Anthony Tucker-Jones

The Kalashnikov assault rifle, generically known as the AK-47, is the most famous small arm ever made. This weapon has transcended its Soviet designer and country of origin to become the most prolifically produced and iconic weapon in the world - and it has become a brand that has been used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka. Although it first appeared in the late 1940s, it did not make its decisive presence felt on the battlefield until the Vietnam War when China supplied it to the Vietnamese communists. The weapon's durability became a legend. Since then it has been employed in practically every conflict around the globe, and it is seen as the symbol of the wars of national liberation. Probably its most celebrated moment came in the hands of the mujahideen fighting to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. In Kalashnikov in Combat Anthony Tucker-Jones gives the reader a brief history of the weapon and he offers a visual record of the impact of the AK-47 on the battlefield up to the present day. His account is illustrated with a wealth of archive photographs ranging from Vietnam to the American-led invasion of Iraq and beyond.

The North African campaign, the struggle of the Italians and Germans against the Allies in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia between 1940 and 1943, was a war of movement and manoeuvre, of dramatic changes of fortune, and it was a war in which mechanized forces excelled. Compared with the heavily populated landscapes of northwest Europe, the empty open spaces of North Africa appeared to be ideal operating terrain for tanks, yet the harsh desert conditions tested men and machinery to the limit, as Anthony Tucker-Jones demonstrates in this remarkable selection of wartime photographs. The use of armour during the entire course of the campaign is covered, from the initial Italian offensive, the arrival of Rommel's Panzergruppe Afrika, the battles fought along the North African shore which culminated in El Alamein, then the Allied advance into Tunisia which led to the final defeat of the German and Italian armies. The images give a fascinating inside view of combat, but they also reveal the daily routines of tank warfare 65 years ago, and give a vivid impression of what it was like to fight in and live with the tanks of the day. After a career in the intelligence community, Anthony Tucker-Jones became a freelance defence consultant and a prolific writer on intelligence, terrorism and military affairs. His most recent books are Hitler's Great Panzer Heist, Falaise: The Flawed Victory, Stalin's Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre, Operation Dragoon: The Liberation of Southern France 1944, and Armoured Warfare on the Eastern Front.

Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in the south of France in August 1944, is seen as a sideshow supporting Operation Overlord, the crucial D-Day landings in Normandy. Often the operation is criticized as an expensive diversion of men and equipment from the struggle against the German armies in Italy. Yet, as Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in his new in-depth study, Dragoon and the subsequent Allied advance across southern France played a central role in the liberation of Europe, and the operation had far-reaching political and military ramifications. Controversy dogged the plan from the start. Fierce disagreement among the senior Allied commanders and politicians - in particular between Churchill, Eisenhower and de Gaulle - threatened to weaken the Anglo-American war effort. In vivid detailAnthony Tucker-Jones tells the story of the high-level strategic arguments that gave birth to Dragoon, and he looks at the impact of the operation on the direction and duration of the war against Nazi Germany. He also recounts the course of the invasion on the ground - the massive logistical effort required, the landings themselves, the role played by the French resistance, and the bitter battles fought against German rearguards as they sought to retain France's southern cities and cover their withdrawal toward the strategic Belfort Gap.