Book Description
Haynes offers the best coverage for cars, trucks, vans, SUVs and motorcycles on the market today. Each manual contains easy to follow step-by-step instructions linked to hundreds of photographs and illustrations. Included in every manual: troubleshooting section to help identify specific problems; tips that give valuable short cuts to make the job easier and eliminate the need for special tools; notes, cautions and warnings for the home mechanic; color spark plug diagnosis and an easy to use index.
Customer Reviews:
Does not cover all models.......2007-08-09
I was disappointed to find that it only covers the 800cc bikes (which it does well), but not the 1400cc models. Nowhere in the title or description of the book does it tell you this. If you own the Intruder 1400 or Boulevard C90 don't bother with this book.
great information.......2007-08-03
I found lots of information about my bike in this manual. It is well written and easy to understand. It lets you know before you start a project if it will be difficult or fairly simple. If you want to work on your on bike this will definately help. The book paid for itself with the first repair.
Book Description
Praise FOR Gerald Astor
"No one does oral history better than Gerald Astor. . . . Great reading."
–Stephen Ambrose on The Mighty Eighth
"Gerald Astor has proven himself a master. Here, World War II is brought to life through the hammer blows of their airborne triumphs and fears."
–J. Robert Moskin, author of Mr. Truman’s War, on The Mighty Eighth
"Astor captures the fire and passion of those tens of thousands of U.S. airmen who flew through the inferno that was the bomber war over Europe."
–Stephen Coonts on The Mighty Eighth
"Oral history at its finest."
–The Washington Post on Operation Iceberg
"Quick and well-paced, this will please even the most jaded of readers."
–Army magazine on Battling Buzzards
"A stout volume by a distinguished historian of the modern military makes a major contribution on its subject."
–Booklist on The Right to Fight (starred Editor’s Choice)
"Today, as we lose the veterans of World War II at an alarming rate, we must not lose sight of their sacrifices or of the leaders who took them into battle. Astor, an acclaimed military historian, provides an in-depth look at one of the war’s most successful division combat commanders, Maj. Gen. Terry Allen. . . . This well-written portrait makes for enjoyable reading."
–Library Journal on Terrible Terry Allen
Customer Reviews:
very informative and an eye opener! it reveal much of present geopolitical landscapes of burma india and chinese frontiers.......2006-12-12
this book is a precursor of the present political landscapes of burma and india. most specifically burma. that the present bandits landlords of the countries mountain lands are dominated by karens tribal rebels who actually support their existence with poppy production and traffics which actually are encouraged if not promoted by renegades ex kuomintang generals and soldiers who forrayed into the country thrun the frontiers during worid war II. A MUST READ for all who are interested in current situation in SOUTH ASIA!
Book Description
This vibrant and action-driven narrative examines the motivations for warfare in the Middle Ages, asserting that waging war was a condition defining the ruling groups of all societies.
Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels examines the motives and terrors of war during the Middle Ages, the rise and fall of ethnic and religious groups, and the actions of good and evil military leaders during this violent and colorful period. In this sweeping chronicle, historical figures and major campaigns such as Charlemagne, the Magyars, and the Crusades are presented not as icons but as a living part of their times, with all their achievements and human failures. Santosuosso asserts that war, for most of the Middle Ages, was carried out for God, personal gain, and honor. Both Christians and Muslims often explained their acts of violence in war as the will of God. Besides the religious motivation, soldiers, if upper class, believed that acts of bravery were a necessary aspect of gaining honor in society. Finally, war constituted a way to make material gains in a period of chronic underemployment and low prosperity. Particular emphasis is given to massive transitions from one period to the next in the medieval era. The author explains how these changes reflected an environment where charismatic leaders, the Church, and the aristocracy played leading roles as "managers" of the art and practice of war and normally as main actors on the battlefield.
Customer Reviews:
Good But Flawed Review of Medieval Warfare.......2005-04-07
This is the kind of book that really turns my crank... obscure barbarian tribes, weapon use and tactics, tales of lost dynasties, imperial decline and the advent of new tribes, races and their own eventual conquest and submission.
The book has all of that.. unfortunately it suffers from an incomplete development of almost all of its major theses. Its review of tactics is most notable and I was impressed with the detial of the political organisation, and military mobilisation that Santosousso uses, but was left wondering how he defined his major thematic chapters.
The book starts at the end of the latter Roman Empire and the clashes between Rome and the Goths, then those between the Goths and Longobards, Byzantines and other barbarian tribes. These in turn switch to those of the Franks, the ascendency of the Muslim tribes and then the advent of the Medieval Christian warriors and their eventual demise with the nascent advent of citizen armies. All of this is great, but the narrative is marred by
1) lack of continuity: whole chuncks of history are leaped and interesting tactics and peoples totally ignored. ie. mongols are totally left out which is odd considering that there is a whole chapter dedicated to those perrenial losers of history, the Magyars.
2) The author throws in the occassional bloody story, but really once he gets our blood up with anecdotal elegance he switches to military organisation descriptions. These are fine but one gets the feeling that we would rather be reading some tales of blood and glory.
3) The description of miliary tactics and organisation, though good, omits a fundemental question: how were some of the tribes able to conquer others, and why did others decline?
I did like the grand historical sweep of the book and it did hold my interest most of the time. I guess the real problem I had with this book is that I was just expecting much more than Santosousso offerred me... I felt slightly famished after reading it... like eating an appetiser and then being told it was really the main course...
detailed account of medieval military tactics.......2004-11-09
Santosuo has given us a wonderfully researched history of medieval warfare. The book covers from the Barbarian tribes of the 6th century to the Mongol and Turk empires of the 15th century. Most of the major military engagements are covered along with the notable leaders of the respective periods. I found the general discussions of the political and military situations very interesting. But I got bogged down in the details concerning the make up of various armies. This work is a highly detailed account of tactics, formations and arms and equipment. Anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of medieval warfare will enjoy this book.
An inherently fascinating survey of medieval warfare .......2004-09-07
In Barbarians, Marauders, And Infidels: The Ways Of Medieval Warfare, historian Antonio Santosuosso (Professor Emeritus of History, University of Western Ontario, Canada) draws upon his many years of research and expertise to provide readers with an inherently fascinating survey of medieval warfare ranging from the fifth through the fifteenth century. More than just a catalog of conflicts, Professor Santosuosso examines the changes and the motivations of these conflicts with respect to their political, cultural, and social contexts. Of special interest is the understanding of medieval warfare as a means of carrying out religious imperatives, securing wealth, and enhancing personal reputations. This wonderfully written history expands beyond Europe to careful consider Muslim warfare from a Muslim perspective before the advent of the Crusades. Of seminal value to academia, Barbarians, Marauders, And Infidels is also very highly recommended for non-specialist general readers with an interest in Medieval History.
Book Description
Four bullet-torn bodies in a drug-ridden South Bronx alley. A college boy shot in the head on the West Side Highway. A wild shootout on the streets of Washington Heights, home of New York City's immigrant Dominican community and hub of the eastern seaboard's drug trade. All seemingly separate acts of violence. But investigators discover a pattern to the mayhem, with links to scores of assaults and murders throughout the city.
In this bloody urban saga, Robert Jackall recounts how street cops, detectives, and prosecutors pieced together a puzzle-like story of narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and murders for hire, all centered on a vicious gang of Dominican youths known as the Wild Cowboys. These boyhood friends, operators of a lucrative crack business in the Bronx, routinely pistol-whipped their workers, murdered rivals, shot or slashed witnesses to their crimes, and eventually turned on one another in a deadly civil war. Jackall chronicles the crime-scene investigations, frantic car chases, street arrests at gunpoint, interviews with informants, and knuckle-breaking plea bargaining that culminated in prison terms for more than forty gang members.
But he also tells a cautionary tale--one of a society with irreconcilable differences, fraught with self-doubt and moral ambivalence, where the institutional logics of law and bureaucracy often have perverse outcomes. A society where the forces of order battle not just violent criminals but elites seemingly aligned with forces of disorder: community activists who grab any pretext to further narrow causes; intellectuals who romanticize criminals; judges who refuse to lock up dangerous men; federal prosecutors who relish nailing cops more than crooks; and politicians who pander to the worst of our society behind rhetorics of social justice and moral probity. In such an up-for-grabs world, whose order will prevail?
Customer Reviews:
"Like some Wild Cowboys coming 2 get me at highnoon": Jay-z.......2004-09-16
This book is an eye-opener 2 the underworld's violent reality for those from and not from the streets. The "Wild Cowboys" aka "Lenny's Boys"the legendary notorious street icons from "Washington Heights" aka "Home of the Haze" are shown in detail 4 the most part seperating fact from fiction.To some this book, based on the "Cowboys," can justify their criminal exploits through the rebellious determination to achieve the status most minorities are denied, the Real American Dream, through sheer force and brutality by what all young and ambitious Dominicans, and minorities in general, can relate to which is The Code of the Streets.This book gives you a taste of the legend the next generation Dominican hears growing up now in Washington Heights. This book can villafy The Cowboys legendary criminal enterprise and unmerciful murederous tactics by showing the "priveleged" side of American society what must be done to "Live" as opposed to survive in the on-going struggle to achieve what the "Brady Bunch" etc. take 4 advantage. But all in all this book gives the reader a startling look in2 a ruthless "gang" and the grim reality of these New York streets. Where Hustlerz and killaz are the most visible successful role-models youngsterz get they can relate to. I hope this review shows you the realness contained in this book. P.S. the negative role-model answer is not getting rid of them because thats impossible, btw the war on drugz has not and will never work. The answer requires 2 much non-racist politics 2 exist in a social structure dominated by a race that will not sacrifice their luxury 4 our equality. So sadly the answer is in Sex, Drugz, and entertainment until we're even.
"dafabls1@aol.com" if u got a response holla.
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS WARS.......2003-12-02
This book tells the story in full detail and in murder after excruciating murder of how one gang of Dominicans in New York's Washington heights section brought primal fear and lawlessness to the northern tip of Manhattan back in the bad old days.
Takes a lot of effort..........2001-03-08
...to make a story about a quadruple homicide tedious! The author clearly logged a lot of hours researching this book, hanging out with cops. Nonetheless, the end result is a book book that would work well as a drinking game: Take a sip everytime the author introduces another name, another bit of non-essential info. Down your mug o' beer/glass of milk everytime the author reveals his pro-cop abuse of power bias.
How disappointing.
WILD COWBOYS , URBAN MARAUDERS AND THE FORCES OF ORDER.......2000-04-06
In WILD COWBOYS mr. Jackall has captured a very accurate portrait of the world I work in every day. As a law enforcement officer working in New York City I can confirm that based on my own experiance, the confusing list of actors and aliases that some editorial reviewers have complained of are, in fact,common in complex criminal conspiracies and I feel that Mr Jackall has done a fair job of trying to present a clear picture of the Red Top crew. His portrayal of a world where lethal violence is commonplace and telling someone your real name is the highest form of trust is unequalled.A reader who wants a picture of the difficulties involved in the investigation of an actual complex criminal conspiracy rather than the neat melodramas wrapped up in an hour of television would do well to to read Wild Cowboys.
Urban gunplay under the microscope.......2000-03-28
This is not an easy book to classify. The reviews from NYT and Kirkus are not flattering but I feel those reviewers lost the plot a little. Just calling this book an "unremittingly wooden tale" suggests that it was intended as entertainment rather than as piece of scholarly research.
Robert Jackall focuses his sociologist's eye on a localized crime wave amongst Dominicans living in Washington Heights. He begins with the brutal acts of wanton murder that lie at the center of the book. From there he casts his net ever wider until the reader slowly grasps the big picture.
To someone such as me, living in Britain, this is a very alien landscape. The casual acts of extreme violence, the industrial scale drug dealing, and the regular open gunplay on the streets of the Big Apple read almost like something from a Hollywood script rejected for lack of authenticity. The title, Wild Cowboys, is well chosen both for the gang that adopted the name and for its portrayal of urban mayhem.
By the end of the book the reader has a good grasp of the complex social relationships on the block, the reasons for all the extravagant machismo, and the extraordinary difficulty facing police officers investigating such crimes. Jackall does an excellent job of tracking relationships - even if he does let his unalloyed admiration for NYPD officers shine through rather often. But, hey - those guys need all the help they can get after their recent regular bad press.
I did struggle a little in the middle of the book when I thought I was going to be overwhelmed by names of new characters constantly joining the tale. However, ends are brought together well at the conclusion when Jackall traces how a wall of criminal solidarity cracks wide open to resolve itself in a series of guilty pleas.
If the cast list of War and Peace put you off reading Tolstoy - give this one a miss!
Average customer rating:
- A book drawers will love
- a really good book
- Draw 50 Aliens plus
- A Wonderful Book for Children
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Draw 50 Aliens: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw UFOs, Galaxy Ghouls, Milky Way Marauders, and Other Extraterrestrial Creatures (Draw 50)
Lee J. Ames
Manufacturer: Broadway
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 038549145X
Release Date: 1998-10-20 |
Book Description
Alien fever is running high: the Alien movies and reissue of the Star Wars trilogy have made outer space fascinating to a whole new generation of children. And who better to help budding artists master their drawings of the friendly folk from the final frontier than Lee Ames--creator of the phenomenally successful Draw 50 series?
An ideal tool for young artists or the parent or teacher seeking to help a child master their artistic skills, Draw 50 Aliens includes creatures from every walk of the galaxy: Ames gives instructions for drawing UFOs, Nebula Nomads, Milky Way Marauders, and every other type of extraterrestrial. And, in the tradition of the Draw 50 series, all of these characters are humorous, lovable, and very accessible for children.
With over two million copies in print, the Draw 50 series has successfully shown children how to create everything from a robin to a spaceship, Tyrannosaurus rex to John the Baptist. But with Draw 50 Aliens, Ames has--perhaps as never before--hit upon a deeply appealing subject, one that taps into children's sense of wonder and will keep them endlessly entertained and forever sketching away.
Customer Reviews:
A book drawers will love.......2003-01-15
I looked at the book Draw 50 Aliens. I thought it was a good book because it has easy steps for drawing the aliens and UFOs. I think kids in 4th and 5th grade who are good drawers would like this book I recommend this book to people who love to draw.
a really good book.......2001-03-25
This really helped my drawing talent. It taught me How to draw in a different way then i am used to. i rate this book five stars 'cause that is pretty much what it deserves.
Draw 50 Aliens plus.......2000-06-04
I bought this book for a younger friend who likes to drawstange creatures. I used to teach art to children and used a number ofthe Lee Ames books in my classes which were always a big hit. I noticed that not all children can follow the visual step-by-step instructions but those that did usually had a great time and good results. This books seems to be of the same quality as the other Lee Ames books I've purchased.
A Wonderful Book for Children.......2000-02-04
Ric Estrada, who illustrated this book, has come up with some wonderfully imaginative characters that show the younger reader the basics of drawing a cartoon character. Mr. Estrada, a forty year veteran of comic books and animation, shows how the building blocks of solid design are formed from the simplest of shapes. Not only is this a great learning tool, but the names and commentary inside are quite entertaining as well. I highly recommend this book.
Amazon.com
Legends seldom fit the facts comfortably. The military outfit called Merrill's Marauders--3,000 American soldiers who ranged hundreds of miles through the Burmese rain forest fighting vastly superior Japanese forces--stands up admirably to the legend that surrounds it, as veteran Ogburn capably shows. The first American force to fight on the Asian mainland since the Boxer Rebellion, the warriors of Galahad--as the three battalions under General Frank Merrill were code-named--suffered terribly in their long campaign over what Winston Churchill called "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable." Writes Ogburn, not only were they felled by bullets, but they also endured lack of food and supplies, a host of tropical diseases, and exhaustion--and, worse, poor treatment at the hands of commanders and strategists far from the fighting. Even so, they scored some important successes and took their toll on a seasoned enemy, which "had never before come up against another first-class outfit on even terms, and the experience must have left them sore and puzzled." Ogburn's action-filled book merits a place alongside the dispatches of Ernie Pyle and Richard Tregaskis's Guadalcanal Diary as an important firsthand account of the war in Asia. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In a time when battles were still fought on the ground, between men who could see their enemies with their own eyes, a wildly assorted band of soldiers volunteer for "a dangerous and hazardous mission." Their exploits ended up touching the imagination of the American people and their fate led to a Congressional inquiry.
Three battalions of American infantrymen marched and fought across six hundred miles of northern Burma to drive the Japanese from an area the size of Connecticut and achieve fame as Merrill's Marauders. Theirs was a victory over determined and resourceful enemies: over what Churchill called "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable"-over malaria, dysentery, and typhus: and over mismanagement from above. In the end, these men won both an extraordinary victory and an enduring place in American legend.
Charlton Ogburn, Jr.'s extensive research coupled with his own experience as a Marauder and an engrossing writing style make for a dramatic and moving narrative. This is jungle combat at its most real, its most adrenaline-pumping, and its most terrifying.
"Vivid, intimate, powerful." (The New York Times)
"Of the books that came out of WW II, The Marauders must be ranked with the finest." (Chicago Sun Times)
Customer Reviews:
Contains opinion based on factually incorrect history..........2005-06-11
One may be entitled to his own opinion, but one is not entitled to his own facts...
Specifically I refer to this passage from Ogburn's book regarding the 15 Nisei who served in Burma:
". . . their persistent volunteering to go forward to intercept the commands of the enemy when the lead units were engaged by trailblocks. What was unspeakably hard for the others can only have been harder still for them. Some had close relatives living in Japan, all had acquaintances, if not relatives held in the concentration camps in the United States on the grounds that persons of Japanese descent and feature must be presumed disloyal. . . . What were their thoughts in the solitude of soul that jungle warfare enforces? I have no way of knowing. But in the case of Sergeant Roy Matsumoto, whose mother was living in Japan, we may perhaps justifiably surmise that he took some comfort from the reflection that she was not in one of the major cities but in a smaller one less likely to attract attack by American bombers - - Hiroshima."
I take issue with the reference to "concentration camps", and I take issue with Ogburn's conclusions for the grounds of the evacuation being "...persons of Japanese descent and feature must be presumed disloyal".
This in utter nonsense.
1. "It is said that we are dealing with the case of imprisonment of a citizen in a concentration camp soley because of his ancestory, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition towards the United States. Our task would be simple, our duty clear, were this a case involving the imprisonment of a loyal citizen in a concentration camp because of racial prejudice.
Regardless of the true nature of the assembly and relocation centers - AND WE DEEM IT UNJUSTIFIABLE TO CALL THEM CONCENTRATION CAMPS WITH ALL THE UGLY CONNOTATIONS THAT TERM IMPLIES - we are dealing with nothing but an exclusion order. To cast this case in outlines of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers which were presented, merely confuses the issue. KOREMATSU WAS NOT EXCLUDED FROM THE MILITARY AREA BECAUSE OF HIS RACE. HE WAS EXCLUDED BECAUSE WE ARE AT WAR WITH THE JAPANESE EMPIRE."
Supreme Court Decision, Korematsu vs. USA
(323 US 214-248) October 1944
All Supreme Court Decisions related to the evacuation are good law to this very day.
2.It is well-documented that the evacuation was motivated, not by racism, but by information obtained by the U.S. from pre-war decoded Japanese diplomatic messages and other intelligence revealed the existence of espionage and the potential for sabotage involving then-unidentified resident Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans living within the West Coast Japanese community.
The U.S. Congress immediately passed legislation providing enforcement provisions for FDR's Executive Order,
unanimously in both the House and Senate.
Only persons of Japanese ancestry (alien and citizen) residing in the West Coast military zones were affected by the evacuation order. Those living elsewhere were not affected at all.
It is not true that Japanese-Americans were "interned. Only Japanese nationals (enemy aliens) arrested and given individual hearings were interned. Such persons were held for deportation in Department of Justice camps. Those evacuated were not interned. They were first given an opportunity to voluntarily move to areas outside the military zones. Those unable or unwilling to do so were sent to Relocation Centers operated by the War Relocation Authority.
At the time, the JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) officially supported the government's evacuation order and urged all enemy alien Japanese and Japanese Americans to cooperate and assist the government in their own self interest.
Is is misleading and in error to state that those affected by the evacuation orders were all "Japanese-Americans." Approximately two-thirds of the ADULTS among those evacuated were Japanese nationals--enemy aliens. The vast majority of evacuated Japanese-Americans (U.S. citizens) were children at the time. Their average age was only 15 years. In addition, over 90% of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens)under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan. Some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.
During the war, more than 33,000 evacuees voluntarily left the relocation centers to accept outside employment. An additional 4300 left to attend colleges.
In a questionaire, over 26% of Japanese-Americans of military age at the time said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States.
According to War Relocation Authority records, 13,000 applications renouncing their U.S. citizenship and requesting expatriation to Japan were filed by or on behalf of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Over 5,000 had been processed by the end of the war.
After loyalty screening, eighteen thousand Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans were segregated at a special center for disloyals at Tule Lake California where regular military "Banzai" drills in support of Emperor Hirohito were held.
3. According to Selective Service Special Monograph Number 10 which was published after the war (1953 - This publication covered "Special Groups" who served during WWII and Chapter IX was titled "Japanese Americans." In that chapter on page 122 was the following statement:
"In the continental United States, fewer than 1,500 Japanese Americans volunteered although there were 19,000 citizens of military age within the War Relocation Authority Centers and approximately 4,000 outside the centers."
That would be a total of 23,000 of whom only 7% (1,500)volunteered.
On the other hand, the WRA publication "The Evacuated People" (1946) mentions only 1,208 volunteers from the ten relocation centers (of whom only 805 were actually selected to serve) plus "several hundred" voluteers from outside the centers. Estimating a total of about 1,100 (805 plus an estimated 300 from outside the centers) out of a total 23,000 of military age, comes to 5%.
Thus, the percentage of Japanese-American volunteers was somewhere between 5% and 7% of those of military age in the continental U.S. in and outside the centers.
The other 93% to 95% sat the fighting out.
No one is denying the 442nd fought bravely even though the medal counts are grossly over-inflated thanks to the political shenanigans of Senators Akaka and Inoue who along with Bill Clinton started handing out medals like candy canes many years and miles away from the battlefield in complete defiance of American military tradition.
But the fact is the vast majority sat the war out and/or openly supported the Empire of Japan in daily "Banzai drills" where they marched around Tule Lake tooting on their Sears & Roebuck tin horns.
The next time you read or hear how great the 442nd is or the 15 Nisei members of the Marauders, please keep these historical facts in mind...
Warrior Poet Gone to Soldiering.......2005-01-31
This is really a haunting read. If you are interested in both heart thumping narrative and beautiful prose, this book brings it together with a flair borne in the passion and heartache of pesonal experience. Ogburn was communications officer for one of the three battalions of the original Marauders.
Ogburn covers a lot of ground in his 300 pages and this narrative brings together beautifully the macro political level intrigues and the intense strain of personal combat. I have read perhaps 2000 war books in my short 40 yrs, but there are parts of this book that I will always remember: his description of his first operations against the Japanese and the strain of patrol action and the actual realisation of battle hits a person hard. It is not death that is shocking, but the realisation that one is close to death without ever experiencing it --- that a line gets crossed somewhere, where you are conscience that you are in a completely different territory. For Ogburn that happenned on his first patrol when he noticed the first fresh footprints of Japanese patrols.
Ogburn is in fact one of the small minority of "thinking soldiers" --- ones able to philosophise on morality in time of combat, draw judgements about right and wrong, but also to act with supreme daring. His quotes about viewing Japanese dead are haunting:
"viewing these dead, one wants to conjure some kind of image that foreordained them to some mortal sin. Some act or upbringing that marked them clearly as crossing over in the land of the wicked. That leant a notion of justice to their deaths and the fact that you still lived. You searched for it. But you knew there was nothing in it."
Ogburn took part in two of the three hooking actions of the Marauders. After nearly slicing his foot off he missed most of the last operation at Myitkyina. For this operation he relies on the personal experiences of everyone in his unit and there is no flagging in the pace.
Since I have read more on the Chindits than the Marauders I really came to appreciate how much both units, formed seemingly for the same operation --- initially conceived to be under the command of Wingate --- became victims to the insidious greed of careerism that seems to be a defining mark of the US military. In no other western democratic military has there ever been such a thorough-going willingness to sacrifice grunts for the ambitions of the supreme officer class. Stilwell with his pathetic personal vanity and pathological hatred of the English, meant that he would never ask for the British to support them with one of their free divisions at a time when the Marauders had ceased to exist as a functioning unit. He pressed medical orderlies to certify everyone as fit for battle at a time when the unit only could muster about 20% effectives. People suffering wounds, ameobic dystentery, fever and chronic undernourishment were flung into the battle of Myitkyina. (One officer continually passed into and out of consciousness from undernourishment while commanding his battalion, and still he was not certified for withdrawal). Stillwell placed the blame of the British Chindits for their "slow" advance from the south and failure to block the railway -- as Ogburn points out, it was a convenient scapegoat. In a tribute to clear and fair thinking Ogburn describes that the British were at this time functioning in very similiar, if not worse conditions (since they had to be 100% supplied from the air -- the Marauders had a road). One Chindit battalion could only muster two rifle platoons! Such was the intensity as Ogburn describes, that both the British and the Marauders faced.
But the one vital element was, that there were fresh troops that the British were willing to commit -- but Stilwell refused to for the sake of his personal vanity. The British therefore came to hate Stillwell, but Slim at least said that he could "work with him." The Marauders hated Stillwell more: one soldier, that we know of, drawing a bead on him with a rifle and almost shooting him "I could have shot him right there and no one would have thought it was anything other than a sniper."
Ogburn also cites the irony of the American way of war where the number of soldiers in US uniform increases proportional to the distance from the front. At a time when Stillwell commanded 30,000 men in Burma-India he still kept rotating essentially the same combat troops and convalescences of the original 3 battalions (although in the end he eventually dragooned about 1000 construction and engineering troops to fill the void created in the Marauder ranks).
Lt-Col. Hunter, the defacto commander of the Marauders for a lions-share of the campaign (Col. Merrill suffered two heart attacks and was hors de combat for most of the campaign after Shaduzup), was also sacrificed and eventually removed by Stillwell from command with no reason -- accept to find a fall-guy for his inability to quickly capture Myitkyina. Eventually mutiny swelled in the ranks and whole sections of the front and rear areas became effective "no-go" areas for American officers.
The text of this book should serve as a tribute to the personal courage and individuality of the US combat infantryman and his rugged ability. It should also serve as a warning to those still in the US military on operations.... the tendancy of careerism in the senior officer class, right up to President, and the willingness to sacrifce the average grunt, has become noticeably worse since the times of the Marauders --- in this sense Ogburn is not merely a poet, but also a trenchent analyst of our own times as events that happened in the Burmese jungle 60 years ago...
Disappointing and uncaptivating........2003-05-05
The style of writing was one of the poorest I have ever seen. The story just never gets off the ground. Fragmented...
Tough Unit.......2001-02-17
This is an excellant account of Merrill's Marauders and the battles they fought and the conditions they endured. Charlton Ogburn Jr. was the communications officer for the 1st Battalion of Merril's Marauders and his book includes many first hand accounts ( including his own ). His narrative encompasses from when the unit was formed until it was deactivated in Aug 1944 during the siege of Myitkyina. What is especially intriguing is reading about the living conditions and the long difficult marches the unit toughed out. It is very obvious this was written by a person who was there. This was one of the first accounts ever written of Merrill's Marauders and their campaign and it does them justice. The maps in it could be better but you can still easily follow the action and not get lost. I was fortunate that I found a paperback copy of this book at a used bookstore in excellant condition. I recommend this book for any WWII buff or anyone who enjoys reading about extraordinary acts of valor and courage by ordinary people in unordinary circumstances.
Tough Unit.......2001-02-17
This is an excellant account of Merrill's Marauders and the battles they fought and the conditions they endured. Charlton Ogburn Jr. was the communications officer for the 1st Battalion of Merril's Marauders and his book includes many first hand accounts ( including his own ). His narrative encompasses from when the unit was formed until it was deactivated in Aug 1944 during the siege of Myitkyina. What is especially intriguing is reading about the living conditions and the long difficult marches the unit toughed out. It is very obvious this was written by a person who was there. This was one of the first accounts ever written of Merrill's Marauders and their campaign and it does them justice. The maps in it could be better but you can still easily follow the action and not get lost. I was fortunate that I found a paperback copy of this book at a used bookstore in excellant condition. I recommend this book for any WWII buff or anyone who enjoys reading about extraordinary acts of valor and courage by ordinary people in unordinary circumstances.
Book Description
The Trailsman takes on a town without pity-or mercy.
Ft. Benton has a problem-the vicious outlaw Whit Anders raids them for food, supplies, and women, and there's no lawman tough enough to stop him. But Anders just killed a man who saved Skye Fargo from certain death-and Fargo always pays his debts. So the Trailsman is about to go to town...with a vengeance.
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