For nearly fifty years the hard-hitting, mobile Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, served in US infantry units as a light squad automatic "base of fire” weapon, providing quick bursts of concentrated fire. Designed in World War One, it didn't reach the front until September 1918. In the interwar years US forces used the BAR across the world, from China to Nicaragua. It also became a favorite of notorious gangsters like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who prized its ability to punch through police armored cars. At the outset of World War II the US armed forces decided to adapt the BAR for a light machine gun role. The BAR was not without its flaws; it was heavy and difficult to dismantle and reassemble, and it didn't cope well with sustained fire. Nevertheless, the BAR saw action in every major theater of World War II and went on to be used in Korea and in the opening stages of the Vietnam War. Featuring arresting first-hand accounts, specially drawn full-color artwork and close-up photographs, many in color, this lively study offers a vivid portrait of this powerful, long-lived and innovative weapon that saw service with US and other forces across the world for much of the 20th century.
A fascinating study of the devastating new form of warfare that redrew the map of Europe in the opening year of World War II, bringing about the military collapse and capitulation of seven modern industrialized nations.
On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany launched the invasion of Poland, employing a new type of offensive warfare: Blitzkrieg. So named by Allied observers because of the shock and rapidity of its effects, this new approach was based on speed, manoeuvrability and concentration of firepower. The strategy saw startling success as the panzer divisions, supported by Stuka dive-bombers, spread terror and mayhem, reaching Warsaw in just one week. Aided by the intervention of the Soviet Union in the east, the campaign was over in a mere 36 days.
This astonishing feat was followed by Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and then Norway in 1940, the first joint air-sea-land campaign in the history of warfare. Even more striking an achievement was the swift and conclusive defeat of France during May–June 1940. Refusing to let its forces dash themselves against the fortifications of the Maginot Line, Germany instead sent its divisions through neutral Belgium and northern France in Fall Gelb ('Case Yellow'), destroying Allied resistance and pursuing the remnant of the British and French forces to Dunkirk in an audacious and devastatingly effective assault. During the course of Fall Rot ('Case Red') over the following 20 days, German forces pressed the attack and by 25 June had forced France's leaders into a humiliating capitulation.
Illustrated throughout with detailed maps, artwork and contemporary photographs, Blitzkrieg: The Invasion of Poland to the Fall of France tells the story of these first breakneck attacks, examining the armed forces, leaders, technology, planning and execution in each campaign as well as the challenges faced by the Germans in the pursuit of this new and deadly form of warfare.
This book details the growth of the European Fur trade in North America and how it drew the Native Americans who lived in the Great Lakes region, notably the Huron, Dakota, Sauk and Fox, Miami and Shawnee tribes into the colonial European Wars. During the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, these tribes took sides and became important allies of the warring nations. However, slowly the Indians were pushed westward by the encroachment of more settlers. This tension finally culminated in the 1832 Black Hawk's War, which ended with the deportation of many tribes to distant reservations.
The horse culture of the tribes of the High Plains of North America lasted only some 170 years; yet in that time the sub-tribes of the Teton or Western Sioux people imprinted a vivid image on the world's imagination by their fearless but doomed fight to protect their hunting grounds from the inevitable spread of the white man. This text outlines the history, social organization, religion and material culture of the Santee, Yankton and Teton Sioux; rare early photographs include portraits of many of the great war chiefs and warriors of the Plains Indian Wars, and eight detailed plates record details of Sioux traditional costume.
Around AD 1450 a new Mexican nation emerged called the Aztec Empire of the Triple Alliance. They succeeded in making themselves the most powerful and feared civilisation in the Americas. The Mixtec and Zapotec peoples were contemporaries of the Aztec nations, and both formed alliances and fought many wars against them. With Angus McBride's usual quality artwork on eight full page colour plates, plus plenty of other illustrations from various sources, this work by John Pohl investigates the history, uniforms and weaponry of Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec armies.
From the earliest English settlements the survival of the infant colonies in North America depended upon local militias. Before the mid-18th century royal troops were seldom shipped out from Britain, and the main burden of successive wars with the American Indians, and with Britain's colonial rivals France and Spain, fell upon locally raised units, which also fought alongside the Crown forces during the major operations of the French-Indian War of the 1750s. This final book of a fascinating three-part study covers the militias and provincial troops raised in the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Georgia, Nova Scotia, Hudson's Bay and Quebec Province; and also Rangers, and colors and standards.
The central plains of North America to the east of the Rocky Mountains were home to the Plains Indians; here the hunting grounds of the twelve "typical" tribes coincided with the grazing range of the largest of the buffalo herds. The adoption of a horse culture heralded the golden age of the Plains Indians - an age abruptly ended by the intervention of the white man, who forced them into reservations in the second half of the 19th century. Jason Hook's fascinating text explores the culture of American Plains Indians, from camp life to conquest, in a volume complemented by photographs and stunning artwork. Men-at-Arms 163 and 186 and Warrior 4 are also available in a single volume special edition as ‘To Live and Die in the West'.
The southeastern people were the descendants of ancient prehistoric Indian cultures, and were probably on the decline when first known to Europeans. Despite being poorly reported in popular histories, they have been well described by several early European traders and by a number of well-known American ethnologists who collected details of surviving native culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The white man's expanding plantation society and the tragic removal of the Indian population to Indian Territory saw the end of this farming, hunting and trading culture. This title examines the absorbing history and culture of the native peoples of the southeastern United States.
From the earliest English settlements the survival of the infant colonies in North America depended upon local militias. Throughout the 17th and most of the 18th century royal troops were seldom shipped out from Britain, and the main burden of successive wars with the American Indians, and with the regular troops and militias of Britain's colonial rivals France and Spain, usually fell upon locally raised soldiers. These units also fought alongside the Crown forces during major operations such as the French-Indian War of the 1750s. This second of a fascinating three-part study covers the militias and provincial troops raised in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
The Woodland cultural areas of the eastern half of America has been the most important in shaping its history. This volume details the history, culture and conflicts of the 'Woodland' Indians, a name assigned to all the tribes living east of the Mississippi River between the Gulf of Mexico and James Bay, including the Siouans, Iroquians, and Algonkians. In at least three major battles between Indian and Euro-American military forces more soldiers were killed than at the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, when George Custer lost his command. With the aid of numerous illustrations and photographs, including eight full page colour plates by Richard Hook, this title explores the history and culture of the American Woodland Indians.
One of the least-published campaigns of the Great War was that fought in East Africa by forces of colonial troops - British Empire, Belgian, Portuguese and German. Short of resources, many European, African and Indian soldiers recorded epics of endurance as they hunted the outnumbered but brilliantly led German colonial forces across a disease-ridden wilderness. The achievements of Paul von Lettow Vorbeck - the last German commander in the field to lay down his arms - brought him fame and respect comparable to that won by Rommel in World War II. The events and the forces are described here in concise detail, and illustrated with rare photographs and striking colour artworks.
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