Bøger af Ian Baxter

The Wiking SS Division was one of the most ruthless fighting formations of WW2. This is the fifth in the author's Waffen SS Division Images of War series.

Graphic images, many never seen before, of the last days of Hitler's Third Reich.

A fully illustrated account of the Soviet offensive in the Baltics and the desperate German attempts to hold back the Red Army.

The Panther tank was the backbone of Hitler's armoured forces.

Graphic images, many never seen before, of Heavy Tank battalions in action.

The SS Prinz Eugen Division was an elite mountain fighting formation of WW2.

From the beginning in 1935, this book describes the different elements that went into the Panzer-Divisions. It is a visual account with 270 black-and-white photographs. It covers the main theatres of war (Poland, France, North Africa, Eastern Front and Normandy to Germany). It is complemented with captions.

Shortly after their rise to power, the Nazis established specific Arbeitslager (labour camps) which housed Ostarbeiter (eastern workers), Fremdarbeiter (foreign workers) and other forced labourers who were rounded up and brought in from the east. These were distinct from the SS-run concentration camps.The use of forced labour grew significantly in 1937 due to rearmament requirements and again after the outbreak of warThe invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 further heightened demands for labour and the availability of new workers in areas under Nazi occupation. Vast numbers were deported to forced labour camps, where they worked either producing war materials or on construction projects.As in the Nazis' view, inmates were slaves pure and simple and replaceable with others, there was a complete disregard for the health of prisoners. Required to work long hours with little or no time for rest or breaks they were subject to insufficiencies of food, equipment, medicine and clothing. As a result of these conditions and brutal treatment, death rates were shockingly high.By 1945, more than fourteen million people had been exploited in the network of hundreds of forced labour camps that stretched across Nazi-occupied Europe. In true Images of War series style, this superbly illustrated book graphically describes the growth of the slave camp system and the conditions inflicted on the luckless labour force.

Commemorating 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, this book tells the story of the camp's construction and its evolution into the largest mass murder factory of all time. Using hundreds of captured German documents and architectural plans, the book is a unique historical source of how the architects came to plan and accomplish the horror we now call Auschwitz. Drawing on key documents from the Building Office archive, this in-depth study uses plans, letters, telegrams, worksite labour reports and minutes of meetings. It reveals how the SS needed civilian knowledge to install electrical, sewage and heating systems, and build chimneys and other structures. It explains how various outside contractors were involved in cooperating in genocide and shows just how eager they were to produce goods for the SS for financial reward. Just after the construction had begun on Birkenau in 1941, architectural plans were presented to include new crematoria and gas chambers. By the summer of 1943 Birkenau had been transformed into a murder camp but building and planning to further extend the site continued. In November 1944 Himmler gave the order to halt and dismantle the extermination facilities to conceal their murderous activities. When the Red Army arrived on 27 January 1945, most of the camp was still intact. Although the SS had incinerated the camps' archives they forgot to destroy the construction archive, which was kept in another building. As a result, the Russians found many of the technical drawings including construction blueprints that clearly detailed the extermination facilities. With detailed captions and text together with a plethora of rare photographs, the book is an important study into those that masterminded the murder of over 1 million people.

The success of fast-moving Blitzkrieg tactics by the Nazi war machine depended on high mobility. With their on- and off-road capabilities, motorcycles became an important component of the Nazi war machine's arsenal making a particularly significant impact in French and Russian campaigns.The motorcycles were used in a variety of roles including patrolling, intelligence gathering, and police duties in occupied Europe. Motorcyclists could be found in every unit of an infantry and Panzer division including headquarters which had a motorcycle messenger platoon. Their versatility also enabled them to survey enemy positions until coming under fire before reporting back with vital intelligence relating to enemy locations and strengths.The German industry produced wide range of motor-bikes for military use. By 1938 some 200,000 motorcycles were produced in Germany and occupied territories. The principal makes included BMW, DKW, NSU, Triumph, Victoria, and Zundapp. Sidecar combinations, often mounted with an MG34/42 machine gun, also made the bike a very effective weapon.By describing in words and contemporary images the role of the German motorcycle and motorcyclists during the Second World War, this Images of War book fills an overlooked gap in coverage of Nazi military capability. It emphasizes that the German military perfected the use of motorcycles and employed them more widely than any other army.

By October 1943, the German 17th Army had been forced to retreat from the Kuban bridgehead across the Kerch Strait to Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the German forces in the southern Ukraine. In November 1943, they eventually cut off the land-based connection of 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus. Hitler prohibited a sea evacuation of 17th Army because he thought the Red Army could use the Crimean Peninsula to launch air attacks against Romanian oil refineries.In November 1943, the Russian launched a massive amphibious assault at two locations on the eastern coast of the Crimea, but its units were unable to prevent an Axis counterattack that collapsed the southern bridgehead. The Red Army held the bridgehead at Yenikale, from which they launched further offensive operations, culminating in a huge offensive in April 1944. Although the 17th Army bitterly contested every bit of ground, it was unable to stop the advance. Soviet forces reached Kerch on April 11, forcing the 17th Army to retreat towards Sevastopol. The remaining Axis forces in the Crimea were concentrating around the city by the end of the third week of April.The Germans intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, as the Russians had done between 1941 and 1942. However, the fortifications of the city had not been restored and the city fell on 9 May. From mid-April, Romanian and German ships undertook a huge and complex evacuation operation. The last phase of the evacuation, following the fall of Sevastopol, saw 37,000 troops transported under constant attacks from Soviet aircraft and shore artillery. Overall around 57,000 men were lost during the evacuation.Fully illustrated with rare and unpublished photos, this is a detailed account of the dogged attempt to retake the Crimea in 1943-44.

A fully illustrated account of the final battle for Berlin.

The career of this leading Nazi is admirably described here in words and copious images.

A fully illustrated account of the Soviet offensive to clear German troops in northeastern Germany ahead of attacking Berlin in 1945.

A comprehensive study of Hitler's self-propelled artillery.

Drawing on a superb collection of rare and unpublished photographs with detailed captions and explanatory text, this dramatic book vividly portrays every aspect of the siege which has the dubious claim of being arguably the most costly in human and material terms of any in recent military history.

A fully illustrated account of the Soviet offensive from the River Vistula towards Berlin.

Covers the operations of a leading SS Cavalry Regiment. Latest in the Author's popular SS Divisions/ Images of War series.

Drawing on a superb collection of rare and often unpublished photographs, this fine Images of War book describes the fighting history of each formation, notably the 1944 battle of Narva, which was known as the battle of the European SS.

Fully illustrated account of how the Third Reich's Army Group South was defeated in 1944-45 by the Red Army.

Operation Höss or Aktion Höss was the codename for the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews and their murder in the gas chambers of Birkenau extermination camp.

While much has been written about the Nazis' panzers, comparatively little is known about the armored vehicles in service with the other Axis armies. This classic Images of War book redresses the balance by covering in detail the equipment operated by these nations supporting Hitler's war machine.

The wartime career of this cruel and capable man is captured brilliantly with contemporary fully captioned images in this Images of War series work.

Graphic, contemporary images show the bitter fighting in harsh terrain and winter conditions.

Describes how the ambitious Allied airborne Landing at Arnhem was thwarted by the presence of two elite Waffen-SS divisions. Covers the fierce action as the lightly armed Paras were worn down. Superb contemporary images of action and equipment. Compiled by leading IOW author.

Reveals the shocking scale of atrocity in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe and Russia.

The Warsaw Uprisings remain legendary examples of gallant resistance against the odds. The contemporary photographs are superb and of important provenance (from a collection intended for Himmler).

Covers the bitter fighting on the Eastern Front.

Little known and largely unrecorded contribution of the three occupied Baltic States to the Nazis' war effort.