Men-at-Arms
34 primary works • 52 total works
Germany's Eastern Front Allies (2)
by Nigel Thomas and Carlos Caballero Jurado
Published 20 May 2012
For General George B. McClellan, the dejected Union troops who poured into Washington fresh from defeat at Bull Run on Monday, July 22, 1861, were to provide the raw material which he would train, equip, organize and ultimately transform from a mere mob into an effective fighting force. In October 1861, the Army of the Potomac officially came into being. This entertaining volume from the same team of author Philip Katcher and artist Michael Youens who produced Men-at-Arms 37, The Army of Northern Virginia, explores how this transition came about, with a particular emphasis on weapons, uniforms and equipment.
In this second volume of a three-part series on the Soviet Armed Forces in World War II, author Nigel Thomas turns his attention to the mid-war period. Focusing on the uniforms and organization of Soviet troops during the campaigns of the Caucasus, Stalingrad and Kursk, this book offers a detailed breakdown of all the armed forces which conducted the valiant defensive campaigns, including the army, air force, paratroopers, navy and NKVD troops. It also covers equipment and insignia and the changes brought about by the new regulations of 1943.
The armies of Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium bore the first crushing impact of Hitler's mighty Blitzkrieg war machine in Western Europe, in a campaign that astonished and terrified the world. The German Wehrmacht was millions strong, equipped with the latest guns, tanks and aircraft, and had the priceless advantage of having learned the realities of modern warfare in Poland the previous September. The defenders of Scandinavia and the Low Countries were raised from small populations, and were inadequately funded, trained, equipped and armed. Their modest numbers, inexperience, and largely indefensible borders condemned them to rapid defeat. For this reason they have tended to be neglected by history - in many cases, unjustly. Vastly outnumbered - and, in the case of the neutral Low Countries, with their potential French and British allies reeling under simultaneous attacks - thousands of soldiers fought heroically in the hopeless defence of their homelands against the Nazi juggernaut.
The wars between whites and Indians, the most famous of which were fought on the great Western plains between 1860 and 1890, were among the most tragic of all conflicts ever fought. To the victor went no less than the complete domination of the continent, to the loser total extinction. Accustomed only to small scale skirmishing and raiding, the Indians were doomed from the start. They had never fought a European-style war with its constant pressure and co-ordinated strategies. Philip Katcher details the armies of both sides, paying particular attention to their organisation and uniforms.
Between March 1939 and April 1941, Nazi Germany overran almost the whole of continental Europe in a series of lightning campaigns. Some of the defeated troops managed to evade capture and set up guerilla units in rural areas or escaped to friendly countries. The hard pressed Allies welcomed this source of motivated manpower with open arms and these volunteers were either incorporated into existing units or formed into new ones. These emigre servicemen, fanatically anti-German and with priceless "in country" knowledge were valuable recruits for the various unconventional and clandestine warfare units such as 10th (interallied) commando and the SOE. This volume covers the largely ignored contribution of these volunteer units which served alongside the major combatants to help overthrow Nazi tyranny.
Once predicted to be 'the Middle East of the Year 2000', Central America and the Caribbean have long been a powder keg of revolutionary activity and guerilla warfare. The United States, with important strategic and economic interests in the region, has traditionally opted for a military solution toward the political upheaval, developing a range of responses, from direct military intervention to the training of tens of thousands of Latin-American soldiers in anti-guerilla warfare techniques. This text, enhanced by colour plates and numerous photographs, examines the history of the Central American Wars by country, detailing the organization and uniforms of the combatants.
In 1917 Poland was recognised as a state by Russia, but the Bolshevik coup threatened this. The Polish leader Marshal Pilsudski hurried to build an army around Polish World War I veterans, and in 1918 war broke out for Poland's independence, involving the the Poles, the Red and White Russian armies, at least two different Ukrainian forces, and Allied intervention troops. The armies that fought these campaigns were extraordinarily varied in their uniforms and insignia, equipment and weapons, and when peace was signed in 1921, Poland had achieved recognised nationhood for the first time since 1794. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this engaging study explains and illustrates the armies that fought in the epic struggle for the rebirth of the independent Polish nation, in the bitter aftermath of World War I.