Since the Gulf War, the Abrams tank has undergone a transformation, while fighting in conflicts across the world. Its M1A1 and M1A2 variants have seen great improvements made to this iconic tank, including in fire-control, armour protection, and thermal imaging technology. Involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan necessitated a number of upgrades and modifications as the United States fought two of its longest wars. Recent years have seen new variants of the series such as the ABV Assault Breacher Vehicle and M104 Wolverine Heavy Assault Bridge. Over the past few decades, the M1A1 Abrams has also been extensively exported and is license produced in Egypt. The long-awaited follow-up to NVG 2 M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank 1982-92 (1993), this fully illustrated study examines the Abrams tanks' last quarter-century of service with both the United States and its various foreign operators with a focus on its combat history.

A comprehensive and compelling history of the resistance movements that operated in every German-occupied nation between 1939 and 1941. Even though much of Europe eventually succumbed to the Nazis during World War II, many Europeans defiantly resisted occupation in every way possible. This captivating book provides a survey of these resistance movements during the period of Axis occupation and recounts the ways in which unarmed citizens undermined Nazi efforts at domination. A thorough description of the Axis conquest of Europe, the formation of the Special Operations Executive in Britain, and the Office of Strategic Services in the United States provides a backdrop for this turbulent time in history. Chapters cover the resistance organizations, their leaders, and other key individuals behind their operations. The book details the movement's furtive tactics that included spreading information, providing the Allies with key intelligence, conducting industrial sabotage, destroying bridges and factories, and fighting behind the lines. Case studies of resistance operations in France, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, Greece, Italy, and within Nazi Germany itself show the scope and breadth of the resistance movement throughout the world. Provides descriptions of all the national movements in one volume Features organizational overviews, personal studies of resistance figures, and descriptions of key resistance operations Considers little-known, smaller resistance movements, primarily Jewish and Communist efforts Reveals stories of resistance among Germany's allies-Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland Covers the controversial issue of German occupation and resistance in France as well as how this story has been covered historically

Invisible Armies presents an entirely original narrative of warfare, which demonstrates that, far from the exception, loosely organized partisan or guerrilla warfare has been the dominant form of military conflict throughout history. New York Times best-selling author and military historian Max Boot traces guerrilla warfare and terrorism from antiquity to the present, narrating nearly thirty centuries of unconventional military conflicts. Filled with dramatic analysis of strategy and tactics, as well as many memorable characters-from Italian nationalist Guiseppe Garibaldi to the "Quiet American," Edward Lansdale-Invisible Armies is "as readable as a novel" (Michael Korda, Daily Beast) and "a timely reminder to politicians and generals of the hard-earned lessons of history" (Economist).

Soldiers to the Last Day: Rhineland- Westphalian 6th Infantry Division, 1935-1945 recounts the history of the German 6th Infantry Division from its formation in 1935 to its destruction at Babruysk in July 1944; then its resurrection and continued fighting until the end of the war. Among the first divisions established by the Wehrmacht, the 6th Infantry Division had one of the longest and bloodiest records of continuous combat of any division-Allied or Axis. Engaging in combat within weeks of the outbreak of WWII, the division fought to the last hour of the war. Based primarily on German sources, in particular the rare divisional and regimental histories and war diaries, and on personal accounts and letters of its soldiers, Soldiers to the Last Day presents the German view of the war from inside divisional headquarters and down to the individual Landser as the division marches across France in 1940, advances to the Volga during Operation Barbarossa, fights the brutal battles of Rzhev, Kursk, Babruysk; and makes last desperate attempts to defend the homeland in 1945. It is a tale of courage, determination, suffering, and in the end-betrayal.

Strafvollzugslager der SS- und Polizei: Himmler's Wartime Institutions for the Detention of Waffen-SS and Polizei Criminals is a book that Heinrich Himmler would not have wished written. Preferring that this corner of the SS history remained forever in the shadows, the existence of the SS penal system had the potential to besmirch his entire organisation. In an effort to disguise the true extent of criminality within the ranks of the Waffen-SS, the Reichsfuhrer-SS temporarily expelled those SS men incarcerated in the Strafvollzugslager der SS- und Polizei, giving the appearance that Hitler's bodyguard did not suffer the scourge of serious criminality. In unprecedented detail, this study illuminates the reasoning behind the imprisonment of Waffen-SS and policemen in purpose-built institutions, describes the regulations governing their detention and reveals the operational history of these fascinating institutions. The Waffen-SS gaols established at Dachau, Danzig-Matzkau, Forrenbach and a clutch of smaller branch prisons are the focus of this in-depth study. Composed with the assistance of veterans' families, their contribution has ensured an unparalleled presentation of the convict's daily life and enumerated the lives of those tasked with the prisons operation. Ensuring that the convict's National Socialist spirit was undamaged by their punishment, the prison guards provided the malfeasance elements of the Waffen-SS with an SS suitable environment which enabled their further use to the regime. Eventually, these institutions become portals through which inmates passed to return to the front. No book written on this subject would be complete without analysing the various Waffen-SS field probation units that accepted paroled convicts. Here, at the front, Himmler commanded that they faced death, or serious wounding as the means to earn their full rehabilitation and return to the ranks of the SS. Scrutinised as part of this process is the SS-Bewahrungsbataillone, the infamous SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger and the SS-Fallschirmjagerabteilung. Criminal case histories are tendered throughout this work and describe the crimes and punishments imposed on those who had brought shame on the SS.

The tourism industry has evolved and maturated over the recent years. Today, tourism is not only a leading industry but also a consolidated commercial activity worldwide. Unfortunately, the turn of the century has accelerated a number of global risks, placing the tourism industry in jeopardy. Scholars adopted an economics-based paradigm, which has focused on the commercial nature of tourism as a benefactor of local economies, while terrorists are depicted as the enemies of democracy. This begs the question: are tourists cultural ambassadors of their respective societies? Tourism, Terrorism and Security explores the current limitations of specialized literature to frame an all-encompassing understanding of tourism and security today. The main thesis of this book explores the idea that while tourists are workers who need to validate their political institutions through the articulation of leisure practices, terrorists are natives from the societies they hate. Terrorism has imposed a climate of mistrust, whereby tourists are targeted and killed to impose a political message. This book explores the semantics of this message. Tourism, Terrorism and Security is a must-read for students and scholars of tourism, hospitality, security, and cultural studies.

Shows how the development of the militia in eighteenth century Ireland was closely bound with politics and the changing nature of the Protestant Ascendancy. The militia in eighteenth century Ireland was a contentious issue: initially only those of a certain social and political class could participate, dissenters and catholics being excluded, and the degree of enthusiasm with which people participated was an indication of their commitment, or otherwise, to the regime. However, as this book demonstrates, the militia as an issue changed over the course of the eighteenth century, with, from about 1760, demands for the reform of the militia being a key issue spearheading demands for wider constitutional reform. The book traces the militia in Ireland from early Protestant militia forces in the sixteenth century, through formal establishmentin 1716, to demise in 1776 and re-formation in 1793. It shows how the militia played a larger role in the defence of Ireland than has hitherto been realised, and how its reliability was therefore a key point for government. It discusses how political debates about the militia reflected changing views about the nature of the Irish establishment and how these changing views were incorporated in legislation. It examines how the militia operated as an institution; considers how the militia reflected social and political divisions; and compares the militia in Ireland with similar bodies in England, Scotland and Europe more widely, relating debates about the militia in Ireland to widerdebates about whether a country is best defended by a professional soldiery or a citizen army. NEAL GARNHAM is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Ulster and the author of two books and more than twenty articles published in refereed academic journals.

Naval and Military Operations of Great Britain is the single most important contemporary account of the Royal Navy in the 18th century. Its six volumes present a new approach to naval strategy. Defeat in the American Revolutionary War called into question the assumptions of superiority upon which so much earlier commentary on naval affairs had been based. By addressing the specific causes of the disaster, the author, Robert Beatson (1742-1818), hoped to render both the navy and the nation wiser for the future. Lauded by key figures in the development of naval strategy, including John Laughton, Alfred T. Mahan, and Julian Corbett, this work remains fundamental to modern scholarship on the nature of British naval power and is an especially rich source of information on the British army's campaign in North America. This edition contains a substantial new introduction by leading naval scholar, Andrew Lambert (King's College London).

This book describes the fate of the soldiers of the anti-Bolshevik White Army, who fled Russia at the end of the Russian civil war. Remarkably, the Army continued to exist in exile, refining its ideology, and participating in the underground struggle against the Soviets. Paul Robinson sheds new light on the dynamic individuals involved in the White Movement, as well as on interwar Russian emigration in general.

This Element introduces the concept of oligopoly of coercion to interpretate the interaction between drug trafficking and reconfiguration of the state in Colombia. Three elements are central to this interpretation: corruption in oligopolies of coercion must be understood as a payment by drug traffickers for acting like a parallel state; the state criminalizes more drug as merchandise than drug as capital - its equivalent in money; the politics and war around drug trafficking in Colombia should be understood as the way in which peripheral societies access global markets through the ruling institutions of private armies. With these elements, the author focuses on the dynamics of the reconfiguration of the state in Colombia after the cocaine boom in the mid-70s and the evolution of the private armies in Colombia.

The idea of British soldiers using American tanks was not viewed with a great deal of enthusiasm by the British Army. They perceived American tanks as being crudely made, mechanically unsophisticated and impossible to fight in. However, once British crews got used to them and learned to cope with some of their difficulties, such as limited fuel capacity and unfamiliar fighting techniques, they started to see them in a far more positive light, in particular their innate reliability and simplicity of maintenance.

This book, the last in a three-part series on British Battle Tanks by armour expert David Fletcher, concentrates on World War II and studies American tanks in British service, some of which were modified in ways peculiar to the British. It shows how the number of these tanks increased to the point that they virtually dominated, as well describing some types, such as the T14 and M26 Pershing, which were supplied but never used in British service.

Relying on extensive candid interviews from members of Congress and staff on defense authorization committees and senior Army general officers, Scroggs provides a strong insider analysis with recommendations. He examines the impact of culture on the varying abilities of public agencies, specifically the Army, to pursue its organizational interests through lobbying or liaising Congress. Scroggs argues that despite structural similarities in how the four military services approach Congress, differences in service culture affect their relative success in achieving their goals on the Hill.

Scroggs draws four major conclusions. First, despite a law prohibiting lobbying of Congress by public agencies, Congress views lobbying or liaising by public entities, especially the military services, not only as a legitimate activity, but essential to Members carrying out their constitutional responsibilities. Second, relative to the other services, the Army is viewed by Congress as the least effective in its lobbying. Third, the Army's patterned approach with Congress is largely a function of its unrecognized and uncompensated culture in the unique terrain of the nation's capital. Fourth, because of the need for balanced service representation to Congress, relatively less effective Army efforts have troubling implications for national security and Army self-interest.

'Outstanding ... combines a glimpse behind the security screens with a sharp analysis of the real global insecurities - growing inequality and unsustainability' - New Internationalist Written in the late 1990s, Losing Control was years, if not decades, ahead of its time, predicting the 9/11 attacks, a seemingly endless war on terror and the relentless increase in revolts from the margins and bitter opposition to wealthy elites. Now, more than two decades later and in an era of pandemics, climate breakdown and potential further military activity in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Paul Rogers has revised and expanded the original analysis, pointing to the 2030s and '40s as the decades that will see a showdown between a bitter, environmentally wrecked and deeply insecure world and a possible world order rooted in justice and peace.

Based on unprecedented access to PLO archives and empirical research from a variety of sources, this groundbreaking study represents the definitive history of the Palestinian national movement. Spanning the 45 years from the establishment of the Sate of Israel in 1948 to the PLO-Israel accord of 1993, it sheds radical new light on the history of the Middle East in the last half of the twentieth century.

These two companion volumes on Soldiers and Society give new perspectives on Zimbabwe's liberation struggle. This work is an attempt to look at some of the realities of Zimbabwe's liberation war and at what happened afterwards, rather than at the comfortable myths. Both heroic and terrible deeds are recorded. Zimbabwe: University of Zimbabwe Publications

It is unexpected in any era to find a woman writing a book on the art of warfare, but in the fifteenth century it was unbelievable. Not surprisingly, therefore, Christine de Pizan's The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry, written around 1410, has often been regarded with disdain. Many have assumed that Christine was simply copying or pilfering earlier military manuals. But, as Sumner Willard and Charity Cannon Willard show in this faithful English translation, The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry contains much that is original to Christine. As a military manual it tells us a great deal about the strategy, tactics, and technology of medieval warfare and is one of our most important sources for early gunpowder weapon technology. It also includes a fascinating discussion of Just War.

Since the end of the fifteenth century, The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry has been available primarily through Antoine Verard's imprint of 1488 or William Caxton's 1489 translation, The Book of the Order of Chivalry. Verard even suggested that the work was his own translation of the Roman writer Vegetius, making no mention of Christine 's name. Caxton attributed the work to Christine, but it is impossible to identify the manuscript he used for his translation. Moreoever, both translations are inaccurate. The Willards correct these inaccuracies in a clear and easy-to-read translation, which they supplement with notes and an introduction that will greatly benefit students, scholars, and enthusiasts alike. Publication of this work should change our perception both of medieval warfare and of Christine de Pizan.

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.

The savage partisan war on the Eastern Front during World War II saw a wide variety of forces deployed by both sides. On the Soviet side, civilian partisans fought alongside and in co-operation with Red Army troops and Red Army and NKVD 'special forces'. On the German side, German Army security divisions, with indigenous components including cavalry, fought alongside SS police and Waffen-SS units and other front-line troops employed for short periods in the anti-partisan role. In addition to providing the background history of the forces of both sides, this study focuses upon three examples of German anti-partisan operations that show varied success in dealing with the Soviet partisan threat. Notably, it covers a major operation in north-west Russia during the spring of 1943 - Operation Spring Clean - that saw Wehrmacht security forces including local components fighting alongside troops under the SS umbrella against a number of Soviet partisan brigades. During the fighting, German forces even employed captured French tanks from earlier in the war against the partisans. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and drawing upon an array of sources, this is an absorbing account of the brutal fighting between German security forces and their Soviet partisan opponents during the long struggle for victory on World War II's Eastern Front.

Few tank designs have been as effective, versatile and long-lived as that of the British Centurion. Conceived during the Second World War as the answer to the superior German Tiger and Panther tanks and to the lethal 88mm gun, this 52-ton main battle tank incorporated the lessons British designers had learned about armoured fighting vehicles during the conflict, and it was free of the major faults that had impaired the other British tank designs of the time. The Centurion was so successful that it served in the British Army and in numerous other armies across the world from 1945 until the 1990s. Pat Ware's highly illustrated history of this remarkable tank covers its design and development, its technical specifications and the many variants that were produced. He tells the story from the design brief of 1943, through testing and trials to the tank's entry into service. And he traces the course of the Centurion's subsequent career as it was up-dated, up-gunned and adapted to operate in varied conditions and conflicts all over the world including Korea, the Indo-Pakistan wars, Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli wars. His 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.

When Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the 23-tonne Panzer III was in the vanguard of the German assault. It saw widespread use during the Second World War in campaigns that included Poland, France, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, North Africa and Normandy. Centrepiece of the Haynes Panzer III Tank Manual is the Bovington Tank Museum's PzKpfw III Ausf L, which has been restored to running condition. Full coverage is given of the tank's design, construction, war service and the restoration of the Tank Museum's Ausf L version.

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Troubles approaches, Ken Wharton takes a thorough look at the start of the Troubles, the precursors and the explosion of violence in 1969 that would last until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and cost 50,000 casualties and nearly 2,000 civilians' lives across Northern Ireland, the Republic and England. Utterly condemnatory of the Provisional IRA and their ilk, Wharton pulls no punches in his assessment of the situation then and seeks to dismiss apologists today. His sympathy lies first with those tasked with keeping order in the province, but also with the innocent civilians caught up in thirty years of immense bloodshed. Based on the powerful testimony of those who were there at the time, The Troubles is written with passion and detailed knowledge of the experience of the squaddie.

As a prelude to the post-war concept of a single "main battle tank" design, vehicles during World War II tended to be categorized as light, medium, and heavy, depending on their use. In this last category, tanks had grown in size, weight, and firepower to counter ever-improving anti-tank weapon systems. This resulted in changes in tactics and doctrine to better integrate heavy armor into a combined arms system. This was especially true on the Eastern Front, where the open terrain promoted armor action and a rapid cycle of improvements. The Soviets were quick to develop vehicles that were able to fight the Tiger I on an equal footing by late 1943, such as the up-gunned T-34/85 and the self-propelled ISU-152s. Because the American T-26/M-26 Pershing arrived late in the war, and the British Centurion not at all, only the Soviet IS-2 serves as an example of a heavy design that was fielded in large battlefield numbers. The Soviet drive to cut off enemy forces in East Prussia during Operation Solstice (February 1945) is a prime example of this conflict. The Germans, had limited resources, and were strategically on the defensive, but enjoyed ever-shorter logistic distances as they retreated, and fought in an environment and terrain that played to the strengths of the technically-superior King Tiger. The IS-2 was lighter, more maneuverable, and far more numerous, and used these assets to its advantage. This battle, fought in the closing months of the war, depicts the classic late-war contrast between the military doctrines of Germany and the Soviet Union.

The presence of women combatants on the battlefield-especially in large numbers-strikes many observers as a notable departure from the historical norm. Yet women have played a significant active role in many contemporary armed rebellions. Over recent decades, numerous resistance movements in many regions of the globe have deployed thousands of female fighters in combat. In Female Fighters, Reed M. Wood explains why some rebel groups deploy women in combat while others exclude women from their ranks, and the strategic implications of this decision. Examining a vast original dataset on female fighters in over 250 rebel organizations, Wood argues rebel groups can gain considerable strategic advantages by including women fighters. Drawing on women increases the pool of available recruits and helps ameliorate resource constraints. Furthermore, the visible presence of female fighters often becomes an important propaganda tool for domestic and international audiences. Images of women combatants help raise a group's visibility, boost local recruitment, and aid the group's efforts to solicit support from transnational actors and diaspora communities. However, Wood finds that, regardless of the wartime resource challenges they face, religious fundamentalist rebels consistently resist utilizing female fighters. A rich, data-driven study, Female Fighters presents a systematic, comprehensive analysis of the impact women's participation has on organized political violence in the modern era.

In the summer of 1967, the Marines in I Corps, South Vietnam's northernmost military region, were doing everything they could to lighten the pressure on the besieged Con Thien Combat Base. Still fresh after months of relatively light action around Khe Sanh, the 3d Battalion, 26th Marines, was sent to the Con Thien region to secure the combat bases' endangered main supply route. On 7 September 1967, its first full day in the new area of operations, separate elements of the battalion were attacked by at least two battalions of North Vietnamese infantry, and both were nearly overrun in night-long battles. On 10 September, while advancing to a new sector near Con Thien, the 3d Battalion, 26th Marines, was attacked by at least a full North Vietnamese regiment, the same NVA unit that had attacked it two days earlier. Divided into two separate defensive perimeters, the Marines battled through the afternoon and evening against repeated assaults by waves of NVA regulars intent upon achieving a major victory. In a battle described as 'Custer's Last Stand-With Air Support', the Americans prevailed by the narrowest of margins. Ambush Valley is an unforgettable account of bravery and survival under impossible conditions. It is told entirely in the words of the men who faced the ordeal together - an unprecedented mosaic of action and emotion woven into an incredibly clear and vivid combat narrative by one of today's most effective military historians. Ambush Valley achieves a new standard for oral history. It is a war story not to be missed.