America's war on terrorism did not start on 11 September. Long before the overt war in Afghanistan and the covert war against al-Qaida, U.S. forces struck at one of the hotbeds of terrorism in the world. On 15 April 1986, in the dead of night, American strike aircraft roared into the very heart of Muammar Qaddafi's Libya, attacking carefully selected targets and nearly killing the «brother leader» himself. Code-named Operation El Dorad ...
From his first dramatic initiatives at the Battle of St. Vincent in 1797 to his last battle at Trafalgar in 1805, Horatio Nelson was a force to be reckoned with and a hero to his countrymen. This illuminating study of the battles that played such an important role in Napoleon's defeat also takes a close look at the admiral's art of naval warfare. It shows that Nelson was quick to adapt new ideas and technical developments. This prowess ...
The U.S. Navy was at war in the Atlantic long before 7 December 1941, but little is known about that conflict. Mr. Roosevelt’s Navy is a vivid, thoroughly researched account of this undeclared war upon which Mr. Roosevelt embarked in order to sway the desperate Battle of the Atlantic in favor of Britain’s hard-pressed Royal Navy. Not only is the book a history of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and its impact on the German-American s ...
This book is a unique combination of intellectual history, personal memoir, and military theory. When Conrad Crane retired from twenty six years of active duty to become a research professor at the Army War College, he never expected to become a modern Cassandra, fated to tell truth to power without being heeded. As he watched the world change after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, he warned the Army that it was not prepared for “Phase IV ...
This book describes and analyses in hitherto unexplored ways the unique relationship of the United States Navy and the Royal Navy as exemplars of the US-UK “Special Relationship” in the context of strategy, operations, technology, and intelligence. A continuous thread of 55 years of maritime strategic planning and execution is examined within the challenges and changes of a dynamic period in which the shared national self-inte ...
Scotland’s maritime heritage is a highly significant one, embracing as it does a quite outstanding contribution to Britain’s development both as an empire and as the world’s leading maritime power in the nineteenth century. Scottish engineering, ship owning and operating, as well as business and entrepreneurial skills, played a major part in the success of the Merchant Navy, while Scottish emigrants took skills to e ...
The men who ventured into the air in the Navy’s first frail aircraft were not only daring—they had vision, persistence, and a nearly unlimited determination to convince the skeptics that their frail kite-like structures could someday possess military value. This is the story of their trials, tragedies, and triumphs. They patched cooling systems with chewing gum, they lived by “crash, repair, and fly again,” ...
While Patton remains an iconic figure 70 years after his death, few fully appreciate him as a strategic thinker. Indeed, his flamboyant personality often obscures the fact that he was a lifelong student of the military art and a true strategic visionary.This short volume introduces readers to a more complete and nuanced Patton. By tracing his intellectual development and connecting these views to the issues of the present day, this book offers a ...
The U.S. Naval Institute Wheel Books provide valuable information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to all naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institute's vast archives, the series combines articles from the Institute's flagship publication Proceedings, selections from the oral history collection, and Naval Institute Press books to create unique guides on a wide array of fundamental professional subj ...