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Silver Medal winner in Military History Matters 'Book of the Year' Award“Written with great accuracy, detail, enthusiasm, and insight…” Military History Matters judges' commentStriking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but willing to use audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors - this is unconventional warfare. T. E. Lawrence was one of the earliest practitioners of modern unconventional warfare. His tactics and strategies were used by men like Mao and Giap in their wars of liberation. Both kept Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom close at hand. This book looks at the creation of the HEDGEHOG force, the formation of armored car sections and other units, and focuses on the Hejaz Operations Staff, the Allied officers and men who took Lawrence’s idea and prosecuted it against the Ottoman Turkish army assisting Field Marshal Allenby to achieve victory in 1918. Stejskal concludes with an examination of how HEDGEHOG has influenced special operations and unconventional warfare, including Field Marshal Wavell, the Long Range Desert Group, and David Stirling's SAS

For over 2,000 years, the precise location of the Stone Tower—the midpoint of the ancient Silk Road, where caravans traveling between Europe and Asia paused to rest, trade, and resupply—has remained a mystery. Claudius Ptolemy (AD 90–168), an Alexandrian, was an astronomer and geographer. In his third work Geographia, he described the Stone Tower, a special place high up in the mountains in a region referred to as the Roof of the World, which marked the mid-point on a complex network of overland routes collectively known today as the Silk Road. Scholars have long debated its location, but no work until now has focused solely on identifying this elusive site. This book explores the search for the Stone Tower and its significance in ancient geography, cartography, and trade. Determining its location not only resolves a historical puzzle but could also lead to the discovery of other lost settlements described in Ptolemy’s Geographia. The book is divided into three sections: the origins of the Silk Road, the historical forces that led to the tower’s prominence, and the precise identification of its location. The author demonstrates why Ptolemy’s text alone is insufficient to pinpoint the site and introduces four key criteria that the location would have logically needed to satisfy for it to have become such a prominent meeting place and caravanserai. He argues that the Stone Tower corresponds to the Sulaiman-Too in Kyrgyzstan, the holiest mountain in Central Asia. This site was a key meeting point for traders and holds significant spiritual and cultural importance, with connections to Zoroastrianism and the Sasanian Empire. By solving this ancient riddle, the book sheds new light on Silk Road history, offering fresh perspectives on trade, geography, and the civilizations that shaped this vital network of commerce and cultural exchange.

The shocking story of Nazi Germany’s naval assault in American waters, told through the eyes of seafarers who experienced it off the Jersey Shore._x000D__x000D_It is January 1942. Six weeks after the United States entered World War II, Imperial Japan is annihilating American forces across the Far East while the Nazis stand triumphant over much of Europe. Adolf Hitler’s forces are about to commence an assault along the East Coast of the United States, but this “Atlantic Pearl Harbor” would prove far more devastating than Japan’s attack on Hawaii. The wolves are closing in, and few Americans realize their beaches and coastal cities are about to witness the worst naval defeat in American history. The Western Hemisphere holds the key to victory for the beleaguered Allies, but only if the vast economic and military resources of North and South America can be carried across the Atlantic by Allied merchant ships. These civilian-manned cargo vessels are the backbone of the American war economy and the lifeline enabling Britain and the Soviet Union to survive—but Hitler’s favorite admiral also knows this, and he has set in motion a plan of unprecedented boldness. Germany’s dreaded submarines, or “U-boats,” are going to the United States. The fiery months that followed would pit American servicemen against German U-boat sailors in a desperate struggle that stained East Coast waters with oil and blood. In the crosshairs of this deadly cat-and-mouse game was a stalwart contingent of civilian mariners who crewed the tankers and freighters supplying the war against the Axis Powers. Thousands of them would perish as hundreds of merchant ships were sunk. Every American coastal state became a battlefront in 1942, and the events that transpired off New Jersey illustrate the perils and brutality of this forgotten campaign. The seafloor along the Garden State is today strewn with shipwrecks that bear witness to the innumerable ways to die faced by friend and foe alike only miles from the boardwalk. Though these seafarers’ lives were forfeit, the battle they fought would decide the fates of millions.

"Phoenix Rising provides readers with two great services. First, it offers a truly unique perspective on Operation EAGLE CLAW. Additionally, it presents an excellent history of the evolution of USSOCOM. The combination of this subject matter and the outstanding readability of the volume make this one of those rare one-sit reads." — On Point: The Journal of Army History_x000D__x000D_“As a junior officer and the lowest ranking 'gopher' at the creation of these forces, I saw how the several Services had great reservations regarding SOF to the point of studied dislike of it and a distinct distaste for its inclusion as a member of their force structure. The single lone exception was Army Chief of Staff Shy Myer, who saw terrorism and asymmetrical warfare as the emerging National threat and worked to build a missing capability. He did this as a lone wolf in that much of the Army leadership as well as the other Services, looked upon SOF as a high-risk loose cannon on their stable conventional deck.”Phoenix Rising recounts the paradoxical birth of SOF through the prism of Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue fifty-two Americans held hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. When terrorists captured the Embassy on November 4, 1979, the Joint Chiefs of Staff quickly realized that the United States lacked the military capability to launch a rescue. There was no precedent for the mission, a mission that came with extraordinary restrictions and required a unique force to take it on. With no existent command structure or budget, this force would have to be built from scratch in utmost secrecy, and draw on every branch of the U.S. military. Keith Nightingale, then a major, was Deputy Operations Officer and the junior member of Joint Task Force Eagle Claw, commanded by Major General James Vaught. Based on Nightingale’s detailed diary, Phoenix Rising vividly describes the personalities involved, the issues they faced, and the actions they took, from the conception of the operation to its hair-raising launch and execution. His historically significant post-analysis of Eagle Claw gives unparalleled insight into how a very dedicated group of people from the Chief of Staff of the Army to lower-ranking personnel subjugated personal ambition to grow the forces necessary to address the emerging terrorist threat—a threat which the majority of uniformed leadership and their political masters denied in 1979. The Special Operations capability of the United States today is the ultimate proof of their success.

Rock-cut tombs, i.e. chambered tombs hewn out from the bedrock, were a common type of monumental burial among many past societies around the world, from the Neolithic Mediterranean, to the Classical Near East, and Protohistoric Japan and Korea. Around the globe they have attracted the attention of generations of archaeologists, historians and art historians. The island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is the only place where rock-cut tombs are still being created today, and in a traditional (small scale, animist) society context. The Toraja people of Central Sulawesi have built and used rock-cut chambered tombs (locally called liang pa’) as kinship communal burials for at least 300 years. This living tradition represents a unique opportunity to study rock-cut monuments from an ethnoarchaeological perspective, with a focus on their material, temporal, social, ritual and landscape dimensions. This book is the first ever dedicated to the Toraja tombs and is the outcome of comprehensive literature-based research (ethnographic literature from the 19th century to present) and original fieldwork carried out by the authors in June 2017. The aim of the book is twofold: first, to provide an overview of liang pa’ rock-cut tombs and, second, to address specific issues that had never been investigated before. These issues include the architectural style and decoration of the tombs, the technical steps and ritual activities associated with the process of cutting the tombs into the rock, their landscape setting, and their relationship to local kinship groups. The authors place the liang pa’ within the context of historical developments pertaining to other funerary traditions of the Toraja people over the past several centuries, and present an overview of burial practices associated with these monuments. The research provides a unique synthesis and offers methodological and theoretical insights that are relevant to any reader interested in rock-cut architectures of the past and present, monuments and rituals, and the anthropological study of human–environment interactions. Overall, the book offers a series of fresh insights on long-debated archaeological issues that will inform discussion and theoretical models for the study and interpretation of ritual monuments from prehistory to present.

This second of two volumes presents archaeological and scientific studies of a wide range of materials from the unusually long-occupied Bronze Age and Iron Age site of Cladh Hallan on South Uist in the Western Isles of Scotland. These include metalworking debris, copper-alloy, gold and iron artifacts, bone and antler tools and ornaments, flint and quartz tools, coarse stone tools, pumice, shale ornaments and fuel ash slag. The metalworking assemblage, from casting weapons, tools and ornaments, is exceptional in its size and in its being stratified within a domestic context of production. Metal tools and ornaments, some placed as special deposits on house floors, include a gold-plated penannular ring and an iron object stratified within an 11th-century BC house floor, among the earliest finds of iron artefacts in Britain. The enormous and well-preserved environmental assemblage includes faunal remains of land mammals, whales, fish, birds and marine and terrestrial molluscs. Sheep were the most numerous domestic species within an assemblage of over 150,000 land mammalian remains, and Cladh Hallan has the largest collection of canine remains for any settlement in British later prehistory. Carbonized plant remains derive principally from cultivation of barley and associated weeds of cultivation. The site’s assemblage provides extensive material for chemical analysis of food residues, isotopic analysis of animal and human remains, osteological analysis of human remains, histological analysis of their processes of diagenesis, and genetic analysis of ancient DNA from animal and human remains. These analyses include full investigation of the human remains from two composite inhumations that had formerly been mummified, the first discovery of this mortuary practice in prehistoric Britain. The book concludes with a synthesis of results presented in the two volumes, presenting the rich insights provided by research on Cladh Hallan into life and death in the 2nd and early 1st millennia BC.

In the 18th century the first American medical school was established in Philadelphia. Following the model of European universities, anatomical lectures were conducted with cadavers. But where did the bodies come from? Dissection was viewed as a fate worse than death, and the only legal source of “stiffs” was executed criminals. But there were not enough. As the medical profession and its need for “anatomical material” grew, a new, macabre practice emerged: body snatching. Body snatchers secretly obtained bodies from cemeteries and sold them to medical schools for dissection. But how did body snatching work? How did body snatchers and medical schools avoid getting caught, and what happened when they did? How did the era of the body snatchers end? Grave Dealings: Body Snatching In Philadelphia, 1762-1883 digs through archives to unearth the forgotten history of a time of graveyard patrols and anatomy riots, when the dead needed protection from the living. Philadelphia pioneered and became the center of American medical education and practice–and body snatching–in the 18th and 19th centuries. Grave Dealings explores the social, cultural, practical, and legal aspects of body snatching in America’s first capital city and relates it to the continuing ethical struggles that surround the treatment of human remains to this day.

The formation of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division was inspired by Finland’s success during the Soviet Union's invasion in 1939, where Finnish ski troops effectively used winter terrain to overcome Soviet armored divisions. Recognizing the strategic value of such a unit, Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole, founder of the National Ski Patrol, lobbied for a similar division in the U.S. Army. His efforts eventually led to the formation of specialized mountain warfare troops. In 1941, the War Department authorized the formation of experimental ski patrols, and by 1942, the 87th Mountain Infantry was created. Recruited primarily from skilled skiers, this unit was stationed at Camp Hale in Colorado. The 10th Light Division (Alpine) formed in 1943. Later renamed the 10th Mountain Division in 1944, it became a critical component of U.S. mountain and winter warfare capability. The division was involved in key operations, including the invasion of Kiska in the Aleutians and battles in Italy. Fully illustrated with over 200 photographs, the book catalogs the history of 10th Mountain Division unit and the equipment it used to undertake its unique mission, including skis, specialized winter clothing, and vehicles such as the M29 Weasel, designed for mountain and snow operations. The book also highlights the testing and deployment of various vehicles and artillery adapted for cold, mountainous environments, showcasing the division’s specialized role in the U.S. military in World War II.

During the Revolutionary War, East Florida was a strategic staging ground for the British campaigns in the south. Early in the war, George Washington recognized the strategic importance of neutralizing this loyalist outpost, before its proximity to Georgia and the Carolinas could create problems for the Patriots. East Florida was a haven for runaway slaves, a paradox considering the large, enslaved population in the colony. Following Lord Dunmore’s 1775 proclamation of freedom for slaves that fled behind British lines and took up arms, the colony’s African-American population swelled and former slaves as well as natives were readily armed to fight against the Continental Army and other Patriots. East Florida saw two major battles during these campaigns, as well as multiple skirmishes and much political intrigue. While East Florida stayed loyal to the crown there were significant Patriot sympathies in the colony’s political leadership. The East Florida Rangers, a loyalist militia unit raised to defend the colony from Patriot incursions, were successful in raiding Georgia and in one such incursion sacked Augusta and came within sight of Savannah. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence were held prisoner in St Augustine, the capital of East Florida, after the British capture of Charleston. After the battle of Yorktown, East Florida became a loyalist haven and was also the site of the last battle of the war—a naval battle off the Florida coast in 1783. Fully illustrated with photographs, artwork and maps, this volume explores the multiple invasions of British East Florida by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

The War of 1812 was born out of longstanding tensions between the United States and Great Britain. Centered on maritime disputes, the war arose from British policies that disregarded U.S. sovereignty, including the impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy and restrictions on American trade. These provocations, coupled with British support for Native American resistance on the western frontier, led President James Madison to advocate for military action.The book explores the United States'' ambitious yet flawed strategy of 1812 to invade Canada as a means to counter British aggression. Despite initial optimism, the U.S. Army faced significant challenges, including insufficient manpower, untrained militias, logistical failures, and inadequate leadership. Disjointed campaigns in Detroit, Queenston Heights, and other key theaters highlighted systemic issues within the War Department and military operations. Meanwhile, British control of waterways and superior coordination allowed their smaller forces to outmaneuver and frustrate American efforts.This fully illustrated volume examines the realities of early 19th-century warfare, from the fragile logistics of supplying armies to the political tensions shaping military decisions. It offers assessment of the challenges faced by the young republic, and highlights how early setbacks laid the groundwork for eventual reform and resilience in the war’s later stages.

The Creek War (1813–1814) was not only a brutal civil war within the Creek Nation but also part of a broader international struggle tied to the War of 1812. It ended with America’s victory, a watershed moment that expanded white settlement into Creek territories and influenced the course of the larger war with Great Britain.Following the American Revolution, tensions had grown between settlers in Georgia and the Creek Nation over contested lands and cultural assimilation. Divisions within the Creek Nation deepened, with the Lower Creeks, many of whom aligned with U.S. policies, opposing the Red Sticks, who resisted white encroachment and sought to restore Indigenous traditions and autonomy. These divisions set the stage for a violent conflict that engulfed the Creek homeland, stretching across Georgia, Alabama, and the Mississippi Territory. The Creek War’s pivotal moments included the Fort Mims Massacre, which shocked U.S. settlers and government officials alike, and Andrew Jackson''s decisive victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. Jackson''s campaigns, supported by allied Choctaws, Cherokees, and friendly Creeks, decimated Red Stick forces and led to the Treaty of Fort Jackson, which forced the Creek Nation to cede millions of acres, paving the way for further expansion—and eventual tragedy—with the Indian Removal Act in the 1830s.This illustrated book chronicles the war’s key battles, from the massacre at Fort Mims to the decisive Battle of Horseshoe Bend. It examines the roles of volunteer militias, U.S. Army regulars, and allied Indigenous forces, highlighting their triumphs and struggles as they contended with harsh terrain, logistical challenges, and short enlistments.

The German view of D-Day, written by an Army Corps intelligence officer in Normandy at the time of the Allied invasion published in English for the first time._x000D__x000D_A unique perspective on the decisive early weeks of the invasion in 1944, written by a German Army Corps Intelligence officer stationed in Normandy at the time of the Allied invasion, who during the invasion was the department head for enemy messages processing (Ic) in the staff of the LXXXIV AK. It discusses in detail the events leading up to the creation of Falaise Pocket, described by the author as "tragic turning point of an entire front." It discusses in detail the conditions in the American landing section and explains how the German troops based there came to be defeated.

Gettysburg has been widely analyzed in terms of its tactics and historical importance, but this book looks at the overlooked efforts of veterans who sought to build lasting tributes, not only to mark where they fought but to convey the deeper meanings behind their sacrifices. This compelling study explores the development of Union veteran monuments at Gettysburg from 1863 to 1913, uncovering the grassroots efforts of Union soldiers to immortalize their experiences on the battlefield that held the greatest significance for the Army of the Potomac. Through dedication speeches, correspondence, and historical records, the book reveals how Union veterans raised funds and rallied political support to construct these monuments, even as the nation moved toward reconciliation and reconstruction. Early monuments emphasized punishment for the South and the preservation of the Union, while later ones reflected themes of reconciliation. These tributes, set against the preserved landscape of Gettysburg, reflect the complex social, political, and economic forces of their time, and continue to shape our understanding of Civil War memory. A Forest of Granite offers a fresh perspective on Gettysburg, highlighting how Union veterans’ monumentation shaped the interpretation of the battlefield and ensured that future generations would remember not just where they fought, but why.

In October 1977, an unknown German police unit made global headlines by storming a hijacked Lufthansa airliner in Mogadishu, Somalia. Operatives of GSG 9 freed 86 hostages, eliminated three of the four terrorists, and emerged with a near-total victory. This daring rescue left the world in awe, including the U.S. military. President Carter asked, “Do we have the same capability as the West Germans?” The answer was no—and it was this realization that impelled the creation of Delta Force.This gripping book is the first comprehensive English-language history of GSG 9, tracing its roots back to the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre, which exposed the world’s unpreparedness for modern terrorism. Formed in the aftermath, GSG 9 quickly evolved from a fledgling unit housed in makeshift barracks to an elite force. Author and journalist Martin Herzog draws from extensive research, German and international archives, and interviews with GSG 9 veterans and active members, including recent commander Robert Hemmerling. This deeply researched narrative chronicles GSG 9’s humble beginnings, the vision of its founder Ulrich Wegener, and the evolving strategies that have made the unit one of the best in the world. Covering the rigorous training, recruitment, and modern-day operations of GSG 9, this book offers readers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one of the most respected special operations forces in the world.

The Marines and Corpsmen of Delta Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division were surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) for six hundred days in 1969 and 1970 during the Vietnam War. Hill 119 is a rise on a finger of land. Located twenty-eight kilometers south of Da Nang that overlooks the Thu Bon River Basin and Go Noi Island. The hill provided Marines with an excellent 360-degree view of the region that was known as “Indian Country," and so it was occupied as an Observation Post. Its original mission was to support Operation Taylor Common, Task Force Yankee's push west into Gen Binh's Base Area 112. The Observation Post produced immediate results with supporting arms inflicting casualties on the NVA. Based on its immediate and enduring success as a tactical obstacle for the NVA, the OP became a key piece in the defense of the Da Nang Vital Area. The Marines called supporting arms every day and every night. They rained fire down on the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), and killed over a thousand enemy fighters. They posed such a threat that Gen Binh assigned his elite T89 Sapper Battalion to eliminate the Recon Marines on Hill 119. Throughout this period, as part of a six-man team, each Recon Marine would run multiple adrenaline-filled patrols deep into enemy territory in small teams for six weeks and then serve for two weeks on the OP. Despite its danger, the Marines considered OP duty as a relaxing break. This first full account of Hill 119, written by historian Michael Fallon, who served as reconnaissance patrol leader on Hill 119, is based upon firsthand accounts from the Recon Marines, carefully cross-referenced with patrol reports and command chronologies. It covers the Marines’ experiences in the bush, on the hill, and in the rear. The role of new battalion commanders, with their changing tactics is discussed: the six officers impacted the battalion with their personalities as well as their planning and execution of the changing missions with the always changing enemy situation, from classic Keyhole snoop and poop patrols to aggressive Stingray patrols, designed to inflict casualties.

Joshua Shores was just nineteen years old when he deployed to Iraq in 2005. A Midwestern kid raised in a closeknit, supportive family, he had developed a strong sense of duty and honor. Both sides of his family had proudly served their country, fostering a legacy of service that would guide his own path. Serving in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Shores was a teenager among battlehardened peers, far removed from the naive assumptions of war he had once held.Based on meticulous notes taken throughout his deployment, this vivid account follows his experiences as he navigated the brutal realities of war. Shores’ grueling sevenmonth deployment was marked by daytoday struggles and nightmarish events. Driven by a desire to redeem himself and reconcile the harrowing experiences of his first deployment, Shores chose to return to combat a second time, this time to Afghanistan with the firstever Marine Special Operations Company Bravo. But upon returning home, he faced new and equally daunting battles—struggling with survivor’s guilt and a profound sense of being misunderstood by those who had once known him.Illuminating both the triumphs and failures he encountered on the front lines, his memoir offers a deeply personal perspective on the true cost of combat, providing a modernday perspective on the psychological and emotional impacts of battle. This is the harrowing story of a teenager’s descent into the darkest parts of the soul and his arduous quest for redemption and selfdiscovery, capturing the relentless emotional toll of war even after the physical battles end. Counting on Death serves as both a guide for new warfighters and a candid exploration of a veteran’s battle to find peace after service.