Although Capa's Falling Soldier image from the Spanish Civil War has been definitively proven to be a staged propaganda fake, no one has applied a similarly critical eye to his later work. This book is the first effort to establish the facts behind the fables surrounding his D-Day adventures and the images he produced during that period. This book examines the fictionalized account Robert Capa penned in his pseudo biography Slightly Out of Focus. Written in the hopes of it becoming a movie, Capa included many elements which were exaggerated or simply not true, while omitting many relevant events. As he himself said in the dust jacket for that book: "Writing the truth being obviously so difficult, I have in the interests of it allowed myself to go sometimes slightly beyond and slightly this side of it. All events and persons in the book are accidental and have something to do with the truth." This new account carefully details the actual events surrounding Capa's D-Day adventures, using official SHAEF files, still and motion picture images taken by other cameramen who were near or with Capa, and a variety of accounts of witnesses. It examines several aspects of Capa's narrative and reveals the truth behind the fiction: he claimed that he landed in the First Wave with Company E, in reality he landed almost two hours later in Wave 13 with the regimental commander. Analysis reveals how many of his images were presented in a false context and as a result have been misinterpreted for decades. Building on Allan Colleman and his team's proof that the bulk of Capa D-Day photos could not possibly have been ruined in a darkroom accident, this gripping expose details the effects the FORTITUDE deception plans had on censorship, and how the censorship system would have retained the images popularly thought to have been lost.
Visual Friendlies, Tally Target: Surges continues the story of the role of forward air controllers (JTACs) and Close Air Support (CAS), picking up in 2006 and continuing through 2013. This volume covers the evolution of Joint Fires through the colloquial "second phase" of the War on Terror--the "surges" of Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2010-2011. The narrative is supported by the individual accounts of US Air Force, Army, Marine close air support specialists, as well as UK, Canadian, Danish and German coalition forward air controllers. Vol. II recounts the evolution of air power during the rising counterinsurgencies, as well as the psychology and mental makeup of these exclusive tribes. Notable accounts include the recovery mission of EXTORTION17, the first withdrawal from Iraq, previously unreported missions against insurgent strongholds, and multiple instances where the situational awareness and decision-making of forward air controllers prevented civilian casualties and fratricide.The story carries with it a continuation of the strategic lessons learned from America's longest war: where tactical successes and innovation failed to achieve a strategic outcome amidst ambiguous grand strategy, flawed policy and a failure to understand the new battlefields of the 21st century, as recounted by the men whose air power tribes went into the breach again and again. Volume II concludes as the "War on Terror" nominally ended in 2013, as the final phase of the post-9/11 wars transitioned to the "Train, Advise, and Assist" missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I was a guest of Adolf!"This was how Ernest Focht responded when asked about his wartime experience.Ernest Virgil Focht was born and brought up in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. He was drafted into the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in April 1941 and assigned to the 105th Infantry Battalion (Anti-Tank). After training he participated in the Carolina Maneuvers. The National Guard unit was redesignated as the 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion, being deployed to North Africa in January 1943.Ernie was captured in his first action in February 1943, remaining a prisoner of war until May 1945 when the Russian Army liberated his camp. During these 27 months he was held in five different POW camps, and was forced to march between camps in the depths of the 1944-45 winter. Using his wartime diaries and letters home, this book offers an insight into the 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion, and the experiences of prisoners of war.
Despite the prevailing view that the Marine Corps bore the brunt of the fighting in the Pacific War, the men of the US Army played a decisive role in the conflict. Indeed, GIs did most of the war's heavy lifting on the ground by conducting more amphibious assaults and prosecuting more operations than the Marines. By the end of the war there were 1.77 million U.S. Army troops in the Pacific and Asia, compared to the USMC's 484,000. The Pacific was as much the Army's war as the fighting in the European theater. The U.S. Army deployed twenty combat divisions to fight in the Pacific, including famous ones such as the 1st Cavalry Division and the 25th "Tropic Lightning" Division. Most were infantry, and included Regular, National Guard and draftee divisions. The divisions were deployed and maneuvered by theater, field army, and corps commanders around the Pacific's geostrategic chessboard to battle and defeat the Japanese. The Army may have wanted its divisions to be interchangeable and uniform, but this proved impossible. Their quality and performance depended upon their resources, the geography and terrain on which they fought, experience, leadership, and organizational culture. Historians, though, have made little effort to examine their records in a systematic way before now. In addition, almost all of the Army's divisions, some after admittedly rocky starts, became units capable of winning their engagements. Indeed, not a single Army division fighting the Japanese during the American counteroffensive across the Pacific was completely destroyed in combat. Whatever problems these divisions faced tended to grow out of the society that produced them, not fundamental flaws in Army doctrine. This is a tribute to the Army as a whole and to the twenty divisions that the Army deployed against the Japanese. This new history uses a narrative approach to describe and analyze each division's history, characteristics, and battles during the conflict, concluding with an assessment of their battlefield records, taking into account the innumerable factors affecting their combat performance.
During the Iraq War, the U.S. Army found itself in a very similar situation to the 1st Air Mobile Cavalry Division during the Vietnam Conflict--facing an enemy who knew the terrain and was determined to fight for their cause. The difference between the two conflicts is that American forces could not take full advantage of armor superiority in Vietnam. For the infantry to truly be effective and dominant, they need to have the backing of tanks, enabling them to continue dismounted operations overwatched by tanks.The history and battle techniques of the army's armored core have been discussed in other military conflicts in depth, but this will be the first full discussion of the role and usefulness of the tanks in Iraq, analyzing battles that were completely shaped or significantly aided due to the presence and efficiency of armor units. These units were well-trained and well-equipped and provided armored support and devastating firepower that the enemy could not easily counter. They were such a powerful force that the insurgents in Iraq had to completely change their tactics to account for the Abrams that they were facing. This work will attempt to illuminate the importance of the tanks themselves as well as the tankers who fought inside of them and show how valuable they were to the army and Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003-2009.
"The Devil's Playground" was anything south of the second canal to the men of Charlie Company's 2nd Platoon--Two Charlie--during their 2009-2010 deployment to the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. The valley had been a notorious hot spot throughout history, with the Russians unable to maintain a foothold in the 80s and Coalition forces now facing the same problem during Operation Enduring Freedom. The Two Charlie paratroopers deployed as part of the 2-508th PIR, Two Fury, of the 82nd Airborne Division, but always seemed to be on their own. They started their deployment attached to Canadian forces in Panjwai but were shortly moved into the Arghandab with one of the battalion's biggest Areas of Operation. They inherited a bare bones outpost that they worked hard to turn into the defendable position known as COP Tynes, while patrolling the grape fields and orchards of the valley. Little did they know that when the leaves returned to the valley in the spring, so too would the fighting.As the fighting picked up in the valley, the men of Two Charlie continued to sustain casualties as they fought day in and day out. There was never a dull moment in the Arghandab, and the fact that Two Charlie had to patrol, act as a quick reaction force, and secure their outpost on their own ensured that they never stopped. The men were constantly brought to their breaking point as their numbers dwindled and the fighting intensified. The men all started to believe that they weren't going to make it out of the valley alive. The one rule of the valley would be proved time and time again: in the end, the valley always wins. This book shares the story of the men of Two Charlie and their fight for survival in the Arghandab River Valley, the Devil's Playground.
At the beginning of 1943, the German armed forces were in crisis on the southern front in Russia. The Soviets had launched a series of offensives from November 1942 that pushed the Germans back hundreds of kilometers. The Germans had no more significant reserves available, and enormous breaches had opened between defensive lines. In early January 1943, the Soviets attacked again, with the aim of reconquering the industrial city of Kharkov and destroying the remaining German and Axis troops in southern Ukraine, including the 4. Panzerarmee, 1. Panzerarmee, Armeeabteilung Hollidt and Armeeabteilung Fretter‐Pico.After the encirclement of 6. Armee at Stalingrad and the destruction of the Axis forces there, the loss of these four armies would certainly have led to German defeat on the Eastern Front. Believing victory was near, Stalin and his generals decided to launch their new offensives even before the garrison of Stalingrad surrendered. The main effort fell on Army Group Don, newly formed and with little forces available. Facing a massive offensive, Commander Erich von Manstein was ordered to hold the city at any cost, risking the destruction of two divisions of the Waffen‐SS and the "Grossdeutschland" army division. SS Panzer Corps commander Paul Hausser disobeyed Hitler's order and ordered the retreat from Kharkov, saving the two SS divisions. This meant that Manstein had at his disposal forces needed to launch his counteroffensive.The subsequent battles for Kharkov saw the three divisions of the Waffen‐SS--Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Das Reich and Totenkopf-- fighting together for the first time. In the first phase of the offensive, the SS Das Reich and Totenkopf marched 100 kilometers south of Kharkov, blocking the Soviet army from capturing the bridges over the Dnieper River, while the Leibstandarte successfully defended the corps supply base in Krasnograd. After protecting the bridges over the Dnepr, the Das Reich and Totenkopf units headed north and regained control of the vital railway network south of Kharkov. The Soviet 3rd Tank Army was forced to abandon its attack against Krasnograd to regroup south of Kharkov and protect the city from Hausser's divisions. At that point the Leibstandarte joined the other divisions of the corps SS to eliminate Soviet forces and recapture Kharkov. With its reconquest, Southern Ukraine returned firmly under German control.This is a fully illustrated account of the decisive victory attained by the SS Panzer Corps divisions at a time of serious crisis for the Axis forces.
Before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, there were only nineteen men who played in the Major Leagues of baseball and in the NFL in the same season. Only one, Walter French, played for a World Series winner and an NFL Championship team. Little remembered today, his status as a two-sport star had him constantly in the news.
This book provides a comprehensive look at the air war over Europe during the climactic year of World War II. The centerpiece is a mission-by-mission diary of 1st Lieutenant Richard R. Ayesh, a bombardier who flew with the 100th Bombardment Group, 13th Combat Wing of the 8th Air Force--the legendary "Bloody 100th."
This intimately researched work tells the story of the thousand-plus civilian contractors who came to Wake Island in 1941 to build an air station for the U.S. Navy. Author Gilbert charts the contractors' hard-won progress as they scramble to build the naval base as well as runways for U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 Flying Fortresses while war clouds gath
How conventional forces can adapt to fully address the problem of IEDs and IED-facilitated asymmetric warfare.
"The entry of daggers into the Forum" is an expression that identifies two precise historical moments: when two tribunes of the plebs--brothers Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Caius Sempronius Gracchus--were murdered in Rome in 133 and 122 BC amidst bloody riots. These deaths and subsequent events marked the rupture of the constitutional order in the Roman Republic and the beginning of a political crisis. Thus began a political process that would lead, over the span of three generations, to the end of the res publica, a transition of endless violence, ransacking, and destruction, including three bitter and bloody civil wars.Internal politics in Rome in this period was fueled by social conflict, the confrontation between two political alignments--the Optimates and the Populares--each headed by an eminent figure and was characterized by sectarianism and (factional) intolerance. It was characterized by speeches delivered in the Senate, in the streets, and in the courts with solemnity and intensity but equally by the daggers that flashed in the hands of conspirators and assassins; by street riots, with thousands of victims; by real or alleged coups d'état, with ferocious mass repressions; by summary executions; by victims abandoned to the fury of the mob; of widespread civil wars whose battles intertwined with those against enemies abroad; manhunts, horrendous crimes; the system of legalized killings that aimed at the annihilation of political opponents known as proscriptions; corruption; and brutal and mass killings.This book discusses this tumultuous period in Rome between 133 and 78 BC, covering the plots of the Senate of Rome against the Gracchi and their violent ends, the mysterious death of Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, destroyer of Carthage and of Numantia, the ferocious lynching of Lucius Apuleius Saturninus, the seditious tribune of the plebs, the civil war between Marius and Sulla, including the siege and capitulation of Rome and Marius' reign of terror, ending with the definitive victory and proscriptions of Sulla.
Barry Broman joined the CIA in 1971 straight out of the Marine Corps, choosing a career in intelligence largely because he wanted to spend his working life in Southeast Asia. Over the next thirty years, he had the privilege of working with brave men and women who were prepared to put their lives on the line in support of the free world during the Cold War, and he enjoyed the life of adventure he had been seeking since childhood.This book brings together tales from his career as a CIA case officer during the Cold War, giving fascinating insights into handling double agents, working in denied areas, assessing and recruiting Soviet targets, flying with Air America, acting to discredit Soviet agents with Moscow, and what happened when a case officer set a "scavenger hunt" around Bangkok for fellow spies--and at least one active target.A selection of stories told in engaging style proving that often the truth is more unbelievable than fiction.
By October 1943, the German 17th Army had been forced to retreat from the Kuban bridgehead across the Kerch Strait to Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the German forces in the southern Ukraine. In November 1943, they eventually cut off the land-based connection of 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus. Hitler prohibited a sea evacuation of 17th Army because he thought the Red Army could use the Crimean Peninsula to launch air attacks against Romanian oil refineries.In November 1943, the Russian launched a massive amphibious assault at two locations on the eastern coast of the Crimea, but its units were unable to prevent an Axis counterattack that collapsed the southern bridgehead. The Red Army held the bridgehead at Yenikale, from which they launched further offensive operations, culminating in a huge offensive in April 1944. Although the 17th Army bitterly contested every bit of ground, it was unable to stop the advance. Soviet forces reached Kerch on April 11, forcing the 17th Army to retreat towards Sevastopol. The remaining Axis forces in the Crimea were concentrating around the city by the end of the third week of April.The Germans intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, as the Russians had done between 1941 and 1942. However, the fortifications of the city had not been restored and the city fell on 9 May. From mid-April, Romanian and German ships undertook a huge and complex evacuation operation. The last phase of the evacuation, following the fall of Sevastopol, saw 37,000 troops transported under constant attacks from Soviet aircraft and shore artillery. Overall around 57,000 men were lost during the evacuation.Fully illustrated with rare and unpublished photos, this is a detailed account of the dogged attempt to retake the Crimea in 1943-44.
A fully illustrated account of the Vicksburg Campaign, including modern color photography and covering the river war, inland battles, seige operations, and more.By the end of March 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant was at a crossroads in his military career. His bold attempts in the late fall 1862 and winter of 1862/63 had all come up fall short of his objective: get his army on high ground north and east of Vicksburg and capture the last major obstacle on the Mississippi River.Grant had been stymied by the difficult region's swampy bayous as well as Confederate resistance at key locations that thwarted his advances and prolonged his army's miserable dispositions in the sickly camps of Louisiana bottomland. Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had performed well using his interior rail lines and intelligence networks to place blocking forces or obstructions that delayed or derailed Grant's movements.Realizing his career was on the line, Grant chose the riskiest operation he could have concocted. In a joint military operation, Grant marched two of his army corps down the roads and along the bayous of Louisiana, repairing them as they progressed, while Acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter led his ironclad gunboats with transports past the Confederate heavy artillery defending Vicksburg's riverfront. It was Grant's hope to get enough boats below the city to enable a crossing of the Mississippi River, a forced march into the state, and arriving at Vicksburg's doorsteps from the east-west approach. In doing this, Grant would severe his main line of logistics and supply, something his subordinate officers thought was a disastrous mistake. Grant would take the risk in a zero-sum game: he would capture Vicksburg or destroy himself and his army doing so.This Casemate Illustrated examines the movements of the Union and Confederate armies from March 1863 through July 1863, the joint-operational cooperation between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, the delayed and indecisive Confederate operations to stop the Federal initiative, and how the individual soldiers conducted the one of the greatest campaigns in American military history: to control the "The Father of Waters"--the Mississippi River.
A revealing look at how ordinary citizens were plucked from the hardscrabble 1930s and hurriedly turned into flyers--young men then pitted against each other in deadly machines miles above the ground in Europe. Ray Brim led the way for thousands of his compatriots in the type of "total war" in the skies that we will never see again . . .
It wasn't rockets or artillery that came through the skies one week during the war. It was the horrific force of nature that suddenly put both sides in awe. Sometimes wars are suspended and fighting stops for a while. A holiday that both sides recognize might do it, as happened in the Christmas truce during World War I. Weather might do it, too, a
A young pilot disappears on a routine mission, resulting in a rescue attempt on a remote and inhospitable island in the South Pacific.
Britain in 1940 was not unprepared nor alone--this new history assesses the British armed forces and secret civilian organisations that stood ready to fight off a German invasion.
The true story of German secret agents engaged in a campaign of subversion and terror in the United States before and during World War I.
A fully illustrated account of the final battle for Berlin.
A multi-author exploration of leadership and strategy through the lens of classic science fiction.
This new book puts the reader at the very heart of this "hell on wheels" and presents all of the original information required to perform this most dangerous of wartime battlefield roles. From training manuals and war office memorandums to combat reports and first-hand accounts, The Tank Commander Pocket Manual sits you in the turret position of co
An insider's account of how, contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Army developed comprehensive plans for the initial invasion of Iraq and for subsequent stages of the conflict--plans that were received with little interest by Washington.
How Forward Air Controllers and Close Air Support fundamentally changed the American war machine in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
An intimate account of the Pacific War, through the experiences of one infantry company.
New narratives on the lived experience of the Revolutionary War through five case studies exploring the spectrum of loyalist experiences in Revolutionary Philadelphia.
Raising Philadelphia tells the dramatic story of Philadelphia's rise to become the cultural heart of Colonial America and the lives of the people transforming the city in their image.
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