Anthony Tucker-Jones

This lavishly illustrated WWII history examines the bitter aerial combat of the Eastern Front through rare wartime photographs and informative text. Though the air war was a major aspect of the Eastern Front conflict, it has long been neglected by historians. Anthony Tucker-Jones’s photographic history offers a vividly detailed introduction to the subject. With more than 150 archival images—most of which have never been published before—this volume examines Stalin’s Red Air Force and Hitlers Luftwaffe, their equipment, and the role they played in supporting the war on the ground. Just before Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin had decimated the leadership of the Red Air Force in a series of purges. Thousands of Russian fighter aircraft were swiftly destroyed in the German Blitzkrieg. But a remarkable recovery followed as the Red Air Force turned the tide against the ravages of the Luftwaffe to wrestle back air superiority by 1944.

The Eastern Front Air War, 1941–1945

The First Indochina War, 1946-1954

Dien Bien Phu

Ian Spring

Take a visual journey through North Africa during the Second World War with Anthony Tucker-Jones and Ian Spring as they chart the path of Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps through a series of stunning, rare color photographs. Taken from Ian Spring’s incredible digital archive of over 32,000 original color photographs dated between 1936 and 1946, more than 250 images in Rommel’s Afrika Korps In Color offer readers a vivid, detailed insight into this German expeditionary force and their long North African Campaign. Fascinating color photographs of German soldiers, weaponry, tanks and aircraft fill these pages, and are balanced by the equally captivating and rare photographs of the people and the landscapes of North Africa. Renowned author and military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones’ remarkable text accompanies Ian Spring’s collection of rare photographs, together making for a highly informative and utterly engrossing read. Rommel’s Afrika Korps In Color affords readers a new way of reading and learning about one of the most unique campaigns in the Second World War, and will stay with them long after they turn the final page.

Rare German Photographs from the Second World War

Rommel's Afrika Korps in Colour

An engaging and detailed study of Winston Churchill's career as a military commander, from his early experiences in Britain's colonial wars, through his battlefield experience in World War I, to his strategic command in World War II. This book examines how in high office he got it both right and wrong. From his earliest days Winston Churchill was an extreme risk taker and he carried this into adulthood. Today he is widely hailed as Britain's greatest wartime leader and politician. Deep down though, he was foremost a warlord. Just like his ally Stalin, and his arch enemies Hitler and Mussolini, Churchill could not help himself and insisted on personally directing the strategic conduct of World War II. For better or worse he insisted on being political master and military commander. Again like his wartime contemporaries, he had a habit of not heeding the advice of his generals. The results of this were disasters in Norway, North Africa, Greece, and Crete during 1940–41. His fruitless Dodecanese campaign in 1943 also ended in defeat. Churchill's pig-headedness over supporting the Italian campaign in defiance of the Riviera landings culminated in him threatening to resign and bring down the British Government. Yet on occasions he got it just right, his refusal to surrender in 1940, the British miracle at Dunkirk, and victory in the Battle of Britain, showed that he was a much-needed decisive leader. Nor did he shy away from difficult decisions, such as the destruction of the French Fleet to prevent it falling into German hands and his subsequent war against Vichy France. In this fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Anthony Tucker-Jones explores the record of Winston Churchill as a military commander, assessing how the military experiences of his formative years shaped him for the difficult military decisions he took in office. This book assesses his choices in the some of the most controversial and high-profile campaigns of World War II, and how in high office his decision making was both right and wrong.

Winston Churchill at War 1895–1945

Churchill, Master and Commander

Previously untold story of armored vehicles in World War II Explains how foreign tanks made the German blitzkrieg of 1939-41 possible and were used in battles like Kursk, the Bulge, and many others Covers tanks, self-propelled guns, assault guns, armored cars, and personnel carriers The prowess of the German panzers is the stuff of legend, but it is not generally known that Hitler stole thousands of British, Czech, French, Italian, Polish, and Soviet tanks and armored fighting vehicles to feed his war machine. At its height, more than 25 percent of the German tank force was of foreign origin. In this fascinating and meticulously researched investigation, Anthony Tucker-Jones tells this hitherto unrecorded story, describing how captured fighting vehicles were reused by the German military throughout World War II.

Germany's Foreign Armor in Action, 1939-45

Hitler's Great Panzer Heist

The Mediterranean Sea became the scene of intense fighting in the air, on land and at sea during the Second World War. It witnessed at least a dozen major campaigns fought over its length and breadth in four-year period. The war was truly multi-national witnessing a clash of arms involving the armed forces of America, Britain, Germany, France and Italy. Despite many setbacks Britain held the keys to the Mediterranean, thanks to its dominance of Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria and the Suez Canal. It took three long years to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa, followed by the invasion of Italy. Complete Allied control of the Mediterranean was finally secured with the Allied landings in the French Riviera in the summer of 1944. In this new text, Anthony Tucker-Jones looks at the way the war was fought across the whole Mediterranean, on its shores, islands, in the air above it and the sea below, to tell the story of an all-encompassing conflict.

From El Alamein to the PO

The Battle for the Mediterranean

In the summer of 1944 the Red Army crushed Army Group Centre in one of the largest offensives in military history. Operation Bagration - launched almost exactly three years after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union - was Stalin's retribution for Hitler's Operation Barbarossa. Earlier battles at Stalingrad and Kursk paved the way for Soviet victory, but as Anthony Tucker-Jones demonstrates in this fascinating study, Bagration ensured that the Germans would never regain the strategic initiative. In one fell swoop the Wehrmacht lost a quarter of its strength on the Eastern Front. And in a series of overwhelming assaults, the Red Army recaptured practically all the territory the Soviet Union had lost in 1941, advanced into East Prussia and reached the outskirts of Warsaw. As he reconstructs this massive and complex battle, Anthony Tucker-Jones assesses the opposing forces and their commanders and gives a vivid insight into the planning and decision-making at the highest level. He recreates the experience of the soldiers on the battlefield by using graphic contemporary accounts, and he sets the Bagration offensive in the wider context of the Soviet war effort. He also asks why Stalin's road to retribution proved to be such a long and bloody one - for the Germans, despite their crippling losses, managed to resist for another ten months.

Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre

Stalin's Revenge

The Soviet T-54/55 is probably the best-known tank of the Cold War, and it was produced in greater numbers that any other tank in history. It first went into service just after the Second World War and over 70,000 were made, and its design was so successful that it even outlasted its successor the T-62. For a generation it formed the backbone of the armored forces of the Warsaw Pact and it was exported all over the world, remaining in the front-line until the 1990s. This photographic history in the Images of War series by Anthony Tucker-Jones is the ideal introduction to it. In over 150 archive photographs and a detailed analytical text, he traces the design and development of the T-54/55 and records its operational history. He describes how it was conceived as a main battle tank, an all-rounder, contrasting with the light, medium and heavy tanks produced in the past, and it proved to be extraordinarily effective. It was as adaptable as it was long-lasting, different versions being produced by China, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania. Its relatively simple design also meant it was easy to maintain even in difficult conditions and it was used by armies across the Third World, in particular in wars in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Somalia. Anthony Tucker-Jones's history of this remarkable armored vehicle will be absorbing reading for tank enthusiasts and a valuable source for modelers.

The Soviet Army's Cold War Main Battle Tank

T-54/55

Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in the south of France in August 1944, is often seen as a sideshow supporting Operation Overlord, the crucial D-Day landings in Normandy. And often the operation is criticized as an expensive diversion of men and equipment from the struggle against the German armies in Italy. Yet, as Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in his new in-depth study, Dragoon and the subsequent Allied advance across southern France were key stages in the liberation of Europe, and the operation had far-reaching political and military ramifications. Controversy dogged the plan from the start. Fierce disagreement among the senior Allied commanders and politicians - in particular between Churchill, Eisenhower and de Gaulle - threatened to weaken the Anglo-American war effort.In vivid detail Anthony Tucker-Jones tells the story of the high-level strategic argument that gave birth to Dragoon, and he looks at the impact of the operation on the direction and duration of the war against Nazi Germany. He also describes the course of the invasion on the ground - the massive logistical effort required, the landings themselves, the role played by the French resistance, and the bitter battles fought against German rearguards as they sought to retain France's southern cities and cover their withdrawal toward the strategic Belfort Gap.

The Liberation of Southern France, 1944

Operation Dragoon

On 30 January 1968 the North Vietnamese communists launched a coordinated surprise attack - the Tet Offensive - across South Vietnam against the South Vietnamese and American armies. Superior firepower eventually crushed the offensive, but it proved to be a major psychological victory for the communists. Anthony Tucker-Jones, in this photographic history of Tet - and of American involvement in the struggle against the forces of the Viet Cong and the regular North Vietnamese army - uses over 180 contemporary images to show all sides of the conflict and to reassess a defining moment in the protracted and bitter campaign against communism in South-East Asia

The Tet Offensive 1968

The Vietnam War

It could be said that the T-34 was the tank that won the Second World War. In total 57,000 were produced between 1941 and 1945. Stalin's tank factories outstripped Hitler's by a factor of three to one, and production of the T-34 also exceeded that of the famed American M4 Sherman. ?Not only did this output swamp German panzer production, the T-34 was a robust no frills war-winning design Ð easy to manufacture and reliable. Its sloping armour was innovative at the time and its wide tracks suited it to off-road warfare. Crucially it required little maintenance in comparison to German tanks, and its chassis was used as the basis for a range of assault guns, the SU-85, SU-100 and SU-122.?Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history of this exceptional armoured vehicle follows its story through the course of the war, from its combat debut against the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa, through the Red Army's defeats and retreats of 1941 and 1942 to the tide-turning victories at Stalingrad and Kursk and on through the long, rapid Soviet advance across Ukraine and Byelorussia to Berlin. ?As well as a range of rare archive photographs and photographs of a surviving example of the T-34, the book features specially commissioned colour illustrations.

The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank

T-34

"In this companion volume to his photographic history of Soviet tanks and armoured vehicles, Anthony Tucker-Jones provides a visual guide to the vast array of aircraft, warships and missiles the Soviet armed forces deployed at the height of the Cold War. Although the superpowers never came to blows, the so-called 'Cold War' was far from cold, with numerous 'hot' proxy wars being fought in Africa and the Middle East. All these conflicts employed Soviet weaponry which has been captured in action in the colour and black-and-white photographs selected for this book. Between the 1950s and 1980s Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries churned out thousands of weapons ready for the Third World War. They also embarked on a technological arms race with NATO in an attempt to counter each new piece of equipment as it appeared. The MiG fighters, the Badger and Backfire bombers, the nuclear submarines have achieved almost iconic status, but, as Anthony Tucker-Jones's book shows, there was much more to the Soviet armoury than these famous weapons. Much of it, despite its age, remains in service with armies, guerrilla forces and terrorist organizations around the world today."

Soviet Cold War Weaponry: Aircraft, Warships, Missiles and Artillery

When the world held its breath It is 25 years since the end of the Cold War, now a generation old. It began over 75 years ago, in 1944long before the last shots of the Second World War had echoed across the wastelands of Eastern Europewith the brutal Greek Civil War. The battle lines are no longer drawn, but they linger on, unwittingly or not, in conflict zones such as Iraq, Somalia and Ukraine. In an era of mass-produced AK-47s and ICBMs, one such flashpoint was French Indochina At the end of the Second World War France sought to reassert its military prestige, but instead suffered humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu in French colonial Indochina. The First Indochina war became a textbook example of how not to conduct counterinsurgency warfare against nationalist guerrillas. Anthony Tucker-Jones guides the reader through this decisive conflict with a concise text and contemporary photographs, providing critical insight into the conduct of the war by both sides and its wider ramifications.The Viet Minh, after resisting the Japanese in Indochina, sought independence for Vietnam from France. The French, with limited military resources, moved swiftly to reassert control in 1945, sparking a decade-long conflict. French defense of Hanoi rested on holding the Red River Delta, making it a key battleground. When the Viet Minh invaded neighboring Laos the French deployed to fight a set-piece battle at Dien Bien Phu, in 1954, but instead were trapped. All relief attempts failed and French defenses were slowly overwhelmed. America considered coming to the garrisons rescue using nuclear weapons, but instead left it to its fate, which set the scene for the Algerian and the Vietnam conflicts.

The First Indo-China War, 1946–1954

'Masterful research, impeccable detail, with a beautifully flowing narrative of which Churchill himself would have been proud.' - Professor Peter Caddick-Adams From his earliest days Winston Churchill was an extreme risk taker and he carried this into adulthood. Today he is widely hailed as Britain's greatest wartime leader and politician. Deep down though, he was foremost a warlord. Just like his ally Stalin, and his arch enemies Hitler and Mussolini, Churchill could not help himself and insisted on personally directing the strategic conduct of World War II. For better or worse he insisted on being political master and military commander. Again like his wartime contemporaries, he had a habit of not heeding the advice of his generals. The results of this were disasters in Norway, North Africa, Greece and Crete during 1940–41. His fruitless Dodecanese campaign in 1943 also ended in defeat. Churchill's pig-headedness over supporting the Italian campaign in defiance of the Riviera landings culminated in him threatening to resign and bring down the British Government. Yet on occasions he got it just right, his refusal to surrender in 1940, the British miracle at Dunkirk and victory in the Battle of Britain, showed that he was a much-needed decisive leader. Nor did he shy away from difficult decisions, such as the destruction of the French Fleet to prevent it falling into German hands and his subsequent war against Vichy France. In this fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Anthony Tucker-Jones explores the record of Winston Churchill as a military commander, assessing how the military experiences of his formative years shaped him for the difficult military decisions he took in office. This book assesses his choices in the some of the most controversial and high-profile campaigns of World War II, and how in high office his decision making was both right and wrong.

"Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in the south of France in August 1944, is seen as a sideshow supporting Operation Overlord, the crucial D-Day landings in Normandy. Often the operation is criticized as an expensive diversion of men and equipment from the struggle against the German armies in Italy. Yet, as Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in his new in-depth study, Dragoon and the subsequent Allied advance across southern France played a central role in the liberation of Europe, and the operation had far-reaching political and military ramifications ... He also recounts the course of the invasion on the ground - the massive logistical effort required, the landings themselves, the role played by the French resistance, and the bitter battles fought against German rearguards as they sought to retain France's southern cities and cover their withdrawal toward the strategic Belfort Gap"--Publisher's website.

The Battle of the Bulge took the Allied armies by surprise in 1944. It was a result of the extraordinary recovery of Hitlers panzer divisions following crushing defeats on the Eastern and Western fronts. In a daring offensive he hoped his panzers would unhinge the American and British push on the Rhine by charging through the Schnee Eifel, thereby prolonging the war. The consequence was one of the best-known battles of the entire conflict, and Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history is the ideal introduction to it. The story is told through a sequence of revealing contemporary photographs and a concise text. They give a sharp insight into the planning and decision-making, the armored forces involved, the terrain and the appalling mid-winter conditions, the front-line fighting and the experience of the troops involved. The armored battle, which was critical to the outcome, is the main focus. Through a massive tank offensive the Germans aimed to cut through the US 1st Army to Antwerp and Brussels, in the process trapping three Allied armies. The confusion and near collapse of the Americans as their defenses were overrun is vividly recorded in the photographs, as is their resistance and recovery as the German spearheads were slowed, then stopped.

Armoured Warfare in the Battle of the Bulge, 1944–1945

In late 1942 Hitler's forces advanced far into the Caucasus in the southern Soviet Union in one of the most ambitious offensives of the Second World War, but this extraordinary episode is often forgotten-it is overshadowed by the disastrous German attack on Stalingrad which took place at the same time. Using over 150 wartime photographs Anthony Tucker-Jones gives the reader a graphic, concise introduction to this remarkable but neglected campaign on the Eastern Front.Operation Edelweiss was designed to seize the oil fields of Maikop, Baku and Grozny. Seen by some as a wholly unnecessary diversion of resources from the critical confrontation at Stalingrad, the assault on the Caucasus aimed to secure oil supplies for the Germans and deny them to the Soviets.As this memorable selection of photographs shows, the Werhmacht came close to success. Their forces advanced almost as far as Grozny, famously raising the Nazi flag over Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in the region, before they were compelled into a hurried withdrawal by the rapid deterioration of the German position elsewhere on the Eastern Front.

Rare Photogaphs from Wartime Archives

The Battle for the Caucasus, 1942–1943

The desperate struggle between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army for Budapest in 1944 and 1945 was as lethal and destructive as any of the urban battles fought during the Second World War. The losses of men and equipment sustained by the Germans were so great that they hastened the collapse of Hitler’s regime. Yet what happened in Budapest is less well remembered today than other flash points in the conflict on the Eastern Front. Anthony Tucker-Jones’s photographic history is a fascinating and graphic introduction to this neglected episode in the closing months of the war. The battle began with Operation Panzerfaust in October 1944 when the Germans seized Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy to prevent his country defecting to the Soviets. Red Army advances then left German and Hungarian units trapped in the city and sparked fifty days of intense fighting. Then in March 1945 Hitler launched Operation Spring Awakening, the reckless final German offensive of the war, designed to recapture Budapest and stabilize the Eastern Front. It failed spectacularly, opening the road to Vienna for the Red Army. The selection of archive photographs gives a sharp insight into every aspect of the fighting in and around Budapest and records the ravaged city the battle left behind.

Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

The Battle for Budapest 1944 - 1945

Tzu Sun

A new illustrated edition of Sun Tzu's classic ancient Chinese meditation on military strategy and human psychology, with a new commentary that highlight its continued relevance for modern readers. Poetic and immensely readable, The Art of War was written 2,500 years ago and the military manual is still relevant today. A fascinating historical document that sheds light on ancient warfare, it is also a profound meditation on human psychology, interrogating the subjects of leadership, self-discipline and self-awareness. This new edition of the classic work is specially designed for modern readers. It includes an insightful introduction to the historical and philosophical context, and is accompanied by explanation and analysis of how Sun Tzu's lessons have been applied in some of the world's most famous battles. Renowned strategists from Field Marshal Montgomery to General Schwarzkopf have cited the book as an inspiration. The ancient text, attributed to Sun Tzu, is divided into 13 chapters that provide a logical and strategic approach to conflict and competition. Each focuses on a different aspect of warfare, including the importance of planning, managing your forces, decision-making, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, the art of deception and understanding the power of information. This edition, featuring more than 28 evocative photographs, offers a new perspective on a classic work and enables new generations to discover The Art of War and find new applications for the wisdom of Sun Tzu.

Anthony Tucker-Jones

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