The 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) landed in Beirut Lebanon on May 29th, 1983, as part of a peacekeeping force during Lebanon’s Civil War. Once ashore, the MAU’s battalion landing team, BLT 1/8, took up positions around Beirut International Airport. Things escalated and the Marines began regularly taking fire. They suffered their first deaths on August 29th when Staff Sergeant Alexander Ortega and Second Lieutenant George Losey were killed by mortar fire. Then on Oc...

Japan devastated the United States’ fleet with a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. The Japanese followed up on their Pearl Harbor attack by seizing Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines. The Japanese seemed almost unstoppable while the United States asked itself, “What are we going to do, or what can we do, now?” With direction from President Roosevelt to strike Japan, the United States came up with a plan. On A...

Rhodesia, now called the Republic of Zimbabwe, used to be a self-governing British colony. In November 1965, the Cabinet of Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from Britain in an effort to preserve white minority rule. The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Rhodesian Civil War, followed. It lasted until December 1979. This protracted guerilla war pitted Rhodesia’s globally isolated government against the African nationalist Zimbabwe African Nationalist Uni...

South Vietnam has a long coastline and lots of waterways, particularly in the Mekong River Delta at the southern tip of the country. In 1968 U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam had roughly 38,000 sailors serving in country. Their main tasks were to prevent supplies from reaching the Viet Cong, stopping Viet Cong movements, helping move U.S. Army units along the water, and guarding ports and harbors. It was dangerous work. 1,631 sailors were killed in action, 935 died from other ...

The Germans launched “Operation Citadel” on July 5th, 1943. They wanted to encircle and destroy Soviet forces in a salient centered on the city of Kursk. The Soviets knew they were coming and had spent months preparing. What followed was the greatest land battle in history. About two million men with 6,000 tanks, 35,000 guns, and 5,000 aircraft fought into late August. Despite horrific losses, the Soviets stood their ground. Lloyd Clark tells the story in “...

John G. Bourke won the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War. He stayed in the army and graduated from West Point in 1869. Between 1869 and 1883, Bourke served on the frontier with much of that time spent as an aide to General George Crook. Bourke saw action in the Apache Wars and Great Sioux War. He clashed with Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo. Bourke was a keen observer and chronicled his varied experiences. He published them in 1892 under ...

The Korean peninsula was split into two countries after the Second World War. The Soviet backed North and the U.S. backed South. North Korea tried to unify the two by invading South Korea in June 1950. Initially North Korea had great success. It pushed South Korea's small military aside and rushed down the peninsula while the United States tried to get forces onto the peninsula. The North Koreans were finally stopped around the port of Pusan at the very bottom of...

Japan captured and occupied China’s sea ports at the onset of World War Two. That lead to hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers building a road through Burma to get supplies to China. That road got blocked when Burma fell to the Japanese. Next, American engineers began building another road through hundreds of miles of steep jungle while pilots flew supplies into China over the Himalayas. Meanwhile, American and British forces fought to keep the Japanese at bay in ...

In 1899, the British went to war with the Boer Republics. This was when the British Empire was close to its blazing zenith and unquestionably the ranking world power. Any war against the somewhat backward Boers on a remote border of the empire in southern Africa would surely be quick and decisive. It did not turn out that way. As Rudyard Kipling put it, the Boers gave the British “no end of a lesson.” Thomas Pakenham tells the story in “The Boer War.”

The United States and Soviet Union stood on opposite sides of the Cold War. Both tried to project strength and both possessed immense arsenals of nuclear weapons. A fundamental problem for both superpowers was figuring out what the other side was doing. What were they capable of? What were they thinking? The United States relied on its submarines to help answers those questions throughout the Cold War. The missions these submarine crews went on were months...

The Japanese attacked the Philippines almost simultaneous with their December 7th, 1941 attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. Following Japanese air attacks, the Japanese 14th Army landed in the Philippines on December 8th. By January 1942, the Japanese had U.S. and Filipino forces bottled up on the Bataan Peninsula. Those U.S. and Filipino forces surrendered on May 8th. It is arguably America’s worst military defeat ever. Among the roughly 12,000 Americans t...

NAZI scientists relied on heavy water to produce the right uranium isotope for an atomic weapon. They produced most of their heavy water at a hydroelectric in occupied Norway called Vemork. In February 1943, a small group of Norwegian commandos slipped into Vemork, blew it up, and made their escape. This is after months of reconnaissance and preparation in the frozen wilderness. Neal Bascomb tells the story in “The Winter Fortress.”

In October 2001, the United States began aerial bombing of Afghanistan in response to the terrorist group Al Queda’s attacks of September 11th. Special Forces followed up by teaming with the Taliban’s opponents – the Northern Alliance – and by late November / early December 2001 the Taliban had been driven from power. That didn’t mean the Taliban and Al Queda had gone away or given up. They had moved and gone underground. One of the places they went to was Afghanistan’...

William Manchester served in the Marine Corps during the Second World War. He was wounded during the Battle of Okinawa. After the war, Manchester established himself as a journalist in Baltimore, an adjunct professor at Wesleyan University, and an author. In 1978, he returned to the Pacific and visited various places connected either with his service or the Pacific campaign. That trip forms the basis of this book, “Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War.”

Bill Peters was commissioned in the Marine Corps via Officer Candidate School. After completing the Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, he was assigned to Vietnam as a platoon commander in First Force Reconnaissance Company in 1969. Peters conducted twenty-three long-range patrols in enemy-controlled territory, was wounded, and decorated for bravery. He tells the story in “First Force Recon Company: Sunrise at Midnight.”

The Algerian War of Independence lasted from 1954 to 1962. It carried heavy costs for both sides. Estimates vary but upwards of a million Muslim Algerians died; roughly a million Pied Noir (settlers of European descent) were driven into exile; and France was driven to the brink of civil war. Alistair Horne tells the story in “A Savage War of Peace.”

Siegfried Knappe served in the German Army from 1936 until 1949. He was a member of the German General Staff. Knappe was wounded multiple times and saw action in France as well as the Eastern and Italian fronts. He ended the war in and out of Hitler’s bunker during the Battle of Berlin before spending several years in Soviet captivity. This book provides candid insight into the German Army from the inside out.

The United States entered World War One on April 6th, 1917. Going to war in Europe meant the United States had to greatly expand its Army. It had enlist, train, organize, equip, and deploy hundreds of thousands of young men. One of the units that was part of this expansion was the 79th Infantry Division which was activated in August 1917. Many of the soldiers in the 79th Infantry Division were draftees from Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia. By the time they were...

Company E, 506th Regiment was part of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. It was formed in 1942 and comprised of young volunteers that were generally new to the army. Company E received its baptism by fire in June 1944 when it jumped into NAZI occupied France. It went on to jump into Holland as part of Operation Market-Garden; helped blunt the German advance by holding the town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge; and then drove across Germany to secure Hitler’s ...

Sierra Leone’s civil war lasted from 1991 until 2002. It was marked by exceptional levels of cruelty and suffering. During this civil war the United Nations, neighboring West African states, and the United Kingdom launched military interventions into Sierra Leone. The United Kingdom’s intervention was called Operation Palliser. In September 2000 eleven British soldiers participating in Operation Palliser were captured by a militia gang known as the West Side Boys. ...