Dragon Wagon is the second in a series of titles covering the U.S. Army's Heavy Tank Transporters. The first volume covered the M25/M26 Pacific family of vehicles and trailers during their service in WWII and Korea. Part 2 picks up the story with the successor to the Pacific; the magnificent 10-ton M123 tractor. The unarmored M123 soldiered on through the 1950s and Vietnam while paired with the modernized M15A1 and M15A2 trailers from WWII. It was also paired with the next generation of heavy trailers, the M747. Also covered is the rare and unusual M746 tractor with service pictures of its brief career. Photo coverage includes lavish color shots of the M123 in Vietnam, as well during development and testing.

The menacing silhouette of the T-54 tank prowling down streets of Eastern European capitals or roaring across fields in massive exercises remains one of the most enduring images of Soviet power in the early years of the Cold War. Its sleek and unmistakable shape was a warning to any nation that wanted to stand against the USSR.

Yet all of this masked a flawed, outdated design, and when T-54s began to clash with the Western armoured vehicles in proxy wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, they were found to be on the losing side of many of the battles.

Containing over 500 stunning contemporary and modern photographs, and written by two experts on Soviet armour, this authoritative book tells the complete story of the T-54, one of the most widely produced tanks of all time, including many previously unheard of variants.

Men of Bronze takes up one of the most important and fiercely debated subjects in ancient history and classics: how did archaic Greek hoplites fight, and what role, if any, did hoplite warfare play in shaping the Greek polis? In the nineteenth century, George Grote argued that the phalanx battle formation of the hoplite farmer citizen-soldier was the driving force behind a revolution in Greek social, political, and cultural institutions. Throughout the twentieth century scholars developed and refined this grand hoplite narrative with the help of archaeology. But over the past thirty years scholars have criticized nearly every major tenet of this orthodoxy. Indeed, the revisionists have persuaded many specialists that the evidence demands a new interpretation of the hoplite narrative and a rewriting of early Greek history. Men of Bronze gathers leading scholars to advance the current debate and bring it to a broader audience of ancient historians, classicists, archaeologists, and general readers. After explaining the historical context and significance of the hoplite question, the book assesses and pushes forward the debate over the traditional hoplite narrative and demonstrates why it is at a crucial turning point. Instead of reaching a consensus, the contributors have sharpened their differences, providing new evidence, explanations, and theories about the origin, nature, strategy, and tactics of the hoplite phalanx and its effect on Greek culture and the rise of the polis. The contributors include Paul Cartledge, Lin Foxhall, John Hale, Victor Davis Hanson, Donald Kagan, Peter Krentz, Kurt Raaflaub, Adam Schwartz, Anthony Snodgrass, Hans van Wees, and Gregory Viggiano.

Germany's Tiger tank, whether in the form of the Tiger I or later Tiger II (King Tiger), was the most feared tank of WWII. Despite production totaling fewer than 2,000 units, its heavy armor, its power, and perhaps the even more powerful Nazi propaganda machine ensured that the Tiger remains well known over seven decades after last being on the battlefield. Through more than 175 photos, this volume chronicles the design, development, and deployment of this famed German tank. Full-color photographs of rare surviving examples from around the globe augment carefully selected war-era photos in bringing this tank back to life. Comprehensive tables reveal the details of performance and technical specifications of each variant. A concise, easy-to-read text and detailed photographic captions expose the secrets of this iconic tank. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

From the evacuation of France in 1940 to the final dash to Hamburg in 1945, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment were on the front line throughout the Second World War. Theirs was a war that saw them serve in Africa as part of the Desert Rats, before returning to Europe for the Normandy landings. Wherever they went, the notoriety of the 'Filthy Fifth' grew - they revelled in their reputation for fighting by their own rules. The Tank War explains how Britain, having lost its advantage in tank warfare by 1939, regained ground through shifts in tactics and leadership methods, as well as the daring and bravery of the crews themselves. Overturning the received wisdom of much Second World War history, Mark Urban shows how the tank regiments' advances were the equal of the feats of the German Panzer divisions. Drawing on a wealth of new material, from interviews with surviving soldiers to rarely seen archive material, this is an unflinchingly honest, unsentimental and often brutal account of the 5th RTR's wartime experiences. Capturing the characters in the crews and exploring the strategy behind their success, The Tank War is not just the story of an battle hardened unit, but something more extraordinary: the triumph of ordinary men, against long odds, in the darkest of times.

Between the reigns of Augustus and Septimius Severus, the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire frequently saw brutal fighting, most notably during the conquest of Dacia by Trajan, the suppression of the Great Revolt in Judea and intermittent clashes with Rome's great rival Parthia. In these wars, Roman soldiers had to fight in a range of different climates and terrains, from the deserts of the Middle East to the islands of the eastern Mediterranean. Using full-colour artwork, this book examines the variation of equipment and uniforms both between different military units, and in armies stationed in different regions of the Empire. Using evidence drawn from recent archaeological finds, it paints a vivid portrait of Roman army units in the Eastern provinces in the first two centuries of the Imperial period.

The M4 Medium Tank - the Sherman - was one of the most famous tanks of the Second World War. It was produced in greater numbers than any other Allied tank, it fought on every front - in Western Europe, on the Eastern Front, in North Africa, Burma, the Pacific - and it continued to serve effectively as a front-line fighting vehicle in the Korean War, the Arab-Israeli wars, the Indo-Pakistani wars. Pat Ware's new history of this remarkable tank covers in detail its design and development, its technical specifications and the many variants that were produced, and he reviews its operational role in conflicts across the world. While the Sherman outclassed the older German tanks it encountered when it was first put into combat in 1942, it was vulnerable to the later German medium and heavy tanks, the Panther and the Tiger I and Tiger II. Yet, as Pat Ware shows, the Sherman was more effective than these superior German tanks because it was cheaper to build, reliable, easy to maintain and produced in such large numbers. It was also adaptable - it was converted into a tank-destroyer, an amphibious tank, a recovery vehicle, a mine-flail, a personnel carrier - and, after the Second World War, the soundness of its original design was proved as it was developed to confront more modern tanks in combat. Pat Ware's expert account of this remarkable fighting vehicle is accompanied by a series of colour plates showing the main variants of the design and the common ancillary equipment and unit markings. His book is an essential work of reference for enthusiasts.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY 2013 'Completely absorbing' Amanda Foreman 'Enthralling' Guardian 'The Three Musketeers! The Count of Monte Cristo! The stories of course are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for the swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas's own father, Alex - the son of a marquis and a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown up among slaves, he was all for Liberty and Equality. Alex Dumas was the stuff of legend' Daily Mail So how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why are there no statues of 'Monsieur Humanity' as his troops called him? The Black Count uncovers what happened and the role Napoleon played in Dumas's downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas - from Haiti to the Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto - Reiss, like the novelist before him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero. 'Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud' Independent 'Brilliant' Glasgow Herald

The United States, being at peace, had not foreseen the need for a specialized tank recovery vehicle, despite the ramping-up of tank production in 1940-41. However, observation of the new world war quickly pointed to the need for such a vehicle. Armored vehicles, immobilized for any reason, were easily destroyed by opposing troops, denying the possibility for recovery and repair or even the salvaging of parts after the battle. This book chronicles the development and use of the US and British military's Sherman tank-based armored recovery vehicles.

Written by a leading authority on Roman military history, this fascinating volume spans over a thousand years as it offers a memorable picture of one of the world's most noted fighting forces, paying special attention to the life of the common soldier.
Southern here illuminates the Roman army's history, culture, and organization, providing fascinating details on topics such as military music, holidays, strategy, the construction of Roman fortresses and forts, the most common battle formations, and the many tools of war, from spears, bows and arrows, swords, and slingshots, to the large catapulta (which fired giant arrows and bolts) and the ballista (which hurled huge stones). Perhaps most interesting are the details Southern provides about everyday life in the Roman army, everything from the soldiers pay (they were paid three times per year, but money was deducted for such items as food, clothing, weapons, the burial club, the pension scheme, and so on) to their often brutal life--if whole units turned and ran, about one-tenth of the men concerned were chosen by lot and clubbed to death and the rest were put on barley rations instead of wheat. Moreover, soldiers who lost weapons or their shields would fight savagely to get them back or would die in the process, rather than suffer the shame that attached to throwing weapons away or running from the battle.
Attractively illustrated, this book offers a fascinating look at the life of the Roman soldier, drawing on everything from Rome's rich historical and archaeological record to soldier's personal correspondence to depictions of military subjects in literature and art.

A penetrating study of the German army's military campaigns, relations with the Nazi regime, and complicity in Nazi crimes across occupied Europe For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and military occupation. This was a true people's army, drawn from across German society and reflecting that society as it existed under the Nazis. Without the army and its conquests abroad, Shepherd explains, the Nazi regime could not have perpetrated its crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and civilians in occupied countries. The author examines how the army was complicit in these crimes and why some soldiers, units, and higher commands were more complicit than others. Shepherd also reveals the reasons for the army's early battlefield successes and its mounting defeats up to 1945, the latter due not only to Allied superiority and Hitler's mismanagement as commander-in-chief, but also to the failings-moral, political, economic, strategic, and operational-of the army's own leadership.

This book is the first full length political history of the Afghan Army, and as such is unparalleled in the range and depth of its analysis of this vitally important institution. Giustozzi locates the Army's development within the wider context of state- building in Afghanistan. His volume includes a brief survey of the period to 1953, but focuses mainly on subsequent developments, over the last four decades, as the officer corps began to be politicised and later factionalised, especially during the Russian-backed regime of the Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which ruled the country from 1978 to 1992. Despite the stress on the politics of praetorianism, the volume describes the Afghan Army's performance on the battlefield in detail, highlighting the potential contradiction between military effectiveness and political loyalty to the ruling elite. The volume covers developments to the end of 2013 and is the result of extensive interviews conducted with both Afghan Army officers and their advisers and mentors.

This is the first systematic pan-European study of the hundreds of thousands of non-Germans who fought - either voluntarily or under different kinds of pressures - for the Waffen-SS (or auxiliary police formations operating in the occupied East). Building on the findings of regional studies by other scholars - many of them included in this volume - The Waffen-SS aims to arrive at a fuller picture of those non-German citizens (from Eastern as well as Western Europe) who served under the SS flag. Where did the non-Germans in the SS come from (socially, geographically, and culturally)? What motivated them? What do we know about the practicalities of international collaboration in war and genocide, in terms of everyday life, language, and ideological training? Did a common transnational identity emerge as a result of shared ideological convictions or experiences of extreme violence? In order to address these questions (and others), The Waffen-SS adopts an approach that does justice to the complexity of the subject, adding a more nuanced, empirically sound understanding of collaboration in Europe during World War II, while also seeking to push the methodological boundaries of the historiographical genre of perpetrator studies by adopting a transnational approach.

Step into the violent world of the 13th century, where the European states of the Levant battled with Muslim powers for control of Jerusalem. At the cutting edge of the conflict were the elite fighting men of the Crusader and Egyptian armies - the Knights Templar and the Mamluks, respectively. The Templars were the most famous and formidable of the European Military Orders, while the Mamluks were a slave caste whose fighting prowess had elevated them to the point of holding real political power, threatening their Ayyubid masters who relied on them so desperately for military success. This book draws on the latest research to tell the story of three key engagements from the Fifth Crusade to the Seventh Crusade. It reveals the extraordinary ferocity with which these battles were fought, and how the struggle between Templar and Mamluk came to shape the political future of the region.

Here is the first social history devoted to the common soldier in the Russian army during the first half of the 19th-century--an examination of soldiers as a social class and the army as a social institution. By providing a comprehensive view of one of the most important groups in Russian society on the eve of the great reforms of the mid-1800s, Elise Wirtschafter contributes greatly to our understanding of Russia's complex social structure. Based on extensive research in previously unused Soviet archives, this work covers a wide array of topics relating to daily life in the army, including conscription, promotion and social mobility, family status, training, the regimental economy, military justice, and relations between soldiers and officers. The author emphasizes social relations and norms of behavior in the army, but she also addresses the larger issue of society's relationship to the autocracy, including the persistent tension between the tsarist state's need for military efficiency and its countervailing need to uphold the traditional norms of unlimited paternalistic authority. By examining military life in terms of its impact on soldiers, she analyzes two major concerns of tsarist social policy: how to mobilize society's resources to meet state needs and how to promote modernization (in this case military efficiency) without disturbing social arrangements founded on serfdom. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book is the first comprehensive manual on the law of armed conflict prepared by a team of expert scholars and practitioners working for, and with, the UK Ministry of Defence. It covers all aspects of the law of armed conflict as applied today, including means and methods of warfare, the treatment of civilians and other non-combattants - including prisoners of war - and the conduct of operations in all three environments: land, sea, and air. It also includes discussion of some of the key elements of relevance in the modern strategic environment, not least the legal aspects of internal armed conflict and the application of the law during peace support operations.

While headline writers in the ETO were naturally focused on events in Normandy and the Bulge in the north, equally ferocious combats were taking place in southern France and Germany during 1944-45, which are now finally getting their due. The US 14th Armored Division-a late arrival to the theatre-was thrust into intense combat almost the minute it arrived in Europe, as the Germans remained determined to defend their southern flank. Like other US formations, the 14th AD, after advancing through France, was hammered to a standstill at the Westwall in the autumn of 1944. Nevertheless, it had gained experience, and when the Germans sought to turn the tide, with Operation Northwind, they found a hardened formation against them. This book explores in detail what happened in the month of January 1945 in the snow-covered Vosges Mountains, when the Wehrmacht's attempt to destroy the Sixth Army Group failed. As a result of the rapid advance of Seventh Army and the 14th, German POW camps like the ones at Hammelburg and Moosburg were liberated of over 100,000 prisoners, an achievement which gave the division the nom de guerre The Liberators. About the Author Timothy O'Keeffe, a Professor Emeritus from Southern Connecticut State College, whose brother-in-law serving with The Liberators lost his leg, has devoted years of effort to unveiling the crucial, yet heretofore unwritten, role that they played in the ultimate Allied victory.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War rewrote the textbook on the tactics of modern armored warfare. Unlike the previous major Arab-Israeli war of 1967, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) faced an enemy that had invested heavily in modern Soviet weapon systems and tactics.

Using detailed colour artwork and insightful analysis, this book explains how the effective use of the Soviet-supplied AT-3 Sagger (9M14 Malyutka) anti-tank missile allowed small Arab tank-killing teams to destroy Israeli armor at an astonishing rate. It also analyses the tank that opposed it, the US-built M60A1, which had to fight for survival against the Arab Saggers, and shows how in both the Sinai and the Golan Heights, the IDF quickly learned that firepower and infantry/artillery cooperation were the keys to their survival.

Following the successful landings in Normandy on D-Day and consolidation during Operation Cobra, the Wehrmacht was ordered to begin a counter-offensive named Operation Lüttich.

The plan was to send a large Panzer force across the First US Army sector, cutting off its spearheads, and finally reach Avranches on the coast. Had this succeeded, it not only would have cut off the First US Army spearheads, but also Patton's newly deployed Third US Army operating in Brittany. However, thanks to an intercepted radio message, the Allies were well-prepared for the offensive and not only repelled the oncoming panzers, but went on a counter-attack that would lead to a whole German army becoming encircled in the Falaise Pocket.

Fully illustrated with stunning full-colour artwork, this book tells the story of Operation Lüttich, the failed offensive which ended any prospect of Germany winning the battle of Normandy.

The Soviet T-34 was the most produced tank of the Second World War and its revolutionary sloping armour became a major influence on future tank design. With its combination of heavy firepower, mobility and protection, the T-34 gave the Red Army a war-winning weapon with which to break the German Army on the Eastern Front. A mainstay of the Soviet armoured divisions, it was widely exported after the war and in 2017 it remains in frontline service with many third world countries. Author Mark Healy combines a detailed technical examination of the T-34 with its legendary combat history.

Formed in 1939 SS-Polizei Division were not considered initially as an SS fighting force, and this status was reflected in the quality of the equipment they were issued. Following operations in France, Greece and then Russia, it was not until 1942 the division was transferred to the Waffen-SS, and eventually upgraded to a Panzergrenadier division, the 4th SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier Division. The book describes how the SS-Polizei Division fought across the Low Countries, the Eastern Front, before deploying to the Balkans and Greece where it committed numerous atrocities. During the last days of the War it was assigned to Army Detachment Steiner defending Berlin where many soldiers fought to the death. This book is a unique glimpse into one of the most infamous fighting machines in World War Two and a great addition to any reader interested Waffen-SS history.

"You have to react instinctively. In this game there's no second place, only the quick and the dead."

In Vietnam, Mobile Guerrilla Force was the only American unit that truly carried out guerrilla-style hit-and-run military operations. Armed with silencer-equipped MK-II British Sten guns, M-16s, M-79s, and M-60s, the men of the Mobile Guerilla Force roamed for weeks at a time through steamy triple-canopy jungle in areas owned by NVA and VC, destroying base camps, ambushing enemy forces, and gathering the intelligence Saigon desperately needed.

In 1967, James Donahue was a Special Forces medic and an assistant platoon leader for the Mobile Guerrilla Force's fiercely anti-Vietnamese Cambodian mercenaries. On mission Blackjack-33, they were to act as bait and lure VC and NVA regiments into decisive engagements so that they could be targeted and destroyed by the 1st Infantry Division. Well, the MGF did its job, but the 1st Infantry Division refused to show up. . . .

Now, with the brutal, unflinching honesty only an eyewitness could possess, Donahue relives the deadly adrenaline rush of firefights conducted on the run and medical operations performed under fire, capturing the savage courage and sacrifice of these proud U.S. and Cambodian warriors.

This remarkable story exposes the Sherman tank scandal of World War II, involving some of the biggest American names and stretching from the White House and Pentagon to factories and battlefronts. Outgunned by more powerful German opponents, the inferiority of American tanks led to some of the worst setbacks of the war, prolonging it in Europe. US tankers ultimately prevailed, but over 60,000 armored division soldiers were killed and wounded; their preventable sacrifice inspired the Hollywood movie Fury. Included are striking images of the Sherman's adversaries (photographed exclusively at the National Museum of Cavalry and Armor), along with original equipment, documents, period propaganda, and vintage photos of Sherman tanks in action. As a German officer noted, "I was on this hill with six 88mm antitank guns...Every time they sent a tank, we knocked it out. Finally we ran out of ammunition, and the Americans didn't run out of tanks."

Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian engineer born in 1875. In the interwar period, Ferdinand founded an automotive consultation firm, which gradually grew into today's Porsche AG automotive company. Porsche's firm was responsible for the design of the "Volkswagen," a simple model known today as the Beetle. During the Second World War, Porsche's firm played an important role in designing military vehicles for the Wehrmacht. This work follows up on author Michael Froehlich's book on Porsche's massive "Maus" tank and describes the firm's other armored-vehicle designs, with special emphasis on the VK 4501 (P) Tiger prototype and the "Ferdinand" tank destroyer. VK 4501 was the designation for the prototypes competing to be what would become the Panzer VI "Tiger." Porsche's concept used a novel gasoline/electric hybrid power plant, but the Tiger contract eventually went to Henschel. Through details on the Tiger trials at the Verskraft proving ground, readers will gain insight into the armament procurement process in the Third Reich. The hull/chassis design from VK 4501 (P) was later repurposed for a large tank destroyer named for the designer, "Ferdinand." These imposing vehicles saw combat on multiple fronts and were later renamed "Elefant." Froehlich's study, available in English for the first time, is grounded in original reports, manuals, and technical drawings.

Literary and historical conventions have long painted the experience of soldiers during World War I as simple victimization. Leonard Smith, however, argues that a complex dialogue of resistance and negotiation existed between French soldiers and their own commanders. In this case study of wartime military culture, Smith analyzes the experience of the French Fifth Infantry Division in both pitched battle and trench warfare. The division established a distinguished fighting record from 1914 to 1916, yet proved in 1917 the most mutinous division in the entire French army, only to regain its elite reputation in 1918. Drawing on sources from ordinary soldiers to well-known commanders such as General Charles Mangin, the author explains how the mutinies of 1917 became an explicit manifestation of an implicit struggle that took place within the French army over the whole course of the war. Smith pays particular attention to the pivotal role of noncommissioned and junior officers, who both exercised command authority and shared the physical perils of men in the lower ranks. He shows that "soldiers," broadly defined, learned to determine rules of how they would and would not fight the war, and imposed these rules on the command structure itself. By altering the parameters of command authority in accordance with their own perceived interests, soldiers and commanders negotiated a behavioral space between mutiny and obedience. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.