Search results for ""author philip jowett""

In 1935, Fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), one of just two independent states in Africa at the time. Italy first invaded Ethiopia in 1895 and was driven out by the army of Emperor Menelik II. In 1935, the defensive effort would be led by Emperor Haile Selassie I. Benito Mussolini (the Italian “Duce”) claimed victory in 1936, but the struggle of Selassie and his people against impossible odds won worldwide admiration. This work supplements a concise narrative history of the conflict with more than 600 captioned photos, including detailed coverage of both armies.

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China in the 1910s and 1920s was dominated by a succession of military strongmen who fought with each other for the control of the country. Weak central government meant that provincial governors or Warlords and their personal armies were left to fight over the country. The wars that resulted cost millions of civilian deaths and the death of hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers. In total a staggering 500 wars were fought over a seventeen year period from 1911 to 1928 starting with the fall of the Qing Dynasty and ending with the victory of the Nationalists in 1928. Some of these conflicts involved a few hundred men on each side, while the larger wars involved up to one million men with tanks, armored trains, and aircraft. This book will, for the first time, show in detail the history of the Armies of Warlord China featuring over 600 rare photographs and illustrations. The book also includes color sections on the uniforms, aircraft and awards and medals of the Chinese Warlord Armies.

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The Second World War Italian campaign is often less well remembered than the struggle of the Germans against the western Allies in north-west Europe and against the Soviet Union in the east. But, as this book demonstrates in over 300 photographs, the Italian peninsula was a major theatre of the war in itself. More than a million Allied troops fought there, more than half a million Germans and Italians; there were over 600,00 casualties and well over 100,000 dead. The soldiers of many nations took part - Americans, Australians, Brazilians, British, Canadians, French, Germans, Greeks, Indians, Italians, Poles, South Africans - in a gruelling and protracted sequence of battles across rocky, mountainous terrain that made a mockery of Churchill's description of it as the soft underbelly' of occupied Europe. Every stage of the campaign is represented in the photographs - from the Allied landings in Sicily in 1943, through the tenacious defence by the Germans of a series of fortified lines as the Allies struggled north, to the final Allied advance across the Po in April 1945 and the German surrender. As well as showing the soldiers on all sides and the towns and Italian landscapes in which the fighting took place, the photographs record the appalling devastation the warfare left in its wake.

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The Chinese Nationalist Army was at war almost continuously from 1931 until 1949 fighting first against the invading Japanese Imperial Army until 1945. This was followed by a four year civil war in which the Nationalist Army fought the Chinese Communists until its final defeat in 1949. Millions of Chinese soldiers fought and died during this eighteen years of conflict and their sacrifice has been largely overshadowed by the events of the Second World War. This new book presents in a large number of period images the history of the Chinese Nationalist Army and its campaigns.

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From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, a multitude of military and civil-defence forces strove to support the Japanese war effort and latterly prepared to defend the Home Islands against invasion. During World War II, Japan was the world’s most militarized society and by 1945 nearly every Japanese male over the age of 10 wore some kind of military attire, as did the majority of women and girls. In this volume, Philip Jowett reveals the many military and civil-defence organizations active in wartime Japan, while specially commissioned artwork and carefully chosen archive photographs depict the appearance of the men, women and children involved in the Japanese war effort in the Home Islands throughout World War II.

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With decades of research to draw from Philip Jowett explores this extraordinary David-and-Goliath conflict, where the rag-tag Igbo tribal army of secessionist Biafra faced off against the Nigerian Federal forces. It was an African war that captured the attention of the western media, with individual commanders such as Biafran leader Colonel Ojukwu and Federal Colonel Adekunle becoming familiar figures across the globe. The Nigerian forces easily outnumbered their opponents and benefitted from British and Soviet equipment, yet against all the odds the Biafrans held out for two and a half years, inflicting many setbacks on the Federal forces before their eventual surrender in 1970. Specially commissioned artwork and historical photos, including some from respected Italian war photographer Romano Ganoni, reflect the diverse array of uniforms and equipment on both sides, with images ranging from Sandhurst-educated officers in immaculate uniform to ragged militiamen armed with World War II kit.

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The Norwegian campaign, fought in 1940, early in the Second World War in Europe, is overshadowed by the campaign in Poland that preceded it and the German blitzkrieg in the Low Countries and France that followed, yet it was a close contest from the military point of view and it had a far-reaching impact on the rest of the war. Philip Jowett's photographic history is a vivid introduction to it. In a concise text and a selection of over 150 photographs he traces the entire course of the fighting in Norway on land, at sea and in the air. He describes how important it was for the Allies -the Norwegians, British and French -to defend northern Norway against the Germans, in particular to retain control of the strategic port of Narvik. The book documents in fascinating detail the troops involved, the aircraft and the large naval forces, and gives an insight into the main episodes in the conflict including the struggle for Narvik and the major clashes at sea which culminated in the loss of the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier Glorious. The photographs are especially valuable in that they show the harsh conditions in which the fighting took place and offer us a direct impression of the experience of the men who were there.

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This volume in the Images of War series is the first photographic history of the Chinese Civil War, fought between Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists and the Communists of Mao Tse-tung, which decided the future of modern China. A selection of over 200 archive photographs, many of which have not been published before, depict the battle for power that took place across the breadth of the country. The armies, air forces and navies of the opposing sides are shown in a sequence of graphic images, as is the ordeal of the long-suffering Chinese civilians who were caught up in a conflict that cost millions of lives. A detailed accompanying text by Philip Jowett describes the make-up of the Nationalist and Communist forces, their contrasting strategies, tactics and leadership. The contemporary photographs give an insight, as only photographs can, into the conditions faced by the soldiers and their experience of the struggle. His work provides a concise introduction to a pivotal conflict that has left an indelible mark on the China of today. It will be fascinating and informative reading for anyone who is keen to understand Chinas recent past and the military history of the twentieth century.

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From the Banana Wars of the early 20th century through to the Football War of 1969, South and Central America has been a hotbed of revolutions, rebellions and conflicts as diverse as they are numerous. Some were small-scale affairs involving the poorly armed forces of Central American armies with rifles, machetes and a few aged machine guns. Others were full-scale conflicts involving sophisticated armies equipped with tanks, artillery and aircraft, and hundreds of thousands of troops. These wars often went largely unreported in the West, which was preoccupied with its own problems in fighting two world wars and dealing with Cold War tensions. Fully illustrated with a wealth of rare photographs, this fascinating story sheds light on seven decades of a continent in conflict that is rarely covered in English.

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When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in late 1939, what transpired was a true “David and Goliath” conflict. When Finland refused a number of Soviet demands, including the ceding of substantial border territories ostensibly to enable the Soviets to protect Leningrad, the Soviets responded by launching an invasion. The invasion involved a large Soviet army, with several thousand tanks, and a large air force.But to the world's surprise the Finnish Army - many of them reservists without proper uniforms and limited ammunition - and Air Force battled overwhelming odds, and managed to resist Russian attacks for over two months, inflicting serious losses. Geography played its part as much of the Finnish-Soviet border was impassable, meaning that Soviet numerical superiority was of less import. Operating in the winter, with temperatures ranging as low as -43F, the Finns’ determined resistance won them international reputation. Although hostilities finally ended in a peace treaty that saw Finland cede 9% of its territory, Soviet losses had been heavy, and Finland retained its sovereignty.This fully illustrated text will cover the forces involved and all stages of the Winter War.

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The battle for Burma during the Second World War was of vital importance to the Allies and the Japanese. The Allies fought to protect British India and force the Japanese out of Burma; the Japanese fought to defend the north-west flank of their newly conquered empire and aimed to strike at India where anti-British feeling was growing stronger. Yet the massive military efforts mounted by both sides during four years of war are often overshadowed by the campaigns in Europe, North Africa, the Pacific and China. Philip Jowett, using over 200 wartime photographs, many of them not published before, retells the story of the war in Burma in vivid detail, illustrating each phase of the fighting and showing all the forces involved - British, American, Chinese, Indian, Burmese as well as Japanese. His book is a fascinating introduction to one of the most extreme, but least reported, struggles of the entire war. The narrative and the striking photographs carry the reader through each of the major phases of the conflict, from the humiliation of the initial British defeat in 1942 and retreat into India and their faltering attempts to recover the initiative from 1943, to the famous Chindit raids behind Japanese lines, the Japanese offensive of 1944 and their disastrous retreat and ultimate defeat.

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This final book in our three-volume series on WWII Italian Army organisation, uniforms and equipment covers the division of Italy's forces after the Armistice of 1943. Many units were raised by Mussolini's RSI to fight on beside the Germans, with entirely new and often impressive uniforms. Others joined and were equipped by the Allies; and simultaneously, a bitter civil war pitched Fascist security units against the partisan bands of the large and diverse pro-Allied guerrilla movement

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During the Japanese occupation of large parts of Asia and the Pacific in 1941–45, Japan raised significant numbers of troops to fight alongside them, as well as militias to guard their conquests. The total number of these soldiers is estimated at no fewer than 600,000 men. These ranged from the regular troops of Manchukuo (200,000 men), Nanking China (250,000), Thailand, and recruits from the 'puppet' Burmese Independence Army (30,000) and Indian National Army (40,000), to constabularies and spear-wielding militias in the Philippines (15,000), Borneo, Indonesia and New Guinea. Many of the recruits from former European colonies hoped for independence as part of the 'Greater East-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere' proclaimed by Japanese propaganda, but Japan's intentions were entirely cynical. They formed alliances to deny the Allied powers access to territory that they could not actually occupy, and raised these large numbers of auxiliary troops to relieve the manpower burden of occupation, or simply as 'cannon-fodder'. This extensively researched study examines each of these armies and militias in detail, exploring their history and deployment during World War II, and revealing the intricacies of their arms and equipment with stunning full-colour artwork and previously unpublished contemporary photographs.

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At its peak the Italian Army contributed 2.5 million troops to the Axis war effort. English-speaking readers tend to think of this army in terms of the North African campaign; but far more Italian troops served in other theatres. They invaded, and later bore the major burden of occupying, the Balkan countries; and Italy sent 250,000 troops to fight on the Russian Front. In this, the first of a three-part study, Philip Jowett covers the European theatre including Russia from 1940 to Italy's armistice with the Allies in 1943. Many interesting uniforms, a number of them new to most readers, are meticulously illustrated by Stephen Andrew.

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This study explores the organization, history and uniforms of the Soviet Red Army during the 20 years between its victory in the Civil War and the invasion of the USSR by Germany in 1941. The two decades following the Bolshevik victory over the 'Whites' in the Russian Civil War saw widespread and fundamental developments for the Red Army. Nevertheless, these still left it largely unready to face Germany’s Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. Having been reduced in size and planning for modernization, the Red Army of the 1920s was employed to ruthlessly crush anti-Bolshevik opposition (real or suspected) in several regions of the USSR, notably Ukraine and Central Asia, and to fight a brief border war against Chinese Manchuria. During the 1930s, Stalin virtually 'beheaded' the army by a needless series of murderous purges of the officer class; despite this, the Red Army was victorious in clashes against Imperial Japan in the Nomonhan region in 1938–39, where General Zhukov earned his spurs. Simultaneously, the Soviet Union sent instructors and pilots to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany allowed Stalin to take over half of Poland in September 1939; but a few months later his 'Winter War' against Finland demonstrated serious inadequacies in the Red Army's readiness for modern warfare, which would be shockingly confirmed in the first days of Operation Barbarossa. Using rare photos and detailed colour artwork, this study explores the interwar history of the Red Army, describing its campaigns, organization and uniforms, and focusing on the 20 years between its victory in the Civil War and the invasion of the USSR by Germany in 1941.

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This is a comprehensive guide to the armies that fought a devastating and decisive conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean between the two World Wars of the 20th century. From the initial Greek invasion, designed to "liberate" the 100,000 ethnic Greeks that lived in Western Turkey and had done for centuries, to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's incredibly efficient formation of a national government and a regular army, this was a war that shaped the geopolitical landscape of the Mediterranean to this day. It gave birth to the modern Turkish state, displacing millions and creating bitter memories of atrocities committed by both sides. Augmented with very rare photographs and beautiful illustrations, this ground-breaking title explores the history, organization, and appearance of the armies, both guerilla and conventional, that fought in this bloody war.

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