Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston’s brilliance in adapting to the evolving art of war set him apart as one of the Civil War’s most innovative strategists. Johnston keenly understood the revolutionary impact of new technologies—rifled muskets, railroads, telegraphs, and trench warfare-and applied these insights to conserve the South’s most critical resource: its soldiers. His motto, “Let the place go, and save the garrison,” encapsulated his belief in prioritizing manpower over territory; he was convinced of the importance of concentrating force to overcome the advantage in numbers the Union enjoyed. Johnston’s reputation as a master tactician was widely recognized, even by his adversaries. Renowned British war correspondent Sir William Howard Russell lauded him in 1861 as the Confederacy’s finest strategist. Years later, Union General Ulysses S. Grant conceded that Johnston caused him more anxiety than any other Southern commander, stating, “Take it all in all, the South, in my opinion, had no better soldier than Joe Johnston—none at least that gave me more trouble.”Despite his genius, Johnston’s career was marred by his fraught relationship with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis was critical of Johnston and his meddling undermined Johnston’s strategies and weakened the Southern war effort. As noted by his contemporary, General James Longstreet, Johnston’s talents for army command and campaign management were unparalleled, but he was denied the opportunities afforded to others. This book argues that with proper support and alignment of leadership, Johnston’s innovative strategies might have altered the course of the war.Widely regarded as the first modern war, the Civil War demanded visionary leadership. This new biography of Johnston sheds light on his legacy as a brilliant leader, offering a fresh perspective on a conflict that defined a nation.

"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“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 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.

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.

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.

40 color profiles of the famous : SPAD 13 C1, A French famous WWI fighter. French and other foreign users’ camouflages are shown.

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.

The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 was critical in determining the outcome of the American Civil War and helped reelect Abraham Lincoln that November, assuring eventual victory. The largely overlooked campaign in Georgia has seen a resurgence of interest in the past decade. Dennis B. Conklin adds to the growing literature with Conflict and Controversy in the Confederate High Command: Davis, Johnston, Hood and the Atlanta Campaign of 1864.Conklin’s account, which originally appeared as a Ph.D. dissertation, offers a look at the dysfunctional relationships that permeated upper echelon leadership and helped lead to the defeat of the Army of Tennessee and the loss of the important logistical rail city. Crucial flaws in Jefferson Davis’s leadership in general, he explains, and the mutual distrust between the Southern president and Joseph E. Johnston (commander of the Army of Tennessee), had them working at cross purposes. As the campaign progressed and large swaths of territory were lost to Gen. William T. Sherman’s advancing armies, the ongoing hostile relationship between Davis, Johnston, corps commander John Bell Hood, and Georgia’s Governor Joseph Brown intensified.Davis’s initial uneasiness with Johnston at the helm was part of the reason he elevated Hood to lead an infantry corps in the primary Western army before the campaign opened. Hood, who matured as a tactical commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under the aggressive Robert E. Lee, grew increasingly frustrated by Johnston’s withdrawals, leading to what Conklin believes was their inevitable clash at Cassville—a critical dispute fueled by inconsistent maps and conflicting battlefield ideologies. The resultant letters to and from key players in Richmond did nothing to increase Davis’s faith in Johnston’s leadership and contributed to Hood’s eventual elevation to command of the army.Conflict and Controversy in the Confederate High Command is a fascinating fast-paced study on the politics of command, human nature, and the stress of war, and how it all combined to influence the outcome of the Civil War’s most important campaign.

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.

The weeks of bloody maneuvering and fighting along the Delaware River at Fort Mercer, Fort Mifflin, and Gloucester receive but scant attention in the literature of the American Revolution. The same is true for the five-day Whitemarsh operation and other important events in December 1777. Award-winning author Michael C. Harris’s impressive Fighting for Philadelphia: Forts Mercer and Mifflin, the Battle of Whitemarsh, and the Road to Valley Forge, October 5-December 19, 1777 rescues these important actions from obscurity, puts them in context with the Saratoga Campaign, and closes his magnificent trilogy that began with Brandywine and left off with Germantown.This period of the war began when General Sir William Howe’s army of 16,500 British and Hessian soldiers set out aboard a 265-ship armada from New York to capture Philadelphia in late July 1777. Six difficult weeks later, Howe landed near Elkton, Maryland, moved north into Pennsylvania, and defeated Washington’s army in the large battle at Brandywine on September 11. Philadelphia fell to the British.On October 4, Washington launched a successful surprise attack obscured by darkness and a heavy morning fog against the British garrison at Germantown. The recapture of the colonial capital seemed within Washington’s grasp until poor battlefield decisions brought about a reversal of fortune and a clear British victory. Like Brandywine, however, the bloody Germantown scrap proved Continental soldiers could stand toe-to-toe with British Regulars. What followed was a protected quasi-siege of the British garrison in Germantown prior to the travails soon to come that winter at Valley Forge.Harris’s Fighting for Philadelphia is the first complete study to merge the strategic, political, and tactical history of the complex operations sandwiched between Germantown and the arrival of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Harris’s sweeping prose relies almost exclusively on original archival research and a deep personal knowledge of the terrain, highlighted by eighteen original maps, illustrations, and modern photos. Told largely through the words of those who fought there, Fighting for Philadelphia is sure to please the most discriminating reader and assume its place as one of the finest military studies of its kind.

The Brennans have done it again. Gettysburg in Color: Sacred Ground, 1863-1938 completes this groundbreaking trilogy.Patrick Brennan, a long-time student of the Civil War and editorial advisor for The Civil War Monitor magazine, with his technology-astute daughter Dylan Brennan, brought Gettysburg into the 21st century with Gettysburg in Color: Vol. 1: Brandy Station to the Peach Orchard, and Vol. 2: The Wheatfield to Falling Waters. The third and final entry examines the battlefield’s transformation from post-battle Hell to American shrine.The Brennans used an artificial intelligence-based computerized color identifier to determine the general color of uniforms, flesh, hair, equipment, terrain, houses, and much more. More research honed in on the exact colors. The result is a monumental full-color study of the important three-day battle like it has never been seen before.The deep colorization of battle-related woodcuts, for example, reveals a plethora of details that have passed generations of eyes unseen. The photos of the soldiers, their officers, and the returning veterans look as if they were taken yesterday.Gettysburg in Color: Sacred Ground, 1863-1938 details the meandering and fascinating story up to the eve of World War II by surveying the post-battle cleanup, the establishment of the National Cemetery, land acquisition and the monument movement, the three major anniversary celebrations, Camp Colt and the Marine reenactment of 1922, and the creation of the National Military Park. Even the effects of the automobile revolution and its deep impact on the park are covered in entertaining detail.This sweeping installment closes the series, which every student of history in general, and the Civil War in particular, will want to own for a lifetime.

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.

At a regimental reunion in 1880, former Confederate Brigadier General Samuel McGowan lauded the 12th South Carolina Infantry as “The finest of that immortal army,” “foremost in the charge,” and “the invincible Twelfth.” The 12th regiment was part of McGowan’s Brigade from early 1863 through the end of the war. The aging brigadier, wounded four times in combat, was an authority on the regiment’s reputation. “It would be impossible on an occasion of this kind, to give anything like a history of the Twelfth Regiment, or tell half of its gallant deeds. That,” he declared, “would require a volume.” With Benjamin L. Cwayna’s The Invincible Twelfth: The 12th South Carolina Infantry of the Gregg-McGowan Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, that volume has finally arrived.The field career of the regiment kicked off with an embarrassing defeat in its first engagement on the South Carolina coast in 1861 at Port Royal Sound. The demoralizing event could have set the regiment on a path of self-fulfilling failure and disaster, but a change in colonels from a perpetually absent political appointee to a scrappy legislator born and bred in the upcountry turned the tide. Dixon Barnes instilled discipline and strong leadership in the unit and began a transformational process that turned the raw recruits into some of the Confederacy’s most reliable soldiers.The 12th was transferred to what would become Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and was brigaded with four other regiments from the Palmetto State. Together, they fought in nearly every major engagement of the war in the Eastern Theater. The 12th earned a high reputation within the army for drill and discipline, and was well known for its impetuous, devastating, and sometimes reckless attacks and counterattacks. That penchant for taking the fight to the enemy came at a bloody price. By the end of the war, only 149 of the nearly 1,400 men who served in the ranks of the regiment surrendered at Appomattox Court House.Author Cwayna based his study on fifteen years of diligent research, mining every available primary source for information to painstakingly construct the 12th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry’s history from its formation in 1861 until its last official reunion in the 1880s and beyond. Through the words of its soldiers and officers, the stories of long and arduous marches, lack of food, horrendous and unimaginable carnage in battle, and a singular focus on continuing the struggle to gain independence at any cost and under innumerable odds takes shape. The Invincible Twelfth is the story of a remarkable regiment which has long deserved to have its story told.