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Redeye: Fulda Cold, A Rick Fontain Novel. Written By Bill Fortin, 2013, (Cold War Publications, June, 2015). Available in print or as an eBook. Fortin's Redeye: Fulda Cold Redeye: Fulda Cold is author Bill Fortin’s military history novel detailing events during the Cold War 1969-1970. FIM-43 Redeye designed by General Dynamics from 1959-1967, lends its name and iconography to this exciting and personal military history fiction story filled with action-adventure, Cold War military intrigue/tactics & strategy, and the everyday high and lows of military life. As this novel depicts, the Cold War was not so stagnant for the men and women who served on both sides of the conflict during the 1960’s-1980’s. Throughout this story the reader follows Sgt. Rick Fontain, call sign Sparrow6, of the HHC 1st/48th Infantry Brigade stationed in West Germany as he leads the “Redeye” Fire Team at the Fulda Gap, the strategic bridge between East and West at the height of the Cold War the late 1960’s...

The Devil's Wind: The Bengal Army and the Outbreak Of The Indian Mutiny [Kindle Edition]. 399 pgs. Bibliography. Chapter Notes. Endeavour Press Ltd. (December 23, 2013). The Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858 is one of the central events and conflicts of Britain’s Imperial Age from c.1750-1899. In the Devil’s Wind, author Saul David’s immense scholarly and detailed examination of the reasons behind the Mutiny delves into the composition and formation of the Indian Army before and after the conflict, addressing all of the major factors, socioeconomic, religious, and military, which led to the large scale Sepoy insurrection against British rule beginning in May of 1857. Rich with detail and well researched information regarding the recruitment of each major regiment of the Bengal Army during the Mutiny, the reader is engaged throughout the Devil’s Wind in arguably one of the most deeply researched, well written, balanced, and comprehensive English language books on the topic of the Indian Mu...

A Short History of the Wars of the Roses. By David Grummit. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013. Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-84885-875-6. Dramatis personae. Timeline. Family trees. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxxix, 212. $25.00. A Short History of the Wars of the Roses, by David Grummit In May 1455, the recently dismissed Protector of the Realm, Richard the Duke of York, met the royalist Lancastrian army of King Henry IV, “vi et armis”, with force and arms (p. 43), winning a decisive but bloody victory at the First Battle of St. Albans. The Yorkist victory over the Lancastrians that day on the streets of St. Albans beginning the sporadic and violent episodes of rebellion, upheaval, and open warfare which characterized the greater period of English medieval history from 1455-1487, known today as the Wars of the Roses. Yorkist line at the Battle of Towton Author David Grummitt’s primary goal in A Short History of the Wars of the Rose...

The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 By: Desmond Seward (Penguin Books, New York City, 1978) Maps and Battle diagrams by Patrick Leeson Review by: Benjamin Sparks, Worcester State University ‘12 Author Desmond Seward’s (b.1935) Hundred Years War, the English in France 1337-1453 , is a remarkably concise and yet in-depth historical narrative of the military history, royal, and cultural history of this most legendary medieval period. As he states in the books foreword, this volume is meant to be a short account for the general reader of medieval history, not for the expert or specialist historian on medieval warfare and tactics. Seward indeed does a write a thoroughly researched and engaging work, tracing the larger picture history of England’s great campaigns in France. Swirl of Knights and men at arms in combat during the Hundred Years' War  from a 16th century depiction   Conscience to enhance his work with the French monarchial and cultural influence o...

Allies At Dieppe, 4 Commando and the US Rangers: Operation Cauldron Written By Will Fowler. Osprey Publishing, UK, 2012. Digital Release available on Amazon, iTunes, & NOOK Books Review by: Ben Sparks,  The Commando Raid on Dieppe, France, August 19, 1942, codenamed Operation Jubilee, was one of the first major attempts undertaken by British and Allied forces before the June 6th landings of D-Day 1944, to attack the Nazi’s. The US Rangers among the other more numerous British and Commonwealth forces of 4 Commando cut their teeth in Operation Cauldron, one of the only successful actions of the bloody Raid on Dieppe. While this wasn’t the first operation of the Commandos, the bloodbath at Dieppe became a blemish on the celebrated but heavily critiqued reputation of the special forces units of Britain and the Commonwealth from 1940-1945. Fowler’s Allies at Dieppe, looks to debunk the assumption that the Dieppe Raid was a complete failure, narrating the operations of 4 Commando an...

Like Lions They Fought: The Last Zulu War  By: Robert B. Edgerton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1988) 244 pages. Perhaps no other conflict in the pantheon of British (United Kingdom) military history is as surrounded by  mysticism and falsities bore out of legend, like the Zulu War of 1879. Edgerton's Like Lions They Fought fills a very important gap in academic and popular research into the heavily studied and revisited period of British rule in South Africa and their greater military conquests of Africa in the mid to late 19th century. The author does a flawless job bridging the socio-cultural analysis of both the British and Zulu societies of this era with a concise and an engaging narrative of the conflict that became one of the most, if not they most celebrated colonial conflict of the 19th century. British forces arrive under the field command of Colonels Henry Pulleine and Anthony Durnford Unlike almost any other book on the topic of the Zulu War or ...