In late 1971, the People's Army of Vietnam launched Campaign "Z" into northern Laos, escalating the war in Laos with the aim of defeating the last Royal Lao Army troops. The NVA troops numbered 27,000 and brought with them 130mm field guns and T-34 tanks, while the North Vietnamese air force launched MiG-21s into Lao air space. General Giap's specific orders to this task force were to kill the CIA army under command of the Hmong war lord Vang Pao and occupy its field headquarters in the Long Tieng valley of northeast Laos. They faced the rag-tag army of Vang Pao, fewer than 6,000 strong and mostly Thai irregulars, recruited by the Thai army to fight for the CIA in Laos. By the time the NVA launched their first attack, 4,000 Tahan Sua Pran had been recruited, armed, trained and rushed in position in Laos to defend against the impending NVA invasion. They reinforced Vang Pao's indigenous army of 1,800 Lao hillstribe guerrillas. Despite the odds being overwhelmingly in the NVA's favour, the battle did not go to plan. It raged for more than 100 days, the longest in the Vietnam War, and it all came down to Skyline Ridge. As at Dien Bien Phu, whoever won Skyline, won Laos. Against all odds, against all WDC expectations, the NVA lost, their 27,000-man invasion force decimated. James Parker served in Laos. Over many years he pieced together his own knowledge with CIA files and North Vietnamese after-action reports in order to tell the full story of the battle of Skyline Ridge.

Now in paperback, Battle of Big Bethel: Crucial Clash in Early Civil War Virginia by J. Michael Cobb, Ed Hicks, and Wythe Holt is the first full-length treatment of the small but consequential June 10, 1861 battle that reshaped both Northern and Southern perceptions about what lay in store for the divided nation. In the spring of 1861, many people in the North and South imagined that the Civil War would be short and nearly bloodless. The first planned engagement of the war at Big Bethel, however, provided undeniable evidence of just how wrong popular opinion could be.Major General Benjamin F. Butler was in command of Union forces at Fort Monroe, Virginia, at the tip of the peninsula between the James and York rivers only ninety miles from the Confederate capital at Richmond. Thanks to the foresight of Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, President Abraham Lincoln’s elderly chief military adviser, thousands of troops had been assigned to Butler to protect the fort, eventually threaten Richmond, and perhaps bring a quick end to the war.Opposing the Yankees was the aggressive and dramatic Colonel John Bankhead Magruder, who decided to lure Butler into a fight. Magruder fortified a strategic swampy creek crossing, skillfully placed several artillery pieces, selected excellent defensive positions for his 1,500 men, and camouflaged the whole with brush. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Butler marshaled about 4,000 men for a daring dawn attack.Although Butler’s forces launched three charges against earthworks well supported by artillery, each was repulsed. Several reasons account for this, including a demoralizing friendly-fire incident, a combination of murderous cannon and musketry, Magruder’s deft handling of his men, the inexperience of the attackers, and poor Union leadership. One of the sterling performances of the day was turned in by Colonel Daniel H. Hill, who ordered his Southern infantry to move across the enemy’s front to retake a forward redoubt.While the carnage was light compared to later battles, the combat at Big Bethel remained indelibly imprinted on those who fought there. The successful defense reinforced the belief most Southerners held that their martial invincibility and defense of home and hearth were divinely inspired. After initial disbelief and shame, the defeat hardened Northern resolution to preserve their sacred Union. The notion began to take hold that, contrary to popular belief, the war would be difficult and protracted—a conviction that was cemented in reality the following month on the plains of Manassas.Years in the making, Battle of Big Bethel relies upon letters, diaries, newspapers, reminiscences, official records, and period images—some used for the first time. The authors detail the events leading up to the encounter, survey the personalities as well as the contributions of the participants, set forth a nuanced description of the confusion-ridden field of battle, and elaborate upon its consequences. Here, finally, the story of Big Bethel is colorfully and compellingly brought to life through the words and deeds of a fascinating array of soldiers, civilians, “contraband” slaves, and politicians whose lives intersected on that fateful day in the early summer of 1861.

Gettysburg: Kids Who Did the Impossible! is a creative, visually-captivating experience for children, young historians, and Civil War enthusiasts alike. Gettysburg was one of the most important battles of the entire Civil War, and author Gregory Christianson brings it to life through breathtaking photographs, extraordinary watercolors, and exciting true-to-life stories. This is the perfect platform for “story guides” Liam and Jaden to celebrate Gettysburg’s young heroes—kids who defied age and inexperience to serve their town, country, and fellow human beings far beyond common valor. This remarkable and wholly unique presentation has something for everyone: single-page introductions for each day of the battle and lots of “have-to-know” facts, all wrapped in a photographic essay of the Gettysburg battlefield as you’ve never seen before.

This volume conveys detailed stories of aerial warfare in the South Pacific, chosen because both Japanese and Allied records can be matched for an accurate accounting. Often the actual outcomes are very different to the exaggerated claims made by both sides upon which many traditional histories have relied to date. Further, for each of the chosen stories photographic or other evidence enables an accurate depiction of the aircraft involved. Through these chosen snapshots Pacific Adversaries portrays the South Pacific conflict as accurately as possible. This first volume describes confrontations between the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) and the Allies in New Guinea and the Solomons. JAAF units first arrived in the South Pacific in December 1942 and effectively ceased operations in mainland New Guinea in April 1944. Theirs is a rich and colourful history about which many myths persist. Perhaps the biggest is that their Allied counterparts thought they were mainly fighting “Zeros”, a falsehood still published and accepted to this day. In New Guinea the Allies ratcheted up a grueling, coordinated and unrelenting campaign, destroying most JAAF air power on the ground, not in the air. Their assault against Wewak’s key bases involved an interwoven and complex strategy which eventually overpowered the Japanese. Never before have detailed accounts matched up adversaries so closely and in doing so shine light on key events in Pacific skies so many years ago.

The importance of Robert E. Lee’s first movement north of the Potomac River in September 1862 is difficult to overstate. After his string of successes in Virginia, a decisive Confederate victory in Maryland or Pennsylvania may well have spun the war in an entirely different direction. Why he and his Virginia army did not find success across the Potomac was due in large measure to the generalship of George B. McClellan, as Steven Stotelmyer ably demonstrates in Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam.Although typecast as the slow and overly cautious general who allowed Lee’s battered army to escape, in fact, argues Stotelmyer, General McClellan deserves significant credit for defeating and turning back the South’s most able general. He does so through five comprehensive chapters, each dedicated to a specific major issue of the campaign:Fallacies Regarding the Lost OrdersAll the Injury Possible: The Day between South Mountain and AntietamAntietam: The Sequel to South MountainGeneral John Pope at Antietam and the Politics behind the Myth of the Unused ReservesSupplies and Demands: The Demise of General George B. McClellanWas McClellan’s response to the discovery of Lee’s Lost Orders really as slow and inept as we have been led to believe? Although routinely dismissed as a small prelude to the main event at Antietam, was the fighting on South Mountain the real Confederate high tide in Maryland? Is the criticism leveled against McClellan for not rapidly pursuing Lee’s army after the victory on South Mountain warranted? Did McClellan fail to make good use of his reserves in the bloody fighting on September 17? Finally, what is the real story behind McClellan’s apparent “failure” to pursue the defeated Confederate army after Antietam, which triggered President Lincoln’s frustration with him and resulted in his removal?Utilizing extensive primary documents and with a keen appreciation for the infrastructure of the nineteenth century Maryland terrain, Stotelmyer deeply explores these longheld beliefs, revealing that often the influence of political considerations dictated military decisionmaking, and the deliberate actions of the Lincoln Administration behind McClellan’s back resulted in bringing about many of the general’s supposed shortcomings. As readers will soon discover, Lincoln did not need to continue searching for a capable commander; he already had one.

The battle of Omaha occupies a prevalent place in our collective memory due to the tragic events that took place there on June 6, 1944. The beach code-named Utah, located at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, has attracted less attention. Wrongly. According to General Eisenhower, the U-Force mission was the most complex and risky because of its distance from the beach and the presence of many German divisions. The 4th Infantry division and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions had to fight hard to secure the Utah area. The scale of the losses alone - 3,500 men in total - demonstrates that the Battle of Utah deserves to be investigated in a new light.

Assault guns were the first armoured vehicles in Waffen SS divisions to be used at the beginning of their military history. This first volume presents Abteilung “Schönberger” from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, in the frontline since 1941 which became SS StuG-Abteilungen “LSSAH”, and in which a young tank commander – Michael Wittmann – began to distinguish himself. We follow the unit during all its engagements. Still in 1941, SS-StuG-Batterie “Reich” engaged in Operation Barbarossa, was the embryo of 2 SS-Panzer-Division assault gun group of the “Das Reich” which we also see in operations. We watch the evolution and the engagement of the first two Waffen-SS Divisions’ assault artillery groups with their histories, eye-witness accounts and numerous photographs, most of which are as yet unpublished, including some superb photos of vehicles, as is usual in the books by Pierre Tiquet. Other volumes will follow presenting the assault gun units from the other Waffen-SS divisions.

This is a comprehensive look at how France influenced the American Revolutionary War in a variety of ways; intellectually, financially, and militarily. It raises the crucial question of whether America could have won its independence without the aid of France. The book begins with an overview of the intellectual and ideological contributions of the French Enlightenment thinkers, called the philosophes, to the American and French revolutions. It then moves to cover the many forms of aid provided by France to support America during the Revolutionary War. This ranged from the covert aid France supplied America before her official entry into the war, to the French outfitters and merchants who provided much-needed military supplies to the Americans. When the war began, the colonists thought the French would welcome an opportunity to retaliate and regain their country. France also provided naval assistance, particularly to the American privateers who harassed British shipping and contributed to the increased shipping rates which added to Great Britain's economic hardships. France's military involvement in the war was equally as important. America's First Ally looks at the contributions of individual French officers and troops, arguing that America could not have won without them. Desmarais explores the international nature of a war which some people have called the first world war. When France and Spain entered the conflict, they fought the Crown forces in their respective areas of economic interest. In addition to the engagements in the Atlantic Ocean, along the American and European coasts and in the West Indies, there are accounts of action in India and the East Indies, South America and Africa. Also included are accounts drawn from ships' logs, court and auction records, newspapers, letters, diaries, journals, and pension applications.

The study of the Civil War in the Western Theater is more popular now than ever before, and the center of that interest is the months-long Vicksburg Campaign, which is the subject of National Park Historian Terrence J. Winschel’s book Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, Vol 2, now in paperback.Following up on the popular success of his earlier book of the same name, Winschel offers ten new chapters of insights into what has been declared by many to have been the most decisive campaign of the Civil War. Designed to appeal to both general readers and serious students, Winschel’s essays cover a wide range of topics.Winschel’s chapters include detailed coverage of military operations, naval engagements, leading personalities, and even an essay about a specific family (the Lords) caught up in the nightmarish 47-day siege that nearly cost them their lives.Smoothly written and deeply researched, these fresh chapters offer balanced and comprehensive analysis written with the authority that only someone who has served as Vicksburg’s Chief Historian since 1978 can produce. Bolstered by photographs, illustrations, and numerous outstanding original maps, this second volume in the Triumph & Defeat series will stand as a lasting contribution to the study of the Civil War.Author Terry Winschel, chief historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, weaves a professional lifetime of personal experience and scholarship into this remarkable study. His chapters cover every major aspect of what many consider to have been the decisive military achievement of the war--the capture of “The Gibraltar of the Confederacy.”

During the first program for motorizing the Reichswehr from 1926, development of three-axled cross-country lorries with a payload of 3 tons was demanded besides others. Three companies were involved in the development: Büssing, Henschel and Krupp. The first Henschel model - the Henschel type 33 B 1 - was delivered in 1928. This profusely illustrated photo album includes over 150 previously unseen pictures, many from private sources in Germany.

After his books about the Pointe du Hoc, WN 62 and recently Pegasus Bridge and the Melville Battery, von Keusgen gives us here a lively chronological account of the airborne attacks carried out by the legendary 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the first hours of the Battle of Normandy. Not only is the text accompanied by American eye-witness accounts of the very bitter fighting around Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the flooded zones and the Merderet Bridges, but also by the accounts of Manche civilians and – von Keusgen’s principal contribution – those of German veterans, too. The reader therefore discovers all the details of what the Fallschirmjäger of the FJR 6 went through, like Bruno Hinz and K. -H. Mayer all mixed up in the fighting at Saint-Côme du Mont and the famous “Dead Man’s Corner”, or like several Grenadiere from the 91. Luftlande-Division, among whom Rudi Escher, about whom we learn more, and the telephonist Heinrich Speiles). The author moreover has had access to period documents which up until now have remained in the shadows, about Generalleutnant Wilhelm Falley and his aide de camp, Major Bartuzat, liquidated during the night of 5 to 6 June 1944. The text is accompanied by a lot of photographs. Without any doubt, this book will motivate those interested in paratroopers and the fighting in the Cotentin Peninsula.

“May God forgive me for the order,” Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge remarked as he ordered young cadets from Virginia Military Institute into the battle lines at New Market, just days after calling them from their academic studies to assist in a crucial defense. Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley had seen years of fighting. In the spring of 1864, Union Maj.

A new book about the Légion Wallonie on the Eastern Front, wearing the uniform of the Heer between 1941 and 1945. This book includes information from unpublished archives, first-hand accounts from the legionaries, and biographies of most of the officers. It is rich in documentation, with photographs never published before and information about the actions and services of the Légion Wallonie. It also documents the propaganda about the Légion Wallonie which contributed to its development and its international reputation. It provides researchers and historians of the Legion with information about the customs and habits, organisation and activities of the internal and external life of the Légion Wallonie.

When U-172, commanded by Carl Emmermann left Kiel on 22 April 1942, the second lucky period for German submarines was ending with the Americans setting up convoys along their coast. From the beginning of the conflict, the means of fighting submarines brought in to play by the Allies, had increased considerably : development of on-board radar, increased numbers of escorts and planes, decrypting submarine radio messages, etc. As a result, combat conditions had seriously deteriorated on the German side. However, from May 1942 to September 1943, Carl Emmermann’s U-172 sank 26 ships during combat patrols, and thus overtook the 150 000-ton figure of Allied shipping destroyed. U-172 was thus 15th of all the U-Boote which had obtained the best results, an exceptional result considering the period in the war. First of all because this submarine went to areas which were especially distant where successwas still possible: the Caribbean for the first mission; the Cape in South Africa for the second where it took part in a surprise attack in a zone where no U-Boot had ever strayed until then; the centre of the Atlantic for its third mission where two convoys were chased in a pack right up to the African coast; the coast of Brazil for the fourth where it was the only one out of seven U-Boote engaged to return. The captain was an good officer and much liked by his men: members of a crew attached to their CO who held on to them preciously from one mission to the next. At the end of his 4th combat mission, Carl Emmermann was the 25th commanding officer of the submarine arm to be awarded the Knights Cross with oak leaves. He accepted a land posting and became the head of the 6th Flotilla at Saint-Nazaire at the beginning of November 1943. U-172 which had already survived 12 air and sea attacks, left on its 6th and last patrol. Without its charismatic captain and in even more difficult combat conditions, it was sunk 21 days after it left. The access the author, a U-Boot specialist, had to Emmermann’s photos preserved in the U-Boot-Archiv and to several photos taken by Helmut Berndt, the war correspondent, enabled the book to illustrate this particular captain’s surprising patrols with 250 exceptional unpublished photos. Thanks to the translation of the log book, to the eye-witness account by Captain Emmermann himself and the patrol sketches, you can follow U-172 on its missions across distant oceans…

The leichter geländegängiger Personenkraftwagen, or l. gl. Einheits-Pkw - light off-road passenger cars - were manufactured by Stoewer, Hanomag and BMW from 1936 to early 1944. The superstructures were delivered by ten different companies and were identical from each manufacturer. Early versions had both 4-wheel drive and steering which later was dropped to just 4 wheel drive and front wheel steering.These off road cars were used by the German Army in 4 distinct versions with the designations Kfz. 1, Kfz. 2, Kfz. 3 and Kfz. 4This profusely illustrated photo album includes over 120 previously unseen pictures, many from private sources in Germany.

During WW2, the German armed forces were by far the greatest user of half-track vehicles. Such vehicles were used in the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS, where they served as personnel carriers, tractors, combat engineering vehicles, as well as self-propelled carriages for antiaircraft guns.Sd. Kfz. 8 Schwerer Zugkraftwagen 12t - (heavy half-track vehicle 12 tons) was a German half-track that saw widespread use in World War II. Its main role wa as a prime mover for heavy towed guns such as the 21 cm Mörser 18, the 15 cm Kanone 18, and the 10.5 cm FlaK 38. Approximately 4,000 were produced between 1934 and 1945. It was used in every campaign fought by the Germans in World War II.