The first part of a detailed study of one of the longest, and most brutal, tactical operations of World War II.In September 1944, the Allied High Command continued to press eastwards towards the Rhine, the thrust being spearheaded by Courtney Hodges' US First Army, whose proposed line of advance was through a wooded area south of Aachen, known locally as the Hürtgenwald – or Hürtgen Forest. On the opposing side, the German forces under the overall command of Walter...

A highly illustrated account of the naval battles of Coronel and the Falklands in 1914, which saw the destruction of both British and German squadrons.Upon the outbreak of war, the British Royal Navy was deployed globally, whilst the Imperial German Navy was concentrated in two areas – Home Waters and Tsingtao, the home port of the crack East Asia Cruiser Squadron which, under the command of Admiral von Spee contained some of Germany's most modern cruisers....

Explore the Eastern Front battle that resulted in one of the greatest defeats of World War I, in which an entire Russian army was annihilated by German arms.Tannenberg is a major battle that deserves a fully illustrated treatment all of its own, and for the first time this book brings the epic Eastern Front clash to life in visual detail. No other book on this topic walks you through the action like this one, using detailed maps to provide unit locations and moveme...

This study analyses the battle of Dettingen, one of the major Allied victories of the War of the Austrian Succession, and the last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field.The death of the Emperor Charles VI in 1741 was the catalyst for a conflict ostensibly about the female inheritance of the Hapsburg patrimony but, in reality, about the succession to the Imperial Throne. The great European powers were divided between those, such as Britain, who suppor...

A detailed study of one of the most important pre-Revolutionary battles France fought in the 18th century. Long-requested by Osprey readers, this book will appeal to anyone interested in early-modern warfare.A disputed succession to the Austrian throne led to general war between the leading powers of Europe in 1740, with France, Spain and Prussia on one side, and Britain, Habsburg Austria and the Dutch Republic on the other. While fighting occurred across the globe...

Bloomsbury presents Teutoburg Forest AD 9: The destruction of Varus and his legions by Michael McNally, read by Cliff ChapmanThe story of the famous battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the most complete defeat of the Roman Army in the west, which saw the destruction of three Roman legions by Germanic tribesmen.'Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!' supposedly yelled Augustus Caesar when he received the news of the catastrophe in...

In a work of extraordinary narrative power, filled with brilliant personalities and vivid scenes of dramatic action, Robert K. Massie, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and Dreadnought, elevates to its proper historical importance the role of sea power in the winning of the Great War.The predominant image of this first world war is of mud and trenches, barbed wire, machine guns, poison gas, and slaughter. A generation of European manhood ...

"The dramatic career of the Queen Elizabeth class super-dreadnought, which fought with such distinction throughout two World Wars . . . a great story." —White Ensign AssociationNo warship name in British naval history has more battle honors than HMS Warspite. While this book looks at the lives of all eight vessels to bear the name (between 1596 and the 1990s), it concentrates on the truly epic story of the seventh vessel, a super-dreadnought battleship, con...

One of the most decisive battles in military history, Waterloo saw the culmination of a generation of war to bring a definitive end to French hegemony and imperial ambitions in Europe. Both sides fought bitterly and Wellington later remarked that 'it was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life'.In this bloody engagement, more than 20,000 men were lost on the battlefield that day by each side, but it was the Anglo-Allies who emerged victorious. Their forces ...

Victors write history. German Admiral Reinhard Scheer knew this, and wrote his own anyway. In this memoir of World War One, he says, "We are victors and vanquished at one and the same time, and in depicting our success the difficult problem confronts us of not forgetting that our strength did not last out to the end."Admiral Scheer took command of the German High Seas Fleet in 1916. He championed unrestricted submarine warfare as the key to winning, maintaining that it was...

Napoleon. The passage of time has not dimmed the power of his name. A century and a half after his death, Napoleon remains the greatest military genius of the modern world. Yet unlike Machiavelli, Clausewitz, or Sun Tzu, his name has not crowned any single literary work. The subject of thousands of biographies and treatises on warfare, he is the author of none. Until now.The great general and conqueror of Europe may not have written any books, but he was a prolific writer. Thousands...

The WWII historian's bracingly accurate analysis of what might have happened if Hitler ordered Operation Sea Lion to breech the shores of England.In June 1940, German troops gathered just across the English Channel, poised for the invasion of Britain. With France defeated and Britain cowed, Hitler seemed ready for his greatest gamble. In this compelling alternative history, the Germans launch the invasion that, in reality, was never more than a plan.Landing b...