New Releases by Chris McNab

The 1973 Yom Kippur War rewrote the textbook on the tactics of modern armored warfare. Unlike the previous major Arab-Israeli war of 1967, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) faced an enemy that had invested heavily in modern Soviet weapon systems and tactics. Using detailed colour artwork and insightful analysis, this book explains how the effective use of the Soviet-supplied AT-3 Sagger (9M14 Malyutka) anti-tank missile allowed small Arab tank-killing teams to destroy Israeli armor at an astonishing rate. It also analyses the tank that opposed it, the US-built M60A1, which had to fight for survival against the Arab Saggers, and shows how in both the Sinai and the Golan Heights, the IDF quickly learned that firepower and infantry/artillery cooperation were the keys to their survival.

The battles waged from 476 to 1485 demonstrate the complexity and importance of the medieval era. Combatants included the English, French, Muslims, Mongols, and crusaders, and their victories and failures laid the foundations of modern history. This book brings battles like the Battle of Tours and the Battle of Agincourt into sharp focus, and gives context to the warfare of the Middle Ages.

In the absence of high-tech weapons, warfare in the ancient world was dominated by military commanders with innovative strategies. The strategic thinking of leaders led to some of the most stunning upsets the world has ever seen. Today, the Battle of Marathon or the conquests of Alexander still hold their rightful place among the most daring victories. This book describes the battles, leaders, and technology that cinched success, or ensured defeat.

As explorers, traders, and settlers reached new areas of North America, Native Americans'' way of life came under threat. This volume gives a comprehensive look at the conflicts these tribes faced and the warriors who led them in battle. The book includes maps, full-color photographs, and engaging sidebars that paint a vivid portrait of Native American history.

Perhaps no period of Native American warfare is as familiar as the Powhatan tribe''s fight against British settlers in the early seventeenth century. The stories of Pocahontas, John Rolfe, and Chief Powhatan have been told and retold since that time. However, there are many more key figures from East Coast tribes, including the Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek, who shaped history through battle. This book highlights major conflicts and the warriors who fought to preserve their way of life.

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull are just two of the famous leaders of the plains tribes renowned for their prowess on the battlefield. This book looks at the military accomplishments of tribes living in the Great Plains of the United States and Canada. The book explores the integral role of warriors in Native American culture, describes prominent conflicts and wars, and provides biographical information about the warriors themselves.

The southwest tribes include the Apache, Navajo, and Pueblo. These tribes are known for their art, architecture, and fierceness in battle. This exciting book captures the richness of these tribes'' cultures and provides an in-depth look at the warriors and wars that shaped them.

In Europe, the early modern period lasted roughly from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century. During this time, European nations expanded around the world and clashed in the process. This book demonstrates how successful military campaigns determined the European nations that would become superpowers. The book includes timelines, maps, and full-color photographs to create a vivid portrait of some of history''s most decisive battles.

This exciting volume explores the lives of Native Americans living in what is now Alaska and Canada. Many of these tribes lived in weather conditions that were inhospitable to settlers, at first. The book examines what happened when settlers and traders did make their way north, including the Beaver Wars and the French and Indian War.

By the end of the first week of November 1942, the German Sixth Army held about 90 per cent of Stalingrad. Yet the Soviets stubbornly held on to the remaining parts of the city, and German casualties started to reach catastrophic levels. In an attempt to break the deadlock, Hitler decided to send additional German pioneer battalions to act as an urban warfare spearhead. These combat engineers were skilled in all aspects of city fighting, especially in the use of demolitions and small arms to overcome defended positions and in the destruction of armoured vehicles. Facing them were hardened Soviet troops who had perfected the use of urban camouflage, concealed and interlocking firing positions, close quarters battle, and sniper support. This fully illustrated book explores the tactics and effectiveness of these opposing troops during this period, focusing particularly on the brutal close-quarters fight over the Krasnaya Barrikady (Red Barricades) ordnance factory.

From ships left high and dry after the retraction of the Aral Sea to Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, from a rusting railway graveyard in Bolivia to abandoned World War II cars in a Swedish forest, from aircraft frozen in time in Antarctica to streetcars sidelined in Brooklyn, New York, Abandoned Wrecks explores over 100 fascinating sites from all around the world. Aside from the peculiar beauty of rusting hulks on forgotten battlefields, anemone-covered battleships on the seabed and cars being consumed by forests, the images and text introduce us to unusual stories: how a car standing on its nose in the Nevada desert has inspired an artist into making a design feature from junked cars, a Canadian schooner that sank in 1885 and rests preserved to this day in a harbor in Lake Huron, and a space shuttle left gathering dust in a hangar. With 170 outstanding color photographs of cars, trains, ships, submarines, tanks, aircraft and even a space shuttle, Abandoned Wrecks is a brilliant pictorial work showcasing these battered time capsules and their stories of wars, natural disasters, changing fortunes, tastes and fashions.

In 1974, renowned Belgian arms company Fabrique Nationale brought out a ground-breaking new light machine gun, the Minimi. Its success has been meteoric, arming more than 45 countries around the world. The Minimi offers the ultimate in portable firepower. Firing the high-velocity 5.56×45mm round, the Minimi is a gas-operated, lightweight, belt- or magazine-fed weapon, able to burn through cartridges at a cyclical rate of up to 1,150 rounds per minute, making it the weapon of choice for fire support at squad level. This study uses gripping first-hand accounts and striking combat photographs, following the Minimi to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. It tracks its design and development, as well as investigating what has made it so compelling a choice for armed forces around the world for more than 40 years.

Raids and sieges; trench warfare and air campaigns; guerrilla warfare, naval engagements, and colonial wars—American Battles & Campaigns covers every major campaign and battle fought in North America or by United States’ forces overseas, from the Pequot War of 1634 to the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Arranged chronologically, American Battles & Campaigns: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present includes hundreds of entries, ranging from the 1770 Boston Massacre through the Alamo (1836) and the Philippine-American War (1899–1902), to Chateau-Thierry (1918), Midway (1942) and Hue (1969). Major battles, such as Yorktown, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, and D-Day, are illustrated with full-color annotated 3-dimensional maps and detailed text explaining the course of the engagement. Stuffed with black and white and color photographs, battle maps, paintings and other artwork, American Battles & Campaigns contains expert accounts and analysis from thirty leading military historians.

Mastered by special forces around the world, mental toughness is the ultimate survival skill. With expert advice and illustrations, this book offers essential mental training for any psychological scenario, from coping with stress to resisting Stockholm Syndrome.

With more than 120 black-&-white artworks and with easy-to-follow text, POW Escape and Evasion is for anyone who wants to know how to survive in the most stressful of circumstances and emerge a winner. Presented in a handy, pocket-size format, this is a book you could take with you into the field. And it could save your life.

The story of one of history’s bloodiest and most futile battles, Passchendaele, is expertly related and explained by a leading historian, with detailed illustrations and supplementary facts.

Learn how Native American tribes across North America waged war during European colonization, and how they adapted with things like horses, firearms, and stealth.

The Barrett M82A1 and its derivatives are among the most successful sniping rifles ever manufactured. Now entering its fourth decade of service, the short-recoil, semi-automatic system is capable of firing a devastating .50-caliber round with lethal accuracy over distances of more than 2km. Unconfirmed reports from Afghanistan in 2012 accredit the Barrett with one of history''s longest ever kills at 2,815m. This is the technical history of a rifle initially developed as a sporting firearm, but which evolved into a long-range sniping rifle and a formidable military anti-materiel tool, designed to neutralize everything from enemy vehicles to parked aircraft. Adopted by snipers across the world, the Barrett rifles have seen active service in Operation Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan and have become an important addition to police, armed services, and Special Forces units alike.

The Glock series of handguns represents one of the greatest steps forward in pistol design since the introduction of the Colt M1911. Illustrated with more than 200 artworks and photographs, Glock: The World’s Handgun is an expertly written account of one of the most influential handguns in the world today.

The Solar System examines topics on earth and its surrounding planets, from the sun all the way out to Pluto. Detailed illustrations and clear charts help explain these complicated topics.

How the Universe Works examines topics on the wider universe, from the Milky Way Galaxy to dark matter and the composition of the universe. Detailed illustrations and clear charts help explain these complicated topics.

Exploring Space examines topics on the space exploration, from the first satellites to modern Martian rovers. Detailed illustrations and clear charts help explain these complicated topics.

The focus of this book is a weapon that has literally placed the power of fire in human hands – the man-portable flamethrower. This formidable weapon first saw battlefield use in the hands of German troops during World War I, and went on to arm the forces of many countries in World War II and beyond. Capable of inflicting horrific injuries – or of using up the oxygen supply inside a building, causing the occupants to suffocate – it projected a stream of flammable liquid, which could be ''bounced'' off the interior surfaces of tunnels, buildings and other defended structures to reach deep inside a fortification. From its combat debut to its deployment in Vietnam, Chechnya and elsewhere, the flamethrower has proven to be devastatingly effective, not least because of its huge psychological impact on enemy troops. Yet despite this, the weapon and its operators have always been vulnerable, suffering from a very particular set of limitations, all of which are explored here. Featuring expert analysis, first-hand accounts and a startling array of illustrations and photographs, this is the definitive guide to an extraordinary chapter in the history of military technology.

Who’s going to help you prepare for your next fitness challenge? Extreme Fitness explores different training methods to build strength, speed, agility and endurance, across running, swimming, weight and circuit training and triathlon events. It looks at how special forces maintain peak fitness through diet, rest, and mental fitness.

Fully illustrated with a mixture of dramatic archive photos and manufacturers'' images, this volume covers the little-known history of riot control vehicles. It explores the world of these vehicles from 1945 through to the present day – from adapted military armoured cars such as the Humber Pig (UK) and BRDM (Soviet Union) to the fully computerized systems of the Russian Lavina-Uragan and Canadian INKAS Armored Riot Control Vehicle – showing how their development and deployment has blurred the lines between civilian actions and military operations. It charts how the vehicles have evolved in terms of technology and layout, and also details how the associated weapon systems have been refined over time, from water cannon and tear gas launchers to subsonic sound waves and microwave energy. The operational history of the vehicles is explained in the dramatic context of major incidents across the world, from the streets of Northern Ireland and Eastern Europe to the favelas of Brazil and the battlegrounds of Iraq.

During a time of war, pilots face the risk of being shot down behind enemy lines and captured. For this reason, each pilot receives training to help him endure the stresses of captivity. During an interrogation, this training and the pilot''s own strength and willpower are invaluable. This book discusses many of the techniques used to survive the experience of being in captivity. A captive pilot must be prepared to cope with boredom, resist interrogation, and work as a team with other prisoners. In addition, he must know how to go about escaping if he has the opportunity. Discover: • how some U.S. pilots in Vietnam coped with seven years of imprisonment. • how interrogators try to trick people into talking. • how interrogators are trained to detect lies. • survival techniques during escape. • tracking skills used by escaping pilots and the pursuing enemy.

Elite Special Forces units are often assigned to the most difficult missions. They must be prepared for the challenges they will face. This means being skilled and physically fit, but it also means being mentally tough. During most basic-training programs, recruits will be yelled at by instructors, deprived of sleep, and forced to run for miles. Under these difficult conditions, they will be required to make constant decisions. Only the toughest recruits will graduate, and they need certain traits to make it through: • intelligence • self-control • courage • knowledge • resistance to pain and discomfort • team spirit

When the lives of hostages are on the line, the soldiers of elite hostage-rescue units must act quickly and with skill. In a chaotic situation, soldiers must rely on their training, and each other, to save lives in danger. Take a look at how elite hostage-rescue units operate. Find out about the equipment that elite soldiers use and the training they must undergo. Learn about the different skills elite soldiers use, including: • fast-entry tactics through doors and windows using explosives. • building attacks using assault ladders and mountain-climbing techniques. • rescues from inside an aircraft. • negotiation techniques to calm a situation. • clues that tell when a terrorist is lying.

Passchendaele 1917 is the story of one of the most pitiless and iconic battles of the First World War, known today as Third Ypres. Fought over three tortuous months in 1917, the fighting raged through some of the worst physical conditions of the entire war, across battlefields collapsing into endless mud and blood. Eventually, more than 500,000 casualties bought front-line changes measured only in hundreds of yards. If you truly want to understand what happened and why – read Battle Story.

Airmen and soldiers, knights and pages, gentlemen and rogues: to you we say stiffen your lip and tighten your sword belt! Tie down your trebuchets, wax your moustache and delve into this manliest of manuals, containing everything the well-bred British man needs to know. The Manual for British Men teaches day-to-day skills such as how to besiege a castle, fire a longbow, correctly clean a Maxim machine gun and capture an enemy trench; sporting sciences such as jousting, fencing and boxing (Queensbury Rules, of course); and domestic essentials such as how to hunt, kill, clean and cook a wild boar.