The Fighting First tells the untold story of the 1st Infantry Division's part in the D-Day invasion of France at Normandy Using a variety of primary sources, official records, interviews, and unpublished memoirs by the veterans themselves, author Flint Whitlock has crafted a riveting, gut-wrenching, personal story of courage under fire. Operation Overlord - the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 - was arguably the most important battle of World War II, and Omaha Beach was the hottest spot in the entire operation. Leading the amphibious assault on the Easy Red and Fox Green sectors of Omaha Beach was the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division - The Big Red One - a tough, swaggering outfit with a fine battle record. The saga of the Big Red One, however, did not end with the storming of the beachhead. The author concludes with an account of the 1st in their fight across France, Belgium, and into Germany itself, playing pivotal roles in the bloody battles for Aachen, the Huertgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. young American soldiers performing their D-Day missions with spirit, humour, and determination.

The origins of Napoleon's world-beating army lay in that of the French Revolution. The re-organization of regiments and tactics to weld together the bones of the old professional Royal army - with the mass of enthusiastc but untrained Revolutionary manpower - produced a military machine which bafled the traditional armies that attempted to strangle the young Republic at birth. This book explains the actual procedures used to produce this result. Events are discussed from the fall of the Bastille, through the great battles on the Rhine and in the Low Countries, the vicious "counter-revolutionary" war of the Vendee in the west of France, to the failed landings in Wales and Ireland in 1797-98.

This lively and informative biography of General John Buford-the Union's most important cavalry officer-covers his entire military career, from his West Point days through his quartermaster duties, his field service on the frontier, and the Bleeding Kansas and Mormon campaigns, to his famous Civil War campaigns, including Brandy Station and Gettysburg. Acclaimed Civil War author Edward Longacre has combed family records, West Point cadet files, and the National Archives to produce what can safely be described as a classic of military biography.

How did Russia develop a modern national identity, and what role did the military play? Joshua Sanborn examines tsarist and Soviet armies of the early twentieth century to show how military conscription helped to bind citizens and soldiers into a modern political community. The experience of total war, he shows, provided the means by which this multiethnic and multiclass community was constructed and tested. Drafting the Russian Nation is the first archivally based study of the relationship between military conscription and nation-building in a European country. Stressing the importance of violence to national political consciousness, it shows how national identity was formed and maintained through the organized practice of violence. The cultural dimensions of the "military body" are explored as well, especially in relation to the nationalization of masculinity. The process of nation-building set in motion by military reformers culminated in World War I, when ethnically diverse conscripts fought together in total war to preserve their national territory. In the ensuing Civil War, the army's effort was directed mainly toward killing the political opposition within the "nation." While these complex conflicts enabled the Bolsheviks to rise to power, the massive violence of war even more fundamentally constituted national political life. Not all minorities were easily assimilated. The attempt to conscript natives of Central Asia for military service in 1916 proved disastrous, for example. Jews; also identified as non-nationals, were conscripted but suffered intense discrimination within the armed forces because they were deemed to be inherently unreliable and potentially disloyal. Drafting the Russian Nation is rich with insights into the relation of war to national life. Students of war and society in the twentieth century will find much of interest in this provocative study.

Never did so large a proportion of the American population leave home for an extended period and produce such a detailed record of its experiences in the form of correspondence, diaries, and other papers as during the Civil War. Based on research in more than 1,200 wartime letters and diaries by more than 400 Confederate officers and enlisted men, this book offers a compelling social history of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during its final year, from May 1864 to April 1865.

Organized in a chronological framework, the book uses the words of the soldiers themselves to provide a view of the army's experiences in camp, on the march, in combat, and under siege--from the battles in the Wilderness to the final retreat to Appomattox. It sheds new light on such questions as the state of morale in the army, the causes of desertion, ties between the army and the home front, the debate over arming black men in the Confederacy, and the causes of Confederate defeat. Remarkably rich and detailed, "Lee's Miserables" offers a fresh look at one of the most-studied Civil War armies.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Cossacks were Russia's unique and plentiful supply of irregular cavalry. They were employed as skirmishers, raiders and scouts, and their tactics of harassment and harrying caused great problems for Napoleon's Grand Armee as it retreated through Russia in 1812. This title shows how, although labelled as rapacious, lascivious, mercenary and ill-disciplined on the field by their detractors, they laid claim to being the finest light cavalry in Europe. This book also details the various tribes that made up the Cossack nation, the social structure of Cossack life, and how they were organised and employed in war.

As early as the 11th century, Italian warfare was developing along lines which were unique in medieval Europe. This fragmented, cosmopolitan region, increasingly rich from international trade, saw the rise of independent cities able to fund armies of urban militia, sometimes defying the traditional feudal aristocracy. Against this background regional powers - the Normans, the Papacy, the German Emperors, the Angevins and Aragonese - manoeuvred for advantage. This engrossing account of the armies of northern and southern Italy - their organisation, command structure, strategy, tactics and fortifications - is illustrated with rare manuscript images, diagrams of fortifications, and eight striking colour plates showing armour and weapons of all types.

When "citizen-soldier" Alvin Coe Voris wrote his first letter to his beloved wife, Lydia, in 1861, he embarked on a correspondence that would span the duration of the Civil War. A former Ohio legislator, Voris filled his letters with keen insights into the daily life of soldiers, army politics, and such issues as the morality of combat and the evils of slavery. Often heartwrenching and invariably gripping, the 428 letters collected in this volume form an unbroken and unique Civil War chronicle. Voris's personal merit and political influence earned him the rank of brevet major general of volunteers. Known among his men as "Old Promptly," he strongly emphasized the soldierly precepts of order and duty on the battlefield. As leader of the 67th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Voris fought in the First Battle of Kernstown, Stonewall Jackson's only defeat. Though wounded in the attack on Fort Wagner during the siege of Charleston, he served in northern Virginia until General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Some of Voris's most impassioned letters depict his firsthand observations of slavery's effects on the nation as he condemned the cruelty of slaveowners and agonized over the predicament of his fellow man. At one point, Voris led an African American brigade consisting of nearly 3,000 soldiers, and soon after their first combat he wrote Lydia to praise the men's valor and fighting spirit. Discharged from military command in 1865, he remained an active, dedicated supporter of equal rights for African Americans. Edited and annotated by Jerome Mushkat, this exceptionally complete collection of letters reveals not only the daily life of a Civil War soldier but also the ideals and aspirations of a man of conscience whom duty called to the battlefield.

Many types of cavalryman are established in the imagination of the British public, but the Ironside retains his place as symbolic of the one occasion when the army took an active role in British politics. One reason is that he represents a unique period when ordinary people displaced the established order to take political control into their own hands. In the 19th century a rash of historical publications, paintings and statues with a civil war theme reflected the political divisions of Victorian society and Royalist and Parliamentarian causes were argued over again, reflecting the subtext of contemporary political struggles. This book attempts to take a wider view of the Ironside as a warrior who evolved from the experiments of the 16th and early 17th centuries to combine firepower with the armoured cavalryman. It reflects his wider service in the Royalist as well as the Parliamentarian armies and beyond the civil wars.

Defiance against Chinese oppression has been a defining characteristic of Tibetan life for more than four decades, symbolized most visibly by the much revered Dalai Lama. But the story of Tibetan resistance weaves a far richer tapestry than anyone might have imagined.
Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison reveal how America's Central Intelligence Agency encouraged Tibet's revolt against China-and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. While the CIA's presence in Tibet has been alluded to in other works, the authors provide the first comprehensive, as well as most compelling account of this little known agency enterprise.

The CIA's Secret War in Tibet takes readers from training camps in the Colorado Rockies to the scene of clandestine operations in the Himalayas, chronicling the agency's help in securing the Dalai Lama's safe passage to India and subsequent initiation of one of the most remote covert campaigns of the Cold War. Establishing a rebel army in the northern Nepali kingdom of Mustang and a para-commando force in India designed to operate behind Chinese lines, Conboy and Morrison provide previously unreported details about secret missions undertaken in extraordinarily harsh conditions. Their book greatly expands on previous memoirs by CIA officials by putting virtually every major agency participant on record with details of clandestine operations. It also calls as witnesses the people who managed and fought in the program-including Tibetan and Nepalese agents, Indian intelligence officers, and even mission aircrews.

Conboy and Morrison take pains to tell the story from all perspectives, particularly that of the former Tibetan guerrillas, many of whom have gone on record here for the first time. The authors also tell how Tibet led America and India to become secret partners over the course of several presidential administrations and cite dozens of Indian and Tibetan intelligence documents directly related to these covert operations. Ultimately, they are persuasive that the Himalayan operations were far more successful as a proving ground for CIA agents who were later reassigned to southeast Asia than as a staging ground for armed rebellion.

As the movement for Tibetan liberation continues to attract international support, Tibet's status remains a contentious issue in both Washington and Beijing. This book takes readers inside a covert war fought with Tibetan blood and U. S. sponsorship and allows us to better understand the true nature of that controversy.