WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM 51books
The Latest Armour Books ReviewedOsprey
Weapons of the US
Special Operations
Command
Publisher: Osprey
Author: Chris McNab
ISBN: 9781472833099
Format: Softback
Price: £13.99
The units and formations
of the US Special
Operations Command (SOCOM) have
privileged access to the inest weaponry in
the world’s arsenal. Whether Army, Navy,
Air Force, or Marines, the SOCOM troops
select weapons that match their mission
requirements, but which also sit at the
cutting edge of combat technology. This
means that, while SOCOM troops frequently
use standard-issue weaponry, they also
adopt many specialist pieces of kit that
are not so accessible to the broader armed
services, including sniper riles, battle
riles, and machine guns, as well as high-
tech tactical accessories used to transform
standard weaponry into something
exceptional. Assessing the technology and
capabilities of these combat weapons, as
well as how they have been used in modern
combat, this fully illustrated study lifts
the veil on some of the most distinctive
hand-held weapon systems of US special
operations forces since 1987.
British Airborne Soldier v Waffen-SS Soldier
Publisher: Osprey
Author: David Greentree
ISBN: 9781472825704
Format: Hardback
Price: £13.99
Operation ‘Market Garden’ was an Allied
plan to try and end the war before the end
of 1944 and relied on landing airborne
troops to secure
bridges over the
Rhine bridges in the
Netherlands. Critical
to this plan were
the glider troops of
Britain’s 1st Airlanding
Brigade. Short on
heavy weapons and
not trained in street
ighting, the glider
troops were meant
to secure and defend
the Allied perimeter
around Arnhem as the parachute
brigades fought their way into the
city. Facing the airborne forces were
understrength Wafen-SS units that
were hastily formed into ad hoc
battle groups, some supported by
armour. The troops on both sides
would have their tactical lexibility
and powers of endurance tested
to the limit in the bitter actions
that ensued. Employing irst-hand
accounts and drawing upon the latest
research, David Greentree tells the story of
the glider troops’ dogged defence of the
Allied perimeter at Arnhem, and the Wafen-
SS forces’ eforts to overcome them.T-34 v StuG III
Publisher: Osprey
Author: Steven J
Zaloga
ISBN:
9781472832351
Format: Softback
Price: £13.99In the summer
of 1944, the Red
Army staged
a massive
armoured
assault up the
Karelian Isthmus
with the intent of eliminating any remaining
German and Finnish forces facing the
Leningrad region. Most of the Soviet units
sent into Finland were new to the region,
moving mainly from the ighting in the
Leningrad area. As a result, some had the
latest types of Soviet equipment including
the new T-34-85 tank, ielded alongside the
older T-34-76. Germany refused to sell the
Finns new tanks without a reinforced military
alliance, but in 1943 began selling
them a few dozen StuG III assault guns.
This made the StuG III battalion the
most modern and powerful element
of the Finnish armoured division, and
it saw very extensive combat in the
June-July summer battles. Featuring
specially commissioned artwork and
an array of archive photographs, this
is the absorbing story of the parts
played by Soviet and Finnish armour
in the epic battles in Finland during
June and July 1944.
http://www.ospreypublishing.comPen & Sword
Guns of the Special Forces
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Author: Leigh Neville
ISBN: 978147382106 4
Format: Hardback
Price: £25.00In the years since 9/11
Special Forces of many
nations have been
in almost constant
action in covert,
high risk operations
around the globe.
These include the
two long conlicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,
ighting nationalist insurgents and jihadist
terrorists, as well as other lesser known
operations. The weapons used by SF are a
constant source of interest and speculation,
as are SF training, methods and vehicles.
The armouries of these elite units have
developed rapidly to meet their demands
and the ever more sophisticated threat.
They include for example suppressed
piston-driven carbines, programmable
grenade launchers that airburst behind
hidden enemy and sniper riles of extreme
accuracy and range. This highly researched
book gives the reader a privileged insight
into this secret world exploring the custom-
built weapons that operators carry on
capture/kill missions in the 21st Century.United States Airborne Divisions 1942-2018
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Author: Michael Green
ISBN: 9781473834679
Format: Softback
Price: £16.99In 1942 the 82nd and
101st Airborne Divisions
were formed and three
more followed. 17th
and 92nd and 101st
fought in Sicily, D-Day,
‘Market Garden’ and the Rhine Crossing.
The 11th served in the Far East. The 13th did
not see combat. Only the 82nd survived
the post-war cull. The Screaming Eagles
were reactivated in 1956 and both divisions
served in Vietnam with the 101st becoming
a helicopter delivered ‘airmobile’ division
in 1968 before being re-designated an ‘air
assault’ division in 1974. As this superbly
illustrated book describes, both 82nd and
101st earned their reputations as ‘crack’
divisions at the forefront of US operations and
military interventions, be it Grenada, Panama,
the Gulf Wars and most recently Afghanistan.
Thanks to the Author’s knowledge and
research, this Images of War book gives the
reader a full insight into the battles and the
men and their equipment that have made
these divisions the elite of the US Army.(^) http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
on the side
books
in focus