Military Combat

In the midst of the devastating Hundred Years’ War between France and England, Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight, fresh from combat in Scotland finds his wife, Marguerite, accusing squire Jacques Le Gris of brutally raping her. A deadlocked court decrees a “trial by combat” that also leaves Marguerite’s fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser. While enemy troops pillage the land, and rebellion and plague threaten the lives of all, Carrouges and Le Gris meet in full armor on a walled field in Paris.

This volume, Combat Veterans’ Stories of the Vietnam War, contains 11 autobiographical stories. The first begins in October 1966, and is told by a Marine infantry forward observer who was in 13 operations. The final story in this volume is told by a Marine machine gunner that was in multiple skirmishes and ambushes, in I Corps, including the battle for Hue. Other stories in Volume 2 include those told by a marine infantry officer who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism and leadership in fighting at villages named Dai Do and Dinh To.

John Comer kept a journal of the 25 missions he flew in 1943, when the casualty rate on his base was close to 80 percent. His book is handwritten history, recorded within hours after the battles occurred. Comer vividly creates his experiences as top-turret gunner/flight engineer in a B-17 squadron that was thrown against the best pilots the Luftwaffe could offer.

He didn’t ask for cartilaginous ass plates, but military science made him a warrior. And late at night when the nightmares come of innocents killed or twerking an enemy to death in a dark tunnel, he tells himself he did it to protect the other wombats in his unit. He sucks it up, soldiers on and does his duty. He’s Cecil the Combat Wombat, and he’s seen some shit, man.

Inspirational storiesCourage in Camouflage is a fascinating collection of stories based on individual interviews with military veterans young and old from all across the United States. Most of these brave men and women served considerable time in combat during sometimes historic battles in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and the longstanding fight against terrorism in the Middle East. Most all have gone on to successful lives outside the military, but things they saw and did during wartime haunt many of them to this day. Life-changing experiencesMike ...

Up in the mountains of Afghanistan, one of Mike Waltz's snipers watched through his scope as a young boy acted as a spotter for the Taliban mortars attacking a Green Beret position. The sniper requested permission to fire. Waltz refused, insisting on restraint. The child was spared, and the position was held. Later that same day, Waltz visited a nearby Afghan village and discovered the Taliban had hanged a boy in front of his family—because the child wasn't willing to fight for them.

This insightful chronicle takes listeners inside the experiences of America's fighter pilots and bomber crews, an incredible assortment of men who, in nearly four years of warfare all over the globe, suffered over 120,000 casualties, with over 40,000 killed. Their stories span the Earth, into every corner of the combat theaters in both Europe and the Pacific. And the aircraft explored are as varied, tough, and legendary as the men who flew them.

At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small upstate New York community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Seventy years later, a history teacher tracks down the veterans with a connection to “Hometown, USA” who fought the war in the air over Europe, men who were tempered in the tough times of the Great Depression and forged in battle.

For soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division, the road to Baghdad began with a midnight flight out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in late February 2003. For Rick Atkinson, who would spend nearly two months covering the division for The Washington Post, the war in Iraq provided a unique opportunity to observe today's U.S. Army in combat.

In the summer of 1967, Mark Garrison had dropped out of college at Southern Illinois University just before entering his third year. He had run out of money and had to work for a while. These were the days before the lottery and the draft soon came calling. In order to somewhat control his own future, he enlisted in the US Army's helicopter flight school program. Little did he know that this adventure would be the most profound experience of his life.

In the crucible of war, where death and survival walk hand in hand, one man grapples with faith, duty, and the meaning of sacrifice. John Peck, a young Navy corpsman deployed to Vietnam in 1967, found himself on the front lines—not just of combat, but of an inner war between doubt and belief. Charged with the immense responsibility of saving lives amidst the relentless violence of war, Peck bore witness to the rawest forms of courage, loyalty, and loss. His days were filled with the agony of the wounded, the chaos of battle, and the unspoken fear that each mission might be his last. Yet, ...

Helmet for My Pillow is a personal memoir of the war in the Southern Pacific by the World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, author, and military historian Robert Leckie. First published in 1957, the story begins with Leckie's enlisting in the United States Marines after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

From the acclaimed author of The Dead and Those About to Die comes a sweeping narrative of six decades of combat, and an eye-opening account of the evolution of the American infantry. From the beaches of Normandy and the South Pacific Islands to the deserts of the Middle East, the American soldier has been the most indispensable - and most overlooked - factor in wartime victory.

Dragons don’t exist. Except on the Astral Plane where humans aren’t welcome. When humanity built spaceships and headed to the stars, they found the dragons waiting. Some places they’ll let humans go. Others they won’t. And sometimes humanity refuses to be denied. That’s where the Mystics come in. They commune with the Astral Plane. They deal with the dragons. They suffer the dragon’s fury. And sometimes they bend the dragons to their will. Very few have the gift of seeing the Astral Plane. Their innate talents are nurtured in the Mystic Academy while Earth Fleet has its own ...

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang first started appearing in real numbers in 1943, at the climax of the Allied campaign in World War II. Able to fly long ranges, it would go on to provide pivotal air support on D-Day, and by the end of the war, it would be responsible for nearly half of all enemy aircraft shot down. In The Fight in the Clouds, aviation writer and EAA Warbirds of America editor James P. Busha draws on interviews conducted with dozens of veteran P-51 pilots to trace the progress of war through the men’s exciting, chronologically organized experiences.

Serving with distinction in the military may earn you medals and promotions, but it also earns you more headaches. The reward for a job well done is more work, and our hero Cecil is discovering that as the new project officer for P.U.S.S., or Project for Utilization of Sentient Species, the Australian Army’s newest effort to integrate uplifted animals into combat and support units. Not only does he have to ride herd on a force of felonious wombats and a detachment of deadly mongeese, the newest addition of uplifted Australian indigenous species may prove to be his biggest challenge yet or...

In Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay used the story of the Iliad as a prism through which to examine how ancient and modern wars have battered the psychology of the men who fight. Now he turns his attention to the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the real problems faced by combat veterans reentering civilian society. The Odyssey, Shay argues, offers explicit portrayals of behavior common among returning soldiers in our own culture: danger-seeking, womanizing, explosive violence, drug abuse, visitation by the dead, obsession, vagrancy and homelessness.

Previous books have promised to describe the combat experience of the World War II GI, but there has never been a book like Patrick O'Donnell's Beyond Valor. Here is the first combat history of the war in Europe in the words of the men themselves, and perhaps the most honest and brutal account of combat possible.

Christopher Ecclestone has lived in the dark for a long time. As a fighter pilot on the old Ark Royal, on the very day all his wishes came true, fate took them away again. Seven years later, all he can do is listen, as a galactic core wide war begins. Only the brand new Imperium had space fighters, and they were a liability, not an asset. Now the Trixone have them, they've swept their frontier clean, and invaded Ralnor and Keerah space. The Ralnor asked the fledgling Imperium for help. But the Imperium only has a small number of fighter pilots, with nearly half being rookies without a ...

On the morning of August 15, 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin flew the last combat mission of World War II out of Iwo Jima. Today, Captain Yellin is a sharp, engaging, 93-year-old veteran whose story is brought to life by best-selling author Don Brown.