The leichter geländegängiger Personenkraftwagen, or l. gl. Einheits-Pkw - light off-road passenger cars - were manufactured by Stoewer, Hanomag and BMW from 1936 to early 1944. The superstructures were delivered by ten different companies and were identical from each manufacturer. Early versions had both 4-wheel drive and steering which later was dropped to just 4 wheel drive and front wheel steering.These off road cars were used by the German Army in 4 distinct versions with the designations Kfz. 1, Kfz. 2, Kfz. 3 and Kfz. 4This profusely illustrated photo album includes over 120 previously unseen pictures, many from private sources in Germany.

During WW2, the German armed forces were by far the greatest user of half-track vehicles. Such vehicles were used in the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS, where they served as personnel carriers, tractors, combat engineering vehicles, as well as self-propelled carriages for antiaircraft guns.Sd. Kfz. 8 Schwerer Zugkraftwagen 12t - (heavy half-track vehicle 12 tons) was a German half-track that saw widespread use in World War II. Its main role wa as a prime mover for heavy towed guns such as the 21 cm Mörser 18, the 15 cm Kanone 18, and the 10.5 cm FlaK 38. Approximately 4,000 were produced between 1934 and 1945. It was used in every campaign fought by the Germans in World War II.

The 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 or s.FH 18 (heavy field howitzer, model 18) was the basic German division-level heavy howitzer during the Second World War.The gun was officially introduced into service on 23 May 1935 and by the outbreak of war the Wehrmacht had about 1,353 of these guns in service. Production continued throughout the war, reaching a peak of 2,295 guns in 1944.This profusely illustrated photo album includes over 120 previously unseen pictures, many from private sources in Germany.

Normandy, North, South, East and West, has numerous war cemeteries, mostly from World War Two but also from World War One.The coastline of western Normandy, through the history of one pivotal day – D-Day June 6th 1944, has made it one of the most visited tourist destinations in Europe. Along the coast are found several war cemeteries that are well known and easily accessible. The Normandy American Cemetery, above Omaha beach, averages around 1.5 million visitors a year. Nearby, the Commonwealth cemeteries of Bayeux, Bény-sur-Mer and Ranville, as well as the German war cemetery atLa Cambe, are also busy places in the summer months.For seven months Nigel travelled to all corners of Normandy to photograph these cemeteries.The book helps the reader locate andvisit not just those well known warcemeteries, but also those which are less well known, more numerous. GPS coordinates are included inside this book, alongside each war cemetery described.As well as photographs of these well maintained resting places of young combatants, several individuals from different nations are featured to emphasize the stories of young lives from the different countries.These cemeteries have matured into gardens, beautifully maintained by thedifferent Commissions. Peaceful places…such a contrast to what created them.Lest we forget.

For thousands of years, men have dragged animals onto the battlefield. The Great War was no exception to the rule. Even if, at the beginning of the twentieth century, modernity was on the move - trucks, airplanes, tanks - it was unable to free itself from the animal world. Animals of all kinds each participated in their own way in the war effort. Some accomplished their mission close to the fighters and shared with them fear, suffering and death. Others comforted and supported them. There are also those who fed them, and parasites who harassed them. The story of the millions of animals sacrificed in the war is indeed revealing of the reality of the conflict: its harshness, its brutality, but also its absurdity, dramatically illustrated by the ten million animals that lost their lives.

Attack at daylight and whip them—that was the Confederate plan on the morning of April 6, 1862. The unsuspecting Union Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, had gathered on the banks of its namesake river at a spot called Pittsburg Landing, ready to strike deep into the heart of Tennessee Confederates, commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnston. Johnston’s troops were reeling from setbacks earlier in the year and had decided to reverse their fortunes by taking the fight to the Federals.Johnston planned to attack them at daylight and drive them into the river.A brutal day of fighting ensued, unprecedented in its horror—the devil’s own day, one union officer admitted. Confederates needed just one final push.Grant did not sit and wait for that assault, though. He gathered reinforcements and planned a counteroffensive. On the morning of April 7, he intended to attack at daylight and whip them.The bloodshed that resulted from the twoday battle exceeded anything America had ever known in its history.Historian Greg Mertz grew up on the Shiloh battlefield, hiking its trails and exploring its fields. Attack at Daylight and Whip Them taps into five decades of intimate familiarity with a battle that rewrote America’s notions of war.

Many thousands of books have been written about the Civil War, but only a handful cover the story of the Southern soldiers and sailors who wore the gray uniform and fought for the Confederacy.Confederate Soldiers in the American Civil War offers a complete guide for Civil War enthusiasts of all ages. Using a format similar to his highly successful The New Civil War Handbook, author Mark Hughes employs more than 200 photographs coupled with clear and concise prose broken down into short, easy to understand chapters to better understand these men. Coverage includes life in camp, weapons, battles, technology, hospitals, prisons, the naval war, artillery, uniforms, and much more. Hughes also discusses African and Native American participation in the war, and the war’s effect on civilians in general and women in particular. Also included is a timeline of the war, dozens of quotations from Confederate soldiers, a complete glossary, and an extensive list of Civil War sites around the country, including contact and website information. Hughes includes a helpful chapter detailing the Civil War on the Internet, listing some of the most comprehensive and popular blogs and websites. He completes his work with a gallery of photographs and the stories of more than 80 Confederate Soldiers and a guide to researching your Confederate ancestor.Experienced Civil War buffs will find Confederate Soldiers in the American Civil War an invaluable quick reference guide, and one that makes an excellent gift for introducing the Civil War to anyone of any age.

On June 25, 1876, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led the 7th U. S. Cavalry into the valley of the Little Bighorn. By sunset, Custer and five of his companies lay dead—killed in battle against Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.Through the passage of time, Custer’s last fight has come to overshadow the rest of his military career, which had its brilliant beginning in the American Civil War.Plucked from obscurity by Maj. Gen. George McClellan, Custer served as a staff officer through the early stages of the war. His star began to rise in late June, 1863, when he catapulted several grades to brigadier general and was given brigade command. Shortly thereafter, at Gettysburg and Buckland Mills, he led his men—the Wolverines—in some of the heaviest cavalry fighting of the Eastern Theater.At Yellow Tavern, Custer’s assault broke the enemy line, and one of his troopers mortally wounded the legendary Confederate cavalryman, J.E.B. Stuart. At Trevilian Station, his brigade was nearly destroyed. At Third Winchester, he participated in an epic cavalry charge. Elevated to lead the Third Cavalry Division, Custer played a major role at Tom’s Brook and, later, at Appomattox, which ultimately led to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.Historian Daniel T. Davis, a long-time student of George Custer, has spent countless hours walking and studying the battlefields where Custer fought in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. In The Most Desperate Acts of Gallantry, he chronicles the Civil War experiences of one of the most recognized individuals to emerge from that tragic chapter in American history.

The First World War was as much a ordeal for women as it was for men. They were mobilized en masse from the very beginning, at the invitation of René Viviani, President of the Council, and actively participated in the war effort for four long years. Those that La Guerre Documentée repeatedly refers to as "substitutes" in its columns made themselves indispensable by the support given to combatants (as nurses and as 'marraines de guerre'), but also by offsetting the deficit of male labour, ensuring the full performance of the country's economic activity. In addition to keeping the home and caring for children, women played a major role during the conflict. By proving that they were capable of supplying men with sectors of activity from which they had hitherto been excluded, they asserted themselves more in society, and legitimately aspired to take a decisive step towards their emancipation. The balance is nuanced, and the famous journalist Séverine did not hesitate to conclude bitterly that women were only the "servants of the war". However, it became clear that nothing would ever be the same again.

This memoir of the Vietnam War is structured as a series of short stories that convey the emotional and physical landscape of the Vietnam War. It is a window into the war from the perspective of the author, who served in a rapid response assault force, as 'the Marine'. The reader shares the Marine's experience through a year of combat that tested his character and shaped his destiny. Small joined the Marine Corps in 1969 at 19 years old, coming from a small Vermont farming community. After boot camp and speciality training he landed in Da Nang as a private first class. With three battlefield promotions in 8 months, he soon became a platoon sergeant. Small did not talk of his experiences in Vietnam over the next forty years, but has now written this book, for veterans' families, including his own, to understand what their loved ones experienced. It is a unique and powerful text that is that it is written in such a way it brings you inside the marine; you see what he sees, feel what he feels. You know him; his back story; what he is thinking; why he made the decisions he needed to make. No names are mentioned throughout the book. Memories Unleashed is an assemblage of memories, consisting of stories that stand alone to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. It addresses the warrior, the lives of innocent people caught up in the war, and the American and Vietnamese families impacted by those who fought.

To many of the Federal soldiers watching the Stars and Stripes unfurl atop Lookout Mountain on the morning of November 25, 1863, it seemed that the battle to relieve Chattanooga was complete. The Union Army of the Cumberland was no longer trapped in the city, subsisting on short rations and awaiting rescue; instead, they were again on the attack.Ulysses S. Grant did not share their certainty. For Grant, the job he had been sent to accomplish was only half-finished. Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee still held Missionary Ridge, with other Rebels under James Longstreet threatening more Federals in Knoxville, Tennessee. Grant’s greatest fear was that the Rebels would slip away before he could deliver the final blows necessary to crush Bragg completely.That blow landed on the afternoon of November 25. Each of Grant’s assembled forces—troops led by Union Generals William T. Sherman, George H. Thomas, and Joseph Hooker—all moved to the attack. Stubbornly, Bragg refused to retreat, and instead accepted battle. That decision would cost him dearly.But everything did not go Grant’s way. Despite what Grant’s many admirers would later insist was his most successful, most carefully planned battle, Grant’s strategy failed him—as did his most trusted commander, Sherman. Victory instead charged straight up the seemingly impregnable slopes of Missionary Ridge’s western face, as the men of the much-maligned Army of the Cumberland swarmed up and over Bragg’s defenses in an irresistible blue tide.Caught flat-footed by this impetuous charge, Grant could only watch nervously as the men started up . . .All Hell Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga—Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24-27, 1863—sequel to Battle Above the Clouds—details the dramatic final actions of the battles for Chattanooga: Missionary Ridge and the final Confederate rearguard action at Ringgold, where Patrick Cleburne held Grant’s Federals at bay and saved the Army of Tennessee from further disaster.

If there’s one conflict that was remarkable from a lot of points of view, it was the American Civil War, better known in France as the War of Secession. In this war the armies of the South opposed those of the North – the Union – of the almost hundred-years old republic of the United States of (North) America; it remains in the annals as the last classic war – in certain aspects the heir to the Napoleonic wars – and the first real modern war of the 20th Century in which “state of the art” technologies were used for the first time on a massive and intensive scale. This bloody conflict was the result of a long chain of political, economic and ideological compromises between two civilisations which barely concealed the differences opposing them. The ferocious appetites of the North against the principles of independence of the Southern States could only lead to an explosion. Four years of relentless, bloody and total war during which Johnny Reb gave no quarter to his brother Billy Yank. Everything has been said and written about this war: the joie de vivre of the South, its elegance, its chivalrous spirit, its attachment to secular traditions including slavery, facing the North’s industrial war machine, its humanist values, its small-minded courage, but also its avidity and its implacable spirit of organisation. From Gone with the Wind to Birth of a Nation, all the clichés have been used. This book gives you as large a panorama as possible of the uniforms worn by the belligerents during this conflict. The most characteristic silhouettes and the principles of basic organisation, as circumstances dictated, are shown in the now celebrated form of Heimdal’s books.

Spain in Arms is a new military history of the Spanish Civil War. It examines how the Spanish Civil War conflict developed on the battlefield through the prism of eight campaigns between 1937-1939 and shows how many accounts of military operations during this conflict are based upon half-truths and propaganda. The book is based upon nearly 60 years of extensive research into the Spanish Civil War, augmented by information from specialised German, Italian and Russian works. The Italian campaign against the Basques on the Northern Front in 1937 was one of the most spectacular Nationalist successes of the Civil War, with 60,000 prisoners taken. This is also the first book to quote secret data about Italian air operations intercepted by the British. The figures intercepted by the British show the Italians flew 1,215 sorties and dropped 231 tons of bombs during the campaign, whilst also suffering the heaviest losses. It also demonstrates how the Nationalists won not simply by benefitting from a cornucopia of modern arms from the Fascist powers but by using its limited resources to maximum effect. Spain in Arms reveals the Nationalist battlefield superiority in terms of training and overall command, and the Republic's corresponding weaknesses in the same fields. The Republican Brunete and Belchite offensives of 1937 are described in detail, from the weapons they carried and the tactics they employed to the dynamic Nationalist response and reaction of the generals. This book also explores how the extent of foreign intervention on both sides has been greatly exaggerated throughout history and provides the first accurate information on this military intervention, using British and French archives to produce a radically different but more accurate account of the battles and the factors and men who shaped them. Hooton finally gives the historical context and operational implications of the battlefield events to provide a link between the First and Second World Wars.

The battle of the Falaise Pocket, in August 1944, was the turning point in the Normandy campaign. By early August the German Army was in turmoil: while it was managing to hold back the Allies, the defense involved resources that could not be replaced, and the Allies ruled the skies above. In late July, American troops broke through the American lines and pushed south and east, while British and Canadian troops pushed south. Although unable to counter these offensives, Hitler refused to permit the commander Army Group B, Field Marshal von Kluge, to withdraw. Instead he was ordered to launch a counteroffensive at Mortain, the result being that the Germans ended up further into the Allied envelopment. On 8 August Montgomery ordered that the Allied armies converge on the Falaise area—by 21 August the Allies had linked up and sealed the pocket, trapping around 50,000 Germans inside. While many soldiers did eventually escape the encirclement, the losses were catastrophic and by the end of the month Army Group B had retreated across the Seine, ending the battle of Normandy. This illustrated account examines the battle from the failed offensive at Mortain, looking at both German and Allied perspectives, using maps, diagrams and profiles to complete the story.

One of the greatest paradoxes of the Battle of Normandy is that the German divisions found it much harder to reach the front line than the Allies, who had to cross the sea and then deploy in a cramped bridgehead until the American breakthrough of late July 1944. The Waffen-SS were no better off than the Heer units and German high command never quite got on top of operations, as the divisions were thrown into the melee one by one. During the month of June 1944, the Panzer divisions present succeeded in containing the Allies in a small bridgehead. In July, the arrival of more SS divisions should have finally allowed the Germans to counter-attack decisively. This was not the reality. The Allies had also strengthened in number and kept the blows coming, one after another. Each SS-Panzer division had a different experience of the fighting in July.This Casemate Illustrated looks at the divisions one by one throughout Operations Goodwood and Cobra which saw large tank battles and the collapse of the German front in Normandy. It includes over 100 photographs, alongside biographies of the commanders and color profiles of trucks and tanks which played a key role in operations as the Americans succeeded in breaking through the German line of defense.

The Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley suffers from no lack of drama, interest, or importance. The ramifications of the May 1864 engagement, which involved only 10,000 troops, were substantial. Previous studies, however, focused on the Confederate side of the story. David Powell’s, Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah: Major General Franz Sigel and the War in the Valley of Virginia, May 1864, provides the balance that has so long been needed.Union General Ulysses S. Grant regarded a spring campaign in the Valley of Virginia as integral to his overall strategy designed to turn Robert E. Lee’s strategic western flank, deny his Army of Northern Virginia much needed supplies, and prevent other Confederates from reinforcing Lee. It fell to Union general and German transplant Franz Sigel to execute Grant’s strategy in the northern reaches of the Shenandoah while Maj. Gen. George Crook struck elsewhere in southwestern Virginia. Sigel’s record in the field was checkered at best, and he was not Grant’s first choice to lead the effort, but a combination of politics and other factors left the German in command.Sigel met Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge and his small army on May 15 just outside the crossroads town of New Market. The hard-fought affair hung in the balance until finally the Union lines broke, and Sigel’s Yankees fled the field. Breckinridge’s command included some 300 young men from the Virginia Military Institute’s Corps of Cadets. VMI’s presence and dramatic role in the fighting ensured that New Market would never be forgotten, but pushed other aspects of this interesting and important campaign into the back seat of history.Award-winning author David Powell’s years of archival and other research provides an outstanding foundation for this outstanding study. Previous works have focused on the Confederate side of the battle, using Sigel’s incompetence as sufficient excuse to explain why the Federals were defeated. This methodology, however, neglects the other important factors that contributed to the ruin of Grant’s scheme in the Valley.Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah delves into all the issues, analyzing the campaign from an operational standpoint.Complete with original maps, photos, and the skillful writing readers have come to expect from the pen of David Powell, Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah will satisfy the most demanding students of Civil War history.