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The long-haul overland run to the old Soviet Union, prior to Perestroika, Glasnost and the collapse of communism under Gorbachov back in the 1980s and 90s, has never really been documented in a book. Other than an occasional tale of the difficulties involved verbalised in pub conversations, and passed by word of mouth to those who might be interested enough to listen, it would never see the light of day. This tome is an excellent attempt by the author, Mat Ireland, to put that lack of the written word to rights. There have been a numerous books published about the 'Golden Era' of overland haulage to the Middle East. But while that particular adventure was taking place, there were other 'frontiers' being quietly breached and explored by hauliers pursuing a different market. This book is the story of just such a transport company, Kepstowe Freight. Sometimes known as the 'alternative Middle East', the overland routes into the old Soviet Union have never had their story recorded in print, yet they were just as gruelling on the driver and machine as any trips to the Arabian Peninsula or Iran. Whereas most people's perception of the Middle East is all sunshine and sand, the same people's perception of Russia is often all snow and freezing temperatures. Of course, neither picture is the total truth and the overbearing heat, arid climes and loneliness of the central Russian steppes could easily rival the desertification of Syria and Iraq. Kepstowe Freight was one of the British companies pioneering these early journeys behind the Iron Curtain into the 'dark, scary' world of Soviet Union communism. Featuring mostly previously unseen photographs, A History of Kepstowe Freight Services Ltd repeats drivers' recollections about their escapades and adventures into a land rarely visited by western society, and their attempts at dealing with the inherent corruption, horrendous roads and unpredictable weather along the way. It goes on to show how exponentially rapidly the country changed after its 1990 collapse, with the accompanying culture shock to the populace and especially to the transport system.

Fierce Pacific ground, sea, and aerial combat raged between the Allies and Imperial Japan to halt the latter's inexorable advance in 1942-1943. After the American victory at Guadalcanal in February 1943, Admiral Halsey's South Pacific Area (SPA) naval and amphibious forces battled through the Solomon Islands building new and acquiring extant Japanese airfields. Simultaneously General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) Australian-American ground forces, supported by General George Kenney's US Fifth Air Force and other Allied air squadrons, captured Japanese installations in Papua New Guinea before campaigning along Northeast New Guinea's northern coast ousting or bypassing enemy installations there. Using newly-built Papuan airfields, the Allies gained air superiority over New Guinea and also interdicted Japanese maritime supply lines. Yet, the main Japanese southwest Pacific bastion at Rabaul on the northeastern tip of New Britain, the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago, remained. In March 1943, realizing an amphibious assault and ground campaign against Rabaul's naval and army bases would be too costly, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to neutralise Rabaul with a joint SPA and SWPA aerial siege rather than capture it. This IOW volume recounts this strategy during 1943 and 1944 and the December 1943 amphibious landings by the US 1st Marine Division and US Sixth Army units at Cape Gloucester and Arawe, respectively, which successfully isolated the Japanese fortress and satellite bases.

This book describes, in great detail, the second year of Putin's 'Special Operation' to obliterate Ukraine. General (Ret) Harrel's previous book, entitled The Russian Invasion of Ukraine, February - December 2022, described the initial invasion, identifying the units and weapons on the battlefield with military precision. Now he continues the story of Ukrainian resistance in the face of overwhelming odds. The author knowledgeably reports on twenty-first century mechanized warfare, and how drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have evolved to dominate the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of war. The year 2023 saw the dawn of drone warfare as combatants on both sides of the conflict at first tinkered with the use of civilian hobby-type machines but then, having had great success, rushed forward to design, purchase (often with crowd funding) and deploy drones through all domains of the battlefield. Drones performed reconnaissance, targeting for artillery and direct attacks, seeking, identifying, and striking targets not only on the battlefield but in the Black Sea and deep inside Mother Russia. As the fighting raged, Russia successfully continued its worldwide cyber campaign to influence elections, divide allies and undercut support for Ukraine. The Pyrrhic Russian victories at Bakhmut and Avdviika were offset by Ukrainian victories in the Black Sea, after its failed counteroffensive in the Summer of 2023. Finland and Sweden joined NATO, while US support was stymied and delayed by internal politics. NATO clearly assumed its place as the bastion of Western freedom as the war continued into 2024.

The success of fast-moving Blitzkrieg tactics by the Nazi war machine depended on high mobility. With their on- and off-road capabilities, motorcycles became an important component of the Nazi war machine's arsenal making a particularly significant impact in French and Russian campaigns.The motorcycles were used in a variety of roles including patrolling, intelligence gathering, and police duties in occupied Europe. Motorcyclists could be found in every unit of an infantry and Panzer division including headquarters which had a motorcycle messenger platoon. Their versatility also enabled them to survey enemy positions until coming under fire before reporting back with vital intelligence relating to enemy locations and strengths.The German industry produced wide range of motor-bikes for military use. By 1938 some 200,000 motorcycles were produced in Germany and occupied territories. The principal makes included BMW, DKW, NSU, Triumph, Victoria, and Zundapp. Sidecar combinations, often mounted with an MG34/42 machine gun, also made the bike a very effective weapon.By describing in words and contemporary images the role of the German motorcycle and motorcyclists during the Second World War, this Images of War book fills an overlooked gap in coverage of Nazi military capability. It emphasizes that the German military perfected the use of motorcycles and employed them more widely than any other army.

Dick McCreery was commissioned into the 12th Royal Lancers in 1915 and served on The Western Front, winning the MC and surviving wounds. In 1938 he joined the staff of 1st Division under Alexander before being given command of 2 armored Brigade. He won the DSO for his leadership during the retreat to Dunkirk Man/June 1940.

Today the Victoria Cross remains the supreme British award for bravery. It takes precedence over all other awards and decorations. During its 160-year history, since the first of these medals were given for gallantry during the Crimean War in the 1850s, 1,357 have been won, and no less than 69 of them have gone to Yorkshiremen.

The battles and sieges of the Classical world have been a rich source of inspiration to film makers since the beginning of cinema and the 60s and 70s saw the golden age of the swords and sandals epic, with films such as Spartacus.

They came to fight for freedom and their country. They came to fight Germans. They were men of the Polish Air Force who had escaped first to France and then to Britain to fly alongside the Royal Air Force just as Fighter Command faced its greatest challenge - the Battle of Britain. Many of the Polish airmen joined existing RAF squadrons.

This book explores the era of the 1970s right up to the present day, illustrating how fighter-bombers and tactics have developed and evolved during this time.

The tank is such a characteristic feature of modern warfare that its difficult to imagine a time when its presence wasn't felt on the battlefield in some form or another.

Until the late 1930s, Singapore was noted as a popular stop-off point for wealthy European travellers on their way to countries such as Australia and New Zealand. All of that changed with the outbreak of the Second World War.

Look closely behind the lives of the stars who appeared in a host of legendary war films and discover how memories of their real-life experiences in the armed forces were haunted with heartbreak and yet filled with extraordinary heroism.

In almost forty years in Asia without a home posting, British officer John Cross spent ten of them 'under the jungle canopy'. He amassed a wealth of experience fighting against Communist Revolutionary Warfare, and training others to do so. As a result he was called upon to work in many formidable situations, and twice found himself on an army short-list of one for difficult tasks. Cross focuses on five stages in his extraordinary army career. He spent eight years as a company commander with the Gurkhas in Malaya fighting jungle operations against the communists. After that he took part in the attempt to end twenty years of guerrilla domination over the aborigines in north Malaya, and secured the territory between Thailand and the aboriginal population that had been occupied and used by the guerrillas. As commander of the Sarawak and Sabah Border Scouts in Borneo, Cross was constantly on the move. At one point in this hectic period in his service he narrowly escaped having his head cut off by an angry tribesman. He then commanded the Gurkha Independent Parachute Company, which had to operate like paras, SAS men and conventional soldiers, during the latter part of the Indonesian Confrontation with Malaya. Finally, Cross was the last commander of the British Army's Jungle Warfare School, which trained officers and men from five continents - including American trackers who, as a result, had the price on their heads doubled in Vietnam. After the closure of the Jungle Warfare School, John Cross was asked to work in both the Royal Thai Army and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Instead he became Defence Attaché in Laos. This fascinating book provides vivid insight into the realities of jungle warfare by one of its most experienced practitioners.

After the Second World War the Allies in referring to the German people used the term 'collective guilt', which, after minimal research, appeared unfair. There was active opposition to Hitler from the moment he led Germany into war, which ranged from young teenagers, to undergraduates, to top-level civil servants, diplomats, and to the highest ranks in the military. As the moral depravity of the Nazi regime became apparent many Germans turned against the regime, although there was always the dedicated fanatic. They had become a repressed society, watched by Himmler's SD and above all feared interrogation by the Gestapo, what one German described as the 'silence of the graveyard'. This did not stop what may be called passive resistance which this book also explores, using the work of German diarists who wrote their accounts not postwar with the benefit of hindsight, but with genuine integrity at the time as events were unfolding. This book explores not just the resistance culminating in the 20 July Plot, and the divisions of opinions amongst the various resistance groups, but also the reaction of the German public, a question which the reader may feel obliged to ask where he or she may have stood under the circumstance of the day and under such a regime.

A well-informed defector is the most dangerous counter-intelligence commodity because it takes a spy to catch a spy. Very occasionally, an agent, especially a mole or an intelligence professional, will make a mistake and incriminate themselves, but usually it is a denunciation, a tip, or a vague clue from a defector that will provide the vital information required to expose the source of a leak.Relying on recently-declassified intelligence files and interviews with defectors, their handlers, their families, and their victims, Nigel West has analyzed nine examples of wartime and postwar defections to shed new light on the phenomenon.Defectors are notoriously difficult to handle, and resettle, because of the range of genuine or invented motives that led them to take such drastic action. Some will provide a noble political motive, seeking to impress their host, while others may be driven by less worthy compulsions - perhaps greed, revenge, career disappointment, envy, anger, or nothing more complicated that a desire to start a life afresh with a different partner.Defectors are the stock-in-trade for all counter-intelligence specialists who seek the background and context of corridor gossip and water-cooler chat cannot be substituted by any amount of technical surveillance, overhead reconnaissance or hard to-interpret intercepted communications. This is the essence of Human Intelligence, and goes to the heart of loyalty, trust, betrayal and deception - the very DNA of espionage.These nine examples of switching sides all involve intelligence professionals who followed the example of Erich Vermehren. Because of his religious convictions, Vermehren felt compelled to desert the Abwehr in January 1944, even though this meant the arrest of his parents and siblings who were consigned to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. West traced Vermehren, then living under an alias in Switzerland, to hear his story first-hand. He then interviewed the British MI6 officer who had engineered the covert exfiltration from Istanbul of both the German and his wife.Sometimes a defection may be the result of a period of cultivation, as happened with Vladimir Petrov, who was gently persuaded over many months by his Polish dentist to abandon his clandestine role as rezident in Canberra for a chicken farm. The intermediary, Dr Michael Bialoguski, admitted to the author that right up to the moment of his defection, he and his Australian Security Intelligence organization colleagues were not entirely sure of Petrov's true status.Once resettled, a defector's life has daily challenges, as was explained by Yuri Rastvorov's widow, herself a CIA counter-intelligence officer, who recalled the day she had to tell their two daughters that their father was not a Czech tennis coach, but an NKVD defector who had been based in Tokyo.

No stranger to operating in conflict-torn countries, Richard Villar, a former SAS Medical Officer and current war surgeon, volunteered to provide medical support in Central Gaza during the 2024 invasion. In Gaza Medic, he offers a gripping and harrowing first-hand account of his experiences working in the war zone, where he faced his most daunting challenges yet.After traveling overland from Cairo across the Sinai Peninsula, Villar found himself working in a 200-bed hospital overrun with 700 patients, including many women and children. Conditions were dire and there was nowhere safe in Gaza. The hospital was under constant threat from drones, missiles, naval shells, and machine gun fire, making it one of the most perilous environments imaginable. Despite these dangers, he and fellow medics performed complex surgeries on victims of bombings. Medicines were limited, equipment minimal, and basic necessities such as clean water and sufficient food were luxuries.Villar's moving account transcends the politics of war to focus on the raw, often brutal, realities faced by medical professionals in conflict zones. Each day brought more mass casualties, with a healthcare system on the brink of collapse and the population facing decimation.Gaza Medic is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the true impact of the Israel/Palestine conflict on individuals and communities. Villar's narrative is a vivid reminder that courage can be found when there is chaos all around.

The concluding part of John D Grainger's history of the Seleukids traces the tumultuous last century of their empire. In this period it was riven by dynastic disputes, secessions and rebellions, the religiously-inspired insurrection of the Jewish Maccabees, civil war and external invasion from Egypt in the West and the Parthians in the East. By the 80s BC, the empire was disintegrating, internally fractured and squeezed by the converging expansionist powers of Rome and Parthia. This is a fittingly, dramatic and colorful conclusion to John Grainger's masterful account of this once-mighty empire.

General Stanislaw Maczek's stirring memoir captures the élan, the sacrifice and the disappointed hopes of the Polish soldiers who fought alongside the Allies during the Second World War. As Commander of the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade in the September 1939 campaign, his men played a crucial role in resisting the German advance before crossing into Hungary with orders to rebuild the Polish Army on French soil. Fighting a further rearguard action during the 1940 Allied retreat, he and his men escaped to Britain. In February 1942, Maczek assumed command of 1st Polish Armoured Division, created out of the Polish forces which had been training in Scotland since 1940. In July 1944 the Division landed in Normandy and was responsible for closing the Falaise Gap at Mont Ormel and Chambois. Thereafter it fought on through Belgium and Holland, ultimately accepting the surrender of the German Navy at Wilhelmshaven. The Price of Victory is an inspiring tale of bravery and skill in the face of overwhelming odds, and of determination to fight for Poland on foreign soil. Having been welcomed as liberators in so many towns across Europe, it was the ultimate irony that the terms of the Yalta Agreement meant the Poles' aim of liberating their country was denied them.

On the night of 19/20 September 1944, a force of 227 Avro Lancasters and ten de Havilland Mosquitoes was dispatched to attack the German towns of Mönchengladbach and Rheydt. The Master Bomber for the raid was none other than Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar. Along with his navigator, Squadron Leader James Warwick DFC, Gibson was flying Mosquito KB627 of 627 Squadron from RAF Coningsby, where he was serving as the Base Operations Officer.By this stage of the Second World War, Gibson was arguably one of the most famous of all the Allied aviators. Aged just 26, few in the country, if not across the Allied world as a whole, would not have heard his name or seen a picture of his face. It was his leadership of the daring Dambusters Raid, Operation Chastise, in May 1944 that firmly propelled him into the public's eye - and ultimately led to his award of the Victoria Cross.Gibson need not have been flying that fateful night. Following his involvement in the attack on the Ruhr dams, and a subsequent goodwill lecture tour of the United States, Gibson, a veteran of 170 or more operational sorties, would have been entitled to a less front-line role. Churchill, for example, had hoped that Gibson would stand for election as a Member of Parliament. Gibson, however, was soon agitating a return to flying duties - resulting in his participation in the attack on Mönchengladbach and Rheydt.The raid was a success. Throughout the operation, Gibson's instructions over the target were easily heard and gave no hint of impending trouble. It was during the return leg that something went wrong. At around 22.30 hours on the 19th, Gibson's Mosquito slammed into the ground at Steenbergen in the Netherlands; both men on board were killed.Witnesses on the ground reported hearing an aircraft flying low, observing that its cockpit was illuminated, and then, seconds later, the violent sight and sounds of its final moments. The cause of the crash has been the subject of intense speculation ever since. Had Gibson and Warwick fallen to the guns of a German night fighter, or, tragically, 'friendly fire' from an Allied bomber? Was it mechanical failure or possibly pilot error that had led to the disaster?Like the disappearance of Glenn Miller or Rudolf Hess' flight to Britain, the death of Guy Gibson VC, one of Britain's greatest wartime heroes, is among the Second World War's most intriguing mysteries. How could one of the RAF's most experienced pilots have simply fallen from the sky over Occupied Europe without explanation. In The Death of Guy Gibson the author sets out answer that very question.

When the First World War ended the then recently established Royal Air Force was awash with aircraft of all descriptions. More surprising, perhaps, was the fact that despite an ongoing cull of obsolescing types, on the last day of 1919, the RAF still possessed 9,122 non-obsolete aircraft, with a further 1,100 more assigned to the Fleet Air Arm.Whilst the famous SE.5A and Sopwith Camel had by this time largely been consigned to history, the RAF possessed no less than 1,860 Sopwith Snipes which, from 1920, would become the RAF's standard single-seat fighter for years to come. Other core types on charge on 31 December 1919 included some 1,650 Bristol F.2B fighters and 1,250 de Havilland DH.9As, which, together with the Snipe, accounted for over fifty per cent of the RAF's inventory at that time. Avro 504 training aircraft accounted for a further 2,700 airframes.In this Flight Craft Special, the authors provide a detailed and informative pictorial history of those scout/fighter aircraft that served in an operational capacity with the RAF from January 1920 until the last day of 1939 - a period in which Britain once again moved from an era of peace to war with an old enemy, albeit this time Hitler's totalitarian National Socialist Germany as opposed to the Imperial Germany of old.As well as covering each of the fighter types used during the inter-war period, and featuring most of the squadrons, the photographs themselves convey the sense of the technical advances that rapidly took root within Britain's aero industries from the mid-1930s onwards, moving from the brightly-marked overall silver wood and linen biplanes to the dull camouflaged metal-skinned monoplanes.The progression of machine-gun development - from the Lewis and Vickers of the First World War to the later Browning - is covered, spanning the days of the biplanes' two fixed synchronised Lewis or Vickers .303-inch machine-guns mounted in the forward fuselage to eight wing-mounted .303-inch Browning machine-guns in the 'new' monoplane fighters. There is also a small, but fascinating, section on the monoplane 'also rans' - the monoplane fighters that were designed and had prototypes built but failed to reach the finishing post!

The London Underground, the very essence of a great metropolis, is a story which has fascinated and captivated generations since its first opening in January 1863. For many it is a very familiar narrative, a seemingly well-trodden story, with little new or significant additions, a direct and simple story of development and expansion, from the first trains from Paddington to Farringdon, culminating in today's Elizabeth line. What this book seeks to do is to revisit the seemingly familiar story, but utilising the full wealth of archive primary resources now available. These sources are honed by a highly experienced researcher and historical expert in the subject.The daunting engineering challenges from constructing tunnels under London, or designing Underground rolling stock, to the ever present battle to secure financial stability to expand and enhance the system, along with the unique design culture; are fully explored. The book, first of others, seeks to unify the at times disparate approach to writing on the subject. You will never think about the tube in the same way again.

Several sensational stories from 19th Century Britain from royal scandals to controversial court cases.Great Scandals of the Victorians features a collection of true stories that shocked, outraged, angered or simply amused the Victorians in nineteenth-century Britain. Drawing on a wide variety of original material, seven disreputable stories that dominated the national newspapers for many weeks are explored, including the Great Warwickshire Scandal, a highly publicized divorce case where for the first time in history a Prince of Wales was called to give evidence in court; a 'baby' scandal that disrupted Queen Victoria's court and threatened the monarchy; the sex scandals of the Abode of Love, a mysterious religious cult founded by a defrocked clergyman, Henry James Prince and the sensational trial of Fanny and Stella, two outrageous cross-dressers accused of sodomy.Some scandals, though traumatic for the people involved, produced a positive outcome, such as the scandalous custody battle between Caroline Norton and her husband, which led to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act, granting mothers custody of their children following a divorce, and the case of 13-year-old Eliza Armstrong, sold to a brothel keeper for £5, which caused a major scandal and public outrage, but also led to a change in the law, raising the age of consent from 13 to 16 years.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress revolutionized strategic bombing with its versatility and endurance, shaping American military power globally.First flown in 1952, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress became the ultimate expression of Cold War very heavy bomber design. The last of the famous 'Fortress' series of aircraft produced by the legendary Seattle-based company, the B-52 was created over a weekend in a hotel suite in Ohio, resulting in a design that gave America's post-war Strategic Air Command, led by General Curtis Le May, an additional nuclear-capable edge.The B-52 was almost as big as Convair's B-36 Peacemaker, the largest serial-produced piston-powered aircraft ever built. The B-52 could carry a very similar bomb load, but flew it further, higher and faster. The turbojet-powered B-52 utilized techniques Boeing had learned from the Model 450 B-47 Stratojet and was designed to meet the Strategic Air Command's ever-changing needs in the nuclear age.Like its predecessors, Boeing's B-52 proved to be a highly flexible aircraft, capable of carrying increasing payloads, meaning it has remained in service well beyond its expected lifespan. Over the decades the B-52 gradually become a strategic and tactical airborne platform capable of delivering evermore deadly attacks against targets in various environments, from jungle to arid mountains. The B-52 had become the universal tool for commanders on the ground and a symbol of American military power, capable of striking a target anywhere in the world - as evidenced by its deployment in, for example, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Such was its potency, that the USAF and Boeing had developed an airplane of such importance that it now seems impossible to discuss conventional air power without including the B-52.This Flight Craft title offers the aviation enthusiast, historian and modeler an exciting selection of B-52-related resources through photographs, illustrations and excellent showcase examples to help build their own versions of this fearsome military aircraft.

Examines Hitler's extraordinary rise from homelessness to world leadership.Hitler's career remains one of the most extraordinary in world history. No one else has gone from sleeping on park benches to become a world leader. After the First World War he became involved in extremist politics - first on the far left and then the far right.It is often assumed that Hitler's ambitions were never realistic and his failure was inevitable. This book challenges that view and suggests a number of missed opportunities or misjudgements that might have led to a different result.Michael FitzGerald shows how Hitler's personal defects contributed considerably to Germany's defeat. In addition to the military mistakes he made a series of political, economic and foreign policy blunders were major factors in his failure to achieve his goals.