The battle which took place on the Little Bighorn river on June 25, 1876 has passed into legend as “Custer's Last Stand”.This remarkable book is a unique analysis of the oral and pictorial evidence for the appearance of nearly 30 named Sioux and Cheyenne warriors who were present that day, and for their parts in the battle. The fruit of many years' study by one of today's most internationally respected interpreters and illustrators of Native American material cultu...

Filled with recently declassified material, first hand accounts, and unique photographs, this book offers a rare look at the largest mobilisation of Special Forces in recent history.The companion volume to Elite 163: Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan, Leigh Neville now turns his expert analysis to the Special Operations Forces (SOF) of the US and Coalition allies serving in Iraq since 2003. Examining in detail the US Delta Force, the British SAS, Au...

The volunteer army that fought the Mexican dictator Santa Anna from 1835 to 1836 was immortalized in the epic battle of the Alamo.Taking arms initially to fight for the restoration of the liberal Mexican constitution of 1824, the volunteers were eventually fighting for outright Texan independence. This book describes and illustrates the group of men who, despite the diversity of their origins, equipment, weaponry and dress, were united in a common cause that reache...

This second volume about Japan's samurai commanders covers the generals of the later years of the Age of the Warring States, a period when only the most able leaders survived.This was a time when the prowess of a commander was measured as much by his strategic and organizational abilities as by his individual fighting skills and he was expected to give as great a show of strength in the council chamber as on the battlefield.This book discusses the lives, ba...

The commanders who led the opposing armies of the American War of Independence came from remarkably different backgrounds.They included not only men from Britain and America, but from Germany, France and Spain as well. Some were from the great families of the "Old World", while others were frontiersmen or farmers in the "New World". Despite their differing origins, all were leaders in the events that led to the establishment of the United States of America....

A highly illustrated account of the siege by the Tokugawa ruling dynasty against the samurai, defenders of the shogunate.In 1614-15 Osaka Castle was Japan's greatest fortification, measuring approximately 2 miles in length with walls 100 feet high. It was guarded by 100,000 samurai, determined to defend the last of the once-powerful Toyotomi clan. The castle was seemingly impenetrable; however, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the ruling dynasty, was determined to d...

Each great samurai warlord, or daimyo, had a division of troops known as the Hatamoto, 'those who stand under the flag'.The Hatamoto included the personal bodyguards, the senior generals, the standard bearers and colour-guard, the couriers, and the other samurai under the warlord's personal command. Apart from bodyguard and other duties in immediate attendance on the daimyo, both horse and foot guards often played crucial roles in battle. Their intervention could t...

A slim, yet detailed volume on the downfall of the Teutonic Knights, featuring battlescene maps and illustrations throughout.By 1400 the long running conflict between the Order of Teutonic Knights and Poland and Lithuania was coming to a head, partly as a result of the Order's meddling in the internal politics of its neighbours. In June 1410 King Wladislaw Jagiello of Poland invaded the Order's territory with a powerful allied army including all the enemies of the ...

The Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, was founded in 1942 by William 'Wild Bill' Donovan under the direction of President Roosevelt. Agents were enlisted from both the armed services and civilians to produce operational groups specialising in different foreign areas including Italy, Norway, Yugoslavia and China. In 1944 the number of men and women working in the service totalled nearly 13,500. This intriguing story of the origins and development of the American espio...

The samurai were the military elite of medieval and early modern Japan, and the men who led them were hailed as the very greatest, most heroic and most honourable of all samurai warriors.This first of two books examines the lives, equipment, battles and wider roles of the samurai commanders between 940 and 1576, the period from the emergence of the samurai to the triumph of Oda Nobunaga, who set Japan on the road to reunification.The styles of armour and we...

The part played in the Civil War by the small Marine Corps of the United and Confederate States is overshadowed by the confrontations of the great armies. Nevertheless, the coastal and riverine campaigns were of real importance, given the strategic significance of the Federal blockade of southern ports, and of the struggle for the Mississippi River. Marines wearing blue and grey fought in many dramatic actions afloat and ashore – ship-to-ship engagements, cutting-out expeditions, and coast...

Coats of arms were at first used only by kings and princes, then by their great nobles.But by the mid-13th century arms were being used extensively by the lesser nobility, knights and those who later came to be styled gentlemen. In some countries the use of arms spread even to merchants, townspeople and the peasantry.From the mundane to the fantastic, from simple geometric patterns to elaborate mythological beasts, this fascinating work by Terence Wise expl...