The contribution of women to the Allied war effort during World War II (1939-45) was massive. Apart from their many vital roles 'on the home front', about a million Soviet, 500,000 British and 200,000 American women, and tens of thousands from other Allied nations, served in uniform with the armed forces. To put these figures in perspective: enough American women served to free sufficient able-bodied men to form 15 infantry divisions. It was not only in the USSR that their duties took them into harm's way; hundreds of British Commonwealth and US servicewomen died, and many were decorated....

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...

Osprey's study of the British home front during World War II (1939-1945). The population of Britain was mobilized to support the war effort on a scale unseen in any other Western democracy or in Nazi Germany. They endured long working shifts, shortages of food and all other goods, and complete government control of their daily lives. Most men and women were conscripted or volunteered for additional tasks outside their formal working hours. Under the air raids that destroyed the centres of many towns and made about 2 million homeless, more than 60,000 civilians were killed and 86,000 seriously...

In this book, a follow-up to the same author's well-received study of British web equipment, Martin Brayley gives a detailed illustrated overview of the webbing straps, holsters, carriers and haversacks used by American combat troops from before World War One to the Vietnam War. Hundreds of different items are photographed, and the often small differences between suppliers and periods are pointed in the learned and informative text. This book will be required reading for all students of American uniform and equipment, modelers, re-enactors and collectors.

Brings together the primary protective helmets of the world's military forces from 1915 to modern times. This book traces the development of the helmet from the Great War French 'Adrian' through to the American ACH composite helmet.

The term camouflage only came into widespread use during the First World War, and the specialist camouflage units developed by the combatants at the time put the bulk of their efforts into the concealment of artillery, vehicles, observation posts and bunkers. It was not until the Second World War that all major combatant nations issued camouflage uniforms better designed to disguise profile, and also tailored to the appropriate theatre of war. Camouflage Uniforms contains nearly 400 color images showing how armed forces all around the world have developed their own methods of concealing...