September 1944: With the Allies closing in on the Rhine, Adolf Hitler orders a counterattack on General Patton's Third Army in France. Near the small town of Arracourt, France, elements of the US 4th Armored Division met the grizzled veterans of the 5th Panzer Army in combat. Atop their M4 Shermans, American tank crews squared off against the technologically superior Mark V Panther tanks of the Wermacht. Yet through a combination of superior tactics, leadership, teamwork, and small-unit initiative, the outnumbered American forces won a decisive victory against the 5th Panzer Army. Indeed, of the 262 tanks and mobile assault guns fielded by German forces, 200 were damaged or destroyed by enemy fire. The Americans, by contrast, lost only 48 tanks. Following the collapse of the German counterattack at Arracourt, General Patton's Third Army found itself within striking distance of the Third Reich's borderlands. The battle of Arracourt was the US Army's largest tank battle until the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. It helped pave the way for the final Allied assault into Germany, and showed how tactical ingenuity and adaptive leadership can overcome and an enemy's superior size or technological strength.

Between 1760 and 1815, British troops campaigned from Manila to Montreal, Cape Town to Copenhagen, Washington to Waterloo. The naval dimension of Britain's expansion has been superbly covered by a number of excellent studies, but there has not been a single volume that does the same for the army and, in particular, looks at how and why it became a world-operating force, one capable of beating the Marathas as well as the French. This book will both offer a new perspective, one that concentrates on the global role of the army and its central part in imperial expansion and preservation, and as such will be a major book for military history and world history. There will be a focus on what the army brought to power equations and how this made it a world-level force. The multi-purpose character of the army emerges as the key point, one seen in particular in the career of Wellington: while referred to disparagingly by Napoleon as a 'sepoy general,' Wellington's ability to operate successfully in India and Europe was not only impressive but also reflected synergies in experience and acquired skill that characterised the British army. No other army matched this. The closest capability was that of Russia able, in 1806-14, to defeat both the Turks and Napoleon, but without having the trans-oceanic capability and experience enjoyed by the British army. The experience was a matter in part of debate, including over doctrine, as in the tension between the 'Americans' and 'Germans,' a reference to fields of British campaigning concentration during the Seven Years War. This synergy proved best developed in the operations in Iberia in 1809-14, with logistical and combat skills utilised in India employed in a European context in which they were of particular value. The books aims to further to address the question of how this army was achieved despite the strong anti-army ideology/practice derived from the hostile response to Oliver Cromwell and to James II. Thus, perception and politics are both part of the story, as well as the exigencies and practicalities of conflict, including force structure, command issues, and institutional developments. At the same time, there was no inevitability about British success over this period, and it is necessary to consider developments in the context of other states and, in particular, the reasons why British forces did well and that Britain was not dependent alone on naval effectiveness.

Chronicle of the oldest and most experienced Panzer division in the Wehrmacht, and its combat throughout WWII in over 500 photos.

It is a little-known fact that during the Cold War, two U.S. Army Special Forces detachments were stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin. The existence and missions of the two detachments were highly classified secrets. The massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies posed a huge threat to the nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the juggernaut they expected when and if a war began. The plan was Special Forces Berlin. The first 40 men who came to Berlin in mid-1956 were soon reinforced by 60 more and these 100 soldiers (and their successors) would stand ready to go to war at only two hours' notice, in a hostile area occupied by nearly one million Warsaw Pact forces, until 1990. Their mission should hostilities commence was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines, and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal. Highly trained and fluent in German, each man was allocated a specific area. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, intelligence tradecraft and able to act if necessary as independent operators, blending into the local population and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move. Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit that had no parallel. It left a legacy of a new type of soldier expert in unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for other deployments including the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the U.S. government officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story can now be told.

In Gambling with Violence, Yelena Biberman tackles a global problem that is particularly consequential for Pakistan and India: state outsourcing of violence to ordinary civilians, criminals, and ex-insurgents. Why would these countries gamble with their own national security by outsourcing violence - arming nonstate actors inside their own borders? Drawing on over 200 interviews, archival research, and fieldwork conducted across Asia, Europe, and North America, Biberman introduces the "balance-of-interests" thesis to deepen our understanding of state-nonstate alliances in civil war. This framework centers on the distribution of power during war and shows how various combinations of interests result in distinct types of coalitions. Incorporating case studies of civil war and counterinsurgency, her book sheds light on how militias, alliances, and South Asian security connect today.

Spanish Americans of the early 19th century were eager to institute self-government and open their ports to foreign commerce. During the years 1810-14 two men of outstanding ability appeared in the front ranks of the Republican cause: Simon Bolivar, the greatest of all South American soldiers, and Jose de San Martin. These two men would achieve the destruction of the southern Spanish American empire as they fought to establish nations shaped and governed 'by Americans, for Americans'. This book details their military campaigns to free South America from the grip of Imperial Spain, including descriptions of their equipment, uniforms, weaponry and enemies.

This book examines the origins and development of the Polish 'Winged' Hussars. Using many years' painstaking research drawn from unpublished Polish sources, the author provides a rounded view of the training, tactics, appearance and experiences of these legendary and fascinating warriors. Most dramatic of all Hussar characteristics were the 'wings' worn on the back or on the saddle, although not all Hussars wore them, and their purpose has been fiercely debated. The Hussars terrified the Turks, Tatars, Muscovite boyars, Ukrainian Cossacks and Swedes, who did everything to avoid facing them directly in battle.

The 2nd SS Division, "Das Reich," was a battlefront mainstay for Nazi Germany throughout WWII-from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the final surrender in May 1945. In between it was switched back-and-forth between east and west depending on the crisis, and it fought in nearly every major campaign, from Barbarossa to Normandy, and from Kharkov to the Ardennes. Das Reich was the first Waffen SS division created (though the title "1st" was reserved for Hitler's Leibstandarte). Originally named the Verfugungs Division, its regiments fought through the campaigns in Poland, the Low Countries, and France, earning the respect of Wehrmacht leaders who originally doubted the efficacy of SS units. Renamed "Das Reich" after the French surrender, its elements served as a spearhead in the Balkans campaign, achieving a daring capture of Belgrade. In Operation Barbarossa, Das Reich fought with Guderian's Second Panzer Group, first in the drive on Moscow, then toward Kiev, then Moscow again. Pulled out of the line after gigantic casualties, it seized Toulon in France, then was sent back to Russia, as part of the SS Panzer Corps, to retrieve the German debacle after Stalingrad. At the titanic tank-battle of Kursk, Das Reich was at the forefront. In June 1944, as a full SS-Panzer Division, Das Reich played an infamous role in its approach march to Normandy, as the French Resistance temporarily reached a high tide. On the Allied invasion front, Das Reich not only escaped from the Falaise Pocket but was sent back into it, to retrieve other German units struggling to get out. Das Reich fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and was then transferred to Hungary, for Hitler's last counteroffensive of the war. Failing to retake Budapest, elements of the division were able to mount a gallant defense of Prague. When the end came, some formations were forced to surrender to the Russians while others made it to American lines. Its reputation, for better or worse, had already been established. This lavishly illustrated book by renowned French historian Yves Buffetaut lays out the full history of Das Reich in World War II, with rare photos, informative text, and true insights into a unique combat division in modern warfare.

In 1944 the Maus giant battle tank, weighing almost 190 tons, was supposed to help turn the Wehrmacht's fortunes of war on the Eastern Front. Just two prototypes of this monster were delivered, for its undeniable advantages-tremendous firepower and virtually impenetrable armor-were outweighed by the disadvantages of its slowness, excessive use of materials in construction, and fuel consumption so high that it was, by that time, far beyond the Germans' ability to supply. With this volume, Michael Froehlich continues the legendary Spielberger series and delves into one of the most curious military vehicles produced by Germany-the Maus super-heavy tank. For the first time, this book tells the complete story of this vehicle, including its inner workings, accompanied by many previously unpublished illustrations. But that is not all: the book includes another novelty, the complete operating instructions for the tank's crew!

There is nothing that terrorized Russian and Chinese-backed guerrillas fighting Rhodesia's bush war in the 1970s more than the famed Selous Scouts. The very name of the unit struck fear into the very heart and soul of even the most battle-hardened guerrillas. Too afraid to even whisper the name amongst themselves, they referred to soldiers of the unit simply as Skuzapu, or pickpockets. It wasn't for nothing that history has recorded the Selous Scouts Regiment as being one of the deadliest and most effective killing machines in modern counter-insurgency warfare. The Selous Scouts comprised specially selected soldiers of the Rhodesian army, supplemented with the inclusion of hardcore terrorists captured on the battlefield. Dressed and equipped as communist guerrillas and with faces and arms blackened, members of this elite Special Forces unit would slip silently into the shadows of the night to seek and destroy real terrorist gangs. It became a deadly game of hide-and-seek played out between gangs and counter-gangs in the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the African bush. So successful were the Selous Scouts at being able to locate and destroy terrorist in their lairs that by the mid 1970s, they had begun to dominate Rhodesia's battlespace. Working in close conjunction with the elite airborne assault troops of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, the Selous Scouts accounted for an extraordinary high proportion of terrorists killed in Rhodesia's bush war. Survival in this cauldron of battle was never guaranteed. In this special 'deluxe' edition of author Tim Bax's hugely acclaimed Three Sips of Gin, we follow Tim on his missions into the silence of the shadows. As his story unfolds, we begin to understand how he managed to survive and it is here you will find the significance of 'three sips of gin' revealed. Readers of the earlier edition of the book will not want to miss reading this 'deluxe' edition which, for the first time, is illustrated with dozens of photographs. Three Sips of Gin is not just a book about war. It is a remarkable book about a remarkable man's life journey. Tim tells his story with the wit, candor and self-deprecating humour for which he has become so well known. His amazing journey is one which few could ever have experienced.

The concept of guerrilla warfare is not decades, but many centuries old, with earliest writing on the subject by Sun Tzu dating back to the 6th Century BC. Some guerrilla tactics are probably as old as the first armed groups of cavemen, being a natural evolution of conflict between groups of disproportionate sizes. One of the earliest examples of guerrilla tactics deployed by a consummate institutional military leader was the Roman general Fabius Maximus who took a course of evade and harassment against Hannibal's columns. This is a compendium of prominent worldwide guerrilla leaders beginning with William Wallace in the thirteenth century to modern day Sri Lanka. It profiles each leader to analyze their personal history, military tactics and political strategy. All are home grown leaders in extended guerrilla campaigns many of whom ended up as the first leaders of their countries or liberators of entire regions such as Simon Bolivar. It includes victories and defeats in an effort to tease out not only effective guerrilla tactics but counter-insurgency strategies with some likelihood of success. The advice expounded by Mao Zedong that: "the guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea" with his experiences of long marches over distant countryside regions of China has evolved into a more urbanized context. The name insurgent, freedom fighter or jihadi is fast replacing guerrilla. The old guerrilla associated with fights for independence and the end of colonialization has dimmed with modern and far-reaching religious insurgencies taking their place. This concise history gives a fascinating overview of a once history-altering form of warfare.

Between 1940 and 1945, large numbers of trucks of all categories were delivered to the U.S. Army by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors. Over 160,000 of these trucks were the G-506 light four-wheel drive trucks - which became the standard 1 1/2-ton, 4x4 truck for both the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps during the war. In addition, many more thousands were delivered to Allied forces as part of the Lend-Lease program, including nearly 50,000 delivered to the Soviet Union. Tough, well-built and more agile than the deuce and a half, the Chevy 11/2ton played a part in every theater of operations during the war. Its durability and mechanical reliability made it ideal for a wide range of missions. Not for nothing did Chevy advertise the trucks during the war as "Vehicles of victory." More than 75 years after it was designed, the small Chevrolet truck is still a favourite with collectors. This fully illustrated book details the different series of trucks and their many uses within the U.S. Army including cargo trucks, panel delivery trucks for the Signal Corps, dump trucks for engineers, telephone trucks, tractors, bomb service trucks for the air force. It also covers their part in the Lend-Lease program, and their continued use after the war.

After long years of studying sources and literature, Werner Haupt presents the military history of one of the larger theaters of World War II. The completion of the history of "Army Group South" is the result of the author's utilization of all available German and Russian literature, as well as those combat diaries and documents of the committed troop units that are available in German archives. In addition, the author was assisted in clearing up several questions by the advice of former members of the army group - from commanders to drivers. This third and final volume of a three volume set by Werner Haupt includes a volume each on Army Group North, Army Group Center, and now Army Group South. The author served in the German Army as a soldier and officer in the northern sector of the Eastern Front during the Second World War. He is also the author of Assault on Moscow 1941 (available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

World War I was the Golden Age of the railway gun. Even though at the start of the conflict none of the armies possessed any railway artillery pieces and the very idea was comparatively new, more railway guns were used during this war than in any other conflict. Designed to break the stalemate of trench warfare, the first railway guns were simple, improvised designs made by mounting surplus coastal defence, fortress, and naval guns onto existing commercial railway carriages. As the war dragged on, railway artillery development shifted to longer range guns that could shell targets deep behind enemy lines. This change of role brought much larger and more sophisticated guns often manufactured by mounting long-barrel naval guns to specially-designed railway carriages. This book details the design and development of railway guns during World War I from the very first basic designs to massive purpose built "monster" railway guns. Accompanying the text are many rare, never-before-published, photographs and colour illustrations depicting how these weapons were used during World War I.

In 1917 the soldiers of the Canadian Corps would prove themselves the equal of any fighting on the Western Front, while on the other side of the wire, the men of the Royal Bavarian Army won a distinguished reputation in combat. Employing the latest weapons and pioneering tactics, these two forces would clash in three notable encounters: the Canadian storming of Vimy Ridge, the back-and-forth engagement at Fresnoy and at the sodden, bloody battle of Passchendaele. Featuring carefully chosen archive photographs and specially commissioned artwork, this study assesses these three hard-fought battles in 1917 on the Western Front, and offers a new take on the evolving nature of infantry combat in World War I.

During the period 1890-1910 the German Army of Kaiser Wilhelm II was ablaze in color, particularly the Garde and Cavalry regiments. In this superb new volume the author brings to the student of uniforms, as well as the art and military historian, the true glory of this brief, but most colorful time. Carl Becker was a skillful and talented artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose treatment of German uniforms, the military pomp and ceremony, as well as the work-a-day activities of the Kaiser's army, are both realistically and artistically among the very best. The 104 never before published uniform plates are a treasure trove of color, action, and rarity which have only been viewed by a select few before this publication. The additional illustrations from books and the postcard art reproduced here well display the scope and depth of Becker's work. Technically correct, and artistically rendered on the subject of Kaiser Wilhelm II's flamboyant army of 1890-1910, this book will be a welcome addition to the library of the collector, the student of military costume, modelers and the appreciator of well executed military art.

The tank battles in the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941 were the largest in World War II, exceeding even the more famous Prokhorovka encounter during the Kursk campaign. Indeed, they were the largest tank battles ever fought. This book examines two evenly matched competitors in this conflict, the German Panzer 38(t) and the Soviet BT-7. Both were of similar size, armed with guns of comparable firepower, and had foreign roots - the Panzer 38(t) was a Czechoslovak design and the BT-7 was an evolution of the American Christie tank. With full-colour artwork and archive and present-day photography, this absorbing study assesses the strengths and limitations of these two types against the wider background of armoured doctrine in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.

The best U.S. division at war, from Normandy to the Bulge and beyond The 30th Infantry Division, drawn from the hill country of Tennessee and the Carolinas, was regarded during World War II as the cream of the crop of U.S. fighting units. The Germans agreed, calling the division "Roosevelt's SS" for its tenacity and skill. The 30th fought in Normandy, along the Siegfried Line (where it conducted "the perfect infantry attack"), at the Battle of the Bulge, and in the final operations inside Germany. Baumer relies on primary sources to tell the story of this remarkable unit and its men in what is sure to become a classic World War II division history.

At the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, thousands of pro-democracy rebel groups spontaneously formed to fight the Assad regime. Years later, the revolution was unrecognizable as rebel opposition forces had merged into three major groups: Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al Sham, and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Why did these three groups rapidly increase in size and military strength while others simply disappeared? What is it about their organizational structure and their Islamist ideology that helped group manage their fighters so successfully? With these questions at the forefront, this book examines the internal organization of armed groups and, in particular, their human resources. Analyzing the growth of these groups through the prism of a labor market theory, this book shows that extreme Islamist groups were able to attract fighters away from more moderate groups because they had better internal organization, took better care of fighters both physically and monetarily, experienced less internal corruption, and effectively used their Islamist ideology to control recruits. With unparalleled access and extensive ethnographic research drawn from her interviews and her year embedded with Iraqi Special Operation forces, Mironova delves deep into the ideological and practical nexus of some of the most radical groups in the Middle East. This book brings together more than 600 survey-interviews with local civilians and fighters on the frontline in Syria and a dataset of human resource policies from 40 armed groups; it is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants insight into the on the ground functioning of rebel organizations.

The contributors here consider the multifarious aspects of the Anglo-American approach to war. The essays range from a study of volunteer soldiering in the Mexican War of 1846-48, and analyses of operations in the two World Wars, to a reconsideration of the nature of future warfare. All the contributors are concerned to base their work on the overall historical context. They explore the relationship between theory and practice in military operations. A primary interest is reviewing the problems of transition from the small-scale duties of an imperial or frontier constabulary to coping with the demand of continental warfare. This recurring problem is a central feature of the Anglo-American military tradition. Throughout, a major theme is the importance of peacetime in the mental preparation and training for war.

The Deutsche Afrika Korps (best known as simply Afrika Korps) built up a well-deserved reputation as a superb fighting machine. While this was founded on the leadership and tactical genius of its legendary commander Erwin Rommel and the fighting skills of its officers and men, another vital element was its equipment in general and armour in particular. This superbly illustrated Images of War book reveals the full range of German armoured vehicles that saw service in North Africa over the two year period 1941 to mid-1943\. As well as the formidable panzers , such as the Tiger and Panther tanks, there were Sturmartillerie equipments, reconnaissance vehicles, half- tracks, armoured cars, Panzerkampwagens and motor cycles. All had their roles to play. While the Allies triumphed in North Africa ultimately, the combination of German design and engineering with superb generalship and fighting spirit, very nearly changed the course of the Second World War in 1942\. Military historians and equipment enthusiasts will find this a fascinating and authoritative book.

Created from what was left of the gigantic stockpiles of Soviet armoured fighting vehicles after the end of the Cold War, the Russian armoured forces were reorganized in the early 1990s. Ground forces were involved in a series of conflicts in border states, nationalistic insurrections of minorities following the end of the Soviet Union, and the lifting of its iron fist on these regions. From Chechnya to the Crimea to the Ukraine, Modern Russian Tanks explores the main battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, self- propelled guns and missile-launching platforms in service since 1990. Organised by type and then alphabetically by manufacturer, the entries include the BMD-3, BMPT Terminator, T-90 and T-15 main battle tank, and their variants, as well as the Buk missile system responsible for shooting down the Malaysian Airlines 777 jet over Ukraine in 2014. Illustrated with expert colour profile artworks for each entry and completed with technical specifications, Modern Russian Tanks is a detailed reference guide for modellers and enthusiasts with an interest in modern military technology.

At its peak the Italian Army contributed 2.5 million troops to the Axis war effort of World War II (1939-1945). English-speaking readers tend to think of this army in terms of the North African campaign; but far more Italian troops served in other theatres. They invaded, and later bore the major burden of occupying, the Balkan countries; and Italy sent 250,000 troops to fight on the Russian Front. In this, the first of a three-part study, Philip Jowett covers the European theatre - including Russia - from 1940 to Italy's armistice with the Allies in 1943. Many interesting uniforms, a number of them new to most readers, are meticulously illustrated by Stephen Andrew.

Part history book and part travel guide, D-Day Gunners is aimed at anyone interested in the artillery on the D-Day beaches and landing grounds. While the heritage of the D-Day beaches and landing sites is well documented, this rarely includes the Gunner story. The author of this book aims to correct this by providing a visitors' guide to the gunner stories associated with the battlefield heritage, which remains on the D-Day Beaches, and usefully mapping the fire-plan for D-Day, against the known German locations and looked at what happened at these places. There is relatively little explanation about the role of the artillery in general or the deeds of artillerymen, in particular those of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. This book tells of the significance of artillery on D-Day and the part it played in the outcome. Initial reports published stressed that the coastal defences were effectively neutralized by the bombing and that no significant counter attacks developed on D-Day, however, post-war accounts increasingly attributed allied success to allied fire power.The book largely documents the stories of the men who served the guns on the D-Day beaches, mostly British, but with the occasional view of the Kannoniers. The main sources for this are the accounts by veterans and contemporary accounts. The medal cards within The National Archives contain some information about the actions, which resulted in awards. The last part of the book has been written as a guide to the D-Day Beaches, telling the gunner stories that are not always commemorated on memorials, interpretation boards, or recorded in more general guides. These poignant stories include war poets and heroes decorated for bravery or just the tales of some of the men buried on the war cemeteries or commemorated on the memorials.