"Drawing from previously unknown and unused sources, Holland paints a vivid picture of the desperate fights that broke the back of the Japanese forces ashore during that pivotal period of 1942. Holland’s ground-breaking account is vital to the understanding of the struggle to secure America’s first major land victory in the Pacific.” – Seth Paridon, Historian, Deputy Director, Mississippi Armed Forces MuseumThe Matanikau battles proved to be the critical turning po...

Richly illustrated with 12 maps and 46 photos.The lightning campaign that toppled the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in the spring of 2003 seemed to herald the arrival of a new way of war, as Germany's blitzkrieg had done at the beginning of World War II. But the initial victory soon devolved into a persistent counterinsurgency conflict reminiscent of the long U.S. effort to pacify the Philippines after the rapid defeat of Spain in 1898. In Iraq, American soldiers and their Coalition...

PRINT FORMAT ONLY NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT -- OVERSTOCK SALE -- Significantly reduced list price while supplies lastThe lightning campaign that toppled the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in the spring of 2003 at first seemed to herald the arrival of a new way of war, as Germany's blitzkrieg had done at the beginning of World War II. But the initial victory in Iraq soon devolved into a persistent counterinsurgency conflict reminiscent of the l...

This pamphlet describes the critical role of Army officers who defied the odds and saw this immense project through to completion. They included Col. William C. Gorgas, who supervised the medical effort that saved countless lives and made it possible for the labor force to do its job; Col. George W. Goethals, who oversaw the final design of the canal and its construction and, equally important, motivated his workers to complete the herculean task ahead of schedule; and many other officers ...

The U.S. Army has a long record of fielding innovations that not only have enhanced its effectiveness on the battlefield but also sometimes had an impact far beyond warfare. General Editor Jon T. Hoffman has brought together eleven authors who cover the gamut from the invention of the M1 Garand rifle between the world wars through the development of the National Training Center in the 1980s. While many books lay out theories about the process of innovation or detail the history of a large-...

Featured on the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ Reading List and the Chief of Naval Operation’s “Naval Power” Reading ListThe Marine Corps is known for its heroes, and Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller has long been considered the greatest of them all. His assignments and activities covered an extraordinary spectrum of warfare. Puller mastered small unit guerrilla warfare as a lieutenant in Haiti in the 1920s, and at the end of his career commanded a division in K...

In February 1942, Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, ordered the creation of a new unit designated the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. This elite force, and its three sister battalions, went on to gain considerable fame for fighting prowess in World War II. There is more to the story of these units, however, than a simple tale of combat heroics. The inception, growth, and sudden end of the raiders reveals a great deal about the development and conduct of am...

The Matanikau battles proved to be the critical turning points in the land campaign for Guadalcanal—the campaign's longest and bloodiest ground fight. A five-month conflict raged along the river and its basin. The real importance of this area has long remained unrecognized, yet the American and Japanese forces that fought over it knew that it was the key to the ultimate prize of Henderson Airfield. In this mile-long bloody tug-of-war from the river across to the hills and ravines were foug...

Little is known and much less has been written about the Malayan theatre of operations of SOE from 1942-45. In this, his second book, Ian Trenowden, working closely with the wartime commander of Force 136, Group B, has built up a surprisingly complete picture of those operations and traces the evolution of the local SOE headquarters from a single desk in London’s Baker Street to the independent Ceylon HQ which, by the end of the war had put a total of 400 British officers and other ranks i...

HMS Tally Ho, captained by Commander L.W.A. Bennington was a T-class submarine which achieved spectacular success in the Second World War. Her name was chosen for her by Winston Churchill and it proved a very suitable one for a hunting submarine. In a single commission, lasting from 15th March 1943 to 26th February 1945, she operated in the Malacca Strait. Here, surrounded by enemy air bases and in badly charted shallow waters - so shallow that many experts considered them unsuitable for s...

A detailed history and analysis of the most controversial amphibious operation in the Pacific during WWII: the Battle for Peleliu.On September 15, 1944, the United States invaded the tiny Pacific island of Peleliu, located at the southern end of the Palau Islands. Boasting a large airfield from which the Americans could mount bomber campaigns, Peleliu was a strategically essential part of Gen. MacArthur's long-awaited liberation of the Philippines. With the famed 1...

A sweeping narrative history of America's first major offensive of WII: the brutal campaign to take Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal.From August to November of 1942, US Marines, sailors, and pilots struggled against an implacable enemy: Japanese soldiers, inculcated with the bushido tradition of death before dishonor. The glittering prize was the strategically decisive Henderson Airfield.The bitter slugfest dragged on with heavy losses on both sides. Mo...