The Chieftain was the British Army's Main Battle Tank from 1966 to 1986, providing the backbone of its heavy armour during the Cold War. Incorporating a host of revolutionary design features, Chieftains saw combat in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War; Kuwaiti Chieftains fought the Iraqi Army during the invasion of 1990; and British Army specialist engineer Chieftains were used in 1991 during Desert Storm. Author Dick Taylor is a former Chieftain and Challenger tank commander. The Haynes Chiefta...
While many films have attempted to convey the experience of the Second World War European battlefield, none adequately portray the mayhem and suffering that befell untold thousands of horses, their bodies impacted by bullet, flame and bomb as well as disease, starvation and backbreaking toil in the searing heat of summer and the freezing winds and snows of winter. In great part, the role of the horse in the Second World War, and in particular their use by the Third Reich, has been eclipsed by th...
The German panzer armies that swept into the Soviet Union in 1941 were an undefeated force that had honed their skill in combined arms warfare to a fine edge. The Germans focused their panzers and tactical air support at points on the battlefield defined as Schwerpunkt - main effort - to smash through any defensive line and then advance to envelope their adversaries. Initially, these methods worked well in the early days of Operation Barbarossa and the tank forces of the Red Army suffered defea...
Almost as soon as a viable metal-framed bike was invented, it was put to military use, offering a much cheaper, less fragile and less logistically demanding alternative to horse transport. Widely used in many armies from the late 19th century, through both world wars and beyond, the bicycle really is the forgotten war machine. John Norris traces traces the development of military cycling from first experiments, including early (often flawed) designs for armed and multi-passenger versions. He exp...
The Stryker interim combat vehicle was a stop-gap measure, designed to meet the needs of the United States to project its military force quickly by air into hotspots around the world. In 2003 it had its baptism of fire in Iraq and has since proved itself an integral part of the US's warfighting capability and now, two decades into its service, the Stryker has been adapted to face the new threat of a resurgent Russia. This volume in the LandCraft series of modelling guides examines the Stryker a...
TM 9-2320-272-24-2 5 Ton M939 Series Truck Direct and General Support Maintenance Manual Vol 2 of 4 June 1998
The Soviet Union had already begun building an armored industry as early as the 1920s. Although initially limited to reconstructing and developing Western European armored vehicles, an independent line of powerful and easy-to-produce models had been established by 1939\. Even after the Second World War, the USSR expanded its armament force considerably, even planning to cross western Europe in a massive armoured wave in the event of any conflict with NATO. In this book, Alexander L deke looks at...
Readers have come to expect a level of detail and critical rigour from the established military historian and author Bryan Perrett. They will not be disappointed at all here by this new publication. Focussing predominantly on the British armoured car units of World War One, it also untangles many fascinating strands forming the history of modern warfare. Full of detail, it acquaints the reader with the complete history of the armoured car, from invention onwards, setting the history of its Grea...
Along with the Tiger, Sherman and T-34, the Panther ranks as one of the most famous tanks of the Second World War. Anthony Tucker-Jones, in this comprehensive new study of a remarkable fighting vehicle, uses over 100 archive photographs, along with a selection of colour profiles, to describe its design, development and operational record. On the Eastern Front the German army needed to counter the Red Army's robust and utilitarian T-34 which began to appear in every-growing and eventually decisiv...
The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich (Casemate Illustrated)
by Yves Buffetaut
The 2nd SS Division, "Das Reich," was a battlefront mainstay for Nazi Germany throughout WWII-from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the final surrender in May 1945. In between it was switched back-and-forth between east and west depending on the crisis, and it fought in nearly every major campaign, from Barbarossa to Normandy, and from Kharkov to the Ardennes. Das Reich was the first Waffen SS division created (though the title "1st" was reserved for Hitler's Leibstandarte). Originally named...
5541: Special Ops Vol. 41
This journal contains these articles: 1) Finns Wearing Fins - Finland's Erikoistoimintaosato Navy Combat Divers It's not often that Finland's military gets good media coverage, especially so when it comes to Finnish Special Forces. Therefore, this article offers an unparalleled look into Finland's Navy Combat Divers. The article describes their organization and equipment, plus there is a full range of close-up photos to accompany it. The photos show the divers performing all sorts of missions...
During the first years of the Second World War, Allied forces endured a series of terrible defeats at the hands of the Germans, Italians and Japanese. Their tanks were outclassed, their armoured tactics were flawed. But the advent of new tank designs and variants, especially those from the United States, turned the tables. Although German armour was arguably still superior at the end of the war, the competence of Allied designs and the sheer scale of their production gave them a decisive advanta...
Hitler's Wehrmacht led the way in armoured warfare as the successful blitzkriegs in Poland and North West Europe in 1940 so convincingly proved. The contribution of light tanks such as Panzers I, II and 35(t) was critical. As the war spread to the Balkans, north Africa and the invasion of Russia, German engineers worked tirelessly modifying existing light tanks and developing new models. The growing Soviet armoured threat, in particular, spawned tank destroyers such as the Marder III Panzerjage...
Tank Combat (Strategy and Tactics)
by Christer Jorgensen and Chris Mann
Ever since it first appeared on the battlefield in World War I, the tank has had an awe-inspiring effect on the enemy. Tank Combat reveals how the tank has developed as an offensive tool over the course of the century, and how tactics have evolved both to exploit and to counter this formidable weapon. Christer Jorgensen and Chris Mann demonstrate through their examination of important tank battles and campaigns that the tank has remained a key part of any commander's offensive and defensive plan...
Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870 (Osprey Military Campaign S., #21) (Campaign)
by Philipp Elliot-Wright
Gravelotte-St-Privat was probably the hardest fought of all the battles of the Franco-Prussian War. Attacked by superior Prussian forces from both the First and Second armies, Marshal Bazaine's French Army of the Rhine inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing Prussian's before finally being forced to retreat into the fortress city of Metz. Unable to break out and with no hope of relief Bazaine's army grimly held on to the end of the war. French failure at Gravelotte-St-Privat led directly to...