Introduction to JavaScript Object Notation

When Philip II ascended the throne in 359 BC, Macedonia was in danger of being engulfed by wild barbarian tribes to the north and wily Greek cities to the south. Philip had to expand the power of the

Salah al Din Yusif ibn Ayyub, known to his Muslim contemporaries as al Nasi, 'The Victorious', and to an admiring Europe as Saladin, is the most famous single figure in the history of the Crusades, be

In 1823 Texas was opened to American settlement; over the next 12 years thousands took advantage of the opportunity. During this time the corrupt Santa Anna rose to power. A dishonest and ruthless pol

When the Southern states seceded to form their own government in 1861, one of their first moves was to organise an army. The South's fighting men served from the time of their enlistment until the end

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

On 21 October 1983, following the death of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, the leaders of the six small nations forming the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States voted to intervene militarily to res

In this worthy addition to the Elite series, Ian Heath transports us to the time of the Vikings examining their epic journeys and the ships they made them in, their methods of warfare - the organisati

When Frederick II (later known as Frederick the Great) came to the throne in 1740, he had three advantages for which he owed thanks to his father: a modern, well-organised state; full coffers; and a p

Poland was the first of the Allied nations to succumb to German aggression in the Second World War, but by the most tortuous of routes her army managed to remain in the field through all five years of

Israel assumes in advance that defeat in war means an end to the Jewish nation, and it wages war accordingly. This fact influences the Israeli approach to its army and to the strategy, tactics, traini

France was to call up a total of 1,600,000 men during the Napoleonic Wars, of whom a mere 600,000 were to survive. For those conscripted into service, one of the better fates would be recruitment as a

Owing to the heavy casualties suffered by the Carabiniers in the 1809 campaign, the Emperor decreed that they should be armored to the same advantage as the Cuirassiers. In this way the two corps drew

Fully illustrated, this study casts light on the utility and role of the German and British cavalry in the early stages of World War I on the Western Front.In the early months of World War I, before the fighting degenerated into static trench warfare, there was a brief period of mobile warfare, as the German Army advanced through Belgium and northern France, forcing the French and British forces facing them to retreat. The British cavalry had the difficult task of covering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force and the German cavalry, the equally demanding task, after weeks of combat and forced marches, of maintaining contact with a rapidly retiring enemy.In this study a comparative assessment is made of each side’s doctrine, organization, equipment and training, followed by a detailed analysis of their actual performance in three key encounter actions: Casteau/Soignies (August 22), Cérizy/Moy (August 28) and Néry (September 1). Finally, a brief conclusion highlights that bo

This study explores the critical battle of Carrhae, a fascinating tale of treachery, tactics, and topography in which Rome experienced one of its most humiliating defeats.Carrhae is a battle from a heady moment in Roman history – that of the clever carve-up of power by the First Triumvirate of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus (the Roman general who had famously put down the Spartacan revolt). Crassus had begun his second consulship (55 BC) with the express aim of going to war with Parthia, and desperately felt the need to gain military glory and popular acclaim to balance that of his two triumvirate rivals. In June 53 BC, he led seven legions, 4,000 lightly armed troops and 4,000 horsemen across the Euphrates, and though soon deserted by his Armenian allies, Crassus continued his advance into unfamiliar, hostile territory. At Carrhae (present-day Harran, Turkey), the scene was set for a Roman military disaster on an epic scale.Classical scholar Nic Fields des

Fully illustrated, this new study lifts the veil on the high-profile but often misunderstood gladiators of ancient Rome, from their origins to the dawn of the Principate.Originating in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, the Roman gladiator games have come to symbolize the spectacle and savagery of Republican and Imperial Rome. Increasingly elaborate rules and rituals governed the conduct of gladiator combat, with an array of specially armed and armoured gladiator types pitted against one another, either singly or in groups. While many gladiators met a grisly end, some survived to achieve celebrity and make huge fortunes. Despite the wealth of literary and archaeological evidence, many misconceptions about the gladiators and their violent world remain. Featuring photographs and drawings of key items of visual evidence and drawing upon the author’s wealth of experience and research, this fully illustrated account recreates the little-known and under-represented gl

This is the first history of the legendary US Army's HAWK missile system, the world's first mobile air-defense missile system, which saw service and combat around the world.The HAWK surface-to-air missile system was the world’s first mobile missile system and one of the most advanced air defense weapons deployed during the Cold War. Designed to counteract the threat posed by advanced 1950s Soviet-built aircraft, the first HAWK unit became operational in 1959. At its peak, it saw frontline service in the Far East, Panama, Europe, and in the Middle East. Units were also used during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, and Persian Gulf War. In the hands of other nations, HAWK proved its efficacy in combat during the Arab-Israeli Wars, Iran-Iraq War, Chadian-Libyan War, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.Credited with shooting down more than 100 aircraft during its combat career, the HAWK system was respected for its lethality. Such was Soviet concern, that it developed electronic jammers,

This new book is a fascinating history of how the mighty Gothic Line was defeated by American air power, in one of the most pivotal but least-known air campaigns of World War II.By late 1944, the Italian Campaign was secondary to the campaigns in France, and Allied forces were not strong enough to break the Germans’ mighty Gothic Line. These fortifications were supplied by rail through the Alps, with trains arriving hourly and delivering 600,000 tons of supplies a month, enough to keep the German Army going forever.But in the bitter winter of 1944–45, the mighty Gothic Line would be defeated by American air power, in one of the most pivotal but least-known air campaigns of World War II. It would not be a direct assault; instead Operation Bingo would ruthlessly cut the Germans’ supply lines and leave them starved. But it would not be easy. The rail routes were defended by a formidable array of heavy flak, and every raid was expected. Conditions were freezing, and even in electric flying

A uniquely detailed study of a Japanese aircraft carrier that took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, before being sunk at Midway.Hiryu was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1930s. Her aircraft supported the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in mid-1940 and during the first month of the Pacific War, she took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Wake Island. She supported the conquest of the Dutch East Indies in January 1942 and her aircraft bombed Darwin, Australia, and continued to assist in the Dutch East Indies campaign. In April, Hiryu’s aircraft helped sink two British heavy cruisers and several merchant ships during the Indian Ocean raid. After a brief refit, Hiryu and three other fleet carriers of the First Air Fleet participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After bombarding American forces on the atoll, the carriers were attacked by aircraft from Midway and the carriers USS Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. D

This study investigates the British tribal warriors and Roman auxiliaries who fought in three epic battles for control of Britain in the 1st century AD.Following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, the tribes of the west and north resisted the establishment of a ‘Roman peace’, led in particular by the chieftain Caratacus. Even in the south-east, resentment of Roman occupation remained, exploding into the revolt of Boudicca’s Iceni in AD 60. Roman auxiliaries from two particular peoples are known to have taken part in the invasion of Britain: the Tungrians, from what is now Belgium, and the Batavians, from the delta of the River Rhine in the modern Netherlands. From the late 80s AD, units of both the Batavians and the Tungrians were garrisoned at a fort at Vindolanda in northern Britain. The so called ‘Vindolanda tablets’ provide an unparalleled body of material with which to reconstruct the lives of these auxiliary soldiers in Britain.This book examines how both the British warrior

Using first-hand accounts and brand-new artwork, this book brings to life the realities of flying the BF 109 in combat during the very first battles of World War II.The Bf 109 was one of the principal types in the Luftwaffe’s inventory during the opening months of World War II and it was central to many of Germany’s early victories, before coming up against the unbeatable RAF during the Battle of Britain. The Bf 109E, in particular, was a match for anything that it encountered in the skies over Poland, the Low Countries and France, being flown by a number of pilots already experienced in combat in the type following service with the Legion Condor during the Spanish Civil War, which had been the perfect field trial to iron out many of the inevitable ‘bugs’. It was predominantly the Bf 109E, which first featured a Daimler-Benz DB 601 powerplant, that was in the frontline when the war began, although some examples of the older Bf 109D were still in use during the Polish campaign. Starting

This title examines the history and development of the Ju 188 twin-engined aircraft, the Luftwaffe’s attempt to enhance and improve its peerless Ju 88.The Junkers Ju 188 was the epitome of mid-war German twin-engined aircraft design, representing the enhancement of an earlier type and incorporating increased performance and technological sophistication. As part of the 1939 “Bomber B” program, it was intended as a replacement for the Ju 88 and He 111 medium bombers, taking advantage of uprated Jumo and BMW engines and incorporating a radically redesigned cockpit area with all-round visibility for high-speed bombing, torpedo-bomber carrying, FuG 200 radar, and camera-equipped reconnaissance operations. What emerged, from the autumn of 1943, was a sophisticated bomber and reconnaissance aircraft―and intended night fighter. After operational trials, the Ju 188 equipped three bomber Geschwader and several long-range reconnaissance Staffeln in the East and Italy, conducting operations over B

A fascinating, illustrated study of the war in East Africa waged by German colonial forces under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck against the colonial and expeditionary forces of the Allied Powers.The East African Campaign in World War I comprised a series of battles and guerrilla actions which began in German East Africa in 1914 and spread to portions of Portuguese Mozambique, northern Rhodesia, British East Africa, the Uganda Protectorate, and the Belgian Congo. German colonial forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck attempt to divert Allied forces from the Western Front.This fascinating work documents the British, Indian, South African, Belgian, Portuguese and local native forces who invaded German East Africa, and the progress of the fighting. David Smith describes how German forces were slowly ousted from German East Africa, a process made tortuous by Lettow-Vorbeck's masterful management of the campaign. Colourful illustrations bring to life a wide-ranging and eventful cam

A remarkable new study on the Battle of Crécy, in which the outnumbered English under King Edward III won a decisive victory over the French and changed the course of the Hundred Years War.The Battle of Crécy in 1346 is one the most famous and widely studied military engagements in history. The repercussions of this battle – in which England’s King Edward III decisively defeated a far larger French army – were felt for hundreds of years, and the exploits of those fighting reached the status of legend. Yet groundbreaking research has shown that nearly everything that has been written about this dramatic event may be wrong.In this new study, Michael Livingston reveals how modern scholars have used archived manuscripts, satellite technologies and traditional fieldwork to help unlock what was arguably the battle’s greatest secret: the location of the now quiet fields where so many thousands died.Crécy: Battle of Five Kings is a story of past and present. It is a new history of one of the m

Based on new research, Hitler’s Winter tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge from the German perspective.The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive in the West. Launched in the depths of winter to neutralize the overwhelming Allied air superiority, three German armies attacked through the Ardennes, the weakest part of the American lines, with the aim of splitting the Allied armies and seizing the vital port of Antwerp within a week. It was a tall order, as the Panzers had to get across the Our, Amblève, Ourthe and Meuse rivers, and the desperate battle became a race against time and the elements, which the Germans would eventually lose.This new study of the famous battle focuses on the German experience, telling the story from the perspective of the German infantrymen and Panzer crewmen fighting on the ground in the Ardennes, through to the senior commanders such as SS-Oberstgruppenführer Josef ‘Sepp’ Dietrich and General Hasso von Manteuffel whose operational dec

A gripping study of the Battle of the Barents Sea, fought in the darkness and cold of the northern winter, in which the Kriegsmarine sought to sever the crucial Allied Arctic Convoy route.The Arctic convoys that passed through the cold, dangerous waters of the Barents Sea formed a vital lifeline – a strategic link in tanks, supplies and above all goodwill between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. In December 1942, under Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow), the German Kriegsmarine sought to strike a crippling blow on the Arctic convoys and finally sever this all-important sea route. In this fascinating work, renowned naval expert Angus Konstam documents the fate of the Allied Convoy JW 51B as it came under attack from some of the Kriegsmarine’s most powerful surface warships – a pocket battleship, a heavy cruiser and six destroyers. Illustrated with stunning battlescene artworks, maps, 3D diagrams and photographs, it explores the David and Goliath struggle between the Allied ships def

A complete illustrated study of the varied range of Italian colonial units who served in East and North Africa.Italy only unified as a nation in 1870 and was late, and therefore impatient, in the “scramble” for Africa. An initial foothold in Eritrea/Somalia, north-east Africa, led to a disastrous defeat in Ethiopia in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa, but Italian Somaliland was later consolidated on the west coast of the Red Sea.During 1911, Italy also invaded Libya, securing the coast, however fighting continued throughout World War I and only ended in the early 1930s. A number of native colonial regiments were raised in both Italian East Africa and Libya (in the latter, even a pioneering paratroop unit), of which most fought sturdily for Italy against the Allies in 1940–43. These units had particularly colourful uniforms and insignia. Another small guard unit also served in the Italian concession at Tientsin, China in 1902–1943. After World War II, a remnant unit served on in Somalia under

Written by one of the world’s leading experts on D-Day, Smashing Hitler’s Guns, is a ground-breaking new history of the legendary Rangers’ attack on Pointe-du-Hoc.The Ranger attack on the German gun batteries at Pointe-du-Hoc in the early morning hours of D-Day is the stuff of legend. The gun batteries were strategically positioned between the two American D-Day landing beaches, and were considered the main threat to the Operation Neptune landings. In spite of the confusion and chaos of the June 6, 1944 mission, the Rangers succeeded in scaling the 100-foot cliffs, but the guns were nowhere to be found. Spreading out in all directions, a Ranger team managed to find and spike the guns at their hidden location south of Pointe-du-Hoc. For two days, this small force fought off repeated German attacks, until an American relief force finally arrived on 8 June, by which time more than half the Rangers were casualties.The heroic Ranger mission at Pointe-du-Hoc has indeed become a sacred legend

A dramatic retelling of the final years of the Western Roman Empire and the downfall of Rome itself from the perspective of the Roman general Stilicho and Alaric, king of the Visigoths.It took little more than a single generation for the 800-year-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while generals and politicians squabbled over scraps of power, two men – former comrades on the battlefield – eventually found themselves on opposite sides in the great game of empire: Roman general Stilicho and Alaric, king of the Visigoths.Master storyteller Don Hollway introduces us to these titans of the Ancient World. Stilicho was charged with defending the Western Roman Empire against repeated invasions. No one represented a more potent threat than Alaric. After a series of hard-fought battles, Stilicho bested his rival, but failed to capture the wily Alaric and eventually a truce was declared. Alaric and his men would then serve honorably in the Roman Army as foederati. But the tentat

Now available in paperback, Blood, Metal and Dust is an authoritative military history of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to tell the detailed story of what happened on the ground.

This fully illustrated study assesses the origins, development, and combat record of the legendary Tiger and Churchill Tanks during World War II. The Tiger and the Churchill are two of the most iconic heavily armored tanks to grace the battlefields of World War II. The first epic clash between them took place on April 21, 1943 in Tunisia, during which a Tiger was captured by the Western Allies for the first time. They also fought each other in Italy, on the Eastern Front (as part of Lend-Lease), and in North-West Europe 1944-45. The Tiger and Churchill were both were designed quickly (and suffered reliability problems), but they were technically very different and their repeated clashes had widely differing results. This fascinating and detailed work explores novel aspects of the design and operation of these well-known tanks. The roles that both vehicles played in combat, as part of a German Schwere Panzer-Abteilung and a British infantry tank battalion, and how the design features of

A new study and analysis of the final months of tank warfare in World War II, as the Allied armies rolled into Germany and fought the Wehrmacht's tanks on home soil. The crossing of the river Rhine marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich, but the Wehrmacht would fight ferociously on its home soil until the fall of Berlin. The Battle of Germany saw the most advanced tanks of the Allies pitted against the remnants of the once-formidable Panzerwaffe, now exhausted and lacking many of the essentials of armored warfare, but equipped with the biggest and most powerful tanks they would ever field. In these last months the Allies were now equipped with the most advanced Shermans such as the M4A3E8, as well as some of the types that would go on to have successful postwar careers such as the Pershing, Comet, and Chaffee. In contrast the Panzer forces had pinned their hopes on small numbers of monstrous types such as the Jagdtiger and Tiger II, as well as the workhorse Sturmgesch tz an

Using the stories of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington and Joseph “Smokey Joe” Foss, two top-scoring fighter aces, this fascinating book explores US Marine Corps aviation over the South Pacific.America’s Few delves into the history of US Marine Corps aviation in World War II, following the feats of the Corps’ top-scoring aces in the skies over Guadalcanal. Marine Corps aviation began in 1915, functioning as a self-contained expeditionary force. During the interwar period, the support of USMC amphibious operations became a key element of Marine aviation doctrine, and the small force gradually grew. But in December 1941 came the rude awakening. Within hours of Pearl Harbor, heroic Marine aviators were battling the Japanese over Wake Island.In the South Pacific, the aviators of the US Marine Corps came out of the shadows to establish themselves as an air force second to none. In the summer of 1942, when Allied airpower was cobbled together into a single unified entity―nicknamed “the Cactus Air Fo

A fully illustrated history of how with Operation Hailstone the US Navy destroyed Truk, the greatest Japanese naval and air base in the Pacific, and how B-29 units and the carriers of British Pacific Fleet kept the base suppressed until VJ-Day. In early 1944, the Japanese island base of Truk was their Pearl Harbor, a powerful naval and air base that had to be reduced and neutralized before the Allies could fight their way any further towards Tokyo. But Truk was also the most heavily defended naval base outside the Japanese Home Islands. An Allied invasion would be too costly, and long-range bombing against Truk intact would be a massacre. Instead, a plan was conceived to neutralize Truk through a series of massive naval raids, led by the growing US carrier fleet. Operation Hailstone would be one of the most famous operations by American carriers in the Pacific. This book examines the rise and fall of Truk as a Japanese bastion, and explains how in two huge raids, American carrier-based

The SBD Dauntless and Zero-sen are two of the most recognizable and iconic aircraft of World War 2 and this illustrated study describes the fighting capabilities of both aircraft when engaged in aerial combat. The SBD Dauntless dive-bomber was a key cog in the US Navy's aerial arsenal throughout the Pacific War. Although a product of aviation design in the mid to late 1930s, the type soldiered on even as more advanced aircraft were appearing from American factories as the war progressed. Despite its classification as a dive-bomber and rather dated appearance, the SBD Dauntless could more than handle its own against the feared A6M Zero-sen -- a regular opponent, especially during the first 18 months of the campaign in the Pacific. The SBD was credited with 138 victories in aerial combat (principally in 1942), 107 of which were fighters and the rest bombers. Seven SBD units claimed five or more aerial victories, with future ace Lt(jg) John Leppla of VS-2 being credited with four victorie

A succinct but detailed illustrated explanation of the techniques by which the ships and aircraft of the US Fast Carrier Task Forces achieved their victories over the Imperial Japanese Navy.Drawing on difficult-to-access wartime documents and other contemporary sources, this is the first compact, illustrated study of the tactics and techniques of the US fast carriers of Task Forces 50, 58 and 38 during the naval war against Japan in 1943--45.This title concentrates on exactly how these highly successful forces actually operated: their composition in ships, aircraft, and men; the essential technology at their disposal; the evolving doctrine for their employment; the opposition and dangers they faced; and how they overcame them at the tactical level. It explains in straightforward terms the intricate details of topics such as how ships maneuvered, how aircraft were deployed and recovered, the formations and approaches used by fighters, dive-bombers, and torpedo-bombers against naval and

USS Iowa (BB-61) was the lead ship in one of the most famous classes of battleships ever commissioned into the US Navy. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, the Iowa first fired her guns in anger

This gripping, fully illustrated title follows the story of the men of 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the comrades of the "Band of Brothers," from their formation to their involveme