Kenneth W. Estes's Books

US Marine Corps Tank Crewman 1941–45

Pacific

By: Kenneth W Estes

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US Marine Corps Tank Crewman 1941–45

Pacific

By: Kenneth W Estes

The ferocity of the Pacific war almost defied the available military technology. In this environment the evolving use of tanks by the US Marine Corps played a significant role; at the end of the Battle of Okinawa, Major General Lemuel Shepherd wrote in his report that 'if any one supporting arm can be singled out as having contributed more than any others during the progress of the campaign, the tank would certainly be selected.' This book traces the history of the US Marine Corps tank crewman, including the significant changes in doctrine, equipment, and organization that the war brought, and his experience fighting in the Pacific theater.

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Page Count

166

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1782000550

ISBN 13

9781782000556

M103 Heavy Tank 1950–74

By: Kenneth W Estes

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M103 Heavy Tank 1950–74

By: Kenneth W Estes

The T43 design represented the pinnacle of U.S. Army tank engineering of the late 1940s. The heavy tank proved fairly popular with its crews, who above all respected the powerful armament it carried. The outbreak of war in Korea brought a rush order in December 1950 which led to a complete production run of 300 vehicles. After 1951, the Marine Corps alone retained confidence in the heavy tank program, investing its scarce funds in the improvements necessary to bring about its fielding after a hurried production run in midst of the 'tank crisis' of the year 1950-51. The eventual retirement of the M103 in 1972, over 20 years after manufacture and after 14 years of operational service, demonstrated the soundness of its engineering. It may have been the unwanted 'ugly duckling' of the Army, which refrained from naming the M103 alone of all its postwar tanks. For the Marine Corps, it served the purpose defined for it in 1949 until the automotive and weapons technology of the United States could produce viable alternatives.

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Page Count

110

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1849089825

ISBN 13

9781849089821

M50 Ontos and M56 Scorpion 1956–70

US Tank Destroyers of the Vietnam War

By: Kenneth W Estes

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M50 Ontos and M56 Scorpion 1956–70

US Tank Destroyers of the Vietnam War

By: Kenneth W Estes

Designed in the 1950s, the US Marines' M50 Ontos and the US Army's M56 Scorpion were both intended to be fast, light, air-droppable tank-killers for the Cold War battlefield – an answer to the cumbersome and ineffective World War II-vintage tanks that had taken to the battlefield during the Korean War. Although they shared the aim of bringing light, mobile and lethal antitank firepower to the infantry the two vehicles varied wildly in design to cater for their unique mission demands. They first saw service in the Lebanon intervention of 1958 but it was in the Vietnam War that they made their name, with the M50 Ontos seeing intense combat action in the Battle of Hue in 1968. Detailed illustrations and expert analysis provide the reader with a comprehensive history of these deadly antitank vehicles, from early development through to their combat history and the eventual disbandment of the Marine Corps' last antitank battalion with M50A1s in 1971.

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Bloomsbury Publishing

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ISBN 10

1472814754

ISBN 13

9781472814753

Into the Breach at Pusan

The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in the Korean War

By: Kenneth W. Estes

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Into the Breach at Pusan

The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in the Korean War

By: Kenneth W. Estes

In the opening campaign of the Korean War, the First Provisional Marine Brigade participated in a massive effort by United States and South Korean forces in 1950 to turn back the North Korean invasion of the Republic of Korea. The brigade’s actions loom large in marine lore. According to most accounts, traditional Marine Corps discipline, training, and fighting spirit saved the day as the marines rescued an unprepared U.S. Eighth Army, which had been pushed back to the “Pusan Perimeter” at the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula. Historian and retired marine Kenneth W. Estes undertakes a fresh investigation of the marines’ and Eighth Army’s fight for Pusan. Into the Breach at Pusan corrects discrepancies in earlier works (including the official histories) to offer a detailed account of the campaign and place it in historical context. Drawing on combat records, command reports, and biographical materials, Estes describes the mobilization, organization, and operations of First Brigade during the first three months of American participation in the Korean War. Focusing on the battalions, companies, and platoons that faced the hardened soldiers of the North Korean army, he brings the reader directly to the battlefield. The story he reveals there, woven with the voices of soldiers and officers, is one of cooperation rather than interservice rivalry. At the same time, he clarifies differences in the organizational cultures of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps. Into the Breach at Pusan is scrupulously fair to both the army and the marines. Estes sets the record straight in crediting the Eighth Army with saving itself during the Pusan Perimeter campaign, but he also affirms that the army’s suffering would have been much greater without the crucial, timely performance of the First Provisional Marine Brigade.

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291

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806187425

ISBN 13

9780806187426

U.S. Marines in Iraq, 2004 - 2005: Into the Fray: U.S. Marines in the Global War on Terror [Illustrated Edition]

By: Kenneth W Estes

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U.S. Marines in Iraq, 2004 - 2005: Into the Fray: U.S. Marines in the Global War on Terror [Illustrated Edition]

By: Kenneth W Estes

Includes 103 photos, maps and illustrations The following account represents one of the earliest efforts to chronicle Marine Corps operations in Iraq between 2004 and 2005. This was a significant period in the history of Operation Iraqi Freedom, seeing two battles fought over the city of Fallujah, the eruption of the Sadr revolt in an-Najaf, continuous counterinsurgency operations throughout Iraq, and initial efforts on the part of Marines to cultivate and forge alliances with the tribes of Iraq’s al-Anbar Province. Almost as soon as Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed in 2003, it became apparent to U.S. commanders that a second deployment of Marines to Iraq would be necessary to conduct security and stability operations. This monograph recounts the first two years of this second deployment during which Marines were responsible for Iraq’s vast al-Anbar Province. This study focuses on I Marine Expeditionary Force’s deployment in 2004 and II Marine Expeditionary Force’s deployment of 2005, paying close attention to planning, counterinsurgency operations, and efforts to build civil-military relations with the Iraqi population. Particular attention is also paid to the first and second battles of Fallujah and the battle of an-Najaf.

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Page Count

411

Publisher

Pickle Partners Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1782895442

ISBN 13

9781782895442

Tanks on the Beaches

A Marine Tanker in the Pacific War

By: Robert M. Neiman,Kenneth W. Estes

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Tanks on the Beaches

A Marine Tanker in the Pacific War

By: Robert M. Neiman,Kenneth W. Estes

Robert Neiman, perhaps the most experienced combat commander of the U.S. Marine Corps’ tank arm, was one of the rare USMC officers to serve in both Iwo Jima and Okinawa battles. In Tanks on the Beaches, Neiman and his coauthor, Kenneth Estes, relay vivid accounts of fighting in the Pacific War, as well as Marine Corps service during the entire World War II period, devoid of idolatry and mythmaking. The result is a war story told from the unique perspective of men fighting from armored machines in desperate battles against a determined enemy. After the capture of Guadalcanal, Neiman endured Japanese bombardments there to gather information for his assignment as operations officer of a new tank school being formed in California. He eventually led his own tank company through four island battles culminating in the cauldron of Iwo Jima. Later, he finished the war as executive officer and commanding officer of the 1st Tank Battalion on occupation and security duty in North China in 1945–46. Neiman and Estes take the reader from prewar training at Quantico and in North Carolina through the delights of a New Zealand bereft of men, the horrors of Saipan and Iwo, the peculiar situation in China after the war, and then the trip back to the States for Neiman’s successful postwar career as a lumber retailer. Through it all, Estes translates Neiman’s eye for the interesting and the human into a multifaceted tale of a young Marine going to war. This is an adventure story with many novel turns that will attract the interest of military experts, military history aficionados, Marine Corps members in general, and veterans of armored fighting vehicle units. Neiman is not a USMC icon, just one of the unheralded thousands of officers who did the real fighting. This is their story, as much as it is his.

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236

Publisher

Texas A&M University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1585442402

ISBN 13

9781585442409

US Army Soldier

Baghdad 2003-04

By: Kenneth W Estes

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US Army Soldier

Baghdad 2003-04

By: Kenneth W Estes

In April 2003, after brief combat, Baghdad fell under US control and the Coalition Provisional Authority was formed to maintain order until a new Iraqi government became a reality. This book details the stabilization operations and the experiences of US Task Force 1st Armored Division (TF 1AD), whose soldiers lived and fought under extreme conditions and whose activities were center stage in the controversial debate surrounding the initial occupation of Iraq. Soldiers' personal experiences from recruitment, training, and armed combat to their aftermath and effects emerge from interviews and new documentation by author Kenneth W. Estes in his account of this crucial military campaign.

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134

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1780963629

ISBN 13

9781780963624

Super-heavy Tanks of World War II

By: Kenneth W Estes

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Super-heavy Tanks of World War II

By: Kenneth W Estes

The super-heavy tanks of World War II are heirs to the siege machine tradition – a means of breaking the deadlock of ground combat. As a class of fighting vehicle, they began with the World War I concept of the search for a 'breakthrough' tank, designed to cross enemy lines. It is not surprising that the breakthrough tank projects of the period prior to World War II took place in the armies that suffered the most casualties of the Great War (Russia, France, Germany). All of the principal Axis and Allied nations eventually initiated super-heavy development projects, with increasingly heavy armor and armament. Much as the casualties of World War I prompted the original breakthrough tank developments, as Germany found itself on the defensive, with diminishing operational prospects and an increasingly desperate leadership, so too did its focus turn to the super-heavy tanks that could turn the tide back in their favor.

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Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1782003843

ISBN 13

9781782003847

A European Anabasis

Western European Volunteers in the German Army and SS, 1940-45

By: Kenneth Estes

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A European Anabasis

Western European Volunteers in the German Army and SS, 1940-45

By: Kenneth Estes

Kenneth Estes studies the 100,000 West Europeans who fought against Russia as volunteers for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Estes shows tremendous knowledge of combat and writes gripping battlefield prose. Two-thirds of the West European volunteers came from Spain and the Netherlands, yet Estes demonstrates wide range and covers Flemish, Walloon, French, Danish, and Norwegian combat units. Avoiding over-generalization, the author distinguishes carefully among the Danes and Flemings who fought competently with the SS-Wiking Division and later with Nordland, the courageous but poorly-armed Spanish, the ill-trained Dutch and French in Landstorm Nederland and SS-Charlemagne, and the Norwegians who after a first wave of enthusiasm held back altogether. Estes pulverizes the Nazi propaganda notion of a multinational European army defending 'Western civilization' against 'Bolshevism'. He shows that West Europeans, mainly of the urban working classes, volunteered from a mix of motives -adventure-seeking, ideology, hopes of personal advantage or material gain, a desire for better food, or a wish to escape a criminal record at home. He demonstrates that the best-performing foreign legions were trained and led by German officers and formed parts of larger SS units, and also that the Wehrmacht placed little value on foreign formations until its other manpower reserves ran out in 1944-45. This is a landmark work on a subject, which has been much written about, but rarely understood or described as perceptively as in the pages of this book.

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Page Count

211

Publisher

Helion and Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

1912174251

ISBN 13

9781912174256

Marines Under Armor

By: Kenneth Estes

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Marines Under Armor

By: Kenneth Estes

In this story of men, machines and missions, Kenneth Estes tells how the U.S. Marine Corps came to acquire the armored fighting vehicle and what it tried to do with it. The longtime Marine tank officer and noted military historian offers an insider's view of the Corps's acquisition and use of armored fighting vehicles over the course of several generations, a view that illustrates the characteristics of the Corps as a military institution and of the men who have guided its development. His book examines the planning, acquisition, and employment of tanks, amphibian tractors, and armored cars and explores the ideas that led to the fielding of these weapons systems along with the doctrines and tactics intended for them, and their actual use in combat. Drawing on archival resources previously untouched by researchers and interviews of both past and serving crewmen, Estes presents a unique and unheralded story that is filled with new information and analysis of the armored vehicles, their leaders, and the men who drove these steel chariots into battle. Such authoritative detail and documentation of the decisions to acquire, develop, and organize armored units in the U.S. Marine Corps assures the book's acknowledgement as a definitive reference.

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