds that his enemies are not just the Carthaginians, but men of his own side. A stealthy game of cat and mouse is being played, with Hannibal seeking to fight, and Rome's generals avoiding battle. But battle cannot be delayed for much longer. Eventually, the two armies meet under a fierce summer sun in August in the south of Italy. The place is Cannae-the fields of blood. The encounter will go down in history as one of the bloodiest battles ever fought, a battle in which Hanno and Quintus know they must fight as never before-just to stay alive.
Fields Of Blood
by William L. SheaWilliam Shea offers a gripping narrative of the events surrounding Prairie Grove, Arkansas, one of the great unsung battles of the Civil War that effectively ended Confederate offensive operations west of the Mississippi River. Shea provides a colorful account of a grueling campaign that lasted five months and covered hundreds of miles of rugged Ozark terrain. In a fascinating analysis of the personal, geographical, and strategic elements that led to the fateful clash in northwest Arkansas, he describes a campaign notable for rapid marching, bold movements, hard fighting, and the most remarkable raid of the Civil War.
Fields of Combat: Understanding PTSD among Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)
by Erin P. Finley"If you consider Iraq—like I do, probably twenty-nine out of thirty days—to be the pinnacle of your life, then where do you go from there? And I'm sure that a lot of veterans feel that way. To them, that was it. That was everything. So now what? They have to find something meaningful and purposeful.""When I got back from Afghanistan, there was not even so much as a briefing that said, 'Let us know if you're having problems.' There wasn't so much as a phone number. There was literally nothing.""I knew it was crazy. I was thinking, the guy on the roof's either a sniper or he's going to radio ahead. And then I thought, this is San Antonio. There's not snipers on the roof, nobody's going to blow me up here.""Whenever I look at people back here at home, I know what they're going to look like dead. I know what they look like with their brains blown out or jaws blown off or eyes pulled out. When I look at somebody I see that, to this day."—Voices of veterans interviewed in Fields of CombatFor many of the 1.6 million U.S. service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, the trip home is only the beginning of a longer journey. Many undergo an awkward period of readjustment to civilian life after long deployments. Some veterans may find themselves drinking too much, unable to sleep or waking from unspeakable dreams, lashing out at friends and loved ones. Over time, some will struggle so profoundly that they eventually are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress Disorder (PTSD).Both heartbreaking and hopeful, Fields of Combat tells the story of how American veterans and their families navigate the return home. Following a group of veterans and their personal stories of war, trauma, and recovery, Erin P. Finley illustrates the devastating impact PTSD can have on veterans and their families. Finley sensitively explores issues of substance abuse, failed relationships, domestic violence, and even suicide and also challenges popular ideas of PTSD as incurable and permanently debilitating. Drawing on rich, often searing ethnographic material, Finley examines the cultural, political, and historical influences that shape individual experiences of PTSD and how its sufferers are perceived by the military, medical personnel, and society at large. Despite widespread media coverage and public controversy over the military's response to wounded and traumatized service members, debate continues over how best to provide treatment and compensation for service-related disabilities. Meanwhile, new and highly effective treatments are revolutionizing how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides trauma care, redefining the way PTSD itself is understood in the process. Carefully and compassionately untangling each of these conflicts, Fields of Combat reveals the very real implications they have for veterans living with PTSD and offers recommendations to improve how we care for this vulnerable but resilient population.
The Fields of Death (The Wellington and Napoleon Quartet)
by Simon ScarrowTHE FIELDS OF DEATH is the epic final novel in Simon Scarrow's bestselling Wellington and Napoleon Quartet. Essential reading for fans of Bernard Cornwell.1809. Viscount Wellington and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte have made their mark as military commanders. Lifelong enemies, they both believe their armies are strong enough to destroy any rival. But in war victory can never be certain.While Wellington's success continues in Spain, Napoleon feels the sting of failure. Yet despite a disastrous Russian campaign and humiliating defeat at Leipzig, he persists in fighting on.With Napoleon's power waning, the newly titled Duke of Wellington is perfectly placed to crush the tyrant. But his enemy refuses to surrender, and so the two giants must face a final reckoning on the bloody battlefield of Waterloo...
The Fields of Death: (Revolution 4) (The Wellington and Napoleon Quartet)
by Simon ScarrowTHE FIELDS OF DEATH is the epic final novel in Simon Scarrow's bestselling Wellington and Napoleon Quartet. Essential reading for fans of Bernard Cornwell.1809. Viscount Wellington and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte have made their mark as military commanders. Lifelong enemies, they both believe their armies are strong enough to destroy any rival. But in war victory can never be certain.While Wellington's success continues in Spain, Napoleon feels the sting of failure. Yet despite a disastrous Russian campaign and humiliating defeat at Leipzig, he persists in fighting on.With Napoleon's power waning, the newly titled Duke of Wellington is perfectly placed to crush the tyrant. But his enemy refuses to surrender, and so the two giants must face a final reckoning on the bloody battlefield of Waterloo...(P)2017 Headline Digital
Fields of Fire
by Terry CoppWith Fields of Fire, Terry Copp challenges the conventional view that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a "failure" - that the allies won only through the use of brute force, and that the Canadian soldiers and commanding officers were essentially incompetent. His detailed and impeccably researched analysis of what actually happened on the battlefield portrays a flexible, innovative army that made a major, and successful, contribution to the defeat of the German forces in just seventy-six days.Challenging both existing interpretations of the campaign and current approaches to military history, Copp examines the Battle of Normandy, tracking the soldiers over the battlefield terrain and providing an account of each operation carried out by the Canadian army. In so doing, he illustrates the valour, skill, and commitment of the Allied citizen-soldier in the face of a well-entrenched and well-equipped enemy army.This new edition of Copp's best-selling, award-winning history includes a new introduction that examines the strategic background of the Battle of Normandy.
Fields Of Fury: The American Civil War
by James M. McPhersonPulitzer Prize award-winning historian James M. McPherson has written for young readers a stirring account of the greatest conflict to happen on our nation's soil, the Civil War, bringing to life the tragic struggle that divided not only a nation, but also friends and family. <p><p> From the initial Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, to the devastating loss of life at Shiloh as Ulysses S. Grant led the Union to unexpected victory, to the brilliance of Stonewall Jackson's campaign at Shenandoah, to General Pickett's famous charge at Gettysburg, to the Union's triumph at Appo-mattox Court House, Fields of Fury details the war that helped shape us as a nation. Also included are personal anecdotes from the soldiers at the battlefront and the civilians at home, as well as profiles of historical luminaries such as Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Ulysses S. Grant. McPherson also explores the varied roles that women played during the war, healthcare on the battlefield, and the demise of slavery. McPherson's narrative is highlighted with black-and-white photographs taken by Civil War photographers Mathew Brady and Timothy O'Sullivan, period oil paintings, and key campaign and battlefield maps, that make Fields of Fury the consummate book on the American Civil War for kids.
Fierce Ambition: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins
by Jennet ConantA spirited portrait of twentieth-century war correspondent Maggie Higgins and her tenacious fight to the top in a male-dominated profession. Marguerite Higgins was both the scourge and envy of the journalistic world. A longtime reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, she first catapulted to fame with her dramatic account of the liberation of Dachau at the end of World War II. Brash, beautiful, ruthlessly competitive, and sexually adventurous, she forced her way to the front despite being told the combat zone was no place for a woman. Her headline-making exploits earned her a reputation for bravery bordering on recklessness and accusations of “advancing on her back,” trading sexual favors for scoops. While the Herald Tribune exploited her feminine appeal—regularly featuring the photogenic "girl reporter" on its front pages—it was Maggie’s dogged determination, talent for breaking news, and unwavering ambition that brought her success from one war zone to another. Her notoriety soared during the Cold War, and her daring dispatches from Korea garnered a Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence—the first granted to a woman for frontline reporting—with the citation noting the unusual dangers and difficulties she faced because of her sex. A star reporter, she became part of the Kennedy brothers’ Washington circle, though her personal alliances and politics provoked bitter feuds with male rivals, who vilified her until her untimely death. Drawing on new and extensive research, including never-before-published correspondence and interviews with Maggie’s colleagues, lovers, and soldiers and generals who knew her in the field, journalist and historian Jennet Conant restores Maggie’s rightful place in history as a woman who paved the way for the next generation of journalists, and one of the greatest war correspondents of her time.
A Fierce Glory: Antietam--The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery
by Justin MartinOn September 17, 1862, the "United States" was on the brink, facing a permanent split into two separate nations. America's very future hung on the outcome of a single battle--and the result reverberates to this day. Given the deep divisions that still rive the nation, given what unites the country, too, Antietam is more relevant now than ever.The epic battle, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was a Civil War turning point. The South had just launched its first invasion of the North; victory for Robert E. Lee would almost certainly have ended the war on Confederate terms. If the Union prevailed, Lincoln stood ready to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He knew that freeing the slaves would lend renewed energy and lofty purpose to the North's war effort. Lincoln needed a victory to save the divided country, but victory would come at a price. Detailed here is the cannon din and desperation, the horrors and heroes of this monumental battle, one that killed 3,650 soldiers, still the highest single-day toll in American history.Justin Martin, an acclaimed writer of narrative nonfiction, renders this landmark event in a revealing new way. More than in previous accounts, Lincoln is laced deeply into the story. Antietam represents Lincoln at his finest, as the grief-racked president--struggling with the recent death of his son, Willie--summoned the guile necessary to manage his reluctant general, George McClellan. The Emancipation Proclamation would be the greatest gambit of the nation's most inspired leader. And, in fact, the battle's impact extended far beyond the field; brilliant and lasting innovations in medicine, photography, and communications were given crucial real-world tests. No mere gunfight, Antietam rippled through politics and society, transforming history.A Fierce Glory is a fresh and vibrant account of an event that had enduring consequences that still resonate today.
Fierce Justice (True Heroes #5)
by Piper J. DrakeReal heroes aren't born, they're madeK9 handler Arin Siri doesn't like taking orders, and she works best when it's just her and her dog King out in the field. But when she discovers a wounded soldier of fortune during a Search and Protect mission, she has no choice but to get him to safety. The last time she and the roguish, sexy Jason Landon tangled, they were on opposite sides of the conflict, but this time, he's claiming to need her help.When Jason wakes up in a hospital on Hawaii's Big Island, he's shocked to discover Arin guarding him. She's the last person he expected to see, but she's also the only person who can help him bring down a kidnapping ring. As they draw closer to danger-and to each other-they must race against the clock to discover who the kidnappers are working for, or risk becoming collateral damage themselves.
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman
by Robert L. O'ConnellWilliam Tecumseh Sherman was more than just one of our greatest generals. Fierce Patriot is a bold, revisionist portrait of how this iconic and enigmatic figure exerted an outsize impact on the American landscape--and the American character. America's first "celebrity" general, William Tecumseh Sherman was a man of many faces. Some of them were exalted in the public eye. Others were known only to intimates--his family, friends and lovers, and the soldiers under his command. In this rich and layered portrait, Robert L. O'Connell captures the man in full for the first time. From his early exploits in Florida, to his role in California at the start of the Gold Rush, through his brilliant but tempestuous generalship during the Civil War, and to his postwar career as a key player in the building of the transcontinental railroad, Sherman was, as O'Connell puts it, the "human embodiment of Manifest Destiny." Here is Sherman the military strategist of genius, a master of logistics whose uncanny grasp of terrain and brilliant sense of timing always seemed to land him in the right place at the most opportune moments. O'Connell shows how Sherman's creation of an agile, improvisational fighting force--the Army of the West--helped turn the tide of the Civil War and laid the foundation for modern U.S. ground forces. Then there is "Uncle Billy," Sherman's public persona, a charismatic hero to his troops and quotable catnip to the newspaper writers of his day. Here, too, is the private Sherman. He was born into one powerhouse family--his grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence--and was adopted into another. His foster father, Thomas Ewing, was an influential politician and cabinet member who helped provide key opportunities for Sherman throughout his career. But Sherman's fraught relationship with Ewing, coupled with his appetite for women, parties, and the high life of the New York theater, certainly complicated his already turbulent marriage to his foster sister Ellen, a relationship O'Connell likens to a mix of "gunpowder and gasoline"--altogether a family triangle that might have sprung from the pages of a Victorian novel. As he peels away the layers of the Sherman persona, O'Connell dispels a number of common misperceptions about his subject. He sheds new light on Sherman's relationship with Ulysses S. Grant, and also on his struggle against Nathan Bedford Forrest and the insurgency that was the other half of the Civil War along the Mississippi. Later he reveals Sherman's fabled march from Atlanta to the sea not as a campaign of unmitigated destruction, as it is often portrayed, but the careful execution of a necessary piece of strategy calculated to scare the South back into the Union. O'Connell's Sherman is no Attila, but a complicated soldier/statesman--perhaps the quintessential nineteenth-century American. Warrior, family man, American icon, William Tecumseh Sherman has finally found a biographer worthy of his protean gifts. A masterful character study whose myriad insights are leavened with its author's trademark wit, Fierce Patriot will stand as the essential book on Sherman for decades to come.
A Fierce Quality: The Fighting Life of Alastair Pearson
by Julian JamesAlastair Pearson is one of the very small band of men to have achieved the distinction of winning the DSO and three bars. Add to this fact that he also won the Military Cross and is further entitled to the post-nominal letters CB, OBE, TD and HML and it will be readily understood that this is a book about a very remarkable man. Includes 12 black and white plates.
Fierce Valor: The True Story of Ronald Speirs and his Band of Brothers
by Jared Frederick Erik DorrFans of Stephen E. Ambrose&’s Band of Brothers will be drawn to this complex portrait of the controversial Ronald Speirs, an iconic commander of Easy Company during World War II, whose ferocious courage in three foreign conflicts was matched by his devotion to duty and the bittersweet passions of wartime romance. His comrades called him &“Killer.&” Of the elite paratroopers who served in the venerated &“Band of Brothers&” during World War II, none were more enigmatic than Ronald Speirs. Rumored to have gunned down enemy prisoners and even one of his own disobedient sergeants, Speirs&’ became a foxhole legend amongst his troops. But who was the real Lieutenant Speirs? In Fierce Valor, historians Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr unveil the full story of Easy Company&’s longest-serving commander for the first time. Tested by trials of extreme training, military rivalry, and lost love, Speirs&’s international odyssey begins as an immigrant child in Prohibition-era Boston, continues through the bloody campaigns in France, Holland, and Germany, and sheds light on his lesser known exploits in Korea, the Cold War, and embattled Laos. Packed with groundbreaking research, Fierce Valor unveils a compelling portrait of an officer defined by boldness on the battlefield and a telling reminder that few soldiers escape the power of their own pasts.
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
by Neil SheehanFrom Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize—winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history–and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger.Sheehan melds biography and history, politics and science, to create a sweeping narrative that transports the reader back and forth from individual drama to world stage. The narrative takes us from Schriever’s boyhood in Texas as a six-year-old immigrant from Germany in 1917 through his apprenticeship in the open-cockpit biplanes of the Army Air Corps in the 1930s and his participation in battles against the Japanese in the South Pacific during the Second World War. On his return, he finds a new postwar bipolar universe dominated by the antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union.Inspired by his technological vision, Schriever sets out in 1954 to create the one class of weapons that can enforce peace with the Russians–intercontinental ballistic missiles that are unstoppable and can destroy the Soviet Union in thirty minutes. In the course of his crusade, he encounters allies and enemies among some of the most intriguing figures of the century: John von Neumann, the Hungarian-born mathematician and mathematical physicist, who was second in genius only to Einstein; Colonel Edward Hall, who created the ultimate ICBM in the Minuteman missile, and his brother, Theodore Hall, who spied for the Russians at Los Alamos and hastened their acquisition of the atomic bomb; Curtis LeMay, the bomber general who tried to exile Schriever and who lost his grip on reality, amassing enough nuclear weapons in his Strategic Air Command to destroy the entire Northern Hemisphere; and Hitler’s former rocket maker, Wernher von Braun, who along with a colorful, riding-crop-wielding Army general named John Medaris tried to steal the ICBM program.The most powerful men on earth are also put into astonishing relief: Joseph Stalin, the cruel, paranoid Soviet dictator who spurred his own scientists to build him the atomic bomb with threats of death; Dwight Eisenhower, who backed the ICBM program just in time to save it from the bureaucrats; Nikita Khrushchev, who brought the world to the edge of nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and John Kennedy, who saved it.Schriever and his comrades endured the heartbreak of watching missiles explode on the launching pads at Cape Canaveral and savored the triumph of seeing them soar into space. In the end, they accomplished more than achieving a fiery peace in a cold war. Their missiles became the vehicles that opened space for America.
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo (Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor Ser.)
by Edward Shepherd CreasyRanging from Marathon to Waterloo, this classic of military history chronicles battles that changed the course of history. Originally published in 1851, at the zenith of British imperial power, it found an eager audience of readers who wanted to understand how Britain had achieved its tremendous influence and how long it would last. Since then, these chronicles of ancient and modern military confrontations have informed and inspired generations of students and armchair historians.Educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge, Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy was called to the Bar in 1837, appointed to the faculty of the University of London in 1840, and served as Chief Justice of Ceylon from 1860 to 1870. Creasy's scholarship and literary skill are complemented by his judicial attitude, which endows this book with a fair-minded, nonpartisan approach. He prefaces each battle with an introduction that explains the circumstances surrounding the war, as well as an afterword that considers how history might have changed had victory gone to the other side. Linking passages offer valuable insights into historical events that occurred between the major encounters. Influential and ever-popular, this book offers authoritative and entertaining analyses of the conflicts that shaped world history.
Fifteen Rounds a Minute: The Grenadiers at War, August to December 1914, Edited from Diaries and Letters of Major ‘Ma’ Jeffreys and Others
by Michael CrasterThis book, originally published in 1976, is an account of the first five months of the First World War, as seen by members of a battalion of the Grenadier Guards and told in their own words and a classic of military writing. Contrary to the popular view of that war, this was a period of movement as the Allies sought first to block the German's apparently irresistible march on Paris, then to push them back to the Belgian border until finally both sides engaged in the 'Race for the Sea' in an attempt to find and exploit the open flank. It was a phase that included the retreat from Mons, the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne and finally and most devastatingly the First Battle of Ypres.The book is based on the diary that was kept by the Battalion Second in Command, Major George (subsequently General the Lord) Jeffreys, known to everyone as 'Ma'. Described by Harold Macmillan as one of the greatest of commanding officers, he was one of only three officers who went to war with the Battalion in August 1914 who survived with it to the end of the year. Supplemented on occasion by the letters and diaries of his brother officers and others, it provides a very complete picture of those turbulent days.
The Fifteen Weeks (February 21 - June 5, 1947)
by Joseph M. JonesA DRAMATIC AND REVEALING ACCOUNT, FROM INSIDE THE GOVERNMENT, OF THE MOMENTOUS DAYS IN WHICH AMERICA ASSUMED THE RESPONSIBILITY OF WORLD LEADERSHIP.First published in 1955, Joseph M. Jones’ memoirs The Fifteen Weeks chronicle his role in the development of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.“The fifteen weeks which form the title and subject of this book comprise the period in 1947 when the United States stepped out irrevocably and wholeheartedly as leader upon the world stage....“The greatness of a nation, like the greatness of an individual, is in the last analysis a mystery. We do not know why at one time immense exertions and far-reaching vision are more prevalent than at others. Yet to look within, to account for the obvious factors in the situation is highly useful. That function is performed in a book which for readability and for responsible narration would be hard to surpass.”—August Heckscher in the New York Herald Tribune.
The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan
by Elliot AckermanA powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war&’s echoing legacyElliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation effort was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With former colleagues and friends protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war. For Ackerman, it also became a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week, the week the war ended. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves a personal history of the war's long progression, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story&’s tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war&’s trajectory will find a trenchant account here. But The Fifth Act also brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, and at great personal cost. Ackerman's story is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.
FIFTH ARMY AT THE WINTER LINE 15 November 1943 - 15 January 1944 [Illustrated Edition]
by AnonIllustrated with 28 maps and 35 Illustrations.THE WINTER LINE operations, lasting from 15 November 1943 to 15 January 1944, continued the Allied campaign to drive the Germans out of southern Italy. The underlying plan was to keep pressure on the enemy and, if possible, to break through toward Rome. Both the terrain and the season reduced the chances for effecting a breakthrough. By maintaining pressure, however, the Allies would prevent the Germans from, resting and refitting the tired and depleted divisions which they might hold as a mobile reserve for the close defense of Rome in the event of a new Allied landing on the west coast or for use in a possible counteroffensive in the opening months of 1944. Then too, the fighting in Italy had its effects on the over-all military situation in Europe. As long as the Germans were actively engaged on the Italian front, they would be forced to feed in men and supplies which would otherwise be available for the war in Russia or for strengthening their Atlantic Wall against an expected Allied invasion in 1944. Continuation of the Italian campaign was not in question; the problem was how best to carry it on.The Allied effort was therefore maintained in an offensive planned to break the enemy's Winter Line, a series of well-prepared positions along the shortest possible line across the waist of Italy-from the Garigliano River on the west through mountains in the center to the Sangro River on the east. For the individual soldiers of the Fifth Army, the attack resolved itself into the familiar pattern of bitter fighting from hill to hill.