STEVEN ZALOGA

La invasión alemana de Polonia, el 1 de septiembre de 1939, inició la Segunda guerra Mundial en Europa. En ella se enfrentó el recién modernizado ejército de la mayor potencia industrial europea con el ejército polaco, mucho más reducido, y se mostró al mundo una nueva forma de hacer la guerra: la Blitzkrieg (guerra relámpago). Las divisiones Panzer fuero nal punta de la lanza del asalto alemán y los bombarderos en picado Stuka sembraron el terror y el caos./ Este libro demuestra que el ejército polaco no estaba tan atrasado como se ha dicho tantas veces y que su parque de carros de combate era mayor que el del ejército estadounidense de la época. Su empecinada defensa dio a los alemanes algunas sorpresas y les causó unas bajas relativamente altas para una campaña tan corta.

En su flanco occidental, los desembarcos aliados del Día D combinaron el salto de las DivisionesAerotransportadas 82 y 101 con un asalto anfibio en la playa de Utah a cargo de la 4a División de Infanteria de EstadosUnidos; este ultimo tuvo lugar en el sitio equivocado, pero encontro una debil resistencia alemana. Los combates masfuertes se produjeron en el interior, donde los dispersos paracaidistas se reunieron en pequeños grupos y fueron a porsus objetivos. Este libro repasa la historia de la playa de Utah, la forma en que la infanteria avanzo presionandohasta que enlazo con los paracaidistas en una cabeza de playa de ocho kilometros de profundidad. Tras cumplir esteobjetivo, podia empezar la batalla por la ruptura y la toma del puerto de mar de Cherburgo.

The first deployment of the V-1 was in June 1944 when, following two years of tests, Hitler gave the order to attack England. Known to the Allies as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, the V-1 was the world's first cruise missile. This book explores the V-1 in detail, from its initial concept, first use in 1944, the various Allied counter-measures, and the later use of the V-1 during the Battle of the Bulge. The major foreign derivatives, including the US copy JB-2 Loon and numerous post-war Soviet variants, are also covered.

The US Army's development of the 37mm anti-tank gun began in response to needs identified during the Spanish Civil War. By the time it entered service in Tunisia in 1943, the gun was already obsolete, and the US began the licensed manufacture of the British 6-pdr in the hope of finding a quick solution to its artillery requirements. This in turn proved unequal to the demands of warfare in France in 1944, and further anti-tank measures were developed - rocket propelled grenades for infantry use, and weapons designed specifically for use by the Tank Destroyer Force.

The North African campaign of November 1942-May 1943 was a baptism of fire for the US Army. After relatively straightforward landings, the US II Corps advanced into Tunisia to support operations by the British 8th Army. Rommel, worried by the prospect of an attack, decided to exploit the inexperience of the US Army and strike a blow against their overextended positions around the Kasserine Pass. However, the Germans were unable to exploit their initial success, and later attacks were bloodily repulsed. The fighting in Tunisia taught the green US Army vital combat lessons, and brought to the fore senior commanders such as Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley.

The T-34-85 tank is one of those rare weapons that have remained in service for more than half a century. First introduced in 1944, it has seen combat in nearly every corner of the globe. Steven Zaloga and Jim Kinnear look at this long-serving tank at length. Although long obsolete in Europe, it has proven a reliable and potent weapon in many Third World conflicts, and is still in service with more than a dozen armies around the world.

One of the most decisive months of World War II was the 30 days between 25 July and 25 August 1944. After the success of the D-Day landings, the Allied forces found themselves bogged down in a bloody stalemate in Normandy. On 25 July General Bradley launched Operation Cobra to break the deadlock. US forces punched a hole in the German frontline and began a spectacular advance. As Patton's Third Army poured into Brittany and raced south to the Loire, the German army was threatened with encirclement. By the end of August German forces in Normandy were utterly destroyed, and the remaining German units in central and southern France were in headlong retreat to the German frontier. In this title Steve Zaloga explains how the breakout from Normandy came about.

On 22 June 1944, three years to the day after Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the Red Army launched a massive offensive in Byelorussia. Codenamed 'Operation Bagration', this campaign climaxed five weeks later with the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw. The Wehrmacht's Army Group Centre was routed, a total of 17 Wehrmacht divisions were utterly destroyed, and over 50 other German divisions were shattered. It was the most calamitous defeat of the German armed forces in World War II.

¿Por qué fracasó la ofensiva de Hitler en las Ardenas?Steven Zaloga nos brinda en esta obra un exhaustivo análisis, enparticular desde la perspectiva alemana, del desempeño en combatede la 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" y de sus oponentesestadounidenses durante la primera semana de la batalla de lasArdenas. La Hitlerjugend lideraba la vanguardia del ataque en la zonaque Hitler consideraba Schwerpunkt, es decir, el foco principal delataque. El exito o el fracaso que tuviera determinaria el desenlace dela ofensiva. Detener a la Hitlerjugend destruiria cualquier esperanza deexito que pudiera tener la campaña.El autor examina los aspectos operacionales en este sector de labatalla, los momentos previos al combate, el armamento empleado,los ordenes de batalla y el entrenamiento de las unidades, junto a unagran cantidad de testimonios de combatientes. De esta manera nospermite armar un panorama mas completo de la que fue la ultimaofensiva alemana en el Frente Occidental.