Since the advent of special forces units in World War II, governments and armies have trained small, elite teams of soldiers to perform operations deemed too risky or demanding for regular troops. Training to enter the special forces is harsh in the extreme, and the few who enter the ranks of the elite can expect a life of intense operational danger. Special forces missions include counter-insurgency, hostage rescue, sabotage, spying, covert surveillance and force ambush. Most of these ope...

This book uses the latest techniques in computer-generated drawings to show the reader exactly how to create an artificial fly, step-by-step.Clearer than photography, more life-like than drawings, the graphic instructions show, by subtle emphasis and exaggeration, precisely what to do.Included are all the basic techniques for applying thread, feather and fur to the hook, and more sophisticated methods such as parachute hackling, using the dubbing loop and hairwinging.

The World War II Secret Operations Handbook lets you in on the skills and tricks used by the British SOE (Special Operations Executive), the US OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the French Maquis, and other special forces in combat in Europe, Africa and Asia between 1939 and 1945. Learn how to rig up a makeshift radio, how to pass undetected in enemy territory, how to live off the land and make shelter, and how to work as a sniper. Learn how operatives blow up bridges, roads, ra...

A groundbreaking study of how war was waged in the far north of Finland, Norway, and the Soviet Union: "Well-illustrated and organized." — WWII HistoryAccording to Lieutenant-General Waldemar Erfurth of the German Army, the General Staff had taken no interest in the military history of the north and east of Europe, failing to imagine that someday German divisions might have to fight through the winter in northern Karelia and on the Murmansk coast. Yet, the ...

A detailed examination of one of the most infamous divisions of the Waffen-SSIncludes 120 rare photographs and maps of the divisionAuthoritative text is accompanied by maps and organisation charts

A sudden curtain of silence fell over the burning city. All that could be heard was the steady crackling of flames...Hitler's penal regiments advance on Poland. Himmler has given the order: Warsaw must be razed to the ground.But the Polish Home Army are not willing to give in to the German troops so easily.As the city erupts into an inferno of flames and gunfire, Sven and his comrades find themselves caught between the sadism of the SS and the guerrilla war...

An examination of the German campaign on the Eastern Front, from their first significant defeat at the gates of Moscow in 1941 to the defeat at Stalingrad and the Russian capture of Berlin marking the end of the war in Europe.The Russian Front was the decisive theatre of World War II, with the great mass of the German Army and Luftwaffe locked in battle with the Red Army in the largest land campaign in history. On a 1,200 mile front, from the Arctic Circle to the C...

In July 1943, Hitler launched Operation Zitadelle, the last German offensive on the Eastern Front. It was an attempt to shorten the German lines by eliminating the Kursk salient and was designed to result in the encirclement of the Red Army. In reality, the German tanks came up against impenetrable Russian defences: minefields, artillery and anti-tank emplacements, spread through lines 250km deep and manned by Russian troops whose actions often verged on the suicidal. The ...

The Sturmgeschütz rumbling forward into action is one of the iconic images of World War II. As mobile assault guns, the StuGs were essentially designed as infantry support weapons, but they also proved themselves as highly effective tank destroyers. Written by Emmy Award winning author Bob Carruthers this fascinating study encompasses the design, development and combat history of the StuG III and IV.Drawing on a variety of rare primary sources and photographs this outstanding study explain...

Dont fight a battle if you dont gain anything by winning.General Erwin RommelA fascinating account of a deadly combination: the supreme German weapon of war in the hands of the finest military tacticians of last century.Illustrated throughout with full coverage of all the German tanks, tank battles and campaigns in the period 1943-1945, from Kursk to the last battles in the east, along with commanders, strategy, tactics and technical details.This book is part of The Hitlers War Machine ser...

Dutch SS accounts are very rare, particularly ones such as this, covering recruitment, training, and front-line service first with 5th SS Panzer Division 'Wiking', then later with SS Regiment Besslein. He not only informs and illustrates the general politics of the time, but also explains how Dutch views of the Third Reich changed so radically, discusses the founding of the Waffen-SS, the recruitment of Dutch volunteers into it and why so many non-German Europeans volunteered to fight and ...

'The literary VC goes to without doubt to Max Hastings for his Das Reich . . . the story of a march that left behind a trail of blood and death, torture and heroism' Sunday TelegraphWithin days of the D-Day landings, the Das Reich 2nd SS Panzer Division marched north through France to reinforce the front-line defenders of Hitler's Fortress Europe. Veterans of the bloodiest fighting of the Russian Front, 15,000 men with their tanks and artillery, they were ...