Philip Jowett – författare

At its peak the Italian Army contributed 2.5 million troops to the Axis war effort.English-speaking readers tend to think of this army in terms of the North African campaign; but far more Italian troops served in other theatres. They invaded, and later bore the major burden of occupying, the Balkan countries; and Italy sent 250,000 troops to fight on the Russian Front. In this, the first of a three-part study, Philip Jowett covers the European theatre including Russia from 1940 to Italy's armistice with the Allies in 1943.Many interesting uniforms, a number of them less often found in print, are meticulously illustrated by Stephen Andrew.

During Japan's devastating Pacific offensive of 1941/42, the Allies paid a high price for their failure to take seriously an army which had already been fighting in Manchuria and China for ten years. That army was a unique blend of the ancient and the modern and its up-to-date equipment and resourceful tactics served an almost medieval code of unquestioning obedience and ruthless aggression.This first of two titles covers the organisation, equipment, uniforms and character of Japanese ground forces in the Chinese and early Pacific campaigns, illustrated with insignia charts, many rare photographs, and eight meticulous uniform plates.

Within months of its greatest triumph in 1942, the Japanese Imperial Army began to face the difficulties which would eventually destroy it - overstretched supply lines, and inadequate industrial support.Yet as the Allies grew steadily stronger and more skilful, the Japanese Army and Naval Landing Forces dug in to defend their conquests with a determination which shocked all who fought them. In this second book the author describes the deployments, organisation, uniforms and equipment of the Army - including the dreaded Kempei-tai military police - the naval infantry, paratroopers, special raiding units, and foreign auxiliaries during the long and savage war in Burma and the Pacific.His text is illustrated with many rare photographs, three insignia charts, and eight highly detailed colour plates.

At its peak the Italian Army contributed 2.5 million troops to the Axis war effort.In addition to its major role in North Africa, Italy's army invaded, and later bore the main burden of occupying, the Balkan countries. Italy also sent 250,000 men to fight on the Russian Front.In this second book of a three-part study Philip Jowett covers the organisation, uniforms and insignia of the Italian troops committed to both the North African campaign, and the often neglected East African fighting of 1940-41, including the colonial units. Stephen Andrew's meticulous colour plates illustrate a wide range of uniforms.

Immediately after the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943, Mussolini was deposed and the new Italian government switched sides. The German occupying forces swiftly freed Il Duce and ruthlessly disarmed the Italian Army; and from then until the end of the war in April 1945 Italian troops fought on both sides with the forces of the new Fascist 'Salo Republic', in the Allied 'Co-Belligerent Forces', and in the Partisan movement. This period of bitter struggle saw the appearance of many new units and a wide range of interesting uniforms, described and illustrated in this final part of Philip Jowett's comprehensive three-volume series.

In 1912, the Balkan states formed an alliance in an effort to break free from the crumbling Ottoman Empire.Forming an army of some 645,000 troops from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, they took on a force of 400,000 Turkish soldiers. Both sides were equipped with the latest weapons technology.This book looks at the diverse and sometimes colourful uniforms worn by both sides, paying special attention to insignia, weapons and equipment. It also gives an overview of the campaigns that became a 'priming pan' of World War I.

In 1935, Fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), one of just two independent states in Africa at the time. Italy first invaded Ethiopia in 1895 and was driven out by the army of Emperor Menelik II. In 1935, the defensive effort would be led by Emperor Haile Selassie I. Benito Mussolini (the Italian “Duce”) claimed victory in 1936, but the struggle of Selassie and his people against impossible odds won worldwide admiration. This work supplements a concise narrative history of the conflict with more than 600 captioned photos, including detailed coverage of both armies.

The occupation of Europe by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy from 1939 met with resistance from all the peoples of Western, Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Balkans. This resistance took various forms from low level sabotage and intelligence gathering in some Western European countries to full scale Partisan resistance in other parts of Europe. In this first of two volumes on Partisans and Guerrillas between 1939 and 1945 the Partisans of Poland from 1939, the Soviet Union from 1941 and Czechoslovakia from 1939 are covered. Italian Partisans were active from the fall of Mussolini in 1943 and the French Resistance went from insurgency in 1940 until from 1942 til 1945 it developed into full scale partisan warfare in some remoter regions of the country.Using over 300 wartime photographs some of which have not been published before Philip Jowett retells the story of resistance, guerrilla and partisan warfare. This brutal chapter in World War Two annals was to greatly effect the situation at the front line while the populations of occupied countries suffered the wrath of the occupying armies. His second volume in this series will feature the occupied Balkans where some of the fiercest partisan fighting of the war took place.

The Second World War Italian campaign is often less well remembered than the struggle of the Germans against the western Allies in north-west Europe and against the Soviet Union in the east. But, as this book demonstrates in over 300 photographs, the Italian peninsula was a major theatre of the war in itself.More than a million Allied troops fought there, more than half a million Germans and Italians; there were over 600,00 casualties and well over 100,000 dead. The soldiers of many nations took part - Americans, Australians, Brazilians, British, Canadians, French, Germans, Greeks, Indians, Italians, Poles, South Africans - in a gruelling and protracted sequence of battles across rocky, mountainous terrain that made a mockery of Churchill's description of it as the soft underbelly' of occupied Europe.Every stage of the campaign is represented in the photographs - from the Allied landings in Sicily in 1943, through the tenacious defence by the Germans of a series of fortified lines as the Allies struggled north, to the final Allied advance across the Po in April 1945 and the German surrender. As well as showing the soldiers on all sides and the towns and Italian landscapes in which the fighting took place, the photographs record the appalling devastation the warfare left in its wake.

A comprehensive guide to the armies that fought a devastating and decisive conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean between the two World Wars of the 20th century.From the initial Greek invasion, designed to "liberate" the 100,000 ethnic Greeks that lived in Western Turkey and had done for centuries, to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's incredibly efficient formation of a national government and a regular army, this was a war that shaped the geopolitical landscape of the Mediterranean to this day. It gave birth to the modern Turkish state, displacing millions and creating bitter memories of atrocities committed by both sides.Augmented with very rare photographs and beautiful illustrations, this ground-breaking title explores the history, organization, and appearance of the armies, both guerrilla and conventional, that fought in this bloody war.

An in-depth analysis of the Chinese Armies that fought a series of increasingly fractious wars over nearly a century.Beginning with a run through of the Chinese forces that combated the British and French during the two Opium Wars, this history goes on to trace the forces who were drawn into internal wars and rebellions in the 1850s and 60s, the open warfare in North Vietnam, the string of defeats suffered during the First Sino-Japanese war and the Boxer Rebellion.Providing an unparalleled insight into the dizzying array of troop types and unique uniforms, this is a history of the sometimes-painful modernization of China's military forces during one of her most turbulent periods of history.

With decades of research to draw from Philip Jowett explores this extraordinary David-and-Goliath conflict, where the rag-tag Igbo tribal army of secessionist Biafra faced off against the Nigerian Federal forces.It was an African war that captured the attention of the western media, with individual commanders such as Biafran leader Colonel Ojukwu and Federal Colonel Adekunle becoming familiar figures across the globe. The Nigerian forces easily outnumbered their opponents and benefitted from British and Soviet equipment, yet against all the odds the Biafrans held out for two and a half years, inflicting many setbacks on the Federal forces before their eventual surrender in 1970.Specially commissioned artwork and historical photos, including some from respected Italian war photographer Romano Ganoni, reflect the diverse array of uniforms and equipment on both sides, with images ranging from Sandhurst-educated officers in immaculate uniform to ragged militiamen armed with World War II kit.

From the Mexican Revolution to the Zarumilla War, in the first 40 years of the 20th century the nations of Central and South America were frequently disturbed by border clashes, civil wars and revolution.Many of these conflicts became known as 'Banana Wars'. Some involved only lightly armed guerrillas, but others saw armies operating artillery and armoured vehicles, supported by aircraft and river navies. The conflicts in Honduras and Nicaragua saw the intervention of US Marines, and later wars involved armour and aircraft from the militaries of Europe.Using detailed colour plates and a wealth of contemporary photographs, this book shows the uniforms, equipment and strategies of the armies involved in these conflicts little known in the West. Covering wars crossing the length and breadth of the continent, this is the fascinating account of the wars that helped shape modern Latin America.

A highly illustrated study of the wars of Central and South America from 1900 through to 1970, featuring many rare and never-before-seen images.From the Banana Wars of the early 20th century through to the Football War of 1969, South and Central America has been a hotbed of revolutions, rebellions and conflicts as diverse as they are numerous. Some were small-scale affairs involving the poorly armed forces of Central American armies with rifles, machetes and a few aged machine guns.Others were full-scale conflicts involving sophisticated armies equipped with tanks, artillery and aircraft, and hundreds of thousands of troops. These wars often went largely unreported in the West, which was preoccupied with its own problems in fighting two world wars and dealing with Cold War tensions.Fully illustrated with a wealth of rare photographs, this fascinating story sheds light on seven decades of a continent in conflict that is rarely covered in English.

During the Japanese occupation of large parts of Asia and the Pacific in 1941–45, Japan raised significant numbers of troops to fight alongside them, as well as militias to guard their conquests.The total number of these soldiers is estimated at no fewer than 600,000 men. These ranged from the regular troops of Manchukuo (200,000 men), Nanking China (250,000), Thailand, and recruits from the 'puppet' Burmese Independence Army (30,000) and Indian National Army (40,000), to constabularies and spear-wielding militias in the Philippines (15,000), Borneo, Indonesia and New Guinea.Many of the recruits from former European colonies hoped for independence as part of the 'Greater East-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere' proclaimed by Japanese propaganda, but Japan's intentions were entirely cynical. They formed alliances to deny the Allied powers access to territory that they could not actually occupy, and raised these large numbers of auxiliary troops to relieve the manpower burden of occupation, or simply as 'cannon-fodder'.This extensively researched study examines each of these armies and militias in detail, exploring their history and deployment during World War II, and revealing the intricacies of their arms and equipment with stunning full-colour artwork and previously unpublished contemporary photographs.

From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, a multitude of military and civil-defence forces strove to support the Japanese war effort and latterly prepared to defend the Home Islands against invasion.During World War II, Japan was the world’s most militarized society and by 1945 nearly every Japanese male over the age of 10 wore some kind of military attire, as did the majority of women and girls. In this volume, Philip Jowett reveals the many military and civil-defence organizations active in wartime Japan, while specially commissioned artwork and carefully chosen archive photographs depict the appearance of the men, women and children involved in the Japanese war effort in the Home Islands throughout World War II.

This study explores the organization, history and uniforms of the Soviet Red Army during the 20 years between its victory in the Civil War and the invasion of the USSR by Germany in 1941.The two decades following the Bolshevik victory over the 'Whites' in the Russian Civil War saw widespread and fundamental developments for the Red Army. Nevertheless, these still left it largely unready to face Germany’s Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, having been reduced in size and planning for modernization.Despite Stalin's murderous purges of the officer class in the 1930s, the Red Army was victorious in clashes against Imperial Japan in 1938–39 and fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). Yet, shortly after taking over half of Poland in 1939, Stalin's 'Winter War' against Finland demonstrated serious inadequacies in the Red Army's readiness for modern warfare. This would be shockingly confirmed in the first days of Operation Barbarossa.Using rare photos and detailed colour artwork, this study explores the interwar history of the Red Army, describing its campaigns, organization and uniforms, and focusing on the 20 years between its victory in the Civil War and the invasion of the USSR by Germany in 1941.

An illustrated account of the major colonial conflict of the 1920s, in which the occupying Spanish and French faced an armed uprising from the Berber tribes of northern Morocco.In June 1921, Abd el Krim, a Berber leader in the Rif highlands of Morocco, marshalled a pan-tribal uprising that killed some 13,000 Spanish troops, forcing occupying Spain to withdraw from the country’s north coast and garnering worldwide attention through el Krim’s deft diplomacy. Despite this, leadership of the French-held central and southern regions remained aloof until the spring of 1925 when Rifian forces attacked key outposts and strategic cities, instigating a series of clashes that culminated in May 1926 with a Franco-Spanish offensive and el Krim’s eventual surrender. Co-authored by two leading authorities on the forces involved, this fascinating new study takes a close look at the most deadly colonial conflict of the interwar period. Rare photographs and newly commissioned artwork plates complement detailed examinations of the weapons, equipment and uniforms of all sides, enhancing the story of the challenge posed to two European armies by a tribal leader who would inspire North African nationalists for years to come.

Depicts the forces involved in uprisings and border conflicts after the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.The Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I had included peoples of German, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Serbian, Bosnian and other origins, whose ambitions for independent nationhood were complicated by mutual religious and ethnic hostilities. In this fully illustrated study, Philip Jowett examines the organization and appearance of the forces involved in the internal risings, border disputes and full-scale wars that followed the break-up of the Empire, as the composition and frontiers of new national states emerged from the immediate chaos.Principally, Poland restored and defended the nationhood it had lost in the 18th century, while the new republic of Czechoslovakia was established after hostilities against both the Poles and Hungarian communists. Austria became a republic, and its paramilitary Freikorps fought Slovenians in Carinthia and various Serbo-Croat forces. The Hungarian republic defeated a Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Bela Kun, and suffered temporary Romanian occupation of territory including Budapest, while Hungarian nationalists fought Austrian gendarmes. The colourful and diverse armies of these nascent countries are described and illustrated in this lively account of their foundational years.

The battle for Burma during the Second World War was of vital importance to the Allies and the Japanese. The Allies fought to protect British India and force the Japanese out of Burma; the Japanese fought to defend the north-west flank of their newly conquered empire and aimed to strike at India where anti-British feeling was growing stronger. Yet the massive military efforts mounted by both sides during four years of war are often overshadowed by the campaigns in Europe, North Africa, the Pacific and China.Philip Jowett, using over 200 wartime photographs, many of them not published before, retells the story of the war in Burma in vivid detail, illustrating each phase of the fighting and showing all the forces involved - British, American, Chinese, Indian, Burmese as well as Japanese. His book is a fascinating introduction to one of the most extreme, but least reported, struggles of the entire war.The narrative and the striking photographs carry the reader through each of the major phases of the conflict, from the humiliation of the initial British defeat in 1942 and retreat into India and their faltering attempts to recover the initiative from 1943, to the famous Chindit raids behind Japanese lines, the Japanese offensive of 1944 and their disastrous retreat and ultimate defeat.

The Norwegian campaign, fought in 1940, early in the Second World War in Europe, is overshadowed by the campaign in Poland that preceded it and the German blitzkrieg in the Low Countries and France that followed, yet it was a close contest from the military point of view and it had a far-reaching impact on the rest of the war. Philip Jowett's photographic history is a vivid introduction to it.In a concise text and a selection of over 150 photographs he traces the entire course of the fighting in Norway on land, at sea and in the air. He describes how important it was for the Allies -the Norwegians, British and French -to defend northern Norway against the Germans, in particular to retain control of the strategic port of Narvik.The book documents in fascinating detail the troops involved, the aircraft and the large naval forces, and gives an insight into the main episodes in the conflict including the struggle for Narvik and the major clashes at sea which culminated in the loss of the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier Glorious.The photographs are especially valuable in that they show the harsh conditions in which the fighting took place and offer us a direct impression of the experience of the men who were there.

When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in late 1939, what transpired was a true “David and Goliath” conflict. When Finland refused a number of Soviet demands, including the ceding of substantial border territories ostensibly to enable the Soviets to protect Leningrad, the Soviets responded by launching an invasion. The invasion involved a large Soviet army, with several thousand tanks, and a large air force. But to the world's surprise the Finnish Army - many of them reservists without proper uniforms and limited ammunition - and Air Force battled overwhelming odds, and managed to resist Russian attacks for over two months, inflicting serious losses. Geography played its part as much of the Finnish-Soviet border was impassable, meaning that Soviet numerical superiority was of less import. Operating in the winter, with temperatures ranging as low as -43F, the Finns’ determined resistance won them international reputation. Although hostilities finally ended in a peace treaty that saw Finland cede 9% of its territory, Soviet losses had been heavy, and Finland retained its sovereignty. This fully illustrated text will cover the forces involved and all stages of the Winter War.

As 1941 dawned, the British were mopping up the last Italian strongholds in Libya after seven months of fighting. The outnumbered British Western Desert force of 30,000 men had effectively defeated an Italian force of 250,000. The British had captured hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers, plus hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces and several thousand valuable trucks, and pushed the Italians out of Egypt and then across the coastline of Libya until they controlled only a small section of western Libya.In response to this collapse, Adolf Hitler intervened, sending the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel to reinforce Mussolini’s struggling forces. From March to December 1941, German and Italian troops clashed with the British Commonwealth forces in a series of major battles. Despite limited resources, Rommel’s tactical prowess allowed him to outmaneuver the British, launching rapid offensives that pushed them back into western Egypt. The British, determined to protect the Suez Canal, mounted their own counteroffensives—Operations Brevity, Battleaxe, and Crusader—but struggled to gain the upper hand.A key flashpoint was the port of Tobruk—the only major port in the theater still held by the British. Besieged for much of 1941, its defenders withstood repeated Axis assaults, preventing Rommel from securing a crucial supply hub. By the end of the year, both sides had suffered heavy losses, and the campaign ended in a stalemate, setting the stage for further clashes in 1942.Featuring over 150 photographs, detailed maps, and artwork, this book provides an in-depth look at the soldiers, strategies, and shifting tides of the 1941 desert war.

At the start of 1942, the Axis and British armies had been fighting officially since June 1940 and 1941 was a frustrating year which ended with the withdrawal of Rommel back into Western Cyrenaica in Libya. In January 1942 Rommel launched his “Great Offensive,” which saw the Axis forces on the Libya–Egypt border. For the next few months, Rommel’s forces were in the ascendancy and he was at the height of his military power. His military masterpiece at the battle of Gazala in late May and early June resulted in a major victory for the Axis, and led to the conquest of Rommel’s long-held objective—Tobruk. When the Axis took the port of Tobruk in June, Rommel was feted by the German public and was promoted to the rank of field marshal by a grateful Adolf Hitler. During the summer of 1942, however, the pendulum swung in favor of the British and their new allies, the USA. As new tanks and aircraft began to arrive from the USA, along with reinforcements, the Axis war effort was suffering from a shortage of German and Italian tanks, artillery and aircraft. By late summer, an ill and worn-out Rommel faced a new and determined enemy commander—General Montgomery. New aircraft enabled the RAF to gain air superiority and helped them to push the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica out of the North African skies. Battles at El Alamein in July and then October proved decisive, and other clashes at Alam Halfa wore down Axis resistance. The body blow for Rommel and his Afrika Korps was the invasion of French North Africa, Operation Torch. This successful operation saw the U.S. Army moving east towards Rommel’s Western Front in Libya. Attacked on two fronts, Rommel decided to give up on Libya and withdrew his remaining troops into the French territory of Tunisia where they would continue to fight the gathering Allied armies in the early months of 1943.

The Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria was the first 20th century conflict fought between the regular armies of major powers, employing the most modern means – machine guns, trench warfare, minefields and telephone communications.The battle of Mukden in March 1905 was the largest clash of armies in world history up to that date. Events were followed by many foreign observers; but the events of 1914 in Western Europe suggest that not all of them drew the correct conclusions.For the first time in the West, the armies of this distant but important war are described and illustrated in detail, with rare photos and the superbly atmospheric paintings of Russia's leading military illustrator.

Although the Chinese contribution to Allied victory in World War II is often ignored, China fought the Japanese Empire for far longer than any other belligerent nation.By the time that the Sino-Japanese War became absorbed into the wider conflict at the end of 1941, Chinese armies had already suffered huge casualties and half the country had been lost. By fighting on with Allied support, China tied down a million Japanese troops.After Japan’s defeat in 1945, China was immediately plunged back into civil war between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and Mao Tse-tung’s Communists; and the latter’s victory in 1949 changed the world for the rest of the 20th century and beyond.

In the face of Soviet invasion in 1939–40, and once again in 1941–44, the armies raised by Finland – a tiny nation of only 4 million people - astonished the world by their effective resistance.At the end of both these campaigns – the Winter War, and the Continuation War – the fiercely patriotic defiance of vastly stronger Soviet forces by Marshal Mannerheim's soldiers won their country a unique prize: although forced to accept harsh terms, Finland was never occupied by the Red Army, and retained its independence.This book explains and illustrates, for the first time in English, the organization, uniforms, equipment and tactics of Finland's defenders.

Some of the most famous Western movies have been set against the background of the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century.Now, for the first time in English, Osprey offers a concise but fact-packed account of the events, armies, uniforms and weapons of those ten chaotic and bloody years, putting in context such famous but half-understood names as Diaz, Pancho Villa, Zapata, Madero and Huerta.The text is illustrated with many rare and fascinating period photographs, and with eight detailed color plates of orfiristas and Rurales, Maderisitas, Federales, Villistas, Zapatistas, and US volunteers and intervention troops.

Defeated in the Sino-Japanese War 1894–95 and the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, Imperial China collapsed into revolution and a republic was proclaimed in 1912.From the death of the first president in 1916 to the rise of the Nationalist Kuomintang government in 1926, the differing regions of this vast country were ruled by endlessly forming, breaking and re-forming alliances of regional generals who ruled as 'warlords'. These warlords acted essentially as local kings and much like Sengoku-period Japan, fewer, larger power-blocks emerged, fielding armies hundreds of thousands strong. In the mid to late 1920s some of these regional warlords.This book reveals each great warlord as well as the organization of their forces, which acquired much and very varied weaponry from the west including the latest French air force bombers. They were also joined by Japanese, White Russian and some Western soldiers of fortune which adds even more colour to a fascinating and oft-forgotten period.