Helion & Company

Afric a @ War: Ripe For Rebellion: Insurgency and Covert War in the Congo, 1960-1965

After many years of political struggle, the Belgian Congo was finally granted its independence in June 1960. Becoming the Republic of the Congo and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo, what was supposed to be a momentous occasion in the country's...

Africa @ War Book: Wings over Ogaden The Ethiopian–Somali War, 1978–1979

With Ethiopia in disarray following a period of severe internal unrest and the spread of insurgencies in Eritrea and Tigray, Ethiopia and its armed forces should have offered little opposition to well-equipped Somali armed forces which were unleashed to...

Africa @ War: Battle for Cassinga: South Africa's Controversial Cross-Border Raid, Angola 1978

Battle for Cassinga is written as a firsthand account by an ordinary South African paratrooper who was at the 1978 assault on the Angolan headquarters of PLAN, the armed wing of SWAPO. The book relates why the South African government took the political...

Africa @ War: Belgian Military Forces in the Congo: Volume 1 - The Force Publique, 1885-1960

Though the dynamics of the Congo Crisis have received, and continue to receive, a good deal of literary and scholarly attention, missing from the canon of work on military forces in the Congo is a study of the Force Publique, a paramilitary police force...

Africa @ War: Belgian Military Forces in the Congo: Volume 2: Congolese Tactical Air Force Co-Operation with the CIA 1964-67

Although Belgium officially withdrew its military forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in July 1960, unofficially the former colonial ruler of this central African country maintained a political, economic, and military presence...

Africa @ War: Biafra: The Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970

Nigeria was a unique concept in the formation of modern Africa. It began life as a highly lucrative if climatically challenging holding of the Royal Niger Company, a British Chartered Company under the control of Victorian capitalist Sir George Taubman...

Africa @ War: Bush War Rhodesia : 1966-1980

It has been over three decades since the Union Jack was lowered on the colony of Rhodesia, but the bitter and divisive civil war that preceded it has continued to endure as a textbook counterinsurgency campaign fought between a mobile, motivated and...

Africa @ War: Copper Wings: British South Africa Police Reserve Air Wing Volume 1

Lacking funding to purchase and operate own aircraft, the Rhodesian police established the British South Africa Police Reserve Air Wing (PRAW). Equipped with private aircraft, mostly flown by owner pilots, this extended policing across a country that had...

Africa @ War: Copper Wings: British South Africa Police Reserve Air Wing Volume 2

Lacking funding to purchase and operate own aircraft, the Rhodesian police established the British South Africa Police Reserve Air Wing (PRAW). Equipped with private aircraft, mostly flown by owner pilots, this extended policing across a country that had...

Africa @ War: Ethiopian-Eritrean Wars: Volume 2 - Eritrean War of Independence, 1988-1991 & Badme War, 1998-2001

Ethiopia, a country of ancient origins in eastern Africa, remains a military powerhouse of that continent until our days. Nowadays involved in the war in neighboring Somalia, Ethiopia was also involved in half a dozen of other armed conflicts over the...

Africa @ War: For God and the CIA : Cuban Exile Forces in the Congo and Beyond, 1959-1967

As United Nations armed forces found themselves struggling to quell a series of armed rebellions, towards the end of 1962 the United States increased its military role in the Congo Crisis by providing the Congolese government with a small air force...

Africa @ War: France in Centrafrique: From Bokassa and Operation Barracude to the Days of EUFOR

This military history of French Equatorial Africa examines the key players and operations from WWII to post-colonial conflicts. France in Centrafrique explores the history of French Equatorial Africa with a particular emphasis on the role of the Central...

Africa @ War: Great Lakes Conflagration: Second Congo War, 1998–2003

Great Lakes Conflagration' is the second in two volumes covering military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the turn from the 21st century. This volume explores developments in the DRC that led to the outbreak of violence in August...

Africa @ War: Great Lakes Holocaust: First Congo War, 1996–1997

Great Lakes Holocaust' is the first in two volumes covering military operations in Zaire - as the Congo was named from 1971 until 1997 - and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the turn of the 21st century. This volume explores the events of the 1980s...

Africa @ War: Koevoet: Volume 1 - South West African Police Counter-Insurgency Operations During the South African Border War 1978-1984

Koevoet (Afrikaans for ‘Crowbar’) tells of the origination and deployment of the South West African Police’s elite counter-insurgency capability during the South African Border War of 1978–1989. Drawing upon previously unpublished sources and from...

Africa @ War: Libyan Air Wars - Part 2: 1985–1986

While the first volume in this mini-series spanned the first decade of confrontations between Libya and several of its neighbors, but foremost the USA and France, between 1973 and 1985, the second is to cover the period of less than a year – between...

Africa @ War: Libyan Air Wars: Part 1: 1973-1985

Between 1973 and 1989, various Western powers and Libya were entangled in a seemingly never-ending exchange of blows. Supposedly launched in retaliation for one action or the other, this confrontation resulted in a number of high-profile, even though...

Africa @ War: Mar Verde: The Portuguese Amphibious Assault on Conakry, 1970

In the early hours of 22 November 1970, six Portuguese warships surrounded Conakry, the capital of the Republic of Guinea, on the West African coast. Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, a military force landed on the northern and southern...

Africa @ War: Mau Mau: The Kenyan Emergency 1952–60

“[An] informative and readable account of the growth of the politically motivated and extremely violent Mau Mau in Kenya.” —Military Historical Society  The Second World War forever altered the complexion of the British Empire. From Cyprus to Malaya,...

Africa @ War: MINURSO - United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara: Peace Operation Stalled in the Desert, 1991-2021

In 1975 Spain relinquished control of its former colony of Spanish Sahara following a short conflict with the Polisario, the armed movement representing many of the native Sahrawi people. In the wake of Spains withdrawal, neighboring Morocco and...

Africa @ War: Peacekeeping in Darfur: the AMIS The mission of the African Union in Sudan, Darfur 2004-2007

Africa @ War: Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80

On 11 November 1965, Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared his country independent of Britain. International sanctions were immediately instituted against the minority white regime as Robert Mugabe's ZANLA and Joshua Nkomo's ZIPRA...

Africa @ War: Sanctuary Lost Portugal's Air War for Guinea 1961-1974 : Volume 1 - Outbreak and Escalation (1961-1966)

"This is an informative and motivating book covering another little known Cold War/African Colonial War campaign that is a welcome addition to modelers and historian bookshelves." — IPMS/USA From 1963 to 1974, Portugal and its nationalist enemies fought...

Africa @ War: Sanctuary Lost: Portugal’s Air War for Guinea, 1961–1974: Volume 2 - Debacle to Deadlock, 1966–1972

From 1963 to 1974, Portugal and its nationalist enemies fought an increasingly intense war for the independence of Portuguese Guinea, then a colony but now the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. For most of the conflict Portugal enjoyed virtually unchallenged...

Africa @ War: Showdown in Western Sahara: Air Warfare Over the Last African Colony: Volume 1 - 1945-1975

The former colony of Spanish Sahara saw frequent outbursts of tribal and ethnic rebellions already while ruled by colonial authorities, in the late 19th and through early 20th Century. Its vastness and distances de-facto dictated the application of air...

Africa @ War: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale: Cold War Angolan Finale, 1987–1988

In the broad history of the Cold War, the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was the climax of a far-off, but nonetheless important African war. It was waged between the apartheid South African Defence Force (SADF) and the armed forces of the communist MPLA...

Africa @ War: The Biafran Army 1967-70 : Build-Up and Downfall of the Secessionist Military

Synonymous with the starvation that killed almost two million people, Biafra was a parastate that voted to secede from Nigeria in May 1967. Formally recognized by Gabon, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Zambia, and supported by France, Israel, Portugal, Spain,...

Africa @ War: The Flechas: Insurgent Hunting in Eastern Angola, 1965–1974

In 1961, Portugal found itself fighting a war to retain its colonial possessions and preserve the remnants of its empire. It was almost completely unprepared to do so, and this was particularly evident in its ability to project power and to control the...

Africa @ War: War of Intervention in Angola : Volume 2 - Angolan and Cuban Forces, 1976-1983

As of mid-1976, the civil war in Angola was seemingly decided: supported by a large contingent of Cuban forces, the MPLA established itself in power in Luanda. Its native competitors, the US-French-Zaire-supported FNLA, and UNITA, supported by China and...

Africa @ War: War of Intervention in Angola : Volume 3 - Angolan and Cuban Air Forces, 1975-1989

War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 3 covers the air warfare during the II Angolan War – fought 1975-1992 – through narrating the emergence and operational history of the Angolan Air Force and Air Defence Force (FAPA/DAA) as told by Angolan and Cuban...

Africa @ War: WAR OF INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA VOLUME 5: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces 1987-1992

Through late 1987 and early 1988, the battlefields of southern Angola moved ever further away from the border with South West Africa/Namibia, until the showdown between the Soviet and Cuban-supported government in Luanda and South African-supported...

Africa @ War: War of Intervention in Angola: Volume 4 - Angolan and Cuban Air Forces, 1985-1988

War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 4 continues the coverage of the operational history of the Angolan Air Force and Air Defense Force (FAPA/DAA) as told by Angolan and Cuban sources, in the period 1985-1988.Many accounts of this conflict – better...

Africa @ War: Wars and Insurgencies of Uganda 1971-1994

In 1971, Idi Amin Dada, a former officer of the King’s African Rifles and commander of the Ugandan Army, seized power in a military coup in Uganda. Characterized by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extra judicial killings,...

Asia @ War: At the Forward Edge of Battle - A History of the Pakistan Armoured Corps 1938-2016: Volume 1

This is a well-researched and authoritative account by a military historian, Maj Gen Syed Ali Hamid. It embraces the evolution of the Pakistan Armoured Corps, including its culture, organization, doctrine, equipment, operational performance, overseas...

Asia @ War: At the Forward Edge of Battle - A History of the Pakistan Armoured Corps 1938-2016: Volume 2

At the Forward Edge of Battle is the first ever illustrated history of the Pakistan Armoured Corps. The Pakistan Armoured Corps is based on a unique blend of values and traditions inherited from its predecessors, and those of the post-Independence...

Asia @ War: BORNEO STAND-OFF VOLUME 1 Seeds of the Confrontation and the Brunei Revolt of 1962

The aftermath of the Second World War saw many colonial empires in a state of upheaval. In South East Asia, what had been armed resistance against the Japanese invaders and occupiers was now often turned into national liberation movements seeking...

Asia @ War: Emperor's Own: Ethiopians in the Korean War

On June 25, 1950, as he was flying back to Washington D.C. to deal with the outbreak of war in Korea, US President Harry Truman thought, “In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak. I recalled some earlier...

Asia @ War: Fury from the North North Korean Air Force in the Korean War, 1950-1953

It was almost exactly 15.00 hours local time, on 25 June 1950, when nine Yakovlev Yak-9P fighters of the North Korea’s ‘Korean People’s Air Force’ (KPAF) simultaneously attacked Seoul International Airport and the Kimpo Airfield outside Seoul, the...

Asia @ War: NINE LIVES OF THE FLYING TIGER VOLUME 1 America's Secret Air Wars in Asia, 1945-1950

The famed American Volunteer Group (AVG) created in August 1941, under the command of Claire Lee Chennault set an example of heroism for the American public opinion at the onset of the Second World War. This band of volunteer aviators serving under the...

Asia @ War: Operation Cactus: Indian Military Intervention in the Maldives, 1988

In 1988, the Indian Army and Air Force, ably supported by the Indian Navy, carried out a daring intervention in the Maldives. The government of the Maldives, led by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, facing an attempted coup by PLOTE, a renegade group of Tamil...