Military Combat

Animals have played an important role in warfare throughout history. Military forces have long relied on animals' natural abilities to achieve their missions. From medieval warriors charging into combat on horseback to dolphins locating explosive mines at sea, learn about the many ways animals have helped armies find success on the battlefield. Then be sure to catch the other amazing titles in the Beasts and the Battlefield series.

Before the twentieth century ships when relied upon visual signaling, vessels beyond range of sight or a cannon shot, were blind, deaf, and dumb in the dark, making night battles at sea rare, and near always accidental. The introduction of certain technologies like the torpedo, the searchlight, radio, and then radar, transformed naval warfare by making night combat feasible and, in some cases, desirable. The process by which navies integrated these new tools of war and turned the dark into a medium for effective combat, however, was long and difficult.

At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small upstate New York community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Seventy years later, a history teacher tracks down the veterans with a connection to “Hometown, USA” who fought the war in the air over Europe, men who were tempered in the tough times of the Great Depression and forged in battle.

When gladiators fought in combat, there was usually only one winner. The victor may not have realized it, but he owed his success to science. Learn how science helped gladiators find victory in the arena.

In 1972, America was completing its withdrawal from the long and divisive war in Vietnam. Air power covered the departure of ground forces, and search and rescue teams from all services and Air America covered the airmen and soldiers still in the fight. Day and night these military and civilian aircrews stood alert to respond to "Mayday" calls. The rescue forces were the answer to every man's prayer, and those forces brought home airmen, sailors, marines, and soldiers downed or trapped across the breadth and depth of the entire Southeast Asia theater.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain was written by Soviet officers, who had served in Afghanistan and returned for the extensive Command and Staff course at the Frunze Combined Arms Academy in Moscow. While they were at the Academy, the History of the Military Art Department had the Afghanistan veterans write vignettes of their experience. They analyzed these, edited the best and added commentary as lessons learned for future war in mountain-desert terrain. The department published them as an in-house a book in 1991.

Une femme militaire qui n'aspire qu'à se venger. Un agent des Forces Spéciales marié, blasé des femmes. Leur rencontre va bouleverser leur vie. Néfertiti a travaillé dur pour préparer sa vengeance. Elle n'a plus qu'un dernier objectif à atteindre : faire partie de l’élite en incorporant les forces spéciales.

A detailed and comprehensive study of the carrier formations of the Pacific War, including their origins, development, and key battles from the Coral Sea, through Midway and Guadalcanal to the battle of the Philippine Sea.

In Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay used the story of the Iliad as a prism through which to examine how ancient and modern wars have battered the psychology of the men who fight. Now he turns his attention to the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the real problems faced by combat veterans reentering civilian society. The Odyssey, Shay argues, offers explicit portrayals of behavior common among returning soldiers in our own culture: danger-seeking, womanizing, explosive violence, drug abuse, visitation by the dead, obsession, vagrancy and homelessness.

The fascinating, improbable true story of Maxwell Knight - the great MI5 spymaster and inspiration for the James Bond character M. Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history. He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain during World War II, in spite of his own history inside this movement. He was also truly eccentric - a thrice-married jazz aficionado who kept a menagerie of exotic pets - and almost totally unqualified for espionage. Yet he had a gift for turning practically anyone into a fearless secret agent.

A remarkable memoir of small-unit leadership and the coming of age of a young soldier in combat in Vietnam.

This insightful chronicle takes listeners inside the experiences of America's fighter pilots and bomber crews, an incredible assortment of men who, in nearly four years of warfare all over the globe, suffered over 120,000 casualties, with over 40,000 killed. Their stories span the Earth, into every corner of the combat theaters in both Europe and the Pacific. And the aircraft explored are as varied, tough, and legendary as the men who flew them.

Valiant Women is the story of the 350,000 American women who served in uniform during World War II. These incredible women served in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. Military analyst Lena Andrews corrects the record with the definitive and comprehensive historical account of American servicewomen during World War II, based on new archival research, firsthand interviews with surviving veterans, and a deep professional understanding of military history and strategy.

World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars", was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite.

The stories of 15 combat veterans featured in this audiobook tell of the experiences of average Americans who fought US enemies on Pacific islands, in China, and in Burma during World War II. They relate much previously unavailable information about the military in which they served and the battles they fought. The possibility of death and permanent physical and mental injury was a common experience. This audiobook is a "must listen" for those who think they have learned all there is to know about World War II.

This volume contains 17 autobiographies of Korean War combat veterans, as well as a report about war prisoners' experiences told by a US Army doctor who spent three years as a POW. It also contains reports about how the US divided Korea after World War II and Theodore Roosevelt’s secret diplomacy, in 1905, which led to World War II in the Pacific, the Korean War, and continuing turmoil in the Pacific.

Volumes 1 and 2 of Combat Veterans’ Stories of Small Wars and Nation Building present 20 autobiographical stories of men and women that were in fire fights, raids, and other dangerous situations that exposed them to enemy ordnance. Their stories give listeners an understanding of warfare, as the US military has experienced it since the Vietnam War.

Volumes 1 and 2 of Combat Veterans’ Stories of Small Wars and Nation Building present 20 autobiographical stories of men and women that were in fire fights, raids, and other dangerous situations that exposed them to enemy ordnance. Their stories give readers an understanding of warfare, as the US military has experienced it since the Vietnam War.

In 1993, U.S. women earned the right to fly in combat, but the full story of how it happened is largely unknown. The Fly Girls Revolt chronicles the actions of a band of women who overcame decades of discrimination and prevailed against bureaucrats, chauvinists, anti-feminists, and even other military women. Drawing on extensive research, interviews with women who served in the 1970s and 1980s, and her personal experiences in the Air Force, Eileen Bjorkman weaves together a tale of the women who fought for the right to enter combat and be treated as equal partners in the U.S. military.

This volume of Combat Veterans’ Stories of the Vietnam War contains 15 autobiographical stories.
The first begins in late October 1967, and is told by a Marine rifleman who fought in battles at Mike’s Hill, Foxtrot Ridge, and numerous others. The final story in this volume is told by an Army cavalry officer who led a platoon of armored personnel carriers with such ability and daring that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, three Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts.