From the start of the 20th century to the most recent major offensives, here are fifty accounts of the battles that made the modern world, described in superb detail by historians and writers including John Keegan, Alan Clark, John Strawson, Charles Mey, John Pimlott, and John Laffin. All the major conflicts are covered, from two world wars, through Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Chechnya, to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the battles featured are: the Somme, Passchendaele, Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Omaha Beach, Iwa Jima, Dien Bien Phu, Ia Drang, Hamburger Hill, Desert Storm, Kabul, Baghdad, and Basra.
From the start of the 20th century to the most recent major offensives, here are fifty accounts of the battles that made the modern world, described in superb detail by historians and writers including John Keegan, Alan Clark, John Strawson, Charles Mey, John Pimlott, and John Laffin. All the major conflicts are covered, from two world wars, through Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Chechnya, to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the battles featured are: the Somme, Passchendaele, Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Omaha Beach, Iwa Jima, Dien Bien Phu, Ia Drang, Hamburger Hill, Desert Storm, Kabul, Baghdad, and Basra.
From the massacre at Wounded Knee to the high-tech victory of Operation Desert Storm, this book presents forty gripping accounts of the battles that made the modern world. They are rendered in superb detail and analysis by such award-winning historians as John Keegan, Alan Clark, and Paul Kennedy. Here are the great conflicts of the two World Wars, the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Falklands, and Israel. The Mammoth Book of Battles brings to life for all military historians the awesome scale and destructive power of modern warfare.
Over a hundred eyewitness accounts of the reality of combat from some of the finest writers of the last century and our own. Lucid, vivid, complex images of conflict, from Walt Whitman on the American Civil War to contemporary reporting from Afghanistan. The collection includes Martha Gellhorn on the Battle of the Bulge, Michael Herr at Khe Sanh, David Rohde's and Anthony Shadid's Pulitzer-winning accounts of Bosnia and Iraq respectively, Christina Lamb's famous account of being under fire from the Taliban, Robert Fisk on being attacked in Afghanistan, and Nicholas Tomalin's 'The General Goes Zapping Charlie Kong' (one of the inspirations for Apocalypse Now) among many other pieces of exceptional war reporting.
This is the entire story of the Third Reich at war, covering all the Wehrmacht's major battles and campaigns of World War II, among them Barbarossa, Stalingrad, the Battle of the Bulge, the bitter fighting for Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean, and the final retreat to Berlin.
The classic account of the final offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich. The Battle for Berlin was the culminating struggle of World War II in the European theater, the last offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich, which devastated one of Europe’s historic capitals and marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the war’s bloodiest and most pivotal battles, whose outcome would shape international politics for decades to come. The Last Battle is Cornelius Ryan’s compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military and political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate imperatives of survival, where, as the author describes it, “to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win.” The Last Battle is the story of ordinary people, both soldiers and civilians, caught up in the despair, frustration, and terror of defeat. It is history at its best, a masterful illumination of the effects of war on the lives of individuals, and one of the enduring works on World War II.
The most complete guide ever to the real Arthurian world and the legends that surround it He defeated the Saxons so decisively at the Battle of Badon that he held the Saxon invasion of Britain at bay for at least a generation. He has inspired more stories, books and films than any other historical or legendary figure. But who was the real King Arthur? Here is the most comprehensive guide to the real Arthurian world and the legends that surround and often obscure it. Sifting fact from fancy, Mike Ashley reveals the originals not only of King Arthur but also of Merlin. Guinevere, Lancelot and the knights of the Round Table - as well as all the major Arthurian sites. He traces each of the legends as they developed and brilliantly shows how they were later used to inspire major works of art, poetry, fiction and film. There is clear evidence that. The Arthurian legends arose from the exploits of not just one man, but at least three originating in Wales, Scotland and Brittany The true historical Arthur really existed and is distantly related to the present royal family The real Arthur and the real Merlin never knew each other The real Lancelot was not British but was closer to a sixth-century asylum-seeker The Holy Grail legend probably grew out of a cosmic catastrophe that could have destroyed most of civilization
An anthology of gripping accounts of the battles that made the modern world, from Wounded Knee to Desert Storm, described by historians including John Keegan, Paul M. Kennedy and Alan Clark. Here are the great commanders, the strategy and the tactics, the decisive victories and cataclysmic disasters of two world wars, as well as wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Falklands and elsewhere. #FDEHere too is the awesome scale and vicious destructuive power of modern warfare across battlefields, ranging from Flanders to Basra, the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East and the fearsome jungles of South East Asia and the Pacific.
With armed conflict in the Persian Gulf now upon us, Harvard archaeologist Steven LeBlanc takes a long-term view of the nature and roots of war, presenting a controversial thesis: The notion of the "noble savage" living in peace with one another and in harmony with nature is a fantasy. In Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage, LeBlanc contends that warfare and violent conflict have existed throughout human history, and that humans have never lived in ecological balance with nature. The start of the second major U.S. military action in the Persian Gulf, combined with regular headlines about spiraling environmental destruction, would tempt anyone to conclude that humankind is fast approaching a catastrophic end. But as LeBlanc brilliantly argues, the archaeological record shows that the warfare and ecological destruction we find today fit into patterns of human behavior that have gone on for millions of years. Constant Battles surveys human history in terms of social organization-from hunter gatherers, to tribal agriculturalists, to more complex societies. LeBlanc takes the reader on his own digs around the world -- from New Guinea to the Southwestern U.S. to Turkey -- to show how he has come to discover warfare everywhere at every time. His own fieldwork combined with his archaeological, ethnographic, and historical research, presents a riveting account of how, throughout human history, people always have outgrown the carrying capacity of their environment, which has led to war. Ultimately, though, LeBlanc's point of view is reassuring and optimistic. As he explains the roots of warfare in human history, he also demonstrates that warfare today has far less impact than it did in the past. He also argues that, as awareness of these patterns and the advantages of modern technology increase, so does our ability to avoid war in the future.
Into the eye of danger with the men who put the 'special' in special forces The once shadowy activities of special forces have grown into an increasingly exposed element of 21st century warfare and anti-terrorist activity. Here, in one giant unputdownable volume, are 30 of the most dangerous special operations of modern times. Drawn from the flashpoints of the world, and above all Iraq and Afghanistan, these first-hand and reported accounts of missions by the SAS, Delta Force, Green Beret, Commandos and other forces will leave you on the edge of your seat. The accounts include: Blackhawk Down - the US Delta forces debacle in Mogadishu, Somalia, 1993 British Special forces fight Al Qaeda at close quarters in Afghanistan 2003 Task Force Raider - US Special forces teams track down Saddam Hussein, 2003 The British 'Blackhawk Down' - Paras shoot their way out of trouble in Majar, Iraq 2003 The capture of insurgent leader Chemical Evil Fat Mama, Fallujah, November 2003
