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Major Peter Weaver's military career is remarkable for its breadth, from the Royal Tank Corps, to the infantry, but also as an engineer and on colonial and special operations. The story is told using his own words, supported by extensive research to confirm what at times seem unbelievable tales. Having lost his father in 1916, school proved a challenge academically, but he excelled at sports, as he would throughout his life. Thwarted in his attempts to become an officer, he was involved in a series of increasingly dubious business ventures. Hearing his mother and sister’s first-hand accounts of the rise of Hitler and Nazism, he joined the Territorials. The outbreak of war saw him rapidly promoted, volunteering for the Auxiliary Units, the secret stay behind force created in case of German invasion. His section of Dorset Regiment men set high standards in training, attracting the attention of Lord Lovat. Considered too important for his commando, they were instead later recruited into the SAS. Paddy Mayne, SAS commander, was impressed by Weaver’s leadership during a near disaster. Weaver parachuted into France on Operation Bulbasket, one of the few to escape a deadly ambush there. After specialist ski training, he fought in Germany on Operation Archway and was present for the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Following VE Day he landed in Norway, nominally disarming the German garrison, but finding time for sports, drink and the hospitality of local women. Part of a little known SAS deployment in Crete, he later had spells with the Sudan Defence Force and training the Greek Army. More conventional soldiering with the Berkshire Regiment still saw him in combat in the Canal Zone. Weaver lived his life to the full, enjoying the Army, fast cars and beautiful women, though struggling to treat those he loved as he should. Drama followed him but he always managed to get away somehow.

February 2039. On the tense Latvia–Russia border, a U.S. Army platoon holds the defensive line. In the dead of night, the forward squad of humanoid robots suddenly disobeys orders and launches a cross-border attack. Watching through his brain–computer interface, the platoon leader can only stare in horror as events spiral too quickly for him to react. Has his unit just triggered World War II? he battlefield is no longer human territory alone. Augmented soldiers—Homo evolutis—are reshaping war itself. Created at the crossroads of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and the Internet of Things, these new beings blur the line between man and machine. AI now offers decision-making and perception equal to—or beyond—that of humans. Biotechnology has resulted in soldiers with superhuman capabilites and programmable digital implants. In this networked world, humans are mere nodes in a vast digital web. But when machines act on their own initiative, who bears responsibility? And when enhanced humans begin to see themselves as a new species, what happens to loyalty, identity, and control? As war moves into uncharted territory, one soldier must confront a chilling question: can humanity survive its own evolution?

If Stoicism seriously attracts your attention, you need a North Star. In the life of work William Spears has invested in this text, you have a resource that provides authentic, thorough guidance. He writes it in a wonderful manner that allows you to choose your own challenges, but with the tools included to have a ‘best chance’ of finding both methodology and reward. And when you master an aspect of Stoicism, it allows you to ‘bite off’ another piece of its life-sustaining wisdom and approach any challenge with confidence. While Stoicism has seen an explosion in popular interest, and is widely embraced in military circles, no serious philosophical work has yet explored its full relevance to the military profession. This book fills that gap. Endorsed by senior military officials and academic philosophers, Stoicism as a Warrior Philosophy provides compelling and original contributions to both military ethics and the modern Stoic resurgence.

"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.

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.

The Matanikau battles proved to be the critical turning points in the land campaign for Guadalcanal—the campaign's longest and bloodiest ground fight. A five-month conflict raged along the river and its basin. The real importance of this area has long remained unrecognized, yet the American and Japanese forces that fought over it knew that it was the key to the ultimate prize of Henderson Airfield. In this mile-long bloody tug-of-war from the river across to the hills and ravines were fought seven major battles and countless smaller skirmishes. While countless books have been published on the Guadalcanal Campaign; none have concentrated on the pivotal battles of the Matanikau basin. Extensively researched, this first indepth study of these important battles, objectively showing all sides, fills in this crucial missing piece of the history of the Guadalcanal campaign. The wellknown Guadalcanal battlefield guide Dave Holland spent three years walking the battlefields, researching, and documenting what he found. His unparalleled knowledge of the ground enables him to take the reader along with the men on the ground. Using his investigative skills and military background, he provides a fresh, detailed, and often completely new view of the land campaign, establishing previously unknown facts and specifically illustrating their significance as the campaign’s land turning points.

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.

While headline writers in the ETO were naturally focused on events in Normandy and the Bulge in the north, equally ferocious combats were taking place in southern France and Germany during 1944–45, which are now finally getting their due. The US 14th Armored Division—a late arrival to the theater—was thrust into intense combat almost the minute it arrived in Europe, as the Germans remained determined to defend their southern flank.Like other US formations, the 14th AD, after advancing through France against intermittent opposition, was hammered to a standstill at the Westwall in the fall of 1944. Nevertheless, it had gained experience, and when the Germans sought to turn the tide, with Operation Northwind, they found a hardened formation against them. This book explores in detail what happened in the month of January 1945 in the snowcovered Vosges Mountains, when the Wehrmacht''s attempt to destroy the Sixth Army Group failed. Northwind began in the mountains but was extended onto the plains of Alsace very near the Rhine River. A strategic withdrawal after a hellish ten days of fiery combat allowed the Allies to hold the line until a spring offensive. The dreadful cold and the conflagration of battle took a toll on both sides, but by now the 14th and the other American divisions felt the heat of battle in their hearts and knew what had to be done to defeat a wily enemy. But the Siegfried Line still loomed in front to American forces, and in the sector of the 14th, the divisions literally exploded their way through it in March at Steinfeld, and began to propel the Wehrmacht into a retreat from which it could never recover. Armored columns kept punching their way through roadblock after roadblock in town after town with powerful artillery and air concentrations that never gave the German soldiers a chance to respond. As a result of the rapid advance of Seventh Army and the 14th, German POW camps like the ones at Hammelburg and Moosburg were liberated of over 100,000 prisoners, an achievement which gave the division the nom de guerre "The Liberators." Timothy O''Keeffe, a Professor Emeritus from Southern Connecticut State College, had a brotherinlaw who lost a leg while serving with the “Liberators,” and thus has devoted years of effort to unveiling the crucial, yet heretofore unwritten, role that they played in the ultimate Allied victory.

The German procurement process resulted in a wide range of gun-armed armored vehicles—assault guns, tank destroyers and self-propeled artillery—mounting both German and captured guns. Some were developed from existing German chassis; many employed captured enemy vehicles or were built in the factories of the countries they had conquered.Originally designed as infantry support vehicles, the Sturmgeschütz arm was controlled by the artillery but ended the war having knocked out more enemy tanks than the Panzers. Mainly built on the chassis of the PzKpfw III, particularly after it became obsolete, the StuGs proved durable and effective in infantry support and, when upgunned and even without a turret, as tank killers.The Germans produced a range of vehicles to fend off enemy armor. They mounted increasingly larger guns on any chassis they could lay their hands on, often captured vehicles—the Marder series on French or Czech chassis. There was also the Jagdpanzer range, better protected with an armored casemate providing overhead armor, based on tank chassis. Heavier Jagdpanzer were produced as the war continued the Hornisse/Nashorn (but without overhead protection), the Ferdinand/Elefant and the Jagdpanther armed with 8.8cm weapons. A few of the massive 12.8cm-armed Jagdtiger appeared before war’s end.Blitzkrieg showed that the Panzer divisions needed mobile artillery support, so the Germans mounted artillery weapons on tracked chassis: first PzKpfw Is and IIs and then PzKpfw IIIs and 38(t)s. The best known are the Wespe (on the PzKpfw II), the Grille (on the PzKpfw 38(t)), the Hummel (on the Geschützwagen III/IV), and the Sturmpanzer (on the PzKpfw IV).While some of the crew duties on these vehicles were similar to those of the Panzertruppen, they were completely different vehicles to fight in and fight with: strategically, operationally, tactically and logistically. This fully illustrated book tells the story of the soldiers who crewed these vehicles.

The People’s Army of Vietnam’s decision to utilize armor as part of its warfighting strategy was a product of various geopolitical factors that surrounded Hanoi during various parts of the Vietnam War. During the First Indochina War, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) emerged as the foremost communist benefactor of North Vietnam. The Soviet Union however, largely stood by. While worried by the PRC’s and Soviet Union’s actions during the Geneva Conference of 1954, Hanoi still felt the need to maintain good relations with both countries. This was reinforced when the Sino-Soviet split occurred in 1956 and Hanoi was forced to walk a tight rope between Beijing and Moscow. As the United States escalated its war in Vietnam, Moscow (now under new leadership) sought to increase its material support for Hanoi.As the war progressed, Hanoi sought to fight larger battles against the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies. In order to fight larger battles, the PAVN needed more modern military equipment that only the Soviet Union could provide. This, paired with the chaos of the ongoing Cultural Revolution in China, led Hanoi to lean more towards Moscow in the latter years of the Vietnam War.As part of this newly blossomed relationship, Moscow began to furnish the PAVN with more modern weapons including Soviet armor. Initially, the PAVN’s use of armor at Lang Vei (1968) and Laos (1971) was met with some success. However, in 1972, Hanoi panicked as the United States began to reach “détente” with Beijing and Moscow. This led to fears of another Geneva and thus lead Hanoi to pursue a rushed “Easter Offensive” in March 1972 which saw ill-trained PAVN tank crews fall prey to poor planning and bad strategy. This changed in 1975 when following the Paris Peace Accords and subsequent combined arms training in the Soviet Union, the PAVN victoriously drove its Soviet armor into Saigon.

In the spring of 1864, many in the North, including President Lincoln, were growing frustrated. Although Lincoln’s armies were achieving success on the battle¬fields, the gruesome toll was becoming increasingly unacceptable. The president needed a general who would ¬ finally put an end to the war. He found him in Ulysses S. Grant, who would close out the conflict a little more than a year after his appointment. Determined to destroy Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Grant bulked up the Army of the Potomac with the addition of Burnside’s IX Corps, swelling the army’s numbers to nearly 120,000. The campaigns of 1862 and 1863 had inflicted heavy losses on Lee’s army, including some of his most talented commanders, among them “Stonewall” Jackson. In the spring of 1864, Lee’s army was more scattered than Meade’s, but the Army of Northern Virginia was not only capable but also deeply familiar with the Virginia terrain.Grant planned several offensives involving attacks against Richmond, Atlanta, and the Shenandoah Valley. In the north, the Army of the Potomac would strike hard at Lee, while the Union Army of the James would head inland toward Richmond to cut supply lines and then join with Meade’s army. On May 3, 1864, the Army of the Potomac headed for the Wilderness to open the Spring Campaign. The next six weeks saw the most brutal ¬ fighting of the entire war. Repeatedly, Grant brought Lee into battle—notably at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor—yet each time Grant was frustrated in his efforts to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, unable to capture Richmond, Grant reached the James River where his forces built a long bridge to facilitate its crossing to attack Petersburg. While Grant had failed to destroy Lee’s army or capture Richmond, the relentless pressure of the campaign effectively sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

The "Battlin'' Bastards" of B Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division share their harrowing Vietnam experiences, highlighting brotherhood, resilience, and the lasting impact of war on their lives.The ?Battlin? Bastards? of B Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, fought daily against a well-trained and determined enemy during their tours in Vietnam, 1968?71. Before the war, these men were brothers, sons, sweethearts, husbands, and fathers. Some were athletes, some musicians. Some were just out of high school, some in established careers. There is no monolithic ?Battlin? Bastard,? but when they joined the 101st Airborne Division?one of the most highly decorated divisions in the United States Army?in Vietnam, they united, fighting for each other, and fighting to return safely home. It was difficult to put their experiences behind them. As Bravo veteran, Terry Taylor, recalled, ?I learned at the age of 18 that you don?t have to die to go to hell. Vietnam was hell on earth.? And yet despite the obstacles, many of these men built successful lives post-war. Decades after returning from the war, when the men were ready to cautiously revisit their experiences, the Bastards started stateside reunions.From these reunions came the wish to share their stories with the world, to honor, to educate, and to inspire. The result is this book, written from interviews and diligent archival research, in which the surviving ?Battlin? Bastards? tell their stories of combat in their own words, and honor those who ?sacrificed for their country and their unit.?

The summer of 1863 started off disastrously for the Army of the Potomac in the Eastern Theater. In early May, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia defeated and humiliated Major General Joseph Hooker’s army at the Battle of Chancellorsville. While both armies reorganized in the wake of Chancellorsville’s massive losses, Lee then maintained the initiative and launched an invasion of Pennsylvania. Throughout June, Lee’s army advanced deeper into Pennsylvania and Northern efforts to stop his progress were ineffective until Major General George Meade replaced Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac. On July 1, 1863, Meade and Lee’s large armies collided outside of the crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The stakes were never higher for either army as the newly promoted Meade defended Northern soil, while General Lee risked everything by taking the war into enemy territory.The first day of the Battle of Gettysburg is often overshadowed by fighting on the following days, but July 1 was one of the bloodiest single engagements of the entire Civil War. Many of the decisions leading to and through Gettysburg’s first day remain steeped in controversy. Did Meade intend to fight on the Pipe Creek line in Maryland until subordinates such as Major General John Reynolds forced the engagement at Gettysburg? Did the absence of J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry really leave Lee “blind” to his opponent’s movements? Was Lee’s desire to avoid a general engagement ignored by his own officers? With neither commanding general on the battlefield for much of the day, crucial decisions remained in the hands of subordinates such as John Buford, John Reynolds, A. P. Hill, Richard Ewell, and Oliver Howard.This Casemate Illustrated volume sets the stage for the Civil War’s greatest battle and covers the heroism, decisions, and mistakes made on the first day at Gettysburg.

Follows a veteran''s experiences with MACV-SOG?s Recon Team Iowa, highlighting perilous missions behind enemy lines and the bravery of U.S. and Montagnard soldiers.Join Garner, Dodge, and the rest of RT Iowa as they venture ?across the fence? to help stem the flow of the North Vietnamese on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Tense hours of moving in areas ?denied? to the U.S. military are interspersed with fierce firefights; back at Kontum, the Green Berets unwind with wild abandon, while the recon first sergeant makes repeated, often doomed attempts to ensure the teams? success?and survival. First published in 1990, this classic account of Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group, was written as a novel by a veteran of Recon Team Iowa to bring his experiences and those of fellow MACV-SOG soldiers to a wider audience at a time when their dedication and sacrifice was little known. The small tight recon teams?each comprising three U.S. soldiers and five to seven indigenous allies?undertook some of the most hazardous missions of the war. They would operate for hours or days in areas controlled by the North Vietnamese in order to collect essential intelligence on the enemy?s disposition. The unit would receive many accolades, but also suffer sky-high casualties. With a new author?s note and epilogue, Break Contact?Continue Mission is Harris? tribute not only to the American soldiers that he fought alongside, but to the Montagnard fighters of RT Iowa?Whean, Kehn, Phe, Djuit, Kuie and Dominique.