A Visual History of the U.S. Army’s Mid 20th Century Battle TankThe M48 series of Medium Tanks formed the backbone of America’s armored force from the close of the Korean War, throughout the Cold War and onto the sands of Iran. The classic silhouette of the M48 is instantly recognizable to Veterans over a period of four decades, beginning with its development in 1950. This book is the ultimate general guide to the M48 series tanks. Combining historical imagery with superb walk-around images, the title explores all the fielded variants of the M48 series—starting with the T48 and continuing with the M48, M48A1, M48A2, M48A3, M67A1 and M48A5. No detail is left uncovered within the hundreds of clear, color photos. This title is a “must have” for anyone with an interest in modern armor, or the modeler building any of the three plastic kits currently available.

In his previous book, the author discussed a little-known and insufficiently examined area in the history of the Second World War: the fighting in Hungary during the winter of 1944 and 1945 and notably the war's final German offensive, initiated by the 6th Panzer Army in mid-March 1945. In this new work, the author tackles a subject which is the antithesis of his previous one as much from the geographical as the reputational perspective: the famous Battle of the Bulge. This is the first volume to be offered to readers, with an examination of the northern edge of this offensive launched by the 6th Panzer Army. Its deployment during the Battle of the Bulge represented its baptism of fire. Drawing on the examination of thousands of pages of archives focusing as much on American as on German forces, as well as an analysis of the most recent studies combined with site visits, the author reviews the northern sector of the battle for us - a sector which was to be the main axis along which Hitler hoped for nothing less than to shatter the American front, speed towards Antwerp and reverse the course of the war to his benefit. Throughout these pages, the author invites us to follow the fierce and bloody run of the Kampfgruppen from the I.SS-Panzer Division, the failure of the Hitlerjugend in the face of the GIs' determined resistance and the charge ofthe II.SS Panzer Korps. However, this book also specifically provides a detailed review of the special operations which were to facilitate the 6th Panzer Army's achievement of its aims: von der Heydte's paratroopers' night jump or the operations of Otto Skorzeny's 150th Panzer Brigade. Finally, the author provides a detailed survey of preparations for the offensive, the combatants' logistical challenges, the Allied information service fiasco or the suffering of Belgian civilians trapped within this inferno, in the middle of an especially harsh winter. Through this research, the author is able to reveal new factors to us, reexamining cliches and dismissing misconceptions. The reader will find among these pages, alongside a wealth of illustrations and precise maps, answers to many questions including, for instance: how was Patton able to redirect his army so quickly to go to Bastogne's aid? Could the 6th Panzer Army really have reached Antwerp or even the Meuse river? Why could the victorious 1940 offensive not be replicated in 1944, although the Americans were completely taken by surprise? What were the factors explaining the failure of an army seemingly as powerful as the 6th Panzer Army, which represented the Reich's last strategic Panzer reserve and yet still assembled four full SS Panzer divisions, at least in terms of men? Finally, the appendices to this volume offer enthusiasts a wealth of information to enhance their knowledge: for those curious to examine history a little more closely, a series of archive documents has been translated and reproduced - both reports and telegrams, often from or received by the SHAEF. These enable us to approach history from a different angle. We will also find the translation of the surviving fragments of Hitler's harangue to his generals on the 12th of December to strengthen their resolve in this battle in which the fate of the Reich would be played out.

Written by leading experts on modern conflicts (first and second world wars, war of the Pacific, Vietnam), all the major battles and campaigns of the conflict since the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the defeat of Japan, 1945, are described in detail.The texts are illustrated by numerous detailed maps and legendary photographs from the period.TEXT IN FRENCH

By the fall of 1944 the Western Allies appeared to be having it all their own way. The summer’s Normandy invasion had finally succeeded and the Germans had been driven out of northern France and most of the Low Countries. In September the invasion of France’s southern coast had met less opposition and Allied divisions had begun lining up along the Rhine. But while the Americans were about to meet a nasty surprise in the Ardennes, the Germans never did let go of the province of Alsace, and in a hard pocket around the city of Colmar continued to resist. On New Year’s Eve they launched a counteroffensive, Operation Northwind, that nearly put Allied forces back on their heels. While the Allies were eventually able to take care of their Ardennes problem the Colmar one still remained. On January 12, 1945, Eisenhower could only tell George Marshall, “It is a very bad thorn in our side today." This is the story of the Sixth Army Group (7th US & 1st French Armies) which fought on the southern flank of the SHAEF front. The French had multiple problems during this campaign so that increasing number of US divisions needed to take part. In the process the 3rd and 28th Infantry Divisions, and 10th and 14th Armored, among others were able to cover themselves with heroism, though hardly less than the threadbare German 19th Army, which bravely resisted against enormous odds until finally the west bank of the Rhine was cleared. Amidst a horrific winter and rough terrain, interspersed by demolished towns, both sides traded blows in a ferocious campaign often neglected in histories of the war. This book informs us fully of the tremendous and costly struggle waged on that often-neglected sector of the front.

In French and english. Sword was the easternmost British beach of the landings on June 6th 1944. "Sword", symbol of justice, was also the emblem of Second British Army. The main landings by 3rd Infantry Division and First Commando Brigade took place on Queen sector at Hermanville, once known for its good swimming areas. Commandant Kieffer's Free French Commandos' prestigious raid at Colleville played a part in the legendary capture of the Ouistreham-Riva-Bella Casino. The storm of fire on D-Day would forever alter the pre-war swimming haven. Old postcard images became unrecognizable. But the combination of these two eras is at the heart of what is now a colorfully illustrated new book on this sector of the landing beaches.

In December 1944 an enormous German army group crashed through the thin American line in the Ardennes forest. Caught by surprise, the Allies were initially only able to throw two divisions of paratroopers to buttress the collapse - the 82nd Airborne, which was rushed to the area of St. Vith, and the 101st, which was trucked to Bastogne. After their successful campaign in Holland, Colonel Reuben Tucker’s elite 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was resting and refitting in France when news came of the German breakthrough. Most dangerous to the Allies was the German spearhead of the 1st SS Panzer Division led by Jochen Peiper, which aimed to sever the Allied front. The 504th was committed to block the SS advance, and within 48 hours of their arrival Colonel Tucker’s paratroopers were attacking the SS-Panzergrenadiers of Peiper’s battlegroup, eventually forcing them to withdraw. More ferocious fighting ensued as follow-up German units forced a U.S. retreat from St. Vith. In adverse weather conditions against the German 9th SS Panzer and 3rd Fallschirmjäger Divisions, the 504th lived up to it’s regimental motto--Strike and Hold. Although some rifle companies were whittled down to less than 50 paratroopers, the Americans doggedly fought on until victory was achieved. Moving quotations of letters to the next-of-kin provide insight into the impact of their deaths both on the battlefield and homefront.In this work Van Lunteren provides a fascinating, close-in view of the 504th P.I.R. during the Battle of the Bulge as well as its gallant sacrifice. Using never before published diaries, letters, battle reports and interviews with over 100 veterans, a comprehensive account is painted of a triumphant U.S. regiment in one of the fiercest fought campaigns in the history of the U.S. Army.

Ce nouvel ouvrage va permettre de connaitreun peu plus dans le détail l’histoire durégiment d’artillerie de la Division Wiking,grâce aux nombreux récits et souvenirsde vétérans de cette unité qui aura par sonfeu soutenu tous les combats de la Division.L’un des premiers chefs, Herbert OttoGille, deviendra même Kommandeur de laWiking.Un entrainement très poussé amènera ceshommes à utiliser au mieux leurs différentscanons et obusiers afin d’économiser, par lajustesse de leurs tirs, les munitions qui deviendront au fil des années le problème récurrentdes troupes du front. Le lecteur sera entrainé par la lecture des différents récits dans ce quifut l’un des plus terrible champs de bataille, celui du front Est, redoutable par l’adversairerusse mais aussi par un autre adversaire tout aussi terrible, le froid et la boue.

The Canadian contribution to the Second World War Allied bombing campaign, from the first days of the war to the last, proved instrumental in securing the defeat of Nazi Germany. Author and historian Ken Cothliff has pieced together the extraordinary stories of four Canadian volunteers who chose to fly 'Under the Maple Leaf'. There was no mandatory conscription in Canada. They chose to serve their country and the British Commonwealth in it’s time of greatest need, and the choice was theirs and theirs alone. Reg Lane joined Bomber Command relatively early and was in action by the autumn of 1941, rising from NCO pilot to become a‘Master Bomber’ with the elite Pathfinder Force. Jim Moffat, the ‘Evader’, ended his flying combat career after twelve operations, becoming a fighter on the European mainland with the Resistance. Steve Puskas’s comprehensive diaries and unpublished writings provide an extraordinary insight into his training as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, an experience familiar to many Commonwealth and British air crew. Bill Gracie, a Scot who had emigrated to Canada as a boy, was keen to take up the fight when the war began, with the sole aim of becoming aircrew. Sadly, he was one of the 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew, of which over 10,000 were Canadian, who never returned home. These young men volunteered three times; once to join up, the second time to go overseas, and the third to become aircrew. All came from different backgrounds and found life in the air force very different. With the exception of one man, all came home with their lives radically changed for ever. The debt owed to the people of Canada can never be forgotten. Ken Cothliff’s 'Under the Maple Leaf' is the story of a few of Bomber Command’s many young Canadian aircrew, all of whom made their contribution to the eventual victory over tyranny.

Ce guide de poche offre aux passionnés, aux historiens, aux chercheurs et à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à la bataille de Normandie, quelques six cents monuments, stèles et plaques réparties dans quatre cents villes et bourgs. Des index alphabétiques permettent de faire des recherches par noms (près de 3000 soldats recensés) et par unités combattantes (près de 500 unités répertoriées). --- This pocket guide offers enthusiasts , historians, researchers and all those interested in the Battle of Normandy, some six hundred monuments, headstones and plaques spread over four hundred cities and towns. Alphabetical indexes allow for searches by names (some 3000 soldiers identified) and combat units (nearly 500 listed units).TEXT IN FRENCH

For those numerous fans who appreciated the first volume dedicated to the Wiking Division, here is an excellent complement. After the Flak de la Hohenstaufen and that of the Leibstandarte, here is that of this division. This new title of HS Battles and Testimonies is a supplementary resource of annexes, testimonies, objects, and documents.

This work reveals one of the most important intelligence triumphs of World War II. It was no less than the capture of Japan’s “Plan Z”—the Empire’s fully detailed strategy for prosecuting the last stages of the Pacific War. It’s a story of happenstance, mayhem, and intrigue, and resulted directly in the spectacular U. S. victory in the Philippine Sea and MacArthur’s early return to Manila, doubtless shortening WWII by months.One night in April 1944, Admiral Koda (successor to Yamamoto), commander-in-chief of Japanese forces in the Pacific, took off in a seaplane to establish new headquarters. For security reasons he had his chief-of-staff, Rear Admiral Fukudome, fly in a separate seaplane. But both aircraft ran into a tremendous typhoon and were knocked out of the skies. Koda’s plane crashed with the loss of all hands. Fukudome’s crashlanded into the sea off Cebu, the Philippines, and both the admiral and the precious Japanese war plans floated ashore.Lt. Col. James M. Cushing was an American mining engineer who happened to be in Cebu when war broke out in the Pacific. He soon took charge of the local guerrillas and became a legendary leader. But his most spectacular exploit came when he captured Admiral Fukudome and the “Plan Z” that was in his tow. The result was a ferocious cat-and-mouse game between Cushing’s guerrillas and the Japanese occupation forces. While Cushing desperately sent out messages to MacArthur to say what he had found, the Japanese scoured the entire countryside, killing hundreds of civilians in a full-scale attempt to retrieve their loss.Cushing finally traded the admiral in return for a cessation of civilian deaths—but he still secretly retained the Japanese war plans. Naturally both Tokyo and Washington tried to cover up what was happening at the time—neither wanted the other to know what they’d lost, or what they’d found. However, in this book we finally learn of the huge intelligence coup by Lt. Col. Cushing that helped to shorten the entire war.

In the Summer of 1944 Nazi Germany launched its terrifying Vergeltungswaffen (reprisal weapon) attack against the population of south-east England. Under direct attack the Allies responded. The Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower was quite clear that the V-weapon counter measures were of paramount importance over everything except the urgent requirements of the D-Day and Normandy land battle, ’this priority to obtain until we can be certain that we have definitely gotten the upper hand of this particular business.’ He would use all the resources at his disposal including the Royal Air Force’s heavy bomber force.The task for RAF Bomber Command was simple. If the bomber crews could reduce the number of V1s launched, the fighter aircraft and gun defences had a better chance to intercept and shoot down the flying bombs. But these pilotless aircraft were not the only menace, the V2 rocket offensive would soon be launched, and the Allies closely monitored the construction of what they came to learn was the V3 ‘supergun’ site.When the war came to a close Bomber Command could justifiably claim success against the V-Weapons. There was a cost though – a cost in aircrew lives. V-Weapons Bomber Command Failed to Return tells the story of some of those airmen who were prepared to risk their lives countering the German V-Weapon offensive in direct defence of the civilian population. They had responded to what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described as the attempt to ‘blast the viper in his nest’. Their story deserves to be told. ‘We Will Remember Them’.

In time for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, we now have—thanks to Swedish historian Bergström—perhaps the most thorough, expert examination of the topic ever written. Illustrated throughout with maps and rare photos, plus a color section closely depicting the aircraft, this work lays out the battle as seldom seen before. The battle was a turning in point in military history, and arguably in the fate of the world. By late summer 1940 Nazi Germany had conquered all its opponents on the continent, including the British Army itself, which was forced to scramble back aboard small boats to its shores. With a Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union in hand, Hitler had only one remaining object that season—the British Isles themselves. However, before he could invade, his Luftwaffe needed to wipe the Royal Air Force from the skies. Thus took place history’s first strategic military campaign conducted in the air alone. This book contains a large number of dramatic eyewitness accounts, even as it reveals new facts that will alter perception of the battle in the public’s eyes. For example, the twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110 was actually a good day fighter, and it performed at least as well in this role as the Bf 109 during the battle. The Luftwaffe’s commander, Hermann Göring, performed far better than has previously been his image. The British night bombers played a more decisive role than previously thought; meantime this book disproves that the German 109 pilots were in any way superior to their Hurricane or Spitfire counterparts. The author has made a detailed search into the loss records for both sides, and provides statistics that will raise more than one eyebrow. The “revisionist” version, according to which the courage and skill of the RAF airmen is “exaggerated” is scrutinized and completely shattered. There is no doubt that it was the unparalleled efforts of “The Few” that won the battle. The Germans, on the other hand, did not show the same stamina as they had on the continent. The following summer they would show it again when they went in to Russia. In the skies over Britain this work verifies where credit was due.

There were no mission limits for a pilot in the Pacific during World War II; unlike in Europe, you flew until it was time to go home. So it was for James “Jug” Curran, all the way from New Guinea to the Philippines with the 348th Fighter Group, the first P-47 Thunderbolt outfit in the Pacific. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Curran volunteered to try flying in the blue yonder, and trained as an Army fighter pilot. He got his wish to fly the P-47 in the Pacific, going into combat in August 1943, in New Guinea, and later helping start the “Black Rams” fighter squadron. The heavy U.S. Thunderbolts were at first curious to encounter the nimble, battle-hardened Japanese in aerial combat, but soon the American pilots gained skill of their own and their planes proved superior. Bombers on both sides could fall to fighters, but the fighters themselves were eyeball to eyeball, best man win. Check Six! is an aviation chronicle that brings the reader into flight, then into the fight, throughout the Pacific War and back. This work, from someone who was there, captures the combat experience of our aviators in the Pacific, aided by pertinent excerpts from the official histories of units that “Jug” Curran flew with.It is a tale of perseverance, as “Jug” Curran flew over 200 combat missions, and with the men of the 348th Fighter Group proved the Thunderbolt’s great capability as they battled their way against a stubborn and deadly foe. This work increases the body of knowledge on the critical role of aviation in the Pacific War, as U.S. fighter pilots took the lead in our counteroffensive against the short-lived island Empire.

This book, a veritable encyclopaedia, is the result of an exceptional job presenting members of the Luftwaffe 1935-1945 for the first time and in full uniform and equipment. Having gathered an impressive collection of original pieces, including service uniforms and flying equipment, the author ensures the experience of these men shines through in this book. Each object is photographed in high quality colour with incredible attention to detail and captions provided for each. With over 150 colour photos, including some published for the first time, the book is divided into four parts. As a bonus, the book ends with a discussion of these men using their gear, including telling the story of a pilot through his awards, documents and personal effects. An essential book for historians of World War II, passionate collectors, librarians and archivists.

August 1914 – the trigger for the Great War that threw millions of men together from the mud of Flanders to the heights of Verdun: in all, one of the most tragic epochs of the bloody 20th century. Within these anonymous masses, struggling through hardship and sacrifice, some unknowns would discover in themselves the ‘divine coupling of courage and fear’ that would lead them to their vocations as leaders of men. Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, George S. Patton: these 5 men, hardened in the crucible of the First World War, would become the great decision-makers of the war to come. The ordeal they went through would mark them profoundly and influence the course of their careers and, decisively, the course of history. For the first time, these five destinies are presented together in one work: an exceptional iconography and an essential document for understanding the history of both wars, and the history of the 20th century.Text in French.