Kategoria BISAC: History >> Military - Special Forces

The patrol vehicles used by Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq vary quite dramatically between the theaters as well as amongst the Coalition members, and have been developed and upgraded to meet the demands of the deployment. Covering all the major Coalition nations, Leigh Neville continues his look at the elite forces deployed in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom with this analysis of their vehicles.

Tracing the evolution of the vehicle types, from their historical precedents, through their designs to their operational developments, he discusses their...

In 1965, soon after the first US combat troops had arrived in Vietnam, it was realized that in some areas the Viet Cong had developed vast tunnel complexes in which to hide from the enemy. It was long known that such complexes existed, but it was not realized just how extensive they were in some areas, how important they were to the Viet Cong, and how difficult it was to detect and neutralize them.

Most complexes were not nearly as developed and extensive as the famous tunnels of Cu Chi, but nonetheless they caused difficulties for Free World Forces. Tunnels served as hiding places...

This volume assesses the formidable special forces fielded by Italy's navy and air force in World War II, both before and after Italy's surrender in September 1943. The Italian Navy special forces were particularly active and respected in the Mediterranean, where 10th Motor-Torpedo Boat Flotilla (Xa MAS) used frogmen, 'two-man torpedoes' and explosive ram-boats; Italian midget submarines were also deployed against the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea. After September 1943 the Germans allowed the expansion of Count Borghese's Xa MAS, which continued fighting on their side at sea and on land,...

Established in June 1940, as the brainchild of scientist and soldier Major Ralph Bagnold, a contemporary of Lawrence of Arabia, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) allowed the British Army to gain a crucial advantage in the North African Front of World War II.

Traversing great swathes of the desert that had never before been explored by Europeans, the LRDG was able to launch hit-and-run raids against remote enemy targets, such as the fort and airfield at Murzak. From December 1941 until the end of the Desert War in May 1943, the LRDG carried out numerous missions in tandem with the...

On September 29, 2010 Mark Forester was killed in action while fighting terrorists in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. His heroic legacy of being shot down while preparing to rescue a fallen teammate began long before this tragic day.

An Apache aviator said of Mark's final battle: ..."I have never witnessed such an act of heroism in my three years of fighting in combat. I have over 2,700 hours total time with 1,500 hours of combat time in both Iraq and Afghanistan...JAG 28 continued to advance on the enemy while taking intense enemy fire, and continuously fired his weapon in an attempt to...

What does it take, both physically and mentally, to join the world's most respected--and feared--military units? Lewis looks at the origins, training, tactics, weapons, and achievements of regiments such as Britain's SAS and Paratroopers, the US Navy SEALS, Delta Force, Army Rangers and Green Berets, Russia's Spetsnaz, and the Israeli Special Forces, as well as the codes that bind their members together. He looks at training in everything from wilderness survival to hand-to-hand combat.

Featuring specially drawn full-color artwork and expert analysis of the Maikop operation, this assessment of the dramatic raid that delivered intact Soviet oil-production facilities into Nazi hands casts new light of the German special-forces operations on the Eastern Front.

With his forces having conquered a huge swathe of formerly Soviet territory in the months following the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Hitler planned to continue the Germans' strategic offensive against the Soviet Union's oil-production capacity in the southern Caucasus region during the summer of...

This gripping study offers key insights into the tactics, leadership, combat performance and subsequent reputations of six representative Chindit and Japanese infantry units involved in three pivotal actions that hastened Japan's defeat in Burma during World War II.

In order to keep China in the war against the Japanese, the Western Allies knew they had to return to Northern Burma. Colonel Orde Wingate, a military maverick and proponent of guerrilla warfare, believed that a different type of British infantryman was required for this role - the Chindit, indoctrinated with special...

The night of July 26, 1942 saw one of the most audacious raids of World War II, just as the outcome of that conflict hung in the balance. In North Africa, a convoy of 18 Allied jeeps carrying Special Air Service personnel appeared out of the early-morning darkness and drove onto the Axis landing strip at Sidi Haneish in the Egyptian desert. Within the space of a few savage minutes 18 Axis aircraft were ablaze; a dozen more were damaged and scores of guards lay dead or wounded. The men responsible for the raid then vanished into the night as swiftly as they had arrived, prompting the...