SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. "Hitler's favorite commando" acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussol
The period from 1939 to 1945 saw some of the most devastating and remarkable events in living memory. Laboring beneath a daily burden of fear, sacrifice, deprivation and uncertainty, soldiers and civi
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen was Japan's Spitfire. In continuous development and operational service from the time of the Sino-Japanese war in 1940 to the end of the Pacific War in 1945, it is held in
Victory at Guadalcanal for the Allies in February 1943 left them a vital foothold in the Solomon Islands chain, and was the first step in an attempt to isolate and capture the key Japanese base of Rab
The United States Marine Corps came into its own in the Pacific Islands campaign against Japan in World War II. From Guadalcanal to Okinawa, US Marines formed the tip of the spear as Allied forces sou
The dominating Blanc Mont Ridge complex in the Champagne region of France was home to some of the most complex German defenses on the Western Front. Its heights offered artillery observation that made
Campaldino is one of the important battles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines--the major political factions in the city states of central and northern Italy. It heralded the rise of Florence to a dom
Four pipes and flush decks--these ships were a distinctively American destroyer design. Devised immediately prior to and during the United States' involvement in World War I they dominated the US Navy
The Bachem Ba 349 Natter was a secretive, vertical take-off, single-seat rocket interceptor intended to offer high-speed defense of key targets. This radical aircraft offered Luftwaffe an inexpensive
From the Mexican Revolution to the Zarumilla War, in the first 40 years of the 20th century the nations of Central and South America were frequently disturbed by border clashes, civil wars, and revolu
As the war began to swing in the favor of the Allies, it became clear that no final defeat of the Third Reich would be possible until the armored monsters of the Panzerwaffe were defeated. But who wou
In 1519, the Conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the mainland of the Americas. His quest to serve God, win gold, and achieve glory drove him into the heartland of what is now Mexico, where no Europea
Although the F-4 Phantom II was the most important fighter-bomber to see action with all three American services during the Vietnam War, it was essentially a US Navy design, and the carrier-borne squa
Due to Poland's partitions and dissolution in the late eighteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers enlisted in distinct units in the armies of many countries--primarily those of the R
The United States Navy won such overwhelming victories in 1944 that, had the navy faced a different enemy, the war would have been over at the conclusion of the battle of Leyte Gulf.However, in the mo
Prior to Phil Stern's death on December 13, 2014, his original, unfinished, tattered manuscript was discovered, stashed away in an old folio box in his cluttered Hollywood bungalow. Although best reme
In 2018, the world will be commemorating the centenary of World War I. In many ways, 1918 was the most dramatic year of the conflict. After the defeat of Russia in 1917, the Germans were able to conce
Warship 2018 is devoted to the design, development, and service history of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors
In June 1944 the Allies opened the long-awaited second front against Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, and this was to be the start of a long struggle throughout Western Europe for the Allied f
Of the RAF's trio of four-engined heavy bombers in World War 2, the mighty Short Stirling was the first to enter service in August 1940. From its first raid in February 1941, the Stirling was at the f
Nicholas Moore served as part of an elite special operations unit at the fighting edge of the global war on terrorism. He served over a decade with the US Army's 75th Ranger Regiment on the battlefiel
One of the prime objectives for the Allies following the D-Day landings was the capture of sufficient ports to supply their armies. The original Overlord plans assumed that ports along the Breton coas
The story of the "Winter War" between Finland and Soviet Russia is a dramatic David versus Goliath encounter. When close to half a million Soviet troops poured into Finland in 1939 it was expected tha
Technologically sophisticated and powerful, the crossbow has long enjoyed a popular reputation for villainous superiority as it enabled a peasant to take out a fully armored noble knight from great ra
In the wake of the T-72 tank's poor performance in the 1991 Gulf War, the Kremlin instructed the Russian tank industry to drop the discredited T-72 designation in favor of the T-90 Vladimir. The T-90
In the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht invaded the Caucasus in order to overrun critical oil production facilities at Maikop, Grozny, and Baku. However, the Red Army stopped the Germans short of their o
The bombing campaign that was meant to keep South Vietnam secure, Rolling Thunder became a byword for pointless, ineffective brutality, and was a key factor in America's Vietnam defeat. But in its fai
Due to its location in the western North Atlantic some 600 miles off the Carolinas and halfway between Halifax in Canada and Jamaica in the West Indies, the island of Bermuda was a key naval haven for
Constructed on the Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, Cutty Sark was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest.Cutty Sark spent just a few years on the tea routes b
From an internationally acclaimed expert in the field comes a detailed, analytical, and comprehensive account of the worldwide evolution of tanks, from their inception a century ago to the present day
The first American armored cars began to emerge around the turn of the century, seeing their first military use in 1916 during the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa. When the United States ente
First flown in 1969, Concorde was the first supersonic aircraft to go into commercial service in 1976 and made her final flight in 2003. She was operated primarily by British Airways and Air France. B
Formed in 1860 as the Army Gymnastic Staff, the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC) have been keeping the British Army in shape for just over 150 years. Drawn from every regiment in the army, p
The First Carlist War broke out after the death of King Ferdinand VII, the king restored at the end of the Peninsular War thanks to Wellington's victory. The crown was claimed by both his daughter Isa
Even before the spectacular success of its X-1 rocket-powered aircraft in breaking the "sound barrier," the adventurous Bell Aircraft Corporation was already pushing ahead with a parallel project to b
Formed shortly after the outbreak of World War 2, and equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109Es, Jagdgeschwader 1 was initally tasked to defend the regional North Sea and Baltic coastal areas and the Germa
Great Britain had introduced the tank to the world during World War I, and maintained its lead in armoured warfare with the 'Experimental Mechanised Force' during the late 1920s, watched with interest
In the build-up to World War II both the United States and Japan believed their battleships would play a central role in battle, but after the Pacific War began in December 1941, the role of the battl
In 1979 the Soviet Union moved from military 'help' to active intervention in Afghanistan. Four-fifths of the Afghan National Army deserted in the first year of the war, which, compounded with the spr
By the end of the first week of November 1942, the German Sixth Army held about 90 per cent of Stalingrad. Yet the Soviets stubbornly held on to the remaining parts of the city, and German casualties
