Jon Diamond – författare

Featuring specially commissioned artwork, gripping first-hand accounts and expert analysis, this engaging reassessment offers a glimpse of what it was like for Britain's Chindits to fight in the jungles and mountains of Burma at the height of World War II.In order to keep China in the war against the Japanese, the Western Allies believed they had to return to Northern Burma. Colonel Orde Wingate, a military maverick and proponent of guerrilla warfare, knew that a different type of British infantryman was required for this role – the Chindit, indoctrinated with special training – to re-enter the jungles and mountains of Northern Burma in order to combat the victorious Japanese forces there.The Chindits’ opponents would include the 18th Division, one of Imperial Japan’s most seasoned formations, which by 1941 had already accumulated as much operational experience as most Anglo-American divisions would acquire in the entire 1939–45 war. In a host of encounters the two sides clashed repeatedly in the harsh conditions of the Burmese jungle; the intended role and subsequent operational performance of the Chindits remains fraught with controversy today.Packed with full-colour artwork, specially drawn maps and archive photographs, this gripping study offers key insights into the tactics, leadership, combat performance and subsequent reputations of six representative Chindit and Japanese infantry units involved in three pivotal actions that hastened Japan’s defeat in Burma during World War II.

General Stilwell's ad hoc force of Merrill's Marauders, American-trained Chinese divisions, Kachin guerrillas and General Wingate's Chindits conducted a northern Burmese offensive that led to the coup de main seizure of Myitkyina's airfield in May 1944. In August 1944, after a protracted siege, Myitkyina town on the Irrawaddy River fell to the Allies. At the same time elements of General Slim's 14th Army were mounting a defence of northeastern India at Imphal and Kohima against Imperial Japan's 15th Army; Operation U-Go, led by General Mutaguchi, from March to July 1944. Thereafter, the Allies began two major campaigns.First, the northern Burmese Sino-American offensive re-opened the land supply route to China via a newly-built Burma Road, which replaced the American Air Transport Command's Hump' airlift that had kept Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces supplied.The second offensive was by General Bill Slim's multi-national British 14th Army under, which advanced south-east through the Arakan. The Forgotten Army' eventually re-occupied Mandalay and Rangoon.These legendary campaigns are superbly described in words and images in this fine addition to the Images of War series.

In September 1944, to prevent Japanese air interdiction against General MacArthur's planned invasion of the Southern Philippines, the Americans attacked Peleliu and Angaur in the Palau group of the Western Caroline Islands. Admiral Halsey, commanding the US Third Fleet, feared the heavily defended Palaus would be costly for his III Amphibious Corps comprising the 1st Marine Division and the 81st Infantry Division.While Angaur fell in four days, on Peleliu the Japanese resisted tenaciously using their underground fortifications on the Umurbrogel Ridge overlooking the airfield. It was only after over two months' bitter fighting that the Americans finally controlled the Island. Despite the heavy cost, the benefits of this hard fought and costly victory were doubtful. In the event, Mindanao and other Southern Philippine Islands were bypassed by MacArthur in favour of a direct assault on Leyte on 20 October. But, as the graphic images and well researched text bear witness, there is no denying the courage and determination shown by the attacking US forces.

New Guinea describes in archival photographs with accompanying detailed captions and chapter narratives the conflict between the Australian-American forces under General MacArthur in combating the tenacious Japanese first in Papua in 1942-43 and then along the entire northern coast of the world’s second largest island in 1943-44 to both isolate the Japanese bastion at Rabaul and pave the way for the American invasion of the Philippine Islands in 1944-45.

On August 7, 1942, U.S. Marines landed on the island of Guadalcanal, northeast of Australia, launching the first major Allied offensive against Japan. In one of the best-known campaigns of World War II's Pacific Theater, the Marines and then the U.S. Army endured a bitter six-month struggle for the island.• Hundreds of photos depict soldiers and commanders, vehicles, weapons and equipment, terrain, living conditions, medical care, and much more• Text narrates the campaign and captions expertly describe the photos• Perfect complement to the narrative accounts in the Stackpole Military History Series• Ideal reference for military history fans, scholars, modelers, and reenactors

Fierce Pacific ground, sea, and aerial combat raged between the Allies and Imperial Japan to halt the latter’s inexorable advance in 1942-1943. After the American victory at Guadalcanal in February 1943, Admiral Halsey’s South Pacific Area (SPA) naval and amphibious forces battled through the Solomon Islands building new and acquiring extant Japanese airfields. Simultaneously General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) Australian-American ground forces, supported by General George Kenney’s US Fifth Air Force and other Allied air squadrons, captured Japanese installations in Papua New Guinea before campaigning along Northeast New Guinea’s northern coast ousting or bypassing enemy installations there. Using newly-built Papuan airfields, the Allies gained air superiority over New Guinea and also interdicted Japanese maritime supply lines. Yet, the main Japanese southwest Pacific bastion at Rabaul on the northeastern tip of New Britain, the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago, remained.In March 1943, realizing an amphibious assault and ground campaign against Rabaul’s naval and army bases would be too costly, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to neutralise Rabaul with a joint SPA and SWPA aerial siege rather than capture it. This IOW volume recounts this strategy during 1943 and 1944 and the December 1943 amphibious landings by the US 1st Marine Division and US Sixth Army units at Cape Gloucester and Arawe, respectively, which successfully isolated the Japanese fortress and satellite bases.

The campaign for Iwo Jima (Operation Detachment) from 19 February–26 March 1945 pitted the USMC Fifth Amphibious Corps (VAC) and the USN’s Fifth Fleet against the IJA 109th Division and assorted IJN ground troops under the command of Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. After neutralizing Japanese air assets on Iwo Jima, the objective was to seize Iwo Jima’s two completed airfields in the southern and central sectors and make them operational after the heavy pre- and post-invasion aerial, naval and Marine artillery bombardment. USAAF 7th Fighter Command would then have this Volcano Island as a base from which to escort the four-engine B-29 heavy bombers on their Japanese Home Islands’ raids from their Mariana Islands bases and to provide emergency airfields for battle-damaged or low-on-fuel Superfortresses on their return flight that otherwise would have crashed in the sea. The combined American force numbered over 100,000 troops against 20,933 Japanese soldiers and sailors. Kuribayashi’s defences were so well fortified with caves, tunnels and daunting terrain that the VAC lost 6,821 KIA and 19,217 wounded compared to approximately 18,000 Japanese troops KIA or MIA with only 216 prisoners taken. In a ‘mopping up’ phase to clear the remaining Japanese hidden in the island’s caves, the Army’s 147th IR, 37th Division captured an additional 867 prisoners. This epic USMC campaign resulted in an unprecedented ratio of three American casualties for every two Japanese soldiers. In all, 2,251 emergency B-29 landings were made saving the lives of almost 25,000 aircrew members. The flagraisings atop Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945 galvanized American morale at home.

After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese quickly captured Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island, the Gilbert Islands and Rabaul. Japanese conquests of Malaya and Singapore, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and Burma followed into the spring of 1942. The Japanese juggernaut continued southwards with bases established at Salamaua and Lae in Northwest New Guinea followed by landings at Buna, Gona, and Sanananda along Papua’s northern coast as a prelude to capture Port Moresby over the Owen Stanley Range to threaten Australia.Despite a strategic American naval victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the sinking of four Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway, the Allied situation remained desperate. Japanese naval troops invaded Tulagi Island and nearby islets off the coast of Florida Island on 3–4 May 1942 to construct a seaplane and naval base. Japan’s goal of advancing through the southern Solomon Islands and beyond to New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa was to create a defensive buffer against an attack by a slowly-recovering American Navy and further isolate the Antipodes. In July 1942, Allied coast watchers and reconnaissance aircraft observed the construction of an airfield on Guadalcanal 20 miles to the south of Tulagi and Florida Islands.On 23 July 1942, American military leaders prioritized securing the South Pacific’s lines of communication and halting the Japanese advance. The American invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi became operational entailing hellacious land, air and sea battles from 7 August 1942 to 3 February 1943. Guadalcanal became the essential struggle between Allied and Japanese forces, with the victor to eventually control the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. The events of the campaign are expertly described here with contemporary images and detailed text.

This latest Images of War series book examines the controversial development of the Allied campaign in Normandy in the weeks after the D-Day landings. After overcoming Rommel’s beach obstacles and ‘Atlantic Wall’ fortifications, a secure Allied lodgment of the five beaches developed along the Caen-Bayeux-Carentan axis with a period of consolidation while reinforcements and supplies were built up.The early arrival of 12th SS Hitlerjugend, 21st Panzer and the Panzer Lehr Divisions delayed Montgomery’s Anglo-Canadian capture of Caen until mid-July and prevented an early breakout into the countryside inland from Gold, Juno and Sword which was suitable for armoured combat.An early American goal was to cut the Cotentin Peninsula in two at its southern base to prevent the Germans from supplying and strengthening the deep-water port of Cherbourg, which U.S. VII Corps captured on 26 June.Inland from Omaha and Utah, the close ‘bocage’ country proved advantageous to the German defenders. The Allied breakout occurred at the end of July with Bradley’s Operation COBRA near St. Lo followed by the entire Allied front first moving to close the Falaise Gap before heading southward and then pivoting to the east for the capture of the Seine River crossings.These crucial and testing weeks for the Allies are described in graphic contemporary images with full captions and authoritative text.

In 1944 with the war in Europe turning in the Allies’ favour, Japan still occupied vast swathes of South East Asia and the Pacific.In Burma, the seemly unstoppable Japanese advance was halted at Kohima and Imphal in June and July 1944. Six months later the advances made by British-led forces enabled the re-opening of the supply routes from India to US forces in China. It was not until Spring 1945 that British-led forces seized first Mandalay and then the port city of Rangoon after a year of gruelling fighting.Admiral Nimitz’s and General MacArthur’s forces meanwhile were overcoming fanatical Japanese resistance as they invaded Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Leyte and Luzon in late 1944. Iwo Jima and Okinawa fell to the Allies in early 1945. These successes enabled USAAF Superfortresses to bomb mainland Japan. Late Spring/early Summer 1945 saw the steady recapture of the Northern Solomons and Brunei, Borneo and former Dutch colonies. The Soviets were advancing into Manchuria and Korea.The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 finally forced the Japanese to surrender without the inevitable carnage of an invasion of their mainland.The tumultuous events of the final year of the Second World War in the Far East are brilliantly described here in contemporary well captioned images and succinct text.

The 80th Anniversary of the historic final Battle of El Alamein is the ideal time to study the events leading up to General Bernard Montgomery's famous victory over Field Marshal Rommel's Panzerarmee Africa in Autumn 1942.Four months earlier after the loss of Tobruk , Rommel's forces were in the ascendancy. Prime Minister Winston Churchill removed General Auchinleck from Command of Eighth Army and appointed Bernard Montgomery in his place. After the successful defence of Alam El Halfa Ridge in late August and early September ended Rommel's inexorable advance, Montgomery set in train plans for the set piece offensive campaign at El Alamein which took place between 23 October and 4 November 1942.The stakes could not have been higher. Had Rommel broken through the Allied defences in Summer 1942 or Montgomery's forces not overwhelmed the German and Italian armies at El Alamein, Egypt and the Suez Canal would have fallen to the Nazis.Instead, the victory at El Alamein proved to be the turning point of the War against Hitler and led to the victory in North Africa

“Vinegar Joe” Stilwell's assault on the Japanese position at Myitkyina, the key to northern Burma.Myitkyina was a vital objective in the Allied re-conquest of Burma in 1943–44. Following the disastrous retreat from Burma in April 1942, China had become isolated from re-supply except for the dangerous air route for US transports over the Himalaya Mountains.The Burma Road, which ran from Lashio (south of Myitkyina) through the mountains to Kunming was closed as a supply route from Rangoon after the Japanese conquest. Without military assistance, China would be forced to surrender and Imperial Japanese Army forces could be diverted to other Pacific war zones.This is the history of the ambitious joint Allied assault led by American Lt. Gen. Joseph W Stilwell and featuring British, American and Chinese forces as they clashed with three skilled regiments of the Japanese 18th Division. Packed with first-hand accounts, specially commissioned artwork, maps and illustrations and dozens of rare photographs this book reveals the incredible Allied attack on Myitkyina.

With victory in North Africa complete, the Allies had a choice. The Americans wanted an early cross channel attack from Britain on North West Europe. Churchill favoured invading the soft under-belly of Italy to weaken the Axis forces and gain Italian surrender. With Eisenhowers army and battle-hardened Eighth Army in North Africa, Churchill prevailed. The ambitious Operation HUSKY required meticulous planning. Montgomerys Eighth Army and Pattons Seventh landed successfully although the air landing proved costly. While the outcome was not in doubt the mountainous terrain acted in the defenders favour. The German presence was higher than expected and the vast bulk of the enemy were Italian. In little over a month, the first Americans reached Messina. The strategic plan was successful: the Italian capitulated, Hitler had to reinforce his Southern flank relieving pressure on the Soviets and valuable lessons were learnt by Allied for D-Day.

In September 1943, shortly after the conquest of Sicily, the Allied armies made amphibious assaults on the Italian Mainland at Calabria, Taranto and along the Gulf of Salerno beaches. The Italian Government quickly capitulated but the Germans fought on. Although the British XIII Corps and 1st Airborne s attacks were largely uncontested in Calabria and Taranto, the Allied Fifth Army s beachheads at Salerno underwent savage Nazi counterattacks. After Salerno, the Allied Fifth and Eighth Armies continued their advance north initially to the ports of Naples and Bari before struggling through Italian massifs, held up by a determined enemy and unfavourable ground and weather. In January 1944, the Fifth Army s X, II and French Expeditionary Corps attacked across the Garigliano and Rapido Rivers with the aim of breaking through the Gustav Line fortifications. The Nazi defence at the town of Cassino just succeeded in halting the two-week Allied attack during First Battle of Cassino and the Gustav Line was to be the scene of fierce fighting for months.

The American campaign to capture Okinawa, codename Operation ICEBERG was fought from 1 April to 22 June 1945\. 350 miles from Japan, Okinawa was intended to be the staging area for the Allied invasion of the Japanese mainland.The Japanese Thirty Second Army defenders were on land and the Imperial Navy at sea fought tenaciously. They faced the US Tenth Army, comprising the US Army XXIV Corps and the US Marines' III Amphibious Corps.As the author of this superb Images of War book describes in words and pictures this was one of the most bitterly fought and costly campaigns of the Second World War. Ground troops faced an enemy whose vocabulary did not include 'surrender' and at sea the US Fifth Fleet, supported by elements of the Royal Navy, had to contend with kamikaze ('divine wind') attacks by suicide air attacks and over 700 explosive laden suicide boats.The Okinawa campaign is synonymous with American courage and determination to defeat a formidably ruthless enemy. The campaign was the subject of 'Hacksaw Ridge' , the recent Hollywood blockbuster - this is the real story.

After the Normandy break-out, the Allies' headlong dash east came to a halt in the autumn with the ill-fated MARKET GARDEN operation and over-extended supply lines short of the Rhineland. After repulsing the Nazis' daring Ardennes offensive, Montgomery's and Bradley's Army Groups cleared the Reichwald and Rhineland and closed on the Rhine.With both sides aware of the strategic significance of this physical barrier the stakes could not have been higher. Eisenhower's plan involved a vast airborne assault by General Ridgway's XV11 Airborne Corps (codename VARSITY) and the simultaneously coordinated river crossing by Monty's 21 Army Group codename PLUNDER with Dempsey's British Second Army and General William H. Simpson's US Ninth Army.This superbly illustrated and researched book describes the March 1945 assault crossing involving naval amphibious craft, the air and artillery bombardment and diversionary attack by the British 1st Commando brigade at Wesel. In concert with VARSITY and PLUNDER, Patton's US Third Army Group crossed further south.As a result of this triumph of strategic planning and tactical execution, the fate of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich' was finally sealed.

Early in 1944 the Allied advance was halted by the German defence of the Gustav Line. Even with the deployment of Eighth Army reinforcements from the Adriatic, every effort to capture Monte Cassino failed.Fifth Army's VI Corps' amphibious landing at Anzio in January, while initially successful stalled in the face of formidable German counter-attacks and the beach-head was effectively besieged.The stalemate at Anzio and along the Gustav Line was finally broken in mid May by the Allied Spring offensive. After bitter fighting and the total destruction of the famous Benedictine Abbey, the Germans began their withdrawal towards Rome. Days later the reinforced VI Corps broke out of the Anzio bridgehead and linked up with Fifth Army units on 25 May. But by evading the Allied attempt to trap them south of Rome and despite Rome being occupied by the Allies in early June the bulk of the German 14th Army lived to fight another day. The Italian campaign had another nine costly months to run.This superbly researched account traces the course of the bitterly fought battles between January and June 1944 in words and images.

The Japanese seizure of Rabaul on New Britain in January 1942 directly threatened Northern Australia and, as a result, General Douglas MacArthur took command of the Southwest Pacific Area. In July 1942, the Japanese attacked south across the Owen Stanley mountain range.Thanks to the hasty deployment of Australian militiamen and veteran Imperial Force troops the Japanese were halted at Ioribaiwa Ridge just 27 miles from Port Moresby.MacArthur's priority was to regain Northeast New Guinea and New Britain. The capture of airfields at Buna and re-occupation of Gona and Sanananda Point were pre-requisites. The Allied offensive opened on 16 November 1942 with Australian infantrymen and light tanks alongside the US 32nd Infantry Division.Overcoming the Japanese and the inhospitable terrain in tropical conditions proved the toughest of challenges. It remains an achievement of the highest order that the campaign ended successfully on 22 January 1943. This account with its clear text and superb imagery is a worthy tribute to those who fought and, all too often, died there.

250 b/w illustrations