A further title in this well-established series looks at the history of this USAAF B-25 Mitchell 345 Bomb Group unit, which operated mainly in the Pacific Theatre. The unit was formed in late 1942 and finally entered the Pacific in mid-1943. There, due to the ingenuity of an ex-Philippines Airlines pilot, 'Pappy' Gunn and Jack Fox, a North American aviation technician, standard B-25s were turned into gun-toting strafers by adding additional machine guns to the nose and in special gun packs added to the sides of the forward fuselage. Black and white photos, colour profiles plus a bookmark with FS colour chips are all included. About the SeriesAir Miniatures is a series of books which focuses on the combat history of combat aircraft units. Each volume covers the history of the air unit, its organisation, equipment, camouflage, markings and detailed descriptions of the day-to-day exploits of the unit’s air combat. Includes over 50 photographs, as well as maps, colour profile artwork and free extras for modellers, with decals, photo-etched brass and masking foil.

The first in a new series from Kagero illustrating the combat history of P-40s in the Mediterranean. The Curtiss P-40 was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. It was used by the air forces of 28 nations, including those of most Allied powers during World War II, and remained in front line service until the end of the war. By November 1944, when production of the P-40 ceased, 13,738 had been built.Content covers their combat use in Syria and the Western Desert, Tunisia and Italy.About the SeriesAir Battles is a series of books focusing on World War II air battles of specific aircraft and units. Each volume contains information on the planes involved, lists of scores, pilot reports and portraits, colour profile artwork and maps. Over 50 photographs feature in each book, with free extras for modellers, such as masking foil and decal sheets.

History’s greatest military operation and the commanders who nearly led it to success . .

Max Immelmann was born in Dresden, the son of a paper board container factory owner. When World War I started, Immelmann was recalled to active service, transferred to the Luftstreitkräfte and was sent for pilot training in November 1914. He was initially stationed in northern France as a reconnaissance aviator. On June 3, 1915 he was shot down by a French pilot but managed to land safely behind German lines. He was decorated with the Iron Cross, Second Class for preserving his aircraft. Later in 1915, he became one of the first German fighter pilots, quickly building an impressive score of air victories. He became known as “The Eagle of Lille” (Der Adler von Lille) due to Lille being one of his favourite scouting areas.Immelmann was the first pilot to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest military honour. The medal became colloquially known as the "Blue Max" in the German Air Service in honor of Immelmann. His medal was presented by Kaiser Wilhelm II in January 1916. Oswald Boelcke received his medal at the same ceremony. Immelmann was credited with 15 victories. His final victory was on 30 March 1916.Immelmann will forever be associated with the Fokker Eindecker, Germany's first fighter aircraft, and the first to be armed with a machine gun synchronised to fire forward, through the propeller arc. Along with Oswald Boelcke and other pilots, Immelmann was one of the main instigators of the Fokker Scourge which inflicted heavy loses upon British and French aircrews during 1915. This new edition has been entirely reoriginated. Not a word has been changed, but the original type and page layout have been reworked, as has been the format in which the book is presented, to give a beautiful new treatment for this classic of aviation literature.

Ira Jones' biography of Britain's top scoring ace of World War I has become the subject of some controversy over the last few years, most notably as it is the source of the claim of 73 "kills" for Mannock, thereby making him the number one scoring Allied Ace of the war. Later research has thrown serious doubt on this claim and indeed Mannock himself only claimed 51 kills. Jones' biography is nevertheless an important account, especially when seen in the context of the time in which it was first written. In particular, the biography really gets into the mind of Mannock, the author having been a flying comrade, and portrays the singular nature of his character and the incredible stresses that these pioneer airfighters were under in the last few months of the war by a man who flew in the thick of it.Originally published in 1934 by Ivor Nicholson and Watson in London, this aviation classic has been reprinted many times, yet each time has been reproduced from the original 1930s version of the book. This new edition has been entirely reoriginated. Not a word has been changed, but the original type and page layout have been reworked, as has been the format in which the book is presented, to give a beautiful new treatment for this classic of aviation literature.About the AuthorIra Jones enlisted in 1913. When the war began, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and joined 10 Squadron as an air mechanic. In July 1915 he was sent to France and by January 1916 he was flying combat missions as an observer. He was then posted to 74 Squadron in early 1918, where he developed a close bond with his flight commander, Mick Mannock. In just three months he scored 37 victories flying the S.E.5a.

The Maps of Chickamauga explores this largely misunderstood battle through the use of 120 full-colour maps, graphically illustrating the complex tangle of combat’s ebb and flow that makes the titanic bloodshed of Chickamauga one of the most confusing actions of the American Civil War. Track individual regiments through their engagements at fifteen to twenty-minute intervals or explore each army in motion as brigades and divisions manoeuvre and deploy to face the enemy. The Maps of Chickamauga allows readers to fully grasp the action at any level of interest. The maps lay out the troops and terrain as they were in September of 1863. Opening and closing chapters describe each army’s approach to the battlefield and the retreat and pursuit to Chattanooga in the aftermath of the bloody combat. In between, sections are devoted to the fighting of September 18, 19, and 20, following the battle as it unfolds from a series of limited collisions between isolated columns into the bloody action of the last two days. Situation maps reflect the posture of each army on an hourly basis, while tactical maps reveal the intricacies of regimental and battery movements.The text accompanying each map explains the action in succinct detail, supported by a host of primary sources. Eyewitness accounts vividly underscore the human aspect of the actions detailed in the maps as brigades and regiments collide. Meticulously researched and footnoted by David Powell with cartography by David Freidrichs, The Maps of Chickamauga relies on the participants’ own words to recreate the course of battle.

Nam Sense is the memoir of a combat squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division. Arthur Wiknik was drafted by the army in 1969 at the age of nineteen, promoted to sergeant ‘without ever setting foot in a combat zone’, and sent to Vietnam. He was flown north to Camp Evans, a mixed-unit outpost near Phong Dien, only a few miles from Laos. Wiknik was then thrown straight into the action: he was the first man in his unit to reach the top of Hamburger Hill during one of the last offensives launched by US forces, and later discovered a weapons cache that prevented a sneak attack on his advance fire support base. Between the sporadic episodes of combat he mingled with the locals and defrauded an unwitting US supplier to provide his platoon with a year of good food. This book offers a perfect blend of candour and humour – and it spares nothing and no one in its attempt to convey what really happened during this unpopular war. Nam Sense is not about heroism, mental breakdowns and haunting flashbacks: the GIs Wiknik lived and fought with during his year-long tour were there to do their duty, support their comrades and get home alive. ‘The soldiers I knew’, explains the author, ‘demonstrated courage, principle, kindness, and friendship – all the elements found in other wars Americans have proudly fought in.’ About the AuthorARTHUR WIKNIK was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968, selected to be trained as an Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and went to war in Vietnam.

This book is built around two recently discovered war diaries—one by a member of the 23rd Panzer Division which served under Manstein in Russia, and the other by a member of Rommel’s AfrikaKorps. Together, along with detailed timelines and brief overviews, they comprise a fascinating “ground level” look at the German side of World War II. The assignment of keeping the first diary was given to a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, 201st Panzer Regiment by a commanding officers and the author never saw fit to include his own name. This diary covers the period from April 1942 to March 1943, the momentous year when the tide of battle turned in the East. It first details the unit’s combat in the great German victory at Charkov, then the advance to the Caucasus, and finally the brutal winter of 1942–43. The second diary’s author was a soldier named Rolf Krengel. It starts with the beginning of the war and ends shortly after the occupation. Serving primarily in North Africa, Krengel recounts with keen insight and flashes of humour the day-to-day challenges of the AfrikaKorps. During one of the swirling battles in the desert, Krengel found himself sharing a tent with Rommel at a forward outpost. The Field Marshal read parts of the diary with interest and signed it. Evacuated due to illness, Krengel then records service in Berlin beneath the relentless Allied bomber streams and other occurrences on the German homefront.Neither of the diarists was famous, nor of especially high rank. However, these are the brutally honest accounts written at the time by men of the Wehrmacht who participated in two of history’s most crucial campaigns.About the AuthorsThe authors previously collaborated on Mr. Gehlen’s childhood memoir, Jungvolk: The Story of a Boy Defending Hitler’s Third Reich (Casemate, 2008).

On the 6th of June 1944, thousands of men landed on the Normandy beaches to free Europe from the Nazi occupation. Over 2 months, soldiers of all origins were to battle in the Normandy bocage. American and British soldiers of course, but also Canadian, Polish, Belgian and French troops were to challenge those from the German Wehrmacht and SS, together with Russians donning the German uniform. Over 240,000 soldiers were to pay the ultimate sacrifice during these 2 months of intense combat, during which landscapes were devastated and Normandy's towns and villages destroyed, with civilian losses estimated at 45,000.The aim of this book is to offer an insight into the uniforms worn and the equipment used by the soldiers who fought on Norman soil, many of whom are now laid to rest throughout the region's cemeteries. Several collectors have contributed towards enhancing the book's contents, presenting, for the first time, the finest from their collections, painstakingly and patiently recovered across Normandy's battlefields. Each and every one of these precious objects holds its own share of history and many are the last remaining witnesses of this terrible combat.

The sinking of the German battleship Bismarck—a masterpiece of engineering, well-armored with a main artillery of eight 15-inch guns—was one of the most dramatic events of World War II. She left the port of Gotenhafen for her first operation on the night of 18 May 1941, yet was almost immediately discovered by Norwegian resistance and Allied air reconnaissance. British battlecruiser Hood was quickly dispatched from Scapa Flow to intercept the Bismarck, together with new battleship Prince of Wales. They were ordered to find the ship quickly because, on their way from the USA, several large convoys were heading for Britain.On 24 May, Bismarck was found off the coast of Greenland, but the ensuing battle was disastrous for the British. The Hood was totally destroyed within minutes (only 3 crewmen surviving), and Prince of Wales was badly damaged. The chase resumed until the German behemoth was finally caught, this time by four British capital ships supported by torpedo-bombers from the carrier Ark Royal. The icy North Atlantic roiled from the crash of shellfire and bursting explosions until finally the Bismarck collapsed, sending nearly 2,000 German sailors to a watery grave.Zetterling and Tamelander’s work rests on stories from survivors and the latest historical discoveries. The book starts with a thorough account of maritime developments from 1871 up to the era of the giant battleship, and ends with a vivid account, hour by hour, of the dramatic and fateful hunt for the mighty Bismarck, Nazi-Germany’s last hope to pose a powerful surface threat to Allied convoys.

The stunning Northern victory at Shiloh in 1942 thrust Union commander Ulysses S. Grant into the national spotlight, claimed the life of Confederate commander Albert S. Johnston, and forever buried the notion that the Civil War would be a short conflict. Anxious to attack the enemy, Johnston began concentrating Southern forces at Corinth, a major railroad center just below the Tennessee border. His bold plan called for his Army of the Mississippi to march north and destroy General Grant’s Army of the Tennessee before it could link up with another Union army on the way to join him.On the morning of April 6, Johnston boasted to his subordinates, “Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee!” They nearly did so. Johnston’s sweeping attack hit the unsuspecting Federal camps at Pittsburg Landing and routed the enemy from position after position as they fell back toward the Tennessee River. Johnston’s sudden death in the Peach Orchard, however, coupled with stubborn Federal resistance, widespread confusion, and Grant’s dogged determination to hold the field, saved the Union army from destruction. The arrival of reinforcements that enabled to Grant to seize the initiative and surprise the Confederates led to one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war, with nearly 24,000 men killed, wounded, and missing.Cunningham, a young Ph.D. candidate, researched and wrote the book in 1966. Although unpublished, many Shiloh experts and park rangers considered it to be the best overall examination of the battle ever written. Civil War historians Joiner and Smith have resurrected Cunningham’s manuscript updating citations, original maps, a complete order of battle and table of losses. This book will be welcomed by everyone who enjoys battle history at its finest.

The New Civil War Handbook: Facts and Photos from America’s Greatest Conflict is a complete up-to-date guide for American Civil War enthusiasts of all ages. Author Mark Hughes uses clear and concise writing, tables, charts, and more than 100 photographs to trace the history of the war from the beginning of the conflict through Reconstruction.Coverage includes battles and campaigns, the common soldier, technology, weapons, women and minorities at war, hospitals, prisons, generals, the naval war, artillery, and much more. In addition to these important areas, Hughes includes a fascinating section about the Civil War online, including popular blog sites and other Internet resources. Additional reference material in The New Civil War Handbook includes losses in battles, alternate names for battles, major causes of the deaths of Union soldiers (no data exists for Confederates), deaths in POW camps, and other rare information.Civil War buffs will find The New Civil War Handbook to be an invaluable quick reference guide, and one that makes an excellent addition for both the Civil War novice and the Civil War buff.About the Author: Mark Hughes is an electronics instructor widely recognized as the authority on Civil War cemeteries. He has written several books, including Bivouac of the Dead, The Unpublished Roll of Honor, and Confederate Cemeteries (2 vols.). An electronics instructor at Cleveland Community College, Mark, his wife Patty, and their daughter Anna Grace live on the family farm near Kings Mountain, NC.

With the help of technical specifications, discover all the cannon used by the American forces campaigning between 1941 and 1945. Field artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns are presented from the technical and historical point of view. A chapter is devoted to radio vectors and another to artillery spotting. Undisputed specialist of 20th Century French Army history and former officer, Paul Gaujac served in the paratroopers, in the air transport command, at the nuclear submarines headquarters and then at that of the Army, finishing his career as head of the Historical Department of the Armée de Terre. He has published twenty works, three of them with Histoire & Collections. Modelers, military equipment enthusiasts and readers interested in World War II history will all find this an excellent new reference book.

During the preparation of the Normandy Invasion, the American high command realized soon enough that the 8th Air Force, which was wholly committed to strategic bombing, could not undertake the close support of ground units in this major offensive. The keystone of operation “Overlord” would indeed be mastery of the skies: tactical aviation had to be able to intervene quickly and precisely, and to operate from bases on the Continent. The heavy bombers, as they were dependent on large and permanent airfields, could not be called upon for such tasks. The concept of on-call tactical air support was therefore paramount in the Overlord plans and the 9th Air Force was transferred to England for this purpose. The hundreds of hitherto unpublished photos copied out from the pilots and crews’ albums, and the full-color reconstruction of their flying gear are a unique testimony to the day to day life of 9th Air Force personnel and the missions of combat crews. Let us look at these men’s faces, they belong to the Past but we owe them our Freedom. This book is dedicated to the memory of the airmen and soldiers of the Ninth Air Force who gave their all for the Liberation of Europe.

The wartime autobiography of one of the most colorful SOE operatives of his time. Sheppard's is a tale of extraordinary courage and bravery and of a man who ended his war in Nazi concentration camps but survived to tell the tale.TEXT IN FRENCH

A rarely frank account of the U.S. infantry experience in northern Europe, A Foot Soldier for Patton takes the reader from the beaches of Normandy through the giddy drive across France, to the brutal battles on the Westwall, in the Ardennes, and finally to the conquest of Germany itself. Patton’s army is best known for dashing armoured attacks, its commander combining the firepower of tanks with their historic lineage as cavalry. But when the Germans stood firm the greatest fighting was done by Patton’s long undersung infantry—the foot sloggers who were called upon to reduce enemy strongpoints, and who took the brunt of German counterattacks. Michael Bilder, a member of the 5th Infantry (“Red Diamond”division), played a unique role in the Third Army’s onslaught. A rifleman foremost, he was also a German-speaker, called upon for interrogations and special duties. Also a combat lifeguard, he played a key role in successive river crossings. An astute observer, he relates dozens of fascinating insights into the campaign, from dealing with German snipers to intoxicated Frenchwomen, as well as relaying the often morbid humor of combat. Laughter, for example, erupts among Bilder’s unit when a hated Graves Registration officer, known for robbing the pockets of the dead, gets his hand blown off by a German booby trap. When the 5th Infantry comes up against the fortress of Metz, the battle is detailed in all its horror, as is the sudden drive into the flank of the Bulge, where the Americans face their first winter battle against enemy veterans of Russia. Incidents common to the ordinary GI, but which seldom see the light of day in histories, are routinely related in this book, enriching the reader’s sense of the true reality of World War II combat.