History and Archaeology

Under the Lend-Lease agreement with the US during WWII, the Soviet Union received large quantities of war materiel, including many aircraft; the Bell P-39 Airacobra takes a special place among them. The P-39 was dismissed as hardly suitable for combat both by the US and England, who turned it over in large numbers to the USSR. Soviet pilots had different views, though, and achieved excellent resul

John C. Woods, the US Army's hangman during World War II, is known for his role executing ten senior Nazis in 1946. For the first time, learn about Woods's early life in Kansas and his dishonorable discharge before World War II. Discover how volunteering as a military executioner would lead Woods to his career as a hangman.  Award-winning author Colonel French MacClean separates fact from fiction

The Colt M1911 is one of the most well-known and popular military weapons of the 20th century. Designed by John Browning, this pistol, with its legendary reliability and firepower, represents the developmental starting point of a majority of automatic pistols to this day. It was the standard-issue sidearm of the US armed forces for more than 70 years and is still in use throughout the world. This

Gen. George S. Patton called it “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” The legendary .30-caliber M1 Garand semiautomatic rifle was the standard US service rifle in WWII and Korea. More than five million were made in American factories between 1937 and the end of 1945. It was also used by over 50 countries worldwide and saw combat into the 1970s. Today it is the weapon used by the US Marine

At once an examination of gender ideology in the Third Reich, a history of women in uniform as photographic theme, and an analysis of the functions of wartime photography, The Woman in My Uniform compiles  original Third Reich photos of German women wearing men's military uniforms—often their husband's, boyfriend's, or family member's—nearly all never before published. Photography, especially port

Tank design bureaus first became involved in the development of very heavy tanks after WWI. In addition to the militaries of Germany and England, the Soviet Union was also fascinated by these monsters. Behind it was the concept of transferring the heavy armament of naval warfare to land warfare. These superheavy vehicles were to move across the land the way battleships moved on the sea, and were t

This unique volume in the U-boat Aces series features the three German naval captains—Karl-Heinz Moehle, Reinhard Hardegen, and Horst von Schroeter—who commanded the U-123, a type IXB U-boat. In 12 patrols and 720 days at sea during its four-year WWII combat career, U-123 sank an incredible 44 Allied merchant and warships, ranking it with the third-most U-boat sinkings. Moehle, the first commander

Closed in 1949, the Sukhoi Design Bureau was reborn in 1953 to meet an urgent demand for a fast interceptor that would counter the threat posed by NATO bombers. It wasted no time developing a succession of missile-armed, Mach 2 interceptors characterized by delta wings; the single-engined Su-9 entered service in 1960, followed by the up-armed Su-11 in 1964 and the twin-engined Su-15 in 1967. Thoug

The German MG (Maschinengewehr) 34, along with the later-war MG 42, was a recoil-operated, air-cooled machine gun and is considered the world’s first general-purpose machine gun. Considered the most advanced machine gun in the world at the time, its ease of mobility and high rate of fire—900 rounds per minute—made it ideal both for infantry and antiaircraft use. First entering service during the S

Adopted by the German Wehrmacht at the end of 1939, more than 1.2 million P.38s were manufactured up to 1945. Designed by the Walther company from its civilian model PP, it was the first double-action military pistol. Its robustness and simplicity of manufacture made it a worthy successor to the legendary P.08 Luger in the Second World War. This illustrated book presents the design, manufacturing,

This book provides a unique, illustrated history of the US Navy Fighter Weapons School’s 50-year history. Currently located at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, TOPGUN was formed in late 1968 at Naval Air Station Miramar, California, to create a graduate-level course in fighter tactics for Navy pilots deploying to Vietnam. Before TOPGUN, Navy F-4 Phantom II fighter crews in Vietnam managed only a

Kursk is often labeled the “Greatest Tank Battle in History.” The Wehrmacht fielded a total of just 120 Tiger tanks during the engagement, including 35 from the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. This corps comprised the three most controversial divisions of the Second World War: Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf. The war crimes committed by these units (at places like Oradour, Malmedy, and Le Paradis) re

In January 1943, when the "U.S. Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, M3" was officially adopted, it was a step into the future of weapons-manufacturing technology. In absolute contrast to the milled, high-quality Thompson models, the M3 was almost completely made from sheet metal. Many soldiers mockingly called it "Grease Gun," owing to its visual similarity to the mechanic's tool, but it soon gained a fi

Founded in 1953, the US Air Force Thunderbirds flying-demonstration team has performed in air shows in the United States and around the world. The team is based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, where it has been honing its skills since 1956. This book details the origins and early formation of the team, as well as describing the different model aircraft that the team has flown during its nearly 7

Arthur La Vove was born in Manhattan in 1909, the son of a French military attaché. Arthur flew commercial airliners for Century Airways and United in 1930s. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, he volunteered for the Army Air Force. Any enthusiasm that Arthur had for the conflict quickly eroded once he arrived in the CBI, the China-Burma-India theater of operations, for service with Air Transp

The Polizei Division first took shape in 1939, drawing manpower from the civilian police. In February 1942, the unit was transferred to the Waffen-SS and redesignated SS-Polizei-Division(4.SS). The former policemen appeared on the Western Front in 1940, before being shipped to the Leningrad sector in 1941. Polizei remained on the Eastern Front for the duration of the war, including deployments in

A moving and joyful celebration of not only survival but also resilience and joy, expressed through 90 black-and-white portraits of Holocaust survivors and personal stories of their postwar lives.The survivors, many photographed with their family members, share lessons they have learned and pass on the wisdom that comes from building a life of one's choosing out of the wreckage of despair. Van Sis

This definitive work on air rescue operations of the US Army Air Force and US Air Force takes the reader from the birth of the service during World War II, through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, to present-day operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Detailed text, accompanied by numerous photos—including many never before published—presents all aspects of air rescue operations, from the service's foundi

In 1935, Fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), one of just two independent states in Africa at the time. Italy first invaded Ethiopia in 1895 and was driven out by the army of Emperor Menelik II. In 1935, the defensive effort would be led by Emperor Haile Selassie I. Benito Mussolini (the Italian “Duce”) claimed victory in 1936, but the struggle of Selassie and his people against impossi

Two Great Knights of Adventure was written by Jacques Mortane in 1936. Mortane was on friendly terms with both Marc Pourpe and Raoul Lufbery and wrote the book as a tribute to the two pilots, both of whom were killed in the First World War. Due to the access that Mortane had to these early aviators, this was the best work on their lives, but it was never translated into English and is long out of