Books

At the end of January 2024, the Harpia publishing house had the excellent idea of ​​publishing “Operation Eldorado Canyon. “The 1986 US Bombing Raid on Libya.” As its title indicates, this issue describes in great detail the previous events that culminated in the US bombing of Muammar Gaddafi's Libya in 1986, the different stages of planning and preparation that led to its possible realization and, of course, the execution of the operation. For those who do not know it, - and it is a very important fact - its author, Major Jim Rotramel (equivalent to commander of the Spanish Air and Space Army), now retired, is a former Combat Systems officer ('Weapon System Officer' or WSO) of the F-111D and F Aadvark ('Aardvark' in Afrikaans) of the USAF. The naturalness and everyday nature with which the different weapon systems (and not only) are described and evaluated, [Keep reading…]

"The Ukrainian War III: From the reconquest of Kherson to stagnation" is the third book dedicated to the Ukrainian War by Armies. Coordinated by Beatriz Cózar Murillo and Christian D. Villanueva López, it aims to clarify some of the key moments of a conflict that seems long. Following the line of the two previous volumes, it combines rigor and depth with an effort to adapt the content to audiences outside the military world. Almost two years have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine. The frustrated attempt to decapitate the Ukrainian government has led to a war that still seems far from being resolved. In this third book, a critical period is covered, without which it is impossible to understand the current situation. A period of time that goes from the Ukrainian reconquest of Kherson to the subsequent changes in Russian strategy. A before and after that has allowed [Keep reading…]

"The S-80 program: Two decades fighting to stay afloat", written by Christian D. Villanueva López, seeks to dismantle many of the myths surrounding this vital program for the Navy. To do this, he resorts to hundreds of written sources and interviews, trying to put the reality of this project in black and white. The result of more than two decades of setbacks and disappointments, but also of a firm will and an immense capacity for adaptation and improvement, the S-80 program is a faithful reflection of Spain itself, with its lights and shadows. Conceived at a time of great economic boom and international projection, but also of profound changes, it involved an excessive technological risk. Especially if we take into account the deep crisis that the shipbuilding sector was going through. Given the context, the reasons why the country ventured into the design and construction of a submarine “entirely” [Keep reading…]

Few conflicts have generated as many books as World War II. However, practically no one stops to analyze the role that radar played in that conflict. A key device, as it allowed the contenders to detect in advance the movements of the adversaries both by sea and, above all, by air, thus changing the fate of the greatest war that Humanity has known. "The radar in the history of the 20th century", a work written by Ignacio Mártil de la Plaza, manages to overcome this deficit, doing justice to an invention that has however been overshadowed - as far as the historiography of the Second World War is concerned. » for other milestones such as the deciphering of the Enigma machine codes, or the development of nuclear weapons. Despite the undoubted importance of both, which no one can dispute, perhaps it is the radar in our day [Keep reading…]

«The soul of 21 is a book about a real military unit, in which all the characters really existed and in which the stories told really happened. The only premise that its protagonists should have is that they were all already deceased people. At the exact moment of death we all lose 21 grams. It doesn't matter body size, age, race or sex. The soul that lives in each of us weighs exactly that. Generals and soldiers, men and women, famous people and others anonymous, soldiers from the 21th century and others today. The work reviews the lives of some of the protagonists in the history of the "2022st Transmission Regiment", which turns 150 years old in October XNUMX. Each one of them is a silk thread with which the author weaves his tapestry: a pleasant and exciting journey through [Keep reading…]

At the end of 2022, Harpia Publishing was pleased to publish what is most likely the most exhaustive and complete work to date on the “Flanker” family of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). This book focuses on all combat aircraft, purchased directly from Russia by the PLA or assembled in China and all their subsequent developments and derivatives, both of the Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker” in Russia – and which have seen service in the PLA –, like in China. (Continue…) Dear reader, this article is exclusively for paying users. If you want to access the full text, you can subscribe to Ejercitos Magazine taking advantage of our offer for new subscribers through the following link.

"The Ukrainian War II: From the conquest of Lugansk to the Ukrainian counteroffensive" follows in the wake of our previous book about a conflict that goes far beyond the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, the destruction of a country, the loss of credibility of the Russian Armed Forces or the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. However, almost a year later, the “special military operation” approved by Putin continues to clash with reality: neither the Ukrainian Government has collapsed, nor does the population's will to resist seem to have diminished, nor has the Russian Army proven to be capable of achieving the strategic objectives set by the Kremlin, even though these have been progressively reduced. This work is the continuation of “The Ukrainian War. The 100 days that changed Europe" and does the same with the [Keep reading…]

"The War in Ukraine: The 100 Days that Changed Europe" is a very special project for the entire team, as it is the first book we published, and it is also the head of a series that will materialize in collaboration with the Catarata publishing house. It is also, with all certainty, only the first of those that we will dedicate to the war in Ukraine, which is why it is focused on the first 100 days of the conflict. Later there will be a second part focused on the change in Russian strategy that led it to take practically all of Lugansk in the following phases, but let's not anticipate events. As unfortunately we all know, on February 24, Russia began the invasion of Ukraine. What was probably conceived as a coup to overthrow Zelensky's government, dismantle his armed forces and occupy the country with the units that Moscow had been massing for [Keep reading…]

In recent days we have been able to read "The Red Book of Mao Zedong", published by the Espuela de Plata publishing house a few years ago, specifically in 2014. The book, with a prologue by Antonio Molina Flores, is an exact translation of the original, published in communist China in 1964 and spread throughout the globe as part of its propaganda campaign. In reality, the book is not even the work of Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-Tung) himself, the Great Helmsman from whom the Minister of Defense, Lin Biao dedicated himself to collecting a good number of quotes throughout decades of speeches and statements. Despite being an eminently propagandistic work, in which Marxism, Confucianism and Leninism are mixed in a rather unconnected manner and whose ultimate goal is to indoctrinate the people and the bases of the party, it is interesting to read. It has been outdated in many [Keep reading…]