Böcker utgivna av Helion & Company

An investigation of the effect of the Industrial Revolution on naval warfare before the battle of Lissa and a comprehensive study of the campaign.

This third volume covers the Norwegian army's flags, jaegers, ski troops, cavalry, and artillery, and Militia forces in Norway and Denmark, through 54 original full colour plates.

An investigation into the organisation, strength, and military action of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1683 - both at Vienna and other theatres of war.

A fresh study of the tumultuous events of August 1870 when Prussia overthrew the established order in Europe, laying the foundations for a military and political hegemony lasting into the 20th Century.

While the First, or 'Great', English Civil War of 1642-6 was largely contested at regional and county level, in often hard-fought and long-lasting local campaigns, historians often still continue to dwell on the well-known major battles such as Edgehill and Naseby. This book redresses this imbalance.

Meticulously researched and presented at the pilot-versus-pilot level, the true nature of aerial combat and the claiming accuracy of the world's leading aces are brought to light over the Hungarian skies.

A detailed account of the 'Swedish Deluge' of 1655 - 1660, the devastating wars fought in the reign of Swedish King Charles X Gustavus.

The third in the series, this book examines the Battle of Pavia that marked a decisive turning point in the Great Italian Wars.

Examines the maneuvering systems of the five major powers from 1792 to 1815.

The greatest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, and the campaign that led up to it, is thoroughly studied for the first time in English.

This book describes and examines the first phase of the 'bush war' during which the Rhodesian forces honed their individual and joint skills, emerging as a formidable albeit lean fighting force.

In June 1941 - during the first week of the Nazi invasion in the Soviet Union - the quiet cornfields and towns of Western Ukraine were awakened by the clanking of steel and thunder of explosions; this was the greatest tank battle of the Second World War.

Thoroughly researched from primary sources, and providing plenty of absorbing detail, this book is a valuable addition to the history of the SS, and the men who volunteered to serve in it.

The expert on 18th-century armies, Christopher Duffy, shows why French, Austrian and Reichsarmee soldiers, though often enough brave and skilful, marched to defeat, and how Frederick, often unaware of the legend he was creating, won these famous battles.

There are few memoirs available of German Panzer crews that focus on the climactic last 12 months of the war on the Eastern Front, 1944-45.

This book considers a relatively unknown series of actions of the victorious Hundred Days of 1918: the operations at the River Selle.

Since the late 1970s, anglophone and German military literature has been fascinated by the Wehrmacht's command system, especially the practice of Auftragstaktik. There have been many descriptions of the doctrine, and examinations of its historical origins, as well as unflattering comparisons with the approaches of the British and American armies prior to their adoption of Mission Command in the late 1980s. Almost none of these, however, have sought to understand the different approaches to command in the context of a fundamental characteristic of warfare - friction. This would be like trying to understand flight, without any reference to aerodynamics. Inherently flawed, yet this is the norm in the military literature.This book seeks to address that gap. First, the nature of friction, and the potential command responses to it, are considered. This allows the development of a typology of eight command approaches; each approach then being tested to identify its relative effectiveness and requirements for success. Second, the British and German armies' doctrines of command during the period are examined, in order to reveal similarities and differences in relation to their perspective on the nature of warfare and the most appropriate responses. The experience of Erwin Rommel, both as a young subaltern fighting the Italians in 1917, and then as a newly-appointed divisional commander against the French in 1940, is used to test the expression of the German doctrine in practice. Third, the interaction of these different command doctrines is explored in case studies of two key armored battles, Amiens in August 1918 and Arras in May 1940, allowing the strengths and weaknesses of each to be highlighted and the typology to be tested. The result is intended to offer a new and deeper understanding of both the nature of command as a response to friction, and the factors that need to be in place in order to allow a given command approach to achieve success. The book therefore in two ways represents a sequel to the author's earlier work, Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies, 1888-1918 (London: Cass, 1995), in that it both takes the conceptual model of command developed there to a deeper level, and also takes the story from the climax of 1918 up to the end of the first phase of the Second World War.

Air Power and the Arab World, 1909-1955 Volume 10 continues the story of the men and machines of the first half-century of military aviation in the Arab world. It tells the story of the first two weeks of the first of the Arab-Israeli Wars - also known as the Palestine War - in May 1948. Whilst part of an ongoing series, this volume stands alone as a history of the period covered.By that time, in Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, newly-independent Syria, Lebanon, and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia, significant efforts had already been made to strengthen these countries' armed forces. Where Egypt, Iraq and Syria were concerned, these efforts included a determination to improve or, in the case of Syria, to establish their air forces. All three air forces were thrown into the First Phase of the Palestine War and, in the view of most subsequent commentators or historians, they had failed to perform as well as their government and populations had expected. However, closer investigation and the removal of layers of propaganda which have obscured the realities of this first Arab-Israeli War show that the Arab air forces performed better than is generally realized. Arguably, they had their limitations and weaknesses, and these had also become apparent as the fighting intensified and losses began to mount. All this was always clearly pointed out in Arabic sources, both official and unofficial, unpublished, or published only with limited circulation.Volume 10 of Air Power and the Arab World focuses on day-to-day events on the ground, in the air and at sea during this hard-fought phase. It does so in remarkable detail because the authors have accessed previously unpublished Arab official military documents supplemented by translations from Arabic books and articles containing official and personal accounts by those involved. Perhaps the most remarkable such source is the Operational Diary of the Royal Egyptian Air Force's Tactical Air Force based at al-Arish in north-eastern Sinai.Air Power and the Arab World, 1909-1955 Volume 10 is illustrated by abundant photographs from previously unused, or very rarely used, private and official sources, and includes specially commissioned color artworks.

While most famous for its U-2 penetration flights over the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated a large number of 'other' types of intelligence-gathering aircraft, or specially modified aircraft for operations beyond the Iron Curtain from the mid-1940s.

The Battle of the Sambre, 4 November 1918, was a decisive British victory. The battle has, however, been largely neglected by historians: it was the last large-scale, set-piece battle fought by the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front: the Armistice was only one week away. Seven Victoria Crosses were won and the poet Wilfred Owen was killed in action. In scale it was similar to the first day of the Battle of the Somme: thirteen divisions of the BEF led the assault on a frontage of approximately twenty miles, supported by over 1,000 guns, with initial plans presuming an involvement of up to 70 tanks and armoured cars. The German Army was determined to hold a defensive line incorporating the Mormal Forest and the Sambre-Oise Canal, hoping to buy time for a strategic withdrawal to as yet incomplete defensive positions between Antwerp and the Meuse and thereby negotiate a compromise peace in the spring of 1919. This is the only book devoted solely to this battle and includes original, bespoke, color maps covering every inch of the battlefield. This volume analyses the battle at the operational and tactical levels: the BEF was no longer striving for a breakthrough - sequential 'bite and hold' was now the accepted method of advance. Drawing on information largely from unpublished archives, including over 300 formation/unit war diaries, Dr Clayton casts a critical eye over the day's events, examining the difference between plan and reality; the tactical proficiency of units engaged; the competence of commanders, some of whom proved capable of pragmatic flexibility in the face of stubborn enemy resistance and were able to adapt or even abandon original plans in order to ensure ultimate success. The role of the Royal Engineers is also highlighted, their tasks including devising improvised bridging equipment to facilitate the crossing of the waterway. Other questions are raised and answered: to what extent was this an 'all-arms' battle? Where does this engagement fit in the context of the BEF's 'learning curve'? Was it necessary to fight the battle at all? Was it indeed decisive?Dr Clayton's analysis places the battle into its wider strategic context and reaches important, new conclusions: that this victory, hard-won as it was by a British army hampered by logistical, geographical and meteorological constraints and worn down by the almost continuous hard fighting of the summer and autumn, irrevocably and finally crushed the will of the German defenders, leading to a pursuit of a demoralized, broken and beaten army, whose means of continued resistance had been destroyed thus expediting the armistice.

Few new personal accounts by Waffen-SS soldiers appear in English; even fewer originate from the multitude of non-German European volunteers who formed such an important proportion of this service's manpower. Twilight of the Gods was originally written in Swedish, and published in Buenos Aires shortly after the end of WWII. Erik Wallin, a Swedish soldier who volunteered for service with the Waffen-SS, and participated in the climactic battles on the Eastern Front during late 1944 and 1945, later telling his story to this book's editor, Thorolf Hillblad. Wallin served with the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, 11th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, a unit composed mainly of non-German volunteers, including Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. The division enjoyed a high reputation for its combat capability, and was always at the focal points of the fighting on the Eastern Front in the last year of the war. During this period it saw combat in the Baltic, in Pomerania, on the Oder, and finally in defense of Berlin, where it was destroyed. Erik Wallin served with his unit in all of these locations, and provides the reader with a fascinating glimpse into these final battles. The book is written with a 'no holds barred' approach which will captivate, excite and maybe even shock the reader - his recollections do not evade the brutality of fighting against the advancing Red Army. Twilight of the Gods is destined to become a classic memoir of the Second World War. An outstanding new World War II memoir, and a first-hand account of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front Written in an exciting and direct style that is guaranteed to grab and hold the reader's attention Contains much new information on the personnel and actions of 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland.

The 2nd Tank Army was not an ordinary force; by 1945 it was an elite Guards formation which played a role in the Soviet offensive operations and whose tanks were the first to enter Berlin's streets. This study is based on the operational documents of the Army and provides an analysis of every battle it fought in World War II.

The Indian Army was the largest volunteer army during the Second World War. Indian Army divisions fought in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy - and went to make up the overwhelming majority of the troops in South East Asia. Over two million personnel served in the Indian Army - and India provided the base for supplies for the Middle Eastern and South East Asian theaters. This monograph is a modern historical interpretation of the Indian Army as a holistic organization during the Second World War. It will look at training in India - charting how the Indian Army developed a more comprehensive training structure than any other Commonwealth country. This was achieved through both the dissemination of doctrine and the professionalism of a small coterie of Indian Army officers who brought about a military culture within the Indian Army - starting in the 1930s - that came to fruition during the Second World War, which informed the formal learning process. Finally, it will show that the Indian Army was reorganized after experiences of the First World War. During the interwar period, the army developed training and belief for both fighting on the North West Frontier, and as an aid to civil power. With the outbreak of the Second World War, in addition to these roles, the army had to expand and adapt to fighting modern professional armies in the difficult terrains of desert, jungle and mountain warfare. A clear development of doctrine and training can be seen, with many pamphlets being produced by GHQ India that were, in turn, used to formulate training within formations and then used in divisional, brigade and unit training instructions - thus a clear line of process can be seen not only from GHQ India down to brigade and battalion level, but also upwards from battalion and brigade level based on experience in battle that was absorbed into new training instructions. Together with the added impetus for education in the army, by 1945 the Indian Army had become a modern, professional and national army.

On 22 August 1914, on a battlefield one hundred kilometers wide, stretching from Luxembourg to the River Meuse, two French and two German armies clashed in a series of encounters known collectively as the Battle of the Ardennes. On that day 27,000 young French soldiers died, the bloodiest day in the military history of France, most of them in the Ardennes, and yet it is almost unknown to English-speaking readers. There has never been an operational study of the Battle of the Ardennes, in any language, at best a single chapter in a history of greater scope, at least a monograph of an individual tactical encounter within the overall battle. This book fills a glaring gap in the study of the opening phase of the First World War the Battles of the Frontiers and provides fresh insight into both French and German plans for the prosecution of what was supposed to be a short war.At the center of this book lies a mystery. In a key encounter battle one French army corps led by a future Minister of War, General Pierre Roques, outnumbered its immediate opposition by nearly six-to-one and yet dismally failed to capitalize on that superiority. The question is how, and why. Intriguingly there is a six-hour gap in the war diaries of all General Roques' units, it smacks of a cover-up. By a thorough investigation of German sources, and through the discovery of three vital messages buried in the French archives, it is now possible to piece together what happened during those missing hours and show how Roques threw away an opportunity to break the German line and advance unopposed deep into the hinterland beyond. The chimera of a clean break and exploitation, that was to haunt the Allied High Command for the next four years in the trenches of the Western Front, was a brief and tantalizing opportunity for General Roques.The final part of this book seeks to answer the question "why?" The history of both French and German pre-war preparation reveals the political, economic and cultural differences that shaped the two opposing national armies. Those differences, in turn, predicated the behavior of General Roques and his men as well as that of his German opponent. With a clear understanding of those differences, the reader may now understand how the French lost their best opportunity not only to stymie the Schlieffen Plan, but to change the course of the rest of the war.The author's text is supported by a separate map book containing 60 newly-commissioned color maps.