Major John L. Plaster, a three-tour veteran of Vietnam tells the story of the most highly classified United States covert operatives to serve in the war: The Studies and Observations Group, code-named SOG. Comprised of volunteers from such elite military units as the Army's Green Berets, the USAF Air Commandos, and Navy SEALs, SOG agents answered directly to the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs, with some missions requiring approval from the White House. Now for the first time, the dangerous assignments of this top-secret unit can at last be revealed

"This terrifying, remarkable work examines the attitudes, perceptions, and behavior of U.S. fighting men in the Pacific theater during World War II. Imaginatively drawing on letters, diaries, memoirs, military reports, and contemporary psychological assessments, Schrijvers reveals the social, historical, and emotional roots of the peculiarly frenzied and merciless war...this temperate study of murderous fury is among the most unsettling books I've read in years."
--"The Atlantic Monthly"

"One of the most remarkable books I have ever come across. A significant and fascinating contribution to the field. The Crash of Ruin should appeal to a large audience of readers interested in World War II history."
"--Edward M. Coffman, Author of The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I"

"The Crash of Ruin offers the reader both intellectual and emotional rewards. . . . Its narrative power makes it a wonderful read."
"--Susan M. Hartmann, The Ohio State University"

"A brilliant contribution to intercultural studies. It imaginatively combines the anew' military history with an older American Studies research and writing technique. Not only will the book attract a wide range of readers, it should also stimulate scholars to adopt this approach to many other topics in cultural studies."

"--William R. Childs, Author of Trucking and the Public Interest"

In the ruined Europe of World War II, American soldiers on the front lines had no eye for breathtaking vistas or romantic settings. The brutality of battle profoundly darkened their perceptions of the Old World. As the only means of international travel for the masses, the military exposedmillions of Americans to a Europe in swift, catastrophic decline.

Drawing on soldiers' diaries, letters, poems, and songs, Peter Schrijvers offers a compelling account of the experiences of U.S. combat ground forces: their struggles with the European terrain and seasons, their confrontations with soldiers, and their often startling encounters with civilians. Schrijvers relays how the GIs became so desensitized and dehumanized that the sight of dead animals often evoked more compassion than the sight of enemy dead.

The Crash of Ruin concludes with a dramatic and moving account of the final Allied offensive into German-held territory and the soldiers' bearing witness to the ultimate symbol of Europe's descent into ruin--the death camps of the Holocaust.

The harrowing experiences of the GIs convinced them that Europe's collapse was not only the result of the war, but also the Old World's deep-seated political cynicism, economic stagnation, and cultural decadence. The soldiers came to believe that the plague of war formed an inseparable part of the Old World's decline and fall.

The first major study of the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of African soldiers who served with the British army during the Second World War. During the Second World War over half-a-million African troops served with the British Army as combatants and non-combatants in campaigns in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Italy and Burma - the largest single movement of African men overseas since the slave trade. This account, based mainly on oral evidence and soldiers' letters, tells the story of the African experience of the war. It is a 'history from below' that describes how men were recruited for a war about which most knew very little. Army life exposed them to a range of new and startling experiences: new foods and forms of discipline, uniforms, machines and rifles, notions of industrial time, travel overseas, new languages and cultures, numeracy and literacy. What impact did service in the army have on African men and their families? What new skills did soldiers acquire and to what purposes were they put on their return? What was the social impact of overseas travel, and how did the broad umbrella of army welfare services change soldiers' expectations of civilian life? And what role if any did ex-servicemen play in post-war nationalist politics? In this book African soldiers describe in their own words what it was like to undergo army training, to travel on a vast ocean, to experience battle, and their hopes and disappointments on demobilisation. DAVID KILLINGRAY is Professor Emeritus of History, Goldsmiths, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

Primus in armis, 'first in arms', is the motto of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, Britain's senior Regiment of volunteer cavalry raised in 1794 against the threat of French invasion. The Wiltshire Yeomanry has served for over 200 years and fought in South Africa, the First and Second World Wars and more recently as individuals in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the places where the Regiment fought in the Second War will be familiar to modern readers including Aleppo, Palmyra, Baghdad, and more bizarrely, meeting the Russian army on friendly terms in Tehran. The battle of El Alamein in the western desert was possibly their finest hour. The author has accessed the extensive Regimental archives and interviewed many families of veterans to obtain a glimpse into the personalities of these soldiers. A wealth of unseen material from around the world has surfaced including stories concerning the aristocracy of the inter-war years and the previously forgotten service of the Regiment's most famous officer. This first, illustrated history of 'The Royal Wilts' will appeal to anyone with an interest in the British Army.

The corporate and urban jungles of late-twentieth-century America were far from those of Guadalcanal that provided a sort of coming of age for Whyte. Following Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia, Whyte reported to the First Marine Division at New River, North Carolina, in 1942.

While leaders in Washington discussed Pacific War strategy, word arrived that the Japanese had begun construction of an airfield near Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. Fearing establishment of the base might presage a thrust southeastward that would sever the line of communications between the United States and Australia, the Joint Chiefs of Staff authorized Operation Watchtower, the seizure of Guadalcanal and Tulagi by the First Marine Division.

On the last day of July, 1942, the First Division set sail for Guadalcanal. Whyte had only an inkling of what was in store for the Marines when they landed on the north coast of Guadalcanal seven days later. Planning for the campaign had been rudimentary at best. When the First Marines splashed ashore without opposition from the Japanese, they thought it would be easy to seize their first objective, Mount Austen. They soon learned the inadequacy of their maps when that objective proved to be several miles inland through eight-foot-tall kunai grass that trapped the heat and made even walking difficult.

What quickly developed was the first real test of land combat between the United States and Japan. The goal was to seize a partially constructed Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal before the Japanese could make it operational, an objective quickly achieved. Unfortunately, the capture of the airfield simply marked the beginning of what would develop into theMarines' longest campaign in World War II.

The battle for control of Guadalcanal and what Americans learned from it forms the heart of William H. Whyte's memoir, published here for the first time.

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War threw Irish politics, north and south of the border, into turmoil. Tragic events in Spain aroused emotive responses across the spectrum of Irish society. In contrast to most other communities of the British Isles, citizens of the Irish Free State were mainly pro-Franco. But many on the left felt a strong identification with the plight of the Republic. Ireland sent large organized bodies of men to fight on opposite sides in the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigade volunteers were led by the IRA warrior, Frank Ryan. Their rivals, who became a battalion of Franco's Foreign Legion were mostly members of the semi-facist Blueshirts, and were commanded by the ex-leader of that movement, General Eoin O'Duffy. In late 1936, two enemy crusades - Communist and Catholic - left Ireland to fight it out in Spain. This book, illuminated by personal histories, tells the story of what happened to those two sides. Starting with their eventful journey to Spain, it follows their footsteps across the battlefields of Spain. -- .

The German Panzerjager, or Panzerjagertruppe, was one of the most innovative fighting arms of World War II and its story has never properly been told. Many books have focused on an element of the story - the Hetzer, Jagdpanzer, Jagdpanther - but this is the first time that the whole story of the development and organization of Nazi Germany's anti-tank force will have been covered, from its earliest origins in World War I, through its development in the interwar period, and its baptism of fire in the early days of World War II. This is the first of two volumes that will trace the story through the glory years of Blitzkrieg and the improvements that were made when Soviet tanks were first encountered, leading to new weapons, tactics and organization. It is packed with previously unpublished wartime photographs, combat reports, and detailed charts and statistics to give an unparalleled account of this unique arm of the Wehrmacht.

An explanation of the failure of the Communist insurgency in Greece between 1945 and 1949, this study provides a striking lesson in what happens to an armed revolutionary movement when it lacks adequate manpower and logistical resources, and is divided against itself on such basic matters as foreign policy and the employment of its military capabilities. During the period of 1945-1949, the Greek Communist Party was split into competing factions, each with its own idea of which course the rebellion should take. The Stalinist faction, led by Secretary-General Nikos Zachariades, was pitted against the more pragmatic nationalist wing led by the commander of the Greek Democratic Army, Markos Vafiades. Shrader provides a detailed examination of the logistical aspects of the war, particularly the impact of political decisions and the aid provided to the Greek Communists by outside supporters on logistics and operations.

At each successive stage of the conflict, Zachariades outmaneuvered his rivals and imposed policies that both reduced the resources available to the Communist-led insurgents and sought to turn an effective guerrilla force into a conventional army employing conventional operational methods. The decisions taken by the Greek Communist Party under Zachariades' leadership alienated both the domestic supporters of the Communist rebellion and its key external supporters, such as Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia. Ultimately, the conventionally organized Greek Democratic Army proved unable to sustain itself logistically, and it was defeated in August 1949 by the constantly improving Greek National forces aided by the United States.

The German Panther is one of the most famous, and greatest, tanks of World War II. Often considered the most elegant tank design of the war, it embodied a balance of firepower, armour protection, and mobility unmatched by any other tank of the period. This new study by German armour expert Thomas Anderson draws upon original German archival material to tell the story of the birth of the Panther in response to the Soviet tanks encountered in 1941. He then analyzes its success on the battlefield and the many modifications and variants that also came into play. Illustrated throughout with rare photographs and drawings, many of which have never been published in English before, this is a unique history of one of the most famous tanks of World War II.

The Panzer I and II played a significant part in the blitzkrieg campaigns that brought Germany such extraordinary success in the early years of the Second World War, and this highly illustrated volume in the TankCraft series is the ideal introduction to them. The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to manufacture tanks so the Panzer I had to be developed in strict secrecy, but by the time of the invasion of Poland the Wehrmacht had over 1400 of these light tanks. The Panzer II was an interim design, bridging the gap between the Panzer I and subsequent, far more viable armoured fighting vehicles like the Panzer III and IV. As well as tracing the history of the Panzer I and II, Robert Jackson's book is an excellent source of reference for the modeller, providing details of available kits, together with artworks showing the colour schemes applied to these tanks. Each section of the book is supported by a wealth of wartime photographs as well as diagrams showing the technical changes that were made to these tanks in the course of their careers.

This innovative study examines the early years of the Red Army as it developed from a revolutionary partisan force into a modern, professional institution under the leadership of Mikhail Tukhachevsky, an important and controversial figure in the politics of the Stalin period. Sally Stoecker combines her institutional analysis of the formative period of the Soviet military with an astute look at the person and political maneuvers of Marshal Tukhachevsky and his complex relationship with Stalin, which eventually led to his spectacular downfall and execution in the Great Terror of the late 1930s.Based on newly available archival materials, the book will be welcomed not only by military historians but also by Russian historians for the light it sheds on a vital area of Soviet political history.

No soldier went off to the Civil War with quicker step than 17-year-old James Patrick Sullivan. A hired man on a farm in Juneau County, Wisconsin, he was among the first to anwer Lincoln's call for volunteers in 1861. Sullivan fought in a score of major battles, was wounded five times, and was the only soldier of his regiment to enlist on three separate occasions. An Irishman in the Iron Brigade is a collection of Sullivan's writings about his hard days in President Lincoln's Army. Using war diaries and letters, the Irish immigrant composed nearly a dozen revealing accounts about the battles of his brigage-Brawner Farm, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg as well as the fighting of 1864. Using his old camp name, "Mickey of Company K," Sullivan wrote not so much for family or for history, but to entertain his comrades of the old Iron Brigade. His stories-overlooked and forgotten for more than a century- are delightful accounts of rough-hewn "Western" soldiers in the Eastern Army of the Potomac. His Gettysburg account, for example, is one of the best recollections of that epic battle by a soldier in the ranks. He also left a from-the-ranks view of some of the Union's major soldiers such as George McClellan, Irvin McDowell, John Pope, and Ambrose Burnside. An Irishman in the Iron Brigade is in part the story of the great veterans' movement which shaped the nation's politics before the turn-of-the-century. Troubled by economic hardship, advancing age, and old war injuries, Sullivan turned to old comrades, his memories, and writing, to put the great experiences of his life in perspective.

This book tells the story-for the first time-of the United States government's response to Guevara's ill-starred insurgency in Bolivia in 1967. Henry Butterfield Ryan argues that Guevara's life must be re-evaluated in light of secret documents only recently released by the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the National Security Council. Ryan's dramatic account of the last days of Che Guevara is sure to appeal to scholars and students of United States foreign policy, Latin American history, military history, and to all others interested in this modern revolutionary's remarkable life. "Ryan offers a thoughtful critique of both the operational and intelligence-gathering aspects of the US intervention against the Cuban intervention in Bolivia....[He] enlivens his narrative with vivid portraits of the two American officials who played key parts in the hunt for Guevara....[This] is a welcome addition to the literature on both Che Guevara and US intervention in Latin America."-The Washington Monthly

China's Military in Transition is the most comprehensive study of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) ever published. Drawing upon a broad range of documentary sources and interviews, many of the world's leading specialists on the Chinese military provide in-depth and expert analyses of China's military modernization programme. This unprecedented volume covers many aspects of the PLA on the eve of the twenty-first century: party-army relations and the role of the PLA in domestic Chinese politics; the changing officer corps; the paramilitary People's Armed Police; troop reorganizations and the demobilization programme; the national security and defence policy decision-making processes; the military-industrial complex and defence industrial conversion; defence finance, budget, and training; weapons procurement; nuclear force modernization; threat perceptions; power projection capabilities; and the military balance in the Taiwan Strait.

Despite the importance of warfare in the collapse of the Roman Empire, this is the only comprehensive study of the subject available. Hugh Elton discusses the practice of warfare in Europe, from both Roman and barbarian perspectives, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. He analyzes the military practices and capabilities of the Romans and their northern enemies at political, strategic, operational, and tactical levels, and covers civil wars, sieges, and naval warfare.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, field artillery was a small, separate, unsupported branch of the U.S. Army. By the end of World War I, it had become the "King of Battle," a critical component of American military might. Million-Dollar Barrage tracks this transformation. Offering a detailed account of how American artillery crews trained, changed, adapted, and fought between 1907 and 1923, Justin G. Prince tells the story of the development of modern American field artillery-a tale stretching from the period when field artillery became an independent organization to when it became an equal branch of the U.S. Army. The field artillery entered the Great War as a relatively new branch. It separated from the Coast Artillery in 1907 and established a dedicated training school, the School of Fire at Fort Sill, in 1911. Prince describes the challenges this presented as issues of doctrine, technology, weapons development, and combat training intersected with the problems of a peacetime army with no good industrial base. His account, which draws on a wealth of sources, ranges from debates about U.S. artillery practices relative to those of Europe, to discussions of the training, equipping, and performance of the field artillery branch during the war. Prince follows the field artillery from its plunge into combat in April 1917 as an unprepared organization to its emergence that November as an effective fighting force, with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive proving the pivotal point in the branch's fortunes. Million-Dollar Barrage provides an unprecedented analysis of the ascendance of field artillery as a key factor in the nation's military dominance.

This title explores the conception and design of a range of enormous and powerful tanks that came to be designated as 'super-heavy'. The fascinating super-heavy tanks of World War II were heirs to the siege machine tradition - a means of breaking the deadlock of ground combat. As a class of fighting vehicle, they began with the World War I concept of the search for a "breakthrough" tank, designed to cross enemy lines. It is not surprising that the breakthrough tank projects of the period prior to World War II took place in the armies that suffered the most casualties of the Great War (Russia, France, Germany). All of the principal Axis and Allied nations eventually initiated super-heavy development projects, with increasingly heavy armor and armament.
Much as the casualties of World War I prompted the original breakthrough tank developments, as Germany found itself on the defensive, with diminishing operational prospects and an increasingly desperate leadership, so too did its focus turn to the super-heavy tanks that could turn the tide back in their favor. Although only a small number of super-heavy tanks were built, much less saw active service, their impressive appearance and specifications - not to mention the possibilities of what might have been - have captured the interest of AFV enthusiasts, historians and military personnel. This illustrated and detailed study explores and compares these designs in unprecedented depth.

An American general in Wellington's army? At the age of fourteen, Frederick Robinson fought for the Loyalists in the War of Independence. With their defeat, his now impoverished family took refuge in England. After serving against the French in the West Indies, he worked in army recruitment in London. In 1813 he joined the Peninsular campaign as a Brigade Major General. His journals and letters shed light on the local topography and the personalities he encounters - the British grandees of Oporto, landed gentry, priests and peasants, Wellington and his generals and the common soldier. He also describes the marches across country and the battles of Vitoria, San Sebastian, the Nime and Toulouse. Subsequently, he commanded a division in America during the War of 1812. After colonial governorships in Upper Canada and Tobago, he continued to contribute as a Regimental Colonel. At his death in 1852, he was the longest-serving soldier in the British Army.

In April 1861, Dick and Tally Simpson, sons of South Carolina Congressman Richard F. Simpson, enlisted in Company A of the Third South Carolina Volunteers of the Confederate army. Their letters home--published here for the first time--read like a historical novel, complete with plot, romance, character, suspense, and tragedy. In their last year of college when the war broke out, Dick and Tally were hastily handed their diplomas so they could volunteer for military duty. Dick was twenty; Tally was twenty-two.
Well educated, intelligent, and thoughtful young men, Dick and Tally cared deeply for their country, their family, and their comrades-in-arms and wrote frequently to their loved ones in Pendleton, South Carolina, offering firsthand accounts of dramatic events from the battle of First Manassas in July 1861 to the battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. Their letters provide a picture of war as it was actually experienced at the time, not as it was remembered some twenty or thirty years later. It is a picture that neither glorifies war nor condemns it, but simply "tells it like it is." Written to a number of different people, the boys' letters home dealt with a number of different subjects. Letters to "Pa" went into great detail about military matters in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia--troop movements, casualties, and how well particular units had fought; letters to "Ma" and sisters Anna and Mary were about camp life and family friends in the army and usually included requests for much-needed food and clothing; letters to Aunt Caroline and her daughter Carrie usually concerned affairs of the heart, for Aunt Caroline continued to be Dick and Tally's trusted confidante, even whenthey were "far, far from home."
The value of these letters lies not so much in the detailed information they provide as in the overall picture they convey--a picture of how one Southern family, for better or for worse, at home and at the front--coped with the experience of war. These are not wartime reminiscences, but wartime letters, written from the camp, the battlefield, the hospital bed, the picket line--wherever the boys happened to be when they found time to write home. It is a poignant picture of war as it was actually experienced in the South as the Civil War unfolded.
My dear Aunt
With pleasure do I attempt to scratch you a few lines. I have passed the line of sentinels and am now far out in the woods sitting on the ground writing with a pencil about long enough to ketch with two fingers and on a little piece of plank about as large as my paper, so you must excuse this scrawl....We are now in the land of danger, far, far from home, fighting for our homes and those near our hearts. I have been from home for months at a time, but I never wished to be back as bad in my life. How memory recalls every little spot, and how vividly every little scene flashes before my mind. Oh! if there is one place dear to me it is home sweet home. How many joys cluster there. To join once more our family circle (I mean you all) and talk of times gone by would be more to me than all else besides...your
Most affectionate nephew
R W S

No soldier went off to the Civil War with quicker step than 17-year-old James Patrick Sullivan. A hired man on a farm in Juneau County, Wisconsin, he was among the first to anwer Lincoln's call for volunteers in 1861. Sullivan fought in a score of major battles, was wounded five times, and was the only soldier of his regiment to enlist on three separate occasions. An Irishman in the Iron Brigade is a collection of Sullivan's writings about his hard days in President Lincoln's Army. Using war diaries and letters, the Irish immigrant composed nearly a dozen revealing accounts about the battles of his brigage-Brawner Farm, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg as well as the fighting of 1864. Using his old camp name, "Mickey of Company K," Sullivan wrote not so much for family or for history, but to entertain his comrades of the old Iron Brigade. His stories-overlooked and forgotten for more than a century- are delightful accounts of rough-hewn "Western" soldiers in the Eastern Army of the Potomac. His Gettysburg account, for example, is one of the best recollections of that epic battle by a soldier in the ranks. He also left a from-the-ranks view of some of the Union's major soldiers such as George McClellan, Irvin McDowell, John Pope, and Ambrose Burnside. An Irishman in the Iron Brigade is in part the story of the great veterans' movement which shaped the nation's politics before the turn-of-the-century. Troubled by economic hardship, advancing age, and old war injuries, Sullivan turned to old comrades, his memories, and writing, to put the great experiences of his life in perspective.

Invisible Armies presents an entirely original narrative of warfare, which demonstrates that, far from the exception, loosely organized partisan or guerrilla warfare has been the dominant form of military conflict throughout history. New York Times best-selling author and military historian Max Boot traces guerrilla warfare and terrorism from antiquity to the present, narrating nearly thirty centuries of unconventional military conflicts. Filled with dramatic analysis of strategy and tactics, as well as many memorable characters-from Italian nationalist Guiseppe Garibaldi to the "Quiet American," Edward Lansdale-Invisible Armies is "as readable as a novel" (Michael Korda, Daily Beast) and "a timely reminder to politicians and generals of the hard-earned lessons of history" (Economist).

Since the first edition of this book appeared in 1982, El Salvador has experienced the most radical social change in its history. Ten years of civil war, in which a tenacious and creative revolutionary movement battled a larger, better-equipped, U.S.-supported army to a standstill, have ended with twenty months of negotiations and a peace accord that promises to change the course of Salvadorean society and politics.This book traces the history of El Salvador, focusing on the two actors--the oligarchy and the armed forces--that shaped the Salvadorean economy and political system. Concentrating on the period since 1960, the author sheds new light on the U.S. role in the increasing militarization of the country and the origins of the oligarchy-army rupture in 1979. Separate chapters deal with the Catholic church and the revolutionary organizations, which challenged the status quo after 1968. In the new edition, Dr. Montgomery continues the story from 1982 to the present, offering a detailed account of the evolution of the war. She examines why Duarte's two inaugural promises, peace and economic prosperity, could not be fulfilled and analyzes the electoral victory of the oligarchy in 1989. The final chapters closely follow the peace negotiations, ending with an assessment of the peace accords and an evaluation of the future prospects for El Salvador. An Epilogue analyzes the 1994 elections. Dr. Montgomery's prognosis in the first edition--that no lasting, viable political solution was possible without the participation of the revolutionary organizations--has been borne out by events: Today the FMLN is a legal political party.

Meticulously researched, this book examines the evidence for the post-Roman military forces of France and Britain during the 'Dark Ages', reconstructing their way of life and the battles they fought in compelling detail. The collapse of the former Western Roman Empire during the so called 'Dark Ages' c. AD 410 was gradual and piecemeal. Out of this vacuum arose regional tribes and leaders determined to take back kingdoms that were theirs and oust any Roman presence for good. However, the Roman guard was tenacious and survived in small pockets that emerged in both Gaul and Britain. These areas of Romano-Celtic resistance held out against the Saxons until at least the mid 6th century in Britain and against the Visigoths and the Merovingian Franks until the late 8th century in France. Drawing on archaeological finds, contemporary sculpture and manuscript illuminations, Dr Raffaele D'Amato presents contemporary evidence for 5th to 9th-century Gallic and British 'Dark Age' armies and reconstructs their way of life and the battles they fought. The text, accompanied by photographs and colour illustrations, paints an intricate picture of how these disparate groups of Roman soldiers survived and adapted on the fringes of the Roman Empire.

By 1944, the evolution of armoured doctrine had produced very different outcomes in Britain and Germany. Offering a good balance of speed, protection and firepower, the British Cromwell tank was much faster than its German opponent, but the Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer had a high-velocity main gun and a lower profile that made it formidable on the defensive, especially in ambush situations. The two types would fight in a series of bloody encounters, from the initial days of the struggle for Normandy through to its climax as the Allies sought to trap their opponents in the Falaise Pocket.

Using archive photographs, specially commissioned artwork and battle reports, this fascinating study expertly assesses the realities of tactical armoured combat during the desperate battles after D-Day.