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 ......
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 ......
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 ......
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 ......
This fully illustrated volume compares two of the most iconic AFVs: the SU-152/ISU-152 and the Tiger, used on the Eastern Front during World War II. On the Eastern Front in 1943, the Tiger-equipped heavy Panzer battalions gave German armoured divisions an unmatched capability that cost the Red Army dearly. The Tigers 88mm gun had the potential ......
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 ......
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 ......
For most of the twentieth century Britain possessed both the worlds largest merchant fleet and its most extensive overseas territories. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Royal Navy always showed a particular interest in the cruiser a multi-purpose warship needed in large numbers to defend trade routes and police the empire. Above all ......
Samuel S. Kloda spent more than 40 years meeting with the scientists who built the first atomic bombs, and the crews that delivered them to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those conversations encouraged him to search archives throughout the U.S. Newly unearthed documents were brought to former members of the Manhattan Project or the 509th Composite ......
The Navigation Case reveals the drama and sacrifice expended by Americas pioneering pilots first ever demonstration of air superiority, during the greatest campaign in U.S. Air Force history.
An aged and glossy leather briefcase was discovered when our family house was cleaned out and sold. We came to ......
The history of Dornier aircraft in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Soviet Heavy Fighters 1926 1949 showcases some of the lesser known, often forgotten, aircraft types, as well as a group of young and prolific aircraft designers who never had a chance to flourish under difficult wartime conditions and limitations inherent to the ......
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 ......
For the first time, this book tells the story of how naval air operations evolved into a vital element of the Royal Navys ability to fight a three-dimensional war against both the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. An integral part of RN, the Fleet Air Arm was not a large organisation, with only 406 pilots and 232 front-line aircraft available for ......
The Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII profiles of aircraft which served in the South Pacific theatre. Volume Six covers a dozen USAAF Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force squadrons which operated the Bell P-39 and P-400 Airacobra from April 1942 until March 1944. They were used in a variety of roles including as fighters, ......
Volume Five of this series chronicles aerial warfare primarily in the New Guinea theatre in the critical period between September and December 1942. It can be read alone or as a continuation of the previous four volumes which span the first nine months of the Pacific War. By early September the strategic picture in the theatre had changed ......
In this fascinating book the author examines the Japanese concept of Kamikaze, the deliberate self-sacrifice of life in the cause of victory. This attitude, while incomprehensible to their American and European enemies, has its roots in the samurai tradition of fighting for their master or nation regardless of personal safety. By late 1944 the ......
This fully illustrated study examines and compares the roles of the US Navy submarines and the Imperial Japanese Navys anti-submarine warfare capabilities during World War II. In 1941 and 1942, US Navy submarine operations in the Pacific were largely ineffective, hampered by faulty torpedo design, conservative tactics, and insufficiently ......
This fully illustrated study assesses the origins, development, and combat record of the legendary Tiger and Churchill Tanks during World War II. The Tiger and the Churchill are two of the most recognizable heavily armoured tanks of World War II. Both were designed hastily in the early years of the war, and both witnessed inauspicious debuts in ......
Idris (Taff) James was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps and one of the thousands of young British soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese in early 1942. He was ordered to become a medic by his Company Commander, who must have been a very shrewd judge of character. His account of the conditions and suffering endured by his fellow ......
The M3 vehicle was a thirteen-person armoured transporter that could be used to transport mechanised infantry or as an artillery tractor, ambulance, communications vehicle, etc. It was also used as a carrier for various types of guns. American factories producing M2 and M3 armoured personnel carriers were overloaded and could hardly meet orders ......
The most complete book about the Polish fighter PZL P.11 C for modellers . If you were to ask about the symbolic aircraft of the desperate defense of Polish sky during the tragic month of September 39, without any doubt the answer should be one the PZL P.11c. Although older machines (PZL P.7a and P.11a) fought next to it, the mentioned variant ......
This is the gripping story of the Battle of Britain; of some of the most fateful weeks in history.
Drawing on eyewitness accounts from both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, this is a compelling story of history in the making through an intensely fought battle, taking the reader into the heart of the action as told by those who fought and ......
Japanese Carriers and Victory in the Pacific focuses on the pre-war debate between building a new generation of super-battleships or adopting aircraft carriers as the capital ships of the future. An Asian power in particular sees carriers as a way of challenging the USA and the colonial empires initially losing the contest yet coming out all ......
Aircraft of World War II contains 300 of the most important and influential military aircraft in service between 1939 and 1945. From Allied fighters to Axis bombers, from biplanes to flying boats, each of the aircraft featured is presented with a full colour profile artwork, alongside technical specifications and text explaining the ......
It was a miracle three years in the making, a testimony to American fortitude and ingenuity-and perhaps the key to why the United States won a war that after Pearl Harbor seemed hopeless.
Impeccably researched deep in the archives at Pearl Harbor and Washington DC, Revenge of the Dreadnoughts is colorfully written, personal, ......