[PDF] Special Forces Berlin eBook

Author : James Stejskal
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 25,31 MB
Release : 2017-02-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1612004458

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The previously untold story of a Cold War spy unit, “one of the best examples of applied unconventional warfare in special operations history” (Small Wars Journal). It is a little-known fact that during the Cold War, two US Army Special Forces detachments were stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin. The existence and missions of the two detachments were highly classified secrets. The massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies posed a huge threat to the nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the expected juggernaut, if and when a war began. This plan was Special Forces Berlin. Their mission—should hostilities commence—was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality, it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal. Highly trained and fluent in German, each of these one hundred soldiers and their successors was allocated a specific area. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, and intelligence tradecraft, and were able to act, if necessary, as independent operators, blending into the local population and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move. Special Forces Berlin left a legacy of a new type of soldier, expert in unconventional warfare, that was sought after for other deployments, including the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the US government officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story can now be told—by one of their own.

Author : Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
Page : 126 pages
File Size : 12,1 MB
Release : 2015-11-06
Category : History
ISBN : 1786251469

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Often written during imprisonment in Allied War camps by former German officers, with their memories of the World War fresh in their minds, The Foreign Military Studies series offers rare glimpses into the Third Reich. In this study Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar discusses his recollections of the climatic battle for Berlin from within the Wehrmacht. “No cohesive, over-all plan for the defense of Berlin was ever actually prepared. All that existed was the stubborn determination of Hitler to defend the capital of the Reich. Circumstances were such that he gave no thought to defending the city until it was much too late for any kind of advance planning. Thus the city’s defense was characterized only by a mass of improvisations. These reveal a state of total confusion in which the pressure of the enemy, the organizational chaos on the German side, and the catastrophic shortage of human and material resources for the defense combined with disastrous effect. “The author describes these conditions in a clear, accurate report which I rate very highly. He goes beyond the more narrow concept of planning and offers the first German account of the defense of Berlin to be based upon thorough research. I attach great importance to this study from the standpoint of military history and concur with the military opinions expressed by the author.”-Foreword by Generaloberst a.D. Franz Halder.

Author : Michael Smith
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 38,36 MB
Release : 2008-03-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9780312378264

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A British journalist specializing in defense topics offers a readable, useful addition to the literature on American special operations forces.

Author : James Stejskal
Publisher : Casemate
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 37,52 MB
Release : 2024-02-15
Category :
ISBN : 9781636243337

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The unique role of Special Forces Berlin in the attempted rescue of the American hostages in Tehran.

Author : Robert Todd Ross
Publisher : Schiffer Military History
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 23,88 MB
Release : 2002
Category : History
ISBN :

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U.S. Army Rangers & Special Forces of World War II tells the story of the U.S. Army's elite Rangers and special forces largely through pictures. Never before has such an expansive view of World War II been offered in one volume. Furthermore, an extensive search of public and private archives unearthed an astonishing number of rare and never before seen images, some in color. Most notable are the nearly twenty exemplary photographs of Lieutenant Colonel William O. Darby's Ranger Force in Italy, taken by Robert Capa, who is considered by many to be the greatest combat photographer of all time. Complementing the period photographs are numerous color plates detailing the rare and often unique items of insignia, weaponry, and equipment that marked the soldiers whose heavy task it was to lead the way.

Author : Richard W. Harrison
Publisher : Helion
Page : 644 pages
File Size : 41,14 MB
Release : 2016
Category : History
ISBN :

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Prelude to Berlin: The Red Army's Offensive Operations in Poland and Eastern Germany, 1945, offers a panoramic view of the Soviet strategic offensives north of the Carpathians in the winter of 1945. During the course of this offensive the Red Army broke through the German defenses in Poland and East Prussia and eventually occupied all of Germany east of the Oder River. The book consists primarily of articles that appeared in various military journals during the first decade after the war. The General Staff's directorate charged with studying the war experience published these studies, although there are other sources as well. A particular highlight of these is a personal memoir that offers a rare insight into Soviet strategic planning for the winter-spring 1945 campaign. Also featured are documents relating to the operational-strategic conduct of the various operations, which were compiled and published after the fall of the Soviet Union. The book is divided into several parts, corresponding to the operations conducted. These include the Vistula-Oder operation by the First Belorussian and First Ukrainian Fronts out of their respective Vistula bridgeheads. This gigantic operation, involving over a million men and several thousand tanks, artillery and other weapons sliced through the German defenses and, in a single leap, advanced the front to the Oder River, less than 100 kilometres from Berlin, from which they launched their final assault on the Reich in April. Equally impressive was the Second and Third Belorussian Fronts' offensive into Germany's East Prussian citadel. This operation helped to clear the flank further to the south and exacted a long-awaited revenge for the Russian Army's defeat here in 1914. This effort cut off the German forces in East Prussia and concluded with an effort to clear the flanks in Pomerania and the storming of the East Prussian capital of Konigsberg in April. The study also examines in considerable detail the First Ukrainian Front's Upper and Lower Silesian operations of February-March 1945. These operations cleared the army's flanks in the south and deprived Germany of one of its last major industrial and agricultural areas.

Author : Michael E. Haas
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 34,54 MB
Release : 1998-05
Category :
ISBN : 9780788149832

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Presenting a fascinating insider's view of U.S.A.F. special operations, this volume brings to life the critical contributions these forces have made to the exercise of air & space power. Focusing in particular on the period between the Korean War & the Indochina wars of 1950-1979, the accounts of numerous missions are profusely illustrated with photos & maps. Includes a discussion of AF operations in Europe during WWII, as well as profiles of Air Commandos who performed above & beyond the call of duty. Reflects on the need for financial & political support for restoration of the forces. Bibliography. Extensive photos & maps. Charts & tables.

Author : Martin Van Creveld
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 46,82 MB
Release : 1985
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674144415

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Many books have been written about strategy, tactics, and great commanders. This is the first book to deal exclusively with the nature of command itself, and to trace its development over two thousand years from ancient Greece to Vietnam. It treats historically the whole variety of problems involved in commanding armies, including staff organization and administration, communications methods and technologies, weaponry, and logistics. And it analyzes the relationship between these problems and military strategy. In vivid descriptions of key battles and campaigns—among others, Napoleon at Jena, Moltke’s Königgrätz campaign, the Arab–Israeli war of 1973, and the Americans in Vietnam—Martin van Creveld focuses on the means of command and shows how those means worked in practice. He finds that technological advances such as the railroad, breech-loading rifles, the telegraph and later the radio, tanks, and helicopters all brought commanders not only new tactical possibilities but also new limitations. Although vast changes have occurred in military thinking and technology, the one constant has been an endless search for certainty—certainty about the state and intentions of the enemy’s forces; certainty about the manifold factors that together constitute the environment in which war is fought, from the weather and terrain to radioactivity and the presence of chemical warfare agents; and certainty about the state, intentions, and activities of one’s own forces. The book concludes that progress in command has usually been achieved less by employing more advanced technologies than by finding ways to transcend the limitations of existing ones.

Author : Colin Beavan
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 26,99 MB
Release : 2007-04-24
Category : History
ISBN : 1440679509

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A thrilling account of one of the most important covert operations of World War II In 1943, less than a year before D-Day, nearly three hundred American, British, and French soldiers—shadow warriors—parachuted deep behind enemy lines in France as part of the covert Operation Jedburgh. Working with the beleaguered French Resistance, the "Jeds" launched a stunningly effective guerrilla campaign against the Germans in preparation for the Normandy invasion. Colin Beavan, whose grandfather helped direct Operation Jedburgh for the Office of Strategic Services, draws on scores of interviews with the surviving Jeds and their families to tell the thrilling story of the rowdy daredevils who carried out America's first specialforces missions—forever changing the way Americans wage war.