The Paratrooper Training Pocket Manual 1939 45

During World War II, it quickly became apparent that the physical and tactical demands placed upon paratroopers required men of exceptional stamina, courage and intelligence. To create these soldiers, levels of training were unusually punishing and protracted, and those who came through to take their “wings” were a true elite. The Paratrooper Training Pocket Manual 1939–1945 provides an unusually detailed look into what it took to make a military paratrooper during the Second World War, and how he was then utilized in actions where expected survival might be measured in a matter of days. Using archive material from British, U.S., German and other primary sources—many never before published—this book explains paratrooper theory, training, and practice in detail. The content includes: details of the physical training, instruction in static-line parachute deployment, handling the various types of parachutes and harnesses, landing on dangerous terrain, small-arms handling, airborne deployment of heavier combat equipment, landing in hostile drop zones, tactics in the first minutes of landing, radio comms, and much more. Featuring original manual diagrams and illustrations, plus new introductory text explaining the history and context of airborne warfare, The Paratrooper Training Pocket Manual 1939–1945 provides a detailed insight into the principles and practice of this unique type of combat soldier.

Using excerpts from contemporary training manuals, this pocket manual is an insight into the preparation of the troops involved in Operation Overlord. The success of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, depended on thousands of troops carrying out their mission and the seamless coordination of the amphibious landings with paratrooper and glider assaults. The troops not only had to be trained up ready for their own roles, but to work alongside other troops, often coordinating activities and communicating with other troops while in unfamiliar terrain and under fire. This pocket manual brings together excerpts from Allied manuals used in the preparation for D-Day, including amphibious landings and managing beachheads, pathfinder, paratrooper, and glider pilot training, and infantry and armored fighting in the bocage countryside. “Chris McNab is a prolific writer who knows what he is doing, as this book shows; and this volume will fit well with its stable mates.” —War History Online

Presents information from a wealth of training manuals and tactical documents, including diagrams and illustrations. During World War II, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) projected American military might across distances and with destructive force unimaginable just a decade previously. The B-17s and B-24s of the US Eighth Air Force, for example, turned much of Germany’s infrastructure to twisted steel and burnt rubble between 1943 and 1945. B-29 Superfortresses unleashed conventional raids on Japan of even greater area destruction than that created by the atomic bomb attacks (also delivered by USAAF crews). Beyond heavy strategic bombing, US bombers performed a multitude of other tactical roles, including hunting Axis submarines, bombing enemy shipping, low-level runs against precision targets, and providing heavy air support to advancing infantry and armor. While the US bombers dealt out violence, however, they were also prey to a terrifying spectrum of antiaircraft threats, and by the end of the war 88,119 US airmen had died in service. Bomber crews were a world unto themselves, composed of pilots, co-pilots, engineers, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and bombardiers. And each aircraft type had its own unique characteristics and capabilities, from twin-engine B-25 Mitchells designed for strafing and skip-bombing to the four-engine workhorses of the strategic bombing campaign: the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, and B-29 Superfortress. Fighting from the Heavens: Tactics and Training of USAAF Bomber Crews, 1941–45 presents an invaluable collection of material from US wartime manuals, including doctrinal, training, technical, aircraft-specific, and position-specific publications. Through these manuals, the reader gains an insider’s insight into the demands of US bomber warfare, including long-distance navigation, gun-turret operation, formation flying, bomber start-up procedures, and bomb aiming.

Covers all aspect of military engineering from construction through camouflage and booby traps to demolition. Quite simply, without engineers the U.S. Army would have been unable to fight World War II. The men of the Corps of Engineers, with the strength of more than 700 battalions mobilized during World War II, were tasked with every imaginable engineering challenge. In rear areas and back in the United States they built the facilities essential for everyday military life—showers, toilets, barrack blocks, military hospitals, training camps, storage depots, and much more. To keep logistics flowing to the front, they constructed or repaired thousands of miles of roads and bridges, plus built airfields to support Allied strategic and tactical air operations. Engineers also created endless chains of defensive positions, from simple trench systems to complex bunker networks, as well as retrieving damaged vehicles and equipment from still-contested battlefields. Combat engineers, meanwhile, occupied some of the most dangerous frontline roles in the American armed forces. Heavily armed with demolitions and weapons, plus weighed down by engineering tools and even driving armored bulldozers, they were tasked with destroying enemy strongpoints, bridges, equipment, vehicles and many other obstacles to the advance, in both overland and amphibious operations. Clearing the Way: U.S. Army Engineers in World War II brings together an exceptional collection of primary sources from engineering field manuals, technical manuals, and other official publications. They provide a detailed insight into the work and skills of the U.S. Army engineers, including building a field fortification, laying and defusing mines, making a contested river crossing, or camouflaging a defensive position properly. Through these texts, we gain practical insight into the exceptional individuals who often combined first-rate infantry fighting skills with engineering skill and problem-solving ingenuity.

A unique look at American military intelligence during World War II using contemporary manuals and briefings. On December 7, 1941, an imperial Japanese carrier strike force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, taking advantage of what was one of the most profound intelligence failures in US history. Galvanized into action, the branches of the U.S. military subsequently developed one of the greatest, albeit imperfect, intelligence-gathering and analysis networks of the combatant nations, opening an invaluable window onto the intentions of their enemies. The picture of U.S. military intelligence during World War II is a complex one. It was divided between the fields of signal intelligence (SIGINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT), combat intelligence and War Department intelligence, and between numerous different organizations, including the Military Intelligence Division (MID), Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the many intelligence units organic to Army, Navy, Army Air Forces, and Marine Corps. The documents collected in this book reveal the theoretical and practical principles behind wartime intelligence gathering and analysis, from the frontline intelligence officer to the Washington-based code-breaker. They explain fundamentals such as how to observe and record enemy activity and intercept enemy radio traffic, through to specialist activities such as cryptanalysis, photoreconnaissance, prisoner interrogation, and undercover agent operations. The painstaking work of an intelligence operator required a sharp, attentive mind, whether working behind a desk or under fire on the frontlines. The outputs from these men and women could ultimately make the difference between victory and defeat in battle.

A heavily illustrated account of the evolution, design and deployment of dreadnought battleships. When HMS Dreadnought was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1906 this revolutionary new class of big-gun iron-clad warship immediately changed the face of naval warfare, rendering all other battleships worldwide obsolete. The Admiralty realised that as soon as the ship was revealed to the global naval community Britain would be a in race to stay ahead, and so the first dreadnoughts were built in record time. While there were those who regarded the vessel as a triumphant revolution in naval design, the dreadnought initially had its critics, including those who thought its slower, heavier guns left it vulnerable to the secondary armament of other warships. Nevertheless, other countries, notably Germany, and the United States soon began to lay down dreadnoughts. The culmination of this arms race would be the confrontation of the British and German fleets at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 – the greatest clash of naval firepower in history. This book gives detailed insights into the design, operation and combat history of these incredible vessels.

An incredible insight into the origins, training and earliest operations of the special service volunteer soldiers who formed the original units of the world's most famous military force. The Special Air Service was the brainchild of Scots Guards' officer Lieutenant David Stirling, serving with No 8 Commando. He advocated a specially organised, specially equipped and specially trained unit dedicated to the 'unrelenting pursuit of excellence' that could act covertly and operate behind enemy lines to gain intelligence, destroy enemy aircraft and attack their supply and reinforcement routes. The 1st SAS Regiment was officially designated after successful raids against enemy airfields in the Middle East in 1941-1942. In May 1943 a 2nd SAS Regiment was raised in Algeria and would also serve in Sicily and Italy. SAS troopers were at the forefront of the action on D-Day, serving behind the enemy lines, assisting the French Resistance in diversionary attacks and in support of Allied armies. The SAS served with great distinction through 42 significant actions in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany until the end of the war in Europe. This new addition to this bestselling pocket-book series is compiled from wartime and post-war memorandums, manuals and documents. They include unit after-action reports and lecture notes from the centres used to train special services soldiers, gathered from the Liddell Hart Military Archive, National Archives, wartime periodicals and post-war memoirs. The book covers: - training methods - weapons handling - fieldcraft - sabotage training - operations in North Africa and the Middle East (1941–1942), Sicily and Italy (1943) and France (1944–1945)

A fascinating insight into the training of the special service volunteer soldiers who formed the Commandos. Compiled from wartime training manuals and documents, including 1942 reports and lecture notes from the Commando Training Centre at Achnacarry in the Scottish Highlands. Special flocked and fabric feel cover.