<p>Osprey's study of airmobile tactics used in the Vietnam War (1955-1975).</p> <p> With its first major use in battle during the Vietnam War, the helicopter ushered in a radically different way of fighting, despite its proven vulnerability to ground fire. Either delivering troops into hostile territory and removing them after the fighting ended, or armed with guns, grenade launchers, and rockets to provide rapid and wide-ranging air to ground support fire, the helicopter - available for the first time in sufficient numbers and capable of a wide range of missions - played a central role in the war.</p> <p> From the beginning, with obsolete Korean War helicopters carrying ARVN troops into battle, to Huey gunships evacuating the wounded at la Drang in 1965, and transport helicopters evacuating Americans from Saigon rooftops in 1975; this was the first real helicopter war. By the middle of the war, the helicopter, in particular the Huey model had become as important to the army as the tank, the armored personnel carrier, and the jeep.</p> <p> Presenting a concise history of the first ever major use of helicopters in battle, Gordon L. Rottman, a former Green Beret in Vietnam, describes in detail the development of the critical airmobile tactics that ultimately changed the way America fights its battles.</p>
In a sequel to his successful best-selling ESS 65 The Anglo-Irish War, Peter Cottrell explores the devastating conflict that tore Ireland apart, shortly after 'peace' had been declared. He focuses on the short but bloody battles that witnessed more deaths than the preceding years of the War of Independence. Examining the many factions that played a part in the fighting, and more often in the terror and counter-terror operations, Cottrell highlights the contrasting styles of leadership and the conduct of combat operations by the IRA and the National Army. He uses detailed tactical maps to explain the tactics that ranged from urban warfare and street-fighting to the final siege of Limerick city. A bitter sequence of attack and reprisal, the Irish Civil War was a complex social and political battle to change the nature of government and politics in Ireland. This book primarily discusses the military operations, but also places these in the wider context of the personalities involved, including Liam Lynch and Michael Collins. It also assesses the impact of the war on civilian life, and its influence on the politics of Ireland at national and international levels thereafter. This is not only the story of one country, but also of the relationships between Ireland and Britain, and Ireland and America, which have had a profound impact on modern politics for decades.