Via: Fix Bayonets Here is, perhaps, World War II’s greatest general, and hardly anyone today knows his name. Field Marshal William Slim is best known for commanding Fourteenth Army in Burma during the Second World War (1939-45). In taking command, he inherited a disastrous situation in which, with practical skill and quiet charisma,…
Category: Biographies
Top 5 Biographies of Robert E. Lee
1. R.E. Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman Published in 1934, this four-volume book by Douglas Southall Freeman chronicles all of the major events and highlights of Robert E. Lee’s military career. The book discusses everything from Lee’s experiences in the Mexican-War to his surrender at Appomattox. Freeman depicts Lee as an honest, straightforward man who is…
Know Your History: John Calhoun, America’s Greatest Political Thinker Since the Founders
America’s Greatest Political Thinker Since the Founders “Four of Calhoun’s ideas are especially relevant today. The first is that patriotism doesn’t spring from high ideals, but from citizens and the state having a mutual stake in each other’s success. Calhoun’s second main argument is that America’s racially discriminatory policies, including slavery, unify white citizens,…
The Amazing Story of Colonel Percy Fawcett
What the Hell Happened to the Man Who Mapped the Amazon? Since I was a kid I have had a fascination with Explorers. In partcular, Explorers of the Amazon. As a writer people like Colonel Percy Fawcett whose life seems to blend myth and reality has always been a driving inspiration for me. If…
This Book Will Give You Nightmares – Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2004)
This Book Will Give You Nightmares – Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2004) I read this book several years ago while going through my “Major Leaders of WW2” Biography challenge and although it was a LONG read, it was extremely well researched. Stalin was in my opinion ten times the monster that…
Lessons from a Guerrilla: Marine Raider Frank Sturgis, the Fight for Freedom and Mastering Logistics
Lessons from a Guerrilla: Marine Raider Frank Sturgis, the Fight for Freedom and Mastering Logistics Awesome write up by NC Scout on former USMC Raider and CIA agent Frank Sturgis. Being both a military history buff and a student of guerilla warfare the book Warrior: Frank Sturgis—The CIA’s #1 Assassin-Spy, Who Nearly Killed Castro…
The Bad Ass Files: SgtMaj. Daniel Joseph Daly, USMC
A War Hero: SgtMaj. Daniel Joseph Daly Sergeant Major Daly is perhaps best remembered for a famous battle cry delivered during the desperate fighting in Belleau Wood in June 1918. Marines took a terrific pounding on the outskirts of Lucy le Bocage (“Lucy Birdcage” to the American Expeditionary Forces) at the fringe of Belleau…
The Deadliest Marksman’s Cold, Brave Stand
The Deadliest Marksman’s Cold, Brave Stand Who gives two shits about the number of kills? 500 or 200, it’s BEYOND AMAZING the guy did it with IRON SIGHTS in Below Zero temps! This is one of the most amazing stories of partisan resilience on historical record. Let’s all learn something from it. Stay Alert, Armed…
World War II History: When Hemmingway Stashed Bazookas In A Parisian Hotel Room
Troops marched in Rambouillet, kicking up dust just outside of Paris as the war correspondent dotted around town on assignment. Ernest Hemingway was there, ostensibly, as a reporter, not a combatant. But he may have been stretching the boundaries of press freedoms while commanding a group of French Resistance fighters and journalists to help liberate…
Book Review: Playing to the Edge, American Intelligence in the Age of Terror
by Michael V. Hayden Penguin, 448 pp When Michael Hayden was a young air force officer in the 1980s, the military stationed him as an intelligence attaché in Bulgaria. There, the man who would rise to the top of the American intelligence community in the post–September 11 era lived under constant surveillance: he and his…