Some of the most daring naval raids undertaken during World War II involved the use of midget submarines — craft of under 150 tons and crewed by just a handful of men — including Japanese midget submarines deployed at Pearl Harbor, the British X-craft attack on the Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord protected by layers of antisubmarine defenses, an Italian Maiale attaching limpet mines to the HMS Valiant, and German craft attacking Allied shipping off landing beaches.This Casemate Illustrated Special features all classes of midget subs and human torpedoes designed and used during World War II, and explores how they were used, featuring firsthand accounts from the men who operated these tiny craft. It will also feature the recovery of various wrecks of German, British, Japanese, and Italian midget submarines, including the search for the midget submarines sunk at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The final chapter will feature the restoration, testing and successful operation of a German Biber midget submarine.The expert text will be accompanied by both period photographs and exterior and interior images of the many midget submarines preserved in museums to this day.

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 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.

When we think of the German Army we think of the Blitzkrieg years, 1939–41, during which Panzers pushed deep into enemy territory and forced huge encirclement battles that annihilated the enemy’s strength in Poland, France, the Balkans and the Soviet Union. With their Auftragstaktik and cutting-edge weaponry, they epitomised incisive modern war.However, there was an elephant in the room, and in spite of their superb battlefield leadership, their brilliant victories, their technical prowess, their mighty Tigers and Panthers, they lost because of it. It wasn’t, as the German generals argued postwar, the Soviet hordes that swamped them. It wasn’t the industrial capabilities of the United States. It wasn’t the control exerted by a dictator increasingly removed from the real world. It wasn’t the amount of effort spent transporting millions of people to their deaths in the camps, or the amount of concrete poured into the Atlantic Wall from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.All these points helped swing the war in the Allies’ favour but they weren’t the main reason why the German Wehrmacht lost. The elephant in the room was logistics.It’s easy to point out how well the Germans achieved their Blitzkrieg successes, but the war didn’t end in 1941. It’s easy to talk about the positives of German logistics—the fact that they could advance so far into the Soviet Union over such difficult terrain until the weather and poor roads conspired against them; the way that German industry kept going in spite of Allied strategic bombing; the resilience and resourcefulness of the way they kept the railways running, allowing huge numbers of men and armoured vehicles to shuttle from east to west as they were needed.In the end, at the critical moments in the war, their logistics failed them

As 1941 dawned, the British were mopping up the last Italian strongholds in Libya after seven months of fighting. The outnumbered British Western Desert force of 30,000 men had effectively defeated an Italian force of 250,000. The British had captured hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers, plus hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces and several thousand valuable trucks, and pushed the Italians out of Egypt and then across the coastline of Libya until they controlled only a small section of western Libya. In response to this collapse, Adolf Hitler intervened, sending the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel to reinforce Mussolini’s struggling forces. From March to December 1941, German and Italian troops clashed with the British Commonwealth forces in a series of major battles. Despite limited resources, Rommel’s tactical prowess allowed him to outmaneuver the British, launching rapid offensives that pushed them back into western Egypt. The British, determined to protect the Suez Canal, mounted their own counteroffensives—Operations Brevity, Battleaxe, and Crusader—but struggled to gain the upper hand.A key flashpoint was the port of Tobruk—the only major port in the theater still held by the British. Besieged for much of 1941, its defenders withstood repeated Axis assaults, preventing Rommel from securing a crucial supply hub. By the end of the year, both sides had suffered heavy losses, and the campaign ended in a stalemate, setting the stage for further clashes in 1942.Featuring over 150 photographs, detailed maps, and artwork, this book provides an in-depth look at the soldiers, strategies, and shifting tides of the 1941 desert war.

In the first week of October 1944, in the dense forests of the Vosges Mountains, 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, teetered on the brink of total annihilation. German troops and tanks surrounded all three of its rifle companies, along with their H Company heavy weapons attachments. Supply routes and communication lines had been severed by intense artillery and tank shelling. Faced with the probability of impending death or capture, the battalion confronted this formidable attack with determination and courage, embodying the motto of the 45th Division—Always Forward!The majority of an entire infantry company, along with its heavy weapons attachments, was captured in that forest. The remaining two battalion companies, E and G, lost more than half of their men in hand-to-hand combat after exhausting their ammunition. After fighting throughout the day and night they attempted to fight back through to their own lines through the dark woods, encountering enemy strongpoints and firefights in the darkness, only to find enemy troops using 180th’s foxholes.Nearly 50% of the battle casualties among all American troops in France in October 1944 were sustained by the divisions pushing north through the small French villages nestled in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. One of them was Steve C. Reyka, who served as an H Company heavy machine gunner. He had been with 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, since Italy. With the other survivors of the battle, Reyka fought his way back through enemy lines. He managed to avoid capture, but he left something behind in that dark forest and never spoke of his experiences. His son, Michael finally uncovered the reality of his experiences after searching official military documents and then eventually retracing H Company’s progress through France. He stood in the foxholes they dug—even finding the machine-gun foxhole that Steve used near Frémifontaine during the intense fighting in which most of his comrades were captured or killed.This book incorporates the story of 2nd Battalion’s harrowing fight for survival and the personal account of a son uncovering his father’s untold legacy. Through extensive research, Michael Reyka bridges the gap between history and memory, bringing to life the human toll of war.

When World War II broke out, Dane Hans Tofte gave up his promising career in the maritime industry to come first to the aid of his own country, and then to the assistance of several other nations in a time of needHe went undercover with the British SOE, aiding Chinese guerrillas in the China Commando Group against the Japanese, then with OSS as a training officer then an operations officer, engaged in paramilitary operations supporting the Yugoslav partisans, investigating the credible threat of Uboats launching V1 rockets against New York City, and training foreign agents to parachute into Germany late in the war. Postwar he joined CIA, where he engaged in paramilitary and psychological warfare operations during the Korean War, including launching an escape and evasion (E&E) operation to rescue downed Allied pilots, as well as creatively and effectively thwarting a Chinese resupply operation, thereby saving the US government $1 million. During the Cold War, he engaged in various disinformation campaigns, morale operations, and regime change, to stymie the Soviet Union and its allies. When the end came, it began on an innocuous note—Tofte simply wanted to rent out the basement apartment in his home in the most fashionable quadrant of Washington D.C. in 1966. However, by its denouement, his accomplished career in the intelligence community would be at an abrupt end, a national agency already facing harsh scrutiny would be embroiled in controversy, and America would be reading all about it as the case progressed through the judicial system.Tofte was an imperfect but accomplished role model; a little-known but significant figure in the history of 20thcentury military and civilian intelligence whose factual and nuanced story should be told and appreciated. This first English-language biography highlights his boldly creative and extensive contributions to the developing intelligence community.

"…a pageturner that reads like a novel, made better by the fact that it is true." — ARMY MagazineKelly Eads joined the 101st Airborne Division soon after 9/11, his experience reflecting the patriotism and commitment of so many young men and women who responded to the attack. He deployed to Iraq twice with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment. Early in their deployment to Iraq, the 2nd Battalion brought the fight directly to the enemy by setting up patrol bases in the local areas where they lived and operated. Soon they built a reputation for themselves, becoming known to the enemy as the Black Hearts—The 502nd had been distinguished on the battlefield by black hearts on their helmets since World War II. Their Scout Platoon became known as Painted Guns due to their practice of camouflaging their rifles.During Eads’ deployments, the battalion would experience thousands of Improvised Explosive Devices and firefights. They would spend countless hours in blistering 120degree desert heat, controlling roads and preventing enemy freedom of movement; and would dedicate months to hunting enemy mortar teams and terror cells.With the help of Dan Morgan, an Infantry officer who deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan as a commander and operations officer, Eads takes the reader on a rollercoaster of combat experiences during the hunt for the most violent terrorist in Iraq, Abū Muṣʻab Zarqāwī, bringing to life the painstaking and horrid details of combat in a sectarian war. He tells the story of the soldiers’ camaraderie, built through adversity, and the love of family that sustained them.

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.

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.

While most of the fighting of the War of 1812 raged along the Canadian border, the Gulf of Mexico eventually emerged as a critical battleground. The struggle for control of the Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans became a high-stakes contest, with both the United States and Great Britain recognizing the region’s strategic and economic importance. The Mississippi was the main artery for trade and communication in the trans-Appalachian west, and New Orleans, positioned at the river’s mouth, was vital for controlling the region’s commerce. For Britain, capturing the city would not only cripple the American economy but also provide a bargaining tool during peace negotiations. For the United States, safeguarding New Orleans was essential to securing its western territories and preventing foreign powers from gaining a foothold on its southern frontier.The fighting in the Gulf Theater also reflected broader geopolitical tensions. Spain’s declining hold on Florida and Louisiana complicated the region’s dynamics, as did Britain’s support for Native American resistance to U.S. expansion. The Creeks and other southeastern tribes were drawn into the conflict, with devastating consequences for their communities.The campaigns in the Gulf culminated in the battle of New Orleans, where Andrew Jackson’s forces decisively repelled a British invasion. Although the battle occurred after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed, it cemented U.S. control over the region and boosted national confidence in the war’s aftermath.This illustrated volume examines key episodes in the theater including the battles of Fort Bowyer, the capture of Pensacola, the fighting at New Orleans and the battle of Fort St. Philip, and situates these events within the broader context of U.S. territorial ambitions and Native American resistance.

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.

An “adrenaline junky,” Ted Mataxis was the perennial volunteer who saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.After just three and a half years in the Army, he was a battalion commander in brutal combat with the 2nd Battalion, 276th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division “Trail Blazers,” during the last German offensive during the winter of 1944. In the spring of 1945 he participated in the breakthrough of the Siegfried Line and the subsequent pursuit into Bavaria. Volunteering to go to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan, he was en route when the atomic bombs were dropped. He returned to Europe for occupation duty, seeing the start of the Cold War in Berlin.In 1950, he attended the Indian Army Staff College then served in Kashmir with the United Nation Peacekeeping Mission. He then volunteered for the Korean War where he commanded a regiment, at the age of 36, during the bitter campaigns of Triangle, T-Bone, and Pork Chop Hills. This was followed by an early tour in Vietnam as Senior Advisor to the ARVN Commanding General of II Corps for the 16 months that heralded the escalation of the fighting by the introduction of the regiments of the North Vietnamese regular army. Upon the arrival of American troops in February 1966, he became the Deputy Commander of the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. After serving in Iran, he volunteered to go to Vietnam for a second tour, serving as Assistant Division Commander and then as Acting Division Commander.In 1971, with one day’s notice, he was assigned as Chief of the Military Equipment Delivery Team for Cambodia (MEDT-C). He retired from there in 1972. During the Soviet–Afghan War, he became the field representative/coordinator for A Committee for a Free Afghanistan, spending time behind the lines with the Mujahedeen where he was known as “The Old American General who brought them Stinger Missiles.” When he became “too old to run with the young dogs,” he finished out his years as a professor for American Military University sharing his experiences and mentoring young military personnel.

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.

Africa currently faces more wars, insurgencies, army mutinies, coups d’état and rebellions than at any time since World War II. Conflict in all forms has become endemic, now accentuated by a relative newcomer: Jihadism, increasingly linked to either Islamic State or al-Qaeda.The year 2020 saw a record high in state-based conflicts on the African continent: around 22,000 incidents of armed conflict recorded. There were two dozen country-based military struggles recorded, three or four more than in 2018. Of these, 13 battled over territory, the highest number ever. Incidents of conflict have risen each year since, and the broader canvas since Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine suggests things will continue to worsen. Islamic Jihadist forces are responsible for much of this, involved in a succession of conflicts in Africa. These range all the way across the Sub-Sahara swathe, Mauretania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad, the Sudans as well as Somalia. A more recent entrant to the fray is Tanzania, whose Dar es Salaam government in late 2021 appealed to the European Union for military help to counter an escalating Jihadist insurgency in its southern province.The upward trend is sobering. And there are long-term security implications both within and beyond Africa – if conditions do deteriorate, Europe will ultimately be threatened. Veteran war correspondent Al Venter brings his decades of experience to illuminate what Islamic Jihadist forces are effecting in Africa, and why, and what the future may hold.

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,” andthus has devoted years of effort to unveiling the crucial, yet heretofore unwritten, role that they played in the ultimate Allied victory.