Böcker i Campaign-serien

A highly illustrated study of one of the most dramatic yet overlooked episodes on the Eastern Front in World War II, the siege of Velikye Luki by Soviet forces in 1942--43.Velikiye Luki had been an important Russian fortress city since the 13th century and had become an important rail-hub by the 19th century. In August 1941, the Germans occupied the city of 30,000 during Operation Barbarossa and made it a bulwark on the boundary between Heeresgruppe Nord and Heeresgruppe Mitte. In the winter of 1942--43, while Soviet forces were encircling Stalingrad, the Stavka (High Command) conducted a simultaneous offensive to isolate and destroy the 7,500-man German garrison in Velikiye Luki. After surrounding the city on November 27, 1942, the Soviet 3rd Shock Army gradually reduced the city to rubble, while the German garrison, sustained by Luftwaffe air lifts, hunkered down in the medieval city and awaited rescue. This illustrated title reveals the full story of the tense seven-week siege of Velikiye Luki, which saw Soviet forces striving to liberate the city in the face of a determined garrison and fierce relief efforts. Detailed analysis by renowned World War II historian Robert Forczyk is complimented by stunning and historically accurate battlescenes, maps, and bird's-eye-views to offer a comprehensive look at this gripping campaign.

The Battle of Warsaw in August 1920 has been described as one of the decisive battles of European history. At the start of the battle, the Red Army appeared to be on the verge of advancing through Poland into Germany to expand the Soviet revolution. Had the war spread into Germany, another great European war would have ensued, dragging in France and Britain. However, the Red Army was defeated by 'the miracle on the Vistula'. This campaign title explores the origins and outcomes of this momentous battle. In May 1920, the Polish Army intervened in war-torn Ukraine, pushing all the way to Kiev, but the Red Army, by now triumphant in most of the theatres of the Russian Civil War, turned its attention to this new threat. By the late summer of 1920, two Soviet armies had advanced into Poland and the overconfident Soviet leadership dreamed of advancing over a prostrate Polish Army into neighbouring Germany to ignite a Communist revolution in the heart of Europe.Thanks to the low density of forces on both sides and the huge distances involved, the conflict was a war of manoeuvre, with a curious mixture of traditional and advanced tactics. Horse cavalry played a dominant role in the fighting, but aeroplanes, tanks, and armoured trains lent the war an air of modernity. This illustrated study explores the war through the lens of the Battle of Warsaw, the turning point when, after a summer of disastrous retreat, the Polish army rallied and repulsed the Red Army at Warsaw and Lwow.

The battle of the Java Sea, fought in February 1942, was the first major surface engagement of the Pacific War and one of the few naval battles of the entire war fought to a decisive victory. It was the culminating point of the Japanese drive to occupy the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) and, to defend the territory, the Allies assembled a striking force comprised of Dutch, American, British and even an Australian ship, all under the command of a resolute Dutch admiral. On 27 February 1942, the Allied striking force set course to intercept the Japanese invasion force in the Java Sea. In one of the few such times during the whole of World War II a protracted surface engagement was fought unmolested by airpower. For over seven hours, the Allied force attempted to attack the Japanese invasion force, finally breaking off in the early evening. Some three hours later, the Allied force, now reduced to just four remaining cruisers and two destroyers, attempted another attack on the invasion convoy during which Japanese torpedoes scored heavily, sinking two Dutch cruisers and bringing the battle to a conclusion. Over the next two days, as the Allies attempted to flee, five more ships were sunk. From that point on, Allied naval power was eliminated from Southeast Asia. In this illustrated title, Mark Stille tells the full story of the battle of the Java Sea, explaining how and why the Japanese achieved such a resounding victory, and delving into the tremendous impact of the battle on the course of the Pacific War.

The battle for Guadalcanal that lasted from August 1942 to February 1943 was the first major American counter offensive against the Japanese in the Pacific. This title details the fortunes experienced over the intense course of naval battles around the island throughout the second half of 1942 that did so much to turn the tide in the Pacific.

The final months of Allied naval bombardments on the Home Islands during World War II have, for whatever reason, frequently been overlooked by historians. Yet the Allies' final naval campaign against Japan involved the largest and arguably most successful wartime naval fleet ever assembled, and was the climax to the greatest naval war in history. Though suffering grievous losses during its early attacks, by July 1945 the United States Third Fleet wielded 1,400 aircraft just off the coast of Japan, while Task Force 37, the British Pacific Fleet's carrier and battleship striking force, was the most powerful single formation ever assembled by the Royal Navy. In the final months of the war the Third Fleet's 20 American and British aircraft carriers would hurl over 10,000 aerial sorties against the Home Islands, whilst another ten Allied battleships would inflict numerous morale-destroying shellings on Japanese coastal cities. In this illustrated study, historian Brian Lane Herder draws on primary sources and expert analysis to chronicle the full story of the Allies' Navy Siege of Japan from February 1945 to the very last days of World War II.

An illustrated account of the disastrous British-led effort to occupy the Dodecanese in autumn 1943. This title is an illustrated account of the autumn 1943 battle for the Dodecanese, as Winston Churchill attempted to secure the Aegean islands in the wake of the Italian armistice. The occupation was a gamble intended to increase pressure against Germany and at the same time possibly provide encouragement for Turkey to join the Allies. Spearheaded by the Special Boat Squadron and the Long Range Desert Group, garrison troops were deployed to the Italian-occupied Dodecanese, but they were too late to prevent the Germans from taking control of the key island of Rhodes and its all-important airfields. An all-out German offensive followed. Air force and naval units supported a series of assaults by infantry and paratroopers, including specialist forces of the Division Brandenburg. Within three months, only Castelorizzo was still in British hands. Rhodes, Kos and Leros remained under German occupation until May 1945 and the end of the war in Europe. The Dodecanese would be Adolf Hitler''s last enduring victory ΓÇô and the last enduring British-led defeat.

After suffering devastating losses in the huge naval battles at Midway and the Soloman Islands, the Imperial Japanese navy attempted to counter-attack against the US forces threatening the Home Islands. Involving the US Fifth Fleet and the Japanese Mobile Fleet, the battle of the Philippine Sea took place during the United States'' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War.The two fleets clashed on June 19-20, 1944 and the Japanese carrier fighters were shot down in devastating numbers by US aircraft in what became known as the ΓÇ£Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,ΓÇ¥ before US counterattacks and submarine strikes forced the withdrawal of the Japanese fleet. Fully illustrated with stunning specially commissioned artwork, Mark Stille tells the enthralling story of the last, and largest, carrier battle of the Pacific War, the one that saw the end of the Imperial Japanese Navy as a formed fighting force.

Represents the second instalment of the captivating study of the Waterloo campaign, one of the defining events in European history. This title focuses on the desperate struggle for Ligny, which saw the Prussians pushed back by the French Army after heavy fighting in what was to be Napoleon's battlefield victory.

Describes the dramatic four-month campaign that saw the Red Army not only succeed in crossing the Dnepr at multiple points, but also liberate Kiev, capital of the Ukraine.

At the crescendo of the Second Barons' War were the battles of Lewes and Evesham. Using colour illustrations, and detailed maps to generate an arresting visual perspective of the fighting, this book tells the story of the battles of Lewes and Evesham, the only pitched battles to be fought by English armies in the mid-13th century.

When the Romans occupied the southern half of Britain in AD 43, the Iceni tribe quickly allied themselves with the invaders. This book tells how Boudicca widow of Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni, raised her people and other tribes in revolt and nearly took control of the fledgling Roman province.

A highly illustrated study of Operation L├╝ttich, the German Panzer counteroffensive against the Normandy bridgehead in August 1944 that backfired, leading to a collapse of the German position in northern France.Fully illustrated with stunning full-color artwork, this book tells the story of Operation L├╝ttich, the failed offensive which ended any prospect of Germany winning the battle of Normandy.Following the successful landings in Normandy on D-Day and consolidation during Operation Cobra, the Wehrmacht was ordered to begin a counteroffensive named Operation L├╝ttich. The plan was to send a large Panzer force across the First US Army sector, cutting off its spearheads, and finally reach Avranches on the coast. Had this succeeded, it not only would have cut off the First US Army spearheads, but also Patton''s newly deployed Third US Army operating in Brittany. However, thanks to an intercepted radio message, the Allies were well-prepared for the offensive and not only repelled the oncoming panzers, but went on a counterattack that would lead to a whole German army becoming encircled in the Falaise Pocket.

Nieuwpoort 1600 uses specially commissioned artwork to reveal one of the greatest battles of the Eighty Years' War--one whose influence on military theory and practice ever since has been highly significant.The Eighty Years' War began as a limited Dutch rebellion seeking only religious toleration from their Spanish overlords, but it quickly escalated into one of the longest wars in European history. Spain's failed invasion of 1599 and the mutinies that followed convinced Dutch leaders that they now should go on the offensive. This campaign pitted two famous leaders' sons against each other: Maurice of Nassau and Archduke Albert VII. One led an unproven new model army, the other Spain's "unbeatable" Tercios, each around 11,000-men strong. The Dutch wanted to land near Nieuwpoort, take it and then march on to Dunkirk, northern home port of the Spanish fleet, but they were cut off by the resurgent and reunited Spanish army. The two forces then met on the beach and in the dunes north of Nieuwpoort.

Smolensk 1943 focuses on a major offensive that is virtually unknown in the West. With the German defeat at Kursk, the Soviet Stavka (high command) ordered the Western and Kalinin Fronts to launch Operation Suvorov in order to liberate the important city of Smolensk. The Germans had held this city for two years and Heeresgruppe Mitte''s (Army Group Centre) 4. Armee had heavily fortified the region. The Soviet offensive began in August 1943 and quickly realized that the German defenses were exceedingly tough and that the Western Front had not prepared adequately for an extended offensive. Consequently, the Soviets were forced to pause their offensive after only two weeks, replenish their combat forces, and then begin again. The German 4. Armee was commanded by Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici, one of the Wehrmacht''s top defensive experts. Although badly outnumbered, Heinrici''s army gamely held off two Soviet fronts for seven weeks. Eventually, the 4. Armee''s front was finally broken and Smolensk was liberated on 25 September 1943. However, the Western Front was too exhausted to pursue Heinrici''s defeated army, which retreated to the fortified cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Mogilev; the 4. Armee would hold these cities until the destruction of Army Group Centre in June 1944.

In March 1944, the Japanese Fifteenth Army launched an offensive into India from Burma. Named 'U Go', its main objective was the capture of the town of Imphal, which provided the easiest route between India and Burma. Whoever controlled it, controlled access between the two countries. Facing off against the Japanese was the British Fourteenth Army and its Imphal-based 4 Corps. For the next four months, over 200,000 men clashed in the hills and valley of Manipur in what has since been described as one of the greatest battles of World War II. Although numbers vary, it is estimated that some 30,000 Japanese soldiers died and 23,000 were injured at Imphal-Kohima in 1944 due to fighting, disease and in the retreat back to Burma. It remains the largest defeat on land ever for the Japanese Army. With fully commissioned artwork and maps, this is the complete story of the turning point in the Burma campaign in World War II.

In the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht invaded the Caucasus in order to overrun critical oil production facilities at Maikop, Grozny, and Baku. However, the Red Army stopped the Germans short of their objectives and then launched a devastating winter counteroffensive that encircled them at Stalingrad. Consequently, Hitler grudgingly ordered an evacuation from the Caucasus, but ordered 17. Armee to fortify the Kuban bridgehead and hold it at all costs in order to leave open the possibility of future offensives. On the other side, the Soviet Stavka ordered the North Caucasus Front and the Black Sea Fleet to eliminate the Kuban bridgehead as soon as possible. The stage was set for a contest between an immovable object and an unstoppable force.With the help of stunning specially commissioned artwork, this book tells the enthralling story of the impressive but strategically foolish German stand at Kuban, which tied down seven Soviet armies in a sideshow battle of attrition, which the Soviets dubbed "the Kuban meat grinder."

The battle of Borodino was one of the greatest encounters in European history, and one of the largest and most sanguinary in the Napoleonic Wars. This title covers the events of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812 in its entirety, with the set-piece battle of Borodino proving the focal point of the book.

Provides the story of Fall Blau (Case Blue). This book features full-colour artwork, archival photos, and detailed analysis. It follows fighting that characterised one of the most important campaigns of World War II.

When the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, the tiny US Army did not even have a standing division. A huge national army worthy of the Western Front was quickly enlisted, trained, and then transported to France to fight against the Germans. In September 1918, the American Expeditionary Force, under General John Pershing, began its first full-scale offensive against German forces in Lorraine, in which the US First Army and (eventually) the US Second Army would drive north between the Argonne Forest and the Meuse river towards Sedan. The Meuse-Argonne was excellent defensive terrain, being hilly, steep, heavily wooded, and fortified by the Germans over a three-year period. The offensive began on 26 September, 1918. A largely inexperienced US First Army, with mid-level officers including Harry S. Truman, Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, suffered setbacks and heavy casualties during its straight-ahead offensive against a still-potent but fading German Fifth Army. However, by early November, 1.2 million Americans and several hundred thousand French were engaged at the Meuse-Argonne and the Hindenburg Line had been decisively broken. The German withdrawal from Sedan approached a rout and the Americans finally had the Germans on the run until the Armistice ended the offensive on 11 November, 1918. This engaging title tells the full story of this key offensive, illustrating and explaining the troops, weapons and tactics of both the American Expeditionary Force and the German Fifth Army in stunning detail.

A highly illustrated account of one of Ancient Rome''s most humiliating defeats, the battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, and how the embarrassment spurred the Roman Army on to eventual triumph. In its long history, the Roman Republic suffered many defeats, but none as humiliating as the Caudine Forks in the summer of 321 BC. Rome had been at war with the Samnites--one of early Rome''s most formidable foes--since 327 BC in what would turn out to be a long and bitter conflict now known as the Second Samnite War. The rising, rival Italic powers vied for supremacy in central and southern Italy, and their leaders were contemplating the conquest of the entire Italian peninsula. Driven by the ambitions of Titus Veturius Calvinus and Spurius Postumius Albinus, Roman forces were determined to inflict a crippling blow on the Samnites, but their combined armies were instead surprised, surrounded, and forced to surrender by the Samnites led by Gavius Pontius. The Roman soldiers, citizens of Rome to a man, were required to quit the field by passing under the yoke of spears in a humiliating ritual worse than death itself.This new study, using specially commissioned artwork and maps, analyses why the Romans were so comprehensively defeated at the Caudine Forks, and explains why the protracted aftermath of their dismal defeat was so humiliating and how it spurred them on to their eventual triumph over the Samnites. With this in mind, this study will widen its focus to take account of other major events in the Second Samnite War.

Waterloo is one of the defining campaigns of European history. Drawn from unpublished first-hand accounts, and using detailed illustrations, this volume is suitable for studying the intense fighting at the battles of Waterloo and Wavre, the final, decisive engagements of the Waterloo campaign.

Presents an account of a short, sharp conflict which marked a crucial turning point in the American Revolution. This book includes illustrations and detailed maps illuminate the dynamism of this clash between two of the most famous commanders of the War of Independence.

In 52 BC Caesar's continued strategy of annihilation had engendered a spirit of desperation, which detonated into a revolt of Gallic tribes under the leadership of the charismatic young Arvernian noble Vercingetorix. This book deals with this topic.

This study tells the epic story of how a routed group of Chinese Communists marched tens of thousands of miles with Mao on a journey that would lead to their eventual triumph and rule of the whole of China. Every nation has its founding myth, and for modern China it is the Long March. In the autumn of 1934, the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek routed the Chinese Communists and some 80,000 men, women, and children left their homes to walk with Mao Zedong into the unknown. Mao''s force had to endure starvation, harsh climates, and challenging terrain whilst under constant aerial bombardment and threatened by daily skirmishes. The Long March survivors had to cross 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges, through freezing snow and disease-ridden wilderness to reach their safe-haven of Yan''an. In military terms, the Long March was the longest continuous march in the history of warfare and it came as a terrible cost--after one year, 6,000 miles, and countless battles, fewer than 4,000 of the original marchers were left. Illustrated with stunning full-color artwork, this enthralling book tells the full story this epic display of resilience, and shows how, from the desert plateau of Yan''an, these survivors would grow the army that conquered China 14 years on, changing history forever.

A highly illustrated study of the medieval Italian battle of Castagnaro, the famous English condottiere captain Sir John Hawkwood''s greatest victory.The battle of Castagnaro, fought on 11 March 1387 between the Veronese and the Paduans, was one of the few Italian medieval conflicts known in the English-speaking world thanks to the exploits of the renowned English mercenary (or condottiero) captain, Sir John Hawkwood. Commanding the Paduan army, he led them to a stunning victory.This new study challenges the conventional story of the battle, relocating it to the other side of the Adige River, and showing that Hawkwood was no mere disciple of his previous commander, the Black Prince--he was a highly talented and intelligent general in his own right. Using specially commissioned full-color artwork, this fascinating book shows how Hawkwood used his own acumen, and the training, skills and discipline of his very experienced condottieri, to defeat his opponents at Castagnaro.

A disputed succession to the Austrian throne led to general war between the leading powers of Europe in 1740, with France, Spain and Prussia on one side, and Britain, Habsburg Austria and the Dutch Republic on the other. While fighting occurred across the globe, the bloodiest battles were fought on the European continent, with none more costly than the battle of Fontenoy in 1745.Fearing an encirclement of France by a resurgent Habsburg-controlled Austria, the French commander Marshall Saxe planned to overrun the Austrian Netherlands, thereby dealing a decisive blow against their enemy''s ability to wage war. Saxe''s army, the cream of the French military, invaded and set up a defensive position at Fontenoy, near Tournai - daring his enemies to knock him off his perch. This title, beautifully illustrated with full colour plates, is an in-depth study of the British Duke of Cumberland''s attempt to assault Saxe''s position. It focuses on the inability of allied leaders to coordinate their attacks and how Cumberland came within a whisker of achieving a major victory.

The battle of Zama, fought across North Africa around 202 BC, was the final large-scale clash of arms between the world's two greatest western powers of the time - Carthage and Rome. The engagement ended the Second Punic War, waged from 218 until 201 BC. The armies were led by two of the most famous commanders of all time - the legendary Carthaginian general Hannibal, renowned for crossing the Alps with his army into Italy, and the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio, who along with his father was among the defeated at the battle of Cannae in 216 BC.Drawing upon years of research, author Mir Bahmanyar gives a detailed account of this closing battle, analysing the tactics employed by each general and the forces they had at their disposal. Stunning, specially commissioned artwork brings to life the epic clash that saw Hannibal defeated and Rome claim its spot as the principal Mediterranean power.

In 1839, forces of the British East India Company crossed the Indus to invade Afghanistan on the pretext of reinstating a former king, Shah Soojah, to his rightful throne. The reality was that this was another step in Britain's Great Game--Afghanistan would create a buffer to any potential Russian expansion toward India. This history traces the initial, highly successful campaign as the British easily occupied Kabul and the rebellion that two years later humbled the British army. Forced to negotiate a surrender, the British fled Kabul en masse in the harsh Afghan winter. Decimated by Afghan guerilla attacks and by the extreme cold paired with a lack of food and supplies, just one European--Dr. Brydon--would make it to the safety of Jalalabad five days later. This highly illustrated history then goes on to trace the retribution attack on Kabul the following year, which destroyed the symbolic Mogul Bazaar before troops rapidly withdrew and left Afghanistan in peace for nearly a generation.

Focusing on the northern front of the battle with Generaloberst Walter Model's forces pitted against General Rokossovsky's Central Front between 5 July and 18 August, this title helps you explore both the German offensive and the Soviet counteroffensive.

Not only did the Sicily operation represent a watershed in tactical development of combined arms tactics, it was also an important test for future Allied joint operations. Senior British commanders left the North African theater with a jaundiced and dismissive view of the combat capabilities of the inexperienced US Army after the debacle at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in February 1943. Sicily was a demonstration that the US Army had rapidly learned its lessons and was now capable of fighting as a co-equal of the British Army. The Sicily campaign contained a measure of high drama as Patton took the reins of the Seventh US Army and bent the rules of the theater commander in a bold race to take Palermo on the northern Sicilian coast. When stiff German resistance halted Montgomery's main assault to Messina through the mountains, Patton was posed to be the first to reach the key Sicilian port and end the campaign. The Sicily campaign contains a fair amount of controversy as well including the disastrous problems with early airborne assaults and the Allied failure to seal the straits of Messina, allowing the Germans to withdraw many of their best forces.