This book examines the LaGG family of fighters, that were amongst the first modern piston-engined interceptors made available to the Red Air Forces in early 1941and proved far better fighters than their radial-engined predecessors. Despite technical maladies and political interf…
Always outnumbered by their Soviet counterparts, the small band of Finnish fighter pilots who defended their Scandinavian homeland from the 'communist hordes' in three separate wars between 1939 and 1945 amassed scores only bettered by the Luftwaffe's Jagdflieger. Initially equi…
The Japanese High Command realized that the loss of Okinawa would give the Americans a base for the invasion of Japan. Its desperate response to the invasion of Okinawa was to unleash the full force of the Special Attack Units, known in the west as the Kamikaze ('Divine Wind'), …
Originally designed as a carrier-borne long-range interceptor armed with radar-guided missiles and tasked with defence against missile-launching bombers, the Phantom II went on to establish itself as one of the most important multi-role fighter, attack and reconnaissance aircraf…
In 1942, the massive Japanese naval base and airfield at Rabaul was a fortress standing in the Allies' path to Tokyo. It was impossible to seize Rabaul, or starve the 100,000-strong garrison out. Instead the US began an innovative, hard-fought two-year air campaign to draw its t…
In 1942, the massive Japanese naval base and airfield at Rabaul was a fortress standing in the Allies' path to Tokyo. It was impossible to seize Rabaul, or starve the 100,000-strong garrison out. Instead the US began an innovative, hard-fought two-year air campaign to draw its t…
by Tooby, Adam, Luijken, Wiek, Davies, Peter E.
fromX-planes (Osprey Publishing)
The MiG-21, nicknamed 'Fishbed' by NATO, was the primary Soviet jet fighter from 1972 onward, opposing the F-15 Eagle and F-14 Tomcat worldwide in a variety of conflicts. The MiG-21 firmly holds the title of the world's most widely built and used jet fighter, with over 10,000 un…
The East Wall was where the final battles for the stricken Third Reich were fought, amid scenes of utter carnage. Beginning life at the end of World War I, the wall became a pet project of Adolf Hitler's, whose ascent to power saw building work accelerated, with plans for a gran…
While the US Marine Corps was one of the smallest of American armed services in World War II (1939-1945), its contribution to the final victory cannot be overstated. The US Marine Corps may have only comprised 5 percent of America's armed forces, but it suffered 10 percent of al…
Osprey's examination of airborne units of the Vietnam War (1955-1975). The Airborne units that fought against the Viet Cong in Vietnam were a select brotherhood. Their ability to respond and move rapidly by air transport or helicopter, combined with their flexibility in ever-cha…
The German Army of World War II was the first to fully realise the benefits of using airborne troops alongside armoured formations. German Airborne Divisions became an integral part of the blitzkrieg operations that overran much of Western Europe during 1940 and 1941, from the h…
The outbreak of World War II set in motion a massive expansion of the United States Marine Corps, leading to a 24-fold increase in size by August 1945. This book is the first of several volumes to examine the Corps's meteoric wartime expansion and the evolution of its units. It …
