British battleship HMS Royal Oak secured place in the history books as unlikely hero – sunk as a result of one of the most famous naval operations of the World War II. German submarine U-47, commanded by G. Prien, after undetected penetration into the Royal Navy Scapa Flow base, sent her down the bottom of the ocean together with the majority of her crew. This was one of the most painful losses of the British fleet during the war.Royal Oak was one of five class “Revenge” vessels, better known as simple “R”, battleships built throughout the World War I. Amongst her strong sides were very powerful main guns, quite good sailing abilities and interesting, “bulky” profile. “R” battleships have not participated in many of the naval operations of the Great War, as for Royal Oak she took her part in the battle of Jutland. Between the wars HMS Royal Oak was incorporated into the Atlantic Fleet and Home Fleet. She operated on the Mediterranean Sea during the Spanish Civil War.

Since 1699, Hungary had been part of the Austrian Empire, ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. In 1848/49, the Hungarians staged an uprising seeking their independence, and although the attempt was crushed by the Austrians, it resulted in 1867 that Hungary being granted equal status with Austria. The empire became the dual monarchy of Austria and Hungary. It was known as the kaiserliche und königliche (k. und k.) Monarchy. The kaiserliche part referred to the Imperial throne of Austria, while the königliche part referred to the Royal throne of Hungary. At the end of the First World War, Hungary, as a member of the k. und k. Monarchy, ended up on the losing side. Her army disintegrated and her armaments were either taken over or destroyed by the victorious Allied nations. In the autumn of 1919, after the failure of a short-lived Soviet-style republic, a new Hungarian National Army was organised under French supervision. This army was led by a former k. und k. admiral, the highest-ranking native Hungarian military officer, Admiral Miklós Horthy, who was later (in 1920) to become Regent of Hungary, ruling in place of the deposed Habsburgs. Hungary never officially renounced its status as a monarchy, and effectively the nation remained a monarchy without a king until the end of the Second World War. After WWI, Hungary was in a very critical situation. In 1920 the Allied Powers gave the Hungarian delegation their conditions for peace. This agreement, the Treaty of Trianon, was very similar to the one already imposed on Germany at Versailles, and a French General was later to state that the only result was a twenty year long cease-fire, nothing more. The peace conditions for Hungary reduced the area of the country from 282,000 square kilometres to 93,000 square kilometres and the population from 18 million to 9.5 million. Thus 3,263,000 Hungarians became citizens of foreign countries under hostile administrations. The provisions of the Treaty of Trianon reduced Hungary’s 1914 industrial base by about 80%. The Treaty of Trianon was a huge shock for the whole society. The Treaty has left a never ending scar on the Hungarian national consciousness. Everybody was affected, at least emotional by the harsh conditions of the Treaty. Hungary had lost his imperial status and was reduced to a small country surrounded by hostile states.

The world’s first modern tank, a pioneering vehicle whose basic features can be found on today’s modern tanks. FT was an undeniable success. Large number of FTs were provided to most Western front units by 1918, and they were involved in all major offensives, successfully crossing over trenches as intended, but also driving through forests. Renault produced two variants of the FT, The machine-gun model, which was more common, and a short-barreled 37 mm Puteaux SA 18 gun. Those models were defirent by their definitive Omnibus turret, multi-faceted or rounded with bent metal plates. By December 1917 3100 FTs were to be produced with the Omnibus turret, in both types. The FT had some flaws of the first series, including the radiator fan belt and cooling system problems. In 1919 a new redesigned version was proposed by Renault, including a more powerful engine, a long-barreled Puteaux gun and additional cases fitted in their tracks. It was successfully exported throughout the world. Some of them were immediately put into action, like the Finnish and Polish versions against the Soviets.

Includes articles, archive photos, 3D illustrations (with 3D glasses), and drawings of the famous warships.

The American battleship USS “Massachusetts” is one of the best known units of its class during the world war two. It was built at Fore River (Quincy) Shipyard in Massachusetts in 1939–1942 period and was one of the four South Dakota type battleships. The crew serving on USS “Massachusetts” humorously nicknamed their ship the “Big Mamie”. Building process started on July 1939, the launching took place on the 23rd of September 1941. The godmother of the ship was a formers Navy Secretary Charles’ Francis Adams wife. The equipping took more than half of year and on 12th of May 1942 the unit was introduced into the service. The first commander of the ship was captain Francis E. M. Whiting. Service of USS “Massachusetts” from the beginning teemed with interesting events. After finishing all tests, trials and crew trainings the ship left home waters in October 1942. It was assigned to invasion fleet formed for securing the landing of allied forces in North Africa.This is when the ship gained its fame after winning the battle with unfinished French battleship “Jean Bart” stationed in port of Casablanca. The damage caused by USS “Massachusetts” was so severe that French unit was never finished and didn’t enter the operational service. During that fight titular ship also caused a lot of damage to the port’s infrastructure and damaged some transport units. The crucial event of units service was the battle with group of French warships which managed to escape from Casablanca. “Massachusetts” together with assisting cruisers sunk the French cruiser “Primauguet” as well as two destroyers: “Boulonnais” and “Fougueux”; another one – “Malin” – was severely damaged. The battleship took its further service on the Pacific waters, quickly becoming the “work horse” of the fleet. It took part in dozens of different operations against Japanese forces. USS “Massachusetts” participated in countless escorts of aircraft carriers, supported the forces landings with its guns, covered the convoys with the AA fire. The battleship repeatedly shelled the Japanese positions – many of them on home islands. For its service the unit was awarded with eleven Battle Stars gaining the label of remarkably merited battleship during the fight against Japan. After the war the ship continued its service on Pacific for a short period of time. In March 1947 it was transferred to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet based in Norfolk, where it stayed until June 1962. On that year the unit was discharged from the US Navy. Originally there was a plan to send the battleship to the scrapyard but thanks to the efforts of war veterans and Massachusetts state inhabitants the deserved unit was saved. In the year 1965 the battleship was moved to Fall River where – after proper adaptation and stating it the garden of remembrance of fallen WW2 soldiers – it was open for tourists. Today the ship is permanently anchored in Battleship Cove – place known as the biggest cluster of monument ships. It is grouped with USS “Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.” destroyer and USS “Lionfish” submarine. USS “Massachusetts” is preserved in mint condition and it is the great relic which allows the visitors to feel the “strength” of the unit and get to know the armament, architecture and construction of WW2 era battleships.

Henschel Hs 126 was a two-seater all-metal hinged monoplane with fixed landing gear. The first prototype – Hs 126 V-1 (D-UBYN) – had its flight-test in August 1936. It was powered by 12-cylinder liquid-cooled JUMO 210 C engine. By the end of year 1937 ten preproduction Hs 126 A-0 were delivered. Aircrafts were produced at Henschel-Werke plant and also at AGO Flugzeugwerke. Hs 126 had exceptional short landing performances, important for the close army cooperation. Armament consisted of two machine guns cal. 7.92 mm: pilot’s fixed MG-17 in front (with 500 rounds) and defense MG-15 in the observer cockpit (with 975 rounds). For the optional close support missions it was capable to carry bombs on two side racks (2×10 kg or 2×50 kg). It also had radio equipment and after gaining combat experience, some machines were equipped with side armor plates of 8 mm steel. The first combat employment of several Hs 126’s took place in Spain, where they were used as tactical reconnaissance within Ausfklarungsgruppe 35, and where they received the code name “Super Pavo”. Loses in Spanish civil war were minor. Some Henschels were also sold to Greece, Bulgaria and Estonia. At the beginning of world war II (invasion on Poland) the Hs 126’s were the backbone of reconnaissance units of the Luftwaffe. From 29 staffelns this machine was deployed in 23 of them (267 Hs 126’s were in combat units, of which 234 were combat-ready). However, Polish campaign showed that Hs 126 is vulnerable airplane. German lost about 41 of them to a AA fire and Polish fighter actions, and another 40 were seriously damaged. Hs 126 participated in missions over all WW2 fronts: from Africa, Soviet Union, West Europe to the Balkans. On the 1st of June 1941 Hs 126’s were still used by operational combat units as well as flying schools. However, raising loses resulted in withdrawing the type from combat units, but it was still presented in big number. For example, in March 1942 from 35 Aufklärer Staffels on East Front 16 operated Hs 126’s. Just in first day of Operation “Barbarosa” Germany lost 13 Hs 126’s and by the December 1941 they lost even 381 of them. Germans tried to accompany Hs 126’s with fighter escort during missions but this did not help much. For this reason from autumn 1941 the obsolete Henschels were replacing by more modern Fw 189. It is worth noting that Hs 126 played their role on rescuing the Benito Mussolini on 12th of September 1943. It made a reconnaissance mission to spot landing positions for gliders. By the March 1944 only 174 Hs 126’s still remained in the Luftwaffe, some of which were in service with the following combat squadrons on the Eastern Front: 13./NSGr-11 with a base in Estonia, 2./NSGr-12 with a base in Estonia/Lithuania and 2./NSGr-7 with a base in the Balkans. At that time title aircraft were used as night light bombers. Behind the front line the Hs 126 were used as daytime light bombers and scouts to fight the partisans, as well as communication planes in which role they served until the end of the war.Today not much parts of the Hs 126 is preserved and most of them was lost over Soviet Union.

The intervention of the German Air Force, called Luftwaffe, during World War II is well known by those interested in this conflict, due to the large number of works dealing about it. Much less well-known are the air forces of Germany's allied countries, although in the last years excellent works appear about these ones. Among them, perhaps the least known and treated is Bulgarian Air Force (although its more exact name would be Royal Bulgarian Air Force) because of its lesser degree of participation in the war unlike other countries like Hungary, Romania or Finland. That is the reason why Bulgarian Air Force is Germany's forgotten ally…

The last ship of the first class of German “Dreadnought” battleships was Ersatz Baden/Posen. The keel for Posen was laid on 11 June 1907 at the Germania Dockyard in Kiel and launching followed on 12 December 1908. The President of the Prussian province of Posen, von Waldow, gave the christening speech and the christening was performed by Fürstin (Princess) Johanna von Radolin. Posen was named after the Prussian Province from 1772 to 1919, and today is known as Poznan province in Poland. On 28 April 1910 Posen was transferred from her construction yard to Kiel Imperial Dockyard and on 31 May was commissioned for the first time. The first pre-trials began on 18 July 1910.

The story of one of the most famous combat vehicles of the 20th century, the German Panzerkampfwagen V “Panther” medium tank, would not have started without the confrontation of the Wehrmacht with the Soviet T-34. Following the alarming reports that began to be sent to Berlin from the fighting on the Eastern Front by Panzerwaffe units, the decision was made to build a completely new tank. It had to be capable of destroying almost any type of enemy armored vehicle. The Pz.Kpfw. V prototype, built by MAN, was ready at the end of 1942. Serial production started before the beginning of the following year, and it’s quite unsuccessful combat debut took place in the summer of 1943 during the battle of Kursk.

Includes articles, archive photos, 3D illustrations (with 3D glasses), and drawings of the famous warships.

The book shows the major role of aviation in the armed conflicts of the 20th century using the example of the Israeli-Arab Wars. It presents the primacy of the effectiveness of modern Israeli aviation, which is generally equipped with state of the art equipment and well-trained personnel, on Arab aviation which was based primarily on numbers rather than quality. In these activities, Israel has shown the perfect example of “Blitzkrieg” strategy which within a few hours enabled it to annihilate the more numerous Arab forces with its modern and well-trained aviation. It also describes the history of the rise of Israeli aviation, including its many Polish-related topics.

Includes articles, archive photos, 3D illustrations (with 3D glasses), and drawings of the famous warships.