The delivery of entire divisions to battlefields behind enemy lines by parachute and glider was a unique feature of World War II.

Failures at D-Day landings necessitated that, in order to avoid severe dispersion of paratroopers, US tactics be rethought and daylight airdrops be implemented.

The new tactics were first put to the test in September 1944, with the landings by the 82d and 101st Airborne divisions as part of Operation Market Garden. Although the US landings were successful, the operation as a whole failed to secure its objectives. Nevertheless, both divisions subsequently...

Long before the Second Punic War (218 - 201 BC), Rome's influence extended no further than the Alps, and the wars that it fought consisted of small-scale raids and cattle rustling, with perhaps the occasional battle between armies.

Nevertheless, within a century the seeds of an empire had been sown in Iberia, Africa, and the Greek east, and the Roman Republican army became the most successful of its day, establishing standards of discipline, organization, and efficiency that set a bench mark for the later armies of Rome.

With the evolution of the Roman Republic came the...

The Roman Legions were the most highly organized troops of the ancient world, but the process of turning the Legions from what was essentially a part-time citizen militia into the professional force that first made Rome the dominant power in the Mediterranean and then built an empire that stretched across the known world, was no small feat

Focusing on the organizational changes in the Roman Army during the Civil Wars, Nic Fields examines the role played by Caius Marius and his far-reaching reforms, which included having professional volunteers from the lowest social class enter the...

The Imperial Army established by Augustus drew heavily on the nomenclature and traditions of the late Roman Republic, but was revolutionary in its design. He decided to meet all the military needs of the Empire from a standing, professional army. Military service became a career, and pay and service conditions were established that took account of the categories of soldier in the army: the Praetorian Guard, the citizen legionary troops, and the non-citizen auxiliaries. Enlistment was for 25 years (16 in the Guard), and men were sometimes retained even longer. The loyalty of the new army...

The Sengoku Jidai or "Age of Warring States" is the time of the samurai - Japan's military aristocracy. A period of endemic warfare where the absence of unifying central control led to constant struggles between the daimyo (or "Great Names") who sought to protect and extend the influence of their respective families through political and military means. However, it was also a time of great military change, as technology advanced rapidly, and the introduction of European gunpowder revolutionized infantry tactics and fortification technology.

This title provides a highly detailed...