Greatest War Stories Never Told : 100 Tales From Military History To Astonish, Bewilder, And Stupefy

by Rick Beyer

This book contains one hundred stories taken from two thousand years of military history. You will find many photographs, maps, drawings, and documents that bring each story to life. Each story is a little-known tale told with humor that will make you smile in disbelief, but each one is true!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Military Fiction, Military History, American History, World War II

214 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Rick Beyer is a best-selling author, an award-winning filmmaker and long-time history enthusiast. His newest book, Rivals Unto Death traces the thirty-year rivalry of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

"In this fascinating dual biography, Beyer brings these two towering figures to vivid life on the page." --New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides.

Beyer is the co-author (with Elizabeth Sayles Sayles) of the New York Times bestseller The Ghost Army of World War II How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks Sound Effects and Other Audacious Fakery. Beyer has spent nearly a decade researching this story. His award-winning documentary film about the unit, The Ghost Army premiered on PBS in 2013. The San Francisco Chronicle called the film “mesmerizing,” while TV Guide referred to it as “entrancing.”

Beyer has also produced documentary films for The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, the Smithsonian and others. He is the author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series of history books published by Harper Collins, and described by the Chicago Tribune as “an old fashioned sweetshop full of tasty morsels.”

Beyer has shared his unique take on history in interviews on CBS, MSNBC, CNN, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, NPR, Fox News, and audiences around the country. He has also worked as a radio reporter, a TV news producer, an ad agency creative director, and a janitor (not in that order). And here's a few other things he's done.

•Camp for ten days in the mosquito-infested Siberian Wilderness
•Flee New Orleans the day before Katrina
•Interview Jimmy Carter in the White House
•Climb Mt. Washington 5 times
•Get called stupid by David Brinkley
•Be consoled by Mary Tyler Moore
•Marry a beautiful woman during a lightning storm

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Beyer lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Marilyn Rea Beyer (see above about the lightning storm!)

Reviews

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick glance at 100 odd tales from military history. You don't get much detail on any of them and the ones from ancient times are much more fascinating than the ones from the last century but all in all it's a quick and interesting reference book.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pop corn for the history buff's mind. Each article is a two-page spread long.
Well-written and presented. Almost graphic novel (AKA comic book) format.

[Kevin Keating · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just what I was looking for -- short stories about strange occurrences I hadn't heard of before.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun short read with interesting stories. Not just for the military history buff, but general history too.

[Blogul · Rating 1 out of 5]

The ”never told” stories are actually extremely well known ones (Boadicea, Chrismas Truce, Enigma etc.), presented here for the extra-dummies and ridiculously simplified, turned into dumb ”wow” snippets...
Good maybe for elementary school children.

[Ridwan Anam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very simple, childish, without depth. Not recommended for History Buffs.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Search the annals of military history and you will discover no end of quirky characters and surprising true stories—The topless dancer who saved the Byzantine Empire. The World War I battle that was halted so a soccer game could be played. The scientist who invented a pigeon-guided missile in 1943. And don't forget the elderly pig whose death triggered an international crisis between the United States and Great Britain.

This is the kind of history you'll find in The Greatest War Stories Never Told. One hundred fascinating stories drawn from two thousand years of military history, accompanied by a wealth of photographs, maps, drawings, and documents that help bring each story to life. Little-known tales told with a one-two punch of history and humor that will make you shake your head in disbelief -- but they're all true!”

[Kayote · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide collection of stories from the Spartans the Gulf War. Each is just a couple pages per story with extra quotes and illustratoins, and yet he manages to tell them effectively. I preferred his Greatest Stories Never Told, but that's a topic prefence. I read this one with my teenager (who like military history) and he was excited when he knew the stories--and even more excited when he didn't. Fortunately, he didn't know most of them, so well chosen and well presented. I very much enjoyed the notes before the sources, especially "The trick isn't finding the stories. It's verifying them."

[Oscar Lilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for history buffs. But as a serious student of history I might have slightly outgrown this kind of book. I grew up loving history books that put together lists of all sorts. Of the 100 stories, I was already well aware of 54 of them. I think it a stretch that the author states these stories were essentially untold, such as the well known Christmas truce of 1914. But there were many stories that were quite eye-opening to me that made slogging through what I already knew worthwhile.

[Flyn O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. Tons of little snippets into stories I have truly never heard of and was blown away by. Granted I did already know a decent amount of them but that was more due to my love of history rather than these stories being well known. Was a hell of a read and is making me want to investigate quite of few of these events as we only got the smallest glimpse into the stories of each which I truly love.

Great book, quick and easy read that will lead to plenty of hours in your own investigations to learn more about the crazy history of mankind and warfare.

[Joel B Champagne · Rating 3 out of 5]

History for the common man.

An interesting collection of remarkable events. Many of the events left this reader with a number of questions, indeed, many of the events could have been much longer by simply addressing the questions that resulted from the preparation of the event itself. There were many articles that were just too short. I don't think the additional info would affect the overall intent of the collection.

[Songngan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Đọc từ năm 2013 - 2014. Lúc đó đang làm admin của một trang FB chia sẻ kiến thức. Háo hức đọc từng câu chuyện, xong lên mạng mò mẫm kiếm thêm thông tin để xác minh, sau đó sẽ tổng hợp, rút ngắn lại để chia sẻ với members của page.

Một vài câu chuyện trong số 100 câu chuyện của cuốn này vẫn còn sót lại trong trí nhớ lỏng tỏng của mình :D.

[Alan Lampe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed reading the war stories. Some of them I had heard before, and others were new to me. Rick did an amazing job hunting down the facts and presenting the information in easy-to-read paragraphs. He also includes a list of sources for each entry. This way, if you want to learn more, you can quickly go to the starting point.

[Thora Hrafnsdottir · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book in my opinion. An easy read with approximately two pages of text and illustrations per story. Great to pick up and read when you have just a moment, and sources are cited in the back of the book.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Inaccurate details, slip shod research. Charles Martel was not “King of the Franks” he was Mayor of the Palace, Chilperic was King of the Franks. I learned that in high school. Rick Beyer fancies himself a historian, he should know better.

[Nathan Holst-Rightley · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was to Repetetive

[Vinayak Malik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of Bite sized anecdotes.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little snippets of unusual history. Good.

[Vicki Crabtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing stories.

[Armen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome! I liked this book because it had interesting stories and interesting facts in it. Of all of the stories, I liked the soccer game story the best!

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting tidbits, but I would have enjoyed a little more depth to each item.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads too much like a bunch of rewrites from the encyclopedia.

[Mark Moxley-Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, quick read. Little bits you can read at your leisure. More than half were things I already knew, but they do a nice summary with a few photos, and I learned some new things.

[LT · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting trivia; fun and easy to read

[Morteza Hadid · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب مطالب جالب و شیرینی داشت . مطالبی که از جزییات تاریخ به شمار می آیند ولی اهمیت دارند. اگر اهل تاریخ باشید بسیار لذت بخش خواهد بود البته نویسنده در مورد هر مطلب به کوتاهی توضیح داده (بیشتر از نصف صفحه) که این کتاب را برای بقیه خسته کننده نمی کند . یک جست وجوی اینترنتی در مورد هر داستان کتاب را جذاب تر هم می کند. یکی از داستان ها را می نویسم :
اسپارت های یونان باستان جزء مشهورترین و ترسناک ترین جنگجویان تمام دوران ها به شمار می آمدند. هیچ قومی و قبیله ای در پیگیری فنون رزمی به پای آنها نمی رسید. ....... نتیجه اینکه اسپارت ها قدرتمندترین نیروهای نظامی بودند.
بااین حال ارتشی که این همه درباره آن داد سخن داده اند در نبرد لوکرتا در سال 371 پیش از میلاد از تِب(با کسره ت) شکست خورد. نقطه عطف این نبرد زمانی بود که یک واحد نظامی زبده تب موسوم به دسته ی مقدس به جناح راست اسپارت ها یورش برد. دسته مقدس که افراد آن به خاطر توانایی های رزمی و آرایش غیر معمول خود مشهور بودند،از 300 سرباز تشکیل می شد که در یک چیز مشترک بودند. آنها همه گی (همجنس باز) بودند!!
این واحد کم نظیر از 150 زوج گی تشکیل شده بود. موضوع از این قرار بود که هر مردی باید با تمام وجود می جنگید آن هم با این انگیزه که از محبوب خود دفاع کندو در برابر او شرمنده نشود. این دسته عاشقان به اصطلاح نظامیان امروز از بالاترین همبستگی گروهی برخوردار بودند.
این همبستگی جواب داد. دسته مقدس بیش از سی سال شکست نخورده باقی ماند. وقتی هم که سرانجام مقدونی ها بر آنها غلبه کردند ، آن طور که معروف است رزمندگان دسته مقدس شکست را نپذیرفتند و تا آخرین نفر و واپسین نفس جنگیدند

(Thebes : تب)
Sacred Band of Thebes

[Chainsaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine collection of interesting military-related vignettes from throughout history, dating from 371 BC to 1991 AD. Each is at most a few pages long, so this is an excellent book to have handy to read while standing in line or when you otherwise don't have the time or concentration for a "deeper" read. Recommended, though I would submit a good percentage of these stories have been told often and/or elsewhere, albeit probably not in such a concise collection. As for the "Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy" bit in the title...let the reader be the judge of that.

[Saralyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a perfect book for me. I enjoy history, but my attention span isn't long enough for most history books. Simplify, people! So this was great because each story was just a few paragraphs long. I read the book in practically one sitting. I had heard a couple of the stories, but most of them were new to me. History is fascinating. I'm grateful for people who dig up the cool stuff. :)

[Thebruce1314 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another interesting collection of random facts from history. This is the kind of thing that made me interested in history to begin with. Though these stories are mostly related to war, the reader doesn't have to be a war buff to appreciate them. Highly recommended for teachers, casual readers and lovers of random facts.

[E. Kahn · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of short historical essays purporting to cover little-known events to "astonish, bewilder and stupefy."

Unfortunately, most of these events are really well-known and the essays are neither very exciting nor too accurate, with assertions ranging from comically oversimplified to downright falsehood.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, the title is misleading. To anyone well-read (or from Seattle), you'll know a bit of the history of the Pig War or that Butch O'Hare's father was a lawyer for Al Capone. But it is a clever compilation of war-time stories and is well-illustrated too.