Историческая литература
Различные книги в жанре Историческая литератураTakedown
Over time the impression has grown that the 2003 invasion of Iraq met with little resistance and that, with few exceptions, the Iraqi army simply melted away. As this book clearly shows, nothing could be further from the truth. In its drive to capture Baghdad, the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division was in nearly constant combat for twenty-one days. While Americans were watching Saddam's statue being torn down on TV, a brigade of the 3rd ID was on the verge of being overrun by Iraqi Republican Guard units trying to escape north. Told to hold two bridges in his sector, a brigade commander had to blow up one of them because he did not have the combat power to hold it. The company commander holding the other bridge was so hard pressed that he called on the artillery to fire their final protective fires a command made only when a unit is in mortal danger and one that had not been given since Vietnam. Every one of the division's armored vehicles was hit by rockets some taking more than a dozen hits and the fighting was so fierce at times that entire battalions ran out of ammunition. Nevertheless, when the fighting was finally over, the 3rd ID had destroyed two Iraqi Regular Army divisions and three divisions of the much vaunted Republican Guard.Takedown tells the little-known story of what happened to the 3rd ID during its struggle to win Baghdad, a campaign that some call one of the most vicious in American military history. To offer this firsthand account, Jim Lacey, a former Time magazine reporter embedded with the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, draws on extensive interviews that he conducted with the American soldiers involved as well as access to personal papers and war memoirs. This story is also enriched through his extensive use of interview transcripts of senior Iraqi army officers along with their personal written recollections. From the Kuwaiti border to the streets of Baghdad, these dramatic eyewitness descriptions of what went on give readers an accurate look at the brutal engagements in which the division fought for its life.In making use of such a wealth of primary source material, Lacey has succeeded in writing a fast paced narrative of the conflict, backed up by verifiable facts, that shows how modern wars are really fought.
Driven Patriot
A biography of the brilliant, ambitious Forrestal whose career took him from the Wall Street to Washington.
Lost Crusade
When Peter Scott began a 1968 tour in Vietnam advising ethnic Cambodian Khmer Krom paramilitaries, they shared only an earnest desire to check the spread of communism. It took nearly thirty years and a chance reunion for him to realize just how much they had become a part of him. Successfully blending intense combat narrative and stirring emotional drama, Scott vividly captures both the unique village culture of a little-known, highly spiritual people and their complex relationship with Special Forces soldiers, who found it increasingly difficult to match their charges' commitment to the costly conflict. Building on his experiences as a Phoenix Program adviser near the Cambodian border, extensive interviews with Khmer Krom survivors, hundreds of hours of research in government archives, and requests for Freedom of Information Act disclosures, Scott seamlessly reconstructs the six-thousand-strong mercenary force's final crusade against communism, beginning in their ancestral home in 1970 and ending on the U.S. West Coast in 1995.
The Devil's Brigade
The 'Devil's Brigade' was the name given to US/Canadian special forces in World War II, who saw action in the Aleutian Islands, Italy and the south of France. This account was co-written by a brigade veteran and includes profiles of many of his comrades in this famously rugged unit.
Flash Point North Korea
During a dark period of U.S. military history in the late 1960s, North Korean forces captured an American naval vessel and shot down an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft, taking the lives of thirty-one U.S. sailors and Marines and striking a damaging blow to American honor. This look back to that earlier time of crisis provides serious food for thought as contemporary strategists again grapple with a North Korean regime that threatens regional security and U.S. national interests. The capture of USS Pueblo has been written about extensively but rarely in context with the shoot down four months later of an EC-121 aircraft and never with so much relevant documentation Richard Mobley, a veteran naval intelligence officer who served on the staff of U.S. forces in Korea during the late 1990s–confronting many of the same challenges faced in the 1960s and today–has uncovered a vast array of recently declassified documents that shed new light on these events and address lingering questions about U.S. reactions and its failure to retaliate. The formerly top secret answers to these and many other frequently asked questions are all covered in Mobley's groundbreaking investigation. His careful examination of the resource strains caused by concurrent U.S. involvement in Vietnam the unexecuted retaliatory plans, and lessons learned confirms many criticisms long leveled at U.S. planners and decision-makers. It also challenges other criticisms by revealing new information and by placing these facts in the context of the time. The author couples the wisdom of hindsight with the revelation of new information for a timely new work on a subject of ongoing and vital importance.
Inside the Danger Zone
From the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark to Iranian mine fields to Revolutionary Guard gunboats, the 1987-88 Persian Gulf was a place of shadowy danger for U.S. Navy ships assigned to protect oil tankers during the Iran-Iraq War. A low-profile escort mission quickly became an international test of wills between the United States and Iran. The conflict escalated to involve secret missions and special operations until finally the United States and Iran engaged in open combat, most notably during Operation Praying Mantis in April 1988, the world's largest sea-air battle since World War II.It was the largest deployment of American forces between the Vietnam War and Desert Storm and one with dramatic implications for subsequent events. Yet, the story remained mostly untold and misunderstood for almost two decades. Inside the Danger Zone is the first book ever published to focus on this period, a fourteen-month span that saw an unprecedented series of American military action in this volatile region.Based on declassified documents and extensive interviews with veterans and government officials, many of which spoke out for the first time, Inside the Danger Zone is a fast moving narrative history that tells the story of this quasi-war with Iran from the White House to the front lines.
On Yankee Station
Combining vivid personal narrative with historical and operational analyses, this book takes a candid look at U.S. naval airpower in the Vietnam War. Coauthors John Nichols, a fighter pilot in the war, and Barrett Tillman, an award-winning aviation historian, make full use of their extensive knowledge of the subject to detail the ways in which airpower was employed in the years prior to the fall of Saigon. Confronting the conventional belief that airpower failed in Vietnam, they show that when applied correctly, airpower was effective, but because it was often misunderstood and misapplied, the end results were catastrophic. Their book offers a compelling view of what it was like to fly from Yankee Station between 1964 and 1973 and important lessons for future conflicts. At the same time, it adds important facts to the permanent war record.Following an analysis of the state of carrier aviation in 1964 and a definition of the rules of engagement, it describes the tactics used in strike warfare, the airborne and surface threats, electronic countermeasures, and search and rescue. It also examines the influence of political decisions on the conduct of the war and the changing nature of the Communist opposition. Appendixes provide useful statistical data on carrier deployments, combat sorties, and aircraft losses.
Japanese Destroyer Captain
This highly regarded war memoir was a best seller in both Japan and the United States during the 1960s and has long been treasured by historians for its insights into the Japanese side of the surface war in the Pacific. The author was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies and was known throughout Japan as the Unsinkable Captain. A hero to his countrymen, Capt. Hara exemplified the best in Japanese surface commanders: highly skilled, hard driving, and aggressive. Moreover, he maintained a code of honor worthy of his samurai grandfather, and, as readers of this book have come to appreciate, he was as free with praise for American courage and resourcefulness as he was critical of himself and his senior commanders.
Burn After Reading
Fought under the cover of elaborate deceptions and ruthless lies, the deadly intelligence operations of World War II produced victories and defeats that were often as important as any reached on the battlefield. A behind-the-scenes history of the war, this book offers an exciting picture of the whole range of clandestine activities, the various forms of intelligence, espionage and sabotage, subversion and counter-espionage–the entire secret war conducted apart from conventional warfare. The major exploits of the O.S.S., M.I.5, Abwehr, and the Deuxieme Bureau are described in colorful detail by an author considered one of the foremost civilian experts on intelligence during the war. Ladislas Farago's account of Allied and Axis spymasters at work offers compelling reading about real traitors and heroes in cloak-and-dagger-dom.
At War in Distant Waters
A Great and Urgent Imperial Service investigates the reasons behind Great Britain’s combined military and naval offensive expeditions of Europe during the Great War. These campaigns have been branded by various historians as unnecessary sideshows to the conflict waged on the European continent. Pattee argues that the various campaigns were necessary adjuncts to the war in Europe, and fulfilled an important strategic purpose by protecting British trade where it was most vulnerable. Since international trade was essential for maintaining the island nation’s way of life, Great Britain required freedom of the seas in order to maintain its global trade. While the German High Seas Fleet constituted a serious threat that placed the British coast at grave risk, forcing the Royal Navy to concentrate in home waters, the importance of the island empire’s global trade made it a valuable and vulnerable target to Germany’s various commerce raiders—as Admiral Tirpitz’s risk theory had anticipated.