Böcker utgivna av Helion & Company

Driven by his Christian faith and an ardent belief in the threat of global communist hegemony, Coey had come to Rhodesia to fulfil an overriding passion to help the beleaguered southern African country in its fight against what he perceived to be a communist bid to secure the sub-continent.

Undoubtedly, the Second World War was one of the darkest periods of history. With untold losses and countless with physical and mental scars, there was little to celebrate except the relief of closure. Yet what happened once the noise of the shelling subsided and the smoke dissipated? Certainly, late 1940s peacetime Britain was far from easy.

A Walk Against The Stream takes a look at the experiences of a young national service officer in the Rhodesian army. This is a true story, encompassing all eighteen months the author spent at Victoria Falls, Rhodesia, facing enemy territory just across the Zambezi river in Zambia.

The material presented in this book describes the history of the development, testing and limited operations of early Soviet autogyros. As in the rest of the world, autogyros appeared in the Soviet Union in a period of full exploration of the skies by airplanes and after the first unsuccessful experiences with helicopters.

This is the story of the 162nd (Turkistan) Infantry Division, a World War II German division composed of Central Asian Turkistanis. The book covers the political background (pan-Turkism) of the founders of this unit in German service, debunks some historical myths surrounding it (the 'Nazi Mysteries') and focuses on the most crucial events in the history of the division, the Gottschee battle (Slovenia) and the 'great winter mopping up' (northern Italy). Pan-Turkish activists were prime movers in organizing Turkistani military units in German uniform. These men were completely unrelated to the occultist/esoteric beliefs, followed by some top Nazi leaders such as Heinrich Himmler or Alfred Rosenberg. The Pan-Turkish activists recruited the soldiers from Soviet POWs in Hitler's hands. Not all of the former prisoners were volunteers, some were forced to join, while a huge number of Soviet soldiers enlisted in order to survive German captivity (where a large number of their comrades had died because of ill treatment or starvation.) Another huge problem was that Pan-Turkism is something different from Kemalism (Turkish-Anatolian secular and Jacobin nationalism), the former being the political movement aiming at the political union of all Turkic-speaking populations. This is why the German ambassador to Ankara reported that he thought that the Turkish Government might even be embarrassed by open Pan-Turk propaganda from Berlin. Despite this, four main Turkish or partially Turkish units in German uniform were formed. These units were part of the 'Eastern Troops', whose Soviet personnel (Baltics, Slavs, Caucasians, Turkmen etc) were integrated into the German forces. It seems that the largest formation of the Eastern Troops in German service was the 162nd (Turkistan) Infantry Division. The most crucial event in the history of this formation was the 'great winter mopping up' (November 1944-January 1945). This operation (the clearing of Italian partisan independent republics which had been set up in the Northern Apennine mountains) was the greatest German anti-partisan action in Western Europe and one of the greatest anti-partisan operations of World War II. The author undertook a massive field investigation to determine what happened in the mountains. He reached the conclusion that the Turkistani soldiers were victims twice over: as Easterners they were regarded as inferior beings by their Nazi masters, as non-Communists, they were regarded as traitors by the Allies. All of this explains why the life and the fate of these Turkmen was absolutely tragic. The author presents a detailed textual history accompanied by over 200 rare photographs, including a large number that are previously unpublished.

In the 1870s, to supplement their early steam engines, French warships were still rigged for sail. In the 1970s the Marine Nationale's ships at sea included aircraft carriers operating supersonic jets, and intercontinental ballistic missile submarines propelled by nuclear engines.

On 16 October, 1944, the 3rd White Russian Front launched its massive offensive against Heeresgruppe Mitte. The German 4th Armee, whose line of defense stretched from Nowograd on the Narew to Memel, was quickly broken through.

"Gott Strafe England" is the definitive account detailing the German air attacks against Great Britain during the First World War. This method of attack was a totally new concept, taking the war away from the battlefield and into the previously safe territory of the enemy's homeland. As a result the concept of strategic bombing was born. This two-volume series will explore all the German air operations against the British Isles during 1914 to 1918, and assess the effectiveness of this new form of warfare. It will detail the routes taken by the raiders, where the bombs fell and the casualties inflicted. Alongside this are details of the responses taken by the defenders to counter the attacks. Full details about the airships, aircraft and their crews that were brought down are examined. This evidence includes contemporary accounts by those involved, in the form of intelligence summaries and personal accounts which graphically impart the full drama and horror of the events. "Gott Strafe England" was conceived following the publication of the author's books on German Air Force losses over Great Britain during the Second World War, "Luftwaffe Crash Archive" (Red Kite 2013, volumes ongoing). This present volume completes the overall picture by including details of those airships and aircraft that were lost on operations over Great Britain during the First World War, as there has been no previous complete reference giving details of the fate of the machines and their crews. The great amount of information available regarding the air-raids, the airships and aircraft and losses involved has been used to produce a clear overview, using many primary sources available in the National Archives, Kew and thus adding invaluable evidence to accounts written in retrospect, which rely on sometimes unreliable anecdotal evidence. "Gott Strafe England", translated as "God Punish England", is an expression that often appeared in the German Press and was soon picked up by the British Tommy serving over in France and Belgium, so that everything unpleasant from Jerry, to the food, mud and the Sergeant-Major was 'Gott Strafed'. The evidence given in these volumes makes it clear that this title is indeed appropriate.

In December of 1914, veteran Boer commander General Louis Botha landed his forces on the coast of German South West Africa to finish off the colony's Schutztruppe defenders. In August, the South Africans had started off badly with a disastrous battle at Sandfontein and an internal rebellion that could have torn the Union of South Africa apart. Botha's campaign would eventually lead to victory, but it would not be easy. Overshadowed and largely forgotten by the battles in Europe, this was one of the more distant and now almost forgotten episodes of World War I. But from August 1914 to July 1915, a small German force of 4,000 faced nearly 75,000 Allied troops of the Union of South Africa, Britain, and colonial Rhodesia in a fight that was pivotal in the history of southern Africa. This loss on the battlefield would cost Germany her most prized African possession and prove to be an important milestone in the history of the country that would eventually become Namibia. Britain was so concerned about the threat the German protectorate of South West Africa posed to the Empire that it requested its dominion, the Union of South Africa, occupy the territory's ports and destroy its powerful wireless stations. South African leaders were eager to take on this 'urgent Imperial service' to expand their own territory. When the Germans capitulated nearly a year later, it was the first Allied victory of the war and a rallying point for the United Kingdom. It was a terrible place to fight a war. Invading troops wondered why anyone would want to live in the place, let alone fight over it. Vast deserts barred easy entry to the country; the bones of animals and humans scattered across the surface attested to their lethal nature. The South Africans had to feed and water over 100,000 horses and oxen where little fodder existed and after the Germans had sabotaged many of the water points. Meanwhile, the Germans were looking over their shoulders as the native peoples they had long mistreated tried to settle old scores through ambushes and sniping. Using primary sources, on the ground research, and accurate maps and charts of the battles, the author sheds new light on the operations of the South African Army in its first foreign war and the Schutztruppe defense of German South West Africa. The book also demonstrates the terrible cost of miscalculations by politicians and military leaders on both sides.

The combat cameramen of the British Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) were responsible for recording most of the events and key historical figures of World War II. It is their material, often collected at great personal risk to themselves, which is most often used by film and television program makers today, however, little credit has ever been been afforded to the actual cameramen themselves. During research for his PhD at Lancaster University into the history of the British Army Film and Photographic Unit, the author had the pleasure to video interview some of the surviving members of the unit, many of whom went on to have long careers in the British Film Industry after their military service, some winning the industry's most awards. During the interviews they were encouraged to tell their own stories before, during and after their service in the AFPU. The stories of men such as Robert S. Baker, Peter Handford, Les Ostinelli, Desmond Davis and many more were recorded. It is incredible that given that these interviews were conducted almost sixty years after the events, the men's recollections were in the main amazingly sharp. Despite the difficulty of the passing of time, those who were interviewed provided remarkable stories of some remarkable men. These videos are the only video record in existence of these men and this book uses this exclusive source material to tell the fascinating stories of the heretofore overlooked men of the AFPU.

"This is the story of one man's service in the British South Africa Police of Rhodesia during his service of nearly fifteen years, between the years 1965 and 1979, and in many ways forms a sequel to the author's book Mad Dog Killers. The struggle to keep Rhodesia out of black nationalist hands started in late 1964 and ended with the Mugabe regime in 1982. It is also a story of a policeman engaged in that war as a member of the paramilitary BSAP Support unit, the Police Anti-Terrorist Unit and as an ordinary member of the force that had always been designated the country's first line of defence. Most of the service was on remote rural district stations, often in the middle of the 'front line'." - inside cover.

The Wars for Independence, also called the First and the Second Serbo-Turkish Wars 1876-1878, were the first military conflicts in the modern history of the Serbian state, after which the Principality of Serbia gained full independence at the Berlin Congress., There are many written sources concerning the wars of 1876-78. Some of them date from between 1877 to the lull between two world wars, and some many years later. Nevertheless, the fact is that today this bright period of Serbian history is almost forgotten. This book offers to a very thorough analysis of the Serbian Army of the period, its organization, participation in military operations, weapons, equipment, uniforms, and the system of orders and medals that had just been introduced. It is a synthesis of all available literature, published for the first time in the English language, and contains extensive visual material and photographs, including color uniform plates, contemporary paintings, portraits and photographs and many color photographs of preserved artifacts and documents. A special emphasis is placed on the colorful aspects of Serbian uniforms from the epoch. After the Crimean War, when photographers were reporting from the field of military conflict for the first time, coverage of the American Civil War and Franco-Prussian War followed, as did the Balkan wars of 1876-78. This book offers remarkable photographs of the time, showing all manner of aspects of the Serbian campaigns, including uniforms, military formations, artillery, telegraphs, liberated towns, and wounded soldiers. It is up to readers to open the book, and enter into this unknown and unexpected territory. The book is the result of two decades of research and will enable readers to gain a clearer picture on this fascinating subject.

This is the true story of a young guerrilla commander brought up in a Christian family in Rhodesia, a former colony of Britain. Exposed to the excesses of a colonial regime where race and racism determined one's status in society, and influenced by the radical anti-racial views of his parents and later of fellow students and work mates, his character began to change. A chance encounter with a captured guerrilla fighter helped complete the metamorphic transformation of his rebel character, and was catalytic to his decision to cross into Mozambique to join the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led by Robert Mugabe, which was waging a protracted revolutionary armed struggle to liberate Zimbabwe. Known by his nom de guerre, Dragon Patiripakashata, he led several armed guerrilla incursions into Rhodesia, before being promoted to the General Staff and appointed an instructor. For the final eighteen months of the war, until 1980, he served as ZANU's Chief Representative to Socialist Ethiopia. Mutambara invites the reader to view the Rhodesian bush war through the eyes of a guerrilla commander, experience the trials and tribulations of a freedom fighter, the satisfaction of working among the masses, and the joyous celebration of achieving freedom and independence. He outlines the psyche of those who engage in revolutionary armed struggle and why, even when exposed to extreme hardship and continual assault by a superior military adversary, they remain committed to their cause. This book also takes a different view of Mugabe, reviled by most Western governments and yet who remains immensely popular among his people.

Following the 1952 reorganization of the Portuguese Air Force from the army and naval air arms, Portugal now had an entity dedicated solely to aviation that would bring it into line with its new NATO commitment. As it proceeded to develop a competence in modern multiengine and jet fighter aircraft for its NATO role and train a professional corps of pilots, it was suddenly confronted in 1961 with fighting insurgencies in all three of its African possessions. This development forced it to acquire an entirely new and separate air force, the African air force, to address this emerging danger. This is the story of just how Portuguese leadership anticipated and dealt with this threat, and how it assembled an air force from scratch to meet it. The aircraft available at the time were largely castoffs from the larger, richer, and more sophisticated air forces of its NATO partners and not designed for counterinsurgency. Yet Portugal adapted them to the task and effectively crafted the appropriate strategies and tactics for their successful employment. The book explores the vicissitudes of procurement, an exercise fraught with anti-colonial political undercurrents, the imaginative modification and adaptation of the aircraft to fight in the African theaters, and the development of tactics, techniques, and procedures for their effective employment against an elusive, clever, and dangerous enemy. Advances in weaponry, such as the helicopter gun ship, were the outgrowth of combat needs. The acquired logistic competences assured that the needed fuel types and lubricants, spare parts, and qualified maintenance personnel were available in even the most remote African landing sites. The advanced flying skills, such as visual reconnaissance and air-ground coordinated fire support, were honed and perfected. All of these aspects and more are explored and hold lessons in the application of airpower in any insurgency today.

Arguably the Normandy landings were the most complex single operation in the history of modern warfare, maybe of any conflict. Spread over five beaches assigned to both the US and British/Canadian Forces, the need for detailed planning was paramount. There was obviously planning for the assembly of troops and the armada of ships, boats and tugs to transport the men and equipment to their destination. Yet this particular activity was fairly late in the planning stages. For example the Duplex Drive tanks used from D-Day onwards were the subject of a US patent which was filed on 13 March 1942 by N. Straussler. The Beach Groups, a combined British Force comprising all three services, assembled in Scotland in the summer/autumn of 1943, and spent many months on maneuvers. Operation PLUTO ('pipeline under the ocean') started on 14 August 1942, involving engineers, scientists and members of the armed forces working together to design and develop a pipeline capable of being deployed from the Isle of Wight to the Normandy Beaches, pumping fuel to Normandy. Work on the Mulberry Harbor, the floating temporary harbor erected on two sites supplying British/Canadian soldiers from one beach and the American troops from another, commenced in 1941 at Garlieston, Scotland. Fabrication for the Phoenix caissons (the final chosen construction method) took place along the English South Coast. Some of the Phoenix caissons were abandoned where they were made and are still visible. Further activities were planned to support the French and create an infrastructure. In one case the Royal Engineers landed a train in case the retreating Germans either destroyed the railway network or immobilized the trains. Additionally an organization, known as Civil Affairs, moved in behind the tanks to set up civil administration. This unit moved slowly through France to Holland. The author provides rich and fascinating detail on these and other aspects of the preparations in the UK for D-Day and the battle for Normandy.

Nominated for the Association of Third World Studies Toyin Falola Africa book award for 2014. >Before it was all over in 1992 at least one million Mozambicans would be dead, millions more homeless and the country lying in ruins. Ultimately Frelimo would get its victory not on the battlefield but rather at the polling booth in 1994. Based on more than a decade of meticulous research, a review of thousands of pages of military records and documents, and dozens of in-depth interviews with political leaders, diplomats, generals, and soldiers and sailors, this book tells the story of the war from the perspective of those who fought it and lived it. It follows Renamo's growth from its Rhodesian roots in 1977 as a weapon against Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean nationalist guerrillas operating from Mozambique through South African patronage in the early 1980s to Renamo's evolution as a self-sufficient nationalist insurgency. In tracing the ebb and flow of the conflict from the rugged mountains and Savannah forests of central Mozambique across the hot, humid Zambezi River valley and down to the very outskirts of the Mozambican capital in the far south, it examines the operational strategy of Frelimo and Renamo commanders in the field, the battles they fought and the lives of their troops. In doing so it highlights personal struggles, each side's successes and failures, and the missed opportunities to decisively turn the tide of war. Accordingly, this book provides the first real comprehensive military history of a war too long neglected and under appreciated in the chronicles of modern African history.

With Ethiopia in disarray following a period of severe internal unrest and the spread of insurgencies in Eritrea and Tigray, Ethiopia and its armed forces should have offered little opposition to well-equipped Somali armed forces which were unleashed to capture Ogaden, in July 1977. However, excellently trained pilots of the Ethiopian Air Force took full advantage of their US-made equipment, primarily their few brand-new Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighter-bombers, to take the fight to their opponents, win air superiority over the battlefield, and thus have their hands free to interdict the Somali supply links to stop the invasion cold. This air victory practically sealed the fate of the Somali juggernaut in Ogaden, especially so once Ethiopia convinced Cuba and the Soviet Bloc to support her instead of Somalia. In a fit of pique, Somalia forced all Soviet advisers to leave the country. Already bitter over similar experiences in Egypt in 1972, Moscow's revenge was designed as a clear message: nobody was to treat her in such fashion again. The USSR subsequently launched an air bridge to Ethiopia, unique and unprecedented in its extension and importance, delivering huge quantities of armament and equipment necessary for the Ethiopians to reconquer Ogaden, and beyond. In turn Somalia asked the USA for help and thus occurred an unprecedented switch of Cold War alliances. This volume details the history and training of both Ethiopian and Somali air forces, their equipment and training, tactics used and kills claimed, against the backdrop of the flow of the Ogaden war. It explains in detail, supported by over 100 contemporary and exclusive photographs, maps and color profiles, how the Ethiopian Air Force won the decisive victory in the air by expertly deploying the F-5Es - unequaled in maneuverability, small size and powerful armament - to practically destroy the Somali Air Force and its MiG-17s and MiG-21s.

The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first - and only - full-scale air war in the jet age. It was in the skies of North Korea where Soviet and American pilots came together in fierce aerial clashes. The best pilots of the opposing systems, the most powerful air forces, and the most up-to-date aircraft in the world in this period of history came together in pitched air battles. The analysis of the air war showed that the powerful United States Air Force and its allies were unable to achieve complete superiority in the air and were unable to fulfill all the tasks they'd been given. Soviet pilots and Soviet jet fighters, which were in no way inferior to their opponents and in certain respects were even superior to them, was the reason for this. The combat experience and new tactical aerial combat tactics, which were tested for the first time in the skies of Korea, have been eagerly studied and applied by modern air forces around the world today.

Great Lakes Conflagration is the second in two volumes covering military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the turn from the 21st century.

"Originally published by Heritage Books, 2008."

This book brings to life a period long forgotten in the decades that have passed since the Great War ended in 1918. Until recently, most books written on the Battle of the Somme concentrated almost exclusively on the British effort with only a brief mention of the period before 1 July 1916 and the German experience in the battle. Most simply ignore

Wars in the 19th century were accompanied by a very heavy loss of life from infectious diseases. Typhus fever, dysentery, malaria, typhoid fever and yellow fever caused many more deaths than wounds inflicted by enemy actions. During the Peninsular War, for example, for every soldier dying of a wound, four succumbed to disease.

With heightened tensions mounting in the Cold War, President Dwight Eisenhower's request for more accurate intelligence information on the Soviet Union was the spark that ignited the U-2 project. Modified USAF bombers began overflights of the Soviet Union in 1951, but existing lower flying aircraft in the US inventory were vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and a number of cross-border flights were shot down. To meet the challenge and improve the survivability, the Lockheed Corporation received approval for their revolutionary design of a new recon aircraft on December 9, 1954. The company began work under a heavy veil of secrecy with only 81 people, including 25 engineers. A test pilot flew the first flight on August 1, 1955, after only eight months of production, a record-breaking result for rollout of a new project, especially one this complex and innovative. A dedicated and inventive group of contractors came together to support the project with partial pressure suits for pilots, high-resolution cameras, and an engine that could carry the aircraft to altitudes of 70,000 feet and higher. Nicknamed the Dragon Lady, the U-2 has flown over Cuba, Alaska, North and South poles, Vietnam, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, and Afghanistan. The U-2 is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. More recently it flew over the hurricane ravaged US Gulf Coast to collect imagery of the destruction over a 90,000 square mile area. First-person memoirs of many of the men who supported the early US spy plane project are included in this book. They include pilots, maintenance specialists, a flight surgeon, photographic specialists and some family members. The US also trained U-2 pilots from Taiwan and the UK and some of their photos and memoirs are in this coll

As with many other aspects of the British army, the outbreak of World War One started a process of change that was to result in a radically different provision of chaplaincy care once the war was over. Nothing was ever simple with chaplaincy as a number of churches becoming involved with the army, many for the first time. The structure was already under pressure before the war with the Catholic Church insisting on new rules for chaplaincy in the first decade of the twentieth century. The creation of the Territorial Force added a new dimension after 1907, bringing new players into the mix including the Jewish community. These chaplains challenged the traditional Garrison Church based ministry of the regulars. The book examines the muddled state of chaplaincy in August 1914 and looks at how chaplains were mobilized. It then reviews how organizational changes were often the result of pressure from the different churches. The unilateral decision of the Church of England, in July 1915, to leave the unified administration in France that had existed since August 1914 is examined in the light of the availability of the relevant volume of the diaries of Bishop Gwynne, a key participant in the change. Chapters also look at the experience of other Imperial forces and of the casualties suffered by chaplains. These all provide evidence of the expectations that various groups had of army chaplains. It is often forgotten that two chaplains were captured during the retreat from Mons in 1914. They were never far from the fighting throughout the war. The experiences of the war meant that the pre-war structure needed reform. The final chapter looks at the structure that was created in 1920 and then survived virtually unchanged until 2004. Army chaplaincy has always been a mix of Churc

A hardback reprint of the most complete guide to the organisation, structure and units of the First World War German Army yet published. A detailed account of the composition, structure and organisation of the First World War German Army has long been needed by English-language readers - this work fills the gap admirably. In more than 400 pages, the authors examine all aspects of the army. A detailed analytical text is followed by an extensive compendium of order-of-battle data. Topics covered include High Command & War Leadership, Composition of Army Groups, Armies, etc., Organisation of the Field Army (incl. Infantry; MG formations; Cavalry; Artillery; Pioneers; Air Force; Supply troops; Tank units; Pioneers; Signals troops; Railway & Transport troops; Medical troops; Field Gendarmerie, etc.), Organisations of the Home Front & Occupied Territories, extensive order-of-battle data, plus lists of units, army commanders & chiefs of staff. An essential First World War reference.

This is the story of military aviation in Rhodesia from the romantic days of 'bush' flying in the 1920s and '30s -when aircraft were refuelled from jerrycans and landing grounds were often the local golf course - to the disbandment of the Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) on Zimbabwean independence in 1980.