Bøger udgivet af Helion & Company

In the early seventeenth century the Principality of Transylvania was a new state, organized in the decades that followed the dissolution of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, towards the middle of the sixteenth century. The rulers of Transylvania were vassals of the Ottoman Empire but enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy in matters of domestic policy. The second half of the sixteenth century was a difficult period for the young state, caught between two warring factions, the Ottomans and the Habsburgs.In the first half of the seventeenth century the Principality of Transylvania underwent a process of international affirmation which culminated with its involvement in the Thirty Years' War. Prince Gabriel Bethlen (1613- 1629) implemented several military reforms that strengthened the professional elements of the Transylvanian army, and he recruited a regiment of German infantry that was kept in service for several decades. The traditional components of the Transylvanian army, such as the Nobility, the Székely and Saxon levies were maintained but their importance was reduced. George Rákóczi I (1630-1648), continued this policy and fought in the Thirty Years' War as an ally of Sweden and of France. These two rulers had transformed Transylvania into a regional power while still ensuring peace and prosperity inside the country. In 1657 Prince George Rákóczi II, attempted an ambitious military and diplomatic venture by attempting to take the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He had a strong army at his disposal; he secured alliances with Sweden, the Cossacks, Moldavia and Wallachia, but it was not enough. The campaign was a military disaster and most of the Transylvanian army was captured by the Tartars. In the meantime the Ottoman Sultan organized a punishment campaign that devastated the whole of Transylvania. In addition, in 1660, Transylvania lost its most important fortification on the Western frontier - the fortress of Oradea. The last decades of the autonomous Principality of Transylvania were marked by desperate efforts for survival under the constant pressure of neighboring empires. From a military point of view the focus shifted to organizing a defensive chain of fortifications provided with permanent garrisons and well supplied with modern weapons. This was not enough to stop the eastern expansion of the Habsburgs who managed, in a few years (1686-1690), to completely occupy Transylvania through shrewd diplomacy and a little military effort.The first chapter of this book offers a broad overview of the history of Transylvania and its rulers in the seventeenth century. The most important political events are presented in connection with social, economic and military developments. The second and third chapters are dedicated to the military organization of the Principality with detailed discussion of all its components - the military categories, weapons and equipment, recruitment of troops, mobilization, motivation and compensation, fortifications, military regulations and justice, et cetera. Campaigns and battles represent the main focus of the fourth and final chapter with detailed descriptions of some of the most important military achievements of Transylvania during the early modern age.

Studies of the campaigns of the 1775-1783 American War for Independence often suffer from a lack of understanding of the operational aspects of the armies involved. This collection of essays looks at many facets of military operations in America, showing how the armies (British, French, Spanish, German auxiliaries, and the nascent Continental Army) involved adapted their recruitment, training, tactics, and logistics to the specific challenges of this war. The European forces adapted - much more readily than they are given credit for - to the needs of this particular conflict. The British Army adopted a doctrine of open-order light infantry tactics and raised large numbers of Loyalist troops in the theater of war. The British government obtained the assistance of regiments from several German states, established military organizations that relied heavily on specialized skirmishing troops - jäger - and chasseur companies composed of picked men after the fashion of the British light infantry. The French government sent an expeditionary force from its regular army, while Spain largely employed colonial troops from its North American holdings; each of these armies faced significant logistical challenges while mounting major campaigns. Not least, of course, the American colonies rose to the monumental task of recruiting, training, and supplying an army created specifically for the conflict.This collection of essays examines various aspects of the problems faced by each of these forces, and the solutions that they achieved - British training of regulars and raising of Loyalist militia, German adaptation of tactics, French and Spanish logistics and campaigning, and American recruiting and conscription. The authors featured have distinguished themselves by their use of primary sources to re-examine aspects of the period's armies long obscured by assumptions or inaccurate generalizations. Throughout their writings conventional wisdom is challenged, and established assumptions are dispelled by well-documented evidence, showing the real strengths and weaknesses of wide array of professional and part-time military organizations involved in this world-changing war.

These essays offer a range of historical topics and perspectives on eighteenth century naval history.Containing the proceedings of Helion & Company's inaugural 2022 Naval History Conference, this volume includes chapters from scholars experienced and young, and from across the world, on various aspects of the naval history of the Age of Reason and Revolution.This work contains its fair share of high seas action and naval operations, representing British, Spanish, French, and Italian perspectives: Mauro Difranceso explores the operations and effectiveness of the Venetian Armata grossa during the Second Morean War, and Albert Parker explores first how Spain utilized seapower during the 1730s-1740s, and then second assesses the French and Spanish Bourbon operations to supply and support the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Olivier Aranda pitches in to assess the success of the French navy's flying squadrons of the early 1790s, long neglected by French and English-language historiography.A particular focus is on naval operations in North American waters, and on the wider significance of those operations. R.N.W. Thomas provides an analysis of the North American Station in the 1760s/1770s, exploring how the navy was maintained and how it was utilized to enforce imperial policies in the pre-American Revolutionary period. Thomas Golding-Lee then examines the 'Nile that wasn't' and the French missed opportunity at the Battle of St Lucia (1778), and Nicholas James Kaizer highlights the historical lessons learned from three single ship actions of the War of 1812 where the Royal Navy displayed an appalling lack of leadership and skill in action, including a challenge to preeminent narratives of the Royal Navy in that conflict.Of course, naval administration, recruitment, and other aspects of manpower are well served. On the strategic level, Paul Leyland assesses the role played by Antwerp in British and French naval strategies and wider foreign policy. Andrew Young then examines the herculean role played by Anson as First Lord of the Admiralty in building up of the Royal Navy's administrative capacity. Joseph Krulder examines the state of affairs in 1754-1755, at the start of the Seven Years War, demonstrating that this process was far from complete by this stage, all while placing this period into its proper social context. And Andrew Johnston explores the changing trends in naval law through courts martial held from 1812-1818, demonstrating the navy rapidly moving away from 'rum, buggery, and the lash.'Next, three chapters address topics related to the social/cultural history of the Royal Navy: Jim Tildesley examines the career of Consul John Mitchell and his contributions to manning the fleet and supplying intelligence. Andrew Lyter explores the careers of black pilots serving with HMS Poictiers, long forgotten by history, and how they leveraged their vital knowledge to carve out identities as free maritime professionals. Finally, Callum Easton examines the careers and demographics of the Greenwich pensioners, veterans of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and provides a fascinating picture of how society's views and stereotypes of these Jack Tars changed in the decades following the long eighteenth century.

A reference work detailing the biographies of over 900 British field officers and 50 regiments, covering career histories, achievements in battle, lineage, recruitment sources, and more.King George's Army: British Regiments and the Men who Led Them 1793-1815 will contain five volumes, with coverage given to cavalry regiments (Volume 1), infantry regiments (Volumes 2-4), and Ordnance and other regiments (Volume 5). It is the natural extension to the web series of the same name by the same author which existed one Napoleon Series from 2009 until 2019, but greatly expanded to include substantially more biographical information including biographies of leading political gures concerned with the administration of the army as well as commanders in chief of all major commands.Volume 1 covers in great detail the cavalry regiments that comprised the army of King George III for the period of the Great War with France, and the men who commanded them. Regimental data provided includes shortform regimental lineages, service locations and dispositions for the era, battle honors won, tables of authorized establishments, demographics of the field officer cohorts and of the men. But the book is essentially concerned with the field officers, the lieutenant colonels and majors who commanded the regiments, and Volume 1 alone contains over 1,000 mini-biographies of men who commanded the regiments, including their dates of birth and death, parentage, education, career (including political), awards and honors, and places of residence. Volumes 2 to 5 will extend the coverage to ultimately record over 4,500 biographies across more than 200 regiments.These biographies will show the regimental system in action, officers routinely transferring between regiments for advancement or opportunity, captains who were also (brevet) colonels, many who retired early, some who stayed the distance to become major generals and beyond. Where it has been possible to accurately ascertain, advancement by purchase, exchange or promotion has also been noted.Readers with military ancestors will no doubt find much of interest within, and the author hopes that the work will allow readers to break down a few 'brick walls'; either through connecting to the officers recorded, or through an understanding of the movements of the regiments around the world, or from the volunteering patterns of the militia regiments into the regular army.Encyclopedic in scope, and aimed to be a lasting source of reference material for the British army that fought the French Revolution and Napoleon between 1793 and 1815, King George's Army: British Regiments and the Men who Led Them will be a necessary addition to every military and family history library for years to come.

Discover the gripping tale of the longest siege of the American Revolution, the Siege of Pensacola, as historian Joshua Provan intricately weaves together the military significance and sacrifices of this pivotal event in shaping the character of the United States.The Siege of Pensacola was the longest siege of the war in North America. It was the final act of Bernardo de Gálvez's remarkable Gulf Coast Campaign and stands out as a classic tale of warfare and sacrifice.In the final years of the American Revolution, the military situation was changing from a dogged stalemate to a crisis that the British or the Americans could turn to their advantage. France's entry as an active participant had highlighted the difficulties of the rebels' new alliance, not its strengths. The successful British defense of Savannah in 1779 drew British eyes southwards, and in 1780, Charleston fell, and Gates' southern army was crushed at Camden.It was a perilous moment for the rebellious colonies. British dominance in the south would give them a strong strategic position from which to prosecute the war. A ray of hope came from Spain, which had entered the war as a French ally in 1779. From then until 1780, British possessions from the Mississippi and along the Gulf of Mexico suddenly came under threat from the daredevil Governor of Louisiana, Don Bernardo de Galvez. By 1781, Pensacola was the last British-held post in West Florida.The British garrison in Pensacola was strong, and its commander, Major General John Campbell, was determined to defend his fort. If Gálvez's campaign was typical of those undertaken by the likes of Amherst and Montcalm more than 15 years before, then the siege itself was also a model of eighteenth-century grit, fieldcraft and chivalry.It was grim work, and both sides endured hardship and fatigue as the siege progressed. As Spanish reinforcements were slowly released from Havana, the British depended more and more on the assistance of loyalists and an auxiliary force of Creeks and Choctaws collected by their Indian Agents to oppose the Spaniards.The story of the siege of Pensacola and the Spanish and Spanish-American part in the Revolutionary War represents a different side to the struggle; far removed from Redcoats and Patriots, it is also a story of great drama, color and sacrifice that helped shape the character of the United States.Historian René Chartrand says that Joshua Provan is 'the first historian to really mix all the elements together and suggest the true military consequences of the siege on the War of American Independence. It has been mooted, but never this well demonstrated.

Suffren versus Hughes describes the fascinating but relatively little-known naval campaign between Britain and France for mastery of the Indian Ocean in the closing years of the War of American Independence. It is effectively the third volume of a trilogy recording the history of the Royal Navy during this period, the earlier volumes being Crisis at the Chesapeake (2021) and From Ushant to Gibraltar (2022).The contest for control of the sea was crucial to the maintenance of Britain's position in India. It was played out against the political, economic and military background created by the impact of the British East India Company upon the complex system of the various dynasties that ruled India, and which themselves competed with each other for advantage.Britain and France sent out squadrons of ships of the line which were at various times nearly equal in strength. In the course of their hard-fought campaign, these fought five battles, none of which produced the decisive victory which each sought. This campaign was remarkable not just for the strategic and tactical questions which it raised, but also for the light it shed on the characters and abilities of the respective commanders. Sir Edward Hughes and Pierre-André de Suffren were very different men, who brought to their commands contrasting approaches to the particular problems of naval warfare of the eighteenth century. Hughes was a very typical product of the traditions of the Royal Navy, a patient and careful exponent of all that he had learned from his training and experience. Suffren, on the other hand, was untypical of French admirals of the period; he was bold, aggressive and innovative, and impatient of the stately conventions of sea battles of the period.Each of them had extremely difficult problems to overcome, in addition to the fact that they were operating many thousands of miles from home, which meant that orders reached them months after they were first issued. Hughes faced considerable difficulties in his relationship with the various presidencies of the East India Company which ruled British India at this time. Suffren, on the other hand, who conducted the campaign for the most part without any effective base, was frequently badly let down by some of his captains, while the performance of his squadron demonstrated that the French navy was far less efficient than the British. For both men, a central problem was obtaining supplies, as well as that of effecting repairs to their ships some of which were extremely badly damaged during the battles which they fought.The two men had a very considerable respect for each other. However, while the life and career of Suffren has generated a huge literature, principally among French historians, that of Hughes has passed relatively unnoticed. Both men, though, deserved well of their countrymen for what they were able to achieve.

Finalist, 2023 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Awards"...an invaluable read, not only for those with an interest in the Black regulars, but also for those seeking to learn more about the Army from the Civil War through the Great War." -- The NYMAS ReviewPrior to the 1960s, the term "Buffalo Soldier" was a fairly obscure one. Then, a trickle of titles became a torrent of books, articles, novels, monuments, and expanding numbers of historic sites along with museums all of which have changed the picture. Even an occasional nod from television and movies helped transform these once relatively little-known Black U.S. Army troops into familiar figures, who have taken their place in a mythic past. Indeed, powerful imagemakers from William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody and his Congress of Rough Riders to Frederic Remington, the dean of frontier artists, helped lionize the Black troops whose exploits brought them to the American West, Cuba, the Philippines, Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii in the years between 1866 and 1916.Despite a significant shift in emphasis, numerous efforts treating this element of the vital, complex story of the post-Civil War U.S. Army frequently repeated earlier studies rather than added fresh perspectives. Also, the narrative typically ended with the so-called Indian Wars or Spanish American War. Many authors likewise dwelt on military operations rather than numerous other relevant contributions and activities of these men who played a role in the nation's complex evolution during the half century after the American Civil War.Profusely illustrated with compelling images and detailed maps, along with an array of appendices, this latest addition to the Buffalo Soldier saga represents over five decades of research by military historian John P. Langellier. Further, More Work an Glory: Buffalo Soldiers in the United States Army, 1866-1916 combines the best features of prior scholarship while enhancing the scope with new or underused primary sources.The author views the subject through the broader perspectives of race. He sets the text against the backdrop of the transition of the U.S. Army from a frontier constabulary to an international power. In the process, he highlights the staggering assortment of non-military missions including assignments to national parks and forests; road building; exploration; pioneer military bicycling; duty along the explosive border between the United States and Mexico; employment as agents of law and order, along with a litany of other contributions that enhanced an impressive combat record against formidable Native Americans and others. Langellier frames the narrative within the context of continuity and change from Reconstruction in the 1860s through the early twentieth century. Above all, he focuses on the soldiers themselves to provide a human perspective as well as challenges prevalent misconceptions that often overshadow more fascinating facts.

The most comprehensive account of the defeat of the French Imperial Army in the last 100 years, making use of previously unpublished Orders of Battle and casualty reports.This work, the third in a four volume series, takes a fresh and in-depth look at the events of the opening months of the Franco-Prussian War between Napoleon's Imperial Army and King Wilhelm's German armies, when within the space of four weeks in the summer of 1870 the established order was overthrown and Prussia laid the foundations for a military and political hegemony in Europe which led directly or indirectly to two World Wars.In preparing this work the author has drawn heavily on the numerous volumes of the French official account, La Guerre de 1870-71 published by the Section historique de l'État-major de l'Armée around the turn of the 20th Century, which in addition to making use of information not available to the authors of the earlier German official history also includes detailed annexes providing copious orders of battle, after-action unit reports and casualty records for almost every engagement. This excellent source material has been supplemented by the works of Lehautcourt and the memoirs of many of the French commanders with additional detail and analysis derived from the numerous official and semi-official Staff studies published during the 1880-90's. While many of the German works have been published in English few, if any, of the French works have been translated and their inclusion within this work will hopefully provide both a fresh perspective of events as well as providing a useful counterpoint to the somewhat 'Prussian-centric' viewpoints reflected in many previous works.Following on from the previous books in the series, the Opening Engagements and The Battles around Metz, the third volume take a fresh and detailed look at both the military and political background to this short but decisive campaign which saw French and German forces clash at Nouart, the encounter battle at Beaumont and the pivotal engagement of the campaign, fought between Marshal MacMahon's Army of Châlons and the combined German armies under General Moltke outside the walls of Sedan.The detailed narrative is complemented by extensive orders of battle and casualty lists derived from the French and German official histories and is accompanied by a number of maps together with color and black and white illustrations.

The Battle of Megiddo was not only the last large cavalry offensive in world history, but also a tribute to combined arms operations fostered over the course of the First World War. Fought between 19-25 September 1918, it was the final Allied offensive of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The contending forces were the British Empire's EEF (Egyptian Expeditionary Force) of three infantry and one mounted corps pitted against the Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group which numbered three weak armies with the approximate total strength of a single enemy corps. Comparable to what General Erich von Ludendorff called the 'Black Day' of the German Army (opening of the Battle of Amiens, 8 August 1918) on the Western Front, the complete Ottoman defeat would have been impossible without the application of superior logistics. Whilst Megiddo did not determine the outcome of the war in the Middle East, the ramifications of the victory decisively shaped the post-war world in the region.

Explores the unique multi-ethnic British Indian armies under the East India Company.The armies of British India were, as one of its members wrote, 'the most extraordinary phenomenon in the history of the world'. Multi-ethnic, composed of men of diverse ethnicities and faiths, under the flag of the East India Company - 'John Company' - they conquered or controlled much of the Indian sub-continent by 1850, victorious in all but one major war (the first disastrous intervention in Afghanistan).Four armies served and fought for John Company: the three 'presidency armies' of Bengal, Madras and Bombay, and the regiments of the British Army, rented from the Crown by the Company. Together, this disparate collection of European and 'Native' corps - regular and irregular - numbered over 300,000 uniformed men at its height. The army that the 1857 Mutiny destroyed or changed out of recognition essentially dated from the reorganization of 1824. In the intervening 33 years, John Company's armies not only fought half-a-dozen major wars (in Burma, Afghanistan, China, the Punjab, and across India itself), it also faced dozens of insurrections and rebellions, some of which entailed such sustained conflict that they gained its units battle honors. In doing so the armies of British India created a distinctive military culture, one that the Mutiny decisively changed.John Company's Armies traces what those forces constituted and how they were commanded; how they lived and died in camps and cantonments; how they prepared for war (and how conflict in India changed) and how they fought against external foes and internal threats to the Company's rule. It uses a wealth of contemporary sources, archival, visual and published, including research on the sites of battles and cantonments, to evoke the armies' composition and character. It deals with both European and Native forces, explaining their idiosyncratic organization, practices and terminology, and shows how British-Indian armies both prepared for battle and how they experienced it, drawing on the words and images of dozens of its members.John Company's Armies is intended for both the specialist seeking the first comprehensive account of a force traditionally examined to explain the outbreak of the 1857 Mutiny, and for readers such as family historians needing to understand how the army of a distant relative was formed, functioned, and how it fought.

A detailed account of the III. SS-Panzer-Korps' retreat from Estonia, battles in Courland, Pomerania, and Berlin, featuring rare photos and veteran accounts.Heinrich Himmler regarded the III. (Germanic) SS-Panzer-Korps under SS-Obergruppenführe Felix Steiner as his favorite unit and general in the Waffen-SS. This SS-Panzer-Korps was supposed to ideologically unite SS volunteers from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland into a Germanic brotherhood - intended to politically serve Himmler¿s plan of a Greater Germanic Empire and the colonization in the East. Battles against the Red Army in the Baltic states, Pomerania and Brandenburg-Berlin 1944 and 1945.Volume 2 deals with the retreat from Estonia in autumn 1944, the violent positional battles in Courland in 1944-45, the frantic fighting in Pomerania, but not last but not least, the desperate battles of defeat in Berlin in 1945.In addition to unique and unpublished photographs, the volume contains a wealth of unique eyewitness accounts from decades of interviews and correspondence with Waffen-SS veterans, detailed summaries of armored corps operations, short biographies of interesting personalities, facts about German and Soviet weapons and tanks, and lesser-known SS units, such as SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 "Hermann von Salza" and schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503. Distinguished WWII-researchers have contributed with essays on key aspects of the Waffen-SS.

An accessible account of medical services in Gallipoli and their development.The Fight for Life: The Medical Services in the Gallipoli Campaign 1915-16 examines the development of the medical services immediately prior to the First World War and its involvement in the failed Gallipoli Campaign. Although crucial to the entire operation, the planning for their involvement was both late and insufficient. In consequence, the services received considerable criticism both during and after the campaign. The Fight for Life explores the actual steps taken in the planning and the work carried out by the medical services at each stage of the campaign. Casualties sustained at the start of the Gallipoli operations were mainly combat-related but, as operations developed, there were a large number of sick caused by diseases such as dysentery and enteric fever. Much of this was related to poor sanitation, absence of water and the ever-present plague of flies. The causes of the diseases are examined and considered in light of the overall lack of success of the initial landings which prevented the routine development of sanitation, rest camps and base hospitals. The development of base hospitals is considered in respect to the increasing casualties arriving from the battlefield and the development of institutions in Egypt and later in Malta is considered in some detail. Early planning for such hospitals underestimated casualty figures and this was also a direct result of the lack of success during the first phase of the campaign. Further to this, the employment of hospital ships is explored together with the oft-criticized use of transports or 'Black Ships' for the same purpose. These vessels were a vital link in the treatment of the wounded and sick of the peninsula and in many cases they were forced to act as floating casualty clearing stations as their staff treated thousands, moving some to hospitals at both Lemnos and Imbros before sailing to base hospitals in Alexandria, Cairo or indeed Malta. The importance of nursing care aboard these ships is also considered, as nurses struggled to cope under adverse conditions.The harrowing winter 1915-16 storms are considered from the medical standpoint which added stress to a system working to cope with day-to-day casualties. The role played by the medical services in the evacuation of the peninsula is considered and the organization required for removal of casualties during the preparations cannot be overstated. Finally, a short analysis of the findings of the Dardanelles Commission as it applies to the medical services is provided.

The first detailed account of World War I's Battle of Langemarck from an Irish perspective.Having fought alongside each other with great success at the Battle of Messines (7-14 June 1917), the 16th (Irish) Division and 36th (Ulster) Division again fought side by side at the Battle of Langemarck (16 August 1917). On that occasion however, there was to be no success. Instead, an unmitigated disaster ensued resulting in the decimation of both divisions despite their tenacity and sacrifice. In A Bad Day I Fear: The Irish Divisions at the Battle of Langemarck, 16 August 1917, author Michael James Nugent investigates the causes of the failure to exploit the undoubted success of the Messines offensive which contributed to the delay between it and the opening of the Third Battle of Ypres. These were a general lack of urgency, misunderstandings and lack of clarity over assigned tactical objectives, mismanagement of artillery, tank and infantry assets and a failure to understand local geography.The unfortunate delay between the close of the Messines operations in mid-June 1917 and the opening of Third Ypres on 31 July enabled the German defenders to accelerate construction of reinforced ferro-concrete blockhouses and pillboxes that were to play an important role during the campaign. Their development and method of construction demonstrated the extent of the enemy defenses faced by the Irish divisions.The failure to break through the German defenses on 31 July led to the unplanned relief of XIX Corps' exhausted divisions by both Irish formations. This exchange ensured that 16th and 36th divisions held the front line under horrendous weather conditions and constant enemy shelling for two weeks prior to the 16th August attack. The result of this ordeal was weary and half-strength infantry battalions advancing to the assault at zero hour.This tragic affair is examined in detail from the perspective of each assault battalion by utilization of contemporary war diaries, personal accounts, official and regimental histories, enabling a coherent picture of the events of 16 August to be revealed for the first time. German sources are also employed as a means of presenting the 'other side of the hill' experience. Careful analysis of the severe manpower losses is included to emphasize the devastating consequences of a dreadful day that brought sorrow to many homes throughout Ireland.Finally, the controversial post-operation observations by General Sir Hubert Gough (GOC Fifth Army) concerning the performance of the Irish divisions are carefully analyzed to reach the determination that they were ill-advised and a poor attempt to deflect blame from the shortcomings of Fifth Army.

Muskets & Springfields is designed for playing big battles in the American Civil War and is not model scale dependent and uses the player's current basing system. The game is set at the operational level. The player is the army commander with sub command groups. This will be typically a Corps. In these rules a Corp is made up of several infantry brigades, mounted cavalry, and artillery batteries. If you wish you can also include Native American Indian warbands.The basic unit in wargaming terms is the infantry brigade, which are grouped into Corps or Divisions. The game system uses grids as the unit of measurement. The game space is broken into several square grids which represent 300 yards in ground scale. Taking a balance of the various drill guides of the period this is approximately equal to 600 men in two ranks. For a typical 6x4 playing space it is recommended a ratio width x depth of 1.5 x 1. A typical 6x4 table provides the following 12 (3600 yds) by 8 (2400 yds) of battlefield.Morale is handled at the corps level and attrition is held at the individual unit base. These rules have three levels of morale. This is not the usual average, veteran, elite often used. Instead, the format is designed to reflect the actual state of mind on the day. These are Unknown, Nervous and Steady. In a game, unless representing specific historical units all bases start as Unknown. The actual morale state is not known till the unit takes damage. The player then rolls against a chart which provides a score for the unit being Nervous or Steady. This is dependent on the year being played and if Confederate or Union. When a unit fails a morale check this is recorded against their parent corps. Once a corps reaches its break point it will then flee the battlefield. Attrition is held at the unit level. This represents loss of cohesion, battlefield casualties or supplies running low. A unit can absorb 6 hits before it is automatically destroyed.To facilitate a clean flow of play these rules also facilitate the use of sharpshooters and skirmishers. Turns use a bag-pull system in which it is possible for the non-active player to able to interdict the play.​

Explore the fascinating history on the purpose, design, and progress of fortifications and siegecraft across Europe, from the height of military engineering to the introduction of rifled artillery.Christopher Duffy's brilliant history of fortifications and siegecraft is the best general work available on the subject. It covers the classic age of military engineering, which was heralded by the work of Vauban, chief engineer to the French King Louis XIV. There was astonishingly little change in the way fortresses were perceived and used for the next 200 years until the advent of rifled artillery brought dramatic new ideas into play. Duffy examines the purpose of fortresses across Europe and the debates of the time concerning their offensive and defensive uses. He analyses the strategic and structural considerations that dictated their locations and describes how they were planned, designed and built and by whom. He then explains how a siege progressed from start to finish: plans and preparations, the investment of the fortress, the ways in which a fortress could be reduced short of a formal siege, and the siege itself at every stage, from the choice of the frontal attack to the storm of the breaches and capitulation. The differences in siting, design and techniques of attack and defense for coastal fortifications are also covered. Using excerpts from the accounts of people who took part in actual sieges or were themselves besieged, Duffy brings out the human side of siege warfare as well as its purely technical aspects. In order to give the overall picture, he traces four great sieges in their entirety: Namur in 1692 and again in 1695, with Vauban and his Dutch counterpart Coehoorn pitting their wits against one another; the French attack on Antwerp in 1832, which showed how little siegecraft had changed since Namur; and the Anglo-Dutch naval bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Duffy's clear perspective and skillful handling of details make Fire and Stone an enthralling book to read and an invaluable source of information.

This unique work is devoted to the camouflage and application of identification marks and tactical designations on the aircraft of the Red Army Air Force in 1941.

The air battle in the skies over the Baltic region on the first day of the Great Patriotic War.

The island of Malta is renowned for its stoic defiance during the Second World War. Less well known is the significant contribution of its photographic reconnaissance aircraft to the war in the Mediterranean, particularly the surveillance of Sicily up to and beyond the Allied invasion.

German parachute troops had their moment of glory in the early years of WW2, but some units fought until the last day for the defense of the Oder River and the German capital. This book narrates the combats in which the 9.FALLSCHIRMJÄGER-DIVISION and the 600.SS-FALLSCHIRMJÄGER-BATAILLON took part.

Italy's best and most well known torpedo bomber in the Second World War. The tri-motored aircraft was used in the bomber, torpedo and transport role throughout the conflict. Includes technical data on the tri-motor aircraft and on the torpedo warhead.

This is the second of three volumes in the Airborne to Arnhem series. Altogether the three volumes contain over 150 personal accounts taken from personal interviews and correspondence with veterans of the 1st Airborne Division covering their reminiscences of the Battle of Arnhem, Operation MARKET, September 1944.

In this book we will learn the history of the 5 squadrons sent by Spain to fight alongside the Luftwaffe against the USSR. We will discover the aces, camouflage planes and emblems used by the Spanish unit. A large number of photographs and color profiles complete this exciting book.

Birdwood was a very notable general at Gallipoli, commanding the Anzacs, and leading the successful final evacuations. He led the Australians continuously on the Western Front, laying the groundwork for their celebrated achievements in 1918. He had great diplomatic acumen and his later years were both militarily and imperially significant.