Specialstyrker og elitestyrker

Lars Møller kender livet som jægersoldat ud og ind – lige fra den benhårde træning, de militære operationer, rejserne og den hæsblæsende action til frustrationerne og de mange afsavn og bekymringer. I Jæger 200 fortæller han åbent og ærligt om sine 25 år i Jægerkorpset og deler ud af sine utrolige historier fra det danske forsvars mest avancerede eliteenhed.   Men Jæger 200 er ikke kun en soldaterbog. Det er også en bog, der gør op med den mystik og lukkethed, som ellers omgiver Jægerkorpset – og en bog med masser af refleksioner over de dilemmaer, man bliver konfronteret med som jæger: Hvorfor sætte livet på spil i et fremmed land? Og hvad gør det ved en at blive tvunget til at slå et andet menneske ihjel for selv at overleve?   Bogen er rigt illustreret med aldrig før offentliggjorte fotos fra Jægerkorpsets operationer i ind- og udland.

Danskere, som i 1942 og 1943 meldte sig til det nazistiske Frikorps Danmark, kom først til rekrutuddannelse, derefter til fronten. Rekruttiden tilbragte de i "Waldlager", en SS-militærbase i Bobruisk (Hviderusland). Her blev de oplært til at kæmpe i Henrich Himmlers Waffen-SS side om side med værnemagten på Østfronten.   I krigen mod Sovjetunionen gjaldt det for tyskerne om at tilintetgøre den "jødiske bolsjevisme". I den "skæbnekamp" (Adolf Hitler) gjaldt folkerettens og krigens love ikke. Jøderne skulle udryddes, andre civile behandles med hensynsløshed, modstand fra partisaner og andre slås ned med hårdeste hånd. I alle tysk-besatte dele af Sovjetunionen bredte der sig et voldsherredømme uden sidestykke i historien.   Frikorps Danmark befandt sig midt i dette regime af vold og folkedrab – og deltog aktivt. Rekrutternes oplæring inkluderede "kamp mod partisaner", som primært bestod i blodige straffeaktioner imod civilbefolkningen. I "Waldlager" deltog danske frikorpsmænd i driften af en slavearbejdslejr og var med til at dræbe de jøder, som ikke længere var i stand til at arbejde: af 1.500 fanger omkom mere end 1.400 på under et år. I bogen dokumenterer Dennis Larsen og Therkel Stræde danskernes andel i de ofte ubeskriveligt brutale forbrydelser.   For at forstå, hvordan unge danske frivillige - nazister og andre - kunne involvere sig i så hæmningsløs voldsudøvelse, må man se på den større sammenhæng: hvad var det for et miljø, de kom til i "østområderne"? Therkel Stræde og Dennis Larsen beskriver i bogen usminket den politik, som udgør forståelsesrammen for frikorpsfolkenes virke og indskoling i den "voldskultur", som gennemsyrede det tyske herredømme i de besatte sovjet-områder.

In the bleak moments after defeat on mainland Europe in winter 1939, Winston Churchill knew that Britain had to strike back hard. So Britain's wartime leader called for the lightning development of a completely new kind of warfare, recruiting a band of eccentric free-thinking warriors to become the first 'deniable' secret operatives to strike behind enemy lines, offering these volunteers nothing but the potential for glory and all-but-certain death.The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare tells the story of the daring victories for this small force of 'freelance pirates', undertaking devastatingly effective missions against the Nazis, often dressed in enemy uniforms and with enemy kit, breaking all previously held rules of warfare. Master storyteller Damien Lewis brings the adventures of the secret unit to life, weaving together the stories of the soldiers' brotherhood in this compelling narrative, from the unit's earliest missions to the death of their leader just weeks before the end of the war.

The Financial Times - Best books of 2022: Politics 'The prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly the right book at the right time.' The Times A new history of how Putin and his conflicts have inexorably reshaped Russia, including his devastating invasion of Ukraine. Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers. This is an engrossing strategic overview of the Russian military and the successes and failures on the battlefield. Thanks to Dr Galeotti's wide-ranging contacts throughout Russia, it is also peppered with anecdotes of military life, personal snapshots of conflicts, and an extraordinary collection of first-hand accounts from serving and retired Russian officers. Russia continues to dominate the news cycle throughout the Western world. There is no better time to understand how and why Putin has involved his armed forces in a variety of conflicts for over two decades.

S.O.A. Books is proud to present this new reprinted edition of the classic early WWII text Sniping, Scouting and Patrolling. This reprint has been created from a scarce original from S.O.A. Books' own reference library. This historically significant guide, first published in 1940 by Gale & Polden Ltd, in the UK has been meticulously reproduced to offer enthusiasts, scholars, and tacticians alike a glimpse into the rigorous and detailed world of military sniping, scouting, and patrolling as taught to British and commonwealth recce specialists, snipers, special operations and Home Guard during the Second World War.Crafted for both instructors and students, this manual encapsulates the strategic depth and practical expertise developed in the crucible of World War I and honed with the advent the more modern technology and strategies of World War II. It covers the gamut of sniping from the selection and use of equipment, the principles of camouflage and observation, to the organisation and execution of scouting and patrolling missions. This reprint maintains the original's integrity, including its page count, photographs, line drawings, and diagrams, ensuring readers gain both the knowledge and the feel of these specialised tactics, techniques and procedures from the era.Communicating basics which are still as relevant to today's soldier as they were to the soldier of the Second World War, Sniping, Scouting and Patrolling goes way beyond mere marksmanship, delving into the psychology and strategy of sniping, scouting, and recce patrolling. It offers a comprehensive look at how to utilise the terrain, how to remain invisible to the enemy while gathering crucial intelligence, and the importance of making every shot count. This manual is a testament to the sniper's role in disrupting the enemy's momentum and routines, emphasising the sniper's duty to remain always on the offensive and the impact of precision and stealth on the outcome of engagements.S.O.A. Books is proud to bring this invaluable resource back into print, offering a bridge between the hard-won lessons of the past and the challenges of the present. This edition is an indispensable resource for those interested in military history, tactics, fieldcraft, and the evolution of combat strategy. Whether you are a historian, a military enthusiast, or someone intrigued by the nuts and bolts of the "how-to" of these types of operations, this modern reprint of Sniping, Scouting and Patrolling is an essential addition to your library.

"The Nam," is a riveting and harrowing account of the Vietnam War. The author's unique experiences took him from running point for Marine infantry units as a Scout Dog Handler to being a team leader with 3rd Force Recon Company deep in the jungles of Vietnam. He explains how Force Recon Marines brought the fight to the enemy, conducting stingray operations using artillery and air strikes. "Often completely surrounded, we had to fight our way out!". Written from the perspective of a young Marine serving in a war-torn country he gives a personal account of his combat experiences fighting the NVA and the Viet Cong. After decades of contemplation, the author gives a political commentary on this unpopular war characterized by mismanagement detailing his thoughts on the biggest lessons of the Vietnam War.

"The untold story of four special operations officers who fought together behind enemy lines across multiple theaters of World War II, and then continued to serve, officially and unofficially, for decades after in the hottest parts of the Cold War"--

In diesem Buch geht es um eine autobiographische Erzählung meiner Erlebnisse während meiner Dienstzeit bei den Grenztruppen der DDR. Eingezogen zu den Grenztruppen im März 1989 und entlassen aus dem Dienst nach dem Fall der Mauer im Mai 1990. Es erzählt die Geschichte eines Grenzdurchbruchs, vom Leben in der Kompanie und vom Alltag des Grenzdienst. Und gibt einen Einblick in eine Welt, die viele Bürger der ehemaligen DDR nie kennen lernen mussten. Es geht um das Leben der Soldaten und Unteroffizieren welche an der Grenze ihren Wehrdienst ableisteten, mit all seinen Facetten des täglichen Wahnsinns des Systems.

My SAS selection course instructor, was as hard as nails. At the start of each day's training, he would say, 'Men, the easy day was yesterday.' With that, we'd all let out a silent sigh contemplating the tortures that lay ahead of us. From his cage in a putrid, overcrowded Indian gaol, Paul Jordan reflects on a life lived on the edge and curses the miscalculation that robbed him of his freedom. His childhood, marred by the loss of his father and brother, produce a young man hell bent on being the best of the best - an ambition he achieves by being selected to join the elite SAS. He survives the gut-wrenching training regime, deployment to the jungles of Asia and the horrors of genocide in Rwanda before leaving the army to embark on a career as a security adviser. His new life sees him pursuing criminals and gun-toting bandits in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons, protecting CNN newsmen as the US 7th Cavalry storms into Baghdad with the outbreak of the Iraq War, and facing death on a massive scale as he accompanies reporters into the devastated Indonesian town of Banda Aceh, flattened by the Boxing Day tsunami. During his 24 days in an Indian gaol, Paul Jordan discovers that friendship and human dignity somehow survive the filth and deprivation. This is a personal account of a tough, hardened fighter who suddenly finds himself totally dependent on others for his every need. The Easy Day was Yesterday is fast paced, brutally honest and raw, but laced with dark humour. The core of Paul Jordan's eventful life, however, is the strength of his bonds with family and friends and the ability of the human spirit to survive even the direst adversity.

The unique role of Special Forces Berlin in the attempted rescue of the American hostages in Tehran.

A tough book on the art of hand to hand fighting in the trenches of the Great War

An authoritative analysis of how Putin's Russia conquered the Crimea in 2014 using 'grey zone' warfare techniques, blending operations by anonymous special forces with cyber, sabotage, and propaganda. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 was almost bloodless - fought as much through propaganda, cyberattacks and subversion as by force of arms - but it is crucial for our understanding of both modern warfare and recent Russian history. Ironically, this slick triumph eventually led to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest and costliest conventional war in Europe since 1945. This is a fascinating account of the Crimea conquest from a supremely qualified expert on modern Russian forces. Illustrated throughout, it explores how Russia developed its new model of 'hybrid' or 'grey zone' warfare, and planned and deployed it against Crimea, from the choreographed appearance of 'spontaneous' protesters through to the deployment of unbadged Russian elite forces. In this book Mark Galeotti explores the lessons that Russia, Ukraine, and the West took from it - correctly and mistakenly - and how this apparently textbook operation sowed the seeds that would erupt so catastrophically in 2022.

A war diary is a record kept by military units, recording their activities during wartime. Classified "Secret" during the war, this is the war diary of the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion, initially known by the cover name 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion. They were an elite World War 2 commando unit, part of the First Special Service Force, a joint Canadian and American force that was trained to operate behind enemy lines. With most of their operations at night, they would paint their faces black for camouflage, and were called "Schwarzer Teufel" ("Black Devil") by Nazis soldiers. Their war diary, written day by day as the war progressed, was kept from August 1942 to January 1945, and contains details of their training, operations (including maps), records of prisoner interviews, and more. Volume 2 contains records for the months December 1943 to March 1944. This publication presents the original, unaltered documents of the war diary of the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion. No text, photos or illustrations have been changed.

Venetian front, 1915. The Austro-Hungarian army has taken control of key mountain locations facing the plains. The Fassa Alps are well guarded, and heavy casualties are expected. Mount Collo and Mount Saint Osvaldo are excellent launch points for an all-out offensive which is already in the works behind the grim vista of the Glockenthurm. The Italian High Command is paralyzed by outdated methodology, wasting precious time with failed assaults and flanking maneuvers that end with red snow. Men watch from their trenches, hiding along the parapets with their guns pointing at no man's land, and the tension in the Italian lines has taken the form of a grim silence, as if the men already know their doom is approaching and wish only for it to envelop them quickly. Colonel Baseggio of the Italian Royal Army, a veteran of many mountain engagements in Africa, creates a new section, based not on doctrinal tactics, but on intrepid actions which he calls "Ardite." Assembled with volunteers drawn from the entire Italian Royal Army, his hastily trained company strikes deep into Austro-Hungarian lines, shocking the world with their courage and daring, often carrying the day with little more than knives and grenades. In the mud and snow of the Carso mountains, the "Arditi Company Cristoforo Baseggio"-the first of the famed Arditi formations-grows to carry the name of The Death Company. This first hand historical account details one of the most fascinating military phenomena of the Great War. Antelope Hill Publishing is proud to present Cristoforo Baseggio's The Death Company, for the first time in English, to preserve and expand access to the story of these extraordinary men.

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), Britain's TOP SECRET subversive organisation during the Second World War, were informed before and after D-Day that some surrendered or captured German prisoners of war who had been brought to camps in England claimed not to be supporters of Hitler. They had been compelled to join the Wehrmacht, the German army, and, when asked, volunteered to be trained and infiltrated back into Germany by the Allies on sabotage, subversion and assassination missions. Bernard O'Connor's four-volumed 'SOE Bonzos' has used recently released personnel files, country section correspondence, training reports and mission papers to tell for the first time the stories of over fifty anti-Nazis who were brave enough to return to Germany on secret operations. Volume One includes the stories of Heinz Doring, Alois Buchtik, Paul Penczok and Alfred Lengenfeld. Some succeeded in getting back to Britain. It provides details of the successes and failures of their missions and includes accounts of conditions in Germany towards the end of the war. There are also details of SOE's German Section officers who planned the operations, having to negotiate with the Bayswater Interrogation Section, the Training, Camouflage, Forgery, Finance and Quartermaster Sections; officers in other country sections; the American Office of Strategic Services; the RAF who arranged parachute drops and the Special Forces operating with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force operating in France, Belgium and Germany.

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), Britain's TOP SECRET subversive organisation during the Second World War, were informed before and after D-Day that some surrendered or captured German prisoners of war who had been brought to camps in England claimed not to be supporters of Hitler. They had been compelled to join the Wehrmacht, the German army, and, when asked, volunteered to be trained and infiltrated back into Germany by the Allies on sabotage, subversion and assassination missions. Bernard O'Connor's four-volumed 'SOE Bonzos' has used recently released personnel files, country section correspondence, training reports and mission papers to tell for the first time the stories of over fifty anti-Nazis who were brave enough to return to Germany on secret operations. Volume Two includes the stories of Johann Hoch, Gerhard Taplick, Will Vonderheidt, Erich Klau, Horst Weber, Werner Porzig, Andreas Wiedemann, Heinrich Wellings, Valentin Raab and August Kunzig. Some succeeded in getting back to Britain. It provides details of the successes and failures of their missions and includes accounts of conditions in Germany towards the end of the war. There are also details of SOE's German Section officers who planned the operations, having to negotiate with the Bayswater Interrogation Section, the Training, Camouflage, Forgery, Finance and Quartermaster Sections; officers in other country sections; the American Office of Strategic Services; the RAF who arranged parachute drops and the Special Forces operating with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force operating in France, Belgium and Germany.

The untold story of the USAF unit created to carry out plausibly deniable special operations during the Vietnam War.

Originally published as Alpini 1915-1918. Storia Militare Dossier: Parma, 2017 and Alpini nella seconda guerra mondiale (1939-1945). Storia Militare Dossier: Parma, 2020.

After the British withdrawal from Aden in 1967 the war in Dhofar was a major step in the fight against the spread of communist domination in the Gulf. Dissidents in rebellion against the feudal rule of the old Sultan of Oman exploited the poverty and want in the countryside in order to win converts to their cause and found backing from the communist Yemen. With the help of the British, alarmed by such a threat, the Sultan's son Qaboos deposed his father and promptly set about the modernization of his country and the alleviation of poverty.At the same time Britain sent out a small team from 22 Special Air Service Regiment to aid the Sultan's Armed Forces in their fight against a communist enemy in the Dhofar region of Oman. But an army is only as good as its supplies. However inaccessible the places the patrols were fighting in they had to receive essential supplies. Air Despatch units came into being during the Second World War dropping arms and equipment to Resistance Fighters and Special Forces in Europe and other theatres' of war. They also played a vital role at Arnhem, the jungles of Burma and later Malaya and Borneo and also in the deserts of the Middle East. By the time of Dhofar 55 Air Despatch Squadron RCT, to which the author belonged, was a seasoned unit with an exemplary record of performance and several medals for gallantry. In his very readable recollections of the war, David (Geordie) Arkless recounts his sorties flying into extreme danger and of his encounters with the enemy. He also describes the day to day difficulties of living in the desert, and the methods of grappling with the complicated and intricate tasks in dropping a variety of vital supplies to the troops on the ground. First published in 1988 this second edition has been extended to include more detailed accounts of various actions along with the names of those who took part. It also contains many photographs including some not previously published.

Brothers-in-arms - SAS bonds can never be broken 'Jones knew the score with "deniable" operations that were sanctioned secretly at the highest levels. If they turned to custard and the cover was blown, the powers-that-be would simply deny everything and disown all involved, from the military down to the spooks and, at the bottom of the food chain, Hired guns like him.' What happens to the elite, close-knit soldiers of Australia's Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment after they leave the Who Dares Wins world of special forces? For some, there are highly paid jobs in the world's war zones and trouble spots protecting global corporations from terrorism, sabotage and violence. Others become powerful government advisers, many join foreign armies to train their special forces and expand the global botherhood. Most risky of all is the shadowy world of deniable 'black ops'. Guarding a deadly secret military cargo - a new missle system brokered through a spook under the guise of a Middle Eastern arms dealer - is all in a day's work. these are the risky yet vital jobs that governments will never admit. From Iraq and Afghanistan to Africa and Asia, award-winning defence writer Ian McPhedran uncovers a virtually unknown network and tells how Australia's top soldiers are forever linked in a seemingly borderless world.