Casemate Publishers

US Army Diamond T Vehicles

Didier Andres Alan McKay

Casemate Illustrated Special, Vol. CISS0012 • $37.95 • Hardback 8x10 • 250 illustrations • July 2022 HIS027240 • 978-1-63624-160-9

A detailed summary of all the types of Diamond T vehicles used by the US Army during World War II, packed full of period photos and diagrams. Between 1940 and 1945, Diamond T Motor Car Company supplied just over 50,000 vehicles to the US military, and also to the Allies. Of this, just over 30,000 were heavy 4-ton 6x6 trucks of varying types: cargo, tow truck, pontoon carrier, engineer, cartographic, etc. The “Diamond” would serve in all theaters of operations, wherever its robustness and reliability were necessary to complete the mission. Due to its expertise, Diamond T also produced the famous half-track, with more than 10,000 manufactured. All of these models are described in this work by Didier Andres, an expert in the subject. The text is illustrated throughout using archival and period photographs and diagrams.

World War II Snipers

The Men, Their Guns, Their Stories Gary Yee

Casemate Illustrated Special, Vol. CISS0013 • $49.95 • Hardback 480 pages • 8x10 • 100 photographs May 2022 • HIS027100 978-1-63624-098-5 Gary Yee lives in Aguilar, CO

Drawing from memoirs, government documents and interviews, World War II Snipers incorporates eyewitness accounts to weave a comprehensive narrative of snipers in World War II. The scope of World War II Snipers is extensive with three chapters each on the major theaters of the war including Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Pacific. This is supported by a lengthy chapter on the sniper rifles used by the snipers and their equipment. Finally, the last chapter discusses many overlooked or ignored subjects not raised by other researchers and provides much food for thought. The bibliography is a valuable resource to future researchers and writers. For the long-range rifle shooter and today’s snipers, the lessons of the past are as relevant today as they were when learned and practiced in World War II.

SOG - A Photo History of the Secret Wars

Maj John L Plaster USAR (ret)

$49.95 • Hardback • 456 pages 8x10 • Fully illustrated • April 2022 HIS027070 • 978-1-63624-084-8 Maj John L Plaster USAR (ret) lives in Iron River, WI

In 1972 the U.S. military destroyed all known photos of the top-secret Studies and Observations Group, with the intention that details could never be made public. But unknown to those in charge, SOG veterans had brought back with them hundreds of photographs of SOG in action and would keep them secret for more than three decades. In this new edition of SOG: A Photo History, more than 700 irreplaceable photos bring to life the stories of SOG legends Larry Thorne, Bob Howard, Dick Meadows, George Sisler, “Q” and others, and document what really happened deep inside enemy territory: Operation Tailwind, the Son Tay raid, SOG’s defense of Khe Sanh, Hatchet Force operations, Bright Light rescues, HALO insertions, string extractions, SOG’s darkest programs and much more.

Normandy

From Cotentin to Falaise, June–July 1944 Friedrich Hayn Linden Lyons

Die Wehrmacht im Kampf • $45 Hardback • 200 pages • 6x9 16 maps • March 2022 • HIS027100 978-1-63624-156-2

A unique perspective on the decisive early weeks of the invasion in 1944, written by a German Army Corps Intelligence officer stationed in Normandy at the time of the Allied invasion, who during the invasion was the department head for enemy messages processing (Ic) in the staff of the LXXXIV AK. It discusses in detail the events leading up to the creation of Falaise Pocket, described by the author as “tragic turning point of an entire front.” It discusses in detail the conditions in the American landing section and explains how the German troops based there came to be defeated.

The Northern Strategy, 1776

David Smith

Casemate Illustrated, Vol. CIS0026 $24.95 • Paperback • 128 pages 7x10 • Fully Illustrated • June 2022 HIS036030 • 978-1-63624-078-7

Despite declaring their independence on 4 July 1776, Britain’s former colonies in North America would need to fight for their liberty. The response from the other side of the Atlantic was slow, but when it arrived it appeared overwhelming. Hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of troops gathered to re-establish the Crown’s control. If the Revolution was not to die in its first year, the Americans would need to take on the largest expeditionary force ever sent by Great Britain up to that point… with an army of amateurs. This Casemate Illustrated volume discusses the northern strategy in 1776—the year in which Britain’s war effort became hopelessly disjointed, with two armies operating on entirely different agendas. It covers the battles of Long Island, White Plains and Trenton, among others.

The Coming Storm, 1763–75

Rachael Abbiss

Casemate Illustrated, Vol. CIS0025 $24.95 • Paperback • 128 pages 7x10 • Fully Illustrated • June 2022 HIS036030 • 978-1-63624-092-3

British America’s success in the French and Indian War might have been expected to lead to a period of peace and prosperity, however the exchange of territory following the 1763 peace treaty led to dramatic changes in the political landscape of North America, the disruption of alliances and trade networks, and increased conflict between settlers and Native Americans. Meanwhile disagreement on how the huge costs of the concluded war should be paid drove a wedge between the colonies and the British government, tensions that eventually erupted into the protests of the early 1770s, and led to the First Continental Congress. This Casemate Illustrated volume discusses the escalation of simmering tensions in the American colonies in the years after the end of the French and Indian War and the path to the first military engagements of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill.

The Soviet Baltic Offensive 1944-45

German Defense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Ian Baxter

Casemate Illustrated, Vol. CIS0024 $24.95 • Paperback • 128 pages 6x9 • Fully illustrated • June 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-106-7

This is a compelling account of the German defense of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The book outlines in dramatic detail how Hitler forbade his troops to withdraw, ordering them to follow his Halt Order Decree and fight to the death. However, exhausted and demoralized by continuous Soviet assaults, Army Group North became cut-off and isolated, fighting fanatically to hold the capital cities of Tallin, Vilnius and Riga. What followed were German forces fighting to the death in the last few small pockets of land surrounding three ports: Libau in Kurland, Pillau in East Prussia and Danzig at the mouth of the River Vistula. In the Kurland, German divisions became surrounded and fought a vicious defense until May 1945. Drawing on a host of rare and unpublished photographs accompanied by in-depth captions and text, the book provides an absorbing read of the Red Army’s conquering of the Baltics.

12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend

Massimiliano Afiero Raphael Riccio

Casemate Illustrated, Vol. CIS0027 $24.95 • Paperback • 128 pages 8x10 • 150 photographs and maps June 2022 • HIS027100 978-1-63624-168-5

Created in 1943 from members of the Hitler Youth born in 1926, the division was attached to I SS Panzer Corps in March 1944 and transferred to Normandy. Based around Caen, it was intended to repel a possible and expected invasion from the sea. When the invasion came in June, it was one of the two closest panzer divisions to the landing beaches. The defensive battles that took place in Normandy saw the young soldiers of the Hitlerjugend demonstrate determined resistance, conceding only due to being greatly outnumbered. After the battles fought in Normandy, the division was withdrawn first to the Franco-Belgian border, then to Germany for reorganization. Other difficult and demanding battles followed during the offensive in the Ardennes, on the Bastogne front, in Hungary and finally the last battles fought in Austria, on the sacred ground of the Reich, where the soldiers of the Hitlerjugend, despite the desperate situation and the superiority of the enemy, managed to achieve local success and launch desperate counterattacks even into the last weeks of the war, in the name and in defense of their homeland.

Take Charge and Move Out - The Founding Fathers of TACAMO

True Believers and the Rise of Navy Strategic Communications Lewis McIntyre VADM Nora Tyson USN (Ret)

$34.95 • Hardback • 256 pages • 6x9 20 photographs • March 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-154-8

The US Navy’s “Take Charge and Move Out” (TACAMO) mission provides essential airborne communications to the US nuclear deterrence forces. Today it is a thriving community, respected by the Navy and the US strategic defense forces. But it wasn’t always so. Despite the enormous importance of the mission, for the first decade, the TACAMO squadrons were a “one and done” tour for the junior officers. A second tour was considered professional suicide. But in 1975, a handful of lieutenants put their faith in a community that did not yet exist, betting their careers on that second tour. From their faith and courage was born the TACAMO community. This is the story of the birth of TACAMO, in the words of those who built the community from scratch.

General Jan Smuts and His First World War in Africa 1914–1917

David Brock Katz

$34.95 • Hardback • 288 pages • 6x9 Photographs and maps • May 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-017-6 David Brock Katz lives in Johannesburg, South Africa

World War I ushered in a renewed scramble for Africa. At its helm, Jan Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realize his ambition of a Greater South Africa. He set his sights upon the vast German colonies of South-West Africa and East Africa – the demise of which would end the Kaiser’s grandiose schemes for Mittelafrika. As part of his strategy to shift South Africa’s borders inexorably northward, Smuts even cast an eye toward Portuguese and Belgian African possessions. Placed in command of the Allied forces in East Africa, he led a mixed bag of South Africans and Imperial troops against the legendary Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Shutztruppe. Although unable to bring the elusive and wily Lettow-Vorbeck to a final decisive battle, Smuts conquered most of the territory by the end of his tenure in February 1917. General Jan Smuts and His First World War in Africa 1914 - 1917 makes use of multiple archival sources and the official accounts of all the participants to provide a long-overdue reassessment of Smuts’s generalship and his role in furthering the strategic aims of South Africa and the British Empire in Africa.

7 Seconds to Die

A Military Analysis of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and the Future of Warfighting Col. John F Antal (Ret). Dr Alexander Kott

$22.95 • Paperback • 160 pages • 6x9 B&W Illustrations • February 2022 HIS027130 • 978-1-63624-123-4 Col. John F Antal (Ret). lives in Dallas/ Fort Worth, TX

The Second Nagorno-Karabakh war—fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan between September 24 and November 10, 2020—was the first war in history won primarily by unmanned systems. This 44-day war resulted in a decisive military victory for Azerbaijan. Armenia was outfought, outnumbered, and outspent and lost even though they controlled the high ground in a mountainous region that favored traditional defense. Azerbaijan’s alliance with Turkey, and close technological support from Israel, strategically isolated Armenia. The fact that Azerbaijan won the war is not extraordinary, considering the correlation of forces arrayed against Armenia. What is exceptional is that this was the first modern war primarily decided by unmanned weapons. In this war the Turkish-made BAYRAKTAR TB2 Unmanned Air Combat Vehicle (UCAV) and the Israeli-made HAROP Loitering Munition (LM) dominated the fighting and provided Azerbaijan with a war-winning advantage. Portugal’s Bush War in Mozambique

Al J Venter

$34.95 • Hardback • 6x9 • 50 photos April 2022 • HIS001020 978-1-63624-110-4

Portugal fought a bush war in Mozambique — one of the most beautiful countries in the world — for over a decade. The small European nation was ranged against formidable odds and in the end was unable to muster the resources required to effectively take on the might of the Soviet Union and its collaborators — every single communist country on the planet and almost all of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, Al Venter argues, Portugal did not actually lose the war, and indeed fought in difficult terrain with a good degree of success over an extended period. It was radical domestic politics that heralded the end. Mozambique is once again embroiled in a guerrilla war, this time against a large force of Islamic militants, many from Somalia and some Arab countries, and unequivocally backed by Islamic State and the lessons of Mozambique’s bush war are still relevant today.

James Montgomery

Abolitionist Warrior Robert C Conner

$34.95 • Hardback • 240 pages • 6x9 20 illustrations and photographs • March 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-142-5 Robert C Conner lives in Ballston Spa, NY

James Montgomery was a leader of the free-state movement in pre-Civil War Kansas and Missouri, associated with its direct-action military wing. He then joined the Union Army and fought through most of the war. A close associate and ally of other abolitionists including John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Colonels Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Robert G. Shaw, Montgomery led his African-American regiment along with Tubman and other civilians in the 1863 Combahee River raid, which freed almost 800 slaves from South Carolina plantations. He then commanded a brigade in the siege of Fort Wagner, near Charleston. In 1864, still in brigade command, he fought at the Battle of Olustee in Florida, helping prevent the collapse and disintegration of Union General Truman Seymour’s army. Later that year he returned home and played a significant role in defeating Confederate General Sterling Price’s great raid, especially at the Battle of Westport. This is the first published biography of Montgomery, who was and remains a controversial figure. It uncovers and deals honestly with his serious flaws, while debunking some wilder charges, and also bringing to light his considerable attributes and achievements. Montgomery’s life, from birth to death, is seen in the necessary perspective and clear delineation of the complex racial, political and military history of the Civil War era.

Lieutenant-General James Longstreet and Innovative Military Strategy in the Civil War

The Most Misunderstood Civil War General F. Gregory Toretta

$34.95 • Hardback • 304 pages • 6x9 40 photographs and 5 maps • March 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-117-3 F. Gregory Toretta lives in Ossining, NY

With the advent of the highly accurate and longrange rifled musket, offensive tactics became questionable and risky. Longstreet advocated for defensive warfare, this caused him to come into conflict with General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. Longstreet opposed the Gettysburg campaign and at Chickamauga, Longstreet was at odds with General Bragg on how to proceed after the stunning victory by the Army of Tennessee. Longstreet was never given full authority over an army in the field. He was a pragmatic and methodical general and had his suggestions been utilized there would have been a better outcome for the South. Many historians and biographers have misunderstood Longstreet and his motives, not focusing on the total picture. This work offers a fresh and unique perspective on Lieutenant-General James Longstreet and the Civil War. This narrative takes a new viewpoint of the Civil War and the generals who tailored their designs to pursue the war, analyses Longstreet’s views of the generals and the tactics and strategy they employed and examines why Longstreet proposed and urged a new type of warfare.

The Lion of Round Top

The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War Hans G Myers Dr Frank P Varney

$34.95 • Hardback • 216 pages • 6x9 10 illustrations • May 2022 • BIO008000 978-1-63624-111-1 Hans G Myers lives in Erie, PA Hans G Myers lives in Dickinson, ND

Citizen-soldier Strong Vincent was many things: Harvard graduate, lawyer, political speaker, descendent of pilgrims and religious refugees, husband, father, brother. But his greatest contribution to history is as the savior of the Federal left on the second day at Gettysburg, when he and his men held Little Round Top against overwhelming Confederate numbers. Forgotten by history in favor of his subordinate, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Vincent has faded into relative obscurity in the decades since his death. This book restores Vincent to his rightful place among the heroes of the battle of Gettysburg: presenting his life story using new, never-before-published sources and archival material to bring the story of one of the most forgotten officers of the American Civil War back to the attention of readers and historians.

In the Shadows of Guadalcanal

Phillip Parotti

Casemate Fiction • $22.95 Paperback • 264 pages • 6x9 April 2022 • FIC014050 978-1-63624-162-3 Phillip Parotti lives in Silver City, NM

Twice torpedoed during the Battle of the Atlantic, LT. Tony Colombo is appointed to command a new Navy ship, PC-450, a 173 foot, steel-hulled submarine chaser. After a period of escorting convoys up and down the Atlantic coast, Tony suddenly finds himself escorting ships loaded with Marine Corps equipment all the way to Wellington, New Zealand and then to Brisbane, Australia. In the summer of 1942, as PC-450 begins to escort numerous convoys from Australia to New Caledonia, the United States suddenly invades Guadalcanal with the result that Tony begins guiding convoys north in support of the invasion while fending off the multiple day and night air raids. Following the hard fought victory on Guadalcanal, PC-450 participates in the invasion of the Russell Islands and then, during the grinding fight for New Georgia, PC-450 twice engages in surface actions when the Japanese attempt to infiltrate troops onto the island. Wounded in a sudden air attack that radar could not detect in advance, Tony returned to Brisbane for convalescence and new assignments.

Leaving Gettysburg

Curtis Crockett

Casemate Fiction • $22.95 • Paperback 6x9 • February 2022 • FIC032000 978-1-63624-170-8 Curtis Crockett lives in Indian Trail, NC

Pickett’s charge has just ended, the battle of Gettysburg is over. The Confederate army is defeated and must retreat to the Potomac River forty miles away with thousands of wagons full of wounded soldiers, provisions and tens of thousands of animals. Asa Helms is torn between serving his country and going home to take care of his wife. He faces a long, seemingly impossible march with little food, little hope and the Yankees on his heels. Captain Louis Young begins to doubt the ability of the Confederacy to gain another major victory and thus independence. His objective is to get the rebel army across the Potomac River to preserve it to fight another day. Colonel George Gray is hell-bent on putting down the rebellion before it divides the country that has been so good to him. He has gotten on the wrong side of his superior, General George Custer, and sees a chance to cut off the Confederate army and end the war before it reaches the Potomac River. The journey ends at the Potomac River where each soldier must face the bitter realities of this unnatural war.

Echo Among Warriors

Close Combat in the Jungle of Vietnam Richard D Camp

Casemate Fiction • $22.95 • Paperback 288 pages • 6x9 • February 2022 FIC032000 • 978-1-63624-034-3 Dick Camp lives in Fredericksburg, VA

In war, every action has a beginning and an end. Echo Among Warriors is a story of close combat between two opposing, equally committed adversaries. The powerful narrative immerses the reader in both sides of the battle, playing and replaying the same battle sequence from alternating viewpoints—through the eyes of the Marines and through the eyes of the North Vietnamese. The bullet fired from a Marine’s M-16 at a silhouetted enemy solider crouched on the jungle path will in the next chapter tear into the flesh of that crouched NVA trooper. The story—unfolding from the initial contact to the final horrific ending—represents just one of perhaps thousands of deadly encounters that reflect the reality of battle—a mind-numbing, intensely personal experience that forever changes the participant.

Baghdad Blues

A Novel of the Iraq War Paul Kendel

Casemate Fiction • $22.95 • Paperback 288 pages • 6x9 • April 2022 FIC032000 • 978-1-63624-172-2 Paul Kendel lives in Jacksonville, FL

At a dusty intersection in Baghdad, Sergeant Thomas Kierkegaard is seconds away from unleashing a hail of bullets on a possible suicide bomber when he’s stopped by the unexpected—the piercing dark eyes of a young girl sitting on her mother’s lap in the passenger seat. For a split second he’d held the life of this child and her family in his hands. Plagued by fear and anxiety, Sergeant Kierkegaard struggles with his own inner demons as he confronts a population around him that wishes him dead. But he confronts more than just an external enemy, as he discovers the darkness that exists not just within himself, but in his fellow soldiers. A starkly honest and gut-wrenching account of the Iraq war from the perspective of an infantry soldier patrolling the dusty and deadly roads of South-West Baghdad. The threat of IEDs and ambushes are ever-present, but as Sergeant Kierkegaard and his comrades soon learn, modern war can take many shapes and forms. Grappling with a myriad of emotions—fear, anger, confusion, and anxiety—they face many external threats, but they begin to discover that the enemy within themselves can often be more challenging and dangerous than the one they were sent to fight.

Direct Legacy

James Stejskal

The Snake Eater Chronicles, Vol. 3 $27.95 • Hardback • 304 pages • 6x9 July 2022 • FIC032000 978-1-63624-119-7 James Stejskal lives in Alexandria, VA

It is the height of the Troubles and Northern Ireland lies under a shadow… When Neil Fitzpatrick, a rogue Green Beret soldier, is recruited by the Irish Republican Army to help prepare a terrorist attack, Paul Stavros, his former teammate, is sent to stop him and bring him home alive. Fitzpatrick, the American son of an Irish rebel who was forced to flee his birthplace, is a Special Forces demolitions expert. Fitzpatrick knows his trade and has a personal agenda with the IRA. Paul Stavros is also a Special Forces veteran. He knows little of the Irish Troubles but is about to learn. What he does know is how to fix problems and Neil has just become his biggest headache. The British aren’t happy with Stavros on their turf; they’d rather do the job themselves. Once, Fitzpatrick and Stavros were comrades and friends. Now they are pawns on opposite sides of an ugly war where all is fair and no one is innocent. The British want to kill one, the IRA wants to kill the other. It’s a race to see who will be first.

The US Army Engineer Pocket Manual

1941–45 Chris McNab

The Pocket Manual Series • $16.95 Hardback • 160 pages • 5x7.8 diagrams and illustrations • June 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-136-4

Though often overlooked, engineering in the field was key to Allied success in World War II. Often close to the front line, engineers were responsible for constructing field fortifications and laying, maintaining and repairing routes of communications so commanders could stay in touch with troops in battle. Engineers were trained in explosives and demolitions meaning that they could set booby traps and lay mines and also help to counter enemy minefields, often while under fire. They could enable crossings of rivers and other natural obstacles, or rig bridges and buildings to blow in order to divert or slow enemy movement. Another crucial task was ensuring that vehicles and installations were camouflaged, not just to disguise command posts from enemy ground forces, but to disguise airfields or troops from air attack and perhaps even invite attack on an unimportant area by creating fake buildings and vehicles. This pocket manual provides an in-depth insight into the training and tasks undertaken by US Army engineers during World War II in all theaters, based on original manuals and reports.

Leading Like the Swamp Fox

The Leadership Lessons of Francis Marion Kevin Dougherty Steven D Smith

$34.95 • Hardback • 240 pages • 6x9 10–20 photographs • May 2022 HIS036030 • 978-1-63624-115-9 Kevin Dougherty lives in New York, NY

After futilely chasing his nemesis through miles of swamps, British dragoon Banastre Tarleton told his exhausted men, ‘Come, my Boys! Let us go back, and we will find the Gamecock [Thomas Sumter], but as for this damned old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him.’ From Tarleton’s lament, Francis Marion acquired the nickname ‘Swamp Fox’ and became the very symbol of the Patriot cause in the South Carolina lowcountry. Yet, Tarleton and those like him seemed to have all the advantages. More men and equipment. Better training. Greater firepower. Still somehow Marion routinely got the best of his foes. How? Surely Marion benefited from his local intelligence and the fervor of his cause, but in and of themselves, these advantages would not have been sufficient to overcome the British military preponderance. It took leadership to defeat the British and Marion delivered it. This book explains how he did it.

The US Military Intelligence Pocket Manual

1941–45 Chris McNab

The Pocket Manual Series • $16.95 Hardback • 160 pages • 5x7.8 diagrams and illustrations • June 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-138-8

On December 7, 1941, an Imperial Japanese carrier strike force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, taking advantage of what was one of the greatest intelligence failures in US history. Galvanized into action, the branches of the US military subsequently developed one of the greatest intelligence-gathering and analyzing systems of the combatant nations, giving the American forces a window into the intentions of their enemies. The picture of US military intelligence during World War II is a complex one, divided between the fields of signal intelligence (SIGINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT), combat intelligence and War Department intelligence, and between numerous different organizations. The documents collected in this manual reveal the theoretical and practical efforts in this massive intelligence operation. It ranges from fundamentals such as how to observe and record enemy activity and intercept enemy radio traffic through to specialist activities such as cryptanalysis, photoreconnaissance, interrogating prisoners, and undercover agent operations.

A Machine Gunner’s War

From Normandy to Victory with the 1st Infantry Division in World War II Ernest Albert “Andy” Andrews jr David B Hurt

$34.95 • Hardback • 408 pages • 6x9 Photographs and maps • April 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-104-3 Ernest Albert “Andy” Andrews jr lives in Nashville, TN

Ernest “Andy” Andrews began his training as a machine gunner at Fort McClellan in Alabama in July 1943. In early 1944, he arrived in the UK for further training before D-Day. Fighting in Normandy, Andy was nicked by a bullet and evacuated to England in late July when the wound became infected, before returning to participate in the Normandy breakout. For a month, Andy’s squad defended a bunker position in the Siegfried Line against repeated German attacks. Early on the morning of November 19, Andy engaged in his toughest battle of the war as the Germans attempted to retake Hill 232. Andy was wounded in the shoulder. After surgery and a month convalescence he rejoined H Company in time to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. Andy’s outfit ends the war fighting in Czechoslovakia, where Andy witnesses the German surrender in early May. Following occupation duty, Andy returned to the States in October 1945. This vivid firsthand account takes the reader along from Normandy to victory with Andy and his machine-gun crew.

Among the Firsts

The Biography of Lt Colonel Gerhard L. Bolland Matthew T Bolland

$34.95 • Hardback • 384 pages • 6x9 Photographs and maps • February 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-121-0 Matthew T Bolland lives in Toughton, WI

Unconventional warfare tactics can have a considerable effect on the outcome of any war. During World War II, the United States government developed and employed two new methods of fighting. The first was the development of “paratroop” units, as they were first called. The second was the formation of a covert and sabotage operations branch called the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Lt. Colonel Bolland was involved in both of these “firsts.” During the D-Day invasion he parachuted behind enemy lines. After fighting with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment for thirty-three days straight, he returned to England and became involved with the OSS. He served as Field Commander for their Operation, code named Rype. Lt. Colonel Bolland’ military career lasted seventeen years. He ended up with numerous decorations including the Norwegian Liberation Medal and Citation, the Bronze Star for valor, the French Fouragerre of Croix de Guerre with Palms and posthumously the Congressional Gold medal awarded to the OSS Society on behalf of all former OSS members that served during the war. His story reveals the struggles, successes, failures and ultimate victories, detailing what went right and what went wrong with these new unconventional methods of fighting.

Hell in the Streets of Husaybah

The April 2004 Fights of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines in Husaybah, Iraq Lt Col David E Kelly USMC (Ret)

$34.95 • Hardback • 240 pages • 6x9 30 photographs • February 2022 • HIS027170 978-1-63624-150-0 Lt Col David E Kelly USMC (Ret) lives in Springfield, PA

During the April 2004 fights throughout Iraq, most media attention was focused in the city of Fallujah. However, at the same time, out on the border with Syria in and around the city of Husaybah, fighting was equally intense. This book tells the story of that period through many first-person accounts of intense fighting in the town of Husaybah, Iraq, during April 2004. It is based on interviews with Marines at all levels of the fight, from battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Matt Lopez, USMC, to infantrymen and squad leaders. When the Lima Company commander Captain Chris Gannon (Call sign Lima 6) was killed on entry to an enemy-held building, the company’s executive officer, Lieutenant Dominique Neal (Lima 5) informed his Marines that he had assumed command with the radio message, “Lima 5 is now Lima 6.” It also details other events, including the heroic actions of Corporal Jayson Dunham who saved the Marines around him by covering an enemy grenade with his body.

The Human Face of D-Day

Walking the Battlefields of Normandy: Essays, Reflections, and Conversations with Veterans of the Longest Day Col Keith Nightingale (Ret)

$34.95 • Hardback • 288 pages • 6x9 40 photographs plus 3 maps • April 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-102-9 Col Keith Nightingale (Ret) lives in Ojai, CA

Soldier Keith Nightingale has conducted terrain walks in Normandy for over forty years with veterans, active-duty military, and local French civilians. Over the decades Nightingale conducted dozens of formal interviews and informal conversations with many of the principals of the day, including Generals Bradley, Collins, Gavin, Ridgway and Hill. Added to this rare, new primary material from the top brass are numerous conversations with lower-ranking vets who did the heavy lifting—Major Howard of Pegasus Bridge, LTC Otway of Merville Battery, Cpt Raeen of the 5th Rangers, and SSG Lem Lomell of Pointe Du Hoc. This unique approach to D-Day combines the author’s discussions with veteran and civilian participants, his personal reflections on Operation Overlord, and the insights that occur often at the very site of a battle. Interspersed with veterans’ remarks, Nightingale’s personal essays are inspired by specific discussions or multiple interviews. Taken together, the succinct, human observations of these participants illuminate the hard facts to create a unique work of long-lasting interest that will attract specialists, military history buffs, armchair generals, and general readers alike.

Men of Armor: The History of B Company, 756th Tank Battalion in World War II

Part Two: Cassino and Rome Jeff Danby

$37.95 • Hardback • 384 pages • 6x9 60 photographs, 15 maps, plus graphics June 2022 • HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-015-2 Jeff Danby lives in Granville, OH

This second volume follows on from the first in recounting the WWII history of B Company, 756th Tank Battalion in vivid detail. The outfit, since upgraded from M5 light tanks to M4 ‘Sherman’ mediums, claws through some of the toughest battles of WWII—from a horrific stalemate at Cassino in February 1944, through the bloody Operation Diadem May breakout, to the stunning capture of Rome on 4 June 1944. This unique multi-volume history covers the full spectrum of experiences of the men in one tank company from inception in June 1941 through the occupation of Germany in 1945. An American tank company in WWII consisted of only five officers and approximately 100 enlisted men— all living, traveling and fighting in seventeen tanks, two jeeps, one truck, one half-track and one tank retriever. Uniting the official record with the rich, personal accounts of the participants, the reader is swept along a highly detailed and shocking journey chronicling the evolution of American armor doctrine and tank design from June 1941 through VE Day.

Bomb Group

The Story of the 381st Bomb Group (H), Eighth Air Force, USAAF and its Part in the Allied Air Offensive Paul Bingley Mike Peters

$34.95 • Hardback • 336 pages • 6x9 50–60 photographs • September 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-61200-960-5

In February 1942, a reconnaissance party of United States Army Air Force officers arrived in England. Firmly wedded to the doctrine of daylight precision bombing, they believed they could help turn the tide of the war in Europe. In the months that followed, they formed the Eighth Air Force – an organization that grew at an astonishing rate. To accommodate it, almost seventy airfields were hastily built across the eastern counties of England. At the heart of the Eighth Air Force was its bombardment groups, each equipped with scores of heavily armed, four-engine bombers. This book tells the story of just one “Bomb Group” – the 381st, which crossed the Atlantic in May 1943. Arriving at RAF Ridgewell on the Essex-Suffolk border, its airmen quickly found themselves thrown into the hazardous and attritional air battle raging in the skies over Europe. The 381st’s path led from its formation in the Texan desert, to its 297th and final bombing mission deep into the heart of Hitler’s Third Reich. This is the remarkable story of one group and the part it played in the strategic bombing campaign of “The Mighty Eighth.”

The Silent Service in World War II

The Story of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force in the Words of the Men Who Lived It Michael Green Edward Monroe-Jones

$22.95 • Paperback • 264 pages • 6x9 16 pages of photos • February 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-126-5 Michael Green lives in CA

The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America’s intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan. This book takes you through the war as you learn what it was like to serve on submarines in combat, the exhilaration of a successful attack, and the terror of being depth-charged. And aside from enemy action, the sea itself could prove to be an extremely hostile environment as many of these stories attest. From early war patrols in obsolescent, unreliable S-boats to new, modern fleet submarines roving the Pacific, the forty-six stories in this anthology give you a full understanding of what it was like to be a U.S. Navy submariner in combat.

Blocking Kampfgruppe Peiper

The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Battle of the Bulge Frank van Lunteren

$24.95 • Paperback • 368 pages 6x9 • 16pp photos • March 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-128-9

In December 1944 an enormous German army group crashed through the thin American line in the Ardennes forest. Colonel Reuben Tucker’s elite 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was resting and refitting in France when news came of the German breakthrough. Most dangerous to the Allies was the German spearhead of the 1st SS Panzer Division led by Jochen Peiper, which aimed to sever the Allied front. The 504th was committed to block the SS advance, and within 48 hours of their arrival Colonel Tucker’s paratroopers were attacking the SS-Panzergrenadiers of Peiper’s battlegroup, eventually forcing them to withdraw. Using never before published diaries, letters, battle reports and interviews with over 100 veterans, a comprehensive account is painted of a triumphant U.S. regiment in one of the fiercest fought campaigns in the history of the U.S. Army.

The Battle for Tinian

Vital Stepping Stone in America’s War Against Japan Nathan N. Prefer

$22.95 • Paperback • 240 pages 6x9 • fully illustrated • February 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-131-9 Nathan N. Prefer lives in Fort Myers, FL

In July 1944, the 9,000-man Japanese garrison on the island of Tinian listened warily as the thunder of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, Army and Air Corps, descended on their neighboring island, Saipan, just three miles away. There were 20,000 Japanese troops on Saipan. The sudden silence only indicated it was now Tinian’s turn. When the battle for Tinian finally took place the US acted with great skill. Historian Samuel Elliot Morrison called it “the most perfectly executed amphibious operation of the entire war.” In the end some 8,000 Japanese were killed, with only 300 surrenders, plus some others who hid out for years after the war. In the end some 8,000 Japanese were killed, with only 300 surrenders. After Tinian was secured the US proceeded to build the biggest airport in the world on that island—home to hundreds of B-29 Superfortresses. Among these, just over a year later, were the Enola Gay and Boxcar, which with their atomic bombs would quickly bring the Japanese homeland itself to its knees.

The True Story of Catch-22

The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller’s 340th Bomb Group in World War II Patricia Chapman Meder

$24.95 • Paperback • 240 pages 6x9 • 100 photos • August 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-132-6 Patricia Chapman Meder lives in Annandale, VA

After the publication of his bestselling novel Catch-22, Joseph Heller usually chose to deny that any of his richly drawn characters were based on his actual war mates. However, to those who served with Heller in the 340th Bomb Group the novel’s characters were indeed recognizable. In this book, we finally encounter the real men and combat missions on which the novel was based. While Heller’s fully developed characters stand solely, solidly and uniquely on their own merits, The True Story of Catch-22 proves that any resemblance to persons living or dead is, in fact, actual. Now all of the men upon whom Heller based his characters are gone. However, the last survivor, George L. Wells, the model for Catch-22s Capt. Wren, is the common thread who weaves through this book, allowing the reader to truly feel the war and even thumb through George’s well-worn mission book describing attacks on Axis ports, ships, bridges, and the notorious Brenner Pass. In this book the reader will discover that truth is indeed as fascinating as fiction!

Corporal Cannon

A Female Marine in Afghanistan Savannah Cannon

$34.95 • Hardback • 264 pages • 6x9 20–30 photographs • June 2022 • BIO008000 978-1-63624-166-1 Savannah Cannon lives in San Diego, CA

Not even old enough to drink, Corporal Savannah Cannon is a young enlisted United States Marine deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2010. As a tactical data networking specialist, she is sent away from everyone she knows and attached to a Regimental Combat Team where women are not allowed to repair communications. Her experiences over the next few months shed light on the unique and difficult positions women are placed in when supporting combat roles, while offering a raw look at the painful choices women must sometimes make. Cannon finds herself in a combat zone, ostracized from family, friends, and even her fellow Marines as the men are told to avoid her. The connections she makes are born from trauma and desperation and the choices she makes will echo throughout many lives. Corporal Cannon is not the story of a heroine; it is the hard-hitting account of just one of the flawed individuals who make up the United States’ fighting forces. Mistakes in the battlefield can have dire consequences, personally and professionally. Reflecting on her time in service, the author weaves a story of past and present, and the healing that can come with admitting our mistakes and moving past them.

The Good Captain

A Personal Memoir of America at War Richard D Hooker Jr

$34.95 • Hardback • 344 pages • 6x9 20–30 photographs • May 2022 • BIO008000 978-1-63624-148-7 Richard D Hooker Jr lives in Elgin, SC

R. D. Hooker, Jr. was a combat soldier and leader in five wars. He then served as a senior Pentagon advisor and as a White House staff member in four different administrations. At the time of his retirement from the military in 2010 he was the most decorated colonel in the US Army. Beginning with his enlistment at 18 in 1975, this memoir chronicles his experiences in the post-Vietnam Army as a young paratrooper, as a West Point cadet, and as a combatant in the many military conflicts which followed. Hooker served in the invasion of Grenada, in the earliest days of the Somalia intervention, as one of the first American responders to the Rwandan genocide, with the first American units to enter both Bosnia and Kosovo, in peace-keeping operations in the Sinai desert, in the Pentagon on 9/11, and again in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. When not serving with troops, he taught at West Point and served in several high-level Pentagon assignments. Few if any memoirs of this genre can match the narrative arc shown here. In addition, the author describes each of these campaigns from a strategic and policy perspective informed by his White House and Pentagon experiences as well as years of academic training. The juxtaposition of these contrasting perspectives is compelling and unique.

America’s War in Syria

Fighting with Kurdish Anti-ISIS Forces Dr Till Paasche John Foxx

$34.95 • Hardback • 304 pages • 6x9 20-30 photographs • April 2022 • POL037000 978-1-63624-152-4 Dr Till Paasche lives in Canada John Foxx lives in Tampa, FL

With America’s War on Terror and the subsequent democracy experiments in Afghanistan and Iraq having turned into geopolitical disasters, the US military campaign in alliance with the Kurdish forces in Syria remains a rare success story. Considering the overwhelming military victory, the functioning Kurdish civilian governing structures that followed the fighting, the extremely light military footprint and the strong link to Kurdish partners, many political analysts, military experts and politicians in Washington, DC, judge the intervention against ISIS in Syria as the nation’s most successful campaign since World War II. However, since neither these experts nor many journalists were on the ground during the fighting, they struggle to explain exactly how this particular operation turned into a just war. The authors, however, were there. Between the three of them, they fought for over two years with the Kurdish forces. They participated in all the large Kurdish operations against the Islamic State between late 2014 and mid-2016. Based on the authors’ unique insights, this book analyses America’s war in Syria and structures the intervention into different phases including the secretive build up and the ultimate destruction of the ISIS Caliphate.

A Storm of Spears

Understanding the Greek Hoplite in Action Christopher Matthew

$22.95 • Paperback • 360 pages 6x9.25 • 33 b/w diagrams, 50+ color and b/w photos (in 16 page plate section) • January 2022 HIS002010 • 978-1-63624-133-3

The backbone of classical Greek armies was the phalanx of heavily armored spearmen, or hoplites. These were the soldiers that defied the might of Persia at Marathon, Thermopylae and Plataea and, more often, fought each other in the countless battles of the Greek city-states. For around two centuries they were the dominant soldiers of the Classical world, in great demand as mercenaries throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. Yet, despite the battle descriptions and copious evidence of Greek art and archaeology, there are still many aspects of hoplite warfare that are little understood or the subject of fierce academic debate. Christopher Matthew’s groundbreaking reassessment combines rigorous analysis of the literary and archaeological evidence with the new disciplines of reconstructive archaeology, re-enactment and ballistic science. He focuses meticulously on the details of the equipment, tactics and capabilities of the individual hoplites. In so doing he challenges some long-established assumptions.

The Blue & Gray Almanac

The Civil War in Facts & Figures, Recipes & Slang Albert Nofi

$19.95 • Paperback • 304 pages • 6x9 May 2022 • HIS036050 978-1-63624-125-8 Albert Nofi lives in NY

Albert Nofi tells the story of the American War through a range of insightful essays, anecdotes, and facts. Did you know... • During the final days of the war, some Richmond citizens would throw “Starvation Parties,” at which elegantly attired guests would gather at soirees where the finest silver and crystal tableware was used, though there were usually no refreshments except water. • Union Rear-Admiral Goldsborough was nicknamed “Old Guts”, not so much for his combativeness as for his heft, weighing about 300 pounds, and was described as “. . . a huge mass of inert matter.” • 30.6 percent of the 425 Confederate generals, but only 21.6 percent of the 583 Union generals, had been lawyers before the war. • Major General Loring was reputed to have so rich a vocabulary than one of the men once remarked he could “curse a cannon up hill without horses.”

General Gordon Granger

The Savior of Chickamauga and the Man Behind “Juneteenth” Robert C Conner

$22.95 • Paperback • 264 pages 6x9 16pp photos • March 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-63624-130-2 Robert C Conner lives in Ballston Spa, NY

This is the first full-length biography of the Civil War general who saved the Union army from catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, and went on to play major roles in the Chattanooga and Mobile campaigns. Immediately after the war, as commander of U.S. troops in Texas, his actions sparked the “Juneteenth” celebrations of slavery’s end, which continue to this day. Granger’s first battle was at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, and he soon thereafter rose through the ranks—cavalry, then infantry—in early 1863 vying with Forrest and Van Dorn for control of central Tennessee. The artillery platform he erected at Franklin, dubbed Fort Granger, would soon overlook the death knell of the main Confederate army in the west. This long-overdue biography sheds fascinating new light on a colorful commander who fought through the war in the West from its first major battles to its last, and even left his impact on the Reconstruction beyond.

The Day Rommel Was Stopped

The Battle of Ruweisat Ridge, 2 July 1942 Major F. R. Jephson MC TD Chris Jephson

$22.95 • Paperback • 304 pages 6x9 • photos and maps • April 2022 HIS027100 • 978-1-63624-127-2

At dusk on Wednesday 1 July 1942, Rommel broke through the center of the British defenses at Alamein. His tanks had overwhelmed the gallant defense of the 18th Indian Infantry Brigade in the Deir el Shein at the foot of the Ruweisat Ridge. At that moment, and for the next twelve hours, there was no further organized defense between the spearhead of the Afrika Korps and Alexandria. Throughout the next day, only a handful of men and guns stood between Rommel and his prize. In Cairo, black clouds of smoke from burning files showed that many people believed Rommel would not stop short of the Suez Canal, his stated objective. But, on Friday 3 July at 22.56 hrs., only 48 hours later, Rommel called off his attack and ordered his troops to dig in where they stood. The Delta was saved. Just a few weeks earlier, the 18th Indian Infantry Brigade, which took the brunt of the initial attack on 1 July, and the guns of the small column known as Robcol that stopped Rommel on 2 and 3 of July, had been in northern Iraq. General Auchinleck’s desperate measure, pulling them 1,500 miles from Iraq into the Western desert, just succeeded but it greatly increased the price of failure.

Nations in the Balance

The India-Burma Campaigns, December 1943–August 1944 Christopher L Kolakowski

$34.95 • Hardback • 240 pages • 6x9 50 photographs and 12 maps April 2022 • HIS027100 978-1-63624-096-1 Christopher L Kolakowski lives in WI

From December 1943 to August 1944, Allied and Japanese forces fought the decisive battles of World War II in Southeast Asia. Fighting centered around North Burma, Imphal, Kohima and the Arakan, involving troops from all over the world. The campaigns brought nations into collision for the highest stakes: British and Indian troops fighting for Empire, the Indo-Japanese forces seeking a prestige victory with an invasion of India and the Americans and Chinese focused on helping China and reopening the Burma Road. This was also the first U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, and Gen Stilwell’s operations in some ways foreshadowed battles in Vietnam two decades later. The Burma and India battles of 1944 offer dramatic and compelling stories of people fighting in difficult conditions against high odds, with far-reaching results. They also proved important to the postwar future of the participant nations and Asia as a whole, with effects that still reverberate decades after the war.

Argentine Perspective of the Falklands War

The Calvi Report Nicholas van der Bijl

$34.95 • Hardback • 224 pages • x9 20–30 photographs • August 2022 HIS027130 • 978-1-63624-164-7

In 1982, the United Kingdom and Argentina fought a war over an historical disagreement over the colonial “ownership” or rights over the Falkland Islands. Within months of the Argentinian defeat, General Edgardo Calvi, then the Argentine Head of the Army Joint Chief of Staff, was instructed to undertake a wide-ranging and formal inquiry to investigate the performance of the Argentine Army during the Falklands. Calvi concluded that while the Army had the motivation, it lacked the organization, equipment, training, and ability to oppose an army capable of operating in a variety of environments. The war exposed political, military, and public weaknesses in a period of considerable internal unrest during the seven years of the Dirty War. Several senior officers who fought in the Falklands were imprisoned for offenses committed during the Dirty War. Secrecy and political disagreements isolated the Service chiefs of staff from the logistic and operational planning. This book tells the story of the Falklands War from the Argentine Army perspective.

Torpedoes, Tea, and Medals

The Gallant Life of Commander D. G. H. ‘Jake’ Wright DSC** RNVR

Captain Chris O’Flaherty Royal Navy Admiral Jerry Kyd CBE

$22.95 • Hardback • 208 pages • 6x9 35 photographs • April 2022 • BIO008000 978-1-63624-140-1

Whiet Hitler’s U-Boats were torpedoing shipments of tea bound for Great Britain, Jake Wright reciprocated by torpedoing Axis coastal shipping off Europe. His first Command was MTB 331, trained for a daredevil mission to puncture German boom defenses protecting their battleships. After demobilization he returned to the tea trade, rising to become one of Brooke Bond’s senior directors supplying Britain’s beloved beverage.

Blue Water War

The Maritime Struggle in the Mediterranean and Middle East, 1940–1945 Brian E Walter

$39.95 • Hardback • 336 pages • 6x9 32 illustrations • June 2022 • HIS027100 978-1-63624-108-1 Brian E Walter lives in Burnsville, MN

For three millennia the Mediterranean Sea served as the center of western civilization and the scene of many colossal wars and naval battles. In the early summer of 1940, this ancient body of water again played host to a new and extensive conflict as the Kingdom of Italy challenged Britain for This book tells the story of this epic struggle, waged at differing times against the combined forces of Italy, Germany and Vichy France over a wide area stretching from the coastal waters of Southern Europe in the north to Madagascar in the south and Africa’s Atlantic coast in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east.

Maritime Strike

The Untold Story of the Royal Navy Task Group off Libya in 2011 Rear Admiral John Kingwell CBE

$34.95 • Hardback • 240 pages • 6x9 20 photographs • August 2022 • HIS027150 978-1-63624-113-5

In April 2011, the newly created Royal Navy Response Force Task Group deployed to the Mediterranean to provide a range of military options in response to the Arab Spring. For the next six months the group planned and prepared for a range of potential operations including noncombatant evacuations from Libya, Yemen and Syria, maritime interdiction operations off the Libyan coast, and amphibious landings. This is a personal account by the Group’s Commander, which brings to life the challenges of command – including authorizing strikes and mitigating risk to UK aircrew.