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Victory 1945: Western Allied Troops in Northwest Europe
by Peter Dennis Gordon L. RottmanEven when Western Allied troops gained a foothold in Normandy, World War II in Europe was far from over. The route to Germany's interior and the Nazis final surrender was long, arduous and blood-stained. The Wehrmacht's stubborn resistance and the shocking losses suffered by US, British, Canadian and 'Free European' troops meant that the Allies had to adapt and refine small-unit tactics, battle-drills, and their use of weapons and munitions. The troops who finally met up with the Red Army in Germany were a very different fighting force to the one that struggled up the beaches of northern France. This book offers a comprehensive guide to the late-war Allied troops, exploring their uniforms, equipment, organization and tactics. Detailed description and accurate color pictures illustrate the means by which the Allied troops on the ground evolved to the point of winning the war on the Western Front.
Victory Against Japan 1944-1945: (WW2 #12) (The Ladybird Expert Series #18)
by James HollandBOOK 12 OF THE LADYBIRD EXPERT HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, FROM AWARD-WINNING HISTORIAN JAMES HOLLANDFeaturing stunning illustrations from Keith Burns, bringing the story to life in vivid detailWhy did Japan decide to attack at Pearl Harbour?What was the Japanese vision of a Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere?How did the American strategy turn the tide against Japanese offensives?Uncover the complexities of the brutal war against Japan.From the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, Oahu, to the Philippines Campaign, the Allies were finally able to turn the tide against the onslaught of Japanese forces.Ending in Japanese surrender after the devastating atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the war in Japan was eventually won, but at the cost of civilian lives.THE WAR THAT LED TO TWO ATOMIC BOMBINGSWritten by historian, author and broadcaster James Holland, Victory Against Japan is an essential introduction to the tactics that finally brought an end to the Second World War.__________Discover the full Ladybird Expert WW2 series:BlitzkriegThe Battle of BritainBattle of the AtlanticThe Desert WarThe Eastern FrontThe Pacific WarThe Bomber WarThe War in ItalyThe Battle for NormandyThe War in BurmaVictory in EuropeVictory Against Japan
Victory At Midway
by Lt.-Cmdr. Griffith Baily CoaleThe fascinating account of a war artist at work in the U.S. Navy Pacific command after the "Day of Infamy" attack on Pearl Harbor."IN THE autumn of 1942, three young Combat Artists were commissioned to add their records in drawings and paintings of the Navy's tremendous effort in this war. I had been on active duty for just a year, with two oversea duties that took me from Iceland and the North Atlantic Patrol before Pearl Harbor, to Oahu and Midway last spring and summer. Therefore I could share their enthusiasms for their first sea duty as Naval artists, their burning desire to give the best they had to the Navy, and their gratitude to our commanding officer, Captain Leland P. Lovette, Director of Public Relations, for ordering them overseas. At this writing all three are still away. Lieutenant (j.g.) Dwight Shepler is in the Solomon area, where he has seen and depicted much hot action, as it took place close about the ships in which he was serving. Lieutenant (j.g.) William Draper is in the Aleutian area, and Ensign Mitchell Jamieson is in European waters.The Battle of Midway covered a vast area and no one saw it all. I asked permission to go to Midway on June 2nd, and my orders to fly there were given me on June 6th--"Stand by on a half hour's notice." The word came by telephone that evening to leave by a bomber at 6.30 A.M. the next morning, June 7th. Sketching all day and fascinated in the evening by listening to first hand experiences from many different sectors of the battle, the five days on Midway flew by with the speed of a skimming sea bird."--Author's Foreword]
Victory City: A History of New York and New Yorkers during World War II
by John StrausbaughFrom John Strausbaugh, author of City of Sedition and The Village, comes the definitive history of Gotham during the World War II era. New York City during World War II wasn't just a place of servicemen, politicians, heroes, G.I. Joes and Rosie the Riveters, but also of quislings and saboteurs; of Nazi, Fascist, and Communist sympathizers; of war protesters and conscientious objectors; of gangsters and hookers and profiteers; of latchkey kids and bobby-soxers, poets and painters, atomic scientists and atomic spies.While the war launched and leveled nations, spurred economic growth, and saw the rise and fall of global Fascism, New York City would eventually emerge as the new capital of the world. From the Gilded Age to VJ-Day, an array of fascinating New Yorkers rose to fame, from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Langston Hughes to Joe Louis, to Robert Moses and Joe DiMaggio. In VICTORY CITY, John Strausbaugh returns to tell the story of New York City's war years with the same richness, depth, and nuance he brought to his previous books, City of Sedition and The Village, providing readers with a groundbreaking new look into the greatest city on earth during the most transformative -- and costliest -- war in human history.
Victory Fighters: Winning the Battle for Supremacy in the Skies Over Western Europe, 1941–1945
by Stephen DarlowA collection of eyewitness accounts of the struggle that raged in the skies over occupied Europe after the Battle of Britain during World War II. Expertly selected and interwoven by Stephen Darlow, Victory Fighters centers on the stories of six pilots and one navigator, the telling of which covers every aspect of this battle over land and sea. The author describes and analyzes the relevant command decisions from the highest level down, and against this background the men give their accounts from the start of their flying careers through to the preparations for operation Overlord, the invasion itself, the liberation of France, the crossing of the Rhine, to the end of the war in Europe on VE-Day. Through their eyes, the reader is introduced to a series of different tasks and situations, a multitude of aircraft types—Sunderlands, Mustangs, Tempests, Typhoons, Spitfires, Whirlwinds, Mosquitoes—and a great many squadrons. Having conducted numerous interviews and undertaken diligent research of documents, diaries and correspondence, the author has produced a fitting testament to these men and the countless others they represent.
Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes: The Regulation of Female Sexuality during World War II
by Marilyn E HegartyA study of how the U.S. government&’s World War II fight against venereal disease transformed into a war against women.Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes offers a counter-narrative to the story of Rosie the Riveter, the icon of female patriotism during World War II. With her fist defiantly raised and her shirtsleeves rolled up, Rosie was an asexual warrior on the homefront. But thousands of women supported the war effort not by working in heavy war industries, but by providing morale-boosting services to soldiers, ranging from dances at officers&’ clubs to more blatant forms of sexual services, such as prostitution. While the de-sexualized Rosie was celebrated, women who used their sexuality—either intentionally or inadvertently—to serve their country encountered a contradictory morals campaign launched by government and social agencies, which shunned female sexuality while valorizing masculine sexuality. This double-standard was accurately summed up by a government official who dubbed these women &“patriotutes&”: part patriot, part prostitute. Marilyn E. Hegarty explores the dual discourse on female sexual mobilization that emerged during the war, in which agencies of the state both required and feared women&’s support for, and participation in, wartime services. The equation of female desire with deviance simultaneously over-sexualized and desexualized many women, who nonetheless made choices that not only challenged gender ideology but defended their right to remain in public spaces.
Victory Has a Thousand Fathers: Detailed Counterinsurgency Case Studies
by Christopher Paul Colin P. Clarke Beth GrillA collection of the 30 most recent resolved insurgencies, covering the period 1978 to 2008, along with a bank of 76 factors that helped or hindered the COIN force in each case and in each phase of each case, supplements an analysis of historical and contemporary insurgencies, providing valuable lessons for U.S. engagement in and support for COIN operations.
Victory In The Pacific
by Albert MarrinCovers events from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor through the battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands, Savo Island, the Doolittle raid on Tokyo, Corregidor Island, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima , and Okinawa. In each case, readers see the battles through the eyes of the men who were there, landing on the beaches, running raids in PT boats, dodging kamikaze bombers, and flying missions over Japan. In an easily accessible style, Marrin relates not only the important details of these conquests but also explains the military strategies of both the Allied forces and the Japanese. Readers get an overarching view of the war that helps to bring understanding especially as American forces drew increasingly closer to Japan and the Japanese grew ever more determined to fight to the end. Marrin helps readers to understand the Japanese mindset that made surrender impossible and ultimately led to the decision to drop the atomic bomb in the interests of saving millions of lives. For the young adult reader, or even an adult unfamiliar with this period of WWII history, this book provides a sobering but inspiring look of the men and women, the nations and ideologies, that battled over half a century ago in the Pacific theater. Illustrated with diagrams, maps and photographs.
Victory Must Be Ours: Germany in the Great War, 1914–1918
by Laurence V. MoyerA history of Germany in World War I as told by the soldiers who fought the battles and the civilians grappling with a decline in quality of life. Europe went to war in 1914 to the sound of brass bands and cheering crowds; in every country, civilians and soldiers alike believed that the war would be won by Christmas time. By the time Christmas arrived, however, it became clear that this, indeed, would be a much longer war. In the months and years which followed, combatants perused the war with boundless intensity to emerge victorious. This was partially true of Germany where publicists pictured it as a life-and-death struggle for the survival of a nation surrounded by hostile enemies. No nation involved in the conflict so completely mobilised its population, its resources, its energies into such a single-minded pursuit of the war. This unusual and incisive account chronicles Germany in World War 1 from the viewpoint of the soldiers who fought the battles and civilians who endured the ever-increasing trauma of escalating casualties, widespread shortages, and declining conditions of living. It relates how Germany attempted to cope with a massive blockade, the scope of which had not been seen since the days of Napoleon, thus forcing German authorities to adopt a series of sometimes brutal measures, all of which rested on the underlying premise that victory, a clear-cut victory, could be the only acceptable option.Victory Must Be Ours explores the Germany which in 1914 took a prestigious leap into darkness. It explores the ingredients which make the Great War perhaps the single most fateful event in the Twentieth Century, setting in motion the bloodiest conflict of all time, World War II.Praise for Victory Must Be Ours &“A stark, well-documented study of the hardships suffered by German civilians during WWI.&” —Publishers Weekly &“Moyer makes sophisticated use of published and archival sources in the best English–language survey to date German participation in World War I. . . . He presents a vivid picture of a society strained beyond its limits by the unexpected demands of total war. . . . Civilians saw the quality of their lives decline precipitously in every area—a process that Moyer, a researcher and former history professor, describes particularly well.&” —Library Journal &“Moyer draws a convincing connection between that bitterness and the appeal of extremist movements during the Weimar period. A specialist in German history, he has full command of the facts and relates his account with analytical skill and compassion.&” —Booklist
Victory Point
by Ed DarackIn late June 2005, media sources recounted the tragic story of nineteen U.S. special operations personnel who died at the hands of insurgent / terrorist leader Ahmad Shah- and the lone survivor of Shah's ambush-deep in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. The harrowing events of Operation Red Wings marked an important-yet widely misreported-chapter in the Global War on Terror, the full details of which the public burned to learn. Victory Point reveals the complete, as-yet untold, story of Operation Red Wings (often mis-referenced as "Operation Redwing"), and the follow-on mission, Operation Whalers. Together, these two U.S. Marine Corps operations (that in the case of Red Wings utilized Navy SEALs for its opening phase) unfurl not as a mission gone terribly wrong, but of a complex and difficult campaign that ultimately saw the demise of Ahmad Shan and his small army of barbarous fighters. Due to the valor, courage, and commitment of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment in the summer of 2005, Afghanistan was able to hold free elections that Fall. Here is the inspiring true account of heroism, duty, and brotherhood between Marines fighting the War on Terror.
Victory Road (The Texas Gun Club #2)
by Commander Mark BowlinFor these World War II soldiers, Highway 6 is the road to Rome—and to victory…Fall, 1943: The Allied advance up the Italian peninsula has ground to a halt and the prospect of taking Rome before Christmas seems more distant than ever. In their first action since Salerno, First Lieutenant Sam Taft and the soldiers of Able Company are sent to wrest a lonely stretch of road from the German defenders. The Italians call it Highway 6, but the boys of the Texas Gun Club know it as Victory Road. As Sam slugs it out in the valley, somewhere beyond the highway high up in the mountains Captain Perkin Berger, Sam&’s cousin, struggles against harsh elements and murderous German intelligence agents in his quest to be the first American into San Pietro…
Victory Through Africa
by Samuel Dashiell HammettNoted author, and at the time U.P. correspondent, Samuel Dashiell Hammett, writes of his experiences in Algiers for a few months prior to and just after Pearl Harbor, following which he was expelled.Vivid descriptions of the city, its native quarter, the Kasbah, "Hotel Alettl" (the Nazi clearing house), its peoples, Arabs and Europeans and Jews and secret agents.Includes an interview with Weygand; an evaluation of the Vichy situation and Darian; a vindication of the U.S. politico-diplomatic negotiations, that famous straddle which enabled the Americans to take over as liberators.
Victory Undone: The Defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Its Resurrection as ISIS
by Malcolm Mcconnell Carter AndressHere is a dramatic, first-person account of how the United States won the war in Iraq, only to see the peace lost by an unengaged administration, with Iraqis terrorized and the new "caliph" of ISIS promising , "I'll see you in New York."Military contractor Carter Andress was the ultimate boots-on-the-ground "civilian" in Iraq. While reporters, aid workers, diplomats, and even U.S. soldiers were often cut off from the "ground truth" in Iraq by the blast walls protecting the Green Zone and our bases, Andress was in the thick of things: driving through insurgent-infested territory, negotiating with hostile tribes, and witnessing the transformation of Iraq from chaos and violence to a stable multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian democracy that needed only minimal American support to defend itself - support, however, that thanks to the Obama administration was not forthcoming.A page-turner of a story, but also an incredibly important account of what actually happened in the Iraq War and afterwards, Victory Undone is a book every American needs to read.
Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp: With the 272nd Volks-Grenadier Division from the Huertgen Forest to the Heart of the Reich
by Douglas E. Nash Sr.&“For both students of the German Army in World War II as well as those interested in the late 1944 campaign, this is a must-read&” (The NYMAS Review). As the Allies were approaching the German frontier at the beginning of September 1944, the German Armed Forces attempted to regain the strategic initiative. While the &“wonder weapons,&” such as the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 missile, and the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter, are widely recognized as being the most prominent of these initiatives upon which Germany pinned so much hope, the Volks-Grenadier Divisions (VGDs) are practically unknown. Often confused with the Volkssturm, the Home Guard militia, VGDs have suffered an undeserved reputation as second-rate formations filled with young boys and old men suited to serve only as cannon fodder. This groundbreaking book, now in a new edition, shows that VGDs were actually conceived as a new, elite corps loyal to the National Socialist Party composed of men from all branches of Hitler&’s Wehrmacht and equipped with the finest ground combat weapons available. Whether fighting from defensive positions or spearheading offensives such as the Battle of the Bulge, VGDs initially gave a good account of themselves in battle. Using previously unpublished unit records, Allied intelligence and interrogation reports, and, above all, interviews with survivors, the author has crafted an in-depth look at a late-war German infantry company, including many photographs from the veterans themselves. In this book we follow along with the men of the 272nd VGD&’s Fusilier Company from their first battles in the Hürtgen Forest to their final defeat in the Harz Mountains. Along the way, we learn the enormous potential of VGDs—and feel their soldiers&’ heartbreak at their failure.
Victory and Honor (Honor Bound #6)
by William E. Butterworth IV W.E.B. GriffinMay 1945: Just weeks after Hitler's suicide, Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the Office of Strategic Services are fighting several new and deadly battles. <P><P>The first is political--with every department from Treasury to War to the FBI grabbing for OSS covert agents and assets. The second is military--with the OSS having smuggled Germans into Argentina for years because of their knowledge of Soviet KGB agents in America's atomic bomb program. The third concerns what might be the next world war against Red Joe Stalin and his voracious ambitions. <P> To get an early advantage, Frade has been conducting a secret and daring operation against the Communists. But to do it undetected, he and his men must walk a perilously dark line. Because all it takes is one slip--and everyone becomes a casualty of war. .
Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap
by Cecil B. CurreyMany people do not understand why America lost the Viet Nam War. Author Cecil B. Currey makes one primary reason clear: North Viet Nam's Senior Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. Victory at Any Cost tells the full story of the man who fought three of the world's great powers—and beat them all.
Victory at Gallipoli, 1915: The German-Ottoman Alliance in the First World War
by Klaus Wolf&“The author delivers in fine detail, supported by excellent appendices and notes, the role of officers and men in the defense of the Dardanelles.&” —Michael McCarthy, Battlefield Guide The German contribution in a famous Turkish victory at Gallipoli has been overshadowed by the Mustafa Kemal legend. The commanding presence of German General Liman von Sanders in the operations is well known. But relatively little is known about the background of German military intervention in Ottoman affairs. Klaus Wolf fills this gap as a result of extensive research in the German records and the published literature. He examines the military assistance offered by the German Empire in the years preceding 1914 and the German involvement in ensuring that the Ottomans fought on the side of the Central Powers and that they made best use of the German military and naval missions. He highlights the fundamental reforms that were required after the battering the Turks received in various Balkan wars, particularly in the Turkish Army, and the challenges that faced the members of the German missions. When the allied invasion of Gallipoli was launched, German officers became a vital part of a robust Turkish defense—be it at sea or on land, at senior command level or commanding units of infantry and artillery. In due course German aviators were to be, in effect, founding fathers of the Turkish air arm; while junior ranks played an important part as, for example, machine gunners. This book is not only their missing memorial but a missing link in understanding the tragedy that was Gallipoli.&“A great addition to any Gallipoli library.&” —The Western Front Association
Victory at Gettysburg: An Excerpt from Gettysburg Heroes
by Glenn W. LaFantasieA collection of personal accounts from key figures in the battle of Gettysburg.The Civil War generation saw its world in ways startlingly different from our own. Glenn W. LaFantasie examines the lives and experiences of several key personalities who gained fame during the war. As a turning point in the war, Gettysburg had a different effect on each person. Victory at Gettysburg captures the human drama of the war and shows how this group of individuals endured or succumbed to the war and, willingly or unwillingly, influenced its outcome. At the same time, it shows how the war shaped the lives of these individuals, putting them through ordeals they never dreamed they would face or survive. The battle of Gettysburg is the thread that ties these Civil War lives together.“Glenn LaFantasie is one of the finest writers in the field of Civil War history. His prose is accessible, pleasurable to read, and always insightful and provocative . . . this book should excite a lot of interest.” —Joan Waugh, editor of The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture
Victory at Poitiers: The Black Prince and the Medieval Art of War (Campaign Chronicles Ser.)
by Christian Teutsch&“Evokes the blood and mud and terror of combat . . . A good primer of the Battle of Poitiers . . . with prose that is by turns professional and passionate.&” —De Re Militari On September 13, 1356, near Poitiers in western France, the small English army of Edward the Black Prince crushed the forces of the French King Jean II in one of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years&’ War. Over the centuries, the story of this against-the-odds English victory has, along with Crcy and Agincourt, become part of the legend of medieval warfare. And yet in recent times this classic battle has received less attention than the other celebrated battles of the period. The time is ripe for a reassessment, and this is the aim of Christian Teutsch&’s thought-provoking new account. &“Teutsch describes in vivid detail the Black Prince&’s experiences that led to his horse charge across the countryside of southwest France, and the critical actions of Romorantin and Chatellerault that made Poitiers possible. His narrative culminates with the prince&’s daring ride to draw the French king Jean into battle and the drama of the combat itself. Combined with a selection of over 15 battlefield maps showing the orders of battle, this informative and highly readable account is a compulsive purchase for all with an interest in medieval history.&” —The Lance and Longbow Society
Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II
by Paul KennedyA sweeping, lavishly illustrated one-volume history of the rise of American naval power during World War II &“Engrossing. . . . Kennedy convincingly shows that World War II was won, ultimately, by superior American industrial capacity.&”—Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal &“A brilliant and gripping book by a master historian working at the top of his powers.&”—Fredrik Logevall, Harvard University In this engaging narrative, brought to life by marine artist Ian Marshall&’s beautiful full‑color paintings, historian Paul Kennedy grapples with the rise and fall of the Great Powers during World War II. Tracking the movements of the six major navies of the Second World War—the allied navies of Britain, France, and the United States and the Axis navies of Germany, Italy, and Japan—Kennedy tells a story of naval battles, maritime campaigns, convoys, amphibious landings, and strikes from the sea. From the elimination of the Italian, German, and Japanese fleets and almost all of the French fleet, to the end of the era of the big‑gunned surface vessel, the advent of the atomic bomb, and the rise of an American economic and military power larger than anything the world had ever seen, Kennedy shows how the strategic landscape for naval affairs was completely altered between 1936 and 1946.
Victory at Vimy: Canada Comes of Age, April 9-12, 1917
by Ted BarrisAt the height of the First World War, on Easter Monday April 9, 1917, in early morning sleet, sixteen battalions of the Canadian Corps rose along a six-kilometre line of trenches in northern France against the occupying Germans. All four Canadian divisions advanced in a line behind a well-rehearsed creeping barrage of artillery fire. By nightfall, the Germans had suffered a major setback. The Ridge, which other Allied troops had assaulted previously and failed to take, was firmly in Canadian hands.The Canadian Corps had achieved perhaps the greatest lightning strike in Canadian military history. One Paris newspaper called it "Canada's Easter gift to France." Of the 40,000 Canadians who fought at Vimy, nearly 10,000 became casualties. Many of their names are engraved on the famous monument that now stands on the ridge to commemorate the battle. It was the first time Canadians had fought as a distinct national army, and in many ways, it was a coming of age for the nation. The achievement of the Canadians on those April days in 1917 has become one of our lasting myths. Based on first-hand accounts, including archival photographs and maps, it is the voices of the soldiers who experienced the battle that comprise the thrust of the book. Like "JUNO: Canadians at D-Day", Ted Barris paints a compelling and surprising human picture of what it was like to have stormed and taken Vimy Ridge.
Victory at Vimy: Canada Comes of Age, April 9-12, 1917
by Ted BarrisNational Bestseller At the height of the First World War, on Easter Monday April 9, 1917, in early morning sleet, sixteen battalions of the Canadian Corps rose along a six-kilometre line of trenches in northern France against the occupying Germans. All four Canadian divisions advanced in a line behind a well-rehearsed creeping barrage of artillery fire. By nightfall, the Germans had suffered a major setback. The Ridge, which other Allied troops had assaulted previously and failed to take, was firmly in Canadian hands. The Canadian Corps had achieved perhaps the greatest lightning strike in Canadian military history. One Paris newspaper called it "Canada’s Easter gift to France." Of the 40,000 Canadians who fought at Vimy, nearly 10,000 became casualties. Many of their names are engraved on the famous monument that now stands on the ridge to commemorate the battle. It was the first time Canadians had fought as a distinct national army, and in many ways, it was a coming of age for the nation. The achievement of the Canadians on those April days in 1917 has become one of our lasting myths. Based on first-hand accounts, including archival photographs and maps, it is the voices of the soldiers who experienced the battle that comprise the thrust of the book. Like JUNO: Canadians at D-Day, Ted Barris paints a compelling and surprising human picture of what it was like to have stormed and taken Vimy Ridge.
Victory at Yorktown: A Novel (George Washington Series #3)
by Newt Gingrich William R. ForstchenNew York Times bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen pen the triumphant conclusion to their George Washington series-a novel of leadership, brotherhood, loyalty, and the victory of the American Revolutionary cause.1781. After three years in a bitter stalemate, General Washington decides to embark on one of the most audacious moves in American military history. He will take nearly his entire army out of New Jersey and New York and force march it more than three hundred miles in complete secrecy. He must pray that the French navy is successful in blockading Chesapeake Bay, so that he can fall upon British General Cornwallis at Yorktown. It is a campaign laden with "Ifs" but the deadlock must be broken, otherwise the American spirit, after six long years of war, will crumble.A tour de force narrative of one of America's most important heroes, Victory at Yorktown vividly portrays Washington's unparalleled courage, determination, and patriotism as he leads his professional army, once a "rabble in arms," to the heat of the Battle of Yorktown to execute the Revolution's most decisive contest.
Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution
by Richard M. KetchumFrom "the finest historian of the American Revolution"(Douglas Brinkley) comes Richard M. Ketchum's Victory at Yorktown, the definitive account of the battle and unlikely triumph that led to American independence.In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, George Washington's army lay idle for want of supplies, food, and money. All hope seemed lost until a powerful French force landed at Newport in July. Then, under Washington's directives, Nathanael Greene began a series of hit-and-run operations against the British. The damage the guerrilla fighters inflicted would help drive the enemy to Yorktown, where Greene and Lafayette would trap them before Washington and Rochambeau, supported by the French fleet, arrived to deliver the coup de grâce. Richard M. Ketchum illuminates, for the first time, the strategies and heroic personalities--American and French--that led to the surprise victory, only the second major battle the Americans would win in almost seven horrific years. Relying on good fortune, daring, and sheer determination never to give up, American and French fighters--many of whom walked from Newport and New York to Virginia--brought about that rarest of military operations: a race against time and distance, on land and at sea. Ketchum brings to life the gripping and inspirational story of how the rebels defeated the world's finest army against all odds.
Victory for Hire: Private Security Companies' Impact on Military Effectiveness
by Molly DuniganPrivate security contractors (PSCs) have had a larger presence in Iraq and Afghanistan than US troops. This book assesses the impact of PSCs, as distinct from other private military forms, and analyzes the ramifications of the use of PSCs for both tactical and long-term strategic military effectiveness. The book begins with an overview of the types of private military and security companies, then frames the problem in terms of theories of the state, military effectiveness, the democratic advantage, and the structure-identity dichotomy in the social sciences. The rest of the book examines different cases of modern and historical privatized force deployment, such as PSCs deployed alongside the national military during Operation Iraqi Freedom, PSCs hired in place of national militaries in Croatia and Sierra Leone, and the American Revolution. The book concludes with policy and regulatory recommendations and ways to prevent abuses. Dunigan is affiliated with the International Security Policy Group at the RAND Corporation. Stanford Security Studies is an imprint of Stanford University Press. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)