Search results for ""Author David Grummitt""

It is for good reason that artillery is known as the ‘king of battle’. In World War II the United States made good use of self-propelled howitzers, including those based on the chassis of the M4 Sherman tank. After 1945 the US developed both light and medium self-propelled howitzers, based on the M24 Chaffee, M41 Walker Bulldog and Sherman chassis. The first designs were plagued with problems and self-propelled artillery played only a minor role in the Korean War. By the mid 1960s, however, the M107 175mm, M109 155mm and M110 203mms self-propelled howitzers had entered service, and they proved their effectiveness during the Vietnam War. The M107 was relatively short-lived in US service, being retired in the late 1970s, but it played an important role with the Israel Defence Forces. The M109 served with the US Army, as well as in many NATO armies and elsewhere, and saw action in the Middle East, in the Balkans, during the liberation of Kuwait, and in the invasion of Iraq. The M109 has now been in service for some sixty years and remains, in the guise of the M109A7, the current self-propelled howitzer of the US Army. The larger M110 203mm self-propelled howitzer similarly saw widespread service before it was retired in the early 1990s. Despite the emergence of rocket artillery, such as the Multiple Launch Rocket System, the self-propelled howitzer will remain one of the principal weapons systems of US military in the decades to come. The M107, M109 and M110 have proved popular subjects among modellers with a variety of kits available from the major manufacturers. As well as describing in detail the technical development and operational history of these guns, this book gives a full account of the wide range of modelling kits and accessories available in all the popular scales. Included is a modelling gallery which covers a range of variants and a section of large-scale colour profiles which provide both information and inspiration for modellers and military enthusiasts alike.

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The M60 was a second-generation American main battle tank, the last in the line of Patton tanks that had first been developed at the end of World War. It entered operational service with the US Army in 1960 and some 15,000 M60s were manufactured by Chrysler at the Detroit Tank Arsenal Plant between then and when production ceased in 1983. It served with both the US Army and the US Marine Corps and was the principal tank deployed in Europe in the sixties, seventies and early eighties, providing NATO's main armoured force at the height of the Cold War. It became one of the most widely used armoured fighting vehicles of the twentieth century, serving in the armies of over 25 countries. It continued to serve alongside the M1 Abrams into the 1990s before this venerable Cold War warrior was finally retired from active service with the US military in 1997. This volume charts the development of the M60 from its origins in World War II to the Cold War. It focuses on its service with the US military and other NATO armies, examining its combat service in the First Gulf War and also with other armies in the Middle East. The book gives a full account of the wide range of kits and accessories available in all the popular scales and a modelling gallery features builds covering a range of M60s in service with various armed forces. Detailed colour profiles provide both reference and inspiration for modellers and military enthusiasts alike.

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The Bradley Fighting Vehicle was developed in the 1970s to counter the new Infantry Fighting Vehicles of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. Designed to survive the imagined high-intensity, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) battlefield of the Cold War, it became, alongside the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, the mainstay of US armoured forces during the 1980s. As the Cold War ended, however, it would go on to prove its worth on other battlefields. During the First Gulf War the Bradley would destroy more Iraqi AFVs than the Abrams, while during the 1990s it would prove itself an effective weapons system in the missions to Bosnia and Kosovo. During the 2003 invasion of the Iraq and the fighting that followed it confirmed its reputation as a versatile and deadly AFV. This volumes examines the development and service history of both the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle and the M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. The various modifications and improvements over its long service history are described, as is the experience of the soldiers who have fought alongside and in it during the past three decades. The book also gives a full account of the wide range of kits and accessories available in all the popular scales and includes a modelling gallery covering the most important Bradley variants. Detailed colour profiles provide both reference and inspiration for modellers and military enthusiasts alike.

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The Wars of the Roses (c. 1455-1487) are renowned as an infamously savage and tangled slice of English history. A bloody thirty-year struggle between the dynastic houses of Lancaster and York, they embraced localised vendetta (such as the bitter northern feud between the Percies and Nevilles) as well as the formal clash of royalist and rebel armies at St Albans, Ludford Bridge, Mortimer's Cross, Towton, Tewkesbury and finally Bosworth, when the usurping Yorkist king, Richard III, was crushed by Henry Tudor. Powerful personalities dominate the period: the charismatic and enigmatic Richard III, immortalized by Shakespeare; the slippery Warwick, the Kingmaker', who finally over-reached ambition to be cut down at the Battle of Barnet; and guileful women like Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret of Anjou, who for a time ruled the kingdom in her husband's stead. David Grummitt places the violent events of this complex time in the wider context of fifteenth-century kingship and the development of English political culture.Never losing sight of the traumatic impact of war on the lives of those who either fought in or were touched by battle, this captivating new history will make compelling reading for students of the late medieval period and Tudor England, as well as for general readers.

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Since its introduction in 1981, at the height of the Cold War, the Abrams main battle tank has been one of the most visible and iconic symbols of American military power, and it is the fascinating subject of this heavily illustrated historical and modelling guide in the TankCraft series by David Grummitt. Designed to meet head-on the massed tank forces of the Warsaw Pact, its combat debut in fact came in a different scenario in 1991 during the First Gulf War. Since then it has served in the peace-keeping role in the former Yugoslavia and seen combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. It has gone through a series of modifications and modernizations that see it set to remain the backbone of the US Army until at least 2050. As well as charting the development and combat history of the vehicle, the book is illustrated throughout with colour photos and specially commissioned colour profiles. Five different models, covering the service history of the Abrams, are featured, as is modeller's guide to the existing kits and accessories in the all the popular scales.

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The Stryker interim combat vehicle was a stop-gap measure, designed to meet the needs of the United States to project its military force quickly by air into hotspots around the world. In 2003 it had its baptism of fire in Iraq and has since proved itself an integral part of the US's warfighting capability and now, two decades into its service, the Stryker has been adapted to face the new threat of a resurgent Russia. This volume in the LandCraft series of modelling guides examines the Stryker and LAV III in US, Canadian and New Zealand service. In addition to describing in detail the design, development and operational history of the Stryker and LAV III, David Grummitt gives a full account of the wide range of modelling kits and accessories available and features six builds covering the most important variants. Detailed colour profiles provide both reference and inspiration for modellers and military enthusiasts alike.

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When the Leopard 2, a third-generation main battle tank, first entered service with the Bundeswehr in 1979, at the height of the Cold War, it was indisputably the most advanced and potent tank in the world. During the last four decades it has undergone numerous upgrades and modifications to ensure it remains one of the most powerful tanks operating today. It currently serves with the armies of seventeen nations, from Canada to Turkey and including many European states. The Leopard 2 is also a popular subject for modellers which is why David Grummitt's highly illustrated expert guide is so valuable. As well as describing in detail the Leopard 2's design, development and combat history, he gives a full account of the wide range of modelling kits and accessories available in all the popular scales. Included is a modelling gallery, which features six builds covering a range of Leopard 2s serving with different nations and a section of large-scale colour profiles which provide both reference and inspiration for modellers and military enthusiasts alike.

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The themes of authority and subversion explored in relation to royal power, orthodox religion, and violence and disorder. The essays in this volume explore themes long seen as central to the history of late medieval England and Europe. They examine the strength of opposition to Henry IV's usurpation, the nature and extent of the lollards' resistanceto orthodox religion, and the contrasting causes of violence and disorder in the remote border regions at opposite ends of the country, in Cornwall and in the north-west. Subversion of its authority might be counteracted by a regime which recognized the importance of pageantry to bolster its public profile, while a complex weave of patronage, private interest and dedicated service enabled the Exchequer to function through periods of financial crisis. Relations between the Crown and urban centres, potentially a cause of tension, were eased by an emerging body of professional urban law-officers prepared to act as intermediaries. Contributors: PETER BOOTH, CLIVE BURGESS, KEITH DOCKRAY, ALASTAIR DUNN, PETER W. FLEMING, IAN FORREST, DAVID GRUMMITT, HANNES KLEINEKE, J.L. LAYNSMITH, JAMES LEE, FRANK D. MILLARD, JAMES ROSS, SIMON WALKER.

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