This remarkable three-part study will transform the research material available to the English-speaking student of the Peninsular War (1808-1814). Most know that Wellington's Portuguese troops were praised as the 'fighting cocks' of his army; fewer appreciate that they represented between half and one-third of his entire forces. Similarly, most uniform historians have been limited to a few half-understood paintings by Dighton, and brief notes from secondary sources. Rene Chartrand's recent primary research in Portuguese and British archives now offers a wealth of new material. This third...

The army commanded by the Duke of Wellington at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo included two infantry divisions and three cavalry brigades of the newly-unified Netherlands (or 'Dutch-Belgian') army. The part played by these troops in the two battles of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), under experienced officers many of whom had seen long service in Napoleon's campaigns, has often been unjustly dismissed by British commentators. The organisation, uniforms, and battle record of the Belgian units are explained here in detail by an experienced researcher in Continental archives, and illustrated by a...

The Baltic nations - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - enjoyed a brief independence between the World Wars before being annexed by the USSR in 1940 during World War II. The grim experience of Soviet occupation made it inevitable that after the German invasion of Russia in 1941 they would fight beside the Wehrmacht as allies against the Red Army while always hoping for restored independence. That hope was crushed again in 1944-45; yet 'Forest Brother' guerrillas continued to fight against hopeless odds for years after the second Soviet occupation. This extraordinary story is illustrated here...

Recent history should remind us that it was events in the Balkans which sparked off World War I (1914-1918), with the assassination of the Austrian heir Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and the consequent invasion of Serbia by Austro-Hungarian armies on 2 August 1914. Nevertheless, the subsequent four-year war in that theatre is always overshadowed by the simultaneous campaigns on the Western Front. For the first time this book offers a concise account of these complex campaigns, the organisation, orders of battle, and the uniforms and insignia of the armies involved: Austro-Hungarian,...

After disastrous defeats at the hands of the Mongols in the 13th century, the Russian principalities became vassals of the Khans of the Golden Horde for more than 200 years; and at the same time the western princes faced the German crusaders of the Teutonic Order. Remarkably, Russia responded with a new surge of military vigour. Eventually, freedom from the 'Mongol yoke' coincided with a degree of unity around a powerful new state - Muscovy. This exciting chapter of history is illustrated with rare early paintings, photos, diagrams, and eight plates reconstructing the mixed influences of East...

The scope of Britain's wartime Middle East Command stretched far beyond the Libyan desert where the 8th Army's most famous battles were fought - from Gibraltar and Tunisia in the west, to Iraq and Persia in the east, and from Greece south to the Gulf of Aden. In the 1940-43 period of World War II, this was the only arena where the British Army could take the ground war to the German Wehrmacht; it saw a succession of setbacks and triumphs, until spring 1945 found the 8th Army victorious in northern Italy. A summary of these campaigns is illustrated by photographs, and detailed colour plates of...

The lightning Japanese offensives in the Far East in 1941/42 inflicted a series of costly defeats on the ill-prepared and badly supported British Commonwealth forces in Malaya and Burma. The 'forgotten' 14th Army on the India-Burma border slowly built up its strength and its tactical expertise; and Wingate's 'Chindits' proved that units supplied from the air could operate deep behind enemy lines. In 1944 General Slim's troops decisively smashed Japan's last offensive at Imphal and Kohima; and over the next year they drove the enemy relentlessly back through Burma, reducing them to starving...

Often overshadowed by the drama of its catastrophic collapse in the November 1917 Revolution, the Imperial Russian Army's record in 1914-16 included some notable victories. Its human qualities of patriotism and endurance were remarkable, and in 1916 the 'Brusilov Offensive' on the South-Western Front outdistanced anything that was being achieved in France. The variety and romance of its uniforms - infantry and cavalry, Guards and Line, Cossacks, armour and Air Service crewmen, even a priest - are splendidly captured here by Russia's leading military artist; and Nik Cornish's expert text is...

As early as the 11th century, Italian warfare was developing along lines which were unique in medieval Europe. This fragmented, cosmopolitan region, increasingly rich from international trade, saw the rise of independent cities able to fund armies of urban militia, sometimes defying the traditional feudal aristocracy. Against this background regional powers - the Normans, the Papacy, the German Emperors, the Angevins and Aragonese - manoeuvred for advantage. This engrossing account of the armies of northern and southern Italy - their organisation, command structure, strategy, tactics and...

It is often forgotten that the German Wehrmacht of 1939-45 relied heavily upon horses. Not only was the majority of Army transport and much of the artillery dependent on draught horse teams; the Germans also kept a horse-mounted cavalry division in the field until the end of 1941. After withdrawing it, they discovered a need to revive and greatly expand their cavalry units in 1943-45. The Army and Waffen-SS cavalry proved their worth on the Russian Front, supported by other Axis cavalry contingents - Romanian, Hungarian, Italian, and locally recruited. In this book an experienced horseman...