OLD FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES:
STRATEGIC ILLUSIONS 1936-1941
by Arthur
J. Marder
The Royal Navy and the Imperial
Japanese Navy. An outstanding study by one of the foremost
exponents of British Naval history. It examines the Royal
Navy's confrontation with the growing power of the Imperial
Japanese Navy, and the Royal Navy's miscalculations on how
to combat it. The author highlights the disunity between the
British and American naval staffs, and the factors which led
to the fateful decision to send just two capital ships to
the Far East.
Very good in slightly creased d/w -
xxxii + 553pp, photos, fold-out map
LAST LAURELS: THE GERMAN
DEFENCE OF UPPER SILESIA JANUARY-MAY 1945
by Georg Gunter
By January 1945, Upper Silesia had
become Germany's key industrial region, with its coal mines,
blast furnaces, arms factories and hydrogenation plants. Not
surprisingly, when the Soviets launched a series of powerful
offensives aimed at capturing the region, the German defence
was bitter, bordering on the suicidal. Soviet reactions were
brutal, the Red Army committing widespread atrocities, which
have received little coverage until now. In this readable
and fast-paced translation from the German edition, the
author presents a penetrating description of the events
which occurred in Silesia during the first five months of
1945 - from the massive Soviet offensive on 12th January,
through to the final German defensive actions around Ratibor
five months later.
Fine in
illustrated boards - Large Format, 309pp, illustrations,
maps
Originally published in 1928, but
this new edition with the use of the author's diaries
includes the names, places and other information omitted in
the original. He served first at the British Red Cross
Hospital at Wimereux on the French coast and then was
Medical Officer to the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards at the
Third Battle of Ypres and the advance on Cambrai in 1917.
Wounded twice, he spent 1918 in an English hospital
recovering from his injuries. This is a graphic first-hand
account of a doctor working long hours to deal with the
casualities brought from the battlefield.
New
in card cover - Illustrations, and plans, folding map,
128pp.
Throughout most of the classical
period, Persia was one of the great superpowers, placing a
limit on the expansion of Western powers. It was the most
formidable rival to the Roman empire for centuries, until
Persia, by then under the Sassanians, was overwhelmed by the
Islamic conquests in the seventh century AD. The Sassanians,
the native Iranian dynasty that ousted their Parthian
overlords in AD 226, developed a highly sophisticated army
that was able for centuries to hold off all comers. They
continued the Parthian's famous winning combination of swift
horse archers with heavily-armoured cataphract cavalry, also
making much use of war elephants
New in d/w - 466pp, 41 colour & b/w
photos, 11 maps, 10 b/w illustrations
This is the story of the
"Handschar", the Muslim combat formation created by the
Germans to "restore order in Bosnia." Raised by the Waffen
SS, they were used for anti-partisan operations in the
Balkans and quickly developed a reputation. The division was
commanded by German officers, and composed of native Germans
from Croatia (Volksdeutsche), Croat Christians and Bosniaks,
Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
