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Published to coincide with the 80th birthday of the Spitfire, this is the combat history of one of the most iconic planes ever built as it pushed on from the successes of the Battle of Britain and too

With Cold War fears mounting, the M47 and M48 were rushed into production – teething troubles were inevitable. In the decade that followed, however, these tanks proved to be the backbone of US armoure

Featuring specially commissioned artwork, this study breaks new ground in covering all the uniformed Soviet security organizations from the Russian Revolution through to World War II. While the average person reacts to the term 'SS' with justified horror, most do not realize that, like Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union had its own instrument of terror, the NKVD. The precursor to the NKVD, the Cheka, was central to the Bolsheviks' elimination of political dissent during the Russian Civil War (1918-21). After 1922 the Soviet state-security organs became the GPU and then the OGPU (1923-34) before coalescing into the NKVD. After it played a central role in the Great Terror (1936-38), which saw the widespread repression of many different groups and the imprisonment and execution of prominent figures, the NKVD had its heyday during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). During the conflict the organization deployed full military divisions, frontier troop units and internal security forces and

From the stunning victory at Pearl Harbor to its dramatic reversal at Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy swept all before it in its numerous victories in the Pacific and Far Eastern waters. The Imperi

From the end of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th, most Western powers maintained a naval presence in China. These gunboats protected traders and missionaries, safeguarded national i

The Gulf War bore witness to a number of deadly encounters between these two great adversaries. Heavily armored, highly mobile and capable of killing at over 2500m the M1 Abrams is, to this day, a ver

Jagdverband 44 was formed in February 1945 on Hitler's orders, to fly the Me 262 "Stormbird", the world's first operational jet fighter, and demonstrate its superiority. The unit was led by the legend

US Special Forces in Vietnam created and trained the Civilian Irregular Defense Group, a large paramilitary organization designed to operate out of fortified camps in remote areas and protect the loca

This book draws on original regimental records to give an account of the organization and personalities of the most renowned of the foreign units that served in the Emperor's armies. Unlike most of h

The F-15A/C is irrefutably the most successful jet fighter of the last 30 years. Serving in the Air Forces of Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia, it has racked up a kill ratio exceeding 105:0.

The Russian T-72 Ural tank is the most widely-deployed main battle tank of the current generation. Used by the armies of the former Warsaw pact and Soviet Union, it has also been exported in large num

Myitkyina was a vital objective in the Allied re-conquest of Burma in 1943-44 Following the disastrous retreat from Burma in April 1942, China had become isolated from re-supply except for the dangero

In the darkest days of World War II, the British planned a daring airborne operation to capture the secret of the new German radar. Lead by Major John Frost, a company of paratroopers dropped into Bru

Nearly every German ace who flew before the summer of 1918 scored victories in Albatros fighters, whose introduction coincided with the development of the famous and highly successful Jagdstaffeln, th

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

Boasting pilots who had been blooded in the Spanish Civil War, Jagdgeschwader 53 (JG 53) 'Pik As' or 'Ace of Spades' achieved great success in the skies over France and Britain in 1940. It was infamou

Royal Prussian Jagdgeschwader Nr III was the third of Germany's vaunted fighter wings to be formed during World War 1. Commanded by the Pour le Merite winner and well-respected ace Hauptmann Bruno Loe

The ace pilots of the Republic of China Air Force have long been shrouded in mystery and obscurity, as their retreat to Taiwan in 1949 and a blanket martial law made records of the RoCAF all but impos

The German invasion of France and Belgium in August 1914 came within an ace of defeating the French armies, capturing Paris, and ending the First World War before the autumn leaves had fallen. But the

Spitfire Aces of Northwest Europe details the exploits of the 37 piolts that "made ace" flying Merlin-enguned Spitfires in bitter aerial clashes over northwest Eurpose in the final years of World War

Little has been published in English on the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF), let alone its most successful fighter pilots - no less than 150 of them achieved ace status during eight years of near-const

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

An illustrated study of the early-generation jet, the F2H Banshee, a frontline aircraft that served with US Navy, US Marine Corps squadrons and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) squadrons.The F2H Banshee was an extraordinarily successful early-generation jet that outlasted both contemporary and more modern fighter types on the decks of the US Navy’s aircraft carriers in the 1950s. It served in a variety of roles, undertaking fighter, strike fighter, night-fighter, nuclear strike, and photo-reconnaissance missions. The Banshee was a frontline aircraft for more than a decade in an era when jet fighters came and went with relatively short service careers. This volume examines the entire service life of the F2H in the service of the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and the RCN. Initially created as a replacement aircraft for McDonnell’s pioneering FH1 Phantom, the F2H served in the Korean War as a strike fighter, close air support aircraft, B29 escort, and photoreconnaissance aircraft, including the latt

Packed with illustrations, this is a study of the Polish warships such as the Grom-class destroyers that were developed and built in the interwar years.Newly independent Poland’s naval force was created in 1920, initially with six ex-German torpedo boats. However, after German-Soviet exercises off the Polish coast in 1924, funding for warships was hastily allocated. Two destroyers and three submarines were built in France but, disappointed with their quality. Poland ordered new ships, mostly from British and Dutch shipyards.By summer 1939, the Polish Navy comprised four destroyers, five submarines, one minelayer, six minesweepers and a handful of lesser ships. Although the Grom-class destroyers were two of the fastest and best-armed destroyers of the war, the tiny Polish fleet would stand little chance against the Kriegsmarine, and on 30 August three destroyers were dispatched to Britain, followed by two submarines that escaped internment. The remaining Polish surface fleet was sunk by

A study of the Macchi Folgore and Veltro, the most successful Italian fighters in World War II. The book looks at how the fighters were conceived, their performance and their pilots’ stories.Italian fighters, such as the Fiat G.50 and Macchi C.200, had always struggled with their straight-line speed and restricted armament when engaging their Allied counterparts. To solve these problems, Macchi initially designed the C.202 Folgore using German engines, which contributed to create a faster aircraft, with a superior rate of climb and reachable altitude. Folgore’s success in various North African engagements then paved the way for the development of Macchi’s most successful fighter, the C.205V Veltro, which managed to combine increased speed and increased power. Packed with specially commissioned artwork and original photos, and written by Italian military aviation specialist Marco Mattioli, this fascinating book explores how the premier Italian fighter of the war came to life and the his

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

The Fw 190D-9 -- the 'long-nosed' Dora -- represented the cutting edge and pinnacle of wartime Germany's piston-engine aviation development. This new history by leading German aviation specialist Robert Forsyth reveals what it was like to pilot her in combat as Germany desperately battled to remain in the war. Arguably one of the finest piston-engined fighters ever built, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 raised the bar in terms of aircraft design and operational capability during World War II. Designed by Kurt Tank, the 'long-nosed' Fw 190D9 'Dora' bettered most of the fighters that the Allied and Soviet air forces could field when it first appeared in the skies over the Western and Eastern Fronts in 1944. Indeed, with experienced German pilots at the controls it proved to be an immediate match for even the later-mark Griffon Spitfire and the P-51D/K. Well-armed, with two 13mm machine guns and two 20mm cannon, the D-9 began to equip Luftwaffe units from August 1944. Later on in the war, one 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

Illustrated throughout with detailed artwork, this book examines the Do 17, also known as the “Flying Pencil,” a common and feared sight in the European skies, including over southern England during t

Fully illustrated with detailed artwork depicting the uniforms and equipment of the volunteer soldiers, this fascinating study tells the little-known story of the Norwegians who fought with the SS in

Fully illustrated with detailed color plates, this is a fascinating study into the armies, organization, armor, weapons, and fortifications of the Khazars. The Khazars were one of the most important

Smolensk 1943 focuses on a major offensive that is virtually unknown in the West. With the German defeat at Kursk, the Soviet Stavka (high command) ordered the Western and Kalinin Fronts to launch Ope

Ever since the mid-19th Century, national militaries have sought to create monster artillery pieces, designed to shatter armies, cities, and fortresses and their morale. Starting with William Armstron

In 1908 the most incredible naval arms race in history began. Flush with cash from rubber and coffee, Brazil decided to order three of the latest, greatest category of warship available--the dreadnoug

After China's November 1950 intervention in the war and the subsequent battle of the Chosin Reservoir, UN forces faced a new onslaught in the spring of 1951, with over 350,000 veteran troops attacking

From the time of Ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder, and with overlapping shields, they presented an impen

The peace that followed the First Punic War was shallow and fractious, with the resumption of hostilities in 218 BC sparked by Carthaginian expansion in Iberia seeing Rome suffer some of the worst def

In many ways, the Heinkel He 177 "Greif" (Griffon) was Nazi Germany's "lost" strategic bomber. With some fundamental creases ironed out, and built in numbers, the He 177 would have offered the Luftwaf

With Their Bare Hands traces the fate of the US 79th Division--men drafted off the streets of Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia--from their training camp in Maryland through the final years of W

The entry of the U.S. into World War II provided the Allies with the industrial might to finally take the war to German and Japanese forces across the world. Central to this was the focus of the Ameri