Casemate Publishing have announced the release of several new titles.

From their announcement:

Stormtrooper On The Eastern Front
Fighting with Hitler’s Latvian SS
Mintauts Blosfelds, Edited by Lisa Blosfelds

Following the conquest of his native Latvia by the Nazis, the author was given the stark choice: service in the SS or forced labour in a slave camp. So he ‘volunteered’ to fight for the Nazis. He describes his training and how he became an instructor before being sent into Russia. He nearly perished during the terrible winter of 1943-44 being wounded and finding himself with his friend lying dead on top of him. As the tide turned and the Russians advanced remorselessly through. He was wounded twice more and awarded the Iron Cross for bravery. With German resistance collapsing, the author had to flee for his life - capture by the Russians meant almost certain death. He surrendered to the Americans but describes the neglect he suffered at their hands. Unable to return to Latvia now occupied by the Russians, he became a Displaced Person eventually settling in the UK.

Afrika Korps
Ian Baxter

Afrika Korps is an illustrated record of Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel and his desert troops that fought in North Africa against British and Commonwealth forces between 1941 and 1943. Using previously rare and unpublished photographs, many of which have come from the albums of individuals who took part in the desert campaign, it presents a unique visual account of the famous Afrika-Korps’ operations and equipment. Thanks to an informative caption with every photograph Afrika Korps vividly portrays how the German Army fought across the uncharted and forbidding desert wilderness of North Africa.

Throughout the book it examines how Rommel and his Afrika Korps were so successful and includes an analysis of desert war tactics which Rommel himself had indoctrinated. These tactics quickly won the Afrika-Korps a string of victories between 1941 and 1942.

The photographs that accompany the book are a fascinating collection that depicts life in the Afrika-Korps, as seen through the lens of the ordinary soldier.

Falaise
The Flawed Victory - The Destruction of Panzergruppe West, August 1944
Anthony Tucker-Jones

The destruction of the trapped German forces in the Falaise pocket in August 1944 is one of the most famous episodes of the Normandy campaign. But myths have grown up around accounts of the battle, and its impact on the course of the war is sometimes misunderstood. In this meticulously researched and perceptive study Anthony Tucker-Jones dispels misconceptions about the battle, describes the combat in graphic detail and reassesses the outcome in the context of the campaign to liberate Europe.

He takes a broad view of the sequence of operations that culminated in the battle at Falaise, tracing the course of the campaign mainly from the German viewpoint. For two bloody months the Germans held the Allies at bay following the D-Day landings, but then they were blocked in at Falaise and the area became a killing ground.

Some liken the event to Hitler’s defeat at Stalingrad, while others argue the victory was flawed because so many German troops escaped.

Wild Weasel Fighter Attack
The Story of the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences
Thomas Withington

Detecting and destroying enemy Surface-to-Air Missiles (S.A.M.) and radar is arguably the most dangerous mission that any pilot can undertake. Tactics differ with air forces, but the general principal is to fly a formation of aircraft into an area where the enemy’s air defenses are strong, wait for their radar to illuminate the aircraft and then launch a volley of anti-radiation missiles to destroy the radar and thus blind the S.A.M. and air defenses. Put simply, without the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (S.E.A.D.) mission, the loss of other aircraft will be too high and the effectiveness of attack on the enemy too low.

Despite the undeniable bravery of the aircrews who flew these missions for the United States Air Force in every conflict since the Vietnam war, and their colleagues in other air forces across the world who have risked their lives in similar missions, the tactics, history, aircraft and weapons of the S.E.A.D. mission have seldom benefited from rigorous historical examination.Using interviews with S.E.A.D. pilots, industrial experts and historical documents this book for the first time will give a detailed history of the S.E.A.D. mission from the Vietnam War to the present day.

Battle For Sicily, The
Stepping Stone to Victory
Ian Blackwell

On the night of 9-10 July 1943, an Allied armada launched the invasion of Sicily, a larger operation than the Normandy landings the following year. Over the next thirty-eight days, half a million Allied servicemen fought the Germans and Italians for control of this rocky island, which was to become the first part of Axis homeland to fall during World War II.

Despite their success in capturing the island, inter-Allied and inter-service divisions and rivalries robbed them of the opportunity to inflict a crushing defeat on the Germans and Italians, who were able to conduct a fighting withdrawal to the Italian mainland and save sizable forces to continue the war. Regarded by some as a “blind alley” and by others as the way into Europe via the “soft underbelly”, the decision to invade Sicily was and remains controversial. Notwithstanding the campaign’s failure to achieve its potential, invaluable lessons were learned which contributed to success in France later. Many of the leading generals who were to take prominent roles in northwest Europe – amongst them Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley and Patton – brought with them the experience of Sicily.

Bomber Pilot On The Eastern Front
307 Missions Behind Enemy Lines
Vasily Reshetnikov

Soviet bombers played a vital role in defeating the Germans on the Eastern Front, yet their contribution is often forgotten. This graphic memoir should help to set the record straight. The author, a leading Soviet bomber pilot who flew throughout the conflict, tells his story from the desperate days of the German assault in 1941 to the point where Germany was invaded and the Nazis were destroyed. He gives a vivid account of his experiences during over 300 bombing missions in the dangerous skies over Russia, the Ukraine, Poland and Germany. His story is compelling reading.