The hard-hitting history of the Pacific War's 'forgotten battle' of Peleliu – a story of intelligence failings and impossible bravery.In late 1944, as a precursor to the invasion of the Philippines, U.S. military analysts decided to seize the small island of Peleliu to ensure that the Japanese airfield there could not threaten the invasion forces. This important new book explores the dramatic story of this 'forgotten' battle and the campaign's strategic failings.

A history of the legendary extraction of the Fifth and Seventh Marines from a Chinese trap, told for the first time using Chinese sources.Knee-deep in snow, and under a leaden sky, American Marines thousands of miles from home watched more snow settle onto the frozen ground, glittering in the fading light. Suddenly, the still Korean night roared to life with the sound of Chinese mortar fire. The Fifth and Seventh Marine Regiments were besieged and surrounded by the...

A stirring narrative of World War II's final major battle—the Pacific war's largest, bloodiest, most savagely fought campaign—the last of its kind.On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945.Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with s...

Author Joseph Wheelan has marvelously captured the story of America's war against the Barbary pirates, our first war against terror and the nations that support it. The Barbary pirates, a Muslim enemy from Tripoli, attacked European and American merchant shipping with impunity. Jefferson ordered the U.S. Navy to Tripoli in 1801 to repel "force with force." The Barbary War was also a proving ground for such young officers as William Bainbridge, Stephen Decatur, Isaac Hull, and David Porter ...

While many books have been inspired by the horrors of Andersonville prison, none have chronicled with any depth or detail the amazing tunnel escape from Libby Prison in Richmond. Now Joseph Wheelan examines what became the most important escape of the Civil War from a Confederate prison, one that ultimately increased the North's and South's willingness to use prisoners in waging "total war."In a converted tobacco warehouse, Libby's 1,200 Union officers survived on cornbread and bug...

Following his single term as President of the United States (1825-1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor's inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done (the only two presidents ever to do so). Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the "incubus of Jackson...

A stirring narrative of World War II's final major battle—the Pacific war's largest, bloodiest, most savagely fought campaign—the last of its kind.On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945.Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with s...

Bloomsbury presents Bitter Peleliu by Joseph Wheelan, read by Mack Gordon.The hard-hitting history of the Pacific War's 'forgotten battle' of Peleliu – a story of intelligence failings and impossible bravery.In late 1944, as a precursor to the invasion of the Philippines, U.S. military analysts decided to seize the small island of Peleliu to ensure that the Japanese airfield there could not threaten the invasion forces. This important new book explores the dramatic story of...

Bloomsbury presents The Farthest Valley: Escaping the Chinese Trap at the Chosin Reservoir by Joseph Wheelan, read by Jeff Harding.A history of the legendary extraction of the Fifth and Seventh Marines from a Chinese trap, told for the first time using Chinese sources.Knee-deep in snow, and under a leaden sky, American Marines thousands of miles from home watched more snow settle onto the frozen ground, glittering in the fading light. Suddenly, the...

A sweeping narrative history -- the first in over twenty years -- of America's first major offensive of World War II, the brutal, no-quarter-given campaign to take Japanese-occupied GuadalcanalFrom early August until mid-November of 1942, US Marines, sailors, and pilots struggled for dominance against an implacable enemy: Japanese soldiers, inculcated with the bushido tradition of death before dishonor, avatars of bayonet combat -- close-up, personal, and ...

Two centuries ago, without congressional or public debate, Thomas Jefferson, a president who is thought of today as peaceable, launched America’s first war on foreign soil—a war against terror. The enemy was Muslim; the war was waged unconventionally, with commandos, native troops, and encrypted intelligence, and launched from foreign bases.For nearly two hundred years, the Barbary pirates had haunted the Mediterranean, enslaving tens of thousands of Europeans and extorting million...

A unique and compelling examination of the Civil War's "turning point"—forty crucial days in the spring of 1864 that turned the tide for the UnionIn the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4 Grant's army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north central Virginia, with Lee's army contesting every mile. They foug...