The titanic armor battles of the Russian Front are widely known, but the role of Germany's eastern allies is not as well known. Two of these countries, Romania and Hungary, manufactured their own tanks as well as purchasing tanks from Germany. These ranged from older, obsolete types such as the PzKpfw 35(t) all the way up to the latest and best German vehicles including the Tiger I and Hetzer. These tanks played a frequent role in the battles in southern Russia and Ukraine and were especially prominent in the disaster at Stalingrad where the Red Army specifically chose the weaker Romanian and Hungarian salients for their critical envelopment operation. This New Vanguard will provide a broad survey of the various and colorful tanks used. Besides covering the largest of these Axis tank forces, this book will cover the many smaller and lesser known forces including the Italian contingent in Russia, the Finnish armored force, and the small but interesting armored forces of the Russian Vlasov (RONA), Croatian, Bulgarian and Slovakian armies. This subject is seeing increasing interest in the modeling world; for example Tamiya recently announced a PzKpfw 35 (t) (suitable for Romanian, Slovak armies) a Finnish StuG III, and a Finnish BT-42.
The definitive technical guide to the incredible Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and its intelligence-gathering systems.
The SR-71 represents the very pinnacle of Cold War aircraft design and it has become an aviation icon. Together with its predecessor, the A-12, the Blackbird was a giant leap into the technical unknown and the design employed many forms of new technology made necessary by the excesses of speed, altitude and temperature to which the aircraft was subjected.
Paul F. Crickmore charts its 34-year Air Force career, in which the SR-71 proved itself to be the world's fastest and highest flying operational manned aircraft. It set a number of world records for altitude and speed, including an absolute altitude record of 85,069ft on 28 July 1974, and an absolute speed record of 2,193.2mph the same day.
This truly was a unique and ground-breaking aircraft, whose fascinating design history is explored here in full and illuminated with photographs and detailed technical illustrations.
Originally designed as a carrier-born, long-range interceptor armed with radar-guided missiles and tasked with defense against missile-launching bombers, the Phantom II went on to establish itself as one of the most important multirole fighter, attack and reconnaissance aircraft of the twentieth century. Going on to play an important role in the war in Vietnam as a workhorse, in addition to the MiG interceptor, the Phantom was a mainstay of Atlantic Fleet operations, intercepting Soviet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft and turning them away from the carrier groups at the height of the Cold War.
This book reveals the design and development history of the Phantom, its variants and the exported designs adopted by other NATO countries. Packed with illustrations, photographs, and firsthand accounts, it provides the technical history of one of the most famous aircraft ever built.
From the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, from the Balkans to Mesopotamia, gunboats played an influential part in the story of World War I. This detailed technical guide to the gunboats of all the major navies of the war means that, for the first time, the story can be told.
Naval action in World War I conjures up images of enormous dreadnoughts slugging it out in vast oceans. Yet the truth is that more sailors were killed serving on gunboats and monitors operating far from the naval epicentre of the war than were ever killed at Jutland. Gunboat engagements during this war were bloody and hard fought, if small in scale. Austrian gunboats on the Danube fired the first shots of the war, whilst German, British and Belgian gunboats fought one of the strangest, most intriguing naval campaigns in history in far-flung Lake Tanganyika.
With Hitler's army rampaging across Europe, Winston Churchill ordered the creation of a special fighting force-- the Commandos. These valiant men were volunteers drawn from the ranks of the British Army, formed into a Special Service Brigade, and put through a rigorous but highly effective training program. Over the course of World War II they would see action in every major theater of operation, and are credited with numerous feats of gallantry during the D-Day landings. Although many units were disbanded after the war, the Royal Marine Commandos have maintained the standards of this elite fighting formation to the present day.
Angus Konstam explores the history of the Commandos during their formative years, providing detailed descriptions of their training, weapons, and equipment. Battle reports are accompanied by specially commissioned Osprey artwork and historical photographs, offering readers an in-depth analysis of some of the most famous fighting units in the British Army's history.
From the creation of the first volunteer paratroop unit shortly after the birth of Israel and of the Israeli Defense Force, this arm of service has been recognized as elite. They have also been the first choice for daring special missions, and it is mainly from their ranks that Israel's Special Forces units have been recruited. A unique aspect of the Israeli military is the cross-posting of officers from the airborne, armoured and other units, to ensure that all unit commanders share their aggressive qualities and thorough understanding of the capabilities of all arms. In this way the influence of the paratroop arm has been out of proportion to its size.
This fully illustrated study is a complete history of Israeli paratroopers from its creation to the present day, including relevant developments in their role and organization, as well as their achievements and setbacks in conflicts such as the Six Days War and Yom Kippur War.
Chariots, the first mobile fighting vehicle, seem to have originated in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. The highly mobile two-wheeled war chariot, carrying a driver and an archer armed with a short composite bow, revolutionized military tactics after 1700 BC. This expensive weapon spread throughout the Middle East and is thought to have reached Egypt with the conquering Hyksos. It spread into Asia Minor, Greece, and was known in Northern Europe by 1500 BC. This book covers the evolution of the war chariot throughout the Bronze Age, detailing its design, development and combat history - in particular its fundamental involvement at the battle of Qadesh.
The Imperial Japanese Navy's Special Landing Force units enjoyed a reputation out of proportion to their small size.
Often wrongly termed “Imperial Marines”, they were in fact sailors led by Naval officers, and traced their origins directly to landing parties from warships. This book charts their history, from their true combat debut was at Shanghai in 1932; thereafter the SNLF expanded and fought in the assaults that followed Pearl Harbor in 1941, and were dispersed as island garrisons during the Pacific campaigns.
With an unprecedented, detailed look at uniforms and equipment, Gary Nila and Robert A Rolfe's text is accompanied by color photos of original items from private collections.
Featuring full-color artwork, this book describes and illustrates the Chinese and North Korean troops who fought US and UN forces in Korea during 1950–53.
In June 1950, North Korean forces armed and equipped by the Soviet Union invaded South Korea, forcing back the US and South Korean troops facing them and threatening them with complete defeat. After the US and UN forces mounted a series of counter-offensives, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army crossed into the Korean Peninsula and entered the fray; the conflict would continue for three years until the armistice of July 1953, and tensions remain high today.
The exploits of the North Korean and Chinese forces in the Korean War are renowned, but many misconceptions have grown up about these armies. In this study, carefully chosen photographs and specially commissioned artwork combine with authoritative text to reveal the evolving organization, tactics, uniforms, insignia and equipment of these formidable Communist troops during three years of warfare in the Korean Peninsula. Benjamin Lai and Zhao Guoxing reveal the real story of the North Korean and Chinese troops engaged in the Korean War, setting the record straight and deepening our understanding of the conflict.
This illustrated study lifts the veil on the gladiators of ancient Rome, who provided a bloody spectacle for the people of the Eternal City and its vast empire.
By the start of the Principate in 27 BC, the gladiator games were a long-standing part of the social and political life of Rome and its sprawling empire. In the wake of reforms enacted by Augustus, the games continued to be at the heart of Roman culture and politics during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
While prominent citizens harnessed the opportunities offered by the gladiator games to enhance their own reputations and reward their clients, the emperors soon assumed a near-monopoly on the provision of games; several even entered the arena themselves, most notoriously Commodus. In the quest for novelty, prisoners, criminals and women came to participate in this grisly 'sport'. Only after the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in AD 380 did armed combat between gladiators enter a decline, and even then beast hunts persisted into the 6th century.
Although much evidence remains, both literary and archaeological, the gladiators and their world continue to be misunderstood. Featuring full-colour reconstructions of these legendary arena fighters, this book draws upon the latest research and the author's own findings to cast new light on these formidable arena fighters and their legacy.
Ever present in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to VJ-Day during World War II (1939-1945), the B-24 Liberator proved to be the staple heavy bomber of the campaign. From its ignominious beginnings in the Allied rout in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, the bomber weathered the Japanese storm with a handful of bomb groups, which played a crucial role in checking the enemy's progress firstly in New Guinea, and then actively participating in the 'island hopping' campaign through the south-west Pacific.
A fully illustrated study of the French armies that were inspired by Saint Jeanne d’Arc, reformed under King Charles VII and eventually victorious over England in the Hundred Years’ War.
Saint Jeanne d’Arc remains a central figure in France’s national legend, having ushered the country’s flagging military forces into a period of extraordinary reform and revival that culminated – some 22 years after her death – in the French emerging triumphant from the Hundred Years’ War. France’s 1429 victory at Orléans, which was headed by Saint Jeanne, marked the first major setback to a long series of English successes and led directly to the coronation of King Charles VII, who would transform France’s fortunes by making peace with Burgundy, gathering foreign allies and creating permanent armed forces under royal control.
In this engaging new study, French military historian Philippe Gaillard examines the events and individuals that brought about such a pivotal shift in the trajectory of medieval France. Combining detailed research with period illustrations, artefact photography and newly commissioned artwork plates, the author brings to life the story of Saint Jeanne d’Arc, the army she revitalized and the structural and tactical changes that carried King Charles VII and France to victory at Formigny and Castillon in the 1450s.
The Numidian light cavalry were among the best-known horsemen in the ancient world: riding without saddles or bridle, carrying only hide shields for defense and clutching a handful of light javelins, they were renowned for their darting attacks, swift retreats, and skirmishing prowess. Yet, as much as they were respected by their allies and enemies, they were unfairly derided for their indiscipline, their perceived lack of culture, and their fecklessness, and dismissed as uncivilized, nomadic barbarians from beyond the fringes of the cultured, settled Mediterranean world. The famous portrayal of Numidian horsemen on Trajan's Column, of barefoot riders in simple tunics, astride tiny ponies, reinforces this view, and is the image that is almost universally reproduced.
Recent scholarship, however, has shown that there is far more evidence for the armour and equipment of the Numidians than hitherto assumed. The carved stone shields and cuirasses that punctuate the decorative friezes of the stone 'altars' at Kbor Klib and Chimtou in North Africa are confident representations of Numidian panoplies, not captured Carthaginian armour as has previously been argued. In this book, this research is presented alongside a close examination of various ancient texts which reveals that the Numidians also fielded infantry, slingers, archers, and even war elephants in conflicts across the Mediterranean, including Spain, Greece, northern Italy, and Thrace. All of these troops are brought to life in original colour artwork, complemented by chapters on their weapons and equipment, history, tactics, and organization.
The 13th century was a time of change for knights in England. They were faced with rising costs and increasing demands on their time for local government because of their very status in society, until knighthood itself was sometimes avoided. This period saw as well the development of the tournament from the wild team events of the early years of the century to the single jousts with blunt lance. Campaign life in the 13th century also embraced several theatres of war including the baronial revolt against King John, the Barons' Wars of Simon de Montfort, and the Welsh and Scottish wars of Edward I. This title also covers the use and development of arms, armour, costume and other equipment.
Featuring evocative artwork plates and carefully selected photographs, this book assesses the US Marines and Japanese troops who contested the islands of Tarawa, Roi-Namur, and Eniwetok during 1943–44.
On November 20, 1943, amphibious vehicles carrying Marines of the 2d Marine Division reached the shores of Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll, defended by a determined Japanese garrison that would fight to the last man. This began a test by combat of over two decades of US studies, analyses, and planning for capturing and defending naval bases in Micronesia. The Tarawa assault was followed in February 1944 by the rapid capture of the Kwajalein and Eniwetok atolls in the Marshall Islands.
In these battles US Marines fought a mix of Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army ground units. All but a handful of the defenders, whether they were organized ground combat troops or infantry improvised from aviators and service troops, were determined to die for the Emperor while killing as many of the enemy as possible. In this study, Gregg Adams shows how the US Marine Corps and US Navy drew upon these pivotal actions to improve their tactics, organization, and equipment for the next round of amphibious operations. He also explains how their Japanese opponents – realizing that isolated island garrisons were doomed to destruction or isolation if the Imperial Japanese Navy could not defeat the US Navy at sea – moved from seeking to repel an invasion to one inflicting maximum American casualties through prolonged defensive fighting.
Richly illustrated, this title describes Anglo-Saxon monarchs, warlords and their warriors and households in Anglo-Saxon Britain, from the first post-Roman mercenaries to the Norman Conquest.
In a country fragmented by Roman withdrawal during the 5th century AD, the employment of Germanic mercenaries by local rulers in Anglo-Saxon Britain was commonplace. These mercenaries became settlers, forcing Romano-British communities into Wales and the West Country. Against a background of spreading Christianity, the struggles of rival British and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were exploited by the Vikings, but eventually contained by the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred of Wessex. His descendants unified the country during the 10th century, however, subsequent weak rule saw its 25-year incorporation into a Danish empire before it finally fell to the Norman invasion of 1066.
Scholars of the early Church have long known that the term 'Dark Ages' for the 5th to 11th centuries in Britain refers only to a lack of written sources, and gives a false impression of material culture. The Anglo-Saxon warrior elite were equipped with magnificent armour, influenced by the cultures of the late Romans, the Scandinavian Vendel people, the Frankish Merovingians, Carolingians and Ottonians, and also the Vikings.
In this volume, co-authors Raffaele D'Amato and Stephen Pollington access their extended knowledge to paint a vivid picture of the kings and warlords of the time with the aid of colour illustrations, rare photos and the latest archaeological research.
This book examines the role of the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the US Navy's standard carrier fighter at the start of the Pacific War, and its clashes against the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force's Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen.
The US Navy went to war in December 1941 with the tubby Wildcat, the first of Grumman's famed 'cats', as its principal carrier fighter. Ruggedly built and well armed, the F4F's performance was inferior to the Japanese Zero-sen, yet in the carrier battles of 1942 between the US Navy and the IJN the Wildcat pilots more than held their own against some of the finest naval aviators in the world. Many of the Wildcat pilots that saw action in the South Pacific comprised what respected naval historian John Lundstrom has called the 'First Team' – the small group of highly trained prewar pilots who manned the bulk of the US Navy's carrier fighter squadrons.
Illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, including armament views and ribbon diagrams, the book examines the carrier battles that took place in August and October in the South Pacific around the first American offensive of the war – the amphibious assault on the island of Guadalcanal, and the actions of the Wildcat in combat with IJN carrier aircraft. The key combat actions are described and accompanied with rare and original photographs and diagrams, as are the training and tactics that contributed to the Wildcat's success.
This vivid narrative history tells the full story of the US Air Force's involvement in the wars in the air over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The involvement of the US Air Force in the Southeast Asian Wars began in 1962 with crews sent to train Vietnamese pilots, and with conflict in Laos, and finally ended in 1972 with the B-52 bombing of Hanoi, though there were Air Force pilots unofficially flying combat in Laos up to the end in 1975. The missions flown by USAF aircrews during those years in Southeast Asia differed widely, from attacking the Ho Chi Minh Trail at night with modified T-28 trainers, to missions “Downtown,” the name aircrew gave Hanoi, the central target of the war.
This aerial war was dominated by the major air operations against the north: Rolling Thunder from 1965 to 1968, and then Linebacker I and II in 1972, with the latter seeing the deployment of America's fearsome B-52 bombers against the North Vietnamese capital Hanoi. These operations were carried out in the face of a formidable Soviet-inspired air defence system bristling with anti-aircraft guns and SAM missile sites. Beyond this, the US Air Force was intimately involved in secret air wars against Laos and Cambodia – one cannot speak of a war only in Vietnam regarding US Air Force operations. The war the Air Force fought was a war in Southeast Asia.
Following on from the same author's The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, which told the story of the US Navy's involvement in the Vietnam War, Downtown completes the picture. Featuring a wide range of personal accounts and previously untold stories, this fascinating history brings together the full story of the US Air Force's struggle in the skies over Southeast Asia.
Robert Forczyk covers the development of armoured warfare in North Africa from Rommel's Gazala offensive in 1942 through to the end of war in the desert in Tunisia in 1943.
The war in the North African desert was pure mechanized warfare, and in many respects the most technologically advanced theatre of World War II. It was also the only theatre where for three years British and Commonwealth, and later US, troops were in constant contact with Axis forces.
World War II best-selling author Robert Forczyk explores the second half of the history of the campaign, from the Gazala offensive in May 1942 that drove the British forces all the way back to the Egyptian frontier and led to the fall of Tobruk, through the pivotal battles of El Alamein, and the final Allied victory in Tunisia. He examines the armoured forces, equipment, doctrine, training, logistics and operations employed by both Allied and Axis forces throughout the period, focusing especially on the brigade and regimental level of operations.
Fully illustrated throughout with photographs, profile artwork and maps, and featuring tactical-level vignettes and appendices analysing tank data, tank deliveries in-theatre and orders of battle, this book goes back to the sources to provide a new study of armoured warfare in the desert.
Ten produkt jest zapowiedzią. Realizacja Twojego zamówienia ulegnie przez to wydłużeniu do czasu premiery tej pozycji. Czy chcesz dodać ten produkt do koszyka?
