America's First Frogman
America's First Frogman

Author: Elizabeth Kauffman Bush

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2012-12-09

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1612512984

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Although bad eyesight kept him from receiving a commission in the U.S. Navy when he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1933, Draper Kauffman became a hero of underwater demolition in World War II and went on to a distinguished naval career. Today Admiral Kauffman is remembered as the nation's first frogman and the father of the Navy Seals. His spectacular wartime service disarming enemy bombs, establishing bomb disposal schools, and organizing and leading the Navy's first demolition units is the focus of this biography written by Kauffman's sister. Elizabeth Kauffman Bush, who also is the aunt of President George W. Bush, draws on family papers as well as Navy documents to tell Kauffman's story for the first time. Determined to defend the cause of freedom long before the U.S. ever entered the war, Kauffman was taken prisoner by the Germans as an ambulance driver in France, and after his release joined the Royal Navy to defuse delayed-action bombs during the London blitz. After Pearl Harbor his eyes were deemed adequate and he was given a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve. With his experience, he was asked to establish an underwater demolition school in Fort Pierce, Florida, where he personally trained men to defuse bombs and neutralize other submerged dangers. His men were sent to demolish the obstacles installed by the Nazis at Normandy, and Kauffman himself led underwater demolition teams in the Pacific at Saipan, Tinian, and Guam and later directed UDT operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. His men remember him as an exceptional leader who led by example. He trained and fought alongside them, impervious to danger. Because of the high standards he set for those who became "frogmen,"thousands of American lives were saved in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Draper Kauffman's early established UDT traditions of perseverance, teamwork, and a lasting brotherhood of men of extraordinary courage is carried on by Navy Seals. This is his legacy to the U.S. Navy and his country.

The Frogmen of World War II
The Frogmen of World War II

Author: Chet Cunningham

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-11-01

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 1416595805

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The exciting story of the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team—also known as the Frogmen of WWII—who were the precursors to today's Navy SEALs, in their own words. As countless battlefronts in the Pacific, African, and European theaters called for direct amphibious assaults against islands and beachheads, a small corps of exceptionally skilled fighting men was formed—the U.S. Navy underwater warriors. Beginning in 1943, these men undertook never-before-attempted missions ranging from eye-to-eye recon of enemy-held positions to staging the demolition of shoreline obstacles and clearing the way for landing craft. Here, in their own words, are the true stories of these aquatic commandos, whose daring exploits and bravery would pave the way for thousands of American fighting men around the globe—and whose revolutionary training and fighting methods would evolve into the modern special forces known as the Navy SEALs.

Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die
Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die

Author: Giles Milton

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2019-03-12

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1250134927

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A ground-breaking account of the first 24 hours of the D-Day invasion told by a symphony of incredible accounts of unknown and unheralded members of the Allied – and Axis – forces. An epic battle that involved 156,000 men, 7,000 ships and 20,000 armoured vehicles, D-Day was, above all, a tale of individual heroics – of men who were driven to keep fighting until the German defences were smashed and the precarious beachheads secured. This authentic human story – Allied, German, French – has never fully been told. Giles Milton’s bold new history narrates the events of June 6th, 1944 through the tales of survivors from all sides: the teenage Allied conscript, the crack German defender, the French resistance fighter. From the military architects at Supreme Headquarters to the young schoolboy in the Wehrmacht’s bunkers, Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die lays bare the absolute terror of those trapped in the front line of Operation Overlord. It also gives voice to those who have hitherto remained unheard – the French butcher’s daughter, the Panzer Commander’s wife, the chauffeur to the General Staff. This vast canvas of human bravado reveals “the longest day” as never before – less as a masterpiece of strategic planning than a day on which thousands of scared young men found themselves staring death in the face. It is drawn in its entirety from the raw, unvarnished experiences of those who were there.

Frogmen
Frogmen

Author: William Schofield

Publisher: Branden Publishing Company

Published: 2004-12-31

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9780828320887

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The authors recount the history of underwater warfare -- a new type of guerrilla war developed by the Italian navy toward the end of World War I and completely implemented during World War II. This type of warfare, conducted by frogmen with special training and prototype equipment, proved fatal to Allied civilian and military ships operating in the Mediterranean Sea. Single frogmen, or frogmen in teams of two, four or six, sank more vessels than any other traditionally formed military entity. It's main unit was the X Light Flotilla, whose frogmen conquered the Mediterranean and even planned an attack on the city of New York -- not completed due to War coming to an end.

Down Range
Down Range

Author: Dick Couch

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2005-07-19

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 030723875X

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In America’s battle against global terrorism, the goal of the Navy SEALs is to be the best guns in the fight—stealthy, effective, professional, and lethal. Here for the first time is a SEAL insider’s battle history of these Special Operations warriors in the war on terrorism. “Down range” is what SEALs in Afghanistan and Iraq call their area of operations. In this new mode of warfare, “down range” can refer to anything from tracking roving bands of al-Qaeda on a remote mountain trail in Afghanistan to taking down an armed compound in Tikrit and rousting holdouts from Saddam Hussein’s regime. It could mean interdicting insurgents smuggling car-bomb explosives over the Iraqi-Syrian border or silently boarding a freighter on the high seas at night to enforce an embargo. In other words, “down range” could be anywhere, anytime, under any conditions. In Down Range, author Dick Couch, himself a former Navy SEAL and CIA case officer, uses his unprecedented access to bring the reader firsthand accounts from the warriors in combat during key missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Couch creates a pulse-pounding, detailed narrative of the definitive engagements of this war, while painting an unusually intimate portrait of these warriors in the field. The performance of the SEALs in difficult, changing environments—in the heat of the Afghan desert, in the snow-packed Hindu Kush, on the high seas, and in the urban chaos of Baghdad—has been nothing short of extraordinary. The SEALs, coordinating with other American forces, the CIA, and foreign special operations units like the Polish GROM, have once more shown their genius for improvisation and capacity for courageous action in leading the fight against this new and vicious enemy. The first battle history of its kind, Down Range is a riveting close-up of some of America’s finest warriors in action against a deadly foe.

Frogman
Frogman

Author: James Edmond Macdonnell

Publisher:

Published: 1970

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 9780725500528

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First Seal
First Seal

Author: Roy Boehm

Publisher: Pocket Star Books

Published: 2003-04

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780671536268

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He's the godfather of the U.S. Navy SEALs -- the founder of the boldest, brightest,baddestbunch of commandos on the face of the planet. Now Roy Boehm tells how he mastered survival as a warrior -- and changed the course of twentieth-century warfare. Roy Boehm was fated for heroism from the moment he shipped out with the U.S. Navy, eight months before Pearl Harbor. His brilliant fighting career would lead him from the sea battles of the South Pacific to the killing fields of Vietnam. As World War II came to a close and the Cold War began, Boehm saw the need for an unconventional warrior. Drawing on his expertise as a diver and member of the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams, he created a force capable of attack from sea, air, or land. This unique dedicated and ruthless unit would become the legendary Navy SEALs. With the impact of a depth charge,First Sealdelivers a no-holds-barred look at what it takes to be one of that rare breed of men who live for war...or die for their country.

By Water Beneath the Walls
By Water Beneath the Walls

Author: Benjamin H. Milligan

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2024-07-16

Total Pages: 641

ISBN-13: 0553392212

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A gripping history chronicling the fits and starts of American special operations and the ultimate rise of the Navy SEALs from unarmed frogmen to elite, go-anywhere commandos—as told by one of their own. “Deeply researched, well organized, and incredibly engaging . . . This is our legacy with all the warts, the challenges, and the heroics in one concise volume.”—Admiral William H. McRaven, #1 New York Times bestselling author and former commander, United States Special Operations Command How did the US Navy—the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans—ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one of the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, even Central Africa? Behind the SEALs’ improbable rise lies the most remarkable underdog story in American military history—and in these pages, former Navy SEAL Benjamin H. Milligan captures it as never before. Told through the eyes of remarkable leaders and racing from one longshot, hair-curling raid to the next, By Water Beneath the Walls is the tale of the unit’s heroic naval predecessors, and the evolution of the SEALs themselves. But it’s also the story of the forging of American special operations as a whole—and how the SEALs emerged from the fires as America’s first permanent commando force when again and again some other unit seemed predestined to seize that role. Here Milligan thrillingly captures the outsize feats of the SEALs’ frogmen forefathers in World War II, the Korean War, and elsewhere, even as he plunges us into the second front of interservice rivalries and personal ambition that shaped the SEALs’ evolution. In equally vivid, masterful detail, he chronicles key early missions undertaken by units like the Marine Raiders, Army Rangers, and Green Berets, showing us how these fateful, bloody moments helped create the modern American commando—even as they opened up pivotal opportunities for the Navy. Finally, he takes us alongside as the SEALs at last seize the mantle of commando raiding, and discover the missions of capture/kill and counterterrorism that would define them for decades to come. Now required reading throughout the US special operations community, By Water Beneath the Walls is an essential history of the SEAL teams, a crackling account of desperate last stands and unforgettable characters accomplishing the impossible—and a riveting epic of the dawn of American special operations.