Israel seized the strategically critical Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War in an audacious and determined operation. Yet when the Yom Kippur War broke out, the Israeli military were caught off guard by the effectiveness of the newly confident and dangerous Syrian army. In the Golan, only luck, herculean Israeli efforts, and tactical misjudgments by the Syrians were to allow the Israelis to maintain control.

In this book, three pivotal encounters in the Golan are assessed, tracking how both sides' forces evolved over the period. Syria dramatically improved...

In Operation Totalize, Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds's II Canadian Corps launched an attack from its positions along the Bourguebus Ridge, south of Caen, striking south-southeast astride the main Caen-Ealaise road toward the high ground that dominated the town of Ealaise and the key west-east lateral road that ran through this town. Using sophisticated operational art, the initial break-in achieved rapid success; indeed, more tactical success than any previous Allied break-in attack in Normandy.

However, despite this rapid initial success, Totalize did not secure a...

World War II saw tanks assume a dominant role in warfare, capable of tearing through the enemy lines if left unchecked. To combat the threat posed by these armored behemoths, the United States developed the M1 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher, better known as the Bazooka. First employed in combat during 1942, the weapon required a great deal of skill and courage to use effectively. By late 1944 it was a mainstay of the US infantry's anti-tank capabilities, alongside towed weapons, anti-tank grenades, and other longer-established measures.

Focusing on the savage close-quarters fighting...

The Winter War was supposed to be a quick and easy conflict; instead it proved to be a bitter war that destroyed the international reputation of the Soviet Red Army. The diminutive Finnish force was desperately outnumbered by almost half a million Russian troops, but rather than sweeping across their neighbors, the Soviet troops stumbled blindly, constantly wrong-footed and then bloodied by their seemingly insignificant foe. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this study looks at three key battles, drawing a stark contrast between the poorly prepared Russian troops and the Finns, who made...

Specially commissioned artwork and thrilling combat accounts transport the reader to the far-flung and inhospitable African theater of war, where the Schutztruppe faced off against the King's African Rifles.

Stalemate in Europe had prompted Germany to turn its attention to Africa in an attempt to divert Allied forces from the Western Front, using a small colonial force under the command of Oberst Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck to raid British and Portuguese territory. Despite being heavily outnumbered, his expert use of guerrilla tactics forced the British to bring Jan Smuts in to lead a...

The Mosin-Nagant is the world's longest-surviving and most widely distributed military rifle, having armed the forces of Russia and many other countries for over a century. It has seen action from World War I to the present day, but is most famous for its role during World War II, where it proved to be an excellent sniping weapon in the hands of marksmen such as Vasili Zaitsev and Simo Hayha. This study covers the rifles entire combat history, from its early development through to its service in combat, and the impact it has had on modern firearms.

Dramatic battle reports and...

Designed in the 1950s, the US Marines' M50 Ontos and the US Army's M56 Scorpion were both intended to be fast, light, air-droppable tank-killers for the Cold War battlefield--an answer to the cumbersome and ineffective World War II-vintage tanks that had taken to the battlefield during the Korean War. Although they shared the aim of bringing light, mobile, and lethal antitank firepower to the infantry, the two vehicles varied wildly in design to cater for their unique mission demands. They first saw service in the Lebanon intervention of 1958 but it was in the Vietnam War that they made...

At the outset of the American Civil War, the wealthy inventor and expert shot Hiram Berdan initiated the setting-up of sharpshooting units in the Union Army; these units would be tasked primarily with open-order skirmishing, but also with long-range, accurate shooting. Initially, it was envisaged that the M1855 Colt revolving rifle would be the weapon employed by these specialists. Available in .36, .44, and .56 caliber, the M1855 swiftly earned a poor reputation, however, as it was prone to a malfunction known as "chain fire," in which powder in all the unfired chambers would be ignited,...

Waged across an inhospitable terrain which varied from open African savannah to broken mountain country and arid semi-desert, the Anglo-Boer wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902 pitted the British Army and its allies against the Boers' commandos.

The nature of warfare across these campaigns was shaped by the realities of the terrain and by Boer fighting techniques. Independent and individualistic, the Boers were not professional soldiers but a civilian militia who were bound by the terms of the 'Commando system' to come together to protect their community against an outside threat. By...

The M113 is the most widely used and versatile armored vehicle in the world. Fielded in 1960 as a simple "battlefield taxi," over 80,000 M113s would see service with 50 nations around the world and 55 years later, many thousands are still in use. In additional to its original role of transporting troops across the battlefield, specialized versions perform a multitude of other functions including command and control, fire support, anti-tank and anti-aircraft defense, and casualty evacuation.

This new fully illustrated study examines the service record of the M113 from its initial...