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The SADF in the Border War 1966-1989 offers the first comprehensive analysis of the South African Defence Force's role in the Border War in Namibia and Angola since the end of this conflict in 1989. It investigates the causes of the Border War and follows its progress and escalation in the 1980s.

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.

Dave Barr had had a penchant for trouble since day one, born in the back of a car, shooting by the time he was five, riding a motorbike at seven, Dave regularly got into fights at school. The only reading Dave would do growing up involved motorbikes, shooting, westerns and the military. After reading Battle Cry by Leon Uris aged 12 he knew he wanted to be a Marine. Following a series of menial jobs, working at a barbers and in service stations, at 17 he joined the Marines before shipping out to Vietnam. This was his dream come true, flying as a helicopter gunner, he ended the war with an impressive 57 Air Medals. After leaving the Marines, like many veterans Dave found it hard to hold down a good job and stay out of trouble. It was then that he read about Israel. Always looking for a rush Dave learnt to skydive before he deciding to take his chances, emigrating illegally to Israel. He was inducted into the Israeli Army and then the Paratroops, where the training was difficult, involving long tough marches, and learning Hebrew. After serving his time he left Israel - back in the USA Dave was stuck in a rut and ready for his next adventure....This is the first volume in the gripping and action-packed memoirs of Dave Barr, providing a rich and colorful account of one man's odyssey as a professional soldier, seeing war at the 'sharp end'.

"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.

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.

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.

Before the War of 1866 the name of Helmuth von Moltke was scarcely known outside the Prussian army. His appointment as Chief of the General Staff was in many ways surprising, and he certainly did not himself expect it. He was thus put at the head of a military institution that was already to some extent superior to its counterparts elsewhere; he was to turn it into a formidable machine that became, in his hands, very nearly invincible. This was due to number of factors which coincided with his appointment. Among these were the many advances in military technology and logistics on the one hand, and on the other the emergence of Otto Von Bismarck as Minister-President of Prussia, with whom Moltke had a crucial, if occasionally uneasy, relationship. This book follows Moltke's part in the course of the campaign at the end of which his name had become a household word. It traces his rise to the position of Chief of the General Staff, against the background of the political situation of Prussia in the middle of the 19th Century, and the way in which he developed the functions of the General Staff. Moltke's contribution to the allied campaign of Prussia and Austria against Denmark in 1864 was an important part of his own development, before the inevitable war between the successful allies in 1866. As the book shows, for that war Moltke prepared his plans in the minutest detail. The triumphant success of his strategy in Bohemia was supplemented by the boldness of his campaign in western Germany, in which a small Prussian army overcame a huge numerical disadvantage. By the end of the Seven Weeks' War Moltke had made Prussia the strongest military power in Europe. The Campaign of 1866 in Bohemia is covered in great detail, including the most extensive coverage of the Battle of Königgrätz yet published in English. The author has made full use of an extensive number of German language sources. His detailed text is accompanied by a number of black and white illustrations (a significant number of which are previously unpublished) and battle maps. Orders of battle are also provided.

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

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.

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.

It is impossible to separate the Great Trek from events which took place as far back as the Portuguese explorers because those events shaped the backdrop to the causes of the Great Trek. Most writers have specialized in the trek itself whereas Binckes has adopted a broader approach that studies the impact of the earlier white incursions and migrations on southern Africa, to create a better understanding of the trek and its causes.

Capturing the experiences of a South African Air Force helicopter pilot during the South African Border War, this book describes the author's progress from rookie to seasoned combat aviator during one of history's most intense counterinsurgency conflicts.

To Rule the Winds is the story of how a coordinated force of the Royal Air Force's fighter squadrons came into being as Fighter Command in 1936 and what became of it after the Battle of Britain. It is a large story, to be told in a series of volumes.

During that long, hot summer of 1964, Ivan Smith, a mercenary volunteer in the Arme Nationale Congolais, came to witness and understand fear, the law of the jungle and the lust for killing that permeates Africa. A member of 'Mad Mike' Hoare's 5 Commando Group he and his companions were nominally soldiers but there was little in the way of campaigns, tactics and discipline. Of conventional warfare there was none. Loyalty to country or unit did not exist and the fear of death was the only commander. Many more mercenaries died from an accidental discharge, in a drunken shoot-out or from a bullet in the back than were ever killed in action by Simba rebels. Nearly half a century later, Ivan Smith re-lives the nightmare that was the Congo.

Wars always generate stories and everybody loves a story. Rob Milne has compiled this selection of Anglo-Boer War stories from all over South Africa and recounts them in a book that saddens, mystifies, but most of all entertains.

The Great Patriotic War (GPW) of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany, known in the West as the Eastern Front of WWII, continues to attract a number of military historians from different countries around the world. The frontline veterans' reminiscences occupy a prominent place among most important documents of that time. In contrast to official documents, these recollections reproduce the so-called truth of the foxholes, the genuine spirit of the war. Along with their honesty, the WWII veterans' memories are full of idiomatic expressions, specialized terms and abbreviations peculiar to that war. Regardless of their language, the memoirs reproduce the wartime vocabulary of the authors' nationalities, and reading them can be a difficult task for uninformed readers. As a consequence, special dictionaries appeared in print and later on Internet web sites. Unlike most of the Allied countries, no war jargon/slang dictionary has been published in Russia. This glossary is intended to begin to fill that gap. Several sources of the Red Army serviceman's slang were peculiar to the Soviet experience. The upheaval of the 1917 October Revolution and following Civil War, and the fundamental changes wrought by the political and social reforms and campaigns in the 1920s-1930s affected the Russian vocabulary substantially. The fact that the overwhelming majority of Red Army soldiers and officers came from rural households, and brought their local idioms and expressions into the trenches, also enriched the war vocabulary. Another set of figurative expressions arose as a result of Stalin's terrible purges of the 1930s, when people created euphemisms to avoid saying words like search, arrest and execution. Such expressions came into general circulation and also contributed to Russian wartime slang. Some words also appeared under the harsh conditions of the USSR far rear, where civilians struggled under conditions of hard labor and malnutrition. Lend-lease items entered the soldiers' parlance, often in the form of nicknames. Finally, any army has its traditions and slogans, many of which were revived in the Red Army during WW II. All of the aforementioned sources and others contributed to the Russian wartime vocabulary. The authors began this glossary as a translators' aid, but now they believe it will also be of interest to military historians and linguists who work with original Russian military sources, especially of the Second World War period.

The 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division 'Wallonien', which mostly consisted of French-speaking citizens of the Kingdom of Belgium - first as part of the Wehrmacht, and later in the ranks of the Waffen SS - fought as one of the national legions against the Red Army on the Eastern Front in February 1942.

This is Ken Wharton's second oral history of the Northern Ireland troubles told again from the perspective of the ordinary British soldier. This book looks deeper into the conflict, utilizing stories from new contributors providing revealing and long-forgotten stories of the troubles from the back streets of the Ardoyne to the bandit country of South Armagh. Ken Wharton - himself a former soldier - is now known and trusted by those who served and they are keen for their part in Britain's forgotten war to now be made public. For the first time, he tells the stories of the 'unseen victims' - the loved ones who sat and dreaded a knock at the door from the Army telling them that their loved one had been killed on the streets of Northern Ireland.

Portugal's three wars in Africa in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (Guine-Bissau today) lasted almost 13 years - longer than the United States Army fought in Vietnam. Yet they are among the most underreported conflicts of the modern era.