Find out what you can expect from the Elite series in 2027!

 

ELI 273 US Air Force Special Operations Forces
By Leroy Thompson
Illustrated by Johnny Shumate
18/03/2027


From the Korean War to the present, the US Air Force’s special forces have spearheaded its operations across the globe. This book examines their evolving organization, appearance, and gear.

Since its foundation in 1947, the United States Air Force has deployed elite special-operations troops trained to the same level as the US Navy SEALs or US Army Special Forces, albeit with different specializations. Among these renowned operators are the Pararescuemen, undertaking search and rescue of US personnel, often behind enemy lines; Combat Control Teams, specializing in air–ground communications; Special Reconnaissance operators, tasked not only with weather analysis but also with broad reconnaissance, including use of electronic warfare, drones, and cyber warfare; and Tactical Air Control Party operators, coordinating terminal attack and control of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as artillery and naval gunfire.

In this book, renowned authority Leroy Thompson describes the origins, organization, appearance, and methods of these highly trained special-operations personnel since their foundation. Eight pages of specially commissioned artwork and carefully selected photographs depict their evolving uniforms, gear, weapons, and insignia, through to the present day.

 

ELI 274 The SS ‘Totenkopf’ Division in World War I
By Massimiliano Afiero
Illustrated by Marco Capparoni
27/05/2027


Bound to be of interest to all those interested in Germany’s armed forces during World War II, this fully illustrated study investigates the ‘Totenkopf’ Division at war.

Formed in October 1939, the SS-Division ‘Totenkopf’ fought in France in May and June 1940, notably at Arras, before participating in Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union; the division would spend much of the war fighting against the Red Army. In this book, the division’s entire wartime career is examined as it moved from being a motorized infantry division in 1940, to a part-armoured Panzergrenadier division in 1942, to a full Panzer division in late 1943.

Once committed to combat in the Soviet Union, ‘Totenkopf’ served with Panzergruppe 4, sustaining heavy losses until it was encircled in the Demyansk Pocket in late 1941. Refitted and reinforced in France in mid-1942, the division was involved in the occupation of Vichy France before returning to the East and fighting at Kharkov and Kursk. Reconfigured as a Panzer division, ‘Totenkopf’ fought at Krivoy Rog and Bialystok before taking part in crushing the Warsaw Uprising. The final months of combat saw the division committed in Poland and Hungary before ending the war in Czechoslovakia.

All aspects of the division’s combat service are summarized and depicted in this engrossing account, written by an experienced military historian and based upon the latest scholarship. Eight plates of specially commissioned artwork depict uniforms, personal equipment, weapons, personalities and insignia relating to this notorious Waffen-SS division on campaign during World War II.

 

ELI 275 Russian State Security Services 1855–1917
By Phoebus Athanassiou
Illustrated by Adam Hook
30/09/2027


Fully illustrated, this book reveals Tsarist Russia’s evolving state security organizations through decades of unrest, assassination and repression before the revolutions of 1917.

When Alexander II became Tsar in 1855, the Russian Empire’s state security was handled by two main organizations. The Separate Corps of Gendarmes were tasked with law enforcement and state security, while the Third Section, founded in response to the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 in a bid to anticipate and prevent further unrest, had a variety of roles including surveillance, censorship and propaganda. After the Third Section failed to detect or prevent multiple attempts on the Tsar’s life, it was dissolved in 1880 and replaced by the Department of State Police, only months before Alexander II was assassinated.

The new Tsar, Alexander III, abandoned his father’s reforms and initiated a crackdown on civil liberties throughout the empire, notably targeting the Jewish population. A new agency, the Okhrana, implemented draconian state security measures at home and abroad including surveillance, assassination, clandestine operations, counterintelligence, espionage and the use of agents provocateurs, as anarchists and other insurrectionists sought to trigger a revolutionary uprising. From 1898 the Special Section of the Department of Police replaced the Gendarmes, as the Okhrana strove to neutralize the threat of revolution by infiltrating insurrectionary groups, financing the printing of their propaganda literature and setting up their own trade unions. One embedded Okhrana agent, Yevno Azef, even became head of the Socialist Revolutionary Fighting Organization and ordered the assassination of the interior minister, V.K. Plehve, in 1904.

When defeat in the Russo-Japanese War led to the 1905 Revolution, the shortcomings and counter-productive nature of the Okhrana’s activities became clear. The advent of war in 1914 prompted a shift from anti-revolutionary activities at home to counterintelligence abroad, but efforts to neutralize political opposition continued, notably the covert aiding of Lenin’s Bolsheviks in a bid to divide and weaken the revolutionaries seeking the downfall of the Tsarist government. Defeat and dissolution followed in 1917, but the Okhrana’s ethos and methods endured in the new Soviet regime.

The operators involved in this shadowy effort to defend and perpetuate the Tsarist regime are described and illustrated in this enthralling study, with all aspects of Russia’s state security organizations’ activities examined in the light of the latest research and findings.

 

ELI 276 US Submarine Tactics 1941–45
By Mark Lardas
Illustrated by Edouard A. Groult
28/10/2027


Fully illustrated, this absorbing book casts light on the tactics employed by the US Navy’s submariners during World War II, notably in the Pacific in the war against Japan.

Before World War II the worlds’ navies envisioned the submarine as a tool to hunt and kill cruisers and capital ships. Instead they became best known for their abilities as commerce raiders. The US Navy’s submariners were called the Silent Service because they struck deep into Japanese waters, acting alone, anonymously, and during the Pacific War, without publicity. The evolving tactics employed by US submarine crews are explored and illustrated in this absorbing study.

At first the US submariners’ attacks on Japanese warships were futile. A combination of bad torpedoes, poor tactics, and plain bad luck foiled efforts by US submarines through mid-1943. By 1944, though, everything came together as improved weapons and especially better tactics led the submarine service to become Japan’s deadliest threat, devastating both the Imperial Japanese Navy and Japan’s merchant marine.

This book examines the operational deployment of US submarines and the tactics employed by the men who crewed them during World War II in the Pacific. It reveals the flaws of early doctrine and how innovative submarine tactics contributed to Allied victory over Japan. The authoritative text is complemented by carefully chosen photographs and specially commissioned full-color artwork showing how US submarine tactics worked in practice.

 

ELI 254 World War II Close Air Support Tactics
By Richard P. Hallion
Illustrated by Adam Tooby
23/12/2027


In this illustrated study, an acknowledged expert charts the development of close air support and battlefield air interdiction in theory and practice during World War II.

In World War I the use of aircraft to support ground operations was in its infancy, and it was only after the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 that close air support (CAS) and battlefield air interdiction (BAI) began to evolve towards a recognizably modern form. Using innovative all-new artwork from renowned illustrator Adam Tooby, Richard P. Hallion shows how the Blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939–41 saw the highly effective deployment of German dive-bombers, while the British, French and Soviet air forces strove to counter the Luftwaffe’s CAS measures with variable degrees of success.

The British and Americans developed their own CAS doctrine in the Mediterranean during 1941–43, further refining it during the campaigns in Western Europe in 1944–45. Meanwhile during the fighting in Asia and the Pacific, the Japanese and their Allied opponents employed CAS techniques.

Full-colour tactical diagrams, carefully chosen archive photographs and insightful analysis reveal how by 1945, Allied CAS doctrine had reached new levels of sophistication, boosted by the growing availability of dedicated aircraft, ordnance and communications technology.