A photographic record of a black regiment's contribution to safeguarding Alaska from Japanese invasion

The epic story of the engineers and rail workers who ensured Allied victory in World War Two, published to coincide with the eightieth anniversary of D-Day, by an award-winning expert on trains and transportation They certainly were not soldiers, yet they suddenly found themselves in uniform, in a foreign land. But, as locomotive drivers, track-workers, conductors, porters, signalmen, and engine cleaners, they knew how to run trains. And their job was to bring them back to life. The Liberation Line tells the thrilling story of the British and American railway engineers who, in the months after D-Day, worked around the clock and in great danger to rebuild the ravaged railways of Europe and keep the Allied forces fueled as they pushed on into Germany. As territory was taken, these soldier-railroaders were close behind, rebuilding the lines, putting up telegraph wires, replacing bridges and laying track, all the while dodging bullets, shells, and booby traps. Tales of extraordinary feats and heroism abound, including how 10,000 men rebuilt a 135-mile-long railway in just three days; the reconstruction of the bridge over the Seine in two weeks while under bombardment; and the use of cigarette lighters as improvised signaling systems. Despite being critical to Allied victory, the role of the railway men has been largely forgotten or ignored. In a vivid and gripping narrative, Christian Wolmar brings to life this colorful cast of generals and engineers, without whose extraordinary bravery the liberation of France and invasion of Germany might well have foundered—and the course of history changed.

The U.S. Army and World War II is an anthology of selected papers from three international conferences held in 1990, 1992, and 1994 on the Army's role in the war. Taking the best from those meetings, Judith L. Bellafaire has organized the various presentations into four thematic categories--prewar planning, the home front, the European theater, and the Asian-Pacific theaters--reflecting the diversity of both the war and the interest of those seeking to understand its many facets. In these carefully edited papers, one will find the more conventional treatments of doctrine, strategy, and operations side by side with those focusing on military mobilization and procurement, race and gender, psychological warfare, and large-scale advice and assistance programs. Despite significant changes in military technology and the geopolitical landscape of the world since those desperate times, the human problems highlighted by the authors are not much different from many of those facing Army leaders today. Although the past can never provide the specific recipes needed for the future, experience has shown that both the basic ingredients and the manner in which they are prepared and processed have remained remarkably constant. Those grappling with the challenges of stability operations and other contingency missions in support of the Global War on Terrorism will find this collection of readings invaluable.