During the late 1980s, the former Socialist Federal Republic of Jugoslavia (SFRJ) - a country dominating the Balkans - experienced a period of major crisis. Led by the Communist Party, the nation's leadership failed to understand the depth of political changes all over Eastern Europe, and then split along ethic lines. In 1988-1989, ethnic Albanians in the autonomous province of Kosovo began demanding independence: the authorities of the SFRJ reacted by suppressing the resulting demonstrations. In the Federal Republic of Serbia, public opinion slid into nationalism, which the local communist leadership exploited to maintain itself in power. By 1990, nationalistic leaders rose to power in Slovenia and Croatia, and publicly announced their intention to secede these federal republics. Under the heavy shadow of growing war-mongering, politicians from all three sides met to reach settlements on the division of their and their emerging nation's interests. The last few influential supporters of the preservation of a federal state were quickly pushed aside, and the powerful military of the SRFJ - the Yugoslav Popular Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija, JNA) - became an instrument of political games.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 96

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 17-09-2020

Confrontations between Libya, and the USA and France reached their highest point in the period between April 1986 and early 1989. In response to a Libyan-instigated and supported series of terror attacks against US citizens and interests in Europe, in April 1986 the USA launched Operation El Dorado Canoyon - a series of raids against carefully selected targets in Libya. Simultaneously, the USA and France bolstered the military of the Chadian government, enabling it to subsequently launch an all-out advance against Libyan troops and proxy forces in the north of Libya. This culminated in the series of spectacular campaigns better known as 'Toyota Wars', characterized by high speed of operations and surprise. The Chadian Army defeated its opponents in 1987 and nearly launched an invasion of Libya in 1988, successfully concluding this conflict. This title closes the Libyan Air Wars mini-series with a detailed insight into the final US-Libyan confrontation, which took place in early 1989, and culminated in another high-profile air combat between the most modern jet fighters of the Libyan Arab Air Force, and the US Navy. As usual, the volume is richly illustrated by well over 150 contemporary and exclusive photographs, color profiles, and maps, detailing the history, training, equipment, markings and tactics of the involved air forces.

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Pages: 72

Dimensions: 210 x 300 mm

Publication Date: 05-08-2016

In our first book, we explored the impact of the fighting on the landscape of the Western Front - showing how the physical effects of war have left indelible traces; in this book, we follow the same theme, but from a different perspective. The Gallipoli campaign was planned in early 1915 - an imaginative, but flawed attempt to overcome the stalemate in France and Flanders. The idea was Churchill's: to force the narrow straits of the Dardanelles by naval power alone - a romantic notion for a generation schooled in the great myths of the Ancient World and the omnipotent power of the British Empire. Rupert Brooke was one of them: 'It's too wonderful for belief. I had not imagined Fate could be so kind. Will Hero's Tower crumble under the 15-inch guns? .... Shall I loot mosaics from St Sophia, and Turkish Delight and carpets? Should we be a Turning Point in History? Oh God! I've never been quite so happy in my life I think. I suddenly realise that the ambition of my life has been ... to go on a military expedition to Constantinople'. The reality was different: the navy failed to get through the straits. The only option was to land troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula to destroy the Turkish guns, but even then it was thought that all of this could be achieved without much effort. Gallipoli was seen as a sideshow, where the benefits of victory were never matched by the resources needed. The British underestimated their enemy - assuming that old naval ships, inexperienced troops and senior commanders from an era of colonial warfare was all that was needed; they were wrong. Rupert Brooke died on 23 April 1915 - two days before the landings - and the campaign was to last for eight months to great cost and no effect. The Turkish defense was stalwart and competent, and fighting was at close quarters in appalling conditions across deep ravines, on ridges and on plateaus. The objectives - the high ground a few miles inland - were never reached by the attackers, who remained trapped in an alien and narrow 'no man's land' thousands of miles from home. The romanticism of this place evaporated in the face of disease, a lack of food and water and in death. Gallipoli was abandoned by the British in early 1916. Given the nature of the fighting, it might be assumed, following such a short campaign, the evidence of war has long since disappeared, but it has not: the natural features over which the fighting took place remain, as do the shadows of trenches; the skeletal-like hulls of landing craft on the shoreline; and the wrecks of more than 200 ships on the seabed beyond. There is a discernible presence here; the landscape has absorbed the events that took place here a century ago. Gallipoli lies at the gates to the East and just a few miles north of the ancient City of Troy. For just a short time in early 1915, it seemed that this place held the key to an imagined world beyond; it did not, and the only true victors were the Turks. For the British, it was a dreadful defeat with no consolation, while for the Australians and New Zealanders, it was a defining moment in their journey to national identity. Today, the battlefield is almost untouched by time - a lonely and haunted place... remote under an idyllic Aegean sky.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 212

Dimensions: 318 x 245 mm

San Carlos to Stanley is the first history of 40 Commando in the Falklands and dispels the belief that their only role was to look after the beachhead during this conflict. Commadore Clapp requested the men of 40 Commando remain at San Carlos as he knew he could trust them to defend his vital anchorage against Argentine counterattack from West Falkland, without which there could be no advance. Initially tasked to fly to the Falklands as tension heightened prior to the Argentine invasion, A Company, 40 Commando eventually left the UK onboard HMS Hermes ahead of the main task force. After the Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad tragedy, A and C Companies, 40 Commando replaced the Welsh Guards' losses and moved forward with that battalion to be the reserve force for the Scots Guards' attack on Mount Tumbledown and the 1/7 Gurkhas attack on Mount William. Men of 40 Commando were involved in the only daylight helicopter assault of the Falklands conflict, against an Argentine position on Sapper Hill, and if the Argentines had not surrendered and all British movements stopped, C Company followed by A Company would have been first to reach Stanley. San Carlos to Stanley has many personal accounts from officers and men of 40 Commando including the Ajax Bay and San Carlos bombing which resulted in numerous casualties including two fatalities.

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Pages: 170

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2022

In 1941 aged six David Gunn was subjected to Hitler’s Blitz of Plymouth. Unlike some 1,200 who were killed, he and his mother escaped to live on a farm in the peaceful Cotswold hills where he learned to milk cows and ride horses. David joined the Royal Navy, the fourth generation of his family to do so, at the age of 13. At the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth there was a cold bath on waking up and compulsory boxing – then to an even more disciplined training cruiser in the tropics and Arctic Circle. Now a midshipman he travelled on the HMT Empire Windrush to the Indian Ocean to join a cruiser which sailed for the Maldives to oversee the transformation from sultanate to republic. Returning home there were rough seas in the Cold War, rugby with the Wasps and modern pentathlon to Olympic standard. Training as a Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot was followed by operational flying in the Mediterranean. Spies appeared more than once. Vera Lynn, Clement Freud, Rupert Murdoch and Barbara Cartland all entered his life. A Lieutenant Commander on a Friday night, David became a television presenter the following Monday. This is his story …

Bind: hardback

Pages: 164

Dimensions: 156 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 31-05-2022

This is the story of the RAF anti-shipping Strike Wing based at North Coates in Lincolnshire, whose Beaufighters from 1943 attacked heavily defended German convoys transporting raw materials to Rotterdam. During a little-known but hard-fought two-year campaign, the Wing succeeded in forcing the enemy's ships off the sea. From the outset of the Second World War, it was clear that the supply of raw materials, in particular high grade iron ore from Scandinavia, would form a crucial element in Germany's ability to maintain its armaments production. It was not until early 1943, however, after three years of heavy losses of aircraft and crews, that the RAF implemented an effective offensive capability against the heavily defended shipping convoys carrying iron ore and other raw materials into German-controlled ports. This volume sets out the strategic challenge the RAF faced in the North Sea and describes the piecemeal and costly response effected during the first three years of the conflict when other threats and theatres claimed a higher strategic priority. It also explains changes in strategy and tactics introduced through the course of 1942 and chronicles many of the big Strikes and other operations launched by North Coates from April 1943 onwards. Moreover, the 'balance sheet', examination of the anti-shipping campaign performance in general, and the North Coates Strike Wing in particular – vessels sunk, crews lost and the wider strategic impact are examined. Most controversially, the authors suggest that Britain missed an important strategic opportunity in 1942. A larger, earlier deployment of Strike Wings, diverting even a small proportion of the enormous resources allocated to Bomber Command's bombing of German cities, might have had a greater impact on the Third Reich's industrial production and with fewer aircrew losses and none of the moral ambiguity associated with that controversial campaign.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 142

Dimensions: 180 x 248 mm

Publication Date: 17-05-2022

The Gloster Javelin was the UK’s first line of night and all-weather air defence both at home and in RAF Germany. In the 1950s, when it replaced the Meteor and Venom, this revolutionary bomber interceptor became integral to many great stories told here in terrific detail. With an unorthodox aerodynamic design, the Javelin initially had major production issues, which included a tendency for engines to self-destruct under certain conditions. Despite this and the criticism it faced – its nicknames included ‘Flying Flat-Iron’ and ‘Harmonious Dragmaster’ – the aircraft still receives much affection from its former aircrew. Starting from the first deliveries of Javelins in 1956 until the final withdrawal from RAF squadron use in 1968, Javelin Boys describes adventures in Cyprus, Singapore during the Indonesian Confrontation and Zambia during the Rhodesian declaration of UDI. In this period a total of 434 Javelins were built, with their use spanning across eighteen different squadrons. Steve Bond has interviewed a number of veterans, all with captivating tales of their time on the aircraft. Alongside their anecdotes is a detailed history of this unusual aircraft, accompanied by photography. This book is bound to appeal to all aviation fans

Bind: paperback

Pages: 204

Dimensions: 156 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 31-08-2022

Relisted - Publication delayed until March 2023 The V Force consisted of three four-jet bombers, the Valiant, the Vulcan and the Victor, all required as part of the nuclear deterrent in the Cold War following the end of the Second World War. The Valiant was less aerodynamically advanced than the other two and went into service in 1955. The Vulcan entered service in 1956 and the Victor a year later. The Valiant finished operating in 1965 and the Vulcan in 1984. The later Victors were converted into refuelling tankers and carried on until 1993. V Force Boys contains a fascinating collection of previously unpublished stories by V Force ground and aircrew for all three V bombers. Among other highlights, the book includes a first-hand account of dropping the last UK H Bomb, a description of how all the aircraft navigated before the days of GPS, the training the crews received and an armourer’s account of how the nuclear weapons were moved with complete safety but not in the regimented way that might be expected. In addition there are chapters which tell of incidents that would not be found in the RAF historical annals but show how the vigilant guarding of the UK had its lighter moments. A must for all Vulcan, Victor and Valiant enthusiasts.

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Pages: 208

Dimensions: 153 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 31-03-2023

In 1975, Lieutenant Commander Valeriy Sablin led his crew in a mutiny on the Soviet warship Storozhevoy. The ship was then located in Riga, Soviet Latvia. Sablin's avowed intention was to foment a new communist revolution by taking the warship to Leningrad, where he expected to receive the support of the navy and the masses. However, the Soviet leadership thought that Sablin intended to defect to Sweden, bringing with him a warship of modern design with all its armaments, electronics, communication devices, and code books. As a result, Soviet supreme leader Leonid Brezhnev ordered the destruction of the warship. After several dramatic, but ultimately failed, attacks on the Storozhevoy, Colonel General Sergey Gulyayev, commander of the Naval Aviation of the Baltic Fleet, personally ordered a missile launch against the Storozhevoy, employing the special protocol for the launch of nuclear missiles. The purpose of the launch was to destroy the warship. However, by then the crew had already detained Sablin and announced their intention to surrender. The air crews did not know this; however, their commanding officer, Colonel Arkhip Savinkov, never launched the missile, instead faking a radar malfunction. The mutiny was over. Due to the very serious implications of the suppressed mutiny, and the difficulties in finding and attacking the Storozhevoy, which showed that the combat readiness of the Soviet armed forces was less than desired, the participating air crews were ordered to destroy any documentation of the incident and keep quiet about what had happened. As a result, not even the KGB could later piece together all events of the incident, nor is there information in Soviet archives on all the actions taken. For much of the mutiny, the Soviet Navy did not even know the correct location of the Storozhevoy. However, the Swedish SIGINT service monitored the entire incident in real time. The Swedish SIGINT reporting enables a detailed, blow-by-blow description of the events. Being real-time intercepts, the reporting is a far more trustworthy source than the later, often embellished accounts previously published. For this reason, the book offers a detailed and authoritative account of the mutiny based on the SIGINT reporting, with supporting evidence from other surviving sources, together with an account of how Western intelligence interpreted and handled the reporting.

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Pages: 58

Dimensions: 210 x 298 mm

Publication Date: 31-05-2022

"Handbrake!" the codeword that was shouted aboard Royal Navy ships upon the detection of an emission from the Thomson-CSF/EMD Agave radar of the Argentine Super Étendard, which carried the dreaded AM-39 Exocet missiles. Argentina had bought these aircraft and their weapons from France in 1980, assigning them to the re- established 2nd Naval Air Fighter and Attack Squadron. Like most Argentine military units, the 1982 conflict over the Falklands/Malvinas conflict surprised the squadron, which was in the process of incorporating the aircraft and missiles, arriving only a few weeks beforehand from France. Hastily, under the leadership of its commander, Capitán de Fragata Jorge Luis Colombo, the squadron finished its training and developed tactics for anti-ship attacks, deploying to the south of Argentina. The effort paid off. With just four aircraft, five missiles, and ten pilots, the squadron succeeded in sinking HMS Sheffield and the container ship Atlantic Conveyor and conducted a long range and dangerous mission against the Carrier Battle Group on 30 May 1982. Using declassified Argentine and British documentation, as well as interviewing pilots and technicians (French and Argentine) this book details, as never before, the history of this elite military unit from 1980 to the present, with a focus on the 1982 conflict over the Falklands/Malvinas, and the five missions flown. It is the story of a military unit that revolutionized modern naval warfare, addressing both the military equipment involved and the people who were there. Known as the Lora (after the squadron badge showing a female parrot armed with a club), the squadron terrorised British sailors in the South Atlantic and is still in service with the Naval Aviation of the Argentine Navy.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 88

Dimensions: 210 x 298 mm

Publication Date: 16-06-2022