This book by renowned World War II historian Janusz Piekalkiewicz presents the history of the famous German "88" in its ground combat role - a role it mastered. First used by the Legion Condor in Spain, the 88 was soon recongnized as a superb anti-aircraft weapon. When Rommel turned the 88's on British tanks in North Africa its anti-tank capabilities became legendary. Over 200 action and close-up photographs show the 88 gun throughout its us in the Second World War on all fronts. Janusz Piekalkiewicz (1925-1988) was a world-renowned author on many aspects of World War II history. Over 30 of his books are in print including BMW Motorcycles in World WarII, from Schiffer Military History.
The German 88 mm guns became the most famous and feared artillery pieces of the Second World War. They appeared in a whole series of forms ranging from anti-aircraft to anti-tank and tank-guns, including several self-propelled platforms. Although primarily anti-aircraft guns they gained an awesome reputation as anti-tank weapons, a reputation that remains to this day. Terry Gander, in this in-depth, highly illustrated study, tells the story of the 88 from its first manifestations during the Great War to its clandestine development in Sweden, its production in Germany, its first 'multi-role' initiation during the Spanish Civil War and its part in the campaigns of 1939-40. As well as a detailed technical description of the gun and its development, his book features vivid accounts of the 88 in action in many of the main theaters of the Second World War, in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany, and on the Eastern Front.
The acclaimed author and preeminent military historian John Keegan examines centuries of human conflict. From primitive man in the bronze age to the end of the cold war in the twentieth century, Keegan shows how armed conflict has been a primary preoccupation throughout the history of civilization and how deeply rooted its practice has become in our cultures. "Keegan is at once the most readable and the most original of living military historians . . . A History of Warfare is perhaps the most remarkable study of warfare that has yet been written."--The New York Times Book Review.
Few weapons developed a more deadly reputation than the German '88' in the role of anti-tank gun, its long reach and lethal hitting power making it a significant problem for every type of British and later American armour. Despite its individual potency, it was almost always utilized as part of a comprehensive system of defences that relied on a mix of weapons carefully deployed in anticipation of the enemy's likely avenue and method of attack. Used in this way, the 88 became a particularly deadly part of the Afrika Korps' attempts to shatter British armoured power in the Western Desert. Initially extremely successful over the course of 1941 and 1942 in Operations Battleaxe and Crusader, the Allies' tactics and vehicles (such as the American-made M3 and the Crusader III) eventually evolved to deal with the 88's awesome power. This detailed new book tells the story of that evolution and provides an in-depth treatment of this key weapon of World War II.
More than half of the U.S.’s aircraft losses in Europe in World War II were due to German antiaircraft artillery, and many of the American aircraft shot down by Luftwaffe fighters had first been driven out of formation by flak and made easy prey for the fighters. A world away in the Pacific, American flak guns aboard naval ships formed the last line of defense against Japanese kamikazes. Historian Donald Nijboer relies on firsthand accounts, newly discovered files, photos, diagrams, and maps to reveal the forgotten contribution of flak in World War II, from doctrine and tactics to combat stories on the ground and in the air about what it was like to fly into the teeth of antiaircraft fire.
Defying Hitler was written in 1939 and focuses on the year 1933, when, as Hitler assumed power, its author was a 25-year-old German law student, in training to join the German courts as a junior administrator. His book tries to answer two questions people have been asking since the end of World War II: “How were the Nazis possible?” and “Why did no one stop them?” Sebastian Haffner’s vivid first-person account, written in real time and only much later discovered by his son, makes the rise of the Nazis psychologically comprehensible. “An astonishing memoir... [a] masterpiece.” — Gabriel Schoenfeld, The New York Times Book Review “A short, stabbing, brilliant book... It is important, first, as evidence of what one intelligent German knew in the 1930s about the unspeakable nature of Nazism, at a time when the overwhelming majority of his countrymen claim to have know nothing at all. And, second, for its rare capacity to reawaken anger about those who made the Nazis possible.” — Max Hastings, The Sunday Telegraph “Defying Hitler communicates one of the most profound and absolute feelings of exile that any writer has gotten between covers.” — Charles Taylor, Salon “Sebastian Haffner was Germany’s political conscience, but it is only now that we can read how he experienced the Nazi terror himself — that is a memoir of frightening relevance today.” — Heinrich Jaenicke, Stern “The prophetic insights of a fairly young man... help us understand the plight, as Haffner refers to it, of the non-Nazi German.” — The Denver Post “Sebastian Haffner’s Defying Hitler is a most brilliant and imaginative book — one of the most important books we have ever published.” — Lord Weidenfeld
