'A no holdout account of the Falklands War from a man who was in the fight.' Andy McNab Tony Hoare always knew he wanted to be in the SAS and so, after working his way through the ranks, he passed arduous SAS selection in 1978. Less than four years later, Tony and his team were sent to the Falklands, just off the coast of Argentina, where tensions were rising and war was on the horizon. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened over the course of the next 12 weeks, as the Falkland Islands became a battleground between the British and Argentinians. As helicopters crashed and ships sank, Tony battled across treacherous terrain to help reclaim the islands from a fearsome enemy. This is a thrilling account of the Falklands from a trooper who saw it all.

Through in-depth research and interviews with veterans, William Fowler has produced the most complete history of this elite and elusive unit to date. Out of Africa 1941 - 1943 Into Italy 1943 - 1945 Overlord and Europe 1944 - 1945 Post War Phoenix Malaya 1948 - 1960 The Confrontation 1962 - 1966 Oman 1970 - 1976 The Cold War 1945 - 1990 The Falklands Interlude 1982 The First Gulf War 1990 - 1991 Back to Africa 1981 - 2000 Balkan interlude 1994 - Afghanistan 2001 - The Second Gulf War 2003 C Squadron to 1 SAS Regiment (Rhodesia) 1951 - 1980 Enter the Kiwis 1954 - The Australian Experience 1957 - The Future

This fascinating look at the life of a modern-day professional soldier gives the reader an inside view of the deadly global war on terror. Herd argues that conflicting political objectives have muddied the way forward for the on-the-ground commanders and thus threaten the prospect of any real victory in Afghanistan. He uses everyday stories to make his points: ""One of the local leaders pointed to his wrist and said to my interpreter, 'the Americans have all the watches but we have all the time.' That made a lasting impression on me."" Colonel Herd was one of the highest ranking officers on the ground with a command of some 4,000 elite soldiers from all branches of the U.S. military and five other coalition nations. It was a mission he had trained for all of his life. A sixth-generation soldier, Herd became a master parachutist, a combat scuba diver, a Green Beret and an Army Ranger. He conducted combat missions against the Taliban by using the Special Forces mandate of working by, with and through the local population.

This new book is a historical account of the 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division (also known as the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army). In 1943/1944 a determined group of young men and women in Galicia volunteered to serve in a combat division destined for eastern front combat. Their goal: to engage and destroy the Soviet hordes menacing their homeland and to counter Nazi Germany's subjugation of their country. Although initially Galicia's Volunteers would serve in a German sponsored military formation, in actuality the volunteers of the Galicia division wanted to engage all hostile ideologies-both from the east and west-in order to secure a free independent Ukraine. The division's history is presented along with a human aspect of what the soldiers endured during the brutal battles on the eastern front.

Iran is a country at war - in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, always told audiences that the revolution was not about Iran, but the whole region. To establish an arc of Shia influence across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic created the Quds Force, the extraterritorial branch of its Revolutionary Guards. Hundreds of thousands of Shia youths were recruited, trained, armed, and organized in militia groups across the region. The book tells the story of how the Quds Force and its Shia militias fought on the three fronts to advance the Islamic Republic's militant interpretation of Shia Islam and create a contiguous land corridor linking Iran through Iraq to Syria, Lebanon, and the Israeli northern fronts. The Iran-led operations are creating enormous political and security challenges for the Sunni Arabs and all regional powers, creating further instabilities in an already turbulent Middle East, with specters of direct military conflicts looming, pitting Iran against the Arab states and Israel.

This book covers the use and development of the Panzer 35(t) armored fighting vehicle.

25 Days to Aden is the story of how in a week in 2015 the Gulf States pulled together a ten-nation coalition and the biggest military operation they ever launched unilaterally. It is an amazing account of Arab militaries doing what America would not, preventing Iran from taking a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula. The risks for global security were huge: Iran already overshadowed one of the world's greatest maritime straits, at Hormuz, and now it sought to dominate the southern approaches to the Suez Canal as well. Aden had to hold out against the Houthis. The Gulf States were used to America stepping up at such moments, but the White House was partway through negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. No help would come from Washington. Instead, for the first time, the Gulf States acted alone. Told by an expert communicator on the region, it is a unique story. If the US is truly a global empire in decline, then the story may hold important pointers for a future of warfare driven by emergent powers in the gap left by the withdrawal of American influence.

How have the U.S. Army Rangers acted as special operations forces in military operations since 1942? Hogan's study examines the nature and purpose of the Rangers over the past fifty years and shows how they have served as scouts, raiders, assault troops, and elite infantry. They have spearheaded amphibious landings, raided enemy prison camps, patrolled behind enemy lines in Korea, served alongside Green Berets in Vietnam, and carried out special missions in Grenada. Professional officers, military historians, students, and general readers will find this a fascinating history. This analytical account opens with a short description of the origins of the Ranger legend in America and then moves to a discussion of their use in World War II, as commandos in 1942, then as spearheaders in 1943 and 1944, as line infantry in Europe and as special operations forces in the Pacific. This provocative assessment also traces the development of Ranger raider units in Korea, the special training and use of Green Berets as Rangers in Vietnam, and the shifting of Ranger roles into more complex and varied types of operations in Vietnam and Grenada and in a world of increasing terrorism and changing combat situations. Illustrations, maps, and a lengthy bibliography add to the usefulness of the study.

These 100 skills, adapted for civilians from actual field experiences of Special Forces operations, offer a complete hands-on and practical guide to help you survive in the wild no matter the climate or terrain; be prepared for any crisis; and have the critical life-saving knowledge for staying safe in any hostile environment or disaster. 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition is what you need for today's world, combining survival hacks developed on the battlefield with the low-tech tools you have on hand. This book is your essential prep manual, from securing shelter, building fire, finding food, and navigating back to civilization no matter the environment to thinking like a special forces solider so that you can survive a hostage situation, an active shooter, a suicide bomber, or a terrorist threat on the subway, and even apply trauma medicine as a first responder. Full of specific scenarios to help you get in the mind-set of survival, 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition is better than a Swiss Army knife whether you're lost at sea, forced to land a plane, fighting off a bear, or deciding whether to run, hide, or fight. Next to each skill are easy-to-grasp detailed illustrations, because when you need to survive the apocalypse, you don't have time for complicated instructions.

The Marine Corps has always considered itself a breed apart. Since 1775, America s smallest armed service has been suspicious of outsiders and deeply loyal to its traditions. Marines believe in nothing more strongly than the Corps uniqueness and superiority, and this undying faith in its own exceptionalism is what has made the Marines one of the sharpest, swiftest tools of American military power. Along with unapologetic self-promotion, a strong sense of identity has enabled the Corps to exert a powerful influence on American politics and culture.

Aaron O Connell focuses on the period from World War II to Vietnam, when the Marine Corps transformed itself from America s least respected to its most elite armed force. He describes how the distinctive Marine culture played a role in this ascendancy. Venerating sacrifice and suffering, privileging the collective over the individual, Corps culture was saturated with romantic and religious overtones that had enormous marketing potential in a postwar America energized by new global responsibilities. Capitalizing on this, the Marines curried the favor of the nation s best reporters, befriended publishers, courted Hollywood and Congress, and built a public relations infrastructure that would eventually brand it as the most prestigious military service in America.

But the Corps triumphs did not come without costs, and O Connell writes of those, too, including a culture of violence that sometimes spread beyond the battlefield. And as he considers how the Corps interventions in American politics have ushered in a more militarized approach to national security, O Connell questions its sustainability."

The 7th Panzer Divison was one of the outstanding armored units of World War II, and became famous during the Battle of France in 1940 with Erwin Rommel as its commander. This photographic chronicle, by famed Knights Cross holder Hasso v. Manteuffel, traces the path of the 7th PD through its entire war history on a variety of fronts.

nside these pages you will meet over 960 infamous men - the officers of Nazi Germany's Totenkopf (Death's Head). You will encounter the 256 SS officers who worked at Dachau - the SS concentration camp that doubled as a training school for death. You will encounter twelve SS officers who served in Treblinka and the other very secret camps of Operation Reinhard - Heinrich Himmler's extermination plan for the Jews of Poland. And, you will confront the 161 SS officers who ran the largest killing center of all time - Auschwitz. These officers of the Death's Head, many of whom later served in the Waffen-SS, were not the bureaucrats who meticulously planned Adolf Hitler's Final Solution from behind a desk in Berlin, or those who quietly scheduled the trains that carried the victims to the camps. Quite the contrary; these men stood on the front-line of the Nazi war to exterminate the Jews - they poured the gas pellets, they conducted the gruesome medical experiments, they supervised the crematoria, they smelled the stench of death, they heard the screams, they ordered the guards to shoot. They were The Camp Men - and they were at the heart of darkness. The photographic section of the book, with well over one hundred photographs - a large portion previously unpublished - is the largest collection of photographs of SS camp personnel ever to appear in one work. The images come from the extensive files of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Berlin Document Center, Yad Vashem and many other institutional collections. There are additionally photographs from private sources, including almost twenty rare pictures from the Gross-Rosen camp kommandant's personal photograph album.

Special Forces soldiers are not only ultimate warriors, they also have fitness and endurance levels equivalent, even beyond, world-class athletes. Whether conducting 30km route marches with 50kg of pack, or surviving the `iron man' standards of amphibious warfare training, the military elite have much to teach us about ultimate fitness. Elite Forces Extreme Fitness is a complete guide for those wanting to use military expertise to take their fitness to the maximum. It provides authoritative advice on how to develop ultra-high levels of stamina, endurance and strength, and then apply those levels to some of the world's greatest fitness challenges. The book begins with informative chapters on preparation and military training regimes, then explores running, aquatic events, weight training and cross-training in detail. In these chapters, the text delivers essential advice from professional military PT instructors, as well as exploring some of the world's greatest extreme fitness challenges and how to face them. Finally, the book uses the latest research to explain methods of improving physical performance through psychological techniques, plus looks at the critical issue of injuries - how to avoid them and how to recover from them. With more than 150 easy-to-follow artworks, training tips and workouts used by the U.S. Navy SEALs and British Royal Marines, amongst other formations, Extreme Fitness is the definitive guide for the person who wants to be their best.

Each recipient is presented in a capsule biography including dates of birth, awarding of the various Knights Cross grades, and other particulars to rank and career. Each is also shown in a World War II era photograph.

Author Lena Sisco, a former Department of Defense Military Interrogator and U.S. Navy officer, takes the reader through the missions and personal lives of U.S. Marines who have been forward-deployed in hostile environments all across the Middle East. She shows how they use the mastery of their sniper skills to mitigate threats and negate the enemy's ability to disrupt U.S. operations. Her book lets you feel the stress and anxiety of their operational tempo; you witness their successes and failures, their struggles, and lessons learned. Snipers are highly trained, brave, silent warriors. They undergo specialized training and operate independently with little support from their parent commands, close to enemy positions. Snipers are chosen based on their marksmanship, mental stability, patience, and physical ability. They stalk the enemy, while concealed in their operational overwatches, to protect our checkpoints and convoys, and to direct action missions. Despite the renown of Chris Kyle and the extraordinary success of the book and movie American Sniper, snipers do not have lead lives of glory and fame; their lives are a struggle. Serving as a sniper requires that you do your job successfully every time, because the consequences of not being successful include the loss of innocent lives, or living with other consequences that can haunt a shooter till the day he dies. In the end, just like any other service members, they put their lives on the line - willingly - to defend our freedom and liberties, and our country.

Detailed photos of all Panzer types used between 1935-1945 in over 400 large format photos.

The first detailed account in English of the battle that defined the elite unit's fidelity to the mission. The battle was fought at Camerone, some 40 miles west of Vera Cruz, Mexico, on April 30, 1863; the opponents were the half-strength 3d Company, 1st Battalion, of the Legion opposed by more than 2,000 Mexican regulars and guerrillas. After several fights against the Mexican lancers just beyond the deserted La Trinidad Hacienda at Camerone, the 3d took cover behind the old walls of the hacienda. There, for ten hours the Legion withstands repeated assaults from a Mexican force that grew to more than 2,000 men. Finally, the surviving officer and four men of the 3d charge into the midst of the massed "juaristaS." The officer is mortally wounded, two men are killed, the other two captured. The Legion has never regarded Camerone as a defeat but rather as the prime example of fidelity to the mission. Annually, on April 30, Legion units, whether in peace or war, commemorate the gallantry of the 3d of the 1st.

In The Greatest Special Ops Stories Ever Told, editor Tom McCarthy has pulled together some of the finest writings about Special Operations that capture readers imaginations, meticulously culled from books, magazines, movies, and elsewhere. It is an unforgettable collection, and includes stories by Marcus Luttrell (author of Lone Survivor), Mark Owen (author of No Easy Day; the Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden), William Morgan, Christian McBurney, James Otis, H. Beam Piper, Duane Schultz, Hampton Sides, Michael Haas, Ben S. Malcolm, and many others. It includes legendary tales from the French and Indian Wars up through present-day Afghanistan and Iraq. We've all read about the killing of Bin Laden and the heroics of Chris Kyle and the SEALs and other special forces teams. Who hasn't seen or heard about the extraordinary success of the book and movie American Sniper? But what many people don't know is that they follow in a direct line from the earlier and equally lethal efforts of Special Forces in wars throughout our history. Special Operations have been going on since man first started fighting--from the Trojan War (think Trojan horse) to the American Revolution and the Civil War, and from World War II to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In one place, The Greatest Special Ops Stories Ever Told pulls together all of the greatest tales.

U.S. Army Rangers & Special Forces of World War II tells the story of the U.S. Army's elite Rangers and special forces largely through pictures. Never before has such an expansive view of World War II been offered in one volume. Furthermore, an extensive search of public and private archives unearthed an astonishing number of rare and never before seen images, some in color. Most notable are the nearly twenty exemplary photographs of Lieutenant Colonel William O. Darby's Ranger Force in Italy, taken by Robert Capa, who is considered by many to be the greatest combat photographer of all time. Complementing the period photographs are numerous color plates detailing the rare and often unique items of insignia, weaponry, and equipment that marked the soldiers whose heavy task it was to lead the way.

" Smedley Butler's life and career epitomize the contradictory nature of American military policy through the first part of this century. Butler won renown as a Marine battlefield hero, campaigning in most of America's foreign military expeditions from 1898 to the late 1920s. He became the leading national advocate for paramilitary police reform. Upon his retirement, however, he renounced war and imperialism and devoted his energy and prestige to various dissident and leftist political causes.

A moving tribute to the sacrifice and bravery of the fliers of RAF Bomber Command. ****************************** The Crew, based on interviews with Ken Cook, the crew's sole surviving member, recounts the wartime exploits of the members of an Avro Lancaster crew between 1942 and the war's end. Gloucestershire-born bomb aimer Ken Cook, hard-bitten Australian pilot Jim Comans, Navigator Don Bowes, Upper Gunner George Widdis, Tail Gunner 'Jock' Bolland, Flight Engineer Ken Randle and Radio Operator Roy Woollford were seven ordinary young men living in extraordinary times, risking their lives in freedom's cause in the dark skies above Hitler's Reich. From their earliest beginnings - in places as far apart as a Cotswold village and the suburbs of Sydney - through the adventure of training in North America and the dread and danger of the forty-five bombing raids they flew with 97 Squadron, David Price describes the crew's wartime experiences with human sympathy allied to a secure technical understanding of one of the RAF's most iconic aircraft. The drama and anxiety of individual missions - to Kassel, Munich and Augsburg as well as Berlin - is evoked with thrilling immediacy; while the military events and strategic decisions that drove the RAF's area bombing campaign against Nazi Germany are interwoven deftly with the narrative of the crew's operational careers. ****************************** Reviews: 'A sensitive account of the bomber's life ... Price has given the bomber offensive a human face. This book [...] has a heart and soul' The Times. 'A fascinating and fast-paced account of the exploits of an Avro Lancaster bomber crew from 97 Squadron RAF' The Herald. 'A remarkable insight into the bravery, determination and skill of British Bomber Command crews during WWII' Waterstones.