From the author of "Apprentice Warrior" comes a story of the odds a special breed of men faced when air battle first came of age. In this story David Harrison surmounts these odds to meet the two great tests of battle: leaving home to search for his warrior self and his struggle to return home after he finds it.

"No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great-Duty First!" For almost a century, from the Western Front of World War I to the deserts of Iraq, this motto has spurred the soldiers who wear the shoulder patch bearing the Big Red One. In this first comprehensive history of America's 1st Infantry Division, James Scott Wheeler chronicles its major combat engagements and peacetime duties during its legendary service to the nation. The oldest continuously serving division in the U.S. Army, the "Fighting First" has consistently played a crucial role in America's foreign wars. It was the first American division to see combat and achieve victory in World War I and set the standard for discipline, training, endurance, and tactical innovation. One of the few intact divisions between the wars, it was the first army unit to train for amphibious warfare. During World War II, the First Division spearheaded the invasions of North Africa and Sicily before leading the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach and fighting on through the Hurtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, the Ruhr Pocket, and deep into Germany. By war's end, it had developed successful combined-arms, regimental combat teams and made advances in night operations. Wheeler describes the First Division's critical role in postwar Germany and as the only combat division in Europe during the early Cold War. After returning to the United States at Fort Riley, Kansas, the division fought valiantly in Vietnam for five trying years, successfully protecting Saigon from major infiltration along Highway 13 while pioneering "air-mobile" operations. It led the liberation of Kuwait in Desert Storm and kept an uneasy peace in Bosnia and Kosovo. Along the way, Wheeler illuminates the division's organizational evolution, its consistently remarkable commanders and leaders, and its equally remarkable soldiers. Meticulously detailed and engagingly written, The Big Red One nimbly combines historical narrative with astute analysis of the unit's successes and failures, so that its story reflects the larger chronicle of America's military experience over the past century.

During the U.S. Civil War, a combination of innovative technologies and catastrophic events stimulated the development of news media into a central cultural force. Reacting to the dramatic increases in news reportage and circulation, poets responded to an urgent need to make their work immediately relevant to current events. As poetry's compressed forms traveled more quickly and easily than stories, novels, or essays through ephemeral print media, it moved alongside and engaged with news reports, often taking on the task of imagining the mental states of readers on receiving accounts from the war front. Newspaper and magazine poetry had long editorialized on political happenings—Indian wars, slavery and abolition, prison reform, women's rights—but the unprecedented scope of what has been called the first modern war, and the centrality of the issues involved for national futures, generated a powerful sense of single-mindedness among readers and writers that altered the terms of poetic expression. In Battle Lines, Eliza Richards charts the transformation of Civil War poetry, arguing that it was fueled by a symbiotic relationship between the development of mass media networks and modern warfare. Focusing primarily on the North, Richards explores how poets working in this new environment mediated events via received literary traditions. Collectively and with a remarkable consistency, poems pulled out key features of events and drew on common tropes and practices to mythologize, commemorate, and ponder the consequences of distant battles. The lines of communication reached outward through newspapers and magazines to writers such as Dickinson, Whitman, and Melville, who drew their inspiration from their peers' poetic practices and reconfigured them in ways that bear the traces of their engagements.

Unleash your inner engineer and dive into the exhilarating world of competitive robotics with "The Battle Bot Builder's Handbook." This comprehensive guide is your gateway to creating fierce and formidable combat robots, whether you're a novice looking to learn the ropes or an enthusiast eager to refine your skills. Begin your journey with an introduction to combat robotics, exploring the thrill of battle bots and the essential skills required to become a successful builder. Discover the perfect niche for your combat robot, whether you're captivated by lightweight speedsters or formidable heavyweights. With guidance on choosing your bot's class and theme, you'll set the stage for a truly unique creation. Designing your bot becomes an engaging experience with chapters dedicated to concept sketching, CAD software, and integrating regulations into your design. Learn the ins and outs of building materials and tools, from creating your starter toolkit to sourcing materials wisely. Navigate the complexities of mechanics and electronics with insightful chapters covering motors, wiring, and drive systems, ensuring your bot performs with precision. Assemble a robust frame and chassis, and master the art of weapon design to inflict maximum damage on your opponents. Dive into the nuances of electronics and control systems, selecting the right components for seamless maneuverability. Perfect your bot's mobility and manage its power efficiently, ensuring it remains a formidable competitor in the arena. From the art of armor to meticulous assembly instructions, this handbook guides you through every step of the build process. Prepare for competition with expert tips on testing, practice scenarios, and mental techniques to keep your cool in high-stakes battles. Future-proof your combat robotics career with insights into maintenance, upgrades, and emerging technology. Connect with other builders, explore further learning resources, and embrace your role in advancing this electrifying field. "The Battle Bot Builder's Handbook" is more than a manual—it's an invitation to join a dynamic community and ignite your passion for innovation.

Technology and its proper use constitute key components in the strength of any armed forces. However, battlefield technologies constantly evolve in the quest for competitive advantage, with the rate at which new concepts and devices appear steadily increasing. In the world of technological intelligence, militaries worldwide not only seek to advance their technologies but to gather information about the latest technological and scientific developments of present and future adversaries, evaluate their possible impacts, and prevent as much as possible, the advantages gained by technological surprise—that sudden appearance of novel weapon systems that can tilt the success of an operation, battle, or even war. While ample documentation circulates on operational intelligence—defined as information about an enemy's order of battle and intentions—and “operational surprise,” technological intelligence (and consequently technological surprise) receives far less attention than today’s military reality merits. In Ready for Battle: Technological Intelligence on the Battlefield, Azriel Lorber rectifies this slant towards operational intelligence, engaging through historical example and policy prescription technology's role in modern warfare, and the dangers presented by technological inferiority on the one hand, and technological surprise on the other. Throughout, he offers examples of well-kept technological secrets that turned the tides of battle—as well as less well-hidden efforts that failed in their effect. Ready for Battle analyzes the challenges presented and possible methods for addressing questions of technological surprise, drawing on historical examples of failure and success and offering insights into the intricacies of technological deception. This work will interest military historians and officers, security analysts, and defense industry professionals.

Terrain has a profound effect upon the strategy and tactics of any military engagement and has consequently played an important role in determining history. In addition, the landscapes of battle, and the geology which underlies them, has helped shape the cultural iconography of battle certainly within the 20th century. In the last few years this has become a fertile topic of scientific and historical exploration and has given rise to a number of conferences and books. The current volume stems from the international Terrain in Military History conference held in association with the Imperial War Museum, London and the Royal Engineers Museum, Chatham, at the University of Greenwich in January 2000. This conference brought together historians, geologists, military enthusiasts and terrain analysts from military, academic and amateur backgrounds with the aim of exploring the application of modem tools of landscape visualisation to understanding historical battlefields. This theme was the subject of a Leverhulme Trust grant (F/345/E) awarded to the University of Greenwich and administered by us in 1998, which aimed to use the tools of modem landscape visualisation in understanding the influence of terrain in the First World War. This volume forms part of the output from this grant and is part of our wider exploration of the role of terrain in military history. Many individuals contributed to the organisation of the original conference and to the production of this volume.

When Canadian troops cracked mentally, their commanders could not understand that strict discipline and good training were not enough to keep battle exhaustion in check. Some Canadian doctors, using energy and common sense, understood the problem better.