Central to the German strategy of dealing with an Allied landing in France was the availability of a strong, mobile armoured reserve. In June 1944, as part of this force, the Army in the West was able to deploy over 300 Panther tanks, perhaps the best armoured fighting vehicle produced by Germany during the Second World War. British and American tank crews found to their horror that the Panthers could often survive numerous hits while a single round from one of their 75mm guns was enough to dest...
The German Panther is one of the most famous, and greatest, tanks of World War II. Often considered the most elegant tank design of the war, it embodied a balance of firepower, armour protection, and mobility unmatched by any other tank of the period. This new study by German armour expert Thomas Anderson draws upon original German archival material to tell the story of the birth of the Panther in response to the Soviet tanks encountered in 1941. He then analyzes its success on the battlefield a...
Stalin's purge of army officers in the late 1930s and disputes about tank tactics meant that Soviet armoured forces were in disarray when Hitler invaded in 1941\. As a result, during Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht's 3,200 panzers ran circles round the Red Army's tank force of almost 20,000 - thousands of Soviet tanks were disabled or destroyed. Yet within two years of this disaster the Red Army's tank arm had regained its confidence and numbers and was in a position to help turn the tide a...
During the summer of 1944 a series of massive Soviet offensives threatened to destroy the entire German army on the Eastern Front. As the Wehrmacht scrambled to hold what ground it could many formations simply disappeared and the available armoured units were used to plug the gaps in the frontline. One of the most important elements of the defence was the newly raised IV.SS-Panzerkorps which contained the veteran Totenkopf and Wiking divisions. Although both were well equipped their real strikin...
No other combatant nation employed motorcycles on the scale produced by the Third Reich. During Nazi Germany's campaigns, first of invasion, then of the retreat that followed, motorcycles served a variety of functions: as couriers, for reconnaissance, for medical evacuation, as assault shock troops taking the brunt of battle, even as tank destroyers and for delivering hot meals to the frontline. As the Third Reich gained absolute control of Germany and sought to spread its domain by fire and ste...
The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment was part of the Totenkopf Division—one of the 38 Waffen-SS divisions active during World War II. Notorious for its brutality, most notably a mass execution of British prisoners in the battle of France, “Totenkopf” had a fearsome reputation. The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment was formed in France in late 1942, and transferred to the Eastern Front in early 1943 where it fought for the rest of the war. The regiment participated in a number of battles, and would be reduced and...
"If the tanks succeed, then victory follows." --General Heinz Guderian, 1937 After seeing the success of the British tanks in the First World War, the Germans decided that the future of warfare lay in the Panzerkampfwagen, the armored fighting vehicle, later simply known as the Panzer. In time, the Panzer Corps would become the German army's new vanguard, an essential component of the new style of war that came to be known as Blitzkrieg--or "lightning war." Steel Fist looks at the development...
By 1943, after the catastrophic German defeat at Stalingrad, the Wehmacht's panzer armies gradually lost the initiative on the Eastern Front. The tide of the war had turned. Their combined arms technique, which had swept Soviet forces before it during 1941 and 1942, had lost its edge. Thereafter the war on the Eastern Front was dominated by tank-led offensives and, as Robert Forczyk shows, the Red Army's mechanized forces gained the upper hand, delivering a sequence of powerful blows that shatte...
Robert Forczyk covers the development of armoured warfare in North Africa from the earliest Anglo-Italian engagements to the German Afrikakorps in Tunisia in 1943. The war in the North African desert was pure mechanized warfare, and in many respects the most technologically advanced theatre of World War II. It was also the only theatre where for three years British and Commonwealth, and later US, troops were in constant contact with Axis forces. World War II best-selling author Robert Forczy...
The M113 family of vehicles has proved to be one of the most popular military designs of the last 40 years. Introduced in the early 1960s, the series has encompassed several dozen variants and served in over 50 countries, seeing action in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War and both Gulf Wars. This title includes a cross section of M113s from different countries highlighting the flexibility of the chassis which enables the vehicle to conduct a range of missions, and provides a progressively chal...
A thoroughly updated history of the legendary French Foreign Legion by the bestselling author of Who Dares Wins Tony Geraghty analyses the legend and re-examines the battle honours of the Foreign Legion, and his revelations illuminate the darker side of its historic relationship to the motherland. Called into being in 1831 as a device to absorb the footloose veterans of Napoleon's old armies, the French Foreign Legion subsequently won astonishing victories in the farflung battlefields...
Modelling the Challenger 1 and 2 Mbt and Variants (Osprey Modelling)
by Graeme Davidson
Panzers in Berlin 1945
by Lee Archer, Mario Lippert, and Robert Kraska
Jagdpanther Tank Destroyer (Tankcraft) (Tank Craft)
by Dennis Oliver
Combining the destructive firepower of the 88mm gun with the outstanding mobility of the Panther series, the Jagdpanther is quite probably the best-known tank destroyer of the Second World War. In the vehicle's first action on 30 July 1944, three Jagdpanthers managed to destroy eleven British tanks in a vicious two minute firefight near the village of Les Loges in Normandy, cementing the Jagdpanther's reputation as a potent tank killer. In his fifth book in the TankCraft series, Dennis Oliver us...
German armoured forces were a key component of the Wehrmacht's Blitzkrieg ('Lightning War') tactics that quickly conquered Poland, the Low Countries and France in 1939 and 1940. Germany introduced a new style of mechanised warfare that surprised the Allies and allowed the German forces to overwhelm often numerically superior forces in France and Russia. However, as the war progressed the Allies learned how to counter the German tactics, and in the final years of the war German armour was on the...
Building upon the expertise of the authors and historians of the Naval Institute Press, the Naval History Special Editions are designed to offer studies of the key vessels, battles, and events of armed conflict. Using an image-heavy, magazine-style format, these Special Editions should appeal to scholars, enthusiasts, and general readers alike. The German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was a remarkable vessel by any standard. She was arguably one of the most handsome major warships ever constructed...
Italian Armoured & Reconnaissance Cars 1911-45 (New Vanguard, #261)
by Filippo Cappellano and Pier Paolo Battistelli
The first Italian armoured cars were used in the war in Libya in 1911-12 against the Ottoman Empire. With few tanks being developed, the Italians relied instead on the development of more mobile armoured cars like the Ansaldo Lancia 1 Z, during World War I, but post-war the army, focusing on the Alpine battlegrounds of Italy's northern borders, did not consider armoured cars suitable for reconnaissance duties. The experience of the Spanish Civil War would provide the much needed last push for...
Colonel de l'armee francaise en retraite, Paul Malmassari avait deja publie, au debut des annees 1990, aux editions Heimdal, un ouvrage de reference sur le sujet des trains blindes, en general peu traite. Specialiste indiscutable en la matiere, l'auteur propose cette fois-ci une approche nouvelle, tres differente, de l'histoire de ces geants d'acier dependants des chemins de fer. Des origines a nos jours, les trains blindes de plus de soixante Etats sont expliques. Ceux de la Russie, ou ils ont...
A beautifully illustrated history of the iconic ocean-going gunboats of British 'gunboat diplomacy', the hundreds of little warships that for 50 years demonstrated the power of the Royal Navy worldwide, and which maintained and enforced the rule of the British Empire at its peak. In recent years the phrase 'gunboat diplomacy' has been used to describe the crude use of naval power to bully or coerce a weaker nation. During the reign of Queen Victoria, 'gunboat diplomacy' was viewed very differen...
TM 9-2320-272-24-3 5 Ton M939 Series Truck Direct and General Support Maintenance Manual Vol 3 of 4 June 1998
Modern Israeli Tanks and Infantry Carriers 1985-2004 (New Vanguard, #93)
by Marsh Gelbart
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has introduced a variety of new armoured vehicles since the 1980s. Elderly tanks such as the M48 and M60 have been rebuilt and in the form of the Magach 7, improved beyond recognition. The performance of existing models of Israel's indigenous Merkava tank has been similarly enhanced. In addition, the new Merkava 4 MBT has recently entered into service. Israeli infantry have also received innovative fighting machines including the Achzarit heavy assault carrier and...
American Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (Images of War)
by Michael Green
Numerous wheeled armoured fighting vehicles have seen service in the US armed forces on and off for over 80 years. There have been various changes of policy and twice, after the Second World War and Vietnam, they went out of favour but their use is now well established. This well researched and superbly illustrated book describes all the different types and variants since the first M1 was ordered in 1931. The M8 armoured car was widely used during World War Two but it was not until Vietnam th...
When Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the 23-tonne Panzer III was in the vanguard of the German assault. It saw widespread use during the Second World War in campaigns that included Poland, France, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, North Africa and Normandy. Centrepiece of the Haynes Panzer III Tank Manual is the Bovington Tank Museum's PzKpfw III Ausf L, which has been restored to running condition. Full coverage is given of the tank's design, constructi...