In 1588, King Philip II of Spain attempted to return England to the Catholic fold by force of naval arms. The Spanish Armada confidently set sail for what became one of the most crushing defeats in history, due in part to the efforts of Sir Francis Drake. During the previous century, Europe had fully emerged from its Dark Ages, and its explorers ventured to all corners of the globe. Inevitably, these new world powers came into conflict with one another over economic, dynastic, and religious issues. In the midst of this upheaval, Francis Drake, who was motivated as much by his intense hatred...

One man Capt. Raphael Semmes dominates the history of Confederate naval operations in the American Civil War. Although the Confederates were hopelessly outnumbered at sea, Semmes roamed the oceans first in the CSS SUMTER and then the CSS ALABAMA, capturing nearly 100 Federal merchant ships and precipitating a flight from the American flag that decimated the Federal merchant marine. Revered in the South as a hero, the North reviled and feared the Yankee-hating Semmes as a pirate. Regardless of his reputation, his wartime exploits were remarkable.
Noted historian and biographer John M....

Damn the torpedoes Full speed ahead With those words Farragut led a fleet of Union war ships into Mobile Bay, where he achieved one of the most celebrated victories in American Naval history. Farraguts personal attributes and what he achieved in his role as Admiral are all discussed in this book.

Before becoming one of the longest-ruling dictators of the twentieth century, Francisco Franco commanded troops in the kinds of wars that have since become all too familiar. He not only waged vicious counterinsurgency campaigns against Muslim warlords and defiant tribes in Morocco, but he also led a multinational force to victory in Europe's -dress rehearsal- for World War II--the Spanish Civil War.

Born into a military family in 1892, Francisco Franco first made a name for himself leading attacks against rebellious Moroccan warlords and tribesmen and by 1926 was promoted to...

On April 18, 1942, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led a flight of sixteen B-25 bombers off the flight deck of the USS Hornet on one of the most daring raids in U.S. military history, a low-level strike on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. For this heroic act, he received the Medal of Honor. But, as Dik Alan Daso convincingly argues, James H. Doolittle should be remembered as much more than a famous combat pilot. With a doctorate in aeronautics from MIT, he devoted his life to mastering the technical and practical intricacies of the most amazing new invention of his time, the airplane. In...

For years, Douglas Haig has been considered perhaps the most controversial military leader in British history. Today his career is at the center of a swirling historiographical debate concerning the nature of the First World War. The traditional school contends that Haig, like the majority of generals from both sides, were overmatched, hidebound relics of a bygone military age who could not come to grips with modern war. They allegedly sent their soldiers over the top in waves, with a criminal disregard for the mounting cost in lives. A new revisionist school contends that many Great War...

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.E.), who reigned as king of Macedonia for only thirteen years, set a flame of conquest that introduced the dynamism of Hellenism to the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Asian worlds. Re-creating their ossified cultures, he established a standard of leadership and military conquest that the most successful of Roman emperors, medieval knights, and steppe barbarians would never truly match. Julius Caesar wept that he could not surpass Alexander, while Napoleon could only dream of such invincibility. Alexander had the great fortune to be born the able son...

Most students of the American Civil War know the name George Gordon Meade, but few can tell you about the man. With this addition to Potomac's Military Profiles series, historian Richard Sauers examines the life of one of the Union Army's most notable generals. Rising from the Union officer corps to lead the previously ill-fated Army of the Potomac, Meade took command only hours before his forces stumbled upon Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863. He led his men to victory in one of the most famous battles in history, but Meade was soon embroiled in political...

Few figures in modern French history have aroused more controversy than Marshal Philippe Petain, who rose from obscurity to great fame in the First World War only to fall into infamy during the dark days of Nazi occupation in World War II. Petain's brilliant theories of firepower and flexible defense, as well as his deep empathy for the soldiers of France and the horrific trials they endured on a daily basis, mark him as one of the greatest Allied generals of World War I. Yet today he is best remembered as the nearly senile marshal who was handed the reins of power in France in the midst of...

Born into a Quaker family, Nathanael Greene had nothing in his background that pointed to a military career. His total military training before mid-1775, when he abandoned pacifism, consisted of serving as a private in the Rhode Island militia for a few hours each week. Yet, no doubt because of his leadership ability, the Rhode Island Assembly in May 1775 appointed Greene commander of the Rhode Island Army of Observation at the siege of Boston. In June, at age thirty-two, Greene became the youngest general in the Continental Army and the only general who had never held a military commission....