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United States Army in WWII - Europe - the Lorraine Campaign: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Charles B. Macdonald[Includes 51 maps and 71 illustrations]This volume deals with the campaign waged by the Third Army in Lorraine during the period 1 September-18 December 1944.The present volume is concerned with the tactical operations of the Third Army and its subordinate units. The story of command and decision in higher headquarters is told only when it has a direct bearing on the campaign in Lorraine. The logistics of this campaign likewise have been subordinated to the tactical narrative. The basic unit in the present narrative is the infantry or armored division. The story of the division has been told in terms of its regiments and battalions, but swerves on occasion to the company or the platoon, just as the operations themselves turned on the exploits of these smaller units. Attention has been focused throughout the volume on the combat formations actually in the line. It is hoped, however, that the reader will gain some impression of the vital combination of arms and services which in the long run bring the infantry and the tanks to victory.
United States Army in WWII - Europe - the Siegfried Line Campaign: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Charles B. Macdonald[Includes 19 maps and 82 illustrations]Some who have written of World War II in Europe have dismissed the period between 11 Sept. and 16 Dec. 1944 with a paragraph or two. This has been their way of gaining space to tell of the whirlwind advances and more spectacular command decisions of other months. The fighting during Sept., Oct., Nov., and early Dec.belonged to the small units and individual soldiers, the kind of warfare which is no less difficult and essential no matter how seldom it reaches the spectacular.It is always an enriching experience to write about the American soldier-in adversity no less than in glittering triumph. Glitter and dash were conspicuously absent in most of the Siegfried Line fighting. But whatever the period may lack in sweeping accomplishment it makes up in human drama and variety of combat actions. Here is more than fighting within a fortified line. Here is the Hürtgen Forest, the Roer plain, Aachen, and the largest airborne attack of the war. The period also eventually may be regarded as one of the most instructive of the entire war in Europe. A company, battalion, or regiment fighting alone and often unaided was more the rule than the exception. In nuclear war or in so-called limited war in underdeveloped areas, of which we hear so much today, this may well be the form the fighting will assume.As befits the nature of the fighting, this volume is focused upon tactical operations at army level and below. The story of command and decision in higher headquarters is told only when it had direct bearing on the conduct of operations in those sectors under consideration. The logistics of the campaign likewise has been subordinated to the tactical narrative. It is a ground story in the sense that air operations have been included only where they had direct influence upon the ground action.
United States Army in WWII - Europe - the Supreme Command: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Forrest C. Pogue[Includes 11 tables, 9 charts, 15 maps and 65 illustrations]This Volume tells the story of the Supreme Headquarters of that Allied Expeditionary Force which seized a foothold on the German-held shores of Western Europe in 1944 and which, by the following year, had completed the liberation of all Western Europe.This is a history of coalition warfare. It is focused upon the agency in which the decisions of governments were translated into orders, and upon the decisions of General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. The narrative describes the plans and recounts the events, controversial or otherwise, leading up to the creation of the Supreme Command and the choice of a Supreme Commander for the cross-Channel attack. It follows the history of this great command to the surrender of Germany. It is the history not only of the decisions that led to victory, but of the discussions, debates, conferences and compromises that proceeded decisions. Controversy was inevitable in an undertaking that required the subordination of national interests to the common good. The author does not gloss over the conflicts that arose between allied nations or individuals. The picture that emerges from these pages is one of discussion and argument, but nevertheless one of teamwork. Differences of opinion and the discussion incident thereto are often the price of sound decisions.The history of the battles fought by the American armies of the Grand Alliance as they drove from the Normandy beaches into the heart of Germany is given detailed exposition in other volumes of this series, some of which already have been presented to the public. The present volume deals with the command exercised by the Supreme Allied Commander, the decisions made by the Supreme Commander and his staff, and the operations conducted under the aegis of the Supreme Headquarters.
United States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Cassino to the Alps: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Ernest F. Fisher Jr.[Includes 16 maps and 94 illustrations]"Wars should be fought," an American corps commander noted in his diary during the campaign in Italy, "in better country than this." It was indeed an incredibly difficult place to fight a war. The Italian peninsula is only some 150 miles wide, much of it dominated by some of the world's most precipitous mountains. Nor was the weather much help. It seemed to those involved that it was always either unendurably hot or bone-chilling cold.Yet American troops fought with remarkable courage and tenacity, and in company with a veritable melange of Allied troop...Despite the forbidding terrain, Allied commanders several times turned it to their advantage, achieving penetrations or breakthroughs over some of the most rugged mountains in the peninsula. To bypass mountainous terrain, the Allies at times resorted to amphibious landings, notably at Anzio...The campaign involved one ponderous attack after another against fortified positions: the Winter Line, the Gustav Line, the Gothic Line...It was also a campaign replete with controversy...Most troublesome of the questions that caused controversy were: Did the American commander, Mark Clark, err in focusing on the capture of Rome rather than conforming with the wishes of his British superior to try to trap retreating German forces? Did Allied commanders conduct the pursuit north of Rome with sufficient vigor? Indeed, should the campaign have been pursued all the way to the Alps when the Allies might have halted at some readily defensible line and awaited the outcome of the decisive campaign in northwestern Europe?Just as the campaign began on a note of covert politico-military maneuvering to achieve surrender of Italian forces, so it ended with intrigue and secret negotiations for a separate surrender of the Germans in Italy.
United States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Northwest Africa: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by George F. Howe[Includes 11 tables, 2 charts, 34 maps and 93 illustrations]The history of initial actions in a war contains lessons of special value for the professional soldier and for all students of military problems. Northwest Africa abounds in such lessons, for it covers the first massive commitments of American forces in World War II. The continent of Africa became a gigantic testing ground of tactics, weapons, and training evolved through years of peace.The invasion stretched American resources to the limit. Simultaneously the country was trying to maintain a line of communications to Australia, to conduct a campaign at Guadalcanal, to support China in the war against Japan, to arm and supply Russia's hard-pressed armies on the Eastern Front, to overcome the U-boat menace in the Atlantic, to fulfill lend-lease commitments, and to accumulate the means to penetrate the heart of the German and Japanese homelands. The Anglo-American allies could carry out the occupation of Northwest Africa only by making sacrifices all along the line.Two campaigns occurred there: Operation TORCH which swiftly liberated French North Africa from Vichy French control, followed by a longer Allied effort to destroy all the military forces of the Axis powers in Africa. The latter concentrated in Tunisia, where the front at one time extended more than 375 miles, and fighting progressed from scattered meeting engagements to the final concentric thrust of American, British, and French ground and air forces against two German and Italian armies massed in the vicinity of Bizerte and Tunis.The planning, preparation, and conduct of the Allied operations in Northwest Africa tested and strengthened the Anglo-American alliance. Under General Dwight D. Eisenhower a novel form of command evolved which proved superior to adversities and capable of overwhelming the enemy.
United States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Salerno to Cassino: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Martin Blumenson[Includes 16 maps and 94 illustrations]The focus of the American and British war effort in 1943 was on the ancient lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea where in May victory came at last in Tunisia and where in July Allied armies began a five-week campaign to conquer Sicily. The invasion of Italy in September sharpened that focus as Allied troops for the first time since 1940 confronted the German Army in a sustained campaign on the mainland of Europe.The fighting that followed over the next eight months was replete with controversial actions and decisions. These included apparent American peril during the early hours in the Salerno beachhead; a British advance from the toe of the peninsula that failed to ease the pressure at Salerno; the fight to cross a flooded Rapido River; the bombing of the Benedictine abbey on Monte Cassino; and the stalemated landings at Anzio. The author addresses these subjects objectively and candidly as he sets in perspective the campaign in Italy and its accomplishments.It was a grueling struggle for Allied and German soldier alike, a war of small units and individuals dictated in large measure by inhospitable terrain and wet and cold that soon immersed the battlefield. The methods commanders and men employed to defeat the terrain and a resourceful enemy are instructive now and will continue to be in the future, for the harsh conditions that were prevalent in Italy know no boundary in time. Nor do the problems and accomplishments of Allied command and co-ordination anywhere stand out in greater relief than in the campaign in Italy.
United States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Sicily and the Surrender of Italy: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by Martin Blumenson Albert N. Garland Howard Mcgaw Smyth[Includes 17 maps and 113 illustrations]This volume, the second to be published in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations subseries, takes up where George F. Howe's Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West left off. It integrates the Sicilian Campaign with the complicated negotiations involved in the surrender of Italy.The Sicilian Campaign was as complex as the negotiations, and is equally instructive. On the Allied side it included American, British, and Canadian soldiers as well as some Tabors of Goums; major segments of the U.S. Army Air Forces and of the Royal Air Force; and substantial contingents of the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy. Opposing the Allies were ground troops and air forces of Italy and Germany, and the Italian Navy. The fighting included a wide variety of operations: the largest amphibious assault of World War II; parachute jumps and air landings; extended overland marches; tank battles; precise and remarkably successful naval gunfire support of troops on shore; agonizing struggles for ridge tops; and extensive and skillful artillery support. Sicily was a testing ground for the U.S. soldier, fighting beside the more experienced troops of the British Eighth Army, and there the American soldier showed what he could do.The negotiations involved in Italy's surrender were rivaled in complexity and delicacy only by those leading up to the Korean armistice. The relationship of tactical to diplomatic activity is one of the most instructive and interesting features of this volume. Military men were required to double as diplomats and to play both roles with skill.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - CARTWHEEL: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by John Miller Jr.[Includes 2 tables, 11 charts, 22 maps and 71 illustrations]The campaign described in the present volume was important to the Army as an experience in amphibious warfare and combined operations against a formidable and still resourceful enemy. It was also of critical importance in the evolution of American strategy in the Pacific. CARTWHEEL began as an uphill fight with means that seemed inadequate to the ends proposed, even though these were limited. But it swiftly brought our forces to a crest from which we were able to launch the two powerful drives, through the Southwest and Central Pacific, that crushed Japan before we redeployed the forces directed against Germany. The campaign put to the test the principle of unity of command, and also the capacity for co-operation between two theaters, one under Army, the other under Navy command, and both under forceful and dominant commanders. By ingenious and aggressive use of the ground, sea, and air forces at their disposal they made these suffice to achieve more than had been foreseen as possible, and opened up a new vista of strategy. They took a heavy toll of the enemy's resources, established the technique of bypassing his strongholds, including finally Rabaul itself, and threw him on the defensive. This book will be of interest not only to professional officers, but also to a wide variety of other readers and students.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Campaign in the Marianas: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by Philip A. Crowl[Includes 2 tables, 14 charts, 33 maps and 89 illustrations]In the capture of the southern Marianas during the summer of 1944, Army ground and air forces played an important, though subordinate, role to that of the Navy and its Marine Corps. Marine personnel constituted the bulk of the combat troops employed. The objective of this campaign was "to secure control of sea communications through the Central Pacific by isolating and neutralizing the Carolines and by the establishment of sea and air bases for operations against Japanese sea routes and long-range air attacks against the Japanese home land." Its success would provide steppingstones from which the Americans could threaten further attack westward toward the Philippines, Formosa, and Japan itself, and would gain bases from which the Army Air Forces' new very long range bombers, the B-29's, could strike at Japan's heartland. Recognizing and accepting the challenge, the Japanese Navy suffered heavy and irreplaceable losses in the accompanying Battle of the Philippine Sea; and the islands after capture became the base for all the massive air attacks on Japan, beginning in Nov. 1944.In the operations described in the present volume, landings against strong opposition demonstrated the soundness of the amphibious doctrine and techniques evolved out of hard experience in preceding Pacific operations. Bitter inland fighting followed the landings, with Army and Marine Corps divisions engaged side by side. The author's account and corresponding Marine Corps histories of these operations provide ample opportunity to study the differences in the fighting techniques of the two services. Dr. Crowl also deals frankly with one of the best-known controversies of World War II, that of Smith versus Smith, but concludes that it was the exception to generally excellent interservice co-operation.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Leyte: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by M. Hamlin Cannon[Includes 10 tables, 9 charts, 54 maps and 88 illustrations]The landing of the American forces on Leyte on 20 October 1944 brought to fruition the long-cherished desire of General Douglas MacArthur to return to the Philippine Islands and avenge the humiliating reverses suffered in the early days of World War II. The successful conclusion of the campaign separated the Japanese-held Philippine Archipelago into two parts, with a strong American force between them. More important, it completed the severance of the Japanese mainland from the stolen southern empire in the Netherlands Indies from which oil, the lifeblood of modern warfare, had come.The Leyte Campaign, like other campaigns in the Pacific, was waged on the land, in the air, and on and under the sea. In this operation all branches of the American armed forces played significant roles. Therefore, although the emphasis in this volume is placed upon the deeds of the United States Army ground soldier, the endeavors of the aviator, the sailor, the marine and the Filipino guerrilla have been integrated as far as possible into the story in order to make the campaign understandable in its entirety. At the same time, every effort has been made to give the Japanese side of the story.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Okinawa: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by James M. Burns John Stevens Roy E. Appleman Russell A. Gugeler[Includes 2 tables, 3 charts, 21 maps and 88 illustrations]On 3 October 1944 American forces in the Pacific Ocean Areas received a directive to seize positions in the Ryukyu Islands (Nansei Shoto). Okinawa is the most important island of the Ryukyu Group, the threshold of the four main islands of Japan. The decision to invade the Ryukyus signalized the readiness of the United States to penetrate the inner ring of Japanese defenses. For the enemy, failure on Okinawa meant that he must prepare to resist an early invasion of the homeland or surrender.The present volume [Of the United States Army in WWII series] concerns one of the most bitterly fought battles of the Pacific war, in which the Army, the Marine Corps, and the Navy all played a vital part. In order to make the Army's role and the campaign as a whole as intelligible as possible the historians have treated in detail the operations of the Marine Corps units attached to Tenth Army, and have also sketched the contribution of the Navy both in preliminary operations against Okinawa and in the campaign itself. Another characteristic of this as of other volumes on Pacific campaigns is that tactical action is treated on levels lower than those usually presented in the history of operations in the European theaters. The physical limitations of the terrain fought over in the Pacific restricted the number and size of the units which could be employed and brought into sharp focus the operations of regiments, battalions, and smaller units. A wealth of verified material on such operations is available for all theaters, but it is only that of the Pacific which can be used extensively, since in other theaters the actions of smaller units are lost in the broad sweep of great distances and large forces. The description of small-unit action has the merit of giving the nonprofessional reader a fuller record of the nature of the battlefield in modern war, and the professional reader a better insight into troop leading.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by Philip A. Crowl Edmund G. Love[Includes 4 tables, 3 charts, 27 maps and 90 illustrations]Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls deals with amphibious warfare as waged by American forces against the Japanese-held atolls of the Central Pacific during World War II...The atoll operations described in this volume were amphibious from beginning to end. They were not simple seaborne hit-and-run raids of the Dieppe type. The objective was to secure the atolls as steppingstones to the next advance. The islands were relatively small, permitting continual naval and air support of the ground operations.Some outstanding examples of the co-ordination of fire support by artillery, naval gunfire, and air are found in this book. The advantages of simple plans and the disadvantages of the more complicated will stand out for the careful reader.The story of the capture of these atolls of Micronesia offers some of the best examples of combined operations that are available in the annals of modern war. Ground, sea, and air components were always present, and the effectiveness with which they were combined and co-ordinated accounts in large measure for the rapid success enjoyed in these instances by American arms.From the point of view of strategy, the significance of this volume lies in the fact that it tells the story of the beginnings of the drive across the Central Pacific toward the Japanese homeland. This concept of defeating Japan by pushing directly westward from Hawaii through the island bases of the mid-Pacific was traditional in American strategic thinking, but had never been put to test and was seriously challenged in some quarters. As is shown here, the test was first made in the campaigns against the Gilberts and Marshalls, the outcome was successful, and the experience gained was of inestimable value in planning for the subsequent conduct of the war in the Pacific.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Strategy and Command: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Professor Louis MortonWith 13 tables, 16 charts, 17 maps, 8 diagrams & 92 illustrations]Strategy is a many-sided word, connoting different things to different people. The author of any work on strategy, therefore, owes it to his reader to define at the outset his own conception of this ambiguous term...In the present volume, the author has viewed strategy broadly, including within it not only the art of military command-the original meaning of the term-but all those activities associated with the preparation for and the conduct of war in the Pacific.Viewed thus, the arena of Pacific strategy is the council chamber rather than the coral atoll; its weapons are not bombs and guns but the mountains of memoranda, messages, studies, and plans that poured forth from the deliberative bodies entrusted with the conduct of the war; its sound is not the clash of arms but the cool voice of reason or the heated words of debate thousands of miles from the scene of conflict...It deals with policy and grand strategy on the highest level-war aims, the choice of allies and theaters of operations, the distribution of forces and supplies, and the organization created to use them. On only a slightly lower level, it deals with more strictly military matters-with the choice of strategies, with planning and the selection of objectives, with the timing of operations, the movement of forces and, finally, their employment in battle.Strategy in its larger sense is more than the handmaiden of war, it is an inherent element of statecraft, akin to policy, and encompasses preparations for war as well as the war itself. Thus, this volume treats the prewar period in some detail, not in any sense as introductory to the main theme but as an integral and important part of the story of Pacific strategy. The great lessons of war, it has been observed, are to be found in the events preceding the outbreak of hostilities. It is then that the great decisions are made and the nature of the war largely determined.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Triumph in the Philippines: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by Robert Ross Smith[Includes 16 charts, 54 maps and 196 illustrations]Triumph in the Philippines is the story of the largest joint campaign of the Pacific phase of World War II. Devoted principally to the accomplishments of U.S. Army ground combat forces and to the operations of major organized Philippine guerrilla units that contributed notably to the success of the campaign, the volume describes the reconquest of the Philippine archipelago exclusive of Leyte and Samar. The narrative includes coverage of air, naval, and logistical activity necessary to broad understanding of the ground combat operations. The strategic planning and the strategic debates leading to the decision to seize Luzon and bypass Formosa are also treated so as to enable the reader to fit the Luzon and Southern Philippines Campaigns into their proper perspective of the war against Japan.For the forces of General MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area the reconquest of Luzon and the Southern Philippines was the climax of the Pacific war, although no one anticipated this outcome when, on 9 January 1945, Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger's Sixth Army poured ashore over the beaches of Lingayen Gulf. Viewed from the aspect of commitment of U.S. Army ground forces, the Luzon Campaign (which strategically and tactically in-chides the seizure of Mindoro Island and the securing of the shipping lanes through the central Visayan Islands) was exceeded in size during World War II only by the drive across northern France. The Luzon Campaign differed from others of the Pacific war in that it alone provided opportunity for the employment of mass and maneuver on a scale even approaching that common to the European and Mediterranean theaters. The operations of Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger's Eighth Army, both on Luzon and during the Southern Philippines Campaign, were more akin to previous actions throughout the Pacific, but the southern campaign, too, presented features peculiar to the reconquest of the Philippine archipelago.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Victory in Papua: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by Samuel Milner[Includes 23 maps and 95 illustrations]This is a companion volume to the one on Guadalcanal in the series on the war in the Pacific. Both record the operations designed to halt the advance of the enemy toward the vital transpacific line of communications with Australia and secure Australia as a base. Success in Papua and Guadalcanal, achieved in February 1943, put the Allied forces in a position to neutralize Rabaul and, this accomplished, to advance to the Philippines.The present volume concentrates on the action of one United States Army division. In telling the story of a comparatively limited number of troops, the author has been able to present the combat experience of small units in sharper focus than has been possible in most of the other full-scale campaign volumes.The campaign abounds in lessons.The strategic significance of the Papuan Campaign can be briefly stated. In addition to blunting the Japanese thrust toward Australia and the transpacific line of communications, it put General MacArthur's forces in a favorable position to take the offensive. But this little known campaign is significant for still another reason. It was the battle test of a large hitherto-inexperienced U. S. Army force and its commanders under the conditions which were to attend much of the ground fighting in the Pacific. Costly in casualties and suffering, it taught lessons that the Army had to learn if it was to cope with the Japanese under conditions of tropical warfare.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - the Approach to the Philippines: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
by Robert Ross Smith[Includes 2 tables, 33 maps and 56 illustrations]Jungle warfare in the Southwest Pacific provided a unique experience for an army only lately thrust into global war; but as The Approach to the Philippines graphically demonstrates, the rules of war, the problems of leadership, and the opportunities for military success pertain in the steaming hills of New Guinea as well as on the broad plains of Normandy.This volume describes the operations of Allied forces in the Pacific theaters during the approach to the Philippines, April through October 1944. While this is essentially the story of U.S. Army ground combat operations during the approach, the activities of all ground, air, and naval forces are covered where necessary for the understanding of the Army ground narrative. Eight major and separate operations, all susceptible of subdivision into distinct phases, are described. Seven of these operations took place in the Southwest Pacific Area, while one--the Palau Islands operation--occurred in the Central Pacific Area. This series of actions is exceptional in that the operations were executed in such rapid succession that while one was being planned the height of combat was being reached in another and still others had entered the mopping-up stage.Because of the nature of the combat, the level of treatment in this volume is generally that of the regimental combat team--the infantry regiment with its supporting artillery, engineer, tank, medical, and other units. The majority of the actions described involved a series of separate operations by infantry regiments or regimental combat teams, since divisions seldom fought as integral units during the approach to the Philippines. Division headquarters, often assuming the role of a ground task force headquarters, co-ordinated and administered the oft-times widely separated actions of the division's component parts.
United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - the Fall of the Philippines: [Illustrated Edition] (United States Army in WWII)
by Professor Louis Morton[Includes 11 tables, 25 maps and 71 illustrations]The soldier reading these pages would do well to reflect on the wisdom of the statement exhibited in a Japanese shrine: "Woe unto him who has not tasted defeat." Victory too often leads to overconfidence and erases the memory of mistakes. Defeat brings into sharp focus the causes that led to failure and provides a fruitful field of study for those soldiers and laymen who seek in the past lessons for the future.The statesman and the unformed citizen reading these pages will realize that our military means as well as our estimates and plans must always be in balance with our long-range national policy. This lesson-signposted by the Battle of Manila Bay; the Treaty of Paris, signed in December 1898 when we decided to keep the Philippines; the Washington Conference of 1921-22; and the Manchurian Crisis of 1931-we ignored before Pearl Harbor. The result was defeat on the field of battle and the loss of the Philippine Islands.
United States Before the Civil War (A True Book)
by KaaVonia HintonWhat did the United States look like before the American Civil War? Discover it with this book for young readers.America in the years leading up to the Civil War was more like two countries than one. The North had an industrial economy and the South had a farming economy. By 1804, slavery had been outlawed in the North but the Southern economy was still wholly dependent upon the labor of enslaved workers. As the country grew, so did tensions between the two regions. Read all about the era that culminated in the greatest threat to our nation.ABOUT THIS SERIES:The Civil War took place in America between April 1861 and April 1865. During the four-year struggle between the North and the South, approximately 10,000 battles were fought on land and sea, leaving 620,000 dead. As a result of the war, more than three million enslaved people gained their freedom. The four books in the "Exploring the Civil War" series examine the war's key people, places, and events, and its causes and consequences, making them the perfect tools to introduce children to one of the defining events in American history.
United States Infantry Weapons of the Second World War: Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives (Images of War)
by Michael GreenDuring the arduous campaigns in theatres of war from the Pacific to North West Europe, American infantry weapons played a key role in the eventual victory over the Axis forces. In so doing they earned a special reputation for ruggedness and reliability. In addition to being used by US ground forces they were widely adopted by other Allied nations.Expert author Michael Green puts the full range of small arms, be they rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, machine guns as well as mortars, anti-tank weapons and close infantry support artillery under the microscope.Many names such as the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and the incomparable semi-automatic Garand will be well known whereas others (the Johnson Rifle and Reising SMG) are not. The typically informative text completes the wide range of photographic images.
United States Marine Corps
by John Selby Michael RoffeThis book examines the uniforms, equipment, history and organization of the United States Marine Corps, from 1775, through their service in World Wars I and II, through to Korea (1950-1953) and Vietnam (1955-1975). Uniforms are shown in full illustrated detail.
United States Marine Corps in Vietnam (Images of War)
by Michael GreenA pictorial history “jam packed full of excellent visual and textual history of US Marine Corps operations in the Vietnam War” (AMPS).With the American-supported South Vietnamese government verging on collapse in early 1965, President Lyndon Johnson decided to commit conventional ground forces in the form of a United States Marine Corps brigade of approximately 3,000 men on March 8, 1965. So began a massive and costly ten-year commitment. At its height in 1968, the USMC had 86,000 men in South Vietnam. Almost a half million Marines would eventually rotate in out of South Vietnam during their typical one-year tours of duty. In the end, the fighting during well-known battles at Con Tien, Chu Lai, Hue, Khe Sanh, and Dong Ha—and thousands of now forgotten smaller-scale engagements—would cost the USMC 13,070 killed in action and 88,630 wounded, more casualties than they suffered during the Second World War. In this book, well-known military historian Michael Green, using hundreds of dramatic images, tells the gallant story of the Marines’ contribution to an unwinnable war; the battles; their equipment, from rifles to helicopters and jets; and the strategy adopted by the Corps.
United States Military Helicopters
by Michael GreenThe helicopter came on the scene too late to play other than a minor role in the Second World War but by the Korean conflict the Bell H-13 Sioux, OH-23 Raven, and Sikorsky H–19 Chickasaw were in service.It was in Vietnam that the US military helicopters really came into their own and the best known were the Bell UH-1 Iriquois (known as the Huey), the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, and the massive CH-37 Mojave. The USAF combat search and rescue Jolly Green Giant was indispensable.Attack helicopters have evolved from the early Huey Cobra or Snake and the Boeing AH-64 Apache in the late 80s to when the Sikorsky UH-60 series became the military general purpose chopper.All these formidable aircraft and many more are covered in detail in this superbly illustrated and comprehensive book.
United States Naval Academy, The (Images of America)
by Christopher MillerFor 178 years, the United States Naval Academy has trained and educated young men and women to be commissioned officers in the US Navy and US Marine Corps. The Naval Academy is the second oldest of the five service academies in the United States. The nearly-340-acre campus is located on the grounds of the old Fort Severn in Annapolis, Maryland. The entire campus, known as the Yard, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Admission to the Naval Academy is highly competitive. Since the curriculum leans heavily on science, engineering, and mathematics, all graduates--no matter their major--earn a bachelor of science degree. After completing their coursework, midshipmen enter either the Navy or Marine Corps for a five-year commitment.
United States Naval Aviation, 1911–2014 (Images of War)
by Michael GreenFrom humble beginnings in 1911 with floatplanes, by the 1930s, the US Navy possessed dirigibles and were introducing fighter planes. By the start of WW2, monoplane fighters were replacing bi-planes and a major aircraft carrier build was underway.Fighters such as the Grumman FLF Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair were joined by carrier attack aircraft such as the Dauntless, Devastator and Helldriver. As well as carrier-borne aircraft, others operated from shorebases using both wheels and floats.Post WW2, jet aircraft took over from prop driven, and famous early examples were the Shooting Star and McDonnell Phantom, which saw action in Korea. By Vietnam the F4 Phantom II, Skyhawk and Intruder were in service. As well as these fighter attack aircraft were the Lockheed Viking, anti-sub and nuclear capable Douglas Skywarrior.Post Vietnam the F14 Tomcat and Hornet came into service along with the Prowler (Electronic warfare) and Hawkeye (early warning).These aircraft were complemented by a range of helicopters from the massive Super Stallion, through Sea Kings, Seasprites and Seahawks.Today the Super Hornets predominates along with an impressive multi-capable range of aircraft and helicopters.All these and more are described in expert detail and illustrated in this fine book. Future projects are also covered.
United States Navy Destroyers: Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives (Images of War)
by Michael GreenThis pictorial history examines the key role played by US Navy destroyers from the turn of the twentieth century through the Cold War and beyond.The first sixteen United States Navy destroyers were ordered in 1898. Prior to America’s entry into the First World War, another sixty-three destroyers were commissioned and, due to the U-boat threat, 267 more were authorized by Congress once hostilities were joined.Between 1932 and Pearl Harbor ten new classes totaling 169 destroyers came into service. During the Second World War, American shipyards turned out a further 334 vessels. Of the three classes, the 175 Fletcher-class were judged the most successful.The Cold War years saw the development of seven more classes, while more recent additions include eighty-two of the stealth-shaped Arleigh Burke class. In this comprehensive account, author and military expert Michael Green combines a superb collection of historical images with an authoritative text.