From the 10th century onwards the great monastic foundations of Nara and Mount Hiei maintained large armies of warlike monks, a practice that was later followed by other institutions. The tempestuous political rivalries that developed between the different orders of monks, and even factions within the same orders, ensured that these Buddhist temples and monasteries had to be securely sited and robustly defended. This title recreates these enormous fortified monasteries and shrines as they would have appeared at the time, tracing their development from the 10th century through to the Sengoku Jidai and the rise of the power of the shogunate under Tokugawa leyasu.

Napoleon Bonaparte is renowned as one of the greatest military commanders in history, and the central figure in so many of the events of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Throughout the first decade of the 19th century he won battle after battle by wielding the Grande Armee decisively against the other powers of Europe - Prussia, Austria and Russia. Yet his fortunes changed in 1812 when the invasion of Russia wrecked his forces, and Napoleon suffered his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

Velikiye Luki had been an important Russian fortress city since the 13th century and had become an important rail-hub by the 19th century. In August 1941, the Germans occupied the city of 30,000 during Operation Barbarossa and made it a bulwark on the boundary between Heeresgruppe Nord and Heeresgruppe Mitte. In the winter of 1942-43, while Soviet forces were encircling Stalingrad, the Stavka (High Command) conducted a simultaneous offensive to isolate and destroy the 7,500-man German garrison in Velikiye Luki. After surrounding the city on 27 November 1942, the Soviet 3rd Shock Army gradually reduced the city to rubble, while the German garrison, sustained by Luftwaffe air lifts, hunkered down in the medieval city and awaited rescue.
This illustrated title reveals the full story of the tense seven-week siege of Velikiye Luki, which saw Soviet forces striving to liberate the city in the face of a determined garrison and fierce relief efforts. Detailed analysis by renowned World War II historian Robert Forczyk is complimented by stunning and historically accurate battlescenes, maps, and bird's-eye-views to offer a comprehensive look at this gripping campaign.

In the aftermath of the murder of Gaius Julius Caesar, his self-declared successor Mark Antony struggled to hold together his legacy. Following an abortive coup attempt by Caesar's adopted son Octavian, two of Antony's legions declared for him, leading to a renewed outbreak of civil war. Antony moved into Northern Italy and invaded the city of Mutina, which was held by Decimus Brutus. There they were quickly sandwiched between the city walls on one side, and the newly arrived Senate-backed forces of Octavian on the other. These two heirs of Caesar then fought to claim their former mentor's legacy. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork and maps, this is the full story of the battles which would see Octavian move from being a young, inexperienced aristocrat to the dominating figure of Augustus.

In 1519, the Conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the mainland of the Americas. His quest to serve God, win gold, and achieve glory drove him into the heartland of what is now Mexico, where no European had ever set foot before. He marched towards to the majestic city of Tenochtitlan, floating like a jewel in the midst of Lake Texcoco.

This encounter brought together cultures that had hitherto evolved in complete isolation from each other--Catholic Spain and the Aztec Empire. What ensued was the swift escalation from a clash of civilizations to a war of the worlds. At the conclusion of the Conquistador campaign of 1519–21, Tenochtitlan lay in ruins, the last Aztec Emperor was in chains, and Spanish authority over the native peoples had been definitively asserted.

With colorful personalities--Cortés, Malinche, Pedro Alvarez, Cuitláhuac, Cuauhtémoc--driving the narrative, and the vivid differences in uniforms, weapons, and fighting styles between the rival armies (displayed using stunning specially commissioned artwork), this is the fascinating story of the collapse of the Aztec Empire.

A highly illustrated account of the final Jewish rebellion against Roman rule, appealing for any enthusiast of Roman or Jewish history.
In AD 132, Shim'on Ben Koseba, a rebel leader who assumed the messianic name Shim'on Bar Kokhba ('Son of a Star'), led the people of Judaea in open rebellion, aiming to establish their own independent Jewish state and to liberate Jerusalem from the Romans. During the ensuing 'Bar Kokhba War' (AKA the Second Jewish War), the insurgents held their own against the crack Roman troops sent by Emperor Hadrian for three-and-a-half years.
The cost of this rebellion was catastrophic: hundreds of thousands of casualties, the destruction and enslavement of Jewish communities and a ban on Jews entering Jerusalem. Bar Kokhba remains important in Israel today because he was the last leader of a Jewish state before the rise of Zionism in modern times.
This fully illustrated volume explores the gripping story of the uprising, profiling its rebel leader Bar Kokhba as well as the Emperor Hadrian and his generals, and assesses the impact that this violent rebellion had on the region and those that were displaced.

The battle of the Thames was the culmination of a bloody campaign that saw American forces clash with the British and their Native American allies on multiple occasions. In a battle that included the future US president William Henry Harrison, American naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry, and the legendary Shawnee leader Tecumseh, the Americans prevailed, due in part to their imaginative use of Kentucky mounted riflemen to charge British regular infantry and artillery. Their victory allowed them to secure the Northwest frontier, a crucial strategic gain in the War of 1812.

Drawing on his expertise of US–Native American conflicts, historian John F. Winkler investigates the battle of the Thames, bringing the conflict to life through detailed analysis, combat reports and stunning, specially commissioned illustrations.

The battle of Zama, fought across North Africa around 202 BC, was the final large-scale clash of arms between the world's two greatest western powers of the time--Carthage and Rome. The engagement ended the Second Punic War, waged from 218 until 201 BC. The armies were led by two of the most famous commanders of all time--the legendary Carthaginian general Hannibal, renowned for crossing the Alps with his army into Italy, and the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio, who along with his father was among the defeated at the battle of Cannae in 216 BC.

Drawing upon years of research, author Mir Bahmanyar gives a detailed account of this closing battle, analyzing the tactics employed by each general and the forces they had at their disposal. Stunning, specially commissioned artwork brings to life the epic clash that saw Hannibal defeated and Rome claim its spot as the principal Mediterranean power.

“Vinegar Joe” Stilwell's assault on the Japanese position at Myitkyina, the key to northern Burma.
Myitkyina was a vital objective in the Allied re-conquest of Burma in 1943–44. Following the disastrous retreat from Burma in April 1942, China had become isolated from re-supply except for the dangerous air route for US transports over the Himalaya Mountains.
The Burma Road, which ran from Lashio (south of Myitkyina) through the mountains to Kunming was closed as a supply route from Rangoon after the Japanese conquest. Without military assistance, China would be forced to surrender and Imperial Japanese Army forces could be diverted to other Pacific war zones.
This is the history of the ambitious joint Allied assault led by American Lt. Gen. Joseph W Stilwell and featuring British, American and Chinese forces as they clashed with three skilled regiments of the Japanese 18th Division. Packed with first-hand accounts, specially commissioned artwork, maps and illustrations and dozens of rare photographs this book reveals the incredible Allied attack on Myitkyina.

In the seventh year of the Second Peloponnesian or 'Archidamian' War the Athenians occupied the promontory of Pylos on the west coast of the Peloponnese as a counterstroke to Sparta's repeated invasions of Attica. Over two days of fighting the small garrison beat off the Spartan army and fleet's determined efforts to dislodge it, and then the returning Athenian fleet won a crushing victory in the nearby waters of what is now known as Navarino Bay. As a consequence, a contingent of elite Spartan hoplites was stranded on the island of Sphacteria in the bay just to the south of Pylos for several weeks of inconclusive siege and blockade operations and an unproductive period of truce. The Athenians had full control of the sea. With the campaigning season drawing to a close, they finally decided to mount an attack on the island using unconventional tactics. An amphibious night attack overran the Spartan outpost covering the beaches and light-armed missile troops landed at daybreak in overwhelming numbers. The Spartans were slowly driven back to their stronghold at the tip of the island, losing men steadily and never allowed to engage in the hand-to-hand fighting at which they excelled. They held their final defensive line for a while until, as at Thermopylae, they found themselves also under attack from the rear. Then, exhausted and out of water, with their commander dead and his deputy incapacitated by wounds, and a large Spartan army close-by on the mainland but powerless to help them, the 292 survivors surrendered. This was a huge and surprising blow to the Spartans' glorious and fearsome reputation, and these prestigious prisoners-of-war served the Athenians very well as bargaining counters in the diplomatic activity that punctuated the hostilities that continued for the next four years. The Athenian victory also influenced the future conduct of the war by highlighting the limitations of the traditional hoplite mindset and tactics, and the battle-winning potential of light-armed troops, the hoplites' inferiors.

A highly illustrated account of the Jewish Revolt against Roman rule in the 1st century AD.
In AD 66 a local disturbance in Caesarea caused by Greeks sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue exploded into a pan-Jewish revolt against their Roman overlords. Gaining momentum, the rebels successfully occupied Jerusalem and drove off an attack by the Roman legate of Syria, Cestus Gallius, who was defeated at the battle of Beth Horon. The emperor Nero dispatched the Roman general Vespasian along with reinforcements and, having crushed the revolt in Galilee he became embroiled in the events of the Year of the Four Emperors that would lead to his assumption of the Imperial throne.
His son Titus was left to carry on the war which culminated in the dramatic siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. Remorselessly, the legions strangled the life out of the defense street by street, leaving nothing but rubble and ashes in their wake. The apotheosis of the conflict was the final stand of the last holdouts in the Temple precinct itself, and the utter annihilation of this, the physical manifestation of Judaism itself.
Packed with detailed description as well as battle maps, this book details each step of the fighting. The last remnants held out in the mountain fortress of Masada until AD 73 when with the Romans breaking down the walls the defenders committed mass suicide bringing the revolt to an end.

Following the defeat at Wabash, in 1792 the Washington administration created a new US Army to replace the one that had been destroyed. The man chosen to lead it was the famous Major-General Mad Anthony Wayne. Having trained his new force, Wayne set out in 1793 to subdue the Ohio Indians. Wayne faced many of the same problems as St Clair including the logistical and intelligence problems of campaigning in the wilderness, not to mention the formidable Ohio Indians. Wayne faced additional problems including the likelihood that he would have to fight both British and Spanish forces, not to mention an American army led by the celebrated commander George Roger Clark. He also faced an insurrection in western Pennsylvania, Whiskey Rebellion, and a conspiracy led by many of his officers and contractors. Despite all these difficulties, Wayne managed to defeat the Ohio Indians at the battle of "Fallen Timbers". This was a decisive defeat that led directly to the Treaty of Greeneville the following year which ended 20 years of conflict between the Americans and the Ohio Indians.

After D-Day the French resistance rose to sabotage the Nazi war effort. Germany rutghlessly assaulted a French stronghold with Fallschirmjaeger airborne troops.

Fighting insurgents has always been one of the greatest challenges for regular armed forces during the 20th century. From Malaya through Algeria and Vietnam to the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the list is long. The war between the Germans and the French resistance, also called FFI (Forces Françaises d'Intérieur) or Maquis, during World War II has remained a near-forgotten chapter in the history of these 'Small Wars', particularly in the English-speaking world. This is all the more astonishing as agencies like the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the American OSS (Office of Strategic Services) pumped a good amount of their resources into the support of the French resistance movement. By diversionary attacks on German forces in the occupied hinterland the Allies hoped the FFI could provide assistance in disrupting German supply lines as well as crumbling their morale. The mountain plateau of the Vercors south-west of Grenoble was the main stronghold of the French Maquis and in July 1944 some 8,000 German soldiers mounted an operation on the plateau and destroyed the insurgent groups there. The battle of the Vercors was the largest operation against the FFI during World War II and the German's fast and crushing victory has caused traumatic memories for the French that persist to the present day.

Following D-Day the FFI fully mobilised on orders given from London and posed a real threat to the German lines of communications. Operating from their sanctuaries in the mountains and armed with British and US weapons from Allied air drops, the Maquis descended into the valleys and tried to challenge the German troops of occupation. By mid-June the Germans launched a series of major counter-operations in the mountains which, carried out by the Gebirgsjäger, dispersed the French resistance from the Massif des Bauges and the French Jura. On the mountain plateau of the Vercors the FFI made the mistake of attempting to hold their ground against regular German forces, and were encircled and destroyed, accompanied by terrible reprisals against the local population. British and US liaison teams could do little to help. A month later, a similar operation put paid to the resistance on the Tarentaise. However, the Germans were too short of manpower to exploit these tactical victories and were always compelled to withdraw, letting the French resistance re-appear and take control again. German tactical victories did not translate into strategic success. By their constant harassment the FFI eventually fragmented the German forces. When after the landings at the French Riviera on 15 August 1944 US troops advanced swiftly to the north, German troops could not offer a coherent line of defence in the Alps and had to withdraw from French territory by the end of the month.

Plataea was one of the biggest and most important land battles of pre-20th century history. Close to 100,000 hoplite and light-armed Greeks took on an even larger barbarian army that included elite Asian cavalry and infantry from as far away as India, with thousands of Greek hoplites and cavalry also fighting on the Persian side. At points in the several days of battle, the Persians with their more fluid, missile tactics came close to breaking the Greek defensive line and cutting off their supplies. But, in a fatal misjudgement when he nearly had the battle won, their general Mardonius committed the cream of his infantry to close-quarters combat with the Spartans and their Peloponnesian allies. He died and his men were finally crushed by heavier weaponry and superior discipline. Meanwhile, 250 miles to the east, the Greek navy inflicted an equally decisive defeat on the Persians, neutralising Xerxes' seapower in the Aegean. The tiny minority of Greek city states that actually took up arms against the invading forces of the mightiest empire yet seen in the ancient world had halted its western expansion and driven it back.

The reconstruction of the battle of Plataea will draw on recent persuasive academic interpretations of the textual sources and visual evidence (mainly from near-contemporary vase paintings) for the early 5th-century method of hoplite fighting.

When the Romans occupied the southern half of Britain in AD 43, the Iceni tribe quickly allied themselves with the invaders. Having paid tribute to Rome, they continued to be ruled by their own kings. But 17 years later when Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni, died the Romans decided to incorporate his kingdom into the new province. When his widow Boudicca protested, she 'was flogged and their daughters raped', sparking one of the most famous rebellions in history. This book tells how Boudicca raised her people and other tribes in revolt and nearly took control of the fledgling Roman province, before being finally brought to heel in a pitched battle at Mancetter.

Osprey's examination of one of the most famous battles of the latter part of the American Indian Wars (1622-1918). With the wars between the US and the Native Americans drawing to a close, one tribe in Eastern Oregon continued to resist. The Nez Perce, led by the "Red Napoleon" Chief Joseph, refused to surrender and accept resettlement. Instead, Chief Joseph organized a band of 750 warriors and set off for the Canadian border, pursued by 2,000 US Army troops under Major-General Oliver Howard. The army chased the natives for three months, fighting 13 actions. Finally, just 40 miles from the Canadian border, the Army ran Chief Joseph to the ground, and forced him to surrender after a five-day battle near Bear Paw Mountain.

Osprey's study of one of the most important battles of the long-elasting Germanic Wars (113 BC - 439 AD). Arminius, a young member of the Cheruscan tribe under the Roman Empire felt that Rome could be beaten in battle and that such a victory would guarantee the freedom of the Germans as a confederation of independent tribes, led by the Cheruscans, who would - in turn - be led by him.
Throughout AD 8 and the early part of AD 9, Arminius used his position under the governor of Germania Inferior well, ostensibly promoting Rome whilst in reality welding the tribes together in an anti-Roman alliance, agreeing with his confederates that they would wait until the Roman garrison had moved to their summer quarters and then rise up against the invaders. With the arrival of September, the time soon came for the Roman troops to return to their stations along the Rhine and as they marched westwards through the almost impenetrable Teutoburg Forest, Arminius sprang his trap. In a series of running battles in the forest, Varus' army, consisting of three Roman Legions (XVII, XVIII and XIX) and several thousand auxiliaries - a total of roughly 20,000 men - was destroyed.
The consequences for Rome were enormous - the province of Germania was now virtually undefended and Gaul was open to a German invasion which although it never materialized, led a traumatized Augustus to decree that, henceforth, the Rhine would remain the demarcation line between the Roman world and the German tribes, in addition to which the destroyed legions were never re-formed or their numbers reused in the Roman Army: after AD 9, the sequence of numbers would run from I to XVI and then from XX onwards, it was as if the three legions had never existed.

In March 1944, the Japanese Army launched Operation U-Go, an attack on Assam in India intended to inspire a rising against British rule. A month earlier the Japanese had launched Operation Ha-Go, which was intended as a feint to draw British attention away from the Imphal area. But British forces employed new defensive techniques to counter the Japanese infiltration tactics. These tactics were again employed on a larger scale when Imphal and Kohima were surrounded during Operation U-Go. Kohima took place in two stages. From 3 to 16 April, the Japanese attempted to capture Kohima Ridge. As the small garrison held out against fierce and repeatedly desperate attempts by the Japanese 31st Division to destroy them, so the British 2nd Division fought to break through and relieve them. Then for over two months British and Indian troops counter-attacked to drive the Japanese from the positions they had already captured. The battle ended on June 22 when British and Indian troops from Kohima and Imphal met at Milestone 109, thus ending the siege.

The fighting around the town of Demyansk was one of the longest encirclement battles on the Eastern Front during World War II, stretching from February 1942 to February 1943. Originally, the German 16. Armee occupied Demyansk in the autumn of 1941 because it was key terrain that would be used as a springboard for an eventual offensive into the Valdai Hills. Instead, the Soviet winter counter offensive in February 1942 encircled the German II Armeekorps and other units, inside the Demyansk Pocket. Yet despite severe pounding from five Soviet armies, the embattled German troops held the pocket and the Luftwaffe organized a major aerial resupply effort to sustain the defenders. For the first time in military history, an army was supplied entirely by air. In February 1943, Marshal Timoshenko was ordered to launch an offensive to cut off the base of the salient and annihilate the 12 divisions. At the same time, Hitler finally came to his senses after the Stalingrad debacle and authorized the 16. Armee to withdraw from the pocket. This volume will conclude with the drama of a German Army-sized withdrawal under fire in winter, under attack from three sides.

In August 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire and systematically set about its conquest. At the core of Alexander's army were 10,000 members of the phalanx, the phalangites. Armed with a long pike and fighting in formations up to 16 ranks deep, these grizzled veterans were the mainstay of the Macedonian army.
Facing them were the myriad armies of the peoples that made up the Persian Empire. At the centre of these forces was the formation known as the Immortals: 10,000 elite infantry, armed with spears and bows.
In this study, a noted authority assesses the origins, combat role and battlefield performance of Alexander's phalangites and their Persian opponents in three key battles of the era - the Granicus River, Issus and Gaugamela - at the dawn of a new way of waging war.