I could see a carpet of twinkling lights from the ack ack all along the rail sidings which bordered the canal. I dove onto these with my cannons going. Then suddenly, when the attention of all the guns turned on me, I realized how foolhardy I was being. I ran the guns along the row of rail trucks--opened the throttle wide and pulled straight up for the clouds--with tracers crossing in front and on all sides of the plane.Ron Pottinger started the war as a rifleman in the Royal Fusiliers, then transferred to the Royal Air Force, where he began flying the 7.5-ton Hawker Typhoon. He flew dozens...

Details the massive battles on the Eastern Front from the summer of 1944 until the fall of Budapest in early 1945 The last place a German soldier wanted to be in 1944 was the Russian front. That summer, Stalin hurled more than 6 million men, 9,000 tanks, 16,000 aircraft, and 12,800 guns and rocket launchers against German forces."

Guide to the French defenses encountered by the German blitzkrieg in 1940 Includes finely detailed plans, diagrams, and schematics of forts, blockhouses, turrets, artillery pieces, tanks, and more Between the world wars, France constructed a vast and complex array of defenses designed to prevent German forces from penetrating the French heartland as they had during World War I. Among these was the famous Maginot Line, the last of the great gun-bearing fortifications, but France also built defenses along its coasts and in its territories in North Africa. Fully illustrated with photos, maps,...

An important reevaluation of World War II on the Eastern Front Detailed look at how the Soviet Union created more new divisions in a few months than the U.S. did during the entire war More than 60 tables list losses, tank and weapon production, and unit formation, with special emphasis on rifle and tank divisions and brigades When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the German Army quickly annihilated a major portion of the Red Army. Yet the Red Army rebounded to successfully defend Moscow in late 1941, defeat the Germans at Stalingrad in 1942 and Kursk in 1943, and deliver the...

Narrative histories highlighting organization, combat experiences, and casualties of each division Lists of constituent units and division commanders Sources for further reading on each division The final volume of Samuel Mitcham's trilogy on the German Army in World War II focuses on panzer, panzer grenadier, motorized, and Waffen SS divisions. Among these units are the 1st SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Division, whose members included tank ace Michael Wittmann; the notorious 12th SS Hitler Youth Division that fought the Allies in Normandy; the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division that wreaked havoc on...

Essential background to the German blitzkrieg of World War II Complements the stories of panzer aces like Otto Carius and Michael Wittmann In the wake of World War I, the German army lay in ruins--defeated in the war, sundered by domestic upheaval, and punished by the Treaty of Versailles. A mere twenty years later, Germany possessed one of the finest military machines in the world, capable of launching a stunning blitzkrieg attack against Poland in 1939. Well-known military historian Robert M. Citino shows how Germany accomplished this astonishing reversal and developed the doctrine,...

One-of-a-kind retelling of the Normandy campaign Places the 1944 battle for France in its social, economic, scientific, and technological context GI Ingenuity is in large part an old-fashioned combat narrative, with mayhem and mass slaughter at center stage. But the book goes farther, combining military history with the history of science, technology, and culture to show how the American soldier improvised, innovated, and adapted on the battlefield. Among the improvisations and technologies covered are tanks equipped with hedgerow cutters, the coordination of air and ground attacks, and the...

In-the-cockpit perspective on aerial warfare during the Vietnam WarMany never-before-heard stories--some of them tragic, others humorousAt the height of the Vietnam War, in 1968 and 1969, Reginald Hathorn (call sign NAIL 31) flew 229 combat missions as a forward air controller for the U.S. Air Force. He inserted Special Forces teams into North Vietnam and Laos, completed missions for the CIA, and flew missions with the Lao Army. Most of the time, he flew into Laos and called in airstrikes against targets inside that country--in a war which did not officially exist, about which the world knew...

Day-by-day account of a Waffen SS battle group during a pivotal World War II battle Groundbreaking you-are-there approach integrates eyewitness reports, maps, period and modern photos, orders of battle, and thumbnail profiles of men and tanks Reconsideration of the Malmedy Massacre On December 16, 1944, Hitler's last great offensive of World War II commenced, pushing through the Ardennes in an attempt to reach the Meuse River and, beyond it, the Allies' supply ports. Equipped with Tiger tanks, Kampfgruppe Peiper, Germany's most powerful battle group, spearheaded the offensive but failed to...

Action-packed stories of the T-34 in action Vivid recollections of tank warfare on the Eastern Front Vivid recollections of tank warfare on the Eastern Front This pioneering book offers a compelling inside view of armored warfare in World War II, from the perspective of the Soviet soldiers who went to battle in the T-34, one of the most famous and effective tanks of the war. These firsthand accounts evoke the shocking and bloody reality of combat on the Eastern Front, from terrifying confrontations with German panzers to the perils of close infantry support and bombardment from German...