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Legion versus Phalanx
From the time of Ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder with shields interlocking, the men of the phalanx presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. Until, that is, the Roman legion emerged to challenge them as masters of infantry battle.
Covering the period in which the legion and phalanx clashed (280-168 BC), Myke Cole delves into their tactics, arms and equipment, organization and deployment. Drawing on original primary sources to examine six battles in which the legion fought the phalanx - Heraclea (280 BC), Asculum (279 BC), Beneventum (275 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and Pydna (168 BC) - he shows how and why the Roman legion, with its flexible organization, versatile tactics and iron discipline, came to eclipse the hitherto untouchable Hellenistic phalanx and dominate the ancient battlefield.
The Third Reich is Listening
The success of the Allied codebreakers at Bletchley Park was one of the iconic intelligence achievements of World War II, immortalised in films such as The Imitation Game and Enigma. But cracking Enigma was only half of the story. Across the Channel, German intelligence agencies were hard at work breaking British and Allied codes.
The Third Reich is Listening is a gripping blend of modern history and science, and describes the successes and failures of Germany's codebreaking and signals intelligence operations from 1935 to 1945. The first mainstream book that takes an in-depth look at German cryptanalysis in World War II, it tells how the Third Reich broke the ciphers of Allied and neutral countries, including Great Britain, France, Russia and Switzerland.
This book offers a dramatic new perspective on one of the biggest stories of World War II, using declassified archive material and colourful personal accounts from the Germans at the heart of the story, including a former astronomer who worked out the British order of battle in 1940, a U-Boat commander on the front line of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the German cryptanalyst who broke into and read crucial codes of the British Royal Navy.
On a Knife's Edge
Late 1942 saw the strategic situation on the Eastern Front change completely. The encirclement of Paulus' Sixth Army in Stalingrad trapped a significant portion of the Wehrmacht's combat forces in the ruins of the devastated city, where they would ultimately die or be taken prisoner, but at the same time the entire German position was left in a catastrophic state.
The year's campaign had seen the Germans advance first east, but then increasingly to the south and southeast; the Soviet counter-offensive not only isolated Sixth Army, it also raised the possibility of the collapse of the entire front. The ultimate failure of the Red Army to achieve this is due in no small part to the efforts of one of the Wehrmacht's greatest commanders: Erich von Manstein, who rebuilt the German front line and fought a mobile campaign, in which all the strengths of the German forces, and all the weaknesses of their Soviet opponents, were revealed. Written by one of the world's leading experts on the Eastern Front, On a Knife's Edge, is a story of brilliant generalship, lost opportunities and survival in the harshest theatre of war.
Charlie Company's Journey Home
The Boys of '67 and the War They Left Behind
The human experience of the Vietnam War is almost impossible to grasp - the camaraderie, the fear, the smell, the pain. Men were transformed into soldiers, and then into warriors.
These warriors had wives who loved them and shared in their transformations. Some marriages were strengthened, while for others there was all too often a dark side, leaving men and their families emotionally and spiritually battered for years to come.
Focusing in on just one company's experience of war and its eventual homecoming, Andrew Wiest shines a light on the shared experience of combat and both the darkness and resiliency of war's aftermath.
Chinese Soldier vs Japanese Soldier
In July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident sparked a bloody conflict between Chinese and Japanese forces that would rage across China and beyond for more than eight years.
The two sides' forces brought very different strengths and limitations to the conflict. In 1937 China was divided into factions, each controlled by warlords with independent forces, and there was no unified Chinese army. In order to fight the Japanese Chiang Kai-shek, the nominal leader of Nationalist China, was compelled to do deals with these regional powers. For their part, the Japanese employed ground forces broadly comparable to those fielded by Western powers, including modern artillery and tanks. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and drawing upon an array of sources, this study investigates the origins, training, doctrine and armament of the Chinese and Japanese forces who fought in the opening stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
B-52 Stratofortress vs SA-2 "Guideline" SAM
Ever since its introduction in the late 1950s, the B-52 Stratofortress has been the United States' primary heavy bomber and a powerful symbol of its immense military might. Its powerful electronic countermeasures equipment (ECM) was thought to make the B-52 immune to ground-to-air missile attack, but in Vietnam, and later conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm in 1991, it came up against the Soviet-designed SA-2 SAM which used heavy salvoes of missiles to bring down the bombers.
The losses of several of its most feared, powerful and supposedly invincible bombers per night to a torrent of Soviet missiles during the closing stages of the Vietnam War was sobering to Americans, but the B-52s' crushing attacks virtually eliminated North Vietnam's defences and forced a peace settlement. This fascinating book analyses the roles of the SA-2 operators and the B-52 Electronic Warfare Officers (EWOs) using specially commissioned artwork as well as first-hand accounts, and traces the cat-and-mouse tactics that each side employed.
Dutch Navies of the 80 Years' War 1568–1648
The tiny new state of the United Provinces of the Netherlands won its independence from the mighty Spanish empire by fighting and winning the Eighty Years' War, from 1568 and 1648. In this long conflict, warfare on water played a much bigger role in determining the ultimate victor.
On the high seas the fleet carved out a new empire, growing national income to such levels that it could continue the costly war for independence. Yet it was in coastal and inland waters that the most decisive battles were fought. Arguably the most decisive Spanish siege (Leiden, 1574) was broken by a fleet sailing to the rescue across flooded polders, and the battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600, the largest successful invasion fleet before World War II, was one of the most decisive battle in western history. Using detailed full colour artwork, this book shows how the Dutch navies fought worldwide in their war of independence, from Brazil to Indonesia, and from the Low Countries to Angola.
Peckuwe 1780
As the Revolutionary War raged on fields near the Atlantic, Native Americans and British rangers fought American settlers on the Ohio River frontier in warfare of unsurpassed ferocity. When their attacks threatened to drive the Americans from their settlements in Kentucky, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and other frontiersmen guided an army of 970 Kentuckians into what is now Ohio to attack the principal Native American bases from which the raids emanated. This superbly illustrated book traces Colonel George Rogers Clark's lightning expedition to destroy Chalawgatha and Peckuwe, and describes how on 8 August 1780 his Kentuckians clashed with an army of 450 Native Americans, under Black Hoof, Buckongahelas and Girty, at the battle of Peckuwe. It would be the largest Revolutionary War battle on the Ohio River frontier.
Sink the Tirpitz 1942–44
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Stalin requested help from the Western Allies. The result was the Arctic Convoys - the opening of a sea route from Britain to Northern Russia, used to supply the Soviets with vitally-needed war materials. This route passed close to German-occupied Norway, and so in January 1942 the newly-completed battleship Tirpitz - sister of the Bismarck - was sent there, to form the core of the naval force stationed in Northern Norway to intercept these convoys. For more than two years, Tirpitz remained a latent threat to the Allies, and despite fuel shortages her occasional sorties posed a grave threat to Allied shipping. So, the sinking of the battleship became a major priority for the British. The fjords where she lurked were strongly-defended, rendering naval attack virtually impossible. So, unless she could be caught at sea, she had to be destroyed by other means.
In the spring of 1942 the Royal Air Force launched three heavy bombing raids on the battleship's anchorage, but no hits were scored. The following autumn she was damaged during a midget submarine attack, and moved to a more secure anchorage. A lack of bombers caused a hiatus in these air attacks, but they were resumed in 1944, by which time the Fleet Air Arm had the resources to join in the air campaign. The most sustained of these naval air operations was Operation Goodwood, but like the others, its results were disappointing. It was now clear that only heavy bombers dropping especially heavy bombs could do the job. So, that autumn the RAF launched the first of three large-scale attacks using Lancaster bombers armed with enormous Tallboy bombs. In the first, codenamed Operation Parvane, the Tirpitz was badly damaged. In the third air attack, carried out in November 1944, the battleship was hit three times, and she capsized and sank, taking most of her crew down with her. Her passing broke German naval power in Arctic waters, which in turn allowed the Allies to divert their naval resources to the Pacific, where the ocean-wide campaign was reaching its climax.
The air campaign against the Tirpitz was one of vital strategic importance, and while low-key compared to air operations over mainland Europe, it was one where a single bomb could dramatically influence the course of the war. These British airmen faced tough opposition from the weather, terrain, ground defences, the Luftwaffe and from the well-armed battleship herself, which, while rendering it tough for them, make this a dramatic story of air power's triumph against the odds. Technically, the 1944 air campaign was a test bed for a new generation of super-bomb. The Tallboy, designed by Barnes-Wallis of Dambuster fame, was a five ton "seismic bomb", capable of destroying the battleship when other more conventional ordnance had failed. These ground-breaking bombs were the forerunners of the devastating bunker-busting weaponry of the post-war era.
British Destroyer vs German Destroyer
The opening months of World War II saw Britain's Royal Navy facing a resurgent German navy, the Kriegsmarine. Following the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in early April 1940, British and German destroyers would clash in a series of battles for control of the Norwegian coast. The operational environment was especially challenging, with destroyer crews having to contend with variable weather, narrow coastal tracts and possibility of fog and ship breakdowns.
In two engagements at Narvik, the Royal Navy entered the harbour and attacked the loitering German destroyers who had dropped off mountain troops to support the German invasion. The raids were devastating, halving at a stroke the number at Hitler's disposal. Employing specially commissioned artwork and drawing upon a range of sources, this absorbing study traces the evolving technology and tactics employed by the British and German destroyer forces, and assesses the impact of the Narvik clashes on both sides' subsequent development and deployment of destroyers in a range of roles across the world's oceans.
Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago: Destiny's Call
Samir is a thief, a street-urchin from Yad Sha'Rib, greatest city in the Empire. Like the city itself, he carries a secret; Samir is descended from the Heritors, powerful warriors who once drank from the fabled Crystal Pool. Though he dreams of one day saving his people from slavery and oppression, Samir keeps his nascent powers hidden lest he meets the same fate as his father - a slow death in the dungeons, where the grand vizier, Zhar-Marrhad, conducts dark experiments to unlock the Heritors' secrets.
When the Ghost Archipelago appears once more everything changes. Feeling the pull of the Lost Isles in his blood, Samir suddenly finds himself the centre of attention after a life of anonymity. Charmed by a self-styled Pirate Prince, shadowed by a beautiful assassin, and hunted by the ruthless Zhar-Marrhad, Samir must navigate a world of treachery and deceit as he sets sail for the Ghost Archipelago. Only there can he unlock the secrets of his Heritor powers. Only then can he answer his destiny's call.
Imjin River 1951
After China's November 1950 intervention in the war and the subsequent battle of the Chosin Reservoir, UN forces faced a new onslaught in the spring of 1951 with over 350,000 veteran troops attacking along the Imjin River.The US 3rd Infantry Division took the brunt of the attack along with the attached British 29th Infantry Brigade which included the Gloucestershire Regiment (the "Glosters”). The heroic defence of the American and British forces would pass into legend, most especially the doomed effort of the Glosters, as they sought to buy time for the rest of the UN forces to regroup and organise an effective defence of Seoul, the South Korean capital city. Featuring full colour commissioned artwork, maps and first-hand accounts, this is the compelling story of one of the most epic clashes of the Korean War.
Israeli Paratroopers 1954–2016
From the creation of the first volunteer paratroop unit shortly after the birth of Israel and of the Israeli Defense Force, this arm of service has been recognized as elite. They have also been the first choice for daring special missions, and it is mainly from their ranks that Israel's Special Forces units have been recruited. A unique aspect of the Israeli military is the cross-posting of officers from the airborne, armoured and other units, to ensure that all unit commanders share their aggressive qualities and thorough understanding of the capabilities of all arms. In this way the influence of the paratroop arm has been out of proportion to its size.
This fully illustrated study is a complete history of Israeli paratroopers from its creation to the present day, including relevant developments in their role and organization, as well as their achievements and setbacks in conflicts such as the Six Days War and Yom Kippur War.
Dornier Do 335
The Dornier Do 335 was conceived as a high-speed, all-weather fighter, and represented the pinnacle of piston-engined aircraft design. The Do 335 was a big aircraft, weighing just over 10,000kg when laden with fuel, equipment, and pilot, yet powered by two Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines, it was capable of reaching a maximum speed of 750km/h at 6400 meters, making it the fastest piston engine aircraft produced in Germany during World War II.
Some forty aircraft were built between late 1943 and the end of the war, and it was intended to deploy the type as a day fighter, bomber, night fighter, bad weather interceptor, and reconnaissance aircraft, all of which were intended to incorporate the latest armament, bomb sights, communications, and radar equipment, as well as an ejector seat. Featuring archive photography and specially commissioned artwork, this is the full story of the aircraft that the Luftwaffe hoped would turn the tide of the war.
Osprey Publishing Ltd
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