Krig

Leading expert Gavin Mortimer tells the remarkable origin story of a wartime special forces unit that defied the odds.Z Special Unit, one of the most intrepid but arguably the most unsung of Allied Special Forces of the Second World War waged a guerrilla war against Japan for two years in the south-west Pacific. On some of their 81 operations Z Special Unit slipped into enemy harbours in canoes and silently mined ships before vanishing into the night; on others they parachuted into the dense Borneo jungle to fight with headhunters against the Japanese and on one occasion they landed on an Indonesian island and smuggled out the pro-Allied sultan from under Japanese noses. The Japanese weren't the only adversary that Z Special Unit encountered in the brutal terrain of the Pacific. In the mango swamps of Borneo and the dense jungle of Papua New Guinea they were faced with venomous snakes, man-eating crocodiles and deadly diseases. But it was the enemy soldiers who proved the most ruthless foe, beheading those Z Special Unit commandos who fell into their hands.Drawing on veteran interviews as well as operational reports and recently declassified SOE files, Gavin Mortimer explores the incredible history of this remarkable special forces unit and the band of commandoes that defied the odds.

Explores the history of China from the founding of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) to the present day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this rising superpower in what promises to be the 'Chinese century'.

US Army Air Cavalry Patches: An Imperfect Album of US Army Air Cavalry Unit Insignia (2001-2021), for the first time in one place presents a collection of Air Cavalry unit insignia and patches. Collectors and historians alike will find this colorful collection which covers all air cavalry units that were active in the United States Army from September 11, 2001, until 2021 both interesting and informative. The patches and insignia are presented in full color and represent 20 years of collecting and over 3 years of research which are presented on 60 pages.

A charming and heartfelt story about war, art, and the lengths a woman will go to to find the truth about her family.'As devourable as a thriller... Incredibly moving' Elle'Pauline Baer de Perignon is a natural storyteller - refreshingly honest, curious and open' Menachem KaiserIt all started with a list of paintings. There, scribbled by a cousin she hadn't seen for years, were the names of the masters whose works once belonged to her great-grandfather, Jules Strauss: Renoir, Monet, Degas, Tiepolo and more. Pauline Baer de Perignon knew little to nothing about Strauss, or about his vanished, precious art collection.But the list drove her on a frenzied trail of research in the archives of the Louvre and the Dresden museums, through Gestapo records, and to consult with Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. What happened in 1942? And what became of the collection after Nazis seized her great-grandparents' elegant Parisian apartment?The quest takes Pauline Baer de Perignon from the Occupation of France to the present day as she breaks the silence around the wrenching experiences her family never fully transmitted, and asks what art itself is capable of conveying over time.

The aerial clashes between the iconic Corsair and Zero-sen translated into a contest of speed and altitude for the former, versus the latter's outstanding agility and range.Whilst the F4U Corsair eventually proved to be a superior fighter in Pacific operations, its introduction into combat in this theatre initially demonstrated its weaknesses. Indeed, the 'Saint Valentine's Day Massacre' debacle showcased exemplary Zero-sen fighter tactics, and American losses were of sufficient magnitude that further daylight missions toward Bougainville were discontinued until Allied fighter tactics could be improved. As a result, for the next two months the Corsair's combat results were much subdued. Indeed, the F4U only became a superb fighter when both its pilots and their commanders worked out how to deploy the gull-wing design effectively. Optimum circumstances for effective engagement did not always occur, and the Zero-sen remained effective against the Corsair until February 1944 in the South Pacific, after which all IJNAF fighter units vacated Rabaul. This book closely examines these two different fighters in the Solomons/Rabaul theatre, and the unique geographic conditions which shaped their deployment and effectiveness. It contains rare photographs and digital artwork that accurately showcases and aligns combats of both types in-theatre with unprecedented accuracy. Both sides vastly over-claimed. With full access to IJNAF and US Navy/US Marine Corps records, these numbers will be presented accurately.

An extraordinary assemblage of moving and revelatory documents and testimony from the Nazi forced labour camps.

The Fw 190D-9 -- the ''long-nosed'' Dora -- represented the cutting edge and pinnacle of wartime Germany''s piston-engine aviation development. This new history by leading German aviation specialist Robert Forsyth reveals what it was like to pilot her in combat as Germany desperately battled to remain in the war.Arguably one of the finest piston-engined fighters ever built, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 raised the bar in terms of aircraft design and operational capability during World War II. Designed by Kurt Tank, the ''long-nosed'' Fw 190D9 ''Dora'' bettered most of the fighters that the Allied and Soviet air forces could field when it first appeared in the skies over the Western and Eastern Fronts in 1944. Indeed, with experienced German pilots at the controls it proved to be an immediate match for even the later-mark Griffon Spitfire and the P-51D/K. Well-armed, with two 13mm machine guns and two 20mm cannon, the D-9 began to equip Luftwaffe units from August 1944. Later on in the war, one of the key missions of the D-9 was to provide top cover for Me 262 jet fighters when they were at their most vulnerable during take-off and landing. Featuring first-hand accounts, photographs, artwork, and innovative and colorful 3D ribbon diagrams, this fascinating volume portrays what it was like to fly the superlative Fw 190D-9 in combat, providing a realistic insight in to how German pilots used the superb Focke-Wulf aircraft in combat against American, British, and Russian fighters in the Defense of the Reich in 1944ΓÇô45.

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. ΓÇ£VietnamizationΓÇ¥ program, North Vietnam launched a major fourteen-division attack in March 1972 against the South that became known as the ΓÇ£Easter Offensive.ΓÇ¥ 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 April 30, 1975.

A detailed study of the Syrian and Lebanon campaign of World War II.In June 1941, Australian, British, Indian, and Free French forces invaded the Vichy French-controlled Mandate of Syria and Lebanon. They were outnumbered, and faced an enemy that had more artillery, tanks, and aircraft. They fought in rocky, mountainous terrain, through barren valleys and across swollen rivers, and soon after the initial advance faced a powerful Vichy French counterattack on key strategic positions. Despite these difficulties, the Allies prevailed, and in doing so ensured that the territory did not fall into German or pro-German hands, and thus provide a springboard from which Axis forces could attack British oil interests in Iraq, or the key territory of Palestine. This book examines the high military and political strategy that lay behind the campaign, as well as the experiences and hardships as endured by the men on the ground. The battles in Syria and Lebanon were complex actions, often at the battalion level or below, and this work uses extensive war diaries and records available to make sense of the actions and examine how they affected the wider campaign.

A rigorous new analysis of America''s legendary ΓÇ£Big Week" air campaign which enabled the Allies to gain air superiority before D-Day.In the years before the outbreak of World War II, there was a general consensus among military strategists that strategic bombing had the ability to win wars. However, no-one could foresee the devastation that German radar-directed interceptors would inflict on large bomber formations.With the increasingly urgent need to eliminate these German fighter-aircraft prior to D-Day, a concerted two-phase effort, code-named ΓÇ£Operation Argument,ΓÇ¥ was launched by USSAF. Targeting aircraft factories with hundreds of heavy bombers escorted by the new long-range P-51 Mustang, the operation, now known as the ΓÇ£Big WeekΓÇ¥ campaign, was designed to destroy aircraft production on the ground and force the Luftwaffe into combat to defend these vital facilities, allowing the new escort fighters to take their toll on the German interceptors. Packed with specially commissioned artwork and maps, this title is a detailed and fascinating analysis of ΓÇ£Big WeekΓÇ¥--history''s first ever successful offensive counterair (OCA) campaign.

The Spitfire XVI is one of the Spitfire mark to have been so far little covered in depth. It was actually a Mk. IX engined with an American built Packard engine but otherwise it was very familar to a IX. Used in the fighter-bomber role, from the UK with the Fighter Command or from the Continent with the 2 TAF, one of the main task given to the XVI would be the destruction of the V-2 sites located in Holland. This book gives the details of the operations carried out by the British squadrons, Nos. 66, 74, 127, 229, 602 and 603. This study doesn't continue beyond the summer 1945. Thirty photos and 5 colour profiles.

From the German occupation of Belgium in May 1940, Flemish recruits from northern Belgium - considered by the Nazis to be 'Germanic' - were accepted individually into Waffen-SS units. From Hitler's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, additional recruits from the French-speaking south (Wallonia) were drafted. Both communities formed volunteer 'Legions', to fight (according to Goebbels' propaganda machine) 'for European civilization against the Bolshevik threat'; these were a Flemish Legion in the Waffen-SS and a Walloon Legion in the German Army. Both served on the Russian Front in 1942-43; the Walloon Legion was then also transferred into the Waffen-SS, and the decorated Walloon officer Leon Degrelle became a publicized 'poster boy' for foreign SS volunteers. Both Legions were then redesignated as SS Assault Brigades, and thereafter saw extremely hard fighting in the Ukraine and on the Baltic front. In autumn 1944, their survivors were withdrawn from the front and incorporated into two new understrength SS Divisions, 27. 'Langemarck' and 28. 'Wallonien'.This new account, featuring detailed colour plates of uniform and insignia, recounts the battle history of the French and Flemish-speaking Belgian SS, up to their final transformation into full divisions in the winter of 1944/45.

An illustrated account of the intelligence services operating in Cold War Berlin.

During his life, George S. Patton Jr starred as an Olympic athlete, chased down Mexican bandits, and led tanks into battle in World War I. But he is best remembered for his exploits in World War II. Patton's War follows the general from the beaches of Morocco to the fields of France, right before the birth of Third Army on the continent.

Immerse yourself in the world of the Samurai with this classic text, translated and interpreted for the modern reader. Code of the Samurai is the four-hundred-year-old summary of the rules and expectations embodied in Bushido--the ancient Japanese "Way of the Warrior." Bushido has played a major role in shaping the behavior of modern Japanese government, corporations, society, and individuals, as well as in shaping modern Japanese martial arts within Japan and internationally. This accessible and enjoyable translation is by Thomas Cleary, the foremost translator of Asian martial classics, accompanied by the powerful line drawings of master illustrator Oscar Ratti, and a number of color photos. A new foreword by Alexander Bennett, a leading expert on Samurai history, explains the lasting importance of this classic work and its place within the canon of Japanese literature. This accesible classic is an indispensable resource to the corporate executive, student of the Asian Culture, martial artist, and those interested in Eastern philosophy or military strategy, as well as for those simply interested in Japan and its people.

Delve into the photographic history of one of the world's most famous tanks; the T-34. Explore the technical innovations that kept the tank above the cream of the Wehrmacht. Never before has such a detailed study of the T-34 been conducted through the use of photographs, most of which were taken by those who opposed the tank on the battlefield.

The remarkable career of this remarkable ship is the subject of this authoritative and heavily illustrated Special Edition. It considers Tirpitz's design, her construction, her historical context and all of her operations.

The United States, being at peace, had not foreseen the need for a specialized tank recovery vehicle, despite the ramping-up of tank production in 1940-41. However, observation of the new world war quickly pointed to the need for such a vehicle. Armored vehicles, immobilized for any reason, were easily destroyed by opposing troops, denying the possibility for recovery and repair or even the salvaging of parts after the battle. This book chronicles the development and use of the US and British military's Sherman tank-based armored recovery vehicles.

Courage and betrayal in Occupied France, involving SOE, British Intelligence, the Gestapo and the French Resistance

Using the parallel stories of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and Joseph "Smokey Joe" Foss, the two top-scoring US Marine Corps fighter aces of all time, this fascinating new book explores US Marine Corps aviation over the South Pacific.America''s Few delves into the history of US Marine Corps aviation in World War II, following the feats of the Corps'' top-scoring aces in the skies over Guadalcanal. Marine Corps aviation began in 1915, functioning as a self-contained expeditionary force. During the interwar period, the support of USMC amphibious operations became a key element of Marine aviation doctrine, and the small force gradually grew. But in December 1941 came the rude awakening. Within hours of Pearl Harbor, heroic Marine aviators were battling the Japanese over Wake Island. In the South Pacific, the aviators of the US Marine Corps came out of the shadows to establish themselves as an air force second to none. In the summer of 1942, when Allied airpower was cobbled together into a single unified entity ΓÇô nicknamed "the Cactus Air Force" ΓÇô Marine Aviation dominated, and a Marine, Major General Roy Geiger, was its commander. Of the twelve Allied fighter squadrons that were part of the Cactus Air Force, eight were USMC squadrons. It was over Guadalcanal that Joe Foss emerged as a symbol of Marine aviation. As commander of VMF-121, he organized a group of fighter pilots that downed 72 enemy aircraft; Foss himself reached a score of 26. Pappy Boyington, meanwhile, had become a Marine aviator in 1935. Best known as the commander of VMF-214, he came into his own in late 1943 and eventually matched Foss''s aerial victory score. Through the parallel stories of these two top-scoring fighter aces, as well as many other Marine aces, such as Ken Walsh (21 victories), Don Aldrich (20), John L. Smith (19), Wilbur Thomas (18.5), and Marion Carl (18.5), many of whom received the Medal of Honor, acclaimed aviation historian Bill Yenne examines the development of US Marine Corps aviation in the South Pacific.

This highly illustrated title details the history of the Panzer III throughout World War II, from its early development in the pre-war years through its pivotal role in the Blitzkrieg campaigns in Poland and Western Europe and its eventual obsolescence on the Eastern Front.The Panzer III was the mainstay of the German armored force in the early years of World War II, and spearheaded the victories in Poland, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Designed and developed in the mid-1930s, it was originally equipped with a 3.7cm gun and with 30mm thick armor. Early combat in Poland and France saw the need for this to be upgraded, and later models were armed with a 5cm KwK L/42 gun and had the frontal armor reinforced to 60mm by adding extra plating. This later version proved to be particularly effective during the campaigns in the Balkans and against British armor in the North African desert campaign. However, in the first months of Operation Barbarossa -- the German invasion of the Soviet Union -- it became obvious to battlefield commanders that the Panzer III had become obsolete as a main battle tank and it began to be replaced by the Panzer IV as the main front-line battle tank. The Panzer III was relegated to a secondary role, but its chassis proved the basis for the Sturmgeschutz III, which became the most widespread German armored vehicle of World War II.

'Dear Sister and Brother, death has been very busy gathering his harvest in this country,' wrote a soldier of the 80th Regiment from the brutal Anglo-Zulu War front in April 1879. 'War in all its horrors has been let loose.'Few wars have captured the imagination as much as this conflict, and foreign names like Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift and Gingindlovu have become entrenched in British military folklore. Eleven Victoria Crosses were earned during the epic bloody battle at Rorke's Drift. Isandlwana to Ulundi is a compelling narrative of Lord Chelmsford's invasion of Zululand to conquer Zulu king Cetshwayo's royal capital of Ulundi. Through soldiers' letters from a ferocious front, war memoirs and other literary sources, a vivid picture is painted of the course of the conflict, the pressures of war on individuals and units, and of the harsh conditions under which they lived, fought and died.