A best-selling study of the Vikings' genius for war explodes myths and reveals the facts behind their fearsome reputation . . .

This groundbreaking study of the Vikings establishes the facts behind their rise to prominence, and cuts away the myths about their military and seafaring skills, reputation, and exploits.

The author applies modern military thinking to the Viking art of war and examines their tactics, seamanship, mobility, strategy, and how they exploited victories and dealt with defeats. In this book we learn how the ferocious northern warriors established colonies in hostile territory and defeated a diverse array of enemies, including the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, the Volga Bulgars, and the wild tribes of Ireland, during three centuries of military adventure.

Paddy Griffith was a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for 16 years. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the history of warfare, including Battle Tactics of the Western Front, 1916-18 and The Art of War of Revolutionary France, 1789-1802....

The war on Western Front from 1914 to 1918 remains one of the notoriously great tragedies of the twentieth century. Most people hold it in their minds as a milestone in modern history, yet many of them know less about this devastating clash of nations than they would like - and they would be interested to discover more. Paddy Griffith's short history of the conflict has been written with them in mind. It provides an accessible primer to an enormous and fascinating subject. His account is aimed at an English-speaking readership, and he concentrates on the part played by British Expeditionary Force and the Americans in the conflict. The French and German perspectives are also explained and the wider political and strategic evolution of the war as a whole is laid out as essential background....

In 1940-43 North Africa saw the first major desert campaign by modern mechanized armies. The British, Italians, German Afrika Korps and US Army all addressed and learned from the special problems - human, logistical, mechanical and tactical - of the desert environment, most significantly a terrain empty of resources and offering little chance of concealment. Paddy Griffith traces the fast-learning development of armor, artillery and infantry tactics in this exceptional situation and illustrates it using references to the major engagements in the North African theater, which involved some of the greatest tacticians ofWorld War II in one of the pivotal arenas....