For more than seven decades, homing pigeons provided the U.S. military with its fastest most reliable means of communication. Originally bred for racing in the early 1800s, homing pigeons were later trained by pigeoneers to fly up to 60 mph for hundreds of miles, and served the United States for almost 75 years, through four wars on four continents. Barely weighing a pound, these extraordinary birds carried messages in and out of gas, smoke, exploding bombs and gunfire. They flew through jungles, deserts and mountains, not faltering even when faced with large expanses of ocean to cross. Sometimes they arrived nearly dead from wounds or exhaustion, refusing to give up until they reached their objective. This book is the first complete account of the remarkable service that homing pigeons provided for the American armed forces, from its fledgling beginnings after the Civil War to the birds' invaluable role in communications in every branch of the U.S. military through both World Wars and beyond. Personal narratives, primary sources and news articles tell the story of the pigeons' recruitment and training in the U.S., their deployment abroad and use on the home front.

In 1944 the U.S. Army published this manual for its officers in the Pacific Theater an expanded version of the original 1942 manual of the same name—and ever since, it has been the best single reference source on the wartime Japanese military available in the English language. By 1944, the army had had time to assess its enemy closely and was coming to understand him, and its vast knowledge was distilled into the handbook. The handbook details the Japanese military system, field organization, tactics, and weapons and equipment, and the strengths and weaknesses that resulted from them. Extensively illustrated, it contains sections on the Japanese special forces, the military police, uniforms and insignia, and conventional signs and abbreviations. It covers, besides the army, the Japanese Air Service, with emphasis on its tactics and organization. Issued to officers for briefings and periodically updated, the handbook’s purpose was to assist in the winning of the war, and thus it strove to be absolutely reliable for its users in combat. It was compiled by a team of officers who integrated the research of others, and it contains information provided by the U.S. Marines and also by British and Australian intelligence. Packed with information, it is a major primary source that military historians and World War II buffs will find fascinating.