"The enemy bomber grew larger in my sights and the rear gunner was sprayed by my guns just as he opened fire. The rest was merely a matter of seconds. The bomber fell like a stone out of the sky and exploded on the ground. The nightmare came to an end."In this enthralling memoir, the author recounts his experiences of the war years and traces the story of the ace fighter pilots from the German development of radar to the Battle of Britain.Johnen flew his first operational mission in July 1...

One of the leading German night-fighter aces tells his own story of the attempt to protect Germany from the British and American bombers. A thrilling first-hand account of some of the most desperate air battles ever fought, BATTLING THE BOMBERS is a breath-taking reading experience.

Wilhelm Johnen flew his first operational mission in July 1941, having completed his blind-flying training. In his first couple of years he brought down two enemy planes. The tally went up rapidly once the air war was escalated in spring 1943, when Air Marshal Arthur Harris of the RAF Bomber Command began the campaign dubbed the Battle of the Ruhr.During this phrase of the war Johnen's successes were achieved against a 710-strong force of bombers. Johnen's further successes during ...

A definitive history of the US Navy's renowned special operations fighting force—"the most complete in-depth study of this fabled elite unit" ( Library Journal).The legend was forged in the fires of World War II, when special units of elite navy frogmen were entrusted with dangerous covert missions in the brutal global conflict. These Underwater Demolition Teams, as they were then called, soon became known for their toughness and fearlessness, and their rem...

In a rude and primitive condition of mankind might constitute right and strength and daring give rank. The aristocracy, therefore, will consist of the warriors while the weak, the young, the old and the women will occupy an inferior position. An uncivilized race is always at war. A system of mutual fear, hatred and injury seems to be the normal condition of savage man, in all ages and in every part of the world. As civilization progressed in Europe and Asia, the use of the horse in battle ...

In AD 9 half of Rome's Western army was ambushed in a German forest and annihilated. Three legions, three cavalry units and six auxiliary regiments - some 25,000 men - were wiped out. It dealt a body blow to the empire's imperial pretensions and was Rome's greatest defeat. No other battle stopped the Roman empire dead in its tracks.Although one of the most significant and dramatic battles in European history, this is also one which has been largely overlooked. Draw...

Is there a distinctive style of New Zealand command? An examination of New Zealand military commanders and the style of New Zealand command is long overdue, and this superb new book now fills the gap. Glyn Harper, Joel Hayward and a team of top military historians profile the most important commanders in New Zealand history, both Maori and Pakeha, from the nineteenth century to the recent past. Each writer is an expert on the commander concerned, with the subjects drawn from all three arms...

“So marvelously improbable, so rich in exotic detail, that if often reads more like a historical thriller than the serious work of history that it is.”—Los Angeles TimesWith the same flair for history and narrative that distinguished his bestseller, The Alienist, Caleb Carr tells the incredible story of Frederick Townsend Ward, the American mercenary who fought for the emperor of China in the Taiping rebellion, history's bloodiest civil war. T...

Before becoming one of the longest-ruling dictators of the twentieth century, Francisco Franco commanded troops in the kinds of wars that have since become all too familiar. He not only waged vicious counterinsurgency campaigns against Muslim warlords and defiant tribes in Morocco, but he also led a multinational force to victory in EuropeÆs ôdress rehearsalö for World War IIùthe Spanish Civil War.Born into a military family in 1892, Francisco Franco first made a name for himself ...

The long conflict between France and England, to which historians have given the name of "The Hundred Years' War," interests us chiefly as an illustration on a great scale of the transition from the mediæval, feudal order of society to the modern, national idea of political organization. Its nearer causes were largely feudal, and its methods were still, to a great extent, those of the earlier period. Its remoter causes, however, and the motives that kept it alive are to be sought on both s...

Long acknowledged as a classic text on strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War has been admired by leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong and General Norman Schwartzkopf. However, having been written two thousand years ago, the book can be somewhat daunting to the modern reader. Mark McNeilly, author of Sun Tzu and the Art of Business (OUP, 2011), which made Sun Tzu accessible to the business executive, has extracted the six concepts most applicable to modern warfare, making them ea...