US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietman

Throughout the 1960s the insurgency in South Vietnam gradually escalated. While denying involvement, North Vietnam had long supported the insurgency with arms, munitions, supplies, and advisers. Some small North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units were operating in South Vietnam in support of the Viet Cong (VC), the military arm of the National Liberation Front, the outlawed South Vietnamese communist party. While some of the troops and materials arrived in the south by crossing the demilitarized zone along the 17th Parallel, which separated North and South Vietnam, and others by boat, by far the most were sent through Laos and Cambodia. This was accomplished via the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail, which North Vietnam had begun to develop in mid-1959.

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Pirate - The Golden Age

The term 'The Golden Age of Piracy' is accepted by most pirate historians as a historical shorthand, although its chronological definition is loosely defined. The term itself was never used until the 1920s, when Rafael Sabatini penned the pirate novels Captain Blood and The Black Swan, which would later be adapted into swashbuckling films. The term was used with a sense of irony, as even Sabatini would admit that there was nothing romantic about piracy. It was, after all, merely a form of violent crime committed on the high seas. However, as a historical term, it serves the useful purpose of encompassing the great upsurge of piratical activity that took place during the first decades of the 18th century.

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World War II Magazine January/February 2010

For Australians, it was the biggest naval disaster of World War II. When the light cruiser HMAS Sydney disappeared without a trace in November 1941, all 645 crewmembers — more than a third of the men who died serving on Australian naval ships during the entire war — went with it. After several days went by without word from the vessel, a small armada of rescue ships was sent out to search near its last known position off the coast of Western Australia. They came across a handful of lifeboats bobbing in the waves of the Indian Ocean, but they were filled with Germans, not Aussies. Under interrogation, the Germans said they were the crew of the Kormoran, a raider that had been lurking in Allied shipping lanes disguised as a merchant ship.

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The Chaco War 1932-35

The Chaco War was Latin America's first "modern" conflict; it saw the use of the latest 20th-century military innovations, by armies that had learned some of the lessons - but that repeated some of the mistakes - of World War I. Motor vehicles, tanks, and aircraft were all employed, and some had an effect on the war; however, it was the infantry who bore the brunt of the harsh conditions, not only of combat but also of the extreme environment of the Gran Chaco region. Their experience of this war had an impact in their respective countries in the decades that followed. In a book of this size the scope for detail is obviously limited, but it is hoped that it will serve as a primer for those wishing to learn more about one of Latin America's bloodiest wars, as well as providing a general reference guide for those wanting quick answers on general topics.

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Hitler's Armies - A History of the German War Machine 1939-1945

Hitler's Wehkmacht (literally 'defensive power') was horn out of the most unpromising circumstances. When the dust and arguments settled after World War I, the victorious Allies imposed a series of restrictions on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. Among other things, the treaty stated that by 31 March 1920, the German Army was to consist of no more than 100,000 men, of whom just 4,000 were to be officers. The treaty conditions also specified the structure and organization of this army: there were to be 21 three-battalion infantry regiments (with 21 training battalions attached), and each regiment was to have one mortar company. There were to be proportionally larger numbers of cavalry, plus seven artillery regiments of three battalions, and seven field engineer, signals, motorized and medical battalions, a total of seven divisions in all.

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TORA! TORA! TORA! - Pearl Harbor 1941

As early as 1914 the Japanese and Americans were thinking of each other as possible future enemies. This potential came more sharply into focus when in the 1930s Japan openly embarked on a path of aggression. Beginning in 1931, Japanese actions clearly indicated that their goal was to dominate East Asia. The central issue between Japan and the United States in the period leading up to war was Japanese aggression in China. Not only did this aggression threaten China's integrity, but it jeopardized American trade interests. Despite the fact that it was not one of its primary national security interests, the United States remained committed to Chinese sovereignty. As the Japanese pressed deeper into China and prosecuted the war with increasing brutality, the Americans began to translate Japanese dependence on resources from the United States into economic pressure. Throughout 1940 the US ratcheted up the economic pressure on Japan in an attempt to curb Japan's imperial ambitions without war.

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America at War - Korean War

The Korean War began in June 1950 and ended three years and one month later. Fifty-four thousand Americans died in the war, in addition to 1 million Chinese and perhaps 3.5 million Koreans. Despite this bloody record, the war is sometimes called America s forgotten war. This book is a revised edition of The Korean War; originally published in 1992 and then updated in 2003 as part of the Facts On Files America at War series. As such, it offers even more new features. These include an entirely new chapter on weaponry and tactics employed in the Korean War, a sidebar that considers the arguments for and against the belief that the Korean War was a just war, many new color illustrations, and an updated bibliography.

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The Spanish Army in North America 1700-1793

By 1700, more than 200 years after the story of the vast Spanish overseas empire began with Columbus making landfall in what is now the Bahamas archipelago, a string of lost wars in Europe had brought Spain to its knees, both economically and diplomatically. This situation was then aggravated by a dynastie crisis, as two contenders claimed the throne: Prince Charles of Austria, and Philippe, Duke of Anjou and grandson of France's King Louis XIV. The War of the Spanish Succession that ensued in 1702 did not end until 1713-14, by which time the rivals were exhausted. France had lost some of its prestige as a world power to Britain, but it had secured the confirmation of Philippe as Felipe V, King of Spain and "the Indies." However, Spain was not to become a French puppet state, as was quickly demonstrated by the rather ludicrous and half-hearted war that it waged in 1718-20 against France, Britain and several other countries. Thereafter, Spain's government had to confront the most pressing issue: the need to halt the nation's decline, and to restore its prestige as a viable power.

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Naval History Magazine February 2012

Naval History is a bi-monthly magazine published by the United States Naval Institute since 1987. The 72-page publication not only includes feature articles spanning the course of Naval History written by significant scholars of their subject, but also has standing features including: "Looking Back," "On Our Scope," "Naval History News," "Book Reviews," and "Museum Report." Noted authors Norman Polmar and A.D. Baker III provide the "Historic Aircraft" and "Historic Fleets" columns. Each issue is illustrated with rare art and photographs.

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Italian Army Elite Units & Special Forces 1940-43

The origins of the Italian Army's elite and special forces date back to World War I, when the Arditi assault troops were formed, and foreign volunteer units were raised from former prisoners of war from the national minorities of the Austrian-Hungarian empire - Czechs, Poles and Romanians. In their different ways both these types of unit provided a nucleus of elite and special forces to the Italian Army, but their unique experiences of combat were lost to the army after the end of the war. Foreign volunteer units were disbanded, mostly returning to their homelands to provide a core for their new national forces. The Arditi were also disbanded, but their veterans evolved into a kind of political movement; eventually they would provide the core of the Fascist organization, and its armed wing, the Milizia Volontaria Sicurezza Nationale (MVSN - commonly called the Camicie Nere, 'Blackshirts') claimed to continue their traditions.

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Bronze Age Greek Warrior 1600-1100 BC

More than a century has passed since Heinrich Schliemann brought to light the brilliant treasures of Mycenae. The rich appearance of the gold-covered warriors, still lying in their graves, confirmed to the world the truth about Homer's epic and the real historical existence of the Achaeans described in his poems. By the combined study of the mythical tradition, archaeological findings and written sources represented by the Linear B tablets (which are written in a very archaic form of Greek, in a syllabic script) our knowledge of Achaean civilization has advanced greatly. The Achaeans were an Indo-European group probably arriving on the Greek mainland from the Caucasus or Asia Minor around 2000-1800 BC. These groups conquered and absorbed the previous indigenous population who, since the Neolithic Period, inhabited Greece and the Aegean Islands.

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Military Review 09-10 2010

INFORMATION ENGAGEMENTS IN Multi-National Division-South took place at warp speed during the build-up to the 30 June 2009 transition of U.S. forces in Iraq. Iraqi Security Forces were improving their capabilities every day, but were they ready to assume full control of the operations? What would life be like under the security agreement for U.S. forces? The agreement was understood in theory, but its application generated a litany of questions. However, one thing was clear: the way ahead would require systematic engagements with Iraqi leaders to leverage their powers of public persuasion. Military commanders have been meeting with important local officials since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq. These key leader engagements help commanders advance their objectives by building relationships with influential Iraqis familial' with Iraq's complex human terrain, but the engagements frequently take place on an ad hoc basis and are rarely integrated into strategic operations.1 Essentially, a key leader engagement is nothing more than a diplomatic tool to influence, inform, or educate a key leader.

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To Be a US Marine

The United States Marine Corps is actually older than the nation it ferociously defends. Neither soldier nor sailor, Marines (and thats with a capital "M" they remind you) are sea-based, combat-ready warriors who attack the enemy by land, by air, and from the sea—simultaneously. As a result, the Marine Corps is Americas only elite fighting force in and of itself. Certainly the Navy has its SEALs, and the Army has its Green Berets, but both are highly trained specialty units within their own branches. In the Marine Corps on the other hand, all 177,000 are trained as elite fighters who routinely go where others fear to tread. Over the past two centuries, Marines have participated in every major and minor engagement that the United States has been involved in, fighting battles aboard ships, on distant shores, and in steamy jungles and hot deserts to defend our nations interests and to preserve our democratic way of life.

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Special Ops - Journal of the Elite Forces & SWAT Units Vol.29

On 1 May 2003, US President George W. Bush announced the official end of the war in Iraq. But since then the situation in Iraq has been far from peaceful: the troops of CJTF-7 are attacked daily by Saddam loyalists and other resistance groups with different aims for the future of Iraq. The attacks range from drive-by shootings to convoy ambushes to suicide bomb attacks. Another deadly tactic is the placing of remote-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) along convoy roads. Even coalition helicopters have been shot down by surface-to-air missiles. Some 362 US soldiers were killed in such incidents between I May 2003 and 19 January 2004. Together with the 138 killed in the war. the US Army at that time lost just 500 soldiers in Operation "Iraqi Freedom." An additional 2893 soldiers were wounded, some of them badly. The other 35 nations who have deployed soldiers to Iraq have lost only 95 killed, with 127 wounded.

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Military Review 01-02 2011

ON 16 SEPTEMBER 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a landslide victory in national parliamentary elections. For the first time since its founding in 1996, the DP J was asked to form a government, having displaced the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as the governing party for only the second time since the LDP was formed in 1955 (the first time, in 1993, the LDP was out of power for only nine months). After the DPJ's victory, much ink was spilled proclaiming, or at least musing about, imminent, significant, even strategic changes to the U.S.-Japan relationship. Much of the controversy surrounded an agreement between the United States and Japan to remove Marine Coips Air Station (MCAS) Futenma from its current location in the middle of a crowded urban area in the southern part of the island of Okinawa. In 2006, after years of negotiations, the United States and Japanese governments agreed to replace the MCAS with a new and smaller facility on Camp Schwab, another Marine Coips facility in the northern, less crowded part of Okinawa. Nine months after the DPJ's landslide, the party's first prime minister, Hatoyama Yukio, resigned, largely over a contretemps surrounding the Futenma issue.

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Warrior - A Visual History of the Fighting Man

My intention in writing this book has been to focus not upon wars, campaigns, and battles in themselves, but squarely upon the lives of the men who, through the length of human history have fought them. Why did they become fighting men? How were they recruited and trained? How were they armed and fed and paid? What did they carry in their packs? How did they survive when 011 campaign? And how did they cope with that climactic experience of combat? In the sweep of history covered by this book, certain principles of military life recur. The need for physical endurance and courage is a given, for it is hard to imagine any military training or campaigning that would not require these qualities. But the experience of comradeship-in-arms is equally omnipresent. A Mongol horseman, one of Wellington s or Napoleon's foot soldiers, a Japanese samurai, and a Viet Cong peasant guerrilla would have very little in common at most levels, but all will have bonded to some degree in a band of brothers, forged in the white heat of the traumatizing, exhilarating experience of combat. Yet this said, there can be no pretence of discovering a single character of the warrior or fighting man.

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Knight - The Warrior And World of Chivalry

There can be no warrior quite so iconic and immediately recognizable as the medieval knight. More than any other he remains a part ol contemporary culture. Not only does he ride his charger, resplendent in his shining armour and colourful heraldry, through novels and movies, but his armour still decorates museums, castles and stately homes, and his image in brass or stone adorns our churches. Every summer crowds gather to watch the sight of costumed interpreters bringing him back to lile in jousting matches and re-enactments. But this image of the knight - the mounted warrior armoured head to toe, bcdccked with brightly painted heraldry and mounted on a great charger - is only a snapshot of what the real knight was. The lull picture is much more complex. His outward appearance changed over the 500 years of his dominance, as armourers responded to the developments in weapons technology and took advantage ol the changes in metallurgy and smithing techniques.

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The North Atlantic Front

The term 'North Atlantic Front' seems never to have been used officially but the British strategy in both World Wars, in 1914-18 and 1939-45, of trying to confine German naval activity did create a 'front' in practice. In the trackless ocean, the front materialised only as the protagonists' ships and aircraft, and as the land masses where one flag or another could be raised. In the First World War the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow and the Northern Patrol operating from Swarbacks Minn gave the front tangible form. In 1918 it became briefly and more precisely defined by the laying of a great minefield from Orkney to Norway. The German occupation of Norway in 1940 blasted aside Britain's intention to repeat this strategy in the Second World War and, outflanked, the front retreated westwards and was re-established along the Shetland-Faroes-Iceland chain.

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Ride Around Missouri - Shelby's Great Raid 1863

Joseph Orville Shelby was born to a rich planter family in Lexington, Kentucky, on December 12, 1830. One of his childhood friends was John Hunt Morgan, who would grow up to be another famous Confederate cavalry raider. Shelby enjoyed the privileges of wealth and education, but unlike many young men of his social station, he never joined the army or even the local militia. In fact, he had no military experience whatsoever until he heard his first shot fired in anger. In 1849 he moved to the Missouri River town of Lexington to work at his stepfather's hemp factory. Before being banned for its recreational uses, hemp was an important cash crop in both Kentucky and Missouri - the fiber could be turned into rope, cloth, medicine, paper, and many other products. It was also closely linked to the cotton industry, which required huge amounts of cordage to tie up cotton bales. Both industries involved hard manual labor and relied on large numbers of slaves.

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World Army Uniforms Since 1939

The end of World War I saw the emergence of many independent states as the vanquished monarchies found themselves in the throes of major social and political upheaval. The greatest territorial changes had taken place in Eastern Europe, where Russia, defeated and in the midst of civil war, was being stripped of its empire. The republics to emerge from former Russian territory were Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. The republics of Czechoslovakia and Hungary were established in countries formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg empire. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia unified Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Slovenes and Macedonians under a Serbian monarch. Rumania and Bulgaria retained their dynasties.

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