The narrative focuses on Eelam War III, highlighting its transformation into a conventional conflict primarily in northern Sri Lanka. It details the intense battles fought between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan armed forces, encompassing both land and maritime confrontations. The book offers an in-depth exploration of the strategies, tactics, and significant events that characterized this pivotal period in the Sri Lankan civil war.
Through late 1987, the battlefields of southern Angola moved ever further away from the border to South-West Africa (Namibia), until the show-down between the Soviet-supported government in Luanda and South African-supported insurgency of UNITA culminated in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. Initially reluctant to become involved, the Cubans reinforced their contingent in Angola, and then decided to force Pretoria into negotiations about mutual withdrawal. Ironically, while Cuba and South Africa eventually agreed to withdraw their troops from the Angolan War, and then did so, in 1988-1989, the government in Lunda - still supported by the Soviet Union - then reinforced its effort to crush the UNITA. The result were additional large-scale operations, the mass of which evaded attention outside Angola, because dramatic developments in Europe not only distracted attention, but also ended the decades-long stand-off between the East and the West. Ultimately, the II Angolan War ended with a cease-fire - hurriedly agreed amid a near-collapse of the government forces, and rapid advances of the UNITA.
War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 4 continues the coverage of the operational history of the Angolan Air Force and Air Defence Force (FAPA/DAA) as told by Angolan and Cuban sources, in the period 1985-1988.Many accounts of this conflict – better known in the West as the ‘Border War’ or the ‘Bush War’, as named by its South African participants – consider the operations of the FAPA/DAA barely worth commentary. At most, they mention a few air combats involving Mirage F.1 interceptors of the South African Air Force (SAAF) in 1987 and 1988, and perhaps a little about the activity of the FAPA/DAA’s MiG-23s. However, a closer study of Angolan and Cuban sources reveals an entirely different image of the air war over Angola in the 1980s: indeed, it reveals the extent to which the flow of the entire war was dictated by the availability – or the lack – of air power. These issues strongly influenced the planning and conduct of operations by the commanders of the Angolan and Cuban forces.Based on extensive research with the help of Angolan and Cuban sources, War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 4, traces the Angolan and Cuban application of air power between 1985-1988 – during which it came of age – and the capabilities, intentions, and the combat operations of the air forces.The volume is illustrated with 100 rarely seen photographs, half a dozen maps and 15 color profiles, and provides a unique source of reference on this subject.
Volume 1 of the Red Star versus Rising Sun mini-series examines the origins of the rapidly modernizing Imperial Japanese Army and its expansion, largely unfettered by civilian political constraints, into mainland Asia from the late 19th century up until 1938.
As of 1975, the decades long insurgency in Angola appeared to be short of its conclusion. However, with no less than three major insurgent movements fighting for supremacy, the war went on and then South Africa, USA, the Soviet Union, Zaire and Cuba became involved.
Just three months after Indian forces withdrew from Sri Lanka, the war between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government resumed. Illustrated with over 100 photographs, maps and colour profiles, Paradise Afire Volume 3 continues the story of the internal strife that plagued Sri Lanka in the late 20th Century.