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Japan was closed to the world until 1854 and its technology then was literally medieval. Great Britain, France, and Russia divided the globe in the nineteenth century, but Japan was catching up. Its army and navy were retrained by Western powers and equipped with the latest weapons and ships. Japan wanted to further emulate its European mentors and establish a protectorate over Korea, yet Japanese efforts were blocked by Imperial Russia who had their own designs on the peninsula.The Russo-Japanese War started with a Japanese surprise naval attack against an anchored enemy fleet still believing itself at peace. It ended with the Battle of Tsushima, the most decisive surface naval battle of the 20th century. This gripping study describes this pivotal battle, and shows how the Japanese victory over Russia led to the development of the dreadnought battleship, and gave rise to an almost mythical belief in Japanese naval invincibility.

In the aftermath of the murder of Gaius Julius Caesar, his self-declared successor Mark Antony struggled to hold together his legacy. Following an abortive coup attempt by Caesar''s adopted son Octavian, two of Antony''s legions declared for him, leading to a renewed outbreak of civil war. Antony moved into Northern Italy and invaded the city of Mutina, which was held by Decimus Brutus. There they were quickly sandwiched between the city walls on one side, and the newly arrived Senate-backed forces of Octavian on the other.These two heirs of Caesar then fought to claim their former mentor''s legacy. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork and maps, this is the full story of the battles which would see Octavian move from being a young, inexperienced aristocrat to the dominating figure of Augustus.

A highly illustrated account of the first and largest fleet action between the navies of Great Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars.As 1794 opened, Revolutionary France stood on a knife''s edge of failure. Its army and navy had been shaken by the revolution, with civil war and famine taking its toll on their resources. Seeking to bring a revitalizing supply of food from its Caribbean colonies and the United States, the French government decided to organize a massive convoy to bring the New World''s bounty to France. However, in order to succeed in their mission, the French Navy would have to make a deadly crossing over the North Atlantic, an ocean patrolled by the Royal Navy, the most powerful navy force in the world, whose sailors were eager to inflict a damaging defeat on Revolutionary France and win their fortune in prize money. Illustrated throughout with stunning full-color artwork, this is the full story of the only fleet action during the Age of Fighting Sail fought in the open ocean, hundreds of miles from shore. Taking place over the course of a month, the inevitable battle was to be a close-run affair, with both sides claiming victory. To the French, it was le Bataille du 13 prairial, a notable day in their new, scientific Revolutionary calendar. For the British, it was the Glorious First of June.

During the Cold War, Vietnam revealed the limitations of a major power in a peripheral conflict. Even so, the military forces involved (North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, American, and Allied) demonstrated battlefield consistency in conflict that did credit to them all.By early 1972, Nixon''s policy of "Vietnamization" was well underway: South Vietnamese forces had begun to assume greater military responsibility for defense against the North, and US troops were well into their drawdown, with some 25,000 personnel still present in the South. When North Vietnam launched its massive Easter Offensive against the South in late March 1972 (the first invasion effort since the Tet Offensive of 1968), its scale and ferocity caught the US high command off balance. The inexperienced South Vietnamese soldiers manning the area south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone in former US bases, plus the US Army and Marines Corps advisors and forces present, had to counter a massive conventional combined-arms invasion. The North''s offensive took place simultaneously across three fronts: Quang Tri, Kontum, and An Loc. In I Corps Tactical Zone, the PAVN tanks and infantry quickly captured Quang Tri City and overran the entire province, as well as northern Thua Thien. However, the ARVN forces regrouped along the My Chanh River, and backed by US airpower tactical strikes and bomber raids, managed to halt the PAVN offensive, before retaking the city in a bloody counteroffensive. Based on primary sources and published accounts of those who played a direct role in the events, this book provides a highly detailed analysis of this key moment in the Vietnam conflict. Although the South''s forces managed to withstand their greatest trial thus far, the North gained valuable territory within South Vietnam from which to launch future offensives and improved its bargaining position at the Paris peace negotiations.

This detailed new study explores the battle of Leuctra and the tactics that ultimately led to the complete defeat of Sparta, and freed Greece from domination by Sparta in a single afternoon.The battle of Leuctra, fought in early July in 371 BC was one of the most important battles ever to be fought in the ancient world. Not only did it see the destruction of the Spartan dominance of Greece, it also introduced several tactical innovations which are still studied and emulated to this day. Sparta''s hegemony of Greece (which had been in effect since the Persian wars of 480-79 and especially since the Peloponnesian War in 431ΓÇô404 BC) was wiped away in a single day of destruction. Sparta would never recover from the losses in manpower which were suffered at Leuctra. Sparta''s defeat created a power vacuum in Greece which several states attempted to fill (the Theban Hegemony and the resurgence of Athens) and gave rise to the dominance of Macedon in the 350s when Macedon would conquer Greece in 338 BC at the battle of Chaeronea. None of this would have been possible without the events at Leuctra. The Theban phalanx at Leuctra, with its great depth of 50 ranks, introduced new tactical thinking in Greek warfare and this thinking eventually led to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip and Alexander which conquered Greece and the Persian Empire less than 40 years later. The Theban commander at Leuctra, Epaminondas, also introduced the idea of drawing up his forces in echelon and fighting with a refused flank ΓÇô something Alexander emulated in all of his major battles and which has been attempted at countless battles since.The importance of the battle of Leuctra cannot be underestimated. This superbly illustrated title gives the reader a detailed understanding of this epic clash of forces, what led to it, its commanders, sources, and the consequences it had for future civilizations.

The Wehrmacht's last Blitzkrieg campaign was indeed a lightning war, since German forces were required to seize both Yugoslavia and Greece before redeploying immediately to the East ready to attack the Soviet Union in a matter of weeks. Although the plans for the conquest of Yugoslavia were developed in haste, the campaign was extremely successful: in a short space of time, both Yugoslavia and Greece had fallen, accompanied by the capture of large numbers of British, Australian and New Zealand troops. The 1941 Balkan campaign was an apparently brilliant military accomplishment that demonstrated once again the superiority of the Wehrmacht, and its cutting-edge campaigning skills. This superbly detailed work details the opposing forces that took part in this campaign, documents their weapons and analyzes the effectiveness of their tactics. It explores the initial Axis campaign against Yugoslavia, the breakthrough of the Metaxas Line and advance into Macedonia and the withdrawal of Allied troops south. Detailed battlescenes depict key moments in the land, sea and air battles that took place in the Balkans, vividly bringing to life events of almost 80 years ago.

A highly illustrated study of the battle at Dien Bien Phu, the 56-day siege that eventually led to the surrender of the remaining French-led forces, this iconic battle provided the climax of the First Indochina War.In late 1953, the seventh year of France''s war against the Viet Minh insurgency in its colony of Vietnam, the C-in-C, General Navarre, was encouraged to plant an ''air-ground base'' in the Thai Highlands at Dien Bien Phu, to distract General Giap''s Vietnamese People''s Army from both Annam and the French northern heartland in the Red River Delta, and to protect the Laotian border. Elite French paratroopers captured Dien Bien Phu, which was reinforced between December 1953 and February 1954 with infantry and artillery, a squadron of tanks and one of fighter-bombers, to a strength of 10,000 men. Giap and the VPA General Staff accepted the challenge of a major positional battle; through a total mobilization of national resources, and with Chinese logistical help, they assembled a siege army of 58,000 regular troops, equipped for the first time with 105mm artillery and 37mm AA guns. Here, author Martin Windrow describes how from their first assaults on 13 March 1954, the battle quickly developed into a dramatic 56-day ''Stalingrad in the jungle'' that drew the attention of the world.

The second in a three-part series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II, that set the stage for the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich.By early September 1942, 6.Armee and 4.Panzer-Armee had reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, and Hitler believed it was about to fall. He ordered for the capture of the city as soon as possible, but this was easier said than done. On 13 September, a direct German assault was launched against the city on the Volga and a protracted urban battle followed amid the ruins, already devastated by massive Luftwaffe raids. Although hit hard by the initial German offensive, a ruthless and obstinate Red Army was able to hold onto the city through a costly battle of attrition that sacrificed huge amounts of men and materiel. This second volume in the Stalingrad trilogy, written by a leading expert on the military history of the Eastern Front, brings the fighting in the city to life in full visual detail, including the iconic battles at the Krasny Oktyabr Steel Plant, the Grain Elevator, the Barrikady and STZ factories, the 'Tennis Racquet' and Rynok-Spartanovka. Drawing from sources on both sides, this book offers a truly comprehensive account of history's greatest urban battle.

This informative study explores the Soviet invasion of Finland, detailing the events of the Winter War of November 1939 to March 1940. The invasion was expected to be swift and decisive, however, the fighting qualities of the Finnish Army blunted the Soviet advance and inflicted high numbers of casualties. A combination of difficulties caused by the weather, the terrain, the Mannerheim Line defences and Finnish tactics resulted in a fascinating David vs Goliath type struggle.On 23 August 1939, a secret protocol was appended to the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact; as part of this, Finland was assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence. On 30 November that year, in an effort to protect against renewed German aggression in the East, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, beginning what became known as the Finnish-Soviet Winter War. This long-awaited addition to the Campaign series explores the events of the war of November 1939 to March 1940. Set against the background of the developing global conflict, the conflict saw the Finnish Army thwart the plans of the sizeable Soviet forces assembled against it, before finally being forced to concede. The major battles of the war, which took place in harsh winter conditions, are covered in detail, including the Mannerheim Line, the fighting in Ladoga Karelia and Kollaa, and the clashes in Finnish Lapland.

An in-depth look at the struggle between the charismatic rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, 'The Lion of Panjshir', and the Soviet forces who fought to control the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan.When the Soviets rolled into Afghanistan in 1979, they believed if they took the cities, the country would follow. They were wrong. The Red Army found itself in a bloody stalemate in the Afghan mountains, in the strategically vital Panjshir Valley, where they faced the most able and charismatic of the rebel commanders: Ahmad Shah Massoud, the 'Lion of Panjshir'.Time and again the Soviets and their Afghan counterparts sought to take control of the Panjshir, and time and again the rebels either rebuffed their clumsy attempts or ambushed and evaded them, only to retake the valley as soon as Moscow's attention was elsewhere. Over time, the rebels acquired new weapons and developed their own tactics - as did the Soviets. The Panjshir was not just a pivotal battlefield, it also shaped the subsequent Afghan civil wars that followed Soviet withdrawal, and the military thinking that is still informing the new Russian military. Featuring striking colour artwork battlescenes and detailed maps of the fighting, this is a compelling study of one of the hardest fought struggles of the Soviet War in Afghanistan.

In October 1944, the US prepared to invade the Philippines to cut Japan off from its resource areas in Southeast Asia. The Japanese correctly predicted this, and prepared a complex operation to use the remaining strength of its navy to defend its possessions. This is the first in a two-part study of the October 23-26 Battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in a decisive defeat for the Japanese.In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Imperial Japanese Navy''s First Diversion Strike Force took part in two major actions during the course of the battle: the intense air attacks from US Navy carriers on October 24 (the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, which accounted for superbattleship Musashi), and the compelling action off Samar the following day. A considerable body of myth surrounds the latter, since most accounts of the Samar fighting assume that it should have been a crushing Imperial Japanese Navy victory-in truth, the result was anything but that. This book examines in detail why, following the Samar action, the Imperial Japanese Navy commander of the First Diversion Strike Force (Takeo Kurita) choose to ignore orders and break off the attack into Leyte Gulf-one of the two most controversial decisions of the entire battle. In the first of two volumes, Mark Stille examines the Japanese planning for Leyte Gulf, and the strengths and weaknesses of the Imperial Japanese Navy in this phase of the war alongside the US Navy''s planning and command arrangements, which had the potential to end in disaster. This book also focuses on the commanders on each side whose decisions shaped this definitive battle.

In late January 1968, some 84,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launched a country-wide general offensive in South Vietnam, mounting simultaneous assaults on 36 of 44 provincial capitals, and five of the six autonomous cities (including the capital city of Saigon). The longest and bloodiest battle occurred in Hue, the most venerated place in Vietnam. The bitter fighting that raged there for more than three weeks drew the attention of the world.Hue was the ancient capital of Vietnam, and as such, had been previously avoided by both sides; it had not seen any serious fighting prior to 1968. All that changed on the night of January 31 that year when four North Vietnamese battalions and supporting Viet Cong units simultaneously attacked and occupied both parts of the city straddling the Perfume River. The Communist forces dug in and prepared to defend their hold on the city. US Marines and South Vietnamese soldiers were ordered to clear the city, supported by US Army artillery and troops. A brutal urban battle ensued as combat raged from house to house and door to door. It was a bloody fight and resulted in large-scale destruction of Hue. Eventually, the Marines and the South Vietnamese forces retook Hue, but it turned out to be one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Tet Offensive, and led to a sea change in US policy in Vietnam.

Under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, the Stavka's remaining reserves were assembled and prepared to conduct a breakthrough attack intended to encircle the German Sixth Army near Kharkov. However, Stalin was unaware that the Germans were planning their own riposte at Kharkov, known as Operation Fredericus.

A detailed study of the Syrian and Lebanon campaign of World War II.In June 1941, Australian, British, Indian, and Free French forces invaded the Vichy French-controlled Mandate of Syria and Lebanon. They were outnumbered, and faced an enemy that had more artillery, tanks, and aircraft. They fought in rocky, mountainous terrain, through barren valleys and across swollen rivers, and soon after the initial advance faced a powerful Vichy French counterattack on key strategic positions. Despite these difficulties, the Allies prevailed, and in doing so ensured that the territory did not fall into German or pro-German hands, and thus provide a springboard from which Axis forces could attack British oil interests in Iraq, or the key territory of Palestine. This book examines the high military and political strategy that lay behind the campaign, as well as the experiences and hardships as endured by the men on the ground. The battles in Syria and Lebanon were complex actions, often at the battalion level or below, and this work uses extensive war diaries and records available to make sense of the actions and examine how they affected the wider campaign.

This first volume of three discusses the tactical decisions made on day one and the ensuing combat, while also including a brief summary of the grand strategy in the Eastern Theater of the war, the conduct of the Pennsylvania Campaign from June 6 to 30, 1863, and the plight of civilians caught up in the conflict.The Battle of Gettysburg, which took place July 1-3, 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg, PA resulted in the largest number of casualties of the entire American Civil War and is seen as the key turning point in the conflict. On its first day, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia sought to destroy the Union army, forcing its men to retreat through the streets of the Pennsylvania town to the hills just to the south. This volume, the first of three to cover the battle in depth, includes the morning cavalry skirmish, the morning clash at the Herbst's Woodlot and at the railroad cut, the afternoon clash at Oak Ridge, the afternoon fight at the Edward McPherson farm, the afternoon rout of the 11th Corps, the last stand of the 1st Corps at Seminary Ridge, the Union retreat through town, and the positions of the armies at nightfall.

Osprey's Campaign title for the Normandy campaign of World War II (1939-1945). D-Day, 6 June 1944, saw the largest amphibious landing operation in history. From ports and harbours on the southern coast of England, an armada of troopships and landing craft launched the Allied return to mainland Europe. Stephen Badsey provides a concise account of the Normandy campaign, from the fiercely contested landings, to the struggle to capture Caen, the 'Cobra' offensive and the dramatic pursuit of the Germans to the River Seine. This was the crucial campaign of the Western theatre: after the Battle of Normandy the only question was how soon the war would end, not who would win it.

An addition to the CAMPAIGN series which examines the German invasion of Byelorussia in June 1944, codenamed Operation Bagration, in which the Germans suffered huge losses. Illustrated with bird's-eye views and maps of the various stages of the campaign.

Japan in the 16th century was made up of effectively independent kingdoms led by warrior leaders. The author examines this period of Japanese history, looking at the commanders and armies and the way in which the destruction of the elite Takeda army affected the Samurai on all sides.

The D-Day landings of 6 June 1944 were the largest amphibious military operation ever mounted. A huge armada was assembled to transport US and British armies across the Channel to open the second front against the Third Reich. This text reveals the events of this day on Utah Beach.

The fighting at Omaha Beach is one of the most famous events in military history, and represented a crucial moment in the course of World War II. This book reveals the events of that single day in June 1944.

A highly illustrated and detailed study of one of the most important campaigns in the colonization of the Americas, the Spanish conquest of the vast Inca Empire.On November 16, 1532, the Inca emperor Atahualpa was the most powerful man in South America, having emerged victorious from a three-year civil war. Now his authority was absolute over millions of subjects living the length of an empire that stretched 2,500 miles from the towering mountains of the Andes, to the verdant rainforest of the Amazon, to the arid plains of the Pacific Coast. However, a group of strangers, comprising just 169 men and 69 horses led by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, soon entered his empire from the north. Despite having 80,000 men at his disposal, Atahualpa was seized and imprisoned. Pizarro burned with the same ruthless ambition as his cousin, Hernán Cortés, who had taken Tenochtitlan, and understood that by seizing the autocrat at the top of the social structure, the state would be at his disposal. Pizarro then marched on Cuzco, the Inca capital, and installed a new puppet emperor, Manco. However, in 1536, Manco roused the people against the intruders, and the Spaniards, having held sway over the entire empire, now found themselves under siege in the capital, desperately striving to hold back the overwhelming numbers of the Inca warriors massing against them. This fascinating and colorfully illustrated book documents the long and bloody siege, and describes how at the end of ten bitter months, during which Pizarro was defeated at the battle of Ollantaytambo and lost his brother, Juan, while storming the great fortress of Sacsayhuamán, Pizarro emerged the victor. Using photos, documents, and historical sources to illustrate the story, this volume brings an ancient piece of history vividly to life.

This study describes the air-sea offensive supporting the ground-force invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in February and April 1945, which led to the sinking of the Yamato and the onslaught of the Japanese kamikaze.During the Pacific War, the island invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa were the last two major ground campaigns. By the time these took place in early 1945, the US Navy had reached an exceptional level of coordination in its amphibious operations, and was able to overrun and subdue Japanese territories efficiently. Faced with the increasing might of these forces and to prevent further defeat, Imperial Japan deployed its kamikaze aircraft and attacked many US heavy aircraft carriers and destroyers; several were sunk, while others were knocked out of the war. This superbly illustrated book explores the air-sea aspects of the pivotal battles that took place, and includes the "death ride" of the Japanese battleship Yamato (the largest ever built), and the mass kamikaze attacks off Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as well as the Iwo Jima and Okinawa amphibious invasions and the naval and air bombardments of the two islands. It also considers the contribution of the USAAF and the British Pacific Fleet to the eventual victory of US air and ground forces.

A gripping examination of the Battle of the Barents Sea, fought in the near darkness and icy cold of the northern winter, in which the Kriegsmarine sought to sever the crucial Allied Arctic Convoy route once and for all.The Arctic convoys that passed through the cold, dangerous waters of the Barents Sea formed a vital lifeline ΓÇô a strategic link in tanks, supplies and above all goodwill between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. In December 1942, under Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow), the German Kriegsmarine sought to strike a crippling blow on the Arctic convoys and finally sever this all-important sea route. In this fascinating work, renowned naval expert Angus Konstam documents the fate of the Allied Convoy JW 51B as it came under attack from some of the Kriegsmarine''s most powerful surface warships ΓÇô a pocket battleship, a heavy cruiser and six destroyers. Illustrated with stunning battlescene artworks, maps, 3D diagrams and photographs, it explores the David and Goliath struggle between the Allied ships defending the convoy and the powerful German force, until the arrival of the two British cruisers tipped the balance of power. The Battle of the Barents Sea, fought amid snowstorms and the darkness of the Arctic night, would prove to be a turning point in the hard-fought war in northern waters, and would test Hitler''s patience with his surface fleet to the limit.

A gripping and detailed study of the brutal urban battle for Budapest, which saw German and Hungarian troops struggling to halt the joint Soviet-Romanian offensive to take the key city on the Danube.The 52-day-long siege of Budapest witnessed some of the most destructive urban fighting of the war. The Transdanubia region was strategically vital to Nazi Germany for its raw materials and industry, and because of the bridgehead it allowed into Austria. As a result, Hitler declared Budapest a fortress city in early December 1944. The battle for the city pitted 90,000 German and Hungarian troops against 170,000 Soviet (2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts) and Romanian attackers. The operations to take the city ran across several phases, from the initial Soviet approach to Budapest commencing in late October 1944, through the encirclement of city first on the Pest side of the Danube, and then on the Buda bank, and on to the savage urban fighting that began in December 1944 for the Hungarian capital. This superbly detailed work analyses the background, chronology and consequences of the siege from both a military and political perspective, and documents the huge losses in military and civilian casualties and material damage.

Offers an account of the origins, events and outcome of the Battle of Poltava in 1709, at which Peter the Great's newly modernized Russian Army smashed the Swedish Army of Charles XII, thus ending more than 50 years of Swedish military supremacy in northern Europe.

This is the second volume in a two-part illustrated study of the October 23-26 Battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in a decisive defeat for the Japanese.The Battle of Leyte Gulf-the largest naval battle in history-comprised four major actions conducted over the course of two days, plus several associated minor clashes. The size and complexity of this epic battle remains unmatched, with two United States Navy (USN) fleets (Third and Seventh) facing a much-reduced Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), severely outnumbered and fatally lacking in airpower. Complementing the first volume's coverage of the IJN's First Diversion Attack Force at the battles of the Sibuyan Sea and off Samar, this superbly illustrated second volume focuses on the forces supporting the main Japanese thrust. Naval expert Mark Stille reveals how the Japanese Main Body succeeded in its mission of luring the US Third Fleet to the north, but at a tremendous cost in the ensuing Battle off Cape Engaño. Also explored in full visual detail is the fate of the small detachment of seven IJN ships ordered to attack into Leyte Gulf through Surigao Strait in the south. The resulting Battle of Surigao Strait on October 25, 1944 would prove to be the last battleship duel in history.

In early 1940, a battle raged to control the ice-free, iron-ore port in northern Norway - with changing fortunes until the very end. This highly detailed book covers both the naval battles and the individual Norwegian, British, Polish, French and German units that fought the land campaign over northern Norway. Highly detailed maps guide you step by step through the events. Few other books on Narvik give you as much detail on the forces of the fighting five. From Gebirgsjägers to Guardsmen, Fallschirmjägers to Foreign Legionnaires, it offers you an impressive level of tactical detail, even down to company command, whilst also helping you understand the strategic confusion surrounding the whole Allied expedition to the north too. Among the naval clashes covered in this action-packed story are the destroyer battles in the fjords, the sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and the roles the famous battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau played in the fighting. No less dramatic are the land battles, which include amphibious landings, sabotage, commando raids, daring ski missions and a rare parachute insertion by Gebirgsjäger troops.

This edition has detailed information on the battle and maps pinpointing key moments in this campaign. The Gettysburg campaign was General Lee's last great gamble. By taking the war to the North he hoped to force Lincoln into peace or win support from European powers watching events closely.

The Battle of the Ebro was the last Republican offensive of the Spanish Civil War and the final opportunity to defeat Franco's Nationalist forces. This campaign volume looks at both sides' tactics, armies and weapons including the famous "Condor Legion" of troops.

Widely believed to be the turning point in the American War of Independence, at Saratoga General Burgoyne's men were forced to surrender. The colour maps, battle charts and artwork accompanying the text detail this crucial campaign.