Bloodstained Sands tells the untold story of the men who stormed beaches around the globe during World War II, from the Sword and Juno Beaches on D-Day to the sands of Iwo Jima.For the men who served in America's Amphibious Forces during World War II, the conflict was an unceasing series of D-Days. They were responsible for putting men ashore in more than 200 landings throughout the conflict, most against well-entrenched enemy positions.Bloodst...

U.S. Army LTC Darron Wright and former U.S. Coast Guard officer Mike Walling join forces to detail a complete, unique history of the Iraq War through first-hand, street-level accounts of the key events and battles that shaped the conflict.From 2003 through 2010, more than 200,000 men and women were deployed in Iraq. For seven years, they fought ferociously in the blistering sands in the Land Between the Two Rivers. Some fought for pride or survival, some to bring d...

“Michael Walling has honored the American men and women who served in Operation Enduring Freedom by helping them tell their own stories. This is the war in Afghanistan as experienced by the people who fought it.” - General Tommy R. Franks, Ret.The war in Afghanistan has seen men and women thrown into America's longest sustained combat operation.For over 13 years, US military personnel have been embroiled in a conflict unlike any ot...

Award-winning historian Mike Walling captures the essence of the Arctic Convoys of World War II.In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken. Operation Barbarossa saw defeat after defeat heaped on the Soviet army. With Russia's forces left staggering under the strain and in desperate need of supplies, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious operation to resupply the Soviet Union using convoys sent through ...

In February 1942, three of the major ships of the German surface fleet – the battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen – stormed out of the harbour at Brest on a dramatic voyage back to Germany.Passing through the straights of Dover, the ships faced everything the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy could throw at them. In a dramatic running fight, the ships managed to sail right under the nose of history's greatest maritime nation...

The author of Blitzkrieg covers one of the most dramatic events of the Second World War in an "outstanding book about naval warfare" ( World War II History).When the German battleship Bismarck—a masterpiece of engineering, well-armored with a main artillery of eight 15-inch guns—left the port of Gotenhafen for her first operation on the night of May 18, 1941, the British battlecruiser Hood and the new battleship...

"The hunting down and sinking of the magnificent German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was one of the epic actions of World War II . . . stirring" ( Work Boat).On December 25, 1943, the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst slipped out of Altenfjord in Norway to attack Arctic convoy JW55B which was carrying vital war supplies to the Soviet Union. But British naval intelligence knew of the Scharnhorst's mission before she sailed, and the ...

"A personal and vivid view of the Royal Air Force's (RAF) engagement of the Luftwaffe in World War II . . . Exciting, valuable, and good reading." — Library JournalThis is the autobiography of Group Captain Sir Hugh Dundas CBE, DSO, DFC, who was one of the most distinguished fighter pilots of World War II. He writes of his wartime experiences, and particularly of his period as Squadron Leader and Wing Commander and his involvement in the Battle of Britain.

"This is the book that puts the flesh on the bones of its reputation as one of the best aircraft of the Second World War." — Pennant MagazineThe flak started about four or five minutes before the target and immediately it was apparent that it was intense and extremely accurate. Oboe entailed the pilot flying dead straight and level for ten minutes on the attack run. Suddenly a tremendous flash lit up the sky about 50 yards ahea...

The story of the German submarine U-505 and its dramatic capture by the US Navy during WWII—told by one of its crewmen.Hans Goebeler is known as the man who "pulled the plug" on U-505 in 1944 to keep his beloved U-boat out of Allied hands. Steel Boat, Iron Hearts is his no-holds-barred account of service aboard a combat U-boat. It is the only full-length memoir of its kind, and Goebeler was aboard for every one of U-505's war patrols.Using his own ex...

A highly illustrated examination of the key ships, tactics and operations of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the War in the Pacific in World War II.The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was the third most powerful navy in the world at the start of World War II, and came to dominate the Pacific in the early months of the war. This was a remarkable turnaround for a navy that only began to modernize in 1868, although defeats inflicted on the Russians and Chinese in successiv...

Victors write history. German Admiral Reinhard Scheer knew this, and wrote his own anyway. In this memoir of World War One, he says, "We are victors and vanquished at one and the same time, and in depicting our success the difficult problem confronts us of not forgetting that our strength did not last out to the end."Admiral Scheer took command of the German High Seas Fleet in 1916. He championed unrestricted submarine warfare as the key to winning, maintaining that it was...