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The Battle of the Wilderness began Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign against the Confederate army of Northern Virginia that ultimately, after many weeks and horrendous casualties, forced Gen. Robert E. Lee's men back to the defenses at Richmond. The fighting took place in an area of Virginia where tangled underbrush and trees had grown up in long-abandoned farmland, near the old Chancellorsville battlefield. Close-quarters fighting among the dense woods created high casualties, but the battle proved inconclusive for both sides. It produced an important strategic event, however; whereas before Union commanders had withdrawn their armies after failing to achieve victory south of the Rappahannock River, Grant did not retreat. Instead, he attempted to outflank Lee by moving to the left, setting the stage for the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse.In this briefing book the battle and its environs are discussed and described in detail.

Includes 10 maps, 3 charts and 39 illustrationsInvasion of the Gilbert Islands brought the war in the Central Pacific to a new phase. After almost two years of defense, of critical engagements like the Battle of Midway (3-6 June 1942) and hit-and-run raids like those against Makin (17 August 1942) and Wake Island (24 December 1942), the United Nations were taking the offensive. They were to do in that area what had been done for a year in the Southwest Pacific. The attack upon the Gilberts was for the Central Pacific the counterpart of that upon the Solomons (7 August 1942) in the Southwest Pacific. Japanese-held bases were to be recovered and used against the enemy in further strikes toward the heart of his empire.Before dawn on 20 November 1943, an assemblage of American military might lay waiting off the western shore of Makin, northernmost atoll in the Gilbert Islands. A strong task force, with transports carrying men of the U. S. Army, was about to commence the assault on Makin. Off Tarawa, about 105 miles to the south, an even larger force of U. S. Marines was poised in readiness to seize the airfield and destroy the Japanese there. From points as distant as the Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand, and by several different routes, the separate elements of this armada had gathered to carry out our first aggressive mission in the Central Pacific. The attack upon Makin would be the first seizure of an atoll by an Army landing force.

The fascinating story of the first major airborne operation in history, the swift, bloody tale of the Fallschirmjäger of the German Wehrmacht as they battled and won the battles to capture the island of Crete.The drama of Crete marks an epic in warfare. The concept of the operation was highly imaginative, daringly new. Combat elements drawn from Central Europe moved with precision into funnel shaped Greece. Here they re-formed, took shape as a balanced force, were given wings. The operation had the movement, rhythm, harmony of a master's organ composition. On 20 May and succeeding days this force soared through space; its elements broke over Crete in thundering crescendos - all stops out. For the first time.in history airborne troops, supplied and supported, by air, landed in the face of an enemy, defeated him. For the first time an air force defeated a first-rate Navy, inflicted such staggering losses that the fleet was ordered back to Alexandria three days after the battle started.

[Illustrated with 6 photos and 3 maps]Originally published shortly after key air campaigns, the Wings at War series captures the spirit and tone of America's World War II experience. Eyewitness accounts of Army Air Forces'aviators and details from the official histories enliven the story behind each of six important AAF operations.Pacific Counterblow tells the story of the Battle for Guadalcanal (1942), focusing on the operations of the 11th Bombardment Group and the 67th Fighter Squadron.Months after the devastation of Pearl Harbor, U.S. forces had crushed the Japanese fleet at Midway and then moved to seize the initiative. AAF commanders in the Pacific sought to prevent the enemy from severing Australia's supply lines. So the B-17s of the 11th Bomb Group and the P-39s and P-400s of the 67th Fighter Squadron, flying from makeshift bases at Espiritu Santo and Henderson Field, began grueling attacks on Japanese shipping between Rabaul, New Britain and the Solomon Islands. After several months of bitter fighting, American forces gained control of Guadalcanal, positioning them to swing forward beyond Rabaul to New Guinea.

Illustrated with 28 maps and 35 Illustrations.THE WINTER LINE operations, lasting from 15 November 1943 to 15 January 1944, continued the Allied campaign to drive the Germans out of southern Italy. The underlying plan was to keep pressure on the enemy and, if possible, to break through toward Rome. Both the terrain and the season reduced the chances for effecting a breakthrough. By maintaining pressure, however, the Allies would prevent the Germans from, resting and refitting the tired and depleted divisions which they might hold as a mobile reserve for the close defense of Rome in the event of a new Allied landing on the west coast or for use in a possible counteroffensive in the opening months of 1944. Then too, the fighting in Italy had its effects on the over-all military situation in Europe. As long as the Germans were actively engaged on the Italian front, they would be forced to feed in men and supplies which would otherwise be available for the war in Russia or for strengthening their Atlantic Wall against an expected Allied invasion in 1944. Continuation of the Italian campaign was not in question; the problem was how best to carry it on.The Allied effort was therefore maintained in an offensive planned to break the enemy's Winter Line, a series of well-prepared positions along the shortest possible line across the waist of Italy-from the Garigliano River on the west through mountains in the center to the Sangro River on the east. For the individual soldiers of the Fifth Army, the attack resolved itself into the familiar pattern of bitter fighting from hill to hill.

Illustrated with 6 maps and 11 Illustrations.The AAF in the Invasion of Southern France tells how the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, under the command of Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, supported the Allied airborne and amphibious assault designed to undercut German defenses in Occupied France. In this invasion-the fourth major one in three months-American air power overwhelmed the meager enemy forces and diverted attention from the north, helping to topple German control in Vichy. Air operations persistently found, fixed, and fought occupying German forces, preventing their orderly withdrawal, greatly easing the way for Allied invasion forces.Originally published shortly after key air campaigns, the Wings at War series captures the spirit and tone of America's World War II experience. Eyewitness accounts of Army Air Forces'aviators and details from the official histories enliven the story behind each of six important AAF operations.

Illustrated with 6 maps and 1 Illustrations.Air-Ground Teamwork on the Western Front describes close air support and battlefield interdiction in action. A single, month-long campaign-the famous thrust across northern France in August 1944 of Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army and Maj. Gen. O. P. Weyland's XIX Tactical Air Command-became a model for close cooperation between army and aviation forces in future conflicts. This day-by-day, blow-by-blow account shows how the ground forces raced forward, frequently twenty miles per day, because friendly air power protected their flanks, shielded them from the Luftwaffe, and devastated the opposition in front of them.Originally published shortly after key air campaigns, the Wings at War series captures the spirit and tone of America's World War II experience. Eyewitness accounts of Army Air Forces'avia

Illustrated with 18 maps and 24 IllustrationsEARLY IN SEPTEMBER 1943, British and American armies invaded southern Italy, striking at the heart of a major Axis nation and breaching Hitler's'Fortress Europe.'Behind the invasion lay long months of hard-won Allied victories. The Axis was cleared out of Africa in May, when British and American armies annihilated the German and Italian forces cornered in Tunisia. Sicily, the stepping stone from Africa to Europe, was next conquered in a 38-day battle, and on 17 August the last of its German garrison fled across the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. On 3 September the British Eighth Army crossed the Strait in pursuit and drove up the Calabrian Peninsula. Coordinated with the Eighth Army's attack, Allied landings at Salerno by the United States Fifth Army and at Taranto by the British 1 Airborne Division were made on 9 September. In the Salerno landings, strong American forces were fighting on the continent of Europe for the first time since 1918.Even before the beginnings of the Sicilian operations, the staffs of Allied land, naval, and air forces had been planning an invasion of Italy. Once established on the Italian mainland, we might hope to secure complete naval and aerial domination of the Mediterranean and to obtain strategic ports and airfields for future operations against continental Europe. If we could knock Italy out of the war, we would force the Germans to retreat north of the Alps or to use in Italy armies which might be fighting on the Russian front.Under the command of Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, the Fifth Army, a great Allied force composed of the British 10 Corps and the United States VI Corps, carried out the first large scale invasion of the European mainland and secured a firm base for future operations in Italy. Salerno: The American Operations from the Beaches to the Volturno is an account of the American forces who landed on the beaches in the Gulf of Salerno.

Illustrated with 27 maps and 33 IllustrationsTHE INVASION OF THE SOUTHERN MARIANAS in June and July of 1944 was part of a coordinated effort by U. S. forces to gain bases within striking distance by air of the Philippines and the Japanese home islands. The enemy position in the Pacific was weakening under strong Allied offensives, which moved along two lines converging on the Japanese inner zone. From Australia the Allied offensive had developed on an axis northwest along New Guinea and beyond the Bismarck Sea, and from Hawaii it had moved to the west through the Marshall Islands. The advance along both lines had depended upon the conquest of enemy islands selected to form a system of supporting garrisons from which air and sea power could neutralize the remaining enemy bases in the area.The seizure of Guam in July-August 1944 added another base to our growing chain of possessions encircling the Japanese homeland. Marine troops made the initial landings on Guam and were aided in capturing the island by army units, comprised chiefly of the 77th Infantry Division. Guam tells the Army's part of the campaign.

Illustrated with 16 maps and 39 IllustrationsThe Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division occupied the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands.Acting on reports from airmen that there were no signs of enemy activity and the islands may have been evacuated, General Douglas MacArthur accelerated his timetable for capturing the Admiralties and ordered an immediate reconnaissance in force. The campaign began on 29 February 1944 when a force landed on Los Negros, the third-largest island in the group. By using a small, isolated beach where the Japanese had not anticipated an assault, the force achieved tactical surprise, but the islands proved to be far from unoccupied. A furious battle over the islands ensued.In the end, air superiority and command of the sea allowed the Allies to heavily reinforce their position on Los Negros. The 1st Cavalry Division could then overrun the islands. The campaign officially ended on 18 May 1944. The Allied victory completed the isolation of the major Japanese base at Rabaul that was the ultimate objective of the Allied campaigns of 1942 and 1943. A major air and naval base was developed in the Admiralty Islands that became an important launching point for the campaigns of 1944 in the Pacific.

Includes with 25 maps and 36 Illustrations.The story of Anzio must be read against the background of the preceding phase of the Italian campaign. The winter months of 1943-44 found the Allied forces in Italy slowly battering their way through the rugged mountain barriers blocking the roads to Rome. After the Allied landings in southern Italy, German forces had fought a delaying action while preparing defensive lines to their rear. The main defensive barrier guarding the approaches to Rome was the Gustav Line, extending across the Italian peninsula from Minturno to Ortona. Enemy engineers had reinforced the natural mountain defenses with an elaborate network of pillboxes, bunkers, and mine fields. The Germans had also reorganized their forces to resist the Allied advance. On 21 Nov. 1943, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring took over the command of the entire Italian theater; Army Group C, under his command, was divided into two armies, the Tenth facing the southern front and also holding the Rome area, and the Fourteenth guarding central and northern Italy. In a year otherwise filled with defeat, Hitler was determined to gain the prestige of holding the Allies south of Rome.In the early morning hours of 22 Jan. 1944, VI Corps of Lt. Gen. Mark Clark's Fifth Army landed on the Italian coast below Rome and established a beachhead far behind the enemy lines. In the four months between this landing and Fifth Army's May offensive, the short stretch of coast known as the Anzio beachhead was the scene of one of the most courageous and bloody dramas of the war. The Germans threw attack after attack against the beachhead in an effort to drive the landing force into the sea. Fifth Army troops, put fully on the defensive for the first time, rose to the test. Hemmed in by numerically superior enemy forces, they held their beachhead, fought off every enemy attack, and then built up a powerful striking force which spearheaded Fifth Army's triumphant entry into Rome in June.

With 7 maps, 5 charts & 23 illustrationsDuring the early months of 1942 the Japanese were on the offensive everywhere in the Southwest Pacific...On 10 Dec. 1941, Japanese forces landed in the Philippines; on 15 Feb. 1942, Singapore fell...Then the attack shifted farther to the southeast, and from Rabaul...the Japanese High Command planned a two-pronged drive. One prong was to strike for control of southeastern New Guinea; the other was to thrust through the Solomon Islands.Neither attack reached its objective. When a Japanese convoy pushed around the eastern tip of New Guinea, it met American naval forces. In the ensuing Battle of the Coral Sea (4-8 May 1942), the Japanese suffered a decisive defeat...Failure in their attempt by sea did not end the Japanese effort to capture Port Moresby, which would afford them an invasion base only 340 miles from Australia. In July they landed at Buna, Gona, and Sanananda on the northeast coast of Papua and pushed southward across the Papuan Peninsula. The Australians first stopped the enemy and then, joined by American forces, drove him back to his landing bases. This long and hard counteroffensive not only freed Australia from the imminent threat of invasion, but gave the United Nations their first toehold in the area of enemy defenses protecting Rabaul, center of Japanese power in the Southwest Pacific.The American part in the Buna-Sanananda campaign, in which Australian and American troops defeated'the invincible Imperial Army'of Japan, is the subject of this pamphlet...The story is set in a background of fever-ridden swamp and jungle, where American soldiers lay day after day in waterlogged fox holes or crawled through murderous fire toward enemy positions they could not see. Despite all the difficulties imposed by terrain, climate, and the formidable strength of Japanese fortifications, despite failure in many heroic attacks, the effort was carried through to a final and smashing success.

Illustrated with over 40 photos and 15 maps of the engagement.The momentous events of the 6th of June 1944, D-Day, still resonate around the world, almost 200,000 Allied Soldiers were thrown against the Nazi dominated coast of France in a bid to free Western Europe from the Fascist grip that had held it since 1939. The plan was audacious, ambitious and exceptionally dangerous, the Allied Planners had decided to attack across five sectors over the beaches of Normandy, from the British and Canadian forces on the right at the mouth of the river Orne to the American Troops at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula. Without doubt the toughest sector of all was the beach code-named “Omaha” it was vital as it linked the Americans with the British landing to the east; however it was beset with sheer cliffs at either end of the beach, a deep sloping beach, the most advanced defences and the best of the German troops on the coast.As this book recounts in vivid detail, the reality on the beaches was truly hellish, wide beaches swept by artillery, mortar, machine gun and rifle fire filled with casualties as men clung to the beach obstacles for the only cover to be had. As the American troops on the ground struggled forward, errors in navigation led to reinforcements being routed to the wrong beaches and supporting amphibious tanks sank in the rough seas. That any of the men made it off the beaches at all was a miracle based on inspired leadership, hard training and sheer courage in the face of horrendous death dealing fire.As immortalised in the film Saving Private Ryan, this book produced by the American Army Historical Section recounts in superb, often brutal, detail the struggle on Omaha Beach. It is tale never to be forgotten and as the narrative based on the personal interviews with the men and officers of the 1st, 2nd and 29th divisions, along with the official reports and documents it is as engaging as it is authoritative.

Includes 27 Maps, 2 Sketches and 23 PhotosTHE 5307th COMPOSITE UNIT (Provisional) of the Army of the United States was organized and trained for long-range penetration behind enemy lines in Japanese-held Burma. Commanded by Brig. Gen. (now Maj. Gen.) Frank D. Merrill, its 2,997 officers and men became popularly known as'Merrill's Marauders.'From February to May, 1944 the operations of the Marauders were closely coordinated with those of the Chinese 22d and 38th Divisions in a drive to recover northern Burma and clear the way for the construction of the Ledo Road, which was to link the Indian railhead at Ledo with the old Burma Road to China. The Marauders were foot soldiers who marched and fought through jungles and over mountains from the Hukawng Valley in northwestern Burma to Myitkyina on the Irrawaddy River. In 5 major and 30 minor engagements they met and defeated the veteran soldiers of the Japanese 18th Division. Operating in the rear of the main forces of the Japanese, they prepared the way for the southward advance of the Chinese by disorganizing supply lines and communications. The climax of the Marauders'operations was the capture of the Myitkyina airfield, the only all-weather strip in northern Burma. This was the final victory of the 5307th Composite Unit, which was disbanded in August, 1944.

Includes 54 contemporary photos illustrations and 26 highly detailed maps.ST-LÔ, capital of the department of Manche, can be used as one symbol for First U. S. Army's victory in a most difficult and bloody phase of the Campaign of Normandy: the'Battle of the Hedgerows,'during the first three weeks of July 1944. Other names figure in this battle. La Haye-du-Puits, Périers, Hill 192, like St-Lô, will be remembered by First Army soldiers from a background of stubborn struggle for gains too often measured in terms of a few hundred yards, or of two or three fields, conquered against a bitterly resisting enemy.Much more was at stake in the Battle of the Hedgerows than possession of a communications center on the Vire River. In June, First Army and British Second Army had won their beachheads and had captured Cherbourg (26 June). Supplies and reinforcements were building up for a powerful offensive, designed to break out of the Normandy pocket and scheduled to be mounted in the First Army zone. But more room and better jump-off positions for the crucial offensive were needed before this blow could be delivered. The attack that began in early July was planned to gain this ground, on a front of 25 miles. Four corps, employing ultimately 12 divisions, were involved in the effort. All these units faced similar problems of advance, and all contributed to the measure of success achieved. Therefore, in the larger tactical sense it would be unfair to identify the Battle of the Hedgerows with St-Lô and later military studies, treating the Campaign of Normandy in different scope, will give the operation in truer proportions. Here, one phase of the hedgerow battle can be used to illustrate, in tactical detail, the character of the larger action.A gripping account of the attempts by the Allies to break out from the Normandy bridgehead.

Illustrated with over 40 photos and 15 maps of the engagement.The momentous events of the 6th of June 1944, D-Day, still resonate around the world, almost 200,000 Allied Soldiers were thrown against the Nazi dominated coast of France in a bid to free Western Europe from the Fascist grip that had held it since 1939. Although massive air and naval bombardments proceeded the landings the mission would succeed or fail based on the ground troops being able to force their way in land and allow a secure bridgehead to be formed out of enemy artillery range. However, the buildup of supplies and troops for the millions strong armies necessary to liberate Europe could not be brought through the improvised Mulberry harbour on the unprotected beaches of Normandy, a port must be taken. The troops on the far left of the line attacking the beach code-named “Utah” would be tasked not only with the initial assault of the coastline but to eventually capture Cherbourg and the Cotentin Peninsula. The fighting on D-Day on the beach was tough but successful, very since the early morning the paratroops fought in many groups some numbering a few men up to battalion size to secure the vital targets inland.The Germans were aware of the importance of the landing only gradually, but launched fierce counterattacks against the Americans coming across the flooded land inland from the beaches. The port of Cherbourg and town were heavily defended and had many difficult fortifications to be overcome, but the Americans were equal to the task and eventually captured it ensuring the supply lines for the armies that would engage and fight Hitler's legions across France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany.An excellent study of the second American Beach landing and along with its companion volume, OMAHA BEACHHEAD, provide an unparalleled record of the fighting of the American forces on D-Day and in the Bocage fighting in Normandy.

Includes 11 excellently detailed mapsThis is the narrative of one phase of the greatest pitched battles on the Western Front in World War II. The battle of St. Vith is an excellent example of how American Troops held their ground in the midst of confusion, defeat, and uncertainty; and thereby threw the German timetable sufficiently off schedule to allow American forces to regroup, hold, and then counterattack. The stand at St. Vith has been recognized by both German and Allied commanders as a turning point in the Battle of the Bulge.

“The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between regulars of the United States Army and regulars of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN / NVA) of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965, at two landing zones (LZs) northwest of Plei Me in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam (approximately 35 miles south-west of Pleiku) as part of the U.S. airmobile offensive codenamed Operation Silver Bayonet. The battle derives its name from the Drang River which runs through the valley northwest of Plei Me, in which the engagement took place. Ia means'river'in the local Montagnard language.Representing the American forces were elements of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division: the 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, facing elements of the B3 Front of the PAVN (including the 304 Division) and Viet Cong. The battle involved close air support by U.S. aircraft and a strategic bombing strike by the B-52s. The initial Vietnamese assault against the landing 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray was repulsed after two days and nights of heavy fighting on November 14-16. However, the follow-up surprise attack on November 17 that overran the marching column of 7th Cavalry 2nd Battalion near the LZ Albany was the deadliest ambush of a U.S. unit during the course of the entire war. About half of some 300 American deaths in the 35-day Operation Silver Bayonet happened in just this one fight that lasted 16 hours.”-Wiki

The AAF in Northwest Africa focuses on the Allied assault on Northwest Africa and the battle for Tunisia-the critical second front that secured the Mediterranean and increased the enemy's vulnerability to a massive invasion from Britain. From this experience of the Twelfth Air Force and its British counterparts in 1942-43 evolved a spirit of Anglo-American cooperation and important aspects of air doctrine still relevant to today's Air Force.Originally published shortly after key air campaigns, the Wings at War series captures the spirit and tone of America's World War II experience. Eyewitness accounts of Army Air Forces'aviators and details from the official histories enliven the story behind each of six important AAF operations.

Illustrated with 30 maps and 36 Illustrations.BEFORE DAWN ON THE MORNING OF 13 Oct. 1943, American and British assault troops of the Fifth Army waded the rain-swollen Volturno River in the face of withering fire from German riflemen and machine gunners dug in along the northern bank. This crossing of the Volturno opened the second phase of the Allied campaign in Italy. Five weeks earlier the Fifth Army had landed on the hostile beaches of the Gulf of Salerno. Now it was attacking a well-defended river line.Along the Volturno the Germans had entrenched themselves in the first good defensive position north of Naples. Under pressure from the Fifth Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, their rearguards had relinquished the great port of Naples with its surrounding airfields, providing us with the base necessary for large-scale operations west of the rugged Apennine mountain range, backbone of the Italian peninsula. East of the Apennines the British Eighth Army, under General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, had reached the mouth of the Biferno River during the first week of Oct.. The Eighth and Fifth Armies now held a line across the peninsula running south from Torre Petacciato on the Adriatic Sea for some sixty-five miles, then west to a point on the Tyrrhenian Sea just south of the Volturno. Along this line of rivers and mountains the Germans clearly intended to make a stubborn stand, hoping to delay, perhaps to stop, our northward advance.Within six weeks, Fifth Army troops had driven the Germans back to the Volturno, had executed a difficult river crossing in the face of a well-entrenched enemy, had gone on to cross the river a second and a third time, and had forced Kesselring's hard-pressed army back into the chain of mountains which formed his next strong defensive position. Whether fighting across rivers, through valleys, or up steep mountain slopes, our men had everywhere proved their ability to defeat Hitler's vaunted master race.

With 18 maps & 24 Illustrations.A DELEGATION OF GERMAN OFFICERS arrived at American Headquarters south of Ferryville at 0926 on 9 May 1943. Their mission was to surrender the remnants of a once proud unit of the Wehrmacht, the formidable Fifth Panzer Army...Marshal Giovanni Messe, commanding the Italian First Army, surrendered unconditionally to the British Eighth Army on 13 May. The long battle for North Africa was ended.Troops of the II Corps, U. S. A., who had entered the fight for Africa with the invasion on 8 Nov. 1942, played a prominent role in the decisive final battle which opened on 23 April...Within 2 weeks of the Nov. landings in Northwest Africa, British and American forces under General Dwight D. Eisenhower were driving from Algeria into western Tunisia in an effort to seize the great ports of Tunis and Bizerte. German reinforcements, rushed into Africa in the nick of time, stopped the advance just short of the Tunis plain. With operations now made difficult by the rainy winter season, the Allied Army fought bitter engagements in the mountains from Sedjenane Station to Medjez el Bab. To the south, American units in hard fighting stopped savage German drives through Kasserine Pass toward the Allied base at Tebessa and kept pressure on the long Axis communications between Field Marshal Rommel and Tunis.In late March, Rommel's forces were driven from the Mareth Line toward the north. Protecting his line of retreat, the enemy fought a stubborn delaying action against the Americans and the British in the El Guettar-Gafsa area. By 22 April the equivalent of 5 Italian and 9 German divisions were at bay for what they planned to be a protracted defense of Tunis and Bizerte. But the Axis was not allowed a breathing space to strengthen its defenses. The Allied forces, united under General Sir Harold R. Alexander as the Eighteenth Army Group, were already preparing the blow that was to destroy the enemy forces in a battle lasting 21 days.

Includes 14 maps and diagrams.The battle at Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill) occurred during Operation APACHE SNOW, a XXIV Corps directed operation in the Northern Ashau Valley. This operation was initiated on 10 May 1969 with the specific purpose of destroying North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) forces believed to be grouping in the Ashau Valley, blocking enemy routes of egress into Laos, interdicting enemy lines of communication and locating and destroying known enemy caches. Allied forces participating in the operation consisted of elements of the 101st Airborne Division, 3d Marine Division, and the 1st ARVN Division. Table of contents includes a background, the Battle at Dong Ap Bia (fire support, enemy losses, and U.S. casualties summaries), consideration of allegations by Senator Stephen M. Young, and a draft insert for congressional record.

[Illustrated with 5 photos and 7 maps]Originally published shortly after key air campaigns, the Wings at War series captures the spirit and tone of America's World War II experience. Eyewitness accounts of Army Air Forces'aviators and details from the official histories enliven the story behind each of six important AAF operations.Sunday Punch in Normandy focuses on the all-important invasion of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, forever remembered as'D-Day.'Just before dawn, wave after wave of Army Air Forces heavy bombers targeted the beach areas to make way for the assault troops. The pilots encountered virtually no air opposition, because the massive Allied air superiority effort had been brilliantly planned and well-orchestrated.This short study describes in detail the close cooperation among the Allies in formulating the D-Day plan. A final section on operations gives a chronology of the interdiction missions flown by Eighth Air Force fighters and bombers.

Illustrated with 4 maps and 2 Illustrations.Airborne Assault on Holland highlights the role of air power as the Allies attempted to penetrate German defenses at the Siegfried Line. The work reflects the circumstances of the time and the desire to find good even in unfortunate circumstances and should be read with this in mind. Allied airborne paratroops and glider-borne units converged on Arnhem. Unfortunately, stiff German resistance forced their eventual withdrawal; Allied tactical air power prevented even heavier friendly losses, but could not turn defeat into victory. This boldly conceived operation involved the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces in a variety of missions: troop transport, fighter escort, flak neutralization, air cover, and resupply of ground forces.