WTS: RtL's May Book Sale!

List updated to reflect recent sales.

With summer and vacation just around the corner, attached are a nice group of books at a fraction of retail new prices for summer and vacation reading. I have a large number of books on World War II and military history.. Watch carefully, as there are several “bundle offers to be had! Several interesting military biographies and some good general military history, as well.

A) Payment can be made by check or money order. I may have to hold checks until they clear unless you are known to me. Paypal can be used, but a 4% premium will be added to offset fees charged by Paypal unless you do it as a gift/family.

B) All prices do not include shipping. Shipping is done by USPS Media Mail, which I have found economical and secure and now comes with tracking numbers. I will quote a shipping price, when you make an offer. Insurance is optional. Although I pack and ship very carefully, I can’t be responsible if you don’t insure large purchases.

C) Books vary in condition and I do my best to describe them properly. Books are hard-backed unless otherwise mentioned. Any questions will be gladly answered. I will also provide reasonable pictures of the books or their content if you want. Obviously, “I’ll take it” trumps over “Can you send me more information?” 

D) When you contact me about these books, please inquire by book title, not number. You can contact me through this forum or at –rrsbls@msn.com-- (remove dashes)

E) Books are for sale on several forums. When two people offer to buy the same book or books, the earlier email/PM is considered first. I try to update this list to show purchased books at least once a day.


I. “Rick’s Picks”:


1) “The Grasshopper Trap” by Patrick McManus. The best (in my opinion of all outdoor humorist Patrick McManus’ many books on the outdoors, camping, hunting and shooting. My favorite story remains “Gunrunning” – sneaking a new gun by a suspicious spouse. (I know, academic to all of you!! :) ) Ex. To near new trade ppk. $7.95 (getting hard to find).

2) “The First and the Last” by Adolf Galland SPF

3) “The Luftwaffe” by Time Life. SPF

4) “Air Force Combat Units of World War II: The Concise Official Military Record” by Maurer Maurer SPF

5) “Once an Eagle” by Anton Myrer. The magnificent true to life novel of the US Army from WWI to WWII and beyond, seen through the eyes of Sam Damon. and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self-interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power. Considered to be one of the finest fictional books on military leadership ever written. VG-Ex. In a original edition hardback. $9.95

6) “Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-1945” by Peter Caddick-Adams SPF

7) “MASDC: Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, by Peter Blanchard SPF

8) “Stuart Tank, Vol. 1: The M3, M3A1 and M3A3 Versions in World War II” by David Doyle. SPF

9) “Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies” by Mark Carnes (ed.). SPF

10) “Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America’s Sea Services”, by James Wise. SPF

II. World War II:

1) “Peleliu 1944” by Harry Gailey. SPF

2) “The Ship That Held the Line: The USS Hornet and the First Year of the Pacific War” by Lisle Rose. The American fleet aircraft carrier Hornet is widely acknowledged for the contributions she made to the war effort. The Doolittle Raid, launched from the Hornet's deck, inaugurated America's Pacific counteroffensive and transformed the aircraft carrier into one of the world's prime strategic weapon systems. She was one of three carriers to participate in the victory at Midway and the fighting around Guadalcanal. At one point the ONLY major carrier in the Pacific. Former library ed. But tight binding. VG-Ex. $7.95

3) “The Second World Wars” by Victor Davis Hanson. A new book by the famous columnist and historian. Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory. BRAND NEW – 650+ pps. $19.95

4) “The US Against the Axis: Surface Combat, 1941-1945” by Vincent O’Hara. The story of the U.S. Navy's surface fleet in World War II with an emphasis on ship-to-ship combat. The book refutes the widely-held notion that the attack on Pearl Harbor rendered battleships obsolete and that aviation and submarines dominated the Pacific War. It demonstrates how the surface fleet played a decisive role at critical junctures. NEW trade ppk., $9.95

5) “Memories & Memorials: The World War II US Navy” by Steve Ewing. A detailed pictorial listing of all the memorial ships and memorials that honor the US battlefleet of WWII. Oversized with large numbers of photographs. VG/Ex. Oversized trade ppk., $7.50

6) “Citizen Soldiers” by Stephen Ambrose. In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. Near new, $6.50

7) “Fall of the Philippines” by Ward Rutherford. One of the Ballantine “History of the Violent Century” series from the 1970s. Pictorial but with diagrams, maps and many photos. G-VG, $4.95

8) “Grave of a Dozen Schemes: British Naval Planning and the War Against Japan. By HP Willmott. One of my favorite “deep” historians. At issue was Great Britain's role in what would be the final stage of the Japanese war. Given conflicting strategic considerations, the lack of facilities, supplies, and men, and a navy unfamiliar with large-scale carrier operations, the search for a national strategy against the Japanese was to take a full year. Near new to new, $12.00

III. Military and Historical Biography:

1) “Flight of the Enola Gay” by Paul Tibbetts SPF

2) “Lejeune: A Marine’s Life” by Merrill Bartlett. SPF

3) “Slim: Master of War: Burma and the Birth of Modern Warfare” by Robert Lyman. General W.J. Slim achieved something no one believed possible. Appointed to lead what was soon to become the famous "forgotten" 14th Army in 1943, at a time when British units in the Far East were defeated and demoralized, within six months he had dealt the first death blow to the Japanese Army. This - the battle of Kohima and Imphal - was the largest single defeat of the Japanese on land in World War II and led to their complete destruction in Burma by August 1945. Believed by many to be the best British general of WWII, and perhaps the best since Wellington. Ex-near new, $9.95

4) “Colonel Roosevelt” by Edmund Morris. The last volume in Morris’ trilogy of the biography of Theodore Roosevelt. This book takes TR from the point he left office until his death, some 12 years later. He stayed active, a big game hunter, explorer, politician (ran for president again in 1912) and the most famous man in America. Near New, $8.00





V. General and Misc. Military History



1) “The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 1900-1939: Invergordon in Perspective. The Royal Navy has had only one serious mutiny in it’s modern history, the event at Invergordon in 1931. This tells the story within the history of the British “lower deck” up to the start of WWII. Near new, plastic case (but NOT ex-library), very rare in this condition, $14.50

2) “The Great White Fleet: America Comes of Age as a World Power” by Samuel Carter. A good short introductory history of the huge fleet movement in 1907-1909 that circled the world and made naval history. Ex/near new, $6.50

3) “Anti-Aircraft Guns (WW2 Fact Files) by Peter Chamberlain SPF

4) “Weapons of the 1973 Israeli Arab War” – a magazine format type of paperback on the weapons and tactics of the 1973 Yom Kippur war between Israel and the Arabs. Ex., trade ppk, $5.00

5) “The Zulu War” by David Clammer. A reprint in paper of this excellent one volume account of the Zulu War of 1879, taken from official reports and many first person accounts. In the year 1879, the British army invaded Zululand on the grounds of defending the British colony and therefore the Empire. But it was to become a costly and drawn-out struggle in a remote and hostile land, the Zulus vastly outnumbering the British troops. This book charts in detail the events of the war-from the terrible and bloody massacre of the British by the Zulus at Isandhlwana, through the courageous defence of Rorke's Drift to final victory. Ex. Trade ppk. $5.00

6) “Breakout: The Chosin River Campagin, 1950. By Martin Russ. Three regiments of the 1st Marine Division--strung out along eighty miles of a narrow mountain road--soon found themselves completely surrounded by 60,000 Chinese soldiers. Despite being given up for lost by the military brass, the 1st Marine Division fought its way out of the frozen mountains, miraculously taking their dead and wounded with them as they ran the gauntlet of unceasing Chinese attacks.VG trade ppk. $4.95

7) “Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War. By William Smallwood. SPF

8) “The Brownsville Raid: America’s ‘Black Dreyfuss’ Affair” by John Weaver. Around midnight on August 13, 1906, shots rang out on the road between Brownsville, Texas, and Fort Brown, the old army garrison. Ten minutes later a young civilian lay dead, and angry residents swarmed the streets, convinced their homes had been terrorized by newly arrived soldiers. The result was that 167 Black solders were dismissed from the Army. G/VG, $9.95

9) “Fort Huachuca: The Story of a Frontier Post” by Cornelius Smith. SPF

10) “Keepers at the Gate” by V.J. Gregory. A detailed anecdotal history of the coast artillery forts guarding the Puget Sound from 1900 to 1945, Forts Flagler, Casey and Worden. Trade ppk, but very handsomely bound. Illustrated. $6.95

11) “The Wreck of the Memphis” by Edward Beach. SPF