Books in the Elite series

"Vietnam infantry tactics".

This book describes and analyzes the history, uniforms, weaponry and military practices of the US Marines during the Second World War, in particular their role in the bloody recapture of Pacific Islands held by the Japanese, such as Iwo Jima and Guadal Canal.

Describes the development of the Texas Rangers, from their beginnings in the early 1820s as an irregular force designed to combat raids on settlers in Mexican-governed Texas. They have since dealt with rustlers, bootleggers and bandits, developing into a professional law enforcement organization.

The US invasion of Panama, Operation "Just Cause", in December 1989 was the most complex US military operation since Vietnam. This book details the forces involved in toppling General Noriega, widely considered Central America's most notorious hard-man and drug baron.

Used in a variety of roles, from coastal patrolling through to the combined actions of convey-hunting 'wolf packs', the tactics used by U-Boats were diverse. This book analyses how the U-boats dominated the seas, and how the cracking of the Enigma code effectively hamstrung them, greatly reducing their impact.

This volume in the "Elite" series details the forces which fought for Vietnamese independence from the early post-war battles against the French to the modern conflicts against China and in Cambodia.

The swashbuckling English sea captains of the Elizabethan era were a particular breed of adventurer, combining maritime and military skill with a seemingly insatiable appetite for Spanish treasure. Angus Konstam describes these characters, including such sea dogs as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher.

Fighting an elusive and dangerous enemy far from home, the British army in Afghanistan has been involved in asymmetric warfare for the best part of a decade. This book provides a detailed analysis of those specifics within a clear, connected account of the course of the war in Helmand, operation by operation.

"Apache Tactics 1830-86".

"Italian Army Elite Units and Special Forces 1940-43".

"Prussian Napoleonic Tactics: 1792-1815".

The cavalry regiments of the US Army were in the process of being transformed into a mechanised force when the USA entered World War II. While those cavalry regiments deployed to the Pacific to fight the Japanese were turned into infantry units, those sent to Europe were employed as light armour in the cavalry's traditional spearhead roles.

Continuing the author's study of the careers, peronalities and personal uniforms of the greatest French generals and marshals of the Napoleonic Wars, this volume describes and illustrates those leaders who made their names largely in the later years of the Empire, from 1809 to 1815.

On the major European and Russian fronts throughout World War II, the challenge of crossing rivers under fire was absolutely central to any advance. The Panzers that crossed the Meuse at Sedan in May 1940 cut the French Army in two. This title details the methods, means and analysis of specific successes and failures.

Traces the major transformations in British Army doctrine, organisation, structures, units, uniforms and equipment, from the end of the Cold War in the 1990s up to today, revealing how despite being a small force in global terms, the British Army continues to be able to punch above its weight.

When Italy surrendered in 1943, it sparked a resistance movement of anti-German, anti-fascist partisans. This book explores the tactics, organizational structure and equipment of the brave Italian resistance fighters. It provides a comprehensive guide to the men and women who fought a desperate struggle against occupation.

Featuring specially commissioned artwork, this absorbing study investigates the various participants'' battlefield tactics, casting light on how tactical theory and battlefield experience shaped the conduct of battle in the American Revolution.The American Revolution presented a series of unique tactical challenges to its competing factions. For Britain, the Army would be forced to re-learn many of the lessons from the Seven Years'' War. After the debacle of Concord and Bunker Hill, the British implemented a range of changes throughout the Army, including the modification of accepted tactical doctrine. Additionally, the British formed alliances with various independent German states. The soldiers they provided thus answered to different armies. How much their tactics adapted during the war, therefore varied from state to state.The Continental Army was founded in 1775 and was initially heavily styled on its British opponents. That began to change in 1778 thanks to the efforts of Prussian officer Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Following their formal alliance with the colonies in 1778, France deployed military assets to North America. French officers also provided tactical advice to the Continental Army, and vice versa, particularly when they worked together successfully during the siege of Yorktown in 1781.

This study explores the organization, appearance, and equipment of both sides' ground forces during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88).Driven by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the insecurities it provoked in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi dictatorship, the Iran-Iraq War would become the largest conventional conflict of the period. Curiously little-known considering its scale and longevity, the struggle between Iran and Iraq was primarily fought along the 1,458km border in a series of battles which, despite both sides being armed with modern small arms, armour and aircraft, often degenerated into attritional struggles reminiscent of World War I. Such a comparison was underlined by frequent periods of deadlock, the extensive use of trenches by both sides, and the deployment of chemical weapons by Iraq. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, this study investigates the organization, appearance and equipment of the ground forces of both sides in the Iran-Iraq War, including Iraq's Republican Guards and Iran's Pasdaran or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The war resulted in stalemate with some half a million dead and at least as many wounded. The financial costs incurred in waging such a long and debilitating war were one of the spurs that led Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait barely two years later, setting in motion one of the defining currents of recent Middle-Eastern history.

During World War II, Imperial Japan was the world''s most militarized society, with a host of uniformed organizations supporting the war effort in East Asia and the Pacific and ultimately tasked with defending the Home Islands. Featuring full-color artwork, this book reveals the organization and appearance of the military and civil-defense forces that supported the Japanese war effort from 1937 to 1945.From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, a multitude of military and civil-defense forces strove to support the Japanese war effort and latterly prepared to defend the Home Islands against invasion. During World War II, Japan was the world''s most militarized society and by 1945 nearly every Japanese male over the age of 10 wore some kind of military attire, as did the majority of women and girls. In this volume, Philip Jowett reveals the many military and civil-defense organizations active in wartime Japan, while specially commissioned artwork and carefully chosen archive photographs depict the appearance of the men, women, and children involved in the Japanese war effort in the Home Islands throughout World War II.

Gaius Julius Caesar remains the most famous Roman general of all time. Although he never bore the title, historians since Suetonius have judged him to be, in practice, the very first 'emperor' - after all, no other name in history has been synonymous with a title of imperial rule. Caesar was a towering personality who, for better or worse, changed the history of Rome forever. His unscrupulous ambition was matched only by his genius as a commander and his conquest of Gaul brought Rome its first great territorial expansion outside the Mediterranean world. His charismatic leadership bounded his soldiers to him not only for expeditions 'beyond the edge of the world' - to Britain - but in the subsequent civil war that raised him to ultimate power. What is seldom appreciated, however is that the army he led was as varied and cosmopolitan as those of later centuries, and it is only recently that a wider study of a whole range of evidence has allowed a more precise picture of it to emerge. Drawing on a wide range of new research, the authors examine the armies of Julius Caesar in detail, creating a detailed picture of how they lived and fought.

This fully illustrated study describes the vital combat roles of the US Special Warfare units, latterly including the renowned SEALs, during two of the deadliest conflicts of the Cold War.During the Korean War and the Vietnam War, US Navy Special Warfare units played a variety of vital combat roles amid two of the deadliest conflicts of the Cold War. In Korea, underwater demolition teams (UDTs) surveyed beaches for amphibious operations, cleared sea mines from harbors, conducted seaborne raids against inshore targets, and served as scouts for the infiltration of Korean guerrillas and British Royal Marine Commando raids along the North Korean coast. In South Vietnam, UDTs surveyed beaches and demolished Viet Cong bunkers, supply caches, and river obstacles in the Mekong Delta. The SEALs (Sea Air Land teams) deployed entire platoons into the Mekong Delta and the Rung Sat Special Zone to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Viet Cong that included ambushes, reconnaissance, and capturing leaders and supply caches. In addition, the SEALs also played important roles in the Phoenix Program and in rescuing prisoners of war. Fully illustrated throughout, this study explores how the US Navy''s specially trained naval commandos accomplished their missions in Korea and Vietnam.

This highly illustrated title traces the development of mercenary soldiering from individuals and small units in the African wars of the 1960s-90s to today's state-employed corporate military contractors.The phenomenon of mercenary soldiering has constantly recurred in the news since the 1960s and has always attracted lively interest. The concept of 'mercenaries' began in the former Belgian Congo during the 1960s when men such as Mike Hoare and Bob Denard assembled hundreds of military veterans to 'do the fighting' for a particular leader or faction. This idea soon evolved into small teams of individuals training and leading local forces with varying success; wars in Rhodesia and on South Africa's borders attracted foreign volunteers into national armed forces, and veterans of these conflicts later sought employment elsewhere as mercenaries. The wars in the former Yugoslavia also attracted foreign fighters inspired as much by political and religious motives as by pay. This picture then evolved again, as former officers with recent experience set up sophisticated commercial companies to identify and fill the needs of governments whose own militaries were inadequate. Most recently, the aftermath of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has seen such contractors taking on some of the burden of long-term security off major national armies, while the subsequent rise of ISIS/Daesh has added a parallel strain of ideological volunteers. The author is well placed to describe how the face of mercenary soldiering has evolved and changed over 60 years. Using first-hand accounts, photos and detailed illustrations, this book presents a compelling snapshot of the life, campaigns and kit used by mercenary operatives engaged in fighting within both larger and more specific conflicts around the world.