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Ordeal By Sea; The Tragedy Of The U.S.S. Indianapolis
by Thomas HelmJuly 30, 1945: The heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis was sunk by a torpedo. 1,196 men went into the water. When rescue arrived five days later, only 317 remained. What happened during those five terrible days? Full of harrowing personal accounts from survivors, and written by a veteran who served aboard the cruiser before the attack, Ordeal by Sea chronicles the stark human drama and sensational aftermath of one of the worst disasters in naval history. The story of the doomed mission was immortalized in the film Jaws as Quint remembers the intense, brutal and awful experience of the sailors as sharks tore into the floating survivors. Thirst and hunger were also added to the sailors torments as they wondered if the would be rescued from the merciless sea, their bravery and indomitable spirit is captured in this brillitant book.A dramatic and gripping read.
Order Out Of Chaos: A Study Of The Application Of Aufgstaktik By 11th Panzer Division During The Chir River Battles 7-19 December 1942
by Captain Robert G. WaltersThe U.S. Army's current AirLand battle doctrine emphasizes maneuver warfare. Coupled to this revision in doctrine there has been no major update to U.S. command and control philosophy. The German Army of World War II also operated under a maneuver warfare doctrine. Its use of Auftragstaktik, a command and control philosophy, provides valuable lessons for our army from an historical perspective. This monograph presents an anatomy of the Chir River battles from a command and control, as opposed to a tactical, perspective. The brilliant defense of the German weak positions against a numerically superior Soviet attacker provides an interesting parallel to the current situation faced by NATO units in Central Europe. Auftragstaktik should serve well as a foundation from which the U.S. Army can develop a coherent command and control philosophy that complements the AirLand battle doctrine.
Order and Insecurity in Germany and Turkey: Military Cultures of the 1930s (Routledge Studies in Modern European History)
by Emre SencerThis book examines processes of military, political and cultural transformation from the perspective of officers in two countries: Germany and Turkey in the 1930s. The national fates of both countries interlocked during the Great War years and their close alliance dictated their joint defeat in 1918. While the two countries were manifestly different in their politics and culture, both had lost the war and both went through powerful changes in its immediate aftermath. They painted themselves as the victims of a new imperialist order, whose chief representatives were Britain and France. The result was a radical militarism that unleashed violent currents in these countries – developments that were to be more transformative than the impact of the war experience itself.
Order of Battle: Hitler's Werewolves
by Ib MelchiorAn assassination attempt on General Eisenhower looms as agents race to take down a Nazi terrorist organization in this &“undeniably exciting&” thriller (The Washington Post). Written by an author with personal experience as a counterintelligence agent during World War II, Order of Battle is set during the waning days of Nazi Germany, as plans are hatched for a covert terrorist organization known as the Werewolves, meant to carry on Hitler&’s legacy even in the face of defeat. High on their list of goals: the death of America&’s heroic Dwight D. Eisenhower. But the secret Nazi resistance will have trouble eluding the Allied forces lying in wait for them—especially one dedicated American intelligence officer who suspects that danger lurks underground amid the chaos of a collapsing empire—in this novel inspired by real events and filled with &“maximum tension&” (The New York Times).
Order within Anarchy
by James D. MorrowOrder within Anarchy focuses on how the laws of war create strategic expectations about how states and their soldiers will act during war, which can help produce restraint. The success of the laws of war depends on three related factors: compliance between warring states and between soldiers on the battlefield, and control of soldiers by their militaries. A statistical study of compliance of the laws of war during the twentieth century shows that joint ratification strengthens both compliance and reciprocity, compliance varies across issues with the scope for individual violations, and violations occur early in war. Close study of the treatment of prisoners of war during World Wars I and II demonstrates the difficulties posed by states' varied willingness to limit violence, a lack of clarity about what restraint means, and the practical problems of restraint on the battlefield.
Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War
by R. M. DouglasThe award-winning history of 12 million German-speaking civilians in Europe who were driven from their homes after WWII: &“a major achievement&” (New Republic). Immediately after the Second World War, the victorious Allies authorized the forced relocation of ethnic Germans from their homes across central and southern Europe to Germany. The numbers were almost unimaginable: between 12 and 14 million civilians, most of them women and children. And the losses were horrifying: at least five hundred thousand people, and perhaps many more, died while detained in former concentration camps, locked in trains, or after arriving in Germany malnourished, and homeless. In this authoritative and objective account, historian R.M. Douglas examines an aspect of European history that few have wished to confront, exploring how the forced migrations were conceived, planned, and executed, and how their legacy reverberates throughout central Europe today. The first comprehensive history of this immense manmade catastrophe, Orderly and Humane is an important study of the largest recorded episode of what we now call "ethnic cleansing." It may also be the most significant untold story of the World War II.
Orders is Orders
by L. Ron HubbardTriumphant tales of heroes, honor and impossible odds... The Japanese have led a heavily armored assault against the Chinese city of Shunkien, pounding wreckage into ashes and wiping out a city dating back to Genghis Kahn. One of the few buildings still standing is the small American consulate, now packed with one hundred and sixteen frightened American refugees. Food is low and deadly Asiatic cholera is starting to run rampant, with carnage and corpses piling up in the streets.Two hundred miles away, the USS Miami drops anchor, well equipped with the needed gold to buy food and a cholera serum to prevent disease and death. The dilemma is that should the Marines take military action to rush supplies to the consulate, it could force the US into an all-out battle with the Japanese.Marine Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell and Private First Class Spivits instead are ordered to conduct a treacherous supply mission facing impossible odds to reach and rescue the trapped Americans. "The story captivates thoroughly." --Publishers Weekly starred review
Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin
by James Kirby MartinThe ordinary and yet exceptional experiences of a young soldier in Washington’s army are given a new life in this fourth edition, sensitively edited for a modern readership. Classic primary source on the Revolutionary War, Edited by a leading US authority on the period, Now with extra maps and a more extensive bibliography, Includes a new Afterword by Karen Guenther on film portrayals of the continental soldier.
Ordinary Heroes
by Scott TurowFROM THE PUBLISHER "Stewart knew his father had served in World War II. But when, after his father's death, he discovers a packet of wartime letters to a former fiancee and learns of his father's court-martial and imprisonment. he is plunged into the mystery of his family's secret history and is driven to uncover the truth about this enigmatic, distant man who always refused to talk about his war." "As he pieces together his father's past through military archives, letters, and, finally, notes from a memoir his father wrote in prison, secretly preserved by the officer who defended him, Stewart starts to assemble a dramatic and baffling chain of events. He learns how Dubin, a JAG lawyer attached to Patron's Third Army and eager for combat experience, got more than he bargained for when he was ordered to arrest Robert Martin, a wayward OSS officer who, despite his spectacular bravery with the French Resistance, appeared to be acting on orders other than his commander's." "In pursuit of Martin, Dubin and his sergeant had parachuted into Bastogne just as the Battle of the Bulge reached its apex. Pressed into the leadership of a desperately depleted rifle company, the men were forced to abandon their quest for Martin and his fiery, maddeningly elusive comrade, Gita Lodz, as they fought for their lives through the ferocious winter battle that would determine Europe's fate." Reconstructing the terrible events and agonizing choices his father faced on the battlefield, in the courtroom, and in love, Stewart gains a closer understanding of his past, of his father's character, and of the brutal nature of war itself.
Ordinary Heroes: Untold Stories from the Falklands Campaign
by Christopher HiltonIn 1982, 8,000 miles from home, in a harsh environment and without the newest and most sophisticated equipment, the numerically inferior British Task Force defeated the Argentinian forces occupying the Falkland Islands and recaptured this far-flung outpost of what was once an empire. It was a much-needed triumph for Margaret Thatcher’s government and for Britain. Many books have been published on the Falklands War, some offering accounts from participants in it. But this is the first one only to include interviews with the ordinary seamen, marines, soldiers and airmen who achieved that victory, as well as those whose contribution is often overlooked – the merchant seaman who crewed ships taken up from trade, the NAAFI personnel who supplied the all-important treats that kept spirits up, the Hong Kong Chinese laundrymen who were aboard every warship. Published to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the conflict, this is the story of what ‘Britain’s last colonial war’ was really like.
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
by Christopher R. BrowningIn the early hours of July 13, 1942, the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, a unit of the German Order Police, entered the Polish Village of Jozefow. They had arrived in Poland less than three weeks before, most of them recently drafted family men too old for combat service--workers, artisans, salesmen, and clerks. By nightfall, they had rounded up Jozefow's 1,800 Jews, selected several hundred men as "work Jews," and shot the rest--that is, some 1,500 women, children, and old people. Most of these overage, rear-echelon reserve policemen had grown to maturity in the port city of Hamburg in pre-Hitler Germany and were neither committed Nazis nor racial fanatics. Nevertheless, in the sixteen months from the Jozefow massacre to the brutal Erntefest ("harvest festival") slaughter of November 1943, these average men participated in the direct shooting deaths of at least 38,000 Jews and the deportation to Treblinka's gas chambers of 45,000 more--a total body count of 83,000 for a unit of less than 500 men. Drawing on postwar interrogations of 210 former members of the battalion, Christopher Browning lets them speak for themselves about their contribution to the Final Solution--what they did, what they thought, how they rationalized their behavior (one man would shoot only infants and children, to "release" them from their misery). In a sobering conclusion, Browning suggests that these good Germans were acting less out of deference to authority or fear of punishment than from motives as insidious as they are common: careerism and peer pressure. With its unflinching reconstruction of the battalion's murderous record and its painstaking attention to the social background and actions of individual men, this unique account offers some of the most powerful and disturbing evidence to date of the ordinary human capacity for extraordinary inhumanity.
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
by Christopher R. BrowningChristopher R. Browning’s shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews—now with a new afterword and additional photographs. Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever.While this book discusses a specific Reserve Unit during WWII, the general argument Browning makes is that most people succumb to the pressures of a group setting and commit actions they would never do of their own volition. Ordinary Men is a powerful, chilling, and important work with themes and arguments that continue to resonate today.“A remarkable—and singularly chilling—glimpse of human behavior...This meticulously researched book...represents a major contribution to the literature of the Holocaust."—Newsweek
Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns: Thoughts on War
by Artem ChapeyeA reporter and novelist who is also a soldier in the Ukrainian army reconsiders his pacifism and the choices one makes when war is waged against you."Chapeye represents a modern-day Ukrainian counterpart to classic American writers like Mark Twain or O. Henry, capturing the dignity and respect his characters might not get but nonetheless long for and deserve." —Kate Tsurkan, Los Angeles Review of BooksIn Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns, Artem Chapeye reveals his war, intimate and senseless, withholding nothing about his motivations, his nightmares, his new relationship with the world. Here one man, a pacifist turned fighter, a story writer turned soldier, a father and husband, considers the reasons for and reactions to war on a very personal level.An avowed pacifist until 2022, Chapeye joined the Ukrainian army in the first days of the Russian invasion. He tries to understand the large-scale decision-making that has a defining impact on both individual citizens and society-at-large: many of his fellow soldiers never considered enlisting before finding themselves at war; others flee the country. He wonders from the front lines what his young children at home are doing and what they&’re feeling.The book is written in three parts, offering historical analogies and literary references throughout.&“When Darkness Comes&” relates the first days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 when lives and the peace were shattered.&“It&’s Necessary to Cultivate Your Garden&” details the experience of the everyday people of Ukraine, workers and peasants, who look forward to returning to simpler lives.The last section, &“People Aren&’t Divided into Brands,&” critiques the elitism of those who consider themselves above those who &“simply&” fight.Deeply thought-provoking, intelligent, and heartbreaking, this is an essential book for anyone who wants to understand the ways that war can change everything.
Ordnance: Equipping the British Army for the Great War
by Philip Hamlyn WilliamsIn August 1914, Kitchener’s ‘Contemptible Little Army’ was highly professional but small, equipped with only what they could carry – and they were facing a force of continental proportions, heavily armed and well supplied. The task of equipping the British Army was truly Herculean. Many able men had volunteered to fight in the trenches, and others would soon be called up, so this vital work was to be undertaken by the ordinary men and women left behind. In time, the government recognised the need for skills of engineering and logistics, and many of those who had survived the onslaught were brought back home to work. Ordnance is the story of these men and women. It traces the provision of equipment and armaments from raw material through manufacture to the supply routes that gave the British Army all the material it needed to win the war. It is a story of some failures, but also of ingenuity and effort on the part of ordinary people to overcome shortfalls in organisation. It is a story of some lessons learnt, but of others that weren’t, and these would have long-lasting repercussions.
Oregon Military (Images of America)
by Alisha Hamel Warren W. AneyOregon's military heritage goes back thousands of years, including native people's warrior traditions. Most of the cultures in this region were relatively peaceful, even welcoming visiting strangers, such as the Lewis and Clark overland Army expedition in 1805-1806. Then, overwhelming numbers of fur trappers, merchants, settlers, and miners began taking over traditional native grounds. From 1847 to 1880, native peoples experienced eight major conflicts with Army and volunteer forces. Army units built several forts from Oregon's coast to the Great Basin. Oregonians adopted militia laws, served in volunteer units, and organized the Oregon State Militia, which became the Oregon National Guard in 1887. The Guard benefited the state in many civil-support actions and served the nation in major overseas conflicts from the Spanish-American War to the current Operation Enduring Freedom.
Organisational Capability and Competitive Advantage
by Charles Harvey Geoffrey JonesFirst Published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Organisational Learning and the Modern Army: A New Model for Lessons-Learned Processes (Cass Military Studies)
by Tom DysonDrawing upon extensive original research, this book explores best practice in army lessons-learned processes. Without the correct learning mechanisms, military adaptation can be blocked, or the wider lessons from adaptation can easily be lost, leading to the need to relearn lessons in the field, often at great human and financial cost. This book analyses the organisational processes and activities which can help improve tactical- and operational-level learning through case studies of lessons learned in two key NATO armies: that of Britain and of Germany. Providing the first comparative analysis of the variables which facilitate or impede the emergence of best practice in military learning, it makes an important contribution to the growing scholarship on knowledge management and learning in public organisations. It will be of much interest to lessons-learned practitioners, and students of military and strategic studies, defence studies, organisation studies and security studies.
Organizational Cultures and the Management of Nuclear Technology: Political and Military Sociology (Political And Military Sociology Ser.)
by Karthika SasiKumarNuclear technology has been an organizing premise of the international system since 1945. Eight countries have officially acknowledged the possession of nuclear weapons. Many countries have harnessed the atom for electricity generation and other civilian uses. Roughly 440 commercial nuclear reactors operate in thirty countries providing 14 percent of the world's electricity. Volatile oil prices and concerns about climate change have led newly emerging economies in Asia to express keen interest in using nuclear energy to meet growing energy demands. Since the basic technological apparatus for both civilian and military nuclear programs is the same, there are concerns about the potential spread of dual-use technology.The future stability of the international order depends on the responsible management of their nuclear assets by nuclear powers. The relationship between civilian authorities and the military takes on special significance in states with nuclear weapons or near-weapon capability. The constitutional balance of powers, the delegation of authority during wartime and peace, influences from public opinion and bureaucratic structures on the formulation of doctrine, crisis management, and communications with the international media and the general public are influenced by civil-military relations and organizational culture.This volume will be of broad interest to scholars of civil-military relations, political science, and political sociology.
Organizational Leadership In Crisis: The 31st Regimental Combat Team At Chosin Reservoir, Korea, 24 November-2 December 1950
by Paul T. BerquistThe 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT) was created on 24 November 1950. On 27 November it had the mission of relieving the Marines of the 1st Marine Division East of the Chosin reservoir and attacking to the North towards the Yalu River. The unit's battalions and separate companies were spread out along the road from the port of Hungnam in the south to forward positions east of the reservoir over 90 miles away when it was hit by the surprise attack of the Chinese 80th Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) Division on the evening of 27 November. Organizational leadership failures at the level of the X Corps, 7th Infantry Division, the 31st RCT and its attached battalions all contributed to the almost complete destruction of the RCT by the evening of 1-2 December 1950. These failures led to a very poor situational awareness prior to the Chinese attack and helped create the total breakdown of organizational cohesion and effectiveness that occurred during the unit's ill-fated attempt to breakout of the Chinese encirclement. This thesis shows how decisions that are made at the organizational level are critical to the success of the unit.
Oriental Armour (Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor)
by H. Russell RobinsonDetailed, scholarly survey of defensive armour used in the Middle East and Asia -- from the scale armour of ancient Egypt to Japanese "modern" armour of the 19th century. Over 300 line illustrations and over 100 photos depict armour of Persia, Turkey, India, China, Ceylon, the Philippines, Korea, Tibet, and other regions.
Original Hell's Angels, The: 303rd Bombardment Group of WWII (Images of Aviation)
by Valerie SmartDuring World War II, there was a famed B-17 aircraft named Hell's Angels. The men who worked together to keep the plane flying over Hitler's occupied Europe, those of the U.S. Army Air Force's 303rd Bombardment Group, were the first in the 8th Air Force to complete twenty-five missions from their base in Molesworth, England. These men, or "Hell's Angels" as they became known, went on to complete forty missions without ever turning back to base for mechanical failure of the plane. In The Original Hell's Angels: 303rd Bombardment Group of World War II, you will take an exciting historical journey to meet these men and to experience the total forty-eight missions they flew without having a member wounded or killed before the plane and members of its crew were commissioned to return to America for a war-bond tour. Also, you will learn how the entire 303rd became known as Hell's Angels, the first heavy bombardment group to complete three hundred missions from American air force bases in England.
Original Sin (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
by David R. George IIIContinuing the Deep Space Nine saga—an original novel from New York Times bestselling author David R. George III!At the end of 2385, in a significant shift of its goals from military back to exploratory, Starfleet sent Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the U.S.S. Robinson on an extended mission into the Gamma Quadrant. Tasked with a yearlong assignment to travel unknown regions, they set out to fulfill the heart of Starfleet&’s charter: to explore strange new worlds, and to seek out new life and new civilizations. But now three months into the mission, their first contact with an alien species comes in the form of an unprovoked attack on the Robinson. With the ship&’s crew suddenly incapacitated, seventy-eight of the 1,300 aboard are abducted—including Sisko&’s daughter, Rebecca. But Rebecca had already been kidnapped years earlier by a Bajoran religious zealot, part of a sect believing that her birth fulfilled the prophecy of the arrival of the Infant Avatar. Does her disappearance now have anything to do with the harrowing events of the past? And for what purposes have these enemies taken Sisko&’s daughter and the rest of the missing?
Originator: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel (Cassandra Kresnov Ser.)
by Joel ShepherdHope for the future in the hands of an enemy from the past . . . Cassandra Kresnov must find the answers that could free her people--or doom her family.A quarter of a million people die in the destruction of the moon Cresta. The League civil war is accelerating out of control, but projections indicate that as their technologically induced sociological dysfunction continues, all of humanity may face a similar fate. In the aftermath of Cresta's destruction, Sandy Kresnov discovers the alien Talee operative Cai in Tanusha, there to learn just how far the technologically-induced insanity has gone. The Talee have seen this before, and they are terrified of anything threatening a recurrence.Meanwhile, Sandy's old nemesis Renaldo Takewashi, the self-proclaimed "father" of synthetic intelligence, comes to the Federation seeking asylum. Talewashi may even have a cure--previously unknown Talee technology implanted into a human child subject--Sandy's little boy, Kiril. But it is exactly this technology that the Talee fear, and they will exterminate anyone caught using it.Now, Sandy must fight to save her family from a terrible new threat, but doing so may plunge humanity into another destructive war between humans, or worse, against the massively-advanced Talee. And what final secret are the Talee protecting about the origins of synthetic humans like Sandy that could either liberate Sandy's fellow synthetics from bondage or spell disaster for all humanity? From the Trade Paperback edition.
Origins Of The Second World War
by A. J. P. TaylorFrom influential British historian A.J.P. Taylor, a reprint of his influential text The Origins of the Second World War. Controversial for his thesis that Hitler was an opportunist with no thorough plan, The Origins of the Second World War is an extensive exploration of the international politics and foreign policy that lead up to the one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century. Published in 1961, The Origins of the Second World War is a classic of modern history. A.J.P. Taylor's years of research helped change the long-accepted view that Adolf Hitler had wanted and planned in detail for a war. With clear and relatable prose, Taylor depicts the diplomatic mistakes from both the Allied and Axis powers that lead to the outbreak of World War II. A groundbreaking work, The Origins of the Second World War "is an almost faultless masterpiece, perfectly proportioned, perfectly controlled" (The Observer).
Origins of National Interests
by Glenn Chafetz Michael Spinas Benjamin FrankelThe concept of "identity" in international relations offers too many vague and imprecise definitions of the concepts that stand at its very core. This text offers clear definitions of the concept of identity and the concepts surrounding the term.