The Last Command: Star Wars Legends (The Thrawn Trilogy)
The Last Command: Star Wars Legends (The Thrawn Trilogy)

Author: Timothy Zahn

Publisher: Random House Worlds

Published: 2011-06-28

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0307796205

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The epic story that began with Heir to the Empire reaches its dramatic conclusion in this essential Star Wars Legends novel. The embattled Republic reels from the attacks of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has marshaled the remnants of the Imperial forces and driven the Rebels back with an abominable technology recovered from the Emperor's secret fortress: clone soldiers. As Thrawn mounts his final siege, Han Solo and Chewbacca struggle to form a coalition of smugglers for a last-ditch attack, while Princess Leia holds the Alliance together and prepares for the birth of her Jedi twins. The Republic has one last hope—sending a small force into the very stronghold that houses Thrawn’s terrible cloning machines. There a final danger awaits, as the Dark Jedi C’baoth directs the battle against the Rebels and builds his strength to finish what he already started: the destruction of Luke Skywalker.

Dade's Last Command
Dade's Last Command

Author: Frank Laumer

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 1995-08-03

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0813059585

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Dade's Battle in December 1835 precipitated the Second Seminole War. It was the first American war fought over the issue of slavery, Frank Laumer writes, and it occurred principally because of white determination to protect the institution. In their search for runaway slaves, white citizens of Georgia and Florida invaded Seminole land and met with resistance; the violent encounters that followed led to Dade's Battle. As a result, Laumer says, the escape hatch was closed, Native Americans were removed from the land, and Florida was made "safe" for white expansion. Coupling thirty years of research with a passion to understand the fate of Major Dade's command and the motivations of the attacking Seminoles, Laumer has written a vivid account of a battle that changed Florida's history. After walking Dade's route on the Fort King Road from Tampa to the battlefield north of the Withlacoochee River--wearing the complete woolen uniform of an enlisted man, carrying musket, canteen, pack, bayonet, and haversack--Laumer can describe not only the clothing and weapons of the soldiers but also the tension and fear they felt as they marched through Seminole territory. He has also assessed the position of the Seminoles, sympathizing with the choices forced by their leaders. Laumer also describes the backgrounds of the soldiers who marched under Dade and the role of much-maligned black interpreter, Louis Pacheco, and he offers new insights on the mistakes made by the commanders who ordered the march. More than the account of a single military action, Dade's Last Command is the story of good and decent men "who died violent and terrible deaths to perpetuate a political and social evil."

To the Last Salute
To the Last Salute

Author: Georg von Trapp

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780803213500

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Sound of Music endeared Georg von Trapp (1880?1947) and his singing family to the world, and it also showed how desperately the Nazis wanted Captain von Trapp for their navy. In To the Last Salute we learn why. Trapp?s own story of his exploits as a submarine commander during the First World War is as exciting as it is instructive, bringing to stirring life a little-known chapter in the naval history of that war. In his many guises, Trapp describes life as captain of Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, emerging by turn as the Imperial Austrian naval officer, the witty observer of international politics, and the indefatigable and ultimately heartbroken patriot opposing the Allied enemy. He relates deadly duels with submarine sweepers, narrow escapes and excruciatingly close calls, and the spectacular sinking of cargo and war ships?all while maintaining a keen sense of the camaraderie of seamen from every corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Trapp?s story, in English for the first time, offers a rare combination of human interest, historical insight, and true life-and-death adventure.

Refighting the Last War
Refighting the Last War

Author: D. Clayton James

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-06-15

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1451602375

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Distinguished historian D. Clayton James offers a brilliant reinterpretation of the Korean War conflict. Focusing on the critical issue of command, he shows how the Korean War is a key to understanding American decision-making in all military encounters since World War II. Korea, the first of America’s limited wars to stem the tide of world communism, was fought on unfamiliar terrain and against peasant soldiers and would become a template for subsequent American military engagements, especially Vietnam. And yet, the strategic and tactical doctrines employed in Korea, as well as the weapons and equipment, were largely left over from World War II. James, the master biographer of MacArthur, uses studies of military crises to examine the American high command in the Korean War. He explores the roles, leadership, personalities, and prejudices of five key commanders—President Harry S. Truman; Generals Douglas MacArthur, Matthew B. Ridgway, and Mark W. Clark; and Admiral C. Turner Joy—and then looks at six crucial issues confronting them in that conflict. From the decision made by Truman, without congsessional approval, to commit United States forces to combat in Korea, to MacArthur’s persistent fight for approval of his dangerous plan to assault Inchon, to the judgment to finally open truce negotiations, these turning points illuminate the American way of command in wartime. James analyzes the ground-level results and long-term implications of each choice, and sensitively explores the course that might had followed if other options had been taken. Probing the nature and consequences of these military resolutions, James shows how the conduct of the Korean War, like every new war, bears the imprint of the preceding one.

The Last Greek
The Last Greek

Author: Christian Cameron

Publisher: Orion

Published: 2020-04-16

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1409176614

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Few writers are better at conjuring up a vision of Ancient Greece' THE TIMES * * * * * * * 210BCE. The most powerful empires in the world brawl over the spoils of a declawed Greece. Philopoemen has a vision to end the chaos and anarchy that consumes his homeland - to stop the endless wars and preserve the world he loves. He must resist the urge of the oligarchs to surrender to their oppressors and raise an army to defend his countrymen from the all-conquering powers of Sparta, Macedon and Rome. It is the last roll of the dice for the Achean League. The moment Philopoemen has been training for his whole life. The new Achilles is poised to restore the glory of the former empire. To herald a new era. To become the last great hero of Greece. * * * * * * * Praise for Christian Cameron: 'One of the finest writers of historical fiction in the world' BEN KANE 'The master of historical fiction' SUNDAY TIMES 'A storyteller at the height of his powers' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

Master and Commander
Master and Commander

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0007255837

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Set sail for the read of your life! Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Now these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback by Harper Perennial with stunning new jackets.

Panzer Commander
Panzer Commander

Author: Hans Von Luck

Publisher: Dell

Published: 2013-10-09

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0804151970

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A stunning look at World War II from the other side... From the turret of a German tank, Colonel Hans von Luck commanded Rommel's 7th and then 21st Panzer Division. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front--von Luck fought there with some of the best soldiers in the world. German soldiers. Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman. Told with the vivid detail of an impassioned eyewitness, his rare and moving memoir has become a classic in the literature of World War II, a first-person chronicle of the glory--and the inevitable tragedy--of a superb soldier fighting Hitler's war.

A Better War
A Better War

Author: Lewis Sorley

Publisher: HMH

Published: 1999-06-03

Total Pages: 547

ISBN-13: 0547417454

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“A comprehensive and long-overdue examination of the immediate post–Tet offensive years [from a] first-rate historian.” —The New York Times Book Review Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years of conflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not only about how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawing from thousands of hours of previously unavailable (and still classified) tape-recorded meetings between the highest levels of the American military command in Vietnam, A Better War is an insightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these final years. Through his exclusive access to authoritative materials, award-winning historian Lewis Sorley highlights the dramatic differences in conception, conduct, and—at least for a time—results between the early and later years of the war. Among his most important findings is that while the war was being lost at the peace table and in the U.S. Congress, the soldiers were winning on the ground. Meticulously researched and movingly told, A Better War sheds new light on the Vietnam War.