The entry of the United States into WW2 provided the Allies with the industrial might to finally take the war to German and Japanese sources across the world. Central to this was the focus of the American military industrial complex on the manufacture of tanks and armoured fighting vehicles. Between 1939 and 1945, 88,140 tanks and 18,620 other armoured vehicles were built - almost twice the number that Germany and Great Britain combined were able to supply. In this lavishly illustrated volume, armour expert Michael Green examines the dizzying array of machinery fielded by the US Army, from the famed M4 Sherman, M3 Stuart and M3 Lee through the half-tracks armoured cars, self-propelled artillery, tank destroyers, armoured recovery vehicles and tracked landing vehicles that provided the armoured fist that the Allies needed to break Axis resistance in Europe and the Pacific. This encyclopaedic new study detailed the design, development and construction of these vehicles, their deployment in battle, and the impact they had on the outcome of the war. With over 100 illustrations, many archive rare images and full colour plates, the story is taken right up to next-generation self-propelled guns and Howitzers. Green, grey, camouflage, on tracks, full statistical details and tables. 376 pages, paperback, 19 x 24.3cm.

'For regular soldiers like Chaplin it is not a happy union, almost a demotion following the brigade's failure at Loos. He worries the move will sap morale and offer a threat to the established way of doing things. Little wonder the old sweats become even terser in their reaction to the bloodshed and mayhem in the trenches. Their role now is to show the new soldiers how to endure stoically, how not to complain...' Colonel Graham Chaplin, Commander of 1st Cameronians wrote letters from the trenches almost daily to the wife he had just married months before the First World War began. These personal and loving letters starting in August 1914 give a rare insight into the mind of a serving officer, his worries about his men and his family back home, his concerns with the progress of the war and his anxiety at the growing list of friends dead or wounded. Most startling of all, these letters finally reveal the truth of why it was that a commander endorsed by so many of his fellow officers and respected and trusted by his men was not promoted out of the trenches until September 1917, making him the Western Front's longest-serving frontline infantry officer. Andrew Davidson, author of the highly praised Fred's War, analyses Chaplin's unique status and his brush with literary and military greatness - Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Bernard Montgomery fought alongside him - weaving around his letters a fascinating portrait of a soldier's life and of the war in Flanders and France. Chapters include The Want of Sleep, Rain and Shells, Cambrin, Cuinchy, Auchy, The Somme, Howitzer Wood, Army School, Hindenburg and Absolutely Dished among them. Photos, many letters reproduced, some illustrated, quotes and clear headers and summaries and appendices explaining what happened to Chaplin or Bull as he was always affectionately known in the Regiment. His last appointment was as a Brigade Commander in Iraq, which he held for two years, summed up in the words: 'The soul of integrity, of courage, the nigh perfect example of an officer.' With end notes and appendices. 396pp.

From Berlin to Moscow, Seoul to Hiroshima, the Philippines to Israel, Lithuania to Washington, the Bomber Command Memorial in London, the Shrine to the Fallen, Bologna, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Ball in China, Auschwitz in Poland, Mussolini's tomb, Hitler's bunker, a statue of Stalin, Coventry Cathedral and the Cross of Nail, the book is a bold new account of the way the world reacted in the wake of the Second World War. Monuments were built to tell a story, but what story? The cataclysm of global conflict was experienced very differently across the world, and the monuments reflect this. Bestselling historian Keith Lowe takes us on a global tour. He asks why is Russia still erecting victory monuments at a dizzying rate for a war some 70 years over. Why, despite loathing his legacy, does the town of Mussolini's final resting place still honour his tomb like a shrine? Why does a bronze statue in South Korea of a young girl with a bird on her shoulder cause such outrage in neighbouring Japan? How did a local controversy over a monument in New Jersey escalate into a full-blown international incident between Poland and the USA? Offering a practical history and a perspective-changing case for the power of our symbols, each monument here represents heroes or monsters, victims or moments of apocalypse and none of them are really about the past at all. With useful maps and descriptions not only of figurative statues and abstract sculptures but also shrines, tombs, ruins, murals, parks and architectural features with a concentration on World War Two monuments simply because of their quality. 346pp, illus.

Four original incredibly moving black and white DEFA feature films: The Kaiser's Lakey, The Girls In Gingham, Farewell and When Martin Was Fourteen. The East German Film Company founded in 1946 DEFA recorded the suffering of working people, the misery of life in factories and poor accommodation, the growing organisation of resistance to warmongers and profiteers, as well as the battle for a better world, and these are the topics of this extraordinary film collection. An industrialist's son, the hero of this film, is a cowardly and conventional career opportunist. He seeks the recognition of all above him, denounces competitors, and becomes the despot of both his inherited paper factory and his own family. The focal point of The Girls in Gingham is Guste, who as a maid has had to look after her lords and ladies. Her husband is conscripted, and she has to support the whole family by toiling as a hand-grenade maker. The film is a cinematographic journey through the empire, war, economic crisis, the rise of Nazi Fascism and into a further even crueller WW2. Farewell is also set in 1914 when many young men euphorically volunteered to go and fight in the First World War. Hans Gastl does not become a soldier. He is against the war and his bourgeois parental upbringing and the film recounts in flash-back form the story of his tender love to the housemaid, a love that is brutally repressed by his father, his time in a boarding school for badly behaved children, his love for a former prostitute with a fateful end, and his friendship with a working-class boy. When Martin Was Fourteen is set in March 1920 at the time of the Kapp Putsch in Germany. Reich Army units march on Berlin to create a military regime and in his village, 14 year old Martin discovers a secret store of weapons that a landowner has hidden for the organisers of the Putsch. He and a friend organise a strike but as the approaching soldiers are to keep the village inhabitants down, the boys manage to courageously fight their way through the rebellious faction in the city so that the weapons end up in the right hands. The film accurately and excitingly represents both youth and this part of history. Four DVDs, running time 400 minutes approx.

Films 4,5 and 6 in this series of Nugus Martin Productions, colour footage as never before seen. Hitler Strikes East film takes in Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, the biggest tank battle in all history. Red Sun Rampant follows the day that Japan entered World War Two and with its surprise attack on the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor. Japan swiftly followed this up with the defeat of a huge British army in Singapore and gradually America awoke. We see the battleship consigned to history and the emergence of the aircraft carrier. The Mediterranean and North Africa is the sixth film in the series. Mussolini's ambition had always been to recreate the old Roman empire but militarily he was a disaster. After failed attacks in North Africa and Greece, his armies were on the run. Should Hitler now divert his troops or support his ally? The film features the heroics of the tiny island of Malta as it withstood wave after wave of Nazi assault. It ends with the Allies fighting their up Italy and Germany in retreat. 150 minutes colour footage.

There are nine films in total to collect in these Nugus Martin Productions which is the best collection of rare and unseen footage of World War Two in the world, allowing us to view this epic struggle as never seen before. The first film in the series The Gathering Storm starts that great paradox. How could the settlement of the end of World War One, the 'War to end all wars' lead to an even greater conflict just a few years later? This film shows how the Great Depression sapped the will of democracies of the West to face up to a new and disturbing political phenomenon - the rise of militaristic dictators in Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. The programme ends as Hitler plots his attack upon Poland. The second film Lightning War shows how the Nazis developed a terrifying new military tactic - Blitzkrieg - and how it caught first Poland and then Britain and France utterly unprepared. The film reveals how heroic French Resistance allowed the British to escape from Dunkirk and live to fight another day. The third film Britain at Bay is June 1940 when Britain stood alone against the Nazis and how close Britain came to defeat, as its exhausted Air Force struggled to fight off the German Luftwaffe. These three films have a total running time of 150 minutes of colour footage.

The last three films in the Nugus Martin Productions rare and unseen colour footage collection features Turning the Tide, the Soviet Steam Roller and Overlord. Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris thought the answer to defeat the Allies might lie in 'strategic bombing' attacking Germany's infrastructure and cities. But it led directly to the tragedy of Dresden when Allied planes fire bombed tens of thousands of ordinary Germans. So began a long game of cat-and-mouse between U-boats and British and American convoys. By July 1943 the full extent of Hitler's failed gamble in the East had become clear at Stalingrad and Moscow, and his army was now at the mercy of the vast Soviet war machine. The Red Army slowly pushed the Germans back out of Russia through Ukraine, Poland, the Balkans and Hungary. It was also a war fought by a small band of partisans, men like Tito in Yugoslavia, leading guerrilla bands against Nazi forces. Today it is easy to see D-Day as inevitable, but the film Overlord explodes that myth. It charts the development of specialised equipment needed for the amphibious landing and reveals the deception plan that wrong-footed Hitler. It shows how the Americans were very nearly driven off Omaha Beach and the film ends with the Liberation of Paris, as the Free French forces led by de Gaulle marched down the streets of the capital. 150 minutes of colour footage from this extraordinary collection. Bargain price.

Says what it is quite literally on the tin, tin-hatted soldiers of the First World War in the trenches look to the camera, a poppy in bright red decoration alongside the title of this large almost 12" diameter by 1½" deep coloured embossed tin. It contains five DVDs, total playing time four hours, with each film running to just around 48 minutes each. Each uses World War One archive footage, some very loud sound effects (no subtitles) and is a poignant and visual reminder of the 'War to end all wars', the Great War which ushered in the 20th century. People of all classes saw it as some great cleansing fire that would accelerate this battle and lead to a better world, but when it was all over, men died in the mud and the naïve dreams of progress along with the innocence of the pre-World War, faith in god and hope in the future all died in the trenches of Europe with them. Box set gift tin.

The Royal Air Force has defended Britain's skies and those of her Allies since the early part of the 20th century, following the tradition of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. Spawned from both the British Army and the Royal Navy, the RAF fought hard to maintain its independence after the success of WWI. This DVD combines rare and unseen footage with newly shot film and expert opinion to tell the story of those momentous interwar years of the RAF. The programme looks at how the early pilots fought in their wire, wood and canvas aircraft. It includes the aerial battles of Spitfire and Hurricane against fearsome ME109s. Experience mass bomber raids over Germany and follow the RAF through more than 50 years of the jet age from the first Meteors to the low-level Tornado attacks of the Gulf War. Stunning footage in colour and black and white for all aviation enthusiasts and military historians. 125 minute DVD.

Learn how not to exist! How to blow things up, castle entry and how to do it, secret Ninja weapons and how to use them, how to tie people in knots, useful everyday expressions, the Ninja costume - any colour as long as it's not black - how to control the minds of your enemies, invisibility and how to achieve it. You have been chosen to join the ranks of the legendary Ninja who work undercover to defend the land of Japan from its enemies. This secret manual from the Grand Master of the Iga School of Ninjutsu, servant to His Most Illustrious Highness Togugawa Ienari, Eleventh Shogun of Japan, will teach you everything you need to know before you begin your training. Meet famous Ninja and learn of their stunning achievements and the basics of training in martial arts (bujutsu). We love: 'Spiked torches are every Ninja's worst nightmare because they are thrown down by sentries to provide illumination when Ninja are suspected of climbing a wall. Hide in the shadows until they burn themselves out.' Here are traps and guides for the wary, how to navigate inner corridors and doors, hide like a raccoon dog or cover your tracks like a fox. Resemble a rock by crouching into a ball or disguise yourself as a Zen mendicant, especially if you can play the flute! A floating bridge is a really clever device. One Ninja swims across and drives the hooks into the ground on the far bank. Making successful escapes and causing chaos wherever you go, you will have great fun with this historical slightly tongue-in-cheek guide with brilliant often humorous archive Japanese illustrations throughout. Timeline and glossary, and map of Japan. 208pp.