Before dawn on 6 April 1941, German forces began moving against Yugoslavia, the largest country in the Balkans. The full invasion began in earnest on 8 April, with German units supported by Italians, Hungarians, Bulgarians and Romanians. Yugoslav forces were not prepared or equipped to withstand such an onslaught, and by 17 April the Yugoslav government had capitulated. The campaign in Yugoslavia was brief and casualties were remarkably light, with just 151 Germans killed and 392 wounded. Axis units weren't content with capturing Yugoslavia, for they had their eyes on Greece. There, British, Greek, Australian and New Zealand forces waited to take on the invaders. Gordon Rottman examines the German invasion of Yugoslavia in that fateful month of April 1941 and presents an extensive collection of black and white photographs of German personnel and equipment participating in ?Operation 25', as the invasion was codenamed by Germany. The photos include personnel in combat and at rest, weaponry and equipment. Vehicles include motorbikes, cars, trucks, half-tracks, towed artillery pieces, antiaircraft guns, armoured cars and even inflatable boats. Dmitriy Zgonnik has contributed four colour plates that serve as a suitable centrepiece for this book. The expertly painted plates show a panzer crewman, rifleman, mountain infantryman and a squad leader in full colour, providing an unparallelled insight into an ill-covered conflict. AUTHOR: Gordon Rottman entered the US Army in 1967, volunteered for Special Forces and completed training as a weapons specialist. He served in the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam and subsequently in airborne infantry, long-range patrol and intelligence until his retirement. 132 photographs
