Ronald Ledwell: 67 books

The events that capitulated the Congo into prominence in 1960 were many: Congo’s recent independence from Belgium, Congo’s immense mineral wealth, the lack of leadership which plunged the country into civil war, and the harsh treatment by the Belgians of the native population for the proceeding...

Rommel: When Hitler sent Rommel to Libya to command the Africa Korps, his purpose was to help the Italians contain and “hold the line” defensively, but Hitler underestimated Rommel’s ability and his resourcefulness. Outwitting his British opponents at every turn he pushed them back to the Egyptian...

The Germans were among the first to raise a parachute force and they used them with tactical success in Belgium and Holland at the outbreak of World War II. The isolated island of Crete seemed to be the perfect place to use them in a large scale operation. The British forces were in disarray on Crete,...

Operation Citadel: It was to be the most perfect operation ever mounted by the German Wehrmacht. They assembled their elite, battle hardened divisions and equipped them with the most advanced tanks and assault guns. Two-thirds of the entire Luftwaffe’s entire available airpower was enlisted in...

Into the Balkans: On the eve of Hitler's invasion of Russia, Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, decided to invade Albania, fearful that the Germans were conquering all of Europe and that there would nothing left for him to conquer. So, he launched his "eight million bayonets" across the Adriatic...

Stand on the Oder: In Hitler’s Wehrmacht, the term “Special Forces” applied to something quite different from the Allied notion of an elite, but small battle unit. The German “Special Forces” were composed of large independent battle groups or “Kampfgruppen” operating with their own...

On August 23rd 1942, the German Sixth army opened the siege of Stalingrad on the Volga River with a massive bombing attack from the air. It was to be an easy victory, so easy that Hitler split half of the forces in the South and sent them down into the Caucasus to capture the oil fields of Baku....

WAFFEN GRENADIERS: The Waffen SS, the fighting arm of the notorious SS was employed in every bitter battle on the Eastern and Western fronts in World War 2. They were used as “Fire Brigades” to bolster and hold the line when it appeared that all else was lost, and many times they snatched victory...

There were several attempts to assassinate the Brutal Dictator Adolph Hitler, some came very close, but they all failed to kill him. In this series we look at the ones that came the closest. First the plots: all initiated separately from each other, and by unsuspected, disparate individuals from...

The O.S.S. Operated in all of the theaters during World War 2, even in the “Frozen North.” Weather stations, very important to both the Allies and the Axis war-making ability were strung out across the coast of Norway and the Arctic. Near Tromso lay a German weather station that fed vital meteorological...

The Korean Pocket: The slow destruction of the German Army started in Stalingrad, North Africa and the Crimea, and picked up momentum when six divisions were trapped in the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket. It was a large battle. One-third of the German forces involved were wiped out and the rest lost all...

The momentum of Hitler’s Wehrmacht comes to a grinding halt on the Eastern Front when General Von Paulus’s powerful Sixth Army becomes trapped in the city of Stalingrad as the brutal Russian winter begins. The Germans are forced to cease their thrust South, down into the oil fields in the Caucasus...

The Great Turkey Shoot: After their defeat at the Battle of Midway the Japanese lost the elite of their carrier forces, and were facing a new threat... the loss of the Philippines. When Admiral Spruance laid siege to the islands of Guam, Rota and Saipan, the Japanese high command had to commit its...

The Flying Tigers: The dark days at the beginning of World War 2 saw the Japanese victorious across the Pacific. Clair Chennault was called to China by Chiang Kai-Shek to help his failing Chinese Air Force combat the Japanese Imperial Army. Chennault recruited one hundred American pilots as volunteers...