Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45

Description

The 1930s were a time of growing tension for the smaller states of Eastern Europe. Since the end of the First World War they had enjoyed an independence which most of them had not known for centuries, but this was now threatened by the growing power of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Instead of combining for self defence, they were bitterly divided. The Munich crisis showed how little reliance could be placed on the Western democracies, whose power to intervene militarily in Eastern Europe was negligible. In effect this left the smaller East European states with little alternative but to become clients of either Germany or Russia.

Peter Abbott has co-authored several titles for Osprey, including Men-at-Arms 131 Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 and MAA 202 Modern African Wars 2: Angolia and Mozambique. DR. NIGEL THOMAS is an accomplished linguist and military historian and is currently a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Business Language Unit at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle. His interests are 20th century military and civil uniformed organizations, with a special interest in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. He was recently awarded a PhD on the Eastern Enlargement of NATO. Mike Chappell comes from an Aldershot family with British Army connections stretching back several generations. He enlisted as a teenage private in the Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1952 and retired in 1974, as RSM of the 1st Battalion The Wessex Regiment (Rifle Volunteers), after seeing service in Malaya, Cyprus, Swaziland, Libya, Germany, Ulster and home garrisons. He began painting military subjects in 1968 and since then has gained worldwide popularity as a military illustrator. Mike has also written and illustrated many books in the Osprey Military list.