|
Showing 1 - 9 of
9 matches in All Departments
U-505 was the first enemy warship the US Navy captured at sea since
1812. This is a new account of how Captain Gallery planned and
executed the raid on his own initiative, and how his success almost
endangered the war against the U-boats. On June 4, 1944 a US Navy
antisubmarine task group in the Atlantic captured an enemy U-boat
on the high seas. It was not the first time the Allies had taken a
German U-boat as a prize, but the capture of U-505 was different.
Captain Gallery and his Task Group 22.3 devised a risky plan to
capture scuttled U-boats. This book analyses in detail Gallery's
dangerous strategy, using contemporary sources to explore why he
thought the reward was worth the risk: instead of attempting to
sink the next U-boat that surfaced among them, a destroyer escort
would send off its whaleboat. Everyone else was to smother the
U-boat with light gunfire to encourage its crew to abandon quickly.
Unaware that the Allies had already cracked the German's codes and
the capture of a U-boat could endanger that secret, Gallery hoped
to capture the vessel's codes and coding equipment to read U-boat
message traffic. The plan culminated in the capture of U-505 in
early June, which nearly caused the exposure of the Bletchley Park
codebreaking secret. Featuring contemporary photographs, specially
commissioned artwork and 3D maps, this book is a fascinating
exploration of one of the most controversial and dangerous raids,
which could have changed the outcome of World War II as we know it.
This is the first history of the legendary US Army's HAWK missile
system, the world's first mobile air-defense missile system, which
saw service and combat around the world. Designed to counteract the
threat posed by advanced 1950s Soviet-built aircraft, the first
HAWK unit became operational in 1959. At its peak, it saw frontline
service in the Far East, Panama, Europe, and in the Middle East.
Units were also used during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War,
and Persian Gulf War. In the hands of other nations, HAWK proved
its efficacy in combat during the Arab-Israeli Wars, Iran-Iraq War,
Chadian-Libyan War, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Credited with
shooting down more than 100 aircraft during its combat career, the
HAWK system was respected for its lethality. Such was Soviet
concern, that the USSR developed electronic jammers, anti-radiation
missiles, and other countermeasures specifically to degrade its
effectiveness. The US retired its HAWK systems soon after the Cold
War ended in 1991 when air defense priorities shifted from aircraft
to ballistic missile defense, yet a modernized version of the
system remains in service to this day in many nations. Packed with
archive photos and original artwork, this is the first book about
the HAWK system. Featuring research from HAWK technical and field
manuals, interviews with HAWK veterans, and detailing the authors'
personal experiences with HAWK missile units, it provides a
comprehensive study of one of the most lethal and effective air
missile systems of all time.
A history of the US Navy's remarkable 1945 South China Sea raid
against the Japanese, the first time in history that a carrier
fleet dared to rampage through coastal waters. As 1945 opened,
Japan was fighting defensively everywhere. As the Allies drew
closer to the Home Islands, risks of Japanese air and sea attack on
the US Navy carrier force increased. US forces wanted to take the
island of Luzon which provided a base for Japanese aircraft from
Formosa (Taiwan) and Indochina, and from where attacks could easily
be devastating for the invasion fleet. US Naval Intelligence also
believed Japanese battleships Ise and Hyuga were operating out of
Cam Ranh Bay. A fast carrier sweep through the South China Sea was
a potential answer with the bonus that it would strike the main
nautical highway for cargo from Japan's conquests in Southeast
Asia. Task Force 38 would spend the better part of two weeks
marauding through the South China Sea during Operation Gratitude, a
month-long sweep of the area, which launched air strikes into
harbors in Indochina, the Chinese coast and Formosa, while
targeting shipping in the high-traffic nautical highway. By the
time the Task Force exited the South China Sea, over 300,000 tons
of enemy shipping and dozens of Japanese warships had been sunk.
With follow-up air strikes against Japanese harbors and airfields
in Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands, the success of the sweep was
unprecedented. Using detailed battlescenes, maps, bird's eye views,
and diagrams of air strikes at Luzon, this intriguing account of
Task Force 38's reign in the South China Sea proved that aircraft
carriers could dominate the land-based air power of the fading
Japanese. From the Korean War through to Vietnam, to the campaigns
in Iraq, aircraft carriers could sail safely offshore, knowing
their aircraft would prevail on both sea and land.
A new illustrated study of the devastating, but little-known,
Soviet armored blitzkrieg against the Japanese in the last weeks of
World War II, and how it influenced Soviet tank doctrine as the
Cold War dawned. Although long overshadowed in the West by the
dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the USSR's
lightning strike into Manchuria in August 1945 was one of the most
successful and unique campaigns of the era. Soviet forces, led by
over 5,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, attacked across huge
distances and deserts, marshes, and mountains to smash Japan's
million-strong Kwantung Army in a matter of days. Japanese forces
were short of training and equipment, but nevertheless fought
fiercely, inflicting 32,000 casualties on the Soviets. Red Army
operations were characterized by surprise, speed, and deep
penetrations by tank-heavy forces born of the brutal lessons they
had learned during years fighting the Wehrmacht. Lessons from the
campaign directly shaped Soviet Cold War force structure and
planning for mechanized operations against the West. Illustrated
with contemporary artwork and rare photos from one of the best
collections of Soviet military photos in the West, this fascinating
book explains exactly how the last blitzkrieg of World War II was
planned, fought, and won, and how it influenced the Red Army's
plans for tank warfare against NATO in Europe.
This study explains how the armies of North and South Vietnam,
newly equipped with the most modern Soviet and US tanks and
weaponry, fought the decisive armored battles of the Easter
Offensive. Wearied by years of fighting against Viet Cong guerillas
and North Vietnamese regulars, the United States had almost
completely withdrawn its forces from Vietnam by early 1972.
Determined to halt the expansion and improvement of South
Vietnamese forces under the U.S. "Vietnamization" program, North
Vietnam launched a major fourteen-division attack in March 1972
against the South that became known as the "Easter Offensive."
Hanoi's assault was spearheaded by 1,200 tanks and was counteracted
on the opposite side by Saigon's newly equipped armored force using
U.S. medium tanks. The result was ferocious fighting between major
Cold War-era U.S. and Soviet tanks and mechanized equipment,
pitting M-48 medium and M-41 light tanks against their T- 54 and
PT-76 rivals in a variety of combat environments ranging from dense
jungle to urban terrain. Both sides employed cutting-edge weaponry
for the first time, including the U.S. TOW and Soviet 9M14 Malyutk
wire-guided anti-tank missiles. This volume examines the tanks,
armored forces and weapons that clashed in this little-known
campaign in detail, using after-action reports from the battlefield
and other primary sources to analyze the technical and
organizational factors that shaped the outcome. Despite the ARVN's
defensive success in October 1972, North Vietnam massively expanded
its armor forces over the next two years while U.S. support waned.
This imbalance with key strategic misjudgments by the South
Vietnamese President led to the stunning defeat of the South in
1975 when T54 tanks crashed through the fence surrounding the
Presidential palace and took Saigon on 30 April 1975.
A fascinating study of the specialized vehicles, kit and techniques
of the Long-Range Desert Group who pioneered long-range desert
warfare in World War II and worked closely with the embryonic SAS.
The Long Range Desert Group was one of the most famous special
units of World War II, operating heavily modified vehicles deep
behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and support the raids of
David Stirling's new Special Air Service. When war broke out, a
pre-war explorer and army officer, Ralph Bagnold, convinced Middle
East Command of the need for a reconnaissance force to penetrate
into Italian-held desert. Bagnold tested four types of vehicles
over rocks and through soft sand to find the best one for his new
unit. He selected the Chevrolet WB (30 CWT) as the signature
vehicle of the Long Range Desert Group because it is 'fast, simple
and easy to handle'. With left-hand steering, horizontal grill and
round fenders on the rear wheels, these trucks proved themselves
popular and effective. The durability of the Chevrolets was
demonstrated in January 1941 with an audacious raid on the Italian
fort/air strip at Murzuk, hundreds of miles behind enemy lines.
This book explains the detail of all the vehicles of the LRDG, as
well as their modifications, driving techniques and special kit for
surviving behind enemy lines in one of the most hostile
environments on earth.
One of the most remarkable mechanized campaigns of recent years
pitted the brutal and heavily armed jihadis of Islamic State
against an improvised force belonging to the Kurdish YPG (later the
SDF). While some Kurdish vehicles were originally from Syrian Army
stocks or captured from ISIS, many others were extraordinary
homemade AFVs based on truck or digger mechanicals, or duskas, the
Kurds' version of the technical. Before US air power was sent to
Syria, these were the Kurds' most powerful and mobile weapons.
Co-written by a British volunteer who fought with the Kurds and an
academic expert on armoured warfare, this study explains how the
Kurds built and used their AFVs in the war against 'Daesh', and
identifies as far as possible which vehicles took part in major
battles, such as Kobane, Manbij and Raqqa. With detailed new
artwork depicting the Kurds' range of armour and many previously
unpublished photos, this is an original and fascinating look at
modern improvised mechanized warfare.
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.
The Destroyer Escort was the smallest ocean- going escort built for
the United States Navy - a downsized destroyer with less speed,
fewer guns, and fewer torpedoes than its big brother, the fleet
destroyer. Destroyer escorts first went into production because the
Royal Navy needed an escort warship which was larger than a
corvette, but which could be built faster than a destroyer. Lacking
the shipyards to build these types of ships in Britain, they
ordered them in the US. Once the US unexpectedly entered World War
II, its navy suddenly also needed more escort warships, even
warships less capable than destroyers, and the destroyer escort was
reluctantly picked to fill the gap. Despite the Navy's initial
reservations, these ships did yeoman service during World War II,
fighting in both the Atlantic and Pacific, taking on both U-boat
and Japanese submarines and serving as the early warning pickets
against kamikazes later in the war. They also participated in such
dramatic actions as the Battle of Samar (where a group of
destroyers and destroyer escorts fought Japanese battleships and
cruisers to protect the escort carriers they were shielding) and
the capture of the U-505 (the only major naval vessel captured at
sea by the US Navy). The destroyer escorts soldiered on after World
War II in both the United States Navy and a large number of navies
throughout the world, with several serving into the twenty-first
century. This book tells the full story of these plucky ships, from
their design and development to their service around the world,
complete with stunning illustrations and contemporary photographs.
|
You may like...
Morbius
Jared Leto, Matt Smith, …
DVD
R179
Discovery Miles 1 790
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|