"Unlike cricket, which is a polite game, Australian Rules Football creates a desire on the part of the crowd to tear someone apart, usually the referee." This is only one of the entertaining and astute observations the U.S. military provided in the pocket guides distributed to the nearly one million American soldiers who landed on the shores of Australia between 1942 and 1945. Although the Land Down Under felt more familiar than many of their assignments abroad, American GIs still needed help navigating the distinctly different Aussie culture, and coming to their rescue was "Instruction for American Servicemen in Australia, 1942," The newest entry in the Bodleian Library's bestselling series of vintage pocket guides, this pamphlet is filled with pithy notes on Australian customs, language, and other cultural facts the military deemed necessary for every American soldier.
From the native wildlife--a land of "funny animals"--to the nation's colonial history to the general characteristics of Australians--"an outdoors sort of people, breezy and very democratic"--"Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia" gives a concise yet amazingly informative overview of the island nation. Regarding Aussie slang, it notes that "the Australian has few equals in the world at swearing. . . . The commonest swear words are 'bastard' (pronounced 'barstud'), 'bugger, ' and 'bloody, ' and the Australians have a genius for using the latter nearly every other word." The pamphlet also contains a humorous explanation of the country's musical traditions--including an annotated text of "Waltzing Matilda"--as well as amusing passages on sports, politics, and the Aussies' attitudes toward Yanks and Brits.
A fascinating look at a neglected Allied front in the Southern hemisphere, "Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia, 1942" follows its successful predecessors as a captivating historical document of a pivotal era in history.

Fully illustrated, this is the second volume in a detailed study of the German auxiliary troops who fought for Britain in the American Revolutionary War. During the American Revolutionary War (1775–83), German auxiliary troops provided a vital element of the British war effort. While the largest body of German troops was from Hessen-Cassel (see the first volume of this study), the British also fielded troops from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Hessen-Hanau, Waldeck and Pyrmont, Brandenburg Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst. Fighting on a host of battlefields from Saratoga to Yorktown, these hired soldiers provided the Crown Forces with much-needed manpower and contributed crucial combat skills in the form of the Jäger, renowned specialists in open-order warfare. Featuring eight specially commissioned artwork plates and an array of carefully chosen illustrations, many in colour, this lively study examines the organization, uniforms, weapons and equipment of these troops who fought for King George in the New World.

The United States Military Academy at WestPoint is one of America's oldest and most reveredinstitutions. Founded in 1802, its first and onlymission is to prepare young men-and, since1976, young women-to be leaders of characterfor service as commissioned officers in the UnitedStates Army. Carved from Granite is the story of how West Pointgoes about producing military leaders of character.As scholar and Academy graduate Lance Betrosshows, West Point's early history is interestingand colorful, but its history since then is far morerelevant to the issues-and problems-that face theAcademy today. Betros describes and assesses how well West Point hasaccomplished its mission- not hesitating to exposeproblems and challenge long-held assumptions.Here is the most authoritative history of the modernUnited States Military Academy written to date.

Contractors are big business and a big part of war, with businesses taking upon themselves many tasks previously designated to the armed forces. By 2007, there were over 100,000 individuals working on U.S. contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan-versus about 160,000 U.S. combat troops. By some estimates, contractors account for some 40 percent of the costs of running operations.

This important work examines how that came to be, as well as answering a number of critical questions: How have Congress, public interest groups, and other parties dealt with the issue? How is the marketplace affecting the American way of war? What impact will this have on force structure? How will the growing involvement of the private sector influence such matters as the all-volunteer force and the procurement and maintenance of advanced warfighting systems?

The emergent role of contractors on the battlefield reflects a deeply significant transition in the nature of armed conflict, a significant rebalancing between the roles of the private and public sectors. This change is the most significant upheaval in the nature of warfare since the rise of the nation-state in the 17th century. It represents a transformation started long before the invasion of Iraq and, absent a dramatic change in the evolution of the global marketplace, it will continue to increase, regardless of the course of American domestic politics. Government will have to change to keep up.

Understanding why the private sector has come to play such a prominent role in public wars requires tracing a story as torturous and, at times, mysterious as the search for the Holy Grail, a tale filled with deceit, greed, courage, selflessness, stupidity, misdirection, and myth. It includes following a winding path from Medieval Tuscan hills, to England, to colonial America, to the sands of Iwo Jima and of Iraq, the mountains of Afghanistan, the corridors of Wall Street, and the halls of the Pentagon. It demands walking through the cross sections of military, political, social, cultural, economic, intellectual, and business history. At the end of the journey lies the unvarnished truth about contractors in combat. That is the story "Private Sector, Public Wars" means to tell.

"It is impossible to reproduce the state of mind of the men who waged war in 1917 and 1918," Edward Coffman wrote in "The War to End All Wars." In "Doughboys on the Great War" the voices of thousands of servicemen say otherwise. The majority of soldiers from the American Expeditionary Forces returned from Europe in 1919. Where many were simply asked for basic data, veterans from four states--Utah, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Virginia--were given questionnaires soliciting additional information and "remarks." Drawing on these questionnaires, completed while memories were still fresh, this book presents a chorus of soldiers' voices speaking directly of the expectations, motivations, and experiences as infantrymen on the Western Front in World War I.

What was it like to kill or maim German soldiers? To see friends killed or maimed by the enemy? To return home after experiencing such violence? Again and again, soldiers wrestle with questions like these, putting into words what only they can tell. They also reflect on why they volunteered, why they fought, what their training was, and how ill-prepared they were for what they found overseas. They describe how they interacted with the civilian populations in England and France, how they saw the rewards and frustrations of occupation duty when they desperately wanted to go home, and--perhaps most significantly--what it all added up to in the end. Together their responses create a vivid and nuanced group portrait of the soldiers who fought with the American Expeditionary Forces on the battlefields of Aisne-Marne, Argonne Forest, Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, Metz, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel, Sedan, and Verdun during the First World War.

The picture that emerges is often at odds with the popular notion of the disillusioned doughboy. Though hardened and harrowed by combat, the veteran heard here is for the most part proud of his service, service undertaken for duty, honor, and country. In short, a hundred years later, the doughboy once more speaks in his own true voice.