“A stark picture of war between the Germans and the Soviets, including some very interesting illustration . . . fascinating, if chilling, reading.”—Firetrench The Red Army’s casualties during the Second World War and the casualties sustained by the German army they fought are a key element in any assessment of the conflict on the Eastern Front. Since the war ended over seventy years ago, the statistics have been a source of bitter controversy, of claim and counterclaim, as each generation of historians has struggled to uncover the truth. This contentious issue is the subject of this absorbing book. The figures reveal much about the way the war was fought, and they demonstrate the enormous human price the Soviet Union paid for its victory. That is why the statistics have been so strongly contested. Distortion and falsification by official historians have obscured the facts because the issue has been so heavily politicized. Using recently declassified information from the Russian archives, the authors focus in forensic detail on the way the figures were recorded and compiled and seek to explain why, so many years after the war, the full truth about the subject is still far from our reach.

The Third Frontier War is raging, and all across human-occupied space worlds are burning. Massive battlefleets struggle for dominance and kilometer-long war ships exchange thermonuclear barrages. Battered in the early years of the war, the Western Alliance is resurgent. The brilliant Admiral Augustus Garret leads the Alliance fleet from victory to victory, taking the war to the very heart of the enemy empires. And on the ground, Colonel Erik Cain, hero of the Marine Corps, leads his crack troops again into combat, seeking the final battle. In the background, the secretive intelligence agencies of the despotic Superpowers plot and scheme, using their own soldiers as pawns in the great game for control of space. But the final battle will be fought in the reddish sands of a backwater world, and the prize will be the staggering secret that has lain hidden in a remote cave for untold centuries. All the Powers struggle for the ultimate victory, but at what cost? The Cost of Victory is the second book in the Crimson Worlds series and the sequel to Marines. The Crimson Worlds Series: Marines (Crimson Worlds I) - Available Now! Tombstone (A Crimson Worlds Prequel) - Available Now! A Little Rebellion (Crimson Worlds III) - December 2012 The First Imperium (Crimson Worlds IV) - March 2013

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Paul Kennedy, award-winning author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and one of today’s most renowned historians, now provides a new and unique look at how World War II was won. Engineers of Victory is a fascinating nuts-and-bolts account of the strategic factors that led to Allied victory. Kennedy reveals how the leaders’ grand strategy was carried out by the ordinary soldiers, scientists, engineers, and businessmen responsible for realizing their commanders’ visions of success. In January 1943, FDR and Churchill convened in Casablanca and established the Allied objectives for the war: to defeat the Nazi blitzkrieg; to control the Atlantic sea lanes and the air over western and central Europe; to take the fight to the European mainland; and to end Japan’s imperialism. Astonishingly, a little over a year later, these ambitious goals had nearly all been accomplished. With riveting, tactical detail, Engineers of Victory reveals how. Kennedy recounts the inside stories of the invention of the cavity magnetron, a miniature radar “as small as a soup plate,” and the Hedgehog, a multi-headed grenade launcher that allowed the Allies to overcome the threat to their convoys crossing the Atlantic; the critical decision by engineers to install a super-charged Rolls-Royce engine in the P-51 Mustang, creating a fighter plane more powerful than the Luftwaffe’s; and the innovative use of pontoon bridges (made from rafts strung together) to help Russian troops cross rivers and elude the Nazi blitzkrieg. He takes readers behind the scenes, unveiling exactly how thousands of individual Allied planes and fighting ships were choreographed to collectively pull off the invasion of Normandy, and illuminating how crew chiefs perfected the high-flying and inaccessible B-29 Superfortress that would drop the atomic bombs on Japan. The story of World War II is often told as a grand narrative, as if it were fought by supermen or decided by fate. Here Kennedy uncovers the real heroes of the war, highlighting for the first time the creative strategies, tactics, and organizational decisions that made the lofty Allied objectives into a successful reality. In an even more significant way, Engineers of Victory has another claim to our attention, for it restores “the middle level of war” to its rightful place in history. Praise for Engineers of Victory “Superbly written and carefully documented . . . indispensable reading for anyone who seeks to understand how and why the Allies won.”—The Christian Science Monitor “An important contribution to our understanding of World War II . . . Like an engineer who pries open a pocket watch to reveal its inner mechanics, [Paul] Kennedy tells how little-known men and women at lower levels helped win the war.”—Michael Beschloss, The New York Times Book Review “Histories of World War II tend to concentrate on the leaders and generals at the top who make the big strategic decisions and on the lowly grunts at the bottom. . . . [Engineers of Victory] seeks to fill this gap in the historiography of World War II and does so triumphantly. . . . This book is a fine tribute.”—The Wall Street Journal “[Kennedy] colorfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few men who made all the difference.”—The Washington Post “This superb book is Kennedy’s best.”—Foreign Affairs

The Mediterranean theater in World War II has long been overlooked by historians who believe it was little more than a string of small-scale battles--sideshows that were of minor importance in a war whose outcome was decided in the clashes of mammoth tank armies in northern Europe. But in this ground-breaking new book, one of our finest military historians argues that the Mediterranean was World War II's pivotal theater. Douglas Porch examines the Mediterranean as an integrated arena, one in which events in Syria and Suez influenced the survival of Gibraltar. Without a Mediterranean alternative, the Western Allies would probably have committed to a premature cross-Channel invasion in 1943 that might well have cost them the war. Brilliantly argued, with vivid portraits of Churchill, Montgomery, FDR, Rommel, and Mussolini, this original, accessible, and compelling account of a little-known theater emphasizes the importance of the Mediterranean in the ultimate Allied victory in Europe in World War II.

Many people do not understand why America lost the Viet Nam War. Author Cecil B. Currey makes one primary reason clear: North Viet Nam's Senior Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. Victory at Any Cost tells the full story of the man who fought three of the world's great powers--and beat them all.

Are you interested in learning more about the two world wars that shaped the modern world? Do you want to explore the causes, battles, and outcomes of World War I and II, and the interconnectedness of these conflicts? If so, our book bundle, "World War I & II: Two Wars, One World - The Cost of Victory," is for you. This bundle offers readers a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the political, economic, social, and cultural consequences of both wars. Through these pages, you'll explore the causes of the two wars, the military strategies and tactics used by both sides, and the impact these conflicts had on human lives. In "Two Wars, One World," we go beyond the usual narratives of World War I and II as separate events, and reveal the interconnectedness of these two global conflicts. We explore how the Treaty of Versailles, signed at the end of World War I, created conditions that led to the rise of Nazism in Germany and ultimately, the outbreak of World War II. You'll discover how the technological advancements and military strategies developed during World War I influenced the course of World War II. But the book bundle doesn't stop there. We bring you the personal stories of soldiers and civilians from different countries, exploring the impact of the wars on their lives and the societies in which they lived. We also offer a critical reflection on the cost of victory in both wars, examining the long-term political, economic, and social consequences of these conflicts. With "Two Wars, One World," you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of the two wars and the profound impact they had on the world as we know it today. Our bundle is an essential read for history enthusiasts, students, and anyone who wants to understand the roots of today's world conflicts. Don't miss out on this opportunity to explore the cost of victory and the interconnectedness of these two monumental wars. Get your copy of "World War I & II: Two Wars, One World - The Cost of Victory" today!

From the mountains of Italy to the beaches of Normandy, and from the deserts of North Africa to the ruined cities of Germany, experience the history of the Second World War in Western Europe from 1939-1945 in an entirely different way.Using unpublished letters and diaries, follow the journeys of some fifty Allied soldiers (American, British, French, Canadian...) as they liberate the continent from Nazi rule, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. Arranged in chronological order and placed in historical context, their stories and letters are illustrated with many personal photographs, war memorabilia and original uniforms.Having miraculously escaped wartime censorship, these new first-hand testimonies are transcribed as is, whether they come from an elite soldier, a combat medic or a USO dancer. These poignant writings, completed in the mud of the European battlefields, reveal the hopes, doubts and fears of these young people sent to hell, making Till Victory first and foremost a book about peace.