Military

Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the Australian commandos.

‘Stop screaming, I'm scared too!' is not what you'd expect to see on the back of a loadmaster's helmet in a Chinook helicopter flying over southern Afghanistan, but for Rod Henderson it sums up his 22 years of service as a soldier in the Australian Army.

Borneo: The Last Campaign tells the story of Operation OBOE, the massive, three-pronged assault on the vast Japanese-held island of Borneo in 1945. It was one of the largest amphibious invasions of the entire war, and a virtually all-Australian operation.

The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland....

Now available in audio for the first time, Christopher R. Browning’s shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews - now with a new afterword and additional photographs....

‘Paddy' Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War....

Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, was as good a rifle company as any in the world....

He is the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers....

Winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1961, this worldwide bestselling classic chronicles the most infamous era of our times.

From the bestselling author of Kokoda and Gallipoli comes the epic story of Australia's deadliest Vietnam War battle....

Our heroes can come from the most ordinary of places. As a shy young lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become.

Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2003, the SAS launched one of the most intense and secretive operations in its history: Task Force Black.

GCHQ is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the UK, and has existed for 100 years - but we still know next to nothing about it....

Journalist Owen Matthews dives deep into the war in Ukraine—from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol....

The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company....

An enthralling and meticulously researched book, Crossing the Line tells the untold story of how a small group of brave soldiers and two determined reporters exposed one of the greatest military scandals in Australian history....

Night is an unmistakably autobiographical account of the author's own gruesome experiences in Nazi Germany's death camps....

No one is born a leader. But through sheer determination and by confronting life’s challenges, Ant Middleton has come to know the meaning of true leadership....

In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred.

For Australians, Kokoda is the iconic battle of World War II, yet few people know just what happened and just what our troops achieved....

Mosul details the rise of ISIS influence in Australia, the Iran and Australia allegiance to fight Daesh and shows what led up to the battle and the ramifications that are still being felt at home - by our soldiers and the victims of that war....

Australian General Sir John Monash changed the way wars were fought and won....

In 1858, 14-year-old Narcisse Pelletier sailed from Marseilles in the French trader Saint-Paul. With a cargo of wine, they stopped in Bombay, then Hong Kong, and from there they set sail with more than 300 Chinese prospectors bound for the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo....

The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet - murderer or hero? Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero....

A New York Times-bestselling historian charts how and why societies from ancient Greece to the modern era chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time....

Borneo: The Last Campaign tells the story of Operation OBOE, the massive, three-pronged assault on the vast Japanese-held island of Borneo in 1945. It was one of the largest amphibious invasions of the entire war, and a virtually all-Australian operation. Over the final twelve weeks of World War Two, the 1st Australian Army Corps chased down and fought the remnants of the Japanese army over burning oil fields, up languid tropical rivers, along leech-ridden jungle tracks and across endless hills, valleys and ridges.

Tyler Grey was the epitome of the warrior archetype: a Delta Force operator, a master of counterterrorism. He hunted the worst bullies on the world’s playground—high-value targets, bomb makers, warlords—executing covert missions that never made the news. He had perfected the persona—ruthless, efficient, untouchable—until one mission in Sadr City, Iraq changed everything. Stripped of everything that defined him, Tyler reached for chaos: sex, substances, a romance that was either a love worth fighting for or his ultimate kryptonite. But beneath it all, the hunger for chaos never died.

Grego Casanova, historiador, periodista y youtuber, revela con gran pulso narrativo y rigor en las páginas de este libro lo que nunca te contaron de una contienda que hasta el final fue destrucción, discordia y sangre. Ochenta años después del final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, son muchos los episodios y secretos que se guardaron a toda prisa en favor de la reconstrucción del mundo.

They arrived in Annapolis as teenagers the year Hitler re-occupied the Rhineland and graduated as young men the week the British Army evacuated Dunkirk. Annapolis Goes to War tells the story of their transformative years at the Naval Academy and the annealing years in the cauldron of war. More than a hundred of them were on duty in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Ten of them died that day—seven remain entombed in the USS Arizona still.

A defense technology expert and military leader reveals the future of robotic warfare, and illuminates the path to navigate the approaching storm of global change.

On August 6, 1945, the United States unleashed a weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen. Then, just three days later, when Japan showed no sign of surrender, the United States took aim at Nagasaki. Rendered in harrowing detail, this historical narrative is the second and final volume in M. G. Sheftall’s series Embers. Sheftall has spent years personally interviewing hibakusha—the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors.

Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives. But in the post-war survivors’ accounts, lesbians were stigmatized, and survivors kept silent. This book explores those silences, and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire. As Margaret wrote: “I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena.”

Before the Romans could become masters of the Mediterranean, they had to first conquer the people of their own peninsula. This book explores the origins of Roman imperialism and the creation of Rome's early Italian empire, bringing new light and interpretations to this important but problematic period in Roman history. It explains how and why the Romans were able to expand their influence within Italy, often through the use of armed conflict, laying the foundations for their great imperial project.

The most important task of any government remains the defence of its state and its citizens. Traditionally governments have used armed forces to do this. World events and comparative peace in Europe since 1989 have led most European governments to lose their focus on defence. However, recent events have proved that war is now as nasty, violent, destructive and prevalent as it has ever been, and governments need to fundamentally re-think their relationship with armies and soldiers.

Joshua Shores was just nineteen years old when he deployed to Iraq in 2005. A Midwestern kid raised in a close-knit, supportive family, he had developed a strong sense of duty and honor. Both sides of his family had proudly served their country, fostering a legacy of service that would guide his own path. Serving in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Shores was a teenager among battle-hardened peers, far removed from the naïve assumptions of war that he had once held.

La guerra del 1914-1918 fu il primo conflitto che coinvolse tutti i paesi d'Europa. Due possenti coalizioni, l'Intesa (Gran Bretagna, Francia e Russia) e gli imperi centrali (Germania e Austria-Ungheria), si misurarono in uno scontro tanto violento quanto logorante. In termini di costi economici e umani - nove milioni di morti - i quattro anni di combattimenti ebbero sulle potenze belligeranti un effetto disastroso.

In this treatise, Sun Tzu lays out his basic philosophy of how to wage military campaigns, including a description of the correct temperament of a general, flanking and attack strategies, the use of spies, the employment of deception and counter-intelligence and dozens of other time-honored pieces of military advice. The book has been studied by scores of leaders, presidents, generals and even corporate titans and Sun Tzu is often praised as the finest military strategist in history.

The Kennedys considered their home in Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, 'The big white house', to be a haven from their busy lives. Yet in the summer of 1944, against the backdrop of WWII, the events that unfolded for them there changed the family forever. Following these events as they played out over the summer of 1944, it culminates with the event that would change them forever: the tragic death of Joe Jr.

En 1943, los oficiales de la SS alemana a cargo del campo de concentración Auschwitz-Birkenau ordenaron la formación de una orquesta entre las prisioneras. Durante nueve meses cruciales, entre 1943 y 1944, Alma Rosé, virtuosa violinista y sobrina de Gustav Mahler, reclutó y dirigió a las mejores intérpretes entre la vasta población cautiva, sin importar la nacionalidad, etnia o lengua materna. Casi cincuenta mujeres y niñas de 11 países integraron esta banda que era obligada a tocar marchas en cualquier condición climática y a dar conciertos semanales para los oficiales nazis.

John Olivey, an officer in the Long Range Desert Group, saw action in the Western Desert, where he was awarded the Military Cross; he fought in the Dodecanese, for which he was decorated a second time; and saw active service on mainland Greece, and in Istria. In autumn 1943, he was deployed to the Aegean and in October tasked with leading 'Olforce' in an ill-conceived operation to take the island of Levitha. Of some fifty LRDG, he was one of only seven to avoid capture. During the battle for Leros in November, he commanded X2 Patrol at Clidi, a key hilltop position.

History is not just a tale of treaties, timelines, and tyrants. It’s a story of people—conflicted, courageous, calculating, and sometimes catastrophically wrong. Strife! pulls listeners deep into Europe’s tumultuous march from the ashes of Napoleon to the thunderclap of September 1939, not through dry recitations of dates, but through the eyes of those who lived, ruled, broke, and burned. Following the companion volume on Asia’s path to war, this second book in the Strife! series dives headfirst into Europe’s long and winding road to World War II.

In the summer of 1940, darkness was falling over Europe. Led by Winston Churchill, the British rediscovered the virtues that had made a humble people the rulers of the world. In June 1940, Winston Churchill called the battle Britain's "finest hour", and he was right.

Spring, 2003. A small group of Special Forces and CIA operatives must establish a second front to tie down the Iraqi Army in the north to support the pending US-led invasion in the south. The mission sounds simple. The reality is anything but. The plan is to infiltrate into Iraq ahead of the invasion, link up with the Kurdish Peshmerga, and coordinate their efforts against the Iraqi Army. The Peshmerga, which translates to those who face death, have risen up several times in the recent past, only to be abandoned by the US and subsequently slaughtered by the Iraqi army.

What is it really like to live inside a submerged steel tube for months at a time? Fascinating Facts About Submarine Crews: Life Under the Waves takes you deep into one of the most extreme, demanding, and remarkable environments on Earth—life aboard a military submarine. While submarines are often discussed in terms of stealth, strategy, and technological power, this compelling book focuses on the human story—on the men and women who inhabit these incredible machines and navigate their complexities every single day.

A groundbreaking new account of Britain’s military strategy from 1914 to 1945—spanning both World Wars and the turbulent interwar years—this book offers a comprehensive analysis of how Britain navigated one of the most intense and consequential periods in modern history. Though separated by just two decades, the two global conflicts demanded radically different strategic responses. How did Britain adapt its military planning between and during these wars? And how were high-level decisions shaped by the complex interplay between political leaders and military commanders?

Alfred Nakache, a Jewish child from Constantine, never imagined that he would one day swim for France at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, nor than he would achieve a world record, as he did in 1941. As a child he was petrified of the water and yet, somehow, through sheer willpower and determination, he rose to become one of the very best swimmers in the world. That was until 1943, when he was banned from the pool - and in the same year, deported and sent to Auschwitz.

Journey into the heart of one of the most controversial and complex conflicts in modern history. This gripping account goes beyond surface-level facts to offer a powerful, balanced narrative from both American and Vietnamese perspectives.

In a remote outpost of Now Zad, in Helmand Province, Pen Farthing’s tour of duty will change his life forever, but for entirely unexpected reasons... Appalled by the horrors of a local dog fight, he intervenes to free the victims. One of these dogs finds his way into the Marine compound—and into Pen’s heart. Soon other strays are being drawn to the sanctuary provided by Pen’s makeshift pound. But as his time in Helmand draws to an end, Pen cannot leave the dogs of Now Zad to their own fates. He begins hatching plans to help them escape to a better life.

The Roots of Military Science: Understanding the Intersection of Conflict, Mental Health and Wellness is about the psychology of conflict, the scars conflict leaves behind, and the generational healing that must follow. It is a plea for empathy, a call to learn from the past, and an optimistic blueprint for a future where the pen is mightier than the sword.

Discover the hidden stories of courage, resilience, and ingenuity that defy the silence surrounding Jewish survival during the Holocaust. This groundbreaking book uncovers the lesser-known strategies Jewish individuals and families used to endure unimaginable horrors and sustain hope against all odds.