Afghanistan is not Canada’s first war in Asia. We’ve been there before, a half century ago … in Korea. And it was a meat grinder, scarcely remembered now … a war in which on one hilltop, on one April night, freshly-minted Canadians soldiers made a desperate stand that prevented catastrophe. In all, twenty-five thousand Canadians fought in Korea. By the time the shooting stopped, more than five hundred had been killed on lonely hilltops and in desolate ravines. Five hundred … in only two ye...

This ebook bundle contains five books that chronicle Canada's participation in the conflict that gripped the Korean peninsula from 1950–53 and resulted in two very different nations that remain at odds today. This bloody and traumatic face-off between capitalist and communist ideologies highlighted the tensions of the Cold War that drew in nations from many parts of the world. Canadian soldiers did their part and many sacrificed their lives for the democratic cause. Those interested in the...

Penguin delivers you to the front lines of The Pacific Theater with the real-life stories behind the HBO miniseries.Former Marine and Pacific War veteran Robert Leckie tells the story of the invasion of Okinawa, the closing battle of World War II. Leckie is a skilled military historian, mixing battle strategy and analysis with portraits of the men who fought on both sides to give the reader a complete account of the invasion. Lasting 83 days and surpassing...

The brutal battlefields of Europe during World War II were the testing ground for the young men of the 1st Battalion of the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment. On June 6, 1944, the soldiers landed on the coast of France as part of the first wave of the D-Day invasion. After securing the eastern flank of the Canadian landing along Juno Beach, the Regiment was in constant contact with the enemy over the next thirty days, suffering a steady strema of casualties. This led to a ferocious batt...

With its trademark "you are there" style, Mark Zuehlke's tenth Canadian Battle Series volume tells the story of the 1942 Dieppe raid. Nicknamed "The Poor Man's Monte Carlo," Dieppe had no strategic importance, but with the Soviet Union thrown on the ropes by German invasion and America having just entered the war, Britain was under intense pressure to launch a major cross-Channel attack against France.Since 1939, Canadian troops had massed in Britain and trained for the inevitable ...

"The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry had the dubious distinction of being the unit that had fought the biggest battle of the war to date, and had suffered the worst casualties. We and the 1st Battalion."A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only twenty-three years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highla...

The Korean War (1950-53) forms a little-known but exciting part of Canada's military history. The heroism and sacrifice of Canadians who fought in this conflict as part of the United Nations force has often been ignored. In this lively, anecdotal book, John Melady combines archival material and interviews with many Korean veterans. The result is a vivid, intensely human account of the war from its first days, to heroic battles such as Kapyong, to fascinating and more obscure incidents such...

Raw, hard hitting, not politically correct, as it was during the early years of the 1970s. See through the soldiers eyes his perspectives, as he takes you visually through his personal slice of the non-winnable Vietnam War. Feel his fear and euphoria from the mundane to the cracking sounds of AK 47 rounds zipping past his head. Meet the friendly creatures persecuting the Grunts daily, while on operations. Feel his feelings on the few rest days, trying to unwind. A must to read, if you want...

December 20, 1943. Two Canadian infantry battalions and a tank regiment stand poised on the outskirts of a small Italian port town. They expect to take Ortona quickly. But the German 1st Parachute Division has other ideas. For reasons unknown, Hitler has ordered Ortona held to the last man. Houses, churches and other buildings are dynamited, clogging the streets with rubble. Germans with machine guns lie in ambush. Snipers slip from one rooftop to another. The Canadians seem to have walked...

On 22 April 1915, the men of the 1st Canadian Division faced chlorine gas, a new lethal weapon against which they had no defence. In defiance of a particularly horrible death, or, at the very least, severe lung injury, these untested Canadians fought almost continuously for four days, often hand-to-hand, as they clung stubbornly against overwhelming odds to a vital part of the Allied line after the French units on their left fled in panic. By doing so, they saved 50,000 troops in the Ypres...

This WWII history critically reexamines one of the most dramatic and significant battles to follow the D-Day landings in Normandy.The destruction of the trapped German forces in the Falaise pocket in August 1944 is one of the most famous episodes of the Normandy campaign. But myths have grown up around the battle, and its impact on the course of the war is often misunderstood. In this meticulously researched study, Anthony Tucker-Jones dispels misconceptions about t...

The Mosquito developed into one of the most versatile aircraft of World War 2, entering service with Fighter Command in early 1942.The 'Mossie' was soon defending raids on Britain's Cathedral cities and became an integral part of the country's night defences. Its airborne radar gave it the ability to 'see' the enemy at night, and its speed and devastating fire power made it the finest nightfighter deployed by any side during World War 2.This book examines t...