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The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was the most prominent German fighter type of World War II - over 35,000 were built and it served in many different variants and roles throughout the course of the war. This book is the first in a series of three covering the entire history of the Bf 109. It describes the range of kits available for the early and pre-war variants, including the Bf 109s that flew in the Spanish Civil War, Poland, France and the Battle of Britain. Author Brett Green also includes the full...

The first American armoured cars began to emerge around the turn of the century, seeing their first military use in 1916 during the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa. When the United States entered World War I, the American Expeditionary Forces used some armoured cars in France, and American armoured cars were used by the French Army. The inter-war years saw considerable innovation and experimentation in armoured car design. Of the 1930s scout car designs, the M3A1 scout car was good en...

When at Hitler's insistence the first Tiger I tanks went into action in Tunisia in December 1942 they rapidly gained a formidable fighting reputation despite their lack of reliability and the small number deployed. With its heavy armour and 88mm gun, it outclassed all the Allied tanks then in service and forced the Allies to accelerate the introduction of improved anti-tank guns and tanks that could match the Tiger in terms of firepower and protection. In this, his second volume in the TankCraf...

An aviation legend designed in the mid-1940s, the Canberra entered service in 1951 with RAF Bomber Command. It served in the conventional, interdictor and nuclear bomber role with the RAF, in the UK, Germany, the Middle East and Far East. Its performance and adaptability made it ideal as a reconnaissance aircraft, and the final version, the Canberra PR9, only finally retired in July 2006! The Canberra was used in many support roles, especially in signals / electronic warfare. The Canberra was ad...

A monumental, wholly accessible work of scholarship that retells human history through the story of mankind's relationship with the sea. An accomplishment of both great sweep and illuminating detail, The Sea and Civilization is a stunning work of history that reveals in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways. Lincoln Paine takes us back to t...

From ancient flint hand daggers to the futuristic M1A2 tanks of today, flip through a series of stunning visuals to discover the weapons and vehicles that have shaped the military world.With rich illustrations, striking photography, and inputs from experts, Machines of War presents the story of all forms of weaponry that have dominated the battlefield, right from the pre-industrial age to the 21st century. Get a close-up look at firearms, aircraft, tanks, warships, and learn about the invention,...

The adoption of blitzkrieg tactics in the German Army prior to the start of World War 2 meant that Germany needed a new kind of fighting vehicle for transporting troops around the battlefield in support of the Panzer spearheads. It was in response to this requirement that the armoured half track was developed during the mid-30s. The SdKfz 251 half-track soon became one of the most numerous vehicles in the German World War 2 arsenal, and saw service on every front from Russia to France. This is t...

This is a complete guide to modelling one of the best fighters of World War II. Designed by Kurt Tank, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 first saw combat in the summer of 1941 and went on to be produced in several variants. It remains a hugely popular subject amongst many aviation scale-modellers. The first of two to cover the Fw190, this book provides a detailed, step-by-step guide to modelling the Fw 190's 'A', 'F' and 'G' types in 1/48th and 1/32nd scale. The key aspects such as creating mottled camoufla...

Adding a figure to a kit or a vignette can really bring it to life – yet building and painting figures continues to be a source of frustration to many modellers, with the results all too disappointing. However, help is at hand. The aim of this book is to equip the average modeller with techniques to successfully complete a figure from start to finish, and provides clear and easy-to-follow instructions on how to select, prepare, assemble, modify and paint realistic figures. It covers a wide range...

Panzers in Defence of Poznan 1945 by Maciej Karalus and Jaroslaw Jerzak is the first book published in English to describe the bitter battle for Festung Poznan in 1945. That Polish city, occupied by the Nazis since almost the very beginning of the Second World War in 1939, was declared a fortress (Festung) on January 20 1945, and for the whole month it saw heavy fighting between Wehrmacht and Waffen SS troops and the Red Army advancing directly towards Berlin. Among the garrison of the fortress...

Repair, logistics, recovery, tactics and movement of a panzer division compiled from post- war debriefs, contemporary intelligence reports and interviews.

Since its introduction in 1981, at the height of the Cold War, the Abrams main battle tank has been one of the most visible and iconic symbols of American military power, and it is the fascinating subject of this heavily illustrated historical and modelling guide in the TankCraft series by David Grummitt. Designed to meet head-on the massed tank forces of the Warsaw Pact, its combat debut in fact came in a different scenario in 1991 during the First Gulf War. Since then it has served in the pea...

They helped conquer the greatest armies ever assembled. Yet no sooner had they tasted victory after World War II than American generals suddenly found themselves governing their former enemies, devising domestic policy and making critical economic decisions for people they had just defeated in battle. In postwar Germany and Japan, this authority fell into the hands of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, along with a cadre of military officials like Lucius Clay and the Detroit banker Jose...

This book lists all the important tanks used in the Second World War, both by the Allied (England, France, Russia and the USA) and Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan). Thomas Anderson, an expert on the history of the Second World War, offers an in-depth volume detailling the vehicles, their use in battle and relevant technical specifications. This comprehensive survey is full of authentic eyewitness accounts as well as being profusely illustrated with many photographs having never been publis...

In spite of the relatively small numbers involved, the Tiger I and Tiger II tanks of the German Army and Waffen-SS heavy Panzer formations played a central role in resisting the Allied invasion of France in the summer of 1944\. British and American tank crews found to their dismay that the Tigers could survive numerous hits while a single round from one of their 88mm guns was enough to penetrate the strongest armour. In his latest book in the TankCraft series Dennis Oliver uses archive photograp...

The Soviet T-34 was the most produced tank of the Second World War and its revolutionary sloping armour became a major influence on future tank design. With its combination of heavy firepower, mobility and protection, the T-34 gave the Red Army a war-winning weapon with which to break the German Army on the Eastern Front. A mainstay of the Soviet armoured divisions, it was widely exported after the war and in 2017 it remains in frontline service with many third world countries. Author Mark Hea...