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Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea
by Noah Andre TrudeauAward-winning Civil War historian Noah Andre Trudeau has written a gripping, definitive new account that will stand as the last word on General William Tecumseh Sherman's epic march--a targeted strategy aimed to break not only the Confederate army but an entire society as well. With Lincoln's hard-fought reelection victory in hand, Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces, allowed Sherman to lead the largest and riskiest operation of the war. In rich detail, Trudeau explains why General Sherman's name is still anathema below the Mason-Dixon Line, especially in Georgia, where he is remembered as "the one who marched to the sea with death and devastation in his wake." Sherman's swath of destruction spanned more than sixty miles in width and virtually cut the South in two, badly disabling the flow of supplies to the Confederate army. He led more than 60,000 Union troops to blaze a path from Atlanta to Savannah, ordering his men to burn crops, kill livestock, and decimate everything that fed the Rebel war machine. Grant and Sherman's gamble worked, and the march managed to crush a critical part of the Confederacy and increase the pressure on General Lee, who was already under siege in Virginia. Told through the intimate and engrossing diaries and letters of Sherman's soldiers and the civilians who suffered in their path, Southern Storm paints a vivid picture of an event that would forever change the course of America.
The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War
by Louise SteinmanLouise Steinman's father never talked about his experiences in the Pacific during WWII, like many men of his generation. All she knew was that a whistling kettle unnerved him, that Asian food was banned from the house, and that she was never to cry in front of him. After her parents' deaths, Steinman discovered a box containing some four hundred letters her father had written to her mother during the war. Among the letters, she found a Japanese flag inscribed with elegant calligraphy. The flag said: "To Yoshio Shimizu given to him in the Great East Asian War to be fought to the end. If you believe in it, you win." Intrigued by her father's letters and compelled to know how this flag came to be in his possession, Steinman sets out on a quest to learn what happened to her father and the men of his Twenty-fifth Infantry Division. Over the course of her exploration, Steinman decides to return the flag to the family of Yoshio Shimizu, the fallen Japanese soldier. She travels to the snow country of Japan and visits the battlefield in the Philippines where her father's division fought-the place where Yoshio lost his life and his flag. In the end, Steinman discovers a side of her father she never knew, and, astonishingly, she develops a kinship with the surviving family of his enemy. Weaving together her father's letters with the story of her own personal journey, Steinman presents a powerful view of how war changed one generation and shaped another.
Soviet Lend-Lease Fighter Aces of World War 2
by George MellingerBy the end of 1941 the Soviet Union was near collapse and its air force almost annihilated, leaving large numbers of surviving pilots with no aircraft to fly. At this juncture the United Kingdom put aside its prewar animosities toward the Communists and despatched several hundred Hurricane fighters despite the fact that at this time the British were still struggling to supply the RAF with modern fighters in North Africa and the Far East. A total of 4300 Hurricanes and Spitfires, as well as several hundred Tomahawks, Kittyhawks and Airacobras, obtained from the USA under Lend-lease, were eventually supplied to the USSR in an attempt to present a Russian defeat. After the United States had entered the war, the Americans extended Lend-lease to include direct supply to the Soviets as well as the British, and among the aircraft sent were almost 10,000 fighters - mainly P-39s, P-40s and P-63s. Although many of these aircraft were outdated when they arrived, and some were not particularly suited to Russian operating conditions, they served when they were needed. A number of Russian pilots became Heroes of the Soviet Union flying Lend-lease aircraft, and many more gained their early experience before converting to their own Yaks and Lavochkins. All of these types, including the Hurricane, remained in active units until the end of the war, and even into the post-war period. The Soviet government tried to play down or conceal the importance of Lend-lease fighters until well into the 1980s, and the pilots who flew them were discriminated against as 'foreigners'. Only in recent years have these pilots felt free to admit what they flew, and now the fascinating story of these men and their heroic achievements can emerge.
Spandau Phoenix (World War Two #2)
by Greg IlesThe New York Times No. 1 bestseller delivers 'a scorching read' (John Grisham). <P> One of the great unsolved mysteries of World War II is - to some people - a secret worth killing for... The Spandau Diary - what was in it? Why did the secret intelligence agencies of every major power want it? Why was a brave and beautiful woman kidnapped and sexually tormented to get to it? Why did a chain of deception and violent death lash out across the globe, from survivors of the Nazi past to warriors in the new conflict now about to explode? Spandau Phoenix is a page-turning, pulse-pounding thriller, already hailed as a classic.
The Spanish-American War
by Albert MarrinDescribes the causes and events of the Spanish-American War and how it led to the involvement of the United States in the Philippine Insurrection.
The Spanish-American War: A MyReportLinks.com Book
by Carl R. GreenDiscusses how the interests of American expansionists in the Spanish colony of Cuba eventually resulted in a war with Spain.
Spanish Civil War Tanks: The Proving Ground for Blitzkrieg
by Steven Zaloga Tony BryanThe tanks used during the Spanish Civil War are not often examined in any great detail, and are often labeled as little more than test vehicles in a convenient proving ground before World War II. But, with groundbreaking research, armor expert Steven J Zaloga has taken a fresh look at the tanks deployed in Spain, examining how future tanks and armored tactics were shaped and honed by the crews' experiences, and how Germany was able to benefit from these lessons while their Soviet opponents were not. Based on recently uncovered records of Soviet tankers in Spain and rare archival accounts, this book describes the various tanks deployed in Spain, including the PzKpfw I and the T-26. From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism
by Stanley G. PayneIn this compelling book Stanley G. Payne offers the first comprehensive narrative of Soviet and Communist intervention in the revolution and civil war in Spain. He documents in unprecedented detail Soviet strategies, Comintern activities, and the role of the Communist party in Spain from the early 1930s to the end of the civil war in 1939. Drawing on a very broad range of Soviet and Spanish primary sources, including many only recently available, Payne changes our understanding of Soviet and Communist intentions in Spain, of Stalin's decision to intervene in the Spanish war, of the widely accepted characterization of the conflict as the struggle of fascism against democracy, and of the claim that Spain's war constituted the opening round of World War II. The author arrives at a new view of the Spanish Civil War and concludes not only that the Democratic Republic had many undemocratic components but also that the position of the Communist party was by no means counterrevolutionary
The Spanish Tercios 1536-1704
by Gerry Embleton Ignacio LopezA mixed infantry formation made up of about 3,000 men armed with pikes, swords and handguns, the innovative and influential tercio or 'Spanish square' was the basic combat unit of the armies of Spain throughout much of the 16th and 17th centuries. Arguably the first permanent tactical formation seen in Europe since the Roman cohort, the tercio was the forerunner of modern formations such as the battalion and regiment. The variety of different weapons fielded in the tercio meant the Spanish infantry could resist opposing cavalry forces while overcoming every kind of enemy infantry deployed against them. Featuring full-colour artwork and photographs of rare items held at the Spanish Army Museum, this study covers the whole period during which the tercios were active, opening with the third Italian war between the forces of France and the Holy Roman Emperor and concluding with the final transformation of the Spanish tercios into regiments in 1704.
Sparta
by Roxana RobinsonGoing from peace to war can make a young man into a warrior. Going from war to peace can destroy him. Conrad Farrell has no family military heritage, but as a classics major at Williams College, he has encountered the powerful appeal of the Marine Corps ethic. "Semper Fidelis" comes straight from the ancient world, from Sparta, where every citizen doubled as a full-time soldier. When Conrad graduates, he joins the Marines to continue a long tradition of honor, courage, and commitment. As Roxana Robinson's new novel, Sparta, begins, Conrad has just returned home to Katonah, New York, after four years in Iraq, and he's beginning to learn that something has changed in his landscape. Something has gone wrong, though things should be fine: he hasn't been shot or wounded; he's never had psychological troubles. But as he attempts to reconnect with his family and his girlfriend and to find his footing in the civilian world, he learns how hard it is to return to the people and places he used to love. His life becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate: he can't imagine his future, can't recover his past, and can't bring himself to occupy his present. As weeks turn into months, Conrad feels himself trapped in a life that's constrictive and incomprehensible, and he fears that his growing rage will have irreparable consequences. Suspenseful, compassionate, and perceptive, Sparta captures the nuances of the unique estrangement that modern soldiers face as they attempt to rejoin the society they've fought for. Billy Collins writes that Roxana Robinson is "a master at . . . the work of excavating the truths about ourselves"; The Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley calls her "one of our best writers. " In Sparta, with the powerful insight and acuity that marked her earlier books (Cost, Sweetwater, and A Perfect Stranger, among others), Robinson delivers her best book yet. A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of 2013
The Spartacus War: The Revolt of the Gladiators
by Barry StraussThe Spartacus War is the extraordinary story of the most famous slave rebellion in the ancient world, the fascinating true story behind a legend that has been the inspiration for novelists, filmmakers, and revolutionaries for 2,000 years. Starting with only seventy-four men, a gladiator named Spartacus incited a rebellion that threatened Rome itself. With his fellow gladiators, Spartacus built an army of 60,000 soldiers and controlled the southern Italian countryside. A charismatic leader, he used religion to win support. An ex-soldier in the Roman army, Spartacus excelled in combat. He defeated nine Roman armies and kept Rome at bay for two years before he was defeated. After his final battle, 6,000 of his followers were captured and crucified along Rome's main southern highway. The Spartacus War is the dramatic and factual account of one of history's great rebellions. Spartacus was beaten by a Roman general, Crassus, who had learned how to defeat an insurgency. But the rebels were partly to blame for their failure. Their army was large and often undisciplined; the many ethnic groups within it frequently quarreled over leadership. No single leader, not even Spartacus, could keep them all in line. And when faced with a choice between escaping to freedom and looting, the rebels chose wealth over liberty, risking an eventual confrontation with Rome's most powerful forces. The result of years of research, The Spartacus War is based not only on written documents but also on archaeological evidence, historical reconstruction, and the author's extensive travels in the Italian countryside that Spartacus once conquered.
Special Forces Sniper Skills
by Robert StirlingThis hard hitting account details the men, weapons and techniques used to coldly eliminate high value targets on the battlefield, in hostage situations, in political assassinations and elsewhere. Though many books have become best sellers through telling one side of the story - a sniper's experiences, a training manual or a weapons catalogue - none before have combined the whole spectrum of a sniper's life and skills into one gripping book. Selection, history, training, weapons, field craft, tactics, special operations and much more. This book goes beyond the general infantry use of snipers: it examines the role of the sniper, and the unique skills employed, when serving as part of a Special Forces unit including the British SAS, the US Navy Seals and the Russian Spetznaz. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs of every aspect of the sniper's trade and stories from the real-life experiences of the author's comrades: men who have served in almost every overt and covert conflict since the Second World War.
Special Ops (Brotherhood of War, Book 9)
by W. E. B. GriffinNovember 1964, Che Fuevara enters the Congo with 200 men, intent on taking his first step toward world revolution. The Green Berets are sent in...
Specter (Seal Team Seven, #2)
by Keith DouglassThird Platoon, SEAL Team Seven, is just recovering from a secret intelligence-gathering mission in Croatia and Bosnia that was supposed to have been a quick sneak-and-peek, but turned out to be a massive firefight from which they barely escaped with their lives, when a Greek jet, carrying a U.S. congresswoman is hijacked. After some intelligence-gathering, it is discovered that the congresswoman and her staff are being held in a medieval castle in Macedonia and Third Platoon is preparing for another mission, a hostage rescue, into the war-torn Balkans.
Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
by Tim ShorrockIn Spies for Hire, investigative reporter Tim Shorrock lifts the veil off a major story the government doesn't want us to know about -- the massive outsourcing of top secret intelligence activities to private-sector contractors. Running spy networks overseas. Tracking down terrorists in the Middle East. Interrogating enemy prisoners. Analyzing data from spy satellites and intercepted phone calls. All of these are vital intelligence tasks that traditionally have been performed by government officials accountable to Congress and the American people. But that is no longer the case. Starting during the Clinton administration, when intelligence budgets were cut drastically and privatization of government services became national policy, and expanding dramatically in the wake of 9/11, when the CIA and other agencies were frantically looking to hire analysts and linguists, the Intelligence Community has been relying more and more on corporations to perform sensitive tasks heretofore considered to be exclusively the work of federal employees. This outsourcing of intelligence activities is now a $50 billion-a-year business that consumes up to 70 percent of the U. S. intelligence budget. And it's a business that the government has tried hard to keep under wraps. Drawing on interviews with key players in the Intelligence-Industrial Complex, contractors' annual reports and public filings with the government, and on-the-spot reporting from intelligence industry conferences and investor briefings,Spies for Hire provides the first behind-the-scenes look at this new way of spying. Shorrock shows how corporations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, CACI International, and IBM have become full partners with the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Pentagon in their most sensitive foreign and domestic operations. He explores how this partnership has led to wasteful spending and threatens to erode the privacy protections and congressional oversight so important to American democracy. Shorrock exposes the kinds of spy work the private sector is doing, such as interrogating prisoners in Iraq, managing covert operations, and collaborating with the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mails. And he casts light on a "shadow Intelligence Community" made up of former top intelligence officials who are now employed by companies that do this spy work, such as former CIA directors George Tenet and James Woolsey. Shorrock also traces the rise of Michael McConnell from his days as head of the NSA to being a top executive at Booz Allen Hamilton to returning to government as the nation's chief spymaster. From CIA covert actions to NSA eavesdropping, from Abu Ghraib to Guantánamo, from the Pentagon's techno-driven war in Iraq to the coming global battles over information dominance and control of cyberspace, contractors are doing it all. Spies for Hire goes behind today's headlines to highlight how private corporations are aiding the growth of a new and frightening national surveillance state.
The Spies of the Balkans (Night Soldiers #11)
by Alan FurstGreece, 1940. Not sunny vacation Greece: northern Greece, Macedonian Greece, Balkan Greece-the city of Salonika. In that ancient port, with its wharves and warehouses, dark lanes and Turkish mansions, brothels and tavernas, a tense political drama is being played out. On the northern border, the Greek army has blocked Mussolini's invasion, pushing his divisions back to Albania-the first defeat suffered by the Nazis, who have conquered most of Europe. But Adolf Hitler cannot tolerate such freedom; the invasion is coming, it's only a matter of time, and the people of Salonika can only watch and wait. At the center of this drama is Costa Zannis, a senior police official, head of an office that handles special "political" cases. As war approaches, the spies begin to circle, from the Turkish legation to the German secret service. There's a British travel writer, a Bulgarian undertaker, and more. Costa Zannis must deal with them all. And he is soon in the game, securing an escape route-from Berlin to Salonika, and then to a tenuous safety in Turkey, a route protected by German lawyers, Balkan detectives, and Hungarian gangsters. And hunted by the Gestapo. Meanwhile, as war threatens, the erotic life of the city grows passionate. For Zannis, that means a British expatriate who owns the local ballet academy, a woman from the dark side of Salonika society, and the wife of a local shipping magnate. Declared "an incomparable expert at his game" by The New York Times, Alan Furst outdoes even his own finest novels in this thrilling new book. With extraordinary authenticity, a superb cast of characters, and heart-stopping tension as it moves from Salonika to Paris to Berlin and back, Spies of the Balkans is a stunning novel about a man who risks everything to right-in many small ways-the world's evil.
Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America
by John Earl Haynes Harvey Klehr Alexander VassilievThis stunning book, based on KGB archives that have never come to light before, provides the most complete account of Soviet espionage in America ever written. In 1993, former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev was permitted unique access to Stalin-era records of Soviet intelligence operations against the United States. Years later, living in Britain, Vassiliev retrieved his extensive notebooks of transcribed documents from Moscow. With these notebooks John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have meticulously constructed a new, sometimes shocking, historical account. Along with general insights into espionage tactics and the motives of Americans who spied for Stalin,Spiesresolves specific, long-seething controversies. The book confirms, among many other things, that Alger Hiss cooperated with Soviet intelligence over a long period of years, that journalist I. F. Stone worked on behalf of the KGB in the 1930s, and that Robert Oppenheimer was never recruited by Soviet intelligence. Spiesalso uncovers numerous American spies who were never even under suspicion and satisfyingly identifies the last unaccounted for American nuclear spies. Vassiliev tells the story of the notebooks and his own extraordinary life in a gripping introduction to the volume.
The Spike
by Arnaud De Borchgrave Robert Moss[From the back cover] THE SECRET HISTORY OF PUR TIMES! From the jungles of Southeast Asia to the terrorist lairs of Hamburg and Rome. From high society orgies to the discovery of the Russian "mole" who burrowed his way to the peaks of power in America, THE SPIKE traces through international political intrigue with shattering power. Written by the only two insiders who could tell the story, this strikingly authentic thriller unveils the KGB's sinister Directorate A and its "disinformation" conspiracy--a Red plot to turn the Western media into an ' unwitting Communist pawn in the Soviet drive for global supremacy. THE SPIKE is the acclaimed bestselling superthriller of today-but it may be the frightening reality of tomorrow.
Splinter Cell (Executioner #340)
by Don Pendleton Jerry Van CookThe disappearance of a tourist in Amsterdam is attributed to a rise in kidnappings of Westerners by terrorists. But those inside U.S. Intelligence know better. The hostage is a top American nuclear expert. When the scientist's brother, a former Army Ranger, is set to go it alone for a full-throttle rescue, the Oval Office puts Mack Bolan in charge. But the odds of extracting the man from enemy hands are next to impossible and getting worse. Low on hard intel, the Executioner and his highly trained companion must rely on a CIA informant to lead them into the heart of one of the most dangerous terrorist cells on the planet before any worstcase scenarios can erupt.
Splintered Sky
by Don PendletonAmerica's elite defense unit works under the radar and outside the law to stop terror before it hits America's streets. But with each new crisis, Stony Man's cyberwizards understand that the new battlefield is deep space. Someday, a superweapon may be impossible to stop. With luck, that day won't come, thanks to Stony Man's field teams bringing the fight to the enemy, face-to-face. An invisible enemy plots to launch a dirty bomb from orbit, exposing vulnerable cities to hard radiation. Intel points to a multinational terror force bent on controlling the skies over the free world. Suddenly the Farm is on a hunt for a threat that could shake the entire planet. From deep-cover penetration of hostile Red China to an emergency rescue flight to save the International Space Station, the covert commandos are pushed to the limit, especially when they have to prevent a suicide crash of a knockoff shuttle into New York City--a collision that would turn the city into a smoking crater.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
by Sam GreenleeThis book is both a satire of the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 60s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy.
Sport and the Military: The British Armed Forces, 1880-1960
by Tony Mason Eliza RiediOn battleships, behind the trenches of the Western Front and in the midst of the Desert War, British servicemen and women have played sport in the least promising circumstances. When 400 soldiers were asked in Burma in 1946 what they liked about the Army, 108 put sport in first place - well ahead of comradeship and leave - and this book explores the fascinating history of organised sport in the life of officers and other ranks of all three British services from 1880-1960. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this book examines how organised sport developed in the Victorian army and navy, became the focus of criticism for Edwardian army reformers, and was officially adopted during the Great War to boost morale and esprit de corps. It shows how service sport adapted to the influx of professional sportsmen, especially footballers, during the Second World War and the National Service years.
Spy in the Sky
by Kathleen KarrA fascinating story about a little-known episode of the Civil War, this chapter book explores the story of Thaddeus Lowe and his plan to launch the Balloon Corps for President Lincoln. Illustrated. with games and activities.
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