Michael Green

While the Red Army's arsenal at the start of the Second World War included weapons dating back to the Great War or earlier, the 1930s' modernization program had introduced the automatic Tokarev pistol and self-loading Tokarev rifle. Its small arms were soon replaced by mass-produced sub-machine guns, such as the PPSh 1941, nicknamed the 'PePeSha,'. Supplementing the submachine guns, the Degtyarev Light Machine Gun DP-27. Fitted with a circular pan...

During the arduous campaigns in theatres of war from the Pacific to North West Europe, American infantry weapons played a key role in the eventual victory over the Axis forces. In so doing they earned a special reputation for ruggedness and reliability. In addition to being used by US ground forces they were widely adopted by other Allied nations. Expert author Michael Green puts the full range of small arms, be they rifles, submachine guns, shotguns,...

These are the war stories few can tell, the harrowing firsthand accounts of armored combat, from the days of the centurys first tanks to the latest encounter on the streets of Baghdad. Here are the still-vivid impressions of the brave young men who fought in the mud and trenches of no-mans land during World War I. Here are the stories of green American tankers taking on massive and well-armored German Tigers or fighting through a screaming sea of...

The routing of the British and French Armies in May and June 1940 by the Wehrmachts armored divisions caused a major rethink by the US Army’s senior leadership. The result was the formation of the two armored divisions in July 1940; the first named Old Iron side and second designated Hell on Wheels. In 1941, a further three armored divisions were created; the third (Spearhead), the fourth (remained unnamed) and the fifth called Victory. The following...

When the United States Army Signal Corps created the Aeronautical Division in August1907, it had a mission to take charge of all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines, and all kindred matters. That small inconsequential portion of the US Army would grow progressively over the many decades to become a separate service named the USAir Force in 1947 following the Second World War. Overnight, it became the world’s most powerful military...

Numerous wheeled armoured fighting vehicles have seen service in the US armed forces on and off for over 80 years.There have been various changes of policy and twice, after the Second World War and Vietnam, they went out of favour but their use is now well established.This well researched and superbly illustrated book describes all the different types and variants since the first M1 was ordered in 1931. The M8 armoured car was widely used during...

A pictorial history "jam packed full of excellent visual and textual history of US Marine Corps operations in the Vietnam War" (AMPS). With the American-supported South Vietnamese government verging on collapse in early 1965, President Lyndon Johnson decided to commit conventional ground forces in the form of a United States Marine Corps brigade of approximately 3,000 men on March 8, 1965. So began a massive and costly ten-year commitment. At...

It was the Stalin's tanks and armoured fighting vehicles and their crews that finally pushed the German Army back from the outskirts of Moscow in late 1941 and early 1942. Proof of the Red Army tanks' and AFVs' effectiveness came at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 when they defeated the cream of the Panzertruppen, From that point on, the tanks and armoured fighting vehicles of the Red Army continued their offensive operations until they...

The end of WW2 and the early Cold War years saw the need for a more powerful tank than the Sherman and Pershing tanks. The first Patton tanks (M46) were converted Pershings which saw service in Korea. As the Cold War intensified, the M47 with a more effective 90mm gun and turret went into mass production (9000 built) and countered the Soviet build up. The M48 entered service in 1953 and the M47s were sold off to allies whose armies were being rebuilt. The...

The United States Marine Corps played a leading role in the war against Japan from Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until VJ Day on September 2, 1945. Living up to its motto the "First to Fight," the 1st Marine Division landed on the Japanese-occupied island of Guadalcanal in the south Pacific on August 7, 1942 and fought its way up the central Solomon Island to Cape Gloucester in the territory of New Guinea. In October 1942, the Marine Corps captured...