Hildy Corrigan, almost a teenager, returns home to discover that her stepmother has abandoned her and taken her brother and four sisters. Fighting anger and self-blame, Hildy refuses to stay with her backwoods grandmother and runs away with her cousin Ruby in hopes of finding her family.
Despite the unpopularity of the war in Nicaragua, the Marines experience a wide variety of activities and learn many lessons in a small wars environment, which will serve them well into the next century. Fighting insurgents, forming a host-nation's police force and army, ensuring safe elections, providing medical assistance for the rural population, building roads, constructing airfields, and organizing earthquake disaster relief will occupy the years from 1928 to 1933 for the Devil Dogs. If you ever hear a Marine say, "This is a lousy war, but it's the only one we have," you'll understand the mentality of the men in The Pound: Devil Dogs' War in Nicaragua.
"You all know me as Highland Warrior Chief Cattan, a Sennachie who can recite all our ancestors, and as a parson looking to save your souls. Today, I give you a reason to fight and to keep hold of what we have created. The heathen Vikings, we now face, left their own homelands to explored the wider world. We need to know how far they have reached, and to dissuade those we meet from coming back to our western isles. We the Catti tribe are accepted by the Picts and are trusted to make their alliances. Be ready to fight on for what is your inheritance. I will be with you."
Did you know that Winston Churchill narrowly avoided assassination in the Second World War? Or that Prince Albert helped Britain avoid war with the United States in the nineteenth century from his deathbed? In this riveting read, James Moore and Paul Nero reveal fifty of history's most dramatic narrow escapes. From wars that were averted to invasions, revolutions and apocalyptic scenarios that we avoided by the skin of our teeth, History's Narrowest Escapes chronicles such stories as how a Soviet Army colonel stopped the Third World War in 1983, and how Nelson's heroics at The Battle of Trafalgar might never have happened if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of a humble seaman eight years before. Full of fascinating little-known facts, heroic acts, daring deeds and stories of serendipity, this book reveals how our history could have been very different... and possibly much worse!
Tony Brooks was unique. He was barely out of school when recruited in 1941 by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the wartime secret service established by Churchill to 'set Europe ablaze'. After extensive training he was parachuted into France in July 1942 - being among the first (and youngest) British agents sent to support the nascent French Resistance. Brook's success was primarily due to his exceptional qualities as a secret agent, although he was aided by large and frequent slices of luck. Among much else, he survived brushes with a British traitor and a notorious double agent; the Gestapo's capture of his wireless operator and subsequent attempts to trap Brooks; brief incarceration in a Spanish concentration camp; injuries resulting from a parachute jump into France; and even capture and interrogation by the Gestapo - although his cover story held and he was released. In an age when we so often take our heroes from the worlds of sport, film, television, music, fashion, or just 'celebrity', it is perhaps salutary to be reminded of a young man who ended the war in command of a disparate force of some 10,000 armed resistance fighters, and decorated with two of this country's highest awards for gallantry, the DSO and MC. At the time, he was just twenty-three years old. This remarkable, detailed and intimate account of a clandestine agent's dangerous wartime career combines the historian's expert eye with the narrative colour of remembered events. As a study in courage, it has few, if any, equals.
Six decades after the end of World War II, new stories about the conflict continue to emerge. One of these is the subject of this book. Written by an American, Ranne Hemingway-Douglass, and published in the UK by Pen & Sword, it has all the elements of a classic covert adventure tale. ??As the book explains, the Shelburne was one of the later escape lines that operated within Nazi-occupied Europe. It was established at the end of 1943 by two agents who worked for MI-9, the London-based military intelligence agency responsible for providing assistance to Allied servicemen stranded behind enemy lines. Working with the French Resistance, these agents arranged for groups of Allied airmen to be taken from "safe houses" in Paris to Brittany, where a Royal Navy motor gunboat picked them up from a secluded beach and delivered them back to England. Eight audacious evacuation operations were conducted between January and August, 1944, without the Shelburne Line ever being infiltrated by the Gestapo.??Aspects of the Shelburne story have been told previously in memoirs by several of the participants, including the late MP Airey Neave, who was an MI-9 operative. However, Hemingway-Douglass expands the story to include recollections of some of the local Breton people who were involved with the Line. The second half of the book comprises personal stories of airmen and other individuals who were affiliated with the Shelburne Line or were otherwise caught up in the war in France. ??A lifelong Francophile, Hemingway-Douglass took eight years to research and write the book. She describes it as a Òlabor of love that pays tribute to the heroism and courage of 'ordinary' people, while reinforcing the fact that war touches everybody.Ó
The New York Times bestselling inside account of the attack against the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence outposts in Benghazi, Libya. On the night of September 11, 2012, the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, came under ferocious attack by a heavily armed group of Islamic terrorists. The prolonged firefight, and the attack hours later on a nearby CIA outpost, resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, the Information Officer, Sean Smith, and two former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, working for the Central Intelligence Agency. After the fall of Qaddafi, Benghazi was transformed into a hotbed of fundamentalist fervor and a den of spies for the northern half of the African continent. Moreover, it became the center of gravity for terrorist groups strategically situated in the violent whirlwinds of the Arab Spring. On the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks against the United States, a group of heavily armed Islamic terrorists had their sights set on the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence presence in the city. Based on the exclusive cooperation of eyewitnesses and confidential sources within the intelligence, diplomatic, and military communities, Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz reveal for the first time the terrifying twelve-hour ordeal confronted by Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, his Diplomatic Security (DS) contingent, and the CIA security specialists who raced to rescue them. More than just the minute-by-minute narrative of a desperate last stand in the midst of an anarchic rebellion, Under Fire is an inspiring testament to the bravery and selflessness of the men and women who put their country first while serving in one of the most dangerous regions in the world.
The extraordinary, breathless final volume in the Nicholas Everard Naval Thrillers. Six submarines are about to be towed underwater from Scotland to Norway. Their targets: the giant German warships Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lutzow. The odds seem stacked against the smaller craft. But if they can survive the nightmarish 2,000-mile tow, Commander Paul Everard will have a chance to gatecrash the fjords and cripple the ship Churchill calls ‘the Beast’. Whether or not he succeeds, the chances of getting out alive are slim. If he fails, his father Nick Everard, escort commander for Arctic convoy PQ19, is in trouble: none of his ships can stand up to Tirpitz’s broadsides. As The Gatecrashers draws to its thunderous climax, father and son face their final and most searching test... Based on the thrilling true story of Operation Source, The Gatecrashers is the blistering culmination of the bestselling Nicholas Everard Naval Thrillers, perfect for fans of Max Hennessy and Alan Evans. Praise for The Nicholas Everard Naval Thrillers ‘The prose has a real sense of urgency, and so has the theme. The tension rarely slackens.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘The research is unimpeachable and the scent of battle quite overpowering.’ The Sunday Times ‘The accuracy and flair of Forester at his best... carefully crafted, exciting and full of patiently assembled technical detail that never intrudes on a good narrative line’ Irish Times
How can the life of one relatively unknown man change our understanding of Texas history and the American West? Peter Ellis Bean, a fairly minor but fascinating character, casts unexpected light on conflicts, famous characters, and events from the time of Mexican rule through the years of the Republic. Bean’s role in Mexico’s revolution against Spain and his service as an agent of the Mexican government, especially as Indian agent in eastern Texas, provide an unusually vivid picture of Mexican Texas, as well as new information about the Indians in his region. More explosively, Jackson’s research on Bean’s career as Indian agent casts doubt on the traditional characterization of Sam Houston as a friend to the Texas Indians. Bean’s career shows Houston as a rival for the loyalty of the Indians during Texas’ rebellion against Mexico, a rival who made false promises for military and political gain. After Texas independence, Bean acquired vast lands in Texas, at one point holding more than 100,000 acres. A good citizen and a good businessman, involved with real estate, sawmills, salt works, agriculture, and stock raising, he was also a bigamist. Meticulously researched, dramatically written, and embodying a unique understanding of Mexican Texas, Jack Jackson’s chronicle of Peter Ellis Bean not only rescues him from relative obscurity but also corrects key aspects of the history in which he was involved and brings to life an era more often consigned to myth.
The full visual history of the special forces combat diver from World War II to the present day. Combat divers are an elite within an elite. Every special forces combat diver is required to pass selection twice – first into the elite military unit and then a combat diving qualification. The combat dive units themselves are tiny and the operations highly classified. The role of a military diver is inevitably a lonely and a dangerous one, whether clearing mines or striking from the sea against enemy-held targets. Fully illustrated with rare and unusual images, Combat Divers reveals their little-known yet fascinating operations, from Dutch Special Forces combat divers covertly operating against Somali pirates to the actions of Soviet Spetsnaz divers in Swedish territorial waters during the Cold War. It also examines how the most famous units, such as the US Navy SEALs and the Royal Navy's SBS, are currently operating and adapting to threats in a multitude of theatres. Combat Divers gives an insight into specialist kit and vehicles presently used and equipment that is being developed and trialed throughout the world. Covering a variety of kit, from dry deck shelters to mini-submarines and swimmer delivery vehicles, former Royal Marines Commando Michael G. Welham draws on his own extensive diving experience to reveal exactly how this equipment is used by special forces dive teams. As their kit and equipment constantly evolve, so does the nature of their work and even the team element. Combat Divers also details the first female combat divers and includes their own first-hand accounts about their groundbreaking roles within their respective units to create a fascinating history of these elite special forces operatives.