From the 9th to the 11th century, Viking ships landed on almost every shore in the Western world. Viking ravages united the Spanish kingdoms and stopped Charlemagne and the Franks' advance in Europe. Wherever Viking ships roamed, enormous suffering followed in their wake, but the encounter between cultures changed both European and Nordic societies. Employing sail technology and using unpredictable strategies, the Vikings could strike suddenly, attack with great force, then withdraw with stolen goods or captives. Viking society was highly militarised, honour was everything and losing one’s reputation was worse than death. Offending another man’s honour could only be resolved through combat or blood revenge. This short history of the Vikings discusses how they raided across Europe even reaching America, discussing their ships, weapons and armour, and unique way of life.

Instruments of Battle examines in detail the development and role of the British Army’s fighting drummers and buglers, from the time of the foundation of the army up to the present day. While their principal weapon of war was the drum and bugle (and the fife), these men and boys were not musicians as such but fighting soldiers who took their place in the front line. The origins of the drum and bugle in the Classical Period and the later influence of Islamic armies are examined, leading to the arrival of the drum and fife in early Tudor England. The story proper picks up post-English Civil War and the drum’s period of supremacy through much of the eighteenth century army; certain myths as to its use are dispelled. The bugle rapidly superseded the drum for field use in the nineteenth century until developments on the battlefield consigned these instruments largely to barrack-life and the parade-ground. But there are surprising examples of the use of the bugle in the field through both World Wars and the story is brought up to most recent times and relegation to an almost exclusively ceremonial role. This is all set against a background of campaigns, battles, changing tactical methods and the difficult processes of command and control on the battlefield. Interwoven is relevant comparison with other armies, particularly American and French. The wider roles of drummers, especially, as battlefield heralds, as adjuncts to recruiting and dispensers of punishment are considered, as well as the other roles they and buglers assumed, out of practicability, on the modern battlefield. Stories of the drummers and buglers themselves provide social context to their place in the army.

‘The kind of story you'd find in illustrated form in one of the 1960s boys' comics such as Warlord, or Commando. Absolutely enthralling.’Books Monthly ‘It is an interesting story . . . and I recommend it.’The Mariner's Mirror In early April 1942, a little-known chapter of World War II took place, said by Sir Winston Churchill to be ‘the most dangerous moment of the war' when the Japanese made their only major offensive westwards into the Indian Ocean. As historian Sir Arthur Bryant said, ‘A Japanese naval victory in April 1942 would have given Japan total control of the Indian Ocean, isolated the Middle East and brought down the Churchill government'. War in the Far East had erupted with the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and it appeared that the British naval bases at Ceylon would be next. The Japanese had a vast new coastline to defend, stretching from New Guinea to Northern Burma, and having destroyed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, could not accept the threat of the British Eastern Fleet based at Ceylon. Occupation of Ceylon was vital as it was a springboard into India. Without control of Ceylon, essential convoys from India to Europe and the Western Desert would be in constant danger and Allied naval strength in the Far East was at a dangerously low level. With the Japanese forces seeming unstoppable, the Indian Ocean lay open and undefended. So far the Japanese had suffered no significant losses and the offensive continued unabated as they steamed westward, unopposed. It was generally felt Ceylon would be next to fall. It was a situation that could not be allowed to happen but the question on everyone's lips was how soon would Japan take advantage of this strategic situation. After the war Churchill acknowledged that the potential disaster at Ceylon had been averted by the brave actions of one pilot, Squadron Leader L. J. Birchall, who while flying his Catalina flying boat on a regular patrol, spotted the Japanese warships massing some 350 miles from Ceylon. He was spotted by the Japanese whose aircraft shot him down but before so doing, Birchall sent a brief radio message back to his base. This gave the island's defence forces sufficient time to prepare for the attack and to disperse the British fleet out to sea. Churchill acknowledged this pilot had made one of the most important single contributions to our victory. John Clancy tells the story of the events of this dramatic but little known episode in which a major catastrophe was only narrowly averted, but in which over a thousand mainly British lives were lost, including the sinking of HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire.

On September 15, 1944, the U.S. First Marine Division landed on a small island in the Central Pacific called Peleliu as a prelude to the liberation of the Philippines. Among the first wave of Marines that hit the beach that day was 22-year-old George Peto.Growing up on a farm in Ohio, George always preferred being outdoors and exploring. This made school a challenge, but his hunting, fishing and trapping skills helped put food on his family’s table. As a poor teenager living in a rough area, he got into regular brawls, and he found holding down a job hard because of his wanderlust. After working out West with the CCC, he decided that joining the Marines offered him the opportunity for adventure plus three square meals a day; so he and his brother joined the Corps in 1941, just a few months before Pearl Harbor. Following boot camp and training, he was initially assigned to various guard units, until he was shipped out to the Pacific and assigned to the 1st Marines. His first combat experience was the landing at Finschhaven, followed by Cape Gloucester. Then as a Forward Observer, he went ashore in one of the lead amtracs at Peleliu and saw fierce fighting for a week before the regiment was relieved due to massive casualties. Six months later, his division became the immediate reserve for the initial landing on Okinawa. They encountered no resistance when they came ashore on D+1, but would go on to fight on Okinawa for over six months. This is the wild and remarkable story of an "Old Breed" Marine, from his youth in the Great Depression, his training and combat in the Pacific, to his life after the war, told in his own words.

Reviews for the Hardback Edition: “If you have any interest in the Vietnam War or military history in general I can thoroughly recommend Marine Corps Tank Battles in Vietnam as a great read that's very hard to put down once you have started.” Model Military International “The Marine tankers found themselves in the forefront of this fierce fight and endured some of the heaviest fighting of the war, but throughout it all they demonstrated versatility, dedication and courage despite the harsh conditions and this excellent book tells the story of these men in a no-holds barred account of life of a US Marine Tanker.” Military Machines International “A fascinating read that takes you through the mind numbing daily routine of the M48 crews, their frightening actions and what happened to them afterwards. ” Tankette “...an interesting book, giving us a very down-to-earth account of the war in Vietnam...” Tank “... an effective picture of the War from a Marine Corps tankers point of view” Classic Military Vehicle “This is an enthralling account of tank combat in Vietnam from the Marine perspective based largely on first hand accounts from veterans.” AFV Modeller UK “…does a fine job of combining the personal stories (of which there are many) of Marine tankers with well-documented descriptions of both tactical and strategic situations as they developed throughout the war….near the top of my must read military history list.” Military

Reviews for Hardback Edition: “In order to produce this fine book, the author has conducted extensive interviews with participants and consulted archival and published materials. This gives the book an excellent balance between the events as witnessed by the participants and the broader historic, strategic and tactical issues. It also makes for a great reading experience. The text is full of excellent “war stories” and covers a wide variety of combat and non-combat scenarios... You’ll not be disappointed. Highly recommended.” Missing Lynx

During the Second World War, British and American soldiers were sent to new and challenging theatres, fighting to survive not only encounters with the enemy but the landscape they found themselves in. Being posted to South-East Asia and the Pacific to fight the Japanese meant soldiers had to learn to survive in the tropics, fighting and living in endless steamy jungle and perilous swamps. In this environment, men had to be able to take care of themselves rather than relying on their unit to supply their needs, something which did not come naturally to the many soldiers born and raised in cities. To help them in this completely alien environment, the British and US armies produced a number of official training manuals and guides to explain to the men how to identify and fight the Japanese and avoid their deadly panji traps, but also ‘jungle lore’: how to find and cook plants that were safe to eat; which animals and insects could kill them; how to identify and treat tropical illnesses and diseases; and avoid the dangers of polluted water and cannibals. The Jungle Survival Pocket Manual brings together the official manuals and information that enabled the Allies to fight in Burma, Malaya, Thailand, Indochina, Singapore and the Pacific Islands and win the war. Clothbound and with retro-styling, this volume will appeal to those interested in the South-East Asian and Pacific theatres of WWII as well as those researching their family history. It makes a unique gift for all those interested in survival techniques, and those of travelling to Asia. The Jungle Survival Pocket Manual is complete with some 20 diagrams and drawings reproduced from the original guides.

Over seven centuries the artillery piece has evolved from a status symbol to one of the most deadly weapons wielded by man. Using gunpowder weapons was initially something of a black art, but over the centuries gunnery became a science, a dependable method of breaching fortifications, or overcoming an enemy on the battlefield. By the 19th century, most European armies had artillery units manned with trained gunners; Napoleon, originally an artillery officer, then took the use of artillery to a new level. Over the following decades, rapid advances in gun technology paved the way for the devastatingly powerful heavy artillery that literally transformed the landscape during World War I. The use of rolling and box barrages shaped how armies fought on the front lines and powerful naval guns dictated the outcome of battles at sea. By World War II the range of artillery had expanded to include self-propelled guns, and powerful antitank and anti-aircraft guns. In this informative introduction, Angus Konstam concisely explains how the development and evolving deployment of artillery led to big guns becoming the key to victory in two world wars and a potent force on the modern battlefield.

Eighty years after its creation, the Luftwaffe is still one of the most fascinating forces in the history of aviation. A companion to Luftwaffe in Colour Volume 1, which covered the victory years from 1939 up to Spring 1942, this volume with nearly 400 images contains even more fascinating material on the machines of the Luftwaffe and the men who flew them, as their fate took an increasingly grim path. Initially the Luftwaffe ruled the skies but thereafter fought an increasingly futile war of attrition which when combined with vital strategic mistakes in aircraft production, was its death knell. Despite this the Luftwaffe produced the most successful air aces of all time who feature in this volume. Among many remarkable images we see one of the last Junkers 87 B-2 operational on the front line on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1942-1943, the huge BV 222 V-5 of Lufttransportstaffel in the port of Heraklion in late 1942, pilots in Tunisia in 1943, the aces Hans Philipp, Wolfgang Spate and Heinz Schnaufer and a vivid demonstration of the reversal in fortunes in 1944 as Allied bombers destroy 106 places, engulfing them in fire at Schwabisch-Hall on German soil. In this painstakingly pieced together collection, originally published in France, the full detail behind the propaganda is once more revealed, in rare colour photographs.

The gallant stand of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne has long become part of historical and media legend. But how many students of the war realize there was already a U.S. unit holding the town when they arrived? And this unit—the 10th Armored Division—continued to play a major role in its defense throughout the German onslaught.

Charles Pagan and Dick Baron, who served together in WWI, embark on a walking holiday in the Vosges Mountains in France, in 1930. En route they meet Cecil and his sister Clare who is recovering from the loss of her fiancé during the war. Pagan and Baron pitch camp at a guesthouse, but the strange behaviour of locals piques their interest in the surroundings: in particular the old battlefield nearby. They express an interest in visiting it and are told by their host in no uncertain terms that it is not the place to go at night. When they discover they have been locked in their bedrooms, the pair lose no time in putting a rope out of the window and shinning down it, intent on exploring the forbidden territory and viewing the apparition Pagan thinks he has glimpsed briefly by moonlight. Pagan, like W. F. Morris’s preceding novel Bretherton, is a mystery story, but one which could only have been written as a result of the war. Bretherton himself is mentioned in passing by his brothers in arms. It is exciting, spine-chilling, funny, and romantic, but the Great War taints all these elements like a colour filter on a camera. The war is only a decade away and wounds, both mental and physical, are raw. The novel works brilliantly as a thriller in its own right, and but also a commentary on post-war Europe.

The classic, revised story of how an elite group of US Air Force pilots fought a secret air war over Vietnam in Cessna 0-2 and OV-10 Bronco prop planes―flying as low as they could get. The eyes and ears of the fast-moving jets who rained death and destruction down on enemy positions, the Forward Air Controller made an art form out of an air strike―knowing the targets, knowing where friendly troops were, and reacting with split-second, life and death decisions as a battle unfolded. The expertise of the low, slow FACs, as well as the hazards attendant to their role, made for a unique bird’s-eye perspective on how the entire war in Vietnam unfolded. For Tom Yarborough, who logged 1,500 hours of combat flying time, the risk was constant, intense and electrifying. A member of the super-secret “Prairie Fire” unit, Yarborough became one of the most frequently shot-up pilots flying out of Da Nang―engaging in a series of dangerous secret missions in Laos. In this work, the reader flies in the cockpit alongside Yarborough in his adrenaline-pumping chronicle of heroism, danger and wartime brotherhood. From the rescuing of downed pilots to taking out enemy positions, to the most harrowing extended missions directly overhead of the NVA, here is the dedication, courage and skill of the fliers who took the war into the enemy's backyard.

On The Frontlines of the Television War is the story of Yasutsune "Tony" Hirashiki's ten years in Vietnam—beginning when he arrived in 1966 as a young freelancer with a 16mm camera but without a job or the slightest grasp of English and ending in the hectic fall of Saigon in 1975 when he was literally thrown on one of the last flights out.His memoir has all the exciting tales of peril, hardship, and close calls as the best of battle memoirs but it is primarily a story of very real and yet remarkable people: the soldiers who fought, bled, and died, and the reporters and photographers who went right to the frontlines to record their stories and memorialize their sacrifice. The great books about Vietnam journalism have been about print reporters, still photographers, and television correspondents but if this was truly the first “television war,” then it is time to hear the story of the cameramen who shot the pictures and the reporters who wrote the stories that the average American witnessed daily in their living rooms. An award-winning sensation when it was released in Japan in 2008, this book been completely re-created for an international audience. In 2008, the Japanese edition was published by Kodansha in two hardback volumes and titled "I Wanted to Be Capa." It won the 2009 Oya Soichi Nonfiction Award-a prize usually reserved for much younger writers—and Kodansha almost doubled their initial print run to meet the demand. In that period, he was interviewed extensively, a documentary was filmed in which he returned to the people and places of his wartime experience, and a dramatization of his book was written and presented on NHK Radio. A Kodansha paperback was published in 2010 with an initial printing of 17,000 copies and continues to sell at a respectable pace. "Tony Hirashiki is an essential piece of the foundation on which ABC was built. From the day he approached the Bureau Chief in Saigon with a note pinned to his shirt saying he could shoot pictures to the anxious afternoon of 9/11 when we lost him in the collapse of the Twin Towers (and he emerged covered in dust clutching his precious beta tapes,) Tony reported the news with his camera and in doing so, he brought the truth about the important events of our day to millions of Americans." David Westin, Former President of ABC News

During the Vietnam war 3500 officers and men served in the Swift Boat program in a fleet of 130 boats with no armor plating. The boats patrolled the coast and rivers of South Vietnam, with the average age of the crew being twenty-four. Their days consisted of deadly combat, intense lightning firefights, storms and many hidden dangers. This action-packed story of combat written by Dan Daly, a Vietnam combat veteran who was the Officer in Charge of PCF 76 makes you part of the Swift Boat crew. The six man crew of PCF 76 were volunteers from all over the United States, eager to serve their country in a highly unique type of duty not seen since the PT boats of WWII. This inexperienced and disparate group of men would meld into a combat team – a team that formed an unbreakable, lifelong bond. After training they were plunged into a 12 month tour of duty. Combat took place in the closest confines imaginable, where the enemy were hidden behind a passing sand dune or a single sniper could be concealed in an onshore bunker, mines might be submerged at every fork in the river. The enemy was all around you, hiding, waiting, while your fifty-foot Swift Boat works its way upriver. In many cases the rivers became so narrow there was barely room to maneuver or turn around. The only way out might be into a deadly ambush. Humor and a touch of romance relieve the tension in this thrilling ride with America's finest.

It is a little-known fact that during the Cold War, two U.S. Army Special Forces detachments were stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin. The existence and missions of the two detachments were highly classified secrets. The massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies posed a huge threat to the nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the juggernaut they expected when and if a war began. The plan was Special Forces Berlin. The first 40 men who came to Berlin in mid-1956 were soon reinforced by 60 more and these 100 soldiers (and their successors) would stand ready to go to war at only two hours’ notice, in a hostile area occupied by nearly one million Warsaw Pact forces, until 1990. Their mission should hostilities commence was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines, and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal. Highly trained and fluent in German, each man was allocated a specific area. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, intelligence tradecraft and able to act if necessary as independent operators, blending into the local population and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move. Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit that had no parallel. It left a legacy of a new type of soldier expert in unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for other deployments including the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the U.

Joe Singleton was an unlikely hero. A junior manager at a paints and varnish company at the outbreak of war, he was surprised to discover he had a hidden talent for flying. Despite RAF Fighter Squadrons crying out for replacements after the carnage of the Battle of Britain, Joe was posted to the rapidly developing world of night fighting. He flew first Defiants then Beaufighters as the technological race to field effective night fighters hotted up leading to the first tentative attempts to put radar inside an aircraft. He found himself in the thick of the very earliest stages of ground controlled interception and airborne radar engagements. But the grind of fruitless searches and patrols only served to highlight the futility of lives lost in training and the inherent dangers of flying at night with relatively primitive equipment. His skills finally began to bear fruit when piloting a Mosquito and he took place in several successful missions. But the pinnacle came on the night of 19th March 1944 when he scrambled to intercept a big German raid on Hull and he located and shot down a Junkers 188, then went on to shoot down two more, all in the space of thirteen dramatic minutes. He and his navigator survived the crash-landing that ensued, and he went on to be feted as a national hero. Three in Thirteen is a unique sortie-by-sortie account of his journey from bewildered recruit to celebrated expert, illustrated with extracts from Joe’s RAF logbook, and unpublished photographs and illustrations. Roger Dunsford’s extensive experience as an RAF pilot brings a vivid immediacy to Joe’s experiences combined with astute analysis of the planes, the tactics and the events of that fateful night.