Defiance against Chinese oppression has been a defining characteristic of Tibetan life for more than four decades, symbolized most visibly by the much revered Dalai Lama. But the story of Tibetan resistance weaves a far richer tapestry than anyone might have imagined.
Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison reveal how America's Central Intelligence Agency encouraged Tibet's revolt against China-and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. While the CIA's presence in Tibet has been alluded to in other works, the authors provide the first comprehensive, as well as most compelling account of this little known agency enterprise.

The CIA's Secret War in Tibet takes readers from training camps in the Colorado Rockies to the scene of clandestine operations in the Himalayas, chronicling the agency's help in securing the Dalai Lama's safe passage to India and subsequent initiation of one of the most remote covert campaigns of the Cold War. Establishing a rebel army in the northern Nepali kingdom of Mustang and a para-commando force in India designed to operate behind Chinese lines, Conboy and Morrison provide previously unreported details about secret missions undertaken in extraordinarily harsh conditions. Their book greatly expands on previous memoirs by CIA officials by putting virtually every major agency participant on record with details of clandestine operations. It also calls as witnesses the people who managed and fought in the program-including Tibetan and Nepalese agents, Indian intelligence officers, and even mission aircrews.

Conboy and Morrison take pains to tell the story from all perspectives, particularly that of the former Tibetan guerrillas, many of whom have gone on record here for the first time. The authors also tell how Tibet led America and India to become secret partners over the course of several presidential administrations and cite dozens of Indian and Tibetan intelligence documents directly related to these covert operations. Ultimately, they are persuasive that the Himalayan operations were far more successful as a proving ground for CIA agents who were later reassigned to southeast Asia than as a staging ground for armed rebellion.

As the movement for Tibetan liberation continues to attract international support, Tibet's status remains a contentious issue in both Washington and Beijing. This book takes readers inside a covert war fought with Tibetan blood and U. S. sponsorship and allows us to better understand the true nature of that controversy.

This book chronicles the story of the single most daring Special Forces operation since World War Two - Operation Barras; the attempted rescue by the SAS of the British Forces who were being held captive by guerrilla gang the West Side Boys in the Sierra Leone jungle. The West Side Boys were a strange-looking bunch, wearing pink shades, shower caps, fluorescent wigs and voodoo charms they believed made them invulnerable to bullets - an impression re-enforced by ganja, heroine, crack cocaine and gallons of sweet palm wine. In 1999 a twelve man patrol of Royal Irish Rangers, who were training government troops in Sierra Leone, were captured and held hostage by the West Side Boys. They were held prisoner in a fortified jungle hideaway, with severed heads decorating the palisades, defended by some 400 heavily armed soldiers. Operation Barras, the rescue mission, was a combined force of 100 Paras, twelve members of the Special Boat Squadron, helicopters from the Navy and RAF and, spearheading the operation, 40-strong D squadron of the SAS. Against amazing odds the hostages were rescued - over 150 of the enemy were killed. Operation Certain Death is a thrilling true story of all out war. No hostages taken. Blood-letting on a vast scale inflicted on a very blood-thirsty enemy. A gripping piece of true military history, perfect for fans of action adventure stories and anyone interested in the top secret division of the British Army.

'In the past the German General Staff had taken no interest in the military history of wars in the north and east of Europe. Nobody had ever taken into account the possibility that some day German divisions would have to fight and to winter in northern Karelia and on the Murmansk coast.' (Lieutenant-General Waldemar Erfurth, German Army). Despite this statement, the German Army's first campaign in the far north was a great success: between April and June 1940 German forces totalling less than 20,000 men seized Norway, a state of three million people, for minimal losses. Hitler's Arctic War is a study of the campaign waged by the Germans on the northern periphery of Europe between 1940 and 1945. As Hitler's Arctic War makes clear, the emphasis was on small-unit actions, with soldiers carrying everything they needed - food, ammunition and medical supplies - on their backs. The terrain placed limitations on the use of tanks and heavy artillery, while lack of airfields restricted the employment of aircraft.Hitler's Arctic War also includes a chapter on the campaign fought by Luftwaffe aircraft and Kriegsmarine ships and submarines against the Allied convoys supplying the Soviet Union with aid. However, Wehrmacht resources committed to Norway and Finland were ultimately an unnecessary drain on the German war effort. Hitler's Arctic War is a ground-breaking study of how war was waged in the far north and its effects on German strategy.

The War of the Triple Alliance is the largest single conflict in the history of South America. Drawing Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay into conflict the war was characterized by extraordinarily high casualty rates, and was to shape the future of an entire continent - depopulating Paraguay and establishing Brazil as the predominant military power. Despite the importance of the war, little information is available in English about the armies that fought it. This book analyzes the combatants of the four nations caught up in the war, telling the story of the men who fought on each side, illustrated with contemporary paintings, prints, and early photographs.

Days of Battle describes a hitherto neglected part of the military history of Hungary during World War II. Dr Norbert Szamveber presents detailed accounts of four important clashes of German-Hungarian and Soviet armour north of the river Danube, in the southern territory of the historical Upper Hungary (part of Hungary between 1938 and 1945, at the present time now part of Slovakia). The first is an account of the battle between the Ipoly and Garam rivers during the second half of December 1944, in which the elite Hungarian Division "Szent Laszlo" saw action for the first time. The second study is about the fierce tank battle of Komarom, fought 6-22 January 1945. This was an integral part of the Battle for Budapest, parallel in time with Operation "Konrad". The third part of the book describes the combat during the German Operation "Sudwind" in February 1945, whilst the fourth the Soviet attack launched in the direction of Bratislava in March 1945. The author, chief of Hungary's military archives, has based his research firmly on files and documentation from German, Hungarian and Soviet sources. The book's authoritative text is supported by specially-commissioned colour battle maps. This is a very important new study that throws much-needed light on armoured warfare on the Eastern Front during the final months of the war.

In 1951, Canada sent troops to western Europe to support its NATO allies. The brigade helped Canada establish its international status. In private, however, Canadian officials and military leaders expressed grave doubts about NATO’s strategies and operational plans. Despite these reservations, they sent military families overseas and implemented personnel policies that permanently changed the distribution of the defence budget and the character of the Canadian Army. This original account of the evolution of the Canadian Army – from a small training cadre to a truly national force – offers a new perspective on military policy and diplomacy in the Cold War era.

Nephew to Sitting Bull, chief of the Sioux, Pte San Hunka (White Bull) was a famous warrior in his own right. He had been on the warpath against whites and other Indians for more than a decade when he fought the greatest battle of his life.
On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, five troops of the U. S. Seventh Cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer rode into the valley of the Little Big Horn River, confidently expecting to rout the Indian encampments there. Instead, the cavalry met the gathered strength of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, who did not run as expected but turned the battle toward the soldiers. White Bull charged again and again, fighting until the last soldier was dead. The battle was Custer's Last Stand, and White Bull was later referred to as the warrior who killed Custer.

In 1932 White Bull related his life story to Stanley Vestal, who corroborated the details, from other sources and prepared this biography. "All that I told him is straight and true," said White Bull. His story is a matchless account of the life of an Indian warrior.

Here is a unique anthology of writings on revolutionary warfare and counterinsurgency, covering almost all the major struggles of the modern world. The editor, who has had firsthand experience with guerrilla movements in Asia (most recently in Afghanistan), Africa, and Latin America, provides a concise yet panoramic overview of political and military strategies in revolutionary warfare, noting their strengths, limitations, and the reasons for their success or failure.

The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words - Guardian 'For some reason nothing seemed to happen to us at first; we strolled along as though walking in a park. Then, suddenly, we were in the midst of a storm of machine-gun bullets and I saw men beginning to twirl round and fall in all kinds of curious ways' On 1 July 1916, a continous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk towards dug-in German troops armed with machine-guns. By the end of the day there were more than 60,000 British casualties - a third of them fatal. Martin Middlebrook's now-classic account of the blackest day in the history of the British army draws on official sources from the time, and on the words of hundreds of survivors: normal men, many of them volunteers, who found themselves thrown into a scene of unparalleled tragedy and horror.

Featuring more than 120 complex computer-generated battle maps and graphics, The Atlas of Tank Warfare ranges from the first significant use of tanks at Cambrai during World War I through to major tank battles of World War II, the Indo-Pakistan War, the Arab-Israeli Wars, the Iran-Iraq War and the Allied invasions of Iraq in 1991 and 2003. All the maps included have been specially commissioned from an expert cartographer, and each map has been designed to highlight a particular aspect of combat and so they vary in shape and size (from isometric to semi-circular and full-page to double-spread) and in outlook, with some maps giving a global perspective while others take a narrow focus. Major battles such as Villers-Bretonneux, Amiens, Kursk and El Alamein are shown in great detail. All maps are accompanied by a key, which helps the reader to understand the action and events. With extensively researched text telling the history and the stories behind these battles concisely and clearly and more than 150 striking illustrations and photographs, this complete atlas provides an invaluable work of reference for both the general reader and the serious student of tank warfare.

Join 'The Terrible Ones' on clandestine operations and in conventional warfare during the harsh bush war that raged through southern Angola in the 1980s. The conflict ended with the last major battle of the Cold War, one of the largest land battles of the latter part of the 20th century. This book presents an eyewitness account by a South African Defense Force (SADF) Signals Officer, Marius Scheepers, who served in arguably the most formidable battle unit that ever existed in the history of the South African Defense Force: 32 Battalion. It describes how members lived and fought in the bush during 1983 under the most difficult conditions. Being the Signals Officer of 32 Battalion, Scheepers was privy to all major command decisions of the time. Although he focuses primarily on operations during the year 1983, including Operations Snoek and Dolfyn, he includes concise descriptions of all other major operations that took place inside Angola between 1966 and 1988, including Operation Askari (1983/84) and the decisive battle at Cuito Cuanavale in 1987/88. Extensive appendices include 32 Battalion sitreps, radio-code cards, SADF radio equipment used by 32 Battalion and details on SADF, SAAF and SWAPO. REVIEWS "A ... rich account of time spent with the famous 32 Battalion. Marius Scheepers was a national service signals officer (9C) with the unit from late 1982 to late 1983. This placed the young officer in a unique position, alongside the commander, to know what was going on and where. As 9C he was also required to keep records and report. Here he puts this knowledge to good use. Scheepers also had the SANDF documentation centre declassify many relevant documents, adding detail so often missing from other accounts, especially regarding operations Snoek and Dolfyn, anti-People's Liberation Army of Namibia area-operations in south Angola." Leon Engelbrecht, www.defenceweb.za

Along with thousands of his compatriots, Wladyslaw Anders was imprisoned by the Soviets when they attacked Poland with their German allies in 1939\. They endured terrible treatment until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 suddenly put Stalin in the Allied camp, after which they were evacuated to Iran and formed into the Polish Second Corps under Anders command. Once equipped and trained, the corps was eventually committed to the Italian campaign, notably at Monte Cassino. The author assesses Anders performance as a military commander, finding him merely adequate, but his political role was more significant and caused friction in the Allied camp. From the start he often opposed Sikorski, the Polish Prime Minister in exile and Commander in Chief of Polish armed forces in the West. Indeed, Anders was suspected of collusion in Sikorski s death in July 1943 and of later sending Polish death squads into Poland to eliminate opponents, charges that Evan McGilvray investigates. Furthermore, Anders voiced his deep mistrust of Stalin and urged a war against the Soviets after the defeat of Hitler.

The surprise Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979 shocked the international community. The two communist nations had seemed firm political and cultural allies, but the twenty-nine-day border war imposed heavy casualties, ruined urban and agricultural infrastructure, leveled three Vietnamese cities, and catalyzed a decadelong conflict. In this groundbreaking book, Xiaoming Zhang traces the roots of the conflict to the historic relationship between the peoples of China and Vietnam, the ongoing Sino-Soviet dispute, and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's desire to modernize his country. Deng's perceptions of the Soviet Union, combined with his plans for economic and military reform, shaped China's strategic vision. Drawing on newly declassified Chinese documents and memoirs by senior military and civilian figures, Zhang takes readers into the heart of Beijing's decision-making process and illustrates the war's importance for understanding the modern Chinese military, as well as China's role in the Asian-Pacific world today.

Elephants have been deployed as weapons for centuries, particularly in South and South-East Asia, where war elephants constituted the bulk of most armies in the region from antiquity right up to the 19th century. This book offers an insight into the incredible history of these "living tanks," focusing on the design of the equipment and armament that made them so terrifying, particularly the development and structure of the fighting tower.
The author, Konstantin S. Nossov goes on to trace the battle history of war elephants, from their deployment against Alexander the Great's army at the battle of Gaugamela, through to their use in the 19th century by the myriad armies of South-East Asia, all the time analyzing the battle formation and tactics of war elephants in action and how these tactics changed over time. He then goes on to examine the most famous action that war elephants took part in, Hannibal's dramatic march over the Alps and his subsequent invasion of Italy. Supported by rare illustrations and full-color original artwork, this book is a vivid account of the development and operation of one of history's most unusual "machines of warfare."

A volume for Glantzophiles and anyone else who would like a richer and more complete documentary and statistical foundation for "Colosas Reborn. Its contents include key documents relating to the everyday lives of the Red Army's soldiers, a full roster of the senior command cadre during wartime, a description of the army's weaponry and equipment, and an exhaustively detailed listing of the Red Army's and NKVD's order of battle at six crucial points from June 22. 1941, through December 31, 1943.

Winfield Scott (1786-1866) was arguably the premier soldier of his era. More than any other, he was responsible for the professionalization of the U.S. Army during his long career (1807-61). He served as general in the War of 1812, commander of the U.S. forces in the final campaign of the war with Mexico, and general in chief at the beginning of the Civil War. Scott was known for his boldness and courage during the War of 1812 and wisdom and caution in his direction of the Mexico campaign. Author Allan Peskin's research in the National Archives unearthed records from the War Department that support his portrayal of General Scott as a forward-looking managerial officer who accurately foresaw the coming of dramatic changes in technology and business principles for the military. Peskin also examines Scott's role in the political arena during the 1850s and his unsuccessful bid for the presidency as the nominee of the Whig party. Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms is a balanced and thorough biography of this long-neglected military figure. Scholars and military historians will welcome its significant contributions to the literature.

On 1 July 1916, after a stupendous 7-day artillery preparation, the British Army finally launched its attack on the German line around the River Somme. Over the next four and half months they continued to attack, with little or no gain, and with horrendous losses to both sides. This book, written by the world's foremost expert in the subject, describes in chilling detail everything from the grand strategy to the experience of the men on the ground. Illustrated throughout, it is a stunning and absorbing depiction of the horror that was the Somme in 1916.

The brutal conflict that raged across Spain and Portugal between 1808 and 1814 was one of the most devastating episodes of the Napoleonic Wars. It made Wellington and his redcoats heroes, crushed Napoleon’s army – and set the scene for his ultimate downfall. Yet the Peninsular War was, above all, an Iberian tragedy: where a once-invincible imperial power was plunged into terror and over a million were slaughtered, leaving a bitter legacy for years to come. This gripping book draws on the accounts of generals, soldiers and guerrilla fighters to take us into the heart of one of the bloodiest battles in European history.

The Austrian artillery of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was a creation of the renowned Lichtenstein system of the early 1750s. This weight system produced a series of weapons of 3-, 6- and 12-pdr. calibre along with 7- and 10-pdr. Howitzers. In the 1780s they were joined by cavalry artillery guns with their 'Wurst' seats. In 1811 Austria also began the establishment of rocket troops based upon the British invention, whilst their heavy and siege pieces throughout the period remained the 12-, 18- and 24-pdrs. This title by David Hollins describes this system as well as its operational use throughout the period.

The M24 Chaffee was the finest light tank developed by the US during WWII. This tank was developed by Cadillac, which, along with farm equipment manufacturer Massey-Harris, produced the vehicles. These tanks were used by the US during WWII and Korea and, during the post-WWII era, were supplied to numerous allied nations. This book chronicles the development and use of the vehicle from concept to combat. Through dozens of archival photos, many never before published, as well as detailed photographs of some of the finest existent examples of these vehicles, this iconic tank hunter is explored and its history is explained.

Tank design bureaus first became involved in the development of very heavy tanks after WWI. In addition to the militaries of Germany and England, the Soviet Union was also fascinated by these monsters. Behind it was the concept of transferring the heavy armament of naval warfare to land warfare. These superheavy vehicles were to move across the land the way battleships moved on the sea, and were to be capable of simultaneously defeating enemy forces from any direction. In this follow-up to his highly regarded work on the Panzerkampfwagen "Maus," Michael Froehlich turns his attention to the other superheavy Wehrmacht designs, such as the Grille 17, the Loewe VK 7001, the Raumer S, the Moerser Bar, the E-100 (successor to the Maus), and the 1,100-ton Urling armored howitzer. Froehlich comprehensively describes their development, technology, and testing, and the eventual fate of those vehicles that were built or only projected. Many rare and never-before-published photographs and drawings of the vehicles complement this unique work.

Volume 2 on the famed Sherman medium tank covers the welded-hull, radial-engine-equipped M4 and documents its development and production through its many variations, as well as its combat use around the globe. Produced by Chrysler, Pressed Steel Car Company, Alco, Pullman-Standard, and Baldwin Locomotive Works, the M4 bore the brunt of fighting until late summer 1944, when the M4A3 began to become available in quantity. Powered by a 9-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, the M4 fought in North Africa both with US and British forces, across northwestern Europe, and leapfrogged across the Pacific islands both with the Army and Marines. The evolving design went through three major hull designs, multiple turret designs, and armament with either a 75 mm gun or a 105 mm weapon-all of which are detailed. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

Osprey's examination of the campaign at Nagashino in 1575. When Portuguese traders took advantage of the constant violence in Japan to sell the Japanese their first firearms, one of the quickest to take advantage of this new technology was the powerful daimyo Oda Nobunaga. In 1575 the impetuous Takeda Katsuyori laid siege to Nagashino castle, a possession of Nobunaga's ally, Tokugawa Ieyasu. An army was despatched to relieve the siege, and the two sides faced each other across the Shidarahara. The Takeda samurai were brave, loyal and renowned for their cavalry charges, but Nobunaga, counting on Katsuyori's impetuosity, had 3,000 musketeers waiting behind prepared defences for their assault. The outcome of this clash of tactics and technologies was to change the face of Japanese warfare forever.

The 8th century heralded the start of a golden age in the history of the Islamic world. At this time, the Sunni Muslim 'Abbasid Caliphate, with its capital at Baghdad, ruled virtually the entire Islamic world. Islamic military power peaked in the 9th century, but by the end of this golden age in the 11th century, the 'Abbasid Caliphs had little political and virtually no military power. Featuring numerous photographs of artefacts and eight full colour plates by Graham Turner, David Nicolle's book examines the recruitment, organization, weaponry and uniforms of the armies of the Caliphates from 862-1098.

Until well into the twentieth century, pack animals were the primary mode of transport for supplying armies in the field. The British Indian Army was no exception. In the late nineteenth century, for example, it forcibly pressed into service thousands of camels of the Indus River basin to move supplies into and out of contested areas—a system that wreaked havoc on the delicately balanced multispecies environment of humans, animals, plants, and microbes living in this region of Northwest India. In Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare, James Hevia examines the use of camels, mules, and donkeys in colonial campaigns of conquest and pacification, starting with the Second Afghan War—during which an astonishing 50,000 to 60,000 camels perished—and ending in the early twentieth century. Hevia explains how during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a new set of human-animal relations were created as European powers and the United States expanded their colonial possessions and attempted to put both local economies and ecologies in the service of resource extraction. The results were devastating to animals and human communities alike, disrupting centuries-old ecological and economic relationships. And those effects were lasting: Hevia shows how a number of the key issues faced by the postcolonial nation-state of Pakistan—such as shortages of clean water for agriculture, humans, and animals, and limited resources for dealing with infectious diseases—can be directly traced to decisions made in the colonial past. An innovative study of an underexplored historical moment, Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare opens up the animal studies to non-Western contexts and provides an empirically rich contribution to the emerging field of multispecies historical ecology.