The first of three volumes, this book is part of a series considered the most complete and detailed study on the uniforms and the equipment used by Second World War German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger). Virtually every element of the uniforms is presented in detail, including different models of parachutes (Knochensack) and all the equipment used by the Luftwaffe from the mid-30s until the capitulation of the Reich, as well as the typical badges of the Fallschirmjäger and many untold stories. In short, this book accompanies the reader through a visual but detailed reconstruction of the operation of "Green Devils" and the attack Norway carried out during the last days of the Third Reich against the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael, but also through the campaigns in Holland, Crete, North Africa, Russia, Italy, Normandy and the Ardennes. With the help of collectors and museums from all around the world, the author and his German publisher started an unprecedented and prolific collaboration. The three volumes contain thousands of unpublished photos of objects belonging to the Fallschirmjäger, including coins that have never been seen or studied before.

Mai-juin 1940. Une bataille malheureuseperdue en quarante-cinq jours. Tout aété dit ou presque, sur ces quarante-cinqjours, que ce soit au travers d’ouvragesgénéraux couvrant tout ou partie de lapériode ou de monographies relatantdes aspects particuliers de la bataille. Pourtant, jamais un ouvrage n’a abordél’entièreté des combats au jour le jour,secteur par secteur, de la Hollandeà Menton, avec autant de précision.Quarante-cinq jours de combats y sontrelatés, les plus emblématiques certesmais aussi, ceux, plus nombreux, que peu de récits ont, à ce jour, sorti de l’oubli quand ils ne sont pas tout simplement ignorés.C’est le drame quotidien de ces hommes dépassés par le rythme de la bataille, ballottés au gré du commandement et dont beaucoup ontété au bout de leur sacrifice, que ces deux volumes se proposent de retracer. Une vision différente et tout à fait inédite d’une bataille perdue.Le Mémorial de la bataille de France …Depuis plus de 40 ans, Jean-Yves MARY se passionne pour les événements de mai-juin 1940. Au travers de la ligne Maginot tout d’aborddont il est devenu l’un des spécialistes grâce à plusieurs ouvrages faisant références et à la réalisation entamée dès 1978, du musée de laligne Maginot et des troupes d’intervalles sur le site de Fermont. Par l’étude minutieuse, ensuite, des différentes percées opérées par lesAllemands au cours de ces deux mois tragiques, études qui se sont matérialisées par la publication de plusieurs ouvrages très documentéssur la progression foudroyante des Panzerdivisionen.Une somme de connaissances amassées au fil des ans qui ont poussé l’auteur à s’attaquer à cet ambitieux projet ...

Rares sont les photographies en couleur de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et encore plus rares lorsqu’elles montrent une unité de la Waffen-SS. Le SS-Kriegsberichter Mitschke a pu bénéficier de cette technologie, encore peu répandue à l’époque, pour un reportaged’une quarantaine de clichés montrant la SS-Gebirgs-Division «Nord» sur le front de Finlande. Il s’agit donc d’un document exceptionnel que nous avons le privilège de vous présenter. Les photographies offrent un panorama des plus variés sur la vie de cette division dans le cadre spectaculaire de la forêt de Carélie. Cet ouvrage est aussi l’occasion d’apporter des éléments nouveaux sur cette unité par rapport au texte que nous avions publié dans le Dictionnaire de la Waffen-SS. Historique illustré.

À partir d’une incroyable collection de photos découverte dans la base sous-marine des U-Boote de Brest à la fin de la guerre, et restéecachée jusqu’à récemment dans une boîte à chaussure, ce livre exceptionnel retrace l’histoire complète d’un U-Boot en mission au coursde l’été 1942. Le sous-marin en question, l’U-564, arbore le célèbre motif à « 3 chats noirs » de « Teddy Suhren » qui, avec Prien et Kretschmer, était l’un des grands commandants d’U-Boot durant la bataille de l’Atlantique. Ce livre remarquable fournit un éclairage unique à la fois sur la vie au jour le jour dans un U-Boot en immersion et sur les rouages complexes de la Kriegsmarine. Au travers des succès et des épreuves de l’U-564, le lecteur est emmené dans cet immense champ de bataille naval qui est peut-être l’un des plus importants théâtres de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

During the opening days of World War II in the Pacific, a small group of American sailors in the Philippines were propelled into the forefront of the fighting. They were manned with six small wooden torpedo (PT) boats and led by a courageous, larger-than-life character in Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley. The men of Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 faced insurmountable odds as they conducted a series of heroic operations against the navy and air power of Imperial Japan. As America’s defense of the Philippines crumbled under the weight of a massive Japanese assault, the courageous activities of Bulkeley’s men made headlines across the U.S.—often as the only good news coming from the bleak Pacific front. The unit achieved everlasting fame by evacuating General Douglas MacArthur from the front. Then the squadron continued to fight on until all six of its torpedo boats were lost under fire. The fate of the doomed American defenders was sealed when the Japanese won the battle for the islands in the spring of 1942. The exploits of the unit were immortalized in the blockbuster 1945 movie They Were Expendable, starring John Wayne and Robert Montgomery, but since then the saga of Bulkeley and his men has slipped into history. Under a Blood Red Sun revives the story of the Philippine PT-boats through the intertwined accounts of Bulkeley and his subordinate officers and men. It is a story of the courage and sacrifice of men thousands of miles from their homeland, representing American gallantry and fighting prowess, while giving the Japanese a taste of what was further to come their way.

This is the story of the most highly decorated German regimental commander of World War II, known as the 'Panzer Graf' (Armoured Count). An aristocratic Silesian, whose ancestors had faced the Mongols at Leignitz, Strachwitz first won the Iron Cross in the Great War. After fighting with the Freikorps and in between the wars, he was serving with the 1st Panzer Division when the Polish campaign inaugurated World War II. Leading from the front, his exploits as commander of a panzer battalion earned him further decorations during the French campaign. Transferred to the newly formed 16th Panzer Division, he participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then Operation Barbarossa where he earned the Knight’s Cross. The following year, during the advance on Stalingrad, he won the Oak Leaves for destroying 270 Soviet tanks at Kalach. Now commander of a regiment, he reached the Volga and fought ferociously on the northern rim of Sixth Army’s perimeter. Severely wounded during the battles, he was flown out of the Stalingrad pocket. Upon recuperation, he was named commander of the Grossdeutschland Division’s panzer regiment, and won the Swords to the Knight’s Cross during Manstein’s counteroffensive at Kharkov. After fighting through Kursk and the ensuing defensive battles, he was transferred the next year to Army Group North where he won the Diamonds to the Knight’s Cross at Narva. For the rest of the war, sandwiched around a stay in hospital, he commanded ad hoc battlegroups, and pioneered the formation of 'tank hunter brigades', consisting of deep-penetration infantry armed with panzerfausts and other demolitions who would ambush Soviet tanks. Wounded 12 times during the war, and barely surviving a lethal car crash, he was finally able to surrender to the Americans in May 1945. Australian author/researcher Raymond Bagdonas, though impaired by the disappearance of 16th Panzer Division’s official records at Stalingrad, and the fact that many of the Panzer Graf’s later battlegroups never kept them, has nevertheless written an intensely detailed account of this combat leader’s life, as well as ferocious armoured warfare in World War II.

A hell-bent-for-leather fighter pilot, Elwyn G. Righetti remains one of the most elusive, yet compelling, colorful and controversial commanders of World War II. Arriving late to the war, he led the England-based 55th Fighter Group against the Nazis during the closing months of the fight with a no-holds-barred aggressiveness that transformed the group from a middling organization of no reputation into a headline-grabbing team that had to make excuses to no one. Indeed, Righetti’s boldness paid off as he quickly achieved ace status and additionally scored more strafing victories–27–than any other Eighth Air Force pilot. However, success came at a high cost in men and machines. Some of Righetti’s pilots resented him as a Johnny-come-lately intent on winning a sack of medals at their expense. But most lauded their spirited new commander and his sledgehammer audacity. Indeed, he made his men most famous for 'loco busting', as they put more than six hundred enemy locomotives out of commission–170 in just two days! Ultimately, Righetti’s calculated recklessness ran full speed into the odds. His aircraft was hit while strafing an enemy airfield only four days before the 55th flew its last mission. Almost farcically aggressive to the end, he coaxed his crippled fighter through one more firing pass before making a successful crash landing. Immediately, he radioed his men that he was fine and asked that they reassure his family.Righetti was never heard from again. Vanished Hero tells the story of this remarkable man and the air war that he and his comrades fought, while examining his possible fate.

With 158 victories under his belt and dying in the Egyptian sky on the 30th of September, 1942, aged only 22, Hans-Joachim Marseille became a legend of the World War II aviation. Besides his being an exceptional pilot, he owes his reputation to his unconventionality and aversion to authority, which caused him much trouble with his superiors; his chivalrous attitude, moreover, led him to return to his base with a wounded enemy or a damaged plane on several occasions. This behaviour and his formidable combat skills made him famous in Germany as well as among allied pilots, who both respected and feared him. Having collected testimonies from veterans who experienced Marseille, American authors Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis wrote an extremely well-documented biography that traces the short but intense life of this unique aviator, who entered the Hall of Fame or fighter pilots at only 22 years old.

Operation Tonga began at 22:56 on the night of 5 June, when six Halifax heavy bombers took off from Tarrant Rushton towing six Horsas carrying a coup–de–main force consisting of D Coy, Ox and Bucks LI reinforced with two extra platoons from B Coy and a party of sappers, who were tasked with capturing the bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne. 6th Airborne Division—which included 1st Canadian Para Bn–had been allotted three specific tasks to achieve, apart from protecting the eastern flank of the Allied seaborne landings. First, it was to capture intact the two bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River at Benouville and Ranville. Second, the division was to destroy the heavily fortified Merville coastal artillery battery located at Franceville Plage, to ensure that it could not shell the British forces landing on Sword Beach. A third task was to destroy several bridges spanning the River Dives–at Varaville, Robehomme, Bures, and Troarn. The division would then hold the territory that it had seized until it could be relieved by advancing Allied ground forces.

The Backroom Boys is the remarkable, but little known, story of how a varied group of talented intellectuals, drafted into the Australian Army in the dark days of 1942, provided high-level policy advice to Australia’s most senior soldier, General Blamey, and through him to the Government for the remainder of the war and beyond. This band of academics, lawyers and New Guinea patrol officers formed a unique military unit, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, under the command of an eccentric and masterful string-puller, Alf Conlon. Based on wide-ranging research, this book reveals a fuller and more fascinating picture.

In November 1941, about 100 university students began their short-term compulsory military training with the 15th Infantry Battalion. Most were aged 19-22, had daytime jobs and were evening or external students from the arts, commerce and law faculties. They were ambitious, hard-working young men anxious to make their way in the world. Their compulsory military training was due to end on 4 February 1942 and the students would then be released to return to their jobs and continue their part-time studies. The outbreak of the Pacific War on 7 December changed everything. In April 1942, the 15th Battalion was given 24 hours' notice to move from Caloundra toTownsville. In January 1943 the Battalion went to New Guinea to take part in the Salamaua and Lae campaigns and did not return to Brisbane until July 1944. In November it was sent to fight in Bougainville. The Battalion finally returned home in January 1946 and most returned to resume their studies and jobs within the community. This book tells the story of those Queensland University students of `U' Company, 15th Battalion during its brief existence. It covers their wartime service in all its tragedy and triumph and how they resumed their lives, studies and careers once the war was over. Most regard themselves as being very fortunate - to have survived the war, to have learned to cope with adversity, to have learned the importance of getting on with life in spite of insurmountable obstacles and in having been able to make the most of opportunities that arose. They have been fortunate to find a life beyond adversity.

I Confess is an intimate portrayal of command in the crucible of war. Major General John Joseph Murray fought in the AIF in both the First and Second World Wars. He won the Military Cross as a company commander during the disastrous Battle of Fromelles, and in the Second World War he commanded the Australian 20th Brigade during the siege of Tobruk, that grinding, tortuous desert defence that saw the German forces label his men 'rats', a badge they have worn since with pride and honour. I Confess is a carefully crafted analysis of leadership under pressure, a very personal reflection on its stresses, its tragedies and its lifelong rewards.

The involvement of an Australian colonial military force in Britains Egyptian campaigns between 1883 and 1885 was very short, extending for only five months overall, including the pre-deployment phase. Consequently its influence on these campaigns was insignificant. Nevertheless, our involvement in the Sudan in 1885 is part of Australia’s military history. This book provides the context for Australia’s involvement in the Sudan, and follows operations chronologically. The call in the 1880s for jihad or ‘holy war’ by Sudanese leaders shows us that some of our current global challenges are not new.

This remarkable work pulls the lid off one of the legendary air forces in history at the very peak of its power–unveiling the and machines as they truly existed day–to–day, underneath the propaganda of their own regime and the scare stories of their enemies. In Hitler’s Germany, colour photography was primarily co-opted for state purposes, such as the military publication Signal, or the Luftwaffe’s own magazine, Der Adler (Eagle). But a number of men had cameras of their own, and in this painstakingly acquired collection, originally published in France, we can witness true life on Germany’s airfields during the period of the Luftwaffe’s ascendancy. Thus not only do we see famous planes such as the Me-109, Ju-87 or He-111, but the wide variety of more obscure types with which the Germans began the war. The array of Arados, Dorniers, Heinkels – not to mention elegant 4-engine Condors – that were initially employed in the war are here in plain sight and full colour, providing not only an insight into WWII history but a model maker’s dream. Just as fascinating are the shots of the airmen themselves, along with their groundcrews – full of confidence and cheer as they bested every other air force in Europe during these years, with the single exception of the RAF’s Fighter Command in late-summer 1940. But that was no big stumbling block to the Luftwaffe, which had bigger fish to fry in Russia and North Africa the following year. In the authors’ next work, The Years of Defeat, we will see how the war turned more grim for the Luftwaffe, even as its expertise and skill at more deadly aircraft designs, increased. In The Victory Years we have a uniquely intimate view of an air force at the very apex of its capabilities.

After its operations in the Cotentin and around Carentan, the 101st was withdrawn from the lines in late June and sailed back to England on LSTs in July. After several false alerts, they invaded by air again into the Netherlands on September 17, 1944, part of the airborne element of Operation 'Market Garden'. The mission was to hold open Hell’s Highway so that land forces could advance safely to Arnhem. Operation 'Market Garden' is a strongly debated subject among WW2 historians: was it a brave attempt to end the war early that foundered for being a bridge too far, or was it, rather, an ill-conceived waste of resources that should have been used on another front? With hindsight, there’s no doubt that the operation was a daring – if not risky – attempt to attack deep into enemy territory proposed by a general often disparaged for being too conservative. But at the beginning of September, it seemed to the Allied commanders that the enemy was disorganized; it had lost many men, huge numbers of vehicles, and had retreated helter-skelter through France and Belgium. In reality, the Germans had already started brilliant fire brigade reorganization and would soon have an effective defence throughout the Netherlands. The 101st parachuted right into the middle of enemy territory and north of Eindhoven. They met little resistance to begin with and captured most of their initial objectives by the end of 17 September. But the Germans managed to demolish the division’s primary objective, a bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son, forcing the 101st to attempt to capture a similar bridge a few kilometers away at best. They found the approach blocked but continued to hold territory enabling engineers to rebuild the demolished bridge. Other divisional units continued moving to the south and eventually reached the northern end of Eindhoven. In the following days they successfully defended the town of Veghel but failed to take the city of Helmond. As Operation 'Market Garden' progressed, the rest of the 101st Airborne Division joined the 82nd Airborne Division on the island to the north of Nijmegen. The Screaming Eagles saw seventy-two days of fierce round-the-clock fighting against crack German troops and showed their fighting ability and tenacity.

Bastogne will live forever in the annals of American military history. From the resounding 'Nuts', in response to the German demand for surrender, to the breaking of the siege by Patton’s Third Army – brilliantly disengaged from its positions on the Saar, wheeled 90 degrees and marched northwards faster than any thought possible – the defense of Bastogne and victory in the Ardennes was one of the greatest feats of American arms in the European Theatre. This title in the Past & Present series looks at the encirclement, siege, and relief with then and now photographs; specially commissioned aerial photos, and a wealth of detail.