Kurdish Armour Against ISIS

Kurdish Armour Against ISIS PDF

Author: Ed Nash

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-09-16

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1472847598

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of the most remarkable mechanized campaigns of recent years pitted the brutal and heavily armed jihadis of Islamic State against an improvised force belonging to the Kurdish YPG (later the SDF). While some Kurdish vehicles were originally from Syrian Army stocks or captured from ISIS, many others were extraordinary homemade AFVs based on truck or digger mechanicals, or duskas, the Kurds' version of the technical. Before US air power was sent to Syria, these were the Kurds' most powerful and mobile weapons. Co-written by a British volunteer who fought with the Kurds and an academic expert on armoured warfare, this study explains how the Kurds built and used their AFVs in the war against 'Daesh', and identifies as far as possible which vehicles took part in major battles, such as Kobane, Manbij and Raqqa. With detailed new artwork depicting the Kurds' range of armour and many previously unpublished photos, this is an original and fascinating look at modern improvised mechanized warfare.

Fighting Evil

Fighting Evil PDF

Author: Macer Gifford

Publisher: Seven Dials

Published: 2020-05-28

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1409195716

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A visceral, riveting, no-holds-barred military memoir told from the front line of the war against ISIS with a foreword by Andy McNab. In the summer of 2014 the world watched in horror as the black flag of ISIS swept all before it. Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq fell, ISIS proclaimed the caliphate and the horror mounted: from the mass murder, rape and enslavement of the Yazidis to the public beheading of journalists by British jihadis. For Macer Gifford it wasn't enough to ask why more wasn't being done, he knew he had to act. So, he left his job in the city, split from his girlfriend and a few weeks later found himself illegally crossing the border into Syria to join the Kurdish YPG in their fight against the savagery of ISIS. Macer Gifford became one of longest serving British International Volunteers and one of the only few to be promoted to be a Commander in the YPG. He fought alongside the Kurds (and their Syrian Allies) for three long tours of duty from the dawn of the caliphate all the way to its military defeat in the ruins of Raqqa in 2017, sniping at the final deadly wave of suicide bombers as they burst from the rubble. Along the way, he made - and lost - many friends. This is the only complete account of the war against the Caliphate by the Kurds and the remarkable and often eccentric band of international volunteers who fought alongside them.

Kurdish Armour Against ISIS

Kurdish Armour Against ISIS PDF

Author: Ed Nash

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-09-16

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1472847563

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of the most remarkable mechanized campaigns of recent years pitted the brutal and heavily armed jihadis of Islamic State against an improvised force belonging to the Kurdish YPG (later the SDF). While some Kurdish vehicles were originally from Syrian Army stocks or captured from ISIS, many others were extraordinary homemade AFVs based on truck or digger mechanicals, or duskas, the Kurds' version of the technical. Before US air power was sent to Syria, these were the Kurds' most powerful and mobile weapons. Co-written by a British volunteer who fought with the Kurds and an academic expert on armoured warfare, this study explains how the Kurds built and used their AFVs in the war against 'Daesh', and identifies as far as possible which vehicles took part in major battles, such as Kobane, Manbij and Raqqa. With detailed new artwork depicting the Kurds' range of armour and many previously unpublished photos, this is an original and fascinating look at modern improvised mechanized warfare.

We Came From Fire

We Came From Fire PDF

Author: Joey L.

Publisher: powerHouse Books

Published: 2019-07-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781576878682

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Since March 2015, photographer and author Joey L. has gained unprecedented access to Kurdish guerrilla organizations fighting against ISIS, embedding himself into the chaos of the Iraq and Syrian Civil War on three separate trips. Three components meld to create an extraordinarily brave and important documentation: his medium format portrait photography, a written study of the history of the turmoil that led to the rise of armed Kurdish militias, and intimate journal notes of vivid personal experiences while working as a photographer in the war. The war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has flooded our daily news with troubling statistics of massacres and mass migrations, yet there are faces and human stories at the heart of the conflict. Joey writes, "From Iraq, one crosses the Tigris River into war-torn Syria, and is catapulted into a worldview crafted by the guerrilla. You are welcomed back by familiar faces wearing a palette of earth tones interrupted by a brightly colored scarf - likely given to them by their mothers. Conversations over cigarettes and tea with much too much sugar often drift to conspiracy theories about the entire world plotting to destroy their cause. Oddly, they begin to make sense. The guerrilla's secretive hierarchy vanishes due to its compartmentalization, and you find yourself among individual Kurds who left their families with the intention of defending their culture and way of life. We had once again entered the world of the Kurdish guerrilla." During his travels, Joey observed ragtag volunteer guerrilla fighters with mysterious links to the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) grow into a fully functional army and the US-led coalitions most trusted partner--Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). With little official government support and just light weapons; brothers, sisters, former university students and refugees that once fled from their homes have now taken up arms together against a common enemy--radical jihadist groups that contest the secular social reformations in Kurdistan. Joey's uncanny ability to gain trust and his fearless and open attitude to the unexpected, combined with his genuine love for his subjects and their quest for independence gives We Came from Firea deeply felt sense of humanity.

Soviet T-55 Main Battle Tank

Soviet T-55 Main Battle Tank PDF

Author: James Kinnear

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-09-19

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1472838564

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The T-55 is one of the most iconic weapons created by the Soviets during the Cold War and also one of the most widely deployed weapons in history. Like its younger brother, the T-54, the T-55 enjoyed a long career in the Red Army and even into the early days of the reformed Russian Army. Under their control it saw very little combat use or deployments, but it was widely sold to other nations and participated in many of the wars and combat operations from the mid-1960s to the present. The T-55 has been employed in almost every conflict in the Middle East and Africa from its introduction into service. Even today the tank is still employed by both sides in the Syrian Civil War, and they are also in service with Kurdish forces in the struggle against ISIS in the northern part of Iraq. Containing more than 400 stunning contemporary and modern photographs, and written by two experts on Soviet armour, this authoritative book tells the complete story of the T-55, one of the most widely produced tanks of all time.

Technicals

Technicals PDF

Author: Leigh Neville

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-04-19

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1472822536

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Over the last 30 years, the 'technical' or armed pick-up truck has become arguably the most ubiquitous military land vehicle of modern warfare. Harking back to the armed Jeeps and Chevrolet trucks of the SAS and Long Range Desert Group in North Africa in World War II, the world's first insurgent technicals were those of the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army in Algeria in the late 1970s, followed by the Chadian use of technical in the so-called Toyota War against Libya. Since then, technicals have seen use in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, as well as being used by Western and Russian Special Forces. Fully illustrated with commissioned artwork and providing rigorous analysis, this is the first history of how this deceptively simple fighting vehicle has been used and developed in conflicts worldwide.

Quicksilver War

Quicksilver War PDF

Author: William Harris

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-03-01

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 019091131X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Quicksilver War is a panoramic political history of the wars that coursed through Syria and Iraq in the wake of the 'Arab Spring' and eventually merged to become a regional catastrophe: a kaleidoscopic and constantly shifting conflict involving many different parties and phases. William Harris distils the highly complex dynamics behind the conflict, starting with the brutalizing Baathist regimes in Damascus and Baghdad. He charts the malignant consequences of incompetent US occupation of Iraq and Bashar al-Assad's self-righteous mismanagement of Syria, through the implosion of Syria, and the emergence of eastern and western theatres of war focused respectively on future control of Syria and the challenge of ISIS. Beyond the immediate arena of conflict, geopolitical riptides have also been set in motion, including Turkey's embroilment in the war and the shifting circumstances of the Kurds. This sweeping history addresses urgent questions for our time. Will the world rubber-stamp and bankroll the Russian-led 'solution' in Syria, backed by Turkey and Iran? Is the 'Quicksilver War' about to reach an explosive finale? Or will ongoing political maneuvering mutate into years of further violence?

US Standard-type Battleships 1941–45 (2)

US Standard-type Battleships 1941–45 (2) PDF

Author: Mark Stille

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-12-20

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13: 1472807014

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book completes an authoritative two-part study on the Standard-type US battleships of World War II – ships that were designed to fight a different type of war than the one that unfolded. It gives precise technical details of the design history and features of the Tennessee, Colorado and the unfinished South Dakota and Lexington classes, whilst providing an operational history of the former two. Written by a leading expert on the US Navy in World War II and augmented by contemporary photographs and specially commissioned illustrations, this is the other half of the story of the US Standard-type battleships – from the terrible damage they sustained at Pearl Harbor to their support of the war-winning landings of the US Marine Corps and US Army.