The Armed Forces of the English-speaking Caribbean have a rich, albeit brief history. This book will cover their story from the post-Second World War West India Regiment to the independence of the former British Colonies in the 1960s and 1970s. The failed West India Federation led directly to the formation of the national armed forces of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados while Guyana's forces had their roots in Police Special Services Units and a Volunteer Force. Shortly after Independence, Guyana's armed forces found themselves in a border conflict with Suriname as well as a far less salubrious operation to support a corrupt and racist government through rigged elections. Trinidad found itself facing a mutiny in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, redemption only coming for the force in 1990 when it played a stellar role in quelling an Islamist insurrection. Barbados and Jamaica's armed forces had a more subdued history, supporting police forces but playing an important role in the intervention in Grenada in 1983. The Bahamas, unique in having a naval force as its primary military unit, had the dubious distinction of having one of its patrol boats sunk by Cuban MiG-21s in 1980. This book, besides the historical background to the five armed forces in question, will examine the evolution, equipment and current status and plans of these forces. This includes the complete recapitalization of the Jamaica Defence Force, the resurrection of the Bahamas Defence Force as a capable naval unit, the decline and deliberate neglect of the Guyana Defence Force and the revival and near collapse of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force. Each country has a unique political, and in the case of Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana, racial, history and these have contributed, at least in part, to the evolution and employment of their respective armed forces.

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Pages: 84

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 28-02-2022

Ninety miles from the US coast of Florida, dictators and zealots ruled the island of Cuba for hundreds of years. The last half of the 20th century saw dictator Fulgencio Batista deposed by rebel leader Fidel Castro and his followers. Proclaiming himself a supporter of Cubanism not Communism, Castro's nationalization of agriculture and businesses revealed a different side. Thousands of Cubans departed by air and sea en route to the US and Europe. The US government, alerted by the Central Intelligence Agency, became concerned when an alliance forged between Castro and Nikita Khrushchev brought arms and ammunition to the island so close to US shores. John F. Kennedy, sworn into office as the 35th president when critical actions required attention, did not immediately approve the plan without considerable evaluation. The Agency hierarchy enjoyed power and influence and at times withheld critical pieces of the plan. The CIA hatched a plan to have Castro removed and enlist the Cuban exiles to be trained by US agents and invade the island to establish a new government. The operation, an invasion at the Bay of Pigs, or Bahia de Cochinos, began during the administration of President Eisenhower with participation from all departments of government up to the Oval Office. Brigade 2506 - as the exile force called themselves - was trained in Guatemala and Nicaragua by Agency representatives. With patched up B-26s from the "boneyard" in Tucson, Arizona and commercial vessels leased from an exile in New York, the Brigade had an active military force. Former military pilots, students, farmers, lawyers and doctors comprised the group who opposed Castro and wanted to be part of his takedown. Three days after the invasion at the beach, all hell broke loose.

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Pages: 72

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 28-02-2022

Once known as the 'Switzerland of the Middle East', an island of economic stability and social progress, Lebanon was shattered by a civil war that raged from 1975 until 1990. While Volume 1 of this mini-series concentrated on the conflict pitting the central government against different factions and alliances of Christians, Sunni and Shi'a Moslems, leftists, and the Israeli and Syrian armed forces from its beginning in 1975 until the Israeli Operation Stone of Wisdom (or Operation Litani) in 1978, Volume 2 continues with the period from 1978 until 1981. With its armed forces of a size comparable to that of the strength of the active components of the contemporary US Army and led by politicians pursuing aggressive intentions towards its northern neighbor, Israel gradually established itself in control over much of southern Lebanon and all of Lebanese airspace. In turn, Syria found itself facing not only a growing insurgency and unrest at home, but also strong opposition inside Lebanon. Moreover, a seemingly endless series of air battles with the Israeli air force exposed a growing technological gap with its primary opponent, forcing it to deploy ever larger contingents of its air defenses into Lebanon. After almost culminating in a major war in 1981, the situation was defused through international pressure: nominally at least, a relatively quiet period was to follow before the next storm. Focusing on military-related developments, and containing much exclusive detail and specially commissioned illustrations, Volume 2 of Lebanese Civil War dissects the military forces of Israel, Syria and the many Lebanese militias, their equipment, intentions and capabilities, and provides a detailed, blow-by-blow account of combat operations into 1981.

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Pages: 82

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 28-02-2022

In October 1956 the British government, together with the French and Israelis, launched an attack on Egypt in response to President Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal. The agreement between these three governments, the Sèvres Protocol, was a low point in British diplomacy and a factor in the ending of Prime Minister Eden's political career. The military commanders had to plan for and launch Operation Musketeer, some 2,000 miles from the UK, while their political masters gave them only limited information on the arrangement made with France and Israel. The RAF squadrons allocated to the operation came from the UK and Germany where their jet bombers, Canberras and Valiants, were intended for nuclear war against the Warsaw Pact countries rather than conventional war with Second World War bombs in a desert environment. This account uses Cabinet Minutes, Squadron Operation Record Books, reports written by the Commander-in-Chief and personal accounts by aircrew who flew over Egypt, to detail the involvement of the RAF. When Anthony Eden took the decision to launch Operation Musketeer the RAF did not have the forces required in the Mediterranean. At short notice, squadrons had to train for high level, visual bombing using techniques that would have been familiar to Lancaster crews in the Second World War. Also, the navigation aids fitted in the bombers were those required for the European theatre, not the Egyptian desert.

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Pages: 80

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 15-12-2021

Officially established on 22 April 1931, around a core of 5 pilots and 32 aircraft mechanics, the Royal Iraqi Air Force was the first military flying service in any Arab country. Wings of Iraq, Volume 2 tells the story of the Iraqi Air Force between 1970 and 1980. In doing so it examines the air force's involvement in the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and then the showdown with the Iranian-supported Kurdish insurgency in northern Iraq in 1974-1975. These two affairs taught the Iraqis that numbers alone did not make an air force. Correspondingly, during the second half of the 1970s, Baghdad embarked on a project based on full technology transfer from France, which was intended to result in preparing the IrAF for the twenty-first century. This process hardly began when the new ruler in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein at-Tikriti, led his country into an invasion of neighboring Iran, embroiling it in a ruinous, eight-year-long war. This volume details the events leading up to the beginning of that war and its opening moves in the air. Although virtually 'born in battle', collecting precious combat experience and playing an important role in so many internal and external conflicts, the Iraqi Air Force remains one of the least known and most misinterpreted military services in the Middle East. Richly illustrated, Wings of Iraq, Volume 2, provides a uniquely compact yet comprehensive guide to its operational history, its crucial officers and aircraft, and its major operations between 1970 and 1980.

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Pages: 96

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 28-02-2022

From author Jonathan Shingleton, who brought us Alpine Thunder, the renowned book on the KB class, Jonathan brings us a well-researched and interesting account of NZR’s rebuilt three-cylinder G class. In attempt to make something useful of the ill-fated Garratts, NZR used the chassis of the three Garratt articulated locomotives to build six conventional G class locomotives. In theory, these should have been very handy motive power for the South Island, but the engineering constrictions imposed by the loading gauge on the new design plus the inherent weaknesses transferred from the Garratt engine units to the rebuilt engines, all conspired to make them problematic and unreliable. Jonathan delves into the detail of how NZR attempted to correct the issues and improve the design, plus how the crews worked these unique three-cylinder engines. This is a fascinating read.

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Pages: 142

Dimensions: 210 x 296 mm

Publication Date: 20-06-2023

The author’s father Philip Alfred Poole was the youngest son of English migrants from Shropshire who settled in Invercargill during the 1890s gold rush and established a successful family joinery business. A keen sportsman and a talented amateur musician, he was conscripted into the New Zealand army in 1917 and volunteered for specialist training as a machine gunner, where he rose quickly to the rank of sergeant. In camp he established a reputation as a solo violinist and on the voyage to Britain he performed on the troopship and before packed theatres in Jamaica and in explosion-torn Halifax. On the Atlantic crossing his ship succumbed to the first wave of Spanish flu, hitherto undocumented. Later in the same voyage his convoy was attacked by German submarines. He spent his war service at the notorious Sling Camp, where the opportunities to make music and the beauties of the countryside compensated for the rigours of training and camp life. Drafted to fight in France he was billeted on his final leave with a family who had lost their own son in France barely four days earlier. A desperate visit to see his Shropshire relatives before he too might fall brought the realisation that his true home was in New Zealand. In the days before embarkation the army made the final call on whether he was to serve as a machine gunner or as a musician. The war finished shortly after and then began the long wait for repatriation to New Zealand.

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Pages: 210

Dimensions: 152 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 20-04-2023

Since the 1998 nuclear tests and the publication of India's Nuclear Doctrine, India has continued to face endemic security challenges from both China and Pakistan. The latter, through the apparent induction of tactical nuclear weapons into the equation and a rapid expansion of its fissile material production capacity has introduced an additional complication into Indian security calculations while China has become increasingly assertive and intransigent in its conduct towards its neighbors, India included. In light of an evolving challenge, India's nuclear strategy, predicated on a credible minimum deterrence threshold needs to be looked at in light of the prospect of lowered nuclear thresholds in the case of Pakistan as well as potential coercive nuclear posturing from China. In neither case can nuclear strategy be divorced from conventional military strategy as any operation - offensive or defensive - will now have to be carried out with the potential of nuclear escalation in mind. Nuclear India details the evolution of India's nuclear journey, from the 1960s to the present day, the historical events leading to the 1974 nuclear test, the reluctant nuclearization that occurred thereafter and the first phases of an operational nuclear deterrent in the late 1980s.

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Pages: 84

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 28-12-2021

In 1988, the Indian Army and Air Force, ably supported by the Indian Navy, carried out a daring intervention in the Maldives. The government of the Maldives, led by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, facing an attempted coup by PLOTE, a renegade group of Tamil insurgents from Sri Lanka, sent out a request for help, to which India responded. Operation Cactus details this, India's most ambitious out of area intervention to date. The book describes the history, economy, demography and politics of the Maldives with an emphasis on the government of the day and the strategic value of the islands to PLOTE as well as the geopolitical ramifications for India in respect to the need to secure its influence in the area. Operation Cactus details the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force of the 1980s, with particular emphasis on elements that could be used in out of area interventions and the transport assets of the Indian Air Force and the amphibious capabilities of the Indian Navy. The Maldives National Security Service of 1988 is also discussed and its evolution into the Maldives National Defense Force in the aftermath of the 1988 coup. The PLOTE attempt to overthrow the Gayoom government and the resistance it faced from the NSS, along with Operation Cactus itself are described in detail, along with the intervention by India, including operational planning, mobilization of forces and the force levels committed. The actual landing in the Maldives, the paucity of intelligence and the force selection are detailed along with the confrontation with PLOTE and the latter's desperate attempt to escape by sea and the Indian Navy's counter to this. Operation Cactus includes original color artworks of the aircraft and troops involved in this unique intervention.

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Pages: 72

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 28-02-2022

In 1984, the Indian Army carried out a stunning operation that captured the Siachen Glacier in the northernmost regions of what is now the Union Territory of Ladakh. Since that time, a full brigade of Indian troops has faced off against a similar number of Pakistani soldiers in the highest battlefield on earth. Sustained by a combination of tenuous road supply lines and air support, where helicopter manuals have had to be rewritten, the two countries have had numerous skirmishes that have escalated into the use of artillery fire. Operation Meghdoot tells the story of this conflict. Beginning with the trauma of partition and the first Kashmir war that saw the region divided between India and Pakistan, it progresses to the 1962 Sino-Indian war which saw the Aksai Chin region lost to China and the Shaksgam Valley unilaterally ceded by Pakistan to China. The consequence of this was to allow the development of the Karakoram Pass and highway to link China to Pakistan.

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Pages: 68

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 22-04-2021