In April 1972, after six gruelling years of design and development, the then Lockheed California Company (now Lockheed Martin) delivered the most technologically advanced commercial jet of its era, the L-1011 TriStar, to its first client, Eastern Airlines. To mark the moment, Lockheed decided to make an impressive statement about the ......
The Battle of Tsushima, the epic battle between the Japanese and Russian navies on May 27-28 1905, is examined in far greater detail than ever before. Making extensive use of official records, personal accounts and a wealth of untouched information on the Russian Navys activities, this battle, little known about by a general readership, is ......
Modelling plans in 1/32. 1/48, 1/72 and 1/144 scale of the G-6 variant of the famous Me Bf 109 German fighter aircraft of World War II, featuring eight A3 size scale plans.
TOPGUN is Dino Garners pictorial essay of US military fighter and attack aviation, featuring the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, TOPGUN, and the aircraft and fighter pilots and support personnel of the US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Special Contributors: Dr. David Prewett (FOREWORD: The Fighter Pilot Personality), ......
Illustrated with detailed artworks of American, British, Canadian, Australian, French, Polish and other Western Allied nations tanks and their markings with exhaustive captions and specifications, World War II Tanks: Western Allies 1939-45: Identification Guide offers an highly-illustrated guide to the main armoured fighting vehicles ......
This all-new 124-page softbound volume is profusely illustrated with almost 250 photos, many of them in color, illustrating the history and US military service of this weapon system, from its advent in the early 1950s through the first Gulf War. Widely used in Vietnam, where it had the longest range of any land-based artillery, the M107 and ......
This book covers the design, development, production and operational service of the Vickers Wellington from before the Second World War through to the 1950s. The aircraft and crews served with great distinction from the start to the end of the Second World War despite heavy losses. The aircraft was operated by Bomber Command until replaced by ......
A comprehensive illustrated history of snipers and their battlefield role in World War II. Thousands of volumes have been published about World War II but relatively little attention has been given to the sniper. Drawing from memoirs, government documents and interviews, Snipers of World War II incorporates eyewitness accounts to weave a ......
For over 40 years NATO and Warsaw Pact aircraft faced each other across the Iron Curtain, or fought in proxy wars around the world. Illustrated with detailed artworks of combat aircraft and their markings, Aircraft of the Cold War 1945-1991: Identification Guide is a comprehensive study of the planes in service with NATO and ......
Since the inception of Special Forces units during the early years of World War II, unique and operation-specific vehicles have been developed for units that work in extreme environments and behind enemy lines, often moving quickly and with stealth to strike when least expected. Arranged thematically by chapter, Special Forces ......
If necessity is the mother of invention, the AC-130 gunship was definitely her offspring.
Ghostriders: Mors De Caelis is a comprehensive history of AC-130 gunship combat operations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The story begins with the first AC-130 in 1968, and ends in 1975 at the end of the war in ......
The enthralling story of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navys largest ever warship. 65,000 tons. 280 metres long. A flight deck the size of sixty tennis courts. HMS Queen Elizabeth in the biggest ship in the Royal Navys history. But its her ships company of 700, alongside an air group of 900 air and ground crew that are Big Lizzies beating ......
This is the story of a tank regiment: the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the Second World War. Raw and visceral personal recollections from the men themselves recall some of the most dramatic and horrific scenes imaginable - the sheer nerve-wracking tension of serving in highly inflammable Sherman tanks, the sudden impact of German shells, the ......
When the expansion of the RAF began in 1934, Air Commodore Tedder observed that the established order of school training not only failed to produce operational competence, but left so much to be done by the operational squadrons that they could only attain passable military efficiency after an uphill struggle. He proposed to raise the standards ......
The British battleship HMS “Vanguard” was built in the years 1941–1946 at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank. It was quite an unusual ship due to the fact that it was built as the largest and also the last of the British battleships, and armed with artillery towers stored since 1925, taken from the cruisers HMS “Courageous” and HMS ......
At the beginning of 1916, as the world entered the second full year of global conflict, the cities, towns and villages of Britain continued to lay vulnerable to aerial bombardment. Throughout that period German Zeppelin airships and seaplanes had come and gone at will, their most testing opposition provided by the British weather as the ......
Within weeks of war being declared, Wolfgang Fischer had volunteered to join the Luftwaffe and spent nearly five of the succeeding six years of hostilities in uniform. During this time, he was given a succession of postings varying from a long-range recce unit; as a decoder in a met office in occupied France; to a bomber squadron; and as a ......
A New Naval History brings together the most significant and interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary naval history. The last few decades have witnessed a transformation in how this field is researched and understood and this volume captures the state of a field that continues to develop apace. It examines - through the prism of ......
With a detailed introduction from acclaimed Luftwaffe historian J. Richard Smith and illustrated throughout with photographs from private family albums, Luftwaffe Eagle is a fascinating insight into the life of an exceptional Luftwaffe pilot and navigator. In this compelling memoir, Erich Sommer recalls his life in pre-war Germany and the ......
The World War II era destroyers of the Japanese Fubuki class were the first of a type sometimes referred to as "super destroyers." These destroyers were extremely large and heavily armed with guns and torpedoes. Ironically, the IJN was pushed to create heavier destroyers by the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, which discouraged the ......
The struggle for armored dominance sometimes overshadows the vital and unsung heroes of the battlefield: the engineers. Combat engineer vehicles spearhead armored attacks, breach obstacles, and prepare defenses. Born of necessity, these amazing vehicles have developed from humble beginnings to technological and mechanical marvels. After a slow ......
In 1933, the Air Ministry issued a specification for a general-purpose four-engine flying boat capable of operating from the outposts of the Empire. The result was the remarkable Sunderland, built by Short Brothers. This book covers the development of the Short Sunderland and its operation in the Second World War. The ......
Now remarkably in its 28th edition, ever since it was first published in the 1960s every edition of Wrecks & Relics has been eagerly sought after by aviation enthusiasts, restorers and curators alike. It is renowned as the go-to source charting the highlights, changes and trends in the preservation of the aviation heritage of the British Isles. ......
First published in the 1970s, Military Aircraft Markings has become an indispensable annual publication for aircraft enthusiasts, historians and students of military aviation. At the heart of Military Aircraft Markings is the most complete listing of all the aircraft of the UK Armed Forces; the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Army and associated ......
The accepted historical narrative of the Second World War predominantly assigns U-boats to the so-called Battle of the Atlantic, almost as if the struggle over convoys between the new world and the old can be viewed in isolation from simultaneous events on land and in the air. This has become an almost accepted error. The ......
When the Soviet Union fell in December 1991, there were close to 3,500 assorted Soviet-built airliners that could be deemed operational - more than there had ever been before. The vast majority of these Antonovs, Ilyushins, Tupolevs, and Yaks flew for Aeroflot, and were scattered far and wide at bases across the Soviet Union. Thirty years ......
During the years preceding and during WW2, the RAF and the Royal Aircraft Establishment were responsible for the selection and procurement of British military aircraft and also to evaluate their capabilities against captured enemy models whenever possible. During the lend-lease agreement with the USA, the RAF and Fleet Air Arm operated several ......
On the night of 13/14 October 1939, the German commander of U-boat U-47, Gunther Prien, steered past the sunken block ships and chains which inadequately protected the British naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. The U-Boat sank the old British World War I battleship HMS Royal Oak and then escaped into the North Sea. The loss of the ......
While large numbers of aeroplanes had been produced In America for the war effort overseas at the Western Front, it was found that that the British, French and Germans were far ahead of them when it came to flight technology, which led to a huge surplus of aeroplanes in the United States. The governments solution to recover some of the money ......