This month's book vote sees five Elite titles battling for your support. Read the full descriptions and have your say by filling out the form on the Book Vote Page. Plus, check out the results of last month's Combat Aircraft Vote.

 

Battle Tactics in the Ancient Near East

Ancient Greek Battle Tactics 800–148 BC

18th-Century Battle Tactics

World War I Machine-Gun Tactics

German Armour Tactics 1939–45

 

Battle Tactics in the Ancient Near East
Three powers dominated the ancient Near East for centuries: the Egyptians, harnessing the power of the chariot; the Philistines, using adroit leadership and skilful tactics to defeat their adversaries; and the Israelites, whose unconventional approach and powerful faith made them a regional super power. The battle tactics of these three powers vying for supremacy in the ancient Near East are described and illustrated in this insightful study.

 

Ancient Greek Battle Tactics 800–148 BC
For hundreds of years, the ancient Greeks developed and honed their battle tactics, from the hoplite era to the rise of Alexander the Great and his successors. The heavy infantryman operating in close order was at the heart of the Greek way of war, supported by light-armed troops and archers. This book examines how Greek battle tactics evolved, from the emergence of the Greek city-states to the eclipse of the Macedonian phalanx by the Roman legion.

 

18th-Century Battle Tactics
The 18th century witnessed the application and refinement of European battle tactics, as the great powers strove for ascendancy in a series of set-piece battles that saw the development of both massed flintlock musketry and battlefield artillery. Fully illustrated, this book shows how the tactical innovations propounded by Maurice de Saxe, Frederick the Great and others played out on the battlefield, from the end of the Great Northern War to the eve of the French Revolutionary Wars.

 

World War I Machine-Gun Tactics
The stalemate and slaughter of the Western Front, as well as the equally brutal but more mobile warfare in other theatres of operations during World War I, prompted the development of sophisticated tactics that harnessed the power of the machine gun in defence and attack. While Germany led the way in terms of machine guns and their tactical applications, the other combatants rapidly caught up as machine guns came to dominate infantry-vs-infantry combat.

 

German Armour Tactics 1939–45
While several powers experimented with the use of armoured fighting vehicles during and after World War I, it was Nazi Germany that came to epitomize the application of innovative armour tactics, most vividly during the Blitzkrieg era (1939–41). Throughout World War II, German armour developed at a rapid pace in terms of firepower, protection and mobility, a pace matched by the evolution of German battlefield tactics as rapid offensive warfare gave way to dogged defence.

 

Last month, we asked what you would like to see published in our Combat Aircraft series. Thank you to everyone who voted and provided feedback. The results were very close! Check out the full results below to find out more!

 

RAF Jaguar Units in Combat (15.1%)

B-52 Stratofortress Units in Combat 1992–2023 (16.3%)

North American A-36 Units in Combat (15.5%)

Swordfish Units of World War 2 (26.7%)

Aichi 99 Kanbaku ‘Val’ Units 1942–45 (26.3%)