Asia@War Series

Best known in the USA as a former colony and exotic tourist location, the Republic of the Philippines has seen civil unrest, insurgencies and separatism movements ever since independence in 1946. Endemic corruption, human rights violations, ethnic strife and a shaky economy have fueled wars that have been raging on and off for almost 70 years. Against this backdrop the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been increasingly underfunded, and have to make do with obsolete planes, ships, light armored vehicles, and artillery dating back to World War II. Since the end of the Cold War, the Philippines have been in the unique and unfortunate situation of simultaneously facing the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group and so called ‘lost commands’, the Marxist uprising of the New People’s Army, while trying to maintain a tenuous cease fire with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. While previous publications have discussed human rights issues, the Huk Revolt of the 1940s and 1950s, the military unrest in the 1980s, and the sociopolitical structure of various rebel movements in the Philippines, this is the first major work exclusively covering the military history of the Philippines in the 70 years of independence. The insurgency of the Huks, and early Moro separatist rebels, the Moro and Marxist revolts against Marcos’ dictatorship, and the counter-terrorism operations of recent times, are discussed in relation to the transformation of the military threat and the corresponding transformation of the AFP, from a conventional military, towards the deployment of elite forces and extra-judicial means to suppress a series of revolts which have threatened the integrity of the state. Richly illustrated with exclusive and unique photographs, artworks and maps, Counterinsurgency in Paradise provides a unique source of reference about the often forgotten, if not outright ignored conflicts in the Philippines since 1945. Asia@War - following on from our highly successful Africa@War series, Asia@War replicates the same format - concise, incisive text, rare images and high quality color artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.

On 30 March 1972 the South Vietnamese positions along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated the North from South Vietnam were suddenly shelled by hundreds of heavy guns and multiple rocket launchers. Caught in a series of outposts of what was the former ‘McNamara Line’, the shocked defenders had just enough time to emerge from their bunkers at the end of the barrage before they were attacked by regular North Vietnamese Army divisions, supported by hundreds of armored vehicles that crashed though their defensive lines along the border. Thus began one of the fiercest campaigns of the Vietnam War but also one of the less well documented because by then most of the American ground forces had been withdrawn. Following on from the details of the downsizing of American forces and the setting up of the ‘Vietnamization’ policy, the build up of both the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the South and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the North is discussed at length. A special emphasis is devoted to the study of the development the North Vietnamese armored corps that would spearhead the coming offensive. Consequently, the nature of the war changed dramatically, evolving from a guerrilla one into a conventional conflict. The South Vietnamese resistance shuddered, and then crumbled under the communist onslaught, putting Hue the ancient imperial capital at risk. It was only thanks to US airpower, directed by a small group of courageous American advisers, which helped to turn the tide. Under the command of a new capable commander, the South Vietnamese then methodically counterattacked to retake some of the lost ground. This culminated in the ferocious street fighting for Quang Tri. This first volume describes the combat taking place in the northern part of South Vietnam, and uses not only American archives but also Vietnamese sources, from both sides. The book contains 130 photos, five maps and 18 color profiles. Asia@War - following on from our highly successful Africa@War series, Asia@War replicates the same format - concise, incisive text, rare images and high quality color artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.

On 30 March 1972, while peace negotiations had been dragging on for four years in Paris, the North Vietnamese launched a wide scale offensive in order to break the stalemate. At that date, practically no American ground forces remained in South Vietnam where a limited offensive was expected in the Central Highlands area. But nobody imagined the magnitude of the multidivisional, armor led onslaught. The blow fell first across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the North from South Vietnam (see Volume 1). Following from the initial attack, in a surprise move, three communist divisions with T-54 tanks attacked from their sanctuaries in Cambodia just north of Saigon. Their tanks ventured into the streets of An Loc City where they were checked by a desperate and heroic stand by the South Vietnamese soldiers and their American advisers, thus saving the capital of South Vietnam. Finally, the third prong of the North Vietnamese offensive swept across the northern Central Highlands, destroying a whole South Vietnamese division. The communists then resumed their advance, but their tanks were again entangled in street fighting, this time inside Kontum City. Furthermore, they were harassed by newly developed helicopter gun ships armed with antitank missiles. This volume not only details the combat taking place in these two areas but also the organization of both the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the South and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the North. It particularly emphasizes the transformation of the former from a mainly infantry force into a modern motorized force. It also describes how the North Vietnamese learnt the hard way about the use of their tanks. The author relies on not only American archives but also on Vietnamese sources, from both sides. The book contains 130 photos, five maps and 18 color profiles. Asia@War - following on from our highly successful Africa@War series, Asia@War replicates the same format - concise, incisive text, rare images and high quality color artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.

In March 1969 the two giants of the Communist world – the People’s Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – came to blows over the control of a remote and uninhabited island on their mutual border in a conflict that risked barely controlled escalation, and in which the USSR gave consideration to the use of nuclear weapons. In 2021, Helion & Company published two books by Harold Orenstein and Dmitry Ryabushkin: The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969 Volume 1: The Border Conflict that almost Sparked a Nuclear War and The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969 Volume 2: Confrontation at Lake Zhalanashkol August 1969. These volumes relied largely on the Soviet accounts and presented the Soviet perspective on this confrontation. When Brothers Fight: Chinese Eyewitness Accounts of the Sino-Soviet Border Battles 1969 aims to fill the gap with accounts from Chinese veterans who took part in these border wars. The authors have selected two of the best-known incidents of the period, the Battle of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island (March–May 1969) and the Tielieketi (Lake Zhalanashkol) Incident (13 August 1969), as the focus for this book. This is an important episode of the Cold War that deserves greater exposure. This brief war marks a turning point between the two Communist giants and in one way or another, lay the foundation for international politics for the next 50 years. In 1972, China moved towards the US/Western camp by signing the Three Joint Communiqués, normalizing relations between the US and China and establishing a full diplomatic relationship in 1979. When Brothers Fight: Chinese Eyewitness Accounts of the Sino-Soviet Border Battles 1969 is richly illustrated with photographs and artworks from the period of the Sino-Soviet confrontation as well as specially commissioned artworks.

In December 1979 the USSR’s 40th Army crossed the border into Afghanistan. Special forces troops – the infamous GRU Spetsnaz – and KGB agents had already entered the country and in a fierce gun battle assassinated Afghanistan’s President Hafizullah Amin in Tajbeg Palace so that he could be replaced by rival Babrak Karmal. The official explanation provided to officers, non-commissioned officers, and other ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces was that they were carrying out an ‘international duty’ in Afghanistan. What exactly that was, none of the participants knew. The reasoning of Brezhnev’s Politburo was that their intervention would bring stability to a country slipping into anarchy as its government failed to deal with political conflict within its own ranks and widespread armed rebellion outside the major urban centres. Thus began the Soviet military intervention that was to last for nearly ten years. The Soviet War in Afghanistan 1979–1989 provides a detailed order of battle for the Soviet ground and air forces deployed to Afghanistan – officially referred to as ‘The Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan’ – and a detailed account of every operation undertaken there by the Soviet Armed Forces from December 1979 until February 1989. The work provides details of all the involved units, their combat losses and estimates of Mujahidin losses. This work does not shy away from the commonplace atrocities committed against the Afghan population. The Soviet War in Afghanistan 1979–1989 is richly illustrated with original photographs – many never published before in the West – and the @War series signature colour artworks showing the men, vehicles and aircraft involved in this conflict. This book is an indispensable source of reference for enthusiasts and professionals alike.

At the beginning of June 1942, in the wake of the enormous Japanese struggle to bring a conclusive victory in the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Navy commenced Operation AL (AL Sakusen). Among the objectives of this bold plan was the 2nd Kidō Butai’s carrier-borne strike on the American military base at Dutch Harbor and seizing part of the Aleutian Archipelago in the North Pacific. Operation AL, elaborated by the Navy General Staff and the Combined Fleet, was an initiative that could expand the Japanese perimeter far eastwards to secure the northern approach to the home islands and prevent the potential of US-Soviet military cooperation against Japan. By conquering Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians, the Japanese Army and Navy intended to turn them into bastions that, supplied directly from the Kurile Islands, would check any American advance from the north until at least the summer of 1943. The great disaster at Midway foiled the Japanese plan to create a greater defensive perimeter, though, ironically, as a result of the same battle, the Americans lacked the forces to reconquer the two lost islands. A Japanese presence on US land, remote on maps but seen as a natural highway to Alaska and America’s back door, also caused chaos among military personnel and politicians alike in Washington D.C., sharing the fear of an attack on the West Coast and the inability to predict Japanese intentions. Volume 1 of Into the Endless Mist covers the events of Operation AL from the Japanese raid on Dutch Harbor and the invasion of Attu and Kiska to the American landing on Adak in late August 1942, and is illustrated throughout with original photographs along with the @War series’ signature color artworks.

The utilization of air power by the Communist regime in Russia during the revolutionary period and civil war to control its territories in Central Asia is an intriguing aspect of military history often overlooked in Western narratives. The region, which bordered Iran, Afghanistan, and China, and included the ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, held strategic significance for both the Russian Empire and the subsequent USSR. Attempts to impose Russian or communist ideologies on the indigenous tribal populations clashed with deeply rooted Islamic traditions, leading to resistance movements such as the Basmachi uprising. The Basmachi insurgency, viewed as defenders of traditional tribal values by the local populace, was perceived as mere banditry by the Russian and Soviet authorities. Policing such vast and challenging terrain, where environmental conditions posed significant hazards alongside armed opposition, necessitated innovative approaches. Consequently, the Soviets turned to air power as a means of controlling these remote regions. Despite inventive tactics, the aircraft employed by the Soviets in Central Asia during the inter-war period were often outdated, worn-out, or repurposed from other theaters of operation. This reliance on obsolete or marginal aircraft highlights the resource constraints faced by the Soviet military during this tumultuous period. Soviet Military Aviation in Central Asia: 1917–41 offers a detailed exploration of the inter-war use of air power in Soviet Central Asia, drawing from Russian-language sources and photographic archives. The book provides insights into the challenges faced by the Soviet military in maintaining control over the region, accompanied by rare photographs and unique color artworks depicting the aircraft utilized during this era. Through this lens, readers can gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of military strategy and conflict in Central Asia during the early twentieth century.

When released into independence from Great Britain in 1948, the stunningly beautiful island of Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, was expected to become a sort of ‘South Asian Singapore.' However, stable political order and bright economic prospects proved insufficient to maintain peace. A host of unsolved ethnic conflicts and social inequalities conspired to erupt into an armed conflict in 1971. When this broke out the entire Sri Lankan society was shocked to its core by a large-scale insurgency instigated by a Sinhalese Maoist group, JVP. Worse still, this was followed by the gradual buildup of several other Tamil groups in the north of the island. Following riots known as ‘Black July' in 1983, Sri Lanka was ripped apart by a murderous war against Tamil insurgents, which caught the armed forces wrong-footed because of the government’s reluctance to buildup its military to necessary levels. This came to a temporary stop in 1987 with the implementation of a peace arrangement virtually enforced by the government of India and a deployment of a large peacekeeping force of the Indian military. By that time, the notorious LTTE emerged as the most powerful Tamil insurgent movement and the principal opponent of the Sri Lankan armed forces. Eventually, the Indian military intervention proved to be only a temporary solution. The LTTE turned against the Indian military but suffered heavily in return. However, this provided some breathing space for the Sri Lankan military, which then launched a vicious and protracted counterinsurgency campaign against the JVP. The fighting thus went on. Relying on extensive studies of the Sri Lankan War with the help of firsthand sources, official documentation and publications from all of involved parties, this volume provides an in-depth and particularly detailed account of military operations during the first 16 years of this war.

In Last War of the Superfortresses the authors provide a detailed history of the confrontation between Soviet fighters and the United States Far East Air Force’s B-29 ‘Superfortress’ bombers during the Korean War of 1950–1953, drawing on Military documents in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation in Podolsk as well as published Western sources. The recollections of pilots who served in the 64th Fighter Air Corps, and who participated personally in the events described, are also widely used. Almost all the battles that took place between Soviet fighters and the ‘Superfortresses’ are analyzed in detail and the authors have, on the basis of a comparison of Soviet archive documents and data from published Western sources, attempted to clarify the actual losses on both sides in these battles. Particular attention has been paid to key events in the history of the confrontation between the MiG-15 and B-29 such as the air battles of April and October 1951, which had a significant impact on the course of the Korean War and influenced the development of military aviation in both the USSR and the USA. Extensive losses in combat with the MiGs served as one of the most influential arguments for curtailing the piston engine B-36 and B-50 bomber programs and boosting development of one of the most famous aircraft in the history of global aviation – the B-52 ‘Stratofortress.’ The authors analyze the advantages and the disadvantages of the La-11 and the MiG-15bis – the principal fighters of the 64th Fighter Air Corps – from the point of view of their ability to intercept the B-29s. Attention has been paid to the tactics of the opposing sides, and to how these changed over the course of the war, along with the technical aspects of the confrontation between Soviet fighters and ‘Superfortresses’. Last War of the Superfortresses is illustrated with photographs from the personal archives of veterans of the 64th Fighter Air Corps, the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, and the US National Archives. An extended color profile section showing camouflage and markings of nearly 40 aircraft is also included. “If you are interested in the conflict in Korea or just fancy something different, this book will not disappoint. It is an education, and it comes with all the style we have come to expect from this publisher. Recommended.” War History Online "... This is a book loaded with statistics and excellent narrative accounts of air to air, jet to bomber and jet to jet arrangements." Airborne Quarterly