Helion & Company

Volume 12 of the Air Power and the Arab World, 1909-1955 mini-series continues the story of the men and machines of the first half century of military aviation in the Arab world. It focuses upon combat operations during the period of the Palestine War from 1 September to 10 March 1949.By that time, in Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan and newly-independent Syria and Lebanon, major efforts had already been made to strengthen these countries? armed forces. Egypt, Iraq, and Syria launched all-out efforts to bolster their air forces, and threw these into combat. While most subsequent commentators and historians stress they had failed to perform, if appearing at all, closer investigation and the removal many of layers of propaganda that have obscured the realities of this first Arab-Israeli War, show that the Arab air forces performed much better than previously thought.Arguably, available aircraft, armament, spares, and personnel had their limitations and weaknesses, and these had also become apparent as the fighting intensified and losses began to mouth. However, information from both official and unofficial Arab sources - published and unpublished - leaves no doubt about the commitment and courageous efforts of almost everybody involved.Volume 12 of Air Power and the Arab World focusses on day-to-day events in the First Arab-Israeli War, in the air, at sea, and on the ground. It does so in remarkable detail thanks to access to previously unpublished official military documentation, supplemented by translations from publications in Arabic, containing both official and personal accounts by those involved. The most remarkable of these is the Operational Diary of the REAF?s Tactical Air Force based at el-Arish, in north-eastern Sinai.Air Power and the Arab World Volume 12 is illustrated by a rich collection of original period photographs - many of these never published before - and specially commissioned color illustrations.

Bloody Streets: Armor, Artillery and Assault Groups in the Battle of Berlin is a comprehensive reference work on armoured warfare during the battle. The Red Army launched their final offensive in Europe with the highest concentration of tanks and self-propelled artillery ever assembled up to that time. Yet, they lost more armour in each day of fighting than during any other battle the Allies fought during World War II. Most of the armour losses inside Berlin were caused by a new German weapon known as the Panzerfaust. The hand-held rocket was employed for the first time in large numbers and revolutionized anti-tank warfare. The new weapon allowed anyone with rudimentary training, no matter their age, to easily destroy the largest armoured vehicle on the battlefield. To ensure the survivability of their tanks and self-propelled artillery, the Red Army evolved the Assault Group concept. The Soviets fundamentally altered the structure of their tank armies and related offensive doctrine in the aftermath of the Battle of Berlin. Many of the lessons learned documented by the Red Army at that time are still relevant to armoured tactics in urban terrain today.This book presents for the first time in English over a hundred pages of Soviet lessons learned on the employment of tanks, self-propelled artillery, artillery pieces, and the evolution of Assault Groups in the Battle of Berlin. German anti-tank tactics are detailed through the observations of the Red Army combat units that fought in the battle. Hundreds of large format wartime black and white photographs of Soviet and German armour and artillery illustrate this book. Each photograph includes a comprehensive description with technical details and historical context. The photographs are supplemented by over a hundred colour profiles, 3D images, and colour photos of surviving examples of the armour that fought in Berlin from both sides. Of particular interest are the graphics that depict the different Assault Group formations that formed across the First Belorussian and First Ukrainian Fronts in order to protect armoured units and overcome determined German resistance. Researchers, armour enthusiasts, and modelers will find rich new material about the Battle of Berlin from the unique perspective of armoured warfare. This is the first of several new volumes about various aspects of the Battle of Berlin, which build upon decades of research for the original Bloody Streets.

In the aftermath of the Second World War relations between the Soviet Union and their former allies in the West quickly soured and developed into the Cold War. The USSR was at a huge disadvantage at sea and sought to redress this balance through the equipping of many of its warships with nuclear weapons ranging from torpedoes to strategic missiles. Doomsday Torpedoes examines the history of these weapons and their live testing during the Cold War.The US Navy maintained a large fleet of aircraft carriers capable of encircling the Soviet Union and delivering airborne nuclear attack from many different directions. The Soviets were in dire need of finding ways to neutralise this threat, preferably with a single powerful blow: torpedoes with nuclear warheads as well as nuclear-tipped anti-ship missiles offered such a capability. Doomsday Torpedoes describes the development and fielding of such weapons by the Soviets and their navy in detail, along with strategic nuclear weapons launched from the sea, primarily submarine launched ballistic missiles. In addition, the Soviet development of submarines, as the primary launch platforms of naval nuclear weapons is examined.The main focus of Doomsday Torpedoes is the time period from 1952 up until the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. This book examines the events of that era, including those of the Cuban Missile Crisis in which Soviet submarines came close to firing nuclear-armed torpedoes in a chain of events that came extraordinarily close to initiating the Third World War.

For the first time, the detailed course of events has been reconstructed and the reasons for the defeat of the Russian army are analysed. This account is based on the author?s own observations and first-hand interviews with hundreds of Ukrainian participants in the battle as he found himself cut off and surrounded in the city of Chernihiv during the crucial first months of the war.War in Ukraine Volume 10: The Battle of Chernihiv, February-March 2022 is extensively illustrated with the author?s own photographs of these pivotal events, along with specially commissioned colour artworks and maps.

Soviet military doctrine long placed great emphasis upon the use of massed artillery and its use was honed to a fine art during the Great Patriotic War. In the early part of the Cold War this arm was allowed to atrophy in an era where it was expected that nuclear weapons would dominate the battlefield from the outset. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s however the Soviet artillery arm underwent a renaissance and large numbers of the resulting generation of weapons systems were passed on to the inheritor states of the USSR in the 1990s.While Russia was able to maintain its Soviet-legacy artillery systems, and introduce some new developments, Ukraine was much less able to do so and in particular lacked the levels of ammunition reserves and manufacturing capability of Russia. Inevitably, Ukraine turned to the West and began to receive weapons and ammunition from NATO and allied nations.Despite the critical role gun artillery plays in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, the technical aspects and histories of the individual artillery systems used by both sides have received relatively little attention in English, where they are often lumped together as generic ?artillery?. This book aims to rectify this deficiency in the accessible literature and examine the major tube artillery systems and mortars employed by both sides in this conflict.War in Ukraine Volume 9: Artillery 2022?2024 is illustrated throughout with original colour photographs and the @War series signature colour artworks.

A look at North Korea''s secretive military detailing its unique weaponry, doctrines, and modernization efforts.Modernity has lifted the obsessive veil of secrecy in military innovation in all but one country: North Korea. With both its past and present a mystery, there exists little reliable information on one of the most exotic armed forces in the world today. Having essentially run aground its entire economy for the twin purposes of Juche (self-reliance) and Songun (military first), the DPRK today fields a uniquely diverse inventory of indigenous weaponry, and adheres to a military doctrine unlike any other. This highly unconventional situation is simultaneously one of the most precarious in the world, with the possibility of conflict ever looming on the horizon. To many, North Korea has become synonymous with the threat of nuclear war, having seen ballistic missiles soar and the ground tremble under a succession of escalating strategic weapons tests. The international focus on this topic has resulted in an imbalance of information, where its equally significant and numerically vast conventional forces are typically ignored. More than just posing a threat in its immense proportions however, the KPA remains a force to reckoned with due to a continuing drive for modernization, that though struggling under the pressure of a defunct economy appears to be serious in scope and realism. Any assessment of its abilities that omits such developments is invariably inaccurate, and with literature sparse and available sources often disseminating misinformation more than anything else, there is no definitive framework for placing new information about the KPA?s ground forces in its proper context. This book aims to provide precisely such a framework by setting out its history in detail and mapping pretty much all there is to know about the DPRK?s current military endeavors. This comprehensive information is accompanied by well over 150 unique images, most of which have never been seen by the general public. Furthermore, sixteen gorgeous artworks provide a better look at those armaments that have managed to evade getting caught on camera, or that deserve being highlighted in perfect detail. Subsequently published volumes will complete a small series on North Korea?s elusive military, giving both the casual reader as well as those with a professional interest a complete overview of even the most secretive aspects of a military that is unlike any other.

Examines the predecessors to the Wagner Group, its activities in a number of conflicts around the world, and its armed mutiny against the top leadership of the Russian Federation.The Wagner Group is symbolic of Russia?s deployment of private military companies (PMCs) to exercise influence in Africa, the Middle East and Europe since the mid-2010s. Nominally an independent commercial enterprise, but actually operating on behalf of the Russian government, and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defence and its Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB), it has been deployed to perform a very wide range of military and paramilitary tasks, provide security, and collect intelligence. Through much of its existence, the activity of the Wagner Group appears to have been clandestine and poorly recorded. In practice, the operating principles of this PMC have been very similar to those of numerous similar enterprises from the West. Since its failed coup attempt in the summer of 2023, the fate of the Wagner Group appears to be sealed. Indeed, presently, it is highly unlikely that a Russian PMC might ever again have the same power and influence that Wagner once wielded. However, this does not mean that such all such enterprises have been completely disbanded: only that the Wagner Group has not (yet) been replaced by some other enterprise ? whether Russian or foreign. In fact, we are witnessing a recurrent trend that is likely to become even more characteristic for conflicts in the coming decades as almost everybody who can afford to pay for the services of a PMC is hiring them. Indeed, numerous governments in control of relatively weak or disloyal armed forces have concluded that the deployment of a PMC holds significant advantages. This two-part works examines the predecessors to the Wagner Group, and the establishment of the latter organisation by Yevgeny Prigozhin, its activities in a number of conflicts around the world, and its armed mutiny against the top leadership of the Russian Federation. It is thoroughly illustrated with authentic photographs and custom commissioned color illustrations and maps.

The medieval English longbow has been the subject of considerable debate. The English Longbow - Investigating a Myth will draw out the arguments concerning it and produce a balanced and convincing summary. The book opens with a detailed description of the weapon system ? the bow, arrow, and arrowheads. The origin of the longbow has been much discussed and the Shortbow-Longbow conundrum is examined in depth. The longbow?s capabilities and effectiveness are evaluated using recent research allied to contemporary accounts. The part the bow played in the ?Infantry Revolution? and the longbow''s relationship with the crossbow are covered.The longbow could only be employed in war if the monarch could mobilise the resources needed to manufacture it and if English society could provide the strong-backed archers able to use it. These issues are investigated, including a consideration of the legal and societal framework needed.The English Longbow - Investigating a Myth is an honest appraisal of the longbow. It is not a book of battles but one that describes how the bow was used, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. It provides a comprehensive and balanced assessment of what was and remains the weapon that made Britain.

The Battle of Lens marked the climax of a decade of war between France and Spain; the two contenders were exhausted, having fought in Spain, France, Flanders, Italy and Germany. The conflict would be settled in a pitched battle near the city of Lens, Flanders, in the summer of 1648.The Spanish had neutralised the Dutch for the campaign of 1648, so they prepared to launch a major offensive against the French, who had occupied important cities in Flanders for years. Thus, the new governor, Archduke Leopold William, brother of Emperor Ferdinand III of Habsburg, took charge of an army of almost 20,000 troops.The French were commanded by the Prince of Condé, who knew how to instil a spirit of resistance in his troops.The two armies carried out marches and countermarches to outwit their opponent and seize cities: Condé conquered Ypres, but the Archduke took Lens. Condé tried to rescue the city, but arrived too late. However, the campaign was not lost for France; the brilliant Condé decided to deploy his army on the plain to decide the campaign, its own prestige, and the fate of the war.

When it was founded in 1949, the People''s Republic of China was an agricultural state with no industrial base to speak of and no armaments industry of its own. From the very beginning, Mao Tse Dng, the founder of the state, endeavored to develop his own modern defense industry in order to gain weight on the international stage. Part of this effort was the development of a domestic aerospace industry with massive support from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (colloquially the ?Soviet Union?).Until the two countries broke up in 1961 due to ideological differences, more than 100 aviation companies were established with Soviet help and the licensed production of numerous aircraft types from trainers to heavy bombers was started. The last of these was the MiG-21, which is reproduced in China as the J-7.It took more than 10 years before the country, weakened by the ?Great Leap Forward? and the Cultural Revolution, succeeded at all in producing this comparatively complex aircraft. Only the comprehensive reforms after the death of state founder Mao created the basis for a return to orderly production of a technology that was already two decades old and outdated.The rapprochement with the West in the early 1980s made it possible, in part, to overcome the technological backlog. The integration of Western avionics into the Soviet airframe did not make the J/F-7 a modern combat aircraft like the F-16 and MiG-29 developed at the same time, but it increased its combat value to such an extent that it became an export success for the Third World. However, even more important was the access to Western technologies, later also for air-to-air missiles, which were initially, simply copied and later formed the basis for in-house developments of modern equipment and weapons systems.When cooperation with the West ended abruptly after the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, Chinese engineers and scientists had accumulated enough know-how to provide their own impetus in the further development of the J/F-7 family. Due to the combination of new aerodynamics and modern avionics, true multi-role combat aircraft were finally created which today, still spearhead their air forces in numerous countries in Asia and Africa.When the production of the J/F-7 finally ended in 2016, two generations of modern fighters based on this design were coming off the production line in China, and the prototypes of the fifth generation were already flying. The experience gained by China''s aerospace industry in developing the J/F-7 from a day fighter to a multi-role fighter has made this success possible.The book deals with both the technical development of the J/F-7 family and its actual or potential use in more than a dozen countries on five continents.

After the Peace of Westphalia, several German states developed a disciplined ?military? that produced outstanding armies. Germany supplied mercenary troops to major and minor powers across Europe, and the military state, usually exemplified by Prussia, became a crucial part of German history.However, ?Germany? appeared weak and was divided into a multitude of states that constantly faced a hostile environment created by belligerent great powers. Additionally, the German ?militaries? were the result of a system of collective security, internal conflict and resolution that allowed a rich variety of political traditions to coexist relatively harmoniously. This system tried to preserve ?Germany? against formidable attacks without making it a threat to the security of its neighbours. In contrast to the political culture of later German states, that of the Reich was inherently defensive, preferring peace to war in both domestic politics and external relations. This study deals with the armies of the Holy Roman Empire for the first time in a single book from extensive research in archives across Germany and using previously unpublished iconography.This third and final volume of Bruno Mugnai?s monumental work on the German armies of the late seventeenth century explores how armies recruited troops and further reviews the armed forces of the myriad of states within ?Germany?. The author examines the conflicts that involved the German armies during the second half of the seventeenth century. The book concludes with extensive appendices that contain a wealth of material on orders of battle, regiments, and the specifics of armies hiring troops to foreign states.

Two supplement volumes round off the British and Commonwealth Armies series. Supplement Volume 1 contains five chapters providing data covering formations in North Africa, the Mediterranean, North-West Europe, Burma / India and Special Forces. The units covered range from 7th Armoured Division in North Africa to Fiji?s military forces.Careful presentation combined with a host of hard-to-find information ensure this will be the standard source for order-of-battle data about the British and Commonwealth armies. All organisations are analysed down to platoon level, and listings include specific types of equipment and weaponry used, along with explanatory notes.

Two supplement volumes round off the British and Commonwealth Armies series. Supplement Volume 2 contains five chapters providing data covering formations in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Home front, overseas garrisons and Special Forces. The units covered range from the South African 6th Armoured Division to the 1940?41 garrison of Iceland.Careful presentation combined with a host of hard-to-find information ensure this will be the standard source for order-of-battle data about the British and Commonwealth armies. All organisations are analysed down to platoon level, and listings include specific types of equipment and weaponry used, along with explanatory notes.

Continues the detailed military history of this ongoing conflict, the largest in Europe since the end of the Second World War in 1945.On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine. Despite all predictions to the contrary, Ukraine survived the initial blow and repelled Russia?s attempts to seize Kyiv. As the war on the ground expanded from March through to June of 2022, so also it expanded in the air, and Russia?s Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno-kosmicheskiye Sily, VKS) fought the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Povitriyani syly Zbroiynyh syl Ukrayini, PSZSU).Although largely outclassed in air-to-air combat by more advanced Russian aircraft and missiles, the PSZSU continued to fight an uneven contest using its manned aircraft and ground-based air defences to deny total control of the air to the VKS. Using aircraft from rough forward operating bases and learning to conduct missile engagements using guerilla tactics to avoid Russian suppression of enemy air defence missions, Ukraine inflicted painful losses on the enemy, but not without suffering many downed aircraft, destroyed missile systems, and personnel casualties in return. On the other hand, the VKS was often just as hampered by its own muddled leadership, flawed doctrine, and lack of a clear Russian airpower strategy that rendered it closely tied to the ground war and unable to exert a decisive influence on the conflict.In parallel to the air campaign, a war of rockets and missiles was being waged against tactical, operational and strategic targets on both sides that saw extensive use of artillery rocket systems, and ballistic and cruise missiles launched from the ground, at sea and from the air. While many of these missiles would be defeated by air defence systems, or simply miss their targets, others would inflict heavy damage.Volume 7 of the War in Ukraine strand in the Europe@War series draws on a wide range of sources to provide a detailed examination of the military aspects of the air and missile campaign that developed in the skies above Ukraine between March and June 2022. It includes overviews of the weapons systems employed by both sides, analysis of the tactics, and of the successes and failures of both sides, and a detailed account of the campaign for Snake Island that would see the sinking of Moskva, flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.War in Ukraine, Volume 7: Air and Missile Warfare, March-June 2022 is extensively illustrated throughout with original colour photographs, maps, diagrams and specially commissioned colour artworks illustrating this military campaign in the air.

Forged in Battle? tells the story of black soldiers, led by white officers, fighting on the side of apartheid. It traces the history of the unit from the Angolan civil war in 1975 to its disbanding a year before the fall of apartheid in 1993.As veterans of the Angolan civil war, many of the soldiers of 32 Battalion had no choice but to bring their families with them when they joined the army. Their dependents could not be left behind in Angola, against whom they were now, in part, fighting. The South African Defence Force, and the officers of 32 Battalion in particular, had to find ways in which to provide effective support to the soldiers as well as their families. All the former Angolans of 32 Battalion ? both soldiers and civilians ? depended on South Africa to provide accommodation, access to food, medical support, financial advice, and social structure.The unit?s motto, Proelio Procusi, translates as Forged in Battle. By adding a question mark, Forged in Battle? examines the extent to which the unit was shaped not just by war, but also by its unique social circumstances.