The Imperial Japanese Navy developed the submarine faster than any other country in the world. But as a result of rivalries between the two military hierarchies, the Army and the Navy, they never utilised the submarine to its full extent. Nevertheless, during the Second World War, Japan deployed a number of unique submarines. These included the Type B1 which carried a Yokosuka E14Y1 reconnaissance seaplane in a watertight capsule attached to the deck of the submarine. One of these aircraft carried out two bomb attacks on a forest in Oregon by dropping six incendiary bombs, taking the war to the American mainland. The use of aircraft from submarines as scout planes proved not to be as successful as hoped, mainly because of the difficulty after launching the aircraft of it finding the submarine again in the vast Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Japanese also developed the giant I-400 class submarines that carried three Sieran bombers. There were other notable actions involving IJN submarines. This included I-17 that attempted to shell, unsuccessfully, an oil refinery off the coast of Santa Barbara, causing a major panic along the West Coast of America. Also memorable are the midget submarines that attempted to attack Pearl Harbor, and the submarines that carried the one-man submarines (Kaitens) and the human torpedoes. The submarine losses suffered by the Japanese Navy as the war progressed, when Allied, and in particular US, destroyers and aircraft hunted them down are all recorded in this comprehensive account of a fascinating element of the war at sea.

If one aircraft was to represent the First World War, it could be the distinctive red Fokker Triplane of Manfred von Richthofen. With an astonishing eighty aerial victories, the Red Baron became a legend in his own, short, lifetime. Regarded as one of the most widely known fighter pilots of all time, von Richthofen is also considered to be the First World War's 'ace-of-aces'. While much is known about this German aristocrat, what this book accomplishes is a pictorial portrait of von Richthofen as has never been seen before. Through a unique collection of photographs, the life of this famous airman is laid bare. From early family photographs through to the First World War, and his initial service as a cavalry reconnaissance officer on both the Eastern and Western fronts, his flying career, and the aircraft he flew, this extensive collection provides an unrivalled window into the life of history's most celebrated fighter pilot. By 1918, von Richthofen was regarded as a national hero in Germany and respected by his enemies. However, his remarkable career came to an abrupt conclusion on 21 April 1918\. Just as the German Spring Offensive was faltering, von Richthofen's aerial armada took to the sky to engage the Sopwith Camels of 209 Squadron which had taken off to undertake an offensive patrol over the Somme. In the ensuing dogfight, von Richtofen pursued one of the Camels along the valley of the River Somme. As he crossed the Allied line he came under fire - both from the ground and from the air. Von Richtofen was fatally wounded by a single bullet which damaged his heart and lungs. Just which Allied pilot, or indeed soldier, fired the fatal shot remains in contention. Images of the stripped wreckage of his famous Fokker Triplane add a solemn, and all too graphic, coda to the life of the Red Baron.

The 'Wild West', or American Frontier as it is also known, developed in the years following the American Civil War. However, this period of myth-making cowboys, infamous gunslingers, not always law-abiding lawmen, and saloon madams, is as much the product of fiction writers and film makers as reality. The outlaw came into his, or indeed her, own in the mid to late 19th century. Some of these individuals, men such as Billy the Kid, William Clarke Quantrill, Butch Cassidy or Harry Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid, became household names. Many of those who roamed America's West in the period between 1850 and 1900 often appear as colourful, romanticised, legendary characters. This includes the likes of Frank and Jesse James, who had stepped outside the law due to the harshness of life after the Civil War or under circumstances beyond their control. The majority of outlaws, though, were anonymous common criminals. In 1877, for example, the State Adjutant General of Texas, published 'wanted posters' for some 5,000 outlaws and bandits in the Rio Grande district alone, almost all of whom have since vanished into the mists of time. When it comes to the Wild West, it is important to separate fact from fiction. Of the known recorded killings by the various outlaws and gunfighters, Billy the Kid killed four men, not the twenty that some writers attributed to him. A notorious gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin was said to have killed twenty-seven men, but was only charged with one murder. Wild Bill Hickok killed three men, two of them in Abilene whilst he was City Marshal, and one in Springfield, Missouri, for which he was tried and found not guilty. Clay Allison, however, was thought to have killed at least fifteen men in his time as a gunfighter, whilst some of the outlaw gangs, such as the Rufus Buck Gang and the Evans Gang, were particularly violent and ruthless. The days of the outlaws of the Wild West gradually came to an end at the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century. The legends, however, live on.

For most prisoners of war in the Second World War, life behind bars was nothing like the films. The tales of brave escape attempts told in accounts such as the iconic film The Great Escape are exciting enough, but how much of the detail is true? In Great Escapes ex-RAF officer and researcher for the RAF Escaping Society Terry Treadwell tells the incredible tales of some of the lesser known attempts to escape POW camps. All the amazing details are from real-life escape attempts, but as this book reveals, fact is often more extraordinary than fiction. Using personal accounts, authentic reports from German guards and debrief documents in the National Archives, Terry Treadwell traces the astounding stories of these heroic escapees. Some were successful, others not, but in each case the inspired methods devised and executed by the prisoners show bravery and ingenuity on a greater scale than any film. With incredible stories such as the Wooden Horse, the French Tunnel and the Colditz Ghost, this ground-breaking new book tells the stories of some of the bravest, and most reckless, men in history.

Without doubt it was one of the toughest jobs. Faced with ruthless criminal, trigger-happy gunslingers and assorted desperados, the lawmen of the Old West tried, and sometimes died, in their efforts to bring some semblance of order to their towns and communities. There were Marshals, City Marshals and Constables who were employed by the local townspeople and whose authority was restricted to within the town or city limits. Then there were the County Sheriffs, who were elected by the citizens of the county, to keep the peace within the county, or the Texas Rangers and Arizona Rangers, who operated under the jurisdiction of their respective state governors and later US Marshals.The United States Marshals were appointed by the President of the United States and had the authority to operate anywhere in the USA and deal with federal crime. Each of these law enforcement officers employed their own deputies, all of whom had the same powers of enforcement. Some believed that former criminals would make the most effective lawmen. Consequently, in some cases notorious gunfighters were employed as town marshals to help bring law and order to some of the most lawless of towns. These lawmen had to deal with the likes of the Dalton Gang, the James Brothers and the Rufus Buck Gang who thought nothing of raping and murdering innocent people just for the hell of it. These outlaws would frequently hide in the Indian Territory where there was no law to extradite them. The only law outside of the Indian Territory was that of Judge Isaac Parker, who administered the rules with an iron fist; the gallows at Fort Smith laid testament to his work. The requirements needed to be a peace officer in the Wild West were often determined only by the individual's skill with a gun, and their courage. At times judgement was needed with only seconds to determine it, and that also meant that there was the odd occasion where justice and law never quite meant the same thing. The expression 'justice without law' was never truer than in the formative years of the West.

The ideas behind the Grumman F-14 Tomcat first began to take shape back in the late 1950s when it was discovered that the Soviet Union was quickly developing an increasingly accurate airborne missile system that would pose a major threat to the US Navy's warships. Entering service in 1974 with VF-1 and VF-2 on USS Enterprise, the F-14 was one of the most sophisticated, reliable and deadly aircraft of its day. In this book, author Terry Treadwell looks at the development and evolution of the F-14 and its subsequent operational history with the US Navy, including encounters with Soviet-made Libyan MiG fighters over the Mediterranean as well as the 1991 Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq war. The book also looks at the sale of the F-14 to the Shah of Iran. Including more than 100 photos covering the F-14 from development through to the final stages of its career, this book will give the reader an insight into one of the most iconic aircraft of its day.

Stepping Stones to the Stars is the story of manned spaceflight from its inception to the era of the Space Shuttle. It begins with a short history of the evolution of the rocket, before describing the first manned rocket flights by both the Americans and the Russians. There is also the little-known story of what is thought to be the earliest manned rocket flight, said to have taken place in 1933 on the island of Rugen in the Baltic under the control of the German War Ministry. The story continues through Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in space and Neil Armstrong's 'giant leap for mankind' to the first space stations, Skylab, Salyut and Mir. With the development of the Shuttle, the USA moved ahead in the 'space race,' but the Americans and Russians soon realised that it was easier to co-operate than compete, and the two nations began to work together for the first time. Terry C. Treadwell's book is a non-technical history of human spaceflight, that tells the exciting and dramatic story of how we took our early steps towards the stars.