Perhaps the greatest book ever written about war. Oppression soldier von Clauswitz had witnessed at first hand the immense destructive power of French Revolutionary armies which swept across Europe between 1792 and 1815. His response was to write a comprehensive text covering every aspect of warfare - a philosophical and practical work with highly controversial passages. His arguments are illustrated with vivid examples from the campaigns of Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. Abridged and with an Introduction by Louise Willmot. Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction and Notes by Agnes Cardinal, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent. 373 page paperback.

Irish troops had fought for Louis XIV in the 1670s and took part in most of the major conflicts of the time including the Wars of the 1670s, the Nine Years War, the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and in the Americas. Their many battles included Neerwinden, Steenkirke, Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ramillies and Malplaquet; Fontenoy, Culloden and York Town. They served alongside the French Army until the French Revolution. They fought in French service initially under Charles II but then in exile as James II lost his throne. The links between the regiments and the characters that form the core of the story are outlined and discussed and the Irish Brigade went on from becoming just another 'foreign' regiment to an elite formation. Ironically, while supporting the Jacobite cause, their link with the French enemy helped solidify the position of the English crown. They were sent to France under Lord Mountcashel in 1689. With the fall of Limerick in 1691, Patrick Sarsfield led the second 'flight' of 'Wild Geese' to the continent to fight in a war for the French, against the Grand Alliance of Europe, in the vain hope that their loyalty might warrant French support in a return to Ireland under a Stuart king. D. P. Graham explains the origins of the brigade and its regiments, the personalities who led them and formed their reputation, and the circumstances of their final dissolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution. 472pp.

A companion to 91574 Black Swan Class Sloops, this volume is devoted to a ship best known for her demise, one of three sisters sunk in a matter of hours by a single U-boat in 1914. When first designed, Cressy and her sister ships were highly original, representing a novel concept that anticipated the battlecruiser and pointed the way to a line of sequentially improved armoured cruiser classes. As such they warrant more attention than is usually accorded them, and this volume details many of their interesting features and innovations. Including spectacular large gatefolds, here are the detailed original builders' technical plans, annotated and labelled drawn in multi-coloured inks and showcasing such features as a 24 inch electric light projector, the arrangement of submerged torpedo room, belt armour, fore and aft bridges, the lower deck as fitted and arranged of wood and corticene decks, the arrangement of ventilation, magazine cooling arrangements and the ship?s profile. The very gentle sheer of the Upper and Main Decks can be seen, as can the form of the 'cruiser' stern. The lower part of the hull is dominated by the propellors and rudder. The space on the Protective Deck was used for storage, with the captain's living space on the Upper Deck. The text and plans are copyright of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, in spectacular 2020 first edition publication by Pen & Sword. 128 very large pages, colour diagrams and plans throughout.
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Widely regarded as the Rolls Royce of Second World War convey escorts, heavily armed and superbly equipped for their role, the Black Swan Class of sloops and their modified derivatives were among the most effective anti-submarine ships of the Battle in the Atlantic. The design was gradually improved, and this book uses plans of four selected ships to chart that development in detail. They comprise of the original group Black Swan as built, and Flamingo as Modified post-war, and of the Modified Class Starling, the single most successful U-boat hunter of the war, shown as in 1943, and Amethyst, as refitted in 1950 after her clash with Chinese Communists on the Yangtze. The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the 'As Fitted' general arrangements, these drawings documented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. They were very large, more than 12 feet long for capital ships, highly detailed, annotated and labelled and drawn with exquisite skill, often in multi-coloured inks and washes. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, they represent the Acme of the draughtsman's art. Today these plans form part of the incomparable collection at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich which uses the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality. This book is one of a series based entirely on these draughts depicting famous warships - complete sets in full colour with many close up and enlargements and extensive captions. The companion to code 91573 Armoured Cruiser Cressy. 128 very large pages including a spectacular gatefold, colour. A Pen & Sword lavish publication.
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Wargaming with a difference, designed for 2-4 players aged 12 to adult, the game will take approximately 45 minutes on a board which when opened measures 25.5cm square. The game takes players to the very heart of what it would have been like to be a Commanding Officer in the trenches of Flanders. At every move you must make decisions that will determine the fate of the men you command. Your troops must face bombardment from the enemy's artillery, tanks and airplanes. How many men will you risk on a particular course of action? A game of strategy, the 54 playing cards are tastefully designed in colour featuring barbed wire, machine guns, infantry, Flying Circus, tanks, zeppelin balloons etc. 40 troop pieces, eight player pieces in primary colours, three dice and one Rules set. Box measures 25.5cm square.

The Brutal Truth of Campo 21, 1942-1943 is the sub-title. As Rommel began to achieve Axis victories in north Africa, thousands of Allied POWs were transferred to camps in mainland Italy. An estimated 35,000 prisoners were taken after the Allied defeat at Tobruk, with the result that conditions in the camps were notoriously insanitary and overcrowded, with Campo 21 at Chieti one of the most degrading. In spite of that, the POWs kept up the tradition of maintaining morale with attempts to escape, organised sport and theatrical entertainments. Superficially the camp looked modern to the new arrivals but they found it was structurally unsound with primitive sanitary systems and the water supply frequently non-existent. The security officer in the camp, Captain Mario Croce, was soon identified as a vindictive gaoler, while the camp commandant, Barela, was a keen Fascist. The first Commandant personally beat up one recaptured escaper. A pilot was murdered by an Italian guard following his escape attempt. The British Lieutenant Jack Hodgson was a talented artist and his drawings of the camp, many of which are reproduced here, give us an unparalleled insight into what it was really like, while the cartoonist Gordon Horner has left us impressions of the personnel. Among the early intake Tony Maxtone Graham became chairman of the Dramatic Society. He was family man who missed his wife, author of the wartime Mrs Miniver books, and three children, though the marriage did not survive the war. The musician Anthony Baines recreated the score of HMS Pinafore from memory for the prisoners to perform, and sport was also a major distraction, with England Cricketer Bill Bowes and rugby international Tony Roncoroni leading the field. Amateur dramatics not only gave the prisoners a focus for their lives but also provided camouflage for escape attempts, with the wardrobe section creating German uniforms and the timber for scenery used for shoring up tunnels. The first uniformed escape was by Joseph Farrell, who had good Italian but was caught on the railway without a ticket. Subsequent attempts became ever more sophisticated, with one notable break being made by an officer who impersonated Captain Croce himself. 251pp, photos.

The bayonet is essentially a knife fixed to the end of a gun, used for charging the enemy when firepower fails. There is something chilling about the order to "fix bayonets", heralding as it does uncompromisingly brutal hand to hand fighting, but there was bayonet warfare in the Falklands conflict and in Afghanistan in the 21st century. Norris draws on personal accounts of soldiers using bayonets in combat from the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars, various Colonial campaigns, through the World Wars. The bayonet originated in the French city of Bayonne and was introduced into military service in 1647. The earliest bayonets were of the plug type, with tapering handles capable of being fitted into the mouth of a musket when needed. When King Charles II was restored to the throne of England he placed an order for 500 bayonets, until then almost unknown this side of the Channel. The muskets in service, however, were not in good repair and the insertion of a bayonet tended to split the metal, so adjustments were made to allow the bayonet to be inserted through rings on a flintlock rather than into the muzzle. The bayonet also proved an effective intimidatory measure while soldiers were reloading, given that it added an extra 12 inches to a musket barrel already five foot long. In the 18th century the blade was now triangular in section and the bayonet itself was fitted with a Z-shaped slot that prevented it from falling off. The British faced French forces in the American War of Independence, but had to yield before their superior musket and bayonet technique. At Waterloo in 1815 the bayonet was effective in breaking up the enemy lines at the end of the battle. During World War I each of the three main belligerents had their own bayonet design, and today's contemporary bayonets are produced to exacting metalworking standards. 209pp, white photos.

Set contains films one to nine on three DVDs - The Gathering Storm, Hitler Strikes East and Turning The Tide. DVDs. These nine films have a total running time of 450 minutes of colour footage.

Soar with straight-wing jets and swept-wing fighters through the sky between 1944 and 1954. Through nearly 200 archive photographs, this book traces the development of British and American jet fighters over a decade, from the end of the Second World War to the advanced designs which were key during the Korean War. Admire the first operational Meteor squadron 616, which was introduced in July 1944, proving to be an adaptable airframe and produced in several versions, including a two-seater trainer, a photo reconnaissance vehicle and a night fighter. Read about how the onset of the Cold War and the threat of Soviet bombers armed with nuclear weapons pushed the United States to transform its 'virtually non-existent' air defence system, developing an interim jet all-weather fighter which supplemented the F-89 Scorpion. But the greatest assets for this book are the hundreds of photos of planes during the period, each accompanied by a detailed description. The book displays a publicity photo of an F-84E Thunderjet at Elgin in 1953 which carried two Tiny Tim 500lb warhead rocket bombs as well as 24 five-inch HVAR (although the normal operational load for this plane would only have been 16 HVAR). Study a shot of the Supermarine Type 508 prototype flying low at Chilbolton during early trials in 1951 with its clean lines and Vee tail. There is also a stunning image of a modified Meteor F.4 in September 1946 which raised the World Air Speed Record to 616mph, beating the F.3 model from November 1945 which flew at 606mph. Marvel also at a fantastic bird's eye view of a wartime Essex class carrier at sea with jets resting on it and note that, in 1953, the carrier USS Antietam was the first to incorporate the British concept of an angled. Paperback, black and white photographs, 134pp.

Stowed away on the top of a train, 20 year Wim Aloserij escapes the obligatory work camps in Nazi-ruled Germany in 1943. The young man from Amsterdam then goes into hiding on a farm, sleeping for months in a wooden chest hidden underground, but it's not to last. In the cover of night Wim is captured during a raid and transported to the infamous Gestapo prison in Amsterdam. There he is thrown into the nightmare of the Holocaust and transported into Camp Amersfoort, the first of three concentration camps he must endure. 'Welcome to paradise' the SS guard had mumbled as he handed Wim a small stack of clothes and a buttoned-up sack of jangling items. He saw they had been stamped with the number 6178. As the victim of an alcoholic and abusive father, he is forced to adapt quicky and urgently to his hellish surroundings. However it is with the end of the war in sight that Wim must draw on every last strength he has when he finds himself caught in the very centre of Allied-Nazi crossfire. In the final days of the war he was bombed while aboard a Nazi prison boat and at the age of 94 finally felt ready to tell his incredible story which he had kept secret for most of his life. 324pp.