Men-at-Arms
34 primary works • 52 total works
Book 338
The formation of the King's German Legion resulted from the occupation of Hanover, their homeland, by the French in 1803. After assorted expeditions including Copenhagen in 1807 and Moore's retreat to Corunna, the Legion joined Sir Arthur Wellesley in the Peninsula. It was here that they were to earn undying renown as the crack corps of Wellington's army. The Legion represented about 20% of Wellington's fighting strength and distinguished itself in all the major actions, including their famous charge at Garcia Hernandez during the Salamanca campaign.
Book 356
It was the Balkan flashpoint which set off World War I, yet the fighting there is curiously neglected, although it was an inportant 'second front' cutting the Central Powers in two and preventing direct German/Turkish co-operation. The campaigns in the Balkans in 1915-18 involved the British, French, Russian and Italian armies, together with the local Serbian, Montenegrin, Greek and Rumanian forces, fighting German, Austrian and Bulgarian troops. This concise but comprehensive account identifies, describes and illustrates all these forces. The text is illustrated with rare photographs never before seen in the West, and with full orders-of-battle and insignia charts.
Book 363
The Baltic region of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia saw some of the most prolonged and savage fighting of any on Germany's Eastern Front during World War II. The coastal nations were invaded by the USSR in 1940; captured by the Wehrmacht in 1941; provided major recruitment for the German Army and Waffen-SS in 1941-44; were retaken by the Red Army in 1944-45 despite stubborn resistance; yet still sustained a guerrilla movement which was not wiped out by the Russian occupiers until 1952. The tragic period covered in this book saw many combat and local security units raised by both sides, offering a most interesting range of uniforms and insignia.
Book 379
During World War I a self-contained war was fought in the European colonies of East Africa, between the British (from Kenya, Rhodesia and Uganda), Belgians (from the Congo) and Portugese (from Mozambique), against the garrison from German East Africa. The German colonial army, led by the brilliant General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, spent much of the war running rings around the Allies, and Lettow-Vorbeck became world famous as a sort of "World War I Rommel" figure. In this title the weapons, tactics and logistics of this campaign are covered, along with the array of exotic uniforms worn.
Book 382
The famously hard-fighting Irish regiments of the British Army distinguished themselves not only in many of the main Peninsular battles, but also in several dramatic, but lesser known actions. This work contains new research into the uniforms and insignia - as well as the battle history - of the Irish regiments of Wellington's army that fought in the Peninsula from 1808 until 1814. It details the 88th Foot (Connaught Rangers), the 27th Foot (Enniskillens), the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and many others.
Book 391
This book is the first of three concise but fact-packed titles on the British Army of the Great War. The units covered include the BEF, the Regular Army and the Royal Navy and Marine units operating on land. The text and the colourful and varied illustrations cover the organisation, uniforms, insignia, decorations, personal equipment and weapons of these famous troops. Also detailed are the training, communications, leadership, and campaign history of the various units that fought during this turbulent time, from the arrival of the BEF in France in August 1914 to the end of the bloody battle of the Somme in autumn 1916.
Book 394
This is the first of three books that study the German Army of World War I in great detail. They give a comprehensive study of the organisation, uniforms, insignia and equipment of the Imperial German army - in practice the combined armies of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemberg. This first volume covers the troops who fought at Mons, Arras, and 1st Ypres in 1914; in winter 1914; at Neuve Chappelle, 2nd Ypres, Artois and the Argonne, 1915; and in East Prussia and Poland, 1914-15. It reflects the impact of the first period of trench warfare on the uniforms worn at the outbreak of war.
Book 407
The years 1915-17 saw the Imperial German Army, like the other Great War combatants, forced to adapt to the new realities of static trench warfare. Prewar uniforms and equipment had to be modified, for reasons of both utility and economy; on battlefields ruled by machine guns and artillery the steel helmet reappeared, and masks to protect against the terrifying new weapon of poison gas. The fashionable cavalry regiments became irrelevant on the Western Front; many were dismounted to join the infantry, while new types of unit usurped their prestige - assault battalions, and the air corps. This second volume in a three-part sequence offers a mass of detail on organization, uniforms and insignia, illustrated with rare photographs and meticulous colour artwork.
Book 412
A detailed, illustrated study of the Ukrainian armed forces, their weapons, dress and equipment from the First to the Second World War and beyond.
There can be no region in Europe whose history has been more tortured than Ukraine. During the 20th century Austria, Poland, Russia, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania vied for power over parts of this vast and fragmented area; and its divided peoples rose time and again in vain attempts to win their independence.
For the first time in the West, this book gives a succinct summary of all the different armed forces raised among the Ukrainians, and of their uniforms and insignia. These are illustrated in colour and in a selection of extremely rare photographs, dating from the Great War to the aftermath of World War II, when Ukrainian guerrillas continued to defy the Soviet authorities until the mid-1950s.
There can be no region in Europe whose history has been more tortured than Ukraine. During the 20th century Austria, Poland, Russia, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania vied for power over parts of this vast and fragmented area; and its divided peoples rose time and again in vain attempts to win their independence.
For the first time in the West, this book gives a succinct summary of all the different armed forces raised among the Ukrainians, and of their uniforms and insignia. These are illustrated in colour and in a selection of extremely rare photographs, dating from the Great War to the aftermath of World War II, when Ukrainian guerrillas continued to defy the Soviet authorities until the mid-1950s.
Book 469
This would be a detailed analysis of the Soviet Army at the outbreak of World War II, including the Red Army's campaigns against Japan on the Manchurian plains as well as in Finland. It would also cover the Red Army's first operations during Operation Barbarossa when the Red Army was forced to defend Mother Russia against the German onslaught. This book would offer a breakdown of all the armed forces including the army, air force, paratroopers, navy and NKVD troops. In particular, it will cover the evolution of uniforms, equipment and insignia with the introduction of new regulations in 1935 and 1940.
Book 469
This book presents a detailed analysis of the Soviet armed forces during the final days of the war, covering the soldiers that successfully turned the tide against the Nazi onslaught and pushed it back into Germany itself. This final part of the series documents the Red Army's push through Germany to Berlin, which eventually culminated in the surrender of the German forces to the Allies in 1945. It also offers a detailed breakdown of all the armed forces that conducted the offensive campaigns on the Eastern Front, including the army, air force, paratroopers, navy and NKVD troops. Its colourful illustrations also include the uniforms and organizations of the Russian forces serving against Japan until the eventual surrender of all Japanese Imperial forces in August 1945.
Book 492
In the 1970s, during the ruinous 30-year dictatorship of General Mobutu, periodic rebellions required the hasty insertion once again of Belgian and French paratroops to save European lives. From the mid-1990s the country split again, becoming the battleground for the largest African war in history, as armies and rebel groups from Rwanda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia and other countries crossed into the Congo to support one side or the other, or simply to loot the rich resources. Major operations ended - or paused - in 2002, but the old hatreds and constant lure of the Congo's natural resources continue to boil over into periodic outbreaks. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and rare photographs, this is the harrowing story of the wars that ravaged the Congo for four decades.
Book 503
Given the merciless way in which the war on the Eastern Front of World War II was conducted, it is difficult to envisage anyone changing sides during the conflict. Yet after the German invasion of Russia in Operation Barbarossa, well over 400,000 former Soviet citizens went on to fight for Nazi Germany. These included not only the 'legions' recruited from non-Russian ethnic groups eager for freedom from Stalin's dictatorship, but also some 100,000 Russians and Cossacks. What began as small local security units of 'Ostruppen', enrolled for the ongoing campaigns against Soviet partisans, were later reorganized, given special systems of uniform and insignia, amalgamated into larger formations, and eventually committed to the front line. This book offers up an essential guide to the appearance, formation and equipment of the myriad Russian and Soviet units that fought for the Germans. It uses rare photographs and revealing colour illustrations to create a peerless visual reference to the troops who switched from one ruthless superpower to another and met with a horrific fate when the fighting was over.
Book 518
Due to its partitions and dissolution in the late eighteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers enlisted in distinct units in the armies of many countries - primarily those of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, but also that of the German Reich and the French Republic.
All these forces were uniformed and equipped by the parent armies, though often with explicitly Polish features. The collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917 and of the Central Powers in 1918 allowed these diverse forces to unite in a re-created Polish Army under the new-born Second Polish Republic in November 1918. With full colour illustrations of their unique and colourful uniforms as well as contemporary photographs, this is the fascinating story of the Poles who fought on both sides of the trenches in World War I and then united to fight for their freedom in the Russian Civil War.
All these forces were uniformed and equipped by the parent armies, though often with explicitly Polish features. The collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917 and of the Central Powers in 1918 allowed these diverse forces to unite in a re-created Polish Army under the new-born Second Polish Republic in November 1918. With full colour illustrations of their unique and colourful uniforms as well as contemporary photographs, this is the fascinating story of the Poles who fought on both sides of the trenches in World War I and then united to fight for their freedom in the Russian Civil War.
In 1938 Adolf Hitler directed two paramilitary labour organizations - the Reicharbeitsdienst consisting of recruits undergoing pre-military training, and the Organisation Todt that comprised a mobilized force of private construction firms - to assist the military forces. Later the NSKK was organized to assist with supply and transport with the Transportkorps Speer added in 1944. That same year as defeat loomed, all manpower with any military potential was drafted into the Deutscher Volkssturm. The history, equipment and uniforms of these auxillary organizations are detailed in this volume.
Philip Katcher provides an overview to the conflict that engulfed Vietnam following the division of the country into two along the 17th Parallel in 1954. The uniforms and insignia of the US forces, including the army, Special Forces, air force, navy and marine corps, are dealt with in detail, together with those of the ARVN, the Allied Forces (such as the Royal Thai Army and Korean troops), and also the Communist NLF (Viet Cong) and NVA forces. Mike Chappell's colourful artwork provides plenty of detail to accompany this authoritative text.
ALSO AVAILABLE TO BUY AS AN E-BOOK. Portugal was both the first and the last of the great European colonial powers. For 500 years Portugal had colonies in Africa. In 1960, as liberation movements swept across colonial Africa, the Portuguese flag still flew over vast expanses of territory across the continent. The spread of decolonization and the establishment of independent states whose governments were sympathetic to the cause of African nationalism led, in the early 1960s, to a series of wars in Angola, Guine and Mozambique. This book details each of these liberation movements, focusing on the equipment, uniforms and organization of the Portuguese forces.