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From a decorated officer, an extremely rare account of a World War II Soviet military unit comprised of prisoners of war.Made up of soldiers who conducted "unauthorized retreats," former POWs deemed untrustworthy, and Gulag prisoners, the Red Army''s penal units carried out some of the most terrifying assignments on the Eastern Front, such as storming German machine-gun nests. Alexander Pyl''cyn led his penal company in the Soviets'' massive offensive in the summer of 1944, the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the bitter assault on Berlin in 1945. He survived the war, but 80 percent of his men did not.Alexander Pyl''cyn, drafted into the Red Army at eighteen in 1941 and wounded three times, earned the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War, and the Order of the Red Star for his actions during World War II.

During the 1930s the Soviet Union launched a major effort to create a modern Air Force. That process required training tens of thousands of pilots. Among those pilots were larger numbers of young women, training shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. A common training program of the day involved studying in ''flying clubs'' during leisure hours, first using gliders and then training planes. Following this, the best graduates could enter military schools to become professional combat pilots or flight navigators. The author of this book passed through all of those stages and had become an experienced training pilot when the USSR entered the war. Volunteering for frontline duty, the author flew 130 combat missions piloting the U2 biplane in a liaison squadron. In the initial period of the war, the German Luftwaffe dominated the sky. Daily combat sorties demanded bravery and skill from the pilots of the liaison squadron operating obsolete, unarmed planes. Over the course of a year the author was shot down by German fighters three times but kept flying nevertheless. In late 1942 Anna Egorova became the first female pilot to fly the famous Sturmovik (ground attack) plane that played a major role in the ground battles of the Eastern Front. Earning the respect of her fellow male pilots, the author became not just a mature combat pilot, but a commanding officer. Over the course of two years the author advanced from ordinary pilot to the executive officer of the Squadron, and then was appointed Regimental navigator, in the process flying approximately 270 combat missions over the southern sector of the Eastern Front initially (Taman, the Crimea) before switching to the 1st Belorussian Front, and seeing action over White Russia and Poland. Flying on a mission over Poland in 1944 the author was shot down over a target by German flak. Severely burned, she was taken prisoner. After surviving in a German POW camp for 5 months, she was liberated by Soviet troops. After experiencing numerous humiliations as an ''ex-POW'' in 1965 the author finally received a top military award, a long-delayed ''Golden Star'' with the honorary title of ''Hero of the Soviet Union''. This is a quite unique story of courage, determination and bravery in the face of tremendous personal adversity. The many obstacles Anna had to cross before she could fly first the Po-2, then the Sturmovik, are recounted in detail, including her tough work helping to build the Moscow Metro before the outbreak of war. Above all, Over Fields of Fire is a very human story - sometimes sad, sometimes angry, filled with hope, at other times with near-despair, abundant in comradeship and professionalism – and never less than a large dose of determination!

This military history of French Equatorial Africa examines the key players and operations from WWII to post-colonial conflicts.France in Centrafrique explores the history of French Equatorial Africa with a particular emphasis on the role of the Central African Republic in the Second World War and the Free French Movement. One of the key figures to emerge from this period was Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a man who would shape the destiny of the Central African Republic.Bokassa served alongside the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle and later in the metropolitan French military as an NCO in Indo-China. Historian Peter Baxter traces Bokassa''s ascent from these humble beginnings to his position as one of the region''s most notorious dictators. Bokassa''s excessive violence and personal aggrandizement are covered, as well as the role France played in his rise and fall—especially through Jacques Foccart''s wide-reaching intelligence network.Baxter examines France''s evolving relationship with her erstwhile African colonial possessions, illuminating the underlying cause and effect of the many French interventions. He underscores the roles played by various individual personalities, both French and African. The book traces the overt and covert French military actions in the region, including Operation Barracuda, Operations Almandin I, II and III, Operation Boali and the various regional, international and European regional interventions.

An in-depth account of the formation Nazi Germany''s militia army as a desperate attempt to delay its defeat during the waning days of WWII. A companion volume to the very successful In a Raging Inferno—Combat Units of the Hitler Youth, Hans Kissel''s study offers a highly detailed account of the German Volkssturm, or Home Guard. Formed from men unfit for military service, the young, and the old, this ad-hoc formation saw extensive combat during the desperate defense of the Reich, 1944–45. The author describes the Volkssturm''s training, leadership, organization, armament, and equipment, in addition to its active service on both the Eastern and Western fronts. The text is supported by an extensive selection of appendices, including translations of documents and many fascinating eyewitness combat reports. This edition also includes over 150 previously unpublished black-and-white photos, and four pages of specially commissioned color uniform plates by Stephen Andrew.

When competition at a British dog show turns deadly, it''s up to Inspector Yale to sniff out a killer in this whodunit perfect for Agatha Christie fans. For professional dog breeders across the United Kingdom, competition is everything. If your prized pooch wins Best in Show, you can fetch a fine price for her pups. Ambrose Graveney has long been a fixture on the qualifying circuit, hoping to make it to the ultimate contest, Crufts. But it becomes painfully clear that Ambrose won''t be moving on this season—or ever again, for that matter—when the old man''s lifeless body suddenly slumps over on the bench where he sits awaiting his entrant''s turn. Insp. Simon Yale is dispatched to investigate what initially appears to be a natural death. But Yale suspects something more sinister is afoot in this dog-eat-dog world full of desperate hopes and old grudges. At once an intriguing puzzle and a fascinating look inside the world of show dog competitions, Frank Edwards''s A Question of Pedigree will delight mystery lovers and dog fans alike.

The memoir of a special forces veteran of the Rhodesian War, with over a hundred photos included. Nothing terrorized Russian and Chinese-backed guerillas fighting Rhodesia''s bush war in the 1970s more than the famed Selous Scouts. The name of the unit struck fear in the hearts of even the most battle-hardened—rather than speak it, they referred to its soldiers simply as Skuzapu, or pickpockets. History has recorded the regiment as being one of the deadliest and most effective killing machines in modern counter-insurgency warfare. In this book, a veteran of the unit shares his stories of childhood in colonial Africa with his British family, documenting a world where Foreign Service employees gathered at "the club" to find company and alcohol, leopards prowled the night, and his mother knew how to use a gun. Eventually he would move to Canada, only to feel drawn back to the continent where he grew up. There he would be recruited into the Selous Scouts, comprised of specially selected black and white soldiers of the Rhodesian army, supplemented with hardcore terrorists captured on the battlefield. Posing as communist guerrillas, members of this elite Special Forces unit would slip silently into the night to seek out insurgents in a deadly game of hide-and-seek played out between gangs and counter-gangs in the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the African bush. By the mid-1970s, the Selous Scouts had begun to dominate Rhodesia''s battle space. Working in conjunction with the elite airborne assault troops of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, the Selous Scouts accounted for an extraordinarily high proportion of enemy casualties. Not content with restricting themselves to hunting guerrillas inside Rhodesia, they began conducting external vehicle-borne assaults against camps situated deep inside neighboring countries. Recounting his experiences while surviving in this cauldron of battle, while also relating with dry wit the day-to-day details and absurdities of the world that surrounded him, Timothy Bax provides a rare look at this time and place.

The Austro-Hungarian Stormtroopers and the Italian Arditi of World War I were elite special forces charged with carrying out bold raids and daring attacks. These units were comprised of hand-picked soldiers that possessed above-average courage, physical prowess as well as specific combat skills. Many military historians have argued that the First World War was mainly a static conflict of positional attrition, but these shock troops were responsible for developing breakthrough tactics of both fire and movement that marked a significant change to the status quo. Both armies used special assault detachments to capture prisoners, conduct raids behind enemy lines and attack in depth in order to prepare the way for a broad infantry breakthrough. This account traces the development of Austrian and Italian assault troop tactics in the context of trench warfare waged in the mountainous front of the Alps and the rocky hills of the Carso plateau. It not only examines their innovative tactics but also their adoption of vastly improved new weapons such as light machine-guns, super-heavy artillery, flamethrowers, hand grenades, daggers, steel clubs and poison gas. This book offers a narrative of the organizational development of the shock and assault troops, of their military operations and their combat methods. The bulk of the chapters are devoted to a historical reconstruction of the assault detachments'' combat missions between 1917-18 by utilizing previously unreleased archival sources such as Italian and Austrian war diaries, official manuals, divisional and High Command reports and the soldiers'' own recollections of the war. Finally, it offers a comprehensive description of their uniforms, equipment, and weapons, along with a large number of illustrations, maps and period photographs rarely seen. This epic trial of military strength of these special stormtroops cannot be properly understood without visiting, and walking, the battlefields. The appendix thus offers the reader a series of walks to visits key high mountain fortifications in the Italian Dolomites, many of which have attained almost legendary status.

This comprehensive guide offers a detailed overview of the armed forces in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE—fully illustrated with photos and maps. This volume provides a complete picture of Gulf State armed forces, including historical information on each state describing how the various militaries developed. Maps are provided, along with a glossary of terms and diagrams showing various Orders of Battle. military histories of the forces are supported by scores of photographs, many of which showcase the uniforms and a selection of badges and insignia. Military forces covered in this volume include the Bahrain Levy Corps, Trucial Oman Levies, Trucial Oman Scouts, Union Defense Force, Federal Armed Force, Abu Dhabi Defense Force, Dubai Defense Force, Ras Al-Khaimah Mobile Force, Sharjah National Guard, Umm Al-Quwain National Guard and Sultan''s Armed Forces of Oman, plus selected paramilitary and police forces.

A former officer of British South Africa''s anti-terrorist unit recounts his experiences on the frontlines of the Rhodesian Bush war from 1976–1980. A native of New Zealand, Lindsay ''Kiwi'' O''Brien served in the British South Africa Police Support Unit''s anti-terrorist battalion. He traveled across the country as a section leader and a troop commander before joining the UANC political armies as trainer and advisor. The BSA Support Unit started poorly supplied and equipped, but the caliber of the men, mostly African, was second-to-none. Support Unit specialized in the "grunt" work inside Rhodesia with none of the flamboyant helicopter or cross-border raids carried out by the army. O''Brien''s war was primarily within selected tribal lands, seeking out and destroying Communist guerilla units in brisk close-range battles with little to no support. O''Brien moved from the police to working with the initial UANC deployment in the Zambezi Valley where the poorly trained recruits had to learn fast or die. O''Brien''s account is a foreign-born perspective from a junior commander uninterested in promotion and the wrangling of upper command. He was decorated and wounded three times.

With original research and interviews with survivors, a journalist reveals the brutal yet forgotten battles in Latvia during the final months of WWII. While the eyes of the world were on Hitler''s bunker, more than half a million men fought six cataclysmic battles in the fields and forests of Western Latvia known as the Courland Pocket. Just an hour from the capital Riga, German forces bolstered by Latvian Legionnaires were trapped with their backs to the Baltic. Forced into uniform by Nazi and Soviet occupiers, Latvian fought Latvian – sometimes brother against brother. Hundreds of thousands of men died for little territorial gain in unimaginable slaughter. When the Germans capitulated, thousands of Latvians continued a war against Soviet rule from the forests for years afterwards. An award-winning documentary journalist, Vincent Hunt travels through the modern landscape gathering eye-witness accounts, piecing together the stories of those who survived. He meets veterans who fought in the Latvian Legion, former partisans and a refugee who fled the Soviet advance to later become President, Vaira Vike-Freiberga. A survivor of the little-known concentration camp at Popervale details his escape from a death march and subsequent survival in the forests with a Soviet partisan group - and a German deserter. With detailed maps and expert contributions alongside rare newspaper archives, photographs from private collections and extracts from diaries translated from Latvian, German and Russian, Hunt assembles a ghastly picture of death and desperation in a nation both gripped by war and at war with itself.

There have been few books about Grey''s glorious (but ultimately ill-fated) West Indies campaign in the early years of the long and terrible wars of 1793-1815, yet five of the subalterns in Grey''s expeditionary force went on to command divisions in Wellington''s Peninsula army; another two commanded the Iron Duke''s Royal Artillery; and one (Richard Fletcher) - famously - the Royal Engineers. The tactics used by Sir Charles Grey were as far removed as can be imagined from the traditional image of the two-deep British line delivering massed volleys at pointblank range. The invasions of Martinique, St Lucia and Guadeloupe were raids undertaken by Special Forces, who were instructed to operate in open order, in silence and at bayonet-point; all attacks went in with unloaded muskets. Most of the heavy-duty fighting was undertaken by converged flank battalions, grenadiers and light infantrymen - assembled under hand-picked field officers and used as stormtroopers in every major assault; here were French revolutionary war tactics that are largely unexplored and largely undocumented (at least in modern times). Sir Charles Grey was one of the most aggressive British generals of the era - something his gentlemanly appearance and demeanor did not immediately indicate. Ever cheerful and optimistic - and humane and loyal to his friends - his ability to deliver needle-sharp assaults and then harry a defeated enemy (the latter being something at which British generals of the Napoleonic era were distinctly mediocre) makes him one of the more interesting personalities of the early portion of the ''Great War with France''. If he was not ultimately unsuccessful, it was not his fault: he was robbed of the resources he needed at the outset; then given virtually no reinforcements by Horse Guards. The great killer on this campaign was not the French... it was disease: principally, Yellow Fever. Of the 6,200 men who landed with Grey on Martinique in February 1794, some 4,100 were dead by Christmas - such then is By Fire and Bayonet an account of a very dramatic period for the British Army in the West Indies. It took many years to learn the lessons presented by the campaign, but for the young officers who survived, it provided some invaluable lessons that were put to good use 15 or 20 years later in the British Army of a later era.

Dirty War is the first comprehensive look at the Rhodesia''s top secret use of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) during their long counterinsurgency against native African nationalists. Having declared its independence from Great Britain in 1965, the government—made up of European settlers and their descendants—almost immediately faced a growing threat from native African nationalists. In the midst of this long and terrible conflict, Rhodesia resorted to chemical and biological weapons against an elusive guerrilla adversary. A small team made up of a few scientists and their students at a remote Rhodesian fort to produce lethal agents for use. Cloaked in the strictest secrecy, these efforts were overseen by a battle-hardened and ruthless officer of Rhodesia''s Special Branch and his select team of policemen. Answerable only to the head of Rhodesian intelligence and the Prime Minister, these men working alongside Rhodesia''s elite counterguerrilla military unit, the Selous Scouts, developed the ingenious means to deploy their poisons against the insurgents. The effect of the poisons and disease agents devastated the insurgent groups both inside Rhodesia and at their base camps in neighboring countries. At times in the conflict, the Rhodesians thought that their poisons effort would bring the decisive blow against the guerrillas. For months at a time, the Rhodesian use of CBW accounted for higher casualty rates than conventional weapons. In the end, however, neither CBW use nor conventional battlefield successes could turn the tide. Lacking international political or economic support, Rhodesia''s fate from the outset was doomed. Eventually the conflict was settled by the ballot box and Rhodesia became independent Zimbabwe in April 1980. Dirty War is the culmination of nearly two decades of painstaking research and interviews of dozens of former Rhodesian officers who either participated or were knowledgeable about the top secret development and use of CBW. The book also draws on the handful of remaining classified Rhodesian documents that tell the story of the CBW program. Dirty War combines all of the available evidence to provide a compelling account of how a small group of men prepared and used CBW to devastating effect against a largely unprepared and unwitting enemy. Looking at the use of CBW in the context of the Rhodesian conflict, Dirty War provides unique insights into the motivation behind CBW development and use by states, especially by states combating internal insurgencies. As the norms against CBW use have seemingly eroded with CW use evident in Iraq and most recently in Syria, the lessons of the Rhodesian experience are all the more valid and timely.

An aviation historian explores Russian airborne assault innovations in the decade before WWII using paratrooper memoirs and archival research. Through the 1930s, the USSR was pioneering new developments and technologies in airborne assault. The Red Army was conducting mass airborne assault exercises—dropping paratroopers, tanks, and guns from the skies—when no other nation on Earth even had airborne assault troops. In Red Assault, the Russian aviation historian Vladimir Kotelnikov explores these pioneering achievements. He describes the armament, equipment, and military hardware developed for airborne troops, as well as fantastical projects that reflect the unrestrained imagination of the Soviet military''s aviation designers. Kotelnikov offers a detailed account of the aircraft designed for airborne troops, while also describing troop drop exercises and real operations leading up to 1941. Kotelnikov''s research is drawn from government archives and museum collections, as well as the memoirs of pioneer military paratroopers in the USSR, some of which have never been published before.

This political and military history of Paraguay chronicles the dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to the coup that overthrew him in 1989. 1989 was a crucial year for Paraguay. After thirty-five years of dictatorship, General Alfredo Stroessner was overthrown by a coup d''état. In this sweeping historical study, Paraguayan historian Antonio Luis Sapienza chronicles Stroessner''s rise to power during the coup of 1954; his long tenure maintained through fraudulent elections, military alliances, a right-wing political party, and assistance from the United States; and his eventual downfall. While in power, Stroessner launched major development projects, improving roads, water and sewage facilities, and an airline. At the same time, abuse of human rights and oppression of political opposition became the norm. Dozens of political prisoners were tortured and even executed, and thousands driven into exile. Like most dictators, Stroessner oversaw major expansions of the military and police. Nevertheless, it was Paraguay''s armed forces, led by General Andres Rodriguez, that brought a violent end to his rule. Sapienza provides a detailed analysis of the coup that sent Stroessner into exile in Brazil. Extensively illustrated with photographs and maps, The 1989 Coup d''etat in Paraguay is a unique study of an important episode in Latin American history.

In this book, noted historian of the Battle of Kursk Valeriy Zamulin, the author of multiple Russian-language books on the Battle of Kursk and Destroying the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative takes a fresh look at several controversial and neglected topics regarding the battle and its run-up. He starts with a detailed look at the Soviet and Russian historiography on the battle, showing how initially promising research was swamped by Party dogma and censorship during the Brezhnev area, before being resumed with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Zamulin then transitions to discussions of how the southern shoulder of the Kursk bulge was formed, preparations for the battle on both sides, and the size and composition of Model''s Ninth Army. He then examines such controversial topics as whether or not the II SS Panzer Corps was aware of the pending Soviet counterattack at Prokhorovka, and the effectiveness of the Soviet preemptive barrage that struck the German troops that were poised to attack. Zamulin also discusses whether or not General Vatutin, the Commander-in-Chief of Voronezh Front, erred when arranging his defenses. Zamulin also takes a look at how the myth of 1,500 tanks colliding on a narrow strip of farm fields became perpetuated in Soviet and foreign history books, when in fact it was impossible for the 5th Guards Tank Army''s tanks to attack in massive wave after wave due to the constrictions of the terrain. Zamulin also reveals incidents of the battle that were long kept "behind the curtain" by Soviet censorship. For example, the 183rd Rifle Division defending the Prokhorovka axis was repeatedly struck by friendly aircraft, and a Soviet tank counterattack overran the positions of one of its battalions. Zamulin discusses other cases of fratricide in the Voronezh Front, including the death of one of the 1st Tank Army''s foremost tank commanders in a friendly fire incident. In the process, he reveals that a wave of suicides swept through the junior command staff of the 5th Guards Tank Army immediately prior to the famous counteroffensive on 12 July 1943. All in all, Valeriy Zamulin with this collection of essays and articles, two of which have been reprinted from the Journal of Slavic Military History, makes a new contribution to our knowledge and understanding of this pivotal, epochal battle of the Second World War.

During 1779, armies under the command of American General George Washington and British General Sir William Clinton were locked in a strategic stalemate. The entry of the French into the war as American allies had shifted the strategic initiative and caused the British government to order Clinton to dispatch significant forces to the West Indies and southern colonies. The reduction in his available forces hampered Clinton''s efforts to bring Washington to a decisive engagement. Clinton decided to launch an attack north from New York to establish a base of operations that would allow an attack on the American fortress at West Point. In late June 1779 Clinton moved men and materiel into position for his thrust up the Hudson while Washington cautiously responded by moving his army north. Clinton struck on 3 July 1779, capturing the strategic Kings Ferry crossing of the Hudson River along with American forts at Stony Point and Verplank''s Point. Soon after Washington began to develop an audacious plan to recapture the strongpoint and restore American fortunes. After organizing an elite force of light infantry, Washington spent several days observing the British position at Stony Point and collecting intelligence on British defenses. He proposed a nighttime assault. At midnight on 15 July, 1779 Washington directed Brigadier General Anthony Wayne to lead 1,300 men against the British defenders of Stony Point. In little over one hour the American light infantry captured Stony Point With news of the American victory Washington quickly rode to the fort to congratulate Wayne and his men. Recognizing that he had neither the troops nor the resources needed to defend Stony Point against an expected British counterattack Washington ordered all supplies and arms to be removed, prisoners marched into captivity and the fortifications destroyed. Although the British did successfully reoccupy Stony Point several days later, the Americans trumpeted their unexpected victory and a chagrined General Clinton concluded a further offensive up the Hudson River towards West Point would be pointless.

An account of the little-known involvement of Royal Marines as they engaged the new Bolsheviks immediately after the Russian Revolution.After three years of great loss and suffering on the Eastern Front, Imperial Russia was in crisis and on the verge of revolution. In November 1917, Lenin''s Bolsheviks (later known as "Soviets") seized power, signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers and brutally murdered Tsar Nicholas (British King George''s first cousin) and his children so there could be no return to the old order. As Russia fractured into loyalist "White" and revolutionary "Red" factions, the British government became increasingly drawn into the escalating Russian Civil War after hundreds of thousands of German troops transferred from the Eastern Front to France were used in the 1918 "Spring Offensive" which threatened Paris. What began with the landing of a small number of Royal Marines at Murmansk in March 1918 to protect Allied-donated war stores quickly escalated with the British government actively pursuing an undeclared war against the Bolsheviks on several fronts in support of British trained and equipped "White Russian" Allies.At the height of British military intervention in mid-1919, British troops were fighting the Soviets far into the Russian interior in the Baltic, North Russia, Siberia, Caspian and Crimea simultaneously. The full range of weapons in the British arsenal were deployed including the most modern aircraft, tanks and even poison gas. British forces were also drawn into peripheral conflicts against "White" Finnish troops in North Russia and the German "Iron Division" in the Baltic. It remains a little-known fact that the last British troops killed by the German Army in the First World War were killed in the Baltic in late 1919, nor that the last Canadian and Australian soldiers to die in the First World War suffered their fate in North Russia in 1919 many months after the Armistice.Despite the award of five Victoria Crosses (including one posthumous) and the loss of hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen, most of whom remain buried in Russia, the campaign remains virtually unknown in Britain today. After withdrawal of all British forces in mid-1920, the British government attempted to cover up its military involvement in Russia by classifying all official documents. By the time files relating to the campaign were quietly released decades later there was little public interest. Few people in Britain today know that their nation ever fought a war against the Soviet Union. The culmination of more than 15 years of painstaking and exhaustive research with access to many previously classified official documents, unpublished diaries, manuscripts and personal accounts, author Damien Wright has written the first comprehensive campaign history of British and Commonwealth military intervention in the Russian Civil War 1918-20."Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War remains forgotten. Wright''s book addresses that oversight, interspersing the broader story with personal accounts of participants." —Military History Magazine

"A scholarly, detailed history of how the Mongols created the greatest landlocked empire in history" (Midwest Book Review).The Mongols created the greatest landlocked empire known to history. It was an empire created and sustained by means of conquest. Initially an insignificant tribal leader, Genghis Khan gradually increased his power, overcoming one rival after another. After he had subjugated all tribes of Inner Asia, he struck southward into China and later attacked distant Khwarizm in the Near East. Sübe''etei continued to make significant conquests after Genghis Khan died, conquering central China and leading a large force into the heart of Europe. Between them, Genghis Khan and Sube''etei directed more than 40 campaigns, fought more than 60 battles, and conquered all lands from Korea in the east to Hungary and Poland in the west.This book offers a detailed narrative of the military operations of these two leaders, based on early Mongolian, Chinese, Near Eastern, and European sources. Making full use of Chinese sourced not translated properly into any European language, the account offer details never before given in English works. Detailed maps showing the operations support the text. Many conventional wisdom views of the Mongols, such as their use of terror as a deliberate strategy, or their excellence at siege warfare, are shown to be incorrect. This is a major contribution to our knowledge of the Mongols and their way of warfare."History is littered with great leaders leading great armies and conquering large swathes of the world—Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire . . . but none perhaps as staggering as that of Genghis Khan. I have never heard of Sube''etei, I''m ashamed to say, until now, in this excellent book by Carl Fredrik Sverdrup. Asian history has never particularly appealed to me, but this is big history, and the author''s style makes it compelling and readable." —Books Monthly"This is a very valuable addition to the literature on the Mongol conquests, giving us a much clearer idea of the detailed course of their campaigns, the world in which they took place, and the methods used to win them." —History of War

A history of the build-up and the ultimate clash during the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, featuring over 100 color photos, profiles, and maps.In 1970, Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens, a physician and leftist politician, was elected the President of Chile. Involved in political life for nearly 40 years, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization—measures that brought him on a collision course with the legislative and judicial branches of the government, and then the center-right majority of the Chilean Congress. Before long, calls were issued for his overthrow by force. Indeed, on 11 September 1973, the military—supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA—moved to oust Allende, and surrounded La Moneda Palace. After refusing a safe passage, Allende gave his farewell speech on live radio, and La Moneda was then subjected to air strikes and an assault by the Chilean Army. Allende committed suicide.Following Allende''s death, General Augusto Pinochet installed a military junta, thus ending almost four decades of uninterrupted democratic rule in the country. His repressive regime remained in power until 1990.Starting with an in-depth study of the Chilean military, paramilitary forces and different leftist movements in particular, this volume traces the history of the build-up and the ultimate clash during the coup of 11 September 1973.Providing minute details about the motivation, organization and equipment of all involved parties, it also explains why the Chilean military not only launched the coup but also imposed itself in power, and how the leftist movements reactedIllustrated with over 100 photographs, color profiles, and maps describing the equipment, colors, markings and tactics of the Chilean military and its opponents, it is a unique study into a well-known yet much under-studied aspect of Latin America''s military history."The text is interesting and provides a very readable account and context to what happened and throughout the book, it is well illustrated with archive photos, maps and some fine colour profiles of armoured vehicles and aircraft which modellers in particular will like. I like this series of Latin America at War series from Helion, and have learnt a lot." —Military Model Scene

The first in-depth study of the role of canines in WWII Britain, an "important but hitherto under-represented subject," with photos included (Society of Army Historical Research). The Second World War allowed for the use of an unprecedented number of dogs for military duties, both internationally and among the British Armed Forces. On the British Home Front, civilians responded to calls from the British Army''s War Dogs Training School and the Ministry of Aircraft Production Guard Dog Training School by donating their canine pets for military training and employment "for the duration." As dogs were instructed in roles with the British Army, the Royal Air Force and the London Civil Defence Region, the distinction between pet and trained working animal became increasingly unclear. While civilians and servicemen alike continued to view military dogs as pets, many also saw trained canines as human-like soldiers "doing their bit," a depiction promulgated by both the military and the wartime press. Yet, historians have paid little attention to the subject.  In the first comprehensive scholarly account of the employment of British military and Civil Defence dogs in the Second World War, Kimberly Brice O''Donnell traces the story from the belated establishment of the short-lived War Dog School and the Messenger Dog Service of the First World War to the more recent employment of canines in Iraq and Afghanistan. With a focus on WWII, Doing their Bit examines why and how dogs were trained and employed, and how humans shaped and perceived their use. Using archival material, O''Donnell analyzes the performance of guard, military police, patrol, mine detection, and rescue dogs in training and on operations by considering the advantages and disadvantages of canines in such roles. Military and Civil Defence dogs offered a number of advantages over humans and technological equipment, and the experience gained by dog trainers and handlers led to the continued employment of canines in the postwar period. While the use of horses and other animals has since diminished, World War II marked a turning point in the history of the British military dog, ushering in the seemingly permanent training of dogs for police and military roles.

A history of the Sandinista takeover of this Central American nation and the uneasy decades leading up to it, with maps, photos, and illustrations. In the wake of the US invasion of Nicaragua in 1912, the country came under the rule of the Somoza family, which imposed a brutal, corrupt military dictatorship. A low-scale insurgency of students, supported by peasants and other anti-Somoza elements of the society, had developed already in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the country was embroiled in revolt. Supported by Cuba, a coalition of students, farmers, businessmen, clergy, and a small group of Marxists launched a major war in 1978, which resulted in the downfall of the Somozas a year later. The Sandinista government established in Managua in 1979 found the country ruined by the long war and natural disasters, and nearly half the population homeless or living in exile. Attempting to restructure and recover the underdeveloped economy, Sandinistas introduced a wide range of reforms and a cultural revolution. Drawing on extensive studies of involved armed groups, and their insurgencies in the 1960s and 1970s, Nicaragua, 1961-1990, Volume 1 provides in-depth coverage of military history during the first phase of one of major armed conflicts of Latin America in modern times. Moving meticulously through the details of involved forces, their ideologies, organization, and equipment, this book is an accurate, blow-by-blow account of the Nicaraguan War, illustrated with more than 120 photos, maps, and color artworks. Also available is Volume 2 of this series, which focuses on the new war that raged through Nicaragua for most of the 1980s after the US, considering the Sandinistas "Cuban-supported Marxists" and thus a major threat to US domination of Latin America, began supporting the creation of the Contrarevolutionary forces (better known as Contras). "A lavishly photo-illustrated and detailed chronological account of the Somoza military dictatorship in Nicaragua and its overthrow in 1979." —Perspectives on Terrorism

A scholarly analysis of the Turkish military in the 21st century by the Near East policy expert and author of What Went Wrong in Afghanistan. On July 15th, 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces attempted a coup d''état against sitting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Though the attempt was unsuccessful, the TAF would never be the same. In Opening the Black Box, former Turkish military advisor Metin Gurcan offers a rare look inside the TAF to examine how it has evolved in the 21stcentury. With twenty years of experience inside the Turkish military, both on the field and in the corridors of the Turkish General Staff, as well as extensive academic research, Gurcan provides two detailed snapshots of the TAF: one before July 15thand one after. Offering a complete view of this complex institution, Gurcan offers scholarly perspectives on the TAF as a security organization, a social institution and, in the case of career officers, a profession. Gurcan also examines the evolution of civilian-military relations in Turkey over the last decade with a specific focus on the impact of the July 15 Military Uprising on institutional identity.