Animals have played an important role in warfare throughout history. Military forces have long relied on animals' natural abilities to achieve their missions. From medieval warriors charging into combat on horseback to dolphins locating explosive mines at sea, take a look at the many ways animals have helped armies find success on the battlefield. Then be sure to catch the other amazing titles in the Beasts and the Battlefield series.

This book pays tribute to the unrecognized warriors and unsung heroes of human warfare: millions of animals from a surprising variety of species, ranging from rodents to dolphins to llamas. When one thinks of war, armies of soldiers and assaults with bullets and bombs delivered by deadly machinery typically come to mind. Throughout human history, however, animals have also played significant roles in our armed conflicts. In Animals in the Military: From Hannibal's Elephants to the Dolphins of the U.S. Navy, author John M. Kistler examines these contributions, describing the work of animals in human warfare throughout time, from lowly insects to birds to elephants. Drawing on both ancient and modern sources, the book reveals the full scope of heroics and horror committed by—and against—animal warriors in three unique areas: animals in combat, animals in support, and animals in incidental and experimental roles. Each chapter describes a single species, chronologically recounting its fascinating place in human warfare over time, from insects used as stinging projectiles to message-delivering pigeons.

Essays on the depiction of animals, birds and insects in early medieval material culture, from texts to carvings to the landscape itself. For people in the early Middle Ages, the earth, air, water and ether teemed with other beings. Some of these were sentient creatures that swam, flew, slithered or stalked through the same environments inhabited by their human contemporaries. Others were objects that a modern beholder would be unlikely to think of as living things, but could yet be considered to possess a vitality that rendered them potent. Still others were things half glimpsed on a dark night or seen only in the mind's eye; strange beasts that haunted dreams and visions or inhabited exotic lands beyond the compass of everyday knowledge. This book discusses the various ways in which the early English and Scandinavians thought about and represented these other inhabitants of their world, and considers the multi-faceted nature of the relationship between people and beasts. Drawing on the evidence of material culture, art, language, literature, place-names and landscapes, the studies presented here reveal a world where the boundaries between humans, animals, monsters and objects were blurred and often permeable, and where to represent the bestial could be to holda mirror to the self. Michael D.J. Bintley is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Canterbury Christ Church University; Thomas J.T. Williams is a doctoral researcher at UCL's Institute of Archaeology. Contributors: Noël Adams, John Baker, Michael D. J. Bintley, Sue Brunning, László Sándor Chardonnens, Della Hooke, Eric Lacey, Richard North, Marijane Osborn, Victoria Symons, Thomas J. Williams

Ethnographic studies trace the background to and impact of urbanisation and Christianisation, and the development of royal power, which stimulated the transition from the Viking age to the medieval period. Using the evidence of archaeology, poetry, legal texts and annals, this volume investigates the social, economic and symbolic structures of early Scandinavia at the time of the Viking expansion. The contributors provide an outlineethnography, covering dwellings and settlements, kinship and social relations, law, political structures and external relations, rural and urban economies, and the ideology of warfare. The topics are discussed through case-studies, illustrating the changing scholarly interpretations of this formative period in Scandinavian history. By addressing these key research questions, the contributions trace the background to and the impact of urbanisation and Christianisation, and the development of royal power, which stimulated the transition from the Viking age to the medieval period in Scandinavia. JUDITH JESCH is Professor in Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham. Contributors: LENA HOLMQUIST OLAUSSON, BENTE MAGNUS, E. VESTERGAARD, BIRGIT ARRHENIUS, STEFAN BRINK, LISE BENDER JORGENSEN, SVEND NIELSEN, FRANDS HERSCHEND, NIELS LUND, DAVID N. DUMVILLE, JUDITH JESCH, DENNIS H. GREEN.

As a first lieutenant in Bravo Company of the Third Battalion, 187th Infantry, Frank Boccia led a platoon in two intense battles in the Vietnamese mountains in April and May 1969: Dong Ngai and the grinding, 11-day battle of Dong Ap Bia--the Mountain of the Crouching Beast, in Vietnamese, or Hamburger Hill as it is popularly known. The Rakkasans, the 3/187th, are the most highly decorated unit in the history of the United States Army, and two of those decorations were awarded for these two battles. This vivid account of the author's first seven months in Vietnam gives special attention to the events at Dong Ap Bia, following the hard-hit 3/187th hour by hour through its repeated assaults on the mountain, against an unseen enemy in an ideal defensive position. It also corrects several errors that have persisted in histories and official reports of the battle. Beyond describing his own experiences and reactions, the author writes, "I want to convey the real face of war, both its mindless carnage and its nobility of spirit. Above all, I want to convey what happened to both the casual reader and the military historian and make them aware of the extraordinary spirit of the men of First Platoon, Bravo Company. They were ordinary men doing extraordinary things."

The Great War meets the horrors of forgotten folklore in this occult skirmish wargame. 1916: A World Transformed. As the Great War raged, the Moon fell from its orbit. Seas shifted, uncovering new lands and revealing what tide and time had concealed. Long known as a potent occult power, the Moon's descent also heralded the terrifying resurgence of magic. Long-forgotten gods and spirits began to stir in hidden groves and caverns and old traditions found new strength. Soon, stone circles echoed once more with the chanting of ancient rituals and menhirs were again bedecked with wildflowers and presented with offerings of honey and blood. 1918: A War Transformed. Rival nations battle on new fronts, seeking dominance with weapons of spell, song, and sacrifice. Thrust to the surface, Doggerland, the ancient bridge between Britain and Europe, becomes a crucial battleground in the conflict. In this alien landscape, raiding parties pick through the ribs of wrecks and the ruins of lost villages, war machines festooned with totems and fetishes roll over the brittle bones of long-dead giants, and cavalry charge across plains made verdant by the vegetation returning to this new land with unnatural speed. A War Transformed is a skirmish wargame set in a world where World War I was utterly changed by forces far beyond human comprehension. Players command small forces of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other... stranger... troops on the Doggerland Front. Fast-paced gameplay and a tense initiative bidding system are combined with authentic folk traditions and occult philosophies of the era – it is a game of rifle and relic, of bayonet and belief, of machine gun and magic.

The same was true for terrifying humor. Different methods used to catch ghosts were the same. My name is Bao Yang, a legend with a rooster and a ghost.