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Balkan Military History Books
Cyprus 1974: A Wargamers Guide
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cyprus conflict, which began in 1974. The conflict escalated when Greek Cypriot nationalists, supported by the Greek military junta, executed a coup d'état aimed at unifying Cyprus with Greece, known as enosis. In response to this coup, Turkey launched a military intervention, citing its role as a guarantor under the 1960 Treaty and expressing concerns for the safety of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish military operation consisted of two phases. The first phase, in July 1974, involved an amphibious landing on the north coast, supported by airborne troops inland. This operation established a Turkish-controlled zone in the northern part of the island. After unsuccessful peace talks, the second phase occurred in August, expanding Turkish control to approximately 37% of Cyprus. The events of 1974 ultimately led to the ongoing partition of the island. This book explores the background of the conflict and details the armed forces involved, including regular units from Turkey and Greece, the Greek Cypriot National Guard, and Turkish Cypriot militia units. British and UN forces were also present on the island. It outlines the military operations conducted on land, at sea, and in the air, drawing on interviews with veterans and published memoirs. Additionally, the book offers modelling suggestions for the various forces involved and presents eight scenarios to re-enact key actions on the tabletop. These scenarios are illustrated with wargames, maps, and orders of battle that can be adapted to popular wargame rules—providing gamers with everything they need to recreate this fascinating, albeit tragic, conflict. |
Further details here.
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HMS Ambuscade: From 1746 to the Present Day
HMS Ambuscade is the name given to eight Royal Navy ships between 1746 and 1993. The Ambuscades were frigates and destroyers, the fleet's workhorses in almost every major naval conflict - from being the eyes of the fleet in the age of sail, to torpedo attacks at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, to shielding the carriers and transports in the Falklands War. They also patrolled the sea lanes and protected the convoys that fed the nation. This is the story of the ships and the seamen who crewed Ambuscade over nearly three centuries. The last Ambuscade (a Type 21 frigate) was sold to Pakistan in 1993 and renamed PNS Tariq. In 2023, the Pakistan Navy kindly agreed to donate the ship to the charity Clyde Naval Heritage. The charity aims to bring her back to the Clyde, where she was built, within a museum focusing on the Falklands War. That project inspires this book, and all the profits will be donated to Clyde Naval Heritage. Further details here. |
The Frontier Sea:
The Napoleonic Wars in the Adriatic
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Ripped Apart - The Cyprus Crisis 1963-1974 - Volume 1.
The Cyprus conflict is an ongoing dispute between Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Greece and Turkey. It has bedevilled not only their relations, but also those within the European Union, NATO and the United Nations, for more than 60 years.
Following a long insurgency against British colonial rule, Cyprus gained independence in 1960. Almost immediately, high tension emerged between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. A complex set of constitutional provisions and international treaties designed to safeguard the new state and countless attempts to resolve the conflict through diplomacy failed, and in 1963-1964 fighting erupted between the communities in Nicosia that would soon spread across the rest of the island. Volume 1 examines the local military build-up and a series of armed clashes that shook the island in 1964, and lays much of the background to the events that would follow in the 1970s. Further details here. |
Chasing the Soft Underbelly
Chasing the Soft Underbelly examines the role of Turkey during the Second World War. While it was non-belligerent until February 1945, there were many attempts to push it into the conflict. While Turkey is typically a footnote in most histories of the Second World War, it featured highly in the strategies of the combatants. This book explores those strategies based on primary and secondary sources. It starts with a look at Turkey before the war and the threats and opportunities it faced. This includes a chapter on the Turkish armed forces and their preparedness for war. The rest of the book takes the reader chronologically through the war, outlining the various plans of the combatants as they impacted Turkey. Further details here |
Pubished by Helion Books. Details here.
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Turkey and the Second World War - A Wargamers Guide
In the first draft of his book, Chasing the Soft Underbelly: Turkey and the Second World War (Helion 2023), Dave Watson wrote an appendix on wargaming the actual and potential campaigns in the book. However, space precluded its inclusion in the book; in any case, he felt it didn’t do the subject justice. For that reason, he has written this booklet as a supplement to the detailed history in the book.
This booklet offers a new army and campaigns for Second World War gamers looking for something different. We all love the Western Desert, the Steppes of Russia or the Normandy bocage, but there is another world out there to embrace! Further details here |