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Osprey Elite 16 : NATO Armies Today
The defeat of Hitler on 8 May 1945 left Western Europe militarily vulnerable and economically exhausted. Not so the Soviet Union, which had since 1940 annexed 180,000 square miles of Eastern Europe, occupied a further 390,000 square miles, and now seemed poised to advance still further westwards with its six-million strong forces. The increasing Soviet threat brought forth demands for a permanent Western Military alliance, and on 4 April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington DC by the 12 founder-members - Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. Since 1949 NATO has responded successfully to a series of pressures, external - from the Soviet bloc; and internal - from disputes between member countries. Nigel Thomas explores the history, organisation and uniforms of NATO armies as they were in the late 1980s, with a wealth of accompanying photographs and 12 full page colour plates by Ron Volstad.
Contents
- The Nato Alliance
- Norway
- Denmark
- Canada
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- France
- Luxembourg
- Germany
- Italy
- Greece
- Spain
- Portugal
- Iceland
- The Plates
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Osprey Elite
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