1/144 ZiL-131 Variants from Armory Models Group

Next and upcoming releases 1/144 ZiL-131 Variants from Armory Models Group.

AR14802 - 1/144 ZiL-131 KUNG shelter - plastic injected kit w/ resin & PE parts

AR14803 - 1/144 ATZ-4-131 fuel refueler - plastic injected kit w/ resin & PE parts

Armory Models Group

Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944

The great airborne battle for the bridges in 1944 by Britain's Number One bestselling historian and author of the classic Stalingrad 'Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War . . . his fans will love it' - Robert Fox, Evening Standard 'The eye for telling detail which we have come to expect from Antony Beevor. . . this time, though, he turns his brilliance as a military historian to a subject not just of defeat, but dunderhead stupidity' Daily Mail On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle. It looks into the very heart of war. 'In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character' - Ben Macintyre, The Times 'Complete mastery of both the story and the sources' - Keith Lowe, Literary Review 'Another masterwork from the most feted military historian of our time' - Jay Elwes, Prospect Magazine 'The analysis he has produced of the disaster is forensic' - Giles Milton, Sunday Times 'He is a master of his craft . . . we have here a definitive account' - Piers Paul Read, The Tablet

Futile Exercise? The British Army's Preparations for War 1902-1914

According to the official historian Brigadier-General James Edmonds: ‘In every respect the Expeditionary Force of 1914 was incomparably the best trained, best organized, and best equipped British Army which ever went forth to war’. There has been considerable debate over the extent to which Edmonds’ claim was justified, and to which the British Army had learnt the lessons of recent events (above all, its chastening experiences in South Africa). Conventional wisdom has it that the British Army in 1914 was utterly unprepared for the development of trench warfare from October 1914 onwards, and that it took many lives and a costly ‘learning curve’ for the British to come to terms with the new conditions of warfare. Given that war was expected in the decade before August 1914 - and that a great deal of time and money was spent preparing for that war - it seems obvious to ask why the British Army was not better prepared for the war when it came. This raises important issues about how armies learn from their experiences and how they prepare for the unknowable - namely, a war - without employing bullets and shells. How realistic and useful were the exercises and manoeuvres the British Army used in the period between the end of the Boer War in 1902 and the outbreak of war in August 1914? The approach of most historians has been either to ignore them, or to dismiss them as a waste of time and money. The manoeuvres carried out between 1902 and 1913 featured large forces – sometimes as many as 45,000 men and 12,000 horses – as well as guns, trucks, trains and the first sizeable force of military aircraft ever employed in Britain. Many of the names later familiar from the Western Front were involved – Haig, French, Rawlinson and Allenby – as well as a great many of the troops who would cross to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in August 1914. Their efforts were witnessed by large crowds, as well as politicians, representatives of foreign armies and journalists (some of them ‘embedded’ with army units); there was comprehensive and opinionated coverage in the newspapers of the time.

What lessons were learnt, what value did these manoeuvres have and how do they relate to the events of the war - especially, its opening months? How does the British experience compare with those of the continental armies, who also made extensive use of manoeuvres in this period?

Air War Over the Putumayo: Colombian and Peruvian air operations during the 1932-1933 conflict

During 1932, the occupation of the Colombian towns of Leticia and Tarapacá by Peruvian troops and civilians, in the Amazon region, led to a conflict that almost ended in a total war between both countries.

Aviation played an important role on both sides, due to the complicated jungle environment, which makes any land movements almost impossible. After some ground and air combats, a ceasefire was agreed and the conflict was resolved.

But the war over the Putumayo area became the baptism of fire for the Peruvian and Colombian air forces, leading, in the second case, to the development of its military aviation, which was almost non-existent in 1932. For Peru, the result of the conflict was also a rearming process, which proved important when in 1941 it entered into war with Ecuador.

This book is supported by a large number of rare and previously unpublished images, and specially commissioned colour profiles showing camouflage and markings.

For Orange and the States: The Army Of The Dutch Republic, 1713-1772, Part I: Infantry

The Dutch Republic was one of the great European powers during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Generally, the Dutch Republic was considered to have lost that status after the 1713 Peace of Utrecht; however, when the Republic entered the War of Austrian Succession in 1740, it was able to field an army of over 80,000 men.

This expanded to over 110,000 men during the war, demonstrating that the Republic was still a European power to be reckoned with. The losses suffered in that conflict led to a period of decline, which in the end would result in the end of the Republic in 1795. But despite the years of neutrality, shortages, budget cuts and reorganizations, the army was still quite a formidable force. The purpose of this book is to focus on the uniforms and organisation of that army, from the Peace of Utrecht until the reforms of 1772.

The army of the Dutch Republic is a subject that sounds familiar, but is yet greatly undiscovered; little of it is known, unlike the armies of Britain, France, Prussia, and even the lesser powers like Sweden and Denmark. Historical sources of it, be it surviving items of uniform and equipment or paintings and prints, are unfortunately scarce. This study brings to light much material previously-unseen.

Odessa 1941-44: Defense, Occupation, Resistance and Liberation

After a brief overview of the origins and development of the city of Odessa on the Black Sea Coast, author Nikolai Ovcharenko turns to its citizens’ ordeal during the Second World War.

In the process, he describes the heroism of the city’s defenders and residents in the summer of 1941 on the land, sea and in the sky, when defending against insistent Romanian attacks. Exploiting the numerous estuaries on the Black Sea coastline, which served as natural defensive lines, under the weight of numerically superior Romanian forces, Odessa’s defenders successively, fell back into the city of Odessa itself. Once the situation became critical, a valiant counterattack in part with naval infantry gained valuable space and time for Odessa.

Eventually, at a time when German forces had advanced far to the east and were approaching the critical naval base of Sebastopol in the Crimea, the decision was made to evacuate the remaining Soviet forces from Odessa. There ensued more than two years of occupation and underground resistance; the partisans and activists made use of the extensive catacombs underneath the city of Odessa. The occupiers scored successes against the underground movement, which Ovcharenko details in succeeding chapters using contemporary newspapers and interviews with surviving eyewitnesses, but were never able to stamp out resistance completely.

Finally, in the spring of 1944, Odessa was liberated by forces of the advancing Third Ukrainian Front. Ovcharenko describes this offensive against forces of the resurrected German Sixth Army.

The Complete Player's Guide is Back in Stock from The Wargaming Company

The Complete Player's Guide is Back in Stock from The Wargaming Company.

The Complete Player's Guide

The Wargaming Company