Edward G. Miller - Overview

Forthcoming in January 2026 - Available for pre-order Now!

Sixty-six Hours to Manila. My new book from Texas A&M University Press is available for pre-order at B&N, Amazon.com and the Texas A&M University Press website (below)!

During World War II, the Japanese held over 130,000 "enemy alien" civilians throughout the Pacific—including nearly 78,000 women and children. Most of the 7,800 civilians rounded up in the Philippines were American expatriates, and at any one time, about half of these were held at the campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

With the invasion of Luzon in January 1945, leaders were concerned that the Japanese would execute the starving prisoners as the US Army approached Manila. Out of other options, Douglas MacArthur ordered the 1st Cavalry Division to make a hurried and risky behind-the-lines attack. About 1,500 troopers and tankers set out at midnight 31 January – 1 February 1945. Tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers and 100 miles stood between the captives and their liberators.

Until now, no book has effectively blended the story of the internees with the military operation to free them. I discuss many uncomfortable topics such as racism, collaboration with the enemy, and illicit personal relationships, and want today's reader to understand a neglected chapter in the story of World War II in the Pacific.

Don't confuse this with the liberation of the POW camp at Cabanatuan or the civilian camp at Los Baños. Santo Tomas was located far behind friendly lines at the time and surrounded by thousands of Japanese ready to torch the city and die.

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781648433467/sixty-six-hours-to-manila/

The award-winning A Dark and Bloody Ground is now in its 5th printing and available through any bookseller or the publisher, Texas A&M University Press. Orders Toll Free (U.S. Only):1-800-826-8911

Association of the US Army

The home page of the US Army

Applied Battlefield Concepts uses the Army's proven 'battle staff ride' training model to communicate historical examples of crisis decision making to business executives.

Still in print! Check availability at https://www.usni.org/press/books (The US Naval Instutute Press) or your favorite bookseller's website.

Lessons in building and training of infantry units for combat

Selected Works

Magazine Articles

Chase's Flying Columns

Action in the Admiralties

Bad intelligence and haste led to landing fewer than 800 GIs on a beach held by several thousand Japanese soldiers in early 1944.

"Later on Leyte"

American assault troops race against Japanese reinforcements to secure the first foothold in the Philippines in late 1944. See the April 2016 issue of America in World War II.

"Singling"

GIs face off against German tanks in eastern France in December 1944. Appears in the September 2011 issue of Armchair General Magazine.

"All the Wrong Reasons"

The chain of decisionmaking that led to the Army's most disastrous WWII campaign appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of World War II Quarterly.

Current Military Commentary

"Speed up Pace of Change in Multidomain World" (March 2018)

"Army Doctrine Has Roots in WWII Pacific" (December 2017)

Leadership/Military History

Nothing Less Than Full Victory

Available now from the US Naval Institute Press

Military History

A Dark and Bloody Ground--the Hürtgen Forest and Roer River Dams 1944-1945

Before the Battle of the Bulge, there was the Hürtgen Forest.

WW2 TV on YouTube

Overview

Linked-In

I am an award-winning Department of the Army-designated, consultative military historian and author of the award winning A Dark and Bloody Ground – the Hürtgen Forest and Roer River Dams 1944-1945, now in its 5th printing at Texas A&M University Press.

History IS relevant, especially to managers/leaders. It makes sense to look at challenges faced by others. Why not use their experience to save time and money?

My approach centers on understanding decision-making: what decisions did people make and why? What was the outcome and what can we learn from their hard-bought experience? I can show you how.

AI, data science/literacy and quantum computing help drive our world. They have the potential to generate an extraordinary amount of revenue. Innovative leaders employ personal and enterprise agility.

Some people believe "It's all about the data." I argue otherwise. "It" is about the context and decisions made with the data . . . the human terrain, where the manager/leader must sift through the business landscape to persuade others.

My work includes advising the producers of the PBS series History Detectives and the documentary Salinger, appearing on the Fox News/Business Channel series War Stories with Oliver North and on WW2TV. The Center for Army Leadership used excerpts from A Dark and Bloody Ground for instructional purposes. I also have over 30 years' experience in designing and conducting experiential leader instruction programs and partnered with the award-winning military historian Steven Ossad to develop programs to help executives make better decisions.

My Army career included years of service in Germany and at the Pentagon, which included work on a hand-picked strategic planning team reporting directly to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans. I managed logistics programs at the US Army Special Operations Agency and advised a Presidentially appointed commission investigating a Korean War incident, the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the U.S. and a review of retroactive awards of the Medal of Honor to WWII African American and Asian American soldiers.

A Dark and Bloody Ground describes the price paid when senior leaders cannot visualize long term goals within a particularly difficult decision-making environment. Nothing Less Than Full Victory uses WWII small-unit combat case studies (such as D-Day, Metz, the Battle of the Bulge and Remagen) to describe how the U.S. Army transformed itself from a small constabulary to a global force in just 4 years. Sixty-Six Hours to Manila is about the imprisonment and liberation of the largest group of U.S. citizens ever held captive outside the country - a study in crisis leadership and the human spirit.

NEWS:

My essay, "Generating and Sustaining US Combat Power in World War II" will appear in the upcoming second edition of A Companion to World War II (published by Wiley). It addresses how leaders of the WWII era coped with the Defense Industrial Base and global logistics in an era of large-scale combat operations (sound familiar?). My newest project studies the leadership and decision-making environment behind a dramatic 1945 US operation in Germany.