The Centurion is significant in the history of British armoured fighting vehicles as well as being one of the most important post-war Western tanks. Introduced into British Army service in December 1946, versions of Centurion were still serving with British forces in the Iraq War of 2003, some 58 years later. Centurions have also seen combat in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, in the Middle East wars, and in the Indo-Pakistan War (1965) where it fought against US-supplied M47 and M48 Patton tanks. The Haynes Centurion Tank Manual is published in association with the Tank Museum and has been written with full access to the museum's Centurion collection.

Two things made the battleship possible: the harnessing of steam for propulsion and Britain's vast industrial power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With these two massive powerhouses available to ship designers, it was inevitable that change would come to the seas. For a short while France led the way with the launching of the Gloire, but Britain soon stole the limelight with the launch of HMS Warrior in 1863. The moment her keel hit the water the naval world was turned upside down and all other warships were rendered obsolete. But that event was as nought compared to the astonishing revolution in warship building caused by the launch in 1906 of the mighty Dreadnought. If Warriorhad caused a great upheaval, the impact of Dreadnought was positively Krakatoan. Such was her impact on the naval world that her very name became generic. All battleships built before her were classed as 'pre-Dreadnought' and all battleships built post-1906 came to be known as 'Dreadnoughts'. This is their story.

Operation HOREV - the Israeli winter offensive from December 1948 until January 1949 - practically ended Israel's War for Independence (also known as the 1948 Arab-Israeli War), with an Israeli victory that forced Egypt to seek ceasefire and to negotiate a settlement with the fledgling nation. From HOREV Day 1 on 23 December 1948 until HOREV Day 16 on 7 January 1949, this title presents Israeli Air Force missions during Operation HOREV in heretofore unseen depth and detail. This title chronicles Israeli Air Force sorties during Operation HOREV; from Austers and Pipers to C-46s and C-47s; from Messerschmitts, Spitfires and P-51s to Beaufighters and B-17s; Israel Air Force operations are detailed spanning the timeline of the conflict down to every unearthed sortie in depth, and shown in a way that Israeli Air Force operations during Operation HOREV had never been presented before. This level of detail has been made possible by extensive use of contemporary documentation. The detailed text is supported by numerous photographs and colour profiles. Middle East@War - following on from our highly-successful Africa@War series, Middle East@War replicates the same format - concise, incisive text, rare images and high quality colour artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.

'Many books claim to tell an "unknown" story of the Second World War. Few of them actually do. Forgotten Bastards is a rare exception . . . This is gripping history' Duncan Weldon, Prospect A riveting story of World War II from the author of Chernobyl, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction In November 1943, with the outcome of the Second World War hanging in the balance, the Allies needed a new plan. The Americans' audacious suggestion to the Soviets was to open a second air front, with the US Air Force establishing bases in Soviet-controlled territory. Despite Stalin's obvious reservations about the presence of foreign troops in Russia, he was persuaded. Operation Baseball and then Frantic were initiated in early 1944 as B-17 Superfortresses were flown from bases in Italy to the Poltova region in today's Ukraine. Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the gripping, little-known story of this encounter between American and Soviet soldiers and how their collaboration quickly fell apart, mirroring the transition from the Grand Alliance to the Cold War. Soviet secret policemen watched over the Americans, shadowing their every move. A catastrophic air raid by the Germans revealed the limitations of Soviet air defences. As their initial enthusiasm turned into disappointment, the American soldiers started calling themselves the Forgotten Bastards of Ukraine. Ultimately, no common purpose could overcome their cultural and political differences. Drawing on newly opened Russian archives as well as CIA records, Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front offers a riveting bottom-up history of one of the Second World War's most unlikely alliances.

In July 1944, with the Eastern Front crumbling and the first cracks appearing in the Normandy defences, Hitler ordered the creation of a new type of unit based on the ad-hoc Kampfgruppen which the Germans used so successfully throughout the war. Hastily assembled and short-lived these independent Panzer brigades nevertheless served on both fronts in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. The real striking power of the initial units would a battalion equipped with the Pzkpfw V Panther, perhaps the most effective armoured vehicle produced by Germany during the Second World War. In Dennis Oliver's latest volume in the TankCraft series he uses archive photos and extensively researched colour illustrations to examine the Panther battalions of the Panzer brigades that fought to hold back the Allied advance during the last months of 1944\. A key section of his book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined providing everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of these historic tanks.

This book profiles a wide variety of British, French, German, Austro-Hungarian and American aircraft, ranging from frontline stalwarts like the RE 8 and AR 1 to the swift Salmson 2A2 and the compact, fighter-like Halberstadt CL II.
Oft-overshadowed by the fighters that either protected or threatened them, two-seater reconnaissance aircraft performed the oldest and most strategically vital aerial task of World War 1 - a task that required them to return with the intelligence they gathered at all costs. Bomber sorties were equally important and dangerous, and the very nature of both types of mission required going in harm's way. A surprising number of British, French and German two-seater teams managed to attain or exceed the five victories needed to achieve the acedom popularly associated with their single-seat nemeses, and in this book they receive their long-overdue recognition. Many high-scoring single-seat fighter aces also began their careers in two-seaters, particularly in the early stages of the conflict, and their exploits as either pilots or observers are detailed here too.

Clarence "Cap" Cornish was an Indiana pilot whose life spanned all but five years of the Century of Flight. Born in Canada in 1898, Cornish grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He began flying at the age of nineteen, piloting a "Jenny" aircraft during World War I, and continued to fly for the next seventy-eight years. In 1995, at the age of ninety-seven, he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest actively flying pilot.The mid-1920s to the mid-1950s were Cornish's most active years in aviation. During that period, sod runways gave way to asphalt and concrete; navigation evolved from the iron rail compass to radar; runways that once had been outlined at night with cans of oil topped off with flaming gasoline now shimmered with multicolored electric lights; instead of being crammed next to mailbags in open-air cockpits, passengers sat comfortably in streamlined, pressurized cabins. In the early phase of that era, Cornish performed aerobatics and won air races. He went on to run a full-service flying business, served as chief pilot for the Fort Wayne "News-Sentinel," managed the city's municipal airport, helped monitor and maintain safe skies above the continental United States during World War II, and directed Indiana's first Aeronautics Commission.Dedicating his life to flight and its many ramifications, Cornish helped guide the sensible development of aviation as it grew from infancy to maturity. Through his many personal experiences, the story of flight nationally is played out.

The events in Jet Age Man took place during the early Cold War, an era that will go down as a period when civilization teetered on the edge of the abyss. To some, nuclear deterrence appeared as utter madness, and was in fact commonly referred to as M.A.D. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction provoked protests and marches, and the architect of M.A.D, General Curtis LeMay, became a symbol of madness himself. Raised during those turbulent times, most contemporary historians conclude that we were lucky to have survived. What they fail recognize is that for LeMay and the thousands of Cold War warriors who fought and won while serving in the Strategic Air Command, the proof of concept lies not in the""what if?"" but in the reality, ""what did."" Historically, M.A.D. succeeded where appeasement, diplomacy and even hot wars failed. When The Wall came down, strength, not weakness, had prevailed. Most of this story takes place in the Cold War trenches of the Strategic Air Command. It is about those who served and the many who died, told by someone who, as a young man, literally held the fate of all mankind within reach of a switch. More particularly, this is a story of man's interaction with two bombers that changed the course of political history, and were perhaps the most influential aircraft in the annals of aircraft development. The author piloted and instructed in both the B-47 and the B-52, starting out as a copilot in the B-47, then aircraft commander and finally, instructor pilot in both aircraft. Jet Age Man chronicles his fifteen-year relationship with the B-47 and the aircraft the B-47 became, the B-52--a bomber still in service today. Jet Age Man has been nominated as Best Military History Book 2013 in the prestigious journal Air Power History, published by the US Air Force Historical Foundation.

In the late 1950s, the Sukhoi Design Bureau, already an established fighter maker, started work on a successor to its Su-9 and Su-11 single-engined interceptors for the national Air Defence Force. Similar to its predecessors, the new aircraft designated Su-15 had delta wings; unlike the Su-9/Su-11, however, it had twin engines and lateral air intakes freeing up the nose for a powerful fire control radar. First flown in May 1962, the Su-15 officially entered service in 1965 and was built in several versions, the late ones having cranked-delta wings and a more capable radar. Being an air defence fighter, the Su-15 frequently had to deal with intruders. Unfortunately the aircraft gained notoriety in two separate incidents involving shoot-downs of Boeing airliners (a 707 in 1978 and a 747 in 1983), both of which were South Korean and had intruded into Soviet airspace on what was very probably clandestine spy missions. This book describes the developmental and service history of the Sukhoi-Su-15, containing a comprehensive survey of all model-making kits currently available on the market.

The US Navy Warship Series is a comprehensive Encyclopaedia of every ship in the history of the US Navy, from its inception in 1775 to the present. Each entry provides basic technical details and pertinent historical information on each ship construction date and information about the ship before and after naval service. Specifically, the technical details include dimensions, armament, armour protection, dates of launching, commissioning, etc. Historical info includes actions fought, campaigns, damage sustained, and more. The text format for each volume is uniform, giving particular information about each ship, including the lesser known and smaller vessels, which are usually omitted or barely mentioned in other works. Each volume is heavily illustrated with photos and pertinent illustrations drawn from the author's extensive archive. A further article about Paul Silverstone and the Navy Warships series can be found at: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspxParentId=m11s18s180&SecId=180&AId=58892&ATypeId=1

The Allies' M10 Tank Destroyer and the Germans' Sturmgeschutz (StuG) lll were the unsung workhorses of the northwest European battlefields of 1944-45. While their mission was not principally fighting one another, their widespread use ensured their frequent encounters, from the Normandy Bocage, to the rubble-strewn streets of Aachen. The StuG lll was the quintessential assault gun, a low-slung, heavily armoured, turret-less vehicle intended to provide direct fire support for infantry formations, whilst the M10 3in Gun Motor Carriage was originally developed as a tank destroyer. However, by 1944 the 3in gun proved ineffectual against the most thickly armored German tanks, and was consequently relegated to infantry support too. Widely deployed in roles their designers had not envisaged, these two armoured fighting vehicles clashed repeatedly during the 11-month campaign, which saw the Allies advance from Normandy to the heart of the Reich. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, this is the story of their confrontation at the height of World War ll.

John Lambert was a renowned naval draughtsman, whose plans were highly valued for their accuracy and detail by modelmakers and enthusiasts. By the time of his death in 2016 he had produced over 850 sheets of drawings, many of which have never been published. These have now been acquired by Seaforth and this is the second of a planned series of albums on selected themes, reproducing complete sheets at a large page size, with an expert commentary and captioning. The initial volumes concentrate on British naval weaponry used in the Second World War, thus completing the project John Lambert was working on when he died. His interest was always focused on smaller warships and his weapons drawings tend to be of open mountings - the kind that present a real challenge to modelmakers - rather than enclosed turret guns, but he also produced drawings of torpedo tubes, underwater weapons, fire-control directors and even some specific armament-related deck fittings. Following the first volume on destroyer armament, this one covers all such weapons carried by the various types of British escorts and minesweepers of this era, including the passive' elements like sweeping gear, decoys and electronics. The drawings are backed by introductory essays by Norman Friedman, an acknowledged authority on naval ordnance, while a selection of photographs add to the value of the book as visual reference. Over time, the series will be expanded to make this unique technical archive available in published form, a move certain to be welcomed by warship modellers, enthusiasts and the many fans of John Lambert's work.

This new title in IBN`s series of books on Italian aviation tells the story of Giuseppe De Marco, an outstanding pilot in the services of Italy during their battles in the WWI against the forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Learning to fly at the Chiribiri Aviation School, he undertook numerous tours of duty at the battlefront, before his expertise led to him becoming an instructor himself, based in Palermo, where he became involved in considerable technological experiments including the development and testing of seaplanes for combat and commercial use.

This is the story of Germany's commerce raiders of World War I, the surface ships that were supposed to starve the British Isles of the vast cargoes of vital resources being shipped from the furthest reaches of the Empire. To that end pre-war German naval strategists allocated a number of cruisers and armed, fast ocean liners, as well as a complex and globe-spanning supply network to support them - known as the Etappe network. This book, drawing on technical illustrations and the author's exhaustive research, explains the often overlooked role that the commerce raiders played in World War I. Whilst exploring the design and development of the ships, it also describes their operational history, how they tied up a disproportionate amount of the British fleet on lengthy pursuits, and how certain raiders such as the SMS Emden were able to wreak havoc across the oceans.

A celebrated annual publication featuring the latest research on history, development, and service of the world's warships. For 45 years, Warship has been the leading annual resource on the design, development, and deployment of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery, and much more, maintaining the impressive standards of scholarship and research with which Warship has become synonymous. Detailed and accurate information is the keynote of all the articles, which are fully supported by plans, data tables, and stunning photographs. The varied topics in this year's annual includes articles on the Imperial Japanese Navy carriers Soryu and Hiryu, post-war radar development in the Royal Navy, gunboats in the Imperial German Navy, Soviet battleship designs of the early Second World War, modern European frigates, and the origins of the Yokosuka naval yard.

A concise illustrated history of the Special Air Service's lightweight, heavily armed vehicles and their combat use. The SAS, the world's most famous special operations unit, made its name in the desert of North Africa, shooting up Axis airfields from specially modified Willys jeeps. Following the start of the El Alamein offensive in October 1942, the SAS used jeeps effectively in reconnoitring and ambushing the retreating Afrika Korps. After the conclusion of the North African campaign, the Willys underwent several small but significant changes, including the introduction of the .303 Browning machine gun. Between June and October 1944, the SAS brigade operated deep inside Occupied France, harassing Germans reinforcements heading to Normandy, calling up air strikes on installations, and carrying out reconnaissance missions - all made possible with jeeps dropped by the RAF. Jeeps were also used in the push into Germany in the spring of 1945. Transported across the Rhine in 'Buffalo' amphibious landing craft, they formed part of the vanguard of the Allied advance, and their agility, speed and firepower proved crucial in crushing fanatical pockets of Nazi resistance. 22SAS in 1952, the regiment adopted the Series 1 Land Rover - introduced in 1948 - as the successor to the Willys jeep. A decade later the Regiment updated to the Series IIA 90 Land Rover, which saw service in the Oman and Aden, where its distinctive colour led to the 'Pink Panther' nickname. In the 1970s, the SAS begin using Range Rovers for covert operations while the Land Rover 110 HCPU became the SAS's new Desert Patrol Vehicle (DPV) in the 1991 Gulf War. This book describes the successful deployment of these combat vehicles in SAS operations from the Second World War to the present day and gives a rare insight into one of the most prestigious and secret forces of modern times.

When the revolutionary twin jet-powered Arado Ar 234 first appeared in the skies over north-west Europe in the summer of 1944, it represented the state-of-the-art in terms of aeronautical and technical development. The Ar 234 was a formidable aircraft - powered by Jumo 004Bs, the same engine used by the Me 262, and with a maximum speed of 735 km/h and range of 1600 km/h, it was very difficult for the Allies to 'catch'. Here was a machine that with its superior speed could operate with impunity as both a bomber and in the reconnaissancerole. As such, the aircraft became the world's first reconnaissance jet, undertaking secret, high-speed, high-altitude observation missions for the German High Command over the Allied beachheads in Normandy and other Allied strongholds. Astonishingly, in September 1944 and as late as 1945, lone Ar 234s conducted reconnaissance flights over British ports and theMediterranean. The aircraft was equally efficient as a jet bomber - although the Ar 234B-2 bomber variant carried no defensive gun armament, it was able to deliver 1000 kg of bombs at high-speed and at either low- or high-level with considerable and devastating accuracy. This highly detailed title from renowned aviation historian Robert Forsyth explores the history of this incredible aircraft, from its development in the early 1940s to its deployment in both reconnaissance and bomber roles throughout the rest of the war. The masterful text is supported by stunning, specially commissioned artwork.

In the late 1960s, the patriarch of Soviet aircraft design, Andrey Tupolev, offered the Soviet air force a supersonic bomber to replace the 1950s-vintage Tu-22 Blinder with a less capable -- but cheaper -- alternative to the Sukhoi design bureau's proposed T-4 strategic bomber. Tupolev did not offer it as an "all-new" aircraft but, instead, passed it off as a "massive upgrade" of the Blinder. Thus was born the Tu-22M, Tupolev's first aircraft with variable swept wings and the ability to carry both bombs and supersonic cruise missiles. In the West the new bomber became known as the Backfire. First flown in 1969, the aircraft entered production in 1972. The most widespread version was the Tu-22M3, which soldiers on today with the Russian air force. The Backfire has had an active career both in Cold War operations and in "hot" wars, from Afghanistan to Syria, where it has participated in the global war on terrorism. This book describes the Tu-22M's development, including the latest upgrades, and its Soviet and post-Soviet operations. Fleet lists are included, as is a detailed design description, and a wealth of colour profiles and line drawings.

Faced with an increasingly formidable anti-ship cruise missile threat from the Soviet Union in the early days of the Cold War, and with the recent memory of the kamikaze threat from World War II, the USN placed a great priority on developing air defence cruise missiles and getting them to sea to protect the fleet. The first of these missiles were sizable, necessitating large ships to carry them and their sensors, which resulted in the conversion of a mix of heavy and light cruisers. These ships, tasked with protecting carrier groups and acting as flagships, entered service from 1955 and served until 1980. The cruisers served in the front lines of the Cold War and many saw combat service, engaging in surface actions from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. Complementing the conventionally-powered missile cruisers was a much smaller number of expensive nuclear-powered cruisers, including the Long Beach, the USN's largest-ever missile cruiser. Until replaced by the Ticonderoga and Burke classes of Aegis ships, the USN's 38 missile cruisers were the most capable and important surface combatants in the fleet and served all over the globe during the Cold War. Using specially commissioned artwork and meticulous research, this illustrated title explores the story of these cruisers in unparalleled detail, revealing the history behind their development and employment.

In 1961 the first Armoured Fighting Vehicles appeared in the ever-expanding range of Airfix kits. The 1960s and 1970s are considered by many as the golden age of kit building and the enthusiastic schoolboys and young men building these kits became known as the Airfix Generation. The hobby went into decline in the 1990s as plastic kits gave way to video games, but the hobby has recently undergone a revival as the original members of the Airfix Generation, now at the end of careers and family commitments, take a nostalgic look back at their childhoods. Some, like the author, will become once again absorbed by the hobby, but many will be content to buy a few old kits - others are coming to the hobby from an entirely new perspective. All will be delighted to find a new book that tells the early days of the hobby from a model tank perspective. Here, Tom Cole concentrates on the kits from Britain's Airfix and Matchbox and looks at the early imports from Japan, in the form of Fujimi and Nitto, and the European Esci.

The F-4 Phantom II is perhaps the most famous post-war fighter. Primarily used as a land-based fighter-bomber and reconnaissance platform, its naval origins and the immense contribution made to the US war effort in Vietnam by its original carrier-based versions began its legend. This title examines the unique aspects of the Phantom that made it so crucial to US Navy pilots during the Vietnam War - its massive engine power, long range, speed, the most powerful airborne search and fire-control radar installed in a fighter at the time, and of course its versatility as a ground attack and air-to-air platform. Packed with first hand accounts, unique profile artwork and rare photographs this is the history of one of the most important aircraft to be stationed on carriers off Southeast Asia during the war.

A new illustrated history and analysis of Italy's World War II destroyers, a formidable foe for Allied forces attempting to attack the sea lanes between Italy and North Africa. The Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marine or RM) began the Second World War with one of the largest fleets in the world. Included in it was a total of 59 fleet destroyers, with others added during the war. These were a diverse collection of ships dating back to the First World War with large destroyers built to counter ships of similar size introduced in the French Navy (the RM's historical enemy), and medium-sized ships which constituted the bulk of the destroyer force. RM destroyers were built for high speed, not endurance since they were only expected to operate inside the Mediterranean. They were also well-armed, but lacked radar. During the war, RM destroyers fought well. With the exception of a small force based in Abyssinia which fought a series of battles in the Red Sea against the British, RM destroyers were active in the Mediterranean. The primary mission of the RM during the war was to keep the supply lines to North Africa open. The Italians were largely successful in this effort, and destroyers were key. RM destroyers were present at every fleet action with the British Mediterranean Fleet. The intensity of these actions is reflected by the fact that the RM lost 51 destroyers during the war.

Air power has come to be seen as a country's first line of defence, but in the First World War views were vastly different. Aircraft was a novelty not always welcomed by the traditionalist military and there were no tactics, doctrine or strategies available for the deployment of air power. Yet, within four years, proponents of the new force were making claims, often extravagant ones, about what aircraft could achieve. In this book, Robert Grattan traces the remarkable history of the emergence of air power as a force to reckoned with and discusses its dramatic impact on military strategy in the First World War. Discussing the details of aircrafts, their engines and manufacture, including the Fokker, Bristol Fighter, the Zeppelin and the DH2, the weaponry and prominent figures, such as Albert Ball and Werner Voss, The Origins of Air War is indispensable for military historians, aviation and military enthusiasts as well as those interested in strategy.

Following the cataclysmic losses suffered in World War I, air power theorists in Europe advocated for long-range bombers to overfly the trenches and strike deep into the enemy's heartland. The bombing of cities was seen as a means to collapse the enemy's will to resist and bring the war to a quick end. In the United States, airmen called for an independent air force, but with the nation's return to isolationism, there was little appetite for an offensive air power doctrine. By the 1930s, however, a cadre of officers at the US Army Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) had articulated an operational concept of high-altitude daylight precision bombing (HADPB) that would be the foundation for a uniquely American vision of strategic air attack. In Lectures of the Air Corps Tactical School and American Strategic Bombing in World War II editor Phil Haun brings together nine ACTS lecture transcripts, which have been preserved in Air Force archives, exactly as delivered to the airmen destined to lead the US Army Air Forces in World War II. Presented is a distinctive American strategy of high-altitude daylight precision bombing as told through lectures given at the ACTS during the interwar period and how these airmen put the theory to the test. The book examines the Air Corps theory of HADPB as compared to the reality of combat in World War II by relying on recent, revisionist histories that have given scholars a deeper understanding of the impact of strategic bombing on Germany.