Bounford Bounford: 15 books

In 1519, the Conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the mainland of the Americas. His quest to serve God, win gold, and achieve glory drove him into the heartland of what is now Mexico, where no European had ever set foot before. He marched towards to the majestic city of Tenochtitlan, floating like...

The dominating Blanc Mont Ridge complex in the Champagne region of France was home to some of the most complex German defences on the Western Front. Its heights offered artillery observation that made even approaching the ridge virtually suicidal. Pessimistic about the ability of depleted and demoralized...

In mid-1943, Allied intelligence began to pick up the signs of unusual German construction in remote locations near the Channel Coast. Several massive fortifications were beginning to take shape, and they appeared to be oriented towards London. Allied intelligence codenamed these sites as "Crossbow"...

After suffering devastating losses in the huge naval battles at Midway and the Soloman Islands, the Imperial Japanese navy attempted to counter-attack against the US forces threatening the Home Islands. Involving the US Fifth Fleet and the Japanese Mobile Fleet, the battle of the Philippine Sea took...

Victory at Guadalcanal for the Allies in February 1943 left them a vital foothold in the Solomon Islands chain, and was the first step in an attempt to isolate and capture the key Japanese base of Rabaul on New Britain. In order to do this they had to advance up the island chain in a combined air,...

As the Revolutionary War raged on fields near the Atlantic, Native Americans and British rangers fought American settlers on the Ohio River frontier in warfare of unsurpassed ferocity. When their attacks threatened to drive the Americans from their settlements in Kentucky, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton...

Japan was closed to the world until 1854 and its technology then was literally medieval. Great Britain, France and Russia divided the globe in the nineteenth century, but Japan was catching up. Its army and navy were retrained by Western powers and equipped with the latest weapons and ships. Japan...

The air campaign that incinerated Japan's cities was the first and only time that independent air power has won a war. As the United States pushed Imperial Japan back towards Tokyo Bay, the US Army Air Force deployed the first of a new bomber to the theater. The B-29 Superfortress was complex,...

With the German defeat at Kursk, the Soviet Stavka (high command) ordered the Western and Kalinin Fronts to launch Operation Suvorov in order to liberate the city of Smolensk. The Germans had held this city for two years and Heeresgruppe Mitte's (Army Group Centre) 4. Armee had heavily fortified the...

The 14th-century Mongol conquest of the Rus' – the principalities of Russia – was devastating and decisive. Cities were lain waste, new dynasties rose and for a hundred years the Russians were under unquestioned foreign rule. However, the Mongols were conquerors rather than administrators and...

Campaldino is one of the important battles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines - the major political factions in the city states of central and northern Italy. It heralded the rise of Florence to a dominant position over the area of Tuscany and was one of the last occassions when the Italian city...

In the aftermath of the murder of Gaius Julius Caesar, his self-declared successor Mark Antony struggled to hold together his legacy. Following an abortive coup attempt by Caesar's adopted son Octavian, two of Antony's legions declared for him, leading to a renewed outbreak of civil war. Antony moved...

After the failed April 1972 invasion of South Vietnam and the heavy US tactical bombing raids in the Hanoi area, the North Vietnamese agreed to return to the Paris peace talks, yet very quickly these negotiations stalled. In an attempt to end the war quickly and 'persuade' the North Vietnamese...

At Easter 1972, North Vietnam invaded the South, and there were almost no US ground troops left to stop it. But air power reinforcements could be rushed to the theater. Operation Linebacker's objective was to destroy the invading forces from the air and cut North Vietnam's supply routes – and luckily...