Among the many controversies of World War II, prominent is the debate over Germany’s strategy in the north of the Soviet Union, as the tide of war turned, and gigantic Russian armies began to close in on Berlin. In this long-awaited work, Henrik Lunde—former U.S. Special Forces officer and author of renowned previous works on the campaigns in Norway and Finland—turns his sights to the withdrawal of Army Group North.Providing cool-headed analysis to the problem, the author first acknowledges that Hitler—often accused of holding onto ground for the sake of it—had valid reasons in this instance to maintain control of the Baltic coast. Without it, his supply of iron ore from Sweden would have been cut off, German naval (U-boat) bases would have been compromised, and an entire sympatico area of Europe—including East Prussia—would have been forsaken. On the other hand, Germany’s maintaining control of the Baltic would have meant convenient supply for forces on the coast—or evacuation if necessary—and perhaps most important, remaining German defensive pockets behind the Soviets’ main drive to Europe would tie down disproportionate offensive forces. Stalwart German forces remaining on the coast and on their flank could break the Soviet tidal wave.However, unlike during today’s military planning, the German high command, in a situation that changed by the month, had to make quick decisions and gamble, with the fate of hundreds of thousands of troops and the entire nation at stake on quickly decided throws of their dice.As Henrik Lunde carefully details in this work, Hitler guessed wrong. By leaving four entire battle-hardened armies in isolation along the Baltic, the Soviets pulling up to the Oder River encountered weaker opposition than they had a right to expect. Having economic (or aid) resources of their own they cared little for Hitler’s own supply line and instead simply lunged at his center of power: Berlin. Once that was taken the remaining German pockets could be wiped out. The Germans deprived themselves of many of their strongest forces when they most needed them, and the climactic battle for their capital took place. In this book, both combats and strategy are described in the final stages of the fighting in the Northern Theatre, with Lunde’s even-handed analysis of the campaign a reward to every student of World War II.

Though Anglo-American air power may be unrivalled in today’s world, this was certainly not the case during Europe’s last great war. Decades ago, when our airmen flew against Germany, horrific casualties resulted on both sides, and certain battles fought by the Allied powers can be termed nothing less than calamitous.“Black Thursday,” the second Schweinfurt raid, was the most savagely fought air battle in U. S. history, and a milestone in the course of World War II. On October 14, 1943, the U.S. Eighth Air Force launched nearly 300 bombers deep into German territory to destroy the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt, hoping this would bring enemy industry to a halt.On that clear, sunlit day, hundreds of German fighters raced among the unescorted B-17s, guns blazing, knocking down plane after plane, each with ten men aboard. Other German aircraft flew just outside machine-gun range of the tightly packed formations, lobbing rockets that exploded into thousands of pieces of shrapnel. U.S. bombers that split off from a formation, either wounded or disoriented, became prey for the agile packs of German fighters who would set upon them like wolves thirsty for a kill. By the end of the day, the flight path of the Flying Fortresses was marked across the breadth of Germany by towering pillars of smoke from crashed machines, fiery tributes to 600 lost airmen.W. Raymond Wood was just a child when his brother was lost in the Schweinfurt raid, and the minute details of this book is the result of his multi-year effort to illuminate “Black Thursday” as no writer has before. He not only reveals the experience of the American flyers in this famous battle, but that of the civilians on the ground and the enemy fighters who flew against the bomber stream, including the Me-110 pilot who in all probability destroyed his brother’s plane with a rocket.Illustrated with 48 pages of photos and original documents, this book examines the air war against the Third Reich, then brings the reader into the centre of harrowing air combat, and finally chronicles the little-known operations after war’s end to retrieve and identify our dead.

In the Batailles & Témoignages collection, here's a new album dedicated to the story of a German Romanian born in Kronstadt in the Carpathians, who joined the Waffen-SS, and became an officer. He would go on to fight at Normandy. Finally a book about one of these Volksdeutsche (mainly German minorities in Central Europe) who enlisted in the Waffen-SS, proud of their origins and making great soldiers in the German Army led by Arthur Phleps. We follow this young German from Romania to his journey through the Verfügungstruppe and his transfer to the Hohenstaufen, as well as the training that took him there, which allows the reader to get a wider view on the formation of this division. The first battles were in Galicia and the Normandy coast where our officer was seriously injured and his military career came to an end. TEXT IN FRENCH

A brief history of one of the most famous fighter units of the Luftwaffe, JG 2 "Richthofen". The book includes a decal sheet printed by Cartograf, which contains 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32 individual markings of the following planes:- Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4; W.Nr. 5159, 'White 9', flown by Oblt. Hermann Reifferscheidt, Kapitän of 1./JG 2, Beaumont-le-Roger airfield, France, October 1940,- Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2/B; 'Yellow 3', flown by Uffz. Richard Übelbacher of 6.(Jabo)/JG 2, Abbeville-Drucat airfield, France, summer 1941,- Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-2; W.

“It involves some tense moments, and these are recorded vividly in this book, including interviews with many TD veterans, plus official reports and documents.”The Tank Killers is the story of the American Tank Destroyer Force in North Africa, Italy, and the European Theatre during World War II. The tank destroyer (TD) was a bold-if some would say flawed-answer to the challenge posed by the seemingly unstoppable German blitzkrieg. The TD was conceived to be light and fast enough to outmanoeuvre panzer forces and go where tanks could not. At the same time, the TD would wield the firepower needed to kill any German tank on the battlefield. Indeed, American doctrine stipulated that TDs would fight tanks, while American tanks would concentrate on achieving and exploiting breakthroughs of enemy lines.The Tank Killers follows the men who fought in the TDs from the formation of the force in 1941 through the victory over the Third Reich in 1945. It is a story of American flexibility and pragmatism in military affairs. Tank destroyers were among the very first units to land in North Africa in 1942. Their first vehicles were ad hoc affairs: Halftracks and weapons carriers with guns no better than those on tanks and thin armour affording the crews considerably less protection. Almost immediately, the crews realised that their doctrine was incomplete. They began adapting to circumstances, along with their partners in the infantry and armoured divisions. By the time that North Africa was in Allied hands, the TD had become a valued tank fighter, assault gun, and artillery piece.The story continues with the invasion of Italy and finally that of Fortress Europe on 6 June 1944. By now, the brass had decreed that half the force would convert to towed guns, a decision that dogged the affected crews through the end of the war. The TD men encountered increasingly lethal enemies, ever more dangerous panzers that were often vulnerable only to their guns while American tank crews watched in frustration as their rounds bounced harmlessly off the thick German armour. They fought under incredibly diverse conditions that demanded constant modification of tactics. By VE day, the tank destroyer battalions had achieved impressive records, generally with kill/loss rates heavily in their favour. Yet the Army after the war concluded that the concept of a separate TD arm was so fundamentally flawed that not a single battalion existed after November 1946.The Tank Killers draws heavily on the records of the tank destroyer battalions and the units with which they fought. Veterans of the force add their personal stories.

The gallant stand of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne has long become part of historical and media legend. But how many students of the war realize there was already a U.S. unit holding the town when they arrived? And this unit—the 10th Armored Division—continued to play a major role in its defense throughout the German onslaught.In The Tigers of Bastogne, authors King and Collins finally detail the travails of this young armored division, which had only arrived in Europe that fall, yet found itself subject to the full brunt of Manteuffel’s Fifth Panzer Army in the Ardennes. At first overwhelmed, and then falling back to protect the vital crossroads, the 10th Armored was reinforced (not “saved”) by the Screaming Eagles, and its men and tanks went on to contribute largely to America’s victory in its largest battle of the war.The 10th Armored had only arrived in Europe that September, as part of Patton’s Third Army, and their divisional motto, “Terrify and Destroy,” was somewhat belied by the onslaught of Nazi panzers that burst across no-man’s-land on December 16. Instead their nickname, “The Tiger Division,” became fully earned, as they went on the defensive at Bastogne, surrounded by an entire German army, yet refused to concede a single inch of ground not earned with blood.General Anthony McAuliffe, of the 101st Airborne (and “Nuts” fame), said, “It seems regrettable to me that Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division didn’t get the credit it deserved at the battle of Bastogne. All the newspaper and radio talk was about the paratroopers. Actually the 10th Armored Division was in there a day before we were and had some very hard fighting before we ever got into it.”Fortunately, in this book, the historical record is finally corrected. With their trademark style, King and Collins, through their firsthand interviews with veterans, bring us straight into the combats of the 10th Armored, equaling the balance between the brave paratroopers and gallant tankers who, together, held off Germany’s last major offensive in the West.

“I intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer,” Union commander Ulysses S. Grant wrote to Washington after he’d opened his Overland Campaign in the Spring of 1864.His resolve entirely changed the face of warfare. Promoted to command of all the Federal armies, the new lieutenant general chose to ride shotgun with the Army of the Potomac as it once again threw itself against the wily, audacious Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. But Grant did something no one else had done before: he threw his army at Lee, over and over again.At Spotsylvania Court House, the second phase of the campaign, the two armies shifted from stalemate in the Wilderness to slugfest in the mud. Most commonly known for the horrific twenty-two-hour hand-to-hand combat in the pouring rain at the Bloody Angle, the battle of Spotsylvania Court House actually stretched from May 8-21, 1864, fourteen long days of battle and maneuver.Grant, the irresistible force, hammering with his overwhelming numbers and unprecedented power, versus Lee, the immovable object, hunkered down behind the most formidable defensive works yet seen on the continent—Spotsylvania Court House represents a chess match of immeasurable stakes between two master opponents. This clash is detailed in A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21,1864.As former battlefield guides at Spotsylvania Court House, authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White know the ground as intimately as anyone today. With the knowledge and insight that comes from that familiarity, coupled with their command of the fact, Mackowski and White weave together a gripping narrative of one of the war’s most consequential engagements.A Season of Slaughter is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps.

May 1863. The Civil War was in its third spring, and Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson stood at the peak of his fame. He had arisen from obscurity to become “Old Stonewall,” adored across the South and feared and respected throughout the North. On the night of May 2, however, just hours after Jackson executed the most audacious manoeuvre of his career and delivered a crushing blow against an unsuspecting Union army at Chancellorsville, disaster struck.The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson recounts the events of that fateful night—considered one of the most pivotal moments of the war—and the tense vigil that ensued as Jackson struggled with a foe even he could not defeat. From Guinea Station, where Jackson crosses the river to rest under the shade of the trees, the story follows Jackson’s funeral and burial, the strange story of his amputated arm, and the creation and restoration of the building where he died (now known as the Stonewall Jackson Shrine). This newly revised and expanded second edition features more than 50 pages of fresh material, including almost 200 illustrations, maps, and eye-catching photos.New appendices allow readers to walk in Jackson’s pre-war footsteps through his adopted hometown of Lexington, Virginia; consider the ways Jackson’s memory has been preserved through monuments, memorials, and myths; and explore the misconceptions behind the Civil War’s great What-If: “What if Stonewall had survived his wounds?”With the engaging prose of master storytellers, Chris Mackowski and Kristopher White make The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson a must-read for Civil War novices and buffs alike.

Incorporated on 15 July 1940, this unit was the first U.S. armoured division to be created. Mark Bando retraces their journey from England, through the Battle of Normandy to the Seine landing in Omaha (from June 7 to 9), fighting in the area of Carentan (with the legend of the "Roosevelt’s Butchers"), and north of Coutances with Operation Cobra, at Canisy, the death of Tychsen at Hauts Vents, the pocket at Roncey, at Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly, Saintmartin-de-Cenilly, and Saint-Denis-le Gast. As ever with Mark Bando, the many eyewitness reports allow us a harder-hitting and more real picture of the reality of combat. The illustrations include rare contemporary colour photos. These exceptional testimonies, also include 140 photos with 42 in colour, many of them previously unpublished. TEXT IN FRENCH.

More than seventy years after the end of World War II, many grey areas still surround this period. By launching Juvincourt, August 2, 1944, the first aerial reconnaissance mission for the Arado 234 jet, the eye of the V-2, Hitler played his last card. These striking aerial photographs, taken that day, showed the entire allied positions and lead to the decision to counterattack at Mortain. Curiously, these pictures disappeared from U.S. official archives for half a century. After a long process of research and investigation, Philippe Bauduin, former director of Anvar Lower Normandy, and Eric Charon, journalist, demonstrate, with supporting evidence, that the Battle of Normandy proved an extraordinary challenge for the Allies and the Germans. This new edition of a book also includes the personal photographic archives of two Arado pilots, Sommer and Götz.French Language

Few Americans associate New York City with the Civil War, but the most populated metropolitan area in the nation, then and now, is filled with scores of monuments, historical sites, and resources directly related to those four turbulent years. Veteran author Bill Morgan’s The Civil War Lover’s Guide to New York City examines more than 150 of these largely overlooked and often forgotten historical gems.New York City has always been full of surprises. Not only was it largely sympathetic to the South, but its citizens twice voted overwhelmingly against Abraham Lincoln and the mayor refused to fly the American flag over city hall on the day of his inauguration. The USS Monitor, the country’s first ironclad, was designed and built here, and General Meade sent troops to the city straight from the Gettysburg battlefield to put down the bloodiest civil rebellion in our history. Morgan’s book takes readers on a nearly endless journey of historical discovery. Walk inside the church where Stonewall Jackson was baptized (which still holds services), visit the building where Lincoln delivered his famous “Cooper Union Speech,” and marvel that the church built by the great abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher is still used for worship. A dozen Civil War era forts still stand (the star-shaped bastion upon which the Statue of Liberty rests was a giant supply depot), and one of them sent relief supplies to besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston.After the war, New York honored the brave men who fought by erecting some of the nation’s most beautiful memorials in honor of William T. Sherman, Admiral David Farragut, and Abraham Lincoln. These and many others still grace parks and plazas around the city. Complete with full-color photos and maps, Morgan’s lavishly illustrated and designed The Civil War Lover’s Guide to New York City is a must-have book for every student of the Civil War and for every visitor to New York City.

This deeply researched book describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At its height it involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers, while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators and, often, victims. It turned what had been a Japanese adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world.In its sheer scale, the struggle for China’s largest city was a sinister forewarning of what was in store for the rest of mankind only a few years hence, in theaters around the world. It demonstrated how technology had given rise to new forms of warfare, or had made old forms even more lethal. Amphibious landings, tank assaults, aerial dogfights and most importantly, urban combat, all happened in Shanghai in 1937. It was a dress rehearsal for World War II—or perhaps more correctly it was the inaugural act in the war—the first major battle in the global conflict.Actors from a variety of nations were present in Shanghai during the three fateful autumn months when the battle raged. The rich cast included China's ascetic Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his Japanese adversary, General Matsui Iwane, who wanted Asia to rise from disunity, but ultimately pushed the continent toward its deadliest conflict ever. Claire Chennault, later of “Flying Tiger” fame, was among the figures emerging in the course of the campaign, as was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In an ironic twist, Alexander von Falkenhausen, a stern German veteran of the Great War, abandoned his role as a mere advisor to the Chinese army and led it into battle against the Japanese invaders.Written by Peter Harmsen, a foreign correspondent in East Asia for two decades, and currently bureau chief in Taiwan for the French news agency AFP, Shanghai 1937 fills a gaping chasm in our understanding of the Second World War.

They melted like snow on the ground, one officer said—wave after wave of Federal soldiers charging uphill across an open, muddy plain. Confederates, fortified behind a stone wall along a sunken road, poured a solid hail of lead into them as they charged . .

Through extensive research and period photographs, author Roy Frampton brings the lives of Civil War heroes back from the forgotten past. Because of their courageous acts during the Gettysburg Campaign, 71 men were awarded the Medal of Honor; seven men were awarded the reactivated Confederate Medal of Honor. Learn the names, stories, and acts of bravery that earned these soldiers our country's highest military decoration for valor. You'll be introduced men such as Captain Francis Irsch, who, with a small contingent of men, stalled the Confederate advance through the streets of Gettysburg by fortifying a local hotel; Sgt. Francis Jefferson Coates, who suffered a horrific wound attempting to rally his company on McPherson's Ridge; Benjamin W. Owens, who single-handedly manned an artillery piece on a rickety wooden bridge at the battle of Stephenson's Depot. These stories and more honor a few ordinary men and their enduring acts of valor that stand like noble pillars.

With only a few good men and women, and in spite of the unrelenting pressure of both German and Vichy security services, the BCRA managed to establish a series of resistance networks that eventually provided up to 75% of the vital intelligence needed for the preparation of the June 1944 Normandy landings. Based on little known or ignored documents, this latest addition to the Resistance series presents General de Gaulle’s secret services that went from being no more than a small band of amateurs in 1940 to a key element of the Free French contribution to final victory.

Established on 1 October 1949, the Sturmgeschütz Brigade participated in Operation Barbarossa in Ukraine all the way to the gates of Moscow. In 1942 it fought on the Terek in the Ukraine and then onto Sebastopol, Yugoslavia and then Hungry. Its successes can be attributed to the numerous recipients of the Knights Cross included among its ranks. Over 360 photographs and original pieces of documentation are included in this well researched work.French Language