The United States Marine Corps came into its own in the Pacific Islands campaign against Japan in World War II. From Guadalcanal to Okinawa, US Marines formed the tip of the spear as Allied forces sought to push the Japanese back to their Home Islands.
This fascinating study tracks the deployments of the various Marine divisions throughout the war and explains their composition, but also goes deeper, to detail the individual regiments – the focus of the marines' identity and pride. It explains the organization of the Marine infantry regiment and its equipment, and how they evolved during the war. The marine infantryman's evolving uniforms, field equipment and weapons are illustrated throughout using specially commissioned artwork and detailed descriptions to produce a fitting portrait of the US military's elite fighting force in the Pacific.

Over the eight years of the Vietnam War, US forces used three major types of equipment sets, with numerous modifications for particular circumstances. Different equipments were also used by Special Forces, the South Vietnamese, and other allied ground troops.
Vietnam War US & Allied Combat Equipments offers a comprehensive examination of the gear that US and allied soldiers had strapped around their bodies, what they contained, and what those items were used for. Fully illustrated with photographs and artwork detailing how each piece of equipment was used and written by a Special Forces veteran of the conflict, this book will fascinate enthusiasts of military equipment and will be an ideal reference guide for re-enactors, modellers and collectors of Vietnam War memorabilia.

Military gliders came of age in World War II, when glider assault infantry were the forerunners of today's helicopter-delivered airmobile troops. From the light pre-war sports and training machines, several nations developed troop-carrying gliders capable of getting a whole squad or more of infantry, with heavy weapons, onto the ground quickly, with the equipment that paratroopers simply could not carry. They made up at least one-third of the strength of US, British, and German airborne divisions in major battles, and they also carried out several daring coup de main raids and spearhead operations. However, the dangers were extreme, the techniques were difficult, the losses were heavy (particularly during night operations), and the day of the glider assault was relatively brief. This book explains the development and organization of glider troops, their mounts, and the air squadrons formed to tow them, the steep and costly learning-curve and the tactics that such troops learned to employ once they arrived on the battlefield.

Even when Western Allied troops gained a foothold in Normandy, World War II in Europe was far from over. The route to Germany's interior and the Nazis final surrender was long, arduous and blood-stained. The Wehrmacht's stubborn resistance and the shocking losses suffered by US, British, Canadian and 'Free European' troops meant that the Allies had to adapt and refine small-unit tactics, battle-drills, and their use of weapons and munitions. The troops who finally met up with the Red Army in Germany were a very different fighting force to the one that struggled up the beaches of northern France. This book offers a comprehensive guide to the late-war Allied troops, exploring their uniforms, equipment, organization and tactics. Detailed description and accurate colour pictures illustrate the means by which the Allied troops on the ground evolved to the point of winning the war on the Western Front.

First adopted in 1917, the rugged and reliable Browning .30-caliber machine gun remained in US service into the Vietnam era, and is still occasionally found in use elsewhere even today. Produced in both water-cooled and air-cooled versions, it has been employed in every imaginable role for a machine gun – antipersonnel, antiaircraft, mounted on aircraft as both defensive and offensive armament, defensive armament aboard vehicles (armored and soft-skin), mounted on watercraft, and others. Employing gripping first-hand testimony and featuring specially commissioned illustrations and detailed photographs, many in color, this lively study of the Browning .30-caliber machine gun reveals the origins, combat history and legacy of this versatile and dependable weapon.

In an effort to provide the US infantryman with more firepower to cover the range gap between the hand grenade and the light mortar, the 40mm M79 grenade launcher – a shoulder-fired, single-shot weapon – entered service with US forces in 1961.
Reliable, easy to use, and lethally effective, the M79 soon became an iconic symbol of the Vietnam War and had a profound influence on small-unit tactics. As the Vietnam conflict continued, it was joined on the front line by experimental models such as the magazine-fed T148E1, as well as two launchers intended to be fitted under the barrel of the new M16 assault rifle: Colt's XM148 and AAI Corporation's M203. The M203 remains in US Army service today, while the US Marine Corps now also fields the M32 multiple grenade launcher – like the M79, a standalone weapon. Featuring full-colour artwork, this is the story of the rugged and formidable grenade launchers that equipped the United States and its allies in Vietnam and beyond from the 1960s to the present day.

A comprehensive and detailed account of the US Army's infantry battalions and support units during the long struggle in Vietnam.
This book provides detailed information about how US Army units were organised and operated in America's longest war. Vietnam Special Forces veteran Gordon L Rottman examines the different types of infantry battalions and the units that supported them, their training and organisation down to platoon level. Aspects of the US Army's conventional and unconventional warfare doctrine are also addressed, along with a discussion of how replacements were trained and integrated into units. Among other areas of the US Army's involvement covered are individual and crew-served weapons, artillery, armoured fighting vehicles, transport, logistics, the complex chain of command, and combat operations.

The US airborne units serving in the Pacific Theater during World War II are considered to be among the best-trained and effective forces in the war. Deployed in fewer numbers than was the case across Europe, parachute units such as the famed 11th Airborne Division and the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment operated in harsh terrain, over long distances against a determined enemy in the most extreme situations. These parachute regiments were involved in some of the most significant combat situations in the Pacific, recapturing Corregidor Island, invading the Aleutians and the first troops to arrive in Japan before its surrender.
Using detailed maps, an array of photographs and color artwork and organizational tables, Gordon Rottman describes the internal organization, unique weaponry and equipment, training and combat operations of these elite units, highlighting unusual aspects of their service record and the difficulties of dropping onto tiny islands surrounded by freezing seas, completing the Battle Orders examination of the organization and operational deployment of all the US airborne units that fought in the war.

The bitter fighting in the Pacific Theater required new forms of warfare, and the gathering of detailed intelligence information on the remote and varied islands and their determined defenders.
As a result, new scout, raider and reconnaissance units were formed the pioneers of today's special forces. Some units were small, while others comprised thousands of men. All contributed significantly to the war effort.
This book examines a wide range of PTO special-warfare units, including the Alaskan and Alamo scouts, 5217th/1st Recon Battalion, Marine Amphibious Recon and Raider units, Amphibious Scouts, and 6th Ranger Battalion.

The first of three to examine the genesis, organization and operational deployment of the US airborne divisions in World War II, this book discusses early units, detailing how and why they were formed.
Task organization for combat, details of attached units, tactics, and weapons and equipment are examined, together with command relationships. The units discussed in this book include the 82d Airborne Division, 1st Special Service Force, 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team and 1st Airborne Task Force, and the operations in North Africa, Sicily, the Italian mainland, and in southern France are covered.

In late 1944 the US Marine Corps prepared for the toughest battles of the war.
It had grown to 35,598 officers, 5,384 officer candidates, and 366,353 enlisted Marines, totaling 431,573 personnel, and now comprised of two amphibious corps, six divisions, 26 non-divisional artillery battalions, and numerous support and service units.
Following on from Battle Orders 1 and 7, this book examines the continuing development of the Corps' organization, its training, tactics, weaponry, and command structure. It details the formation of the 5th and 6th Marine Divisions and the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, and examines the Corps' performance in the brutal battles on Guam, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and its deployment as an occupation force.

The Japanese conquest of the Pacific comprised of a complex series of widely scattered operations intended to neutralize American, Commonwealth, and Dutch forces, seize regions rich in economic resources, and secure an outer defense line for the "Greater Southeast Asia Co-prosperity Sphere." Albeit victorious, the forces deployed from Japan and China were not always ideally trained and equipped for the challenging conditions they encountered. This book, the first of several covering the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, examines the forces in existence at the beginning of the war, and task organization for the conquest of the Philippines, New Guinea, the South Seas area, and the Dutch East Indies, from December 1941 to the Battle of Midway in June 1942.

By January 1944 the US Marine Corps had grown to a total of 405,169 personnel, comprising 28,193 officers, 10,723 officer candidates, and 366,353 enlisted men.
The Fleet Marine Force now had two amphibious corps, four divisions, a separate infantry regiment, 19 defense battalions, and numerous support and service units. Following on from Battle Orders 1: USMC in the Pacific Theater of Operations 1941–43, this book examines the continuing development of the Corps's organization, its training, tactics, weaponry, and command structure, as well as the battles fought in the Southwest Pacific on New Britain, and in the Central Pacific on Tarawa, Roi-Namur, Eniwetok, Saipan, and Tinian.
The organization of the 4th Marine Division (MarDiv) and III and V Amphibious Corps (IIIAC, VAC) is also discussed along with smaller, new units.

In this book expert author and tactician Gordon L Rottman provides the first English-language study of Japanese Army and Navy tank units, their tactics and how they were deployed in action. The Japanese army made extensive use of its tanks in the campaigns in China in the 1930s, and it was in these early successes that the Japanese began to develop their own unique style of tank tactics. As Japanese tanks battled in Singapore, Malaya and Burma this Japanese vision became clearer as light tanks were deployed in the jungles of southeastern Asia, where conventional Western tactics dictated that tanks would be useless.
From the steam-rolling success of the Japanese as they invaded Manchuria until the eventual Japanese defeat, the book provides a battle history of the Japanese tank units as they faced a variety of enemies from the Chinese, to the Russians, to the British and the Americans, providing a fascinating insight into the range of tactics that were deployed against these contrasting enemies - from innovative attack procedures to desperate defensive maneuvers even as their tanks were rapidly outclassed in terms of design and armament.

Just about every war movie - famously, Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers - includes dramatic scenes of soldiers trying to attack an enemy pillbox or trench. Gordon L Rottman (who became expert in these tactics whilst serving in the Vietnam War) explains and illustrates the kit and techniques used in assaulting fortifications. He covers the differences in British, American, German, Soviet and Japanese approaches and experiences, concentrating on small units of foot soldiers with hand-carried equipment. Their tactical deployment is analysed and explained in detail, with the support of colour artwork, maps, diagrams and photographs.

The first 50 years of the US Army airborne arm is a story of continuing battles with the nation's enemies, of battles within the Army's hierarchy, of change, and of adaptation. If there is any single attribute the airborne soldier can claim as his most sterling, it is his uncanny ability to adapt - his flexibility. The very nature of a paratrooper demands this ability to adapt. The motivation and esprit de corps it develops within these units is something not to be taken lightly. The first class pairing of Gordon L. Rottman and Ron Volstad bring to life the history of these remarkable troops.

This book explains and illustrates the actual materials and techniques adopted (both successfully and unsuccessfully) by tactical units – i.e. the concealment of personnel, weapons, equipment, field positions, and movement by infantry riflemen and weapons crews, artillerymen, and vehicle crews.
It covers all areas and seasons in the European and Mediterranean theaters of operations, for the US, British, German, and Soviet armies. It includes camouflage of the person, personal equipment, and weapons; natural materials and “expedient” techniques; issued camouflage materials such as nets, ponchos, etc; the principles of camouflaging equipment and vehicles, of positioning and terrain integration, the effects of light and shadow, and the use of decoy and dummy positions.
Featuring meticulous full-color artwork and specially selected period photographs, this absorbing study casts new light on the camouflaging techniques developed by the major armies of World War II on a host of European battlefields.

Osprey's examination of Japan's parachute units of World War II (1939-1945). For the first time in English, this book offers a concise but fact-packed account of the organization, equipment, and all operations of Japan's small but elite wartime parachute forces. Correcting and amplifying previous accounts based on wartime intelligence, it traces the Imperial Army's Raiding Regiments and the Imperial Navy's parachute-trained Yokosuka 1st & 3rd Special Naval Landing Forces from the first trials units, through their successful assaults in early 1942, to the last desperate battles and raids of 1944–45. The text is illustrated with rare photographs, and meticulously reconstructed color artwork of the men and their gear.

Faced with Japanese-garrisoned islands across the Pacific, America invented modern amphibious warfare more or less from scratch in 1942-43. Despite an early period of costly trial-and-error, within three years the US forces had so perfected the equipment and tactics for this extraordinarily difficult form of warfare that they captured every island they attacked up to the very fringe of the Japanese homeland; the US has since been unchallenged in this field. This book explains the many complex problems of amphibious warfare and how they were overcome, and is illustrated with photos, diagrams, and colour plates that bring the whole process to life for the reader.

In December 1989 US Army forces, supported by the US Air Force and US Navy, participated in Operation 'Just Cause'--the invasion of Panama.
A combination of airborne, helicopter and ground assaults quickly secured key objectives and eliminated organized resistance. Beginning with a brief history of US-Panama relations and the development of the Panamanian Defense Forces, this book focuses principally on the military aspects of Operation 'Just Cause', and ends with a summary of the conflict's aftermath.
Numerous photographs, and detailed color plates depict the actions of the armed forces units that executed this difficult, and controversial, operation.